Friendship is Eternal

by Alchemystudent

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Crossover, Human, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Other
Length: 56757

In an attempt to save Spike from doing something stupid, Twilight is sent far from home.

(Set 6 years after the FMA Magna's end, this will be following the magna continuity)

Alchemy, the science of understanding a substance, breaking it down, and restructing it into a new form.

Twilight Sparkle, a mage, must now figure out how to handle this science as she is thrown into a different world after saving her trusted assistant. Her magic gone, she learns from an experienced Alchemist as she goes off in search of the only stone that can bring her home.

Published 2012-04-27 00:04:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-20 21:17:28 UTC

Preperation

Chapter two: preparation

“RARITY!” Pinkie was the first to exclaim, bounding into Rarity, her legs almost crushing the marshmallow pony, “Yo…You’re” Pinkie is on the verge of crying waterfalls as she is joined by Applejack, Fluttershy, and Dash.

Applejack, holding on to her stetson and praying to the princesses that this wasn’t just some sick dream, “How, why?”

Fluttershy, her soft voice unable to show how much joy she had in her heart “Welcome back. I am so glad you are alive.” Begins to cry into Rarity’s shoulder.

“I…its just not possible…b…but I don’t care.” Dash allowed herself to cry, not minding how it made it look to others. The quartet of ponies backed off slowly to allow breathing space for the two figures.

“It was Spike,” She looked down at the purple dragon who was crying into her white chest, “And, Twilight,” She looked at the circle, the memory of being pulled away from heaven still fresh in her mind. She could see in her mind the young dragon crying on the circle, moaning at the loss of his ‘sister’.

“Twilight’s home? YAY! Now I can throw a double welcome home party, so where is she?” Pinkie looked around frantically, trying to see her friend, “Is she playing hide and go seek?”

“TWI? Where y’all at, come on out!” Applejack yelled, joining in Pinkie’s search, swaying her head back and forth.

“Rarity, where’s Twilight?” Dash asked, not liking the look in Rarity’s eyes.

“I am ssss…” Spike continued to break down, he was barely able to cope with the fact that it was his fault that Rarity died, and now…Twilight.

Rarity brushed the Dragon’s scales as best as she could, trying to sooth him. “ Spike…told me what had happened. He was trying to bring me back with something he called Alchemy, Twilight saw him and went to stop him. She then used some sort of spell to bring me back and pushed Spike out of the circle, completing the process as she finished the spell. I came to here, without Twilight.” The ponies stepped back in shock and horror, while Pinkie ran to a pile of books.

“N…no, NO! IT ISN’T FAIR!” Dash slams her blue hoof onto the wooden ground, “How is it that we get Rarity back just to lo...IT ISN’T FAIR!” Dash yelled, feeling rage and despair running through her heart. The ponies sat there in a group, the mood somber and silent with the exception of books being shuffled into a pile by a pink pony.

Applejack was the first to speak up, “Someone, s…should go to Canterlot and tell Twi’s family. They need to hear all of this in person. It won’t be easy.” She moved her Stetson over her eyes, as if to remain strong while holding the tears.

“I think I will go and see Sweetie Belle, she would be happy to know I am alive.” Rarity stood up, noting that Spike had cried himself to sleep. “It would be best if maybe I took Spike out of here, I don’t think he can stand being in this place anymore.” Using her horn she picked up Spike and walked out, happy to be alive, but feeling guilty at the same time.

“I’ll go with her, she needs someone to comfort her.” Fluttershy said, her light yellow wings helping her to take off. Deep inside, she knew that Rarity must be feeling horrible for being here at the cost of someone close. This left only three ponies alone, in a cold Library that would once hold laughter in its rooms. Dash grunted in frustration, wanting to head to Tartarus itself and fight whoever holds the keys to death just to bring back Twilight. In her head she could see the reaper’s neck in her hooves, strangling him until he gave back her friend and promising to never take anyone close to her ever again. It might take a while, but she had time she could do it and, “Pinkie what the BUCK are you doing?” Dash asked looking at the pink pony as the party animal threw a book at Dash.

“Well, when we bring Twilight home, she is going to want to clean up. SOOOOOOOOO we better get a head start while I look for that book.” Pinkie picks up another book and throws it onto a tower right next to Applejack.

The orange pony shook her head “Pinkie, I know you are taking this hard but, Twilight aint coming back.”

“Sure she is, after all…if she were really dead her fried and horribly censored-due-to-the-fact-that-the-author-can’t-do-gore corpse would be right there or at the very least ashes.” Smiling, she reached down and pulled up a book with a few symbols labeled Myths of Alchemy, “Ponies cant just up and die without leaving something behind silly, it would defy everything that makes sense in the world…and that is my job!”

“So, what y’all is saying is…” Applejack looked, arching an eyebrow.

“That Twilight is most likely in another dimension, waiting in a boring subway listening to some weird guy speak some philosophy before she gets to fight an agent!” Pinkie bounced to the table, laying it flat onto its back opening it, quickly looking through the pages.
Dash, lowered her head, began to laugh. Her heart filling with hope, there was a reason her friend was the bearer of laughter, because that type of thing could bring hope to a dark situation,

“Pinkie, you are a freaking genius!” She walked up to the table and read alongside Pinkie, looking for a clue on how to save her friend.

“Wait, how did you know all of that fancy science stuff?”Applejack asked, raising a hoof.

“Oh, Twilight one time gave a long boring lecture when I made Gummy’s ball disappear. She tried to tell me how I couldn’t ust make things disappear because the rules of matter or something like that.” Pinkie said, a smile on her face. The two other ponies just looked at each other, shrugged and put it up to: Things to never ask about Pinkie…EVER!
________________________

“Ok, Twilight, you can do this…just take in what has happened to you today. You have lost one horn” She puts her hand onto her head, rubbing it, “ one Tail” Looking behind her at her butt “and your fur had been turned into a set of clothes,” She looked at her t-shirt, and purple pants, complete with a sparkle cutie mark. “You seem to have gained some appendages apparently” She looked at the top of her body, noting the additions. “Including ten digits and two…melons?” Shaking her head, trying to get used to this weird body. “First task, get used to walking and then to a library…maybe I could get some information on where I am and then home.” She began to walk slowly, putting one foot in front of the other, slowly as if she had never taken a step before, then she noticed a bum staring at her,”I’ve forgotten: talking to yourself is the first sign of madness.”

Just above her, in a small hotel room, a young man was asleep, his right arm over his eyes as he began to dream. “No, its all wrong! Take my arm, my heart anything just BRING HIM BACK! The next time I see you cry will be with tears of happiness. Look Hohenheim, it’s your daddy, wave hi. Congratulations, you are now a dog of the military. I am just so proud of you, my little Alchemists!” The dream was a flood of voices in his head. All of them memories of his life up until now, he hated some of them, but loved the others. Waking up, he removed his arm from his eyes, and sat up in the bed looking down at his hands “What a life I have been living huh?” He sighed looking up at the ceiling, watching the rotating fan. He always got bored at these cons that he visited; it felt less like he was giving lectures on Alchemy and more like he was talking about how to paint in the lines to third graders. All of these theories, equations, and solutions he had in his head…and no way to demonstrate them. Getting out of the bed slowly, he smiled to himself, being normal aint too bad though. I still get to investigate things no one else would dare to, solve scientific mysteries with my bare hands. I also get the chance to prove fakes wrong and show the truth. YES I AM THE MASTER OF SCIENCE FACT AND…in need of coffee! He looked at the coffee maker, its perking slow to come. Ohhhhh, his love of coffee is only hindered by how slow it is to get here. It was at this point he began to hear voices just outside, looking out over the edge of the window he saw a young purple hair woman backing up from three punks. “Please do not let this be another one of those fangirls who want to be my only love and they too went through my sad experiences and/or have a life rougher than I did!” Sliding out the window, he made a point to drink some coffee later.

“ Look you three, I need to get through you and out of here. So unless you can help me, I would like you to move please.” These men had just popped up in front of her, surprising her.

“Sure we can help yas.” A big man, hair of shining gold smiled.

Another big man looked down at Twilight, “ It’ll just cost ya”

“How much?” Twilight continue to back up, taking note that running is out and fighting will be hard due to her not being used to the body. She decided that magic would be the answer. Concentrating hard, she began to think of a fire spell to scare them, feeling the mana energy flow through her, she summoned up…nothing. It was like the files containing magic in her head were locked away in a sealed box, with a key that she doesn’t have. No matter what she did, the magic could not come.

“Oh, you wallet, or at least a kiss” A third man, shorter than his two compatriots sneered, wielding a bat. Behind them, a blonde man slips down a fire-escape and lands behind them.

“ I don’t have any money, and as for kissing I would prefer to be asked out on a date first” Twilight said, slapping her hands together.

“It wasn’t a request Wench!” The man growled as he stepped closer while Twilight put her hands onto the side of the wall to keep her balance after slipping on a brick. When her hand touched the wall, her mind began to dissect the wall as if it was a cadaver. She could see everything about the wall, what made it, how it was formed, the basic elements that went into the compound, the barest atoms that composed those elements. She could see everything that the wall had to offer, and more importantly what to do with it. Smirking, she willed the wall into a brick fist and caused the wall to punch out the punk.

“Hey, that witch used that fancy magic, what was it called?”

“It isn’t magic…Its Alchemy, and unless you want to see her use more of it…Run, now.” The young man smiling, clapping his hands together out of pure reflex.

“No, she knocked out my friend now she’s going to pay.” He brings out a knife as he watches the would be hero grab a trash can lid.

“Fine then…THINK FAST!” Ed throws the lid, missing the two thugs. Ed ran to the mook on the right, dodging a punch and upper cutting the mook following up with a round house. Behind the mook on the left, Twilight slammed the lid on the punk.

“Thank you sir, I was going to handle them myself. But any help is always accepted. Who are you?” Twilight looked toward her helper.

“The name? I am Edward Elric.” Ed pointed his thumb to himself, smiling.

Author's Note

Redited, I like thanking Zoltanthemaginicant so thanks, he is a terriffic editor and has some great riffs.

First day of school

Chapter three: First Day of School

Twilight followed Ed up to the apartment, stumbling a little as she continued to try and get used to not having a horn or two front legs anymore. Once inside, Ed offered some coffee to the young girl noting her quite unusual hair color.

“So, care to tell me who you are and how did you perform that little trick down there?” Hands her a cup of coffee, taking one for himself. He stands by the window, leaning on the wall as he listens to his new occupant.

As she looks into the drink, her mind begins to think of everything that has happened, “My name is Twilight Sparkle.”

“Oh no.” Ed moaned

“WHAT? Is something wrong with my name?” Twilight asked, looking a little angry that this guy was annoyed by the name.

“Sorry, its just that I have met more than my fair share of fans who will have weird names like yours, dye their hair to look special, and will come to me with a back story that is supposed to move me to tears.” Ed puts his coffee down on the window sill.

“It’s a perfectly normal name where I came from. For me, Edward Elric sounds weird” She said, chuckling. She liked to have conversations about differences between worlds if she found herself in somewhere new, after all it was just a new chance to learn for her.

“However, they all can’t do what you just did, at least not without a trick up their sleeves.” Ed had only a few seconds to study the area where the transmutation happened, but he knew for a fact that it was real. Which can mean only one thing, please let me be wrong

“What did I do?” She looked up at Ed.

“Alchemy without a circle, not very many people can actually do it.” Ed, looked at her, noticing that she had a look of weirdness at hearing the word alchemy.

“Alchemy? So that’s what that magic was!” Twilight tried to say under her breath but her excitement made her say it out loud.

“Magic? You mean that fairy tale power that doesn’t exists at all and has no connection to real life?” Crossing his arms, not believing what he had just heard.

“No, magic is real and where I come from all unicorns can do it!” Twilight exclaimed, not know how to prove it.

“A unicorn, really? And I suppose that there are Pegasus and dragons in your world, and the sun, against all know science and math as we know it, is controlled by the most powerful unicorn, right?” Throwing his head back and laughing a bit.

“Alicorn, actually.” Twilight said with seriousness in her voice. “ She is a winged unicorn princess and my teacher. And the correct plural term is pegasi. Dragons also exist, I know, I have baby dragon as an assistant. You also forgot to mention that the moon is controlled by the princess’ younger sister who is also an Alicorn.”

“Oh, you are serious about that. In some far away world, you are actually a unicorn that performs ‘magic’. Oh, boy” Ed puts his face into his palm, starting to wonder about the sanity of this girl and if he should start running. This girl must be from a country where they encourage this type of thinking, or she is brainwashed by an evil cult, either way she needs help. “ So how did you get here from your little ‘magical’ world?”

“It was…while I was helping a friend of mine. You see this pony that he loved very much had died.” She said, the memory of Rarity dead making her sad a little.

“YOU DIDN’T!” Of all the things in the world that he had been through, one event in his mind still haunts him- his greatest mistake, one that cost his little brother his body and him a leg. That one little incident that put his brother in the aim of a madman who wanted to use the brothers to get in touch with god and got him to where he was, few things in this world are left that can actually set him off like the knowledge that someone was stupid enough to perform that taboo, “HUMAN TRANSMUTATION IS SOMETHING THAT SHOULDN’T EVEN BE THOUGHT OF MUCH LESS ATTEMPTED!!!”

“That’s why I stopped him, I couldn’t let a guy that was like my little brother sacrifice himself like that.” Twilight looked up at the angry Ed, her mind now thinking if she was successful or not.

“ You stopped him? But…” Ed was now less furious, more curious. Never before had he heard of someone stopping a transmutation and starting one on her own.

“As it was happening, I pushed him out of the way, completing it myself as I had casted a spell to revive her and bring her back to life,” Twilight then had a revelation, what if that spell failed and what if her efforts were wasted. She did she just ruined more lives than save? She pushed those thoughts as far away as she could, I am Celestia’s best student, and there is no way I would allow myself to fail something that important! “Then I saw this door with a blank thing in front of me.”

“Truth,” Ed said very solemnly, This clinches it, she’s telling the truth. No one would know about that thing unless they went through the gate.”

“It told me that in exchange for the three years of my life I gave up for the spell, I needed to go on a journey and find a way back home,” She finished her cup as she watched Ed uncross his arms and sighed.

“So, how are you planning on doing this?” Ed, may not have believed the whole story, but he could see she was hurting and needed help to get home. He then walked to her, and hugged her.

Twilight looked shocked, “What was that for?”

“You looked like you needed one, and besides its proven that hugging can relax someone.” Ed smiled, after all he could remember the times it would’ve felt good to have someone comfort him once in a while.

Twilight got off from the embrace and stood up, “Well, I better get to the library. They should have some clue or something that could tell me how to get home”

“You aren’t going to find it here, the library is too small and has nothing on dimensions or alchemical theory I checked.” Ed turned to Twilight who was about to leave.

“Then do you have any better ideas?” Twilight looked at Ed, a little annoyed that her lead was just shot down in flames.

“You would have far better luck in a place like Central; they have a huge library on a ton of subjects. You might find something there, and luckily I can help you get in to the more restricted areas.” Ed then brought out his old watch, remembering when Roy gave it back.

“Here Ed,” Roy threw Ed his watch “You might need it again, and it will allow you to see the central library any time you need to.”

“Thanks colonel.” Ed gave a thumbs up to Roy as he walked out of the office.

“No problem, Fullmetal, and congratulations by the way. I think its great that you finally have a family member tinier than you are.” Roy smiled as he dodged the incoming trash bin thrown by Ed.

“As a former State Alchemist, I kind of have perks that not many people can have. It comes in handy once in a while.” Ed said, putting his watch away. The girl does need help and, to Ed, there is no one better qualified than him.

“A State what now?” Twilight asked,” Is that like a royal guard?”

“You could say that.” Ed answered back as he opened the door.

“Oh, okay,” Twilight walked out the door,” Thanks by the way.”

A few moments later, the two walked toward the train station. Twilight spent most of her time trying to conjure up any spell she could think of. Even a basic telekinetic spell would be like a breath of fresh air to her at that point. However, nothing came to her. It was as if she was looking at a treasure chest and she had no key to unlock it. She knows the spells, she knew how to make them work, but still she couldn’t summon up anything. She sighed to herself, her magic would be no use to her here and she had no idea how to use this alchemy that she gained in exchange. The last time was an accident and was unsure of how to do it again. “I guess the library will also have a few books on alchemy.” She said out loud to herself.

“ Good idea, but in the meantime…I’ll help you perfect your alchemical skills.” Ed said, turning to her and pointing to himself with his thumb.

“Really, you’ll help me? You’ll teach me how to be an alchemist?” She skipped up to Ed, excited. She may not have her magic, but the idea of learning something brand new excited her to no end. For her, it was like she was going to relearn magic all over again.

“Of course, you got potential and you are going to need to know how to be one if you plan on going any further with your little journey.” Ed said, turning to pay for his and Twilight’s tickets.

“Private car please.”

“Private car? Why?” Twilight asked, following Ed into the train.

“Because you need the concentration in order to be able to do what I want you to do. Got it?” He said as he guided Twilight into the car. He then pointed to the seat and had her sit down, he then looked down at her straight into her eyes. “Now, before we get to central I want you to answer this question. IF you can’t by the time we get to central then I won’t teach you.”

“All right.” Twilight smiled confidently, any question that he had she would be able to answer easily.

“Tell me the meaning of this statement: All is one and one is all. Good luck” With that Ed left Twilight to her machinations.

“WHAT?” Twilight looked behind her, trying to figure out what in the hay that meant.

Author's Note

Well you know the answer, and I know the answer, but dont tell her...she wont learn.

Thank you for keeping the edits coming, Zoltanthemaginicant

Homework

Chapter 4: Homework

Twilight sat there for several hours, watching the scenery pass by her. Every minute seemed to drag on and on like a slow moving snail. The sentence that Ed had asked her to figure out as her entrance exam would continue to haunt her. “all is one and one is all”, that was what he said and no clues to be given. He had said the purpose behind this sentence was to make an alchemist think and figure out complicated subject because an alchemist must be able to think when performing alchemy. IT has been 8 hours since he had asked, and according to Ed the city was 4 more hours away. Maybe she won’t figure out, heck maybe she won’t actually need alchemy to help her. Maybe she will just meet a guy nice enough to open a random portal for her. No! That’s giving up Twilight and you are not one to give up, ever! That’s one of the better parts of your personality. After all, Celestia didn’t pick you just because you are a dipstick. THEN WHY BY CELESTIA IS THIS SO FREAKING HARD!!!!! “One is all and all is one”. By now she had tried to rearrange the letters into new words and phrases and all that led was her finding at least three new curse words.

“Ohhh, Twilight! I got it, maybe it is an a play on words and he wants you to write a song!” A ghost Pinkie remarked

“No, that isn’t it”

“Maybe he is trying to mess with your head and it doesn’t have an answer like one of those lame philosophical questions.” A ghostly Dash asked.

“No, it has a meaning. It can be interpreted and figured out.”

“Want me to hogtie the guy and make him talk?” A ghostly Applejack

“It won’t work Applejack”

“Maybe, uh no forget I said anything. It is up to you really.” A ghostly Fluttershy.

“I would like to hear it Fluttershy”

“Darling maybe you are thinking too much in the box” A ghostly Rarity.

“BUT I’VE TRIED THAT!” Twilight yelled out loud, noting she was alone. She began to twirl a finger on the table in a circle, moving it around again and again as she noticed the rain start. Its raining, heh. I wonder how this world gets its rain, since pegasi don’t exist here. Maybe the sun heats the water up, turning it into steam and then it condenses and then the rain falls in a cycle…! A CYCLE!It was if a light turned on in her head. She looked at the trees, and began to think of how the sun gives energy to the plants. This is turn given to creatures like her who will eat those plants, then they might get eaten by a creature who is hungry, But what happens to the creature…he dies eventually and become nutrients for the plants. Twilight smiled as Ed came in to the car.

“So did you figure it out?” Ed looked at Twilight, eating some chips he got from the kitchen car hoping that she did.

She turned to Ed, excited at her progress with this hard question, “The all is the world and I am the one. It all feeds into a cycle.” She heard Ed laugh, for a few seconds thinking she got it wrong.

“Wow, it took me a month to get it. Maybe I should have given you a mad man attacking you while you tried to figure it out. It might have made it harder for you.” Ed looked at her, walking to the table, “Congratulations you passed, now…the hard stuff.” The way Ed said it, was as if someone had told her she was going to Tartarus.

In the four hours that the train took to get to the city, Twilight had began to learn the basics of Alchemy. Ed taught her that Alchemy is the science of learning the basics of a substance, deconstructing it, and then reconstructing it into a new form. The hard part came in the explanation of the various types of circles and how they applied to different fields of alchemy.

“Now entering Central!” The conductor called as he walked through the train.

“We’ll continue this later Twilight.” Ed said as he stood up and walked with Twilight following. As they walked in the city, Twilight was amazed at the beauty of the city. In many ways it reminded her of Canterlot, with its huge buildings and stores. She took in all of the people walking around, hearing the myriad of conversations and deals that were being made in this city. As the two walked down the street to the library, a store caught Twilight’s purple eyes. Turning she looked at the store in amazement, “Carousel Boutique? Excuse me Ed!” Twilight ran quickly to the store.

“Ok Twilight but…and you are gone.” Ed sighed as he watched the young woman run into the clothing store, “Women and their clothes I swear.”

Inside the shop, there were several clothes and mannequins strewn about the place. In the center of this was a young woman dressed in a white work dress with a trio of diamonds on the side, “Ahhhh, Welcome to Carousel Boutique where ever...” She is stopped by a hug from Twilight “I say, this is the usual reception I get from my little sister, not from a complete stranger. Do I know you?”

“No,” Twilight shook her head a little teary eyed “You just remind me of someone close that I miss a lot right now.”

“Oh, I see. Want to talk about it? I can offer you a seat and something to drink.” This world’s “Rarity” offered.

“Oh no, I can’t right now I need to head to central Library, I need to see some books from the private section.” Twilight walked to the door as she watched the gears in Rarity’s head begin to work.

“OH MY GOODNESS YOU ARE A STATE ALCHEMIST!!!! OH then we must get you there quickly, and if you could maybe you could direct some of them here, I have been dying to do one of the State Alchemists for AGGGGESSS.” She said with a gleam in her eye as she watched Twilight walk out, getting brushed by a little girl with green eyes.

“Hey Tabitha!” She smiled glomping her older sister as Twilight stood in the door.

“Someone you knew?” Ed walked to Twilight.

“She reminds me of a very close friend of mine, back home.” She looked down, feeling homesick. Ed nodded in understanding and walked Twilight to their destination. Twilight turned behind her to see two young women walking behind her, one holding a lyre and the other some candy, “Yeah, you look familiar too.”

The building that was the Central library towered over master and student. It was like a mansion and could easily be mistaken for the capital. Twilight could only stare in awe and amazement as she walked up the stairs. “Hello and welcome to Central…ED!” A young brunette with glasses leapt over the desk to hug the Alchemist.

“Uhhh, you are?” Ed looked bewildered.

“Oh ofcourseyouwouldntrecognizemehowstupidamI? Oh sorry I talked too fast, I am Sheska, the girl you helped once and got a job with Huges? After the Father incident I was recommended to serve here and I have been good ever since! So what do you need?” She looked at the former alchemist and then to Twilight, “She isn’t one of those ‘Mary Sues’ is she?”

“No she isn’t really. She is just someone who needs help.” Ed chuckled. “We need access to the inner archives.” He then showed her his old watch.

“Sure!” She then let the two in. Twilight, upon seeing the shelves upon shelves of books quickly grabbed as many as she could carry and began to read. Ed, watching, was quickly reminded of how he was when he was young. Always going for the nearest book and reading it until he understood it back and forth. He smiled as he remembered the times he would read to Al those same books, though he was positive that he couldn’t understand it when he was 2. Calmly he picked up a book entitled “An Alchemist’s journey: a travelogue by Edward Elric” and began to read the old formulas.

“I FOUND IT!” Twilight exclaimed almost forgetting where she was as she looked into a book called “Old stones and strong foundations, a stone guide.

“What?” ED walked to twilight’s table and looked at a page that held the picture of a stone that looked like two hands holding one another.

“Listen to this…” As Twilight read, Rainbow was reading a similar legend.

“Long ago, there were two brothers. One was skilled in the logic and science of Alchemy, while the other was a master of the power and illusion of magic”

“But magic is fake, it’s not real here.” Ed looked at Twilight

“Not if you don’t believe in it, it’s like…” Twilight paused, she thought how best to describe it “Its like if you know the truth behind an illusion, its stops being real to you and thus it loses its power to trick you and affect you. If you have no faith in magic then the magic won’t work for you or affect you.” Twilight then continued to read.

“The two brothers one day decided to discover what can they do if they were to combine the two teachings and what miracles could they perform. Working hard for a few months the eldest brother crafted a stone with Alchemy and the youngest put runes all along the hand to help supply the magic. This was how they created the fraternity stone, a stone that can pierce dimensions.”

“Oh my Celestia, you know what this means!” Dash’s eyes opened wide, as Applejack read the book aloud.

“Wait a sec, how would this thang help us find Twilight?” Applejack then read down further. “It is said that the stone has the power to open a dimensional door, as well as find its counterpart in any other dimension. If one person has one half of the stone and another person has the other half…then the stone can find that person and from a bridge! And since Twilight disappeared thanks to Alchemy and Magic.” Applejack smiled as the gears worked in her head, “Rainbow, y’all go get Fluttershy, if Twilight is hurt then we need medical help.”

“I’ll go and get Rarity; she’ll want to help too.” Pinkie said hopping out of the library.

“Wait, does it even say where this frat-whatever stone is?” Dash looked down at Applejack.

“It says that its last known whereabouts is in Unicornia, to the north.” Applejack closed the book.

“Got it!” As Dash flew out she grinned “Hang on Twilight”

“I AM GOING HOME!” Twilight smiled.

Author's Note

Or is she? hahahahhahahahhahahahhaahh

Major props to my Zoltanthemaginicant editor, who has to put up with a lot lately

Field trip

Chapter 5: Field Trip.

Fluttershy satin her hut in her, crying softly on the couch. It isn’t fair, Rarity didn’t need to die, Twilight shouldn’t be dead either. Why did we lose one just to lose another. She put her head into her hooves crying, much like she hasn’t stopped since she got home. Sure, it was one thing for her to be strong for Rarity on the way home, trying to hold in all of the pain. It had come easy to her for years, making sure that no one else but her would feel pain and sadness. Here at home, though, it was her time to let it all out. She could feel Angel’s paw on her mane, rubbing softly trying to comfort her. “nothing can be gained without first giving something in return” Those words were said by some scientist, and to her they were as hurtful as if someone told her that a person is in a better place when dead. Dead is not better, it never is, and when you give up a life, the loss is worse than whatever you get back. Worse yet, it was two friends in a week, it might as well as been madman gunning every animal down in her face.

She was too far gone into her tears to hear the door open, nor did she feel a cyan hoof on her back, “Hey, Fluttershy. You can stop crying now.” Dash said with a smile.

“It’s hard to do that Dashie, I can’t turn it off.” Fluttershy turns her head to the couch, not wanting to see Dash, determined to keep her pain to herself. “Why shouldn’t I cry, Twilight’s gone.”

“What if I told you we are going to get her back?” Dash whispered into her ear, and was surprised to see Fluttershy’s sudden turn to her.

“What? But how?” She looked into Dash’s eyes, hoping that it wasn’t just some false hope.

“We found about some stone that could cut through stuff, like dimensions. I am not sure about the technical details, it involved a lot of science stuff that I usually sleep through. The important thing is that this can help Twilight come home and we need you to come with!” Dash walked a few steps back, smirking. “So me, Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity are going off to get that stone and her back.”

“Me, but what can I do to help. I…I’ll just be a burden to you and the others.” Fluttershy looked at Dash, her heart rising at this light of hope.

Dash sighed, she knew Fluttershy had little confidence to herself; however, she also knew Twilight would love to come home and see all of her friends there, ALL of them. “ Sure you can help. What if Twi is badly hurt by the time we get there. The only pony here that would know of anything about that doctor stuff is you. And besides…wouldn’t she be happy to come home and see her friends again, and have the homecoming she deserved?”

Fluttershy nodded, she may have had her doubts about what she could do on this journey; however, She was ready to do anything for her friends.” All right I’ll go, just give me time to get packed. “

In Applebloom’s room, the mood was very sad and downtrodden. Any other time for the young crusader, this would be like a long sleepover; however, the room lacked any of the joy one would have when your best friend is there. “Come on Sweetie, get up. You haven’t moved from this bed for a week…you need to eat somethin’!” Applebloom quietly nudged her friend, trying to move the little unicorn out of her bed. “Please.” Her plea came across as heartbroken.

“Go…away” Sweetie bell kept her head looking at the wall, still crying much as she had been for the last week, “ I’ll just…I’ll just find a way to get you hurt or worse too. Just like I did Rarity.”

“Sweetie, Rarity would hate for you to go like this…giving up on everything in your life.”
Applebloom laid her head onto the bed. It wasn’t that she couldn’t understand her friend’s situation, she might be just as in much pain if she were lose Big Mac or Applejack or worse the both of them. She also knew, however, that the worst thing one can do with the memory of a loved one is to let it hurt you.

“She is right my dear, I wouldn’t want you to waste your life like this. I am quite curious to what your talent will be one day and I want to see it.” Rarity ran her hoof through her young sister’s purple and pink mane, smiling.

“Stop playing with my hair Applebloom, I am not going out ever again.” Sweetie bell tried to move the hoof away.

“Are you sure ,Sweetie? It’s a wonderful day to play.” Rarity leaned to Sweetie and nuzzle her, kissing her cheek softly.

Sweetie turned to see Rarity, and immediately gave her a big embrace, crying harder now, rubbing her face into the soft white fur. “Oh, Hi Rarity, y…you are ok, you’re alive.”

“Yes, my darling, I am not going anywhere from you.” She smiled down at her.

“I am not going to look up, and I am not going to open my eyes. This is how the dreams always end, I will see you here and then when I open my eyes…I wake up.” Sweetie bell decided to risk it and look up into the face of her sister. Someone she connected to since she was held as a little foal and she saw those eyes of hers and the mane that her little hoof touched. For her, she might has well have been a baby again, feeling the warm arms of protection around her. “Oh Rarity I am so…” She wanted to ask how she came back to life, she wanted to know how she got here. She didn’t care at the moment.

“I don’t blame you, I would’ve been more heartbroken if you had died as well. I can a;ways get my
house back, but I can never find a better gem than you.” Rarity continued to hold her sister tightly, not wanting to leave.

Pinkie Pie looked in, teary eye. “Oh this is so beautiful.”

“Pinkie? Why are you here?” Rarity let go of Sweetie Belle for a minute.

“Oh, because I have some super-duper great news. You ready for this? I know how we can get Twilight back!” Pinkie smiled as she bounced in followed in by Spike.

“But how?” Rarity looked at Pinkie, curiously.

“OH me, Dashie, and AJ found out about this weird little stone that can cut through dimensions and since nothing can truly vanish…Twilight had to have gone there when she brought you back. So we’re all going to go and get that stone for her.” Pinkie smiled.

“But why do you need me?” She looked back at Sweetie Belle and then back at Pinkie.

“Well it’s a stone and you are good at finding jewels and besides it’s at Unicornia…you know former Unicorn capital. You will be perfect there and I can’t very well arrange a ‘good welcome back from the dead and another dimension’ Oh, wait…another dimension is censoring terms for death. Sorry about those flashbacks author! Well anyway, it would be no fun if Twilight doesn’t have everyone there.”

“I would go too, but…I would mess it up again.” Spike looked down as he felt his chin tucked by Rarity.

“Spike, Darling, if you want to make it up to all of us…you can protect the crusaders for all of us.” Rarity looked down at Spike with a calm smile, one that could make the young dragon weak in the knees.

“You would trust me to, do that?” Spike looked up and smiled.

“I would find no one better suited to protect my precious gems.” Rarity rubbed Spike’s spines a little.

“All right I’ll do it!” Spike looked up with a smile.

“Y…you have to leave?” Sweetie bell looked up a Rarity, saddened,”But I just got you back.”

“It’s all right Sweetie, your big sister just needs to go and get a friend and then I promise you that I will come back, and help you make a dress with me.” Rarity hugged her dear sister, rubbing her back.

“Pinkie Pie promise?” Sweetie looked up, a frown on her face, deep inside though her heart was ecstatic that her sister was here.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye” Rarity accidently poked her eye as she did.

Outside of Ponyville, five ponies stood together, bags filled with equipment. They looked towards the north and where their destination was. It was at this point some of them realized how important Twilight was to them.They asked themselves how close would they have gotten had they have not met her and went on an adventure for some items that no one ever thought existed. Pinkie Pie smiled as she walked out first, “All right here we go! Let’s get Twilight home!” The others nodded to each other in agreement, they knew they were gonna succeed; they just wouldn’t let themselves fail.

“Yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes YES! I have got my ticket home!” Twilight jumped up and down happily before remembering just where she was. Upon hearing several people shush her, she blushed and sat back down, writing things within a notepad and walked out of the library, Ed following right behind her.

“Wait a second, do you even have an idea where the stone actually is?” Ed looked at Twilight, not doubting the existence of such a stone but more of the location.

“According to the book its last known sighting by anyone was in a place called Xing.” Twilight opened her pad and looked through it to double check as they walked to the train station. They were too busy with their conversation to note a military officer trying to talk to them but getting caught up in the public traffic.

“Xing huh?” Ed smiled “Perfect, we’ll be able to get some great people to help us there.”

“You know some people in Xing?” Twilight looked at Ed as they ordered the tickets.

“My little brother is currently living in Xing with his fiancé. He is studying a lot of their alchemy and some of their legends behind that. If this stone is any way connected to it, he can help a lot.” Ed smiled as he began to think of his little brother.

“Al, he is that brother of yours that you kept on telling me of all of his accomplishments right?” Twilight asked as she got on board.

“Yeah. “ Ed sighed, “I haven’t got a chance to see him in a while, so it will be great to check up on him.” Ed followed Twilight, not hearing the soldier trying to call them under the sounds of the train. Twilight looked at Ed, understanding about how it feels to see a sibling after being gone for so long. She remembered how happy she was to see Shining Armor again at the family reunion and how they barely stopped talking all through the week.

Ed looked down at Twilight, My student…I hope the stone is what you are looking for and you don’t have to pay too much for it. He looked at the passing scenery as the train pulled out, remembering what another stone cost and what he and his brother would have had to do in order to use it.

The soldier panted, looking at the fading away train. He went to the nearest phone booth and made a phone call, “This is Fury, patch me to Brigadier Roy Mustang.” He pushed up on his glasses, still panting. “Sir, I have some stressing news.”

“What is it Fury, I am in the middle of something important.” Roy looked at one of his subordinates, eyes glaring with the intent to kill. “Now hold perfectly still. I will finally have him. It has taken me months to get him where I want him, so Fury you will wait.”

“Yes sir!” Fury stood at attention.

“Now hold still.” Roy looked at the nervous man.

“Are you sure you can’t just use bug spray like everyone else sir?” The man shivered.

“This creature has avoided all attempts, this time his death is assured.” With a snap of his fingers he burned the little mosquito alive, not hurting the soldier at all. “There, now that wasn’t…Wait there is a bug on your shoulder.”

“Oh that’s just Wasp.” The man smiled.

“A WASP! THAT’S EVEN WORSE!” Roy prepared another assault.

“No! That’s just my pet wasp, Janet. Come along Janet.” Hank Pym, the bug alchemist walked out of the room.

Roy facepalmed, he cant believe the people they let into the state alchemist program these days,

“Ok Fury now what is it?”

“Well sir, the former Fullmetal Alchemist has just left the station on a train headed for Xing!” Fury looked off into the distance.

“Oh great…Get a call out to the emperor, tell him to get in touch with Fullmetal’s brother and tell him to get in touch with me.” Roy hangs up the phone, looking down at the paper reports. “Maybe he might know why these people are suffering from such weird delusions lately.” Roy shuffled through the reports that have been flooding his desk for the past few days, any other time they would be kindling. However, they have been too rampant and far spread to be isolated incidents, reports of monsters and weird people popping in and out of existence have been occurring all over town.

“Sir!” A blonde haired woman walked into the office, saluting before continuing, “We have another report, and this time it’s right here in central.”

“Finally. Hawkeye, get the car ready, we’re about to capture ourselves a monster.” Roy smiled, things have been too quiet for his taste recently.

The car drove quickly down the street where various soldiers were looking up at a dragon, “Mustang, sir! We have been having trouble with this dragon.” A very scared soldier looked at Roy.

“That is not a dragon soldier, that…” He looked up at the red scaly monster before him. “Is a scaly chimera.” Roy snapped his fingers, burning the creature’s eye. The monster roared and swiped a claw at Roy. The former colonel jumped back and snapped his fingers again, causing a torrent of fire to spring up and knock the monster back. Before the creature could attack once more, he vanished. The crowd looked on in amazement while Roy calmly got into his car.

“Sir?” Hawkeye looked at her superior as she got in.

“Hawkeye, whatever that was…I know Fullmetal is going to be in the thick of it.”

Author’s note: Finally, finally after 21 pages of work I have finals gotten a fight in…and it was the shortest I have ever written! Yes, that is an accomplishment.

rpglover97:
Angel being nice? This is a bizarro world if I ever seen one
rpglover97:
Named"Douche Nozzle"
rpglover97:
Oh, great, more non-canon shipping HIT THE DECK WE'RE ANGERING THE FLUTTERMAC SHIPPERS!

rpglover97:
You should see what happens when I read a Fluttermac fic, it happens in reverse
rpglover97:
RD:Cause things like other dimiensions are very hard for me to understand.
rpglover97:
PP:Recruting for the A-team!
rpglover97:
Ra:Princess Celestia? Princess Luna? The Necronomicon?
rpglover97:
PP:Because you're reallly pretty!

Les yay rating:9
rpglover97:
Once again, Spike is left out

Sp:Oh, well, I still killed Sombra, I'm happy!
rpglover97:
SB: But the last time I did that, it ended up gaining sentience!
rpglover97:
TS:Nope! But I'm winging it

Ed:I like your style

The Mage and the Alchemist: A Road Trip movie
rpglover97:
TS:Unfortunately the book is 300 years old.
rpglover97:
Roy knew however that they were indeed Cybermen!
rpglover97:
Read "Squeed"
rpglover97:
Footnote:LEVEL UP

New Perk for Roy: Dragon Fighter: Your experience with the dragon has given you the ability to withstand high temperatures, you gain 30% resistance to heat.
rpglover97:
right just keep telling yourself that.

Author's Note

Thanks to the one and only Zoltanthemagificant for this, editing can be rough

Physical Education

Chapter six: Physical Education

The train moved slowly along its course to Xing, being about three days away. As it turned along the cliff face past soft hill laden plains, it became like a happy traveler on his merry way as the sun warmed him up. This beautiful site was ignored, however, by two of the people inside the train who went into the train a far back as they could go. The alchemist push aside all things breakable and then began to draw a circle in the middle of the car, “Ed, I don’t get it…how is this going to help me learn Alchemy.” Twilight asked, getting into some comfortable fighting clothes and out of the purple attire she had been wearing.

“You’ll see.” Ed said as he began to remove his long brown coat and into some black pants and tank top. “ Besides, my teacher has always said that a strong mind needs a strong body to protect it.”

“That is true, but how does that relate to Alchemy?” Twilight asked as she moved into the circle and assumed an odd fighting stance, one that made it obvious that she was getting used to the idea of having arms rather than hooves.

Ed sighed a little at the sight, “Have you had any experience in fighting? Or have been taught the basics?”

“Well, I have read a few books on Neighponese fighting styles and Dash taught me a little back when I was a pony, so I am a little more used to hooves.” She looked down, a little embarrassed by her clumsiness.

“Ok, well at least you might know how to throw a punch.” Ed stated, ignoring Twilight’s little, insane, fantasy about being a pony. “So throw one at me.” He waved one hand at her, beckoning for an attack.

“Ok!” With that, Twilight threw her first punch, which was then blocked by Ed’s palm. She was then pulled to Ed and thrown to the ground. “OOOF!”

“Did you see it?” Ed asked with a chuckle.

“See what?” Twilight asked getting up and brushing herself off.

“How it worked like Alchemy.” He then looked at her, “Throw another punch at me, slowly this time and I’ll demonstrate.” Nodding, Twilight did as she was asked, “ You see, this style works like Alchemy by taking and understanding the opponents attack.” Gently he put his palm to the side of Twilight’s arm and pulled it, “Deconstructing it, and then “He then threw Twilight back to the ground “Changing it or redirecting it into a new form.” Crossing his arms, he smirked.

“Yeah” Twilight shook her head to get her bearings, “I think I am.” Twilight then threw a basic jab, but tried to do an uppercut that she had read about. Ed just blocked the jab, uppercut, and then countered with a light punch.

“See? I redirected your jab, deconstructed your uppercut and then used the leftover energy for a good punch.” Ed smile as he watched Twilight get up.

“Yeah I see.” She said as this time she thrust her foot out to kick Ed, and watched as he took a step back, grabbed her foot and lifted her off the ground. As she was in air, Twilight twisted her body on instinct to deliver a kick to Ed’s face. “How did I?” Twilight looked at herself in confusion, she did not know how to do that and never even learned it.

“I don’t know, but it was impressive and well executed. Ready for some more?” Ed asked as he got up slowly, wiping a bit of blood off his nose.

“Yes teacher.” Twilight said, nodding. As the two continued to spar with one another, Twilight began to think about what has been happening to her lately, It’s interesting, but the more time I spend in this world, the more I seem to be adapting. For instance, my ease at learning Alchemy and how to fight as a human, both of which should take me months to learn. However, here I am learning at a fast rate, I wonder She backs away, dodging the sweep kick from Ed If this is Truth’s way of compensating for the loss of my magic, equivalent exchange as it were. After all, back when I was a pony I did have an unique ability to learn a spell just by watching it performed. Maybe, since I can have magic but have skills, my talent just moved to the next best…”OOOOF!!!” Twilight yelled as she got jostled by the train’s sudden stopping. “What was that?”

“ATTENTION PASSENGERS WE SEEMED TO BE STOPPED TEMPORARILY BY WHAT APPEARS TO BE A GIANT... BEAR? WE CALMLY ASK ALL PASSENGERS TO PLEASE REFRAIN FROM THE OBVIOUS BEAR PUNS AS THE CONDUCTOR AND I HAVE ALL READY MADE THEM.”

“ OH, HOW ABOUT “I CANT BEAR THE SUSPENSE OF HOW THE MILITARY IS GOING TO CONTAIN THIS.”

“GOSH DARN IT PHIL, SHUT UP!!!!”

“Oh,come on, why does every train I go into always seem to get into trouble? C’mon let’s check it out “Ed said as he got his brown coat and went to the outside ladder. Twilight soon followed and saw a huge bear growling at the train. Inside this blue creature was a collection of stars, including the constellation Little Dipper. “What is that thing?”

“ It…it’s an Ursa Minor.” Twilight said, unbelieving her eyes, but trying to figure out a way to stop the creature from harming anyone.

“A what?” Ed looked at Twilight, confused.

“An Ursa Minor, a creature from the world I come from…but he shouldn’t exist here at all.” Twilight said, trying to figure out what is going on.

“Existent or not, we got to figure out how to at least contain it.” Ed said, clapping his hands, but then remembering that his Alchemy is gone. Twilight, looking to the cliff wall, claps her hands and puts them to the side. She then made the wall into a pushing hand and shoved the beast out of the way. “Nice thinking my student” with that he leaped off the train and rolled down the hill. Getting his bearings he picked up some rocks and threw them at the bear, “ Hey big guy come and get me!” The bear roared and charged at Ed as he ran from the beast.

Twilight followed Ed, trying her best to think of a plan. Without her magic, she knew she couldn’t lull him to sleep like last time. So this time its time to play with the area, she then clapped her hands and put them to the ground, forming stone spikes and hitting the bear in the side. As the bear yelped in pain Ed punched it in the nose and kicked it in the leg before running to Twilight, “So any ideas Twilight?” Ed panted out his question.

“I need to find a way to contain this beast, something like a good steel cage or something to that effect. Anything.” Twilight said looking around her.

“Give me a weapon, we can probably think this one out while keeping it busy.” Ed held out his hand. Twilight nodded in agreement and used Alchemy to form a spear for Ed and handed it to him. As Ed charged at the beast, Twilight clapped her hands to the ground to form a platform to get herself high up. A few yards away she could see some trees covered with some vines. Smiling she looked down at the fight as Ed vaulted himself up with his spear, and used it to stab the beast while in flight. Landing, Ed blocked the bear’s swipe with the spear; however, it broke. The bear reared, ready to swipe again and as it did Ed used his left leg to block the attack. The force still knocked him flat. “ED!” Twilight then used her alchemy to knock the bear aside with a rock fist. She then used a few more fist to blow the creature back. “Ed, are you all right?”

“Yeah I’m fine, ruined a good pair of pants though.” He then ripped his pants legs off into a pair of shorts, revealing a flesh leg and an metalic left leg.

“Y…your leg, its cybernetic.” Twilight said in amazement.

“Yeah, it’s a long story, tell you more later…now any plans for Grizzly over there?” Ed looked up at the recovering monster.

“I need you to lure that beast to that grove of trees over there, I can then trap him with those vines.” Twilight then pointed the way.

“Good plan.” Ed said as he ran by the beast, running to the grove as Twilight followed. As the creature loomed in on Ed, he did not notice Twilight clapping her hands onto a tree and causing the vines to come alive, trapping it as it bound the creature in its tendrils. Smiling Twilight walked to the captive, but then watched in shock as a grey shimmering portal began to envelop the creature. Running to it, Twilight put her hand into the portal and watched in amazement as her hand became a hoof inside the portal and when she pulled it back, it became human, that’s a portal to my dimension she then watched as the portal closed but how did it open? Twilight turned to Ed who was also watching.

“Interesting, that is something we are going to investigate later. For now, lets get back to the train.” Ed then walked to the train, Twilight in tow. As they got within viewing distance of the train the people cheered the two heroes, Twilight couldn’t help but blush from the admiration. “Trust me, you’ll get used to it.” Ed said placing a hand onto her shoulder, he, however, was kind of reveling in it.

Later on, as the train got back on track, Ed and Twilight sat in their private car, “So Ed, what about that robot leg?” Twilight asked, having seen some prosthetics on ponies before.

“As I said it’s a long story, “ Ed sighed, bringing out a picture. “ This was me a few years ago.” He then showed Twilight a picture of him in a red overcoat standing next to a suit of armor.

“Nice suit of armor...” Twilight said, looking at Ed.

“That’s Al.” Ed said, then taking out another photo. He was never one to talk about his past, especially the incident. After all, that was the location of his greatest and worst mistake. “You see, me and Al used to live alone with our mother after our father left.” He showed a picture of Him, Al, and a brown haired woman holding them both in a hug. “For a while, we were happy, studying Alchemy and showing it off to our mother.” He then looked down as he remembered the next part, “However, one day a horrible sickness came over the town taking a lot of lives…mother was one of them. Me and Al were devastated, but I had a stupid plan. See we knew most of the tricks behind alchemy and rules behind it, including its greatest taboo. “

“That’s why you were upset at me when you thought…”Twilight said looking at Ed.

“Yeah, I had experience. We gotten ourselves a teacher and she taught us everything we knew and then when we got home we bought the right ingredients for a human body. We put it all into a pot and mixed it with our blood, and then made the stupidest mistake of our lives. I cost Al everything and all I lost was this stupid leg. But I wasn’t about to lose him for good, I made one other transmutation and put his soul into that suit of armor at the cost of my arm.”

“But you have a flesh arm now.” Twilight said looking at Ed’s arms.

“That was because me and Al went on a long journey together, and with a lot of effort we got our bodies back to normal. Well, with exception of my leg but my wife says that is ok.” Ed chuckled.

“Your wife?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah” He then pulled out a photo of him, a blonde, an a young boy and girl. “This is her” points to the blonde woman, “And these” points to the children, “Are my son and daughter: Hohenheim and Trisha.” Ed said proudly. “So tell me about your family.”

“Well, there is so much to tell about them. There’s Applejack, a very honest worker and very good at what she does. Rainbow Dash, who is a bit of a braggart but you could count on her in a pinch and Fluttershy, who is very kind but about strong as the rest of us. There’s Pinkie, who is a bit random but she does have a way to cheer you up and there’s…Rarity” Twilight looked sad at mentioning her name.

“ Must be the one your friend tried to bring back.” Ed said, looking at the way she reacted.

“I don’t know if my spell worked or not…but I just got to hope and if not…I’ll go to Tartarus itself to bring her back.” She said, determination in her voice.

Ed smiled, he liked that determination, reminding him of himself. “ It sounds like you have some great sisters.”

“They’re not….” Twilight was about disagree with Ed.

“You talk about them like they are your sisters, you seem like you think about them a lot, and you were willing to die for one. Sounds like sisterhood to me.” Ed said with a smile.

“Well, I do have an older brother, his name is Shining Armor and he is great…” Twilight then began to brag on not just her brother but 5 ponies that meant the world to her. Ed, in retaliation, talked at length about his family and thus did it go on throughout the night.

The sun shone brightly upon the travelers, as if to give them a beautiful light of hope for their situation; it acted like a beacon for the five trying to show them the right path to finding the way to save their friend. Rainbow dash kept flying ahead of the group, keeping an eye on the right path while Applejack led the group on the ground, with Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity keeping close behind. For them, the question was not if they would succeed but when they would succeed. It was this thought that spurned them on as they traveled, well…that and a little help from a great pick me up,

“Come aboard and bring all your hopes and dreams,

We’ll find everything we are looking for, One piece.

Compass left behind,

It’ll only slow us down

Your heart_” Pinkie continued to sing until interrupted by Rarity.

“Pinkie, just what is that song you are singing?” The unicorn asked, arching an eyebrow.

“ Oh its from the opening of this play I watched a few days ago called, “Tales of a straw-hat pony from the east blue” IT was really funny and awesome at the same time. I really got to take you guys to it.” Pinkie said cheerfully.

“Uh, Rainbow dash…not to question what you read in the book but are you sure that the stone is in Unicornia?” Fluttershy questioned, looking up at the flyer.

“Of course!” A confident smirk came across Dash’s face “ The book said that the last anypony has seen of the fraternity stone was in that city. So it is the best place to start looking” she flew a little farther to make sure nothing was up ahead.

“What I am worried about is who is gonna be guarding this thang and how are we gonna get it away.” Applejack said, looking ahead and then stopping, “Wait a sec, did y’all hear that?” She began to twitch her ear and began to look around.

“Lust? Luuust?” From out of the bushes cam a very fat pony with a strange cutie mark, resembling a snake trying to eat its own tail.

“Oh my gosh! HE IS SO BALD!!!!!!” Pinkie said looking at the newcomer as he turned his head to the voice.

“Oh, hello there.” The fat pony said, putting his hoof in his mouth as he looked to the brightly colored equines. “Have seen my lust? I got lost walking around. Lust?” The pony continued to look up and down and around for his companion.

“I am sorry there mister, but we haven’t seen hide nor hair of your friend, but if we do we’ll be sure to let you know.” Applejack said, curious about this pony before them.

“Well, if I can not find my lust.” The pony opens his mouth, bearing his teeth as drool drips from his mouth “I can have something to EAT!” He then leapt at the five ponies.

“WHAT?” Rarity exclaimed as she leapt from the lunge.

“Oh, maybe he plans on making us into cupcakes and share us with his friends.” Pinkie joked as she watched the pony stand and look around.

“I don’t know what crazed cannibal family you came from, but we aint gonna be anyone’s supper!

Applejack growled as she bucked the gluttonous one in the stomach as Dash flew down to kick him in the head. The deranged pony swiped at the flying rainbow as she dodged his attacks. Rarity used her magic to grab a few rocks and throw them straight at the pony. The bald pony winced as the rocks hit his sides. He then tries to run at Rarity, but then Fluttershy lightly smack him with her tail. Distracted by the light hit, the gluttonous pony leapt at the yellow Pegasus pinning her down. Raising his head to bite down on the filly but was struck from the side by a large spiked stone impaling it to a tree, “ Rarity! What…” Applejack said, looking at the impaled pony, stuck to a tree.

“I, I don’t know what came over me.” Rarity looked at her kill, suffering a little shellshock, “ He looked like he was going to eat Fluttershy, I had to!”

“Its ok Rarity, you saved me.” Fluttershy walked to Rarity, giving her a reassuring nuzzle.

“Yeah, you did what you had to.” Rainbow said looking at the impaled pony.

“So, what do we need to do if he comes back to life and pulls himself off?” Pinkie asked.

“Now Sugar cube, how would that happen?” Applejack asked looking at Pinkie.

“Like now!” She then pointed to the bald pony as he began to pull himself slowly off of the spike. Once off, the giant hole in his stomach began to heal itself making him hole once more.

“Gluttony, stop playing with them and come back here, we have more important things to be doing.” A feminine voice spoke, getting the fat pony’s attention.

“Yes, Lust!” The fat pony then ran to the black haired pony’s side. On her flank was a similar cutie mark to the fat one’s only with a more feminine figure. As the two were reunited, a shimmering portal came over the two and they vanished.

“Just what the Buck was that? Wh…who were those guys?” Dash asked, looking at the spot where the two ponies disappeared.

“I have no idea.” Applejack said looking at her friends. “Its getting late though, So I think we should get some rest for now.” The others nodded in agreement, the fight had taken a lot out of them and they had no idea what was up ahead for them.

“Oh Twilight darling, I am so glad you decided to come over for tea. I had just gotten some new boxes that you just had to try.” The white unicorn said, happy that it was all over.

“ It was my pleasure Rarity, I am just sorry that I have been so busy lately.” Twilight said, smiling glad that she was back with her friends.

“ OH by the way, let me tell you about my day recently I…” Rarity was suddenly interrupted.

“That’s what it is all about isn’t it? YOU!” Twilight interrupts, her voice sounding less female and more decayed. Her face slowly peeled back to reveal muscle and bone as her left eye slowly faded away.

“Twi…Twilight? What do you mean?” Rarity began to back away in utter fear.

“If you didn’t die I wouldn’t have had to save your worthless TAIL.” She begins to reach for Rarity over the table, wanting to attack her. “What are you compared to the life of Celestia’s trusted student.?”

As Rarity backed up, she is grabbed by a similarly decayed Applejack and Fluttershy, “Thanks to you, your friends are all now risking their lives for her just because you had to die.”

“You should’ve just stayed dead, no one really cares for a fasionista who only cares about her own beauty!”

Rarity began to struggle, “Nnnno, I am sorry, I didn’t…” but is cut off as zombie forms of
Rainbow dash and Pinkie begin to jump her, grabbing at her.

Rarity shot up, panting as sweat rolled over her face. She looked around the dead campfire as everypony else slept. She looked at Pinkie Pie who was asleep in the middle of the group, more to be surrounded by the love of her dear friends. Fluttershy was sleeping under the extended wing of Rainbow Dash, Dash meanwhile had the look on her face that said she was going to protect her friends no matter what. Lastly, She looked to where Applejack slept…well, would be sleeping had not she decided to watch over her friends and keep a look out for everypony,

“Rarity? Y’all alright?” Applejack asked looking at Rarity.

“O…Of course I am darling.” Rarity said with a fake smile.

“It looked like you were having a nightmare there.” The blonde pony then walked to Rarity.

“Applejack, ladies such as myself do not get nightmares, we just get dreams. “ Applejack looked at Rarity, almost as if to say was that she was going to trust her to tell her what was really wrong. Applejack then turns to keep her vigil, “Uh Applejack?”

“Yeah Rarity?” Applejack turns to Rarity.

“Ever…think about what Twilight has meant to all of us?” Rarity asked, still thinking about her nightmare, feeling a little down about herself.

“A little, I really don’t think we would be the friends we are without her. If we never went on that little adventure with her, I would still think you to be just a frilly little princess with no life whatsoever. Fluttershy would be a recluse, Rainbow a little jerk, and Pinkie…” Applejack tried to think about Pinkie’s life.

“She wouldn’t open up to us and found true friends.” Rarity said with a smile.

“What?” Applejack asked looking at Rarity.

“Remember when she ‘lost it’ at her birthday? It was because her closest friends almost betrayed her. It had been anyone else, she would have been fine. She probably feels the most open with us, that she can be herself with us.” Rarity said, watching the sleeping pony.

“Maybe you are right.” Applejack then stretched, “So, y’all want to keep the lookout with me?”

“You won’t mind me?” Rarity said, looking at Applejack.

“Nah, it’s a lot better to have someone with ya.” Applejack said, adjusting her hat.

“All right.” Rarity agreed, the thought of the nightmare still on her mind but trying her best to drive it from her mind.

The next morning, Pinkie woke up to seeing Applejack preparing breakfast, rolling out the apples for the girls. “MORNING APPLEJACK!!!!!”

“Mornin’ Pinkie. I think you might have woken everypony else with your voice.” Applejack chuckled as Rarity took her apple.

“Well, Actually you woke me up before the dawn, something about tradition or something.” Rarity said biting lightly on her apple. “ I swear you would get up before the rooster.”

“That dang rooster is a few minutes too slow, I have to. Pinkie, could you get Dash and Fluttershy up for me?” Applejack asked as she looked to the two sleeping pegasi.

“Uh…actually, I have been up since Pinkie. I just can’t wake Rainbow dash up.” Fluttershy said as she wiggled a little under Dashie’s hold.

“Here let me help.” Pinkie pie skipped to Dash, pulling out a megaphone and put it to her ear.

“RAINBOW DASH, SPITFIRE IS HERE WITH A FREE OFFER TO JOIN THE WONDERBOLTS!!!!!!”

“WHAT???” Rainbow dash shot up and looked around before chuckling sarcastically, “Very funny.”

“Glad to see you up.” Applejack said.

“How many miles do we need to go before we get to Unicornia?” Fluttershy asked, looking at her friends.

“Looks to be about three to four miles at most.” Pinkie said, finishing her muffin.

“How did you know that?” Dash asked flying up and confirming it.

“Oh I looked over while we were eating.” Pinkie said.

Once breakfast was done the mane 5 walked over the hill and traveled to the front gates of Unicornia. Rarity knocked on the door, “Excuse me, we need to get in.:

“Oh really, Well welcome to our…” the unicorn guard walk out and then sees the others behind Rarity, “I am sorry mam, but your slaves are going to wait outside, we don’t allow ruffians here.”

“WHAT?” Rarity asked.
______________________________________________________________-

Author's Note

Zoltanthemaginicant edited this, but I wrote it and you cant take that away!!!!

Art Aprreciation

Chapter seven: Art Appreciation

“Ruffians? What do you mean by Ruffians?” Rarity looked up to the red unicorn with a look a scorn on her face.

“I mean we do not allow brutish Pegasi and worthless Earth Ponies in our grand village. They would soil our environment, ruin our land, and disgrace our very presence.” The unicorn said with a smug look, his voice squeaking at points.

Rainbow Dash started to fly to his face, “WHO THE BUCK ARE YOU CALLING WORTHLESS!?” Her assault was stopped by Rarity’s magic around her tail.

“Oh well you see, kind sir, these ponies behind me are my entourage and are very important to my business here.” Rarity said with a sly smile.

“Business? What business?” The Unicorn looked down at her and then back to her friends.

“Why my clothing business, of course. You see I was thinking of opening up a section of my fabulous shop here and I needed to get my team here to make sure it is profitable enough. This colorful girl here is my personal bodyguard.” She said, pointing to Rainbow dash and then moved her hoof to Applejack, “This is my personal gardener, and she is my animal caretaker,” She points to Fluttershy who hides behind her pink hair.

“AND I AM HER PERSONAL PARTY PLANNER!!!!!!” Pinkie said hopping up to the guy and smiling.

“Quite, so as you can see I can not hope to do anything without these girls at all. So maybe you could please see your way to let us in?” The unicorn then batted her eyelashes several times in a seductive manner. At the same time she looked to Rainbow Dash and Applejack for a much more uncouth and painful ‘plan B’.

The unicorn, enamoured by Rarity’s looks sighed, “Ok you can come on in, but you better keep those girls on a leash. We don’t take too kindly to their kind in this royal kingdom.”

“I’ll say it’s a royal…a royal” Rainbow dash was about to finish her sentence but was interrupted by Applejack.

“Keep it to yourself, little bodyguard.” Applejack said as she walked in, leading the girls to a hidden alleyway. “So what’s the plan then?”

“I thought we, could just…ask them nicely where the stone is.” Fluttershy said in a quiet tone.

“ Naw, that’s impossible, you heard what that stallion said. They don’t like us earth and pegasi around these parts so it will be impossible to get any info from them unless we have Rarity get the info. We need a disguise so we can cover more ground.”

“OH, I have an idea!” Pinkie said as she leapt up and took out several party hats, one for each. “Here we are.” Moving at a speed normally reserved for roadrunners she put on the party hats for each pony.
“Oh, these are very nice Pinkie but, if you don’t mind me asking, what are they for.” Fluttershy asked as she adjusted her buttery yellow one.

“ Well, you see. With a little work and a little magic from Twi…” Pinkie stopped herself, and looked at the purple party hat, she shook her sadness out “Rarity, we’ll be unicorns!” Pinkie said happily.

With a smile, Rarity used her illusion magic on the two pegasi, giving them the illusion of being wingless. “There, now Rainbow dash it’s a very weak illusion spell so no flying at all.

“Got it.” Dash grumbled, feeling a little down about being grounded.

“Now, lets split up. Fluttershy, Rainbow dash you guys head to the north and east. Rairty, you can take the business district, I’ll take the south and Pinkie…is already gone isn’t she?” Applejack said as she looked around for the pink one. “Lets all meet up back at that restaurant over there.” She then pointed to a very nice bistro across from where they stood.

A few hours had passed, the sun beginning its slow descent into the horizon. Applejack sat at the table in the bistro, drinking a bit of ice tea as she waited for the arrival of her friends. She looked into the bag next to her, feeling its contents to make sure that everything was there, looking carefully at a small cup of, "Cider!"

"Now hold on Rainbow, this is just to help me wake up and get going on this trip, not for you," Applejack said, " So, did ya find anything interesting?"

“Nothing, everytime I asked about this Fraternity Stone, these guys trembled in fear.” Dash said, ordering a drink.

“You guys kept running into scaredy cats as well?” Pinkie said, hopping to them followed by Fluttershy.

“I didn’t get much either, sorry.” Fluttershy said, a little bit down.

“AND I WILL CELESTIA DAMNED BEFORE I WERE TO BUY ANY OF YOUR PRODUCTS EVER AGAIN, YOU TARTARUS MISCREANT!!!!!!” Rarity yelled as she walked into the group, sitting with the others with a scowl.

“Ah am going to take a stab here and say you didn’t find anything?” Applejack asked as she took a sip of her drink.

“Oh, I found a lot of things, beauty parlors are great places to pick up gossip and stories you know. What I am upset over is the outrageous prices that they expect me to pay for their cheap knock off garbage. I swear I have NEVER seen such worse thieves in my entire life!” Rarity said as two red-headed unicorns walked by in the background, singing to themselves.. “Apparently, the Fraternity Stone is being shown in a museum in the center of town for the week. Aaaand, guess who found out where the least guarded position is?” A smile gleamed across Rarity’s face

Applejack looked shocked, “Whoa there! Who said anything about breaking in and stealing the thang?”

“Well, its not like we can go in and say that we need the gem for our friend who is stuck in an alternate dimension.” Dash said, drinking her soda.

“I know, its just that I don’t take kindly to the idea of stealing, that’s all.” Applejack looked at the others wanting to be understood.

“Well, will it make you feel better about sneaking in and stealing things if we were to go all spy like with really cool spy suits and stuff like that?” Pinkie went to Applejack, asking happily.

“Spy suits? where in tarnation would ya get-” In a few hours, Applejack and the others were in the museum with color appropriate spy suits “Spy suits.”

“I have always wanted a chance to bring these out into action.” Rarity said, a smile across her face as they sneaked across the building. The place was quiet, with nary a sound to be heard as the shadows of the various exhibits highlighted the area. The girls walked silently through each exhibit, looking through each dark corridor to make sure that they didn’t miss a thing. As they neared the center of the museum, the object of their desire lay before their eyes. Within a glass case, was a green hand on a pedestal. The stone seemed to have been trying to grasp something else, like another hand should be there. Below it was a few markings, symbols of unknown origin.
“Oh darn it all!” Rarity quietly exclaimed.

“What, there it is! What’s the problem?” Dash asked.

“ Rainbow, dear, I am a dressmaker who specializes in gems and I can tell you that is a fake stone if I have ever saw one.” Rarity said as Pinkie went to the plaque in front of the stone.

“It also says it right here.” Pinkie said as she began to read the rest, “This is a replica of the Fraternity Stone used by a wandering unicorn. He had appeared at this spot randomly, screaming about his lost brother and how he is at the wrong time. Clapping his hooves he unleashed a swath of destruction and ran off to the north far away from here.”

“His…brother? What do you think it meant?” Fluttershy asked.

“ I don’t know, and frankly I am just glad to be out of this place. Come on girls, lets go.” Dash said as she flew to the door to open it.

“But Dash, why such a rush?” Fluttershy asked as she followed the others.

“Because I might have painted, ‘Unicorns drool pegasi rule equestria forever’ on a lot of the buildings and ruined some exhibits.” Dash said as she flew as fast as she could, the girls taking a few moments to take it in and run with her.

Rarity looked offended,”Excuse me, I happen to be a unicorn. Also you forgot to capitalize ‘Equestria,’ among other things.”

“Don’t care!” Rainbow ran off.

