Frozen Shadows

Chapters

1. Choosing Life
2. Taking Sides
3. The Warnings of Two Horizons
4. Hard to Believe
5. Past Abduction
6. Unwilling Passengers
7. Confronting the Shadows
8. The Shadows in Our Lives
9. Darkness Calling
10. And I Obey

1. Choosing Life

“Hello, my dear Derpy,” Whooves greeted brightly as she walked into the workshop where the Time Pony was tinkering with something on his overcrowded bench space. “And how are we this lovely morning?”

She threw her mailbag over onto a chair. “It's evening, Doctor. In fact, it's dinnertime.” She came over to inspect whatever it was he was doing. “When were you last outside this lab of yours? When did you last eat?”

“Oh, about 253 years ago,” he said without looking up. She stuck her nose into his project, trying to get him to look at her. It worked. He looked up thoughtful, staring at nothing in particular. “I was in Saddle Arabia, come to think of it. Makes me thirsty.”

The mailmare searched for something to drink and since nothing was nearby, went over to the 'fridge and rooted around until she came out, having found nothing. More searching found a teapot near to boiling on a makeshift stove (i.e. a bunsen burner). Dragging it off and pouring him a cup, she pulled out a packet of something, tore off the top and emptied its contents into it. He watched her approvingly, then buried his nose back in his project. “Ah, tea, excellent choice, Derp mi'gal,” he beamed.

She came over and placed the cup next to him on the workbench. “If you're thirsty thinking of Saddle Arabia, I would recommend water, but that's just me being strange, I suppose.”

“Most definitely,” he agreed, pulling the cup over to him. His nose picked up the scent of the contents and he frowned. It finally got him to look up and stick his nose into the little china cup. “Ugh! That's not tea!” he complained disapprovingly.

“No, Doctor. It's hot chocolate,” she replied.

Shaking his head at her, he moved the cup away and went back to work. “And it will stay hot chocolate, in that cup and never touch my muzzle,” he declared.

“Why not? What's wrong with hot chocolate?” she asked.

“Ask a bar of chocolate,” he said, sticking his nose closer to her for emphasis. “The form, the temperature.” Drawing back, he lifted his head proudly. “All unnatural.”

Derpy sighed. “So says the pony who gallops through time and space at of course, completely natural speeds and in perfectly normal methods of transportation. Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”

“Nope,” he punctuated his word with a 'pop' at the end. “That's why I always travel in hoof with a lovely companion.” He extended his hoof to hers.

She smiled, taking it. “Now that's more like it, Doctor.”

They strolled to the time box. “So, where are you taking me for dinner?” she grinned.

“Me? I thought I was the one that was in need of food because I've been starving all day!” he pouted.

“Well, I've been flying around all day, too, delivering mail. I haven't had lunch or dinner!” Derpy complained.

“Okay,” he agreed. “Dutch?”

She sighed, opening the door to the time machine. “It's always 'dutch' with you! One day I'm going to get a Doctor who is gallant and treats me for once!”

He followed in after her. “I'm afraid you're about two faces too late for that, mi'dear.”

Once inside, a soft beeping caught his attention. But as he trotted over to the console, Derpy drug his attention back to her. “Oohhh...Doctor? I feel dizzy!” she staggered, shaking her head.

“What – ah!” he was hit an instant later with the same feeling, driving him to the ground, his legs folding under him. “Ah! That's a nasty time shift!” he groaned, trying to blink his blurry vision clear again. “Derps? Derps, are you all right?”

“I – I think so, Doctor,” she said slowly, recovering quicker than the time sensitive stallion. “What was that?”

“A time shift. A bad one from the feel of it!” Carefully he made his way back up on his hooves. “Felt like an entire region was affected.” He caught sight of the door to the Tardis, still open. “Ah, it didn't help that the spacial interface was still open to the outside world and local time stream.”

“You mean the door was still open?” the mailmare asked, completely recovered.

“Yes, well if you want a less interesting and exciting phrase, yes! The 'door' was still open,” he grumbled. Once back up and centered, his head swung back over to the console, which was beeping louder and more insistently now. “That must be what the old girl was trying to get our attention for. She felt it coming on. Derps, would you do the honors?” he requested, indicating the door.

She pulled it closed and trotted over to him at the Tardis console. “Dinner may have to wait,” he warned. “This upset in the time stream is massive. It affects two thirds of Equestria and the other third has smaller blips of consequential repercussions.”

“'Blips'”, echoed Derpy. “Is that a scientific term?”

“It is now,” he nodded, giving her a wide manic grin. He programmed coordinates into the console and threw a switch.

The time box bucked and sounded off-kilter, fighting his coordinates. They had to grab the sides of the desktop to keep from being thrown to the floor. “Whoa!” Whooves yelped. “Goodness me! Wake up on the wrong side of the time-space continuum, did we, Missy?”

“Now that is a temper tantrum if I've ever heard – and felt one!” the mailmare mumbled.

“Indeed. She doesn't want to head to where it is strongest...” he glanced at a map of Equestria. “which is...oh...a glacier about a thousand years in the past!”

“Oh...not frozen, long-buried Martians again, Doctor,” the mare whined. “They were horrid!”

“They are an honorable race, Derpy,” he countered, offended on their behalf. “It was the frozen Cyberponies that were horrid.”

“Good point,” she conceded. “but if we aren't going there, why are we going somewhere else?”

“If I could tell you that, Derps, I would be omnipotent, would have fixed it already and we wouldn't be having this conversation, now would we?” Whooves told her. “All she'll tell us is that we appear to be taking a detour to – well, to Canterlot! Hang on, Derpy!”

In an alcove of Canterlot Castle's many corridors, the Tardis slipped into existence again, only her peculiar wheezing engines giving her away. Fortunately, the corridor had emptied only a minute prior as a large pair of double doors had opened, letting a medium-sized crowd of ponies into another room.

Whooves poked his head out the door, looking in all directions before deigning it safe to exit the machine, gesturing to Derpy as he did so. Once she was out, he closed the door behind them, patting the side of the time box.

The two looked around. “Well, it does look like Canterlot Castle,” Whooves nodded. “She was correct in telling us that.”

“And it looks modern day, too,” Derpy agreed. “That's a relief!”

“Yes. Whatever's upset time, it must have something to do with the Royal Pony Sisters. C'mon!” Whooves cautiously opened one of the large doors, looked and crept in, pulling the mare behind him.

The large room was the throne room. They were at the end of a crowd of mares, stallions and families from all walks of life, standing in line, waiting to be heard by someone at the far end of the line from where the two travelers were. Derpy craned her neck around the crowd to see who it was. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!” she reported back to the Doctor.

“Makes sense,” he shrugged.

“What do we do now, Doctor?” she asked.

He scratched his mane, mussing it up even further than it already was. “Simple. We wait in line like everypony else.”

They waited, moving up in line ever so slowly. They had arrived in the morning and the Celestia's sun had nearly peaked overhead when thankfully they were now only the second ones from the front of the line. “I hope something happens soon,” Whooves muttered to Derpy. “If we get up there and don't know what we're here for - “

The pony in front of them was next. The Princesses looked to the hooded and cloaked figure. “Welcome to Canterlot Castle, my subject. What might we do for you?” Princess Celestia addressed her.

The cloaked figure came slightly closer and bowed. From the sway of her back hips, the time travelers guessed it was a mare under the concealing garb. Her voice confirmed it. It also seemed to carry a peculiar hint of something else underneath it, almost like a double echo. The crowd, which had grown tired and restless over the past few hours, turned to her at its unique, almost regal cadence.

“I pray thee, I am no subject, your Highnesses, but I have nowhere else to turn to,” she began.

“Oh? Where does thouest come from?” Luna asked. “You speak in the old ways and sound vaguely familiar.”

The mare nodded her head. “Indeed, fair Princess of the Night. We have met before. And from where and when I hail, that would be the Crystal Empire.”

The Royal Sisters looked at each other. “Were Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor not able to hear or assist with your case?” Celestia asked, tackling that subject before her questioning her about why she said “when” she hailed from.

“Indeed not, your Highness,” the mare replied.

“Did you hear that, Derpy,” Whooves leaned to her, whispering. “'where and when'? I think we are on to something here.”

“This is a matter far beyond their hooves to tend,” the mystery mare confirmed, pacing back and forth slowly in front of the thrones. “for it was not their magic that caused me the loss of my King and my consort.”

Those in the crowd around them muttered at this and the Sisters themselves looked at each other in growing curiosity. It was Luna who addressed this. “There has not be a King in Equestria for a millennia, traveler.”

They could see a smile from inside the concealing cloak. “I did also mention 'when', your fair Highness,” the mare agreed.

It was Derpy's turn to lean to the Doctor. “She certainly likes Princess Luna,” she muttered.

“Yes,” he agreed. “She keeps complimenting Her.”

“We would hear you out, dear,” Celestia interrupted. “but first, We would like to see the face of she who requests Our assistance.”

“Soon, and I apologize, Sun Goddess,” the mare agreed. “but I fear thy judgment would be affected by my appearance before Ye had a chance to hear me out.”

“Fair enough, if the thought makes you uncomfortable, then please proceed,” Celestia granted the unusual request.

The mare stopped pacing. “I have been without my King for a long time and my heart aches so badly even breathing is no longer bearable nor tolerable to me. I wish to beg for His sentence to be lightened. Its length has been – affected by unnatural forces and is of a crueler nature than He deserves.”

The question of her status if she were married to a King burned on the Sister's lips, but they exercised patience before asking. “What do you mean 'affected by unnatural forces'?” Luna asked.

“Time has – how shall I put this? Jumped a track and landed back in the wrong place,” their petitioner said carefully. “I know not the how, nor the why. All I know is I must do something to right it.”

There were mutters of disbelief at her words and she stood stock still, as if she had fully expected such a reaction.

“This grows more puzzling,” Celestia shook her head. “What was His sentence and what is it now?”

“And who is He? Indeed, who are thee?” Luna could no longer stand the mystery.

“His original sentence, your Highnesses, was one thousand years,” the mare declared.

Whooves sucked in a breath. “Save Discord, there's only one pony that was sentenced to a thousand years by the Royal Pony Sisters!“

“We know of no pony nor creature save Discord condemned to such a length of time,” Celestia shook her head, startling the Doctor.

“What?” he asked softly.

“Yes,” agreed the mare. “Because now time has been distorted and His sentence has changed - “ she paused, took a breath. “to eternity!”

All manner of mutterings came from around them. Celestia drew back, a darkness flickering over her features. Luna's gaze turned slightly chillier.

“We would see who thee are now,” Luna commanded, done with humoring the mysterious mare.

She drew her hood back, then let the cloak fall to the ground and stood unflinching under theirs and the other's gazes. She was taller than a standard pony, the feathering on her hooves leading both the Princesses and the Doctor to believe she was of Freisan stock. Her coloring was black, with a misty, fog-like grey mane as wild and full as Princess Luna's herself, and shot through with glittering sparkles fading in and out of visibility within its shadows.

This was not, however, what made all assembled so uncomfortable. Her eyes were all and completely black, with no discernible features such as an iris or cornea. If that were not disturbing enough, her unicorn's horn was a sharp curve of black at the base, quickly shading into grey, then curving into a silver-tipped point – curved like a familiar, ancient Unicorn Witch King's. She wore a silver breastplate and red royal cloak across her back, unnervingly familiar to the Two Sisters – and her crown's familiarities sent a shiver through them as well!

Celestia's and Luna's tenseness conveyed itself to the royal guard who were stationed around the room. They became more alert, bringing their spears closer to attention, their muscles subtly shifting into readiness.

The mare picked up on this and ignored them for the moment. She had been trained to be on the alert for such threats, the instinct to be aware of them and ready to defend herself as natural as breathing.

“Nyx?” Luna peered closer at the mare. “Is that you?”

The mare nodded, bowed her head to her. “Yes, my Princess.”

“Why do you wear the crown of King Sombra?” Celestia asked, unable to hide the tension in Her voice of their petitioner's revealed identity.

“Though it bears the triple moon in honor of the Marazon's links to Princess Luna, I believe I made that clear, your Highness,” Nyx replied. “He is my King.”

“The Crystal Empire had no Queen,” the Sun Princess said assuredly. “and King Sombra no wife. It would have been in the royal registry - “

Nyx tilted her head at the ruler in annoyance. “Oh yes, as if relations between Yourself and my consort,” she emphasized. “were cordial enough You would have been made aware of this.”

Princess Luna jumped down from her throne, coming up to Nyx. “Last I heard, Nyx, you were captured by King Sombra's forces, enslaved. And this a thousand years ago!”

The mare nodded. “Yes, I was. The Marazons - “ she trailed off, indicating it had not ended well. “I do not know if they even survive any longer in this age – or time stream.”

“Yes!” Whooves quietly jumped. “Nailed it! She's our nexus point, Derpy!”

“We are sorry for the losses of your people, Nyx,” Celestia said. “I feel for what you must have endured at King Sombra's cruel hooves.”

“Less than you imagine, your Highness,” Nyx replied. “He was only slightly worse than the worst stallion the Marazons ever swore off their company for.”

Luna went back up to Celestia and they conferred a moment. Whooves and Derpy stayed highly attentive to every word exchanged, every gesture so far. He was contemplating his options when the Two Sisters seemed to come to a consensus.

They faced Nyx again. It was, of course, Princess Celestia who spoke for both of them. “I am sorry for your losses, Nyx and for the affection you obviously held for King Sombra, but the sentence cannot be changed. He must never be allowed again to commit such crimes against ponyhood.”

“Those who were not there have no right to judge what was committed or not committed, without witnesses, your Highness,” the Marazon said, fighting to keep her voice even. “The crystal field allowed none egress to the area without His permissions. How can thy know what truly went on? And how can He repent or learn to become a better ruler whilst frozen under the ice flows of Northern Equestria 'till the end of time?”

“He showed no remorse!” Luna spoke up, slightly sharper than she meant to.

“Again, not to those from the outside looking in,” Nyx pressed. She tensed, then willed herself forcibly to relax. This was clearly a lost cause. “Then I ask Thee, if Thou will not consider a lightening of His sentence, I beg thee to condemn me with Him,” she asked firmly. “Banish me to the same fate, at His side!”

Ponies in the audience murmured in shock at her request. This suggestion seemed at least as abhorrent to the Royal Sisters as her request for Sombra's clemency. “Certainly not!” Luna refused.

“Unless you are guilty of conspiring with Him in His crimes, Nyx, we will do no such thing!” Celestia agreed. “You obviously have been traumatized by your time with Him and I know not how you have survived all these years, but - “

The mare fumed, the air chilling around her. “Cannot assist, or will not, Princess Celestia? You have not the power to send the King of Shadows to such a fate and I believe You did not do so!” Her sharp gaze swung to Luna's. “Is that not right, Princess Luna?”

The time traveler's were surprised at Luna's sudden discomfort. “He – He did display a strong resistance to my sister's powers, that is true.”

“Only dark magic could have subdued Him,” Nyx pressed. “I believe this decision is in Your hooves, not Your sister's!”

At this point, Celestia had had enough. “We are sorry Nyx, but We cannot assist you.”

“Then I will force this issue, Princess,” Nyx growled.

The guards were at her side almost immediately, preparing to subdue and escort her out. The Marazon lifted her head, her curved horn blazing with the telltale bubbling green, black and purples of dark magic. Her eyes themselves flared hot green, violet mist-like energies trailed at their edges. But instead of attacking, she grew transparent, the royal guards colliding into each other in the space where she should have been.

“Owwww!!!” Whooves yelped as Nyx warped time around herself, calmly and unhurriedly stepping back towards him, out of the way of the colliding guards so she could become fully corporeal again in their time stream. He stumbled back, Derpy going to his side in an effort to steady him. The TimeWitch glanced sharply back at him, cocking her head at his time sensitivity in curiosity.

“Clear the room!” Celestia ordered. The guards not attempting to subdue Nyx immediately pushed all stunned onlookers out the large double doors at the back of the palace throne room. Derpy attempted to push the guards away, but she and Whooves were still drug further back from the fight. As distance was put between he and the TimeWitch, the Doctor recovered enough he neatly side-stepped Celestia's guards, grabbing Derpy's hoof in his, running back towards the front of the room.

Meanwhile, Nyx, growling, dodged the guards, running to the side of the room Celestia's throne was on, but no closer in distance to her. The Doctor guessed she was maneuvering for more fighting space and he was proven correct. The guards followed, when Nyx sharply stamped her left fore hoof down to the ground. In response, it shook, black and red crystals springing up at her call from the floor, shattering the smooth marble with the force of their eruptions.

As the Sisters came together, tensing and readying for a battle, they noticed the Marazon warrioress worked to only knock the guards back with the crystal towers, not kill or injure them. The crystal growth's sharpened edges grew wide, flat and dulled once they had completed the task of tearing apart the flooring to allow their appearance, further convincing them, the Doctor and Derpy that she was acting strictly on the defensive and was trying to avoid needless bloodshed.

“King Sombra taught you well,” Celestia called out, her voice rising over the rumbling chaos destroying her palace's marbled floorings.

“Not my specialty,” the mare admitted. “a last resort of defense.” She leapt upon a large, flat crystal that rose above the floor about six feet. “Have you considered my request for appeal, your Highnesses?” she asked, the old style of speech fading slightly in her voice and tone, but never leaving completely.

“No, Nyx,” Celestia refused. “We will not condemn you to share His grave without the due process of a trial to discern your involvement with His crimes.”

“ARGH!” the TimeWitch snarled, making a peculiar gesture of touching a hoof to her abdomen, then lowering it. “We – I have no time for this nonsense of bureaucracy! But if it will facilitate my fate to be sealed and be with Him, then yes, judge me without facts or witnesses – as it was a thousand years ago – and get on with it!!!”

“Why such haste, Nyx?” Luna yelled over the loud grinding of the crystal and rock formations surging and flowing under the Marazon's hooves. “He is certainly not going anywhere!”

“My reasons are my own, my Princess,” Nyx said, a twinge of sadness in her strange, double-edged voice. “Your sister certainly has judged me already though She pretends a trial is necessary. Will You not be my advocate, if not for me, for the love and loyalty we Marazons have given Your reign these centuries now and past?”

Luna looked to her sister, back to Nyx, then away.

"Please, Dear Mother?" the Marazon warrior begged, tears threatening to blur her vision.

Luna bit Her lip at the title orphaned ponies often gave Her whom she took on Her secret nighttime ventures, guiding them in flights above the clouds. In an almost ashamed tone, She uttered, “I must stand with Our sister's decision and do what is best for Our Kingdom Nyx. I am sorry.”

The disappointment, pain and fury that crossed the Marazon's features made the observing time travelers shudder. It was a blow so harsh, the TimeWitch snarled, enraged, the field of her dark magic flaring again, as did the green of her eyes. She called a weapon forth from the bedrock and minerals underneath the room – an enormous, wickedly curved death scythe of red copper.

“That looks familiar,” Luna said quietly to Her sister, Her own lunar sword coming into existence before Her, held aloft in Her magical grip. "Is there no recourse We can offer her, Tia?"

“None, Luna. And yes, Sombra's scythe. I recognize it,” Celestia replied, calling forth her own weapon – a sun pike with a double-edged, curved blade of golden hue.

Nyx was in no mood for reminiscing on their part. For some reason, she appealed one last time, clearly not wanting to kill them, even in the grip of her fury and dark magic. “I really must insist you incarcerate me with my King, Sun Princess, for I will not go another - “

“Hold on! HOLD ON!” a male voice suddenly yelled out as a stallion jumped over the smaller of the crystals barring his way, landing in front of the platform containing Nyx. Surprised at the Doctor's audacity, Nyx was, however, not caught off guard as movement behind told her the guards were attempting to follow his lead. She snarled, aiming her horn at them, around the surprised Time Pony, who dove to the side to avoid both her and the scythe.

“Take a time out,” Nyx commanded, firing a blast of energy at them. “Say, fifteen minutes in the future, when this be resolved!”

They disappeared in the aura of her dark magic, Whooves once again feeling the crippling punishment of too close a proximity to this TimeWitch as she did so.

“Please,” he begged, struggling to stand up straight again while white hot pain seared across his temporal lobe. “Just stop! There's no need for this!”

The dark mare glared at him, keeping her scythe between them, and an eye on the two alicorns who were also her enemy, but had thus far only assumed defensive stances. She lowered the rocky platform she held until she was level again with the Time Pony and the floor of the room. “No need? Are you mad?” she demanded.

“He has been accused of that, yes!” Derpy called out behind him.

“You're not helping!” he grumbled back at her, turning quickly back to Nyx and the razor sharp curve of the blade she held dangerously close to his throat. “Listen, please, JUST LISTEN!” he begged. “I know you're speaking the truth, Nyx, is it? I felt the time slippage too!”

