Rule one of finding yourself in an alternate timeline or universe: find out what’s different from your home reality. As much as it irked Duskfall, the best way to do that was to try and not antagonize Nightmare Moon. This decision was only reinforced by the fact that, while powerful in her own right, Duskfall was doubtful she could stack up to Luna’s millennium of power and experience. Duskfall didn’t know how much of Luna’s power the Nightmare could draw upon and she still didn’t know how to properly kill an Alicorn.

“You look quite a bit like Twilight Sparkle,” The Nightmare noted idly. Duskfall’s heart stopped, “Yet she certainly isn’t an Alicorn, her Cutie Mark looks nothing like yours, and she isn’t heterochromatic. I’d think you were a Changeling, but even the most incompetent drone wouldn’t fuck up their disguise this badly. So, who are you?”

“My name is Duskfall Sparkle,” There was really no point in lying, “I hail from an alternate version of Equestria. Whether it’s simply a matter of timeline jumping or ending up in an entirely different universe, I’m not sure yet.”

“What are your relations to Twilight Sparkle and her family?” Duskfall had to wonder why Nightmare Moon was so concerned with Twilight.

“Twilight Velvet and Night Light consider me a granddaughter, of a kind. I’m the result of one of Twilight’s experiments gone wrong,” Technically still the truth. If Twilight hadn’t accidentally kidnapped Tom, she wouldn’t exist to begin with.

“How on Equuis would a cloning experiment result in an Alicorn?” Nightmare Moon was baffled.

“The Twilight of my home was an Alicorn at the time, so I presume that had something to do with it,” Duskfall replied, carefully choosing her words to let the Nightmare to draw her own erroneous conclusions.

“Twilight? An Alicorn? That is quite…interesting. What are you and she Alicorns of?” Nightmare Moon inquired.

“She’s the Alicorn of the Magic of Friendship. I am the Alicorn of Darkness,” That brought the Nightmare up short. Duskfall wasn’t going to risk letting the Nightmare know she was also the Alicorn of Insanity.

“Ah, I see, she must have been successful in her quest to stop me with the Elements of Harmony. Did she ascend immediately thereafter?” It was very odd to hear the Nightmare make polite conversation, given Twilight’s memories of her painted her as a raving, egomaniacal lunatic. Maybe it had just been a bad case of stir crazy? As soon as she had that thought, something felt right about it. Was part of her being an Alicorn of Insanity being able to identify the insanity in others? That was certainly something Duskfall would need to think about later.

“The Elements ascended her about a year later,” Duskfall responded, “A few days after that she began her experiments. A couple months later, I was born or made or whatever term you want to use.” The best lies were coated liberally with truth.

“Well, I look forward to getting to…getting to know you better,” There was a sensuous note to the Nightmare’s voice that sent a thrill up Duskfall’s spine, “But for now, perhaps we should return to my castle.”

The Nightmare draped a wing over Duskfall. Duskfall was getting some strong sexual predator vibes from the Nightmare. Well…hopefully Starlight could survive long enough for Duskfall to get fucked by the Nightmare. The two began to walk with the Nightmare leading the way.

Duskfall thought it over and internally groaned. It was partly her fault the silly bitch was stuck in an alternate timeline/dimension. She couldn’t enjoy getting laid with that on her mind.

“Nightmare Moon, have you seen a Unicorn mare, pink fur with a purple mane with a green streak through it?” Duskfall asked.

“As a matter of fact, I have. She’s currently occupying a cell in the dungeons. My guards found her poking around where she ought not to have been. A friend of yours?” Duskfall wasn’t fooled by the Nightmare’s neutral tone.

“Not in the slightest. I was actually trying to punish the bitch when the accident sent us here. I’m content to let her languish in a cell for a bit while I try to figure out how to get us home,” Duskfall shrugged.

“You are certainly more vicious than Twilight,” Nightmare noted.

“I reiterate, Alicorn of Darkness. If you thought I was gonna be puppies and rainbows and shit, you clearly don’t know Darkness very well,” Duskfall said shortly.

“Celestia can’t have been a fan,” Nightmare Moon remarked.

