Mr. and Mrs. Cake just stood there, frozen with their mouths gaped wide open with bags and bags of candy Holly bows next to them.

"Um, we can explain!" Twilight quickly shouted.

"What in Equestria...?" started Mrs. Cake.

"Oh no, did the oven malfunction again? That's the second time this week!" exclaimed Mr. Cake.

"No, no. It's me. I ate all the holiday cakes for the party, and I feel awful about it. On the bright side, they were the best things I've ever tasted!" Pinkie apologized, smiling crookedly.

Mr. Cake just face-hoofed himself.

"Oh Pinkie! You know as well we don't have time to make another few hundred cakes! Now this place is messy, the decorations all have stains on them, and all the cakes are eaten!" Mrs. Cake shouted, with the same horrified look that Twilight had worn.

Twilight stopped hovering over Pinkie's shoulder and approached the bags of holly bows.

"What are you going to do with these now?" Twilight asked, curiously.

"Well, we were going to use it for the cake toppings, but that's a dead option now." Mr. Cake said.

Pinkie just looked down in shame, but then looked back up, a small spark was glistening in her eyes.

"Hey! We have four ponies, and we have an hour to fix things! I say we make as many cakes as possible!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Twilight just smiled at Pinkie's optimism, just admiring her happy spirit.

"It might not work, but by all means, we can give it a shot." Mr. Cake replied, shrugging slightly.

"Twi and I, teehee! That rhymes! Anyway, we will get the ingredients ready." Pinkie instructed.

"We'll just get out necessary utensils and materials." Mrs. Cake added.

It's settled then. Let's go!" Twilight said, signaling for everypony to start gathering the essential items to make the cakes.

Twilight and Pinkie rushed to where the fridge and pantry was. Twilight looked over the list, reading out ingredients while Pinkie fetched them.

"Um, milk!" Twilight called.

Pinkie rushed to the fridge, found the milk carton, and threw it behind her shoulder. Miraculously, it landed, undamaged, on the counter. Twilight, who hadn't noticed this, kept calling out ingredients, not letting her eyes wander.

"Eggs!" Twilight shouted.

Pinkie once again dig through the fridge, found the egg carton, and threw it behind her shoulder. And miraculously again, it landed on the counter, not a single egg cracked or dented in any way. But as before, Twilight still didn't notice.

In a couple minutes, they both had gathered every ingredient they needed.

"There! We got... them all out!" Twilight panted.

"How come you're panting? I was the one running back and forth to get ingredients." Pinkie observed.

Twilight just glared at her in exhaustion.

"It's my voice! Never mind that, we have to get started!" Twilight said, grabbing the recipe paper with her hoof.

"Okay, it says we need two eggs..." Twilight started, her eyes reading over the ingredients.

Pinkie quickly opened the egg carton, cracking two of the eggs into the mixing bowl Mrs. Cake set out for them.

"...two cups and a half of flour..." Twilight continued.

Pinkie then took a scooper, put it into the flour bag, and filled the measuring cup until it reached two and a half.

"...a cup of milk..."

Pinkie took the milk carton in her hooves and to her surprise, the carton was unusually light. When Pinkie opened the carton into the measuring cup, only a single drop of milk came from it.

Pinkie gritted her teeth and said,"Twilight! There's no more milk left..."

Twilight's magical aura that levitated the recipe paper suddenly disappeared, making it drop to the floor.

"What?! Milk is essential to the recipe! We can't make this cake without it." Twilight shrieked.

"Today is Hearth's Warming Eve, I bet everypony is going to do some baking of their own. Let's go to the market, but hope that a few milk cartons are still there." Mrs. Cake said, overhearing their dilemma.

Mr. Cake stayed at SugarCube Corner while the mares started their way to the Ponyville market. The three kept trotting until they reached the start of a series of market stands. They passed the Vegetable area, the Fruit area, until they got to the Dairy area. All three mares skimmed through all the stands until the right one caught their eye.

"I found the milk stand!!" Pinkie shouted.

Twilight an Mrs. Cake just rushed next to her.

"So, you got any milk?" Pinkie asked, staring right into the salespony's eyes.

"No, we just ran out of our last milk carton about a few minutes ago." the salespony replied.

Something inside Pinkie just cracked and her fluffy hair deflated a little.
All three of the mares' heads hung low and their ears drooped as Pinkie softly said, "Oh, okay. Thanks anyway."