She looked him over, sizing him up. He was no warrior and thus not as big a threat. She did sense something of time's energy surrounding him, however; the unstable, volatile particles of chrono-matter that drove time itself, was time itself. “What of it, Time Stallion? My 'discussion' is with Them,” she jerked her head at the Two Sisters. “not you!”

Whooves cocked his head. “Some discussion,” he muttered. “Look, LOOK!” he yelled when she tried to go around him, towards the alicorns. “This is not the way to set time right. I can take you to Him, to King Sombra, learn what happened, what went wrong within the time streams. Please! This helps no one, this fight!”

Having gotten her full attention at his mention of being able to get her to her King, Nyx still shook her head in disbelief. “Why should I trust you?” she declared.

“Because they will kill you and time will still be on the wrong path,” he pushed. “It will get worse and worse, more and more wrong, until it tears itself apart in the end and even if I can get King Sombra sprung early for good – or at least not entirely evil behavior – there may not be a world left for Him to return to if I – we don't fix this!”

Something in his words, or in what Nyx saw as a new time track spring into her consciousness got through her rage. Her sides heaved, mind reeled, seeing this strange, chestnut-colored stallion making his way into new time streams in her visions of future possibilities. She shook her head, the mad glow of green and purple energies fueling her eyes and curved horn slowly settling down and fading. It was all too fast and too much for her mind to comprehend so quickly, but its very potential cut through the dark veil of her hatred for Celestia and worse, Luna's betrayal, that urged her to gut Them both on the spot.

Slowly, to everyone's profound relief, she lay down her death scythe, let it dissolve back into the natural elements, sinking back into Canterlot mountain's bedrock. The Sisters let out inaudible sighs, dissolving their own weapons as well as a gesture of goodwill.

“Attacking our person cannot go unpunished, Nyx,” Celestia declared. “but if it is as you say...” she hesitated, gesturing for the Doctor's name.

“Dr. - Dr. Whooves,” he supplied. “and I promise, if we are successful in righting time, your Highnesses, this offense will never have happened.”

“As Dr. Whooves says,” the Princess of the Sun concluded. “We will trust him to be your 'keeper', Nyx, though we will send a guard with you three to ensure yours and his cooperation.”

“Ah, your Highness,” Whooves raised a hoof. “that won't work. If we right time, you see, your guard will be displaced and taken out of his own time stream, unable to return to a normal life here.”

“We will choose one who has no family nor ties, Doctor,” Luna spoke up. “One of the Night Guard, my sister,” she recommended, turning to Celestia. “myself in any and all time existences will be more – understanding of this phenomena of time travel and will assist him in reintegrating back into the guard of the 'normal' time stream, as you call it, Doctor.” Her attention turned back to the Time Pony and Derpy.

“Sister, are you saying We are not open to such proven phenomena as time travel,” Celestia asked, amused.

“Not at all,” Luna replied. “but it could be possible in other time dimensions You are a tad more - stubborn.”

Celestia huffed, amused, resettling her wings against her sides. “We shall talk about this at length later, sister. Over luncheon tea, We think.”

Derpy and Whooves snickered. Nyx, they noticed, remained impassive to the warm interplay, still stung by Luna's abandonment of her and the Marazons.

There was an interlude of delay while Luna chose a Night Guard from those who volunteered for the one-way mission. Celestia requested the castle staff to fetch construction workers to clear the rubble caused by Nyx's anger and magics, as well as requesting her planning staff to reschedule all other throne room activities to another, smaller chamber.

Luna came up to them, accompanied by the Night Guard volunteer. Derpy and the Doctor were in the middle of introducing themselves to Nyx. “I am the Doctor,” the stallion told her, extending a hoof.

Nyx looked at it and cocked her head in curiosity. She opted to bow instead, unfamiliar with the custom of hoof shaking. He pulled Derpy in front of him. “And this is Miss Hooves, my companion.”

She received a bow as well, which Derpy imitated. Suddenly the Time Pony winced as a disturbance of time hit his temporal lobe. He rubbed at it viciously, when he noticed Nyx looked like she was losing her balance, forearm failing outwards suddenly, then she threw her head upwards, towards the ceiling, then back down, hoof back down on the ground, her eyes flaring green, a gasp escaping her lips.

Whooves drew the mailmare quickly back from Nyx. Luna and the guard, a unicorn stallion, also backed up slightly. “Wait, wait, wait, what is that?” the Doctor asked the TimeWitch.”You really send my temporal lobe a jangle when you do that!” accusing her of the time spasm.

Nyx's head lowered, ignoring Whooves, her eyes fixed Derpy's, now a red, crystal glare layered underneath the sickly green. “Is it not better to give your King due respect my dear?” a cold stallion's voice echoed out of her mouth. The dangerous voice was lined with the same darkness as Nyx's, but much more menacing and male.

Derpy reeled, felt giddy. Her vision swam, the room being replaced by a large, crystal throne room, and the TimeWitch by a dark-colored Unicorn Witch King clad in steel, royal red robes and greaved hoof plating. All she could see were His crystal red eyes holding her gaze, flowing jet mane framing His regal facial features and the tips of predatory fangs as He spoke softly, commandingly to her.

Her knees buckled as she felt an overwhelming urge to acknowledge His dominion over her. She breathed steadily outwards, in a sigh, her muscles relaxing. The fear drained out of her and she bowed her head as she assumed a completely submissive position at the King's feet. She felt His armored hoof caress her cheek, pleased with her reverence...

“No,” Luna shook her head. “By the Dark Ones!” She uttered, transfixed by what was happening with Derpy and the TimeWitch.

Looking at Whooves, Nyx next intoned, “See Doctor, how much better this is with them under My guidance than they going on aimlessly with their pitiful lives.”

It was the Doctor's turn to be swallowed up by the time vision. He blinked, shook his head, but the Shadow King would not be banished so easily. “No,” he gasped. “You're a future vision. You're not really – here!” he yelled, stamping his hoof angrily, dispelling the evil despot with a massive effort of will.

Nyx's eyes returned to their normal, if unnerving darkness, and she slumped, almost hitting the floor if the Night Guard had not thought quickly and caught her in his magic, setting her gently down.

“Is she all right, Dark Watch?” Luna asked her guard.

“She will be,” he replied, checking the Marazon over carefully. She appeared to now be merely unconscious.

“And you, Doctor?” Luna asked next.

The Doctor nodded, shaken. He took a deep breath, checking on Derpy. She nodded she was better as well.

Luna had a hoof to her mouth now, the shock just sinking in from the recognition of the voice, her head shaking. “Sombra?” she uttered, her voice strangely pained.

“What in Equestria was that, your Highness?” Dark Watch asked, turning to Princess Luna. “Princess?”

“It was her gift,” Whooves told the Night Guard, taking note of Luna's stunned look and confirmation of the owner of the voice. “Or curse, however you look at it.”

“What?” the mailmare asked.

“Future possession and prophecy,” he clarified as Nyx moaned from the floor, coming back to consciousness. “Usually brought on by being near someone who's timeline's variables get entangled in your head, so they get drug into seeing the vision as well. Nasty stuff! Isn't that right, your Highness?” he asked the Night Princess.

Luna shuddered, removing Her hoof, forcing Herself to assume the royal mask again. They could see how hard it was for Her. The voice had obviously shaken the Princess of the Night up terribly.

“Yes, Doctor,” She confirmed. “Among the Marazons, Nyx was well-known for these – unpredictable visions of the future.”

“That was quite a specific vision!” Whooves said sharply as the Night Guard and Derpy helped Nyx to stand. “One I do not intend to allow to happen!”

Dark Watch bristled. “How dare you speak to the Princess that way!”

Nyx put a hand out, still dizzy. "As if you have a say in the matter of where that blasted time box takes you," Nyx grumbled, still bleary from the vision, one of which had included one of the travelers arriving in King Sombra's court via the Tardis. The depthless black had returned to her eyes, telling them the vision had faded and she was back to what was normal for her. “He is merely protective of his companion, guard.” Steadier, she stood taller, resuming her regal bearing. “He means no offense.” Locking Whooves gaze with hers, she added. “This is why my King was often so fascinated with my gift. He crippled pony's will with their own fears of their perceived shortcomings. I can, though it be unintentional, accomplish the same feat with ones fears of their possible futures.”

“I can see why He was so interested in you,” the Doctor said, fascinated.

“Unfortunately for many involved on both sides, Doctor,” Luna spoke up. “You have your guard. Dark Watch will accompany you. He will defer to your expertise in time travel, Doctor, and follow any instructions as to respects the laws of time and not upsetting the balance of its forward progression.”

He smiled. “Ah, you do appreciate what's at stake here, Princess. I am impressed.”

She nodded. “It is the duty of Our sister and Ourself to protect the future as much as the present while learning from the lessons of thy past. We have had some small experiences with time's ebb and flow.”

“And King Sombra?” Derpy asked the Night Princess. The mare blushed as the Princess bit her lip in mild distress at the subject. “I'm sorry, your Highness, I noticed you seemed upset at hearing His voice. Is there some, well, advice You can give us in case we do run into Him, I dunno, unfrozen?”

Luna shifted, despite her best efforts to hold herself poised and unattached. “That is unlikely, Miss Hooves,” her gaze shifted to Nyx. “though Nyx has appeared to have locked onto a time stream that would contradict my opinion on the matter.” She snorted, not pleased with discussing such painful subjects, but feeling it necessary. “When I knew Prince Sombra, long, long ago, before the darkness took Him, He was strong and stable, clever, possessing of a great kindness and thoughtfulness for His fellow ponies. Later, the strength remained, as did the cleverness, but all else died with Him at Lake - “ she stopped herself. “well, they died is all that needs to be said.”

“Do not give Him a reason to kill you, Miss Hooves,” the Princess's voice turned grave. “those include disrespect for His authority, His intellect and His right to rule the Crystal Empire. Of course He has not earned that right to be a King through His tyranny, but if the subject can at all be avoided, then you will never have to anger Him if you feel the need to not lie and tell Him the truth of such.

“Never, never lie to Him or try to deceive Him. As a creature of darkness, He will pick up on your deceit almost before it leaves your lips and will most assuredly know you are planning ill against Him. He may not kill you outright for it, but He will use this knowledge to manipulate you into serving Him.”

Derpy nodded. “I'm not a very good liar anyway, Princess. I don't think I would have to worry about that.”

She smiled. “I know through your dreams you are a good pony. But also, you have a great fear for predators and He is a consummate predator.”

At this Nyx nodded in agreement.

“Do your best to 'tame the tiger', I think is the term?” She advised.

“Thank you, Princess,” the mailmare bowed.

"Yes, thank you, Princess Luna," Whooves agreed, bowing, as did his companions. "I think we should be off, then." He, Nyx and Derpy walked back towards the throne room doors.

“Wait, Doctor, Nyx?”

The Time Pony stopped. “Yes, your Highness?”

When he came back to her, she whispered, “Sombra delights in corrupting innocents. He feeds on that as much as he feeds on fear. I did not want to unduly distress Miss Hooves any more by imparting this knowledge to her.”

“I understand. Thank you for telling me, Princess Luna.” He bowed and followed Derpy.

“Nyx?” she called after the TimeWitch, who had not stopped when Luna had asked her to. The Marazon slowed reluctantly. Luna and Dark Watch approached her. She could feel the reluctance and even hatred Nyx had for the alicorn even before she turned around to face them.

“Yes, your Highness,” Nyx said evenly.

“I am sorry you are upset,” Luna began.

“Send your pet guard away so we can speak properly,” Nyx cut her off.

Luna nodded. Dark Watch scowled, but went to catch up to Derpy and Dr. Whooves.

“As I said, Nyx, I am sorry - “

“Sorry has nothing to do with it!” Nyx turned on Luna, her eyes flaring with green-tinged fury. “be honest at least, Princess. We all have a damn duty to perform. That's all I have ever appeared to be to you!”

Luna slapped Nyx across the face with her magic. “How DARE you accuse me of that!” she snapped. “Has Sombra so addled your mind you forgot I saved your life when the Marazons were going to burn you at the stake?!?”

“You saddled me with them in the first place!” the TimeWitch snarled. “you should have let me die in the snows outside the Empire!” Her voice caught. “I bring death to every life I've ever touched!” Nyx broke down, sobbing.

Luna softened, stretching a wing out, enfolding her distraught subject. “You do not bring death, you addled creature. Seeing their deaths is not the same as causing them!” She let her sob for a moment, then pulled her back where she could get a look at her face. “and once they saw what gifts you brought the tribe, they were grateful I sent you to live with them.”

“Not all of them,” Nyx recalled.

“But enough Queen Ainippe had support when they found a place of honor there for you,” Luna reminded her.

“We both agreed it was for Sombra's own good I be captured, Luna,” Nyx sighed. “I cannot turn my back on Him, so why are You abandoning Him now? Is this timeline so different from what I was born into that Your heart turned completely against Him? Even as evil as He is, You have imparted to me in the past You pitied Him!”

Luna's eyes grew moist. “He is lost to me and to goodness, Nyx. I will never get Him back. Let Him sleep in eternity. Far better than being conscious, His magic being fueled by the agony of the terrible losses He hath suffered. My sister knows unrequited love be but a fraction of them.”

Nyx put a hoof to her mouth, shaking her head, nearly doubling over in grief. She felt Luna's hoof on her shoulder. “Nyx? What is it? What hurts you so?”

Spasms of sadness shook her she could not control. After a moment, she won the fight to ease them. “He's not – He's not unconscious!” she managed to get out.

Luna's eyes widened in horror. “What?” she whispered. “That cannot be!”

Nyx shook her head.

“You are sure of this?”

Nyx nodded.

“But my sister told me - “

The Marazon pushed her hoof away. “Damn what Celestia told You!” she snapped. “I can feel it. His mind is still active!" She caught her breath. "Your sister sentenced Tirek to a kinder fate in Tartarus. At least there he has freedom of movement, and if he repents, a chance to be heard. What does Sombra have of that?!”

Luna felt a crushing weight on her heart. “You have to be wrong, Nyx. I truly hope thee wrong!”

The Marazon could stand it no longer. She turned from her Goddess and fled for the door.

Author's Note

And just like a true time travel event worthy of the great Steven Moffat himself, I wrote the middle and end first, and then this part! If I'm lucky, there will be only one other chapter to this story.

If you want more background on the origins of the little snippets that came together to weave this mythos, follow the Hail King Sombra profile right here and look for our next blog posts. There are valid reasons we believe Princess Celestia was not the one to seal King Sombra away! Also, look for Chapter 2 of Frozen Shadows, the final chapter, "Accepting Death" to come next Thursday (or sooner).

Thank you to the amazing and talented Pixel_Spark for your incredible cover art and thank you Lonestar_Pony for catching every time I said "hand" instead of "hoof".

2. Taking Sides

“Well, aren't you two a couple of killjoys,” the Doctor grumbled sourly.

Normally, one of the most enjoyable parts of taking on new companions for the Time Pony was always seeing their reaction upon entering his Tardis. Even Derpy had gotten used to and expected the awe and excited looks on ponies faces once they stepped through the door's interface and saw the vast amount of space inside the simple box that should have barely had enough room inside for one pony, let alone four.

They had wrongly assumed this would be another one of those times when they would be treated to huge eyes and wondrous looks.

Never had they been so incorrect in all their travels!

Luna's hand-picked Night Guard, Dark Watch, crossed the threshold and took in the space inside with all the enthusiasm of tackling another routine, boring evening's guarding of a door that never opened nor did anything exciting. They watched his eyes slowly scan over every inch of the spacious console room, the walls with their peculiar, embedded circular pattern in the metal between the upward swooping buttresses, and then down to rest at last on the ship's centerpiece console itself. This at least he walked slowly around to take in every inch of to the point where Derpy swore he was memorizing every button, lever and switch upon its multi-paneled surface.

Nyx, while having a similar though less intense reaction, was no more entertaining to their hosts in her own right. It was worse trying to figure out where she was looking with those black, soulless eyes of hers. The only way one could tell she was looking from side to side if she was not moving her head was to intently watch the tiny reflections of light on the surface of her eyes, track their wobble as the eyes themselves moved in their sockets and neither the Doctor nor his companion showed any interest in coming close enough to her to attempt that. And while Nyx had appeared quite animated during her confrontation with the Royal Pony Sisters, that had quickly died upon entering the Tardis.

The Tardis itself, however, had quite a reaction to her that was neither skittish nor at first apparent.

The first hint of trouble was that the door to the Time Box was stuck open. No matter how Derpy pulled and tugged at it, it would not close.

When the Doctor could not get the console to program in any coordinates and saw why on the readouts, he called out, “Derpy, can we get that door closed please?” a mixture of pleasantry and impatience in his voice.

“I'm trying, Doctor,” she replied back, grabbing the edge of the door and heaving with all her small frame's might when endless tugs on the door handle had failed her.

Nyx and Dark Watch turned to each other, exchanging raised eyebrows. They turned their attention back to the hapless mailmare as the Doctor joined her in trying to close the door. Even together they were having no success.

The Marazon TimeWitch closed her eyes, listening to the slight increase of ambient noise around them, especially those sounds that emanated from the console. There were a lot more snaps and pops and lower-toned rumbles than when they had first entered. Luna's night guard watched her processing this information with interest. Nodding, Nyx opened her eyes.

“Your ship doesn't like me,” she told the Doctor and his companion.

The Doctor and Derpy turned to her, surprised. “She likes everypony!” the Time Lord countered. “Well, except Cyberponies, Daleks and anypony that tries to kill me or doesn't like me...” he eyed her suspiciously. “You perchance don't either dislike or want to kill me, do you?”

“Not yet, Doctor,” she replied. “unless you give me a reason to later, of course.”

He looked askance at her, concerned there was a caveat to her friendliness she so honestly admitted to. “Yes, well, that is good to know.” He looked sharply at Luna's night guard. “What about you?”

“Sounds like a reasonable set of exceptions to me,” he agreed with Nyx. Nyx fought an urge to smirk at the remark and failed.

“Great!” Derpy muttered as the Doctor turned back to her. “this is going to be a fun trip!”

“I guess I'll just have to be on my best behavior then, won't I?” he announced to them. Then, to Derpy in a low voice, “You'll make sure I'm on my best behavior, won't you?”

“That all depends on you, Doctor,” she informed him.

He nodded, wisely not saying anything, then turned his attention back to his box's stubborn door. “You said 'she doesn't like you', Nyx,” he called over. “well, can you convince her that as of right now you have no plans to either dislike or kill me? It would really help us get going faster.”

“That's not the problem Doctor,” she shrugged. “since neither condition yet exists to us, either it is something I have done in the future she does not like, or there is something else about me that is bothering her.” Her hoof ran lightly over one of the wall's buttresses. “Or, perhaps it is her?”

“Oh? And if it were her – which it isn't, what would that possibly entail?” he asked with a hint of sarcasm, still trying to close the door for lack of anything better to do with his hooves.

“That would be hard to say,” she answered. “She might have a nervous disposition - “

“- faced the Dalek fleet. She's got nerves of steel!” he announced proudly.

“Be claustrophobic,“ Nyx listed off next.

“Nope, been inside tight-fitting spaces hundreds of times,” he dismissed.

“ - underneath a hundred million tons of solid ice?” Nyx said casually, examining a hoof.

The Doctor turned to them, opened his mouth to reply, but thought about it. “Ah – really? A hundred million tons?”

“The pressure would be enormous,” Dark Watch nodded, adding in his opinion.

Once he thought on it, comparing their various, prior adventures, Whooves shook his head. “Been in the planet's core,” the Time Pony recalled with surety. “lot more pressure there.”

“What were you doing in the planet's core?” the guard asked in surprise.

The Time Pony grinned a manic grin. “Survive this adventure long enough and I'll tell you.”

The guard was not impressed. “Is that a threat, Doctor?”

“No,” Derpy spoke for him, not trusting the Time Stallion to speak. “Just a statement of the hazards of the job,” she sighed. “So, Doctor, what do we about the door?”

Ponies were starting to gather outside the Tardis, peering in curiously. It was starting to make the Doctor uncomfortable. “Nyx? Could use more helpful suggestions about now.”

Nyx's ear twitched. No one could tell if that was a sign she was annoyed, agitated or one of a hundred other emotions. “I need to talk to her, it appears,” she settled on at last.

“She's a telepathic matrix and only I can communicate with her as such,” Whooves announced with a bit of pridefulness in his voice, Nyx could have sworn.

“I guess I'll be taking you back to Princess Luna to face judgment then,” Dark Watch concluded, eyeing the TimeWitch.

