//------------------------------//
// 5: of Numbereds and Death 
// Story: One Way 
// by jroddie 
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Chapter 5

I looked at these ponies with a face filled with awe.
“We brought you here because you were too weak after the battle with the angelic to survive in normal Equestria for much longer.” said the tall red, Othello.
“That, and we were much too late in informing you of your powers.” said the yellow mare, Evangeline. She continued:
“In the past, we managed to take a numbered whenever they appeared in Equestria, but all of us were here in the Nether when you attained existence in this dimension. By the time we mobilized you were gallivanting all across the whole of Equestria, with a ragtag bunch of bounty hunters and sorcerers! why, if it was back in my d-” Evangeline was waved off by Othello, her small head dwarfed by his massive crimson hoof.
“We have been awaiting the arrival of the Fifth for centuries.” declared Othello, his thunderous voice booming inside of the confines of this room. He continued when he saw my look of confusion “Every time a numbered is summoned into this world, it heralds a grave disaster. We Numbereds carry a great blessing, and bear a grave curse. We are called to face the grey horseman, death, long before our allotted times. We are selected because we are needed to save the lives of many, which justifies the deaths of we few.” said Othello sadly, as if he still mourned his own death. Othello got down on his knees and looked me straight in the eyes.
“I will not be flippant about your death, Edwin. It is a tragedy when one must die, necessary or otherwise. But i must stress to you what the responsibilities of a Numbered are, and encourage you to lose all ties to your past life.” he said gravely.
“But Othello, isn't there a way...” He was already shaking his head before i finished the sentence
“But would you want to? Edwin, when you fought the Angelic, what did you see?” He retorted. I thought back to the screams, the children... Fluttershy, her frame convulsing...
“Terrible things. things that I would not wish on anypony.” I said, disgusted by the horror of the memory.
“And that is why you must fight! For every last pony in Equestria! What that Angelic did, what it wanted to do, was absolutely nothing! Mere foals’ play! There are thousands more with far eviler goals in mind than just torture!” said Othello, with fire in his voice. It was almost scary to see him speak with such emotion, as if his passion could break bones. Looking at his huge body, it probably could.
“I only have one question.” I said.
Evangeline looked at me and said “and what could that possibly be?”
“You guys have any food?”

I was grumpy. Apparently the Nether got in an argument with food once and said “fuck you, i don’t need you, food!” or something to the cosmic effect of that, and then food was not required to sustain life in the Nether. I talked to Marcus, head of transportation here in the nether, and told me that if they time it right, they can send me back to long before the orb appeared, and in Princess Celestia’s chamber. Marcus was explaining the finer points to me in the transporting and demolecularization of myself when I heard light hoof beats behind me, too light to be a Numbered.
“Well! Lucky me!” said a familiar voice. “Not every day you get to see the same ghost twice.” I smiled, because I knew that I was really going to like what I was about to do. As soon as the colt was close enough to me I spun around on my back hooves and punched him in the face. The feeling of my hoof making contact with his face was satisfying in a primal way. I watched him as he fell to the ground.
“OI! what did you do that for?” said the Doctor, as he held a hoof up to his face
“You knew exactly what the Angelic would do! Why didn't you tell me?!” I shouted at him.
He gazed back at me with his bloodied face, eyes glazed with centuries upon centuries of sadness. There were no words for what this pony has seen. I can see that i have done nothing to him other than make him want something that he could never have. Death.
I fell to my knees and wept, like a child, blubbering all over my hooves. I couldn't help myself, he just bared my soul and told me how much of a petulant child i was. But, under that... there was something else.
“I didn’t tell you because there was no way that you would have believed me, Ed. I know you better than you know yourself.” He got onto all four of his hooves, and leaned in to whisper in my ear.
“I've seen suns explode, empires demolished, whole planets vaporized killing millions upon millions of innocents. I've seen people I love electrocuted, burned, incinerated, compressed, exploded, imploded, dessicated, gutted, transmuted, eviscerated, and hung.
“You think that a handful of ponies getting singed for a few minutes would faze me?” He calmly whispered.
I managed to stop weeping for a second to say something.
“You sick bastard, you think that that is any excuse? Just because you’ve seen worse, makes torturing innocent creatures acceptable?” I managed to look him straight in the nose, which was as close as i could get to his eyes without crying.
The Doctor was taken aback by this, and his eyes softened.
“It is always the young ones who prove me wrong, in the end. Marcus?” he said, as if nothing had happened.
“Yes sir?” Marcus said cautiously, unsure if the doctor would direct his wrath at him next.
“Marcus, tell Othello that you need not send him back so soon. You can keep Mr. Edwin Shell here as long as you please. I will take him back to Equestria when Othello requests it of me.” the doctor said in a voice full of authority. And please don’t call me sir.”
“Yes sir.”  replied Marcus as the Doctor trotted away, leaving me weeping as a confused Marcus carried me through the hallways.

