It has begun to snow by the time they pass Red Mountains on the Winterflow Motorway. “I hope the roads aren’t snowed out,” you started. In the passenger seat, Shining Armor is gazing out of the frosted window in silence. He’s been this trancelike state for almost an hour now. Taking advantage of his inattention, you stare unabashedly at Shining Armor from the corner of your eye. You still don’t understand the danger signals that you’re getting from him.

Shining has stopped avoiding you, and he’s even looking you in the eye when he talks. So, why does he seem even more distant now than he did when he was trying to push his friends away?

Shining’s posture is noticeably relaxed, but his gaze never wavers, not even for a moment. It’s as though he’s focused on a clearly-defined future that he has chosen to bring about, one that has no place for the needs or wants of others.

Right now, Shining Armor is complete. You can’t help but feel that beneath his black exterior is a core of solid steel that no one can touch. “About Cherry,” You said suddenly, trying to gauge Shining Armor’s reaction. “It’s been a week since she disappeared, and we still haven’t heard from her.”

“Oh,” Shining replies curtly, still staring into the distance. “That’s not good. I wonder what happened to her.”

Shining’s tone is completely emotionless. You might as well have asked him about the weather or the condition of the mountain roads near their destination. “I asked you before, but you’re sure you don’t have any idea what happened to her?”

“No clue,” Shining Armor answers, in exactly the same tone that he used when you first questioned him following Cherry’s disappearance.

Your eyes narrow. “It’s like you don’t give a damn.”

“That’s not true.” Finally Shining show some emotion. He sounds hurt, like he can’t believe you could think such a thing. “She disappeared on the way to my place, didn’t she? Of course I’m worried.”

Sudden frustration wells up inside you. If possible, you’d like nothing more than to beat the secrets out of Shining Armor’s head. You’re worried sick about Cherry. To have your concern brushed off so coldly would be unbearable coming from a complete stranger; but from Shining Armor, who was your best friend, it’s…

Shining Armor never used to be this callous. Even if you tried to interrogate him, he’d probably never find out what changed him so. If Shining Armor were still just hiding inside the shell he’d erected around himself after the accident, you might have been about to get some answers out of him. With this sly, evasive Shining Armor, however, there’s nothing you can do. Shining Armor will never reveal his true intentions – not to anyone.

All that’s left, then, is for you to discover the truth on your own. “Cherry was going to talk to you about Cadence, you know.”

“Oh?” Shining smiles bitterly at the mention of Cadence’s name, perhaps feeling sympathy for her pain, to you, however, it seems like pity, the sort one directs at an ant or worm. “I wouldn’t know what to say. To be honest, it’s been hard to talk to her after what happened.”

Unbelievable. If Shining’s feelings for Cadence were really this cold, then he would have rejected her when she first confessed to him. But he didn’t – or at least, the Shining before the accident didn’t. Once again, you can’t help to wonder if this guy who looks like your friend is really a different person who only possesses the memories of Shining Armor.

The snow has stopped falling when you got off the west torchwood pass interchange. This area must already be getting a lot of snow, however, as the nearby mountains are covered in white beneath the trees.

By the time you turn off the highway and enter the mountains, road conditions are already bad enough for you to regret having forgotten tire chains. Nevertheless, you continued to power your accord up the precarious slopes with only a road map to guide you. In places like this, an address isn’t enough to pinpoint a location. Your only choice is to drive every road, including private roads that aren’t even on the map, while searching for something that matches the photograph.

“Who would buy a home in a place like this?”

“It’s far from prying eyes. That must be why Dr. Shadow chose it.” The more he hears about Shadow, the less you want to meet him.

Shining is the one who spots the narrow road half-hidden in the trees. It’s practically an animal trail, overgrown with weeds that are tall and strong enough to withstand the weight of the snow. “Is this really a road?” You stopped the car and stick your head out of the window to stare into the dark forest, but you can’t see where the path leads through the tightly-packed trees.

“How does it look to you?” Shining hands you the photo, which compares to the mountain ridges visible beyond the trees.

“Yeah, it’s definitely the right angle.”

