//------------------------------// // 44. Secret Ad-mare-er // Story: Sonic The Hedgehog x My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale // by BronySonicFan //------------------------------// Izzy was sleeping peacefully on her bed in the Crystal Brighthouse. She was snoring loudly, and she had a sleeping mask with wacky eyes over her. At her side, there was a bunnycorn clock alarm and a calendar, with a heart circled in one of the dates. Suddenly, the alarm went off, spreading paper hearts and waking Izzy up from her sleep. Izzy gasped and placed her hooves on her cheeks with excitement. "It's Hearts and Hooves Day!" she exclaimed excited, and then she ran off from her bed, but then she crashed against one of her Bridlewood decorations and feel to the ground, since she still had her sleeping mask on, then she stood up with her mask off and smiled. "I am okay!" she shouted in excitement, launching a bunch of paper hearts to the air. Zipp was in the kitchen, right in front of a plant. She had a dropper in her hoof, and she was about to place just a drop on the plant, not noticing that Izzy was right behind her, snicking around until she stopped right beside her with a party horn, blowing it on Zipp's ear and startling the pegasus, who jumped after Izzy's sudden appearance. "Happy Hearts and Hooves Day, Zipperdoodle!" Izzy said cheerfully with sparkling eyes, before appearing at her side and wrap a hoof around her neck, while holding a camera with the other one. "Will you be my Valentine?" she asked, taking a picture with Zipp, who seemed confused at Izzy's attitude. However, soon enough, Zipp realized what she was talking about and started to sweat nervously. "Oh, great, yeah... Happy Hearts and Hooves Day, buddy..." she told Izzy with a sheepish smile. "So, whatcha growing?" Izzy asked, as she got close to Zipp's plant, and then she gasped. "Is it a friendship plant?" she asked, then gasped again. "With friendship leaves?! Or flowers that open up and have tiny little boxes of chocolates in them?!" she asked excited. "It's a venus fly trap" Zipp replied with a smirk, before approaching Izzy slowly, who began to sweat nervously after hearing what the plant actually is. "It eats bugs" Zipp said. Soon enough, the two mares heard a gasp, and they turned to see a butterfly crying and flying away in panic after hearing what Zipp said. The two mares blinked confused, and Izzy putted down the pot with the plant since she grabbed it for some reason. "That's not heartsy or hoovesy" she said with concern. "Eh. I'm not that into Hearts and Hooves Day" Zipp confessed with a smirk. "All the lovey-dovey decorations and hearts everywhere?" she added, trembling a bit at the idea. However, the fact that Izzy suddenly appeared dressed up with lots of hearts around her and with a basket full of pink letters just made Zipp's eyes went wide. Izzy herself laughed sheepishly after hearing that Zipp doesn't liked the holiday. "That is a really good joke, Zipp. You are so funny! Because obviously everypony loves Hearts and Hooves Day, right?!" she asked in a crazy maniac tone, with her right eye twitching before the idea of someone not liking Hearts and Hooves Day. "I don't" Tails voice came out suddenly. The mares turned to find Tails in the living room, with lots of metallic stuff in the ground, the tool box Hitch gave him for Wishday and blueprints spread all around the floor. "What was that?" Izzy asked, with her eye twitching again. "I don't like Valentines Day, or as you guys call it here, Hearts and Hooves Day" Tails explained with a frown, as he put on some brown and big gloves over his regular ones. "What's the point? You either end up with your heart broken, or with your wallet empty, and for what? Your gifts and flowers ending up in the trash after everything's over? Yeah, no thanks. I'm happy as a single man with his gadgets and inventions" he explained, putting on a welding mask and grabbing a welding machine before turning it on and using it over one of the metals in the floor. "Out of curiosity, why aren't you on your workshop?" Zipp asked. "The town is decorated with bunch of Valentines' stuff, and I refuse to approach there if that means I have to see a bunch of people kissing each other. Yuck!" Tails replied. "Fair enough" Zipp said with a smirk. "Oh yeah? Well, you guys will see that everypony loves this day! You'll all see!" Izzy shouted to McSnips, who began to sweat nervously and moved away. "See you later, guys!" she waved them cheerfully, leaving Zipp