"Hello? Planet to ponies? Answer me!" The stallion leaned inward, squinting his eyes.

"Oh, c'mon, Remark... you're scaring them. They're just kids, after all." It was the mare that said this, though Kevin and Flight could barely see her through the night—the dark purple shade of her coat helped her to blend in well with their surroundings.

"Even if they're just kids, they could still be spies for the Bureau—Axiiduk knows we knew what we were doing at that age." the lemur said pointedly. His voice was nasally yet without the shakiness that often was coupled with nasally voices—he sounded determined with each word that he spoke. "Or, even if not actually with the Bureau, they're totally Kindred natives. How do we know they won't just go squeal to the officials?"

"Fellas, please..." The mare put a hoof to her forehead and sighed before looking back up. "You haven't even let them say their bit. Put 'em down."

The stallion—presumably named Remark—raised an eyebrow but did what the mare told him and slowly, gently lowered Kevin and Flight so that the young ponies' hooves touched down on the grass. They were still enveloped in his blue magical field—obviously he didn't trust them that much—but it was something, at least.

"Now that I've let you down... you had better start talking. Who are you?"

Flight raised her head high. "My name is Flight and this is my friend Kevin. We come from the village of Dienna and we're going to Umberlight."

The lemur whistled. "Umberlight, huh? What business do you have there?"

"We're... um..." Flight looked down, kicking her hoof at the dirt.

"We're going to pick up parts to repair an illegal alien spaceship," Kevin said, looking Remark in the eye.

Flight gasped. "Kevin—"

"What? Based on what we heard them say, these ponies aren't any friendlier to the Bureau than we are. We need to trust who we can." He paused. "Also, we don't have much choice, since we're in this magic field and I couldn't think of any convincing lies."

At this, the lemur grinned. "I like this kid already."

The mare sighed again and, hopping off her seat on the log, moseyed on over to Remark's side in front of where Kevin and Flight stood. "You were just about to behead them a second ago, Mango. Didn't realise children could win your affection so easily."

"Yeah, but did you hear the kid? He doesn't know how to lie! This is my calling: to mentor children in my special talent!"

"Your special talent is 'mango', if the little symbol on your butt is to be believed," Remark cut in.

"Aw, shuddup."

The mare—Fourth—facehoofed. "I apologise for my companions... they sometimes seem to lack the capability to take things seriously. What I was going to ask, though, is if you have any way to prove we can trust you. Not that I don't want to trust you or anything, but—well, if you really are going to run off and tell the Bureau where we are, we're going to be in hot water."

"I-I don't think there's anything," Flight stammered. She was trembling at this point, which Kevin found odd; the filly had stood so strong in the face of these and other unfamiliar ponies before and it wasn't like the air had gotten any colder—on the contrary, Kevin now felt quite toasty since they were so close to the fire.

"I mean, you can take a look at the stuff in my saddlebag if you really want to," Kevin said, gesturing with his eyes in the general direction of behind him. He could feel the bag being suddenly grasped by pink magic that soared out from the mare's horn, and the bag suddenly got a fair bit lighter.

"What's this?" Fourth asked, eyeing the object in front of her curiously. It was the book of Scootaloo's—Sea, if Kevin remembered correctly.

"Oh, it's just some book. From the aliens."

"Alien is right... I've seen a lot of books in my day, but never one bound like this. Where in the hay—"

"C-Can you pl-please let us free?" Flight squeaked. All eyes turned towards her, except Kevin's since his face was still locked in place. "I-I'm feeling claustrophobic."

"Oh, I'm sorry—here." The blue glow that had illuminated Remark's horn fizzled out and with it disappeared the magical field around Kevin and Flight. Kevin could feel his muscles pulsing—his flesh actually expanding outward. He hadn't realised how much he felt like he was being squeezed.

"This book is strange, sure, but it doesn't really prove anything," Fourth said, eyeing the young ponies cautiously. The book was now in the hands of the lemur, who was leafing through the pages quickly behind her.

"Well, we're not going to go run off and tell anyone or anything. Isn't that right, Flight?"

Flight blinked. "Huh? Oh, um, yeah! You can count on us!" Her cheeks were flushed, probably with a mixture of warmth from the fire and her embarrassment.

The mare nodded. "You can stay with us for tonight, then—it's not really safe in these woods for two kids like yourselves to be walking around all on your lonesome. There's timberwolves in these parts, y'know?"

"That's alright, but we really should get going—" Kevin hurriedly sputtered out, but he was interrupted.

"No, no, please do stay!" Remark put a hoof around the colt's shoulder. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know how to get to Minutiae, would you...?"

Flight watched as the stallion whisked Kevin away to one of the logs by the fire; the filly, however, was content to just stand there.

"Heh... again, sorry about these fellas," the mare said, turning to Flight. "They're not so bad once you get used to them. And Aureate knows I had to do a lot of getting used to them..."

"Eheh... hopefully I won't have to," Flight said, still watching Kevin who was now intently scratching a diagram out in the ground with his hoof while the stallion watched. "We really need to get to Umberlight as soon as we can."

"And I'm sure you will... though I'm not sure why you'd want to, to be honest. We just came from there, actually. Lived in the city for fifteen years."

"Dang... what made you leave?"

"...it's complicated." The mare looked down at her hooves, and then looked back right up at Flight. "Hey, I just realised, I never properly introduced myself! My name's Fourth Estate, and these are my colleagues Bold Remark"—she pointed at the stallion—"and Mango." The lemur waved at the mention of his name, looking up from the volume he was still holding.

"Oh... erm... nice to meet you..." Flight sighed and followed Fourth Estate over to the left log, sitting down atop it just like she had seen the ponies doing just several minutes earlier when she and Kevin had been watching them from the grass. Fourth Estate started to talk, something something about journalism and newspapers and stuff like that, and Flight tried to pay attention but couldn't help tuning it out as she gazed at the red-hot embers in the centre of the fire pit and, occasionally, she would steal glances at Kevin who was still hard at work drawing his diagram.