Or At Least Holiday-Themed
“And now,” Pipp dramatically declared while hovering her hoof over the power switch sitting before her, “witness the festive might of the fully decorated and operational Mane Melody storefront!”
She then slammed her hoof down on the switch. Behind her, only the beauty shop’s sign lit up, same as it always had before. A brief pause followed as Pipp’s audience of Sunny, Hitch, and Zipp, all bundled up for the evening winter weather, waited to see if more lights would come on then shared confused glances with each other when none did. Finally, deciding not to question it, they proceeded to do a polite golf clap.
By this point, however, Pipp had looked back at her shop, realized something had gone wrong, and hurriedly motioned for the others to stop. “Wait, wait, this isn’t it! Something…something must’ve…I don’t know…Jazz, Rocky, help me with this, will you?”
She started conferring with her employees Jazz and Rocky, who’d assisted her with this project, on what must’ve gone wrong. Whispering and muttering to themselves, they scrambled around for a moment, checking connections, unplugging and then replugging things into different sockets, tracing wires to their sources and triple-checking to make sure nothing had been forgotten or overlooked. Finally, confident they had fixed the problem and resetting the switch, Pipp went back to hovering her hoof over it.
“Okay, once again,” she started over with somewhat gritted teeth. “Witness the fully operational Mane Melody holiday display!”
She slammed her hoof down on the switch a second time, and this time every square inch of the shop was engulfed in vividly bright lights and other Winter Wishday ornaments, leaving not one portion of it undecorated. The collected light all of it put off made it not only outshine everything else on the Maretime Bay street, it alone was probably enough to decently light the entire street by itself. Sunny, Hitch, and Zipp squinted their eyes at the intense display for a moment, taking it in. They then proceeded to do another polite golf clap.
“Thank you, thank you,” Pipp said, accepting the light applause as amazement. “It took a lot of hard work, a couple of chipped hooves, watching a whole lot of DIY decorating videos on ClipTrot, and Rocky somehow managing to staple himself to the side of the building, but we did it.” She grinned happily at her overly bright display, donning a pair of sunglasses so to be able to admire it without harming her eyes. “And it looks wonderful!”
“Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be impossible for anypony to miss, sis,” Zipp responded with a sassy smirk.
“And the display really does look great, Pipp,” Sunny added a bit more genuinely. “It’s great to see your shop get…” she paused, taking in the excessiveness of the display again, “…so very into the holiday spirit like this.”
“Yeah, it sure is something,” Hitch also contributed. “But more importantly, it’s all still up to code.”
“Really?” Zipp inquired quietly, shooting the sheriff a glance. “Does Maretime Bay not have any regulations concerning light pollution or stuff like that?”
“Unfortunately no,” Hitch answered back, “But check in on that again next year.”
“Anyway,” Pipp continued, turning back to her three friends, “now that’s finally running, I feel like celebrating. Is anybody else up for grabbing a bite to eat before we head back to the Brighthouse?”
“Yeah, I could eat,” Zipp agreed as everybody else nodded.
“Ooh!” Sunny interjected here. “We should go to that new food cart that’s in town, the one that sells the fried beets and has that fun jingle!”
“Oh! I know the one you’re talking about!” Hitch said excitedly.
“Me too!” Pipp said. Together the three started to sing. “Beeeeeeeeet Buggy! We’ve got lots and lots of beets!”
“And one side dish!” Sunny added, concluding the jingle.
There was a momentary pause before Zipp shrugged. “I guess we’re going to get some beets then,” she concluded.
Leaving Rocky and Jazz in charge of the shop, the four ponies turned to head off, but stopped when they heard a distant yelling getting louder as it drew closer. Looking back up the street, they saw Izzy and Misty running in their direction, both in a clear panic.
“Sunnyyyyyyy! Hiiiiiiitch!” Misty called as they neared the others.
“Misty? Izzy?” Sunny replied as the two unicorns arrived, panting, wheezing, and very alarmed about something. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
“Poltergeist…love…holiday…danger…BEANPOT!” Izzy gasped chaotically as she all but collapsed in front of them, exhausted from her mad dash to reach them.
