Jace Starswirl is a unicorn living in a new era in history. The United Tribes of Equestira has been established, emerging from the chaotic maelstrom of a bloody civil war that engulfed the entire population of the realm. The Conclave rules over a race still licking their wounds and trying to recover. Ponies would much rather forget about the bloody conflict and live in the hard earned peace that now blossoms. Jace, an avid historian, grows tired of the attitude of fellow countrymen. Many of his fellow ponies, like his best friend, Kaisar, waste away their days with drinking and merriment, and refuse to look at the past that gave them such opportunities.

Fearing that the history of the conflict and the events that preceded it might become lost and forgotten, Jace begins to write the history of the Foundation War as it is known. He writes of the heroes that bravely stood against tyranny, of the villains who vainly tried to assert their will over all, of the soldiers who fought on both sides, and of the ordinary people who were caught in the middle of it all. This is their story, the story of the birth of a great nation, forged in the fires of war.