Team Sonic was at the Brighthouse bedroom, with Tails using a gizmo he made up to scan Chaos Energy around. He was looking out for the Chaos Emeralds Eggman had. With some luck, he could track down their location and attack him and Opaline without them even seeing the attack coming, but so far, there was no sign of them.

"Still nothing, Tails?" Sonic asked with concern.

"No..." Tails replied with worry. "I can't believe Eggman found out a way to restore the Emeralds he has! Now he could power his machines with a non-dying battery and Chaos Energy!" he pointed out with worry.

"It's also a good thing because we don't have to worry about restoring them anymore..." Knuckles tried to sound optimistic. "Yet again, is Eggman we're talking about, so..." he admitted with a frown.

"Thanks for trying anyway, Tails," Sonic said with an honest smile. "Ever since I felt my connection with those two restored, I felt bad. Thank Chaos; nothing bad has happened so far, but still..." he worriedly added.

"Yeah... Eggman is always bad news, and many things happened that same day," Tails pointed out. "Sparky went missing, the Metals were defeated once and for all, you got a big scar on your back, and your connection with the Chaos Emeralds increased..." he listed.

"And he got to be all alone with Pipp," Knuckles added mockingly.

Just like he expected, Sonic blushed completely, but not for the reason he thought. Even if they've been trying to act normal and chill around each other, for the last 3 weeks, Sonic and Pipp have been avoiding each other because of the kiss that happened that day. None of them were mad, but they felt completely awkward when they were too close, especially when left alone.

None of the others knew about their sudden kiss, and it's been almost two months since it happened, but every time someone brings up that day, the fact that they were alone more precisely, they always avoid the subject and try to come up with anything else. Why were they hiding it? They knew the others would mock them for years if they could, so they wanted to keep it hidden as much as possible.

And right now, Sonic needed to avoid the subject. "N-Now, just look at the time!" he said with a sheepish smile, looking at the watch in his hand. "T-The others need our help with the pumpkins, remember?" he said with a very nervous chuckle. "G-Gotta go fast!" he stated, boosting out of there before Tails or Knuckles could question him.

"... He does know these watches can't show the hour, right?" Knuckles questioned Tails with a raised eyebrow.

"I believe so," Tails stated with a suspicious look.

Sunny, Sparky, and Hitch were running from something as the two ponies, except for Sparky, screamed in panic at a hilltop.

"Ruuuuun! Pumpkin-lanche!" Sunny cried out as she and Hitch screamed, while Sparky cheered as they ran down the hill with several giant pumpkins rolling after them.

Sunny and Hitch turned back and saw the giant pumpkins closing in on them, making them scream at the sight as they ran faster down the hill. The pumpkins finally stopped, with some splatting around the hill, while Sunny and Hitch, with Sparky on his hooves, popped their heads up from the piles, having some pumpkin guts on them as Sparky laughed a bit.

A little bit later, the Mane 5 and Team Sonic regrouped as Izzy and Knuckles chased Sparky around to play while Zipp, Pipp, Hitch, Sunny, Sonic, and Tails looked at the amounts of pumpkins.

"Good season for pumpkins this year. If anything, a bit too good," Hitch commented with a concerned tone.

Sonic, who was sitting over a pumpkin, groaned, frustrated. "For once! Can we, like, for once, not have any problem? I don't care if it's magic or Eggman-related; give me a break already!" he screamed, smashing his head against the pumpkin he was sitting on.

"You didn't get your daily fill of chilidogs, did you?" Tails asked with a bored expression.

"No," Sonic replied.

"That's explains it all..." Tails said, facepalming with frustration.

"What do you even do with this many pumpkins?" Zipp asked, getting back on topic. "Do you have any ideas?" she asked her sister next to her.

"I don’t know," Pipp answered. But I can ask my followers," she said with a smile, twirling her phone before answering it.

Zipp raised an eyebrow at Pipp. "Any ideas... of your own?" she asked while giving Pipp a look.

Pipp stopped and frowned at her sister after hearing what she had heard. "Um, what’s that supposed to mean?" she asked with an offended look.