“…what?” Pipp said, brow furrowed in deep confusion.
Misty, also needing a moment to try and catch her breath, finally got her second wind and grabbed Hitch and Sunny, pulling them close. “Sunny! Hitch!” she declared to them urgently. “For the good of the holiday, you must kiss!”
Naturally, Sunny and Hitch both pulled back in shock at this. “Excuse me?” Hitch asked, bewildered.
“There’s not much time to explain!” Misty stressed. “We need someone to kiss with true love and quick or else the Holiday Poltergeists will destroy Wishiehoof, Wishentine, and Winter Wishday for everypony, and you two were the first I thought of!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait,” Zipp interrupted here, waving her hooves for both unicorns to stop. “Poltergeists? What poltergeists?”
Before anyone could respond, their attention was turned back up the street where another growing ruckus was rapidly coming their way. Soon a number of other panicked ponies started running past them, being chased by something that also quickly came into view.
“Those poltergeists!” Izzy suddenly yelled, pointing a hoof at the apparitions causing all the commotion.
Poltergeists did indeed to seem to be a good term for them as they appeared as floating ghosts with wispy white forms and taunting grins. What especially made them stand out though was their distinct holiday theming, all wearing festive Winter Wishday hats wrapped in twinkling strings of lights and tinsel garlands as scarves. They would probably look adorable too if it weren’t for the fact that all of about a dozen or so poltergeists were going down the street messing with anything and everything holiday themed and happily terrorizing anypony who happened to get in the crossfire. The whole street was soon in chaos, and naturally the still vibrantly lit-up Mane Melody storefront served as a magnet for these festive fiends as they began whirling around the building so to make an especially big mess of its decorations.
“My storefront!” Pipp wailed in dismay and took to the air, trying to swat away the poltergeists, only for them to immediately turn it into a taunting game of keep away, rendering the pegasus’s efforts completely ineffective. “Jazz! Rocky! Get out here and save the decorations!”
Instantly bursting out into the street at their boss’s summoning, the pegasus and earth pony rushed to Pipp’s side and tried to assist. “We’re coming, Pipp!” both ponies declared simultaneously and resolutely sprang for the closest poltergeists to them.
This almost immediately resulted in all three ponies getting chucked into a nearby snowbank, to the tittering chuckles of the attacking poltergeists who went right back to their mischief undeterred.
Zipp flapped over to help haul Pipp back out of the snow. “What the hay are these things?” she demanded as she did so.
“Holiday Poltergeists, obviously!” Izzy offered like this was nothing out of the ordinary. “I mean, duh, don’t you know a Holiday Poltergeist when you see one, silly?”
“No!” Zipp snapped back at the unfazed unicorn, inadvertently dropping Pipp back into the snowbank again. “Why would I know what a Holiday Poltergeist is?”
“More importantly, where did they come from?” Hitch asked, trying to swat away some of the lower-flying poltergeists from the harm they were causing.
“The Holiday Beanpot of Holding!” Izzy replied, again like this should be common knowledge. “Where else?”
At this point, one of the poltergeists had gotten ahold of a garland of Wishday bulbs and started throwing the globe-shaped ornaments everywhere. To avoid being hit, the ponies gave up trying to liberate Pipp, Jazz, and Rocky from the snow bank and instead dove for cover behind it.
“Okay,” Sunny stated once they were there, making sure she had Misty and Izzy’s attention, “Context please.”
“So Izzy brought a whole bunch of Wishiehoof-related stuff from Bridlewood, wanting to get me back up to speed on all of the unicorn lore for the holiday,” Misty began explaining hurriedly. “And it was all going fine until she pulled out the…the…” she turned to Izzy. “What did you call it again?”
“The Holiday Beanpot of Holding,” Izzy offered. “Not to be confused with Holly’s Holding Pot of Beans, of course.”
“What’s a beanpot?” Hitch asked.
