After you get up, you apologize to Amy for laughing at her. She seems cool with it, but does feel the need to point out that she drew it in only a few seconds and wasn’t sketching. You and she exchange a brohoof. She’s a tough old bird. Er… pegasus.

You pause to lean against a wall and pontificate. In popular literature, shadows, and by proxy shades, are usually immune to mortal weapons. However if that giant’s hooffalls made such a racket, it’s obviously not ethereal. You might be able to use your weapons to defend yourselves or drive them back, but odds are you’ll need some alternate method to permanently dispatch the shadows. Sort of like how silver harms equinewolves. Whatever it is they’re weak against will also be the key to safely avoiding them.

As you remain still in the quiet of the air, you can make out what you believe to be a faint hum or buzzing noise.

You turn around and begin yelling on a commanding voice to whoever dared laugh at your comment! Your unspoken decree will not be laid to the wayside by these shenanigans!

Everypony shares a laugh at that one! Woo! On a roll!

Left this time, which is now forward. And being that this room is no different than the last two, this could get confusing. You ask Amy to draw up a map of where you’ve gone so far.

After you finish laughing at Amy’s apparent inability to draw even the simplest structures, she explains that the lines through the “walls” are supposed to indicate doorways.

Twist asks if Amy would like to draw a hand-stitched watermelon slice next time and you completely lose it and begin rolling on the stone floor in an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

You joke about turning on the air conditioning because it’s too hot. That seems to get a chuckle or two at least.

You and Princess lead the march crossing the room and head through the right doorway, which is now forward. The next room is similar to the last; just barren farmland. Aside from the curvature of the outside wall digging a little more into the overall room’s size, making it a little smaller, you can’t spot any difference at a glance.

You can only go back or to the left from here.

You draw a smithing tool from one of the bags Twist is carrying and quickly etch a simplified depiction of a flower into one of the walls, adjacent to the doorway to the left. When asked why, you reply that it’s a visual marker, so you’ll know which way is back. When asked why it’s so close to the exit… You don’t really have a good answer.

You approach the doorway to the left, now in front of you, and signal for Princess to approach with her light. As you and Princess slowly enter, the contents of the room are revealed.

There’s a stone walkway around the outside of the room, in the center are what appear to be rows of once tilled farmland. They’re frozen and barren, of course, but the formation is very picturesque. Evidently, crops were once raised here; placed indoors to keep the weather out. Considering the lack of sunlight and warmth, it’s hard to believe anything could have grown here, though. Maybe there was a trick to it.

Either way, there’s nothing of interest readily apparent in this room.

There’s a doorway forward and another to the right.

Trying to get a word in proves to be difficult, and Princess and Amy seem far more heated this time than before.

You decide to lead by example and leave the two of them to bicker like fillies. Twist follows behind you as you both begin your way, quietly, toward the semi-circular building. It’s not long before Princess and Amy get the hint and rush to catch up.

While advancing, you keep an eye out in the direction of the giant. While you can’t see it, the rhythmic hooffalls remain the same. If the shadow is heading toward you, it’s doing so slowly.

The four of you successfully reach and enter the semi-circular building once again. Princess emits a light from her horn but you remember the entrance, relatively anyway. Straight ahead of the long hallway you’re in is a curve that goes the length of the building. To the left is an open doorway leading to a room that’s too dark to see inside. The stone walls are bare. No marks of interest, blah blah blah. It’s still cold, but with your blanket-rigged cape and cowl it’s not too bad.

You cautiously duck back behind the pillar, but you’re beginning to wonder if that’s even necessary. If it didn’t see you when it was looking right at you, it probably can’t see through the snowfall.

After asking about the possibility of waiting for the giant to go away, Amy reminds you that the canyon is boxed. There’s no surface route in or out. Twist argues that if the giant wasn’t there before, it had to come from somewhere. Princess mentions her previous theory and says that the giant is probably there because of Twist.

Amy confronts Princess again and tells her that it’s not fair to keep singling out Twist and the two of them start to argue again.

Being the only two not at each other’s throats, you ask for Twist’s input about possibly running or sneaking to the semi-circle building. Twist takes the binoculars back and watches the giant for a moment. She says that if the shadow is making such a loud noise when it steps at that great of a distance, it must have as much, if not more weight than even a full-grown dragon, though much smaller. And no creature of that size with that much weight would be able to sprint very fast, if it could run at all.

She puts the binoculars away and remarks that sneaking might be an issue if Amy and Princess continue fighting.

You look again with the binoculars to see if the giant shadow has… well, a shadow. Either it doesn’t, or you can’t see it from here. It could just be too dark from the snow and clouds. You can’t tell if it’s breathing and its movements don’t seem scripted. It’s just walking.

