After the changelings' failed invasion of Canterlot, Twilight tries to soothe some of Ponyville's rampant paranoia by casting a spell to prove there are no imposters hiding in the town. But her spell leaves her in an alien body, facing a mob of angry ponies who just don't believe her when she says she is Twilight Sparkle.

Or, at least, she was Twilight Sparkle, anyway...

Featured on Equestria Daily, 2/17/13
Cover art is by the awesome and amazing Conicer

When facing Twilight Sparkle, Nightmare Moon was given a choice: redemption or revenge. What if she had chosen the latter? A grim fate awaits Equestria, but in a time of greater strife and conflict, Discord's return is accelerated. While he expected to bring chaos, he did not anticipate that he would end the Longest Night and bring hope and joy back to the land.

Discord struggles to reconcile his nature with his desire for admiration. While Twilight's friends strive to carve a new life in the ever-shifting Equestria, she searches for Celestia, the only one who can bring harmony back to her lands. But Nightmare Moon also seeks her sister in a desperate attempt to find her place in the world. New dangers lurk in the wild and more threaten to fall over Equestria. Nightmare Moon's decision broke the balance of the world. Will Equestria ever turn to peace, or will the spiral of chaos and destruction be the end of everything?

(An alternate history, this story takes the universe established by the canon and explores one possible outcome if Princess Luna had not been redeemed.)

Comments contain huge spoilers. Walk softly.

Special thanks to my pre-readers, MmmandarinOrange and DarkmatterButterflies for keeping my head on, taking the journey of the story, and making it so much better than it would have been if I wrote it alone.

Rock's as solid a unicorn can be without being an earth pony. Then most of a life time growing up in a mine is going to leave a whole bunch of rough edges. Still Rock's always figured that it was pretty good preparation for when the sun went down for the last time ever over a year ago.

Now though she's stuck in a whole other Equestria and there's another unicorn that looks just like her that also lives in Ponyville. Just she's still calling herself Rarity and is far too prissy for her own good.

Soon she's going to meet other ponies in the same predicament, linked in ways they don't yet understand and try to find a way home to the Equestria that they know.

Course first off she's going to have to work out how to get along with herself...

***

Courtesy of an awesome brony Random Elements now has a tropes page : http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/StrykesRandomElements.

This fic was completed in the week between One Bad Apple and Magic Duel, so consider anything before that as having happened for purposes of this fic and everything after as not happening yet, or at all.

Original chapter publish dates:
Chapter 1 - 24th July
Chapter 2 - 29th July
Chapter 3 - 2nd August
Chapter 4 - 8th August
Chapter 5 - 12th August
Chapter 6 - 30th August
Chapter 7 - 1st September
Chapter 8 - 5th September
Chapter 9 - 9th October
Chapter 10 - 5th November
Chapter 11 - 28th November
Epilogue - 28th November