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It’s a rare thing for Amy Rose to be drawn away from a nice soft serve ice cream. For most of her life, this was her go-to dessert, the thing could drive away her woes with a single bite of its frosty goodness. Eventually, Vanilla bought an ice cream maker for her household just so they could have some whenever they wanted. It was a constant source of joy in her life.
Today, though? Today it felt like it was the dam holding back a tidal wave of emotions.
“Mm. Amy, I think this is the best dessert I’ve ever had. I’m falling in love.”
The words snapped Amy out of her thoughts. The sound of the ice cream parlor and its patrons—previously loud enough to be distracting—faded into the background as she focused on the person in front of her. She pushed away the dark cloud forming over her mind and looked at her friend with a weary smile. “Trip...That’s just a milkshake.”
Trip shook her head, holding her cup aloft. “No! It’s a mint chocolate chip milkshake! The texture is perfect, the flavor is just the right amount of bitter and sweet; I would fight the Black Dragon for a supply of it.”
Amy chuckled, glancing over the parlor. A number of patrons milled about, eating sherbet and waffle cones and all kinds of other frozen delicacies. “This place is pretty good, yeah. Best ice cream in Station Square. You know, this place used to be a burger shop before…Well, that.”
Trip followed Amy’s gaze out the window. Just outside the parlor was a statue atop a water fountain. It showed the likeness of a familiar hedgehog, painted gold all over his fur and quills while holding up an emerald. The statue’s bright and optimistic demeanor was in stark opposition to the downpour of rain that covered the street.
Amy didn’t need to read the plaque to know who the statue was honoring. She knew it by heart. Most days, that fact would make her sigh wistfully. But right now, she looked at it and she felt her heart twist.
Amy was so lost in thought that she didn’t realize Trip was watching her until she said, “Amy? Are you okay?”
“Huh?” Amy shook her head. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?”
Trip shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “You just seem a little off today. Normally when we visit, you’re all happy and excited, but today you’ve been a little distracted. Did something happen?”
Amy shrugged, taking a small bite out of her soft serve. “It’s nothing,” she said, focusing her eyes on the strawberry swirls in her cone. “Guess the weather just has me feeling off.”
Trip shot Amy an incredulous stare. “What’s that thing you’re always telling me? ‘A burden shared is a burden halved’? Let me take your half. If it’s nothing, it shouldn’t be a bother, right?”
Amy’s mouth became a thin line. She did believe in sharing burdens—as long as it was her taking those of others, not vice versa. Despite that, she tapped a finger against her waffle cone. “What happened to that shy girl who was scared to talk back to me?”
“You made her more confident, taught her to love herself, and now she thinks it’s okay to tease you…especially if it means you get the help you need. So tell me, please?”
Amy took another bite of her ice cream, nibbling at the upper edge of the cone for a moment before replying, “It’s not a big deal, really, I just…”
The words died in her mouth. How do you explain something like this? A hole opened where her stomach should be, a pit of anxiety and worry. Amy could handle a lot; badniks, the earth splitting apart, alien creatures that want to destroy the planet; but talking about her problems? That was a different story.
But Trip was still watching her, with that look in her eyes that Amy knew well. It felt like a challenge; like Trip was saying, You’re my best friend, but if you don’t cough up some details right now, I’m gonna hug the heck out of you until you do.
Amy took to staring at the statue of Sonic through a curtain of rain before she finally spoke. “Do you think I’m annoying?”
Trip’s brow bunched together. “What? No. I mean, yes, you can get on my nerves sometimes; but that’s what friends do. I wouldn’t call it annoying. Why?”
Amy let out a dry chuckle. “I get it, don’t worry. I just…Do you ever feel like people would like you better if you were different? If you just got rid of a few flaws here and there and changed yourself for the better?”
Trip nodded, her eyes glancing towards the table. “All the time. It’s been easier since I met you and your friends, but…I’m still having a hard time with my self-esteem issues. Do you feel that way too?”
