"Well, Mister Cleveland." One of the doctors says to me the next day. "It's time for you to check out. We planned on having you stay for a little longer, but the Princess wanted us to release you early."

"Do you mean Luna or Celestia?" I ask.

"The former." The doctor replies. "We figured that if a Princess wants a patient to leave early, we should let them out early." She shakes her head and sighs. "Anyway, if you ever need to come back here, please don't hesitate to do so."

It's a good thing there aren't any hospital bills here. The American health care made me want to move back to Canada, and I rarely ever went to the hospital. That includes the time I was killed. "Thanks, doc." I tell the mare before I head out of the hospital. I head over to Hammer's stall, like I promised.

Despite my promise, her stall is vacant. I'll need to find out her schedule so I can actually know when to say hi to her.

With nothing else to do, I walk to my house. I unlock my door and enter my mostly empty house. There's still just a couch, bed, and wardrobe. If I can't get any more major furniture, I should at least get a poster or something. The eggshell white of the walls isn't that bad of a color, but too much of it seems to give me a headache. I'll need to talk to Rarity to help me out. I don't know if she's good with interior decoration, though. I assume she is.

I sit on the couch and look at my wrapped up hand. I hope I don't get in a fight any time soon. Having a burned hand wouldn't be an advantage in a fight. At least my dominant hand wasn't the one that was burned. I should get my mind off this injury. I've heard something about ignoring or not worrying about injuries to make them heal faster. If it's not good for the injury, it's good for the mind. It's probably bullshit, but I should focus on something else.

There's that concert or whatever with Rainbow Dash. I don't think she gave a time or day for it. Something in my gut is telling me that it's tomorrow or the day after. My gut's more often than not right about this kind of stuff, so I decide to follow my gut's orders.

I stand back up and rummage through the wardrobe. There isn't anything too fancy. It's kind of a shame. I'll be going out in public, but I don't feel that street clothes would be the best for the meeting with Rainbow. I should at least wear a button up shirt. Fortunately, Rarity provided me with a surprising amount. I did ask for a lot of button ups...

I put a button up shirt with a plaid pattern on the couch. Basic denim jeans should be fine. I feel like something else is missing...

I hit my forehead with my palm. A tie would be perfect. Why didn't I think of that? I search the wardrobe like a sniper hunting their target. That's not a very common analogy, but it works.

I hit the bottom of the wardrobe. I look again and again. There aren’t any ties in the wardrobe. Huh. There are several pairs of bow ties, but no regular ties. Maybe Rarity has no idea how to make ties for a human? Actually, now that I think about it, I haven’t seen any ties in Ponyville, but I’ve seen plenty of bow ties. Maybe there aren’t any ties in Equestria?

Ugh. What am I thinking, getting a tie? I’m going to a concert, not a dance. And I’m going there with Rainbow Dash. I don’t need to go in a tuxedo. Street clothes should be fine. Now that I say that, she'll probably show up in a Victorian-era dress. But I want to make an impression on her… I actually care about what she thinks this time, as opposed to all the girls I’ve been with back on Earth. Ugh. That sounds a lot worse than I meant it to.

Okay. No ties for me, then. I won't use a bow tie as an alternate. I've never really cared for them. They always seem to be too tight on me. I've also heard that, whenever I wear one, my neck always looks bigger. I'm already big compared to the ponies. I don't want to scare off Rainbow Dash for the concert. She doesn't seem to be one that scares off easily, though.

I guess the good thing about bow ties is that they make my neck feel warmer. Along with the 'large neck' comments, I've almost always heard people say 'bow ties are cool' word for word. Is it a reference to something? It feels like it would be.

I put on the clothes. As if on cue, there's a knock at the door. I open it to see Rainbow Dash with saddlebags on.

"Ready already?" She asks. I nod. "Alright. I should have told you when and where it was. It's just down south about half a kilometer in an hour."

"Thanks for telling me. Do you want to come inside and hang out until it starts?" I open the door wider and gesture for her to enter.

She steps inside and looks around. It's not like she has much to see in here. "Is that eggshell?" I hear a hint of disgust in her voice.

I sigh. "Yep. I don't like it either. I'll have to paint over it some time soon. Eggshell gives me a headache."

"Eggshell isn't that bad, Mark. Rarity's kind of eggshell."

"Kind of." I sit down in the couch. Rainbow takes off the saddlebags and hops up next to me. She curls up like a dog would. Did Epona accidentally send me to a world of dogs instead of ponies? "I've got to talk to her again. I feel like I haven't talked to her in weeks. It's only been a few days. Time's moving by fast."

She nods, then sits up. "Yeah. Time's been seeming to move by a lot faster recently."

"Let's say I'm the reason." I lean back.

"You're looking good." Rainbow says.

"Thanks. You too." I tell her. I get a faint blush hidden behind a cocky grin as a reward. "Yeah, I thought I'd try to look a little decent for the concert."

