The Travelling Argument

Willow returned to her room and prepared to go to sleep, but she noticed Swift tossing and turning in bed, sweating heavily and muttering to herself.

"Oh no, this is a bad sign. I have to try something," thought Willow. She sat next to the assassin and began to sing.

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head.

Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed.

Drifting off to sleep, leave the exciting day behind you.

Drifting off to sleep, let the joy of dreamland find you."

Swift's struggles slowed and Willow smiled to herself. The door creaked open and Valhalla walked in.

"A good song. I can vaguely recall one of the zebra versions of it, though it is not quite as lovely as yours. Where by chance did you learn to sing like that?" asked Valhalla quietly.

Willow blushed. "I learned the song from my mother... but the song is ancient."

"I see. I learned such a song from my mother once too, but that was long ago..." Valhalla began to hum a short melody, but stopped before he was carried away. "It has been a long time since I've seen my tribe."

"I haven't seen my family since I was a filly... doing my family duty, they said," Willow stopped herself. "I'm sorry... I'm complaining again."

"It is alright. I haven't seen my parents since they were... well, since they passed onto the next world, I suppose. I was hardly old enough at the time to take the... nevermind. What do you remember about your family?"

Willow frowned. "Mother was one of the kindest ponies I remember. She always made time for me. Father was a traditionalist, and wanted a son to take his place, so, when my brother was born..." she sniffled and wiped away a tear. "I miss mother. Father wouldn't let her come when he dropped me off at the temple."

Valhalla nodded. "I understand. My own mother was very protective over me, mainly from my father and his servants who wanted... well, none of that matters now, they are gone and I ran away with no intentions of turning back. So did you spend the rest of your life in the temple? What happened to your brother?"

"The brothers and sisters of the order became my new family. It took some adjusting from my old life, but I flourished there. I left the temple three years ago, to follow one of the elders to meet the Sisters. And I discovered that I liked the outside, despite its flaws, so I petitioned to become a Walker. I want to make the world better while I'm still here, before it is my time to meet the Sisters. And I don't know what happened to them. My first year as a Walker, I went to the family estate... but it was gone, and nopony could remember it ever being there."

"Gone? Strange, though I'm sure I've heard stranger. I never knew family beyond my mother and father and their many servants. I was never let outside neither, which I suppose is why I ran away from my tribe. Ever since then it was always seeing one traveler or another. Making friends was easy, making enemies even easier. Only recently has the activity in my life died down as I settled in a home I built myself in a forest. Of course, now I believe I have been sucked into another adventure with you all. Which reminds me," Valhalla pulled out a small pouch of black ink from his pack and dabbed a small amount of ink onto his hoof. "If you would permit me, I would be honored if you would accept my offer of friendship. In my tribe it is tradition to mark each other as friend with a ring on their forehead, representing an eternal friendship."

"What a wonderful tradition! Of course I'll do it. What do I need to do?" asked Willow.

"Just hold still," Valhalla drew a perfect ring on Willow's forehead, then gave the ink to Willow. "Now you do the same for me."

"Like this?" Willow dabbed some ink on her hoof and tried to copy Valhalla, drawing a slightly more wobbly ring.

Valhalla looked up to see the ring and smiled. "It looks good. Thank you Willow."

A loud thud came from over in the corner. "Huh? Who, wha... where am I? What's going on? Why does my head hurt?"

"Tex, are you alright?" asked Willow.

Tex looked around the room and found Willow. "Oh, uh... sorry. Bad dream. I'll just wait outside... maybe find a bench to rest on."

"If you'd like, I have a small mixture that could help you rest peacefully. It looks as if Swift Blade could use a bit too," said Valhalla.

"Hmm... How would that effect a dragon? Even one as small as him?" asked Willow.

"It's a special ointment of oils made from certain plants, many of which can do specific things. The oil of a rose can help ease the mind of almost any creature, and I do believe dragons are not excluded," Valhalla took out a small glass vial and hoofed it to Tex. "Simply rub a small amount across your forehead and feet. The most useful oil, in my opinion, is from the Peppermint leaf, but not entirely useful for this situation."

"Okay." Tex carefully took the vial and dabbed a small amount of the oil onto his forehead and feet, and rubbed it into his scales.

"Hmm, I've never seen rose oil used like that," said Willow curiously.

Tex waited to see if anything happened, and shortly passed out in the middle of the floor.

"Valhalla! Was there anything else in that? He's... sleeping peacefully."