"You’re always asking the Pippsqueaks for help," Zipp answered, then smirked. "Maybe you should try trusting yourself to come up with an idea occasionally," she added.

Pipp grew nervous at this, smiling nervously at Zipp. "Um… easy!" she said with a nervous chuckle. "I can think of one right now. Right now. And it’s coming up. Idea coming up. Any minute. Here we go!" she stammered while Zipp rolled her eyes at her sister. "And, uh…." she thought momentarily but couldn’t think of anything, growing more nervous.

Sonic would try to cheer her up at a moment like this, but the simple idea of getting close to her after that made him back up completely, which didn't pass unnoticed by Tails, Sunny, and Hitch.

"Guys, is it just me, or Sonic has been... avoiding Pipp lately?" Sunny asked the other two.

"Oh, thank Chaos!" Tails exclaimed. "I was worried that I just got crazy or something because he is avoiding her," he explained with concern.

"And not only him," Hitch added. "I've seen Pipp avoiding him as well," he said with worry.

Pipp, Sonic, Tails, and Sunny were baking some of the treats they used for Nightmare Night, but as soon as Sonic and Pipp bumped into each other accidentally and looked at each other, their faces turned completely red, and they just kept going as if nothing happened at all.

Tails and Sunny watched that and raised an eyebrow at the scene.

Then, Pipp was at Mane Melody doing Hitch's mane, while Rocky styled Sonic's hairstyle differently. But once Sonic stood up to leave, he crossed his sight with Pipp's again, and their faces became fully red... again.

"Nope!" Sonic said, immediately walking away from her.

"Neighway!" Pipp said, also walking away from Sonic.

Hitch saw this and looked at them with concern and confusion.

And then, the Mane 5 and Team Sonic were all at the Brighthouse having a 'Just Prance' dance-off battle, with Sonic and Pipp winning over the rest.

However, once it was their turn for the grand finale, they once again blushed, but they couldn't just ignore each other as always, so they improvised.

"I-I need to see Jazz at Mane Melody!" Pipp shouted nervously.

"I need to finish playing Metroid Dread!" Sonic shouted at the same time.

Not waiting for a reply, they both ran out of the living room, confusing all the others.

"Yeah, those two are avoiding the other," Knuckles concluded, joining the conversation soon enough. At the same time, he frowned at Sonic, who was pretending to do something on a pumpkin, and he avoided even looking at Pipp.

Suddenly, Sparky sneezed and released one of his dragon fires, which hit a pumpkin and turned it into a carriage, like in a fairy tale.

The others looked at it in awe while Izzy picked Sparky up in her hooves and smiled. "Oh! Great idea, Sparky!" she said to the baby dragon, which giggled in response. "Everypony loves a pumpkin carriage!" she added with a smile.

"Reminds me of fairy tales from back home," Tails smirked.

Hitch, however, thought otherwise. "Uh, except, as Maretime Bay Bylaw 927 clearly states, 'No vehicles can be made from vegetables'!" he said while reading through his rule book, earning weird looks from his friends, even Sparky. "What? I don’t make the laws," he defended himself.

"Don't get me started on the 'No earth pony magic' rule you made on my first day as your deputy, Hitch," Knuckles warned with a bored expression while Hitch chuckled sheepishly.

The others didn’t know that Pipp checked the pumpkin carriage as she flew around and went inside it. Except for Sonic, who still looked at her no matter how hard he tried not to.

"Ooh! These pumpkins are super-luxe!" Pipp said, finding the inside of the pumpkin carriage amazing as she took out her phone to take selfies in the carriage.

Hitch then walked up to the carriage with the others, and Sparky followed him. "Luckily, Sparky can turn that carriage back, easy as pie," he said with a proud smile towards Sparky, while said baby dragon giggled while waving his paws.

"Of course!" Sunny announced, now having an idea thanks to what Hitch just said. "Let’s make these pumpkins into giant pies and have a pie-eating contest!" she announced, finding great use of these pumpkins as her friends smiled at the idea.