“Concert?" She lifts her head up. "No, it’s an air show. They’re the Wonderbolts, man. Everypony knows who the Wonderbolts are.” Oh. An air show, not a concert. I’ve been to an airshow before, one with the Blue Angels. It was louder than some concerts I’ve been to. I don’t think a pegasus could make more noise than an F/A 18 Hornet.

Yeah, I was overthinking this. It’s not a romantic date. Just one for two friends. At least, I’m pretty sure it is. Airshows don’t exactly seem very romantic to me. “I’m not a pony. That’s my excuse for not knowing who they are.”

“It’s a bad excuse. I know gryphons that know who the Wonderbolts are.”

“How about this: I’m from a different planet.”

“Eh. It’s better.”

“You’re really stubborn.”

“I prefer tenacious.” She wraps up her leg like she's lifting a weight. "I'll admit it, Mark. I don't know much about you. I think you're going to like the show. They're really fun."

"I've been to one before. It was years ago, but I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it."

"Think you'll enjoy this one? You'd better. It cost a bit more than usual for the tickets." She pulls one of them out from the bags and flashes them at me. I take it from her mouth. "I also grabbed a poster that'll say some of what they'll do. She pulls a piece of paper from her bag. I read it. The amazing Wonderbolts will be performing their newest stunt, affectionately nicknamed the Piercing Heart!

"I've never seen them do it ever before. I can't wait to see it!" Rainbow hugs the paper and bounces up and down like a teenage girl that's about to meet her favorite celebrity. It's not too far from the truth, really.

We leave from my home and arrive at the field fifteen minutes before the show starts. The field looks like it's an old dirt track. 'I want to get good seats' is Rainbow's explanation for arriving early. It's a good enough one for me. I don't know what constitutes a good seat in an air show. Is it like a NASCAR thing where a wide view is best? Or is it like baseball where sitting behind home plate is best?

There probably isn't a home plate in the air show, so I'll doubt that last one.

"I'm following you." I tell Rainbow Dash. She leads me into the field. There's barely anything here, except a few groups of ponies. Families, mostly. I see a few that wouldn't be too far out of place in a college movie. Aside from the audience next to tents, there are a few pegasi in blue uniforms with yellow lightning bolt-like emblems on their torsos.

I catch Rainbow staring at the uniformed pegasi in awe. They're either the Wonderbolts or superhero cosplayers. Given that magic is incredibly common and apparently powerful enough to move a massive ball of plasma around the planet, I'm going to assume that there aren't many superheroes around. Along with that, there probably aren't many superhero cosplayers.

"Those are the Wonderbolts!" She squees. Yep. Called it. They aren't superheroes.

"Wouldn't you rather see them in the air?" I ask.

She breaks her gaze from the celebrities. Her smile is large and shiny enough to guide an airplane to a landing. "I can talk to them down here, right?"

"Like I said, I'm following you." I give her a smile. She hugs me and flies as fast as she can towards who must be her idols in a span of less than a second. I have to sprint to catch up to her.

By the time I make it to her, she already has three signatures on her saddlebags. "You need to work out, Mark." She says to me once she sees me gasping for breath. My response is gasping for breath. "I hear Applejack needs some help with her barn. It collapsed again last night."

"And I just helped her paint it..." I say once I get some air. "Wait, 'again?' How much does it happen?"

"Enough that it would put her family in debt if they didn't make so much money."

I decide to change the subject. "Who signed your thing?"

"Spitfire, Thunderlane, and Fleetfoot."

"Damn. I'm used to cute names. Those ones are just badass."

"I think it's a requirement. I've got one, so I'm good if that's the case." She half giggles, half snickers.

A Wonderbolt a few meters from us clears her throat. "The show starts in five minutes!" She shouts.

"Let's go find a good spot."

Our attempts to find a good spot are hardly successful. I'm twice as tall as everypony here, so we have to be separated from the main group if I don't want to block the show for anypony else. Rainbow's annoyed by the choice and I give her the option to stay in the crowd, but she refuses.

Right after we find our spot, the show starts. The crowd cheers. Rainbow and I join in. The show starts off like a Blue Angels show would have on Earth, but with seven ponies rather than four a tight diamond formation. The Angels had an impressive diamond. The Wonderbolts have an even more impressive one. Theirs seems to be even tighter. I'm not sure if it's because the Wonderbolts have three extra ponies or if they're actually closer.

The group pulls up then splits apart, with three on each side and one in the middle. "That's a vertical break. Spitfire's the one in the middle." Rainbow tells me. I don't know how she can identify Spitfire from here. Spitfire flies off away from the audience, then turns back towards us. The ponies that split from her get into two groups of three. Two of the ponies, one from each group, pull up and prepare for a loop. "Ooh... This must be the Piercing Heart."

The two ponies pull in for a loop. With where they're at now, they're probably going to form the upper tip. Spitfire's flying towards where the tip is going to be. With the speed she's going at, I half expect her to perform a Sonic Rainboom.

When the three ponies seem to meet up, the crowd cheers loudly.

Spitfire suddenly descends rapidly. Is the show over already? It was pretty damn short if it is. If Spitfire is about to land, she should slow down. I'm not an expert, but her position doesn't look like it would work, either.

