//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Journey to Rodinia // Story: Friendship is Magic; Damnation is Alchemy // by AnonymousCardCaptor //------------------------------// Friendship is Magic; Damnation is Alchemy By Anonymous Card Captor My Little Pony-Friendship is Magic is created by Lauren Faust and owned by Hasbro Studios. Fullmetal Alchemist is created by Hiromu Arakawa. All other characters are the creation of the author. All thoughts or anything read by a character is in italics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 3: Journey to Rodinia Two years later A servant girl, dressed in a meek brown grey tunic, timidly nudged a woman sleeping beneath an elegant jade-colored blanket. The woman rose from her slumber, lazily sat up, and brushed the strands of tangled black hair from her face. “Koto, is it morning already?” She yawned. “Mistress Masago,” Koto begged, “please forgive me for waking you this early. The captain of the guard ordered me to. I am terribly sorry, Mistress Masago.” “No, you did the right thing. I told Captain Oonishi to inform me of his arrival immediately.” Lady Masago rolled out her futon and hastily tossed on a kimono lying on the floor and made her way through the palace main hallway to the double doors leading into the courtyard. There, her numerous palace guards waited. Behind them was a horse-drawn wagon covered in a beige tarp. The guards greeted Lady Masago with a bow. “Captain Oonishi, were you successful?” She asked. The guard in front straightened up. He was a mountain of a man. Masago only came up to his chest, and if his considerable height wasn’t enough to intimidate, his chiseled physique, which could rival Major Armstrong’s, was. “Lady Masago, your humble servants has fulfilled your command. The Child of the Great White Mare is in our possession.” Lady Masago ran pass the guards to the wagon behind them. She raised the covering and peered through metal bars lining the outside of the wagon. “He’ll do, nicely. Captain Oonishi, take him to the meeting hall.” Captain Oonishi cast the tarp to the side. Inside the cage was Sinclair. His legs were bound by leather straps that held a wooden board between them. Captain Oonishi opened the cage and hoisted Sinclair on his broad shoulders. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lady Masago reclined on cushions lying beside a table, though it was more of a footstool given the fact that it was only a few inches off the ground. Sinclair was on the other side of the table and was still bound to the wooden board. “Greeting, I am Lady Masago Arakaki of the Arakaki Clan.” Lady Masago sipped a bit of saki from her saucer. “Now return the courtesy and tell me your name? If you do not speak, I will assume you’re merely a beast and have you killed.” Sinclair huffed. “It’s Douglas Sinclair.” “‘Douglas Sinclair’; that is the name of a Westerner. Were you created by an alchemist?” Sinclair shook his head. “I am the alchemist.” “You’re not what I had hoped to find, but you’ll do. I’m of need of your services, and I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. My guards went through considerable difficulty bringing you here.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Flashback Sinclair galloped through the woods leaving a trail of dust behind him. Following close behind him were armored men on horseback. This wasn’t the first time he had a run-in with them. Their first encounter was last week. He was fortunate enough that there was a river near by. All Sinclair had to do was transmute a bridge to the other side and then use alchemy to force it to collapse, but his pursuers have done a better job setting up their ambush. Three of them broke rank and came at Sinclair’s flank. The pulsating beat of galloping hooves were drums in his ear. They close in and forced Sinclair further to the right. Then, out of the nowhere, Sinclair took a step and found no ground to plant his hooves. The world seemed to spin as Sinclair tumbled into a pit, and then there were the aches from the hard fall. The bottom was covered in leaves. Sinclair then realized the pursuers herded him into a pit trap. “Good job, men,” Captain Oonishi congratulated his guards. “Our mistress will be most pleased. Yamato, Gotoh, bind the beast.” Two of his men dismounted and jumped inside the pit. Suddenly, both guards were tossed out with enough force to