"*Sigh*, When is he going to learn?", Rainbow Dash said to herself as she struggled to remain airborne with the weight of Ben. She had to take him back home to Cloudsdale after he got knocked out from a sugar-overload when Pinkie Pie challenged him to a cupcake eating contest. Rainbow Dash looked back to see Ben with his mouth open, and drooling all over her coat. She rolled her eyes as she pressed forward. She looked around the night sky to see if there was anypony at all following her, and touched down at the porch of her house. She opened the door, made sure she didn't drop him, and carried Ben off to her bed. She walked under the heavy weight quite clumsily, and gently set Ben down on the cloud bed. She smiled at the sight of Ben all wrapped up comfortably in the blanket.

Then, Ben began to stir. He groaned and turned to his side, unaware that to his left was where the bed ended. Shifting left, he fell straight out of the bed, and smashed onto the hard cloud floor. Rainbow Dash stifled a giggle as Ben face-planted onto the floor and come back to his senses.

"Ugh, my face.", Ben groaned.

Rainbow Dash smiled and helped him up.

"What happened?"

"Pinkie Pie-"

"That's all I needed to hear."

Ben turned and flopped down on the bed. He looked up, then looked out the window. He got that look when he was thinking of something incredibly hard.

"Ben?"

He just stared out the window. He turned around and began to speak.

"Look, Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow Dash flew up onto the bed and looked into Ben's eyes.

"Yeah?"

"I know this is a bit sudden to ask, but...why me?"

Rainbow Dash's smiled suddenly turned into a look of both concern and confusion.

"What?"

"Why me?"

"What do you mean?"

"What do you see in me? I'm a completely different species than you, yet you're not taken aback by this. I love you, but what is it that you find in me?"

Rainbow Dash was taken aback by Ben's question. She had never felt more like her life was in jeopardy, even more when she was convinced she could not preform the Sonic Rainboom. Rainbow Dash could not avoid Ben's gaze, and she had to tell him what happened.

What happened when Ben was in the hospital.

"Ben? Remember when you were in the hospital?"

"Yes."

"And you were out for a whole day?"

"Yes, Rainbow Dash."

"There was a bit more that happened in between those 24 hours."

Ben's eyebrow rose.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, after I took you into the hospital, I had to convince the staff to let you in...and...I started to yell at them to take care of you. After they ran a diagnostic, they said that a fraction of your ribcage had pierced your lung. We were able to remove the splinter, but the doctors said that your lung would collapse over night, and you would...", Rainbow Dash stopped there with tears in her eyes.

"I was going to die overnight. Wasn't I."

Rainbow Dash nodded and sniffled.

"I-I just met you, a-a-and I couldn't believe my ears when Nurse Red Heart said that you were awake the next day. I stayed by your side for twelve hours straight. I-I've never seen anypony die before, and if you came back to your senses, I wanted to be there for you. I didn't care that you were something that nopony has ever seen before. You were hurt, and you needed help."

Rainbow Dash was now crying. Ben had never seen this side of her before, and come to think of it, probably nopony has.

"When you woke up, I wanted to be there for you. I wanted to see you open your eyes, and I wanted to see you...smile.", she started again.

"Rainbow Dash. There is something else you need to know."

"Y-yes?"

"Back on Earth, do you remember how i said I was a Marine? A soldier? How I fought in Afghanistan?", Ben looked down at the floor.

"Yes, Ben."

Ben knew this moment would come.

"I died. I died back on Earth."

Rainbow Dash's mouth suddenly flew open.

"Y-you what?"

"I died."

"Then, how are you still alive?!"

"That, I don't know. What I do know, is that my stomach was blown to shreds."

Rainbow Dash gasped at the level of my explanation.

"H-how..."

I stopped her.

"Safeguard, bootup please."

Rainbow Dash turned her head.

"Safeguard?"

"He's my A.I., or Artificial Intelligence. He is a part of my wings."

"Yes Ben?", Safeguard asked in a somewhat annoyed tone,"What do you need?"

"Are you able to play a hologram of my memories?"

"I am restricted to do so."

"Override code: 8365723", Ben commanded.

"Very well."

A flash of light appeared, and instead of Rainbow Dash's room, we were back in the desolate sands of the middle east. We were floating above our convoy, and the area where the ambush happened.

