Rise of Equestria: The War Begins

by Israel Yabuki

Confrontation Of The King

Author's Note:

If it feels rushed, go ahead and give me any critisism and I'll try to improve the story in the next chapter

The forest around AJ and Ground Breaker was filled with so many cherry blossom trees. The petals from the trees scattered everywhere, little by little. Applejack had never seen trees like these before, but she was glad that she got to see ones as unique as these. Ground Breaker was just as surprised as Applejack was, considering that the only trees he ever saw were mostly apples, oranges and pears.

"Ground, what kind of trees are these?" AJ asks.

"I think they're cherry blossom trees, or as our old teacher called them "Sakura" trees. They're mostly common in this little country called Japonies."

"Well, somepony's been paying attention in class."

"How could I not? Our teacher was a kind lady. So was her husband."

"Husband? What was her husband's name?"

"Panja. He's the leader of the lions. He taught me and my pals how to handle ourselves in combat."

"Well ain't that a surprise. Ah thought lions were vicious predators who eat ponies."

"Nah, they know how to control themselves when we're near them. Whenever they're hungry, we usually give them some of our farm animals who've died peacefully."

"Ah think that's very respectful of you."

"You can thank my Pa for that. He raised me."

"Well, Ah'll keep that in mind." Applejack's eyes soon wandered towards what looked like an elder pony, sitting up against one of the trees. Applejack nudged Ground and gestured at the elder pony. Ground Breaker felt like something wasn't right and he approached the pony.

"Hi there." Ground said. "Is something wrong?" his words got the attention of the elder pony and he looked up with a sad look in his eyes, but a smile on his face.

"Pay no attention to me, sonny. Just savoring my last moments here. I've been through a lot of ups and downs during my years as the caretaker of the sakura forest. It's been my passion to care for them just as my wife did before she passed away last month."

"Ya mean... y-yer dyin'?" Applejack asked in surprise and shock.

"Yes, young lady. But it's okay." repied the elder pony.

"Is your wife buried somewhere near here? Maybe we can take you to her." Ground says.

"You'd do that for me, sonny?"

"Of course. Anypony, young or old, deserves to have their final wish be granted in the most respective way possible and tend to make due on this promise to bring you to your wife."

"You're very kind, sonny. I really appreciate it. I accept."

Ground Breaker smiled a bit and lifted the elder pony carefully on his back. The elder pony pointed to the left side of the forest where there were two boulders. Ground Breaker and Applejack walked towards them. As soon as they passed the two boulders, the elder pony pointed to the left again. Ground turned and saw a tombstone with a picture of what looked like his wife.

"Is this it?" Ground Breaker asked.

"Yes sonny. You can put me down now. I can walk over to her myself." said the elder pony.

"Alright then. If you say so." Ground Breaker gently laid down and let the elder pony walk over to his wife's tombstone where he hugged it.

"I've kept my promise, dear. I'll be home with you soon."

Applejack felt her heart break at this beautiful and sad sight and took off her hat, placing it near her chest. Ground Breaker closed his eyes and looked down, praying in his head that the elder would finally reunite with his deceased wife peacefully in the afterlife.

Afterwards, Applejack tapped Ground's shoulder, getting his attention.

"Ah think it's time to give them some privacy." Applejack implies.

"Yeah, you're right." Ground agreed. The two earth ponies finally took their leave and walked back on the path, but still had the elder pony on their mind.

"Ya know, that was mighty kind of you to grant his wishes, Ground Breaker. Ah've never seen anypony so happy before in mah whole entire life."

"Thanks, Applejack. But I was just doing what I felt was right. He wanted to be as close to his wife as possible when his time comes, and I made sure to respectively grant his wish. No matter how old or young somepony is, even if it's something we don't like, I've gotta respect their decisions."

"Ah couldn't have said it better mahself."

At that moment, a bright white light glew in the distance, catching them both off guard. They ran towards the light and found a pedastal with a glowing, golden necklace with a volcano in the middle, matching Ground Breaker's cutie mark in shape and color.

Ground Breaker grabbed the necklace and wrapped it around his neck. He levitated off the ground for a few moments, glowing, until he gently touched the ground.

"Ah guess that's yer element. Congradulations, partner." AJ says.

"Thank you, Applejack." Ground replied.

---

Shadow Force and Pinkie Pie walked down a forest with pine trees. Shadow couldn't help but get curious of why Pinkie Pie was always bouncing instead of just walking like others.

"Pinkie, why do you do that?" Shadow asks.

"Do what?" Pinkie asks with a smile.

"The bouncing."

"This isn't bouncing, silly, it's hopping. Hopping is so much more fun then just boring old walking."

"Walking drains less stamina."

"That's okay, I've got plenty of stamina! Thanks to all the tasty ice cream."

"Well, aren't you random at times."