throw them in the air and sending them crashing into their comrades. Captain Oonishi leaped off his horse and ran to the pit. Sinclair glared furiously at the captain. He revved up on his hind legs and clapped his front hooves together. A mound of clay form underneath him and elevated him over the heads of the guards. As the mound arched forward and away from the guards, Sinclair gave them a nasty glare before running off. “What are you standing around for?!?” Captain Oonishi yelled. “After him!” The guards stumbled over each to get back to their horses. Sinclair glanced over his shoulder. Though he had a head start, the superior speed and endurance of the pursuers’ steeds were once again closing the gap between them. It would be a matter of time before they capture him. Sinclair stopped and transmuted a wall of earth two stories tall that stretched across the link of a football field between them. This hunt has taken its toll on him. His lungs burned from physical exertion. “Rested long enough,” Sinclair said to himself as he tried to catch his breath. “Better get moving before they go around.” But even that short break was too long. Captain Oonishi leaped from the top of the wall and held Sinclair firmly in a headlock. It was a shock to the alchemist that this big brute somehow manage to scale his wall in such a short time. Sinclair struggled to break the ironclad grip as he felt light-headed from the lost of circulation to the brain. He clapped his hooves together and a column of earth struck Captain Oonishi in the head hard enough to knock off his samurai helmet, but it didn’t even phase him. Sinclair clapped his hooves together again and touched Oonishi’s chest plate. The sweat that had dripped on the armor began to sizzle. Despite the excruciating pain of hot iron pressing against his chest, Oonishi still wouldn’t let up. If anything, the captain of the guard tightened his hold. Sinclair admonished himself for not making his wall taller before blacking out. End of Flashback ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “If you need an alchemist, Xing has plenty alkahestrists, and it’s as good as alchemy. You don’t need to threaten me.” Lady Masago held out her saucer for Koto to pour another serving of sake. “I don’t need an alchemist. If anything, alchemists are the ones who caused my father so much heartache," Lady Masago said before taking another sip, "and you’re no longer in Xing. This is Nipan, an island off the coast of Xing. We are neither a part of Xing nor are we an independent nation. The word I believe is ‘protectorate’.” “So, why drag me to your island?” “My clan, the Arakaki, has the special distinction of having a patron beast-the dragon. Supposedly, every two hundred years, my clan gives the dragons an offering of gemstones. In return, the Arakaki Clan is assured a peaceful future. Legend has it the dragons will torch the lands of whoever turns their swords upon us.” Lady Masago’s voice became more somber. “Oonishi, show him the remains.” Captain Oonishi uncovered something large enough for a full-grown man to lie down inside of. To Sinclair’s shock, it was a skull. “That’s a hefty sized dinosaur. How far down into the stratum did you pull that thing from?” “It’s not fossilized. The legends say that it was the remains of the very dragon that made an alliance with our clan. His descendants continue to fulfill the pack for nearly two thousands years.” Lady Masago broke from her refined mannerism, and her face showed the utter contempt bottled up inside. “But we know better than that don’t we, alchemist. When our current emperor returned from Amestris, he came back with stories of artificial animals, chimeras as they are called in your nation.” “I’m sorry you lost your religion, but...” “You misunderstand. I’ve never believed in the legends. There is a scientific explanation for this thing.” Lady Masago gestured at the skull. “It is my father that I’m worried about. Since he was a child, he devoted himself, body and soul, to the dragons. He has traveled throughout the Iapetus Ocean seeking the gemstones the dragons supposedly desire. It is *his* belief that you alchemists destroyed.” She turned her sullen face away from Sinclair. “It was his faith in the dragons that sustained him in his advanced age, but since it was lost, his health has deteriorated.” “What do you want me to do about it?” “Our legends also