"Oh shit, she's going to crash..." Rainbow says.

Holy fuck, she's right.

Spitfire looks like she's trying to pull up to not hit the ground with her face. It works for the most part. She lands on her upper chest.

Her landing looked absolutely horrible. I can't tell exactly what happened to her from this distance. She appears to have all of her limbs intact, but a wing refuses to fold up.

I look at Rainbow. Her hooves are covering her mouth. She has tears in her eyes.

After several long seconds of not moving, Spitfire crawls to her hooves. The crowd cheers louder than any concert I've ever been to. Seeing a pony walk on all her legs after having a bad crash landing is a good reason to cheer. It's also a good reason to get nightmares.

Spitfire takes a step, but falls to the ground. Several ponies from the tents rush towards her. They carry her into one of the tents.

Rainbow Dash stands up. I feel like she just recovered from shock. I look into her eyes. She's focusing on Spitfire. "Are you okay?" I ask her.

She doesn't reply. She takes a step forward, towards the tents. I know the look on her face. I've seen it a few times on Earth. I won't be able to stop her from walking, so I follow her.

She walks up to the tent the ponies, presumably medics, brought Spitfire into. They walk out of the tent. "You're free to talk to Captain Spitfire." One of them says as the two walk away into another tent. The pony that spoke to us looked really shaken up.

Rainbow, without a word, walks into the tent. Spitfire is in a bed. Her wing has been wrapped up in some sort of bandage. The same kind wrapped around my hand. There's another bandage wrapped around Spitfire's torso. "Hey." She says.

Rainbow shakes her head. "Hi, Spitfire. How're you feeling?"

The Wonderbolt half smiles. "I've had better days. The wing's broke. I cracked a few ribs." Spitfire glances at my wrapped up hand. "Looks like you had a pretty bad time, too."

I hold up my hand and look at it. "Yeah. It wasn't anything too serious."

Rainbow looks at my hand. I don't think she's seen it yet. "What happened to you, anyway?"

"I burned myself."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Rainbow's voice has more worry than almost anybody else I've heard in my life.

"I was in the hospital. I wasn't in any position to leave. I thought somepony else would have told you."

"Nopony did, though." Her voice is suddenly downcast.

"That's probably because burns aren't anything serious." Spitfire replies. Her voice is practically drowning in sarcasm. "'Oh, just a scratch. I'll walk it off.'" She says in a surprisingly and impressively accurate imitation of my voice. I feel like I should give her money for that. Her imitation gets a smile out of Rainbow, too.

"Could I ask how the accident happened?" I ask. "I didn't get a good look."

"Neither did I, honestly." She tries to fold up her wing. She winces in pain. "When you're going that fast, you can't see very much. My guess is that my wing hit somepony's back legs." She rubs the back of her neck. "I don't think I'm going to be performing again anytime soon."

Rainbow and I leave the field. “That was fun, for the most part.” Rainbow says.

I nod. “Yeah. That was worth going to. The Wonderbolts kind of reminded me of the Blue Angels.”

“Who are they?”

“They’re a group of pilots back on Earth.” She turns her head slightly, like a confused dog, at the word ‘pilots.’ “They fly planes.” She’s still confused. “Okay… Planes are like pegasi, but their wings can’t move. The Blue Angels are… supersonic silver flying machines made of metal.”

“Oh. I think I get it. How can metal fly?”

“They’ve got engines. I don’t know how they work or how to explain them, but they move fast enough for the wings to pick them up in the air. I don’t have any idea how they move in the air.”

“Damn.” She sighs. “Do you wanna go on another date again?”

So this was a date? Before, I was scared out of my mind about it being romantic. In hindsight, I was freaking out about it way too much. I liked it. I guess it was romantic, from a certain point of view. I mean, Spitfire's crash wasn't exactly something that would be seen on a normal date.

After experiencing a date with a pony, it was pretty much like any other date I’ve been on. I’d be willing to go on another.

“Uh… Yeah, sure. To where?”

She thinks about it, then shrugs. “I dunno. Wanna go camping?”

“Sounds nice. I’ve been camping a few times. It wasn’t like going out with nothing and eating bugs and shit like that. It was just the standard camping trip with tents and stuff.”

“You ate bugs?”

I chuckle. “No. Not me. Some people did. I’ve never found the thought of biting the head off a scorpion and eating it to be very appealing to me.”

“That would be pretty badass, though.”

“So I’ll bite the head off a scorpion and eat it. It’s suddenly appealing to me.”

Rainbow breaks out into laughter. “I’d give away a cup of cider to see you do it.”

Author's Note

Yes, I do know that 'bow ties are cool' is a reference to Doctor Who, more specifically the ones with Matt Smith as the Doctor. That doesn't mean Mark does. Mark and I are different people.
On a different, more somber note, the airshow accident is inspired by the Ramstein airshow disaster, the second deadliest airshow disaster in history. There are clips of it, but I wouldn't recommend watching them. They're hard to watch.