Bright Fractal is a new wizard who has just left home for the first time to pursue adventure. They start their journey in the city of Olive where they've heard the infamous Dragontooth wizard's guild resided.

Once they arrive, they're greeted by Chainz and his goons causing trouble in the form of a violent protest. To sell the act, the troublemakers fire magical bullets around, destroying buildings, and even pretending to aim at a filly. Seeing that the filly was apparently in danger, Bright Fractal intervenes directly and engages in a fight.

After being prompted, Chainz begins his speech, where he explains that he's actually protesting the Dragontooth guild, after its members destroyed his ice cream parlor, and generally cause massive collateral damage every time they fight. He didn't get the chance to explain it, but his goal was to be labeled as a villain so that he could point out that Dragontooth were villains too, since they also destroy buildings regularly.

Blazing Bubbles, a powerful wizard from Dragontooth, arrives on scene and before anyone can explain the situation releases a powerful spell (Phoenix's Wrath) which both completely fries Chainz and damages many surrounding buildings. When called out on it, Blaze unapologetically explains "Yeah, well it's not my fault the parlor was inbetween me and the monster... Sometimes ponies get on our case about collateral damage, but in my opinion saving lives is always more important than some walls."

Blaze then invites Bright to join Dragontooth, explaining that all of its members treated each other like family. They go to the guild hall, where they meet its master: Draco Shift. There, Bright agrees to join a job with Blaze, regarding a town which was mysteriously tortured by constant blizzards when it was supposed to be summer. At the start, Draco forbids them, claiming the job was far too dangerous for them. However, Breeze and Anvil both volunteer to join, at which point Draco reluctantly agrees. It's revealed that Breeze and Blaze are rivals, and always getting into fights which Anvil has to break up, as well as the fact that Blaze's mother was a phoenix who died, which is how Blaze is half-pony, half-phoenix, a feniquus. Before they leave, Bright has time to spend some time with his new friends, as well as meet Oceana.

The group makes their way to the town, named Maple. They take the train, where it's revealed that Blaze gets severely motion-sick. This results in her being unable to eat or sleep for the entire trip which lasted all night. The snow there is relentless, and even drains the group's magical power. Eventually, they discover that the blizzards are caused by a giant ape-like monster called χειμώνας (cheimónas), who threatens to freeze over the entire world.

The group engages in a difficult battle, but with their strongest member (Blaze) starving and sleep-deprived, they are defeated. In a last-ditch effort, Bright releases a burst of light as a signal flare for help. Just as death seems certain, a strange colt named Equipoise arrives. Despite the group being able to detect any magical power from the colt, he effortlessly defeats the monster with a snowball, which is thrown with such force that it destroys Minas, one of the planet's two moons as well. In addition, the colt seemed strangely oblivious, and talked about the entire situation as if it were a normal and harmless snowball fight.

Bright wakes from his injuries in the guild infirmary, and is healed by the guild's medic Tacit Soliloquy. After a short discussion over the oddities of yesterday, Blaze asks Bright to help her with something important. He's tasked with finding a beautiful flower that compliments a "fiery but loving" spirit, then bring it to Blaze by the lake. He mistakes this as a date. He ends up buying a rare Phoenix Blossom from Oceana, who owns the flower shop as well as being a famous artist. He ends up trading the rest of his money, and promises to model for Oceana in exchange for the flower.

After delivering the flower to Blaze, he discovers that she actually wanted the flower to pay tribute to her mother at her grave. Blaze laments over the fact that she couldn't save her friends yesterday without the strange colt's help, and proclaims she needs to grow stronger so that it never happens again. The Phoenix Blossom glows, and Blaze cries, remarking that she can hear her mother telling her that she's proud. Afterwards, Bright and her go on an actual date in Orange, though it didn't seem she understood what it meant to "go on a date."

The date is interrupted as Blaze detects Ion's magical energy, and leaves to attack him. Ion casually dodges her attack and defeats her with a single thunderbolt. It's revealed that Blaze views Ion as her older brother, and she's always trying to beat him to prove her strength. The fun isn't mutual, and Ion is visibly annoyed. He leaves shortly to continue doing jobs, something he was almost always doing. Blaze destroys the restaurant in her attempt, and both Bright and her are forced to stay and do dishes to pay it off.

Afterwards, Bright decides to join the guild. After an oath and a ceremony, it's official. After meeting Smoky and Misty, a fight breaks out in the entire guildhall, something which is apparently common.

The next day, Bright agrees to attend the festival in Apple to fulfill his agreement to model for Oceana, or in this case her art students. Oceana leaves in a excited hurry after challenging Bright to a race, leaving him behind before even telling him where the festival was. Thankfully, Equipoise was in Olive at the moment and after receiving a drink at the guild hall, he uses Spatial Law: Fold to transport the two of them to the festival, incidentally allowing Bright to win the race. At the same time Equipoise reveals that he does use magic, and that he is a Law Wizard. Equipoise explains how his magic works, then promptly goes to explore the carnival alone.

Bright models for Oceana and her students, then the two of them attend the final event of the festival, a circus performance by the three circus wizards: Trapeze, Vertigo, and Razzle Dazzle. It ends up being a trap, and the band of villains drain the magical power from everyone there except Oceana, Bright, and Equipoise (who doesn't help, thinking it's part of the show.) After a long and difficult series of battles, Oceana and Bright emerge victorious. The next morning, Bright interviews the villains in the guild's dungeon, and it is revealed that their goal was to awaken the legendary Chaos Wizard, Entropy.

Shortly after, Ion comes to Olive. This time, Bright takes a firm stance and manages to convince Blaze not to attack him, but instead ask for a proper battle outside of town where there wouldn't be collateral damage. Reluctantly, Blaze agrees, and Ion accepts the challenge.

Bright, Breeze, Oceana, and Anvil all have breakfast together then head to the lake to watch the battle. At first, Ion simply defends or dodges Blaze's onslaught of attacks. However, sometime in the battle he casts one of his most powerful spells: God's Needle. It's so powerful that Blaze begins to beg for her life, but Ion misses her on purpose, instead leaving a hole in the ground so deep that nobody can see the bottom of it.

Blaze now has fear on her face for the first time that anybody knows of, and Ion tells her that it's okay to want to protect your friends, but you need more than bravery to be strong enough to do that. He calls her childish and says that the fact she had no fear was a problem he fixed. He ends by remarking that he's not on jobs all the time because he likes the money.

Everyone was now in shock, and Blaze had a strange expression after he left. She rejects a hug from Bright, and then flies off. She tells her friends she'd meet them for a bath, as the bathhouse had recently reopened.