When Amy got back to the village, a group of animals was congregating around Sally. "I was just thinking," Amy heard the older girl say, "that it's getting awfully close to harvest time. Pretty soon we're all going to get a lot busier. So we ought to use the last of our free time to celebrate it!"

Amy was surprised. She found Tails, who was clapping along with the other animals, and whispered, "As far as I can tell, Sally doesn't have any free time!"

"She really doesn't," Tails replied, "because she spends what would be free time organizing others."

That was the truth, Amy found, as she watched Sally work. Sally spoke without a commanding tone, and without any kind of direction or authority in her voice—yet people did what she asked them to do. Sally still looked quite uncomfortable when Antoine called her princess (that earned him a spot in the kitchens), but Amy began to wonder if there wasn't something to that, after all.

Sally had sent a number of animals off, mostly to deal with the food or external preparations, before turning to the large remainder. "Now, for the rest of you, we'll be decorating," she said. She smiled sadly. "Now, I wish I could tell you more than that, but I don't really know what would look good!"

There was a lot of laughter.

"Well, Ah can make garlands outta flowers," said Bunnie.

"I can do that too!" said Amy excitedly.

"Good, you two do that," Sally affirmed. "But we'll need to gather bunches first. What's in bloom this time of year?" She made an instinctive move to reach for her computer, Nicole, but Sonic waved her off.

"No prob, Sal, the hedgehog has it covered. I know tons of places."

Sally's eyes widened in appreciation—and doubt.

"I'll go with him," Tails said eagerly. "We'll be able to carry a lot more that way, and it'll be even more fun!"

Amy could see Sally resist the smile heroically, but she gave in. "That'll be good," she said, the smile bursting across her face. "That way, at least one of you has a fashion sense."

Sonic crossed his arms in ironic anger. "I take serious offense to that, Sally Acorn."

"Yeah, yer a real one to talk, Sally-girl," chimed in Bunnie.

"Hey, I don't admit to knowing much," said Sally, raising her arms in surrender. "All I know for sure is that I know more than this tasteless low-brow."

"She meant me, right?" said Sonic.

Bunnie stepped right in front of Sally. "Sally-girl, let's do some quick word association, 'kay? As a test."

"Sure."

"She meant me, right?"

"Dress."

"Special purposes only."

"High-heels."

"Gimp."

"Sewing."

"Seeds."

"Jewelry."

"Luxury."

"Hairdos."

"Wasted time."

"Earrings."

"Ow!"

"She meant me, right?"

"YES, she meant you!"

Bunnie smiled triumphantly. "Sally-girl, you just failed your fashion test."

"See?" said Sonic, joining the act. "So don't go bashin' me."

Bunnie rounded on Sonic just as quickly. "Sugar-hog, you scored a negative on your fashion test."

Sonic clutched his heart and staggered backwards ostentatiously. "I am wounded. C'mon, Tails, we'd better blow this place 'fore they eat us. Gotta be careful 'round girls, Tails, never forget it…"

"The rest of you," Sally shouted, trying to get over the laughter and good humor, "find something to do that's festive!"

Amy did her best to make herself useful, but it was hard. It seemed everyone had some ideas on what to do, and—since she was the smallest and least experienced—it was easy to shunt her aside. She took it stoically and used the time to watch how the villagers interacted.

They worked well together, almost wordlessly. She suspected it had to do with being together so much for so long. With nowhere to go but this village and no one to work with but each other, it was little wonder they'd get good at it.

When Sonic and Tails returned at last, each carrying a small basket of flowers, Amy and Bunnie quickly went towards them and began to work. "Ah always liked to do this," Bunnie said. "Ah used to 'magine Ah was the garden, an' all the flowers were growin' outta me!"

Amy smiled. "I never thought about that. I just knew it looked pretty."

"Are there many flowers where you live, Amy-girl?"

She shrugged. "That depends. Most of the time I live in a city, so the parks there are the only places for flowers. I don't buy flowers that often, I'm not at home often enough. The way my life works, I'll be home for days or weeks at a time, and then out of nowhere—bang! Time to hit the road."

"Wow," said Bunnie. "Sounds like your life's full of excitement."

"I guess you could say that," said Amy. "It's one of those things where I'm either adventuring or killing time until the next adventure. I do my best during the downtime. I spend a lot of it chasing after Sonic."

"You got a thing for sugar-hog?" said Bunnie, ears perking up.

"Not your Sonic, my Sonic," said Amy, on the defensive suddenly.

Bunnie's smile grew. "Oh, 'your' Sonic? Is that a fact?"