“A stout ceramic pot you cook bean-based dishes in,” Izzy explained, “Unless it’s jinxied, of course, in which case you use it to seal away Holiday Poltergeists every Wishiehoof so they don’t go causing trouble and ruining the holiday for everypony.” She motioned a hoof at the poltergeists now making a mess of the street. “Like they are now!”
“Or at the very least, ruin Mane Melody’s storefront decorations,” Sunny observed with a wince at the damage the poltergeists were causing to that.
Zipp ducked as a thrown wreath narrowly missed her head. “So how did they get out?”
Misty bit her lip and avoided eye contact. “I may have accidentally, unintentionally, and without meaning to…dropped it.”
“And let me guess,” Pipp said, having resigned herself to her fate stuck in a snow drift and leaving Jazz and Rocky beside her to try and figure out how to extradite themselves without also drawing the fire of the poltergeists, “it broke.”
“Into a sixty four hundred thousand and twelve pieces!” Izzy confirmed with a nod.
“So how are we supposed to stop these guys now?” Zipp demanded.
“I told you!” Misty stressed and pointed at Sunny and Hitch, “Sunny and Hitch need to kiss!”
“Why though?” Hitch demanded. “Don’t Sunny and I get a say in this?”
“And how is them kissing even supposed to help?” Pipp added.
“Why the kissing at all, for that matter?” Zipp asked. “What does kissing have to do with anything?”
‘That’s how you placate a rampaging Holiday Poltergeist!” Izzy explained. “You feed them love given freely and truly in the holiday spirit!”
Hitch’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Feed them—what?”
“Well, that’s what they eat, after all,” Izzy said.
“They eat love?” Zipp repeated, just as confused as the rest of them. “Why, though? And how exactly do you eat love anyway?”
“I dunno,” Izzy admitted with an honest shrug. “They just do!”
“Like changelings!” Sunny declared as if having a sudden revelation.
Now Misty looked confused as she turned to Sunny. “A what now?”
“Changelings!” Sunny repeated eagerly, pausing to duck as another barrage of thrown holiday ornaments sailed over her head. “You know, back in olden times when Princess Twilight had helped broker peace between them and Equestria?” Seeing her friends weren’t following, she cut to the chase. “Basically they were bug-like ponies that shapeshifted and fed on love.”
“Well, I don’t know about any bug-ponies,” Izzy said before jabbing a hoof in the direction of the poltergeists, “but these guys definitely feed on love, at least love given during the holidays. ‘Cuz, you know, they’re Holiday Poltergeists and all.”
“And apparently, the prerequisite for this whole adventure is that it must stay holiday themed at all times throughout,” Zipp muttered under her breath.
“In any case, I guess after spending all that time trapped in a jinxied beanpot, they’re a bit…hangry,” Misty reasoned thoughtfully.
“So you’re saying that we need to…er…feed them love and then they’ll at least calm down?” Sunny summarized.
Both Misty and Izzy nodded. “Sate their appetites, and they should be willing to behave and do as they’re told!” the latter unicorn confirmed. “At least until they get hungry again, but I’m sure we can come up with another beanpot to hold them in by then!”
“And you went to me and Sunny for that task?” Hitch repeated, incredulous.
“You were the first ponies I thought of!” Misty again defended.
“But why though?” Sunny asked before motioning to herself and Hitch. “It’s not like Hitch and I are a couple or anything!”
The others just stared at them doubtingly.
“We aren’t!” Hitch assured.
The others only continued to stare at them. Even a couple of the poltergeists and a few other ponies still left running around in terror stopped to join in.
Sunny frowned. “If Hitch and I were in love, I think we’d know about it, everyone!”
“Well, clearly not,” Izzy countered.
Hitch scowled. “Why are you all so confident that we’ve got anything romantic going on between us?”
The others all exchanged glances.
“Personally, I thought it was obvious,” Misty replied.
“Me too!” Izzy agreed.
“I mean, you two are pretty much peas in a pod,” Pipp responded, which drew hums of agreement amongst the others, including the few street ponies and poltergeists who’d joined this part of the conversation.
