Preface: Merry Christmas, everyone! Since I didn't have a special holiday story prepared, I decided my gift to you shall be a preview of Phase 2 of my itinerary - a special one-shot showing how Tails put together the birthday party seen in Spacehog from Mobius III: Chaos Haven II's preface! I hope you accept this, because the only other thing I gave you was Minecraft Maniacs RPG's tenth chapter!
12/28/20 update: added credits music and formatting
Birthday (3D) Blast
[Character Selected: Tails]
[Current World: Mobius]
[Current Location: South Island, Peridot Beach Zone]
[BGM: Junkie XL - Welcome to Green Hills]
Tails looked over his duty list for Sonic's birthday party. It had been almost a week since their first adventure in Whisker Haven, and the two were about to return to Hedgehogtropolis following their vacation.
"Let's see," he said, making sure everything was correct, "Amy and Ray are on the cake, Sally and the gang are on the invites, Aunt Aleena and my parents are on decorations, Mighty's on the gifts, and that leaves me to set everything up in Green Hill."
Suddenly, he heard the ever-familiar sound of a Warp Zone activating. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the ripples of the one that led to Whisker Haven appear, with a tiger cub with a blue feathered headband hopping out. Tails shook his head, jokingly. "Hey, Sultan."
"Hi, Tails!" said the tiger. He was one of the first friends Tails made in Whisker Haven. "Sorry! I couldn't resist going back through!" He looked at Tails' list. "Whatcha got there?"
"Oh, this?" said Tails. "This is my duty list for Sonic's birthday party. His birthday is June 23rd."
"Hey, that's next week!" said Sultan. "Wait, don't video game characters stay the same age unless the company that owns them makes them get older?"
"Well, yeah, but it's the thought that counts." Suddenly, Tails heard the door of the beach house open. "Sonic's coming! Get back to Whisker Haven!"
"Okay," said Sultan, running away. "Good luck at the party!" he called as he vanished back through the Warp Zone.
Sonic sped up to Tails and surprised the fox cub, causing him to drop his list. "Who was that, Tails?" Sonic asked. He noticed the list and bent down.
"No, Sonic! Don't touch-" But it was too late for Tails. The hedgehog had picked it up. He looked at it and his conjoined eyes widened.
"Oh, dang!" said Sonic, embarrassed. "Sorry for spoiling the surprise for myself, bro. Still, this is cool! I'm looking forward to this!"
Tails curled his namesake around him in embarrassment. He couldn't believe he blew it. But now that Sonic knew what was happening, he seemed to be looking forward to it even more.
Tails had to fix this. Even though he was a genius in terms of science, he was still only four years old, so the first thing he thought of when trying to fix it was doing everything himself.
[Location Change: Hedgehogtropolis, MoboMart]
[BGM: Grieg - Hall of the Mountain King]
And so, the first thing Tails did the next day was head down to the MoboMart for the presents. Running down the aisles, he saw all sorts of cool stuff. He looked at his list and read it off: "New mic set, Jun Senoue guitar picks, Killer Zombie Penguins graphic novel…" He put each item into his cart as he read them off. By the time he had left the isle, about a third of his itinerary had been completed. But then, something caught his eye…
"The new issue of Sega World!" he said, excitedly. And that led to him seeing a new game for the Sega Saturn, which led to him getting all sorts of stuff he liked, thus wasting his budget for Sonic's presents. And then, he saw the one thing he had been looking for recently… "An atomic manipulator! This is just what I need for my size changer!" But as he looked at the price for it, he checked his money… "Oh, no!" he cried, "I've used almost all of my budget!"
Back home, Tails began to search online for tickets to a Sons of Angels concert. It was the one thing on Sonic's list that he could still afford. He eventually turned to a bidding website that had the last batch. "Alright, c'mon...no! Don't outbid me!"
Tails' mother, Rosemary, looked at her son sitting in front of the computer, stressing himself out. "Are you sure you can handle this, Tails?" she asked.
Tails managed to get in the final bid at the last second, then he slumped over in his chair. "I've got it all covered, mom," he sighed.