"No, it's not a fact," Amy sighed. "Most of the time, he just runs away from me. There are times when he has to save me, which is really embarrassing—but it's at those times that I feel he actually cares about me. I suppose that's why I chase Sonic, even when I know he's going into danger. I know that, even if things get really bad, he'll save me."

When Amy looked back up at Bunnie, the older girl was lost in thought. Her flesh arm was resting on her metal shoulder, moving slowly up and down her arm. She shook her head. "Aw, forget it. C'mon, Amy-girl, you're fallin' behind. Look!"

Much to Amy's surprise, Bunnie had indeed finished more garlands. Amy was astonished—despite the fact that her robotic fingers were far oversized for this sort of thing, Bunnie's manual dexterity was high enough to make up for it completely.

"It's on now," said Amy, grinning like a tiger.

"Bunnie?"

It was Sally's voice. Bunnie mouthed, 'Later,' to Amy, then called back, "Yes, Sally-girl?"

"Did they get you enough flowers?"

A quick glance answered the question—the two garland-makers were barely started and running out. "Not even close."

"Alright, I'll send them back out." A few moments later Sally sat down next to Bunnie. "Can you show me how to make these?"

"Sure, Sally-girl," said Bunnie helpfully.

"You wanna make these, too?" asked Amy.

"Not really," said Sally. "There are too many other things going on. But… I've never done it before, and that… bothers me. I want to be able to do it."

"No problem, Sally-girl. Here's how ya do it…"

It took a while for Sally to get the hang of it—she clearly wasn't used to working with flowers. "It shouldn't be a problem with my fingers," she said, frustrated. "I mean, they're agile enough to rearrange wires, make or break computers… am I just doing it wrong?"

"You're taking this way too seriously," said Amy.

"I suppose," said Sally. "I do have that problem."

Amy did a double-take. "Sally… that's great!"

Sally looked down at her work. "Really?" she said, doubtful.

"She's right, Sally-girl," Bunnie agreed.

"You learned that really quickly," said an impressed Amy.

"I suppose I did," she said, still dubious despite the evidence in her hand. "Thanks for everything, you two. Keep up the good work."

"Will do, Sally-girl," said Bunnie.

Amy waited until Sally was out of earshot. "What was all that about?"

Bunnie didn't even look up. "It's just how she deals with stress. Sally-girl's insecure," she said. "She's always feelin' like she's one card short of a deck—nice, but useless. It's kinda strange, I suppose. She's gotta be the smartest one in the whole village—other 'n Rotor, maybe, but he's smart in a different way. Yeah, Sally-girl's the smartest one. But she never feels like it's enough."

"And it bothers her that much," Amy said, reaching the conclusion. "So much she's got to be able to do anything, just in case."

"Somethin' like that," Bunnie said. "Y'know who's the weirdest one here? Weirdest person in the whole village?"

"Sally?" Amy guessed. She didn't know, but Sally was the topic of discussion.

"Wrong continent," Bunnie laughed. "Nah, Sally-girl's the most normal. Ah mean, she's unusual—lotsa gifts, and she deals with stuff in different ways—but all her ways make sense. The weirdest one's gotta be sugar-hog. He just does the strangest things sometimes! Ah mean, it's not like he's complicated; you can figure out what he's gonna do pretty easily. But you can figure that out only 'cause you're used to him. Ah do declare, he comes up with the strangest stuff sometimes…"

"Oh, Bunnie…" Amy said.

"What?"

"You're falling behind. Look!"

Bunnie glanced down, then looked up and grinned like a tiger. "Aw, it's on!"

The party kicked off a few hours before sunset and was a huge success. Someone had dredged up some musical instruments, and the impromptu band put forth a great effort. They weren't terribly good and they weren't terribly loud—they seemed deliberately staying below a certain volume—but they were terribly enthusiastic.

The food reminded Amy of her first impressions: plain, but high-quality. Everything tasted fresh, and though there was a limit to the processed foods available (Amy got several strange looks and many confused ones when asking for mayonnaise) the simple pleasures seemed to win out. The large supply of salted nuts, Amy noticed, was exceedingly popular.

"This is good," Amy said, trying to compliment Antoine.

"I did not make zat," he responded, nose high.

"Well, can you tell whoever made it that they did a good job?"

"Pear-haps, if I should be seeing them," Antoine said vaguely.

"What did you make?" Amy pressed.

Antoine sighed, most forlornly. "I have of recentment been wanting to make escargot… but alas, I no have ze ingredients."

