My name is Nyx. I am known as the Mad Seeress of the Marazon Empire. So far in my young life, my adult self tried to kill my infant self, another older self showed me I become the royal consort of our enemy King Sombra and yet another, older self led me here, three years into my future, to aid rebuilding a temple destroyed a year ago I was standing in yet seconds before.

To say my life is complicated is a laughable understatement…

Queen Andromache drew back the tent flap with her magic. It was the end of another long day on the build ‘site, yet this one was the most important of all. The day all work had come to a halt because all work except for one more task was done.

“The moving of the last stone into place,” came a mare’s voice from inside.

The Queen nodded, not surprised Nyx could sense her by now. They had worked side-by-side for a full year and their Seeress had often shown she could tell it was her even when her back was to the tent flap, as it was now.

“Please come in,” the black-bodied witch nodded, turning around.

“Thank you, Nyx,” Andromache trotted in, glad to be out of the late afternoon heat and sun. She accepted the nest of cushions the TimeWitch always reserved for her visits, settling in and using her magic to embrace the flask of water Nyx floated over to her. And as always, Nyx waited until her royal guest had downed the flask’s contents before speaking, gazing into the distance a moment, seeing whatever Seeresses saw that no other could gaze upon.

“My time here is coming to an end,” she said, the peculiar echo always present in her voice stronger than usual. “I can feel it. I wish it were not so.” She looked down a moment.

Andromache smiled. “Even though most of my tribe avoids your company?” she asked her.

The TimeWitch looked up, grunting and sipped something the queen suspected was not water. “All mortal ponies - mares and stallions - are the same. It is no different in Ainippe’s tribe.”

“It is too bad neither me nor my sister could select out such behaviors from our herds.” She set the flask back on a table nearby.

“In a way, I am grateful most shun my company, my Queen,” Nyx admitted. “I’d rather not be around those that are close to their deaths. Their auras glare in my eyes, the fates whisper in my ears.” She pursed her lips in thought. “Though since I have dwelt here, in my future, I have been able to block them out. It has truly been a year of sanity I will treasure the memory of forever.”

“Then that is our gift to you for helping us rebuild the Temple of the Moon,” her Queen nodded. “We have nothing else we can give you that you can return with - and sanity is no small gift.”

“You have given me more than that, Aunt Andromache,” Nyx addressed her, finally slipping into calling her by their family titles. “Here I have had a rest, time to think, away from my impending fate, away from Sombra’s threat. Time to build up my courage to face him and stop being a cowering, helpless victim of the future to come. And you have shown me that we survive his assault. That is no small thing!”

Andromache smiled, took more water, then grew serious. “I sent scouts to the region of the Crystal Empire,” she began. “They have returned.”

“That is a long way. Many month’s journey.”

“Yes,” the Queen agreed. “I sent them soon after you came to us and told us of your fate to come.”

The TimeWitch felt her throat suddenly go dry, her heart pounding. “Yes, well, I have a few things to do before the temple dedication, aunt - “

“You do not want to know what they discovered?”

Nyx opened her mouth to reply, but stopped herself. She sighed heavily. “I guess I still hold a fear of my fate at some deeper level in my mind, but there is a wisdom in not knowing more than I already do.” She gazed past her, listening to the noise and bustle outside. With construction done and the stoneworkers and artisans back, it was the first time in a year it had been this active in the camp. “And yet, I wonder what would happen if I simply did not return to my past?”

Andromache cocked her head in curiosity. “Did you not once tell me that whenever you had tried to stay in another time before, you always snapped back to your proper timestream?”

Nyx looked down at the ground. “Yes, it's true. The few times I tried, I always returned. I have never stayed as long as I have this time. Perhaps it is a sign. They were always experiments, but this feels like a pivotal point in my existence. I wasn't serious about staying those times and yet I cannot help but wonder what would happen now if I tried?”

“If you are not as afraid of King Sombra now as you say, Nyx, why would you even consider this path?”

The dark mare shrugged. “Your tribe could use a Priestess, auntie. And perhaps once King Sombra discovers I am gone for good, he would leave mother's tribe alone.”

“Are you really so stupid as to believe that, child?”

Nyx blinked, taken aback by her words. She looked up into her aunt's suddenly cold gaze and stern expression. “Auntie?”

“Stallions who go to war are animals,” Andromache reminded her, spitting out the words, betraying her contempt for the more aggressive sex. “They behave as males fighting over a mare in heat - and worse. If you deny this Shadow King his prize and do not kill him, he will decimate my sister’s mares in his fury.”

Nyx’s look of surprise fell to one of defeat. Her aunt was right, of course.

“I don't know how to beat him, auntie,” Nyx confessed, withers slumped in defeat.

Andromache softened. “Perhaps there is one who knows,” the Marazon Queen said. “I think it best to consult her.”

“And who would that be?”

“In our intelligence gathered, we were told there was one who once loved him. Princess Luna,” Andromache told her.

Nyx’s mouth fell open in surprise. “Princess Luna?” she repeated, shocked. “How can that even be!?!”

