The moment that tea touched her lips, Twilight felt more relaxed than she'd felt all day. Between her lecture earlier and the massive and dangerous trip she and Spike had just been through, she was exhausted. Her friends, all sitting around the cutie map, looked to her and Spike with interest. She knew they had questions, and a lot of them most likely. But right now, she was simply grateful that they were giving her time to just sit back and relax for a bit. Spike too was enjoying his cup, and after taking a massive swig of it, far more than Twilight had taken, he reclined into his chair and sighed with contentment. "Ah! Now that's the stuff!"
Applejack chuckled. "After what y'all have jus' been through, ah don' doubt it."
Rainbow, after glancing around to make sure nopony else was listening in, leaned in closer and brought her voice down low. "So, how's you-know-who settling in?"
Twilight, putting her cup down, set her gaze on one of the doors leading out of the chamber. "She's doing alright. I mean, a place this big is going to take some time to get used to. I know I did. But I think she'll do okay here."
Spike looked to her with a smirk. "And if she doesn't, then hey, the six of you could probably deal with her." Seeing the frown Twilight gave him, he backed up slightly. "Right, right, she's a friend now. Got it."
Shaking her head slightly, Twilight took a moment to glance around the room. "It's good to be back here. I know I had a hard time adjusting to this place, but after seeing world after world without it..." She smiled. "I guess the old saying is right on the money. Absence does make the heart grow fonder."
Her words piqued the interest of all of her friends, many of whom looked to one another as if daring each other to speak up first. After a while, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Pinkie who blurted out the obvious first question. "So...you saw a whole bunch of different Equestrias? With different, well, us?"
Putting her cup aside for a few seconds, Twilight nodded solemnly. "I did, and believe me, it was no easy thing seeing our world in those states. Torn by war or chaos or all those other calamities. I'll be having nightmares about those scenarios for a good long while, make no mistake."
Rarity shuddered in her seat. "To think, all of those other, terrible ways our lives could have gone had just a few things been different."
Fluttershy leaned in towards her fashionista friend. "Um, those changes were all our biggest enemies winning, so it's not exactly small changes, Rarity." She cleared her throat. "Um, if you don't mind me saying so."
Applejack frowned. "Ah hate ta think o' it. All those nasty varmints winnin'. We all feared what mighta happened if we'd never beat em, but..." She turned to look at Twilight. "You actually saw what would happen. Was it as bad as ah imagine?"
Twilight grimaced. "Honestly? Probably even worse than you're imagining."
A dry chuckle escaped Rainbow. "Gee, way to make us feel comfortable about it," she remarked sarcastically.
Applejack cast her pegasus friend a glance before again looking to Twilight. "So...any futures in particular that caught yer attention?"
Twilight smiled nervously. "Well, since you're asking...there was one where the Flim-Flam brothers were in charge and, well, let's just say they weren't the most caring landlords."
If there was a deep-rooted fear in Applejack, Twilight had just unearthed it, as shown by the way she now held herself. "Right...ferget ah asked."
Having finished off her own tea, Rarity again looked to Twilight with renewed curiosity. "So...I imagine all of our foes had a moment of victory in this interdimensional road-trip you went on?"
Twilight stared down into her cup. "Yes, all of them. Tirek was rampaging across the land with stolen magic. Discord was being a never-ending headache for Celestia and Luna. Sombra had torn our land in half through endless war. Chrysalis had driven our people into hiding. Every possible bad version of events you could think of had played out. And all of it culminated in a version of reality where...where..." She struggled to get her next words out, but eventually worked up the nerve to do so. "Where all life was gone. Not even a single leaf on a tree or blade of grass could be seen in that final world. What caused it I don't know, and to be frank I'm not all that keen to find out."
Pinkie, in a rather uncharacteristic move for her, seemed more than a little unhappy. "Wow...I'm usually pretty keen to go with you on all your adventures, but that's one adventure I'm glad I wasn't there for."
In contrast to her, Twilight actually smiled. "Don't worry, Pinkie. Thanks to me and Spike getting Starlight to stand down, you'll never have to deal with any of that horror."
Pinkie wiped her brow with clear relief. "Phew! Good to know!" she responded with a wink.
Twilight giggled slightly, but before she had the chance to continue with her drink, she was stopped from doing so by the sudden raising of a hoof from Fluttershy, who mused on her words for a while before finally speaking. "Twilight? What...what about Nightmare Moon?"
Rainbow looked over to her childhood friend, gaining a look of realisation. "Oh yeah! I'd almost forgotten about her!" She looked back to Twilight. "So what's the sitch? How'd Equestria look with our first baddie?" She grinned. "I'm dying to know what our numero uno enemy had in store for us!"
Twilight looked up to the ceiling, to the remains of the Golden Oak that now adorned her palace. The very first place where she and her friends had discussed that very enemy. "Yes, we did see a world where she ruled. And as you can imagine, it was one of eternal night, just as she always promised."
Rarity tapped her chin a few times before adding her voice to the matter. "I take it she was causing havoc for us like all our other ne'er-do-wells?"
Twilight paused here, thinking on how to respond before, of all things, actually looking somewhat sheepish as she answered. "Actually, Rarity, you were working for her."
Naturally, this caught Rarity, and everypony else for that matter, off guard. "I beg your pardon, darling?"
"I'm serious. You were part of her castle staff. In fact you were in the middle of decorations when me and Spike got there," Twilight elaborated.
