My Little Argonian: Family is Sacred

by Warren Peace

Interrupted Nightmares (Pt1|Ch9)

Chapter Nine: Interrupted Nightmares

Pulling a branch from my face, the forest died away, revealing the small hill that Fluttershy’s cottage rested on. A starry night laid above the cottage and the windows of the first floor glowed yellow with light. Odd, I’d expect Fluttershy to be asleep this time of night.

A crisp nighttime chill permeated the air as crickets sang quietly in the grass and brush around us. Twilight and I ascended the hill in silence, neither of us wary enough to be interested in conversation. A dull ache had returned to my wounds, the pain killing liquid of the root having dulled as we made our way from the forest. The drakesbeard paste had grown dry, a few small cracks splitting the impromptu bandage. Despite this, however, no blood leaked through.

Twilight let out an exhale and halted, turning to me as I passed. I spared her a glance as I continued past her up the hill, not bothering to stop my stumbling limp as she spoke up.

“Well, there’s Fluttershy’s cottage. I’ve got to get back to the Library. Spike’s probably worried sick,” she paused, a frown creasing her face as a thought struck her, “or eating all the ice cream in the fridge with me gone...either way, good night.” She turned to leave, heading back towards the lights of what I assumed was Ponyville a ways away.

I didn’t bother with a reply, sparing her night darkened form a glance as she trotted off. The sound of a door opening drew my eyes back towards the cottage. I squinted against the bright light that the ajar door let loose, spotting Fluttershy as she rushed forwards with a flurry of wings.

“Oh my goodness!” Fluttershy’s subdued voice greeted me, her wide, teal eyes worried, “Where’ve you been!?”

I flinched as she embraced me, expecting pain. To my pleasant surprise, none came, the pressure from her forehooves only giving off a pleasant warmth to my aching midsection.

She held the pose for a few seconds. Even if I’d had the energy to lift my arms and accept the embrace I was not sure that I would have. She pulled back a foot, hovering before me so she could look me in the eye without having to strain her neck.

“You’ve been gone for most of the day! I got so worried, I…” she froze mid-complaint, noticing the ruined state of my bandages, “What happened to your bandages, they’re all messed up, I…” again she stopped, this time looking away from me with downcast eyes. The look sent a flicker of something through me, too fast and fleeting for me to pinpoint, “but...you’re probably fine...aren’t you?”

I sighed, struggling for a moment before caving in, “I’m...not,” I admitted, “I could use some help.”

Aram… my mind said.

“Please,” I added.

There we go!

0 . o . 0 . o . 0

Fluttershy’s cottage...

“It’s still a little hot,” Fluttershy said, trotting out of the kitchen and to the couch where I was sitting, a steaming bowl and a series of clean bandages, rags, and healing ointments resting on her back, “So I’d let it sit a while before you drink it.”

She used her wings to set the bowl on a table at one end of the couch before trotting over and hopping up next to me, setting the bandages and ointments in front of her. The inside of her cottage was pleasant, a warm fireplace not drowning the place too sharply in either light or heat. None of the animals that normally populated the place were present, all probably asleep at this time of night.

She reached up with gentle hooves, eyes glued to the dirtied mass of cloth that barely clung to my right shoulder, and slowly peeled it back. She set it aside and selected a clean rag, dabbing some fluid onto the rag and eyeing the arrow wound in my shoulder.

“This is healing very nicely,” she commented, wiping away a bit of grime I’d gotten on it from the fight with the timberwolves, “um...at this point I probably don’t need to bandage it, but I will just to make sure, okay?”

Her eyes met mine and I gave a quick nod. That settled, she rewrapped the wound with a new bandage.

“So, um, how did this happen?” she asked, dabbing more ointment on a rag and setting her eyes on my chest, “if you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

“Timberwolves,” I replied flatly, watching her work.

“Timberwolves!?” she exclaimed as she met my eyes with her own widened pair, halting in her healing for a second, “What happened?”

