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


Ch. 14: Finals

                    
The man stared back from the hilt of his blade, his eyes stabbing daggers towards the three alchemists before him, “I will give you this one chance, LEAVE and never come back.”

                    “Why should we, and who are you,” Ed questioned, ready to block the attack.

                    The man chuckled as he put his blade away, running his hand through his black hair, “Allow me to introduce myself, I am Emperor Albert, the ruler of Europa and” He straightened up his black outfit, “The owner of the  Fraternity Stone.”

                    Twilight, never one to forget her manners, bowed politely to Albert, “Hello Your Majesty.  There is one question I would like to ask, why do you think we are trying to steal your stone? We just need to borrow it.”

                    “Ohhhhh, I know that you three are trying to steal my stone, ever since the day that I saw you back in port city. Yes, I am the one who made it…surprised?”

“No, not surprised. Twilight figured it out back at the fort, you couldn’t have made it MORE obvious,” Ed snarked, rolling his eyes.

                    “You did,” Turning his head, “Of course he did you idiot, he’s a genius you saw him when he  changed that balloon into a flower wreath. No, that wasn’t this universe, this is where he,” Shaking his head, he looked back at the three alchemist his eyes narrowing, “You may know about that, but what you don’t know is how this stone works, or how it will work when I initiate Project: Homecoming. Y’see, I know that you are going to steal it, because when it activates the portal, It will be naturally pulled to its brother. Much like  the opposite poles of the magnetic field,” Again he turns his head, “Though that was just in one world, this might be different. No, can’t think that,  we choose this path and I am going to stick to it.”

                    Al arched an eyebrow at the gentleman before them, “Sir, are you alright?”

                    “Yes, No…Its not important at this point.”
                    
“Yes it is, you know that some of the time jumps have been warping your mind. You have been losing your clarity day, by day.”
                    
“You see, alchemist, unlike you I know the full effects of the stone and what is going to happen when it activates. The only problem was, how was I going to get those effects to work and use the stone to locate and retrieve my brother.”
               
“They won’t agree to it, they are too noble. Like you used to be, let them have the stone and maybe they can bring Issac back.”

                    “Issac,” Twilight asked, looking at the man as he argued with himself, “was that your brother from the story?”

                    “Yes, he was. When I crafted the stone, alongside my brother,  it was meant to combine alchemy and magic to try and create a miracle. Like a Philosopher's Stone or a powerful mana gem. The problem being that when we activated it, it surrounded us with a blinding light. It sent me years into the future and far away from my dear brother.”
                    
“Which was all your fault, you didn’t study magic like he wanted you to. You were too caught up in your own world to listen to your brother and do what was necessary to help complete the experiment. When it was time to perform the experiment, you didn’t complete the magical formula at all, you just made stuff up. You failed to translate the runes he gave you. You FAILED to solve the formula. YOU failed to help make sure that each rune placement was right. Because YOU believed that your science would be the only thing necessary to work . YOUR arrogance is what caused the experiment to fail and that was your mistake. Now you are about to make a bigger one.”
                    
“NO…no, not a mistake,” He sneered at himself, “ An experiment with a 100% chance of success.”

                    Ed looked at the man, trying to figure out what had happened to him, “Hey, how about the sane personality tell us what happened to you and what  Project: Homecoming is?”

                    “Ahh yes, the project you came up with after the last jump. The crazy one”
                    
“SHUT UP! I am talking to the alchemists, so let me tell the tale and you listen,” He turned to the three, a cheerful grin on his face, “When I had made that first jump, I was confused and frightened. You probably had seen the effects of that when we met in Port City. It was my first jump and I was quite unsure on how I got there or where my brother was. So I activated the stone again to get away from you two,  and I do so apologize for summoning whatever it was that came after you. When I made the next jump, I had finally gotten over my confusion and fear, deciding to, instead, think over my situation. I realized that my brother must be alive in another dimension and that the only way to bring him home was through the use of the stone. Well, I tried a few experiments and discovered two things about my half of the stone: 1. It can send me to any time in the world, but it works on a randomization principle. 2, when the stone is used, it will summon somebody from an alternate universe  here. The problem being that the stone lacks control and would never summon my brother here. I realized that it lacked something to control it. But what?”
                    
“My idea was to actually try and land in a time when magic was still studied and use it as the control, but you came up with something STUPID and INSANE.”
                    