"Sounds good to me," Sonic said with a smile. "After all, we cannot use them as Hallow—– I mean, Nightmare Night decorations," he quickly corrected himself. "Sorry, I'm still trying to get used to pony names for our festivities..." he confessed, scratching his head embarrassed.

Meanwhile, Pipp kept taking selfies in the pumpkin carriage, striking poses as she clicked on her phone to take the pictures.

"Ooh. Sounds like a piece of cake!" Izzy said, placing her hooves on her face with sparkling eyes. "Or a slice of pie. Either way, it sounds delicious!" she said with a smile as she, Sunny, Zipp, and Team Sonic ran off to set up the contest.

Hitch picked up Sparky and aimed him at the pumpkin carriage. Sparky released his dragon fire, which began changing back to a regular pumpkin.

Pipp, who was still inside the pumpkin carriage, noticed the change. "Whoa! What’s happening!?" she asked herself, startled, while the carriage started to turn back into a pumpkin. Then, Hitch ran off to catch up with the others with Sparky in his hooves. "Why is it all pumpkiny in here?" Pipp asked, trapped inside the pumpkin. The inside was now full of seeds and pumpkin guts with some on her, and she tried to push her way out but couldn't. "Hello?! Anyone?! Hello?!" Pipp asked any of her friends if they could hear her but got no response, and then she gasped with an idea. "My Pippsqueaks!" she said, taking out her phone to send a message to her Pippsqueaks to help her.

But before Pipp could turn her phone on, she thought of what Zipp had just told her. "You're always asking the Pippsqueaks for help…" the thought as Zipp’s voice echoed through her mind.

Pipp then scowled at that thought, looking back at her phone. "No, wait! I can do this myself," she said determinedly, putting her phone away. "Zipp is wrong. I don't always need my fans. I am perfectly capable of—Whooooaaaa!" she cried out as her pumpkin began to roll.

Outside the pumpkin, Hitch was rolling it as he started to whistle, not hearing Pipp's cries inside.

Later, at the Brighthouse, Izzy and Tails made a bunch of pumpkin pies; Izzy started scattering and singing, tossing a spoon in the air as it landed in a bowl, and she twirled around.

Then, the front doors opened as Hitch came in, looking slightly out of breath from rolling the giant pumpkin. "That's the last one of 'em, guys," he told Izzy and Tails, sweating a bit as he placed the pumpkin.

Tails then looked at the bot Izzy made, her 'Breakfast Bot,' which she kept. "Alright, Froggy McBakertons. Let's make some pies!" he announced to the bot, now named Froggy, as he started to turn on and headed to the pumpkins, specifically to the one where she was trapped.

Later on, the Mane 5, sins Pipp, and Team Sonic set up the pumpkin pie contest, with Jazz and Rufus sitting on the stage, while Sunny and Izzy stood at the side as ponies around them ate pies while chatting to each other. An earth pony even got bloated by eating so many pies, and he burped with ponies looking down at him strangely.

"This was a very good idea," Tails said with a smile as he ate a slice of pie. "By the way, where's Pipp?" he questioned.

"I don't know," Zipp said, sitting with him on a table. "I'm starting to get worried about her," she confessed.

"Hmm..." Tails muttered as he rubbed his chin. Then he looked at Sonic, who ate his pie peacefully. "Hey, Sonic, can you look for her?" he asked with an analytical look.

Sonic spilled his pie away and looked at all places as he started to sweat. "I-I got to feed Floppy! BYE!" he shouted, running away from there.

"Okay, that's it!" Tails said with anger. "After the festival, we're interrogating those two and making them spill what the heck is wrong with them!" he stated.

"Agreed," Zipp said with a frown. "I'll get Sunny and Izzy to interrogate Pipp; you take Hitch and Knuckles to make Sonic speak as well," she instructed, with Tails nodding in agreement.

"It's the final round in Maretime Bay's first annual pie-eating contest! Just two ponies remain," Sunny called out to the crowd, pointing at Rufus and Jazz, the former doing some stretches while the latter was filing her hooves, with each having smirks on their faces. "Bring on the pies!" she announced.