“You'd serve better, guard, guarding that door,” the Marazon nodded towards the entrance.

“I won't need to if this little adventure is done before it's started,” he countered, reaching for Nyx.

She vanished.

“Ah, that's just great!” Whooves snapped, stomping his hoof on the floor. He felt a twinge start in his head and fought it off, but realized it was not as bad as the others had been when Nyx had jumped time tracks outside in the throne room.

Seconds later, she reappeared at the console, studying the readouts as casually as if she had just walked over, not moved in time, then space, then jumped back into their time stream. Dark Watch scowled and Whooves ceased his fight with the door, stalking over to the time rotor.

“He has his work cut out for him,” Derpy muttered.

“Crap baskets!” Watch cursed under his breath. He moved to the door, deciding guarding it might be about the only thing useful he could do on this trip if apprehending the TimeWitch was going to be that much of a problem.

“Hey!” the Doctor said loudly from behind Nyx, startling her and everyone else. Annoyed, she turned around, but was met with a much more annoyed Time Pony. “That was very foolish, I'll have you know! Do you have any idea what that would have done to you if we had been in the time vortex at the time?!?”

“It would have – tickled?” she said sarcastically.

“It would have torn you apart!” he snapped in reply. “You would have ended up outside the protection of the Tardis, in the vortex. Nothing organic can survive in the time vortex, Nyx. NOTHING!”

She went back to looking at the readouts. “Point taken, Doctor,” she acquiesced. “Now please, I have no idea what I am looking at here. I need to locate something.”

“What, er what?” he took his angry tone down once he realized she had understood why he was so furious.

“The pool,” she answered.

“The what?” Dark Watch asked. “Why?”

“Got rid of it,” Whooves replied. “Not having another one in here. Took a wrong turn at a supernova, ruined every book in the library. Never getting another one.”

Nyx snorted. “Never say never, Time Lord.”

He reared back. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“Ask me again when you change bodies,” she muttered.

“Change what?” Luna's guard asked, again not getting a reply.

“All right,” Nyx dipped her head, accepting there was currently no pool. “How about a meditation room?”

“Oh, a zero room?” the stallion asked.

“What's that?” she cocked her head, curious.

“A room of neutral energies as respects the outside world,” he explained.

“No,” Nyx shook her head. “no good. I need to be able to communicate with - “ she gestured around them, indicating the travel machine.

The Tardis's interior lights dimmed, plunging the room into darkness except for the weak light coming in from the door.

Whooves looked up, incensed. “Dear!? Aw, c'mon! It isn't like we have any choice, y'know!” He glared at the TimeWitch. “What did you say to her?!?” he demanded.

“Nothing, apparently. I cannot communicate with her, remember?” she said acidly.

“You said something!” he huffed, ignoring Derpy who had come over, scanned the console and flicked a switch. The emergency lights came back on.

Nyx finally stopped searching the console since all the readouts had gone dark. “All I did, Doctor, was ask your temperamental lady friend what the Tartarus her name was so I could stop referring to her mentally as that tetchy, obnoxious, time-hopping joyride, and for some reason, she took offense to that!”

“Can't imagine why,” Derpy muttered under her breath.

Whooves tapped his fore hoof impatiently on the console. Nyx looked at his hoof. “She doesn't like when you do that, you know.”

“She told you that?” Watch asked her.

“Basically. Imagine being tapped on your - “

“You know, Nyx, I can see why you and King Sombra got along so well,” the Time Pony snapped, interrupting.

“Really, Doctor?” Dark Watch said sarcastically, having come over to join the three travelers. “He never put up with such snark and arrogance unless it was his own!”

Nyx did a double take at his presumptuousness. “Like either of you would know,” the mare spat bitterly.

“Geez, stop it, you three!” Derpy spoke, up, the tension finally fraying her nerves as well. “This isn't helping!”

“Sorry, yes, Derps. You are right, of course,” Whooves apologized.

“Please, Doctor,” she pleaded. “just get Nyx what she needs so we can get going before the Princesses see us stuck out here and change their minds.”

“That would be wise,” Dark Watch agreed.

“Yes,” the Doctor took a calming breath, then turned to Nyx. “I am sorry, Nyx. And I don't actually in fact, know her name. I always call her, 'Old Girl', myself.”

The lights came back on, slightly softer than they were before. They reflexively looked up. “She likes that,” Nyx said quietly, calming down. “but I would not feel right using it. It is your term of affection for her.” She put a hoof to her head. “Really?” she perked up. “Oh. Thank you,” she said aloud.

“She told you?” Whooves asked.

Nyx nodded.

“What is it?”

“A name she has not used yet, but will, and has,” the Witch replied. “she said it is/was/will be Idris.”

“Sorry, what was that?” the mailmare asked her.

“It is/was/will be Idris,” she repeated.

“Wow, that is weird,” Derpy said, shaking her head as if it would clear her hearing up. “It sounded like you said 'is', 'was' and 'will be' all at the same time.”

Nyx grunted. “Hmmm...probably. That has been known to happen when I get a bit 'wobbly' as regards being stabilized in one time frame.”

Whooves nodded. “That might be why my ship isn't particularly thrilled with you, Nyx. In a way, you are like her, bouncing around time zones. Maybe you two are too much alike.”

Nyx shrugged. “If you like, Doctor, but doubtful, I think. It is more likely in an alternate reality I gutted you and stole her away.” She looked down, frowning. “Probably in a time and place where my King had broken what little sanity I had left when he kidnapped me.” She closed her eyes. “I am not like that, Idris. Please, all I want is to be with my King,” she whispered aloud. “Please believe me.”

The lights came on stronger, the door closed of its own accord and the console hummed quietly back to life. Everyone sighed, relieved.

“Thank you,” Nyx said gratefully, her eyes flaring green for a moment under her eyelids.

* * *
The Tardis disappeared from Canterlot's hallways soon after and reappeared above the continent of Equestria, high enough in orbit they were surrounded by darkness, the curve of their planet beneath them. The Doctor and Derpy had not eaten since breakfast and took the opportunity to sit down to dinner in a room that mimicked a Chinese restaurant, complete with a koi pond next to their table. The guard and TimeWitch declined the invitation to join them, spending the moment with the Tardis door open to space, marveling at the view.

“I have always wanted to accompany Princess Luna on her night watch,” Dark told Nyx, enraptured by the splash of stars caught in a cluster that glowed red above the curve of the world. He half-laughed. “I never thought I would get there without her assistance. It makes me want to enroll that much more.”

Nyx merely nodded, remaining quiet. She scanned his timeline, going over it in her mind like reading pages of a book. Or tried to. The pages to come in his book were blank. She sighed. If he only knew...

The guard looked over at her. “But you can see that, can't you?” he asked. “you know what will happen.”

She shrugged. “I see so many possibilities in the futures of – everything. And they are just that – possibilities.” She turned to him. “What happens depends on you, not my foresight.”

“Do you already know if we can fix time?” he asked.

She was silent for a long moment. Then she shook her head. “No. I do not. I cannot see anything beyond touching down in the center of the Empire. It all goes dark. As dark as out there, beyond our world.”

Watch frowned. “The center of the Empire? But I thought we were going directly to wherever King Sombra is entombed?”

“I am sure that is where the Doctor will attempt to land us,” she nodded. “His track record for perfect aim, I understand, is not the best.”

The night guard looked over at the entrance to the rest of the ship, across the room, then back to Nyx. “Neither is his propensity for telling the truth,” he confided.

“Yes,” she agreed, still staring outside. “You noticed as well?”

“He is stalling,” Watch nodded. “and I want to know why.”

“Most likely he does not trust me,” Nyx replied.

“I do not trust you either.”

The mare grunted. “You should not, guard. I trust none of you, save Derpy.”

His eyebrows raised underneath the helmet. “Really? Her?”

Nyx nodded.

“And why is that?” he asked.

“She is very poor at hiding her emotions,” the TimeWitch told him. “she has no ulterior motives. She is quite pure of heart. One day that will save her life.”

“Yes?”

“It pleased King Sombra. He detests treachery, subterfuge. He loves/loved sources of purity he can corrupt and influence. His mere presence before her was so powerful it caused her to bow before him, as it does many ponies.”

Dark Watch crossed his fore legs. “'will save her life', 'pleased King Sombra'? Which is it? It is very confusing following your speech, TimeWitch.”

“I make no apologies for it,” she shrugged. “For me it has already happened, but in another reality I am aware of. The true one. The one that was not corrupted by whatever changed my beloved's sentence from a thousand years to eternity.

For Derpy, it has not yet occurred, but will. Time is an endless circle in which events have, are and will happen until time ends.” She shot him a glance, smiling. “You think you have it hard understanding me? Try being me.”

Watch appeared to have no interest in trying. He was a guard in Princess Luna's elite night force and all he cared about was fulfilling his duties to his Princess. He huffed. “If that one bows or bowed before Sombra,” he indicated Derpy, nodding in the direction of the Chinese restaurant. “she is a traitor to Equestria,” he stated flatly.

“It is not that simple,” the Marazon shook her head. “As a King, he is due respect, whether you are his subject or not. It is not for mere mortals or your own precious rulers in Equestria to render judgment upon him.” She looked pointedly at Dark, locking his eyes with hers. “If you disagreed with Princess Luna's orders, would you refuse to do as you were told?”

“Of course not,” he replied immediately.

“Would you question her?”

“Not as such. I might express concern if I did not understand her motives.”

“Because she allows you to,” Nyx nodded. “There are those who are born to rule – sane or not, right or not, and there are those born to serve.”

He could not argue her the point, going back to looking out into space. “I know which I was destined to do. It has always been to serve one greater than I.” He glanced at her. “Which were you born to do, Marazon?”

“There is a third caste,” she replied. “though they can be of either first two as well. I am of them,” she declared.

“And what are they?” he asked.

“Cursed,” was all she said.

3. The Warnings of Two Horizons

“Where is the Doctor?”

Derpy looked up from where she was minding the Tardis console for the Time Pony while he was away. “I think he said he went to the library,” she replied to Luna's guard, Dark Watch, moving Nyx's cloak aside from where she had left it to go in search of a meditation area to clear her mind.

“Good, and where is the library?” he asked her.

The mail mare bit her lip, tilting her head from side to side. “Well...depends on where the Tardis wants to keep it from day to day...to day...” she finished slowly, knowing he wouldn't like the answer.

The stoic guard raised an eyebrow, it disappearing underneath the top part of his helmet's edge. “You said the same thing about the mess hall - “

“ - the kitchen? Yeah,” she nodded.

“ - and the observation lounge and the lavatories and the cricket pitch, and what the Tartarus even is a cricket pitch!”

She shrugged. “Yeah, they all kinda move around like that.”

“ - and the engine room!” he finished, scowling, tired of her evasiveness.

She brightened. “Oh, no, the Eye stays in the same place. It can be approached from many different directions, though.”

“You sound like that blasted time creature,” he complained, tired and aggravated.

“The Doctor? Yeah. You stay here with him too long and he kinda tends to rub off on you,” she fidgeted. She put out a hoof to touch his arm, but stopped midway. She wasn't sure guards liked to be touched, especially Luna's guards. “You, well, you sound hungry.”

“And tired and in need of the...facilities,” he finished awkwardly.

“Well, wander around long enough in here and we find them all...eventually. I'll go with you. We're bound to run into one of them, at least.”

They walked towards the entrance to the rest of the ship. “Are you not supposed to be minding this – contraption?” he asked, gesturing back towards the console.

“She doesn't really pay much attention to me,” Derpy half-laughed. “or to the Doctor sometimes. She'll be okay until he gets back. And I'm kinda needing two of the places you mentioned myself.”

He was still hesitant to leave. “What if we cannot find our way back?”

“I have a trick to that,” she smiled. “Works every time, so don't worry. Let's go.”

The moment they left, the Doctor came through another door into the console room, carrying several books in his mouth. He set them down along the railing. “Derpy? I found the volumes on the Crystal Empire, but coordinates in this time zone for the castle don’t match...“ he trailed off, seeing no one else about. “Derpy? Every time!” he snorted. “I tell them not to wander off...no, wait...that's when we're outside exploring. Well,” he raised his voice, addressing the empty room. “I'm instituting a new rule here, too! No wandering around the Tardis!” He looked up as the interior lights flickered, turned yellow and the console beeped a low, warning tone.

At that moment, Nyx came in from another direction, her cloak sweeping around her as she walked over to him while the Doctor was heading for the console. She looked up at the strange lighting coming from the walls. “What is going on?” she asked, then added, “Oh, right. This.”

“A time anomaly,” he answered her question, peering closer at a readout. “No. Worse. A loop!” He did a double take as it changed. “I think.”

“It would be,” she nodded. She caught sight of the cloak on the edge of the console. She backed up, touching the one she was wearing. “Uh oh,” she breathed, backing up slightly.

“Can't pinpoint it. I'm scanning,” he frowned. “Strange. It's not anywhere outside the ship.”

Nyx came back to the business at hand. “It wouldn't be,” she shook her head.

The Tardis shuddered. The Doctor tried to grab onto the console, but there was something in his way. It was Nyx's cloak. He pushed it aside and grabbed onto the metal underneath.

“He's here, isn't he?” Nyx stated rather than asked.

“Who's here?”

Nyx ignored him, scanning the room with her dark gaze. “There's nothing to be accomplished by this!” She seemingly addressed the room, then turned back to the Doctor. “You can't let him go!” she said, distressed.

“What's wrong with your voice?” the time pony asked, struggling to keep the ship stable. “It's all – wobbly.”

“I'd explain earlier, but you'll have already figured it out while I was unconscious.” She clicked her tongue. “Derpy and Dark Watch will need an explanation, though, so you might as well.”

“You are making less sense than usual,” Whooves grunted, shifting with the growing instability that was tossing his beloved ship around.

Nyx paused, thinking, trying to remember where she was in time. Her thoughts were fuzzy and it was hard to concentrate as she slipped between two time zones. She stumbled when she tried to take a step. Looking down she wasn’t surprised to find her hoof was transparent. “Crap baskets!” she cursed. “Not now!” She tried to get the Time Pony's attention. “Doctor? Doctor! Listen to me, please!”

“Yes, what?” he said, listening not at all.

“I haven't much time - “

“Got all the time in the world in here, Nyx.” He flipped a switch, which had the opposite effect of what he had intended, causing the alarm to grow louder. “What are you talking about?”

“Ugh! Listen, he is going to get out and when he does, it will kill me,” she urged.

“Literally?”

“No, you time-hopping fool!” she snapped, losing her patience, and part of the foreleg her hoof had already disappeared from. “I will be so distraught. I can't take much more of this, Doctor!”

He wanted to spare the second to look at her, the ache in her voice was hard to miss, but only dared spare the time after the Tardis had ceased shaking itself apart. The Marazon Seeress moved to the other side of the console to see what the readouts were saying. They were not promising.

“Doctor, have you invented the portable time stabilization field yet?” she asked.

“Why would I invent something like that?” he asked.

“Once you see where we're going, you'll be glad you did, but I am telling you – DON'T BUILD IT!”

“Okay, for the sake of argument,” he said, head spinning at her insane talk, but feeling the controls had stabilized for the moment enough he could spare the second. Looking up, he blinked. “Where are you? Oh, behind the console. Right.” He tried to glance around it, but every time he did, left to right, she did the same, looking right to left, always the opposite way from him. Giving up, he continued, “for the sake of argument,” he repeated. “I take it we will need this ‘field’?” Something occurred to him. “Wait this is a very detailed vision of the future you’ve had!”

She sighed. “You could say that,” she muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Okay, so we need this – what did you call it?” the Doctor asked.

“'Portable time stabilization field,” she repeated.

“What an awful name!” he made a face.

“Your name, not mine,” she replied.

“Not if you just told it to me because of a vision you had of our future,” Whooves reminded her.

“Oh, right,” she mumbled.

“So why don't you want me to make this device?” he asked.

“Because, he'll get out if you do,” she said urgently. “You won't want him to. None of you will!”

None of us? He blinked at the strange wording she was using.

The ship shook again, this time harder than ever. “Look, Nyx, I'd love to indulge your eccentric sense for speaking in riddles, but I am rather busy right now.” He grabbed what he now recognized as her cloak from the console and threw it her way. “Here, get this off my console!”

She jumped out of the way, letting it fall to the floor. “That was close!”

The light changed from yellow to orange around them. “Oh, this is bad!” he said a little more urgently.

“It's not that bad,” the TimeWitch shook her head. “Yet.”

The door Derpy and Dark Watch had previously left from, opened and someone came in. The light in the room turned blood red.

“Now it's that bad,” the Seeress groaned, part of her hoof disappearing. She came around the console, hobbling on her three remaining legs.

“What is?” he asked at last, feeling a monster headache coming on from her double talk, glancing down at the fallen cloak...then to Nyx's hooves, one of which was gone...and to the edges of the cloak she was wearing. He looked up and all he said was, “Oh. Uh oh!”

“Yes, right!” Nyx scolded – another Nyx in the doorway - the one who had removed her cloak and draped it over the console before she had left the room hours ago to meditate and whose limbs were also disappearing!

Her time double at his side looked to the doorway and addressed the younger version of herself that had just come in. “Don't let him out!” was all she said.

The mare at the doorway stared back at herself, standing by the Doctor. “Doctor, this is bad,” she said.

“It would be - “ the cloaked Nyx standing by the Doctor began to say.

“Why are you...me...I here?” the Nyx by the door without the cloak asked. “Did you really think it necessary to screw up time worse by doing this?!?”

“It was not my intent!“ the cloaked Marazon TimeWitch snapped. “Listen to me, because this idiot won't!” she inclined her head at the Doctor. “You HAVE to save him! He shouldn't be here!” There was an urgency in her voice that cut through the alarms going off around them. “Get him away from here, PLEASE!”

“But you just said...oh that is IT!” the Doctor yelled, turning to the first Nyx, the one next to him.

“Don't go to the Crystal Empire's suburbs. Go directly to the throne room,” she told both of them. “Not with him here! He'll - “

“Who?!?” both the Doctor and the uncloaked Nyx standing by the doorway asked in utter confusion. Whooves stepped closer to her. “Sombra?”

“Finally found the lavatories, Doctor,” Derpy said from where she came in from the other entrance. “Dark Watch - “ she trailed off, looking at both Nyxs and a cross Doctor.

“Yes!” the Doctor's Nyx said firmly.

The shaking got worse, as if the ship were going to tear itself apart. “Sorry about this, Nyx,” he mumbled, striding back to her, lifting up the cloak and throwing it on the mare next to him. There was a blinding flash, the lights went rapidly from red to orange to yellow and by the time the flash cleared, they were normal again and the TimeWitch next to him was gone.

Dark Watch came in at that moment from the door Derpy was standing by. “What is all the commotion?” he asked.

“Don't ask!” Derpy said firmly, her head spinning from what had just taken place. “Nyx - “ She glanced over at the other door. “Nyx?”

They found her on the floor by the door, unconscious. Dark Watch and Whooves lifted her up, getting her over to the couch by the railing. Derpy held her breath as they checked for a pulse, noticing her cutie mark at the same time.

“That's an unusual mark,” Dark Watch voiced what the mail mare had wanted to say, nodding to the rounded, black serpent eating its own tail. Though she had set aside the cloak before leaving to meditate, none had noticed it in detail or even that she had had one before.

“I've never seen anything like that either,” Derpy agreed. “What is it?”

“It is - “ Dark Watch started to explain, but was cut off by the Time Pony’s sound of relief.

“She's okay,” the Doctor told them. “Just stunned, though I'm surprised she survived.”

“Survived what?” the mare asked. “What happened, Doctor? Why were there two of her?”

“Two of her?” the guard echoed.

“Yes, two.” Whooves went over to retrieve the one cloak he found, brought it back and laid it over Nyx to keep her warm, thinking how he was going to explain what had just happened. “Apparently another Nyx, one from somewhere else in her time stream, probably the future, ended up here in our time,” he began. “Normally that is a very bad thing - “

“ - that's why the lights went red and the alarms went off,” Derpy guessed. She had witnessed such a thing in her travels and that part was nothing new, but the thought of two of the same person in the same time so far had never happened in her travels with the Doctor.

“An event like that, when it happens inside the Tardis, can tear it apart under the right circumstances,” Whooves continued. “and it was heading towards that direction, unfortunately.” He picked up a corner of the cloak. “The cloak she was wearing when she came here and the one I picked up off the floor were the same cloak, but from different points in its own time stream. Bringing them into contact with each other shorted out the anomaly, sending the other Nyx back and canceling out the paradox so it didn't create a time loop, which - “ he glanced over at the monitor. “ - kept popping up as a threat on the readouts before all this started.”

