Duskfall was feeling mighty awkward. Lightning and Starlight were both MIA and she was being stared down by a bunch of ponies who thought she was Twilight. So she wasn’t home and following her recent string of luck, she was going to get called upon to fix whatever shit was going on here. Hopefully she wouldn’t pick up another follower. One was enough.

“I’m not Twilight Sparkle,” Duskfall decided to just get it out of the way.

“But you look-” Rainbow began.

“Exhibit A,” Duskfall presented her Cutie Mark, "Exhibit B,” She pointed to her green eye, “Need I continue?”

“Then who the heck are you?” Rainbow demanded.

“Duskfall Sparkle, Twilight’s daughter after a fashion and Alicorn of Darkness and Insanity. I’m from an alternate dimension,” Duskfall introduced herself. Most of the room tensed at her declaration.

“Ooh, oh! What’s the Scouter say about your power level?!” Pinkie suddenly asked.

“It’s over 9000!” Duskfall shouted in her hammiest voice.

“She’s clear,” Pinkie announced.

“Really, I’m specialized in Healing and Wild Darkness, not the Darkness of Evil. As for Insanity, well, you get along just fine with Pinkie and my days of being more extreme than she is are more or less behind me,” Duskfall assured them, “So, uh, what the heck happened to Rainbow’s wing?” Duskfall would never claim tact to be one of her strengths.

“Sombra happened,” Rainbow snarled.

“Well that’s an interesting divergence point. How the heck did Sombra not get destroyed by the Crystal Heart?” Duskfall asked.

“We couldn’t find the Crystal Heart,” Maud answered in her usual monotone.

“Twi just up and vanished, along with Spike, while lookin’ fer the Heart. Nopony has seen them since. Eventually Cadence’s shield fell and Sombra took over the Crystal Empire. Those of us that got out were lucky to get out alive. Shining Armor didn’t make it,” Applejack reported.

“He…killed…Shining? He might’ve killed Twilight and Spike? Remember what I said earlier about not going crazier than Pinkie? I lied. I’M GOING TO KILL SOMBRA!” Duskfall roared and tried to leave on her mad quest of vengeance, only to be trapped in a golden aura.

“I think you need to calm down,” Celestia said in an infuriatingly serene tone.

“LET ME GO! I NEED TO AVENGE MY FAMILY!” Duskfall thrashed and expelled as much power as she dared while not hurting those in the room. It was to no avail. Celestia was clearly feeling the strain, but she was still able to contain Duskfall. Eventually Duskfall gave up her struggling. She could almost certainly break free, but it would mean killing everyone in the room.

“Are you finished?” Celestia asked patiently.

“For now,” Duskfall answered petulantly with a pouting scowl on her face. Before the conversation could continue, the unmistakable sound of a rainboom exploded into existence.

“What’s going on?! The rainboom is my thing!” Rainbow protested. Judging from the intensity and direction of the sound, along with the residual wash of Magic, Duskfall guessed it had come from Ponyville. At least that was probably Lightning Dust. Still, her rainboom was most certainly not Harmony Magic. Duskfall did recognize the Magic that Lightning's rainboom used, but couldn't quite put a name to it. Brain farts were always frustrating and this was no exception.

“The answer to your question should be arriving in 3…2…1,” Lighting Dust burst into the room and halted her supersonic speed with almost as much grace as Duskfall’s Rainbow.

“Lady Duskfall, I felt your distress!” Lightning exclaimed.

“You what now?!” That was certainly unexpected, “Are you part Changeling or something and forgot to mention it?”

“My great grandmother was a Changeling, why?” Duskfall felt a sudden need to bash her own brains in. She had tried to punish a descendant of a Changeling with gentle sex! Duskfall didn’t know how the Changeling blood affected Lightning, but clearly she could at least sense emotions. That meant her whole charade with pretending to hate fuck Lightning had been pointless! At least Duskfall knew what kind of Magic Lightning used in her rainboom. Somehow she was using Changeling Magic.

“You knew the whole time, didn’t you?” Duskfall had to confirm it.

“What makes you think that, Lady Duskfall?” Lightning replied coyly. Duskfall preformed a few breathing exercises before responding.

“I can deal with this later. Do you happen to know where Starlight is?” Duskfall asked.

“No ma’am,” Lightning replied.

“Fuck, I gotta track down that trouble making bitch all over again,” Duskfall swore.

“Would you care to introduce your friend, Duskfall?” Celestia interrupted.

“Oh, right, this is Lightning Dust. She’s from another world too, a different one from mine. Apparently I did something so monumentally stupid that she decided to tag along and left her home world behind,” Duskfall was silently thankful that Sombra had taken over before this Rainbow could meet this world’s Lightning Dust. That was some bad blood Duskfall wasn’t of a mind to deal with at the moment. Of course, she’d have to deal with it eventually when she got home with Dusty in tow.

“You shouldn’t talk about yourself like that, Lady Duskfall. It wasn’t stupid, just misguided,” Duskfall would’ve almost believed Lightning was sincere if it weren’t for the smirk trying to break out on her face.

“I don’t need your pity,” Duskfall huffed.

“Whatever you say, m’lady,” Lightning’s smirk had made a successful jail break.

“Don’t mind her, she probably just uses the overly formal address to annoy me,” Duskfall shot back.

“Why, I would never do such a thing, Lady Duskfall,” Lightning teased.

“Upgrade that ‘probably’ to a ‘definitely’,” Duskfall deadpanned.

“If you two are done flirting, we were actually in the middle of something,” Rainbow grumped.

“Oh shit, Rainbow is a Pegasus! That’s fucking weird,” Lightning remarked.