Izzy pulled a lever as the conveyor belt brought out two giant pies. "Mm-mmm! Freshly baked! Final pies of the day!" she announced while the two pies came up before the contestants.

Inside Jazz's giant pie, Pipp, who surprisingly survived Botty’s cooking while baked into a pie, heard Sunny’s announcement. "Ugh! I never thought I'd ever be in a pie-eating competition! And certainly not as the pie!" she squeals in worry, shaking her head in panic. "I gotta get out of here!" she cried, tapping her hooves at the pie crust to break out, but it wouldn’t budge as some crumbs fell off. "Oh, no! It's a thick crust!" Pipp cried out, sweating nervously.

Outside the pie, Sunny got in front of the two contestants. "The first pony to finish their pie wins! Ready..." Sunny said with a smirk as Rufus got into stand-ready. "Set…" she kept going.

"Looks delicious," Jazz said with an exciting smile at her pie as she placed her hooves at her cheeks with sparkling eyes.

"... EAT!" Sunny announced as Rufus and Jazz started to eat their pies.

Inside the pie, Pipp saw Jazz chomping through the crust and began to get even more nervous. "Jazz! No! Stop! DON'T EAT ME!" she called out through the pie as she groaned, startling Jazz as she stopped and backed away a bit.

Pipp moved back and forth in the pie while the ponies around saw this and grew nervous. Then, Pipp got her eyes through the holes Jazz chomped through and got her legs out from under the pie, making the ponies around to scream and run off, while Pipp jumped off the stand and began to run away.

"Uh, what is going on?" Hitch asked anypony in confusion, a little scared of their panic until he saw something.

"What the heck?!" Knuckles cried out in shock at his side as they both saw the ponies running in fright while Pipp stomped around the contest, making thudding sounds.

"Aah! Zombie pie! A 'zom-pie'!" Hitch cried out in shock and fright.

"... 'Zom-pie'? Seriously?" Knuckles questioned with a bored expression.

Posey then came out of a tent with a raised eyebrow. "Zom-pie?" she asked in confusion, having heard Hitch until she bumped into the Pie-trapped Pipp and looked in shock.

Pipp turned around as she felt the bump and saw Posey. "Posey? Is that you?" she asked through the pie.

Posey then screamed and pointed at Pipp. "ZOM-PIEEEEE!" she screamed out in fright, jumping on the table and running away, while Pipp crashed into the table as she gave chase.

Pipp followed a couple of ponies while hitting one of the pumpkins, breaking it in the process, then hitting the balloons as they flew away. The ponies ran around the contest while Rufus was still eating his giant pie, and Izzy just looked around the place while Pipp, in the pie, continued to run around.

"Run! Run for your lives, everypony!" Hitch screamed in panic, although he wasn't moving at all.

Zipp flew near to Hitch and gave him a strange look. "Uh, Hitch? You're not going to get far on that, buddy," she said while pointing down at Hitch.

Hitch looked down at where Zipp was pointing, seeing that he was on the conveyor belt as he kept running. "Oh, yeah! Good call!" he thanked Zipp for pointing that out, getting down and clearing his throat. "Run for your lives! Zombie pie!" he cried out as he ran off.

"Hitch! You're supposed to be the sheriff!" Knuckles yelled, following him. "Instead of running away, find a way to stop it!" he pointed out.

"Hitch! Knuckles! Wait up!" Pipp called out to them from in the pie, running past Zipp and following after Hitch and Knuckles.

"The pie knows our names!" Hitch cried out in fright as he ran faster.

"Stop acting like a baby!" Knuckles complained.

"Hey... I've seen that hooficure before…" Zipp said, seeing the hooficure style of the pie, then her eyes widened in realization. "Pipp?! That you?!" she asked out to the trapped pony in shock.

"Wait, Pipp?!" Sonic called out, arriving out of nowhere. "You're telling me that pie is Pipp?!" he questioned Zipp with an anxious look.

"Apparently!" Zipp said with worry.

Not willing to hear anything else, Sonic ran off and followed Pipp at high speed while chasing Hitch and Knuckles. Suddenly, she slipped on some pumpkin substance and started rolling on the side of the pie. "Whoa-whooaaaaa!" she cried out, starting to roll. Hitch screamed in fright as she caught up to him and Knuckles.

