//------------------------------//
// The Trials That Unite The Team 
// Story: Rise of Equestria: The War Begins 
// by Israel Yabuki 
//------------------------------//

"You use to be a queen?! But how?" Twilight asked.

"And when?" Sunset added.

"It was about 29 years ago when I first met Blaze Burn when he was still a prince. He was a bit of a show off when it came to things like karaoke or combat. I sort of grew fond of him because he seemed adorable at first. But later on, I started thinking he wasn't such a bad stallion. I even taught him how to use a specific kind of magic that mostly I specialize in." Princess Celestia explained.

"What kind of magic?" Eternal asked.

"Fire magic. How do I know this? Well, my mother, Queen Galaxia taught me how to use it, but I had to get in a lot of practice to control it before I could teach it to somepony else. At first, when I learned fire magic, it'd go out of control, thus changing me into my darker self: Daybreaker. This was something that was only witnessed by my parents and Twilight's old student: Starlight Glimmer. This is something I'd rather not show anypony else, just so they won't be alarmed or anything."

"Jeez, I never knew my mother was my father's teacher in fire magic." Eternal said.

"Yes, well, some time after he had mastered fire magic, which took him up until he was 20, We just sort of looked after the village and all the ponies who lived out their peaceful lives. We thought about starting a family, but he was just too young to even start, so we waited for a while. During our time together, I started to relax a little bit and focused on our future, until finally sometime after he turned 25, we had our first born child, Blue Blaze, then 3 years later, Eternal Flames and finally Heat Blitz a year after that." Celestia says.

"Well ain't that heart-warmin'." Applejack says.

"Yeah, but somehow, even some heart-warming stories come with complications." Spark Burst says.

"You're right. One night, when I was asleep with my husband, I had this vision that Nightmare Moon was going to return soon and I couldn't stick around the village to let her wreak havoc. I immediately told Blaze Burn of the emergency and told him I might not ever return. He was pretty bummed out about it, but he understood why I had to leave, so I kissed him good-bye and flew away to Canterlot. All the while, I never lost sight of the day I had hoped I'd meet my sons and my husband again."

"Who's this "Nightmare Moon?" Eternal asks.

"She's my little sister. But her real name is Princess Luna. Long ago, she grew jealous of the ponies sleeping through the beautiful night while they stayed awake during the day. To make things a little less complicated, she raised the moon and I raise the sun. Because she gave into anger and jealousy, and trying to plunge the world into an eternal night, I had to banish her to the moon. For 1,000 years, Luna stayed imprisoned in the moon and I've had to live with the guilt for so long." Celestia explains.

"But then when she came back, Princess Celestia had disappeared and it was up to me and my friends to search for the Elements of Harmony and stop her. Not only did we defeat Nightmare Moon, but we also managed to reunite Celestia with her little sister." Twilight explains.

"I see... so that's why you left. Well, I could understand why you had to leave back then, but why didn't you return when Luna was finally brought back?" Eternal asks.

"I'm afraid I had my royal duties as Princess of Equestria to fulfill and there many other dangers that had arrived some time after Luna was saved. Of course, I also needed to recieve some friendship lessons my former student had to learn when she moved to Ponyville." Celestia replied.

"Dangers? Friendship lessons? Sounds like you've been busy."

"Afraid so, my son."

"So, what brings you back here? I doubt it's just for a family reunion."

"You're right. You see, we were called here by the Equestrian map in order to solve a friendship problem, but so far, we still haven't found out what it is."

"Maybe we can find out when we find the Elements of Freedom." Sunset implies.

"What?!" Shadow Force shouted.

"What's the matter?" Sunset asks.

"The thing is, ponies have stopped trying to search for the Elements of Freedom because of the dangerous trials that ponies have to undergo individually. Of course, it's also dangerous if the ponies go into the Freedom Valley without an escort." says Tidal Wave.

"Well then, why don't you guys have the girls be your escorts?" Spike implies. "They've overcome their trial together when they searched for the Elements of Harmony."

"That's where the Elements of Freedom are different. There are six paths that divide us from each other for some strange reason and rumor has it that if the ponies don't hear this strange noise calling out to them in any of the paths, that means they're not the chosen ones." Tidal says.

"How do you know all of this if you haven't been there before?" Spike asks.

"I managed to get an interview with one survivor and he told me how he nearly lost his life trying to find at least one of the artifacts in order to study it."

"Jeez, you really do your homework."

"Well, I always have to be prepared for stuff like this."

"So I see. Well, why don't you boys try to find the Elements of Freedom?" Celestia asked.

