Celestia has been absent for a few years now, and Equestria is in quiet peril. Monsters encroach upon calm pastures; storm clouds seem to have minds of their own; crime rates rise throughout the big cities. Sour news also arrives of war in the north as the Griffon Kingdom seeks to expand its borders to the south. Now, there is talk of the Sun's Second Coming: the great dawn of salvation rising far in the East - in Saddle Arabia.