“It’s only  stupid and insane when history takes a long look at it. For right now, people will only have opinions about it. History and my brother will determine the genius of Project: Homecoming.”

                    Twilight began to scratch her head in a questioning pose, “What is project: Homecoming?”

                    “Oh, a brilliant experiment. One that came to me during the eclipse 6 years ago.”

                    “The…eclipse?”

                    “No, you can’t mean,” Ed said, his mind quickly remembering how six years ago, Father had sacrificed Amestris to gain the powers of a god,“You’re going to sacrifice the entire country for the stone?”

                    “Equivalent exchange after all,” Albert said with a bit of cruelty in his voice.

                    Al  stepped in front of Ed, “NO IT ISN’T! There is nothing in this world that would be the equivalent for a human life.”

                    “For my brother, the entire world would be enough for his life. “
                    
Turning his head away again, a look of anger came across his face as he rolled his eyes, “Yeah, that sounds perfectly sane and rational. I’m sure Issac will…”
                    
“ISSAC WILL FORGIVE ME!!!  Once he sees how much I sacrificed for him, once he sees all that I will give up…he’ll forgive me and then we can find a new timeline to live forever where I can forget... ,” a few tears rolled down his cheek, “all of my sins. But first, I need to make sure that the stone is mine!” He yelled as he leapt towards Ed, sword drawn. Raising his blade, he sliced down at Ed. Moving quickly, Ed blocked the sword with his automail arm and then back kicked Albert. Rolling to the ground, Albert drew a circle onto the ground and then performed a transmutation. Alchemical energy surged through the ground and into the walls, summoning three large metal axes from the wall behind the three alchemists. Al jumped out of the way while Twilight ducked under hers, getting part of her hair cut in the process. Ed barely jumped out of the way in time, getting his back cut slightly in the process. Grabbing his torn cloak, he pulled it off revealing the black suit underneath and then clapped his hands to perform a transmutation on the axes and turning them into a metal chain that he grabbed and threw at Albert. Albert stepped to the side to avoid the thrown chains, and turned to see Twilight coming at him. Jabbing quickly, he missed her as Twilight ducked under the fist to sweep him off the ground and make him fall to the ground. Rolling back up, he blocked Twilight’s fist and pulled it down, punching her twice in the chest and then throwing her to the side.  Twilight stumbled a bit and back kicked him in the stomach, pushing the alchemist back. She then tried to uppercut him, but was blocked and then was punched twice in the stomach and then the face before being kicked by a roundhouse. Clapping her hands together, she summoned a spear that she threw at Albert’s leg cutting into it.  Engraged, Albert made a circle and created a stone fist, slamming into Twilight’s gut and sending her flying back.
                    
Al ran up behind Albert and sidekicked him in the back as he was busy with Twilight. Stumbling back from the blow, he turned to kick Al. Al pushed the leg aside, opening himself up to getting punched and hit with Albert’s knee, making Al step backward. Drawing a circle, Albert used alchemy to create metal spikes from the floor to try and impale Al.  Moving swiftly, Al jumped back from the spears, only getting cuts on his leg but was soon backed into a corner. The barrage if spears was only stopped by the intervention of Twilight and a few thrown spears of her own. Albert feels the blade points of two of the spears pierce his shoulder and side, making the blood slowly drip from his cuts.  Grabbing two of the spears, he transmuted them into two long daggers and threw one at Twilight which she narrowly dodged, getting a small cut on her side.  She then opened her eyes wide as she saw a barrage of metal arrows flying at her. Rolling away swiftly, she only managed to get her legs and arms cut by the lying arrows. Transmuting a blade, he ran towards her with his blade raised and ready to slice her.
                    
As Albert thrusted his blade down, it was blocked by Ed’s automail arm, now transmuted into a blade.  Blocking the dagger up, Ed made two slashes with his arm, cutting Albert in the chest and shoulder. Taking a few steps back, Albert swiped his blade at Ed, cutting into his left arm with a deep gash. Raising his blade, he swiped at Ed’s right, watching it get parried by Ed’s arm. The two began a dance of blades for a moment, blades colding in a shower of sparks with each hit. With certain blows, the man was able to score hits on the former Fullmetal alchemist, cutting into his stomach and leg. Raising his blade to stike at Ed, the small alchemist blocked and kicked the blade out with his automail leg, leaving him open to a straight kick from Albert. Rolling backwards from the kick, Ed watched as Albert drew a circle and brought out a few spikes aimed at Ed, with he blocked with a metal shield.
                    
