Chapter 61
“So this dragon comes out of nowhere. Eyes bloody red, belly covered in jewels, and he’s looking at me.” Othello said. I laughed.
“No way.”
“Yes way. Now he’s seen me with his star sapphire. He knows that I have it. The Doctor’s next to me, trying to get me to give it up. ‘Come on, Othello’, he says, giving me the elbow. ‘It’s not worth it.’ He says. But I’m hell bent on getting Celestia this sapphire for Hearthwarming Eve. So you know what I do?”
“What?”
“I try to teleport out of there.”
“No!” I exclaimed. Othello just nodded, deep in the story.
“Oh yeah. But I didn’t know that this dude has a null spell ‘round the cave. So I’m just sitting there, blinking my eyes and looking like a retard. And this dragon knows what I’m doing. He starts growling. The Doctor starts elbowing me even faster now. He’s practically pushing me to the mouth of cave. Now you know this dragon’s wanting to kill us. But the Doctor’s trying to get him trapped in some riddles. This dragon must be some kind of dope, because he’s playing into the game perfectly. I manage to sneak away from the dragon while the Doctor’s going through this riddle contest. I’ve got the-” He says, but he’s interrupted by the doors to the dining hall opening loudly. The both of us turn and looked. Princess Celestia entered the hall, flanked by Antony and Asperx. The two brothers studiously avoided looking at us, but the Princess wasn’t so subtle. She stared at the two of us, clearly disgruntled. I turned back to Othello. His smile from the story faltered, and he got up from his chair. I watched him walk the long distance to the front of the room. My mind was racing, trying to figure out what the problem was. Othello finally reached the trio, and Celestia’s horn illuminated. A scroll popped into the air next to her hair, and she opened it with magic. She started to read it. I could see her mouth moving. As she spoke Othello grabbed his hair with his hands. Celestia kept reading.
“No Tia, no!” Othello shouted. I could hear the pain in his voice. I got up from my chair, standing upright. This was serious. I could hear Othello wailing while Celestia kept reading. Antony and Asperx, the pictures of uncaring, did not look at Othello. Celestia finished talking, rolling the scroll back up again. She touched Asperx’ shoulder. He looked right at me. He vanished in a puff of white smoke. I gulped, unconsciously walking backwards away from the scene. I fell backwards over the table behind me. I was lying on the table. Asperx appeared on top of me, with his face set in a threatening scowl.
“Do anything funny and you won’t be able to walk for the next few years.” He growled. My mouth dropped open. There wasn’t enough time to even figure out what happened.
“Wh-” I tried to say, but Asperx cast a spell that kept me from talking. He jumped off of me and onto the floor, levitating me into an upright position. I was completely pinned- Legs straight, arms plastered to my sides. My entire vision had a bright blue sheen, and I couldn’t even move my eyes to look around. All I could see out of my limited point of view was Asperx grinning at me. Everything I had planned out for getting to Equestria, I never really planned on what to do when I got there. Now everything was blowing up in my face. I heard a crash and the tinkling of glass. I tried to turn and look at it but only ended up straining my neck. Asperx summoned his sword, which glinted in the reflected moonlight. I wanted to look at the sword. It was somehow extremely mysterious, with its multiple facets, with all different colors that represented all of the different ponies that made up his brain. If it was possible for me to look away from it, it would have been impossible to look away from it anyways. I followed the sword, with its fractured blade, soar through the air. It swung out of my vision. It struck something, and that something struck me. I wasn’t able to move, which made the blow hurt even more. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t move through Asperx’ spell. The thing that hit me, which now looked like a bloody pile of white feathers, got up and screeched. That screech. It set my teeth on edge and made me shiver. It was like someone cracked my head open. Asperx clenched his teeth and pressed his hooves to his ears. The pile of bloody feathers assembled itself in my mind into a perfectly white griffon. It was so big. I was hovering a foot or so off of the ground, but this griffon could have easily looked me right in the eyes. I watched with awe as the griffon soared through the air, barely spreading her wings and extending her claws. I watched the claws fly closer and closer to Asperx’ widening eyes when I suddenly collapsed to the ground. I could hear the shouts and screeches of the fight unfolding. I tried to crawl away from the noises, but the pain on my left side of my body was excruciating. I could only use my right side to pull myself forward. I was crawling underneath the table when something wrenched my left ankle, pulling me out from underneath the table. I rolled over and turned to see Antony, eyes filled with tears and teeth clenched in an angry grimace. He was levitating a dagger over his head. He brought it down quickly, leaving me barely enough time to roll out of the way. I turned back to see the dagger. It was brilliantly ornate, with a wavy silver blade and a bright gem in the pommel. The hilt was wrapped in dull brown leather. Antony yanked it out of the floor and swung it back down again. I rolled the other way, but I was too late. I was positioned so that the blade slipped between two ribs, scratching my sternum and creating a clean cut through one of my lungs. The tip of it nicked my esophagus. I gasped, feeling every inch of the blade as it went through my body. I gulped, looking down at the blade. All I could see was the brilliantly embellished handle sticking out. I grabbed it with a shaking hand and tried to pull it out. It came out a few inches before I stopped, consumed with pain. I collapsed back onto the floor, trying to breathe. I looked up at Antony’s angry purple eyes.