“It was nothing interesting,” I waved her off dismissively, “They stalked us, we fought them off, they ran away with their tails between their legs.”

“Well...o-okay,” she replied, though her tone told me that she wasn’t convinced that it was merely nothing. She turned back to my shoulder, assessing the wound as she wiped away more grime. Once finished, her hooves lightly moved across my chest, the broken ribs not complaining under her soft pressure, “Twilight didn’t get hurt too, did she?”

“Not badly,” I said, glancing away as I thought back over the battle, “nothing she wasn’t able to handle.”

“Oh...good,” Fluttershy replied. She set the dirtied rag off to the side and examined my chest, feeling with her soft hooves, “the timberwolves...they didn’t hurt your ribs too badly did they?”

I shook my head as she took a new bandage and rewrapped my broken ribs, the bandages hugging them as Fluttershy herself would have. She scooted back a short ways, her eyes looking over my body for more wounds.

“What else is hurt?” she asked, her lips frowning with worry at the sight of my left hand, “Oh my. What happened to your left foreleg...arm, I mean,” she corrected. She held out a hoof, “here, let me see.”

Hesitating for a split second, I relinquished my left arm for her inspection.

“Timberwolf bit me,” I explained, “I used drakesbeard paste to stop the bleeding.”

“Hm,” she replied with a somewhat unhappy frown, prodding the wound carefully with a hoof, “I...um...really don’t like drakesbeard all that much,” she explained, letting my arm go and getting a large wad of bandages, “it’s good for stopping bleeding, but it’s not very good at healing a wound. Let me see again, please,” she held out her hoof again and again I gave her my arm.

Ooh, more interesting information! my mind commented.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Fluttershy paused, looking to me, “Oh, well, um, it smothers the wound and doesn’t let it heal very well. It’s okay to use it if you don’t have much else, but make sure that you don’t use it as a complete substitute as it can lead to infections,” she turned back to the wound, “oh, and this is probably going to hurt. Sorry.”

“What do you mean..?” I began, only to be cut off as Fluttershy used a hoof to pry away the dried drakesbeard paste, letting a fiery sting leech into the wound.

Wincing and hissing in pain, I gritted my sharp teeth, trying not to pull my arm back as the wound began to weep a stream of red tears again. Fluttershy tugged my left glove off a few inches to better treat the wound, the slip of paper I’d written the riddles on slipped out and fell to the floor. I ignored it for now in light of the burning pain.

I clenched my right hand into a fist as Fluttershy poured what looked and felt like warm water over the wound and wiped away a few lingering traces of the impromptu bandage. The wound cleaned, Fluttershy then wrapped a thick bandage over the it, applying pressure as she wrapped the bandage around a few times and then tied it off, the stinging pain fading slowly.

“There, all better,” Fluttershy said, smiling up at me warmly. I met her motherly eyes with my own, the corners of my mouth twitching as if to try and emulate the action. Before they could I pulled my eyes from hers, mouth remaining neutral as I distracted myself with the bandaged wound.

“Thank you,” I said, pulling the glove tight again. My eyes fell from the wound to the slip of paper that had fallen from the glove. I reached down and picked it back up. Fluttershy looked at it curiously as I unfolded it, revealing some of the words within.

First travel to where regal sisters preside
and go to where creatures…

“You’re welcome,” Fluttershy replied with quiet cheer, distracting me before I could read more, “Um...what’s that?”

“Nothing,” I replied neutrally, tucking it back away in my glove, “Just...just a riddle.”

“Oh. Well, anyways I’m glad that you’re okay,” she said, hugging me briefly again, “You’re lucky those timberwolves didn’t do more damage, I’ve...well,” she glanced away, biting her lip, “I...can’t save most p-animals that get attacked...by timberwolves,” she met my eyes again, something hidden in their quiet depths, “so I’m glad that you didn’t get hurt very badly.”

“As am I,” I replied, “...thanks again.”

