Princess Celestia has been the sole ruler of Equestria for more than a thousand years. Over those years, she gradually drifted apart from those ponies over whom she watched tirelessly. But now that Princess Luna has returned, and has begun to share the burdens of rule that Celestia has had to carry alone for so long, she is forced to come to grips with the isolation and loneliness that she has brought upon herself. Having kept herself distant from her subjects for so long, she turns to the pony whose friendly nature has already helped to save Equestria on multiple occasions for help and comfort.

A chronicle of the events surrounding the war with Discord, the spirit of chaos. When the King and Queen of Equestria are murdered a week before their daughters' weddings to the spirits of Chaos and Order, a plan nearly 20 years in the making unravels, and in so doing, threatens to tear the whole world asunder.

Modern Equestrian history holds that the country of Equestria was founded when the Royal Pony Sisters, Princesses Celestia and Luna overthrew the Lord of Chaos, Discord, with the Elements of Harmony. Of the time before, little else is known, except for what the Princesses themselves reveal.

When on the sixth night after the defeat of Nightmare Moon, and the passage of the Elements of Harmony from their old bearers to six new ones, a powerful pony prisoner from the Princesses' past plots to prevent them from prolonging his punishment. Celestia, Luna, and the Elements of Harmony now face a moral dilemma. Is it just to imprison him again for crimes that he denies committing, or is this pony too great a threat to turn loose on the ponies of Equestria? (Now with alliteration!)