The next thing Tails decided to do was the invitations. For the entire afternoon, Tails was down in his basement lab, designing an invitation and copying it the right amount of times. That was the one thing that went off without a hitch.
At that moment, Tails' father, Amadeus, came into the basement. "Tails? Your mother and I are worried," he said. "You're putting too much pressure on yourself to do this without anyone else."
"Dad, this is a birthday party," Tails reassured. "It's not standing up to a school bully or battling against Dr. Eggman."
"Remember, you have people everywhere who can help you," said Amadeus, pulling his son in for a hug.
Unfortunately, one trait that Tails inherited was the stubbornness that his dad got from his time in the military. The fox's time with Sonic certainly didn't help matters. Thus, he didn't listen to his dad, and began the next day by going to the party-planning shop. "Okay, don't get distracted, Tails," he said, looking over his new budget as he flew through the streets. He touched down in front of the shop...and his jaw dropped. "Closed for the week? Are you serious?" he shouted.
By this point, Tails had been getting desperate. He decided to go out and deliver the invitations in the Tornado. Putting the invitations in the cockpit and strapping on his brown pilot's helmet, he took off to the skies. He was planning on just throwing them down in front of the houses of Sonic's friends on South Island and Westside Island. As he approached the town of Green Hills, however, he didn't pay attention to the flock of Flickies that were approaching him…
"Gah! Outta my way!" he shouted. The Flickies caused him to flail his arms around, and the bag with the invitations fell down, landing right near the beach house in the Peridot Beach Zone. "Nooooooooo!" he shouted, turning the Tornado towards the ground.
Tom Wachowski was sitting near the speed trap, munching on a donut, when he noticed the Tornado land next to him. "Tails? What's going on?" he asked.
"I'm getting those invites!" the fox replied, jumping out of the biplane. He ran off to grab the bag and picked it up. But before he could say "Whew! Safe and sound!" the wind picked up and the invites all flew out of the bag, towards the open sea.
That was the breaking point. Tails sat down and curled into a ball once more, and this time, he began to cry. He had failed.
[Character Selected: Sultan]
[Current World: Whisker Planet]
[Current Location: Whisker Haven Village]
[BGM: Whisker Haven Theme Instrumental]
For the most part, Whisker Haven had gotten over the horrors of Metal Sonic's attack. The Palace Pets and Critterzens had returned to their usual lives, no worse for wear.
At that moment, Sultan was fooling around with his favorite yarn ball. He threw it around the tree he was near and chased it into the streets as it unraveled. "Ha! Gotcha, ball!" he shouted as he pounced on it.
Ms. Featherbon, a hummingbird fairy who was the gatekeeper of Whisker Haven, saw this little spectacle and flew near the tiger cub. "Having fun with some yarn, are you, Sultan?" she chuckled.
"Totally!" said the tiger cub. Just then, he heard crying out of nowhere. "You hear that?" he asked.
"Indeed," said Ms. Featherbon. "It sounds like it's coming from…" she turned towards the Warp Zone right in the town square.
"I have no clue how this is happening," said Sultan, "but something tells me that Tails might need our help!"
Ms. Featherbon nodded in agreement. The two faced the Warp Zone and ran through, leaving only ripples in its wake.
[World Change: Mobius]
[Location Change: South Island, Peridot Beach Zone]
"Ha-ha!" Sultan laughed as he ran out. "I think that was more fun than the Whisker Haven portals!" The first thing he saw was a human police officer comforting Tails, who was curled into a ball.
Ms. Featherbon flew over to the two. "Is everything alright, Tails?"
"Uh, who are you?" asked Tom, in confusion.
"I'll deal with this," said Tails, looking up. "I failed, Ms. Featherbon. Sonic caught me looking at my list for preparing his birthday party and then I tried to do everything myself to make it better, but I failed!"
Sultan walked up to the fox. "Do you still have that list?" he asked, pawing at the fox's hammerspace area. To Tom, it just sounded like simple purring. The list fell out, and Tom picked it up.