Pinkie gasped as she too looked to Rarity. "Rarity! How could you!"
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Relax, Pinkie. That was the other Rarity. Not ours."
Blinking a few times, Pinkie's smile soon returned. "Oh...okey-doki then," she added gleefully.
Ignoring her, Rainbow patted her chest briefly. "What about me? Was I out there fighting the good fight against her or something?"
Another head shake from Twilight. "N...no. You were a part of her personal guard. And a pretty devoted one too if I recall."
Rainbow's expression soon turned into a combination of disappointment and confusion. "So...I wasn't some awesome rebel leader fighting back against the cruel oppressor?" Seeing Twilight look to her stoically before shaking her head again, she pounded the table. "Rats! There goes my power fantasy!"
Twilight was momentarily amused by that, but soon looked down to Spike, who finally decided to get involved in the conversation. "We only saw those two while we were in that world, but if somepony like Rainbow was willing to work with her, I'm betting the others would have done too."
After a quiet few seconds of considering that, Twilight nodded in agreement. "You're right." She stared out at nothing in particular after acknowledging that point. "In all other realities, you were either victims of our enemies or actively fighting against them in some way. Nightmare Moon, out of all of them, was the only one who had ponies like you serving her. And without resorting to magical enslavement like Sombra did."
Fluttershy was, as any would expect, more than a little concerned by that notion. "But...why would we do that? Nightmare Moon was Equestria's enemy! She came back to the world wanting to usurp Celestia and bring eternal night! What pony in their right mind would just go along with that?!"
It was a valid question, and one that, at least initially, Twilight had no earthly clue how to answer. Nightmare Moon was their enemy, and one that had haunted childhood stories for centuries. Every pony from here to their furthest reaches had been raised on how terrible a figure she was, and even though Luna had emerged into the public knowledge and been welcomed as a benevolent figure, the name of Nightmare Moon still sent shivers down many a spine. But then, in the silence of her quiet contemplation, a spark of an idea burst. One that she dismissed as ridiculous when it first popped up. But as more and more alternatives were being weeded out, it remained the only one she'd come back to. So, after bracing herself for what was certain to be an immediate backlash, she finally gave her preposterous idea its moment. "Well...maybe...she wasn't a bad ruler?"
Just as she'd feared they all looked to her as if she were mad, with Applejack especially choosing to voice their shared confusion. "Um...beg yer pardon?"
Twilight sighed. "Look, I know this sounds crazy. But out of all the bad realities we went to, and there were a lot...the one Nightmare Moon ruled was the only one where Equestria wasn't in some kind of catastrophe or disarray."
Spike folded his arms and reclined into his chair, nodding slowly. "Yeah...yeah! I didn't have time to think about it back when we were there, but that was weird, right? Like, you expect parallel worlds ruled by villains to be all destruction and oppression. But that place? No, things were quiet." He frowned. "Nightmare Moon herself was pretty rough with me, I gotta say, but the other ponies? Not so much. In fact, the only thing we can say about it was that the ponies just didn't come off as being as friendly as over here." He shrugged. "But, to be fair, we were a pair of strangers who'd just barged into their leader's castle and started talking like a bunch of crazy people about alternate worlds and stuff."
Rainbow pointed to them. "But that was just the stuff you saw! Who knows what else was going on in Equestria with Nightmare Moon ruling over it! Maybe whole towns were in chains like what Sombra would have done? Or maybe some were in hiding because they refused to bow down to her or something?"
Spike gestured to her. "Rainbow, no offense, but you're the most in-your-face mare I know. So if you wouldn't fight her, what chance is there anypony else would?"
Rainbow didn't have an answer, and it didn't seem like anypony else did either. In fact, every single one of them looked utterly stumped at the direction the conversation had taken. The knowledge that, had one of these enemies they'd fought so hard against achieve victory, might not result in the total apocalypse they'd always assumed, it was a definite shaker to what had to have been deeply-held beliefs. Twilight especially was pondering her own stance on the matter, and when she spoke it was with a definite seriousness. "We may never known the full picture. Like Rainbow said, all we can do is say what we saw." Her frown deepened. "The fact that she imprisoned Celestia in the moon, just as she had been, is enough for me to be glad that future never happened." A deep exhale from her. "Perhaps it might not have been the dark age we feared. Or perhaps it was. Maybe we'll go our whole lives asking this question we'll never get an answer to. All I know..." Slowly, she smiled. "All I know is that I'm happy our timeline is what it should be."
The others all joined her in that smile, nodding in agreement, as did Spike, who now shared a look with Twilight as her sole companion on that difficult time journey. But then, before a single word was uttered by anypony else, they were given cause to turn towards one of the doors, seeing the nervous face of Starlight Glimmer enter. "Just to let you know, I finished sorting out my room." After seeing their less-than-happy expressions, her ears drooped slightly. "Er...sorry, am I interrupting something?"
Thinking on that, Twilight simply used her magic to levitate a new cup of tea towards her, silently inviting her to join them. "Let's just say...you've given us a lot to talk about."
Author's Note
Ever since the end of season five, there has been talk after talk about all the various alternate futures that were presented to us. And as someone who regards Nightmare Moon as the best of FiM's villains, it's always intrigued me to hear that there were those who saw her rule as actually looking better than that of Celestia's. I've been back and forth on the argument myself over the years, and it's unlikely that anything discussed here will be unfamiliar to those reading. But still it was neat to write about 
