A lot of things have changed in Sunny Flare's life between her sophomore and junior years. Her mother, Abacus Cinch, retired; she got her first summer job; and she's started treating her associates like actual friends instead of warm bodies to hide from the conniving masses behind.

It's now the day before Ghouloween (the Pedestrian equivalent to Nightmare Night, for the ponies in the audience), and Sunny's got her first report card of the new Principal Cadance's tenure. After two years of perfect grades... this one's... not perfect.

Unbeknownst to Sunny while she tries to figure out how to explain this to her mother, the former Principal of Crystal Prep already knows why this happened. Sunny Flare might never see the bombs drop, but this reveal will leave a smoking crater in her soul just like the real deal.

Rated Teen for teenagers swearing about as much as teenagers think is cool and stoner Lemon Zest.

Late in the evening, in the early summer of 2017, the EweChannel user 'silicapacket99' uploads a video that's a bit different from her usual content of several-hour-long, no-commentary let's-plays of various city-builder, factory manager, and colony-sim games.

The title: |Now It's Our Problem Podcast - Episode 1: The Fall Formal Inferno|.
The thumbnail: a .png of a horse that's been 'shopped directly into a burning building, both of which were probably taken from Giggle Images; all overlaid with the video title in bold text, plus the subtitle, |Feat. Sunset Shimmer|.

Might as well check it out. Her previous attempt to use her channel for something other than silent game footage kinda stalled out when the workload got to being more than she could balance with her education, but it was definitely interesting while it lasted.

Three Shadowbolts on the eve of graduation start a podcast about magical disasters – a conceptual crossover with Well There's Your Problem, a podcast about engineering disasters.

Rated Teen for vulgar discussions between young adults about motherfucking, pony profanity, and Pedestrian politics and religion.

Cast out of the Celestial Palace, the former Royal Student, Sunset Shimmer, is about to take life into her own hooves and seize what rightfully belongs to her, on the other side of that mysterious Mirror Portal.

Only problem is, somepony else got to the mirror, first. It's gone, vanished.
So is Celestia.

On the bright side, the new Acting Princess, Mi Amore Cadenza (or Cadance, as she likes to be called), is willing to ignore that banishment and give Sunset a second chance. She's heard the rumors about the reclusive, disobedient, and just-generally-mean Royal Student, but the Acting Princess needs all the help she can get.

So, all of a sudden, Sunset goes from being a disgraced scholar, banned from the palace grounds, to serving as a valuable asset of Princess Cadance's desperate scramble to hold the Principality of Equestria together and figure out what on Equus even happened to the Princess of the Sun.

Now, Sunset just has to avoid royally peeving off the ponies giving her a second chance: to ingratiate herself to them, even; to make herself indispensable. She can lie, cheat, and swindle like nopony else in the Celestial Palace, and it's time she used those talents for somepony other than herself.

Starting with this little project of Cadance's. The Princess needs to recruit a young group of friends to serve the Crown and Harmony, and she's already got a lead. Sunset just has to do the actual hoofwork of meeting the candidates, and then she can dust her hooves of this and go back to her studies, secure in her appointment as Royal Student.

What's the worst that could happen?

Comes after Stay of Execution, but that work is not required to appreciate this one. Provides context for Understudy.

Rated Teen for coarse horse language and various threats made to ponies' well-being.