"It's just too risky and we don't feel like losing each other. We've stuck with each other for years ever since we were just simple little colts." Hurricane Breeze says.

"Aww." Pinkie says.

"All in all, we can't afford to risk our lives to grab the Elements of Freedom, and unless there's a dangerously powerful threat involved in all of this..." Spark Burst says.

"Despite how peaceful it is right now, there's no telling when evil will strike. Now I might not know much about the Elements of Freedom, but it's absolutely necessary that we find them. I have a hunch that this search for the elements might actually be different." Celestia says.

"What do you think, Eternal? Should we?" Shadow asks. Eternal put his hoof up to his chin, thinking about it. He didn't like the idea of sending his pals out into the valley and potentially never see them again, all the while, a lot of these questions filled his mind: Why was his mom so sure that he and his friends would find them, how will the trip end up differently, and if they do find them, what kind of power will they possess when the time comes for him and his friends to use them?

If there was one thing he knew, it's that he wasn't going to get his answers just sitting around. As much as he hated the idea of going into the valley, he didn't have any other choice.

"If the trial gets too much for us to handle, we get out of there as soon as we can." Eternal says sternly. His friends all nodded and his mom smiled. "Follow me, everypony... I know the way." he said, with his voice sounding a little deeper and more serious than usual.

Eternal walked up to the big gate and wrapped his horn in a red aura, causing the gate to unlock and open up, allowing the group of friends to venture out into the valley. There, they ventured down the path and gazed at the wide open grasslands and the mountains over the horizon.

"Well Ah'll be, this place is beautiful." Applejack says.

"It's so beautiful. It's like a paradise for animals everywhere!" Fluttershy says.

"Absolutely marvelous! How do you manage to live in a place so simple, yet so majestic?" Rarity asked.

"If anything, I could probably fly circles aroun this place! BIG circles!" Rainbow says.

"Yes, it does look beautiful, but the Freedom Valley is actually lion territory. Out here, ponies are guests. Whenever we have a surplus of livestock and their time comes, we serve them up for the lions so they won't have to worry about stalking prey out here. As for the lions, their leader, Panja, delivers us herbs from certain parts of the valley in case some of our locals wind up sick." Tidal explains.

"Hey, at least you're not turning into their dinner." Pinkie says, cheerfully. Rarity looked at Pinkie with an unamused look on her face.

"Pinkie, deary, there comes a time when you should just keep stuff like that to yourself." Rarity implies.

"Oopsies, sorry." Pinkie replied, blushing.

"So how far do we have to travel to find the Elements of Freedom?" Twilight asked.

"It's not that far, just about half a mile until we've reached our destination." Eternal replied.

"I don't think I've ever seen the prince so serious before." Sunset replies to Twilight.

"Neither did I." Twilight says.





Later on, The group had finally arrived at what looked to be a 6-way crossroads in front of them, each path leading to a different kind of forest. Everypony was curious of which path was the right one to take.

"What do you think, son?" Celestia asks. Eternal approached the paths a little closer.

"I don't know, but let me try something." Eternal replied. He closed his eyes and remained quiet. The others looked at each other in confusion until Tidal Wave and Spark Burst figured it out.

"Now I get it." Spark Burst said. He walked up and stood next to Eternal, closing his eyes and stood still.

"Uhh, okay, this is getting weird, what's going on?" Rainbow asked.

"It is said that the Elements of Freedom call out to the chosen wielders in some mysterous way. If they can somehow pick up on the call, then it's certain that they'll follow the right path and be able to pass the trial given to them, in order to obain one of the Elements of Freedom." Tidal explains quietly.

"That's certainly unique. Much different than how we found the Elements of Harmony." Rarity says. Before long, the other stallions, minus Blue Blaze and Heat Blitz, stood still next to each other, closing their eyes and listening in for any kind of sound that might be heard.

Seconds laters, they all opened their eyes and looked at each other... with a nod.

"You all heard it, didn't you?" Eternal asked the guys.

"Yup." said the guys.

"Then let's hurry up. The sooner we find the Elements of Freedom, the sooner we'll be ready."

"Hold on there, partner, y'all ain't gonna go in alone. Yer gonna need an escort just in case." AJ implies.

"Hey, she's got a point guys, this might not be a solo mission. So here's what I'm thinking: One of the girls will travel with us down the paths individually. How about we team up, AJ?" Ground Breaker asked.

"Sure thing, sugarcube."

"OOH, OOH, OOH, in that case, I'll go with Shadow! He did feed me all that ice cream earlier." Pinkie implied.

