Spike awoke with a terrible headache. His head was throbbing in pain, but he didn’t remember eating any ice cream the day before. He opened his eyes, expecting to see his own bedroom, and a certain purple unicorn scolding him for his over consumption of dairy. Instead, he saw a green sky, with a few pink clouds floating lazily. He jumped up, shook his head, and opened his eyes again. The previously established green sky and pink clouds were still there, and were now accompanied by blue, lumberjack plaid grass. A few trees dotted the horizon, with green trunks and brown leaves. As Spike stared, confused, one of the trees began to shake. In a blast of leaves and fire, the backwards foliage proceeded to rocket into the sky, before exploding into a shower of sparks and confetti. Spike was momentarily stunned by the arboreal projectile. A slight murmur to his left snapped him out of his trance. He spun in a circle and saw Twilight, asleep next to him.
“Twilight! Twilight wake up!” he yelled, jostling her shoulders until one drowsy eye opened.
“Whadya want, Shpiek?” she slurred, still half asleep.
“Just get up! You have to see this!”
“Fiiine.” She sighed as she stood up. Her jaw dropped, nearly striking the very grass she had just been laying on. “Wh...wh...what in th...the world?” she stammered, confused by the strange landscape.
“Please tell me you see this?” asked Spike, still fearing he was suffering a frozen treat induced nightmare. Twilight nodded, and glanced around at their mis-colored surroundings.
“This has to be Discord’s doing.” she said. “Come on, we need to get to Ponyville and find the others! I’m worried something terrible must have happened after they all disappeared like that.” She set off at gallop, but stopped just as suddenly when Spike gasped in fear.
“Twilight, look!” he exclaimed, “Your cutie mark!”
She looked back at her flank, where her signature starred cutie mark had always been. But, it was different. The five white stars that normally surrounded the large pink star were gone. And the large star itself appeared to be somewhat faded.
“That’s unusual,” she stated, “and most certainly can’t be a good sign. We have to hurry!”
Ponyville had changed, and certainly not for the better. As Twilight and Spike walked into town, several major differences immediately became apparent. Town hall was still in its usual place, but had been constructed out of what looked like a tugboat. The lamp posts had been replaced with bacon, and the sky had changed from green to a violent shade of orange.
“What do we do, Twilight?” asked Spike, as they walked. “This new Ponyville doesn’t make any sense.”
“I don’t know.” she said, and stopped walking as the words left her mouth. For the first time that she could remember, she hadn’t the slightest idea what to do. Never in all of her studies had she ever come across a book that had any mention of discolored skies, pink clouds, buildings replaced by boats, and light fixtures made of meat. Spike’s cry of terror snapped her back to reality, and she hurried to catch up with him.
“What is it, Spike? What happened?!”
Spike did not reply, but simply raised his claw and pointed at a small, plain, green house.
“What’s the big deal?” asked Twilight. “It’s just a house.”
“No.” he said. “It’s not ‘just a house.’ DON’T YOU REALIZE WHAT SHOULD BE THERE!?”
Twilight’s quizzical expression only served to confirm his fears. He turned back to the house.
“Sugarcube corner is gone.” he said. “It’s supposed to be where that house is.”
Twilight gasped, and recognition dawned across her face. She glanced at Spike, whose entire body began to vibrate with power. Green flames shot out of his snout, and in an instant, his body expanded to frightening proportions. He towered over all of Ponyville, and many a bystander began to panic at the sight of the enraged, massive lizard. Not caring about his sudden and rapid growth, or the terror he was causing, Spike began roaring at the sky.
“I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE TREES!” he bellowed. “I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE GRASS, OR THE CLOUDS, OR THE LAMPPOSTS!” He looked back at the house, and the rage burned in his eyes like the very spark of his magical fire breath. Spike stormed through Ponyville in the direction of Canterlot. His massive body sent ponies fleeing in terror, and his furious rampage destroyed several houses and multiple carts. He reached the end of town, and resumed his shouting, this time directed towards Canterlot, which was just a small spot in the distance.
“BUT NOPONY, AND I MEAN NOPONY, MESSES WITH MY DESSERTS!” he screamed. “DISCORD, THIS JUST GOT PERSONAL!” He paused, and Twilight capitalized on the opportunity.
“Spike!” she yelled. “Shouting about a house isn’t going to solve our problems! Besides, you’re scaring everypony!” Twilight jabbed him in the leg with her horn, and the monstrous dragon glanced at his friend. A look of calm appeared on his face, and he snapped back to his normal size, landing on the ground with a slight thud.
“I’m sorry, Twilight.” he said sheepishly. “I didn’t mean to lose control like that.” He turned to the crowd of frightened ponies, who began to creep out from behind their various places of refuge. "Sorry, everypony. I just don't know what came over me."
"Don't worry," said a voice from the crowd. "This sort of thing happens all the time." The rest of the gathered ponies nodded their heads in agreement, and began cleaning up the mess that Spike had caused. He turned back to Twilight, who put a reassuring hoof on his shoulder.
“It’s okay, I understand." she said. "But we need to start figuring out how to fix this, and acting like that certainly won’t help.”
“Well, we should probably start looking for the others.” said Spike. “But where do we start? I doubt it will be easy to do in such a backwards universe.”
Twilight began to think. Who should they look for? And where should they look? She thought about each of her friends in turn, and a certain yellow pegasus stood out.
“No matter what universe we’re in,” she said to Spike, “Fluttershy will always be Fluttershy!” She set off at a gallop towards the outskirts of town. Spike grabbed hold of her tail, and pulled himself up onto her back. He placed a cowboy hat on his head.
“HIGH HO TWILIGHT!” he cheered. “AWAYYYY!”
Twilight glared at him, and he grinned sheepishly.
“Sorry...” he mumbled as he removed the hat.