//------------------------------// // 42. Firework-ing Together // Story: Sonic The Hedgehog x My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale // by BronySonicFan //------------------------------// In the Crystal Brighthouse, was throwing some kind of glitter bombs in the air, that exploded like if they were fireworks. You're right, is New Year's Eve in Equestria. Sunny arrived as she stood in the front door and looked at Izzy with a smile. "Izzy, come on!" she called out. "Or you'll miss seeing the real firework display!" she pointed out, also pointing her hoof outside of the Brighthouse. And outside, Pipp, Glory, Seashell and Peach Fizz entered the Marestream, while Hitch and Knuckles supervised that everyone get inside the vehicle. "Hey! These look pretty real to me!" Izzy said with a smile and sparkling eyes, but she twirled so many times that she started to feel dizzy. "All that spinning made me one Dizzy-Izzy..." she said on a joking tone, before falling to the ground. "Ladies, if you're done... doing whatever is going on there, get on board and let's get out of here before we're late" Knuckles said, laying on the Marestream and waiting for Sunny and Izzy. After a while, Izzy stopped feeling dizzy and got inside the Marestream along Sunny. Hitch and Knuckles were the last ones to enter, with the latter closing the Marestream door, while the Pippsqueaks - that is Glory, Seashell and Peach Fizz - sat down on the passenger seats in the main cabin. "Next stop: Bridlewood for the Grand Unity Fireworks Display!" Zipp announced with a smile, as she sat beside Tails, who was going to drive down the Marestream towards Bridlewood. "I love that we are all together for this!" Sunny said with excitement, then gasped with sparkling eyes. "I love fireworks!" she added. Izzy squealed excited, also stomping her hooves on the ground. "And these are no ordinary fireworks!" she said with a smile. "Unicorn Fireworks are, like, totally magical!" she added. "Half stuff in this land is magical ever since the Crystals made that rainbow explosion" Sonic pointed out with a smirk. "At this point, I'll be questioning what isn't magical" he added. After that, Tails turned on the Marestream, as the engine of the flying vehicle roared, and then it flew through the sky and towards Bridlewood. However, Izzy was so excited about the fireworks that she kept throwing her glitter bombs outside from the window, also making explosion sound with her mouth. "Izzy..." Knuckles scolded with a bored expression. "Sorry..." Izzy apologized with a sheepish smile. Later, the group made it to the forest in Bridlewood, with the Marestream parked away while the Mane 5, Team Sonic, Sparky and the Pippsqueaks followed Izzy. After all, Bridlewood is her home. "Okay, the viewing spot is just up ahead" Izzy instructed. "Follow me. I know this forest like the back of my hoof" she said with a smile as she looked at her hoof. "And the front of it" she added, turning to face her friends and winking at them. Sunny giggled, as she and the others smiled and trotted after Izzy, running through the forest while hopping over roots. Zipp moved a branch aside, but Hitch got smacked in the face by it since he was behind Zipp. "Ow! Hey, watch it!" Hitch called out, as he moved the branch aside and continued to trot ahead while looking around the forest. "All these roots everywhere! They should really be tidied up before somepony––" he tried to add, but got cut off when he didn’t saw a root on the ground, which made him trip, and he could have fell with Sparky if it wasn't because of Knuckles, who grabbed the sheriff from his belt with a bored expression. "Gets hurt? Where you gonna said that?" Knuckles asked, as he pulled Hitch slowly away from the cliff. "You two okay?" he asked. "Mm-hmm" Sparky nodded with a smile. "Yeah. Thanks, Knux. That was a close one" Hitch said with a sheepish smile. "You know, knucklehead, I'm glad you have more respect for the forest now" Sonic said with a mocking smirk. "What do you mean?" Knuckles asked. "Don't you remember what happened the first you entered a forest with us?" Sonic asked, as he dodged a tree branch. "No?" Knuckles replied confused. "Okay, now you got me interested" Pipp said at his side. "What happened?" she asked. "Well..." Sonic said with bored expression. 