The Mane 5 sins Hitch, Sonic and Tails were at Mane Melody.
The girls dressed up with carnival costumes since today was the Ponykind Parade. I'm just gonna guess it's a recent made-up carnival to celebrate that the three pony tribes are finally together... being, like, the fourth or fifth festivity that focuses on that.
After dressing up entirely, the girls posed over a stage, with Pipp and Zipp being the only ones that were smirking and 'correctly posing', although both Sunny and Izzy were standing well too.
Meanwhile, Team Sonic was sitting on a couch, with Sonic's face being completely red and his jaw dropped, while Tails was hiding his face on a pillow, and Knuckles putted his hands together while covering his mouth and having both a blush and sparkling eyes.
"Not to... uh... uni my own corn, but... these costumes are totally hooftacular!" Izzy said with sparkling eyes, while getting off stage and twirling around.
Sunny, however, felt very uncomfortable with her costume, since her dress seemed to be a bit too long for her hind legs. "They'll be great in the Ponykind Parade––" she tried to say, but then she almost tripped as she tried to get her right hind leg free from her dress. "They are, uh... A little big–– WHOA!" she exclaimed, before falling to the floor by mistake.
"Yup~ " Pipp said with a smile, as she flew forward and stood at Izzy's side. "So everypony can see us and know how equally #PonyPerfect we all are~!" she stated with sparkling eyes, bringing out her phone and posing for a picture along Izzy.
"And... equally itchy––" Zipp said with a cringed expression, also scratching her chin desperate, but then Pipp appeared at her side with a raised eyebrow and a twitchy eye, also recording her with her phone. "––ing to dance that parade!" Zipp corrected herself with a nervous smile while sweating a lot.
Pipp moved away and was about to say something, but then she noticed the weird attitude and how incredibly red Team Sonic was. "Uh... guys? Are you okay?" she asked them confused.
Sonic was the first one to snap back to reality, as he shook his head and cleared his throat, although he was still blushing a lot. "Y-Yeah. Sorry, girls. Is just... a little bit too hot in here..." he said, trying to keep his cool... and failing terribly in the process.
"I had so many dirty thoughts and now I'm ashamed of myself..." Tails confessed as he hugged a pillow and hid his face there.
"You girls look great, just ignore us" Knuckles said with a relaxed tone, before pulling out a bucket with water and pouring it over himself. "Our hormones are working as they should, I guess" he pointed out.
Pipp raised an eyebrow at that, and while she suspected what did Knuckles meant, she decided not to question them, as well as not stare on that area of Sonic's body. "If Hitch can rehearse around all his peacekeeping and sheriff thing, we all can dance" she said with a smile. "Right Hitch…" she tried to ask, but then she gasped when she realized that Hitch wasn't there with them. "Where is Hitch?!" she asked in shock
"Helping ponies setting up for the parade in town with his critters helping" Knuckles explained, grabbing a towel and dried off his fur. "You expect way too much of him if you think he's just gonna drop his job, even to have some fun" he pointed out with a frown.
"Speaking of duty, are you here to skip that or Hitch gave you a free day for coming into existence today?" Sonic asked him with a raised eyebrow.
"The latter" Knuckles replied.
"I'm sorry, 'you came to existence today'?" Sunny asked confused. "What does that mean?" she asked.
"Is his fancy way to say it's his birthday" Tails replied with a bored expression.
"I'm sorry–– KNUCKLES B-DAY IS TODAY?!" Izzy shouted in shock. "Why didn't you told me, Knuckie?!" she asked him with a huge smile and sparkling eyes.
"Don't get excited, please" Knuckles requested. "Today is just Thursday, February 2nd, alright? Not the French Revolution or any big deal" he pointed out.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Pipp said, as she shook both her head and her front hooves. "What do you mean is not a big deal?! Your birthday is a big deal!" she pointed out.
"Yeah, not for me" Knuckles replied with a bored expression. "Is not that I don't like to celebrate it, I simply don't think making a whole drama over turning a year older and being closer to kick the bucket is necessary" he confessed.
"That, and he didn't wanted to bother when he found out you were doing this Parade today" Sonic added with a mocking smirk.
Knuckles glared at him, but then sighed in defeat and looked at the girls again. "Yeah, he's right" he confessed.
"Knuckles, you wouldn't bothered! We could have just moved the parade to another day!" Sunny confessed with a smile.
