//------------------------------//
// Health 
// Story: Friendship is Eternal 
// by Alchemystudent 
//------------------------------//


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...
.