“What... What would Berry say...” I tried to ask, but it only came out in panting breaths. Antony looked shocked for a moment, but then he flashed to something even angrier. With a shout he pulled the dagger back out and jabbed it back into my chest. I felt that one even more than the last one. He pulled it out roughly, only to just plunge it back in at a different spot. He did this again and again and again and again. After almost an eternity, he finally stopped, dropping the dagger and plopping back into a sitting position. I looked up at the stony ceiling of the dining hall, thinking about how quickly it all went wrong. I was given a second chance at a normal life, but all I wanted to do was go back to the one that I had before. I could feel my hands and feet get cold. I saw Antony enter my vision, still angry. He spat on my forehead. I could barely feel it.
“Don’t tell me what my wife would think of me.” He growled. He walked away, leaving me to look at the ceiling.
I didn’t even feel myself fall asleep.
“Shit”
“I know.”
“He’s messed up really bad.”
“I know.”
“What happened?”
“He made a Bladesinger angry, I suppose.”
“A what?!”
“Do you need more money?”
“I might.”
“It’s yours. Now treat him.” Something said. I opened my eyes a little bit. I couldn’t see very well, but something appeared in front of my face.
“Edwin, you might want to be asleep for this one.” The something said. I recognized it
“Doctor.” I muttered, unable to speak properly. I coughed.
“We’re going to patch you up nicely, okay? You’re going to live. Just stay strong.” The Doctor said, disappearing from view. I drifted off again, my mind giving me exotic dreams.
I blinked, looking around. It was bright white, straining my eyes. When I finally adjusted, I tried to sit up. Something was pressing me down. I looked down at my body and saw a thick metal plate there. My chest felt funny, like there were feathers tickling me. I was going to reach up and swat them away but my hand met the thick plate. It was cold to the touch. I was trying to push it off with both of my hands when the Doctor came in. I turned to him.
“Hey, you gotta help me get this off.” I said to the Doctor. The Doctor smiled.
“You don’t want to do that.” The Doctor said.
“Why not? This thing is so heavy.”
“It’s keeping you alive, that’s what. Something stabbed you thirty-seven times. I know that its starting to become the norm for you, but you shouldn’t be alive. You were lucky that I got to you when I did, or else you’d be in a morgue by now.” He said. I collapsed back onto the pillow.
“What’s this thing on my chest.” I wondered.
“New Terran gear. Best in the galaxy. This thing is pumping you full of biofoam and keeping your wounds closed with superglue. You’ve got an IV with some sucrose solution so you don’t get the shakes under there.” The Doctor explained
“Superglue?”
“It worked in the 1940’s, and it works today.” The Doctor explained simply. I frowned, looking up at the ceiling.
“What now?” I asked the Doctor.
“We’re going to have to get you a cane and get you out of that bed. We’re going for a walk.” He said.
A while later, I was standing with the Doctor on one of the hospital’s walkways, staring up at the sunset. Skyscrapers stabbed into the sky, puncturing the clouds of sunset. Neat grids of hovercars zipped past, blocking the view of the sun occasionally. We watched silently, and I stroked the cane resting on my legs.
“It’s strange.” The Doctor said. I didn’t say anything, letting him continue. “It’s strange. I’ve been to many, many places. I’ve seen a thousand sunsets almost identical to this one. I’ve seen the sunset on the day that Galifrey was destroyed. I’ve seen the sunset on the day that the colonists from old Earth landed on this planet. I’ve seen the sunset on the day that you died, Edwin. Both times. They’re always important. They’re symbols, sort-of. There’s always another day. Always another sunset.” The Doctor said. I nodded, trying to understand.
“What did my dad do?” I asked after a while. The sun sank down under the horizon a little bit. The Doctor looked at me.
“What?”
“My dad. The day I died.”
“Alex Shell?” The Doctor asked. I nodded. “He didn’t know about it till the next day. They tracked him down and a trooper knocked on his door. He just sat on the kitchen floor and just cried. The neighbors had to come in the next day to make him eat something. It tore him apart, your death. He almost didn’t come to your funeral. He had to, though. He had to know if it was all real. You were the last part of Angela that he had left.”
