Chapter 2: Bippity-Boppity-Boo?

"You jackass turned me into a PIXIE!"

"I know! I know, I'm sorry!" Sonic was currently panicking, as this day had not been going particularly well.

Shadow had been turned into a pixie, for instance.

"The HELL! What did you do that for? Turn me back!"

"I'm sorry! I really am! I don't know what I did!" Sonic shouted back, rifling frantically through the items on top of the table, not even knowing what he was supposed to do now. Shadow unfortunately seemed to have gotten the hang of his new, silvery dragonfly wings really fast and was buzzing around a panicking Sonic's head like a particularly furry angry hornet.

"You blew stuff into my face! Why did you blow stuff into my face!"

"It was a joke – ah!" Sonic cried out as Shadow, now approximately six inches tall (and all of them angry) yanked at his ear. It seemed the transformation also had had the side-effect of making the black hedgehog just a tad more excitable, the term 'Manic Pixie' springing to mind easily.

"Ow! Stop pulling at my ear, I'm trying to find something here!"

"Then you better find it fast," the black hedgehog-pixie snarled into the abused blue appendage, able to see every single little anxious crease on the blue hero's face as Sonic fumbled on the table.

"I think it was one of those jars-"he babbled, grabbing the nearest container that had something with 'dust' scribbled on it and tried to pull the cork to show the contents to Shadow, how they had looked so perfectly harmless when he had opened it, but as it turned out, the winged hedgehog was just a tad faster.

"Don't open it again!" Shadow shouted, swooping down from his twinging ear and attempting to wrest the small vial from Sonic's fingers, "If you open it again, it might-!" he cried, jerking the container from Sonic's hand, but in this way actually managing to open it – the cork remaining between Sonic's fingers, the small glass vial going flying out of Shadow's tiny hands as the resistance was suddenly gone. The thing shot into the air, its contents spilling as it spun, hitting the hedgehogs staring at it dumbly, and then...

"Ah-CHOOO!"

xxx

Sonic shook his head to clear it from his sneeze and looked up. Then his face split into a smile as he beheld Shadow in front of him, back to normal size.

"Hey! It worked!" a huge grin spread across the blue hero's face – that abruptly faded as he noticed that Shadow wasn't smiling. And still had wings. And Sonic himself was sitting on what appeared to be the table cloth.

"Uh..."

"If you don't find the cure for this condition really, really fast, Sonic," Shadow stated calmly, crossing his arms before leaning down into a rather nervous hedgehog's face who was trying to scramble backwards on his behind by now, "I am going to rip those pretty new wings of yours straight out of your back."

Sonic looked over his shoulder. Black-and-blue butterfly wings twitched.

"...ah."

xxx

"You turned us into pixies. This must be a nightmare, only I can't wake up." Shadow was rubbing his forehead with the heel of his hand, eyes squeezed shut and teeth bared, as they were now both standing amidst the chaos of the table where the various magic utensils were spilled in disarray.

Sonic put a finger to his lips.

"Actually, I think I'm a fairy. My wings are way prettier than yours," he said, beating the large, single pair attached to his back almost coyly.

Shadow mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like various unpleasant uses (and storage spaces) he would like to suggest for those pretty wings, but then obviously tried to get himself under control again.

"Fine. We've been transformed. How do we turn back?" he asked. "I mean, we both got hit with powder, fine. Have you looked at the labels whether there is an antidote on this table ye-Sonic!"

"Hmm?" The last word had been snapped at the blue speedster, who apparently had not really been listening, but been more occupied with staring at his own wings as he moved them experimentally. Under any other circumstances, Shadow supposed he could have called them pretty, their size almost as big as the newly-shrunk blue hedgehog, their colouring a shiny blue with an intricate black pattern marked across it.

"Are you listening to me?"

Sonic waved him off. "What? Oh, yeah, yeah. Hey, don't get your wings inna twist about this, I'm sure we'll be able to fix it real soon."

"Oh really. And what makes you so certain?" Shadow asked back, folding his arms across his chest, new appendages twitching ominously. It actually seemed hard to hold them still.