"Like my besties say, "that's just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. Now what do you say we keep moving on and find that element of freedom, shall we?"

"Uh... right."

The two kept marching forth on the path. Minutes passing and so far, not a single trace of the element could be found in any direction at all. Shadow was getting rather bored with the search, thinking it was pointless to keep going, but Pinkie insisted that they keep going. Her cheerful attitude seemed to lift up his spirit and continued to keep on walking down the path with patience.

As they went further and further down the path, they came across a deep trench. Pinkie gasped. Shadow was curious of how deep the trench was, so he levitated a small rock over the trench and let it fall. He kneeled down and kept one of his ears up, listening to the sound of it making a thud. He waited for a solid 15 seconds until he heard the sound of the rock finally hitting the ground.

"That's far. No way anypony can survive a fall this deep." Shadow says in a serious tone.

"Then what can we do?" Pinkie asks.

Shadow looked around, spotting a broken down bridge. The support beams were still firmly planted into the ground but the rope had given out some time ago. At that moment, Shadow Force thought up the perfect plan and whispered it to Pinkie. She beamed with a squee and ran to the broken bridge with Shadow.

He used his magic to levitate each broken end of the bridge and straightened them. Pinkie hopped over to the middle of the bridge with ease and pull out some pieces of rope out of her mane and tied up the ropes on each broken end before giving him the okay to walk across. Shadow Force nodded and ended his levitation spell, in which the bridge stood nearly still. Shadow Force walked gently across the bridge, being careful not to weaken it more than it already was and reunited with Pinkie Pie.

"Nice work there, Shadow Force." Pinkie said.

"Thanks, but I'm not the one who did all the work. You helped out. There comes a time when you can't do stuff on your own and it'll require a bit of teamwork." Shadow says.

"Yup-a-roonie. You got that right, buck-o!"

Shadow and Pinkie laughed out loud at Pinkie's remark. But their little laughing fit was interrupted by a rumbling in the ground below them. Soon, a pedastal appeared out of the ground with a golden necklace showing a black and purple yin sign similar to the yin sign on Shadow's cutie mark.

"OOH, OOH ,OOH! I think this might be it! GRAB IT, GRAB IT, GRAB IT!" Pinkie shouted.

"Okay, alright. Ease up, will you?" Shadow chuckled. He grabbed the necklace and wrapped it around his neck and felt a strong amount of power inside him as he levitated off the ground, glowing a beautiful purple glow before land safely back on all fours. "Guess it's mine."

"YIPPEE!!! Congradulations Shadow!" Pinkie says excitedly. "Welcome to the team!"

"Thanks, Pinkie."

---

Finally, down the last path with Eternal Flames and Sunset Shimmer, the path they took seemed to be a short path with a perfectly normal forest, now leading towards some extremely tall mountain. Eternal didn't talk much and kept moving forwards while Sunset tried to keep a conversation with him. But of course, all he did was reply to her with nothing but small talk.

"Eternal, please! Can't you at least slow down a bit?" Sunset asked.

"Sorry, Sunset, but every second counts. I can't slow down." Eternal replied, not looking back.

"You know, you don't always have to sound like the world is ending."

"It's just how I am sometimes."

"Well, if you ask me, it's starting to get old. I don't know what it is that made you act like this, but you need to start loosening up a bit. I mean, yes, we do need to obtain the Elements of Freedom, but acting like how you are now isn't going to do much to help out the team!" she lectured.

Eternal just gave her a glance before looking back at the path in front of him. Sunset knew she was right, but she felt like she might have hit a soft spot on him.

"Oh... sorry about that." Sunset says.

"Eh, it's alright." Eternal replied, expressionless.

"Are you still upset about Princess Celestia?"

"No. I put it behind me. I understand why she left."

"Still, I can't help but feel like you're... er, never mind, I've said enough."

As they marched up the mountain path, Sunset still stayed quiet, thinking Eternal might not be in the best mood to talk to after what she said. She couldn't help but feel like he was hiding something deep in his heart that he doesnt want to tell her for some strange reason.

Aware of her curiosity, Eternal was keeping a secret involving his deceased grandfather. He didn't want to bring it up or he might trigger that past event.

"Eternal?" Sunset asked.

"Hmm?" he replied.

"Did you ever had a nice childhood?"

"For a while, yes."

"Well, can you tell me what it was like, please?"

"Fine, here it is. As a child, I was always cared for by my father. He was kind, loving and protective. Me and my brothers did everything together with dad. We hosted festivals, made peace with the lions, went out to eat, sharing a few laughs, we had all sorts of fun. I felt like the luckiest colt ever."

"What happened?"

"11 years back, when I was in class, my teacher informed me of my ill grandmother. I was told that her sickness was getting far worse. I was scared of what might happen to her, so the teacher excused me from class so I go could check up on her. By the time I got into the hospital with my family, I went to go see if grandma was doing okay, but her condition was getting far worse."