"I'll go with ol' Sparkster." Rainbow says.

"Hurricane Breeze, can I travel with you?" Fluttershy asks.

"Sure. The more the merrier." Hurricane agreed, with a shrug. Fluttershy squeed.

"So, Eternal, you need a pa-" Sunset says before getting cut off.

"Eternal I'll join you!" Rarity blurted out.

"Sunset asked first, Rarity. Don't be so greedy." Eternal replied, sternly.

"Oh, poo."

"Hey, don't take it so hard Rarity, at least you're still tagging along." Sunset says sincerely.

"Thanks, darling."

"Alright everypony... LET'S MOVE!" Eternal shouted.

"Right!" shouted the others.

All twelve of the ponies traveled down the paths the stallion chose. The ones who couldn't go in just stood at the entrance, hoping they don't get hurt in the process. Blue Blaze and Heat Blitz were extremely worried about their brother undergoing this dangerous trial. But on the bright side, he had a friend who was going to help him in case he got hurt or anything.





With Spark Burst and Rainbow Dash, the path ahead of them was leading to some kind of forest with dead trees, light fog and the feeling of being watched in every direction. Rainbow and Spark felt uneasy, keeping their guards up and scanning their surroundings as they kept marching forth.

"Spark, are you sure this is the right path?" Rainbow asked.

"I know it is. We just have to be careful. But whatever you do, don't panic." Spark replied, keeping calm.

"P-Panic? Who's panicking, I'm not! Nothing can scare me!"

"Uh-huh, sure, whatever." Spark rolled his eyes.

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSE TO MEAN?!"

"Shhhhh, quiet!"

Rainbow covered her muzzle with her hooves. The two pegasi kept marching forth into the forest, where they soon hear the sound of somepony crying. Spark Burst shushes Rainbow and signals her to follow him, earning a nod from her and walked down the path more.

Right around a couple of seconds later, they found a little colt who looked to be about 13 or 14, curled up in a little hut, sobbing quietly to himself.

"Hey." Spark said, making the colt jump and face him. "What's going on here?" he asked. All he got from the little colt was a slight whimper. "Don't worry kid, I won't hurt you."

"It's not fair! She should've known better! That was a timberwolf! It's all her fault." said the colt with tears in his eyes and a little scowl.

"All who's fault?" Spark asked.

"Mother's." Hearing this, immediately gave him the idea of what's happened to the poor colt. Apparently from what he's heard, his beloved mother must've gotten in a scuffle with a timberwolf and ended up paying the price with her life in order to save her son.

"Oh... I see... I see."

"Why did I wander so far from home?" said the colt with a sniffle.

"Aww, it's not your fault. It's not your mother's fault. Now, you pay attention to ol' Spark Burst."

"B-but."

"It is no pony's fault. The great circle of life has begun. But you see, not all of us arrive together in the end."

"But what'll I do? I miss her so much."

"And you'll always miss her. But she'll always be with you as long as you remember the things she taught you. In a way, you'll never be apart. For you are still a part of each other."

"My tummy hurts."

"Well, that too will go in time, little fella. Only in time." Spark Burst rubbed the little colt's head, while leaving half of his cut sandwich for him before heading forth with Rainbow Dash.

"Dude, what was all that about?" Rainbow asked.

"Sometimes, you have to explain some words of wisdom in order to bring a little comfort to others. The world can be cold at times, but peace and harmony can always be found. Even when all hope seems lost."

"Who taught you all of this stuff, man?"

"I have my beloved grandparents to think about, as well as my own mother."

"But what about your dad?"

"Sadly, I never got to see my father. He passed away when I was very young. War had broken out somewhere and all I had to know of his existance was his spear. A family heirloom, which my mother carries with honor and wisdom, training me day after day to help defend myself."

"I... I'm sorry for your loss, Spark. I didn't know you had a rough life growing up. I... I'm also sorry chasing you around the town earlier. Can we start over and be friends?"

Spark looked at Rainbow with a warm smile and chuckled. "Of course, Rainbow. I'd like that very much." Rainbow Dash beamed lightly and shook hooves with Spark Burst. At that moment, a glimmer of light came from a short distance from where they were standing. Spark marched forth with Rainbow Dash close behind and got close enough to find what looked like some kind of gold necklace with a white lightning bolt that looked similar to Spark's cutie mark and it was sitting on top of a stone pedestal.

"Spark. I... I think that's yours!" Rainbow says. "Go on, put it on!" Spark nodded and placed it around his neck. At that moment, he felt his whole body being lifted off the ground and felt himself being surrounded by a bright yellow light. He slowly levitated back onto the ground and smiled at Rainbow Dash, knowing that he had passed his trial and now possesses his element.





