Andromeda

by Copernicus

Rating: teen
Tags: Other, Original Character, Science Fiction, Scootaloo, Adventure, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 229279

Scootaloo flies into the depths of space.

Scootaloo flies into the depths of space.

Evidently inspired by and indebted to Imploding Colon's Austraeoh.

Published 2015-12-11 00:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-05-31 04:24:40 UTC

Gurgle

Scootaloo was bored. Sure, staring out into space was pretty and all, but her muscles were itching for a scooter ride. But there wasn't any space for that... kind of ironic when she thought about it, given that wide open space was what she was travelling through. All she could do then was sit in the pilot's chair and look out in front, steering occasionally so that she didn't hit any more moons.

Then her belly gurgled. She grinned; this was exactly what she had been looking for. A legitimate, totally-not-an-excuse reason to go somewhere else and do something else because just sitting there was driving her nuts. Scootaloo hopped out of the seat and trotted on the metal down to the hallway. About halfway between the cockpit and the living quarters, she stopped and turned to the left, where the wall was interrupted by a niche that led downwards. Scootaloo backed into it, carefully placing each back hoof onto the thin metal ladder rungs. Slowly but surely, she descended her fuzzy orange body into the darkened depths of the ship's belly.

One she reached the bottom and let go of the ladder, Scootaloo stood there in the darkness, only illuminated by the light shining down from the hallway above. Groping around on the right wall, Scootaloo's hoof finally made contact with a light switch that she flicked upwards. A few light fixtures on the ceiling immediately buzzed to life. Scootaloo walked forward, unfazed.

The room illuminated by the lights was a small cavity in the ship's underbelly—a rectangular room lined with reflective metal cabinets and a counter on the far wall. There were darkened hallways jutting off from the room on both the left and right sides, but Scootaloo paid them no mind. She walked forward quickly towards the counter and the cabinets below and above it.

When she reached the cabinets, she paused for a moment, glancing around at the metal storage spaces in front of her. Then, once she made up her mind, she pulled a small stool from the side of the room over to the centre, directly in front of the cabinets. Scootaloo climbed atop the thing and clasped her teeth around the cabinet handle in front of her. It was cold—the very feel of the metal by her gums sent a shiver down her spine—but Scootaloo, determined, opened the cabinet. She had to readjust her hoofing as she went, careful not to fall off the stool, but she finally had the cabinet door wide open, allowing her to see what lay inside. There was nothing.

Scootaloo blinked. "Huh? I could have sworn..." She hopped down off the stool, scooted it over several inches, and hopped back up. She opened the next cabinet, this one a bit quicker than before.

But inside there was nothing; the sheer metal surfaces of the shelves and back wall just reflected her fuzzy, bewildered orange face back at her.

"Oh crud oh crud oh crud," Scootaloo muttered to herself, sweating. She reached over with a hoof and flung open another cabinet. As with the other two, it was completely empty. "Dang it!"

She hopped down off the stool with a loud metal clang and bucked it aside. It hit the metal wall with another clang. Without stopping, Scootaloo lifted her front hooves and pulled open one of the drawers below the counter, wincing slightly as the metal handle dug into the flesh by her hooves. But, once the drawer had opened far enough, she saw that it had all been worth it.

A small, yellow cardboard box lay on its side in the back of the drawer; Scootaloo's ears perked up as it came into view. She reached her hooves in and pulled the thing upwards, out of the drawer, and onto the metal floor where she set it down softly. Scootaloo bent down to get a closer look.

It very much resembled a box of crackers. The front of the box read "Gamsco's" in green bubble letters; underneath it, there was a picture of what looked to be brown, bready balls in a plastic bowl. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow, but set to ripping off the top with her teeth anyway. It came off quickly; most Equestrian packaged food was designed with teeth-tear tops for the non-unicorns. A glance inside confirmed that what was on the front of the box was indeed what was inside: brown, bready balls, about a third the size of her hoof. Up close, they didn't exactly look all that appetising.

Scootaloo's stomach gurgled again. She frowned. Then, reaching in a hoof, she managed to scoop one of the balls out of the box. It looked no more appealing once out in the light; she could see every groove of the thing, the little wrinkles through the brown. She sighed and then closed her eyes... and dropped it into her mouth. She bit down into it with her molars and began to chew.

And, honestly, it wasn't that bad. It didn't really taste like much—the closest thing Scootaloo could think of was bread, but a little more like dirt. Which, when she thought about it, was a little gross. So she tried not to think about that. But, whatever this "Gamsco's" food was... it wasn't that bad. She could stomach it. In fact, after eating just the one, she didn't really feel hungry anymore. Scootaloo put the box back into the drawer and closed it.

Curious, Scootaloo turned to the other drawers and opened them one by one. Sure, the stuff wasn't bad—but it wouldn't hurt to have something else to eat once in a while too. However, most were empty. The few that did contain something unfortunately just contained more boxes of "Gamsco's". It wasn't until the last drawer Scootaloo checked that she saw something worth being excited about.

She was kicking herself for not having thought about it before; without it, she'd be dead meat in just a hoofful of days. But thankfully, in that last drawer, lay several plastic bottles of water. Scootaloo immediately grabbed one in her teeth and set it on the ground so she could unscrew the tiny white lid. One she had broken the seal and gotten the cap off, Scootaloo took a hearty swig. This much water could last her for weeks, if she rationed it out.

But somewhere, in the back of her mind, she knew that these stores of food and water wouldn't last forever, and that trying to stretch them out would just make her die miserably at the end of it. She'd either have to give into that death or stop somewhere along the line to refuel and replenish her supplies.

Crinkle

When she opened her eyes again, Scootaloo felt her mouth fill with the bitter taste of sleep. She was pretty sure that a few hours had passed but there was no way for her to tell; there was no timekeeping device aboard that she had seen, but she felt it all the same. She looked out the window—not that it was an accurate way of telling if anything had changed since all of the world outside looked the same to her, but it was just what was out in front of her. And, as she'd suspected, it looked pretty much no different. The ship just kept cruising on forward, pedal to the metal.

Scootaloo let her head loll backwards. She was used to being bored, yeah—there had been many a time back in Ponyville when Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had been busy with chores and stuff, Rainbow Dash had been too busy being... awesome, and she had run out of scooter tricks and stuff to entertain herself with. But being alone on a spaceship with no idea of when she'd encounter another pony? For lack of a better word... yikes.

As she lay there, Scootaloo thought briefly upon where she was going. That wasn't exactly something she had figured out in advance; she'd been in such a hurry when she left, there had been no time to plan it out. Where she was going and what she was doing was uncertain.

Though, as she thought this, she also remembered something she had remembered to bring with her. With that thought, Scootaloo snapped to attention. She leaned over the front of the seat and dangled her hooves down towards the bag. She pushed the sides of the bag outward to reveal the contents: a thick, brown hardcover book.

Scootaloo opened the front cover of the book with a hoof, revealing the book's title page. This wasn't what interested her, however; it was the small scrap of paper to the left that her purple eyes were drawn to. She lifted the scrap delicately between her hooves and shifted it to her left hoof so she could close the bag with her right. Once she was sitting back upright in the chair, she looked down at the paper in her hooves.

The thing was browned and weathered; it looked as if it would disintegrate if not treated with care. The paper was folded oddly, on the vertical, so that it appeared disproportionately long and thin. Scootaloo used the tips of her hooves to pry apart the edges of the paper, revealing the inside with a crinkle.

The paper was at first glance unremarkable. As a matter of fact, much of it was devoid of marking. What made it interesting was the marking that was there, though, drawn there long ago in black ink.

Circles of varying sizes formed a rough diagonal line across the page. Some of the larger circles were orbited by smaller circles. In the lower right corner, there was the tip of a very large circle; in the upper left, there was a line of dots across the page.

"Hmm... so wait... is Equestria on the first one, or the third one?" Scootaloo wondered aloud. "Aughh... can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish that I'd paid attention on that astro-whatever unit that we did." She traced the line of circles with her hoof. "Hmm... I think I remember Cheerilee saying something about... um... life can't survive on that first planet, cuz it's so toasty there from being so close to the sun," she said, hoof atop the circle. "And it can't be that second one, cuz we only got that one moon. So, yeah, it's gotta be that one there," she finished, hooftip directly above it.

"Dang," Scootaloo said, scratching her head with her free hoof. "It's gonna be a while 'til I get anywhere... ugh." She folded the map back up with another crinkle crinkle and replaced it in the cover of the book just like how she found it. With little else to do in the cockpit, Scootaloo hopped out of the pilot's seat and leisurely walked off down the hallway.

Scribble

Scootaloo lay in her bunk, underneath the sheet. She had her eyes wide open, though; although she was resting, she not once felt the urge to fall asleep. Her gaze was trained upwards at the ceiling where she could see a vague orange blob reflected in the metal ceiling. She raised a hoof and waved; the reflection waved back, with what looked to be a little more enthusiasm. Scootaloo smiled, and turned her head back to rest limply on the pillow.

It was several minutes of lying there later that led her to think about how uncomfortably stiff that pillow behind her head felt. Then, she remembered why. Scootaloo scooted forward on the mattress so that her head was in front of the pillow and then she spun her body around underneath the sheet so that she was nestled in a sitting position with her hooves tucked beneath her torso. She then grabbed the corner of the pillow between her teeth and tossed it backwards, landing on the other side of the bunk.

Where the pillow had sat just seconds prior was a small, black-and-white patterned composition book, much like foals would use in school to take notes and do assignments in. The front had a space where you could write in a subject or a name; it read, in very neat, black cursive, "Scootaloo".

She opened the composition book to a page where it seemed to bulge; as the pages fell open, this bulge was revealed to be a black felt-tip pen without a cap lying in the crook between the pages. Scootaloo leaned her face into the book and grasped the pen in between her teeth. Her eyes scanned the page that lay open, skipping over the thin blue lines that were marred with scribbly script on the top half of the page. No, it was on the bottom half of the page, blank but for those blue lines, that Scootaloo touched down the tip of the pen and then moved it with her mouth in gentle strokes. The lines of ink curved and snaked around into spirals and the contours of equine forms, punctuated by the occasional point or straight line. When she lifted the pen, she did it with clear intention, dropping it to move on to the next figure. Finally, upon completing the rest, Scootaloo went back and added a small symbol to each of the figures. Then, satisfied, she dropped the pen back into the crevice.

What now lay in front of her was a neat line drawing of three young fillies. On the left lay a smiling unicorn with a voluminous, spiralling mane; on the right was an earth pony, also smiling, whose mane was smaller with rounded tips. In between them, holding them together in a hug with her outstretched forelegs, was a pegasus with a shorter, more pointed mane. In contrast, her expression was sombre.

Scootaloo, looking down on the drawing she had just created, had a face to match. She let out a sigh and closed the book. It only took her a few moments to walk over to the other side of the bunk and drag the pillow back over to where her head normally lay, covering the book in the process. Then Scootaloo, with little else to do, climbed down the ladder leading down from the bunk and walked off down the hallway to the cockpit to make sure that she wasn't about to hit anything.

Rumble

"Incorrect passcode. Please try again."

The orange LED screen on the small plastic box was the only illuminant at that end of the hall so its light was all that Scootaloo could use to see the little buttons on the number pad below it. Yet, each time she tried a combination, she got the same result—access denied. First she had tried the standard, default numbers—0000, 1111, and so forth, and then 1234, 4321, and things like that. Then she tried the birth dates of everypony that she knew. Still she could not get in. Scootaloo butted her head against the thick metal door in frustration. As her fuzzy noggin made impact, a loud clang resounded and it echoed down the darkened hallway towards the pantry.

Scootaloo looked back up and punched a final, random number—4527—into the keypad, watching each number appear on the screen as her hoof made contact with the little plastic buttons. When she finished, it took a moment to process the code. But once more, it beeped and flashed the same message. The doors, marked overhead in clear black print with the word "Cargo", refused to budge even in the slightest.

With this last effort, Scootaloo turned tail and trotted away from the closed metal doors. As she continued down the hall, she passed an inlet to her left that led to more closed metal doors, but these were ones she did not dare open—for good reason. Eventually she emerged into the brightly-lit pantry, where one of the drawers beneath the counter already lay open. She walked over to this open drawer and pulled out one of the water bottles. The cool liquid rushed into her mouth, cleansing her mouth of the bitter taste of frustration, but she had to stop herself before she drank too much. If she were to run out... well, she didn't like to think about what would happen.

As she drank, she noticed the ship was... vibrating, perhaps—there was an odd rumbling. It started ever so slight—she only noticed it because she was standing so still—but it grew more and more obvious as the floor and walls of the ship shook around her and soon she could feel the water bottle bouncing around in her grasp. She set it back in the drawer which she promptly closed.

She had only taken a few steps forward towards the ladder when her hooves toppled out from under her, jarred aside from the vibrating metal floor. Wincing, Scootaloo climbed back to her hooves and stumbled forward. She did her best to push her weight into her hooves so that she could stay up; although she was small, this conscious effort of balancing seemed to do the trick.

After several rocky steps, Scootaloo was able to grab hold of the head-high rungs of the ladder with her forehooves and begin pushing herself upwards. She struggled to keep herself anchored to the sheer steel bars; there was barely a hoofhold for her to jam the edge of her hooves into. Yet, with some swaying and a few near-slips, Scootaloo was able to climb and then push her hindquarters upwards with the leverage of her torso until her entire body came to rest on the metal ground of the hallway at the top of the ladder.

Groaning, Scootaloo fought against the wild vibrations that shook the ship's frame in all directions. She managed to pull herself up to stand and then, using the same grounding technique as before, managed to walk ever so slowly down the hallway into the cockpit. Each hoofstep was a challenge; each lifting of a hoof was the exposure of a vulnerability wherein the rumbling tried its hardest to throw her off balance. But she proceeded onwards and, as she entered the cockpit, the front window revealed an unexpected sight.

Though she didn't know exactly what she had expecting, Scootaloo would have guessed something else if she had needed to. A field of tiny asteroids, perhaps. Maybe a cluster of space junk, pieces bumping into and denting the hull. What she saw instead was very different, and indeed Scootaloo threw caution to the wind and galloped over and onto the pilot's seat to get a closer look

The murky blackness of space was interrupted—nay, marred—not just by the smattering of stars like sprinkles on the cake of the universe. There was also, straight ahead, a large, silver shape. It was long and thin, with a body that curved to form what appeared to be a metal tube, tapered on both ends. On the sides were sleek fins that jutted outwards, each emblazoned with a small insignia that was black and white with flecks of green. It was a spaceship and a decent-sized one at that; no, it wasn't any sort of behemoth, but it also was a far cry from the dinky little thing that Scootaloo found herself sitting in, from which she gazed at this foreign vessel.

What was most surprising, though, was not the existence of this other spaceship. Scootaloo had surmised that there would likely be others. She was more alarmed by the fact that this other ship seemed to be getting closer and closer to her own ship with each passing second.

The pegasus filly took a deep breath. She wasn't going to get anywhere if she panicked. She could do something to get out of the situation, something to keep away from this ship and keep going. There was no way to tell if they were friendly and they obviously had the upper hoof so it would be best to just go on. She looked down at her forehooves and placed one on either side of the plastic wheel on the dashboard. And, just like with the moon before, she turned it. Scootaloo turned this wheel with all her might and, after a moment of holding the wheel in place, she began to feel the ship shift course. It made a sharp right turn and soon the other ship was out of sight behind her. The incessant rumbling was even starting to die down. Scootaloo exhaled.

Yet just as she felt like she had pulled away, Scootaloo felt the rumbling start to increase once more. She looked down to see the weighed-down tote bag still on the pedal, but it was no use. Scootaloo could only watch helplessly as the passing of the stars in the window began to slow. In a last ditch effort, the pegasus filly jumped down on top of the bag to sit on the pedal—but this had no effect and the ship continued to lose speed. Eventually, the ship pulled to rest, stuck in a standstill. In frustration, Scootaloo pulled her cheeks down with her forehooves, revealing the dense network of blood vessels in her eye sockets.

After a moment of waiting, Scootaloo could hear a distinctive click coming from somewhere in the back end of the ship. Deciding there little else to do, Scootaloo hopped off the chair and made her way down the hallway and the ladder. As she had expected, it was but a few moments later that she heard several loud knocks coming from the depths of the right hallway. Scootaloo continued down the hallway, hearing them louder this time:

Knock, knock, knock, knock.

"If anypony's in there—please, open up." The gruff masculine voice permeated the metal door of that inlet off the hallway that Scootaloo had just reached.

Contact

Scootaloo held her breath. What to do, what to do... maybe, if she just kept quiet, the ponies on the other side would go away—

"If there's nopony there to open the door, then we're gonna blow the damn thing off its hinges! C'mon—if you're in there, this is your last chance."

Deciding it would be better to face whoever was there on as close to her own terms as possible, Scootaloo took a deep breath and lifted up her right foreleg. She pressed her hoof onto the surface of the big red button that would release the lock on the outer door and cause it to slide open; although she couldn't see it, she felt its round shape at her hooftip. Then, after that moment of deliberation, Scootaloo pushed it. Something inside the metal door in front of her clicked and it slid to the left with a mechanical gasp. Light poured into the hall as the door disappeared into the wall. Once the door had opened completely, Scootaloo blinked.

Standing in the doorway was a large tan-coloured stallion wearing a sheer off-white outfit that covered almost his entire body down to his hooves. Despite his impressive stature, the stallion wasn't particularly bulky; he just stood tall above her on slender legs. He gazed straight ahead with cerulean eyes, head darting back and forth as he looked at the hallway above Scootaloo. "Huh? Anypony there?"

"Um... hi there," Scootaloo mumbled. The stallion did a double take and looked down to where the little orange filly stood, nearly trembling.

"Why, hello there, little one!" the stallion's voice boomed. "Are your parents around? I need to speak with them about some very important... grown up stuff."

Scootaloo cleared her throat. "No, sorry, dude. I'm the captain of this here ship. Any crud you wanna talk about... you gotta talk to me." She puffed out her chest as she did this, trying her best to feel large.

In response, the stallion just laughed. "C'mon, dearie... there's no way in Tartarus a little filly like yourself could pilot a ship like this. The Bureau would never let you get a license, let alone off the ground."

It was then that a voice came from behind the stallion. "Erm... sir?" A cream-coloured unicorn mare in a similar outfit walked up alongside the stallion, clipboard and pen levitating magically alongside.

The stallion turned his head to face the mare. "Yes? What is it, Fir?"

"It's just that... we just did a scan, and there's no organic heat sources aboard besides this filly at the entrance."

The stallion blinked. "Well I'll be. We've got a ship thief now, don't we?" he said, turning back to Scootaloo. "Which planet did you steal this bad boy on? I haven't ever seen anything like it in all my years in space... the build is quite unlike any from the Kindred planet—"

Thinking fast, Scootaloo cut him off. "Oh, it's from the Kindred planet, alright. It's... erm... it's a new design. Only a few prototypes have been manufactured... and my daddy was able to buy me one." She contorted her lips into a smug grin, trying to feign that rich-girl attitude she'd seen Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon put on display countless times.

"Aha, so your folks have money. That makes sense. Come to think of it, I may have seen your father at a... um... an esteemed social gathering of the elite upper class..." the stallion said, trailing off. "Ahem... anyway, I'm sorry about the whole tractor beam thing. You see, we go around attaching ourselves to abandoned ships to see if we can find anything of worth inside and then we melt them down so they can be used for scrap."

"Oh, cool!" Scootaloo said. "So you're kinda like the street sweepers of space?"

"Umm... I guess you could say that," the stallion replied, raising an eyebrow. "Or the garbage collectors, though that really only works if all of space is just one huge garbage can, and..."

"Hey, dude, can I ask you a question?" Scootaloo interrupted.

"Of course, miss. Ask away."

"You guys know that my ship isn't abandoned now, so can I go?"

The stallion just laughed. "Sure you can, but why not stay awhile? Your ship isn't going anywhere, I promise."

"I dunno, dude," Scootaloo responded. "I got places to go, places to be... I'm a busy pegasus. You gotta understand that."

"Believe me—I understand. But even a busy pegasus such as yourself has gotta eat, right? I'm sure you've got plenty of food aboard, but our ship's cook has a wonderful fresh salad and it would be a shame if you never tried it especially now that you're already here."

At this proposition, Scootaloo's belly gurgled. "You drive a hard bargain, dude, but I'll take it." The stallion smiled.

"Absolutely delightful—I'll let her know we've got one more for dinner tonight. Should only be an hour or two from now."

"Awesome! See you then." Scootaloo reached for the red button that would close the access door.

"Wait!" the stallion cried, before Scootaloo could press it.

"Yes?"

"Don't you want to come aboard and chew the fat with me and my crew? We don't bite, I promise. I'm sure you have many a tale about the Kindred planet's elite that my... erm... less fortunate shipmates would get a kick out of."

Scootaloo paused for a moment, pondering over the situation in her head. But then she spoke. "Oh, why not? You ponies are already being so nice with the whole salad thing... no reason I gotta shut myself away before then." She lowered her foreleg back to the metallic floor and, for the first time since she had opened the door, took a few steps forward. The stallion moved aside to make way for her as she entered the vehicle.

Bolt

The room that Scootaloo entered was nearly devoid of features, besides a computer console on the left wall where Fir sat, staring at the screen and occasionally punching something into the keyboard. The rest of the room looked much like the ones in Scootaloo's own ship, with curved metal walls that led upwards into a rounded ceiling. She was curious about what the stallion had meant when he said her ship looked unusual—this ship didn't seem much different.

She was forced to walk quickly to keep up with the stallion, making quiet clangs on the metal with each hoofstep. When they reached the other side of the room, the stallion stopped and raised a hoof to push down on the door handle and pull it open. He stood aside to let Scootaloo through the doorway; she took the few steps necessary to get inside and he followed, closing the door gingerly behind them.

That doorway opened outward into a large, rotund room with terraced floors, each lined with various different computer and control consoles and ponied by a variety of mares and stallions wearing the same type of uniform as Fir and Scootaloo's guide. They appeared to be hard at work doing various operations for the ship; only one or two looked up to see Scootaloo and the stallion enter, and they just nodded their heads as the two passed. The stallion led Scootaloo along the top level to the right toward a doorway that led to another metal hallway.

As they passed, Scootaloo gazed out into the centre of the room. The bottom layer, a perfect circle of reflective metal, was empty, devoid of electronics or ponies. It gave way to a humongous transparent window in the front of the room that revealed a wide view of the yawning maw of the void that lingered outside. However, because it faced the opposite direction that Scootaloo's ship had been pointed, the window offered Scootaloo a clear view of a green-and-blue orb that hung faintly in the centre. At the sight of it, she paused.

The stallion stopped once he heard her hoofsteps stop. "Something the matter, dear?" he asked.

"What... what's that planet out there?" Scootaloo asked.

"Oh, that's... um... I'm not exactly sure what it's called. It's the third planet from Solaris. There's ponies on that planet but they don't have space travel yet and they worship some weird goddesses, I think. Poor souls. The Bureau forbids contact with any planet that doesn't care to explore the heavens, though, but you already know that."

"Oh, yeah, of course," Scootaloo said, still staring at it. "It looks so... so beautiful."

"And I'm sure it is." The stallion coughed. "But we must be on our way... the sooner I talk to the cook, the sooner we can get you some food!"

"Yeah, okay, I'm coming," Scootaloo replied, facing him. As the stallion began walking again, she took one last look before following him down the next hallway.

This hallway was nearly as featureless as the room that Scootaloo had entered the ship in; the only distinguishing features were the many doors that lined the sides and a corkboard on the left that had a few notices posted on various different coloured pieces of paper. One prominent one with a pencil sketch of a dragon on the top advertised a "game night" on Fridays with free food; another next to it on white paper was asking ponies if they had seen a missing comlink and it talked about how the commander would kill the pony who posted it unless the device was found.

As they walked, the stallion spoke. "So, young'n, I just realised—I never asked what I should call you."

"Oh... erm, my name is... uh... Rainbolt." Scootaloo's heart pumped as she said these words; she wasn't exactly sure why she didn't give her real name.

"Rainbolt, huh? That's a nice name. Kinda quaint, but I know you rich folks love your history. You can call me Tank, by the way."

"Thank you, Mr. Tank," Scootaloo said. "Funny... I knew a tortoise by that name a while ago." She paused. "My parents are definitely into that whole family heritage thing. I don't really care that much, though—you can just call me Rainy or Bolt if you want."

"Alright, Bolt."

They continued forward in silence for another minute or so, passing a few more metal doors in the interim. Then, finally, they stopped at an open door near the end of the hall.

"Wait here—I've got to talk to the cook for a moment." Tank walked into the doorway and closed the door behind him. Scootaloo was left standing alone in the hallway.

She sat there alone for a minute or two, just looking around at the sheet metal surface around her. She walked over to the end of the hallway where a porthole lay low enough on the wall so that she could look out. But all she saw through the window was stars, stars, and more stars, as well as the dust and grime that covered the glass. Then, behind her, Scootaloo heard a click and a few metal clangs.

"Hello?" came a voice from behind her. She turned her head...

News

News

...to see a green grey unicorn colt with a cropped slate grey mane, about the same age as her, standing in an open doorway across from the kitchen. His brow was furrowed as he looked at her, as if try to figure out if he had seen her before so that he could potentially avoid embarrassing himself.

"Um... hello, there," Scootaloo replied. "What's up?"

"Are you new?" the colt inquired, setting conversation niceties aside. "Where did you come from?"

"I'm... uh... your friends here just accidentally tractor beam'd my ship 'cause they thought it was empty."

The colt snorted. "Believe me, Tangerine—these ponies aren't my friends at all." He paused. "Wait... you said you have a ship?" There was a hint of something more in his voice—excitement?

"Yeah, it's docked against this ship. I'm lucky I was able to get out before they accidentally turned it into scrap..."

"Oh boy... that's the best news I've heard all... um... in a long dang time. Say, can you come in here and talk with me?" The cold beckoned towards the room he had burst into the hallway from. "We'll have a lot less chance of being overheard—"

At that moment, Scootaloo heard the latch on the other side of the hall click open and the door swung open to reveal Tank with a warm grin. When he saw Scootaloo, he opened his mouth to speak; upon seeing the colt standing with her, he appeared to think better of whatever he was about to say.

"Kevin! What are you doing up here?" The question was innocent enough, but the colt's frown was enough for Scootaloo to tell that something else was going on.

"I apologise, sir, it's just that this room is my assigned living quarters, remember?"

"Is it really? Hmm, there must have been some sort of mistake... we never would have put you up here so close to the—ah, well, no matter. I've got business to attend to, and I know for a fact that you do as well. Off with you, now."

"Yes, sir," the colt replied with a salute. As Tank turned away down the hall with Scootaloo following, the orange filly thought she could make out the colt mumbling something about a name under his breath. But the pace Tank was keeping was too fast for her to linger behind any longer so Scootaloo left the colt with a wave and continued down the hallway to wherever she was being taken.

"Glad to see you're still with me, Bolt," Tank said as they walked along. "Some of the younger ponies we have in our employ... well, they're hard working—that's for sure—but they sometimes rile up trouble. And you wouldn't want to get mixed up with that."

"Um, no, I wouldn't," Scootaloo replied. "Though I don't think I'll have much of a chance to, since I'll be taking off in not too long."

"Yes, yes, true. Speaking of that—I am taking you now to a dining room. The cook is hard at work preparing the salad for us."

"Thanks a lot, Mr. Tank."

"It's really no trouble!" They walked in silence past a few more doors and then Tank stopped. "Ah, now here we are." He reached out and opened the squeaky handle with a foreleg, letting Scootaloo in as he held the door open. He shuffled in after the filly and closed the door slowly behind so that the click of the latch was nigh on inaudible.

The dining room that Scootaloo was greeted with was small but not empty; on the contrary, it was the most ornately-decorated and full room that she had seen thus far. A variety of wooden dressers lined the edges of the room, each with a spiralling metallic finish that lined its edges. However, all that this furniture around the room held above was arrangements of flowers in simple metal vases. At a closer look, the flowers didn't even look real; this made sense, as it was a spaceship, but Scootaloo thought it gave the whole room a bit of a tacky vibe. She evidently had been spending too much time talking to Rarity.

The centre of the room was filled completely with a large table set for two over top of its white tablecloth. Although Scootaloo had expected other ponies to be there as well, she wasn't about to turn down a free meal just yet and especially not in this situation. She rushed over to the other side of the room and settled down in the chair on the end opposite where Tank pulled out his own seat. They sat there in silence, forelegs resting on top of the sheer white tablecloth near their silverware.

Dinner

It was Tank that spoke first. "So, what do you think of our ship?"

"It's... erm... very tidy." Scootaloo smiled weakly.

"Ha-ha! Clean? C'mon, your daddy must keep your house cleaner than this dump."

Scootaloo gulped. "Eheh... I mean, I guess I just thought it was clean for a ship with so many ponies on it."

"Fair point, I suppose. I mean, I can tell you're trying to be polite, but I really know that it's because you thought we looked like snobs." He winked as he said this.

"Wh-what? No, dude, I—"

Tank laughed. "I'm just messin' with ya, kid. Lighten up! Anyway, I was wondering... now that you're here on our ship, why don't we just take you on back to the Kindred planet? I mean, I know you've got your own ship and all, but this part of the system ain't no place for a filly like you, don't ya think? I'm sure your parents would love it if we got you back home in one piece for 'em." Tank paused; Scootaloo opened her mouth as if to speak, but he spoke again before she could get a word out. "And spare me the excuses, Bolt—I know that you ain't supposed to be out here. Maybe you have a license—I ain't got the authority to look into that. But there's no way in Tartarus that your parents'd let you out this far from the planet."

Scootaloo sighed. "Okay, you got me. Maybe I went out a little further than I'm allowed to. But I can get back on my own, I promise."

"I dunno, filly..."

Scootaloo started whimpering. "My parents are gonna be super upset with me if they find out I went this far out. Pretty please?"

Tank just looked down at his hooves and adjusted his napkin. "We have a pretty strict policy, but I'll talk with my supervisors about it and see if we can make an exception." He looked back up and smiled. "Especially for a sweet little filly like you."

Scootaloo returned the smile. "Thank you. I'm super grateful for all this helping me you've been doing..."

"Hey, no problem!" There was a knock on the door. "Oh, good... lemme get that." Tank stood up and walked over, and then pulled the door open.

In walked the chef, a pink earth pony with a short, light blue mane, wearing that same uniform as the ship's other inhabitants. She was balancing a large rectangular platter on a foreleg as she walked in, and she didn't stop walking until she reached the centre of the table. There, she set down the platter and, carefully lifting each between her hooves, placed down a plate for Scootaloo and a plate for Bolt.

"Thank you, Ms. Slice," Tank said. "This looks absolutely scrumptious."

And it did; Scootaloo's mouth watered at the sight of voluminous, verdant mountains of lettuce and other leafy greens, dotted with the occasional crimson circle of tomato, three-shaped slices of crisp yellow pepper, and crispy brown crouton cubes. Wherever the hay these ponies came from, their culinary differences from Equestria didn't seem to be that large. Thinking of the Gamsco's boxes aboard her ship, Scootaloo grabbed a fork and, without another moment's hesitation, shoved a bite into her mouth. The glorious crunch of fresh salad in her mouth was almost too much to bear.

"How is it?" the chef asked.

"This is... awesome," Scootaloo breathed. "Thank you so, so, so, so, so much."

"Of course," the chef replied, smiling. "I'm glad you liked it... that's high praise coming from somepony like you."

"Ah, but why wouldn't she?" Tank interjected. "Your salads are simply the best out there. Now, if you'll excuse us..." The chef nodded and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her with a soft click.

Once the chef had left, Tank began eating. Scootaloo watched him as he ate; he was very meticulous and careful, wiping off his muzzle with his napkin in between nearly every bite. At one point he looked up to see her staring at him; Scootaloo's face quickly flushed and she shoved the tines of her fork back into the mass of salad on her plate before putting another bite into her mouth.

Room

The meal only took ten or fifteen minutes at most, Scootaloo estimated. They ate mostly in silence since their only readily apparent conversational topic had been covered before the food had arrived and any personal questions would, to be frank, make Tank seem kind of creepy. And he seemed to know this.

All in all, though, Scootaloo was happy she had come aboard the ship—not that she had a choice, but she was super grateful for the food they had offered her. Even if she had to keep going on those Gamsco's balls until she died, she would at least go out knowing that she had one last delicious meal.

Once they finished eating, Tank stood up. "I've got to talk to my superiors right now about whether we're going to take you back to the Kindred planet or not. I'll try my best, but... well, I'm not sure how they'll take it. For now, I'm going to bring you to a room where you can wait until they've made their decision."

"Sounds good to me," Scootaloo replied, standing up from her seat at the end of the table.

She followed Tank out of the room and into the hallway. As with all of the metal hallways she'd walked down as of late, her hooves went clang, clang, clang on the surface as they made contact, and these metallic sounds reverberated down the lengths of the tube. The hallway was no more interesting or decorated the second time they traversed it; it still was just a mixture of sheer reflective walls and the occasional door on either side.

Finally, they reached the end of the hallway. At the second-to-last door on the right side, Tank wiggled the handle. Upon discovering it was unlocked, he pushed it open and ushered Scootaloo inside.

"I should be back in a few minutes—see you then," he said. And, with that, he was gone, door closed with a metallic click.

Scootaloo looked around at the room she now found herself in. Unlike the hallway, this room actually had stuff in it. On the wall with the door, there was an uncomfortable-looking dark purple sofa. It faced a medium-sized window on the outer wall of the ship that gave a good view of the space ahead of them, Equestrian planet included. It was just a featureless blue blob from this distance, but Scootaloo couldn't help but stare at the thing.

On the ground, there was a large rug that covered most of the floor. It was patterened with concentric rectangles, each in a different shade of brown. Scootaloo didn't know much about aesthetics or anything like that, but even she knew it was pretty dang ugly. She peeled her eyes away from that disaster of a floor covering to look at the side walls, which were lined with bookshelves. Curious, Scootaloo walked over to the left side of the room to get a closer look. On the way, she discovered that, even if the rug was ugly as Tartarus, it was still pretty fuzzy.

The books on the shelves were exactly as she expected—no recognisable titles or authors anywhere. Not that Scootaloo was an avid reader, but she still had read quite a few books. What she found most interesting from the books, however, was that the names of the authors were in most cases not that different from the names of ponies (and other creatures) back home. Sure, there was the odd word here and there that was completely foreign—she couldn't for the life of her figure out what 'phaser' and 'zathura' could possibly mean—but the language and culture of these ponies seemed familiar. Almost too familiar. Pondering this, Scootaloo turned away from the bookshelves and started whistling a tune. She wasn't really in the mood for reading anyway.

Scootaloo walked over to the couch and sat down on it. Her eyes had not deceived her; the piece of furniture was truly the most unpleasant one that the filly had ever sat on. She sat there for a few minutes before shifting over to lie down on her back which unfortunately was no more comfortable than before. Scootaloo groaned. Several minutes passed.

"Where is he...?" she wondered aloud. "Goddess, I wish I had a clock..." She lay there for a few more minutes, counting her breaths.

"Thirty-one... thirty-two... eugh..." She turned her head to look at the door. It remained standing there as closed as ever, still refusing to be anything but a door that was closed.

Finally, Scootaloo decided that she'd had enough with waiting. Maybe she could get a look around outside the room before Tank came back, and he'd never have to know about it. She got up off of the couch and walked over to the door. The handle was that type you push down on and pull in, so she put her hoof on it and tried to push down. It didn't budge. She tried pushing again. No dice. It was locked.

"...crud..." Scootaloo breathed. "I have a really bad feeling about this..." Even though she didn't have high hopes, she rapped on the door a few times with a foreleg. "Hello?! Is anypony out there?" There was no reply. Scootaloo walked over to the wall next to the door and slumped down onto the ground in a fuzzy orange pile. "Unngh... that's what I get for being too friendly with ponies I don't even know. Guess this really isn't Equestria anymore, huh?"

As she mumbled her thoughts aloud, Scootaloo did not notice the clang, clang, clang of hoofsteps outside in the hall until they were right up against the other side of the door. Before she could say anything, a voice emanated from the other side.

"Hello? Miss Bolt? Is that you in there?" The voice was feminine and familiar; Scootaloo could almost place it, but not quite.

"Um, yeah, it's me," Scootaloo replied. "Who's there?"

"That's not important... we don't have much time. Tank's gonna be back any minute now."

"Is that a bad thing?" Scootaloo asked.

"Yes... very bad," the voice answered. "Nnngh... enough with the questions. You need to get out of here, and fast. Tank and the other ponies in charge of this ship have started going against orders and capturing young fillies from the Kindred planet to be sold into slavery elsewhere in the system—"

Scootaloo blinked. "Oh jeez... that's not good..."

"No, it's not," the voice continued, "and that's why we need to get you out of here while we still can. I don't have the keys to this door and Tank will be back any minute now, but there's still a way."

Scootaloo gulped. "Dang it... I've read enough sci-fi books to know where this is going."

"There are little-used air vents in the wall of the room that snake around beneath the floor of the hall. At this time of day, they shouldn't be too hot; if you're quick, you'll be able to make it through. You really must go fast, though—once Tank realises you're not here, it's going to be really hard to get your ship away."

"That sounds good and all, but what am I going to do once I get there? My ship is still stuck to this ship."

The voice didn't reply immediately. "There's... there's a control panel in that room. It should be pretty obvious what to press." There was a pause. "I have to go now. Fly, and be careful."

"Thank you so much, um..."

"Slice. Grapefruit Slice. Don't worry—I'll be okay. Now go." There was more sounds of hooves on metal and Grapefruit Slice said no more.

Scootaloo exhaled, and turned to look at the wall to the left of the couch. Next to the bookshelves on the wall lay, as Ms. Slice had described, a plain white grate that could easily fit a filly her size if removed. She walked across the room in order to get a closer look.

Unfortunately, the grate was attached to the wall by several large screws along the edges; they didn't look particularly difficult to remove, but they would definitely require some sort of tool to get into the ridges on the head. Her hooves alone would not be enough for the job.

Turning around to face the room, the pegasus filly attempted to find something she could use to turn the screws. There wasn't really much in the room, though, besides the books that lined the shelves and the pillows on the sofa. She would probably have tried a hardcover book if there had been one, but there didn't even seem to be any of those. These ponies sure did love their paperbacks.

After a few long seconds of deliberation, Scootaloo found herself focusing on the couch. She remembered something from back in her house in Ponyville; it was unlikely, sure, but she figured that it was worth a try. Scootaloo jumped onto the couch and shoved her hoof in between the cushions, digging around to see if she could find anything. And, as a matter of fact, she found several things.

She pulled her hoof out of the cushiony depths a moment later with a few small items on her hoof: an empty gum wrapper, a silver bit-like coin, and a metal mane clip. The first was absolutely useless; the second, although closer to what she needed, appeared a little too thick to fit on the screw heads. But a quick run over to the grate revealed that the hair clip was nearly a perfect fit and was good enough to get the screws out.

Scootaloo held the mane clip between her teeth and, one by one, rotated the screws out. By the third one, she felt light-headed; once she had removed the sixth and final screw, she had a throbbing headache. Wanting to get this over with, Scootaloo spat out the mane clip and turned to remove the grate from the wall. She lifted it between her hooves and set it gently on the side of the bookshelf. The hole where the grate formerly sat lay open and breathed out a thin jet of warm air.

Just as she was about to step into the vent, Scootaloo looked down at where she had dropped the mane clip on the ground. She sighed as she stared at the pink object. "I'm so glad Rainbow Dash can't see me right now," she said under her breath as she lifted the thing to her mane and clipped it into her bangs.

Then, without another moment's hesitation, Scootaloo climbed into the open vent. She reached out behind her for the metal grate and affixed it as best she could to the hole, albeit without screws.

Vent

The vent was fairly small; the metal walls pushed up close to Scootaloo's sides and she was forced to duck her head so as to not hit the ceiling. Yet she was lucky she was a small pony; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to squeeze through the vent opening in the first place.

She walked slowly, trying to muffle the metal clanging of her hoofsteps. When she came to the drop down where the vent dipped into the floor underneath the hallway, Scootaloo paused at the sight of the drop. If she were to just jump down, she'd make a ton of noise; Tank would most likely hear it even if he were nowhere near the room yet. Then she had an idea. She jumped down, wings abuzz.

Fortunately, her wings were being cooperative and allowed her a controlled fall onto the floor of the vent below, making no more noise than her regular hoofsteps. Scootaloo exhaled and kept walking forward.

The warm air blowing onto her face was... oddly refreshing in a way warm air rarely ever was. Maybe it was all the cold she had been through in her ship in the last few days that allowed her to feel this air much like the warm tenderness of another pony's embrace, wrapping her up tight. She trudged onwarrd.

It was hard to tell how far that she'd gotten; it wasn't exactly easy to turn her head, so Scootaloo didn't bother. Instead she gazed forward into the warm mists, unable to make out the shape of anything that lay ahead. She was walking blind. Hopefully, when she got there, it would be obvious; she had already passed several turns off that main vent, but had assumed that they weren't the right way to go.

It was then that Scootaloo heard above her the sound of hooves on metal. They proceeded at a normal pace, passing over her in just a few seconds. Evidently Tank didn't know she was gone yet. Scootaloo quickened her pace—the faster that she got to the other end of the ship, the better. She felt her heart rate quicken with her pace, the thing thumping forcefully in her chest. Blood rushed to her ears. Scootaloo kept going.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, Scootaloo was able to make out what appeared to be a far wall to the vent. She bounded forward, making a little more noise, to find that what she thought was an end to the vent was a turn, leading left. It was the only way to go, so Scootaloo went that way. She smiled as she saw its end just ahead of her, which also turned left. After several seconds of walking, she reached that end and turned again. As she had suspected, this was the final end to the vent; now, all that remained was the leap upwards.

However, Scootaloo had miscalculated exactly how far she had to jump up; once she got there, it was obvious that there was no way she could make it—and that she would make a lot of noise if she did decide to attempt it. So she was stuck—so close to her goal, yet so far.

But then she realised—she had used her wings to help her get down, right? Therefore, perhaps it would make sense to use them to get up. And, for most pegasi, this wouldn't pose a problem; they could just fly up to the ledge. But Scootaloo wasn't most pegasi, and she was still trying to figure out how to use her wings. Yes, she was getting better—but most of the progress she had made was with gliding, particularly of the downward variety. That didn't exactly help when she was trying to go up.

Yet, as with before, it was worth a shot. Her only other option was waiting there until she got caught, and that would lead to... stuff that really sucked. So she crouched down and, with all her strength, pushed herself upwards into the air. At the same time, her wings buzzed frantically on her back, trying with all their might to propel the pegasus filly up, up, and away.

She soared upwards from the jump, and a few inches further from the flapping of her wings, but came about six inches short of her goal. Scootaloo plummeted back down to the floor with a loud, metallic clang that reverberated both up towards the grate and down the vent. She exhaled angrily as she stood to her hooves.

Just as she was about to try again, she heard a voice come from past the grate above. "Hello? Is anypony there?" The tone was cautious. Scootaloo heard a few hoofsteps on metal above, coming towards her. Quivering, the filly held her breath. She stood there in silence at the end of the vent for about thirty seconds.

"Ungh... probably nothing. Or maybe one of those dumb stallions playing a practical joke in the other room. I don't get paid enough to put up with those ponies, honestly..." The voice trailed off as it grew more distant; the hoofsteps also indicated that whoever was there was retreating, probably across the room. After a few more seconds without any response from that pony above, Scootaloo exhaled.

Without wasting another second, the filly crouched again. She had to make it up there, or she was in hot water. Screwing her eyes up in concentration, Scootaloo thought of light things. Clouds. The breeze. Gulls. Anything in the air that she could think of—that was what she had to focus on. Then, she held her breath, and jumped.

This time, she waited until she was already in the air to begin buzzing her wings. And, miraculously, this seemed to help. Scootaloo felt her body being lifted upwards on her wings; chancing it, she opened an eyelid. Yep, she was in the air. Quickly she shut the eyelid again, hoping not to lose her concentration. She reached out her hooves to feel the top of the metal surface behind the grate and propelled herself slightly forward. She lowered her hooves carefully onto the metal, coming to rest right behind the grate.

Scootaloo wanted to jump with joy—let out a giggle of delight at her accomplishment. But it was not the time for such things. She looked through the grate in front of her.

Through the thin horizontal slits in the metal, Scootaloo was able to make out the room of the ship that she had entered from. Her ship was still docked at the back end of the room; the open door to the ship was visible from where she sat. Also visible were the computer consoles and towers that lined the walls of the room, and at one of these sat the source of the voice from earlier—the pony who had heard her fall. It was Fir, the unicorn mare who had been operating the consoles when Tank had first greeted Scootaloo to the ship.

Scootaloo reached forward to the grate and gave it a little push. It didn't budge; it was still fastened in place by the screws. Which were on the other side of the wall—completely inaccessible from where Scootaloo now sat, even if she did keep the hair clip. She sighed. One of these days, she really needed to plan these things out in advance...

Luckily, she had a backup plan. If she could just pull it off...

Scootaloo turned around—a struggle in the narrow vent, but she eventually managed to face herself in the opposite direction. Then, with all the strength in her hindlegs, she bucked the grate. She'd seen Apple Bloom's siblings do it plenty enough with those apple trees. Easy peasy.

Or, as it turned out, not that easy. Scootaloo's hooves made contact with the grate with as much force as the little filly could muster, but it wasn't much. She made a dent in the metal, but had little more effect than that. Besides attracting the attention of the only pony in the room.

"Okay, seriously, what the buck is going on over there?!" Fir shouted, spinning around in her chair to face the grate. She jumped out of her chair and galloped across the room. "Why, I oughta—huh?" Fir stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of the filly. "Bolt? What are you—how did you get in there?"

Scootaloo thought fast. "Long story, miss. But there's no time—I gotta get out of here! The metal is super hot—it feels like I'm gonna melt," she whined. With some effort, she shifted her face into a puppy-dog-eyed expression, feeling her eyes begin to water. "Please, get a screwdriver or something!"

"A screwdriver?" Fir asked, raising an eyebrow. "Ah, you non-magical types. This will only take a second." Her horn lit up with a verdant glow and Scootaloo heard the squeak of six screws turning in their sockets before clattering to the floor. In another moment, Fir had flung the grate aside and Scootaloo bounded out and across the room, over to the door of her ship.

"Hold on, filly!" Fir called after her. "What's going on?"

"No time to explain!" Scootaloo replied, still running.

"I'm not so sure about that, little one," a gruff voice said from behind her. Scootaloo stopped in her tracks and turned around. "I think you've got all the time in the world to tell us what's going on," Tank said with a blank expression on his face.

Explanation

Scootaloo blinked at the sight of the stallion, but started running again. This time, though, she ran towards one of the computer consoles. Neither Tank nor Fir made any move to stop her as she scanned the desktop for a button that would free her ship from where it was docked. She didn't have any luck, so she looked up. Tank just stared back at her, and Fir had walked over to his side.

"You're not going to find what you're looking for," Fir said finally.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Scootaloo exclaimed, a little whinier than she had hoped. "You're just going to leave me to go with him?"

It was Tank that replied. "Actually, Rainbolt, my supervisors agreed with me that the best thing to do would be to let you return on your ship to the Kindred planet. We still have a lot more work out here before we return to the planet and you'd get back a lot faster if you just went yourself."

"Buh... huh?" Scootaloo buh-huh'd, mouth agape. "Really?"

"Yeah, I was just going down to that room where you were waiting to let you out. I'm sorry I had to lock it up, but I just wanted to make sure you're safe. There are some ponies on this ship that I'm not sure how much I can trust..." He paused. "Anyway, how did you get here? And why?"

"Stop bucking with me!" Scootaloo shouted. "I know what your plans are! You're going to sell me into slavery!"

Tank blinked. "What?! Where in the seven planets of Solaris did you get that idea?! We're good ponies, Bolt! Maybe we skirt around the law sometimes, but slaves? That's downright evil."

"I—um... I have a source on the inside," Scootaloo replied, sweating. "Somepony I can trust, unlike you bozos!"

Tank raised an eyebrow. "Filly, no matter who you trust on this ship, it's blind faith. You don't know any of us."

"S-so?"

"So, it's not what anypony says that matters. It's what they do. And right now I'm going to show you that I'm telling the truth by letting you go on your ship."

"I-I don't get it," Scootaloo said, quieter this time. "She said—"

"Who? What did they say?"

"Um... nevermind. It doesn't matter..."

"It does matter, filly," Tank replied. "If there's someone on this ship that's saying things like that, I gotta figure out why."

"Hey, wait!" Scootaloo exclaimed, ignoring his comments. "What about that colt that we saw over by the kitchen? Why would he be here if you weren't capturing—"

"Enough," Tank said, cutting her off mid-sentence. Scootaloo shuddered. "Kevin is a stowaway that we caught just after we'd left the Kindred planet. It would have taken us too much time to go back at that point, so we decided to keep him aboard. He's probably harmless, but we just don't want him snooping around with our stuff."

"Nnngh..." Scootaloo sighed, putting her face in her hooves. "Goddess above... I don't know what to believe."

"I'm really sorry that somepony shook your faith in us," Tank said, walking slowly towards her. "There's not much I can do about that—it's their word against ours. But, as I said, actions speak louder than words. We're not going to stop you from leaving. Here, Fir will even disengage the tractor beam and docking so that you can fly freely." At that, the mare he mentioned walked over to a computer console on the left side of the room and pressed some buttons with a hoof. The computer beeped.

"You should be able to take off now," Fir said with a nod. Her face was hard to read, but there was a trace of a frown across her muzzle.

"Th-thank you," Scootaloo murmured. She looked up at Tank. He gazed back with his magenta eyes, studying her.

"Rainbolt, please, before you go—could you at least tell me which pony told you to leave the room? The pony who told you that I was gonna sell you into slavery?"

"I—erm... I didn't catch her name," Scootaloo lied. She looked down at her hooves.

"I see," she heard Tank say. Without looking up at him, Scootaloo walked slowly across the back half of the room until she reached the open door to her ship. It was then that she decided to turn her neck back.

She saw Tank standing there alone—Fir must have already left. He looked ahead with a sombre expression on his face; Scootaloo felt a pang of guilt in her chest. She stood there for a few seconds, unmoving. Then, she spoke.

"Thank you for everything, Tank."

"Of course, little one. Take care."

Scootaloo gulped. "Grapefruit Slice."

Tank raised an eyebrow and then nodded. If he did anything else, Scootaloo didn't see it; she had already turned away and pushed the button in the inner hall that closed the outer doors of the ship. She heard the mechanical gasp of the door sliding closed behind her.

And then she was alone in the darkness.

Upgrade

Scootaloo yawned and blinked her eyelids several times as she opened them. She lifted a hoof to her face to lazily rub the sleep from her eyes. The plastic on her back was stiff, but it was beginning to feel like it had a little more give than before. Perhaps it just needed a little breaking in. She sat there unmoving in the pilot's seat, looking out the large glass window in front of her.

As she gazed upon the starry depths of space, she thought about what had happened just a hoofful of hours beforehand. Sure, she had expected to run into other beings in space; the chances that Equestria had been the only nation in their solar system with sapient life were small. But she hadn't expected to run into anypony so soon, and it was pretty weird that there were other ponies out there. Let alone that they spoke the same language as her. Celestia and Luna were the goddess princesses of her world; maybe these other worlds had alicorn princesses too. She probably should have asked about that.

There was plenty more she probably should have done, too; it was a shame that she had gotten so distracted. Some better food—or at least different food, for Celestia's sake—would have been a good place to start. But no, she had to go and get herself into a situation where she couldn't ask for anything more and she was still stuck eating Gamsco's.

At the thought of Gamsco's and food in general, Scootaloo's stomach rumbled. She sighed and climbed to her hooves; the sooner she got eating over with, the better. As she hopped off the seat and walked across the cockpit and down the hall, she kept thinking.

Another thing she was running out of was fuel. Scootaloo wasn't exactly sure how much was left; the fuel indicator on the dashboard wasn't very specific, but it was pointing closer to the E than to the F. They probably didn't have any fuel on their ship that she could use, anyway, but that didn't stop her from kicking herself over not asking. Sooner or later, she'd have to refill the tank; hopefully what she had would last her until she got somewhere where she could do that. She didn't even know what kind of fuel the ship took... or why Princess Twilight hadn't filled it up all the way.

Honestly, the ship could use some repairs too. Scootaloo wasn't convinced that it had been completely finished when she left, so that would explain why the autopilot crapped out after only a few days. Maybe she could even get the heat system to work...

Her thoughts trailed off as she reached the bottom of the ladder and found herself in the pantry. She flicked the light switch upwards, and fluorescent light flooded the metal cavity. Scootaloo continued walking forward towards the cabinets on the other side, hooves clanging on the metal with each step.

When she reached the other side of the room, she pulled open a drawer that she knew had contained a box of Gamsco's. Oddly enough, it felt much heavier than any of the drawers had before; it took the filly actual effort to pull the metal drawer out of its socket. And, when the contents came into sight, Scootaloo's jaw dropped.

Inside, rather than a limp cardboard box and a bunch of empty space, was apples. A whole lot of apples. Filling up the entire drawer to the brim, the shiny red fruits reflected Scootaloo's surprised features right back up at her. She began to feel her mouth fill with saliva.

Eyes darting back and forth, Scootaloo took a deep breath. She felt the air enter her lungs, allowing her chest to swell up. Consequently, she exhaled, warm air pouring out of her nostrils. Then she dove.

Her teeth sliced into the side of one of the apples, breaking with vicious energy through the crimson skin. Immediately she was greeted by the crisp, juicy bliss that it felt like it had been forever since she had tasted. Even though the scent wasn't quite right, her eyes still filled with tears at that near-perfect fragrance that wafted upwards into her nose. Scootaloo swallowed, sighed, and took another bite. And another.

Realising her animal behavour, Scootaloo reached in and grabbed the apple so she could hold it in her hooves as her teeth made short work of the thing. The sweetness of each bite sent the filly's mind reeling.

When the fruit was down to just the core, Scootaloo grinned as she eyed the wastebasket on the other side of the room, near the ladder. She looked at it for a few moments, judging the distance between herself and the receptacle. Then, she tossed the apple core. It flew forward and up in a perfect arc and fell, bouncing off the edge of the wastebasket... and onto the floor beside it.

"Friggin' depth perception," Scootaloo muttered. She walked over to where the core landed, to throw it in the wastebasket. However, as she bent over to pick up the apple core between her teeth, she heard an unmistakable noise.

In the direction of the left hallway, somepony flushed the toilet. Scootaloo quickly tossed the core in the trash and looked over in that direction.

Trying her best to keep her composure, the filly spoke. "Who's there?" Her voice was loud and clear, reverberating around the metal room. The door across the room clicked and began to open.

Comrade

As the door slid open, Scootaloo felt a wave of fear wash over her body. She jolted into action and dashed over to the left side of the door; although this door wasn't a traditional one that swung outwards and therefore did not provide that sort of cover, being on the wall by the door would at least allow her to see whomever was there before they saw her. Not a great advantage, but still an advantage nonetheless. Scootaloo exhaled quietly.

The pony that came into view was short—a unicorn with a green-grey coat and a slate grey mane about chin-length... that looked mighty familiar.

Before the pony had a chance to turn his head, Scootaloo murmured, "Kevin?"

At the sound of this utterance, the pony froze and his head turned to face her. He looked straight into her amethyst eyes with a worried expression, brow creased and muzzle curved into a frown. "H-hi, Butterfinger." He gulped. "How's it going?" The colt quivered as he spoke and his eyes began to dart around Scootaloo's face, avoiding her gaze.

Scootaloo kept looking straight at him, and raised an eyebrow. "What's a finger?"

It was his turn to contort his face in confusion. "Um, you know, fingers. Like lemurs have on their hands."

"Lemurs?" Scootaloo looked even more confused. "What in the hay is a lemur?"

Kevin didn't answer at first; he just looked at her with that same confused expression. Then, he spoke. "Didn't you say you were from the Kindred planet? You should know this stuff..."

Scootaloo laughed nervously. "Not exactly... I trusted those guys on that ship, but not completely, y'know? Didn't want too many weird questions. Wanted to get outta there as soon as they were done giving me food."

"And damn, they gave you a lot of food!" Kevin exclaimed, having apparently forgotten about the entire rest of their conversation. "Did you see those drawers?"

"Oh, so that was them, then?" Scootaloo asked. "I guess I didn't have enough time to think about it before I heard you here."

"Touché," Kevin replied. "There's a lot of cool stuff in there—not just apples, but bread and lettuce and cheese and all sorts of stuff. They must have really liked you." He paused. "So, you really don't know about lemurs? Either you really didn't pay attention in school or you're not from any of the Bureau planets..."

"Eheh... you could say that. But please, could you tell me what they are?"

"Lemurs... they look kinda like ponies, but they have these long tails they can grab stuff with and they have hands they can grab stuff with and they have much thicker coats and smaller heads."

Scootaloo nodded. "Lots of grabbing, really fuzzy. Got it."

"And then on their hands, the things they grab stuff with are called fingers. They're like... claws for dragons. You know about dragons?" Kevin asked.

"Do I!" Scootaloo exclaimed excitedly. "Eheh... I mean, yeah, I do—one of my friends back home was a dragon."

"Whoa, really?" Kevin's eyes opened wide in surprise. "Dragons are, like, vicious as hell!"

"Heh... no, this one was a baby dragon. He was the assistant of my friend Twilight Sparkle... she's a unicorn, too."

"Oh, okay, so there are unicorns and dragons where you're from... and pegasi too. But you've never heard of lemurs. But you have space ships... where...?"

"Stop getting distracted!" Scootaloo said. "Why would you say that I'm a finger of butter?"

Kevin rolled his eyes. "It's a type of candy, doofus. It's a chocolate bar where the inside is this flaky, buttery sugar stuff. It's super crunchy and delicious."

"Mmm... chocolate. That sounds really good," Scootaloo said softly, licking her lips.

"Yeah, well, you'd be hard-pressed to find any chocolate out here," Kevin informed her. "I'm sure we can get some planetside, though. That is where you're going, right?"

"To the Kindred planet?" Scootaloo said. "Yeah, if that's what next in this direction."

Kevin raised an eyebrow again. "Do you really not know where you're going? How did you even come to fly this thing?"

"Mmm... long story. Don't wanna talk about it."

"Fair enough," Kevin said. "Well, then... uh... is it okay if I tag along until then?"

"Guess so," Scootaloo replied. "What else could I do—throw you off the ship?"

"Eheh... wouldn't be the first time ponies tried to do that," Kevin replied sheepishly.

"Seriously?"

Kevin just winked. "C'mon, let's go up to the cockpit. I wanna see what kinda rig you're flyin' here."

Scootaloo had little choice but to follow her new companion as he climbed up the ladder to the floor above.

Business

"Where in the did you get this ship?" Kevin asked. "It's like nothing I've ever seen, and even though I don't have much experience, I've seen a bunch of different types of ships before. But this is completely different."

The unicorn colt stood on the stool from the pantry which he had set up beside Scootaloo's pilot chair; after the pegasus had refused to give up her seat, Kevin had been forced to retrieve it from below so he had somewhere to sit. He was leaning across so he could get a better look.

"Um... that's none of your business...?" Scootaloo grinned.

"Okay, Tangerine, but you'll have to tell me eventually."

"How come?"

"I don't know much about the ship, but it looks like it's in a pretty bad state. It'll need repairs soon and the best place to get those repairs'll be where you got it from."

Scootaloo sighed. "That's... not exactly an option."

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "Are you allergic to making sense or something? Sheesh... it's like you feed off of making things all mysterious."

Scootaloo stuck out her tongue. "It's not like you've told me anything either! That stallion Tank told me that you were a stowaway on their ship... how come?"

Kevin turned away. "It's... erm, it's a long story."

"We have lots of time..." Scootaloo said, hoping that the line worked as well in real life as it did in the books. Kevin, however, didn't turn back towards.

"Nah, seriously, I don't wanna talk about it right now. Maybe I'll tell you the details later, but what's important is that I don't really have anywhere... anywhere to go back to anymore."

Scootaloo put a hoof on his shoulder. "That's okay... you don't have to tell me any more than you want to. I know what you mean... I don't really have anything to go back to either."

Kevin turned his head back to look at her. "Heh... we're all in this together, I guess."

"I guess so," Scootaloo replied with a nod. "Now... let's figure out where we're going to go."

Journey

Scootaloo held out the map in front of her, the paper dangling in between her front hooves. It was difficult to make the floppy thing stop collapsing in the middle; the filly finally managed, with some effort, to hold it in a bizarre position where the surface of the map lay flat in midair. "So, if I've got this straight... we're somewhere between this third planet and the Kindred planet." Scootaloo gestured with her hoof at the paper as she spoke, tracing a thin line between the two planets she mentioned.

"Yeah, we should be closer to the Kindred planet than to that third one."

"Out of curiosity... what is the third planet called?"

"Hmm... I don't remember. Two and three aren't really that important... the Bureau said it's illegal to go there because it would be bad to tamper with inferior life forms."

"Two and three? What about the first one?"

"Dang, you must really be new. You from the Vergla planet or out of the system? Pretty much every filly and colt knows about the mining operations on the Frade planet."

Scootaloo sighed. "Just assume I don't know anything, okay?"

"Shouldn't be hard," Kevin joked, giggling. He turned back to the map. "Well, basically, the Bureau doesn't have any rules about the Frade planet because it's a barren wasteland. Nopony's lived there in a long time if ever, as far as our scientists can tell. So they let companies go in and mine the planet because there's a lot of precious metals and oil and that kinda stuff. They say they'll eventually run out of all the valuable stuff eventually, but they keep going while they can."

Scootaloo nodded. "Ponies do that back in—erm, back where I'm from. Actually, that's mainly the diamond dogs with the precious metals."

"Diamond dogs?" Kevin asked, looking at Scootaloo in the face. "What's a diamond dog? How is that different from a regular dog?"

"Umm... I don't know anything about dogs that aren't diamond dogs, but these guys are really big and love precious metals and gems and all that snazzy stuff."

Kevin raised an eyebrow but did not respong to the comment. "Anyway... the best plan of action would be to go towards the Kindred planet which take... less than a week, I'd say. Then we could get fuel and probably find someone who can fix this baby up." He patted the dashboard with a hoof as he finished speaking.

"Are we gonna have trouble getting to the surface if I don't have a flying license?" Scootaloo asked.

"You don't have one? I guess that makes sense if you're not from a Bureau planet. That might be an issue, yeah. Hm..."

"Well, how do they check to see if I have one? Can we maybe just sneak by?"

"Unlikely... they have check stations at every major city. If we want to go into an actual spaceport, we're screwed."

"Do we need to, though?" Scootaloo asked. "Are there any small towns we could go to that don't have license checks?"

"I don't think... wait!" Kevin's face lit up with excitement. "Yeah, I know where we should go! There's a village in the south where—I dunno if he's still there, but there at least used to be a guy there who worked on ships that I knew. Oh jeez, this is too perfect."

"Awesome!" Scootaloo replied cheerily. "I guess we'll just keep heading in that direction then until we get close enough, and then you can help me navigate around the planet 'til we get there."

"Sounds good." Kevin hopped off the stool and dragged it to the right wall of the cockpit. "I'm gonna go catch some sleep. The lower bunk is free, right?"

"Yep, feel free. I'm just gonna stay here for a while," Scootaloo responded.

"Catch you on the flipside, Carrot." Scootaloo heard Kevin's hoofsteps retreating in the distance behind her and soon she was alone in the room, gazing ahead out the window at the depths of space. It was so humbling, being a little pony in this ship and being surrounded by stars and emptiness all around. The stars had been there back home, too, but there were other things for her to focus on. But now there was nothing else but for the expanse of black.

However, she no longer had to be alone in the depths of space. Scootaloo had a friend, at least for now.

Pillow

Kevin lay on his bunk, impressing his small body into the fabric of the mattress beneath him. Back on the ship he'd stowed away on, he only had a hammock to sleep on after they discovered him. This mattress, however cruddy it might be compared to his bed back home, was pretty awesome.

As he thought, Kevin lazily raised a hoof in the air, batting around at nothing in particular. He looked past the green-grey appendage and at the evenly-spaced slats above which held the top bunk in place. The middle of that bunk dipped down in several places where he knew above lay his new companion, some orange filly from… from who-knows-where. She hadn’t said. Nor had she said his name, he realised. Maybe he should ask that at some point. Or just keep calling her orange things.

To be honest, Kevin was a little weirded out by the filly. He was no stranger to young ponies who were confident and independent, but usually it was evident where those ponies had come from. But this filly? She was an enigma. Her ship looked nothing like anything from the Bureau or beyond that he’d ever seen. And she didn’t seem to want to talk about wherever she was from. Maybe he could get some straight answers once they got to the Kindred planet. She’d have to tell the repairpony more if she wanted to get the thing fixed.

But even though he was confused about where the filly came from, it’s not like her timing wasn’t convenient. She truly had saved Kevin from that ship and having to go back to the Kindred planet and whatever consequences his stowing away would have had. And now he could go anywhere… well, anywhere between there and wherever the filly was going. At least anywhere on the Kindred planet, and maybe beyond. He knew she was going there, but not if that was her destination or just a stop along the way.

As he thought about these things, he heard the filly shifting around above. Some sort of scribbling noise, like the sound of a pencil on paper. Come to think of it, it was the sound of pencil on paper.

“Whatcha working on up there, Cheetofeathers?” Kevin asked quietly. The filly didn’t respond at first, so Kevin assumed she hadn’t heard him; he opened his mouth to repeat his question but before he could speak, she replied.

“Oh, just writing. You ever keep a journal?”

“Heh… I’ve tried before,” Kevin replied. “Mostly when I was younger. Usually didn’t end up having much to write when I sat down to actually write in it. I guess I’d have more to write now with all the crazy stuff I get up to, but that seems like a lot of work.”

The filly hummed. “I guess it kinda is a lot of work, especially if you wanna keep it up, but it’s… it’s a habit I picked up from a friend of mine. Now I find it just helpful to process what’s happened.”

“So what are you writing about now?”

“Just, well, y’know… writing about that whole thing on the ship. It had me pretty freaked out.”

“Freaked out? I thought those guys were being nice to you!” Kevin exclaimed. “They gave you all that food and everything.”

“Heh, well, they were being nice to me. But somepony who I thought I could trust lied to me, and… long story short, I ended up crawling through the ventilation tube through the ship until I got to where my ship is.”

Kevin blinked. “Jeez! That sucks…”

“Yeah, but at least I got out okay. I was worried I was going to have to kick some flank!”

Kevin laughed. “Kick some flank? You? Gimme a break.”

The filly above stopped scribbling. “Aw, c’mon. I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve! I may be small, but Rainbow Dash always said that size doesn’t matter—it’s your wicked skills that do!”

Kevin adjusted the pillow behind his head. “Rainbow Dash? What kind of a name is that?”

“Oh, she’s… erm… she’s a pony from back home. Probably the most badflank pegasus there is. She’s gonna be in the Wonderbolts someday!”

“The Wonderbolts?”

“Eheh… they’re an aerial stunts team. Everypony back home knows about them—they’re super famous.”

“And how do you think I feel explaining all these basic Bureau concepts to you?” Kevin said, smiling. “Guess we both have a lot to learn.”

“True…” the filly said, trailing off as she extended the last vowel. “Speaking of that… what exactly is this ‘Bureau’ that you and the ponies on that ship kept talking about?”

“You really don’t know?”

“C’mon, Kevin. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t know.”

“Well, sorry! I guess it just weirds me out that there’s somepony out there that hasn’t heard of ‘em!” He paused to clear his throat. “Anyway, they’re, uh… the space police, basically. Their full name is… um… the System Bureau of… something that starts with a C. The acronym is SBC. But basically, it’s made up of a bunch of ponies from the Kindred planet and the next two planets in the system. They’re mostly involved with stuff that’s related to space and travel, but they also have power in space away from the planets and everypony keeps saying they’re getting more and more powerful.”

“Yikes. They sound kinda… evil.”

“Eh… it’s not really that cut and dry. It’s like any government or group like that; there’s some power-hungry ponies but overall it’s there for a good reason and tends to be coming from a good place.”

“That makes sense, I guess.” After the filly spoke these words, Kevin heard her resume scribbling above.

“Whatcha writing now?” he asked.

“Not writing,” the filly replied. “Drawing a picture.”

“Hopefully it’s of my pretty face,” Kevin joked, snickering. He was pretty sure he could hear the filly rolling her eyes in response—that was how strong she was rolling them.

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.”

“You just did!” Kevin replied, grinning.

“Mmmff.”

Food

Scootaloo was lying on her bunk with her eyes closed when her nose caught wind of a particular scent, one she hadn't smelled in quite some time. At first she couldn't tell; maybe she was only imagining it, as she had only smelled the briefest of fragrances. But then she smelled it again, and stronger, a delicious fragrance wafting into the room from somewhere else on the ship.

Although she had been enjoying just lying there, Scootaloo decided that it was probably best to get up and eat something. She had been spending too much time just lying around in the past few days anyway. The filly lifted her body up out of the pony-shaped indent in the mattress she had created. Yawning, she stretched out her forelegs in front of her. Then she jumped off the side of the bunk.

As she jumped, Scootaloo stretched out her petite orange wings and they caught on the air. Instead of falling straight down, the pegasus filly smoothly glided downward in a wide arc.

But just before she was about to hit the ground, Scootaloo began flapping her wings. At first, they seemed to do nothing; she merely continued gliding downwards. She kept flapping, though—faster and faster—and eventually, at the last second, started propelling herself upwards and forwards. She rose three or four feet, flying across the hallway. Her mane grazed the ceiling.

"Hey, you hungr—whoa!"

Scootaloo turned her head to see her green-grey companion poking his head out from above the ladder just as she swooped by. She grinned and swerved downwards, coming to a landing at the end of the hallway by the cockpit. Her hooves made soft clangs on the metal as she landed.

"You said something about food?" Scootaloo asked.

"Yep! I'm making rice on the stove down here, and I was wondering if you wanted some."

"Oh, awesome! That sounds great." Scootaloo began walking over to the ladder, where Kevin's head already was retreating into the depths of the room below. In just a few short moments, the filly had climbed down the ladder herself, revealing the pantry lit up below. Kevin was already on the other side of the room, peeking into a metal pot which presumably held the rice.

"Should be just about done," he said. "Do you know if there's, like, a dinner table?"

"Hmm... I haven't seen one. Heck, I didn't even know there was a pot. Are there bowls and stuff too?"

Kevin nodded. "Yeah, they're just in one of the drawers here. Probably also from Tank's ship."

"Makes sense," Scootaloo said. "It shouldn't be too much trouble eating with our bowls on the floor then, will it?"

"Nah, that sounds good," Kevin replied. "Probably more dignified than a lot of meals in my life." He smiled as he said this. "Okay, I think it's ready. Lemme just get the bowls..."

Scootaloo expected him to reach up to the cabinets to get them; maybe he would even have to climb up onto the countertops to get to them. But she had momentarily forgotten that he was a unicorn, and he reminded her of this by setting the cabinet aglow with his verdant magic field. The cabinet door swung open and Kevin levitated two metal bowls down before shutting the cabinet. As the colt scooped rice into each of their bowls, Scootaloo momentarily reflected on how friggin' everything was made out of metal up here. She was starting to get sick of it; it would be refreshing once they got to the Kindred planet and she could see nature again.

"Here, eat," Kevin said, nudging one metal bowl across the floor to where Scootaloo sat. She reached out and dragged it towards herself.

"Thank you so much."

"It's no trouble, really," Kevin said, leaning over. He shoved his muzzle into the bowl and began to eat; Scootaloo did the same.

The rice was delicious; the warmth of the food in her mouth was comforting and invigourating, and it was a great contrast to the room-temperature fruits and vegetables that she'd mostly been consuming as of late. Each grain was delicious and moist, and she savoured the meal to the last bite. When she couldn't reach any more bites, she used her tongue to softly scrape the edges of the metal vessel, letting not a single grain go to waste. The bowl looked nearly clean when the filly finally raised her head from it. She carried the dish back over to the counter and then slid open a drawer below, grabbing one of the water bottles. Just a twist of the lid and the cool, refreshing liquid filled her mouth and flowed down her throat.

But all the same, it was more of what she kept doing over and over. Eating and sleeping. Sleeping and eating. Occasional writing in her journal, or maybe looking out upon the stars that surrounded them. But there was pretty much nothing else to do, and it was driving Scootaloo bonkers.

Words

"So, at the rate we're going... it should only be something like five more hours until we get close enough to the surface to try and find where we want to land," Kevin said. He was pacing back and forth in the centre of the cockpit; Scootaloo, leaning against the metal wall on the left side of the ship next to the porthole, watched as he paced. "The main problem is... pretty much right after we get in range, the Bureau ponies will be able to sense the ship and, if we're not careful, take us into custody."

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "But what do we do, then? They're just gonna catch us as soon as we get there?"

"Well, we're gonna need to be quick," Kevin replied, still pacing. His hoofsteps made soft clinking noises on the metal floor. "If we can manoeuvre away from the cities in time... we just might have a chance."

"Might?"

"It's the best we've got, okay?" Kevin snarled, stopping in his tracks. He sighed. "Ugh, I'm sorry. I'm not any less worried about this then you are."

"Wha—worried? Eheh... I'm not worried." Scootaloo stuck her tongue out. "I just was wondering if there was anything else we could do to not get caught."

"Well, the only other thing I can think of is if this ship has a cloaking field. Does it?" he asked.

"Hmm... I wouldn't know. Check the dashboard."

Scootaloo watched as Kevin trotted over to the pilot's seat and jumped on top of it, disappearing from view behind the back of the chair. She waited several moments in silence, presuming that the colt was looking through the controls for anything of use.

"Argent, I've never seen anything like this..." she heard Kevin murmur.

"Is that... a bad thing?" Her tone came off a little more defensive than she had meant; the ship was her main link to her home, after all.

"Only in that I don't recognise anything up here. Whoever built this ship didn't even use any of the Bureau standard symbols!"

Scootaloo sighed and walked across the cockpit to the centre of the front where Kevin stood on the edge of the seat. As he came into view, she could see his brow furrowed in concentration.

"Here, lemme have a look," Scootaloo said as she approached, hopping up alongside the colt onto the chair. He twitched as her side brushed against his; immediately, they both shifted apart so that their bodies no longer made contact. "Whoops, sorry."

"No problem," Kevin said, not looking at her. "Anyway, have a look at these." He pointed with a foreleg towards the controls on the dashboard, and the labels underneath. "This is all just gibberish! I don't even recognise some of the letters."

Scootaloo leaned in to get a closer look. Had some malicious cosmic burst of magic turned all of the dashboard labels to meaningless nonsense? Had she simply imagined words on the labels before, driven to hallucinations from only being able to eat Gamsco's? But no, the labels lay there clear as day, each with a little phrase written on them. Sure, some of the wording was a little weird in places—in particular, Scootaloo would never be caught dead saying a Twilightism like "Headlight ignition toggle"—but even an inattentive schoolfilly like her could get the gist of almost all of them.

"Hello? Kindred planet to Tangerine?" Kevin waved his hoof in front of Scootaloo's face; the filly blinked. "You've been staring at 'em forever."

"Yeah, um, I'm a little confused. You can't read them?"

Kevin's eyes opened wide in surprise. "You mean you can?"

"But you can understand what I'm saying? You understand Eques—um, the language I'm speaking?"

"Most of the time, though sometimes you mumble some weird things in your sleep about an 'Apple Bell' or something..."

Scootaloo blinked. "Nevermind that, not important right now. Hold on." With that, Scootaloo hopped off the chair and galloped out of the cockpit and down the hallway, out of sight.

Kevin sat there, confused, for a minute or two. He gazed forward out the front window at his home planet, slowly but surely getting closer and closer by the second. From here it seemed so small...

His thoughts were interrupted by the return of the orange filly who came bounding into the room. Kevin noticed that she now held her notebook and a small writing implement between her teeth. Once Scootaloo reached the chair, she hopped back onto it and spat the notebook and implement out onto the plasticky surface in front of Kevin.

"Use this pencil and write something. Your name. A sentence. Anything," she panted. She raised both her eyebrows eagerly.

"Pencil? What's a pencil?" Kevin asked, looking down at the open notebook page and the pencil which lay on top.

"Uh... that little stick right there that ponies use to write?"

"Oh, a graphick?"

"Huh?"

"You know, a graphick. This little thing," Kevin said, pointing to the pencil with his hoof.

"Why do you call it a graphic? Isn't that a fancy name for a picture?"

"Well, it sounds like that too, but this one has a K on the end when you spell it out. It's short for graphite stick. 'Cause it's a stick that's got graphite in it."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense..."

"So then why do you call it a pencil?" Kevin asked.

"I... erm... I'm not sure." Scootaloo laughed nervously. "Anyway, write something!"

"If you insist." Kevin enveloped the pencil in his evergreen magical field and lifted it perpendicular to the page. Then, he wrote.

Scootaloo understood what Kevin meant, based on his description of Equestrian writing; there were some familiar letter shapes (though not necessarily in the direction she remembered them facing) but overall the fragment was fairly incomprehensible.

"What does that say?" she asked.

"You can't—?"

"Humour me," Scootaloo said, cutting him off.

"It says, 'Hi. My name is Kevin.' Two brief sentences with two periods. Five words."

"Interesting..." Scootaloo murmured. Before Kevin could do anything more, the pegasus had flipped the notebook to face her and leaned over to grab the pencil between her teeth. Kevin flinched as she wrested the thing from his magical grasp; having a spell forcibly ended was an unpleasant thing indeed.

Scootaloo bent down and, pencil between her teeth, copied Kevin's sentence, except this time in the alphabet that she had known since she was very small. She made an effort to match up her letters right underneath his, and was relieved to find that there were exactly the same number of letters in each of their words. The sentences were exactly the same, down to the spacing and the periods; the only difference was in the letters they used, and not even all of those were different.

"What did you write there underneath?" Kevin asked, eyeing her scribblings.d

"Same thing as you: 'Hi. My name is Kevin.'"

"But your name isn't Kevin."

Scootaloo giggled. "You don't know that—I don't think you've even asked my name!"

"What is it, then?"

Scootaloo laughed again. "Definitely not Kevin, that's for sure."

Kevin rolled his eyes. "So what you're saying is that even though we speak the same language, we write down the words differently?"

"Yep. And, as you can see, there are the same number of letters for each word in both my alphabet and yours, so based on that I'm guessing that it's probably true for the rest of the language."

Kevin nodded. "And it looks like some of the letters are even the same, too. Or almost the same. Like, look at that! Your K is backwards, and your Y is upside down."

"Yeah, that's pretty weird..." Scootaloo trailed off, looking at the paper still. Then, she looked up at Kevin. "I have an idea: how about you write down your alphabet, and I do mine! Then we can both know both alphabets, so you can read the stuff on the ship and I'll be able to read stuff on the Kindred planet."

"That sounds great. Now, if you'd just gimme that 'pencil'..." Kevin said with a wink.

"What, this 'graphick'? Here ya go," Scootaloo replied, winking back. She tossed it in midair and Kevin caught it in his magical field, brought it down to the paper, and began writing.

As Kevin and Scootaloo sat there, looking at each other's hoofwriting and alphabets, learning about this part of each other's culture, cloaking fields momentarily forgotten, the Kindred planet loomed larger and larger in the window ahead.

Down

Beep. Beep. Beep.

At the sound of the familiar beeping, Scootaloo looked up from the notebook that she had just been writing in, showing Kevin how his alphabet corresponded with hers. Kevin didn't seem to notice; he just kept looking down at the notebook. But Scootaloo knew the beeping, and could see a distinctive red light flashing in the corner of her eye. A different one than that first time, but a light blinking all the same.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Scootaloo leaned off of the pilot’s seat towards the dashboard, holding her torso up with her forelegs on its metal edge. Her eyes scanned the rows of controls, eventually settling on the one protruding diode that shone the flashing red light on her face, illuminating her muzzle and forehead from below. She then looked at the label underneath, which read “Danger: Approaching object”.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

For a moment, the filly was confused. Was there an asteroid on one of the sides? Was the system malfunctioning? But then she had a realisation and looked up from the dashboard, out the window ahead.

The green round mass that was the Kindred planet loomed large in the window, almost completely blocking out any of the inky blackness out outer space. What’s more, the planet was getting larger and larger by the second. The light and—

Beep. Beep. Beep.

—of the dashboard was right; if one of them didn’t take control of the ship soon and swerve away, they’d be sent straight into the ground and explode in a marvellous display of fireworks and shrapnel. Which wasn’t what Scootaloo wanted, so her hooves immediately jumped to the steering wheel.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“What are you—whoa!” Kevin exclaimed before and then after he looked up, eyes wide as they processed the body of his home planet coming closer and closer. “Crud!”

“Crud is right! C’mon! Hurry! Do something!” Scootaloo cried out as she swerved the steering wheel left as far as she could. The beeping immediately stopped, and the light switched to a more neutral yellow. Still cautionary, but not extreme danger.

“What do you want me to do?!” Kevin asked, the words spilling frantically out of his mouth.

“I dunno! Check the controls to see—wait, that won’t work if you can’t read them! Hold the wheel while I check the controls!” Scootaloo replied, jumping aside to allow Kevin to reach forward and he did, hooves gripping the wheel.

As Scootaloo leaned forward to check the dashboard, Kevin gazed ahead and suddenly he had a realisation and immediately spun the wheel in the opposite direction. “Wrong way, Butterfinger! You had us going straight towards a city!”

“I don’t know what I’m doing any more than you do! You’ve been here before! Get us going the right way!”

“Already doing that!” Kevin shouted in response but Scootaloo could barely register his voice—let alone glean any meaning from it—as she read each of the labels on the dashboard, under lights, switches, and knobs. Finally, she found the one she had been looking for; its label read proudly “Cloaking shields”. Above the engraved metal label lay a switch flicked downwards, towards her; with a hoof, Scootaloo flicked the switch upwards. A light above it flickered on and the verdant light shone back on Scootaloo’s face.

“Cloaking shields on!” Scootaloo cried; even though there was really no noise around them besides the normal engine hum of the ship, their panicked state induced louder voices in the space ponies.

“Alright, awesome! Hang on!”

Scootaloo clung as hard as she could to the arm of the pilot’s seat with one foreleg and grabbed onto Kevin’s foreleg with her other. The pegasus filly held on for her life as she felt the ship rumbling around them, entering the atmosphere, barreling down to the planet’s surface and slowly veering leftward, Kevin pulling with all his might as if he could somehow push the wheel further in that direction...

Pitch

"Open your eyes—we're almost there."

Scootaloo opened her eyes. She was surprised that they had been closed to begin with; she definitely didn't remember having fallen asleep. But there she was on the pilot's seat, lying against the back, forelegs wrapped around—

"Mmfff...!" Scootaloo sputtered, scrambling up to her hooves and stumbling left, bumping up against the armrest. She blinked. "What happened?"

"I dunno, you fell asleep or something," the green-grey colt next to her replied. "It's only been like an hour, but we're almost there. I figure I'll park us a little bit outside the town, so we don't draw too much attention."

Scootaloo was still blinking the sleep out of her eyes and brain and everything else, but she had enough consciousness to instinctually nod at the words that were in the process of washing over her. She looked out the window in front of her; the world outside looked much the same as it had last time she had looked at it. The filly wondered how Kevin could keep track of it all—every group of trees looked the same as any of the others, and the rivers weren't all that different either. But she trusted him. She had to, or else she was on her own in figuring out where to go.

"Alright, I'm gonna start pulling us down."

"How?" Scootaloo asked. "Does the wheel tilt?"

"No, but I found a lever here. I took that piece of paper with your alphabet on it to translate the label while you were asleep, and the label says 'Pitch adjustment'."

"Huh? Pitch? Like in music?"

"Heh, no, not like that," Kevin replied. "Basically it's flying-speak for up and down. So, right now, I'm just going to push it forward a little bit, so we start going downwards."

Scootaloo watched as Kevin's hoof pushed on the white ball end of the slender metal rod. The thing looked almost cartoonish, like something a villain would pull to drop out the floor from underneath a gang of mystery-solving teenagers. As he pushed it just a few degrees forward, Scootaloo heard the engine, somewhere beneath them in the metal belly of the beast, rumbling fiercely.

And then the floor dropped out from under her.

Scootaloo was thrown suddenly forward, her fuzzy orange stomach impacting upon the edge of the dashboard. She saw Kevin next to her facing a similar fate, his muzzle bouncing off the plastic steering wheel.

She craned her neck to look up as she fell down onto the floor. The view of the window filled up with the vibrant green treetops which had put her to sleep just an hour ago. Perhaps they would again.

Scootaloo fell to her haunches, dazed. Her head throbbed; she must have bumped it. She couldn't remember. She tried to move, tried to climb up to the lever so she could push it. Anything to move them upwards.

She clambered over a limp, fleshy thing, standing atop it just so she could reach, and thank Celestia she could. Scootaloo's orange hooves reached weakly over the edge of the dashboard and around that thin metal pole with the ball on the end. She pulled it back with all her might. Only just slightly was she able to move it, if at all--it was hard to tell. Then, hoping she had done enough, Scootaloo fell back to the ground.

The engine kept rumbling as the metal world around Scootaloo faded away.

Out

Kevin had a headache. He could feel his head throbbing as he regained consciousness. The pain wasn't just there, too; his entire torso ached, and his muzzle in particular was sore.

Upon opening his eyes, he noticed that he was lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling of the ship. He could see that reflection staring back at him with those blue eyes. The face he saw in the reflection was weird—as always, something about it seemed off. It didn't look quite right. He frowned, and the reflection frowned right back. Kevin let out a sigh and, upon hearing it, noticed that the ship's engine was no longer making any noise whatsoever, that he could hear. Strange.

Although he was reluctant to move, Kevin decided that he should probably get up at some point in order to figure out what was going on. Maybe even find the orange filly.

He made an effort to lift up his torso as if he were doing a sit-up, and immediately he groaned and lay back down. His body was sore. So damn sore. What happened? He remembered trying to lower the ship, but not much else beyond that.

Kevin made another attempt at sitting up, this time going slowly. As soon as it hurt, he stopped, but didn't lay back down. Then, centimetre by centimetre, he pushed himself up into a sitting position, wincing from the soreness. Once he got himself sitting up, it was just a few more minutes of pain until Kevin stood on all fours.

He was between the pilot's seat and the dashboard, where the brake and gas pedals were. In fact, he stood atop the brake pedal. It did not descend. A quick look around the cockpit and down the hall proved that he was in the same ship, and little in the interior had changed.

But the orange filly was nowhere in sight. He tried to tell himself not to worry, that she was probably downstairs, but he worried all the same.

Casting that train of thought aside for the moment, Kevin hopped up onto the pilot's seat to get a better view of where they were. Perhaps he could still land this ship, he thought... until he took a look out the window.

The trunks of trees were visible ahead, all but surrounding the ship. He could only just make out the leafy green of the treetops above, with patches of green at the forest floor as well. Somewhat conveniently, the trees opened up into a wide, dark-brown path ahead of the ship; it appeared that they had crash-landed onto one of the surface roads.

Kevin groaned again. Without the advantage of a bird's eye view, he was just as clueless as that filly in trying to navigate the planet. Hopefully they had stayed on course with the crash... he might have to walk a little further than he'd hoped, but the road ahead probably led to where he wanted to go.

Having gleaned enough information from the front window as he could, Kevin jumped down from the seat and landed with a thud and a wheeze on the cockpit floor. His whole body hurt. He was used to uncomfortable situations—sneaking around, being hungry, getting a little bruised—but this was just ridiculous.

With the clanging of hoofsteps on the metal floor, Kevin slowly walked across the cockpit and down the hallway. He passed the ladder, instead deciding to check the bunks first.

At first glance, the bedroom was as empty as it ever was. Kevin's bunk was unkempt and unoccupied, and the filly's upper bunk appeared unoccupied as well. Just to be sure, Kevin mustered up whatever strength he had to cast a levitation spell, lifting himself upward in his verdant magical aura briefly so that he could get a better look. As the bunk had appeared from below, it was completely empty. He reached out a hoof to check the sheets before the enchantment wore off, and they were cold to the touch. Evidently nopony had been there for quite some time. Kevin descended softly onto the ground. It was a struggle to even move his limbs at this point; that spell had probably been a bad idea. But still he kept going.

Before he went back to the hallway, however, something below the bunkbed caught his eye. He stumbled back over to the edge of the bunk and reached underneath with a foreleg, fishing around for whatever he had seen. His hoof was met with a hard corner; he dragged the thing out, and it lay in front of him on the ground.

It was a book. The front was unremarkable; there was a blue ocean photo on the front and a few words in that filly's alien script. He suddenly found himself wishing for her notebook that translated her script to his, but it hadn't been in the cockpit where he woke up. He presumed that the filly had it.

Casually, he opened the front cover and flipped to a random page. It looked like any other book, but all the words inside, as he'd suspected, were in the filly's script. He flipped open to a few more pages; he was greeted with the same results. Sighing, he closed the volume. He took a few steps in the direction of the hallway, out of the room, but turned his head over his shoulder to look at the thing. He stood there a moment, pondering. Then, he magically summoned it to his side and levitated it along as he left the room.

The colt stumbled back down the hallway but this time stopped at the top of the ladder. Breathing out an irritated sigh, he turned his weary body around and began to descend slowly backwards. With some effort, he managed to climb down the ladder; every so often, a hoof would slip out of one of the rungs and he had to swing it back to take hold. It wasn't until he found all four hooves down on solid metal that his heart stopped beating so hard.

Oddly enough, the light down in the pantry was off. Kevin couldn't remember having turned it off, so the filly must have. He flicked on the light switch. And, once again, groaned.

Pretty much every single one of the drawers and cupboards was left open, looking haphazardly opened in search of... something. What's more, Kevin could see the shiny metal surface of the bottom of these drawers, revealing that they were empty. There was nary a crumb left.

"What the hay happened?" Kevin mumbled to himself. "Did she just run off by herself? Did she use me?"

Kevin checked the bathroom too, just to be sure, but the filly wasn't there either. Then he walked down the last hall. The cargo hold was still as mysteriously shut as ever, and he punched in a few codes just for kicks. No dice.

With little other choice, Kevin walked back down the hall and turned right to the exterior door. He pressed the red plastic button with a foreleg and the door slid open with a whoosh.

Book in tow, the unicorn colt walked out of the ship onto the surface of the Kindred planet.

Walking

The warm rays of the midday sun peeked through the thick layers of the forest above; all else was cast in eerie, chilly shadow. Kevin rested in the pockets of sun when he needed to, in between the long stretches of cold air with just the pinpricks of sunlight on his back as a reprieve. He would have liked to have stayed for a while in the larger bright patches, reclining in the sun like some rich pony who could afford to do such things with their time, but time unfortunately was not something he had to waste. He needed to get to Dienna as fast as he could.

He still didn't know where the orange filly was, either, and he probably needed to find her. But it would be easier to do that once he was in town and could talk with his father's friend. Though that was dependent on the stallion still being alive, which Kevin couldn't even confirm. It was a long shot at best, but really all he had.

Kevin continued onward down the mulchy path. He wondered how long the road had been there, and if it was the same road he knew. He hoped.

The next time he stopped in a patch of sun, he looked backwards to check on his progress. Already the ship was far out of sight, and all he could see behind him was the stretch of the path in the distance in a straight line. Perhaps if there hadn't been so much foliage above he could still see the ship. He didn't know. It wasn't important—his focus was onwards. He turned his neck back towards the path in front of him, and continued walking.

The trees and bushes he passed on either side of the path were unremarkable to him, all looking pretty much the same. Clumps of leafy things near the ground, or thick trunks that supported leaves up above. The air felt thick; there was a particular moist yet cold quality about it that permeated his coat, sticking close to his body. After the nigh on sterile environment of the orange filly's ship, this felt absolutely disgusting.

The road ahead didn't look much different from the one behind. It curved to the right ever so slightly, but that was pretty much it.

Minutes passed. Hours, even. Maybe. Kevin couldn't really tell, but it couldn't have been that long because Solaris still shone overhead and its rays were as warm as ever.

Worst of all was the book Kevin carried alongside, levitating it with his magic. The thing was utterly useless to him and the very act of carrying it with him was sapping his strength, making him weaker. But he couldn't shake the feeling that this alien tome was important and that, if he could find the pegasus filly, she would be grateful that he'd saved it.

Kevin was pulled from his thoughts by a screeching sound above; in his surprise, he nearly dropped the book. He craned his neck upward, and saw a flash of black. It disappeared into the trees as soon as it had appeared. Kevin trained his gaze back towards the path in front of him once more, and resumed his walking.

But he heard the screech again. Instantly his gaze shot upwards and he saw an unmistakable blackness swooping across the ceiling of the forest. And another, and another. There were dozens of the things—Kevin could hardly tell the individual ones apart in the undulating mass in the sky.

And then, to Kevin's horror, the birds descended to the forest floor.

Birds

The armada of birds—ravens, it seemed—covered the forest floor like a blanket, filling up an entire section of the mulchy road with both their dark colour and their incessant, shrill squawking. Unlike most birds, these ravens did not seem to be afraid of ponies. Maybe it was their numbers—maybe it was their sheer ferocity—but either way, the space that Kevin took up was no exception in their occupation of the area.

"Get off!" he cried out, batting away a few of the inky black birds that were swarming around his small body. A few had even tried landing on his head; although this wasn't a particularly good idea due to the threat of the colt's hooves flying all about in search of birds to whack away, the birds had an advantage in speed and managed to avoid Kevin's hooves. To his chagrin, just as soon as one had flown off of him, another flew up to take its place. These birds were downright insufferable.

Resigned to his fate, Kevin attempted to stumble forwards through the murk. Just a few steps forward, however, revealed that this was a mistake; the birds started squawking louder at the motion and, if it was even at all possible, flocked even closer to the small pony. He was practically drowning in the sea of avian limbs; they enveloped his body. He could feel the tiny claws on their feet scratching at his flesh beneath his coat; it was all Kevin could do to not yelp out in pain. He writhed.

It was then, as he felt like the ravens had overtaken him completely, that he spied something out of the ordinary on one of the wingèd beasts. Right there, smack in the middle of the forehead of perhaps what was the biggest, darkest, shiniest raven was a little gold star. Like, one of the stickers you'd get from your preschool teacher if you did a good job. That kind of gold star. This monster of a bird, this hulking behemoth, loomed over him. It kept its distance—it never once came anywhere near hoof's reach—but it stood motionless, staring straight into his eyes. As the rest of the undulating mass of small bodies shifted around in endless rhythms and patterns, it stuck out like a sore hoof.

"You..." Kevin murmured, narrowing his eyes. "You're behind all this, aren't you?"

The raven just stared back at Kevin, its beady black eyes unmoving in their death stare. The sun glinted off of the little star sticker.

"Answer me, dammit!" Kevin shouted hoarsely. He thrusted a foreleg upwards as he said this and the combination of the loud noise and his physical violent outburst sent all of the birds that had been on top of him flying. They still encircled his body, shifting around ever so slightly, but they had slowed. Finally, he had reprieve from their scratching. The fresh pain of the small wounds, however, still lingered.

For a moment, the star-wearing raven did nothing. It just stared back. Then, in a terrifying gesture, it opened its beak. The facial protrusion lay open.

"Kay, you silly filly," it squeaked in a high-pitched voice. "This is the end of the line. You're going down, kid. It was dumb to bring your friend to the Kindred planet. Now you'll never see her again."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" The colt leapt up out of his empty bird-free circle of the mulch and he soared forward in the direction of the raven. However, before he could land, the bird began to flap its wings to lift itself out of his reach. Its wings when spread out were even larger than Kevin had thought, looking as if they could wrap around his entire torso and crush his little pony bones. He gulped.

As he landed on his hooves, the birds moved out of his way to create another gap in the feathery darkness. When he spun around to face that leader of the ravens, the one with the gold star on its forehead, Kevin noticed that the birds had shifted to fill up the gap where he stood just a few seconds ago. It was odd how they behaved; they seemed to be more like a liquid than animals.

"You're going to have to try harder than that, Kay. It's like you don't even care!" The raven giggled merrily. "You always did have a tendency to go easy on me."

"Shut up!" Kevin shouted. He ran forward through the sea of birds and jumped with as much strength as he could muster, crouching down and propelling his lithe frame upwards into the air. He reached forward with a hoof, swatting at... where the raven had been only seconds ago. But it was too fast for him—he could nearly feel the tips of its feathers but it already was several yards away.

"Oho, now you decide to put some effort into it! Well, two can play at that game." If the bird had had an opaque eyelid, Kevin was sure it would have winked. "My feathery brethren! Attack!"

Kevin's eyes were wide in surprise as dozens of the ravens rose up slowly from the ranks of their fellows. He watched, frozen in horror, as they aligned into a V-like formation. And then, before he could get the brains together to jump out of the way, the squadron swooped forward in attack, claws bared and beaks ready to rip flesh.

His heart pounding, Kevin finally got his act together and started to dodge as the nose of the V was about to hit him. He was a little too late—a claw grazed the side of his muzzle, scratching another shallow cut into his body—but he escaped any major harm. That was the least of his worries, though; the flying V formation that he had dodged was already beginning to circle around and back in his direction.

But this time Kevin was ready. Alert on his hooves, the colt jumped up as the first bird was within range. He swiftly made short work of the avian; the impact of his hooves with its small body sent the raven in a tailspin towards the sea of birds below. He grinned.

"Who's next?!"

Where

"HaveyouseenRainbowDash?!"

Scootaloo's words slurred together; Pinkie Pie was no stranger to such excitement word-slurring, though. In fact, she giggled at the excited filly who had just scootered up to where she stood outside Sugarcube Corner. It looked like Scootaloo could hardly stop moving; even in her pause from scootering along,

"Yepper deppers! Dashie's up on a cloud over by the Town Hall! Can't miss her!"

"ThankyousomuchPinkie!" Scootaloo exclaimed. She was about to scooter away in that direction when Pinkie asked her another question.

"Is there a specific reason why you're excited to see Dashie today?"

"She'sgonnagivemeflyinglessonscuzit'smybi—"

"—RTHDAY?!" Pinkie Pie gasped so hard that her hooves lifted off the ground and into the air."Omigosh, I need to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders!"

The orange filly was already on her way, however. "HavefunthanksPinkie!" Her scooter squeaked as it sped along.

Pinkie just grinned as the filly sped away, before running off in the opposite direction. She had much work to do, and two other fillies to find.

Dash

Scootaloo looked up at the puffy grey clouds around the town hall, trying to spot any trace of her friend's multicoloured mane peeking over their edges. It took her a minute or two; all of the lower clouds were clear of ponies, but a few red and orange hairs were visible on a cloud near the top of the Town Hall's spire. Grinning, the filly stopped her scooter with one of her back legs, skidding in the dirt as the thing came to a stop.

"Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo called up, voice reverberating around the centre of town. There weren't many ponies walking around, but the few that were there didn't turn their heads. Most of Ponyville's residents were used to Scootaloo calling after Dash.

"Mmmff—I didn't order any roast—" Scootaloo heard Rainbow Dash mumble up above. Evidently the pegasus was still sleeping. It was still pretty early in the morning, so this wasn't strange for the sky-blue mare, but Scootaloo was itching to get started. It was her birthday, after all.

"Rainbow! Please!" She yelled a bit louder this time. Two mares standing near the Town Hall steps turned their heads to look; although they were used to Scootaloo's cries for Rainbow's attention, they weren't usually this loud, this urgent, or this early.

However, this seemed to do the trick. Scootaloo could see the flecks of colour up above shifting around. The pony above let out a yawn and stood up to her hooves, stretching her wings out to her sides.

Once she had closed her mouth, Rainbow Dash blinked. Then, she looked down. "Hey, squirt. What's got you up so early? I already know what's got me up so early..."

"Eheh... sorry about that," Scootaloo called upwards. "I was just wondering—you said that you'd give me flying lessons today and I was hoping we could start soon!"

Rainbow scratched her head with one of her front hooves. "I did, didn't I? Well, ya already got me awake, so I guess we might as well start now." The pegasus leapt off the cloud with a small poof, sending nebulous vapour outward as she left its surface. She soared downwards toward the ground.

Her flight path was revealed to be a parabola as she sped past Scootaloo, who went quickly from standing on the ground to being held between Rainbow's forelegs. The filly giggled with glee as her hooves left the ground and she soared beneath Ponyville's greatest speedster, held in that mare's grasp, excited for the best day of her life.

Fall

Scootaloo sat on a tufty white cloud that was hovering low in the air on the outskirts of Ponyville. Behind her lay the last few houses of the village; in front, however, was where her gaze was trained, at the blue pegasus mare diving down through the air below. Her neck was craned over the edge and she gasped as it looked like Rainbow was about to crash into the field of grass...

...but then she pulled out of the dive and soared upward before doing a loop in the air and flattening out so she was level with the cloud. Scootaloo stomped her hooves on its surface, sending little poofs of vapour into the air.

"And that, squirt, was the Nosebleed Nosedive!"

"Why do you call it that?" Scootaloo asked as Rainbow Dash landed next to her on the cloud.

"'Cuz if you do it wrong, you're gonna get a nosebleed." She laughed. "And maybe a bit more. You wanna see another one?"

Scootaloo didn't answer at first. "Well, yeah, that would be cool! But maybe you could teach me some stuff, too? We've kinda already been up here for like half an hour."

Rainbow blinked. "Oh crud, I totally forgot. Let's go!" And, with that, Rainbow grabbed Scootaloo and flung her off the cloud. "Don't forget to flap your wings," she called loudly after the filly as she fell in shock, absolutely motionless, towards the ground below.

Fight

The flock of ravens didn't miss a beat despite their missing member, however; they merely swooped around in another loop and came back straight towards where Kevin stood in the bare patch of mulch. His heart pounded in his chest as the black shapes came closer and closer.

He wasn't just ready, though; he was filled with adrenaline and confidence from that bird he'd already taken out, so once they were within reach Kevin leapt up once more into the air and, with a flail of a foreleg, made contact with another two which fell off course to either side. He spared no time once landing to burst straight up into the air again to take out another two, three, four ravens, letting out loud squawks as his hooves hit them in their feathery appendages. Only three more of the ravens remained flying in formation and although they were already beginning to loop back, Kevin grinned as he knew he could take 'em out easily.

That was when more birds rose from the writhing feathery sea of blackness below. First, it was one more V formation. Annoying, but that he could deal with. But this was followed by another, and another... until Kevin was surrounded on all sides by airborne ravens, beaks and claws trained in his direction. He gulped, and glanced down. The layer of birds on the path didn't even seem to have thinned whatsoever.

Kevin looked back up and he could make out the form of the star-stickered raven up above, far beyond the edges of the birds who were ready to attack. That head raven just cackled squeakily.

"You looked so confident... it's a shame you let that confidence go to waste, Kay. My offer from last time still stands."

Kevin spat at the ground in front of him; a bird on the edge flinched away in order to not get slathered in his saliva. "And my answer is the same as last time."

"So be it. Get her!"

Kevin had barely a moment to brace himself before all of the birds that surrounded him shot inwards, sharp protrusions at the ready.

Luckily, he had enough wits about himself to duck. He could hear the birds above, slicing through the air. He let out a sigh of relief as he crouched down, but he jumped back to action as the birds lowered their trajectory and one raven in particular got close enough to graze its claws along his back. Kevin winced in pain. "Augh! Dang it!"

The smell of blood re-energised the colt and he, instead of trying to duck further and evade like his whole body was urging him, decided to jump back up. He thrust his body into the mass of ravens that were now flying around unorganised in messy patches. This left them vulnerable; Kevin punched upward into one spot with his right hoof and the solid appendage whacked several birds out of the way with loud screeches.

The hole, while getting several of his attackers out of the way, left an open spot that the other birds could converge around, and that they did. Before Kevin could realise what was going on, he was already stuck in a repeat of what had just happened and the birds soared forward. He jumped up to meet them midair, hooves at the ready.

The colt was able to get a good few thwacks in before he landed, but his landing left him vulnerable. He felt a sharp stabbing pain on the back of his neck; quickly he turned around to find himself muzzle-to-beak with a raven, which he batted out of the way as if it were a spiderweb. But his neck still frickin' hurt.

He jumped up again, ready to attack, when he felt like he bumped into something above. Confused, Kevin thought nothing of it as he hit another few birds aside and they screeched. He fell back down to the ground. As he was about to jump again, he noticed another detail: blood was trickling down his forehead, onto his face. Kevin blinked and raised a foreleg to his head, momentarily ignoring the birds flapping above.

What he found on his head was not what he was expecting. A limp form was impaled on his horn and it was bleeding out. He pulled it off and held it in front of his face. The bird coughed and sputtered as it bled out in his hooves. He wanted to do more for it, care for it even, but he had no time. The rest of the birds were about to converge on where he stood. So, with a regretful sigh, he cast the dying body aside into the mass of feathers around him. Then, once more, he jumped. This was going to take a while.

Learn

"Rainbowwwwwww! Help!"

"Flap your wings, squirt! You can do it!"

"I'm flapping as hard as I can!" And indeed the filly was, her wings abuzz as she plummeted past clouds. Yet, despite all her effort, her fall didn't appear to slow whatsoever. "Rainbow I'm gonna crash and die this is the worst birthday ev—"

And then, suddenly, Scootaloo felt her hooves crash into something soft and she collapsed into whatever it was. For a minute, she was dazed; when she came to her senses, though, she realised that she had landed atop a fluffy white cloud. Rainbow Dash was floating along with her hooves on its edge, evidently having just pushed it underneath the filly. Scootaloo hadn't even seen her there in her absolute terror.

She looked over at the older mare. "What in the hay were you thinking?! I could have died!" Normally Scootaloo wouldn't be so short with her friend and idol, but, as she had voiced, she had thought she was going to die. That doesn't usually make ponies that friendly.

"C'mon, Scoots. I wouldn't have actually let you fall! I had the cloud ready here the whole time."

Scootaloo took deep breaths. Her intense anxiety, the fluttery feeling in her chest, seemed to slowly subside as she felt her lungs fill with air and then let it out. She didn't speak for another minute, giving herself time to not feel like she was going to puke out her guts. "But why would you start with that?"

"Gotta get all your anxiety out first before we start doing anything. It sucks, but that's the best way to do this sorta crud. So, now that you're feeling better, let's get you up to a larger cloud."

Scootaloo barely had time to go "Huh?" before she was once again whisked off her hooves. Rainbow Dash had grabbed her, bringing her up to wherever they were going. As they moved through the air, the filly, against her better judgment, looked down. Past her dangling hooves she could see the rolling hills of Ponyville's outskirts below. There was a little flutter in her tummy at the sight of the dizzying drop below, but it was nowhere near as bad as her foray into free fall from just a minute before. Maybe Rainbow had a point with this whole 'getting anxiety out of the way' thing. Maybe.

It only took Rainbow Dash a minute or two to find what she had been looking for, which ended up being one of the largest white clouds Scootaloo had ever seen outside of Cloudsdale. Most clouds didn't get this large even if they were storm clouds. Scootaloo was pretty sure the cloud with Rainbow's house on it was much smaller, and that was probably the biggest one she had seen near Ponyville. The filly shot Rainbow a look of confusion as the older mare dropped her gently on its surface. "How come we're up here?"

"Clouds are the best place to start flying, squirt. They're soft, so you won't get too banged up when you fall. Much better than the ground. And, if something happens to the cloud, I'm here to catch ya." Rainbow winked. "Don't worry."

Scootaloo gulped. "If you insist..."

"I do. You wanna learn to fly, right?"

"Yeah..." Scootaloo said, looking over the edge of the cloud. The ground was even further down. They were really high up. Maybe even higher than Cloudsdale. "I think..."

"Then let's get started. First, I gotta ask—what do you know already?"

Scootaloo turned back to face Rainbow. "Not that much... I mean, I know that you need to flap your wings."

"Good, good," Rainbow said, nodding. "Anything else?"

"I know there was something else... I was reading a book Princess Twilight gave me, but it kinda got too boring." Scootaloo scratched her mane with a hoof. "I just wanna fly!"

Rainbow smiled, and her facial expression was almost uncharacteristically warm. "I know that it's tough, but some of that egghead stuff is really important in learning how to fly, too."

"Seriously? Then why did it take Princess Twilight so long to start flying well?"

Rainbow laughed. "Wellllll, it's a combo of both. You gotta have that good ol' pegasus determination, but you also need to know some stuff about the basic mechanics of flight. Here, I'll show you."

Scootaloo tried not to fall asleep as she watched and heard Rainbow Dash give her a demonstration that was much more egghead than anything she'd previously believed the mare capable of. She watched as Rainbow explained the different types of wing flaps and how effective they were at getting lift in different types of wind and weather conditions. As Rainbow flew across and around the expanse of the cloud in demonstration, Scootaloo tried to look like she was paying attention as she used her hooves to craft a small pony out of the cloudbed beneath her. After a few minutes of work, the tufty little cloud-pegasus stood proudly in front of her like a Wonderbolt, wings outstretched.

"Yo, Scoots, you okay?"

Scootaloo looked up to see Rainbow looking over, concerned. She hadn't realised that she had stopped watching the pegasus to focus on the miniature one at her hooves. "Um, I think so. You can keep going, I'm listening."

"You sure?" Rainbow asked, walking over to where the filly sat. Once she reached Scootaloo's side, Rainbow sat down next to her. "You seem a little... sidetracked." Rainbow looked down. "Hey, is that Spitfire?"

"Heh, I dunno. It's nopony in particular." Scootaloo dissolved the shape with one of her hooves. "Everything's fine."

Rainbow looked at her for a moment before speaking. Her expression was hard to read; in fact, it looked more like Rainbow was the one doing the expression-reading. "You kinda bored of all this crud?"

Scootaloo nodded. "I guess I kinda hoped we would be doing more flying and less... school-type stuff."

"Mmm, you're right. That stuff bored me too at your age." Rainbow looked out at the expanse of cloud in front of them. "Y'know what? I want you to show me what you got."

Scootaloo blinked. "You sure? I haven't even really been listening to most of what you've been saying... how am I gonna know what to do?"

"I'm sure, Scoots. A lot of it's just instinct. I know you can do it. Now get out there and show me." Rainbow beckoned at the empty surface of the cloud in front of her.

Scootaloo felt a bead of sweat on her forehead as she trotted slowly past Rainbow Dash and out to the open cloud. She gazed at the fluffy white surface of the thing. Even though it wasn't the ground, it still was a solid surface. She had been walking on solid surfaces her whole life. Many times had she fallen through the air, but to stay there, to feel comfortable moving through it, let alone be as graceful as Rainbow Dash? That was all she wanted, yet it seemed so impossible. She felt her legs lock there as if held by some invisible force.

It was made clear to her that she had been standing there for an odd amount of time when Rainbow spoke up. "Y'know, if you really don't wanna do this, Scoots, I'm not gonna make you. Everypony learns at their own—"

Before Rainbow could finish her sentence, Scootaloo had leapt into the air. She felt her heart beat loudly in her chest as her wings buzzed as fast as they could. Somehow, she managed to propel herself forward a few metres before she glided down to the surface of the cloud below. As she came to a stop, she exhaled a breath she didn't know she had been holding. She still felt those butterflies in her stomach, but they were a little better. She'd flown, if just for a moment. Then, she flipped around to face Rainbow Dash.

"How'd I do?" Scootaloo asked, still panting. All that flapping was a lot of work.

Rainbow ran over to where Scootaloo had landed. "That was awesome, kid!" She raised a hoof and bumped it against Scootaloo's. "That gives us a great place to start, too. Let's see if we can't get you gliding across the whole cloud here."

And for the next few hours, that's exactly what they did. Over and over, Scootaloo jumped up, started flapping her wings, and glided ever so slightly more across the cloud each time. Then, as soon as she recovered, she'd run back over to the other side where Rainbow Dash stood watching and she'd do it again. It was exhausting; getting her wings up to speed was difficult with the size of her wings as well as her inexperience. Rainbow Dash—and pretty much any other pegasus she'd seen fly—made it look so easy. With each attempt, it got a little bit easier—but it never felt like she was making enough progress fast enough. But just the very act of gliding over and over across the cloud was doing wonders to allay her anxiety. After just a few tries, she already felt comfortable. She wanted to make Rainbow proud, but she realised that wasn't something she needed to worry about.

It took a while, but eventually she felt like she was making palpable progress. She didn't know how much time had gone by, but when she made it another metre, she felt a flutter of excitement. And Rainbow Dash was there the whole time, cheering her on, saying reassuring things when she ran back across the cloud. Scootaloo could tell the mare really cared, too, by the way she wasn't using the time to nap. Maybe it wasn't going as fast as she had hoped, but this was still turning out to be one of the best birthdays ever.

Finally, Scootaloo touched her hooves down at the far edge of the cloud after descending from a glide. Her left foreleg was even further than the edge, and she had to be careful to shift it back when landing so she didn't lose her balance and fall.

"Rainbow! Look!"

"I see it, squirt!" Rainbow fluttered over to where Scootaloo had landed. "Good job!"

Scootaloo beamed. "Thanks!"'