“So we're okay now?” the mare asked him.

“We should be, but what the future Nyx said bothers me,” he shook his head.

“What did she say?” Watch asked.

“She said to me, 'You can't let him out' and 'Don't let him go',” he quoted. “But when this - our Nyx came in, the other Nyx suddenly changed her tune, begging her earlier self to ‘get him away from here’.”

“‘Him’?” his companion asked. “‘Him’ who? King Sombra?”

“That's what she said,” the Doctor nodded. He sighed. “Perhaps I was a fool to think she wanted to set time right. It is impossible to know now for certain.”

“Why is that, Doctor?” Watch asked him.

“She was in flux with time itself,” he explained. “She could have been going through multiple times in the same instant, or changing times. On one hoof, she came back to warn us not to let him out, then she wants him away from here.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Her time-hopping has given me such a headache!”

They looked at each other with a knowing look that Luna's guard finally put to words. “She is not going to aid in King Sombra’s escape, Doctor. He is going to serve out his sentence, be it a thousand years or eternity, which ever be correct and true. I will not permit her to release him.”

Whooves rubbed his muzzle. “Yes, I know. And we cannot allow her to, either. Not if our time is to be set to rights. All we know for certain is that he is fated in the correct time stream to be imprisoned for 1,000 years.” He checked her. She was still out cold. “ She couldn't have known when we would be at Canterlot Palace, so I don't believe she manipulated us into taking her with us, but - “

“Why not?” This was from Derpy and got both their attentions.

“What?” the Time Pony asked.

“Well, why not, Doctor?” she shrugged. “You said she can travel through time. Maybe she knows us from her past?“

“Our future,” he added, a look of concern crossing his face.

“And she showed up on just the right day,” she finished.

“Well, not exactly. The Tardis took us there - and to her,” he clarified.

“This is massively confusing,” the guard said, shaking his head. “I am not following any of what you are saying!”

“It is possible,” Whooves mused aloud. “From what little we know of her association with King Sombra, he can't have been a good influence on her if she were his consort.”

“That's a little unfair, Doctor,” Derpy frowned. “Maybe she was threatened by him. We don't know.”

“I tend to agree with the Doctor on this,” Dark Watch nodded. “Her speech and mannerism suggests she is an ardent follower of his.”

“She is certainly dressed for it,” Whooves said thoughtfully. “and she wields a weapon the Princesses did say was originally King Sombra's. Her entire attitude towards him is of devotion, or at the very least brainwashing, hypnotism or Stockhoof Syndrome.”

“What is Stockhoof Syndrome?”

“It is a situation wherein a captive starts to sympathize with their kidnapper at the best, or fall in love, in the worse scenario,” Whooves explained to Derpy.

Derpy shook her head. “I didn't ask you, Doctor.”

“Well then - “ he looked down. Nyx was awake and watching him, her face a mask of impassiveness. “oh, uh, hello. Have a nice – nap?”

“I would have if I had not just felt like the time vortex was pulled through one ear and out the other,” she answered. Then her voice turned cold. “And if I had not woken up to this conversation.”

“Oh, yes, well,” Whooves fumbled. “we do have some legitimate concerns, Nyx. Um, how much did you hear?”

She sat up slowly. “Enough to know I do not like you, Doctor. Not in the least.” She turned to Derpy. “and that I was mistaken in my earlier assessment of your character as well, Miss Derpy.” She shot Dark Watch a look, reminding him of their earlier conversation that her innocence would save her one day from Sombra's wrath. He looked nonplussed about her opinions.

“Is that supposed to be an insult?” Derpy asked, unsure whether she should be offended.

Nyx got up, barely managing to stand on her own, shrugging off both stallion’s assistance. Gathering the cloak around her, she slowly made her way to the door back into the Tardis's interior. She looked back over her shoulder before exiting. “No. Take it as a warning.”

The TimeWitch left in search of a place away from them to lay down and recover from her ordeal, leaving them to ponder the meaning of her words.

Author's Note

If life with a TimeWitch in the Tardis wasn't off-kilter enough, Derpy and Dr. Whooves just got a taste of how easy they've had it with Nyx's presence up until now. This piece was insanely complicated to write, but the results were spectacular and set up much of what is to come - here and possibly in other, future stories. Inspired by the 11th Doctor Who 5th season finale episode, "The Big Bang" - quite possibly the most brilliantly laid out piece of timey wimeyness ever written for the beloved series and penned by my favorite show runner, Mr. Steven Moffatt!

Which of Nyx's warnings should the Time Pony and his lovely companion follow? Are the consequences in the Two Horizons they face less threatening to the timeline and life in Equestria than the other? How do they decide which, and when the time comes, will they make the right choice? IS there a right choice? Set your browsers to track the frozen King of Shadow's saviors and learn the answers as we spin his tale and, as always,

Hail King Sombra!

4. Hard to Believe

Author's Note

This chapter we finally get to see what color Captain Iron Blade's coat is. Took me long enough to describe it - I still haven't in Mad Seeress of the North. Hell, I'm still working out what the Tartarus his cutie mark is. I'm a bad MLP fan :applecry:

And of course, I just can't help torturing Tight Planner. He's such a little prick and I believe in universal karma, baby. Askre, you are a BAD INFLUENCE on me with how you torture Private and I THANK YOU FOR IT! :rainbowlaugh:

4. Hard to Believe

Nearly 1,000 years ago, Thirty Days BtB (before the Banishing)
Location: King Sombra's Castle...

“Good morning, your Majesty.”

“Good morning, Captain Iron Blade,” King Sombra addressed the hearty stallion, including a small bow of his own in return. The King paused, feeling a peculiar tingle in the air. Attributing it to his new time sensitivities from his studies with his consort Nyx, he shrugged it off when it came and went without a visible effect on their surroundings.

The two rose and faced each other as officials and servants, bowed, frozen in place, awaited their King's leave to continue with their duties and destinations. The King of Shadows took a moment to glance around, a satisfied grin baring the tips of his fangs against the dark fur of his muzzle. Blade too looked around the grand hallway. He had his own reasons to smile, and smile he did. Widely.

The expression of his army's Grand Commander did not go unnoticed. “You are quite – animated this morning, Blade,” He rumbled pleasantly.

“Every day I am alive and in your service, is a day I rejoice in, Your Highness!” he beamed.

Sombra laughed. “You sound like a new recruit, Commander. Take care you do not leave me starving to drain a slave or two of their fears in the light of your enthusiasm.” He turned, inspecting the red stallion before him. Blade's iron-cast, silver coated armor gleamed with a newly polished shine, as did his greaves and helmet. “Hmmm...aside from blinding me with your armor's glow, I see you had your mane and tail done.” He nodded in approval. “They're almost as black as Our own,” he punctuated with a flick of his own ebony tail against the stallion's armored side. “Is there a royal event on the books this morning Tight Planner failed to inform me of?”

Iron Blade snorted a laugh. “Cannot a Commander in His service rejoice for but no reason other than his station means he is not included in these living statues around him, awaiting the whim of their King?”

The Umbrum wasn't buying it. “With anypony else in my Kingdom, my friend, I would believe your honeyed tongue. You and We are as thick as thieves and We know you much better than that. You are excited about something else.” He glanced around at everypony around them, impressed they were so still he barely discerned the twitch of a tail around them! “Though it does appear they have been practicing.”

“Indeed,” Blade commented, following as they walked back the way the Commander had come, towards the front of the castle, from the stallion's barracks.

Their Sovereign's passing out of the room signaled all could resume activities, lacking a direct command from his lips, but neither Himself nor his Commander noticed no one had yet moved behind them, not even the insects in the room...

“So, why are you in such a state of exuberance this morning, my friend,” the King of Shadows asked his companion.

“I have excellent news, Sombra,” Blade beamed, discarding his King's titles in the privacy of their walk. “Sure Hoof is with foal!”

That stopped Sombra cold. He squeezed his shoulder. “Congratulations! You are hoping for a filly this time, if I remember correctly.”

“After two colts, yes! I have always wanted one, and Sure Hoof has been absolutely pining since Thunder Step's second birthday,” the red stallion grinned widely.

“You certainly should have had one by now, Blade, what with six sisters to your parent's name!”

They both laughed and resumed their pace. “I would have stopped long before number five's arrival if I were them,” Blade tossed his head in emphasis. “any more attempts for a filly in my house and you would have to give me a raise on my army wages!”

The King smiled. “For you, Blade, I would gladly grant it. You are, after all, raising two future warriors for your King, yes?”

“And a Marazon warrior if she is like her mother - “ the Commander stopped as Sombra trotted to his side, and to his army leader's surprise, came to an abrupt halt, shivering.

“Odd,” Sombra rumbled. “did you feel that, Blade?”

“No, your Highness, nothing unusual,” he shrugged. “what did you feel?”

“Sensed,” Sombra said, tensing. “that is the second time since our walk began.” He grunted and shook his head, the luxurious mane whipping about his head and withers.

The red stallion felt it a moment later and visibly shivered as well. “Yes. Cold. So deep as to freeze bone!” Raising his eyes to his King's, he moved his foreleg, but it felt, “Stiff, I am rather stiff as well.”

His dark companion didn't reply, but simply stood, concentrating, expanding his senses outwards to find the magical disturbance...

...“Sire? Sombra!”

The King startled, cantered back a step. “What? Blade, why are yelling?”

“You were frozen for a full half a moment!”

“What?” a twinge of fear gnawed at Sombra's countenance, making Iron Blade truly concerned. The King of Fear feared no pony, no spell the Commander knew to exist. His Liege planned for all contingencies, was no fool, but for him to fear meant something was badly wrong.

“'tis true, Sire,” the Commander shifted his weight nervously from leg to leg, to leg to leg. “Even I am starting to feel...” he paused, thinking of how to explain the sensation.

“Sluggish, Blade?” Sombra replied more than asked, his tone severe. “of mind as well as body, of your own heart's beat, even.”

“Yes!” the stallion's eyes widened. “Has this - “

“ - happened before,” the King filled in grimly. “Yes, with more and more frequency, I'm afraid.”

“One of Celestia's wicked, far-reaching spells?” Blade ventured.

“I suspect not, my friend,” the King's expression turning dark at the mention of his hated enemy's name. “I would sense Her foul presence if She were nearby.”

“And why tip Her hoof when She has been openly posturing against You for months to save face with Equestrian royalty and her subjects, always threatening to bring an army to our doorstep?”

“Agreed, Blade,” Sombra blew out a breath. “Hence why I had you recalled to The Empire. You have been away on campaigns for a while now, but the time for gaining territories and waging offensives is passing. Our spies in Canterlot inform me the Two Sisters will make their move soon.”

“We will be ready, Your Highness!” Blade came to attention. “When will they start their march?”

Sombra blinked to find Blade dozing on the floor, curled up from where he rested on his haunches and six of his elite guard surrounding them both. “Blade?”

The Commander jumped at the sound of the King's voice. Shaking his head to clear the sleep from his mind, Iron Blade got to his hooves. “By your grace!” he exclaimed. “These magic’s effects are worsening, your Highness!”

It took a moment, but the Dark King had an instinctive sense this time he had been frozen much longer than previously. The most telling, confirming evidence of this being the light in the room had faded, Celestia's sun having moved to the other side of the castle. “How long?” he snarled, eyes flashing red crystal fire.

“Hours!” his Commander said urgently, gesturing his troops to approach. “I feared we had lost you completely this time, Sire!”

Sombra noticed a patch of long fur covering Iron Blade's right hoof was burned off. “Blade, what happened to your hoof?”

He glanced down, gingerly bringing the limb higher for their inspections. It was not blackened and peeling with the burn of heat, but white, lacking circulation and covered in frost. “This happened when I tried to awaken you. When I touched You, Your body was so cold it burned as frostbite would!”

Processing this horrible news, the King of Shadows was already turning around and heading back the way they had come. “We have to get back to Nyx!”

“Sire, does this have something to do with her abilities?” Blade called, motioning for the troops to follow them.

Sombra waited until he had caught up to explain. “I suspect so, my friend,” he replied quietly so the others would not hear as they trotted back towards the great hallway. “She has been tutoring me in time magic and this very much has the feel of the stasis spells I have mastered in your absence.”

“'Stasis spells'?” Blade asked.

He caught King Sombra's glance back at the guards. “We cannot speak here, Blade. I must confer this to you in private, after we deal with this - “ his words died, looking ahead, as they reached the grand hallway. Iron Blade followed his gaze.

“Tartarus!” the Commander breathed, equally horrified!

The two stallions and their contingent stared aghast at the sight before them. No pony had moved since King Sombra and Iron Blade had left the room. Tight Planner had actually tripped, dropping a load of parchment at the far end of the hallway and the papers were in mid air, frozen in place - he himself halfway to the marble floor, his hooves still off the solid ground.

No one wanted to move forward. After a full minute of gazing at the unnatural scene before them, Iron Blade was the first to speak. “Any pony would think me utterly mad to describe this scene before us. I am finding it hard to believe even as I am gazing upon it!” He ventured his good forehoof forward.

“Wait,” Sombra said, reaching out to stop him. Hunting around, he saw a cluster of crystal artwork decorating the edges of the hallway. Summoning a crystal to Him with his magic, He poised it before them, aiming it into the room ahead. “Nyx has been warning Us to always test an area such as the scene before Us now, lest We become caught in its trap.”

Blade nodded and they all watched as their King sent the crystal into the room with His magic. It went in level and true at first, but halfway across the room, when He directed it more to an angle, at Tight Planner, it stopped short, frozen before the surly little pony, hovering in front of his left eyeball. His total lack of a reaction to this told the group all they needed to know about the dangers of straying into the wrong area of this accursed space!

“Is Nyx still in your quarters, Sire?” Iron Blade asked, afraid of the answer.

“Yes and I fear We need her assistance,” Sombra replied, nodding. “We have to cross this hallway to get to her,” Sombra breathed. “Judging from the acceleration of its effect, it would take too long to go around.” He looked over at the large sculpture of black crystal on display near where he had plucked the test crystal to send through the room ahead of them. Choosing a much larger section, he sheared off several branches with his magic, bringing them over to them.

It came to rest in front of the troops. “Sire, what is your plan?” Blade asked as he and the guards stared at the sizeable chunk of faceted jet.

“I will raise a field up around the crystal,” explained Sombra. “You and the other two unicorn guards will use your magic to smash it to dust shards, as small as you can. Lay your swords within the field and step back well out of the way, otherwise the shards will pierce your hides.”

“Yes, Sire,” Blade directed his two guards to do as the King commanded, coordinating with them a signal to begin once Sombra raised the field to shield his stallions and contain the resulting fragments. Thinking the first few blows would do, the Commander was surprised when Sombra shook his head, ordering them to repeat the process again and again and again, assisting them with his own dark magic to reduce most of the crystal to a near-fine dust.

Once done, the King drew the swords back out, tweaking the field without lowering it so it literally cleaned off the crystal dust before they emerged. The guards retrieved their swords. He then refined and shrank the field around the crystal dust, bringing it up off the ground and sending it with a strong magic pulse into the room of frozen figures before them. Iron Blade and the guards watched, fascinated as the dust formed a clear outline of where time had frozen – sticking against the edges of the field, falling to the marbled floor where time still flowed normally.

“Brilliantly done, Your Highness!” the Commander breathed.

“Thank you, Blade,” the King nodded, using his magic again to methodically and carefully sweep aside the sharp fragments that had landed on the floor, allowing them clear passage through to the other side.

Cautiously at first, the group moved into the cleared corridor of free time, flanked on both sides by ponies still bowing to King Sombra, frozen in expressions and gestures of complete normalcy. It send a shiver down everypony's frame – even Sombra's and Iron Blade's, to be walking through such a show of living death in a space of No Time.

“Quickly,” their King instructed. “We know not how long this spell of No Time will last. We do not want to be caught within when it releases.”

A peculiar sound split the air around them – a sort of wheezing, groaning noise. Feeling it jangle his new sense of time, he snarled. Instinctively, Sombra threw a shield between them and the crystal coated area, leaving an area open ahead only big enough to flee through. “Run!” the King roared, breaking into a full gallop across the rest of the way out.

“What is that noise?” Blade asked as they ran.

“Later!” Sombra shouted, galloping faster. The crystal dust lining the sides of the corridor began to tremble as a shadowy image of a tall, blue box came faintly into existence back the way they came. The way none were looking.

The box's attempt at arrival in the time zone disturbed the very fabric of frozen time around them. Sombra cursed, feeling it wrest control of his shield spell from him as it tore apart the laws of local magic. Desperately, he turned to shadow, grabbed Iron Blade and the closest guards in his grip and hurtled through the remaining space in an instant!

Making it out just as the spell failed and crystal dust started falling in their wake, the King of Shadows blocked the exit with another field, returned to pony form again and released those he had just saved.

All but the last guard made it out, the stallion's backside being dusted by the first bits of falling crystal dust. He leapt clear, the King's tail turning to shadow and snaking out, grabbing the guard's forelegs and yanking him through in an instant behind them, but by then Sombra already knew He was too late to save Him.

Iron Blade was the first one to stand up, straightening his armor, patting it down with his hooves to make sure he was all there and unharmed. “Is everyone through?” He asked his men. The men nodded and he breathed a sigh of relief.

“A shame,” King Sombra intoned, emotionless behind him.

Iron Blade felt a familiar, uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach at hearing that. He had been in enough campaigns side-by-side with Sombra to know exactly what it meant when Sombra said such things. “What?” he asked the King of Shadows.

Sombra was staring at the last guard through who had hit the ground, waiting for the inevitable. The stallion breathed heavily, but fidgeted, growled and reached back to chew at his backside. The King had immediately surrounded the stallion with a field as soon as he had come through with them. It just wasn't fast enough. The guard's irritated fidgeting turned to yelps of pain, then screams as he thrashed his head and tail about, desperate to shake off the sharp crystal dust working its way into his hide's backside, legs, hooves and more delicate tissues. They watched, the guards in horror, Blade in frustration and their King in grim expectation as tiny rivulets of blood as thin as a horse's hair length appeared on the stallion's hide, gathering, growing, coating his white coat until he convulsed, falling dead to the ground within minutes.

“What - “ Iron Blade began to ask, stunned at the dead guard before them.

“It was – a risk, Blade,” Sombra said heavily, hating to lose a good stallion. “I needed a fine substance to mark a line of passage through the time disturbance with. Nyx said with this type of phenomena, small fissures of frozen time could line our path where it may appear clear. We could lose a hoof, a tail or worse if we were not careful. We had nothing else to mark the path with.”

Blade stood, still processing why the stallion had died. “But why did he - “

“ - he died because the crystal dust worked through the skin into his blood, his organs and was carried into the heart,” his King said, emotionless. “You have never witnessed this part of my power because it is too dangerous to use outside of controlled conditions, Blade. It would kill everything within range – our troops as well as the enemy, and it cannot be easily retrieved even by my magic, once released into fine particles such as the uneven earth of the battlefield.”

“How will we draw it back from the hallway?” the red stallion asked, watching it fall back down more and more as the pocket of frozen time slowly lost its grip on the area.

“Upon a marble surface it is much more easily swept away,” Sombra's horn bubbled with black, purple and green as he eyes flared, emerald-like. The black crystal dust obediently flowed, like a strange river, into the shape of a blob he then reformed into a new crystal form and set aside. He then levitated the dead guard past them, off to the side of the room. “We shall attend him after we speak with Nyx. The field will protect others from the dust still clinging to his coat.” He began to walk again, but stopped. “The field is losing its grip faster now, I can sense it.” He grunted. “Nyx's lessons are paying off. I am quite sensitive to time's ebb and flow now. Oh, and if you wish to be amused, Blade, watch Tight Planner as the field releases.”

All eyes went to the airborne pony. In another second, everyone continued walking, speaking, moving, all oblivious to their hours of imprisonment. Despite the grim scenario they had just witnessed with their comrade's death, the Commander couldn't help but laugh as the King's Scheduler yelped, hitting the ground hours after he had begun his inelegant fall.

5. Past Abduction

While King Sombra and Commander Iron Blade are dealing with the freezing of time in the rest of the palace...

Dear Crystal Diary,

Something has gone wrong with local time in the palace. The last three days we have witnessed hiccups, freezes and switchbacks in time that have left me with a growing nervousness as to where their inevitable consequences will lead. I have checked and double-checked my time spells and Sombra's execution of them. They are flawless. I fear something outside of our workings is to blame for the temporal disruptions.

