Sonadow
SonicXShadow
Once Upon a Time by Taranea

Chapter notes:
Here we are, with a fresh fourth chapter! I'm really happy about all those reviews - notice how fast I updated this time? :D Don't blame me for the contents of this one, I was listening to the salagadoola song on 'repeat' while typing this the entire time...
The fourth part, telling off all the wrong princesses, the cleaning of hedgehogs and casual regicide.

Chapter 4: It’s a kind of magic…

“Salagadoola, mechicka boola, bibbidy bobbidy boo! Put them together and what have you got? Bibbidy bobbidy boo!”

Shadow stared at the...creature that had just appeared, a knife and a frying pan still in his hands.

“Hi there!!!” It called out cheerfully, using more happy exclamation marks than any sane person ever should. The black hedgehog squinted against the bright yellow halo that surrounded the small form…and wondered just for a moment whether Mr. Sanity might not have chosen to depart for the ball tonight, too.

In front of him floated a rabbit. The girl didn’t have wings, but just hovered, waving some kind of stick with a star glued to it around in a rather unsettling way. She was also wearing a simple short sunflower-coloured dress that flowed from her youthful (read: flat-chested) figure nicely, and was now winking at him with her large, enthusiastic chocolate eyes.

“Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo! I’m your fairy godmother, Cream!”

Before Shadow’s utter ‘wtf’-face could lower its jaw any closer to the ground, he was already blinded by a second flash of light, this one bright and purple.

“Salagadoola, mechicka boola, bibbidy bobbidy boo! It’ll do magic believe it or not! Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo!”

Another person materialized, her voice identifying her as the second speaker he had heard earlier. She was older than the girl, probably in her early twenties and wore a glittering purple dress that was a lot tighter (and a lot more revealing) than the yellow one, slit up high at the thighs. Black batwings flared behind her and the white-furred, turquoise-eyed female flashed Shadow a sharp-edged, dazzling smile.

“Hello there, Darling! I’m your fairy godmother, Rouge the Bat!”

Silence ensued. Both of the new arrivals floated before him in thin air, seemingly waiting for something. Finally, “Rouge”’s expression became annoyed.

“Look, you have to show up, too. Quit messing up our act every time!” she shouted at seemingly nothing, ramming her fists into her hip. Shadow had started to back away – Black Doom and his dissecting table or not, there was no freakin way he was going to fight with a schizophrenic – but then a bodyless voice suddenly snarled out of nowhere, making him freeze.

“Forget it, batgirl, I’m not doing it!”

The black hedgehog’s eyes grew wide. That third voice had sounded considerably deeper, considerably more pissed and considerably more male.

“You know you have to! It’s in your freakin contract!” the white godmother/ witch/ complete lunatic hissed, her fangs flashing dangerously.

Nothing happened for a moment, but then suddenly a puff of red smoke erupted, temporarily blinding Shadow and making him cough. His watery eyes blinked and he thought he could discern a third figure.

“Salagadoola, mechicka boola, make a comment and you die. Bibbidy Bobbidy screw it,” the scarlet echidna stated in a tone that was just a (tiny) bit less cheerful than the previous introductions.

“I’m Knuckles, and I’ll be damned to hell if I’m a fairy anything. I’m a wizard and got roped into this gig because these two wouldn’t leave me alone. And I want my Emerald back after this,” the scowling newcomer with the gold-embroidered red cape and pointy hat finished, looking away as if insulted and crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Aww, Mr. Knuckles! Why don’t you smile for our princess tonight?!” the rabbit girl exclaimed, her eyes large and hopeful as she stared up at the echidna.

For a second, the red male only glared at her unwillingly, but then, the universal power of cuteness seemed to sway even him. The aggressiveness of his stance slowly gave way to something else, and his arms dropped to his sides. He sighed.

“Okay. Whatever. Just for tonight. So for Chaos’ sake let’s make our charge a beauty, huh?” he asked, less than thrilled, but one could see he was trying. The rabbit’s ears wriggled in happiness.