Amy made a so-so motion with her free hand. “I guess? I mean, it just feels like people see me differently these days. It’s just been on my mind lately.” She closed her eyes, reeling her mind back to adventures past. “A while back, people used to think I was so annoying. Sonic especially. I remember when we visited Twinkle Park; I was trying to have some fun, impress him, but he was just so…exasperated. And it feels like that was our dynamic for a while. And not just him, other people felt that way too. Like I was bothering them all the time.”
Amy’s quills slowly struggled to rise against the oppressive force of the quill gel she used to keep it in place. Turns out that even emotional problems can trigger your survival instincts, making your body say, Hm, we’re in danger. Time to curl into a ball and poke the thing that scares us. It wasn’t particularly useful, but she had to admit; the option was appealing right now.
“After the whole Dark Gaia thing,” Amy continued, “Sonic finally asked me out on a date, but then he never showed. He said something about Camelot and King Arthur—I don’t even know what that was all about. Probably another adventure, but at the time, I thought he was making it up to get away from me.”
Trip’s neutral expression gave way to a concerned frown and a tilt of the head. “I mean, I get why that’s upsetting…But why is it bothering you now? Sonic’s always like that.”
Amy bobbed her head in a Fair enough motion. “Yeah, but…I don’t know. I’ve held back a lot, I think. After that whole mess, I tried toning myself down. I thought I was the problem, you know? And I guess it worked. I’ve been going on more adventures lately, people seem to like me more…”
Amy leaned back in her seat, staring at the ceiling fan above them as it spun idly. “But that’s not me. It’s someone else. The person they like isn’t Amy, it’s another girl that looks like me, but she’s so different, it just feels…inauthentic. Like I’m wearing a mask around everyone. I know it’s not that important, but it bothers me lately. I wish I could just be happy being the person they want me to be.”
As Amy laid bare her feelings, Trip watched with a certain uneasiness in her eyes. Amy recognized that look. It was the same feeling of trepidation that Trip always showed when she was holding something back. When she had something she wanted to say that she knew would be unpopular. Usually Amy would encourage her to speak her mind, but now? Now she was worried that she might hear something she didn’t want to.
Amy let loose a sigh. “Sorry about dumping this all on you, I’ve just had a lot of time to think lately. Sonic told me about a memo that Eggman left during our cyber-adventure on the Starfall Islands, and it was going on about how I had so much potential, but it was wasted trying to play catch up with Sonic. And I don’t know what’s worse; the fact that it’s getting under my skin, or that I kinda believe him.”
Trip eyed her milkshake as if it had all the answers. To be fair, it could. Not much weirder than a fortune card. “You know it’s a problem when Eggman starts making sense.”
Amy tilted her head. “Do you think he’s right? Am I just wasting my time trying to make Sonic and the others happy?”
“I wouldn’t say he’s right, but…I can see where you’re both coming from.” Trip picked a chocolate chip from her milkshake and plucked it into her mouth. “Lately, you’ve been different. You’re not as excited as you used to be. You were so loud and energetic and silly all the time. Then you just sort of changed. I wasn’t sure why, I just thought after everything you dealt with, you were just tired.”
Amy scoffed. “I was tired of something, yeah. It felt like everybody looked at me and they just saw some girl with a crush and nothing else. Nobody ever seemed to acknowledge the other things I do. I can ride Extreme Gear, I can hold my own against badniks, I ran communications for the Resistance…”
She looked back outside, at the golden Sonic that was standing proudly in the rain. She didn’t mean to suggest it, but the meaning was clear: I don’t get a statue. I don’t get accolades. What am I doing wrong? Why does nobody care?
Trip seemed to catch the meaning pretty well. When she looked at the statue, something changed in her eyes, like she was seeing it in a new light. Amy wondered if Trip saw it like she did; a reminder of how hard it is to be in the shadow of someone so great.
After a couple of seconds, Trip placed her milkshake on the table. “If you want my opinion? It’s their loss. I don’t want some generic, acceptable girl for my friend. That’s not the Amy that I know. The Amy I know is weird and loud and loves breaking things with hammers and collecting pretty things. She’s the one that helped me stand up to bad guys. And yes, she’s the girl with a silly crush, because that’s what she wants to be!”