“You’re welcome again,” Fluttershy replied with a subdued smile. She let out a quiet yawn, covering her mouth with a hoof as she did so, “anyways, your soup has probably cooled off by now. You can take it upstairs with you if you’d like, I’ll come up and get the bowl in the morning.”

A quick flash of confusion lit my face, only unseen by the pony due to the fact that she had turned to pick up the assortment of dirtied bandages and soiled rags.

Wait, she’s letting me keep the bed upstairs even after my outburst earlier today? I wondered with a confliction of emotions.

She forgave you, didn’t she? my mind replied, though personally I think that she should make you sleep outside at least one night.

I didn’t bother replying to my mind, instead giving one to Fluttershy, “Thank you,” I said again.

“You’re welcome,” Fluttershy said, hopping off the couch and heading to the kitchen to dispose of the medical refuse. I rose as well, taking my bowl and heading slowly for the stairs, “good night!” she called quietly after me.

I froze at the bottom of the stairs for a single second, eyes glued to the ascending steps in front of me.

“You…you too,” I replied, before beginning my slow ascent.

0 . o . 0 . o . 0

...

I stood in a darkened forest, though the details of the forest eluded me, all a mass of blurred colors and movements. A series of yards away sat Fluttershy, sitting calmly and quietly in the middle of it all with her back to me...

She was in danger...and it disturbed me.

Not so much because she was in trouble, but the fact that me knowing she was sent a chill through my stomach. Knowledge like this should not have disturbed me, not this much at least.

She was a healer, that was all. I’d spent plenty of time with healers before. My days as a bounty hunter, and some of my days as an assassin after that, had sometimes left me with injuries beyond my capabilities to heal and I required help from other sources.

Some welcomed me with a smile, reminding me to praise the Nine as they bandaged wounds or gave me bitter potions. Others welcomed my coin with neutrality and fewer still refused to help an argonian as he stood bleeding at their doorstep. But none of them I spared a fleeting glance once their services were rendered...

Yet now the pony sitting a ways away from me was in an unknown peril that sent a chill through my gut. It was something that was not familiar, something that should not have been.

Once my wounds were healed, again I would leave her without a fleeting glance…

Wouldn't I..?

There was a movement of shadow through the forest and the dread in my heart increased. The danger was approaching...

I pondered for a moment, standing still, cloaked in shadow with the familiar feeling of my bow in my hand. I’d need to use it to defend Fluttershy from whatever the shadow in the forest was that stalked her…

No! I would use it to defend myself. Wait and watch, the shadow would show itself when it went after her. Once I knew what it was I would either run, engage, or remain hidden as the situation dictated. No matter what, she...didn’t...matter..!

But she did and so I grew disturbed, haunted to the deepest reaches of my mind. Again there was a flicker of shadow, closer this time to Fluttershy before the blurry mess of trees hid it again from view. My hazy eyes searched like those of a sabrecat. An arrow as black as night was clasped in my right hand.

No one warranted my defense! Not unless paid by coin..!

Or if they were her.

No! Not if they were her! She was a healer, no more! Again the shadow appeared, fast moving and silent as it drew ever closer to the oblivious and unmoving Fluttershy...

Except that wasn’t true...

It was! My bow was ready, arrow drawn to my ear in an instant. The weapon knew its hiding target...

It was not...

“Stop it!” I choked out, the thick air strangling my breath, my fingers clenching and unclenching around my drawn bow and arrow. I wanted to dig my fingers into my skull and tear out the thoughts raging within it, but they refused to release the readied weapon in front of me.

My heart filled with dread as again the creature appeared, rushing straight towards Fluttershy, growing more and more solid as it made its way towards her. Its frame was large and black, four legs reminding me of a wolf...

I didn’t know what it was, shooting now could spell my doom until I knew where to hit it, blindly firing would only…

But Fluttershy! The thing would kill her if I didn’t act now!

