“Yo, Lady Duskfall, wake up,” Duskfall cracked open an eye at the sound of Lightning’s voice.

“Oh goodie, I was right, no portal required,” Duskfall grumbled around a yawn.

“I’ve secured Starlight as best I could, but her inhibitor ring didn’t come with us,” Lightning reported, pointing at the rouge Unicorn.

“Then we better hope that either this is my home or Starlight doesn’t start building up an immunity to Sleeping Darkness,” Duskfall sighed.

“Is that possible?” Lightning asked.

“For a regular Unicorn, absolutely not, but it’s theoretically possible her Dark Magic will convert from fueling itself with Evil/Chaotic Darkness to Sleeping Darkness. So while that would be a lot healthier for Starlight overall, it’d also mean I can’t pull the force sleep trick on her anymore. Darkness is Darkness, after all, it just comes in different shades," Duskfall replied.

“Careful, Lady Duskfall, it almost sounds like you care about her,” Lightning teased.

“Hardly, but I don’t want to see her dead or anything either. I’m still pissed at her, but there’s only one person I can think of who gets all my hatred and I’ve already told him that if I ever see him again I’m killing him,” Lightning was curious as to who Duskfall was talking about, but decided to leave it alone for the moment.

“So…I still want to talk to you about your immortality, m’lady,” Lightning started hesitantly.

“We can talk while we walk. I don’t want to stay in the Everfree longer than needed while we have an invalid to worry about,” Duskfall picked up Starlight in her telekinetic grasp and started walking, Lightning close behind.

“So, how are you immortal to begin with?” Lightning asked.

“In my home dimension, Alicorns are more than just long lived ponies with the magic and where applicable, body parts, of the three tribes. When we become Alicorns, a fundamental part of our existence is altered. We become tied to something, draw power from it. Essentially we become goddesses, even if none of us have figured out how to tap into our full potential yet. But as for my immortality, as long as an Alicorn is tied to the source of their power, they can revive infinitely. For Celestia it’s the sun, for Twilight it was Magic, etc. For me, I bummed off Twilight’s connection to Magic for a long while until Darkness and Insanity took me in. Since Darkness is one of the primordial forces of creation, I never have to worry about going out of range or it being destroyed,” Duskfall explained.

“How does it feel to…die?” Lighting wondered hesitantly.

“I can’t answer that question in a way that won’t make you think I’m crazy,” Duskfall replied.

“Said the Alicorn of Insanity,” Lightning snickered.

“Fair,” Duskfall admitted, “Dying, for me, is something sexual. Not killing, mind you, dying myself is what gets me turned on. It’s not the only thing that turns me on, of course, but I’ve, ah, had more than one orgasm after killing myself.”

“Hang on, after killing yourself?” Lighting asked.

“Yeah, my consciousness sticks around for a little while after my body fully dies. It’s pretty wild to be over the edge of where you’d normally orgasm but physically can’t because you’re dead,” Duskfall said happily.

“I’ll, uh, take your word for it, Lady Duskfall,” Lightning was simultaneously disturbed and aroused. For someone who had been a sadist in the worst possible way, the idea of someone who could not only take as much punishment as she wanted to dish out but thank her for it later was very enticing. Lightning idly wondered if that was a healthy way of looking at it, but given she was potentially dating/friends with benefits/serving under Duskfall, the Alicorn of Insanity, maybe such concerns were irrelevant.

“You better just take my word for it, I can’t practice necromancy,” Duskfall quipped. The two continued walking, talking about nothing in particular with Starlight in tow. Eventually they came to the edge of the Everfree and what they saw shocked them.

“What happened to Ponyville?!” Duskfall cried. Indeed, the town was in ruins. It looked as if no one had lived there for months, if not years. Buildings were damaged or outright destroyed, plants already reclaiming the area.

“Looks like another alt-world,” Lightning commented.

“I hope so,” Duskfall said fervently.

“Do we head out to Canterlot and hope someone’s there?” Lightning asked.

“No need, look,” Duskfall pointed at Mt. Canterhorn. All that was left of Canterlot was a little bit of rubble sticking out the side of the mountain.

“So what do we do now?” Lightning wondered.

“Civilization seems to have crumbled, so we either wander around until we find some pockets of life or we can go set up base at the Castle of the Two Sisters and I can set up a magical flare for Celestia or Luna to find us, assuming they’re still alive,” Duskfall laid out the options she could think of.

