Wing and a Prayer

Ch5

**Tones**

Its been a few days since we took out the unidentified fighters, turns out they were rebel jets from overseas, these jets were going to try an ambush on the equestrian air force in order to break our first line of defense, but our navy found the carrier they launched from, and took it out. It was quiet now, days passed and no more air raids were reported, still, despite this peacefulness, I was unable to sleep, I kept having strange dreams, and even stranger, they all seemed to be linked, I would have dreams of me in my flight suit, on the ground, bloody and battered, or dream that I would try an fly using my wings, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't. These dreams kept me up late, but tonight, I would force myself to sleep. We were flying overseas to an allied base real early in the morning, and I wasn't going to fall asleep at the controls.

I laid in my bed and closed my eyes, not opening them until morning, a few hours later I woke from another strange dream, this time, I dreamt of gunfire and blood, these dreams were beginning to scare me. I checked the clock, it read 1400 hours, 2'oclock…we were supposed to get up at 3…I laid my head back in my pillow and I heard a voice.

"You better not be going back to sleep rookie!"

It was captain Barracks; he was up earlier than I was.

"Wasn't planning to captain!" I said

I sat back up in my bed, still wondering about my dreams, I couldn't help but bring it up to the captain.

"Captain" I asked "do you know what it means to have strange dreams about warfare?"

He sat up in his bunk and responded to me in a surprisingly calm voice considering the stupidity of my question

"Tones" he said "ponies are always having strange dreams in their first years of service, it usually doesn't mean anything"

He seemed to be trying to provide a little comfort, it didn't work, I was thankful he tried.I waited quietly in my bunk, trying to come up with a good meaning for the dreams, but every conclusion I came to was horrible.

Finally, the time came to take off overseas, it was still dark outside, and Luna's moon still shone brightly overhead in the clear midnight blue skies…midnight blue…shadow's coat was midnight blue…I suddenly found myself missing her dearly, I longed to see her beautiful face, I thought back to the moment I last saw her, our final kiss goodbye…I fought to hold back tears as I thought of her, and continued to the hangers. The captain was taking us to some hangers that were different than our usual ones that housed our F-5-E's. The captain opened the hanger doors, and inside them were five brand new F/A-18's.

"Men" He said "say hello to your new rides"

I looked at the new jets, I had seen these in action before, they were far superior to our old ones in every way.

"Take care of these babies as if they were your own children" The captain said

We taxied to the runway and took off, I looked into the night sky, remembering shadow again, I still longed to see her, I had been in service for close to a year now, I said a silent prayer to Luna to keep us safe on our overseas flight.

A few hours passed and the allied base was finally in sight, I couldn't wait to get this bird on the ground, I hated flying at night, though radar systems allow you to detect enemy's without actually seeing them, it was unnerving to think they are in the dark waiting to pounce on their prey.

We landed safely at the allied base, I was glad to be out of the skies, I kept having this bad feeling every time I flew, and the feelings only got worse in the new F/A-18, I tried to put those feelings aside , telling myself it was just nerves,, but it wasn't working. As the days progressed the feelings got worse and the dreams hadn't gone away. I had another one last night, this one really got to me, the dream depicted me, walking alone in my flight suit, bloody, struggling, there were no surroundings, just darkness…the only visible object, was a fire, far in front of me, for some unexplainable reason, I felt the need to walk to it, as I limped my way towards it, I could see the darkness turning into white, and I could faintly make out some trees surrounding me, they look charred. The fire was just in front of me now, and still yet, I kept limping towards it, stepping into the blaze. Finally I woke, these dreams were getting to me, they were driving me insane; why were they happening? Why were they so vivid? Why do they all seem to be linked? I prayed to Luna every night to let me sleep, and to Celestia every day to give me the energy to stay awake.

Tonight, I couldn't sleep even if I wanted to, I was jolted awake by the sound of sirens and flashing red lights and the sounds of explosions…the base was under attack…