We walk through a random doorway to find a deep blue pony contemplating what seemed to be a fish tank with everything but the fish. He glances back at us.
“Marcus, if you would leave him there for me, I’ll take him to Othello.” said Gespard, flourishing a hoof at a nearby sofa. Marcus let me down gently on the the said sofa and trotted out of the entryway.  I looked at Gespard, his cobalt mane flowing majestically down his neck. He was standing on his two back legs as he ran his hooves though the tank of water on the table in front of him.
“I would understand if you are very confused right now Ed.” Gespard said in a soft voice as he turned around to face me “The changes we all went through as we earned our mantle as Numbered are not easy ones. If we were to go about this the conventional way, you would spend a few months in the Nether being trained in the proper way to use your given ability. There are a few problems with going about it in this fashion. The first problem is that you are a ghost. Your coat is a pure white color, which gives us no idea what your power would be. In the case of all of the Numbereds except for you, our coats indicate the powers we have.” he flourished a hoof over to the tank of water, where to my surprise a large glob of water floated out and followed the path of the hoof back to his lap, where he prodded and poked it. Gespard continued as if nothing special happened.  
“The second problem we have is time. You should be lucky that the Doctor has offered to help us in this endeavor. The Lonely god is beholden to none, and goes where he pleases upon his sea of time.” He flicked his hoof and the ball of water flew back into the tank.
“I was the previous Numbered to enter this world, the fourth. Sadly, my talent was not very useful in the cataclysm that I was selected to prevent, but I was still powerful enough to defeat the danger that threatened Equestria.” He said rather smugly, but with a hint of regret in his eyes. He laid on the raised mat, saying nothing for a while. The blue colt lay on his mat, contemplating ages past. I thought about what he just told me, when a question sprang to  mind.
“Gespard... how... how did you die?” I asked him cautiously. He seemed taken aback by this question, as if it was one he was never prepared to answer. Tears welled in his eyes as he contemplated.
“I-I was...  a soldier, in the war of 1812. My ship was a powder mule on the battle of lake Eire. The  ship was boarded and set aflame. I watched my crew mates burn before the fire spread to the galley. The ship exploded, and that is that.” there was a lone tear running down his face.
“You... didn’t have to say... I didn’t know...” I stumbled awkwardly.
“It’s fine. and, it does give me warrant to tell you that Numbereds that are selected from their timeline do not transpose themselves directly into Equestria, but are transported to the time that they are most needed, which also leads to the next subject I must tell you.”
“The power of the Numbereds are not based on their actual number, meaning that the lowest number isn’t the most powerful, or the least. I myself, the fourth, am actually the least powerful of the Holding four.” he said in an explanatory tone.
“Othello, whose power is the wielding of fire, is actually the second most powerful, but the strongest in terms of physical prowess. The strongest in terms of gift would have to be Evangeline.”
I was surprised to hear this answer, because I expected her to be the least powerful. she seemed so feminine, yet... had an air of ability about her.
“Why? what can she... wield?” I asked, doubtful.
“You’ll find out soon.” said a smug voice in the doorway. We both looked up to see Evangeline in the doorway. She looked at Gespard and spoke
“Othello requires the Ghost in the arena, he has sent me to fetch him.” She said as she gestured at me to get up. Gespard looked at Evangeline disbelievingly. Evangeline, looking at him with a coy smile on her face, said
“You are always welcome to join us, Gespard. Othello would not even dream that he could keep you confined.” said Evangeline in an amused  tone. Marcus seemed to return to his senses at that statement.
“Of course i will, it would be quite enjoyable to see that.” said Gespard enthusiastically, getting up from his mat.