It it an incredible thought that someone else may be casting time spells without our knowledge, that others like me may exist in the world, but the answer may be simpler than such an unlikely possibility. My King did confide in me that Starswirl the Bearded was working on his own time spells – an insane endeavor as he has absolutely no experience in such matters and no one to guide him as I guide his Highness. If I cannot get down to the bottom of these time upsets, a visit to that interfering wizard will desperately be needed! In the meantime, both Sombra and I have ceased any such lessons and spells for the time being for fear they would only make matters worse.

Nyx

The Marazon TimeWitch set the quill back into its holder, leaving the diary page open so the ink could dry. Not since the mice who were not mice had been discovered in the castle did she feel so uneasy about the fate of her love and their Empire. In the end, an easy and quite elegant solution had presented itself to the nuisance of them, but they had been mere invaders. This problem, whatever its solution, had far, far worse and more immediate consequences.

She felt a sudden dread, an anxiety of what was to come, like the sound of an army of death approaching. Unable to sit still, she rose, crossing the room to the mirror. A hoofmaiden arrived to help her out of her flowing, diaphanous bedclothes and into her royal attire, but her unease would not rest and she dismissed the slave, requesting she come back later. Her mind wandered and pondered the terrible time shifts that had been plaguing them. Assessing her reflection only long enough to make sure everything was in place, she dismissed the mare, barely registering her leaving.

As the maiden's hoof falls echoed down the hallway, they stopped abruptly instead of fading, the sound of their click-click-click hung in the air, stuck, like an echo of sound caught in a cave that eternally bounced the sound back and forth betwixt and between the walls. That and the sudden chill in the air were the first warning signs the TimeWitch knew all too well were an impending temporal upset to local time.

The slowing of time came, as it always did, upon the heels of her sense of dread, the sudden drop of temperature in the room and the warping of sound around her. It was a short, quick spasm that washed over her like an unstoppable wave, too fast and too overwhelming to prepare for. She knew it had already caught King Sombra out in the hallways, sensing the freezing of his life force, her link with him not dying, but also not alive beyond the instant of that moment.

'At least we are together, my dark heart,' was all she was able to complete of her thoughts as time froze her with him.

Nearly as quickly as it had come on, the time lock let go, ebbing as it had crested, starting and stopping Nyx's breathing and heartbeat several times before settling back into place in the natural track of its place in the universe. It was very quickly followed by another stoppage.

The only difference when she came back this time was when her internal chrono clock resynched her body through her time magic, she knew it was hours later, not the few minutes of the first time spasm. "Damnation!" she breathed, ready to gallop out to find Sombra when there came a horrible, screeching sound many degrees of worse than the oil-starved wheels of a war machine.

Whirling around, Nyx caught sight of a tall, blue wooden box surrounded by a warping of time's laws the likes of which she had never experienced before in her life! It seemed to be struggling to break through whatever time lock had captured Nyx and the ponies outside of the King's chambers, for it kept fading and solidifying, sending out waves of time distortion as it did. The mare rode out the waves of displacement as best she could until the strange contraption seemed to gain a strong enough foothold in local time, growing more and more solid until the strange noise settled down with a distinctive “thump”.

When it was safe enough to do so, the Marazon summoned a large, steel death scythe with her magic, holding it aloft and at the ready for whatever was to happen next. If it be in the form of further invaders, they would regret -

A door opened in front of the strange time box. A bat pony garbed in lunar armor emerged. “Nyx? Ah there you are,” the stallion nodded. “How did you get out here?”

The Marazon cocked her head to one side in confusion. “You know me?”

“Amusing, but ineffective, witch,” he replied, quickly registering the fact she was holding a menacing weapon aloft at her side. “I know not how you got out of this time machine, but it seems to be tied in with the trouble the Doctor is having controlling our destination.”

“Dark Watch?” a stallion called from inside. “I may not be able to hold her with the local time distortion. Get back in here!”

“A moment Doctor!” he called behind him, trotting out of the box.

“Come on, we have to go,” he urged.

Nyx glared at him. “I have never been in that – box and I am most certainly not coming with you now!”

Luna's guard huffed. “Yes you are,” he said in a tone that invited no choice. “He says it is dangerous here and we overshot our destination.”

“Indeed you did,” she agreed. “And your contraption is causing a worse temporal distortion of an already bad situation.”

Snorting, Dark Watch reached out with his magic and grabbed Nyx, dragging her towards him. “Tartarus damn you, LET ME GO!” she cursed, fighting his grip with her own magic.

“C'mon along, witch,” he said shortly. “I do not want to be abandoned here when that box leaves!”

“You want me? Fine!” she snarled, swinging the scythe in front of her, seeking to take her opponent's foreleg off.

“Whoa!” he reared back to avoid the deadly swing, losing his grip on her long enough she spun around and tried to flee. Quickly reasserting his hold, the lunar guard was in a better position to avoid a swing she could no longer judge with the weapon because her flank was to him.

Desperately, Nyx dug at the ground, digging her hoof shoes into the marble floor, chipping and scratching its polished surface, but only slowing her progress and losing a shoe in the process. “No!” she screamed. “You cannot do this! Time is broken here. My Sombra need me to fix it!”

“We know! But this is the wrong time, or so the Doctor says.”

“He's trapped!” she cursed. “I have to LET HIM GO!”

So that was her intent all along, he growled to himself. “You can't set him loose. I won't let you!”

Nyx bucked with her back legs, attempting to either contact with her enemy's face or distract his grip again, but nothing ceased her backwards momentum. When she was close enough, he grabbed her weapon and flung it into the Tardis to get it away from her, knowing if he threw it into the room outside the box, she would have a line of sight on it, would grab it again and impale him.

Time started to lose its grip on the machine, causing Dark Watch to redouble his efforts to get Nyx inside the Tardis before they disappeared again.

The temporal upset interfered with Nyx's magical resistance against the bat pony, and she slipped ever closer and faster. Tears stung her eyes. “No!” she screamed. “Sombra! Blade! SOMBRA!”

When she was within inches of the door, Luna's guard flung her inside as hard as he could, a second later, grabbing her weapon in his grip and tossing it out of the Tardis, then slamming the door.

The Tardis groaned, wheezed and faded, the echo of Nyx's screams hanging in the air, along with the scythe of her consort, frozen in mid-throw as evidence of her violent abduction.

Author's Note

Just decided this chapter that Dark Watch is a bat pony. Bat ponies are way cool.

And oh, boy, is Sombra going to be PISSED OFF when he gets his hooves on him! Heh...SPOILERS!!! Stick around for the potential carnage and other mayhem in the future chapters of Frozen Shadows!

6. Unwilling Passengers

Back in the corridors just outside the King’s private chambers…

Tight Planner lay sprawled on the floor, several aides grabbing slowly drifting paperwork in their teeth, another bending to help him up. Poised to utter a sharp retort at the pony who dared laugh at him, he looked up to see it was not only the Grand Commander Iron Blade, but standing next to him, King Sombra was being hard pressed to contain his snickering as well. Biting back his temper, he let the page assist with getting him back on his hooves.

Turning away, Blade felt suddenly dizzy. He fell to his knees, the room spinning sickeningly.

“Blade!” Sombra exclaimed, kneeling down to him. “What is - “ he stopped, feeling another disorienting time disturbance ahead of them.

“No! Sombra! Blade! SOMBRA!”

“That’s Nyx!” the King’s head snapped in the direction of his chambers. He looked down again quickly.

“I’m fine, Sombra. Go, GO!” he yelled, struggling to his feet.

Sombra and several guards galloped in the direction of his consort’s cries. That strange, wheezing, groaning sound was back again and his new temporal instincts told him they were related somehow. “Nyx! I’m coming!” he called out, but could already feel the waves of distortion fading and her with them. Turning to shadow, he crossed the long corridor in an instant and burst through the doors.

There had been a struggle, he could see immediately. The floor was gouged, the copper death scythe he had gifted his mate with was frozen in mid-throw before him and a strange, blue wooden cabinet was trying to phase out of their time stream before his eyes.

“No! Sombra! Blade! SOMBRA!”

The repeating echo of her last cries only served to anger and frustrate the King of Shadows that he had not been present to protect her. Not knowing who or what was responsible, his only clue was the out-of-place cabinet that was rapidly fading before his eyes.

Snarling, he threw a quick temporal loop spell around the box, enveloping himself and the rest of the room in a protective, counter-aura. “Oh no you DON’T!” he snapped. The Tardis made a sound like the brakes being slammed on a war wagon.

“No! Sombra! Blade! SOMBRA!”

Her voice was rapidly fading as the broken local timestream was repaired, then time began to wind slowly backwards.

Iron Blade and the crystal guards King Sombra had left behind in his haste to get to Nyx arrived, coming upon the bizarre sights and sounds of the heavy double doors splintered off their hinges, Sombra head down, hind legs spread in a fighting stance, his dark magic swirling about the room in varying degrees of intensity and door splinters doing a slowed down dance through the air before them.

A mare’s distorted voice ripped through the air. Next, Nyx was thrown in slow motion out of the box, one hoof grabbed around her wrist by the magic of a stallion in dark armor who stepped out of the box and let her go. The TimeWitch fell to the ground and started being pulled forwards towards Sombra and Blade!

“ARBMOS! edalB! Arbmos! On!” she screamed, a mixture of tears, terror and anger in her eyes.

“What in Tartarus?!” Blade breathed, transfixed as the other guards were by the sight.

Nyx’s copper scythe came flying out of the strange, blue contraption before them, causing the guards to dive aside for fear of being impaled. Blade braced himself, readying his aura to catch it, however, it stopped in front of them, ensnared by the TimeWitch’s magical aura.

Sombra rose, his horn still glowing with black, green and purple energies. Nyx’s back legs pulled back from a near kick of her assailant.

“Time is winding backwards,” Sombra explained, watching, fascinated as chips from the marble floor fixed themselves under his consort’s hooves, Nyx screaming further incomprehensible gibberish all the time.

Blade raised an eyebrow as Dark Watch pulled his leg back from a swing of Nyx’s scythe. He bit his lip, feeling nauseous, dismissing it as the time distortion’s side effect. “Best birthday present you ever gave her,” he glanced at Sombra.

“She would tell you that was last night’s tryst,” the King muttered low enough only Iron Blade could hear. “She was a quick learner with that weapon,” he admired her vicious swing. “She hated that scythe at first.”

“They are not easy to wield, as you well know,” Blade replied. A thought occurred to him. “Wait, why are we not ‘going backwards’ as well, your Majesty?”

“The ‘bubble’ of reverse time is very localized,” the Dark Pony explained. He looked pleased. “Another few seconds I can stop the spell, retrieve Nyx and capture this interloper and his strange box.”...

Just before King Sombra burst into the room…

Dark Watch flew into the Tardis, dragging a very angry, upset TimeWitch with him. Hooves and Derpy were looking over readouts at the console, not seeing what Luna’s guard was doing until they heard Nyx snarling curses upon the guard’s bloodline. The pair looked up, seeing a differently dressed Nyx flung into the time machine and thrown hard enough against the wall it stunned her.

“No, no, NO!” Whooves yelled, coming around the console in a panic. “That’s NOT our Nyx!”

The Night Guard merely looked at the Doctor like he was crazy. “Oh, it is her, Doctor,” he assured the Time Pony. “Same mare, same temper,” he glanced over at the wall where the scythe had earlier accidentally embedded itself in the wall with the force with which Watch had thrown it into the Tardis before throwing it out of the time box again. “Same deadly weapon. Trust me, it’s - “

The Tardis was violently grabbed by an unknown force that gave the Doctor the worst headache of his life. He crumpled in agony to the floor. “Doctor!” Derpy yelled, kneeling down to him.

The Time Pony could only fight to stay conscious and not black out as he dimly registered the screech of his beloved ship as if something had grabbed her and not only stopped their time jump, but were impossibly dragging her back to the place they were leaving.

The pain peaked as something dark and shadowy snaked through the door that was suddenly flung open, grabbing both Nyx and Dark Watch in a temporal fit, flinging them back out the doors in the reverse order through which they had come.

“What was that?!” Derpy asked in a panic.

The Doctor could only groan in reply, reaching up a hoof, catching the side of the console to pull himself up eye level with the time box’s indicators and readouts. It took another few seconds for his vision to clear and the pain to recede enough that he found the button he wanted and slammed a hoof down on it.

Another second past with King Sombra and Iron Hoof…

Time snapped forward as Sombra started to release the spell, but something yanked control of it out of his hooves, accelerating it faster than normal. Growling, digging his hooves into the floor, Sombra fought for control of the timestream.

“I’m - losing - her!” the King snarled, putting all his dark power into the struggle. “Blade, grab her!” he cried.

Iron Blade’s aura shot out, enveloping them both. Time normalized under their combined pressure.

Nyx suddenly became aware of them in front of her. “Sombra?”

Try as he might to keep his concentration, her scared voice distracted him for a split second, allowing time to speed forward again and gain momentum. Sombra would have lost his grip on her completely were it not for Blade’s sheer force of will to hang on to her.

It was long enough for the King to realize to his horror that his magic was dangerously depleted, so in sheer desperation, he grabbed her back leg, breaking through the weakened time counter field.

The Grand Commander’s unicorn guards had lent him their power in the struggle, but it only delayed the unstoppable force of time by a second. The Empire’s leaders were torn out of their grip and flung into the box which winked out of existence without a trace.

The Doctor’s soul-crushing headache was gone as fast as it had appeared, coming on with the unleashing of Sombra’s spell to draw them back and now gone completely with the reestablishment of their forward momentum once again. He righted himself as the sounds of thuds, grunts and armor hitting the floor echoed throughout the room.

Nyx had been thrown against the wall as before, but this time Dark Watch had been stopped from joining her as Sombra’s heavier bulk landed on his back legs and they ended up a heap of entwined legs and armor.

“Oh no, this is BAD!” Whooves uttered the obvious, immediately recognizing the curved, blood red horn of the Unicorn Witch King. Derpy, eyes fixated on the two, asked, “Who’s that - “

“You really don’t want to know, trust me!” the Time Pony replied tersely.

The charcoal pony in question jammed an iron-greaved hoof down on his opponent’s neck beneath him, looking quickly around for Nyx’s copper scythe, but not seeing it. Realizing it must have been thrown out of the room again, he struggled to keep his balance on his opponent’s throat, shifting to keep out of the way as the bat pony fought to wrench him loose.

“GET OFF ME!” Watch snarled, mentally cursing the armor that while protecting him was also now hampering his efforts to throw the Crystal Tyrant off him.

Derpy and Whooves slowly ventured closer, though still keeping a respectful distance. They watched Sombra take in the larger space of the room with an unreadable, emotionless gaze until he spotted them. His gaze narrowed, horn bubbling in the colors of dark magic in preparation to do Tartarus-knew-what to them. “You two,” he rumbled in a deep, terrifying voice the mail mare had only heard in her worst nightmares. “I would have answers as to why you were attempting to kidnap my consort.”

“Uh, King Sombra, I presume, then?” Whooves said weakly. Stunned to see the legendary King of Shadows in the Tardis, the two stared blankly at him for a moment, too shocked to answer him.

“You were in my palace attempting to abduct my TimeWitch,” Sombra replied evenly.

“Well - yes and no! You see, we lost her in the vortex and - “ Derpy volunteered until Whooves nudged her warningly.

Dr. Whooves stepped forward. “It was a terrible mistake, your Highness,” he babbled quickly.

“‘Mistake’?” the King snarled. “Either you are a fool or an idiot,” he rumbled, taking himself up to his full, intimidating stature, made a tad difficult to maintain as the muscular stallion beneath him was bucking wildly, or trying to. “I choose to believe you art the former. This contraption is too complex and time travel too difficult to be left in the hands of idiots,” he concluded, taking in the tardis console. He locked eyes with the pegasus. “Your mare makes more sense than you!”

Derpy performed a nervous yet flattered curtsy before the King, lowering her gaze. “Tha - thank you, your Highness!” she stuttered, her face growing red, but then she realized the implication of what he had said. “Oh!” She quickly stood up, she and Hooves gestured in the negative to each other. “We’re not…involved!” they both began to say at once.

His demeanor darkened considerably, coming to a further conclusion. “Spies then? If you have come to interfere in the affairs of my reign...”

Whooves eyes grew as wide as saucers. “No, no, no!” he answered desperately. “It was Dark Watch’s mistake, dragging Nyx in here! Our sincerest apologies! We will drop you off forthwith with all due haste!”

Sombra wrinkled his nose at the stallion’s poor attempt at medieval diction. “Not before I obtain answers as to why thee hath come in the first stead and why thee were meddling with Our time spells.” If this earth pony fool knew who Nyx was, it seemed extremely unlikely this was a mistake or coincidence they had come in a time machine!

A wheezing sound at his hooves caught his attention. Glancing down, he saw Dark Watch was turning blue from lack of oxygen. His opponent’s weakening struggles reminded him he was probably killing the nuisance on the ground beneath him. If this one made more sense than the other two, he was worth keeping alive for the moment. He removed his booted foot and stepped back. Certain the bat pony guard was in no shape at the moment to put up a fight, he cantered over towards the mare and stallion when he spotted Nyx still pinned up against the far wall. “Nyx, are thee injured?”

She didn’t respond. The Umbrum frowned. The two travelers before him turned to her as well. The mare was oddly quiet, unmoving yet eyes open, her face blank.

The three went to her side, her King there first. Behind them, Dark Watch has ceased wheezing and coughing, getting back to his hooves.

Fear tightened the Shadow Pony’s stomach. He was so close to Nyx, his breath ruffled her voluminous mane, yet she was still unresponsive. Behind him, Whooves made a negative gesture to the lunar guard’s motion to jump Sombra while he was occupied with the state of his mate.

“Nyx?” Sombra asked in a gentler tone as he nudged her. She slid slowly down the wall, leaving a thick smear of blood where her head had impacted some sharp machinery jutting out from the wall. “Oh no!” he breathed, catching her with his magic, lowering her gently to the ground.

The King carefully brushed her mane aside as best he could, deeply concerned how caked it was with blood. Derpy ran to get the medical kit as Whooves and Sombra examined the back of the Marazon’s head.

“It’s not deep,” the Doctor said, relieved. “Head wounds always bleed much worse than they look. She probably does have a concussion, though.” He looked up, “Derpy - ah good!” he said as the mail mare was already at his side with a medical kit. Glancing up, his voice took a wry tone. “I don’t suppose either of you two possess healing abilities, being warriors and such.”

“No,” Watch replied tersely.

“It was never a skill I was adept at,“ Sombra added. The King watched the earth pony rummage through the strange box, most of its contents foreign to him except for a dark glass bottle containing what he could only guess was a tincture of an herbal preparation. Oddly, Whooves ignored it and everything else in the metal box in favor of something else he drew from a pocket of the cloak he was wearing. It was long, round, smooth and of shiny metal, but what it did, he had no idea.

The concern in his voice dropped in favor of a more authoritative tone. “If you are to minister to her, I would have your names.”

“I’m the Doctor,” the brown stallion replied. He gestured to his companion.

“I’m Derpy,” she nodded.

“And the stallion you tried to crush the life out of is Dark Watch,” Whooves replied as he used his sonic screwdriver to ascertain the extent of Nyx’s head wound.

“If I had wanted him dead,” the dangerous pony rumbled. “He would already be so.” Sombra cocked his head in curiosity. “‘Dark Watch’ you say?” he shook his head, grunting.

“Something amusing about my name?” Watch challenged him.

“Interesting more like,” Sombra replied, watching Derpy dab away the blood from Nyx’s terrible-looking wound. “Something Iron Blade’s parents told me many years ago,” he added thoughtfully, then dismissed it.

Derpy smiled a bit. “That sounds like a warrior’s name.”

“Indeed. He is my Grand Commander over the crystal army,” Sombra nodded, glancing at her. “A friend of many, many years.” His dark eyes traveled back to what Whooves was doing. “This ‘technology’ is far in advance of our own,” he said idly, suprising the pegasus. “You have come far in time indeed.”

“Hand me that patch, Derps,” Whooves asked, pointing to something in her kit, then it occurred to him what the unicorn king had said. “‘Technology’? How do you even know that word,” he asked, shocked.

“Why should I impart such knowledge to a potential enemy?” the king frowned. “You could be from that foul Celestia’s nest of spies for all thee has told me of thy mission here.”

“Princess Celestia would never - “ Dark Watch began.

Sombra turned, his dark crystal gaze shot to the bat pony’s. “Torchhoof is not such a well-guarded secret in my time, creature, that I have not come to an awareness of its existence,” he said acidly. Behind him, Whooves winced in pain as the king’s aura grasped his wrist. “You will not touch my consort without permission, dirthoof. What is that you are applying to her wound?”

