“Well done young risen,” Risen look behind her to see the Alicorn somehow still alive, speaking to her. “Thou shouldn’t worry about thy life. I still live and breath as the moon shall as well,”

“How?” Risen said to her shocked. “I stabbed you straight through the heart, how are you still alive?”

“Your opponent was merely an illusion of me with less than a quarter of my real power,” The Alicorn said. “No risen merely kills the princess of the night, it would be a disgrace to not just to me but to this castle,”

“The Princess of the Night?” The shock on Risen’s face refused to go away at the sound of this.

“Yes,” The Alicorn answered, “While thy name hast been lost to me my cause and purpose remains,” A frown grew upon her face as she looked up at a hole in the castles ceiling, looking at the moon. “Alas thou, what use is a princess of the Night if said night refuses to fade,”

Risen followed the Princess of the Nights gaze upward as she continued to speak. “It has been like this for five centuries. Thy sister refuses to raise the sun, the war staining her soul. She needs resting, such does the other two Alicorn princesses,” Her gaze shifted from the moon to Risen as she continued to speak. “Follow me, we shall head to the center of this great castle,”

Drawing her attention to the Princess of the Night, Risen followed the strange pony up the steps that had separated them and into a side door. Through the door stood a large clearing in the middle of the castle, a few others ponies sharing the space with her. In the middle stood an old lamp post, unlit only to Risen’s eyes. The princess lead her to the lamp post and stopped.

“Touch the lamp post,” The princess requested of the Risen. “Once touched thou shall be given a way back here whenever thou needs. Not only that, but whenever death may come of you, thou should awaken at the last lamp you rested at,”

Doing as the princess said, Risen placed a hoof on the top of the lamp post. As her hoof made contact, the lamp post suddenly burst into a blinding light. After the light died down, she looked at the lamp post to see it had been mysteriously lit by her touch. She sat down next to it, feeling strangely refreshed and watched as the empty bottle on the end of her sword filled up with the same strange liquid as before.

“Doesn’t thou know the power of the Love Elixir?” The princess asked seeing the confusion in Risens face. When the undead pony nodded to her, she let out a long sigh. “It is understandable, not many ponies know of the healing property of love. The idea was founded by our enemy during the war, they were known as Changelings. Love gave them strength, and in the early days of the war they had won off of the love shared by our kind. When we princesses found out, we used it against them, and learned that ponies to can be healed greatly by the emotion,”

“So why was it filled when I sat down at the lamp post just now?” She asked curious.

“While it is merely a theory yet to be proven,” The Princess of the Night began “We believe the lamp post gather the love of ponies who once walked these halls, they are the one who placed them here. That is not important however, what’s important is the fact that you have risen from the grave to help put to peace three troubled mines in Equestria,”

“The other princesses right?” Risen asked, remember what The Princess of the Night had said before fighting her.

“Correct,” The Princess said. “This land has been plagued with the suffering of innocence, something that has been hard one this one's mind for many years. The three princesses have had their souls darkened by that dreadful war and are hurting just as much as their citizens. Everytime I try and can’t bring myself to try and harm them, and such I ask of you dear risen, please give these princesses the peace they deserve,”

Hearing just how desperate the princess was, and thinking of what could be happening to those living in the kingdoms, Risen gave her reply. “Yes,” She said confident. “I would be willing to give peace to the princesses if it was what you wish,”

The Princess of the Night gave a smile of greatfulness as she heard those words. “We thank you,” She said dipping her head at Risen. “The facilities of this castle are open to you, if thou ever feels the need to get stronger just bring me souls in exchange. When thou feels ready to leave head the door at the end of the room,”

Risen nodded her head as the Alicorn Princess walked over to a corner of the room and sat down. She looked around the room, there was currently four other ponies besides her in the room from what she could tell. One was working at what seemed like an old blacksmithing station, one was sitting on the stairs to the right of her, and another in a chair asleep close to the door the Princess had mentioned. She decided to first visit the armor covered pony sitting next to her.

As she approached him, he looked up at her. “So you to have been awoken from death’s sleep,” His voice was deep and muffled by the iron visor hiding his face. “Sorry to hear it, and if you think I’m going to help you on your journey you are mistaken. Heh, I had that same look of confidence when I first accepted that princess’ request. Of course getting to those princesses is no easy feat,”

“What she said about dieing is true you know. I’ve been hit so many times I’m surprised I’m holding together. Whatever it is about the Lamp post keeps us from dieing no matter how hard we want to. Trust me, I already tried killing myself and it doesn’t work. Our only hope of sleeping again is to put the princesses to the blade,”

“Are you saying no one has managed to do it?” Risen asked in shock.

“Not a single pony has been able to kill the princesses,” The armored pony said in a sad voice “much less get to them. Once you exit through that door and get out of the Everfree you will find yourself in the outskirts of Ponyville. Once your there all you need to do is kill the three best guards in Twilights army and a dragon. Not that any risen I know has been able to defeat them. However, I think that might change,”

“Why is that?” Risen asked curiously.