"Well, it wasn't supposed to work that quickly, but I suppose he could have just been very very tired. The oils are one of the most natural remedies I have, they rarely cause serious harm or side effects. Unless you put it in your eyes, of course. They can be used both conventionally, therapeutically or aromatically. Lavender for instance smells quite nice, or even lemon. Of course you want to stay indoors with lemon if you put it on, it can increase the sun's effectiveness to your coat and give awful sunburns," explained Valhalla. "We should probably get some sleep of our own now."

Willow yawned. "I think you have a good point. Good night, and my Luna bring you only the most pleasant of dreams."

"To you as well." Valhalla left for his room and quickly fell asleep.

Willow was about to get into her own bed when she noticed Swift struggling again.

"No, have to keep running... ignore the screams... have to escape the fire... so much pain... can't stop... keep running," muttered Swift.

Willow quickly sat down next to Swift. "What are you running from? Where are you right now?"

"So much burning... the fire... burning the city... all the time, drumming... they watch as we burn," continued Swift.

"You are safe now... Who did this?"

"No, not safe yet... keep running... the clerics... of the Two Sisters... called a dragon... with the drums... 'Purify this city... and all who reside there,'" Swift let out a howl of pain and sat upright, she screamed and fell out of bed.

"Swift Blade! What's wrong?" asked Willow in a panic.

"The burning! I'm on fire! Need water!" shouted Swift as she frantically tried to search for water and douse the imaginary fire.

The rest of the group woke up and peered into the room as they heard Swift's screams.

Willow reached out to Swift. "No, you're safe! You're with friends. It was just a nightmare. Listen to me, Swift Blade."

Swift paused and stared at Willow for some time, then quietly broke into sobs and tears.

Willow wrapped Swift in a hug. "Don't worry, Swift. You are safe. No one will hurt you. Just let it out."

After a few minutes of crying Swift let go of Willow. "That wasn't a nightmare."

"I was afraid of that... you were calling out in your sleep. You mentioned my order calling down a dragon."

Swift sighed. "Do you know anything about the city of Trottingham?"

Willow frowned but nodded. "Everypony knows about that. The City That Burned. It was such a tragedy that nopony lived through it."

"Well, looks like they missed one."

"But you would have been so young! It happened before I joined the order. I'm so sorry. But, who are 'they?'"

"'They' were a group of clerics, at the time aligned to the order of the Two Sisters. They came to the city, claiming that we harbored some evil force, that would destroy the world as we knew it. We told them otherwise, saying we did no such thing, including the fact that several of the order came from there. But they refused to listen. They gave us an ultimatum: 'Find the beast that lies within the city and get it out, or you will burn in the week'. We had no idea what they were talking about, so we let it be. A week later, they came. Three of them had drums, those originally used in times of war. The others were clothed all in black. They gave us one last chance to give up this creature, or perish. We still had no idea what they were talking about, and we asked that they leave, that we had done nothing but help them and their order. In response, they began to drum," Swift tapped her hoof on the floor four times. "That was the only warning we got before the entire population was incinerated by dragon-fire."

"I'm sorry... I had no idea. You've been through so much, and I treated you the way I did. Yet, you treated me with respect despite it all. I..."

Willow was cut off as Evening sat up, her blanket draping over her like a cloak. "You're even more amazing than I thought, Swift Blade. Master told me about the Trottingham fires once. She said that flames were almost alive, both terrifying and beautiful. But she didn't care for the ponies that used it, so she stopped protecting them."

Swift chuckled. "I don't blame you, kid. You said yourself, it was before your time. The order went through a major reformation after that, only taking extreme action when absolutely neccessary. The deaths of those responsible didn't really help their case either."

"Still, you proved I have a lot to learn. Thank you, Swift Blade," said Willow.

"But how did you escape? How many rogue clerics did you kill?" asked Evening.

"I have no idea how I survived. On my part, I ran as fast as I could. So it was either some deity that saw fit to keep me alive, or just plain blind luck. As for the clerics, all six of them died in a fire of my own making. I was young and reckless, and my home was razed to the ground. I'm not exactly proud of what I did, but I might not be here if I didn't," Swift looked back at Willow. "And thank you, Willow Leaf of the Two Sisters."

"But I didn't do anything special. I just saw a friend and helped. Anypony would," Willow stumbled in her words. "Um, you're welcome."

"Still exciting, Swift... I wanna hear... more later," Evening yawned and quickly fell back to sleep despite wishing to hear more.

"Are you going to be alright, Swift Blade?" asked Willow.

Swift nodded. "I think so... it only happens once a night, and now that I've had a flashback it won't return until tomorrow."

"Then I think I will follow everypony else's lead and get some sleep. Good night, and may Luna bring you pleasant dreams." Willow finally crawled into her own bed, as everypony else did, and quickly fell asleep, visions of dragons and burning cities throughout the night.