11/10 Years ago, Knuckles was breathing heavily with an angry expression, with his body covered in some mud and he also had some tree branches on his hair. "I HATE TREES!!!" Knuckles shouted in rage, as he launched himself to destroy even more trees, since he already destroyed a few around him. Not so far, Sonic, Tails and Amy were standing with confused expressions towards Knuckles' attitude against the forest. "Amy..." Sonic called out. "We left you with Knuckles for 5 minutes. HOW, in the name of Chaos, did THIS happened?!" he cried out. "Honestly? I've been trying to figure that out myself..." Amy replied, just as confused as Sonic and Tails. "And up to this day, we still have no idea on why Knuckles lost control over the trees" Sonic finished explaining with a bored expression. "... Huh..." Knuckles said. "I kinda remember being mad for something, but not the reason, tho..." he confessed, dodging another tree branch. "You destroyed an entire forest, and don't even remember why?" Sunny asked a bit mad. "It happened like 10 years ago, woman" Knuckles said with a frown. "Don't blame for not wanting to remember some embarrassing things in my life" he pointed out. "Be glad Amy isn't here. Otherwise, she'll be mocking you up with that 'till she gets tired of it!" Sonic said with a playful smirk. "Don't mention it..." Knuckles complained. "I'm sorry, but who's Amy?" Pipp asked, suddenly feeling a bit jealous. "The best way to put it? An old friend that used to be obsessed over me" Sonic replied with a bored expression. Pipp stopped and stared at Sonic confused on why he say it like if it was nothing, but she decided to not question him and kept walking. Behind them, the Pippsqueaks and Tails were following, and while Peach Fizz was giggling happily as she trotted ahead of her friends, Seashell and Glory carefully followed behind. Then, Glory tripped and flipped over the branches. "Aah!" she cried out, landing flat on the ground. She slowly stood up but, one of her hind hooves got stuck on a loose root on the ground. She grunted in effort as she tried to free her hoof. "Oh, no! I'm stuck!" she cried out, as Seashell came to her side and they both tried to get her friend free. Tails noticed that, and so, he decided to also help the filly to get out of her stuck state, but the pull was too hard that the three of them started rolling across the forest, as they screamed in fright and hit a branch that got them up into the air. Then, they went through a broken tree and they slide down, once they made it to the other end, they landed on a pile of mud and got some on them. "Why does these stuff keeps happening?" Tails asked himself with a bored expression, that turned into a worried one when he looked at his surroundings. "Whoa. Where are we?" Seashell asked, as she stood up along Glory and Tails. "Must be another part of the forest" Tails answered. "But I cannot tell which one exactly..." he confessed, then gulped nervously. "Peach Fizz? Ponies? Hello?" Glory called out, as she and Seashell got scared while tears formed in their eyes. "Oh, no. I think we might be…" she said, and then, the two fillies teared up as they hugged and cried out with tears flowing like waterfalls. "Lost!" both Glory and Seashell cried out, while Tails approached to them and comforted them to calm them down. "Hey, girls, it's okay" Tails said with a soft smile. "We might be lost, but I know we'll get out of here" he assured to them. "Hopefully" he muttered to himself with worry. In the meantime, the Mane 5, Sonic, Knuckles and Peach Fizz arrived to their destiny, with Izzy coming out of a bush as she raised her hoof with a smile. "Ta-daaaa!" Izzy cheered. Peach Fizz came out next to her and raised her hoof as well. "Yay! Ah!" she said with a smile. In front of them, everypony from Bridlewood, Zephyr Heights and Maretime Bay were all together. Even Alphabittle and Queen Haven came as well, as they chatter to one another while waiting for the right time to set off the fireworks. And then Sunny, Zipp, Pipp, and Hitch came out of the bushes, looking very tired from trotting through the forest, while Sonic and Knuckles came out like it was nothing, making Sunny groan tiredly. "I seriously can't remember why I hated the forest back then" Knuckles said with a confused look. "It wasn't that bad!" he added with concern, while Sonic rolled his eyes in annoyance. "How's my hair" Pipp asked to the others, as her mane was a little frizz out from all the trotting through the forest. "Does it look like I've been dragged