Many years in the past...

“Mirror Lake is quite the sight, is it not, Nyx?”

The young Marazon daughter gazed out from their sheltered cliff face to the valley below. She frowned. “There is a lake there? I still don't see anything. Just redwoods.”

Ainippe smiled. She leaned down to the child barely into her teens. “Of course not,” she agreed. “That is the point of hiding a thing, isn't it?” They were very close to their destination now. Nudging the filly, she urged her to continue following the winding cliff path the rest of the way down to the forest floor. Nyx shrugged and complied, watching her footing, occasionally stealing glances ahead, trying to spot the ever-elusive lake.

Shivering, Ainippe pulled her cloak closer to her against the chill of the ocean breeze and fog coming in from the coast beyond the far lip of the valley's edge. Her young, coal-black bodied daughter seemed not to even notice the weather, her own forest green cape unlined, the hood tossed back against her shoulders. A flick of her magic drew the hood back over Nyx's head, obscuring her vision.

“'Ugh!” the child complained, readjusting it with her own magic so she could see. “I can't see with this thing in my eyes!”

The elder Marazon laughed. “Your head must be too small.”

“No,” Nyx replied. “Quiet Hoof's mom is lazy. She was supposed to adjust it for me.”

“That's not a nice thing to say, Nyx! I will speak to her again about it. In the meantime, we are on a pilgrimage, 'daughter. It shows respect to have the hood in place.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the filly sighed. “Coming of age and all that weird stuff.”

Ainippe bumped her side. “It's not weird. It's traditional. I thought you were excited, especially since Step and her mother are meeting us there for her Coming of Age rite.”

“I am, I guess,” she replied unconvincingly, slipping into a more somber mood.

“What's bothering you, sweetie? Yesterday you were bouncing around so much we practically had to tie you down to your bed to get some sleep.”

Nyx stopped. From where they were, even this far down, Luna's moon was still visible above. She closed her eyes, remembering her dreams from the night before...

It was so cold Nyx could barely move. The wind and snow whipped around her like a savage creature, howling its anger across the frozen wasteland. The tiniest sound not the wind came to her ears and she looked down, surprised to find a black-bodied, silver-maned unicorn infant in the snow.

She tried to pick it up but something prevented her. The filly couldn't make her body move to obey her. 'Maybe it is better if we died,' she caught herself thinking...

Frustrated, all she could manage was to build a snow break around the tiny little life, diverting the wind around her. It didn't stop it from crying, but the Marazon knew it would stop crying soon enough if left out here much longer.

Why can't I help her, she wondered.

This IS helping, a darker part of her mind assured her. She...I...we...shouldn't even exist...

The wind died and the clouds parted above – the moon rising on the western horizon. Still the tiny creature clung to life, its mewling weaker and weaker...

*I'm sorry, Nyx,* Princess Luna said, embracing her. *It's true. But it doesn't mean they love you any less...* The voice of their patron Goddess had been whispered across her bedroom, as well as in her dreams. With a start, she had woken up, finding Luna's soft eyes regarding her almost with pity...

Remembering broke the filly. Tears flooded her eyes, Ainippe saw her sides heave with unvoiced sobs underneath the cloak. “Nyx? What's wrong?” She reached out a hoof to her shoulder.

She shied away from her mother's touch. “I – I don't want to talk about it.”

“We don't do things that way, young mare,” Ainippe said in a gentle but firm voice. “Marazons hold the secrets of nature, but nothing from between a mother and daughter.”

“Oh really?” Nyx said harshly, her black eyes reflecting Luna's orb above them. “That's not what Neris told me!” her voice holding the strange, echoed reverberation it always took on when her temper got the better of her. She wasn't surprised when Ainippe cantered back a step in surprise, but thought it was in reaction to her temper.

“What did she tell you?” the mare's voice held anger at the older council member, but something else the filly had a hard time identifying. Nyx had never heard this tone in her mother's voice before, but it stimulated her senses like no other emotion she had ever encountered, agitating her even more.

The child's gaze traveled up to the moon, then back down to Ainippe. “Luna knew, too. She told me last night.”

“In a dream?” the mare's eyes widened.

“Yes and no. Why are you surprised?” Nyx sniffed. “She visits Marazons all the time in dreams and outside them.” Then it occurred to her. “But this was the first time she came to me...it's true then!”