“Let’s check it out.” Shining’s tone is as flat as always, but there is a quiet intensity in his voice that leaves no room for argument.

Although you’re worried that your car suspension won’t be able to handle the terrain, there’s no turning back now. You shift into the second and started down the frozen road.

The sun sets early at high altitudes. As the car creeps up the mountain path, you catch a glimpse through the trees of the gradually darkening sky. Black clouds rolling slowly into the horizon, darkening the sky and blanketing the air with cold winds and harsh colors.

The forest is completely still, with no sound save for the rumble of the Accord’s engine and the crackle of snow and bush beneath its tires. Shining Armor is once again staring silently through the front window. In the ominous silence, you feel the same faint chill that you felt when standing before Moonlight Shadow’s suburban home. It feels wrong, as though you’re traveling deeper and deeper into a world not your own.

After some time, a blocky shape suddenly appears amid the trees, standing out against the twilight sky. Oddly, you remembered his sister for a moment there. they were such good family together until that horrific day came… It was a shame. And a loss.

With an eerie aura, you turn off the engine and compare the structure in front of you to the picture in your hand -- a perfect match. Before you can tell Shining Armor, however, your silent friend is already out of the car.

“Hey!”

Realizing that it’s pointless to call to him, you shook your heard, grabs the flashlight from the glove compartment, and followed Shining Armor across the snow-covered yard.

The photo must not have been taken recently, as the old, run-down cabin before them has clearly been left to the mercy of the elements for some time.

The front door seems to be locked, but Shining Armor kicks it down without a second thought. You just watched, knowing that nothing you could say now would matter.

What the heck? Is all what you could say at the moment. All of the windows are shut with heavy curtains, and the gloom inside is thick and stifling. Shining turns on his own flashlight and starts rummaging through the cabin without any regard for its owner’s privacy.

You’re reluctant to do the same, but it is obvious that this mountain retreat has been abandoned for a long time, just like the house in Ponyville. There’s no point in being considerate now. You went to search a different room.

Soon after entering the cabin, however, you soon realize that their search is meaningless. There’s nothing inside but the bare necessities of life. Some rooms are even completely empty, save for a thick layer of dust on the floor.

Of what few pieces of furniture are present, more than half appear to have never been used. There’s an empty chest of drawers without a single scratch or handprint. But bearing the telltale signs of mold and moisture damage. The condition of the cabin is eerie, though in a different way than the filthiness of the house in the city. It’s like someone put together a mockup of a home than left it to decay.

The only signs that anyone lived here are found in the toilet, the bath, the kitchen, and the bedroom.

It appears that the cabin was never used for anything but eating and sleeping.

Beneath the darkened sky, the snow itself seems to glow with a cold, white light. The scene is like something out of a fairytale, but to you, it serves only as an unpleasant reminder that you had stepped outside of the reality that you knew all too well.

Next to the front porch is a plain wooden door half buried in the ground. It’s locked, of course, but you don’t see any reason for restraint after what Shining Armor did to the front door. The door offers surprisingly little resistance to your heavy kick, breaking open to reveal a set of concrete stairs leading down into a pitch-black basement.

You sigh as you did this. You’d prefer to leave such a forbidding place to Shining, but it’s not like you can just ask him to take your place. You descend into the chilly darkness, the beam of your flashlight leading the way.

There turns out to be nothing in the basement but a storage room and a boiler, exactly what one would expect to find in an isolated mountain cabin. The few packages on preserved food sitting on the shelves have long since passed their expiration dates, and the boiler doesn’t appear to have been used in ages.

You guessed that Shadow’s mountain home has been abandoned longer than the house in Ponyville.

Was Shining simply mistaken when he said that Shadow might be here? Or was he lying from the beginning? Now sure what to do next, you go back up the stairs and walked around the outside of the cabin – and there you find the backyard.

It’s in much worse condition than the front yard, having been mostly reclaimed by the forest. It must have been neglected even when the cabin was still in use. The remnants of a tool shed lie in the yard, the mushrooms growing on it speaking to how much time has passed since its collapse. Next to the rotten logs, however, stands a square of stone that has not yet succumbed to the elements.

