Risen looked around at the ruined room in front of her. This seemed to once be part of the castle that the princess had lived in. Whatever happened, the place was overgrown with forest and most of the upper floor seemed to be gone by the looks of it. No doubt other things would have taken up residence by how old it looked. It brought a feeling of dread into Risens heart, seeing what had become of what was once probably a beautiful castle.

She walked through the room studying everything with a watchful eye. She didn’t feel safe like she did in the actual castle. The place held a feeling of fear and was somehow disturbing to her. That being said, there was nothing in the room and she was thankful to avoid another fight after the one she had just been through.

She walked through the room as the ambiance of the forest in front of her seemed like the only company she had. Her sword was firmly grasped in her teeth, ready for whatever came after her. She walked up to the wall that separated her from one the rest of the forest, it was to big and sturdy for her to climb or knock over. She would have to go around it. Her attention turned to the two sets of stairs that was to her left and right. Seemed to lead to doors at opposite ends of the castle. No doubt one of these ways had an exit.

Risen first made a turn to the left and walk up the stairs on that side of the room. They weren’t in as good of shape as the stairs on the other side, but they were still useable. When she got to the top she was greeted by a door that had been knocked to the ground and was rooting from the years since it must have been last replaced. As she entered the room she was greeted by a destroyed upper floor, looking down to see that the entire room bellowed her had been destroyed as well.

She was about to turn around until she saw a skeleton next to her. At first she didn’t see anything remarkable about it, but then she saw the shield it was carrying. With a closer look, she realized that it was a Pegasus designed shield, meant to fit on a the wing for use. Risen knew that this was her best choice for armor right now, and took it willingly. As is firmly fell into place on her wing, she felt somewhat weighed down by it. It was heavier than her, but at the moment it was all she had for defense. If it was heavy, that was fine as long as it did the job.

She walked out of the room, nothing else useful in it and no way to get to the bottom floor without majorly hurting herself. She walked down the stairs, being careful not to fall down with how heavy the shield was on her wing. She made her way up to the left side of the room and walked through the door that was halfway falling off the hitch. She pushed it open only for it to fall to the ground in front of her without any effort.

As she walked into the room she found herself standing in a hallway with a small break in the wall leading outside. Grateful to find a way to the outside world, she took off down the hall. As she approached it, she was unaware of the creature that was in the doorway to the right of the hole. As she reached it, she was caught off guard by the creature and was bitten in the leg. As she fell to the floor she looked behind her saw another Timberwolf, this one smaller than the one she had fought earlier. In fact it was about her size.

She shook it off of her leg and looked at the weird creature as it snarled at her. She took a defensive stance as it launched itself at her, blocking with her new shield as it did. As it hit the end of her shield, she fell backwards a bit, the weight of the shield knocking her to the ground for a second. Getting back up on her hooves she looked to the creature to see that it was charging at her. Dodging to the side the Timberwolf crashed into the wall of the castle, stunning it for just long enough for Risen to strike it down with the vicious swings of her sword.

She watched for a second as a strange white mist came up and dove into her body. The word souls came to her mind as this happened, this must have been what Applejack, Lyra, and The Princess of the Night had been talking about earlier. As the souls entered her, she felt somewhat comforted by the warmth of them, as creepy as it sounded. Of course that warmth soon faded away as the souls adjusted themselves in her body.

Turning away from the now dead Timberwolf she walked to through the hole in the wall that lead outside of the castle. While it did lead her outside, there was no way of her getting down without jumping and shattering at least two of her knees on impact. She knew she wasn’t getting down that way, but searched the platform she was currently on for anything of interest. Sadly, there was nothing, her ears flattened as she realized the false hope that she had been given.

Heading back into the castle she looked down the hallway that she was currently located in. The only door she hadn’t gone through was at the very end of it, to the left of her at the moment. It was the only way she currently had and it was her best hope of getting out of the castle. She walked to the end of the room and was meet with a rather… Unwelcoming sight.

To her right was some stairs leading downstairs onto the ground floor of the castle. On the floor below her she saw probably three Timberwolves, all awake And wandering around her. This was just perfect, she would have to go down there because it was the only way to get to the castle's ground floor for what she knew and her hooves would easily attracted attentions. That was clearly the one downfall to having hooves, anything could hear you coming no matter how quiet you tried to be.

Trying the best she could Risen slowly made her way over the small group of Timberwolves below her. The ever present sound of her hooves reminded just how quickly this could go wrong. She stood over the group from the second level of the castle. Risen patiently waited for two of the other Timberwolves to either separate or to turn their back to another. No way she could hit all three and if this was going to work perfectly she would need a little time to recover. Those creatures seeing her slaughter another one of them would only make it worse.