Ainippe put a hoof out to try to calm the filly down. “Neris had no right to tell you! That was my responsibility, little one. That was what we were here for tonight. It's part of your initiation.”

“I thought I was one of you,” Nyx sobbed, backing away. “A Marazon. I thought - “ she turned and ran full gallop towards the redwoods.

“NYX!” Ainippe cried out, running after her.

The Present

Queen Ainippe sighed and turned away from the lake's surface after casting a pebble to dispel the vision of the awful memory of Nyx running away from her. Meditating at this still emotion-laden place was useless, though she had to try. She had held onto the hope that after so many years away, time and distance had stayed memory's cruel grip on her heart, but where Nyx's special talent was concerned, nothing in the past ever truly died. Especially here.

The other councilmares approached at her signal, Neris among them, of course. Ainippe's deep hatred and resentment of her had dulled with age, but for a decade she had never again been able to look at her without feeling it was her that had destroyed the bond between Ainippe and Nyx, robbing her of what was supposed to have been a beautiful ceremony, as well as the poor girl's sanity. Ever after that day, she had blamed the ambitious, callous eldermare as much as she did herself. Assuming the position of Queen of the Marazons was as much to protect Ainippe's people from Neris as it was her birthright, but the price had been in having to deal with the hateful mare for the rest of her days.

Quiet Hoof took her place by the Queen's side, nodding that all had finished the required meditations in preparation for what they needed to accomplish there. Grateful for the distraction from the bad memories, the Queen took the lead, moving out on the crescent shaped dock, over the placid waters of Mirror Lake. She directed the other eleven to stand with her, five to her left hand, the other six on her right. All charged their horns, lending their power to the Marazon Queen as she chanted words as ancient as the lake itself:

“The moon on the water, its reflection a tide,
Bring us together, to stand side by side,
With those that serve with us, lay great distance aside!”

A glow spread outwards, starting from Ainippe's hooves, sliding off the dock into the waters before her. It pulsed out in the shape of a crescent, laid upon the lake's surface like moonlight, its opening facing the council.

A portion of the moonlight coalesced into the shape of a mare – body black as night and eyes as dark and depthless, with a flowing mane fog-grey, shot through with soft, sparkling light. Her hoof shoes were silver and carried Luna's crescent, but the attire was all wrong.

Quiet Hoof came as close to the edge of the dock as she dared without impeding upon the circle and its magics, staring at the strangely dressed image of Nyx. “What is she wearing?”

Ainippe and the others opened their eyes, taken aback at the silver, polished breastplate, red-jeweled, not blue, headband, strange choker and red cloak across her back. “This makes no sense,” the Queen whispered.

The scout outside their circle caught a smudge of blurred light overhead and looked up. “Your Highness!” she said, startled, gesturing towards the skies. All looked upwards.

Celestia's sun blurred overhead in its movement across the heavens, daytime passing in a moment, replaced by night as the moon and stars did the same. After a few seconds and concerned murmurs, Ainippe and Quiet Hoof glanced back to Nyx's form which now appeared frozen in time, unmoving, unresponsive to their voices or the strange acceleration of time overhead. It dissolved into grey mist, then everything above their heads stopped, slowed, then reversed.

Nyx reappeared, still in the strange dress, but as the wild dance of night and day and heavenly bodies above slowed, the Time Witch once again became dressed in her normal attire. When day returned, Nyx stumbled forward, gasping, her body, mane and tail soaking wet.

Ainippe stepped forward slightly. “Nyx! Are you still at the Temple? Why are you wet?”

“I had to flee,” the Marazon replied, her voice a hollow echo across the hundred miles. “He came for me. Charon is dead. He threw her off the cliff and killed her without a thought or consideration.”

There were shocked murmurs among the councilmares.

She shook herself dry. “It seems He cannot breach water. I took refuge under its surface and He could not come after me.”

“What?” Neris spoke up. “That is ridiculous! Why would that stop Him?”

“He is a being of smoke and shadow - “ the TimeWitch began to explain.

“You mean a thing,” the elder mare shuddered. Ainippe threw her a look of annoyance, but remained silent. “We saw His form among us at the Bay. His speed is faster than the light of day!”

“What attacked me was a mere projection of His power, not his physical self, but He is coming. I can feel it.” She nodded grimly. “And yes, darkness is always ahead of the light.” She looked to Ainippe. “We can never outrun him, mother.”

Ainippe looked at her, nodding. “I know.”