"So you were trying to split the labor or something?" the officer asked. "Because you can still do this."
"Nah, it's not worth it," said Tails, dejectedly. He sadly got up and began to trudge his way back to Hedgehogtropolis.
[BGM: Friend Like Me Instrumental]
Sultan just looked on sadly. He somehow felt like it was his fault - after all, Tails did tell him to run back through the Warp Zone when Sonic was coming out. That's when he decided he was the one who had to make it up. "Ms. Featherbon," he said, "gimme the list. We've got a mission to fulfill."
"Do you really think we can plan a party by ourselves?" asked the fairy.
"No," answered the cub, :but we're gonna find the people on that list and get them involved." He looked up to Tom and asked him where Mighty lived. To Tom, it just came off as more purring.
"Are you trying to say something?" Tom asked the cub.
"Oh, he's simply asking where this Mighty person lives," answered Ms. Featherbon.
"Oh, he and Ray live in Sunset City on the other end of South Island," answered Tom.
[Location Change: South Island, Sunset City]
And so, the two went to the other end of South Island. Sunset City was a bustling metropolis inhabited mostly by mobians. Ms. Featherbon flew overhead, looking for the familiar armadillo she remembered from the adventure in Whisker Haven.
"C'mon, where is he?" growled Sultan, running across the streets.
Eventually, the two stopped in front of an underbrush. The trees started to rustle, and Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel walked out, drying themselves off with towels after a hot spring session. "Oh, hey, you two!" said Mighty. "You're Sultan and Ms. Featherbon, right?"
"One and only!" said Sultan. "Look, Tails is trying to do Sonic's birthday party, and he needs help." He handed the list to the armadillo.
"Hmm, this looks pretty well-rounded," said Mighty. "I'll even tell Sonic and Tails' folks about how they can help!"
"And it says here that me and Amy will be on the cake!" said Ray, looking over Mighty's shoulder. "That'll be good practice!"
"So you know where this Amy lives?" asked Ms. Featherbon.
"She lives over on Westside Island," the flying squirrel explained. "There should be a Warp Zone over in the east that should take you to her house."
"Thanks, you two!" said Sultan. "C'mon, Ms. Featherbon!" he said, as he began to look for the Warp Zone.
[Location Change: Kingdom of Acorn, Amy's House]
The two found themselves in a nice, wooden house in a green area. "Excuse me, does Amy live here?" asked Sultan as he knocked on the door.
Amy Rose walked up and opened it. "Oh, hi! Haven't seen you two since the Whisker Haven incident!" she said, cheerfully, "I just finished my boxercise workout! How can I help you?"
"Do you know anyone named Sally Acorn?" asked Ms. Featherbon.
"The princess?" asked Amy. "Oh, totally! Sonic'll be mine one day, but for now, she can have him!"
A princess? I was not expecting that! thought Sultan. "Tails is planning a party for Sonic, and he wants her and some other guys on invites, plus you and Ray on the cake."
"Oh, really?" said Amy. "I can gladly do that!"
"Thanks for your help!" said Sultan, closing the door. He turned to Ms. Featherbon. "Welp, I think that's everything covered!"
"Should we tell Tails yet?" asked Ms. Featherbon.
"Nah, let's let him be surprised, too," answered Sultan.
Ms. Featherbon summoned a scroll and a featherpen and began to write a small note on it. "Miss Amy," she said, opening the door again, "you may also want to leave this note when it's all said and done!"
[BGM: End]
"Okay, I'll try to remember!" said Amy. As the door closed, her phone finished buzzing. "Oh, hi, Sal! Listen, this is very important…"
[Character Selected: Tails]
[Current World: Mobius]
[Current Location: Hedgehogtropolis, Tails' House]
Tails sadly ate his breakfast. It was the day of Sonic's birthday, and knowing that he failed to set up a party made him dread that day.
"Oh, Tails!" said Amadeus, coming in with the mail. "You have an invitation to Sonic's birthday party!"
Tails coughed on his cereal. "Say what?" he asked.
"Someone else must've set it up," said Rosemary.
