It was another morning in the Crystal Brighthouse.
Just then, Sunny came into the bedroom rolling a tray cart with a yellow covered plate. "Yoo-hoo! Pipp!" She waved her hoof with a smile, then approached the bed with the uncovered plate that had a tower of pancakes. "When you taste these pancakes, you are gonna hit the…"
Yet she trailed off and yelped when Pipp stood up with a yawn, even launching the pancakes to hit the ceiling. It turns out that the young princess' mane was wild and messed up, it even looked bigger than it actually is, but Pipp hasn't noticed yet, and she just smiled tiredly at her friend.
"Through… roof..." Sunny finished with an awkward smile, before the pancakes fell on her head.
Meanwhile, Pipp made it to her mirror and started brushing her wild mane. "I'll be right with you, Sunny-bun––" She trailed off when she saw her reflection and finally noticed her wild mane with wide eyes. "O…M…P! Am I having a…" She trailed off again with teary eyes. "Bad hair day?!" She then went with Sunny and shook her slightly in panic. "Tell me I'm not having a bad hair day, Sunny!!"
Sunny stepped back with a nervous smile while sweating. "Uh, well, I-I-I mean it's a little weird, for sure. But! No, no, no. But, I-I'm sure we can brush it out, right?" She then quickly moved the brush around Pipp's mane back to its original style, which made the Pegasus smile. "See?"
Yet the happiness didn't last long, because Pipp's mane suddenly popped back into its wild unkept place, which knocked the Earth Pony to the ground while, Pipp's eyes opened wide in panic.
"Ugh!" Pipp cried out, now hyperventilating. "How... am I... meant to work... when I look... like this?!" She questioned while tugging her mane.
Sunny looked at her concerned, then began to look around the Brighthouse for something that could help, before her eyes stopped to see the lamp on Pipp's side of the bedroom. Of course, Sunny knew Pipp wouldn't like what she has in mind, but it's also better than nothing.
So, sweating nervously and pointing at the lamp, Sunny looked back at Pipp. "Oh... Well..."
Pipp looked at Sunny confused at first, but then looked at where she's pointing, and then she gasped in panic. She knows what she means, and just like expected, she doesn't likes it.
In the Brighthouse's bathroom, Sonic just got out of the shower.
As the Blue Blur hummed a tune to himself, he dried of his fur and then launched the towel away. Soon, he approached the mirror of the bathroom and noticed his quills were a mess. So, to fix it, he open a cabinet, and now he had to make a choice.
One one hand, he had Pipp's new mane Softener, which she launched just yesterday. On the other hand, however, he had his usual Hair Gel. His quills are his hair, after all, hence why he uses a gel.
He picked up Pipp's softener, opened the bottle and smelled it. The softener had a good sense, but is not what he likes to use, so he choose to put it aside and bring out his usual Hair Gel, then applied some on his hands, and then started to fix his quills so they could say in place like usual.
"Sorry, Little Pipp, but I don't trust untested products until I see their result," Sonic muttered, then left the bathroom and prepared to head towards the kitchen and get some breakfast.
However, as he was going to do so, he saw that Pipp was getting downstairs with her mane covered by her own lamp's upper part, and he raised an eyebrow confused. If this was another viral thing to do, then he truly has seen everything by this point of his life.
"Uh, Pipp?" Sonic called out, and Pipp's eyes widened in panic when she heard his boyfriend. "What are you––"
"I'm having a bad hair day, okay?!" Pipp said in panic. "Sunny suggested to cover it up with the lamp, but I honestly don't know how that's gonna help. What if somepony sees me? They're gonna... take pictures and... I'll go viral for... looking terrible!!!"
"Pipp!" Sonic called out, placing his hands on his marefriend's shoulders. "Pipp, my love, my angel, calm down!" Sonic told her with a smile. "We're gonna think this through, okay? But first, let's breath in and out to stay calm."
Pipp was still hyperventilating a bit, but she choose to hear her boyfriend's words, so she started to do that: She breath in and out to calm her nerves, until she could finally think clearly again.
"Feeling better?" Sonic asked with a smile.
"A bit..." Pipp replied. "Is just, my mane looks like a disaster, and I don't want to be reminded of it for the next 3 or 4 weeks!"
"And if I go with you?" Sonic suggested. "To make sure you feel less stressed or scared."
"...You know what? That actually could help. Thanks, Blue Star!" Pipp said happily, hugging tightly her boyfriend.
Sonic snickered, then kissed down her nose. "Anything for my princess~" He stated in a flirty tone.