Neris glared at their Queen. “What do you mean, you know?”

“This was never about outrunning him, Neris,” Ainippe declared. “It was – and is about keeping Nyx out of his hooves until we can dissuade or kill him.”

“The closer we get to the future, the less certain I am we can do either,” the TimeWitch declared. “I have never believed and you should not as well.” She looked down a moment. “Especially now having seen what he is,” she said softly.

“If we have to kill every last one of his army off,” Neris spat. “we will do so. Then we will come for him.”

Nyx rolled her eyes. “And how will you do that, Neris,” she asked sarcastically. “How do you kill shadows? Ask Celestia to keep her sun up in the sky forever? There will still be darkness and shadow lurking beyond its reach. The dark was here before the light, shadow ponies its people.”

The elder mare snorted. “Shadow ponies do not exist.”

Both Nyx and Ainippe grunted, suppressing a laugh. “So says the mare who stared into the burning gaze of one!” the TimeWitch mocked. Knowing it was useless to continue debating, she remembered something. “Your Highness,” she looked to the Queen. “He is attracted to fear. His projection ignored me until I felt afraid, then it homed in on me unerringly.”

“Our mares are brave, Nyx,” Ainippe replied. “but this – thing he can become, it pulls at fears much deeper than those found in battle. We are not trained to withstand this.”

The projection of Nyx looked to her left. “I have to go. He's close.”

Neris stepped forward. “How will you escape him?” she asked.

“I can hide a few seconds ahead of this timeline,” she said hastily. “but I will not know how long to stay there, or where to go. I can't stay there forever, even if I did have control over bouncing back here, which I don't!” She sounded a tinge panicked, lost.

The elder mare thought of something. “Not the future! We saw a future projection of you, Nyx. Your dress was not - “

“- as it is now? A cape of red? A steel crown bearing the sign of Luna's moon, but in blood red? I know. I have seen this in my visions as well. I do not know it what means, but I do not believe it is a good sign.” She looked off to her left, then back to the council mares with a look of urgency. “I've got to go!” Her image faded.

At his fastest speed as shadow, it still took King Sombra an hour to reach the Temple of the Moon up the coast from the crystal army's current position. Knowing it was far too late to expect she would still be there, He also knew she could not go far on hoof. If the prophetic witch were anywhere near, He would be able to sense and locate her.

Or so He thought.

The moment His shadowy self touched the balcony overlooking the ocean, He began to reform, his forehooves stepped silently onto the marble, followed by the rest of His self growing solid so when He jumped down to the floor, it was on all fours hooves. He took a moment to confirm what His senses had told Him while still a shadow hovering outside the balcony.

No one was there.

Night Bomber would be the first to pay for this blunder in His delay and pay dearly, He snarled to Himself.

Failing to understand how Nyx could have not only slipped away so quickly, but also be completely and utterly missing from at least a hundred square mile radius, the Dark Pony decided to investigate the temple while there. Perhaps a clue could be found as to where she went and how she had accomplished such a feat with the speed she did.

The temple itself was of a fairly recent construction, no more than a couple of generations old, but the style was from halfway around the world. The Marazons were clearly familiar with Ancient Equus and perhaps had even traveled to Equestria from there to form this colony of wild mares. If so, they were descended from a race with many centuries of fighting blood flowing through their veins. That alone told Him He best not underestimate them, even with superior numbers on His side.

The rooms were sparsely decorated and functional – meditation rooms, a main altar room, a room with an amphitheater seating style to accommodate a large number of ponies – probably for strategy meetings and the last room which He felt a peculiar draw to.

The dragonfly pond room felt vaguely familiar, as if He had seen it or been there before. A cloud of winged insects danced lazily over the waters, but scattered as soon as He entered, sensing the dark, malevolent presence of a predator as had once invaded their home earlier.

“Ah, it was you I sensed before,” He muttered. “You cost me my prize.”

“Only for a short time, my King,” came a mare's soft voice from the doorway.

He whirled around to see a Marazon standing before Him. She was a black-bodied beauty, with a mane as full and flowing as Princess Luna's, but of soft, glittering fog that sparkled with tiny silver particles within its folds. While He took in her manner of garb – the cape, her diadem, the jewels in her shoes, a version of identical coloring and a similar yet feminine breastplate to His own, it was her deep, black, depthless eyes that captured His attention, and even fascinated Him.