Gespard and I followed Evangeline to the largest room i have ever seen. it was gigantic, absolutely enormous, because it was a large swath of wilderness. Trees, a river, and even sunlight streaked through the patch of land.
“Gespard, Othello asked you to join him in the bleachers.” said Evangeline. Gespard looked grumpily at Evangeline and jumped lithely up a sheer crag, bounding from rock to rock, and finally disappearing over the top. Evangeline tuned to look down at me, being a full head taller.
“In a few moments, you will be fighting for your life.” said Evangeline without inflection. “You should expect to give no quarter, for no quarter shall be given to you. You will face me, and do your very best to kill me. I will also be trying to kill you. Understand well, foal, that the contest will not be over until one of us dies, or Othello calls an end to our contest. Edwin, do you understand to the best of your ability what I have just told you?” I looked her straight in the eyes.
“I do.” I spat out, and flung a hoof up to her face. she lithely sprung out of the way, sprinting across the face of the crag. she stopped halfway across it and stepped onto the open air.
“Come, now, Edwin! you think that a childish little thing like that could even effect a Numbered who has held her mantle for millennia?” she laughed at me as she spoke. I growled as I galloped towards her. Using a small rock as a springboard, I jumped up to her, nearly flying, and cocked a hoof at her. I screamed as I flung it towards her, loosening all of my bodily strength. She stepped to the side of me as I looked at her in awe. She moved so fast, I could hardly see it. The ground rushed up to meet me as I contemplated her speed.
The landing jarred my body, with one of my forelegs bearing the brunt of the fall. I looked up at Evangeline, who seemed to be glowing somewhat. She reared up on her hind legs as she floated in the air, spreading wide her forelegs as if she was about to hug somepony. She stood in this pose for a few minutes as I tried to look for something to fight her with. The trees would do nothing against her, and I really couldn’t pick one out of the ground. The world grew dark. I looked up to Evangeline, whose entire body was glowing a bright gold. I paused in my movement, I had never seen anything as stunning in my entire life.
She opened her eyes, and i could see that they were a bright white. She turned those eyes at me, and immediately they turned red.

Time froze, and she fired a beam of pure red at me. I tried to move out of the way fast enough, but it didn’t help. My right foreleg, where the beam hit, was completely gone, leaving a crisped stub of flesh in it’s place. I tried to not cry out in pain, but it was too strong. I sobbed quietly and limped through the forest, trying to find the crag where Gespard climbed. It was nearly impossible to do with one foreleg, but I managed to find the cliff. I looked up at the cliff, not knowing if I had enough time before she fired whatever that was at me again. I looked up the crag, and closed my eyes, imagining me up in the air, standing like Evangeline was. I stood there, smelling the burnt flesh of my leg as a profound amount of nothing happened. I fell to the ground. I laid there for a second, hopeless, as my body waited to be singed to a crisp. I sat there for a second or two before i realised that the ground was rather flat where I fell. I opened my eyes tentatively to see that I was floating above the ground, high above the crag where I intended to be. I looked down at Evangeline, who was again bright golden and staring at me. Her eyes turned red and flashed, the red beam slicing off my left foreleg.
I collapsed on my air pillow, screaming, my hind leg on fire. Through tears I looked at her, the edges of the world growing dark. In one last ditch effort, I pointed my only foreleg at her, and concentrated.

I heard a large detonation, and felt my strength renew. I could feel the lightning before I could see it. It moved at a lazy pace, streaking down to the golden mare. But it was  so much faster than Evangeline, who doesn’t look up. Not wanting to kill her, I make it streak by her face, leaving a few tendrils of electricity to completely paralyze her. Her body slowly floated down to the forest floor. I concentrated on my remaining hoof, watching the energy visibly grow and arc. I stared down at Evangeline’s broken form and smiled, and flew down at her unmoving body. My remaining forehoof bristled with deadly intent. Unpausing time so I could watch her die, I landed next to her and flung my electrically charged hoof down towards her pretty golden face. There was a single bead of sweat on her large muzzle. 
“STOP” boomed Othello. The sheer will of his statement made me stop dead in my tracks, my hoof inches from the golden snout I wanted to crush. Strands of electricity were arcing off of her shaking face. Othello appeared beside me, put a hoof on my shoulder, and said
“She does not deserve what you will give her Edwin. Put it out!” he said, gesturing at my lightning-filled hoof. I severed the flow of energy to that hoof, and closed my eyes. the pain was so intense. I concentrated on my legs and arms, wishing them into existence. When I opened my eyes, I severed the flow of magic that kept me upright, and fell onto all fours. The joy I felt when i was able to use my legs was amazing. Othello looked down at me, His eyes livid. 
“Walk with me.” He said without emotion, and strode out of the arena.