“It’s none of Celestia’s business. If she were really so concerned with what Twilight was doing, she would’ve never let her do those experiments to begin with! She’d rather be up in her ivory tower playing games with the nobles!” Anyone with half a brain cell could guess an easy way to get in with the Nightmare was to seem hostile to Celestia. Injecting her words with the tiniest bit of real hurt Duskfall felt for being largely ignored by the alabaster Alicorn just sold the act. Duskfall understood ruling a country was busy work, but it didn't stop the feelings.

“You almost sound like you regret existing,” The Nightmare said curiously.

“I think a little bit of regret on something like that is natural. I don’t regret the ‘how’ of my creation. Sure it was a bit different to how most beings are born and I have Twilight’s memories jammed in my head, but I can’t find it in myself to be mad at her for it. Say, I never asked Luna, but how did you come about? I don’t know how much I believe Celestia’s propaganda,” Time to find out if this was an alternate universe or just an alternate timeline.

“From what I have seen of my sister’s tales, they are mostly accurate. Alicorns command vast wells of power, enough that the rules of physics and magic can behave strangely if not properly controlled. I was indeed born of Luna’s jealousy and anger, but I am not a completely separate entity. I am her and she is me. It will continue to be so at least until Luna is ready to face the world once more. Until then, I will rule in her rightful place,” The Nightmare in her world had been a child of Nyarlathotep. Either this Nightmare was lying or Duskfall was indeed in an alternate universe. Duskfall couldn’t detect a note of deception on the other Alicorn’s voice.

“That’s a noble sentiment,” Duskfall complimented.

“You give me too much credit. If you hold Twilight’s memories, then you know I was not always so high minded. At first I simply wanted everything around me to experience the pain Luna felt. Eventually her better nature won us both over and I began to properly take care of our subjects. It is a pity eternal night simply isn’t feasible…” The Nightmare sighed.

At last the Nightmare’s Castle came into view. It looked like she had taken over the Castle of the Two Sisters and remodeled it. Duskfall and Nightmare Moon walked through the front doors and everyone went silent for a moment. Duskfall didn’t know if that was typical of when the Nightmare entered a room or if they were all busy staring at her. Judging by this universe’s version of Rarity looking straight at her, it was at least some of both.

“Rarity, please fetch Twilight Sparkle. As you can see, we have an interesting guest~” The Nightmare purred.

“At once, my Queen,” Rarity bowed and trotted off.

“My Queen, why have you brought a Changeling here?!” Duskfall instantly recognized that voice. She turned and saw Rainbow Dash dressed in a guard outfit, except her eyes were different. They were the same almost rose red color, but they were draconic in nature. Was Rainbow a Thestral?!

“Really, Rainbow, have a little more faith in me. Would I really be fooled by a Changeling who couldn’t even get their disguise right?” The Nightmare sounded hurt, but her smirk and eyes told another story. Rainbow gulped nervously. Did the Nightmare bang her guards too?

“No, my Queen, sorry, Queen Nightmare,” Rainbow fidgeted nervously. The Nightmare walked over to Rainbow and bent down to eye level.

“Don’t worry, my loyal little Thestral, you can make it up to me later,” Nightmare Moon seemed to be a sex fiend and Duskfall was OK with that.

“You summoned me, my Queen?” It was painful to look, but Duskfall’s whole narrative would fall apart if she freaked out now. Twilight Sparkle entered the room. She was wearing a very seductive looking, tight fitting white button up shirt that wasn’t buttoned all the way up. She was also wearing her mane up in a loose bun and had glasses. She was dressed like a sexy office worker/librarian! Twilight froze when she spotted Duskfall.

“Hi, Mom,” Duskfall played it cool. Even if just under the surface she was completely losing her mind. This wasn’t her Twilight. Kidnapping her wouldn’t help anything. Also, this Twilight looked to be about five years older, so there was that. It wasn’t easy to tell with Rarity or Rainbow because they were dressed, but Duskfall had seen that face in the mirror for centuries. It was easy to pick out the changes.

“MOM?!” Twilight squawked, “I- I think I’d know if I had a baby!”

“There’s more than one way to have a child, my pet~” The Nightmare taunted. Duskfall decided to have mercy on Twilight.

“I’m the result of one of your experiments in an alternate timeline,” Duskfall explained. Lying to Twilight’s face hurt a lot more than Duskfall expected, “I’m Duskfall Sparkle.”

“Just think, Twilight, we could be looking at our future child!” The Nightmare squealed. Twilight predictably blushed like a tomato. Duskfall was tempted to point out that Alicorns weren’t born, but she didn’t know how things worked in this universe so kept her mouth shut.