backwards through a hedge?" she asked. "Just a little something right... there?" Hitch unsurely replied to Pipp, while tapping something on her mane. Pipp turned her head and was shocked to see that a bird's nest somehow got in her mane. A bird squawked and flew out of the nest, while Pipp opened her mouth in shock. "Stand still, Little Pipp" Sonic said, as he approached her and took the nest off her mane, being very careful since he didn't wanted to hurt Pipp. "There!" he said with a smile, as he took the net off Pipp's mane. Pipp sighed in relief and smiled at Sonic. "Thanks, Blue Star" she said, nuzzling on Sonic's shoulder, while the hedgehog caressed her mane with a smile. "Look!" Sunny called out with a smile while pointing to the crowd. "Every ponykind is here!" she said with a smile. As Sonic putted the nest away, Hitch and Knuckles were doing a headcount on the group... but then they got worried when they didn't count everyone. "Actually, we've done a headcount, and, uh... not everypony is here" he said to Sunny in a grim tone, while Sparky gasped in shock. "Glory and Seashell" Pipp said as she saw that Peach Fizz was there, then she gasped in worry. "Oh, no! The Pippsqueaks!" she called out in worry. "They're missing?!" Sunny cried out in shock. "Missing?!" Alphabittle cried out in shock, having heard what Sunny just called out as the crowd gasped in shock as well. "Oh, no! Poor Pippsqueaks!" Rufus cried out in panic. "These woods will eat them alive!" Thunder called out, which made the crowd panic more. "Okay, everypony just stay calm!" Sunny called out... but then, Sonic placed a finger on her mouth as he noticed something. "Hang on, Sunny" Sonic said with a worried frown. "There's someone else missing here..." he said, which made the entire crowd to gasp again. "He's right..." Zipp said as well. "Wait! Where's Tails?!" she asked in panic. She has no idea of how big that mistake was. "Oh no..." Knuckles muttered with panic. "Tails?" Sonic asked a bit panicked. "Tails?" he started to call out, but he got no answer. "Tails?!" he asked again, but this time, he started to breath heavily as some awful flashbacks came to his mind. "TAILS!!" he shouted desperate now. Not waiting for anyone to say a single word, Sonic boosted through the entire forest at top speed, as he was panicking that Tails was missing. He ended up coming back, and then grabbed Knuckles and started to shake him violently. "We. Have. To find him. NOW!" Sonic shouted, for the very first time in years, having a panic attack. Knuckles had no option but to slap him to make him calm down. "Control yourself, Hedgehog!" he shouted. The Mane 5 and the crowd where shocked that Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog, the most relaxed guy everyone has ever met, was having a breakdown and panicking. Sonic started to breath heavily again, and Knuckles took out a paper bag and gave it to him, while Sonic took it abruptly the bag and started to breath heavily on it. As Sonic slowly sat on the ground while trying to calm down, Knuckles gestured Sunny to keep going. "Right!" Sunny replied with a determinate expression. "We need to work together if we want to find Glory, Seashell and Tails" she instructed. "Izzy knows Bridlewood like the back of her hoof! Right, Izzy?" she asked with a smile. Izzy smiled and nodded. "Oh, yeah! Totally! No problem!" she assured, turning around before speaking again. "Well, there's maybe one problem. Bridlewood is gigantic! Where would we even start?!" she cried out in panic as she began to sweat nervously. This made everypony else to gasp more, and it caused Sonic to panic even more as well. "This is terrible! We'll never find them!/They're doomed!" two earth ponies called out as they chatted in worry. Hitch stomped his hooves on the ground hard to get the ponies attention, but not loud enough. Knuckles saw this, and while he wanted to keep Sonic company, he was still the sheriff's deputy, so he got to Hitch's side, and then he charged up his hands with his electrical powers, before doing a powerful clap that made the ground rumble, startling the ponies, including Sunny and Hitch, to quiet down and look at Knuckles in shock as he gave a determined expression at them. "Ponies, focus!" Hitch called out to the crowd. "We need a plan if we're gonna find those ponies and that fox quickly!" he added. "I say we use earth pony magic and part the trees of the