The time pony expected the demon king was using only a tiny fraction of his magic to hold him, judging from the weak spark from his horn, yet he had nearly crushed his wrist bones. “Ahhh!!!” Whooves winced. “Something I picked up from the Kinda world. It’ll knit the wound back together..please stop that! You’re bloody crushing my wrist!”

“Fragile thing, aren’t you,” Sombra said, amused, yet not letting go. He glanced at Watch. “Are they all this frail in your time?”

Dark Watch nodded. “Pretty much, yes.”

It was Derpy that spoke up next. “Please, your Highness. We are just trying to help!”

The use of his title and/or sincerity and pleading in her tone seemed to be more to his liking, for Sombra relented his grip, the sudden release of pressure almost as bad as the pressure itself. “Mares are better at healing than stallions and this one’s tone of respect much more to my liking. You will tend my mate,” Sombra ordered, spearing her with his gaze.

Whooves nodded at the reasonable request, as did Derpy. They quickly traded places. She nodded at the time pony. “He’s right, you know. That hasn’t changed in a thousand - “

“ - anyway,” Whooves cut her off. “I don’t always travel with a healer, so I find it’s useful to pick up the odd healing device when and where I can,” he said hastily, not wanting to give away the year of their origin to the tyrant.

“So you are not 100% the fool,” Sombra muttered rhetorically, watching the mare work.

She was having a hard time getting the bleeding to stop long enough, however, to get the patch on. She looked up at him. “Your - your Highness,” she stammered nervously. “Could you please, I mean, can you use your magic to apply some pressure to stop the bleeding? The patch won’t stick long enough to work if it’s bleeding this much.”

Sombra concentrated a bit of his magic - the three noticed it was still dark magic - to apply pressure. Nyx whimpered, semi-conscious. He brushed a hoof against her cheek tenderly, noticing she was also shivering. “Try to stay still, my love. You’ve taken a bad injury,” he whispered. “She’s cold,” he told them. Derpy and Whooves traded glances at the sight of King Sombra showing someone affection, let alone any type of compassion.

“She’s clammy, as well,” Dark Watch noticed. “She’s probably in shock.”

“There are blankets in that room,” the Doctor nodded in the direction of a door off the control room. “Bring several. We can fold one for a makeshift pillow. I don’t want to prop her head up too high, but this floor is quite cold.”

The bat pony ran to get the requested items. Sombra caught Derpy smiling at him. Confused, he looked away, surprised at the flush he felt from her gaze.

Watch returned with the blankets. He and the King carefully levitated Nyx, spreading one out underneath her body and another carefully folded one under her head. Hooves drew the emergency kit to him and pulled out another device. Unwilling to have his wrist suffer near crushing again, he held it up before the Shadow King. “This is a serum to prevent shock,” he explained. “Shock kills, as you may or may not know in your time, so I highly recommend we administer some anti-shock serum before it becomes a bigger problem to treat with our limited resources.”

Sombra eyed the needle for a moment, but relented, watching carefully as Hooves worked to give Nyx the injection. Once the dosage was given, Whooves passed the spent needle back to Derpy to safely get rid of. The Time Pony sat back on his haunches, satisfied, sighing. “That’s all we can do for now, except move her to a more comfortable room.”

“There is one on this vessel?” Sombra inquired.

“Wouldn’t she be more comfortable back at the castle, Doctor,” Derpy suggested, hoping he was already thinking it the perfect excuse to get the Crystal Empire’s tyrant ruler off the time ship.

“Yes, yes,” Whooves agreed. “She would definitely be better off in more familiar surroundings.” They both looked to Sombra.

He wasn’t the least bit impressed by their attempts to not only get rid of them, but to dodge the answers to his previous questions. The King stood, again raising to his full stature without looking like it was even an effort and glared at them. “If she were conscious, that might be a consideration. Were I inclined to be feeling generous and not in need of answers to the questions I have already put forth to thee, then perhaps.” He reached out casually with his magic and grabbed Whooves by the throat, dragging him closer. At this distance the time pony could see nothing but malice in the slitted, snake-like eyes framed by their surrounding red, refracted crystal. “Neither currently apply and I have run out of patience!”

“I will tell you then,” came a voice from behind them. All three turned to see Dark Watch standing there, unafraid, almost challenging. “I have the least of us to lose if you are displeased with the answers, so I am the logical choice to provide them to you.”

Sombra dropped Hooves with hardly a thought, turning his large frame to the bat pony. He endured the King’s up close, intense inspection without even blinking. The King stared at him, eye-to-eye. “There is something familiar about you,” the umbrum said thoughtfully. “But first, let us take care of my consort’s needs as to accommodations.”

Sombra levitated Nyx through the corridors while the other three ponies led the way. They pulled ahead just enough to be able to whisper to each other. The Tyrant King was too busy holding Nyx steady and memorizing the twists and turns of the corridors, they hoped, to eavesdrop as they talked.

“You can’t tell him about the future!” Hooves whispered urgently to Dark Watch. “With that kind of knowledge - “

“He could use it to avoid his fate, yes I know that, Doctor,” the lunar guard replied sourly. “Mi’lady Princess Luna emphasized that quite emphatically upon our departure back in Canterlot.”

“If he finds out the Princesses sent you - “ Derpy said, wide-eyed.

“He already knows I am in service to Princess Luna by the very design of my armor,” he replied. “It is not Luna he has issue with.”

“Yes, I noticed,” Hooves nodded. “I wonder why that is...” he trailed off thoughtfully.

As they turned yet another corner, in the moment they were out of sight of King Sombra, Dark Watch spoke up. “Luna and he were once lovers and Celestia tore them apart when Sombra’s darker side emerged after he perished at Lake Evershine,” he told them.

The Doctor and Derpy looked at each other, then back to the guard.

The gray pegasus was confused. “‘Perished’? As in died? But he’s - “ she trailed off, nodding her head back at a very much live Tyrant King coming back into view from around the corridor.

“That’s not in any of the accounts. How do you know that?” the Time Pony asked.

“Did Princess Luna tell you that?” Derpy added.

Dark Watch looked uncertainly at them. “I - I do not know,” he admitted. “my Princess would not impart such personal knowledge to her guards. I just know that is the truth.” He paused, appearing as confused as to where the knowledge came from as they were.

Their curiosity was cut short when the mail mare realized where they were. “This is the room, Doctor.”

“Ah, so it is,” he nodded, stopping so Sombra and his precious load could catch up.

The room was minimally furnished with a single, large bed, clothes armoire, desk and chair. The King went in, surveying it first. “This is adequate - for the moment,” and brought Nyx in, drawing back the covers on the bed and settling her in. After pulling the covers back over her, he felt her forehead. “No fever. That is good. How long does this ‘patch’ typically effect its repairs to the body?” he asked the Doctor.

“It depends on the severity of the injury, your Majesty,” he replied. “Also on the species and their general health.”

“Her health is excellent,” Sombra replied.

“Then she should recover quickly,” the brown pony nodded.

Leaning down, Sombra kissed her forehead just below her horn.

While Dark Watch remained outwardly unmoved by the tyrant’s uncharacteristic display of affection, inwardly he was just as surprised as the others for the second time in their unwilling passenger’s short stay.

“I would speak with Dark Watch,” the King told them. “In private.”

Hooves wanted to balk, to make some excuse - any excuse to stay, but knew the Shadow King was done with him and dared not press the issue.

Luna’s guard nodded his assent to the request.

“As you wish,” the Doctor replied. He and Derpy exited the room. He leaned over to Dark Watch and whispered, “Good luck!”

7. Confronting the Shadows

Derpy and The Doctor were quiet until they turned three turns down the long corridors, then the mail mare practically gasped out, “Should we really leave Dark Watch with that - monster?!?”

Whooves butted her flank to urge her along when she slowed, looking back. “We’ve no choice, Derps!” he said grimly. “He barely used a flicker of his magic to nearly crush my wrist and he has enough physical strength to keep a fully grown, powerful stallion like Dark Watch under hoof as much as he was struggling. I doubt there is much King Sombra couldn’t do to us if he really wanted to.”

“There’s something else I don’t understand, Doctor.”

“What’s that Derpy?”

“If that isn’t our Nyx, but an earlier version from before we met her in Celestia’s palace, then that means she should remember us, right?”

“You mean her older self? The one who saw us again when she came to plead Sombra’s case to the Two Sisters?”

“Uh huh.”

That stopped the Doctor for a moment. “Yes…” the Doctor said slowly, mulling it over. “I don’t know. Memory damage from the concussion? This earlier version of her never regains consciousness now, while she’s here with us?” He looked back down the corridors towards where they had left them. “Truthfully, I am more worried as to where our Nyx is.”

The pegasus looked down, thinking about that. “Oh yeah. That’s a good point.”

The Time Pony resumed trotting. “And there’s the whole once his Majesty’s assured Nyx is recovering, what’s to stop him from taking over the Tardis problem.” He shook his head, his wild, brown mane made more unruly by the act. “There’s just too much going on at the moment to get our answers until something else happens and I sincerely hope it isn’t another catastrophe like we’ve been having ever since that Time Witch of his came on board.”

As impulsive as Luna’s guard had acted already this trip, he felt no such need to push his luck now with an opponent like King Sombra who had already shown he could best the bat pony both in sheer brute physicality and by force of magic. Groping for another advantage in the moment the Shadow King was preoccupied with his consort, he ran through his list of options and came up with only two - his wits and if Sombra had a shred of warrior’s code to his name.

They were really the only other defenses he had left to him.

Sombra turned his attention back to Dark Watch. The bat pony assumed the stance one would when in the presence of his commanders. While Sombra was not one of them, he was a King in this time period - even if he were a King of the enemy’s side.

Watch was careful to keep eye contact with him yet not give an air of challenging his authority. Sombra would respect strength and averting one’s eyes was always a sign of either weakness, submissiveness or worse, cowardice.

“Hmmm…” Sombra looked over at Watch’s flank, taking in the broadsword cutie mark pointing downward, Luna’s crescent moon cutting across the hilt. It was glowing with a soft, purple hue. “Broadswords, I am informed, are no longer utilized in your time. Is that correct?”

“No, they are not.”

The tyrant’s gaze came back to rest directly on his. “Peculiar one is your cutie mark, do you not think?”

“It has crossed my mind from time to time,” he replied, not daring to take his eyes off his enemy's. “My parents and squad mates were not surprised. They always said I was - “

“ - at one with my sword,” Sombra chimed in as Dark Watch completed the thought with exactly the same phrase.

The bat pony frowned. “How did you know,” he asked, his even tone cracking with a hint of surprise.

It was Sombra’s turn for the unreadable mask to drop slightly. “A hunch not yet proven,” he said thoughtfully. “But that can be rectified. Nyx is resting at the moment and we should carry our discussion elsewhere as to not disturb her rest. Is there an area for combat practice on this vessel?”

“‘Combat practice’?” Watch echoed. “You mean for us to - “

“I missed my practice with Iron Blade due to this ‘time emergency’ and feel the need to expend some energy in a constructive way,” Sombra grinned. “As a warrior do you not feel the need to - what is the term in your time for this?”

“Blow off some steam?” Dark Watch offered.

“If you like, though why steam is involved, eludes me,” Sombra shook his dark mane.

Watch actually laughed at this. “I am always ready for a good fight. If you promise not to actually kill me this time, I may yet prove a challenge for you, given a fighting chance.”

“A fair request,” the King nodded, finding himself falling into an almost easy manner with the bat pony. He followed the guard out into the corridor, who turned the opposite direction Whooves and Derpy had taken back to the control room.

At a junction, Watch slowed. “I need a moment to get my bearings,” he said, venturing a few paces down one corridor. “All these blasted corridors look the same.”

Sombra watched as the guard of the Night Princess moved further away, a motion at his flank catching his eye. The glow surrounding Watch’s cutie mark appeared to fade.

“No,” the bat pony shook his head, coming back. “I think it is this way.” The glow returned to his flank as he came back towards Sombra. He let the guard move past him and go the other way. The same thing happened. The glow faded the further away he went from the Crystal King.

‘I thought so,’ Sombra breathed. ‘Yet how…’

“It’s this way, your - “Watch caught himself before he said, Majesty. “This way,” he amended. 'Why do I keep wanting to give him his titles?' he chided himself. 'I’m not part of his army. I’m not obligated to.' Shaking his head, he grunted, leading the way towards the practice field.

Sombra followed, keeping his thoughts to himself for the moment, and caught up with Dark Watch as they walked on.

They soon came to a door labeled “sports field”. Watch led them in and gave King Sombra a chance to take in the area. The dark stallion’s unreadable gaze moved over the large, squarish room that Dark Watch gauged was roughly the size of a football field, which was good. They would need room to run.

Secretly, Luna’s guard was worried. He knew no more than what the legends said about King Sombra. Kings in any era of Equestrian history were only occasionally warriors and rarely had the time to stay in peak physical shape after taking on the responsibilities of their position. Gauging from Sombra’s strong, muscular build and the way he himself had been so easily subdued by the Tyrant King, history had damnably left out the fact that the Shadow Pony defied the royal norm in both ways.

Watch gave the King some room before pulling his sword out and casually twirling it at his side. His opponent reviewed the cache of fencing swords in a rack by the side of the field, frowning. None of these would do against Dark Watch’s weapon, which, Sombra noticed, was not a standard issue military sword. He pulled three swords out of the rack, reshaping them at the molecular level with his magic as he spoke. “I noticed your sword is not typical of Luna’s guard, unless they have changed over the years.”

“It’s my own,” Watch acknowledged.

“It is of viridian. That is an abundant metal in the Empire in my era,” Sombra told him. He hefted his newly created weapon, one of equal weight and no apparent unfair advantages beyond Watch’s own sword. “Rare outside it.”

“Still is,” the guard nodded, refusing to say more his enemy might find potentially useful.

Sombra began his circle, studying Dark Watch’s stance. The way the bat pony twirled his sword, swept it in front of him and ended the display, hilt towards his enemy, raised the King’s eyebrow. More and more interesting, he thought to himself. The bat pony quickly took up position, ears perked up, circling his opponent in turn, wings tensed, though held down by his sides.

“Where did you obtain it?” Sombra asked.

“It was a gift from - “

“ - my father,” Sombra completed the thought.

Watch reared back. “How in Tartarus did you know?”

The Crystal King didn’t answer; instead, he took advantage of his prey’s surprise to attack. Despite being caught off guard by the remark, Dark Watch blocked the blow easily, driving its force into the space beside instead of into his skull. He swung quickly back up, forcing Sombra’s blade back hard towards the pony’s left shoulder.

Sombra blocked in turn as if he had anticipated the move, cantering back a step and the two trotted backwards, disengaging. Luna’s guard had not even broken stride nor sweat, his eyes scanning Sombra’s form, assessing his stance and moves. He only had a second to do so as the King attacked, his moves designed to test Watch’s weak spots.

The lunar guard trotted back and to the side, taking advantage of the space. Sombra followed and suddenly the guard was on the offensive as the tyrant hammered him from all sides. Dark Watch countered each blow, bothered by the distracting idea slowly forming that somehow this opponent or at least his methods were familiar to him.

It would have shocked him that King Sombra thought exactly the same thing, but for different reasons.

Needing a space to think for a second, Watch took to the air, but stayed there barely a heartbeat as Sombra’s magic reached out and grabbed him, slamming him back down to earth.

“Don’t like my advantage, eh?” Watch smiled, shaking his head, getting back up. At least Sombra was observing etiquette enough to let him recover without attacking an opponent while he was down.

“It would be an advantage to you with any other opponent,” Sombra rumbled, charging again.

The bat pony raised his sword in a lightening move, piercing Sombra’s gorget, burying his weapon in the tyrant’s right shoulder.

Sombra snarled, fighting the pain of the hit. “You took a chance you were going to end me, creature!”

“Hey, a stallion has to try, right?” Watch grinned but then frowned in turn, surprised his opponent had not been quickly felled by the blow. “You weather a crippling blow well, your Majesty.”

“And you risked Nyx’s wrath if you had succeeded in killing me, unless of course, you already knew you could not.”

Ignoring the comment, the guard attempted to withdraw his sword, but some force grabbed it in an iron grip, refusing to give the weapon up. “What the Tartarus?!” he muttered, perplexed, tugging as hard as he could.

An evil laugh caused him to look up. It was King Sombra. The sword came loose finally when Dark Watch’s surprised gaze met his hot green eyes. Incredibly, the pierced armor mended itself as a black, shadowy substance like a living thing reached out from inside Sombra’s body and pulled the metal back into place, mended it and apparently the damage to his shoulder, then disappeared back behind the gorget.

“You are a demon!” Watch said uneasily, stumbling back in shock.

“We both have, shall we say, advantages?” the King smiled, baring his fangs.

Watch gave a cry and attacked with all his might. He landed two more blows that should have crippled or killed Sombra, but were merely pushed out of the shadow pony’s body by either some bizarre quirk of physiology and/or dark magic. By the end of the volley of attacks and counter attacks, Dark Watch was trembling with exertion and fear.

If anything, Sombra appear only to be merely slightly winded, but his magic appeared undrained and even stronger than when they had begun the fight, glowing in his unnatural red crystal eyes behind the hideous green overlay, expelling lavender mists at their edges.

The King buried his sword in the topsoil of the playing field and extended his hoof to the bat pony. “You fought well, as I expected,” he complimented the guard.

As the glow in Sombra’s eyes faded, Watch felt his fear fade too. He took the proffered hoof and gripped it. “You fought better than I expected,” he admitted. “You still unnerve the Tartarus out of me, though, demon king.”

To his surprise, Sombra laughed, a deep rich sound. “A title not unknown to me, Watch,” he nodded.

When the guard got his breath back, he led them to the edge of the field where the stallion pulled out several bottles of water and handed one to his opponent. Sombra looked at it curiously, noting how Dark Watch twisted the plastic top off to open it. He imitated him, sniffed the water cautiously. “Hmm...interesting contrivance.”

“It’s called ‘plastic’,” Watch replied, guzzling the contents down in one mighty swing. Sombra refused to take a drink of his own bottle at first. The bat pony extended his hoof. “Here, allow me.” Sombra floated the jug over to him. Watch took a small sip, and then floated it back over to the King. “Must be bothersome having to always watch for poison.”

Sombra took a deep pull from the container. “Very little in the way of poisons can harm me, though I have taken the liberty of trying them all as insurance,” he rumbled, recalling an identical discussion what seemed like a century ago now. “Tell me about yourself, Watch. Where do you hail from?”

“Canterlot,” the stallion replied simply. “It was always my dream to be in Luna’s Night Guard, though she never mentioned I would be taking on such unusual assignments as this.”

“Traveling with a time traveler?”

“Aye,” Watch replied. “You must have your hooves full with Nyx as well, yes?”

“More than ye can imagine,” The Dark King chuckled. He paused, seemingly weighing options in his head. “How far are we currently in the future, Watch?”

“Far,” the guard replied vaguely.

The King narrowed his slitted eyes. “You have a talent for both ignorance and lying at the same moment, my savage friend.” He paused, studying his opponent. Dark Watch might wear his impulsive, surface emotions on his sleeve, but something was keeping his deeper intentions so far buried, the Shadow King was not only unable to discern them, he felt even the bat pony was unaware of their existence.

Dark Watch in turn studied King Sombra, trying to solve the impossible riddle of his existence as a creature made of the shadows, impervious to weapons. And yet, as frightening as the creature was who he saw so rightfully earned the title, “King of Shadows”, once he was allowed to live, the night guard’s fear had settled down remarkably fast, he even finding a kindred spirit of sorts in the company of such a monster.

'How can that even be?' he wondered.

“And your cutie mark,” Sombra gestured to his flank. “Does it often glow like that?”

“No - what?” the stallion was caught off guard. He looked to his own side. What the Dark King said was true. It glowed with a deep purple hue not unlike the violet mist seeping from Sombra’s own eyes. “It has never done that!” he breathed, staring at it.

“A cover not quite perfect and yet, would never be revealed in the court at Canterlot,” Sombra said almost casually.

A faint warning bell went off in the bat pony’s head, but the King spoke before he could even mull over what was causing it behind his enemy’s words.

“For how could it if I were never there to trigger such a reaction, eh Watch?” Still the casual tone, but the red crystal eyes boring into his soul belied its innocence.

Confusion warred with his trepidation as the night guard looked the Dark Pony King in the eyes. “And what do you mean by that?”

Sombra rose from his haunches, standing at his full height. Watch was again uncomfortably reminded of how hopelessly outmatched he was physically as well as magically against this foe and rose reflexively in defense.

“It is rather obvious your vessel is from a future far ahead of mine own,” the Umbrum rumbled, looking almost bored at his hoof. “This ‘technology’ belies that much. And since my long range goal of repaying Celestia for her intervention in the courtship I once enjoyed with her sister involves hanging the Sun Princess’s oh so pure white hide from the side of my throne, your presence here leads me to the conclusion I am not around in that future to bring my plans against her to bear.”

