Sonic woke up a week later in a bed that felt… cushy, to say the least. He looked around the room and found it decorated with rainbow paints, cotton and posters of the Wonderbolts. Then he realized that the cotton balls were not cotton. They were clouds… and sonic has seen Rainbow walking on clouds before…
"OH MAN!" Sonic jumped out of the bed and landed flat on his face on the fluffiest flooring he ever felt. The Door opened and Dash walked in.
"Are you alright Sonic?" She asked.
"Yeah… What happened?"
"You fell unconscious after fighting that guy, Hysteria." At the mention of the god of Madness, the memories came rushing back to Sonic. The weirdest one being the familiarity of the music that he heard from the sky. But then his mind wandered to Fluttershy's Harmony Goddess Transformation.
"One Down, Five to go."
"One What?" Dash asked.
"Chaos said that in order to gain a new ability, I needed to help you and your friends reach a new level of power. He called it Harmony Goddess. He said that once I help with the last one, I will become 'Centurion Sonic.'"
"That sounds…"
"Way past cool? Yeah."
"I was going to say twenty percent cooler. But what you said was better." They started laughing.
A little later, Sonic was walking through the fields when he heard a guitar. And quite possibly the most touching song he ever heard.
It was a dark day when
I lost my faith,
I wasn't the Pony I thought I'd be.
And it seemed like
No one could relate,
There was nothing left for me to see.
So I
Took a walk
To the edge of
The town.
I thought of leaving it all
Behind.
When I
Saw a little letter
Fall right out of the sky.
As a grey mare
Hovered way
Up high.
I thought I was crazy
When I saw her wave,
And then simply fly away.
So I opened the letter
And looked inside.
And what was written made my day.
It said,
"Isn't it Great
To be different?
Isn't it wonderful to be
Exactly who you are?
When you learn to start
Accepting yourself,
You'll become a shining star."
I turned around
And I saw her
At my door.
That cute grey mare
With the walled eyed stare.
She said:
"I've heard you play,
And sing before.
And I heard a sadness I could not bear.
"I just wanted to tell you
That the hardest thing
I faced,
Wasn't the teasing or the pain,
It was
Convincing myself
I wasn't stupid, strange or lame,
And helping others do the same."
These Last few years
Flew by just like
A blur,
I'm now
Exactly where I should be.
And I know I owe it
All to her,
That beautiful mare
Who believed in me.
Isn't it great
To be different?
Isn't it wonderful
To be exactly who you are?
When you learn to start
Accepting yourself,
You'll become a shining star,
(Isn't it wonderful?)
You'll become a shining star,
(Isn't it great?)
When you learn to love just who you are.
(Forest Rain, Great to be Different)
Rainbow DashSonic was in the fields just outside the town. Whatever happened to him between then and when Rainbow found him must've been very sad, she never saw him cry before. She wanted to ask what was wrong, but it could've been personal, so she just went over to see if he was okay.
"I'll be fine, Dash," Sonic said. "Just some Childhood Trauma coming back to haunt me."
"What do you mean?" Dash asked. "You know what? Don't tell me if it's too hard."
"It's not that big," Sonic took a deep breath, and started the saddest tale she ever heard.
"When I was a kid on South Island, I was always made fun of, because people never thought I would amount to anything. I was always working to make a name for myself, since no one before me ever did. Then the day came where Eggman, who still went by Robotnik at the time, launched an attack on my home. Everyone who made fun of me died that day, and I wanted to live so that no one else would feel my torture. Then I saw my parents. They weren't the only ones who were there, every member of my family that didn't get out of range was killed, and my parents were among them. That was the day I cried the most. That was the day I vowed I wouldn't let these crimes go unpunished.
"I adopted this cocky, arrogant, too-cool-for-you attitude that you see every day, to hide the pain and the hate I've been feeling for ten years now. What you see now is the weaker side of me breaking out of its prison. Be grateful you're stronger than this."
"That's not true at all." Dash said.
"What?"
"I'm at my strongest… when I am crying. I don't let anybody see me cry because they look at me for the solution to any major problem. I think that made me weaker actually. I bottle up all my anger, my sadness, my pain, and I'm at my strongest when I can let it go."
"Heh… Ironic. I almost never cry because I'm too strong, and now I know someone who almost never cries because they're not strong enough."
Rainbow hugged Sonic, hoping to help heal his pain. Then another question came to mind.
"What brought this up?"
"There was a guy on the other side of the hill, he was singing a song that started out like a summary of my life… then he got to the part where he was saved, and I didn't recognize myself."
"How did the song go?" Sonic said every word with great accuracy. Dash recognized the song, not personally but she knew the song… but it took her until now to realize that she knew the colt who wrote it.
Sonic"Forest Rain?" Sonic knocked on the door to the address he got from Dash. A dark grey Pegasus with green mane opened the door.
"Yes?"
"Are you forest Rain?" Sonic asked.
"That's me, can I help you?"
"I just wanted to thank you."
"What did I do?"
Sonic started singing the song he heard Forest play. He told his story to Forest, explaining that he had a similar experience, only it ended in a more Emotionally Scaring way than Forest.
"Rainbow Dash told me you were the oldest pony not to find their Cutie Mark. I learned a while ago that the Cutie mark is a visual representation of who you are. So basically I know what it was like."
"Wow… that's sad…" Forest said. Sonic noticed a movement in the hallway.
"Dad? Who's that?" said a filly from the other room. She had blue mane and grey fur.
"Don't worry Dinky," Forest said. "He's just some pony whose life I touched."
"I'm Sonic the Hedgehog."
"I'm Dinky Hooves, nice to meet you."
Dinky and Sonic had a lot of time to get to know each other, along with Forest, before the door opened. In walked a mare with grey fur and corn colored mane. The most outstanding of her features was her eyes. The right eye was always looking ahead, but the left eye kept rolling around, like a ball within a ball.
"Who's this?" she asked.
"Hey Derpy," Forest said. "This is Sonic the Hedgehog, apparently he can sympathize with us. But his story didn't have a happy ending."
"Oh… well Sonic, I'm Ditzy Hooves, just call me Derpy."
"That doesn't sound very nice."
"It's better than Half-Wit Hooves."
"Good point. Well, Forest, it was nice meeting you."
"You too Sonic."