"Knuckles!" Sonic's voice spoke from the watch. "Take Hitch out of the way! NOW!" he ordered.

Knuckles turned around and saw Sonic running behind Pipp. Sonic looked determined as the echidna smirked. "You don't have to tell me twice!" he replied, grabbing Hitch ducking for cover behind a table.

The ponies close to them screamed as they ran off to get out of the rolling pie's way as Pipp kept rolling. Then, the pie hit a tree, making it stop and crack as the crust broke into pieces. Zipp and Sonic came next to the pie as Pipp got out of the crumble crust, looking dizzy from the rolling and messy from the inside of the pie.

The ponies around, even Hitch, looked on in shock to realize Pipp was inside that pie. "Whoa! Some entrance!" Izzy said with a cheery smile, thinking that was a great entrance.

Sonic pulled her out carefully, then checked her around, making Pipp blush completely. "Are you okay?! Did you get hurt in there?! How many fingers am I lifting?!" Sonic asked her in a worried tone, not showing the slightest sign of embarrassment and lifting two fingers. Pipp couldn't say anything, so she only shook her head in 'no', while Sonic sighed in relief. "Thank Chaos, you're not hurt..." he said, smiling at her.

"Wait, you've been stuck in that pie?" Zipp asked her sister as she approached Sonic and Pipp, who shook the pie contents off her. "Why didn't you ask for help?" Zipp asked her with concern.

"Oh, I don't know," Pipp started as she looked at Zipp before turning her back to her. "Maybe because somepony thinks I'm always asking for help?" she sarcastically frowned while Sonic stood back to give the sisters some space.

"Ooooh. Ouch," Zipp cringed while placing a hoof at her chest. "Pipp, I'm sorry I made you feel that way. I didn't think—" she tried apologizing, but Pipp cut her off.

"It's okay, Zipp," Pipp said to her sister before turning to her with a forgiving smile. "See? I got out by myself after all. With no help," she stated with a smirk.

Zipp chuckled at her sister with a smile. "Yeah, you did," she said, giving her sister a light punch on the shoulder for her effort. "No other pony could have ever pulled off an idea like that," she said, proudly smiling at her sister.

"Yup!" Pipp cheered as she sighed. "Big ideas are my thing," she added, gesturing to herself. This caused the sisters to laugh as their Cutie Marks started to shine.

Sonic couldn't help but chuckle as well at the sight. He still felt a bit uncomfortable around her, but he was totally glad she was okay, so at least he would try and talk to her as he used to before that happened, no matter how hard it could be.

Meanwhile, at the stage, Rufus finished eating the last piece of his giant pie, ignoring what had happened as he focused on the contest. "And…" he then ate the last piece as he belched. "... finished," he said, rubbing his belly from the giant pie.

Sunny got up a bit, looking a little dirty from the chaos Pipp had made and dizzy. "Uh, I declare Rufus the winner of Maretime Bay's first... and last... pie-eating competition!" she declared Rufus, the winner, then flopped on the floor, passing out as Pipp approached her with worry.

"Huh?!" Jazz asked in shock at what Sunny said. "No fair! My pie escaped!" she cried while Pipp looked at her sheepishly before backing away, knowing she wouldn't talk about this ever again.

After cleaning up the whole mess, the four mares returned to the Crystal Brighthouse. Once Pipp, Sunny, and Izzy were inside, Zipp immediately closed and locked the Brighthouse's doors.

"Huh?" the other three mares exclaimed confused.

Zipp made a sign with her hoof, indicating that Sunny and Izzy should stand at her side. "Alright, Pipp. It's time to talk about the elephant in the room," she instructed.

"What elephant?" Izzy asked, confused, while Sunny's face hoofed and Zipp rolled her eyes.

"I'm with Izzy on this one. What elephant?" Pipp questioned.

"Pipp, we're not blind," Sunny said with a bored expression. "You've been avoiding Sonic for weeks now," she explained.