“I’ve heard stories of the elements of harmony,” The armor clad pony explained “how five of them was slain by a traitor named Starlight Glimmer. However, you remind me of one of them, and if Twilight was to see you she might let you in. I doubt it will work, but still worth a shot. Not like we have many more options,”

The armor clad pony let a short and depressing laugh as he turned away. Risen realized she wasn’t going to get any more out of him, and walked away and toward an orange Earth Pony mare with a blond mane working at the blacksmith station. As she approached she got a small smile from the pony.

“Well I’ll be,” The Earth pony said in a country accent. “Haven’t seen a new face in these halls in a long time. Nice ta meetcha partner. The name's Applejack,”

“I’m Risen,” The undead pony replied. “At least that’s the name I’ve chosen, even if it’s more a title then a name. I don’t remember my own,”

“That happens to most of you Risen folks,” Applejack explained to her “I’m a Risen myself but I was lucky enough to remember my name. I’ve seen my fair share of adventure in the three centuries I’ve been awake but have given up myself on trying to kill princess Twilight. Somehow I just can’t bring myself to do it anymore,”

“Three centuries!” Risen jumped back a little surprised. “You’ve been alive for that long and no one has killed the princesses?”

“Nopony has even seen any of the princesses,” Appejack said nonchalantly “Been that way for five thousand years. Aye say that I might have been the last risen to ever see her. Aye wanted to kill her, but something just makes my stop from doing it. I’m not sure why but I just can’t,” Getting that thought out of her head, Applejack looked at the blade she was sharpening in her hooves. “Well Risen, you will need good arms if you are going to even think of battling the princesses. If ya bring me enough souls I’m willing to upgrade any weapon you have. Also, if you find these little cracked bottles on your journey, the ones we risens carry that Love Elixir stuff in, bring it to me and I’ll fix it in a jiffy,”

“Thanks Applejack,” Risen said with a smile on her face. “I’ll be back with those souls of yours,”

She couldn’t understand why Applejack looked so familiar, but she felt comfortable around the Earth Pony. It was like a reminder that she really wasn’t alone on this. She had support in her endeavor to put the princesses to rest. They both wanted the same thing, and they were going to try all they could to do it.

She headed over to the door and watched as the a hooded unicorn mare made her way over to her. Risen stopped in her track as the pony approached her. The hooded unicorn stopping only a few inches from Risen, who calmed down as she realized they had stopped their approach. The unicorn lifted the hood of her face to reveal that she had an aqua coat, mane, and tail with a small bit of white going down the middle of her mane.

“That was an amazing battle!” She suddenly yelled out of nowhere. “I was sure the princess was going to win against you but then you drink that love thingy and… it was just incredible,”

“Um, thanks,” Risen said, rubbing her hoof against the back of her head. “It was nothing really,”

“It’s still amazing,” The aqua unicorn said, starting to evade Risens personal space. “You beat her in ONE TRY! I don’t see a lot of risens that can do that. Sure you would have lost if you didn’t heal but still amazing,” Suddenly realizing how she was acting, the aqua unicorn backed away a little bit. “Sorry about that, the names Lyra, I run a bit of a shop here in the castle. I’m a risen to, but I prefer treasure hunting and item collecting to killing creatures. That doesn’t mean I’ve never killed a pony just not as many as most others, and I love treasure. If you ever need anything like weather magic or maybe some things to enchant your weapon come see me okay,”

Risen nodded in responce as Lyra put the hood back on and walked over to the lamp post. She waved goodbye to Risen before touching the lamp post and vanishing from view. Not knowing what had just happened, Risen pushed it to the back of her mind and made her way over to the doors.

She look at the gigantic doors that stood in front of her, opening them alone seemed like a daunting task. As soon as she opened that door she was by herself, a feeling that didn’t satisfy her. However, at this point her needs weren’t the concern, it was the needs of others around her. She shook away the thought of turning back and put a hoof onto the door.

“Young risen,” She looked to see The Princess of the Night speaking to her. “Once thou triumphs over the once delightful Princess of Friendship Twilight Sparkle, place this in the balcony,” A flag with the moon on its banner suddenly appeared strapped to her back. “It is a signal that the Princess is no more, and more importantly that the land is free. Show it and I will arrive to send you to your next place,”

Risen nodded her head and turned back to the door in front of her. With one last sigh she placed her front hooves on the door and pushed. With all her strength she pushed the door as it slowly opened to the world around her. As the doors came out of her reach she stepped onto the ground and looked up at the forest in front of her.

The journey had now truly begun...

Author's Note

Like, comment, and follow to show your love for this story and my others. Also, a reminder that you can request boss music from bloodbourne and dark souls to use in this. With that, I will see you all later.