*Sonic's POV *
The next morning was chaos, as I stood on the balcony in front of the crowd of people who had came to hear the announcement, I could not help but start shaking. Shadow was standing beside me and I could see our friends standing beside Tails down with the crowd. I had called him to warn him and keep our friends calm.

"My son, Maurice, will be getting married soon. With that said, his identity will no longer be a secret and he's here to re-introduce himself to you. Maurice?" My mother said and once she was done, I took a step forward facing everyone.

I kept my mask on for the moment and Shadow stayed behind, out of view for most people still.

"For years I have kept my identity a secret trying to live a normal life and hoping it protects my family or myself from people like Eggman. I hope all of you to treat me no different than you have when I walked beside you in the street or you don't hate me for keeping the secret this long, specially to my friends who I know I have been lying to but it was for a good reason and I hope they understand that. Now... without anything else to say..." I removed my mask and let my color turn to it's original color. "My name is Sonic the Hedgehog," people gasped and I could see my friends expressions fade from happiness to disbelief.  "I am Aleenas son, and I will be getting married to Shadow the Hedgehog in just a couple of weeks, making him a prince too, part of the royal family." Shadow walked beside me and held my hand.

Some people cheered for us, some booed at us. Some were happy and some concerned not believing Shadow was with me because of love rather than power. I looked at Shadow and he smiled at me then squeezed my hand helping me relax.

Aleena told us we could leave so we left the balcony and started heading to the garden where we were stopped by guards escorting our friends. They were not mad at us, they were happy for us and understood what I had gone through.

"All this time, you and Tails kept this big of a secret?" Rouge asked and was about to congratulate us when someone pulled me away from Shadow and hugged me tightly.

"I can't believe you actually did this!" I heard her say as I pulled back. Sally was standing in front of me, happily cheering for me and Shadow. "To think you did all this for Shadow."

Shadow grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to him, just now realizing I had not introduced them and knew things will now get awkward. "Shadow, meet Sally. Sally, this is Shadow, my fiancé."

"Nice to meet you, Shadow." Sally shook his hand but Shadow did too but then looked at me wanting to know how we knew each other.

"Sally is a good friend of ours," Tails chipped in. "She was with us back then trying to get rid of Eggman too before she too caved into her responsibilities as a princess and stayed at her castle."

"Yeah..." I scratched the back of my neck.

"I was also engaged to Sonic once." My ears lowered and I could see our friends reactions, they were shocked but not as shocked as Shadow. Who was now looking a bit angry. "Oh don't worry, Shadow. It was an arranged marriage, we never wanted to get married. Sonic got the guts to rebel against his mother's wishes and cancel the wedding before he even made the announcement."

"I'm sorry, Shad. I didn't think it was so important." I confessed as I watched Tails and Sally hug. He then dragged the rest of our friends away to leave us alone with Sally. "But we did date once." I sighed.

"I really only came to tell you that I'm happy for you. I'm glad you found someone you want to spend the rest of your life with. And Shadow," Sally said still smiling, wanting to reassure Shadow that she didn't have feelings for me. "I can tell Sonic really loves you, I've never seen him this happy. Congratulations on your engagement.  I'm very happy for the two of you." With that said, she walked away.

"You two dated?" Shadow asked after she left.

"I will answer any questions you have." I squeezed his hand.

"You don't like her anymore?"

"We realized we felt safe with each other because we made a good team. We let those feelings cloud us into thinking we liked each other but we didnt." I explained and he nodded.

The rest of the day was spent at the castle, already starting with the arrangements for the wedding and the measurements for our suits. It felt like such a long day but I felt happy every time I looked down at my ring and every once in a while when I would catch Shadow staring at me.