“What makes you say that?”

Sombra ceased the fascination with his hoof, seeing Dark Watch had already ascertained he was in trouble halfway through his speech. He gestured to the crescent buckle on Watch’s armor. “If I had succeeded in eliminating Celestia, Princess Luna would be the new sun bearer and your armor would have changed. If I had ended the sun witch, you would have bowed down to me as your King if she were still Princess of the Night, turned Queen of the North Aurora by our marriage.”

'Queen of the North Aurora,' Dark Watch mulled over, his head spinning dizzily. If this were another of King Sombra’s royal titles, it was not in the history books. Yet somehow, someway, he knew the term - knew it well…

He slapped the mare hard with his hoof. To him it didn’t matter she wore a crown. She was in shackles, bowed before them and the hundreds in the two armies and that was enough. “You will address his Majesty by his titles, wench!” he heard himself saying. “He is now your Sovereign, the King of the - “

“ - the North Aurora,” the bat pony muttered, falling to his knees, the room around them slowly coming back into focus. He stared, afraid, at his hoof, still stinging from the memory of that slap.

Sombra watched him closely, silently for a moment. There was a strong amount of fear in the night guard’s mind, the Umbrum noted, and it was very close to the surface, as if he were fighting every one of King Sombra’s words, afraid of what they meant. But it was more than fighting, he had the impression. There was only one way to find out…

His eyes flared briefly, feeding on the bat pony’s fear to expand his temporal senses, speaking as he did so. “As to where we are in the time streams, while I am fairly new to this form of temporal magic, my senses inform me we have barely moved.”

“‘Your’ temporal senses?” Watch gasped, stunned. “You - you CAN'T have temporal magic!” he cried. “We believed that only Nyx possessed such witchery!” ‘I've got to get to Whooves… warn him…! ‘ Beads of sweat glistened on his forehead. Forcing himself to recover his wits and balance, he drug himself up from the ground he had fallen to on his knees before this enemy.

Finally Sombra began taking slow, measured, even predatory steps towards the bat pony. Recovered, Watch back-pedaled, keeping his senses at the ready, his magical aura now a low, constant glow around the hilt of his sword.

“But there are pieces to this puzzle that still are unclear to me,” Sombra rumbled. “and hidden from you.”

“From me?” Watch echoed.

“Yes, hidden,” Sombra replied. “Time travel is a tricky and dangerous business, hence why I believe you were sent ahead of us. The spies in Kajeiri - even in my future - have done their work well in preparing you for this.”

The night guard quickly ran through what he knew of the city of Kajeiri. The closest city to the Crystal Empire during King Sombra’s reign, it no longer existed in modern times. Legends had it Princess Celestia had gone there to assist in quelling a rebellion after Sombra was defeated - they had been staunch allies and defenders of the Tyrant King’s rule in the North and were furious at his defeat, preparing an army to invade Canterlot to take down the Two Sisters for their part in his banishment. Rumors went further, saying Celestia had destroyed the once thriving city out of necessity, but it sounded exactly like the kind of rumors Celestia’s enemies would spread to undermine her reign. That Sombra believed Dark Watch was part of their spy network in the future may have been a natural assumption on his part, so he kept his reaction to the offhand comment strictly to himself.

“And what is it that you believe is hidden from myself, demon,” he questioned Sombra aloud, trying to buy time as he glanced around the field, searching for something he could use to better defend himself.

“Something the Kajeiri network has conditioned you to forget,” the Umbrum rumbled, turning to smoke and surrounding the guard in an instant.

Watch uttered a curse and reflexively closed his eyes before the flash of hot green in his face could plunge his mind into his worst nightmares.

“Of course you knew to do that,” Sombra rumbled from the darkness, pleased. “Useless, of course, but your reflex to do so confirms my suspicions even more about your origins.”

Dark Watch frowned. “I wouldn't call it useless, demon,“ he replied. “I am still in command of my faculties. You do not manipulate my fears.”

Watch felt the cold, soft touch of a shadowy tentacle upon his shoulder. Something about Sombra’s words bothered him. “My origins?” he echoed.

“Which are not what you believe them to be, my savage friend,” the smooth, rich voice of the King rumbled. “But it was a test, not my intent to cripple you.” He flowed closer around the stallion, his head bobbing directly in front of his victim’s face.

“Then what are your intentions,” the guard asked, not daring to open his eyes. In response, he felt himself go weightless, floating just above the playing field. Darkness clung to his hide, sank into it.

“Relax,” Sombra commanded softly, his eyes now a steady, deep emerald green, his aura holding his victim aloft.

It was only when Dark Watch’s muscles relaxed completely, against his will, did he realize he had lost control of his body to the Shadow King. His thoughts raced, mind flailing.

“This conditioning has perhaps been useful up to now,” the Umbrum rumbled. “but now I intend to overcome it…”

Dark Watch’s eyes popped open. “What? No - wait!” he pleaded.

Outside, in the normally quiet corridor, the bat pony guard’s scream could be heard, but was suddenly cut off...

8. The Shadows in Our Lives

He stood unmoving upon the vast, empty plains of the Frozen North. Except for the thrush-like whisper of wind against its few sculpted hills and mountains, no sound disturbed it. It was to all appearances empty, yet a ghost-like feel of something there was ever-present, sending a shiver and a need to hurry on through the bones of the bat pony observing this deity-forsaken landscape.

He got the distinct feeling he was surrounded by the echoes of life once there, the feel of slightly smoother ground under his hooves, as if standing on long-gone paved roads. No sound disturbed this part of the Frozen North, yet Dark Watch could swear he heard the bustle of an empire alive with fillies and colts, stallions and mares, the rattle of chains, the click of hooves, if even only in his head.

It was there. It was not. It was unnerving.

Slitted eyes scanned the surrounding horizon before him. A mountain chain was far off in the distance, looking small and unimportant, but two independent peaks were much closer - one large, one smaller than its neighbor. The taller peak was hooked at the top and had a series of jagged, tooth-like protrusions.

Some deeper part of Dark Watch recognized the peak, though he had never seen it in his life. “That’s - Sombra’s maw!” he breathed, at once comforted by its sight and confused as to how he knew this. “But if that’s the Maw, then where is…” Watch tried to turn around, to scan for the city he now knew would be nearby, but he found he couldn’t move. “What?” he snarled, finding his muscles would not even tense.

Feeling the laws of magic and time shift, clicking as if a great, galactic clock had turned a key, the landscape shimmered under the cold Northern sun showing weakly above the plains. With that shift, he found he was now able to move his eyes and head just barely, but enough.

One instant the plains of the Frozen North were empty. The next instant it was filled to overflowing and the bat pony’s paralysis was temporarily forgotten in the stunning wake of what was he now stood in front of.

Where there was once nothing, a city - an empire appeared – vast, alive, a HUGE, towering castle of shining dark crystal reigning over all at its center. As the sun above touched the top spires of the castle below for the first time in a millennia, the darkness bled out of the crystal, falling downward, washing it clean and pure of corruption, casting the evil taint of dark, shadowy magic back to earth.

From there the purifying light spread out across everything, banishing the darkness from the tower and the city. It fled, as if a living thing, seeking asylum in a great fissure in a northeastern glacier rift, at the base of Sombra’s Maw. Faster than the blink of an eye, the corruption was sucked down the crevasse, screaming in anger at the brilliance of Celestia's sun, the unearthly howl channeled through the larger mountain, back up and out, forced through its natural opening at its top to send its rage and pain back towards the city it had been cast out of.

A tiny wisp of that darkness, however, resembling living smoke, sought refuge not in the glacier, but turned in the direction of the single stallion who still stood stock still and frozen on the plain nearby. “Uh…” he stuttered, an uneasy feeling rising in his chest. “Don’t cast your gaze upon me, foul thing!” he warned it, surprised when the words actually came out of his mouth. Knowing he was utterly unable to defend himself, ice formed in the pit of his stomach at its presence.

Yet again, something was so familiar...

Sensing his fear, the airborne taint crossed the distance to the bat pony, pulled by the intensity of emotion, as if hunting and seeking out a source of food in this wasteland. In seconds it was upon him.

The stallion could only suck in a breath of fear as it flowed into his body. Watch’s eyes turned green, purple mists trailing like something alive at their edges.

Through the green haze, Luna’s guard was suddenly aware of how familiar this felt to some part of him so deep it was unreachable, refusing to give up its secret as to why it should be so. The haze, or mist, or magic just as suddenly opened his eyes to others around him - hundreds - maybe even a thousand soldiers inclusive of earth and unicorn ponies on the ground and pegasai flying above. All were adorned in the armor of two armies - he was on the side of a steel-clad legion and was facing the golden-shod armies of what he instantly recognized as Princess Celestia’s troops.

But where was Princess Luna and her - his legion? And why was HE there...wait, he was on the wrong side?!?

The same galactic time clock Dark Watch had sensed earlier unfroze the scene, completing the downward swipe of a great, iron sword, finishing its arc begun a thousand years previously, burying itself in the shoulder of a guard from Canterlot. The gleaming gold armor, hit at the right angle, was no match for the weight and sheer brute force of its assailant and split and cracked, along with the shoulder bone of its wearer.

Even as the sword hit the ground, the bat pony knew he normally had not the strength to carry such a huge, cumbersome weapon, that it couldn’t possibly have been wielded by him with such ease! The job finished, much to his horror, Dark Watch looked up, confused, as did all his fellow stallions, and those of their enemy who were still alive.

“Commander!” a fellow soldier at his side lowered his sword as well, addressing him. The bat pony turned to see a slightly smaller but stockier male the color of wheat. Why, if they were fighting side by side, couldn't he remember the soldier's name?

Everypony on both sides stopped whatever they were doing, lowering their weapons. Vaguely he heard somepony on the other side ask where their leaders were and the question would have been the same one he would have asked if he had not first caught his reflection in the polished iron sword he brought level with his eyes...

Dark Watch woke with a gasp, finding himself upon the floor of a field he only vaguely recalled from what seemed a few moments ago. Hadn’t he been here with somepony else? But who had it been? He checked the color of his coat, glancing down at his legs and sighed in relief. Normal, thank Luna.

The fragments of the intense dream slipped away as his attention turned to scan the room, seeing nopony else around. He fought to remember why he was there, but the details seemed just out of reach. Then he saw the large, uniquely wrought sword buried in the grass nearby. Trotting over to it, he caught sight - just for an instant - of a peculiar purple glow around its hilt that rapidly faded as he neared. His attention was so focused on it he completely missed the strange shadows next to the field's entrance. They appeared to regard him for a moment, then melted down the walls, seeping out the crack between the door, floor and walls to slip quietly into the Tardis corridors.

The memory of his fight with King Sombra came back to Dark Watch in an instant. Baring his teeth in a snarl, he snorted. “Tartarus!” and ran as fast as he could back out into the corridors…

Outside, he stopped a moment to get his bearings, or tried to. The corridors all looked the same, and as the bat pony came slowly to discover, the Tardis had decided to indulge in her peculiar habit of moving rooms about, seemingly at random. After going in a direction he believed was always away from the battle room for several minutes, he ended up running past it twice more.

As he ran, he went over the details of their fight and the strange dream he had come out of, but found to his horror that he no longer recalled the dream with as much clarity as a moment prior. He paused, leaning against the wall, reciting key points about what he had learned of his formidable opponent before the dream. “Sombra...Shadow...he wields temporal magics...Kajeiri…” Their recall brought up something else, a truth he had seen in the King of Shadows red, crystal eyes. It was so horrible he couldn’t forget it, but couldn’t bear to recall it, either.

“I can’t be…” he snarled, gritting his teeth, slowing until he slumped against the nearest wall. “Ngrhhhh...NO!!!”

It had been several hours later after Derpy had eaten and taken a nap, leaving the Doctor to himself, that she returned to the console room to check up on him. He was at the ship’s console, one hoof on the controls, making minute adjustments as he checked his settings against an open book and several display readouts. Each time he adjusted his dials he waited a moment, frowned and went back to re-calibrating coordinates in his head. After watching him do this a dozen times, the mail pony concluded he wasn’t having much success.

“This should be working,” he muttered, oblivious, or so it seemed, to her approach. He glanced at the tall column before him, concerned. “You want them off the - well off you as badly as I do, so why am I getting the distinct impression you are not exactly cooperating with me?” He then caught sight of his companion. “Hello Derpy.”

“Hello Doctor,” she returned the greeting. “I take it somepony isn’t listening to you today?”

“She isn’t a pony, my dear Derps,” he said, frowning at the machine’s controls. “But she is the stubbornest mare I have ever encountered in all my - “

An angry beep and a screen coming on in front of them stopped what he would have said. “Hello, what’s this?” The earth pony and pegasus peered closer. To the grey mail pony it was simply a map with bright, fuzzy spots that flickered in and out, appearing and disappearing in different, random places. To the Doctor, it apparently meant much more.

His expression fell flat, even chagrined. “Ah well, that would complicate things.” He looked over at Derpy. “A lot.” He waited expectantly for her to ask what he was talking about. She merely stared at him. “Well?” he asked, unable to stand her silent stare any longer.

“You tell me, Doc,” she shrugged.

“Please don’t call me Doc and what do you mean, ‘you tell me’?”

“Since when have you objected to me calling you ‘Doc’?” she frowned.

He pursed his lips. “Since this infer - machine,” he caught himself before sticking his hoof in his mouth. “Has aged me a hundred years in the last hour withholding information.”

“Oh, c’mon, Doc,” Derpy shook her head, forgetting his request. “You know she usually tells you - us, what we want to know, but in her own good time.”

Shooting his companion a glare of annoyance, his expression changed radically, her words sinking in. “Maybe that’s why,” he breathed. “It just isn’t the right time yet.”

“Makes sense. It’s about the only thing around here sometimes that does,” she shrugged. Her gaze traveled back to the screen with the fuzzy blotches of energy patterns. “Does that makes sense?” She inclined her head towards the time/space map.

“Considering the amount of temporal messing about these local spacial coordinates have suffered recently, I shouldn’t be surprised,” he admitted. “Between Sombra’s mucking about with time stasis spells, our arrival and Nyx’s time hopping,” he paused, peering closer. “Plus some tiny inter dimensional tears in the local fabric of space no bigger than a mouse, it would take a high-level time mage to repair the damage - and they don’t exist anymore.”

“Doc?”

“Yes, Derpy?”

“Where do you suppose our Nyx went?”

He paused what he was doing, rubbed his eyes tiredly from the stress of having poured over the readouts and temporal nav charts for the past hour. “Remember, Derp, when we hit that pocket of instability before we landed?”

“Uh huh.”

“Well, remember before that when we had TWO Nyx’s on board?”

She appeared thoughtful for a moment. “That’s kinda hard to forget Doc - Doctor,” she corrected herself.

“I know what you mean. She’s confusing enough talking to us, but to herself? I couldn’t follow her to save our lives!” The brown pony shook his head at the thought. “But think about it, Derpy. That second Nyx had to come from somewhere.”

“You mean, now?” she asked. “Our now?”

“Not exactly right now, no,” he shook his head, but pleased she could wrap her head around the concept. It wasn’t something most ponies found easy to understand, but then, Derpy was not most ponies. “In our future further still, I believe.”

“Where do you think she is now, Doc?” came the inevitable question. “I mean, she was only there in the past with us a few minutes and it’s already been hours for us here, now.”

“She has been gone quite a while according to our perception of time in the here and now as far as we are concerned,” he agreed. “She might have been caught in an eddy of time and shunted somewhere else.” The Doctor peered at the chart. Something occurred to him then. “Oh….”

“What, Doctor?”

“That is probably, most likely, yes, quite probably, why the Tardis is stalling. She doesn’t want two Nyx’s in the same place again, so is waiting until we get rid of our present Nyx to bring our time-proper Nyx back!”

Derpy wrinkled her nose. “That’s kind of rude, Doctor. ‘Get rid of’?”

“Yes, right, sorry,” he apologized. “If there’s anypony I’d rather apply that term to right now, it would be our royal guest, King Sombra.”

The mail mare shivered. “I agree. He’s - so - ” she trailed off, words failing her. The Doctor looked at her, curious.

“‘So..’?”

“I - don’t want to think about it, Doc,” she lapsed back into his nickname. “It’s too weird - and, well, I don’t think you’d understand.”

Intrigued, he leaned against the console, which had settled back down to a series of soft background noises, seemingly more content now that the TimePony was not trying to push her into actions the flow of time around them was not yet ready to accommodate.

His attentions made the grey mare shift uncomfortably, yet there was an itch in the forefront of her emotions that made her want to tell him - even though she didn’t completely understand why she was feeling what she felt.

“Promise you won’t, well, judge me if I tell you?” she said in a quieter voice.

“When have I ever judged you, Derpy?” he asked, surprised.

She shifted in discomfort again, almost sorry she had brought the subject up. “You don’t so much judge as well, look at me disapprovingly sometimes, or like you’re from another planet and you can’t figure me out.”

“That’s just around all mares,” he replied. “I have a hard time figuring any of them out.”

“You don’t do it around Nyx,” she pointed out.

“She just annoys and exasperates me. Totally different,” the Doctor defended, his voice speeding up and raising slightly in excitement.

“I guess,” she shrugged. “Okay well, it’s like that, then. You’re having a different reaction to her, which you didn’t expect, but you know why you’re having it.” Her discomfort at the discussion and the distant look in her eyes had her turning her back to him, shifting away so she wasn’t meeting his curious gaze.

The TimePony thought he realized what she was getting at, but didn’t want to presume he knew for certain and waited to let her finish her thought.

“I am,” she began again, slowly, thoughtfully. “Having a different reaction than I should be having to his Highness.”

The Doctor managed to frown and raise his eyebrows at the same time. “‘His Highness’?” he repeated. “Not ‘Sombra’ or ‘King Sombra’?”

“What’s the difference?” she shrugged again, turning back to him. “It’s just a title.”

“Maybe. Perhaps. I’m not quite sure about that,” he pondered.

He went over to where she stood and placed a hoof on her withers. “What reaction do you think you should have to him that you aren't having?” he asked softly. She looked down, not wanting to answer. “Derpy?”

“Fear,” she said simply.

That was as unexpected an answer as he could have imagined he would receive, truly not expecting it. “You don’t fear him?”

“I do, but not - I mean - “ She waved a hoof in the air and drew back enough his hoof dropped back down to his side. “Doesn’t fear usually make you, well, want to run?”

“Usually, yes. There is a definite fight or flight scenario that plays out,” it was his turn to trail off. “You don’t feel either of those?” he asked her softly.

She turned her head side-to-side slowly.

He cocked his head, partly curious, partly confused. “Well, perhaps it isn’t true fear, then.”

She shook her head. “No, Doctor. It’s fear all right, but just not strong enough to want to run from him.”

The TimePony shook his head in turn. “I’m sorry, Derpy, I am afraid I don’t quite understand, then.”

Her face blushed slightly. “I knew I shouldn’t have brought it up. Forget I said anything.”

“If that’s what you want,” he nodded. “You will tell me when you do figure it out then?”

She seemed to relax. “You’ll be the first, well the second pony to know,” she smiled.

“Good, because I think I would feel better if - “

At that moment, one of the entrances to the control room opened and Dark Watch staggered in, looking sweaty and pale. “Doctor, Derpy, we have a very large, very bad problem!”

9. Darkness Calling

The Doctor looked at Derpy briefly, then back again to Dark Watch. “That’s a rather tall order of bad, Mr. Watch,” he replied. “Are you certain you’re not referring to the ‘very large, very bad’ problem that already resides in our guest quarters?”

Catching his breath, he shook his head. “I believe it would make him an even larger problem than you already perceive him to be.

Hooves cocked his head and tskd, “I don’t like the sound of that,” he agreed.

“You won’t,” Watch confirmed flatly. “I’m just having trouble…” he put an armored hoof to his head. “Trouble...remembering. I think he did something to me - I just can’t,” his voice slowed, sounding less certain and more confused.

“C’mon, Watch.” The earth pony shook him. “If it was intentional, it probably was something he would not want us to know.”

“Where were you just now?” Derpy asked, hoping to jog his memory.

The bat pony looked down, catching sight of his sword. “The field...we - fought.” Snippets of their fight flashed through his mind, but died before he could voice them.

“He picked a fight with you?” the mailmare gasped.

“Ponies like King Sombra don’t ‘pick fights’, my dear,” Hooves disagreed. “At least not without a reason.”

“Did you make him mad?” she asked the lunar guard.