Twilight opened the door slowly, quickly blinded by the light from within as she is hit by a yell of, “ SURPRISE!!!”

“What, but how did you…?” Twilight looked at the presents before her, as well as the big cake before her, “ I never told you guys when my birthday was. How did you figure it out?”

“Well, duh! I know everypony in Ponyville, and I make it my business to know when its your birthday.” Pinkie said as she hopped to Twilight with a big grin on her face. Putting a cap on Twilight she gives her a birthday hug. “Oh that’s not all, I also brought some extra guests!”

Twilight looked over Pinkie’s shoulder to see a light gray mare, standing next to a dark blue stallion. “MOMMY, DADDY!”

“Mommy, daddy?” Rainbow Dash chuckled, a smirk on her face.

“Is there a problem Dash?” Rarity, looking a little annoyed at Dash’s laughter.

“I just find it cute that the egghead calls them such adorable names.” Dash said as she took a quick drink of punch.

The party continued on, the ponies enjoying the fun and laughter of the night. Suddenly, a knock is heard at the door, “Open up, it’s the Royal Guard!”

The ponies looked shocked at the announcement of guards at the door. Twilight walked slowly to the door, trying her best to think of what she had done wrong. Opening the door carefully, she saw before her a white stallion with a blue mane, “ BIG BROTHER!!!!!” Twilight yelled as she glomped

“Oof!” Ed grunted as the sleeping Twilight hugged the blonde Alchemist. “Morning to you too Twi, glad to see you so peppy.”

As she realized who she was glomping, she released her gripped and smiled awkwardly, “Oh, sorry. I was just dreaming about my friends and my big brother.”

“I can see that.” Ed then handed Twilight her bags and then nodded to the door. “We are at our stop, lets go.”

The capital of Xing was as big and crowded as one might expect within the bounds of a capital city, especially within the confines of the train station as people were saying their goodbyes or having grateful reunions with the ones that they love the most. This huge crowd of people seemed to block the sight of two individuals as they walked through the station, “ Now he said that he would be on Central Train from 8:00.” The young man said he looked through the crowd, putting his hand to his caramel colored hair.

“ Maybe he got sidetracked and got his train hijacked again.” Said the girl looking to the young man, holding a small panda to her chest.

“Oh come on May, like that would happen a fourth time. I think they have finally learned that just because he is no longer a state alchemist, he is no small threat.” The young alchemist said with a smile.

“ Who are you calling small…little brother?” Ed said, walking up right behind one of the most important things in his life and putting a hand on his shoulder.

“ BROTHER!!!!!” Al yelled as he turned around and leaped into his brother, hugging him tightly as though he was afraid the older brother would disappear.

“Al, its been too long.” Ed said, holding back the tears of happiness as he kept the younger brother in his arms,”Also, I think you’re choking me.”

“Brother” The little alchemist pulled away a little to look into Ed’s golden eyes. “Its only been three months at the most.” A chuckle coming from his mouth.

“Too long if you ask me.” Breaking away from the embrace, Ed looked to Al’s companion, “and hello May”

“ Hello Ed, who is the girl behind you?” The xing woman asked, pointing to Twilight.

“ Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight said, holding out her hand to May and Al.
“Please to meet you.” May said, cheerfully shaking Twilight’s hand.

“Twilight…Sparkle?” Al looked to his big brother after looking at Twilight’s hair. He walked over to Ed and whispered, “Big brother, she isn’t one of those mary sue girls that sometimes try to seduce you or follow you around is she?”

“What? NO! She is my student.” Ed said, trying to defend her.
“Oh I see.” Al said as he helped with some of the bags. “ So what bring you and her here today.”

“ I am looking for something very important to me.” Twilight said as she and the others began to walk out of the station. Out of the corner of her eye she noted a blonde woman, walking with her young daughter and a man in a brown coat with a red bowtie. The man looked at Twlight and gave a smirk as they walked towards a blue box, “Doctor, Derpy, DINKY?”

“What is that?” Al asked, looking at Twilight. She then explained her predicament, the things that she had been through so far, and the story behind the Fraternity Stone.
“...You are really a unicorn?” Al asked with a wide grin as they all sat down at a café to talk.

Ed scoffed at the idea, never one to believe in magic or magical creature, “Al, she is not a unicorn. She just thinks she is, probably due to the trauma of human transmutation.” Twilight, meanwhile, just shook her head, she had given up in trying to convince her mentor that her story is true.

“Ed, why cant you be a little more open to the world of magic?” Al said looking at his big brother.

“Look, we’ve been through this, magic is just illusions created to explain things that science can’t. Science is real. Unicorns, dragons, pegasi, griffons, and sea serpents are not. What I want to know more about is that stone and how it can help her get home.” Ed said,looking down at his drink.

“ I have never heard of this Fraternity Stone before until now…maybe its something like the Philosopher Stone?” May asked, looking at the two brothers.

“No, Ed told me about this stone and the Fraternity Stone looked nothing like it.” Twilight said, noticing some soldiers walking up to the four.

“Elric! By the order of the emperor you and your party are to see him immediately.” Said one of the guards as Twilight looked up, her hands ready to clap to help Ed and Al at a moments notice.

“Oh brother, what does that idiot want now?” Ed said as he got up with his friends and walked off to the castle.

“Idiot?” Twilight asked as she walked.

“You’ll see,” Al answered back.

As they walked to the castle, Twilight noticed a family of three people. hawking some apples. Asking for the chance to get some snacks she walked to the three. Heading to the stall, she watched as a hyper little 12 year old redhead ran up to her, “ HOWDY! Welcome to ‘Sweet Apple Apples’ the sweetest apples around the whole of Xing! We have all sorts of apples: Golden Delicious, Red Delicious…” She exclaimed with a bounce of energy not seen in any normal person.

“Bloom! What have ah been telling you about hasselin the customers?” A blonde woman came from the back of the stall, adjusting her hat and then placing a hand on her sister’s shoulder, “Sorry about that, first day helpin’ and she is all excited about it. Hope she wasn’t bothernin’ ya none.”

“Oh no, she wasn’t.” Twilight said, smiling as she looked at the young woman before her and the big young blonde man behind her. “ I was just thinking about buying a few apples, maybe some Granny Smith ones.”

“Sure thang sugar. Hey Mac, get this lady a bag of granny smiths and some Mactintosh while you’re at it.” The young woman yelled as she noticed some cash in her hand already.

“What?”

“Oh, I just figured on the price by myself. I’m not wrong am I miss…” Twilight asked, already guessing at the name.

“Jaquline, but everyone here calls me AJ.” Said the human version of Applejack as she handed Twilight a bag of apples.

“Of course it is, why wouldn’t it.” Twilight thought to herself as she took the bag of apples from the farmer and waved goodbye, “ Thank you so much. And Bloom, try not to bother your sister too much.” With that she walked away, happy to see another alternate version of her old friend.

The inside of the palace was like walking into a dojo, with only a few windows to light the room. Alongside the throne room was tapestries and pictures highlighting the nature and skill of the king and on the throne was the emperor. The emperor looks down at the four who stood before him, noting that the young woman with the purple hair had the decency to bow. Rising he brushed aside his pony tail, “ Edward Elric, the former Fullmetal alchemist.” He then somersaulted off the throne and landed before Ed. Happily he embraced his old friend tightly with a laugh“How has it been, my old friend?”

“Pretty good.” Ed squeezed out, then noticed the rather masculine male guard next to the throne, he turned to the king, “ Where is Lan Fan?”

“She is busy taking care of the future prince for the moment.” Ling said as he walked to the throne.

“Is she going to be ok with that responsibility?” Ed asked.

“She should,” Ling said with a smile, “He is her son after all.” At this Ed could only smile in congratulations.

“So, why did you call us here, your majesty?” Said Twilight, bowing in respect.

“Ed, you can tell your new friend here to stand up. We’re all friends here!” Ling said.

“Thank you, your majesty.” The young lady rose looking at Ling.

“Cute kid you have there, what’s her name?”

“Twilight Sparkle sir.”

“T…Twilight Sparkle? Ed, she isn’t one of those Mary sue girls you told me about, the ones that keep bothering you?”

“NO! Nothing like that.” Ed said quickly, trying to reassure everyone in the room. “She’s my student actually.”

“Your student?” Ling lets out a small chuckle, “Never thought you to be a teacher type Ed. I guess we can talk about this more later, right now I want to talk to you guys about why I called you here. You see, for the past few days people have been seeing some weird things popping in and out of around here.”

“Weird? Like what?” Al asked.

“People have been popping in and out of existence, most of the time they look confused and weirded out by what they see and hear. Other times, they act like they don’t even know what a human is or how to walk. Then there are the creatures that pop up, like phoenixes and dragons. The thing is, everytime I try to send in people to investigate, the creatures and people disappear. When I heard that you were in town, Ed and I knew of your tendency to get involved with weird things like this…I thought you might know something.”

Ed shook his head, “ Sorry, but I don’t; however, this sounds like a similar incident that happened to me and my student when we came here.”

“Hmmm?” Ling leaned forward, looking intrigued,”Let me guess:Train?

“Yes, your majesty, me and my teacher were traveling on a train earlier when we were attacked by an Ursa Minor from my world. After the fight, he just vanished.” Twilight said.

“Wait, your world?” Asked Ling.

“Yeah, it’s why we came here. Apparently, she thinks herself to be an unicorn” Ed said, putting an air of disbelief on the word ‘unicorn’, and she came from an alternate dimension where some of these creatures exists. We’re looking for something called the Fraternity Stone that could help her get her home.” Ed then pulled out a picture of a hand grasping for another, with a series of Alchemical symbols on the bottom. “It looked something like this.”

“I am sorry Ed, but if something like that was around here-I haven’t seen it.” Said Ling, looking a bit down.

“But I have!” May said, walking up to Ling and Ed producing a newspaper. “Look at this.” One the newspaper was the image of a flag with the stone on it and below it was an article that read, ‘Europia open to trade with Ameristris: Trade negotiations start in a few weeks.’

“But why would the stone be on a country’s flag?” Asked Twilight.

“That’s what we are going to find out, Twilight.” Ed said as he took the paper and put it into his pocket, “Nice talking to ya, Ling. See you later.” And with that, Ed walked out with Twilight in tow.

The quartet began to walk to a nearby hotel so they can wait for the next train ride in the morning, “So big brother, when is the boat ride?” Al asked.

“You’re coming with?” Ed asked, a little more surprised and happy.

“Yep, May said she will stay here and do some research and I am going with you to Europia.” Al said with a smile, “Its been too long since we went on an adventure together.”

“ All right, Al. But first I am heading to Resembool.” Said Ed as they went and got a few rooms, Twilight looking at a couple of ponies, one, a musician, talking to her friend with a set of headphones.

“ Why’s that, Ed?” Al asked.

“ I need to get home and have Winry look at my leg. Its been on the fritz ever since the bear fight and she will kill me if I don’t get it looked at. Besides, I haven’t been home in a month and they miss me.” Ed said as he went to his room.

“Oh, I see. Well, night Ed. Don’t stay up too late again.” Al said as he went into his room alongside Mei.

“The same goes for you, little brother.” Ed said as he turned to Twilight, who had some books in her arms, “And you get to bed too. No need to stay up studying late.” Ed said.

“ Please, Ed. I have pulled several all nighters before, I can handle it.” Twilight said with a smile.

“ But you have also been up since morning, BED!” Ed said, almost as if he was talking to his little sister.

In response, Twilight nodded,”Fine,” and walked into the room, closing the door. Then she pulled out a book and began to read by the candle light. However, it wasn’t long till Twilight began to feel the pangs of sleep come over her. Drowsiness began to come to her eyes and she began to feel more and more tired, “No…I need to finish this last page.” Twilight said as she stood up and turned to the bed.

“No, you need to sleep. Now, do you want me to carry you?” Twilight could hear Shining Armor say to her as she led to the bed, pulling back the covers.

“N…no, I can do it myself.” Twilight said as she got in, “But you could tuck me in.”

“All right, Cadence care to help?” Twilight could see in her head, Shining and a pink Alicorn tucking her in, placing her stuffed toy in her hooves.

“Ok, now kiss me goodnight.” Twilight said, he memories helping her to sleep. “Now kiss the princess.”

In her thoughts, she could see Shining and Cadence blush before Shining gave a quick peck on the cheek. Twilight chuckled to herself as she began to fall asleep.

A few hours later, Twilight could hear noises from the downstairs. Walking out of her room and down the steps, she could see Ed hunched over some books and reading intently, “Hmph…he can be just as bad as me.” Twilight said with a smile as she walked up the stairs, barely hearing the conversation below.

“ Dad, I am not tired, I need to study these books.” Ed said, his mind going back to when he was a young boy.

“You need sleep, Ed. Just like Al does.” An older man said, his golden hair and eyes making him look like an older Ed.

“Nu uh. Al is staying awake just like I am!.” The younger Ed said as he pointed to a blue bundle, carrying a small baby inside, snoring loudly. “TRAITOR!”

“Now you see, ED? You both need to go to bed so you can study harder tomorrow.” Hohenhiem said as he walked to Ed.

“Ok…but can I carry Al to bed?” Ed Said as he picked up Al and followed his father.
“Sure Ed. Now, go to sleep, my little Alchemist.” Hohenheim said as a ghostly hand reached over tucked Ed’s jacket in over his shoulders, kissing Ed’s forehead as Ed fell asleep.
“Night, dad.”

rpglover97:
Rifle
rpglover97:
Ra:Oh ho ho, that's private.
rpglover97:
Later...

RU1:Why did you let that mare in?

RU2:She was hawt!

RU3:I knew we should've gotten a mare or a gay stallion as a guard....
rpglover97:
PP:Nooo, I'm here!...or am I?
rpglover97:
RD:A coupon for the Dairy Queen?
rpglover97:
90's kid:DUUUUUUUDDDE!
rpglover97:
She had come back after a day of kicking plot as Mare-Do Well
rpglover97:
RU4:Don't you mean Majesty damned?

rpglover97:
Ra:Whatever!
rpglover97:
AJ:are they sure showing an item of unbelievable power in a normal everyday museum is a good idea?

Ra: Discord's statue was shown for all to see in a garden.

AJ: Good point.
rpglover97:
PP:That was so worth the three hour wait.
rpglover97:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1ksukXN7jA
rpglover97:
Rarity-Bones: Darn it, Rainbow, I'm a Dressmaker, not a Spy!
rpglover97:
PP:He's looking for his brother, what do you think?

Fl: he's looking for his pet bunny named Brother?

RD:I think she hung around Pinkie too long...
rpglover97:
Congratulations Rainbow, you may have just caused an international incident!
rpglover97:
PP:I'm Pinkie Pie, I KNOW.
rpglover97:
TS:Sweet, I can buy that Sniper Rifle from that Vendortron now!
rpglover97:
RD: oh, shoot, they know about my assassination!

PP:They know about my black market cupcakes!

Ra:They know about the Pegasus Crown Jewels!

AJ:They know about me being a Mob Boss!

Fl:They know about the animals!

TS:They know about my plans to dominate all of the multiverse!
rpglover97:
May:I thought you were taken?

Ed:Consarn it!
rpglover97:
Al:Mind Control!
rpglover97:
Must be from south Xing
rpglover97:
TS:Why does every single man feel like hitting on me?

Lg:Trust me, that was a compliment. If I was hitting on you, the wife would know...
rpglover97:
I was only kidding about the 300 years part!
rpglover97:
Ed:And you didn't show us this before because?

Ma:You didn't(Insert joke here)
rpglover97:
Ed:I also want to give the readers diabetes
rpglover97:
And a mallet
rpglover97:
Footenote:LEVEL UP

New Perk: B.B.B.F.F.: You now can an extra +3 to all stats when a family member is near.

Author's Note

And with that, Everypony has their quest alligned. Next time, I will show the urgency about this mission and Twilight will continued to be confused for a MAry sue.

After all- rule one of the FMA mary sue rulebook-if you have a noun and a verb as a name, you are most likely a mary sue.

Rule 2: weird hair color

Rule 3: Alchemy without circle...Poor Twi, she got hit with all three of them.

Thanks to Zoltanthemaginicant for the edits
Also, I had some lines for Al in this chapter, but that was moved, I will let you know when I get to them. And as for the sleep scene...I am requried by my own rules to have at least once scene where Ed has a visit from his mom and/or dad as he sleeps at least one per fanfic. Its a law

Astrology 101

Chapter 8: Astrology 101

Twilight awoke the next morning, some tears in her eyes, “Morning Twilight.” Ed said as he looked at the young lady as she came down the stairs, noting the tears, “Dreaming about someone important last night?”

“Yeah, my mother.” Said Twilight, not even not even noting her faux pas.

The mention of her mother stuck up some memories in Ed’s head, most of them happy, he smiled in understanding.

As the four companions walked to the train station, Twilight took the time to look around and observe the bustling center of the city. However, this was soon interrupted by a small bump by a fair young lady, “Oh my! I am so sorry…I didn’t mean to bump into you like that, please don’t be mad.” The young woman quietly said, her pinkish hair over one eye as she backed up a little.

Twilight blinked, then she sighed.“Of course there is a Fluttershy here, why wouldn’t there be a Fluttershy here. I bet she even has a” She then took a quick look at her hairpin, “of course, butterflies.” It’s perfectly alright, miss?”

“Andrea.” She said, but to the untrained ear it came off as, “ Andrea.”

Luckily, Twilight was versed in Fluttershy, “ Please to meet you ma’am.” She said, a smile on her face as she walked away. As she followed Ed and company, she almost ran into a woman selling carrots on the road. “Carrot top.” Twilight chuckled to herself as she walked to the train station, watching as Ed and Al said their goodbyes.

“Bye Big brother, see you at Port City.” Al said, hugging Ed tightly, a small tear in his eye. “And tell Hohenheim and Trisha I said hello. And give Winry a hug for me.”

“Bye Al,” Ed said as he hugged Al a little more, a tear also coming to his eye “ And don’t get into too much trouble on that train.”

“Big brother…what kind of trou-” Before Al took a good look at Ed’s face, which reminded him of the frequency of train jacking that goes on in Amestris, “good point.” Al chuckled as he began to get onto the train. He then turned from the train door to look at Ed, “And you be careful too.”

“Of course, who do you think you are talking too?” Ed, a smirk on his face.

“That’s what I am saying.” Al laughed as the train began to drive out of the station.

Twilight watched all of this in amusement, the memories of her BBBFF playing in her head, “Not really too different, is it?” Twilight said to herself as she got onto the train with Ed.

The train ride from Xing, was relaxing for the most part, with the exception of the continuation of Twilight’s alchemy lessons. The training,however, was interrupted by a sudden stop of the train, “ATTENTION PASSENGERS, WE HAVE TO STOP FOR A BIT DUE TO AN BLOCKADE SET UP BY THE AMESTRIAN MILITARY!” Said the Conductor.

“A sudden stop that we didn’t have a hand in!” Said Phil as he looked at the giant stone hand in the middle of the railway tracks.

“CONSARN IT PHIL, WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT THOSE PUNS?” The Conductor said, getting mad.

“A military blockade?” Ed asked to himself and then turned to Twilight, “Come on Twilight, let’s check it out.”

“But Ed, shouldn’t we stay behind and allow the military to handle it?” Twilight asked as she got the jacket that she had bought from Xing.

“And why should we do that when we’re right near the middle of the action?” Ed said as he and Twilight walk out of the train and to the giant hand.

“But what if it’s not important!?” Twilight yelled as she was dragged away.

As they neared it, they saw several soldiers dressed in blue walking around and talking to one another, “WAIT RIGHT THERE, CITIZENS!!!!” Said a very large, muscular, and sparkling bald man as he stood in front of them, “ This area is off limits to all civilians by order of the…WAIT! Can it be? WHY IT IS! OH EDWARD ELRIC IT IS SO GOOD TO SEE YOU AFTER SO LONG!!!!!” At this the large man reached over and gave the former state alchemist a big bear hug.

“Hello…Major…Arm…Strong.” Ed said in between gasps of air as he could feel the life being squeezed out of him.

“It is General now, Edward. And I see that your travels has brought you some new companions.” Said Armstrong as he saw Twilight standing next to Ed, trying her best to see if her teacher was all right, “And who is this young woman that you have teamed up with Edward?”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight looked up at the hulking man, “I am his student.”

“Oh Edward! You have decided to pass on your overwhelming knowledge of Alchemy onto a new generation and to help GUIDE THEM TO THE FUTURE! OH! It warms my heart to see such a young mind learning from an experienced master such as yourself. Giving a new generation of alchemists the means to grow into stupendous new people is such a beautiful task! I WISH YOU ALL OF THE BEST OF LUCK IN THIS GRAND UNDERTAKING EDWARD ELRIC!!!” Armstrong said, posing all the while.

“He reminds me of someone...” Twilight said, thinking of Snowflake.

“Thanks,” Looking past Armstong Ed took note of all of the soldiers walking around and conversing with one another, trying to make sense of what they were saying, “So what’s with the blockade Armstrong?”

“I was hoping you could fill me in on that as well General.” Said Roy Mustang as he walked to the big man.

“Brigadier General Mustang!” Armstong said as he saluted the black haired flame alchemist, “The situation is still the same as was reported by Havoc and Falman, sir. We are currently searching for the woman as we speak.”

“Good, keep me informed.” Turning to his left, Roy took note of a blonde Alchemist and his purple haired companion, “ Ahh, Fullmetal. Its good to see that I was right in my assumptions of you seeming to have the ability to get involved in these incidents.” Looking to Twilight, he gave a kiss on her hand. “And who is your lovely friend?”

“Hitting on another girl, how does Riza put up with you?” Ed said, shaking his head.

“Me and my fiancé have an agreement, I am still free to hit on young ladies, such as yourself…miss?”

“Twilight Sparkle, Brigadier.” Twilight said, blushing.

Roy shot daggers at her and Ed,“Sparkle? Fullmetal, what I have been telling you about bringing in these Mary Sue civilians to these areas! Don’t you remember what happened during the last time?” Roy remarked looking at Ed.

“She’s not a mary sue, Mustang. She’s my student.” Ed said, just starting to realize how many Mary Sues are in his life and what happened during and after his alchemist days. He coughed, “Now what is the situation here?”

“Brigadier, oh Brigadier!” Said a very energetic man as he ran to Roy.

“Yes, Straight Arrow?”

“We have cornered the lady at the cave sir. She thought that she could blind us with a solar flare but I used my archery Alchemy to block her way out and lay some traps and,” Straight Arrow then looked to Ed. “Oh, Edward, so you decided to show your pretty face on the frontlines again. OH that is so grand, you know that HQ got a whole lot less cuter without you there. You know if you and Winry ever…” he said trailing a finger along Ed’s chin.

“Forget it, Rupaul. I am straight it ain’t gonna happen.” Ed said as he followed Roy, Twilight in tow, “Now, what’s going on Brigadier?”

“It all happened about 8 hours ago. I received reports a strange woman with multicolored ethereal hair had appeared. A few minutes later, she began to make demands of the people to bow down and submit to her or else. When the people refused, she got mad and used some sort of Alchemy to burn all of the people alive. We have been able to attack her at times, but she seems to be overwhelming the military.”

“ Multicolored ethereal hair, but that would mean…it can’t be.” Twilight thought to herself.

“Which is why they called you in. They needed the backup.” Ed said.

“And luckily for me, you had arrived as well, Fullmetal. Now we can see if your retirement has made you soft.” Roy said as he led Ed and Twilight into the cave.

The cave was dark, damp, and yet still warm as the trio walked down the cavern. Their footsteps being the only sound any of them could hear as they walked down the dank cavern, the stone pillars looking more and more like teeth ready to clamp down upon any of them. This would be of interest to Twilight, if her mind wasn’t on other things, “A multicolored ethereal hair, and can use flame alchemy- no, magic. The power set and the description would match her perfectly. But that would be impossible.”

“HALT INFIDELS! THOU TRESPASS UPON THE VISAGE OF CELESTIA VAS SOLARIS! GODDESS SUN!” Said a booming voice.

“Oh, no.” Twilight mumbled under her breath as she took a step back.

“Goddess? Right, and pull the other one.” Confidently Ed took a step forward.

“Thou dare question my divinity? Behold!” In Celestia’s hand a fireball forms, “The power of the sun as controlled by the living embodiment of the sun itself. Doth Thou think you can weild such power! Thy think not! NOW FALL FOR YOUR INSOLENCE” However, when she threw her fireball, nothing happened. “WHAT?”

“That was me.” Roy said, standing with his fingers snapped, “ I used my flame Alchemy to create tiny explosions around your fireball to suck all of the oxygen out. No fuel, no fireball. I am impressed by your fire alchemy but you lack control and precision.” A smirk came across Roy’s face, “ So much for the Goddess.”

“You continue to mock me? CELEST-,” her words were interrupted by a multitude of stone fists slamming into her from Twilight.

“YOU ARE NOT CELESTIA! STOP STEALING HER FACE YOU MONSTER!” Twilight’s scream that was filled with rage pierced through the cavern as she used her Alchemy to create some stone spikes to try and impale ‘Celestia’.

‘Celestia’ dodged some of the spikes and burned some of the others with her fire magic,”YOU INSINUATE THAT I’M AN IMPOSTER!?” She said, a sneer creeped onto her crazed face as she launched two fireballs at Twilight, one of which managing to lightly burn Twilights right arm. Moving to the side, Twilight clapped her hands and placed one onto the side walls and creating small stone steps. Ed used those steps to run up the wall and jump kick Celestia in the face as she was fighting Roy, fire for fire. Wiping some blood off her face, Celestia threw a wave of fire at Ed and hitting his leg but not fazing it.

Rolling away from the fire, Ed joined up with Twilight behind some cover that she had created, “So, I take it you know that girl?”

Twilight growled, “ She, in another world mind you, was my teacher. However, the Celestia I knew was loving, kind, sweet, a bit of a prankster. Although she was frightening when she got mad, she was never like this thing!”

Roy jumped to the cover that Twilight had made, launching some fire strikes of his own. Some of them managing to hit Celestia on the back and sides while another blocking a large fireball and as he patted his shoulder to help with the partial flame of one the lucky shots he turned to Twilight, “Well, whatever happened to her in that world has clearly ruined her mind. Now, what are we gonna do about it?”

“ If we only find a way to stop her flame alchemy, we could also know her out at the same time.” Ed said, looking at the woman in white.

“I’ve got it!” Twilight said, smirking, “ Ed I need you to distract her. While you do, I am going to enclose her in several walls. Brigadier, you start using your flame alchemy to suck up the oxygen as she attacks Ed. This will hopefully use up enough of her oxygen so she will faint after too long.”

“You sure you won’t kill her?” Ed looked at Twilight, his face stern.

Twilight paused, she thought about that thing, how it seemed to insult her mentor, and secretly, was the culmination of all her worst fears. She realized, however, that this Celestia should not die because of her fears and hatred. Twilight sighed,”No, I won’t.”

“All right then, let’s go.” Roy commanded as he let loose a barrage of flame strikes at Celestia. Ed, meanwhile, found a way to vault himself up to Celestia and planting both of his feet into her stomach. The queen yelled in pain as sent a wave of flames Ed’s way, hitting his back. Ed screamed in pain as he began to run from Celestia’s flames. Each time that she lashed out a new stone wall appeared before her while the fire attacks continued. Soon, Ed was backed into a corner and with only one wall remaining. Celestia growled as she sent one last fireball Ed’s way, hitting his left leg causing Ed to collapse. Ed spent a few minutes screaming in pain before smirking and rolling away as the final wall closed. Enraged, the solar queen let loose more fireballs in tandem, until soon she collapsed and fainted.
________________

A few hours later, Celestia woke to find her hands bounded by stone manacales, “What? Does thou think that thy can bind thee so easily? I will melt these in but in an instant.” With a growl, the sun queen began to concentrate hard getting the fire ready and then, nothing. “What? But but how?” She then looked at the back of her hands and saw “YOU BURNT MY HANDS?!”

“Just enough to remove the flame circles on them. You’ll still be able to use them, but you will be in pain each time. Have to say, I am impressed that you tattooed the circles into your hands.” Roy said, looking down at his captive.

“No, that was magic, but how? I can’t do magic in this world...unless in return for learning alchemy, Truth removed my magic for three years!” Twilight then looked at the former goddess,
“ All right, I have some questions. One! How did you get here? TWO! What happened to you to turn you into this? What happened to Luna?”

“LUNA! I haven’t seen her in…so long. Not since…she…died.” Celestia began to cry as she started to fade away through a shimmering portal. “Oh god…Luna…I am so…s…”

Twilight reached her hand out to the fading goddess, desperate to stop her, “No, wait come back!” As she reached her hand through the portal, her hand once again turned into a violet hoof.

“Twilight, it sounds like you know what is going on here.” Roy said, looking down at Twilight.

Twilight turned to Roy,“Yes I do. I have had some suspicions when I heard about the creatures from my universe popping in and now that there are alternate versions of the people I know, I am sure of my theory.” Taking out two slips of paper, she cut out a small hole out of both, “Remember how I said I was from another dimension. Well, the way I came in was via that gate thing when I stopped a transmutation from being completed. Now according to most multiversal theory, dimensional travel is very difficult but not impossible IF you know what you are doing. However, this would be like going through a door or a curtain, when I got sent through it was a rock through glass.” Twilight then began to put the papers against each other, pushing one through the hole, “This caused a hole to pop up in your universe that linked to mine and sadly opened up a few weaknesses in some of the other universes. Now, our two multiverses are trying to fix this mistake slowly by mixing our multiverses together; however, there is one small problem.”

“And that is?” Ed asked.

“Since I came in here like a bullet, I weakened the barriers that protect both our worlds. Eventually, the universe’s are going to fuse more and more until.” To empathise the point, Twilight pushed the papers to their limit until they tore.

Ed’s face looked very serious, “How much time is left?”

“I guess about two weeks from now, once I get the Fraternity Stone I’ll be able to get home and fix all of this.” Twilight said.

“When we get the Stone, student of mine. anyway, that should be plenty of time for us to head to Risembool and have Winry work on this.” Ed said, lifting up his partially melted leg.

“I am going to get HQ to keep an eye out for anymore disturbances. Sparkle, any chance of these incidents getting worse?” Roy asked.

“I think that the length of time that each being stays in this world depends on how intelligent they are..” Twilight said, “The Ursa vanished quickly because it was mostly a monster, Celestia stayed for 8 hours because she was a being like me.”

“All right. Fullmetal, its good that you are on top of things. It was good to see you again.” Roy saluted at Ed.

“It was nice seeing you too, Colonel.” Ed said, smiling at his old friend as he and Twilight made their way back to the train and off to Risembool.

______________________________

Applejack walked ahead of the group through the woods, keeping an eye on their direction to make sure that they were heading the right way. Turning her head slightly behind her to check on the others, she noticed how Rarity was walking a little closer to Pinkie Pie for some reason. She then reminded herself of the recent nightmares that Rarity have had been having since their adventure began. “Maybe she just needs a way to get her mind off of those nightmares.” Applejack thought to herself as she looked up to the sky overhead to watch Rainbow dash flying ahead a little, “Y’all see anythang RD?”

“Nothing, just more and more trees. I thought I might have seen an opening about a few miles south, but that’s it.” Dash said as she flew back, landing next to Applejack. Meanwhile, Fluttershy turned to the rustling of a small bush.

“If you are a monster in there, then could you please stay in there, but if you are a little critter please come out. We won’t hurt you at all.” Timidly, she looked towards the bush but also ready to run if it was a monster.

“Ok.” Said a soft voice from the bush. Stepping out from within the bush was little green colt with a messy blonde mane, “Hello there. To tell you the truth, I am kind of glad that you aren’t monsters.”

“Oh hello.” Fluttershy said as she looked at the young colt in front of her, noting the seed cutie mark on his flank. “And what is your name?”

“My name is Fletcher Tringham and I’m very lost and I miss my brother.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. How did you get lost?”

“I was working with my big brother in our lab when suddently this portal opened up in front of me and sent me here. Now I have no idea where I am or how to get home.”

“HEY Flutters, who are you talking to?” Pinkie Pie said, bouncing towards Fluttershy and Fletcher. Upon seeing the little colt, Pinkie ran to him in a blur, “heytherenevermetyoubeforemynameisPinkiePiepleasetomeetyou.Sowhatisalittlecoltlikeyoudoingherealllone?”

“Pinkie, what on Earth are you and Fluttershy doing. Oh, hello there little colt. My, what a nice hat you are wearing, tough I could touch it up a little.” Rarity said, looking at Fletcher’s hat.

“His name is Fletcher, and he got separated from his older brother. I want to take care of him until we can get him together with his older brother.” Fluttershy said as she heard a voice call out from the woods.

“Fletcher! Fletcher!” Said a green stallion as he walked through the woods, his blonde mane covering one eye.

A big smile came across his face as he had heard the voice, “BIG BROTHER!” Turning he ran to the stallion.

