Winds of Freedom

In no time at all Pinkie dragged Sonic up to a strange, round building that looked like a carousel. Sonic whistled appreciatively at the fine clothing held up in the windows, positioned on mannequins.

     "Wow, this place looks pretty first-class for a town like Ponyville. Wait, that came out wrong," and Sonic grinned apologetically. Pinkie just nodded in understanding before continuing her explanation.

     "No, I know what you mean! Rarity runs the nicest place in Ponyville. We're lucky to have her since this is such a small town. But it's okay cause she's my bestest friend in the whole wide world. Except for Fluttershy, oh, and Twilight, and Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, and-"

     "I get the point!" Sonic exclaimed desperately, hoping to stop the flood of names before he got too confused. "So Rarity runs this shop?"

     "Mmhmm! The Carousel Boutique! She's super pretty too, so don't get any funny ideas!" Pinkie gave Sonic a mock glare, laughing as his face turned bright red.

     "Wha-... But I would never-"

     "I know, I'm just teasing you, silly! Come on, Sonic, you have to meet her! She'll love your vest, too!" Pinkie made her vise-like grip on his arm even tighter and pulled him towards the door. Walking forwards, she expertly opened the door and hauled Sonic in without letting go of either of them, before shutting the door behind her.

     "Rarity, are you here? There's someone I want to introduce to you! He's new, and he's only staying for a few days, but I'm trying to convince him to live here, so make him feel guilty about leaving, kay?" Pinkie called out, not in an extremely loud voice, but one that would carry to whatever part of the building Rarity was in.

     "Pinkie Pie, is that you, darling? So what poor soul did you capture this time? You said 'he', didn't you dear? Well, what's his name?" Rarity asked as she elegantly sauntered into the room. Suddenly Sonic understood what Pinkie was talking about when she told him not to "get any funny ideas".

     Rarity was gorgeous, and she knew how to flaunt it. Her naturally beautiful face and form were augmented by skillful use of makeup and well-designed clothing. Her blue eyes were complimented by matching eyeshadow, and her purple hair fell in waves and curls down her back. She wore a deceptively simple yet charming little white dress. A small blue jewel hung at the neckline, and she wore matching earrings to draw out the sky blue color. Her shapely, graceful legs ended in delicate feet that rested in black flats that also had a small sky-blue jewel at the top of each. All in all, her outfit was expertly put together.

     "Uuh... My name's Sonic. And I already heard your name, Miss Rarity," Sonic introduced himself as gracefully as he could, and found it near impossible not to stare. He forced himself to focus on her eyes, which sparkled in amusement at Sonic's consternation.

     "Oh, darling, it's such a pleasure to meet you! Pinkie said something about you staying...?" and she gave him a quizzical smile.

     "The pleasure's all mine, Miss Rarity. And no, I'm moving on in a few days, it's just Pinkie Pie is trying to guilt trip me into staying," Sonic responded with a winning smile of his own, all his lessons in manners and royal behavior coming back to him instinctively.

     "My, you surely found a gentleman this time, Pinkie! And do keep the pressure on him, we wouldn't want such a handsome, promising young fellow to move on." Rarity seemed to take delight in the spreading blush that was making itself known on Sonic's face. Then her gaze went straight to his clothes.

     "Dear, now you must tell me where you got that vest! I've never seen fabric like this before, and that intrigues me to no end. Where did you get it?" Rarity eyed him with a stern look that told Sonic that she wouldn't let him leave without answering her.

     "It was a gift from a friend of mine that's in the Royal Guard. It's made of mythril thread. They use it to line the armor of the Guard, but this one was tailored for me specifically."

     'At least that much is true. I don't want to have to lie to her, but I don't know how to explain knowing Shining Armor' Sonic groaned internally. 'Please don't ask who gave it to me...'

     "And who exactly gave it to you, darling?"

     "Uhhh, it was, uhh... a guard by the name of Flash Sentry, I met him in Canterlot. He's an okay guy, but I think he only gave it to me so he would look better to his friends." Sonic at least felt better about telling the truth about Flash Sentry, who was a dodgy character at best. It still grated to have to lie at all, though.