A fire sparked behind Trip’s eyes. She slammed her hands on the table and jumped to her feet, a righteous anger burning behind her heart. “You shouldn’t change to make other people feel better! You should be what you really like, just like you taught me to be! And if people don’t like that, well…Well, they can take a spin dash to the face! You’re perfect the way you are—as my best friend!”
Around the parlor, people began to glance their way. A few whispered, raising eyebrows and murmuring, What is that all about? Are they okay? The lizard girl looks pretty intense. Trip must have realized how she looked, because her cheeks turned a bright red. She looked down at the table as she fell back into her seat with an awkward, “Well, um, that’s just how I feel.”
Amy couldn’t help but smile, a bittersweet expression if there ever was one. “Thanks, Trip. It’s sweet of you. I guess it’s just hard to measure up to someone who fights ancient evils all the time.”
Trip shook her head. “Don’t you get it, Amy? Sonic might save the world, but you save the people in it. Birdie, Froggy, Chocola, Shadow—me! You saved us when Sonic was dealing with the 'bigger' threat. And if you didn't, he never would have been able to stop those problems. He couldn’t have stopped the ARK or Neo Metal without you.”
Trip smiled, sympathetic and a little sad. “I know they don’t give out statues or pictures with the president for that kind of thing, but it’s still important. The world might only see the glowing golden hedgehogs fighting the epic battles, but there has to be more than that. The world needs you more as Amy than it needs another Sonic. I know I did. So please…”
Trip placed a hand on the table between them, holding it out. Amy took it, and Trip gave her fingers a squeeze. “Stay the Amy that’s my friend. The one that does the important things that nobody else does. And if the world won’t make you a statue, then I will.” She paused, and laughed under her breath. “Just don’t expect it to be very good. I might need to see if my Gramps can teach me a thing or two about stoneworking, or it might end up looking less like you and more like a pointy, smiling boulder.”
That caused Amy to let out a giggle. “At least the boulder has a great personality. And, more importantly, a good friend.” Amy allowed herself to smile. Outside, the sound of heavy rainfall dulled to a pitter-patter, and moments later gave way to silence as the clouds began to drift away, parting to reveal the shining stars lighting up the night sky. I guess they don’t get the same credit that the sun and moon do, she thought, But that doesn’t make them any less beautiful, does it?
Amy tore off another piece of her waffle cone and threw it into her mouth, mixing with a bite of soft serve. It tasted sweeter now. It was Trip’s encouragement, of course, but it was something else too. The feeling of getting this off her chest after so long. It was nice.
“It’s so weird, you know?” Amy watched the puddles on the street outside reflect the speckled night sky as she went on, “I always saw Sonic as my big hero, but right now? I think I have to pass the honor to you, Trip. Seriously…Thank you. I needed to hear that.”
Trip rubbed the back of her neck, smiling awkwardly. “Heh. Normally I’d say I’m not up there with Sonic…But I guess it’s not that different from what you do. And if I can make you feel better, sure, I guess that makes me a hero. Just like you.”
“Well, I don’t guard a sacred rock holding an ancient monster in it, so…”
“Really? Because I hear they let anybody do that lately. I’m not saying Knuckles copied me when he let Chaos escape the Master Emerald, but it feels a little derivative.”
“Just wait until you hear how many Death Eggs Soni—we stopped.” Amy stood up from her chair, taking another bite of her ice cream. “I’ll tell you on the way to the hotel. Honestly, he always thinks the giant sphere is going to work, but it never does…”
And so, the conversation moved on as Amy and Trip left the parlor and continued on their way. But even as the topic changed, what Trip said buzzed in Amy’s mind. She never saw what she did as heroic—but who gets to define a hero? Is it the accolades or the lives you changed? If one were to measure it all up, then most people were heroes as long as they chose to be kind to others.
Super Sonic might be able to fight monsters, but it takes a friend to stand you back up after getting knocked down. Amy would take that instead any day.