Friendship is Eternal

by Alchemystudent

History

Chapter 13: History and Science

The old unicorn widened his eyes as Rainbow asked her question, “Oh, I am sorry. I forget my manners sometimes, I’m sorry,” he began to chuckle a little as he ran his hoof through the balding mane, “ My name is Temporal Rift, but you can call me Temp.”

Running like a living pink lightning bolt, Pinkie Pie got up to Temp’s face and began to shake his hoof, “Please to meet you Temp, my name is Pinkie Pie. That mare over there is Rarity, she’s Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Twi- and Applejack!” Pinkie turned and pointed to each pony, and even pointing to a blank spot where Twilight would’ve been.

The old unicorn shook at Pinkie’s hoofshaking, “Please to meet you all,” he looked over Pinkie’s shoulder, “Is she always this energetic?

Rainbow Dash landed next to Pinkie as others nodded yes in response to the old Unicorn, “Wait, how are you gonna help with the stone? What do you know about it?”

“I should know all about it…I made it,” Temp shrugged a shoulder confidently as the mares in front of him opened their eyes in shock, “ Oh, I am sorry. I should’ve told you before, I am one of the brothers who made the stone, my real name is Issac.”

“ How is that possible, the stone was made centuries ago,” Rarity questioned as she remembered the book.

“Oh, I am sorry. I want to explain it, but I need to explain it in the castle. Come with me,” turning around, he led the girls into the castle. As they walked into the entry hall, Fluttershy noticed his cutie mark.

“Excuse me sir, but your cutie mark-What does it mean,” Fluttershy asked as she looked at the stone hand cutie mark adorning his flank.

“Oh, I am sorry. That’s the Fraternity Stone, it appears that the world runs, not on Alchemy or mana, but on pure 100% irony,” He chuckled a little, “ Let me tell you all about it. I can assume that you five know of the legend of the stone; about two brothers who wanted to see the combined power and skill of alchemy and magic,” He watched as the five mares nodded their heads. Coughing a little harder now, he continued his story, “That’s only half-true. We actually decided to create the stone after a fight. One day, a few millennia ago, we got into a big argument about which was better: his alchemy which could bend rules or my magic which could break the rules. It was a rough and big argument, but what can you do…we’re brothers it happens.”

Applejack, Rarity both nodded in agreement as they walked behind Temp, “Ah know the feeling. Some of the fights me and Big Mac can get into...”

He turned his head to look at Applejack and Rarity, some tears in his eyes, “I hope you two appreciate your siblings for as long as you have them. They will always be precious to you no matter what,” He looked at the girl’s eyes, he sighed then turned his head,”...sorry. It’s just been so long since I seen my brother. After our fight, while I was busy fuming, I had a wonderful thought come to me. What if we combined magic and alchemy? What type of raw power could we have, what beautiful miracles can come from it all. Well, I would have searched for my brother to apologize and tell him my idea, but he found me first. After we apologized and hugged, we discussed the idea,” He coughed a little more as he led them to the castle’s throne room, next to a switch, “ He thought it to be wonderful and we went to work constructing the stone from scratch.”

Rarity watched as Temp used his magic to throw the switch, opening the door, “Why a stone, darling?”

“I made a stone, because I wanted a focal point for my magic, and my brother wanted something to write a circle on after we crafted it. After a few months of hard work and time, the stone was made,” Temp smiled brightly as he remembered the day and how happy his brother was, “And we made arrangements to run our first experiment to see what the spell work.”

Dash flew a little bit low beneath the stairs that they walked down on,“What did you guys think the stone was going to do?”

“We were thinking that the stone would act like a Philosopher’s Stone or even a Mana Stone that would allow us both to break our limits. We were wrong,” Temp frowned, coughing while tears came to his eyes, “Oh, I am sorry. The memories can be harsh. When the spell activated, something happened. A bright white light overtook us both and sent me here. When I woke up, I found my body changed, a little older than I should be, and my brother was gone. I was so afraid that I…” He turned white as he put his head to the wall, “Oh, I am sorry, sorry, sorry, SO DAMN SORRY! Why do they continue to hurt me!”

