Episode 6: The Alchemy Exam (2003 series)

Ed and Al arrive in Central and begin their preparations for the Alchemy Exam while staying with Shou Tucker, a famous State Alchemist who specializes in creating chimeras. After a long period of studying (and in between when Ed, Al, and Tucker's daughter Nina help with a birth and Ed heats water without a Transmutation Circle,) Al is forced by Mustang to drop out of the course. Al protests, but Ed agrees with Mustang, not wanting his brother to become a slave of the military like he is soon to become. In the practical course of the exam, the first man makes a huge pillar, but is so exhausted he rests in front of it. The next man uses water and trees to make a hydrogen blimp. However, the blimp punctures, and Ed rushes to the rescue. Without the use of a transmutation circle, he reverses the falling pillar and blimp before they crush the people underneath, and turns them into flower petals. This puts him at the level of State Alchemist.