“Yes! That’s the spirit!” Rouge slung an arm around the blushing and flailing echidna, kissing him on the (reddening) cheek, while Cream turned around to the person they were supposed to be helping. To her surprise, the spot was empty. A knife and a pan still lay forlornly on the ground.

“Rouge! Mr. Knuckles!”

The two other ‘fairy godmothers’ turned around. “What?”

“…I think she’s fled.”

---

The hall was still only half-full, but evermore people kept pouring in. The guests were as varying in appearance as one could have imagined, coming not only from all the corners of the kingdom, but there were also princesses from lands even farther off, sent here in the hope that a marriage to Sonic would mean a helpful alliance with Queen Aleena’s reign.

The music had already started to play, and some of the guests were dancing – Sonic and Amy had had to open the ball with a waltz, dancing together and both nervous as heck that any of them would even put so much as a toe wrong while over a thousand people were watching them.

After bowing in front of an enthusiastically clapping audience – Sonic, ever so good with footwork was simply marvellous as a dancer – they had separated.
His sister had everything but jumped on the young silver hedgehog (who had just been amusing himself by levitating some grapes) and so far not letting him go for even a single dance. The fact that Silver looked ready to collapse from exhaustion by now didn’t seem to bother her that much.

Sonic, however, had been barricading himself behind a glass of wine. He didn’t like the stuff much, but at least the constant offers to dance were kept at bay that way.
He tried to glance up from his beverage whether maybe the girls had found something else to occupy their attention, and winced.
No such luck. They had by now even formed a freaking queue.
The prince scanned the line of expectant females trying to inconspicuously ogle at him, and felt like fainting when he couldn’t even see the end.

There was a ground squirrel, Princess Sally of Walnut or something, and a pink hedgehog that was just a tad bit darker in colour than Amy. Sonic vaguely recalled having met her once. Sonia, right?
Further along the line was a purple cat that looked more prepared to kill anyone with her glares than dance with them (the prince privately sympathised with her, she probably felt just as out of place as him), and his gaze also swept with rising alarm over a human princess he would probably have to stand on a stepladder to dance with.

It was the girl behind her that sent the hedgehog prince behind his mother in one panicky second, though.

“Mom, I’m not gonna do this!”

The Queen interrupted her conversation with Lord Jules and sighed as she beheld her now sky-blue son.

“Darling, this ball is just for you-”

“But there’s a freaking starfish waiting to dance with me!”

----

“Hey there, honey, no need to be afraid!”

“We’re just here to help you!”

“Come on out already for Chaos’ sake, willya!”

“Knuckles! You’re scaring her!” the first voice admonished, eliciting an insulted intake of breath from the echidna.
The second, high-pitched speaker, suddenly squealed:

“I found her! Rouge, Mr. Knuckles, please come here, I found her!”

The wizard and fairy’s heads immediately flew around and both rushed over to the rabbit. In the light of their halos, all of them beheld the terrified hedgehog who had hidden in a chest, which Cream had just opened.

“Who – who are you!” Shadow squeaked, staring from one to the other.
“But we told you, darling! We’re your fairy godmothers, here to make sure you can go to the ball tonight!” the bat smiled at him and was joined by the younger girl.

“Yes! My Chao Cheese told me how you saved all of his friends in the pens!”

“And also there’s some stuff about a prophecy,” the wizard shrugged. “According to ancient texts it’s destined that you go to that ball tonight. We’re here to help you.”

Shadow had been too shocked to reply anything, his brain still unable to comprehend this odd turn of events. All three strangers seemed to take his silence as consent, however, as the older female suddenly clapped her hands and called out: “Allright! Let’s get moving!”

Sparks erupted from her fingertips, brightening up the entire room and the objects therein began to move.

“You need to get clean! Knuckles, be decent and turn around!”

Before Shadow could say anything, the bathtub, already filled with hot water and soap hurled downstairs, and he was lifted and thrown inside. Brush and sponge began to move by themselves and started to scrub vigorously, scraping off every single flake of dust and ash, accompanied by music out of nowhere.