“How do you think I felt when I saw your Rainbow was a Thestral?” Duskfall asked.

“I’m a Thestral?!” Rainbow exclaimed in shock.

“We’re getting sidetracked again,” Maud pointed out.

“OK, one last tangent before we get down to the business of wreaking bloody vengeance upon Sombra. Where are Rarity and Fluttershy?” Duskfall asked.

“Fluttershy should be in the hospital wing caring for her patients. Rarity is currently in a meeting with some armor manufactures,” Celestia replied. Duskfall guessed this war must have been going on long enough for Fluttershy to get a degree and become a full doctor. Good for her.

“Our plans are going to have to be redone to account for a substantial increase in firepower,” Maud noted, “A second rainboom capable Pegasus alone shifts the balance of power considerably.”

“I don’t know how I feel-” Celestia began.

“The only person I’m interested in killing is Sombra. I’ll try and keep it non-lethal with everyone else,” Duskfall promised.

“Y’all better, cuz Sombra’s troops are all bein’ mind controlled,” Applejack informed the purple Alicorn.

“Mind control, huh? Dark Magic mind control, I wonder…” Duskfall trailed off. Duskfall was still young to her powers, but she was wondering if it wouldn’t be impossible to hijack the mind control with her own power of Darkness. Capturing an enemy soldier jumped up on her priority list. After all, there was no guarantee the mind control would dispel just because Sombra died.

“I’m not sure getting involved in this conflict is the best thing to do, but if Lady Duskfall wishes it then I shall do all in my power to assist,” Lightning Dust voiced her own concerns.

“We’ll have to deal with it sooner or later anyway. Starlight is a single pony and we don’t have the resources right now to launch a full scale marehunt. Helping stop Sombra isn’t only the right thing to do, but it’s also the most expedient method of getting us the help to track down Starlight. That’s even ignoring that I’ve seemingly been assigned janitorial duties by some higher power,” Duskfall reasoned.

“Maybe it’s a training program,” Lightning suggested, “Doesn’t have to be a negative thing.”

“Fair point,” Duskfall conceded.

“Duskfall, how do you rate your leadership?” Celestia asked.

“I’m a terrible leader. I mostly prefer solo action or being a follower,” Duskfall answered honestly. Too many centuries cooped up in her own head and playing sex doll for others use.

“And you, Lightning Dust?” Celestia inquired.

“In my home world I was Captain of the Shadowbolts, so I’d like to think I have some leadership skills,” Lightning boasted.

“Wait, Shadowbolts?” Trust Rainbow to pick up on that sort of thing.

“Due to some unfortunate events, in Lightning’s world, the Nightmare conquered Equestria. When we left the Nightmare, Luna, and Celestia were all recovering from being blasted by the Elements,” Duskfall explained.

“We can swap stories another time,” Celestia put a stop to going down that rabbit hole for the time being, even if she was very much curious as to why this other version of her needed to have the Elements used on her, “How about your combat prowess?”

“I’ve trained for all my life in most martial arts and have studied the art of war,” Lightning replied readily.

“I’m not particularly versed in combat magic. I want to say I can probably aoe sleep spell a bunch of ponies, but given we’re dealing with mind control, I can’t say that with confidence. Actually, most of my actual strength lies in Darkness and Insanity and neither are particularly safe to mix with mind control, given I’ve only had these powers for three weeks. So if I have to rely solely on magic and what little martial arts I know, I can probably take out 50 or so ponies before I wear myself out,” Duskfall said apologetically.

“But Twilight could take out a whole swarm o’ Changelings!” Applejack said in surprise.

“A huge chunk of my magical strength was converted to Darkness and Insanity. Twilight, even before becoming an Alicorn of Magic, was still connected to the Element of Magic. True, if this were immediately after I was born, I would still be comparable in magical strength to Twilight, but it isn’t so I’m not,” Duskfall explained.

“Alicorn of Magic?!” Most of the room shouted. Celestia was predictably stone faced. Duskfall was slightly sorry for the accidental spoiler, but it wouldn’t matter if this Twilight was dead.

“Yeah, she ascended using the Elements about three months or so after Sombra was defeated in my home world. She and Spike found the Crystal Heart pretty much right away and none of this war stuff happened. Oh, before I forget, I do have one pretty big tactical advantage when it comes to a fight: I’m immortal. Not the kind you’re thinking of, Celestia! I mean the kind where I can die and come back to life. So if you have any suicide missions you need done, I’m your mare,” Duskfall saw no harm in telling them this. It’d save on any ‘it’s too dangerous’ arguments in the future.

“You never mentioned this to me,” Lighting Dust commented.

“Before or after the whole 5 hours we spent in the same room after I secured your loyalty?” Duskfall replied dryly.

“So when you say die and come back..?” Rainbow trailed off.

“I mean my body can regenerate from anything. Slice my head off, slice me open like a sardine, dump me in a volcano, I’ll just reform sooner or later. Depending on the method of death, it’s usually about an hour or so, but for more devastating deaths, like complete incineration, it’ll be four or five hours,” Duskfall explained, trying to sound as clinical as possible and not give away the fact that dying was still a huge turn on for her, even after all these years.

“That is both disturbing and remarkably convenient,” Celestia said candidly. Duskfall did her best to ignore Lightning drilling holes into the back of her head with a stare. Duskfall wasn’t going to be able to wriggle out of a long conversation with Dust later.

“Well, considering all that, I believe we can begin reconstructing our plans,” Celestia announced and everyone gathered around the table. The conflict with the Crystal Empire was going to start anew and hopefully the end was close at hand.

Author's Notes:

Alright, we're gearing up for the fight against Sombra!