A/N: Okay, so I know it isn't even close to Christmas, but I wanted to get this thing started early so I'm not rushing to finish it by December 24th or 25th. Besides, part of it does take place in autumn, as you shall soon see. Also, I will get back to Chaos Chao and Good Wishes soon.

This is kind of a fun experiment for me that's going to be somewhat based off of the Shakespeare play Twelfth Night, or What You Will. There's also going to be elements of the 1996 movie adaption of that play in here as well. Of course, there's always a twist with these kinds of things… Anyone know what Acantha means?

And now, the curtain rises!

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Christmas Night: What You Will

by meowthecat

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"O, if music be the food of Love, play on! Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die."

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A young rabbit girl named Cream was sitting with legs dangling over the ledge of a seaside cliff. As she looked out towards the ocean, she sang to her two Chao companions Cheese and Chocola.

I'll tell thee a tale…

The girl was keeping an eye out for the ship that carried Vanilla, her mother. The woman had snuck her daughter out of captivity at the cost of her own freedom. She was now pressed into service for a warlord named Robotnik, and was navigating a ship carrying important cargo across the water.

Now! List' to me.

So Cream was waiting until the boat got really really close to this piece of shore before she could fly to it and free her mother with the help of her two new friends.

With a heigh-ho…

But it was September, the month when summer and autumn met and fought with huge storms. Grey clouds, growing and towering, loomed before her.

The rabbit was scared, but she put her brave face on (as mother would've told her to do) and kicked herself off the ledge into the air. Flapping her large ears to fly with the Chao, she continued to sing.

…the wind and the rain.

It was a song her mother had taught her when she was very little. It had always given her the comfort that she knew she was going to need now.

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"That strain again! It had a dying fall: O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, that breathes upon a bank of violets, stealing and giving odour!"

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But merry or sad?

It was a large ship with many oars rowing in eerily perfect unison. The waves began growing bigger; they heaved the boat up and down. But the oars continued all the same.

Cream ceased flapping her ears and coasted downwards, the two Chao copying her. They all looked and nodded at each other. This plan was going to be really hard to do right, but if it worked she'd get her mother back!

Which shall it be?

On board, Captainess Vanilla forlornly supervised all the enslaved and brainwashed animals. Not a one of them was to leave their spot, and if they broke their spell… well… they'd be new test subjects for an even worse experiment.

She abhorred this, but did what had to be done. She wanted her daughter to grow up with a mother. So the tall rabbit continued her task and kept praying for these tribulations to end.

For the rain

There were two other passengers on board who were free of Robotnik's spell. One, a peach-colored echidna, was forced to focus the powers of the gigantic green Master Emerald to keep the animal slaves hypnotized.

The other, a blue hedgehog, manned the sails up top. He too saw the gathering storm and grew even more uneasy. The situation was bad enough, being surrounded by water and unable to run away with everyone, but things were about to get very crazy.

But then he saw a small rabbit with two Chao gliding towards the ship. Cream's eyes met his, and hers widened—another big animal on board? Her singing trailed off.

It raineth… every day…

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"Enough; no more: 'Tis not so sweet now as it was before."