confused. Once Izzy left, Tails raised the welding mask and looked at Zipp. "I kinda lied. Out there nobody's happy either, and that's what got me on a bad mood today. I don't meant anything I said before about this holiday" he said with a bored expression, before putting the mask back and resume his job. Zipp felt surprised after hearing that, but she smiled softly at him. "Me neither" she said, before also resuming her job with the plant. Izzy was walking towards Maretime Bay with a smile. "Time to see how Maretime Bay celebrates the greatest holiday of the year!" Izzy said with a cheerful tone, and then she gasped in excitement. "I can picture it now!" she said with sparkling eyes, also placing her hooves on her cheeks, as she began to imagine how Maretime Bay could celebrate Hearts and Hooves Day. In her mind, probably everypony was spreading and showing love towards each other. It didn't mattered to her if it was a friendly interaction or a romantic one: the idea of spreading love around is what she loved about Hearts and Hooves Day. She could picture ponies running around, taking care of each other and spreading love in general. "Yeah..." Izzy said with a big smile after she stopped daydreaming. "It's gonna be just like... that" she tried to assure to herself. However, once she looked at the town, she realized how wrong she was: there was only a big letter with hearts, and that's it. The ponies were not in a happy mood either: An earth pony mare was talking with somepony on her phone, and she didn't felt happy at all at what she was hearing; two couples were fighting in the middle of the street, a pegasus stallion flew away, and his flight cause the letter to fall over an earth pony stallion, who removed the letter with an angry expression before throwing it to the ground and jump over it with anger. Speaking of anger, Knuckles came out of a store with a frown and his electrical powers up. He wasn't happy at all, but Izzy still smiled when she saw him. "That stupid old man is gonna pay for my stack of grapes! I can't believe he ate them all... WHEN HE SAW MY NAME RIGHT THERE!!!" Knuckles shouted in anger. "Hey Knuckie~!" Izzy greeted with a smile. "Fuck damn it!" Knuckles exclaimed in shock, but he relaxed a bit once he saw it was Izzy. "For Chaos sake, Izzy... don't... don't do that" he said. "One, I'm sorry! I didn't meant to scare you" Izzy apologized with a sheepish smile. "And two, I should scold you for swearing on a story for everypony, but I guess since Sonic got away with it a while ago, it's fair for you to swear without interruptions" she pointed out. All sign of anger seemed to leave Knuckles body after she said that last thing, because he chuckled a bit and smiled. "Yeah... It's fair for me to do it for once" he said in a better mood. "Can I ask why is everyone so... grumpy on this very day?" Izzy asked confused. "I was grumpy because and old man ate all my grapes... but I can go and buy more at any time now that I think about it, so it doesn't matter anymore" Knuckles explained his situation. "As for everyone else... I honestly don't know. They've been like this since this morning" he pointed out. "By the way, cute outfit! Really suits you up, Izz!" he complimented, with a wink, before walking off towards the station, now in a good mood after simply having a talk with Izzy. Speaking of her, she began to sweat nervously and blush after Knuckles complimented her outfit. "W-Well..." Izzy said, sweating and looking around as she chuckled, but then she remembered the current mood of everypony in Maretime Bay and frowned with worry. "Minor setback... No problem!" she assured to herself. At Dahlia’s flower stand, Dahlia was watering her plants, but then she got startled when Izzy popped up in front of her from beside the stand. "Happy Hearts and Hooves Day, Dahlia!" Izzy said, placing some flowers and heart-shaped cards in her watering can, leaving Dahlia confused. In another stand, Posey Bloom was sniffing some flowers, but then Izzy lifted a card right in front of, which caused to hit Posey in the face from sniffing hard, irritating the earth pony. "Oh, happy Hearts and Hooves Day, Posey!" Izzy said cheerfully as she trotted off, while Posey growled at Izzy's actions. And then, Izzy stopped in front of a tree with white flowers on it with a smile and sparkling eyes. "Wow, this is a great tree" Izzy said happily, placing a card on one of its branches. "Happy Hearts and Hooves Day, Mr. Tree!" she happily cheered, stomping her hooves on the floor. But