A mare fresh on a start to her life on her own farm, Cider, finds a young filly collapsed during a snowstorm. She takes in the little foal and nurses her back to health, but the filly seems to not trust anypony she comes across. While she is able to come up with a passable story as to who she is, Cider can't help but suspect that there is a lot more to this than she could know.

Beacon is a town under nightly siege by monsters that shun the light. Deep in the dense, dark forest that surrounds and cages the town lay many even darker secrets. The young colts and fillies have spent their entire lives in the town, unable to breach that forest that both entraps and threatens them. None dare go near, and as they will learn, those who do suffer fate worse than death. One such colt is struggling to find his way, and in doing so, learns just what is going on with Beacon and uncovers its hidden history.