Arvak's new home

by mild hotsauce

Prologue: Always running

Prologue: Always running

Arvak was running, which was not new to him. He was just trotting along the road from Riften to Windhelm when some soldiers in brown studded armor attacked them for no reason, as to Arvak’s knowledge.

“Just keep going Arvak, just keep running, were almost there.” Said his new rider, a Nord with blond hair in steel armor that rescued him from that demon plane known as the Soul Cairn. He did not want to go back, he knew that if his new friend died, he would be sent back to that accursed place, he did not know how he knew, but some kind of instinct said it.

Arvak prided himself in his ability to run, he never got tired, which was odd; all other horses would have passed out from exhaustion by now. He didn’t dwell on it, an arrow whizzed by, the only thought running through his head now was, ‘I have to get my friend to safety.’ A city loomed over the horizon, snow started falling slightly, a sign he was almost done with his long run.

Then, he heard another voice, this time in his head; it was frantic, and ghostly. “Run Arvak, run and don’t stop!” he glanced over his shoulder and saw something horrifying; metal bolts were heading for them. He picked up speed, ran faster and faster to escape them, but ran into another trap.

Something tripped him, and he landed on his face, while his rider flipped through the air and landed on his back. “Well, it looks like this is the end you Stormcloak bastard.” A gruff voice said. Arvak looked up and saw more of the soldiers in the brown armor, and one in metal armor, the metal one glanced at him, “I didn’t know Ulfric was handing out necromancy lessons, oh well, another dead rebel will make this job easier.” He lifted a sword, intent on killing Arvak’s friend, but he would not have it.

Arvak got to his hooves, and charged at the imperials. He knocked the soldier back with his front hooves, and them stomped on his head, with a satisfying crunch. A hammer then knocked him back, and then the wielder got a neck full of knife, courtesy of Arvak’s new best friend. The Nord quickly remounted Arvak, and they stormed off, leaving a small group of soldiers in their wake.

‘Almost there.’ Arvak thought, then the world slowed down, and became fuzzy, ‘no. no no no, no no no no no!’ he mentally screamed. He turned his head, and saw the Nord topple off the side of his back, with a bolt sticking out of his spine. Arvak felt a tingle throughout his body as he watched his friend fall to the floor; he tripped, and fell himself, but did not get back up. He saw the world around him distort and change from the tundra of northern Skyrim to that purple shaded hell he was in before.

He heard a familiar rattle of bones, and the last command that the Nord muttered, “Run Arvak, run!” he stood up quickly, and sprinted, the noise of rattling bones following him told him that he was being followed by monsters again. He whimpered a farewell to his friend, and resumed the never-ending loop of running that he was in before he was rescued.
----------------------------------------

Twilight twisted and turned in her sleep, obviously not having a good dream, a look into her mind revealed what she was seeing.
~~~~~~

An empty landscape, filled with destroyed buildings, dead trees, and odd stone structures. Spirits of what looked like tall monkeys without tails wandered the place, which had a strange purple hue to everything. She never knew purple could make something look so sinister. She wondered why she was dreaming of this place, she looked around and saw what looked like black bipedal skeletons chasing a pony with the intent to kill. The pony did not look like any other though; it was a skeleton with a purple flaming mane and tail, with smaller flames on the back of its hooves. Its bones were purple, and its eyes had a slight purple glow to them.

It was then that Twilight had an idea as to why she was there, to help the restless souls escape danger and find peace. She sent a bolt of magic towards the black skeletons, and hit one. It dropped and fell apart, but what was odd was that it turned into a pile of black ash when it hit the ground. The others turned to her, and she could see some differences. There were six left, one had some kind of metal armor and wielded a large axe, three were just top halves and fired bolts of frost at her, and the others were full skeletons with smaller axes. The skeletons with axes charged towards her, and she charged up more spells. She had to stop, as to not be hit by the bolts of ice from the misty top halves, then she had to turn tail and run from the skeletons with weapons, slightly cursing herself for dreaming of such a scary place… wait, that’s it! A dream, this is all a dream!

Still running, she tried to wake herself up, but did not succeed, she tried picturing herself safe, but that did not work either. A bolt of ice hit her backside and she yelped in pain, very real pain. The skeletons moved closer, and closer.

“Celestia save me!” she yelled. An axe made its way to her head, but never connected, the purple skeletal pony was looming over her, glaring daggers at the skeletons, one of which, the armored one, was a pile of ashes. The pony charged and took down two more skeletons. The misty ones finally showed up, and she heard a clicking noise, the remaining skeletons backed off and retreated, but not before glaring daggers back at them.

She was too surprised to move; she was just staring what appeared to be death in the face, but was saved by the pony she was trying to help. It lifted her up onto its back, and it trotted to some kind of stone staircase that led to some kind of swirling vortex. She could only stare at it, it had the same purple hue as the rest of the place, but it felt like there was something warm behind it, like it was a portal out of this place. As the pony passed through it with her on its back, she slowly returned to the waking world.
~~~~~~

Twilight slowly opened her eyes, and turned her head to the right, as to not look directly at the sun, and wound up staring into a pair of glowing purple eye sockets.

“AAAAAHHHHH!” The screamed and shot up.

“AAAAHHHHH!” The other pony screamed, mimicking her reaction.

“AAAAAAHHHHH!” They screamed in unison before falling from the bed.

“What is all the commo- Twilight, what is that?” Came the groggy voice of her number one assistant.

Comments

[Time Squid]

Good job. I'll be waiting for more chapters.