Alex, a rookie paralegal, is sent to find and deliver papers to a recluse who's abandoned his family to join a misanthrope at his shack, abandoning all his responsibilities.

He finds their lodge, but they're not home. Following a trail in an effort to find his quarry, Alex finds his way into Equestria, where he is captured by force to stand accused of the crimes of others. Unable to communicate, lost, alone, and locked up like an animal, how will he save himself from a fate most terrible and unjust?

The first few chapters run before the character has any interaction with any one pony for long, the true character interactions are yet to come.

Originally I'd intended to write the story of The Poacher's War starting from the beginning chronologically, but in the interest of narrative, I've decided to follow a single character through his viewpoint.

10 Years ago, before the Mane 6 gained their cutie marks, the apprentice travelling merchant Tinker Trader came to the town of Ponyville to open up trade contracts with a few residents. And there in that sleepy hamlet, his merchant's eye view of the world was brushed aside by those ponies there as casually as drawing a breath.

Now that he's back, those challenges may prove the end of everything he thinks he knows.

A story that will grow in the telling, of friendships, and of discovering them anew, worth far more and far deeper than what was ever thought possible.