The Pictonian Princess's soul clouded with terror as the golden wall protecting them flickered out and an enormous, snarling monster filled their view.

"Stay behind me Children!" she yelled to the other Pictonians as the princess tried to create a force field of her own around her people. Weak shimmers of green light wavered in the air for a brief moment before shattering into oblivion.

Galactic Empress Charlotte sneered as a legion of dark blue shadow-Pictonians stepped up to her side.

"It's beginning to look a lot like the end for you and your people, Princess-"

"Ya think so?" asked a bright voice behind all of them. Galactic Empress Charlotte turned to see Finland back in his human form, carrying a shadow-Pictonian with glasses in his arms.

"Is this seriously-?"

"Because I think," Finland started to come alight with a golden glow as he interrupted "That it's beginning," He took a step closer to her and the golden light brightened "To look a lot," the darkness in the gold light's path was melting into nothingness "LIKE CHRISTMAS!"

"Everywhere ya go…" the glasses-wearing shadow-Pictonian mumbled in Sweden's voice.

Charlotte snorted "How embarrassing…Do you really think that you alone can take on both me and the entire collective of shadow-Pictonians?" She stomped her paw on the ground, throwing the wall of light several meters back.

"Nope!" Finland replied with a bright smile "On my own I probably couldn't. But with the love of Sve and the spirit of Christmas, it'll be a piece of cake!"

"Ha ha ha! I would like to see-wait, what?" a giant fruitcake with the consistency of rubber cement materialized around Charlotte, leaving only her head sticking out "Oh come on, seriously?"

"Seriously," confirmed the remaining Pictonians.

"THIS DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!" roared Charlotte in frustration.

"Oh yah? Being a white fluffy dog that turns into a mass of crazy interplanetary evil doesn't make a lot of sense either! Actually nothing makes a lot of sense to me presently because the last thing I remember I was standing in a grassy field thinking about Christmas and now I wake up to find that ya turned my husband into a blue version of the little blank person on pedestrian warning signs!"

"Nh," Sweden the shadow-Pictonian mumbled "What he's trying t' say is that ya suck."

"YAH! Exactly my point! Thanks Sve."

"Whatever, I still have an entire army of shadow-Pictonians at my disposal. Minions! Eat this crap off of me."

"Seriously?" the shadow-Pictonians asked.

"Yes! Seriously. Obey me now!"

The shadow-Pictonians shook their heads. They may have been transformed by overwhelming darkness, but they still had taste buds.

"You worthless pieces of Pictonian! Whatever, I'll eat myself out of here then," Charlotte tore into the cakey mass with her teeth, yanking off a giant mouthful and then spitting it out immediately. "This is repulsive! Even worse than the other food you used to feed me. I will have two million bucket-loads of revenge on all of you once I have chewed myself out of here."

"Don't think yer going t' be around long enough t' do that," hypothesized shadow-Pictonian Sweden.

"Finland! Here!" the Pictonian Princess was holding a glass bottle of vodka and a small canister of gasoline as she ran over to him.

"Perfect! Well done my child, Santa's so proud of ya," Finland beamed as he gently handed shadow-Pictonian Sweden over to her and took the vodka and gasoline.

"I had to ask some of my people to steal it from Russia just now..." she admitted with a bit of embarrassment.

"Ah! Stealing from Russia?" Finland grinned as he tore off a piece of his Santa outfit and soaked it with vodka "That's even better, great work! That mean stupid-face is the reason I first made these things," he explained as he filled the empty glass bottle with gasoline.

Charlotte caught sight of the commotion and put her fruit cake gnawing on pause "Wait, what, what are you doing?!"

"Giving ya a little drink to go with the fruitcake," Finland explained as he tucked the alcohol-drenched cloth halfway into the bottle before corking it.

"But…" Charlotte's voice contained traces of fear for the first time. "But I'm your pet dog! Would you seriously kill the fluffy puppy you loved and cared for all these years?"

Finland shook his head "No, I wouldn't. But I would kill the darkness-born monster that ate out my dog's heart from the inside and then assimilated Sweden!"

He used shadow-Sweden's antennae light to ignite the end of the cloth wick. "This is for my husband and Hanatamago, ya mean-stupid-cruel-meanie-brain!" Finland yelled before tossing the explosive straight into the middle of the chewy fruitcake.

The patrolman was having a hard time explaining the state of his vehicle to the police chief.

"So a giant UFO came, tore the roof of your car and stole your prisoners…one of which was a marshmallow?"

"Umm…well…" A massive explosion overhead that filled the night sky with fiery orange and shocking violet saved him from having to elaborate further.

The police chief's eyes bulged out of his skull as he soaked the whole scene in "We will be dead before we see the end of the paperwork-mountain it will take to file this case."

"So maybe we can…not report it?" the patrolman suggested.

"Good thinking," the police chief agreed as they turned around and started looking for the nearest place they could both get ridiculously drunk.