Tails took the letter and it said to meet up at the Green Hill Zone at 1:30, exactly when Tails had planned the party to be. That made him scared. But then he noticed some small text that read "Tails - come early!"
[BGM: Junkie XL - A New Home]
And so, the fox decided to adhere to the invite's wishes. That afternoon, he made one last preparation and set out with his parents to the Green Hill Zone. What he saw there nearly took his breath away. "It's...it's all here." The party was up and running, exactly how he imagined it. A nice pile of presents were stacked in the corner, a large plate of chili dogs sat on a picnic table next to a white-frosted cake with an icon of Sonic's face, and ribbons and streamers were hung up on the trees.
Amy walked out and saw the Prowers. "Surprise, Tails!" she said. "We found out about your plan and did the party for you! Your parents even helped!"
"You two were involved?" asked Tails in confusion.
Rosemary and Amadeus chuckled. "We hate keeping secrets from you," said his mother, "but this seemed important."
"I was also told to give you this," said Amy, handing Tails a scroll. She checked her watch. "Oh! Sonic should be nearly here! Hide!"
As his parents ran to hide, Tals stayed there and opened the scroll, reading the note left on it:
"Dear Tails,
Sultan put this together for you because he saw how upset you were. We told Amy to let everyone know to keep this a secret so you can still take the credit. I sure hope you realize that you can always ask for help when you need it, even if a big surprise is spoiled.
Sincerely,
Ms. Featherbon."
Tails smiled. He couldn't believe Sultan would do this for him. Just then, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he dropped the list. "Hey, buddy!" he heard Sonic say. "What's all this?"
At that moment, everyone jumped out and yelled, "Surprise! Happy birthday, Sonic!"
Despite not being surprised, due to having looked at the list, Sonic was delighted nonetheless. "Wow! You really went and did it, Tails!"
"Actually, I did it all myself!" Tails lied, giving an unconvincing thumbs-up.
Sonic frowned. "Tails, be honest. Did you really?"
Tails looked down in shame. "No, not really. I tried to do everything myself, but I couldn't so everyone just did everything anyway. All I did was this."
Sonic took the chili dog with extra cheese that Tails had made before leaving for the party and took a bite. "Say, this ain't too bad!" he said. "In fact, it's way past cool you even got the idea in the first place!"
"So you aren't upset that the surprise was ruined?" asked Tails.
"Of course not!" said Sonic. "I'm not even getting older! I just wanted everyone to acknowledge this day!" He put his hand on the fox's shoulder. "Thanks anyway, buddy. But if you didn't put it together
, then who did?"
Tails looked to the sky and thought of Ms. Featherbon and Sultan. "Let's just say friendship surpasses all barriers," he said, "including the dimensional one."
The End
Credits:
Kate Higgins - Tails
Henry Kaufman - Sultan
Issac Ryan Brown - Sonic, Mighty
Lea Thompson - Rosemary
Crispin Glover - Amadeus
James Marsden - Tom
Anne Halli - Ms. Featherbon
Joshua Rush - Ray
Jenna Ortega - Amy
Music:
Junkie XL
Grieg
Disney Music Team
Credits Music: Will Smith - Friend Like Me
Written by: Alfred von Any
Edits by: Jesus von Any
Postface: So, how was that? Did it make good present to you? Well, either way, it was all from the heart!
As I said at the beginning, this is the first of several one-shots to be uploaded concurrently with Minecraft Maniacs RPG. During the next saga, you can expect more expansion of the Sonic side's lore, new adventures of the Minecraft Maniacs RPG cast, a special story starring Unikitty, and a certain Australian Cattle Dog...
That should be it! Please read, review, and share around, and I'll see you in the new year! Happy holidays, and stay diamond, everyone!
-Alfred
~Sonic the Hedgehog and everything related to him are properties of Sega Corp. The Palace Pets and everything related to them are properties of The Walt Disney Co. No copyright infringement with any of these companies nor financial gain was intended in the making of this story. Any resemblance to real-world people or events are either coincidental or done fictitiously.~