Sonic did exactly what he said he would: He accompanied Pipp to Mane Melody.
However, Pipp whimpered in fear all the way from the Brighthouse to the town. She placed a piece of her mane back into the lamp cover on her head, since it was coming out, and then looked around completely terrified, something that Sonic noticed, making him feel concerned for his marefriend.
"This is so embarrassing!" Pipp cried out.
"It's not a big deal, Pippsy," Sonic tried to assure her with a smile. "I haven't seen how your hair currently is, but it can't be as bad as you make it look, can it?"
"I'd rather not answer that question..." Pipp replied nervously, right before hiding behind a pillar when she saw Dreamy and a foal coming their way. Once they moved away, Pipp came out of her hiding spot.
"Pipp, you're overreacting. Remember what I said time ago? If your fans really love you, they will accept you, no matter how you look!" Sonic reminded her with a smile, but as they moved ahead, they bumped into Dahlia, who had a bag over her head, before she gave a panicked look like Pipp. "Um, Dahlia?"
Dahlia laughed nervously. "Hey, Pipp, Sonic. Lovely weather we're having," She said, rubbing her head.
Pipp responded with the same expression. "Heeeey, Dahlia––" She cut off with a scream when Dahlia's mane started hissing and hair came out from the bag, right before Dahlia grabbed it, while Pipp gasped in shock. "You too?!" She asked while grabbing Dahlia.
"Uh, is it that bad with you, Pipp?" Sonic asked confused. He's not freaked out at living manes because... Well, when an ancient entity possess your body and uses it against your own friends, nothing surprises you anymore.
Just then, however, Pipp turned and saw something that surprised her. "What... Wait, what?!" She exclaimed, as she saw many ponies in front of Mane Melody wearing pots, big hats, bags, or buckets on their heads to also hide their manes.
"So many ponies having a bad hair day?" Sonic questioned, then he rubbed his chin in thought. "This is way too strange to be just a coincidence..."
"I agree!" Pipp said, then she rushes to face everypony else. "What is happening?!" She questioned, before the wind blew by and blew her lamp cap away. She yelped and managed to grab the lamp cap before it flew away. "Phew!"
"Oh, yeah... It is that bad after all..." Sonic said with a cringe expression towards his marefriend.
"Huh?" Pipp said confused, but then she noticed that the crowd was looking at her and gasped, meaning they were now seeing Pipp's mane current state, so she simply put the lamp cap again and approached the crowd.
"Pipp! There you are!" Posey said, as she pushed through the crowd while showing a bottle spray from Mane Melody. "We all used your new Mane Softener, and this is what happened!" She explained, taking off the pot covering her mane, which began to hiss and snarl for some reason while holding a cane.
"...No... Yeah, no, this is nothing weird, actually..." Sonic shrugged and deadpanned. "This is just another Tuesday for me."
"That's nothing!" Fifi exclaimed, then everyone turned to her as she took off her cap. "Mine's learned to juggle!" She declared, while her mane was juggling bananas on her head.
"Mine won't stop eating things!" Rocky exclaimed, as his mane was holding a raccoonicorn and began to chomp at it. "Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!"
"I know it's bad and all, but it's also kinda cool," Sonic said with a little smile.
Pipp, however, smiled nervously at the crowd. "Well, lucky for you ponies, I have the solution right behind this very lockable door!" She said nervously as she opened the door and dragged Sonic in, while he looked at her confused. "Okay, bye!" She said quickly before slamming the door and lock it.
The crowd looked concerned, then they walked up to the door to try and get it open so that Pipp could help them.
Inside the salon, Pipp sighs in relief, while Sonic looks at her with an arched brow.
"Now what freaky experiment did you make this time that made manes come to life, Pipp?" Sonic questioned his marefriend with suspicion.
"I don't make freaky experiments!" Pipp countered with a frown. "And I didn't used any weird product to make my softener, honest! I really don't know what went wrong!"
"Well, this definitely didn't went wrong on it's own–– Oh, hi, Windy!" Sonic suddenly trailed off with a smile.
"Hi Sonic, hi Pipp!" Windy replied with a smile, but since Pipp didn't know she's here, she was startled and screamed, before turning to see Windy smiling to her, also wearing her badge sash and having her mane normal.
"Oh, what are you doing here?" Pipp asked confused.
"Just the pony I was looking for!" Windy replied her happily. "I'm right on time, for my 9 A.M. hooficure!" She explained, then she saw a bottle similar to the one Posey showed. "Oh! Is this a new Mane Softener?" She asked, picking up the bottle.