"Still, I stand to my posture: I don't want it to be a big deal, alright?" Knuckles said. "If you want, we can do something on the Brighthouse when the Parade is over, but right now you should be concerned about somepony missing" he pointed out with a frown.
"Yeah, Hitch is surely getting his time... Better check he's not doing anything stupid!" Sonic said with a smirk, before boosting away.
"Ah, great... now I'll have to make sure he's the one not doing something stupid..." Tails complained, as he stood up from the couch and slowly walked out of Mane Melody.
Somewhere in Maretime Bay, in the middle of the street, Hitch is helping ponies setting up the parade with the help of his trusted critters, while Sparky is right next to him.
"McSnips-a-lot, snip that hedge a lot!" Hitch ordered McSnips with a smile while pointing at the hedge in front of him.
Sparky babbled assertively, trying to repeat what Hitch said as McSnips snipped the hedge quickly so that he made it look like Hitch’s head.
"Raccoonicorns, that street should be so clean, I could eat my dinner on it!" Hitch stated, while the raccoonicorns used brooms or their tails to sweep the street’s floors.
Sparky gave another assertively babbling, acting like he is the sheriff as well.
And then, some signs on both sides of the building across each other start to lose up as one end starts falling off, which made both Hitch and Sparky gasp in shock.
"Keeeeenneeeeeth!" both Hitch and Sparky called out to Kenneth to catch that end of the signs, so he came whooshing down with a determined look and caught the line just in time, then he tied it back on with a twirl, before doing a front flip and landing on the ground, while giving a salute to Sparky and Hitch.
"Close one. Attaboy, Kenny" Hitch said in relief with a salute, while Sparky looked at Kenneth in awe before saluting as well, and then Kenneth flew off. "It's gonna be a good day. Sparky!" Hitch said with a smile as Sparky smiled back.
What they didn’t know, however, is that on the roof of a building, Misty was looking spying on them, when he amulet suddenly opened up and Opaline appeared.
"Did you follow all my instructions, Misty?" Opaline asked Misty with a look.
"Sure did!" Misty replied with a smile and sparkling eyes. "One batch of blazeberry buns fresh from the oven!" she said while pointing to the three baked blazeberry buns in an alley across the street.
“Ah, the blazeberry..." Opaline said with a smile, while Misty listened, also smiling. "One sniff brings out a critter's inner beast, which means chaos for them. And plenty of dragon fire for me!" she stated with an evil grin.
"And a cutie mark for me!" Misty said in an attempt (a pretty good one, actually) to make an evil tone as well.
Sparky was walking around, when he saw the blazeberry buns, making him smile with sparkling eyes. He ran towards the buns, which made Misty and Opaline smile in excitement. Sparky picked one up and took a sniff at it, but then he cringed as the smell made him sneeze out his dragon fire, hitting the buns and causing an explosion as it made Sparky fly around, leaving a trail of dust from his dragon fire as he flew across the street while the ponies and critters around the area watched him go.
Hitch walked by while looking behind him with a smile. "At least the snacks are on––" he started, but gasped in surprise when he saw Sparky coming at him fast, then he groaned when Sparky hit him in the chest. Luckily, Hitch caught Sparky in his hooves and picked him up, with Sparky holding a donut, which was originally the blazeberry bun he was holding. "Whoa, Sparky. Hope you're not coming down with something. We've got a parade to march in" se said to Sparky as the baby dragon rubbed his nose from the sudden sneeze.
Back on the roof, Opaline growled angrily while Misty looked at her scared.
Hitch then remembered something and panicked. "Ah! And we are so late!" he called out, remembering the parade rehearsal he has to do with the girls as he placed Sparky on his back, while the baby dragon chewed on his donut happily with a smile. "Critters, let's roll out!" he called out, but then he and Sparky turned and saw the critters glaring at Hitch and Sparky, with their eyes looking like they were on fire, as the ponies looked around nervously.
Kenneth was normal, but once he took a sniff of the dust in the air Sparky made, his eyes then went on fire and his left eye twitched a bit.
Hitch smiled and sweated nervously while Sparky felt nervous about this. "Uhhh... critters?" Hitch asked them nervously, not liking where this is going.
One of the raccoonicorns sniffed the air before it started to growl, and McSnips-a-lot came in front of him, clamping his claws angrily, being under the same effects.
