"Here we are, right on schedule."

Amy stared wide eyed as she emerged from the cave, one hand holding her dress down as she dangled from Tails' grip, deposited a moment later neatly on the ground once more.

"I had no idea something like this was up here."

A natural clearing, flowers and grass with pillars from long gone ruins jutting here and there from the earth. Amy walked among them with wonder, peering out at the glittering azure lake sparkling in the last rays of the evening sun.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Tails drew close once more, his hands in his jacket pockets, expression calm as always as he trailed his fingers across sun bleached stone, looking to where a single set of chairs surrounded a delicate white table nearby, and a lone, full-sized piano stood on an ancient foundation beyond.

"Hey! No getting your grubby fingerprints on my island!" A stern voice snapped from behind them.

"Hey, Knuckles." Tails turned with a smile, hand outstretched. "Thanks for setting everything up, I would have done it myself if I could-"

"Don't sweat it." The crimson echidna bumped his fist against the smaller fox's with a smile. "Glad to see you doing okay, Tails. After..." He turned and gave Amy a curt nod before turning his head away, coughing into his mitt. "Good to see you too, Amy. You're looking good!"

"Thanks." Amy smiled, running her hands across the sleek fabric of her dress. "You set this all up by yourself?"

"Someone had to do the heavy lifting." Knuckles grinned, clapping Tails on the shoulder hard enough to knock him off balance. "Pretty sure nothing got too badly dented though."

"Have you seen Sonic yet?" Tails peered around with a frown.

"Uh… Not yet." Knuckles mirrored his expression, glancing at Amy then away entirely.

She sighed, putting on a smile. "It's… fine. Not like I'm not used to being stood up at this point."

How could she have expected any different? Here in this magical scenery above the clouds, set up by her friends, an exclusive concert just for them… Stupid. She'd been so good at the lab. She'd been nice and calm and she'd given him space and made him food and he probably could barely stand the sight of her and-

"Actually, I never told him you'd be coming." Tails shrugged, a slight tremor in his voice. "So… I guess the person he stood up was... me."

His hand extended towards hers. Amy hesitated before reaching forward to grip his fingers.

"Well, let's get you to your seat." His smile brightened under sad eyes as he turned, leading her to the table. "Maybe he's just running late?"

"Yeah… Maybe." Amy nodded, her heart heavy.

What was she going to do if he wasn't? Sit here in front of some stranger as they played for half an audience? Knowing her date hadn't even bothered to attend? Maybe he'd just ran away the moment he caught sight of her?

Tails released her hand, pulling the chair back for her to sit.

He made no move to sit himself, hands back in his pockets as he shifted awkwardly beside her, peering from piano to lake to woods.

Wasn't he going to sit?

No, Amy checked herself. Sonic would be here. She didn't need Tails to save her today. She would share the wonder she'd felt coming here, and they'd talk about how pretty it was, and she'd be quiet and demure, because showing him how happy she was that he was there would frighten him away and they'd share this music together just the two of them alone and he wouldn't run because he saw how good she could be and it would be fine even if they didn't kiss if just the two of them could be together for a few hours and-

A finger brushed across her cheek. Amy looked up to Tails rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish expression.

"Uh, sorry. You were- uh… Hey."

"Huh?" Amy raised an eyebrow, faintly bemused at his nervousness. "Uh, hey, I guess?"

"So…" Tails shoved his hands back in his pockets, the fur on each tail raised. "It's about time to, uh, start, I guess. So…"

So Sonic wasn't coming.

"So I guess you have to go, right?" She smiled.

His tails twitched in surprise. "Uh, yeah. Normally I'd stay with you here but… uh…"

"I understand." Amy nodded. "Thanks for bringing me."

He had Cream, he'd only come to escort her here as a friend, not a substitute. He didn't need to keep saving her, and she wasn't so pathetic as to need saving from her own private concert.

"Uh, no problem. So I… sort of asked someone to, uh..." He rubbed the back of his head.

Why was he so nervous? Did he think she was going to hit him?

"Yo." Knuckles spoke up from behind them, brusque as ever.

Sonic? Amy looked up.

And she laughed.

"What? Do I look dumb? " The echidna scowled, pulling at the collar of his shirt. "I knew I shoulda just-"

"You look amazing, Knuckles." Amy grinned, reaching up to fix his bow tie. "You guys are the best. Really."

"Ah- uh- thanks." The red echidna became a little more red as he looked away with a frown, swinging a wicker picnic basket up onto the table with a thud. "Help me unload this, will ya?"

"I'll leave you two to it, then." Tails smiled.

"You don't want to stay and grab a bite first?" Amy glanced up at him. That wasn't a date, three friends hanging out would be fine, right? And there was no sign of the musician yet.

"Nah, can't start with me down here." He grinned, turning away. "I hope you enjoy it."

He walked away without even a wave.

In the wrong direction.

"Huh?" Amy tilted her head, staring after him. "What's he doing?"

"Yeah, he's a barrel of nerves tonight, huh?" Knuckles chuckled, placing a slender candle on the table and lighting it by punching the air above it hard enough to ignite it. "Probably because you're here."

"What do you mean?"

"He didn't tell you?" Knuckles placed a pair of thin stemmed glasses on the table beside her, a dark bottle between them. "This is the first time anyone else ever scored an invite to one of these things except Sonic and me."

"Really?" Amy turned to him in surprise. An event exclusive to two of the greatest heroes in the world - perhaps the two greatest heroes of the world, and Tails had got her a ticket?

"I thought you were helping?" Knuckles rolled his violet eyes. "I already feel like a waiter in this getup."