“I don’t care!” I yelled, fingers releasing the bowstring, flinging the black arrow...

And everything cleared away like a dense fog. My bow poofed into black smoke, the flying arrow fading as well. The blurry forest morphed to blackness, Fluttershy’s form dispersing into shadow, the fear fleeing from my chest.

I frowned as I looked around, taking in the sudden, black void with confusion as a sudden thought hit me.

“This is a dream,” I wondered aloud.

“Twas nightmare to be precise,” a powerful, female voice spoke up. Slow, clopping hoofsteps echoed as if off a marble floor in front of me.

My head snapped forwards again, towards the direction that the unknown monster had been charging from. I reached for my knives but found nothing besides a weightless cloak of shadow clothing me. My eyes snapped to an approaching creature as she came to a halt a few yards away, an inquisitive look on her long face.

The horse, as it was far larger than any pony I’d yet to see, wore a coat that was a deep, dark blue. Her piercing eyes were a more moderate color and her mane, which sparkled like the night sky and flowed on invisible winds, was in the middle grounds of the two colors. I noticed with suspicious eyes that she bore both the horn of a unicorn and the wings of a pegasus.

“Though we have cleared it from your mind as is our duty as the guardian of dreams.”

“Who are you?” I demanded with menace, “What are you doing here?”

The creature didn’t even bat a curious eye at my tone, “Of you we would ask the same thing, mortal,” she replied evenly, “A fortnight ago, we came across a sleeping mind that was not that of one of our normal subjects, your mind. A deep slumber kept our presence at bay until times most recent and, even then, we had trouble gaining access to your nightmares,” her frown deepened, “which you have had exclusively since you began your stay here…” she trailed off.

I remained silent.

“Wait, this is a dream,” I realized aloud, “what does this creature matter, she’s just a…”

“...figment of your imagination?” she finished my train of spoken thought, a single brow raised, “we should think not. Where from your mind do you think that our form was sired?” she drew closer at a slow trot, I held my ground and lowered my stance.

When she spoke again, her voice blasted forth with greatly increased volume, the force of it testing my fighting stance, almost throwing me off balance.

"We are Princess Luna of Equestria! Sister to Princess Celestia of Equestria and governess of the moon and stars!" she came to a halt much closer to me, her voice dropping back to a more normal volume, “as well as guardian of the world’s dreams.

“So we ask only once more, mortal: who are you? And do not think to lie,” her eyes narrowed menacingly, “we will know if you do.”

I glared back into her cold, blue eyes as she stared back into my own golden pair, her expression dead serious, her gaze level with my own.

“This is a dream, there is nothing that you can do to me,” I retorted, voice retaining its earlier menace.

“Perhaps not. But we know that you reside in the care of the healer Fluttershy and we may send in the Royal Guard to escort you to our throne if you prove uncooperative. There, we assure you, we will be able to extract whatever information that we desire.”

My glare remained steady as I weighed my choices. On the chance that this Princess was only a figment of my mind it wouldn’t matter what I told her as she wasn’t real...but on the off-chance that she and her threat were real…

My train of thought was derailed as something that Luna had said clicked with something else in my mind, Sister to Princess Celestia of Equestria… her words rang back in my head, followed by a line from one of my riddles, First travel to where regal sisters preside…

Regal sisters. And Luna had called herself sister to yet another princess! I turned my gaze from my thoughts, setting them on the ever-patient Luna again. If she and this Princess Celestia were the regal sisters from the riddle then perhaps getting on their bad side wasn’t such a good idea...at least for now.

“I am Aram Falíe,” I finally said, dropping the menace from my voice and standing tall, “I come from the province of Skyrim.”

Luna frowned, remaining silent for a few moments as she judged my words before speaking, “Either you are a master at the art of lying, or we have not heard of this place that you speak of, Aram Falíe of Skyrim. Hm,” she gave a thin, appreciating smile, “in either case, we welcome you to Equestria and have noticed that you’ve befriended powerful ponies in the town of Ponyville.”