     "Flash Sentry?" Rarity rolled the name around her tongue as if tasting something bitter. "I believe I know him, or of him, at least. A friend of mine had a crush on him a few years back, but quickly got over it when she saw his true colors. He may have acted like a gentleman, but it turns out he just wanted to have the thrills of marrying a princess. At the time, my friend was still quite naive and didn't even think to consider that Sentry might not truly love her." Rarity scowled in distaste. She also looked a bit guilty, too, as if she had done something similar once...

     Sonic was reminded of the stories he had heard when Blueblood had once been flirted with by a 'commoner'. Or at least, that's how Blueblood put it. Apparently Rarity had it in mind to marry a prince, but Sonic was glad that the phony royal hadn't gotten the idea to actually go along with it. That would be a torture Sonic wouldn't inflict on anyone.

     "Anyways, I shouldn't keep you too long. Pinkie is probably dying to introduce you to the others. And remember, if you decide to stay, there's always a room open for you here at the Boutique." Rarity batted her eyelashes at the flushed teen, clearly mistaking his nervousness at having to lie for embarrassment at being around her charms. To be honest, Sonic was finding it troublesome to keep his gaze from drifting towards where it shouldn't have been.

     "C'mon, don't keep me waiting!" called out Pinkie, who was somehow already standing outside.

     'Funny, I didn't hear the door open,' Sonic thought, confused. He quickly joined her outside, bidding farewell to Rarity and closing the door behind him.

     "So!" began Sonic, clapping his hands together, "where are you taking me next, Pinkie?"

     Sonic was not expecting the answer to his question to be a giant crystalline castle. Sonic stared at in astonishment, craning his neck upwards so that he could see its distant peak. Sonic had been impressed by the class and refinement of the Boutique, but this was on another level entirely.

     "This is Twilight's castle!" Pinkie informed him, skipping up to the giant doors. "She's my bestest friend in the whole wide world! Well, except for Rarity, and Fluttershy, and Applejack, and I can't forget Rainbow Dash! And there's-"

     "Pinkie!" Sonic interrupted her. She stopped and stared at him with those endlessly cheerful blue eyes of hers.

     "Yes?"

     "Did you really-... you know what? Never mind."

     "Oh, okay!" Pinkie turned back around and skipped the rest of the way to the front door. With a practiced air, she pounded on the door as loud as she could.

     "Ooooh, SPI-iiike! Open up please!" Pinkie Pie called out in a sing-song voice. From within the great doors Sonic heard a grumble.

     "Come on, Pinkie. You know that you can just walk in any time, just like any of the girls," responded what Sonic presumed to be the entity known as Spike.

     "I know, but the author couldn't think of a better way to introduce you to the readers, Spike!" Pinkie called back. Sonic looked around him in bewilderment.

     "Author? What, is someone writing a book about this?" he wondered aloud. There was a great heaving sigh from inside the castle, and suddenly the doors slowly opened. Sonic looked inside to find himself eye to ankle with a purple dragon the size of an elephant. The dragon, Spike, glared around the vicinity in suspicion.

     "Stinkin' lazy authors," Sonic heard the dragon groan. He twitched his giant wings when he saw Sonic.

     "Who's this?" he asked, addressing Pinkie but not looking away from the blue haired teen.

     "This is my brand new friend, Sonic! I'm trying to convince him to stay in Ponyville, so don't scare him, okay?" Spike laughed softly at Pinkie's explanation. He leveled one great eye at Sonic.

     "Don't worry, Pinkie, I won't," Spike reassured her. Despite the fact it sounded like his voice was emanating from deep within his chest, and it was very forceful and made the very air vibrate, it wasn't loud or very deep. Rather, it was soft, almost like the sound of the waves on the beach: powerful, but soothing at the same time.

     Sonic smiled up at the large reptile, and he was rewarded with a responding smile; one full of sharp teeth. Sonic wasn't afraid though, and he rather liked Spike. He seemed trustworthy.

     Even so, it was not enough to fully prepare him for being snatched up by those deadly looking claws. Sonic yelped indecorously as he was unceremoniously lifted up and deposited on the dragon's back. He landed hard on Spike's shoulder blades, right in between the points where his wings jutted out from the tops of his shoulders.

     "What'd you do that for?" Sonic asked, his voice uncertain.