then, she saw Posey angrily placing the card into a recycling bin and walking off happily with a smile. Izzy jumped in front of the bin with a frown. "Hey! That's not the spirit..." she said to Posey, who felt annoyed at Izzy before walking off entirely, leaving Izzy a little saddened. Suddenly, Fifi flew by with her fruit cart, and Izzy started to trot after her, panting and sweating as she ran as fast as she could to keep up with Fifi. "I... am... right... in... thinking Hearts and Hooves Day is everypony's absolute favorite day of the year, right?!" Izzy asked Fifi with a nervous smile quickly. Fifi felt uneasy about Izzy's question and sweated a bit. "Uhhhh, yes?" she questioned uncertainty, but then screamed when she saw something in front of her and Izzy, so she landed on the ground as she skidded her hooves to stop herself, while Izzy stopped next to her, but Fifi's fruit cart opened up and tossed some fruits out. "Ow!" Hitch's voice cried out, while Fifi and Izzy saw Hitch in front of them, with a pineapple that hit him in the face as it fell off, leaving Hitch covered in pineapple juice and his right eye twitched a bit in irritation, since this was like the 6th time he got fruit over his face. Knuckles was at his side, trying so hard not to laugh at him, but one glare from Hitch was enough to make him roll his eyes and walk back to the station. "I know, I know. Back to work" Knuckles complained, but as Hitch nodded and walked away, Knuckles couldn't help but laugh lowly to himself. Fifi and Izzy stared at Hitch for a second before Fifi spoke again. "Uh... no" she corrected herself with a bored expression, before flying off as some dust formed from her take off. Izzy gasped in shock from Fifi's answer. "Is that so...?" she asked with a changeling look. "Well, we'll see about that!" she stated with a determinate smile. Just show a little heart It's all about your fellow pony Izzy started to toss some cards and heart confetti in the air with a wide smile and sparkling eyes. But in the process, she got the cards on a Pegasus stallion from head to chest, on a soup from an Earth Pony mare with glasses, and on a Unicorn mare's face while she was sipping her smoothie, which frustrated them all. We all need a little love Don't have a heart of stone-y If you're feelin' what I'm feelin' Then get up and show me 'Cause today's not the day For bein' lonely Then, Izzy appeared in front of Posey again with a smile and gave her some roses, which Posey actually accepted and even smiled back at Izzy. The unicorn walked backwards, but when Izzy twirled around with a little laugh, tossed some heart confetti in the air and trotted off, Posey saw that a piece of the flower bushes have been ripped off, and as she looked at the flowers that Izzy gave her and then at the bushes again, she realized the flowers on the bush matched the ones on her hooves. That just made Posey mad, making her face turn red in rage at Izzy's actions. "Aaaahhh!!" she screamed in rage as she looked around for any signs of Izzy, who trotted happily behind her as she went out of sight of the raging earth pony. Somewhere in Maretime Bay, an Earth Pony mare was sipping a smoothie, while a Pegasus Stallion was looking at his phone. They were minding their own business, but then Izzy appeared and jumped into the air with a front flip, before landing landed on the bench with a smile and sparkling eyes, breaking the bench in two. Oh, oh, I'm spreadin' the love Like, oh, oh, it's all I've dreamt of Oh, no, don't hesitate The two ponies were surprised by Izzy’s appearance as she tossed some more confetti in the air and trotted off, leaving the two ponies to slide down to each other from the broken bench as the Pegasus' phone clicked a picture of the two faces together. Izzy repeated the same process one some other benches while tossing some confetti into the air two times, with one being with a young Unicorn mare and an elder Unicorn mare sliding down and a Pegasus filly and an Earth Pony colt sliding down in surprise from Izzy, while Hitch appeared in front of them and blowed his whistle at Izzy for breaking the benches, while Knuckles also arrived and wrote down all the laws Izzy broke. "I may like her, but the law is the law" Knuckles said with a bored expression. Once he putted his notebook aside, he noticed Hitch looking at him with wide eyes. "D-Did you just... you actually admitted you like Izzy?!" Hitch asked in shock. "I may do chuckle like Sonic, but you know what I don't like him? Deny I like