speak of the Great White Mare exceeding in wisdom that could speak the human tongue and taught the clans of Nipan about the six elements of harmony.” “Your great white mare doesn’t sound too wise to me. There’re ninety-two elements. She’s off by eighty-six.” “I didn’t bring you here for alchemy lessons. You’re here to pose as a Child of the Great White Mare and convince my father that his faith was not in vain. Do it, and I’ll let you go free, but if you don’t, my men are ordered to strike you dead. My archers are the best in the region, and they’ll be there when I present you to him. I hope we’ve come to an understanding.” “I guess we have,” Sinclair grunted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lady Masago, Captain Oonishi, and Sinclair waited outside to be presented to the clan patriarch. Masago’s gossamer black hair ran down to her waist in the back, cheek-length along the sides and with frontal fringe midway down her forehead. She was dressed in a white kimono decorated with yellow snap dragons in full bloom. The heavy oak doors, two inches thick, slowly crept. Sinclair couldn’t help but to notice how stunning she looked, but he felt as though there was something not kosher, but not with the young princess. It was him. He was suppose to react a certain way, but that part of him was gone. Lady Masago nudged Sinclair. “Honored guests enter first.” Her grating tone was far less cordial than her words let on. Captain Oonishi also grimaced at the alchemist-turned-chimera. Sinclair hesitantly stepped into the chambers, which was lined with Arakaki guards. Sinclair could tell that they were also co-conspirators with Lady Masago by the malicious glares concentrated on him. In front of the room was a haggard, shriveled man donning an elaborate komono with a red, snakelike dragon partially coiled around a blue background and sitting, legs folded, on a red mat. He had only a few wisps of white hairs on top of his glistering cranium. Lady Masago bowed to the old man. “Lord Arakaki, your daughter humbly thanks you for granting this conference with you.” Sinclair raised an eyebrow at the overly ceremonial greeting. Even Fuhrer Bradley was never graced with such formalities from his officers. “State your business,” the old man rasped. It was as Lady Masago said; the old man was worse for wear. Lady Masago stretched out her hand to Sinclair. “A child of the Great White Mare has come across the great ocean of Iapetus to our island nation. I told him of the state of disquietude that has overtaken you since our new Emperor has returned from Amestris. He wishes to speak with you.” “Well...um...” Sinclair stumbled, “Lord Abaraki...” “Arakaki,” Lady Masago corrected. “Umm...right. Lord Arakaki, Lady Masago tells me you no longer believe in dragons.” Apprehension was getting the better of Sinclair. His breathing became heavy. “Well, I’m here to tell you that the dragons are real, and they will be here for the next bicentennial meeting. So, don’t lose hope okay.” The old man sneered. “Is that so, Child of the Great White Mare? I’m so happy you came all the way over to Nipan just to reassure my troubled mind.” The tone of cynicism in those words screamed out to Sinclair that Lord Arakaki wasn’t convinced. “Could you, in an act of good faith, perform a bit of magic for me?” “Father, your daughter humbly asks that you not put our visitor to the test.” “Quiet!” It was all Lord Arakaki had to say to Masago to make her stand down. “I mean no disrespect to him. My only desire is to witness the miracles that could only be performed by a Child of the Great White Mare.” Lord Arakaki frowned while staring down at Sinclair. Sinclair bit into Captain Oonishi’s money purse and poured the contents on the ground and chapped his hooves together. The gold coin molded themselves into a statue of the serpent imprinted on Lord Arakaki’s kimono. Sinclair slid the gold statue forward. “A gift from the Children of the Great White Mare, your lordship,” he said. Lady Masago palmed her forehead. “It’s ruined,” she grunted. The old man stood up and smiled. “I’ve seen enough.” He then opened his kimono. Bombs and knives lined the inside. Then there was an ear-rupturing bang followed by a sulfurous black fog that swallowed up the room. The last thing Sinclair remembered was coughing up soot before something hard struck him on the back of the neck. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sinclair was welcome from his slumber by dizziness and the contents of his stomach churning within him. He stared outward seeing nothing but two fields of differing shades of blue before the vertigo became too much for him to bear. Sinclair forced himself to stand again. As he regained his composure, the two fields of blues came into focus. He was staring out at a large body of water on a clear day. Sinclair scanned 360 degrees and, to his horror, could not see land, only water, sky, and the tiny boat he was on. He stumbled over his own hooves and fell back to the deck in shock. “Where the hell am I?” Sinclair panicked. “Don’t tell me you’ve never seen the ocean.” That voice-it was Lord Arakaki. “Is it because you’re really a chimera created in that landlocked country Amestris?” The old man was sharp. Lord Arakaki, with strength that shouldn’t be possible for someone as feeble, lifted Sinclair and held him off the edge of the boat. “Did my daughter have you created to feed me lies? Tell me chimera or so help me you’ll swim back to Nipan.” “I wasn’t created by your daughter,” Sinclair quaked, “but she did force me to lie to you.” Lord Arakaki tossed Sinclair to the side. “If she didn’t create you, chimera, who did?” Lord Arakaki nearly hacked up his larynx from the coughing. “I sort of created myself; an accident during an experiment.” Sinclair rubbed the sore spot he landed on. “Oh Masago-chan,” Lord Arakaki wryly protested. “What a cruel joke you played upon me.” He fell to his knees. “What is your name, alchemist?” “Douglas Sinclair,” the horse chimera said. “It sounds very Amestrian. I had a feeling you weren’t a Child of the Great White Mare even before I met you, but I didn’t want to believe my daughter could think so poorly of her own father to believe I would fall for such an obvious deception.” “I hate to ask, but where are we?” “The Iapetus Ocean,” said Lord Arakaki. “What are we doing out here?!?” “Didn’t my daughter tell you? I made plans to find out if the dragons really exist. So,” Lord Arakaki slowly rose up, “I took our finest trading ship and set sail for the continent of Rodinia.” “Are you out of your mind?!? No one’s ever gotten within twenty miles of that place and lived to tell about it. Rodinia’s shoreline is surrounded by jagged volcanic rock just below the waves. Sailors have been trying to find a clear channel to the shore for centuries.” “You should be thrilled. We can be the first *or* we can die trying. And it’s all up to you.” “‘Me’?!? I’m the guy with no hands from a landlocked country. I don’t think I’d make a good sailor.” “I’m more than enough sailor to get up to Rodinia. I need an alchemist to get me across those last few miles. And what better alchemist than one that doesn’t need purification circles to transmute matter? Our legends state only a Child of the Great White Mare with a horn on its forehead could perform miracles. I knew my skeptical daughter wouldn't bother educating herself on the nuances of the legends and not passed that bit of information to you, and then you’d be forced to admit to being a fake. But I didn’t foresee your exceptional skills in alchemy. It might have been Kami-sama’s blessings that had caused us to cross paths.” Sinclair shook his head. “No deal. I’m not dying for your delusional belief system.” “And you’ll do what?” Lord Arakaki strained to keep from smirking. “Swim back? Or maybe transmute part of the boat into a weapon and threaten me? I wouldn’t risk it if I was you. This boat might come apart if some of it went missing, as if you still had hands to wield one.” Lord Arakaki turned away from Sinclair to inspect the rigging. “Face it, your only chance at survival is to help me reach my goal. Dragons or not, if I reach Rodinia, I will take you back to Nipan and even provide the means for you to go back to Amestris if you choose to make the journey back to your homeland. By the way, why did you leave Amestris?” “I wanted to learn Xing alkahestry and maybe use it to make me human again.” “I won’t bother to ask if you were successful.” When he was done inspecting the mast, Lord Arakaki scooped up some seaweed with an oar and laid it in front of Sinclair. Then, he went inside the cabin and took out some salted pork on a stick. “Well? Aren’t you hungry?” “You expect me to eat this?” “I didn’t plan on taking a horse chimera with me to Rodinia. It’s