“I doubt any child of ours will look almost exactly like me,” Twilight pointed out and the Nightmare pouted.

“She’s an Alicorn of Darkness. If that doesn’t just scream our child, I don’t know what does! Although, I have always wanted to try twins…” There was a special place in Hell for Duskfall for finding that idea attractive. Although, Duskfall was already doomed for her centuries of debauchery, so what were they going to do? Double damn her?

“My Queen, please!” Twilight pleaded and Nightmare Moon just cackled.

“I’m down,” Both Alicorn and Unicorn snapped their attention to Duskfall, “I do want to get home eventually, so before I leave I’ll let you do whatever you want to me.” Truthfully, if Duskfall wound up stuck here for more than a few days she’d likely see if the Nightmare wanted to bang just for stress relief. Still, an incentive to be as helpful as possible was never a bad thing.

“WHAT?!” Twilight was one step from completely flipping her lid. Duskfall couldn’t contain the desire to see if she would snap. She walked closer to Twilight until their lips were almost touching.

“Come on, Twilight, I have all your memories. You can’t tell me you were never curious,” Duskfall huskily whispered. The Nightmare experienced a very potent wing boner and Twilight stuttered for a few seconds before fainting dead away.

“That’s a shame,” Nightmare licked her suddenly dry lips.

“Yeah, Mom won’t let me kiss her either, but I’ve never had that reaction before. She just fidgets and acts all guilty if we’re alone,” Now that the possibility was presented to her, the idea of making love to Twilight was all she ever wanted. Yes…make love…calling it anything else was sacrilege in Duskfall’s mind. She knew her Insanity was acting up, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

Something caught Duskfall’s eyes that distracted her. Twilight’s Cutie Mark was different. It was exactly the same except one of the outer white stars was missing. How could that be possible?! Twilight’s Cutie Mark was six stars to denote the six Elements of Harmony! If one of them was missing, what did that mean? Did one of the Bearers simply not exist in this universe? Was there one less Element? Did this have something to do with the Nightmare not being defeated? Why was Twilight’s Cutie Mark nearly the same if things played out like this?

No, Duskfall was only going to be here long enough to find a way to leave. As much as it irked her, these mysteries could stay mysteries. There was no point in getting involved in this world.

“Might someone show me the way to the library? I know Starswirl did some research into time travel, so hopefully his notes will prove useful,” Really Duskfall wanted to see if the basic Laws of Magic were comparable to what she knew.

“Of course, I will have Rarity escort you,” Suddenly the white Unicorn was beside Duskfall. The Nightmare scooped up Twilight in her magic and departed.

“Follow me,” Rarity said primly and started walking off. Duskfall promptly followed and soon they arrived at the library.

“Thank you, Rarity,” Duskfall said gratefully. Rarity didn’t respond. Duskfall just shrugged and turned to get started on the books when Rarity spoke.

“What was it like?” It was barely more than a whisper.

“How long has it been since the Nightmare took over?” Duskfall returned.

“A little over five years…” Rarity responded.

“Do you really want to know? I don’t think our worlds are comparable and knowing what may have been will only make you miserable,” Duskfall warned.

“Is she happy? Is Sweetie Belle happy?” Rarity was crying now, begging for that one answer.

“Yes, Sweetie Belle is still looking for her Cutie Mark, but otherwise very happy,” A great weight seemed to be lifted off of Rarity’s shoulders. A small smile before she schooled her features back into her impassive mask.

With that, Duskfall started scanning the bookshelves for possibly useful tomes. She noted a lot of standard books were missing, but simply chalked it up to alternate universe shenanigans. Once she had a sizeable selection, she sat down and started to read.

Light falls to Darkness.

Darkness becomes Light.

Light burns the Truth

Darkness obscures Lies

Only by restoring Truth and exposing Lies will you be free.

Duskfall shot up in bed, gasping for air. The words seared into her mind. There was no mistaking their intent. Those mysteries would not be allowed to remain mysteries, not if Duskfall ever wanted to get home.

Author's Notes:

Well then, isn't this interesting? Light destroying Truth? What could that mean?

I'm also taking bets as to who you think the missing Mane 6 is and what might have happened to her. All bets will be in internet cookies. Bonus points if you can predict any special fallout of that particular member missing. Well, Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow are all accounted for...