"Now, how about let's go back into town? You don't wanna waste your whole birthday up here with me, do ya?"

"I do!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "This has been super fun—I wanna do more!"

Rainbow laughed. "I know, I know, and we can do more later. My promise for flight lessons wasn't just for today! But you've got places to go and ponies to see."

"I do?"

"Heh... something like that. Anyway, why don't we go down to Sugarcube Corner for some lunch? Pinkie told me she's got something tasty on the menu today."

Scootaloo's stomach rumbled. "Well, now that you mention it..."

Rainbow grinned and bent down to allow Scootaloo to climb on her back. Then, without another moment's wait, the pegasus mare flapped her wings and soared down off the cloud into the open air below, towards the circles of houses that made up Ponyville. It was a little bizarre for Scootaloo, looking down at her home from a bird's eye view, but it was kinda cool to be able to see the entire place all at once. And, somewhere near the centre of it all, was Sugarcube Corner.

Harsh

"Mmmff..."

Scootaloo awoke slowly. The first thing she noticed as she regained consciousness was the bittersweet aftertaste of a dream, a dream of a memory that at this point was becoming all too familiar, night after night. She already felt so removed and so far away from that day and, in some respects, she was. Physically, she was already so distant... and yet it hadn't even been that long ago.

The second thing she noticed, which distracted her from this train of thought, was a throbbing headache. It felt like somepony had taken her head in between their hooves and was squeezing as hard as they could. Wincing, she managed to crack open her eyelids; maybe she could get some clue of what was going on from her surroundings. Her memory was hazy at best.

But, as soon as she opened her eyes, she squeezed them back shut. Wherever she was, it was bright, and the sudden wash of light on her sleep-ridden eyes just made her head throb even harder. She let out a sigh.

"Keep it down over there, why don't ya?" hissed an unfamiliar raspy voice from somewhere indeterminate off to the right.

"Oh, don't give her a hard time, Grey. She just got here, and she's only a filly." This voice was no more familiar than the last but was a good deal more friendly-sounding, at least. And it sounded closer.

"Meh, whatever. Just keep it down."

Confused, Scootaloo blinked her eyes open and closed several time to acclimate her vision to the bright light of the room. However, upon clearing her vision, she found herself no less confused. In fact, she was more confused than ever.

Instead of the ship or even somewhere outside in the forest they'd landed in, Scootaloo instead found herself leaned against a metal wall, in a room composed of two more metal walls to the sides, a metal ceiling, and a metal floor. Above her, the source of her difficulty adjusting to the light, were several panes that emitted harsh, fluorescent light. In the front, instead of a wall, were thick metal bars. She turned her head, but the only things in the room to keep it from being just an empty metal box were a small bed with what looked to be a thin mattress pad, and a bucket. Scootaloo cast one more glance around the room and then she stood.

"Hey there, you 'wake?" It was the friendly voice that spoke, and this time she could see its point of origin—the shape of a pony in a cell that looked very similar to her own, although it was across a two-metre hall. Scootaloo stepped forward to get a closer look.

As the pony came into view, it was evident that the pony across from her was an adult mare with a muted pink coat and a cream-coloured mane, sitting in the middle of her own cell. The symbol of three balls coloured red, green, and white was clearly visible on the mare's flank, each one looking slightly flattened. Scootaloo momentarily tried to remember whether Kevin had had one; after some thought, she decided that he probably didn't if she hadn't noticed.

"Can ya not talk?" the pony asked. Scootaloo realised that she hadn't answered the question from before.

"Um, yeah, hi," Scootaloo said. Her voice was scratchy.

"Oh, hello!" The mare's face seemed to light up at the sound of Scootaloo's voice, and her face pressed against the bars on the other side of the hall. "How're you doing?"

"Fine, I guess. But, um... where are we?"

Another voice, the other one she'd heard from before, made a scoffing noise. "Doesn't even know where we are," the masculine voice grumbled. "How thick can ya be?"

"Oh, shut up, you old coot!" the mare shouted, facing her left. She turned back to Scootaloo. "I'm really sorry about Grey. He never gets any better, unfortunately."

"I can hear ya!!"

"That don't change a thing, and you know it!"

Scootaloo could see a dark form in that cell to the left of the mare's. Unlike both of their cells, this one didn't appear to have the strips of fluorescent lighting on its ceiling. The only light was that which seeped in from one of the other rooms; that made it easy for its inhabitant to remain unseen. "How come he—?"

"He don't like the light much, if that's what you're askin'. Grumpiest bucket of hayseed that I ever had the chance of meeting." The mare paused, staring blankly ahead. "Now, what were you asking about 'fore that?"

"Where are we?"

The mare laughed. It wasn't a loud, hearty laugh or an uncontrollable giggle—no, this laugh was much more weary. "Filly, I dunno how you found yourself here without knowin' where here is, but you're in the South Pen."

"The South Pen?"

The mare shot her a funny look. "You not from 'round these parts? Y'know, the South Pen. Big ol' prison place where they throw the bad guys and that sort."

"Oh, yeah, I knew that," Scootaloo lied. "Can't remember how I got here, though..."

"Hmm... maybe them ponies threw you in there to hard. A pony in here ain't likely to forget what they've done 'less they throw you in so hard that you bump your head and get amnesia. Back a few years ago, there was a whole kerfuffle 'cause it was happening a lot and they cracked down on the rules or something. I dunno. It was a while back."

Scootaloo nodded. "Who are you, then? What are you in for?"

The mare grinned. "I'm Mochi, darlin'. Ponies 'round the whole city used to know me for those little scrumptious balls I'd make. Y'know, these ones." She gestured with a foreleg to her cutie mark. "Mare, what I wouldn't give to make these for ponies. Haven't in years."

Scootaloo gasped "In years? How come?"

"Well, I've been in here, haven't I?" She laughed again with that same weary laugh. "Now's not really the time for that story. Don't wanna use up my best story on the first day!"

"Celestia, I had better not be in here for that long," Scootaloo mumbled to nopony in particular under her breath. Mochi didn't seem to have heard her.

"So, what's your name and story, young'n? What's a cute little filly like you doin' in a hell like this?"

"Well, I don't really know," Scootaloo said. "It's as I told you—one moment I was flying on a ship with... a friend, and next thing I know I wake up here. My name's Scootaloo, by the way."

"Huh, interesting name. I've never heard anything quite like that before. You not from 'round these parts, are ya?"

"Eheh... you could say that."

"Well, Scootaloo, I'd love to talk to you s'more but I'm pretty darn tired. Been up all night counting all the mochi I can remember making! Or was it all day... hee hee!" She let out a giggle-snort that was oddly Pinkie-esque.

"Goodnight," Scootaloo said. As Mochi retreated to the back part of her room and onto her bed, Scootaloo decided that would be the most opportune thing for her to do as well. Her hooves clanged as she made her way across the metal box.

The whole thing was so utterly cruel, when she thought about it. She and Kevin had just gotten to this planet with the hopes and promises that they'd finally be free of that metal prison of a ship; even though it had become her home, she had yearned for the open freeness of the natural world. And now she was trapped in an even smaller metal box with no easily apparent hope of escape. It was even worse.

But someone's gonna have to come eventually, Scootaloo thought to herself as she climbed onto the stiff mattress pad to lie down. It wasn't actually that much worse than her bunk on the ship. They're going to come to give you food or let you outside or tell you what you did wrong and maybe, just maybe, you'll be able to escape.

That was all she could tell herself, because otherwise she would be hopeless.

Gloss

As the last remaining ravens circled him, Kevin stood still in his empty patch of the mulch. They paused before attacking him again. The sea of the birds had thinned, with many having flown away or been knocked motionless to the ground. Most of those were unconscious; a few, regretfully, were dead. Kevin didn't want to kill them, but he was doing what he had to in order to make sure they didn't hurt him any more.

It had taken Kevin a while—fifteen minutes? thirty?—to decimate most of the ravens' numbers, leaving only about two dozen in the air around him, plus that gold-starred leader who refused to get any closer than it had to. But, despite Kevin's success in fighting against the birds, he still was not done.

"Why are you just hovering there?" Kevin yelled at the birds. "I'm ready for you!"

At first, there was no response. The star-stickered leader stared him down, expression difficult to read. Then, the bird opened its beak. "Just thinking, Kay. Just thinking..." It adjusted one of it claws, flicking forward a few talons.

The birds, previously just spiralling around, shot forward. And it should have been like any of the other times.

But this time, Kevin suddenly couldn't feel his hooves and his body wouldn't move so he was a sitting duck. He could almost feel the sharp edges of keratin that lined their beaks slicing into his soft, vulnerable pony flesh, leaving him on the ground bleeding and in the throes of death—

And then, just as the birds were about to reach him, he heard a voice behind him.

"Hey!"

No longer immobile, Kevin turned away from the birds towards the source of the voice. With an unblocked view, he was able to see a slender pegasus stallion with a lime green coat that stood out in sharp contrast to the muted, earthy tones of the forest around them. He was still over a dozen metres down the path. "Um... hi," Kevin responded, heart still racing.

"What're you doin' out here, boy?" the pony asked, walking closer. Kevin involuntarily flinched. "I haven't seen another pony out here in a long time, and especially not somepony as young as you all by yourself. Though I thought I heard somepony else..."

"I'm... um... I'm on my way to Dienna," Kevin stammered. He then wondered what the stallion had meant by his last comment. "What do you mean, somepony else?"

"Well, I heard another voice. High and squeaky, like somepony was makin' fun of a whiner or something. Say, are those birds from these parts? I'm new to the surface so I've never really seen anything like 'em."

Kevin had momentarily forgotten the ravens that were about to slice his face off; as soon as he remembered, he whipped his head around to see why they hadn't done so already.

All he saw, though, were three or four of the black birds, high in the sky, nowhere near the path. As he watched them, the birds seemed to pick up their pace and flap faster, soaring across the patch of the sky visible from beneath the trees.

"You alright?"

"Yes, sir," Kevin said, turning around slowly to face the pegasus who now stood only about a metre away. "Just... had a thought."

"Thoughts are good, my boy," the stallion said, smiling warmly. Kevin's eye twitched. "My name's Gloss and I come from Umberlight. What's your story?"

"My name is... Kevin," he said in a low voice. "I'm from Dienna but I was out of town visiting relatives to the west, so I'm going back home now."

"Fair 'nough. Say, why don't I escort ya home?"

Kevin grimaced. "That's fine, really, you don't have to—"

Gloss didn't seem to take the hint. "No, no, I insist. I've always wanted to see Dienna! Sure, maybe I'll be backtracking a little bit, but that's all good to me. It's just great to finally be up here on the surface, y'know? Well, maybe you don't really 'preciate it the same way I do, since—"

Gloss's words seemed to... well, gloss together as he went on and on about his life and what he thought of the surface and how lucky Kevin was and whatnot. Kevin had no choice but to walk alongside this pony and listen to his stories as they walked down the path, through the forest.

But every so often, in the corner of his vision, Kevin would see the glint of light reflecting off what looked to be a golden star sticker. Each time he would turn his head, just to be greeted with the same tree trunks and bushes that lined both sides of the path. Something had happened there, and Kevin knew it—he just wasn't sure of what.

Path

"—the zoo in Umberlight? There are some pretty cool creatures there, if I do say so myself! One time, I was there and—"

Kevin couldn't help but zone in and out of listening to Gloss talk on and on about the wide array of things he was talking about. It wasn't like the pony was droning either; no, he seemed very excited to talk about these things, animatedly waving a hoof when appropriate or even occasionally stopping them to draw a crude diagram in the mulch. Kevin would have zoned out completely if not for the fact that he didn't want to seem totally rude to this pony who was nice enough to walk with him.

"—an escape! Turns out somepony was a bit of a trickster and removed the hinges so it was trivial for—"

It wasn't like Gloss would really have noticed, though; most of the questions the stallion asked were rhetorical, or at least he never seemed to wait for an answer before launching into something else. The few times Kevin did answer, it felt more like an interruption than a conversation, and Gloss even had to stop himself and seemed confused why Kevin was answering him in the first place. Quickly Kevin learned to just let the stallion talk.

"Of course, it would've been a lot crazier if the zookeeper hadn't been there to—"

He looked around at the underbrush that surrounded the path. It hadn't changed much from the forest around the crash site or even where he had fought the ravens... or thought he had fought raves. He wasn't sure what to make of the whole thing, but he mentally cast it aside. Wouldn't do him much good to worry about questions he had no answers for.

"—and I'm pretty sure they gave the medal to their family, bless their soul. Anyway, what's more important is—"

Kevin gazed ahead at the path in front of them, attempting to see if he could recognise anything in front of them. They had already been walking for a few hours, he guessed; a quick look upwards indicated that the sun was already low in the sky. If they didn't get to Dienna soon, they'd have to set up camp in the forest.

Kevin's stomach rumbled. Luckily, this seemed to coincide with the end of one of Gloss's anecdotes. "Hey, Gloss," Kevin said to the lime green stallion, eyeing the bulgy brown saddlebags that lined his slender form. "You got anything in there that I could eat?"

Gloss stopped and blinked. "Oh! Um, yeah, hold on." He slid the saddlebags off and started rummaging through them.

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "How come you took them off first?"

Gloss looked up. "It's a lot harder to look through these without a horn, kid. A lot of ponies struggle through it, but I don't really see any reason to do that." He looked back down. "Aha! Here it is!" He held a hoofful of leafy greens out in front of him; Kevin magically lifted them from his grasp.

"Thank you." Kevin lifted them to his mouth and took a bite. They had no strong flavour—maybe bitter more than anything else—but he was content with anything to fill his belly. After a few more bites, the food was gone.

"Of course! I think we're almost there, anyway. See that rock?" Gloss asked, pointing to a large rock on the left with a white splatter on the top. "Pretty sure I saw that going the other way, just a few minutes before the fork in the path. And it said Dienna was less than an hour from there."

"Oh, awesome," Kevin replied. "Guess we've gotta just keep going."

And so they did, this time walking in silence. A few times, Gloss seemed like he was about to say something, taking an odd gasp of air only to let it out once again. Kevin hoped that the pony in Dienna who he thought he knew was still there and willing to help... otherwise, he didn't know what he was going to do.

Summons

Scootaloo woke to loud clanging noises behind her. She blinked her eyes open—the light wasn't so harsh now that she was more used to it—and, with a yawn, flipped over on the bunk so that she faced the bars.

And, coincidentally, the bars were exactly what were making the metal rattling noise. More specifically, there was a pony there, outside them, in the hallway. A grey-coated stallion with a sheer black shirt stood there with several keys in his magical grasp, clinking together as he shifted them around for the right one. Finally, he jammed one in the keyhole, turned it, and pushed it open with a foreleg.

"I'm going to need you to come with me, Miss," he said in a flat, unemotional tone. "You've been called to meet with somepony."

Scootaloo immediately got up off the bunk and climbed down to the ground. She didn't want to mess with this pony; even though he had no visible weapons, Scootaloo still felt uneasy around the prison guard. Once she was next to him, he turned tail and marched out of the room, continuing down the hall in an even pace. Scootaloo promptly followed him closely behind, too terrified to do anything else. As she passed Grey's cell, she turned her head to take a closer look; with some difficulty, she was able to spot a shadowy form in the back, but there was nothing she could see clearly.

They passed out of the high-ceilinged hall into a small hallway that felt more like a tunnel, with how Scootaloo had to be careful not to brush against the sides. Even the ceiling felt low to her, and that was saying something since she was still pretty small. They passed several featureless wooden doors on both sides of the hall—more and more of them as they entered further inward. Or outward. Scootaloo couldn't really tell.

Velvet

The walk down the metal hallways was, thankfully, not too long. There were a few twists and turns along the way, and more than once Scootaloo had to blink to attention to keep from ramming her face into a wall. Nonetheless, they made it to a door at the end of the hallway with no major incident. There hadn't even been any other ponies she could see in the hallway. Scootaloo wondered if it was the night.

She snapped back to attention as the doors in front of them split in the centre, sliding into the wall. What was revealed was a small metal box, even smaller than her cell or any of her ship's rooms. Its back wall appeared to be glass, but Scootaloo couldn't figure out why because on the other side just lay more metal. Nonetheless, the stallion she was following walked inside, so she followed suit. She watched as he pressed a button—one of many to the right side of the door—and it lit up orange. The doors slid closed in front of them, and Scootaloo heard a mechanical whirring all around them. She shuddered as the room around them slowly started moving upwards, taking them with it.

They had already risen several meters when Scootaloo realised why the back panel was glass; once they rose, the metal behind it gave way to the view of a larger room outside. She gazed out at this massive metal room that extended upwards further than she could see and down to a floor dotted with colourful shapes—ponies—that she could barely make out as they got further and further away. It didn't look like it went very far depth-wise—Scootaloo could see where it ended and a few small tunnels led out from that far wall. As they rose higher and higher, she briefly wondered whether this entire place was underground, like Kevin had mentioned.

This train of thought was interrupted as the room ground to a halt with a mechanical squeak. Scootaloo turned her head back to face the stallion, to see he was already leaving through open doors. She followed him out the doors and into the hallway outside of them.

In contrast to the naked, unadorned hallways below, this hall—although still composed of that sheer metal—was definitely not naked in the same way. A few ponies passed them as they started down the hall, leaving side-rooms through wooden doors that bore small black placards with unfamiliar names on them in that script Kevin had showed her. Interspersed between the doors occasionally were posters of upcoming events or photographs of impressive landscapes.

They only made one turn as they traversed the hall, eventually coming to what looked to be its end—a wall of sheer metal. There was a door to the left, with a short, six letter name. Fortunately, these letter shapes were close enough to hers that she could figure it out; 'VELVET', it read.

The stallion who brought her up there rapped on the door with a foreleg. She heard shuffling noises inside. "Who is it?" a voice called through the door.

"Guard Verbosity, sir. I am here with the prisoner you requested to see."

There was a definite pause before the voice replied. "The filly?"

"Yessir."

There was more shuffling and then hoofsteps. The handle turned and, with a squeak, the door swung inwards. A white-coated unicorn stallion stood in the doorway, plastic smile across his face. He was smaller in stature than the guard, but his expression was so smug and lofty that it more than made up for what he lacked in size. "Come in, come in," he said, beckoning Scootaloo forward. He looked up at the guard. "Thank you... erm... Veracity. You may go."

The guard nodded and trotted off down the hall, though Scootaloo barely noticed this out of the corner of her eye as she was practically whisked inside the room. Velvet—assuming that's who this pony was—walked ahead of her and around a desk in the back of the room to take a seat in a plush navy chair. He indicated with a hoof that Scootaloo was welcome to sit down on the long sofa that lay directly across from the desk; the filly did so and was pleased to find it was incredibly comfortable, especially compared to the bunk in her cell. Or even the pilot's seat on her ship.

"If you'll give me a minute, filly, I need to finish up a report and pull up your file before we start talking," Velvet said. His voice was smooth yet cool; he wanted to appear approachable, but to his distance as well. Scootaloo nodded, but she got the feeling that he wasn't looking for her input in the first place.

As Velvet turned to the computer console on his desk—this one much smaller than the ones Scootaloo had seen on Tank's ship—the filly turned her head around to get a better look at the room in which she sat. Overall, the room was fairly sparse; there was only one shelf on each wall, and each held only a few books and maybe a vase on top with a few flowers. To her left, there was a framed photograph on the wall with a bunch of ponies all in the same black outfit she had seen on Guard Verbosity. The only other features to the room were the sofa on which she now sat, the black rug with white spots in front of it, and Velvet's desk.

His desk, however, was about as minimal as the rest of the room. Its main feature, besides the small name plate on the left corner, was the computer console, with its bulky screen up top and the box that held the computer brain—about as tall as Scootaloo—on the floor beside the desk, connected to the screen by a thick black cable. Velvet was currently entering something into it; at least, that's what she presumed based on the small orb he held in his purple magical aura. Small buttons on its surface that were marked with small version of their letters kept being pushed in and rising out at a rapid speed.

When Velvet finally looked up from his computer and set the orb onto a stand on the desk, Scootaloo was staring straight at him. "Alright, I'm ready." He adjusted the lamp on his desk—the only light in the room, as there were no windows and the ceiling light remained off. "I'm going to ask you a few questions, and it's gonna be in both our best interests if you answer them truthfully."

Scootaloo gulped. She already felt nervous around this strange stallion, in this strange environment, being held in some sort of prison. "Um... okay, I'll try."

"Good, good." Velvet looked to his screen and then back at Scootaloo. "Who are you, and where do you come from?"

Enter

"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.

Directions

Kevin kicked up small clouds of mulch as his hooves propelled him forward along the roads. He turned when appropriate, snaking through the maze of streets lined with brick houses and a few other, taller buildings but never giving more than a moment's thought as to where he needed to go. Even though it had been years since he walked these streets and he had been much younger when he did, the route he traced was so familiar that he had no trouble remembering how to navigate through the streets to get to the best place for directions.

It was in the centre of this destination that Kevin finally skidded to a stop. Ponies of all ages were milling about in Dienna's Main Square despite the fact that the sky was already dark; however, the square was illuminated by more paper lanterns that were larger than the ones on the houses. A few elders took up the benches on one side of the clearing, and they were watching ponies pass much as Kevin was. He could hear Gloss's hooves on the mulch behind him so, just to be a little more annoying, Kevin started moving again. He walked slower this time, though, approaching the townsfolk who were passing by.

One filly in particular, a yellow pegasus about Kevin's age, looked up to meet his gaze and she twitched involuntarily at the sight of him. "Kevin?" she murmured, loud enough for him to hear but quiet enough so as to not disrupt anyone in the crowd. "Is that you?"

"Shh," Kevin shushed, putting a hoof to his muzzle. "Come with me. I wanna ask you something." The filly started walking forward, so Kevin turned around and trotted over to some bushes on the other side of the square where nopony else stood. He looked across the square where he could see Gloss had already spied him and had slowed down his pace, now that he knew where he was going. The filly pulled up beside Kevin and he started to speak frantically so that their conversation could end before Gloss got there.

"Flight, I need you to tell me where Doc Zed lives if you know. I've got to talk to him."

"Kevin, what's this all about?" Flight asked. She nervously twirled a hoof in her long white mane.

"No time—I just gotta know where Doc Zed is."

"No, Kevin, you've gotta have time!" Flight whispered loudly. She looked straight into Kevin's eyes with a sad expression. "You just disappeared one day without even a goodbye and now you just come back demanding... demanding to know stuff? What's going on?"

Kevin looked over his shoulder, where he could see Gloss was making his way around the benches. In just a minute or two, the older pony would be over there, listening in on the details of their conversation. "Augh... dang it, Flight! I don't have time right now! Can we talk about this later?"

Flight frowned, but nodded. "Okay, but you have to come see me right after you see Doc Zed. Promise?"

Kevin sighed. "Yes, I promise. Now, if you'll just tell me...?"

At this, Flight smirked. "You dummy, he lives in the same place he always has. That weird blue house on Fifth Street. You've been there plenty of times—you'll recognise it."

Kevin nodded. "Thanks a million, Flight. I owe ya."

"Yeah, you owe me your story. Meet me back in the square before midnight." With that, the filly walked away. She passed Gloss as she trotted back towards where she had been walking before, and the pegasus stallion raised an eyebrow as she passed. She seemed not to notice him.

"Who's your friend?" Gloss asked as he reached comfortable conversation distance from Kevin.

"Just a pony I know from school. She wanted to know about my trip but we don't have time right now so I told her I'd tell her later." While some of those words didn't mean quite what Gloss thought they did, Kevin was particularly proud of himself for not quite telling any lies.

"Oh, okay. You gonna ask somepony where we can find your dad's friend, then?" Gloss asked.

"Just did, actually—my friend knows him too, thank Argent," Kevin said. He started walking along the bushes to where they led into another road. "C'mon, let's go. We can take it slower this time, too."

"That sounds pretty good, kid. You've definitely got me outmatched when it comes to speed."

Kevin and Gloss continued down the road in silence, descending further into the depths of Dienna. Although the town by no means was a large one, Gloss could already see that it wasn't the tiny village he'd imagined.

Tower

It took Kevin and Gloss several minutes to make their way through the sparsely-populated streets, going towards wherever Kevin was taking them. Gloss hoped the colt knew what he was doing; he was just along for the ride—and a place to stay, hopefully.

As they passed by brick houses, all looking very similar to the ones they had encountered upon entering the town, several of the few ponies that were walking outside stopped to wave or greet Kevin. Their facial expressions, Gloss noticed, were incredulous; the way they spoke to him, it was like they hadn't seen him in a long time. Certainly much longer than a month. Kevin generally just waved them away with a friendly yet curt response, indicating that they were in a hurry. Gloss still wasn't sure why Kevin was keeping so mum, but he presumed all would be revealed in time. He was just glad that he no longer had to run after the colt through the streets so he wouldn't get lost.

They finally came upon a building that was, to put it simply, much different than any of the other houses. While they were generally only one story and made of brick, this one was practically a small tower with what looked to be three stories. It was light blue and cylindrical, sticking out of the ground like an odd, unnatural tree. A light was visible in a window on the top floor.

"That's the one," Kevin said, turning off the street onto the path that led through the unkempt front yard up to the door. That was another difference; while other houses were surrounded by neatly-trimmed grass, this patch of the ground looked like it had never been tamed and it grew wild, up nearly to Gloss's head. Kevin practically disappeared from view into the tunnel of grass before Gloss started down the path behind him. The grass leaned inwards, brushing at his mane uncomfortably.

Kevin was already rapping at the door—which unlike the rest of the house was the same as the other ones around town—when he got there. "You probably only need to knock once, kid," Gloss said. Kevin shot him a look, but stopped knocking all the same.

"I know... but I really have to talk to Doc Zed."

"Doc Zed? Is that who we're here to see?"

"Yeah, he's a friend of my dad's. I just have some important stuff to tell him."

"Like what?" another voice asked. Kevin and Gloss looked back at the door to see a unicorn wearing a suit as black as his coat; it was hard to tell at first where the garment ended and his coat began. "Kevin?"

"Hey there, Doc. Long time... long time no see." Kevin looked up at him with an expression Gloss couldn't quite read. The stallion nodded.

"I'll say. And I'm curious to see why you're here at..." The stallion looked inside for a moment and then stuck his head back out the door. "...Twenty-one hundred hours. C'mon in, I'll be right with you—I just need to finish something upstairs. You can wait in the living room with your friend."

Kevin stepped inside, so Gloss was left with no choice but to follow into the strange house. He closed the door gingerly behind him.

Answers

"Uhh..." Scootaloo stared back at Velvet, whose expression was neutral. He looked almost bored. "You guys wouldn't happen to have a 'right to remain silent' thing, would you?"

"That only applies to citizens of the Kindred planet and other Bureau-aligned planets. However, we were unable to find any sort of identification on your pony." Velvet adjusted the lamp on his desk once more, and the edge of the light now shone directly in Scootaloo's face. She had to squint to keep looking at him. "So, unless you can provide us some sort of evidence of your citizenship, you don't have that privilege."

Scootaloo blinked. "So what you're telling me is that because I don't have my ID on me, I don't have any rights? Sounds like the cops could abuse that pretty bad..."

"No, you misunderstand," Velvet said, "which tells me more about you than you probably meant. You see, we don't just carry our IDs around on pieces of plastic—all Bureau IDs are implanted in the hindleg or the torso of all citizens. They can easily be scanned to verify the identity of a pony—or other creature."

Scootaloo could feel a bead of sweat on her forehead. She wiped it aside with a foreleg. "You're not kidding?"

"Indeed, I am not. And you were found unconscious, covered in shards of glass, on the road between Dienna and Capricorn. You were scanned and found to not contain any ID—therefore, you must not be a citizen of a Bureau planet. So, let me reiterate: who are you, and where do you come from?"

Scootaloo quivered nervously where she sat on the sofa. "Wh-what happens if I don't tell you?"

Velvet sighed. "I assure you, it would be much easier for the both of us if you just told me what I needed to know so we could move on. I have much better things to do, and if you're not deemed a threat then you'll probably be let free. All we need is the truth."

"You didn't answer me," Scootaloo replied. She felt surprised at herself for saying it.

Velvet, previously focused on both the screen and the filly in front of him, turned away from the computer and put both of his forelegs on the desk. He leaned forward. "Filly, if you won't tell me anything, I have no choice but to keep you locked up here. I don't like it any more than you do—in fact, it irks me to no end since you're taking up much-needed space in this already-full penitentiary—but the law is clear. We can't have illegals roaming the planet, and especially not ones who refuse to say where they came from and why they're here."

"Does this happen often?" Scootaloo asked.

"Nnnngh... you're testing my patience filly. I'm the one supposed to be asking the questions here, for Aureate's sake!" The stallion pushed on the desk with his hooves, sending his chair back a few centimetres. "I need you to tell me something, please."

Scootaloo looked at him and the (fake?) desperation in his facial expression. Here was a pony whose life she was potentially making more miserable by not talking and yet... she didn't feel like she could reveal much about who she was and where she came from just yet. She had barely seen what these ponies were like; who knew how they would take it, and what they would do to her? Scootaloo didn't know how much she could trust the Bureau; even though Kevin had said they weren't that bad... she just had a weird feeling about them.

"Well?" Velvet said, interrupting her train of thought.

"I'll tell you my name, at least," Scootaloo finally responded. "My name is... Tangerine." She fought a smirk.

"Hmm, interesting," Velvet said. "It's almost believable, too."

"What?"

Velvet rolled his eyes and turned away to face his computer. He once again lifted up the control ball and pressed in several of the buttons, twirling it around in the air as he went. After about thirty seconds, he set the ball down and used his magic to rotate the thick computer screen on its stand to face Scootaloo. On the screen was a sickeningly familiar image and she already knew what was going to happen before he pressed play.

"Well, I don't really know," echoed Scootaloo's voice from the speaker grates on either side of the screen. The image was that of the little filly, from above in one of the cell's ceiling corners. "It's as I told you—one moment I was flying on a ship with... a friend, and next thing I know I wake up here. My name's Scootaloo, by the way." Once the Scootaloo on the screen finished talking, Velvet pressed a button which stopped the video and he magically rotated the computer screen on its stand back to face him. Scootaloo's face had grown hot while the video was playing; by the end, she felt like she was going to throw up.

"Scootaloo... we're not bad ponies. We just want to help you. I don't know where you come from, who your friend is, or how you got here, but if you don't tell me those things then we can't move forward."

Scootaloo didn't respond at first. She stared blankly at Velvet's face ahead of her, behind the desk. He frowned. Finally, in a weak voice, she managed to say, "I'll consider it."

Velvet sighed once more. "Well, that's some progress, I guess. Until whenever you decide, though, I'm going to have to send you back to your cell."

Scootaloo nodded. "I understand." She watched as the stallion used the computer; she couldn't imagine the sheer amount of mental focus operating one of those things would take, and the stallion made it look so easy with how fluidly he rotated the control ball and pushed and pulled at the little buttons with his magic.

"I've sent for a guard to come get you," Velvet said without looking up from the computer screen. "In the meantime, you can just wait on that couch. I'm going to get back to work, so please don't interrupt me."

Scootaloo didn't respond; she just leaned over to lie down on the couch and tried to soak in as much of its comfort as she could before she was brought back down to her cell.

Reenter

It didn't take long before Scootaloo, led by Guard Verbosity, reached the hallway down below which led to her cell. This time, she paid more attention to the buttons in the room that went up and down; this revealed that Velvet's office was on floor 10, and the numbers went up to 13. However, the button Verbosity pressed was labelled with a Kindred letter that looked like an upside-down letter L and then a number 10. She noted, as the room began to descend, that these numbers preceded by that same letter went all the way up to 20, though the larger numbers were at the bottom.

It wasn't until they had almost reached the ⅂10th floor that Scootaloo was able to tear her eyes away from the buttons lighting up one by one as they passed each floor. She only was able to look out the back window for a few moments, but in that time she saw the same scene of ponies milling about in that large metal room outside. She thought of waving, to see if somepony would see her, but Guard Verbosity was already glaring at her and she didn't want to make things worse.

Eventually the metal box they were in reached the ⅂10th floor and the doors slid open. Guard Verbosity walked in front and led her down the hallway, which was pretty much the same as before. Again, they passed no ponies—the only distinguishing features of that low-ceilinged hallway were the doors on either side. One of the doors they passed, on the right side, was open, and Scootaloo saw that there was a small room inside, walls just the same sheer metal as the hallway and the cells. There was a small wooden chair in the centre, with a loop of rope on the ground around its legs. She was only able to look in for a second, though, before Guard Verbosity walked in front of her and closed the door. The click of its latch reverberated down the hallway in both directions.

When they made it out of that hallway and into the larger, taller one with the cells, Scootaloo noticed that there were actually several cells between where hers was and the end of the small hallway; these, she could see, were inhabited by a variety of ponies of all different colours and races. A few were awake and looked at her, incredulous—one mare opened her mouth as if to speak, but said nothing. Scootaloo could already feel the questions, anyway, of how old she was and what in Tartarus she could have done to land herself down there.

"Miss? We're here." Scootaloo stopped just before she ran straight into Guard Verbosity. She watched as the stallion unlocked her cell door and she walked inside. He closed the door and she stood there, watching him walk away. His hoofsteps clanged on the metal, sounding not unlike hers had sounded aboard the... aboard her ship.

Before she could do anything else, she was confronted with another question.

"So, how'd it go?" a chipper, high-pitched voice came from behind her. Scootaloo turned around to see Mochi standing against the bars of her own cell, pink hooves poking through. "What'd they want ya for?"

"Erm..." Scootaloo looked up at her cell's ceiling, and spied a black ball in one of the corners. She sighed. "It's... pretty complicated. They want me to tell them some stuff, but I don't know if I can trust them..."

"Hmm..." The mare's brow furrowed in thought. "How come?"

"Someone I knew from"—Scootaloo glanced again at the black ball above her—"where I used to live told me that the ponies in charge here can't be trusted. I just need to figure out whether she was right."

"And then they'll just let ya go?"

"Well... I'm not sure, but that's what they made it sound like." Scootaloo scratched her head. "What else can I go on?"

"I dunno, Scootaloo. Just be careful, won'tcha?" Mochi smiled warmly. "You do what them ponies tell you and they'll make sure you're alright. Heck, just look at me."

"What about you?"

"The things I did... the details ain't important but what matters is that I did bad things but I did what they told me to and they make it okay for me here. I go out and see the sunshine every once in a while, and the food is good. You'll get used to it, I promise. And maybe you'll get out!"

"Yeah... maybe..." Scootaloo looked down and then over to her cot. "I'm gonna lie down for now, if that's alright."

Mochi nodded. "Yep, that sounds just fine. I've got a letter to write, anyhow."

Both ponies retreated over to their cots; as Scootaloo climbed onto hers, she noticed that Mochi had a pen between her teeth and was scribbling furiously into what looked to be a notebook. She thought of her own notebook, and her saddlebag, and the other things she had around the ship. From their description, it sounded like Scootaloo had been thrown out the front window of the vehicle and landed far away enough from the ship that they didn't find it. If that really was what had happened, the saddlebag probably came with her since it was right there in the cockpit before they crashed. Everything else was likely still on the ship.

But what about Kevin? He had been up in the cockpit, too—right next to her, in fact—but she felt like the ponies would have mentioned something about him if they had him, as leverage for information or something like that. Velvet had even seemed somewhat surprised when the part of the video clip of Scootaloo played where she said she had come with a friend. No, Kevin was probably safe, and somewhere else. He knew this planet much better than she did, so she could only hope that he had ponies he could turn to.

The saddlebag, though—there was no way they didn't have it. And her notebook. All she wanted—besides to leave, of course—was to leaf through its pages, all her little sketches and journal entries from the past few months, and then write something new in there. She could write about Velvet's sterile, miserable little office, and maybe even draw a little sketch of Mochi perched there on her bed over her own notebook. If she had remembered the thing when she was up in that office, she could have asked. Maybe they would have given it to her. But for now, she didn't know, so she just lay down on top of the sheets and tried to make herself comfortable. She wasn't sleepy, nor did she close her eyes; she just watched Mochi as the mare kept writing and writing.

Couch

Doc Zed quickly disappeared up some stairs in the middle of the room, leaving Kevin and Gloss alone together in, as he had mentioned, the living room. Kevin spared no time in shuffling leftwards across the carpet over to a curved black couch, upon which he plopped; Gloss followed, sitting down on the opposite end. The couch was stiff; the pillows hardly gave way at all to his weight. Nonetheless, it wasn't particularly uncomfortable.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, the only sound being that of shuffling papers and opening drawers and things like that emanating from the ceiling above. Gloss wasn't sure what exactly this 'Doc Zed' did, but sounded almost like the stallion upstairs was hurriedly putting things away.

These shuffling noises were followed by hoofsteps and soon enough they could see the stallion, still dressed in a suit, descending to the bottom floor. He walked carefully down the stairs; while most ponies would perhaps skip a step or two, he methodically went down one step at a time so that each hoof touched each step during his descent. When he reached the carpet at the bottom, he looked up.

"Kevin! I am ready now. Would you like to speak in the parlour?"

"Yeah, that sounds great," Kevin replied, getting up off the couch and standing to his hooves.

"Oh, and you haven't introduced me to your friend!" Doc Zed looked over to where Gloss sat, beaming.

"Oh, um... this is Gloss." Kevin too looked over to where the pegasus sat. "He's from Umberlight, and he helped escort me here."

"Well, thank you so much!" Doc Zed said. His words dripped with an odd sort of false enthusiasm, not sounding quite right to the ear. "Now, if you'll excuse us..."

"Of course," Gloss said. "Nice to meet ya, Doc."

Doc Zed smiled at him once more, and then turned away. The unicorn magically turned the handle on the door to the left, which presumably led to the parlour, and it swung open. He walked inside with Kevin following close behind, and then the door swung shut. For now, Gloss was alone.

With little else to do, he looked around the room from where he sat. It was pretty well-organised, he noted; nothing seemed out of place and all of the furniture looked modern and clean, matching how the stallion was dressed to a T. The centre of the room was taken up by the stairs, coming down to meet the beige-coloured carpet only about two metres from the foyer. On either side there were shelves on flat, unrounded walls. They could almost have been bookcases if not for their contents; rather than books, they held a variety of trinkets. China plates on stands, rocks in display cases, miniature paintings—you name it, and there it was on the shelf. One such painting depicted a gravestone with a metal helmet emblazoned at the top. It was strange, to say the least.

The living room in which he was situated looked to be a sizeable slice of the building's circular shape—about a third or so, Gloss estimated—so there was likely another room next to the parlour on this floor. And then there was whatever lay above. Presumably it was some sort of working space, but for what? Gloss had so many questions, both about this place as well as just about the colt whom he had followed to this town.

He sighed as leaned over to lie down on the couch. All he could do was hope that their conversation wouldn't take that long, so he could go to wherever they were staying and get a bit of shut-eye

Infodump

Once Kevin walked into the parlour, Doc Zed quickly shut the door behind them and the living room disappeared from view. The parlour in which they stood was about the same size as the living room, but there was a large curtain-covered window on the back wall and the room overall seemed more... empty. There was no furniture on the walls save for a small buffet, and while there was a table in the centre, the thing was a small, simple rectangle of wood with four chairs around it. Kevin took a seat at the end closest to the living room door; Doc Zed walked around the table to sit across from him. There was a door behind him, the glow of a light clearly visible in the space above and below it.

"So," Doc Zed started in a tone slightly quieter than a normal speaking voice, "where did you go? What have you been doing?" He leaned forward, elbows on the table. "Everyone thought you were dead, Kevin. Nopony said anything—nopony knew anything—but everypony I talked to who had known you suddenly seemed so sad..."

"It's a long story, Doc," Kevin attempted to counter, though he could already tell the effort was half-hearted at best. "I don't really have a lot of time and I really just came here to ask you a favour—"

"Aha!" Doc Zed raised a hoof as he exclaimed the exclamation. "A favour, eh? You come back after... how long has it been, now? Three or four years? And you won't even tell me what's going on, and now you want a favour?"

Kevin frowned. "Um... yes?"

Doc Zed let out another hearty laugh. "C'mon, kid, you're gonna have to offer me more than that. I loved your mum and pop to bits, bless their souls, but they'd want me to be lookin' out for you. And I can't rightly do that if you won't tell me anything."

Kevin sighed. "I'm really not going to get out of this, am I?"

Doc Zed's expression grew more serious. "No, Kevin, I'm concerned. Please... I just want to help you, I really do."

"Well, okay." Kevin looked down at the wood grain of the table, studying how it curved along the surface. "When Mom and Dad died... they were gonna send me to the orphanage or something. Maybe a foster family. You know that."

"Yes, but would that—"

"Please, let me finish," Kevin interrupted looking up.

Doc Zed nodded. "You're right. I'm sorry—go on."

"As I said, they were gonna send me somewhere. Right after they died, too—it was maybe a week after their funeral that they said I couldn't stay over at Flight's house for much longer. But I felt safe there. Mom and Dad were gone... but Flight and her moms were so nice to me. It hurt—it hurt so darn much—but I felt like it was someplace I could survive."

"And that's when you disappeared." It wasn't a question; just a statement of fact. Kevin nodded.

"Yeah, it was the night before Social Services were coming down to pick me up. I dunno where they would have taken me—Umberlight, maybe, or somewhere up north. There weren't any families in Dienna who were willing to take me in, and there was no way I was gonna go live somewhere else and pretend like nothing ever happened." Kevin stopped. Doc Zed, as ingenious and tough as he was, could always be read like an open book. At that moment, Kevin could tell from his expression that the stallion was fighting back tears.

"But how did you get away?"

"It wasn't that hard," Kevin replied, expression unmoving. Although he knew the emotions he had felt at the time—terror, grief, anger—it all seemed so distant. "I just climbed out the window in the middle of the night and then took the back paths until I reached the edge of the city. And then I ran through the forest, off the path, as fast as I could go. I went south, so I could get to the smuggling ports at the tip of the Continent. It took me two days, but I eventually got to Minutiae."

Doc Zed jumped back in his seat. "Two days?! What about food? Water?"

"I didn't eat much, but I was able to find some edible plants. There were also a few streams, but again, I didn't drink much. I was pretty focused on getting away as fast as I could—I pretended like somepony was right on my tail the whole time."

"Aeneus above, kid, you're insane. You know that? Completely bonkers."

It was at this that Kevin finally cracked a smile. "I am, aren't I?"

"So lemme guess—you boarded a ship in Minutiae?"

"Yep, I found a mare willing to take me to Esprit. And there, I worked to earn a place to sleep."

"You worked?"

"Mostly in the shipyards, working with a bunch of ponies my age to move cargo. It kinda sucked, but it wasn't that bad. At least I wasn't working in the mines or anything."

Doc Zed whistled. "Kid, I never would have guessed—"

"Me neither... I don't know why I did it, either. It probably woulda been better just to go with Social Services and grow up normally and finish school. I started to realise that, too, when I was working on the island, so just a month or two ago I snuck aboard a ship from the Revan planet that was going to harvest stuff from the Frade planet."

"Why them?"

"I dunno, I wanted to see the system. Something better than that awful little island and the rest of this planet. It doesn't matter, though—only a day or two after they left the planet, they caught me. They were gonna take me back but they were on a tight schedule, so they decided to bring me back here on their return trip."

Doc Zed raised an eyebrow. "So is that who Gloss is? Someone from this ship?"

"No, he's from Umberlight, remember? I just met him on the path. No, I got off their ship when they accidentally brought this other ship aboard. While its captain was busy talking to the ponies on that ship, I booked it onto her ship."

"Who was this other ship's captain?"

"That's just the thing—I don't really know, to be honest. She was this orange pegasus filly with a magenta mane—looked like any other pony from a Bureau planet. But something about her was weird, I swear."

"Weird? In what way?"

Kevin scratched his head with a hoof. "I don't even know... she didn't recognise the alphabet or some words, her ship was like nothing I'd ever seen, and she seemed generally confused about a lot of what I was talking about. At first I thought she was from the Vergla planet, but she didn't seem like she had ever heard of the Bureau."

"Hadn't heard of the Bureau? You serious?"

"Yeah, I had to explain it to her and everything. Didn't even get her name, but she was going in this direction so it seemed to work out fine. I was planning on having her drop me off on one of the planets past this, I guess, but then we decided to stop here and we ended up crashing the ship somewhere near Dienna and she was gone when I woke up."

"What do you want from me, then? You said something about a favour?"

"Yeah. I probably won't be able to find her, wherever she is, but I want you to help me repair the ship. With or without that filly, I still wanna get off this planet."

Doc Zed blinked. "I dunno, Kevin... you're asking a lot—"

"Could we at least go and look at it?" Kevin asked, cutting him off. "Like, tonight? Before anypony sees it?"

Doc Zed sighed. "This is all so crazy... and yet you have me curious about this 'mystery ship'. And it's not like I was doing anything else tonight..."

Kevin grinned. "Thank you so much, Doc. You're fantastic, you know that?"

"Don't I ever." Doc Zed looked over at the door to the living room. "Guess we should go out there and tell this to your friend, hm?"

There was a creak outside the door, and the doorknob rotated. The door swung inwards.

"Don't worry, you ponies won't need to do that. I heard every word," Gloss said.

Reveal

Kevin blanched at the sight of the pegasus stallion in the doorway. He could hear Doc Zed standing up from his seat at the table behind him.

"Are you someone who should have been listening, or are we going to have trouble now?"

"No trouble, I hope," Gloss said. His voice was different now; instead of that warm, common tone that made him sound like any other city pony, his voice now was more formal. More intimidating. "It just wouldn't do you ponies well to try and keep secrets from me."

Kevin wanted to reply but he couldn't; the words stuck in his throat, unable to come out. Luckily, Doc Zed was right alongside to ask what he would have.

"How come?"

Gloss smirked. "As you ponies know, my name is Gloss and I am from Underlight. However, I haven't exactly been... forthcoming about my identity. You see," he said, procuring a small object from his saddlebag, "I am an officer with the Southern Kindred Territory Police as authorised by the System Bureau of Cosmonautics."

Doc Zed took a threatening step towards Gloss, shielding Kevin. "You've no right to come in here and arrest the colt, he's done nothing wrong—"

"You're right, Doctor, and I do not intend to arrest this colt, or you for that matter. Although it sounds like Kevin has done some things that go against the spirit if not the letter of the law, that's not what I'm here for."

"Then why?" Kevin finally asked, his voice cracking. "What's the point of bringing me here and revealing yourself?"

"Today at 0600 hours, a mysterious ship appeared on BAC radar, moving in the direction of Dienna. Attempts to contact the ship were unsuccessful, and then it disappeared off our radar soon afterwards. We assume that it crashed, but we hadn't been able to track down the location, exactly. I was going out there to investigate, and I ran into you."

"How'd you know I had anything to do with it?" Kevin asked. "I didn't say anything."

"Kid, no offense, but you're not that great a liar. I had a funny feeling about you from the start, and now you've just confirmed it. And, if you truly didn't have anything to do with it, then I could go back there myself once we got here, with only a few hours wasted."

"All of that's great and all, but you still haven't told us what you want," Doc Zed cut in.

"I was getting to that. As I was saying... I was sent to investigate where this ship landed. And, since you're already going to it, I want to go with you. My superiors have asked me to write a report so we can decide what further steps to take."

"'Further steps to take'?" Doc Zed murmured. "Whatever you're doing... it doesn't sound good."

"I can see why you would be worried, but I assure you there's no reason to be. I swear, in the name of Argent, that I will do everything in my power to prevent the Bureau from seizing the ship."

"How can we trust you?" Doc Zed asked. "I think it would be much better for us if we just went alone, don't you think, Kevin?" The colt in question jumped a little at the mention of his name but quickly nodded.

Again, Gloss smirked. "That may be true, but I'm not giving you a choice in the matter. Either you willingly allow me to go along with you, or I will follow you of my own accord. If you have nothing to hide, there's no reason to say no."

Doc Zed turned to Kevin, brow furrowed. "What do you think, Kevin?"

Kevin sucked in a deep breath of air, feeling his chest swell up before exhaling. "I think that it's okay if he comes along. As he said, there isn't really much we can do about it anyway."

"You're making the right decision, kid," Gloss said. "Don't worry, you'll hardly know I'm there. I just want to have a look around."

"Let's just go, already," Doc Zed said, starting for the door. "I've already heard way too much for one night and the evening's barely just begun... Aeneus, what I wouldn't give to go to bed right now..."

Gloss follow Doc Zed through the door, leaving Kevin alone in the room. After a moment, he too stood up from his seat at the table and began walking towards the door to the living room. However, he heard a squeak somewhere to the right, as well as a bit of motion in his peripheral vision. He turned his head in that direction to see a mouse skittering across the floorboards, running in the direction of a roundish hole in the wall. Without thinking, he took a step in its direction; as soon as he did this, the mouse stopped and turned to look at him. Kevin blinked, hardly able to believe his eyes.

On the mouse's forehead, straight in the middle, was a small golden star sticker. If he didn't know better... he'd say the creature was almost winking.

"Hey, Kevin, you coming?" Doc Zed's voice reverberated from the living room. Kevin looked over in the direction of the door but quickly swivelled his head back to look at where the mouse stood just seconds prior.

But there was no sign anywhere of the mouse or even its mousehole, which had been in a very obvious place on the moulding.

"Yeah, I'm coming," Kevin called. He looked at that blank space on the wall for just a few more moments before running out of the room to join the others.

Investigate

Kevin entered the living room quickly but by the time he got there, a saddlebag-wearing Doc Zed was already across the room by the other interior door.

"Hey, Officer Gloss, is it alright if I pack Kevin a saddlebag?" Doc Zed asked. "I wanna make sure the kid has snacks and water and stuff in case something happens."

"What's going to happen?" Gloss said, eyeing Doc Zed with an eyebrow raised. "I'm not sure that'll be necessary."

"Still, it's never bad to be prepared! C'mon, Kevin!" Without waiting for more of Gloss' objections, Doc Zed whisked Kevin out of the living room and into the now-open door of the kitchen. The door was left open, presumably to show Gloss that they had nothing to hide.

Kevin watched as Doc Zed grabbed a saddlebag from a lower cabinet and then quickly went to work with his horn, cabinets above and below opening and shutting as objects left them and returned. In just a few short moments there were two peanut butter sandwiches on the counter in a plastic bag, as well as some celery, a few apples, a small container of mixed nuts, and a small rectangular box.

"A comlink?" Kevin asked.

"It has my number stored in memory—if we get separated, call me."

"You won't get separated." The voice of Gloss came from behind them, and Kevin looked to see the stallion standing in the door frame. "This whole thing is unnecessary..."

"But is it illegal?" Doc Zed asked, magically tossing the items into the saddlebag. He hoofed it over to Kevin, who used his magic to levitate it into place. It was somewhat heavy, but not too bad.

"Well, no..."

"Awesome," Doc Zed replied, looking Gloss in the eye. "Let's go then, shall we?"

Gloss sighed and stood aside to allow Doc Zed and Kevin to walk through the door frame, waiting until they had passed him before joining their ranks. They walked through that open door to the outside and Doc Zed shut and locked the door behind them as Kevin stood back and marvelled at the height and shape of this tower which, due to the lights and open windows, looked like a marvellous beacon of light in the darkness of the town. Doc Zed winked to Kevin as he removed the key from its socket and placed it back in his saddlebag.

The three started down the road in the dark, Kevin walking alongside Doc Zed with Officer Gloss following them close behind. The town didn't look all that different in the darkness; not even an hour had passed, anyway, and there were still the paper streetlamps intermittently lining the streets. Yet their light was unlike the sunlight, even when it was, as Kevin had seen it before, quickly receding from the sky; there was an eerie quality about these paper lamps and their flickering illumination of the nearly-empty neighbourhood below. It probably didn't help that Kevin and Doc Zed were being followed by a pony whom they didn't know they could trust.

They carried in on silence for some time, the only sounds being those of their hooves clopping softly on the road as well as occasional rustling of the breeze and what sounded like owl hooting somewhere in the distance. Kevin shivered; he was no longer used to the frigid nights of the Continent's surface, having spent so much of the last few years in the sweltering heat of the islands and then in the carefully-controlled microcosms of spaceships.

"It just occurred to me, Kevin," Doc Zed finally said as they crossed through Main Square, "that you never said exactly which path out of town you came from."

Before Kevin could answer, though, the flat voice from behind them spoke up. "We came in through the West Road, main branch. We're going the right direction."

A moment passed. "Um... thank you, Officer," Doc Zed said. Then, under his breath, he mumbled, "I guess." Officer Gloss, for his part, either didn't notice or ignored the stallion's irritation.

Although Doc Zed had taken a slightly different path to get from his tower to Main Square, the next leg of their journey was pretty much the same weave through the western neighbourhood as Kevin had led Gloss through. All the houses looked the same, though; Kevin wasn't sure if he'd just been away from the town for too long or if they had just always been so similar and he just never noticed before.

When they reached that last street that became the West Road, Kevin noticed as he looked out onto the expanse of dirt that, distinctly visible among the darkness of the block, there was a tiny flickering of light just off the path, to the left side. He thought he could see a form in the dark beside it, but his first reaction was to assume that it was a trick of the darkness—that he was seeing things that weren't really there. As they drew closer, however, it became increasingly clear that that wasn't the case.

"Is it just me, or do you ponies see a little bit of light out there?" Doc Zed asked, stopping to point at the flickering with a foreleg.

"Yeah, I think I see something," Officer Gloss said, squinting. "I think there might be somepony right next to it, too. I should probably go on ahead to investigate—could be something dangerous."

"There's no need, Officer—we're all capable ponies here," Doc Zed replied, coolly but with more than a hint of bitterness in his tone. He started trotting faster, and Kevin and Gloss had little choice but to move fast to catch up. In just a few moments, they were close enough for Kevin to clearly make out the face of the pony standing next to the flame that was dancing around in the glass belly of a lantern. He skidded to a stop; Doc Zed and Officer Gloss stayed back behind him.

"Flight? What are you doing here?"

The yellow-coated filly rolled her eyes. "Kevin, I live here. You see that house, behind us? You stayed there for a few weeks, and came over for playdates a whole bunch of times. Please don't tell me you don't remember."

"I—" Kevin started, cutting himself off when he realised he didn't have anything valuable to say.

"You promised me an explanation, Kevin," the filly said softly. "And now where are you going? You're with Doc Zed and some strange pony you were with earlier today and you're obviously leaving town and you were going to do that once again without telling me, without any sort of explanation for the past few years or right now."

"H-How'd you know I'd be here?" Kevin croaked. It was a dumb thing to ask, not the right thing to say at all, but it was all he could think of.

Flight frowned. "I didn't. My mom saw you as you were coming into town and I thought it might be possible you were coming back this way, especially since this is really one of the bigger roads into town."

"Oh..." Kevin gulped. "Well, what do you want me to do?"

"What do I... dammit, Kevin!" Flight whisper-shouted. "I just want you to act like you give a damn about me. I thought we were friends!"

"We are friends—"

"Friends take care of each other and they tell each other things and they actually talk to each other." Flight looked about ready to cry. "I'm not letting you go, or at the very least I'm coming with you."

"Flight, I don't know when we'll be back and—"

"That doesn't matter. I've got my saddlebags here, see? I'm all prepared. My parents don't know yet so I left them a note. That's why I'm trying to be quiet, so they don't hear."

Kevin looked back at Officer Gloss and Doc Zed who were standing behind him, observing the whole scene. "Doc?"

"Now, Flight, I'm not so sure—"

"It's 'cause I'm a girl, ain't it?" Kevin cringed as Flight looked at Doc Zed. "You boys can go off on adventures doing whatever the hell you want and I have to sit here at home with no friends and just my moms to talk to?"

"Officer, surely you can't allow—?"

"Normally, I'd say no. But the filly does have a good point, and it seems like it would do Kevin well to be a gentlecolt and give an explanation owed to his little friend," Gloss said. Kevin felt his stomach twist. "Since I'm an official keeper of the peace, I think it's fine if I chaperone you on this little forest excursion."

Flight beamed at him; Officer Gloss returned the smile, though it looked oddly plastic.

"Alright, alright, that's great and all but we really should get going," Doc Zed said. "I don't want it to be later than twenty-six hundred hours when we get there—I have important business to attend to tomorrow morning and it would not do me well to sleep in."

He started cantering down the path at a quick pace, and Officer Gloss soon fell into step alongside him. Kevin and Flight were left to take up the rear, and the four continued in silence as they passed the clearing between the last houses of Dienna and the beginning of the forest. On either side, the faint tendrils of the tall grasses frolicked around in the light breeze. They were only just barely visible from the last vestiges of the streetlights from the town; the inky black sky above, while peppered with stars, provided no significant light.

"I'm gonna light my horn, if that's alright," Doc Zed said as they reached the first of the trees. "Not being able to see anything would just make this suck all the more." His horn lit up, illuminating the foursome in a burst of cool, bluish light. "Let's see how long I can keep this up for," he said, looking at the light, before starting to walk again.

It wasn't long before Doc Zed started asking Officer Gloss questions about the internal politics of the Southern Territory police, and this break in the silence allowed for another.

Flight turned to Kevin, who looked with his weary eyes into hers, which were so vibrant and full of life.

"You okay?" she asked. "You don't look so good..."

Kevin didn't feel so good, either. His heart was pumping so hard and fast he felt like his chest was going to burst. "I-I'm gonna be fine. Just feeling nervous, I guess."

"What about?" Flight asked.

Kevin let out a nervous, jittery laugh. "I'll tell you some other time."

"Dammit, Kev, you can't say that about everything!"

"I can talk about that other stuff you wanted to hear about, if you really want."

"Please do... it's been so long and I just to know what happened... and why."

So, as they cantered down the path, Kevin did his best to tell the story of what had happened, closely mirroring his retelling to Doc Zed. Certain personal touches were added, though, like the fact that neither of Flight's moms had told her that Kevin was going to be taken to live somewhere else. This elicited quite a bit of surprise in the filly; after that, she seemed to understand more where Kevin was coming from. When he got to the part about being on the ship with the strange orange filly, she stopped him to ask a question.

"Was she pretty?"

Kevin blinked. "Huh?"

"This filly whose ship you were on. Was she pretty? Did you like her?"

"Um... I dunno," Kevin replied. He could feel his face growing hot, though—not that he liked the filly or anything like that, of course, but being asked a question like that was downright embarrassing, or awkward, or something like that, not that he really knew why and of course it didn't have anything to do with being asked this question by Flight in particular, oh no, how could it? "I didn't really think about her like that. Maybe?"

Flight rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright, carry on." So, at her behest, Kevin carried on with the story as he and Flight and the two stallions ahead of them walked deeper and deeper into the thick of the woods.

Lookabout

"Hey, what's this?"

Doc Zed stopped ahead on the path, Officer Gloss by his side. Kevin and Flight galloped to catch up. As they neared the two stallions, it was clear what Doc Zed had been asking about—a small hardcover book with a photo of an ocean on the cover.

"Looks like someone just left it out here," Officer Gloss said. "Maybe there's a name written inside."

"That was on the ship!" Kevin exclaimed, a little louder than he had been intending. He could feel all eyes on him. "Erm... I found it when I left the ship, and I must have dropped it before I ran into Gloss. I think it belonged to that filly—see how it's in a weird alphabet?" He pointed to the three-character white word splayed across its cover, then looked up at Doc Zed. The stallion's eyebrow was raised in confusion, as if he didn't know what to say. Then, he blinked and put a hoof to his forehead.

"Oh, jeez, Kevin, I totally forgot..."

"Forgot what?" Kevin asked, confused.

"You would have learned about it in school in the last few years, but—"

"Oh." There was silence for a few moments as Kevin said nothing more.

"It's the main alternate script in the Bureau, mainly used on the Gnostic planet. Honestly, though, if you saw ships from there, I'm surprised you never saw any of it."

Kevin's face grew red. "Maybe I saw it once or twice on a ship..."

"Oh, give him a break," Flight said, cutting in. "He probably just didn't notice it if he wasn't trying to read anything."

"I'm sorry for putting you on the spot here, Kevin. Anyway, that means this filly and her ship were probably from the Gnostic planet, don't you think?" Doc Zed said.

"Probably... though not necessarily," Officer Gloss replied from behind them. "The reading on the ship wasn't like any known Bureau-authorised ships, though. I'm going to suspend my judgment until we've got the thing in front of us."

"Fair enough. Let's go on, then." Doc Zed started walking, Officer Gloss once again walking alongside. Flight began walking, too, but she looked back at Kevin. The book next to him was enveloped in a green magical aura and it quickly levitated upwards and slid into Kevin's saddlebag.

"What did it say on the cover?" Kevin asked.

"'Sea'. It looked like a novel to me," Flight replied.

"Hmm..." Kevin shivered. "We must be pretty close to the ship by now."

"We had better be." Flight looked out at the trees surrounding them, the scratchy uneven surface of their trunks dancing around in the shadows. "The sooner we're out of this place, the better."

"Not into the forest at night?" Kevin asked.

"Not in the slightest."

They kept walking along the path; Gloss and Doc Zed were still talking about politics or whatnot, but Kevin and Flight seemed to have exhausted most of what they had to say, at least for the moment. There were, of course, other topics left not discussed—how could there not be, after years of not seeing each other? However, as they would soon see, it would prove helpful that they didn't say everything all at once.

The bushes and trees around them started to feel vaguely familiar to Kevin—maybe it was his tired mind acting up, he wondered, or maybe this was the part of the forest right by the ship that he saw before he had stopped paying attention. And, sure enough, in a few moments a large shape in the middle of the path came into view, even in the dark. It wasn't quite clear until they got closer and Doc Zed's illumination reflected off the surface of the thing that it was, indeed, the ship.

"If that ain't the weirdest lookin' ship I've ever seen..." Doc Zed said, stopping just a metre from its edge. His face was reflected in the sheer, curved metal surface.

Indeed, the ship was, for lack of a better word, odd. Alien, even. Kevin wondered why he hadn't noticed it before—he had hardly given it more than a passing glance when he first exited the vehicle, more focused on his destination. But now he could see the strange shape of the craft; while most Bureau ships were angular and more functional, the form of this ship was... bubbly and curvaceous.

There were two distinct sections, which Kevin could tell corresponded to the two levels in the ship. The bottom part was larger and curved further outwards, whereas the top was smaller and skinnier, like a long passage. The tip of the cockpit reached over the edge of the bottom layer, and he could clearly see a hole of broken glass where the dashboard window had shattered.

"I presume this is the ship, then?" Gloss asked. Kevin only nodded in reply, still focused on the shape of the vehicle. Where in the hay had that filly gotten it? Was she really just from the Gnostic planet?

"Hey, look, there's something written up there," Flight said loudly, pointing up next to the cockpit. And, sure enough, in shaky black letters, was a long word.

"Looks like it was either painted on by a unicorn who didn't have a good grasp of their magic or, more likely, a pegasus or earth pony with a brush in their mouth," Doc Zed observed.

"What does it say?" Kevin asked.

"It doesn't really look like it says anything that's actually a word," Flight said. "Maybe it's the name of the ship?"

"Could be." Doc Zed squinted his eyes. "I think it says 'Sweetiebloom', but I'm not totally sure."

"Could we go inside, perhaps?" The other three turned to look at Officer Gloss, who had been silent until then. "What?" he added, looking at them with an eyebrow raised.

"Nothing, nothing," Doc Zed replied. "I agree with Gloss, though—I can't really know what we're dealing with until we have a look around in the guts of this baby."

"Yeah, it's just this way." Kevin led the other three around the left side of the ship until they reached the back end. The door was still as wide open as he had left it. He paused to allow the other three to stop there, in front of the sheer featureless back end of the ship, for just a moment. Their reflections gazed back at them from the shiny metal surface, coloured an ethereal blue by the light from Doc Zed's horn.

Gloss coughed. "Kid?"

"I'm going, I'm going," Kevin replied and he did, setting hoof inside the pitch-black hallway of the ship for the first time since he had left it that morning. The clanging of his hooves on the metal floor reverberated through the darkness ahead of him; it was at once familiar, reminiscent of the past few days and weeks he'd spent aboard this ship and the one before it, but also mysterious and eerie as he couldn't see where he was going.

"Hey, Kev, since you're leading us, could you do an illumination spell instead?" Doc Zed called from behind him. "I'm starting to get pretty tired out."

"Yeah, no problem." Kevin squeezed his eyes shut in concentration; a moment later, there was a spark and his horn was aglow with green light. He looked over his shoulder; Flight was right behind him and Doc Zed was behind her, leaving Officer Gloss to bring up the rear. Satisfied and prepared, he continued forward at a slow pace and he could hear the others coming in the ship behind them as their hooves likewise clanged on the floor. It took them all a few moments to adjust their gait to step softly, but soon there were only faint reverberations and Kevin was able to think again.

"What's in there?" Gloss asked. Kevin looked back to see that he was gesturing at the door that was to the left from the entry, the mysterious one that was always locked.

"Dunno, the filly didn't know the keycode to get in and I don't either."

"Curious," Gloss murmured, but Kevin was already on his way deeper into the ship so the other three followed suit behind him.

Diverge

After a few minutes in which they all looked at the open, empty drawers and cabinets where the food had been, as well as few more minutes in which Officer Gloss and Doc Zed inspected the bathroom, Kevin led the other three ponies up the ladder to the second level of the ship. As he climbed, more and more of the verdant light poured out into the hallway above; by the time he reached the floor and stood aside to let the other ponies climb up, the entire metal socket of the ship was illuminated.

Kevin watched as his three companions scrambled up from the top rungs of the ladder onto the metal surface of the hallway floor.

"We should probably go this way first," Kevin said once all four of them had made it to the upper level. He pointed to the right. "That's where the cockpit is, so you'll be able to see—and read—the controls."

Doc Zed nodded, so Kevin turned and walked slowly in that direction. In front of him, illuminated by his horn, the narrow hallway opened up into the rotund shape of the cockpit which in the faint light looked almost cavernous. The pilot's seat, in all its red plastic glory, remained in the centre of the far side of the room. Kevin thought he could see some sort of small movement—scurrying, even—in the shadows on the edges of the room; a quick shine of his horn around the room, however, revealed that there was nothing there.

Doc Zed rushed in front of the group, hooves clanging loudly on the floor as he excitedly ran to look at the controls of the ship. His horn lit up with blue light, presumably so he could see better without Kevin there in front, and he was already in the pilot's seat, poring over the rows of buttons and knobs, by the time that Kevin, Flight, and Gloss were beside him.

"Curiouser and curiouser," Doc Zed murmured, a hoof to his chin. Officer Gloss leaned in to look more closely at the panel of controls, reading the labels.

"This is insane. There's no way the Bureau could ever approve a ship like this—the controls are so bizarre and non-standard. It looks like some weird prototype that got thrown together, and definitely not something from the Gnostic planet..."

"My thoughts exactly," Doc Zed agreed, still focused on the labels. "A lot of these buttons and switches are... oddly specific. Kevin, the filly you flew here with seemed familiar with flying the ship, yes?"

"Not exactly..." Kevin replied. "She seemed kind of confused at the control panel and had to do a lot of looking around. I'm guessing she hadn't been piloting it for very long."

Doc Zed lowered his head to look at the front of the dashboard panel. "Oh, interesting. I wonder if there was originally another pony aboard... aha!" He quickly lifted his head, nearly bumping it on the protruding dashboard. "There's standard hex screws on here! I'm gonna open this baby up and see if I can get a good look at the internals. That okay?"

"Sure, do whatever you need to do," Kevin replied. "I'm gonna go back and take another look at the bunks."

"I'm coming with," Flight said. Kevin nearly jumped back at the sound of her voice; he had nearly forgotten she was there.

"Erm, alright." Kevin began walking back across the cockpit, and Flight followed alongside. Before they exited the room into the hallway, Kevin glanced back over his shoulder to see Officer Gloss staring intently, at where Doc Zed had removed the screws and was prying off the vertical panel. His facial expression looked sinister as the blue glow from Doc Zed's horn shifted around his face; Kevin mentally shrugged it off, though, and assumed it was just a trick of the light.

"How long were you on this ship?" Flight asked once they were in the hallway.

Kevin thought about it, trying to mentally count how often he'd slept and eaten, but lost track quickly. "I'm not exactly sure, to be honest. I wanna say... two Kindred weeks or so? That filly didn't have any way to tell time, but I think it was somewhere around that long. I know I was on that other ship for about two weeks and it can't have been going any faster than this one." As he finished his thought, they reached the living quarters. They were exactly how he had left them this morning; a plain metal room with two bunks on the far end. Kevin shivered; he noted, once again, that it was quite cold.

"Which one was yours?" Flight asked. "The bottom?"

"Yep, she had already taken the top by the time that I came aboard so it was the only one free. Not that I would have taken the top, anyway."

Flight giggled as she jumped up to the bottom bunk and landed on it with a soft plop. "How come? You scared?"

"Kind of... I had a dream once when I slept in the top bunk at my grandparents' house that a big fuzzy spider was on the ceiling and it just friggin' jumped onto my face." Kevin said this little tidbit in a neutral, contemplative tone but Flight just giggled again. She was now lying down on the mattress, gazing up at the top bunk above her.

"You're silly, Kev."

"Pff, yeah right. I think you're probably the silly one here," Kevin countered with a smirk.

"Hey, what's this?" Flight reached a hoof up to touch the slats that held that upper bunk in place. "Hey, Kev, can you go up to the top bunk and lift up that side of the mattress?"

"Sure," he said, and he climbed up the wooden ladder until he was on the top bunk. He hadn't been up here before, and it honestly almost felt like an invasion of the orange filly's privacy. Nonetheless, he had a job to do, so he flicked off the illumination of his horn for a moment so he could focus on the levitation spell. Then, enveloped in his green magical aura, the other half of the mattress began to lift, the pillow sliding to rest at Kevin's hooves. Hopefully the glow of his magic would be enough for Flight to see whatever she had wanted to see.

"Weird..." he heard her say.

"Can I put it down now?" Kevin asked. "This isn't exactly—argh—easy."

"Yeah, I got it," Flight replied.

Kevin dropped the mattress and it bounced once before settling into place. He re-illuminated the green light with his horn and started down the ladder. "What did you find?"

"I'm not exactly sure... some sort of drawing on a folded up piece of paper." Once Kevin had returned to solid ground, she held it out for him to see. It was, as she described, a folded up scrap of paper. Kevin took hold of it in his magic and delicately unfolded the thing, careful not to tear it. It felt flimsy—weathered—like it could disintegrate at only the slightest mistreatment. As he unfolded it, though, it didn't become any more clear what it was.

"I think it's... a map?" Kevin said, voice cracking.

"Here, lemme see." Kevin rotated it to face Flight, and she gazed at it intently. "Yeah, definitely a map of some sort. I don't recognise any of the place names, though. They're all in the Gnostic script."

"You think it's of the Gnostic planet or something, then? Or even the Revan planet?"

"No, we studied those in cosmogeography class and I remember them pretty well. These place names are nothing like any on those planets, either. 'Ponyville'? 'Manehattan'? 'Vanhoover'? This sounds like if you took a bunch of normal place names and randomly added body parts to them..."

"Weird. You think it might be important?"

"Might as well keep it just in case," Flight replied. Kevin folded it back up and then dropped it into her outstretched hoof; the filly stuck it in her saddlebags and they were left just standing there for a moment.

"So... um... you think we should go back to the cockpit?" Kevin managed to say, finally.

Flight looked at him right in the face for a moment without saying anything. "You know, I'm really glad you came back, Kevin. Even if this whole situation and everything is weird... it's good to see you again. Y'know?"

"I'm really happy to see you again, too, Flight. I... I missed you."

Flight smiled. "Yeah, let's go back to the cockpit before we find Doc Zed has holed up inside the dashboard and refuses to leave."

"You think he'd do that?" Kevin said with a laugh. "A tiny little birdhouse like that doesn't seem like his style."

"You never know." The young ponies walked side by side as they returned the short distance to the cockpit.

Officer Gloss was standing aside and watched as they walked in. He put a hoof to his lips and then pointed to where the rear end of Doc Zed could be seen, the other half shoved inside the open hole in the ship. Kevin and Flight stopped by Gloss and they watched as the form of Doc Zed shifted and twisted around. He seemed to be paying no mind to how tarnished his suit was becoming, and indeed they could clearly see where grease had marred its surface; in places, there were even tears. Finally, after a minute or two, Doc Zed backed out of the hole and revealed his head unto the world. He took a deep breath.

"Oh, hey, you two are back!" Doc Zed exclaimed. "Wonderful! As I was telling Officer Gloss here—the wiring system is a little wonky and not what I'm used to at all, but I was able to fiddle with some stuff in here and hook it up to a manabattery I brought. Lemme just test something." He reached across the buttons atop the dashboard and pressed on. Instantly the room flooded with light from above, and Kevin had to squint to prevent the oncoming headache.

"Sweet!" Doc Zed exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. "Okay, kids, now if I can just get this baby up in the air—"

"You will do no such thing."

Kevin's eyes had accustomed to the light by that point, so he turned to see Officer Gloss standing tall, puffing out his chest.

"What?" Doc Zed scratched his mane. "What are you talking about?"

"Nnngh... look, I don't mean it personally, since you seem like a great guy, but I had a job and I still intend to follow through with it, for the Bureau's sake."

"Kevin, what the hay is he talking about?" Flight asked, turning to her friend.

"Well, this guy Gloss is a police officer and he said he would help us keep the ship. I dunno what he's talking about now."

Gloss facehoofed. "Aureate damn it... how can I make my expositional villain speeches when I leave out the important details?" He took a moment to compose himself, then stood strong once more. "What I mean to say is... I lied. I do not intend to help you keep the ship; on the contrary, I only came with you so I could complete my mission, to find out where it was and also get as much auxiliary information from you as I could. I am about to contact my superiors, so they can send a squadron here to bring it to a Bureau base for more research."

"So basically what you're saying is that you want to seize the ship from us?" Doc Zed asked. "Just so we're making this clear."

"Erm... yes?" Officer Gloss looked confused. "Was it not clear before?"

Ignoring him, Doc Zed continued. "Well, in that case, I think we've got ourselves a case! You see, in Bureau law, the government cannot under any circumstances seize private property of its citizens without first lawfully obtaining a warrant, obtained through showing probable cause and yadda yadda yadda. What I'm saying here, Gloss," Doc Zed said, leaning in until his muzzle was only a few centimetres from the police officer's, "is that you have accepted our ownership of this ship and therefore need to obtain a warrant before you can take it. Check and mate."

Officer Gloss blinked. Kevin and Flight looked at each other and then back up at Gloss, waiting for him to react.

"Shit," he said finally. "Getting a warrant could take days. Weeks, even, if they're busy."

"So go, please. Go get a warrant. Be my guest. In the meantime, we will be busy. Kids?" Doc Zed asked, turning to Kevin and Flight. "I hate to ask so much of you, but could you do me a favour?"

"Sure thing!" Flight joyfully replied. Kevin nodded in assent.

"I'm going to fly this ship back into Dienna and store it in my underground workspace so I can do some work on it—there's quite a bit of damage from the crash landing, but nothing I can't fix. There's a few parts I'm missing, though, and I was wondering if you could go to Umberlight and pick them up for me. We don't have much time, so I kinda need you to leave right away."

"Yeah, we can do that!" Flight replied.

"Wait..." Kevin said. "Don't we need to get Flight back to her house?"

"Don't worry, I'll cover that," Doc Zed replied. "Talking to her parents won't be fun, but... Argent knows how many times I've had to talk to annoyed and worried parents about my 'irresponsibility' when sending their kids on pointless fetch quests to other cities. Anyway, you'll need this." He levitated a small scrap of paper over to Flight, who caught it in her outstretched hoof. She opened it up and showed it to Kevin; it was a short list of five or six items, all likely easy to find. "Flight, do you have a card? I can reimburse you for the cost when we get back."

"Yeah, I can pay for 'em. Thanks, Doc."

Gloss raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what? You're just sending these kids off to Umberlight by themselves in the middle of the night, just walking down the path where they could easily be attacked by robbers or somepony dangerous?"

"Oh, yeah, thanks for reminding me, Gloss. You guys make sure to stay off the main paths, okay? Having you two youngsters stopped or detained by cops out in the middle of nowhere would really suck."

"I'm sorry, but this can't fly. Does Kevin even have legal guardians? Shouldn't he be a ward of the state? Honestly, I should just take him right n—"

At that moment, Flight grabbed Kevin with a foreleg and ran out of the cockpit, Kevin trying not to fall over as he followed her. Loud clanging noises could be heard reverberating throughout the ship as they scrambled down the ladder and through the lower level to exit the ship.

Doc Zed whooped. "You go, kids!"

"Nnngh..." Officer Gloss facehoofed again.

Doc Zed grinned. "You could always run after them. I'm sure they can't be very far yet."

"Eh... I'm already a terrible cop—I might as well just let those kids go free for now. I can always just call the Umberlight Police Department to be on the lookout for them. Right now, though, I really need to get to Umberlight to start this damn legal process."

"Hmm, interesting," Doc Zed said, not looking very interested. "Say, I have a great idea."

"What?"

"Get off my ship!" Doc Zed yelled, enveloping Officer Gloss in a blue magical aura. The now-startled Gloss began to levitate.

"Hey!"

"So long!" Doc Zed shouted after him as he tossed the pegasus out the hole where the dashboard window once had been.

"Aiiiieeee—!"

Doc Zed watched as Gloss suddenly remembered that he had wings and flapped them for dear life. The lime green coat of the pegasus soon disappeared from view, soaring above the treetops. Doc Zed laughed and then bent once more over the controls before deciding to press one. He heard the engine whirr somewhere beneath him, and he grinned. In just a pull of the lever and a slight rotation of the wheel in front, in combination with a hoof on one of the pedals in the floor, the Sweetiebloom—if that's what this ship's name was—began to lift off the ground and fly forward.

Lunch

Rainbow Dash set Scootaloo down gently on the ground in front of Sugarcube Corner before coming to a landing herself. The sun shone high in the sky and although there was the occasional white cloud, the blue sky above was relatively clear.

It was Saturday at noon—lunchtime—so there were a few more ponies than usual walking the streets of Ponyville, looking to conduct business or just get a bite to eat. This was especially true around Sugarcube Corner, which was renowned in town as perhaps the best place to get a tasty lunch, something scrumptious yet nutritious. Plus, you could get dessert afterwards.

"You know what you wanna have, Scoots?" Rainbow asked as she started walking towards the door. Scootaloo followed alongside the mare.

"Hmm, not sure yet. Probably something like breakfast-for-lunch, y'know? Considering I didn't have breakfast and all..."

Rainbow blinked. "You didn't? C'mon, kid, you gotta eat! Three meals a day!"

"I know, I know..."

Rainbow Dash pulled open the door to Sugarcube Corner and held it open, allowing Scootaloo to sneak in before the mare herself went through.

The atmosphere of the place was always welcoming, but on that day it felt especially so; there were so many ponies filling up the booths, eating their lunches. Mrs. Cake smiled and waved from behind the counter. "Hey there, Rainbow! Happy birthday, Scootaloo!"

"Thanks, Mrs. Cake!" Scootaloo replied cheerily, beaming back.

Rainbow's head turned back and forth, surveying the room. "Hey, Mrs. Cake. Have you seen Pinkie?"

"Oh, yes, she's in the back with the other two Crusaders. They're expecting you, you know."

"Heh, thanks. C'mon, squirt." Rainbow navigated leftwards through the maze of ponies that were milling about in the centre of the eatery, Scootaloo following close behind. It wasn't long until they were at the edge of the room and Rainbow once again opened the door in front of them and stood aside to allow Scootaloo entry before walking in herself and closing the door behind them.

They found themselves in one of the small back rooms where Rainbow and her friends would often meet up when Sugarcube Corner was a little too busy for them to feel comfortable. There was a round table in the centre of the room, with two empty seats and three ponies around it: Pinkie Pie, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom.

"Happy birthday, Scootaloo!" they chorused, Rainbow Dash joining in as well.

"Thank you so much!" Scootaloo sat down in the open seat between Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, while Rainbow sat opposite her, next to Pinkie Pie.

"Have you gals figured out what you want yet?" Pinkie Pie asked, leaning in.

"I'll just have a hayburger," Rainbow replied. "Nothing fancy."

"And you, Scootaloo?" Pinkie turned to face the filly. "Don't hold back. It's your special day!"

"Hmm... I could go for pancakes..."

"Are you sure?" Pinkie leaned in closer.

"Well, what I really want is Prench toast, but—"

"But nothing! That's easy! I'll be back in a jiffy," Pinkie said, jumping out of her chair and bouncing in the direction of the kitchen.

"Oh, and could I have razberry syrup on that?" Scootaloo called after her. "It's my birthday, after all!"

"Of course!" Pinkie said loudly from the other room. They could already hear her opening drawers and cabinets, clanging around metal pots and pans and whatnot.

"How was your day so far, Scoots?" Sweetie Belle asked, turning to her friend. "A good birthday?"

"Good? Try the best! Rainbow Dash was super awesome and took me up in the clouds and I'm actually starting to fly."

Rainbow blushed. "Aw, c'mon squirt, that was all you."

"No, really, you're really helping me!" Scootaloo said, smiling as she spoke. "First Rainbow dropped me and it was so scary but fun"—"You hated that part!"—"and then we went up on the clouds and I started being able to glide across them! I bet in no time I'll be flying just like her." Rainbow got redder and redder as Scootaloo went on.

"That sounds fun, Scoots," Apple Bloom said. Her tone was a little less enthusiastic than Sweetie's but she sounded interested all the same. "I'm really glad ya got the chance to do some flyin' with Rainbow."

"Th-thanks, A.B.!" Scootaloo blinked, confused, but decided it was nothing. "Anyway, I'm starved. What're you guys having?"

"You skip breakfast again, Scoots? I'm havin' a hayburger, just like Rainbow."

"And I'm having a salad," Sweetie Belle said. "Rarity's been making a lot of salads recently, and I've been liking them a lot."

"Mmm, awesome," Scootaloo said. She looked at Rainbow Dash, who was staring up at the ceiling. "Hey, Rainbow, do you think we could do some more flying after lunch? I'm really excited to do some more!"

Rainbow immediately perked up to attention. "Oh, yeah, that'd be fun! Let's—" she started, but she stopped mid-sentence at the startled faces of Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. "Ehem, I mean... maybe we can fit in a little?"

Before Scootaloo could respond, the group was interrupted by Pinkie Pie. "Food's ready!" She was walking on her hindlegs into the room from behind the Cutie Mark Crusaders, balancing five plates on her hooves, her shoulders, and on top of her head, nestled in her mane. "Bon appetit!" One by one, the pink pony dropped the plates in front of the ponies who'd requested them, concluding at her own spot and her own dish which held a stack of nearly a dozen pancakes and a pile of whipped cream at least as tall as the stack beneath it.

All five of them quickly started digging into their food, occasionally pausing to carry on bits and pieces of conversation, although the Crusaders especially kept talking with their mouths full and had to repeat themselves when nopony else could understand. Soon enough, they were all finished with their meals—even Pinkie Pie, who deftly removed the tufts of whipped cream from her face with a single swipe of her tongue.

"So, what now?" Apple Bloom asked. "Do you wanna—?"

She was cut off, however, by an outburst by Scootaloo. "Rainbow, can we go flying some more? Even if just for a little bit?"

"Well, it is your birthday," Rainbow said, twiddling her hooves on the table. She looked up. "I bet we can squeeze in a little more practice before you do other stuff. You wanna go now?"

"Do I?! Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!" Scootaloo jumped out of her seat; Rainbow Dash followed suit. The filly turned back to the table. "Thank you guys so much for having lunch with me! I'll see you later, 'kay?"

"Have fun, Scootaloo!" Pinkie said cheerfully.

"Yeah, hope it's good!" Sweetie Belle said, waving. Apple Bloom nodded. In a moment, Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash had gone.

"I'm gonna take these dishes to go wash 'em, if you ponies are done," Pinkie said, standing up from her seat as well.

"Yeah, you can take them," Sweetie Belle said, looking at the last few leaves on her plate. "I'm pretty full."

Pinkie walked around the table and hummed as she picked up each plate, putting them into a stack balanced on her head. She walked out of the room and into the kitchen, leaving Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom alone. Sweetie Belle moved one seat to her right so that she sat right next to Apple Bloom. She put a hoof around the filly's shoulders.

"You doing okay, A.B.?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Mmmm," Apple Bloom breathed. "I guess."

"It's not that she doesn't want to hang out with us, she just—"

"I know."

"Huh?" Sweetie Belle looked at her friend.

"I know she's just excited 'bout flyin' with Rainbow Dash. Celestia knows she should be, and I'm happy for her. It's just obvious she don't care all that much about hangin' out with us either."

"Apple Bloom—"

"'Specially not me. C'mon, Sweetie, you know it's true. She don't feel the same way about me. She probably doesn't even like fillies like that."

Sweetie Belle sighed and hugged her friend closer. "I don't know, Apple Bloom. I really don't know. What I do know, though, is that she's our friend and she cares about us. It's her birthday, so let's just let her hang out with Rainbow for now, 'cause she's having a lot of fun. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of her this evening at the party, too, don't you think?"

Apple Bloom turned her head to look at Sweetie. "I hope so, Sweetie. I really do."

Breakfast

"Scootaloo?"

The filly woke up with a salty taste in her mouth and she immediately opened her eyes. Crimson and yellow gave way to the metal surface of the ceiling above, and the voice from her dream fizzled away. She put a hoof to her cheeks, wiping away the salty water that streaked down her fur. It had been a few months since she had stopped waking up crying; no need to start again now.

Scootaloo turned her head right. She didn't even remember falling asleep, but there wasn't anything she could do about it now.

"Oh, hi, Scootaloo!" Mochi was standing in the hallway between the cells, a burly guard pony by her side. "Good to see you're awake!"

"Wh-what's going on? Where are you going?" Scootaloo asked. Her throat was scratchy and it was hard to talk, but she managed to get the words out all the same.

"Oh, I'm just going up to the dining hall for breakfast. You coming?"

Scootaloo blinked. "Totally! I'll just—"

"Apologies, miss, but we can't allow that." The guard adjusted the collar of his outfit. "I have express orders from the top that you're not to leave your cell unless summoned by Mr. Velvet or another authorised pony."

Scootaloo frowned. "Can I at least have some water?"

The guard nodded. "Somepony will be down in a few minutes with some food and water."

"What about something to do, like a journal or something."

"Once again, apologies, but you are not to be given anything from outside your cell besides food and water, as determined by upper management."

Scootaloo hung her head. "You guys are determined to make this really suck, aren't you?"

"I'm just following orders, miss. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to take this mare up to the dining hall."

"I'm sorry, Scootaloo!" Mochi said, waving. "Hopefully by next time you can come with!"

Scootaloo looked up, sighing. "Yeah, hopefully." She watched as Mochi and the guard disappeared past the edge of her cell, and could hear Mochi asking the guard why Scootaloo wasn't allowed to have anything. He gave a noncommital response and the sound of their voices faded as they grew further away, down that same metal hallway that Scootaloo had walked just hours before.

"Ugh... I can't even have a notebook? This is friggin' stupid..." Scootaloo stood up on her hind legs just so she could plop down back-first onto her cot.

"Stupid it might be, but you could at least shut up about it," Grey's gruff voice reverberated from the other side of the hall.

"What the buck is your problem?!" Scootaloo shouted, her tone a little angrier-sounding than she'd intended. He was just pushing her buttons at the wrong time.

"I dunno, but at least I'm not bitching 'bout mine for the whole world to hear." His voice was quiet, but his tone was biting.

Scootaloo closed her eyes. The stallion obviously wouldn't stop if she kept going, so she figured it was just best not to reply. All she could do, just like the whole rest of the day, night, or however long she'd been here, was stare at the wall. She looked at her reflection and sighed. Hopefully she could find a way out of there soon. If the ship had been madness-inducing with its cramped metal rooms, this was a hundred times worse.

Ravine

"I'm not so sure this was such a good idea..." Kevin murmured as he looked out at the expanse of treetops in front of them. He and Flight had been running and walking in a route perpendicular to the path that the ship was on, passing between the trees and through the underbrush. They had moved quickly, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the path as they could before morning came and they could get a better scope of the situation. And, in some respects, this worked.

In other respects, though, it really didn't. The sheer drop in front of them, hundreds of metres down, was testament to that; not looking where you're going has its limits. They had been standing at its edge for nearly twenty minutes, trying to figure out where to go. In that time, the warm rays of the sun were already starting to be visible on the horizon, over the treetops. It had to be at least six-thirty in the morning, so they had been running through the forest for a few hours at least with hardly a break.

"At least I saw the edge before you ran over it," Flight replied. She was looking down at the tops of the trees. "Maybe I could fly us down there..."

"Do you really think you could hold my weight?" Kevin asked.

Flight shrugged. "Probably not. But what else are we gonna do?"

"Maybe we can go around?" Kevin said, looking to the side. The ledge kept going on either side as far as the eye could see, but there was no indication that it sloped downward; if it did, he couldn't see it due to the trees in the way. "It's gotta go down somewhere, right?"

Flight turned her head to look leftwards and then rightwards. "I dunno, Kev, it could keep going for a long time before it goes down. This could even be an inverse mesa or something. I don't know the land around here very well..."

"An inverse mesa?" Kevin asked.

"Well, a mesa is a flat-top hill with steep cliff sides, so an inverse mesa is basically a big hole in the ground."

"Oh. Are those, like, common? I've never heard of 'em..."

"Not really," Flight replied. "I know there's some in the northernmost provinces, but I've never heard of one this far south. Still, it could be one. I dunno."

"Hrmph," Kevin hrmph'd, and turned back to look out on the drop. He put a hoof above his eyes to block out the rays of the sun that were creeping upwards, and then he gazed across the trees of the hole to see if he could make out anything on the other side now that it was a bit lighter. And, as a matter of fact, he could. "Hey, I think I see the other side!"

Flight breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank Argent. You think we can just go around the edge, then? It doesn't look like it curves."

"I'm not sure," Kevin replied. "It could be some sort of ravine... the sides could not even connect for kilometres."

"Well, Umberlight is northeast from here, right?" Flight said. "We could at least go eastward along the cliff, then, so we're going in the right direction at least."

Kevin nodded. "That sounds like a plan. If it gets to be noon and we still can't see that we're making any progress, we should try calling Doc Zed for direction."

Flight facehoofed. "Dammit, why don't we just do that now?"

Kevin scratched his head. "Well, uh, maybe 'cause it's kinda early? He probably didn't get to bed until really late because he had to fly the ship back and all..."

Flight rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Kevin, you haven't been gone that long—you know what Doc Zed is like. There's no way he's even slept a minute since he got back—I bet he's been working on the ship this whole time."

"Hmm, yeah, you have a point," Kevin said, nodding. He arched his back to slide the saddlebag off and it landed on the ground with a soft plop. A few moments of rummaging later and he was holding the comlink in front of him atop a foreleg. "Y'know, I never actually had one of these when I lived here since I was too young then."

"Oh, really? I guess that makes sense..." Flight walked over so that she stood right next to Kevin, almost touching. He blushed, but she seemed not to notice. "You know how to use them?"

"Erm... not quite, but I think I can figure it out. I just press this button here to bring up the contacts, right?"

"Yep, and Doc Zed said he put his comlink in there so you can just press that green button there when it's selected and it should patch you through."

"Here goes nothing, then," Kevin said, magically pressing in the green button. He heard a flat tone from the speaker and then three short pips. These were followed by a crackling noise.

"Hello?" The voice emanating from the speaker was crackly and distant, but unmistakeably that of Doc Zed. "Kevin, Flight, is that you?"

"Hey, Doc, how's it going?" Kevin asked.

"Oh, good, and I'm glad to hear from you ponies. It's going well... I've already got the dashboard gutted and I'm working on fitting in a new one with controls that actually make a lick of sense!"

"That's great to hear!" Kevin replied.

Flight cleared her throat and then leaned in closer to the microphone. "Say, Doc, we were wondering if you could help us a little bit."

"Sure thing, Flight! What with?"

"Well, we've come to some sort of... cliff. It's too steep for us to go down, and we can't tell if it slopes down in either direction. Kevin said he could see the other side, so we can't tell if this is a ravine or an inverse mesa or exactly what it is."

There was no response for a moment; they could hear speaker crackling without the voice there to mask the noise. Then, Doc Zed said, "Oh, I know what you're talking about!"

"You do?" Kevin asked.

"Yep, that's the Delorean Ravine. You're going the right direction, in any case; Umberlight is just a bit north and then a lot of bits east from there, right?"

"As far as I can tell, yeah," Flight replied. "So, if it's a ravine, do we have any chance of crossing it?"

"Lemme dig out a map..." There was more crackling; the sounds of papers shuffling didn't exactly translate well through the comlink's low-quality connection. "Aha! Here we go..."

"Anything?" Kevin asked.

"Yes, actually—it looks like there's a hoofbridge on the main path that connects Umberlight and the fork to Dienna. You can just keep going east along the ravine and you should reach it within a few hours."

"Thank you so much, Doc!" Flight said cheerily. "We'll talk to you later, 'kay?"

Kevin nearly jumped back but re-collected himself quickly. "Ehem... yeah, thanks. Good luck with what you're doing, Doc."

"Thank you. Alright, Doc out." There was a final crackle and another three pips, and then the speaker fell silent. Kevin shoved the plastic object back into his bag.

"Guess we should get going, then," Flight said, watching as Kevin magically lifted his bag so he could drape it once again over his back.

"Can we go a little slower for this part, though?" Kevin asked once he had finished putting the bag back on. He walked over to where Flight was standing, on the east side of the little clearing. "I'm feeling pretty tired, and it would be nice if we weren't running the whole time."

"Heh, fine, ya wuss." Flight stuck out her tongue and started walking. "We don't wanna go too slow, though, or else Officer Gloss might get a warrant before we're back in Dienna."

"A brisk walk it is, then," Kevin replied, pulling up on the left side of Flight. They started off eastward, in the little area between the edge of the cliff and the extent of the underbrush. It formed a neat little path which, if they were careful, they could walk through at a quick pace without much danger of falling.

Favour

If somepony were looking down upon the streets of Umberlight from a bird's eye view, they probably would have taken note of the lime-green-coated pegasus weaving his way through the seas of ponies that took up the sidewalks, quickly darting across crosswalks to once again blend in with the crowd. From the ground, however, Officer Gloss's skill in blending in was palpable; hardly a pony gave him more than a second glance, and if they did it was just because of his bright colour that stood out among the standard drab colours that made up the populace of Umberlight.

Every so often, Gloss pulled out of the crowd and pressed his body against a building, catching his breath. He gave a circumspect glance out into the mass of ponies moving along the sidewalk before diving back in.

As he passed further and further into the city, the crowd thinned and the sidewalks grew older, and not well-maintained. Gloss slowed down to a brisk trot after nearly tripping on a crack in the concrete; there was no need to go fast here, anyhow, as there wasn't a chance anypony would recognise him.

The buildings here were older too, their metal walls a patchwork mixture of weathered and rusted sections alongside shiny new metals that were very similar to the materials used in the Outer Sector. Some buildings, although they probably should have been demolished ages ago, were made of wood or brick. Gloss paid these no mind, though—he'd been all throughout the city plenty of times so the crumbling, antiquated buildings, half of which were boarded up and the other half of which looked ready to close, no longer fazed him. He had a destination, so he kept on walking. The few ponies he passed glared at him once they saw him, and walked quickly past him.

Eventually, he came to a large metal building that looked like it used to be a warehouse. It was in a better state than most of the other buildings; although the metal walls looked old, there were barely any places where new metal had been used to patch it up. The only real issue with it from the outside was that the large windows on its side were shattered and missing, replaced by large expanses of plywood that filled the cavity.

Officer Gloss knew better, however, and approached the building carefully. There used to be a path there, he recalled, but it was there no longer so he had to trot through the mud, flecks of it dirtying his hooves as he went along. Why they filled large patches of the underground world with dirt just to rain on it from above was beyond him.

Once he got to the door of the building, it was obvious that it was as Gloss expected; the light inside was on, and through the glass he could see dozens of ponies milling about. There were booths lining the walls and in rows, with vendors enthusiastically attempting to sell their wares to the ponies walking by. Gloss could make out a fishmonger and a produce seller on the left, a seller of knitted clothing straight ahead, and a painter to the right. The Inner Sector Market—not a black market, but the closest there was to one seeing as it wasn't exactly legal but the city councillors, as with much of the Inner Sector, turned a blind eye to the place. Taking a deep breath, Gloss pushed open the door and slid inside.

Not one for small spaces with large crowds, Gloss found the cacophony of the crowd nigh-on unbearable. The ponies on the streets in the Outer Sector were one thing; they were at least escapable because they were out in the open air. The cramped nature of this market, though—he was left with little opportunity to avoid these ponies. And they were trying to sell things, so anypony who passed was, in their eyes, a potential customer to be hooked in.

"Get the latest comlinks cheap! You, sir—you look like you might need a new one! We take card or cash!"

"Getch'r fresh apples, cauliflower, roots, you name it! There ain't even bugs in 'em this time—we checked!"

Gloss walked down the row of stalls, head turning back and forth, quickly looking away if he caught anypony's eye. He wasn't here to chat with the vendors or buy their crap, and talking to them would just slow him down. It was best to just keep moving.

It took him a few minutes but, soon enough, he reached the back of the room with little interruption. There were fewer booths on this back wall—presumably the ones up front got more attention and ergo more profits—but the ones that were there were larger, spanning the space of what would be two or three booths elsewhere in the room. Gloss made a beeline for the one in the far corner. It was fairly simple, much like the other booths; there was a counter with an earth pony mare behind it and little metal doodads and doohickeys on display around it. The sign above read, in clear block letters, "Fluff's Stuff".

"Hello, sir," the mare said, facing the other direction to adjust some of the metal pieces that hung on plastic hooks behind her. Her blonde mane and brown coat made her look... quite ordinary compared to Gloss. She fit in with the other ponies of Umberlight. "What brings you here today? In need of any... parts?"

"You can cut the crap, Cotton—it's me."

The mare blinked. "G-Gloss?"

Gloss nodded. "Can we have a little chat?"

"Oh, um... well, alright then. I really wish you would have warned me first, though. I assume you'll be needing some things?"

"Not today." Gloss looked around. "Please, could we discuss this somewhere a little more private?"

"If you insist," the mare said. "Come on back here."

Gloss walked around the counter so that he was behind it, beside the mare. He watched with interest as she pulled on a little string by one of the posts holding up the roof of the booth, and a thick velvet curtain descended over the counter. He looked behind him to see that the open space in which he had entered the booth was also now blocked.

"Soundproof," Cotton Fluff said proudly. "A fabric of my own creation."

"Seems useful. You always did have a knack for... pragmatism."

Cotton Fluff raised an eyebrow. "That's all good 'n' fine, but why did you really come here?"

Gloss sighed. "Okay, yeah, you got me. I need a favour."

"A favour?" The mare snorted. "How amusing."

"No, really. The future of Umberlight—maybe even the Kindred planet as a whole—depends on it."

Cotton laughed this time, loudly too. "The future of the whole planet? Golly, Gloss, I didn't realise your ego had got that big in the time since I last saw you."

Gloss facehoofed. "Look, I just need help. I'll make it up to you sometime, I swear."

Cotton sighed. "Okay, okay, I get it. This is important. What do you need me to do?"

"There's two young ponies—a green unicorn colt and a yellow pegasus filly—who are on their way to this city right now, and I need to intercept them once they're here for questioning with regards to a case. I have reason to believe they'll stop here, since they're trying to pick up some parts for spaceship repairs. You're the most prominent pony in these parts who will sell those parts without an ID."

"So... basically what you want me to do is give you a call if I see these ponies?" Cotton Fluff scratched her mane with a hoof. "I guess I can do that..."

"Yeah, just send me a text or something. You have my number. I'll just need you to stall until I can get here."

Cotton Fluff shrugged. "If that's really all you need, then that should be a piece of cake. You sure there's no extra details you're leaving out? Nothing that would make this a whole lot harder?"

Officer Gloss thought of Doc Zed and the alien spaceship, and of the mission he had been sent on to investigate. He thought of the little filly from Aureate-knows-where that was locked up in a cell in the South Pen, not a dozen kilometres from where they stood. These were definitely important details.

"No," he said finally. "That's it. They should be by in the next few days, so I'll be waiting."

Cotton Fluff nodded and pulled on the string, lifting the curtains. There was already a short line of three ponies waiting at the counter, whose ears perked up at the sight of the booth being open once more. "I'll see you around, Gloss."

Gloss bowed his head and exited the booth, trotting quickly through the hustle and bustle of the marketplace to get out of there. He didn't breathe easy until he was outside and back on the street.

Conflict

Velvet adjusted the lamp again, the fourth time in as many minutes. Scootaloo had decided it was a nervous habit of his, since he had adjusted it too many times to count and she'd only been up in his office twice thus far. Either that or he was just never happy with how it looked in his peripheral vision. Once he adjusted the lamp, he looked up at the orange pegasus filly who was currently reclining on the sofa across from him.

"So, Scootaloo, have you decided to co-operate?" he asked in a flat tone.

Scootaloo merely sighed in response. "I just don't get it... why am I so important? I'm just some pony you don't have in your system."

Velvet rolled his eyes and put a hoof to his temple. "I honestly can't tell if you're playing dumb or not, but I figure I'm not going to get a straight answer out of you unless I explain it to you like you don't know anything. Is that correct?"

Scootaloo nodded. "I don't know anything—that's what I'm trying to tell you!"

"That... is hard to believe. Nonetheless, we'll continue." Velvet adjusted the lamp again, positioning it so the light pointed at the back wall. "Basically, as you should already know, the Bureau is... in conflict."

"Huh? You mean, like, political stuff?"

"Nnnngh... no. I didn't want to say it, and I'm really not supposed to say it like this, but"—and at this point, Velvet leaned across the desk and whispered—"we're at war."

Scootaloo blinked. "And this is... secret?"

Velvet sighed. "No, not secret, just... not officially what I said it is. It's a civil conflict—separatist groups on the Revan planet have taken over the dark side of that planet, and Bureau forces are currently at work trying to... take back control. The terminology we use is important, because we don't want to legitimise the rebel groups."

"Hmm..." Scootaloo hmm'd. "But what does this have to do with me?"

"The conflict on Revan has been going on for generations now... most of the ponies and other creatures that live on its dark side have grown up without the Bureau and therefore don't have ID chips. What's more, over the last decade or so, they have many times sent spies aboard unfamiliar spaceships to all four Bureau planets. So, as you can see, we have good reason to be cautious."

"B-but I'm not from there!" Scootaloo cried. She was starting to tremble; she didn't have any evidence that she didn't, and she knew it. "Honest!"

Velvet looked down. "I'd like to believe you, filly—I really would. But it's the most reasonable explanation—Trotcam's razor and all, you know. The only other places you could be from are the Vergla planet—which is incredibly unlikely—or from outside the system. And that's even more unlikely. You probably wouldn't even speak the same language, then—let alone be a pony."

Scootaloo sighed. "I dunno what else I can do, dude—"

"I'm not finished," Velvet cut in. He didn't sound angry; it was just a statement of fact. "Anyway..." he said, moving his hooves below the desk. Scootaloo heard the metal squeak of a drawer sliding open. "There is something that leads us to believe that you're not a spy, though, and that's this." At that final word, he lifted up a floppy rectangular object in his magical grasp. The thing, awash with the blue glimmering magical aura, floated over the desk and forward towards Scootaloo, stopping about ten centimetres from her face.

Eyes wide, Scootaloo swiped at the black notebook with a foreleg. Before she made contact, though, it levitated back, just out of reach.

"Ah ah ah," Velvet said. "This is important. Very important."

Scootaloo's face was flushed. "That's mine. I want it back."

"Mmm, yes, I'm sure you do." Velvet laughed. "Okay, I'll stop teasing you. Yes, you can have it back." He let go of his magical hold on the notebook and it fell into Scootaloo's outstretched hooves. Once it was in her grasp, she held it close to her chest, hugging it against her fur.

"Thank you," the filly mumbled.

"Of course—we have no use for it anymore. We already have it scanned and in our systems." Velvet rotated his computer screen so that Scootaloo could see the black-and-white facsimile of her writing from just a few days ago, including a drawing of—

"Hey, that's private!" Scootaloo said, raising her voice.

Velvet ignored her. "I'm still looking through the pages here, but it looks like you're pretty adept with a pen. And in the Gnostic script, too! How peculiar. That wasn't really made with hooves in mind, after all..."

"Gnostic script?" Scootaloo asked, momentarily forgetting about her frustration. "What do you mean?"

Velvet just stared at her. "The letters you write with. That's what they're called."

"Ohhh... eheh... yep, I totally knew that." Scootaloo flashed him a totally-not-fake smile. "So... anything else?"

Velvet raised an eyebrow. "Scootaloo, please, just tell me where you're from. We can help you. And, even if you don't tell us, we're going to figure it out sooner or later, whether it's from your journal or your ship, so it would be best to do it on your own t—"

"My ship?" Scootaloo asked, cutting him off. "You have my ship?"

Velvet blanched—hard to do when you're already white, but he seemed to manage well enough. "Um, forget I said that. Really."

Scootaloo stared at him. "If you want me to be honest, why aren't you being honest with me?"

"I have my orders, Scootaloo. Please, I'm just trying to do what's best."

"For who, me? The ponies of this planet? Yourself?"

Velvet didn't answer. Instead, he magically pressed in a button on his control sphere. "Hello? Yes, this is Velvet. I need Guard Verbosity to take Ms. Scootaloo back down to her cell. Thank you." There was a click.

"Velvet?" Scootaloo asked, grinning.

"What?" Velvet grumbled.

"Could I please have a graphick?"

Velvet groaned. Reluctantly, he opened a desk drawer and levitated a small ballpoint pen over to where Scootaloo sat. "Hopefully a grap will do—we don't really have any graphicks to spare, these days..."

Scootaloo just grinned all the more. "Yep, thanks!"

Velvet just sighed again. It was going to be a long few days, and the filly wasn't making this any easier.

Subpar

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.

Journals

It's been a few days since I've been able to write, but you probably know that by now. I'm in some sort of jail cell, I guess. Kevin and I ended up landing on the Kindred planet, but it didn't quite go as we hoped. Though, to be honest, I don't know where he is... I can only assume (or hope) that he got away somewhere. Maybe he's looking for me. I can't really count on that, though.

I'm really glad that they gave you back—this is embarrassing, but I was really afraid of losing you. I've left everything from home far behind (well, besides the ship of course!) and yet you're a comforting connection I have to my life back there, even if I am trying to leave that all behind. I don't know what I would have done without you.

I'm a little confused, too. If they really can understand the script I'm writing in, how come they couldn't immediately figure out where I'm from? Isn't there enough evidence in this journal? Meh. We'll see soon enough. I'm gonna go eat for a bit, and then I'll probably draw somepony in here. Bye for now.

~Scootaloo

The filly glanced back over the page in her notebook that was adorned with her messy scrawl, making sure there were no blatant errors or things she wanted to add. Seeing that there were not, she set the notebook aside on her cot so she could stand up and hop off the thing. Scootaloo walked over to the front of the cell, right by the bars, and reached down to lift up her plate with a hoof. She walked back over to her cot and set the plate down in front of her.

It wasn't filled with anything particularly exciting—there was just a lump of mashed potatoes on one side and two carrots on the other—but it was plenty to keep her nourished and it honestly looked pretty delicious in her hungry state. Scootaloo only sat there looking at the food on the plate for a few moments before diving in, her teeth making quick work of the potatoes.

"You sure look excited to be eatin' those," Mochi said. She sat on her own cot in her own cell, perched over her own notebook with a pen in her hoof.

"Mmmff... yeah," Scootaloo replied, pulling her muzzle out of the remaining food. "They gave me some food last night, but it wasn't really enough. Luckily they gave me carrots today," she said, eyeing one of the long orange things.

Mochi nodding, showing that she understood. "Yeah, it's always a bit of a mess to try and figure out what they'll give ya from one day to the next. It's a lot better once you're allowed to go up to the dining hall—you'll see. They got a bunch of different vegetables you can choose from, and sometimes even some fruit or some pasta."

Scootaloo's belly rumbled. "Oh, man, don't make me think of that stuff." She picked up a carrot and bit into it. "What're you up to?" she said in between bites.

"Oh, not much," Mochi replied, smiling. "I'm working on this novel, you see, and I'm trying to write a little chapter every day just for the practice."

"Ooh, that sounds like a cool idea. How long have you been doing that for?"

Mochi sighed. "I'm not exactly sure... a few months, maybe? Not that long, to be honest—it took me a while to get the idea. My main problem is the pacing, y'know? I've written so much, and yet... so little has happened."

Scootaloo scratched the back of her head. "I guess it all comes down to knowing what to keep and what to leave out."

"Oh, for sure," Mochi replied. "I've just gotta make sure I keep the commenters happy..." she trailed off, looking at nowhere in particular.

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "The what?"

Mochi let out a short, shrill giggle. "Nothing, nothing! Sometimes I just say things all silly-like."

"Heh, I know what you mean," Scootaloo said. "Reminds me of another pink earth pony I once knew..."

"If she's anything like me, I'm sure she's a real charmer," Mochi said with a wink. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta get back to writing. My story won't write itself!"

"Good luck, Mochi," Scootaloo said. She turned to her plate; as the thing was now empty, Scootaloo moved it onto the floor beside her cot. Taking its place in front of the filly just a moment later was her notebook once again, and she opened it to the first fresh page. Pen in hoof, she started to sketch out the contours of the mare in the cell across from her, humming a familiar melody along as she drew.

Bridge

"You know, that boulder looks just like one we saw half an hour ago..." Flight said, nodding her head at a large rock jutting out from the bushes below the trees. She and Kevin were still walking along the ravine, but the sun was high in the sky.

Kevin groaned. "Have we even been moving at all? What if we're just on some giant treadmill in a simulation, and we're actually in some sort of government lab where they're observing us to find out our secrets?"

Flight looked at Kevin and raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, Kevin, where do you come up with this stuff? It's just a long walk—we both knew that coming into this."

"Well, yeah, but I didn't exactly have much choice..."

"You didn't want to come?" Flight asked, her features curved with worry and frustration. "Fine! See if I care! Go off and look for your new girlfriend, since you apparently have no time for your friends from back home!"

Kevin was legitimately confused. "Huh? That filly isn't my girlfriend, Flight—I don't even know her name!"

"Mmmff... nevermind..."

"Flight," Kevin said, "don't worry. I still care about you, and I'm super excited to get to see you again. I'm really just annoyed about all the walking..."

"Let's just keep going. Maybe we can make it to the bridge today." Flight's tone was terse. Kevin did not respond; he just looked down at his hooves and kept walking forward, avoiding the branches that occasionally appeared in the dirt.

They kept walking for some time, not talking. This was making Kevin increasingly bored, as he had nothing to focus on. And, when you are bored and you are sleep-deprived, you start to grow very sleepy. This is what Kevin did; he felt his eyelids grow droopier and droopier as they went along, eventually falling shut. He was only walking due to instinct, continuing the cycle he had already initiated.

"Kevin! Look!"

Kevin jerked his head and his eyelids fluttered open. "Huh?" he mumbled. His eyes followed Flight's outstretched hoof and where it was pointing until he could see what she saw. He blinked in surprise at what he saw: a dark blue wooden bridge spanning the ravine. "Friggin' finally..."

"Friggin' finally is right!" Flight exclaimed. "C'mon, Kev!" She quickened her pace, trotting and then galloping in front. Her hooves kicked up small clouds of dust, and Kevin coughed.

"Nnnngh... wait up!" he called, but it was no use; she was already so far ahead of him. He let out a grunt and started trying to run, too; however, as he was still dazed, he tripped over his own hooves and fell to the earth, faceplanting in the dirt. "Ugh... what did I do to deserve this...?"

"Kevin?" he heard Flight say, a hint of worry in her voice. "Aeneus, are you okay?" Her voice was getting closer. Mustering up as much energy as he could, he pushed his body upwards and, although he teetered a little, stabilised himself on his hooves.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired." Kevin winced; his voice sounded weak even to himself.

"Don't worry—we can go slowly," Flight said, smiling warmly. "And, once we get across the bridge, we can stop. Maybe we can even get some sleep."

"Sounds like a plan," Kevin exhaled. He started walking forward, this time at a slow pace. Flight walked alongside him, matching his speed. Even going slower, it only took them a few minutes to walk along the last section of the ravine until they got to the bridge.

As they got closer and closer, they noticed that there was a small building with glass walls on the right side of the bridge entrance. They could see the shape of a red-coated stallion standing inside. What's more, though, was the long, white-and-red striped piece of plastic that extended across the mouth of the bridge, attached to the little building.

"Hmm... I hope that doesn't end up being a problem," Kevin said.

"It shouldn't be. Even if it is a toll bridge, I've got my card so I can pay the toll."

As they approached, the stallion inside turned to face them and he smiled and slowly nodded. "How are you young'ns doin' on this fine day? Glad to see folks like you out here—honestly, most young ponies these days are too focused on their schoolwork and their darn videro games to 'preciate such fine days like these, ya know?"