“And you pretty much grew up together, right?” Zipp added. “So how could you two not be at least a little by this point?”
“Oh c’mon!” Hitch said, stamping a hoof. “This isn’t something all of you get to decide for us anyway! So if Sunny and I say we aren’t a thing, then dang it, we’re not—!”
He was interrupted when there was a sudden crash behind them as a rather large decoration was knocked off of Mane Melody and slammed into the ground, suddenly reminding everyone of the ongoing chaos being caused by the poltergeists.
Pipp put her hooves to her head in dismay at the damage being wrought to her decorated storefront. “Oh, look at this mess! Somebody needs to do something to stop it already!” Seeing Hitch and Sunny weren’t still willing to play along though, she growled through gritted teeth. “Fine!” She shook her hoof at the rampaging poltergeists. “You festive freaks want a public display of romance to munch on? Then that’s what you’re going to get!” She turned to her two employees still trying to free themselves from the snowbank only to keep being driven back into it by the poltergeists every time they got somewhere with it. “Rocky, get over here!”
Surprised, the pegasus waded his way through the snow drift over to his employer. “Yes, Pipp?” he asked. “What do you need me to do?”
Pipp grabbed him by the face. “Pucker up!” she commanded before giving him a big kiss on the lips. She didn’t hold back either, to the point that the very surprised Rocky was pretty much melting in her grasp by the time she’d finished.
It also had absolutely no effect on the poltergeists. “Oh c’mon!” Pipp exclaimed in frustration, dropping the now limp and incoherent Rocky back into the snow drift so to throw her hooves at the poltergeists, shouting at them in frustration. “You mean after I put my all into that kiss, despite how super awkward it’s going to be now between me and Rocky seeing he’s my employee and all, you’re just going to ignore it like nothing happened?”
The response from the poltergeists was to throw several decorations at her and mock her teasingly, forcing her to jump back into the relative shelter of the snow bank.
“I guess so,” Zipp deadpanned as Pipp sat scowling in the snow bank for a moment.
The smaller pegasus then sighed. “I suppose it’s for the better anyway,” she admitted, “Since Jazz is probably going to be furious that I beat her to the punch on making out with Rocky.”
“You’re DARN RIGHT that I am!” Jazz bellowed as she suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind Pipp, towering ominously over her employer for a second before dumping a huge pile of snow atop of Pipp’s head, burying her in the snow bank briefly. Satisfied, the earth pony then grabbed the still numb and smitten Rocky and dragged him away so to take him for herself.
The others watched this scene all play out blankly for a moment before looking back at the poltergeists tearing up the street this had completely failed to halt or even delay in any meaningful manner. “Well, that didn’t work,” Sunny concluded.
“Wait, why didn’t it work?” Hitch asked, suddenly confused. He turned to Izzy and Misty. “You two said feeding them love would get them to stop!”
“It’s gotta be true holiday love, though!” Misty clarified.
“Didn’t we make that clear before?” Izzy asked. “You can’t just fake it until you make it, it has to be a kiss given because you genuinely love each other.”
Pipp poked her head out of the snow she’d been buried in. “Well, that seems oddly specific!”
“You’re really surprised by that, given how this mess has been going?” Zipp quipped back to her.
“The point is,” Misty concluded, curtailing the argument, “It has to be a genuine kiss, not just because you’re desperate and willing to kiss anypony so to make the poltergeists go away!”
So with that settled, all eyes eventually turned back to Sunny and Hitch.
“Oh c’mon!” Hitch exclaimed again. “We already told you, we’re not a couple!”
“Or romantically interested in each other!” Sunny added.
“But you’re the only ponies here who could have even a chance of doing it!” Misty objected. “That’s why I came to you two!”
“Although, in retrospect, we probably should’ve just had Rocky and Jazz kiss, since it seems like there’s definitely something there between them,” Izzy hummed aloud to herself.
“Well, too late for that now,” Zipp said and motioned in the direction the two Mane Melody employees had vanished in. “Jazz already dragged Rocky away from here and now they’re both out of range to hear us call back.”