Fluttershy looked at Temp as he began to weep and flew to him, putting her hoof onto his shoulder, “It was Unicornia, wasn’t it?”

Temp nodded, and turned around, “When I activated the stone and made that first warp, I took half of the population with me. Their screams still sound in my head to this day,” Temp put his hooves to his head, wiping his tears, “I am sorry. Well, the warp sent me back about 25 years or so. Once I had calmed down from the fear and terror of my predictament, I made a decision. I could either stay there and scream for all of eternity, or find a way to fix things. I choose the latter.

“OH! I choose shoots, those are always fun,” Pinkie said as everypony facehoofed.

The brown pony chuckled, “Yes, I enjoy those too. Anyway, in about a few years I had read up on alchemy and had a great grasp on it from all of the books I had read. After all, if it was alchemy and magic that sent me here, then why not the same and after those years had passed, I tried out the theory. I failed, but found myself in Celestial year 850…I can assume you know…what happened next,” He watched as the girls nodded, “Oh Goddesses…why?! Those colts, the filles, and those mares all suffered that horrible fate. They didn’t need to die…not for this,” He wiped the tears away as he walked, his breathing getting a bit shallower, “Oh I’m sorry, again. As the light came over me, it warped me to Dream Valley, and again and again and again as I tried to run from that light and find a way to fix all of this. It was upon one of these warps that I arrived 3000 years in the past, I trust you heard from the mushroom about what happened there? Good,” The soon arrived at a big set of doors with a circle engraved on it. Within the circle read the words ‘Fraternitas aeternus’ in golden letters across it, “After I had willed myself to stay here, I had made another decision. I decided to write down everything that I had ever learned about alchemy in the hope that somepony else would pick up on that ancient art.”

Pinkie Pie leapt up next to Temp, “Wait…Temporal Rift? TR,” She turned to her friends, “Girls, the guy who wrote the book on alchemy that told us about the stone, was an author called TR!”

“Yes,” a smug smile came across his face, “It was me who wrote those books, and, coincidentally, it was those books that taught me all about alchemy. So you can say I taught myself. Of course, this writing was just a pastime for my real mission. To fix the Fraternity Stone, for you see I love my brother too much to ever let him go. I had to see him again, to be with him again, because I knew…he would be the only one to forgive me. He would be the only one in this whole DAMN universe to hold me tight and say that its alright, to help make this hurting stop. It took me several, SEVERAL, years…but I finally figured out what went wrong with the stone,” He then placed a hoof onto the circle and opened the giant stone doors, “And, after the last experiment warped me to here…I was finally able to fix-the Fraternity stone.”

In the room, many circles with runes laid about the area, each one seeming to give power to the pedestal that laid within the center of the room. The pedestal held a magnificent blue stone shaped like a hand, a hand that seemed to grasp for another in brotherhood. At its base, the stone had 3 circles linked by glyphs written in ancient writing. Within the middle circle, was drawn a starburst with five small stars surrounding it.

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In two days time, Ed was finally rested enough for the others to begin the final part of their journey. Al and Twilight breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that he was not suffering any infection; however, they still felt horrible about the loss of Ed’s right arm. Ed shook his head when they asked if he needed help, “Look, I can still use a bo-staff to fight. It will be fine guys, don’t worry.”

The duo sighed, both having to come to terms with Ed’s stubbornness. They walked through the woods leading up to the castle, making sure to stay to the sides in order to avoid any potential guards that might be patrolling the grounds. Walking slowly across the forest ground, Ed began to take the time to find himself a stick to use as both a weapon, and a temporary replacement for his right arm. Within a few short hours, the three found themselves within the looming shadow of the castle. With a single parapet surrounded by many smaller battlements, it seemed more like a spire trying to pierce the heavens and less like a castle. Using her alchemy, Twilight formed a door on the least guarded spot on the grounds.

Carefully, they walked through the interior of the castle. They made sure of their steps, careful as to not alert anyone to their presence and summon a battalion of guards to their spot. This was a fleeting hope as one guard spotted Ed from a distance, “Intruders! KILL them!”