"Well, so far, I've been transformed into a werehog, I went hyper, I got roboticized once, then we both turn Super regularly - and don't even get me started on those Wisp things. Nah, I'd say transformations really aren't such a big deal anymore," Sonic replied happily, counting his forms off on his fingers. "Let's have a look at the book, kay? There's probably something in there on how to turn back," he said, winking to Shadow before wresting the tome now about twice the size of the two of them open. The Ultimate Lifeform scowled at the blue speedster's trademark carefree attitude that didn't seem to have changed one iota, but finally consented to beat his wings as well, lifting off the table to hover in front of the script on the large, yellowed page of the book. It seemed to be a description of various mythical creatures of all sorts – at least, the page began with an introduction about their origin.

"When the first baby laughed for the first time, his laugh broke into a million pieces, and they all went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies," Sonic read aloud. "Heh, that sounds pretty cute, if you ask me, don'tcha think?" he questioned, turning to Shadow with a pleased grin.

The Ultimate Lifeform took one long look at the buzzing blue hedgehog, and decided to think that if the blue faker was a fairy, then the baby in the story had probably been deranged.

"No, I'm thinking that this isn't particularly helpful," he replied instead, still glaring. "So either you turn up some useful info real quick or I think I will have to make use of these other powders here, you know, the ones with the skull symbols on their bottl-"

"Alright, alright! Sheesh," Sonic commented, cautiously moving away from the ticked-off pixie and starting to dig through other things on the table. Shadow ruffled his wings in poor satisfaction and also let his gaze roam over the mess. For some reason, the colourful My Little Pony toys Amy had standing around were now starting to creep him out, but grinning neon horses were somewhat worrying when they were about level with your head. Fortunately, Sonic chose that moment to return with a shout of triumph.

"Got it!" He was waving a large piece of parchment at Shadow that had a couple of more pictures of pixies and wands on it and a few hand-made doodles that apparently were Amy's self-portraits of her as a fairy. Shadow took one look at it and barely kept himself from cringing.

"Says stuff about transformation on here," Sonic continued, frowning as he tried to somehow wrest the giant paper into a position so he could read it comfortably. He finally settled for draping it over Shadow and only stopped when the black-furred pixie's arm ripped a hole through the paper and the Ultimate Lifeform's hand nearly crushed his throat.

"Will. You. CUT. It."

"Okay! Okay! Don't kill me!" Sonic called out quickly, one hand of his trying to wrest Shadow's fingers off his throat, the other pointing at something on the parchment the dark pixie had torn off himself. "Look, there it says it's temporary!"

"What?" Shadow asked, releasing a slightly peeved Sonic, and turned to look at the incriminating parchment itself.

"There," Sonic said, still a bit hoarse, "here it mentions those powders that changed us. Says it should last an hour at the most."

"Hrrrm," Shadow made a sound not unlike Marge Simpson (except saying that to his face would probably have had some rather unpleasant consequences), but seemed to accept his fate grudgingly.

"Fine. An hour stuck in these bodies. What do we do until then?"

"Well, what's keeping us from doing what Amy asked us to?" Sonic replied with a shrug. "Let's get the decorations up and the food done."

"And how do you expect us to add pints of milk to batter when we're both pint-sized?" Shadow asked, crossing his arms (and wings behind his back). Sonic waved him off.

"Eh, we'll manage. Let's try those beauties on our backs and let's go!" the blue hero enthused, fluttering - and Shadow thought he couldn't believe that he had just used the word 'fluttering' to describe Sonic – a bit unsteadily toward the kitchen. The black hedgehog frowned, but then with a sigh resigned himself to his fate; With a few experimental movements of his own dragonfly wings (that mostly only knocked stuff on the table over at first) he finally managed to lift himself into the air as well, trying to follow Sonic on his drunken flight path into the other room.

"Faker?"

Weeeeeeeeeeee – yes?" Sonic asked, tiny wings working hard and erratically as the hero of Mobius was busy trying to fly a loop-de-loop but mostly ended up banging into wind chimes and dream catchers Amy had decorated her apartment with. Shadow, attempting a more dignified flight path, indicated the floor beneath Sonic.