"Maybe you should sit down?" Amy smirked. "First time pretending to be dating?"

"Shaddap." Knuckles rolled his eyes, but plonked down in the opposite chair regardless, already reaching for a bowl of potato salad.

Amy slid a plate in front of him with a grin, glancing up towards the stage as a loud booming rang out from unseen speakers.

"Sorry! Mic check." Tails rubbed the back of his head with a grin, his voice coming across the speakers from all directions.

Ah, that explained it. He was checking the stage equipment to make sure it was- what was he doing?

Both hands pressed together in front of him, eyes closed in prayer or concentration, Tails spread them wide with a flourish, brown and blue pilotwear seamlessly replaced with a long-tailed black tuxedo in a flicker of the eye.

"Ugh. Showoff." Knuckles muttered.

Amy barely registered, staring open mouthed as the fox settled atop the piano seat, dwarfed in front of the giant piano.

"He can play?"

"Hm? Yeah, he's a real music maker. Grape?"

Amy waved him off without turning her eyes from Tails as he lowered trembling hands to the keyboard, playing a single chord…

And the dusk became music. A forlorn melody flowing from his fingertips to surround where they sat, slow and measured, a soft yet deceptive weight on each note.

Amy could have laughed or cried.

No wonder he couldn't sit with her.

No wonder they couldn't arrive "too late".

No wonder Knuckles permitted it on his island.

And no wonder it had only been for Sonic and Knuckles.

Her mind had been in some cream of the crop, high society private showing, some over the top display for the greatest people in the world. Instead Tails had wanted to share with her something restricted to his closest friends, to give her the chance to spend that precious time together with Sonic.

And he really was the one who'd been stood up.

Possibly because of her.

The song ended, then flowed into a new melody without pause, this one lively and familiar, though she didn't know its name. Classical wasn't really her genre.

He was good though. She didn't know why this wasn't a skill he showed off more often, or at all. For all their advantages, few mobians were large enough to use a full size piano, but with the way he used his tails to play notes his short arms couldn't reach and work the pedals far below he was almost a one fox duet. Song after song sprang from his fingertips, some she recognised, some she didn't, happy and tender, solemn and sweet, all with that same expression on his face. A small smile that never reached his eyes. That never showed what he was really thinking.

Knuckles yawned next to her, scratching his belly. More comfort than boredom, from his expression. He'd certainly helped himself to the picnic. And the grape juice.

Could the two of them be more different? Knuckles was brash and stubborn, boisterous and proud. It was hard to imagine he'd had a thought that he didn't express in as loud and as tactless a manner as possible. Not dumb by any means but… uncomplicated. He trusted people, and he could be taken at face value.

Yet despite their differences they shared this odd affinity that was hard to put her finger on. A quiet unspoken agreement to support one another, that drew them back to each other's company despite their mutual love of solitude.

… Perhaps that was it?

Amy watched Knuckles' expression fall as he listened to the song, a mournful tune she'd never heard before. Eyes closed and jaw set.

They were alone. Outsiders everywhere they went, welcome for their deeds, perhaps, but with neither parents nor family to call their own, not a single living echidna or fox, perhaps the closest feeling to true belonging was to find people as alone as they were? It might explain why Knuckles tolerated Rouge's company so well, bats had been vanishingly rare since Eggman first hit South Island.

Amy sighed, closing her own eyes. It was hard to even imagine as a hedgehog, despite the number of mobians that had been lost over only half a decade hedgehogs remained the most numerous. How could an entire species disappear? There was no Eggman to kill the foxes or echidna in the old days, after all. Was it some sudden tragedy? Or some gradual decline until there was only one left? Maybe all it took was enough people to just not care about it? Only one child per family halved the population size every generation, after all.

Maybe that was the fate of all mobians one day? If Eggman couldn't be turned away from villainy, even his failures would eventually wipe out the baseline mobians at very least. Could she one day end up as the last baseline? Alone in a world of humans and supers, barely able to keep up?

The song ended and the next shifted the mood hard enough to give her whiplash. Amy's eyes flew open as she instantly recognised the tune as something far from classical. Bubbly and cheery and to which she had by now grown beyond sick of hearing.

The Rainbow the Pony theme tune.

"Not going to dance?" Knuckles broke into laughter beside her as she groaned. "C'mon, I've seen the video. You guys were pretty good."

"I'm never going to live that down, am I?" She pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh.

"Not in this lifetime."

Was Tails' smile a little wider? He was in the video too, after all. Maybe it was just a fond memory for him? He was already famous, what was a little - okay, a lot - more notoriety? Cream had of course been delighted. She'd even given Amy a Rainbow figure for Christmas as a memento. Maybe Amy was the odd one out for letting herself be bothered by such a small thing as a viral video of her humiliating herself that had been seen by every single member of Scrambler and FriendSpace combined?

She'd always been concerned about appearances. Not serious enough, not mature enough, not ladylike enough for Sonic. But like Tails and his music… why was she worried? Especially here, especially with just the three of them? Could she do the same and just… be her?

"Alright, fine." She lunged over the table, almost upending glass and candle as she grabbed the echidna's black sleeve. "Let's dance."

"What? Me?" Knuckles' expression turned from amusement to horror.

"Didn't you ask me to dance, date?" Amy pulled him up with a wicked grin. "Let's go!"

"Ughhh. I am way too stuffed for this."

"No arguing! Get those knees up and don't forget to sing! One two three, goooo, Rainbow!"

Laughing, dancing and singing, Amy Rose had the time of her life being embarrassed until the sky went dark.