It's a lovely late Spring evening for Twilight Sparkle, wanted fugitive, as she makes her way about the slums of Latigo, checking in to a motel as she thinks about the events that have led to her present condition, and whether it really was all Trixie Lulamoon's fault as she's been thinking for the last several months. Confused, and tired, Twilight decides to get some sleep, and make her decision on what to do in the morning. She's not asleep for long before she awakens to hear somepony opening her room's door. Before they can declare she's under arrest, Twilight escapes, and finds the Shadowbolts have caught up with her.
Twilight continues to flee, only to run into a barrier only one of two ponies could've cast - Princess Luna, or her brother. And she knows for a fact it's the latter. The barrier gradually decreases, trapping Twilight as she's unable to teleport through, until she's face-to-face with her brother. Upset, Twilight refuses to even look at him, having a not-so-small breakdown at having been caught by her own sibling. Shining tries to talk her down, but it doesn't work. Moved to desperation, Twilight unleashes a dangerous teleport spell she'd been holding in reserve, an ancient spell she'd found long ago. And before Shining Armor can stop her, Twilight teleports away... and somewhere outside of space and time, something imperceptible cracks.
Twilight awakens in a hospital, one with more advanced technology than she's ever seen. A griffon doctor soon appears and explains she overchanneled, then tries asking her a few questions. As the conversation goes on, Twilight notices his using names she's either never heard of before, or that haven't been used in years. Concerned, Twilight escapes the hospital. She finds herself overlooking what should be Latslawa, the capitol of Latigo... only it doesn't look right. Examining the city, Twilight stumbles on something more alarming than the weird electric lights everywhere: A statue of an alicorn, only it's not Luna. It's Corona. Alarmed, particularly by how nopony seems disturbed by this fact, Twilight heads to the nearest library to figure out what the heck's going on.
With some heavy reading, she finds out that a thousand years ago, "Celestia" banished her sister, who'd become something called "Nightmare Moon", and happily reigned over Equestria since. And not, as Twilight finds, a dystopian Equestria. This one is peaceful, only fighting defensive wars, or moving on their neighbours when asked, ruled by Celestia and her ministries, rather than a nobility or court. But this all points to one thing for Twilight - she's in another universe, one where Luna fell and Celestia didn't.
Examining a newspaper, Twilight looks for any information on Ponyville, and finds that in this universe, she is the one who bears the Element of Magic, but there was a run-in with Trixie and a bear a few months before. Twilight is stunned by the revelation, and moreso by the thought that maybe, things in this universe were just different. She considers meeting her other self, only to figure they probably wouldn't want to meet somepony so irresponsible as to set a bear on a town, if they had anything in common at all. There's only one thing for her to do, and that's to go home.
Only the spell doesn't work. Twilight tries it several more times, and she remains in the alternate universe. To her horror, Twilight realises she's trapped.
- Foreshadowing: Twilight mentions that her interdimensional teleporting spell was based on an old spell of Luna's, one around a thousand years old. That becomes important in Crisis proper.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Shining Armor accidentally causes his sister to have a shame induced freak-out, prompting her to teleport to another universe and break an underpinning part of reality. Nice going, Shining.
- Point of Divergence: Great detail is given to the differences between Lunaverse Equestria and the "regular" Equestria, the nail being which sister fell. Celestia went for soft hegemonic power, only ever fighting defensive wars or taking over countries when asked by the locals. As a result, many of the nations present in the Lunaverse no longer exist. Equestria is governed by Celestia, with a massive bureaucracy beneath preventing much from being done. Luna, meanwhile, went for subtle political machinations and creating a defensive border maintained with the Exarchies, occasionally directly interfering in the affairs of other nations, with Equestria governed by an aristocracy. The aristos still exist in the "regular" Equestria, just greatly reduced and with nowhere near the power they have in the Lunaverse. As a result of these differences, Twilight's home province of Latigo is vastly different. The Lunaverse one is on the border of the Griffon Kingdoms, functioning as a tourist spot, while the Maneverse one is still under its Griffon name.
