//------------------------------// // 9. Darkness Calling // Story: Frozen Shadows // by Hail King Sombra //------------------------------// 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.