Looking down on it reveals to be a well that has no bucket or pulley, and when you look closely, you see that the water was long gone. It’s probably less than ten meters deep, depending on how much mud is piled up inside.

Your search of the cabin has proved to be useless and revealed nothing of interest, inside or out.

You start to lean on the edge of the well, and wondered why Shadow bought this remote home deep in the mountains, and what he was doing here. As far as you can tell, there’s no sign that more than one person ever stayed here.

“It’s far from prying eyes.”

Shining’s words play back in your head. Could this have been some sort of secret refuge, a place to remain hidden from the world? That would explain why there’s nothing to suggest that whoever lived here did anything more than eat and sleep.

You suddenly remember the doctor you met yesterday at the C University. Maybe she’d know something about this. You took your phone and calls up the newly-stored number. There’s barely a signal, but it manages to get through.

Your hopes are soon crushed, however, when your call goes straight to Dr. Chrome’s voice mail. You considered calling her back, but realizes that it would be hard to talk to her with Shining Armor around. Shining would not at all be pleased to learn that You and Cadence went to see his doctor. You decided that you’d better tell the doctor what you can while you’re alone. “Hello, It’s me, the guy with the girl yesterday that came to see you? Thank you for telling us what we need that time.”

You left a clear and concise message, explaining that you went with Shining Armor to Shadow’s mountain retreat, giving the address, and asking for confirmation that the property belongs to Shadow.

“I’ll talk to you again when we return to Canterlot, bye.”After hanging up, you think back to your visit to the hospital. Is Dr. Chrome actually investigating like she said she would? Her reluctance to speak of Dr. Shadow is weighing on your mind. You’ve talked to Cadence about it on the way home, but you both were unable to decide whether the doctor could really be trusted.

Speaking of which, how is Cadence doing? You haven’t seen her today lately. You didn’t say a word to her about your trip to Torchlight. She might be worried, specially so soon after Cherry’s disappearance.

Thinking to check up on her, you dial Cadence’s number… and are surprised when it rings longer than it usually does. Did she forget her phone somewhere? Just as he’s about to give up, the call connects.

The first thing you hear is a strange sound. It’s not signal interference, but some kind of wet, distorted noise – like the voiceless groans, or perhaps sobs, of someone far away.

No… That’s exactly what they are! The person on the other side is crying. “C-Cadence? Is that you?!”

“Who’s… there…”

There’s a response, but is it really Cadence’s voice? It’s too twisted with agony for you to tell. Panic surges through you like a blast of electric flow as you realize that something is terribly wrong. “It’s me! Is that you, Cadence? Where are you?!”

After a short period of nothing but pained moans, words start coming through the speaker one by one, as though each takes an act of will. “I was… attacked… by a monster… and now… there’s something wrong… with my body!”

“What? What happened?! Are you alright?!”

Cadence must be delirious, because you can’t understand a thing she’s saying. Her gasps and wheezes, however, are enough to tell him that she’s in unimaginable pain. “I’m rotting away… my skin is… melting! My ear just… came off…”

She’s not making any sense! You feel despair seize your heart in an iron grip. What’s happening to Cadence now, a hundred kilometers away? Only her voice gives any hint of what’s she’s going through. There’s nothing he can do for her. “Help me… please! This… isn’t how my fingers… are supposed to look…!”

“Calls the cops, Cadence! Call for help!”

“No! I can’t… let anyone see me… like this…” Cadence suddenly breaks into a violent hacking cough, as though trying to expel something filling her throat.

“Cadence!” You scream into the phone, his reason overwhelmed by unimaginable horror. Which is why he is unable to react when the phone suddenly knocked from his hand, and also why he didn’t notice Shining Armor sneaking up on him until it was too late.

“What the—“ Shining seizes your lower jaw with his right hand, cutting off your angry shout. You can hardly believe the strength of the smaller man’s grip. Your biggest mistake was leaning back against the pit. There is nothing to grab onto as Shining pushes you backwards over the edge. You can only flail your arms vainly against the air as you crashed down deep into the bowels of the mud-ridden pit.