     "It's easy to get lost in the castle. Wouldn't want to find your bones a few months from now. And I'm not kidding, we don't use a lot of the castle. We try to keep anyone from going missing, but we've had a few close calls." Spike explained nonchalantly. Sonic gulped. The idea of being lost in a castle, even dying that way, was a foreign thought to the palace-raised teen.

     "Oh." Sonic answered, making himself comfortable on the dragon's broad shoulders.

     "Spike!" Pinkie scolded. "I told you not to scare him!" She put her hands on her hips and glared straight at the dragon.

     "He's fine! Right, Sonic?" Spike craned his head around to look at Sonic from the corner of his eye.

     "Right!" Sonic responded. Spike rumbled happily and turned around to enter the castle. All of the hallways seemed to have high ceilings, so Spike had no trouble fitting through, though Sonic was forced to duck when they went through some smaller doorways.

     It took about a minute and a half of confusing twists and turns before they finally reached a giant doorway that Spike and Sonic easily fit through. The quadruped dragon reared up on his hind legs in order to knock on the door.

     "Hey Twilight! Can we come in? Pinkie Pie brought company," Spike announced. There was a muffled yelp and a bang as something got knocked onto the floor.

     "Umm, yes, Spike, come on in. Owww..." said a female voice on the other side of the door. Spike wasted no time and immediately pushed the door open with his shoulder. Inside, the walls extended much higher than in any of the other rooms they had gone through. They walls were covered in shelves, and the shelves, in turn, were covered with books. There must have been thousands of books on each wall.

     There were also piles of books on the floor, the most notable being a human sized pile with an actual human in it. Sonic quickly slid off Spike's shoulder and down his front leg. Helpfully, he pulled the stack of books off the girl and placed them neatly on a nearby table. His sharp eyes immediately noted that they were science books, based on the theories and work of Clover the Clever and Starswirl the Bearded.

     "Are you okay?" Sonic asked, taking the girl's hand and pulling to her feet.

     The girl known as Twilight, like the other girls Sonic had met, was exceptionally pretty. She was wearing a simple, purple long shirt, with shorts of a color just a shade darker poking out from underneath. She had clear violet eyes that seemed to sparkle. Her hair was a pretty navy blue, the same color as the night sky just after the sun sets. It was offset by two stripes of different colors in her hair: one a deep purple, and the other a rich but not bright pink. She wore sneakers of the same color as her dress.

     She looked at the books on the table before finally turning to Sonic. That was when she noticed that he was a total stranger. Before she could freak out, Spike jumped in.

     "Twilight, this is the company I was talking about. Pinkie Pie's showing him around." Twilight looked Sonic up and down critically before allowing a smile to creep onto her face.

     "Hi, I'm Sonic. And you're Twilight, right?" Sonic gave her a reassuring smile.

     "Umm, yeah. Twilight Sparkle. Thanks for making sure the books were okay," she responded. Her answer threw Sonic off, but only for a moment.

     'She likes books to a fault, huh?' he thought to himself. 'Well, I guess I have to make conversation, even though it's egghead stuff.'

     "Those are pretty advanced books. You read them often?" Sonic asked. Twilight's eyes lit up and almost looked manic in their enthusiasm.

     "Oh, yeah, they're my favorites. I love studying the way air currents and ambient magic affect spell-casting, especially since as an alicorn I can combine the two magic forms." Twilight smiled at Sonic, who for once knew exactly what she was talking about. His answer astounded Pinkie and Spike.

     "Well, that's actually relatively simple. They can be combined, but they slide off each other like oil and water a lot of times, making pegasus and unicorn magic incredibly hard to combine, especially since you need two different people working in perfect unison. Yet this isn't a problem for an alicorn's power, since they're all three combined. As such, they can be meshed much easier if you're an alicorn, but there's a great deal of magical friction, which means the more you try to combine them the more effort you have to put into a spell..." Sonic paused in his answer as he saw the shocked looks on all three's faces.

     "You...know...advanced magical theories?" asked Twilight slowly. Sonic grinned sheepishly.

     "I dabble," he said hesitantly.

     'Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!' he thought to himself. 'How the hell am I supposed to explain how I know this? The only reason I do is because I mesh pegasus and unicorn magic all the time!' He internally panicked.