Sparky then started to whimper, really scared at the critters for being like this.
Hitch then looked at Sparky, knowing that they were in trouble as he smiled nervously and backed away a bit. "Well, Sparky, we should probably…" he didn’t get to finish as the critters hissed at them angrily, and in a second, Hitch started trotting away. "... ruuuuuun! he screamed as he and Sparky screamed in panic while the angry critters were chasing after them.
Back on the roof, Misty and Opaline saw the whole thing as Misty gives a nervous look, while Opaline laughed at this outcome, which made Misty look at her. "It may not be the dragon fire I asked for, but at least it's entertaining" She said with an amusing smile.
However, she soon gasped when she saw Sonic and Tails arriving to the place, with all the decoration now ruined.
"What the hell happened here?" Tails asked confused and concerned.
"I don't know, but either Hitch lied to Knuckles or he'd doing a terrible job, because this place is a mess..." Sonic pointed out... but then, he sensed something in the air, some smell that felt weird and different.
"What?" Tails asked once he noticed that.
"Don't you sense a weird smell in the air, too?" Sonic asked him with a worried frown.
Tails raised an eyebrow, sniffed the air and felt confused as well. "Hey... you're right! Something's... off..." he pointed out in concern.
As the two of them kept smelling the air, they soon opened their eyes... now turned on fire as they slowly frowned in anger.
Opaline and Misty saw this as well, and while Misty gulped in fright, Opaline grinned sinisterly. "This is going to be... interesting..." she stated with a grin.
Back in Mane Melody, Pipp was walking back and forth nervously, since Hitch wasn't here yet, and both Sonic and Tails didn't responded Knuckles' calls.
"This dance is totally ruined without Hitch!" Pipp cried out in panic.
"And Sonic and Tails don't respond, either" Knuckles said with concern, pressing the call button on his watch, but still getting no response. "And for the last time, Izzy: I'm not wearing that!" he scolded her, while Izzy tried to approach him sneakily with Hitch's costume for the parade.
"Aww..." Izzy said in disappointment.
"It's not like Hitch to be late" Sunny pointed out in concern.
"No... It isn't…" Zipp said while placing a hoof on her chin, then she walked to the still slight panicked Pipp and gave her a comforting smile, also placing a hoof on her shoulder. "Don't worry. I won't let anything ruin your parade, sis" she stated with a wink before trotting off.
Pipp gasped in surprise from what Zipp just said as she turned to her sister, who was at the door. "But... I thought you didn't care about this stuff!" she said in surprise.
"If you care, I care!" Zipp said with a determined smile, before finally leaving Mane Melody
Pipp gave a heartfelt smile with sparkling eyes from what her sister said.
Knuckles, however, felt frustrated as he tried to call Tails and Sonic again.
"Hello! You're calling to Tails' number! If you get this message, I'm not currently available. Sorry!" Tails voice replied on a recorded message.
Knuckles growled before trying again, this time with Sonic. "I have no idea of how this works... Uh... I'm busy right now, alright? Gotta run!" Sonic's voice replied in a recorded message.
"Generic answers..." Knuckles muttered, before scoffing and walking towards the exit. "Alright, guys. Let's see in what mess you two dragged yourselves into" he stated with a frown, before punching his fists together and walking off Pipp's salon.
A little bit later, Zipp flew to where the parade should be, with Knuckles arriving by run, only to see some dust and the decorations a mess as some was on the floor.
"Huh. Where is everypony?" Zipp asked confused.
"No idea... but there's no signs of them. Nor Hitch, nor Sonic or Tails... not even Sparky is here..." Knuckles pointed out.
As they both walked by, they noticed the weird atmosphere. "What is all this orange stuff?" Zipp asked again, still confused.
"No idea, but..." Knuckles said as he smelled the air. "That smell... makes me feel madder than usual... and that could never be a good sign..." he pointed out.
Soon enough, Zipp noticed a blazeberry on the floor and grabbed it, then she brought out her Z-Goggles to get some information out of it. "Blazeberry?" she asked herself in surprise as she is familiar with this kind of berry before she took off her Z-Goggles with a worried expression. "Oh, no!" she cried out in concern.
"A what now?" Knuckles questioned confused.
"Blazeberries are a kind of berries that can make critters bring out their inner beasts! And this orange dust is full of its essences!" Zipp summarized with worry.