“Can we... Can we go see him?” I asked. The Doctor frowned.
“How can it... How can you help him? Edwin, you’re not you anymore. You might be his son, but at the same time you’re not. It couldn’t help either of you. It would just be a reminder of things that can never be.” He said. I looked back to the sunset.
“I need to get back to the Tardis.” I said. The Doctor nodded.
“Sure. I can send you to Canterlot to get it back. We’ll pick up Othello along the way.” He said. I frowned. Nothing went right.
I was limping through the halls of Canterlot, trying to find Othello and my Tardis. I rounded the corner and found the blue box. I limped faster, resting most of my weight on my cane. I flung the doors open and walked in Othello was sitting on the loveseat, chewing his nails. When he saw me, he got up and rushed over.
“She doesn’t love me anymore, Edwin. She said so. She decreed so. She arrested me and put me away. It was horrible, Edwin. I never felt so alone.” Othello said. I pushed past him, hobbling towards the console. I plopped myself down in a command chair and started putting in my coordinates. Othello rushed back up to me.
“Edwin! She doesn’t love me anymore. What are we going to do?” Othello asked, imploring me for guidance.
“I know what I’m going to do, Othello. After I do that, everything else is up to you.” I said. I turned back to the console and put in the last command that I needed. I looked up at the time drive, pistoning to send us to our next destination.
Dimension hopping is extremely dangerous. It’s a temporal impossibility. Einstein’s bullet in the dark was a coin flip in comparison. It was like firing a revolver that only has one bullet in it six times, firing a bullet each time, then unloading the revolver and pulling out an unspent cartridge. It’s impossible to conventional physics. But the Tardis has its ways. Othello and I found ourselves back on Earth in under an hour after a very shaky journey.
I opened the Tardis doors, feeling the wave of blistering heat from the outside. I squinted my eyes against the strong sunlight. I stepped out, feeling the burning dry air on the outside. My eyes adjusted to the sunlight, and I found myself on a luxurious deck, looking out at a half-completed skyline. The sun’s glare reflected off of the glass that bordered the entire deck. I looked back to the Tardis to see Othello climbing out, his eyes squinting in the sunlight. I waited a moment for him to adjust before I started to speak.
“Do you know where we are?” I asked him.
“An oven?” He ventured. I didn’t laugh.
“This is the Burj Kalifa, in the great Emirate of Dubai. The tallest building in the world for about twenty years from this time period, right now.” I said, pointing to the ground. I looked back out at the desert. towers punched out of the ground, reaching up to the sky. “The entire tower, from the spire, is about eight hundred meters tall. We’re on the highest observation deck, which puts us up about 480 meters up. If I were to drop something from this observation deck, it would take about fifty three seconds to fall to the bottom.” I said. Othello looked confused, so I took the sonic screwdriver I had in my pocket and waved it at the bank of windows. They all shattered, leaving no doubt as to my intent. Othello shook his head.
“No, Edwin. Please.” Othello begged. I shook my head.
“The Doctor was right. We really don’t belong here. Equestria isn’t ours anymore. The fight against the Angelics isn’t ours. It’s theirs. And I can’t handle that anymore. I can’t let go and live my normal life. I can’t go back and live Jamal’s life. I can’t bear it. I can’t.” I said, starting to break down
“Edwin... It’s you and me. We’re in this together. You can’t go. Please.” Othello said, his voice straining. I turned back to him. He was crying.
“I wish I could stay, Othello. I really do. But its just too hard. My mind belongs in Equestria, but my body doesn’t. Life just isn’t the same when you’re not a Numbered.” I said, trying not to cry too.
“But we are Numbered! We still are! We still have our minds!” Othello shouted. I hobbled over to Othello and grabbed him by his torn turtleneck.
“No we don’t! Have you ever tried to solve differential equations in your mind since you’ve been a human? Can you remember what you had for lunch on December third, 1976? Can you calculate what day it is using only the sun’s position and a compass? We don’t have our minds anymore, Othello! We just have normal, human brains. We’re not special anymore.” I finished, letting go of his turtleneck and walking towards the edge of the Deck.
“Please, Edwin.” Othello pleaded one last time.
“Luna thinks that I’m dead. I’m going to prove her right.” I said, and then jumped. The gleaming spire fell away underneath me, leaving nothing but the air to keep me up. The wind tore at my clothes, trying desperately to keep me from falling. But gravity prevailed. I watched the ground quickly grow in size until it filled my surroundings.
I never even felt myself hit the bottom.