Once they stepped back inside SugarCube Corner, Mr. Cake approached them with a hopeful smile.

"Any luck?" He asked.

Mrs. Cake just looked at him and shook her head, her eyes displaying a look of disappointment.

Mr. Cake's ears drooped, but then suddenly went back up again.

"On the bright side, I was able to find three holiday cakes that Pinkie didn't eat." Mr. Cake said.

Pinkie just hung her head in shame while Mr. Cake showed them a small tray with three perfectly untouched holiday cakes. When Pinkie's head came back up, her eyes started to go big and let the slightest bit of drool escape from her mouth.

"Oh no, not again!" Pinkie thought to herself.

"Pinkie, no!" Twilight shouted.

Mr. Cake quickly put the tray on the closest table. Twilight and Mrs. Cake were able to push her away in time for Pinkie to snap out of her trance.

"As great as that is, three cakes is not going to make a difference." Twilight stated.

"I know, but good to keep 'em. Just in case we need them!" Mr. Cake replied.

Mrs. Cake just sighed.

"Well, at least we'll still be able to use three of our holly bows." she said, grabbing the bag of holly bows she bought at the market.

Mrs. Cake gently set one holly bow on each of the three cakes, making look even more festive than it already was.

"So, all the other holly bows are just going to go to waste?! Even if they're edible?" asked Pinkie.

"Pretty much." Mrs. Cake said.

Pinkie started to think about the extra holly bows and how sick ponies would be if they only ate that.

"What if they didn't go to waste? What if we ate them..." Pinkie thought.

A lightbulb suddenly exploded in her head, a wide grin on her face.

"Hey, Mrs. Cake! Do you think I could still find more of the holly bow candies at the market?" Pinkie asked.

"Probably, if you hurry. Why do you ask?" Mrs. Cake asked.

Pinkie just galloped out the door calling behind her, "You'll see!"

Her hooves were pounding on the dirt road until she once again, reached the Ponyville market. Her eyes scanned through the whole market, until one stand caught her eye. It was freshly painted a bright red color, with white stripes along the bars holding up a banner that said, "Hearth's Warming Treats." The baskets behind the salespony had every holiday treat you could imagine. Eggnog, candy canes, gingerbread houses, gumdrops, and so much more! Of course, she saw the baskets of holly bows, still filled to the brim. She smiled at the sight of them.

"Great. There's enough of them to make this work." Pinkie thought, happily.

"I'll take all of your holly bows, please!" Pinkie requested, grinning a mile wide.

The salespony just raised an eyebrow at her.

"Ya sure 'bout that, hun?" she asked her.

"Yes indeedy, ma'am!" she replied.

The salespony took all of the holly bow baskets that she had, and laid all of them out in front of Pinkie.

"That'll be twenty bits!" she barked.

"Okie dokie!" she said, digging into her fluffy, tangled hair. She kept stuffing her hoof inside her hair until she finally took it out to reveal a pouch of bits. She counted twenty bit coins and handed it to the salespony.

"Have a nice day." she said.

"How am I going to get these back to SugarCube Corner?" she thought, worryingly, staring at the five baskets filled to the brim with holly bows.

As if right on cue, the last four of Pinkie's friends showed up. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy seemed to be getting ornaments from the stand across from her. She sighed with relief and called,
"Girls! Over here!"

Rainbow Dash was the first to turn around.

"Pinkie Pie?" she asked, smiling.

"Girls! Come over here, I need you're help with something!" Pinkie called again.

"What is it Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked softly, landing on the ground next to her.

"I need you each to carry a basket of these edible holly bows for me back to SugarCube Corner." Pinkie instructed.

"Sure thing, Pinks!" Rainbow replied, lifting the basket onto her back and taking off into the sky.

Fluttershy just followed Rainbow Dash while Applejack and Pinkie hoisted the basket onto their backs, starting to start into a fast trot. Rarity just used her unicorn magic to levitate the basket next to her while trotting beside Applejack and Pinkie.
In almost no time, they all reached SugarCube Corner. Each pony set the large basket they were carrying onto the ground.

"Wow, Twi! You really got this place a spiffied up!" Applejack exclaimed, in her southern accent.

Pinkie just then realized that the tattered and ruined decorations had been cleaned up and replaced with new ones, the whole room screaming with holiday cheer.

"Wow! How did you get these up in time?" Pinkie asked, looking curiously at Twilight.

