EDIT: Intro/theme changed.

GORE WILL BE PRESENT HERE, READ AT OWN PERIL!!!

It wasn't too long before Alden was lead through the underground city the ponies had built. Many watched him from the sidelines, eyes wide as they froze in place. Many more saw him and hastily made their exit and subsequent entrance to any building that could shelter them. The slamming closures of doors, windows and blinds echoed throughout the city as an entourage of guards escorted Alden to the surface.

Alden's frown lasted for most of the trip, the man taking note of the details he could. Being in the residential area, most of what he saw were the visages of frightened ponies, but as he passed the residential area, he saw how the ponies lived without a source of sunlight to grow their produce. What he observed was numerous herbs, flowers, vegetables, fruits, and trees being grown in strips of land, much like a regular farm on the surface, with farmhouses and all of the crops bearing their own miniature orb of light. Magical sun substitutes, he estimated. But what he saw next, in front of each and every one of the farmhouses, nearly broke his heart.

Groupings of haggard ponies covered the entrances to the farmhouses, all of them swarming stalls where other ponies were giving out food, the groups all so large they couldn't even be called lines. No, these were crowds bordering on mobs. He saw many pleading for more food, even heard some say they and their family were starving or going to starve, and yet he couldn't bring himself to look away. Some farmhouses had smaller crowds, either because those who were serving them were efficient, or simply because they had run out of food to give.

After looking to the crops once more, Alden could conclude it was almost certainly due to a lack of food, as most of the crops were picked clean.

One of the guards pushed Alden forwards. "Keep moving," she said gruffly.

Alden glanced back at the farms, then sighed and moved on as he was told. Whilst he walked along, his thoughts wandered. 'No wonder those Princesses wanted me to help secure the surface. They're running out of food to feed their people on top of having only so many soldiers in their army. Not to mention they don't seem to have any good counters for bullets, much less missiles or nukes. And with what they told me of the situation, there's a lot of that topside.' Alden bit his lip, glancing to the guard to his right, then the one to his left. 'These two are probably tense because they know that I can steal their souls and win in a proper fight...' He sighed as they made it to the barracks, which Alden instantly noticed was smaller than almost every other area they had passed. 'Jeez, didn't think my guesses would be so on the nose.' The Undead looked behind himself once more. 'Though I guess it only makes sense that so few would want to join the military when they're facing overwhelming odds...' Alden returned his gaze to his front. A large set of stone doors lay ahead of the barracks, with runes and carvings and symbols not unlike those of the doors that lead into the chamber he had arrived in.

It took little time for them to reach the doors, passing only a measly forty guards on their way, many of them with their sights fixed on Alden, and their muscles tensed and ready for action. Alden kept his frown the whole way.

One of the guards escorting Alden looked to the two unicorn guards right in front of the doors and nodded to them. "Open it."

They nodded in acknowledgement, their horns glowing along with the stone portals. A series of clicks resounded throughout the area, followed soon after by an unearthly humming, which grew slowly into moaning as each rune, symbol, and carving lit up with arcane energies.

Then, with the noise of granite sliding on granite, the doors slowly opened. One of Alden's escorts shouted two simple words, "Go, now!" Alden stepped forward, but paused midst his stride, looking back at them. The other escort, the mare, added to her comrade's order. "Hurry up, dammit!" Alden looked back to the outside, then once again to the guards.

Then, he took a deep breath and yelled, "Remember to build a handsome statue in my honor, alright?!" And with that, he walked out, the unicorns slamming the doors shut soon after.

The guards all stared at the now closed doors. Slowly, one of them turned to another. "Was he serious?" His compatriot's response was a simple shrug.

Alden walked out of a long, dark, and dank tunnel and was greeted after emerging by the light of the early morning sky hidden by crumbling tiled roofing. Scanning his surroundings provided him with the knowledge that he had emerged from a tunnel into the ancient ruins of some bygone castle. Weathered and aged grey brick and mortar, tattered rugs, carpets and banners, dented and rusted armor stands, all of it surrounded him with the spirit of an ancient wonder of this strange world that had long since been dead and lost to time.

"Well, this is a lovely development," Alden said with an eager grin. His eyes roamed the area with childlike glee and energy. "Those princesses said I could have any loot from any creature I killed so long as it wasn't one of their own, but..." He walked towards a suit of armor, taking the halberd from it's grasp. "...they didn't say I couldn't take what I wanted from any old ruins~." He sing-songed as he marveled at the design of the halberd in his hands, noting it's vine-like gold gilding along the haft and its similarly gilded blade. "You're so comin' with me," he said, grin still plastered on his face.

He then let out a sharp cry of pain as he felt something sharp scrape along his back, shredding his duster and putting a sizable gash in his armor as he fell onto his face, breaking his mask and nose. He then felt a heavy, clawed foot slam down on his back, and soon after heard an eerily familiar roar.

'That's not good...' He thought to himself, straining to turn his head to get a glimpse of what pinned him. His fears were soon solidified as he saw the dark, brown and tan scaled, horned, and famously clawed form standing atop him. He had only three things to say as the creature's baleful yellow eyes glared down at him "Oh. Uhhh, hi?"

