"Hey, Kevin?"

"Mmmm?" Kevin hummed in a questioning tone. His eyelids were nearly shut.

"You awake, kid?" He could hear Gloss's footsteps stop, so he followed suit.

"Mmmm..." This time, Kevin's tone descended in vague acknowledgement.

"You might wanna open your eyes for this." Gloss's tone was fairly serious, so Kevin yawned wide and then opened his eyes with a few blinks. And the stallion had been correct—Kevin did indeed want to have his eyes open for this.

The forest around them had given way to a large clearing, where up in the sky the pink and orange hues of the sunset were a vibrant wash from edge to edge. What interested Kevin more, however, was what lay below. Even though they were still dozens of metres away, the familiar brick cottages that made up a uniform edge to Dienna were clearly visible. At the sight of them, Kevin could feel his heart pumping harder inside his chest. He began to gallop down the path.

"Wait up, boy!" Gloss called after him, trotting briskly in an effort to catch up. Kevin was fast, though, quickly closing the distance between himself and the houses closest to the forest. Around the two ponies—and the town itself—was a wide expanse of grass that looked like a formless green sea in the dim evening light, shifting in the soft breeze. Kevin paid it no mind, though; he just kept running, hooves thumping onto the mulch over and over. He didn't stop until there were brick buildings on either side of him, where he skidded to a halt in the middle of the path.

Less than a minute later, Gloss stopped beside Kevin, panting and wheezing for breath; he was ignored, however, as Kevin gazed out from where he stood in the middle of the path at the houses around them. They were fairly small one story affairs, mostly composed of brick although a few ones had wooden additions to the side. The houses were laid out in neat, even rows on either side of the road, each with a grassy yard in front. They weren't exactly the same—each had its own little features that set it apart—but there was still a distinct uniformity to the houses when looked at all at once.

"Hasn't changed much since last time I was here," Kevin mumbled under his breath.

Gloss turned to him with a confused look. "How could it have? Didn't you just say you were visiting relatives in the next town over?"

"Oh, erm, right," Kevin replied. He felt his face grow hot. "Eheh... I was only gone for a few weeks. But I was surprised that... th-that the lanterns are still up! Ponies usually take 'em down around this time of year." He pointed with a hoof to one of the houses off the left side of the trail where, as he had said, there were plain, spherical paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling of the porch. They were aglow and flickering; a quick look down the block revealed that all of the others had already been lit for the night too. It was just as well—in less than an hour, the sky would be a deep navy blue before turning to black.

"Oh, that makes sense," Gloss replied, still trying to catch his breath. Kevin could tell that the stallion was by no means a young pony. "We've got a similar tradition underground, but we use electronic lights... you probably knew that, though. I remember hearing about these in school but I've never seen one in real life. Do you think I could get a closer look at the ones at your house?"

Kevin blinked. "Come again?"

"You know, your house. Isn't that were we're going."

Kevin gulped. In his hurry, he'd forgotten all about their destination. "Um, not quite. We'll make it to my house eventually—I promise—but I've gotta find and talk to a friend of my dad's first."

"Don't you think it could wait 'til the morning? The guy probably won't want to be interrupted this late."

"No, it's really important I talk to her. And... um... I heard that she moved while I was gone but I dunno exactly where she moved to so I'm gonna need to ask somepony in town."

"Well, alright, if you insist. S'long as I've got somewhere to rest these ol' bones for the night."

"Awesome! C'mon!" Kevin was already galloping down the road again before Gloss knew what was going on. The older pony sighed and started after Kevin with a brisk trot.

A few moments after the ponies both had left that part of the path, the front door clicked and swung inwards on the house Kevin had pointed to. An older mare trotted out onto her porch, down the few wooden steps, across the path that went through her front lawn, and then finally into the centre of her road. Her gaze was trained on the receding forms of the larger stallion and smaller colt.

"Well I'll be... if that's not Kevin come back after all these years, I'll eat my hat..." She looked out down the street as long as she could see the two ponies, and even a little longer, but she soon returned back to the warmth of her house from the evening chill.