Gearcrow watched Princess Twilight Sparkle get murdered by a top hat. It wasn't funny. It was terrible.

Sorrow and death launches Gearcrow on a journey for revenge and redemption that will lead him across all of Equestria and beyond. With Princess Twilight Sparkle dead, and the Elements of Harmony broken, Princess Celestia and Luna seem powerless to stop the evil that encroaches upon their domain. Gearcrow doesn't care about such things. Nor does he care about the cosmic forces that are in motion all around him. All he wants to do is to find Bathos, the changeling responsible for Twilight Sparkle's death, and kill him. Bathos' top hat, however, has other plans.