One morning, Twilight awakens to find everything in Ponyville is...peaceful. All nearby evil seems to have been dealt with, and the only trouble they've resolved recently was convincing Lyra not to do dangerous experiments in her "secret" lab to try and become human. This strikes her and her friends as a terrible catastrophe, as they feel their sense of being true heroes is deteriorating. So, they decide to travel across Equestria with their friend Shadow Darkfeather (see "Shadow in Equestria"), in search of a cure for their aching need to be, well, NEEDED.