“Well…call them on their phones!” Hitch suggested.
“Already tried that too,” Zipp said, holding up her phone. “Jazz has hers turned off, and I think Rocky left his in Mane Melody because he’s not picking up.”
“We’d have to wait for them to come back here where the poltergeists are anyway, and do we really have time for that?” Misty pointed out, motioning to the disarray they were causing to Mane Melody and the rest of the street’s various holiday decorations.
Then Pipp realized something, looking in the direction Jazz and Rocky had vanished in. “Hey, how come the poltergeists let them escape easy-peasy, but they’ve still got us pinned down here?” she objected, proving her point by waving a hoof over the top of the snow drift and the poltergeists responding by hurling a salvo of holiday ornaments in their direction.
“I think we’re past the point of being able to demand perfect consistency from this adventure now, Pipp,” Zipp deadpanned.
“So, yeah, the kissing is going to have to be up to you two, Sunny and Hitch!” Izzy concluded.
“But what makes you so confident that we’ll really have any more luck with it than Pipp did with Rocky?” Sunny demanded, flustered.
“And must it really have to be us?” Hitch challenged.
“I suppose Hitch does have a point there,” Zipp admitted before motioning to Misty. “I mean, this was all Misty’s idea, so maybe she should be one doing the true love kiss!”
“Oh no, no, no,” Misty replied, shaking her head. “I mean, I would if I could, but…” she shifted awkwardly. “…I don’t think I’ve met anypony yet who I feel quite that strongly about.”
“Aw, Misty,” Izzy said, hooking a hoof around her so to give the unicorn a comforting squeeze, “I’m sure you’ll find your special somepony eventually.”
“And now is good a time as any!” Pipp interrupted in her desperation to save her storefront, grabbing Misty and anxiously whipping her around to survey the street which was, by now, mostly devoid of other ponies. “So look around out there and find them RIGHT NOW!”
“Oh, um…” Misty fretted, feeling put on the spot and unsure she really saw anypony who’d qualify anyway.
“Who are you looking for in a special somepony anyway, Misty?” Sunny opted to ask, trying for the more gentle approach.
“Oh, just the basics, I guess,” Misty admitted with a sheepish blush. “You know, a stallion who’s nice, kind, gentle, friendly, who I can share some of my interests in, and who’s financially stable…” she rolled her eyes, blushing a little harder, “…and is also strong, has shredded abs, and a perfect mane…”
“Well, why not Hitch then?” Izzy offered. “Everybody knows he has shredded abs!”
“Oh, you know, I just get a lot of cardio doing the sheriff rounds, so—hey!” Hitch started to wave off before realizing he was again being volunteered for a kiss he hadn’t been given any say in.
“Oh no, I couldn’t take Hitch away from Sunny like that,” Misty immediately rejected. “And he doesn’t have the perfect mane anyway.”
Hitch opened his mouth to keep protesting then paused and glanced critically up at what of his mane could be seen from under his winter hat. “What’s wrong with my mane?” he asked in a slight whine.
“Nothing,” Misty replied simply. “It’s just not perfect.” She then shook her head and got back on topic. “Anyway, if we’re really going to go by that kind of logic, then why can’t it be you, Zipp?” she asked, turning the matter back onto the pegasus who’d tried pinning it on her.
Pipp made a dry laugh. “You’d have to find her a griffon first!”
Zipp suddenly tensed, her pupils shrinking. “Pipp,” she hissed warningly as she side-glanced at her sister.
“A griffon?” Sunny repeated, confused. “Why a griffon?”
“No griffon!” Zipp quickly countered in a frantic rush. “Pipp’s just confused because of that lump of snow Jazz dumped on—”
“Zipp’s had this silly crush on a griffon from an old pegasus legend since we were fillies,” Pipp interrupted to so explain undeterred, giving the now embarrassed Zipp a teasing look. “What’s his name again? Commander Gilbert or something?”
