//------------------------------//
// Home Ec 
// Story: Friendship is Eternal 
// by Alchemystudent 
//------------------------------//


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 girls looked 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