As they walked along the edge of the ravine, the only sounds in hearing distance for Flight and Kevin were the chirps of the birds above and their hoofsteps in the dirt. The morning air was fresh and crisp; although the two young ponies hadn't gotten any sleep the night before, they weren't yet that sleepy.

Kevin yawned.

Each time the birdsong above coalesced into a new melody, Flight almost unconsciously would repeat it, humming the new phrase until there was an even newer one. This went on as much as the two young ponies went on, passing trees to their right and the open ravine to their left.

That is, until Kevin stopped suddenly. Flight walked a few more steps before she saw him no longer in her peripheral vision. She stopped and turned to face the colt, who was looking intently into the trees.

"Kevin? What's wrong?" Flight asked. He seemed not to have heard her, though; he just tilted his head and continued staring into the forest.

"No—don't drag her into this! It doesn't have anything to do with her!" Kevin shouted, his voice reverberating down the ravine.

"Kevin, what?" Flight took a step in his direction but Kevin put out a hoof in her direction, signaling her to stop.

"Don't come any closer," Kevin said tersely. "You should probably run—I'll hold him off until I can get away."

Flight blinked. "Hold who off? There's nopony there, Kevin." And indeed, as far as she could see, Kevin was staring at an empty patch of the woods. All that was there were the thick trunks of trees and the green bushes between them.

Kevin finally pulled his eyes away from the spot for a moment to turn to Flight. "What do you mean, there's nothing there? Just look at hi—oh." Kevin blinked, having turned back to see there was just an empty space. "Ugh, he must have gotten away..."

Flight raised an eyebrow. "Who, Kevin? I didn't see anypony there, even when you were looking straight at that spot."

"Erm, nothing..." Kevin's eyes darted around shiftily. "Must have just been a trick of the light, I guess."

"You've always had a terrible poker face," Flight said matter-of-factly.

"...and?"

"And I know you're lying—you definitely at least think you saw something there."

"Um..." Kevin felt his heart rate quicken.

"Why don't you trust me, Kevin?" Flight asked, her features fraught with worry. "Why do you feel like you need to hide this, whatever it is?"

Kevin frowned. "It's just... uh... I don't know if you'd believe me if I told you, to be honest."

"Try me."

Kevin took a deep breath "Ever since... ever since my parents died, I've been seeing these animals with gold star stickers on their foreheads, and nopony else seems to be able to see 'em. And I've been seeing them more and more often. Then they started talking, and it's always the same voice talking from them. I stopped seeing them when I was offworld, both with the ponies from the Gnostic planet and also with that orange filly, but they've come back now that I'm back."

Flight didn't answer at first; it seemed to take her a moment to process everything he said. "Well, that is pretty hard to believe, but... I said you had a pretty bad poker face, and you seem pretty dang real about this right now. So, talkin' animals, huh? What do they say?"

"It's really weird... they were nice at first, but they got meaner and meaner 'cause they kept telling me to do stuff like run away and I wouldn't. And they call me—um... they know things about me that I haven't ever told anypony else before. It's really weird." Kevin's heart was beating even faster.

Flight raised an eyebrow, but didn't address the subject further. "Hmm. Well, anyway, whatever animal that was there seems to be gone now, so I guess we should probably keep going. Right?"

Kevin looked at her. "Yeah, let's go. It would be good if we could make a little more progress before we need to sleep." He started again down the path, and Flight walked alongside him.

"Hah! Sleep!" Flight exclaimed, regaining the cheery tone that had momentarily dissipated from her voice. "I had almost forgotten about that old thing. You know what they say, Kev."

"What?" Kevin asked, not really paying attention. His mind was evidently still in other places.

"Sleep is for the weak!"

Kevin smiled. "I mean, I guess it is Wednesday."

Flight groaned. "In some ways, you've changed so much that I can hardly recognise you. But then you remind me that you haven't changed a bit."

They walked on in silence for a while after that, Flight continuing on with her humming game with the birds. Kevin tried to ignore the rustling sounds he knew he heard in the forest beside him, instead choosing to focus on his companion's voice. It was difficult, though, and he had the distinct feeling the whole time that he was being watched.