The next morning knuckles and fluttershy were sitting in her living room drinking tea. Fluttershy turned to knuckles "so when do you think that dr. eggman will attack" she asked. Knuckles chuckled "knowing him, as soon as he can" he asked. Fluttershy looked slightly frightened "do you think he'll come today" she asked. He waved a hand dismissively "nah, he'll want to be prepared. But that will probably take a day or so" he answered. That didn't seem to change her mood "I hope we'll also be ready" she said. Knuckles put his hand on her head "don't worry I'll be there to protect you" he said. Fluttershy smiled slightly. Knuckles saw that something was still bothering her "and I hope you'll be watching my back too" he continued. Fluttershy looked up at him in shock, then in happiness "of course" she said.
They heard a knock on the door. Fluttershy walked over to the door with knuckles following behind her. She opened the door to see a very excited rainbow dash "oh hi rainbow" fluttershy said. Rainbow was smiling brighter than ever "fluttershy sonic and me are racing today, meet us later at sweet apple acres" she said quickly. Before anyone could say anything rainbow had already dashed off. The two just stood there confused. After a moment knuckles spoke up "I guess they're finally having their race" he said. Fluttershy nodded "we should probably start walking, rainbow doesn't like to wait" she told him. Knuckles chuckled "neither does sonic" he said as they started their walk to sweet apple acres.
Once they got there they saw everyone except pinkie and shadow. Knuckles walked up to sonic and rainbow "hey so when are you guys starting" he asked. Sonic stopped stretching "once shadow and pinkie get here" he said. Knuckles thought for a second "do you think shadow will even come after last night" he asked. Sonic looked behind knuckles "there they are" he said.
Pinkie looked as happy as ever but shadow's face seemed slightly softer than usual. Sonic walked up to him "hey shadow I'm surprised you came" he said. Shadow turned his face away from sonic "pinkie wanted me to come" he said. Sonic's eyes widened "i can't believe you actually managed to make a friend shadow" he said. Shadow ignored him and walked away with pinkie following him. Shadow walked over to where to others were. He saw tails and twilight. Tails whispered to her and she reluctantly started walking towards shadow. She got to him and looked down "listen I'm sorry for last night, I shouldn't have acted like that" she said. At this point almost all of their friends were watching them. Shadow closed his eyes for a second, then he opened them "i..." he stopped, then looked over to pinkie who was giving him a warm smile. He turned back to twilight "i also apologize for the way I acted" he said.
Sonic smiled as he leaned into rainbow's ear "pinkie is a really good influence on shadow" he whispered. He and rainbow snickered to themselves. Since everyone was there they all gathered around sonic and rainbow. Rainbow stepped up "okay, so the race will start here and go through the plains, woods, mountains, and back here" she explained. Sonic and rainbow lined up at the starting line "alright time to show everyone that you're all talk" she said. Sonic smiled competitively "try to give me a challenge okay" he shot back. Tails walked to the side of the starting line and held his hand up "ready, set...go" he said. Tails was blown back because of the wind from them taking off.
Sonic and rainbow were running and flying next to each other. Rainbow looked towards sonic "is this the best you can do" he said. Sonic yawned "oh sorry I didn't know we started yet" he said as he sped up. Rainbow growled and caught up to him. The were coming up on the woods. Rainbow smiled because she had the advantage here. She flew into the woods while expertly dodging trees without losing much speed. Sonic was still running fast but had to slow down to avoid hitting a tree. After they got out of the woods rainbow had a significant lead on sonic. Rainbow looked back at him "come on sonic, don't disappoint me" she taunted. Sonic smiled and ran faster. When they got to the mountains sonic had almost caught up to rainbow. They were very high on the mountain. Rainbow had some trouble with the wind letting sonic take the lead. Rainbow was able to catch up going down the mountain. When they got to the base of the mountain they were head to head. They now only had a sprint to the finish. Rainbow flew as fast as she could but sonic was keeping up with her. They crossed the finish line and caused a huge dust cloud.
After the dust settled everyone stared at the two. Applejack broke the silence "so, who won" she asked. Sonic walked up to tails "well if I know anything about my little buddy, he recorded the finish" he said. Tails smiled and pulled out his miles electric "you'd be right" he said as he showed the video. The video slowed down and showed them crossing at the same time. Apple jack scratched her head "i still can't tell" she said. Tails turned a knob and showed them a frame by frame. They saw that sonic barely won. They cheered for sonic. Sonic looked to rainbow who looked sad. He tried to walk over to her but she dashed off before he could. Twilight looked towards the direction she flew to "rainbow" she yelled after her. Sonic walked in front of her "I'll talk to her" he said as he ran after her.
Sonic saw her sitting in a tree. He jumped onto the branch and sat next to her. Rainbow decided not to fly away again. Sonic spoke up "what's the matter dash" he asked. Rainbow sighed "i could tell that you were holding back, I'll never get to that level" she said. Sonic was shocked that she knew he held back "you're right, but you're wrong" he said. Rainbow looked at him with a confused look "what" she asked. Sonic smiled "you're right that I held back, but you're wrong about getting to that level" he said. He stood up on the branch "I wasn't always this fast, I trained and worked hard. You can get better, maybe even better than me" he said. Rainbow thought about what he said. She smiled with confidence "you're right, I can't let this one setback stop me" she said. Sonic put a hand on her back "i can't wait until our next race" he said. Rainbow wrapped sonic in a hug. Sonic hugged her back. They separated and got down from the tree. They nodded silently to each other and ran back towards the others.