Not settling on that answer just yet, you ask Amy and Princess if they noticed the shadows that attacked them having shadows. Neither of them can recall. As for breathing and movement, Princess says the shadow she saw breathed.

While you’re at it, you point out that generosity is the cure for greed. Princess disagrees using some fairly hateful words.

Poddymouth.

If you want to lie to everypony else, that’s one thing, but you’re not about to lie to yourself. You do not have split personality. These ideas are just every possible angle you can think up at the time.

Besides, it would be Schizophrenia, not split personality, which isn’t even the proper name of that mental disorder.

Double besides, all of you are already hiding. And how are you supposed to just blackout on command?

You ask if a diplomatic approach with the giant is at all possible, to which Amy and Princess flat-out refuse. It’s not just a giant, it’s a shadow. Those things attacked without provocation and stole something valuable from Amy and Princess. They need to get back what was stolen. But you’ve no way of knowing if that giant has whatever it was.

Amy remarks that what was stolen wasn’t necessarily valuable, but Princess disagrees. The two begin to argue, but with mind enough to keep their voices down.

You turn to Princess and ask her what should be done, commenting that her regal name must surely leave her the most qualified to make such a decision.

After tripping on her words for a few seconds, she remarks that she thought you were The Leader and she was just The Lancer, to which you scoff. You’re obviously the Action Girl and she’s the Deadpan Snarker. Amy seems to take offense to this, believing she’s the action girl, but offers no explanation for what everyone else is. She may not understand the conversation taking place here.

You have a sinking suspension that Amy’s The Big Girl, specifically a Cute Bruiser. Though you can’t shake the notion that she may turn out to be an Anti-Hero of some kind.

Twist reminds everyone that this conversation doesn’t matter. You’re obviously the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits and there’s probably more at stake here than anyone yet realizes.

You secretly hope that Twist turns out to be the Team Mom. You’d even settle for The Chick. Just as long as she doesn’t wind up being The Load.

Though now you’re left wondering who The Smart Girl is.

With all the time that’s passed, you’re fairly certain now that the giant doesn’t know you’re there. You could take command, or ask someone else what to do.

You draw the binoculars from your second bag that Twist is carrying and scan the area from behind a pillar. Incidentally, the others take your cue and hide also. You wish you had a cardboard box to hide under, then you could be like that video game character!

“I was born on a battlefield…” You repeat in your head, like a Mantra. You may be misquoting that; who knows?

From in the distance you see it. Were it not completely black, it would be obscured from the snow. The silhouette of a pony marches slowly to the left, somewhere between the building with a large roof and the long, flat building. From the distance, the shadow’s undetailed body looks small, but your open range experience tells you it’s much larger. Possibly only a little shorter than the awning you’re under.

For just a moment, its head turns to look at you and locks with your gaze. Its eyes, some strange, white, swirling threads that dance around in a relative, but unpredictable circle. You pull back behind the pillar to hide from the vortex-like stare and realize your vision was starting to fade to black. You relay what you saw to the others. Amy remarks that there certainly wasn’t a giant when she scanned around yesterday.

You have no idea if your fading vision was something the giant consciously did or just an affect its gaze causes. It may or may not be aware of your presence.

Something finally happens! Sort of!

Both of your bags are pretty heavy, but Twist likely doesn’t have much experience with rope, while you on the other hand do. Your sister taught you how quite some time ago, and while you’re likely a little rusty you’ll probably get the hang of it quickly. To that end, you take the bag with the Food, Water, and Rope and she takes the bag with your Smithing Tools, Binoculars, and Towel. The one exception being your Multitool. It’s small size makes it easy to store just about anywhere. You place it in the food/water side of your bag.

Twist loads up with the two bags she’s carrying and the four of you head into the armory. Twist stops and asks about a weapon for herself. With only the spear and staff remaining, she chooses the staff. It won’t do as much damage as the spear, but it’ll be lighter to swing, which should help considering she’s weighted down.

As you travel down the tunnel leading to the box-canyon, you ask if Twist has seen the map. She has and agrees with your proposition to head back to the semi-circular building. You get the feeling that she doesn’t really have much of an opinion on the matter one way or the other. Which is understandable considering she has even less knowledge on what’s going on than you do. And you don’t know much.

As you travel, the four of you drape your Blankets over your heads and down the length of your bodies, tied about the neck to hold them steady with some Strong Silk Straps provided by Amy. This should help keep you warm against the cold.

You also reflect again on your choice of weapon. The gauntlet certainly isn’t optimal, the bow and arrow isn’t either. Sure, you can draw it, but with questionable accuracy. But you’ve read horror stories about monsters that can do harm just by coming into contact with the skin. It’s best to keep some kind of barrier between you and whatever it is you’re up against.