"Oh, I agree! What a lovely day it is." Flight inhaled loudly. "Mmm... I love the feeling of the fresh air."

"Heh... you and me both, filly. Now, I'm you and yer little companion there wanna get across the bridge?"

"Yessir," Flight affirmed, nodding. "How much is it?"

"That'll run ya two bucks. I'm sorry it's so high—I wish it were lower, so I didn't have ta commit highway robbery every time I do my job, but that's life for ya."

"Sure thing!" Flight slid her saddlebag off and rummaged around inside, finally pulling out a small plastic card. It was light green and had a series of numbers running along the front, along with the words 'Dienna Community Credit Union'.

The stallion in the little building frowned. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but we unforch'nately don't take card after an incident last year. Kinda surprised ya didn't hear about it in the news, to be honest. But yeah, we're cash-only."

"Cash only?!" Flight exclaimed. Her eyes were wide with surprise. "B-but... most ponies don't even carry cash anymore! That's ridiculous! That's stupid!"

"Calm down, Flight..." Kevin said, attempting to make his voice sound soothing. It didn't really work.

Flight turned to him, looking at him in amazement. "I can't calm down, Kev! You know what this means? This means we can't get across the bridge!" She turned back to the stallion. "Right?"

"Right you are, filly," he said, nodding.

"I'm sure we can figure something out," Kevin said. "Is there anything we can do? Maybe we can write you an I.O.U.?"

"No toll, no stroll," the stallion replied. "Er, across the bridge, that is. Meh. I'm still working on that one."

"Pretty please?" Kevin asked, doing his best to contort his face into a puppy-dog-eyes expression. He was pretty sure he just looked like he was going to sneeze, though.

"Sorry, kid, but no can do. I've got a job, and I'm darn good at it!"

"Say," Flight said, at which point Kevin noticed she had turned the corner to look at another side of the little building, "this sign says that the toll bridge only goes until 1900 hours. Is that true?"

The stallion sighed. "Yes, that's true. I'll be going home then. So, if you really wanted to cross without paying, you could go home and come back then. See if I care."

Flight grinned. "Okay! Thank you so much for all your help, sir!"

"You betcha. Stay outta trouble, you hear? You kids seem like nice folk."

"We will!" Flight called, walking down the path away from the ravine. Confused, Kevin followed her.

"What are you doing?" he hissed once they were out of earshot. "Where are we gonna go? I can't keep walking for much longer..."

"Don't worry," Flight replied, walking off the path. She stopped amongst the bushes. "We can stop here until it gets late—in fact, why don't we use that time to sleep?" She grinned, knowing this would appeal to the colt.

Kevin grinned too. "You know, that sounds pretty good." He joined Flight, walking off the path until he was standing in a little grassy patch between two bushes. "See you in a few hours." With that, he plopped down onto the ground and, in just a moment, Flight could see he was already out like a light.

"I can friggin' still see you kids!" Flight heard the stallion call from afar.

"And what of it?!" Flight shouted, loud enough that the stallion would hear. She wasn't afraid of waking Kevin up; she doubted that even an explosion next to his ear would be enough to shake him from his much-needed slumber. "We're not doing anything we're not supposed to!" She heard the stallion sigh.

"I reckon you're right, kid. Just... be smart, alright? You can't play this crap with everyone and expect to get away with it."

"I'll keep that in mind!" Flight shouted. The stallion didn't reply, so she staked out her own little grassy spot in the bushes and lay down on the ground. As she closed her eyes, she almost wished she were lying right alongside her companion, her feathers lightly brushing against his side...

Author's Note

Night

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.

Skedaddle

Scootaloo was sitting there on her cot, putting the finishing touches on her sketch of the mare who was now lying down on her back on the cot in that cell across from the filly. The fact that Mochi had moved from her sitting position didn't exactly help; now Scootaloo had to work mostly from memory to try and get the right position of the mare's limbs so that the anatomy didn't look all awkward and wrong. Luckily, Scootaloo had been doing a lot of sketching ponies in the past few months, and from memory in the past few weeks, so she was able to scribble her way through it without too much difficulty.

It was when she was just finishing with the curve of the mare's muzzle and setting down her pen that Scootaloo heard a fizzle somewhere above her. She looked up at the ceiling, trying to figure out what had made the noise, but whatever it was, she couldn't easily see it. Then, as she was still looking at the ceiling, the lights flickered out.

"What's going on?" she heard a stallion in another cell down the hall call out.

"Is it just me, or did it get a lot darker in here?"

She paid little mind to those voices asking the questions, however, even though these were questions she probably would have been asking as well. But Scootaloo was distracted, not by the light going out, but by a flash of silver light in front of her. For a moment, as it flashed, she was able to see the room in the eerie silver light. Mochi had leapt up from her cot and was standing by the bars.

"Scootaloo?" the mare croaked. Scootaloo was about to respond, but her train of thought was interrupted by another voice right next to her.

"Scootaloo, there isn't very much time," the voice whispered, just loud enough so that she could hear. It was masculine, gruff, and oddly familiar; Scootaloo knew she had heard it and recently, too, but couldn't quite place whom it belonged to. "I've got the lights and video feed off for now, but I don't know how long it will take them to get them back online so you've gotta go quick."

"What do you mean?" Scootaloo asked. "Who are you? What's going on?"

She heard a sigh. "Look, that's not important right now. Trust me—I'd love to sit down and have a chat about it someday. And soon enough we will. But right now, we don't have much time, and I'm getting you out of here. I can't go with you yet, so you're on your own after this."

"Wha—huh?" Scootaloo tried to shake herself more awake. "But... why?"

"Again, no time to explain. Lemme just say that I know who you are, and that you're good." The voice came from further away and in a moment, Scootaloo was able to see why; another silver flash of light revealed that the stallion was now standing by the bars, his horn aglow as he enveloped the door with his magic. He was facing away from Scootaloo so she couldn't see his face, but she could still see his long white mane and wrinkled grey body. His cutie mark was odd, though; the shape was a single, downward-facing triangle, but what truly fascinated Scootaloo was that the fur on this cutie mark seemed to be a reflective silver, glittering in the faint light. She had never seen anything like it

In just a few short seconds, the door swung open and the stallion's magic dissipated, shrouding them once more in darkness.

"Alright, now here, take this saddlebag," he said, and Scootaloo heard the object whizz through the air before landing right next to her on the cot. She shoved her notebook inside it and slid in on as she was told, and then climbed down to the floor. "Now I need you to get out of here."

"Scootaloo? What's going on over there?" Mochi sounded desperate, confused, and weak.

"Let her out, too," Scootaloo said. It wasn't a question, just a statement. A command.

"Scootaloo, we can't waste any more time! She's a nice pony, I know, but she'll just slow you down." His voice was strained; evidently he wasn't expecting that.

"I'm not going unless you let her come with me."

"You're bluffing."

"No, I'm not," Scootaloo said, her tone resolute. To further prove her point, she slid her saddlebag off and made sure he heard the clink of it hitting the metal floor. "Mochi comes with or I'm staying. They can catch me for all I care. You too."

"Ughhhh," the stallion groaned. "Fine. Whatever. If that's what it takes, that's what it takes. C'mon." Scootaloo heard his hoofsteps clanging away on the other side of the cell so she followed out the door, feeling around with a hoof in front of her so she didn't run muzzle-first into the bars. Once she was out, though, she could see the hallway once again in a burst of light as the stallion was opening the door to Mochi's cell.

"Wh-what? Why are you doing this?" Mochi asked. Her features were wrought with confusion and worry.

"Scootaloo is leaving. She wanted you to come with her, so it became my job to make that happen."

"B-but... you've never shown any kindness before!" Mochi sobbed. "I'm so confused... and I don't deserve this..." The door swung open.

"Look, I'm... I'm sorry about earlier. I'm sorry about everything. But this filly needs you to go with her, and I need her to get out of here, so if you could please..." The stallion didn't need to say it twice, though; Mochi ran out of the room just as the stallion let go of his hold on the door and the light from his horn was extinguished. Scootaloo felt Mochi's presence at her side.

"Can you put this in your saddlebag?" Mochi asked. She hoofed her journal over to Scootaloo.

"Of course," the filly replied, stowing it away.

"Okay, now that we've got that settled... skedaddle!" the stallion exclaimed. "You gotta get out before the cameras and lights come back on. Try to go for... um... I think it's the 30th floor? There should be a tunnel off of there that isn't that heavily guarded, and you should have a clear path to Umberlight and then aboveground. I'll try to meet up with you around there."

"Why aren't you coming with us if this is so important?" Scootaloo asked.

"Argh... I'm sorry, kid, but we'll have to save the questions for another time. Just trust me in that nothing good will come of you staying here. Not that you really needed me to tell you that, now, did you?"

Scootaloo sighed. "I guess not. C'mon, Mochi." The filly started galloping down the hallway, her hooves clanking loudly on the metal floor. She could hear the hoofsteps of Mochi galloping behind her.

"Not so loud!" the stallion hissed from behind them. "Don't gallop! Canter! Trot, even! Just try not to draw attention to yourselves!"

Scootaloo didn't respond but she slowed her pace so that her hoofsteps sounded no louder than the other ponies pacing around in their cells. She could hear Mochi behind her, adjusting her gait accordingly as well. The filly didn't flinch when she saw the ceiling and walls around her light up in silver light as she heard a crack; she just kept cantering forward. She also heard maybe a few confused grunts and whispers as she and Mochi passed other cells and the ponies within them, but there was no loud noise or commotion so she could assume that nopony really knew what was going on.

The two ponies didn't slow their pace until they were sure they had reached the smaller hallway with the lower ceiling, the one with no cells that led to the small room that moved upwards. Because they were now moving slower, Mochi was able to pull up alongside Scootaloo; the faster gait had obviously been difficult for the older mare.

"So, let me get this straight—we just got let free, and you don't know why any more than I do?" Mochi asked.

"Erm... pretty much," Scootaloo replied. "Though we're not free yet..."

"Yeah, you're right. Still, I'm surprised he was able to get us out—the mana suppressor on his horn must have overflowed without the guards noticing."

"What do you mean?" Scootaloo asked. "Was that pony in one of the cells around us?"

Mochi blinked. "Oh, I guess you weren't here that long. Yes, darlin', he was right next to us, remember? That was Grey."

"...what." Scootaloo hadn't even considered the possibility. But, of course. Duh.

"Yeah, odd, ain't it? Spends all his days givin' us grief and then he turns around does something like this. Some ponies I just don't understand—prob'ly never will."

"Hmm... yeah, that's pretty weird," Scootaloo said. "Guess we can't think about it too much right now, though—we gotta get out of here!"

"Yep. We can just keep going this way, though, 'til we get to the elevator."

"Huh? 'Elevator'?" Scootaloo asked. "Is that what that moving room is called?"

Mochi took a second to reply. "Aeneus, where in the hay are ya from, girl?"

"Eheh... sometimes, I don't even know myself..." Their hooves on the metal floor clanged softly—if ever that were such a thing to happen. They carried on forward, blind, through the darkness of the hallway.

Elevating

Scootaloo and Mochi heard a door click open to the left but they hardly had time to do anything about it before they heard a loud—

"BOO!" boomed a masculine voice.

Scootaloo and Mochi shrieked, their voices reverberating down the hallway.

"Ahahaha!" the voice cackled. "Did you hear that noise you just made, Trust Fall? I've been waiting down here three damn days just to scare ya!" When there was no response, Scootaloo and Mochi could hear the door squeak further open. "Buddy? That is you, right? I ain't gonna get fired over this prank?"

Scootaloo flinched as she heard a feminine grunt and the sound of a hoof making contact with soft flesh. There was a loud thud and then the sound of the side door slamming shut.

"C'mon, Scootaloo, no time to waste," Mochi said, and the filly could hear her running up ahead. "We gotta get to the elevator before the lights come on!" Scootaloo quickened her pace and, soon enough, she was sure that they were near the end. "Turn!" Mochi called, and Scootaloo did, swerving left.

The elevator was sitting open at the end of the hallway, and the little light in its ceiling was still on, its orange-yellow hues warm and welcoming the two ponies from the darkness of the hall. And, as Scootaloo noticed, it was an indicator that the elevator, unlike that hallway they were coming from, still had power. She barely had time to register what was going on before she and Mochi were in the elevator. Unfortunately, she realised too late that she needed to stop and, since she was still tied to the laws of physics, Scootaloo rammed muzzle-first into the wall.

"Owie..." she mumbled, pulling away from the wall. By the time Scootaloo had turned around, she could see that Mochi had already pressed on a button labelled with two digits, ones that she couldn't quite decipher but that she presumed were for the thirtieth floor. Everything looked just a little blurry, too; she still hadn't quite shaken off the impact.

The room—elevator, as Scootaloo remembered—started to groan as it slid upwards. Scootaloo still found the sensation odd and foreign; even though she had been on airships plenty of times, those had felt more natural compared to this motion of a room inside the building, almost like a piston moving through the inner workings of a machine. Scootaloo watched, like she did before, as the buttons lit up and then flickered out one by one.

She was so focused on the buttons that she nearly didn't look out the window behind them; however, upon remembering it, Scootaloo glanced out and saw that it was no different than before. A few ponies were milling about, walking to and fro, generally minding their own business. As far as she could tell, none of them knew that there were currently two escaped prisoners in this elevator rising above them.

Then, suddenly, the elevator shook violently, nearly knocking Mochi and Scootaloo off their hooves. As soon as it had shaken, it stopped mid-rise. From the buttons, it looked like they were on the twenty-second or twenty-third floor.

"What's going on?" Scootaloo asked. "Why have we stopped?"

"Um... I'm not sure," Mochi replied. The mare was already across the elevator and she pressed several buttons with a hoof, trying to figure out if they did anything. The open button—nothing. The thirtieth floor button—nothing. The close door button—nothing. Then, finally, she pressed the button on the very bottom, the one marked with the black outline of a bell. It dinged.

"What's that button do?" Scootaloo asked. Mochi turned around.

"Aw, crud, I didn't mean to press that one!" Mochi exclaimed. "That's the help button, but now they'll know we're—"

She was interrupted by a smooth, familiar voice from above. It took Scootaloo a moment to place where she had heard it but, once she did, she scowled. "Good morning, escaped convicts 63285 and 114336. We trust that your leaving your cells was an accident, an honest mistake, and we expect that you will fully co-operate with the guards we are now sending to the Main South Elevator." Scootaloo looked up to try and see where Velvet's voice was coming from, but all there was above her was the ceiling, a grey plastic sheet dotted with hundreds of tiny holes. "Now, if you would please standby as we move the elev—" The voice was cut off with a crackle, and at the same time Scootaloo heard a loud clanging and crunching.

She looked back down from the ceiling to see Mochi, eyes closed, bucking the elevator control console over and over, back hooves smashing into the plastic and metal. Surprisingly, Mochi's hooves were making significant dents and then holes in the hard material. After several hits, the panel was smoking and fizzling, with tiny zaps of electricity dancing around the ends of frayed wires. The mare looked up at Scootaloo, smiling bashfully.

"Eheh... that shut that doofus up at least, right?"

"Well, I guess, but—wait, what?" Scootaloo exclaimed as she felt the elevator around them start to descend. It wasn't that fast at first—about the normal speed they had been ascending—but it quickly grew faster and faster as the seconds flew by them. "Gaaaaah!" the filly yelled. "I don't wanna die this young!'

"Uhhh... ummm..." Mochi's head was turning all about in different directions, searching for something she could do to slow them down or get off. "Dammit! I'm sorry, Scootaloo—I didn't know that would happen, honest! There I go, not thinking before acting again..." The mare frowned and stepped back against the wall. "Well, before we go, I just want to say... it was nice meeting ya, kid. And I'm really glad ya saved me and all, but—"

"We can talk later!" Scootaloo was running across the elevator, hooves clanging on the floor, and she stopped in front of the near-ruined control panel. "Right now, we gotta figure out—oh, hey, the open door button is still there." Scootaloo pressed it. It beeped back at her. "Crap! Not more beeping!"

"Scootaloo, I think we just have to give up..."

"No!" Scootaloo exclaimed, turning around to face Mochi. The mare was in a worse state than she had thought; somewhere in between the mess of her cream mane that shrouded her face, Scootaloo could make out tears streaming down Mochi's reddened cheeks. "Gah... I'm sorry, Mochi. But we can't give up. C'mon, help me pry the door open. We can still get out of this."

"But what are we gonna do once we get them open?!" Mochi sobbed.

"That doesn't matter! A really awesome pony I used to know taught me that sometimes, when you gotta be awesome, you just gotta take stuff one thing at a time. Then you can let your brain work out what to do next when you're working on that thing. C'mon!" Scootaloo reached out to touch Mochi on the shoulder, and the mare stood up at the contact.

"O-okay," she managed. "Let's do this."

Together, Scootaloo and Mochi dug their hooves into the gap between the doors in the front of the room and pushed with all their might. Slowly but surely, the ponies cracked the doors open and then, centimetre by centimetre, forced them into their slots. The eerie silence of the elevator was replaced by the loud whooshing as they passed by floor after floor. Scootaloo stared out the door and her gaze was met by ponies on the floors they went by, gawking at the sight of the elevator in free fall. There those ponies stood, just a metre away from Scootaloo and Mochi when they passed, yet they were safe and on solid ground.

"Mochi, do you have any idea where we are?" Scootaloo asked, trembling. "If we could just jump out..."

"At this speed?" Mochi goggled at the pegasus. "The chances of us making it—we might as well just stay here 'n' get crushed at the bottom. Might hurt less."

Scootaloo sighed. "But there's still a chance... right?"

"I don't know, Scootaloo..."

"Well, the longer we stand there the less of a chance we have. It's just getting faster... now or never, right?"

Mochi looked down. "I-I..."

Scootaloo looked at her with a sombre expression. "Mochi, I'm going to jump in about three seconds. If you don't want to come with me, that's fine, but I would really love to have your help, even if it's in the afterlife or some jazz like that."

Mochi took a deep breath. "Okay, I'll do it. Let's go."

The two ponies stood side by side at the mouth of the elevator. Lights flashed by as they descended; it was already hard to tell what was a floor and what wasn't at that point.

"On the count of three," Scootaloo murmured. "One... two... three... go!"

And, at Scootaloo's final word, the two ponies jumped forward. The elevator whistled by, below and behind them.

Empty

Scootaloo watched as Mochi soared forward and, miraculously, the mare's hooves skidded and clanked on the metal surface of the floor across from them. She had made it safely across.

The filly, lighter as she was, found herself falling just short of the edge; she hadn't gained enough momentum. Her hooves scrabbled at the metal side of the elevator shaft, trying to reach for a hoofhold in the sheer surface, but she realised it was no use as she started to descend and her heart beat so hard in her chest like it was going to erupt and she looked below at the drop below her, yawning hundreds of metres downward, and—

"Scootaloo!" Mochi cried, leaning over the edge. "Your wings!"

Scootaloo blinked, shook her head abruptly, and started buzzing her tiny orange wings as fast and as hard as she could. "Please, please... don't crap out on me now..." she murmured under her breath. And, sure enough, she slowed her descent and then started to rise up and forward through the air until she tumbled onto the metal floor next to Mochi. Scootaloo nearly landed on her face, crumpling into a little pile of orange pony, but at least she was safe. She let out a breath of relief.

"Woo!" Mochi exclaimed, grinning. "You did it!"

Scootaloo looked up at the mare and smiled weakly. "Yeah... ungh... I guess. We still gotta get out of here, though." Wincing, the filly stood upright on her hooves and took a step forward. "Ow!"

"What's wrong?"

"Ehh, it's nothing. I think I might have sprained a leg." Scootaloo limped forward. "Aagh, yeah. I'm gonna be fine, though. Let's go."

"Alright. Let me walk in front, though—if any guards come 'round trying to get us, they won't know what hit 'em."

"Eheh... thanks, Mochi."

The two ponies walked at a regular pace down the hallway in front of them, as fast as Scootaloo's leg would allow them. Their hooves made soft clanging noises on the floor which reverberated down the length of the hall; that was a disadvantage of these all-metal buildings—you couldn't sneak around very well at all. The only other sound was the buzzing of the fluorescent light panels that lined the ceiling above their heads.

The hallway in front of them was more like the hall above that Scootaloo had been led through to Velvet's office than the one below that led to their cells. There was, however, one exception where the similarities stopped—unlike the hustle and bustle of that floor Velvet's office was on, this hallway seemed completely devoid of other ponies. There were doors off to the sides for offices, but all of the metal doors were propped open so that Scootaloo and Mochi could see inside as they passed the small rooms. What was most surprising about them was that they were completely empty, save for the light fixtures that illuminated the insides of them.

"This seems weird," Scootaloo said, craning her neck to look into another one of the empty rooms on the left. "Is it normal to just have empty floors like this?"

"No," Mochi replied, "and I got a pretty unsettlin' feeling about this. It just don't feel right, somehow..."

"Yeah, I'm getting weird vibes..." Scootaloo looked down at the floor. "It doesn't even look like anypony's ever walked through here—see how clean it is?"

"Hmm... oh, hey, that door's closed." Mochi stopped and pointed at the metal obstacle that looked out of place when all the other doors were open. "I wonder why..."

"Only one way to find out," Scootaloo said, grinning. She limped faster forward, past Mochi, to reach the door and then she pushed down on the horizontal metal handle, pushing the door inwards. It squeaked as it swung open.

Unlike the other rooms, this one was dark inside. The room seemed to exhale as the door opened, stagnant warm air flowing out and brushing lightly along Scootaloo's coat. She took a few steps inside and, even though the air was warm, she was shivering. She never had been a fan of the dark. The sound of Mochi's clanging hoofsteps behind her, though, helped to alleviate the worst of her fears.

The fluorescent light from the hallway streamed into the room, more and more as the door swung further and further open. However, this light stretched only a few metres into the room and, if the others were any comparison, there was still significant portion of the room that was shrouded in darkness, that Scootaloo could not see.

"Scootaloo, I think we should keep going," Mochi whispered from behind her.

"Why?" Scootaloo whispered back. She wasn't quite sure why she was whispering; she was just matching Mochi's tone.

"Erm... I hear breathing." And, as Mochi said it, Scootaloo could definitely hear the ragged breaths, cutting through the air in heavy gasps. "C'mon, this can't be good..."

"Is... is somepony there?" a raspy voice breathed from the back of the room. If Scootaloo hadn't been paying attention, she probably wouldn't have been able to hear it.

"We gotta go—please, I don't think this is safe..." Mochi turned as if to leave, but Scootaloo just stood their in the centre of the light, staring into the darkness that loomed ahead.

"P-please... help me..."'

"Scootaloo, let's go!" Mochi hissed, but it was no use. Scootaloo limped forward into the darkness, hooves clanging on the floor, and the mare had no choice but to follow the filly.

Buzz

As Scootaloo took a step forward, the ceiling started to glow with an eerie blue light. The filly blinked and looked up, transfixed by the light emanating from above.

"Must be motion sensing," Mochi murmured, looking up at the ceiling as well as she trailed a few steps behind Scootaloo. The glow grew brighter and brighter, and Scootaloo kept taking more steps, proceeding further into the room. It was obvious at that point that the room was deeper than the empty offices that lined the hallway.

"Hello?" the voice rasped, still very faint and far away. "I can see the light... I know you're out there..."

"We should probably go back," Mochi whispered. "Scootaloo, they've gotta be after us by now. There's stairs on every floor, usually at the other end of the hall from the elevator... we can probably still ma—oof!" Lost in her train of thought, the mare bumped into the pegasus filly in front of her, who had stopped walking. "Why'd you—ohhhh buck..."

"Oh, what a... heh... what a pleasant surprise." Scootaloo and Mochi could now see that, through the glow of the light, the voice was coming from the occupant of a chair in front of them that sat several metres away on top of a raised platform. There was a large black cable tied across and around the chair, running down the left side and along the platform, leading off into the darkness. And, strapped securely into the centre of the thing, was a stallion.

"Let's go," Mochi said, staring ahead at the stallion. His features were difficult to make out in the faint blue glow but Scootaloo could see that long scars snaked across the matted beige fur on his face and down his neck, and there was a gap in his hairline and a scabbed-over stump on his forehead that indicated that, at least at one point in time, he had been a unicorn. There were large dark bags under his eyes, making them look sunken back into his face. He flashed a toothy yellow grin to the two ponies that stood across from him.

"No, no... please, feel free to stay a while... eheh..."

"Who are you?" Scootaloo asked. She wasn't quite sure why she was asking, either—it wasn't like she wasn't trembling, scared out of her wits, every muscle in her body urging her to run and escape. But she was curious, and most definitely not a cat.

The stallion let out a loud cough and Scootaloo jumped back to avoid his germs; as he was strapped in, he had no way to cover his mouth. Not that he looked like the type who would do that if he could. "Why don't you ask your friend here? Eheh... we go way back... what was your name...? Mocha?"

The mare in question looked very much for a moment like she didn't want to answer, that she wanted to be defiant and try to ignore this stallion—but, eventually, she caved. "No, it's Mochi."

"Heh, whatever. Same difference in the end... am I right?" The stallion hacked and wheezed. "Looks like you drew a longer straw than I did, huh?"

Scootaloo turned to the mare whose expression had become hard to read. Her pink fur looked purple in the blue glow from above. "How do you know this pony?"

Mochi squinted and frowned, still looking ahead at where the stallion sat. He just smiled in return. "He's... um... he's really not important right now. Just somepony I used to know. We should really get going."

"Haha... 'just somepony you used to know'?" he wheezed. "Damn, Moch, I thought... I though I'd earned better than that. I mean"—he coughed—"aren't I the reason you're in here? We were a team, remember? You and me... ahem... you and me fuckin' up the—"

"Shut the hell up, Bramble," Mochi said sternly. She didn't raise her voice; she just made it clear from her tone that she wasn't messing around. "I'm... I'm a better pony now. C'mon, Scootaloo. Please."

"Y-yeah, okay," Scootaloo said, turning away from the stallion. "This guy's giving me the creeps..."

"Haha! The creeps? Kid, you don't... ahem... you don't know the half of it. And just look at that pony you're with, for Aureate's sake! Has she... did she even tell you what she did?"

"Scootaloo," Mochi said, glaring at the stallion still, "get out of here and start scouting out the hallway. I'll be with you in a second."

"But—"

"I've just got some unfinished business to take care of."

"O-okay," Scootaloo stammered. She turned tail and galloped out of the room, her hooves clanging loudly on the metal surface. Their sound reverberated throughout the room, filling up the entirety of the dark space.

Once Mochi could see Scootaloo had left the room and turned the corner, she turned back to face the stallion. "How come nopony else is here with you?"

"Heh, well, they finally... they finally brought me up here. Seems like after all these years they finally got the sentence they wanted. They strapped... they strapped me in and were all ready to go and then... and then that piece of shit Velvet had to go do something else and he didn't come back. I don't know how long it's been... been tryin' to count but all I got is a few days."

"You're a terrible pony," Mochi sneered. "You ruined my life."

"Hahaha... not like you needed any help with that, dumbass. Can't... can't blame me for all your problems..."

Maintaining her composure, Mochi took a few steps forward as if she were going to walk up to the platform. Then, at the last second, she swerved left and followed the thick black cable along the ground into the darkness.

"Buck, you're really gonna do it," the stallion wheezed. He closed his eyes. "'Night, then."

A few seconds later, there was a soft buzz and a flash of light and the stallion's body twitched before lying still. Mochi didn't even give him a second glance as she traversed the length of the room back to the door, which she closed behind her.

"What happened?" Scootaloo asked once she saw Mochi was back in the hallway.

"Nothing... just had to say a few things. Just leaving him here for the guards to take care of."

"But who was he?"

Mochi sighed. "I'll... I'll tell you about it some other time. Right now, we gotta get out of here." And, to prove her point, the mare started walking further down the hallway, peering in both directions to see if there was any sign of any escape. Scootaloo followed closely next to Mochi as the two of them left that closed door behind them.

Grate

"Hey, Mochi, I think I found something!" Scootaloo called. The two ponies had realised that what they thought was a turn at the end was actually a horizontal split, so they decided to split up to cover more ground and to check all the little office rooms more quickly. At first, Mochi hadn't wanted to let Scootaloo go by herself; the filly told her, though, that they weren't even going to be that far away from one another and, what's more, she was a perfectly capable pony that could take care of herself.

"You mean, like, stairs?" Mochi asked, turning her neck. She brushed her mane away as it fell in front of her face.

"Yeah, there's a little sign with an up arrow. That does mean up on this planet, right? The line with the little triangle on top?"

Mochi blinked. "Um, yeah? Why wouldn't it? Wait, 'on this planet'?"

"C'mon." Scootaloo beckoned towards herself with a hoof and then darted off into a room on the left. Sighing, Mochi galloped down the hall to follow the filly into the little office.

The room looked much like the others they'd passed—nondescript metal walls with nothing inside but a light fixture. What set it apart, though, was the door on its far wall that Scootaloo had mentioned. There was a little black plastic sign to its left that, again as the filly had said, had only an upward-facing arrow.

"You tried the door?" Mochi asked.

"Oh, um, not yet." Scootaloo reached up and pushed down and inwards on the handle. The door swung open, revealing a small metal room that was very much like a vertical tube. The floor was red metal grating that made a landing in the stairs that led both up and down, to more landings that Mochi could see through the grating. She followed Scootaloo, who had just limped inside. The filly shut the door behind them and, even though she closed it quietly, the click of the latch reverberated all up and down the stairwell.

"So, uh, up or down?" Scootaloo asked. "How do we even know what floor we're on? We need to get to floor 30, right?"

"Yeah, if we're taking Grey by his word," Mochi replied. "I mean, I guess we don't have any reason not to... what else can we do?" She tilted her head back to look up. "Wherever we are, it's gotta be below floor 30 because we hadn't gotten up that high in the elevator. I dunno how far we fell before we jumped, though—we could even be below where we started."

"Guess we'd better get started, then," Scootaloo replied and, in conjunction with what she said, the filly started limping up the stairs. Mochi walked at an even, slow pace alongside her.

"Looks like this'll take a while," Mochi said, once they had walked up three floors.

"Ungh... yeah. I'm really sorry I can't go any faster... it just hurts pretty bad if I move my leg too much."

"Don't worry, it's no trouble," Mochi replied. "We probably have some time before they figure out where we are. Heck, they probably think we're dead already—and even I'm kinda surprised we're not. That elevator shoulda killed us."

"Heh... no elevator can take this awesome pony down," Scootaloo replied, smiling. She and Mochi kept walking upwards, floor after floor, hooves clinking on the metal grating.

Velvet leaned back in his seat as he stared at the black-and-white image of the ponies on his computer display, pressing a button on his control sphere to flick from camera to camera as they passed out of view. He let out a sigh. "When will these ponies ever learn?"

"I'm not sure, sir, but the other members of the guard and I await your command," Guard Verbosity said stiffly. He stood across the desk from Velvet, in front of the sofa.

"Please, please, be patient. It helps to actually figure out what we're doing before we just dive into these things." Velvet ran a hoof through his mane. "They're in the central stairwell, trying to make their way to the thirtieth floor which, for some reason, they presume to be a way out. I don't want any guards to go down in the stairs, but I need you to make sure that ponies are there waiting for them once they get to that floor."

Guard Verbosity nodded. "Will do, sir." He turned tail and trotted out of the room.

"Ah..." Velvet exhaled. "Now to figure out how they got out in the first place."

Filler

They had gone up maybe fifteen floors without saying anything before Scootaloo, whose eyes had been sweeping across the ceiling, noticed something she hadn't before. She paused and, upon noticing this, Mochi stopped too.

"What does it mean with those little letters on that plastic thing up there?" Scootaloo asked. And indeed there was a small placard, not unlike the one with the up arrow that had been outside the shaft but for the fact that it was transparent and was printed with two white letters: 'IX'. The placard was affixed to the bottom of the landing above them, facing downward.

"Oh, um, that's Revan numerals," Mochi replied. "They used to be more common here when I was growing up, but I've heard the Gnostic numbers have been making a comeback. Anyway... that must mean we're on the ninth floor. We've got a ways to go, but that's good to know." The mare began walking again, and Scootaloo followed.

"How do Revan numerals work?" Scootaloo asked.

"Well, it all starts with that straight line which means one..." Mochi started, and she continued explaining. Scootaloo listened intently, only stopping Mochi to ask questions about odd cases like decimals and things like that.

"Ugh, this character interaction is so saccharine I think I'm going to puke," Velvet murmured. "That filly seemed smart when she was up here, but... now I'm really starting to wonder how well she can be fooled."

His gaze was still trained on his computer screen but his back had slumped forward and now his head was only propped up by the desk. It hurt his eyes a bit to be looking up so far at the computer screen in front of him, but he was really too lazy or apathetic or something to do anything about it. All he had the wherewithal to do was levitating that control sphere and clicking the button as he needed.

"At least I know where they are, now... it can't be too much longer until they get to the thirtieth floor..." He yawned. "Nnngh... and to think, it was almost bedtime. Damn these ponies and their need to escape."

"And I don't think there used to be a numeral for zero, but now they've started using the letter 'T' for it... I guess 'cause it's an empty circle, or maybe 'cause it looks like the Gnostic zero. I dunno."

"Wow... I can't imagine not having a number for zero..."

"Heh, you and me both. How else will I express the utter meaningless and worthlessness of my life?" Mochi giggled.

"Huh?" Scootaloo huh'd. "Is it really that bad?"

Mochi frowed. "Well, um... I dunno. It's hard to like yourself when you do shitty shit—and I mean shitty shit that legit is shit—and then you have to sit in jail for it as punishment for the rest of your life. Doesn't help when you friggin' deserve it, too."

"There's no way you—"

"Trust me, Scootaloo. You don't know what I did, and you prob'ly wouldn't like me all that much if ya did. I don't wanna talk about this anymore... let's keep walking."

They continued in silence but for the clinking of their hoofprints on the metal for floor after floor. A few times, Mochi asked to stop at a landing for a second to catch her breath; she wasn't exactly the spry young mare she used to be.

With each floor the ponies on his screen ascended, Velvet's eyelids drooped further and further downwards until they were squarely shut and his breathing slowed to a regular, rhythmic pace.

Shiller

"Nnngh... oh, dang, is that the last screw?" Doc Zed wiped a bead of sweat from his brow as he relinquished his magical grip from the screwdriver. "Thank friggin' Argent... at least it'll be a lot easier to fix now than it was before."

The stallion smiled as he stepped back to admire his work. And indeed, he had done quite a job with the control panel laid out before him. While it had previously been a confusing maze of buttons and levers, some of which were cryptic or redundant, Doc Zed had worked his organisational magic and knowledge of efficient space control systems into a brand new control panel of his own design. It had taken him hours to pull apart the old one, with its dense clusters of tangled wires inside—evidently, whoever had created it hadn't intended for anypony else to be digging around inside.

Once he'd gotten the externals of the old panel out, though, putting in the new one had been a cinch. Sure, he'd had a bit of a hard time since he forgot to label some of the wires before ripping them out, but he just had to test those ones as he was hooking them up to the buttons. Now, after several hours of work, the new console was all hooked up, pristine and ready to go. The mixture of buttons and levers and switches with messy labels above or below them had been replaced with simple buttons that lit up when pressed, toggling the light to show if its function was currently in use. The labels on the buttons were now more clear, too, outlined in simple terms such as 'Headlights', 'AI', or 'Back Thrusters'

Doc Zed jumped up to the plastic seat and sat there for a moment, admiring his work. He honestly had never done anything quite like this before—maybe a few console repairs, but nothing this big. Casually, he reached forward and pressed a button marked 'Windshield Wipers', and the windshield wipers began swooping across the newly-replaced windshield—the first repair he had done on the ship. He pressed the button again. The light flickered off, and the wipers stopped and fell back to their place at the bottom of the window.

"Good, good," he murmured. He tested a few other buttons, including the heating, air conditioning, and autopilot. That last one lit up red when he pressed it—that meant that there was either insufficient power to run the autopilot program, or that there was some sort of mechanical issue with starting it. Doc Zed sighed.

"Friggin' A... I'll figure that out later." He stood up and hopped off the chair, walking out of the room and down the hall. "But for now... I have the power hooked up, so I can hopefully bypass that locked door down below to see if there's anything in the damn room. Assuming that's what's behind it..."

He whistled as he descended down the ladder and then trotted briskly through the room and hallway below, his hooves clinking on the metal. In just a minute or so, he stood directly in front of that door, the one with a keypad to the right. Without more than a passing thought, he punched in four random numbers: 6-4-2-5. And then, to his surprise, the little screen lit up green.

"Well, I'll be. That saves me some time..." Doc Zed murmured. The door in front of him slid leftwards into the wall, revealing darkness inside. The stallion took a few steps in and reached his hoof to feel around on the left wall for a light switch. In a moment, he found what he was looking for and flicked the little plastic switch up, illuminating the room from above.

On the back wall of the room were parts of what obviously was the ship's main engine, pistons unmoving but, from the grease that coated the metal, they looked like they had been not hours before when he'd flown the ship in. He didn't pay attention to this, though; what interested him more was the table in the centre of the room and the small comlink box affixed to its surface.

Plans

Verbosity had been standing there at the end of the thirtieth floor hallway for some time, and he was starting to get restless. It took all of his mental strength to keep himself composed and still, waiting right outside that door, attempting to keep up a good impression for his four subordinates that were waiting alongside him. Any minute now, the two escapees would come barging through the metal door for them to apprehend.

For the time being, though... the seconds wore on, and all Verbosity had to focus on were the sounds of the other guards, inhaling and exhaling out their mouths. Eugh. Mouthbreathers. He looked up at the ceiling to try to distract himself, but it didn't really help. Succumbing to his desires, the stallion leaned against the wall.

"How much longer do you think it's gonna be, sir?" Verbosity turned his head to look at the stallion who had spoken, one of the newer recruits whose name he couldn't remember.

Verbosity put a hoof to his lips. "Shh, keep it down," he whispered. "We don't want them to hear us if they are coming. But to answer your question... I don't know yet. Mr. Velvet said that he would send a comlink message as soon as they're within a few floors, so we can get ready. Unless we hear otherwise, that's what we're waiting for."

A mare with a deep blue coat to the stallion's right—Swift Run, maybe—groaned. "I'm friggin' bored of just standing around waiting for crap to happen... I wish something exciting would go down for once."

Verbosity frowned. "Now, now, please—we have our royal duty and duty to the Bureau to do what we're needed to do. This might not be fun, but Mr. Velvet has been granted with the authority to have us do what he needs. Plus, these escapees aren't any normal prisoners—you know they're important cases to planet and Bureau security."

"Nnngh... okay, whatever." The mare leaned against the other wall and the other guards, who had been watching the whole interaction, did the same thing. At the end of that hallway, then, were five ponies leaning against the walls, staring at the door with the little black placard next to it with an upward-facing white arrow.

A few minutes later, somewhere distant beyond the wall, they began to hear the faint yet unmistakeable tones of voices. These came along with the clinking of hooves on metal. Verbosity took a long, deep breath in through his nose and then let it go.

"Sir?" one of the stallions behind him asked. Verbosity turned his head.

"Yes?"

"Is that them?"

Verbosity sighed. "I... I don't know. I don't think so, though, since Mr. Velvet said that he would send a message." The stallion raised his front foreleg that had an object strapped to it which resembled a watch, albeit bulkier. He looked at the tiny screen atop its surface. "And, indeed, I have received no messages," he whispered.

"Then what's that sound? Whose voices are those?"

"Unless we get a message from Mr. Velvet, I think we're going to have to assume that it's ponies working in the floors below, since ponies do work down there. I mean, obviously, we're going to know if the escapees come through here since they're gonna open the door. We'll be prepared though."

"O-oh, um, okay." Both Verbosity and the other guard looked at each other for another moment before Verbosity turned back to gaze at the door.

Sure enough, the voices began to grow closer and more obviously within the staircase before them. Verbosity still couldn't quite make out what the voices were saying, but he was able to make out a few words here and there, parts about being 'almost there' and 'look up at the numbers' and other bits that he couldn't really make sense of on their own.

"Sir?"

Verbosity sighed. "Okay, okay, I'll send a message to Velvet." He lay down on the floor so he could use both his forelegs, and then he tapped out a short message on the on-screen keyboard of the comlink on his wrist. He pressed send and watched as the little grey circle spun and then turned blue, showing that his message had been sent and received. Verbosity looked up from the device, though, for something very odd had just happened; the voices, instead of coming closer to the door to the stairs, had moved below them.

A few seconds later, Verbosity's comlink beeped. He looked down at the screen.

Okay I just woke up and I just checked the cam and they're not in the stairwell.

It beeped again.

Are you sure you're on 30th floor?

Verbosity started to type a response but the comlink beeped once more before he was able to press send.

Aeneus below, they're on 29. Go down.

Verbosity tapped out a quick affirmation, sent it, and then clambered to his hooves. His subordinates were looking at him expectantly.

"Alright, we've had a change of plans. For some reason, the escapees have decided to go on the twenty-ninth floor, so we've gotta go down there and apprehend them." He paused, looked at the ponies before him, and then pointed at the three stallions to his left. "You three, come with me. We're going down the stairs."

"And me?" the mare who was probably named Swift Run asked.

"Go the other way... the elevator's out of order, but you know what to do."

The mare nodded. "Got it." She trotted off in the other direction as Verbosity pushed down on the handle and pushed inwards, leading the other stallions into the stairway.

Pain

"I guess this must be it, then," Mochi said.

"Yeah, look up at the numbers!" Scootaloo pointed to the clear plastic placard above them, emblazoned with that white number XXX. "Three X's... that's thirty, isn't it?"

"X? That's an H, honey."

"Oh... erm... yeah. Anyway, c'mon!" Scootaloo bounded up the last set of stairs, her hooves clanging loudly on the metal as she went. She put a hoof on the handle of the door, waiting patiently as she watched the older mare smiling as she walked up the stairs at a more even pace.

"Dang, Scootaloo, you've sure got a lot of energy. Yer leg still hurtin' like it was before? Weren't you limping?"

"Yeah, it kinda hurts... I mean, it's not all that bad." Scootaloo flexed a fuzzy orange forearm. "I'm pretty tough, yanno."

"Mhm," Mochi hummed as she reached the landing. "Okay, now we can go."

Scootaloo pushed the door open and stood there, holding it long enough for Mochi to walk through before trotting away to catch up. The door slowly closed on its own with a soft click.

The two ponies entered into a hallway that Scootaloo noticed was very much similar to the one Velvet's office had been on, somewhere many floors below. The metal walls were not completely undecorated, with occasional posters of landscapes or corkboards with announcements and flyers on them. Somewhere down the way, Scootaloo could spot a potted plant on the ground with wide green leaves that looked to be nearly as big as her face. To either side down the hall were metal doors, some open and some closed, and she could see just the very edges of ponies in some of the open rooms.

"Where do we go now?" Mochi whispered, stopping a metre into the hall. Scootaloo stopped next to her. "What did Grey say?"

"Ummm..." Scootaloo's head swivelled back and forth as she surveyed the hall in front of them. "I can't really remember the details... he said something about a tunnel, I think? I don't see anything besides these rooms, though."

"Maybe it's in one of those rooms," Mochi said. "Though we can't exactly check with all those ponies in there, and it would be really suspicious just to open all the closed doors."

"Yeah... hmm... let's just keep walking and try not to draw attention to ourselves." Scootaloo took a few silent steps forward, careful to not let her hooves make noise on the metal floor below. Step by step, the two ponies tiptoed forward past a few of the doors, peering in when they could. The ponies inside were all hard at work on computer consoles, however, so they paid Scootaloo and Mochi no mind.

This only went on for half a minute or so before Scootaloo heard a click behind them. She turned her head to look over her shoulder. "Ohcrud," she breathed.

"Wha—ohhhh snap." Mochi had turned around too, just in time to see the door to the stairs flung wide open and the sight of four stallions emerging out into the hallway. The pony in front, obviously their leader, looked oddly familiar to Scootaloo.

"Stop where you are, Miss Scootaloo and Ms. Mochi," the stallion in front said in a terse, commanding tone. "By the power and authority vested in me by the Bureau and the Royal Court of Aeneus, I need you to come with me so you can return to your cells."

Mochi laughed. "If we went through all the trouble of escapin', do you really think we'd just up and come with ya all quietly? Run, Scootaloo, run!" The mare beckoned behind them with a hoof. "I'll hold 'em off for now!"

"Mochi, I can't—"

"You gotta figure out where we gotta go or we're toast! Now, git!"

Scootaloo took a deep breath and then started running down the hallway, away from where Mochi and the guards were. Verbosity took a step forward.

"Please, ma'am, don't make this any harder than it has to be—"

"Screw off, dumbflanks," Mochi sneered.

"We have the authority to use force if necess—"

"Graahhh!" Mochi ran forward and, before Verbosity could even so much as flinch, swung a foreleg quickly into the side of his face.

"Augh!" The stallion staggered backwards and fell down on his back legs, wincing. "Nngh... get her!"

The other three stallions were quick to rush forward; one of them, in a flash of speed, ran around behind the mare so they surrounded her on all sides. Mochi swung at the one to her left but her hoof just swung through open air, the stallion having jumped back.

"What's the matter?" Mochi seethed. "You 'fraid to hit a girl?"

"Erm, no, ma'am, we're trained to try to resolve conflicts in nonviolent manners as much as poss—"

"Shut up!" Mochi yelled, kicking back a hindleg at the unsuspecting stallion behind her, whom she hadn't even been looking at. Her hoof smashed into his chin and he collapsed on the floor behind, a small pool of red liquid coalescing around where his head lay. Mochi wiped her hoof on the floor, leaving a bloody streak alongside where she stood. She flashed a wicked grin at the two stallions still standing, who frowned.

Suddenly, one of them burst forward, bringing a cascade of punches on the mare who was thrown onto the defense. Mochi did her best to dodge the attacks and land in a few quick punches of her own on the stallion's torso, sending him reeling backwards.

In response, the other guard had run over to lend a hoof and together the stallions threw volley after volley of punches at Mochi and the mare was forced to dance on her hooves to avoid the worst of the blows and she was trying to keep her composure when she did get hit, though she could feel the bruises starting to form and then getting hit over and over. The waves of pain washed through her and she could feel her heart rate rising and her blood pumping all throughout her body and, somewhere deep inside of her, a boiling rage was bubbling out and she could feel her head start to go warm and she saw red. Before she knew what she was doing, Mochi had run forward and headbutted both of the guards, sending them flying into the door which they rammed into with a loud splat before falling to the floor on top of one another.

Mochi just stood there, breathing deeply, as her heart rate started to slow back down. She looked at the four guards which were now splayed out on the floor in various states of injury, and nodded.

That was when she heard Scootaloo's voice calling from afar. "Mochi! Help!" The filly's voice sounded frantic, helpless, scared. Mochi whirled around and left the stallions, galloping as fast as she could down the hallway to see what the filly needed her to do.

Conversations

As he walked into the room, Doc Zed's eyes were drawn away from the table in the middle of the room to the brown cardboard boxes that lined the walls on the sides. There were quite a few of them—nowhere near enough to indicate that the ship was intended to be carrying these as its main cargo, but enough to show that they probably weren't just there for no reason. Whatever was inside, the filly who had been flying the ship was probably taking them somewhere. Curious, Doc Zed detoured over to the side of the room and, with a burst of magic, opened up the top of one of the boxes.

He raised an eyebrow. "Hrm...?" Inside the box, filling it to the brim, was an assortment of many-coloured jewels and gemstones, shimmering and glimmering in the light of the room. Doc Zed whistled and levitated a few upward. A ruby, a sapphire, and two emeralds twirled around in the air, casting their red, blue, and green shadows on the wall. After a few more seconds of looking at the stones, he placed them back into the box and then, again with his magic, re-closed the flaps so that the contents were hidden. Just to check, Doc Zed then opened another box.

Inside this box, however, was a variety of books. There weren't that many—it looked like only thirteen or fourteen of the large tomes were able to fit—but all of the ones in the box were dark brown hardcovers without dust jackets, and all of their silver-embossed titles were in the Gnostic script. Curious, Doc Zed levitated one upwards, one titled Predictions & Prophecies.

He flipped it open to a random page and was greeted by a black-and-blue illustration on the right-hoof side of a mare's silhouette atop the shape of a moon. It honestly could have been any of the moons in the system—most of them looked fairly alike, after all—but Doc Zed had an odd feeling that he knew exactly which moon it was. However, instead of pursuing this further, he put down the book back in its box and sealed it back up. He had already been made curious by the comlink in the middle of the room and he couldn't afford any more of his curiousness to be taken up by the books; those could come later.

Doc Zed walked over to the table in the centre of the room to look at the object in there which truly fascinated him the most: the comlink. The exposed part of the engine was great—now he wouldn't have to dissect the ship to get in there and work on some of its internals. And the gems and books were surely enlightening—the books in particular looked totally different from anything he'd seen, and were probably even more valuable than the gems they lay next to. But the comlink? There was that possibility of instant connection to wherever the filly—and the ship—had come from and maybe, finally, some answers.

Doc Zed looked down at the comlink. It was a primitive thing, especially compared to the state of Bureau technology in those days, but he luckily knew a thing or two about old models and could see that the brick-shaped screenless plastic rectangular prism before him was indeed a comlink. On one side was a round plastic speaker grill; on the other, there were just three buttons: a downward-facing triangle to start a call, a square to receive a call, and an upward-facing triangle to end a call. Or at least that's what Doc Zed presumed; if the symbols had nothing in common with old Bureau technology, then he didn't know squat. But since there didn't seem to be any way to select different comlink numbers, he presumed that the device was only intended to call another one much like it.

Deciding to stick with the tried and true method of trial and error, Doc Zed reached a hoof forward and tapped on the downward-facing triangle. Nothing happened.

He tapped the square. Nothing.

Then, he tried the upward-facing triangle. Nope.

Raising an eyebrow, Doc Zed looked around the device to see if there was something else. And, of course, there was: a black cable protruding from the side of the plastic brick. The stallion's eyes followed it as it snaked along and off the table, downward, and... ending in a plug. Just half a metre away from the plug was an electrical socket. Doc Zed rolled his eyes, smirked, and was about to take hold of the plug in his magic—

And then, above, he heard it. A faint tapping noise. Well, no, not tapping—knocking. He knew it was knocking—he'd been using this underground laboratory for years now, after all, so he knew what the sound of somepony knocking on his door sounded like. Since he lived alone, he always had to go get the door so as to not keep ponies waiting. Even if he was in the middle of doing something important.

Sighing, Doc Zed turned tail and trotted out of the room, down the hall, and out of the ship into his large cavern of an underground workspace. The workspace was basically a giant hollow concrete rectangle, six metres high and twelve metres long and wide, with only a few messily strung-up light bulbs and holiday lights duct-taped or otherwise fastened to the walls and ceiling. Lining the walls were workbenches full of tools and half-built (or half-disassembled) machines and inventions. Doc Zed walked past all of this, though, to the stairs that led upwards into his kitchen. He heard the knocks again, so he hastened his pace as he went through the living room and then nearly flung the front door open once he got there.

"Doctor Zed." Standing on his doorstep was a sky-blue earth pony mare with a deep blue mane and a flat, annoyed expression. Her face was lit up yellow by his porchlight; the night sky outside, however, was pitch black but for the pinprick stars.

Doc Zed blinked. "Oh, hi, Sue," he said stiffly. "What brings you here?"

"I'm not sure..." the mare started. "I was hoping you could tell me."

"Excuse me?"

Sue put a hoof to her forehead. "Sorry, sorry... anyway, I'm just coming by to see if you've seen my daughter Flight in the past day? She wasn't at home when we woke up this morning and we've been looking for her all day—Mary's at the market right now, I think..."

"Hmmm," Doc Zed hmmm'd. "Say, would you like to come in for some tea?"

Sue's eyes narrowed. "Okay, spit it out. What do you know? You know something."

"Or maybe coffee? Never been much for the stuff myself, but other ponies do seem to like it for sitting down and having a chat..."

"Doctor, please!" Sue said loudly. "My child is missing, and now you're taunting me!"

"Sue, your daughter... hmmm, what is the best way to put it?" Doc Zed leaned against the door frame. "Do you remember Kevin?"

Sue blinked. "Why, of course I remember Kevin. He was the sweetest little colt, bless his soul..."

"Kevin came back," Doc Zed said flatly. "There's some... complicated stuff going on right now, but basically the long and short of it is that Flight and Kevin are en route to Umberlight to pick up some parts for me."

"Seriously?!" Sue exclaimed. "Doctor, that's dangerous! Flight's just a kid! And Kevin? Nnnngh... I don't even know what to think..."

"Don't worry," Doc Zed said. "Flight has her comlink with her—you should be able to call and talk to her."

"We've tried... she hasn't picked up..."

"I'll tell her to, don't worry," Doc Zed replied, putting a gentle hoof on Sue's back. "They're gonna be fine and back here before you know it. Flight isn't so young anymore, though."

"I-I know, but..." Sue sighed. "I don't know why I trust you. You're ridiculous. You're a mad scientist, and a bit of an idiot."

"A lot of an idiot, if you ask me."

"Okay, a lot of an idiot. And yet... you're a good pony, I suppose. You've always been a great friend to Flight and our family."

"Yep," Doc Zed replied. "Again, don't worry—your daughter will be back here in no time, and with zany stories to boot! It'll be great."

"Well... alright," Sue said, looking up at him. "But if this ever happens again, without telling me or Mary... you had better friggin' bet there'll be hell to pay."

"I wouldn't expect any less," Doc Zed said with a smile.

"I'm gonna go tell Mary we can stop looking now," Sue said. "Thank you."

"No problem. Have a good night, y'hear?"

"We will... and you too." Sue stepped away and Doc Zed watched as the sky-blue mare trotted down the path and into the darkness that shrouded the road in front of his house. He took one or two more gulps of the crisp, cool night air and then turned around, shut the door behind him, and trotted through the house. Now that that distraction was over with... he had a date with a weird obsolete comlink.

Lazy

As Mochi neared the end of the hallway, she could see Scootaloo standing there just a few metres away from the empty elevator shaft but the filly wasn't alone. Standing between the filly and the elevator shaft, looming over Scootaloo, was a black-shirted mare with a deep blue coat and a very angry look on her face. The mare looked up as she heard Mochi's hooves resounding down the hall, and watched carefully as this pink-coated mare bounded towards her. The mare reached out a hoof, preparing for hoof-to-hoof combat with Mochi.

What she didn't count on, however, was the fact that Mochi had no intention of stopping to fight and once Mochi dodged around where the trembling form of Scootaloo stood, she kept galloping and rammed headfirst into the mare who barely had time to flinch before she was flung backwards off her hooves. Mochi skidded to a stop on the metal floor and she watched as the mare with the deep-blue coat soared into the empty elevator shaft and fell screaming into the abyss.

"Damn," Mochi said, trotting up to the edge to watch. "I thought these guards'd be made of stronger stuff."

"Bucking hay, Mochi!" Scootaloo exclaimed. Mochi turned her head back to look at the filly, who was still frozen in place.

"Huh?"

"You... you just killed her?! I mean, she probably wasn't going to do anything nice, but—she didn't deserve that!"

Mochi sighed. "I'm sorry—I really am—but I gotta do what I can to protect you." A beat. "Plus she ain't even dead."

"What? How?"

"See for yerself."

Scootaloo trotted up alongside Mochi to peer down the sheer walls of the elevator shaft and sure enough, somewhere many floors below, the filly could make out the deep-blue colour quite easily among the silver of the walls. The mare was somehow standing vertically on the wall so far down there. "I don't get it... how does she stay on?"

"Mmm... I'm not quite sure, but I think she's probably got magnetic boots."

"Oh... that would make sense," Scootaloo said. "I mean, she did climb down the wall from above to get here... nothin' I couldn't handle, though." Mochi raised an eyebrow. "Eheh... mostly," the filly added.

"That's kinda weird that she came from above, though," Mochi said. "This is pretty high up in the Pen... I'd think that most of the guards would be further down where the offices and barracks are."

"I dunno, maybe they have good strategy or something," Scootaloo said. "Now that we've got them taken care of, we should look around to see if we can find the way ou—hey, wait, what's that?" The filly had begun to turn around but she caught sight of the wall next to the elevator, emblazoned with a large, block number '29'.

Mochi blinked. "Oh Argent... the numbers must have been for the landing they were attached to, not the door below... dang it!"

"We can still get up there, though, can't we?" Scootaloo asked. "The stairs should be open, since we—well, you—took out all the guards."

"Oh, yeah! Well, then, let's gooooo—oooohhhh... oh. Crud." Mochi frowned.

The crowd of ponies that had gathered in the hallway, coming out from their offices and siderooms, returned the frown.

"What's going on?!" a mare in the back called out.

"What's all the ruckus?!" a stallion asked in a nasally tone.

Mochi sighed. "C'mon, Scootaloo, let's get through 'em." Mochi grabbed the filly and dropped her on top of her back; Scootaloo, in a brief moment of forethought, held on tightly to the mare's torso and neck. Then, through the crowd, they ran.

Bushes

"You sure this is the right way?" Kevin asked. "I've never been to Umberlight before."

"Me neither, but I'm pretty sure. We're still going in the direction Doc Zed told us to, right?" Flight yawned.

"Yeah, I guess." Kevin looked around them, but all he could see was the faint outline of the path in front of them and the looming shapes of thick oak trees on either side. Even Flight, who was walking less than half a metre away from him, was barely visible through the all-consuming darkness. "It just feels weird walking through the dark like this, not knowing exactly where we're going... guess I'm just nervous."

"Huh, really? You afraid of the dark? You didn't say anything about that last night... and we ran through the forest for hours."

Kevin sighed. "No, not the dark... and I'm not scared. I just don't like winging it like this, I guess. Doing stuff is a lot easier when I have more of a plan, even if that plan doesn't end up going how I want."

"That makes sense. I mean, I'm the one with wings here, and you just have that silly horn." Flight paused and Kevin was pretty sure she was winking, though he couldn't see her face even when he turned in her direction. "You know, even if you're not afraid of the dark, you could still light up your horn so we could see. Why'd you turn it off, anyway?"

"I told you—it's a lot of work to keep up the spell for so long. Makes me even more tired, so I'd rather not use it unless I really have to." Kevin peered left and through the darkness he could make out the petite head of Flight, nodding. They kept walking forward on the path for several minutes, their conversation at a lull. Kevin started to hum a few low notes.

"Hey, do you hear that?" Flight whispered. Kevin stopped humming and, noted that he could no longer hear Flight's hoofsteps on the path, stopped walking as well. He listened.

"Hear what?" he asked quietly.

"I think I hear something..."

"Like what?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but... maybe a fire? Whatever it is, it's crackling. So yeah, probably a fire."

Kevin raised an eyebrow, though as he did this he realised that Flight wouldn't be able to see it anyways. "Well, I guess we should just keep walking until we see something. Maybe we should go off the path?"

"That seems like a good idea. C'mon, follow me." Kevin watched as her shape in the darkness shifted away and he did the best he could to follow the filly who was quickly receding into the forest.

"Wait up!" Kevin hissed. "I can barely see you!"

"Oops, sorry," Flight said, and her voice grew louder as Kevin grew closer and he finally got close enough that he could make out her facial features. "Guess I got a little carried away. We've gotta keep moving, though."

The young ponies continued slowly but steadily through the bushes that covered the forest floor in a blanket, and they tried to not make too many rustling noises as they went along, with varying degrees of success. Less than five minutes later, though, it was apparent that Flight hadn't just been hearing things. Kevin could hear the crackling too and, what's more, the ponies abruptly stopped as they caught sight of a flickering orange spot of light somewhere ahead of them, on the same side off the path that they were. It wasn't quite clear how far away the fire was; distant enough that whoever was there couldn't hear or see them, but close enough that they could hear and see it.

"You seeing that?" Kevin whispered. He could feel a branch poking into his leg where he stood but he was too transfixed by this sudden apparition of light that he ignored it.

"No duh, or why else would I have stopped too?"

"That's kind of weird, though, isn't it? Aren't open fires still banned on the surface?"

"Yeah, if they're outside of towns like this... unless that's a town ahead. It can't be, though—there aren't any towns out here and that's not big enough to be one... it's definitely just one fire." Flight exhaled loudly. "Do you think we should see who it is?"

Kevin blinked. "That seems kind of... risky. We don't wanna get caught..."

"Anypony setting fires on the surface definitely isn't with the cops, though," Flight replied. "But I'm not saying we should just walk up there and introduce ourselves—we should just be quiet and see if we can get a look around."

"Ehhh, I guess," Kevin said. "Maybe we can even get directions if they're nice."

"Kevin, we're not lost." Flight was starting to walk forward, continuing their path through the bushes, and Kevin joined her. "We have a very good idea of the general direction Umberlight is in."

"Pfff, whatever," Kevin responded, smiling ever so slightly. There was no point in continuing that conversation, so he said nothing more; Flight seemed to agree, as she let the subject drop. The two young ponies trotted through the bushes and the darkness in silence, the only sounds being the distant crackling of the fire, their legs brushing against the leafy branches of the bushes below, and the occasional hoots of owls above.

Through

"Watch where you're going!" a mare's voice to one side cried out, and other similar voices exclaimed similar exclamations as Mochi elbowed and shoved past them, weaving in and out through all of the office ponies who were now filling the hallway. Scootaloo could hardly tell what was going on as she—from her view above Mochi's back—practically soared past the confused ponies below, but she could see unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi of all different colours, much like those back in Equestria. She snickered to herself as she thought of how Princess Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony would have reacted. She bet that Rainbow Dash would've thought their escape pretty dang cool.

Not that they had escaped yet. Mochi pulled out of the throng of ponies and skidded to a stop at the end of the hall, sending Scootaloo flying over the mare's head. Shaken to attention, the filly fluttered her wings as hard as she could and, miraculously, only bonked into the door with less than a quarter of the impact that she should have. Scootaloo dropped to the ground, slightly dazed.

"Eheh..." the filly mumbled, shaking her head quickly back and forth. Once she had come back to her sense, Scootaloo reached up and pulled open the door. Mochi stepped forward and nodded with a smile.

"C'mon, let's get up there before they have time to react."

Scootaloo, still holding the door open, looked back at the four stallions that were strewn across the floor in various states of injury. "Uhm... do you think these guys will be okay?"

"Yeah, they'll be fine. But we won't, unless we get moving! C'mon!" There was a hint of irritation in her voice, so Scootaloo only took one last glance at the once-formidable squadron of guards and the writhing mass of office ponies in front of them before bounding into the stairwell alongside Mochi. She let the door slam shut loudly behind them.

The sound of the chattering crowd nigh on drowned it out, but the ponies closest to that far end of the hall could hear the distant clanging of hooves in the stairwell.

In response, the previously-limp form of Verbosity stirred; he opened his eyes and made a feeble attempt at standing to his hooves, getting his body most of the way upright before the throbbing in his legs was too much to bear and he let himself topple over like a rag doll. Sighing, the guard raised his comlink-clad foreleg to his face and pressed a few buttons on it with his other foreleg. In response, the device made a few little beeps, a ringing note, and then it clicked.

"Hello? Guard Verbosity? Situation update?" Velvet sounded concerned, like he already knew what the answer was.

"Situation normal, all f—heh, well, you know what I mean. All five of us are down for the count, sir. If you want those mares stopped, you had better get reinforcements to the thirtieth floor stat." There was no sense of urgency to Verbosity's voice; as far as he was concerned, he was done.

"Oh, Argent... all five of you? With just the two of them?"

"Mostly just the older mare—the pink one." Verbosity coughed. "She's got a mean kick, that one."

"Well, erm, thank you. I've got to get the other guards together, so bye."

"Good luck, sir." The comlink clicked and Verbosity set down his arm. He took one more glance at the ponies in the hallway in front of him. They were no longer panicking and had grouped into several different clusters, deep in conversation—he found it amazing what ponies would do to get out of work. Then Verbosity closed his eyes and let his body relax.

Leaving

Mochi threw the thirtieth floor door open and ran out from the stairwell into the hallway, Scootaloo close behind. The mare's hoofsteps were strong and loud on the metal floor; she paid no mind as to how much noise she was making. It didn't matter—the guards already knew Mochi and Scootaloo were there. Sometimes what matters most is making an impression. Mochi stared forward, head unmoving.

Marching down the hallway behind the pink mare, Scootaloo's gaze drifted from side to side as she searched for a large door, a fork off the hallway—anything that would signify an exit. But so far it just looked like an exact duplicate of the floor below, the one they had just been in—except for the fact that there were no decorations on the walls, no potted plant on the floor, and no ponies in sight. Some of the side doors were open, for sure, and they even had pretty standard office setups inside with short carpets and desks with computer consoles but what connected them beyond their layouts was the fact that all of them were empty.

It wasn't that the rooms were empty that sent a shiver down Scootaloo's spine, but she wasn't quite sure what did.

"Hey, I think that's it," Mochi said. She pointed off to the left at a door that at first glance looked like any of the others, except it was closed. As they walked forward, however, Scootaloo could see that the white sign on the door had four red letters on it: ⫙ႿòO.

Scootaloo blinked. "Uhhh, I'll trust you on this one." She stopped alongside Mochi, in front of the door, and watched as the mare pushed down on the handle and pushed the door open. Immediately an alarm started blaring.

"Crud, that was the emergency exit!" Mochi exclaimed. "We've gotta move!"

"I mean, don't they already know where we are?"

"Oh, I guess. Still, no time to dilly dally. C'mon!" Mochi ran out the door and Scootaloo followed her, kicking the door shut behind them and it clanged loudly. The two ponies kept running forward and it was only a minute later that Scootaloo realised where they were.

It was now obvious that they were outside the metal hallways and passages of the South Pen by the fact that the tunnel around them was an excavation of dirt. It was obviously hewn from the earth by ponies from the unnaturally round shape of the tunnel and the way that it led up directly to the emergency exit, but the bottom of the path was lined with dust—evidently, nopony had been through there for a while.

"Guess Grey was right about this tunnel," Mochi said. "I wonder if this was used when they were constructing the building. Or maybe it used to be a mine shaft."

"Whatever it's for, I'm glad it's here," Scootaloo replied. She jogged alongside the pink mare as the tunnel curved downward. The tips of her mane brushed against the earthy ceiling.

And then, behind them, Scootaloo heard the door opening and the blaring of the alarm leaking out and the thundering of hooves behind them. "Faster!" she cried.

"I'm going, I'm going!"

Strangers

Kevin let out a little yelp as he bumped into Flight's hoof, which the filly had stretched out to stop him.

"Shh!" Flight hissed, turning to her companion who was stumbling backwards a few steps, rustling the bushes as he went. "Look!" She pointed forward with a foreleg, and Kevin's eyes followed the direction it was pointed in until they settled on the flickering orange ahead, now much larger and much brighter than it had been before. Because they were so close to the light source, Kevin was actually able to make out the flames dancing around in a large fire pit surrounded by stones.

In fact, the fire pit ahead wasn't all that Kevin was able to see. He could also make out two logs, placed so that they formed a triangle with the fire pit as the third side, and the forms of a few shadowy figures atop them. Kevin was about to squint, trying to get a closer look, when—

"Get down! If we can see them, they'll probably be able to see us!" Flight whisper-yelled, pushing Kevin's shoulder down with a hoof. He took the hint and joined Flight in crouching down, and he could feel his belly brushing against the dry dirt of the ground below. Recollecting himself, Kevin looked forward once again. And this time, over the crackling of the fire, he could hear voices.

"I still don't think the fire was a good idea," a scratchy male voice said, and Kevin could see it was a pony sitting by himself on the left log that said this. "You know they're illegal, and I'm sure this'll just make us easier to catch."

"Don't worry, we'll put it out soon," a mare's voice replied, coming from the pony on the right log. "They probably don't even know we're gone yet—Micro told us that they were coming to the HQ tomorrow, didn't he?"

"True, true," the stallion replied. "Still, I can't help but be nervous. Though I'm not saying I regret it, 'cause I don't—I don't want to go to jail as much as the next pony. Or lemur, if we're talkin' about Mango here." The stallion laughed and, as he leaned forward on the log, Kevin could see the slate-grey tone of his coat and a horn peeking out of the darkness.

"You know the words never bothered me anyway, Remark," another voice replied. Kevin couldn't see where it was coming from—as far as he could tell, there were only two ponies sitting on the logs.

"Behind the fire," Flight whispered, as if she had read Kevin's mind. And, as she said it, he could make out the telltale shape of a tail poking out from the right side of the fire.

"But I agree," the other voice continued. "I feel really nervous about this whole thing, too—I had gotten used to this... comfortable life. It's been a long, long while."

"Me too," the mare replied, "but I think this is gonna work out okay. We just need to get down to Minutiae and into Esprit in the next few days before they get the clue that we're outside Umberlight. Poor Micro... I'm sure he'll be the first one they go for."

"He knew what we were getting into, Fourth. We all did. Now we just need to make it offworld so his sacrifice will have been worth it." The stallion sighed. "I'm gonna go get some more firewood, if that's alright."

"Go for it," the voice belonging to the unseen one replied. "Surprised you're still up for more walking, after all that."

"Heh... aren't I ever..." Kevin saw the stallion stand up and start walking forward. It wasn't until he heard Flight whispering next to him.

"Biscuits and vegetarian gravy!" Flight hissed. "He's coming this way! Move, move!" She started running through the bushes and Kevin followed but he could tell by how much rustling their bodies made as they passed through underbrush that it wouldn't make much of a difference.

"Hello?" Kevin heard from behind him but he didn't turn his head—he just kept running. "Who's there?"

And then Kevin heard Flight let out a squeak and he let one out as well for his legs stopped moving beneath him and shimmering blue light washed over his entire body. Kevin couldn't turn his head but he could feel his body being lifted off the earth as he, along with Flight, was rotated around and then set down in front of the slate-grey stallion who was standing, horn aglow, where Kevin and Flight had been crouching just moments earlier.

"Well, well, well," the stallion said, looking back and forth at the two young ponies. His eyebrow was raised. "Now who do we have here?"

"Everything alright over there, Remark?" the mare called.

"I think so," the stallion replied. "Take a look at this." As he said this, he turned around and walked out of the forest toward the little clearing with the fire pit. Kevin and Flight, still encapsulated in his blue magical field, were dragged through the air as the stallion moved, putting them in clear view of the purple-coated unicorn mare on one log and an orange-coated lemur standing between the logs, behind the fire. Both of them were gazing directly at the floating strangers in their midst.

"Huh?" the lemur exclaimed. "Who in blazes are these?"

"I was hoping they would be willing to tell us," the stallion said, and he swivelled around once more, putting a third pair of eyes on the two young ponies.

Kevin and Flight, as would likely anypony else in their situation, sweated profusely.

Back

"Quick, we gotta pick one!" Mochi said, her voice fraught with worry. She was glancing from tunnel to tunnel, eyes staying on each for only a moment before they darted to the next.

Scootaloo blinked. "Umm, that one!" She pointed toward one to the far left and started running. "Hehe, just like a chaos dragon's politics," the filly muttered under her breath.

"What?" Mochi galloped alongside her.

"Nothing—gaahhh!" Scootalooo exclaimed, for suddenly in the tunnel in front of her that she had been running to, a tall, burly stallion in a black uniform appeared. He was running forward near the end of the tunnel, just about to enter the earthy cavern. "Quick, this way!"

Mochi followed Scootaloo as they turned rightwards and swerved off to the next tunnel before the guard could reach them; however, just as they were about to enter, a unicorn mare in an identical black uniform came into view, running up the tunnel. "Stop where you are!"

"Gahhhh!" Scootaloo exclaimed once more, but this time she skidded to a halt. Mochi, behind her, did the same. "Dang it! What do we do?"

"I'll hold 'em off again!" Mochi spun around to face the mare who was almost at the end of the tunnel. "You find a tunnel without a guard!"

"I can't leave—"

Mochi rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Scootaloo, you already know I'm capable. Just find a tunnel so we can get out of here!" And, with that, Mochi ran forward to charge at the mare. Scootaloo turned to run to another tunnel but behind her she could hear the distinctive zapping sounds of magic as well as the grunts of a pony coming into contact with another pony. She could only hope it was Mochi that was doing the contacting.

Scootaloo made it to the mouth of the next tunnel when she heard the steady thump-thump of hooves. The filly looked up and, sure enough, there was a stallion in a black uniform speeding her way; she barely had any time to skid to a stop on the dirt before running face-first into the pony. Scootaloo jumped back as the stallion stopped running; he skidded to a halt where she had been just seconds before.

"Graahhh!" Scootaloo jumped forward at the stallion and, catching him off-guard, rammed straight into his forelegs. The stallion flinched backwards upon impact. Scootaloo ran around him and up the wall of the tunnel and, taking advantage of his dazed state, launched herself directly at the stallion's side.

Her hooves made a direct hit with the stallion, slamming straight into his shoulder. He let out a yelp of pain and spit as he collapsed, falling against the other wall of the tunnel. Scootaloo bounced off but quickly scrambled to her hooves.

"C'mon, Mochi!" Scootaloo called, glancing over to where the mare was sparring with three or four of the uniformed guards. The same unicorn mare was shooting bright green burst of magic in Mochi's direction and it was all the poor mare could do to jump around, dancing on her hooves to avoid the blasts of energy. At the sound of Scootaloo's cry, one of the guards' head turned.

"Go on! I'll—nnngh"—Mochi winced, having narrowly dodged another blast of magic, though it looked as if it had brushed across her shoulder—"I'll catch up with ya later, okay? Go!"

"But—"

"Get out!"

Scootaloo could feel an acrid, burning sensation in her throat but she did as Mochi said and she turned around and ran, just as she saw the guard splitting off from the group to follow her. Heart pounding in her chest much as her hooves pounded on the earthen ground below her, Scootaloo raced past the guard she had just fought and into that tunnel.

She didn't want to leave Mochi behind—she had been doing too much leaving ponies behind—but she had no choice so Scootaloo just galloped as fast and as far as her little legs would take her, following the tunnel as it swerved from side to side. She didn't afford herself even a second to glance over her shoulder or even try to listen and discern whether there were other hooves besides her own thundering through the tunnel. No, Scootaloo kept her gaze and focus trained forward on the path ahead.

Luckily, by a few minutes later, the filly was far enough away that she wasn't able to hear Mochi's terrified yelps in the room she had just left, becoming more and more frequent as the stench of burning flesh filled the cavern.

Fourth

"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.

Call

The air hung still and stagnant in the night sky, and the oppressive summer heat was able to linger like a thick blanket over the town; while on most nights, a breeze would have at least made it feel a bit colder but no—there was no reprieve from the waves of heat that permeated every one of the buildings below.

In one of these buildings—one of the uppermost crystal spires that jutted out from the Castle of Friendship, to be precise—a small purple dragon lay between the sheets of a small bed in a small room all by himself. However, unlike most of the residents of the small town in which he resided, Spike was not asleep. He mumbled and grumbled as his eyes lay wide open and he stared up at the shadowed murk of the ceiling; although the room was small, the ceiling—as it was in the other rooms of the castle—was quite high up there and, in the dark, it was impossible to see it clearly even though silver moonlight poured in through the open window.

A magic-powered fan sitting atop the bedside table was blowing a strong breeze across Spike's body and the sheet he lay beneath fluttered as the artificial wind flitted in between its folds. And yet, even though the fan helped a little bit, Spike could still feel the uncomfortable heat surrounding him in the room and the fan mostly just blew around the hot air that was already there. What's more, he didn't feel tired, not at all. He didn't know how long it had been—he could probably get up and poke his head out the window to check the time from the moon's position in the sky, but that would probably just frustrate him.

Spike sighed. At least he didn't have to do anything important the next day—it was Saturday, after all, and Twilight would likely be away from the castle all morning, having tea with Rarity and Fluttershy or something else like that. Maybe the next day would be cooler and he could take a nap. He knew it wouldn't, but he could hope. Or maybe he could talk to Rainbow Dash, and see if the mare would do him a favour and cool down the weather a little.

But then Spike realised that there was actually someplace colder he could go to sleep—the cellar. He'd actually slept down there before, one time in the winter when Twilight had diplomats from somewhere or other over, and it was pretty darn chilly—even more so than the main part of the castle had been. Resolving to go down there, Spike let out another sigh and threw the sheet off of his scaly form before sliding off the bed and onto his feet. He pressed the little off button on the base of the fan and the blades slowed as he balled up that top sheet and held it under his arm. Without a second thought, Spike walked across the room, opened the door, and left the room.

The tall crystal hallways at night always gave Spike the creeps (though he would never admit this to anypony else), so he kept his eyes trained forward as he speedwalked forward. The dragon was careful to not make too much noise, though; Twilight was asleep in her own room which bordered that hall, so any loud noises would probably wake the mare. And Celestia knew she needed her sleep with how hard she overworked herself.

It was when Spike had reached the large, open lobby room in the centre of the castle that he first heard the little electronic pips coming from somewhere to the right. At first he thought a door was squeaking or something of the like; however, as he drew closer to the door to the throne room, they repeated louder and louder. Raising an eyebrow, Spike turned to the room and turned the crystal doorknob, pushing the door in.

Once he could see inside, it was pretty obvious what was making the noise: a small device on a small table on the far side of the room which lit up red with each electronic pip. Spike jogged across the room and pressed one of the buttons atop the device. There was a crackle.

"Hello?" an unfamiliar masculine voice said, emanating from the speaker grille on the little device. "Is anypony there?"

"Erm, hi," Spike said quietly.

"Hi, this is Doc Zed of the Kindred planet. Who is this?"

"Uhhh... can you please hold for a second? I'm gonna go get Twilight." Spike dropped his sheet next to the device and ran out of the room, claws clinking on the crystalline floor as he went. Twilight would know what to do, Spike was sure of it. She would know how to deal with whoever this was. And, most of all, she would know why the pony on the other end of the line wasn't Scootaloo.

Labyrinthine

As she had gone along, Scootaloo had noticed that the long, straight tunnel wasn't just what it had initially appeared to be—on either side there had been several tunnels jutting off of the main one that sloped upwards and downwards and to the sides and in all different directions. Scootaloo had eyed these suspiciously, but moved along, continuing down the main tunnel. However, when she had gotten far enough along, she had been able to see the flat end of the tunnel—and that's all it was, just a smooth wall of mud with a single torch affixed to its surface. The filly had groaned and turned around, walking back amongst the series of side tunnels. They all had seemed pretty much the same—or at least no different from what she could tell—so Scootaloo had picked one at random and walked up the incline to wherever it led.

Predictably, this tunnel had just led to another tunnel which led to more tunnels and more forks and tunnels that sloped in all directions and, to be quite honest, they were giving Scootaloo a headache. The moist, stagnant air was humid and uncomfortable and the filly could feel droplets of sweat accumulating on her face as she kept trotting, faster and faster and more desperate as the minutes wore on. She couldn't tell how long it had been since she had seen Mochi—a few times while walking, she counted the seconds for as long as she could and got to fifteen minutes a few times before she decided to just give up.

Scootaloo wanted so very desperately to give up on this whole labyrinth of tunnels, too—her joints ached and her throat was parched and she slowly, steadily, kept losing hope. There was no indication that the tunnels would ever stop, snaking through the underground of the planet to cross with more tunnels that crossed with even more tunnels. Maybe they traversed the entire planet, just below the surface, and nopony above even knew about them. And then Scootaloo remembered that Kevin had said that the ponies of this planet mostly lived underground so if there were tunnels under the surface then the ponies who lived on the planet probably knew about them.

And then the filly thought about Kevin, the colt she had nearly forgotten in the excitement of the last several hours. She wondered what he was doing at that moment. Was it day or night? Would he be asleep? Maybe he was even able to go back to his family in that one village, whatever it was called. Had he said? The details were starting to grow fuzzy in Scootaloo's mind. She wondered if she would ever see the colt again. Of course, that was contingent on her getting out of this labyrinth, though that was seeming less and less possible by the minute. Scootaloo sighed.

And then, somewhere in her peripheral vision, she saw something a little different. The light had changed; it wasn't quite that same orange flickering and dancing shadow on the wall that the torches produced. As she turned her head, Scootaloo could see why; there was a side tunnel to her left with no torches and instead there was an electric light fixture in the ceiling. A bare lightbulb with a weird curly shape protruded downward from the ceiling, illuminating the tunnel with an eerie white light. In fact, it wasn't the mouth of a tunnel at all that Scootaloo was looking at; it was a doorway leading into a small earthen room.

Curious, Scootaloo turned off of the tunnel and into the small room. A quick sweep of the room with her eyes revealed little out of the ordinary—from left to right: a stopped clock on the wall in the corner; a circular black rug on the floor on the left side; a thick metal door on the far wall with a keyhole below the handle; and, in the right corner, bones.

Bones?

Bones.

Scootaloo flinched at this realisation, feeling a weird sinking feeling in her chest. She took a few steps forward into the room, towards that right corner, and sure enough that's what they were. Bones.

Closest to her hooves were two chalk-white ribs, disconnected from anything else, lying on the soft dirt floor. They looked old—they had obviously been there for quite some time and they were dry as... well, you know.

Further back in the corner were more bones, and with a sickening lurch Scootaloo could make out the entire shape of a pony—the large curved jawbone of a skull above, vertebrae leading down to more ribs and the legs perched below. What was even more disturbing was that the skeleton wasn't just lying there or fallen apart in a pile—the pony to whom these bones belonged had been sitting, leaned up against the corner. Not sitting, Scootaloo thought to herself. Cowering. She stared at the bones for a moment longer before turning away to look at the door.

She tried the handle but it wouldn't budge; the door was locked. Standing on the tips of her hooves, Scootaloo looked through the keyhole with an amethyst eye, but she couldn't really make out anything on the other side besides more earth. Sighing, she turned around and slumped against the door.

Scootaloo glanced at the shape of the skeleton sitting next to her and grimaced.

Offworld

"...and that's pretty much what we've been doing for the last, oh, decade or so—working on the editorial staff for the Kindred Magazine of Culture and Art." Fourth Estate leaned back on the log, arching her back as she did so.

"What kind of stuff do you put in there?" Flight asked. She looked up at Fourth Estate with curiosity; although she had been lulling off at first, the filly found this to be more interesting. She had always thought art was pretty cool.

"Hmm, well, let's see... there was a news section but mostly we'd showcase what it sounds like: 'culture and art'. Theatre, installations in art galleries, concerts—you name it, it was in there. Heh... still is."

"So lemme get this straight," Flight said, sitting up straighter. "You and these other po—ehem, folks"—she turned her head to look at Mango, who was still nose-deep in that book Kevin had brought—"are part of the rebels on the Revan planet?"

"Yup, and we were here to gather intelligence and spread coded messages to other agents through our magazine, relayed from Central Command. And I've known Remark and Mango ever since we were kids—our parents were killed in the war so we were brought up by the rebels with some other kids like us. Heh, now I'm getting personal. Gosh, I really am talking a lot..."

"No, no, it's really interesting! So why did you leave now, then?"

"One of our colleagues from the Revan planet was at a theatre reviewing a musical when he overheard two Bureau agents in the audience talking about their plans for tomorrow to arrest us for being rebel sympathisers. I dunno how they knew, but once the play was over Microfiche called us up and we packed up our things and left this evening. I'm really glad that he found out and was able to let us know, but... I'm worried that if they found us out, they'll get to him next." The purple mare frowned and looked down. Flight wanted to scoot over and embrace Fourth Estate, to tell her it would all be okay—but, because of societal conventions, this felt inappropriate or at least weird so she held back and settled for simply sending good vibes mentally in her direction.

"I-I hope he's alright, too," Flight said finally, smiling weakly. Fourth Estate nodded.

"I'm sure he will be... he's a clever stallion. Oh, hey, Remark." Flight turned her head around to see the slate-grey unicorn stallion approaching, Kevin walking alongside. The colt looked up at Flight and smiled.

"I finished explaining to Remark how to get down to Minutiae and then off to the island, so you shouldn't have any trouble," Kevin said, looking to Fourth Estate. "I've pretty much done the same thing myself, once before, so I know it's doable."

"Wonderful, just wonderful," Fourth Estate said, expression lightening. "Thanks, kid—this is gonna be helpful. The sooner we can get offworld, the better. And the safer."

"Yeah, I told Kevin about our little... uh... situation," Remark said gruffly. He looked to Flight. "What are you kids' plans? You staying with us for the night?"

"Well, I think—" Flight started but she was interrupted by a beeping coming from her saddlebag. She hopped off the log and ran over to where it sat near the fire and rummaged around inside, the beeping continuing all the while. Finally, she pulled out the comlink and pressed the little button on top.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Doc Zed. That you, Flight? Is Kevin there?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm here, and Kevin is too. What's up?"

"Are you guys alone? I just made the most exhilarating comlink call in my life and I'm still reeling from the aftermath..."

"Erm, just a sec." Flight looked up. "Okay if you guys go on a walk for a sec? I'll explain later."

"Sure thing," Fourth Estate said, nodding. She stood up from the log. "C'mon, fellas, let's go this way." She, Mango, and Bold Remark started walking into the forest and Kevin walked over to where Flight stood.

"Okay, go," Flight said. "Tell us everything."

Parties

"Does anypony know where Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo are?" It was Twilight Sparkle that spoke the words, but truly the sentiment was on the minds of everypony that was huddled in the Apple family barn. Although they weren't behind the bales of hay that made rows through the room, blocking anypony behind them from view of the door, the ponies of Ponyville were ready to move at a moment's notice. Which they would definitely have to do as soon as they heard Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo approaching the barn, though that was seeming less and less likely to happen by the minute. The multicoloured pennants that hung from a string across the middle of the barn grew ever so slightly closer to the hay-covered ground with each passing minute.

Silver Spoon stood in the back of the barn and she looked over to her friend Diamond Tiara, who seemed to be looking all around the room—looking for something or somepony, maybe. "Hey, DT, what're you looking for?"

Diamond Tiara turned to face Silver Spoon. "Oh, um, I was just thinking—I haven't seen either Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle for a while. Do you know where they went? It seems weird that they wouldn't be here for their best friend's birthday party."

Silver Spoon made a cursory sweep of the entire room with her eyes and, sure enough, there was no sight of either filly. There wasn't really anywhere for them to stay out of sight, either; the barn had a pretty open floor plan. "No, I haven't, and that is really weird. We should ask Applejack or Rarity or somepony else."

"Yeah, good idea. C'mon." Diamond walked across the barn towards the front, where Applejack, Rarity, and the rest of the Elements of Harmony (besides the conspicuously absent Rainbow Dash) were huddled in a circle, deep in a conversation in hushed tones.

"...so do you really think she'd forget? Last time that happened, she—oh, hey there, girls. What can we do for you?" Twilight looked a little surprised at the sight of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon approaching.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we were wondering if you've seen Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle. We haven't seen them in a while."

"Oh, oh, yes," Twilight said, nodding. "They went into the house to get something, but they should be back in, uh... not too long."

"Now that ya mention it, they've been in there a little longer than it shoulda taken," Applejack said, raising an eyebrow. "Could you girls go in and check on them, make sure everything's all fine and dandy?"

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon both nodded and turned away from the older mares, who returned to their discussion. The fillies cantered over to the side entrance of the barn, passing and greeting Pipsqueak and Cheerilee and Mayor Mare and a few other ponies as they went. Even Spike nodded his head and smiled. Silver Spoon reflected on how, just several months earlier, most of the ponies there would have scoffed or flashed nasty looks in their direction; not that she or Diamond Tiara would have bothered to attend in the first place.

Once they were at the side door, it was only a few short steps from the barn to the house. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon wordlessly went around to the front door and opened it, stepping into the living room with quiet hoofsteps.

"Sweetie Belle?" Diamond Tiara called. "Apple Bloom?"

Silver Spoon wondered if she had ever been inside the Apple family's house; the homely orange rug on the floor and the antique couch looked unfamiliar. She didn't have much time to ponder these, though, before Tiara got a reponse.

"Hey, guys," Sweetie Belle's voice came from the other room—what looked to be a kitchen. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon took a few steps in that direction before Sweetie spoke again. "No, wait—um, I think you should probably go back to the barn—everything's fine—"

"No, it's alright, Sweetie," Apple Bloom's strained voice said, quietly. "They can come in—it's fine."

"Oh—okay..." Sweetie stepped into view from the kitchen and nodded, so Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walked through the living room towards her. As they neared, the kitchen came into view and with it they could see the form of a yellow filly slumped against the stove, face concealed behind her hooves. Her breaths were ragged and uneven; she kept exhaling and then quickly sucking in.

Apple Bloom looked up at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and they could see her eyes were red and the fur on her face was matted; she had definitely been crying. "H-hey, girls... how's the party? Scoots there yet?"

Diamond Tiara frowned. "Um... no."

"O-oh. Of course." Apple Bloom laughed nervously. "Of course she wouldn't be."

"What's going on?" Silver Spoon sat down next to Apple Bloom, her hooves tucked underneath her torso. "What's wrong?"

"I-It's silly, really," Apple Bloom mumbled, looking down. "But I think... I think Scootaloo doesn't c-care about us anymore."

Diamond Tiara blinked. "Huh? But you're best friends! You guys have been friends forever!"

"That's what I tried to tell her, too," Sweetie Belle murmured. "Scootaloo doesn't hate us, even if she's excited about hanging out with Rainbow Dash for her birthday."

"B-but that's just it... Scootaloo's gonna learn to fly," Apple Bloom stammered. "She's gonna... she's gonna love flying, just like Rainbow Dash. And I'm happy for her... I really, really am. B-but," and at this point she gulped, "she's not gonna want anything to do with me."

"I still don't get it," Diamond Tiara said. "Just 'cause she can fly doesn't mean you guys won't be friends."

"Tiara, I like Scootaloo. Like like. And there's no way she'd let some dumb old earth pony like me hold her back." Apple Bloom sniffled. "I just gotta get used to that."

"Apple Bloom," Silver Spoon said, "it's all gonna be okay. Scootaloo's gonna come and we're going to have a good time at the party, you hear? She's gonna open presents and we're all going to have cake and hang out. And I'm sure she'd like you, wings or not."

"Yeah... I guess..." Apple Bloom murmured. "I hope."

"Yes, we will!" Sweetie exclaimed. "Now, let's get you cleaned up and let's get back to the barn so we can be there to greet her."

"O-okay." Apple Bloom took hold of Diamond Tiara's outstretched hooves and pulled herself up to her hooves. "I can do this... I can do this."

"You can do it," Silver Spoon said, nodding, and the four fillies walked out of the kitchen.

Pick

Scootaloo's eyes fluttered open and it was only from the gross taste in her mouth that she realised she had fallen asleep. Groaning, she pulled herself up to her hooves, standing next to the door in the small earthen room. It looked pretty much the same as before: stopped clock, circular rug, metal door, and... pile of bones. Now, however, she had the additional disadvantage of not knowing what time it was even more than she already didn't know. While before she at least could approximately measure it in minutes, now it was anypony's guess. Not that there was anypony else to guess. She thought about leaving the room and continuing through the labyrinth of tunnels, but decided the room was worth one last look around.

Curious, Scootaloo walked over to the rug and peeled the dusty surface of the thing up from the ground, hoping that maybe there was some sort of trap door or something of the like underneath. There wasn't. She sighed and set the edge of the rug back down.

Then, she moved on to the clock. Scootaloo looked at its motionless hands for a few moments and then reached up to pry the thing off the wall. It came surprisingly easily and, once she had pulled it away, it was pretty obvious why—the clock hadn't been fastened to the wall in any way and was rather just set into the surface of the earthen wall. There seemed to be nothing special about it so she set it on the rug and turned around.

The pile of bones in the corner was... unappealing, to say the least, so Scootaloo looked back at the door again. Peeping through the peephole again, Scootaloo still saw the same earth ahead; however, this time, she noticed that there seemed to be more light coming from somewhere beyond the door. Sighing, she took a step back and looked at her face reflected in the polished metal surface.

And that's when she saw it—the solution to her problem—and she scoffed at how she had forgotten in the first place. Scootaloo reached up to her mane with a hoof and unclipped the pink hairclip from her fuchsia bangs; then, leaving it unclipped, she lowered it to her mouth and took hold of it between her teeth. Pointing the thin metal part forwards, Scootaloo leaned in forward and deftly inserted it into the keyhole. In just a minute, using a trick Rainbow Dash had taught her over a year ago, the filly could hear the tumblers shifting inside. With a free hoof, she tested the handle a few times as she adjusted the way the tumblers fell on the holes in the pin.

It took her several tries—maybe five minutes or so—but finally she heard the satisfying click and the door handle pushed down all the way. Scootaloo pulled on the handle as she pushed it down and the door opened smoothly on its hinge. She looked down at the pile of bones, still cowering there in the corner.

"Take that, bonehead," Scootaloo said, smirking, but her smirk quickly disappeared once she thought about the fact that she was speaking to what had once been a living, breathing pony. She grimaced. "Sorry, dude. Better luck... next time? Meh." The filly stepped through the doorway, out of the room.

At first, what was on the other side of the door looked like more earthen tunnels—a continuation of the labyrinth behind her. But there was a rectangular fluorescent light panel embedded in the ceiling instead of the torches on the wall, illuminating the tunnel with whiter tones. And, as she took a few steps, she saw the tunnel slope downward.

But unlike the tunnels she had walked through before, there was a stone staircase that led downwards with wide steps as far as the eye could see. Scootaloo didn't know what this change meant, but she figured that any change was good so she began trotting down the stone steps, hooves clacking as she went.

Lowdown

"Okay, okay, where do I begin..."

"At the start?" Flight asked. There was a loud burst of static that fizzled out from the speaker grille.

"Pfft, yeah, whatever. Basically, I—oh, Kevin? I got into the locked door in the bottom of the ship—the one marked cargo."

Kevin blinked. "Really? How? Did you have to disconnect the electronic lock?"

"I was actually just about to do that, but I punched in the comlink-equivalent numbers of my middle name just for laughs and—lo and behold—the thing opened up."

"Dang, what a lucky break," Flight murmured.

"Meh, I could have just as easily blown the damn thing off its hinges."

"What was inside the room?" Kevin asked. "I don't even think that filly I was with knew how to get in there—or at least she told me she didn't."

"And didn't you say something about a comlink call?" Flight added.

"Yeah, lemme get to that. So I walked in and there were boxes on the sides, but not very many so cargo obviously ain't the main purpose of this ship—though Argent knows what is—and inside the boxes are just some gems and books and stuff. Pretty cool if you ask me, but what was really more interesting was on this little table across the room, and right there there was a comlink. A pretty old one—kinda similar to the ones from a couple hundred years ago, but still not really like anything I've ever seen. Oh, and Flight, I talked to Sue and she said it was okay."

Flight blinked "Huh? I mean, thanks, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Oh, uh, I was about to use the comlink when she knocked at my door. She and Mary had been looking for you for a while I guess. She wasn't happy about it and made me promise it never happened again, but at least no heads are gonna roll."

"That's good to hear, isn't it?" Kevin asked.

"Maybe... but that sounds suspiciously like they're just gonna ground me once I get back." Flight sighed. "Go on, Doc."

"Well, after that I went back to the ship and I plugged the comlink in and bam, I pressed the call button. It's not like the ones you and I are using right now—there's no way to enter a number or anything so it's just hooked up to one other device. And Aureate above, you kids won't believe where it's hooked up to. I sure didn't at first."

"Umm..." Kevin looked down to his hooves which were tracing circles in the dirt. "Is she with the rebels on the Revan planet?"

"Nah, that's too obvious. I bet she's from the Vergla planet, and that's why she was so mysterious!" Flight countered.

A staticky chuckling sound came out of the comlink speaker. "I probably would have guessed one of those too, but no... she's from the Ecuestran planet."

"The what?" Kevin asked, eyebrow raised.

"It's the third planet, Kevin," Flight said matter-of-factly. "Comes right in between the Duvum planet and the Kindred planet."

"Oh... eheh, I knew that." Kevin could feel his face glow warmly and he was glad that the night had him mostly concealed.

"The comlink beeped a bunch after I pressed the button and I assumed this was it ringing on the other end. It rang a whole bunch of times—something like twenty, I think? Whatever it was, it was a lot more than any of our comlinks rink. Maybe it would have kept ringing forever, but then somepony picked it up." Doc Zed's voice paused for a moment. "Well, I say 'somepony', but I really mean 'somedragon'."

"Dragon?" Kevin could see a mixture of fear and confusion dancing around in the light flickering over Flight's eyes.

"Oh, I actually remember the orange filly mentioning that a friend of hers had an assistant that was a baby dragon," Kevin mused.

"Yep. And, by the sound of it, it's the very same baby dragon you heard about that answered the comlink call—and his name is Spike. I assume that you also heard about the assistant to a Princess Twibright Sparkhill?"

"Twilight Sparkle?" Kevin asked. "If so, that's the one. The filly never said anything about her being a princess, though..."

Flight raised an eyebrow. "Wait... if she's a princess, does that mean she's an alicorn?"

"Yes indeed, though I'm surprised. I didn't have time to ask more about that, but it would directly contradict the Histories which state that only the final four planets were so Blessed by the alicorns."

"That's great and all, but did you find anything important about the filly or the ship or what her mission was?" Kevin asked. "Was she the only remaining member of a crew and something terrible happened?"

Doc Zed didn't respond right away—and when he did, his answer wasn't exactly what Kevin expected. "Her name is Scootaloo, and she stole the ship from Princess Twibr—light."

Kevin blinked. "Scootaloo?"

Flight blinked too. "Stole it?"

The comlink speaker let out a fuzzy sigh. "Hold on, I'll get my notes. The Princess had a lot to say, so I wrote it down. I'm gonna call back tomorrow, though—it's very late at night you see, and I woke them up—oh, here we go. Yes, she stole the ship. It's the first of its kind, too—the first spacecraft ever created on the Ecuestran planet."

"But why?" Flight asked.

"Nopony knows; they haven't had contact with her in about a month, when she disappeared with the ship. They hoped she would find the comlink, but... until now, she had been presumed dead."

Ruses

"Dead? Since the spaceship was gone, couldn't they just take another one after her?" Kevin asked.

Flight rolled her eyes. "He said that was their first ship ever, doofus."

"Oh, right. What about, y'know, magic-assisted telescopes and radar and junk like that. Wouldn't they at least have that type of stuff if there's an alicorn building a spaceship?" Kevin paused and then added, "Though, if she's an alicorn, why does she even need to build a spaceship?"

"Oh, dang, I should ask about that when I get her back on the comlink. But, from what she said, the situation with space travel on the Ecuestran planet is a little... complicated."

"How so?" Flight asked.

"Well, have you ever wondered why you never hear about ponies going to the Ecuestran planet, even though it's illegal to go there? I can assure you—if it were actually possible to get there, ponies would be breaking the law left and right. No, the real reason is because there's a forcefield surrounding the planet."

"What?" Flight exclaimed, not able to contain herself. "How is that possible? That would require so much magical power..."

"Heh, funny, and that's what I said too. But even the research done by the Bureau corroborates this—there is an invisible forcefield several hundred kilometres from the planet's surface and we haven't figured out how to get in—and apparently the ponies of the Ecuestran planet don't know how to get out, either. We're able to see down to the planet, though, and it's always looked uninhabited. Or so we thought."

"Dude, can it with the clickbaity cliffhangers and cut to the chase," Flight said, yawning.

"What's 'clickbait'?" Kevin asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, you sweet summer child... if only I were away from civilisation for so long that I had avoided clickbait..."

"You done?"

"Yup."

"Okay, then I'll keep going. Princess Twilight told me that on their planet, there were no other planets in the sky—only ever just the stars, the sun, and their moon, Saros. She thought nothing of this since their whole astronomy and whatnot was all based on this and it was easily confirmed by just looking up at the sky. Also, apparently the planet literally doesn't rotate and there are magical sun and moon constructs that other alicorns move across the sky. Yeah, it's weird, but lemme keep going because it gets weirder.

"So then I guess at some point she was doing some sort of magical radar and something seemed a little off about what she got back—there was a little bit of strange noise or something. So, like any good scientist, she did it again a few times and, sure enough, got the same result. The exact same frequency interference each time. By that time she knows something's up so she adjusts the spell and shoots out her magical radar beam thing out into the sky at this particular frequency... and it keeps going. There's no sort of interference, no strange noise, no nothin'. It just keeps going. And then, eventually, it bumps into something and comes back. And that thing that it hits ends up being what we call the Kindred planet—what we're standing on right now."

"Holy crap..." Kevin breathed, eyes wide with surprise. Flight's expression was no different.

"I guess she modified a telescope and some other stuff to look past the forcefield, but the gist of it is that she figured out there's a whole universe beyond what the Ecuestran ponies knew, starting with planets in their own backyard and a heliocentric system and... Argent, I can't imagine learning all those things at once. I think my head would explode.

"However, Princess Twilight's head is I guess more resilient than mine and she was able to get enough data to come up with a theory that seems pretty damn accurate: that the forcefield that surrounds the Ecuestran planet is not just invisible but acts as a screen displaying a particular image. And it seems that this is true of the outside as well, since the planet is most definitely not uninhabited and doesn't look at all like the observations by the Bureau."

"But where in the hay is the forcefield coming from?" Flight asked.

"Well, since there's other alicorns there that control those sun and moon magic thingamabobs, don't you think it's, like, them?" Kevin remarked. Flight gave him a funny look and he shrunk away. "O-or not."

"No, no, that's exactly right, Kevin. Princess Twilight wasn't quite sure if that is truly the case, but it's her best guess. She was planning on confronting them about it as soon as she took a test flight in her spaceship that she had been building, with the help of Scootaloo, for the last few months. Just to confirm that it was real, so she had actual evidence she could show the alicorns. But then... then, of course, you know what happened. The ship disappeared just a few nights after it was completed, and Scootaloo went with it. Princess Twilight has been tracking its path for a while, but lost it once it crashed below the trees on the Kindred planet. Even though she's an alicorn, apparently her magic is limited by distance—honestly, that's another thing I need to ask about next time I call."

"Now we had better find that filly, just so we can find out why she left," Kevin said. He glanced over at the fire that, although it was now burning much lower and closer to the centre, still had tendrils of flame twisting about in all directions. Their orange hues were not unlike... Scootaloo. Her name was Scootaloo.

"Wait... if there's a forcefield around this planet, how did the ship get through?"

"She said something about building a frequency generator into the ship, which lines up with this weird device I found and almost removed. Kinda glad I didn't, though, 'cause it would be a pain to put back in."

"Hey, kids, can you wind it up?" Flight jumped back, startled, and turned away from the comlink. Bold Remark emerged from the edge of the forest into the small clearing, with Fourth Estate and Mango alongside. "It's getting pretty late and we actually want to get to sleep now so we can get up early in the morning."

"Oh, um, yeah, sorry." Flight turned back to the comlink. "Hey, Doc, do you think we could talk more about this tomorrow. It's super interesting and all but, uh, the ponies we're with are trying to get to sleep and we don't wanna be a hassle."

"Ah, yes, sure thing. Get rested, 'cause tomorrow you're sure to—"

"Doc Zed?" Fourth Estate said, raising an eyebrow. "Hold up, is that you?"

There was no immediate response, and then a staticky cough. "Fourth Estate? Holy crap. What are you—why are you out in the woods?"

"You know him?" Kevin asked, looking from the mare to the comlink speaker. "But aren't you guys involved with the... um... the bad guys?" Fourth Estate sighed, but didn't say anything.

"Kevin... I... if these guys are involved with the 'bad guys', then... well, I'm involved with the bad guys too."

Stellar

Scootaloo noticed that the walls on either side had at some point switched from bare earth to the same stone of the steps that she was carefully trotting down. She wasn't quite sure what this meant; surely, she was entering a new part of the tunnels, but only time would tell whether this was any closer to the exit or if it just led deeper into the planet. Underground and without a compass, she had no idea what direction she was going. Not that it would be much use on this unfamiliar planet, anyway. She hadn't even been aboveground yet.

A few minutes passed and the filly kept trotting down the stairs, which had no end in sight. The stone walls to either side were composed of tightly-packed dark grey bricks, but their edges were ragged and uneven, a clear sign that they had probably been cut by hoof. As she descended further and further, the air got ever so slightly colder, sending chills up Scootaloo's spine. A light breeze tickled at her fetlocks and, thoughts elsewhere, Scootaloo's muscles automatically jolted forward, hooves slipping off the edges of the steps.

For a moment, the filly was thrust forward in freefall with her face heading straight for the stone. She let out a yelp and threw her hooves in front of her, hearing and feeling them impact against the rigid surface and, miraculously, saving her from more injuries to her face.

"Unngh," Scootaloo groaned, steadying herself in place. She breathed in deeply and then exhaled, repeating this a few times for good measure before she trotted forward again, this time a little more slowly and carefully.

And, of course, the breeze returned to tickle at her hooves. Scootaloo frowned and squinted ahead and, somewhere through the light of the buzzing fluorescent panels overhead, she could see an end to the stairs—a stone-floored area where the tunnel levelled off. Wherever the breeze was coming from, it had to be down there. And, of course, a breeze meant open air.

It took Scootaloo only another minute or two to reach the bottom of the steps, but what she saw wasn't what she had been expecting—the tunnel stopped off abruptly at a sheer vertical wall. Scootaloo blinked.

"Are you bucking kidding me?!" She stamped her hoof angrily on the ground and tilted her head forward, leaning her weight against the wall. Its surface, unlike the rough, uneven stairs and bricks in the wall, was perfectly smooth and even polished. Scootaloo could see her reflection when she pulled her head back up, jagged scar still marring her muzzle. Still and always. The filly sighed. "Am I really gonna have to walk all the way up there? Celestia above..."

That's when she felt it—the breeze once more, making the fur on her legs bristle outward. Scootaloo looked around frantically. "Where in the hay—?"

And then Scootaloo gasped for she had seen it. She crouched down in front of the left wall and peered through a little spot at the bottom where one of the bricks was missing. Sure enough, her face was filled with a rush of cold air. Scootaloo could feel her eyes drying out but she immediately became distracted by what she saw through the hole.

Oddly enough, the first thing she noticed was that whatever was through the hole looked very much like the end of the tunnel she currently occupied, with stone-brick walls and a smooth stone floor. What was much more intriguing about the sight, however, was not the room; rather, it was the beady black eyes that stared straight back at her. They belonged to a long white face with a button pink nose attached to a fuzzy grey body. The possum opened its mouth, baring its fangs.

Scootaloo would probably have screamed if not for something odd that she noticed in that moment; on the thing's forehead, right between its eyes, was a shiny star sticker. She could see her own expression, eyes wide and mouth agape, reflected in the tiny patch of silver.

Hole

Scootaloo stared straight into the possum's eyes and it stared straight back. Back in Equestria, the only possums Scootaloo had seen were dead, lying on the side of the road after having been hit by carriages or trains or something. Even though she knew that this one was alive from the way it breathed and moved, its eyes looked just as dead as its roadkill kin. It gave Scootaloo the heebie jeebies.

A minute later, she raised an eyebrow. "So, uh, you gonna attack me or something? Should I get running?"

In response, the possum opened its mouth wide and Scootaloo watched as its jaw trembled and then closed.

"Did you just... yawn at me?"

The possum just kept staring at her.

"Ugh, this is hopeless," Scootaloo said. "I'm really losing it, aren't I? I'm just gonna turn back and find another tunnel... pretend there isn't some wacko possum pretending to be dead or whatever..." She turned and trotted up the first few steps. And then, behind her, she heard a loud thud. Scootaloo swivelled her head around to look. "What are you—huh?"

The hole in the wall had only been the size of one brick before; Scootaloo was sure of it. Yet a brick that had been there, right above the hole just moments before, was now just gone. Now, even from her place several steps up, Scootaloo could make out one beady black eye of the infernal creature beyond the wall.

"You have got to be kidding me..." Scootaloo murmured, eyes wide as she watched the possum. The creature reached out its foreclaws from beneath its body and, reaching much further above its head than Scootaloo would have judge it capable of, the possum grabbed hold of the brick set in the wall right above the hole, a claw on either side. The claws bored tiny holes into the stone and, with some wiggling, the brick loosened from its socket. Backing up, the possum pulled it out from the wall with the precision of a machine and then let go of the brick, thrusting it to the right.

A loud thump resounded throughout the tunnel. The possum opened its jaw wide and, fangs bared, made a series of odd squeaking noises.

It was laughing.

"Oh, yeah, good fun," Scootaloo grumbled. She walked back down the steps and tapped one of the bricks. It continued to sit quite securely in the very solid wall. "Okay... you gonna take out some more of these things so I can go through or should I just go back?"

In response, the possum jumped up to its hind legs, grabbed a brick to the side, yanked it from the wall, and tossed it carelessly aside, thump and all, before landing squarely back down onto all fours.

"Luna's feathers... I dunno if I can trust a wacko possum like you but at least you're small enough that I can just buck you in the face if you start chewing on my leg or anything."

The possum just tittered once more and kept pulling out more bricks, slowly but surely creating a sizeable hole for Scootaloo (as well as a sizeable pile of bricks on the other side). She just watched as the creature worked, an odd, mechanical pattern to its motions.

Unusual

When the hole in the wall was nearly large enough for Scootaloo to squeeze through, the possum stopped pulling the bricks down. She assumed it would start again; when it didn't, the filly raised an eyebrow.

"Dude, I can't fit through there."

In response, the possum opened it mouth and made the same odd squeaking noises of laughter. It turned and then walked away on all fours, and she could see the fuzzy form recede from view.

"What the—don't just—auuugh!" Scootaloo exhaled, frustrated. She stepped up to the hole. "Maybe I can..." The filly ducked her head down and tried to fit it through the hole.

She tried a few different angles and approaches, too, and even pressed herself flat against the ground, scooting forward with her head sliding across the stone. Yet each time she felt the sharp corners of the bricks jutting out along the edges, pushing into her skull. Each time she yanked herself back, cursed the possum, and tried again. And, each time she thrust her head back into the bricks, the possum tittered once more.

"Shut up!" Scootaloo shouted. "I give up! I'm not gonna play your stupid game anymore... heck, you probably don't even know what's going on, ya dumb possum." She stared once more at the hole and then made for the stairs.

And then, behind her, Scootaloo could hear skittering. She stopped, but that was a mistake; she could feel something warm and wet on her back leg and, before she had time to process it and respond, pain.

Scootaloo yelped and flailed and turned her head to see the infernal possum had attempted to sink its teeth into one of her back hooves. And it hurt; while it hadn't made it all the way through or anything, the sharp teeth of the thing had made enough of indentations in her hoof to hold on. Wincing, she lifted her leg and tried to shake off the extra weight as hard as she could. The possum's body contorted in all different directions as it sailed around in the air, and then was flung from Scootaloo's hoof and smacked straight into the wall with a resounding thud.

It fell to the ground and remained there, motionless. Scootaloo stood there looking at it for a moment, nursing her injured hoof, and then she turned to walk back up the stairs and away from this bad idea of a route out of the labyrinth. As she turned, however, she noticed something that caught her off guard and nearly jump back in surprise.

The brick wall with the hole was, to put it simply, no longer there. It seemed to have just vanished completely, and Scootaloo's eyes were now treated to a room beyond—definitely the same room as before, but now she could just walk through to it. She considered just walking away—one wacky possum that made no sense was a bit much, and who knew what lay ahead in that direction? But Scootaloo was curious and so she walked through the now-empty passage.

When she rounded the corner, though, Scootaloo was surprised to see a haphazard pile of stone bricks that looked as if they had been flung aside. She felt a lump in her throat; something here was definitely weird, and not knowing what it was freaked her out all the more.

Church

Past the hole in the wall, to Scootaloo's right, the brick-walled tunnel continued for a short bit. As she walked along, she mused at how it looked both very ancient with the rugged, worn brick walls alongside the fluorescent-panelled ceiling, which looked fairly new with few signs of age. She decided that this part of the tunnel must have been built a long time ago and then renovated more recently.

And then Scootaloo reached the end of the tunnel and it opened outwards into a small room, walls composed from the same steel-grey brick. The room was rectangular and the opening Scootaloo emerged from was in the corner of one of the short ends. The filly walked through the doorway and then immediately looked down; there were a couple stairs that led down to the rest of the room, which was a half-metre lower than the 'stage' area on which Scootaloo stood. This lower area, stretching to the back of the room, was filled with rows of wooden benches, stretching from wall to wall except for an aisle that ran straight down the middle. They looked not unlike the pews in the Luno-Celestial church that her class had visited on a field trip once.

More interesting to Scootaloo, however, were the other objects occupying the small stage. The back wall had a large metallic square that had been set into its surface; Scootaloo walked over to the back wall and brushed against its cool surface with her hoof. There were three different sectors that were divided vertically—one golden, one silver, and one a coppery colour Scootaloo couldn't quite place.

She turned away from the inset square to look at the tall stone object that stood in the centre of the stage; it looked to be a podium or, if this were some sort of church, the pulpit. There was a thick, leather-bound book that sat atop its surface and, as Scootaloo walked slowly towards it, she could see that there was a square embossed in the centre of the cover with the same metallic bars of gold, silver, and bronze. Curious, she opened the cover.

The page in front of her was filled with big paragraphs of text, typeface so small that the characters almost ran together and sentences so long that they were nigh-on unreadable. Though, as Scootaloo noted, they were potentially readable since they were, unlike what Kevin had talked about, in letters and words she could understand. She skimmed the page for anything that made sense.

