Everything in Sketch's life was going utterly fantastic, literally everything.

He and Lyra had a foal on the way, He was making good money, and now Vinyl Scratch, an old friend of Lyra's from her days in magic school, is coming to talk with them about Lyra potentially making it big in Canterlot with her music.

At least that's what was supposed to happen.

Instead, after the citizens of Ponyville seem to change for the worse overnight, Sketch finds himself in the middle of a conflict that has been raging for generations, and is forced to take part in it, because the lives of his family could depend on it.