"Windy, hold on!" Sonic said in panic once he noticed the design of the bottle.
"Uh, no-no-no, I wouldn't if I––!" Pipp as well panicked.
Then, a drip came out of the bottle and hit a flower, making the plant's petals grow a bit and hiss, making stare in shock Windy at what happened, while Pipp's lamp cap came off to reveal her wild mane.
"I think Sunny's plan had a failure..." Sonic deadpanned after Pipp's lost her cap again.
Pipp, on the other hand, groaned. "All right, you caught me! My new Mane Softener is turning everypony's hair into monsters!" She whimpered, tugging her mane as it hissed and moved on its own.
"Yeah, I'm actually glad I choose not to use it this morning..." Sonic said with a shrug. "No offense, Pipp."
"Honestly? I can't blame you now that I see what happened with the softener..." Pipp said anxiously.
Suddenly, they heard something pounding, so they turned and looked out of the window, noticing two mane pieces. Soon, they revealed to be Flare's and Rufus' manes, as they pulled said ponies to the windows with their faces to the glass, startling the two mares and concerning Sonic.
"This is starting to get out of control, and I don't like it..." Sonic muttered with a frown.
Windy, however, looked at the manes, then thought about something while rubbing her chin with her hoof. "Hmm. I'm sure I've seen this before..."
"Oh, what am I gonna do, guys? This is a disaster!" Pipp cried out dramatically with concern.
"I honestly don't know," Sonic replied with honesty. "I'm not used to deal with hair suddenly getting alive. Windy? Any ideas?"
"Well, in Trail Trotters, we learn to stay calm and assess the situation, so, in this very particular case…" She started, just before they heard more pounding and saw Flare's and Rufus' manes burst through the window and braking it, while the manes dragged the two ponies inside, and more came from under the door. "...I believe we should RUUUUN!"
"I second that!" Sonic exclaimed, as the monster manes from Rufus and Flare came after them with hissing sounds, while the three of them screamed and ran out the backdoor.
After getting to safety, Sonic quickly shut the door before the monster manes came at them. "Phew!" The three sigh in relief.
"Well, I guess we're gonna need to find other way to get ourselves out of here..." Sonic suggested, right before the three of them noticed a couple of costumes of the same Mane Softener bottles in the corner of the backdoor. "...That's convenient..." He deadpanned.
In the end, Sonic had to use another costume that wasn't a Mane Softener bottle.
While Windy and Pipp put on the bottles' costumes, Sonic had to use an Eggman costume from a product line Pipp scrapped before even launching. It's redundant to say he hates this so much.
"If any of you ever tell anyone about this, I swear I won't answer for my actions..." Sonic growled in anger.
The three of them walked out of the alleyway, but Pipp's mane hissed before Pipp herself got it back into the costume. Then, they saw many ponies' manes hissing and snarling, also hitting each other or moving around, while ones like Rocky's ate a mailbox.
They quickly walked past the crowd, right before the manes roared when they noticed the three of them, which made them scream and run away.
Inside the Sheriff Station, Sparky was peacefully sleeping on his bed.
Hitch wore a towel on his mane and around his body, since he got out of shower, and he also managed to get Sparky to sleep. Well, with a bit of help from Tails, who came by to move Sparky around his tails until he got tired and finally drifted to sleep, for the two adults' relief.
"Phew. Finally," Hitch said with a content smile.
"Thank Chaos Pipp made that softener, it's really helping my tails feel more alive than usual!" Tails said with a smile, applying the softener over his tails.
But then, the door of the station opened up and then slammed, which startled not only Hitch and Tails, but Sparky as well, who breathed out Dragonfire onto Hitch's face, while Sparky burped.
"Hey!" Hitch exclaimed with a frown, turning around and wiping off the soot on his face.
"It took me 30 minutes to put Sparky to sleep!" Tails complained with a frown as well.
Yet when they turned around, they saw Pipp's panicked expression and Monster Mane that started hissing.
"Aah!" Hitch and Tails exclaimed in fright, the latter pulling out a gun and pointing it at Pipp.
"It's okay! It's me! It's Pipp!" She quickly said to avoid getting shot, while Hitch and Tails still looked scared at her.
"What happened to you?!" Hitch asked Pipp with an anxious look.
"And why did you went from generic princess to freaking Medusa?!" Tails asked in panic.
"Another product went wrong, and now her mane looks like this..." Sonic interfered, while both him and Windy stood at Pipp's sides.