“Fletcher, there you are little guy.” Russel said as he nuzzled his little brother. “Are you all right? You didn’t get hurt while you were out here did you?”

“No, these nice ponies talked to me and kept me company.”

Russel turned to the mares in question, “Thank you both for keeping an eye on my little brother.” Turning around with his little brother in tow, one could note a red tree cutie mark. As they walked off, the all too familiar shimmering light passed through them. Leaving behind, nothing.

“What in the hay was that?” Applejack asked, catching up with the girls and watching the brothers disappear.

“I don’t know, those brothers appeared and then just had just…disappeared.” Fluttershy said.

“Do you think this could be related to what happened with that weird bald pony we met?” Rarity asked.

“Ah don’t know, but right now Ah am too tired to focus on that stuff. Come on, Rainbow found us a place to rest for a bit.” Applejack said, leading the girls on.

__________________________

“Rarity Belle, You have been found guilty of being selfish, an abomination against your element, and pure murder!” Celestia said in front of Rarity looking down upon her.

“M…Murder?But I have never killed anypony!” Rarity began to look around to see all of her friends and family staring down at her in disapproval.

“Yes you have. You have murdered the most important pony to me. My faithful student Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia then pointed to the bloodied and mutilated corpse of Twilight, hanging by her hooves.

Rarity took a step back in horror, “But I didn’t, she sacrificed herself for me. I was just…”

“And what makes you think you are more important to anypony than HER!! You are just a dressmaker, what are you compared to Twilight? What are you?””

“ An an important part of Sweetie Bell’s life!” Rarity said trying to defend herself.

“NO, you aren’t! You just ignored me and treated me like dirt for most of my life. Now, thanks to you, the only pony who could’ve trained me is dead and its all your fault. Celestia, please kill her!” Sweetie bell said.

Panting, Rarity began to look around as flames began to rise up around her, coming ever closer.”

“NO! I am so sorry, I am so sorry.” Rarity began to cry into Applejack’s shoulders, “What, Applejack?”

“Shhhh, quiet now Sugarcube. I had been hearing you cry and whimper all night,” Applejack wrapped her hooves around Rarity and held her closer, “Now, you are an older sister and don’t have anypony bigger than you to comfort you or to chase the bad dreams away. I’ll be here for that, I will be your sister for now to protect you. Got it?” Applejack watched as Rarity nodded, “Good, now go to sleep. I will buck anymore bad dreams from your mind.” With that Applejack held Rarity closer as the night began to fall. Fluttershy had her head on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder, draped under the wing of her dear friend and was sleeping peacefully. While Pinkie Pie slept in the middle of all of them, warmed by their spirits and love.
_________________

The next morning, the peaceful slumber of the four ponies was greatly disturbed by a large explosion, “What in Tarnation was that?”

“More importantly, where’s Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked, getting up in fear.

Moving quickly, Dash flew up in the sky and saw Pinkie, “Over there, and she is with some weird white pony.”

“Ohhhhhh, do it again!” Pinkie yelled as she jumped up and down.

“Certainly my dear,” The white unicorn said, tipping his hat to reveal his black mane. “It is so rare that I get someone who appreciates my art.”

“Pinkie Pie, what are you doing and who on Equestria is that?” Rarity asked.

Pinkie pie turned, an apple pie in her hoof, “HI Girls. This is Zolf Kimblee” Pinkie pointed to the White unicorn with the bomb cutie mark, “He likes to make explosions. I heard him talking about making some fireworks nearby and I wanted to see them. He agreed and he has been showing off his really cool explosions. He also agreed to make us all breakfast.”

“Yes, not only am I a great bomber, but an excellent cook. It’s a shame that the idiots on the Baratie don’t seem to get that.” Kimblee said as he brought out some cooking supplies for the girls. Not ones to ignore a free breakfast, they accepted. Afterwards, they watched as the pony began to fade away from existence. Deciding to continue on their journey they walked further on through the woods until they reached a sign, “Coltonville! Hey girls, we made it!” Pinkie said as she eagerly ran forward.

“Good, cant wait to get there and finally get Twi…OH BUCK ME!” Dash Exclaimed, at the sight of...

To Be Continued!

Author's Note

Ok, there was a scene of Celestia visiting Twily in the middle of the night in a dream...but my editor thought better of it and after some looking, Yeah he was right.

Zoltanthemagnificent is a terrific editor.

Home Ec

Chapter 9: Home Ec.

Coltonville, used to be a city of happiness and life. Filled with only earth ponies, they enjoyed the sun and would work day in and out for their lives. They would make friends, eat, marry, and then die; all the while living everyday to its fullest. However, such signs of life and joy were gone from the once bright and happy town. Now all that was left was ruined buildings, crushed lives, and a town that no longer exists. For the townspeople, this represented the end of everything that they knew and love; however, for the 5 ponies standing on the hill, it represented the loss of hope, “Oh my goodness. What happened here,” Rarity asked, looking over the ruined town.

“It looks like a bomb hit it,” Rainbow dash said, flying up into the sky to get a good look at the destroyed buildings and the barren street.

“Do you think that anypony is alive down there?” Fluttershy asked, fearful of the answer.

“Ah don’t know sugarcube, but we are gonna find out,” Applejack said as she walked down the hill and into the ruins.

For the girls, the sounds of a pony moaning in pain would be a relief to the silence that surrounded them. They looked at how some buildings were just starting to crumble while others were already gone. Surrounding them as they walked were skeletons of various ponies, most were just in the process of living their day to day lives. While other corpses looked like they knew the end was upon them and held the one closest to them for comfort. Rarity turned to look inside one building to see a pony standing in a singing position, “Excuse me, darling. Me and my friends we wondering,” as she walked up to the pony with the microphone cutie mark, she took a step back in horror. she saw that the pony was as still and grey as a statue. The look of utter horror upon the stone’s face as she stood in her lively pose, “You, poor dear,” Rarity said as she reached out a hoof to touch it. The statue pony then slowly dissolved upon contact, leaving behind nothing but dust. A little bit of fear graced her face as she turned around and walked away.

The five ponies continued to walk around the town, hoping to find a small sign of life no matter how small or insignificant. Pinkie Pie noticed a large ice cream store in the distance, “Hey girls, let’s check this place out!”

“Pinkie, now’s not the time to go on a sugar fix,” Dash said, floating over Pinkie.

“I know that, but there might something really, really, neat in there,” Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced into the building. Skipping along, she found another grey pony laying across the table, clutching onto a small book. Looking at the book, Pinkie took the item away from the body and walked back to the others, “ Hey girls…look at this. It’s a journal.”

“Let me see that sugarcube,” Applejack said as she took the book from Pinkie’s hooves, and then opened it.

Year of Celestial calendar: 850 Jan 15 (Rainbow Dash shook her head in disbelief, “That’s over a hundred years ago.”)

I went to her funeral today, oh Celestia its so hard to even think about it. Its just so unfair! She had just found happiness with her boyfriend, they…they were gonna get married that day. Then, because a friend of hers was drunk and angry, it was all…taken away. Oh Sweetheart, why did you leave us?

Year of Celestial calendar: 850 Feb 16
A whole month has gone by since her death…A whole month and it seems everypony has moved on. I won’t! They tell me that it will get better, that it takes time to get over it. I cant, I wont do it! This town seems a whole lot dimmer without her smile, a lot darker without her voice, and just more depressing. I can’t seem to go on without hearing that lovely voice once more. It just isn’t fair to watch somepony that is so close to you, die so young. We promised to watch our children grow up together, to die old…I can’t just get over it, I don’t want to think about a world without her.
And I won’t. You see I met an unicorn today, the first one that I had ever seen. He was about middle aged and had a black mane with grey streaks in it. I took a picture for a future reference

(Pinkie Pie looked at the photo and remembered the artist rendering of the unicorn with the stone that caused all of the damage back in Unicornia, “Wait a minute, that’s the same pony who had the fraternity stone back in Unicornia! But, he was younger than that at the time”

“Darling, that is impossible. That unicorn came lived 50 years ago, if he was young then, he can not be middle aged 100 years ago. He can’t be aging backwards,” Rarity said.)

He claimed that he was a lost and powerful mage from another world and that he was searching for a way back home. I was fascinated with his story, of course, and asked him more. As we talked, we also talked about my problems and what had happened recently. He told me of a science known as Alchemy and he believed that if we could combine it with magic…I could bring her back and send him home. Of course I agreed instantly.

Year of Celestial calendar 852- Oct 9
After two years I have done it! I have become a master of Alchemy and have been able to impress my master. Now that I have trained hard enough and got the preparations ready, the master tells me that tomorrow we will begin the experiment. Oh, I can’t wait, hang on Sweetheart…I’ll see you again

Year of Celestial calendar 852-Oct 11
I am sorry, no wait. That isn’t enough, please Celestia have mercy for what I did. There was no excuse what had happened yesterday. Me and the master began the experiment/spell yesterday morning when the sun’s rays first began to shine. I had set up the appropriate sigils for the Alchemy while the master created the runes for the spell, his strange stone in hand. I then began the reaction while he began the incantation and there is where it all went wrong. It started simply, a bright light shone in the middle of the circle as the stone hand began to glow, opening up the light. What it opened up to was a strange version of Coltonville, with the ponies laying strewn across the ground as what I can only describe as wraiths were sucking the lives out of the ponies. The wraiths…turned their attention to the open doorway behind them.
I am not going to describe that had happened next, lets just say that any visions I had of Tartarus seemed fun compared to what happened. I watched buildings get ripped apart by the dimensional forces, children watching their mothers dying brutally before their souls were absorbed and only leaving lifeless stone husks behind. My remaining friends, bless their souls, tried to stay with me to the end…It’s hard to watch all you ever knew die. The creatures only stopped when Sweetheart, well that world’s Sweetheart, stood within the portal and used an amulet to soak up all of the spirits and destroy them. I walked to the portal, held out a hoof to touch her and watched as she faded from my sight. I turned to watch as the master, tears in his eyes, tell me how sorry he was as another portal opened behind him with an all too familiar land behind him-Dream valley. It was a land of legends that was located just a few days north of here. I continued to listen to his apology as he faded into the portal and out of my life, forever. I sat there, in shock as I looked around at the once full of life and happy town.

Nov 13- I try setting up my old friends in something resembling their old lives, but some of them crumbled beneath my hooves.

Dec 25- No heat, feel so cold. My Celestia, how many times can I say I am sorry till someone listens.

Dec 31- so cold…can’t write anymore, just want to lie here and sleep…I just wanted to see her again, her smi…

The girlslooked to the preserved frozen corpse next to them, feeling frightened at what they had just read and saddened at the poor pony’s fate. IT took a few moments of the girls standing in silence until Applejack spoke up, “ So what are we gonna do now? It seems like every time this stone is used, something bad happens!”

“So are you saying that we went all of this way for nothing!? That Twilight can’t come back home?” Dash asked, stepping to Applejack.

“I am not saying that, I am just asking what we should do now?”

Pinkie Pie, a smile on her face, walked to the dead body of the young pony, “Here Patch, thanks for the book,” She then turned to her friends, beaming, “Well, I know what I am going to do! I am going to go to Dream Valley, find that stone, find out what went wrong, and then bring TWILIGHT HOME! WHO’S WITH ME???”

No silence passed between any of the four as each looked at each other and then back to Pinkie, “I’m in!” Dash said standing with her friend.

“You know, Dream Valley is nice this time of year,” Rarity said as she walked next to Pinkie Pie, running her hoof through her mane.

“It sounds like the stone might not work, but maybe when we get there,” Fluttershy fluttered over to her friends, “ we can see if there is something else we can try.”

Applejack looked towards her friends, standing together without fear of what was to come, “Sheeoot girls,” Applejack chuckled as she straightened her hat and walked to her friends slowly, “ Ah bet you would’ve said lets keep going if I told ya that the next step of our journey led to Tartarus.” She then turned to the dead body, “Listen hun, Ah thank you for the warning and all. But the girl we’re looking for is just as important to us as your friend was to you. If there is even the smallest chance to bring her home, then we are gonna take it. Ours is still alive and we ain’t about to leave her alone.” With that, the girls walked out of the ice cream shop and towards the valley of dreams. As they left, the frozen corpse of the young pony listened to the words, and a small tear streamed down her face.

In the hilly area of Amestris, just a few miles west of Central, lay a small town called Resembool. In this town, people lived, people died, and people worked for their lives. The people enjoyed each beautiful day as much as possible, finding new ways to push their lives to the fullest. Nothing about this town is different from most, except for one thing. It was the birthplace of the Fullmetal Alchemist and his little brother, and in this town lived his personal mechanic. A young woman who worked everyday on her prized automail, looked after the shop, and was a working mother. One such child, a young boy of 6 with hair of gold, was playing with a white puppy, “Come on White Hayate! Lets see who we need to fix now,” the young boy ran with his dog until he had to stop when he saw two figures walking up the road. It did not take him long to recognize the young man walking in, “DADDY! You’re home!!!!!” The young boy ran up to the young man and leapt into his arms and hugged him tightly as well as tackling him to the ground.

A smile came across Ed’s face as he held his son back, looking at the young boy in front of him, “Hey, Hohenheim.” He stood up, letting his son down gently, “Is your mother in the workshop?”

“Yes, she is. Did ya break your automail again daddy? And who is the pretty lady?”

“No, I melted it!” Ed said defensively as he walked into the house.

The boy nodded,”Ah, automail emergency number 42!”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle, please to meet you,” Twilight said as she knelt next to the little boy and shook his hand, “I am your dad’s student.”

“OHHHHHHHH. Cool, you know you have the best teacher. Dad one time, wrestled a dragon and another time, he punched God right in the face!”

“Oh really? You’ll have to tell me all about it later,” Twilight said, before turning around to the sound of a woman running.

“Coming through!” The young woman said, wearing a backpack with a lightning bolt on it, “Look out, Ashleigh, one of the best runners on the planet coming through. Oh hey there.” She said as she took a few seconds to wave at Twilight, “Have you seen my little sister anywhere?”

“No,” A smile came across Twilight’s face as she marked off a name off her list in head, “But I will tell her you are looking for her.”

“Ok, thanks,” With that, she turned around and ran off in 10 seconds flat.

Twilight chuckled to herself, “That just leaves Pinkie.”

____________________

Inside the Rockbell automail shop, a blonde woman began to work on an automail arm, “‘I want it to look exactly like your husband’s used to.’ Doesn’t he realize that a true artist never makes the,” A squeak is heard as she attached a wire to the arm, “same type of art TWICE! It ruins the beauty of,” Another squeak is heard, “the original. I’ll make this all right, but it will be one that will be his,” SQUEAK, “AND HIS ALONE! Thanks for the help Trisha.”

“I help, I help.” The little blonde girl said as she hit the arm again and again with her squeaky hammer. Hearing the door opening, she threw her hammer at the figure in the doorway.

The hammer hit Ed’s face with a very loud squeak, “You are teaching our daughter your bad habits, Winry.”

“If it means that you will finally learn not to go around, breaking my automail then maybe I should,” Winry turned around, picking up her daughter and walked to Ed, kissing his cheek, “Welcome home Ed.”

“Poppa, poppa,” Trisha reached out for Ed, wanting to be held by him.

Winry handed young Trisha to Ed and looked at Ed in the eyes, “So, adjustment, broken, or you just want an upgrade?”

“Melted by a mad woman with fire power,” Ed said as he took Trisha’s hands and played with them. He made them clap like he would do In order to perform Alchemy.

“MELTED??? HOW DID YOU MELT MY BEST AUTOMAIL???” Winry asked as she looked down at Ed’s partially melted automail. She sighed, “Oh well, I guess I will have to put all of this extra repair work on your tab and charge you extra.”

“C-C-CHARGE ME!?” Ed exclaimed as he looked at Winry in shock, “We’re married, why would you charge me?”

Winry then walked to Ed, a sultry smirk on her face, “Oh, I am not going to charge you just money Ed,” She then ran a finger along Ed’s chest, kissing his nose.

“Um, excuse me,” Twilight said as she walked in, led by Hohenhiem who was holding her hand, “I think your son wants to help.”

Winry looked at Twilight and then back to Ed, “and who is this?”

“That’s Twilight Sparkle,” Ed then, before Winry asked if she was a mary sue, said, “She is my student. I am training her and I am also trying to get her back home.”

“So she isn’t…”

“No, she is not a mary sue no matter how much she looks.”

“Oh,” Winry then looked at Twilight and then back to Ed, “You meet some interesting people don’t you. Well, some along, we need to get you some substitute auto mail.”

A few hours later, Twilight was sitting by the window, watching the two Elric siblings play with each other, “Ok Trisha, if you want to be a real Alchemist, then I am going to have to take care of you like momma takes care of poppa. Understand?”

In response, the little girl drew a circle in the sand and place her hands on it before releasing it, “BOOM!”

If that little girl ends up making five great friends and is taught by the Fhrurer, I am out of here, Twilight chuckled to herself.

“Great aren’t they? I think Trisha wants to be like her daddy when she grows up,” Winry said, handing Twilight some coffee.

“Yeah, they are,” Twilight looks to Winry, “Does he always do this? Go off on a long trip while you three wait here? You didn’t seem too upset when Ed told you he was leaving again.”

“Not always,” Winry said as she walked to the window, watching her two children, “Most of the time, he stays here, helping to take care of the kids and teaching them all he knows about science. But then he hears about some great discovery, some brand new mystery, some sort of atrocity committed to science, or something weird like that. Then he leaves and goes off on an adventure for a few months while I am waiting here for him.”

“Sounds harsh.”

“Not really, because somehow, deep inside…I know he will always come home. And I have to be there, to be his light waiting for him.”

“Speaking of which…where is Ed?”

“Going to speak to his mom and dad,” Winry said, looking at a pic of her grandmother, resting on a beach saying ‘enjoying retirement, wish you were here’.

In a small little graveyard, a former alchemist sat and looked at the two graves before him, “Hey Mom, Dad…been a while huh? Sorry I didn’t get enough time to visit earlier.” He looked towards the gravestone marked Hohenheim Elric, “What do you mean we are alike? I am nothing…ok maybe sometimes I am.” He then looked to the grave marked Trisha Elric, “We aren’t fighting mom, we’re discussing. The grandkids are doing great, I think maybe Trisha is going to end up like me. She keeps getting some of the old books and when I ask her what she is doing, she’ll look at me and say, ‘training.’ Oh,and remember how I told you Al finally popped the question a few months ago? Well, he told me that they’ll be getting married in the summer…just like you, Mom. You’ll be getting more grandkids soon” Ed laughed then sighed, “Trisha is looking more and more like you day by day, and Hohenhiem is becoming stronger, acting like his mom. Yes, Mom, I am keeping an eye on him, making sure that he is all right and gets plenty of sleep. I even have to clean up his messes, as per usual. Oh, the girl? She’s my student, apparently she made the same mistake I did. Yes, it was my worst and only mistake. Thanks, Mom, I know you forgave me a long time ago, and Dad, I know that no scientist is perfect…look at you.” He looked up at the setting sun, “Its getting late, I need to go home. It was great talking to both of you.” Ed stood up and turned around, but not before feeling a soft wind hitting the side of his face, followed by a warm wind at his sides, “Yeah…I love you too.”

As he walked away, he did not see the two ghostly figures standing over the two graves, holding hands as they watched the young alchemist walk home. A smile on their faces, “He takes after you, you know. He gets his intelligence from you,” the young woman looked up to the man.

“He gets his heart from you though,” The man said as he leaned in to kiss her.
_____________

Later on that night, Twilight began to help the two children into bed. Twilight helped to tuck Hohenhiem in while the boy helped to tuck in his sister, “Miss Sparkle? Could you tell us a bedtime story,” Young Hohenhiem said, looking up at Twily.

“Story? Me? Well, I guess I could,” Twilight then sat down in front of the two young children, nuzzled tightly in their beds, “Once upon a time, there was these two alchemist sisters. Once could handle light alchemy, while the other shadows; however, the young sister was turned evil and was forced to be locked away forever. Most people had forgotten about the younger sister, all except one. The older sister’s most trusted student, but instead of going off to stop the evil sister the teacher sent the young girl off to do the hardest thing ever, make friends.”

“But what’s so hard about making friends?”

“Well, you see, the girl never saw a need for them. She instead, spent all of her time in her library, never living, never having any fun, and never enjoying herself. Well, when she got into town, she met,” clapping her hands and placing them on the floor, Twilight began to make wooden human figures of all of her friends in succession, “A party girl, a brave farmer, an acrobatic tomboy, a dressmaker, and a shy animal caretaker. Now, she thought nothing much of these girls and instead focused on stopping the evil sister. Soon she found where the evil sister had lived and went to defeat her, alone. She did not think to bring in the five girls with her, but they went anyway. In turn, each one gave her a precious gift; honesty, the importance of being kind, to help your fellow person, the ability to laugh, and loyalty. Armed with these gifts, the girl went and freed the sister from her evil curse and was revered as a hero.”

“So what happened?” Asked the young boy with a yawn.

“She went to live in the small town with her best friends. She had many more adventures and one day she got lost from her home…but, she found her way back and it all turned out ok in the end. She would live happily with everyone around her.”

Winry stood in the doorway watching Twilight take care of her children, “She’s a good kid Ed. Do you think that she really came from that other world and was…” Winry turned to walk to Ed’s bedside

“I don’t know Winry. The scientist in me is saying no, she is lying; however, she has been able to talk about all of the weirdness that has been happening like she had lived it. Also, she can perform alchemy without a circle, so she must have met truth.”

“What about the nice guy in you. The man who gave up a lot to keep his promise to his brother, and” Winry tucked Ed’s chin and kissed him deeply, “my husband.”

“I see a young girl, dealing with something she has no idea of how to handle and trapped in a place that she finds weird. I see someone who needs help, and if finding this stone means helping her…I’ll do it. Besides, it’s a good way to see what this stone could do.”

Winry smiled, she loved it when Ed had the scientist in him coming to full force. Wrapping her arms around Ed, she lied with him onto their bed, “That’s what I thought you would say. Now,” Winry ran a finger along Ed’s chest, “about your back-payments.” Winry then turned out the light with a giggle.

A few minutes later, Twilight sat up in her bed, looking to the wall, “OH COME ON! I CAN’T SOUNDPROOF THIS THING!!!!!”
________________________

A few days later, Ed laid onto the chair with Winry at his side and a hand on a wrench. The wrench was connected to his automail leg ready to turn, “I hate this part so much! You just enjoy seeing me squirm don’t you?”

“A little, now get ready Ed.” She placed her hand onto the wrench, ready to turn, “Ok Hohenhiem?”

“Ready. Now daddy, this is going to sting for a bit, but I need you to be a big boy for me ok?”

Young Trisha also held her daddy’s hand as Ed braced for the pain. Meanwhile, Twilight looked at a few pictures of Ed wearing a long red cloak with a symbol of a snake wrapped around a cross with a crown on top. Twilight then gained an idea as she grabbed some purple garments from a closet and went outside as she heard Ed let out a horrible scream.

“Want a lollipop, popa,” Trisha asked as she handed Ed a lollipop after the re-attachement of his leg.

“Thanks Trisha,” Ed smiled weakly as he took the candy from his daughter and went outside.

“Now Ed, I made it a little more durable, but light. So I would be careful on how you use that leg for kicking. Got it?” Winry asked as Ed went outside, Honenheim right behind him.

“Yeah, yeah yeah,” Ed then turned to his young son. Ready to charge, Ed began a run, but was stopped by stone hands coming from the ground and grabbing him. Grunting he turned to see Twilight dressed in a new outfit. It was similar to Ed’s Red cloak of old, but instead was purple, “Nice outfit, Twily,” Ed watched as Twilight turned around, “What’s with that star symbol on your back?”

“Oh, this,” Twilight pointed to the starburst on her back, surrounding Ed’s symbol, “This is my cutie mark. I figure since I don’t have it when I am a human, I needed another way to show it off. Your symbol is there to show that you are currently my teacher and I am learning from you.” Twilight smiled as Ed nodded in approval.

It wasn’t long after this, that the two were off to the train station. As they neared the train, Twilight was stopped by a very hyper girl, “HI THERE!!!! I am so glad I could see you before you left. MY name is Diane, I am Resembool’s premiere greeter. I almost forgot to say hi to you when I saw you came in and…”

Twilight then raised her hands up in order to stop the peppy girl, “Wait Diane. Could you do me a favor? You know that Ashleigh girl, the one who runs around here? I want you to go and talk to her, I am pretty positive you two will hit it off great. Then, go to central and to the Carousel Boutique, there is a young woman there I think would love you. Then, go to Xing and meet up with a shy girl and an apple farmer by the name of Abigail. I think you five will love each other.” She then smiled, patted the girl on the shoulder and walked on board her train.

“Okie Dokie Loki” and with that, she ran off to find her new friend. The two then met up with the young fashionista, the farmer, and the shy girl and then became the best of friends, living a happy life together.
_________________________

Port city was not much different from Central, except for the persistent smell of fish that was around. As Twilight and Ed walked to the pier, Twilight noticed that getting onto the train was a young woman dressed in white with her younger sister as they waited for someone. She smiled as she watched a young girl and a military officer get off the train and the young girl getting off to hug the older woman with a yell of “AUNTIE!!!!”

“And Luna, Celestia, Shining, Cadence, makes 9. Along with, “ she looked to her right to see a woman carrying a loaf of bread, talking to a teacher, “and Raindrops and Cherilee. I wonder who else I will,” Then, out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw an old man carrying a familiar stone, “ED LOOK! He’s got the Fraternity Stone!”

Ed turned to see the old man and ran after him, “Hey, you!”

“Oh, no. This is the wrong time, I can’t stay here. It’s much too early, I need more time in order to save him, to get him back home!” The old man said as he ran away from the two alchemists. They chased after the old man through the streets, dodging some of his Alchemy and tricks. Every obstacle he sprung up, Twilight was able to deconstruct in an instant. Soon they had him cornered.

“Ok, old man, hand over the stone and then maybe we can work together,” Ed said, hand extended.

The old man, shook his head in fear and clapped his hands around the stone, bringing forth a white light. In his place, stood a very tall creature, “Twi…what is that thing, and why do I feel like it’s wrong somehow?”

Twilight stood in fear of the creature. its features and the feeling of wrongness were a big clue to what it was, “A Draconequus.”

Laughter was heard across the port town.

To be continued

Author's Note

Ohhhhhhhhhhh, did this chapter go through a bunch of rewrites: see, the way I write a story, is that I complete it first in my head, think about it, then write. The Resembool part fo the chapter came through great...Coltonville was another story, at first there was none and I had the girls heading to Dream valley for no reason and they had nothing to do for a bit. Then I rewrote it to Coltonville, then I had it Melody who used the stone, then Sweetheart, then Patch. Then I wrote that PAtch ad gained immortality thanks to the stone. She would warn the girls and they would go on anyway .I then added the log, but still tried to keep the immortal part, then I tought it didnt make any sense with the immortal part, so I ended it here. The crying mare being the last remains of that idea/

Thanks again to my dear editor, Zoltanthemagificent

Civics and Physics

Chapter 11: Civics and Physics

As the Rock-Biter walked away from the group and off into the distance, Rainbow angrily kicked a stone in frustration at their predicament. The little stone rolled across the ground and onto the glistening surface of the desert, where it turned into a pale crystal before their eyes, “Wow, look at it. It didn’t even last a few seconds,” Pinkie said.

“Well, this is just great,” Dash yelled as she looked over the desert, “Just how the heck are we supposed to cross this stupid thing?!” She began to walk a little on the perimeter, trying to get some clue if there was anyway to cross the vast expanse. Though they were helped a little by the light of the quarter moon above their heads, she and the girls could barely see anything around them except for what the desert illuminated with its soft deadly glow, “So what do we do now?”

Applejack pulled down her stetson over her face, sighing, “Its too dark right now to see anything. So, Ah think that we should all turn in for the moment.”

As Pinkie Pie leapt up to make a comment, Rainbow dash turned a quick look to her, “not a word Pinkie!”

“Awww,” Pinkie floated back to the ground.

“And then begin to look for something in the morning,” With that, Applejack began to find a good place to set up camp.

“I guess so.” Dash said before grabbing some sticks from her bag to set up a fire for all of them.

Pinkie skipped over to the campsite alongside Dash, a smile on her face, “She’s right! Everything always looks brighter in the daytime, and with some sleep we won’t fall asleep while we are thinking up plans! We will be all bright eyed and bushy tailed to go and save Twily!!!”

“...And then, when she turned around: She saw...The Slack-Jawed Killer!” Rainbow Dash yelled, causing Fluttershy to squeak and hide behind Applejack.

“Alrighty then, ah think we’ve had enough ghost stories fer one night, we all need to get some shut eye.” Applejack chuckled to herself as Fluttershy slowly crawled out.

Pinkie set herself up to sit in the middle of the group, taking the time to look around and watch as he friends began to get to their own places to rest. As she began to get comfortable, a smile came to her as she was confident that no matter what came next, her friends would be there for her. Rainbow Dash lifted a wing and invited Fluttershy to snuggle in, allowing her to be protected by her body and warmth. Fluttershy took in the offer, snuggling up close to her cyan friend. Resting her head onto Dash’s shoulder, she sighed and was contented to be protected by a dear friend. Applejack took a position a few feet away from the group, wanting to be the first one to spot danger if it were to come and the first one to wake everypony up to get them moving. Rarity, sat close to the group but began to feel very alone, “Hey girls,” Rainbow said as she looked around.

“What?” Applejack turned to look at the awake Rainbow.

“You know what I am going to say to Twilight when we see her again?”

“What is it?”

“Thank you. Because without her, I don’t think that I would’ve become as close to you guys without her.”

“Ah would have to agree with on that,” Applejack slowly rubbed the ground in front of her, “If Ah never gone on that adventure with y’all Ah…probably would never got to know what great girls ya are, on the inside.”

“And I want to say,’Hi Twilight! Lets celebrate by partying until we can no longer move!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Rarity just smiled sadly,”I was thinking of saying I’m sorry, but,”her eyes burned with fire and she let out a big happy grin,”instead I will say ’Let’s go get you a dress that will shame the Princesses themselves! Welcome back, Twilight Sparkle!”

“Do you know what I am going to say when Twilight gets back,” The girls looked to Fluttershy as she began to get sleepy, “welcome home.” The 5 ponies nodded in agreement.

______________

Rarity walked through a barren wasteland, unable to see anything but desert and the bleached bones of ponies. Looking around at the horrors before her, she let loose a slow shudder of fear. Walking further on, she began to call out her friend’s names in a hope that they could hear her and help get her out of there. The only response she could find, was a deadly silence and the blowing of wind. Again, she shuddered, both from the cold and the fear of loneliness. Walking now at a faster trot, she saw a figure in the distance. As she neared the being, a smile came to her face as she recognized the shape of a dear friend, “Oh Pinkie! Am I glad to see you, do you know how we got…oh my,” Rarity took a step back as she neared the crystal body of Pinkie. Rarity took a good long look at Pinkie, seeing the look of horror frozen in the pink pony’s eyes. Reaching a hoof to try and touch it, she watched at the crystal figure shattered before her touch.

A voice came out from behind Rarity, moaning in pain, “A…A…re they ok?”

Rarity turned to the voice, ecstatic at hearing Rainbow Dash’s voice but then took a step back at the sight of the blue mare. Her eyes looked at the arrow laden body of her dear friend in sympathy and horror.

“Rares…are the…” Rainbow tried to continue as she walked to Rarity, her eye noticeably gone as if it was ripped from her socket.

Rarity, continue to stare in shock and horror at the state of her friend, lied, “Y-yes, they are fine, you can go rest now.”

“Go…od,” Rainbow Dash then collapsed, blood slowly dripping and oozing from each arrow. She laid there before Rairty in her pooling blood, slowly breathing in pain until soon she stopped breathing altogether.

“No, no. Not you too Dash,” Rarity backed up in horror, her mind reeling from the shock of seeing two of her friends dead. She then bumped into a pony. She turned and smiled as she saw the all too familiar shape and yellow coat of Fluttershy, “Oh Fluttershy! Thank goodness you are here- Pinkie Pie and Rainbow are all…dead. We need to leave and find a…”

Fluttershy gave no response when Rarity touched her shoulder, she did not turn her head to see her friend, but what she did do was have her head roll off her body slowly and onto the floor while the rest of her body fell to the other direction. The blood seeping through the head wound as it laid there unmoving. Taken in by utter and total fear of the situation, Rarity turned and ran away from the scene of the three dead bodies. All she wanted at this moment was to get home and find a way to make up for the deaths of her friends.

“WOAH THERE SUGAR,” Applejack yelled as she stood in front of Rarity, catching her in a hug.

“Applejack, darling its horrible, simply horrible,” Rarity began to cry her eyes out onto Applejack’s shoulder, “Fluttershy, Rainbow dash, Pinkie Pie, are all…dead!”
“I know Sugar, that’s why I was looking for you. I wanted to make sure you were safe and then get the varmints responsible for all of this and make them pay.”