"You are trailing freaking glitter with every goddamn wingbeat. Get any on me and I'll tear yours off."

"I'm a Twilight butterfly!" Sonic exclaimed, leading Shadow to respond with an utter W.T.F.-expression, and, briefly, the blue hero even seemed to pause and blink. "Wait, did I really just say that?" he asked, looking a bit flustered and pausing in the air.

"Yes, unfortunately," Shadow replied. "I admit I hadn't known there was a way to increase your insanity, but obviously it is possible."

"Huh," Sonic blinked, before scratching his head. "You know, come to think of it, I feel a bit different, too. Maybe this fairy powder also affects your character a bit. Actually, I feel kind of tipsy, now that you mention it," Sonic replied, already grinning again. "If pixies are the same, you know, yours should kick in every minute..."

Shadow could feel his heart sink, and vowed to be vigilantly on guard so he could possibly drown himself in the sink if he started glittering and giggling, too.

"Okay," Sonic started, having alighted on the kitchen bench, "I suppose we could start with just mixing the baking dough. Can't be too hard, can it?" he asked, peering down at the recipe book he was standing on while simultaneously trying to open a flour bag and shovelling the appropriate amount into the bowl already prepared. With combined efforts, they even managed to lift a milk carton ("keep pushing, I am pushing, No, you're not, shut UP and help me with this or it will tiiiiiiip-!") and poured just a *bit* more than the intended amount into the bowl, but at least sugar and baking powder were no problem. As a final ingredient before the mixing, Sonic had wrestled an egg out of its paper carton and was now balancing precariously with it on the rim of the bowl.

"Okay, Shadow, can you fetch a knife to break this with?"

The black hedgehog looked at him. And then, deep inside him, a little bit of ancient knowledge drifted to the surface...

Pixies didn't glitter.

Pixies didn't laugh like little girls.

Pixies were wicked.

"Sure, Sonic...one moment and I'll help you to crack that thing..."

The blue miniature hedgehog blinked at the odd tone. And then, as he saw the other slowly raising his right arm, a dreadfully familiar gesture of the Ultimate Lifeform, the only thing he managed was a "Shadow, no-!"

"Chaos Spear!"

"ARGH!"

There was scream as the egg exploded, equal parts landing on the kitchen bench, in the bowl and all over a furious fairy who had been knocked clean off the rim. Shadow suddenly couldn't help snerking at the blue and yellow glop emerging behind the bowl, and kept right on sniggering until a helping of butter suddenly landed in his face, Sonic glaring at him with the spoon he had used to scoop it still in hand.

"Care to try that again, hot shot?"

Shadow slowly wiped the butter from his face. Earlier, he had scoffed at the books with the funny writing and the silly pictures littering Amy's magic table, but now suddenly he wished he had read a bit more. Because what they also had mentioned was that in between pixies and fairies, there was usually a war...

The next twenty minutes were very interesting.

xxx

There was panting. "Truce?"

More panting. "Truce."

Both shrunken hedgehogs groaned and collected themselves off the kitchen floor again, having to take care to detach their wings delicately from the tiles, seeing as they were caked with flour, eggs, and possibly also more dreadful substances. The kitchen resembled something invaded by Hitler with an army of huns, even if the original cake bowl was still miraculously unscathed, but Shadow had glitter in places he had never wanted to have glitter in. The black hedgehog dislodged a pea from his ear.

"...I suggest we use the sink as a shower."

Sonic didn't like water at the best of times, but reluctantly agreed; if they stayed like this, they'd get dough all over the apartment and his wings were sticking together unpleasantly. After somehow wrestling with the giant soap bar, the two Sapients even managed to resemble their original colours again somewhat, but that still left the problem with the kitchen. Sonic shrugged.

"Eh, screw it. We'll be able to clean it up much better when we're big again, anyway."

"Agreed." Shadow gave a curt nod, still not too sure what he should think of his newly-acquired pixie sense of humour. Fortunately, it seemed to have died down now...

"Well, let's take care of the decorations, I suppose," Sonic said, leaping from the sink and flying with freshly gleaming wings over to the kitchen table where Amy had dumped the stuff intended for the party. "At least it should be easy to hang stuff up when we're like this..."

