Lightning returned to the small, dank, stone cave she, her Lady, and Starlight had been staying in for the last week while Duskfall recovered her strength. It was barely more than a hole in the side of a hill, but it served to protect them from the elements and the single time Tirek had come stomping around the area. Lightning had needed to use every ounce of sway she had with her Lady to keep Duskfall from trying to fight Tirek before she was back to 100%.

Because Duskfall needed to recover and Starlight had been all but comatose since Duskfall had burnt the last of her energy to terrorize her, it fell to Lightning to go out and be a good hunter/gatherer. Honestly Lightning had been nervous about leaving Duskfall and Starlight alone, worried she’d come back to find Duskfall dancing on Starlight’s corpse. For now it seemed Duskfall was content to ignore Starlight’s existence completely until the Unicorn snapped out of the funk Duskfall had put her in.

“How are you feeling, Lady Duskfall?” Lightning asked, placing some wood she had found onto the small fire they had going in the middle of the cave before fanning it with her wing to help the wood catch fire faster.

“I should be back to full strength tomorrow. Then I can kill Tirek and we can get out of here. Hopefully this is our last stop before heading home,” Duskfall sighed. To Lightning’s eyes, Duskfall looked defeated. Her wings drooped listlessly at her sides, eye lids at half mast, ears not quite fully perked, and a small list of other tells in her body language.

“Are you sure, m’lady? We can continue resting if you need it,” Lightning offered, a note of pleading in her voice. Her wings fluffed at her sides as though trying to express their owner’s inner desire to hug the Alicorn.

“Lightning, did I do the right thing?” Duskfall asked. Lightning had expected this question a few days ago and couldn’t help but wonder why her Lady had delayed so long in asking. Lightning sat down, one ear bent to the side as she thought about her answer.

“How do you normally handle traitors in your Equestria?” Lightning inquired, pretending to tend to the fire so she didn’t have to look Duskfall in the eyes.

“We don’t get many, but when it does happen it’s usually banishment. There have been times when the traitor has been executed, though,” Duskfall admitted, ears drooping lower. She knew what Lightning’s follow up question would be so answered it before the Pegasus could ask, “In a case like Starlight’s…before this whole multiverse mess, she would’ve probably been banished. Now, with a body count to her name? 7 confirmed kills and 15 suspected…she’d be deemed too dangerous to banish. She might get sent to Tartarus, I suppose, but given she actively assaulted royalty and national heroes the public outcry if her crimes came to light would almost assuredly see her receive the death penalty.”

“Under your power as Princess, would what you did to Starlight be seen as punishment for her crimes?” Lightning asked, both ears turned towards Duskfall as she continued to stare into the fire.

“As the princess who was attacked, I would have final say in her fate and depending on her behavior after she recovers, I’ll probably just sentence her to community service around Ponyville or something,” Duskfall shrugged, her wings fanning out as she stretched them.

“Then I don’t see the issue. If her other likely option was death, then I think you were possibly merciful, given what she’s done to you and everyone else she used that Cutie Mark removing magic on,” Lightning opined before taking three recently caught fish and spearing them with a stick she then placed over the fire to cook.

“Depends on your point of view, I suppose. On one hand, death releases you from your suffering and responsibilities on this mortal plane. At the same time, I personally believe that if I were to kill Starlight now, her Soul would end up in a Very Bad Place. So is it more merciful to let her live and suffer through what I’ve done to her while also giving her some small chance to become a better person? Or is it more merciful to release her from this suffering and gamble on if she goes to Hell or not?” Duskfall tucked in her wings and rolled on her side listlessly, looking at Lightning for answers she didn’t have.

“I don’t know the answer to that, Lady Duskfall. I think only time will decide if your actions were for the best or not. Speaking as someone who used to believe in my own absolute moral superiority, it’s good you can question your own actions. Maybe I’m being naïve, given I don’t know exactly what kind of memories you forced on Starlight, but given they went into making you the Alicorn of Insanity, I’m sure I don’t want to know,” Lightning said as she continued to monitor the fish, sneaking glances at Duskfall while doing so.

“I gave her everything, Lightning; from the moment of my birth to the very second we began trading memoires. I reinforced her mind to be able to handle it as I wanted to make a point and not leave her a drooling husk, but every iota of pain, of misery, of suffering, of masochistic glee; it’s all there in her mind now and will be forevermore. She violated my very Soul, so I violated her Mind in return,” Duskfall looked like she was on the verge of crying. They weren’t tears of sorrow, but anger. Where that anger was directed at, Lightning wasn’t sure, but given the Alicorn was glaring at Starlight, it wasn’t hard to hazard a guess.