"So a berry that can make animals in general go nuts..." Knuckles guessed with a frown, and Zipp nodded in worry. "If that's the case, let's hope neither Sonic nor Tails smelled it..." he said with concern.
However, it seemed that Knuckles spoke too soon, because something passed by quickly and snatched the blazeberry from Zipp's hoof, startling both her and Knuckles, so they both positioned to fight if necessary.
They both hear growls, and a shadow was running on four legs around ceilings, so they just waited for it to make the first move.
And soon enough, something launched against Zipp with a girlish warrior cry, and Zipp got startled, but thankfully, Knuckles was fast enough and managed to grab a metal tube and putt it in the middle of the zipp and the attacker. However, both Zipp and Knuckles gasped in shock when the attacker ended up being Tails, who was bitting furiously the metal tube with his eyes closed.
"Tails?!" both Zipp and Knuckles said in chock and confusion.
"What are you doing, young man?" Knuckles asked, but when Tails opened his eyes, they looked like they were on fire, and again, both Zipp and Knuckles felt startled at that. "This is what I didn't wanted to happen!" he said with concern.
Tails kept growling at Knuckles, but once he looked at Zipp, his growls stopped. And even if his eyes were still on fire, he stopped bitting the metal tube and approached Zipp, sniffing her all around, which made her feel a bit uncomfortable as she blushed embarrassed. Soon enough, Tails was just sitting in front of her, tilting his head confused, before smiling and suddenly hugging her with delight, while his tails moved happily like a dog.
"U-Uh... w-what's happening?" Zipp asked extremely confused, also blushing a lot from Tails' move.
"Hmm..." Knuckles muttered, placing a hand on his chin as he analyzed the situation. "It seems like Tails' beast side was awakened after smelling the air" he explained, trying to caress Tails' head, but the now wild fox hissed at him. "However, it seems like he loves your company, so... it's sure to say that you're some kind of half-cure for his current state" he pointed out.
"But why me?! And why he has to be so affective?!" Zipp complained, while Tails decided to sit on her back while hugging her, still moving his tails happily.
"Girl, you and your sister are so oblivious that I would punch you if we weren't friends..." Knuckles replied with a bored expression.
Zipp wanted to question him since she frowned, but suddenly, McSnips-a-lot came rushing by them, which made both Zipp and Knuckles look at each other and node with determinate looks, before running off to follow him.
They followed McSnips all the way to the abandoned Canterlogic building as McSnips went through a broken window, while Zipp and Knuckles looked through one of its holes and gasped in shock at what they were seeing.
What they saw is Hitch and Sparky surrounded by wild angry critters, who were slowly approached them in anger.
"I just wanted to make Ponykind Parade special for our friends, but nothing has gone to plan!" Hitch said in fear to his critters, who kept hissing at him and Sparky as Hitch backed away nervously while his hooves shook in fear.
"Ah, great..." Knuckles muttered in annoyance. "Zipp, go get the girls and see if you also find Sonic" he instructed. "I'll give the sheriff a hand" he stated with a determinate look.
"What about Tails? I cannot enter Mane Melody without giving some context..." Zipp pointed out with an embarrassed blush.
"Hey, Tails" Knuckles called out, and Tails opened his eyes, frowned and hissed at him. "First of all, calm down, young man. I need your help, alright? Once we're done, you can go back with Zipp" he said with a frown.
Tails growled lowly, but then Zipp sighed and nuzzled her cheek with Tails'. "Little guy... help Knuckles out, okay? I'll be back soon, I promise" she told him with a smile.
Tails ear went down, and so, he nuzzled his cheek with hers again before going down in four legs and stare at Knuckles with a frown, although not as mad as before.
As Zipp flew away, Tails and Knuckles came through the window and stood in front of Hitch, with Knuckles charging up his electrical powers and standing to fight, while Tails hissed back at the critters while showing his sharp teeth.
"Guys!" Hitch said in surprise and relief, but then he notices Tails acting like a wild fox instead of himself. "Oh no... Don't tell me he's––" he tried to ask in panic.
"He's on our side. Now stay behind us!" Knuckles instructed, and Hitch gulped nervously but nodded.
And then, Kenneth came chirping to Sparky as he tried to grab his donut, while Sparky babbled in protest as he kept hold of his donut and Kenneth lost grip and flew back.
