One month had passed since Equestria logically should have turned on it's head, of course since the entire populace is just a pack of nutjobs, they didn't seem to mind the revelations about their royalty, or Discord, or half of the citizenship.
But unbeknownst to Equestria's citizens, a danger was looming over them, a danger that did not go unnoticed by it's leaders.
Something had to be done, and so our story begins at a meeting between Queen Embryous, formerly Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight Sparkle the Draconequus, and Starswirl the Bearded Alicorn.
<CANTERLOT CASTLE SECRET CHAMBER>
<23:17>
Two of the three most powerful beings in Equestria sat around the black stone table of the Secret Chamber, Twilight chose to float.
"I trust you know why I've asked you both here?" Starswirl the Alicorn intoned deeply in a speech-like pattern, while Embryous nodded, Twilight seemed unsure, so Starswirl continued, "It seems that the affects of my return, coupled with the revelations of Discord and you both revealing your secrets, and with half of all of Equestria's citizens being Changelings in disguise stacked on top, has begun to affect reality itself."
"But how is that even possible?" Twilight was both confused and concerned, "I mean, none of that has anything to do with reality on such a cosmic scale."
"If I may, Starswirl?" Embryous waited for the Alicorn's nod before explaining, "You see, Twilight, everypony in Equestria is crazy."
"Even I could have told you that," Twilight mumbled, "but what does that have to do with reality, and everything that's been going on recently?"
"What you must understand Twilight, is that any normal group of ponies would be out of their minds given recent revelations, but instead the people have decided to simply accept the new state of the world and move on."
"But isn't that a good thing?"
"Normally, it would be," Starswirl began gravely, his voice gravelly, clearing his throat, he continued, "however, their lack of a reaction when logic dictates that there should be one, is slowly but surely building up energy.
"If this, 'latent insanity energy' is allowed to keep building up, it can only result in destruction."
"The destruction of what?" despite herself, fear was creeping into Twilight's voice.
Suddenly, the walls and floors of the Secret Chamber seemed to disappear, replaced with a sea of stars.
"This universe." was Starswirl's simple reply.
"What?" Twilight's eyes were bugging out of her head at this new news.
"Well, maybe not," Starswirl quickly backpedaled, the floor and walls returning to normal, "but it'll at least blow away this region of space."
"Regardless," Embryous cut in, "that is how powerful this latent insanity energy really is."
"But isn't there anything we can do to stop it?" Twilight quickly put on her game face, it looked silly.
"There is one thing," Starswirl said gravely, not gravelly, "but you aren't gonna like it."
It's so... quiet.
In the blackness, a lone voice echoed through the void between death... and life.
It's more quiet than it's ever been, am I finally at peace?
This peace... it's not all it's cracked up to be. In the place of yesterday's noise, today's silence feels so empty.
And yet, this too is pleasant.
In the blackness, a single point of light appeared, it was also a point of hope for the lone being.
This sound, it's... Music?
This is it, the noise of the past, the sound of life!
In the blackness, only silence and emptiness filled the space.
Ponyville, supposedly a quiet village in or around the middle of Equestria, the reality of Ponyville however, was strange even by the standards of Equestria.
Calling it the Chaos Capitol of the World would be an understatement, being home to not only the royal Draconequus Twilight Sparkle and the other Elements of Harmony (Who include among their number Rainbow Dash, who can break the sound barrier while flying up, and Pinkie Pie.), it is also the nearest settlement to the Everfree Forest, home to automatic weather, living wooden wolves, and nestled within it's depths is the gate to Tartarus, the prison where the greatest of evils lie hidden.
Of course, the locals hardly noticed the insanity anymore (Except for a certain agricultural trio, but nopony paid them any mind.).
And so when a strange greenish-grey unicorn wearing a red cloak appeared in the center of town in a bright flash of light, he was only met with mild curiosity.
His black eyes wandered around the sights of the town, drinking in his environment.
Several thoughts entered the stallion's mind at once: 'I'm alive' was high on the list, followed quickly by 'Where am I?' 'What are those creatures over there?' and of course, 'I don't think I have enough time to dodge that'.
