//------------------------------// // Ch2: Song of the spirits // Story: Arvak's new home // by mild hotsauce //------------------------------// Ch2: Song of the spirits There was one thing that Arvak learned that he would carry with him throughout his undead life: never ask what could go wrong. While he helped to try to clean the mess, he actually made it worse; the one pile of books that Dash made when she crashed became larger when he scared Twilight when she was using magic. He did not know how he accomplished this; all he was doing was cleaning up the dirt that fell from the flowerpot when he accidentally bumped into her from behind. The explosion of magic in turn sent him flying into the kitchen, and crashing into the fridge, in turn causing various foodstuffs to fly about the room. When she ran to check up on him, he was covered in cracked eggs, splotches on jam, and some hay that stuck to the mess that covered his bones. Upon seeing this, she could not stop herself from laughing at the mess he became, sure, he was a scary looking skeleton, but it looks a lot less intimidating when covered in eggs, hay, and jam. “what, did I get something in my mane?” he asked. Twilight just held up another mirror for him, still giggling like a mad mare to herself, when he saw what he looked like, he too quickly burst out laughing. “What’s going on down here!” yelled a very tired Spike as he walked down the stairs; he got halfway before tripping on a book and falling the rest of the way down. “Oh sweet Celestia this is going to be a long day.” He thought aloud. “Arvak, maybe you should leave the cleaning to me and Spike.” Twilight said. “I think that would be a good idea.” Arvak agreed. A lump of hay-covered egg teetered on the edge of his snout, he used an ethereal flaming tongue to lick it into his mouth, and Twilight just stared at him in shock. “What, tastes better than you think.” “There is a shower upstairs, try and get cleaned up while I bring order to this chaos down here.” Twilight tried putting on a serious face, but it was obvious that she was trying to hold back giggles from looking at the still messy pony in front of them. “Ok.” Arvak conceded. He trotted upstairs, food falling off his body as he made his way to the…shower… “I think it might have been a good idea to ask what I was looking for.” He thought aloud. He walked into a room that had white walls, a white and black tiled floor, with some sort of sink, a weird bowl with a tank, and a tub with a curtain and pipe coming out of it. The pipe reminded him of a small Dwemer water trap that his rider told him about before. He jumped into the tub, and turned the right nob. He jumped in surprise when cold water cascaded onto his skeletal form, chilling the marrow within. He turned it off, and then tried the one on the left, only this time, it was hot water that beat against his skeletal form. This felt more comfortable, but he started to drift off to sleep, so he turned the right one on while the left one was also on. The result was a combo of cold and hot water that kept him relaxed, while also keeping him awake. He noticed that his flames danced around the droplets of water instead of extinguished by them. The pieces of food that still clung to his bones washed out and made a new home down the drain. After another minute of rinsing, he turned off the water from both nobs, and got out of the tub. He saw a towel, and used it to dry off what he could, not even bothering going between the bones because he could not do that with hooves, he tried with claws but met with the same result. He made his way out of the room, and went downstairs, to find that the two tenets of the house work fast. “Hey Arvak, you ready to go?” she said with a warm smile. “Yeah, but two things. One, where did that salamander go, and two, how am I supposed to go out without being seen?” he questioned. “Well, Spike went out without us, and it’s getting dark out, so we shouldn’t have any problems, you could also make a pair of fire wings again and fly there.” “Good point, I’ll follow you then.” He agreed with a nod of his head. Twilight left through the front door, and Arvak went upstairs and onto the balcony. Before him was what appeared to be a small town, it reminded him of Riverwood, but bigger. He made some fire wings and took off, leaving a purple haze in his wake. He soon located his friend Twilight through the darkness of night. He could see the stars, not as beautiful as nights in Skyrim, but impressive to say the least. Twilight rounded to the back of a building that looked like it was made out of sweets, which he could not see the reason for, surely, they knew that its scent would attract bears? He landed and looked around, he saw nopony, which puzzled him, there would certainly be ponies out, even at this hour. He glided down next to Twilight, but then collapsed, he checked his flames, and saw that they dulled slightly. “I see, so I can only control the flames when I have energy.” He thought aloud. “Sure looks like it, get up, we have to get inside before someone sees you.” He complied, but could not see what the hurry was. When he entered the building, what appeared to be colorful shredded parchment flew into his face and the pink pony from earlier started to sing when a hoof was shoved into her mouth. She still made noise, completely oblivious to the thing that was obstructing her ability to talk. The hoof itself