“Damn,” Ed swore under his breath, “Looks like we’re going to fight.”

“Great, there are probably over a hundred guards in this whole place,” Twilight said as she clapped her hands and gave Ed a spear and made a wall of fists to keep the numbers small.

“Yeah,” Al smirked as he clapped his hands to strengthen the glass of the windows to make it harder for snipers to get them, “Stinks for them.”

As the guards chased after the alchemist, Twilight used her alchemy to summon some stone fists to uppercut the men’s jaws to put them out. As she fought, she saw one of the guards aim his spear at Ed, ready to throw. With a look of horror on her face, she ran to the guard in order to stop him from throwing the weapon.

She was too late.

The spear sailed through the air, quickly towards its intended target. Ed was too busy fighting the other guards that had come up through the stairway to notice the incoming weapon. Like a deadly missile, the spear soon reached its target, impaling Ed from behind and popping out of his stomach on the other side. The blood slowly dripped from the end of the spear as it stuck through the former state alchemist, “ED,” Twilight screamed as she saw the spear hit Ed, “No, I won’t allow anymore of my friends to die. I refuse to let it happen,” her thoughts screamed through her mind as she reached Ed, clapping her hands, “Human transmutation is forbidden, it’s a rule…but if its to save my friend, then I’ll do what I have to!” she then slammed her hands against Ed, not hearing Al shouting, and thinking of the spell she used to revive Rarity as Ed was eclipsed by a bright light.
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“Well, look who has returned, my favorite guest!” Truth’s voice echoed.

Ed opened his eyes, finding himself in a familiar white room. His eyes looked across the boundless white void, trying to find the source of the voice he knew all too well. Facing forward, he looked to see a featureless white figure standing in front of a large door, “Truth.”

“Awww, you remembered me…how nice,” The white person said as it stood up,”Shame about the arm though...”

“What am I doing here? Didn’t I just die?”

“Not quite, but that little student of yours saw how close you were to death and well…”

“Oh, no. She didn’t.”

A grin came across Truth’s face as he saw Ed’s realization, “Yes, she is quite determined to defy death no matter where it is or who it is, as long as it is someone close to her. I like people like her and you!”

Ed’s eyebrow arched as he looked at Truth, “So what happens now? What are you going to take away from Twilight?”

“Well, let’s see, she already gave up three years of her life to me to get here. I guess I will take away her magic from her for another three.”

“Magic isn’t real truth, its just a childish fantasy thought by people who can’t explain the unexplained.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, ‘Magic doesn’t exist, blah, blah, blah.’ Keep believing that, it’ll save your life. But that’s not important right now. You may have passed, Edward Elric, but she still needs to learn, and I can’t just let her start giving life years away, It’ll be no fun! So I’m giving you, sir, a present,” it points behind Ed.

Ed turned slowly to look behind him, and there was a giant door, “This is…”

“You have your alchemy back, but only for about three years. Oh, and here,”It throws Ed an automail arm,” Another Ed gave this up, They grow up so fast. I think you’ll get great use out of it.”

Ed looks down at the arm, and then back at his alchemy then he turned to Truth, “Truth, you can be one crazy son of a gun some days. Thank you, but I don’t want to ever come back here again.”

“Oh, don’t be like that,” Truth said, frowning, “We have such fun together.”

“Fun for you maybe,” Ed said as he put his automail arm at a newly formed socket. Positioning it at the right hole, he slammed it into the socket with some force. This caused Ed to scream out loud in a bloody scream.
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Outside of the void, Twilight and Al were getting swarmed with guards. Every two they took down, four more began to take their place. Valiantly did they try to stem the tide of soldiers, but they began to tire from the overwhelming amount of guards. The guards slowly cornered the two alchemists, only to look up at the ceiling in confusion as above their heads there appeared a giant spout with a head on it that resembled Ed’s head complete with an antenna on top of the head. Their eyes then widened in horror as the spout unleashed a huge torrent of water that washed the guards out. A clap is heard as a row of spike popped out of the ground to block several of the guards from coming in. As the figure walked slowly into the hallway, he noticed the country's red flag next to him. A smile came across his face as he clapped his hands and grabbed the cloth, “Ahhh, just what I need to send the right message,” a flash of alchemical energy is seen as the flag is turned into a light red cloak with an insignia of a serpent around a cross on the back, “THAT THE FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST IS BACK,” Ed declared as he stood dramatically with his cloak. Clapping his hands together, he formed a blade from his automail hand and charged at the guards. Two of them used their swords at Ed, which he just blocked with blade and then cut both men. He then roundhoused one in the gut while jumping up to kick one in the head.

