After a near-fatal crash, Rainbow Dash is ordered to stay put in Ponyville under the Night Princess's watchful eye. Or so was the plan. Rainbow, never one to sit still, seeks a friend of a friend. However, her meeting with the nervous unicorn Moondancer takes a dark turn when a cursed book pulls Rainbow within its pages.

Convinced she has Rainbow's blood on her hooves, Moondancer grapples with the situation. Forced to keep all the book's secrets to herself, she must find aid with only her wits and 'charm'.

On the other side, Rainbow awakens to a pale world, stricken by one mare's crisis of conscious. Now, she journeys through the Fair Kingdom, where everyone is undying and happy as can be… whether they like it or not.