(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...