Hitch realized something as he grabbed Sparky’s donut and showed it to the feral critters. "Oh, you want this? Sure! Go fetch!" he said, tossing the donut to other side, which made the critters growl at it as a raccoonicorn caught it and then all the critters ate it like manias.
Tails seemed to control himself a little when he saw the donut, although he did wanted to follow up deep inside. Once they were finished, they turned and growled at Hitch, Sparky, Tails and Knuckles, who were looking nervous at them.
"And now we know they're hungry. Great!" Hitch said nervously as he gulped.
"If we wanna live another day to tell this tale, I'm afraid we'll have to..." Knuckles began, before gulping nervously. "Hurt them..." he said with worry.
Tails hissed back at some raccoonicorns, using his left hand like if he was trying to catch them.
Suddenly, they heard clanging sounds and tuned to see the Canterlogic’s doors opening, with the girls each holding mane dryers.
"Looks like you critters need to blow off some steam!" Zipp announced with a determined smile.
"Chaaaaarge!" Pipp announced as she and Zipp took to the air while Sunny and Izzy hopped down from the railings.
Sparky cheered at their friends being here. "Yay!" Hitch cheered as well.
"The cavalry arrived!" Knuckles announced with a smirk, while Tails simply tilted his head confused at what was happening.
"Knuckles! Catch!" Sunny called out while holding out a spare mane dryer as she tossed it to Knuckles, who caught it with his hand. "Use the mane dryer to blow away the dust! Once it’s gone, the critters will return to normal!" she explained.
"Roger that!" Knuckles replied with a determinate look, using the dryer to blow Tails' face first, who got a bit startled as he closed his eyes.
Once he opened them again, they were back to normal, and he shook his head before sitting down as his eyes moved around dizzy.
"Ha, it works!" Knuckles cheered with a smile, before starting to blow up more critters with the dryer.
Zipp screamed and grunted as she blew off the flying critters and the dust in the air.
Sunny screamed and grunted as well as she blew off the dust and ducked when a raccoonicorn tried to tackle her head but missed as she gave a smirk, but then she fell to the floor since she lost her balance due to her costume.
"Get gone, critters!" Pipp yelled out as she landed on the ground and blew off some dust and some critters, chasing after them. "And this! In the face!" she said with an angry look.
Izzy grunted in effort and blowed away some dust and critters, then she smiled and settled her mane dryer on full blast before pointing to the critters. "Yah!" she declared as she blew away a lot of dust and the critters flew back from the big wind, with Hitch arcing back a bit while Sparky held on to Hitch so he wouldn't blow away.
Kenneth and McSnips-a-lot shook their heads as they opened their eyes, that returned to normal as the dust cleared up, with Kenneth chirping happily while McSnips smiled.
"It's working!" Hitch cheered as he and Sparky smiled.
On the ceiling, Misty's on the roof and looking through one of the holes as she watched the Mane 5 and Knuckles blowing away the dust and turning the critters to normal.
And then, some of the dust came right up to Misty’s face as she began to cough. Misty stood up to fan off the dust, but then, a raccoonicorn appeared next to her, having fire on their eyes and growling with the dust all over the roof, which caused Misty to feel nervous while Opaline watched confused.
"Opaline! What do I do?!" Misty asked in fright as she sweated.
Opaline raised an eyebrow at Misty’s question. "Why are you asking me? This is your mess" she said with rolled eyes as she disappeared while the amulet closed.
Misty grew really nervous as she kept sweating. "Uh…" she said in a scared tone as she tap on the amulet to bring Opaline back, while the feral raccoonicorn came closer to her. "Opaline?" she said nervously as she backed away in fright, but then the raccoonicorn started screeching at Misty, who screamed in fright and trotted away from the raccoonicorn, who is following her as she made her way to the door.
Back in the building, Zipp twirled her mane dryer and blew at the top as the Mane 5 and Knuckles looked at the critters and Tails on the ground now back to normal, while the blazeberry dust is now gone.
"Phew!" Sunny said in relief, glad that’s over and that Hitch and Sparky are okay.
"Ugh... what happened?" Tails asked, as he stood up and cleaned some dust from his body. "I was on Mane Street... how did I ended up here?" he questioned confused as he scratched his head.
"Welcome back, little buddy" Knuckles said with a smile as he patted his back. "Let's just say your inner beast came to light" he added with a smirk.
"Inner beast?" Tails questioned confused.