“NO! We can’t, we can’t do this, it’s too much for us Applejack. I don’t want to lose a…another…”

“You ain’t losing me,” Applejack then noticed the look of fear in Rarity’s eyes, “What’s wrong?”

Rarity shook her head, “Applejack, I am sorry you can’t help me, you…are a true friend.” She then draped both hooves on Applejack’s shoulders and hugged her tightly as Applejack began to turn into stone before her eyes. Her fear now gone, she began to convert it all into utter rage, “ Who is responsible for all this. Who took all of my friends away?”

A purple unicorn walked out of the shadows, “Twilight?” Rarity asked

“Why it was you, you selfish little bitch,” She said in a calm and demure voice.

“Me? But I didn’t”

“You died didn’t you? Your sister burnt your house to the ground and you died. Then the brave little unicorn sacrificed herself in order to save a miserable creature like you! And now…your friends are dead in trying to fix your mistake!”

“But I”
“ YOU ARE A JOKE! Just a little dressmaker who will fade away when she achieved her goals, only to be remembered by the foolish and those focused on the trivial. I would be remembered forever by scholars and mages for years! So tell me, dearest Rarity, where is equivalent exchange in that? How is your measly life worth the lives of a future wonderbolt, an farmer trying to help her family, a girl who makes everypony happy, and an animal caretaker,” ‘Twilight’ looked at Rarity with damning eyes as she watched Rarity try to explain herself but words would not come out of her mouth, “See? Nothing, nothing at all. You should have stayed dead and stop yourself before you kill anymore.” Lifting her hoof towards Rarity, she summoned a bunch of shadow wraiths. Their wails of torment sounding throughout the wasteland as they reached out and grabbed the young mare and pulled her into the shadows.

The scream that came out of Rarity’s mouth was loud enough to wake up the entire group, “Rarity, what’s wrong,”Fluttershy asked as she watched her friend jump up and began to back away from the group.

“S-STAY BACK,” Rarity screamed as she waved her hoof at the girls, trying to keep them away from her, “If you get any closer to me, you’ll die!”

Applejack arched an eyebrow in confusion, “What are y’all talkin’ about?”

Rarity dropped her hoof, getting the visions of all of her friends dying out of her head. As she looked upon all five of them standing before her, she fell to her knees and cried, “Oh goddess, I am so sorry. This is all my fault, I am the cause of all of this.”

“What,” Rainbow walked up looking befuddled, “You are the one who turned the desert into crystal?”

“Rarity, what did you do,” Fluttershy asked, looking worried for her friend.

“What I did was die!”

“Yeah, that was controllable,” Dash snarked.

“ I died, Twilight had to sacrifice herself and send herself Celestia knows where, and now…and now, because of me, We are miles away, near a death trap and have no way to cross it. Even if we do, so what? We don’t know what lies in Dream Valley, it could be another death trap just waiting for us. AND WHY ARE WE HERE? Because Twilight,” Rarity turned her head, tears now flowing even harder, “Because Twilight sacrificed herself for a worthless dressmaker. A star that will fade once she has achieved her dreams…you should’ve just let me stay dead.”

“NOW YOU JUST CUT THAT OUT,” Exclaimed Pinkie as she sped over to Rarity and gave her a big hug, “Don’t say that, don’t even think about that for one little second. You aren’t worthless, you are a very special pony to us and a lot of ponies back home. Just like Sweetie Belle and your parents.”

“No, I am not. I am a horrible sister, I ignore her and focus only on myself.”

Applejack walked up to Rarity, placing her hoof onto her back and rubbing it, “Yeah, but Ah also know that she is one of the most important things in the world to you, better than any gem. Ah also know, that if anything were to happen to her, you would be right there ready to do anything to protect her. You find so many ways to spend with her, Ah am not sure how you do it.”

A blue hoof joins Applejack’s as Rainbow Dash joins in, “ Hey, I may not care about dresses like you do, but you inspire me.”

“I do?”

“Yeah! The way that you put everything into making sure that your dresses have style and beauty, helps to remind me to incorporate a little flash in my routines.” A smile came over her face, “You don’t just make things beautiful Rare…you help to inspire.”

Fluttershy came into the slowly growing group hug, “You also, help bring out the beauty in things…even if they’re ponies who don’t think that they’re that beautiful, like me.”

“See all that sugarcube, you are something important to us,” Applejack said, looking at her straight in the eyes, “And if Twilight were here, she would say the same thing. And to tell you the truth, I was thinkin’ about doing something foolhardy to bring ya back myself if Spike didn’t do it.”

“Me too,” Dash said looking confident.

“ooh,Me three!” Pinkie said ecstatically.

“Um, well, I would do it too or even help them,” Fluttershy said behind her bangs.

“See, together, we’re pretty complete…but without one of us, there is just that little piece missin’, Sugarcube.” Applejack said, now looking with a heartfelt smile.

Tears began to come from Rarity, no longer tears of a broken pony, but tears of joy as she could feel the love of her friends. As she looked at the group before her, she thought she saw a ghostly version of Twilight standing with them, smiling back, “You, you guys are…”

Pinkie took a few steps back and smiled as she began to sing

Pinkie Pie then gave another hug to Rarity as Fluttershy nuzzled her dear friend and joined in with the song, a smile crossing her face

Applejack, memories of how she first met the fashionista flowing through her mind and how her friendship bloomed took the next verse as she placed her hoof onto Rarity’s shoulder and smiled at her

Rainbow Dash joined in, hugging Rarity once more before looking at her eyes, brushing a hoof through Rarity’s mane
[i

Rarity wipes the tears from her eyes and looked at the four mares before her, each one meaning the world to her. She could see in her head all of the times they shared together, all of the times she cared for her sister, and all of the times that she will share. She then saw the shadow of Twilight standing with them, smiling back at her.

Almost as if she was connected by a bond that none could explain. A sixth voice joined in with the group, a voice that they all knew too well, this special pony looked at them and smiled as she picked up.

As Pinkie Pie finished the last verse, she could see how the others began to fall asleep beside her. Yawning loudly she began to nudge herself in between her friends, getting just in front of Rarity. Rainbow Dash laid next to Fluttershy and Applejack and Rarity was above them. At that point, there seemed to be an additional spot reserved for their missing friend.

___________

Rarity found herself in a chapel, in a long and lovely wedding dress (designed by herself of course) standing next to a handsome stallion. She could not make out his features or his race, but she knew that she loved him. Turning around she could see all four of her friends standing next to her, dressed in bridesmaids outfits, and then turning to the front she could see a purple Alicorn, looking regal and splendid, “Fillies and Gentlecolts, we are here to witness the union of this stallion and my most dearest of friends, a mare who risked everything to come here and save the stallion she loved the most-Rarity Belle,” Twilight then smiled at her friend, “Congratulations, Rarity.”

“Oh thank you Twilight,”

‘Twilight’ then went down next to Rarity to whisper, “And they’re right…she would have said something about the gift you gave her.”

A tear came down Rarity’s face as she murmured in her sleep, “Thank you…Luna”

__________

Despite the fact that their determination had been renewed by their little pep talk that night, they still lack of a way to reasonable way to cross the desert. Rainbow sighed to herself, “ Can’t fly there, it would be too much even for me to carry three ponies in succession over a thousand miles.”

“Girls, look at where we rested last night,” Pinkie said as she finished off a cupcake and pointed to a very large tree.

“Gosh, look at it. Its buckin’ huge, I wonder how it got so big around here,” Applejack walked to the tree and put her hoof onto the trunk as she admired it.

Pinkie, meanwhile, had a smile as she came up with an idea. Running over to the edge of the desert, she put a cupcake wrapper underneath a rock and then placed the stone onto the desert floor, “Well look at that.” Pinkie smiled at her work.

Fluttershy walked up beside Pinkie and looked down at the rock, “Pinkie Pie, what were you doing with that rock?”

“Well, I was wondering if the crystal thingie would only affect things touching it directly, and look! I was right.”

Rarity looked at some of the blade-like and jagged crystal spikes that littered the ground, and then back to the tree that they were resting next to, “IDEA!” she said with a huge smile on her face. Using her magic to pull two of the crystal spikes from the ground, she walked over to the big tree and readied the spikes with her spell.

“WAIIIIIIIIIT,” Fluttershy yelled as she flew up into the tree. Taking a few minutes to fly around in the branches and leaves, she soon came back down with a flock of birds and some squirrels, “Ok, now.”

The girls rolled their eyes in unison as they watched Rarity get to work. Using her telekinesis to spin the twin spikes at a high pace, turning them into miniature saws and putting them to the base of the tree. In but a few moments, the tree fell down to the ground with a thud. Walking around to the other side of the tree, Rarity put the still spinning crystal spikes to the fallen spruce and began to cut it very vast. The tree was molded carefully and loudly in a flurry of splinters and flying branches as the girls watched on in amazement at the artist doing her work. In an hour, Rarity took a step back to admire her latest work, “Hmm, not my best but it was my first time doing woodwork. Maybe I should have added a little hat to the goat head in the front. Ohhh, maybe I could get some…” As Rarity continued to talk to herself, the others looked and admired the boat.

On the side of the boat, it was labeled “USS Fabulous,” while the main body resembled that of a very large canoe with enough room for five ponies, “Why five,” Applejack asked.

“That’s just in case Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash get tired and need to rest while on the trip.”

Pinkie Pie jumped around and began to examine all over the boat, taking in all of the big and small details, “GIRLS! It has cupcake and cup holders!”

“Cup holders? No, wait, that’s not the weird part, Cupcake holders, Rare?” AJ asked

Rarity looked at Applejack in shock as she placed a hoof to her chest, “Darling, you do not expect me to travel across the desert at Rainbow speeds without some perrier on hoof do you and don’t you think maybe we would like a place to put our cupcakes?”

Applejack let loose an irritated groan as she walked to the boat and got on it with her friends; however, on the inside she smiled. Taking her lasso out of her saddlebags, she tied the rope around Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy before tying it to the bow of the ship.

Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy, noticing her nervousness, “Hey,” she said as she placed a hoof onto Fluttershy’s shoulder, “Don’t worry about losing pace with me pal. Just keep thinking to yourself that Twilight is over there and is going to need us to help.”

A soft smile came across her face as she flew up a little with Rainbow, “Thank you Dash.”

Turning her head over her shoulder, Dash looked at the other 3 ponies in the boat, “You guys ready?” Seeing them nod, she smirked as she turned to face forward,“Good…CAUSE HERE WE GO!” and in a streak of yellow and blue they took off across the crystal desert.

Fluttershy could feel the weight of the boat begin to tire her out. She then looked to Dash and remembered her advice, and thought about what state Twilight might be in when they get there. Eyes scrunching up in sheer determination, she began to fly even harder than she did earlier. Their speed helped to push and carry them across the desert for the next hour until they soon reached the far side of the desert. As the boat laid onto the ground, Dash and Fluttershy landed next to it, “Heh, nice job Flutters,” Dash said as she reached a hoof to congratulate Fluttershy.

Fluttershy turned to Rainbow and smiled softly in return as she gave a hoofbump to her dear friend, “Thank you Dashie.”

“WOW! Look at this place,” Pinkie said as she stepped off the boat to look at the valley before her. A colorful forest laid before them. It looked somewhat ominous as it stepped off into a deep valley cut through by a small river.

“Ya know, compared to Unicornia and Coltonville…this place ain’t so bad,” Applejack said.

“Oh sure, TEMPT FATE WHY DON’T YA,” Dash yelled as she flew up into the sky, following the others into the woods, “You might as well put up a giant sign with the words, ‘Please mess us up even harder, please Celestia, Luna, and whatever other gods might be listening’ on top of us with words like that!”

The girls looked up at Dash in realization, and then thought about it before having a good laugh.

__________________

As the 1000 Sunni sailed into the harbor to dock, the three alchemists had no idea that they were being watched closely by a few guards on top of the roof. The guards communicated with each other silently as they watched the ship sail in and paid close attention to the three particular passengers on board the ship. With a quick jump off the ship and onto the dock, the three walked into the port talking to themselves about where to go to next, “HALT! Edward Edel Elric, former Fullmetal Alchemist, Alphonse Heiderich Elric, and Twilight Starshine Underdark Natasha Sparkle, you three are under arrest for crimes against the emperor,” A guard said, his gun pointing to Ed.

“Under arrest? On what charge? And no one’s allowed to use my middle name! Actually, how did you know my middle name?” Ed glared as Twilight and Al began to communicate between each other behind his back. Silently, Twilight looked at Al questionly and put her hands together in a clapping motion. In response, Al nodded and pointed to the stonework beneath the guards and tapped his foot. Twilight opened her eyes a little and nodded back in understanding.

“We have reason to believe that you three are on a mission to steal our most holy of relics, the Fraternity Stone,” The guard looked at three, his eyes not leaving them for a second, “We will now take you to Fort Ferdinand where we will interrogate you for a bit and then, when we have planted enough evidence in order to falsely accuse you. We will then execute you for your false crimes and place your remains on top of pikes.”

Al blinked,”Descriptive.”

“Here’s why that isn’t going to happen, you need to be on solid ground to catch us,” Ed smirked as he watched his student and little brother clap their hands and place their palms onto the ground. With a flash of light, the masonwork beneath the guards turned into a stone catapult that threw the men across the dock and into the bay.

As the guards watch the trio run away from them, the leftmost one turned to his friend, “ Hey boss, I guess we are all washed up!”

“Gosh darn it Phyllis, stop it with the puns!”

_______________

Despite the fact that they were in an area that they had never been before, the alchemists were able to weave their way through the city quickly. They started bobbing and weaving their way through the area until they reach the end of an alley, it was here that they rested next to a building, “Just what is these guys’ deal with that stone?” Ed asked as he looked towards his two companions.

“I don’t know, brother, but with us being on the run like this,” Al panted as he looked at the building that they were next to, reading the sign, “It’s going to be hard to find information on the stone.”

“Wow, Al, I thought we were going to have an easy time, what with all the people running after us!” Ed said.

“Maybe if we could find a library,” Twilight said, putting her hands onto her knees.

“Like this one?” Al grinned

“Which one,” Ed asked, looking around the alley. With a smile, Al pointed up to a large sign above their heads on the side of the building.

“Sunrise books- wake up and read up,” Twilight squeed “Thank you, princess.”

Using their alchemy to open a door for them, they walked silently into the library. Upon gazing at the rows and rows of books scattered throughout the library, the three bookworms had to hold in their urge to squee at the sight of so many books. Quietly, they grabbed as many history books (and some science books that Ed wanted to rewrite) as they could and lay them across the table. With great speed, the trio began to research and read as much as they could in hopes to find out more about the history of the country that they were in. However, they did not know about the figures in black watching them from within the shadows, planning, “Found something,” Twilight said.

Ed and Al walked over to Twilight, looking over her shoulder, “What did you find?”

Twilight pointed to the page that she was reading, “About 10 years ago, a man carrying a stone of brotherhood,” Twilight pointed to a picture of the Fraternity Stone, “Came and used the power within the stone to destroy a great evil. In honor of this, we had made him a king. For the past 10 years he has ruled over us with kindness and power thanks to the help of the Fraternity Stone linking us in brotherhood. And look,”

Al looked at the picture of the man in the book, “Brother, look! That was the man I saw!”

Ed took note of the facial features of the man in the picture, “And he sort of resembles the old man that we chased back in Port city.”

Closing the book, Twilight turned around to look at the brothers, “ I can see why they wouldn’t trust us with their relic…its too important to them, “ Twilight then sighed as she looked down, “But we aren’t going to steal it, just use it for a few minutes to get me home. So I don’t know why the old man wants us-WHAT WAS THAT?” Twilight asked as a flashbang rolled into the library, blinding them. The figures who had been watching them quickly ran into the building and began to attack. All the three of them could do was struggle and try in vain to fight back. Once the blindness wore off, there were only two left in the building, “Brother!!! They took him.”

Twilight shook the last of the blindness off, “They probably took him to that fort they were talking about, though why didn’t they take us?”

“But we don’t have any idea where that fort is!”

“Actually,” Twilight slyly smiled, “In this history book, I found a map of the country and where the emperor lives as well as the fort’s location.”

“Wow, awesome Twilight!”

“I just hope that Ed will be ok when we get there.”

“Don’t worry Twilight, I am more worried for the kidnappers…than him.” They then quickly ran outside to the city and into the countryside.

Somewhere in the prison of the fort, Ed woke up slowly, “Well, this is unfortunate…for them.” As Ed said that, a shadow loomed over his right arm, making it look like he no longer he had his arm anymore.

To be continued...

Author's Note

Thanks to the always great Zoltanthemage for the help

Lets see, notes about this section, the nightmare (Wich I might add, is the goriest I have ever gotten. Heck, I have never actually killed a main character till now.) was just a copy of the first one Rarity had, so I changed it. Second, I was planning on having the guard also attack the sunni and just hate Alchemist for reasons...but that was stupid so I switched it up. Also I had been wanting towrite a song cue in a fanfic for a while so this was fun.

Yes, I love land before time and I love the end song that much

Health

Chapter 12: Health

Ed examined his cell. He listened to the water drip from his stone prison. His stare moved from the wooden front door of his cell, “Could use the leg to kick the door down, but my arms would still be useless if I were to get into a fight,” he then lifted up his arms to see them trapped by a wooden board meant to keep his hands apart. Looking around his cell some more, he took note of the tall stony walls with the slimy moss giving it a sickly green color. Taking a look towards a source of light, Ed could see that the window was at a very high place, “Too high. I guess the front door is the best way for me to get out. Well, time to see how improved this leg is.”

_______________

After Winry had given Ed his new leg, she looked at him, “Alchemists have been working with a new type of metal that is extremely light but very strong and tough. I was able to get some earlier and put it onto the new leg. I am not sure of the durability so don’t be reckless,” Winry said as she pointed a finger at Ed, accompanied by Hohenhiem imitating his mother.
_______________

“Technically its not recklessness…its ingenuity,” Ed smiled to himself as he slipped his leg carefully in between his chest and bindings. Placing his foot to the back of the wooden plank, Ed kicked at it a little and repeated the kick for a few minutes. Kicking the wooden plank again and again until a crack formed onto the bindings; eventually, with time and effort, the board broke. Standing up, Ed pressed himself against the doorway to listen for a guard to pass by. His waiting was rewarded when he heard a guard coming by, “Help me, I am feeling very very sick. I think I may have Iammakingthisup disease.”

The guard opens his eyes in fear and shock, “THE IAMMAKINGTHISUP disease!! That’s one of the more deadly diseases in the country. Hang on, I’ll get you a doctor to help cure it. Just whatever happens, don’t think of blue! It’s been known to kill you faster if you think of blue,” The guard then quickly ran down the hall to get the doctor on duty.

“IT EXISTS!? H…HOW, WHY? Wait…doctor? Oh great another person to knock out,” Ed shrugged as he waited to next to the door and waited for the guard to come back with the doctor in tow. Hiding behind the door, Ed watched it open slowly as the two figures walked in.

“Ok, I have the doctor,” Dumbarse the guard said.

The doctor pushed up his glasses and adjusted his doctoring hat, “Ok patient let me examine you before we can dec…Dumb, is this a trick? The patient is not here!”

“B…But he was, he was right here,” The guard then looked behind the doctor, “Oh wait, he’s right behind you using his funny leg to knock you out,” he laughed as Ed walked up to the doctor and kicked the guy in the head to knock him out, “And now the guy is coming to knock me out…Hey! I don’t think you were sick at all.”

“No, really,” Ed snarked as he punched the guard in the gut and then slammed the head into the knee to knock him out, “Now don’t mind me, I’ll show myself out.”

Stepping out into the long dark hallway, Ed noted that he was at the last cell within the corridor. Using the key that he had procured from the knocked out guard, he began to walk silently down the hall and out of the prison. As he walked, he began to wonder how his brother and student were doing and where they were at the moment. He sighed to himself, he knew that they were talented but he couldn’t help but worry a little about them out there.
_______

A few miles away from the fort, two figured watched and studied the stone fortress, “So you don’t see anything,” A young man with caramel colored hair asked.

Twilight put down the binoculars that she had made with Alchemy, “Nope, nothing that might even resemble another entrance like a vent or something. They have this place sealed up very tightly as far as I can see,” Twilight then turned her head back to the fort, “And those two guards about to sound the alarm and capture us is kind of distracting.”

Al punched one guard in the face while tripping the other and grabbing the man’s head, thrusting it into the ground hard, “ What two guards?”

“Nothing, I was speaking hypothetically.”

“Oh, I see,” Al then clapped his hands and put them to the ground, binding the guards with stone braces, “So what do you think we should do to get in?”

“Personally, I am open for suggestions.”

“Well, my brother always said, ‘If you can’t find an opening, make one!’”

“So the plan is to run recklessly to that fort, use our alchemy to make a door and then run inside? Isn’t that reckless?”

“Yes, big brother has been a horrible influence on me,” Al said as his shoulders drooped down. Standing up, Al raced off into the distance and towards the fort.

A smile came across Twilight’s face as she stood up next and ran off after Al, “I know, I learned from the best too,” she couldn’t help but laugh to herself as she thought of her friends agreeing to this idea as well. As they neared the least defended side of the fort, she clapped her hands to form stone fists that rendered the little defense unconscious and left Al to perform alchemy on the door. As Twilight finished using her alchemy to make sure the guards wouldn’t be moving for a bit she turned to see the door that Al had made. She noted its extravagant trappings and the Xing style art on the front of it.

“Yeah, sorry if it isn’t as cool or unique as brother’s, I personally like to go for the more direct approach with my transmutations,” Al blushed a little.

Twilight blinked,”Um, Its alright?” as she opened the door and walked through with her fellow alchemist.
__________________

Ed walked silently through the halls of the fort, taking his time to avoid the guards that were walking around. As he slinked across silent halls of the fort, a feeling of loss started to come over him. He began to realize that he could be walking around the area for hours before finding the entrance. Deciding to hunt down a map room, Ed looked down two hallways. Looking down the left and right, he saw that the right had two guards, while the left had only one. Taking a chance that the guard on the left might know where a map of the place could be, he walked quickly down the hall and grabbed the guard from behind, pushing him against the wall with his forearm, “Ok buddy, I am feeling inquisitive today. So answer my questions or else you will see how far my foot can go up your butt. Got it,” the guard nodded nervously, “Good. Now where can an escapee, like myself, find the map of this place,” as he watched the guard point down the hall, he smiled in thanks and then knocked the guard out. Continuing to walk down the hall quietly, he came across a room to the side with the door barely open. Leaning in, he began to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“Sir, it’s the former state alchemist. He’s gone. Yes, your highness, I have the guards on the lookout as we speak. No, this will not interfere with Project: Homecoming, you have my word.”

“Project: Homecoming? What’s that,” Ed asked as he watched the head guard continue to talk on the radio.

“What was that last part sir? If I can not contain the alchemist or his two companions, activate the surprise? Yes sir, will do so. Over and out.”

“A surprise huh? I have to remind myself to see what that is,” A smirk came across Ed’s face as he walked down the hall to the door where the map room was located. Opening the door slowly, he found it full of guards busy looking around and talking to themselves, Great, it’s the guard quarters,” Ed growled as the guards turned to Ed, getting up, “WHY WOULDN’T IT BE THE GUARD QUARTERS,” He grabbed one of the grunt’s arms and pulled his body towards Ed’s. With a smile, Ed uppercutted the man on the chin and sidekicked the guard into two of his friends, and then ducked under a fist. Rolling to the side and further into the room, Ed punched a guard hard in the groin area and stood up as he uppercut the man into unconscious. Hearing a man walking up behind him, Ed drove his elbow into the man’s nose and then sweeped kicked the guy off his feet. Two men charged at Ed next, and Ed vaulted himself onto the right goon’s back. With his hands onto the man’s back, Ed drove his metal foot into the other guard’s face and jumped off the back. As he landed, a guard managed to grab Ed under the arms and hold him to his chest. A few of the guards smiled as they walked up to Ed and punched him hard into the stomach and chest. Grunting with pain, Ed lifted his legs up and planted them onto the guard in front of him and kicked hard, allowing him to flip over the guard holding him back. Landing and free of the hold, Ed sweeped the guard and did a jumping roundhouse to the other, “Come on…is that all?

In response, a few more guards walked up right behind Ed, brandishing some clubs. These clubs never saw use, however, as the guards found themselves getting hit hard by a barrage of stone fists and a dragonhead, “Brother, there you are!”

“AL, TWILIGHT,” Ed said with a big smile.

“Ed, you wouldn’t believe the trouble we had getting here. Luckily one of the guards was nice enough to point this room out to us,” Twilight said as she ducked under a guard’s fist and punched him hard in the stomach.

Al ran to his brother’s side, grabbing one guard’s arm and breaking it while kicking the second, “You just couldn’t keep out of trouble for five second’s couldn’t you brother,” he then transmuted a stone staff and used it to sweep and take out a few guards to Ed’s side.

“Had to do something while I waited.”

Twilight smiled at the conversation between the two brothers, a part of her feeling bad about not seeing Ed in his prime and with his alchemy back. Twilight blocked one guard’s kick, and used the momentum to spin his back to her. Spinning around, she delivered a roundhouse to the guy’s back and then did a back kick to the other guard behind her. She smiled to herself as she fought, she had been getting better and better at hand to hand combat since coming to this world it seemed. Of course, she also knew that her best weapon, was her mind and how to apply it to alchemy; therefore, it was fortunate that she could use both well as she transmuted a stone hand that slapped a small group of guards.
_____________

Back in radio room, the head guard could hear the sounds of fighting coming from the men’s quarters, “ I see,” he said as he solemnly got up from his chair and walked down the stairs, “Shame, I liked this fortress. Men, take your rifles and shoot them to hold them back. I will activate the surprise,” he called to the men behind him. Continuing down the stairs, he found himself in a large circular room, “In Amestris, there was a man known as Scar. He specialized in destroying state Alchemist by using a mark on his arm, inherited by his brother,” he walked into the center of the room and knelt down in the center of a drawn on circle that had a collection of symbols drawn across it, “Our lord and master had seen this man in action and had based the surprise on that destructive alchemy. So, former Fullmetal, I hope you enjoy this taste from the past,” he then place his palms onto the ground, a cruel smile on his face as he began the transmutation.
______________

“LOOK OUT,” Twilight yelled as she saw a bunch of guards standing in the doorway with their weapons drawn. Clapping her hands together, she quickly transmuted a large wall in front of the men as they began to fire.

Al soon joined in, helping to reinforce the wall with another of his own, “Good thinking, Twi. I was getting tired.”

“Well, now instead of having to deal with 20 guards, 8 of which were armed. Now we just have to deal with 12 unarmed ones,” Ed remarked, turning to face the last few opponents.

“Oh that’s just perfect. I get the middle,” Twilight then rolled to the four guards in front of her, clapping her hands to form two stone punches that took out two of them. Standing up, she grabbed two guard’s arms and pulled them together. She transmuted their sleeves together into one long sleeve that bounded the two guards together and with a smile she backfisted them both, “Now, I hope you two have learned how to bond.”

“Dibs on the left,” Al confidently stated as he ran to his chosen four and sidekicked one and followed with a roundhouse onto the next. The last two charged Al at once, intent on tackling him. They, however, found themselves stuck to the ground by the stone hands grabbing their feet. They looked at Al in utter fear as he walked up to them with a big grin on his face, “ohhh, what’s the rush,” and then Al proceeded to beat them until unconscious.

“Well, someone has to take the right,” Ed said as the ran to the right, vaulting himself over the guards and picking up the staff that Al had made earlier. Spinning it around his head and putting it to his back, Ed raised his left hand and waved it; beckoning the guards to come to him. The guards obliged as they raced to Ed, and as they did one of them got hit in the chest with the pole while another got hit against the side of the skull. Stepping to the side of one of the guard’s punches, Ed raised his spear up quickly against the guy’s chin and then slammed the pole against the side. Ed then used the pole to vault over the last guard’s body and then slammed the pole against his back, taking the guard to the ground, “and that my friends…is pole dancing.”

As the three regrouped back into the center of the room, they felt the ground began to shake and rumble, “What was that,” Al asked as he watched the stonework began to crumble around him.

“Apparently, the head guard decided to activate his surprise and destroy the fort to kill us,” Ed stated as he began to dodge the stone work. A smirk came across his face as he looked to Twilight, “Twilight, what are the three steps to alchemy,” Al looked to Ed and then widen his eyes in understanding as he clapped his hands.

“Understanding the basis of an object, deconstructing it, and,” Twilight clapped her hands and placed them on the floor along with Al, “reconstructing it,” concentrating alongside Al, the two began to transmute the entire fortress. Bolts of Alchemical energy began to flow through the building as the two alchemists began to fix the damage that the earlier transmutation had caused, restoring it to normal. Looking to each other, Al and Twilight high fived each other at their accomplishment.

With most of the guards taken out, and some incapacitated thanks to the falling debris, the three alchemist walked through the fort without much trouble, “So brother,” Al asked as he walked next to Ed, “Find anything interesting about why they don’t want us to have the stone?”

“All I found out was that they have something planned called Project: Homecoming, which I can only guess that it has something to do with the stone.”

Twilight put her finger to her chin in thought, “Maybe the guy has something dangerous planned with that stone that he doesn’t want us to find out. We did see how the stone could bring people from dimensions after all.”

“What could be so horrible that he doesn’t wan…” Unknown to Al, he activated a small trip wire that layed just in the front of the exit.

“AL,” Screamed Ed as he tackled Al out of the way with his left side as a large stone block fell from the ceiling, “AHHHHHHH!”

“ED,” Twilight screamed as she watched the stone block land on Ed’s extended right arm.

“BROTHER,” Al yelled as he got up from the ground and went to where his brother was, as Twilight transmuted the stone into pumice rock and rolled it off of his arm, “Oh I am so sorry brother.”

Ed winced in pain, then he looked to his right arm and seeing it crushed, bits of bone sticking out of the mangled flesh, causing blood to ooze out. He looked down with remorse “I am sorry Al. I ruined the arm you sacrificed yourself for”

Al put his hand to Ed’s mouth,”Don’t you start! It’s not your fault, Brother, its the no-good son of a Fenris that did this!” He said with anger in his voice.

Twilight looked down at the arm, remembering a time she heard a story from Shining about a similar situation that had happened to a soldier, “Al, we have to amputate the arm.”

Al nodded and went to pick up a sword from a holder and lifted it up, “Twilight, as soon as I cut the arm off, I want you to take some coal and heat it up. Then place it on the stump while I go and get some bandages,” Twilight nodded as she followed Al’s orders. As Al lifted up the sword, he turned his head away as he sliced the blade down on Ed’s arm. Moving quickly, Twilight used her alchemy to heat up the coal and put it onto Ed’s wound, cauterizing it. Al then bandaged up the arm at the stump where he cut it.

Ed panted as he placed his hand onto the shoulder where his right arm used to be, “Guys, I am going to take a break her for a,” Ed grunted in pain, “moment, go on without me and I’ll catch up.”

Al shook his head and he said,through clenched teeth,”No brother, I’m going back, and I’m going to find the-”

Ed shook his head,”No, Al. Yes, it took us years to find peace again. That arm took years to get back, but you know what? That was only a part of our hard work,” Ed points to Al,”You represent our accomplished goals so much more than a stupid arm I can just get replaced on the fly. So don’t lose yourself on some idiot!”

Al sighed as he knelt down,” But,” he let out a deep breath,”I guess you’re right.”

“Good. Because if the roles were reversed, I would go kick his butt anyway!” Ed chuckled

“At least you admit it!” Al smiled.

Twilight looked behind her,”I think we’d better get out of here and set up a camp before those guards wake up. I don’t think you’d be in any position to help fight them off right now, Ed.”

Ed nodded as Al picked him up and walked towards the exit.
_____________________________________________

Rainbow Dash flew across the dark forest, trying her best to catch her bearings. Below her, her four friends were walking along the path that they could only guess to be an old trail. Though they were optimistic about their chances of finding the stone and bringing their friend back home, the sad truth of the matter was they had no idea where to start or where they are, “Ya know, Ah bet the stone is probably in the next town, wherever that is,” Applejack said, looking ahead.

“The only problem is, we might encounter any number of horrible creatures once we get there,” Rarity said, “After all, barely anypony remembers anything about Dream Valley. Most of it is just legend and heresay, while the rest is rarely anything good.”

“Oh, maybe we’ll meet some really friendly ponies down there who’ll give us the stone right away,” Pinkie said, enthusiastically.

Dash rolled her eyes as she flew to ground level with her friends, “ Do you guys really think its going to be that easy?” She then watched as the others shook their heads.

Fluttershy turned her head as she listened to the conversation, catching a small clearing out of the corner of her eye. Walking slowly to the clearing, she found the ground littered with giant mushrooms that looked like houses. Turning behind her, she yelled as loud as she could to catch their attention; typically, they could not hear her. Sighing, she looked up and saw a small bird, “Oh hello,” She said, smiling up at the bird, “would mind getting my friend’s attention for me,” the blue bird nodded with a tweet, “Oh thank you, they are just up the path. I’ll wait here for you to come back.”