With Tidal Wave and Rarity, the path was a clear walk for a while. All the while, Rarity just couldn't stop fidgeting about a certain stallion rejecting her.

"Oh, what does Eternal have against me? I just wanted to get to know him." Rarity says. "I can't help it if I'm a helpless romantic all the time."

"It's not really his fault. At one time when he was only 15, he use to have a very special somepony. They'd walk through the town together, talking about their personal lives. Those were the times when he use to smile so warmly and had so much of a positive attitude." Tidal explains.

"Really? Does he still see her?"

"Afraid not, Rarity. A year later, he found her sweet-talking and flirting with another stallion. He got so angry that he broke it off with her and gave the other stallion a huge kick to the face because of how he was enjoying the fact that he was "stealing his mare." After that incident, he stopped trying to find love and just focused all of his time training with our combat teacher."

"That's despicable! Why would she abandon him for another?"

"The stupidest reason: the scar-like birthmarks under his eyes make him look like a freak. She wanted to be with somepony who didn't have the "face of a criminal."

"UGH! Now that's just plain rude!"

"There were a few times when other mares found him attractive, but the reason behind that was because they all found out he was a prince."

"O-Oh. I guess that's one of the reasons why he rejected me."

"Sorry, Rarity. But Eternal's got some high standards." 

"I... I understand." Rarity's eyes soon got locked onto a river. The currents were moving at rapid speeds, making it impossible for anypony to swim across. "Um... Tidal Wave? How will we get across?"

"Hmm, give me a minute. It's time I've gotten down into some deep thinking." 

"R-Right, of course." Rarity backed away from Tidal Wave while he walked up to the edge of the river and closed his eyes entering what he calls the Thought Route.

'Okay, from what I can see so far, I'd say the river current is moving at a rapid 15 or 20 miles per hour. Trying to swim against currents this strong'll result in drowning.' Tidal thought to himself. He opened up his eyes and looked at the other side of the river, gauging the distance. 'Okay, it looks like the path on the other side is probably at least 20 feet apart from where I'm standing. It's too far to jump over, so we'll either have to build a bridge to cross the other side or teleport over there.'

"Tidal, did you think of anything?" 

"Rarity, how good are you with teleportation magic?"

"Oh... not too good, sorry darling."

"Alright, then that only leaves us with one option. We'll have to build a bridge to get across. And here's what I'm thinking, if you can levitate at least one log, big enough to carry a pony or two, we should be able to get across the river without much of a fuss."

"Tidal Wave that's brilliant! Right, let's get to it!"

Rarity and Tidal Waves searched the surrounding area, trying to find the materials to create the bridge. They only found a few broken twigs and small rocks. But then, Rarity found a log, big enough to hold up a total of 2 ponies and levitated it over to the path. Tidal Wave came back and saw that Rarity had found the right log. Without any further delay, both Tidal Wave and Rarity stepped onto the log and Rarity used her levitation magic to carefully cross her and him over the river and to the other side safely.

Afterwards, they jumed off the log and continued down the path.

"I guess we managed to get lucky with this task, didn't we?" Rarity asked.

"Luck played no role in this, Rarity. It was all the matter of using knowledge to your advantage." Tidal replied.

Rarity giggled. "I suppose you're right."

Out of the ordinary, Rarity and Tidal Wave's eyes got their attentions caught by a blue light. They looked up ahead and walked towards the blue light, trying to get a better look. They soon find a gold necklace with a blue ocean wave symbol in the middle, looking exactly like Tidal's cutie mark.

"Ooh, it's so beautiful!" Rarity says, reaching out for it. But upon contact, the necklace gave her hoof a harsh shock and she pulled away. "OUCH!" she shouts. "W-W-What?"

"Here, let me try." Tidal says. He reached out to grab the necklace and... upon contact, instead of shocking him, the necklace glew just as he put it on. He levitated off the ground for a little bit and finally slowly went back down onto the ground on his four hooves. "Ah, now I see. This element must only respond positively to the one whom it feels is the chosen one."

"You could've told me that earlier!"

"I didn't know it would do that to you, Rarity. Now come on, we might be able to meet the others on the other side if we hurry it up."

Rarity let out an annoyed sigh and followed Tidal Wave down the path.





Over with Fluttershy and Hurricane Breeze, the forest they came across was covered with snow and some of the trees still had some leaves on them. Hurricane and Fluttershy kept their eyes and ears open for any wandering predators that might come after them from any direction at all if they weren't careful.