forest!" Rufus declared, while lifting a hoof that was glowing green. "Neigh way!" Thunder argued, flying in the air with Flare and Windy. "We need to fly above the forest! We'll find them quicker if we search from the air!" he pointed out. "Hah!" Alphabittle called out. "You pegasus think everything could be solved by flapping up about in the sky!" he commented rudely. The ponies started to argue about their own plans to find Glory, Seashell and Tails, while Sunny got worried about this. "So we're repeating that awfully animated special plot, but instead of jealously, we have two lost children and Tails" Knuckles said with a bored expression, but mentioning that Tails was lost again made Sonic panic even more as he curled on a ball in the floor and breath even more heavily on the paper bag. "Oh, right... I forgot you are still panicking" Knuckles said sheepishly. "But we do need to find him!" Zipp pointed out with an anxious look, as she started to fly around and shouting Tails name as well. "Okay..." Pipp said, approaching the rest. "I kinda get why Sonic's worried about Tails, but why Zipp's acting like that?" she questioned confused. "You don't know yet?" Hitch asked with a raised eyebrow. "I don't know what?" Pipp asked. "That Zipp likes Tails and vice versa?" Sunny said, like if it was obvious. Pipp gasped dramatically in shock with sparkling eyes. "My sister is in love and none of you told me?!" she said with a wide smile. "Yeah, yeah. Congratulate her later, we still need to find two kids and Tails" Knuckles said. "Right, right..." Pipp said, as she calmed down a bit despite the exciting news of her sister being in love. "But why look for someone who's already gone?" Sonic asked with a nervous smile, as he lay on the ground and looked at the sky with a twitchy eye. "I mean, Tails is smart and all, but so was Longclaw. It's probably too late already, hahaha" he added anxiously, while his friends, specially Pipp, looked at him with worry. "This is what I wanted to avoid... but it's too late now" Knuckles said, closing his hands in fists. "But why is he so worried?" Pipp asked. "I get they consider each other brothers, but still" she said with worry. "Longclaw also 'disappeared' before Sonic only found her scarf" was everything Knuckles could say, causing everyone else to gasp, even Zipp, who finally stopped panicking for a moment. "Ever since, he's afraid any of us can also disappear... and never come back" he explained. "Of course, Tails should be okay. He has to be... right?" Sonic asked, chuckling in pain before turning that chuckle in a painful laugh that ended up on him tearing up... And for the very first time, his shelf was totally broken. No more joking or chilling out... Sonic was actually crying in public. He tried to wipe out the tears by placing his arm on his eyes, but his friends were already seeing him with sadness, and Pipp even approached him by extending her hoof. However, Sonic didn't even hesitated and hid his face on Pipp's chest as he let his pain out as quiet as possible, while Pipp herself wrapped her hoof around Sonic and nuzzled her head over his. "We have to find Tails ASAP!" Knuckles stated with a determinate look, but as soon as he turned to see everypony else his eyes widened. "What in the Mystic Ruins?!" he cried out in shock. The others sins Pipp and Sonic turned as well, and also gasped in shock. What did they saw? Well... Rufus was using his earth pony magic to move a tree aside, making Izzy and Peach Fizz to gasp in surprise and away. The other earth ponies followed Rufus' example and used their magic to move many of the trees to clear a path. At the same time, Thunder and the other pegasi flew to the air and searched around over the trees to see if they could find Glory, Seashell and Tails. And at the same dam time, Alphabittle and other unicorns used their magic to lift an entire tree up, which showed a raccoonicorn, as many other trees started to lift up, with the raccoonicorn yelping in fright as he was on a broke log and lifted up into the air. "Aah!" Thunder and a few other pegasi yelled as they hit a few trees and fell from the sky. Posey and an Earth Pony stallion were using their magic to move the trees, but the stallion saw the trees falling from the sky, so he screamed and ran way before the tree could hit him. Posey looked in surprise and shock to the trees falling from the sky, and she trotted out screaming as