“Well, it certainly wasn’t for a spot of exercise,” her companion chided her.

That sparked something in Watch’s memory. “We always...no...I...we were sparring…”

The Doctor caught the rephrasing and filed it away in the back of his mind. “That wouldn’t be wise, nor something I would expect our guest to do simply for entertainment,” he said thoughtfully. “I feel there is something more going on here that may have to do with the discrepancies between this timeline and the proper one. We need to compare what we know to be true there and what is true here.”

“That’s easy enough,” Derpy shrugged. “Just ask Dark Watch,” she looked at the guard.

“Perhaps, perhaps not, Derpy,” the Time Traveller shook his head. “He has already admitted King Sombra may have altered his memories.”

“Well, how could he do that?” she asked. “That wasn’t his talent, was it?”

“Not in our timeline, but perhaps here - “ noticing Dark Watch didn’t look so well, he stopped for a moment, guiding him to sit down at one of the nav seats. The bat pony nodded his thanks. Derpy followed up with a warm cup of refreshment. Watch accepted the cup but eyed it, frowning.

“What is this?” he asked, looking down into it, but not moving to drink.

“It’s hot chocolate,” she replied.

Shaking his head, he set it down on the console. “Oh no,” he politely yet firmly refused. “Heated chocolate is a delicacy, but is also used to conceal poisons. I must decline on the grounds of good sense.”

Derpy and Whooves looked at each other, then back to the lunar guard. “It was considered that long ago, yes, but not recently - “ the earth pony stopped short, a look crossing his face as if he were realizing something important.

The mailmare caught his peculiar look. “What is it Doctor?” she asked him.

“Hmm? Oh, nothing,” he said, pursing his lips.

“You’re lying,” she accused him. “I know that look, that lip pout.”

He crossed over to the other side of the console, casually pressing buttons on its surface along the way. “I’m postulating, Derpy,” he countered. “‘Lying’, really! There is a difference, you know.” Out of their sight, he checked a readout, nodded, then continued, addressing their guest. “So, Dark Watch, what else is general knowledge about King Sombra in this timeline?”

“Nothing much beyond the usual obscure mythos that found its way into legend,” the bat pony admitted, eyeing Derpy suspiciously as she tried to give him the hot chocolate again.

“Myths are often based on some smidgen of fact,” the Time Pony nodded. “What are the myths surrounding Sombra in this timeline?”

Derpy rolled her eyes at Dark Watch, took a sip out of the cup and shrugged as if to say, ‘See? It didn’t kill me.’ while the guard thought about Whooves question. Nodding at the mailmare’s attempt to gain his trust, the bat pony reached for the cup and took a hesitant sip. He frowned.

“Don’t like it?” Derpy asked their guest.

“No, the drink is of no great report,” he shrugged in turn. “That is not the problem.”

“Then what is?”

“I know there are myths of him,” Watch replied slowly, thoughtfully. “But I cannot recall them at the moment.” He put the hoof not holding the hot chocolate to his helmeted head. “Or I am recalling too much...there is a jumble of images, facts, faces just out of reach...I can feel their presence, but they are most elusive.”

The Doctor frowned. “Probably most definitely due to something our kingly guest did to your head.” He moved to another part of the console, locating and flipping some switches, then typing in some information. Derpy looked at what he was doing with interest.

“What are you doing, doc?” she asked.

“Accessing this timeline’s knowledge base,” he muttered, continuing to work. “If I can compare it to what we know happened in the correct timeline.”

His two companions came over to the console to watch him work. After a moment he stood up so fast, they jumped back. Then, just as fast, he dove back down to the viewer again to confirm what he had just read. “Oh my!” he exclaimed softly. “I didn’t expect that!”

“What, Doc? What is it?” his two companions asked at the same time.

King Sombra levitated motionless, meditating above a nest of cushions he had conjured on the floor next to Nyx’s side of the bed. Loathed to move her back into their archaic timeline where their medical prowess was so limited, there was nothing to do until his mate regained consciousness.

There was much to consider surrounding their present situation...the options open to him and Nyx regarding the growing instability of time their empire was currently caught in, the time vessel they were occupying, how (and if) it could correct the instability, these - interesting and unique individuals currently travelling within its confines. His blossoming temporal powers were still in their infant stage and not enough to see the future as Nyx did so effortlessly, but the repercussions of their past timeline entanglements were easy enough to discern and he knew without being told that time had most decidedly taken a wrong turn and not just because his empire was in the throes of intermittent time spasms.

The spasms were just a symptom of the problems.

It was while he was brooding over this that he felt a twitch in their local temporal field and opened his eyes. Being enclosed thusly, he had believed that time could not flux within the vessel. It was only an instant later he realized the reason lie with his unconscious companion, her attachment it and her ability to control it always stronger and more stable when she was awake.

Nyx moaned, opening her eyes. Her first sight was Sombra standing over her. She smiled, reaching up to touch his foreleg. “I knew you would come,” she whispered.

“I could not be certain thee would find thy way back home, thy scatterbrained creature,” he rumbled, but with warmth in his voice. “Thee are more than the usual nuisance to keep track of, you know.”

The mare smiled. “And yet, you are more than equipped now to handle this task.” The smile faded as she reached out with her senses to pinpoint where they were in time. “Sombra, where are we? I sense not the Empire, nor my usual attachment to the timestreams.”

He grunted, drawing upright. “We are in the peculiar vessel that attempted to kidnap thee,” he told her. “Its pull was too strong for our magic to prevent it from dragging you away.”

“So you hopped on for the ride?” she shook her head, but found the movement made her badly dizzy. When it passed, she attempted getting up slowly. “Is running an Empire that dull and boring these days?”

He ignored her question, lifting a hoof to her chin. “Are you up to this, merre chhaaya,” he asked, falling out of formal speech in the intimacy of their setting alone together.

Nyx smiled at his Umbrum term of endearment, its pronunciation sounding more like a shadowy whisper of wind. “I shall discover that...now…” placing a hoof cautiously on the floor, she waited for any ill effects. “What happened to me, my dark heart?”

“You were flung against the interior walls of this vessel,” Sombra explained. “Gave yourself a nasty crack to the skull.”

“It feels like it happened more than once,” nodded Nyx, placing the other leg down next to the floor-bound one, still expecting something horrible to happen.

“Twice, actually,” the king confirmed. “Time felt once was not enough, I suppose.”

“It has had it in for me from the moment I first drew breath, as you are quite aware.” She stood, not well, but she stood, catching her king frowning at her shaky legs - all four of them.

He was about to say something when the enticing scent of fear came to him from somewhere on the Tardis. His entire posture changed to one of alertness, even his ears stood at attention behind his steel crown.

Nyx sensed it as well, but the adrenalin it triggered in her system was too much and sapped what feeble reserves of strength were keeping her up. She crumpled, and her fear at that, so strong and palpably closer, had Sombra shifting into shadow, swarming over her form, holding her gently aloft before either were conscious of his instantaneous actions. He placed her back in the bed, his concern showing in his red crystal eyes as he hovered over her.

Eased by his presence, she smiled, though fear from her again tickled his senses after a moment. “I was so afraid I would lose you,” she murmured to the shadows that surrounded her. “I was terrified.”

A tendril brushed through her hair, touching her face in a caress, easing her fears. “It was your fear that gave me the speed to get to you in time. That and Blade’s urgings.”

She closed her eyes, feeling a peace wash over her at his nearness. “Will we see him again, my love?”

“Of course we will,” his voice echoed around her and in her thoughts. “What can snatch us away can take us home.” The sensation of the shadow of the king wrapping his silky essence around and through her felt buoyant, weightless - and loving. “I would have you well before we return, however. This earth pony’s healing skills are far superior to any in our time.”

She wanted to reach around to the back of her skull to confirm what he said, but was so bone tired and weak she simply nodded in agreement. “I’m just not as fast these days,” she muttered. “I could have avoided this if I hadn’t been so focused on my anger towards that damn night guard.”

Sombra reformed his physical self, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Her eyes narrowed on her king’s. “What? Why are you smirking?”

“I do not smirk, you annoying creature,” he rumbled.

“Yes, you do, you beast,” she argued, running a hoof over the bridge of his armored snout. “You’re making fun of me because I keep forgetting I can - “

“Except for now when you should not,” he reminded her. She bit her lip, nodding in agreement, remembering what he referred to. “And yes, for that and for other reasons,” Sombra admitted.

Despite her eyes utter blackness, the king knew she was piercing him with a sharp, amused gaze. “I knew it. And what are these other reasons, mi’lord?”

“I cannot say at the moment,” he shook his head.

Nyx sighed. “Cannot or will not?”

“Both. You will understand why in time.”

The TimeWitch nodded. Her consort rarely denied her his knowledge, but when he did, it was only for the best of reasons. It made her think of the things she kept from him. Terrible, painful knowledge of his fate to come. Knowledge she had longed time and again to impart to him, but each time held back knowing it would only seal his fate to tell him. The time was so close now - how long did they have left together? Days? Hours? It was good she didn’t know exactly how much, for she knew in her heart it would be utterly impossible to resist warning him even though she knew in the back of her mind to do so spelled certain doom. But wasn’t their kingdom already doomed? Nothing and nopony could stop either fate now.

“What is it?”

She looked up, only realizing then she had lowered her gaze to her chest, tiny sobs escaping her at the flashes of his last goodbyes to her, a fight against two powerful alicorns, ice so heavy, such intense pressure on her body...it was always ice and time sealing him away from her...

Her only answer was to shake her head slowly, tears at the corners of her eyes.

“Nyx?” gently prodded.

“This was my fault,” she whispered. “Our kingdom is in peril from - “

“No - “ he said firmly but gently. “Not thee.”

She tried to turn her head to argue, but he shook his head first.

“Many things related to time magic, Nyx, but not caused by thee. You give thyself too much credit for powers much stronger than thee were born with,” he counseled her, falling back into the more proper speech that came with reassuring her.

The tears wouldn’t stop. “We love you,” she said, need and fear and deep sadness urging her on. “Even on the battlefield I couldn’t bring myself to hate you.” She shook with emotion. “Even as you cut down my sisters, oh Goddesses, any sane creature would have hated you for that.” Her gaze ended back upon his face, as it always did. “Why couldn’t I?”

Sombra could feel her sadness feed his power. She was one of the few he didn’t like feeding on, it happening automatically, instinctively. He loathed the reaction, but had learned from a lifetime of existence that he could no sooner stop the tapping into it as a power source than a flesh pony could tell his body to stop deriving nourishment from the food he ate. At least Nyx understood that fact and did not hate him for it.

Still, he could use the power it gave him to his advantage. “You know why,” he rumbled, drawing her into his forearms. “You lived so much time in our future you had come to love Iron Blade and myself before even meeting us. You knew who was your king.” Though he felt her trembling lessen, it concerned him how distraught she was from almost losing him. It nagged him, like a warning bell he should be paying attention to, but a bell as to what, he was not sure -

A soft knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. “Come,” he answered.

The door opened. They saw who it was.

Of course. Sombra smiled.

Author's Note

Welcome back to the world of Frozen Shadows.

10. And I Obey

(Earlier, before the knock at King Sombra’s door)

The Doctor didn’t answer right away, instead checking other adjacent readouts. “Uh huh, okay. Right, right...rrriiight…”

“Doctor?” Derpy pressed.

“...yup...we’re dead…” he said finally, looking up, but staring at a buttress supporting the far wall of the Tardis’s control room.

“What?” Dark Watch interjected, his brow knitting into an arch of disapproval and confusion at the same time.

“Yes, well, it appears that while I intended to have the old girl - “ the earth pony began.

“Who?” the bat guard asked.

“The Tardis,” Derpy explained for the Doctor. “His name for her, uh it,” the lights dimmed quickly and the console beeped an angry retort. “Uh, ‘her’. Sorry,” the mailmare apologized.

“While I asked ‘her’ to take us to the epicenter of the trouble - “ the time pony picked up the story again. “She had trouble processing that request because local time in the Frozen North at the location of the Crystal Empire, while it is currently - uh, frozen, it shouldn’t be and in some dimensions actually no longer is.” Dark Watch seemed to be understanding so far, as did Derpy, so he continued. “Because time is fluid, she keeps getting swept into those alternate realities where time has been unlocked by the Elements and is back on track.” He started to lose the bat at this point, but kept on explaining. “So as an alternate solution, she brought us back to approximately a month - thirty days - before time froze for good and the Empire vanished.” He ran a hoof through his unruly mane. “It was the only way she saw to get us back into the correct wrong dimension.”

“The ‘correct wrong’ dimension?” Watch repeated. “What nonsensical gibberish is that?”

“The ‘correct’ dimension is the one Derpy and I are native to - born into,” he struggled to simplify the language for his sake. “It is wrong because time at the time we picked you up, Dark Watch, is wrong and will continue to go the wrong direction if we don’t correct it.”

“But something went wrong, Doctor,” his grey companion spoke up, rolling her eyes at the use of the word ‘wrong’ yet again. “As soon as we tried to land, the Tardis had trouble and - “

“ - and that’s when we lost Nyx - our Nyx, yes Derpy,” Whooves nodded. “I know.” He placed a hoof on the console. “I am afraid our attempts to land caused an already fragile and unstable timezone to become even moreso.”

“That leads to many more questions, then Doctor,” Luna’s guard replied. “Why was it unstable in the first place - “

“Where did Nyx get sent to,” Derpy added.

“And what happens if we try to return King Sombra and his consort to their proper time and place and with the damage already done to their time, can we even do that safely?” the Doctor finished. The hoof already on the console tapped it gently. “Unless we can discover those answers for ourselves, I fear we may need to ask for their assistance. Nyx is not powerful enough to have cause this much damage on her own, but I have a feeling she may know, at least in part, why time is so damaged here.”

Something in the Doctor’s words made Dark Watch’s eyes light up. “Doctor, that - I - “ He visibly struggled to recall something to mind.

“Do you remember something?” Derpy asked him.

“Yes. Sombra - he said something while we were fighting. “Something about his ‘temporal senses’...does that mean anything to you?”

“His temporal senses,” the time pony echoed. “Not Nyx’s?”

“No,” Watch shook his head. “His. And he being new to temporal magics.”

Derpy caught her companion’s uneasy grimace as he glanced down briefly to the Tardis console. Her eyes narrowed. “You knew that, didn’t you, Doctor? She - the Tardis - told you that, didn’t she?”

“Yes, Derpy, I’m afraid she did.”

Watch trotted around in a circle, coming back to face them. “Oh, that’s just great. Lovely, in fact!” He raised a hoof and swept it outward. “That beast has time magic. How are we supposed to deal with that?”

The Doctor’s expression didn’t change. “Hopefully, with some of our own magic, mi’boy,” he told him. “With some of our own.” And with that, he dove back into his database records, determined to find a way to defend themselves.

(Later)

The door opened and Derpy came in. She found the stately king standing next to the bed, rising from watching over Nyx. The mailmare opened and closed her mouth quickly, bowing before she decided to speak. “Your Highness, I wanted to check on Miss - uh, Lady Nyx and see how she is doing.”

“She is better,” Sombra replied. “You may ask her yourself. She is awake.”

Derpy nodded, then went to the other side of the bed from Sombra. “I’m Derpy, the Doctor’s companion,” she introduced herself. “How are you feeling?”

“Terrible,” Nyx said bluntly, but with a twinge of humor in her voice. “Though it be no fault of thine own. I blame the driver of this wretched time carriage.”

The pegasus smiled sympathetically. “So do a lot of our ‘house guests’. It can get bumpy and you got the worst I’ve ever seen travelling with the Doctor. I’m so sorry.”

“I will survive,” Nyx declared, then looked to Sombra. “He would make certain of it, even if he had to pull me out of another timezone to do it.”

Derpy looked suddenly serious. “Can he do that? I thought you were the only one with time magic!”

“I jest, child,” the TimeWitch smiled tiredly. She sagged back against the pillows.

The pegasus got the message. “You’re tired. I don’t want to wear you out.” She stepped back. “I should go.”

“You have been of help to us,” Sombra spoke up, catching her attention. “You have my gratitude and that is no small thing given.”

Derpy felt that strange fluttering in her stomach again in his presence, especially now that his attention was exclusively upon her alone. She looked down nervously. “I - thank you, your Majesty.” Her hooves were backpedaling towards the door before she was even aware she was moving, perhaps from some instinct trying to take over her confused emotions, telling her to move when part of her did not want to before he dismissed her.

The mailmare sensed something change in the King’s presence and stance and Derpy found herself slowing her escape before she was even aware she was responding in such a way to him. It wasn’t frightening - not exactly. It didn’t elicit any flight or fight response in her, but it was curious, she decided consciously. From where her eyes could see the floor, she saw he was walking towards her in a slow, but not casual way. She decided to take the chance and look up, if nothing else, just to see what about him had changed.

That was when he paused, not quite having her backed against the door, but not far from it, either. Though he always stood rail-straight and with a regal bearing, there was something almost - softer about his presence now before her. Her eyes took him in in wonder for once, grateful in the back of her mind that she would have that opportunity without the adrenalin rush of fear clouding her perceptions.

King Sombra was quite the wonder to behold, she immediately decided. Though she knew large, well-built ponies like Bulk Biceps, the King was more naturally large and muscular, born into a strong, sturdy specie of equine who commanded respect almost without having to work at it. And yet, with that genetically natural build, there were some aspects out of place...the curved horn that shaded into blood red at the tip, the fractal-like quality of his crystal red eyes whose slit black pupils were the eyes of a predator. They reminded her of Rarity’s cat Opal, who always greeted her (and everyone, really, except Sweetie Belle) with a dismissive sneer. And yet, despite Sombra having exhibited that impatient, irritated attitude with the Doctor, it had immediately shifted into something else entirely once Derpy had displayed respect for him and compassion for Nyx’s condition.

“Thy outward appearance is quite the cover,” she heard him rumble in his deep, dark voice. It forced her to look up because the words were the last thing she had expected of the tyrant king. “It belies the quiet introspection of the mane beneath it, yes?”

At a complete loss for words - after all, what in Equestria could she possibly say to that - she merely shrugged meekly, her thoughts trailing briefly to all the times she had been judged and shunned for her mispaired eyes and occasional, backwards interpretation of direction and/or assignments.

“And modest,” he added, approval in his tone. “You are of qualities desirable in mares in my kingdom, little feathered ‘daughter.”

Derpy blushed furiously, not so secretly pleased at the description of her. “Thank you, your Highness,” she dipped her head, partly to hide her blush, but also because she felt it was not just what she should, do but what she wanted to do.

“We are perhaps alike in a way, child, yes?” Sombra went on. “There was a time before I assumed the throne of the Empire when I was unfairly judged by my appearance.” A hint of - was that resignation she heard - crept into his voice. “This did not cease upon my ascension, but those opinions carry little weight against the duties I have to my ponies.”

Derpy could not help the surprise that crept into her expression. Sombra’s reaction to this was small, but she did catch the spark in his eyes that told her he was processing this information. It darkened his demeanor slightly, but not in a negative way towards Derpy, specifically.

“It appears the diarchy of your era has judged me as harsh a ruler as the time I was raised in,” he said flatly. His gaze wandered for a moment in thought, then turned back to the mailmare. “That is quite laughable as Celestia and Princess Luna are a product of that same era.” Thinking further on this, he couldn’t resist the urge to pace in front of the pegasus for a moment, the unmistakable tone of irritation creeping back into his voice. “Especially as that foul Sun Witch be the cause of that unpleasant time in mine reign.”

This new information turned the wheels in Derpy’s head, finding it both stunning, eye-opening and strangely familiar. She had never expected the tyrant king to open up to her in such a way, or that she would find such empathy for him in his words. Respect for his position notwithstanding, it didn’t seem appropriate to respond, even if she could think of something to say. They were products of such different times, yet the fact there was a commonality between their experiences was part of what stunned her!

King Sombra’s pacing slowed and he returned to his audience, his irritation fading as he regarded the gray pegasus once more. “And the wisdom to listen without interruption nor judgment...not even my beloved consort has mastered that art, little feather.” A small smile broke out across Derpy’s face at the compliment. Had she been looking, she would have seen it reflected across the king’s own features.

“I would like hearing more, your highness,” she admitted meekly.

Something in that small admission elicited a snort of satisfaction in the Umbrum. She felt the change in him as he moved closer and now she was up against the wall next to the door. Her eyes met his and she froze in their gaze, her body relaxing despite her heart’s beat speeding up slightly. “A request easily granted, my dear,” he purred triumphantly...

Author's Note

This chapter had been in the works for a while, but life, as usual, got in the way. Had to get some pain issues under control before the muse came back to finish it :pinkiesick: Sorry to make you wait, folks.