Mach I

It has been a week since I first awoke in the hospital. Rainbow Dash came to visit me every day since. We talked about lots of things like flying, adventures we had both had, even books. There were occasional awkward silent moments, but I usually ended them pretty fast by speaking. Rainbow has just left a few moments ago, and I decided to try and sleep. A few seconds later I heard the white hospital door creak open. A familiar grey and red unicorn walked in, covered in bandages.

"Neon!" I said.

"Hey Inferno." He said back, "Long time, no see."

"Heh, too long. So how have you been holding up?" I asked

"Oh, pretty good. The doc' let me walk since I'm improving pretty fast." Neon walked closer. He began to speak in a low tone. "Between you and me though, I think Twilight has got a crush on me."

"Really?" I asked, intrigued.

"Yeah, she has been being strangely nice to me, and she kissed me before she left last night!"

"Wow, lucky you." I paused. "Well, that is if you like her, of course."

"As strange as it sounds, I kind of do." He said even quieter.

"That's alright. You are both ponies, after all." I said. Before we could carry the conversation any further, a large white mare entered the room. Princess Celestia gracefully trotted over to me and Neon.

I recognized her instantly, and then said. "Hello Princess.", slightly confused.

"Hello there, Inferno." She responded back.

"So, uh, why are you here Princess?" Neon asked, equally confused.

"I am here to ask you both a very important question." She said. "Your coming here was accidental. We did not mean for the two of you to purposely appear here, and I apologize for this."

"There is no need for apology princess." Neon said. "I think being here in Equestria is one of the greatest things to have happened to me."

Princess Celestia spoke again. "Yes, and that brings me to my question." She switched her gaze back and forth between me and Neon, and then said, "Would you like to return to your world?"

There was a silence. Neon spoke up, saying "No, princess. If it is alright with you, I would like to stay here. My life in my world has been much hard labor and incredible danger every day. I have always felt a sense of pride for my country, but Equestria is much more than my world could ever be. I feel much happier here and I feel my mind is made up."

The princess nodded, then turned to me and said, "And you Inferno? Would you like to stay, or would you like to go back to your world?"

My world. Earth. I haven't thought a bit about my job, my friends, or my family. I had a pretty great life back there. I never really had a girlfriend besides back in High School, but I still missed my parents. What about here though? Neon, Twilight, and Rainbow. I couldn't leave any of them behind. It would be more painful than if I lost my old life again. Going through these experiences with Rainbow Dash and Neon has made this the best two weeks of my life, even if one of those weeks was sitting in a hospital bed. Plus, Rainbow has been with me this whole week. My emotions conflicted for few seconds, and then I remembered the one thing that made me want to stay here much more then anything else. Rainbow.

"Princess." I said, directly facing her. "I would like to stay here in Equestria."

"Alright then. I respect your wishes, and I will leave you two here to live as you like."

"Thank you princess." I said, wincing as I stretched my bandaged leg to far.

The princess looked at me, and then said "That reminds me, you two need to be fixed up." Her horn began to glow, and my pain began to diminish. Neon was glowing next to me, almost levitating. I looked down at my hooves and noticed that I too, was glowing. A few moments later the aura subsided. The sore pain I had felt before was gone. My casts and bandages began to slide and break off. I felt as if I had never been injured. To my left I looked at Neon and saw that his bruises and cuts were gone.

"I- I don't know what to say. Just, thank you so much." Neon said.

"It is no problem for me, after all, you two need to go find your mares." Celestia said.

I stared in shock for a moment, realizing what she meant.

I started to speak up, but was cut off by the princess. "Hurry along now, you don't want to wait until tomorrow do you?"

Without talking, I slid out of my white bed and trotted out the door, down the hall. I approached the front desk and asked, "Have you seen a cyan pegasus walk through here in the past few minutes?"

The tan colt across the counter nodded and pointed down the hall to my left. I looked in time to see a rainbow tail slide out of view around the corner. Quickly, I galloped down the long hall, made the turn, and ran straight into Rainbow.

"Hey! Who do you think you are bumping into me like that?" She asked angrily. She got up onto her hooves, and then looked at me. "Inferno? What are you doing up? I thought you were seriously injured!"

"I am, I mean- I was. The princess came and- and she healed me. She asked if me and Neon wanted to stay in Equestria." I paused for a moment to catch my breath. "I said yes. I said yes because I didn't want to leave you, Rainbow."

She stared at me for a few moments, blankly, then moved forward and kissed me. It wasn't what I expected. In actuality, I didn't know what to expect. Instead of thinking more, I returned the kiss. We sat there for what seemed like forever. Eventually the kiss broke and I took a much need gulp of air, realizing I held my breath the whole time. Rainbow smiled at me, blushing. I could feel the heat in my own face and tried to ignore it. I could only feel happiness at the moment, and I smiled back.

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Thank  you guys for all the support through this story. Expect a Mach II because this was just too much fun to write.