The bird flew fast to where the other four walking, pecking Pinkie on the shoulder, “Ow! Oh hey there little bird. What brings you here?”

As the bird began rapid fire tweeting in an attempt to communicate with them, Rarity began to sway her head back and forth, “Girls, where’s Fluttershy?”

“She’s probably back there somewhere, “ Applejack said as she looked to the bird, “And she sent this bird to get us there,” The bird nodded in agreement as she led the quartet to where Fluttershy waited. As Applejack looked at the mushroom village, she began to wonder, “ I wonder if anypony is actually livin’ here,” she looked to the four next to her as they all silently agreed to walk through the village, in hope that somepony was there to lead them to the stone.

When they got closer to the woods, they saw that it was much like Coltonville in its ruination. The mushrooms were broken and crumbled, pieces of the walls began to turn to dust at the slightest wind, and once more there were ponies frozen to the ground in horror. some of them were holding each other in comfort as their life was sucked out of them. The girls did not call out for signs of life as they were certain that there would be nopony who could hear them, “What the buck happened here,” Dash asked as she flew overhead.

An old and wizened began to moan through the mushroom forest, “ The Stoneeeeee, the Stonnnnneeeeeee.”

“OOOOOH, maybe this freaky and weird mushroom with a face that moans a lot had the answer,” Pinkie said as she bounced to the location of the sound. As the girls followed the pink pony, they too soon saw the mushroom. The old face seemed to be fused within the tree, to such a point where one could not tell where the face began and the tree ended. Fluttershy let out a small squeak as she hid behind her friends.

“The stone,” Dash asked as she began to add things in her head, “The Fraternity Stone?”

“What do ya know about the stone,” Applejack asked.

“That accursed thing was the downfall of all that was good in Dream Valley. It will be your ruin if you use it.”

Rarity walked closer to it,” Please darling, tell us what happened.”

The creature closed his eyes as he began to remember, “3000 years ago, an old pony came to our land through a magical portal. We did not know who he was, or why he was there. We only knew we had to help him. He told us all about how he was separated from his brother through an accident with an experiment and how he has been trying to reunite with him. He had then found about our misery as, we too, were separated from a dear friend of ours. Sensing us as kindred spirits, he agreed to assist us in reuniting with our old friend and in return, we could help him go home. For months we helped to gather the ingredients for the spell as he constructed 6 large circles within the grand ballroom of the palace. We gathered dragon scales, black gems, and the ash of a town long since vanished. Once we had finished getting everything that we need for the spell, the unicorn activated it. The results were terrifying,” The old man sighed and trembled as he recalled the rest of his story, “demons had appeared from everywhere draining us of our souls. The wraiths went everywhere within Dream Valley, absorbing the souls of the living, destroying homes, and decimating the crystal desert into a place of death. I myself tried to protect some of them, only to be rewarded with this curse.”

The girls listened to the story, in shock and horror as they remembered what happened to Coltonville, “What happened to the unicorn,” Dash asked.

“When I last saw him, before coming here, he saw a bright light similar to the one that brought him here. He took a long look at it before saying ‘no more running’ and stayed there as the light washed over him. From time to time, I do believe I saw him come a couple of times to this village to beg for my forgiveness. I lost all of mine when I saw the babies die,” The mushroom said, a stern look in his eyes, “Now do you see why the stone will bring you ruin?”

The girls looked at him, and then to each other as they took in the story and all that had happened. Applejack then looked at the old mushroom with a look of determination , “One last question, Where’s the stone?”

“What, but I just told yo-“

“Did she stutter,” Dash stomped up to the mushroom, “She asked where the stone is!”

“But to use it would-”

Fluttershy walked up to the mushroom next, “Please sir, if you don’t tell us, we’ll look for the castle ourselves and we have wasted so much time in getting our friend home. So please tell us.”

“You don’t understand, to use the stone is to in-“

“Darling, look,” Rarity said as she placed a hoof onto the mushroom’s face, “ If you don’t tell us, then we will have to look for it ourselves. And that is terribly inconvenient.”

“You aren’t listening, the stone is-“

“Please tell us pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseI’llneverstopaskingtillyousayyesPlease,” Pinkie said as she bounced up and down.

Dash then flew up in front of Pinkie, “ Look, we heard you story and we have heard a similar one back in Coltonville and Stupidville, and you know what I have been hearing,” she then cocked her eyebrow, “That you guys made a mistake with the stone that caused a major disaster. I am willing to bet that we won’t.”

“Sir, I personally believe that no object is pure evil right off the bat. Maybe you guys made a mistake that one time. It was an experiment, it happens,” Applejack said.

“And even if the stone will always lead to a big apocalyptic event, maybe the library’s got another way. We won’t stop until we bring our friend home!” Pinkie said, a smile on her face.

“ You ponies…you’ll probably go to Tartarus itself if it meant bringing her back. Fine then, Dream castle is a days walk to the north of here. The stone is still inside the building, I can sense its magic,” He then sighed as he watched the five walk away, “Good luck. I hope the the girl realizes just how lucky she is to have such wonderful friends”

The old man was not wrong in how far it was to get to the castle, for a whole day did the five ponies walked. The hearts overflowing with excitement as they began to think of the fact that their dear friend was soon going to come home. As they neared the castle, they heard a voice, “Are you five here for the stone, maybe I could help.”

Dash looked at the old unicorn that sat in front of the castle, “Who are you?”

To be continued...
.

Author's Note

Thanks to Zoltanthemagificent for being a great editor (ps, check out his fanfic)

Notes for the chapter...well, nothing really changed...at all I got all of the bits I wanted like Ed losing his arm, the meeting with the Moochic, the end encounter. All is there.

By the way...I think the fans are going to be ticked that I took Ed's arm again :(

Next time...the return of a hero!

History

Chapter 13: History and Science

The old unicorn widened his eyes as Rainbow asked her question, “Oh, I am sorry. I forget my manners sometimes, I’m sorry,” he began to chuckle a little as he ran his hoof through the balding mane, “ My name is Temporal Rift, but you can call me Temp.”

Running like a living pink lightning bolt, Pinkie Pie got up to Temp’s face and began to shake his hoof, “Please to meet you Temp, my name is Pinkie Pie. That mare over there is Rarity, she’s Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Twi- and Applejack!” Pinkie turned and pointed to each pony, and even pointing to a blank spot where Twilight would’ve been.

The old unicorn shook at Pinkie’s hoofshaking, “Please to meet you all,” he looked over Pinkie’s shoulder, “Is she always this energetic?

Rainbow Dash landed next to Pinkie as others nodded yes in response to the old Unicorn, “Wait, how are you gonna help with the stone? What do you know about it?”

“I should know all about it…I made it,” Temp shrugged a shoulder confidently as the mares in front of him opened their eyes in shock, “ Oh, I am sorry. I should’ve told you before, I am one of the brothers who made the stone, my real name is Issac.”

“ How is that possible, the stone was made centuries ago,” Rarity questioned as she remembered the book.

“Oh, I am sorry. I want to explain it, but I need to explain it in the castle. Come with me,” turning around, he led the girls into the castle. As they walked into the entry hall, Fluttershy noticed his cutie mark.

“Excuse me sir, but your cutie mark-What does it mean,” Fluttershy asked as she looked at the stone hand cutie mark adorning his flank.

“Oh, I am sorry. That’s the Fraternity Stone, it appears that the world runs, not on Alchemy or mana, but on pure 100% irony,” He chuckled a little, “ Let me tell you all about it. I can assume that you five know of the legend of the stone; about two brothers who wanted to see the combined power and skill of alchemy and magic,” He watched as the five mares nodded their heads. Coughing a little harder now, he continued his story, “That’s only half-true. We actually decided to create the stone after a fight. One day, a few millennia ago, we got into a big argument about which was better: his alchemy which could bend rules or my magic which could break the rules. It was a rough and big argument, but what can you do…we’re brothers it happens.”

Applejack, Rarity both nodded in agreement as they walked behind Temp, “Ah know the feeling. Some of the fights me and Big Mac can get into...”

He turned his head to look at Applejack and Rarity, some tears in his eyes, “I hope you two appreciate your siblings for as long as you have them. They will always be precious to you no matter what,” He looked at the girl’s eyes, he sighed then turned his head,”...sorry. It’s just been so long since I seen my brother. After our fight, while I was busy fuming, I had a wonderful thought come to me. What if we combined magic and alchemy? What type of raw power could we have, what beautiful miracles can come from it all. Well, I would have searched for my brother to apologize and tell him my idea, but he found me first. After we apologized and hugged, we discussed the idea,” He coughed a little more as he led them to the castle’s throne room, next to a switch, “ He thought it to be wonderful and we went to work constructing the stone from scratch.”

Rarity watched as Temp used his magic to throw the switch, opening the door, “Why a stone, darling?”

“I made a stone, because I wanted a focal point for my magic, and my brother wanted something to write a circle on after we crafted it. After a few months of hard work and time, the stone was made,” Temp smiled brightly as he remembered the day and how happy his brother was, “And we made arrangements to run our first experiment to see what the spell work.”

Dash flew a little bit low beneath the stairs that they walked down on,“What did you guys think the stone was going to do?”

“We were thinking that the stone would act like a Philosopher’s Stone or even a Mana Stone that would allow us both to break our limits. We were wrong,” Temp frowned, coughing while tears came to his eyes, “Oh, I am sorry. The memories can be harsh. When the spell activated, something happened. A bright white light overtook us both and sent me here. When I woke up, I found my body changed, a little older than I should be, and my brother was gone. I was so afraid that I…” He turned white as he put his head to the wall, “Oh, I am sorry, sorry, sorry, SO DAMN SORRY! Why do they continue to hurt me!”

Fluttershy looked at Temp as he began to weep and flew to him, putting her hoof onto his shoulder, “It was Unicornia, wasn’t it?”

Temp nodded, and turned around, “When I activated the stone and made that first warp, I took half of the population with me. Their screams still sound in my head to this day,” Temp put his hooves to his head, wiping his tears, “I am sorry. Well, the warp sent me back about 25 years or so. Once I had calmed down from the fear and terror of my predictament, I made a decision. I could either stay there and scream for all of eternity, or find a way to fix things. I choose the latter.

“OH! I choose shoots, those are always fun,” Pinkie said as everypony facehoofed.

The brown pony chuckled, “Yes, I enjoy those too. Anyway, in about a few years I had read up on alchemy and had a great grasp on it from all of the books I had read. After all, if it was alchemy and magic that sent me here, then why not the same and after those years had passed, I tried out the theory. I failed, but found myself in Celestial year 850…I can assume you know…what happened next,” He watched as the girls nodded, “Oh Goddesses…why?! Those colts, the filles, and those mares all suffered that horrible fate. They didn’t need to die…not for this,” He wiped the tears away as he walked, his breathing getting a bit shallower, “Oh I’m sorry, again. As the light came over me, it warped me to Dream Valley, and again and again and again as I tried to run from that light and find a way to fix all of this. It was upon one of these warps that I arrived 3000 years in the past, I trust you heard from the mushroom about what happened there? Good,” The soon arrived at a big set of doors with a circle engraved on it. Within the circle read the words ‘Fraternitas aeternus’ in golden letters across it, “After I had willed myself to stay here, I had made another decision. I decided to write down everything that I had ever learned about alchemy in the hope that somepony else would pick up on that ancient art.”

Pinkie Pie leapt up next to Temp, “Wait…Temporal Rift? TR,” She turned to her friends, “Girls, the guy who wrote the book on alchemy that told us about the stone, was an author called TR!”

“Yes,” a smug smile came across his face, “It was me who wrote those books, and, coincidentally, it was those books that taught me all about alchemy. So you can say I taught myself. Of course, this writing was just a pastime for my real mission. To fix the Fraternity Stone, for you see I love my brother too much to ever let him go. I had to see him again, to be with him again, because I knew…he would be the only one to forgive me. He would be the only one in this whole DAMN universe to hold me tight and say that its alright, to help make this hurting stop. It took me several, SEVERAL, years…but I finally figured out what went wrong with the stone,” He then placed a hoof onto the circle and opened the giant stone doors, “And, after the last experiment warped me to here…I was finally able to fix-the Fraternity stone.”

In the room, many circles with runes laid about the area, each one seeming to give power to the pedestal that laid within the center of the room. The pedestal held a magnificent blue stone shaped like a hand, a hand that seemed to grasp for another in brotherhood. At its base, the stone had 3 circles linked by glyphs written in ancient writing. Within the middle circle, was drawn a starburst with five small stars surrounding it.

______________________

In two days time, Ed was finally rested enough for the others to begin the final part of their journey. Al and Twilight breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that he was not suffering any infection; however, they still felt horrible about the loss of Ed’s right arm. Ed shook his head when they asked if he needed help, “Look, I can still use a bo-staff to fight. It will be fine guys, don’t worry.”

The duo sighed, both having to come to terms with Ed’s stubbornness. They walked through the woods leading up to the castle, making sure to stay to the sides in order to avoid any potential guards that might be patrolling the grounds. Walking slowly across the forest ground, Ed began to take the time to find himself a stick to use as both a weapon, and a temporary replacement for his right arm. Within a few short hours, the three found themselves within the looming shadow of the castle. With a single parapet surrounded by many smaller battlements, it seemed more like a spire trying to pierce the heavens and less like a castle. Using her alchemy, Twilight formed a door on the least guarded spot on the grounds.

Carefully, they walked through the interior of the castle. They made sure of their steps, careful as to not alert anyone to their presence and summon a battalion of guards to their spot. This was a fleeting hope as one guard spotted Ed from a distance, “Intruders! KILL them!”

“Damn,” Ed swore under his breath, “Looks like we’re going to fight.”

“Great, there are probably over a hundred guards in this whole place,” Twilight said as she clapped her hands and gave Ed a spear and made a wall of fists to keep the numbers small.

“Yeah,” Al smirked as he clapped his hands to strengthen the glass of the windows to make it harder for snipers to get them, “Stinks for them.”

As the guards chased after the alchemist, Twilight used her alchemy to summon some stone fists to uppercut the men’s jaws to put them out. As she fought, she saw one of the guards aim his spear at Ed, ready to throw. With a look of horror on her face, she ran to the guard in order to stop him from throwing the weapon.

She was too late.

The spear sailed through the air, quickly towards its intended target. Ed was too busy fighting the other guards that had come up through the stairway to notice the incoming weapon. Like a deadly missile, the spear soon reached its target, impaling Ed from behind and popping out of his stomach on the other side. The blood slowly dripped from the end of the spear as it stuck through the former state alchemist, “ED,” Twilight screamed as she saw the spear hit Ed, “No, I won’t allow anymore of my friends to die. I refuse to let it happen,” her thoughts screamed through her mind as she reached Ed, clapping her hands, “Human transmutation is forbidden, it’s a rule…but if its to save my friend, then I’ll do what I have to!” she then slammed her hands against Ed, not hearing Al shouting, and thinking of the spell she used to revive Rarity as Ed was eclipsed by a bright light.
_______________________________________________________

“Well, look who has returned, my favorite guest!” Truth’s voice echoed.

Ed opened his eyes, finding himself in a familiar white room. His eyes looked across the boundless white void, trying to find the source of the voice he knew all too well. Facing forward, he looked to see a featureless white figure standing in front of a large door, “Truth.”

“Awww, you remembered me…how nice,” The white person said as it stood up,”Shame about the arm though...”

“What am I doing here? Didn’t I just die?”

“Not quite, but that little student of yours saw how close you were to death and well…”

“Oh, no. She didn’t.”

A grin came across Truth’s face as he saw Ed’s realization, “Yes, she is quite determined to defy death no matter where it is or who it is, as long as it is someone close to her. I like people like her and you!”

Ed’s eyebrow arched as he looked at Truth, “So what happens now? What are you going to take away from Twilight?”

“Well, let’s see, she already gave up three years of her life to me to get here. I guess I will take away her magic from her for another three.”

“Magic isn’t real truth, its just a childish fantasy thought by people who can’t explain the unexplained.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, ‘Magic doesn’t exist, blah, blah, blah.’ Keep believing that, it’ll save your life. But that’s not important right now. You may have passed, Edward Elric, but she still needs to learn, and I can’t just let her start giving life years away, It’ll be no fun! So I’m giving you, sir, a present,” it points behind Ed.

Ed turned slowly to look behind him, and there was a giant door, “This is…”

“You have your alchemy back, but only for about three years. Oh, and here,”It throws Ed an automail arm,” Another Ed gave this up, They grow up so fast. I think you’ll get great use out of it.”

Ed looks down at the arm, and then back at his alchemy then he turned to Truth, “Truth, you can be one crazy son of a gun some days. Thank you, but I don’t want to ever come back here again.”

“Oh, don’t be like that,” Truth said, frowning, “We have such fun together.”

“Fun for you maybe,” Ed said as he put his automail arm at a newly formed socket. Positioning it at the right hole, he slammed it into the socket with some force. This caused Ed to scream out loud in a bloody scream.
______________

Outside of the void, Twilight and Al were getting swarmed with guards. Every two they took down, four more began to take their place. Valiantly did they try to stem the tide of soldiers, but they began to tire from the overwhelming amount of guards. The guards slowly cornered the two alchemists, only to look up at the ceiling in confusion as above their heads there appeared a giant spout with a head on it that resembled Ed’s head complete with an antenna on top of the head. Their eyes then widened in horror as the spout unleashed a huge torrent of water that washed the guards out. A clap is heard as a row of spike popped out of the ground to block several of the guards from coming in. As the figure walked slowly into the hallway, he noticed the country's red flag next to him. A smile came across his face as he clapped his hands and grabbed the cloth, “Ahhh, just what I need to send the right message,” a flash of alchemical energy is seen as the flag is turned into a light red cloak with an insignia of a serpent around a cross on the back, “THAT THE FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST IS BACK,” Ed declared as he stood dramatically with his cloak. Clapping his hands together, he formed a blade from his automail hand and charged at the guards. Two of them used their swords at Ed, which he just blocked with blade and then cut both men. He then roundhoused one in the gut while jumping up to kick one in the head.

As Ed fought the guards, Twilight and Al were able to get their second wind. Clapping her hands together, she placed them onto the water from the pipe and froze the water into ice. This made the guards slip and fall back down the stairs, rending them unreachable. Al ran to his big brother and jumped over his back to kick two guards in the chest. Al looked at Ed as he stood up, smiled at him, and gave him a big hug. As two guards came up from behind the two brothers, Al and Ed back fisted the guards as they held onto each other, “How?”

Ed let go of his little brother and put his hand onto Al’s shoulder, “ I’ll explain later, but long story short…Truth.” Ed then grabbed Al’s arm, and lifted him up to spin his little brother behind him. Al lifted himself up to run kick four guards before landing onto the ground and performed some alchemy to create a stone catapult that flung some guards into a wall.

Twilight watched the two brothers hug each other and smiled, “There’s always time for a group hug,” She then had to duck under the swing of a guard’s sword before he could cut her. Twilight delivered a punch into the guard’s stomach and then sweeping his leg. Hearing the sounds of guns cocking, she rolled a few feet away and clapped her hands to form a stone shield. Clapping her hands and placing them onto the wall, she launched several bricks at the soldiers, knocking them out. A guard managed to punched Twilight hard into the back, which she retaliated with an elbow to the chest and then uppercutting the man, then she ran towards the two brothers. As she did, she kicked and punched each guard that she came across until she was standing next to her two friends. Al panted a little as he looked to Twilight, sporting some cuts and wounds of his own. Ed smirked towards his brother and student, some cuts and bruises on their bodies, but still ready to fight. 20 guards surrounded the three, snarling and then they looked at the field of beaten, broken, and defeated men before them. They then looked at the three alchemist standing and watched as Ed clapped his hands and formed a bo-staff, which he twirled above his head. Al followed suit, creating a short blade that he sliced at the air in demonstration of how he knew how to use it. Twilight then crafted a small staff of her own and spun it, showing her knowledge. All three had a look in their eyes that showed how they would not lose the fight as long as they were breathing. Their backs to each other as they readied themselves for another fight.

A peculiar smell entered the room as the guards shouted in unison, “SHIT!!!!!!!! FORGET THIS,” and then ran out of the castle screaming.

Watching the guards leave, Twilight turned to Ed and gave him a hug, accompanied by Al, “Ed, I thought…”

“I kind of was, but Truth decided to be nice and send me back,” Ed smiled as he returned the hug.

The three began to walk through the castle, unbothered by anymore guards. There was little to no sound to be heard through the place. It wasn’t long until they reached a room that could only be described as the science lab and beyond that there was a large door with a circle on it. The golden circle had the words, “Brotherhood is eternal” written upon it in golden letters. Ed used his alchemy to break down any locks the door may have had and opened it. As they stepped into the circular room they saw on the pedestal, a red stone hand that was grasping at nothing, as if it was trying to hold another in friendship. Along the stone was three small circles with only one circle having a symbol on it, that of a blue diamond, “The Fraternity Stone!”
`

“I don’t know why you wish to steal my stone, but I will not let you stop Project: Homecoming!” Shouted a voice as a man leapt into view of the three alchemist, brandishing a sword.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note

Zoltantthemagificant is a great editor, that is all

Now, about notes...well, this was one of those thingss I wrote first when I started this story. Ed getting his automail and alchemy back. I wanted to do a scene with him getting everything back and being able to fight. I also hope that I made temp sympathectic enough

Finals

Ch. 14: Finals

The man stared back from the hilt of his blade, his eyes stabbing daggers towards the three alchemists before him, “I will give you this one chance, LEAVE and never come back.”

“Why should we, and who are you,” Ed questioned, ready to block the attack.

The man chuckled as he put his blade away, running his hand through his black hair, “Allow me to introduce myself, I am Emperor Albert, the ruler of Europa and” He straightened up his black outfit, “The owner of the Fraternity Stone.”

Twilight, never one to forget her manners, bowed politely to Albert, “Hello Your Majesty. There is one question I would like to ask, why do you think we are trying to steal your stone? We just need to borrow it.”

“Ohhhhh, I know that you three are trying to steal my stone, ever since the day that I saw you back in port city. Yes, I am the one who made it…surprised?”

“No, not surprised. Twilight figured it out back at the fort, you couldn’t have made it MORE obvious,” Ed snarked, rolling his eyes.

“You did,” Turning his head, “Of course he did you idiot, he’s a genius you saw him when he changed that balloon into a flower wreath. No, that wasn’t this universe, this is where he,” Shaking his head, he looked back at the three alchemist his eyes narrowing, “You may know about that, but what you don’t know is how this stone works, or how it will work when I initiate Project: Homecoming. Y’see, I know that you are going to steal it, because when it activates the portal, It will be naturally pulled to its brother. Much like the opposite poles of the magnetic field,” Again he turns his head, “Though that was just in one world, this might be different. No, can’t think that, we choose this path and I am going to stick to it.”

Al arched an eyebrow at the gentleman before them, “Sir, are you alright?”

“Yes, No…Its not important at this point.”

“Yes it is, you know that some of the time jumps have been warping your mind. You have been losing your clarity day, by day.”

“You see, alchemist, unlike you I know the full effects of the stone and what is going to happen when it activates. The only problem was, how was I going to get those effects to work and use the stone to locate and retrieve my brother.”

“They won’t agree to it, they are too noble. Like you used to be, let them have the stone and maybe they can bring Issac back.”

“Issac,” Twilight asked, looking at the man as he argued with himself, “was that your brother from the story?”

“Yes, he was. When I crafted the stone, alongside my brother, it was meant to combine alchemy and magic to try and create a miracle. Like a Philosopher's Stone or a powerful mana gem. The problem being that when we activated it, it surrounded us with a blinding light. It sent me years into the future and far away from my dear brother.”

“Which was all your fault, you didn’t study magic like he wanted you to. You were too caught up in your own world to listen to your brother and do what was necessary to help complete the experiment. When it was time to perform the experiment, you didn’t complete the magical formula at all, you just made stuff up. You failed to translate the runes he gave you. You FAILED to solve the formula. YOU failed to help make sure that each rune placement was right. Because YOU believed that your science would be the only thing necessary to work . YOUR arrogance is what caused the experiment to fail and that was your mistake. Now you are about to make a bigger one.”

“NO…no, not a mistake,” He sneered at himself, “ An experiment with a 100% chance of success.”

Ed looked at the man, trying to figure out what had happened to him, “Hey, how about the sane personality tell us what happened to youand what Project: Homecoming is?”

“Ahh yes, the project you came up with after the last jump. The crazy one”

“SHUT UP! I am talking to the alchemists, so let me tell the tale and you listen,” He turned to the three, a cheerful grin on his face, “When I had made that first jump, I was confused and frightened. You probably had seen the effects of that when we met in Port City. It was my first jump and I was quite unsure on how I got there or where my brother was. So I activated the stone again to get away from you two, and I do so apologize for summoning whatever it was that came after you. When I made the next jump, I had finally gotten over my confusion and fear, deciding to, instead, think over my situation. I realized that my brother must be alive in another dimension and that the only way to bring him home was through the use of the stone. Well, I tried a few experiments and discovered two things about my half of the stone: 1. It can send me to any time in the world, but it works on a randomization principle. 2, when the stone is used, it will summon somebody from an alternate universe here. The problem being that the stone lacks control and would never summon my brother here. I realized that it lacked something to control it. But what?”

“My idea was to actually try and land in a time when magic was still studied and use it as the control, but you came up with something STUPID and INSANE.”

“It’s only stupid and insane when history takes a long look at it. For right now, people will only have opinions about it. History and my brother will determine the genius of Project: Homecoming.”

Twilight began to scratch her head in a questioning pose, “What is project: Homecoming?”

“Oh, a brilliant experiment. One that came to me during the eclipse 6 years ago.”

“The…eclipse?”

“No, you can’t mean,” Ed said, his mind quickly remembering how six years ago, Father had sacrificed Amestris to gain the powers of a god,“You’re going to sacrifice the entire country for the stone?”

“Equivalent exchange after all,” Albert said with a bit of cruelty in his voice.

Al stepped in front of Ed, “NO IT ISN’T! There is nothing in this world that would be the equivalent for a human life.”

“For my brother, the entire world would be enough for his life. “

Turning his head away again, a look of anger came across his face as he rolled his eyes, “Yeah, that sounds perfectly sane and rational. I’m sure Issac will…”

“ISSAC WILL FORGIVE ME!!! Once he sees how much I sacrificed for him, once he sees all that I will give up…he’ll forgive me and then we can find a new timeline to live forever where I can forget... ,” a few tears rolled down his cheek, “all of my sins. But first, I need to make sure that the stone is mine!” He yelled as he leapt towards Ed, sword drawn. Raising his blade, he sliced down at Ed. Moving quickly, Ed blocked the sword with his automail arm and then back kicked Albert. Rolling to the ground, Albert drew a circle onto the ground and then performed a transmutation. Alchemical energy surged through the ground and into the walls, summoning three large metal axes from the wall behind the three alchemists. Al jumped out of the way while Twilight ducked under hers, getting part of her hair cut in the process. Ed barely jumped out of the way in time, getting his back cut slightly in the process. Grabbing his torn cloak, he pulled it off revealing the black suit underneath and then clapped his hands to perform a transmutation on the axes and turning them into a metal chain that he grabbed and threw at Albert. Albert stepped to the side to avoid the thrown chains, and turned to see Twilight coming at him. Jabbing quickly, he missed her as Twilight ducked under the fist to sweep him off the ground and make him fall to the ground. Rolling back up, he blocked Twilight’s fist and pulled it down, punching her twice in the chest and then throwing her to the side. Twilight stumbled a bit and back kicked him in the stomach, pushing the alchemist back. She then tried to uppercut him, but was blocked and then was punched twice in the stomach and then the face before being kicked by a roundhouse. Clapping her hands together, she summoned a spear that she threw at Albert’s leg cutting into it. Engraged, Albert made a circle and created a stone fist, slamming into Twilight’s gut and sending her flying back.

Al ran up behind Albert and sidekicked him in the back as he was busy with Twilight. Stumbling back from the blow, he turned to kick Al. Al pushed the leg aside, opening himself up to getting punched and hit with Albert’s knee, making Al step backward. Drawing a circle, Albert used alchemy to create metal spikes from the floor to try and impale Al. Moving swiftly, Al jumped back from the spears, only getting cuts on his leg but was soon backed into a corner. The barrage if spears was only stopped by the intervention of Twilight and a few thrown spears of her own. Albert feels the blade points of two of the spears pierce his shoulder and side, making the blood slowly drip from his cuts. Grabbing two of the spears, he transmuted them into two long daggers and threw one at Twilight which she narrowly dodged, getting a small cut on her side. She then opened her eyes wide as she saw a barrage of metal arrows flying at her. Rolling away swiftly, she only managed to get her legs and arms cut by the lying arrows. Transmuting a blade, he ran towards her with his blade raised and ready to slice her.

As Albert thrusted his blade down, it was blocked by Ed’s automail arm, now transmuted into a blade. Blocking the dagger up, Ed made two slashes with his arm, cutting Albert in the chest and shoulder. Taking a few steps back, Albert swiped his blade at Ed, cutting into his left arm with a deep gash. Raising his blade, he swiped at Ed’s right, watching it get parried by Ed’s arm. The two began a dance of blades for a moment, blades colding in a shower of sparks with each hit. With certain blows, the man was able to score hits on the former Fullmetal alchemist, cutting into his stomach and leg. Raising his blade to stike at Ed, the small alchemist blocked and kicked the blade out with his automail leg, leaving him open to a straight kick from Albert. Rolling backwards from the kick, Ed watched as Albert drew a circle and brought out a few spikes aimed at Ed, with he blocked with a metal shield.

Grabbing his blade from the air, Albert leapt at Ed with his dagger, cutting into Al’s back as Al steeped in front of the hit. Al smirked as he turned to face Albert with a dagger of his own and attacked him. Moving swiftly, Albert blocked Al’s dagger and watched as Ed joined in the fray with his blade arm. Grabbing a fallen blade, Albert began to block and parry both blades of the alchemists. With each blow, they seemed evenly matched, with each making their own attack and scoring different wounds on the other. A their three blades collided and held eah other still, Albert realized that he was facing only two alchemists. Turning he saw a giant stone hoof flying straight at him. With a modest yelp he was hit hard by the stone hoof that was transmuted by Twilight, who had a smile on her face as she watched Albert fly into a wall and land with a thump.

As he laid there, blood dripping from his wounds, Albert’s green eyes stared at the three alchemist, who were nursing their wounds, “I could’ve told you this was going to happen. There was no-“
“Shut up,” The alchemist could hear the three alchemist begin to talk.

“What do we do now?”

“Twilight, I am sorry about this.”

“Here we go, you know what she is going to say, right?”

“Shut UP”

“That she knows of a way to use the stone without the lost of life.”

“Shut UP!”

“Looks like the stone requires a sacrifice to use.”

“Actually, it doesn’t,” Twilight said, smiling as she looked around the room, “ I may have only lived here for three weeks, I do recognize the alchemy symbols and more importantly, I know what those magic runes mean. He’s-“

“WRONG! You should’ve studied the runes like your brother wanted you to.”
“SHUT UP SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTPUSHUTUPSHUTUP!!!!!!!!!”

Ed turned to Albert and watched as he brought a blade to his ear, “WAIT, What are you”

Before Ed could stop him, Albert ramed the dagger into his ear hard, “There, that,” He began to watch the world sway around him, “Stopped the voice…oh, I just realized, he was right…I messed up. I am so sorry little brother, your big brother was just too full of himself to…want…to…learn something…”

The Alchemists watched as he died before their eyes, the life leaving him as he slumped to the floor in a pool of blood. Walking over to the dead alchemist, Ed clapped his hands and put a covering of stone over his corpse and then turned to Twilight who was busy looking at the stone, “Twi…”

Twilight raise her hand at Ed, shaking her head slowly, “He’s dead, I know…” She sighed, “ I…I want to mourn for him and feel bad for what he has gone through, but I know I am on a time limit right now. I’ll mourn later.”

Ed looked at her, kind of glad that she has respect for an opponent, wondering if it was her other teacher that taught her that, “So what did you mean, ‘it doesn’t need sacrifices’?”

Twilight turned to Ed and Al, a big smile on her face, “Simply put, I am going home!”

________________________________________

Rarity walked up to the stone pillar that held the fraternity stone, eyes wide at the sheer beauty of it, “It is marvelous darling! Simply marvelous,” She began to walk around the pedestal, taking in every detail, “Tell me, is it sapphire?”

“Yes, it is,” Temp said, a little boastful, “Oh, I am sorry…didn’t mean to sound prideful of it. But yes, for my half I used sapphire as the basis of the stone while my brother used ruby for his half. I wanted to use gemstones because they best can focus mana onto a single point. The,” He coughs again, harder than before and stumbles back a little, laying against the wall, “I am sorry, I need to rest for a moment. Anyway, the runes that line the base of the stone are mine, a type of alchemical formula that I couldn’t solve. My brother was supposed to translate the rest of the equation and solve it for me so we can get it to work. Since the accident, I can only assume that the failure was me because I know my brother would never have let me,” He coughs again, hearing his chest pound, “down. But I made up for my mistake over time, especially when I found out how to work it.”