belonged to a white unicorn with a fancy purple mane. “Really Pinkie, I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to sing right now. I think this colt has enough on his plate already, right girls… um, girls…” she looked at her other friends, the yellow Pegasus with a pink mane was cowering behind a confused looking orange pony with blond hair and some strange hat, who stood next to a bored looking Rainbow Dash, who perked up upon seeing Arvak enter. Rarity turned around to see what her friends were staring at, and gave a shriek, which was stopped by twilight, at the sight of Arvak. “Come on Rarity, that’s no way to treat a new pony.” Twilight said angrily, but it was unheard as Rarity fainted. “Have you ponies learned nothing from Zecora!?” Arvak noticed the yellow pony dash behind a counter, and the orange one ran to try to comfort her. The pink pony was looking around, shocked at her friends' reactions. Then Rainbow was knocked out of the way by a big red stallion, who no doubt heard the part of the scream that escaped Rarity’s lips. He glanced around the room; saw one fainted mare, and two hiding behind a counter. Apparently, in his mind it meant: kick the flank of the thing causing this. He saw Arvak, and charged forward. Arvak made the mistake of jumping over him, and landing behind him, this action allowed the stallion to buck Arvak. The buck felt like a giant using a stone club hit him. Arvak flew through the door in the kitchen and into a room full of ponies, who stared at him as he sailed above their heads and crashed into a wall. His skeletal bod fell apart when he hit the floor, but soon a magical fire magnetically placed the bones back into their respectable places. He stood back up, and looked at the ponies gathered in the room, he gave a sheepish wave and several females fainted. The red stallion charged again, and several others followed this time. A ghostly voice rang out in his head. ‘Run Arvak, run!’ Arvak burst through one of the windows and bounded down the street, the pony crowd following him with hatred in their eyes. They corralled him through the streets and towards a forest, which he quickly ran to use as a hiding spot, he kept running when he hit the tree line, he did not even notice the crowd of ponies stop when he reached the forest. He ran, and ran, never stopping, he even passed a striped pony, but in his haste, he thought it was one of the towns ponies, and out in an extra burst of frightened speed. The trail he was on wound up a mountain, he did not care, he just kept running, until he reached the top. He was at the center a large circular clearing, with what he recognized as fifteen standing stones making up the perimeter. He looked around, and saw several start lighting up… ------------------------------- “What is wrong with you ponies!?!?” Twilight yelled. “Have you learned nothing from that incident with Zecora?!?!” her voice dripped with frustration as she scolded the now very guilty crowd of ponies. “I’m going to go look for him, and when I bring him back, you all better have an apology ready.” The ponies nodded their heads, and Twilight turned to head into the forest. “Wait up Twi.” Yelled a familiar voice. she turned around and saw Applejack and the rest of her friends running up to her, Rainbow looked annoyed at what happened, Fluttershy and Rarity looked extremely sad and sorry about how they acted, and pinkie lost her usual bounce and her hair as straight. “We are all really sorry ‘bout what happened, we want to help you look for him.” Twilight nodded and walked into the forest with her friends. Twilight was worried though, when Arvak ran off, his flames looked like they were almost extinguished, she feared for his wellbeing. As they walked through the forest, nopony talked, they all were silent from the night’s events. Twilight looked up through the canopy of trees, and saw some strange light in the distance, “hey Rainbow Dash, can you fly up and see where that light is coming from?” “Got it.” The cyan Pegasus flew up and stared off at the light. “Hey Twilight, that light is coming from the mountain to the left, I think I see Arvak up there!” she yelled down. When they heard this news, they all ran down the path, and chose the right directions when the path split at the crossroads. ------------------------------- Arvak stared at the light around him; all the standing stones were lit and emitting beams of light into the sky. He felt at ease around the light, and a familiar ghost materialized in front of him. A gruff Nord in leather armor with an iron sword on his belt. His voice was spectral, but gave Arvak a feeling of peace. “Hello Arvak, why do you look so down?” “I’ve, had a bad day, everypony here hates me.” “That’s not true Arvak.” “Why not.” The Nord’s words puzzled him. “A true Nord never bows under blows, even if they are words that cut deep. You have made friends here, remember.” Arvak did remember, two ponies became his friends, he pondered if they were looking for him right now. “Arvak, do you remember that song I sang to the troops before big battles?” Arvak nodded his head, the Sovngarde song, it always raised the moral of the troops, and always made Arvak feel stronger. “I think you need to hear it now, this is your great battle, and even though you may be a horse, you would make a great Nord, and since you can talk, maybe you want to join me.” Arvak’s mood brightened slightly at the chance to join in the singing of his favorite song. The standing stones brightened and dimmed as the tones of the song echoed across the mountain, undoubtedly, others could hear it, but he did not care. The song started slow, and peaceful. Their ghostly voices blended as they sang together. 