And thus came the three Alicorn spirits to our planet, and they were discovered by the Peoples of the Kindred planet who had only prior known heresy and savage, pagan ideas of Life and how it shall be Lived. They recounted tales of Creation and of Histories and henceforth collected are their Words of Guidance.

Scootaloo's eyelids began to droop; she shook her head violently and then looked away. This, however, was perhaps a bit of a mistake.

Her eyes landed on the ceiling where a tarantula the size of her face was quickly approaching, crawling from the opposite corner towards her at an alarmingly quick pace. Scootaloo gasped and frantically looked around for somewhere to hide. Her gaze settled on the pews.

Careful to avoid the direct path of the thing overhead, Scootaloo jumped off the stage and ran down the aisle before turning off to one of the pews and ducking underneath the wooden bench. She cowered and, somewhere over the sound of her own heart pumping loudly in her ears, she heard a loud thud in the direction of the stage. She closed her eyes. Then there was skittering. And more skittering. Skitter skitter skitter.

The skittering stopped and Scootaloo opened an eyelid just a little bit. Four beady, lifeless black eyes stared back at her from atop the tarantula's grotesque yet fuzzy arachnid face. And, right in between the two largest eyes, was a shiny silver star sticker.

"Hssssss!" it stridulated.

Sure

Doc Zed's words hung there in the stagnant night air, surrounded by silence despite the four ponies and one lemur who stood there. The fire crackled quietly as it receded ever so slightly further to its centre. Also crackling was the speaker grille of the comlink.

"Hello? You still there?"

"Erm, yeah," Flight said, leaning towards the comlink. "That was just... surprising, that's all."

"I guess I'm so used to thinking of the Bureau as the good guys—and me being a part of it. Even when I wasn't exactly doing what I was supposed to." Kevin cocked his head. "So does that mean you're the good guys?"

Fourth Estate smiled weakly. "For us, yes, but it's... a little more complicated than that. We're trying to do what's best for all citizens of the Bureau. We don't exactly have the time to give you the lowdown but... one of our goals truly is regime change. Getting a leader of the Bureau who's willing to work with us for the benefit of everyone, not just those in charge."

"It's a lofty goal, but an admirable one," Mango said, nodding. "It's just gonna take a while."

"That sounds good," Kevin said, looking from Mango to Bold Remark to Fourth Estate. "But what exactly is so bad about the Bureau?"

"We don't really have time to go into all of the politics of the thing, kid," Bold Remark said sternly, frowning. "I'm tired as hell and I'd love to be sleeping right about now."

"Easy, Remark, of course the kids'll have questions. I've been throwing a lot at them at once. Kevin, Remark is right in that we don't have time to explain right now. You need to trust me for now, and I'll fill you in tomorrow morning while you're on your way to Umberlight. You've known me for years—your whole lives, pretty much. I'm trying to do what's best for you and for all of us."

Flight paused and then nodded. "That's fine. I'm pretty tired, myself." She yawned. "Guess we should hang up, then."

"Sure—I'm gonna get back to work on this ship. Oh, but before I go—Fourth Estate?"

"Yes, Doc?"

"You didn't answer me before... how come you're out in the forest? And with Bold Remark and Mango, no less?"

"Eheh... let's just say Microfiche found out that the Bureau is going by the KMCA office in the morning to arrest us for treason." Fourth Estate coughed. "He said that protocol says we should try to get offworld because we know too much."

"Well, that's one thing that stallion was right about. Nice chap, but didn't know Atbash from Enigma, if you know what I mean. Anyway... does Xiibal know yet? She'll want to."

"Erm, no, not yet. Could you maybe send a message?"

"Yeah, I got you covered. There should be a datastream packet to conceal it in... in about three hours."

"Thank you so much, Doc. A pleasure talking to you as always, and I hope you have a good night."

"Heh, same! And good night, kids—and here's hoping you can get into Umberlight tomorrow!" The comlink clicked and went silent; once again, the only noises were the light crackling of the flame behind those gathered around the comlink, as well as the shallow breaths of the five of them.

"So," Bold Remark said, breaking the silence. "We are going to sleep now. You are welcome to join us—miraculously, we have two extra sleeping bags." He raised an eyebrow. "Honestly, that's pretty weird. I have no idea why we would have packed two extra sleeping bags, but we do have them."

"Ooh, you guys really should." Mango's eyes seemed to light up as he spoke, grinning. "The more, the merrier! That's what I always say, at least."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Don't you think, Kevin?" Flight turned to her companion.

"Oh, um, yeah. Sure," Kevin affirmed, nodding. He watched as Mango bounced off around the logs to where their bags lay. The lemur handily unrolled the sleeping bags, and Fourth Estate walked over to where he stood. Just in time, Kevin looked over to the firepit where Bold Remark had lit up the flame's embers in his magical aura and, in just a second, had extinguished them, leaving them in total darkness. With some effort, Kevin lit up his horn and the verdant light glowed outward, faintly illuminating the makeshift campsite in front of him in eerier tones than before.

He could see Flight putting her comlink into her saddlebag and then walking around the fire pit to the sleeping bags so quickly he moved to follow her. Within a minute, Kevin was snuggled tight inside what was perhaps the warmest, fuzziest sleeping bag he'd ever had the privilege of inhabiting; the soft plush interior both provided a perfect buffer to the chilly night air and made him feel like he was in a long, comforting, motherly hug. "Mmmm... thanks, guys. G'night," Kevin mumbled, eyelids already closed.

"No problem," Mango whispered. "Goodnight, y'all. Sweet dreams..."

With that, the world went silent but for the occasional, distant hoot of an owl or maybe a few seconds of crickets chirping. Kevin could already feel the warmth spreading through his entire body, swallowing him up, making him feel for once in his life like he belonged or was the pony he was meant to be—

"Kevin."

Kevin's eyes blinked open, but all he could see was the dark void of the night. Pretty much no different from when he'd had his eyes closed, actually. Why had he opened his eyes again? Maybe he had been hearing things. Yes, that's it...

"Psst—Kevin?"

Nope. There was a voice most definitely saying his name right next to him, and in an unmistakeable voice. Kevin turned around to face the pony lying next to him.

"F-Flight?" Kevin whispered. "What's up?"

"Let's go, Kevin," she whispered back.

"Huh?" Kevin could barely process what she had said. "What?"

"Ugh... c'mon, Kevin, I know you heard me. Let's get out of here."

"Nnnngh... why? It's so... it's so darn comfy in here..."

"Kevin, these ponies seem nice but I don't know how much we can trust them. And we literally just slept for several hours."

"Comfier than a Jury hoodie, Flight..."

"I don't—nnngh, stop stalling! C'mon!" With that, Kevin could hear stirring next to him and, before he knew what was going on, the front of his sleeping bag had been thrown down, exposing his wimpy, vulnerable torso to the harsh, deadly cold of the untamed elements.

"Gah!" Kevin cried, almost breaking out of a whisper. He stumbled to his hooves. "D-do you have your saddlebag?"

"Yeah, and here's yours," Flight replied, hoofing the thing over to him with a soft skidding noise along the ground. Kevin picked it up and put it on. "Now c'mon, follow me." He could hear the filly take off in the darkness, away from the other sleeping bags, but he couldn't see her so all he could do was try his best to guess a direction and then run after her. It wasn't until they were in the thick of the bushes beyond the campsite, most definitely out of earshot from the slumbering ponies, that Kevin heard Flight slow down and he allowed himself to do so in turn.

"What... was that all about?" Kevin said, panting. He could hear Flight trotting through the bushes next to him.

"This whole thing makes me feel a little weird," Flight replied. "I know we're doing stuff that isn't quite allowed by the Bureau, but full-scale rebellion and revolution? I just dunno if I can wrap my head around that just yet."

"But Doc Zed said that they know what they're doing," Kevin said. "He's a good guy."

"I trust Doc Zed enough about the whole ship repairs and stuff, and he really has been a great pony in my life," Flight agreed. "But I'm still not sure... if he could lie about this, what else could he have been lying about?"

Kevin didn't answer and Flight didn't push the question, so the two ponies kept walking in silence, in complete darkness, through the forest. They didn't notice that the owl hoots continued even as they went along, the gold-star-on-forehead critter flying along, watching them from afar, remaining just out of sight.

Meh

Scootaloo trembled where she stood under the bench, staring into those black, lifeless orbs. The spider couldn't have been more than six inches from her face, its fuzzy palpi hovering dangerously close to Scootaloo's muzzle.

'Hssss!' it stridulated again. But it made no motion forward; it didn't seem like it was going to attack her. And then, to Scootaloo's surprise yet relief, the creature backed away slowly. It wasn't until the tarantula was backed up onto the stage by the pulpit that Scootaloo crawled out from beneath the pew and into the aisle. At the sight of her, the tarantula stopped moving; it stood completely still by the pulpit and watched as the filly stood.

'What are you playing at?' Scootaloo asked. 'Who are you? What do you have to do with that possum?'

The tarantula merely looked back at her. Scootaloo could see her face reflected in the silver color of the star. It also, as she noted, looked quite similar to the portion of the inset tri-metal square in the wall.

'Okay... well, whatever. Bugger off.' Scootaloo snnrk'd. 'Heh.'

'Hssss,' the spider stridulated once more.

'C'mon, stop doing that,' Scootaloo said. 'It's creeping me the heck out. Nnngh... why am I even talking to a friggin' spider?' The filly turned around and walked down the aisle towards the doorway on the far side. It wasn't until she was a few feet outside the room that she could hear soft footsteps behind her. Scootaloo craned her neck over her shoulder and saw flecks of brown-colored hairs.

'Oh, you have got to be kidding me...'

The tarantula looked up at her. 'Hsssssssss!' it stridulated, sounding almost... joyous?

'Nnnngh... I don't even care. Follow me if you want, but don't mess with me or you're toast. Capisce?'

'Hkkksss!'

Sighing, Scootaloo turned around and kept walking. The tunnel ahead of her twisted and turned several times in a row so that the next time she looked over her shoulder, the weird church room was already out of view. Only she was left there in the tunnel. Her and her arachnid companion.

Eheh

Somewhere far away, in a small underground room...

A tall, slender stallion stood atop what could only be described as a throne. The magnificent chair lined the back wall from ceiling to floor, with a raised platform in front on which the stallion stood, eyes closed. His bronze-coloured wings brushed against the back, which was painted in slightly reflective tones that matched his feathers and coat to a T. The room was illuminated by the dancing flames on torches affixed to the walls, held up by gnarled metal holders that jutted out from the stone-brick surfaces. Their light also reflected off two more thrones, both to the left of the one in which the stallion sat, each coloured in a different metallic paint.

The stallion didn't look at any of this, though, as he had no reason to. He'd spent enough time just staring out at the room that was both his home and a prison—a reminder of unpleasant things. These days, he kept his eyes closed so he could focus on his thoughts when he wasn't needed. He heard hoofsteps approaching but he didn't open his eyes until he heard the distinctive clearing of a throat across the room. His eyes fluttered open to reveal that the pony clearing her throat was, in fact, who he had expected.

"Good evening, Hazie," the stallion said. His throat felt odd; maybe he should have cleared his throat as well.

"It's more like morning at this point, sir, but I thank you and I wish you that as well." The beige unicorn mare looked up at him with a neutral expression. "We've received a message from the South Pen from the supervisor there, a stallion by the name of Velvet."

"Ah, yes, I had been in contact with him," the stallion said, nodding. "Do you know what he said?"

"Yes, I've got the message here." The mare levitated a small scrap of paper forward with a maroon burst of magic, and it sailed quickly through the air towards the stallion on the throne. There was a flicker of light as the magical aura changed from maroon to copper, and the stallion levitated the note slowly downwards in front of his face.

"You may now take your leave."

The mare blinked. "Are you sure? You do not wish to send a response, sir?"

"No, I will either summon you or send it myself if I need to. Thank you, Hazie."

"Of course," the mare replied. She quickly dropped into a bow and then bounced back up, scurrying off down the hallway that led out from the chamber. The stallion, paying her no mind, looked down at the scrap of paper in his magical grasp and illuminated his horn so that he could read the words written on it.

"ፁ3òИ◹⫙ Ø⫙И⫙ᑌሐ,

OX⫙ M⅄ሐO⫙3òѦᑌሐ ⌖òГГ⅄ XØሐ ⫙ሐ◹Øፁ⫙⦢ ᐱòOX OX⫙ ØሐሐòሐOØИ◹⫙ Ѧ⌖ ØИѦOX⫙3 ◹ѦИᐯò◹O. ᐱ⫙ XØᐯ⫙ ИѦO ⅄⫙O O3Ø◹⫙⦢ X⫙3 ⦢ѦᐱИ ⅂ᑌO ⦢Ѧ ИѦO ᐱѦ33⅄. ᐱ⫙ Ø3⫙ ᐱѦ3ʞòИ∞ ѦИ òO.

ᐯ⫙Гᐯ⫙O"

The stallion blinked. Even though he knew the filly was probably going to be talented... the fact that she had escaped was surprising. The South Pen's security technology was state-of-the-art, or at least as state-of-the-art as a remote territory's Bureau funding would allow. Perhaps he shouldn't have waited so long to intervene, but this would be of no great importance. The filly could likely be found fairly easily. The stallion sat there, eyes closed, and thought through his options of what to do next as he withdrew his magical hold of the scrap of paper and let it drop soundlessly to his hooves.

Continue

Although the air in the top half of the tunnel remained fairly stagnant, even it grew less and less so as Scootaloo proceeded down the tunnel. And that's not to mention the air closer to the ground; when it had been slightly drafty before, the moving air felt downright breezy in that section of the passage. It was all the filly could do to keep from shivering. She kept trotting forward through the stone tunnel, hooves clacking softly on the ground; if anything, the chilly breaths of air that snaked down the hallway just motivated her more to keep moving. Every once in a while, however, Scootaloo couldn't help but stop, duck down, and allow the fresh air to brush across her face, tickling her muzzle.

And, for a while, Scootaloo would forget or ignore the skittering. It would become background noise, blending in with the whistling of the breeze below. When she did start to notice it again, she used all of her mental energy to not look. The fact that the tarantula was following her was bad enough without her having to look at the weird shape of the thing, its eight fuzzy legs protruding out in all directions from a misshapen, rounded abdomen.

As Scootaloo went on, passing beneath the weathered fluorescent light panels, she could feel her muscles begin to ache, growing more and more weary with each step into the unknown. She had slept in one of the previous rooms, sure, but it probably hadn't been for long and the filly felt no more rested than she had before she slept; all of the excitement and fervour of running away from the South Pen and its guards lingered still with her, wearing down on her body.

"Hssskksss," something stridulated behind Scootaloo. It didn't take her much effort to figure out what.

"What is it?" Scootaloo exhaled, spinning around. As soon as she caught sight of the spider, however, it rushed forward towards her face. It was all Scootaloo could do to quickly jerk her neck up to avoid the creature slamming into her face. And, even with that, she swore she could feel a few of its bristly hairs skim her cheek. "Celestia dang it!" The filly turned once more, just in time to watch the tarantula scurry forward, legs dancing in between the cracks of the stone floor, and disappear into the darkness of the tunnel ahead where the fluorescent lights just... stopped.

Sighing, Scootaloo resolved to continue walking forward down the tunnel, albeit at the same pace she had been before. But then, somewhere through the breeze and the clopping of her hooves on the stone and the skittering noises echoed above...

Scootaloo could hear voices. Lots of them, too, and in all directions—mostly up but most definitely to the sides. Along with the voices were faint, distant sounds of hooves on stone and hooves on metal. All of these sounds together formed what Scootaloo recognised as the distinctive hustle and bustle of city ponies in motion. And, although it was distant and muffled through the stone walls and ceiling, it didn't sound particularly far away either. Wherever it was, Scootaloo had to get there.

The filly sucked in a deep breath and let it out again before setting hoof in the next part of the tunnel, the portion that was shrouded in darkness. As she took the first few steps, Scootaloo grimaced—she couldn't see a metre in front of her face. She kept walking, though, slowly so that she didn't run into anything but not too slowly as not to linger. And, as a signal that there was still a path in front of her, Scootaloo could hear the reverberating skittering of the spider's thick, ugly legs as their ends scraped the stone floor, sending chills down her spine.

At some point, many minutes later, Scootaloo heard the skittering stop. She too stopped and stood there in the dark, unable to tell the difference between when her eyelids were closed or open, and she just listened. Hooves thundered above. Wheels rattled and doors squeaked open. Two voices were in the thick of an impassionate discussion of whether Discord would look good in slacks, or something like that.

"How do I get out of here?" Scootaloo murmured. And, as she probably should have expected, she got an answer as helpful as any others.

"Hkkkrsshhh!"

Ounce

By the time Kevin could make out the soft hues of navy and rose encroaching upon the northern rim of the sky above the trees, he felt like he had been walking through the same patch of the forest over and over for hours. But at least he was starting to be able to see in front of him. He'd had a few near misses with tree trunks and a branch that hit him smack in the face, nearly knocking him off his hooves.

"What time is it?" Kevin asked, hoping it had been long enough since the last time he asked to merit another inquiry. Evidently it had.

"Umm..." Flight looked down at the comlink on her foreleg. "About 0630. Looks like the sun's rising, too." In the faint light, Kevin could see the filly's eyes poking through her long locks of white hair, strands strewn about her face in all directions. She smiled as she caught sight of him looking at her, and Kevin couldn't help but notice the lovely way her marigold-yellow cheeks seemed to glow in the light of dawn.

"Oh, um, yeah, looks like it." Kevin jerked his head away quickly—he didn't want to look like he was staring. "Hopefully now I won't run into any more trees."

Flight giggled. "I dunno, Kev—sometimes you're such a klutz that you don't even need the dark's help."

Kevin rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, dorkus." And then, right on time, one of his forelegs landed wrong on an unexpected rock jutting up from the ground. Kevin tumbled forward onto his face.

"Hahaha—oh, Argent, I'm so sorry but—snrkt—the timing..." Flight continued to snicker as she reached a hoof down to where Kevin lay defeated in a pile on the ground.

"Urgh... thanks..." Kevin managed, brushing the dirt off his face. "Heh... I meant to do that."

"Suuure you did." Flight smirked. "I know I keep saying this and I hope it's not annoying, but... I'm so glad to have you back, Kevin—I really am." The filly quickly leaned in and, before Kevin could respond, nuzzled him ever so briefly on his cheek, her soft yellow coat brushing up against his... and then, as soon as it happened, it was over. Kevin could feel the spot where she had nuzzled him, as well as the rest of his face, growing warm. Deep breaths.

"Hello? Kevin? C'mon, let's go!" Flight had already made it a few metres in front of him in the grass and was looking at him expectantly.

"Oh, um, right. Coming!" Kevin cried, and he galloped forward to catch up with the filly, who had already resumed her walk. A few minutes passed as the sky became lighter and the only sounds within earshot were distant birds and the sounds of their hooves on the wet, dew-ridden grass. At least, that's all Kevin could hear.

"Can you hear that?" Flight asked, turning to him.

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "Um, hear what? The birds?"

"No, no... shh." She stopped. "Listen."

Kevin listened long and hard—a minute or two, maybe—but that was all he could hear. "Nope. I got nothing."

Flight sighed. "What I can hear is ponies, Kev. There's ponies talking out there, so we must be close. C'mon!"

So, once again, Kevin walked between and beneath the trees, trotting alongside Flight yet also following her in the direction of the voices she had heard. He let the fresh air inflate his chest before the it slowly, surely seeped straight out again and rejoined the environment. The crisp scent of grass lingered below. And Flight... he couldn't stop stealing glances of the filly out of the corner of his eye and he hoped she wouldn't be looking when he did.

For the first time in quite a long while, Kevin felt that life was good.

Considerations

"Alright, everything seems to be in order. You may now pass through the ID scanner, ma'am." A white-coated stallion stood next to the aforementioned scanner bars, ushering an older mare through them. A light on top flicked to green and made a satisfied beep noise. "All good. I hope you have a good time in Umberlight."

"Thank you, sir," the mare replied and she trotted off down the open maw of the tunnel.

The path down to Umberlight was built directly into a hill so there was no need for an unnatural free-standing structure; ponies entering merely disappeared as if swallowed into the depths of the earth as they trotted down the tunnels. Before there had likely been only one tunnel; however, because so many ponies travelled into and out from the city every day, there were multiple lanes, each fitted with an ID scanner and magic detector in order to keep the city safe and secure. At each of these scanners were two guards standing on either side, all white-coated earth pony mares and stallions with skin-tight black uniforms and black skullcaps to match. They looked nearly identical.

"How in the hay do they do that with the guards all looking the same?" Kevin murmured. He was crouched several meters away from these scanners beneath a fern, peeking between the fronds to get a view of the entrance.

"They must only hire ponies that look how they want, I guess," Flight replied. She crouched next to him, leaning forward and squinting to get a better look. "Gotta keep up that clean-cut professional image or whatever."

"I guess... still, seems hard."

"Yeah, probably." Flight didn't sound like she was really listening to what he said; she continued looking forward at the guards at one of the scanners, who were making small talk amongst themselves. "You think we should just up and waltz on in there? We're Bureau citizens, after all—there shouldn't be any weirdness."

"I'm not so sure about that," Kevin replied. "Remember the whole part where I ran away and was never caught? Plus I think Gloss could've gotten out the memo by now, and they probably have enough to arrest and at least keep us locked up for a bit."

"Oh, hm, you're right." Flight turned to face Kevin. "What should we do, then? There's not another way in without guards, is there?"

"I dunno—I've never been to Umberlight before. Still, I kinda doubt it—they seem smarter than that. Maybe if we could somehow distract them?"

"Hmm, yeah... but how?" Flight looked back to where the guards were standing, on either side of the ID scanner. "If we just distract one pair, another pair will totally see us. But I don't see how we could distract all of them."

"And if they see us... we won't exactly be able to disappear into the city easily. It's closed off and we'll be trapped inside."

"Nnngh... why does this have to be so hard? How do you think Fourth Estate and Bold Remark and Mango got through without the guards noticing?" Flight sighed. "We really should have asked..."

"I guess I didn't even think there would be guards," Kevin said. "Maybe we should call Doc Zed."

Flight opened her mouth to reply but, at just that moment, the comlink on her foreleg made electronic chirping noises. "Oh crap," she muttered, and quickly reached to press the answer button. Kevin saw one of the guards look vaguely in their direction; his heart pumped loudly in his chest for a moment but subsided as the guard shrugged and looked back to a stallion who was approaching to enter the city.

"Phew, that was close," Flight said.

"What was close?" Doc Zed's voice came out at a medium volume from the comlink speaker; Kevin was briefly convinced that the guards would hear it but a quick look in their direction revealed that they hadn't.

"Oh, um, hi, Doc," Flight managed after a moment. Her expression was a bit glum; she didn't look like she was too happy to be talking to him again so soon. "What's up?"

"You know, I just got the strangest call from my friend Fourth Estate, and she said that when they woke up, you two were nowhere to be found." There was no question; it was a statement of fact.

"Um... yep. That is definitely a thing that happened." Flight gulped. "There's nothing wrong with that, though—nopony said that we had to stay or anything."

A crackly sigh emanated from the speaker grille. "No, no, of course not. I mean, you probably should have thanked them for their hospitality, but it's all fine. But... why? Why'd you tell them you were staying and then you just left? What's going on?" That last question sent a shiver down Kevin's spine; it felt so ominous, so specific, so prying.

"Hey, Doc, these are great questions and all, but we're kind of in a jam right now," Kevin quickly stammered, attempting to postpone the discussion of more serious subjects. "We're outside the tunnels leading into Umberlight, but we don't know how to get past the guards and ID detectors without being seen or found out." Flight flashed a warm smile in his direction, wordlessly thanking him for the diversion.

"Huh? Oh, right. Yes, yes, we can talk about this later. Damn you kids and your ability to move across long distances in short amounts of time. Let's see... guards, guards, guards. You know how Fourth Estate and her folks got out?"

"No, and we were just talking about how we should have asked," Flight replied.

"Hmm... well, I actually may have something. Let me pull out some of my files and see if we've got anypony there..." Flight and Kevin could hear Doc Zed's chair scooting across the ground as the stallion stood up.

They weren't quite sure what he meant but all they could do was keep crouching there underneath the bushes, waiting for whatever solution the doctor could come up with. As they waited, they watched ponies go by, walking both directions through the ID scanners, disappearing either into the forest behind them or the yawning tunnels ahead.

Amble

"Alright, I'm back," Doc Zed's voice crackled quietly from the comlink speaker. "And I've got good news."

"Oh?" Flight looked down at the comlink as if Doc Zed could see her

"Yeah, it looks like one of the guards on shift right now is one of our agents. You should be able to—"

"Hold up," Flight interrupted. "Who's 'we'?"

"Erm, you know. The rebellion."

Flight frowned. Kevin sighed. "Okay, go on," he said. "We don't have time to be annoyed."

"Heh, smart kid. Anyway, as I was saying... one of the guards currently on shift is on our side, so we should be able to get him to let you through."

"How?" Flight asked. "We've still gotta go through the scanners, and it'll totally pick us up."

"I'm getting to that! Sheesh... I can't talk for three seconds without you interrupting and telling me I'm forgetting something. There's a manual override button near the base of each scanner—I dunno if you can see them from where you are, but they're there."

Kevin squinted through the leaves. "Yeah, I think I can see it." The button, if that's what it was, sat to the left of the closest scanner bars, just centimetres away from a guard's white hoof.

"Awesome. Basically, all you have to do is go up there and when they ask you why you're going into Umberlight, just mention something about 'the slip'. It's a codeword."

"Um, okay. 'The slip'? Like, what happens right before you fall over?"

"The very same. That must be how Fourth Estate and her companions got through." Doc Zed paused. "Oh, and it should be the stallion at the station on the second from the left. His coat is pure white. Can't miss him."

"Hey, wait," Kevin said. "All of the guards have white coats. Any idea what's up with that?"

"Oh, right. You probably wouldn't have encountered them yet, but... that's pretty much how all Bureau guards from the larger cities look, or at least the outward-facing ones. There's some special bleaching technique... they do it for intimidation or conformity or something." The voice on the comlink paused. "Anything else?"

"No, we should be good," Flight replied. "We'll contact you if we make it inside."

"When you make it inside," Doc Zed corrected. "Good luck." The comlink let out another short beep and the static stopped. Flight looked up at Kevin.

"You ready to do this?" she asked.

Kevin nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be."

"Alright. Let's go," Flight said. "Follow me." She backed away from the bush they had been hiding in and Kevin followed suit, pushing back further into the bit of forest. Kevin was momentarily confused until he saw Flight turn towards the main path. She stopped and watched it for a moment, making sure that nopony was coming, and then the filly emerged from the bushes quickly, Kevin right behind her. Both young ponies turned and began to amble down the path, doing their best to look like they had been on the path the whole time and that their walk towards Umberlight was nothing out of the ordinary.

Authenticate

"Good morning, kids." It was the mare on the right that spoke, a neutral expression on her face. Flight and Kevin had been careful to walk at just the right pace so they would make it to that specific station, second from the right, just when the other stations were occupied so it was their only option.

"Good morning!" Flight exclaimed, a little too friendly. She wore a smile—the fakest of the fake, with nearly all of her teeth showing—and looked up at the guard. "How are you today?"

"The day has thus far been alright," the mare replied. She yawned. "Same as it ever was, I suppose."

"Wonderful, wonderful," Flight said, nodding vigourously. "And you?" she asked, turning to the stallion on the left. He squinted.

"Look, kid, I'm sure your day is great and all, but can we just get on with this?"

Flight's face-wide grin faltered slightly but she managed to keep it up. "Erm, sorry, sir. What is it that you need?"

The stallion sighed. "You kids must be new 'round here or something. Friggin' country bumpkins..."

"Aw, c'mon, Twelve," the mare said. "Would it kill ya to be nice?"

"I don't get paid to be nice," Twelve countered. "I get paid because I do my job, and well at that." He turned to face Flight. "Alright, alright. What brings you kids to Umberlight?"

Flight grinned wider. "My friend and I here have come to do some shopping... I'm hoping to pick up some new dresses."

Twelve nodded. "Fair enough. And, just so you know, you'll need to get the amount cleared with exports if you spend more than five hundred credits."

Kevin blinked. "Five hundred credits? Aureate above... do we look that rich?"

The mare snickered. "Don't listen to Twelve—he's just giving you a hard time. His boyfriend broke up with him last week and he's been a total sourpuss ever since."

"Dammit, Twenty-Three..."

"You ponies can just walk right through whenever you're ready," Twenty-Three said, ignoring Twelve's annoyance.

Kevin nudged Flight in the ribs with his elbow. "Oh!" the filly yelped. "I just wanted to say, Twelve... I'm sorry that your boyfriend gave you 'the slip'."

"That's fine." Twelve said, expression flat. "It's none of your business, anyhow. Proceed." The stallion waved his hoof, beckoning the young ponies forward.

Flight's brow furrowed but she stepped forward. The plastic bars on either side of her were not particularly tall, but neither was the filly so they easily towered over her head. Kevin waited for the satisfied electronic beep, but it did not come.

Instead, the machine let out a whiny chirp. Kevin could see the light above, rather than green, light up with a bright red.

"Hey, Twenty-Three—do you think you could take a look at this? I think something's not working right—it's giving me a code S-57." The stallion wore a confused expression, and both Flight and Kevin could immediately tell that he wasn't trying to help them get through to anywhere; he was just another guard. As Twenty-Three walked around, over to the panel on the side that Twelve was staring at, Flight looked over her shoulder at Kevin. Her eyes were lit up in sheer terror.

"Do something," the filly mouthed. She turned back to watch Twelve and Twenty-Three at the panel, but kept shifting around antsily.

Kevin looked around frantically for something, anything he could do. He noticed three main things: the guards at the other stations were starting to glance over and see what the matter was, one of Twelve's forelegs was right next to the manual override button, and that there were a few rocks strewn about the path.

Perfect.

Kevin waited a moment until he was sure none of the guards from the other stations were looking and then he deftly enveloped a medium-sized flat rock in his green magical aura. Guided by his magical grasp, the rock sailed soundlessly through the sky until it was directly overhead the button. Kevin withdrew his hold on the thing and it dropped a few centimetres onto the surface of the button with a soft clink. Thankfully, neither Twelve nor Twenty-Three seemed to notice.

And, as it so happened, the button pressed down at the same time Twenty-Three reached up and pressed a button above with a hoof. The machine made the same beep they'd heard earlier and the light changed to green.

"Oh, thank Aeneus," Twenty-Three said. "Just a little malfunction with the machine. Sorry about that. Keep going."

Flight stepped through and stopped on the other side, watching Kevin as he walked through. Another satisfied beep. Once Kevin was through, Twelve turned to the young ponies.

"We'll also need to get your names, just so we can log them with our manager at the end of our shift."

"My name's Feather," Flight said quickly.

"And I'm... um... Kay," Kevin said. He felt his face grow hot as Flight shot him an odd look, but she said nothing. Twelve tapped a few buttons on the scanner and then nodded.

"Alright, you kids are good to go."

"Have fun, now, y'hear?" Twenty-Three said, smiling. She walked back over to the other side, preparing for the next ponies to come through, but Flight and Kevin had already started walking down the brick stairs into the tunnel. The stairs continued downwards as far as the eye could see, with only the warm glow of electric light panels in the wall to illuminate the path ahead.

Once they were out of earshot, Flight turned to Kevin. "Kay?" she asked.

Kevin gulped. "Yeah, um... that was the first thing that came to mind."

"Huh, weird. But that's a girl's name..."

"I-I'm sorry?" Kevin mumbled. "It's the first letter of my name, and I couldn't think of any other—"

Flight snickered. "No, no, there's no problem. I just thought it was funny—that's all. No need to get all worried about it." She hummed a short melody. "Oh, and nice thinking back there. We were almost toast."

Kevin, glad to change the subject, nodded. "Thanks... I'm surprised I came up with something, myself. I guess Doc Zed must've had old info or something."

"Maybe... or maybe he intended for us to get caught," Flight surmised.

"Uh, what? That wouldn't make any sense—why would he send us on this mission just to have us get caught?" Kevin focused on walking for a moment, careful not to trip on the steps. "Just because Doc Zed didn't tell us something doesn't mean that everything he says is a lie."

Flight sighed. "I know... but it's hard to trust him now. When someone that you think you can trust just does that, tells you that there's a part of them that they've been lying about for so long, is it even really possible to ever trust them again?"

Kevin could feel his cheeks grow warm again and his stomach filled with butterflies bouncing around, nearly making him trip. "I-I dunno. I guess we'll just have to be careful."

"Mmm... yeah."

Fine

"I know I said you weren't helping, but could you please come back?" Scootaloo's desperate voice reverberated around in the dark, but no reply came. "Nnngh... I really really don't want to have to walk back the way I came."

Again, there was no reply. The air lingered, stagnant. As soon as Scootaloo had told the spider to bugger off, it seemed to do just that—but with its absence came the absence of the breeze, and the sounds above grew fainter and fainter before they stopped altogether. She wasn't quite sure what had happened, so the orange filly had sat there for several minutes, occasionally calling out to the spider. Even though it had been creepy and unpleasant, Scootaloo assumed that, if it were anything like the possum that also had a silver star sticker on its head, the spider would have been helpful in getting her out of her current conundrum. Or, at least, helpful until it turned vicious. On second thought, maybe she had dodged a bullet there.

"Hey... spider dude... I'm sorry I was being kind of a jerk earlier, but I'll be nicer, I swear!" Scootaloo called out for the hundredth time, her voice starting to grow hoarse. "Please, pretty please, just get me out of here!"

Silence.

And then...

Thssshhhh!

The sound came from above, somewhere near the ceiling, and it didn't quite sound the same as before. Still, it was all Scootaloo had, so the filly stood up in the dark to get a closer look. Even if it was so dark that standing up wouldn't make much of a difference. "Hello?"

In response, a chunk of the ceiling lifted, flooding the underground passage with light. Now Scootaloo could see that she was at the dead end of a long hall, with stone brick walls much like tunnels before; in fact, the only significant aesthetic difference was the lack of fluorescent light panels. And, as she had thought, the spider was nowhere in sight; seemingly, it had vanished into thin air.

But it was not the newly-illuminated tunnel that interested Scootaloo much; instead, her gaze was trained toward the ceiling and the hole from which the light shone. As her eyes adjusted, slowly but surely, the filly could tell that it was one of the ceiling bricks that had been removed and, since nothing had fallen down, she could only assume that it had been lifted up and set aside by somepony. It wasn't until the second and third bricks next to it had been lifted until Scootaloo could figure out who had done it. She squinted up through the light, letting her eyes adjust. Then, she gasped.

"Grey?"

The grey-coated stallion above leaned his head down through the small hole in the ceiling, the tips of his mane brushing against the bricks. "Scootaloo! Thank goodness it's you—I was pretty sure, but couldn't be completely, you know. Imagine if it were one of the South Pen guards? I'd have to go all action-movie on them or something."

"Heh... yeah, that would suck," Scootaloo said. "What's going on? Where are we?"

Grey bent back up to pull out another brick, magically dislodging it. "We're actually in a museum. Isn't that weird?"

Scootaloo blinked. "Huh?"

"Oh, sorry. Welcome to the Umberlight Museum of Natural Sciences, where the science is science-y and the nature is... natural." The stallion bent down to grab another brick. "We're in one of the back storerooms, but don't worry. The museum won't be open for another few hours, so nopony else is back here besides us. I don't even think they have security guards, the poor saps. It's a wonder nopony's walked off with their entire collection yet."

"How... how'd you know I'd end up here?" Scootaloo asked.

"Heh... let's just say I had a hunch." Grey winked exaggeratedly. "Alright, the hole's big enough now. Okay if I lift you?"

Scootaloo nodded. "The sooner I get out of here, the better." Immediately, she was enveloped in a silvery magical aura that sent a wave of warmth through her whole body. The filly rose quickly through the hole in the ceiling and came to a landing on the stone brick ground before Grey let go. As soon as he was sure she had landed, Grey went quickly to work picking up each brick from a neat pile and then magically securing them back in place.

Scootaloo took a quick look at the room around, revealing a spacious room with a high ceiling but few furnishings. Large wooden crates stamped with letters she couldn't understand were stacked in piles along the walls.

"Should hold for a while," Grey said as he set the last brick down, leaving it impossible to tell a hole had been made in the first place. "Or at least long enough for us to get out of here. Not a big deal if they find the tunnel—they were bound to find it anyway, and maybe they can get some of that junk preserved." He turned to Scootaloo. "Say, where's Mochi?"

"Oh, erm... I'm not sure, to be honest," the filly replied. "She was cornered by the Bureau guards and she told me to get out so I did. She said she'd be fine."

Grey frowned. "Well, okay. Hopefully she's alright." The stallion took a few quick steps through the room, towards a door on the far end. "Let's go—the sooner we're out of here, the better."

"Wait!" Scootaloo called as she started to trot after him. "Why are we here? Who are you? Why did you help me escape?"

"No time!" Grey called, not even turning his head to look. "I'll tell you—believe me, I'll tell you—but the longer we stay here, the greater the chance they'll find us and capture you again. C'mon!"

Even though she grumbled to herself, Scootaloo had little choice but to follow the stallion as he opened the door and beckoned her forward before slamming it behind them.

Beyond this door was a large room with a high ceiling, even higher than that of the storeroom they had just left. In addition, large arches stretched the width of the room, culminating at a rotund dome of a ceiling. Even though it was so high up, Scootaloo could see the multicoloured painted figures of ponies and other creatures, posed in scene after scene as they went around in a vibrant circle of artistic wonder.

Scootaloo's eyes were drawn away from the magnificent, breathtaking ceiling by loud noises below; as her gaze descended, so did a feeling in her stomach that sunk lower and lower.

"Hey! You there! What are you doing?"

In the centre of the room, up a flight of stairs to a small balcony, stood three white-coated stallions that wore skin-tight black suits with black caps to match. It was one of them who had called out to Grey and Scootaloo, and his expression was angry yet determined. Scootaloo froze.

"Buckin' A..." Grey murmured. "C'mon, Scootaloo, let's scram!" Scootaloo could feel herself being lifted in his magic and thrust onto his back as the stallion galloped away. She turned her head to watch as the guards on the balcony recovered from their brief moment of shock before all three of them simultaneously leaped over the railing and landed hooves-first on the floor with a resounding clang that echoed through the entire museum lobby. Heart pounding in her chest, all Scootaloo could do was watch as Grey galloped as hard and as fast as he could to get away.

Analyse

"Spike?!"

The purple-scaled dragon's eyes opened slowly, allowing the blurry ceiling above to gradually come into focus. He turned his head slowly. "Wha—?"

"Spike!" Twilight's voice shouted again. Spike jumped where he lay in bed, throwing off the small part of his covers that had still been on top of him. Rubbing his eyes, the young dragon sat up.

"What's up?" Spike called. He couldn't see Twilight in his room and the door was still closed, so she must have been out in the hall. Finally she was learning not to just open his door whenever she felt like it.

"C'mere! I need your help! Also, your opinion!"

Spike raised an eyebrow but got to climbing out of bed, stretching out his limbs as he stood on the cold crystal floor. What would Twilight want his opinion on, anyway? Spike glanced over at the clock on his bedside table. 9:30 in the morning wasn't that early, so he couldn't exactly grumble about it. Twilight knew that he hadn't gotten to sleep until pretty late the night before, though. Meh.

Yawning, Spike opened his bedroom door and took a step into the hallway. It was when his eyes had opened again that he blinked in surprise. In the middle of the hall stood Twilight Sparkle with a variety of papers and notebooks floating around her head in her magenta magical aura. The mare had an almost manic expression on her face, lips curved upward into a wide smile as deep purple bags beneath her eyes sagged downwards. At least she had the natural advantage of a purple coat, allowing the extent of her sleep deprivation to go unnoticed by the untrained eye.

"You... alright?" Spike asked, not sure of what to say.

"Am I?!" Twilight exclaimed, a little too loudly. Her voice reverberated down the hall. "Erm, yes," she added, a little redness showing through on her cheeks. "After you went back to bed, I had a super fascinating conversation with Doc Zed about the planets out there! And, of course, I had to take notes."

"Of course," Spike agreed, nodding. She wouldn't be Twilight Sparkle if she hadn't been taking as many notes as she possibly could. "So did you find out what happened to Scootaloo?"

"Oh, yes!" Twilight replied, nodding vigourously. "Doc Zed hasn't met her yet, but he says a colt named Kevin that used to live in Dienna—that's a village on the Kindred planet—stowed away on her ship after she accidentally got towed by another ship he had been stowing away on. And they're not quite sure where Scootaloo is, but they think she might have gotten captured by the government. Now Kevin and some other filly are going to get parts to fix the ship, which I guess crashed, but they're going to look for Scootaloo too."

"Hold up, hold up..." Spike said, taking a step back. "So you were right about the whole planets thing? There really are other ponies out there?"

Twilight nodded again, grinning wider. "Yes, I know! And I must be the first pony in Equestria to have ever talked to one! Eee!"

"Dang... that's a lot to take in," Spike said. "And to think, one of my friends is out there in the middle of it all..."

"I know, right? What I wouldn't give to be in Scootaloo's place right now." Twilight's eyes glazed over as she looked dreamily ahead.

"So... what exactly did you need me to get up?" Spike asked. "Not that this isn't exciting and all, but maybe it could have waited 'til later?"

"Oh, right! No, I've got some important details to tell you and ask you about. C'mon, let's go to the study so I can show you all my notes." Before Spike had a chance to reply, Twilight had already turned around and was skipping merrily away down the hall.

"Luna's horseshoes," Spike murmured to himself as he began jogging after the princess. "When Twilight's making discoveries, it seems like she just doesn't get tired."

Repetitive

"So, you're not mad anymore that Scootaloo stole the ship?"

Spike propped his head up with one of his arms as it lay on the wooden table in the centre of the room. The castle's main study, where Twilight did much of her research organisation, was quite similar to the throne room except it didn't have the high ceilings or thrones and it was much smaller of a room with no natural light. Okay, it wasn't much like the throne room except that there was a large round table in the middle—composed of wood rather than magical crystal—with a few chairs around it. Spike sat in one of these, leaned over the table, watching as Twilight laid out the many papers and cards she had been holding on the table's wooden surface.

"Oh, no," Twilight said, looking up from her work. "I mean, I was never really angry that she had stolen it—though I'm still pretty sad that I don't have the ship here anymore, or that I didn't get to go out into space. No, I'm just worried about her. I was afraid, Spike—you know, we all were—and I thought she wouldn't last a few days out there. I don't even know if she had any food!"

"...didn't you put some of those shitty foodballs or whatever on there?" Spike asked, rolling his eyes.

"Watch your language, Spike! And Gamsco's aren't bad! Maybe a little dry, but they'll keep you with enough energy to go a few days."

Spike sighed. "Still doesn't make 'em taste good," he muttered.

Twilight ignoring him, looked back down at her notes. "No, I'm glad that Scootaloo took the ship if that's what she really needed to do. If that... if that's what would satisfy her enough to stay alive. As much as I wish she were here or that we could just talk to her... all that wishing won't do anything. She is where she is and we've got to count on Doc Zed and these kids to find her. Then, hopefully, we can get her to come back home." Neither Twilight nor Spike said anything more for a minute or two; Spike just watched as Twilight's eyes scanned the papers and then shifted them around as she remembered what their contents were.

"So, who exactly is this Doc Zed?" Spike asked finally.

"Well, we didn't have much time to talk, but I found out that he's a magical innovator and inventor!" Twilight looked up, grinning. "And he's actually working on the spaceship—he made a few modifications, of course, but I said that was okay. Imagine—when Scootaloo comes back, we'll have alien technology right here in Equestria!"

"Oh joy," Spike said. Although he tried to sound indifferent or annoyed, he really was excited—deep down, he had always wondered what it was like out there amongst the stars.

"Let's see..." Twilight reached across the table, pulling one sheet with large, scribbled writing in front of her. "He said a lot about this interplanetary government called the System Bureau of Cosmonautics—the Bureau for short—that's basically in charge of most of the planets in the solar system besides ours. They elect representatives to these different councils that make the laws, but there are also alicorn leaders from each planet who are permenantly in charge."

"Oh, so that kinda sounds like here," Spike said. "Wait... speaking of things that are like here, how did he speak Equestrian?"

Twilight looked at him and blinked. "Oh, ponyfeathers, I knew I forgot something important! Gah... I'll have to ask next time he calls."

"Couldn't you just call him again?" Spike asked.

"I wish, but he was pretty clear that the Bureau monitors almost all incoming calls, especially if not protected with certain technologies. Apparently he's got a schedule that has all the times it's safe to call."

Spike rolled his eyes. "No wonder you like the stallion—you sound perfect for each other."

Twilight giggled. "Don't be silly—he's just our only link to an alien world! And hopefully our key to getting Scootaloo back."

"So, what did you want to ask me about, then?" Spike asked. "Surely it can't be about whether you should ask this Zed guy out or whatever."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Cut it out, Spike. Just because it's early doesn't mean you need to be snarky."

"Mehhh."

"No, I actually do have an important question—thanks for reminding me. I guess my question is... what do you think about the forcefield?"

"What do you mean?" Spike asked, surprised enough to lift his head off the table and sit up straight. "You didn't say anything about that before... did this guy have something to say about it?"

As Twilight filled him in on what Doc Zed had told her about the outside of the forcefield and then what they'd worked out about its nature, Spike went from having an eyebrow raised to nearly having his mouth agape.

"But... where would all of that magical power come from?" Spike asked, tilting his head. "I don't know too much about that sort of thing, but wouldn't it have to come from... well, you know..."

Twilight nodded, a sombre expression on her face. "Yes, Spike—as far as I know, only alicorn magic could be enough to power such a construct."

"Celestia above..."

"I know, I know. And that goes back to what I want to ask you: what should I do?"

"Well, what are the options?" Spike asked, leaning back in his chair. "Ask Celestia about it... or not ask Celestia about it?"

"I mean... yeah," Twilight said, brushing one of her bangs away from her face. "Or Luna, I guess. And maybe they'd know more about the Bureau, too. But then... then I'd have to admit to them that I'd been working on the spaceship for months, under their very noses, without saying a word." A moment passed, silent.

"Well... what's the worst that could happen?" Spike asked.

"I... I don't know."

Are

The little bell next to the door clinked as Flight and then Kevin emerged from yet another store, trotting out onto the sidewalk. The light glass door swung quickly shut behind them.

"Where next?" Kevin asked. He gazed up at the buildings which stretched upwards to the almost-imperceptible ceiling which hung overhead. On the face of the skyscrapers, he could kind of make out the shapes of ponies moving about within the windows, somewhere high up there. It was kind of odd how the blocks would alternate between short buildings like the small convenience-store-type place they'd just been in and the massive looming skyscrapers that held who-knows-what. Offices, or something.

"Hmm, lemme check," Flight replied, pulling the paper from her saddlebag. "I didn't expect that'd be so easy."

"Well, I'm glad it was." Kevin took a deep breath, inhaling warm, stagnant air. He had noticed that, because Umberlight was underground, there was no fresh air to be found, something he missed as a pony who'd been raised on the surface. "What was it we even got in there? Some screws? Were those really not available in Dienna?"

"I guess," Flight replied, still looking down at the piece of paper in her hoof. "We're not here to figure out why Doc Zed needs 'em—we just need to get 'em."

Kevin took a few steps forward, head still turned towards Flight. "I thought you were suddenly not gonna trust Doc Zed or whatev—whoa!" The colt was interrupted by a grey stallion in a black suit trotting by quickly, nearly running into him.

"Watch where you're going!" the stallion called back, not even looking as he continued cantering down the sidewalk.

"You too, bud!" Kevin yelled back, even though he felt ridiculous as he said it. He shrunk back towards Flight, feeling much like a rock jutting out from a creek with how he divided the passing stream of ponies. Nopony paid them much mind, however; they looked up enough to make sure they weren't running into anypony, and then they kept walking forward.

"I mean, I wasn't going to trust him, and I'm still feeling kind of weird about the whole thing," Flight said, apparently having not noticed Kevin's near run-in. "But he's really the only thing we have left. What else are we going to do—give up and go home?"

"Yeah, I agree. Whatever Doc Zed's reasons for lying to us were, we've still got a ship to fix. And hopefully we can find Scootaloo, too."

"Exactly." A moment passed, as Kevin watch the filly look over the sheet once more. "Okay, I think I got it," Flight announced, looking up. "There's some parts for the engine we need to pick up, and he's written a little note here that we should get 'em at the Inner Sector Market. And, based on the little map here, it should be only... thirty five blocks or so."

Kevin blinked. "Thirty five blocks? Seriously? Isn't there anywhere closer?"

Flight shook her head. "Nope, it says this is the only place we can get 'em. Apparently they're... not quite legal. Not if you don't have a special permit from the Bureau."

Kevin sighed. "Mmmff... okay. Lead the way, then."

"Would it kill you to be less grumpy?" Flight asked as she began walking across the sidewalk to the street. "C'mon, we've gotta cross so we're going the right way." At Flight's lead, Kevin followed her as they waited for a moment's pause between the passing wagons before crossing. Once they got to the other side, Flight fell into lockstep with the stream of ponies flowing forward; Kevin could only do his best to keep up, eventually finding himself directly behind the yellow pegasus.

At some point, he glanced at her flank and was surprised to see the shape of a white feather emblazoned clearly with a thin black outline.

"You got your cutie mark!" Kevin blurted out. A few heads around them turned, but they turned back away as they saw nothing particularly exciting was happening.

"Huh?" Flight managed to say. She craned her neck around, looking back.

"It's a feather—a white feather!"

Flight snickered. "Oh, come on, Kevin."

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I've had that mark since—oh, wait, wow. I guess it was just after you left..."

"Oh, wow," Kevin said, his face growing warm. "That's cool... so, I guess you're good at flying?"

"Yeah, something like that," Flight responded. She shifted her pace so that Kevin was able to catch up and walk alongside her, to the left. "Also, apparently I'm really good at using them for swimming. Not that that would be useful at all. Heh."

"Still, that's pretty cool," Kevin remarked. He looked down at his own green-grey flank. "I still haven't gotten mine."

"Oh, don't worry. I'm sure you'll get it soon, especially now that you're back!"

"Meh, maybe, though I'm not sure what being back would have to do with it," Kevin replied. "Maybe my destiny isn't even related to here. And, in any case, it's kinda hard to get your cutie mark when you don't even know who you are."

"Pfft, don't be silly!" Flight turned to him and smiled. "You're Kevin of the Kindred planet, a super cool friend and one of the most handsome colts I know!" At this last statement, the filly winked, blushing.

Kevin felt a lump in his throat. "Yeah... right..." He turned forward and kept silent, leaving Flight confused as to what exactly, if anything, she had said wrong. There wasn't much she could do about it, though, so she kept trotting forward in step with the crowd as they passed block after block through the streets of Umberlight.

Fly

The front doors of the museum flew open, and Grey burst out onto the top of a long, wide row of stone stairs that stretched down metre after metre until they met the sidewalk where a few ponies were passing by below.

"What should I do?!" Grey called, head turning quickly from side to side. Scootaloo looked up and saw a white stone pillar to the left, part of the buildings ancient-looking construction to make it look more majestic. There was an identical one to the right.

"The pillar!" Scootaloo cried out. "Go behind, quickly!"

Not letting a moment go to waste, Grey skidded sideways and jumped next to the pillar so that they couldn't be seen from the museum's exit. He compressed his sides and held his breath; Scootaloo did the same, though she couldn't help but peer around the stone ridges of the thing.

A moment later, the double doors of the museum were thrust open again and Scootaloo could hear the thundering sound of hooves running past them. She turned her head to watch as all three stallions galloped down the stairs as fast as they could, obviously well-trained to do so as they seemed not to stumble even once. When they reached the sidewalk at the bottom, all three of their heads were spinning wildly in all directions.

"Where in the hay could they have gone?" one stallion asked.

"Hell if I know," another responded. He turned to one of the suit-clad mares who had stopped to gawk at these three guards. "Excuse me, ma'am, but have you seen a grey-coated unicorn stallion and an orange-coated pegasus filly running this way?"

The mare took a moment to register that she had been addressed but, once she figured out what he had been saying, slowly raised a hoof. Scootaloo was confused for a moment until she realised that the mare was pointing directly at where she and Grey stood. She and Grey merely looked back in surprise.

The stallion nodded. "Thank you very much." Then, he turned to his companions and, beckoning with a hoof, led them forwards, panting as they galloped back up the stairs.

"Move!" Scootaloo hissed, and this seemed to jolt Grey back awake as he spun around. In front of them was a sloped stone drop, much like if the museum stairs had been built on a pyramid. The ground was distant.

Grey took a step forward and Scootaloo had to bite her tongue to keep from screaming. She closed her eyes so she didn't have to watch the sight of the buildings blurring together as they accelerated downward, faster and faster, but she could still hear and feel the wind whistling in her ears and—

"Use your wings," Grey murmured, his voice surprisingly calm.

"Wh-what?"

The urgency in his voice returned and Scootaloo could feel his body trembling on his hooves beneath her. "Dammit, Scootaloo—I need you to start flapping or we're going to crash into the ground!"

Flustered, the filly opened her eyes. This was probably a mistake—she could feel her stomach lurch as she saw the ponies below, staring with mouths agape, and—

No.

She needed to focus.

Closing her eyes, Scootaloo took a deep breath and began vibrating her wings. Quickly, like Rainbow Dash had taught her, but not too quickly. She needed to believe in herself. And quick—otherwise they were toast.

Mmm, toast.

Scootaloo focused on all of the toast she was definitely going to eat after they got out of this. Maybe she could hang out with Kevin and go back to his house, and eat toast. She flapped her wings harder, yet with more precision. She forgot about the extra weight of Grey, whom she was holding onto for dear life.

Scootaloo started to not feel the trembling beneath her.

"Thank Anaxagor," the stallion exhaled. "You're doing great, kid. Keep going."

Scootaloo decided to chance a look, so she let her eyelid unclench and open. She could see the slanted roofs of the smaller roofs below them, as well as some of the windows on the taller skyscrapers. Ponies inside were talking amongst each other or sitting at desks with computer consoles, but not one looked in their direction that she could see.

"Celestia above..." Scootaloo murmured. "I'm flying. I'm really flying."

"You really are, kid," Grey agreed from below. "Rainbow Dash would be proud."

The two of them lurched downwards. Scootaloo swiftly recovered, bringing them back up to an even level. "What?" the filly asked. "How do you know Rainbow Dash?"

"...how about let's get to one of those skyscraper roofs before we talk about anything serious."

"Mmmff... fine. But you owe me some answers, dude."

"And you'll get them, in due time," Grey replied, sounding very much like he was choosing his words carefully. "It would just be better if were weren't, y'know, in danger when we're discussing them."

Scootaloo sighed. "Where to?"

Grey's head turned, his eyes scanning the rooftops. "How about... that one?" He pointed down at a roof slightly below them. Obliging with his request, Scootaloo lowered their altitude slowly until she could feel Grey's hooves land squarely on the roof. For the first time in several minutes, the filly let go and slid off his back, standing once more on a flat surface.

Excursion

"How about if I went?" Spike said. He and Twilight had spent the last ten minutes sitting at the table in the study, trying to think of what to do. "I could go to Canterlot and talk to the princess—ask her about the forcefield and all that."

"Hmm... but would that really be much better than a letter?" Twilight looked up at the ceiling, her eyebrow arched. "Heh... no offense, Spike," Twilight added. "I just mean... she might want to hear it from me."

"She'll understand if you're busy," Spike countered. "It'd be better if you sent me than just a letter—it's a sign of respect or whatever. I dunno."

"No, that's a good point, Spike," Twilight agree, nodding. "And it would buy me time in case something came up... I mean, not that something would come up, but you know." The alicorn laughed nervously. "You sure you're willing to do that, though? That's kind of a big task."

"Yeah, it shouldn't be too bad. And Princess Celestia will be nice about it, whatever she says." Spike paused. "Hey, do you think I'd be able to stay with Rarity?"

"Oh, wow, Spike—that's a great idea," Twilight said. "I'm sure Rarity would be up to it, too. How long has it been since you seen her—a month?"

"Nah, longer than that," Spike said, thinking. "I was in the Crystal Empire then, remember?"

"Oh, wow, then I guess it hasn't been since... since my birthday," Twilight concluded, eyes wide. "Have you even seen Canterlot Boutique?"

"Um... yeah? I helped her and Sweetie move in, remember?"

"Oh, right," Twilight said, nodding. "Gah... everything's been a blur. I guess this is what getting older feels like, huh?"

Spike rolled his eyes. "Ugh, don't remind me. I'm still a teenager and even I can feel it."

"Mmm, yeah." Twilight took a deep breath and then trained her gaze back down at her notes. "Now I've just gotta get organised what you're gonna say."

"Pfft, c'mon, Twilight," Spike said, dismissing her words with a claw. "It's not like I'm a salesdragon giving a presentation to the Board of Directors or anything. I'm just gonna ask Celestia what's up. She's our friend, remember?"

"Hmm... you may be right, but we can never be too careful. Just the other day, I read a study that showed that the exact words you use can affect how cooperative other ponies are by up to twenty-five percent!"

"Golly gee," Spike deadpanned, "I'm sure that'll win her over."

"Oh, shush." Despite her annoyed tone, Twilight smiled. "I'm gonna keep working on this anyway."

"Alright," Spike said. He stood up and jumped off of his chair, landing squarely on his feet. "I'm gonna go back to my room and figure out what I'm gonna pack."

"Good luck!" Twilight called after the dragon as he walked out of the study, into the hall. His footsteps reverberated up and down the empty crystal hallway as he walked leisurely back in the direction of his room.

Proceed

It was only a dozen or so minutes until a large metal warehouse came into view on a fairly open block across the street, two blocks down on the left from where Kevin and Flight trotted at a medium pace. Chain link fence outlined the block, running parallel to the sidewalk; on the building's front, the black painted letters had nearly scraped away but Kevin could make out where it said "òИИ⫙3 ሐ⫙◹OѦ3 MØ3ʞ⫙O"—exactly what they were looking for. Flight seemed to have noticed it as well; Kevin watched as her head turned towards it and the filly quickened her pace. He began to trot faster as well.

Somewhere to the right, a bird cawed. Kevin kept walking alongside Flight, but then he heard it again so he looked to his right and then up, above the storefront they were passing by.

Eyeing him from its perch on the edge of the roof was a large raven, its feathers black as soot. And, of course, right in between the beady black eyes of the thing lay a shiny golden star sticker. The bird opened its beak and let out another caw.

"You hear that, Kev?" Flight asked, still looking at the warehouse building. "That's probably the first bird I've heard since we've gotten here. To be honest, I didn't even know there were birds in the city."

"Shh," Kevin shushed, still looking up at the bird. He stopped walking.

"Huh? What are you—oh." The filly stopped where she stood and craned her neck to look upwards at the inky black creature. The bird cawed once more—an ugly, creaky caw—and turned its head to look at Flight, who stood about a metre away from Kevin on the side walk.

Quickly, Kevin glanced around to see if anypony around them were watching; once he made sure there was nopony else around, the colt took a step forward. "What do you want?" he hissed.

The raven blinked and turned back to look at Kevin. He could almost swear he could see the corners of its beak curve upwards as it let out another long, harsh caw.

"Is this... is this like the other ones?" Flight murmured. Before Kevin had a chance to reply, the bird raised its head to the sky and let out a series of short, high pitched caws—it was tittering. When it lowered its head, there was no mistaking it; the bird wore a grin, wide and fierce.

"'Is this like the other ones'? My dear, I thought you had agreed not to tell anypony else," the raven said in a high-pitched voice. The bird's wings fluttered and lifted its body off of the ledge, hovering downward until it came to a landing on the sidewalk in front of the glass windows of the store, bouncing slightly as its claws scrabbled at the concrete. Once it regained its footing, the bird looked up at Kevin, ignoring Flight for the time being. Kevin could see part of his face reflected in the tiny golden star.

"Um... did I?" Kevin asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't remember saying anything like that."

"Hmmm," replied the raven—or at least that's what it seemed like he was saying, as a quiet whistle emanated from the thing's nostrils as it made the sound. "Perhaps not. Still, I thought it was pretty clear that I was supposed to be secret. And you're no stranger to secrets, are you?" The bird's head turned towards Flight and it seemed to look her over a moment before speaking again. "Interesting, interesting."

"Huh?" Flight took a step back. "What are you?"

The bird snorted. "Do not be afraid, child. There is nothing I want from you."

Flight blinked. "Then... then what do you want with him?"

"A good question, don't you think? Maybe you should ask your friend sometime." The raven coughed, and a few fluffy down feathers fell out and landed on the sidewalk. "Ugh, not again. This city never really has agreed with me, even back when—well, nevermind." It turned its head back towards Kevin. "I'll be back for ya, kid, don't you fret."

"For the last time, I'm not going with you!" Kevin exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." The raven sighed. "Someday, though, you'll see that the benefits outweight the costs."

With that, the bird leapt up into the air, flapping its wings so wide that Kevin and Flight both jumped back so they wouldn't be hit by a stray feather. They watched as the thing soared into the air and towards the roof of the store. Just as it was about to disappear out of sight, however, the raven suddenly was enveloped in an iridescent golden magical field and, right in front of their very eyes, it transformed. The outstretched wings grew smaller and thinner, feathers turning into leathery dark grey skin with claws protruding from the middle. Squeaking, the bat flew out of sight.

Flight blinked. "What... just happened?"

"Nngh... I dunno," Kevin replied. "Let's just get going." He started off down the sidewalk without another word, cantering quickly in the direction of the warehouse.

"Hey, wait up!" Flight called after him, galloping until she reached his side. "Seriously, what's up with the bird thing? Or the star, or any of it?"

"...I don't know, and I don't really care," Kevin said, looking straight ahead. "The less we think about dumb distractions like that, the better. We're on a mission for Doc Zed, remember?" The green-grey colt looked both ways and then crossed the street, leaving Flight to follow as fast as she could in his hoofsteps.

However, once they were inside the chain link fence crossing through the otherwise-empty lot that housed the Inner Sector Market, Flight put a hoof on Kevin's shoulder. The colt stopped and looked at her.

"Kevin, please. You told me a little about the creatures before and how they were only there when you were on the planet. But you can tell me anything—you know that, right?"

"Well, yeah..." Kevin said, looking down at the ground. "It just doesn't seem very important."

Flight snorted. "C'mon, crazy talking animals seem about as important as fixing an alien spaceship. All the weird stuff is probably connected, anyway."

Kevin sighed. "There's not really much more to tell besides what I already told you. I first saw them the day after my parents died and kept seeing them all through living in Esprit. They tried to reassure me but then started saying that I should follow them away from the island, off to do other things with them. I dunno why I didn't—I guess I thought it was weird or something, so I said I wouldn't. Then they got really mad and started attacking me whenever they saw me, and I would get pretty banged up. But the worst part was that nopony could ever see either them or the injuries I got most of the time, so I couldn't get any time off work or anything even though they still hurt."

"But... what do they want with you?" Flight asked. "It seems weird... and that raven was pretty adamant that it was you it wanted, not me or anypony else."

"I dunno," Kevin replied. "It's always really vague about it—one time, I'm pretty sure they said they'd tell me once I already decided to go with them. But I always get this really weird bad feeling in my stomach... like it would be a really bad idea to go with them."

"Well, I can't pretend to know anything about them," Flight said, foreleg still aroud Kevin's shoulder, "but I don't think it would be a good idea either. You're right—we should focus on this mission so we can get the parts back to Doc Zed. And if that bird gets in the way again, we'll take 'em out—you and I."

"That... sounds good," Kevin affirmed, nodding. Flight pulled her hoof away and started walking forward towards the open doorway of the Inner Sector Market. After a deep breath, Kevin trotted up alongside the filly and followed her through the doorway.

Market

The large room inside the warehouse was lit up in an unnatural yellow light that shone down from an array of bare lightbulbs that hung from the mostly-empty ceiling. Down below, however, the rows and rows of booths that were crammed in together made the room feel very tightly-packed, and the customers walking between them only served to make it feel even more cramped. The booths were set up kind of like the city street blocks, in that there would be a few packed together side-by-side and then a gap for ponies to walk through before the next bunch. They all seemed to gloss together in the gaze of Flight and Kevin who looked upon the market with unfamiliar eyes—the plastic signs in front with their neutral-coloured text were barely even read.

"Nnngh, it's crowded in here," Kevin said, looking around. "And loud."

"Heh, yeah," Flight replied. She looked at a booth to her right as they walked past that had rows of fresh apples laid out on the counter. A grinning stallion who stood with one of the fruit in his magical grasp was busy polishing one with a towel. "We should be able to get out of here soon... we just gotta find the booth and get the parts for the engine."

"Which booth are we looking for?" Kevin asked.

"Hmm, let's see." Flight reached back to her saddlebag and pulled out the scrap of paper. "Looks like... we need to talk to somepony named 'Cotton Fluff'. Her booth should have her name on it, I guess."

"Huh, okay. Guess we should just look around 'til we find her, huh?"

Flight rolled her eyes. "Yeah, if you wanna waste a lot of time." She turned to a booth to her left that had a tall wooden rack to the side with row after row of hoofmade candles, all different shapes and sizes. As Kevin looked at the multicoloured swirls of the wax inside, he could smell their aromas wafting over and mixing together into a singular disgusting scent that overwhelmed him to the point of nausea. "Excuse me, sir," Flight said, looking at the brown-coated stallion behind the booth. He smiled warmly.

"How do you do, miss? Care to purchase a candle or three?"

"Hmm..." Flight glanced over at the candles on the shelf and narrowed her eyes. "Maybe another time," she said, turning back. "We were wondering if perhaps you could tell us where to find Cotton Fluff's booth."

"Oh, why didn't you say so?" The stallion snickered.

"I just did," Flight said flatly.

"Of course, of course. Let's see, now..." The stallion raised a hoof and pointed past Flight to the far corner of the room. "It's way down there, off in the far corner. Big booth with a yeller sign, much like yourself. Can't miss it. And that Cotton Fluff there is a pretty lass with a blonde mane, but she really knows her stuff."

"Thank you," Flight said, turning away. "Have a good day, sir."

"You too!" he called after her. "You sure you don't wanna buy any candles for your coltfriend here?"

Ignoring the stallion, Flight kept walking past the booth and into the crowd and it was all Kevin could do to follow the butter yellow pegasus before he lost sight of her.

Customers

"Alright, let's see... is this everything you wanted?"

"Hmm." The stallion across the counter looked down at where a variety of sculpted plastic pieces lay—put together, they were for making repairs to the vanity outer shell of a hovercraft. "Yeah, that looks to be everything." He levitated a small plastic card in front of him. "How much will that run me?"

Cotton Fluff looked down at the pile, running up a mental tally as she went through each piece. "Looks like... 55 credits. Actually, you've got a bundle so I'll take a few off, leaving you at 50 credits."

The stallion blinked. "Seriously? Lady, I thought this was gonna be, like, 90 or more. You sure you're counting right?"

Cotton Fluff grinned. "Of course. I mean, I do accept tips, but that's the base price, yes."

"Huh. Yeah, I'll throw ya another 10 credits, Ms. Fluff," the stallion said, dropping his card in the mare's outstretched hoof. "Dunno where I'd be without your help, to be honest—all the bigger places closed shops ages ago. I'm lucky I heard about this place from a buddy o' mine... otherwise, I'd probably be running a couple thousand credits for a new bike."

Cotton Fluff nodded and smiled as she ran his card through her little machine and punched in the amount, not bothering to mention that the repair he was making was only cosmetic and that his hovercraft would work just fine without it. She beckoned for him to press the button to approve the purchase amount. Then, once he had replaced his card in a pocket and swept the plastic pieces into a tote bag, the stallion took off. Cotton Fluff was left only a moment to exhale in relief before the next customers stepped up. Except, at first, she didn't see anypony. Then, the mare looked down.

Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration—the young ponies in front of her weren't that short. But she still was confused briefly before she saw a green-grey unicorn colt to the left and a yellow pegasus filly to the right, standing earnestly in line. Cotton Fluff could have sworn something about these ponies seemed familiar, but she wasn't quite sure what.

"Erm... next," she said awkwardly.

"Hello!" the filly said cheerily, taking a step forward up to the counter. "How are you this morning?"

"I'm... quite fine, thank you," she replied. "What do you ponies need today?"

The filly reached back into her saddlebag and pulled out a small scrap of paper that she placed delicately on the counter. "Just the items written underneath your name, please."

Cotton Fluff pulled the paper across the counter and saw that there was a list scrawled in messy blue ballpoint handwriting—not unreadable, but a little bit of a challenge all the same. Her eyes scanned the page until she found her own name underlined and then a list underneath—a jumbled, kind of unorganised list—with a variety of parts used for spacecraft engine repair.

"All these parts are pretty darn specialised," Cotton Fluff noted.

"It's alright if you don't have them," the colt said in a high voice. "We can probably find somewhere else—ow!" The filly had just elbowed him in the side. "Ungh... what gives?"

"C'mon, Kevin, don't be silly." The filly turned back to the counter. "You can help us, can't you, Ms. Fluff?"

Cotton Fluff couldn't help but snicker. "Yes, yes, I was just messing with you. These parts are pretty specialised—and that's why you won't find 'em anywhere else besides Fluff's Stuff. Not even if you looked."

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "Where do you get them from, then?"

Cotton Fluff winked. "Trade secret, kid." The brown-coated mare turned to face the shelves that lined the walls of her booth and the two young ponies watched as she looked around. "Hm... it's just as I suspected."

"What?" Flight asked.

"Well, I did say I have the parts, and that's true," Cotton said, turning back to the coutner. "I do have them... just not here. The specialty parts I've got in my office, 'cause I usually do those by mail order. But don't fret! I'll have 'em here for you bright and early tomorrow morning to pick up."

"Er, tomorrow morning?" the filly asked, frowning. "Is there any way we could get them sooner? Like, erm, today?"

"Uhhhh..." Cotton Fluff looked taken aback. "Maybe? Lemme check how much they're worth." The mare pulled out a clipboard from below the counter and flipped through the pages, spending a minute finding where the serial numbers matched up and then following the row across the page to see the price. Once she was halfway through the list, she stopped and looked up with an odd expression.

"No?" Kevin said. "C'mon, Flight, we'll call Doc Zed and figure something out." He started to turn, when Cotton Fluff nearly leaped out from behind the counter.

"No, no! Wait! Nnngh..."

"Huh?"

"Kids," Cotton Fluff said, leaning over the counter. "I can very much afford to shut down the stand for a little while so we can go get those parts for you." She hoofed the paper back across the counter for Flight to take. "Let's get out of here, before I change my mind."

Flight and Kevin watched as Cotton Fluff pulled on a little string by one of the posts and a velvet curtain covered the entire area with the counter as well as the door, with a little sign on the front that read "Closed". The mare popped out of the velvet-covered doorway a moment later. "Vamonos!" she said, skipping forward into the crowd.

Kevin looked to Flight. "How much are those parts gonna cost?"

Flight gulped. "I have no idea. Let's... go?"

"...yes, let's."

Frustrating

As she hopped off of Grey's back, Scootaloo looked around at the roof which was one of those flat concrete ones with a railing all around—the type that ponies could walk on, whether they were supposed to or not. Scootaloo had seen such roofs before in Canterlot and Manehattan and also in the movies, although she had never before been on one.

"I wonder what this is a building for," Scootaloo wondered aloud.

"Pretty sure the top at least is a dentist's office that's only open on the weekends," Grey said. Scootaloo watched as he stepped up to the railing and peered over at the city spread out below. "At least, that's if it hasn't changed in the last fifty years. It's been a while since I've been in Umberlight."

Scootaloo looked at him, confused; the stallion was definitely an adult, but she wouldn't have placed him any older than his late thirties or early forties. She shrugged it off and moved on to more important questions. "So, uh... you gonna tell me any of the stuff that you say is so important that nopony else can hear it?"

Grey turned away from the ledge to face the filly. "Oh, right. Well, you see—huh?"

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Shh," Grey shushed, rushing forward in front of Scootaloo. He stood between her and the sole protrusion from the roof's surface that had a door on its face, presumably leading down into the building below. "I think I heard somepony coming."

After a minute or two of standing there with no sound beyond the distant chattering and motion of the crowd on the streets below, Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and that somepony is me. Cut the crap, dude—I wanna know what's up."

Grey sighed. "But of course. I apologise, Scootaloo—I do not want to deceive or mislead you. I'm just on edge."

"Why?" Scootaloo asked.

"What do you mean, 'why'?" Grey said with a nervous laugh. "I broke you out of prison and we just got chased by guards and nearly got caught. Excuse me if I'm a bit nervous."

"That's another thing... why did you break me out of prison, anyway? How do you know who I am? Nnngh... none of this makes any sense."

"Look, kid, there's... there's a lot of complicated stuff going on. But I promise you this: I'm with the good guys. I'm trying to help you."

Scootaloo's expression remained flat. "That is the least plausible sell I've ever heard, dude. How do I know that it's you who wants to help me and not that Velvet guy from the prison or whatever? Maybe he just wanted to protect me from wackos like you."

Grey sighed. "Look, there's a lot I really wanna tell you but we need to get out of the city first. I just need to figure out... how."

"This is underground, right?" Scootaloo asked, looking around at the earthen ceiling of the city that loomed overhead. "Can't we just bust a hole through the ceiling?"

"If only it were that easy... no, we've got to get out without causing too much of a commotion. Otherwise the Bureau police will definitely be after you."

"We're at the top of a building, wise guy. We can't just get off of here without being seen," Scootaloo huffed. "The guards are probably on their way here already. I'm just the kid and you're the one trying to rescue me—shouldn't you be the one figuring this out?"

"Anaxagor damn it, I am. Just—oh!" Grey's face lit up in realisation.

"What?"

"Hold on, I just had an idea! I'll be right back."

"Wait, don't—" Scootaloo started, but it was too late. Before her very eyes, Grey jumped into the air and transformed into a bird. He only glanced back once before disappearing off the edge of the building but it was enough for Scootaloo to see, of course, the reflective silver star on his forehead.

Alone on the rooftop, the filly groaned. "What the buck even...?"

Lobby

Cotton Fluff was excited. Sure, she made a hefty sum of money every day—hard not to, when she worked in such a specialised business that was enough work to enter that nopony else bothered—but it was rare to have a sale as large as the one she was about to make. As she cantered along the sidewalk, she briefly considered whether the kids would have enough money to pay for it; they were just kids, after all. But they probably wouldn't have bothered with it if they couldn't, and they seemed pretty organised with that list they had.

Shrugging it off, Cotton Fluff looked over her shoulder to see where the two young ponies—Kevin and Flight—were doing their best to keep up, nearly a block away. Whoops. Cotton Fluff stopped next to a pawn shop window and pretended to be interested in looking at the various trinkets inside while she waited for them to catch up through the crowd.

"You guys need to slow down?" Cotton Fluff asked once they were within earshot. Panting, Kevin shook his head.

"Well, maybe a little," Flight managed to say once she had collected herself a bit. "I'm glad we're getting there fast, but my legs are killing me."

"Don't worry—there's only a few blocks to go," Cotton Fluff reassured her as she started walking again, this time at a slower pace so that she could trot alongside her customers. "And I've got seats in my office so you can sit down while I look for the parts in the storeroom."

"Oh, thank Aeneus," Kevin mumbled.

"I thought you said you were fine," Flight said, smirking.

"Oh, shush. I walked exactly as far as you did," Kevin countered, rolling his eyes. "Nnngh... I haven't even slept in a proper bed since before we crashed."

Cotton Fluff thought this comment odd, but didn't address it. Instead, she asked, "Oh, did you ponies walk a long way?" For a few moments, all her question was met with was silence.

"Yeah, we came up from Dienna," Flight said finally. "A friend of ours is trying to repair his ship and we're on break from school so we offered."

"Heh, sounds like me when I was your age. I went out of town pretty much every school break I could." The mare looked around at the street and ponies that surrounded them. "Umberlight's a pretty nifty place, but I didn't always feel that way."

"It's definitely a lot bigger than anywhere I've ever been," Kevin said. "I've really just been in Dienna, Capricorn, and Minutiae, plus a few other villages here and there."

"Ah, so it's your first underground city," Cotton Fluff remarked. "It's big, but it doesn't hold a candle to the cities in the actual provinces. I swear the Centre's gotta be over a thousand square kilometres."

"Holy crud... you serious?" Kevin asked, eyes wide.

"One thousand and thirty six square kilometres, to be exact," Flight said, grinning. "We just talked about it in Geography class."

"But of course," Cotton Fluff said, nodding. "What else are you kids learning in school?"

As they walked, Cotton Fluff listened intently to Flight's detailed descriptions of the curriculum, including the experimental novel Lost of Thoughts they were studying in Literature class, the Vergla Schism they were studying in History class, and the trigonometry they were just starting to learn about in Maths class. Cotton Fluff noticed as she listened that Kevin said very little and even seemed to be reacting much like she was to what Flight was saying, as if he had never heard it before. Odd.

By the time Flight had finished telling Cotton and Kevin about the collage project she had just made in art class, Cotton had to step ahead and put out a hoof to stop the young ponies.

The brown-coated mare turned and puffed out her chest, looking at the younger ponies in front of her. "We're here."

Kevin and Flight hadn't noticed it while they were walking because they had been so enthralled by their conversation, but the three ponies had left the Inner Sector behind and were now back in the midst of the taller, newer Outer Sector buildings—and this building in front of them was no exception. Kevin could see his face reflected off of the shiny metal that made up the sheer wall that loomed above, uninterrupted save for the occasional window. The building had to have been at least fifteen stories tall.

"You own all that?" Kevin asked, surprised. Cotton Fluff looked taken aback for a moment and then giggled a soft, friendly giggle.

"Snrkt—you think I'm that rich? Hee hee..." The mare wiped a tear of laughter away from her eye. "Nope, I've just got a suite that takes up most of the sixth floor. Though maybe after this sale I can expand my storeroom..."

Flight and Kevin shared a look of alarm.

"Heh, I'm kidding. Anyway, c'mon." Cotton Fluff extended a hoof and pushed open the glass door, holding it open for Kevin and Flight to walk through.

The room they entered was a small, sleek lobby with a dark burgundy tile floor that had a bench and a potted plant on one side and two elevators on the other. Cotton Fluff made a beeline for the elevators and pressed the upper button in the middle so that by the time Kevin and Flight had made their way across the room, the doors on one of the elevators had already slid open. Cotton Fluff stood aside as a tall stallion emerged from within.

"Good day, Ms. Fluff," he said as he passed, briefly lowering his head.

"Thanks!" she called after him, but the outside door was already swinging closed behind him. "Huh."

"Who was that?" Flight asked as the three of them crowded into the elevator.

Cotton Fluff pressed a button which lit up orange. The doors of the elevator slid closed with a mechanical exhale. "You know, I don't think I've ever gotten his name. He works with a law firm on the third floor, I believe."

"Huh. Do you know a lot of the ponies here?"

"Most, I'd say," Cotton Fluff replied. In the background, the electrical hum of the elevator moving upward could be heard. "I'm pretty chatty when I wanna be."

Ironically enough, neither Kevin nor Flight had anything to say to that so they stood there in silence as the elevator rose. Cotton Fluff began whistling a jaunty little tune that seemed to bounce around the walls, filling up the small elevator.

Realisation

"Feel free to sit down and make yourself at home—I'll be in the back looking for the parts you need."

Flight and Kevin followed Cotton Fluff through the door in the hallway into a small, cosy personal office whose lights had just flickered on at the mare's touch. There was a desk in the centre of the room made of dark, rich mahogany with only a computer screen sitting atop it. In the front half of the room, there was a sofa on either side of the room; Kevin plopped down on one and felt his body sink down a little and he watched Flight do the same on the sofa opposite him.

"Oh, and could I get that list again?" Cotton Fluff asked, looking up from the computer screen. "I'd like to double check it against my computer catalogue just to make sure I have all the parts before I start digging around for them in the back."

Flight and Kevin looked at one another for a moment and then back to Cotton Fluff; then, Flight stood up and brought the list over to Cotton Fluff.

"Thanks, kid!" Cotton Fluff said as she trotted over to the computer console,

"Heh... it's really us who should be thanking you," Flight said as she sat back down on her sofa.

"Yeah, I dunno what we would've done if we hadn't found you," Kevin added. Cotton Fluff saw Flight glare across the room at him in the corner of her vision, but she tried to keep focus on the computer as she typed each item into the catalogue program. For a few moments, the only sound in the small room was that of her typing.

"Oh, okay, awesome," Cotton Fluff said finally, looking up from the console to see Flight making funny faces at Kevin. As soon as the filly heard Cotton's voice, she stopped and both of the young ponies turned to face the older mare. "I've got all the parts here in stock," Cotton continued, "so it should just take me a few minutes to find them." Grabbing the list once more, she stepped away from the desk and towards a door on the left wall; with a push of the handle and a click of the latch, the door swung open. Flight smiled and waved as Cotton disappeared into the depths of the dark storeroom.

The mare closed the door most of the way behind her, leaving it open a crack. Then, she flicked on the light switch by the door, flooding the room with harsh white light that buzzed from long glass tubes in the ceiling. The storeroom was large and cluttered, with movable metal racks that lined the walls whose shelves were full of stuff. A pile of exhaust pipes of all different diametres here, a box of extra-strength space-proof vanity screws of all different colours there, and the worst part was that all of the mess was just jumbled in there, shoved in the first spot she could find at the time. She felt like she sighed more every time she entered the room, to be honest; one of these days she needed to just take a day off and sort out all the clutter.

It wasn't too bad, though—as Cotton Fluff walked between the shelves, following the curve of the room as it encircled her office, she found herself knowing exactly where to find the parts. In just a few minutes, the mare had located every last screw, connector, piston, and other part that was on the list and swept them into an old tote bag she wouldn't mind losing. It took her another few minutes to verify the serial numbers as specified; however, as she'd thought, there was not a part wrong or missing. Grinning, the mare lifted the handle of the bag off the floor between her teeth with a soft clink and trotted quietly through the storeroom. She was about to flick the light off and leave the room when she heard the voices of her young companions in the other room, speaking in hushed tones.

"Don't you think we should be more on the lookout?" Flight asked. "Umberlight's where he's from... he could be anywhere."

"I dunno," Kevin replied. "We have no idea if Gloss is still here. Maybe he went back to Dienna to try to arrest Doc Zed or something. I mean, how would he find us?"

Gloss. That one name—a name Cotton Fluff was very familiar with—sent a wave of realisation down her spine. Of course—how hadn't she remembered before? A green-grey unicorn colt and a yellow pegasus filly. Travelling alone, together, looking for parts. Specialised parts.

Cotton Fluff froze, and could feel her heart beating heavily in her chest. She didn't know what to do, but she needed to contact Gloss.

Taking a deep breath, the mare flicked off the light switch and pulled the door open, making sure it creaked as to alert the young ponies of her entry. She didn't want them to think anything was out in of the ordinary.

"You find everything?" Flight asked, looking towards Cotton Fluff.

"Heh... yup... everything here..." Cotton Fluff managed with an awkward smile, her teeth still clamped around the handle of the bag. "Just gotta... um... check something else." She shuffled over to her desk and set the bag down. Then, she looked down at the surface of the desk. It was empty, save for her computer keyboard. "...crud," she mumbled.

"Everything okay, Ms. Fluff?" she heard Kevin ask. The mare looked up and gulped.

"Yep! Eheh... just fine and dandy."

And yet, it wasn't. Here she was with those kids that Gloss had asked her to tell him about and she had forgotten, and led them all the way to her office. And, what's more, Cotton Fluff had forgotten to bring her comlink. She glanced back down at the empty spot on the desk as if that would make it somehow magically appear.

"Great!" Flight said, leaping up from the sofa. "Lemme just get out my card and I'll pay you."

Cotton Fluff nodded weakly, sweating bullets.

Meet

Scootaloo sat alone on the roof, settled down in the middle. She had already grown tired of looking over the edge and, suspecting that looking for the silver-starred raven was just making her more frustrated and antsy, settled for staring at the door across the roof—the only normal way to get down, as far as the pegasus could see.

The filly sighed. Of course Grey had once again refused her request for answers, just to do something even more confusing that just brought up more questions. It was driving her further and further insane. And she was sure that he would be back any minute, whisking her off somewhere else while refusing to explain why but telling her that it was oh so important.

But how was Scootaloo to know that she could trust him?

Well, he broke her out of jail. That's something, at least.

Unless Scootaloo had been kept in jail to protect her from ponies like him. Not that that's what Velvet made it sound like, but it was possible. Maybe he was with the ponies the Bureau was at war against. Would that be a good thing? Scootaloo didn't know. And she was pretty darn sure that Grey wouldn't tell her even if she asked.

The filly shivered as she felt a gust of wind blow by.

Wait, wind?

Scootaloo turned around to see a bird with a silver star on its forehead perching on the ledge. "I think you got it a little wrong," the filly said without thinking. "You were a raven before, and now I think you're a... crow?"

The bird looked down at itself. "Huh, really? How can you tell?" Its voice was still Grey's, though it sounded a little more hollow, a little reedier, probably because of the beak.

"You're a little smaller than you were before, and your tail feathers are all about the same length."

"Huh, good to know," the crow replied. "Is that something Fluttershy told you?"

"Uh, maybe? I can't remember," Scootaloo replied. "Wait—how do you know Fluttershy?" Now was the time to find out if she was right. Just a simple question.

"Shh, no time for that." Of course there wasn't. "We've gotta move, and fast. Otherwise we won't be able to rendezvous."

"With who?" Scootaloo asked. "Where did you even go?"

"I went to go see how far along your friends are, of course. Looks like they're just about to leave, so we'll be making good time if we get out of here now."

"M-my friends?!" Scootaloo exclaimed, eyes wide. "From Ponyville?"

"No, no, not them. Sorry—I didn't mean to scare you like that!" Grey cleared his throat. "No, I guess you don't know all of them yet. But it's the one you call Kevin and the companions that, uh, he picked up along the way here."

Scootaloo blinked. "You know Kevin?"

"Not personally," Grey said. "But I know of him. And I know that I need to get you back with him so you can get out of the city."

"Um... why?" Scootaloo asked. "I really appreciate it and I don't mean to look a gift... bird in the mouth, but why do you care?"

"Scootaloo, there's... there's a lot that I know that I can't tell you yet. There's simply too much danger right now that you could fall into the wrong hooves and be... well... I don't want to scare you, but there are ponies who would torture you to know what I know."

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "I'm not that important, dude. Maybe I'm an alien to them and I know a bunch of stuff about Equestria, but I'm just some kid who ran away from home."

"How important you are remains to be seen. Regardless of that, however, I've made a promise to a dear old friend in Equestria that I will keep you safe and I'll be damned if I can't at least try. Leaving you here to rot or be interrogated in a Bureau prison isn't exactly 'safe', either."

"But why are the Bureau so bad?" Scootaloo asked.

The bird looked around. "Look, I'm really sorry, but that will have to wait. We really need to get moving. If we don't leave now, they could already be past there before we're even close."

"Past where?"

"The zoo, of course." Grey hopped off the ledge Scootaloo watched as his wings receded and body expanded back into the grey-coated unicorn stallion, landing with a thump on the surface of the roof. He smiled. "We've gotta go through the building to get down, though, since I can't fly as anything that can carry you without getting too much attention and you don't know where we're going. Plus you'd probably garner too much attention as well—it's not exactly common for ponies to fly this high."

"Um, okay," Scootaloo said. "But how are we gonna get down without getting noticed?"

"Eh, I dunno," Grey said, scratching his chin. "I'm sure we'll figure it out." Before Scootaloo could say anything else, the stallion crossed the roof and opened the door, holding it wide open. "Ladies first," he said with a grin.

Scootaloo trotted across the roof and inside the building, gazing down the dark, narrow stairwell. "Ugh... if you really knew anything about Equestria, you'd know that Rarity herself decreed that I'll never be a lady."

She had already started down the stairs, but Scootaloo could have sworn she heard Grey snickering behind her as he closed the door.

Flights

"You know, have I ever mentioned that I'm tired of stairs?" Scootaloo asked as she trotted quickly down the stairs. Each one was brown-coloured and had an odd pattern etched into the top that made it look like a chocolate bar.

"Maybe once or twice," Grey replied from behind her. He kept looking over his shoulder.

"Oh, okay. Just checking." Scootaloo kept trotting. "I'm friggin' tired of stairs."

"It's only been three floors," Grey countered. "You mean a seasoned space adventurer like yourself can't take a few flights of stairs?"

Scootaloo rolled her eyes, even though the stallion couldn't see her doing it. "First of all, I only flew a little through space and I wouldn't have even done that if the autopilot hadn't crapped out so soon."

"Oh, yeah, there's no way she could have lasted long without a full charge of energy."

"And second of all, we had to go up all those darn stairs in the South Pen."

"Oh, really?" Grey sounded genuinely surprised, though he paused as they went past another landing and another floor. "What happened to the elevator?"

Scootaloo snickered. "I'll tell ya that one later, right after you tell me all that stuff you won't tell me now. No time now, of course."

"Hehe... of course."

Scootaloo watched the space ahead of her carefully, taking note of the spots where the landings turned and the stairs doubled back on themselves so that she could keep trotting at the same pace without having to readjust. Most of the landings also had a door leading off of the stairwell, but she could see through the windows that most of them were unoccupied with their lights off. At some point, the filly noticed the railing that lined the walls at about shoulder height.

"Hey, Grey, why do you think they have a railing on the side?" she asked, still facing forward as she turned another corner. "Do ponies really—gahhh!"

"Huh? Why did you—oh!" Grey exclaimed as he nearly ran into the filly, who had stopped at the top of the next set of stairs. Both ponies looked down the stairwell, making eye contact with a white mare on the next landing, a round white cap atop her pastel pink mane. Emblazoned on the top was a red cross, matching her cutie mark to a T.

"Wh-what are you ponies doing?" she asked, her voice quivering. "Only authorised personnel are allowed to be in this part of the building!"

"We're... we were just... we, uh..." Scootaloo fumbled on her words, panicking.

"Don't worry, ma'am, we just got a little lost," Grey piped up from behind. Scootaloo turned to look at the stallion, who was oddly calm.

"I'll say! I don't even know how you would have gotten up there! Honestly!" the mare scolded. "Nevermind that... let's just get you out of here. Please come with me." She waited as Grey and Scootaloo descended down to her landing and then, holding the door open, beckoned them out into a clean, white hallway.

Dentistry

The hallway that the nurse had brought them down was nearly devoid of decoration, the pristine surfaces of its white walls only interrupted by the occasional door on both sides.

"So, which is your doctor?" the mare asked. She seemed oddly familiar—Scootaloo could've sworn that she had seen the mare somewhere before, many times.

Scootaloo kept looking at the doors, noting that the shape of their windows was much like those she had seen back in the South Pen. She wondered if that was some sort of Bureau-wide standard or if, well...

"I think she's talking to you, kid," Grey mumbled, bumping Scootaloo's side lightly with his shoulder. The filly jumped, started.

"Oh, uh, I didn't catch his name." Scootaloo gulped. Was that a normal answer? She hoped it was a normal answer.

"Oh, not your usual dentist, then?" the mare asked, her head turning to look at Scootaloo as they continued down the hall. "I guess that makes sense, since the upper floors are usually for dental surgery or specialty work."

"Yes, Carrot Cake here was having some X-rays done to see if she needs braces," Grey interjected smoothly. "We're hoping she doesn't, but I suppose that everyone else does, too."

The nurse laughed and turned back to face the front; internally, Scootaloo let out a sign of relief. "You said it... mare, I remember having to get braces in the fifth grade. 'Steelteeth', the other fillies used to call me in school... heh. Of course, ponies are much nicer about that now," she added quickly. "Plus you might not even have to get them. You ponies have a family history of needin' 'em? Mister..."

"The name's Grey. And yeah, her mother had them back when she was a filly. And while little Carrot here takes after her mom in a lot of ways, we're hoping that this isn't one of them," Grey replied with a hearty laugh that, in Scootaloo's opinion, sounded incredibly fake. The filly was astonished at how easily Grey was able to come up with these stories; then, she remembered that her mom actually did have braces as a filly. Huh.

"Good afternoon, Nurse Redheart," a stallion wearing a white lab coat said as he popped out from one of the doors, closing it gingerly behind him. He raised an eyebrow as he looked over Grey and Scootaloo, however. "Who are these?"

"Oh, these ponies were just at the orthodontist above and got lost coming down. I'm just showing them the way out." Nurse Redheart smiled sweetly.

"Good, good. I'm nearly finished assisting Doctor Scalpel here with a crown, and then he wants to see you downstairs to talk about something."

"Great—tell him I'll be there soon, once I get these folks out of here."

The stallion nodded. "Will do." He trotted away in the direction they had come.

As the three trotted down the hall and then into an elevator on the opposite side of the building, Scootaloo was instead thinking about Nurse Redheart. The name, the mane, the coat, the cutie mark—it took her a few moments but then it hit her: the main nurse at the Ponyville Hospital was named Nurse Redheart. And she looked exactly like this mare, down to the cutie mark. It was downright bizarre and she wanted to ask Grey about it, but she couldn't exactly do so while the mare was in earshot; her questions would have to wait.

The elevator made a suspiciously spaceship-like beep noise as it ground to a halt and the doors slid open. As Scootaloo stepped out, following Nurse Redheart and Grey, she looked down to see her reflection in the polished black tile. She still wasn't used to that big gash that went straight across her muzzle.

"Did you get a sticker upstairs, dear?" Nurse Redheart asked as they neared the reception desk.

"Oh, erm, no, I didn't," Scootaloo stammered, looking up at where the mare stood next to the desk.

Nurse Redheart held out a small green container. "Come on up here and pick one out then!"

After a quick glance at Grey (who, for his part, nodded), Scootaloo leaned in to look at the disorganised heaps of colourful stickers that sat on little scraps of wax paper. A few even sparkled, glistening in the overhead light as Nurse Redheart adjusted the box. Scootaloo pushed some of the stickers aside in the middle, uncovering a few smaller sheets. Finally, she selected a small metallic sticker. She wasn't sure why, but something about it compelled her much more than the tacky cartoon flowers or the images of ponies she didn't recognise. With the edge of her hoof, Scootaloo peeled it from a row of identical stickers and reached up to stick it on her forehead, between her eyes.

When she turned to Grey, smiling, the stallion frowned as he saw the golden star on her forehead. "I think we'd best be going now, don't you think? Daddy's got to get back to work, after all."

"Oh, um, yeah." Scootaloo turned to Nurse Redheart. "Thanks for everything!"

"No problem!" the mare said enthusastically. "Always happy to help." She watched as the orange pegasus filly galloped after Grey, who was already holding the glass door open. As she saw them disappear around the corner, Nurse Redheart looked around to make sure that nopony else was in the lobby. Thankfully, it was a slow day—besides surgeries, the dentist's office was closed. Even the receptionist was on her lunch break. She lifted a foreleg to her mouth.

"Begin transmission. Redheart Umberlight to Xiibal," the mare murmured. "Sighting at Umberlight dentist's office of the filly in question. She's travelling with a grey stallion, destination unknown. E.O.T."

Then, without another word, the mare trotted back upstairs.

Hmm

The still-trembling Cotton Fluff held the card that Flight had enthusiastically hoofed over to her as she looked down at the bright blue glow of the PDQ terminal that sat next to the computer screen on her desk. After another moment's hesitation, the mare quickly scanned the card and then rotated the small screen so that Flight could see it from where she stood across the desk.

Cotton Fluff took a deep breath and then looked up at the filly, smiling warmly. "I just need you to press the okay to approve the amount, and then we'll be good to go."

Flight blinked. "Oh my," she finally said. "Thank Aureate that Doc said he'll reimburse me... my moms would kill me if they found out I was spending this much."

"Uh... how much is it?" Kevin asked.

"Heh, I'll tell you when we call Doc." Flight turned back and pressed down firmly on the red button and the PDQ terminal made a satisfied electronic beep. Cotton Fluff placed Flight's card back down on the desk for the filly to take, and rotated the little screen back to face her.

"Huh," Cotton Fluff murmured as she looked down at the screen.

"That was... a good beep, right?" Flight asked, tilting her head.

"Oh, yeah, it was definitely a good beep," Cotton Fluff replied, still looking at the screen. "I just, uh..."

In reality, the mare had only said something after the beep to give herself time to think of some way to keep Flight and Kevin there, or at least to figure out where they were going so she could tell Gloss. She probably wouldn't have even bothered with telling Gloss if he hadn't made it sound really important. But what could she do to keep them? Their business was done with—Flight had just paid, and soon they'd be on their way. Unless...

"Ms. Fluff? You okay?" Flight asked.

"I think you broke her," Kevin said. The colt had already stood up and was stretching his legs.

"Eheh... no, I'm not broken," Cotton Fluff said, smiling nervously. "I was just wondering... now that you've got the parts here, where are you off to next?"

"Ooh, I'm glad you asked!" Flight said, grabbing the parts list which had also somehow ended up on the desk. "I was actually gonna ask you about that. See here?" she asked, pointing at the next underlined item on the list. "On the other ones, our friend gave us directions or a little map, see? But this one he left completely blank and we've never been here before so I dunno how to get there. Do you think you could tell us?"

Cotton Fluff grinned. "I'm sorry, I don't think I can tell you. The way to get there... it's kind of complicated."

Flight's ears drooped and she reached up to grab the scrap of paper. "Oh, okay. Well, thank you anyway for the parts, and..."

"Now, hold on a minute," Cotton Fluff said. "Just because I said I can't tell you doesn't mean I can't show you."

Flight blinked. "Would... would you really do that?"

"Is there, like, a catch?" Kevin asked. By that time he had made his way over to the desk and had magically tied the tote bag of parts to his saddlebags. "Oof, these are kinda heavy."

"I could take them if you want," Flight offered.

"Nah, it's fine. Anyway, are you sure?" Kevin asked. "I'm sure we can find it if you just point us in the right direction."

"Nonsense! You kids are some of the nicest ponies I've had the chance to do business with in a long time, and it's the least I can do after you bought so much stuff." Cotton Fluff hoped her grin wasn't too wide to be believable.

"Well, if you insist," Flight responded. "That's very nice of you, you know."

"Heh, don't mention it!" Cotton Fluff looked around. "I guess we can just... go now, if you like?"

"Yep, we're ready when you are," Flight said.

"Alright, cool." Cotton Fluff stepped out from behind her desk and walked around Flight and Kevin to get to the front door of the office, which she opened. With a click, she flipped off the light switch and then held the door open to let the kids out before she locked the handle and let the door swing shut. As soon as she heard the click of the latch, Cotton Fluff cantered quickly through the hallway to catch up with Kevin and Flight as they reached the elevator.

"Slow down!" Scootaloo cried. She was cantering down the sidewalk as fast as her hooves would take her, or at least as fast as she could go without sticking out too much in the crowd. Yet it still wasn't enough to keep up with Grey, who seemed to be gliding across the ground as if it were ice, circumnavigating the pedestrians with ease.

Grey glanced over his shoulder. "Speed up! There's no time for dillydallying. Actually..." the stallion trailed off, glancing around at the buildings and ponies and then down at his wrist. "Okay, I think we've got a few minutes for dillydallying. C'mere." Scootaloo watched as he ducked off of the sidewalk into an alley; as she reached that point, she managed to squeeze through the flow of ponies until she popped out at the alley, nearly tumbling over her hooves in the process. Thankfully, she didn't, managing to avoid applying the solid surface of asphalt onto her face; however, she came mighty close.

"I must say, you're using your dillydallying time well," Grey remarked as he watched Scootaloo pull herself back up.

"Nnngh... shut up and give me some answers."

"Right, right." Grey leaned to the side, propped up by the side of a dumpster. "So, what did you want to know?"

Scootaloo looked around the dingy, dark alley and then back to Grey. "Well, uh... why are we going to the zoo? And why are we in such a hurry?" Scootaloo laughed. "I mean, I have other questions but I doubt you'd answer them now, anyway."

"Of course, of course. We're going to the zoo because that's where I went to create a diversion when we were on the roof of the dentist's office. And we're in a hurry because I need to get you there to see this plan into action. As far as I can think of, this is the only safe way to get you out of the city." Grey paused. "The zoo is on the north end of the city, and it has its own special tunnels that go to the surface so, if the zoo staff can be avoided, then you can get out pretty easily without having to mess with the guards."

"Uh, 'I' will? You'll be there, right?"

"Oh, yeah, definitely. Me and you and... Kevin and the ponies he's with."

Scootaloo sighed. "And I don't suppose you'd like to tell me exactly what this plan involves?"

"I'm sorry—truly, I am—but I can't tell you exactly right now in case something happens. Just know that I've come up with an excellent way to distract the staff so that, bar anything really weird happening, we should have a clear shot at the zoo exit route."

"Hmph. Fine."

Grey looked down at his wrist once more, though this time Scootaloo could see that it was completely bare save for his grey fur. "We've almost gotta go, but first I've got to say—you should probably take off that gold star."

Scootaloo smirked. "But I thought you liked star stickers! And now we match!"

"Hmm," Grey hmm'd. "Well, if you insist." He looked down at his wrist a third time. "Let's go." As quick as a mouse, the stallion sidestepped into the crowd and nearly disappeared from view with how quickly he became part of the stream of ponies. Sighing, Scootaloo dived back into the crowd. As she snaked her way between them, slowly pushing herself closer to Grey, she found it odd that not one of the foreign ponies seemed to pay her any mind.

Closer

"You sure this is the right way, Ms. Fluff?"

Kevin trotted quickly beside Flight, just a few steps behind the brown-coated mare in front of them. Cotton Fluff looked over her shoulder at the sound of Kevin's question.

"Yep!" Cotton Fluff replied gleefully. "We're already on the north side of town, so we just need to keep going this way and we should be there soon enough."

"Huh, okay." Kevin looked back at what had made him ask the question in the first place, the green sign affixed to a tall metal pole on the sidewalk ahead that read "ᑌM⅂⫙3Гò∞XO ⧾ѦѦ" with an arrow pointing in the direction they were walking. He pointed up to it. "But what about what that sign says?" he asked. "I saw another one a few blocks back... if we keep going this way, won't we run into it?"

Cotton Fluff nodded. "Yes, we'll be going through the zoo to get to the store. It's really the fastest way... otherwise we'd have to go all the way around, and there's no reason why we would really need to do that."

"Oh, is there a clear path through the zoo?" Flight asked.

"Yep, it's designed to just act as a part of the city. It's actually quite cool! Maybe we can even take a look around or something, just as we're going through."

"Ooh, can we?" Kevin asked, with more than a hint of excitement in his voice. "I've always wanted to see a zoo."

"That should probably be okay. We're kind of in a hurry, but a few minutes shouldn't hurt." Flight paused. "Plus, I kinda wanna see the zoo too."

"Wonderful! I've been there many times, going back to when I was a filly, so I know all the best routes. We'll be able to get there quick but also see some of the coolest animals they have there."

"Wow, thanks," Flight said. "I know we bought a lot of stuff from you, but you really didn't need to be so kind. This kinda seems like... overkill."

"Heh, what can I say? You kids caught me in a good mood." Kevin and Flight asked no more questions of the mare, so Cotton Fluff started to whistle an abstract, improvised tune—nothing in particular. She even thought about skipping, but thankfully realised before starting that it would be way overdoing it. She needed to stay believable.

Of course, the only reason that she had offered to take them to this particular store—one of only two left on the list—was because she knew the best path to it was through the zoo. And no, it wasn't because she really wanted to go to the zoo; rather, Cotton Fluff knew that directly on the opposite side of the zoo from her office was none other than the police station. If she could get Kevin and Flight over there... well, they probably wouldn't react well to the sight of such a place, but there would likely be at least a few cops outside. She may have screwed up Gloss's request, but maybe she could fix it.

All Cotton Fluff could do for the time being, however, was attempt to keep up the façade and lead the unaware Kevin and Flight through the zoo.

Two tall marble pillars poked upwards like massive fingers emerging from the ground. Between them, two halves of an ornate golden gate were attached on either side, yet at that moment they lay wide open with a few ponies passing back and forth between the sidewalk outside and the dirt path inside. Through the metal bars of the fence joined to the pillars, Scootaloo could see a well-maintained topiary garden with a line of shrubs in various geometric shapes. As she and Grey approached the gate, Scootaloo could see even further to where there were regions enclosed and even small buildings that seemed to rise out of the ground naturally, as if they hadn't been built there.

"So, like, we can just waltz right in?" Scootaloo asked, turning to Grey.

"Yep! Isn't that cool? It's totally free to use any of the public institutions on the planets in the Bureau's jurisdiction, and that includes stuff like zoos, snail mail, health care, and all that stuff." Grey smiled. "Say what you want about the Bureau, but they sure have some stuff done right."

"Huh, that is pretty cool. Back in Equestria, I'm pretty sure we have to pay for all that stuff."

"Well, they do still have to pay for it here," Grey remarked. "Higher taxes and all that." He looked down at his wrist. "Ah, jeez, we've got to move." He started cantering more quickly, passing through the gates and onto the dirt path.

"How do you know?" Scootaloo asked, galloping to catch up.

As Grey walked briskly down the path, he answered: "Oh, you know, I've enchanted my eyes so that they use my foreleg as a display for... uh... information." The stallion winked.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "You know, now that you're actually answering my questions, I can't even tell whether you're telling the truth or just making it up as you go."

"Me? Lie to you? I assure you, Scootaloo, I have your best interests at heart."

Rather than rolling her eyes again or making some snarky comment, Scootaloo instead turned to face the chicken-wire-fenced enclosure they were currently passing. At first, she couldn't quite make out what was supposed to be in there; a large beige rock with a hole at the base sat in the middle of a patch of open dirt, but nothing seemed to be moving. But then her eyes focused in on the outline of a scaly four-legged reptile sitting atop the rock, its scales nearly the same beige as the rock. "Heh... you wouldn't happen to know Spike, would you?" Scootaloo murmured.

"He can't understand you, silly," Grey said.

Scootaloo sighed.

Ribbit

"Do you have any idea where we are?" Scootaloo asked. She and Grey had kept walking past the lizard pens, now finding themselves on a bridge over a small artificial creek with a loud chorus of ribbit, ribbit filling the air. Surrounding them was a thick layer of trees; this small section of the zoo had been marked off as a miniature forest. As the filly leaned on the railing of the bridge and craned her neck over to see the banks below. And, of course, she could spot many a multicoloured frog in the mud below.

"Of course I do," Grey replied. "C'mon—we've made good time so far but we need to get to the centre before... before it gets blocked off."

This caught Scootaloo's attention; she turned away from the railing, giving Grey an odd look. "Blocked off? How come?"

"Let's just say my distraction involved some tampering with exhibits in the large mammals area." Grey smirked. "And we're almost there." He began trotting across the bridge, leaving Scootaloo no choice but to leave the frogs behind.

"You know, I think frogs are my favourite animal," Scootaloo remarked once she had caught up with Grey.

"Oh? How come?"

"I dunno. That sound they make is pretty cool."

"This one?" Grey asked. "Ribbit, ribbit."

Scootaloo blinked. Somehow, Grey had made a completely perfect frog call. "Wh—how'd you do that?"

Grey laughed. "I've had a lot of experience transforming into other animals, and a lot of time to practice. Once you've spent enough time in so many shapes, you kinda get used to the ways you can make one form more like a different form."

"Huh, I guess that makes sense. But it seems like that would take a long time to master."

Grey didn't say anything in response; he merely winked. Scootaloo was about to say something—maybe ask more questions—when she realised they were exiting the darkened forest as the path led them out into a clearing where the path converged with others from all different directions into a circle in the middle lined with rectangular hedges that had a few benches and a few streetlamps.

Without warning, Grey slowed down next to Scootaloo and gently nudged her aside. At first, the filly was startled; then, when she saw the guards pouring out of a few of the paths ahead, she realised what the stallion was doing and followed him to the right behind one of the hedges to stay out of sight. Then, centimetre by centimetre, both of them peeked their heads out around the leafy edges of the hedge, careful to remain out of sight.

From what they saw, though, they didn't need to be particularly careful about it. The guardsponies running around looked very much distracted by whatever they were doing, running in groups from paths in the far left and far right. Most of them appeared to be filling up the central circle, creating what appeared to be a pony barricade that faced the left. Others galloped to a nearer path on the left until they went out of view.

"No, no, no... I don't understand," Grey murmured.

"Huh?" Scootaloo looked up at the stallion. "What's wrong?"

"It's... they're not going in the right direction! They're supposed to be all going to that path over there"—he nodded to the far right—"or at least trying to blockade it to stop the... uh... large mammal from escaping. But something's wrong..."

"Maybe something happened somewhere else in the zoo?" Scootaloo pondered.

"Maybe, but what?"

Scootaloo had no answer, but it didn't look like she needed to have one; the answer decided to unfold in front of them like a particularly uncooperative piece of origami. A pony burst out from the left path that guards had been moving towards, and that pony had several guards running quickly behind her, in pursuit. When she got to the barricade of ponies in the centre of the circle, however, the pony stopped dead in her tracks.

And, even though the scene was playing out dozens of metres away from where Grey and Scootaloo were hidden, the filly could still recognise that pink-coated mare with the cream mane anywhere—out in that circle, in the midst of the guards, was Mochi.

Pursuit

"What's she saying?" Scootaloo asked.

"Shhh! Be quiet so we can hear!" Grey hissed. And, as Scootaloo stopped making noise, she found that indeed she could.

"Please, miss, we must ask you to stand down." It was one of the guards that said this; from what Scootaloo could tell, it was the one in the middle of the barricade of guards, one who had stepped out in front to address the mare. His tone was brusque yet formal.

"Yeah, totally," Mochi sneered. She did her best to stand still and tall, but Scootaloo could tell the mare was panting; however she had gotten all the way from the guards' clutches back outside the South Pen to here in the centre of the zoo, it must have involved a lot of running. "Like that'd do me any good. I ain't stupid, yanno."

"We know you're not 'stupid', Miss Mochi," the guard replied coolly. "And that's why we have faith that you'll do the smart thing and come with us, back to your cell. We can protect you, miss."

"Ya ain't lookin' to protect me," Mochi spat. Scootaloo truly didn't know the mare very well, but the only time she had seen this sort of unbridled rage was when she had been face to face with those guards back in the South Pen, viciously attacking them. "I know ya think that keepin' me in your stupid prison's gonna protect the ponies of the Bureau from vicious li'l me, but it ain't like that. I'm not like that!"

"I know that, miss, but the law is the law. According for your file, you're up for parole review in just a few months, and until now you've had excellent behaviour—some of the best I've ever seen, actually. Well, until now. Until this." The guard gestured with his hoof, pointing at the pink mare in front of him. "And I know things can be hard, and we all make mistakes. That's why we've decided to offer to clear this from your behaviour records, in exchange for your cooperation right now."

Mochi blinked. "That... that's all? Only just a few more months and I can go free?" She appeared to be looking down at the ground in front of her hooves.

"Of course!" the guard said in a warmer, more welcoming tone. "You didn't think we'd keep you forever, did you? You've done terrible things, sure, but you were only an accomplice and I think it's pretty clear by now that you feel remorse and could easily... reintegrate into society."

Mochi's expression was hard to read; she had tilted her head down so that her cream-coloured locks formed a thin curtain over her face. "You really think so? I-I don't know if I'd be ready for that..."

"Well, we have ponies to help you along the way," the guard said, presumably smiling. Scootaloo couldn't tell; he was facing the other way. "Please, Miss Mochi... stop this before anypony gets hurt."

"A-alright," Mochi stuttered, her face still shrouded from view. "But first, can I tell you something?"

The stallion nodded. "Sure, go right ahead."

"Could you please come closer? It's... it's a secret."

"Of course," the guard replied. He stepped forward so that his ear was right next to Mochi's muzzle. The circle went silent; the line of guards watched as the mare's lips moved.

"Oh, I see," Grey murmured. Scootaloo turned to ask him what he was talking about when—

WHAM!

The silence was immediately broken by the sound of Mochi's hoof colliding with the guard's skull and although it wasn't even a particularly strong impact, the shockwave seemed to reverberate all through the circle, past the line of guards that stood immobile, stunned. Scootaloo held her breath as she watched the guard stumble, teetering towards the ground which he landed on with a thump.

Suddenly, with a loud yelp, Mochi rushed forward and leaped over the pony barricade, sailing just centimetres over the guards who were still coming to their senses. By the time the line shifted forward, the mare had already landed on the ground. Her hooves kicked up a cloud of dust as she scrambled forward, breaking out into a full gallop away from the guards, down the path to the right. Scootaloo watched, agape, as Mochi galloped straight past them and out of sight, over a dozen guards hot on her tail.

Frenzy

Not wasting a second, Grey grabbed ahold of Scootaloo's foreleg and pulled her out from behind the hedge. At first, Scootaloo thought they'd be seen; then, she realised that the guards were distracted, running either to the right in pursuit of Mochi or to the left to attend to their injured comrade. Grey paused and turned to her.

"Scootaloo, there's been a change of plans. We're going to run after Mochi, and then once you catch up with her, we're gonna head to the northwest corner of the zoo—the aquarium. That's where your escape route will be. Okay?"