well. An earth pony stallion next to Peach Fizz moved a tree, but gasped when he saw the raccoonicorn heading right for him as it landed on his face and fell backwards. Hitch ran among the crowd to figure out what to do to calm everyone out, but then he got smacked to the face again by a tree branch that was set free from an earth pony's magic. "Ow! What is it with these branches?!" he asked himself in disbelief. "They hate you, apparently" Knuckles commented with his arms crossed. Sunny watch the unfold speechless, while Zipp came next to her with a raised eyebrow. "Not quite the display of unity we hoped for, huh?" she asked, while the ponies were screaming in panic. "I don't want to pull an Izzy here, but if this is your concept of unity, I don't wanna be part of it" Knuckles commented again, as he planted a tree carefully back to it's place. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Izzy asked a bit mad, as she walked towards Knuckles with a frown. "Izz, honey, please don't make me answer to you" Knuckles said with aa bored expression. Sunny ignored them and gave a determined expression. "I've got an idea!" Sunny called out. Then, she focused her magic and began to glow and levitated in the air, while Zipp smiled and backed up a bit to give her some space. Alphabittle, Rufus and Thunder glared at each other, but then they saw Sunny glowing. "Huh?" Alphabittle said in confusion and surprise while Rufus and Thunder gasped. Sunny focused her magic as she summoned her Alicorn form, with her horn and wings appearing while she smiled and flew around before striking a pose as she shone bright. Everypony looked in surprise, as a tree landed on the ground with a thud, but the ponies ignored it as they paid close attention to Sunny. "Everypony, listen up! Right now, two little ponies and a young yellow fox are lost, and all that matters is that we find them!" Sunny explained. "Sunny's right. We have to work together" Alphabittle spoke to the crowd, while Jazz nodded in agreement and Rocky gave a look to the crowd. The ponies looked at each other and gave determined looks as they nodded to each other. The rest of the Mane 5 smiled too, with Sonic seeing a bit better, but still nervous about Tails, while Knuckles patted his back and smiled at him, which made Sonic to smile a bit as well. Sunny began to sparkle and flew high into the air, boosting at high speed to begin her search for Seashell, Glory and Tails. Somewhere in the forest, Seashell, Glory and Tails were still covered in mud, with the fillies still tearing up since they were really scared, even with Tails being with them. "Don't worry, girls" Tails told them, still with an assuring smile. "We'll get out of here" he assured again, then he looked at his watch and pressed a button. "Sonic, Knuckles. Can you guys hear me?" he asked, but instead of an answer, he got static, since there was a terrible signal in the forest. "Dang it..." he muttered with frustration. Suddenly, Seashell tripped and fell the floor with a grunt. Glory picked up her friend, while Seashell gave a whimper, then Tails came up to them and kneeled to be at their height. "Do not part away from me, girls" Tails told them. "I know you're scared, and I'm honestly are as well. My Tails are so muddier that I cannot fly out of here and my communicator has no signal, but I know we'll be fine as long as we stick together, okay?" he added with a smile, and the two fillies nodded at him with little smiles. Then, they looked up and saw a glow passing by, a.k.a., they saw Sunny flying overhead of them with a determined expression. Glory and Seashell smiled tearfully at the Alicorn, waving their hooves at her. "Sunny! Over here! Help us!" Glory cried out happily. "Sunny!" Tails shouted as well. "We're down here!" he added, still screaming. Sunny heard their voices, so she looked down and saw Glory, Seashell and Tails with a smile. "Found them! They're safe!" Sunny called out happily. "Ponies, create a path between me and the clearing!" she instructed to the ponies below her. The ponies gave a determined expression as they got into position, following Sunny and warming up their magic. Where the two fillies and Tails were, Thunder landed in front of them. "Ah!" they said happily. "Follow the Cutie Mark trail!" Thunder declared, as he focused magic into his Cutie Mark, that glow before shot up into the sky, with other ponies' Cutie Marks shooting a light