“Captain Gallus,” Zipp corrected hotly in spite of her embarrassment. “And I just have a…healthy respect…for all the awesome things he did as a captain of the guard!”
“Captain of the guard?” Sunny repeated before her eyes brightening in recognition. “You mean the first griffon to become captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard, don’t you? The one who served under Princess Twilight many moons ago!”
Hitch’s brow furrowed. “Wait, wouldn’t that mean he’d be long dead by now anyway?”
Sunny bit her lip. “Well, not only that, but according to what records have been found on him, he was also…already spoken for.” She gave Zipp an apologetic look.
Pipp meanwhile perked up, seeing potential for something to tease her elder sister with. “Ooh, who was the lucky significant other?” she inquired slyly.
“Well, the accounts are admittedly a bit fragmented and contradictory about that,” Sunny admitted sheepishly. “Some have said it was another griffon, while others have suggested it was a hippogriff, an earth pony, a yak, a changeling…” she bit her lip harder, “…it kinda gets weirder from there.”
Zipp groaned, dejected. “Next you’re going to tell me he’d hooked up with a dragon,” she grumbled.
But Sunny shook her head. “Oh no,” she assured. “That much I can confirm—he most certainly never ever was at any time in a romantic relationship with a dragon.”
The shaking lump under the blankets of the dorm room bed suddenly stopped for a moment before they whipped back enough for Gallus, wearing a holiday-themed hat askew on his head that’d he’d forgotten to take off earlier at the Hearth’s Warming party, poking his head out and start looking blankly off into the distance.
From under him, Smolder wiggled her head out into the open too, her draconic horns having been playfully tied up with fake mistletoe from the party earlier too. “What, what’s wrong?” she asked the griffon, confused.
“I just suddenly got the feeling that, many moons from now, nobody’s going to know that we were in a relationship,” Gallus replied vaguely.
The two were quiet for a moment as Gallus continued his thousand-yard stare and Smolder processed this information in clear confusion.
“But…if it’s really so many moons away from now,” the dragon finally asked, “then can either of us really do anything about it, or even be there to care in the end?”
Gallus shrugged. “Well…no, I guess not.”
Another long beat passed before Smolder grabbed his shoulder. “Just shut up and keep making out with me.”
“Now that I can do!”
Any further discussion about Zipp’s griffon crush was cut short though when they heard one of the poltergeist’s smash open a window on Mane Melody, followed by several of the poltergeists all streaming into the store so to continue their holiday havoc inside. “OKAY, we are out of time here!” Pipp snapped, starting to panic about how much damage was being done to her shop. She whipped around and jabbed her hoof at Sunny and Hitch. “You two need to start kissing already!”
“But we’re not in a relationship!” Sunny and Hitch both jointly complained.
“Survey says otherwise!” Pipp argued back, having about had it with this nonsense. “Now hurry up and come to terms with the fact that you two have actual feelings for each other and kiss before the whole town gets leveled!”
“No!” Hitch resisted, jumping out from behind the snow drift and into the street in search of any pony else that could perform the deed instead. “There must be someone else out here that could kiss someone, stop the poltergeists, and save Winter Wishday or at least Pipp’s shop!”
“Wait, what’s this about kissing?” Sprout could be heard shouting from further down the street, having just been chased there by the attacking poltergeists.
“Yes, there must!” Sunny agreed, jumping out to join Hitch in the search. “We just need somepony that’s not afraid of kissing somepony they like!”
“I’ll kiss somepony!” Sprout eagerly volunteered in the distance.
“Somepony with good pony skills,” Hitch likewise agreed, nodding as he surveyed the street.
“I will do it!”
“Somepony who won’t scare the other away,” Sunny added.
“I volunteer!”
“Somepony who can freely express their love or at least attraction for another,” Hitch reasoned thoughtfully.
“For the good of the mission, I will do it!”
“Shut up, Sprout!” Zipp then shouted back at the earth pony in the distance. “We’re busy with something here!”
“Zipp!” Pipp reprimanded for her rudeness.