Scootaloo nodded. "Got it."

"Okay, cool. We're gonna start running now, and something really alarming is going to happen. Whatever happens, don't look back, and please, don't stop running."

"O-okay. I'm ready," Scootaloo affirmed. In response, Grey started running across the grass with Scootaloo following right alongside, both making a beeline from the hedge to the east path. The filly was surprised at how wet the grass was as little droplets splashed onto her legs—she wouldn't have guessed that there was dew underground. Though then she considered whether maybe it was an artificial watering system.

"Hey! You there! We need all civilians to stay out of the area!" a guard yelled off somewhere to her left, but Scootaloo didn't look—she merely focused on running. "You listening to me?!"

And then, somewhere ahead, Scootaloo could hear loud yelling. At first it was distant but then it grew closer, coupled with the sound of thundering hooves on the dirt. As she and Grey neared their destination, the eastern path, she couldn't help but look at the path to the northeast. Dozens of ponies—guards and normal passers-by alike—stampeded out from the mouth of the path, rushing out amongst the guards in the circle. Frenzied cries of confusion and fear filled the air.

"Don't look," Grey hissed. Heeding his advice, Scootaloo trained her eyes on the hedge-lined path ahead of them as they left the grass for the dirt and turned the corner. Above the path was a sign with a graphic of a bird on it, along with some of those strange glyphs below. Once she could see down the new path ahead, though, the filly nearly jumped back in alarm; several guards clad in green uniform were running directly towards them with frantic, worried expressions.

"Keep going," Grey whispered, and keep going is what Scootaloo did. Surprisingly enough, the guards paid them no mind as they ran past. That's when Scootaloo heard it—a loud ROAR that reverberated all around them. Followed by a series of thump, thump, thump, thump, thumps that shook the ground beneath the filly, nearly causing her to step wrong and topple over. Momentarily ignoring Grey's words, Scootaloo looked over her shoulder—and what she saw left her mouth agape.

On the side closest to her of the central circle was a massive grey animal, ten times the size of any pony she'd ever seen. Its wrinkled grey skin looked rough and sandpapery but what started Scootaloo most was the massive, curved horn that jutted out from its snout, with a smaller yet no less frightening horn right behind it. This creature itself was frightening enough but two things made the whole thing even worse—one, that the front horn was caked in a gooey mixture of red and white liquids that were dripping down the side onto the ground, and two, that the creature was charging straight at the ponies in the centre circle.

"Oh, Celestia," Scootaloo murmured as she ran further and further from the sight.

"Scootaloo, please, don't look!" Grey urged. "We... we can't do anything about that right now. Everypony's going to be fine, I swear—but you're not unless we get you out of here!"

"O-okay," Scootaloo stammered as she turned her head back forward. She really, really didn't like the idea of leaving ponies behind in danger, even if they were super mean, but she didn't really have much of a choice in the matter if Grey was to be believed.

As they ran by, Scootaloo and Grey passed several exhibits with cages made from small-weave netting that had birds of different colours flapping their wings around inside. But each time Scootaloo looked at one of the birds, she couldn't help but see the curved talons as being like the curved horn of the rhinoceros they were leaving behind to wreak havoc on the guards and visitors of the zoo. Eventually, Scootaloo started to just look down at the dirt of the path, counting her hoofsteps and making sure not to step in anyone else's.

Rendezoo

There was a faint roar somewhere ahead and then a lot of thumps that shook the ground ever so slightly.

"Hey, do you hear that?" Flight asked.

"I doubt there's a pony in Umberlight that didn't," Cotton Fluff replied. She was cantering at the helm of the group, pace comparatively brisk. Just behind, Kevin and Flight were trotting a little more slowly.

"What do you think it was?" Kevin asked. "I dunno what they have in the zoo... could it have been a lion or something like that?"

"I doubt it," Cotton Fluff replied, not bothering to look back. "I've heard a lion roar and they usually sound a lot more... ferocious. And a lion's pawsteps couldn't be that loud. I have no idea what it was, though."

"Hmm," Flight hmm'd, but the filly said nothing more, letting the conversation trail off into silence. Well, near silence—there were still the sound of their hoofsteps on the dirt as well as the chirping birds surrounding them. They had left behind the larger bird enclosure and were now passing smaller cages with walls composed of black mesh netting. Occasionally, Kevin and Flight could catch sight of a flapping wing in their peripheral vision.

"Shh," Cotton Fluff suddenly hissed, stopping and putting a hoof forward to beckon for Kevin and Flight to do the same. They stopped and tried to listen for whatever it was that the mare had them stop for—and they heard something. Faint at first, the quiet thumps grew louder and louder—but what was more alarming was that they grew closer and closer. Flight craned her neck forward to see whether she could see what was making the noise; however, there appeared to be nothing on the path save for dirt and the green, leafy bushes on either side.

And then out of nowhere on the path ahead, the shape of a galloping pony skidded into view around the corner and started galloping straight towards them. The pony's hooves kicked up the layer of loose dirt and dust from the path, creating a thick cloud of particles through which the form of the pony could barely be seen. Cotton Fluff jumped to the left, prompting Kevin and Flight to do the same, but as they landed on the edge of the path, hooves half-stuck in one of the bushes, they saw that there was little need to do so; the shape of the pony turned right onto a smaller path and disappeared into the cloud of dust.

As the cloud of dust passed over them, Cotton Fluff was ready; her eyelids were sealed tight and her curled foreleg was held straight across her muzzle and one of her eyes, covering her face as much as she could. Not so prepared, Kevin and Flight found themselves jamming their eyelids closed as hard as they could when it hit. Both were left coughing up particles of dust and little specks of gravel by the time the cloud subsided. Cotton Fluff shook herself to rid her coat of most of the dust.

"The paths here have always been pretty cruddy... something you gotta watch out for. Sorry about that," Cotton Fluff whispered. "Stay right here for a second."

Because they were more focused on coughing up the dust and brushing off the particles that had become matted into their fur, Flight and Kevin paid little mind to Cotton Fluff, who, with a deep breath, took a few steps forward. She turned her head and closed her eyes, listening intently to the path ahead for several seconds. Then, after she was sure she didn't hear anything, she opened her eyes. Carefully, the mare stepped over to the side path and took a few steps down. From where Kevin and Flight were standing, it looked as if the mare had disappeared into the bushes.

Cotton Fluff's eyes scoured the area around the small path. As she'd suspected, it didn't lead far off the main one; there was an additional exhibit with a rare bird back here, but not really anything else besides the rotund bushes that lined the path. She didn't see anything—but she didn't hear anything, either. Closing her eyes, the mare took a deep breath. She opened her eyes again, and looked forward.

There, in between two of the bushes to the left of the exhibit, was a small patch of pink fur peeking out from between the leaves which, as Cotton Fluff noted, were shifting ever so slightly in and out. The mare bent down to get a better look.

Wide, blue irides surrounding big black pupils stared back. The eyes blinked, revealing pink eyelids for a moment before the irides returned. Then, the pony in the bush sneezed, eyes closing once more.

Cotton Fluff blinked. "Um... hello?"

"Hi," a tiny voice from within the bush murmured. "Who... who are you?"

"I'm Cotton Fluff," the mare said, standing up straight. "Who are you? And why are you in that bush?"

The pony within looked up, eyes poking out from between the leaves much higher up as they followed Cotton Fluff. "D'you promise not to tell the guards?"

"Erm... I..."

"Please?" It was such a simple request.

"Well, alright. Just so long as—"

"Splendid—thanks!" the pony said, much louder this time. It was much louder, of course, because the pony took that moment to jump up straight out of the bush, making Cotton Fluff take an alarmed step back. The pink pony—an earth pony mare with a pink coat and a cream mane—landed squarely on her hooves, miraculously not sending up a cloud of dust. Grinning with her teeth showing, the mare held out a hoof. "The name's Mochi, and it's a pleasure to meet ya!"

Cotton Fluff stared down at the mare's hoof for a few moments before her senses kicked in enough to make her reach up her own hoof to meet it. "Charmed. My name is Cotton Fluff."

"Ooh, that's a cute name if I ever heard one!" Mochi exclaimed. "It makes me think of a little bunny or a cotton swab or somethin' like that."

"Heh, I suppose it would." Cotton Fluff smiled, if only ever so slightly. She cleared her throat. "I don't suppose you'd mind telling me why you were running this way and then hiding, or maybe what those loud roaring noises were."

This made the pink pony frown. "I ain't sure what those roars were, though I'd honestly guess that they're not anything good," Mochi said. "But as for why I'm runnin'? Let's just say that the guards think I belong behind bars and we... had a li'l disagreement about that."

"They what?" Cotton Fluff asked, incredulous.

"I know, right? They thought that this cute piece o' pony could stay in prison for long? Heehee..."

"Mochi, I—" Cotton Fluff began, but the mare was interrupted by loud noises just a few metres behind her. She spun around quickly.

"Cotton Fluff, come here!" Kevin shouted. "Quick!"

"Gahhh," Cotton Fluff gahhh'd, turning back to Mochi. "Look, it's been nice, but I've gotta—well, you know…" The mare blinked; Mochi was nowhere to be seen.

"Totally, totally," came Mochi's voice from behind her. Cotton Fluff spun again, only to see Mochi trotting down the side path in front of her. She had little choice but to follow the mare to find out exactly what Kevin was yelling about.

Star

A few minutes earlier...

Scootaloo trotted quickly down the path, still looking down at her hooves. She could see Grey's form next to her in her peripheral vision, keeping the same steady pace alongside. Finally, Scootaloo looked up.

"Grey... where are we going?"

"We're going after Mochi," he replied without so much of a glance her way. He merely stared ahead.

"Not that I don't want to, but... why?" Scootaloo asked. "Aren't you interested in getting me out of here as fast as possible?"

"Well, yes," Grey affirmed, still looking forward,"but I think I'm allowed to be interested in more than one thing. From what I know, it is also imperative that we go this way."

"Er... I don't suppose you'd tell me why?"

This got Grey to smirk, and he looked over to the filly. "Mochi is an important pony in her own right, but she's about to run into some other ponies who I think you'll be... interested to see."

"Huh." Scootaloo couldn't think of who that could be. Unless... "Wait, it's not my friends from Equestria, right?"

Grey laughed. "No, no, nothing like that. You'll see in just a minute." He turned back to face the path ahead and Scootaloo did too.

She noticed that instead of continuing straight, like before, the path took a sharp turn to the right. For whatever reason, the filly quickened her pace so that, a few steps ahead of Grey, she was the first to turn the corner. She continued down that path with a slight sense of smugness. And that's about when she realised that Grey hadn't turned the corner. Scootaloo stopped and craned her neck to look over her shoulder.

Grey was nowhere to be seen.

Scootaloo blinked. Then again. She inhaled a deep breath and then let out a loud irritated sigh. "Of course. Why in the hay would I think anything different would happen...?" Mumbling and grumbling to herself, the pegasus filly kept walking. She didn't really have any other choice—maybe she could've looked around in the bushes to see if there was some animal with a silver star sticker, but if Grey wanted to be all mysterious and disappear like that, he could bucking do it for all she cared...

Scootaloo was focused more on her thoughts than the path ahead so it was her instinct that led her around the next corner, its left turn leading her back east. Tiny leaves on bushes to the right brushed against her coat as she walked by. It wasn't until she heard what sounded like somepony shouting her name that she shook her focus back to reality.

"Scootaloo? Is that you?"

The filly tilted her head and squinted, trying to make out through the low-hanging branches who was calling her name. The voice—medium-pitched with quite a bit of cracking—sounded pretty familiar, but she couldn't quite place it or make out who it was through the leaves. She jogged down the path a few metres, pushing the branches out of the way until she emerged from the bushes into a wider area with more of the netting bird enclosures on either side. But to the right, on the side of the path, there were two young ponies that looked about her age. One of them, a yellow-coated pegasus, looked unfamiliar, albeit a bit like Fluttershy. The other, however...

Scootaloo gasped. "Kevin?"

"Scootaloo!" the green-grey colt exclaimed, beginning to run forward. As he got closer, his eyes widened and then he skidded to a stop not a metre away. "Wait... that star."

The yellow pony behind him tilted her head. "Is it one of the gold stars?"

"Yep," replied Kevin, still gawking at Scootaloo. "I can't believe it... you've been creepy animals before, but you really had to go and impersonate my friend?!"

"Wha...?" Scootaloo raised an eyebrow.

"Do you think we should get Cotton Fluff?" the yellow filly asked.

"Cotton Fluff, come here!" Kevin shouted, turning his head to the left. "Quick!"

Scootaloo facehoofed. "Guys, I—"

"What's up?" called a chipper voice from the left, cutting her off. "Wait... Scootaloo?"

Scootaloo turned and then blinked. "Mochi! Finally!"

As Mochi rushed forward, Scootaloo could also see a brown-coated earth pony mare emerge from the side path from which Mochi had come. She was of course distracted, however, by the extremely friendly and fuzzy hug she found herself enveloped in, squeezed tight by Mochi's surprisingly strong forelegs. "I'm darn glad to see you, kid!"

"Heh... good to see you too, Mochi," Scootaloo replied weakly. After a few more seconds of squeezing, the mare let go. Scootaloo dropped unceremoniously to the ground, just barely landing on her hooves.

"Uh, what's going on here?" the brown-coated mare asked.

Kevin frowned. "I don't know why you've done something with Scootaloo, but I swear, I'll..."

"You'll what?" Scootaloo asked, tilting her head. Mochi gave the colt a funny look. Kevin's face turned red.

"I'll... uh... do bad things! Raaah!" Kevin lifted up a foreleg and waved his hoof around in a sort of claw-like fashion. Sorta.

Scootaloo snickered. "Uh-huh." Then, in one clean move, she ripped the gold star sticker off her forehead with an, "Ow."

"Eheh... whoops." Kevin took a step forward. "It really is you?"

"Really is me, dude. Good to see you again." Scootaloo stretched out a hoof, presumably for a hoofbump. Kevin stared at it for a few seconds and then dove forward to wrap Scootaloo in another hug. Mochi joined in, wrapping her forelegs around both young ponies and giggling the whole time.

Cotton Fluff looked to Flight. "Do you have any idea what's going on right now?"

Flight frowned. "Not in the slightest. But I'm hoping we can figure that out real soon so we can get on out of here."

Join

As Mochi relinquished her hold of Kevin and Scootaloo, Flight took a step forward. "This is great and all, but we really need to keep moving. We've already wasted enough time as it is."

Scootaloo turned to Kevin and smirked. "Who's this girlfriend you picked up, Kev? She's pretty cute, but she kinda has an attitude."

It was hard to tell which came first—Kevin's beet-red face and stammers of "N-no—she's not—it's—" or Flight's exclamation of "What? No I don't!" At this, Scootaloo merely grinned, and even Cotton Fluff behind them had to hold in a snicker.

"Not you too!" Flight said, exasperated as she turned to Cotton Fluff.

"Heh, sorry," Cotton replied. "I mean, I dunno who this filly is but she's kinda got a point. We don't really need to be anywhere in a hurry."

"Nah, the yellow one's right," Scootaloo said. "Me and Mochi—and the rest of you guys, I think—need to get out of the city ASAP. There's a tunnel in the aquarium that we should be able to use."

"Sounds good, Scoots!" Mochi exclaimed. "Lead the way."

"Wait, what?" Flight looked from Scootaloo to Mochi and then to Kevin, whose cheeks were still red. "Kevin and I still need to get some parts, for your darn ship, no less."

Scootaloo blinked. "Really? I mean, awesome! Thanks a lot!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. But we've got to go to the last store. That's why Cotton Fluff here"—Flight gestured with a hoof—"is with us in the first place. We bought a bunch of parts from her and now she's showing us where the next shop is."

Cotton Fluff waved. "Yup, that's me."

"Huh, cool." Scootaloo nodded. "But you'll have to get that stuff some other time. For now, we gotta bail. There's guards swarming the zoo because of Mochi and also a distraction Grey caused." She turned to Kevin. "And based on what this guy in the South Pen told me, you're not supposed to be out and about."

Kevin gasped. "You were in the South Pen? What was it like? How did you survive?"

"Heh... another story for another time, dude. But seriously, let's get moving." Scootaloo turned tail and started trotting back down the path she had come from. It wasn't until she was maybe a metre down the path that she realised nopony was following her. "Um, guys?"

"Comin'!" Mochi exclaimed, bounding across to where the filly stood.

For another moment, nopony moved. Then, Kevin took a step forward. And another, and another, until he was right alongside Mochi. "You guys coming?" he asked, looking over his shoulder.

"I... guess," Flight said, finally trotting up to join him. "I really don't know what's going on and Scootaloo's got a lot of explaining to do but I'm willing to trust her for now."

"And you, Ms. Fluff?" Kevin asked.

Forgotten until then, the mare shiftily avoided his gaze as he asked. "I'm... uh... I'm not so sure I wanna go with you guys. This isn't really what I signed up for... and I kinda need to get back to my store, heh."

"That's fine," Flight said with a smile. "Thank you for all you've done for us."

"O-of course," Cotton Fluff murmured, averting Flight's gaze. She only looked up to watch as the ponies started trotting briskly down the path. Then she thought of Gloss. She had made a promise to the stallion that she would help him capture the kids. And despite whatever misgivings she had about him, they had always had two rules—no lies, and no breaking promises. Cotton Fluff didn't want to break those, not now—even if it had been nearly five years. She sighed and then let words flow from her mouth—words that she didn't really want to be saying. "Wait up!" she called.

One by one, the heads of Scootaloo, Mochi, Kevin, and Flight turned to look at her. Cotton Fluff stared back at the four sets of eyes. "Eheh... I'm coming with," Cotton mumbled. "I don't really have anything better to do, anyway." She cantered forward, taking a place in the back of the group.

"Glad to have you with us," Flight said. Then, once Cotton Fluff had joined the group, they continued down the path in silence but for their hooves on the dirt and the leaves brushing against their coats, following Scootaloo further into the zoo.

And yet, on the tip of Cotton Fluff's tongue, she felt like she could taste a hint of regret.

Sneaking

"Scootaloo, I—"

"Shh."

"I know we're busy right now, but I—"

"Shhhhh."

"Scootaloo, please—I just—"

The filly turned to face Kevin, who was hidden alongside her in one of the bushes. "Celestia above, what? We need to keep quiet—we're almost there!"

Kevin took a deep breath. "I just wanted to say... I'm sorry that I got the ship crashed and then couldn't stop them from capturing you."

Scootaloo groaned, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Thanks for the sentiment and all, but we can talk about that later. For now, shhh. If they hear us, we're toast."

"Whatcha guys talkin' 'bout?" Mochi asked, bending her neck down so that her fuzzy pink head was between the two young ponies.

"Nothing, hopefully," Scootaloo hissed. "Do you see anypony coming?"

"Nope!" the mare exclaimed, a little louder than she should have. "The coast is clear."

"Sweet. Follow me." Scootaloo bounded forward through the bushes, making little noise but for the rustling of leaves as she ran. Mochi and Kevin followed right behind, sneakily crouched down much like the filly ahead of them. Flight and Cotton Fluff brought up the rear, though they both walked normally with little care about whether their manes poked up out of the bushes.

"There's nopony out there anyway," Flight whispered.

"I know... it's kind of odd, if you ask me," Cotton Fluff replied. "Normally there are ponies walking around looking at the exhibits, or at least a guard or two. But this... this is probably the quietest I've seen it."

"Didn't Scootaloo say something about a rhinoceros?"

"No idea." Cotton Fluff brushed a branch out of her face. "That pony's mouth moves a mile a minute when she's explaining stuff."

"Heh, definitely."

"Shut up, both of you!" Scootaloo called from the front.

"When'd you get so cocky?" Kevin asked.

Scootaloo smirked. "Since we had stuff to do and places to be." She kept walking through the bushes, metre after metre, leading the group forward. It was several minutes they went on, ducking from bush to bush when they had to.

Then, suddenly, Scootaloo stopped. Mochi noticed this and suddenly stopped too, but Kevin had been lost in thought and rammed straight into one of Mochi's hindlegs. He did his best not to yelp out in surprise. Flight snickered as she slowed to a stop; as she and Cotton Fluff had been trotting much more slowly, they were easily able to see when Mochi stopped.

"Look," Scootaloo whispered. She tilted to the right and peered through the bush. Mochi peered out above her and Kevin crammed in to Scootaloo's left, leaving a space on the left for both Flight and Cotton Fluff, who took their places in making the five of them look like a bunch of cartoon characters with their eyes popping out pair by pair from the leaves.

The scene that these five were looking out upon was as follows: the centre circle of the zoo remained intact in that it was still a dirt circle surrounded by grass. However, the benches that Scootaloo had seen earlier were reduced to piles of smashed wood and metal fixtures, and the streetlamps were tilted off in obscene angles, shattered fragments of glass below. Although there was still a clear separation between the grass and the dirt, there were areas where the glass had been clearly ripped up or crushed by massive feet as well as places were the loose dirt and dust had spilled over into the grass. Large footprints had been left all over the centre circle in a disorganised, random manner.

And yet, despite the obvious traces of destruction laid out in front of them, not one of the five ponies could spot anypony—or anyrhino—in sight. The entire area was, by the looks of it, completely empty.

"Holy hell," Mochi murmured. "Did I do that?"

Scootaloo facehoofed. "You didn't see the gigantic rhinoceros that ran in from the other side while you were running away?"

"Huh, must've missed it."

"Do you think we can just waltz out there?" Flight asked.

Scootaloo looked from side to side. "Looks safe to me," she asserted. Without another word, she leapt out from the bush and landed proudly on the grass. Slowly, she turned her head from left to right. "Yep. Let's go!" Scootaloo exclaimed before bounding off into the centre circle.

Flight rolled her eyes. "How come she gets to decide when we can be loud and show our faces?" she asked rhetorically, but joined the rest of her companions all the same in breaking free of the bush into the free air for the first time in several minutes.

In the middle of the centre circle, however, Scootaloo stopped and cocked her head. Mochi and Kevin skidded to a halt right alongside her, and by the time Flight got to where they stood, she could see why. Across the circle, standing at the mouth of the path across from where they had run, stood a stallion. A familiar stallion—a lime-green pegasus with a dark blue cap.

He frowned, looking at something at the distance. As Cotton Fluff approached, pushing her way through her companions until she was at the front of the group, she knew it was her. "Cotton Fluff," the stallion said.

"Gloss," she replied.

"Why...?"

"Why what?" Cotton Fluff asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why do you walk with these children and criminals?" It was an honest question, and one she didn't know how to answer.

"I—I don't—"

"Come here." It wasn't a question, but a command. And Cotton Fluff felt herself compelled to follow it, trotting forward step by step until she stood, metres away from the others, right in front of this stallion.

"Cotton Fluff, listen to me carefully," Gloss whispered. "I need you to go with these ponies and report back to me about what they're doing. Special assignment from the department. Right now, just buck me and then run towards the aquarium."

"I-I don't know if—"

"You can, and you must. For the Bureau," Gloss asserted.

Cotton Fluff gulped. "For the Bureau." And then, on swift hooves, she jumped up and bucked the stallion in the face. He let out a pained cry and stumbled back, bleeding from a fresh gash across his cheek.

Cotton Fluff winced but did as she was told and galloped away from him, towards the path that had a little sign adorned with a fish graphic right next to it. "Come quick!" she called, waving a foreleg at Flight and the rest, beckoning for them to join her. "We've got to move!"

Kevin, Flight, Mochi, and Scootaloo all galloped forward, quick on their hooves, kicking up a cloud of dust behind them as they joined Cotton Fluff, who was already well on her way down the path to the aquarium.

Gloss, lying on his side in the dirt, groaned. "That bitch... she didn't actually have to cut me..."

Escape

All was still. Well, not quite still; the electronic motors on the fishtank filters around hummed and whirred, pushing around the water inside all around in a joyous chorus of blurp noises. In one tank, several tiny yellow fish with black spots darted back and forth in random directions, occasionally bumping into the leaves of a tall plastic plant within. Another tank was the home of a largish dark brown fish with matte scales that lurked quietly, immobile, nearly out of sight within a small rock cave.

As they ran by, however, Cotton Fluff and the ponies she led paid little if any attention to these fish that they were passing; they were glad that the eerie blue light that emanated from above the tanks was able to illuminate the otherwise-dark room somewhat, but that was about it. Their hoofsteps interrupted the stillness, clattering all around the reflective plastic-walled hallway.

Scootaloo stepped forward until she was walking right alongside the brown-coated mare who was leading the group through the aquarium at a brisk pace, her head facing directly ahead. "You're Cotton Fluff, right?" Scootaloo asked.

"Mmfff... yes." Cotton Fluff did not look her way.

"Look, I know it's not a good time, but... what did that dude say to you?"

Cotton Fluff took a deep breath. "Doesn't matter. He's somepony I used to know who got on my nerves and he was in our way."

"Yeah, but..."

Cotton Fluff turned to look down at the filly. "You wanted to go this way, no? Get out of the zoo and the city? This is the way to go."

"Right," Scootaloo affirmed, nodding. "But I guess I didn't think it would be this... easy."

"Sometimes you get lucky," Cotton Fluff mused. "You were held in South Pen, right?" she asked, quickly changing the topic.

"Yeah, and it sucked," Scootaloo replied. "They wouldn't even let me go to the mess hall with the other prisoners... guess I was too 'important' or whatever."

Cotton Fluff did her best not to make a noise from how surprised she was, and did a pretty good job of choking back the cry that nearly escaped her throat. A maximum security prisoner right next to her? And a filly, no less? What had Gloss signed her up for? "Oh, jeez, that does sound pretty bad. I... can't even imagine being cooped up in a cell like that for long."

"Heh... well, they couldn't keep me in there for that long. It was only a few days until Gr—er, until I broke out." Scootaloo looked oddly guilty and Cotton Fluff could tell she had intentionally cut herself off; she had been about to say that name 'Grey' she had said earlier. Huh.

"Oh, look, we're at the end," Mochi called from behind them. And, sure enough, she was right. The back wall didn't even have a tank on it; it was just a vertical surface of sheer white plastic that curved upwards as it stretched to the ceiling.

"So, uh, how do we get out?" Kevin asked.

"Dunno," Cotton Fluff replied. "I've been here before, but never looked for the maintenance tunnel. Can't be too hard to find, though."

Flight swept the walls with her gaze. "There's gotta be a door or something somewhere."

"Found it!" Mochi exclaimed, pointing to a space between two tanks that lay a few metres behind them, not quite at the end. The inset handle had been painted white to match the rest of the wall, but it was easy to spot once Mochi had pointed it out.

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow as Cotton Fluff trotted over to the door. "Thanks, but how'd you know it was there?"

"I didn't," Mochi replied. "Just guessed."

"Huh," Scootaloo huh'd. Then, she turned to watch Cotton Fluff reach her hoof up and twist the inset handle with the tip of her hoof inserted into the notch. The mare pushed the door open and held it, letting the other four walk in past her.

They entered into a small room with earthen walls that Scootaloo recognised immediately to be those of the underground world that surrounded them; the dirt was even the same colour as that of the tunnels outside of the South Pen. Leaning against the walls were large bags of fish flakes or whatever. Not really important.

"Look!" Kevin said, pointing with a hoof. Scootaloo followed its path with her eyes and her gaze settled on a large hole on the far wall of the room.

"You think that's it?" Scootaloo asked.

"Only one way to find out," Cotton Fluff said, stepping forward towards the hole.

Incline

"How long have we been in here?" Kevin asked, looking over his shoulder. His ears brushed against the dirt ceiling as he moved his head; there wasn't much space to move in the small tunnel, and it was even worse for Mochi and Cotton Fluff who were about a half a head taller than the rest of them. The passage would have been completely dark without Kevin's horn to light the way; however, as he was the only unicorn, he was the only one who had such a power and so was required to keep the light up the whole time. To put it plainly, he was starting to feel exhausted.

Flight looked down at the comlink on her wrist. "It's only been about ten minutes," she said, looking up. "Which, if I may remind you, is just two minutes since the last time you asked.

"I know, I know... I'm just confused," Kevin said. "It didn't take nearly this long to enter the city."

"I dunno. Maybe the city isn't flat?" Flight mused.

"It's not," Cotton Fluff chimed in from ahead. "The south side is higher and closer to aboveground, and the north side is deeper. What's more, the land above the north side is at a higher elevation. It gets kind of hilly once you get closer to the provinces. No mountains—those are more to the east—but still pretty hard to get through."

"Do you think we'll have to get through there?" Flight asked.

"I'm... not sure?" Cotton Fluff replied. "I don't even know where we're going or what we're doing. Are we just winging it?" She nudged Scootaloo, who was walking directly behind her.

"Huh? What do you—oh." Scootaloo looked around. "I'm not sure, either. I guess we'll get up there and figure out what we're gonna do."

"That sounds fine," Flight said. "I can even call Doc Zed once we get up there. I think the signal is blocked right now since we're out of range of both the satellites and Umberlight."

"Who's Doc Zed?" Scootaloo asked.

"He's a good friend from my hometown," Kevin said quickly. "He'll probably be excited to meet you, actually."

"Huh... cool."

A few minutes passed as the five ponies trudged up at a slight incline through the passage. The green light emanating from Kevin's horn flickered briefly but, for all his efforts, did not go out completely. Each step, however, seemed the same as the last, continuing up the tunnel in perpetuity with no distinguishing features on the walls or ceiling, passing by the same spots over and over, and...

"I think you can put out your horn, Kevin," Cotton Fluff called from ahead. The colt was momentarily surprised but soon did what he was told, letting the enchantment drop. Exhausted, he gasped for a deep breath of fresh air.

Wait... fresh air?

That is indeed what it was; in contrast to the thick, stagnant tunnel air from before, this air was cool and crisp, and blowing down from ahead. And, what's more, there was light. It was a faint blue light, glowing down from above and ahead, but it grew closer with each step. Kevin quickened his pace to match that of his comrades who were already rushing forward with newfound energy in the face of the light.

Kevin watched Cotton Fluff and then Scootaloo disappear into the grey-blue ahead of him and then he himself emerged from the hole in the earth, skidding to a stop on dark green grass that spread out on a hilltop all around. As the yellow form of Flight crawled out of the hole and Mochi bounced out a little more cheerfully, Kevin's gaze scanned the rolling, grassy hills that seemed to stretch out to the north. Then he looked down the slope of the hill they were atop, seeing past the tufts of grass that poked up from the hillside. There, in the miniature valley between the hills, was the unmistakeable form of a zebra stallion. And, what's more, he was waving. He stood next to a large rectangular object that Kevin couldn't quite make out. Maybe a house?

"Who's that?" Kevin asked, pointing down at the zebra.

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "No idea! Let's find out!" The filly ran forward, sprinting quickly down the hillside.

"But... isn't that dangerous?" Flight asked.

"Guess she doesn't care," Cotton Fluff murmured. She started walking slowly down the hill, and Kevin, Flight, and Mochi joined her as they pursued the pegasus filly who ostensibly was the group's leader.

Platform

It had been weeks since Scootaloo had been able to enjoy the fresh air and, as she ran down the hill, she savoured the cool gusts of air that passed her by, sending strands of her magenta mane flying in the breeze behind her. Her legs ached from all of the running and walking through the South Pen and Umberlight but she couldn't stop running—it just felt so good.

Eventually, the slope began to level out and Scootaloo slowed her pace, coming up to where the zebra was standing. For the moment, though, her interest was held more by the large rectangular object beside him. It wasn't very tall, but was about the width of a pony muzzle-to-tail, and long enough to fit several ponies on top. A thin, clear plastic wall, about half a grown pony's height, lined the edges of the thing, and there was a large box at the far end attached to this wall that had various buttons and a steering wheel on top. This was not what drew Scootaloo to the platform, however; it was the fact that it was hovering about twenty centimetres off the ground that piqued her interest.

She was so interested in the platform that she passed by the zebra, whose friendly expression changed to that of confusion as his gaze followed Scootaloo. He watched as the filly reached a hoof underneath the platform and waved it around a little bit.

"I see you're interested in knowing how it stays up," he said calmly.

Scootaloo whipped her head around to face him. "Yeah, it doesn't look like there's an engine on it or anything."

The zebra walked over to the platform and, once he was right beside it, a panel on the side lit up in a ghostly aura of white magic. It was then that Scootaloo noticed the horn on the stallion's forehead.

"You have a horn?" Scootaloo blurted. Then she clapped a hoof to her mouth. "Celestia, I'm sorry... that was super rude..."

"Heh, it's no trouble," the zebra said. "I presume you've only seen zebras without horns before, yes?"

Scootaloo nodded. "So how does the thing work?"

The zebra laughed and then magically shook the compartment free from the side of the platform. Deftly, he levitated the drawer over to Scootaloo and tipped it down so she could see what was inside.

Three glowing blue capsules lay in a row at the bottom of the compartment, with metal wires snaking outward from the object towards the right side, where it had been attached inside the platform.

"It's a manabattery," the zebra explained. "They're able to hold a charge of magic that then is converted into electricity that powers the hover field. Or, at least, that's if I remember correctly."

"And how's it staying up now?" Scootaloo asked, gesturing towards the platform. "You just took the battery out."

The zebra levitated the compartment back to its slot and slid it in gently before turning to Scootaloo once more. "There's more than a dozen of these compartments all around the ship, so you can swap them out one by one. This ship probably hasn't touched the ground since it was made."

"Huh, that's cool," Scootaloo replied.

"What's going on?" came Flight's voice from behind them. Scootaloo turned to see Cotton Fluff leading the rest of them, down the hill near its base.

"Who's the guy?" Kevin asked, pointing towards the zebra.

"No idea," Scootaloo replied. She turned to the zebra. "Who are you, again?"

He laughed. "The name's Microfiche, and I'm charmed to make your acquaintance, Scootaloo."

Recap

From behind, Scootaloo could hear Flight's voice. "Microfiche? Where have I heard that name before...?"

"And how do you know my name?!" Scootaloo exclaimed, seeming to momentarily forget the friendly conversation she had just had with the zebra.

"Microfiche was the name of the pony who told Bold Remark and those ponies to get out of Umberlight, remember?" Kevin said as he approached the group. "And even Doc Zed said he knew him."

"Wait... Kevin, how do you know my name either?" Scootaloo asked, turning to the colt. "You said it earlier... I know you did! And I'm pretty sure I never told you, since that's why you kept using candy bars and vegetables and stuff."

"Er... Doc Zed told me," Kevin muttered.

"And it was he who told me as well," Microfiche said.

Scootaloo blinked and then rotate her head in a circle, looking at each of the ponies surrounding her. "Huh."

Kevin raised an eyebrow "What?"

"I just realised... I have no idea who like half of you ponies are. And that was all well and good while we were trying to escape from the guards in the zoo and whatever, but now that we're here and now where they're not after us, I wanna know—who are you ponies?" Scootaloo finished, breathing heavily. She looked around the group. "You start," Scootaloo finally said, pointing to Kevin.

Kevin blinked. "Me? But you already know me."

Scootaloo gave him a flat look. "Still, it's been a while. You start."

"Well, erm... my name... my name is..." Kevin stammered, suddenly feeling beads of sweat on his forehead as five pairs of eyes were staring straight at him. "Y-you can call me Kevin, I guess."

"Go on," Scootaloo encouraged, making a circular gesture with a hoof.

"I'm from Dienna in this territory, the Southern Kindred Territory, but I ran away from home after... after my parents died." Kevin looked down at his hooves as he spoke, shifting them around in the grass. "A lotta stuff happened but, long story short, I ran into Scootaloo out in space and then joined her ship. We got separated after... after we crashed, and she got captured by the Bureau police."

"C'mon, Kev, tell your own story," Scootaloo joked. Kevin looked up and nodded as he looked at the filly. Then, his features curled up in confusion. "What?" Scootaloo asked.

"What in Aureate's name happened to your face?"

For a moment, Scootaloo looked taken aback. Then, she giggled. "You seriously didn't notice until now?"

"I-it was dark in the zoo! We were running away!"

"Heh, I know, I'm just teasing. I'm pretty sure it's from the windshield, 'cause I got thrown out of it when we landed."

"Gah... that sucks... I'm sorry."

"Pff, whatever," Scootaloo said, smiling. "They must've patched it up pretty well at the South Pen, 'cause I never really had to deal with it hurting or anything." She paused. "So, what did you do after that?"

Kevin explained how he had come to Dienna with a strange pony named Gloss and then went to Doc Zed's to go to the ship, and then ran into Flight on the way there. He was pretty sure he got the order of Gloss telling them that he was a cop at the wrong moment, but Scootaloo got the gist of it and was visibly surprised all the same.

"And then we pretty much just booked it to Umberlight from there to get the parts for the ship," Kevin finished, "while Doc Zed's been working on fixing it."

"Huh, cool," Scootaloo said. "Who is this Doc Zed, anyway? You guys keep saying his name... seems like everypony here but me knows him."

"I can answer that," Flight said, stepping forward. "Hi. Kevin already said this, but my name is Flight and I've known Kevin ever since we were super young." She reached out a yellow foreleg and waited for Scootaloo to hoofbump it, which the orange filly did. That is the universal sign for hoofbumps, after all—something that transcends interplanetary barriers and brings all ungulates, primates, and equinoids together. "Doc Zed is a scientist and inventor in Dienna who's kind of a local legend, and he's someone both Kevin and I have known since we were kids, 'cause our parents went to school with him."

"Oh, awesome. I hope he doesn't mess with my ship too much, though..." Scootaloo trailed off, looking suddenly much more wistful than she had been.

"Don't worry—he knows what he's doing," Flight assured Scootaloo."

"He had better. So, how'd you guys end up in the zoo?" Scootaloo asked.

"We were buying some parts from Cotton Fluff here," Flight replied, pointing towards Cotton Fluff, "and then she offered to take us to the next shop we needed to get to. The fastest route there is through the zoo, though, and then we got caught up in... whatever you were doing."

"Right, right," Scootaloo affirmed, nodding. Then, she turned to the brown mare who was standing a little bit behind the group. "And I guess you must be Ms. Cotton Fluff?"

"Yes, that's me," the mare said calmly. "Though you can just call me Cotton."

"And how come you decided to help Kevin and Flight get to the next shop? Don't you have a business to run?" Scootaloo leaned in, eyeing the mare suspiciously.

"Scootaloo, there's no need to—" Flight started.

"It's fine," Cotton Fluff said. She was giving Scootaloo an odd facial expression. "If you must know, these ponies had given me enough money for the parts so that it was financially feasible for me to take the rest of the afternoon off, or at least enough time to help them get where they needed to go." Each word the mare spoke sounded carefully chosen, as if perhaps she had spent the entire time walking up the tunnel coming up with an explanation. Scootaloo squinted but slowly leaned back.

"Well, that's pretty nice of you," the filly said finally. Her eyes scanned the motley crew assembled before her. "Anypony I forget?"

"Ooh, me!" Mochi exclaimed, raising a pink hoof excitedly.

"Go for it."

"My name is Mochi and I've been in prison for, like, a decade!" She grinned. "But I'm out now and it's all thanks to you, Scoots. And Grey. What happened to him, anyway? You think he's still in the South Pen."

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Who knows... he probably turned into a bird and flew away."

"Turned... into a bird?" Kevin asked, raising an eyebrow. Nopony seemed to have heard him.

"Alright, now that we've got all you squared away... who are you?" Scootaloo did a hundred-eighty degree turn, bringing her face to face with the zebra and his marvellous floating platform which, as expected, was still floating.

"Me?" the zebra said with mock surprise, dramatically putting a hoof to his chest. "I just told you—my name is Microfiche, and your friends already know who I am. I work at the Kindred Magazine of Culture and Art. Well, worked. They should be receiving my resignation in the post tomorrow, if all goes according to plan."

"And you work with Doc Zed and the rebels, right?" Flight asked.

Microfiche nodded. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you work with the rebels?" She turned to the others. "Are you guys part of the rebels too? Is this, like, a sci-fi movie where the Rebels are the good guys fighting against the big bad Empire? Er, I mean Bureau."

Microfiche laughed. "Something like that. I got a message from Doc Zed a few hours ago saying that I should resign from my post at the KMCA and that I should be prepared with a hoverskiff to meet three young ponies here: Scootaloo, Kevin, and Flight. Obviously we've got a few more ponies here than he bargained for, but as you seem to be friendly ponies, that should be okay for now."

"So... what do you want with us?" Scootaloo asked, cocking her head to the side.

"I'm not sure, exactly," Microfiche replied. "Hang on... I'm gonna call Doc Zed. He should have further instructions."

Scootaloo, Kevin, Flight, Mochi, and Cotton Fluff all watched as Microfiche raised his right hoof and magically pressed several of the buttons on the comlink on his wrist. The ringback tone resounded out from its speaker once, twice, thrice, before a click.

"Hello?" Doc Zed's voice said.

Zed

"Hello, Doctor—it's Microfiche. How are you this evening?"

"Fine, fine. What's up? You get the hoverskiff and the kids together? And you should call me Zed, I told you that."

"We're here!" Kevin exclaimed.

"Yeah, the kids and then some," Microfiche mumbled, looking up at Mochi and Cotton Fluff who were both leaning in, listening with curiosity.

"Oh, wonderful," Doc Zed's voice said. "And have you explained what they're going to do next?"

"Er, no," Microfiche started. "Remember, you didn't—"

"For shame, Microfiche!" Doc Zed reprimanded. "Well, actually, that's fine. It's probably for the best that I should explain, anyway, since I know the plan best." Microfiche rolled his eyes and tapped a button on the comlink, amplifying Doc Zed's crackly voice.

"Now, first off, there's the matter of the parts. Microfiche, I need you to get the parts from the kids and then go back into Umberlight tonight to pick up the last of the parts I need. The kids should still have the list I gave them."

"Yeah, I've got it right here," Flight cut in, rummaging around in her saddlebag with a hoof.

"Wonderful. How many shops are left?"

Flight fulled the list out and glanced down at the tiny letters scribbled there. "Uh... two?"

"Good. Microfiche, why don't you go on down there tonight while the shops are still open and grab the last few things on that list?"

Microfiche looked taken aback ."Sir, it's—to get back in the city, I—" he stammered.

"You should be able to get back in like normal, don't worry. They won't think anything suspicious is going on for another day at least."

"If you're sure..." Microfiche didn't look convinced.

"I am. Now, from there, I need you to leave Umberlight again and then bring the parts to me in Dienna. Then, you can hide out at my place so the Bureau ponies can't find you. Also, Xiibal approved my request for you to work with me on... that project."

Microfiche blinked. "Wait, really? You want my help?"

"Heh, why wouldn't I?" Doc Zed said with a staticky laugh. "Come on, Microfiche—you didn't think I hated you, did you?"

Microfiche gulped. "No, of course not."

"Hey, wait... are we not going back to Dienna?" Kevin asked.

"Unfortunately, not yet. We've gotten wind of some... complications that would make it difficult for all of you to get down here and stay safe. But don't worry—I worked with Xiibal to come up with a plan for you kids... and that's where the hoverskiff comes in."

Flight raised an eyebrow. "Who's Xiibal?"

There was a sharp burst of static like the intake of breath that emanated from the comlink like Doc Zed was going to say something, but this was interrupted by Scootaloo, who stepped forward.

"Nevermind that—how in the hay do you know my name, and how come you keep telling everypony?!"

There was a long pause. Microfiche coughed awkwardly. Scootaloo stood there, staring at the comlink.

"Scootaloo, I'm with the rebels. You know that, right? And all about the Bureau?"

"Well... most of it, I guess. But yeah. I've got the gist of it."

"So, you know, part of my job is to collect and disseminate information to our operatives as they need to know things. And that's why I told Kevin, Flight, and Microfiche; they all were going to be interacting with you, so I figured it best if they knew your name."

Scootaloo frowned. "Luna below... it's like when you write a letter to somepony asking a bunch of questions and they only answer, like, two of 'em."

"Huh?"

"You didn't say how you knew my name in the first place. Wait..." Scootaloo's face lit up in realisation. "...Grey?"

"Excuse me?"

"Grey... was he one of your operatives or whatever?"

"Um... that name isn't familiar to me. Is that somepony you met? Did he claim to be from the rebels?" Doc Zed asked, sounding legitimately confused.

"Not exactly... but he sure wasn't working with the Bureau," Scootaloo said.

"Heh, unless he was really tryin' to screw with ya," Mochi chimed in.

"Huh? Who's that" Doc Zed asked.

"The name's Mochi, and it's a delight to meet ya, Doc," the mare said cheerfully.

"I thought it was just the kids with you, Microfiche."

"There's also Mochi and Cotton Fluff here," Microfiche replied. "I tried to tell ya, but this conversation has moved a kilometre a minute, I swear—"

"Cotton Fluff? The Cotton Fluff? Like, the shop owner?"

"That's me," the brown-coated mare said quietly.

"Huh... well I'll be. Anyway... where were we?"

"My name," Scootaloo asserted. "Where get."

"Ah, right. Well, I'm going to be honest... the truth is, I got into that locked cargo hold of yours."

"You did? What's in there? If it's food better than Gamsco's, I swear, I'm gonna..." The filly let her sentence trail off, having obviously not thought of what she was going to do.

"Um, I don't think so," Doc Zed replied. "But I did find a comlink and, while it is pretty primitive by our standards, I was still able to get it to work."

Scootaloo's pupils shrank. "No..."

"And, as a matter of fact, I got in contact with your friend Princess—"

"No, no, stop right there. I know what you're going to say, and I don't want to hear it," Scootaloo said flatly.

"Are... are you sure? I mean, I can understand if—"

"No," Scootaloo said, stamping a hoof on the ground. "I don't want to talk about her, or any of that."

"Well then..." Doc Zed continued, "I'll move on to talk about where you ponies are headed to next."

Split

"Alright... so as I was saying earlier, Xiibal and I came up with a place for you kids to go—and the other two of you, I suppose. You'd better keep close, since you know important stuff now."

"There's that name again," Flight said.

"Yeah, who's She-ball?" Scootaloo asked.

"Well, she's... she's my boss. I work in her department, under her guidance. She's a friend of mine and she's been working with the revolution for decades. Anyway..." Doc Zed paused, clearing his throat. "There's a town to the north of here in the Sciouse province called Ferretfall. It's mostly aboveground, but what's important is that we have a hideout and about a dozen operatives near there. Basically, you just need to fly the hoverskiff there and get in contact with a pony named Turnip Acres."

"Turnip Acres? Like, the vegetable?" Mochi asked, leaning in.

"Yep, the very same. He'll be in contact with myself and Xiibal so we can figure out the best way to get you kids offworld."

Flight frowned. "But I want to go back to my parents after this."

Doc Zed hesitated. "I... I hope that is possible. I can't make any promises, though."

Flight didn't look any happier. "Hmph... well, whatever. We'll figure it out later. Is that it?"

"That should be it. Please, by all means, call me when you need to, Flight. Oh, and before I forget—remember to shut off the GPS tracking on your comlink. I'm doubting that the Bureau's identified it yet, but it's certainly possible that they could if given enough time. That goes the same for Microfiche and any of the rest of you with comlinks."

Flight nodded. "Will do, thanks."

"And thanks for all your help, dude," Scootaloo chimed in. "I may not know you, but you seem like a cool dude to me."

"Thanks, Scootaloo. And it's been a pleasure talking to you, and I hope we get the opportunity to talk more soon."

"...Yep. Totally," Scootaloo said in a hollow tone, her eyes darting down.

"Wonderful, wonderful. Now, if that's all, I think I must be off now. Lots of work to do, and places to go, you know. Heh. Ta-ta for now." There was a click and Microfiche's comlink went silent. The zebra put his hoof back down to the ground.

"Gah," he gah'd. "My leg was getting pretty tired, lemme tell ya."

Flight was too busy pressing buttons on her comlink that made bleepy-bloopy noises to pay attention, so it was Scootaloo who asked the inevitable question. "So... should we get on this ship and get this show on the road?"

Microfiche nodded. "I'll just get the parts and list from Flight and then you guys should go." He gestured up at the sky, which had gone from a dim shade of blue to a dark one nearing black. "It's getting late, and the faster you can get there, the better. One of you can drive, right?"

Scootaloo looked to Kevin, who looked up and looked to Flight. All three of them snorted and then turned around.

"Yep, I can!" Mochi exclaimed. "Well, at least I could. I bet my license has expired by now, and I haven't done it in, like, a decade. But I totally still remember how!"

"Eheh... or I could do it," Cotton Fluff interjected. "I'm, like, legally allowed to, even. Not that you ponies are that concerned about legality."

"No, no, that's perfect," Microfiche said with a nod. "If you did run into the police, it'd be a lot easier. And safer, since you've got the experience."

"Now that that's settled..." Scootaloo trailed off, trotting forward past Microfiche. She leapt up and, with a tad bit of propulsion from her wings, plopped down on the metal surface of the hoverskiff in a spot where the railing lay open like a miniature door. It bouced slightly downwards in the air with the addition of her weight. "C'mon," she said, beckoning the others forward with a hoof. They all began to trot past Microfiche, to join her atop the hoverskiff. Flight hoofed the zebra the bag with the parts as she passed him

"Cotton Fluff, hold on a minute. I have something I want to talk to you about," Microfiche said as the brown mare passed. She stopped dead in her tracks and, feeling her heart pounding in her chest, turned to face the stallion as the rest of her companions climbed aboard the hoverskiff.

"Y-yes?" she stammered.

"Now, I can tell you're the more 'experienced' or at least more acclimated to adult life than the rest of these ponies, so I need you to take special care to keep everyone safe," Microfiche said with a warm smile. "Get these ponies where they need to go. Yeah?"

"Yeah, d-definitely," Cotton Fluff agreed, nodding shakily.

"And, because of this, I'm gonna give you my spare comlink. It should have my number and Doc Zed's number programmed in already, and then you can just get Flight's so you can contact each other if you have to split up."

"Oh, thank you," the mare said, and reached out a hoof as Microfiche levitated the comlink out of his bag, using the white aura to close its bands around Cotton Fluff's wrist. "I won't let you down, sir."

"Heh, just Microfiche will do. And thanks, really." He stepped to the side. "Goodbye, everypony! And may we speak again soon!" With that, the zebra turned around and began trotting away across the hill. Cotton Fluff stood there watching him as he disappeared out of sight among the darkened shapes of the grassy hills.

"C'mon, Cotton, we gotta go!" Kevin cried from behind her. She looked at where Microfiche had been just a moment earlier and then turned to climb onto the hoverskiff where the rest of her companions awaited.

Retry

Cotton Fluff stared down at the control panel in front of her. Out from the centre protruded a black plastic wheel. To the side were a few levers and buttons.

"Everything okay?" Flight asked from behind her. Cotton Fluff looked over her shoulder to see all four of her companions standing in a line, watching her.

"Erm... yeah," Cotton Fluff said. "I just need to remember exactly what I'm doing here. I've definitely driven recently, but those were... different types of ships."

"It's no problem," Flight replied, smiling. "Take all the time you need. The last thing we want is—"

"But don't take too long, y'know?" Scootaloo butted in. "We gotta get this show on the road as soon as we can, remember?"

"For sure..." Cotton Fluff agreed, and she turned back to the console and stared back down for another moment before she reached a hoof forward and pressed a rectangular green button. An inquisitive chirp emanated from the console, and in response, Cotton Fluff put a hoof down on a small grey pad to the left and it lit up green at her touch. As she took her hoof away, the white outline of the bottom of her hoof lingered for a few moments before fading away into the green light. Then, she pulled a lever.

And then, with an electronic hum, the hoverskiff lurched forward, nearly knocking all five ponies off their hooves then and there. As she got to her hooves, Mochi in the back glanced to the side and shouted, "Look out!"

Cotton Fluff looked up to see the hill directly in front of them, and then—

THUD.

The five ponies who had just gotten to their hooves were this time thrown forwards; Mochi slammed into the three younger ponies, nearly crushing them, and Cotton Fluff's stomach hit the steering wheel dead-on.

"Crud!" she yelled, stepping back. She could barely even process Mochi getting up off the others and standing them upright.

"Are you... are you gonna be okay?" Flight asked once she had stood up. She stepped forward as she spoke, putting a hoof on Cotton Fluff's shoulder, and her voice was laced with concern.

"Urgh... yeah, I should be fine," Cotton Fluff managed weakly. She was sitting slumped against the ship's railing, cradling her injured stomach. "What... what happened?"

Flight craned her neck around the mare. "Heh... looks like you ran into the hill. I think you mighta forgotten the upward thrust."

"Oof.. yeah, that would do it." Cotton Fluff rolled her eyes. "Rookie mistake, I tell you. I blame the dark."

"Don't worry, Ms. Fluff," Scootaloo said. "We can pause for a moment so you can get your bearings or whatever."

"Whatever happened to wanting to go fast?" Kevin whispered semi-loudly.

"Oh, can it," Scootaloo shot back. "Yeah, I wanna go fast, but not at the expense of anypony else. I really didn't intend for this to happen, but somehow we're a team. And if we're a team, we've gotta stick together."

"How inspirational," Flight said, sticking her tongue out.

"I'm gonna be fine," Cotton Fluff said, pulling herself back up. She turned back around to face the controls. "I just need to... plan what I'm doing a little more."

First she pressed a round button which, through the faint evening light, she could make out held a small circular icon with lines coming off of it. Immediately, the platform was awash with white light; the button had activated a line of small lamps that were inlaid on the perimeter of the railing, as well as two headlights on the front of the hoverskiff. As she listened to the oohs and ahhs of the ponies behind her, Cotton Fluff pulled the lever again, but not as far as she had the first time. The hoverskiff began inching its way forward and, as it neared the now brightly-illuminated swaths of grass that sloped upwards ahead, the mare tapped and held another button. Slowly but surely, Cotton Fluff could feel the ship rising—about a dozen centimetres higher than they had been, but just enough to adapt to the hill's shape. Once they were securely rising with the contours of its slope, Cotton Fluff let go of the button and of a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

"Woo! Good job, dude!" Scootaloo called from behind.

"Heh... thank you," Cotton Fluff replied, but she kept her eyes on the hill ahead as she guided the skiff faster and faster forwards—it would not do her well to get distracted, lest she crash into something again.

The ponies behind her began to talk in hushed tones, but Cotton Fluff, alone, did her best to look out among the darkened hills and the shadowy forms of shrubbery in the distance to figure out where exactly she was supposed to be taking them.

"Ow! Jeez, watch it!" Gloss rubbed his cheek with an elbow as he sat on an uncomfortable blue chair in a small room in the back of the Umberlight Police Department. Next to him stood a unicorn in uniform that was levitating a small glass dropper filled with clear liquid. This unicorn sighed.

"I tell ya, Gloss, it's important to disinfect somethin' like this with our good ol' buddy hydrogen peroxide, 'cause you never know what ponies have got on their hooves. Otherwise you could get a nasty infection! I know it sucks, but that's protocol."

Gloss frowned. "I darn well know that, Doctor, but I swear that last drop nearly made it in my eye! Please be more careful."

Officer Doctor laughed. "Son, you'd know if I got it in your eye, on account of the chemical burns and all. Besides, I ain't goin' anywhere near your eye."

"Hmph... it's all part of the face," Gloss huffed. "Seems pretty close to me."

Officer Doctor ignored him. "So what were you doing out there, anyway? I know this Cotton Fluff is some bitch ex of yours, but why's she getting all mixed up in the case? How come you didn't just arrest the ponies then and there? I know ya had the backup—you toally coulda if you'd wanted to."

Gloss sighed. "First off, she's not a 'bitch ex'... she's a nice pony, but we just weren't destined to be married like I'd hoped. And second of all, you're not wrong. I definitely could have arrested the lot of them, and brought backup to do so. Hell, the whole department was out there not fifteen minutes before they showed up. But I had them leave."

"You had them leave?" Officer Doctor asked, incredulous. "How come you did that?"

"Heh, I thought you'd ask. Take a look at this," he said, reaching into his saddlebag. Pulling out an envelope, Gloss unfolded the sheet of paper inside and laid it out on his wing for Officer Doctor to read. As the unicorn's eyes scanned the page, they grew wider and wider until he reached the end where a messy signature and a bronze-foil gold seal lay prominently.

"Signed... His Majesty, Prince Aeneus? What in... Aeneus's name?"

"Heh, my reaction too," Gloss scratched the back of his head with a hoof. "I knew that orange filly was pretty darn important, but I had no idea it went up this high."

"No kidding..." Officer Doctor breathed. "In all my years here... this is probably only the second letter from Prince Aeneus that I ever saw. And the other one was just about protecting him on a visit to Umberlight which he then cancelled... as if he'd ever intended to show up in the first place..." The unicorn trailed off into incoherent mumbling.

"So, yeah. Basically, I had specific instructions from our head of state to send Cotton Fluff along with them as a spy, to find out what they're up to." Gloss leaned back in his seat. "I guess Prince Aeneus thinks that there's still useful information we can get out of them."

"Well, if Prince Aeneus thinks it, then I'm sure he's right." Officer Doctor watched as Gloss folded the paper back up, stuck it back in the envelope, and returned it to his bag. "Now... if I may... lean back, and close your eyes."

Gloss sighed. "If I must... ow!"

Austentatious

Cotton Fluff took a deep breath, feeling the cool night air flow down her throat and fill her lungs before escaping once again into the darkness. And yes, she could actually see the puff of air in front of her as it fizzled away—the temperature had fallen quickly and dramatically, leaving the mare shivering as she gazed out ahead with glossy eyes, mentally gauging the lay of the land. The grass on the hills—illuminated in eerie blue tones by the headlights on the front of the hoverskiff—rolled up and down with the shape of the hills, demanding Cotton Fluff's attention even though all she wanted was to close her eyes and let her body collapse on the floor.

Speaking of collapsed... behind her against the far wall of the hoverskiff lay the three young ponies, all having drifted off to sleep more than an hour earlier. Scootaloo and Flight each were slumped against the corners, leaving Kevin curled up on the floor in a green-grey pile between them. As the young ponies had fallen asleep, Cotton Fluff had found the dimmer for the lights and used it to make the railing glow only ever so slightly, just so she could see the controls.

As Cotton Fluff listened to the hum of the manabatteries below that powered the ship, she also noticed two sounds that were more noisy. One was the whoosh of the grass bending down beneath them as the hoverskiff passed over it, but the other was a closer scribble coming from somewhere within the skiff. Cotton Fluff, after making sure she had levelled out onto a flat patch of grass, glanced briefly over her shoulder. What she saw was Mochi sitting against the railing with a notebook between her legs and a graphick in one hoof, scribbling quickly on the page. Then, she remembered when the pink mare had asked Scootaloo for the journal which she had stashed away in the filly's saddlebag back before the young ponies had gone to sleep. Cotton Fluff took another deep breath and turned back ahead.

A moment later, Mochi whispered, "Hey, Cotton?"

"Erm, yeah?"

"How do you spell 'ostentatious'?"

Cotton Fluff, still focusing on the hill, thought for a moment. "A-U-S-T-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-U-S," she spelled out. "Wait..."

There was a few quick scribbles behind her and then the soft sound of an eraser rubbing against the page. "No, that's not it. I think it starts with an 'O'."

"Yeah, you're right," Cotton Fluff murmured. "O-S-T-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-U-S. I guess I always thought it looked better with the 'A-U', though. More... golden."

"Huh, yeah, I guess. Never bothered too much with spelling myself, 'cause it doesn't really matter if ponies can understand you. But I've been wondering how to spell that one for a while... few years, I guess."

Cotton Fluff raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yeah... turns out most of the ponies in the South Pen aren't much for spelling, either. In fact, I'm pretty sure a lot of them couldn't write..."

Cotton Fluff gulped. She kept forgetting that this pony had spent... a decade, was it? Yes, a decade. This pony had spent a decade of her life in South Pen, the highest-security prison in all of the territory. And, each time she remembered, Cotton Fluff found herself feeling quite uncomfortable. "Mochi... can I ask you a question?"

In the momentary lapse in conversation, the mare had gone back to scribbling but she paused to say, "Yeah, sure thing."

"I apologise if this question is... too personal in nature. And I know that we've just met each other and all. But if we're both going to be the adults here and look after these kids... I really think I oughta know."

"Know what?" To Cotton Fluff's surprise, Mochi sounded as if she had no idea what the mare was talking about.

"Er... how come you were in the South Pen? And for so long, too..."

Mochi gulped audibly. "You know, I don't... I don't really want to talk about that."

"That's fine," Cotton Fluff quickly whispered. "I understand."

"No, no, I ain't done." Mochi cleared her throat. "It's not something I wanna talk about, but... you make a darn good point. We're all suppose to work together as a team here, and it's best if you know enough about me to know that you can trust me, right?"

"R-right," Cotton Fluff stammered, nodding. She tried to picture Mochi's expression as she kept her eyes on the hills and the moonless black sky, but couldn't decide whether the mare's expression would be the goofy smile that was pretty much all she had seen, or something more serious.

"It all started... back when I was twenty-two. I had my own shop in Umberlight, actually—I had just graduated from college, and I had a little booth near the zoo where I'd sell mochi that I'd made myself. I started off doing pretty well for myself, but... I'm sure you remembered what happened. In a recession, ain't many ponies that wanna buy treats like that. The next year, I didn't have enough money to renew my vendor's license and... suddenly I was out of a job, just like everypony else."

"Oh, damn..." Cotton Fluff breathed. "I remember the recession. Luckily, my business is pretty essential to Umberlight's economy, so I was able to scrape by, but I swear half the market cleared out then. So, I guess that'd make you about... thirty five?"

"Thirty four... thirty five... something like that. I dunno. I stopped counting."

"So then what happened?" Cotton Fluff asked.

"Well, I did what anypony else without parents to go back to did... I kept lookin' for a job. I think it was... maybe in a tavern in the Inner Sector, a kind of shady place that I'd only been in once or twice before... but I ran into a nice-lookin' stallion who called himself Gnarled Bramble. I'm pretty damn sure that it wasn't his real name, based on what I heard other ponies in the South Pen say. He tricked more ponies than just me," Mochi explained.

"He... tricked you? How?"

"He told me he'd get me an honest job, and for a while he did. Delivery service, deliverin' whatever he told me to. Somehow he was able to run a lot cheaper than the BPS, but I'm not super sure it was legal so there was a lot of shady stuff runnin' through my hooves. Not go-to-prison-type stuff... mostly just ammunition and bootleg Betamax tapes or whatever. Ponies send other ponies a lot of stupid stuff, lemme tell ya."

"Heh... I believe it."

"But, in exchange, he gave me a place to stay and some credits to spend on food. It wasn't a lot, but it was just enough. Maybe even not quite enough, but he always kept promising that he'd pay me more next time." Mochi paused. "And then, one day, I went in and he had me deliver this one envelope. Just a plain envelope... which was kinda weird, but I'd delivered some of those before. But what was weirder was his instructions. He told me that once I gave the letter to the pony, I needed to high-tail it on out of there. Wouldn't tell me why neither."

Cotton Fluff blinked in realisation. "Oh my... I can see where this is going. I think I read about this in the news. Mayor Outlines?"

Cotton Fluff couldn't see, but she presumed Mochi had nodded. "I didn't even recognise her until after I delivered the envelope... and then the next day when I saw the news story about the anthrax, I knew I was done for. My hoofprints were all over the envelope, and they didn't even give me a trial. Heck, I didn't even have a case. I was just some jobless lowlife that they were glad to be getting off the streets. Don't think they even listened when I said Bramble's name... since it was a fake, it probably didn't even come up in their database or whatever."

"So, you went in for murder?"

"Accessory for murder. They figured out that I couldn't have gotten access to the anthrax by myself, but it was just easier to lock me away so they looked like they had somepony to blame."

Cotton Fluff sighed. "I'm sorry to hear it."

"Thank ya, but it's alright. It's been a long time, and I'm over it. And I'm hoping now that I can make things better for myself, now that I'm with you ponies."

Cotton Fluff looked over her shoulder to say, "Don't worry, Mochi. It's going to be good for you... just you wait."

After several seconds of silence, Cotton Fluff could hear Mochi had gone back to scribbling in her journal. Sighing, the mare looked back out at the spots of the rolling hills illuminated by the headlights and continued guiding the hoverskiff along through the air.

Pause

Kevin could see the blue glow through his eyelids before he even opened his eyes. Then, when he attempted to open them, the harshness of the light forced his eyelids back shut again and he had to open them bit by bit, squeezing them back shut as he felt the light inside his head. Eventually, though, his eyes lay open and, as he rubbed them, he could see the interior of the hoverskiff come into focus with Cotton Fluff standing at the controls still and a fuzzy pink pile of Mochi leaning against the left wall with her eyes closed, snoring. Turning his head, Kevin confirmed that they were still moving, albeit slower than they had been the night before when he went to sleep. Then, with a soft groan, he began to stand up.

As he got to his hooves, Cotton Fluff glanced over her shoulder. "Oh, thank Aureate you're awake."

"Um... good morning to you too?" Kevin replied. He looked around at the land outside of the hoverskiff but, instead of the expansive rolling hills that he had expected based on the night before, the skiff was surrounded by thick tree trunks, whose bark his eyes traced upwards for hundreds of metres where he could see needle-covered branches emerging out from the trunks. It didn't look all that different from the forest he'd walked through with Flight, except for that these trees were taller and much further apart, and there was grass and exposed earth below rather than a dense layer of bushes. The needles above, however, nearly filled the sky, only letting a few patches of blue morning light filter in from above. "Where are we?"

"I'm not quite sure what it's called, but like an hour ago we left the hills and entered this forest," Cotton Fluff replied, still looking ahead. A moment later, it was apparent to Kevin why they were flying slower than before; every so often, Cotton Fluff had to pull aside to dodge one of the trees, and that would be a lot harder if they were going faster. "And I'm pretty sure we'll actually be able to get to Ferretfall within a day, since I believe it's in this same forest. Never been myself, but I've heard about it."

"Oh, cool," Kevin murmured. "So, I guess Mochi eventually went to sleep?"

"Heh, eventually? I guess you could say that... it wasn't even two hours after you guys went to sleep before I heard her stop scribbling. I don't even think she meant to... the poor mare looks like she fell asleep still writing."

Kevin tilted his head and leaned forward and, sure enough, Mochi's pencil and notebook lay haphazardly in front of her, definitely not placed intentionally. "Oh, huh. Guess we all were able to get some sleep then."

At first, Cotton Fluff said nothing. Then, she sighed. "Well, not quite everyone," she huffed finally.

"Oh!" Kevin said, blinking in realisation. "Holy crap, I totally forgot! You must be super exhausted."

"Heh... you bet your bucking mo—er, Argent's trousers—I am. Based on when I opened the shop, I haven't slept in..."—the mare paused, presumably to look down at her watch—"...more than twenty-eight hours. Ugh... kill me now..."

"Don't worry!" Kevin reassured her, stepping forward and past Mochi's slumbering form so that he was nearly right next to the mare. "We can... uh..."

"We're gonna stop," Cotton Fluff stated. "I was already gonna wake you kids up soon if you hadn't woken up, actually. Then I can get myself some shut-eye and you kids and Mochi can look for firewood or food or something."

"Food?" Kevin asked. "Oh, crud..."

Cotton Fluff turned her head to look at him and flashed him a nervous smile. "Yep... guess what Mister Zebrapants neglected to give us. Heh..."

"We'll... we'll find something," Kevin resolved. "There's gotta be, like, edible berries or something. Anything to last us one more day."

"There could be salmonberries," Cotton Fluff wondered aloud. "Or raspberries. You'd have to make sure they're not pseudorasps, though. My brother ate one of those once when he was ten, and he threw up like six times."

Kevin blinked. "Uh, how can you tell which are which?"

"Salmonberries are orange, raspberries are pink, and pseudorasps are... red." Cotton Fluff paused to swerve around another tree. "You know, now that I think about it, they aren't that different looking. Hm."

"I'm sure we'll figure it out."

"Oh, of course—you strike me as a... capable pony." Cotton Fluff looked to the left, and then the right. "You know, speaking of capable... could you get everypony up? I think I wanna stop us in a moment, and it would really help if everypony were awake."

"Sure thing," Kevin replied, and he turned to walk down the length of the skiff once more. He paused at Mochi and tapped the mare on her shoulder, at which the mare twitched. "Hey, Ms. Mochi... it's time to get up now."

"Hmmm?" the mare breathed, opening her eyelids just a crack. "Whatcha need?"

"Cotton Fluff needs to sleep and we're all gonna need to eat, so she's gonna stop the ship for a bit so she can get that sleep and you and me and Flight and Scootaloo can all go find some food. How does that sound?"

Mochi yawned, opening her mouth directly in front of Kevin such that the green-grey colt was subject to the full brunt of her morning breath. It was all Kevin could do to not curl up and die in horror at the stench. "Oh... of course, Kevin! Wh-when'd I fall asleep?" The mare leaned forward where she sat and glanced from side to side. "Oh, here's my journal," she mumbled to herself, grasping the thing in her hooves. Satisfied, Kevin turned away from Mochi so he could go wake up Flight and Scootaloo.

As the colt looked up at the far end of the skiff, however, he could see that both of them were already coming to. Scootaloo, eyes still closed, stretched out her legs as she yawned and her feathery orange wings fluttered open to join them; Flight, on the other hoof, had her eyes wide open but was yet to move from her spot against the railing.

"Mmmmfff... good morning, Kevin," Flight greeted him as the colt approached.

"Heh... g'morning," Kevin replied. "You hear all I said to Mochi?"

Flight nodded. "Pretty much. Sleep for the driver, and food for all of us."

"Yeah... we've just gotta find it."

"How hard can it be?" Scootaloo chimed in, finally opening her eyes. "It's a forest. There's gotta be a million and a half berries around here, so that means probably like a thousand we can eat."

"Did you always hyperbolise this much?" Kevin asked. "I can't remember."

"Pfff... you hardly knew me at all before we crashed, buddy," Scootaloo teased.

"I guess now's the perfect time to get to know you, then," Kevin replied.

Flight sprang to her hooves. "I dunno, Kev... you oughta get to know me first, don't you think?"

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "But I already know you, don't I?"

"Well, reacquainted at least." Flight laughed nervously, hoping the redness of her cheeks wasn't too noticeable. "I mean... um..." Luckily, she was saved from having to speak more by an announcement from their driver.

"You kids can all get to know each other in just a few minutes," Cotton Fluff called from the front of the hoverskiff. "Hold on, though... I think I see a spot where I want to stop us."

"Ooh, is it over there?" Mochi asked, pointing with a hoof; Cotton Fluff looked over her shoulder to see in which direction.

"No, it's—shit!" the mare cried as she looked back ahead to see a wide-trunked tree just a dozen metres away, getting closer and closer. Kevin could feel the ship shake beneath them as Cotton Fluff banked a hard left; he nearly bumped into Flight as the side of the ship bumped into the edge of the tree ever so slightly. Luckily, no real damage was done; Cotton Fluff decelerated the ship quickly so that they came to a hovering stop in a small clearing between the trees.

Cotton Fluff was hyperventilating. She turned around and Kevin could see a livid expression on the mare's face.

"Mochi!"

"Er... sorry. Heh."

"Nnngh... whatever," Cotton Fluff said quieter. "Just get yourselves off the damn ship so I can finally sleep... I swear, it's not safe to have me drive like this..." The brown mare slumped over next to the controls and closed her eyes. "See you guys in a few hours, mmkay?"

"Definitely," Kevin said. "'Bye Cotton Fluff. And thank you."

Once he heard a noncommital grunt in reply from the mare, Kevin unlatched the door and pushed it open, jumping down from the ship onto the grass below. Flight, Scootaloo, and Mochi followed suit, and then Kevin, using his magic, shut and latched the door once more.

Forest

"Say, kids?" It came as a surprise to Scootaloo when Mochi spoke; the mare had been lingering behind her and Kevin and Flight as they had trotted away from the hoverskiff in the previous few minutes. She and the other two ponies her age had made some light conversation and Kevin had told them about the berries, but Mochi hadn't said a thing.

Scootaloo turned to look at the pink mare. "Hey, Mochi. What's up?"

"I was wondering... how about you kids keep going this way looking for berries, and I can go over a different way, maybe, lookin' for firewood or somethin'?" Mochi looked terrified to be even asking the question.

"Of course!" Flight replied. "I guess you probably don't have too much to say to us right now, huh?"

"It's not that, it's just... this is my first time really being outside the South Pen in a long time and I just wanna take a little bit to myself to... explore and think about myself and what's going on. And I wouldn't wanna bog you kids down with that or anything."

"Oh, no worries," Flight reassured her. "I mean, it wouldn't bother us if you did that, but I totally understand if you want to be alone. We'll meet you back at the skiff in a few hours, then?"

Mochi nodded, grinning with a mad, lopsided grin. "Thank you!" Then, she turned tail and galloped away quickly.

"Huh... wonder what that was all about," Kevin wondered aloud.

"Er... you don't really have to wonder, dude. She pretty much said it outright," Scootaloo countered.

"I... guess? Still, seems a bit odd." As he noticed that Flight and Scootaloo were starting to amble along again, so did Kevin. "Anyway... what were you saying, Flight? Something about your maths teacher?"

"Oh, yes... Ms. Brusque. Pretty apt name, if you ask me; never said a word more than she thought she needed to, and that didn't include being nice to students. The principal, however... well, that's a different story."

"Oh?" Scootaloo asked, looking interested. "What happened with them?"

"Well, I just meant to imply that she was more polite when he was around," Flight explained, "but come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the principal just got divorced, and now I'm starting to wonder..."

Scootaloo snickered; Kevin smiled. "Guess that not much has changed, huh?"

"Nope, not at all," Flight said with a laugh. "I'm pretty sure there will always be middle-aged ponies cheating on their spouses... that's just what middle-aged ponies do, I guess."

"Oh, totally," Scootaloo agreed. "I dunno what your divorce rates are like here but dang... back home, I swear like half the ponies I knew had divorced parents. Hmm..." She paused a moment to think. "Fluttershy... Rainbow Dash... heh, me... I'm pretty sure Mayor Mare is divorced... well, you get the picture." She waited a moment, but neither of her companions said anything. "Um, guys?"

Kevin blinked and shook his head. "Oh, I'm sorry! That's interesting, really!"

Scootaloo shot him a confused look.

"It's just that... you started talking about... about back where you're from. About the Ecuestran planet," he continued. "I guess it's... super cool to hear, and I was hoping that if I didn't say anything, you'd keep talking before you realised."

Scootaloo facehoofed. "First of all, I'm not stupid—I knew exactly what I was talking about, Goofus. Second of all, it's 'Equestria'. Not 'Ecuestra' or whatever you just said. Where did you dorks even hear that, anyway? Even if Doc Zed talked to Twilight, there's no way she would've said that."

"S-sorry," Kevin stammered, looking like he was nearly going to cry. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow.

"Dude, it's not a big deal. Chill down."

"I-I'm fine," Kevin replied, wiping at his cheek with his wrist.

A moment later, Flight turned to Scootaloo. "You know, that's what we've always called your planet—the Ecuestran planet. I'm pretty sure that's the name of the planet in the Asterismos, too, just like how all the other planets are named."

Scootaloo blinked. "Really? But, like, where would you have gotten that name from? I'm from there, and I'm pretty sure that, based on what Twilight told me, nopony from out here has ever visited Equestria." She paused. "Also, what's the Asterismos?"

"They're... oh, buck, how do I describe them," Flight murmured. "The Asterismos is the book that the Bureau's government and our modern pony and lemur societies are based on. It's like a combination of a religious text and a historical account all wrapped in one, except for the fact that at least six of the ponies and lemurs it talks about are still around today."

"Lemme guess... the alicorns?" Scootaloo asked. "The Bureau guy who kept asking me questions in the South Pen... he mentioned a Prince Aeneus a few times."

"Yep, he's one of them," Flight affirmed. "He's the only one known to still be alive on this planet, actually. Prince Argent and Prince Aureate used to rule with Prince Aeneus several hundred years ago, but within the space of a year... both of them went on journeys off-world and never ended up returning. Prince Aeneus has ruled us alone ever since... well, with the help of the other Bureau planets, of course."

"Huh, weird. You know, I might have run into one of those books in this cave I ran through while escaping from the South Pen. It kinda looked like a room in a church, and there was a big book that was in the letters I could read rather than the weird ones you guys use."

"Hmm... it very well could have been. Can't really say without seeing it," Flight replied.

"How'd you learn so much about the Asterismos?" Kevin asked.

"Heh, it was my stupid parents, actually. They said I had to take the Religious Studies class because it's 'important to my heritage'. I mean, I get that and it was interesting stuff to learn, but I'm just not super into the ideals the Asterismos teach, even if the history is pretty accurate."

"I was never super into history," Scootaloo said. "That was more... that was more my friends' thing. Heh... when we'd do timelines and stuff, I mostly did the little pictures next to the events."

"That's fair," Flight replied, nodding. "We've all got our different strengths. Me, I wanna be something like a history professor when I grow up. I think it would be super cool to teach but also be able to do research. How about you, Kevin?" she finished, startling the colt.

"Huh? Oh, um... I dunno yet. Maybe I'll be a space adventurer!"

"Ooh, you can keep flying with me!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

Flight frowned. "I thought you already said you'd wanna come stay with me and my parents..."

"Of course, of course... I'm just talking about the far future. I dunno what I want to do... for a living, that is." Kevin gulped, feeling his face grow warm. "It just seems so far away... so unreal."

"Yeah, that's true," Flight agreed. "I didn't even decide on what I wanted to do until a few months ago, and maybe that'll change. You never know."

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "Is there something not for a living that you want to do?"

Kevin laughed nervously. "Uh... nope! On second thought, everything that I want to do would pretty much be a requirement for me to keep on living."

"...What?" Scootaloo was more confused than ever.

"Erm... I dunno. Forget I said that," Kevin mumbled, looking back down at his hooves. "Let's change the subject..."

"Ooh, I know!" Flight exclaimed. "Scootaloo can tell us more about her cryptic past!"

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Oh, joy, I'm soooo excited."

Flight stuck her tongue out. "You don't have to if you don't want to, really. We're just super curious."

"Nah, I can answer some questions if you guys have got any," Scootaloo resolved. "But don't expect me to just tell you my whole life story right now." She stepped quickly forward and stopped in front of Kevin and Flight, facing them. "I gotta keep it mysterious, you know? Chicks dig mystery." Then, Scootaloo winked. And neither Kevin or Flight could figure out to whom the wink was directed.

Salmon

"So, lemme get this straight... you guys have four alicorn princesses down there?" Flight looked astonished. "But all of the rest of the planets only ever got three..."

"Well, there's actually five now," Scootaloo corrected. "Princess Cadance had a baby a while back... Heart McFlurry or something? I dunno. But yeah. Five alicorns."

"And you're friends with one of them? That's crazy..."

"Yep, I've known Princess Twilight for years now. Though I didn't really know her all to well until... heh, guess that was about a year ago at this point. You guys got a calendar or anything?"

"I don't think that would really work even if we did," Kevin chimed in. "All the planets go around Solaris at different rates and stuff, so there's not even one unified Bureau calendar and time."

"Heh, right. Pretty weird for me to think about... I mean, until I started talking to Twilight, I went my whole life thinking that Equestria was the only planet. And I also thought that the sun went around us..." Scootaloo trailed off, looking ahead. "Hey, are those some of the berries you mentioned?" she asked, pointing at a voluminous green bush up ahead, to the left.

"Oh, yeah!" Kevin replied enthusiastically. He sped up, leaving Flight and Scootaloo to follow in his wake. By the time they reached his side, Kevin had already picked and eaten several of the orange fruit. "Mmm... I haven't had these in ages."

Flight picked a berry and looked at it in her hoof. "When did you have these, anyway? They sure aren't native around Dienna, and I've never seen them in the market there before."

"Oh, um... I used to go to my aunt's every year in Capricorn, remember? I had to go out and explore in the forest with my cousins."

Flight raised an eyebrow. "'Had to?'"

"Well, the forest was cool. And it had these cool berries, which I'd never seen before. But my cousins? They're a few years older than me, and they used to be such jerks. Haven't seen them in years... heh, not since my parents died, or a year or two before that. I wonder if they still suck..." Kevin trailed off, looking suddenly wistful.

"Prob'ly do," Scootaloo said, chewing on a mouthful of the berries. "Mmm, these are good. Don't think we got anything like this back in Ponyville... and I'd have noticed, believe me. Princess Twilight's friend Applejack was pretty invested in the fruit market."

"Lemme guess," Kevin said. "Apples?"

Scootaloo dramatically jerked her head back in a show of mock surprise. "What?! How in the hay did you guess that so easily?!" she exclaimed. Flight giggled, and Kevin smiled.

"Oh, I dunno. Just a lucky guess." Kevin looked back to the bush. "Y'know, we should probably save some of these, in case Cotton Fluff and Mochi want some. Or us."

Flight nodded. "We can put them in our saddlebags... you guys have enough room?" Kevin and Scootaloo nodded in affirmation. "Good." And then, all three of them started pulling off the little berries from their stems, making sure to focus on the ones that came easily (as those are the ripe ones, after all), and only the occasional orange berry made it into their hungering mouths. It was a bit of a trick to catch the berries in their hooves, so one couldn't blame Flight and Scootaloo both for flashing dirty looks in the direction of Kevin, who was using liberal amounts of magic to pluck from the bush a few salmonberries at a time. He grinned sheepishly whenever he caught one of their glares in his vision.

"Oh, Scootaloo, I do actually have another question if it's not too much trouble," Flight said after a few minutes of silence had passed. The orange filly, who by that point was already a little ways around the circumference of the bush, peered her head around its edge to look at Flight.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I was just wondering... when we went back to the place where the ship had crashed... there was a name painted on the outside of the ship, in your letters. And it kinda looked like either an earth pony or a pegasus had done it. I was wondering... is that the name of the ship? The... Sweetieblue, was it?"

Scootaloo frowned. "Sweetiebloom, actually. And yeah, that's its name." She shrank back around the side of the bush. "Is that it?"

"Well, I also wanted to know... where does that name come from?"

From around the bush, Flight could hear the filly sigh. Kevin leaned into her ear and murmured, "I don't think she wants to talk about that."

"No, it's fine," Scootaloo said, still out of view. "And I heard that, Kevin. You need to work on your whispering, doofus."

"Heh, sorry."

"Anyway... that ship, the Sweetiebloom... it's named after my two best friends in the whole wide world. We used to have a group in Ponyville... it was just us three, and it was called the Cutie Mark Crusaders. We went on quests to find our cutie marks together, actually... and that we did." Flight heard Scootaloo sniffle. "That we did..."

"Why... why did you leave them behind?" Flight heard herself ask. She didn't really meant to say it; the words just kind of fell out and then she didn't feel like she could take it back.

"No, you have it all wrong... both of them left me long before I left them," Flight heard Scootaloo scowl. "Nnngh... let's talk about something else."

And so Flight and Kevin went back to picking berries but all the while they listened as Scootaloo sniffled from around the bush, out of sight.

Train

Spike looked down at the small purple suitcase that lay open on his bedspread. When he'd first bought the thing, it had been because it was the same colour as his scales; now, however, he was focused on what lay inside. His eyes scanned the contents—his toothbrush and cup were wrapped in the soft fabric of his pajamas and blanket, taking up nearly the entirety of the small suitcase. Spike looked up at his beside table, whereupon sat a lamp, an alarm clock, and a photo in a frame. He stepped forward and picked up the frame in a claw to get a closer look at the photo.

The scene was the Apple Family farm, and Spike had been with Twilight and their friends on a picnic back a few years before. The sun was setting in the background over one of the mid-field hills, and Spike and his pony friends were all splayed out across a red-and-white checkered blanket, looking up at whomever had been taking the photo. It had been Granny Smith, he remembered. To the right, on the side of the hill, three excited-looking fillies were captured mid-stride, obviously running around in some fashion. Spike sighed.

Then, the dragon walked back over to the suitcase and, pulling back his blanket from the side, set the frame in snugly against the suitcase's edge. With that, he swung the lid over the contents and zipped up the suitcase before taking the handle in his claws and lifting it from the bed. Without a second glance, Spike walked out of his room with the suitcase in tow, latching the door securely behind him.

"You have your ticket, Spike?" Twilight asked. She had walked him down to the train station where they had met Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Sassy Saddles. Surprisingly enough, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon showed up too. All seven of them stood on the side of the platform closest to the station building, and they were all looking at Spike.

"Yep, I do," Spike said. He held it up in the crisp morning air and waved it around a little, making a swoosh sound as the paper cut through the air.

"Great! Well, you have a good time, now, you hear?" Twilight stepped forward and wrapped her scaly friend in a big hug.

"And don't forget to give Rarity all our love!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as Twilight let go of Spike. "We miss her so so so so much!"

"You should tell her to come visit sometime," Fluttershy suggested quietly. "That would be... nice."

"Don't worry, I will," Spike assured her.

"Oh, and can you ask her if she wants to hang out next month?" Rainbow Dash asked. "There's a Wonderbolts derby in Canterlot I was hoping to go to, and maybe she and I could... y'know, catch up." She adjusted her front hooves nervously.

"Of course, of course," Spike said, filing a mental note.

"Oh, and Applejack told me to say goodbye to you and she hopes you have a good trip and all that jazz," Rainbow added. "She's sorry she couldn't be here but she's got... well, you know, the harvest or whatever."

Spike nodded. "I understand." He looked at the ponies before him and then up at the clock which read five minutes to nine. Five minutes until he needed to be on the train. "Er... anything else?"

"I have a few forms for Ms. Rarity that I cannot send by mail... could you please take them?" Sassy Saddles politely asked.

"Sure thing," Spike said with a nod and he unzipped the top of the suitcase as Sassy Saddles levitated the folded pieces of paper into the thin slot on the suitcase. As Spike zipped it up, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon stepped forward.

"Hey, Spike?" Diamond Tiara asked. Her tone was cautious, and quiet. She glanced over her shoulder, but Twilight and the others had already devolved into their own conversation about something or other.

Spike looked up. "Oh, hey guys. What's up?"

"We were wondering... I mean, I know we don't know you that much and you probably still have a grudge against us or whatever, but... oh, I don't know..."

"Nah, you guys are cool," Spike said. "You guys are friends of the CMCs, so that means you're friends with me."

Diamond Tiara smiled, but it was Silver Spoon who spoke. "What DT meant to ask... we were wondering if maybe you could tell Sweetie Belle that we said hi, and that we miss her and want to know how she's doing. We sent her a letter—"

"A few letters," Diamond Tiara interrupted.

Silver Spoon sighed. "Okay, we sent her like ten letters. But we waited a few weeks between each one, honest! She just hasn't replied to any of them."

Spike raised an eyebrow. "Really? Rarity's replied to my letters, and everyone else's... you sure that you got the right address? Did you check and make sure that they didn't get sent back to your houses?"

"We did," Diamond Tiara replied. "And they didn't."

"Weird..." Spike tilted his head, confused. "Well, I'll see what's up and then I'll tell you when I get back."

"Thank you so much!" Silver Spoon gave him a hoofbump and then, when Spike reached out to give one to Diamond Tiara, the pink filly pulled him into a hug.

"Have a good trip!" And, with that, she let him go and both of the fillies scampered off, away from the platform and out of sight. Spike looked after them in amazement.

"They've really changed, haven't they?" Fluttershy's voice startled Spike, who turned around to see the mare standing right next to him, while Twilight was still talking magic or something to Sassy Saddles and Rainbow and Pinkie were having a friendly argument.

"Yep... they're like the complete opposite of how they were when I first met them."

Fluttershy glanced toward the train. "You ready to go, Spike?"

The dragon in question patted his suitcase. "I've got everything I need in this little purple box."

"That's good, but I mean... are you prepared to talk to Rarity? And Sweetie Belle? And to meet with Celestia?"

Spike gulped. "I sure hope so. It's been... a long time. But I think it'll be good."

Fluttershy smiled and nuzzled him on the cheek. "I'm glad. Have a good trip, Spike." And, right after she spoke, the train whistle sounded throughout the platform.

"All aboard for the nine o'clock train to Canterlot!" the conductor yelled.

"Guess that's my cue," Spike said, looking back at his friends. "Goodbye, everyone!"

Once had heard their final "Goodbye, Spike!" and seen them wave, he walked onto the train, showing his ticket to the conductor as he walked through the open doors. He was just in time, too; right as he stepped past the conductor, the window-laden doors swung shut behind him and not a moment later the train lurched forward.

"Better get to your seat, son," the conductor said, clapping Spike on the back as he passed on his way to the front. Spike shrugged and turned down the aisle, looking out upon the available seats before choosing an open one with a window seat, which he immediately scooted over to. The view outside was that of the grassy outskirts of Ponyville, disappearing behind them at a quicker and quicker rate. Then, Spike glanced around in the train car.

There weren't very many ponies seated in the car, but Spike liked that. Less of a chance he'd run into somepony he knew, so more time for him to collect his thoughts and figure out exactly what in Tartarus he was going to say to Celestia.

Slumping back in his seat, Spike put his legs up so that his feet were against the back of the next seat. Then, he closed his eyes and listened to the rhythmic pumping of the pistons that pushed the train further and further towards his destination.

Shake

"You guys ready to go?" Scootaloo animatedly popped out from behind the other side of the bush. "I already got all the berries from back here.

Kevin blinked. "All of them? But how? I've been getting a few at a time with my horn this whole time, and we still have a bunch left to go."

"Yeah, there's no way," Flight said, stepping forward. "It's simply impossible that you—" The filly quieted once she rounded the corner. "What." There was not a single berry remaining on the branches, though a loose layer of leaves covered the grass immediately below.

Scootaloo winked at Flight and then turned to watch Kevin's astonished reaction as he followed them. "How... how did you... what?"

Scootaloo grinned. "Here, lemme show you dorks on your side." The filly trotted between them, leading them around until she stood directly in front of the bush, staring down the berries that were still attached to their stems. With bated breath, Flight and Kevin waited, watching.

To their surprise, Scootaloo leaned over and let her saddlebag slide off of her, plopping down on the grass. She scooted it forward until it sat directly beneath the bush and then swung open the lid on one of the bags, revealing dozens of salmonberries inside. Then, she took hold of the bush in both her front hooves and she shook it. Scootaloo could hear the gasps of both Kevin and Flight behind her as the berries started to fall, but she didn't stop. She merely kept shaking, and watched as the orange berries separated from the stems, falling neatly into place amongst the others in her bag. A few tumbled off to the sides onto the ground, but those ones didn't really matter, anyway; they were so few in comparison to nearly the whole bush's worth that had landed in Scootaloo's bag, filling it nearly to the brim.

Finally, Scootaloo stopped and looked down at the bag. With a hoof, she brushed the top layer of leaves off of the berries and then closed the bag, picking it back up before turning to her companions.

"And that's how it's done, kids."

Kevin blinked. "Huh... why didn't we think of that?"

"Probably because it makes too much sense," Flight grumbled.

"Aw, don't give yourself a hard time," Scootaloo said. "I just thought of it 'cause it's what my friend's sister Applejack used to do all the time, bucking apple trees and catching the apples when they fell. I just figured it would work on other fruit too."

"Huh, cool," Kevin said. "I'm gonna go look for more bushes!" He ran off quickly to the right.

"Heh... guess we should join him," Scootaloo said, watching the colt gallop away.

"Definitely," Flight agreed, looking to the orange filly. "But first... are you alright, Scootaloo? I know we don't know each other very well, but... I want you to be okay." She put a hoof on the filly's shoulder. "And, if there's anything I can do to help, please let me know. We don't want to pry or anything, or bring back old scars."

Scootaloo gulped and nodded. "Thanks a lot, Flight. I'm super, super grateful for you guys being nice and all." She looked down. "And hopefully I can talk to you about it at some point... when I feel like I can."

Flight nodded and pulled Scootaloo in for an awkward side-hug. "Now let's go see what Kevin's up to... hopefully we can catch up with him before he accidentally pokes his eye out with a branch."

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "He'd do that?"

As if on cue, Scootaloo and Flight could hear Kevin frantically yell somewhere ahead: "Guys, come quick! Hurry!"

Scootaloo looked to Flight who looked back at Scootaloo and then both fillies took off, galloping in the direction of Kevin's cries.

Leaves

As soon as Scootaloo and Flight rounded the corner and caught up with Kevin, they could see what had made the colt cry out: there, standing in front of a tree trunk, was a massive brown bear that stood nearly four ponies tall. Its fur was matted and unkempt and its beady brown eyes looked up from Kevin to watch as Flight and Scootaloo skidded, scrambling to a stop before they ran straight into it. The massive form of the beast stood immobile, merely watching them.

"What the—" Flight breathed.

"Look at his forehead," Kevin murmured, nodding his head in that direction. Flight and Scootaloo slowly trained their gazes upwards to see the tiny yet distinctive golden star sticker, right there amongst the fur.

Scootaloo blinked. "Oh, Celestia," she said at a normal speaking tone, stepping forward. "I'm so glad to see you, Grey... I thought you'd disappeared but I guess you were just making your escape and... huh?"

Flight and Kevin stood and stared in horror as Scootaloo spoke. And as she had started speaking, the bear made a series of odd, light roaring sounds. Almost like...

"Are you... laughing?" Scootaloo asked.

"Of course, Andromeda," the bear said in a voice that was much squeakier than she would've expected. "I think you're mistaking me for somebody else."

"Huh? My name is Scootaloo..." the filly said plainly. "And what do you mean? Animals with star stickers on their foreheads... isn't that your schtick? C'mon, Grey... it's not funny."

"Scootaloo," Kevin whispered into her ear. "We need to get out of here. This guy is bad news."

Scootaloo gave Kevin a funny look. "No, this is my friend Grey who broke me and Mochi out of the South Pen. He's just being... weird or something." Scootaloo turned back to the bear.

"No, no, your friend is right. I'm not Grey, nor do I know who that is," the bear stated, taking on an amused expression. "Though I do have some ideas. And if that's what he's calling himself... ah, he never was the brightest of fellows."

Flight narrowed her eyes. "Why are you here? What do you want with Kevin?"

The bear paused for a moment and then turned to the filly. Suddenly, it leaned forward, falling onto all fours so that it could get up close, not two dozen centimetres from her face. "Look here, Ms. Flight. I only come to remind this one"—the bear gestured with a paw towards Kevin, who jumped back—"that I am still watching and that my offer still stands. He will know when the time comes, but for now I must continue to give him chances."

"Buzz off, you creep," Scootaloo shouted. "Leave us alone!"

The bear leaned back up and nodded. "Gladly, Andromeda. Now is not yet your time, anyhow."

Scootaloo blinked. "Huh?"

"Dude... stop dragging other ponies into this," Kevin finally said. "I don't even really understand what you want from me, but it doesn't have to involve them, whatever it is."

"But of course, child. If you truly will not come, I will now take my leave." The bear coughed and then started to shuffle its feet around, turning on the grass.

"Wait!" Flight called. The bear stopped. "Why do you keep calling Scootaloo 'Andromeda'? And why don't you call Kevin anything? Especially when you just called me by my name!"

Kevin felt his heart stop. "Now, I'm sure that's not important or anything—"

"I call Andromeda by that name because it is that one I am familiar with," the bear interrupted, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Kevin had been talking. "And you, Ms. Flight, once showed promise. And as for this one," the bear said, gesturing towards Kevin once more. "I only make promises which I intend to keep."

Flight cocked her head. "What?"

"Alas, I do not have more time or more words. Juk duuts duxolats dobiku!"

Flight turned to Scootaloo as if to say something but all she was able to do was watch the filly as she let out a high-pitched scream. "Wha—oh buck!" Flight's eyes widened as she turned to see the bear which appeared to be melting down into a magically-illuminated pile of white goop that frothed in the centre of the forest floor in front of them. Flight found herself unable to move; all she could do was watch, awestruck.

Then, as quickly as the bear had dissolved, small shapes began to rise from its remnants. At first, their forms were unrecogniseable beyond rigid vertical lumps sticking upward, dripping blops of goo back down into the quivering viscous liquid below.

And then, as the glue-like goop dripped away and the shapes began to darken in colour, it became painfully obvious what was forming in front of them—a flock of fuzzy grey mammals hovering midair on leathery wings. Or, in laypony's terms, bats. On each of their foreheads lay one of those golden stars.

Screeee! The air filled with the horrifying screeches of the creatures as they swooped forward and in that moment Kevin lightly nudged both Scootaloo and Flight and shouted "Run!" and the three of them turned tail and started galloping as fast as their hooves could take them through the underbrush. Scootaloo could hardly pay attention to anything over the pounding of her heart or her heavy, panting breaths; the screeches behind her blurred into a horrifying mess and she was barely able to focus on the path ahead, nearly running into a tree more than once.

At some point, the filly watched as Kevin pulled ahead of her and Flight. "Over here!" he yelled and swerved to the right, leaving her (and Flight) no choice but to follow the colt. Scootaloo could nearly feel the talons scraping at her backside as she turned around a tree trunk, speeding after Kevin as he ran towards a patch of grass covered by a thin layer of autumnal leaves that, despite being packed together in damp patches of the ground, were still somewhat able to display their multihued glory.

And then, in front of her very eyes, Scootaloo watched Kevin fall. "Aaaaugh!" the colt yelled as he toppled through the leaves to somewhere unseen. Scootaloo tried to slow down, tried to turn a different direction, but the leaves were too slick and she was going too fast and the bats were right on her tail so she couldn't do anything but—

"Gaaahhh!" she cried as she felt the leaves below her give way. Behind her, she heard Flight make a similar noise as well as the wet squelching of the leaves falling down, taking the fillies and Kevin, somewhere beneath them, with them. Scootaloo felt her heart stop.

And then she fell into darkness.

Canterlot

It was not until Spike woke up with a gross taste in his mouth that he realised he had fallen asleep there on the train to the rhythm of the wheels turning. As his eyelids fluttered open, the dragon, adjusted himself in the plush seat and turned his head to gaze out the window. The sky was grey and clouded, a far cry from the clear blue that had coloured the heavens in Ponyville that morning. Small splashes of water hit the window and bounced off, leaving droplets behind which slowly slid down the glass surface. Beyond the droplets, he could see the grassland had been replaced with rockier, more mountainous terrain as the train had gotten closer to Canterlot.

After a moment, Spike tore his eyes away from the outside, glancing up at the clock near the doors. It was nearly eleven o'clock, so they'd be in Canterlot within a few minutes. The dragon reached over to his suitcase on the seat next to him and, with a claw, pulled out a folded up piece of paper. As he unfolded the document, he smiled at the sight of a large, majestic signature written in flowing cursive script at the bottom: "With love, Rarity". Spike read once more over the unicorn's reply, ensuring that she had said that she would meet him at the station. He hoped that she'd have an umbrella.

"Attention, all passengers. We will be arriving at Canterlot Station, South in one minute. Please stay in your seats until you have been directed to stand. We thank you for your coöperation." The voice that emanated from the metal speaker in the ceiling was always the same, a low, feminine voice that was smooth yet clear. Spike wondered whether it was an actual pony who had recorded the announcements, or whether the voice had been magically generated.

This line of thought took him all the way through the train passing into the city, with crowds of ponies on either side of the train, and he hardly even noticed when the train slowed to a stop with a slight mechanical screech.

"Attention, all passengers," the voice said once more. "We have arrived at Canterlot Station, South. You may now stand and exit the train. We hope you have had a delightful ride, and we thank you for choosing Equestrian Rail."

This shook Spike to attention, and the dragon took a quick glance at the pony-filled platform outside before hopping off of the seat and snatching up his suitcase on his way to the aisle. From there, he turned right and made his way forward, only having to wait for a few ponies before he stepped off of the train and onto the solid ground of the platform.

The dragon's green eyes scanned the crowd around him as he stepped slowly forward, looking for anyone he knew. At first, all he saw were unfamiliar faces and those of a few ponies whom he had seen but whose names he didn't know. The crowd buzzed and roared around him, ponies running back and forth, having dozens of indistinguishable conversations all across the room. Behind him, there was a mechanical gasp; Spike looked over his shoulder to see the train already beginning to speed away to the mid-city station. And then...

"Spikey-Wikey! Over here!"

Her voice was unmistakeable and, as Spike turned back to look, he saw her to his left—the alabaster unicorn with a perfectly-styled mane of deep purple that curved up and down into a spiral. She stood confident, alone, by the stairs that led up and out of the station. And, as was Rarity's wont, she wore a dress.

It was not just any old dress, however, and Spike knew Rarity wouldn't have it any other way. Knowing her, she probably spent the day since she'd gotten his letter working on designing and creating the garment. As Spike neared, he marvelled at the beauty in its simplicity; the fabric was a deep purple that matched her mane to a T, and the ruffled layers billowed in the hustle and bustle of the station as ponies moved around her, giving the impression that Rarity was some sort of... beautiful spirit. Not that that was particularly far off from how Spike saw her.

Old crushes die hard. And this one, while dying, was not yet completely gone.

"G'morning, Rarity!" Spike said enthusiastically as he neared the mare. "It's great to see you again!"

"Oh, Spike!" Rarity exclaimed, reaching her hooves out to wrap Spike in a big hug, forcing him to drop the suitcase by her side. As he nuzzled his cheek against her fuzzy white fur, he noticed she smelled of carnations. It was always his favourite of her perfumes. "It's been so long, darling, but I'm so glad you've come to visit."

Spike stepped back, grinning. "Of course! I've totally been meaning to for a while, and once this thing came up... well, there wasn't any way I could not see you, y'know?"

Rarity smiled sweetly and then looked down at Spike's suitcase. "Hmm, I see."

"Huh? What?" Spike asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, it's just that you take after Twilight, darling. You both pack so... light."

"Well, I just try to pack just enough for me to survive. I can do without most stuff for just a few days." Spike picked up the suitcase. "Plus I haven't got Sweetie Belle to drag all of my luggage behind me in a wagon, anyway."

Rarity tittered briefly. "Of course, of course." She turned to look at the stairs and then back down to Spike. "Well, let's go then, shall we?"

"After you, m'lady," Spike said with mock gallantry, bowing down with an arm outstretched. Rarity smiled and started walking, and Spike waited but a moment to join the mare as they weaved through the crowd of unfamiliar Canterlot ponies, ascending the stairs.

"Thank Luna you remembered to bring an umbrella." Spike looked up at the black fabric dome that Rarity was levitating over the both of them and, all things considered, she had been doing a pretty good job of keeping the rain off them.

Then, as Spike tilted his head back down, he heard and felt a splash below. The dragon clapped his claw to his face and then looked down at the puddle on the sidewalk he had just become knee-deep in. "Well, crud."

Rarity giggled. "You'd better watch out, Spikey-Wikey. The ground I can't do anything about."

Spike rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't be laughing if it were you who stepped in a puddle."

Rarity shot him a grin. "Yes, but I also don't step in puddles."

Sighing, Spike stepped out of the puddle and back onto the wet (but still drier) pavement. "So, where's Sweetie Belle?"

"She's at school, darling." Rarity didn't look at him as she replied, instead choosing to keep looking ahead. A pony clad in a bright yellow raincoat trotted by on the sidewalk, looking rather silly.

"Oh, huh. Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, right?"

"Mhmm," Rarity murmured with a nod. "Passed the entrance exam with flying colours, too. Though I suppose that the recommendation from Twilight didn't hurt either."

"Well, that's pretty cool," Spike said. "Do you think she'll...?"

"Not until after you get back from the castle, darling," Rarity replied, knowing what he was going to ask. She didn't say anything else and Spike couldn't think of anything else to say, so the two of them continued in silence through the rain down the city blocks in the direction of Canterlot Boutique.

Boutique

The awkwardness had lingered over the pair of them for the rest of their walk, but thankfully it lifted as Spike and Rarity had entered Canterlot Boutique and they had new topics of conversation.

"So, you've been kept pretty busy, I assume?" Spike looked around the spacious interior of the boutique, spying row after row of dresses on mannequins that were uniquely Rarity's; all were different, but they had this personal aura of the mare's hoofiwork.

"Oh, definitely," Rarity replied as she magically latched the door behind them. "All of the secondary schools—including Sweetie Belle's, of course—have their promenade dances coming up in the next couple of weeks. Simply dozens of new clients have been placing orders and, let me tell you, some of them are quite extravagant."

Spike made a show of looking taken aback. "Even the esteemed Lady Rarity deems these garments 'extravagant'? I cannot even begin to fathom!"

Rarity rolled her eyes, but giggled all the same. "Still, all of that means that business is good. And I understand business is also good in Ponyville, yes?"

"Yep, and I've even been helping out Ms. Saddles at the desk some of the time when she's busy working on orders. Oh! That reminds me..." Spike reached into the front of his suitcase and pulled out the paper Sassy Saddles had given him. "She had this form for you to sign or something. Said it was too important for the mail."

"Oh?" Rarity raised an eyebrow and then, as Spike held the paper out, enveloped it in her blue magic aura. "Whatever could it—oh my." The unicorn goggled at the piece of paper levitating in front of her face. "This—I mean—wow."

Spike looked around nervously. "Is that a good 'wow', or a bad 'wow', or what?"

Rarity looked up from the paper and grinned. "It appears that Sassy has gotten us a very big order from Sapphire Shores' label. Apparently she's been liking her ensembles so much over the past several years that she recommended they outfit every single act on their roster with my designs. Eeeee!" Rarity squeed in a rather unladylike manner.

"Luna above, Rarity... that's amazing!" Spike stepped forward to hug the mare. "I'm super happy for you."

"Thank you, Spikey-Wikey... thank you so much." Rarity let go to wipe away a tear. "It's going to be a lot of work, but nothing that I cannot handle. Ooh! I am so excited to get started."

"Heh, well don't let me hold you back," Spike said with a nervous laugh. "I might be staying here, but that sounds pretty darn important."

"Nonsense, darling. The Boutique is closed today, anyhow, and tomorrow as well. And no"—Rarity looked to Spike, cutting him off before he could object—"it was not because of your visit. You are causing me no trouble, darling; on the contrary, it is a delight to have you here."

Spike grinned. "Well, okay. Just making sure."

"I know you are, and you wouldn't be my Spike if you didn't." Rarity looked back up at the paper. "Wait here a moment... I am going to go review, sign, and copy this document for my records and then I'll bring it back so you can have it packed up."

Spike nodded as Rarity trotted off to the open door to the back room between the thick, purple velvet curtains that lined the walls. Alone he stood in the centre of the closed boutique, listening to the soft pitter-pat of the rain above. Shrugging, Spike ambled towards the front of the boutique until he was standing right against the window, looking out on the sidewalk. The tumultuous clouds formed a grey layer across the sky above and torrents of rain continued splashing down off the pavement. A few ponies trotted by with umbrellas and there was the occasional carriage that would speed in and out of view, but overall there weren't many ponies travelling outside. Out of all the days, it seemed like a perfectly logical one on which to close the boutique.

After a minute, Spike heard Rarity trotting through the room behind him. "Does it rain a lot?" Spike asked, still looking out the window. Rarity did not answer until she had trotted up right beside him, at which point he turned to look at the mare.

"More often than Ponyville," Rarity replied, "but it's got nothing on Vanhoover or Seaddle. We do get quite a bit of fog, though... I suppose that's to be expected, what with Canterlot being on a mountain and all."

"Oh, yeah," Spike said. He reached out and grabbed the form from Rarity's magical grasp and walked it over to his suitcase.

"So, when were you thinking about leaving for the castle, darling?" Rarity asked.

"Already hoping to get rid of me?" Spike teased. "For shame, Rarity. Aren't we friends?"

Rarity rolled her eyes in response.

Spike looked over at the clock. "Probably in... about ten minutes, actually. That'll probably be my best bet at catching the princess with time between meetings. Unless she's got a diplomatic meeting, but she doesn't usually have those on Saturdays. Or at least she didn't."

"Oh, wonderful. I do hope she's willing to listen to what you have to say."

Spike nodded. "She will."

"Good." Awkward silence permeated the room. Then, Rarity broke it. "And... erm... afterwards, I was thinking that you could come back here and the four of us could have dinner?"

"Yeah, that sounds great!" Spike said enthusiastically. "I haven't had dinner with you guys in so—hey, wait."

Rarity tilted her head. "Something wrong, darling?"

Spike raised a claw. "You—one." He lifted a talon. "Me—two." He lifted another. "Sweetie Belle—three." A third talon lifted. "And yet... you said four."

Rarity's cheeks turned crimson. "Oh—well, I—you know—"

Spike put on a smug look. "Now, now, Rarity—it's fine. All I wanna know is... who's the lucky stallion?"

"Spike, I—"

"You know, actually... let's wait until I get back. How about you introduce us then?"

Rarity slowly nodded. "Sure... thing..."

"Awesome!" Spike exclaimed, grinning. "Now, if you'll excuse me... I'm gonna go to the castle. Can I leave my suitcase here?"

Rarity nodded once more, exhaling. "Yes, darling... I'll take it up to your room."

"Thank you so much, Rarity! You're the best." Spike leaned in and hugged the mare once more before running off to the door. He opened it wide and then shut it gingerly, leaving Rarity alone to stand there in the centre of the boutique, listening to the rain as it pounded on the ceiling at nearly the same rate of her heart in her chest.

Caves

Scootaloo lay curled up in a ball on the floorboards with her eyes closed, trying her darnedest not to make a sound. She didn't know how long she had been lying there, and she was afraid to look; if the sun had already set, then she'd feel obligated to go home before her mom started to worry. If she didn't know, she could stay as long as she liked.

The breeze whooshed past her through the open windows above, making them clank quietly against their frames. Somewhere beyond the sturdy wooden walls, the leaves of apple trees rustled.

"Hey, squirt," Rainbow Dash said. The filly nearly jumped; she usually could hear Rainbow's wings beating or at least the creak of the wood as the mare's hooves touched down. But no—she had managed to creep up there unheard.

Scootaloo could have continued to lie there unmoving without making a sound, and maybe Rainbow Dash would go away. But she appreciated the company. "Hi, Rainbow Dash," Scootaloo murmured, her eyes still closed.

"Mind if I come in?" Rainbow asked politely.

"Go for it." Scootaloo took a deep breath and listened as the floorboards creaked with each of Rainbow Dash's hoofsteps. She felt the mare plop down right next to her in the empty clubhouse and then, unexpectedly, a hoof running through her mane.

"How are you doing?" Rainbow asked in an oddly calm voice.

Scootaloo considered lying, but there wasn't really a point. "N-not so swell," she said, her voice quavering. "It's... it's been two months."

"I know, squirt... I know. And I'm... I'm here for you. If you need anything. Us sisters gotta stick together, you hear?"

Scootaloo nodded. "Yeah."

"And just remember... I know you're thinking it, but... it's not your fault, Scoots. You didn't do anything wrong."

"I-I know," Scootaloo stammered. "You don't need to keep saying it."

"I know, kiddo... I just wanna make sure you believe it."

"Well, thanks."

A moment went by.

"Hey, um... I was wondering... you wanna maybe come and sleep over at my house tonight? Sisters' night together or whatever?"

Scootaloo paused. "I dunno if my mom—"

"Already talked to her, kiddo," Rainbow interjected. "She said it sounded like a great idea. Should help you take your mind off... things."

"O-oh," Scootaloo murmured. "Then yeah. That sounds... nice."

"Heh, you're sounding more like Fluttershy every day," Rainbow said. "C'mere, squirt."

Scootaloo finally opened her eyes to see the dark room of the clubhouse but she focused on standing and turning to face the cerulean mare. The filly was taken aback at how sombre Rainbow's expression was but stepped forward to allow the older mare to wrap her in a tight hug. Scootaloo found herself holding on for dear life as an acrid sadness took over and made tears stream down the filly's cheeks.

Eventually, they let go and Scootaloo climbed onto Rainbow's back before the mare took off into the dark sky above the treetops.

Scootaloo awoke to a dull ache somewhere on her body. Well, all over her body; it felt like she had fallen prone from above onto something really hard, like a rock. And, after a moment of thought and meekly shifting her hooves around, she determined that that was likely the case as they met a cool, rigid surface.

The filly would likely have been content to lie there for longer if she hadn't heard voices. Speaking in low tones somewhere several metres away by the sound of it, they sounded vaguely familiar. Scootaloo cracked her eyes open, expecting darkness; instead, there was a faint green glow emanating from above. As she shifted her head, dust from the floor floated up and into her muzzle. A moment later...

"Ah... ahh... atchoo!" Scootaloo sneezed. The murmuring voices stopped and then she heard hoofsteps.

"Scootaloo?" The voice was unmistakeably Kevin's

"Oh, is she finally awake?" Flight asked as her butter-yellow face came into view. "Hi there."

"Yoooo," Scootaloo groaned. "What... happened? How long was I out for?"

"Can't've been more than ten minutes," Flight replied. "And basically what happened is that those leaves we ran over were fake. Some sort of trap."

"Heh... sorry about that," Kevin said.

"No, it's no problem," Flight replied. "I mean, at least we're away from the bats. Eugh. I do not like those things."

Scootaloo began to push herself up with her hooves, coming to a standing position. Kevin and Flight both stood in front of her, watching her closely. "Er... how come you guys look less beat up that I do?" Scootaloo asked. And indeed they did; both looked as awake and alert as they had been whilst running away from the bats.