as well, making a path for Seashell, Glory and Tails to follow. Are we ever going to explain how they learned to do that? Probably not. Seashell and Glory started to giggle happily as they followed the Cutie Mark trail with Thunder behind them, while Tails just sighed in relief and followed the two Pippsqueaks. The three of them slide down some roots that were grown by Posey, who was smiling, while they kept following the trail as they passed by Rocky and Jazz. Sunny watched overhead as more Cutie Marks glow into the sky. And then, a rock that was blocking the path was levitated away, then the trees were moved aside as well. Zipp and the other Pegasi flew over them to make sure the other Ponies on the other side know where they are for them to clear the path. And finally, Alphabittle moved a bush out of their way with his magic, making space for the two fillies and Tails to keep trotting off. After all of this, Seashell and Glory ran straight to Peach Fizz and Pipp, with the latter tearing up happily that her friends were okay as the four got into a group up and the Pippsqueaks started to cry happily. "Pippsqueaks! Oh, I'm so happy you're okay!" Pipp said in relief, as she hugged them with little tears in her eyes, while the rest of her friends smiled at this. As for Tails, Sonic immediately wrapped him a massive bear hug, and he wasn't planning on letting him go. "Whoa, there! Someone missed me, apparently" Tails said with a chuckle, but when Sonic kneeled, still hugging him, he got worried. "S-Sonic?" he asked, a bit scared. "... D-Don't you dare... to give me a scare like that... ever again, young man" Sonic said with a broken voice, as he hugged Tails a bit tighter. "I-I though I lost you too, Tails..." he confessed, sobbing a bit. Tails understood why Sonic was acting like this, and his ears lowered down, so he returned the hug with a little smile. Knuckles was behind them the whole time, trying to not sob at the scene, but then Sonic himself dragged him to join the hug. Sunny smiled down at this, glad that the Pippsqueaks and Tails were okay. And just then, the fireworks popped up from the sky behind the Alicorn, as the ponies looked in awe at the fireworks. "What a sight!" Thunder said in amazement. Izzy got in front of the crowd with a smile. "Yeah! And the fireworks are pretty awesome, too!" she cheered, thinking Thunder was talking about the Pippsqueaks reunion and Team Sonic's hug. Sunny landed on the ground and sighed happily. "We really can do anything when we work together" she said with a smile to the crowd, but then looked at the fireworks and gave an excited smile. "Ooh, look! They're starting!" she cried out happily with sparkling eyes, also pointing a hoof at the fireworks. The fireworks go off one by one as they show each ponykind: an Earth Pony, a Pegasus and a Unicorn. The crowd and, the Mane 5 and Team Sonic looked in awe at the fireworks, with Izzy smiling with sparkling eyes, Pipp taking a picture of the fireworks with her phone and a smile, Team Sonic side hugging each other and the Pippsqueaks looking in awe. Sunny looked at the fireworks with a bright smile and sparkling eyes, happy to finally see the fireworks. At the top of a hill, not so far from Opaline's Castle, Dr. Eggman was looking at the fireworks, since they could be seen from all across Equestria. He had his arms on his back, and he was frowning at the fireworks, not happy that another year was ending, and his losing streak just kept growing bigger and bigger. "Another year that ends, another year begins" Eggman said with annoyance. "Will this be another year of failures? Or will I finally defeat that stupid Hedgehog? Only time will tell" he added with a frown. "However, I'm will not be waiting on my lab this time!" he stated with an evil grin. After that, he turned around and started to slowly walk back to Opaline's castle, also pressing a button on his suit. "Sage" Eggman called out. "Yes, doctor?" Sage asked through the computer installed on his suit. "Save next Friday's date on my calendar: Starting next week, we're going to tease that disgusting hedgehog and his friends, until Season 2 drops!" Eggman instructed, with his grin growing bigger now. "As you command, doctor" Sage replied. After that, Eggman kept walking back to the castle, not laughing maniacally this time, because he was waiting for the right moment to strike and be the one who laughs last... THE END...?