She regarded Him with as much attention as He did her, showing neither fear nor an urge to flee, approaching Him slowly, as if knowing a sudden move to either flee or attack was not in her best interest. They circled each other for a moment. “You are - “ He began to ask.

“The one you seek. I am Nyx,” she nodded, stopping in front of Him, causing Him to stop as well. The Umbrum reared back slightly, surprised and taken aback at how lovely she was. It nearly left him speechless.

Nearly.

She further surprised Him by bowing. After a moment of both amusement and hesitation, a flicker of His magic brought her back up to her feet. “I would not expect a mare of the enemy to show me such honor,” He rumbled in an almost pleasant tone.

She cocked her head, giving him the impression of a predator regarding her prey. “Or to be wearing such similar attire?” she said, amused.

“It had not escaped my notice,” He nodded. “Perhaps this is a trap,” He added, narrowing His red eyes at her. “Why else hand yourself over to me so willingly?”

Nyx smiled. “It was not so easy to capture me back now, my dark heart.”

He raised an eyebrow. “A term of endearment? And your phrasing, 'was not'?, 'back now'?” He eyed her intensely. “This is either trickery, duplicity or insanity.” Nyx laughed softly. His senses scanned the room and the cliffs beyond the temple, expecting she was attempting to catch him off guard, but still he found no trace of mare nor stallion for a hundred miles.

“I am tempted to go with the third reasoning,” Sombra started to say and to his surprise, Nyx repeated his words as he said them, and with flawless accuracy.

He watched as the Marazon went to the edge of the pool and sat down, leaning over to gaze into its reflection. She smiled, though he could not see it from where he stood. “And you would not be far off the mark. I was rather – unbalanced then. Now. Time, my time or timeline as I call it, tends to be quite circular.” She looked over her shoulder at her flank, drawing her cloak back, exposing her cutie mark – a black, shadowy serpent coiled into an “O” shape, its own tail clutched in its fanged mouth.

“The ouroboros,” Sombra said absently, easily recognizing the symbol from his training in dark magic. “A rather – peculiar marking of talent,” he replied softly, realizing only then he had wandered closer to her. "It symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist's opus." he finished.

"Magnus opus," Nyx nodded, the light from the torches in the room sparkled off the surface of her black eyes once she sat down upon the pool's edge and looked up at him. Sombra found it quite - distracting.

"Great work," Sombra translated, using the memory to refocus his thoughts back to his goal.

"Why thank you," she bowed her head in mock shyness.

"That was not a compliment, but a question," he said neutrally. "What would that have to do with you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" it was her turn to act distant, her smile betraying her coyness as an act.

He took the last steps, putting her at his hooves. He smiled, liking the look of her there. It was a position she would get used to, he mused in satisfaction.

"I always got the impression you thought of me as YOUR magnus opus. Funny, I also thought that of you, my King."

No longer interested in her ramblings, Sombra drew forth a slave collar with his magic. Nyx drew in a breath as she studied it, but he got the distinct feeling it was not in fear, but in delight though she never said a word. "We will have time to discuss who is who's 'great work', my dear TimeWitch," he replied, lifting her flowing, silken mane as he went to affix the collar around her throat.

"Oh, that won't work," she told him, watching his confused reaction when it fell straight through her and clattered to the floor at his feet as soon as he had affixed it around her. He grasped it in his magic and lifted it, but as soon as he tried again, it crumbled into dust before his eyes.

"You destroyed it in my time, in the future," she answered his unspoken question. "It cannot return with me for it does not exist. However, I will give you one that will - and does." Her liquid black eyes traveled back to his. “Come, I will show you.”

He stood over her, frowning. She was still smiling at Him with a most peculiar, knowing gaze, inclining her head towards the surface of the waters. When he deigned to look into them, she waved a hoof over the pond.

The surface sparkled and shifted. “What have you been told about me, your Highness?” she asked.

“You are a future-seer – and are quite mad,” He replied, amused at the strangely civil discussion they were having, as if this encounter were not going to end with Him taking her captive back to His army.

Nyx laughed. “I was back now. Then,” she corrected herself, giggling. “I was a mess! That much is/was true.”

There was a peculiar shift in her voice that echoed of two words at once - “is” and “was”. It almost sounded like His own voice as others had described it to Him, especially when He was channeling dark magic or was angry. A double echo, betraying the darkness lurking underneath His pony skin.

“And how do you think I arrive at my predictions, my Lord?” she asked, distracting His musing over her strangely attractive vocal cadences.