"Huh?/The what now?" Hitch and Tails said confused.
"Okay, long story short: New Mane Softener turns hair into monsters, monsters chasing us, need a hideout––" Pipp tried to explain.
However, both Hitch and Tails looked at her with panic and shock. "Wait, Mane Softener?!" Hitch asked first.
"Y-You mean... t-t-t-this mane softener?" Tails asked nervously, shaking a lot while lifting up the softener on his hand.
Both Sonic and Pipp looked completely shocked and panicked at their friends. "Oh boy..." Pipp said with a nervous smile.
"We're all gonna die, aren't we?" Sonic asked with a twitchy eye.
And then, Hitch's towel on his head shook as his mane burst out while hissing. "What's happening to me?!" He cried out.
But as if this wasn't enough, Tails' tails started to shake, until they grow as well and hissed. "Ah! I don't like this! I really, really, really don't like this!" He cried out panicked as well.
"Now I'm really glad I didn't applied that thing on me..." Sonic said with an anxious look and an awkward smile. "Just imagine all my quills going feral because of that thing..."
"I really don't want to, thanks," Windy said with a nervous smile.
Then, Sparky suddenly appeared in Pipp's wild mane, as he laughed and started to move around.
"Not now, Sparky! We're trying to panic here!" Pipp cried out, while Sparky grabbed some hair and tied it together to make a mustache over his face.
But Windy saw this, she thought for a moment, and then gasped. "That's it! Oh, I'm a genius!" She exclaimed happily, then she brought out her Trotters book and flipped through the pages. "I know where I've seen this hair before! Here! Look! In the Trail Trotters Guide to the Dragon Lands!"
As she exclaimed this, Pipp was trying to get Sparky off her mane, while Sonic tried to keep Tails' tails and Hitch's mane in one single place so they could all think on a solution together, but everytime it seemed her finally got it, the wild mane and tails escaped again, making him groan annoyed.
Yet when Windy spoke, both Sonic and Pipp stopped what they were doing. "Dragons?"
"Let me check that thing!" Sonic said, as he grabbed Windy's book and read what it said. "Mm-hmm... Uh-huh... I see... So this thing basically says that a dragon's hair can make any other creature's hair become alive if swallowed by food or applied by any kind of product... That's just lazy writing."
"And also incredibly convenient..." Tails deadpanned, while his tails swallowed Knuckles' desk.
"Wait..." Pipp called out with wide eyes and a shocked expression. "A-Are you saying that Sparky..."
Yesterday at Mane Melody, Sparky grew a mustache through his nose.
The baby dragon plucked one of side of his mustache out and and toss it into the pot filled with Pipp's Mane Softener formula, while he walked of with a shrug and a smile.
Of course, he failed to notice that the bowl with Pipp's softener gave off a black and hissing purple smog.
"...grew a dragon hair, plucked it out, dropped it in my product..." Pipp continued, while her tone got higher in shock.
Back in reality, Pipp was still panicking a lot.
"...and accidentally created some sort of mutant pony/dragon magic hair monster potion?!" Pipp finished in shock, as she clutched her head, while Sparky's still on her head with giggles.
"Yes!" Windy replied with a nervous smile. "Oh, my hoofness, that's exactly what I'm saying, just with less words!"
"Again, that's just lazy writing..." Sonic deadpanned this time around.
"I don't want to alarm anyone, but... help me!" Hitch cried out in panic, while his mane lifted him up from the floor and roared in rage.
And then, Tails' tails started to shake violently around while swallowing everything, as Tails himself cried out in panic. "Don't just stand there and help!" He begged.
Windy, Pipp, and Sonic walked back, while Pipp was holding Sparky. "Oh! Stay back, you unruly mane monsters!" Windy yelled, just before the three of them dodged an attempt of Hitch's mane to hit them.
Tails' tails eventually joined, although they were focusing in attacking Sonic only, almost ignoring Pipp and Windy. However, as Pipp dodged several attacks from Hitch's mane, and barely a few from Tails' tails, one piece of Hitch's mane reached Sparky's nose and made him snort a bit.
And then, Sparky sneezed, which brought out his dragonfire, which hit Hitch in the process. However, and surprisingly, Hitch's mane returned to normal as he fell to the floor with a thud.
"Huh?!" Sonic said confused, before he grabbed Sparky from Pipp's hooves and dodged some more attacks from Tails' tails, then pulled out a quill and tickled Sparky's nose, making him sneeze again and release his dragonfire over Tails.