“As far as I’m concerned, she got a taste of her own medicine. She violated all the Element Bearers at the very least, if you ignore the townsfolk as ‘consensual’. I don’t know, as a sadistic bitch, I don’t think I have much room to talk about morality. I just think those who like to say ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind’ are just turning their own eyes from the fact that for some things people absolutely do need retribution. Call it justice or vengeance or whatever, but all I know is that if you hadn’t tried to give me a taste of my own medicine, I would still be harassing maids into sleeping with me and being an all around shit person,” Lightning remarked as she judged the fish to be ready. She took one over to the Unicorn in question, who quietly took it in her magic and started eating, still acting as if the world around her only existed as a mere suggestion. Eyes deadened, ears drooped lifelessly to either side, shoulders slumped, and propping her lying form up against one of the cave walls as if keeping herself upright was too much effort to do on her own.

Once the trio finished eating, they sat in silent vigil as the fire burnt down to embers before drifting off to sleep.

Either she had had a great night of sleep or her conversation with Lightning had lifted a weight from her mind, because as Duskfall awoke, she felt pretty good. She was certainly good enough to end the life of a certain demonic centaur. A growl from her stomach suggested she eat breakfast first. As an Alicorn, she was perfectly capable of letting herself starve to death and simply reviving, but there was no sense giving herself a handicap like the distraction of hunger.

Duskfall stretched out her entire body and was about to go find breakfast when she noticed Lightning staring quietly at her, still laying on the stone floor of the cave.

“Morning, Lightning,” Duskfall greeted as she continued stretching, making sure her wings were fully functional.

“Good morning, Lady Duskfall,” Lightning returned, standing up herself and moving her neck to try and get a crick out of it that had developed in the night, “How are you feeling, m’lady?”

“I’m actually feeling pretty jazzed. I’m gonna eat and then go hunt down Tirek. If you want to come watch, I recommend you do it from a distance. I don’t know how messy the fight is gonna get,” Duskfall shrugged, walking over to the small cache of food Lightning had managed to gather and picking out some nuts and berries to eat.

“I want to come,” A voice weak from disuse spoke up. Duskfall and Lightning snapped their attention to Starlight. She still looked like a miserable ruin of a pony, but for the first time in a week, Lightning saw some small measure of life in her eyes. Lightning cast a subtle glance at Duskfall to see if another bout of Insanity was oncoming. It was with some measure of relief that Lightning saw only cool indifference on Duskfall’s face.

“And why would you want that?” Duskfall asked, forcing her voice to remain even and her body language closed off. She had already meted out Starlight’s punishment. Whether she received more was entirely up to the Unicorn.

Starlight recoiled at being directly addressed by Duskfall. Eyes closed tightly and ears pinned back as if afraid of being struck. Lightning almost felt sorry for the mare, but no matter what misgivings her Lady might have, Lightning was sure Starlight had brought everything that had happened upon herself.

“I…Tirek…you…” Starlight tried to force out the words. They were raspy and drier than crisp autumn leaves. Starlight looked every bit terrified that Duskfall might punish her for wasting time, but Duskfall remained impassive as she waited for Starlight to spit out whatever she was trying to say.

“Tirek…made you. I want to see…you unmake him…” Starlight finally managed to explain, her whole body trembling with the effort to say those two sentences.

“You want to see the one responsible for the creation of your worst enemy suffer, is that it?” Duskfall asked shrewdly, an eyebrow arched, “I didn’t think I damaged your brain, but maybe I was wrong.”

Starlight didn’t say anything, either to defend herself or to confirm Duskfall’s assessment. She just silently stared at the ground. Duskfall stared intensely at Starlight for about thirty more seconds before letting out a long, slow sigh. Duskfall turned to Lightning, something unreadable in her eyes.

“Keep the troublemaker safe. If she tries anything, do whatever you feel is necessary,” Duskfall instructed and at Lightning’s brisk nod, the trio left the cave in hunt of Tirek. Fortunately, it wasn’t difficult to find a mountain sized centaur that had set up shop in what had been Ponyville. Lightning and Starlight set up shop on the edge of the forest while Duskfall almost too eagerly flew on to confront Tirek.

“TIREK!” Duskfall bellowed as she approached. Maybe it was foolish of her, but she wanted him to get a good look at the one who was about to kill him. Tirek turned to the source of the voice and his mouth dropped open in shock.