You wonder for a moment if maybe there was something at your house you could have brought to defend yourself with instead. Or maybe you could make something with your tools, if you could find a forge of course.

Without bothering to stop, the four of you head out into the still falling snow, but you don’t get far before turning right around and heading back under the awning. There’s some terrifying noise out there. Echoing, rhythmic booms; like the footfalls of a giant.

You wake with a start and a snort, flinging yourself forward in a fit of shock when you don’t recognize where you are. Your three companions turn to you and stare. You blink from the light while your eyes adjust. It’s morning already. Evidently you not only slept through your shift, you slept for twelve hours. It’s 8 AM.

You eat something light while everpony packs their things together. You try to catch what the others are talking about, but you’re still too drowsy to make anything out.

Before all of you can move, you need to decide what to do with your stuff. Either you carry one bag and Twist carries two. Twist carries both of your bags plus her own. Or you leave a bag or two behind. And if you do, which ones?

This shouldn’t be too hard. Decisions will only get tougher as the day goes on.

Your mind wonders off…

You live in a small, ranch-style house that doesn’t even have an attic. The notion of owning this whole place? Unreal… You could become a Duchess or a Countess by virtue of ownership! The Duchess of this frozen… wasteland…

Hmm…

Oh! What if you turned it into a race track?! Then you could-

Your stomach growls and you feel a sharp pain. Your hoof clutches your tummy-tum and you explain how tired and hungry you are. The group agrees to eat, rest, and sleep for now. Everypony will rotate a guard-shift every two-and-a-half hours. Your shift is last, so you eat up, crawl under your blanket, and fall asleep to the sound of the others still talking.

Of course, you’ll still have to decide about what to do with the baggage situation in the morning. For now, you dream about racing for some reason.

You feel bad about all of this, but there’s no way you could have known, right?

You try to persuade Princess and Amy that Twist will be a great help, but with no real direction you just can’t seem to find the right words to say. Even you wouldn’t be convinced by what you said.

Twist looks upset.

The four of you head back inside and you distribute some of the things you brought. You pass a Blanket to Princess and Amy while keeping one for yourself; Twist brought her own. Food and Water are also distributed. You packed enough food for a few days. With all the snow on the ground you didn’t feel the need to pack too much water. Either way hunger and thirst should be no concern.

Princess’ bag contains fragile equipment, so Amy takes the Spade, Lighter, and you give her the Scarf as well since flying will leave her the most vulnerable to the cold. This leaves one of your saddlebags empty.

When you regain your Clawed Gauntlet, Bow, plus 20 Arrows, Twist offers to carry both of your bags as well as her own. This would leave you light on your feet and with a notable advantage even if sneaked up on, but would leave her encumbered. Alternately, she could carry her bag and only one of yours. Of course, you don’t necessarily have to carry all of this stuff around with you either. Maybe this room is safe and nothing would happen to it if left alone. Maybe.

At present, you can’t possibly carry everything you have and have access to it at the same time. If you carry the Bow and Quiver, you can only carry one bag.

Bag 1: Smithing Tools+Multitool+Binoculars/Blanket+Towel+Half Empty.

Bag 2: Food+Water/Rope.

…

You hadn’t noticed it until now, but you’re both hungry and pretty tired. You haven’t ate since before all of this began, and haven’t rested since then either. You’re a strong, hardy earth pony, but even you have your limits.

Tears start to form in your eyes and you hold your head in pain. That blunt trauma, plus the loss of blood are probably what’s giving you a headache.

Probably.

You ask your friend Twist if she has a pair of binoculars, which she does as she developed a fondness for sightseeing some time ago. As she goes to fetch them, you let her know that she’s welcome to come with you, but that this is dangerous and you aren’t sure how things will end.

She replies to the affect that she’d never leave you to go alone, and would be delighted to help save your new friends. She begins to quickly pack a few things.

With that settled, and your nose no longer bleeding, the two of you set off back up the mountain. During your march, you and she make light conversation about things that have happened since last you spoke. Nothing vital, though.

You arrive and pass through the open gate at around 7 PM. It’s nighttime now and seeing is much harder than it was earlier. As you approach the hall where you left Princess and Amy, you hear them stir from inside and greet you by the doorway. Their greetings quickly change in tone when they see you aren’t alone. They talk rapidly and in a hushed tone between one another before asking why you brought somepony else. They both sound upset.

Twist seems put off and uncomfortable by all this, so you scold Princess and Amy for their behavior. They explain that they’ve pieced together a theory.

Whenever somepony passes that gate, another shadow appears, or the same one gains another form. Regardless of how it works, the larger the group, the greater the danger all of you are in.

This information is certainly startling, but if true, nothing can be done about it now. It’s already too late.