Rarity calmed down eventually. Throughout her pursuit of the blue hero, she told herself that this was just one of Sonic's quirks that she would have to deal with now. Ever since Sonic had rescued her, Rarity couldn't bring herself to stay mad at him for extended periods of time.

When the others had caught up with the two, the adventure truly began. They joked with each other as they walked, telling tales of times past. They covered a lot of ground, always following where the emerald radar told them to go.

Within a few hours, night began to fall. "My feet hurt." Rarity complained as the sun began to set.

"I don't see how, you had Sonic carry you for the last few hours." Twilight moaned.

"Maybe we should set up camp for now." Sonic said, happy to find a reason to put Rarity down. "Did anybody bring any tents?"

"I did." Tails said as he reached into his bag. He pulled out the supplies to set up a few tents and handed them to Sonic.

"This will be just a second." Sonic said as he grabbed the supplies. Within the blink of an eye, he had set up three different tents.

"Alright, Tails and I will sleep in one tent, the rest of you need to pick a tent to stay in." Sonic said as he walked away from his work. "While you figure that out, I'm going to get some wood to make a fire."

Sonic ran off and Tails went into one of the tents. The girls all turned towards each other. Everyone was wary of Amy, since they hardly knew her. After a while, they decided that Twilight, Amy, Rarity, and Pinkie would stay in one tent. The other tent would be occupied by Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack.

Once they finished deciding, Sonic came back with wood for a fire. Tails came out of his tent and started the fire. They all sat down around it, soaking in its warmth. The stars began to sparkle in the sky and caught the attention of the adventurers as they sat there.

"Sure is a beautiful night." Applejack said.

"The stars are lighting up the sky like its some kind of party!" Pinkie shouted excitedly. A few of them turned their heads to face Sonic with a sparkle in their eyes, but he wasn't paying any attention to his friends that surrounded him. He stared off into the distance towards their destination.

Sonic went on adventures like these all the time, and life threatening situations were no problem for him, but he had so many people with him this time. The possibility that one of them would get hurt was so much higher with such a large party at his side.

"I need to go for a run." Sonic said suddenly. "I'll be back soon, and then we should get some rest for the journey ahead." He then ran off without another word. His friends could tell that he seemed troubled, so Rainbow Dash flew after him. She found him standing a few hundred feet from their campsite, and he seemed to be lost in thought.

"Is something wrong?" Rainbow Dash asked him when she got close enough.

"I'm just worried." Sonic said with. "I should have thought about how everyone could get hurt before I dragged you along with me."

"You don't have to worry about us, we can handle ourselves."

"You haven't seen what Eggman is capable of. I've seen things much worse than what makes it to the city. I've destroyed some terrible creations of his, and I never want anyone else to take my place."

"Don't you ever want to stop fighting Eggman?"

"Part of me wants to stop, but another part of me never wants to give up the thrill of fighting him. But nobody should have to go through all the fights I've been through."

"Why do you have to be the one to fight Eggman?"

"Because when the people needed a hero, I rose to the challenge and proved that I was the one that could save them all. Anyway, that's enough about my thoughts, let's head back to the camp."

As the two walked back, Rainbow Dash thought about what Sonic had said. She never really thought about his many fights with Eggman or what kind of toll they took on him.

When they got back to the camp, everyone said goodnight and separated into their tents. In Twilight's tent, Amy began to ask the other girls a few questions.

"So, let's have a little bit of girl talk." Amy said with a smile. "Do you have crushes?"

"Why would I have a crush? That would be weird? What does crush mean in that way anyway?" Pinkie began to ramble. Rarity looked over at Twilight, finally realizing something. She had helped Twilight to impress Sonic at Pinkie's party, and now Rarity had fallen for him too.

How could she admit that she had a crush on Sonic when she had already helped Twilight attempt to win him over. The could ruin their friendship, or, even worse, make Rarity seem rude and improper. In her head, Rarity promised not to talk about her crush on Sonic, but still try to win him over.

While Rarity had been thinking this, Twilight had been blushing furiously. She figured there was no use trying to hide it, since her face felt like it was actually on fire.

"I... kind of have a crush on someone..." Twilight said quietly, rivaling Fluttershy with her lack of volume.

"And who would that be?" Amy questioned, moving closer to Twilight.

"I don't want to talk about it!" Twilight said quickly. "Anyway, like Sonic said, we should get some rest." Twilight's voice had sounded strange when she had said Sonic's name, and Amy had noticed. For a second, Amy thought that Twilight had a crush on her Sonic, but quickly waved the notion away.

The four girls clambered into their sleeping bags and quickly fell asleep. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was unable to fall asleep in the other tent. After an hour of tossing and turning, she got out of her sleeping bag and quietly left her tent, trying not to disturb everyone who was asleep.

Once outside, Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and sighed happily. The fresh air calmed her nerves and helped her to feel somewhat tired. She began to look around at the surrounding area, until her eyes stopped on a black figure in the distance.

When she looked at it, it seemed to radiate hatred. The feeling became so overpowering, that Rainbow Dash began to be afraid of standing out in the open in front of it. She turned quickly and ran into the nearest tent.

Once inside the tent, Rainbow Dash took a deep breath to calm herself. Once she felt as though she had adequately calmed down, she looked on the ground for her sleeping bag. While searching, she noticed that only two were on the floor and they were both filled. At first, that seemed fine since there were two other people sleeping in her tent, but her attitude soon changed when she saw who was sleeping in one of the bags.

Sonic's sleeping face was turned towards Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash knew that she should have left as soon as she saw Sonic sleeping, but the way that he looked while sleeping stopped her from leaving. She decided that it wouldn't be a bad thing if she were to lie down next to him for a few minutes.

This ended up being a mistake since she fell asleep almost at the same instance her head reached the ground. This was fine for a few minutes, until Sonic rolled over and his arm fell on Rainbow's side. The contact woke Sonic up, and his eyes widened when he saw Rainbow's face so close to his.

Sonic quietly rose from his sleeping bag, being careful to avoid waking Rainbow Dash and Tails. Once he was standing, he lifted Rainbow Dash into his arms and carried her back to her tent. After that, he started to return to his tent, but felt that something strange was in the area.

Sonic turned his head to where he felt the disturbance had been and saw only a black blur in the distance. When Sonic had blinked, the blur was gone. Shrugging of the sight as a delusion due to the need for sleep, Sonic went back into his tent and went back to sleep, the black blur still in his mind.