"Oh, uh, I was able to levitate myself over to Flight and she flew me down," Kevin explained. "I tried to get you, too, but you were out of range. Thankfully, once we landed, I was able to plant a pillowing spell beneath you on the ground... otherwise, you'd probably have a concussion." He blinked. "You don't have a concussion, right?"

"Right," Scootaloo affirmed. "I'll let you know if anything feels... wonky. But I think I'm doing good right now. I can remember all my friends' names and all that jazz."

"Good, good," Kevin affirmed. "So, what now?"

"As you can see, Scootaloo, we're in a cave. For the past few minutes, we've been talking about what to do since the way we came doesn't look like it's still open... and I don't know if we could even get up there anyway," Flight explained. "So I think our only option is to keep following this cave until we find a way out."

The orange filly looked around at the rugged rock walls that surrounded them, illuminated in only the faint green light of Kevin's horn. "Oh, come on!" Scootaloo exclaimed, furrowing her brow. "A cave?!"

"Scootaloo—" Flight started, but Kevin nudged her, making her stop.

"Just let her have her moment," Kevin murmured.

"I swear, the universe must hate me or something!" Scootaloo continued. "I flew away from Equestria in that stupid ship into the wide, infinite expanse of space, right? Wrong. The ship was cramped and it sure as heck felt like a cave. And just when I was getting excited about coming down onto the Kindred planet? Bam. We crash and I get captured and put in the South Pen—which is basically a cave. And then Grey helped me escape... into a cave. And then I got out of those caves into a city... which was in a cave. And now that I finally got out of the bucking cave city, we've gone and landed ourselves in another cave! Graahhh!" Scootaloo stamped a hoof down hard on the ground, making a loud sound that reverberated off the walls and down the path ahead.

Kevin looked at the hyperventilating filly. "You... okay?"

"Yeah, I'm done," Scootaloo stated flatly through her teeth. "We should probably get walking."

Flight nodded. "Sounds like a plan." She started to trot down the path, and Kevin and Scootaloo quickly joined her. Their hoofsteps reverberated down the tunnel; wherever it went, the walk would probably at least take them a little while.

"So, uh, did you already try your comlink or whatever it's called?" Scootaloo asked. "What do those things even do?"

"They let you call ponies," Flight replied, "and I did try it. That was the first thing I did when we landed, actually—Cotton Fluff wouldn't have liked it, but it would've been better than being stuck down here. Unfortunately, though, we're underground. Which means, in the absence of a signal amplifier like they have in the cities, there is no signal."

"And no signal means you can't call ponies?"

"You're getting it," Flight said with a nod. "Now we've just gotta pray to the alicorns that this tunnel actually leads somewhere and not just to a dead end. Or else we're stuck."

"Ugh, it had better," Scootaloo said. "I haven't flown all the way to some wacko planet just to die in some stupid cave in the middle of nowhere."

"If we do die down here, I just want to tell you girls that it's been a pleasure knowing you," Kevin said out of nowhere.

Flight rolled her eyes. "Argent, Kevin... don't be such a downer."

"Guess I can't help it when we're so far underground," Kevin shot back with a grin. Scootaloo giggled. Flight just rolled her eyes again.

"Please, Argent and Aureate and Aeneus and whoever else is out there... do not let me die down here with these two," she murmured.

"Hey, I heard that!" Kevin exclaimed.

"...I know."

Castling

Spike had made a grave mistake in his attempt at leaving Canterlot Boutique with confidence and bravado; he had forgotten to ask Rarity if he could borrow her umbrella. As a result, the poor dragon stood sopping wet on the sidewalk, the rain pouring down on his scales as he walked the last few metres. Internally, he cursed the Canterlot weather, whose managers were a lot less forthcoming about their plans than the ones in Ponyville. If only he had known, he would have brought an umbrella of his own.

Yet there was little he could do about it at that point, so instead he focused on what lay ahead: the gate to the castle and two stallions, one on either side. Both had dark grey coats and wore distinctive helmets of golden metal, as well as plated armor on their torsos that signaled that they were both members of the Royal Guard.

"Erm, hello," Spike said as he neared the one on the left. He had a claw held over his face to shield his eyes from the rain.

"Good morning, sir," the guard said, continuing to look forward.

"I was wondering if... I could enter the castle?" Spike said.

"Do you have business in the castle?" the guard asked, finally looking at him. Spike noticed in his peripheral vision that the other guard was fidgeting nervously.

"I do—I am here to meet with the princess about some... important business." Spike leaned in and whispered, "It's important."

The guard nodded. "I'm sure it is, sir. Do you have an appointment?"

Spike blinked. "Er, no, but—"

"Deepest apologies, sir dragon, but I am under express instructions to only allow through these gates such ponies who have appointments or other clearance—" He was cut off by the other guard, who cleared his throat. The first guard blinked and glanced over at him. "What is it, Root?"

Spike immediately recognised the other guard as Turnip Root, a guard who had been at the castle since before Spike had lived there with Twilight Sparkle. Instead of addressing this other guard, he turned to Spike. "Deepest apologies, Sir Spike; Private Panel here is brand new—just joined the force last week." He then turned to Private Panel. "This here is Sir Spike, assistant to Princess Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville and a good friend to both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. His business is his own, but I'm sure it's quite important for him to have come all this way. Now, c'mon, Spike," Root finished. "I'll take you inside."

"Really, there's no need—" Spike started.

"No, I insist. Always happy to help an old friend," Root replied as he magically unlatched the large golden gates, leading Spike inside before shutting the gate. Spike looked over his shoulder for a moment to see Private Panel continuing to stand there proudly in the rain, the drops making plink, plink noises on his helmet as they made impact.

"So, how have you and Princess Twilight been?" Root asked once they had reached the overhang of the castle entrance, saving them from the rain. It loomed high above them, immaculate white stone that headed the tall wooden doors. "I swear, I don't think I've seen you two since her coronation."

"You might not have, sir," Spike replied. "Twilight and I have been pretty busy, what with her being a princess and all."

Root leaned forward and, nodding at one of the guards at the door, used his magic to open it a crack. He stood aside to let Spike squeeze through the small opening and then he followed right behind, closing the door with a soft thud.

"Now, Sir Spike, let me ask you: where do you need to go?"

"If it's alright, I'd like to have a chat with Princess Celestia on the behalf of Princess Twilight. She's not busy right now, is she?"

"Hmm..." Root contemplated. "No, she shouldn't be. She had a meeting this morning with some of the nobles about proposed Trottingham metropolitan expansion, but that ended a few hours ago and I don't think she has anything planned until court convenes in the afternoon."

"Awesome—thanks, Root. You think she'd be in the throne room or her bedroom?" Spike asked.

"Definitely the throne room," Root replied immediately. "She hardly ever goes to her quarters during the day unless she isn't feeling well, but I haven't heard anything like that. If she isn't there, though, we can definitely check her room next."

"Oh, erm, yeah," Spike said, scratching the back of his head. "You know, I, uh... I kinda already know my way around the castle. Since I lived here for a buncha years and all."

Root blinked. "Oh, right. Heh... sorry. I'm sure you'll be wanting to go on your way then, yeah? And I should get back to my shift."

Spike nodded. "But it's super cool to see you again, dude! And I'm... I'm glad to know you're still here."

"Mhm," Root mhm'd. "See you around, Spike." He did a little bow and then trotted off out the door, which Spike heard close behind him.

Spike couldn't focus on that for long, however; he had a princess to find.

Princess Celestia had not been in the throne room. And, as far as Spike could tell, she wasn't in her quarters either. Or, if she was in there, she had sat there silently for ten minutes without answering as Spike intermittently had knocked. No, the princess was elsewhere, and Spike didn't know where. Well, at first.

Then, as Spike had started walking away from Princess Celestia's quarters in search of her scheduler or even Princess Luna, he happened to glance out the hallway window that overlooked the main courtyard. Rain still fell heavily from the sky, muddying the grass and soaking through all of the benches. At first, he thought there were no ponies out there, so he glanced away. But as he looked away, in his peripheral vision...

It was her. Spike looked back out and leaned forward onto the sill, letting the water splash onto his face. It was definitely her; the regal, slender form of Princess Celestia sat on one of the benches, sipping from a teacup held within her twinking yellow magical grasp. She looked as if she didn't even notice the rain; sure, her mane was completely soaked and hanging flat against her back, but she just sat there on the bench among the grass and shrubbery, taking sips.

Confused, Spike did all he could think to do; he pulled back out from the windowsill and started running down the hall and down the stone steps, careful not to slip (as parts were still slick from ponies' wet hooves). He earned a few strange looks from guards and nobleponies as he passed by, but these didn't concern him. The dragon didn't stop until he reached the entrance to the courtyard, whereupon he paused and put his hands on his knees, panting. Then, he stood straight up and walked out the door, standing tall.

He had the urge to put his arm up to block the rain as the drops of water hit and slid down his face, but he felt like it would be impolite, somehow, if the princess wasn't doing it. So, letting himself get soaked once more, Spike continued down the wet gravel path until he reached the centre area of the courtyard, a gravel circle with a small fountain in the middle that, at that moment, was overflowing ever so slightly.

Once he reached the centre, Princess Celestia looked up from her teacup. "Oh, good morning, Spike!" she greeted in a warm, cheerful voice. "What a pleasant surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Heh... good morning, Princess," Spike said with a smile, blinking a lot to keep the rain out of his eyes. "I've come with a message from Twilight, actually."

Princess Celestia tilted her head. "Oh, really? Well, I'm quite interested in what the princess has to say, but first: please, have a seat." She beckoned with a hoof at the empty spot on the bench to her left. The wood was soaked through but they were already in the rain, anyway, so Spike shrugged and took a seat. His claw on the armrest, he tapped his talons one by one on the soft wood.

"Would you like some tea?" the princess asked, looking down at Spike.

"Nah, I think I'm good, but thanks for asking," Spike replied. "I'm staying with Rarity, anyway, so I'll probably be having a lot of that stuff tonight and tomorrow."

"Oh, true. That mare does love her tea, doesn't she?" Celestia mused. She didn't speak again for a few moments, allowing the rain to fall over them. "So," she finally said. "What is it that Twilight sent you here to discuss? I mean, not that I'm not glad to see you, but I hope she knows that I don't mind writing letters."

Spike could feel himself tense up; he hadn't realised it, but he felt pretty anxious talking about something like this to the princess, and by himself at that. "Oh boy... now where do I begin..."

Metallic

"So, uh, what was up with you and the bear?" Kevin asked. They had been walking down the tunnel for a few minutes without seeing anything but more tunnel.

"Er... what do you mean?" Scootaloo asked. Through the dim light from his horn, Kevin could see the filly looked confused.

"Well, you were acting all friendly like you knew him, or recognised him, or something," Kevin replied cautiously.

"And you called him 'Grey'," Flight interjected, "like that was his name. You said that name a few times before, too, when you were talking with Mochi and Doc Zed."

"Oh, erm... Grey was this pony that helped me and Mochi escape from the South Pen," Scootaloo explained as she walked. "And then, after that, he helped me get to the zoo and hook up with you guys."

Flight blinked. "But if he was a pony, why did you think that he was the bear?"

"And I swear, earlier you said something about him turning into a bird," Kevin added.

Scootaloo sighed. "Okay, well... yeah. There's that." She paused to think. "Basically, Grey transformed into a raven in front of me and flew away when we were on top of a dentist's office in Umberlight. He came back as a crow and then all but admitted to being able to transform into any animal."

"Oh, wow." Flight sounded surprised.

"But, wait... the bear hadn't spoken yet," Kevin said. "It could've just been any old bear."

Scootaloo gulped. "It was the star, Kevin. Grey's animal forms had these star stickers on their foreheads, right between the eyes. Pretty unnerving, actually. You know, I wonder if you could peel them off..."

Kevin rolled his eyes. "Focus, Scoots. What colour was the sticker? Gold?"

Scootaloo shook her head. "Nope, silver. Basically the colour of his coat if it were shiny, actually."

"Huh... that's really weird. A gold one and a silver one? Seems almost like there should be a bronze one, too," Kevin postulated.

"Hey, guys, you might wanna look at this—" Flight started but was cut off by a wave of Kevin's hoof. The colt was still looking at Scootaloo, pondering, when—

"Gaahh!" Kevin exclaimed. In his refusal to pay attention to the path ahead, he had ignored the impending impact of a large wooden door that, unfortunately for him, his horn had just become lodged in. "...Argent dang it."

Flight and Scootaloo snickered. "C'mon, Kev—pay attention!" Flight teased, before grabbing hold of one of Kevin's shoulders. Taking the hint, Scootaloo grabbed the other and they pushed back, freeing the colt's horn from the wood.

As Kevin brushed his horn off, Scootaloo tapped the door with one of her hooves. "Weirdly soft, don'tcha think?"

"I suppose, though it could've been here for Aureate-knows how long," Flight said. "There could be termites or something. Heck, we probably don't even need to bother with this." The filly pointed a yellow hoof at a round, black metal handle that hung limply against the door, doubling as a knocker. To prove her point, she rapped on the wood of the door with a hoof. The spot she had hit flew backwards, leaving a sizeable hole in the centre of the door. Whatever lay within remained shrouded in darkness.

Kevin finally looked up. "Well, I guess that's one way to do it..."

"Oh, come off it," Flight retorted, playfulling punching Kevin's shoulder.

"Ow..." he whined.

Flight rolled her eyes. "Excuse me." She turned to the orange filly. "Scootaloo, can you make sure little miss princess here is feeling okay?"

As Flight started on pushing the remains of the door out of the way, Scootaloo looked to Kevin. "You okay, Kev?"

"Yep."

Scootaloo cocked her head. "...why are you grinning like that?"

"Er... no reason," Kevin replied. Before Scootaloo had time to ask anything else, she heard a loud thump and turned to see that the door had disappeared from sight. Only a few splinters remained, attached to the remnants of metal hinges which protruded from the stone wall.

"It fell," Flight stated flatly, answering the unasked question.

"Huh." Scootaloo leaned forward to peer into the darkness. While she still couldn't see anything, her nose and lungs filled with dry, stale air and, along with it, dust. Scootaloo coughed. "Hey, Kev? Could you c'mere and shine your horn or whatever?"

In response, Kevin stepped forward and allowed the green light from his horn to shine forward, illuminating the area beyond the door at least a little bit. While he still couldn't see much, he was able to clearly see where the door had fallen just a few stone steps down. The level it had fallen onto extended off to the left, where there were a few rectangular, pony-height protrusions and a wall, as well as some sort of seating on a further level that was slightly below that.

Scootaloo let out a sigh of relief. "Thank Celestia... I was afraid the floor was just gonna drop out or something."

Flight was already stepping forward, downward onto the remains of the door and then, a moment later, landing on her hooves on the stone. "C'mon!"

"What's got her so excited?" Scootaloo mumbled to herself as she trotted through the doorway.

"Well, I dunno if I'm supposed to tell you this... I mean, it's not a secret or anything—at least, I don't think it is, but—"

"Cut to the chase."

"Flight's kinda afraid of caves. Like, not 'scared-out-of-her-wits' afraid—just 'get-out-ASAP' afraid."

"Huh, I guess that makes sense," Scootaloo replied. "Pegasi and caves... don't really mix."

"Guys! Seriously! Hurry up!"

Pours

Spike hadn't known exactly where to start, so he started as close to the beginning as he could remember: the day that Twilight had told him that their planet went around the sun, and that there were planets beyond theirs. He proceeded to explain how Twilight set up a telescope to observe the universe beyond the mysterious forcefield and decided to build a spaceship to fly beyond, just like in the science fiction novels she liked to read. Through Spike's whole explanation, Celestia had just sat there next to him, sipping her tea every so often. She mostly didn't look at him—the alicorn seemed content to gaze out at a nonspecific location in the courtyard.

The rain had thinned slightly over the past several minutes but not by much; Spike wasn't even sure whether it had actually thinned or whether he had just gotten used to its repetitive tapping.

"So then it took Twilight quite a while—something like six months, I think—but she finally had the ship nearly done. And all that time, Scootaloo had been helping her. You remember Scootaloo, right?"

Celestia nodded. As his explanation went on, Spike had been sneaking in little questions like that to make sure the alicorn was actually listening—and, apparently, she was.

"Well, basically, just a few nights before Twilight and I were going to fly this ship out into space for the first time, it disappeared. It was there when we went to bed and gone when we woke up. And... so was Scootaloo."

Celestia cocked her head. "Do you mean to tell me that Scootaloo of Ponyville is currently flying a spaceship built by Princess Twilight Sparkle?"

Spike gulped. "Well... not exactly. It's been nearly a month since she left and since then, she landed on the next planet in the solar system and Twilight's made contact with this guy named Doc Zed and—"

CRASH!

Spike jumped back as Celestia let both her teacup and its saucer fall free from her magic; they both fell onto the stone below the bench and shattered into shards of china large and small. Spike looked down at them, heart still racing. "P-Princess?" he stammered.

"I apologise, Spike," Celestia murmured quietly, looking down. "I was just startled, that's all. Please forgive me."

"It's... fine," Spike said. "Really what Twilight sent me here to ask about is the forcefield. I guess we just wanted to know... um..." The dragon knew that if it hadn't been raining, he'd be sweating heavily. "We want to know about the forcefield. It's kind of obvious that the only way it could be maintained is with alicorn magic." He paused to take a breath. "N-not to insinuate anything, but... um..." Spike trailed off.

Princess Celestia looked up. "Spike, do you want to know why I was out here in the rain?"

"Erm... sure...?"

"Because I can," Celestia replied. Her magenta eyes stared straight at Spike's; the dragon felt unnerved. "The rain is cold and wet, and ponies don't usually like to be out in the rain without an umbrella or something like that. But I can do whatever I want, yes?"

Spike nodded.

"Good, Spike. I want you to go back to Ponyville tomorrow, or in a few days—whenever you were planning to go back, okay? And I want you to tell Princess Twilight that, if she has any complaints about the way that I do things, she can come talk to me herself. She doesn't need to send a letter or even an assistant to talk instead of her." Princess Celestia looked away. "And please, tell her that I know what I'm doing. I've been doing... what's best for everypony for more than a thousand years. There's no need to change that now."

"I will," Spike croaked. He could feel his heart beating hard in his chest and he wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

Celestia sat there silent for a moment, unmoving. "Alright, Spike. I thank you for your time; this had been a most enlightening conversation, and I hope to see you again soon. You may now take your leave."

Not needing to be told twice, Spike immediately shot up from his seat, mumbled a "Goodbye, Princess", and bolted out of the courtyard. He didn't stop until he was halfway down the dry inside hall, at which point he doubled over with his hands on his knees and tried to calm down.

Booked

Even though she could barely see it through Kevin's faint green hornlight, Scootaloo could feel the dust lifting from the floor with each kick of her hoof. Unfortunately for her, the little puffs of dust floated upward in small bursts into her nose once more. Scootaloo started hacking and coughing up a storm.

"You okay?" Kevin asked from next to her.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Scootaloo managed. "I'm just not that great with... dust."

"I think I found something," Flight called from ahead. She stood by one of the rectangular protrusions from the floor ahead of them. As Scootaloo walked alongside Kevin to get a closer look, she noticed that the protrusion had an inclined surface on top with a slight lip on the edge, and a second, smaller rectangle sat on top.

"What is it?" Kevin asked.

"A book," Flight replied and, as Kevin neared, the light from his horn illuminated the distinct shape of a leather book cover. Rather than writing, however, the cover's centre was embossed in a square with three metallic stripes. Kevin couldn't quite make out the colours because of the tint from his horn, but they almost looked—

"Gold, silver, and bronze," Flight stated, running a hoof over the cover.

Scootaloo had been lagging behind Kevin but, at the mention of the metallic colours, the filly's ears perked up. "What did you say?"

"The bars on the cover of this book—they're gold, silver, and bronze. Just like the regal colours of Kinded Court."

Scootaloo stepped forward and leaned in to get a closer look. "Oh, Celestia..."

Kevin cocked his head. "Something wrong?"

Scootaloo looked up and her eyes swept the room, attempting to make out the forms in the darkness. With her prior experiences in mind, though, it was fairly easy to guess what lay before them. "Out there, on the level below us... those are pews, aren't they?"

Flight leaned forward, squinting through the darkness. "You know, now that you mention it..."

"I've been in a room almost exactly like this," Scootaloo continued. "It was back when I was escaping from the South Pen, back in one of the tunnels between there and Umberlight. The room was a little smaller, but"—the filly spun around, coming face to face with a large metallic square on the back wall with three bars of the same metallic colours as on the book's cover—"the details are pretty much the same. This metal square was there too. It's actually kind of starting to creep me out."

"Flight, I've been out of school for, like, a while. You guys talked about anything like this?" Kevin asked.

"Hmm..." Flight hmm'd, looking around. "You know, I think we actually might've. Mr. Merriweather—that's my history teacher—talked about how ponies on the Kindred planet used to build these underground places of worship, back before the system unified and the Bureau was founded. That was actually back before any of the cities were built underground, so they were really the first places ponies built underground."

"How come they built them underground?" Scootaloo asked. She had opened the cover of the book and was looking at the words on the page.

"Not sure," Flight replied. "I think it had something to do with their religion... it was a lot more planet- and community-based. The planet name even comes from the fact that we're all 'kindred souls' or something like that."

"Oh, wow," Kevin said. "I didn't even know that."

Flight scoffed. "Since when do you know anything, dorkwad?"

"Hey, I know some things! Area of a circle is... uh... the stuff inside!"

Flight rolled her eyes. "So, uh, what are you looking at, Scootaloo?"

"This book," Scootaloo replied. "I was just checking and yep, it's the same words as the book I saw in the other one of these places."

"Lemme take a look," Flight said, leaning in. Her face curled up in confusion. "Hmm... I thought this would be the Asterismos or something, but it's not at all. Looks like it's some sort of... alternate history. Like, this beginning kind of has the gist of the Kindred section of the Histories, but it seems... different."

"You sure?" Scootaloo asked. "Maybe it's just a different version..."

"No, I'm pretty sure. Heh... we spent quite a while in school learning about the Asterismos. No, if I had to guess, I'd say this book is a mix of the history and the pagan religion. It'd be pretty cool to read, actually," Flight finished.

"Well, do that, then," Scootaloo said. "Tell us all about it. Just grab it and let's go."

"You sure?" Flight asked. "I feel weird, stealing from a... holy place like this."

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "You don't even believe in their religion, though."

"Well, no... but it still seems disrespectful."

"We can apologise later if any ghosts come to haunt us or anything," Scootaloo said. "I just wanna get out of here now... the sooner we can get aboveground, the better."

"That's for sure," Flight agreed. Sighing, she pushed the book along the wooden surface of the pulpit and let it drop slowly into her saddlebag which lay open below. "Oof! This is pretty darn heavy..."

"Heh... at least it's not eleven inches thick," Scootaloo muttered.

With that, the three young ponies stepped down off the raised platform and trotted between the rows of benches in the green-hued near-darkness.

Conversely

The castle was dark; although flickering torches which protruded from the stone brick walls did a fair job of lighting the passages, the rain clouds had grown thicker as the hours went on, eventually growing to block out the sun completely, shrouding Canterlot in drab darkness. Spike sighed with each open window he passed, watching the rain continue to fall. He kept walking.

He hadn't expected that his conversation with Celestia would be so short, so he had told Rarity he would be gone a few hours at least—and, despite the fact that he had no more business at the castle, he didn't want to cut Rarity's preparation time short. For all he knew, the unicorn was presently hard at work making sure that everything was just right for their dinner. So, rather than going back, Spike had been wandering the castle's many hallways in search of ponies he knew. However, there were few ponies he passed, and none that looked familiar; even near Celestia and Luna's throne room, the only ponies around were a few guards who Spike guessed had become employed after he'd left with Twilight for Ponyville.

With little else to do, Spike resolved to see if he could take a look at Twilight's old room in the castle; if nothing else, maybe he could get some rest.

It only took Spike about a dozen minutes over three staircases and through several hallways until the dragon found himself in that uppermost wing of the castle. He'd been in the hallway earlier; of the four doors, one led to Princess Celestia's quarters. As Spike passed, he shot the door an odd glance but there it remained, unmoving. Shrugging, the dragon kept walking until he had passed that door as well as that to Cadance's room, for when she stayed at the castle.

When he passed the tall door of dark blue wood, however, Spike heard it creak on its hinges. He turned his head to see the door cracked ever so slightly open—just enough to see that it had been opened, but not enough to make out what lay inside in the darkness. Nonetheless, based on the door, he had a guess. "Princess Luna?" Spike asked, tilting his head.

"Greetings, Spike," the princess's voice replied from within. The door creaked once more as it swung back to reveal the hooded form of a tall equine inside, peeking out. "Would you like to come in for tea and perhaps to... 'chat'?"

"Oh, erm... thanks, really—it's just that I'm staying with Rarity and she'll probably be giving me lots of tea later," Spike explained once more. "Plus I don't want to bother you—I was just gonna check out Twilight's room and maybe rest or something..."

"Well, if that is what you wish to do, by all means we—I urge you to go ahead. But really, it is no trouble to have you here, tea or not. I insist." Spike could see Luna smile under the hood and, while her shrouded face made the gesture look sinister, her tone sounded welcoming and even a little urgent. "We have... important matters to discuss."

"In that case, of course," Spike replied, walking over to Luna's door. The alicorn stepped back, holding the door open with a hoof, and Spike could just make out in the torchlight from the hall that she was shrouded in some sort of black garment with a hood over her head.

"Dig the swell hoodie," Spike commented as Luna shut the door behind them.

Luna scoffed, "It's a cloak!"

"Uh-huh. It's something that you wear, and it's got a hood. Hence, that is a hoodie." Upon finishing this statement, Spike's eyes drank in the room around them. "Oh wow..."

Nearly pitch-black, the only light of the room was that of the glimmering stars, which appeared to be some sort of enchanted gemstones embedded in the walls, ceiling, and even the floor, giving Spike the feeling like he was somewhere high up in space, truly amongst the stars. And directly in the middle of the room was the moon.

The glowing hemisphere that protruded from the floor gave off a warm, organic light that felt almost exactly like the moon itself; although the room had at first seemed pitch-black, Spike's eyes quickly adjusted to the change in lighting. In addition, the surface of the thing was covered in miniature replicas of craters and mountains which, although Spike didn't know for certain, looked pretty darn accurate.

"I can't believe it..." he breathed. "This is... amazing."

In the glow of the moon, Spike saw Luna smile. "I'm glad you like it—I've put quite a lot of work into it over the years. Unfortunately, not many ponies have seen it... I guess there isn't usually much reason for me to invite them here. And you, Sir Spike, are the first dragon to have set claw here."

"An honour," Spike murmured, still marvelling at the wash of glowing dots that surrounded him.

"Now, please, take a seat." Luna gestured with a hoof and Spike's gaze followed it to a large plush armchair across the room that he could only just make out in the glow. He walked over and plopped down onto its softness, and watched as Luna took a seat on the edge of her bed. Finally, she pulled back her hood and Spike could see her face was fraught with worry.

"So, um... what exactly did you want me here for?" Spike asked.

Luna hesitated. "You talked with my sister in the courtyard, yes?"

Spike nodded.

"I need to talk to you about the forcefield," Luna said. "And about Scootaloo. Something... interesting, yet dangerous is going on out there, and Celestia isn't listening to me. I need your help, and Twilight's too."

Spike nodded. "I'm all ears."

Deux

"Alright, good," Luna said. "Where to begin... where to begin..."

Spike sat there, watching the alicorn gather her thoughts.

"You and Twilight are aware of the Bureau whose jurisdiction covers the three planets following this one in the solar system, correct? You are aware of the heliocentric system and these planets, right?"

Spike nodded. "Yep, Twilight figured out the whole solar system thing and then heard about that whole Bureau thing from Doc Zed."

Luna blinked. "Who's Doc Zed?"

"He's a pony from the... uh... the next planet. I guess he's a scientist dude who's friends with some ponies that Scootaloo ran into. Don't know many details about the guy."

"Huh, interesting. The name sounds vaguely familiar..." Luna trailed off. "In any case, basically, the Bureau was founded by other alicorns."

It was Spike's turn to blink with surprise. "Other alicorns? You mean there are more of you guys?"

Luna nodded. "Indeed. Five alicorns currently head the Bureau, though it was not always this way. The process to unify the planets was... long and arduous, to say the least. Bikahuk of the Gnostic planet—the current head of the Bureau High Council, at a matter of fact—she's the one who came up with the idea to unite the planets under one banner, and at first that seemed like an excellent idea. All fifteen of us alicorns—discounting the first two planets of course—working together to protect and enrich the citizens of all the planets? It was all we had dreamed of doing. And yet... it didn't quite work out how she'd hoped."

"What happened?" Spike asked.

"Well, nopony could agree on exactly how this government would operate in a way that was fair to all ponies and all of the planets... so the negotiations soon fell apart. The Revan planet declared war on the Gnostic planet and then the Kindred planet came to the Gnostic planet's aid, and then the Vergla planet... stayed neutral for some time before assisting the Revan planet. Regardless, there was war. Our brothers and sisters, these alicorn leaders we had been proud to call our friends... they sent their own ponies into battle to die. They didn't care—they thought they were doing the right thing, of course—but it sickened my sisters and I."

"Sisters?" Spike asked, raising an eyebrow. "I thought Cadance's ascension wasn't until just before you returned from the moon?"

"Chrysalis," Luna deadpanned. "Don't even ask."

"Heh, okay. Go on," Spike said, gesturing with a claw.

"So, not wanting the same fate to befall the ponies under our watch, we resolved to cut our planet—the Ecuestran planet, in their terms—off from the rest of the system. Even if we had no control over their ponies, we could at least prevent the ones here from getting involved. Celestia, Chrysalis, and I resolved to magically create the forcefield around the planet and concoct the story that the sun revolved around it which we then—for their own good, mind you—brainwashed our citizenry with. We were left with ponies that seemed... happy."

"But that doesn't seem right," Spike said with a frown. "Taking all that knowledge away, and lying to everypony? I know you wanted to protect them, but that's just treating them like children who can't take care of themselves."

"I know," Luna replied. "And I see that now. It was and is a great mistake, and one we continue to pay dearly for."

Dorkness

"See anything over there?" Scootaloo called. She stood in front of one of the pews, having just looked up from the seats.

"Nope, not over here," Kevin replied from across the room. "Just benches with nothing on 'em. Well, besides dust. There's no shortage of that."

"I think one of mine has spiders," Flight said, squinting downwards

"Like, a big spider with a star sticker?" Scootaloo asked immediately.

"Er, no—they're those little baby yellow garden spiders, kinda in this little swarm around their web. Dunno how they got down here, though."

"Eugh... I hate spiders," Kevin mumbled.

"I'll admit, I'm not really into them either," Scootaloo agreed. "So, nothing besides that? Darn. Don't they usually have, like, stuff coming off of the benches? Like, religious texts or some jazz like that?"

"Usually, yes," Flight replied. "No church on the Bureau planets is complete without copies of the Asterismos for each pony, plus there's usually a little hymnal too. But it doesn't even look like there's a slot for whatever books they'd have."

"Huh, weird. Guess we'd better be on our way, then." Scootaloo looked up at the far end of the room and was glad to see the open doorway that had been hewn from the stone wall.

As Scootaloo shuffled out from between the pews, so did Kevin and Flight and the three of them converged in the aisle, trotting together up the few stairs to that doorway. Kevin's hornlight revealed that the doorway led to a long passage whose end the three young ponies couldn't make out; nonetheless, with no other options, they proceeded single file ahead, Kevin leading the group because of his hornlight.

The only sound in the stone-walled hallway was that of their hooves clopping on the ground, reverberating quietly but noticeably down its lengths. To either side, the smooth grey surfaces looked sheer and pony-made. Scootaloo, bored, ran a hoof along the wall until the scratching sound became so unbearable than an irritated Flight snapped from behind her.

After just a few minutes of walking, Scootaloo noticed that the green light emanating from Kevin's horn was starting to flicker. "Hey, dude, are you okay?" she asked.

Kevin stopped and turned to flash the filly a weak smile. "Urgh... yeah... never... been better."

"You should put out the light for a little bit, Kev," Flight urged him. She wore a worried look on her face. "That can't be good for you—you really don't look good."

"Heh, thanks," Kevin replied with a grin.

Flight rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean! Seriously..."

"Flight's got a point," Scootaloo says. "Better to rest so we can have light when we really need it and you won't need to kill yourself for it."

"No, no, it's—" Kevin started but suddenly he winced and the light flickered out as his horn shot sparks. Scootaloo, Flight, and Kevin were immediately thrust into darkness. "Aureate be damned...!"

"That's one way to stop him," Scootaloo said. "Just wait 'til he runs out of energy."

"Ugh... sorry, guys."

"Ah, yes. Be sorry for doing exactly what we'd asked you to do," Flight said sardonically.

Kevin sighed. "Well, whatever. I dunno how long it'll be until I can get the light back up again, so we'll be in the dark for a while."

"We should keep moving, though," Scootaloo interjected. "The best way to get more light is to, y'know, be on the surface."

There was a pause. "Oh, dang it," Flight said after a moment. "I was just nodding for like thirty seconds until I realised you couldn't even see it."

Scootaloo facehoofed, and then cleared her throat. "Oh, and Kevin, could I take the lead for now?"

"Sure thing," the colt replied from ahead. "I'll just go over to the side here and—ow!"

"Heh, sorry," Scootaloo said, with a sheepish grin—she'd taken a step forward only to realise that she had picked the same side to walk on as he had chosen to move over to and that she stepped down on the edge of his hoof. Once they'd figured that out, Scootaloo easily slid past the colt to take her position at the head of the group.

What she couldn't see through the darkness was the blush that had crept onto Kevin's face as the filly's folded wings brushed against his side.

"Alright, let's go," Scootaloo declared. "Be sure not to step on each other's hooves—I hear it hurts."

Kevin sighed but began trotting forward in the dark. It was an odd and somewhat unfamiliar sensation, being completely stripped of his sight; although he had his hooves and ears to rely on, he wasn't so used to needing them so much and felt clumsy as he stumbled through the path. One false step, however, and his hooves would fall prey to those of Flight behind him.

All in all, Kevin was feeling pretty excited to either get out of the cave or at least for his magical power to replenish itself.

Trois

"So, erm, what happened after that?" Spike asked, shifting in his seat. As the conversation continued, his eyes grew more and more accustomed to the soft glow and Spike could more easily make out the shapes of bookshelves and Luna's star-patterned bedspread, as well as the mare herself. She had taken on a contemplative look, her starry mane

"Equestria shut off, the planets that would become the Bureau continued their war for some time, eventually driving the Vergla planet to split from the rest much like we did. Eventually, the anti-Bureau forces were pushed back to just one half of the Revan planet, and they formed an uneasy truce for a time, before war broke out again." Luna paused.

"Huh, okay. What do you want Twilight and me to do, then?"

"Now you know about the forcefield," Luna replied. "You know that there are worlds beyond, including many alicorn brethren and sistren of mine and Celestia's. You know that war is happening on the Revan planet and, I must tell you, the conflict once more is rising. Unfortunately, Scootaloo's arrival on the Kindred planet has done little to allay the tensions—on the contrary, it seems that both the Bureau and the Revan rebels have started to take notice of the filly."

"Hoboy," Spike breathed. "Bet she doesn't know what she's gotten herself into."

"I doubt it as well. In all honesty, I wouldn't know all of this if I hadn't succumbed to the Nightmare."

"Oh?" Spike said, raising an eyebrow.

Luna nodded. "When I gave in to my dark side, I declared to my sister that I would collapse the forcefield and enter Equestria into the war with the Bureau, eventually planning to take over and rule all with an iron hoof."

"...Yikes."

"So you can see why Celestia might banish me to the magical projection of Saros, our moon. Although our planet does indeed have a moon, the construct I raise and lower each night instead acts as a sort of miniature prison, yet one that strips a pony of her hatred and delusions for the time she is imprisoned. It was there, whilst spending decade after decade thinking alone about the past and my future, that I grew tired of the loneliness and decided to reach out to somepony... a dear friend with whom I had lost touch." Luna's lips curved.

"From... outside? One of the alicorns?" Spike asked.

Slowly, Luna nodded. "It turned out I had not been forgotten, despite our isolationism and the poor terms on which we had last spoken—I was able to reach out to one of my oldest friends, Argent. Yet as I told him of my blight and punishment, he kept me updated on the goings-on of the outside world. At first, it was of how he assisted his brothers in leading the Kindred planet and the Bureau... until Aureate disappeared. Argent kept running the planet with Aeneus for nearly a year, but then he made his own leave to search for his brother. And then, from then until recently, I had not heard from him."

Spike frowned. "That must've sucked... finding an old friend just for him to disappear like that."

"I do not begrudge him for that," Luna replied. "He had his reasons. And the more time goes on, the more it seems like he did the right thing."

"Erm... why?" Spike asked.

"Spike, I... I must confess, Argent hasn't told me everything. But the forcefield... the war... the divisions between us... there is a great deal of unrest throughout the system, and a great deal of disharmony. Even without the things he's told me, both Celestia and I had felt uneasy at the growing surge of... something not quite right." Luna paused. "We all need to work together to stop this... but the only way I'm ever going to be able to convince Celestia to lower the forcefield is if the war on the Revan planet ends. Only then can we hope to work with Argent and, hopefully, the Bureau."

Spike gulped. "I'm gonna be honest—that's... a tall order."

Games

It was quiet. Scootaloo could hear her hooves clopping on the ground along with those of her companions, and that was it. No whistle of wind, no ponies' voices, no nothing—and it bugged her something fierce.

"So, hey," Scootaloo finally said. "You guys have any, like, road trip games?"

There was silence but for their hooves. "Road trip games? What're those?" Flight finally asked.

"You know, games that you play with ponies when you're going on a trip somewhere," Scootaloo explained. "Like when you're walking or in a carriage. Road trip games."

"Oh, so like board games?" Kevin asked. "I used to be into this one called Monop—"

"Never heard of it and nope," Scootaloo interrupted. "Not board games—those are different, 'cause you use a board. With road trip games, you just use the things around you... and your mind."

"That's too bad," Flight murmured. "I guess Kevin will have to sit these ones out."

"Hey! I do too have a mind!" Kevin objected.

Ignoring him, Flight continued: "So, what's an example?"

"Hmm, let's see... there's this one that Twilight taught me and the other Crusaders called 'I spy with my little eye' or something like that. Honestly, I dunno why they didn't just call it 'I Spy'... would've sold a lot more books."

"How do you play?" Kevin asked.

"First, you look around for something interesting you can see." Scootaloo tried to open her eyes so she could look for something; then, she realised that her eyes were already open. "Oh crud, I forgot..."

"Heh, whatever. Just keep going," Kevin said. "It'll give us something to do, at least."

"Right. So, once you have that thing, you say it like this: 'I spy, with my little eye, something black'."

There was a pause. Although Scootaloo couldn't see Kevin and Flight behind her, she imagined—or at least hoped—that they were looking around wildly for the object she had selected.

"Ooh, I know!" Flight exclaimed. "I think I found it!"

"Out with it," Scootaloo encouraged her.

"Is it the eternal and everlasting darkness that surrounds us?"

Kevin giggled. "Yep!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "I can't believe it—you got it on your first try!"

"Well, that's why they call me the 'I spy with my little eye' champion," Flight teased.

"Oh, c'mon—you can't be the champion if this is your first time playing," Scootaloo stated flatly.

"We'll see if anyone can beat my score," Flight replied jokingly.

"Ooh, ooh, I'll pick the next thing!" Kevin said excitedly.

"Go for it, dude."

"Alright, alright. Let's see..." Kevin trailed off, saying no more for a few moments. "Okay, I have something. I spy, with my little eye... something bluish white."

Scootaloo blinked. "Bluish white?" she asked, turning her head in any direction she could think of. Yet nothing but the inky black void smiled back. "Kevin..."

"What are you talking about, Kev?" Flight asked. "What in the hay can you see?"

"Hehehehe... wouldn't you like to know...?"

"Dammit, Kev!"

"...Do you give up?" Kevin asked, more than a hint of glee in his voice.

"Yeah, sure," Flight said. "Just tell me."

"Okay, well, it's—"

"Never!" Scootaloo interrupted.

"...Seriously?" Flight sighed. "C'mon, there's no way you can guess whatever random joke Kevin's gonna make. It'd be better to just get it over with."

"Hmm... I guess you have a point. Make me laugh, dude."

Kevin cleared his throat. "The ice-cold heart of Ms. Flight here."

Scootaloo giggled; Flight rolled her eyes, even though nopony could see it. "Really? Was that really it?"

"Of course," Kevin replied. "I can see it from a mile away."

"Pffff, whatever," Flight grumbled. "I'll have you know that my heart is perfectly warm and loving, thank you very much."

"Hey, hey, c'mon. It was just a joke, right?" Scootaloo said.

"Yep, just messing around," Kevin affirmed. "Sorry, Flight."

"It's fine," the filly murmured.

An awkward silence encroached upon the three as they continued down the seemingly neverending hallway. Scootaloo tried to focus on just walking and the sounds their hooves made on the ground to distract her from thinking about games that they surely couldn't play after that.

Then, suddenly, Scootaloo felt something. At first she thought it was nothing—maybe she had just brushed against the wall or felt a breath from behind her or even imagined the whole thing. But no—it continued. A light breeze, blowing against her right side. She turned her head and felt the cooler, less-stale air as it tickled her muzzle.

"I'm stopping," Scootaloo said as she stopped walking.

"Erm, how come?" Kevin asked.

"Shh... do you feel that?" Scootaloo asked in turn.

For a moment, silence. Then, Flight murmured, "A breeze. Oh, thank Argent... we may actually get out of here."

"Kevin, do you have enough energy to light up your horn, even if for just a moment?" Scootaloo asked. "Just so we can see what our... options are?"

"Mhm," Kevin affirmed and, in just a moment, his horn sparked to life. For the first time in what felt like eons, the three ponies' eyes were graced with the gentle green light that illuminated the walls around them. Scootaloo did a quick three-hundred-and-sixty degree turn of her head around them to see that they were in the middle of a four way crossroads.

"Huh. A lot of options here," Scootaloo commented.

"Oh, please," Flight said. "One is the way we just came, and one has a breeze. You know, like what they have aboveground? I vote that one."

"Hmm, you know, that's a good point," Kevin said, nodding. "I'm going to have to go with Flight here."

"Fine," Scootaloo said, "but I think you guys should hear me out first. I propose that we go down the path with the breeze, 'cause that's the one most likely to get us back with Mochi and Cotton Fluff.

Kevin smirked but Flight just blinked. "Huh?"

"It's a joke, doofus," Kevin teased. "Who's the one without a mind now?"

Flight rolled her eyes. "Let's just get a move on... I'm pretty darn sick of this cave. And you two, too."

"Love ya too," Kevin said, falling into line behind her as they followed Scootaloo. Once they had started down the path, Kevin put out the light.

Flight was glad he had put the light out, though; otherwise, somepony might catch on to the fact that she couldn't help but blush at what Kevin had said. Even if she did have an ice-cold heart.

Return

"I recognise it will be a lot of work, but I don't think it's something that the five of us can't handle," Luna said. She magically lifted a teacup from her bedside table and took a sip; Spike wondered if she had been doing that during the whole conversation and he just hadn't noticed, or whether it had already been there when he came in.

"Well, if you think we can..." Spike trailed off, and then blinked. "Wait—the five of us?"

"Of course," Luna said. "Myself, yourself, Twilight, Argent, and Scootaloo. That makes five, does it not?"

"Oh, wow," Spike breathed. "Scootaloo's really gotten herself involved in this, hasn't she?"

Luna nodded. "Unfortunately, it must be so. Argent must remain undercover for now, as he is doing important research and tracking with regards to his brother's whereabouts as well as how we shall proceed; it would not be prudent for him to reveal himself before he needs to. Scootaloo, however—if Argent is to be believed—is already well on her way with making inroads with the Revan rebels and hopefully, with his guidance, can act as a mediator."

"But she's so young," Spike started.

Luna nodded once more, her expression solemn. "I recognise this, but we have little other choice. Argent has already met with and assisted her, and he has told me that she is extremely capable and exactly the pony for the job."

Spike's face was fraught with worry. "Luna... are you hearing yourself? Yes, Scootaloo is a smart and tough pony, but she's still very young. Plus she doesn't think she has anything to lose—why do you think she flew off to begin with? Even if you don't want to go outside the five of us, what about Twilight? Or me, even?"

Luna took another sip from the teacup and set it back down on the bedside table before adjusting atop her bed. "Spike... I understand your concern—truly, I do—but Scootaloo can take care of herself. And, in addition, she has already found friends who are helping her, so she needn't anyway. Twilight is required here as the Princess of Friendship and for her wisdom and, furthermore, it would not be prudent to send a hitherto unknown alicorn onto foreign soil—that would merely be grounds for capture and questioning. And what would Twilight be without her trusty number one assistant?" Luna winked.

"Meh," Spike meh'd. "I'm not convinced, but you seem to know what you're talking about."

"I implore you, Spike—please trust me. And trust Prince Argent—he knows what he is doing, even if he is not the most forthcoming about it."

"If you're sure..."

"I am," Luna said flatly.

Spike nodded, biting his lip and looking around the room until he caught sight of a large clock set above the door frame. "Oh my," he said. "This has been a great chat and all, but it's really getting late and Rarity will be expecting me soon. And, as you probably know, it's 'impolite to keep a lady waiting'."

Luna smiled warmly. "Of course. I thank you for conversing as well, and I hope you will relay this information to Princess Twilight. If she has any questions or would like to discuss how we should proceed further, I would love for her to send me a letter."

Spike gave a long nod and then stood up, hopping off the chair. "Nice room, by the way—I dunno if I said that earlier. Really suits you."

"You did, but I thank you once more," Luna said as she too stood up from where she had sat. As Spike stretched out his limbs, the alicorn made her way over to the door and opened it with a quiet click. Spike had to quickly shut his eyes as the room was flooded with outside light; even though the hall outside only had a few torches, his eyes still needed to readjust after the near-darkness.

"Bye, Luna!" Spike called as he walked down the hallway away from her door, turning for one last wave. Luna merely gave a nod before magically lifting her hood back over her head and slowly shutting the door.

"Huh, wonder what's up with that whole hood thing," Spike said to himself as he walked out of the hall and down the stairs. "Maybe she's trying to look more... creepy or something. But Nightmare Night isn't for months..."

"Thank Celestia," Spike murmured to himself as he set foot outside of the castle. Even if for only a moment, the rain had abated; whilst a layer of grey clouds still filled the sky, it was patchy and did not extend far to the west, leaving Spike able to see the orange and pink hues of the sun low in the sky.

Waving to the guards as he passed, Spike was soon outside the castle's gates and trotting southwest on the sidewalk in the direction of Canterlot Boutique. As the city was now in the throes of the evening and the skies were clearer, there were many more ponies trotting about than earlier; at times, Spike could hardly see two blocks in front of him on account of the dozens of ponies trotting home from work or out to restaurants for dinner. About one in twenty of the faces were familiar; about one in forty waved or said hello. Spike didn't mind; he had somewhere to be, so chit-chat with random ponies he didn't know well wasn't on his agenda.

Once Spike got closer to Canterlot Boutique, the sidewalks started to clear up; besides the occasional passing carriage, there weren't many signs of life. To fill the silence, he started humming the tune to one of Pinkie's silly songs. Before he knew it, the dragon stood at the foot of the alabaster stairs, looking up at the door. Taking a deep breath, Spike stepped forward and up and then knocked on the door three times.

He waited for a moment. Shuffling noises shuffled shufflingly from inside. He knocked once more. The shuffling noises continued to shuffle, perhaps with a little bit more shuffle-osity. Spike leaned over to the door and cupped his claw around his ear.

"I-I'm just not sure about this," Rarity's voice said in a nervous, shaky tone.

"It's gonna be fine, Rares," replied a familiar voice Spike couldn't quite place. "Look, he's at the door right now and it's gonna be great. I'm not leaving."

"I don't want you to leave, Minnie, it's just... I'm scared. Spike had a crush on me for years!"

"Spike loves you and he'll want what's best for you. I've known him for longer than you have, and he's a good dragon. Maybe it'll hurt, but he'll learn to be okay with it. Plus, didn't you say you already sorta told him?"

"I... I did," Rarity said. "You're right... I'm being silly."

"Ugh, finally," a third voice interjected. It was higher pitched and squeakier than the other two. "Just go open the door! I wanna see Spike!"

"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity exclaimed. "How long have you been here...?"

"The whole conversation. It doesn't matter, though—he's at the door! And, knowing him, he's probably been listening to this whole conversation anyway so who cares?"

At that, Spike flinched backwards. He heard hoofsteps approaching the door and then the sound of a curtain sliding open. Pretending to whistle, Spike glanced at the window to see Rarity's blue eyes peeking out of the window; the dragon merely offered her a sheepish grin. Sighing, Rarity stepped back and over to the door which swung open.

"Great to see you again, Spike," Rarity said. Spike noticed that she was trembling ever so slightly.

"Glad to be back," Spike said with a warm smile. "You... okay?"

"Indeed I am," Rarity replied. "I'm just feeling a tad... oh, how would Pinkie put it?"

"Frazzled?" Spike offered.

Rarity nodded. "Yes, that's it." She stepped back, gesturing with her hoof. "Please, do come in. We've almost got dinner ready."

Spike stepped back into the warmth of Canterlot Boutique, following Rarity as she trotted quickly through the showroom. The mare reached the back of the room before Spike did, disappearing around the corner into the kitchen. As Spike took his sweet time, he heard similar murmuring in low tones like he'd heard before; however, this time he wasn't bothered enough to listen. Rarity's business was her own, and there was no need for Spike to—

"Hi, Spike!" Spike's train of thought was thrust off its tracks completely by the chipper voice of none other than Sweetie Belle herself who had just emerged from the kitchen's doorway. Although still small, the filly was quite a bit taller—and definitely taller than Spike. Yet what he noticed most was her mane; although she had still retained her trademark pink-and-purple curls, the hair was much shorter in the back—a curly bob. Nonetheless, the filly looked happier than Spike had seen her in a long time.

"Hey there, Sweetie Belle!" Spike exclaimed with a grin. "How's it going?"

"Pretty great, actually," Sweetie Belle replied. "School's going well, and I've got a bunch of new friends. And Canterlot's been super fun to explore, believe me."

"Ooh, I know what you mean," Spike said, nodding. "Well, Twilight didn't let me out of the castle much by myself, but it was fun when we'd go together."

"Heh, right." Spike could tell Sweetie's smile had faded a little bit, but he shrugged it off.

"So, erm... what's for dinner?" Spike asked.

"Heh... not exactly sure," Sweetie replied. "Luckily Rarity's gotten a lot better at cooking and showing me stuff, so we should survive it at least." She winked.

"Glad to hear it."

"Alright, you two!" Rarity called from the other room. "It's time for dinner!"

"Guess we should... go then," Spike said.

"...Yep," Sweetie replied. After a moment of awkward silence, both of them started giggling before they turned and walked over to the kitchen.

Smooth

"Something's different," Scootaloo said, interrupting the silence whose midst the trio had been walking through for some time.

"What do you mean?" Flight asked from behind.

"Do you feel that, with the floor?" Scootaloo reached out a hoof to the side. "The wall, too." She waited to allow Kevin and Flight to do the same.

"It's... smooth," Kevin replied. "Huh. That's way smoother."

Scootaloo heard a hoof scraping gently against the wall. "It's curved, too," Flight commented. "The wall curves right into the floor."

"That's so weird, though—how didn't we notice that?" Scootaloo wondered aloud.

"I'm... not sure. Kevin, could you please—" Flight started but she was interrupted by Kevin's horn being once more illuminated. "Thank you."

The green glow brought their surroundings back into view and the first thing any of them noticed was the colour of the walls; unlike the dark grey stone of the tunnels before, these smooth walls were an immaculate milky white that in contrast looked extremely unnatural. As Flight had mentioned, the walls and floor curved together—as did the ceiling, placing them in some sort of rectangular tube.

Flight tapped the wall and the sound reverberated through the tunnel. "It's kinda like porcelain."

"What's porcelain?" Scootaloo asked.

"You know, what they make toilets and stuff out of," Flight replied. "It's really white and smooth like this."

"Hmm, maybe," Kevin said, eyeing the wall closely.

"Oh, that's what that stuff is called. Well, it doesn't really matter what it is. I'm sure we'll find out more if we keep walking," Scootaloo resolved. "The breeze is still coming from in front of is, so we're still going the right way."

"I guess we don't have any other choice," Flight said. "Soldier onwards."

"Light yes or light no?" Kevin asked.

Scootaloo looked over her shoulder. "Do you feel up to it?"

"Not really... still feeling pretty worn out," Kevin replied. "I had it on for a pretty long time."

"Then I think we can make do without it." Without another word, Scootaloo stepped forward and, as Kevin extinguished his light, he followed suit with Flight right behind.

For a few more minutes they carried onwards. Then—

THUD!

"Ow!" Scootaloo exclaimed. Kevin and Flight stopped in their tracks.

"What happened?" Flight asked. "Are you okay?"

"Should I turn on my horn?" Kevin asked.

"Aaaugh... y-yeah, I'm fine," Scootaloo said. "And no, I don't need the light. I just ran into the wall here. With my face."

"Oof," Kevin said, cringing. "You sure about the light? There could be more walls up ahead, and it'd be better for you to avoid them..."

"Nah, I'm all good," Scootaloo replied. "I'll use, like, echolocation or something. C'mon. And watch out for the turn."

Kevin could hear the filly start trotting again so he followed, making sure to feel ahead for the turn. As he rounded the bend, Kevin noticed that Scootaloo was making a bunch of odd clicking noises with her mouth. Raising an eyebrow, he turned his head over his shoulder to face Flight, even if he couldn't see her in the darkness. "She can't actually do that bat stuff, can she?" he murmured.

"There's no way," Flight whispered back. "Ponies train years learning how to do that. She's just messing with you."

"I wouldn't be so certain of that if I were you," Scootaloo said loudly ahead of them. "Right turn ahead, by the way."

Kevin didn't believe her but, just to be sure, stuck a hoof out anyway. Much to his surprise, it hit a wall. "Oh my goodness! Flight, she—wait." Kevin suddenly realised that the wall was soft and fuzzy rather than rigid and smooth, and he facehoofed.

"What?" Flight asked, but it was drowned out by Scootaloo's giggles.

"Heeheehee! Holy Tartarus, you totally fell for it!"

"Scootaloo stood there pretending to be the wall," Kevin explained.

Flight snickered. "Of course you fell for it, dorkface."

"Hey!"

"Okay, okay, enough messing around," Scootaloo said. "Let's go." She started trotting again, still making the clicking noises.

"Watch out for any walls," Flight whispered. Kevin merely sighed as he walked. With nothing else to say, a veil of silence hung over the three of them.

Silence. Kevin had grown to dread it over the past few... hours? However long they had been roaming the tunnels, going in some random direction in the hopes that it would lead them outside. Briefly he wondered if Mochi or Cotton Fluff had started to worry but decided that Mochi was probably still wandering and Cotton Fluff was probably still sleeping. Silence. At least the making fun of his mistakes had involved chatting and laughter; without it, silence was all they had. Kevin had had enough of silence in his time on the islands and as a stowaway; now that he was surrounded by friends, he felt pretty strongly that he shouldn't have to bear so much silence anymore.

Just as Kevin had resolved to say something... anything...

There was the sound of hooves tripping over each other.

"Aaaaaahhh!" Scootaloo exclaimed. And then—

THUD!

"Scootaloo!" Kevin shouted and, without hesitation, lit up his horn. As he stepped forward through the glowing green light, he could see the path ahead had a curved drop off and, as he trotted up to the edge, it was immediately obvious where Scootaloo had tripped and tumbled down the curved cliff of immaculate white. The orange pegasus filly lay sprawled out in the centre about ten metres below and as Kevin looked up, he was taken aback by what she lay in the centre of.

"Aeneus above," Flight breathed from behind him. "What is this place?"

The tunnel opened up into a large ovoid hewn from the same smooth white material, a veritable alien vessel placed seemingly randomly in the earth. As Kevin looked around for any sign of a flaw in the surface, he found what he was looking for; beyond another tunnel entrance on the other side, there were what appeared to be markings all along the side walls, although he couldn't quite make out what they were from his distant perch. However, he was interrupted from thinking about how to get over to them by a voice from below.

"Urgh... a little help here?" Scootaloo asked weakly, looking up at where Kevin and Flight stood.

"Sure thing," Flight said, nudging Kevin out of the way. She stepped forward and, once she reached the edge, hopped off, extending her butter-yellow wings. Kevin watch as the filly glided downward through the air, her feathers rustling slightly in the breeze, until she touched down on the curved surface below.

"Here, take my hooves," Flight said, reaching down to Scootaloo. With some effort, she brought the orange filly to a shaky standing position, allowing Scootaloo to lean against her side. Then, Flight looked up. "C'mon, Kev," she said. "The water's fine."

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "Erm, how?"

Flight smiled. "I'm sure you'll figure something out."

Awesome

As Spike stepped into the kitchen, he immediately noticed a delicious scent wafting up through the air. "My goodness," he said with surprise. "Is that—?"

"Eggplant parmesan!" a familiar voice exclaimed and as Spike looked over by the kitchen counter and the stove to the left, he knew why the voice and that scent had been so familiar. Standing there, Pyrex dish levitating in her magic beside, was Minuette. "Heya, Spike!" the bright blue mare said animatedly. She wore a wide, toothy grin that was only interrupted by her chipper-sounding words. "It's great to see you again!"

"Oh my goodness—hi, Minuette!" Spike exclaimed. "I didn't realise you'd be here!"

"Well, you know me," Minuette said, walking across the kitchen to set the Pyrex dish on the counter. "I'm always happy to see an old friend and catch up, of course. And when Rares here said that you'd be stopping by, I knew there was no way I could miss ya! Plus I know how you always liked my eggplant parmesan... and Rare-Bear's been begging for me to make it."

"But of course!" Spike laughed and then turned to Rarity, who was standing near Sweetie Belle by the wall. "Though I must admit, there's one thing I don't understand... I thought your boyfriend was going to be here. Or did I misunderstand something?"

Sweetie Belle snickered and looked to the side. Rarity blushed, offering nothing more than a sheepish smile. Spike turned his head to Minuette, who was busy removing the eggplant parmesan from its dish, and then back to Rarity. And then, after a moment, he blinked. Slowly, he raised a claw and pointed it towards Minuette. Then, still facing Rarity, he mouthed, "Her?".

There was a moment of hesitation. Then, with a smile, Rarity nodded.

"Holy crap!" Spike exclaimed.

"Oh, Spike, darling... I'm so sorry—I should've—" Rarity already looked distraught.

"No, no, no! Dang it, Rarity! I've already told you, like, five times—I'm totally over you. Maybe a year or two ago I would've been upset. Actually, scratch that—I would most definitely one-hundred percent have been upset. But right now, I am so happy for you." Spike looked to Minuette. "And you guys seem like you make a great couple, for sure."

"Well, thank you, Spike!" Minuette said. "I'm really glad you think so."

"I am as well," Rarity agreed, wiping at her brow with a hoofkerchief. "I mean, I don't know why I even worried... of course you'd be happy for us."

"Aw, don't worry about it, hon." Minuette trotted over to Rarity and put a hoof around her shoulder. "These sorts of things just stress you out, y'know? It would've made anypony feel nervous."

"Yeah, don't sweat it," Spike said. "I'm here for you, no matter what."

Rarity opened her mouth as if to respond; however, before she could speak, she was interrupted by an irritated young pony. "You guys done yet?" Sweetie Belle asked. "I'm starving."

"Oh, of course." Minuette trotted back over to the eggplant parmesan and the plates laid out on the counter. "You all can go and sit in the dining room and I'll be there with the food in just a moment."

Spike followed Rarity and Sweetie Belle as they continued through the kitchen and past a large doorway in the wall that opened up into a small, cosy dining room. On one wall was a door that presumably led to the stairs up to the living quarters; the other two walls were adorned with large glass windows through which the last remaining vestiges of sunlight were fading away. Rarity sat down in her seat on one side of the rectangular table and, for a moment, Spike motioned to follow her. As he stepped forward, however, he heard Sweetie Belle clear her throat and, when he turned to face her and tilted his head, the filly merely replied with a head-nodding gesture at the seat next to her, on the other side of the table. Luckily, Spike took the hint and sat down next to Sweetie, across from the open seat.

Not a moment later, Minuette stepped into the room, magically levitating four separate plates of eggplant parmesan. She set one down at each of their places as well as a fork, a knife, and a glass of water. The napkins were already there on the table, so Spike took the opportunity to unfold his over his lap before reaching for his fork. By the time Minuette was in her seat, Spike had already taken a few scrumptious bites and he was not alone in doing so; Sweetie Belle, for her part, had nearly devoured a quarter of the food on her plate. It was only Rarity who waited, leaning over to plant a quick peck on her girlfriend's cheek as she sat down.

"Thank you so much for dinner, Minuette," Spike managed in between bites. "It's delicious."

"I couldn't agree more, darling," Rarity said, magically sawing through the eggplant with her knife.

"You're very welcome," Minuette said as she poked at her salad with a fork. "Always a pleasure."

"So... on what business did Twilight send you to the castle, Spike?" Rarity asked.

Spike swallowed a bite and wiped his mouth with the corner of his napkin. "Nothing that important... she just had a few questions for Princess Celestia that she thought it would be better to send me to explain rather than just in a letter. Plus I ended up getting to talk to Princess Luna too, so that was pretty awesome."

"Glad to hear it," Rarity said. "The princesses are doing well, I trust?"

Spike shrugged. "Same old, I guess. You know how they are."

Rarity laughed. "I suppose I do."

"So, how long have you two been dating?" Spike gestured with a claw towards Rarity and Minuette.

"It's been what, six months now?" Minuette replied, looking fondly at Rarity. "We met at Canterlot Theatre during an intermission and really hit it off, and one thing led to another, and... well, yeah. It's been going great, wouldn't you say?"

"Most definitely," Rarity replied with a blush.

"Wow... that's pretty awesome, you guys," Spike said. "Who knew that two of my best friends would be such a great match for each other?"

"Funny, you keep saying awesome," Rarity commented.

"Well, I have been hanging out with Rainbow Dash a lot, so it sorta starts to rub off on you after a while," Spike explained.

"Hmm... I guess she would be looking for other ponies to hang out with, now that Scootaloo's... gone."

As soon as Rarity finished the statement, Spike heard a choked sob beside him. By the time he turned to face Sweetie Belle, she was already out of her seat and running out the door to the stairs.

"Nnngh... sorry—don't feel well—I'll eat dinner later—sorry." With that, Sweetie Belle disappeared up the stairs.

Spike looked back to Rarity and Minuette for one moment before pushing his chair back and running after the filly.

Course

"Hello? Scootaloo? Kevin? Flight?" With each name, the voice reverberated around the curved white walls. Slowly, Scootaloo turned her head to Kevin, who was quivering in place, staring straight ahead at the wall. She tried to motion for him to extinguish the green light emanating from his horn but no dice—he evidently couldn't see her from where he stood.

The hoofsteps behind them neared and then stopped "Um, guys, I can see you down there," the voice said, sounding more familiar than ever. Sighing, Scootaloo turned around. And then she blinked.

"Mochi?!" Scootaloo exclaimed. Looking down from the top of the smooth white ledge across the room, the older pink mare smiled.

"How'd you kids get down here?" Mochi called down, leaning over the edge.

"We might ask the same of you," Flight replied. "We, uh, had a little incident that freaked us out and accidentally fell down a hole. It was too high up to fly out, though, so we kept walking down the tunnels until we got here."

"And Scootaloo fell down here, so we had to come down and help her up," Kevin said, snickering a little. Scootaloo stared daggers at him before looking back up to Mochi.

"Huh, that's mighty interestin'," the mare said. "I just found the weird tall thing protrudin' from the earth like a smooth white tree trunk and I went up the stairs to the top and then down the stairs inside. From there, it was just a matter of following the path in front of me."

"...Weird tall thing?" Flight asked.

"...Protruding from the ground?" Scootaloo scratched her head.

Mochi nodded. "Them's the things I said—I'm not sure why you're repeatin' 'em, though."

"Just a little surprised, that's all," Scootaloo replied. She glanced around at the ovoid walls that surrounded them. "We still don't know what this place is, and the fact that it's got a part that sticks out of the ground... that just makes it all the weirder."

"I s'pose you're right," Mochi agreed. "That's the whole reason I checked it out, anyhow—wasn't having much luck finding berries in that stretch of the woods."

"Say, Mochi, you wouldn't happen to know how to read lemur-speak, would you?" Kevin asked. "There's a bunch inscribed down here but we're not having much luck at making it out."

Mochi raised an eyebrow. "Inscribed in the walls? That's weird... hold on, lemme get a look." Before Scootaloo, Flight, or Kevin could say anything, the mare leapt off the ledge, falling quickly down until she landed with a clatter on her hooves, making the floor shake. "...Ow," she said once she landed, shaking her head.

"You okay?" Scootaloo asked, concerned.

"Yep, just fine," Mochi replied. "Now where's these mystery words?"

Scootaloo pointed at the wall with a hoof and Flight stood aside to let Mochi approach. The pink mare leaned her face forward so that it was but a few centimetres from the glossy white surface, eyes squinted and darting around. She stood there for about a minute. Then, without looking away, she said, "Nope, sorry, don't understand a word of it."

Flight facehoofed. "Why'd you jump down here in the first place, then?"

"Aw, come on. I used to know a bit of the stuff from back in primary school—they taught us all of the letters and at least a few of the words. And I still remember the letters and what sounds they make—that part's easy. It's the words I got no idea about."

"Huh." Flight tilted her head. "I guess that makes sense."

"Well, whatever," Scootaloo said. "They're probably not that important anyway. Let's just get out of here—I'm starting to feel cavesick."

"Heh, you said it," Flight agreed. "Really starting to need that fresh air right about now."

As Flight and Scootaloo turned towards the ledge, Kevin cleared his throat. "Wait a sec."

"What is it?" Scootaloo asked impatiently.

"Flight, you've got your comlink, right? Doesn't it have some sort of fancy camera feature?"

Flight blinked with surprised. "Oh, yeah, of course! Aeneus above... how did I forget about that? You're a genius, Kev! Hold on." She lifted her hoof to look at the small device on her wrist and, with the tip of her muzzle, pressed a few of the buttons on its screen. Soon the filly had her hoof raised high in the air, turning it around with a series of clicks that signalled that photos were being taken. She even trotted across the ovoid to the other wall to capture whatever was written there. Once she was done, Flight put her hoof back down to the ground and nodded. "Got nearly everything, I think."

"That's awesome!" Scootaloo said excitedly. "Maybe when we get to town, we can find someone who can decipher them."

"Here's hoping," Flight said.

"Hey, guys?" Kevin asked. "Hate to be asking so many questions and all, but... how exactly were you planning on getting us out of here?"

Scootaloo turned to look at the sheer vertical surface in front of her, uninterrupted save for when it curved to form the ledge at the top. Warily, she did a test flap of her wings; however, she flinched at the pain from her fall as the joints moved in their sockets. "Don't think I can fly up..." the filly said.

"Huh," Mochi said, looking up. "You know, I just might have an idea..."

Talk

Although Rarity had not owned the place for long, the building she had transformed into her Canterlot Boutique was an old one. This was never more evident than when Spike ran up the stairs as fast as he could, hearing and feeling the wooden stairs creak and groan beneath his claws. At about the halfway point, he heard a loud crack! and jumped back, nearly falling off the stairs, for he assumed one of the stair boards had collapsed beneath him. Then he realised that it had been the sound of a door slamming above.

Sighing, this only made Spike quicken his pace. By that point, he was jumping up the stairs two at a time, not letting his shoddy sense of balance deter him. Even when he nearly fell backwards.

By the time Spike was at the top of the stairs, he was panting heavily and had to stop for a moment with his hands on his knees to catch his breath and let his heart slow as he looked over the hallway in which he now stood. As he remembered from when he helped Rarity and Sweetie Belle move in, there were a few doors on either side; this time, however, Rarity had decorated the walls with a few paintings, the abstract flowery kind that you find in hotel rooms and thrift stores and such. Beneath one, beside the door that led to Rarity's bedroom, was a small wooden table that held a potted Hearth's Warming cactus.

Beyond all this, however, lay a window at the end of the hall. Spike stood up and slowly walked forward until his face was but a few centimetres from the glass. From this vantage point, Spike could see a few ponies milling about on the sidewalks below, yet nothing of particular interest.

Until he heard the sound of sobs coming from the room beside him.

Slowly, Spike turned and walked across the hall, careful to not let the floorboards creak. Then, once he reached the plain white door that led to Sweetie Belle's room, he raised a claw and knocked thrice. For a moment, the sobbing ceased."

"Go away, Rarity." Sweetie's voice sounded ragged and strained—upset for sure, but not angry. Spike could hear her breathing heavily.

"Erm... actually, it's Spike," he said, as if that would make a difference. He didn't really know if it would.

For a moment, there was no reply. Spike wasn't sure whether that meant he should just leave and indeed, he was about to go when he heard shuffling and then hoofsteps from within. Not a moment later, the door opened just a crack, revealing one bloodshot green eye.

"H-hey," Spike stammered.

"You can come in," Sweetie Belle mumbled, her eye pulling away from the door. As Spike pushed the door open with a claw, he watched the filly trot back over to her bed and plop down onto the pastel purple bedspread. Cautiously, Spike closed the door behind him with a click and then walked across the perfectly-clean room until he was sitting at the foot of Sweetie's bed. As he sat there, Spike listened to the filly's sniffles and frowned.

"Your room looks clean," Spike stated. He didn't know why he said it; he just knew that he couldn't let the silence linger, and he needed to take Sweetie Belle's mind off what was upsetting her.

"I know," came Sweetie Belle's reply. She lifted her head up from where it lay in her sheets to stare directly at the purple dragon. "And I friggin' hate it."

"Huh?"

"My room never used to be clean," Sweetie Belle continued. "Rarity used to give me crap about it and I did have to clean it a few times, but I rarely was able to, anyway. Sc-Scootaloo and... and... Apple Bloom... heh..." The filly paused to wipe her face with a hoof. "They always made a mess of things and even though I acted like I hated it, I actually really liked when we were all going through my things in search of new ways to find our cutie marks. And even after we found them... it was a little more laid back, but it was fun. But now, now that my room's just pristine like my sister's... it's lost something."

Spike slowly nodded. "I feel ya. A lot has changed, and not for the better."

Sweetie Belle shook her head. "I wish things could just go back to how they were. I wish I hadn't even decided to move with Rarity to this stupid city, anyway."

Spike raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were saying that it was fun to explore, and that you were liking school and had new friends and all that?"

Sweetie Belle sighed. "I don't go exploring—I just made that up. Heck, I can't walk down the street for five minutes without getting super lost. I miss Ponyville, and not just for the ponies—it was a lot smaller and I knew where everything was."

"Yeah, I get that," Spike said. "It's not like I had spent much time in the city proper, but it was nice when Twilight and I moved to Ponyville because it was kind of that same sort of micro-community that the castle had. But what about school?"

"School's... fine. But none of my teachers are as interesting or as nice as Miss Cheerilee, even if they're technically more qualified or whatever. And I told you that I made friends, but I dunno. We're not really that close and I wouldn't want to hang out with any of them outside of school or anything. I just feel... lonely. And... and I don't know if I have a special talent anymore, since it was about all of us..." She lowered her head as she began to shake once more.

Spike scooted over and reached out an arm to put around Sweetie's shoulders, which the filly gladly accepted. For a moment, the dragon just held his friend reassuringly in silence, gently rubbing her shoulder.

"I miss Apple Bloom so much," Sweetie Belle finally murmured between breaths. "I know it wasn't my fault but I still feel somehow responsible and if I had just been a little faster, maybe she'd still—" Having run out of breath, Sweetie quickly hyperventilated for a moment before calming back down.

"We all miss her, Sweetie, but there isn't anything you could've done," Spike said, hoping he wasn't hurting more than helping.

"I know. But did... did Scootaloo know that? I know she felt like it was her fault way more than I ever did..." Sweetie paused, choking back a sob. "Celestia, I really shouldn't have agreed to move... I just wanted to escape... I didn't—didn't know..."

"Sweetie, it's okay," Spike started in a soothing tone, but Sweetie Belle cut him off.

"It's not okay! Scootaloo was hurting way more than I ever did, and then I did a horrible, awful, selfish thing and I left! I left her there without friendship, just trying to get away..." Sweetie Belle sighed.

"She had Rainbow, and she had Twilight," Spike stated. "And, of course, she had me and the rest of the girls. Things were... tough, but they started to get better. She didn't even try to... well, y'know... for the last several months."

Sweetie Belle gave Spike a flat look. "Until she stole Princess Twilight's spaceship and went on a suicide flight out into space with no supplies or training."

Spike scratched the back of his head. "Well, about that..."

Sweetie Belle's ears perked up. "What?"

"Scootaloo isn't dead, Sweetie. We haven't exactly heard from her directly, but Twilight got a call from a pony who's talked with her and confirmed that she's safe. What she's going to do now, I have no idea, but we at least know that she's alive."

Sweetie blinked. "What."

Spike nodded. "She's out there, Sweetie. We can get her back."

Tears streamed down Sweetie Belle's fuzzy white cheeks as she sat up and pulled Spike into a big hug. At first, the dragon was startled; after a moment, though, he merely reached out his arms to return the hug.

Finally

Scootaloo had initially protested and thought the idea ridiculous, but it turned out, as they put her plan into action, that Mochi had been right. The mare stood directly beneath the ledge and waited as, in order, Kevin, Flight, and then Scootaloo clambered to stand on top of one another. It was uncomfortable and a little bit painful, sure, but they were just tall enough for Scootaloo to reach that ledge and hoisted herself up onto its surface. Once she had gotten to her hooves and taken a step back, she watched as Flight grabbed Kevin's torso and painstakingly flapped her wings to lift him the metre so that she could drop Kevin down to scramble onto the ledge before safely landing herself. And then, finally, as Mochi gazed up at the three young ponies.

"I-I don't know if I can do it," Kevin stammered. "I've only done this spell a few times before, and I have nowhere near enough strength to do it while keeping the light going."

"Then put out the light, doofus," Scootaloo admonished.

"I would, but that just makes it harder," Kevin explained. "I have to visualise both Mochi and the spot I want her to appear with complete accuracy, or else she could end up someplace else."

"You've got a big imagination—I'm sure you can do it," Scootaloo countered.

With a worried expression, Kevin looked to Flight. The filly just shrugged and nodded, offering him a weak smile. With a sigh, Kevin extinguished the light from his horn and then, shrouded in darkness, he concentrated with all his might.

There was a soft magical pop. For a moment, silence lingered in the darkness. Scootaloo realised that she was holding her breath.

Then, there was a flash of light.

"Ughhh, my head," Mochi complained weakly.

"Sweet Argent!" Kevin exclaimed. "It worked! It really worked!"

"Good job, Kev!" Flight reached out in the dark to clap him on the back with a hoof.

"Heh, thanks..." Mochi managed. "Still, wouldn't want to be doin' that again anytime soon. Guh... nearly feel like I'm gonna puke."

"We can sit for a bit if ya want," Scootaloo offered. "No hurry."

"Nah, I'll be fine," came Mochi's reply. "Nothin' a little walking around won't fix right up."

"If you're sure..." Scootaloo turned and, reaching a hoof out into the darkness, felt around until her hooftip was tracing the smooth surface of the wall. "Alright, follow me," the filly declared as she took a few steps forward, careful not to slip.

A moment later, Kevin spoke up. "Mochi, were there any other places a pony could fall like that one back there? Just don't want a repeat performance on Scootaloo's part."

"Nope, not at all," came Mochi's reply. "At least not that I could see. Pretty much just a straight line from here to the way out, give or take a kink or two. And once we get 'round the exit, we should be able to see some light from above."

"Thank Celestia," Scootaloo said. "I don't know how much more falling I can take."

And so onward through the darkness the four ponies trotted, letting the ever-fresher air inflate their lungs and add a little more spring to their steps.

Backstabbing

A chorus of birds filled the air. A cool breeze wafted over the craft, tickling at her muzzle. Somewhere on her torso, the sunlight peeked through the branches above, bringing a comforting warmth to balance out the breeze, making her the absolute perfect temperature.

And yet, for reasons beyond her understanding or control, Cotton Fluff woke up. It was these things she noticed as she awoke, before her consciousness had truly taken hold and she started to think of ponies and places and things she had to do. As the mare opened her eyelids, letting the dizzyingly tall trees come into focus, she already knew what she had to do, before the rest got back. And certainly they weren't back yet; otherwise, the air would instead be filled with giggles and arguing and all sorts of noisy noises.

Letting out a relaxed sigh, Cotton Fluff stretched out her hooves above her head and lazily yawned. Then, turning over onto her side, the mare pushed herself up on her hooves and, still blinking the sleep away, looked around.

The hovercraft was, in essence, how she'd left it. Cotton Fluff's saddlebags lay beside a pair that had a few supplies that Microfiche had left, but the rest of the interior was still empty as betrayed by the uninterrupted metal sheet that reflected the sunlight. Squinting, Cotton Fluff turned away.

Her gaze was then met by the forest around the ship which, once again, seemed to be just like it was before with its tall, looming trees and a proliferous green underbrush through which the others had made their way. But, most importantly, it appeared uninterrupted. Perfect.

Although she kept some attention on the world around through her peripheral vision, Cotton Fluff reached around to her saddlebag to dig out her comlink, which she had stowed away the previous night to prevent it from straining her wrist. After a few moments of digging, she grabbed ahold of the small device by the handles and pulled it out, carefully attaching it around her wrist with the cloth straps. Cautiously, the mare glanced around at the forest surrounding her once more; upon seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she sighed and looked down at the comlink. Its interface was somewhat unfamiliar; as the comlink had been from Microfiche, it appeared to be an older model than what she was used to. However, the basic function of the device hadn't changed and it just took her a few button presses until she reached the dialling input.

One by one, she entered each of the digits and, one by one, they made electronic chirps. Then, after another glace around, Cotton pressed the call button. The ringback tone emanated from the speaker a few times. Then...

"Officer Gloss of the Southern Kindred Territory Police—how may I help you?"

Cotton Fluff smiled. "Good morning, Officer. This is Cotton Fluff and I seek to update you on my whereabouts, as requested."

For a moment, there was silence. "Cotton? That really you?"

"Yessir," the mare replied. "The other ponies I'm travelling with are... out, so I figured now would be a good time to tell you."

"Oh, yes, very good," came the stallion's voice. Honestly, Cotton Fluff was just glad to hear it after being stuck with those other ponies, even if it had only been several hours. "Where are you?"

"Well, that's the thing—I'm not sure of the precise location, but I know where we're headed."

"Oh?"

"They've got me driving this hovercraft to a small town called Ferretfall," Cotton Fluff explained. "You ever heard of it?"

"Of course," Gloss replied. "It's the southernmost town in the Sciouse province. Nice place, if I do say so myself. They've got the houses all built in and between the trees."

“Great! We'll be there in a day or so. What should I do?”

“Since you'll be there so soon, I'll contact the officers posted there and let them know to be at the ready. There are four of you, yes?”

Cotton Fluff mentally counted. “Five. But four besides me, yes.”

“Right, right.” There was a pause. “It'd probably be best for you if you found a way to bail before… before you arrive.”

Cotton Fluff blinked. “That's, erm… not exactly possible. I'm the one driving the ship, and none of these kids are legally able to.”

“You're on the run from the law—why in Argent's name would you care about whether you're following basic traffic laws?”

“Mostly so we don't crash and die,” Cotton Fluff retorted. “Not dying would be optimal. And I know you don't want them to be killed, either; otherwise you would have already done so.”

“True...” The voice from the speaker paused once more. “Make it into, like, a sweet moment. Tell Scootaloo or Kevin that you're going to teach them how to drive the ship and then find a way to duck out.”

“...Really? That seems… difficult.”

“You're competent, Cotton Fluff. No matter what misgivings we had about each other, I always knew you were competent.”

“Erm… thanks? I guess...”

“That's the spirit. Now, I've got one more thing I want to tell you about...”

Protrusion

"I think we're here," Mochi called from the back of the group. And indeed, a soft light was beginning to permeate the hallway's darkness, allowing the ponies to begin to see the path ahead of them. As the smooth white walls came back into view, Scootaloo also noticed that, up ahead, the path opened up into a larger room of some sort.

"That the same room you were in before?" Scootaloo asked.

"Don't see how it couldn'ta been—there ain't any other paths for us to've turned down," Mochi replied. "No, this is definitely the place."

The room they entered was small and circular, with the same sheer white walls as the rest of the place. In the centre, light poured down in a concentrated circle that evidently led to the exit; from there, the glow spread out to cast the rest of the round room in almost-eerie shadows. Scootaloo made a beeline for the circular staircase which touched down in the room's centre; Flight's interest, however, was piqued by something entirely different.

"Look, there's those same kind of words written on the walls here too." She stepped up to the curved wall, trying to make out the letters in the dim light. "I'm not sure if they're the exact same as before."

"What I do know is that I definitely still can't read 'em," Mochi said, glancing around. "Funny, I didn't notice these before even though this is definitely the room I walked through."

"That makes sense, though," Flight replied. "You were coming in from the light into the darkness, so your eyes had to take a little while to adjust. Instead, we're going from the dark to the light so the details like that are immediately obvious to us." The filly traced one of the glyphs, a vertical line with two horizontal protrusions, with a yellow hoof. "Unlike whatever these mean."

"Like we said before, it doesn't really matter," Kevin stated. "You can just take a picture with that"—he gestured towards the comlink on Flight's wrist—"and we'll find somepony who speaks the lemur language. Piece of cake."

"Right, right." Flight pressed a few buttons on the comlink and then set to work around the room's circumference.

Scootaloo turned to Kevin and Mochi. "This type of thing isn't normal on these planets, right? Or did your pony ancestors build a bunch of weird structures like this all over the place?"

"If they did, this is the first that I ever heard of it," Mochi replied, eyeing the staircase. "I thought our ancestors just lived in villages kinda like the surface ones today."

"I remember my parents telling me about some ancient structures like the Gnostic pyramids, but not much beyond that. Plus those were never as fancy-schmancy as... this." Kevin glanced around once more. "Seriously, this must have taken forever."

"Oh, come on," Flight interjected, still taking photos of the walls; her camera had intermittently been lighting up as the flash function activated. "You're a unicorn, aren't you? You ponies could carve out these letters in your sleep."

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "You know, I'm actually not so sure about that. I've used magic to carve in stone and wood, and these don't have any of the signature cues of magic-cut objects."

"Pfff, you're making that up," Flight retorted. "And they'd be weathered by the sands of time, anyway."

Kevin rolled his eyes and opened his mouth as if to say something more, but Scootaloo shot him a nasty glare he couldn't ignore. "Arguing about it isn't going to help anything, dorks. Let's just finish up so we can be out of here."

"Great point, Scootaloo," Flight said, beaming. Kevin just huffed and followed closely behind Scootaloo to stand at the foot of the stairs. As Flight took the last few photos, Mochi lazily meandered over to the others, meaning that all three of them stood there staring at the filly as she took the last shot. Scootaloo trotted up the first step before Flight had even turned towards them, earning a groan from the filly as she chased Mochi to not get left behind.

It was slightly before they reached the top that the questions started, but only once the group had reached that small white platform perched high among the treetops did Scootaloo begin to voice them.

"Why would anypony build this thing?" Scootaloo asked, exasperated. "It's totally stupid; why have to trot up and then down, no matter which direction you're going? It could've just been flat."

Flight was looking intently downward at the lip of white material that divided the inner stairs from the outer ones, feeling over its uneven surface with her hoof. "Look at this, and how it's not smooth like the rest. I wouldn't be surprised if it used to go taller and then... broke off somehow."

"Gee willikers, the filly's got a point," Mochi exclaimed, looking up into the sky. "I can practically see the scar where the tower reached up 'n' scraped the sky."

Flight blinked. "I'm pretty sure that's just an expression, hon."

"Still, if it really did go up higher than this... where exactly do you think it went? Like, what's the point of this whole thing?" Scootaloo asked.

"I'm not sure," Flight replied, still looking up at the clear blue sky above. "I'll be the first to admit that I don't know too much about pre-Bureau history beyond what's in the Asterismos, but I sure haven't heard of anything like this."

"Maybe once we get back to the ship and flying again, we can tell Doc Zed," Kevin suggested. "I bet if anypony's heard of it, he has."

"You know, that's actually a pretty good idea," Flight replied. "Mochi, you remember the way back from here?"

"Sure do," the mare replied. "Got a mind like an... um... a pony that can remember things really well."

Flight rolled her eyes. "Right. Let's get a move on, then."

As they took a few steps down the exterior stairs, Kevin began to feel peckish so he casually reached a hoof into one of his saddlebags, hoping to grab a berry or two. However...

"Eugh!" the colt exclaimed.

"What?" Scootaloo and Flight asked simultaneously, turning around with looks of concern.

"All the berries in my bag got squashed from the fall," Kevin said with a frown.

Blinking, Scootaloo and Flight both checked their bags. Their facial expressions told Kevin all he needed to know.

"Guess we're gonna have to hunt down some more berries!" Mochi exclaimed, excitedly.

Yeah

"...so, erm, yeah. That's basically about it. What do you think?"

Cotton Fluff stared at the comlink's speaker from which the words had emanated in a crackly burst. Then, she frowned. "You've got to be kidding me, Gloss. You can't seriously mean that."

"I've been really thinking about it, like I said, and I really think it could work." Gloss's voice paused. "And no, I'm not joking."

"Ugh," Cotton Fluff groaned, pulling her cheeks down with her hooves. "That's the worst part—it wouldn't even be funny if you were."

"Really? Is it really that bad of an idea?"

"Gloss... I don't even know what to say. The divorce was your idea in the first place and, if you don't mind me saying so, that was probably the most sensible decision either of us ever made."

"As a matter of fact, I do mind."

"Whatever. Basically, what I mean to say is no. There's no way in Tartarus I'd ever want to even consider being with you like that ever again, and I'm honestly kind of disgusted that you even asked."

"Cotton..."

"No. If I weren't stuck doing you this as a favour, I'd ask you to never talk to me again."

"Cotton, I miss you. Please, at least give it a chance."

"I'm going to try to call you again before we get there. Goodbye." With that, the mare pressed the rectangular 'end call' button and found herself quite satisfied when his voice cut off with a click. Leaning back on the edge of the hovercraft, Cotton Fluff let out a long, drawn out sigh.

"What was that all about?" came a chipper voice from behind her.

Cotton Fluff jumped up from where she sat, turning around to see the pink mare staring up at her from the ground. "M-Mochi?"

"The one and only! And look, I brought friends!" Mochi waved a hoof towards Scootaloo, Kevin, and Flight, the last of whom wore a sheepish grin.

Cotton Fluff blinked. "How long have you been there?"

"Only since you said, 'No, I hate you and this is just for a favour, and screw you!' and the pony on the other line was all like, 'But please bae I need you,' and you were like, 'Bitch please,' and then you hung up." Mochi grinned. "Or something like that."

Cotton Fluff facehoofed. "Yeah, something like that."

"Who even was that?" Scootaloo asked inquisitively.

"Eheh... that was just... my ex. Really not a fan of him."

"But that's not even your comlink—how did he get the number?" Flight asked.

"Er... um... well..." Cotton Fluff could feel a bead of sweat on her forehead as she glanced around nervously. "I called him, actually. I realised that I... left the door unlocked on my apartment. Yeah, that's it. He's the first pony in town I thought of that I trust. Or at least trusted... heh."

"Yikes. He's not giving you trouble, is he?" Flight asked.

"No, nothing like that. He's just a bit of a sad sack. Super lonely type, and nopony's been with him since me and that was, like, five years ago. But I can deal with him, don't worry."

"Hate to interrupt this all," Kevin interrupted, "but could we maybe get back on the ship? My hooves are killing me..."

"Yes, yes, of course," Cotton Fluff said, trotting over to the gate. Carefully she unlatched it, holding it open for the other four ponies to hop aboard.

"Whew... thanks," Kevin said, exhaling tiredly as he slid his saddlebags off onto the floor at the back of the ship and then plopped down himself. "I've barely been away from this thing for a few hours and already I'm praising the heavens that we're back."

Cotton Fluff raised an eyebrow. "What happened to you guys?"

"Oh mare," Scootaloo said, "that's a story you've got to hear."

"And I'm curious to, for sure, but maybe we should get this show on the road," Cotton Fluff suggested, glancing over her shoulder at the steering wheel.

"Definitely," Scootaloo agreed, nodding vigorously.

As Cotton Fluff turned around and got to working the controls, Flight too lowered her saddlebags and sat down next to Kevin. "Hey there."

"Hiya," Kevin replied, turning to face her. "What's up?"

"Nothing, thank goodness," Flight said with a sigh. "I'm just ready to get to this next town so we can do whatever we need to do and go home, don't you think?"

"Yeah," Kevin said, nodding. "Yeah." As he spoke, the ship jolted forward beneath them, leaning the young ponies slightly forward. "Dammit, Cotton! Give us a warning!"

In response, Cotton swerved a hard right to circumvent a patch of trees, earning a few surprised yelps from her passengers. Unseen by any of them, the mare smiled wryly.

Entry

Oh my goodness… it hasn't even been that long since I've written in here, but it feels like it's been forever just because of how much that's happened. Grey broke me and Mochi out of jail and then we had to figure out how to get out by ourselves because he gave us crappy instructions and then Mochi and I got separated and then Grey helped me out of the crazy underground labyrinth and there was a big zoo and… erm… yeah. Basically, I ended up meeting back up with Mochi and also Kevin and some friends he made along the way, and now we're all in this hovercraft.

Okay, reading over that, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. And even though (or especially because?) I'm in the middle of it, it's not really any less confusing for me, either. Ever since we crashed on this planet and then I got let out of the South Pen, I've kind of just been doing whatever the smartest, most trustworthy-seeming ponies tell me to do. It's worked out so far—Kevin's been super nice, and Mochi's been super nice, and Grey got me away from the Bureau ponies. And this 'Doc Zed' pony is a friend of Kevin's, so he can't be all bad. Though he made it sound like he's working with or for those rebels who are at war with the Bureau. Yikes! I'm not so sure I want to get that caught up in this whole thing.

Of course, there's also the whole thing where Doc Zed mentioned that he had talked to Twilight. I'm not even sure what to say about that, journal. The thought had definitely crossed my mind about contacting her—how couldn't it, after the fact that I flew away from all of it? But if I was going to—if I'm going to—I have to do it on my own terms. When I want to. And even though it's confusing and weird up here, I sure as heck don't want to go back. Why would I? This is the most exciting thing that's happened to me in a long time, and I'm not going to let my worried former friends ruin that for me.

But I'll admit it. I do miss Twilight. And I miss Rainbow. And everyone else, too. Spike, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity. Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom.

Whatever. Feelings are stupid, right? Rainbow Dash probably said that at least once. It seems like something she'd say. Though, of course, only while she was having them.

Meh. I'm just meandering on at this point, saying the same old things over and over because I can't move past them. I just need to keep my head in the now. Cotton Fluff, who's somepony I barely even know, is currently flying this hovercraft through the forest to get us to some town called Ferretfall, and I'm not even sure what we're supposed to do there. But that mare was talking to somepony on the phone and while her story was good, she looked pretty suspicious. I dunno. Maybe I'm just making stuff up. I had some traumatic cave falls today and I'm honestly lucky I didn't get a cuncussion concussion.

~Scootaloo

The orange filly looked up from her journal as she signed her name, with a 'graphick' borrowed from Mochi. That mare was standing up by Cotton Fluff, carrying a conversation with her in low tones. On the opposite side of the hovercraft, Kevin and Flight still lay against the back, also conversing but in this case more casually, speaking with little concern over whether their words would be heard. It was not their words that interested Scootaloo, however. For a moment, she gazed at the unaware pair with a raised eyebrow; then, carefully, the filly put the pen's tip back to the page and started sketching outlines of their small equine forms.

As the minutes wore on, Scootaloo's drawing became more detailed, even including parts of the background and specific aspects of their coats and manes. And, as she watched each of them shy away at certain comments, blushing or stammering nervously, Scootaloo finally added three cursive words at the bottom of the page:

I ship it.

Author's Note

Halt

“Are we there yet?” Kevin asked. The green-grey colt stood up at the front behind Cotton Fluff, leaning with his forelegs over the side-railing so that the wind whipping by ruffled through his mane.

“Kevin, the answer the last forty times you asked was no,” Cotton Fluff droned. “Why would you think that it would've changed?”

“Uh, because we're moving?” Kevin replied with a shrug. “We'll have to almost be there eventually.”

Cotton Fluff blinked. “Point taken, I suppose. But I really don't know where we're going, specifically; I've never been to Ferretfall before.”

Mochi, who had been leaning over the other edge, turned at this. “Then how d'you know where ta go?”

“Heh... I don't,” Cotton Fluff replied nervously. “If I end up taking us just a few degrees too many east or west, we could fly past it completely and not know it until we're out of the woods.”

“Gee willikers,” Mochi remarked. “Now wouldn't that be fun...”

“Yeah... here's hoping we'll make it, though. I know the town is fairly wide and has several paths to the east and west, so we can just go along one of those if we miss it.”

Mochi said something in reply, but Kevin ignored it as he detached himself from the railing and sauntered off to the other side of the ship, where Flight and Scootaloo sat side-by-side on the floor. Between them lay Scootaloo's journal, open to a page on which the orange filly was scribbling with her graphick. Flight's eyes were trained downward towards the page, watching as Scootaloo drew... something. Or somepony? Kevin couldn't quite figure out what he was looking at.

“...and that's when he ran off, crying, all because Sue had accidentally thrown away the rest of his Hallows' Eve candy,” Flight finished. “It was pretty sad, actually.”

Scootaloo laughed. “Yeah, I bet. We had a holiday like that called Nightmare Night, and one year I got super upset because Rainbow Dash said she'd dress up like a Wonderbolt with me and then forgot and went to a Wonderbolts show in Manehattan.”

“Oof, yeah, that sounds pretty bad,” Flight replied. “Though, I have to ask, what in Aureate's name is a Wonderbolt?”

“'The Wonderbolts are an aerial stunts team,'” Kevin recited. Both Scootaloo and Flight looked up, surprised.

Scootaloo was the first to speak. “Oh, hey, Kevin—didn't see ya there. How's it going?”

“Did Cotton Fluff say when she thought we'd get there?” Flight asked.

“I'm fine, thanks, and no,” Kevin replied, shaking his head dejectedly. “She doesn't even really know where she's going—I think she's hoping that we'll either just stumble upon it randomly or that we run into a path that leads there.”

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“If only I didn't have to turn off the GPS on my comlink,” Flight remarked. “Then I could just look up where we are and where we need to go.”

“No use complaining about what we can't do or have,” Scootaloo said matter-of-factly. “Just gotta... take things as they are.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Kevin said absentmindedly. “Say, what's that there that you're drawing?”

“Oh, this?” Scootaloo leaned back and spun the journal around, revealing a sketched outline of a wide-trunked tree. However, unlike most trees, this one had a door in the centre and windows to the sides. “This is the Golden Oaks Library, where my friend Twilight used to live. It got burned down when this giant monster Tirek attacked Ponyville, though.”

“Huh, interesting,” Kevin said, looking at its shape. “I wonder if the buildings in Ferretfall are anything like that.”

“I hadn't thought of that, but now that you mention it, they totally could be,” Scootaloo said as she flipped the journal back to face her. “Guess we'll just have to wait and see.” After a moment of looking back down at her own drawing, the filly went back to work at sketching out the interior branches and leaves.

Then, up ahead, a loud voice boomed from nowhere: “Halt!”

Kevin could hear Cotton Fluff gasp as he turned around and, before he could get a look at whoever had shouted the word, the hovercraft ground instantly to a halt and Kevin was flung forward off his hooves, crashing violently into Mochi and Cotton Fluff like a bowling ball before collapsing into a fuzzy pile of ponies. He attempted to frantically pull himself upward, but it was a struggle to plant his hooves down without crushing somepony's limbs or head in the process.

“Unghhh...” Kevin moaned as he finally pushed off of the limp bodies of Mochi and Cotton Fluff, coming to a stand. “What's going on...?”

“In the name of the stars above, stop where you are.” It was the same voice as before and still very much a command, though much less loud and forceful. Kevin glanced around at the trees as the ship hovered there midair with a quiet hum, but he couldn't see anything. Until he could.

Directly in front of the ship, standing in plain sight atop a slight incline, was a group of five or so ponies amongst the bushes that all were trained intently towards the hovercraft. As they stepped forward, Kevin gulped and blanched.

Okay

The pony in front was a tall earth stallion, whose black coat blended in well with the shadows he traversed on his way from the incline to the hovercraft; at times, Kevin could only see the white and deep green of his eyes as he grew nearer, followed by his entourage of four whose faces were even more obscure. Not knowing what to do, Kevin froze.

“Kevin! What are you doing?!” Scootaloo called from behind. “Why are you just standing there?!”

“I-I...” the colt murmured, still looking ahead. “I don't know...”

“We've gotta move,” Flight hissed. “Forget Cotton and Mochi and just run!”

“Don't run, kid.” It was the stallion ahead that said this, quietly yet firmly. He had paused a few metres away, standing between two bushes whose tiny leaves puffed up to the base of his neck. “If you're who I believe ya to be, then we wish ya no harm.”

“Don't listen to him, Kev. He could be with the police—we can't afford to take the chance.” Flight sounded further away and, as Kevin glanced over his shoulder, he could see that she was hovering in the air just above the back railing of the hovercraft.

Kevin bit his lip and turned his head back around. “Who do you think I am?” His voice quavered as he spoke, though he hoped it wasn't that noticeable.

“You're Kevin, friend to Doc Zed, and you're travelling with Scootaloo here,” the stallion said flatly. He paid little attention to the four ponies standing around him, who seemed to be more focused on the hovercraft than the ponies in it. “My name is Turnip Acres, an' it's a pleasure to meet ya,” he continued as he took a few more steps forward and to the side until he was directly next to the ship, his head about level with the top of the railing. Kevin turned to watch as the stallion crouched down and, before he could react, Turnip Acres leapt up over the railing and onto the hovercraft, causing the floor to tremble violently underneath them. As the stallion landed, Kevin was able to make out the distinctive bulbous shape of a turnip on his flank, coloured in a gradient from purplish-red to white.

"Wait a sec," Flight said, lowering herself until her hooves touched down next to Scootaloo. "Turnip Acres? Like, with the rebels?"

"Indeed, that'd be me," Turnip Acres replied with a brusque nod. "I was told by Doc Zed that I could be findin' you kids here, so out here we came."

Scootaloo cocked her head. "I thought we were going to be meeting you in the town, though. I mean, not that we're not happy to see you or anything, but you kinda startled us." The filly glanced over at the pile of Mochi and Cotton Fluff that remained still at the foot of the hovercraft's control panel.

Turnip nodded once more. "Really, I'm sorry about that. It just became pretty darn apparent that it wasn't safe to have you waltz into town just like that, so I reckoned it'd be better if we came out here and led you to our hideout. I'd've called you if I could, but Zed wouldn't give me the number 'cause he was afraid you'd be caught. Not that his worries were unfounded, but... erm... yeah."

"Whatever—what's done is done," Scootaloo said. "Where do you want us to go now?"

"Am I welcome to fly the craft?" Turnip asked. "It'd prob'ly be easy for me to just fly us there, since I know where we're going and all."

"Yeah, sure. I don't even know how to fly it, anyway, and I don't think Kevin or Flight do either." Scootaloo leaned to the side to look around the stallion. "I'm sure either Cotton or Mochi would be willing, but I think they're down for the count."

"Terrific," the stallion replied, turning around. Once he had trotted up to the front, he carelessly pushed Mochi and Cotton Fluff aside so that he had enough room to stand and pilot the craft. Then, he leaned forward. "Comrades!" Turnip barked. "On the ship, now!"

Scootaloo watched as the four other ponies trotted up to the side of the ship and, unlike their leader, actually used the door to enter, swinging it open before they clambered aboard. In the corner of her eye, the filly could see Kevin and Flight watching, curiously, as these strange, unknown ponies entered their midst.

"Hello!" greeted the first pony to climb up, a green-coated unicorn mare with a squeaky voice who stood only about as tall as Scootaloo. "My name is—"

"Later!" Turnip growled. "We've got to get moving before we run into the town guard." He glanced over his shoulder to make sure that the last of the ponies had climbed aboard and then, without waiting for them to shut the door, he slammed down on the forward propulsion pedal with a hoof and Scootaloo braced herself as they zoomed forward.

The green-coated mare flashed her a small smile, friendly and earnest. Although she was a little confused, Scootaloo shot a smile back in turn.

Kevin leaned against the starboard-side railing, clutching his stomach. Flight looked on in concern, paying no mind to the strange ponies standing around them who seemed almost as confused as they did.

"You feeling okay?" the filly asked.

"Urghh... not really," Kevin replied, looking up with a pained expression. "I'm not usually hoversick, but all this speeding around and starting and stopping isn't really helping."

"Aw, don't worry," Flight replied, patting Kevin on his shoulders with a hoof. "Soon enough, we'll be at these ponies' hideout and I'm sure you'll be able to lie down or have a walk or whatever you want."

"Urp... I dunno about that," Kevin said with a frown.

Flight raised an eyebrow. "How come?"

"Eheh... I meant that I don't think it'll be soon enough... urp!" Kevin leaned over the side of the railing and puked.

Flight facehoofed. "Well, that's one way of doing it..."

Hideout

As she came to, lying on her back on a hard surface with a heavy weight on her chest, Cotton Fluff groaned. All she could see was the sky and tops of trees; all she could hear was random conversation that descended into cacophonous noise, none of which was the least bit of interest to the mare.

"Nnngh… what's going on?" Cotton felt around with her hooves at whatever lay atop her, feeling the soft, fuzzy surface squish beneath them. Confused, she reluctantly pulled her body up to get a closer look, straining her out-of-use back muscles in the process. Her gaze was met with the fuzzy pink coat of a pony, sprawled out over top of her body because of course. Beyond that pony, in the front of her vision, were other forms, some of whom were looking at her. However, Cotton Fluff merely lay back down once more and then, with another groan, pushed her hooves upward to shove the other mare off of her.

It was crude, sure, but there's no way you could deny its success rate. Within moments, a thoroughly-irritated Cotton Fluff with a throbbing headache stood there at the front of the ship, a still-unconscious Mochi to her right and Turnip Acres driving the ship and paying her no mind to her left. The rest of the ponies on the ship, however, gawked at the mare as she stood there.

"What's cookin'?" Scootaloo finally asked, turning away from the green-coated mare that she seemed to have been conversing with.

"I'd like to ask you the same," Cotton Fluff said firmly, eyeing the ponies she didn't recognise suspiciously. "What's going on? Are these the ponies that I nearly ran into?"

"Yeah, and they're cool," Scootaloo replied. "That's Turnip Acres driving up there." She pointed past Cotton Fluff at the black stallion who gave a noncommittal grunt.

"The name sounds familiar, at least..."

"He's the pony we're supposed to meet, remember? Like Doc Zed told us?" Flight said.

"Oh, right." Cotton Fluff looked around. "And I suppose these are his... entourage?"

"Yeah, something like that," the green mare said with a smile. "My name's Even Later, and I—"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Cotton Fluff interrupted. "I just wanna know when we're gonna get whenever we're going."

"Should only be a few minutes now," stated a reedy-voiced stallion in the back. "Then you can get out and walk around if you want."

"That sounds lovely," Cotton Fluff said with a nod. "Go back to whatever you were doing, I guess. I'm gonna wake up Mochi."

Shrugging, Scootaloo turned back to Even Later and started talking again, in quieter tones. Kevin and Flight were talking with the reedy-voiced stallion and another, taller stallion whose lumbering form dwarfed the others. Cotton looked down at the motionless pink mare at her hooves before letting out a sigh and reaching down to put her front hooves on Mochi's shoulders. Then, she shook.

"Wake up, Mochi," Cotton hissed. "Please."

After a moment of shaking, the mare began to stir. "Mmmm... what time is it, now?"

"Mochi, c'mon. We're almost to the hideout of these crazy ponies. You've gotta get up so we're ready to go when we get there."

"Mmmffff... okay..." Mochi murmured. Her eyes still closed, she stretched out her pink hooves wide, brushing their tips against the side of the ship and nearly coming into contact with Turnip Acres's legs.

Town

Above the treetops, the sky was already awash with orangey-pink hues as the sun slid down against the horizon. The town of Ferretfall's position below and beneath the treetops, however, served only to filter out much of the evening light, casting the streets and houses into darkness far quicker than they otherwise would have been. As a result, the Ferretfallers had a long-held tradition where, in the evening, the fillies and colts who had just gotten out of school were required to collect a jar's worth of lightning bugs for each house on their block—divided amongst the children who lived in that block, of course. Then, once they collected the required amount, they'd hoof the bottles over to their parents and neighbours who hung the jars up proudly as porch lights outside their homes.

It was in the midst of this hectic chaos with dozens of young ponies scrambling about, calling loudly to their friends, that a beige-coated unicorn mare stood, surveying the scene. She was an odd one out in a few different ways; in addition to being about a head taller than even the tallest of the fillies and colts, she wore a hefty, official-looking black vest around her torso. And, as a matter of fact, the vest was official-looking because it was official; a white, shield-shaped patch sat clearly on display over the left breast.

The mare coupled this official garment with an official-type stature, looking over the small ponies running about in semi-darkness as they chased after lightning bugs with a calm, observing demeanor. Not like she was looking for something, mind you—just content with that everything was going how it was supposed to. Every so often, the mare nodded or smiled when one of the fillies or colts gave her an inquisitive look as they passed, but these were oddities; for the most part, she remained standing there with a contemplative look as her eyes swept the town.

"What are you looking for?" a deep voice asked from behind her. The mare's ear twitched and, frowning, she turned to face the stallion she knew would be there.

"Good evening, Captain Jumping Frog." The mare gave focus to each syllable, enunciating them separately—a tactic some mentor long ago had taught her to bring unease. "I've been expecting you."

Jumping Frog, a stocky stallion with a deep green coat and deep-set eyes, blinked. "With all due respect, madam... of course you have. We arranged yesterday to meet here, no?"

"...Right." The mare coughed. "Do you have any updates on the situation?"

Jumping Frog shook his head. "Not yet. I know you were hoping that they would've arrived by now, but it looks like they'll still be a while. It's possible that they've overshot and will have to turn back."

"Hmm... quite possible, but I don't think so. It's been enough time since Ms. Fluff called that they should be here by now, regardless of whether they had to loop back around or not." The mare paused to look up at the nearest house, whose resident was just then hanging up a sealed jar of lightning bugs at the top of his porch with his magic. Sighing, the mare turned back to Jumping Frog. "What about Officer Gloss? Is he here yet, at least?"

"...again, with all due respect, you know as well as I that he would be here with or instead of me due to his relevance to this particular... endeavour."

"Right, right," the mare conceded. "Still, the sooner he gets here, the better. I'm not even sure what we're supposed to do if they get here before he does."

Jumping Frog cocked his head. "I don't mean to pry or anything... but... well..."

The mare sighed, rolling her eyes. "I don't care. Whatever. Out with it."

"Didn't Prince Aeneus leave you with instructions or anything?"

"Yes, he did." The mare paused for effect. "'Listen to Officer Gloss,'" she droned.

Jumping Frog facehoofed. "Seriously? I know the officer's been on the force for years, but he's still just a low-ranking official compared to either of us, and doesn't even have half our experience."

"I know, it sounds weird," the mare replied, "but apparently this Officer Gloss has a plan that the prince likes and thinks will work. Of course, that's still contingent on the stallion being here."

"I mean, you can probably cut him a little slack," Jumping Frog countered. "I heard he got beat up pretty bad back in the Umberlight Zoo, and now he's had to make this last-minute trip after getting his plan approved by the prince. I'm sure he thought he'd be laughed off or ignored. Plus, of course, those kids aren't here yet, either."

"That's true. Speaking of that... where in the hay are they?" The mare sighed. "Something here seems a little fishy..." As she trailed off with the last word, however, the comlink on Jumping Frog's wrist started beeping.

The stallion looked down and then opened his eyes wide with realisation. "Speak of the devil!" he exclaimed as he pressed the 'receive call' button with his muzzle and put the device up to his ear. "Hello?"

The mare couldn't quite make out what was being said on the other side beyond that there were a lot of words, coming quickly. Jumping Frog barely had time to "mhm" between statements for more than thirty seconds before the voice stopped.

"And you're sure?" he asked. Upon receiving some sort of response, he nodded. "Alright, thank you. I will be there in ten." With that, the comlink clicked and the stallion dropped his hoof back to the ground before looking to the beige-coated mare.

"So?" she said.

"It looks like you've got your development after all," Jumping Frog replied. "Just got a reported sighting of Cotton Fluff and that hovercraft, along with a whole slew of other ponies. Seems they've been... intercepted. And now I've got to go back to the station to talk with a few of my officers so we can track down where they've gone."

"Splendid," the mare said. "Alright if I come with?"

"Of course," Jumping Frog said, nodding. "It's always a pleasure to have you with us, Hazie. I hope you know that."

Hazie nodded. "I thank you for that. And please, Ms. Haze is fine."

Sighing, Jumping Frog turned and began to trot down the street, with Hazie following close behind. Already, most of the children had cleared, having already found their required quota of lightning bugs. All that were left were a few stragglers, the unlucky ones who were left trying to scrounge up the fastest bugs that were left over.

Exterior

Turnip Acres never announced that they had arrived; he merely released his hoof slowly from the propulsion pedal, allowing the hovercraft to gradually grind to a halt. Then, once it had stopped moving, he turned and trotted a path between the ponies who were standing around, mostly still mid-conversation. It was only a light-blue pegasus mare who jerked her head rapidly at the sound of Turnip's hoofsteps, shakily watching him as he trotted over to the exit and, with a hoof, unlatched the door on the railing. It wasn't until the stallion leapt from the hovercraft's surface, landing with a resounding boom on the forest floor, that anypony else turned to look.

"Erm... Turnip?" The reedy-voiced stallion in the back leaned over the edge, inspecting the taller pony who was now below him. "What's up?"

Turnip Acres looked back at the hovercraft full of ponies, all of whom were staring directly at him. "Oh, did I not mention? We're here. C'mon, it's a short walk."

Shrugging, the stallion shuffled through the others to reach the door and hop out, flapping his wings a few times to extend his glide downwards. Then, one by one, the rest of the ponies began to follow, landing softly on the dirt before shifting out of the way.

"How come we're stopping here instead of closer to the hideout?" Even Later asked as she stepped up to the doorway.

"It's not safe to go closer," Turnip replied, keeping his gaze focused on the trees around them. "There are ways that ships like this can be tracked, and they're definitely more easily seen—I'm worried that we might have been seen already."

"Are we really being followed that closely?" Scootaloo asked, looking up to where Turnip Acres stood. "I was kinda under the impression that they didn't know which way we were headed and that we could hang around town a bit."

Turnip shook his head. "No, they definitely know. I'm not exactly sure how they know, but Nerves here," he said, pointing to the light-blue pegasus, "was able to pick up on their comlink signal and get it mostly unscrambled. An officer from down south named Gloss is on his way to join them, to apprehend you. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised they know as much as they do, but I guess that's just how it goes."

Cotton Fluff, who was taking her turn jumping off the hovercraft, felt a chill go down her spine, but she said nothing. She heard Kevin breathe, "Oh, crap," but that was all.

"And no, luckily they don't know exactly where our hideout is," Turnip continued, ignoring Kevin. "They know that there are rebel operatives around here, but we've mainly kept a low profile... until now. Some of us are known to the townsfolk as 'travelling merchants', visiting town every month or so, but this is the first time we've actually had to interfere with something important."

Finally, he turned back to the group and watched as Mochi, the last pony on the ship, jumped down and landed squarely on her hooves. "Alright, that's everyone, then. Clove, can you get a weighted camo tarp over it?"

"Sure thing, boss," the reedy-voiced stallion said as he reached around in his saddlebag and started pulling out a large stretch of fabric. As he got to work, Turnip cleared his throat.

"Great. Now, we're going to walk over to the hideout and there's a real possibility that we could be intercepted on our way there and need to scatter. I'd like for us to partner up in the event of that happening, and you'll keep these partners for the duration of your stay. Alright?"

The rest of the group nodded or grunted or whatever in acknowledgement.

"Good." Turnip Acres looked around through the near darkness, eyes darting from pony to pony. "Later, you're with Flight."

The unicorn mock-frowned at Scootaloo, who she was still standing next to, and shuffled over to greet the yellow pegasus filly.

"Alright... Clove, you're with Kevin. Nerves, you've got Mochi. And Chronicler... Cotton Fluff." Turnip turned to face the red-coated stallion who, up until and including that point, had kept mum. "You can handle that?"

The stallion merely nodded, expression neutral.

"Erm... right." Turnip blinked, turning back to the others. "And Scootaloo, you're with me. Again, I'm hoping we won't even have to use these, but it's good to have a plan just in case. And, of course, my rebel comrades know what to do once we've scattered."