Shadow landed next to him, regarding the items. There were table decorations, paper flowers, novelty ice cube forms, crazy straws, and...streamers...

The Ultimate Lifeform pointed at them. "I'll do those."

Sonic looked at him, looked at his finger, looked at the streamers and looked back at him.

"No. Way."

xxx

It is said that a piece of ribbon is finely prized throughout the fair folk...

"Give it BACK!"

"Let it GO!"

In what was perhaps the first aerial tug-o-war game ever to be played indoors, the decorations were indeed spread out across the apartment, but probably not how Amy would have intended. Two winged, shouting miniature Sapients were curving through the air wildly, trying to shake the other loose from the streamer they clutched, and all the other streamers and paper ornaments that had become entangled in the mess were flying along with them. It was a bit like watching angry humming birds (except those probably would have used less adult language). Sonic's breath was driven out of his lungs as Shadow managed to swing the streamer with him clinging to it around and he was knocked against the window, momentarily letting go -

"Hah!" Shadow exclaimed triumphantly, yanking the paper ribbon from unresisting gloved hands, the released end swinging upwards...

...and becoming entangled in the ceiling fan. Shadow's expression changed as if in slow motion. Then time resumed.

"Oh hell naaaAAAaaaaAAAaaa-!"

Sonic watched with fascinated horror as the Ultimate Lifeform gave a very accurate impression of the Doppler-effect below the ceiling, being whirled around by the blades of the fan like a suicidal ragdoll. But then the blue hero's heart nearly skipped a beat as he realized that the streamer was actually being rolled in by the motion of the fan, which meant that Shadow's small body came in ever closer vicinity to the chopping blades...

"Shadow! Let go right now!"

"But-!"

"You'll get chopped in half! I'll catch you-!" Sonic yelled – and Shadow followed. At the last moment, small gloved fingers finally released the captive ribbon and the Ultimate Lifeform was hurled across the room with destructive force. Sonic thanked everyone who was listening for his reflexes and instincts that by now let him calculate effortlessly the trajectory of any projectile and exactly where he had to reach to intercept it...

Sonic shot forward, as fast as his wings would allow.

"Gotcha!"

The collision drove the air from his lungs a second time today, but that certainly was a better alternative than Shadow having landed on the knife block or in the cutlery drawer. As it was, the course was slowed but by no means stopped, and all Sonic could see was suddenly the cake bowl drawing ever nearer...

"NO!"

xxx

There was a crash. There were noises of even more wet stuff falling down, and objects tumbling from a kitchen bench. There was also the sound of a door opening, and two very shiny boots taking a few hesitant steps into the kitchen, but because these sounds were a whole lot quieter than the first sounds, they tended not to get noticed, that, is, until...

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!"

Until their owner suddenly announced her presence very loudly.

Sonic blinked. He was lying half on top of a groaning Shadow, half on top of spilled kitchen merchandise, and above him was towering a goddess of vengeance, or possibly Amy. The pink-furred girl looked ready to re-enact the croquet scene from Alice in Wonderland, quite probably with her giant mallet as a substitute for the flamingos, a reasonable reaction when you found two adult male hedgehogs who apparently had just been playing Pinball Extreme in your kitchen.

In the momentary silence, the only sound was for a moment the slightly sad flap-flap-flap noise from the streamer still trapped in the ceiling fan. Realizing that he suddenly lacked any and all desire for the item, Sonic also couldn't help but notice that everything now seemed remarkably normal-sized again, odd instincts and cravings apparently gone with the wings. All gone, except...

"SONIC THE HEDGEHOG! EXPLAIN THIS!"

The blue hedgehog grimaced, looking at the destroyed mess. He winced.

"Trust me, Amy, you wouldn't believe me if I tried..."

Fin

Magic and hedgehogs. Don't mix'em. :P Well, hope you liked this second installment of silliness and we actually got FANART! That is, fanart of a story inspired by fanart, which is by petite-dreamer and a cute (if ticked-off) pixie!Shadow.^^ Please see the link on the end of my profile! Thanks for reading and if you liked, please review! :D