Amy frowned. "Escargot isn't that complicated, is it? I mean, it's just snails, right?"

"Just snails? Madame, escargot eez more zan zat! It must be prepar-ed most full of care, and I am never having enough butter."

"But that's so obvious," said Amy. "Even I know that milk products are scarce here. Why don't you just use margarine?"

Antoine's eyes popped in fury. "Margarine? MARGARINE!"

Amy shrank to half her height. "What?" she squeaked.

Before Antoine could speak again, a garland only sort-of landed on his head. It got caught on his snout and an ear.

"Darn it. You win, Tails, I couldn't ring him after all."

Antoine rounded on Sonic, forgetting Amy completely. "You fyu-el! What doing are you!"

"Oops, he saw me, gotta juice!"

"Get back 'ere!"

Of course Antoine was never going to catch Sonic, but Amy's only emotions were relief. She spotted Sally shaking her head helplessly. "Remind me to thank Sonic," she said to Sally. "He saved me from a scary fate."

"Oh, he saved you, did he?" said Sally dubiously. "Just wait. He created a lot of problems, too—especially for me, since I'm the only one they'll both listen to."

Amy stepped forward and reached up to put a hand on Sally's shoulder. "Come on, lighten up! Are we having a party or not?"

"I suppose we are," said Sally.

"And are you enjoying it or not?"

"I don't suppose I am," Sally sighed.

"Well, that's just not right," said Amy, grinning. "Come on, I know what to do."

It required a little work to make, and they caught some strange looks while getting it ready, but when they were done Amy had a fully-functional limbo set made of garden tools. "This is a popular game in my world," she said, announcing to the crowd as well. Even the band was leaning in to listen. "This is how it works. While the band plays music, everyone tries to go underneath the crossbar without knocking it off. But, you can only go underneath leaning backwards! You can't lean forwards." She demonstrated a few times. "If you hit the crossbar or fall over, you're out! Everyone can play, but every time we go around, we lower the crossbar. Last person in the game wins! Ready?" She gestured to the band, which went into a wild jam that almost sounded good.

The game took a while at first, since everyone in the village except the band and Rosie went through. (Rosie took one look at the crossbar and said, "I haven't been able to stand that straight for years!") But a few quickly distinguished themselves. Rotor only lasted a few rounds before leaving the line by himself. ("Scared I was gonna choke myself on the bar.") Antoine looked like he was doing well, then inexplicably panicked and ran off in disgrace. Tails stayed in for a long time, until people realized he was using both his tails as extra supports, which Amy had to call illegal. ("This game was designed by people without tails, wasn't it, Amy? Yep, that explains why it's no fun.")

The game was on the line as Amy lowered the bar one more time. Only Sonic, Sally, and Bunnie were still in the game. (Amy had lost one round earlier, her smaller size trumped by Sally's astonishing flexibility.) Everyone was cheering for the three survivors now.

Bunnie went first. Now that Amy could look more closely, she could see the rabbit's secret. The weight of her metal legs was a huge help, but only so long as she kept them straight. Up until now, she'd managed to get through entirely on the balance provided by the metal limbs—but now, at last, she had to bend her knees to get under, and she lost her leverage. She collapsed. "Well, ain't that the darndest thing," she muttered, punching the earth with her right (flesh) arm. "Your turn, sugar-hog, though Ah don't have the foggiest idea how any of y'all made it this far."

Sonic approached, but before he began his round, rotated, waving down the crowd. "Hush," he said. "The master only works in silence." Several snickers, prominent in Sally's case. "You too, Sal. Alright, here we go." He walked forward towards the bar. His knees jutted forwards mightily, trying vainly to counter his weight as he leaned back. His spine curved in the opposite direction it usually did. His quills almost scraped the ground. Despite the concentration, he never lost his smile—not even when he bumped the bar with his face, lost his balance, and fell on his rear.

"Nice job, master!" Sally's catcall was amongst the loudest and first.

Sonic, still smiling, made an after-you gesture to Sally. Unlike Sonic, Sally's expression changed to one of serious concentration. She didn't require everyone to quiet down, she simply tuned them out before beginning her attempt. She bent backwards like Sonic and Bunnie had before her, millimeters deciding whether she'd make it or not.

Amy was amazed. She remembered her first impression, that Sally's head seemed about a size too large. That seemed more obvious than ever as she watched Sally try to compensate for her thinness. There was no way anyone could tell if Sally was down enough to get by, but by now her hips were passing under the bar…

Abruptly, Sally walked backwards and stood. She shrugged nonchalantly. "I wasn't going to make it," she said. "I give up."