“One thing I don’t get,” Dash asked, looking at the stone and back to Temp, “How could you not know how the stone worked when you first tested it, you made it.”

“As I said, it was an experiment to see what would happen when alchemy and magic combined. I had discovered some ancient runes that acted as a type of gateway formula. I wanted to use that for my spell and handed my brother some translation notes with the trust that he would be able to translate them and solve the equation.”

Applejack looked at the stone, looking at the glyph that resembled a starburst “So what’s its power source?”

“Ah, that lies... ” He holds his hoof up to his mouth, holding in his cough, “Just a little bit more. I am sorry, that lies the problem. It’s life energy.”

“WHAT,” Exclaimed the girls in unison.

“ Yes, you see- those runes are meant to act as a dimensional travel formula. The problem being, dimensional travel is very hard to do unless you have special equipment or tools. Add in the fact that it can also travel in time and you have a very powerful stone.”

“But why does it need your life energy,” Asked Fluttershy.

“Because, to transport across the void of dimensions you are going to need protection and to create a shield like that to protect you will take a lot of mana. So much so, that it’ll begin to take your life away as a substitute. That’s what the Alchemy is for, the rest of the equation allows the alchemic energy one uses for transmutation as a substitute for the shield spell while also adding for protection and a guide to the dimension and era. It’s why my jumps have been taking my years away, its been draining me. The alchemy also has an extra feature, it acts as a homing function in dimensions, so the owner of the second half of the stone can locate the other. There... ” He coughs again, seeing some blood land on his hoof, “is a catch, the stone needs to be in a similar location as the other otherwise you will just open a hole to that dimension. A stable one, but a hole that needs to be closed quickly.”

“Hey, that’ll be easy,” Dash said, her looks showing not a sign of doubt, “We’ll just use the stone once, I’ll fly in, grab Twilight, and then come back before the portal even closes.”

Rarity put a hoof to her chin as she stared at the stone, “How much life energy?”

“Oh I am sorry, I forgot to tell you,” he coughed lighter now, shuddering with each breath, “all of it.”

“Crazy pony say what now,” Pinkie asked, looking at him in the eyes.

“WHAT THE BUCK DO YOU MEAN ALL OF IT’,” Yelled Dash, her eyes glaring in anger, “ You mean that to use it, one of us has to die? There is no other way?”

“Oh, I am sorry, I was going to tell you of the other way,” He coughed, feeling his breathing becoming shallower, “You can see that it looks like a hand trying to grasp another? Its symbolic, meaning that the stone needs others to wield it and lessen the effects of the stone. With the five of you working together, I figure that you’ll lose…three years of your lives to the stone, each.”

The others look at each other, the thoughts of the cost going through their minds. Three years gone in an instant; however, it was for a good cause and well worth it. Issac smiled as he could see the gears turning in their heads, “Good, then I didn’t waste this last jump. I…I am just sorry that I won’t see my brother again. You would’ve liked him-smart, level headed, trust worthy, he…was the type of man who probably would’ve solved the stone without the loss of life. I bet, he already solved his half the same way I did.”

“Whoa, what do you mean, ‘you won’t see him again’,” Applejack asked.

“I am sorry, but you see, I wasted my last jump to get here and wanted to wait out my days for someponies who would come for the stone and use it properly to save my brother. I had seen you girls in a scrying pool years ago and warped myself here to wait for you,” Pain wracked through Temp’s body as he felt his heart speed up and then slow down to a crawl, “Tell Albert, I am so sorry for messing up. We should’ve looked the glyphs more carefully… I… should’ve read his translations. I know he must have translated them to the letter… oh… god… brother… I am sorry I wont see you when you get… home. Love you,” With that he shuddered slightly a his breathing became slower and slower, until it finally stopped, his eyes slowly closing as his back rested against the wall.

“Ok, this isn’t funny Temp. Get up, we still need you to help us out with this stone,” Dash said, flying to the fallen unicorn and tapping his shoulder.

Pinkie Pie jumped over to the stallion, nudging him with her nose, “Yeah, come on. You need to be here when we get Twilight and your brother here. So then you two can hug each other and we can have a big welcome back party.”

“Its no use,” Fluttershy said solemnly, holding in tears, “He’s dead, he been dying since we came into the castle. I have seen several animals act like he was when they were dying of old age. It…it never gets easier.”

“But it isn’t fair,” Dash exclaimed, “How is he supposed to make up for everything if he’s dead! He needs to be reunited with his brother!”

“It never is fair, sugarcube,” Applejack said, her hat over her eyes, “ the best thing we can do now is to use his gift and bring Twilight and his brother here. Then we can tell his brother all about him that we do know.”

Rainbow Dash nodded, she didn’t like an unhappy ending for anybody. However, she knew that it happens, “So…what are we going to-RARITY WHAT ARE YOU DOING,” A big flash of lightning began to charge from the stone.

to be continued...

Author's Note

Thanks to Zoltanthemagicent for being a great editor

A special fact, I had no plans for Albert to be insane, he was just one note villian. I think this was better.

Graduation

Chapter 15: Graduation

“RARITY, WHAT THE BUCK ARE YOU DOING,” Applejack yelled as the white lightning flowed through the room once Rarity placed her hoof onto the stone.

“You heard him,” Rarity said as the lightning began to strike everywhere within the room, occasionally striking her white body, “It, AHHH, requires a, AH AHHH, sacrifice from a pony,” the white unicorn lets loose some more painful yelps as the lightning hits her body, “and I have been running on borrowed time anyway, right? A sacrifice for a sacrifice, that should be enough shouldn’t it? Tell,” a few more lightning bolts erupt from the stone to hit the walls and the stone, “Sweetie Bell, that I am sorry that I broke my word. That…I won’t be able to make that dress with her like I promised or see her get her cutie mark.”

As Rarity began to feel the effects of the stone effect her, slowly draining her life away, she began to feel something else-the pain lessening. Turning her head to the side, she saw a cyan hoof touching the stone next to her, “R…Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?”

A pained expression came over Dash’s face as she could feel the stone began to affect her, blue lightning erupting from the stone, “What’s it look like? I’m standing with you and stopping you from doing something stupid! We…We came into this place together and I’ll be DAMNED if we aren’t all going to leave together.”

“B…But DASH!”

An orange hoof is placed next to Rainbow Dash’s, letting forth several orange lightning bolts from the stone, “Look sugarcube, there is gonna be a mighty disappointed filly back in Ponyville that’ll be heartbroken to see you not coming home. I sure as heck ain’t gonna be the pony that’ll break her heart and you aren’t going to break your promise to her. You are also going to make all that work Twilight did to save you worthless!”

“Applejack, I.”

A yellow hoof lightly touches the stone on the other side of Rarity, making yellow lightning join the other bolts that had been surging forth from the stone, “ I don’t think Twilight would feel right, knowing that you had to sacrifice your life in order to bring her home. She would want all of us to be alive.”

“But, its three whole years off of your life!”

“So?” Pinkie Pie said, skipping up to the stone and placing her hoof onto the stone alongside Fluttershy, bringing forth crackling pink lightning from the stone, “We’ll just put three extra years into each one that we’re alive for to make up for it,” she then turned to her friends, her smile never fading as two marks appeared on the blank circles on the stone: a blue balloon and a yellow butterfly, “Besides, living three less years is better than an entire lifetime without you guys around to enjoy it.”

Though each pony was in pain, and they could feel the lightning taking their life away, they smiled and nodded in agreement. Rarity looked at each one of her friends, tears coming to her eyes as she realized that they were right, they would always give their lives for one another, “ You guys,” she wiped the tears from her face, “Are the best friends anypony could ask for. Alright, LETS BRING TWILIGHT HOME,” turning to the stone, she pushed her hoof onto the stone just a little bit more as the others followed suit. The energy continued to flow through the stone, multicolored streaks of lightning surging from the stone as it struck everything that was within the room. Every time that a bolt would strike the walls or pillars it would cause them to crack, every time that it struck one of the mares it would cause them to get more and more determined to hold onto the stone and make sure it worked. Slowly, from within the stone, a bright light began to shine from within and soon enveloped the room and everypony within.
________________________________________

Ed watched as Twilight began to walk around the stone, clapping her hands and fixing the circles, “What do you mean, ‘you can do this without a sacrifice?”

“Well, I may know only a bit about of alchemy from the short time I have spent here, but I do know a lot more about magic,” Twilight then smirked as she walked up to the stone, clapping her hands once more, “ See, I took the time to study these runes and I saw that it was an equation, one that uses alchemic energy as an alternate source of power to supplant the mana when its drained and helping to keep the user from suffering from mana burnout. At the same time, the magic part of the equation helps to keep the alchemy steady throughout the spell. Like two brothers supporting each other through the tough times.”

Shaking his head, Ed looked up at Twilight, “ Twilight, magic isn’t real, and even if it wasn’t, I heard that Truth took…”

“I figured it out, Ed. So technically, I would just alchemical energy to use…technically. But, I just remembered something important from my studies. A loophole that Truth may have forgotten; transmutation is just another school of magic. If he really took away all of my magic, then I would never have been able to use alchemy in the first place. So,” Twilight then placed her hands onto the stone, causing bright violet lightning to flow through the stone, “ I still have access to my mana pools and should be able to use both alchemy and magic at the same time and make this stone work!”

“But what if you fail?” Al asked, worriedly.

“Then, I’ll use up more of my life or die trying. Either way, the portal between worlds will close and everybody will be safe. I won’t fail,” Twilight grunted with pain as she felt the lightning strike her again and again, “Guys, thank you for everything. No matter what happens next, I’ll never forget you,” a smile comes across her face as she tightens up her grip on the stone. Then, she could hear the sound of clapping hands and alchemical reactions occurring, “What?”

“Look, I may not believe in all of this magic and fantasy, but I do know how to make sure that the alchemical reaction stays stable,” Ed said as he held his hands firmly onto the ground.

“Just considered this our little way to make sure that you get home safely,” Al said, a smile on his face.

“You guys... thank you,” Her eyes narrowing to the stone, she kept her focus on activating the stone. As the stone began to flow with purple energy, a red lightning bolt appeared in one of the empty circles next to the blue diamond while an orange apple appeared in the other circle, “And goodbye,” as she said these words, the room was covered in a blinding light.
________________________

Twilight opened her eyes slowly to find herself back in the white void, her arm outstretched in front of her. As she looked at the tips of her fingers, she noticed that at the end of each one was a different colored hoof; orange, blue, white, yellow, and pink. Looking up from her fingers, she saw that each hoof was connected to each of her friends who were silently saying the words, “Come back home.” Softly, she closed her eyes and smiled.

When she opened her eyes once more, she found herself in another empty void with the only visible objects being a large stone door and a white unicorn with no visible characteristics, “Welcome back, Twilight. I would have made tea, but I wasn’t expecting you back so soon.”

“Hello, Truth,” Twilight said, a bit of venom from her voice.

“Ooooh, testy aren’t we? And here I was about to congratulate you for making it this far.”

Twilight frowned,” I have to make a sacrifice, don’t I?”

Truth shook its head,” Now what will that do? You’ve already passed!”

Twilight raised a confused eyebrow.

“Yes, I wanted you to be there for a little while longer, but due to certain interventions, you’ve already figured out the secret of alchemy and magic.”

Twilight blinked,” Alchemy and magic are connected! Sure, they seem to abide by different laws, but they both can’t exist without something to give them substance! Magic needs something scientific like nature to tap into, while Alchemy needs a bit of magic, as much as Ed would like to deny it, to transmute matter! Alchemy needs Magic, Magic needs Alchemy; you sent me there to learn that!”

“That’s right, Twilight Sparkle!” Truth grinned,” You won the Grand Prize: A trip back home! Your friends are waiting.” it stomped its hoof and the door opened.

Twilight turned around and began to walk through the door, feeling her body change slowly. She began to get onto all fours as her arms changed into hooves and a tail began to appear out of her rump, “ Just one last question Truth,” Twilight asked, feeling her ‘additions’ disappear, “ If I hadn’t sacrificed those three years for her, how long would I have lived?”

“Oh, you would’ve died at the very young age of 100, now you will die at 97 as the first of your friends to die.”

“I see,” Twilight smiled as she felt her suit now change to a light violet fur, and a horn slowly popping out of her head,” You know what Truth, Ed’s right. You can be such a jerk some days, and I hope to never come here again,” She finished, turning her head back and walking through the gate, now a small unicorn pony.

“We’ll see, my little pony, we’ll see,” Truth then waved a hoof farewell, “tata Twily, tata!”

Ed and Al watched as the alchemist disappeared in a blinding flash of light. Walking up to the pedestal, they found in her place a sapphire and ruby stone sitting on top of the pedestal. The stone was in the shape of two hands, grasping each other in brotherhood and friendship while along its base were a series of runes linking six circles, each with a symbol inscribed within: A purple starburst, a red lightning bolt, a yellow butterfly, a blue diamond, an orange apple, and a green balloon. Walking up to the stone, Ed picked it up and looked it over, “Do you think she was telling the truth, brother” Al asked as he looked at the stone with Ed, watching it shine, “That she was an unicorn and was from a dimension with all of those magical creatures?”

“I don’t know Al, the scientist in me is saying no and that all this stone did was teleport her back home. The other part, the one that remembers that weird creature back in port city, is saying yes. The better question is, Al,” Ed looked at the stone in his hand, smirking, “What are we going to do with this?”

Twilight opened her eyes slowly, looking about the rubble and the ruined castle that she was now in. Looking head of her, just a few feet away, were five mares who were also slowly getting up themselves. After they shook themselves off from the power of the spell they looked at Twilight as she got up and shouted, “TWILIGHT!!!”

Looking at the five friends, her smile brightened as she recognized each one before her. Then her eyes caught sight of a white unicorn with a dark purple mane standing before her, tearfully smiling, “Oh, my goddess,” Twilight said, her hoof to her mouth, “RARITY, YOU’RE ALIVE,” running quickly she tackled the young mare to the ground, hugging her close, “Oh thank Celestia it worked it really worked.” Twilight said through tears of joy, not even bothering to stop.

“Oh Twilight, I am so-” Rarity was about to apologize when Twilight stopped her with a hoof.

“I would do it again in a heartbeat, for any one of you,” Twilight said, smiling as the rest came together.

“Next time you do something like this, warn us first. Then we could be with you when you go,” Dash said, joining in the hug.

“We all missed ya, sugarcube,” Applejack said as she hugged Twilight.

“Oh, Twilight, welcome home,” Fluttershy said, draping her hooves with everypony else.

“PONY HUG PILE,” Pinkie Pie leaped into the group of hugging ponies, giving her own hug with them.

Twilight had so much she wanted to say about her adventure, the things she did, but for right at that moment, she just wanted to bathe in the warmth of friends and the safety of home.

To be concluded in epilogue...

Author's Note

Thanks to Zoltanthemage for the edits and changing of certain scenes.

This chapter went through some interesting edits. First, I was going to have them fight a G1 villian and then have the Elric brothers pop up to help with Celestia and Shinign popping up at the end when everything is over. Then is was just a fight with a G1 villian with the Elric brothers popping in to help. (This is why Rainbow Dash mentioned Applejack had the Elements with her in ch.7. it was foreshadowing) then I began to think if the fight was really necessary at this point. So after thinking about it, I had decided that it wasnt, that the emoition of Twilight coming home was good with out the end fight. I guess thats just another hint I have grown.

Homecoming

Epilogue: homecoming

Dear Princess Celestia,

I want to tell you about the grand adventure that I went on over the past three weeks. It all started when I used a dangerous spell to save my dear friend, Rarity.

Rarity, Sweetie belle still hugging her tightly and not wanting to let go, walked over to her boutique and sighed. Her eyes looked over the charred remains of her business and began to think of how to fix it or where she could get the money for it. Twilight walked up next to Rarity and looked at the burnt remains and clapped her hooves together. She shook her head sadly as she realized that she couldn’t do alchemy without a circle any more. Turning her head, she smiled at Rarity and used her magic to bring up a clipboard with a diagram. Behind her was Applejack and Rainbow dash carrying boards and nails as they smirked towards Rarity. Rarity mouthed out the words thank you to the mares as she went in to help them fix the boutique.

After I had used the spell, I found myself lost and unable to use my magic anymore; however, I discovered another type of magic I could use: Alchemy. Also while there I had discovered a teacher to help teach me everything I needed to know to use it, The Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric.

Ed lifted up his automail arm and looked at his family and smiled warmly at them. He looked down at his arm and read the inscriptions that were cut into the metal, “T.E., W.E. H.E, never forget” with a heart on it. Then next to the three names, was a starburst symbol inscribed in it.”

He and the things I experienced there helped me to learn another valuable lesson about friendship. That even if you are worlds apart, separated by age or time, somethings never change.

Ed sat with Trisha, looking at the sunset as she laid in his lap fast asleep and snoring softly, “Three years huh,” Ed ran his automail hand along her light yellow hair, looking at the starburst insignia, “Hey, Trisha, how about I teach you all about alchemy tomorrow?”

That the bonds that you formed through life, be they friends, family, or brotherhood, will never fade away. You will always keep them inside you forever, because bonds like that…

A young blond woman walked through the streets of Central city, grumbling to herself, “‘Go to central Tara, make some friends Tara, go out some more Tara.’ Why do you jump off a bridge, BBBFF,” She continued to grumble, her head down in a book as she walked and bumped into five young women, “OH, I am so sorry.”

“Oh, its perfectly ok, lady, it could have happened to anyone,” Said the young woman with pink hair.

“My name is Tara Strong, please to meet you all,” she said, shaking their hands.

“Please to meet you too, the name is Diane Smiles, but everybody here calls me Pinkie, because of my bubbly personality.

The girl with rainbow dyed hair pointed a thumb to herself, “The name is Ashleigh, one of the fastest runners in Central.”

“Howdy partner, the name is Abigail,” the young southerner in an orange shirt and brown hat came and shook Tara’s hand.

“I…am, Andrea,” Said the soft spoken girl, sweetly backing up.

“And my name is Tabitha, darling,” Said the young woman wearing all white, “We were all going out for some drinks…Want to come?”

Tara looked down, “I uh, don’t know. I have some books to read.”

“Darling, I insist. Come with us,” Tabitha said as she grabbed Tara’s arm and pulled her along.

“You know girls,” Said Pinkie as she put her arms over the shoulders of the others, smiling at Tara, “ this…could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Bonds like brotherhood and friendship, are eternal.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

As Spike sent the letter to the princess, he soon got one back, “You are cordially invited to the wedding of…Oh my gosh, I got to tell Twilight,” Said Spike as he ran to the Picnic that the girls were having.

In said picnic, Applejack finished the last of her apple juice, “Wow Twilight, that is a great story. Do you think that we’ll ever meet those two?”

“Its possible, I did meet their versions of you after all,” Twilight said.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Dash said, flying over head, “you mean to tell me that, somewhere, out there, two brothers who have just lost their mom are about to do something very dangerous to bring her back.” In response, Twilight nodded.

Elsewhere, in a country far from equestria, two young colts stood in front of a circle, “Ready to do this, Al?” Asked the elder colt, his blond hair shining by the candlelight.

“Yes, brother,” Said the younger brother as he put his hooves to the circle alongside his brother and activating the transmutation. As the alchemical energy flowed through the room, the young colt looked scared, “Brother…something’s wrong.”

“NO! AL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Credits:
Edward Elric- Vic Mignogna
Alphonse Elric- Aaron Dismuke
Winry Rockbell- Caitlin Glass
Roy Mustang- Travis Willingham
Riza Hawkeye- Colleen Clinkenbeard
Kimblee- Eric Vale
Temporal Rift/Issac Lovecraft- Tom Baker
Albert Lovecraft- Colin baker
Twilight Sparkle/Tara Strong- Tara Strong
Pinkie Pie/Diane Smiles/Fluttershy/Andrea Libman- Andrea Libman
Rainbow Dash/ Applejack/ Abigail Jackline/Ashleigh Ball- Ashleigh Ball
Shining Armor- Andrew Francis
Celestia- Nicole Oliver

Ed walked back home, a smile on his face as he opened the door, “Winry you should have been at that party, it was terrific,” he looked at Winry’s face, “What’s wrong?”

“There’s this weird man who wants to talk to you, says its important.”

Suddenly, a man with a mop top hair and a raggedy suit stepped in and shook Ed’s hand, “Ah, hello Ed. Please to meet you, I am the Doctor and I am here to talk to you because of something very important.”

“What’s that?”

A smirk came across the raggedy Doctor’s face...

…The Doctor-Matt Smith

The End

Author's Note

Thanks to Zoltanthemage for being a great proofreader and a terriffic LBBFF

Thank you to Fimfiction for getting this old writer back into the game and back into doing something that has been dear to him

Thank you to every upvote that has been made and down vote.

Thank you to the first reviewer I ever had.

Thank you to my first proofreader, thank you to all of the readers. Thank you to the commentors

And who am I forgetting...oh yeah.

Thank you for reading, it helped me come back. See you later

(ORginally there was no end letter and the doctor had a line about ponies before Derpy showed up. oh and Ed didnt have that moment with his daughter.)

FIE Omake bonus: Alternate endings

Twilight opened her eyes, allowing herself to get used to her surroundings. Shaking her head she stepped out from the darkened hallway that she was in and tried to figure out where she was in Equestria. The first thing she realized that she was on a boat, and second that there was a small yellow pegasus with a pink hat. The little pony turned to the small unicorn and a big smile came across his face, “Hey, captain, Twilight’s awake!”

“Oh, that’s wonderful Flutters,” Said a high pitched female voice as she swung down from an orange grove, “Twilight, I’m so glad you are all right,” said the pink pony, adjusting her straw hat.

Twilight looked up at the pink pony with the strawhat with wide eyes. She then looked around the ship to see her other friends doing chores and walking around the boat, “Oh, no...I went too far ahead! I’m in another world...and the worst part is, I haven't gotten past Skypeia yet!!!!!!!”

Twilight opened her eyes to the sounds of voices, “Do you think she is ok?”

“I don't know, I have never seen a dog this sick before.”

“Well, she’s still breathing, so she must all right.”

Twilight soon opened her eyes fully to see that she was in what appeared to be a pet shop. Before her were a collection of small animals, “Wha...where am I and what do they mean by dog,” Twilight lifted up her hooves to see that they were small purple paws. Turning to the nearest mirror, she looked at the reflective surface and found herself, “I’M A DOG!!!!!!!!” and then fainted.

Twilight opened her eyes to find herself in a chariot being pulled by little kittens with wings. Next to her was a little rubber mouse with green scales, “huh?”

“And one other piece of advice Twilight, make some friends!”

“Oh no! Now I am going have to wait a year before the events can happen again so I can try again!!! Oh well, cue the music.”

My little kitten, My little kitten
Ahhhhhhh
I use to wonder what being playful could mean
‘til you all shared its magic with me
catching mice
Sleeping on the couch,
Drinking milk
playful fighting,
purring softly
and magic makes it all complete
my little kitten
do you know that you are my very best friends
mew!

“Hey, TS. Are you alright,” asked a blonde haired, young earth pony.

Twilight opened her eyes and looked at him, “Huh, yeah, I’m fine Ron I was just...” Twilight then realized that she had no idea who this guy was or where she was. Just when she was about to ask questions, she heard a strange beeping noise, “Twi here.”

“Twilight, just got a hit on the site...” said a black unicorn from behind a computer screen.

“I have no idea what I am doing...but I think I can manage”

“Huh, where am I?” Twilight a small purple unicorn with an adorable body said.

“Dont know who you are little lady but I can help you.” Said a bland character emotionlessly.

“Uh, thanks?” the purple blur said. “But do you think you could speak less robotically.”

“What do you mean?” Said the incinvable in universe character.

“Like that!” The girl said.

“Perhaps you would like to stay and work on your shopping while I go and fight.” said the blue man.

“Shopping, but I don't need to shop.” Twilight said, “And can we fix the grammer here?”

“Nonsense, all girls love shopping no matter the character or personality.” Said the moron.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Twilight screamed.

Twilight looked around her surroundings and discovered that she was now small and could fit onto a desk. Trying her best to move her head, she also discovered that she was a little plush toy on a computer desk. Looking on the screen, she read, “Friendship is Eternal? Wait... ”

“Hey kid, wake up. Its time to get the review up,” said a black coated stallion with a small hat and a cigarette in his hoof.

“Review? What review,” Twilight, now in a small trench coat and a fedora on her head, said as she walked to a small green futon.

“DUUUUUUUUUUUUDE! That was a really gnarly fall you took. You sure you are ok man?” Said a stallion with a backwards baseball cap as he adjusted his sunglasses.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Said Twilight as she sat on the futon and looked to a small camera, “Pollo, start up the feed,” A small blue robot nodded and pressed a button, turning the camera on, “ Hello, and welcome to Atop the Fourth Wall where bad comics burn. Today we are going to look at the old My little Pony comics that came out in the 80s... ”

“Thats it, I have had enough of all of these alternate realities. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR...FOR THIS MADNESS. WHO ARE YOU, HMMMM!?” Twilight yelled as a door was drawn in front of her and closed.

A blue mare with a magicians hat smiled evily, “hehehe, ain’t I a stinker?” she said as she sat in front of the laptop and continued to type.

Author's Note

Zoltanthemage edited this, I think he's gone mad.

The next three chapters are just fun shorts in the style of the omakes from the end of the FMA Magna.

Oh and the one with the horrible editing, spelling, and characters? That was how I used to write.

FIE Omake bonus: the other cameos

A man with a goatee runs through a studio with a sign on the front door that says, “Friendship is Eternal: casting call for cameos.” He runs quickly through the hallways and down a few stairs until he reaches a long line, and picks up a number, “Hey, is this the line for the cameos in this fic?”

A tall blond woman looks to the man, “Yes it is. I assume you got here too late to beat the crowd as well Hughes,” the woman, Olivia Armstrong said.

“Well, I would have been here sooner, but I had to put little Alysia to bed. Ohhh, she was so cute holding her little teddy bear that I had to kiss her goodnight twice.”

“Good luck getting in,” Said a tall tan man, a scar across his face, “I heard they let Trisha and Hohenhiem and two filler characters in before me and I WAS A MAIN CHARACTER,” His scream went unheard as a wall eyed pegasus flew past him and up to Huges.

“You think that your daughter is cute,” Derpy challenged, “ Take a look at mine. Here she is taking her bubble bath. And here she is tackling a big ol teddy bear that is twice the size she is, and here she is playing magic with Twilight.”

Olivia looked down on the pegasus, “What are you doing here? Don't you have a cameo already?”

“Well, as a human yeah, but not as a pony. Now anyway, here are some more pictures of Dinky when she was just a baby.”

A woman with braided black hair stood next to a tall bearded man and sighed, “You train the two stars in everything they know, and then they don't even invite you to star in the fic. How did the Tringhams rank above us, hun?” Asked Izumi, feeling defeated.

A woman with a white domino mask and a black cat suit looked at the older woman, “Dont worry, he isn’t accepting all filler characters, I haven't made one appearance in the entire fic yet.”

At that point, a tall man with waist length hair walked out of the door, holding his long katana, “number 46.”:

The people in the line looked ahead to the blue mare with a purple magicians hat jumping out of the chair, pumping her hooves in the air, “AT LEAST, NOW THE GRRRRRRREAT AND POWERFUL TRRRRRRRRRRRIXIE’S TIME HAS COME! See you later, peasants. HHAHAHHAHAHAHAH,” With that she ran into the room.

Author's Note

I apologize to the awesome Zoltanthemage for editing this weirdness.

If you have a fave FMA character that did not get shown in this fic...they probably are still waiting in line.

And yes, Sephiroth is my personal secertary.

FIE Omake bonus chapter: Trixie?

As the train moved forward on its way through the hilly plains of Amestris, towards the small city of Risembool, Twilight walked into the front passenger car while Ed got the private one ready, “I can’t wait to meet Ed’s family and I hope that they can fix,” before she could finish she bumped into a woman wearing a long light purple cloak, “Oh I am sorry for that...TRIXIE,” she said getting up as her eyes widened in surprise, “No, it can’t be her. Its just this reality’s version of Trixie.”

“Wait, how do you know-” The woman looked under her hat and was able to recognize the purple mane and cutie mark on her pants, “Wait...Twilight Sparkle? How in Equestria did you get here?”

“How did I get here? What about you? The Trixie I know wouldn’t have been able to get here the way I did.”

“Are you saying that I lack the power to transverse dimensions?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, you usually are just an illusionist and normally aren’t that social.”

“Well,” Trixie sighed, “I can agree to that sometimes.”

Twilight looked at Trixie, hearing the sigh, “Wait...I think I may know what’s going on here. Element of Kindness,”

“DERPY”

“Fluttershy”

Trixie arched an eyebrow, “Honesty”

“Applejack”

“Raindrops”

Twilight nodded slowly, “Loyalty”

“Lyra”

“Rainbow Dash”

Trixie opened her eyes as she began to realize, “Laughter”

“Pinkie Pie”

“Cheerilee”

Twilight took a step back in shock, “Cheerilee, really? How did that... ? no, never mind-Generosity.”

“Carrot Top”

“Rarity”

“Ok, now you are kidding me,” Trixie said looking at her unbelieved, “Ok, last one. Magic.”

“ME!!!!”

“Ok, I think I get what is going on here,” Twilight said.

“Yes, you are from an universe parallel mine where you became Luna’s student instead,” Trixie said, sitting down with Twilight, getting something to drink from her pocket.

“Actually, I am Celestia’s,” Twilight said, “Did Luna not turn evil in yours?”

“Actually, it was Celestia.”

“WHAT,” Twilight exclaimed, the memory of the evil Celestia still in her mind, “ This story I need to hear.”

“Well, you see...” Before Trixie could finish, however, a blonde hair man with his hair over one eye walked into the car.

“Trixie, you better get ready, after we hit Risembool we’ll hit Xenotime so we can pick up Fletcher,” the young man looked at Twilight sitting next to Trixie, “Oh and who is your friend?”

“Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight said, looking up at the man, “And you are?”

“Edward Elric, the fullmetal alchemist and her teacher.”

Twilight arched an eyebrow, “ No you are not. I am training with the Fullmetal Alchemist, and you are not him.”

“Well, of course...” The fake alchemist was then interrupted by a yell.

“Oh you are not, Russell Tringham!” Ed said, walking up to the taller man, “Still trying to get by on stealing my name?”

“Only because you aren’t using it anymore, metalless pipsqueak,” Russell said, a smirk on his face.

“METALESS PIPSQUEAK??? Ok, Tringham, you and me outside now!”

“That’s where my ring is,” Russell said, a smirk on his face as he and Ed walked out the door.

“Any idea what that was about?” Twilight asked.

“Nope, and really don't care,” Trixie poured some bourbon, “ So, anyway as I was saying, see in my world, it was Derpy that I sacrificed my life for and wound up here. I had to stop Dinky from doing something stupid.”

“It was Spike for me,” Twilight said. taking a drink of some soda.

“Spike?” Trixie questioned as the two began a long conversation that lasted all the way to Risembool.

(C) Lunaverse Trixie belonging to the awesome RainbowDoubleDash and his team, this is only a small cameo from them
Feel free to discover more of their great work and universe here to see what I was writing about

http://www.fimfiction.net/group/760/the-lunaverse

Author's Note

Zoltanthemage helped to edit this chapter, and is the best for it.

This was hard, not because the characters, but I havent written for L!Trixie at t all and she is so different from the way I write her.
OH welll, hope the people of the lunvaverse enjoy this small cameo

Welcome home

Friendship is Magic: Friendship is Eternal

“Alchemy is the science of understanding a substance, deconstructing it, and then reconstructing it into a new form.

Since it is a science, it still follows certain basic laws and to break these laws is considered taboo.

One such taboo is human transmutation, for there is no equivalent exchange for a soul…”

The Story of the Fullmetal Alchemist, by W. Elric

As a white unicorn slept in the upstairs of her boutique, a little filly began to walk around the kitchen with a purple dragon following close behind her, “This is going to be the best anniversary ever!” Sweetie Belle said, a big smile on her face. “Rarity is going to flip when she sees this cake we are baking her!”

“But, isn’t Pinkie already making a cake for Carousel Boutique’s five year anniversary?” Spike asked as he put the last bit of frosting onto the cake.

“Yeah, but I want to make something special for Rarity that I made.” Sweetie Belle said as she looked at the way the cake looked, “Ok, now ready Spike?”

“Ready!” Spike said, eager to make something really special for his mare. Taking a long, slow deep breath, Spike released a blaze of fire to not only bake the cake, but to set it on fire.