'From the mists of the mountains a deafening call Bellows down over the plains On a host of battle-worn ears it does fall Pushing out through the thunder and rain’ Arvak could hear the sound of clopping hoofs at the edge of the circle, but he paid them no mind. ‘These men of the north they have suffered too long The anger it swells in their veins Of the spirited roars of lost warriors' songs Distant echoes are all that remain’ ‘And my voice is my violence Clear the sky's frozen tears And no more we'll be silent With this Sovngarde song in our ears’ ‘And we stand tall Sons of the snow We will not fall Under these blows For our hearts they are hardy Our spirits are strong And our voices are lifted into This Sovngarde song’ They stopped, and let the melody take its course, and the part of the song that would normally pick up, stayed at the calm serene tone, reflecting the mood of the night. ‘Conquer the anger and ravenous rage! Make it a part of your power Pummeling down let your bloodlust engage! Under your force they will cower’ ‘Feeling the fury so pure and so bright Breaking the bonds of surrender Under the moon for our home we will fight And we will die to defend her’ ‘And my voice is my violence Clear the sky's frozen tears And no more we'll be silent With this Sovngarde song in our ears’ ‘And we stand tall Sons of the snow We will not fall Under these blows For our hearts they are hardy Our spirits are strong And our voices are lifted into This Sovngarde song’ ‘These perilous peaks On the rim of the sky I move in the midst Of the clouds drifting by At the top of the world On a white doomful day Men of wisdom will show me the way’ ‘And we stand tall Sons of the snow We will not fall Under these blows For our hearts they are hardy Our spirits are strong And our voices are lifted into This Sovngarde song’ -------------------------------------------- Twilight and her friends watched as Arvak and a ghost sang a song that she never heard before. As she and her friends watched in silence, the echo of the melody and Lyrics echoed in their souls, inspiring courage, and she could hear it as it echoed throughout the mountains. As Arvak sang, she could see his flames brighten, and go back to their full blaze as his mane and tail. -------------------------------------------- The citizens of Ponyville woke from their slumber to hear a ghostly melody echo from the mountains in the Everfree forest. Several peered from their windows to meet the sight of a glow coming from the Everfree, and beams of light that rose to the sky, making the stars shine brighter. ------------------------------------------ Princess Celestia and her sister Luna looked out from the balcony, and listened to the tune coming from the mountains in the Everfree. They saw the lights, and saw the stars brighten, they could feel the power behind the song, and it felt like magic they have never seen in nearly two thousand years. The ghostly tune did not give them chills; in fact, it did the exact opposite. Celestia reached out with her mind’s eye, and saw Twilight and her friends at the edge of the circle with the standing stones, in the center of the circle, a ghost and a skeleton, the skeleton must have been the presence she felt earlier. She decided that she would pay her little ponies a visit tomorrow. ------------------------------------------ The melody died down, and Arvak felt a sense of calm and serenity from singing with his best friend. The lights from the stones died down, and he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Listen Arvak, time and time again you will be dealt a challenge, and like the Nord I know you are, you will succeed at them every time. Now, my time here is nearing its end, and Shor waits for me in Sovngarde, goodbye Arvak, and do me, and your other rider, proud.” With these final words, the ghost disappeared from view, and Arvak stood by himself in the circle, but he was no longer alone. Six ponies tackled him to the ground in a vicious hug, various-I am sorry- lines bombarded his ears. He hugged back, and then the others got off him. “Listen Arvak, we’re super-duper sorry about what happened at the party, please don’t be mad at us.” The Pinkie Pie said. He looked at the others, and saw their gloomy expressions. “I accept your apology, and thank you for looking for me, that means a lot to me.” “Can we cut the sappy stuff; it’s really cold up here.” Dash said. Arvak laughed at his companion’s statement, and soon, the others joined in. they let their position at the top of the mountain, and made their way back to the town. As they left the forest and entered Ponyville, a large group of ponies that were waiting for their return bombarded them. As Arvak slowly trotted in front of his friends, he was the subject of multiple apologies from the towns ponies, and after, they went back to the Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie restarted the party for the very special new pony. ========================================================== A/N i dont know how i did on this chapter,let me know how it is and i'll see if i can possibly improve on it later.