The Return of the Dark Lightning Menace

Eternal Flames had made it to the castle where his father, Royal Blaze was waiting in the throne room. Eternal wasted no time telling his father about the message he recieved and how his friends were guarding the town with some help from the guards he sent forth.

"Alright, good work son. Now, listen to me. Apparently after Thunder Drum escaped, he must've learned the location of where we currently live after persuading one of our rogue subjects back home. Now he's on his way to finish what he started. Be careful when he arrives and make sure to keep your brother safe. Can you do that for me?" asks Royal Blaze

"Dad, as long as there's breath in my lungs, I won't lose to the likes of him." Eternal replies.

"Good, now head back to Ponyville, while I send word to your mom about the danger."

With that, Eternal ran outside and flew back to Ponyville at blazing speed using his powers.

--

"I just don't understand, why would he want to take the throne? There's more to life than leadership." said Pinkie.

"That's because greed can have a powerful hold on those who seek power." spoke a familiar male voice, making Pinkie gasp.

"No way..." she says, turning around to see a stallion with a brown poofy mane and golden fur. "CHEESE SANDWICH!!!" Pinkie shouts, tackling him and rapidly smooching him on every part of his face. "Where have you been? It's been so long since the last time I saw you."

"I wanted to stop by Ponyville for a while, but I-" Cheese is then cut off by Pinkie placing her hoof over his mouth.

"No time to talk Cheese, there's an evil pony known as "Thunder Drum" who's gonna be coming to town some time soon and he's not gonna stop until he finds the two stallions who took his dreams of being a leader and kill them." Pinkie says quickly. Cheese Sandwich then takes her hoof off of his mouth.

"So that's who I saw in the sky when I came here." Cheese says.

"Wait...YOU SAW HIM?!" Pinkie asks out loud. Apparently, the guards and the rogues heard this and went towards Cheese.

"What's going on here and who's the stallion?" One guard asks, pointing a spear at Cheese.

"Whoa, don't hurt him, he's a friend! This is Cheese Sandwich." Pinkie says.

"H-Hi." Cheese says nervously. Pinkie then explains to them about Cheese and immediately back off.

Eventually, Eternal Flames had made it back. Clearly seeing how the town was still in one piece, Eternal was relieved knowing that there was no damage done. He dismissed the guards to let them get back to Canterlot in case Thunder Drums might show up there. But then immediately, he noticed that Twilight had gone missing. He asked where she was.

"I'm back." Twilight says, making Eternal turn towards her.

"Where did you go?" Eternal asks.

"I had to go get something from the castle." Twilight responds.

"Like what? What did you have to get that was so important that you had to leave your post?" Eternal asks with a stern look.

"She went to get me, Eternal." said another female voice. Apparently he recognized that voice and immediately tilted his head to see a unicorn with light yellow fur and fiery red mane.

"Sunset Shimmer? Is that you?" Eternal asks.

"You see, after my graduation had ended, I saw Twilight coming out of the portal as I was walking towards it. She told about what was going on in Equestria and I immediately followed her back." Sunset explains. "Please don't be so hard on Twilight. She was only doing what she thought might help you out."

" *sigh* Alright, I'll let it slide this time. But I must ask. Was there another reason why you came over?" Eternal asks.

Without saying anything, Sunset walks up to Eternal Flames and holds him in a warm and loving hug. "Well, to tell you the truth. Ever since Twilight showed you the world I was living in, and during your private welcoming party, I sort of took a liking to you after Twilight dared me to...you know." Sunset explains, blushing a bit.

"Y-you mean?"

"Yes, Eternal...I kind of had feelings for you." Sunset replies, still blushing. A few seconds later, Eternal wrapped his hooves around Sunset and leaned in close to where he was about to speak in her ear.

"I was about to tell you the same thing...my love." he whispers.

"Um, I hate to ruin your guy's love fest, but I think we got some company." Rainbow Dash says.

Eternal Flames and Sunset soon broke free of the hug and turned to where Rainbow Dash was pointing. The whole gang looked up to see a strange black mass which was getting closer to the them. When it got too close, all except Eternal Flames got out of the way as it landed straight in front of Eternal Flames. The black mass soon disappeared and revealed a stallion who's fur matched Eternal's in means of color but had brown eyes and black mane. There stood the Dark Lightning Tyrant, Thunder Drum. He and Eternal stood face to face both with serious looks in their eyes.

