Frozen Shadows

by Hail King Sombra

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!

Comments

[Victus454]

I like this it really does feel like a Doctor Episode and I love the concept of a time wicth.

[Askre]

That's all I can say about Dark Watch.

In fact,

memesvault.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/picard-triple-facepalm-3.jpg

[Nightmare Moon Returns]

I'm with Nyx on this one free King Sombra. I can't wait for the next chapter

[Hail King Sombra]

7179219

Proof that this guard is clearly never seen Doctor Who

Yep. They make the most trouble. And believe me, Dark Watch is going to be no end of that before this story concludes!

[Ice Star]

Dear Crystal Diary,

I almost lost it at this.