That made Pipp panic again, as she started to sweat and blush.

"Can you please tell us what's going on with you two? Because Sonic is also avoiding you," Zipp pointed out with concern.

Pipp gulped, looking around to try and save herself from this, but she knew it wouldn't happen. "W-Well... t-the thing is..." she said nervously.

At the exact same time, Hitch, Tails, and Knuckles were at the station asking Sonic the same questions. Sonic blushed at the question of why he was avoiding Pipp, but he also looked at his friends with a bored expression.

"Pipp kissed me after she healed me the day Sparky disappeared," Sonic confessed.

The other three stared at him for a few seconds, speechless. For a very short amount of seconds, that is.

"SHE DID WHAT?!" the three of them shouted in disbelief.

Sonic rolled his eyes at their attitude. "Go on, shout it more so everyone can hear us," he said sarcastically.

Tails then punched Knuckles on his stomach when the echidna opened his mouth. "Sorry, Knux, but I know you take this stuff too literally," he told the echidna.

"Dude, that happened almost 2 months ago!" Hitch pointed out. "This is very big!" he added with a little smile.

"Why didn't you say anything?!" Knuckles questioned.

"Because you guys were going to mock me till dead with the matter, and Pipp never mentioned it, so I assumed we were both going to act like it never happened..." Sonic explained.

"You kissed him, Pipp!" Zipp cried out to her sister since Pipp had already told the whole thing. "You cannot just pretend that it never happened and hope everything will still be the same!" she pointed out.

"Yeah, I realized that too late," Pipp confessed with shame. "It was easy at first; we were still the same," she explained.

"But it got awkward after a while..." Sonic also explained to the guys. "We could barely see each other in our eyes, and... we decided to avoid each other..." he finished.

"For a guy who loves to run towards his problems, I didn't expect you, of all people, to avoid a situation like this," Hitch said with a smirk.

Sonic looked at him with a bored expression. "If Sunny did the same to you, whatever intentions she could have by doing it aside, would you still look at her as usual? Could you barely see her in her eyes or talk to her like you used to?" he questioned. Hitch blushed at the idea but scratched his head, not knowing what to reply. "That's what I thought," Sonic said.

"Still, avoiding the situation is going to make it worse," Sunny pointed out. "Hoping everything will be the same after a while doesn't work, Pipp," she added with concern.

"Sunny's right. If you want to solve this, talk to him," Zipp said. "Otherwise, you two will grow apart until you become strangers," she explained.

Pipp looked at them with sadness and worry. She wanted to talk with Sonic, but it was hard, and she wasn't sure how to do it exactly.

"Just... take your time if that's what you need, Pipp. But the sooner you clear this up with him, the better," Zipp told her with a smile, placing her hoof on her shoulder.

Pipp finally smiled after a while. "Thanks, girls... I... I will think about it," she promised.

"Man, I'm not a love expert, but I know that avoiding her will make everything worse," Knuckles pointed out with a frown.

"And your relationship with her will decrease to the point that you don't even know each other anymore," Tails added with concern.

Sonic frowned at them because he knew they were right, but he didn't want to hear it.

"Try to talk with her, okay?" Hitch suggested with a smile. "Clear this up so you two can stop acting so childish," he added mockingly, smirking.

Sonic looked at him with a bored expression but eventually smirked as well. "I'll think about it, guys. And thank you, I think talking about this helped me," he confessed.

"Anytime, dude," Tails said with a smile.

"But don't expect us not to mock you with this," Knuckles warned with a grin.

"Oh, shut it, Knucklehead," Sonic said with a frown. He walked out of the station, leaving the other three laughing.

However, Sonic himself smiled eventually because he knew everything would work out well in the end.

THE END...?

Author's Note

I didn't wanted the kiss thing to just be thrown on the window.

I know in real life, if something like this happened, the two parts would absolutely avoid each other as much as they can, and I wanted to portray that here.

Also, I don't know if it would be on the next one or on 35 where Sonic and Pipp decide to finally talk properly about this. Guess you'll have to wait and see :)

P.S: Thanks to JD1 for editing this chapter!