Ch. 16: Friendship Festival

That night, the festival was ready and Spike was onstage with a mic emceeing the event.

"Fillies and gentlecolts!" he said. "Get ready for a little…" Then onto the stage swooped… "Songbird Serenade!" Everyone in the crowd, including Sonic and the others, cheered.

"And now to celebrate the fact that we're all still here in one piece, give it up for Princess Twilight and her friends!" Everyone turned to the team and cheered even louder. The other three princesses walked up and bowed to the team and they bowed back, showing common courtesy. Then the light turned back to Songbird as she started singing.

Musical Number – Rainbow

Songbird: I know you, you're a special one
Some see crazy where I see love
You fall so low but shoot so high
Big dreamers shoot for open sky

So much life in those open eyes
So much depth, you look for the light

Rainbow bumped her hoof against Celaeno's claw and Sonic's fist and all three smirked.

"Ooh!" said Capper, as Rarity levitated him a cape and top hat.

"And perfection!" she said.

But when your wounds are open, you will cry

Pinkie and Skystar laughed for a minute until Skystar saw her mother flying in in her hippogriff form. "Mom!" she said and ran to hug her.

"You are so grounded!" said Novo and laughed, making Skystar's eyes shoot open in fear.

"Saw that coming," chuckled Sonic.

You'll cry out now and you'll question why

I can see a rainbow
In your tears as they fall on down
I can see your soul grow
Through the pain as they hit the ground
I can see a rainbow
In your tears as the sun comes out
As the sun comes out

Then Sonic saw something. He pointed Twilight to it and she saw Tempest standing alone near the ledge. The two quickly zipped over and saw her gazing out into the last remnants of the sunset.

"Hey," said Sonic.

"Hey," said Tempest and she chuckled. "Well, that's one thing that never changes around here. A party."

"Well, I hope you'll stay," said Twilight. "More friends are definitely merrier."

Tempest sighed and looked up at her forehead. "But, um…" she said. "My horn."

"Well, it might not look great," said Sonic. "But y'know what, it's pretty dang powerful. Just like the pony it belongs to."

"I did tell you I wanted to show everypony in Equestria what I could do, right?" she asked Twilight.

"You sure did," said Twilight. "Go ahead." Tempest walked for a bit before she shot a blast into the air, which exploded into a barrage of fireworks.

"Whoo!" yelled Sonic.

I can see a rainbow
In your tears as they fall on down
I can see your soul grow
Through the pain as they hit the ground
I can see a rainbow
In your tears as the sun comes out
As the sun comes out

"Nice touch, Tempest!" said Pinkie from the stage. Then Tempest looked over her shoulder nervously.

"Actually, that's not my real name," she said.

"It's not?" asked Sonic.

"Oooh! What is it?" asked Pinkie as she and the others zipped up. Tempest moved close to Pinkie's ear, but she hadn't accounted for Sonic's strong sense of hearing.

"It's 'Fizzlepop Berrytwist'," she whispered. Sonic and Pinkie's eyes went wide and they both gasped, but for completely different reasons.

"What?!" asked Sonic, almost cracking up.

"Okay!" said Pinkie. "That is the most awesome name ever!" Then she and the others just laughed at that.

"And on that bombshell, I think I should probably be heading home," said Sonic.

"Aw come on," said Twilight. "At least stick around for the party." Sonic thought about it for a second, but then he just shrugged.

"Ah, what the hell? Let's do this!" he yelled and they all ran in to have the time of their lives.

I can see a rainbow
In your tears as they fall on down
I can see your soul grow
Through the pain as they hit the ground
I can see a rainbow
In your tears as the sun comes out
As the sun comes out

I am here and I see your pain
Through the storms, through the clouds, the rain
I'm telling you, you can not escape
You can do it, just feel, baby

I can see a rainbow
In your tears as they fall on down
I can see your soul grow
Through the pain as they hit the ground
I can see a rainbow
In your tears as they fall on down
I can see your soul grow
Through the pain as they hit the ground
In your tears as the sun comes out
As the sun comes out

Here comes the sun smiling down
Here comes the sun smiling down
Here comes the sun smiling down
Smiling down

I can see a rainbow
In your tears as they fall on down
I can see your soul grow
Through the pain as they hit the ground
I can see a rainbow
In your—
As the sun comes out

Then the music stopped. Everyone looked up at the stage and saw Sonic with his guitar and a few robots that looked a lot like him.

"My turn, folks!" he yelled and hit the first cord hard.

Musical Number – Off to See the World

"All right, now when I point to you guys, clap okay?" he asked into the mic.

"Yeah!" yelled the ponies.

"Okay, let's do this!" he yelled as he and the robots started playing.

Sonic: So, we wanna stay
But can't find peace while sittin' still
I guess we never will
We're on the way
We won't hurry back again
The journey is the end (Robots: oh)

I love this very moment
We're speedin' up, not slowin'
We might know we can't win
But we're dumb enough to try
We're going, there's no maybe
That's why they call us crazy
And we'll say if anybody asks us

"Hey (hey!), where you gonna go?" [clap clap]
We're off to see the world
We don't need to know (oh)
"Hey (hey!), where you gonna go?" [clap clap]
We're off to see the world
We don't need to know

We never need to know
Seekin' boundaries to break
Let's forget the ones we've made
So we carry on
Don't let good things pass us by
The time we're gone will be the best time of our life

I love this very moment
We're speedin' up, not slowin'
We might know we can't win
But we're dumb enough to try
We're going, there's no maybe
That's why they call us crazy
And we'll say if anybody asks us

"Hey (hey!), where you gonna go?" [clap clap]
We're off to see the world
We don't need to know (oh)
"Hey (hey!), where you gonna go?" [clap clap]
We're off to see the world
We don't need to know

So go tell 'em we won't stop
We know they can't change us
We're gonna go way off the map
To get ourselves back on the track

Go tell 'em we won't stop
We know they can't change us
No need to worry so much
We do whatever we want (oh)

"Hey (hey!), where you gonna go?" [clap clap]
We're off to see the world
We don't need to know (oh)
"Hey (hey!), where you gonna go?" [clap clap]
We're off to see the world
We don't need to know (oh)

Ponies in audience: Ohhhh-oh-oh-oh-oh oh
Ohhhh-oh-oh-oh-oh oh
Ohhhh-oh-oh-oh-oh oh
Ohhhh-oh-oh-oh-oh oh

Then everyone applauded and cheered. "Thank you Equestria!" yelled Sonic. "I am Sonic the Hedgehog! Peace out!" Then he zipped off the stage to the edge and waited until the others showed up.

"Where are you going?" asked Twilight.

"Home," said Sonic. "If I can get going fast enough, I can open a rift back to Mobius and I'll be there in less than three seconds. Still, it was good getting to know all of you."

"You too, Sonic the Hedgehog," said Twilight.

"I hope we meet again, Princess Twilight Sparkle," said Sonic as he stepped off the ledge. "Adios!" Then he hit the ledge and ran so fast he appeared like a blur to everyone in the city before he disappeared in a flash of light.

Back on Mobius, he instantly reappeared in Tails' workshop and skidded to a stop.

"Sonic!" said his little brother. "You were gone so long, what kept you?"

"And why'd you come back through a rift?" asked Knuckles.

"Well, as it turns out, your transporter still has some bugs to iron out, little buddy," said Sonic. "Instead of sending me to Earth-1, it sent me to another universe altogether."

"Which one?" asked Knuckles.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Sonic smirked.

"Try me," said the echidna.

The End

Whoo! God Damn, that one took ages. Still, I am so glad I got this done. And to those of you reading. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. See ya round!