Grabbing his blade from the air, Albert leapt at Ed with his dagger, cutting into Al’s back as Al steeped in front of the hit. Al smirked as he turned to face Albert with a dagger of his own and attacked him. Moving swiftly, Albert blocked Al’s dagger and watched as Ed joined in the fray with his blade arm. Grabbing a fallen blade, Albert began to block and parry both blades of the alchemists. With each blow, they seemed evenly matched, with each making their own attack and scoring different wounds on the other. A their three blades collided and held eah other still, Albert realized that he was facing only two alchemists. Turning he saw a giant stone hoof flying straight at him. With a modest yelp he was hit hard by the stone hoof that was transmuted by Twilight, who had a smile on her face as she watched Albert fly into a wall and land with a thump.   
                    As he laid there, blood dripping from his wounds, Albert’s green eyes stared at the three alchemist, who were nursing their wounds, “I could’ve told you this was going to happen. There was no-“
                    “Shut up,” The alchemist could hear the three alchemist begin to talk.
            
        “What do we do now?”

                    “Twilight, I am sorry about this.”

                    “Here we go, you know what she is going to say, right?”
                    
“Shut UP”
            
        “That she knows of a way to use the stone without the lost of life.”
                    
“Shut UP!”

                    “Looks like the stone requires a sacrifice to use.”
                    
“Actually, it doesn’t,” Twilight said, smiling as she looked around the room, “ I may have only lived here for three weeks, I do recognize the alchemy symbols and more importantly, I know  what those magic runes mean. He’s-“


                    “WRONG! You should’ve studied the runes like your brother wanted you to.” 
“SHUT UP SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTPUSHUTUPSHUTUP!!!!!!!!!”

                    Ed turned to Albert and watched as he brought a blade to his ear, “WAIT, What are you”
                    Before Ed could stop him, Albert ramed the dagger into his ear hard, “There, that,” He began to watch the world sway around him, “Stopped the voice…oh, I just realized, he was right…I messed up. I am so sorry little brother, your big brother was just too full of himself to…want…to…learn something…”

                    The Alchemists watched as he died before their eyes, the life leaving him as he slumped to the floor in a pool of blood. Walking over to the dead alchemist, Ed clapped his hands and put a covering of stone over his corpse and then turned to Twilight who was busy looking at the stone,  “Twi…”

                    Twilight raise her hand at Ed, shaking her head slowly, “He’s dead, I know…” She sighed, “ I…I want to mourn for him and feel bad for what he has gone through, but I know I am on a time limit right now. I’ll mourn later.”

                    Ed looked at her, kind of glad that she has respect for an opponent, wondering if it was her other teacher that taught her that, “So what did you mean, ‘it doesn’t need sacrifices’?”

                    Twilight turned to Ed and Al, a big smile on her face, “Simply put, I am going home!”
 
________________________________________
 
                                    
Rarity walked up to the stone pillar that held the fraternity stone, eyes wide at the sheer beauty of it, “It is marvelous darling! Simply marvelous,” She began to walk around the pedestal, taking in every detail, “Tell me, is it sapphire?”

                    “Yes, it is,” Temp said, a little boastful, “Oh, I am sorry…didn’t mean to sound prideful of it. But yes, for my half I used sapphire as the basis of the stone while my brother used ruby for his half. I wanted to use gemstones because they best can focus mana onto a single point. The,” He coughs again, harder than before and stumbles back a little, laying against the wall, “I am sorry, I need to rest for a moment. Anyway, the runes that line the base of the stone are mine, a type of alchemical formula that I couldn’t solve. My brother was supposed to translate the rest of the equation and solve it for me so we can get it to work. Since the accident, I can only assume that the failure was me because I know my brother would never have let me,” He coughs again, hearing his chest pound, “down. But I made up for my mistake over time, especially when I found out how to work it.”

                    “One thing I don’t get,” Dash asked, looking at the stone and back to Temp, “How could you not know how the stone worked when you first tested it, you made it.”

                    “As I said, it was an experiment to see what would happen when alchemy and magic combined. I had discovered some ancient runes that acted as a type of gateway formula. I wanted to use that for my spell and handed my brother some translation notes with the trust that he would be able to translate them and solve the equation.”

                    Applejack looked at the stone, looking at the glyph that resembled a starburst “So what’s its power source?”
                    
“Ah, that lies... ” He holds his hoof up to his mouth, holding in his cough, “Just a little bit more. I am sorry, that lies the problem. It’s life energy.”