Finally, after what felt like an hour two of the Timberwolves headed back down the hallway underneath Risen and out of view. Taking this chance she jumped from her position high up and land straight on the other Timberwolf. Doing just like she had with the princesses illusion earlier she took her sword and drilled it through the creature. Once again she felt the warm feeling of souls entering her body, confirming to her that it was dead.

Before she had time to pull her sword fully out the other two Timberwolves were on her. One of them managed to catch ahold of her neck as Risen and her sword was both pulled away from the Timberwolves dead body. As she tried to squirm free from the creature's grasp she felt as the creatures canines sunk deeper into her skin. After what felt like an eternity she somehow managed to shake the creature of off her.

Quickly she dodged out of the way of one of the Timberwolves coming towards her, the pain in her neck feeling unbearable. She wanted to reach for the love Elixir she had, but yet another attack came from the Timberwolves and she was forced to once again dodge. Trying to bare the pain she swung her sword at one of the Timberwolves, hitting it straight in the neck. As she finished her strike she almost fell to the ground in pain at the amount of blood that was pouring out of her body.

She could focus on the pain for long though as the one remaining Timberwolf bit her leg and tossed her across the room somehow. Forcing herself off the ground she looked at the Timberwolf as it charge at her aiming for her neck. All she could was look away in as the creature came toward her. She expected to be killed right there, but instead she heard a howl of pain come from the creature. Looking back, she realized that her sword had managed to pierce right through the Timberwolf because she turned her head. Painful shaking the dead creature off the sword she turned to the bottle of love elixir she had, quickly drank the entire thing.

She watched as the wounds in her body heal up magically, staring in wonder at the entire thing. The only injury that didn’t heal was the small bite mark from the first Timberwolf she encountered. Risen realized that it could only heal to certain amounts, meaning that she would have to be careful about using it in the future, especially since she only had one. Getting up she eyed what looked like a closed door at the end of the room. Running up to it she quickly opened the door and quickly stopped herself. While the rest of the room was in better shape there was a gigantic hole in front of her that covered the right side of the room.

Watching her step she made her way to the left side of the room as she noticed what looked like several skeletons in the pit. They were clearly many years old and from the looks of the armor they must have all been from the war. How many ponies died here? The question itched Risens mind as she walked away from the pit to another door in front of her. Looking in front of her she realized that she had made it to the front of the castle, with the gigantic doors knocked down in front of her. Looking outside she saw more ruins of other buildings that seemed to have been part of the question. Then she saw the knocked out bridge in the canyon at the edge of the forest clearing. Great, she would have to get over there some other way now.

Looking back to the center of the room she saw another lamp post in the middle unlit. Walking over to it she quickly touched it again as the oil inside it burst to life. She didn’t know why, but it still blinded her even after seeing how bright the last one was. That being said, it felt nice being near the campfire, and she was completely unaware of the fact the small bite on her hoof had completely disappeared as she stood near it.

After a couple of seconds she walked away, feeling renewed and alive. Seeing the lamp post gave her a feeling of comfort, something she was surprise about. At the same time, she liked it. She felt safe near it’s light compared everywhere else. It wasn’t something she fully understands, but she honestly didn’t care. All that mattered was she was somewhere that felt comfortable to her. That being said, she knew her presence wasn’t needed at any lamp posts.

As she walked out of the castle she felt the cold night wind against her coat. It felt wonderful, no matter how chilly it was in the end. Looking around she tried to find away to cross the gap that stood in front of her and the forest. Looking to her right she saw a hole in a tower connected to the castle. Deciding that was the best place to turn to Risen made her way over to the tower.

As she climbed inside she realized just how badly in shape it was compared to the other places. At least the inside of the castle looked mostly intact, this place was nothing short of a complete wreck. The entire second floor, save for a small ledge holding a bookshelf, had crashed down onto the first floor. Everything in the room was either smashed or buried under the immense pile of rubble. However, one thing manage to catch her eye.

What looked like a piece of light chain mail armor covered a skeleton. She slowly and cautiously took it off the skeleton it was on and examined it. While being bare naked in Equestria wasn’t bad, it didn’t help much in terms of defense and had almost gotten her killed back there with both The Princess of the Night and the Timberwolves. After a few seconds she managed to finally get it on. The metal felt cold and unnatural to her as she let it rest on her body. However, she wouldn’t let that keep her from wearing it.

As she stepped out of the tower she noticed that the only other place she could go was the right tower. In front of it was a small wall of marble that seemed to house training equipment for soldiers. Walking over to it she felt the eyes of something watching her, but she didn’t see anything moving besides herself. As she reached the small training yard she walked over to the open doors of the tower.

Only for them to be closed with magic before she was even able to step inside.

Author's Note

I'll just admit it now, this was a hard chapter to write. Most of the area's later on will at least have some things for me to write about but considering I already knew what areas, bosses, and other things I was going to use this was just hard to write. I will also admit however that I am really excited to write the next chapter. With that however, please like, comment, follow, and check out my other stories.