In the process, Tails' tails also went back to normal, and he also fell to the ground with a thud. "Ow!" He exclaimed in pain.
"That's it!" Pipp exclaimed happily with sparkling eyes. "Dragonfire can fix this!" She stated, then placed Sparky down and brought out an empty spray. "Okay, here we go, Sparky! Give me some of that dragonfire!"
She opened the bottle and placed it in front of Sparky, while the bay dragon responded by breathing his dragonfire into the bottle, which caused it to be filled before Pipp closed it up and sprayed herself with some dragonfire, making her monster mane return back to normal.
Pipp smirked and chuckled. "Look out, bad hair day! I'm coming for you!"
Sonic, on the other hand, just cleaned himself out and helped Tails stand up again. "We should rename this show from 'Tell Your Tale' to 'Convenient Tales'," He deadpanned.
"You should really stop complaining about this stuff, man..." Tails deadpanned as well.
Back outside, the ponies' Monster Manes were still going crazy.
Just then, though, Windy stood in front of them, laughing and waving her hoof to the manes. Posey's and Fifi's manes hissed and charged right at Windy, which made the pegasus scared.
But then, Pipp appeared in front of her while holding a bottle and spraying its dragonfire over Posey and Fifi's mane, which turned them back to normal, making the umbrella and cane their manes were previously grabbing to fall on their heads, but they smiled because of them being back to normal.
On the other hand, Rocky's mane was trying to eat Fifi's fruit cart, but then Sonic walked backwards and sprayed over his mane, making it go back to normal as well as Rocky smiled.
It also released the raccoonicorn his mane ate earlier, and now the critter was traumatized for life.
And like that, one by one, Pipp and Sonic sprayed more dragon fire at the Monster Manes, as they dodged the manes attempts to hit them, right before spraying dragonfire over Rufus, Flare, and Dapple in that order, making their manes go back to normal, while their bags or hats fell on their heads.
Then, Windy is pulling on Glory to try and get her, Seashell and Peach Fizz free, because Glory's mane is tied to a lamppost, Peach Fizz is tangled in the middle, and Seashell is tied to the lamppost through her own mane.
Fortunately for the three fillies and the adult pegasus, Pipp and Sonic arrived, spraying dragonfire at the Pippsqueaks, which freed them and returned their manes back to normal. Smiling, they waved at the two ponies and hedgehog with grateful smiles, while they returned the gesture and moved on.
A few sprays later, everypony's manes were back to normal. With the job done, Pipp and Windy's Cutie Marks glowed, while Sonic's quills lightened in a bit of lightning without him realizing.
Sonic and Pipp stopped in front of Mane Melody, twirled their bottles, and then put them back on place.
"Ah, if only we had some champagne, we could make this a bit more romantic, don't you think?" Sonic asked jokingly, wrapping an arm around his marefriend's neck.
"Ooh, I love the sound of that~" Pipp said in a flirty tone with a smirk.
And then, Windy came up to the couple, wiping some sweat off her forehead. "Phew! Well, paint me impressed, Pipp Petals! That was a very creative solution! One that any Trail Trotter would certainly get a badge for," She started to search through her saddle bag. "Uhhh, do we have a Dragonfire Hair Mo––? Aha!" She exclaimed with sparkling eyes, bringing out a purple badge with a lightbulb on it. "The Big Ideas Badge!"
Pipp smiled at the badge with sparkling eyes, grabbing the badge. "Awww! Well, I couldn't have done it without your help, Windy! Nor yours, Blue Star!" She stated with a smile, then put her badge away and entered Mane Melody. "Now, how about that hooficure?" She suggested, but then, a shadow loomed over them.
The three of them stopped and saw the flower that Windy spilled the mane softener on earlier, which somehow grew huge and had a giant mouth, while its petals were a huge monster mane. The monster plant roared in rage at the three of them, while the wind blows right at them.
But if that didn't seemed enough, another figure appeared from behind. Soon, said figure revealed herself to be Amy, with her hair made a monster as well because of the Mane Softener.
"Pipp!" Amy cried out in panic. "You have to help me! I used your new product, and look at what happened!"
"...All my worse nightmares have prepared me for this very moment..." Sonic glared at Amy's monster hair, then smirked at his marefriend. "You ready for a round 2, babe?"
"Absolutely!" Pipp declared with a smirk, as they both brought out their sprays again. "Juuuuust a sec, Windy," Pipp stated, then both Sonic and her sprayed their sprays over the plant and Amy to return them back to normal.
THE END