Dusty Rigs is a half-pony, his mother having married into a strange race of Non-Equestrian Ponies with strange magical powers. A cursed people, known as the Darklings. His father taught him to worship the night, and the Goddess of the Moon herself, Nightmare Moon. So it came as no surprise that he enrolled in the Academy, and became a Royal Guard. But, uneasy with guarding a simple larder, he quits the Guard to join the newly formed Equestrian Army, thereby changing his destiny.

In a story that spans years, a non-pony struggles to be accepted in a land that hates outsiders, a mediocre soldier becomes a hero, and a guard receives the utmost honor and respect, only for it to be taken away, leaving him with nothing.

Mature Tag for FoE related violence and gore, language, and some sexual innuendo.