All things considered, you've probably heard of Rainbow 'Danger' Dash, so I won't bother describing her, and if you have so much as a genre-savvy cell in your body, I probably won't have to describe her crash into the pony who appeared just above here, so instead I'll just skip to the aftermath.
Rainbow Dash paced back and forth nervously in the hospital waiting room, her thoughts running wild as she had a mental freak out to rival Twilight Sparkle deciding on breakfast.
Oh no, this is bad, this is really bad, what if he's badly hurt? What if I crippled him? Oh Celestia, er, Embryous, I flew him here so so fast I never bothered to check him for wounds! Or a pulse! What if he's dead? Or even if he did survive, what if he's in a coma? Or brain-damaged or- Oh my gosh, just breath Rainy, it'll be all okay.
By this point, Rainbow Dash was curled up in a corner, her mind running in circles as she tried futilely to calm herself down by mimicing her mother. It really should have been more effective, but then again she may have just murdered a pony, so that's probably contributing to her panic.
Oh my gosh, he's probably dead, no he's dead. Dead or in a coma or brain-damaged or some other horrible-
"Rainbow Dash!"
"Gah!" the polychromatic pegasus pony was suddenly roused from her rapidly descending thoughts by a stern yet friendly voice, "Applejack? What are you doing here?"
Indeed, none other than Applejack, the sanest and most normal pony in Equestria, was the owner of the aforementioned friendly stern-voice.
"Ah came here t' see what you were doin'," despite her uncommon accent, Applejack was still quite normal by Equestria's standards, "th' last Ah heard you crashed into some mystery unicorn in the' center o' town."
"Oh right, that." Rainbow Dash's thoughts threatened to continue their downwards spiral, but they were inturrupted before they had the chance.
"Whah' don't you ex'plain t' me jus' what's goin' on?"
"Well," Rainbow Dash struggled to find her voice, a rare problem for her, "I was doing a few practice runs for a new trick I'm working on, when I... kind of lost control."
"Ah' could figur' that much on mah' own."
"Yeah, yeah." finally finding some strength in her voce, Rainbow recommenced hher tale, "Anyway, I was headed for the center of town, but it was mostly clear, so I was just gonna fly in real quick and get clear of town, but that's when he showed up."
"Our mystery unicorn, Ah'm guessin'?"
"Yeah, he just appeared out of nowhere in a big ball of light."
"Y'mean lah'k how Twilight used to do?"
"No, it was more like how she does it nowadays, only white."
Before Applejack could respond with even more butchered english, Nurse Redheart stuck her head through the door to the waiting room.
"Rainbow Dash?"
"Uh yeah?" Dash replied nervously.
"The patient has requested your presence."
Meanwhile, in the Secret Chamber of Canterlot Castle...
Starswirl the Bearded Alicorn, Queen Embryous, and Twilight Sparkle the Draconequus were surrounded by a thick cloud of smoke, of course, this was a minor obstacle in the face of their awesome power!
"What was that?" Twilight asked as soon as she was able to stop coughing, only to devolve into another fit of coughs immediately afterwords.
"I-I'm no-t sure," Embryous choked out.
"It seems our spell had unintended side-effects," somehow Starswirl seemed unaffected by the smoke, his voice was gravelly again however, "I experienced a reaction like this when I was researching magic as a tortoise, from what I gathered then, I'd say our spell managed to interact with a foreign magic source, and that made this smoke."
"But how?" Twilight had managed to clear the smoke, but her throat was still hoarse, "I thought the spell was just supposed to pull some madness from outside Equestria to balance out the latent insanity energy."
"It was, but it seems that the place we were drawing from wasn't as empty as it should have been," Embryous closed her eyes in thought for a moment, before coming to a realization, "Twilight, you have to get back to Ponyville, if this foreign magic source managed to enter Equestria, that is where it will be."
"You're right, but what about you two?"
"We need to make sure the spell worked," Starswirl's voice was grave, but no longer gravelly, "If the spell failed, then we're likely in even deeper trouble than before."