“Might as well set up a home base so we can keep Starlight under control if worse comes to worse and she does wake up,” Lightning opined.

“Alright, so back into the Everfree we go,” It was mildly frustrating as they had passed closed to the Castle of the Two Sisters on the way out, but there was no reason to assume everything had gone to hell in a hand basket either.

Soon the two and their captive were once more walking through the Everfree. However, not far into the forest, Duskfall and Lightning noticed something was off.

“I count 6,” Duskfall noted.

“Yeah, 6 or 7,” Lightning agreed.

“We look like the villains with Starlight tied up, don’t we?” Duskfall asked.

“A little bit, m’lady,” Lightning agreed again. Duskfall sighed.

“You can come out now!” Duskfall called out. At her invitation, 6 ponies came out of the gloom of the forest with camouflage body paint and spears pointed at Lightning and Duskfall. One of these ponies was Fluttershy.

“Let the pony go, Changeling scum!” Fluttershy demanded.

“I mean, I can’t exactly refute that statement when I’ve got you next to me,” Duskfall ribbed Lightning.

“Lady Duskfall~” Lightning pouted, “I may be part Changeling and I may even be scum, but I’m not Changeling scum.”

“I said LET. HER. GO!” Fluttershy tried again, the ponies with spears advancing.

“She’s staying where I can keep an eye on her, thank you very much. This idiot has caused me enough headaches for one century,” Duskfall huffed.

“Then die,” Fluttershy said simply. The ponies tried to jab their spears into Duskfall and Lightning, but none of them were strong enough to thrust their spears when Duskfall was holding them telekinetically.

“You guys need to calm down. I’m not a Changeling, she’s only part Changeling, and this moron is a criminal with charges of attempted murder, Cutie Mark theft, and Cutie Mark destruction,” Duskfall informed them calmly.

“How the fuck does someone steal a Cutie Mark, let alone destroy one?!” One of the mooks asked.

“It’s a Changeling, of course she’s lying!” Another shouted.

“Why would I lie about something so utterly ridiculous to your understanding of the world?” Duskfall countered.

“And if we really were trying to deceive you, why would Lady Duskfall admit to my heritage?” Lightning continued. The grunts started to look at each other uncertainly.

“Further, if I were a Changeling bent on destroying you all, then why haven’t I done so already? I’m holding your spears in place and am holding a conversation with you as if I’m doing nothing more than standing here. I’m clearly capable of tossing you about like rag dolls if I so desired. That I haven’t should say something, at least,” Duskfall concluded.

“Unless you’re trying to gain our trust to find our stronghold,” Fluttershy responded suspiciously. By this point, Duskfall had a fairly good idea what had happened in this dimension. Chrysalis had succeeded at Shining and Cadence’s wedding. It also seemed this Chrysalis wasn’t as warm and cuddly as the one she knew.

“Fluttershy, if I wanted to do that, I could pluck the information from your mind,” Duskfall couldn’t really read minds. At least, not with any accuracy, but this Fluttershy didn’t know that.

“How do you know who I am?!” Fluttershy demanded to know. That was interesting. Did this Chrysalis not believe in information gathering? Why else would Fluttershy be surprised at what she thought was a Changeling agent knowing her name? It was also possible this apparent resistance was extremely incompetent and didn’t understand the concept of espionage.

“I know who you are because I’m an alternate reality version of Twilight Sparkle,” Duskfall again wasn’t being completely honest, but she needed an in.

“Prove it, tell me something only Twilight would know,” Fluttershy challenged.

“I feel the need to point out such a question is utterly pointless as I come from an alternate reality and there’s no telling what points of divergence there could be between our two worlds. Special moments I have shared with my Fluttershy could have absolutely no relevant counterpoint to your own experience,” Duskfall noted.

“Well, you certainly sound like a Twilight,” Fluttershy deadpanned. Duskfall almost made a joke about impersonations, but decided it might be counterproductive to joke about something like that to someone worried about Changelings.

“That would be because Lady Duskfall is one,” Lightning replied haughtily and Duskfall was grateful she was quick on the uptake.

“Duskfall?” Fluttershy questioned.

“I went through some emotional upheaval. I didn’t feel like I deserved to be called Twilight anymore,” Duskfall chose her words carefully.

“So if you’re from an alternate reality, how did you wind up here?” Fluttershy asked. From her body language, it looked like she was starting to come around.