The Deathclaw then grabbed him by the head, and started to pull. Hard. Alden screamed as he felt his muscles burn and strain from the stretch they were never meant to take. Soon after his screams ended with a sickening pop and snap of bones and a splurt of blood as his head was ripped clean off.

The Deathclaw simply let out another roar in triumph as Alden's body dissolved into ash.

Alden reformed in the tunnel in front of the stone doors, the Undead gasping for breath in a desperate manner. Sadly, it simply made his condition worse, the man only stopping in his hyperventilation once he realized he was not only not numbered amongst the dead, but in perfect condition. Even after patting himself down over sixteen times he found no gashes in his armor nor any tears in his duster. Alden looked then to his shaking hands.

"G-G-Geez..." he stuttered. He leaned back against the doors. "...Th-that's..." He gulped and tried to steady his still ragged breathing. "...That's gonna take a lot of getting used to..." Alden looked to the doors he had laid against. "Weird how I didn't come back in the exact spot I was summoned..." He frowned. "Would've been nicer, actually." He looked ahead of him, letting his head rest against the stone behind him. "Thrill seeker I may be, but death is not something I'd call thrilling." He shook his head. "Still, why did I come back out here?" He looked up to the ceiling of the tunnel, trying to produce answers. Five minutes passed, and soon he came up with one. "Wait...weren't there areas in all three Dark Souls games where you respawned in a place without a Bonfire?" He put a hand to his chin. "I know the tutorials for them all did..." He glanced back to the closed entrance behind him. "Considering how these things are magic, and how many runes and stuff are on 'em, as well as how they didn't seem to have Undead down there or even Fallout enemies..." He hummed. "...these doors must block 'em all out in more ways than one." He looked back to his hands, which were still shaking somewhat. He clenched them. "So I can't go back until I'm done, then." He sighed, starting to get up. "I knew I should have read the fine print..."

He chuckled at that. "Heh, Pops would'a smacked me upside the head for forgetting to..." He shook his head, and started to make his way back out of the tunnel, determination in his heart.

Three whole days passed by, but they passed much more slowly for the lone Undead in the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. Throughout the three days, Alden had been killed over, and over, and over again, simply from trying to get out of the ruins.

His first death had left a bit of an impression on him, so when he tried to play it safe by firing his lever-action rifle at an approaching Deathclaw, it was all the more frightening when the beast simply continued to come at him and proceeded to rip him to shreds and ribbons.

On his fourth death, he tried to outplay the Deathclaws by using hit and run tactics, but he soon found himself getting overrun when he tried to reload his magnum revolver.

Upon his seventh demise, he decided to attempt to sneak past all the Deathclaws. Sadly, his heavy armor made too much of a racket, and he was once again swarmed by the horned and clawed terrors.

It occurred to him on his fifteenth death that if he wanted to have a good chance of leaving, he would have to cull the Deathclaw's numbers. It occurred to him on his eighteenth that just rushing in under cover of night would not do it either, as they sadly had better vision than he in the dark of night. On the second day, after his twenty sixth death, he had managed to finally fell the Alpha, but was soon torn to shreds and eaten by the Alpha's mate.

After his thirty fifth death on the dawn of the third day, Alden rose slowly from the cold, cracked stone floor of the tunnel, shook his head, and stood up, striding towards the nest to slay the last of the Deathclaws in the castle. "Suppose it's a good thing I managed to kill that other one before I croaked it. Josh always said a tie was better than a loss, and I can't say I disagree now..." He sighed and drew one of the greatswords from his back, passing countless bloodstains as he walked the ruins halls, and nearly as many Deathclaw corpses. But, in time, he came upon the room where the nest was.

Striding inside, he was greeted with a swipe aimed for his head, which he ducked under and countered with a thrust of his weapon's blackish brass hilt to the jaw of his attacker. This action made the Deathclaw recoil, and gave Alden some breathing room.

"This is it, bud," Alden said, flourishing his greatsword with one hand and making it flourish in turn with black, shadowless flames. "The end of the road."

The youthful Deathclaw growled ferally and lunged towards Alden, only for the man to make a swipe with his onyx-flamed blade across the soft underbelly of the adolescent Deathclaw. This action made the beast let out a howl of pain as it stumbled back. Alden, having learned that giving a Deathclaw time to pause meant death, rushed in and cut into it's neck, his blade biting deep but not severing it's head completely. The beast gurgled and coughed up blood, creating sounds that Alden never wanted to hear. He closed his eyes as the adolescent Deathclaw tried to howl in pain from the burning and cutting sensation in it's throat, blood sizzling and boiling in it's throat from the black flames.

"I'm sorry," Alden spoke softly, before letting out a harsh yell and pushing with all his might until the head was finally cut off, landing with a wet thud and a splat to the long broken tiles below. Alden watched as the body fell as well, then looked behind him to the trail of corpses that lined the halls. His grip on his blade tightened, and he lowered his head, his entire form shaking. "I'm sorry..."

Not a single tear issued from his eyes that morning.