"Hurricane? Do you think there's any vicious predators out here?" Fluttershy asked.

"I don't know, Fluttershy, I've never been here before. But I do know one thing. Out here we are unprotected. This forest is too dangerous, even if the whole forest is covered in snow, it can't cover up our scent. Our only option is to stay close throughout the journey." Hurricane explains.

"Oh, okay. So what are the names of the Elements of Freedom?"

"From what I heard from Eternal Flames, there's Hope, Wisdom, Knowledge, Teamwork, and Respect. The sixth element is a mystery to everypony. Except for the legendary Queen Galaxia and King Cosmos."

"I can understand that, since they made the elements."

"Yes, but I still don't get what the reason was for creating them."

"Maybe just like how there was a powerful being of chaos and disharmony, there might actually be a powerful being of containment and slavery. Of course... I could be wrong."

"Chaos and disharmony? Who controls that?"

"My friend, Discord. He's a draconiquis."

"Seriously? I thought they were extinct."

"Nope, Discord's the only one we've met so far."

"So I see."

Just then, Hurricane Breeze tripped over a rock, landing on his chin. His eyes bounced up and down until they stopped in place, allowing him to spot an injured animal ahead of him. He let out a gasp.

"What is it? What do you see?"

"There's some kind of injured animal up ahead, Fluttershy. Come on!" Hurricane stood up and ran ahead. Fluttershy followed him close behind and discovered it was female wolf. She was covered in multiple bruises and cuts, showing that she was probably caught in a fight. Fluttershy gasped at the sight of the wolf and picked up the pace until they both reached the injured wolf.

"Oh my! What happened?!" she asks. But all the got was a growl and a snarl from the wolf. Fluttershy squealed and backed away a bit scared with Hurricane. But in that moment, Hurricane felt something inside him chase his fears away and he approached her steadily. The wolf growled and snarled even more at him, but he ignored her warning and kept moving closer to her.

"It's alright. I'm not here to hurt you." Hurricane says, sticking his hoof out towards her. But when he got too close, she locked her jaws on his hoof, and he grunted in pain. Fluttershy gasped. Hurricane didn't budge and instead gave the wolf a patient and warm smile. She kept on growling and held her prey in her locked jaws, staring into his eyes with anger and fear in her eyes.

Seconds rolled by until the female wolf felt more comfortable around Hurricane and opened up her mouth, licking Hurricane's bite wound. She then lets out whimpers from her injuries.

"Fluttershy, watch over her while I run into the forest and get some herbs!" Hurricane ran off into the forest while Fluttershy stayed close to the injured wolf. Hurricane scanned his surroundings throughout the forest, finding some aloe and took a few of them. He returned to Fluttershy and the injured wolf and broke a portion of the aloe plant and applied some of the aloe juice onto each wound the wolf had.

Fluttershy helped out, too. Slowly, the wolf's whimpering began to lessen and lessen by the minute. The juice from the aloe plant was healing up just about all of her bruises. Moments later, the wolf stood on all fours and licked Hurricane on the face before walking off like nothing happened. After that was done, Hurricane and Fluttershy continued down the path, but somehow, Fluttershy had a lot on her mind.

"Why did you do that? That wolf nearly took your hoof clean off, why risk it? Doesn't it hurt?" she asked.

"I know, Fluttershy, but I couldn't let fear get in the way of what I believed in: No matter how bad things may get, we must show that there's even a small glimmer of hope. That's a valuable lesson that my grandmother taught me before she passed away." Hurricane explained. "I saw the look in that wolf's eyes that even though she was acting vicious, deep down she was scared."

Those words got to Fluttershy, making her feel more sympathy for Hurricane. But then, a beautifull light green glow appeared out in front of them. They ran towards the strange light and saw a pedastal rising up from underground with a golden necklace having a green tornado matching the same shape as the tornado on Hurricane Breeze's cutie mark. They both gasped.

"Hurricane... I... I think that's yours!" Fluttershy says in surprise. Hurricane didn't say anything and just reached out and grabbed it, putting it around his neck. He started to glow and levitated of the ground for a few seconds before landing back down softly. "Congradulations, Hurricane Breeze." 

"Thanks, Fluttershy." replied Hurricane.





As half of the team finishes up their trials, a patient stallion up at the top of a mountain watches with concern as one particular stallion has yet to face his own trial. One trial that will soon take him by surprise either for the better or for worse. 

"Forgive me..... my son." said the stallion as he closed his eyes.