     "That's so cool!" Twilight squealed. "Finally I have someone to talk to! No one else really knows this stuff, but now-"

     "I don't actually know that much!" Sonic protested. "I was just..."

     "Just what?" asked Spike, walking forward a few steps to stand directly above and behind Sonic,

     "Just trying to talk about something Twilight would be interested in," Sonic responded softly. "I wanted to make sure that you liked me as a friend. I don't know! I don't really have many people to talk to, so I'm not used to just having conversations with people I don't know!" Sonic's outburst surprised everyone in the room.

     "Are you saying... you don't have friends?" Pinkie asked sadly.

     "Well, I have one really good friend. He was traveling with me earlier today, but we got separated and I haven't seen him since. I know he can take care of himself, but I'm worried. Other than that, no. I don't have any friends." Sonic looked out the window, his brow furrowed.

     "Well, in that case, you'll just have to stay here!" Twilight interjected.

     "What?" Sonic looked at her, confused.

     "You'll stay here in Ponyville until you find your friend," Twilight said, not a trace of hesitation in her voice.

     "No, I can't do that. I'm leaving in a few days, I can't stick around."

     "Oh, no you don't!" refused Pinkie happily. "There's no way you're getting out of this now! Haven't you noticed? Everyone wants you to stick around, me Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, even Spike! Right?" The dragon nodded in affirmation. "Besides, we need another boy around! Poor Mac is all by his lonesome, and so is Spike! You can't leave them hanging!" Pinkie Pie looked up all him with hopeful eyes. Sonic looked at her, and then at Twilight, then at Spike, then back at Pinkie.

     "Oh, alright. I'll stay. But only until I find my friend."

     "Pinkie Promise?" Pinkie asked. Sonic sighed. Aunt Celestia had once explained the premises of the all-powerful Pinkie Promise.

     "Cross my heart," and Sonic did so, "hope to fly," he flapped his wings dramatically, causing Twilight to giggle, "stick a cupcake in my eye," and he pantomimed doing so. "That would be an awful waste of a cupcake though," Sonic said with a smile. "I'd rather stick it in my mouth."

     "Now that that's settled," Twilight said authoritively, " where are you going to stay?"

     "Well, Rarity said that-"

     "Here in the castle!" Spike interrupted, stopping Sonic from mentioning Rarity's offer. "You know, if that's all right with you, Twilight," he amended.

     "I don't see a problem with it. Just try not to get him lost." Sonic opened his mouth to protest the fact they were making this decision for him, but he didn't have a chance to before Spike wrapped the end of his prehensile tail around his waist and carried him out of the library.

     "Spike, wait!" Sonic exclaimed, struggling in the tight grip of the reptile's tail. He squirmed and wriggled, but there was no escaping Spike's tight grip.

     "No. I need someone else around who's a boy. I'm sorry, but only having good girls around was driving me mad. I mean, I love them all, and would give my life to protect them-"

     "Don't worry about it," Sonic stopped him, suddenly understanding the situation. "I know what you mean."

     "So I guess you'll be staying here. It's not like there's a shortage of rooms, so it's not a big deal or anything. Where would you like to stay?"

     "Whichever room is closest to the door. That means there's less area for me to get lost in." Spike laughed in agreement before again settling Sonic on his shoulders. He padded toward the entrance in silence.

     "So you haven't met Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash yet, right?" Spike suddenly asked.

     "Right," Sonic affirmed.

     "Rainbow Dash shouldn't be a problem, we just need to catch up to her. Fluttershy, though... introducing you to her might be harder."

     "Why's that?"

     "The best way to put it is that her name describes her all too well," Spike explained, coming to a halt in front of a set of double doors. "Here, this is the closest room I can think of to the entrance."

     "Thanks!" Sonic said, again sliding off of Spike's back. He pushed open the doors, and stared at the room inside. It was BREATHTAKING.

     The sun was at just the right angle to shine into his window, as it was getting close to sunset. The light was reflected over and over again, making a spectacular light show of sunbeams.

     "Here it is!" Spike announced. "Your home away from home!"

     'Huh. A place to call home. Didn't think I would find one outside the castle.'

     "C'mon, I should get you acquainted with this part of the castle," said Spike, breaking through Sonic's thoughts.

     "Oh, right." Sonic turned around and followed the purple dragon, listening as he began to explain the layout of the castle.