                    “WHAT,” Exclaimed the girls in unison.

                    “ Yes, you see- those runes are meant to act as a dimensional travel formula. The problem being, dimensional travel is very hard to do unless you have special equipment or tools. Add in the fact that it can also travel in time and you have a very powerful stone.”

                    “But why does it need your life energy,” Asked Fluttershy.

                    “Because, to transport across the void of dimensions you are going to need protection and to create a shield like that to protect you will take a lot of mana. So much so, that it’ll begin to take your life away as a substitute. That’s what the Alchemy is for, the rest of the equation allows the alchemic energy one uses for transmutation as a substitute for the shield spell while also adding for protection and a guide to the dimension and era. It’s why my jumps have been taking my years away, its been draining me. The alchemy also has an extra feature, it acts as a homing function in dimensions, so the owner of the second half of the stone can locate the other. There... ” He coughs again, seeing some blood land on his hoof, “is a catch, the stone needs to be in a similar location as the other otherwise you will just open a hole to that dimension. A stable one, but a hole that needs to be closed quickly.”
                    “Hey, that’ll be easy,” Dash said, her looks showing not a sign of doubt, “We’ll just use the stone once,  I’ll fly in, grab Twilight, and then come back before the portal even closes.”

                    Rarity put a hoof to her chin as she stared at the stone, “How much life energy?”

                    “Oh I am sorry, I forgot to tell you,” he coughed lighter now, shuddering with each breath, “all of it.”

                    “Crazy pony say what now,” Pinkie asked, looking at him in the eyes.

                    “WHAT THE BUCK DO YOU MEAN  ALL OF  IT’,” Yelled Dash, her eyes glaring in anger, “ You mean that to use it, one of us has to die? There is no other way?”

                    “Oh, I am sorry, I was going to tell you of the other way,” He coughed, feeling his breathing becoming shallower, “You can see that it looks like a hand trying to grasp another? Its symbolic, meaning that the stone needs others to wield it and lessen the effects of the stone. With the five of you working together, I figure that you’ll lose…three years of your lives to the stone, each.”

                    The others look at each other, the thoughts of the cost going through their minds. Three years gone in an instant; however, it was for a good cause and well worth it. Issac smiled as he could see the gears turning in their heads, “Good, then I didn’t waste this last jump. I…I am just sorry that I won’t see my brother again. You would’ve liked him-smart, level headed, trust worthy, he…was the type of man who probably would’ve solved the stone without the loss of life. I bet, he already solved his half the same way I did.”

                    “Whoa, what do you mean, ‘you won’t see him again’,” Applejack asked.
                    “I am sorry, but you see, I wasted my last jump to get here and wanted to wait out my days for someponies who would come for the stone and use it properly to save my brother. I had seen you girls in a scrying pool years ago and warped myself here to wait for you,” Pain wracked through Temp’s body as he felt his heart speed up and then slow down to a crawl, “Tell Albert, I am so sorry for messing up. We should’ve looked the glyphs more carefully… I… should’ve read his translations. I know he must have translated them to the letter… oh… god… brother… I am sorry I wont see you when you get… home. Love you,” With that he shuddered slightly a his breathing became slower and slower, until it finally stopped, his eyes slowly closing as his back rested against the wall.

                    “Ok, this isn’t funny Temp. Get up, we still need you to help us out with this stone,” Dash said, flying to the fallen unicorn and tapping his shoulder.
 
                   Pinkie Pie jumped over to the stallion, nudging him with her nose, “Yeah, come on. You need to be here when we get Twilight and your brother here. So then you two can hug each other and we can have a big welcome back party.”

                    “Its no use,” Fluttershy said solemnly, holding in tears, “He’s dead, he been dying since we came into the castle. I have seen several animals act like he was when they were dying of old age. It…it never gets easier.”

                    “But it isn’t fair,” Dash exclaimed, “How is he supposed to make up for everything if he’s dead! He needs to be reunited with his brother!”

                    “It never is fair, sugarcube,” Applejack said, her hat over her eyes, “ the best thing we can do now is to use his gift and bring Twilight and his brother here. Then we can tell his brother all about him that we do know.”

                    Rainbow Dash nodded, she didn’t like an unhappy ending for anybody. However, she knew that it happens, “So…what are we going to-RARITY WHAT ARE YOU DOING,” A big flash of lightning began to charge from the stone.


to be continued...