“Impossible! I killed you myself, wiped the blood from my own hands!” Tirek protested. Duskfall landed, the ground around her becoming corrupted as her fury fueled her Insanity and Darkness. A bubbling sickness turned dirt into black sludge, grass mutating into miniature tentacles, but Tirek didn’t notice this as his attentions were squarely on the purple Alicorn.

“Correction, you killed Twilight Sparkle. I am Duskfall Sparkle. I am your executioner,” Duskfall’s voice was frosty but her hate filled glare was aflame. Her wings were fully flared, arcs of Dark electricity skittering over her feathers, begging to be released.

“Ha! No matter, I’ll simply drain you of your Magic like all the others before killing you as well!” Tirek opened his maw, trying to feed on the magic of this stray Alicorn. Yet nothing happened, “WHAT?!”

“Oh, I made sure to make myself immune to that little trick a long time ago. Although, I do admit to some curiosity as to whether you’d even be able to drain my Darkness and Insanity, as neither of them is Magic fueled by those things, unlike Discord’s Chaos Magic,” Duskfall very much enjoyed the look on Tirek’s face, the mix of surprise and incomprehension.

“All power in this world is Magic! I have the power of all of Equestria, including its Alicorns! I will simply crush you with it and take your Magic from your corpse!” Tirek roared as he tried to do just that, Magic gathering between his horns and then being unleashed upon Duskfall. Duskfall watched the oncoming attack with no more care than one would watch an oncoming housefly. Thanks to the interaction her Wild Darkness had had with the Chaos Magic of that Discord from Lightning’s home dimension, Duskfall had since discovered Wild Darkness could do some interesting things with Magic in general.

A swirling vortex of Wild Darkness appeared between Duskfall and the blast. When the Magic hit the Wild Darkness, it was consumed and unmade. Over the course of her experiments to erase Sombra’s Dark Magic, Duskfall had discovered that while Magic could affect Darkness, it was only if the Darkness allowed it to do so. Just as she had told that Discord, Darkness was the Primordial Power and no other could directly challenge it alone, save perhaps Void. Tirek just stood in silent horror as his blast amounted to nothing. Sure, it took a lot more of Duskfall’s Darkness to pull off the stunt than she would be willing to admit, but Tirek didn’t have to know that.

“You’re a one trick pony, Tirek, and unfortunately for you, I’ve got your perfect counter. So go on, pour every last thaum of Magic you possess into your next attack. It won’t matter. Today is your day of reckoning. So kindly stand there and D_iE YOu ^BAstARd!” Duskfall screamed the last three words and power pulsed out of her. The whole of what used to be Ponyville became twisted with Duskfall’s Darkness and Insanity. A gray fog enveloped what was left of the town, cutting it off from the outside Reality. Where Starlight had simply been treated to the world fading out around her, Tirek would suffer much worse.

Lightning and Starlight watched as things their minds refused to register the appearance of approached Tirek. Lightning could only assume Duskfall was shielding them from the true horror of what she was unleashing on Tirek. Whatever they looked like, they must have been truly disturbing, because Tirek tried to flee from the abominations immediately, screaming and sobbing in pure terror induced hysteria from a single look.

Tirek’s attempts to run amounted to nothing. Whatever Duskfall had done, Tirek went charging off into the fog, only to reemerge coming in the opposite direction and running straight into the terrors Duskfall had created. Duskfall watched as her creations drove Tirek to madness, an impossibly wide, sadistic grin on her face. She alone could grasp the true nature of the things without suffering for it, after all, she was already Insane.

It didn’t take long for Tirek’s sanity to crumble like a sandcastle. Duskfall was content to stand there for a little while, reveling in the newfound madness and the fact she had created it. The sound of his lunatic ramblings and laughter was music to her ears. The only thing that could’ve made it better was if somehow he started speaking in profane tongues, but Duskfall supposed she couldn’t have everything.

Still, Duskfall had a job to do. She dismissed the abominations and restored Ponyville to the world around it. She slowly walked up to Tirek, who had collapsed on the ground in a heap, staring off into nothing, a shell of his former self. Now the only question was how to go about killing him. As much as Duskfall wished she could perform some over-the-top Mortal Kombat style fatality, the Alicorn had pretty much blown her load already. A simple beheading would have to suffice. With a simple horizontal slash with her horn at the right angle creating a thin blade of Darkness to decapitate Tirek. A moment later and his boulder sized head crashed to the ground.

With his death, the Magic he was holding hostage was free to return to the proper owners. Duskfall had to force herself not to cry when she felt seven familiar signatures fizzle out into nothingness. She wouldn’t grieve for her fallen friends and dead Twilights until she was home. No sense mourning if there would just be more death around the next corner.