"We used your party cannon! It was already loaded with holiday decorations, so then why not use it, right?" Twilight explained.

"Uh, just one question. What are you going to do with all these holly bows? You already had many bags of them, why get more?" Rarity asked, curiously.

"Well..." Pinkie started, motioning her hoof for her friends to get closer.

Pinkie whispered something softly to them and they all nodded their heads eagerly in agreement.

Many guest-arrivals later...

Pinkie grabbed a microphone and made her way to the front of SugarCube Corner.

"Ahem, testing, testing!" Pinkie squealed.

The microphone's loud squeak made everypony cringe and cover their ears while a sea of silence overtook the large crowd.

"As you all know, we don't have a lot of holiday treats this year, only candy canes and peppermint hot chocolate." Pinkie stated.

Everypony just murmured quietly in disappointment and confusion.

"But, you now have a chance to earn these special one-of-a-kind holiday cakes, by competing in the first annual Holly Bow Eating Contest!" Pinkie exclaimed.

The murmurs suddenly turned into cheers and screams of joy.

"We'll take the first ten ponies to compete in this great event! Only three ponies will win! Who's up for the challenge?" Pinkie asked the crowd with a sparkling smile on her face.

The crowd just cheered some more.

"Anypony interested in competing, come up to the front! First come first serve!" Pinkie announced, putting away the microphone.

And as usual, Rainbow Dash was the first one up in the front to compete.
She was followed by Applejack, Vinyl Scratch, Bonbon, Lyra, Derpy, Spike, Golden Harvest, and Berry Punch. Pinkie was also competing in the event, so ten ponies were all ready to compete. All ten ponies stood in front of a table draped with a candy-cane printed tablecloth. There were ten large piles of edible holly bows that went almost all the way up to the ceiling.

"Ready..." Mrs. Cake started.
"Get set..."

The contestants were leaning in closer to the piles.

"GO!" Mrs. Cake shouted.

They were off. Each contestant was scarfing down holly bows as fast as their hooves could grab them. Gradually, each pile of bows got smaller and smaller.

"And our first winner is... Rainbow Dash!" Twilight announced, giving the first cake to Rainbow Dash.

A groaning Rainbow Dash happily accepted the cake, the other forehoof holding her stomach.

"Our second winner... Pinkie Pie!" Mr. Cake announced, holding a cake out to Pinkie.

Pinkie, not at all full from eating the holly bows, ate the whole cake in one gulp, licking her lips in satisfaction to get all the extra frosting off her face.

"And our last winner... Spike!" Twilight exclaimed.

Spike snatched the cake and followed Pinkie, by eating the cake in one gulp.
It wasn't until a few more minutes until Rainbow was able to take a bite of her holiday cake. She was so full in fact, that she split it into five pieces. One piece for herself and for her other four friends that didn't get one.

"This cake is simply divine! I bet everypony would want to try one of these!" Rarity beamed.

"Well, there were lots of them before, plenty for everypony, until... something happened." Pinkie said, nervously, while all six of them walked out of SugarCube Corner.

"What happened?" Fluttershy asked, concerned.

Pinkie told them the whole story from when she ate the cakes, until now. She even told them about the weird voice in the background that kept narrating the story!

Rainbow ended up laughing her head off in the snow, while the others were giggling to themselves at Pinkie's story.

"Yeah, it's pretty funny, isn't it?" Pinkie asked herself, giggling a little.

"You know what's really funny?"
Rainbow asked, scooping up a ball of snow and hiding it behind her back.

"What?" Pinkie asked.

"This!" Rainbow exclaimed, throwing the snowball at Pinkie's face.

Pinkie squealed as the snowball landed on her face. Her friends started to laugh. Pinkie just brushed the snow off her face. With a mischievous smile Rainbow yelled, "Snowball fight!"
She made another snowball, throwing it at Applejack from behind a tree.

Pinkie threw a snowball at Twilight, who just stopped it in its path and threw it back at Pinkie. Applejack dodged Fluttershy's snowball and threw one at Rarity, who gasped at her now snow-stained scarf. Soon, a snowball war had broken out, and even Rarity and Fluttershy joined in.

"This Hearth's Warming Eve has been one of the best yet!" Pinkie thought while laughing.

After all that had happened that Hearth's Warming Eve, there was only on thing Pinkie could do:

Laugh.