As Ed fought the guards, Twilight and Al were able to get their second wind. Clapping her hands together, she placed them onto the water from the pipe and froze the water into ice. This made the guards slip and fall back down the stairs, rending them unreachable. Al ran to his big brother and jumped over his back to kick two guards in the chest. Al looked at Ed as he stood up, smiled at him, and gave him a big hug. As two guards came up from behind the two brothers, Al and Ed back fisted the guards as they held onto each other, “How?”

Ed let go of his little brother and put his hand onto Al’s shoulder, “ I’ll explain later, but long story short…Truth.” Ed then grabbed Al’s arm, and lifted him up to spin his little brother behind him. Al lifted himself up to run kick four guards before landing onto the ground and performed some alchemy to create a stone catapult that flung some guards into a wall.

Twilight watched the two brothers hug each other and smiled, “There’s always time for a group hug,” She then had to duck under the swing of a guard’s sword before he could cut her. Twilight delivered a punch into the guard’s stomach and then sweeping his leg. Hearing the sounds of guns cocking, she rolled a few feet away and clapped her hands to form a stone shield. Clapping her hands and placing them onto the wall, she launched several bricks at the soldiers, knocking them out. A guard managed to punched Twilight hard into the back, which she retaliated with an elbow to the chest and then uppercutting the man, then she ran towards the two brothers. As she did, she kicked and punched each guard that she came across until she was standing next to her two friends. Al panted a little as he looked to Twilight, sporting some cuts and wounds of his own. Ed smirked towards his brother and student, some cuts and bruises on their bodies, but still ready to fight. 20 guards surrounded the three, snarling and then they looked at the field of beaten, broken, and defeated men before them. They then looked at the three alchemist standing and watched as Ed clapped his hands and formed a bo-staff, which he twirled above his head. Al followed suit, creating a short blade that he sliced at the air in demonstration of how he knew how to use it. Twilight then crafted a small staff of her own and spun it, showing her knowledge. All three had a look in their eyes that showed how they would not lose the fight as long as they were breathing. Their backs to each other as they readied themselves for another fight.

A peculiar smell entered the room as the guards shouted in unison, “SHIT!!!!!!!! FORGET THIS,” and then ran out of the castle screaming.

Watching the guards leave, Twilight turned to Ed and gave him a hug, accompanied by Al, “Ed, I thought…”

“I kind of was, but Truth decided to be nice and send me back,” Ed smiled as he returned the hug.

The three began to walk through the castle, unbothered by anymore guards. There was little to no sound to be heard through the place. It wasn’t long until they reached a room that could only be described as the science lab and beyond that there was a large door with a circle on it. The golden circle had the words, “Brotherhood is eternal” written upon it in golden letters. Ed used his alchemy to break down any locks the door may have had and opened it. As they stepped into the circular room they saw on the pedestal, a red stone hand that was grasping at nothing, as if it was trying to hold another in friendship. Along the stone was three small circles with only one circle having a symbol on it, that of a blue diamond, “The Fraternity Stone!”
`

“I don’t know why you wish to steal my stone, but I will not let you stop Project: Homecoming!” Shouted a voice as a man leapt into view of the three alchemist, brandishing a sword.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note:

Zoltantthemagificant is a great editor, that is all

Now, about notes...well, this was one of those thingss I wrote first when I started this story. Ed getting his automail and alchemy back. I wanted to do a scene with him getting everything back and being able to fight. I also hope that I made temp sympathectic enough