kelp, a staple of the Nipanese diet. I eat mine wrapped around trout.” Sinclair nibbled on the edges. “It taste like bad lettuce bathed in salt,” said Sinclair with a sour look on his face. “Eat it or starve.” Sinclair hesitantly heeded the advice and grazed on the mound of seaweed. Lord Arakaki finished chewing on a mouthful of pork. “So, how did it happen?” “You mean being turned into a chimera. I was experimenting with separating chimeras and swapped bodies with the last chimera I transmuted.” “What happened after that? Why didn’t you try to get back your old body?” “That chimera is what happened. He chained me up and forced me to teach him alchemy so he could steal my life.” Lord Arakaki looked surprised. “That doesn’t sound like a beast to me?” “That impostor was a human chimera, though he claimed he wasn’t human at all. He said he was from some country called Equestria.” The old man’s eyes bulged out for a moment. “Did you say ‘Equestria’?” Sinclair nodded. “I believe so. You heard of it before?” Lord Arakaki regained his composure. “It’s nothing to be concern about.” If he had a Eureka moment, he kept it to himself. “Those burn marks on your back. Was that a part of the accident as well.” “Sort of-they *were* wings, though I seriously doubted those stubby things could generate enough lift to get a turkey off the ground let along this body. They were the toll I paid to see Truth.” The old man raised an eyebrow. “Truth? That’s a bit existential.” “Truth isn’t some philosophical concept or a metaphor. He’s very real, and I think he’s the source of all alchemy. It was Truth who showed me how to transmute without a circle. More specifically, I make a circle with my arms, or I should say my forelegs, and I become the runes for the transmutation circle. But it came with a price. I lost my body and gained this one minus the wings. But I don’t understand though, is why part of the toll was the body switch.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ After nine weeks on the open oceans, the seemingly endless blue was broken by an outline of brown that stretched outward over time. They have finally made it Rodinia. But for Sinclair, it might as well be on the other side of the world. He wished he didn’t pay such close attention to his geography courses in the Central City Orphanage. Otherwise, he would enjoy the bliss that came with ignorance; the ignorance of the fact that the last few miles of their journey would be the most dangerous. The journey has been taken its toll on Lord Arakaki. Over the last few weeks, he had been too weak to work the rigging, and Sinclair was forced do all of the heavy lifting. Sinclair still had strands of hemp fiber between his teeth from hoisting the sails. However, the old man was clever enough to keep his navigation skills to himself less Sinclair turned the ship around while he was in his weakened condition. No wonder his daughter was so desperate. This journey might have whittled away what little life Lord Arakaki had down to nothing, and that selfish bastard couldn’t see how much his daughter cared for him. “I bet your daughter will be glad to see us if we make it back,” Sinclair said to break the ice. “Shut up and save your mouth for manning the ship,” the old man wheezed as he sat leaning on the cabin wall. “Only humans who can manipulate objects without their mouths are allowed to talk while working, alchemist.” “You may not think highly of us alchemists, but I think you could learn a few things from us.” “Didn’t I tell you,” Lord Arakaki cough violently, “no talking while manning the ship.” “Or else what? I’m the only one here still fit enough to run this thing. Face it, you’re going to have to listen to me mouth off.” “Fine, speak your peace, alchemist.” “Alchemists only believe what we can confirm by observation. You’ve never seen these dragons in your entire life, but you saw how far your daughter was willing to go to keep you from getting yourself killed. And like the selfish old coot that you are, you went on a suicide mission all because you couldn’t admit that you based your life around something that doesn't exist.” “I think I finally figured you out, alchemist: you’re presumptuous. You think the be all and end all of existence is laid bare before your very eyes. And, ironically, it has makes you blind to reality.” Sinclair decided if he couldn’t appeal to his better nature, then