The crowd expressed its outrage, and Amy went right along with it.

Sonic stepped forward. "Come on, Sal. You started this game, you gotta finish it!"

"What's the point? I know I can't make it. I'm satisfied with that, because I know exactly how low I can go. Here, I'll measure it now."

"That's not the point," said Sonic. "You remember how you're always tellin' me about the spirit of rules? You're breakin' one right now. You gotta go until you flunk out."

Sally crossed her arms, trying to hold off a smile. "You just want to see me get humiliated, don't you?"

"Of course I do, and so does everyone else!" he shouted, his smile proud and loud. "I played along, I did it."

"In that case, I think this is yet more proof that I have better judgment than you," Sally rebutted.

"Or it could mean you're a wuss," Sonic shot back.

Sonic had crossed some kind of line. Sally's mouth dropped open, then she clenched it, squeezing the smile clean off of her face. (Bunnie politely swept it up and saved it for later.) She squared her shoulders and marched right past Sonic, tossing her head with an empress' disdain. She stared down the limbo bars, and then her body began to bend.

An involuntary hush settled over the crowd, sucked in by the intensity on Sally's face. All were struck dumb by the almost painful extensions Sally forced upon herself. Then she began to move, dropping even lower as she approached the bar. Before there had been a lot of ambiguity over whether Sally was low enough or not, but now she was clearly lower. If she could keep that low while moving—now that was the real trick!

One step, then another. More and more of her passed beneath the bar. Centimeter by centimeter cleared. Now it was up to her neck. Trouble! She actually raised herself a bit. The crowd gasped, certain that she'd goofed. The head, always the head—if anything was to stop Sally, this was it. She shot one defiant glare at Sonic, then closed her eyes, rocked her neck back, pulled with her legs—

And cleanly evaded the bar as she rose.

The crowd went wild.

She popped to a standing position, hands on her hips, victory on her face, glory in her soul. "How was that, Sonic Hedgehog?" she said, smug as a bug.

Sonic looked almost indifferent. "Eh, I can top that."

"Oh really?" said Sally, skepticism dripping from her voice. "You already botched it once, and you weren't even close."

"I guarantee I won't this time. Just wait a sec." He jogged over to a spot a good ten meters away from the crossbar. "Check this action out!" He zoomed to a high speed sprint, headed straight for the limbo rig.

At the last moment, he leaned back, stopped his legs, and dropped to his knees.

Sonic slid beneath the bar on his shins, coming to a stop a few meters on the other side. His arms were spread wide. "C'mon, show me the love," he said.

Sally could only shake her head as the crowd erupted in laughter. "So much for the spirit of the rules," she said, unable to suppress her smile.

"Hey, look who cares all of a sudden," Sonic said even as he dusted himself off.

She looked up, as if appealing to a higher power. "Why do I even bother?"

"Because you love me," he replied. "Don't feel bad about it. Everyone does."

"Sonic, that was terrible," she told him.

He shrugged. "I was due for a let-down anyway. Hey, can we have some music?"

The band started up again, playing something that you could almost tell what it was supposed to sound like. Amy was swept up in the sound and color and loved every moment.

It wasn't until long afterwards that Amy realized how clever Sally was.

The party had made everybody forget about their worries. Sally's plan had succeeded admirably. All day, Amy hadn't gotten a single answer to any of her difficult questions.

In fact, the day had introduced a new one: Was Sonic Sonic?

During the limbo game, she'd felt something very peculiar: she'd seen the differences between "her" Sonic and "this" Sonic erode. Sure, they were still different physically, but other parts of them were very similar. Specifically, all the parts she loved about "her" Sonic—the arrogance, the confidence, the showmanship, the ability to steal any scene he was in, the ability to manage any crowd and bring a smile to everyone's face. All of it was so familiar, and it had the same effect on her as it always did. And this one appreciated her! He didn't run from her constantly, anyway.

Sure, there were other differences. "Her" Sonic would never have talked the way "this" Sonic had when it was just the two of them in that guard post, for example. Some of the differences were better, some worse. But when it came right down to it, Sonic seemed like Sonic. Maybe he'd been right when he'd told them he was the coolest in any universe.

She rubbed her eyes carefully. "Am I falling for this Sonic Hedgehog, too?" she wondered out loud. "Or am I falling again?"

Very creepy, in some ways. Exciting in others.

All things considered, she was very much looking forward to the next day. Sally should be done with her analysis by then. Amy would get her answers tomorrow, or she might just lose her charm.