Life in Equestria has been kept safe by the combined power of the two royal sisters, until the Nightmare Moon incident. Having lost its instrument of darkness, the Night Mother seeks out another mare to do her bidding...

Sometimes fate finds you on your journey to avoid it.

For a unicorn pony that couldn't cast a single spell if his life depended on it, Star Swirl wished upon a star that magic would help him get rid of an apparition that taunted him ever since he was born. He would have never believed that several decades later, in the royal palace nevertheless, there would be a library aisle named after him. The record of his journey was read by few and almost forgotten, in the least trotted section of that very same library. And it would have stayed just as dusty and abandoned had it not been for an inquisitive young filly looking for books to read as it was one of those moments when the late hours of the night caught her hoof-deep in her reading instead of being in bed...