“It was difficult for our spies to gather the details,” the Queen shook her head. “None in the Empire itself remember much of either their relationship or its parting. It is as if there were some spell cast over them that made them forget. Or they may have been too frightened of the King’s wrath to reveal it. It was not until our sisters reached Kajeiri on their return trip that they learned of this from former residents of the Empire they happened to run across.” She took a breath. “Apparently many years ago, before King Sombra came to power and was still just a Prince, he courted Princess Luna. They planned to be wed, but her sister Celestia, disapproved. She tore them apart and cast a curse upon Sombra that trapped him in the Crystal Empire, keeping him from pursuing when she took Luna away from there.” Andromache stopped, seeing Nyx suddenly go pale, her body tensing. “Nyx?”

“Sombra!” a deep-voiced stallion nearby cried.

Nyx blinked and she was suddenly standing next to a stallion upon a parapet overlooking a city at sunset. Startled, she moved away from the red-bodied stranger clad in guard’s armor. He ignored her, or was unable to see her, his attention fixed above. A bright flash of light coming from the direction he was staring drew her attention to the skies.

Sparks rained down upon them as a charcoal-bodied stallion wielding a copper-colored scythe hacked away at a mare - no an Alicorn, above him. No, not at her, Nyx saw as the flare of light dimmed, but at a golden shield separating him from the mare. She in turn was slashing away at the shield from the other side, the silver sword she wielded making a visible crack in the field, spiderwebs of weakening energy radiating outwards from the main crack, and all being eaten away at by the black and purple glow of corrupting dark magics. Sweat poured down the withers of the stallion above them, his eyes saturated with a hellish green glare, the overflow of so much dark power bleeding lavender trails from the corners of his eyes. Both he and the mare above were groaning and grunting with the exertions of tearing apart the shielding, which finally gave way, shattering into a thousand golden fragments that left light trails across Nyx’s sensitive eyes.

“King Sombra!”

Nyx strained to see past the glittering afterburn, but the glow beyond it was even worse. An Alicorn of pure white, outlined in hot gold, assaulted her vision. Nyx turned her gaze back to the ground, silently cursing its brilliance, and the name of the being above her. The hum of white magic accompanied the shield springing back into existence, stronger than ever.

“Stand down, Shadow King!” the Alicorn thundered.

“Stay out of this Sun Witch!” Sombra roared. “‘tis not your decision to arrest our courtship! Be gone from my kingdom!!!”

As entrancing as the two combatants were, the TimeWitch’s gaze was drawn to Princess Luna, who lay sweating and exhausted against the curve of the force field, it supporting her weight for the moment she desperately needed rest. She looked to Nyx as if she and Sombra had been laying into the field all day without pause, the tired look in her teal eyes underworn with absolute heartbreak, as if she knew this was a fight she was destined to lose. Nyx didn’t have to see any more to know what the outcome would be. She willed herself away, the sound the last thing lingering in her senses as time carried her away and back to Andromache.

“SOMBRA!”

The Marazon came back to the sensation of hooves rubbing her back, the forearms of her aunt around her as she lay in a trembling heap. She blinked and found her eyes wet with tears for the awful thing she had just witness the Princess of the Sun do to their Lunar deity. For the first time, Nyx felt a sharp pang of pain and pity for the King of Shadows.

From somewhere in the present, she heard her aunt exclaim above her. “Child, my sister said your gift was abrupt and unstable and I did not believe her this entire year you were with us,” Andromache said, still holding the trembling mare. “Until this moment.”

When Nyx could untangle herself from the tidal wave of pain and loss she had shared with those in the vision, she drew slowly back, still breathing heavily, tears still not stopping their flow. The Queen let her go, nudging several large pillows under her to fall back into. “It - I’m better - “ Nyx managed to say, groping for water she gulped down greedily when it was handed to her.

“Hardly so, Nyx,” Andromache knew better. “You levitated, your eyes burned white. I heard the burning hatred in a stallion’s dark voice - “

“Sombra,” Nyx said, unable to keep her voice steady, but now out of pity and not fear.

“The pain in Luna’s cries,” the Queen continued. “It confirms what those in Kajeiri told us.”

The Priestess could only nod, still willing away the agony of emotions from those more powerful than her. Andromache saw how wrecked her niece was and allowed her the time and space she needed to recover.

When Nyx felt she could speak with a shred more coherency again, her voice carried the same thoughts as her Aunt's. “It would appear to be best to avoid asking our Goddess for advice in this matter, auntie. Tearing such a wound open again would be unwise and cruel!”

“Indeed,” she agreed. “Instead, we will need to consult with her sister, Celestia.”

Nyx flinched at the thought. She didn't know why, but she had always had a fierce dislike for the Princess of the Sun. An inexplicable dislike bordering on hatred. She had spent hours at one point in her younger years in deep meditations, or attempts at meditation to learn the reason why, but the hatred was so intense it was almost like a primal instinct. She had finally given up, learning to accept it, putting to rest a turbulent part of her psyche that had left her untroubled ever since.

“I will arrange a small party to accompany your visit to Canterlot once the temple dedication is done tonight. You can be ready to leave at first light.”

Nyx groaned, causing Andromache to laugh. “I know how much you love to rise at dawn,” the Queen added, amused.

The TimeWitch’s only reply was to groan again, burying her head underneath a pillow. Andromache laughed.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the delay in this part - and updating my other stories in general. If you've been reading my blog, you know I was sick most of October. I am back now and am going full steam ahead. hope you enjoy sharing in Nyx's brief respite from the Shadow King =D