Zipp rolled her eyes. “Fine—Please be quiet, Sprout, we’re trying to find volunteers that’d be willing to kiss!”
“But I’m trying to tell you that I’m willing to volun—AH!”
Sprout was interrupted when one of the poltergeists swooped down and suddenly hauled him off, dragging him around screaming in the air for several moments before finally dropping him into a dumpster about half a block away. This went completely unnoticed by the others as they all watched Sunny and Hitch fruitlessly search for potential ponies that could kiss in their stead.
“Oh, just give it up already, you two!” Pipp finally shouted at the two earth ponies. “There clearly isn’t anyone else here willing to do it, so you gotta do it!”
“We didn’t volunteer for this either!” Hitch countered.
“We didn’t volunteer for having to deal with Misty accidentally releasing holiday-themed poltergeists upon the town too, but here we are anyway!” Zipp argued back.
“Sorry!” Misty added in apology.
“Oh c’mon, you two, it’s just a kiss!” Izzy reasoned. “Stop being so afraid of it and just admit your love for each other already!”
“We’re not afraid!” Sunny protested.
“You so totally are!” Zipp protested back. “Now kiss, dang it! Everybody knows you want to already!”
Sunny tilted her head. “Wait, ponies really think that about us?”
“Just kiss!” her friends shouted back in unison.
“But…it’s probably not even going to work, though!” Hitch made as his last objection.
“KISS!” came back the unified shout.
“But if we aren’t kissing out of true love, it’s not going to stop the poltergeists!” Sunny reminded.
This earned her an angry snowball to the face from Pipp. “Kiss or I’m suing you both for the damages to Mane Melody!”
“Ooh, you know, she might actually have a case for that, you two!” Zipp pointed out with a wince.
“Yeah, I’d really not tempt her on this one!” Misty agreed, giving the furious Pipp a wary look.
Sunny and Hitch exchanged glances for a second. Sunny bit her lip and shrugged helplessly, out of arguments. Hitch groaned, rolling his eyes in frustration. “This isn’t going to work…” he mumbled.
But nonetheless, he and Sunny awkwardly moved closer and, uncertainly, started to hover their lips closer to each other. There was a brief hesitation, but finally they landed a quick peck on each other then, deciding that probably wasn’t going to be enough, made another somewhat more serious but still modest kiss. They then separated, looking at each other timidly but surprised by how it’d felt better than they were expecting. But then they realized the street had suddenly gone completely silent and turned to see that all of the Holiday Poltergeists had stopped their decoration-wreaking rampage and had gathered together into a huddled group beside them, watching them with awed eyes like a foal watching an exciting movie.
“Please sir and madam,” the foremost one of the group spoke in a surprisingly thick but proper-sounding Trottingham accent, “can we have some more?”
Author's Note
A Jinglemas fic for Sora21, who requested it "have Sunny and Hitch with some bits of romance." Admittedly, this perhaps leans a little more comedy than romance, but I think it still qualifies as something of a bizarre romcom. 
So hopefully it still meets to their satisfactions.
This actually wasn't my first attempt at the request though--my first idea, which I did get written all the way to completion before abandoning it, was notably more serious and was about, while making their usual Winter Wishday rounds, the gang being introduced to a unicorn with a talent for fortune-telling and who predicts, among other things, that Sunny and Hitch would publicly kiss before the night was over. And upon realizing other predictions she made were coming true, Sunny and Hitch have to come to terms that theirs might too and whether or not they would accept it or try and avoid it.
Which sounded like a good idea when I came up with it, but after writing it out, I found it all felt pretty...meh. Nothing especially dramatic happens, no big revelations, it's left open whether or not Sunny and Hitch had any actual interest in each other, and overall felt like it never gets any notable payoff for what it was building up to (even though the kiss obviously did happen). Ultimately, I just felt like I could do better than that, so I eventually came up with this idea instead (once I figured out how to tie it in with the holidays), which worked out because it let me do a couple other ideas I'd been considering for G5 along the way (including that "Beet Buggy" reference, or at least a vegetarian version of it because, you know, ponies).