“Lady Duskfall, are you OK?” Lightning asked as she and Starlight approached. Duskfall turned to greet Lightning after making sure her mouth had returned to normal pony proportions. She carefully tucked her wings away before answering.

“I’m better than I could be, worse than I should be. Revenge felt good, but now I’m tired. I’m tempted to just crawl back to our cave and wait for whatever power to take us away. Yet I feel a burning need to yell at Celestia. Decisions, decisions…” Duskfall sat and put a hoof up to her chin as she pretended to think about what to do next.

“No need to be coy, Lady Duskfall, we all know you can teleport us to Canterlot to express your displeasure with little effort,” Lightning remarked. Duskfall pouted at her companion. How strangely easy it was for Lightning to divorce the ‘incarnation of Insanity’ Duskfall from the ‘cute and cheeky’ Duskfall.

While Duskfall was pouting at Lightning, she spared a glance to Starlight. The Unicorn seemed to be deep in thought, her ears absolutely still. The only tell that Starlight hadn’t slipped back into her semi-comatose state was the way she was staring at Duskfall. The Unicorn was staring at her like one would stare at a particularly complex puzzle that had only just started to make sense.

Duskfall was content to ignore whatever was going on in Starlight’s head in favor of teleporting them to Canterlot. The trio appeared directly in the throne room and sure enough it looked as though Celestia, Luna, and Cadence had just been disgorged from Tartarus. The three Alicorns were brushing themselves off of the filth Tartarus had left them with to try and be presentable before the public saw them when they turned to the sound of Duskfall’s teleport.

“Twilight!” The three called out happily. This joy quickly died when their eyes met Duskfall’s icy glare.

“Twilight, what’s wrong?” Luna asked with concern, standing up to try and approach Duskfall.

“You stupid bints,” Duskfall snarled with teeth bared, her eyes narrowed dangerously, ears pinned back, and her wings threatening to unfurl. Luna backed up in surprise, “You go on and on about ‘the Magic of Friendship’ but when the chips are down, you dump all your problems on Twilight. Well guess what? It finally came back to bite you in the ass! Congratulations, you dumped all your Magic into a 23 year old Alicorn who had yet to even come into her own power, let alone the ability to handle all of it and expected her to beat Tirek! Oh my God, I know it was Celestia’s idea, but you two dumb cunts went along with it! So, good job, Twilight’s dead and so are the rest of the Element Bearers, Spike, and Discord. I hope you’re all proud of yourselves.”

“But-” Cadence tried to speak up, but Duskfall interrupted her by turning her body to present her Cutie Mark.

“Name’s Duskfall. I’m not Twilight, I’m just the thrice damned cleanup crew. Fuck, why is it every Celestia I meet is either incompetent or evil? I just wanna go back home. My Celestia’s an idiot too, but at least she’s trying to work on it! Even if my Twilight died for this exact same fuck up! At least in my home dimension there was some rhyme and reason for trusting Discord, he didn’t betray us like yours probably did, and she technically had help with all that power, not that it meant much in the end!” Duskfall was working up a fine head of steam and all three Alicorns were wilting under her verbal assault.

“Are Twilight and her friends really…dead?” Celestia whispered in horror.

“Oh yes, it seems to be quite a common theme in the multiverse for Twilight to end up dead or screwed over because of the various versions of you, Celestia. Just the dimensions I’ve seen we have 3 dead Twilights, one corrupted by Dark Magic, and one made into the Nightmare’s sex slave,” Luna’s face became a mask of disgust as Duskfall mentioned that particular Twilight’s fate, “I can’t stand to look at you three anymore. Good luck with your next world ending threat, because with any luck I won’t be having an encore performance.”

Making a point to turn her back on the shocked and dismayed Alicorns, Duskfall teleported her group back to the cave they were staying in and promptly curled up to sleep. When next she opened her eyes, all around her was a barren wasteland.

Author's Notes:

I thought I was only going to use the Insanity Voice one more time in Shattered Souls but then my brain hit me over the head and told me having Duskfall not use it at all on Tirek was really quite dumb.

Is Duskfall being uncharitable to Sunbutt, Moonbutt, and Heartbutt? Yes. But she's also so far past done with these Multiverse adventures that she doesn't particularly care either.

Good thing for her that next chapter should be the end of the Multiverse adventures and then we return to our regularly scheduled Equestrian shenanigans.

In the final bit of news for this Author's note, I seem to have developed some sort of mental block with Lightning's name. In this chapter alone I had 9 instances of calling her Lighting instead of Lightning. That God for the ctrl h function.