he could make one last appeal to reason. “Isn’t it obvious why your legends claim the dragons are in Rodinia. It’s a convenient place to put them since no one’s been there to say otherwise?” “Please pay attention to sailing the ship.” Lord Arakaki pointed to the dark cloud heading their way. “Save the scolding for when we’re not in mortal danger.” Lord Arakaki strained to get on his feet. “Nine weeks of clear sailing and now we get bad weather?!?” “There hasn’t been a ship that sailed near Rodinia that hasn’t been accosted by storms. It’s as though Rodinia itself doesn’t wish for men to set foot on it.” “If that’s so, then why can’t you take a hint?” “Because I’m a selfish old coot, that’s why.” Lord Arakaki bound Sinclair’s left rear foot by a long piece of rope to the mast and then he tied his left ankle to rope bound to the mast as well. “At least now, we won’t be washed overboard.” “Naw, we’ll be smashed to bits by those giant waves instead or maybe by the rocks underneath the surface of the water.” Sinclair felt as though his face was being sandblasted by the storm. The wind blew rain droplets with such force that they stung. “Fifteen degrees starboard,” Lord Arakaki ordered. Sinclair looked over the port side and saw, just beneath the waves, black, jagged shapes. While adjusting the rigging, Lord Arakaki caught sight of what looked like a clear channel through the volcanic rocks. Opposing his efforts was the gale blowing against their sails driving them towards the rubble just underneath the waves. Sinclair braced himself for the towering wave heading towards them. He instinctively held his breath. Instead the ship rode the wave upward. However, the impact with the wave did cause Sinclair to slide backwards. Only the rope stopped him from going overboard. When the ship came crashing down into the water, the free fall had momentarily tied knots in his stomach. Sinclair raced back to the steering wheel and brought the ship back on course, this time leaning against the wheel with his front hooves rather than biting into it the last time. He didn’t want to lose any teeth, if he could help it. Again, another wave launched them off the surface of the ocean, but this time, Sinclair kept his grip by hooking his hooves between the spokes of the steering wheel. “Hold your breath,” Lord Arakaki warned. Sinclair was a little slow responding and paid for it. The ship wasn’t able to ride this third wave. Instead, the ship went under. About ten seconds later, they surfaced. Sinclair coughed up sea water from his lungs. “I told you to hold your breath. Now turn ten degrees port.” The old man started coughing again. Also, his hands were shaking. “It won’t be long before we make landfall.” Is he kidding?!? We only gotten 400 yards since the storm started and still have 20 miles left to go. We’ll be lucky to get another 200 yards before we run into the rocks. Actually, they managed to get much further inland than 200 yards. When they were within ten miles of the shorelines was when things fell apart. The water level was dropping faster than expected. Even though they were steering clear of the volcanic rocks, they were coming closer to scraping bottom. “Are you sure you were keeping good time?” Sinclair yelled over the hollowing wind. “Of course I was,” Lord Arakaki said defensively. “Low tide isn’t due for another four hours.” Just then, the boat was jarred from underneath. Lord Arakaki fell back. He felt the wind knocked out of his lungs. The trip has finally taken its toll on him. It took all he had just to get to his knees. It was taxing him just to do that. It was then, a wave hit the grounded vessel causing it tilt to the starboard side. It was impaled by a sloping column of obsidian. The rope tied to the mast was the only thing keeping them from sliding off the deck. “So much for making landfall,” said Sinclair. The puncture wound though the side of the ship gushed with water; its added weight only drove the obsidian spike deeper through the ship. “Don’t gripe about it, do something useful.” But Sinclair wouldn’t get that chance. The rock finally impaled the ship so deeply that it split in half. The alchemist and the Nipanese patriarch were on the front half of the ship. In seconds, it filled up with water. Lord Arakaki floated upward to the top of the mast. Because the water was shallow, much of the mast was still above the surface