“Voila! Flambé.” Sweetie Belle said as she marveled at the one piece of cooking she never messed up, “Now, let’s get this to Rarity!” she said as she walked behind the cart and began to push it with Spike. They did not noticed a small bit of water that had dripped when they were making the cake as Spike accidentally stepped on it and slipped, causing the cake to fly off and land on some of the dresses in the next room. Panicking, they began to run around the room in an attempt to find something to put out the fire as it slowly increased in size. It began to use the dresses and curtains in the building as fuel to feed its need to destroy and burn.

Upstairs, Rarity was awoken by the smell of smoke, “Oh great, what has my little sister burnt now?” getting out of the bed, she went down the stairs to try and salvage whatever food was left; however, the sight that befell her upon getting downstairs left her in shock, “OH my WORD!!!!”

“Rarity,” Sweetie Belle coughed, “Help!” She screamed as she stood in a circle of fire as Spike stood next to her, trying to protect her from the flames.

“HANG ON! I’M COMING!” Rarity yelled as she leapt over the flames and into the circle of fire. Darting her eyes around the flaming house, she tried to look for a way out. The front door being blocked by a wall of fire, preventing her from escaping that way, making a quick turn she saw the back window was available, “Come on!”

While this was going on, somewhere was a certain rainbow maned pegasus sleeping on a cloud. Her restful sleep, however, was broken thanks to an odd smell, “Uggggh, what is that smell? It smells like smoke, from a…FIRE!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she saw the Boutique on fire. Not wanting to waste a single second, she flew off to her friend’s burning home. Below her, running along with some fire ponies was an orange earth pony followed by a yellow Pegasus and a pink earth pony.

“What in tarnation happened?” Applejack asked, running as fast as she could.

“I don’t know! I just woke up to see Rarity’s house on fire.” Dash yelled as she flew head first into the window of the Boutique, determined to find her friend, “Rarity?! Where are you?”

“In (coughs) here,” Rarity tried her best to yell through the smoke.

Looking down, Rainbow Dash saw the young unicorn running about with her sister as they tried to get out, “Hang on!” Dash yelled as she prepared a leap; however, a large cracking noise could be heard overhead.

“Oh, no!” Rarity yelled as she used her magic to pick up Sweetie Bell and Spike and threw them at Dash as a wooden beam from the ceiling fell on top of Rarity, crushing her back and burning her.

“Hang on, I’ll get you.” Dash yelled as she caught Sweetie Bell and Spike in mid-air, looking to the trapped unicorn.

“No, g…get them out,…I’ll…be f-fine.” Rarity gasped as she could feel the flames burning her flesh, barely able to breathe.

Dash turned her head down, growling at her uselessness as she flew the two young creatures away. Landing with a roll she looked up at Applejack.

“Rainbow, where’s Rarity and are they all right?” Applejack asked as she looked at Spike and Sweetie.

“They’re, “Dash coughs a little and stands up, “fine, but Rarity’s still in there. I got to go back.”

“No, you stay here and get them to safety. I’ll go and get her.” Applejack said as she prepared to leap back into the building, only to watch it fall to pieces in a burning blaze of fire.

“No, Rarity...” Sweetie Belle said, watching the flames burn.

A few hours, a few hours was the length of time that the girls had been spending trying to shift through the rubble of what was once a home. Those hours had been spent hoping, praying, and in thought about their close friend. For Rainbow Dash, lost of someone important was a feeling she would never want to visit ever again. For Pinkie, the very idea of any of her friends dying before her was an idea that was impossible for her to comprehend. Fluttershy, all she wanted to do was to push the thought that the world would be without her friend as far from her mind as possible. As for Applejack, death was something she knew all too well and it was something that she was dead set against.

“Applejack,” Rainbow called out, “Do you think sh…”

“I don’t want to even think about it.” Applejack said, trying her best to not say what she really felt.

Suddenly, the quiet of the search was broken by the soft crying of Fluttershy, “Please, wake up.” The girls trotted to where Fluttershy was nudging an unmoving body, “P...please Rarity, wake up. We need to get to get you.” Fluttershy the picked up the burnt white body and held it to her close, “Oh, Rarity.”

The others, could only look down in sorrow as the rain began to fall.

“And that my dear Twilight, is why you should never mix flash bangs and fine panty hose, HAHAHAHAHH” Laughed a small unicorn with a flaming matchstick as a cutie mark.

Twilight, chuckled a little. It wasn’t too funny of a joke for her, especially after hearing for the 10th time that week. “Uh, yeah hilarious, Uncle Sparkplug.” Turning, she had hoped to find someway out. Seeing her mother, she quickly trotted over to her, “ Mom, you could’ve warned me about all of the crazy people in our family!”

The lightly grey unicorn smile as she put her hoof on her daughter’s shoulder, “You would know if you came to these reunions more often.” Velvet said as she drank some more punch.

“Thats because you forgot to tell me how boring they might get. I mean if Applejack was here...”

“47,” Velvet said

“There would be at least some reall good food, and if Pinkie...

“51”

“Got her party cannon she could at least fire something up, and as for the music, Rarity...

“48”

“knows some great musicians. Fluttershy....”

“50”

“Would be playing with the animals. And Rainbow Dash...

“49”

“MOM WHAT ARE YOU COUNTING!?” Twilight asked.

“How many times you mentioned your 5 friends since coming here.” Velvet said, a smile on her face.

“Oh, sorry about that.” Twilight said, an embarrassed look on her snout.

“Its ok.” Twilight’s mother said, rubbing her daughter’s shoulder, “Its about as much as I talk about you when I am with the others. You know, maybe one day you should tell Dashie that I am the author of her favorite book series.”she winked.

“And then she would keep pestering you about the next release date.” Twilight said.

“ And your father, brother, and former foal sitter do that almost every other week dear...I’m used to it.”

At this, Twilight let loose a big laugh and walked away from her mother. As she made her way to the balcony she overheard the other family members discussing their research and their projects and other science things that Twilight had mastered when she was 10. This was the reason why Sparkle family reunions are so sparse...most of the time they are researching and studying. For Twilight, this used to be all of her life, but now...she was researching in her own way; however, she had also found a way to live. She looked over the Balcony at Ponyville and sighed, “Miss them huh, Twily?” A white stallion asked, walking up behind her and ruffling her mane.

“That obvious, BBBFF?” Twilight asked, looking up.

“Oh yeah.” Shining armor said, standing next to her.

“I just never thought I would miss them this much. Right now, I can only imagine the havoc they would cause just to liven up this party. Then, we would all laugh about it and go for some donuts at Donut Joe’s.” Twilight said.

“Well, I do hope I can help keep the mood up for you Twily.” Shining said, looking to his side.

“You do, you always brighten the room up and keep me up.” Twilight said.

Shining then looked down at his hoof and remembered something important, “Hey Twily, I almost forgot to tell you. Me and Ca...” But before he can finish, the crowd began to murmur excitedly.

“Its the princess”

“Why is she here?”

“Maybe Twilight did something wrong?”

“if she did,well, let’s just say she aint doing anything to my daughter.” Nightlight said.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight said, running to the side of her teacher and bowing, “What brings you here to the reunion?”

“Dearest Twilight, Do I need a reason to visit my student and her family on occasion?” Celestia said, looking down at her student, a warm smile on her face.

A week, a whole week was all it took to arrange everything. A week for the friends to try and find to courage to do something they never wanted to do. A week of tears, memories, and regret. Now, that week was drawing to a close and now the friends were standing over a grave as the proceedings began. Rainbow Dash stood looking on as Fluttershy cried on her friend’s shoulder, her blue hoof patting her buttery friends mane, “Where’s Pinkie Pie?” Dash asked as Scootaloo cried into her leg.

“She was here fer a few minutes, but when they brought out that coffin...” Applejack said, as she held two fillies close to her. Both of which have been crying.

“What about Rarity’s parents, where are they?” Dash asked.

“Off on a ‘vacation’” Applejack said with a tone of disgust in her voice, “somewhere. They couldn’t even make it, bet they don't even know what had happened.”

“It isn’t FAIR!” Dash said, doing her best to hold in the tears, “She should be here now, with us. Not DEAD!”

“Ah know it taint fair sugarcube, it never is. All you can do is...”Applejack was then interrupted by Dash.

“If you tell me to take the time to get over it, I swear I will buck you so hard that you will be missing an eye.” Dash said, memories of another lost friend going into her head.

“The thought never crossed my mind, Dash. Ah know it’s dang near impossible to get over it. Shoot, I haven't even gotten over ma and paw’s death’s yet.”

“Then...what should we do?” Rainbow dash asked as she watched funeral finish up.

“We go on livin’ and deal with the pain in our own way. Deal with the fact, that every time we walk by where Carousel Boutique used to be, is an ashen ground. That every time we get together...there’s gonna be one empty spot where a dear friend used to be.” As they walked away, with the young fillies following them, Applejack face showed some anger in her next words, “Till one day, we are just so angry that they left you unfairly that you just want to hit somethang hard! Then, with time, every bad memory you have of them will be filled with all of the good ones and then you can live with it. Bearly, but live with it.”

“Did it work for you?” Dash asked, looking to how Scootaloo still held on to her foreleg.

“A little, but then there are times.” Applejack looks down at Applebloom, “I get really mad at the both of them.”

“Rainbow, I’ll tak Scootaloo home, her mom lives close to me.” Fluttershy said as she took Scootaloo’s hoof away from her.

As the two mares walked to Sweet Apple acres, Dash looked around, “So where was Spike?”

“Dont know, I guess he didn’t want to come to the funeral.” Applejack said.

Meanwhile, Spike was at Golden Oaks Library, pounding the walls, “ALL MY FAULT! ALL MY FAULT! I killed her...I.” Spik began to weep as he hit the wall harder, knocking Owlowiscious off his perch, “KILLED HER!” The next hit caused a book to fall off the shelf, almost hitting him in the head, “...What’s this?” He picked up the book and read the cover, “‘Alchemy’? The science of understanding a substance, deconstructing it, and reconstructing it. However it is not a cure all, it is a science and as a science must still follow basic laws. The top one being, you should not perform pony transmutation. Wait, there is some formulas here on how to do it.” Spike began to smile, “Why shouldn’t I do it? It will make me...no...it will make everypony happy, and it will bring her back home. Why not do it?! I bet they only set up this law to stop ponies from being happy...I’ll show them, I’LL SHOW THEM ALL!!!!”

Within the halls of the canterlot archives, lies the Starswirl the Bearded Wing. Within that wing, walks a small purple unicorn, “Hmmm, now where is that scroll? Ah here it is!” Twilight said as she picked up a black scroll from the top of the shelf and brought it to her with her magic, “Last time I was here I never had the chance to read this. Hmmmm...”Opening it up, Twilight looked on in shock at the title and the working of the spell, “‘The Phoenix Spell, can bring one pony back from the well of souls; however, there is a warning. It requires so much mana that it takes three years of the users life away! However, it can only be used once on each pony. the pony cannot be dead for over three years, otherwise you would create an undead monster.’ Hmm, I guess zombie ponies can exist. ” As Twilight read the spell, she took note of how to properly use it and how long it would take her to cast it. Shaking her head, she put it back thinking that there would never come a time to use it.

Twilight Sparkle floated on down from her chariot, smiling. This was the best family reunion I ever had. The thoughts of Shining Armor, her mother, and father celebrating the day that they had together still running through her head. What still surprised her though, was that Princess Celestia herself was at the get together. Granted it was nice to see her teacher that was akin to a mother, it was weird to see such a huge figure at something as simple as a family gather. She sighed, such is the way of the princess. Looking down at her home, she was excited to see all of her friends again…that is, if any of them were around, “Where is everypony?” Twilight looked around, taking a mental record of why there was nobody to see her.

Ok, I have been gone only for two weeks. Applejack is probably at the farm, Dash is asleep most likely, Fluttershy is with her animals, Rarity is probably at the boutique, so that leaves Pinkie. She should be right here with a big brass band and unexplained trumpets to celebrate me coming home.

She looked around, no party, not so much as a cheering pink blur or a glomp, if she didn’t know better…

“Oh, Twilight…you’re home. Welcome back.” An orange pony walked with a sad red-headed filly beside her

“Applejack, what’s going on? Where is everypony?” Twilight looked at the somber pony.

“You don’t…No, I suppose you wouldn’t since y’all were busy with the folks and all; it happened just a few days ago. Sweetie Belle was working with Spike on something special for Rarity’s birthday, when…there was an accident with his fire breath.” Applejack looked down.

“The Boutique burnt?” Twilight looked at Applejack, frightened.

“Yeah, it was going like an inferno in there. Rarity was inside at the time and did her best to get Spike and Sweetie out, but a part of the ceiling collapsed.” Applejack turned her head, remembering.

“No…don’t tell me…” Twilight stood in utter shock. A close friend of hers, one full of life was gone. She began to cry.

“Dash has been taking this hard, she tried her best to save her using whatever she could. Pinkie has been stuck in Sugar Cube Corner for a while, and Fluttershy hasn’t left her home.” Applejack sighed, the events of the past few days have been hard.

“Sweetie bell has been staying with us for a while. She keeps blaming herself for what happened and no one has seen Spike since.” Applebloom chimed in, feeling sad for her friend and not wanting to imagine life without her sister.

“I can’t imagine this to be easy on Spike. I’ll go and talk to him…Oh Applejack. I can’t believe…” She hugged her friend closely, not wanting her to leave in fear that she too would be gone. Twilight leaves heading to the Golden Oaks Library. As she walks, she begins to think about Rarity, “It’s not fair, Rarity shouldn’t die like this, not burnt alive while every pony tried to save her. She should be with us…” Her head rises, remembering a spell in the Canterlot Archives. It was a very dangerous spell, requiring so much mana that it would take three years off your life. It would just require… she ran into her home like her tail was on fire. Strangely, it was locked and boarded, like it was condemned. “Spike? It’s me Twilight, open up.”

“NO! This is important Twilight! I can’t risk you coming in and stopping me!” Spike yelled.

“Stopping you from what? Just let me in, I need something from there!”

“No, if you saw it you would stop me! It’s all my fault, so who cares if I do something this stupid!” Spike shouted.

Stupid? Oh Celestia, don’t tell me! Not wanting to risk anything Twilight teleported in, only to see a burnt corpse in a circle and Spike with his hands on the circle. “Spike, what is this?”

“It’s a transmutation circle, I saw it in a book up there. It talks of forbidden taboos with Alchemy, like living transmutation and using it to bring back the dead. Well, thinking about it, all of the cases where they tried, they lacked a body for it. Well, here is Rarity, now all I need to do is perform the transmutation and BOOM! Rarity is back, free to hate me for messing up her home, but I am ok with that” Spike looked, tears in his eyes. “As long as she is back, and everyone is happy.”

“Spike, Alchemy needs something to be given in exchange for that idea to work. What do you think will be enough for her life?” Twilight asked.

“Mine!” With that, Spike slammed his hands onto the circle starting the process.

“NO!” Twilight ran into the circle, her horn glowing with power as she recanted the spell from memory. Using all of her strength she pushes Spike off the circle. The circle, treebrary, and the three bodies within were bathed in alchemical and magical energy as the two began to mix in a blinding rainbow of colors.

“Twilight what is this?” Twilight looked at Spike.

“It’s a spell to bring back someone from the dead, it costs you three years of your life but it’s worth it!” Twilight struggled in the vortex.

“But its still three years of your life!” Spike screamed, noticing that the purple unicorn was fading away.

“Better that than all of your…” She is cut off as she disappears into the vortex of energy.

“TWILIGHT!” Spike yelled.

All over Ponyville, the light shown. As if it was a beacon for the others, it caused the other bearers of the elements to race towards the Golden Oaks Library. They had no idea what was in store for them when they reached it, just one thought was on all of their heads: They did not want to lose another friend. Applejack, seeing the door barred, breaks it down with her hooves as Rainbow dash lands beside her. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy come up soon after, looking at the two other ponies, curious as to what happened. Walking slowly inside, they see the library a mess. Books at strewn across the floor, remnants of a bed are fried and sitting in a circle, was a pony comforting a young dragon. “it’s going to be ok Spike” She said, rubbing Spike’s back, tears in her eyes.

“I don’t believe it,” Dash said.

Twilight looked around, she had no idea where she was.she began to take note of the location, using her instincts to tell her where she was. She noted that the location was a plain white void, nothing to make it unique or anything to give it life…except for a very large door with an eye on it and a white featureless unicorn in front of her. “Well, this is different isn’t it” Spoke the unicorn, the voice as genderless as its features.

“What do you mean? Who are you? Where am I?” Twilight asked, her mind trying to wrap around where she was.

“Me? I am the world, or perhaps the Universe, I am God,I am Truth, I am ‘All’, I am ‘One’ and...I am You You are in my realm and as for what I mean is that I have never had anyone do what you just did.” The Truth smiled

“What I did?”

“Usually when someone tries human transmutation they usually come alone giving up a part of their body in exchange for seeing this,” Truth points to the door. “But you, my little pony, did something unique.”

“That is?”

“You pushed the young dragon off the circle as he was finishing the transmutation and you interrupted him, completing yourself. If that weren’t enough, you combined it with magic, mixing the two together in a way that I have never seen before. You know I was going to take Spike’s heart for what he was going to do, you know irony…BUT you spoiled that idea. You did the transmutation and according to the basic law, I need to take something from you.” Truth looked down at Twilight imposing

“So what now, you’ll take my horn away?”

“Oh no, you see, that would be for alchemy…you on the other hand added magic, which is completely different. IT creates something from nothing, bypassing all laws of science as we know it. You offered your payment for the transmutation to science, three years of your life.”

“It was worth it”

“So, now here you are. The first of a rare creature I have ever encountered, a person who used the science of alchemy mixed with the power of magic. I need something from you in order to give the world what you were transmuting. The question is what? Aw, who am I kidding, I know!”

“What?”

“ You are a student right? You like to study and give reports and take in lessons, correct? Then, here’s the deal, I am going to send you on an adventure. You will study there for a while, having new experiences and a life you never imagined. Your assignment: find your way back. When you do, I will take what you have learned, because I am curious about magic myself and how to mix it with science. That will be equivalent to the three years of life you had given to magic.”

“DEAL!” Twilight looked straight at Truth, determined.

“So, eager! I like people like you.” Truth grinned.

Twilight watched the doors open before her, black hands reaching from within and grabbing her. The hands pulled her slowly into the massive door, dragging her into the void. As she went in, she felt as if all the information in the world-no, the universe-was poured into her head, she began to see visions of her entire life pass through her head. She also began to feel strange and a little sick, soon fainting.

Twilight woke up in an alley, feeling dizzy. She tried to put one foot forward, only to see something pale and pink sticking out, “What?” Looking around she tried to regain her balance, but felt as if her equilibrium was off. She looked for a mirror to see what it was that was different. Picking up a broken mirror shard, she looked into the eyes of a purple haired woman. “What. What? WHAT!?”

Author's Note

Been a while since I wrote a fanfic, lets see if I am still decent.
Oh, this story is set about a few weeks before the wedding and a few years after the FMA magna, this will be following the magna continutity with a small exception...you'll see
Oh and thanks a bunch to the awesome Zoltanthemaginicant for editing and adding to Truth's dialouge and the pheonix spell

Oceanography and Earth science

Chapter 10: Oceanography and Earth Science.

Twilight looked on in utter horror at the monstrosity before her, her body threatening to freeze up in the creature presence. In her head, all she could think about was which version of Discord this could possibly be, “A good one ,one where he was never entombed, one where he was even more malicious and cruel, or one where he,” Twilight shuddered at the next thought, “won and we all ended up working for him.” She did not like the thought that there was a possibility where he would have beaten her and her friends.

“Why, hello my dear Twilight Sparkle. Its so UGGGGH,” before he could say anything more his mouth and limbs were bonded by the wires from inside the buildings. He looked down to see Twilight, fear and anger laced within her eyes, holding her hands to the wall next to her.

Ed looked to Twilight, “Twilight, what is that thing and what,” he then watched as Twilight put her hands to the ground and created a series of stone fists that repeatedly hit the monster all along his body. Before he could recover from the barrage, he looked to the ground and saw a big hole open up beneath him. As the wires unwrapped themselves from Discords limbs and dropping him to the ground, Twilight used her Alchemy to form a large stone pillar. The pillar towered over the creature and before he could react, the tower deconstructed itself to fall on top of him in a pile of rubble. As he was buried, Twilight grabbed Ed by the arm.

“COME ON LETS GO!!” Twilight yelled, grabbing Ed’s arm and leading him to a ladder that she had made with alchemy.

Ed felt jostled as he was tugged by Twilight’s pulling. As he was dragged to the latter and forced up the steps, “ Twilight! Will you at least…explain!” Ed’s question was interrupted as he watched the rubble where Discord lay turn into white marshmallow fluff. Slowly did the creature began to rise out of the white goo, his mismatched wings flapping slowly.Ed’s eyes watched this in shock, and quickly began to try and figure out how he was able to do that. Once on the rooftop, Ed took a quick look at Twilight, “ Twilight, care to tell me what it is that you so frightened?”

“His name is Discord, “Twilight panted, sitting down on the rooftop, “In my world, he used to rule over everypony with chaos. It was only thanks to my teacher and her sister that they could take him down. However, a year ago…he escaped and it was up to me and my friends to stop him.” She wrapped her arms around herself, to try and stop shuddering.

“Sounds like he was rough.”

“HE MIND-RAPED ME AND FRIENDS TO WIN! It was horrifying to watch as each one of my best friends turn into complete opposites before my eyes and... I wasn’t able to help,” Ed looked at Twilight, in complete understanding knowing what its like to see someone close to you in pain and unable to help, “ I still sometimes have NIGHTMARES about the whole thing. I could handle it if he was human, at least I would know that he had same rules affecting him as it did to me and Tyrant Celestia. Here though, he is normal and has all of his powers. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

With a flash of light, the Dragoniquis appears, “Now Twilight my dear, what did I tell you about making sense,” Ed and Twilight jumped in surprise, turned and got ready to fight, “Oh please,” with a snap of his fingers Ed’s automail leg turned into aluminum and Twilights hands became trapped by bubblegum to the ground, “You two had one free shot to play with me and that was it. “

“What are you doing here, Discord,” Twilight demanded, unable to move her arms but now trying to think of how to stop a spirit like him without her friends or her element.

“Oh, I was just having brunch with an old friend of mine, Truth. It seems that he/she/it-I don’t know what Truth wants to be nowadays- had just had a friend over in his room recently,” With a flash, Twilight now appeared on a chair, “You, Twily! He told me all about the delicious chaos that was brewing in this dimension and, well, I just had to see it for myself. Oh and look, it’s a beautiful mess too.” He looked out as most of the city was now turned on its head, everything rearranged and turned inside out.

“You caused that!!!”

“Oh, oops! Oh well,” with a snap everything turned back to normal, “The point remains, all of these people popping in and out of existence of a world that can’t accept them and causing a huge mess like this is…beautiful! I just had to see it before this world went all boring and non existent.” Discord pouted.

“One last question…what type of world did you come from?”

“Why,” Discord walked to Twilight, dissolved the gum and picked her up and hugged her, “A world where Celestia and I are happily married and you are…our lovely daughter! Tata.” Dropping Twilight, Discord turned around, dressed in hawaiian outfit and disappeared with a very insane laugh. So insane, that neither Ed nor Twilight knew if he was kidding.

“That did not just happen!” Ed yelled.

“my my my my my…FATHER!!!! Great, who was my brother, Tirac? Chrysalis? Sombra? The SMOOZE? What about my friends? What happened to them? Did Nightmare Moon happened? Did I grow up into a recluse? What about Trixie? Is the world harmonic or in Disarray? How did they fall in love?”

“TWILIGHT!!!!” Ed screamed, “Don’t think too much about alternate universes for the moment, save it for when we save everything…then you can go mad.”

Twilight looked back at Ed, her hair slightly frazzled at thinking about that other world. She nodded quietly and followed Ed off the roof and down the ladder.
_____________

The two alchemists walked down the street and to the pier, the event with Discord fresh in their minds. Did his coming mean that there was less time than what Twilight predicted, and how long did they really have? These questions haunted them, but they knew they could answer them later. As they reached the pier, their noses were attacked by the smell of fresh fish and sea salt. Out of the corner of Twilight’s eye, she noticed a young woman with brown hair and who was a little short, she also had a revolver holstered on her leg. She was walking with another woman who had white and red hair singing to herself, a blonde man wearing a cowboy hat and holding a rifle, a black woman with white hair, and a heavyset man with some metal on his back and looking a little war weary. They also had a hawk that was perched on the singing woman’s shoulder”I don’t know why, but I’m paying more attention to those people then I should...” Twilight said to herself.

All around them, the ship’s captains made calls, seagulls cried, and people began to mingle, happy to see each other. Ed and Twilight began to look around to see if Al had made it there yet and what type of ship did he get, “Big Brother,” Al called as he ran to Ed and gave him a big hug, followed by Twilight.

“Hey Al,” Ed looked around, “So where is the ship?”

“Well Ed, all of the ships that were heading to Europa are already full or are at sea right now; however, I did get us one that would get us there for free.”

“Really? Who is that?”

“HELLO!” Came a voice from behind the three. They turned to face a young man with a straw hat on top of his head and wearing a long red coat.

Ed jumped in response, “Yah! W, who are you?”

“Glad you asked! Luffy Daniel Monkey at your service! Captain of the 1000 Sunni and your carrier to that weird place with the funny name.”

Twilight looked on at Luffy as he began to talk fast, “Goddess, he could be a distant cousin of Pinkie.”

“Wait,” Ed said, looking at Luffy, “Luffy? The Rubber Alchemist?”

“YEP! The same.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Ed, “The Rubber Alchemist?”

“Yeah, he could use Alchemy to lengthen or toughen rubber at his command. He was very skilled at it, but he retired to become a pirate.”

Luffy shrugged, “I didn’t want to follow in Gramp’s footsteps. I wanted to be more like uncle Shanks.” Luffy said with a smile on his face as he led the three to his ship.

The 1000 Sunni was a large ship with a lion head shaped bow, and was colored a bright gold. As Luffy stood in front of the ship, arms crossed he had a big grin on his face, “Here it is guys, the best ship on the planet, The 1000 Sunni.”

Ed looked at the side of the ship, noting the nameplate, “Shouldn’t sunny be spelled with an ‘Y’?”

“Yeah, but where is the fun in that? Everyone spells sunny like that, I wanted to be unique!” He turned to Ed, Twilight, and Al, “Now hold on tight.” He then let loose a long rubber rope, wrapping itself around the three.

Al looked at the ship, “So, where’s the ladder?”

Luffy smirked, showing a daredevil attitude, “Ladders? Who needs ladders,” He threw out another rubber rope around the mast and pulled it taught. Walking back a few feet to stretch it out more, he made the rope let go, yelling out, “GUMU GUMU NO ROCKET!”

“What did he mean by AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” Twilight yelled as she, Ed and Al flew through the air, carried by Luffy’s rope. Landing on the ship with a large ‘THWUMP’ they looked up and saw the 14 member crew mingle around and talk to each other.

“Luffy! How many times must I tell you to be careful with our guests…especially if they are carrying money,” An orange haired lady walked up behind Luffy and looked at her three guests, “Welcome to the 1000 sunni, I hope you’ll enjoy the ride and please…tip heavily.”

The three looked around the ship, enjoying the sights and sounds of the entire crew working together and talking to one another. They noted that there was one crewmember, the doctor apparently, carrying around a stuffed reindeer while there was another who looked like he was made of only automail. The crew seemed to have a whole lot of people of various sizes, wants, and skills.

The ship began to sail off without a hitch, the wind blowing just right for them to begin their journey. As the ship sailed across the sea, Twilight began to think. Her mind was focused on the meeting with Discord, the old man with the stone, and unless her calculations were wrong, “Could Discord being here in that state mean, I am wrong and this world has less time than I thought,” Twilight said to herself. She decided to walk onto the deck of the ship to clear her head and listen to the waves at night. Outside, she could hear the lovely sound of the musician playing a soft lullaby for the crew along with the sound of a conversation being heard.

“Brother, I have been thinking,” Al said.

“Good practice,” Ed joked as he ate an apple.

“About the old man, the one who had the stone? Remember Mahjal?”

“The crazed Alchemist who tried to bring back his dead girlfriend, what about him?”

“I remember when we were walking through the cemetery that I saw a man about Mom’s age in there, holding the stone. Get this, Mei told me about how she found a photo of the man who had the stone 300 years ago in Xing and get this…he was as old as I was. Well, I did research on the king of Europa and he looks about the same age as you are.”

“That’s impossible, Al, those events happened in only a few years of each other. There is no way that he would be a young man 5 years ago and then ancient now. That would mean that he was time jumping from place to place, or at the very least a new guy was taking that stone.”

“Maybe its something else,” Twilight walked up to the two brothers, looking out at the moon reflected in the water, “Maybe the two brothers messed up on the spell and the stone.”

Ed arched an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“ Well, magic is like science, it breaks rules but still has some to follow and like science if you mess up on a formula on a spell you cause something very bad to happen.”

“So what you are saying is that there is a chance that the two brothers, when they made the stone, caused one of them to enter into a time warp where he popped into different time lines?”

“ Yes, I am. I would have to do more research into the stone…but I think that’s what happened.”

Ed looked up at the moon and then put his arms over the two alchemist’s shoulders, “Well, its getting late. Lets think about this some more tomorrow.”

“By which you mean, you are going to stay up late thinking about it all, aren’t you?” Al raised an eyebrow.

To that, Ed could only smirk.

For a few more days, our five heroines walked through the woods and to a stone canyon. Their journey led them across the solid rocky terrain and through various dusty paths of the canyon until they came across a giant rock wall, “WHAT THE HAY???” Applejack yelled.

“ What do you mean that we came all this way just to get to a wall?” Dash asked as she flew up a little to see if there was a way for the others to get around.

“Maybe there is a secret path or a hidden tunnel? Remember, no pony has seen dream valley for over 2 millennia,” Rarity said putting her hoof against the wall.

“So how are we supposed to find a way around this thing. I could fly over it, but that would leave you guys behind.”

As the conversation continued between the three mares, Fluttershy’s ears began to twitch. She walked up slowly to the giant rock wall, noting a peculiar sound. Turning around she tried to tell the others to listen to the noise, but to no avail. Swallowing hard, the timid Pegasus flew up and over the wall and to where the noise was coming from, “Ummm, excuse me, sir? Could you please move? You are blocking us.”

Slowly, the rocky creature’s eyes opened wide and looked straight at Fluttershy “Hmmmm? OH I am sorry Miss Pony. I just thought this would be a good place to nap. Where are your friends?”

Nervously, Fluttershy pointed right behind him and flew to where her friends were, “Fluttershy, who were you talking…to?” Rainbow asked as she watched the giant rock creature stand before the 5 mares, looking down upon them.

“ROCKY!! Its you! How have you been?” Pinkie asked as she skipped to the Rock Biter, her tail bouncing in happiness.

“Ohhhh, Pinkie Pie, it’s so good to see you my little friend,” Kneeling, the stone giant put his finger to Pinkie’s head and rub it slowly.

Giggling at the affection Pinkie looked up, “So, hows Mom and Dad and Inkie and Blinkie?”

“Your family’s fine, they can not wait to see you again.”

Dash flew and landed next to Pinkie, “Uhhh, Pinkie who is this?”

“Oh, he’s a Rock Biter! He would sometimes come to the rock farm and eat some of the leftover rocks that we farmed.”

The rock biter smiled, “They always had such great tasting rocks.” He then looked down at the girls, “Where are you 5 heading to anyway?”

“We are all going to Dream Valley, to help out a friend.” Applejack said.

“Well, I can carry you all the way to the Crystal Desert, let me help,” With that, the rock biter leaned over and picked the girls up and began walking. The journey was slow and uneventful, but the scenery that passed by them was lovely, with gorgeous mountains passing them by. The many trees and hills looking very small compared to their giant companion. It wasn’t long until they had reached their destination, “Here we are, I can not go any further.”

“So why do we stop here, and why can’t you continue,” Dash asked, looking up.

“It’s because-”

“Oh Celestia, don’t say it”

“-the desert is over 1000 miles long, and-”

“Please I’m begging you, don’t say it”

“-whoever touches the ground of the desert-”

“Please, don’t say what I think you are about to say,”

“-Will turn to crystal in an instant, it’s why no one has come to Dream Valley anymore.”

“OH BUCK ME!!!!!!!!!”
To be continued...

Author's Note

Once again, thanks to Zoltanthemagnicifent for being an awesome editor.

Now, about Discord, originally I had planned to just have a mindless monster for him for a few seconds only to reveal that he was messing with Twily the entire time.

Second, Can you figure out who the five people Twilight sees at the port are? Here's two hints- Its one of two fics to have a special tag on EQD, and its a crossover with a game series. Also, I had orginally planned to have captain pipsqueak to appear to say hi, but I changed my mind. I would also like to say, that the 14 other members of Luffy's crew in this world are the 8 other strawhats and the 6 Gokaigers. Yes, I love a good cameo.

Sorry, for a short chapter, this was just a transitional one