"Who are those two?", Rainbow Dash pointed at two marines.

"That's me, and DJ, a brother in arms."

Rainbow Dash continued to watch, and DJ began to head for the ice cream truck that had rounded the corner. I kept my eyes focused on the truck as hard as possible. Then, it happened.

KA-BOOM!

Rainbow Dash's face turned from anticipation to shock as the ice cream truck was blown to bits from an IED.

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!"

"That was a terrorist tactic. Hide a bomb into something ordinary, then detonate it."

"BUT THOSE LOOKED LIKE  CHILDREN WHO DIED!"

"I know."

Rainbow Dash turned her head to me, then looked back at the ambush that had begun. I could clearly see the RPG troopers lining the buildings and blasting every single vehicle in the convoy to a smoldering wreck. I had to quickly explain what an RPG was, and what they did, until the BTR came. Round after round was shot out of the cannon as I saw marines take shots and collapse to the ground.

"Ben...please...no more.", I heard Rainbow Dash sulk. I came over to her and covered her in my wings. I shielded her from all of the noise that had erupted in the once quiet street. Then, it came. The marine's order to get to the schoolhouse and find an anti-tank weapon. The insurgent rounded the corner and attempted to rifle-but me. I dodged and implated my knife into his back and my fellow marine blasted him with the Benelli M4 shotgun. Then, it came. I convinced Rainbow Dash to open her eyes for this one moment. With tears streaming down her face, she opened her eyes.

"Ben? W-what's that the enemy threw?"

"That's a grenade. A hand-thrown explosive device."

"Wait, but it's-"

Rainbow Dash was cut off when the insurgent threw the explosive. It bounced twice, and my past-self shouted.

"GRENADE!"

"No. NO!", Rainbow Dash screamed as I threw myself over the explosive. Rainbow Dash just wanted to reach out and cradle my past self in her arms. Tell him that the fighting was going to be over.

Comfort him...

...but I knew I had done the right thing and saved my squad.

The grenade exploded. Blood flew everywhere. It splattered against the walls, the windows, and my marines. I rose three feet into the air, and landed back down, making a puddle of blood slowly pour out of my insides and onto the floor.

"LILIENFELD!"

My brothers in arms began crowding around my body and began preforming futile attempts to see if I was alive. Shaking me, patting me, shining a small flashlight into my eyes, and then they decided that it was impossible and they had to continue with the situation at hand, and left my body.

Just like good marines.

I dared not look back at Rainbow Dash, and I did. She looked like she could pass out at any moment. She was staring to get pale, she was staring out at the battlefield like a ghost, and her eyes were bloodshot from tears. I commanded Safeguard to stop the simulation, and he obliged. The simulation ended, and we were standing in Rainbow Dash's room. I looked back, and Rainbow Dash was staring at the wall, unsure of what had just happened.

"Ben. I can't believe what I just saw. Your world. It's so..."

"I know."

"Ben?"

He turned his head to face Rainbow Dash.

"Nopony ever sees me act like this. They all think I'm cool, and brave, and...*sniff*...'Rainbow Dash'. Do you think I'm not as cool now? After telling you all of these things in the hospital?"

Ben bent down and stroked her chin.

"Of course not. An I should be apologizing too. For...showing you what my memories hold. I'm really sorry."

Rainbow Dash walked up.

"It's really okay. Do you still like me?"

Ben shook his head.

"Wha-? What?"

"Rainbow Dash, I love you. You were the reason I didn't consider suicide from my nightmares. You are practically my whole world to me."

"Ben..."

Rainbow Dash lept forward and squeezed Ben tightly. She was sobbing, and the tears rolled down his back. Ben tried the best to comfort Rainbow Dash. She cried for a few more minutes and Ben decided it was best for her to lay down in bed and calm down. So, he carried her sulking body, and set it down on the cloud bed as gently as possible. He laid himself down on the bed and once he did just that, Rainbow Dash grasped on to him and began to cry a little bit again.

"Ben?"

"Yeah Dashie?"

"Please...please don't leave me."

"I wouldn't imagine doing that."

Alright guys. Sorry for the shortness. But trust me. Next chapter, the action will pick up.