"Did she say anything?"

"She only said these words before she finally passed away: You know I'll never leave you. You can find me everywhere, in the morning light, the evening star. I'm always there."

"I... I'm sorry you lost your grandmother. But what about your grandfather?"

Eternal felt a jolt run past him when she said that word. He hung his head low. "I'd rather not say."

"You sure?"

"This is my burden, and mine alone."

"O-Okay then."

Finally, after a long walk up to the mountain, both Sunset and Eternal discovered a tall, steel gate blocking their way sat down to rest. Sunset had never walked up a mountain as tall as this one. They felt that if they rested up for a little while, it'd give the others a little bit of time to catch up to them.

They were right, because Sunset had then heard the sounds of Pinkie Pie's hopping and multiple hoofsteps getting close to her and Eternal. The girls and the guys all arrived at the top with the Elements of Freedom wrapped around the guys' necks. Eternal immediately got up and walked up towards the gate and knocked three times before backing up a little in case they opened outwards.

Instead, they opened inwards.

"YIPPEE, LET'S GO!" Pinkie shouted happily.

"NO!" Eternal shouted, blocking Pinkie with his hoof. "Don't forget, there's still one trial I haven't done yet." Eternal slowly brought his hoof down and walked through the gate, only to find the top of the mountain having a flat ground and nothing else in sight. Eternal looked around, still finding nothing.

But then... "It's been quite a while, hasn't it?" said a deep male voice. Eternal's eyes shrunk. He knew exactly who that voice belonged to. Just then, out of the corner of his eye, a flash of light appeared and vanished, letting him see a stallion with sapphire eyes and a red mane like his, but his fur color was orange and had scar-like birthmarks in the front and back of each eye.

He was an alicorn stallion who looked to be the same height as Princess Celestia. Eternal Flames looked more serious when he walked towards him, now face to face with the stallion.

"Yes... it has." Eternal replied.

"I assume you've gotten over the incident now?"

"For now, I have. But first, I want to know something."

"Very well, I'll allow it since you and your friends have gotten this far."

"Is you being here suppose to be a trial? Or did you use some trick just so you could get me to see you again?"

"You mean, the trial for the hidden Element of Freedom?" the stallion then chuckled. "You know, despite all that's happened here, your mind is still as sharp as ever."

The Mane 6 were confused with what was going on with Eternal and the stallion he's talking to.

"I don't get it. Why are they just talking to each other?" Rainbow asked.

"If I had to guess, I'd think they're extremely close, like a family." Fluttershy says.

"That's because they are family, you two." Shadow Force replied.

"Okay? But how?" Rarity asked Shadow.

"Just wait and see. You'll be surprised." Shadow Force replied again.

Back with Eternal and the alicorn stallion.

"If this is suppose to be a trial, then what do I do?" Eternal asked.

"It's quite simple..." the stallion replied before pausing. He closed his eyes and then quickly opened them back up, lighting up his horn and destroying the gate, making the others shout and scream. Eternal grew agitated with the stallion's actions.

"You do realize that you almost hit my PALS, right?" Eternal gridded his teeth.

"I was careful, now pay attention." the stallion then turned away and walked towards the edge of the mountain before finally speaking again. "In this trial..... you'll have to cast your fears aside..... and defeat me in a battle of strength and magic. If you can defeat me, then the hidden element is yours, but if you lose, you will leave and not come back until tomorrow. Do you understand... my son?"

".....I understand, father." Eternal replied, looking determined.

"FATHER?!!?!?!" shouted the girls in disbelief.

"You mean that stallion over there is his dad?!" Rainbow asked, still surprised.

"Yup. The one and only Blaze Burn." Ground Breaker added.

"So... he's married to the princess?!" Rarity asked, shocked.

"Yeah, he's still got some kick in him for a 47 year old alicorn stallion." Shadow said.

"Well, at least I know where Eternal got those scar-like birth marks from." Sunset says.

After explaining the conditions to his son, Blaze Burn turned around with his eyes still closed.

At that moment, Eternal walked up and stopped in the middle of the mountain. He felt his surroundings get bigger, but the air felt denser. Nevertheless, he stayed calm under pressure, ready to face his father head on with his undying courage as his only weapon.

"Eternal Flames... It is time to begin. Prepare yourself!" Blaze Burn said as he looked down at the ground with his bangs covering his eyes. His wings spread out and his horn glew. Next thing that happens was the edges around the mountain being shot by magic and causing a ring of fire to appear around the two of the stallions, blocking all exits and the entrance for the gang to go inside.

To Be Continued

Comments

[HaloKnight999]

The Elements are found and the final trial has begun, will eternal succeed or will his fear overcome him.

We shall see?