When Twilight returns for a week-long visit to Canterlot, she quickly accepts Princess Celestia's request that she participate in a certain competition. Twilight soon finds, however, that the ponies there seem to know her not as the bookworm Twilight Sparkle, but the soldier and combat champion Twilight Sword. Worse, she soon finds that she remembers as Celestia's champion and elite warrior as being more real than her life as a quiet student. As the competition becomes more and more brutal, Twilight must determine who she really is, where her loyalties lie, and whether she should serve Celestia without qualm… even if it means harm to her friends.