“Bu-!” the black hedgehog started to cry out but immediately started sputtering and coughing as unwanted water also splashed into his mouth and the sponge hit some rather...ticklish areas at the same time.

The floor was by now a complete soaking mess, but already towels fluttered eagerly and excitedly from their broom cupboard and mopped the boards, while others attacked the hedgehog, rubbing every single inch of him.
The rabbit, meanwhile, had already prepared another spell, apparently with increasing enthusiasm.

“Look at her wounds! Bibbidi Bobbidy Boo, heal them!”

A shower of sparkles hit his chest and Shadow gasped as cuts magically sealed themselves and bruises vanished. An unwanted comb made him hiss as it suddenly raked through his fur along with a flying pair of scissors that trimmed the unruly tangled mess he’d been living in for ages.

“I’ll choose the dress! Red, like her eyes!”

“No! White, like her fur patch!”

“I don’t care if it’s rainbow-coloured, just get on with it!”

Various showers of light and stars rained down upon the hedgehog, who suddenly felt fabric touch him in very unfamiliar places.

“I do the glass slippers! I do the glass slippers!!!”

At that, Shadow finally found the breath to scream something, this time with his voice at its normal pitch.

STOP!

You could have heard a needle dropping.

Knuckles was the first to break the silence.
“Are you sure it said ‘princess’ in that prophecy…?”

---

“Please, Sonic. Just dance with a few of them.”

“I already did. They just want more of me that way!”

“Oh, darling…” the Queen sighed. “Please, I just want that you are happier than I was in my marriage. I was never able to choose.””

“I know, mom…” Sonic looked at his feet, for tonight stuck in red satin shoes that looked almost Chinese. The Queen put her hands on the shoulders of the Prince and tried to smile encouragingly.

“I know our people like me a lot as their ruler. But what they really want, Sonic, is to have a king again. People love kings. They give a reign stability.”

“That’s nonsense, mom. You’re doing a great job as monarch.”

He couldn’t really remember his own father, the King. Scourge the First had died shortly after Amy had been born…and even if you weren’t supposed to talk bad about dead people, Sonic had managed to get the general gist of the rumours, namely that his green-quilled father had been one greedy, power-hungry bastard.

“Thank you, Sonic,” Aleena smiled. “But what I said is still true. It’s a privilege to be able to marry the one you truly love. And for once, it’s a privilege usually reserved for those not confined to the life on the throne…but it is also a gift I want to give to you and Amy. That is why I have invited everyone, not just the princesses and nobles. Find your one true love tonight, Sonic, and you have my consent.”

“I’ll try…” the prince had still not raised his head.

“Go there and hit ’em, son.” the voice of Lord Jules started to encourage him as well, the fist of the noble nudging him lightly on the shoulder. The older blue hedgehog had always been somewhat of a fatherly friend for him, so Sonic smiled slightly.

“Yeah…”

“Trust me, arranged marriages are horrible. That’s why I’ve always stayed single.” the Lord explained, grinning.

Which was true. Lord Jules was a dear friend of his mother, though. Sonic dimly remembered his parents fighting over his frequent visits and overnight stays when he had still been smaller…

“Which was not really possible for me as a woman,” his mother sighed. “Still, our marriage only lasted two years…right until your father met with that terrible accident.”

“Food poisoning, right?” Sonic asked, still wondering why his mother was always smiling when she talked about that.

“Food poisoning, that’s right. Absolutely dreadful.” Lord Jules nodded, solemnly. “Just after your mother had given birth to Princess Amy, too.”

“Yes, he was a teensy bit upset over the second child not having his fur colour either, I recall,” Aleena mused, apparently in thought. “And then the realm was suffering under his rule so much…”

“What the Queen wishes to say, my Prince,” Jules laid his hands on the young hedgehog’s shoulders, continuing for her while Sonic was already starting to look more confused than ever, “is that sometimes you have to take destiny into your own hands.”

----

There you are. Yay for cameos. Next chappie, Shadow and his...uhm... bunch of lunatics are preparing to go to the ball, and Sonic is ready to drown himself in the punch bowle before continuing this torture! Already looking forward? Please review! :D
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