"Run around flailing our legs and screaming," Even Later murmured to Flight, who giggled. Turnip Acres glared in their direction.

"Regardless... at the very least, you can ask your 'buddy' to show you around or if you have any questions. You done, Clove?"

The maroon-coated pegasus nodded as he pulled the last corner of the tarp over the hovercraft, concealing it from view from all but the sharpest of eyes. "Yessir."

"Wonderful. Let's be off, then," Turnip said, immediately turning and beginning to trot briskly into the forest at dusk. The other ponies had little choice but to follow.

Interior

"We're here," Turnip announced, nodding his head forward. And indeed there they were; although it was difficult to make out where exactly 'there' was through the almost complete darkness. They were definitely still in a part of the forest, trees and bushes all around, but in front of them the ground seemed to slope upwards moderately and then very steeply, forming the vague outline of sheer walls of dirt.

"See, look, we got all the way there without running into anypony," Even Later stated matter-of-factly, leaning towards the black stallion trotting briskly beside her. "There was no reason to split us up."

"Doesn't matter," Turnip replied gruffly, not even looking at the mare. "We had no way to know, and this way we're ready in case something else happens."

"But—" Even Later started.

"Later, please," Turnip interrupted with a sigh. "I know that you want to talk more with Scootaloo, and I assure you, in just a few minutes you'll be able to. But right now we need to focus on getting inside and getting everypony where they need to go."

"R-right," Later stammered with a sheepish smile. Her cheeks were ever-so-slightly red against her green coat as she fell back to trot next to Flight. "Erm... how's it going?"

"Quite fine," the filly replied. "And you?"

"Just... dandy." Silence hung over the pair as they shuffled along in the dark.

"How old are you, anyway?" Flight asked.

"Um... twenty. Why?" Even Later asked in turn, raising an eyebrow as she looked to the filly.

"Just curious," Flight said, shrugging.

Even Later opened her mouth, about to say something else, but she was distracted by the awful, horrible sound of metal scraping against metal ahead of her. She winced. "Turnip, I swear! There's no reason you can't have one of us unicorns do that!"

The stallion looked over his shoulder with an inquisitive look. "...Why?"

Even Later groaned, but it didn't matter; Turnip was already done sliding open the large metal door to the hideout. Grumbling, the mare sparked up a bright green light from her horn, illuminating the bunch. And, with the light, Scootaloo and the rest of the newcomers were suddenly able to make out the hideout's entrance.

Hewn from the soft dirt of the cliffside, the dark cavern didn't even seem like it should hold. The walls were rough and uneven, looking very much as if they had been done quickly, on short notice. Yet as the slew of ponies poured inside, Scootaloo casually tapped a wall with her hoof and found herself surprised at how sturdy it felt.

"Hold on, lemme get the candles lit," came a voice from the back that Scootaloo didn't recognise. There was some amount of shuffling and the sound of hooves scuffing on the dirt, but then a golden stream of magic poured out of a red horn on the other side of the cavern, splitting off into several golden threads which impacted several spots along the wall before fizzling out. But, after just a few seconds, those spots on the wall danced alight with flame. Scootaloo realised that there were candles protruding from the wall and it was their wicks that the red stallion had set alight. "That better?" he asked. Now easily in sight, Scootaloo got a good look at him and then goggled once she realised that his mane was blue while his tail was a bright yellow.

"Very good," Turnip said. "Now, I'm going to go downstairs to talk with Cinderblock. Nerves, please come with me. Scootaloo and Mochi, please stay with the rest of the group while we go. I trust that you, Clove, can get the place locked back up?"

"Aye aye, cap'n," the reedy-voiced stallion said, trotting over to the door to slide it closed. Even Later winced once more at the grinding metalling screech.

With that, Turnip Acres and Nerves trotted off to the far corner of the room and out of sight down a hallway. The other eight ponies were left just standing there in the front side of the barren dirt rectangle, blinking at each other.

It was Later who finally broke the silence. "So... what should we do until they get back?"

Well

"...Anypony got a deck of cards?" Clove Hitch asked as he made his way back over to the group.

Flight reached back into her bag. "I swear, I usually bring one with me to school, but I must have left it at home..."

"Hmm... that means that I'm all out of ideas." The stallion sat down between Mochi and Cotton Fluff in the makeshift circle of ponies that had formed in the absense of any official instruction.

"I'm going to duck out, if that's alright," the red-coated stallion with the blue mane said in a low voice. "I've got things to do downstairs."

"Oh, sure thing," Even Later said, cheerily. "We've got it totally under control up here."

Nodding, the stallion turned tail and took off down the same hallway through which Turnip Acres and Nerves had disappeared just a few minutes before.

"What's his deal?" Scootaloo asked, looking from Even Later to Clove Hitch.

"That's just how the Chronicler is, honey," Even Later said in a sweet tone. "He likes to know what's going on with ponies, but more just to write it down rather than to actually be sociable. It can take some getting used to, but that's how he is."

"Oh, that makes sense," Scootaloo replied. "Kinda reminds me of Princess Twilight, at times..."

Even Later raised an eyebrow. "Friend of yours? I don't think I've ever heard of a princess by that name..."

"Eheh... long story," Scootaloo replied, quickly growing quiet.

"Is 'the Chronicler' really his name?" Flight asked.

"It's the name he chooses to go by," Clove Hitch replied, "and that's good enough for me. I don't believe it's his birth name, but I don't think anypony here knows that."

"Sooooo... how about downstairs?" Even Later asked to nobody in particular, standing up. When nobody replied, she frowned. "Aw, come on... all the cool kids are doing it!"

"Are Turnip Acres and Nerves the cool kids, now?" Clove Hitch asked with a skeptical expression on his face.

Even Later glared at the stallion. "Shush, you. I'm sure the kids would love to see the architecture down there... it's pretty darn unique."

"I would appreciate a walk," Cotton Fluff said. "I know we were just walking through the woods, but my hooves were glued to that hovercraft for hours."

Kevin stood up. "As long as it's not just looking at... 'architecture', I'm in."

"Schweet! Let's go!" Even Later hopped up from where she sat and dashed over to the hallway's entrance, turning around and bouncing around impatiently as the others pulled themselves up and over to her.

As Flight trotted over, she took a moment to trot up to Kevin, who was making his way himself over to the hall. "Hey."

Kevin blinked. "Um, hi? What's up?"

"I just wanted to ask you that, actually," Flight said. "You okay?"

"Yep, peachy keen. How come?"

"I dunno... you just seemed a little quiet. I was worried you were down in the dumps about something, I guess."

"Huh. Nope." Kevin shrugged. "Just kinda tired, that's all. I'll be excited when we get to sleep. If we get to sleep..."

"Aw, I'm sure we will. Just talk to Later or Clove or somepony and I'm sure they'll set you up with a bed."

"Yeah, maybe you're right," Kevin said, nodding. "I'll think about it."

"Hurry up, slowpokes!" Mochi exclaimed, grinning where she stood at the end of the hallway. Even through the low level of light, they could see that the other ponies had already made it halfway down the hall in question, leaving Flight and Kevin no choice but to gallop past Mochi to catch up.

Unexpected

"What." Scootaloo's eyes were open wide as she stood at the foot of the winding path down, taking in the contours of the passage before her, illuminated only by Even Later's green magical hornlight.

"I know, isn't it quite something?" the green-coated mare said with a wink. We were pretty amazed when we found it already here—it's in the perfect location and it's just about the right size for what we need."

Kevin cocked his head. "I'm gonna echo Scootaloo: what."

Flight nodded. "I'll third it: what indeed."

"Fourthsies!" Mochi exclaimed. Then, she blinked. "Wait, what? Why does this hallway look like... like... that other place?"

And indeed, it did very much resemble a place in which the four ponies had been in, underground, only several hours earlier. The walls seemed to be composed of the same immaculately smooth white material, sloping upwards and downwards to meet the ceiling and floor, stretching out in front of them into a longer hallway that split off into different halls to the left and right. And, of course, just barely visible in the low light, they could make out the distinctive shapes of letters etched into the surface of the walls.

"Other place?" Clove Hitch asked, raising an eyebrow. "You mean you've seen something that looked like this before?"

Scootaloo nodded. "It was back a ways away from here, somewhere in the forest where we first stopped and went to go looking for berries. The three of us," she said, pointing to herself, Kevin, and Flight, "fell down into a cavern that eventually led into a passage with these same white walls. It wasn't until we got into this big part where it opened up until there were any words on the walls, though."

Even Later stepped back, clearly surprised. "You're not pulling my leg, are you?"

"No, that's definitely what we saw," Flight chimed in. "I even got pictures of the words on the walls." She lifted up the comlink on her wrist and then, once the filly had pressed several buttons, she showed the screen to the awaiting eyes of Even Later and Clove Hitch.

"Well, that's... interesting, to say the least," Clove Hitch finally said, looking back up at the others. "I'm sure Turnip will want to hear about this; if there are more parts lying around, that could be... interesting."

"Parts of what?" Scootaloo leaned forward.

"We're... not entirely sure," Later explained. "From what we can tell, this used to be part of a space vessel of some kind, though it's now been here for thousands of years at least. Although we knew it was incomplete... until now, we thought this was the only part that had survived. Obviously we were wrong."

"Then what's up with the writing?" Flight asked, putting her hoof back down. "Can you ponies read it?"

"None of us speak bikuduk-libuulad very well, but we can read parts," Later replied. "From what we can tell, it wasn't here originally and it was added much later than the vessel was built, with tools much more crude than those used to build it. And what we can read seems to indicate that the text is an early written history of the planet, some of which may have been used to write the Asterismos. But it's not really clear what point of view it's written from; we don't have any way to know who wrote it."

"Weird..." Scootaloo said.

"It's definitely weird," Clove Hitch stated. "But I think what you've just shown us makes it even weirder..."

"Should we go tell Mr. Acres now?" Cotton Fluff asked. Everypony turned to look at the mare, who previously had kept quiet. "Erm, what?" She eyed the rest of the group warily.

"Nothing, nothing... I just forgot you were standing there," Clove Hitch replied. "But to answer your question, not yet. I don't think it would be prudent to interrupt if he's in a meeting with Cinderblock and Nerves; they're probably discussing something important."

"What now, then?" Kevin asked, looking somewhat bored.

"Distractions!" Even Later exclaimed. "Or, as I like to call them, 'waiting in style'." Grinning, she ran up ahead and took a hard left out of sight. Everypony else had no choice but to follow, led by Clove Hitch in the front.

Belly

When Turnip Acres walked into the room and cleared his throat, Scootaloo was so distracted that she nearly fell over from the sprawled-out position in which she stood. From the looks of it, her fellow players were having the same issue as well, Mochi's legs trembling in place and Even Later's outstretched torso was swinging from side to side as the mare raised her head.

"Yes?" Later asked.

"What are you doing?" Turnip asked, looking over the group with a confused expression. And indeed, without explanation it was a strange sight: Scootaloo, Mochi, Even Later, and Kevin all had their limbs and bodies entangled as their hooves stood shakily on multicoloured dots, while Cotton Fluff and Clove Hitch stood by, watching as they stood next to a plastic spinner.

"We're playing Twister!" Mochi exclaimed, bumping into Kevin's side as she shook.

"Erm... alright." Turnip didn't look any less confused. "Well, if you could, please... stop that... we have some things to talk about."

Even Later frowned woefully. "B-but... we're having fun!"

"Fun is important, yes, but this is something even more important; if we do not leave soon, our lives and work are in danger."

"Our lives?" Kevin asked.

"Our work?" Clove Hitch chimed in.

"Leave?" Even Later exclaimed. "Surely you don't mean..."

Turnip nodded. "It's possible it may not come to that, but we can't be sure yet. Please, untangle yourselves from this mess and come to Cinderblock's study post-haste." Without waiting for a reply, the stallion turned around and trotted briskly out of the room.

For a moment, everypony was silent. Then...

"Aaaugh!" Mochi exclaimed, teetering over. She looked for a moment as if she would catch her balance, but no—the full grown mare fell with all her weight onto Kevin, who luckily was able to shift so that only his hindlegs took the full brunt of the impact. Mochi's flailing limbs also did their damage, whacking into both Even Later and Scootaloo before they had a chance to jump away.

"Dammit, Mochi..." Later grumbled as she limped across the room. "I'm starting to think maybe Clove and Ms. Fluff had the right idea here about not playing..."

"...so, based on what Flight and the other kids were telling me about it, the place looks exact like this one. They even have pictures!" Even Later finished her explanation to Turnip, whom she had caught up with ahead of the rest of the group, with a head tilt and a smile. "And that made me think... if we've got to leave, why don't we go over there?"

Turnip rolled his eyes. "Later, that couldn't work. We..." The stallion blinked. "Actually, now that you mention it, that could be perfect. Hmm..."

Later grinned. "Toldja so." She paused. "So, do you really think we'll have to move?"

"I don't know a lot, Later, but Cinderblock picked up a communication that indicates that the police know where we are. They may already be on their way here."

"We can just use the emergency exit, right?" Later asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

"Yes, they should only know about the main entrance. And perhaps we could have been more careful with our entering and exiting, but what's done is done." Turnip stopped at the door beside him in the hall. "Ah, here we are," he said, grabbing the handle and pulling the door open.

As he and Later slid into the room, holding the door open, the other five were still walking slowly through the first half of the hall.

"Soooo, truth or dare?" Kevin asked.

"Erm... truth?" Scootaloo replied. "That means I have to answer a question, right?"

"Yep! Guess you guys somehow have the same game. Anyway... hmm..." Kevin paused. "I wasn't actually ready for this."

"How come?" Flight asked. "You knew it was your turn, doofus."

"I thought for sure she'd pick dare! And I had a good one lined up... but before you ask, I'm not telling! I could still use it."

"Now that I know about it, I'm just not going to pick that," Scootaloo teased. "Anyway, go on. Ask away."

"Let's see... ah, okay. Can't go wrong with the most essential question in the book."

"Which is...?" the orange filly asked.

"'Who do you have a crush on?!'" Mochi exclaimed, poking her head in between the three. "C'mon, everypony knows that one!"

"Hmph, well, I don't," Scootaloo said.

"You still gotta answer it, though," Kevin said, surprisingly confident.

"I must admit, I'm curious, too," Flight added.

"...Why?" Scootaloo asked. "You hardly even know me!"

"Still, it's just fun to know, don't you think?"

"Stop stalling!" Kevin exclaimed.

"Fine," Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes. "To answer your question, nopony. I don't have a crush on anypony at the moment."

"Aw, come on! It's called truth for a reason!"

"It's true!" Scootaloo defended, raising an eyebrow. "What incentive would I have to lie?"

"Well, if it were on one of us..." Kevin wondered aloud.

Flight blushed. "I won't be upset or anything if it's me, Scootaloo, but I must tell you now that I'm just not into mares."

Scootaloo thought she could see Kevin's ears deflate a little at that comment, but continued: "No, I just don't like anypony like that right now. I'll let you know if I do, though."

"Fine," Kevin grumbled, but he obviously wasn't happy with this answer.

Communication

As the rest of the ponies shuffled into the room, Clove Hitch shut the door behind them, shrouding the room even more in darkness. Scootaloo blinked her eyes, trying to adjust to the low light coming from Even Later's horn as well as a computer console across the small room. In its harsh white glow, she could see two ponies: on the left, Nerves, looking anxious, and on the right, an unfamiliar grey stallion she had to assume was Cinderblock.

"Great," that stallion said, looking up from the console. Even in the darkness, the filly could see his dark pupils darting around before settling on her. "You're Scootaloo, right?"

Scootaloo stepped forward, nodding. "That's me," she confirmed, reaching out to shake his outstretched hoof.

"It's great to meet you, especially after having heard so much about you. I'm Cinderblock, and I'm kind of in charge of communications around here," the stallion said.

Scootaloo blinked. "How come everypony knows everything about me already? This is weird..."

"I was briefed beforehand by Doc Zed, who I believe is an acquaintance of yours?"

"Eh, not really," Scootaloo replied. "Friend of a friend is more like it. But, uh, what do you want?"

"Well, it's really to all of you I need to speak; I just wanted to say hello before we part ways. It's not every day you get to meet someone from outside the three Bureau planets."

"Heh, well, it's way weirder for me than it is for you," Scootaloo replied, scratching her head.

"Part ways?" Even Later asked. "Then it's true?"

Cinderblock nodded. "As I'm sure Turnip told you, I intercepted communication between Kindred Command and a pony named Haze, who's one of Prince Aeneus's personal assistants. I wasn't able to figure out exactly why she was sent, but she's in Ferretfall with the police and they know we're here. We're going to have to split up. Turnip, you were saying that you had found a place to go to while we wait for a ship?"

Turnip nodded. "The kids said there was another part of this vessel not too far south of here, and it's completely empty."

"Perfect," Cinderblock said. "Now, I know I'm not in charge here—"

"Cinder, your recommendation's good enough for me," Turnip said, leaning back. "Just tell us what to do and we'll do it."

"Right. You, Nerves, the Chronicler, Later, and myself will leave through the front entrance and attempt to make our way through the forest to that part of the vessel. We might run into some of the police, but that'll be fine; we can take care of them, and we're expendable if we can't."

"And what about us?" Cotton Fluff asked.

"And me?" Clove Hitch raised an eyebrow.

"I was just getting to that," Cinderblock said, waving a hoof. "Clove, you're in charge of escorting these five north."

"North?" Scootaloo asked. "How come?"

"Wouldn't it just be safer to have them come with us to wait for the ship?" Turnip said, his expression that of confusion. "We could even split up into groups, if you're worried about getting caught."

"That won't work." It was Nerves that said this, finally speaking up in her soft, shaky voice. Everypony's eyes pointed towards her. She cleared her throat and spoke again: "We just finished a comlink conversation with Commander Xiibal."

Turnip blinked. "And what did she have to say?"

"The plans have changed. Scootaloo and her companions are now needed at the northern base in Sciouse province."

"But... why?" Scootaloo asked, annoyed. "I don't want to keep being dragged around like I'm somepony's stuff..."

"Your assistance is required on a 'special mission'," Nerves said, turning to Scootaloo as she said it. "The commander said she couldn't go into any more details, but stressed the importance that it must be you and your companions that go."

"Um... okay?" Scootaloo frowned. "There's not really any other option, is there?"

"Not unless you want to get detained by the police again," Cinderblock said, "and I'm sure you remember how fun that is. Coincidentally, that's exactly what's going to happen if we keep standing here, I can guarantee it."

Everypony around the room grunted in vague agreement.

"Someone go tell the Chronicler," Cinderblock said. "He should be in his quarters."

As Nerves slipped out of the room to go do that, Even Later stepped forward. "Wait a minute."

"Yes?" Turnip asked, looking confused. "Please, Later, we've got to get moving. Keep this quick."

The mare nodded. "I just wanted to ask if it's possible that I could go with Scoo—with the other group instead."

Turnip sighed. "No, Later. We're going to need your help setting up the cloaking spells around the temporary hideout, and Clove Hitch should have the other group under control. They only need to get up to the other base, anyway, and the police should be more focused on our group. It'll be fine."

Even Later groaned. "Please? It's gonna be way more fun, and—"

"No." Turnip stamped his hoof on the floor. "That's final. Now please, go grab your things."

Even Later turned, frustrated, and walked dejectedly out of the room. As she passed Scootaloo, she tried to flash the filly a small little smile; however, from Scootaloo's point of view, the mare obviously wasn't happy with this at all. With a click of the door, she was out of the room, and then the rest of the ponies were left there standing in silence.

"Um... let's move?" Cinderblock finally said. Everypony looked to him for a moment before stirring to action, shuffling out one-by-one through the door and into the hallway beyond.

Cinderblock was the only one left in the darkened room. He took the opportunity to look back at the computer console, which had dozens upon dozens of words displayed on its glass screen. With a sigh, he raised a hoof and smashed the screen before batting the computer casing several times, leaving it smoking and fizzling in pieces. Then, he too left the small room behind him.

Awry

"And you're sure you know where to go?" Turnip asked. He stood face to face with Clove Hitch in the centre of the hallway; behind him, the rest of his crew stood on edge, while behind Clove Hitch stood Scootaloo and her companions.

"Of course, Turnip. It's no biggie. Just slip past this neck of the woods and then we're home free. We'll probably get to the northern base by breakfast-time tomorrow." Clove Hitch looked confident.

"Well, if you're sure..." Turnip leaned forward to nuzzle the maroon stallion quickly on the cheek, and then leaned back. "And Scootaloo, even though I know you don't like it, please do what Clove says. It's really in your best interests."

The filly in question merely gave a lazy nod in reply.

"I'm here, I'm here!" exclaimed a voice from behind Turnip's group, who quickly split down the middle to reveal the Chronicler galloping through. Behind him, trotting leisurely, was Nerves. "I'm so sorry I'm late—I wasn't at all prepared for this, and I—"

"No worries," Turnip assured him, patting the stallion on the back. "We're all ready to go, anyway." He turned back to Clove Hitch. "This is it, then. Goodbye for now, and you'll receive further instructions once you get to the base."

Clove Hitch nodded and then turned, shuffling between the members of the group until he was at the far end. With one more nod, he turned his head back to face forward and began trotting down the winding path.

Cotton Fluff, Mochi, Kevin, and Flight all started trotting forward too. Scootaloo, on the other hoof, took one last look at the other group, who was already turning to follow Turnip Acres up the passage that led to the top floor and the main entrance, receding from view. As they passed, the filly noticed that Even Later stood in the back, her head hung low. Confused, Scootaloo raised a hoof and waved, but the green unicorn either didn't notice or was ignoring her intentionally.

"Scootaloo, you coming?" Kevin called from ahead. The orange filly snapped out of it and bounded down the hall after her companions, trying not to think about whatever was going on with her new friend.

Once the heavy metal door to the hideout had been slid open, Turnip Acres stood at the edge, ushering the rest of his crew out into the darkened forest. Both the Chronicler and Even Later had their horns lit up at that point, breaking through the shadows with their colourful magical auras.

"Later, you take care of shutting the door," Turnip said once they were all standing on the dirt ledge outside. "We're lucky that they're not here already, but we don't want to make this any easier for them than it needs to be. It would be better if they never found the base at all."

Later looked up, nodding with a sullen expression. She watched as her companions shrank away into the darkness, only made visible far away from the faint blue light of the Chronicler's horn. Sighing, she turned back to the heavy metal door and, using her own magic, enveloped it in her grasp. Despite her best efforts, the door's metallic screech was unavoidable so, as she could only stand it for so long, Even Later pulled the door shut incrementally until it was nearly to the wall.

Then, looking back and forth at the forest around her, the mare extinguished her hornlight. With only the near-silent patter of her her hooves on the dirt, she squeezed through the small space between the door and the wall so that she stood in the darkness of the upper floor of the hideout.

Without another thought, the mare kept walking, slinking off down the descending tunnel.

Really

"Everypony, stop," Turnip commanded, turning around. In the low light of the Chronicler's horn, he could see the three ponies standing before him, well-packed saddlebags across their backs, somewhat confused expressions on their faces. Cinderblock, although he would never admit to it, was visibly shivering; Nerves, of course, was doing the same thing, but she always did that so it didn't bother Turnip. No, what bothered him was something much bigger.

"Where in the hay is Later?" Turnip asked, looking around at the darkened woods. "She really should've caught up to us by now, shouldn't she? We're not even going very fast."

All three ponies before him turned to look around as well. "Hold on, lemme put out my light for a minute so we can see if we can see her green hornlight," the Chronicler said.

"Good thinking," Turnip replied with a nod as the light faded, shrouding the group once more in darkness. It took several moments for his eyes to adjust to the darkness; despite that, Later's light should've been visible in the dark regardless...

"I don't see her light anywhere," Cinderblock said as the Chronicler turned his hornlight on once more. "Nothing out there but the stars, Turnip."

"Blast! What in the hay is that mare doing?"

"Speaking of things not happening when they're supposed to," Nerves started, "weren't we supposed to have run into the Ferretfall police by now?"

"Well, we were always hoping that we would be able to avoid them..." Turnip suggested halfheartedly.

"C'mon, Turnip, we all know that that was a pipe dream at best," Cinderblock countered. "They were definitely en route to our base when we picked up the transmission, and we're close enough that we would've heard them arrive. Something fishy is definitely going on."

"Nnnngh... why does all this have to happen at once?" Turnip Acres groaned, lowering his forehead to his outstretched foreleg.

"Say, do you hear that?" The Chronicler had a hoof cupped to his ear and, now that he mentioned it, Turnip noticed that he did hear something; somewhere distant, off past the way they had just come, there was some sort of ruckus. Several voices were shouting incoherent exclamations wildly, and then there was some sort of loud impact.

"Don't think there's a pony 'round these parts that didn't," Turnip replied. "But I don't think it's our place to do anything about it, either. We've just gotta go on our way."

"What if... what if it has something to do with Later?" the Chronicler asked.

"Or Clove Hitch," Nerves mused.

"Those are... troubling thoughts, for sure," Turnip replied, "but I also don't think we can afford to worry about that. Both Later and Clove Hitch are perfectly capable ponies who can take care of themselves... hopefully. Right now, we just need to get out of here."

Then, Turnip turned away and trotted off, leaving the others with no choice but to follow him. Nerves looked once more over her shoulder before continuing at the tail end of the group.

Several minutes beforehand...

"Are we almost there yet?" Scootaloo asked.

"Soon," Clove Hitch replied quietly. He had been leading them through pitch-black darkness for some time until Kevin finally offered to use his horn to light the way. Clove had made some effort to protest but his heart obviously wasn't into it because he soon gave way, leaving Kevin in the lead of the group. "You'll know when we're nearly there because the walls will turn back to dirt."

"If this was once part of a big spaceship thing, how did it get completely underground?" Scootaloo asked. "At least the other part had some of it sticking up, so that made a little more sense."

"We're not sure," Clove replied. "We don't even know what it was used for—just that it's really, really old."

"I think we're almost there," Cotton Fluff called from ahead where she was walking alongside Kevin. Clove Hitch and Scootaloo looked up to see where the smooth white surface ended, replaced by the dirt tunnel that was obviously dug by ponies.

"Perfect! Just a few dozen metres and we'll be at the exit," Clove Hitch said.

"Finally!" Mochi exclaimed. "It seems like whenever we get out of a cave, we just go into another cave."

"Ugh, I know, right?" Flight moaned. "Seriously, can we just stay aboveground for once? There's a reason my parents moved to Dienna, you know."

"I thought they were born there," Kevin remarked. "I didn't realise ponies actually, y'know, went there on purpose."

"Well... on purpose is a strong word... heh..." Flight trailed off. "Maybe I'll tell you that story another time. Maybe my parents can tell you when we get back."

"I look forward to it," Kevin said. "Oh, look, I think this is it."

Indeed, the partially-rusted metal barrier at the end of the hallway looked very much to be the end of the line and Clove Hitch's nod and countenance seemed to confirm this; he trotted forward quickly through the group to meet it, causing both Kevin and Cotton Fluff to move to either side of the tunnel and stop as they watched. The stallion reached up with a hoof that he stuck into shallow grooves on the barrier's surface and then, with a combination of rotation and brute strength, pushed the metal object outwards and rotated it to the side. Immediately, a breath of fresh, cool air flowed into the room as more of the darkness outside was revealed, sending a shiver down Scootaloo's spine.

"And there you have it, ladies and gentlecolts," Clove Hitch said as he looked back at the group with a wry smile, unhitching his hoof from the handle. "The outside world." He blinked. "Erm, what are you all looking at?"

"Turn around," Flight breathed.

Raising an eyebrow, Clove Hitch did what he was told. And then he blanched.

"Good evening, sir," a stallion with a dark green coat and a blue officer's hat said plainly. "I was wondering if—"

"Aaaaaah!" Clove Hitch screamed, cutting him off.

"Excuse me?" the officer asked, confused. "I just—"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Clove Hitch screamed again, rushing forward to headbutt the officer. At the last moment, however, the stallion in question jumped out of the way, causing Clove Hitch to run further than he expected across the forest floor, tripping over his own hooves and falling flat on his face. "Urgh..." he groaned.

The officer looked from Clove Hitch's outstretched body to the group of five standing at the mouth of the tunnel. "I'm going to need you six to come with me, please."

Scootaloo blinked and looked to Kevin and then to Flight, both of whom shrugged. She turned back to the officer. "What happens if we don't want to?"

The officer sighed and then put a hoof to his mouth, letting out a shrill whistle. Immediately, six or seven other ponies, all clad in distinct police outfits, hopped out from behind trees or within particularly fluffy bushes. "Then we make you."

Scootaloo blinked. Scootaloo gulped. And then, on Scootaloo's signal, all five of them screamed.

Fools

"Stop screaming, seriously!" the officer shouted, attempting to get a word in over the sheer wall of noise he was faced with. "Don't make this any harder than it needs to be!" He stepped forward, menacingly.

Scootaloo stopped screaming to catch her breath. "Why the heck would we want to make this any easier for you?"

"Just shut up and come with us," another officer growled. Scootaloo glared at him before turning back to the first officer.

"Seriously, what do you want us for? This is kinda freaking me out."

The officer rolled his eyes. "C'mon, kid, you already did the whole screaming thing, and your friend there"—he pointed with a hoof to where two other officers were already lifting up Clove Hitch's immobile form—"freaked out something fierce at the sight of us. We both know who you are, and you're not fooling anyone, Miss Scootaloo."

"Really? Coulda fooled me," Scootaloo countered, leaping forward with her front hooves outstretched. In a moment, the orange filly had kicked into the unsuspecting first officer's hooves, knocking him off-balance and sending him reeling to the floor. Scootaloo's companions gawked as a few of the other officers rushed forward. One in particular, a unicorn mare with a wary expression, carried a large net in her magical aura.

"A net?!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "Seriously? Am I an animal or something?" She reached up and batted at the net, kicking its holder in the chest as she fell so that the unicorn lost control, sending the net crashing down over her own head. Scootaloo grinned at her hoofiwork as she landed squarely on her hooves.

"I dunno, are you?" the first officer asked from behind, scrambling to his hooves. "Most grown ponies would come without having a fuss about it, kid." The officer moved around to in front of where Scootaloo stood, staring her down. "You might have a few tricks up your sleeve, but your rebel friend is already down for the count. One against seven won't last for very long."

"One?" Scootaloo rolled her eyes, turning around. "It's not just me—I have my..." She blinked. "...friends?"

The filly raised an eyebrow at the group of friends behind her standing right outside the mouth of the tunnel, who were just standing there while two of the police officers attached hoofcuffs to them one by one. In particular, she glared at Kevin, but all the colt could do was offer her a sheepish, vaguely worried expression.

"Whatever!" Scootaloo cried, turning back to the officer. "I'll just take you by myself!" She rushed forward as fast as her legs would carry her, even using her buzzing wings to propel herself faster and faster until she rammed headfirst into...

...the officer's outstretched hoof. THWAK!

"...ow..." Scootaloo moaned as she shakily stepped back. "Dang it..."

As she stumbled around, the officer stepped forward, a pair of hoofcuffs in his hooves. Just as he was about to reach down and hoofcuff the filly, however...

"Stop!" shouted a voice from within the cave. The officer hesitated a moment just to look up, but that's all that really was intended. Out from the mouth of the cave leapt a green mare who dashed forward in full force, dodging Scootaloo to ram the officer with the side of her body as she skidded to a halt, knocking him off his hooves.

"L-Later?" Scootaloo stammered.

"The one and only," the mare replied, winking. Before Scootaloo could do anything else, though, Even Later looked up and began galloping towards the officers who had just finished hoofcuffing Scootaloo's companions. Snarling, the mare raised her forehooves and began trying to land punches on the two assailants. Their hooves moved so fast that in Scootaloo's eyes it was all a blur, and she couldn't quite tell who was landing more hits on whom.

"A little help, Scoots?" Later cried as she took a hoof to her cheek. Stirring to action, Scootaloo bounded forward to try to do anything she could to help. To the side, Kevin and Cotton Fluff were hard at work using their magic to try and pry off their hoofcuffs, to little avail.

Nope

"Ugh, hold on," Later said, dodging one of the officer's blows. She ducked out of the way, stepping back to stand next to Scootaloo's companions. "Hey, Scoots—hold them off a moment while I deal with these hoofcufs, okay?" the mare hissed, attempting not to be heard by the police officers

Before Scootaloo had a chance to respond, the officers were already snarling in her direction so she had no choice but to land a few choice hits and then run a few metres away, taking the officers with her to distract from what Later was doing. Out of the corner of her eye, however, Scootaloo could see where Later was lifting her hoof and smashing it down onto the hoofcuffs, breaking each pair with just one impact. Then, Scootaloo had to jump up and back to avoid the swing of a baton.

Wait, a baton?

"Holy crap, dude, no need to try and knock me out or whatever!" Scootaloo shouted. "I'm just a kid!"

"We don't want to hurt you," the first officer said from behind her, "but we will do so if we must. We have express orders to bring you back by whatever means possible."

Scootaloo spun around to face the stallion, who, to her surprise, was already ready once more with the net. She stepped back, unsure what to do, and then—

"Yaaaah!" Later cried as she jumped clear over Scootaloo's head, hooves ramming straight into the unsuspecting officer's face. He screamed and writhed in pain as he fell to the ground, his officer's cap flying off and skidding across the ground.

"Urghh..." he moaned as Later hopped off and started running away.

Scootaloo looked around. To her left, the other police officers still standing were either rushing over to their now-grounded leader or hot in pursuit after the green unicorn mare. To her right, Mochi, Cotton Fluff, Kevin, and Flight were also following after Even Later, galloping as fast as they could, which actually turned out to be pretty darn fast. Blinking to attention, Scootaloo decided that they had the right idea and started galloping after them.

"This way!" Even Later called from up ahead, skidding to a halt before leaping off to a dark patch of bushes to her right. Somehow, Scootaloo was able to follow the others in making the stop in time to jump, and then they all continued forward. The filly could feel her heart pounding harder and harder in her chest with each hoofstep and her legs begged her to stop but she forced herself to keep going at the horrible, horrible thundering of hooves behind her. Not even the sticks and branches poking out of the bushes that scraped and scratched at her skin were able to slow her more than a few hoofsteps; if she got caught, it would all be over. Or at least that's what she was telling herself; maybe she'd just be trapped in prison again, but she couldn't count that time on Grey breaking her out.

No, Scootaloo kept running as fast as her legs could take her, watching the night-shrouded forms of Kevin and Flight ahead of her who were presumably doing the same, hoping that soon they would be able to stop.

Forgettable

"Kevin, teleport us!" Even Later cried from up ahead.

The colt in question nearly stumbled enough to fall over at the sound of this request. "Wh-what? But I can't!"

"What do you mean, you can't?" Later shouted. She slowed down slightly, allowing herself to drop back alongside the colt. "You have a fancy-schmancy unicorn horn, right? And you know how to do spells?"

"Well, yeah, but—"

"No buts! Except ours are gonna get kicked something fierce unless we can get ourselves out of here!"

"Later, I haven't ever teleported more than one pony, and never as far as we'd need to go!" Kevin exclaimed. "If I tried, somepony could die!"

Later blinked. "Well, shoot, that's that idea off the table. Any other ideas?" she asked, looking from one running companion to another. There was an uncomfortable pause; not an actual pause, mind you, since they were still running as fast as they could through the forest under the cover of night whilst being pursued by several police officers, but it was a lull in the conversation nonetheless.

Finally, it was Cotton Fluff who spoke, in a surprisingly low tone for how fast they were running. "I think that I could teleport us, if you need me to."

"That would be great! Splendid! Wonderful!" Even Later exclaimed. "Okay, everyone, pull up close together to make it easier for the mare!"

"That really isn't necessary; it doesn't change any—"

"Doesn't matter! Get together!" Later ordered, making sure that they were all running within a few centimetres of Kevin, who had become a natural centre of the group. "Alright, on the count of three. One... two... three—!"

There was a colourful burst of light, a spark that emanated out from Cotton Fluff's horn and lit up the blurring patch of forest around them as it expanded larger and larger outwards, enveloping all six ponies in white light before the light sucked inward, down to a single point and then popped out of existence. For a moment, all was still; the occasional hoot of an owl could be heard above, or maybe a cricket here and there chirping in the grass.

And then the thundering of hooves grew closer and closer to the spot where the six ponies had stood just moments before, until the hoofsteps and the ponies to whom they belonged ran over and past that spot, into the darkness beyond. It would be many minutes before anypony stopped to check whether there were still ponies running ahead of them.

Later clutched her forehead with a hoof and stood up on her hind legs, letting her body fall back into a bush. "Ohhh gods, I'm glad we're out of there," she exhaled.

"You said it," Flight murmured in agreement. "I haven't run quite like that since... well, since the zoo, I guess. Urgh..."

"You think you're exhausted? Try teleporting everypony a kilometre to the north sometime," Cotton Fluff countered, groaning. "I'll give you a hint: it's not very fun."

"I dunno, I actually didn't think that was too bad!" Mochi exclaimed. She was the only one still standing completely upright, even bouncing up and down a little where she stood. "Now I'm all jazzed 'n' ready to go wherever we need to."

"Well, hopefully we won't have to go anywhere anytime soon," Kevin said, lying on his side on the ground. "That sucked."

"I think we might have to," Scootaloo piped up. "I think we might have to go right now."

"What?" a few of the ponies asked simultaneously.

"How come?" Later asked.

Scootaloo looked over at the mare in the dim light and frowned. "We forgot somepony."

Later raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that, filly? Lemme see... one, two, three, four, and five," she counted, ending with Scootaloo. "And that makes me number six, and I remember it was six ponies that Turnip sent off down to the secondary exit."

"It was six ponies," Scootaloo replied, "but you weren't one of them."

"Oh, hey, you're right!" Kevin exclaimed. "Why'd you come with us, anyway? Not that I'm complaining or anything considering you saved us and all, but, well, you know..."

"I... erm... I was sent by Turnip," Later lied. "He had second thoughts about sending you just with Clove Hitch so he decided to send me too."

Scootaloo squinted at the mare but didn't say anything about that. "Whatever. We just have to go find Clove Hitch now."

"B-but Scootaloo," Later started, "that's going to be practically impossible! They'll have him back at the Ferretfall Police Station soon, and that place will be crawling with guards. He... he knew what he was getting into. And I'm sure he'll be fine, too—he wouldn't want us to jeopardise the mission by going back for him, would he?"

"I don't really care about that," Scootaloo stated flatly. "We're going back to get him."

"Scootaloo, honey, we—"

"Don't call me that," the filly interrupted, frowning. "I don't care if you come with me or not, but I'm going. And I need at least somepony else to come with."

"No, no, I'll go," Later said, resigned. "Might as well protect you if you're going to go off doing stupid stuff."

"Ooh, can I come too?" Mochi asked. "I was really hopin' to stretch my legs a bit more."

"Yeah, totally," Scootaloo said. "Let's go."

Obvious

"Wait up, Scootaloo!" Later cried. She found herself somehow several gallops behind the filly, who was bounding alongside Mochi in the dark.

"No time!" Scootaloo shot back, turning her head only halfway past her shoulder. "The later we get there, the more chance they'll have him locked up somewhere we can't get to, and we can't afford that!"

"But do you even know where you're going?!" Later sped up, finally almost catching up to the filly.

"South," Scootaloo replied curtly. "Which I know is this way, so we don't need to stop and have a chat about it."

"The kid's got a point!" Mochi sing-songed.

"Ugh, seriously... would it really hurt to stop a moment just so we can figure out what we're going to do when we get there?"

"Oh, and I'm sure you really thought it through when you decided to ignore Turnip and follow us down here," Scootaloo snarled, not even bothering to look back.

Even Later could feel her stomach drop. "Wh-what?" she stammered.

"Oh, don't pretend that isn't exactly what you did," Scootaloo said. "It was convenient, sure, but you still weren't supposed to be there."

Later said nothing in response; what could she say?

Scootaloo continued: "I don't even care why—probably to keep hanging out with me, or something—but it was still stupid. And then you wanted us to leave Clove Hitch with the Bureau ponies, just so you could replace him and not hear this type of thing from him too?"

"That's prob'ly enough, Scootaloo," Mochi cut in. "I know you don't wanna, but we should stop for a sec."

"Ugh, fine." The filly skidded to a halt in the dirt, coming to a stop next to a particularly large fern. She glanced at Mochi, who wore a concerned expression on her face as she approached Even Later, whose head was held low, her mane covering her face. "I don't even know what use planning would have, though, since none of us have ever been there and—"

"Shh," Mochi whispered, patting Later on the back. "You're fine—don't listen to her, she's just mad."

Later looked up, a sullen expression on her face. "No, Scootaloo's totally right. I deserve it. Let's just... get on with this so we can get Clove Hitch back with you guys, and then I'll leave and find Turnip and the others."

Scootaloo sighed. "I didn't mean to imply that, I just... oh, I don't know!" She facehoofed, dragging her hooves down her cheeks. "I'm sorry, Later. I was just annoyed about the whole situation, and about how you left Clove Hitch there. But it wasn't just you who left him—we all did. But it's gonna be okay. We're going to get him back now." The filly stepped forward, looking Even Later straight in the eyes. "And it'll be totally fine if you want to come with us; we'll just need to tell Turnip somehow. I'm sure the others can call Doc Zed."

"Th-thanks, Scoots," Later managed. "I'm sorry I lied to you and to everypony else."

"It's fine. It's whatever. Now we just gotta figure out how to get to the police station," Scootaloo said, nodding her head in the direction they had just been running in.

"That'll be mighty difficult if we've never been there before," Mochi remarked. "Especially if we're lookin' not to get caught... wanderin' the streets to find the place won't exactly help with that."

"We'll have to figure out some sort of disguise," Scootaloo replied. "Back in Ponyville, my friends and I would often use bushes, and then only move when ponies weren't looking. Hmm..." She eyed the plants around her in the near-pitch-darkness, sizing them up and attempting to determine how well they'd hold together once uprooted.

"Actually, I don't think that will be necessarily," Later piped up. "I meant to say this before, but I've actually been to the police station in Ferretfall before."

Scootaloo blinked. "How come?"

"Erm... let's just say I'm not the sneakiest member of our team and I miiiight have gotten us in trouble once." Later frowned, but quickly recovered. "Regardless, I totally know my way around from when we escaped. Plus it's nighttime, so they'll probably have fewer cops on duty."

"Even if they know we're out here all uncaptured-like?" Mochi asked, cocking her head.

"Hmm, good point," Later replied. "They'll probably be out in the forest here, then, searching for us."

"That's a risky bet," Scootaloo said, pacing back and forth in the dirt. "For all we know, they could be expecting that we're going to go after Clove tonight and all the cops will be patrolling the village."

"Hey, don't look at me like this was my idea," Later shot back, rolling her eyes. "I wanted to leave Clove to get saved by another group of rebels when it's more convenient, instead of sending the only pony from outside the Bureau planets into even more danger."

"But even if we do get caught, Scoots'll have us out in no time," Mochi chimed in. "That's how we got out of the South Pen."

"That was all Grey and you know it," Scootaloo said. "Whatever... we'll figure that out if it happens. No sense trying to make a plan for something we just can't plan for."

"Then what now?" Even Later asked. "Just keep going?"

"Yeah," Scootaloo said, nodding. "But you should lead the way this time—you know way more where we're going."

Later smirked. "Sure thing, Scoots," she said, walking forward. As she passed Scootaloo, she raised a hoof and tousled the filly's already-messy hair. "But here, before we go, lemme do this."

Scootaloo and Mochi eyed the mare curiously for the moment it took for her horn to light up with a light green magic, not unlike Kevin's. Although the light was dim, Scootaloo could more clearly see Even Later's green face and now-determined expression as she turned tail and, slightly to the left of where they had been running previously, she ran. Scootaloo and Mochi followed closely behind, adjusting to either side as Later did.

Hello

The forest was dark, illuminated only slightly by Kevin's green magical aura. Crickets chirped around them, and the wind whistled through the trees, tickling at the surfaces of the leaves as it passed. The leaves were not the only thing they tickled, however; Flight could feel a shiver go down her spine, making her jolt in place. She wasn't cold, exactly—her heart still hadn't completely slowed from when they were running, pounding warm blood quickly through her limbs and torso.

"That's it—I'm calling Doc Zed," Flight finally said.

"How come?" Cotton Fluff asked, looking towards the filly. While Kevin and Flight sat immediately next to one another, the brown-coated mare was a few metres away, leaning against a tree. Until Flight had spoken, she had been gazing out into the inky darkness between the trees.

"I dunno, I just think that it would be good to tell him what's going on and about Clove Hitch," Flight replied, looking down at the comlink on her wrist with a sombre expression. "Plus it's been a while since I've talked to anyone from home, besides Kevin of course. This is the longest I've ever been away, and most definitely the longest I've been without either of my parents."

Cotton Fluff nodded.

"Didn't Doc Zed say that we shouldn't call him unless it's an emergency, though?" Kevin piped up. "He said it might lead to us getting caught... we should probably just wait until he calls us."

"Meh... the police already know where we are, basically. Can't do any more harm that we've already done," Flight replied. "Plus you know it'd be forever until he called us again."

"Heh, true—that stallion really knows how to get lost in his work." Kevin paused. "You know, I wonder if Microfiche made it down there yet..."

"Only one way to find out, I suppose." Flight looked back down to the comlink for a moment before raising her other hoof to tap several of the small buttons.

In just a few seconds, the bleepy-bloopy ringback tone was emanating at a steady rhythm from the speaker of the comlink. It ran for a few times before the distinctive click and then faint burst of static.

"Hello?" came a voice from the speaker. It wasn't Doc Zed; the voice was younger, stronger, and reedier. "Is this Flight?"

"Erm... yeah, it's me," Flight replied, "but who are you?"

"Oh, crud, I'm sorry. It's Microfiche, picking up the phone here for Doc Zed. The doctor's down in the basement, working on extensions for Scootaloo's ship. Speaking of which, is Scootaloo there?"

"No, sorry," Flight replied, sighing. "She ran off with Mochi and Even Later to go save Clove Hitch from the Bureau police in Ferretfall."

"Oh, right, right." There was a pause, and then another burst of static. "Wait, what? That wasn't supposed to happen."

"Heh... don't you go telling me about what's 'supposed to happen', 'cause we haven't been getting a whole lot of that. Heck, we nearly got dragged away with Clove if it weren't for Later breaking away from the group to come find us."

"Gah... Zed isn't going to like hearing about this. Should I go get him?"

"That'd be great, thanks," Flight said, nodding even though they was no way for Microfiche to see her. "How is it, working with him, anyway?"

"Oh, it's absolutely delightful," Microfiche gushed. "He's been my idol for, like, a really long time, so it's pretty darn cool to get to see the stallion at work on this ship. It's a shame Scootaloo isn't here, because he wanted to tell her all about it. Okay, hold on." There was staticky jostling as Microfiche presumably stood up from where he was sitting and trotted away.

"At least somepony's excited about things," Kevin mumbled. "Well, somezebra."

"He seems nice," Cotton Fluff remarked, startling both Kevin and Flight whose faces lit up in surprise that she was still standing there. "Better than some of the rebel lot, lemme tell ya."

"Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting you're not a part of the whole 'rebels' thing," Kevin said.

"How are you dealing with that, anyway? Are you just going along with us because it's convenient, or do you have... strong political opinions?" Flight asked.

Cotton Fluff shrugged. "I'm not sure why I'm going with y'all," she started. "And no, I guess I don't have strong feelings either way about the Bureau and the rebels. I just want everypony to be safe, and I want to keep living my life."

"If you wanted to keep living your life, why did you come, then?" Kevin asked, cocking his head.

"I... got bored?" Cotton Fluff said with an unsure expression on her face. "I dunno. All I know for sure is that I'm not going to suddenly sign up with the rebels and fly away from this planet or be a spy or whatever once all this is over; I'll be damned if I can't go back to Umberlight and keep on managing my shop. That place is my life."

Before Kevin or Flight could say anything in response, there was another burst of static from the comlink. "Flight, Kevin! A good evening to you!" came the familiar, warm voice of none other than Doc Zed himself.

"Heya, Doc," Flight replied, a grin plastered on her face. "Did Microfiche tell you about—?"

"Yep, he filled me in," Doc Zed replied with a cough. "Kind of a predicament you've got yourself in, truly. And, while I did ask you to refrain from calling, this is probably close enough to an emergency that it's okay."

Kevin shot a smug grin towards Flight, who rolled her eyes.

Doc Zed continued: "Plus you managed to call during the one hour that the GPS trackers in this area are down for maintanence, so good on you. Just make sure that you hang up on me in... less than ten minutes."

"Fine, fine. So, what do you think we should do?"

"Do, Flight? Why, it's simple. Turnip told you to keep going north, right?"

"Yeah, to a base in the northern part of the province," came Flight's reply, though the end was nearly cut off by a yawn. "Didn't say anything after that."

"Definitely go there, then. Xiibal's been talking about sending you on a mission, though she hasn't told anypony exactly what it is. Super top secret, I guess. But it's important, whatever it is."

"Okay, got it. Once Scoots and the others are back from Ferretfall, we'll all go north."

"And you said Even Later was with you, right?"

"Yeah, she's currently with Scootaloo and Mochi."

"Send her back to Turnip Acres. She's talented, sure, but she's needed more elsewhere. I don't know what she was doing following after you, but she needs to stop."

"Erm... alright. Anything else?"

"I don't think so." There was a pause. "Wait, yes! Please have Scootaloo call me back; I have important information from Princess Twilight that she needs to hear, and it's for her ears only. Alright, that's it. Good night, and good luck."

"Goodnight, Doc," Flight said. "Say hi to my parents for me."

"Will do."

"Bye, Doc," Kevin said.

"Goodbye."

Click.

The forest, and the three ponies sitting in its midst, went quiet once more.

Noctivagant

The chorus of crickets and other forest sounds of the night was joined by two more sounds: the slow, regular breathing of Flight and Cotton Fluff as the two of them slumbered, lying on patches of grass on the ground. After Doc Zed had hung up, the light went out and all three of them settled into their spots, deciding to get some sleep until the others came back.

Yet Kevin lay there, eyes open to the darkness, fern leaves dangling dangerously close to his outstretched limbs. He just didn't feel sleepy; the ground was too uncomfortable and the other ponies' breathing was too loud and he had too much to think about, anyway. As he gazed through the shadowy branches of the treetops above, making out the few visible patches of the starry night sky as they peeked through.

Kevin turned his head. In the faint light that filtered down from above, he could see the slumbering form of the yellow filly not a metre away, her eyes closed and her muzzle open ever so slightly, allowing her to breathe.

Sighing, Kevin turned back and got to his hooves, taking care not to step on anything noisy as he stood. Then, step by step, he trotted away from Flight and Cotton Fluff.

It wasn't until he was a couple dozen metres away that he started to notice the sound of his own hoofsteps, making slight cracks and rustles as they stepped down on the dirt and parts of plants. They didn't bother him, though it wouldn't matter if they did; it was too dark to see where he was walking. It probably wasn't even a good idea to be walking without his horn lit up, because he could easily get lost—but Kevin pushed this thought away and merely tried to enjoy the cool night air around him.

Until he was interrupted, that is.

"When are you going to tell them?" It was a familiar, higher-pitched voice that asked this, quietly yet clear enough for Kevin to hear.

The colt spun around, curious what he would be met with this time; however, it was too dark to make out exactly what the shadowy figure in front of him was. "I thought I told you to leave me alone."

The creature laughed. "And I thought I told you to take me up on my offer. Looks like neither of us gets what we want, huh?"

"Ugh, can it. I'm not in the mood," Kevin grumbled.

"Are you ever in the mood, my little pony?"

"Yeah, when you screw off and leave me alone. Don't think I've forgotten what you did last time we ran into you..."

"Hmph. Whatever. The time will come, of course... the time will come. As will the time when you tell them. Which reminds me: when are you going to tell them?"

Kevin rolled his eyes. "Tell them what? You're already annoying enough—you don't need to be all cryptic on top of that."

Although he couldn't see the creature's face, Kevin could swear he could almost feel the smile plastered across its features. "Come now—you know exactly what I'm talking about, Kay."

Kevin froze. There was an odd moment in which his jaw was clenched shut, refusing to move, and his heart was beating so hard that he felt like he was going to puke it up then and there. Luckily, after a few moments and deep breaths, his jaw unclenched. "Oh. Yeah. That."

The creature nodded sagely. "Yes, that. Now, I know I'm not one for life advice—"

"Because you've never been anything but helpful," Kevin said, rolling his eyes. He wasn't as into it, though.

"Shush, you. All I'm trying to say is that it'll be better for you. You might think that I have ulterior motives—and damn, do I ever—but what I want most is for you to be happy."

"Ugh, seriously? You've been nothing but a hassle ever since I first saw you, and there's no way I can trust you at all."

"Don't trust me," the creature said, slinking to the left. "Trust you."

"Huh?"

"I must be off, Kay. But please know that some things are inevitable and some things are best done on your own terms than on somepony else's." With that, the creature vanished. There was hardly any difference with what Kevin could see—it was so dark that the creature had merely blended into the bush behind it—but, again, he could feel its presence in the air, popping away like a balloon in a knife store.

"Ugh... what does he think he's playing at?" Kevin mused aloud. "That dumb... thing can't manipulate me to do whatever he wants anymore."

Yet, in his heart of hearts, Kevin knew that the star-stickered creature wasn't wrong. And so, as he trudged back through the darkness towards the rhythmic breathing of Flight and Cotton Fluff, Kevin thought about what the creature had said and what that implied.

And, of course, he was able to fall asleep less than ever. His eyes felt glued open and he forgot completely about his need for sleep, instead content to lie awake and just think.

How

"Hey, Later?"

"What is it, Scootaloo?"

"I'm impressed with how you got us through the guards on the outside of town by going through the bushes..."

"Mhm."

"And I must admit, I wasn't expecting that there would be that unlit shortcut in between the houses back there..."

"Mhm."

"But I'm kinda having a hard time trying to figure out how you're planning on getting us into the police station," Scootaloo finished whispering. She stood packed between Mochi and Even Later as they huddled close within a particularly large bush; the tips of branches scratched at her legs, but Scootaloo knew she couldn't so much as move suddenly or else they'd be caught.

"I was wonderin' that myself," Mochi chimed in, lowering her head. "The place is swarming with guards—guess they ain't out there lookin' for us like you thought they'd be."

"Really?" Later asked in a strained tone, popping her head up out of the bush. It returned even quicker than it had left, if that was possible. "Crap crap crap crap..."

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? Your only plan was to hope that there wouldn't be guards here?"

"Well... um... yeah!" Later whispered loudly. "I mean, what else would I have planned? Getting in there with all those guards skulking around is nigh on impossible!"

"It can't be impossible," Mochi said. "There's gotta be, like, a back entrance or something where they don't have guards."

"There is one, but it sounds an alarm if you open the door. Trust me, I know from experience." Later sighed and put her face in her hooves. "Ugh... we're gonna get caught and it's all my fault."

"Stop moping," Scootaloo snapped. "We're going to find a way in, whether you know how to or not." She reached around to her saddlebags and felt around for a moment until she found what she was looking for. "Oh, awesome," the filly said as she pulled out the small object. When Mochi and Later gave her confused looks, she explained: "I still have this dumb hairclip that I found on... this weird ship. I used it there to unscrew some of the vents, so I figure I could do the same here."

Mochi nodded. "That's a great idea, actually."

Without waiting for Later's reply, Scootaloo shuffled forward, rustling the bush's leaves as she left it. Mochi made to follow her.

"Erm, you gals are just going to waltz out there? Are you trying to get seen?"

"They're not patrolling the side of the building," Scootaloo replied, "so if there's a vent here, I'm sure I can get it unscrewed without attracting any attention. If not, we'll go back to plan B."

Later blinked. "What's plan B?"

It was Mochi that replied. "Plan B is always the same in these types of things... get captured and then find your way out from the inside."

"Well, we can't afford that," Later replied, rolling her eyes.

"Then get looking!" Scootaloo whisper-yelled. She was already prodding at the completely dark wall, feeling around for some trace of metal. Later had no choice but to pop her head and then the rest of her body of the bush carefully and then tap around for one as well.

Crawl

"I think I found something," Mochi called from somewhere to Scootaloo's right. The filly had to take several steps before Mochi came into view; she had rounded the corner, moving on from the side to the back of the building. Once she caught sight of the mare, Scootaloo hurried over.

"Where is it?" she whispered.

Mochi merely pointed in response to a sort of thin rectangular protrusion from the wall. Scootaloo crouched down once she had reached the spot and, sure enough, there was a small metal grate screwed onto the wall. As she examined the screws, Scootaloo saw that they were slot screws—perfect for her hairclip. She reached back to her saddlebag to pull out the hairclip once more and got to unscrewing while Mochi stood guard.

As the filly worked on unscrewing the grate, she noticed Even Later stumble around the corner in the corner of her vision.

"Oh, good, you found one," the mare said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I was starting to think that they just didn't have any ventilation at all."

Scootaloo didn't particularly feel like replying, especially since she had a hairclip in her mouth, so she was thankful that Mochi did instead. "I ain't so sure that it's a vent... looks a lot more like the entrance to a crawl space to me."

Later leaned forward, tilting her head around Scootaloo to get a closer look. "Right, right. But whatever it is, it looks pretty darn small."

Mochi leaned forward as well. "Hmm... now that you mention it, that's true. I dunno if I could get myself to fit in there, if I'm bein' totally honest with you."

"But what are we gonna do then?" Scootaloo mumbled, hairclip still in her mouth. She already had three of the screws removed, sitting somewhere lost in the grass below, and was making for the fourth.

"I can stay behind," Mochi offered. "Y'all can go on ahead and I can watch from the bushes to make sure that none of the guards start snoopin' around this space, and I can also work on figurin' out how we're gonna get outta here."

Later nodded. "Thank you so much, Mochi."

"Shucks, it's really no problem."

They were interrupted by a soft metal clink and then a thud as the metal grate hit the ground. Both of them turned to see Scootaloo, who had replaced her hairclip in her saddlebag and was presently peering into the opening.

"Smells weird in there," she remarked, looking up at the other two. "I bet there's, like, spiders or something."

Later rolled her eyes. "I'm sure we can take them. C'mon, Scootaloo." The mare stepped forward, past the orange filly, and flattened her torso to the grass so she could crawl stealthily into the crawl space of the building.

"Thanks, Mochi," Scootaloo said, reaching up to hug the mare. They stood there for a moment before the filly broke away. "We'll see you soon, okay? And be ready to run, 'cause I really don't know how this is gonna go."

Mochi saluted. "Sir, yes, sir!" With that, she bounded off across the grass, disappearing with a rustle into a patch of bushes.

Scootaloo sighed and turned back to the opening in the police station's foundation, which somehow was even darker than the world outside. Later shifted aside to make room for the filly and then, without further ado, Scootaloo crouched down as well and crawled into the space.

"I already feel cramped," she moaned through gritted teeth as she picked up the grate, leaning it loosely against the side of the building so that anypony who wasn't paying too much attention wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

"Aw, don't worry," Later assured her. "I'm sure we'll be out of the crawl space in no time. I mean, I haven't been down here before, but how big could it be?"

Pipes

"Do you hear that?" Scootaloo asked, pausing. Her ear was pressed directly against the small copper pipe whose path she was following.

Later stopped as well and leaned over, listening to the pipe. "Huh, I do hear something. It sounds like there's something... blowing through the pipe. Though that's kind of weird, 'cause I would've expected it to be, y'know, water."

"Let's keep going," Scootaloo said. "It looks like the ground slopes down here." She pointed to the corner with the sump pump, which indeed appeared to slope down sharply before turning out of sight.

"Ah, that must be where it goes to downstairs where they have the cells and holding rooms."

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "Why would the crawl space go down there? That wouldn't make any sense..."

Later shrugged, though it was barely noticeable with how far down she was crouched. "I'm not an architect or a plumber any more than you are. Maybe it helps for them to be able to access the pipes?"

Scootaloo didn't respond; she merely turned along with the pipes and began scooting her way towards the slope, standing up as the floor grew further away from the ceiling. As Later followed, she let out a breath of relief as she was able to stretch her legs.

Several minutes later...

"Can you see anything?" Later murmured, leaning over Scootaloo who was herself lying over a metal grate. Once the pair had rounded the corner and followed the tunnel, they realised that there were maintenance grates for each of the cells that looked down from above—placed low enough so that they could be used to climb down by maintenance workers, but high enough so that there was no way any of the ponies being held could use them to escape. Using this knowledge, they had sneaked around quietly to avoid being heard, looking down and seeing a variety of ponies held in cells. One by one they peered in, until they came to a cell with nopony in it. In addition, this cell was somewhat different—the walls and floor were lined with white bathroom tiles rather than the standard concrete, and a row of shower heads with drains in the floor to match lined each wall.

"Not yet," Scootaloo replied quietly, "but it's been a while. Why wouldn't they have brought him to a cell yet?"

"They probably took him for questioning first. That's what happened to me, at least."

"And how'd you get out of that one?" Scootaloo asked, still gazing down through the metal grate.

"Uhh... I dunno. Probably refused to talk and then waited until they gave up for the night. They were supposed to transfer me to the South Pen in the morning for, uh, 'enhanced interrogation methods', but they never got that far 'cause the boys had already broken me out of here by then."

"Huh. I'd say you're lucky tha—oh!"

"What is it?" Later murmured.

"Shut up!" Scootaloo hissed. "Somepony's coming!" Both of them scrambled backwards against the wall, pressing towards it to maximise how much they could see while remaining only visible to somepony looking for them.

There was the sound of hoofsteps and then metal rattling of keys before a door, out of sight, clicked open. The hoofsteps continued, reverberating off the tile walls, as the distinctive form of a maroon-coated pegasus was shoved forward, nearly tripping over his hooves as he stumbled to a halt. Groaning, Clove Hitch turned to face the direction of the door.

"You're going to be staying here for the rest of the night as we wait for a response from the higher-ups, sir," a gruff voice that remained out of view said.

Clove Hitch blinked. "Do I get... a bed? Food? Anything?"

The voice cleared its throat. "This is still under discussion. I will let you know of any further information we receive." It paused. "Though, honestly, I wouldn't count your blessings."

Clove Hitch looked down at the floor and sighed. "Whatever."

There was a rattle of the door and then hoofsteps which receded, eventually disappearing somewhere behind Scootaloo and Later.

"Do you think it's safe to talk to him?" Later whispered, looking down at the downtrodden form of her teammate. "I bet we can get down there, and then maybe we can make our escape."

"I'm not so sure..." Scootaloo murmured, also looking down. "You know they probably have cameras and all that—there's no way they won't know if we go down there."

"Who cares if they know?" Later whispered, a little too loudly. "We just gotta get him and get outta here, Scoots."

Scootaloo sighed. "Maybe you're right, but that really make it easier for us to get caught. And then we'll just be back at square one."

Before Even Later could reply, both she and Scootaloo noticed that there was a small rumbling above them. Both of them turned, coming face to face with the shiny copper pipe that they had followed down there. And, as it so happens, that copper pipe led down before disappearing into the wall. Inside of the small metal tube, a burst of air hissed by.

And then, in just a few moments, it wasn't just the pipe. They watched as Clove Hitch started to notice the sound, looking around wildly in the hopes of figuring out what it was. Then...

Out from the showerheads, all at the same time, burst large gaseous clouds of grey... something. Like a violent stream of water, it filled the room quickly, its thickness soon blocking Clove Hitch from view. Later pulled Scootaloo back as the tufts grew dangerously close to the grate at the top; however, somehow, the gas seemed to stop just short of coming up there.

What really made a pit in Scootaloo's stomach drop was the loud, unmistakeable thump that she didn't even have to see to know was Clove Hitch's immobile form hitting the tile floor.

And, as she held Scootaloo tight, Even Later shook.

Seriously

They waited there for several minutes, and Scootaloo watched as the clouds of gas started to recede downwards as if pulled upon by some unseen force. Once the gas had made it all the way down to the floor, Scootaloo pushed away from the quivering form of Even Later and took a few steps forward, craning her neck downward to see if she could get a better look.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Later stammered, looking up. She reached a hoof out to grab onto Scootaloo's side. "You don't want what happened to Clove to happen to you."

"It'll be fine," Scootaloo replied coolly, shrugging off Later's hoof. "The gas never even got this high—there's probably some sort of magic barrier... thing." She stepped forward once more so that her hooves rested on the very edge of the grate and, carefully, the filly crouched down.

At the same time, the last tendril-like vestiges of the billowing gaseous clouds were disappearing, looking very much like outstretched hooves as they were sucked down the shower drains. And lying in the middle of the emptying floor was the unmoving form of Clove Hitch. His maroon-coated body was contorted in an odd position that on a basic level resembled sitting, if not for the fact that he had tumbled over onto his face.

"I wonder if they're going to come get him," Scootaloo murmured to herself.

"Who cares? It's not like he's... not like he's..." Later trailed off with a spell of uneven breathing.

Scootaloo looked back at her distraught companion. "Later, we don't even know what kind of gas that was. Chances are that it was just supposed to knock him out. The Bureau ponies sure don't seem very nice, but they also don't seem... evil."

"I guess it doesn't really seem like something they'd do..." Later composed herself. "I've heard of them taking ponies prisoner, but not executing them."

"See? Now, let's get down there and try to get him out of here, hopefully before anypony else shows up. Help me get this grate off." Scootaloo scooted over to the left side and then pushed her hooves into the crack between the concrete and the edge of the grate, and then she gestured with her head for Later to join her.

The green mare reluctantly stepped up to the edge and copied Scootaloo, putting the tips of her hooves so that they could pull up on the side of the grate.

"One, two, three," Scootaloo counted, and on three they both pulled upwards. Miraculously, likely more due to the light weight of the grate than any actual lifting power, the two ponies were able to pull the thing up into the air and together set it down to the side.

Scootalo exhaled, stretching out her limbs after they set down the grate. "Whew... I really need to start lifting weights or something, I can't believe that was so hard." She paused, looking down at the hole in the concrete in front of her. "Anyway... geronimo?" Before Later could do anything, Scootaloo casually side-stepped, quickly disappearing from view.

Thud!

"Scootaloo!" Later exclaimed, turning into a loud hiss halfway through as she remembered that they were trying to stay unheard. Worried, the mare peered forward, expecting to see an orange feathery splat on the tile right next to the lifeless form of Clove.

Instead, she saw Scootaloo standing, looking back up with a grin. "Come on in, the water's fine!" she called.

Later frowned. "How can you be acting so ridiculous when Clove could be dead?!"

Scootaloo frowned as well. "Right... I'll check, while you hop down here. I didn't even have to use my wings; it's a lot shorter than it looks."

"Erm... I'll take your word for it," Later said. She took a deep breath and nearly closed her eyes, before realising that it would do her well to be able to see, so she didn't accidentally land on one of the ponies below. Then, heart racing, Later jumped.

And, almost instantaneously, she landed with a loud thump that reverberated all through the floor, quite a bit louder than Scootaloo's (not so quiet) landing had been.

"You alright?" Scootaloo asked from behind her. Later shook her head, orienting herself before turning around to see Scootaloo with her hoof on Clove's neck.

"Y-yeah, I think so," Later said, looking down at the floor. A few of the tiles had hairline cracks, and one or two had messily shattered into small pieces and dust. "How's Clove?"

"He's alive—his heart's still beating," Scootaloo replied. "It must've been some sort of knock out gas. Now we've just gotta get the guy out of here before they figure out that we're here."

Later looked around frantically. "How are we going to do that? The door there's definitely gonna be locked, and somehow we have to carry him!"

Scootaloo looked around as well and then blinked. "Huh. Let's see..."

Refusal

It seemed that the exact moment Scootaloo chose to stop and think was the same moment at which the two of them could hear hoofsteps outside the door, faint at first but growing closer.

"Quick!" Scootaloo hissed, dashing back to the far end of the room. "Lift him up on your back, and I'll take care of the door."

Even Later frantically got to work with her front hooves, attempting to take hold of Clove Hitch's limp form and push him up; however, his body was proving much too unwieldy for her to lift with her hooves alone, as there was no real way to hold on when his limbs kept moving around. "I'm not so sure I can do this..." Later exhaled with frustration, Clove's foreleg half-dangled over her back.

Scootaloo took one look at the mare and then facehoofed. "Are you or are you not a unicorn, dang it?!"

"Oh!" Later exclaimed, face lighting up in shock. "Right, right!" She immediately let Clove's body drop back onto the floor, stepping back with her face wrought in concentration. A green spark leapt from her horn, blossoming out into a green aura which surrounded Clove Hitch before slowly lifting him a metre in the air and then over to Later's back, upon which she carefully dropped him. His hooves hung down on either side of her and his head lolled off to the right, but he was about as secured in place as he was ever going to be.

"Nnngh... okay..." Later mumbled under her breath. She looked up to see Scootaloo still crouched at the far wall of the room, eyeing the the thick metal door with an odd expression. "I thought... I thought you were going to take care of the door?"

"Don't think I'll have to," Scootaloo grumbled. She gestured with her head and said nothing more; this, of course, was to draw attention to the sound of the hoofsteps. Or, as it were, the lack thereof. In its place there was the gentle rattling of keys and then the sound of one being inserted in the lock, which then make mechanical sounds as it turned.

And then the door swung open.

In the door frame stood a beige unicorn mare with a drab black vest, a flat expression on her face. She didn't look surprised to see additional ponies besides Clove Hitch; on the contrary, she looked very much like she had expected them. "Evening, ponies," she said slowly. "My name is Ms. Haze. I see that you neglected to think of that we might have video surveillance around our building."

"H-hi there," Later croaked. Scootaloo turned to glare at her.

"Don't talk to her," the filly hissed.

The beige mare's expression morphed into a wry smile. "Come, now, Scootaloo, it would be a lot easier if you would co-operate."

"I don't know who you think I am, but I didn't come here to 'co-operate'," Scootaloo sneered, remaining crouched in the far corner of the room. "Please, just leave us alone."

"You know we can't do that, kid," Haze replied, her tone condescending. "We're really quite interested in what you have to say, and where you're from. I don't know why you're getting all mixed up with these"—she turned to give an ugly look in Later's direction—"rebel riffraff, but I can assure you that all we want is to talk."

"These are my friends," Scootaloo shot back emphatically, "and they didn't decide to throw me in prison the first time they saw me."

"Not yet they haven't," Haze replied, still smirking. "And yet they're sending you from place to place, which I'm sure will lead them to taking you off to their rebel base in Prince-knows-where, fighting for a cause you don't even understand. There's really no reason for you to do that, Scootaloo."

For a moment, Scootaloo looked as if she were going to falter. Yet at the sound of her name, she snarled. "Don't say my name, jerk!" It was then that she made the first motion from her odd crouched position, revealing exactly why she had been crouched like that. It wasn't to buck down the door at all; no, it was for her to gallop forward, picking up speed until she was not a metre away from the beige mare and she jumped up, sailing forward with her hooves outstretched.

Thwak! She smashed into the unsuspecting form of Ms. Haze, who had only just started to step back before plummeting beneath Scootaloo to the ground. The filly hopped off and quickly bucked backwards, sending Haze flying in a skid down the hallway. Then, Scootaloo turned back to Later.

"C'mon, and hurry!" Scootaloo urged her, looking frantically from the weighed-down mare to the hallway ahead of them. "I don't know how long until the other guards start coming!"

"I thought the point was to make as little of a kerfuffle as possible," Later huffed as she jogged forward, unable to go faster because of the stallion draped over her back.

"Um, that kind of ended the moment that mare started walking to the room," Scootaloo shot back. "Let's just try and get out of here without getting killed, or captured, or whatever."

"Alright, alright," Later agreed. She looked forward, where the hallway extended for a few dozen metres before turning into stairs. "Uhh... thataway?"

"Probably!" Scootaloo exclaimed, already dashing in that direction. "Guess there's only one way to find out!"

Between

"Crap crap crap crap crap," Scootaloo said, continuing with more "crap"s until she ran out of breath. She stood at the foot of the concrete stairs, neck craned forward so that she could look up through the darkness.

Even Later, weighed down by Clove Hitch, was several metres behind, so she couldn't quite tell what the filly was looking at. "Scootaloo? What's wrong?"

Scootaloo gulped and pointed. As Later neared, she could see up the flight of stairs to the first landing, where at least three or four guards stood menacingly, clad in black vests much like Ms. Haze had been. "You're not going anywhere," one of them taunted in a firm, high voice.

"Oh, yeah?" Scootaloo shot back. "Who's gonna stop me?"

"They are, I do believe," came a voice from behind them. Scootaloo didn't have to turn to know who it was, and yet she did anyway to see the beige-coated mare standing tall, brushing a bit of dust off of her vest with a hoof. "You can't have honestly thought you could just run right out of here, did you? I must admit, I wasn't expecting that you were going to be able to get past me, so for that I offer a bravo. Yet, as I'm sure you already know based on the company you keep, we've had escapes before. We completely expected this."

"Just let us go," Scootaloo said through gritted teeth. "We don't want any trouble."

Ms. Haze laughed. "Really? You think you're in a position for bargaining? Darling, you're trapped in between my side, a dead end, and that of the lovely officers up there. And don't just think they're only on one of the landings—no, we've got them going all the way up the stairs. Maybe you can get through a few, but certainly not all of them."

Scootaloo's eyes narrowed, and then she stepped over to Later, leaning her muzzle in close to the mare's ear. Haze squinted as she heard the faintest sound of a whisper, though she couldn't quite make out what was being said. Luckily for her, she didn't quite have to.

"What?" Later whispered a little louder. "Scootaloo, I can't do that, I don't have—"

"You're a unicorn!" Scootaloo practically yelled. "How in Celestia's name do you keep forgetting that, dang it?"

"Augh, I'm sorry!" Later replied emphatically. "I've just... I've just never done that one before. I can try... here goes nothing..." She screwed up her eyes in concentration, and Scootaloo watched her as she did so.

Haze knew they were going to teleport, and she used this knowledge to her advantage. As Later's horn sparked to life, the beige mare's did as well, a nearly-invisible beam of magic shooting out to connect the horns of the two unicorns. As Later, Scootaloo, and Clove's body winked out of the room, Haze disappeared along with them to wherever they were going.

Fireflies

A quiet darkness hung calmly over the empty grassy patch of earth that lay beside the police station, next to a grate on the wall that was propped diagonally against the opening. Somewhere beyond the wall it lay against, there was a great deal of commotion—yet that was all only a faint barrage of noise through the thick barrier, of little concern of anypony who would be standing in that grassy patch. Not that there were any ponies standing there, mind you.

Or at least there hadn't for the last several minutes. From where she sat inside a bush on the far side of the grassy patch, there had been absolutely no motion, save for a few lightning bugs here and there that zipped quickly down the way, faintly breaking through the darkness with their bursts of bioluminescence. One even flew over towards the mare, landing delicately on the tip of her muzzle, forcing her to cross her eyes as she looked down at the insect. Yet with it came a burst of dust, and I'm sure you can guess what happened next.

"Ah... ah... choo!" Mochi sneezed, alarming the insect so that it fluttered its wings and twisted and turned a new path through the air, between the trees and into the darkness. Mochi shrugged and turned back to look at the empty patch of ground. She wasn't sure how many minutes it had been, but she was definitely certain that it had been way too many. Yet just as she was about to give in to her drooping eyelids, a loud crack resounded through the air, coupled with a burst of light on the grass in front of her.

As the mare rubbed her eyes and the afterimage of the burst faded, she gasped in shock and jumped forward out of the bush. "Scootaloo! Mochi! You alright?!" she exclaimed.

"Shh!" Scootaloo whisper-yelled, looking up as she stumbled to a standing position. "We're fine... I think." She finally righted herself, standing steady, no longer looking like she would topple over. "Gahh... I'm just glad Later was able to teleport us outta there."

"Nnnngh... yeah..." Later spoke through clenched teeth, wearing a pained expression as she stood with Clove's body draped over her back. Her front legs wobbled and then, rather than letting them give way, she leaned over to let Clove Hitch fall onto the ground with a soft thump. "He'll be fine," Later croaked. Her expression hadn't changed.

"What's wrong?" Mochi asked, looking concerned as she approached the mare.

In reply, Later merely lowered her head and gestured towards her mane, which was dripping with some sort of liquid Mochi couldn't make out in the dark. She reached her hoof up to brush aside Later's mane, which made her realise instantly what the red liquid was as it stickied her hoof: blood. She flinched as Later's left ear came into view, or at least what was left of it; the bloodied stump twitched as it was exposed to the air.

"Wh-what happened?" Mochi managed, unable to take her eyes off the stump.

"Think I splinched," Later replied, exhaling. "I'm gonna be fine, but it... hurts. Hurts a lot."

"'Splinched'?" Scootaloo asked, cocking her head. "What's wrong with Later, anyway?"

"It's an accident that can happen when a unicorn without much experience tries to teleport," Mochi replied calmly. "What happens is... a part gets left behind."

"My ear," Later groaned. "I left my ear behind."

Scootaloo's face contorted in horror.

"She's gonna be okay," Mochi replied. "We just need to get moving so we can take a look at it. Honestly, I'm surprised that that was the only damage."

"Me too." Later adjusted her head. "We've gotta go—they're after us."

Mochi nodded. "That sounds about right. Here, I'll carry Clove 'n' you can go on ahead. Scoots, you too," she said, gesturing. Both smaller ponies started cantering off through the bushes, leaving Mochi behind to start picking up the stallion who was lying in what was almost a pile on the ground. It took her a few tries, but finally she was able to muscle Clove's body onto her back, trotting off as quickly as she could while ensuring he wasn't going to fall off.

Not five minutes after Mochi had disappeared through the bushes, there was a soft rumbling coming from the soil beneath where the four ponies had stood and lain just minutes prior. This rumbling continued until the earth churned and moved aside, revealing a beige hoof that reached up to the heavens. The grass and dirt tumultuously moved to either side more and more until the hoof's owner, one Ms. Haze, had pulled herself completely out of the hole in the ground. She stood there panting, coughing up dirt.

"That's the last damn time I try to teleport along with somepony who doesn't know what they're doing," Haze grumbled to herself as she finished coughing up the last bits of earth. She raised her foreleg and pressed a button on the breast of her vest. "Hello, this is Haze. I was unable to stop Scootaloo and the others from making their escape."

"No matter," the gruff voice on her comlink replied. "We can intercept them later. Officer Gloss has arrived."

"Wonderful," Haze replied. "I'll be in there in a moment. And please look up anything we have on that mare, Even Later. I swear last time I saw her, she was an earth pony."

"Yes, ma'am. Anything else?"

"No, that'll be all. Haze out." Haze pressed the button on the comlink and took a deep breath.

Interrupting

"Do you even know where we're going?" Scootaloo asked, looking to the obscured form of Even Later through the darkness. "I can't see a darn thing out here."

"Uh... maybe?" the mare replied, her voice shaky. "I can't really see either, but I think this is at least sort of the way we came."

There was a rustle of leaves somewhere behind them, which caused both Scootaloo and Later to turn. "Wait up," came Mochi's voice, growing closer. "I know which way we went."

"How do you know?" Scootaloo asked, eyebrow raised even though nopony else could see her.

"I just know, m'kay?" Mochi huffed, pulling up between them. Although Scootaloo couldn't make her out well, she could at least tell by the way the mare's shadowy form moved that she was still carrying their limp comrade on her back. "Call it an earth pony's intuition. I'm usually pretty darn good at knowin' where I need to go."

"Might as well follow you," Later replied through gritted teeth. "Not much else we can do but wait for the sun to come up, but I'm not even sure if being able to see would really help."

"What about your magic?" Scootaloo asked. "Can't you just light the way with your horn?"

Later sighed. "Even if I hadn't splinched my darn ear off, I'm super drained from teleporting—I've never done that before, and my magic reserves are probably the lowest they've ever been."

"Through the dark it is, then," Mochi replied, gazing ahead. She started at a slow trot and Scootaloo and Later were left to follow behind her, forced to go much slower than they had before. Step by step, they traversed a path through the forest and their slow speed proved to be a boon; Scootaloo and Later were able to navigate the forest floor, using the time to make sure they weren't about to run headfirst into any trees or bushes.

A half hour later...

Mochi stopped. Scootaloo and Later nearly didn't notice; if they'd noticed just a moment later, they would have both run straight into her flank.

"We're here," the mare ahead whispered.

"We noticed," Later replied in a raspy voice, stepping around Mochi. She paused, remaining still just long enough that she could hear the deep breaths of three ponies lying in a grassy patch between the bushes. "Looks like they've fallen asleep. That's probably good that they got some z's... I really doubt we're gonna be able to."

Scootaloo sighed. "But I'm soooo tired..." she trailed off, yawning. "I guess I can sleep at... um... wherever we're going next."

"If you really wanna sleep, I can carry you on my back," Later offered. "Granted, your hooves might drag on the ground a bit..."

"...I think I'll be fine."

"Aww, Kevin and Flight are holdin' hooves and they don't even know it," Mochi murmured as she took a few more steps toward the slumbering ponies. Indeed, the two young ponies who were asleep next to each other had their forelegs outstretched, which looked to have become somehow entwined as they slept. "Too bad we gotta wake 'em up."

"This one's Cotton Fluff, right?" Later asked, stepping over to the largest pony. Without waiting for a response, she leaned in and shook the mare's shoulder with a hoof. "Hey, Cotton, it's time to get up."

"Nnngh..." Cotton groaned, stirring. She blinked her eyes. "Wha—?"

"We've gotta go, sweetheart," Later said in a droll tone. "Naptime's over."

Cotton Fluff grunted as she shook herself awake, rolling over so she could stand. Not a metre away, Scootaloo had crept up on the pair of ponies her age and was standing right beside them, trying to decide which one to wake first. She only took a moment before settling on the one she knew she'd choose all alone.

She tapped his shoulder. "Hey, Kev, it's time to wake up," she said matter-of-factly. Through the faint light of the stars that shone down from above, she could sort of make out his eyelids fluttering open.

"Mmmfff...?" he mmmfff'd, slowly moving his unencumbered foreleg. "What... what time is it?"

"Probably time for you to let go of your girlfriend's hoof, silly," Scootaloo teased, giggling.

Kevin blinked. Then, in an instant, his other foreleg jolted away from Flight's grasp. Scootaloo giggled again as she watched the still-slumbering Flight reach out unconsciously, attempting to grab back what she had been holding.

"She's not my—I don't—ugh!" Kevin finally sputtered. "Scootaloo!"

"Great to see you too, Kev," the filly replied, grinning. "C'mon, let's wake her up and get going."

Bases

"So... uh... where are we going, exactly?" Cotton Fluff asked. It was a few minutes after she had been abruptly awoken, and it showed; every so often, the mare found herself unable to stop a yawn or unable to resist the urge to wipe the sleep from her eyes. She trotted alongside the other adult ponies, Later and Mochi, as they took the group's lead. And, as Cotton Fluff was at least more rested than the other unicorn, her horn was set aglow with a soft yellow magic that illuminated the group of them.

"As Turnip said, there's a base to the north of here," Later replied. "I've never been there before, but I know they're more permanent than... whatever we had going on. They're not near a city or anything, so they can afford to be a little more... prominent. It shouldn't take us more than an hour or two—it's really not far."

"From what I heard from the other inmates, I thought they had satellites patrollin' the whole skies of the planet, searchin' out for ponies who ain't where they're supposed to be," Mochi mentioned. "Wouldn't that put 'em in danger if they're stickin' out any more than you ponies were?"

"They say that, yes," Later replied, "but they have nowhere near the amount of resources it would take to do that. Maybe in ten years it'll be possible, but the infrastructure simply isn't there. This base is pretty far removed from the normal guard patrols, so they don't really run into trouble."

"And why exactly are we going there?" Cotton Fluff asked.

"Dunno. But Commander Xiibal apparently wants you folks to do some sort of super-secret mission for her, and when Xiibal wants something to happen, it generally happens."

"Huh." Mochi turned her head, eyeing the mare. "You don't sound like much of a fan."

"She's... alright," Later replied, still looking forward. "She just... hasn't been around very long, and she's already really high up in the power... structure... thing. I'm not sure how she's done it, but a lot of the folks I know think there's something suspicious going on there."

"Huh, weird." Cotton Fluff sighed. "I hope this mission doesn't take too long... I'm hoping I can get home and back to my business."

"I hope you can," Later said. "I'm kind of worried about that, though—the cops all know that you've been working with us, right? How are you gonna get around that?"

Cotton Fluff frowned. Of course she had negotiated a deal with Gloss, but the others couldn't know anything about that. "I'm not sure. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens."

"Me, I'm not too worried 'bout it," Mochi butted in. "I don't really care where I go, so long as I'm free to go and do what I please. Bein' stuck in prison has made me stop bein' picky 'bout those sorts of things, and I don't have anywhere to go back to anyhow."

The conversation continued between the three of them as they went along, moving on to other topics. However, behind them the three younger ponies trotted slowly, Kevin and Flight still somewhat peeved that they had to wake up. Scootaloo, on the other hoof, was just jealous that they had gotten some sleep, no matter how little.

"I still can't believe that the gas didn't just float up through the grate and knock you out," Flight remarked.

"Well, they must've had some sort of magical shield protecting the room," Kevin said, "'cause otherwise the gas would've leaked out through the door frame, unless it was somehow airtight."

"I dunno about that—the whole thing seemed pretty magically-controlled. The clouds came out of the showerheads all at once, and then floated around for a bit before all clearing down the drain," Scootaloo explained. "It definitely wasn't normal gas... cloud... behaviour. I mean, not that I've seen lots of gaseous clouds, but it really wasn't what I'd imagine."

"Still, I wonder why it didn't float up if they knew you were there," Flight said. "Seems like it would be perfect."

"Perfect for what?" Scootaloo asked, cocking her head.

"You know, perfect for capturing you. If they'd've knocked you out then and there, there's no way you could have escaped, let alone with Clove Hitch."

"Now that you mention it, that does sound kinda sketch," Kevin remarked. Flight rolled her eyes.

"Hmm..." Scootaloo hmm'd. "I didn't think of that, but you're right. What I found really weird is that there weren't any guards outside the building, just inside. They could have made it a lot harder to escape, but they didn't."

Flight sighed. "It's weird, but I'm not sure if there's anything we can do about it now. If they're planning something crazy, I doubt we're gonna be able to figure it out now."

Scootaloo nodded. "Just gotta keep going wherever these rebel dudes tell us to."

"Speaking of sketch stuff," Kevin said, "what do you make of this whole 'super secret mission' thing? What could that be?"

"I dunno, but we know it's on the planet," Scootaloo replied. "Turnip said we'd only be flying offplanet after the mission."

"And we're going north, but that doesn't really help," Flight mused. "Pretty much everything on the darn planet is north of here, save for the territories which pretty much nopony cares about."

"I can't imagine it would be dangerous, either, since you're supposed to be 'important' or something, Scoots," Kevin remarked. "I dunno what that's all about either."

"Maybe it's because I'm, like, an alien?" Scootaloo giggled. "Maybe they just know how awesome I am."

Kevin and Flight rolled their eyes in sync. "Yeah, keep on thinking that," Kevin teased.

"Oh, there's many things that you don't yet believe that I'll keep on thinking," Scootaloo shot back, turning to the colt and grinning. Kevin merely groaned.

Trudging

"Oh, great," Scootaloo groaned. "Please don't tell me that's the sun."

"That's the sun," Kevin deadpanned.

"I mean, I don't think it's technically 'sunrise' time yet, but it's way too light for it just to be starlight," Flight remarked, looking up. As she did so, she let out a yawn, pausing as she covered her mouth with a hoof. "Ugh, the worst thing about this is how much it's messed up my sleep schedule. Back at home, my parents make me go to bed before 2500 hours on most nights."

"Erm... is that late?" Scootaloo asked. "I'm pretty sure my planet's hours only go up to 24..."

"Not really," Flight replied. "I'm not usually tired then, anyway, so I can stay up reading in bed."

"I can't even remember the last time I slept normal hours," Kevin said, head hung low. "Though I really friggin' wish I could be sleeping any hours right about now."

"We're here," Later said from up ahead.

Scootaloo and the other two dashed up to join the older ponies, who were standing in a small clearing, cracked dirt visible; the grass had mostly been worn away, most likely by ponies trotting through. Since the sky was beginning to lighten, they could see the rough stony wall in front of them even with Cotton Fluff's horn now extinguished, extending outwards for metres in metres in either direction. On top, a sort of shelf was formed with layers of dirt and grass, before sloping upward into the more natural shape of a hill, where a few scraggly trees were planted here and there.

And then Scootaloo noticed that right where the stone wall met the clearing in which the seven ponies stood, there was a crack. It was a thin, hairline crack, stretching up from where the dirt started at the top all the way down to where the dirt started at the bottom. At first, Scootaloo didn't think it was anything important; the wall was full of blemishes and places where the rock was cut poorly or unevenly. Yet the fact that it caught her eye was... odd.

This oddness was confirmed as something important as Later beckoned for Clove Hitch to step forward. Nodding, the stallion did so and raised his left foreleg, placing his hoof on the surface of the wall right next to the crack. Almost immediately, he withdrew his hoof, and just in time, too; with a magical hum, either side of the crack begin to move apart, sliding open to reveal a stone hallway that stretched out ahead for several metres. Scootaloo stepped aside and craned her neck to get a better look, making note of several side paths and the larger room that the hallway opened up to.

"Cool tech," Flight murmured.

"Shall we?" Clove Hitch asked.

"Just tell me where the bedrooms are," Scootaloo groaned. "I don't care if I have to sleep on a rock."

Later started down the tunnel, followed closely by Scootaloo and the rest save for Clove Hitch, who stayed behind to close the door after them.

"Go down that tunnel, at take your first right," Later said, pointing at the first tunnel to the right. "There should be an empty room with some bunks you can use." She paused. "But remember, kids, only one pony to a bunk."

"But moooom," Scootaloo mock-whined. "Wait, I actually don't care about that. Nevermind!" She turned the corner, followed closely by Kevin and Flight as they galloped to the sleeping quarters.

Later paused, sighing. "Either of you want to go sleep?" she asked, turning to Cotton Fluff and Mochi. They both shook their heads.

"I'd rather know 'xactly what's goin' on, if ya don't mind," Mochi said. Cotton Fluff merely nodded in agreement.

"I'm sure that'll be fine... better that one of you in Scootaloo's crowd knows about it, anyway, in case we're not wanted on the mission." Later turned, and then blinked. "Speaking of that... where is everypony? It's strangely quiet."

"I was just wondering that myself," came Clove's voice from behind them. "I would've expected somepony to be at the doors to greet us. You don't see anyone in the commons?"

Later peered ahead into the larger room, where there was some makeshift furniture but nopony in sight. "Nope. Looks like a ghost town in here."

"Hmm... well, let's go downstairs and see if we can't find somepony to talk to."

The four trudged onward through the base, into the main room and beyond, down the hallway to the stairs, though they all found the empty silence that lingered in the stale air of the cave to be a lot more eerie than it had seemed before.

Missing

Later reached over to the wall as she reached the bottom of the metallic stairs, pressing down on the light switch. The room in front of her flooded with fluorescent light, revealing a low-ceilinged basement whose centre contained several desks, each of which held a computer console and thick, uneven stacks of paper to the sides. A few looked to have careened over, sheets wildly thrown all over the floor, making it unclear what exactly had happened.

Later heard the metallic clink, clink of hoofsteps behind her, so she stepped forward to make way for her companions.

"Did somethin'... happen?" Mochi asked as she got to the bottom, eyeing the mess suspiciously. "It kinda looks like... well, you know."

"Not sure," Later said, continuing to walk through. "I know it looks like there was some sort of a struggle, but at the same time, knowing my colleagues, this pretty much just looks like a normal workspace. Some of our best tech and strategy ponies are... notoriously messy."

"Is there a note or anything?" came Clove's voice from behind as he stepped around her. "I don't think they'd have taken off without even leaving something for us to find. They knew we were coming, right?"

"I... think?" Later replied. "I wasn't clear on the details. But you'd think that even if they didn't know we were coming, they'd have left somepony on guard. Right?"

"Can't imagine why they wouldn't, unless it's not safe," Clove replied. His focus, however, was trained towards one of the sheets of paper on top of one of the stacks. "Looks like they were working on some sort of satellite jammer." He shuffled a few of the papers around. "Doesn't look out of place. I'd say this is just the work of our comrades, in their natural state of 'organised chaos'."

Later sighed. "That... still doesn't explain where everypony is. If they weren't attacked... what happened?"

There was a pause—a lull—in which Clove kept flipping through the pages on the desk. Even Later, a metre away, watched; Mochi, on the other hoof, merely stood there with droopy eyelids, head lolling back and forth as she tried to stay awake.

"Where'd Ms. Fluff go?" Later said suddenly, head darting around. "Wasn't she just with us?"

"She changed her mind and asked if she could go sleep, so I told her about the room adjacent to the one the kids are sleeping in," Clove remarked, looking up. "Looks like you might be about ready to join her, Mochi."

"I'm... fine..." the pink mare managed. "Ain't no sleep when you're... when you're living the dream."

Later raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

Clove turned to Later. "How about this: I'll go up and search around the entrance to see if there's any sign of whoever's supposed to be at this base, and you try and get one of these computers booted up," he suggested. "That way you can get in contact with Doc Zed or Turnip or Xiibal or whoever the hell else is listening. Hopefully they'll know what's up."

Later nodded, already stepping forward to trade places with the stallion, who was already moving back towards the stairs. "Great idea, Clove. Mochi, do you wanna go up to that room with Cotton Fluff and sleep?"

"Mmm, I'm fine, but thanks for offerin'," the mare in question mumbled, stumbling forward. "Might close my eyes a titch here if you dun mind, though." She teetered over, collapsing against the conveniently-curved wall of the basement room, looking very much like a disorganised pile of pony.

Later's lips curved. "Go for it." She took her position behind the computer terminal at the desk, reached down, and pressed the large round power button. As the screen flickered to life, flashing bars of red, green, and blue before settling into white-on-black text, Later looked up at Clove. "Stay safe," she said, nodding in the stallion's direction. He returned the nod before trotting up the stairs (clink, clink, clinks abound) and out of sight.

Sighing, Even Later looked back down at the computer. She read the blocky letters that filled the centre of the screen before lifting a hoof, pressing down on a button two or three times, and then hitting the enter button on the keyboard.

In reply, the computer gave a satisfied beep and the screen began flashing with more colours.

Overhearing

Scootaloo was pretty sure her body hated her. Or maybe the world did. Briefly, she remembered some of the churches back home, the ones that revered Princess Celestia as a goddess—an omniscient, omnipotent creator. She wondered if perhaps that was true and it was Princess Celestia reaching down from the heavens with some mysterious yet majestic magical power, punishing her for her sins. Then she remembered that Princess Celestia was a really nice pony and that Rainbow Dash had told her about how she really wasn't anything like a goddess if you got to know her. No, it was probably just her body.

Why was Scootaloo having these thoughts? Because she couldn't sleep. She had spent the whole time when she needed to be running around feeling like she was going to collapse from exhaustion, and then as soon as she was given the opportunity to sleep, even though her eyes felt so weary that they could pop right out of her skull, she just couldn't get herself to drift out of consciousness. It was odd; she didn't usually have trouble sleeping.

Scootaloo turned her head and looked over to the side to see Flight snoring gently in the lower bunk on the opposite wall. The filly had trotted straight in to the room, climbed atop the mattress, and simply collapsed without another word; Kevin, who had clambered up the ladder to the bunk above her, took just a minute longer. Yet by the time Scootaloo had shut the door and flown up to the top of the other bunk, she felt an odd restlessness that jittered all through her hooves. She turned over a few times, but could never get her wings to sit right between her back and the sheets; no matter what position she took, something felt pinched in the wrong direction, or like it had too much pressure on it. She let out a sigh of frustration, found the most comfortable position she could, and slammed the pillow over her face in annoyance.

Just as she did this, there was a click down below. Scootaloo froze; she recognised it as the door handle clicking open. Was Kevin or Flight leaving? Yet she couldn't hear the telltale squeaks of their mattresses and both of their snores, gentle as they were, filled the room. No, this was somepony else, somepony coming in from outside. Slowly but surely, Scooatloo turned her head to look down.

However, before she could see who it was, the door quickly squeaked closed and she merely caught the latch clicking once more. There were faint hoofsteps outside, but those soon became inaudible through the wall. Scootaloo shrugged. It was probably just Later or Mochi, coming to check on them and see that they made it to the right room. They probably had already found out where everypony at the base was, and had likely already learned about the 'mission'. Scootaloo closed her eyes, hoping that the nervousness bubbling through her body would somehow subside soon so she could stop feeling like the living dead.

And then—of course—she heard another thing that would serve to delay her from sleeping: a voice. It came from the room next to her, speaking in a low tone that she was having a hard time making out. Groaning quietly, the filly scooted over until her ear was pressed directly against the wall. It didn't help much, but at least she was able to make out what was being said.

"Hello?" It was Cotton Fluff's voice, and she sounded like she was talking to somepony. "Are you there, G—uh, you?"

"I am," came an unfamiliar masculine voice. It didn't sound like the pony was actually there; from the metallic crispness, Scootaloo guessed that Cotton was speaking to somepony on her comlink. "What was that back in Ferretfall? Why didn't you—urgh—why didn't you stop them from going back to the police station?"

"I didn't—it would have been suspicious!" Cotton Fluff's voice replied, sounding annoyed. "Please, I'm doing the best I can. It's a miracle they don't suspect me already."

"Still, there's no point having you with them—and away from me, darling—if you can't do anything useful," the masculine voice replied.

Scootaloo had heard enough. She wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but she knew that Cotton Fluff was involved with somepony with the Bureau—or at least nopony friendly. Taking a deep breath, the filly threw the pillow off her face and stood up. She sucked in her gut, holding her breath so as not to make much noise, and took off from the bed, flapping her wings slowly and landing so gently on the ground that you would have thought it were a cloud rather than stone. She stepped forward quietly, opened the door, and closed it gingerly behind her as she faced the hall ahead of her.

Busted

"What more do you want me to do?" Cotton Fluff asked. She was huddled in the far corner of a small room, one that held bunks on either side much like the one next to it, all of which were still empty though the sheets were still perfectly tucked into the sides of each mattress. She wasn't paying attention to these, however; what held her attention was the small comlink on her foreleg, which she was staring at despite that there was no video or anything of the sort.

There was a pause before the reply. "I'm not sure. You... make a good point, about being suspicious. If they start to suspect what you're doing... well, I don't know these rebels all that well but I do know that they've been reported to be monstrous. I'd be surprised if you made it out alive."

"R-really?" Cotton Fluff stammered, visibly shaking. "Then I'm not sure if... I'm not sure if I should be talking to you here."

"Nonsense, it should be fine. You said everypony is asleep, did you not?"

"Well, yes, but..."

"Sweetie, please just tell me where you are and where you're going. That's all I need and then I'll get out of your hair."

Cotton Fluff opened her mouth as if to reply. But then she heard the slow creak of the floorboard somewhere in front of her and she leaned to the side to see the doorknob slowly turning. In just a quick few moments, the door cracked open and one pony she very much did not want to see came into view: Scootaloo. The alien filly the whole hullabaloo was about. Her eyes darted around the room, seemingly looking for something—but at first she appeared not to have seen anything and, eyebrow raised, started to retreat out the door.

"Ahem... Cotton? You there?" the voice crackled. Instantly, Scootaloo froze and ran into the centre of the room. Her eyes locked on Cotton Fluff's cowering form in the back corner, and she snarled.

Panicking, Cotton Fluff galloped over to the other side of the room and stopped, panting. "I'm... here..." She looked back to see Scootaloo just a metre away, eyeing the mare with an odd expression. "Go on."

"Right, right. As I was saying... where in Aeneus' name are you?"

Scootaloo frowned and leaned back, making like she was about to tackle the mare. Cotton Fluff, for her part, looked around to see if there was anywhere she could run, but there was no way she could make it even halfway up the ladder to the top bunk before the filly knocked her down. No, she'd have to weasel her way out of it some other way.

Frantically, Cotton Fluff shook her head. She lifted her paw to her neck and made a horizontal motion, hoping Scootaloo would catch a hint.

Luckily, the filly's muscles relaxed and she pulled back to a normal standing position. Her head turned, looking back towards the door. A wave of recognition flashed through the filly's eyes and she started trotting over to the other side of the room; Cotton Fluff realised it was to grab a blank pad of paper and a graphick that lay atop one of the nightstands. As Scootaloo walked, Cotton raised the comlink back to her mouth and cautiously said, "We're... in the Sciouse province."

Again, there was a pause. Then, a sigh. "Cotton, honey... that doesn't help at all. We know you're in the Sciouse province. There's no way you ponies could not be in the Sciouse province unless you flew away from the planet, but we'd have caught you anyway because the airspace is on high alert for any unauthorised activity. No, I wanna know where you are in the province. You've got to know."

By the time Gloss was done with his tirade, Scootaloo had made it to the other side of the room with the pad of paper and set it down. Quickly, she scribbled a few words on the top of the paper.

Cotton Fluff squinted, looking down at the paper. It was in the script of the lemurs, whatever she had written, which Cotton didn't understand. In reply, she merely gave a sympathetic expression and shrugged.

It was then that another wave of realisation washed over Scootaloo's eyes and the filly facehoofed. Letting out a quiet groan, her face screwed up in concentration.

"Hello? Cotton? What's going on? Are you still there?"

"Sorry, Gloss," she whispered, "but I'm trying to be quiet—I think somepony's coming. Is it okay if I hang up and call you in a few minutes?"

"That's fine, just hurry up! They're really getting on my case about all that went wrong, so I'd really appreciate some damn info." There was a click, and the line went dead. Cotton Fluff lowered her hoof.

"So," the orange filly in front of her calmly said, "what was that all about?"

Cotton Fluff bit her cheek. "I can explain—"

"You sure as heck better be able to explain!" Scootaloo near-yelled, lunging forward. "What are you trying to do, get us killed? Why are you working for the other side?! Have you been lying to use this whole time?!"

"Scootaloo, I..." She took a deep breath. "Yes. I've been lying to you this whole time."

Scootaloo blinked. "But why?"

"Really, I don't know," Cotton Fluff started. "I didn't mean to join up with the cops and whatever, but I didn't want to get all buddy-buddy with the rebellion either. I kind of just wished that I didn't have to get involved, but then you kids came along."

"Then how does that officer, Gloss, come into this? Isn't he the one we ran into back in the Umberlight Zoo?"

Cotton cringed. "Yeah, that's the one. Okay, that's right. He came to me asking for a favour, back a few days before Kevin and Flight showed up at my shop, and he asked me to look out for them. I've always just been a law-abiding citizen, you must realise—I just want to do what's right for the ponies I live around, and the nation as a whole. I always... I always saw the rebels as the bad guys. Though I didn't even know they were involved until... well, until we ran into that zebra outside Umberlight."

"So you agreed to do this before you really knew what was going on." It wasn't a question; Scootaloo was merely stating what she understood to be the facts.

Cotton nodded. "B-but honesty, if I had to make a decision knowing what I knew now, I'd help you guys! Really!"

"You don't even sound like you want to be talking to him," Scootaloo mused. "You ponies have history? Why'd he call on you for a favour?"

"He was my ex-husband," Cotton grumbled, looking down. "And he's gotten creepier and creepier ever since we started talking. Honestly, I'm kind of... scared of him."

Scootaloo sighed. "I don't trust you, like, at all."

Cotton nodded. "That's about what I deserve, I reckon."

"But... I don't know what I want to do about this," Scootaloo continued. "I can't turn you in to Later and Clove, 'cause who knows what they'll do to you. Even if you've been... feeding information to them, you don't deserve this."

"I almost got you killed, though," Cotton said. "I almost got all of you killed. I told them that we were going to be in Ferretfall."

Scootaloo frowned. "Okay, that is pretty bad. But... uh... at least nopony got hurt?"

"I just want everything to be okay," Cotton Fluff said with a sigh. "I just want to go back to my shop and sell specialty parts for vehicles and not have to worry about this stupid war and whether the stupid government or the stupid rebels are in the right. I want that all to be beyond me."

Scootaloo thought for a moment. "Let's make a deal. You do what I say, and I won't rat you out to the rebels. Then, after this stupid mission or whatever they make us do, you can just slip out. Maybe you can get 'captured' by the Bureau. Then you can just go back to Umberlight and pretend none of this ever happened. You shouldn't have to be involved in this whole thing if you don't want to."

"R-really? You'd do this for me? But that... goes against everything about the rebellion!" Cotton protested, though she was a bit surprised she was looking a gift horse in the mouth.

"As much as I like these ponies... I'm not a part of their rebellion," Scootaloo stated emphatically. "I want what's best for everypony, but I have no stake in this. I kinda was just passing through and they were the first ponies who didn't want me to stay in jail."

"...fair enough," Cotton Fluff replied. "So, uh, what do you want me to do?"

"Call him back," Scootaloo said. "Tell him we're going, like, west or something. Somewhere that we're definitely not going. I dunno. Make him think we're going to those islands."

Cotton Fluff looked down at the comlink. "I sure hope you're right about this..."

Scootaloo nodded. "Me too."

Mishaps

Scootaloo tiptoed back into the bedroom, closing the door behind her with a soft creak. As she crept slowly through the room's darkness, she noticed how utterly quiet the room was otherwise; this made her hyperaware of every single sound, every single groan of the floorboards as her hooves lightly tapped their surfaces. Yes, both Flight and Kevin were sound asleep, but she still felt worried about waking them up.

She looked up at the bunk she'd been sleeping in and was about to leap up and fly there when she realised how much noise that would make—no matter how little, there was still a possibility that her flapping would wake up the others. So, with a slight grumble, the filly stepped towards the other bunk.

However, at the same time, she heard a lull in the snores. Then, a yawn. Instinctively, Scootaloo froze, slowly turning her head to look over her shoulder. She could see the reclining form of Kevin, though his eyes were partially open. "Sc... Scooteroo?"

"Um... yeah?" Scootaloo murmured, hoping that the colt wasn't actually awake.

"Where'd you go? I thought I heard... voices."

Scootaloo pursed her lips. "I had to go to the little filly's room, and I couldn't find it so I went and talked to Cotton Fluff, 'cause she's resting next door. Later told her where it was."

"Mmm... me too..."

Scootaloo smiled weakly. "You go back to sleep now, m'kay?"

Kevin turned over to face the wall, so Scootaloo shrugged and turned back toward the lower bunk, clambering in between the sheets.

And, to her surprise, the mattress felt like heaven. Her wings were completely out of her mind, sinking and doing their own thing—but most importantly, they didn't hurt whatsoever. Scootaloo let out a relaxed sigh of contentment as she pulled the sheet over her body and closed her eyes, preparing to sleep.

Just as she was drifting out of consciousness, she could hear faint voices in the other room, but she already knew what they were talking about so they were really of no concern to her.

"G-Gloss?" Cotton Fluff stuttered into the comlink around her wrist. She was still huddled in that far corner, her nerves shot from that whole encounter with Scootaloo.

"I am here. Are they gone?" He sounded impatient, even more than he had before.

"Yes, it was just one of the kids who was looking for the restroom, but she already went back to bed."

"Which kid?" On the surface, the question seemed innocent enough, but it made Cotton Fluff feel uneasy.

"Erm... Flight," she lied. "Now, you wanted to know where we're going?"

"Yes, please. Enough stalling. If you keep this up, my superiors are going to start getting suspicious. Not that I would ever suspect you, dearest, but you know how it is."

Cotton Fluff bit her lip. "They're taking us back south, to the west. Southwest."

"Huh, interesting." Gloss' voice paused for a long moment. "Any idea why? What's the destination?"

"It's... um..." Cotton could feel a bead of sweat on her forehead, which she shook off. "They're taking us to Esprit. I think there's some sort of hidden boat on the coast down there that we can take to the island, and then... well, you know how the air patrolling is down there."

"Right, right... it'd be a difficult escape, but that's definitely the easiest way out." There was a burst of static—a cough. "Cotton, you're a lifesaver, you know that?"

"Yeah... definitely..." the mare trailed off, staring blankly out into the empty room around her. "Is there... is there anything else?"

"No, that's all. Thank you, Cotton, and I love you so much." Before Cotton could say anything else, there was a click and the line once more went dead.

Cotton, still shaking where she stood, stepped out of the corner after a moment, and over towards one of the lower bunks. Groaning, she lifted her torso up until she plopped down on the mattress, lying there on her side, exhausted. She didn't close her eyes; rather, she just looked out at the dimly-lit room, lost in thought. Had she made a good choice? She reminded herself that it wasn't quite a choice—there was no way for her to have sated Scootaloo without agreeing to the filly's terms, and honestly she was lucky that she hadn't been turned in to Later and Clove then and there. Still, Scootaloo had a good point; because she wasn't of the Bureau planets, she was somewhat removed from the whole conflict. Momentarily, she considered whether the leaders of the Bureau could be convinced to not put Scootaloo in jail, because then she maybe could join their side, but she knew it wasn't worth the trouble; Scootaloo was already emotionally invested in the rebels that she did know. Plus Cotton Fluff didn't even know if the Bureau was in the right.

Ugh.

Even Later tapped at the side of the computer screen, frustrated. Yes, she knew it wasn't going to help anything, but that didn't stop the sound of her hoof hitting its side from making her feel better, even if just a little bit.

The screen fizzled a little bit on contact, picture blurring into static before coming back clearly. Later sighed. Using her magic, she pressed a few of the keys and rotated the cursor ball, clicking on a button on-screen that she had clicked dozens of times before.

Now, some ponies might say that repeating a task and expecting different results is insanity. Other, more educated ponies, on the other hoof, would just say that's computers for you. And, as it so happens, that was computers for Later, for suddenly a name popped up in a text box, and a familiar name at that: "Doc Zed". Later grinned.

She navigated over to the little comlink icon next to his name on the otherwise empty list and clicked on it, listening to the ringback tone that emanated from the tinny computer speakers, fighting with Mochi's snores for dominance of the basement room. Then, a click.

"Hello? Who is this?" came the familiar voice of Doc Zed. "Why are you—oh, gods, I suppose it doesn't matter now."

"Hey, Zed, it's Even Later here at the North Sciouse base. I'm here with Clove Hitch, as well as Scootaloo, Kevin, Flight, Cotton Fluff, and Mochi. We have... a few questions, if that's alright."

"Erm... that's wonderful and all, truly, but perhaps it could wait just a tad? Microfiche and I don't have much time."

Later raised an eyebrow. "Don't have much time until what?"

"They're coming," Doc Zed said gravely. "The Bureau knows where I am, and they're coming for me. I have less than an hour, tops, before they're all over Dienna and all over my laboratory. Oh, my poor laboratory..."

"Wait, what?" Later asked, incredulous. "How did this even happen?" She paused. "Oh, and while you're at it, could you tell us why nopony else is here?"

Doc Zed's static sigh emanated from the computer speakers. "Microfiche!" he called, further away from his comlink microphone. "I'm going to be a bit on this call with Later, so I need you to hurry up on getting our stuff in the ship! Alright, Later, where was I?"

Purvey

"Really, I'm incredibly lucky that I was checking the radio waves when I did, or else we wouldn't have had nearly enough time to pack up and get out," Doc Zed's voice explained as it burst with static out from the computer speakers. Later was standing there, staring intently at the screen; Mochi, still lying against the wall near the stairs, had been woken from her sleep and her eyelids were cracked open just a titch. "I was able to pick up on a conversation between some of the Umberlight guards and Ms. Haze, the one who's Prince Aeneus's main assistant. Basically, from what I heard, I could infer that they were coming down to get me. A quick check on the scanners revealed a large ship flying low over the forest, heading this way, and it's gonna be here soon. If we don't get out now, we'll have to lock ourselves in, and I don't know how well the doors are gonna hold—this thing wasn't built for a siege."

Later leaned back, taking it all in. "Do you know how they found you?"

"Yes, actually, and it's really quite unfortunate—they were able to intercept the call Flight made to me, since they had a geolocation tracker on in the area just to sniff out you ponies. Whoops. And technically, this call is also trackable, but I'm not too worried about them finding me anymore. Heh."

"Oh, jeez..." Later murmured. "Wait, but what about us? Shouldn't they be able to track us here to this base?"

"Oh, hm, I hadn't thought about that. You're right—they could, but even if they do, you're leaving soon, right? And nopony else is there, you said?"

"Well, yes... but this is kind of an important base strategically, is it not?"

"I don't know. Probably. I don't know how important it can be if nopony's there, though."

Later's eyebrow arched. "Wait, do you mean you don't know anything about this?"

"Later, I have much more pressing things to worry about than why there aren't any ponies at some random base in the Sciouse province. I must admit, I don't usually keep in the loop on the motions of our agents unless they're going to be close by, and that doesn't really qualify."

Later sighed. "I should probably let you get back to getting out of there, then."

"Indeed," Doc Zed agreed. "Microfiche has been a great help, truly, but there are a few sensitive materials I need to handle myself. We're going to open up the ceiling of the lab which is under a lot next to my house, and then fly out of there 'cause the Dienna police are already patrolling the area outside, no doubt waiting for the other police to show up before they do anything. They'll see us as we fly out, but I don't think there's enough of them to do diddly squat."

