Flight's eyes opened to darkness; if not for the actual tactile sensation of her eyes opening, she probably wouldn't have been able to tell that she had. Honestly, she probably would have kept lying there, hugged by the edges of the bushes, if the grass in front of her face hadn't had the nerve to brush ever so slightly in the breeze against her muzzle. It tickled.

Sighing, the pegasus pushed herself up to her hooves. The night air was chilly but not unbearable; Flight found herself glad that she had her fur coat to shield her at least somewhat from the worst of it. Yawning, she looked up to the sky and, through the shadows of the treetops, was able to make out a few pinpricks of light in the dark expanse above. What would have been a calm, serene scene in the night, however, was interrupted by the buzzsaw-like snores of the colt lying in the grass just a metre away. Flight rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Kevin, wake up," she said softly, putting a hoof on the colt's shoulder. In the faint light from above, she could see his body curled up, hugging one of the adjacent bushes. His muzzle was curved upwards into a slight, dreamy smile. He seemed not to have heard her. She figured she could allow him at least a little more sleep; they may have been in a hurry, but she was sure a few more minutes couldn't hurt, especially if they made Kevin happy.

Flight stepped over back to where her saddlebag rested and pulled out her comlink to check the time. 2016 read the white serifed digits on the LED screen. She was about to stuff it back in her bag when she remembered the camera function, and decided to press the little icon. In a moment, she had turned on the flash and set the timer to five seconds. Then, she held the device out in front of her with a foreleg, camera pointing at her, and waited for the click and the brief yet bright burst of light which illuminated the entire patch of forest around them for just a second. Flight blinked at the flash of light, seeing the faint red reflection of the comlink in her eyelids. She opened her eyes once again and brought the device closer to her so she could look at the photograph.

What she was most stricken by was not the way the forest scene around her in the photo was eerily illuminated in artificial tones due to the use of flash and the camera's automatic colour correction. Nor was she shocked to see her gaunt, weary face staring back at her, looking much as ever yet with large purplish bags under her eyes that marred the smooth yellow surface.

No, what made Flight blink in surprise and nearly drop the comlink where she stood was the distant form of a fox somewhere off to the left.

The creature in and of itself was frightening and bizarre, especially in the odd lighting of the photo where its eyes were green and unnatural and the light glinted off the fangs in its open mouth. What made the photo all the more confusing and alarming, though, was the reflective star shape on its forehead, right above the spot between the creature's eyes. It was impossible to make out the true colour of the thing, since the colours in the photo were so washed out, but the fact that it was reflective enough to be lit up by the flash made Flight think of what Kevin had been saying, just earlier that day...

The filly slowly turned around to look at the inky blackness of the forest behind her. She could make out a few dark shapes of tree trunks, but not much else. If only she had some way to light it up...

"Kevin!" Flight whisper-yelled, leaning down near his head so he'd hear her. A snore quickly became a snort and then a gasp for air.

"Guhhh..." Kevin guhhh'd, his eyes opening slowly. He released his hold on the bush, stretching out his limbs in front of and behind him as he yawned. Flight was nearly distracted by the sight of it, this colt waking up and doing all these little cute things he couldn't help, but she remembered the task at hoof and snapped herself out of it.

"Kevin! I need you to stand up and light up your horn!" Flight whisper-yelled. "Quick, it's important!"

"Mmmfff... can't you give a girl a little bit of warning first...? Heeheehee..."

"Huh?"

Kevin's eyes rocketed open and he shot up to a standing position. "Huh, that was a very weird and unpleasant dream I just had. Anyway, what did you need me to do?"

Flight blinked. "Oh... um... light, please." Kevin closed his eyes in concentration and, in a moment, the forest around them was awash in green light emanating from the colt's horn.

"Ya happy?" he asked. "What did you need this for, anyway?"

Flight had already swivelled around on her hooves, eyes darting around in the space behind her where she knew she had seen the fox in the photo. She could even see the same snaking pattern in the bark on one of the trees, looking sinister and almost like it was slithering around in the verdant light. But the fox was nowhere to be seen.

"Flight?"

"I... uh, I thought I saw something out there, like a fox or something. Doesn't look like it's there anymore, though."

"Oh, weird," Kevin said. "Can I go back to sleep now? I was having the loveliest dream..."

Flight turned back around to face him and raised an eyebrow. "Huh? I thought you said it was unpleasant?"

"Eheh... sometimes things can be a mixture of both, y'know?"

"Um, I guess. Anyway, no, you can't go back to sleep. It's nighttime, don't you see? We've gotta get moving now that we can get across the bridge."

"Nnnngh," Kevin nnnngh'd. "But sleep is so... sleepy."

Flight laughed. "Your way with words is incredible. Let's go, c'mon," she said, trotting over to the path. Kevin had no choice but to follow her, looking down to see where the branches of bushes were so he could avoid them. By the time he got to the path, she was nearly at the mouth of the bridge and he had to gallop to catch up.

"Whoa, what's got you all awake right away?" Kevin asked, panting. He pulled up alongside Flight, who had slowed her pace at the mouth of the bridge. Together, they set hoof across it.

"I dunno, I just woke up really awake," she replied. "Ready to get going. Which is good, 'cause the sooner we get there, the sooner we can get back to Doc Zed."

"Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot about him," Kevin said. "What d'you think he's up to right now, anyway?"

"Heh, he's probably already gutted the entire ship and is converting it into a robot shark or something weird like that. You never really know with the guy."

Kevin blinked. "Does he do robots now?"

"Argent, you've been away for a while. You should have seen some of the crazy crap he got up to... there was this one time, not a few months ago, where he built these robot bees, that..."

Flight went on, detailing all sorts of shenanigans that Doc Zed had gotten up to in the past few years, occasionally with Flight's (or other ponies') assistance. These ranged from the small, like miniature propulsion systems designed for use in the kitchen, to the large, such as the aforementioned robotic animals. Her stories, however, distracted both her and Kevin from the fact that they had crossed over the bridge, over the ravine, and were still walking along the path to Umberlight, exactly like how Doc Zed told them they shouldn't do. Somewhere, in the darkness of the forest around them, a vulpine silhouette darted between the bushes in a path parallel to that of the two young ponies.