slanted at a low angle. “Sinclair! Sinclair!” Lord Arakaki yelled. Suddenly a giant sheet of ice lifted him out of the water. Lord Arakaki looked around and saw Sinclair behind him. The hemp rope binding his leg was gone. “What did you do?” “I made us a little iceberg.” Sinclair cautiously trotted across the ice and transmuted the hemp rope around Lord Arakaki's leg. A gentle tug was all it took to break it. Just then, the storm winked out of existence. “How did it clear up that quickly?” “Don’t question good fortune. Can we use this to get to land?” “Sure, I can transmute an ice bridge all the way to land.” Lord Arakaki nearly coughed out a lung. “No, that’ll take too long. We need to get to land or else another storm may come.” “In your condition?” “In my condition, we’re dead men if we stay on this block of ice and wait around much longer.” Sinclair went to the edge of the iceberg and transmuted the sea water into a smaller piece of ice. “Grab what's left of the rigging and tie it around the iceberg and to me. And don't worry about it melting. I can add more ice to it as we go along.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The wet sand from the beach sunk underneath Sinclair’s hooves as he pulled the iceberg and Lord Arakaki the last few feet. Sinclair did as before and used alchemy to accelerate the decay of the rope around his shoulders. It only took a slight yank to pull it off. “Alright old man, I got you to Rodinia. So now what? Come on, say something.” Sinclair then turned around and saw why he was so unresponsive. Lord Arakaki had frostbite all over his body. His eyes were sunken in. Between the physical exertion and sitting on an iceberg after falling into the ocean, Lord Arakaki’s time has come. “Lord Arakaki, are you okay?” Sinclair doubted he was, but he didn’t want to accept that he was going to die; killed by the very makeshift flotation device *he* created. “Not really,” Lord Arakaki gasped. He panted with shallow breaths. “You won’t be if you don’t get off that hunk of ice.” Lord Arakaki crawled slowly to the edge of the tiny iceberg and onto Sinclair’s back. The two made their way out from the beating waves. Just then, Lord Arakaki weakly tugged on Sinclair’s ear. “Put me down!” Lord Arakaki said in a panic. “Hurry up!” “Can’t you wait till I get you on some grass?” “NO! You can’t. I see them.” Lord Arakaki pushed himself off of Sinclair and slumped on the ground. He pointed to the sky. “It’s one of them.” To Sinclair’s shock, something huge was flying overhead, and it was gliding downward; its silhouette growing in size. Sinclair pulled on Lord Arakaki’s shirt but Arakaki pushed him away with the last bit of his strength. “This is why I came here. They know I am of the Arakaki clan. They will not harm me.” “What if you’re wrong? What if that thing is coming here because it sees easy prey?” Sinclair pleaded. “I’m dead either way. At least let me die with the knowledge my daughter’s future will be secure. Now go into the woods. I don’t know what sort of relationship the dragons have with the Children of the White Mare. Leave me and head towards the tallest mountain in Rodinia. If the legends are true, you’ll find....” The man coughed violently before he could finish his sentence. He glanced at the figure overhead and then said. “Now go. I can’t guarantee your safety. Go into the thickets and out of the dragon’s sight.” Sinclair huffed and ran into the surrounding woods. From there, he watched the old man holding up a scroll and calling out to the sky. Then it landed: a beast more massive than anything Sinclair could have ever imagined. It must have been over a hundred feet long from the tip of its beak-like snout to its tail with dorsal spines running the entire length of its body. It had red scales with a yellow underbelly. The creature stared at the old man as he spoke and then scooped him up in his talons and flew away with him. “You selfish old coot,” Sinclair coughed. “I hope you’re happy getting eaten by that overgrown gecko.” Sinclair yelled out before succumbing to his own whooping cough. Sinclair wasn’t feeling so well himself. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lady Masago was stirred from her sleep once again by her servant Koto. “I’m sorry mistress for waking you, but there’s something...something...” Koto stuttered. “What is it? Spit it out already.” Lady Masago yarned. Koto shouted out, “It’s a dragon, mistress! There’s a dragon in the courtyard!” The astonishing news snapped Lady Masago out of her lethargy. Masago immediately rose from her futon, threw on a kimono left on the floor from yesterday, and ran out of her bedroom. A crowd gathered just outside the courtyard. Lady Masago pushed her way through the onlookers until she broke through. She was in shock to see a large figure illuminated by the moonlight. “Get the spotlights,” Lady Masago commanded. The court guards lit torches set on a stand with a mirror behind it. The mirrors directed the torch lights into a beam and illuminated the towering figure. The creature stood fifty feet high on its hind legs. It was cradling something in its forepaws. Nostrils snorted smoke as the creature growled. “Kill the lights. They’re agitating it.” The creature settled down when the spotlights were extinguished. Lady Masago didn’t know what to think. It *looked* like the dragons as depicted in their scrolls, but it still could be just another alchemic forgery. Lady Masago decided to put this creature to the test. “Welcome to our humble clan, great dragon. Have you come for your tribute of gemstones?” Then the dragon, to Lady Masago’s shock, spoke. “No; too early. Not for another 15 years.” Well, it’s well-versed in the legend. “What brings you here, dragon?” “Name Winged Eclipse,” the dragon said it an inhuman grumble. Lady Masago bowed. “I mean no disrespect, Winged Eclipse. Now why did you come before the time of tribute?” “He asked me to; before dying.” Winged Eclipse placed Lord Arakaki’s body at Lady Masago’s feet. The mistress of the Arakaki clan fell to her knees. “Father,” she called out grasping the lifeless body. The other servants, who before were too fearful to venture forth, ran to Lord Arakaki’s side. Stuffed in his shirt and underneath his folded arms was a scroll. Lady Masago unrolled the parchment and read it aloud. To my beloved and only child, If you are reading this, then I am already dead, but not before reaching Rodinia. I overheard you speaking with Captain Oonishi about your fears that our clan would be preyed upon when the time of tribute comes and there is no dragon to receive the gemstones we have collected. It broke my heart to hear you speak of an arranged marriage with one of the more powerful clans. I have seen, first hand, the sorrows wrought from these politically arranged unions and I wish for you to have no part in such travesties. You have nothing to worry about. The dragons will come as promised. You need not sacrifice your happiness for our clan. Lady Masago buried her face in Lord Arakaki’s chest and wept bitterly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Snip, I don’t want to get in trouble...again,” Snail, the adolescent unicorn with a bronze coat and blue-green mane whined. His short and chubby unicorn friend with the blue coat and red mane shoved him from behind. “We’re not anywhere near the Ursa Minor’s cave. You’re just being a big baby.” Snip pushed him along the winding trail through the Everfree Forest. “You want me to look bad in front of Puppy Dog Tail? Don’t you want to prove how brave you are, Snail?” “But I’m not brave, Snip.” “Fine, I’ll go by myself.” Snip trotted down the trail but didn’t get too far before Snail caught back up with him. “Wait for me, Snip.” “You said you weren’t coming." “I don’t wanna be alone out here, either.” Snip looked over his shoulder at Snail as he continued down the path. “First you’re whining about going on the courage test, and now you’re whining about not going. Why don’t you make up your...” Suddenly, Snip tripped over something. “Snip,” said Snail, “you found a dead body.” Snip got up and backed away. Another pony, with a dirty blue-green coat and yellow mane, lay in a mud puddle. The pony in the mud also had a burn mark on his side and a cloud with wings and speed lines for a cutie mark. Snip looked it over. “Hey wait, I think he’s still alive. Look, he’s breathing.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As promised, the story has made its transition from the world of Fullmetal Alchemist to the world of Equestria. But don’t think we haven’t forgotten about Wind Racer and his exploits in Amestris. We’ll cover what’s been going on with him and even his past in Equestria as well as Sinclair’ fate in future chapters of Friendship is Magic; Damnation is Alchemy.