“Did Discord happen in this dimension?” Duskfall asked and received a nod, “Well, long story short I let my temper get the better of me and wanted to crush Starlight here in a magical duel. The setting of this duel was Discord’s Chaos Dimension. Not my brightest move, in hindsight, but again, I was very angry with someone who had stolen and destroyed my Cutie Mark.”

“Er, ma’am, maybe we can talk about this somewhere where we might not be ambushed by Changelings?” One of the grunts suggested.

“I…suppose there’s little reason to believe you’re with Chrysalis at the moment,” Fluttershy conceded and Duskfall released the spears before following them all to their home base.

“So, what was the massive fuckup that let Chrysalis take over at the wedding?” Duskfall asked. Fluttershy ears went flat.

“No one believed our Twilight until it was too late. We later found her body along with Cadence’s in a cave system in Mt. Canterhorn,” Fluttershy replied sadly.

“And I’m guessing Changelings running around as Twilight is a common tactic to screw with your heads?” Lightning guessed.

“Yes, although none of them have been dumb enough to pretend to be an Alicorn Twilight,” Fluttershy quipped.

“Funny, Nightmare Moon said something similar when I met her two dimensions ago,” Duskfall observed.

“Which was my home dimension,” Lightning chimed in. Fluttershy looked like she wanted to say something, but was bowled over by Duskfall.

“So, do you have any idea where Chrysalis is so that I may begin raining hellfire down upon her?” Duskfall inquired as if asking after a sick relative.

“Uh…no? We don’t know where she is,” Fluttershy felt suddenly concerned.

“Don’t worry about Lady Duskfall. She doesn’t take kindly to anyone who hurts family, even interdimensional family,” Lightning tried to sooth Fluttershy’s worries. She didn’t quite succeed.

“That’s understating it a bit, don’t you think, Lightning? I did just kinda-” Lightning stuffed a hoof in Duskfall’s mouth.

“Time and place, Lady Duskfall,” Lightning chastised. Duskfall rolled her eyes but made no further struggle.

“You wouldn’t happen to have any Unicorn suppression rings about, would you?” Duskfall asked hopefully when Lightning removed her hoof.

“I’m afraid not,” Fluttershy said apologetically. Duskfall just let out a frustrated sigh.

“I might as well just wake her up and send her on her merry way to run into Chrysalis and somehow learn Changeling magic right now!” She grumbled.

“It isn’t…impossible that Starlight will remain asleep,” Lightning said hopefully.

“I’m insane, not stupid; I know full well Murphy’s Law is waiting right around the corner to ram it up my butt. Foresight is just the lube that makes it all feel not quite so bad,” As Duskfall complained Fluttershy turned more and more red.

“Dear Fluttershy, what is this I see? Have our number of survivors gone up by three?” Zecora asked as she stepped out of a hut.

“Hi, Zecora, and not really. We’re just here to squash a bug and hopefully be on our way home,” Duskfall answered.

“A fallen specter of the dead? Or maybe something else instead?” Zecora inquired.

“I’m from an alternate dimension and I seem to have been assigned fix-it duties. Although why they thought I was a good choice when I just got over being a complete mess myself is anyone’s guess,” Duskfall wasn’t interested in keeping more secrets than she had to.

“Well, if we are to receive an Alicorn shaped boon, then I say we most certainly have room,” Zecora welcomed.

“It may not be under the best circumstances, but I look forward to working with you,” Duskfall and Zecora shook hooves, cementing the alliance.

Author's Notes:

I am a dumb, dumb, dumb piece of trash. So I finally gave in and started watching RWBY. Then I made the even greater mistake of listening to the writer's commentary. I found the writing to be so aggressively bad (to use a polite word) that I couldn't stop myself from writing the first chapter of a fic rebuilding RWBY from the ground up.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13699286/1/Dimension-Travelers-RWBY

This is a rough draft and I'm thinking about making an overhaul to the narrative style, but this is what I punched out in the last 3 days. Any feedback is appreciated. The general idea is to take some of the scenes and throwaway lines of the first handful of episodes and see if I can't run with them all the way into a full plot. For example Ruby's obsession with weapons and building Crescent Rose + Ozpin's comment about Crescent Rose being one of the most dangerous weapons = Ruby is now a kind of Technopath who can upgrade weapons and tech beyond what Remnant thinks should be possible.

Beyond that, I hate writing for Zecora because I am utterly unable to rhyme. It took me longer than I care to admit to come up with her lines.