"Long story short: you smelled a berry that made you really mad, okay?" Zipp told him with a smirk.
"Huh... that'll explain why Sonic and I felt weird with the smell in the air..." Tails said as he rubbed his chin.
Suddenly, Knuckles eyes widened. "HANG ON! THE HEDGEHOG SMELLED IT TOO?!" Knuckles shouted in shock.
Soon enough, the wind blew by behind the entire group turned, but found nothing there. Then, the wind blew again, and again, and again, until they could hear and see something moving on the shadows.
And then, something charged against them, but thankfully, Knuckles placed his hand in front of the group and stopped something that kept spinning on his hand... a blue ball charged up in blue electricity.
Knuckle struggled a bit, but then he managed to charge up his fist with red electricity and punch the ball to the ground.
The ball uncurled and revealed to be Sonic, who groaned in pain with his eyes closed.
"Sonic?" Pipp called out confused.
Knuckles, however, frowned, and so he took out his dryer just in case. So, when Sonic opened his eyes and they showed to be in fire, the hedgehog stood up and hissed at his friends in anger as he stood on 4 legs, but then Knuckles blew the dryer on his face with a bored expression, and when he putted it away, Sonic opened his eyes, once again normal, and shook his head confused.
"Uh..." Sonic exclaimed, before realizing he was on four legs, so he stood up normally and cleaned some dust off. "What the heck happened, exactly?" he questioned confused.
"We'll explain later" Knuckles said, putting the dryer away. "Seems like we're done dealing with critters - and anthropomorphic animals - in anger" he pointed out with a smirk.
"Yeah. Glad that’s over" Sunny said with a smile. "At least we can get back to the parade like nothing happ––" she started as they all walked out of the Canterlogic building to get back to the parade.
But once they got to where the parade should be, the group along with the critters cringed at the sight as they saw the parade and decorations a mess and abandoned from the feral critters attack as a tumbleweed came by.
"Um, I was expecting decorations, but trash is good, too!" Izzy said in an optimistic tone to keep positive as she held up a fish can that was giving a terrible smell, and she took a sniff at it. "Mmm!" She said with a forced smile before she started to gag from that as she dropped the can.
"Did we actually did all of this because we went mad?" Tails asked.
"And I thought things were bad whenever Knuckles was mad..." Sonic said with shame.
"Unlike you, I control the beast in me all the time" Knuckles said with a bored expression.
Pipp began to sob at the ruined parade with teary eyes. "It's all ruined!" she sobbed as she placed her hooves on her face.
Hitch and Zipp looked at each other with knowing smiles. "It wouldn't be so sure" she said with a smirk.
"Critters, roll out!" Hitch announced with a smile, which caused the critters to salute to him as they began to fix up the parade.
The pegasnails lifted the signs back up, the raccoonicorns picked up the trash with one of them sweeping the dust into the trash bin while the other two picked it up and closed the bin, and McSnips alined the streamers on the roofs as he tied them up.
And then in just a short amount of time, the ponies started to come out and smiled as they saw the decorations back up, while the critters gave salutes at their work.
Then, the critters helped Hitch put on his costume as he and the girls posed together at the crowd of ponies in front of them. Soon enough, carnival music started playing as the ponies started cheering to the Mane 5, while Hitch stepped in first and twirled around and starts showing off his dance moves.
The rest of the Mane 5 follow along as they dance together in the center of the crowd as the ponies watch them go as they enjoy the Ponykind Parade together.
Team Sonic, however, stood aside as they simply watched the party going with Smiles.
"By the way, Knux..." Sonic called out. "You also smelled the blazeberries in the air, but... you seemed to be under control. Why is that?" he asked curiously.
"Yeah, I was wondering that myself!" Tails confessed.
"I deal with anger issues every day, guys" Knuckles pointed out. "You need more than just a weird smell from a berry to make me go nuts. Besides, and like I said earlier, I always have my beast under control. The only way I could let that thing get free is if my friends got hurt... or my family..." he pointed out.
Sonic and Tails both smiled, then they looked at each other, nodded and decided to drag Knuckles on a group hug, for his eternal annoyance.
"Just go with the flow, Knucklehead" Sonic told him with a smirk.
"And Happy Birthday, Knux" Tails added with a smile.
Knuckles rolled his eyes at the cheesy attitude of his friends... but the ended up smiling warmly, and wrapping his arms around them as well.
THE END