someone" Knuckles replied with a slight frown. You better follow your heart, it ain't gonna wait Izzy got to a dumpster where a raccoonicorn and bunnycorn were going through the trash, when Izzy used her magic to levitate them out of the dumpster and place them on a table with a chocolate cake piece, but they got irritated and the raccoonicorn tossed the cake away, hitting Izzy’s face, while she is holding a camera. The cake slid off her face and Izzy gave a bored expression. Love, I'm gonna show it Love, I'm gonna show it Two stallions were giving each other a hoof bump, but then Izzy placed an arch made of hearts over them and smiled at them, tossing some confetti in the air, but the stallions got startled from this and rushed off, leaving Izzy confused. The purple one rolled across the floor and stopped, now tied up in balloons. Another stallion, a unicorn, was drinking some smoothie, but then Izzy tossed some heart confetti in front of him, which startled him as he spit the smoothie in Izzy’s face. She felt surprised from that, while the unicorn glared at her. Izzy then came up to a Unicorn mare that she placed a card into her face and smiled with sparkling eyes, but then the mare took the card off her face and gave an irritated look, which made saddened Izzy. Ain't no doubt about it Love's in the air, let's shout it Somewhere in a corner, Misty and Opaline were talking to each other. Since Eggman, for the very first time in his life, decided to leave Sonic alone with his plans, my money's on Opaline and Misty coming up with a plan together to kidnap Sparky and take his dragon fire... because they have no better ideas on how to make Opaline more powerful, apparently. Izzy walked past them on a sad mood, and she was too sad to notice Opaline was RIGHT THERE. She tossed a flower necklace that landed on Misty's neck, and Opaline gave a bewilder expression from that. Misty looked at the flower necklace around her neck and smiled widely at it, while Opaline rolled her eyes and looked at Misty, who looked back at Opaline uncertainly. Opaline raised an eyebrow at Misty, and the unicorn chuckled sheepishly in response. Sometime later, Izzy walked by sadly, until she stopped in front of a trash can. Izzy sighed sadly after a long day of deceptions. "Nopony cares about Hearts and Hooves Day. What's the point?" she asked herself sadly, starting to tear up and levitating all the cards and hearts from her saddlebag out to toss them in the trash. Next to Izzy, Zipp and Tails were at Dahlia’s stand, picking up some flower food for Zipp’s flytrap. "Thanks for tagging out with this, buddy" Zipp thanked the young fox with a smile. "No biggie, Zipp" Tails replied with a smile. "I kinda needed to get some air after 3 hours of building up that wing" he pointed out. "What are you building, again?" Zipp asked with a smirk. "Oh, I'm sorry, Princess Storm, but I'm afraid it'll remain a surprise, even for you" Tails replied with a smirk and a mocking tone, but instead of bothering Zipp, her wings opened up, her face got completely red and her heart skipped a beat at the nickname. Suddenly, they heard rummaging and turned to see a raccoonicorn grumbling as it popped out from the trash filled with hearts and cards, angrily grumbling at Izzy as she sadly walked away. Zipp and Tails walked to the trash and inspected it. "Hmmm…" Zipp said in thought. Then, they saw Izzy next to the tree she placed the card on earlier, giving it a small smile, but the card fell off the tree branch and Izzy watched it land on the fly, which made her sigh sadly as a heart antenna on her head fell off and landed on the card, making Izzy to tear up again. Zipp and Tails walked next to Izzy in concern. "Uh, you okay there, Izz?" Zipp asked. "I tried so hard to bring a little Hearts and Hooves magic to Maretime Bay, but... nopony even wants to celebrate" Izzy answered sadly, as some tears dropped from her eyes. "Oh, come on. It couldn't be that bad" Tails assured Izzy. "Actually, I would say it was worse" Knuckles said, as he approached the trio and pointed at certain direction. "This is awful!" a business unicorn stallion cried out as he tried to shake the balloon attached to his right hoof off, but couldn't as he walked off with a whimper. And then, a blue raccoonicorn came in with a bag, while a green raccoonicorn popped out from the tras and tossed some cards out in the air, with the blue one catching one in they bag as they gave squeaking sounds. Zipp raised an eyebrow, Tails cringed and Knuckles gave a bored expression