Twilight moaned as she regained consciousness. Her head was throbbing badly as if she had fell hard on it, and her horn stung. She must've used a little too much magic.

Wait. She used a little too much magic doing... what exactly?

Grunting, the princess slowly opened her eyes. It took a while for her to adjust to the darkness.

Darkness? Wasn't it supposed to be daytime?

Confused, Twilight forced her eyes all the way open and she slowly stood up, gritting her teeth as she endured the pain in her limbs. She had fallen hard.

She looked around, and it was indeed dark. But the stranger thing is that she wasn't indoors with no lights on, but outside. It was supposed to be daytime!

"What's going on?" the princess muttered. She began to walk, but almost immediately slipped on something slippery and fell to the ground with a plop. "Oof! What the?"

She couldn't see what she had landed in, so she tried using her hooves to feel what it was. It was slippery all right, but it also felt watery. There was a strange and familiar scent coming from the substance.

Gaining an idea, the alicorn tried casting a light spell so she could better see what the substance was, but pain immediately followed, and a single spark flew painfully from her horn. She let out a cry and rubbed her head, grinding her teeth to the unbearable agony drilling deep into her skull.

Okay, so she did end up using too much magic doing... something. She'd have to wait at least a few hours to let the magical energy in her horn recharge.

Giving up on trying to identify the strange substance she plopped in, Twilight spread out her wings and flapped them, descending herself into the air. She looked up and noticed many silhouettes in the distance floating in the air, as well as many clouds blanketing the sky and blocking out most of the moon's glow. Unless, of course, it's because of the clouds it's so dark and it still is daytime. That would explain that at least.

"What in Equestria is that?" Twilight asked herself, narrowing her eyes as she tried to study the floating silhouettes. She angled her flapping wings inwards and flew towards the unidentified objects. As she flew closer, she could almost clearly make out certain details that could identify the object: a few windows, a roof, and a door.

Gasping, she knew exactly what it was. It was a house! Floating in midair! How in Equestria could that be possible?

With a jolt she rolled her eyes and groaned. She knew exactly who was capable and devious enough to pull off a magic trick like this: Discord. That Draconequus must be having his so-called fun again...

Suddenly, everything drastically changed from darkness to brightness. Twilight yelped and shut her eyes, then opened them slowly again as they got used to the new lighting. Now she could clearly see everything.

Buildings were floating all over the place, and a storm of chocolate rain from the cotton candy clouds covered most of Ponyville. The substance she had slipped in before was soap.

"Discord..." Twilight grumbled, clearly unhappy with the mischievous creature of chaos' work. But something didn't sit right about this. He was clearly reformed - or at least as reformed as Discord could get - and he hardly cast any spells like these for the sake of not wanting to upset Fluttershy. But now he had turned Ponyville into the chaos capital of the world again? Isn't this going a bit too far? One thing's for sure, Fluttershy will not be happy about this.

Well, now she knew what was going on with Ponyville - more or less. Now to figure out why Twilight's magic was disabled...

"Maybe I'll have better luck looking in the library in the castle," Twilight decided. She flew towards her large treehouse castle, and she gasped when she saw it was completely beaten up and damaged. It no longer had that same majestic glow it used to have, and now it was dull, shattered, and rusty.

Disbelief bubbled into fury inside Twilight's stomach. Discord had taken things way too far with destroying a princess' castle!

"He'll get what's coming to him," the alicorn growled before flying inside the castle. She had a difficult time getting inside, though, for she wasn't used to opening doors with her hooves and not her magic.

She walked down the hallway, her hooves clacking into echoes on the marble flooring. Everything inside was completely destroyed, and the more of this the princess saw, the more furious she felt towards Discord. This was not what friends do, especially when they're just playing around! How dare he do this to her after all she's done for him?

When Twilight entered the throne room with the Cutie Map, her heard completely broke. There, laying shattered and dusty in the center of the throne room, lying in the rubble that was formerly the thrones and Cutie Map, was the roots to the Golden Oak Library and all the jewels sewed into it. All her friends' hard work had been destroyed, the old memories shattered like glass.

The corners of Twilight's eyes stung as tears began to squeeze its way through, and she slowly walked towards the remains of the roots. Once she reached it, she looked down and saw a single jewel still intact. She picked it up with her hoof, and what she saw in it made her blood run cold.

Instead of a picture of herself with all her friends, there was only herself sitting in the center of the picture, her head lowered in sorrow. Her body was gray, just like her corrupted self back when Discord was still a villain and had cast a corruption spell on her and her friends. Not a single one of her friends were in the picture, and she looked completely helpless and alone.

"This... This has to be some kind of sick joke..." Twilight whispered, trying her hardest to believe in her own words. Tears slid down her cheeks and her body trembled. "Or it's a nightmare. It has to be. This just can't be real."

Something suddenly caught the princess' eye. There was an open book laying under the rubble, and its covers were facing up. Wanting to distract herself from the pain she felt in her heart, she gripped the cover in her teeth and yanked the book out from under the stone and roots. She then flipped it over and read what was on the page.

"'Friends are nonexistent in this pitiful world, enemies as far as the eye can see. Read these words and escape the pain, have a new change of scenery.' What does that mean?" Twilight questioned. She reread the text, but she was still as complex. "Friends are nonexistent? But that makes no sense! Everypony in Ponyville are friends with one another!"

She decided to turn the page, and she found something else on the back of the page. She read it to herself. "'Friendship is found all over the land, it is such a wonderful gift. Read these words and appreciate your friends, for these new ones are divided in a rift.'"

Twilight gasped as it hit her. She remembered reading these exact words! Once she finished reading them, that's when everything went black. It all made sense now: the chaos, the shattered throne room, the text...

She had accidentally cast a spell that sent her into an alternate universe!

"Where am I?" the gray pony whimpered. She looked around, completely shocked and scared at all the bright colors of the world she was now in. It looked nothing like the world she was used to. No floating buildings, no storms of chocolate rain, no roads of soap.

What in the name of the chaos capital of the world was going on?

Author's Note

This chapter focuses on Twilight Sparkle. The next chapter focuses on Twilight Sorrow, the alternate version of Twilight. Every odd number of chapters focuses on Twilight Sparkle and every even number of chapters focuses on Twilight Sorrow.