“You tell me, witch,” He replied, his voice dropping any feel of amusement in favor of cool steel.

She gazed back into the pond's waters. “Sometimes from seeing it, sometimes from living it,” she whispered. “Look.”

Images flashed before them of His past – a tiny colt found in the snow and brought back to the Crystal Empire. Scenes with His new family, including His adopted sister, Amber Leaf. Then his training with the crystal guard as their Royal Guard Captain...running from the outskirts of the city to its castle at its heart, to greet Princess Luna as she took the moon down from the sky for the evening, letting her sister raise the sun.

Then a jump to His conquering the Empire, His travel here, what He assumed to be battles to come on the plains beyond the temple walls. His enslavement of the Marazons – and her.

The Seeress faded the images and stood, stepping back away from the pond to the center of the room. He paced, still attempting to work out what her strategy was. “Why show me this?” He finally asked, coming to a stop again in front of her.

She laughed. “To ensure our future, I suppose, and the bond between us to come. I was thrown here from the future by a temporal anomaly when my current self fled a few seconds into her future to avoid capture in the here and now – by You.” Nyx shook her head. “If only I could tell her it will be worth the trials to come, I would, but she/I is too frightened right now to listen to anypony – even myself.”

He nodded. “She – you, have good reason to be afraid, unfortunately for you. But a 'temporal anomaly'. What is this term?”

She took a step towards Him, but was caught in a wave of dizziness. Sombra caught her in His magic before she hit the ground and held her in His grip. It put them practically nose to nose.

“I am being pulled back, into our future. I don't have much time,” she rested her hooves against his chest plate.

He leaned closer to her, whispering in her ear, “You are not going anywhere, my dear. You are mine.”

She briefly stroked his muscled leg above the greaved plating. “Were that true for my present self, it would save so many lives, so much suffering, for your army as well as mine,” she bowed her head in the same pain echoed in her voice. Then she drew back to look into his green-tinged, purple-edged eyes. “Can you not feel it? The strange energies that shift and make it feel as if I am not really here?”

He did. It was not just the fact he could barely keep a grip on her for her weight would suddenly be half what it started out to be, then fade completely for an instant, then come back suddenly. It was a peculiar tingling – a sense that this close to her he could almost feel time freeze, then start, freeze and lurch forward. It was a sensation he had never experienced before in all his mastery of light and dark magics. “That is 'temporal' in nature?” He asked.

“Yes. Temporal is the energy of time.” Her voice was even more hollow and echoed now. “Here, this is important. Take this,” she asked, removing the consort collar from around her neck. She gave it to him. “Once upon a time, in its beginning, it was your gift to me. Now, by doing this, it no longer has a point of origin. No beginning and never ending.”

“Why give me this,” he asked, puzzled.

“When we meet again, place it around my throat. It will stabilize my powers, prevent me shifting uncontrollably.“ Nyx smiled with unmistakable fondness at him.

She stopped with another wave of dizziness. Sombra's grip faltered on her, then came back, even weaker this time. The TimeWitch smiled half-heartedly, “At least when I am not being drug back into my own, proper time.”

“I do not convince easily, Marazon,” He told her plainly. “you will require more proof than this that you are from the future.”

Nodding, Nyx took his hoof in hers, moved it so he could see the inside of the collar, see what was written there. His red eyes widened and he grunted. “Yet even I must admit this is a – compelling start.”

“I understand,” she shook her head and now He could see more of the room straight through her, even his powerful dark magic unable to keep its grip on her. “More proof? I will give you, my Sombra, if you but promise to not end me in this timeline before giving me a chance to win your heart.”

He leaned closer, whispering, hot breath searing her ear. “I promise nothing, TimeWitch.”

“And yet, I will still give you your proof, my dark love.” Leaning in turn to His ear, she whispered something. He drew back, stunned. “Come to me,” she urged him, fading one last time. “Save us both from a worse fate apart.”

Author's Notes:

Ah...so many questions arise with Nyx's first, true encounter with King Sombra - and yet it is after she has known him for many, many years. What was written inside the consort's collar she gave him? Why is it proof? Why is she so calm about all this when she knows much worse treatment at his cruel hooves is to come in her present self's future? And most puzzling of all, what did she whisper to him that could rattle the unshakable King of Shadows? Stick around and find out in the next and future chapters of The Mad Seeress of the North!