while Izzy started to tear up again. "I don't like to say this kind of stuff out loud, but I'm thinking 'unity among ponykind' isn't still a thing at all" Knuckles commented. "Otherwise, stuff like this wouldn't happen" he pointed out. Tails smacked Knuckles' head and frowned at him, while Zipp placed a hoof on Izzy with a comforting smile. "Look, Izzy. Love, friendship - these aren't things you can magic up with cards and heart-shaped balloons. It takes time" she said. "Zipp's right, Izz" Knuckles agreed. "And those things can't be shown just by nice words and nice gifts or cards. Your actions also got to speak for you" he pointed out with a smile. "You know, like a seed!" Tails added, while Zipp decided to show her nearly sprouted flytrap that grew quickly as its stem is up straight. "You care for it and nurture it, and eventually…" Zipp said, but before she could finish, her flytrap sprouted and formed its mouth, starting to chomp as it closed its mouth and the four friends looked at it in amazement, while Zipp smiled at her fully grown plant. "Yes! See? It grows into something amazing!" she said happily. A Pegasnail was humming happily to itself, but then the flytrap chomp it with it’s mouth, and the Pegasnail ruffled around in it before the flytrap spit it out, making the Pegasnail yelp a little dizzy before recompose itself and fly away happily as it continues to hum to itself, like if nothing ever happened. "Let's just try to kept it away from Hitch's bug friends, you know" Tails muttered to Zipp. "Agreed" Zipp replied with a smirk. "Huh?" Izzy asked in confusion. "So you guys are saying friendships can grow like plants" she asked them with a smile. "Exactly" Tails answered with a smile. "And love can blossom like a flower?" Izzy asked them again with sparkling eyes and a smile. "Right!" Zipp added, as she placed her flytrap down. "And we can all have two heads like Venus flytraps?!" Izzy suddenly asked excitedly again. "Yup! Wait, what?" Knuckles asked, confused at Izzy's sudden question. Tails looked down and widened his eyes at what he saw. "Zipp... perhaps you wanna see this one..." he said, pointing at the flytrap. Zipp followed and saw that her flytrap had grown an extra head somehow as both mouths were chomping. "Huh! What do you know?" Zipp said surprise, but with a smile as well. "The whole point is... Love isn't something you demonstrate with stuff, but with actions" Knuckles finished, as he took out something that made Izzy gasp in awe and excitement. "I-Is that what I think it is?!" Izzy asked in disbelief. Knuckles was holding a bracelet Izzy used to wear on her tail, but it broke even before she met Sonic, so she simply put it away and never bothered to repair it because she felt sad that it broke in the first place. Now... Knuckles was holding that very same bracelet on his hand, repaired, as if it never broke in the first place. "You mentioned that you didn't wanted to repair it because it made you sad the idea of it being broken. So... with some help from Tails, i'm not denying it... I managed to sew it and repair it" Knuckles explained. "But I'll understand if you don't w––" he tried to add, but Izzy wrapped him in a tight hug that cut him off. He blushed a bit at first and felt awkward by the action, but he ended up smiling and hugging her back. Izzy smiled happily with sparkling her eyes as she broke the hug. "Knux... thank you... Y-You don't know how much this means to me..." she said happily, before putting the bracelet back on her tail, and then she went to hug Tails and Zipp as well. "And thanks to you two as well, Zipp, Tails. You're both real friends. The three of you" she said with a smile, now looking at Knuckles as well. "Hoof to heart for Hearts and Hooves?" she asked while raising her hoof at them with a smile. Zipp, Tails and Knuckles smiled at Izzy as they tapped hooves/fists together. "Hoof to heart!" they all said together. Zipp then picked up her flytrap, which was still chomping its mouths, as the sun was setting. "Come on. We better get this thing in some soil before it eats one of us" she joked, saying the last part in a playful spooky tone while the four of them dodged a chomp from the flytrap bites. "You guys go ahead" Tails said with a smile. "Now that the coast is clear, I need to pick some materials now that the coast is clear" he stated, before flying away towards his workshop. "And I need to help Hitch with Sparky on the station" Knuckles added. "See ya later!" he stated with a smirk, before walking towards