Now it was my turn to frown in confusion. I had?

“We can only assume that by the fact that you exited the Everfree forest with the mage Twilight Sparkle, and now rest in the care of the healer Fluttershy, that you have formed a friendship with them,” she explained to my confused expression, “both hold positions of relative power as bearers of the Elements of Harmony.”

Friendship might not be a choice word, I thought, ...at least for Twilight, I amended, Though what are these Elements of Harmony? I paused in my thoughts with a quick frown before turning back to Luna.

“That I have,” I replied, neutrally, crossing my arms, “What of it?”

“Nothing,” Luna replied, face neutral again, “We merely wished to make conversation...as well as confirm that this was the case.

“But we did not come here for such trivial things, Aram Falíe of Skyrim. As guardian of dreams, it is our duty to deal with our subject’s nightmares.”

“I’m not one of your subjects,” I replied, uncrossing my arms and letting them rest at my sides, “I don’t need your help.”

“A fair enough claim,” Luna admitted, a curiousness to her face again, “though we still find it noteworthy that nothing but nightmares have plagued your dreaming thoughts,” she replied, tone implying a question.

I frowned, thinking over my past few days of consciousness. The Princess’ words were true. Though blurred as past dreams were, I could remember nothing pleasant plaguing them...ever. Thinking back to times even before I’d slain the listener and been sent here, the few times that I could recall, I could still not remember at all when my dreams had been pleasant.

Turning my eyes away from my thoughts, I met Luna’s blue pair again, “What of it?” I inquired.

“Tis abnormal for nothing but nightmares to plague one’s dreams,” Luna replied, tone still curious, “to help you remedy whatever it is that causes your nightmares is our duty as the Princess of the night.”

“I don’t need your help,” I replied, “there are certainly others that require your help.”

“You do not want our help despite the fact that you do need it,” Luna corrected, a short pause punctuating her speech, “and we are assisting many others, watching even more. We have but one physical form, but there are few limits when it comes to an alicorn’s magical abilities...” Luna’s brow furrowed in concentration for an instant before relaxing again, “The young dragon named Spike, for instance, is stricken with his own nightmare. We note that he oftens suffers from these after gorging himself on a modern treat known as: iced cream.”

I remained silent.

“Whatever the case, we are not required to help you face your inner fears and rid your nighttime respite of the horrors that plague it,” she began to retreat on silent hooves, not breaking eye contact as she met a wall of shadow behind her, fading into it as if into thick smoke, “We would bid you pleasant dreams, Aram Falíe of Skyrim,” she began again, only her head remaining unswallowed by the darkness she was fading into, “but we know that that would be useless…

0 . o . 0

...My eyes snapped open and I was awake, staring up at a ceiling painted with the dull light of dawn. Quiet chirps arose from my window as songbirds made morning music.

“What a bizarre dream,” I muttered to myself before pushing the blankets off my still form. I threw my legs over the side of the bed, my injured right leg carefully so I didn’t bang the cast against anything.

To my surprise, the dream remained steadfast in my mind, something that made me frown, considering the possible implications for a moment.

“Or...was it a dream at all?”

After considering for a moment longer, I realized that there was only one way to find out.

Author's Note:

In the original draft of this, I found it to be another chapter I really didn't like. But after throwing in some better descriptions and a few more implied things I came to like it more.

Anyways always happy to get feedback on what you guys think! We're nearing the third dawn and many great things are to come!

Comments

[Tiaa OwO]

You want feed back!? I'll give you feed back!!! This story is AMAZING! I love it, even though i've never heard of this game this story is about until now. Keep up the good work and please hurry with the next chapter.
Thunbs up from me!

[Warren Peace]

3618045 I'm glad that you're enjoying it so thoroughly. The next chapter should hopefully be out before Christmas.

[Tiaa OwO]

3622712
Yes!
Celebration Partaaaaaaaay!!!!