"It looks like you've grown quite a lot since the last time I saw you, Eternal Flames." Thunder says, with an evil grin.

"I'd say the same thing towards you, but you haven't changed a bit since my dad slammed your ass in the depths of Tartarus. Come back to chase a dream that you can never reach?" Eternal asks, still keeping a serious look.

"Oh, I've got something better than that damn secluded kingdom." Thunder says, making his grin more nasty.

"And just what might that be?" Eternal says, getting more serious.

"Three words: Your...Parents'...THRONE!!!" Thunder shouts, making Eternal snarl at him. "However, that might be a little too much of a giant step so I'll just start easy by killing you first and taking YOUR title, "Prince of Equestria." Thunder says before he chuckles evily.

"Over my dead body, you damn traitor!" Eternal says, slamming his head against Thunder's head.

"Traitor...TRAITOR...TRAAAAAAAITOOOOR?!?!?!" Thunder shouts, blasting Eternal back with his dark powers. The force of his attack made it clear to Eternal that he had indeed improved at bit. Then out of the blink of an eye, Thunder Drum made a quick dash towards Heat Wave and trapped him with his dark powers. Eternal then became angry and was about to run towards Thunder until he extended his hoof out signaling him to stop. "Whoa there, hot shot! Take one step closer and I won't hesitate to kill this squirt!" Thunder said.

"You coward! LET MY BROTHER GO! THIS IS BETWEEN YOU AND ME!" Eternal shouted. His fire powers soon became more and more intense as he kept glaring at Thunder Drum who had his brother in a strangehold.

"How about I make you a deal." Thunder explains. "If you agree to meet me...ALONE...then maybe, just maybe, I'll let your pathetic little brother live. Or else I'll have him joining your dead grandfather! Make your choice!"

"FINE! But don't you dare hurt Heat Wave when I arrive. Name the place!" Eternal says with a snarl.

"Very well then. Meet me all the way up there." Thunder Drum says, pointing to the top of the mountain. "Be there in exactly one hour. But remember, if you bring your friends or any of the guards, your brother will pay dearly for your actions with his LIFE!"

"HELP!!!" Heat Wave shouted.

"I'll get you out of this, Heat Wave, I promise!" Eternal says.

"SO LONG, PRINCE ETERNAL FLAMES!" Thuner shouts as he flies off to the mountain laughing.

Eternal was about to follow Thunder until he gets stopped by Shadow Force and Twilight.

"Wait, hold on, Eternal! It could be a trap!" Twilight says.

"Twilight, I have to do this! I can't afford to lose my youngest brother! Besides, he loves you, and I'm not gonna just stand here and watch him get killed by the god damn tyrant!" Eternal says.

"I'm scared of losing him too, Eternal, but I can't just sit here either!"

"Didn't you hear what Thunder just said?! If I bring anypony with me, Heat Wave is finished! Even if we planned a sneak attack, it'd be useless, Thunder Drum is sharper than he looks!" Eternal explains. "I don't have any other choice, I have to fight him alone!"

This was the last thing he said before he took off towards the top of the mountain.

"Girls, we can't let him fight on his own, he could be killed!" Sunset says.

"I know, but what can we do? Thunder Drum will kill Heat Wave is he sees that Eternal brought back-up." Twilight says.

"I think I might have a solution." Shadows says.

"What do you mean?" Ground Dasher asks.

"While Thunder Drum is distracted with his battle against Eternal, we'll take the opportunity to get Heat Wave out of there. But we'll have to act quick because Thunder's sharp enough to focus on the battle and everything going on outside his fights." Shadow explains.

"Are you sure? What if it doesn't work?" Sunset asks.

"How about we stop focusing on the negativity and put this plan into action? Heat Wave is in danger and right now he and his brother need all the help they're gonna get." Rainbow says.

"Rainbow's right." Spark Wave says.

"We'll have to keep a low profile climbing up there. Thunder Drum can sense our powers from about a couple of miles, so we'll have to do this the old fashion way." Ground implies.

"Alright, everypony...LET'S MOVE!" Shadow shouts.