the station. As Tails and Knuckles walked away, and Zipp began to walk towards the Crystal Brighthouse, Izzy got at her side with a smile. "Soooo, have you got your eye on anypony?" she asked her with sparkling eyes, while Zipp felt uncomfortable from Izzy's question. "Any secret crushes? I know it's Tails, by the way" she suddenly said excitedly while waving her hooves and placing them on her cheeks with sparkling eyes and a smile, and Zipp blushed after hearing that, but she tried to stay focused on the road. "Ooh, you would make such a cute couple! You two together will be be really cute and we'd all love it!" she happily said. Zipp groaned, having a feeling she would never heard the end of this. And after Pipp squealed and blew at her with thousands of questions over why she never told her anything about her crush on Tails, she was getting sick of the same questions coming out from Izzy. It wasn't like she thought about Tails all night without sleeping... right? Sonic and Pipp were walking across a forest. Since it was Hearts and Hooves Day, or as Sonic knows it, Valentines Day, they decided to have... can we call it a date? A friendly outing? A hike? The point is, Sonic decided to take Pipp out to show her something. "I'm still surprised you asked me to hang along" Pipp confessed with a smile. "It's actually... quite adorable that you wanted this to be just for us" she added with a blush. Sonic himself blushed at the compliment, and he smiled nervously as he scratched his neck. "I-It's no big deal, Little Pipp" he said. "Usually, I don't really enjoy this holiday because of certain experiences I rather not talk about, but... let's just say I have the feeling you're gonna like what I have in store for you" he said with a smirk. "I promise you that this is worth of your time" he assured. "Oh, I bet it is~" Pipp replied in a flirty tone, and Sonic felt his face blushing again. After walking for a couple of minutes, Sonic stopped Pipp and told her to cover her eyes. Pipp raised and eyebrow, but she gladly did so and followed Sonic, who decided to take her hoof and guide her over the next few steps. "Alright, Little Pipp" Sonic stated with a smirk. "You can open them now" he assured. Pipp stopped and opened her eyes, and she couldn't help but gasp in awe with sparkling eyes at what she had in front of her: the sight of all of Equestria as the sun set in the horizon. Maretime Bay, the forest covering Bridlewood, even Zephyr Heights. She could see the entirety of her home, and it was simply... beautiful. "S-Sonic... t-this is..." Pipp tried to say, but she was so amazed that she couldn't form the proper words. "One of the reasons I love to run around is that I always find amazing views like this one" Sonic said, as he sat on the floor, and Pipp joined him soon enough. "Perhaps is not the most beautiful place on the planet, but... I don't know. I guess I saw this and it reminded me of you" he confessed with a smile, still looking at the view. Pipp felt her cheeks turning red after hearing that. "R-Really?" she asked. Sonic nodded, and then he looked back at her. "The reason why I don't really enjoy this holiday back home is because people believes is all about wasting money to show love... instead of showing it with their actions" he confessed. "At first, I thought that bringing you here could be enough, but... Pipp, no words, actions, gifts, anything in general, could be ever enough to tell you how important you are to me" he added with a smile and a slight blush. Pipp felt her heart bumping faster, and she tried to say something, but no words could come out of her mouth. So, she decided to not use words, and instead, she simply leaned and kissed his cheek, which made Sonic's heart skip a beat, and he unconsciously wrapped an arm around Pipp. Pipp herself rested her head on Sonic's chest and smiled. "Sonic... I cannot describe in any sort of known way to tell you how much you mean to me, either" she confessed as well. "I... I-I guess the only possible word I could use is... I... I... I love you..." she muttered lowly. Sonic, however, heard her perfectly, and he couldn't help but smile brightly, wrapping his other hand around the pegasus and keeping her close to his chest. "I... I-I... I-I love you too, Pipp" he muttered. Pipp did heard him, and she smiled, nuzzling her head over his chest with joy. It seemed like they have no more words to share, so they just stood there, enjoying each other's company while the sun hid in the horizon to welcome the night. THE END