"Heh... you show 'em, Doc." Later smiled weakly. "Oh, and you wouldn't happen to know about the 'mission' that Scootaloo has to go on, would you? Turnip said that we should come here to this base to get it, but there's... nopony here still."

Doc Zed let out a staticky sigh. "No, I really don't know what's up with all that, and even if I did, I'd find the whole thing ridiculous anyhow. Our priority should be in getting Scootaloo off the planet, not on some strange 'mission'. But here, I'll patch you in to somepony who can give you some answers. Though, I'll warn you, she might ask to speak to the filly directly."

"Erm, alright. As long as we can figure out what to do next," Later replied. "It doesn't feel safe here."

A grunt of what Later assumed was approval came out of the computer speakers and then there was an odd, fizzling wave before a few electronic tones emanated throughout the room. Later noticed that on the computer screen, the name "Doc Zed" had been replaced by another, a name that made her freeze where she stood.

The tones ceased almost immediately, replaced by a thin layer of static. "Hello?" a gravelly yet young-sounding voice asked. "Is this Doctor Zed?"

Later gulped. "N-no, Commander Xiibal," she stuttered. "This is Officer Even Later, currently stationed on the Kindred planet, and I am here at the Northern Sciouse province base, working with Officer Clove Hitch to chaperone Scootaloo and her companions to their next directed location, wherever that may be, ma'am. Doc Zed is merely using his comlink as a bridge so that I can talk to you, ma'am."

There was no reply for a few seconds, although it felt like longer. Mochi, who at this point was completely awake, shot Later a confused look. Later, for her part, merely shrugged. "I see," the voice on the comlink finally said. "So, Later, what can I do for you?"

Later took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "I need to know what happened to the ponies who were supposed to be at this base, and I need to know what Scootaloo needs to do next, and how we can assist her in this venture."

There was another pause, albeit shorter. "What do you mean, what happened to the ponies who were supposed to be there? Are there not ponies manning the base?"

"No, ma'am," Later replied. "The base appeared empty upon arrival, and our spells haven't revealed any traces of life beyond our own and some bugs."

"I must admit, this is news to me as well," the Commander replied. "I'll have to check with some of my advisors, but as far as I know, that base wasn't evacuated. As for Scootaloo's mission... are you the only pony here? Is there any way you can get everypony together so that they all get the instructions straight from me?"

Later bit her lip. "I'm here just with one of Scootaloo's companions, but yes, I can gather them, but they're not going to like it. We just got in here after a long trek, and the kids are trying to sleep."

"There will be time for sleeping later," Xiibal replied coolly. "Please, wake everypony in your party, and quickly—this call shouldn't go on longer than it has to."

"Right." Later turned to Mochi. "Mochi, could you be a dear and go have everypony come back down here?"

The pink mare nodded and pulled herself up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "See you in a few," she said, trotting up the stairs. Later was left there alone in the basement, staring at the screen.

"Ah, waiting," Xiibal said with a hint of amusement in her tone. "So much of life revolves around waiting."

"Heh, you said it," Later replied.

Exposition

There was clattering of hooves above, which quickly turned down the stairs and spiralled downward into the basement room, its owners coming into Later's view as she watched the ponies quickly trot towards her. Mochi and Clove Hitch shuffled out first, followed quickly behind by Kevin, Flight, and an extremely grumpy-looking Scootaloo that barged through the group, glaring daggers at Later. The mare was so distracted that she almost didn't notice the sleek brown form of Cotton Fluff slinking down the stairs slowly in the back.

"Whyyyy..." Scootaloo groaned, her eyelids barely open as she lurched back and forth. "Celestia, why?"

Later frowned. "I'm sorry, Scootaloo, but—"

"No, it's fine, I can take it from here," the voice from the computer speakers said, making Scootaloo's head jitter to attention. "Thank you, Later, and thank you Mochi for gathering everypony here."

"No problem," Mochi muttered. "The only hard part was gettin' these kids outta bed."

"Who are you, again?" Scootaloo asked. "What's going on? Mochi only said something about instructions or... whatever. You guys find anything about the ponies who were supposed to be here?"

"I know I didn't," Clove Hitch said as he leaned against the right wall, resting his head. "There aren't no signs that anypony walked in or out of the place besides us."

"Curiouser and curiouser," the voice said. "No matter... I think what I have to tell you is much more pressing, and I hope worth waking you for. I, as you may or may not know, am Commander Xiibal, overseeing the Revan planet's forces with the power invested in me by Prince Bohrr. I understand that I am speaking with Miss Scootaloo, Child of the Beyond, am I not?"

Scootaloo blinked. "Child of the what now? Uh... just call me Scootaloo, please. That's kind of a mouthful."

"Hmm, I suppose it is," Xiibal said in a tone that sounded much like she was smiling. "Look, Scootaloo, I'm going to be frank: my advisors and I believe there to be something very important about you, even if we're not quite sure what it is yet. And we know the Bureau knows this too, based on the fact that they captured you and placed you in the South Pen, one of their highest-security prisons on the planet. That you were able to get out of there is nothing short of astonishing, and I'm very glad to have you on our side."

Scootaloo frowned, unsure of what to say—would it be a good idea to lie to this powerful pony? She finally settled on saying, "I... had help, though."

"Interesting," Xiibal said. "I would love to hear all about it, but really, I think I should just get along to telling you about what I need you to do."

Scootaloo sighed. "Yeah, okay, might as well get this over with."

"Wonderful. Now, basically what I need you all to do is go north to the CDK and retrieve an important item that is being stored in the Kindred Palace."

The entire group stood there silent for a moment, looking at each other.

"Let me get this straight..." Later started. "You're sending Scootaloo, the only pony we know of that isn't from a Bureau planet, into the capital city on this planet of our greatest enemy, right into the thick of danger, just to grab some random... thing?"

"It doesn't sound that bad," Scootaloo countered. "I mean, I guess I don't understand why it needs to be me, but it doesn't seem like that much of an issue if you don't have anypony else to do it."

"We have other ponies that could get into the CDK and even the Palace, but because this item is stored in Prince Aeneus's private vault, only a very small pony could get through the ventilation system to get the item. Plus, of course, we need some way to test Scootaloo's mettle."

"I don't like this..." Later said, frowning. "I don't think Zed would like this either."

Xiibal let out a staticky sigh. "Scootaloo, you're up for this, yes?"

Scootaloo shrugged. "Sure, whatever."

"Then, please, take with you any of your companions who are willing to go and who you think will help you. If Officer Later doesn't wish to go with you, then by all means I would request that she stay behind. I don't need this mission to get mucked up by begrudging ponies, you understand?"

Later rubbed her temples with a hoof. "No, no, I'll go. Clove and I are the only ponies here who are even actually a part of our side, anyway, and probably the only ones who have been in the CDK. They'll need us."

"Oh, thank you so much." There was a pause. "I must be off now. Please, give Doc Zed my regards, and do make haste with this mission. Once you're done, contact Zed about where to go. Probably back down to that Dienna village he's set up in." Before anyone could say anything, the speakers clicked.

The room hung still with silence. Then, Scootaloo shifted. "Can I go back to sleep?" she asked, gazing ahead with a weary-eyed expression.

Later, solemnly, nodded.

Preparation

A cool breeze wafted through the clearing between the trees, although it didn't seem particularly necessary; while surely later in the day it would have been helpful in staving off the heat, the morning sun's rays felt more like the warm touch of a friend rather than anything oppressive. It was in these golden rays that Clove Hitch basked, his body leaned against the stony wall beside the hidden doorway into the rebel base. Although he was supposedly on watch, his eyes were closed; he figured that his ears worked well enough and that his eyes were so weary that it wouldn't hurt if he gave them a rest.

Not that there was anything to hear, but for the breeze rustling through the trees and the occasional insect buzzing by. His own breathing, steady and regular. Natural sounds. Briefly, he thought about how long it had been since he had only been surrounded by natural sounds. It was relaxing in a unique way.

Suddenly, his muscles flinched, and he nearly lost balance. Clove's eyelids fluttered open and he reached out his front hooves to steady himself. Slowly but surely, he got himself to a comfortable, stable position once again, and relaxed, letting out a sigh. Whatever the Bureau ponies had used on him was probably still in his system, so he would have to be careful. Especially with this... mission they were about to embark upon. He wasn't exactly sure how long it would be until they left, but he hoped it would be soon; the longer they stayed in this base, the worse, especially with the ponies who were supposed to be there just... gone. It wasn't right... no, it wasn't right.

Later pursed her lips as she looked down at the computer screen in front of her and focused her eyes, feeling how limply they sat in their sockets. After Commander Xiibal had hung up and all the other ponies had left the room, Later had stayed behind to look up a few things on the computer and to check with some of the computer's logs, to see when the last recorded activity had been. She hadn't even gotten to opening any files, though, before a message popped up with a couple incoming files from Commander Xiibal herself. It took a few minutes for them to load with the subpar connection routed through Doc Zed's comlink, but eventually Later was able to open them up and see what they were.

The first was a map with a simplified schematic of the Kindred Palace, detailling exactly how they should get into the place as well as where Scootaloo would need to go to collect the mysterious item from Aeneus's vault. Later was actually surprised at how simple the mission seemed to be, and decided that it was maybe possible that Xiibal didn't actually have any weird alterior motives and might just have wanted Scootaloo for her size and ease of getting through the vents. Still, it wouldn't hurt to be extra careful.

The other file was text and only held a few words: "OX⫙ ʞØ3⦢òØ ØMᑌГ⫙O". Since there was nothing else in the file, Later assumed that this was the item to be retrieved. She let out a sigh of relief, thanking the stars that Xiibal had actually seen fit to send these files; otherwise, Later wasn't sure what they would've done. She set the map document to print a few copies, and then, as the printer whirred to life behind her, she minimised the files Xiibal had sent to make room for the network usage logs.

It took her only a minute or two to find what she was looking for; she watched patiently as the database loaded and then used her magic to scroll down past the connections and file accesses that she had just made. And that's when she saw it, and what she saw made her raise an eyebrow in confusion.

The last time the computer had been accessed, by username '∞ሐ16', had been just three hours before Later first booted the computer up. That meant that whoever had last used the computer had left the base less than three hours before they had gotten there.

What the hell?

Off upstairs in a once-empty bedroom, Cotton Fluff and Mochi had each taken a lower bunk and settled in between the sheets in the darkness. Mochi had murmured a goodnight and it seemed like she almost immediately fell asleep, her light breathing coming at a steady, rhythmic pace. Cotton Fluff, on the other hoof, was having a hard time sleeping. It wasn't that she was uncomfortable; on the contrary, the bunk she lay upon was even more cushy than the bed she had at home—it easily put hers to shame.

No, what kept Cotton Fluff up was the room. She couldn't help but keep stealing glances at the corner of the room which, once her eyes adjusted to the thick darkness of the room, she could just make out by the side of the ladder up to the top bunk. Every time she glanced at the corner, it sent her heart aflutter; it was almost like she was reliving that horrible, awful moment of standing there with Gloss on the comlink and Scootaloo standing in front of her, caught between two ponies whom she desperately hoped wouldn't find out the other was there. Even though she knew it was over, she couldn't help how anxious it made her. Sighing, Cotton resigned herself to her fate and turned onto her back, trying as hard as she could not to look.

Shapes danced around in her vision, her brain filling the gaps of the darkness that she couldn't make out with distorted shapes of ponies that ballooned outward before exploding, giving way to gelatinous clock towers and rolling, shifting fields of grass.

In the next room, the three youngest ponies all finally slept, and this time they would not be interrupted immediately afterwards. Scootaloo had mentioned to Flight on the way up that the bottom bunk was much more comfortable; as a result, Flight had barged her way into the room first to secure a position on one of the lower bunks. Scootaloo did the same, leaving a disgruntled Kevin to clamber up the ladder above Flight's bed, ignoring the others' teasing suggestions that the weary unicorn just levitate himself up there. So, while the other two lay in luxury, drifting quickly off to sleep, Kevin just lay there unmoving in silence, uncomfortable yet still as a board. He counted the seconds as they passed until he lost track and then he just stared at the ceiling. And, as it always does, sleep came eventually.

And yet it was a restless sleep, one where Kevin found himself in a very strange dream...

Oneironautics

The world around was the softest white that she had ever seen, the softest white that she had ever felt. It hugged her coat, pulling her in closely, holding her tight with more comfort she had known since the last time she was wrapped in her mother's embrace. And yet, at the same time, the white held back, floating at a distance, giving her space to breathe. She stretched out her limbs, flexing a foreleg lazily through the space, just to see if she could. As it turns out, she could.

Now, she didn't actually know it was a white that surrounded her and, upon realising this, she also realised that she hadn't quite yet gotten around to opening her eyes, having merely let her brain fill in the gaps that of course such a beautiful softness must be like milk or like snow, cool and flowing around her. Yet not a minute passed by before she grew dissatisfied with the knowledge that she was lacking in knowledge, that there was something out there just within reach but which she hadn't yet reached out for—and that's when she opened her eyes.

The first thing she noticed was the sky, an immaculate blue that was somewhere out of a storybook, unmarred by clouds or even the sun. Nothing hung in the atmosphere nor flew just overhead; the only thing of note was the endless line where the blue expanse kissed the gentle green of the grass below. And how gentle the strands of grass were, poking up from the earth like hair. She looked down at her hooves whose dark green keratin contrasted with the soft green of the grass they bent down, crushed to the ground. She took a breath, and looked back up.

The whole world was still. Unnaturally still, even—the wrongness of it all sent a shiver down her spine. And yet, at the same time, this broke the stillness; she took a step forward, trampling a few more blades of grass, shattering the perfection laid out before her.

She didn't mind. In fact, as she thought about this, she smiled.

As she walked along the field, nothing changed but for the grass bending down before her with a soft crunch as her hooves matted it down against the dirt. Once, she looked over her shoulder, looking at the path of destruction that lay behind her. Shrugging, she moved on.

Minutes passed. She wasn't sure how many minutes passed, but she knew they did. It's hard to tell how much time is passing when you're in a dream, even when cognisant that it's a dream that you're in. She wouldn't have even been able to tell that she was moving anywhere with how perfect everything was, exactly the same, if not for that trail behind her.

And then, of course, as most things do, the perfection before her ended. She realised that the perfection was only illusory, you see, by coming across something different. Something foreign. She wasn't quite to it yet so she couldn't immediately recognise it for what it was but as she approached even closer, she could see through the tall grass that before her lay a puddle. Some way, somehow, the grass was interrupted for a large enough space to hold a basin of dirt and water. Briefly, she considered drinking; however, she didn't find herself in the slightest bit thirsty and, upon reflection, realised that the water would likely be much too dirty to be potable, anyhow.

Oh, and speaking of reflections...

Once she had reached the very edge of the puddle, she looked down and saw a pony in the flat, shimmering surface. A reflection. Or was it?

She cocked her head, trying to get a better look, but the very action answered her question; the dark-green shape of the pony in the puddle didn't move at all besides to blink. No, although this pony looked very much like she did, they were not one and the same.

"Hello," the pony said. From the sound of his voice, he was a colt, although still quite young. About her age, if she thought about it. "How are you?"

She didn't respond at first, trying to find the words. "I'm fine, I guess. How are you?"

"Tired," he replied almost instantly. "I'm very tired."

"Who are you?" she asked, giving him a funny look. "You seem familiar."

"My name is Kevin," he said matter-of-factly. "I'm... well, you know."

"Oh," she said, frowning. "I remember you. What are you doing here?"

"I don't know, really," Kevin replied, hanging his head. "I don't want to be here. Can I come in?"

"But you're not real," she replied. "You're my imaginary friend."

If Kevin was surprised by this accusation, he didn't look it. He just slowly nodded. "I know. But do you know that?"

She cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said, and nothing more," Kevin replied. "Do you know that I'm not real?"

She sighed, looking and feeling forlorn. "What do you want? I have things to do here, you know."

"I want to come in," Kevin said. "And I think you need to come be where I am."

She bit her lip. "I don't wanna."

Kevin wore a sombre expression. "Yes you do, silly filly. You're just scared, and I know it's hard. But really, you can do this. They love you."

"I don't even know half of them," she countered.

"Still, they love you. Scootaloo loves you. Flight loves you. It's going to be fine."

"How can you say that?" she replied.

Kevin took a long time to reply; he looked up at the cloud-filled sky on his side of the puddle and sighed before looking back down. "Because I can't do this anymore," he finally said. "You don't have a choice."

"I-I know," she replied wistfully. "But it's so hard to stop playing pretend."

Kevin nodded. "C'mere, I'll help you down." He reached up a hoof and, to her surprise, the dark-green keratin broke the puddle's surface, sending little ripples outward towards the muddied edges by the grass.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before reaching out her own hoof to touch Kevin's. His hoof was cold and clammy, unfamiliar and almost unfriendly. Although it made her uncomfortable, she held on tight as he pulled and pulled. She stepped forward, bracing herself for the watery mud she'd surely come in contact with.

Yet it never came. She felt warmth as she passed through and when she opened her eyes, she found herself standing right next to Kevin on the other side of the puddle. The world around them wasn't perfect—the sky had a sun too bright and a smattering of clouds all over the place, and the hodgepodge grass grew in clumps wherever it would, but something felt... better. Not sterile, and not fake.

"Kaylee?" Kevin asked, turning to the filly.

"Yeah?" she replied cautiously.

"I know you can do this, girl. I really do."

"Th-thanks." She watched as Kevin turned toward the puddle and, in an instant, jumped straight through, water splashing up into the air. This time she wasn't spared, however, her coat nearly soaked through from the puddle. As she shrieked and jumped back, she felt her heart race.

By the time her heart rate slowed and she had calmed down enough, Kaylee looked back down at the puddle. Kevin had splashed away all of the water, leaving a muddy hole but no semblance of the watery surface she had seen before; even if she wanted to, there was no way she could go back.

With a heavy sigh, Kaylee tore her gaze from the mudhole and looked out across the uneven plains. She spied an odd shape somewhere in the horizon, out in the direction of the sun, and squinted as she took the first of many steps forward, trotting wherever her hooves might take her.

Alarm

The whole world shook; it was almost like an earthquake with how violently everything moved and would not stop moving. With a groan, Kaylee opened her eyes, trying to figure out where she was or what was going on. As her eyes opened, though, the world stopped shaking and, as it came into view, the lingering memories of an odd dream floating through her mind were replaced with the sight of two pegasi, an orange one to the left and a yellow one to the right. Both of them stood at the foot of the bed, near where Kaylee's back legs were outstretched underneath the quilt. Kaylee shook her head to attention. "Wha...?"

"Oh, thank Argent you're awake," Flight said, leaning in a tad. "I thought for sure we were gonna have to get Mochi or Cotton to come back and wake you up."

"Meh, I knew we could do it," Scootaloo countered. "Physical force always works better than just shouting."

Flight shot a sidelong glance at Scootaloo, eyebrow raised, but turned back to Kaylee. "So! You probably didn't hear us 'cause you were asleep and all, but Later said that we need to get out of here ASAP."

"Apparently Doc Zed's in a heap of trouble and the faster we can get this dorky mission over with, the better. He's got my ship, so we can just fly off the planet." Scootaloo seemed oddly quiet compared to how she usually was, but then Kaylee noted the large bags under her eyes; out of the three of them, she was probably the one who had gotten the least amount of sleep. Not that Kaylee herself was feeling any more well-rested, but she had gotten enough so that she could keep on walking.

"That sounds... good?" Kaylee said, wincing slightly at her voice. It was always deeper than normal in the mornings, and she didn't like it. She shifted up her tone a tad, trying to make it more like how she liked it without raising eyebrows. "I mean, not good, but that seems doable."

"Yeah, exactly," Scootaloo said. "So, uh, let's go back down there and put on our saddlebags, I guess?" She turned to Flight. "You didn't bring or leave anything else here, right?"

"Nope," Flight replied, shaking her head. She took another look at Kaylee before turning to the ledge and leaping off, gliding down easily. It wasn't a moment later that Scootaloo followed suit, disappearing over the edge and then there was the sound of her hoofsteps clinking on the metal ground.

With a yawn, Kaylee reached up and threw the quilt off of herself. She grunted as she pulled her body up to a standing position and then, hooves bouncing on the mattress as she passed, she made her way over to the ladder and then started climbing her way slowly down.

It only took her a few minutes to get the few stray items back in her saddlebag, but by the time Kaylee was finished and had trotted out of the room, Scootaloo and Flight were already long gone. She could hear their voices somewhere far down the hallway, chatting about something he couldn't discern and sounding very much like they had been longtime friends. As she trotted down the hallway with hoofsteps much heavier than she would have preferred, she considered perhaps that she was feeling left out.

Regardless, it wasn't long until Kaylee reached the main tunnel and, following Scootaloo's and Flight's voices, turned back to the tunnel that led outside. This appeared to be the right way; the door was wide open and she could see the trunks of trees through the dim evening light that shone down from above. And, once she reached the end, Kaylee found herself in the company of Scootaloo, Flight, Mochi, Cotton Fluff, and Clove Hitch. All of them were standing around in a small group to the left of the entryway, having pushed away a few of the ferns that encroached upon the path.

"Good morn—er, evening, Kevin!" Mochi greeted once she saw Kaylee, grinning wildly.

It was all Kaylee could do not to frown as she felt a drop in the pit of her stomach. "Hey there, Mochi. How's it going?"

"Good!" the chipper pink pony replied. "We're just waiting on Later, 'cause she's doing some weird stuff with the computers or whatever."

"Did she ever end up sleeping?" Scootaloo asked, turning to Clove Hitch.

"Yes, I made her get a few hours this afternoon, right after I woke up," he replied. "Honestly, though, I don't know what keeps that pony running; she's got the strength of an ox. Must be all that earth pony magic."

Scootaloo blinked. "But she's a unicorn?"

Clove gave her an odd look. "I'll... let her tell you about it later. It's a bit of an odd story, that one."

"Uh, okay," Scootaloo said. Shrugging, she turned back to Flight and started saying something about using her scooter back home.

Kaylee, however, had tuned out; she was leaned up against the rock wall of the base, gazing out along its surface as it stretched out as far as the eye could see. Inside her mind, cogs were turning; she was starting to remember bits and pieces of her dream. Kevin had been there... or, at least, it was what she had always wished Kevin could be. Yet now... now he was gone. Not that he was ever real to begin with. And soon, very soon, she would have to tell everypony. But not now. Never now. Some other time.

"Kevin?" a voice said, breaking her from her thoughts. As Kaylee once more cringed, she turned her head to look at the voice that had spoken, which belonged to none other than Cotton Fluff. The mare had stepped around the group and up to her, giving her a concerned look. "Is everything alright?"

"Y-yeah," Kaylee lied. "Everything's fine. Just feeling kind of tired, I think."

"Ah, right. Me too," Cotton replied, nodding. "Been a while since I got a good night's sleep, what with flying that hovercraft and all."

Kaylee nodded, though she wasn't really listening. Cotton seemed to take note of this, as she didn't say anything more; her gaze merely softened as she looked at the filly.

"Alright, I'm here!" Later's voice called out, breaking Scootaloo and Flight's conversation and making everyone look towards the entrance as the green unicorn burst from the tunnel. "I've got all my stuff, so we can just take off now once Clove locks up."

"Dang it, why do I always have to lock up?" Clove grumbled as he stepped up, fiddling with the door.

"Uh... because I always refuse to learn how?" Later asked, shrugging. "I dunno. Whatever the reason, that doesn't matter! Let's go!" she proclaimed, stepping forward onto the ferns and into part of the forest that most certainly wasn't delineated by a path. With little other choice, the rest of the group followed behind her. Besides Clove who was still working on the door, Kaylee brought up the rear, thinking about her dream as she walked.

Overview

"So, did you get the plans printed out?" Clove asked. Once he had finished locking the door, he quickly moved past Kaylee and the rest of the group until he was at the lead alongside Later.

"Yep, and I'll give you one to look over the next time we stop. There's no use in looking at it now; we've got to keep moving, 'cause we're behind schedule anyway," Later said between breaths as she trotted full speed ahead.

"There's a schedule?" Scootaloo asked from behind.

"Yes, and the schedule is to get there ASAP before the Bureau can find Doc Zed," Later replied quickly, not even bothering to look over her shoulder. "I did get a quick confirmation that he made his way out, but he tossed his comlink 'cause he can't use it without them tracking him down. He said he and Microfiche will be safe in some... cave, though. Said you might know it, Kevin."

Kaylee, who was still in the back of the group thinking about other things, shook her head to attention at the sound of that name. "Huh? Something about a cave?" she asked, somewhat abashed. "Sorry, I wasn't really paying attention."

"Doc Zed said he was escaping to some cave near Dienna," Flight said, turning to her friend. "Though I'm pretty sure I know which one he's talking about—he took me and Kev down there to show us the stalactites and stalagmites more than a few times."

"Oh, right," Kaylee affirmed, nodding. "I remember that place. Did it have a name?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure if anyone but Doc Zed and us know that it's there," Flight said. "It's kind of... out of the way. Not many ponies go east, on account of the Ridge."

"The Ridge?" Scootaloo asked.

"Yeah, there's a big mountain ridge not too far from town," Flight explained, "and the cave is tucked in pretty tight on the side. I kinda wonder how Doc Zed found it in the first place."

"Regardless, that's what we'll need to do after we get out. What we need to figure out now is how we're getting in and then out of the darn palace," Later said. "I've got a basic schematic, sure, and I know what Scootaloo's supposed to be getting from Prince Aeneus's vault, but I still have no idea how we're going to get past the guards into the CDK, let alone the palace."

"The CDK?" Scootaloo asked.

"Capital District Kindred. It's the name of the city that holds the palace, as well as the chambers of the Kindred Parliament. They run the whole place." Later paused. "It's big and underground, too, not like Ferretfall or Dienna or whatever dinky country towns you kids are used to getting into—they can fortify the place like nopony's business, especially if they know we're out and about."

"Oh, don't make it sound so hopeless," Clove said with a roll of his eyes, nudging Later's side. "We don't know all that. I'm sure there's somepony who can help us get in, or we can at least scout out the place once we get there and figure out disguises. It might be hard, but nothing's really impossible."

Later looked about ready to kick him. "Whatever. Let's just get there so I don't have to deal with your optimism."

"Hey, you didn't have to come!" Clove countered. "In fact, you really weren't supposed to come but you did anyway. Wonder how Turnip feels about that?"

"Grr..." Later grumbled. "Bugger off, you."

As Clove and Later continued their playful verbal sparring, the rest of the group, seeing that the discussion was mostly over, devolved into their now-normal chatmates: Cotton Fluff struck up another conversation with Mochi next to her, talking about how to run a business in modern-day Umberlight, and Scootaloo and Flight were back to talking about something about flying, something Kaylee couldn't care less about. So, with a sigh, she stayed where she was, hanging back at the tail end of the group, keeping quiet.

That name, Kevin. She was loath to hear herself addressed like that—so deeply she desired just to ignore it—but she couldn't help but turn her head when the ponies around her said it. They didn't know any better. Though she didn't know if they would keep saying it even if they did. She sighed. Soon. Maybe not right away, but soon. The opportunity would present itself and—

"Kevin?" It was Flight—dear Flight—who had uttered the blasted name, and Kaylee had to stop so as not to run into the butter-yellow filly who had stopped so suddenly in front of her.

"Y-yes?" Kaylee replied. "What's up?"

"You're being awfully quiet, dude," Scootaloo said, giving him an odd look. "We'll stop talking about flying, if that's what you want. I dunno why you'd care about any of that stuff anyway."

Kaylee nodded. "I mean, you don't have to do that if you don't want to, but sure."

"C'mon, tell us about... tell us more about your time in Esprit," Flight prompted, stepping forward.

Kaylee grinned as she fell into step with her friends. "Ooh, I haven't told you much about that, have I? Let's see... did I tell you about the time that a shipment got stolen right under my nose and I had to go track it down or else my boss would fire me? That was a pretty tough one..."

"How'd you manage to find it?" Scootaloo asked.

"Well, I didn't—not quite," Kaylee replied. "You see..."

Water

The group of ponies trotted onwards for some time into the ever darkening forest, following Even Later's determined stride wherever it may take them. At one point, Mochi had made a show of asking the mare how she knew where she was going, expecting no answer; in reply, Later had merely closed her eyes as her horn lit up and a green arrow of light ballooned out from its tip, spiralling around in the air for a moment before pointing decisively in the direction they were trotting.

"A mana-concentration detector," Later had explained, "which I can use because I know the approximate direction and that the capital is the first large concentration of mana in that general area." As this was enough of an explanation, everypony else tuned out as Mochi proceeded to ask Later about local politics and whether anything had changed in the system. Later, for her part, had a few answers, but mostly ones that pertained to the Sciouse province where she had been stationed, not the Southern Kindred Territory where Mochi had lived her whole life, so the pink mare soon stopped asking.

Eventually, it grew dark enough that the ponies couldn't see a thing without aid, so Later, Cotton, and Kaylee duly lit up their horns, luckily being spread out enough that they covered the entire group with a glowing aura of blended hues.

Yet not ten minutes later...

"You hear that?" Cotton murmured, breaking an uneasy silence that had fallen over the group. Scootaloo, Kaylee, Flight, and Mochi all immediately turned their heads.

"Hear what?" Scootaloo rasped. "The crickets?"

"Frogs," Clove said. "I hear 'em."

For a moment, everypony was quiet and, somewhere beyond them, over the soft sounds of their hooves crunching over the dirt and detritus below, there was a croak. Then a ribbit.

"Must be getting close to water," Cotton remarked. "Maybe there's a creek this way."

"A creek would be nice," Flight said. "I feel really sticky and gross... I know I can't, like, take a shower or anything, but it would be nice to rinse off."

"We'll stop at the creek once we get there," Later proclaimed, turning her neck to address the whole group behind her. "We've been walking long enough as it is—and making good time, too—and I need to get some shuteye for a few moments at least."

"You, sleep?" Clove teased. "I didn't realise you were able to!"

"Can it, Officer Dork," Later shot back, turning back to the front. "Don't make me drown you..."

Clove blinked, taken aback, and didn't say anything more. Silence, once more, overtook the group.

"It's definitely not a creek," Flight remarked as she stood there neck-deep in the water.

"What are you talking about? This is totally a creek." Scootaloo gestured with her hooves at the edges of the body of water, pointing to where the miniature brown-tinged crests lapped at the muddy shoreline. "It's all muddy and everything, just like a creek. X.E.D."

Flight raised an eyebrow. "It's Q.E.D. And seriously, it can't be a creek. There's no flow of water, see? It's just a big pool of water. A pond, though it's a gross one."

"'Pond' is way too nice-sounding a word to describe this," Scootaloo replied, face turned up in a somewhat-mock pout. "That makes it sound all fancy, like there's going to be sailboats or something. Nah, this thing needs a name of its own. Maybe a mudhole."

Flight rolled her eyes. "That sounds way too dirty."

"Yeah, well your moms sound too dirty," Scootaloo shot back with a grin. At the same time, she reached down and quickly raised her forelegs, splashing Flight right in the face. The yellow pegasus filly looked aghast.

"Why, you..." Flight jolted forward, sending a wave of murky water straight at Scootaloo, drenching the filly's face and hair. Scootaloo, rather than being irritated, looked absolutely gleeful as she brushed her sopping purple bangs out of her face and retaliated, dashing around Flight quickly in a circle, using one of her forelegs to splash out a barrage of water bursts from all sides.

Kaylee, for her part, just sat back with her horn alight and watched her friends dashing and splashing around in the near darkness. They were being silly, of course, but at least they were having fun. And, she had to admit the water, murky and somewhat dubious as it was, felt soothing. It didn't need to be potable to feel like a refreshing change from running around in the forest all the time.

That was about when Kaylee noticed that Scootaloo and Flight had stopped splashing.

"Hey, Kevin," Scootaloo said between breaths, panting from all the running around she had just done. "What do you think we should call it? Maybe you can get you cutie mark in... uh... pond naming."

"HA!" Flight exclaimed, lifting a hoof triumphantly. "So you do admit it's a pond!"

Scootaloo gasped. "I admit nothing! Graaahhh!" she exclaimed, fluttering her wings forward to send a large wave roaring towards Flight, causing the entire body of water to lurch around Kaylee.

"Ugh, come on, girls," she groaned, struggling to stay upright.

"Hey, it's not like dumb boys are any better!" Scootaloo shot back, though Kaylee couldn't see her as she was still trying to steady herself.

"That's really not what I meant—oh!" Kaylee was interrupted by a wave that this time knocked her off her hooves, splashing up and drenching her entire face and mane. Sputtering, the filly tried to pull herself back up, eventually crawling up across the mud and out onto the shoreline. She shivered as her wet coat hit the cold nighttime air. "Y-you guys..." she protested weakly.

"Oop, sorry!" Scootaloo apologised, turning with a sympathetic expression towards Kaylee. "A bit rougher than I intended. Still—augh!"

Flight had rushed up from behind, splashing the orange filly with a barrage of murky water that left her with no choice but to spin around and rejoin the fight.

Kaylee, standing on the muddy shore, merely sighed.

Besides

On the other side of the pond, about a dozen metres away, Mochi lay back, relaxed, in a shallow boggy area. The mud rose up several centimetres, engulfing her hooves and getting into all the little cracks and crevices. And yet...

"This is so relaxing," Mochi called out as she let her hooves soak in the muddy floor of the water. "So... refreshing."

Cotton Fluff, who was standing on the small grassy area between the trees and the muddy shoreline, merely shrugged. The look on her face, however, betrayed her disdain towards the mudhole. "Each to her own, I suppose," she said, looking down at a hoof; Clove, who sat next to her on the grass, merely nodded.

While Mochi continued to relax in the pool of murky brown water, the other two sat adjacent to the slumbering green body of Later, who, despite any of their movements or discussions, did not wake and merely rolled over with any signs of exteral stimulus.

"Do you think we could look at the plans to the palace?" Cotton asked, turning to Clove.

"Doesn't really hurt to look 'cause she said she's got it," Clove replied, looking over his fellow officer. "And I am curious what exactly we're gonna do, as well." He reached over to Later's saddlebag which lay limply on the ground, and opened up one of the pouches, starting to rifle through. "Hmm..."

Details

"Aha! Got it," Clove exclaimed with a whisper, pulling out a few sheets that had been stapled together. They fluttered in a slight breeze that went by, also floofing the stallion's mane just a bit. He trotted back over to Cotton Fluff and put the papers down onto the grass, careful to not get too close to the muddy shore of the pond; it wouldn't be very helpful to ruin them after Later had put all that work into obtaining them.

"Have you been there before?" Cotton asked, eyeing the sheets as they were set down in front of her. "Hmm, this doesn't actually look that complicated. It looks bigger in the photographs."

"Yeah, they play it up for TV and stuff, but a lot of the outside is just a thick, hollow shell with storage. The actual interior of the palace is pretty small, 'cause it's the original palace that was built for the three brothers when they first set hoof here." Clove pointed to the front area as he said this, tracing the outer edge with his hoof. "And no, I've never been inside. I've only been on this planet a few months, you know."

"Oh, really? And just in that place in the Sciouse province?" Cotton asked.

"Yeah, only around Ferretfall," Clove replied, nodding. "Officer Turnip and the rest of us got sent here on a reconaissance mission, actually. You see..."

Rippling

Back on the other side of the pond, Kaylee sat with her forelegs curled underneath her frame, looking out upon the silhouettes of Scootaloo and Flight who had long since stopped splashing around in the muddy water. They weren't far, but Kaylee had briefly extinguished her magic, leaving them shrouded in darkness but for the faint starlight and the brighter yet still faint light of Cotton Fluff's horn, off around a bend of trees. She could hear Scootaloo and Flight speaking in hushed tones, unable to determine whether they were intentionally speaking so she couldn't hear or if the night just made them inclined to speak quieter.

Regardless, the filly reached over to her saddlebag which sat beside her on the muddy bank and, with the edge of a hoof, scooped up several of the soft items inside. Once she pulled them out, she lifted the hoofful of berries to eye level, focusing through the dark on the small, sticky fruit that lay on her hoof. Then, quickly, she gobbled them all up—every last one. Licking her lips to wipe away any stray stickiness, she reached over to grab another hoofful when—

The ground rumbled. It was a slow rumble at first, barely felt, just making a few of the leaves rustle above—nothing more than a light breeze would. But then the water started to ripple as the rumbling increased, even blurrying the world around as Kaylee sat there, frantically turning her head to figure out what was going on. She tried to stand, but gravity and the motion pulled her back down; somewhere in the corner of her vision, she could see both Flight and Scootaloo attempting to do the same. The hornlight from beyond the bend in the pond flickered and then went out.

Uncertainty

For a moment, Kaylee had frozen up, lying nearly still as the ground rumbled beneath her. But when she saw the light flicker out across the pond, she mustered up enough strength to stand upright and, even as her hooves shook and she could barely remain steady, she let the magic course out of her horn that would light up the space around them.

"K-Kevin!" The moment her horn lit up, Flight had called out and Kaylee could see the look of surprise on the yellow filly's face as she bounded forward. "What's going on?"

"I don't know!" Kaylee shouted. She looked down at the pond, whose surface was churning wildly, splashing up at her hooves and even past them onto the grass. The filly used her magic to lift her saddlebag out of the way, wincing as she noticed the bottom of the bags were soaked, but threw it over herself all the same. She bit her lip as she lifted Flight's saddlebag, and flung it over the yellow filly's side as she skidded to a halt alongside, sending murky water splashing up into the air.

Once Flight had shown she could hold the weight, she stood up taller and turned to Kaylee. "Wh-what should we do?" she asked, a worried expression on her face. Her head frantically turned toward the bend in the trees, which she could just barely see in the green glow.

"I guess we should... try and make it back over to the others?" Kaylee replied, her voice quavering with uncertainty. "I don't know what else to do... if Cotton's horn went out, I'm not sure what's going on, but... what other choice do we have?"

"I-I guess you're right," Flight stammered, shivering as the water shook around at her hooves. The ground wasn't rumbling nearly as much as before but... it was definitely still rumbling.

Kaylee looked back at the pond's surface or at least what she could see of it in her hornlight's green glow but as she looked at the water, she noticed something alarming.

"Um... where's Scootaloo?"

Motives

"What's going on?" Scootaloo finally asked. They hadn't stopped; the bat still waddled ahead of her through the bushes though she could no longer see it, only able to figure out where to go as she listened to the bushes rustling and watched for its silvery aura that faintly glimmered up through the leaves.

"Mmm... not much," the bat sing-songed, poking its head out of the bush. Its beady eyes were jet black, even in the dark, and they looked oddly dead. "I apologise for the earthquake of sorts, but it was really the only way I could get you out of there."

Scootaloo blinked. "Wait, that was you? Why did you do that?"

"As I said, to get you out of there," the bat replied. Though Scootaloo expected it to say more, it didn't.

"You are Grey, right? From before?"

"The one and only," the bat squeaked, turning back around. "Ugh, hurry... we've got to move."

"Um, where?" Scootaloo asked, confused. "Why did you drag me away from my friends?"

"They're good ponies, Scootaloo, they really are, but they don't know what they're doing. I know they want to take you offworld—and that's a good idea, truly—but there's something very important here that you need to get."

"What? What is it? And why me?" Scootaloo grumbled. "You never explain anything."

"The Kardia Amulet," Grey replied. "See, I do tell you stuff. It's hidden in nowhere other than my b—"

"Prince Aeneus's vault?" Scootaloo interrupted.

The bat ahead of her halted and spun around quickly to stare her in the face. "How did you know that?"

Scootaloo facehoofed. "That's where they were already taking me, dummy. Can I go back now?"

The bat raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand. Why are they taking you there?"

"To get the amulet thing, I assume. I dunno. Later didn't really talk about exactly what the item was, but I can't imagine there's that much important stuff in his vault."

"Hrmm... you'd be surprised." The bat frowned. "But really, why do they want you to get the amulet?"

"Your guess is as good as mine; that's just what that Commander Xiibal mare was going on about," Scootaloo replied, rolling her eyes. "Why do you want me to get the amulet... thingy?"

"She can't know... can she?" Grey mumbled to himself. "Well, I don't know." He looked back up at Scootaloo. "You're right, we should probably go back. They'll be upset if you're missing for too long. And I can be something less conspicuous, like a... bug."

"Erm... alright?" Scootaloo still looked confused. "So you want to come with this time?"

The bat nodded. "Yes, but please don't tell them about me. I will reveal my presence but... only in due time. I need to find out why the rebels want the amulet."

"Why should I trust you?" Scootaloo asked, eyes narrowed. "We ran into a big bear with a star on its head, though that one was gold, and it nearly killed us."

Grey's eyes lit up in shock. "That's... not good. But really, I'm nothing like him. I know your princess Luna; she and I go way back."

"I dunno, dude. You could just be saying that."

"I broke you out of prison," Grey deadpanned. "I think you owe me this, at least."

"Fine, fine," Scootaloo said. She watched as the bat in front of her shrank into a small black beetle and then, buzzing its tiny wings, flew into her magenta mane by her left ear. The world around returned to near darkness, save for the slight silvery glow of the creature atop her head.

"Turn around," Grey quietly whispered, "and keep walking until you get to the edge of the pond. From there, go around the circumference until you run into your friends."

Biting her lip, Scootaloo nodded, though only slightly so as to not shake the beetle off. She turned and then started walking in that direction. "So, do you really have the power to make earthquakes? That's kinda huge."

"...Maybe."

Reconvene

Flight turned to look over her shoulder at the churning waves. "Oh, stars... I thought she was right behind me. I swear, we were just chatting about some... 'Flight Camp' thing when the waves started, but I didn't even hear her yelling." She turned back to look at Kaylee. "Guess I might've been yelling too loud, huh?"

"Well, whatever—it doesn't really matter right now," Kaylee said, giving another look towards the waves of the pond that had risen so high that she couldn't see clearly across to the other side. "Scootaloo can probably make it on her own until this... earthquake thing stops. And even if she can't, we sure as heck can't get over there without drowning."

"Point," Flight agreed, biting her lip as she shifted her legs antsily. The rumbling was starting to subside, though the tall waves persisted in the centre of the pond—an odd, unnatural sight indeed. "Okay, that can't just be a normal earthquake," Flight said, pointing to the waters with a hoof. "There's gotta be, like, weird magic stuff."

Kaylee pursed her lips. "Maybe. I don't know. What I do know is that we should probably get over to the others. Cotton's hornlight went out, so we should... figure out what that's all about."

Flight nodded briskly and then the two of them ran off along the shoreline, water still lapping at their hooves. As the muddy ground curved with the water, however, the fillies kept going straight, finding themselves back in the thick of the forest, small bushes and damp grasses brushing by their hooves as they galloped past. Once or twice, Kaylee nearly ran them into a thick tree trunk that sneaked up on them in the dark, but she was able to swerve away quickly to avoid an impact.

After several dozen metres, they curved their trajectory to match the bend in the pond where they had watched the adults walk off to. By that time, the rumbles had disappeared completely, the ground still but for their thundering hooves. Then, a couple minutes later, burst free from the forest into another small clearing with a similar shoreline of mud black as the night sky. There stood two mares, a pink one—Mochi—and a dark green one—Even Later, and then the rusty-coated form of Clove Hitch stood further back, over by the opposite side of the clearing. Beside him lay the limp body of a pony and, as Kaylee approached, she recognised it as Cotton Fluff.

"Kevin! Flight!" Mochi exclaimed as the two fillies burst forth from the bushes, her eyes wide. "Oh, thank Argent you fillies made it over here!" She blinked. "Where's Scootaloo?"

"We don't know!" Flight exclaimed, taking deep breaths as she skidded to a halt in front of Mochi and Later. "We got separated and we were hoping that she would make her way over here, or at least that we could find you guys first."

"That's good—we need to stick together," Later said, nodding. She had a grave expression on her face and, even in her own faint hornlight and that of Kaylee's, there were distinct bags under her eyes, so purple that they almost looked like bruises. "It was stupid for us to split up. Urgh!" Later suddenly exclaimed, bending over and clutching her cranium with one of her forelegs. Wincing, she looked up. "I've got a monster headache," she explained, frowning. "I don't even know what's going on here since I just fuggin' woke up, but it doesn't seem like any of you know what's going on either."

"It wasn't a natural earthquake, that's for sure," Clove said, stepping forward. "It came much too suddenly and we're nowhere near a fault line. This was magic-induced, for sure. I just don't know... how." He sighed, scraping at the mud with a hoof. "It doesn't help that I don't have a horn to help me figure it out."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry that I wasn't awake," Later grumbled, shooting him an annoyed look. "Though, by the looks of it, I doubt I would've been much help if I had been." The mare glanced down at the brown mare who was still lying limp. "Dunno what her problem is, but she's the only unicorn here that was awake. Bet it's got something to do with that."

"What happened to her?" Kaylee asked. "We saw the light go out, but that's it."

"That's basically all that happened," Mochi said. "As soon as the rumblin' started, she just up 'n' passed out. She got sucked into the water, too, and then I couldn't help 'cause I fell over and had a hard time gettin' up—the poor mare's lucky she didn't drown."

"Heh, is everybody gonna take a turn at passing out?" Clove joked, wearing a wry smile as he looked down at Cotton's limp form. "Who's next? Mochi?"

"I'll pass, thank ya very much," the pink mare replied, rolling her eyes. "Never had much interest in not bein' awake, myself."

"I'm glad that Cotton's okay," Later said, a contemplative expression on her face, "but I really have to wonder what happened to Scootaloo. Really, in just a moment when we get all our things together, we should pack up and start trotting around to the other side. She went across from where you guys were, right?"

Kaylee nodded. "She and Flight were about in the middle of our side of the pond, so she probably just got pulled in the other direction."

"Great... we can just circle 'round," Later replied. "That takes us closer in the direction of the capital, too." She paused. "Gah... I really hope she didn't drown or something. I mean, she can't have. Right?" She looked to Kaylee, who just gulped, frowning. Then, sighing, Later reached down to lift up her saddlebags onto her back. Kaylee noticed that, curiously, she didn't use her horn to do so, rather bending down to loop them over her neck.

Mhm

"I'm not so sure she's here, guys," Kaylee said, biting her lip.

"Oh, come on, there's definitely a part of the pond we haven't been to. Right?" Later looked from side to side; to her left, the way they came—to her right, the very clearing from which Kaylee and Flight had run originally, its muddy, hoofmarked surface no different than when they left it. "You know, on second thought, maybe there is indeed no part of the pond we haven't been to. Drat."

The water had completely subsided by that point, a serene mirror that reflected back the tree branches and pinpricks of starlight above; an uninformed newcomer wouldn't have been able to tell anything odd had happened at all.

"Well, if she's not around the immediate perimetre, she's either closer or further from the water," Clove stated matter-of-factly from the back of the group. As he had been the unconscious one before, he was tasked with carrying Cotton's limp body on his back. Although he wasn't explicitly complaining, he was making his feelings known by stating quite obvious things as if they were new revelations.

"Good work, Captain Obvious," Later retorted, rolling her eyes. "How'd you deduce that one?"

"Hey, how come he gets to be Cap'n Obvious?" Mochi protested. "If anyone here's earned the title, anypony'd say it'd be me in a heartbeat."

"She's got a point," Flight chimed in. "Whenever I notice something obvious, Mochi notices it too and then says it out loud!"

Kaylee shot her an odd look.

"What, I'm playing along!" Flight exclaimed, digging her hooves into the mud.

Later facehoofed. "I'm glad you ponies are having fun, but this is pretty serious. Scootaloo's a good friend, plus the commander would be pretty piouhgd if she found out we... lost her."

"You know, I didn't just say what I said to be annoying," Clove Hitch interjected. "Well, this time at least. Regardless... how about Kevin and Mochi go check the water and see if Scootaloo drowned, and Later and Flight can fan out and check the forest a little further from the pond. Unless she was hellbent on running away, we'll find her, dead or alive."

"How charming," Later deadpanned. "And I suppose you'll just be sitting here, then?"

Clove shrugged, or at least did so to the best of his abilities. It's difficult to shrug while carrying somepony—and an unconscious pony, at that—on your back. "I can't imagine I'd be too much help in either the pond or the forest—it just makes more logistical sense to have me stay here."

"Yeah, yeah, I don't want to hear it," Later grumbled, elbowing Clove in the side as she passed. He winced as her elbow made impact with his wing. "Flight, please be a dear and trot with me so we can get away from here as soon as possible."

Gulping, the butter-yellow filly nodded to Kaylee and then dashed off to follow Later who had already stormed off.

"Okay, kid, it looks like it's just you 'n' me for the pond," Mochi said from behind the filly. Kaylee turned to see the mare already hoof-deep in the murky water, slowly trotting further towards the centre. "I dunno how we're gonna see anything in this mess. Maybe you can use your horn or somethin'? Like, light it up? Heh, hell if I know how magic works."

"Yeah, I can do that," Kaylee replied, stepping into the water. It was frigid, sending a shiver up her spine. "Brr..."

"Perfec'. I'll just wander 'round with the water up to my neck 'til I run into a filly corpse or somethin'."

"D-don't joke about that!" Kaylee stammered."

"Hey, it might not be Scoots! Could be anypony in this murk—I can't see a darned thing."

Kaylee merely frowned as she continued her trot towards the pond's centre.

Dilation

Scootaloo paused, cocking her head and squinting at the trees in the darkness that loomed ahead on either side, only visible due to the silvery glow that still emanated from atop her head. "Why is this taking so long? I could've sworn I only followed you for like a minute away from the water hole thing, and now it's been at least fifteen minutes and it's nowhere in sight."

"Dilation, my dear," the beetle in her mane buzzed quietly, almost so quiet that she couldn't hear it over the crunch of her hooves on leaves below. "I may have employed some space dilation, just to get us out of there as soon as possible. It's imperative that you get to the palace and collect the Kardia Amulet as soon as possible, you know."

Scootaloo blinked. "...Dilation? What do you mean?"

"Please, keep walking—we can't afford to stop. I'll explain, I promise, but the sooner we get back to your companions, the better."

"Hrmph. Fine." Scootaloo took another few steps forward, pushing through an annoying fern that just so happened to be in her way. "There, I'm moving. Now tell me."

Grey coughed—or at least made the closest noise that a beetle could make to a cough. "Well, it's as I said; I used spatial dilation. I merely shrunk the distance in front of us temporarily, so we could get away quicker. Not that much, mind you, because some pretty awful things can result from that, but enough so that it'll be another few minutes or so until we get back to that pond."

"It's not a pond, it's a mudhole... creek... thing," Scootaloo grumbled. "Also, that sounds totally fake."

"Hm?"

"You know, dia-whatever. The shrinking space thing. That's, like, impossible."

Scootaloo couldn't see Grey's insectoid face—not that he had much of an identifiable face in that form, regardless—but she could almost hear how hard he was grinning. "That's what magic is for, though—making the impossible possible."

In response, Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "You sound like friggin' Twilight or someone. Aren't there, like, fancy magic rules though or something? You can't just do anything?"

"Perhaps. It depends on how many of those rules you're willing to break, and if you know how to break them without messing anything up too badly in the process."

"Okay, prove it then," Scootaloo said, a sly expression creeping across her face.

"Prove what?"

"Prove you can do this... dilation thing. Dilate it up so we can get back to the group A.S.A.P."

It was a moment until Grey replied, and his voice was tense. "Scootaloo... while I just did it to help us leave, it wouldn't be prudent to do as much right now when less is at stake. As I said, if I do it too much, seriously bad things can happen."

"Uh, like what? You might set a bush on fire?" Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "I promise, I'm good at putting out fires. Working in Twilight's lab for a few months gets you surprisingly well-prepared for that sort of thing."

"Try magical-induced dimensional instability, which can tear a hole in the fabric of space. Or, as they're colloquially known around these parts, a 'black hole'." Grey's tone was grim. "I've... seen it happen before. A long time ago. It's not pretty."

Scootaloo exhaled. "So if you do the dilation thing again, it's for sure gonna make a black hole and we're gonna get sucked up and torn to ribbons?"

"...Well, no. Only if I keep doing it more after that."

Scootaloo facehoofed. "Look, I'm already getting tired of walking and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to do more walking after this, 'cause we're not getting any closer to the stupid palace, so could you please just use a teensy bit of magic to speed this up?" she pleaded.

Grey sighed. "Well, if you put it that way..."

There was a bout of silence as Scootaloo kept walking. Finally, she paused for a second. "Uh, are you gonna do the thing?"

"What thing?" It wasn't Grey's voice that replied; rather, as Scootaloo turned her head to the left, she found herself face to face with a butter-yellow filly. "Oh, hey, Scootaloo! Later, I found her!"

"Thank the stars," Later's voice called out, muffled, from some metres away in the trees. "Ask her where she's been, and admonish her for disappearing like that."

"I can hear you, ya know!" Scootaloo said, amused.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Later said, emerging from a bush. "Oh, cool. Good to see ya, kid."

Phantom

"Well, I think that's nearly the whole pond, and I ain't run into anything pony-like, dead or alive," Mochi declared as her head emerged from the water. Kaylee couldn't help but let out a giggle at the sight of the pink mare, flecks of dirt sliding all down her mane and face. Then, as she remembered that it was the same water that she currently stood waist-deep in, Kaylee sobered.

"Um... yeah, I haven't found anything either," Kaylee replied. "Though I think I've gotten the hang of this spell... it feels like I have some weird claw arm, grabbing around at the mud and stuff."

"Yeah? What's that like?" Mochi asked, looking interested.

"Pretty strange, actually. It doesn't really feel... part of me. Like, it feels like something alien, grafted on, that I don't know how to use. Actually, kind of like..." Then, as she realised what she was saying, Kaylee stopped. Her lips pursed, she just stood there in the water, eyes wide. "Uh..."

Mochi cocked her head. "It's like what?"

Kaylee could feel her heart thumping hard in her chest and her stomach churning, nausea returning. "I don't... erm... I forgot."

"You sure?" Mochi asked. The water rippled as she took a step forward and, had any other pony been in her position, the gesture would have seemed threatening; however, Kaylee felt oddly comforted as the mare stepped closer. "I mean... oh, how do I say this? Your business is your own, y'hear? I don't ever wanna pry somethin' out that you don't wanna share, 'cause everypony has their right to privacy and whatnot. But I just want to say... I'm here, if there's anything you want to talk about. Maybe it's just the stress of this whole thing—'cause Aureate knows I'm stressed too—but I just couldn't help but notice that... maybe there's somethin' else. Somethin' I've noticed ever since I first met you 'n' Flight 'n' Cotton."

Everything felt wrong. Kaylee knew that she had to tell the other ponies at some point and she was starting to come to terms with that, but... it felt surreal. Of course, Mochi didn't yet know.

Kaylee took a deep breath. Would it be so bad, telling Mochi? She was a nice pony. At least, as far as Kaylee could tell. On the other hand, the rest of her friends all seemed to be nice ponies too, and that didn't make her any less terrified.

"As I said, Kevin, it's fine if you don't wanna tell me. Or even if nothing's up... maybe it's just me bein' overobservant or whatnot. Heaven knows I do that too much."

The last several words had blurred together, though, as Kaylee focused on that name—that infernal name—and felt her stomach drop. She wanted to cry. Throw up. Run away. She couldn't take it anymore. So, she didn't.

Kaylee looked over her shoulder to see Clove Hitch on the far end of the pond, looking in some other direction. Still, it wouldn't hurt to be too careful. "M-Mochi?" she stammered.

"Mhm?"

"Could you come closer?"

Nodding, the pink mare waded forward, emerging slightly from the water as she came up onto the part where Kaylee could comfortably stand without going underwater.

Once Mochi was within reach, Kaylee beckoned for her to lean down. The filly leaned into to her ear. She felt like she was going to puke up her heart. Weakly, clumsily, she stumbled around words but, somehow, was able to whisper out a few short sentences.

With each, Mochi nodded. Once Kaylee sounded like she had finished, Mochi remained there for a moment before pulling back. She stood there over the filly for a short time in the water, giving her an odd look, before Kaylee noticed there were tears in the mare's eyes.

Before Kaylee realised what was happening, Mochi had enveloped her in a big hug, damp yet warming. Breathing a sigh of relief, Kaylee reached up and hugged her back.

"Not a word to anypony, I promise," Mochi whispered. "At least until you're ready."

"Th-thank you."

They stood there motionless for a few moments. And then...

"Hey, guys, we found Scootaloo!"

Going

As Mochi let go of Kaylee and filly turned around to face the opposite side of the pond, she noticed that Flight wore an odd expression on her face. "What were you—? Oh, whatever. C'mon!"

"Alright, we're comin'! Go on, just give us a minute." Mochi called. As Flight nodded and jumped back into the bushes, the mare took a few steps forward and then looked back at Kaylee, who was standing there, motionless and looking absolutely horrified. The filly's cheeks were, even through her green hornlight, distinctly red. Mochi smiled. "You like her, don't you?"

Kaylee bit her lip. "I don't have to tell you all my secrets."

Mochi's smile grew wider. "Mm, yes. Secrets." She turned away and started trotting forward again, breaking the smooth surface of the water that had almost completely settled. "We'd better catch up with the others, or Later'll chew our heads off even more than she already is gonna."

Kaylee, who had started trotting alongside Mochi, raised an eyebrow. "Any idea what's gotten into her?"

Mochi shook her head. "I don't know her very well, though, so you might wanna ask Clove. If anypony knows what's up, it'd be him."

"...and please, please don't wander off like that again! Seriously, Commander Xiibal is counting on us to get this done and it won't help us any if you just... if you just... disappear!"

"I'm sorry."

Kaylee and Mochi could hear Later admonishing Scootaloo before they had even reached the rest of the group. Yet once they came into the small clearing, Scootaloo whirled around and her face lit up upon seeing the both of them. "Kevin! Mochi!" she exclaimed, stepping forward. "Please, save me from Later! I'm starting to think she turned into a meanie when I got swept away!"

"Ugh," the green mare groaned, facehoofing. "I'm not being mean—I'm concerned for your safety. There's a difference."

"Oh, let up off her," Clove said, frowning. He was still carrying Cotton Fluff's limp form, and his expression made it clear that he was quite annoyed with Later. "She couldn't do anything about the waves, anyway—none of us could. Need I remind you of the damn mare on my back who passed out? It's a miracle you didn't as well."

"Mmmff... whatever," Later said, rolling her eyes. "I'm so tired I want to fall over and die, and the night isn't getting any younger. The sooner we get to the CDK, the sooner we can get into that palace and get the stuff and get out and I can pass out."

Kaylee leaned over towards Mochi. "I think I figured out why Later is so grumpy." Mochi just snickered, though she stopped upon receiving a well-earned death glare from the mare in question.

"So, erm... how long is it going to take us to get to the CDK?" Flight asked. She had been leaning against a tree the whole time, and Kaylee hadn't even noticed her until then.

"Hours. I don't know," Later replied, frowning. "Let's just... do this thing, okay? Please? Nobody else getting lost, nobody else almost drowning, no stupid earthquakes, and no Bureau capturing us or anything?"

"I, for one, wholly support that plan," Scootaloo said, grinning. "I'll use my magic superpowers to stop all the earthquakes."

Mochi laughed and Later glared more daggers. Kaylee could've sworn she heard a bug buzzing as well.

"No, but seriously," Scootaloo said. "Let's go." And, following with her words, the filly trotted forward, past where Clove Hitch and Flight were standing, and into the trees. Kaylee and Mochi followed them, and then the others brought up the rear.

Their trek began silent, just the sound of their hooves in the near-darkness and the heavy breathing on Clove's part as he carried the full-grown mare on his back. Yet Kaylee though she could hear Scootaloo whispering, to nopony in particular, ahead of her. She couldn't quite make out the words, but they sounded like questions, whatever they were.

Whisper

"Psst. Grey. Dude. You there?"

Grey sighed, or at least produced a sound as close to as sigh as his small body would allow him. "Yes, Scootaloo, I'm here. Though I must remind you, I'm trying to remain hidden from your companions and outright talking to me in their midst isn't going to help with that whatsoever."

"Oh, come on—I'm whispering!" Scootaloo whispered. "For all they know, I'm just making that fake whisper sound for fun."

Grey would have facehoofed if given the chance, but his tiny beetle legs were too small to reach his tiny beetle face. "Whatever. So long as you're sure your friends won't find out and that you have an actual reason for doing this. Which you do, right?"

Scootaloo looked over her shoulder to see Mochi trotting behind her, though the mare didn't seem to be paying attention. Kaylee had already fallen back to trot and talk with Flight. "Of course I do. I wouldn't jeopar—erm... ruin this whole thing for no reason. Plus nopony even cares what I'm doing, anyway. They're all just talking except Mochi who's just doing... whatever Mochi does. I swear, that mare is like Pinkie Pie."

"Alright, whatever. What do you want?"

"Wellllll..." Scootaloo paused, though she kept walking, stepping over a small bush. "I was wondering... maybe you could use your dilation power thing right now?"

"I... cannot. Unfortunately. It would not be prudent."

"...Seriously?" Scootaloo replied. "But... we're in a super big hurry, and I know you wouldn't like it if we got caught by the Bureau dudes either. Remember when you were going to use it to help us get to the capital city... place? Why not now?"

"Hrmph. Well, as I said, I already used it a few times. It would be unwise to... push our luck. This isn't the type of thing where you get a second chance if you screw up," Grey stated, matter-of-factly.

"But you really didn't use it very much, and you would've had to use it way longer if you wanted us to get to the capital city quicker."

"...A good observation," Grey remarked. "I'm impressed. And you're right, I would have used it much more then, and I had already calculated it out so that we wouldn't go anywhere near dangerous levels of spatial distortion."

"But...?"

Grey sighed. "But now you're with your companions. The moment I used the spatial dilation, they would find out. They know about how long it's going to take to get there, and too much less of a time would make them suspicious. They'd know something was up."

"But not if you used only a small amount," Scootaloo protested. "If they notice, I'm sure they'd just put it on walking quickly or something. 'Cause we are walking pretty quickly."

"I... guess?"

"Pleeeease?" Scootaloo pleaded.

"Ugh, you're not going to let this go unless I do, are you?"

"...Nope."

With a deep breath, Grey sparked up his magic. Now that Scootaloo was paying attention, she could feel the world slightly distorting ahead of her, everything becoming slightly... thinner. She hoped the others wouldn't notice.

"Thank you," she breathed.

"Don't mention it," Grey grumbled. "Seriously."

Don't

"...and I'm really starting to think I shouldn't have come along with you ponies. Like, seriously... what was I thinking?" Later asked rhetorically as she trotted briskly alongside Clove Hitch.

"I'm kinda guessing you weren't," Clove grumbled in reply. He was struggling to keep up with the mare; carrying Cotton Fluff on his back seemed to be taking quite a toll on the stallion.

Later rolled her eyes. "Shush, you. It was rhetorical."

After a pause, Clove Hitch spoke again. "You know, I was wondering... why did you come with us? Seriously, you were asking to come even before we left... it's a wonder Turnip didn't see it coming what with your, uh, general disregard for the rules."

"Hrmph," Later replied, kicking a small patch of dirt sideways towards the stallion's hooves. "I just don't always agree with the ponies in charge. I thought I would be pretty valuable to this mission, and haven't I been? There's no way you could've accessed that computer terminal without me, you know. Not with the ponies there... conspicuously missi—huh?" The mare's step faltered, her hoof shaking below her as she felt a burst of energy course through her horn. Although the green light above flickered, it did not go out.

Clove paused and reached out a hoof to steady the mare. "You okay? What happened?"

Later blinked, looking down at the mossy ground and then back up at the maroon stallion. "Yeah, I think I'm fine. I don't know what that was, though... some sort of powerful magic just got released."

"Any idea how far away?" Clove asked, looking concerned. "I hope it's not some sort of follow-up to that business at the pond..."

"I'm sure it's nothing," Later replied, though she sounded hesitant. "You know I'm not even used to having this horn yet... sometimes it acts up. Could just be a comet going by with a greater-than-usual manastone composition."

Clove looked up through the overhanging branches, catching a glimpse of the dark, starry sky. "I... suppose. Still, it wouldn't hurt to be careful, especially after the pond. We have no idea what's lurking out here. Come to think of it... maybe Scootaloo shouldn't be by herself up at the front?"

Later nodded. "You're right—that was silly of me to let her do that. Could you excuse me for a bit? Just 'cause I'm annoyed with the filly doesn't mean I shouldn't be looking out for her."

"Of course," Clove replied, nodding as well. He started trotting again, this time at a slightly quicker pace so he could catch up with the rest of the group. Later bid him farewell before starting a canter, catching up with and circumventing Kevin and Flight and then Mochi.

As she said a brief yet cautious hello to Scootaloo, Kevin and Flight were in the midst of their own conversation.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Flight asked, peering over at Kaylee, looking concerned.

"I told you, I'm fine. Just a... magic... thing."

Flight frowned, obviously discontent with that answer. "C'mon, Kev... you looked like you really got hurt. It can't just be nothing!"

Kaylee let out a sigh. "Flight, I promise, if I do have a major issue, I'll tell you. But seriously, right now I'm fine. Nothing to worry about."

"Hmph. Fine. Be that way." Flight turned back to look ahead. "Boys."

Kaylee frowned. Of course. Of course. She cleared her throat.

"So, erm... met any, uh, nice boys at school?" Kaylee asked, trying her best to sound innocent. She scratched the back of her mane with a hoof.

Flight's eyes shifted leftward, making Kaylee blush ever so slightly. "Oh? Why do you ask?"

Kaylee bit her lip, feeling her cheeks grow warmer. "Uh... no reason. Just wondering. About life and stuff. You know."

"Mmm..." Flight hummed, smirking. "Well, if you must know, no. I haven't met any nice boys at school. Not exactly."

"Yeah?" Kaylee felt her heart flutter. "What about... nice... girls?"

Flight shot her an odd look. "Kevin, are you messing with me? I swear, I told you, I just don't like girls like that."

Before she could help herself, Kaylee replied, "N-not any? Not at all?"

Flight's expression of confusion grew, and she tilted her head. "Um, what? Why in Argent's name would you care?"

Kaylee bit her lip. Somewhere ahead, there was a faint buzzing. "Erm... just wondering, I guess."

By Flight's expression, she didn't exactly find this answer satisfactory. "Kevin... please, I know you're not thick. You... ugh, please don't mess with me!"

Kaylee blinked. "Wh-what? I'm not... I don't... what?"

Flight let out a long, drawn out sigh, finally turning to Kaylee and giving her a frustrated look. "Kevin, I just... I can't take this anymore. I really can't. Since you're apparently too thick to figure it out... I need to tell you..." Flight gulped, and closed her eyes. "I have a cr—"

"N-no!" Kaylee exclaimed, reaching out a hoof to put it over Flight's mouth. The yellow filly opened her eyes, startled, and coiled back. Kaylee could see Mochi glance back from ahead, and she could feel a bead of sweat on her forehead. Clumsily, she mumbled, "I mean... I can't..."

"Wh-what?" Flight stammered. Her cheeks were pale.

"I... I know, Flight," Kaylee replied, looking down, trying as hard as she could to avoid the filly's gaze. "I know what you're going to say, but I can't hear it. I can't."

"I don't understand," Flight whimpered. Kaylee stole a glance before turning back away, but in that brief second she could see tears welling up in her best friend's eyes. "I thought... I thought you liked me back," she choked.

"I-I do," Kaylee whispered, barely loud enough for Flight to hear. "I really, really do."

"Then..." Flight murmured, pausing where she stood. She glanced to the side, only to see that Clove Hitch was a dozen metres back, too busy adjusting Cotton Fluff's unconscious form to be paying attention. "...why can't I do this?" She reached to the side, hooves outstretched, trying as she might to pull Kaylee into a hug.

Time nearly stopped. Kaylee could feel her heart pumping so fast as she instinctively reached out with a hoof to bat Flight's forelimbs aside. "Don't." She breathed heavily, over and over, feeling like she should cry but she couldn't. Kaylee looked at Flight.

And, in that moment, Flight looked crushed—absolutely destroyed. Her gaze, staring right at Kaylee with bloodshot eyes, was so weak, so helpless, as she watched the pony she had pined for over many moons literally push her away. They stood there like that for a few moments, gazing straight at each other's eyes.

"Fine," Flight finally mumbled. "Don't talk to me, then, not if you're going to be a bitch about it. Whatever. I didn't even like you, anyway." By the time she finished, her whisper had turned into a snarl. She started walking again, a canter to catch back up with Mochi.

Kaylee started walking again too, albeit slower. She felt awful for what she had said, and yet... she didn't know if she would do it differently given the chance. She'd done what she'd had to. Right?

And, despite the malice in the pegasus' words, Kaylee couldn't help but take pride in Flight's final insult. If only she knew.

Arrival

"Hey, Later?"

"Yeah?" The mare in question turned to Scootaloo, who was trotting alongside her. The sky—and very world around them, it seemed—was faintly glowing with the orange hues of dawn, so she could actually see the filly's confused look without magical augmentation. "What's up?"

"Is that... the place we're going?" Scootaloo asked, a hoof outstretched. Later's eyes followed where Scootaloo was pointing, past a dense layer of bushes and out into a wide, grassy clearning. Barely visible in the distance, into the centre of the grassy area, she was just able to make out the side of a shallow white dome that stretched onward, further than the eye could see.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's it, alright. There really isn't anything else like it..."

"Hey, Later, I think we're almost there!" Clove Hitch called from behind them. It was but a moment later that he pulled up alongside Scootaloo. "Oh, hey, Scootaloo. Anyway, as I was saying..."

"Shhh!" Later shushed. "Don't be too loud or they'll hear us."

"Whoops, my bad," Clove replied, rolling his eyes. "We're a couple hundred metres away, hidden in the trees. I don't think Prince Aeneus himself, even with his super special alicorn magic superpowers, cares enough to be listening in on us. The Bureau don't even know where we are. It's gonna be fine."

Later shot him a sidelong glare.

"Okay, okay, fine, I'll try to be quieter. Happy?"

"What's this about being quiet?" came a voice from behind them. Scootaloo turned to see Cotton Fluff trotting up behind them, wearing a thin smile. Her face was still drowsy with sleep, her eyelids drooping over her eyes. "What're you ponies going on about?"

"I was just saying that it looks like we're here," Scootaloo replied, pointing and watching as Cotton leaned forward and squinted.

"Hmm... can't say I've seen it outside of pictures and that's hardly enough to go on, but it seems plausible enough. So are we just waltzing in or whatever?"

Later looked even more irritated, but then she took a deep breath. "No. No, we are not. We're going to find someplace where Clove and I can sit down and look over the plans, and then figure out what we should do next. Is that fine?"

"Sounds good to me," Cotton replied, yawning. It had only been a couple hours since she had come to yet her time unconscious seemed to have just made the mare even more tired.

"Ooh, sounds good to me, too!" Mochi said. The pink mare had crept up on the others when they were speaking, seemingly able to find just the right moment that would catch the most of them off guard at once. Clove nearly fell over as she leapt up right by his face. "Wait, what're we talkin' 'bout? How come we've stopped?"

Later sighed, dragging a hoof down on her face. "Somepony else explain this time... I'm going this way." She turned right, trotting off between two trees. Shrugging, Clove and Cotton Fluff followed closely behind.

"The capital city place is just out there," Scootaloo said, with another wave of her hoof in the general direction of the dome, "so we're gonna sit down and figure out what to do. And apparently everypony's all grumpy still." She sighed. "Seriously..."

"Heh, you don't even know the half of it," Mochi said, biting her lip. She glanced over her shoulder and then, after a look of recognition, stepped aside so Scootaloo could see what lay behind her.

Kaylee and Flight, still more than a dozen metres away, were trotting side by side, about a metre apart. At first glance, nothing seemed wrong; Scootaloo cocked her head, trying to figure out what Mochi meant. Then, she realised that neither of them were talking and, what's more, Flight had her head turned away to the side. While Kaylee wore a small, wistful frown as she looked up at Scootaloo, Flight's brow was furrowed and she looked downright angry, though the fur on her cheeks was matted down. Neither of them quickened their pace upon seeing Scootaloo, and she couldn't even tell if Flight had seen her.

"Erm... what happened?" Scootaloo asked quietly.

"I... don't really know, to be honest," Mochi murmured back, staring at the two. "Back some hours ago, they were talkin' real loud and then Flight yelled somethin' and they haven't said a word to each other since. I did try and talk to Ka—er, 'Kevin' a bit, but... he didn't seem to want to chat. Maybe you can get more outta them, though. You two are friends, right?"

"Yeah... at least, I hope so," Scootaloo replied. "But I'm guessing they probably just need their space. I'll try later, though, if they don't start talking when we actually, like, need to." She paused, looking back at the fillies who were slowly approaching. "Hey, guys!" she said loudly—not a yell, but loud enough that they could hear. "We're gonna go follow the others over to the right here, where we're gonna stop for a bit and figure out where to go. Just... letting you know!"

Kaylee nodded briskly, slightly quickening her pace. Flight made no sign that she had heard, but was trotting faster as well, always remaining within a short distance from the other filly. Shrugging, Scootaloo turned and she and Mochi trotted off the way the others had gone, following their faint voices ahead.

Stumped

By the time Scootaloo and Mochi reached the small clearing, Later and Clove were already huddled over several sheets of paper, which were laid over an old, weathered tree stump. It wasn't even a clearing, really—more like a brief interruption in the densely-packed trees and bushes. If it had been a real clearing, Cotton Fluff probably would have been standing a metre or two away; as it was, the mare looked somewhat annoyed as she leaned against a tree trunk.

"Hmm... I'm just not seeing anything," Clove said, biting his lip as he looked down at one of the documents. "I know there's got to be some sort of... unguarded ventilation shaft, or something like that, but where are they on these plans? Either they've got some other sort of system, or these plans simply aren't detailled enough."

Later leaned forward, exhaling. "What if we try the outer doors there"—she pointed with a hoof somewhere at the top of one of the papers—"and lower ourselves down after a ship leaves the city?"

Clove shook his head quickly. "We don't know that those won't be guarded, Later; in fact, the Bureau would be damn fool not to guard 'em. They have to open them quite often... it would be a horrible security risk."

"Sounds like a horrible security risk is just what we need," Scootaloo said, stepping up behind them. She leaned in, trying to get a look at the papers. "Seeing anything good?" she asked.

"Er... not yet," Clove replied, adjusting the top sheet. "We'll get there, though. Just give us a few minutes."

Scootaloo nodded, and turned away. "So, what's new with you?" she asked, looking at Cotton Fluff. The brown-coated mare merely shrugged. Then, she looked surprised.

"Nevermind me... what's up with them?" she asked, pointing to her right. Scootaloo looked to see Kaylee and Flight making their way towards the group, both with irritated expressions on their faces.

"Hmm... you know, why don't we find out?" Scootaloo mused aloud. She trotted over to the pair, smiling the whole way.

Nah

"Hey Flight," Scootaloo said. "Hey Kevin."

Kaylee stayed silent, lips pursed; surprisingly, it was Flight that grunted, wearing a frown as she turned toward Scootaloo. "What do you want?" she murmured, though there was venom in her words.

"Er..." Scootaloo scratched the back of her head with a hoof. "I was just wondering... if everything is okay?"

"Just peachy," Flight grumbled, shooting an obvious sidelong glare at the green filly trotting next to her. "I've never been better in my life."

Scootaloo looked from Flight to Kaylee and then back again. "Um... no. This is stupid. You're being stupid."

"Scootaloo..." Mochi murmured. "We dun know what happened... that might not be the best—"

"Nah, the filly's right," Cotton Fluff interrupted. "It's foolish to be arguing amongst ourselves, especially if we don't want to get caught."

"Hm." Mochi frowned as she looked back at the brown mare who was still casually propped against one of the trees. "Still, if somethin' happened, there's no reason we can't take their feelings into account."

"We're right here, you know," Flight interjected, glaring. "Nothing happened. It's fine."

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Mochi sighed. "Well, that's good to hear. Still, if either of ya need somepony to chat with or help settle anything... I'm here to help."

"Actually, I was wondering..." Kaylee started in a small voice, though she hesitated once she realised all eyes—even Flight's, for the first time in a long while—were on here. "Um... I was wondering if I could talk to Mochi. Alone."

Scootaloo looked to Mochi, expecting the mare to look at least a bit surprised. On the contrary, the pink mare nodded and started following Kaylee as she trotted several metres away and disappeared around a corner, behind a tree.

"Huh," Scootaloo huh'd, still gazing at where the two ponies had walked off to. "Wonder what that's all about. Especially when"—Scootaloo turned to Flight and leaned in uncomfortably close—"nothing happened."

Flight reached for Scootaloo's head with a hoof, batting it out of the way. "I don't know what his problem is. Honestly, we should have left him at home; he's just a jerk."

Scootaloo blinked. "Buh-huh? I thought you liked that dude, a lot—like, best friends liked. Or like liked." Scootaloo winked.

"Ugh," Flight groaned, rubbing her face with a hoof. She stumbled backward slightly, but soon was able to get settled down by a rock. "Was it really that obvious?"

"To anypony with eyes," Later answered sardonically. Both Scootaloo and Flight nearly jumped; they both looked up to see the unicorn hadn't even looked up, still gesturing at the papers on the stump.

"So," Scootaloo said, turning back to the filly in front of her, "if you like him—or liked him, if you insist—then what happened?." Flight opened her mouth to protest, but Scootaloo added, "Obviously it wasn't nothing, or else that wouldn't have changed. I don't think you're going to suddenly find him unattractive just like that." She paused. "Then again, I don't really know how that crap works."

Flight sighed. "No... you're right. I do still... like him. But... well, he's a stupid idiot."

"Boys'll do that," Cotton Fluff added sympathetically, nodding. "Someday I should tell you about my ex-husband... ugh."

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Please, please... let's stay on topic. Flight... what happened? Like, just now?"

Flight frowned, biting her lip. "Well..."

Revelatin'

“…and then, when I tried to tell him that… well… that I like him… he…”

“He what?” Scootaloo asked, cocking her head. “Wait, you don’t mean he…?”

“Yeah, he said no,” Flight grumbled, averting her gaze. “He said that he already knew, and that he couldn’t.”

“Did he say why?” Cotton asked, raising an eyebrow. “I could have sworn that colt was into you… like, really into you.”

“That’s the weirdest part,” Flight replied, gazing off into the distance. “He said he still liked me, too. Just that we couldn’t… be together, for some reason.”

“Hm,” Scootaloo murmured, glancing over at the tree around which Mochi and Kaylee had trotted away. “Maybe Mochi can find out more from him. That doesn’t seem like him at all. Like, I guess I’ve only known him for a bit, but who just tosses away a pony they have feelings for? Something doesn’t quite add up…”

“Maybe he does have a reason,” Cotton Fluff said. “I mean, maybe he just doesn’t feel like that about you anymore.”

Flight shook her head. “No, he actually said that he liked me and that he wanted… he wished that we could work out.”

“Well, I'm really sorry, and I hope it works out," Scootaloo said. "For your sake, and for the sake of this stupid mission. We can't do anything if we can't even talk to each other."

Lessen

Once Mochi turned the corner, she saw Kaylee had settled by a tree stump so she trotted over, coming to a stop on the other side of the stump as if it were a table between them. "So... Kaylee... what'd ya want to talk about?"

"Flight..." Kaylee replied quietly, avoiding Mochi's gaze as she looked down at the stump. "I think I might've messed up."

"What'd ya say to her, anyway?" Mochi asked, her tone soothing yet curious. "Why'd she get all upset before and why isn't she talkin' to you?"

Kaylee frowned. "She tried to tell me that she likes me. Like, like likes me."

"Aw, shoot, ain't that a good thing?" Mochi asked, almost smiling before she realised Kaylee just looked even more sombre. "Are you try'na tell me that you don't actually like the filly?"

Kaylee shook her head. "No, I do like her... and I told her that, too."

Mochi scratched her head with a hoof. "Filly, what you're sayin' ain't makin' a lick of sense. If you like her, and she likes you... well, I know you ponies are a bit young, but shouldn't you be doin' the whole smoochy-smooches thing or at least puttin' yer arm around the gal and callin' her yours?"

Kaylee actually looked up at that, and raised an eyebrow. "I mean, not in public. Doing those things in front of other ponies is just... weird."

Mochi shrugged. "Meh, you stop carin' about what other ponies think so much when ya get older. You start realisin' they care way much more about themselves than they ever will about you."

"Hm, I guess I never really thought of it like that," Kaylee said, her expression actually lightening slightly. Of course, then she immediately frowned again. "But it doesn't matter. I told her we can't be together."

Mochi straight up facehoofed, making a loud thwack as her hoof collided with her forehead. "Why? Why would you do that?"

"Because... because she doesn't like girls," Kaylee replied in a small voice. "And if she doesn't like girls, and she likes me... where does that put me? How do you think that makes me feel?"

Mochi's expression softened. "Oh, you poor thing..." She trotted around the stump and pulled Kaylee into a motherly side-hug. "Maybe Flight just... doesn't know she likes fillies too?" She offered. "Heaven knows I didn't at that age..."

"I dunno..." Kaylee said, biting her lip. Nonetheless, she hugged closer to Mochi's side. "I'm afraid. I should probably just... probably just tell her, but this just seemed easier. I thought she wouldn't mind that much."

"...Really?" Mochi asked in disbelief. "C'mon... you can't be that oblivious to how other ponies are gonna react."

"Hmph, you're right," Kaylee replied. "I just... don't know what to do."

"If you want my honest opinion... I think you should just tell her the truth," Mochi said. "I don't wanna push you toward anything or nothing, but... this ain't gonna turn out any better if you keep hidin' the truth. Worst case scenario, she just don't like you but she understands why and can move on. Maybe it'll hurt, or be scary, but... it'll end up fine. Now... neither of ya really get any closure, and nopony's happy."

"I guess..." Kaylee murmured.

"Again, it's up to you," Mochi continued, "but I just don't want to see you hurt more than ya have to be, Kaylee. Not when you've already been going through so much hurt of your own."

Being

“I think they’re coming back,” Cotton Fluff murmured, glancing over Flight’s shoulder. Sure enough, as Flight turned around, she could see Mochi trotting slowly towards them, her gaze focused directly at Flight, Scootaloo, and Cotton Fluff. As she got closer, Flight could also see the green hooves attached to the smaller form of her friend, trotting behind.

Once Mochi was not a metre from Flight, she stepped to the side, revealing the deep-green filly behind her. Kaylee stood there, breathing in and out unevenly with shallow, ragged breaths. When she looked up at Flight, it was clear that her eyes were red and the fur beneath her cheeks was matted. Kaylee was visibly shaking.

“Hey,” Flight said quietly, biting her lip.

“Hi,” Kaylee whispered.

“Um, do you guys need a moment?” Scootaloo asked, already moving to trot off to the other side of the small clearing, granting Kaylee and Flight as much privacy as their close quarters would allow. “We can just—”

“No, it’s okay,” Kaylee murmured, looking towards Scootaloo with sad eyes. Her voice wobbled as she spoke. “You should be here... too.”

Scootaloo blinked but held her tongue as she stepped back beside Flight. “Here... for what?”

Flight sighed. “Are you going to explain why you pulled that stunt back in the forest? I mean... it’s okay if you’re rejecting me, but why would you even say you liked me too, after all that?” She frowned. “Even if not like that... don’t you care about me, Kevin?”

Kaylee visibly cringed. “Please... please don’t call me that.”

Flight blinked. “Huh? Call you what? I didn’t call you anything.”

It took a moment for the green filly to respond, but when she did it was with more resolve in her voice. “That name. Please don’t say that name again. It’s not mine, and I don’t want it.”

Flight just looked more confused, and Cotton Fluff and Scootaloo joined her. “Kevin?” Flight asked. As she watched Kaylee flinch once more, a look of terror flashed across her face. “I don’t understand... what’s happened to you? That’s your name, isn’t it? That’s always been your name?”

“It was the name my parents gave me,” Kaylee replied, surprising even herself with how calmly she spoke now, “but I don’t want it. I never wanted it, and it’s been years since I found one I did want.”

“O-okay,” Flight stammered, still looking very nervous. She glanced to the side, at Cotton Fluff. “Can you check if he’s possessed or something? Or a changeling?” she hissed.

“I’m not possessed, and I’m not a changeling,” the green filly went on. “K-Kevin... was just never real. Kevin was a face I put on—somepony I tried very hard to be because I thought it would be better. And that’s not to say I’m nothing like that mask—because behind it, I was always there—but I’m not Kevin.” She took a deep breath. “I want you to call me Kaylee.”

Flight whimpered. “But that’s a filly’s name,” she said in a small voice, halfheartedly. “Don’t tell me—”

Kaylee nodded and shook as she spoke, looking up and addressing the small group surrounding her: “My name is Kaylee, and I’m a girl. I’ve known I was a girl for a long time—years and years, even before my parents died. I-I hope you support me, but...” she faltered. “I don’t know. I can just go back to Dienna if... if you don’t want me here.”

Kaylee took a deep breath. And then—

Scootaloo leaned in, embracing the green filly and holding her in a tight, fierce hug. For a moment, that was all Kaylee could think about, and all she could feel was the love of her new friend as she was held.

Yet what ripped her away was a loud cry of protest from Flight, and as Scootaloo pulled away reluctantly, both of them watched as the yellow filly, sobbing, bounded off into the trees beyond.

Changing

“You think Cotton’s gonna be able to find her?” Kaylee asked, looking worried. She had followed Scootaloo off away from the clearing, over to where she had spoken with Mochi not long before.

“Yeah, it’s gonna be fine,” Scootaloo replied. She had sat down next to the stump and lowered her saddlebags to the ground, rifling through them intently. Kaylee was a little confused at what she was doing, but didn’t ask; instead, she sat on the opposite side of the stump and just listened. Listened to the adult ponies talking somewhat loudly back at the clearing.

“Of course we accept her and we’ll call her whatever she likes, but—”

“But what, Later? Why’re you making there be a ‘but’ involved? Just call her the right thing, and there’s no drama.”

“Mochi...” Clove replied, exasperated. “Of course it would be wonderful if it were as easy as that, but what about her friend? This has just opened up a needless split in the group. It just wasn’t a good time.”

“Wasn’t a good time?! Was there ever gonna be a good time? She was obviously hurtin’, or else she wouldn’ta come out and said it in the first place.”

“I mean... she could have waited until we got back to Dienna,” Later replied, her tone cautious. Kaylee could almost picture the mare, leaned back, trying not to set Mochi off. “Maybe until we’re out of danger, so that something that might cause a rift wouldn’t happen just as we need to stick together.”

“Ugh, you ponies,” Mochi replied. She said something else, but Kaylee tuned it out as she closed her eyes. She appreciated what Mochi was saying—she really did—but she supposed that Later and Clove did have a point; if she hadn’t spoken her mind right then, Flight wouldn’t have run away. Why couldn’t she have just waited? She’d already waited a long time—years—so why was waiting just a little while longer so difficult?

It didn’t really matter, of course. It had already happened, and everypony already knew. Kaylee sighed, and looked over to Scootaloo. The orange filly across the stump had stopped digging through her bags, having apparently found what she was looking for: her journal, which she placed open on the surface of the stump, and a graphick that she held between her teeth. Kaylee watched as Scootaloo’s eyes scanned the page for a few moments before stopping on a word—one in that odd script of hers that seemed so familiar and yet so foreign all at once. Scootaloo leaned over and erased it before beginning to graphick in another word in its place.

Just as Kaylee was about to ask what Scootaloo was doing, the pegasus looked up. “Say, how do you spell your name, anyway?” she asked, somewhat muffled from the graphick held between her teeth. “K-A-L-E-I-G-H? K-A-L-E-Y?”

Kaylee blinked. “Erm, no... it’s ‘K-A-Y-L-E-E’.”

“Sweet, thanks,” Scootaloo replied, grinning as she looked back down and sketched out what appeared to be six letters. From there, Kaylee watched as Scootaloo repeated this process over and over, finding a certain five-letter word and replacing it with a six-letter one.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Kaylee asked, even though she had a pretty good guess already.

“Just correcting a few mistakes I made,” Scootaloo replied, not even bothering to look up. “Pretty silly now that I think about it, but hey, nopony’s perfect.”

Kaylee rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to do that, you know. Really.”

Scootaloo looked up and nodded. “I know. But I want to. Can’t have this stupid journal be wrong, can I?” She paused, and her face scrunched. “At least not about that.”

Kaylee shrugged and just kept watching as, mesmerisingly, Scootaloo erased, wrote, erased, wrote, and flipped the page a dozen times more.

Guess

Hardly a moment passed after Scootaloo had shut her journal until Kaylee could hear Later say, "Oh, thank the stars you're back." The filly looked to Scootaloo, who had just shoved her journal back in her saddlebag, and together they trotted back towards the others, seeing Later, Clove, and Mochi all standing in the centre. It was the pink mare that heard them approach and once she looked over her shoulder, Mochi stepped aside to let Kaylee and Scootaloo trot up to the centre, standing face to face with Flight. Behind the filly, Cotton Fluff loomed, a neutral, almost stoic expression on her face.

"...So?" Mochi finally asked, breaking the silence. "You came back."

"Mhmm..." Flight nodded slowly, still staring at Kaylee. She didn't look upset anymore; she just looked tired. "There isn't really anywhere else for me to go, is there?"

"Guess not," Kaylee said before she knew what she was saying. Flight's glance turned odd, and Kaylee shrunk back a little.

"So, uh, are we good?" Scootaloo asked, sounding a little unsure that she should be the one speaking. "Are you gonna be nice to Kaylee now? Can we move on and get this show on the road?"

Flight bit her lip. "I can't pretend to understand what K-Kevin is doing, but... I don't hate him." She turned to look at the dark green filly across from her. "I don't hate you, Kevin. I just think you don't know what you're talking about."

Kaylee felt a pit drop in her stomach; she felt sick, and she wanted to throw up. Nonetheless, she tried to put on a brave face; she offered up a weak smile and leaned forward to pull Flight into a hug. "Th-thanks," Kaylee murmured. Flight didn't reach out to join the hug; she just stood there, expression blank, until Kaylee pulled back and looked to Later and Clove. She could also see Mochi—who looked furious, but said nothing.

"What are we doing now?" Kaylee asked.

"Well, Later and I pretty much have a plan worked out," Clove said, "but it'll take some explaining. Here, everybody gather 'round the plans." He shifted over to the stump and beckoned for everypony to trot forward, which they did.

Below

Elsewhere...

A calm darkness filled the sky, interruped only by pinprick dots of light from the stars and a big, full moon that glowed not too bright, but still dimly casting a shade of silver over the land below. Houses lined the roads below, but all of them only had a few lights on here and there or were completely in pitch darkness. However, there was a streetlamp standing tall on each corner, casting some light at least so that if a pony were to walk outside, they would be able to see at least somewhat the world around them.

At one such corner, there was a shape shifting by in the dark. She made hoofsteps on the dirt road as it went along, trying to keep in the shadows so that anypony who chanced to look outside would not see her. Not that she wasn't supposed to be outside, but... well, being seen would lead to too many questions. No, she needed to trot a few blocks, and fast. When she came across intersections, she looked both ways before dashing as quick as her legs could take her. She only had to go a few blocks, though, until she came across what she was looking for: a particular alley between two brick buildings.

Peering forward into the dark to make sure it was safe, she shimmied ahead and then paused to catch her breath.

"You made it," a low voice said. She could not see who it came from, but... there was no mistaking it.

"Yeah, it wasn't hard," she squeaked in response. "My sister sleeps like a brick."

"Great," the other voice replied, coming closer. She thought she could see his shape in the dark, standing there, but it could have been a trick of the light. "Come with me—we don't have much time, but I was able to get the blueprints and a lot of the scrap together. We'll wanna get you back before the morning, though."

Nodding, she followed as she heard steps on the ground, leaving the alley and walking towards the looming shadow of what was unmistakably the largest and pointiest building in town.

Depart

"So, you all will stay together as you go around the circumference of the CDK's dome a bit more, closer to the entrance," Clove instructed them. "Then, once you're closer, Later and Clover will break off and go onto the main path. I know that the front isn't too well-guarded—it's the biggest city, with a lot of ponies going in and out, after all—so if they can just blend into the crowd, we'll be fine. The rest of you... you're going to need to sneak along the dome."

"How're we gonna do that if it's a dome?" Mochi asked. "Won't we just slide off?"

"And won't we be seen?" Scootaloo asked. "They've got to have some guards around the whole dome thing."

Clove sighed. "One question at a time, please." He turned to Mochi. "It isn't a very steep dome, and I have it on good authority that it's possible to walk up and across it fairly easily, so you shouldn't have any problems. If you do... erm, I'm sure Flight and Scootaloo can work together to fly Mochi and Kev—er, Kaylee up."

"Like that'll happen," Flight murmured under her breath, rolling her eyes. Kaylee shot her a sidelong glare, but the filly didn't seem to notice.

"And we were worried about you being seen," Clove went on, apparently not hearing Flight, "but then Later remembered a spell she can teach Kaylee, one that will camoflague you as long as you're all in physical contact, both with physical appearance and also muffling the sounds you make. No, it won't make you invisible, but as long as you stay away from the guards and don't make too much noise, you should be fine."

"Huh, that's cool," Scootaloo replied.

"Yeah, it sounds cool... but it also sounds hard," Kaylee said, a concerned look on her face. "How's Later going to teach me that in the time it takes us to walk over there?"

"It's simple, I promise," Later said reassuringly, leaning over to look at Kaylee with a friendly expression. "I myself am pretty shit at magic, and I learned the spell in just a few minutes, so it stands to reason that you should be able to, too."

"Well... okay," Kaylee said. "That's fine, then."

"Splendid," Clove said, looking over the group one final time. "Well, then, I guess I will see you all in a few hours, assuming everything goes well. I still have my comlink on me and I'll enable it, so please, Later, contact me if anything goes wrong."

"Will do, Clove," Later replied, nodding. "Stay safe, y'hear?" She turned and led the other ponies behind her into the trees.

As Clove watched the rest of them go, he smiled, and then turned to trot deeper into the forest, humming to himself.

Taught

"Okay, now you try," Later said, peering down at the green filly as she walked alongside her.

In response, Kaylee screwed her eyes up in concentration. Her horn sparked to life, if only briefly, and then, suddenly, her coat took on the colour of her surroundings; her hooves were mottled with the earthen-brown textures of the dirt below, and the wooden bark of tree trunks rippled and shifted as Kaylee walked past. "D-did I get it?" the filly stammered, opening an eyelid cautiously.

"Heh, look at yourself," Later replied, grinning. She reached out a hoof and touched Kaylee's back for a moment, her own coat morphing into the green and brown colours of the forest. Then, she lifted her hoof, and she immediately was green again—not the verdant green of the bushes but the livelier, punchier green she had been before. "Yeah, I'd say that's really good. Just make sure you're properly dispersing the mana output," she added, seeing the strain evident on Kaylee's face.

"Y-yeah..." The filly jittered in place and the spell went out; then, she unclenched her teeth, breathing out. "I'll... make sure to do that."

"Just wait it out a few minutes, and you should be fine," Later instructed. "It's a bit difficult the first few times... but really, focus on the mana output and you'll be fine. I know it's easy to get distracted and try and focus on your surroundings, but that's not going to help the spell; it will act on its own."

"Right," Kaylee breathed. "I can do that."

Behind the pair, Scootaloo had been eyeing them curiously. "Is learning spells usually that easy?" she asked, turning to look at Cotton Fluff.

"I dunno," the brown mare replied, shrugging. "I don't do magic too much, to be honest. I know your basic levitation, teleportation, etcetera, but I never really had the need to learn beyond that, I'm afraid."

"Hmm..." Scootaloo hmm'd. "But I remember my friend Sweetie Belle having a lot of trouble learning spells like teleportation, and had to go through a lot of tutoring, and I think it's the same for most ponies my age. Not to mention teleportation, which I only knew a... super powerful unicorn to do."

Cotton raised an eyebrow. "That's strange. I can't imagine why that would be; I guess magic just comes more easily up here."

"I guess..." Scootaloo trailed off, thinking. She watched Kaylee attempt the spell again, this time keeping more of a cool demeanor, and she swore she could see something faint like steam or smoke rising into the air from the filly's horn.

"Kinda wish I could do magic like that," Flight murmured from Scootaloo's right. "It looks pretty cool."

"Hmm, yeah, I guess," Scootaloo replied, still gazing at Kaylee's camouflaged form. "I wouldn't give up my wings for anything in the world, though; I feel like I was born to fly."

"Heh. Do you think if I feel like I was born to do magic, I can just decide I'm a unicorn and get Later to teach me spells?"

Scootaloo blinked, and then turned to look at Flight. The yellow filly's expression was, as far as Scootaloo could tell, innocent. Scootaloo just bit her lip, ignored the filly's comment, and kept walking, her hooves crunching softly on the dirt.

By

A few minutes later, the small group was within sight of the main path. It was Mochi, walking ahead, who spied it first, pointing it out as she stopped.

"Shh, be quiet," Later admonished, frowning. "We need to make sure there's nopony coming when Cotton and I go out there, or else it'll look suspicious as hell." She looked from side to side at the rest of the group. "And if anyone hears us back here... well, they'll probably bring us straight to the guards. It's not like going out here is illegal or anything, but it just simply isn't done."

"Unless you're looking for trouble, that is." Cotton Fluff leaned forward, gaining a little of her peripheral vision as she looked between the trees. "Hm, yeah, there's still quite a few ponies trotting here," she murmured. "Best we wait a bit."

"Alright, thanks," Later replied. She turned to the rest of the group. "That doesn't mean you ponies can't get going, however; the sooner you start moving, the better. I think it's a ways across the dome, so it'll be a long walk. You'll probably get there before we do, of course, but not much before. And we won't have much time once we're in the maintenance shaft, so it would be super helpful if you got there first."

"Sure thing," Mochi said, beckoning the three smaller ponies towards her. "C'mon, you kids, let's get walking. You got that spell prepared, Kaylee?"

"Yeah, I think so," Kaylee replied with a nod. "I'll start it once we get to the edge of the trees."

"Great," Later said. "Ta-ta for now."

"Bye," Scootaloo said, looking up at the green mare with an odd expression. Later watched as they trotted away into the trees, towards the wide expanse of the dome.

Supposedly

"Okay, I think this is basically the limit of how far we can do with the trees still covering us," Scootaloo announced. She was standing beside the last tree before the open expanse of medium-height grass, which poked up from the ground and stretched up almost to her messy magenta mane.

"You know, I bet we could probably just duck down and sneak through the grass," Flight suggested, batting down at one of the planty tufts. She peered forward. "Do they even have guards out there? If there aren't any ways in, wouldn't they just be by the door?"

"No, Later 'n' Clove said there's a few other entrances that ponies use," Mochi replied, also gazing out towards the looming dome. "Maintenance ones like the one we're shufflin' off to, and then a few where they have special Bureau spaceships or somethin' like that. There won't be guards swarming all over the place, but there'll be more than a few."

"Even in the grass?" Kaylee asked, frowning. "It would be super helpful if I didn't have to use the spell the whole time..."

"I... don't think it'd be smart to take our chances, kiddo," Mochi said. "They could be anywhere, and if we're spotted... well, I can tell ya it won't end well." She stepped forward, placing a hoof on Kaylee's back. "We just gotta do this just how we were told. Later 'n' Clove know what they're doing, by the sound of it."

"...Fine," Kaylee grumbled, looking back at Mochi's hoof. "You girls gonna do the same?"

"Yeah, yeah, sorry I wasn't touching your butt fast enough," Scootaloo joked. Kaylee giggle-snorted as the pegasus trotted back a step to place her hoof beside Mochi's. Sighing, Flight joined them, bumping her hoof against Mochi's.

"Okay... here goes nothing..." Kaylee closed her eyes, letting a green flash of light spark out from her horn, enveloping the four of them. By the time the filly opened her eyes, all of their coats had changed textures from a multicoloured mix to a palette of more natural, earthy tones. As Kaylee stepped forward, leading them into the grass, her coat vanished into a mosaic of light green lines.

Roads

"All clear," Cotton Fluff whispered. She was crouched down between two trunks, obscured by a tuft of tall grass on the edge of the paved road to the city, an expanse of grey concrete that stretched out to both sides. "A group of ponies just trotted by, and it doesn't look like anyone's coming 'round the bend, as far as I can see. I don't know how much time we have, though."

"Let's go, then," Later replied, stepping past the brown mare below, emerging with a soft rustle from the bushes. Her hooves made semi-loud clopping sounds on the pavement, and she looked frantically from side to side, making sure that they wouldn't be seen. As Cotton had said, a small band of ponies were trotting ahead of them, not a few metres away; however, they seemed to be too busy talking amongst themselves to be paying any attention to the mare trotting out from the forest. They themselves were but a few metres away from a somewhat large crowd of ponies, all leading towards what looked to be the entrance of the city.

Biting her lip, Later turned the other direction to see where the pavement made a sharp corner turn around a thick patch of woods; however, as nopony else was in sight, she beckoned for Cotton to come forward with a hoof and then, not looking to see whether the mare was behind her, she started trotting towards the other ponies ahead of them.

"Smooth moves," Cotton said, trotting up alongside her. "So, I guess we need to get into the centre of the crowd?"

"Yeah, something like that," Later replied. "We just need to stay... inconspicuous. I know they have way too many ponies going in and out to search every one, but we also don't want to give them a reason to find us interesting."

"Sounds about right," Cotton replied. For a minute or two, neither mare had anything to say; they just kept trotting on the pavement, attempting to keep a brisk pace while not seeming... too rushed. They also didn't want to catch up with the next group of ponies so soon, so each time they got close, they would slow down just a tad. This went well for a bit, until...

"Hey there!" called a voice from behind them.

"It's probably not for us—don't look or they'll think we're being suspicious," Later whispered through gritted teeth.

"You, the green unicorn and the brown unicorn! Yeah, I'm talkin' to you!"

Later frowned, but looked over her shoulder all the same. Behind her, not a few metres away, stood a white-coated stallion with a short grey mane, swooshed over to one side. "What do you want?" she asked.

"Where did you mare come from?" the stallion asked fairly loudly, making—as Later confirmed by looking back ahead—a few heads turn. Both Later and Cotton cringed.

"What do you mean?" Later asked softly. She stopped trotting. "Here, walk with us," she offered, hoping he would actually quiet down.

"Sure, okay," he replied, shrugging. "But still... where did you mares come from?"

"Um... well..." Cotton shifted nervously at the stallion's gaze, trying to avoid his silvery eyes.

Dome

To an uninformed observer, there were no ponies out of the ordinary trotting up the side of the expansive white dome that covered the CDK; although there were a few guards here and there, pacing back and forth or remaining motionless. And yet, between them, unseen, a small group of ponies slowly climbed. Their coats were a dingy off-white, blending in almost seemlessly with the plastic-coated metal beneath and around them. The light breeze and rustling of trees around them masked the soft clink of their hoofsteps.

"...Kevin?" Flight asked, sounding unsure.

Kaylee didn't respond for a moment. Scootaloo turned her head, glaring at the filly next to her, but said nothing.

"Yeah?" Kaylee finally replied, turning her head back to look at Flight. "What is it?"

"Could we maybe... go a little faster?" she asked, a little louder and more confident this time.

"I dunno..." Kaylee replied. "If we go too much faster, I'm worried we're gonna slip."

"It'll be fine," Flight grumbled. "I'm just tired of trotting at a mollusc's pace."

"Shhh," Mochi shushed, looking down at Flight with a disapproving glance. "We can't talk too much or the guards'll hear. I know this thing hushes the sound too, but we can't afford to risk it."

"Yeah, yeah," Flight said, frowning. She quieted after that, looking down at the ground with a glum expression.

Scootaloo looked from side to side, watching some of the guards mill about. "You'd think they'd be a little more organised."

"Ponies don't really come 'round here, apparently," Mochi replied in a whisper. "Which is good for us, 'cause they won't be too focused on lookin' out for ponies." She paused. "Hey, Kaylee, go a little right. I think."

"You know where we're going?" Kaylee replied, looking at the slight curve of the dome that was nearly featureless, beyond the seams between the metal tiles.

"Yeah, I got a pretty good look at that map they had," Mochi replied. "I mean, it doesn't help that there ain't any landmarks or anything, but I think I'll be able to find our way. Can't miss a giant telescope."

"Shhhh," Flight shushed mockingly. "Gotta be quiet or else the guards are gonna hear you, aren't they?"

Mochi bit her lip but didn't reply. Scootaloo, frowning, looked to Kaylee to see how she reacted but the filly whose back she was holding onto didn't even turn; she just kept trotting.

Crowd

"We were walking on the path, just like you were," Later replied firmly, trotting alongside the white-coated stallion.

"I dunno, filly," the stallion replied, shooting her a confused look. "I think I woulda noticed, 'cause I've been walkin' down this path all the way from Chalance where I live, and I didn't see anypony in front of me until those ponies there." He pointed forward to the next group after them, who were at that moment becoming part of the throng ahead.

Cotton Fluff frowned, unsure of what to say; thankfully, Later seemed to have it covered. "No, I'm sure you just didn't see us. Look at our coats." She gestured at herself and then at Cotton. "I'm green, and she's brown, so we blend right in. We were just trotting along the shoulder."

"Hmph." The stallion squinted, looking from one mare to the other. "I guess that could be true. I do have a tendency to... tune out on these walks." He shrugged. "I work in the city, you see, but real estate there is way too expensive. Completely unaffordable. Plus the wife's family has always been in Chalance, and she's gotta take care of her mother, you know, and..."

Later slowly nodded to whatever this stallion was saying but once he started just looking ahead, she stole a glace at Cotton Fluff to shoot her a wink. The brown mare smiled weakly.

"...because her father was tragically killed in the war." The stallion paused. "Ah, didn't mean to make things so heavy. Sometimes your mouth just goes to unexpected places, you know?"

Later raised an eyebrow but merely nodded in agreement. She was more focused on navigating their small group into the larger body of ponies, churning and shifting slowly forward into the looming mouth at the base of the dome. Now that they were closer, she could see the small raised platforms on either side of the path, where guard ponies stood tall and proud in sleek uniforms, looking over the crowd.

"So, what brings you mares to the good ol' C-D-K?" he asked, making each letter of the acronym quite pronounced. "Where are you ponies from?"

"We're from, uh, the Sciouse province," Later absently replied. "Ferretfall."

"Ooh, Ferretfall! I've never been there myself, though the wife says it's gorgeous, but I hear it's pretty similar to Chalance. Small town in the middle of the forest, right?"

"Yeah, it is rather nice," Cotton Fluff said, finally speaking up. "The breeze is just so... crisp this time of year."

"Heh, you said it," the stallion replied. "Even if I could afford it, I really don't think I could live in one of the big cities like the CDK... it gets really damn dreary underground. Ponies were meant to be out and about in nature, don'tcha think?"

"Mhm," Later replied. She turned to the right, allowing the others to follow her as they were now less than a metre from the next ponies in the crowd. She looked over her shoulder to see several ponies were now coming up the path behind them. "Oh, good."

"Hm?" the stallion asked. "What's good?"

"Ah, nothing," Later replied, shaking her head. "So, you were saying...?"

"Oh, yeah," the stallion said, smiling. "I dunno, I just think a lot about when in Asterismos we're told about the beauty of nature and then... how so many ponies are forced to live underground, away from that. It just ain't right, y'know?"

"Guess I was never really that religious, but I feel you," Cotton replied.

Lens

"I think I mighta spoken too soon," Mochi murmured as she looked out upon the uninterrupted off-white expanse. It was curious, the way the dome hugged the clear blue sky with hardly a top of a tree in sight.

"You're sure it was supposed to be here?" Scootaloo asked, looking to the mare. She shivered slightly as a breeze blew by. "How can you even tell?"

"Should I stop?" Kaylee asked from ahead.

"Nah, keep going," Mochi replied. "I could be wrong about the location."

Flight facehoofed. "Are we just wandering around randomly, then? Could we be any less organised?"

"Hey, come off it!" Scootaloo admonished. "She barely has any more info that we do! It's not her fault Later didn't tell her basically anything."

"Scootaloo, please," Mochi protested wearily, "be quiet. Flight's just going to be all grumpy-like, I think, so risking gettin' caught like this ain't worth the squeeze."

"What in the hay is that supposed to mean?" Flight growled, shoving her hoof into Mochi's. "I'm... I'm going through a lot right now, okay?"

Before Mochi could reply, Kaylee interjected, saying, "D'you think that big fault in the dome has anything to do with the telescope?"

Scootaloo, Mochi, and Flight all stopped and leaned around Kaylee, following her off-white hoof where it pointed. Surely enough, in the surface of the dome right in front of them, there was a long divot that curved and bended to form a sort of capital I shape.

"Well, that would certainly fit the bill," Mochi murmured in surprise. "Guess they built a whole door thing in over top of it, huh?"'

"Makes sense," Scootaloo agreed. "Otherwise they'd have to do all that cleaning way too often."

Flight frowned. "If they've got doors or something over it, how are we going to get in?" She lightly tapped the ground, though even that small tap made a loud clank. Kaylee nearly jumped and her head turned around wildly, looking to see if any guards had noticed them, but they seemed not to have heard.

"Definitely not by bangin' on it, that's for sure," Mochi replied, glaring at the filly. "That's just gonna let us get caught."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Flight grumbled. "At least it's something. What are we supposed to do, then—just wait for whenever Later and Cotton show up?"

"Er... isn't that the plan?" Scootaloo replied, giving her an odd look. She looked to the side again, watching as a few of the guards trotted close to one another and had a conversation about something or other. Still, nopony seemed to have seen them. "Though I will admit... we do kinda feel like sitting ducks here."

"You gonna be able to keep the spell up for long, Kaylee?" Mochi asked, looking down at the spell's progenitor.

Kaylee shrugged. "I'm pretty sure. The spell is surprisingly not hard to cast, so it really doesn't take that much out of me."

"Well, that's good," Scootaloo said with a nod. "Now... we wait."

The four ponies stood there in silence a few moments, though their heads were still turning around to watch the guards.

"Oh, crap," Flight murmured under her breath.

"What is it?" Scootaloo asked.

"Our first test, I guess," Flight replied, sounding somewhat annoyed. "Two stallions are coming this way, though not quite in this direction. But they're coming close."

"Shush, then," Scootaloo said, glaring. She followed her own advice and the four ponies stood there, waiting to see just what would happen. Kaylee, for her part, had her eyes closed, holding her breath.

Inter

Although the stallion had said something about it taking half an hour to get into the CDK, the crowd seemed to be moving slightly quicker that day; Later wasn't counting, but she was pretty sure no more than fifteen minutes went by before they were rescued from the sun, whose rays had begun to brim with heat. And, once they reached that lip of the dome, where the otherwise-uninterrupted plastic and metal were interrupted to form a large yawning entrance, they felt a cool rush of air from ahead.

"It's actually really warm down there," the stallion explained through a shiver. "They've just got this magical field there in the entrance, to trick you into thinking it's cooler."

"How come they don't just use magic to make it cooler?" Cotton asked. "That's what we... erm, I mean, that's what I've heard they do in other cities like Umberlight."

The stallion laughed. "Umberlight? That place is tiny, and easy to cool because of it. How would that work here, though? Not nearly enough unicorns to cast a spell, and the heat discharge if batteries were used would have to go somewhere. Nah, most ponies learn to live with it."

"Another reason why you don't want to live down there, I assume?" Cotton asked with a knowing smile.

"Heh... hadn't quite thought of it like that, but definitely." The stallion nodded, and then went on to say something about living aboveground in Chalance, something to do about the effects of weather on houses.

Later was only sort of listening to their conversation; her head, however, was slowly turning between the guards on the raised podiums on either side. She was trying to get a good look at them, making sure they weren't too focused on her and Cotton Fluff... and yet she didn't want to make it look like she was too focused on them, either.

"Oh, hey, Stout!" she heard the stallion call from next to her. Before Later quite knew what was going on, he was already pushing past her, making his way towards one of the guards, who was looking straight at him with a grin.

"Let's just blend back into the crowd," Later hissed to Cotton. "We can—"

"You should see these ponies I met!" the stallion continued, pointing a hoof towards Later and Cotton. Later could see the guard's eyes on them, and she was also very aware of several ponies in the crowd who had slowed and were staring.

Cotton Fluff turned to Later. "Um... what do?"

Later sighed, rubbing her temples. "Let's just follow the guy. It'll be fine." she murmured. Then, she turned back towards the stallion and, with a grunt, pushed her way towards him through the crowd, easily washing through the ponies like they were water. It took some effort to keep up with the white stallion, who was already ahead of them, but by the time he was on the left shoulder of the path, Later and Cotton were right behind him. Both of them took deep breaths as they emerged from the crowd, savouring the cooler, drier air around the guard's post.

"It's been a long time, Dessic," the guard said as he trotted down the few stairs. He reached out and put a grey hoof around the white stallion.

"Yeah, what's up with that?" Dessic asked.

"Shift got changed, man. Just got this one back after no end of finagling." The guard paused to scratch his friend's head affectionately and then stepped back, taking on a somewhat confused expression as he looked Cotton Fluff and Even Later over. "So, who are the friends?" he asked. "Or... well... actually, nah, that was never your thing."

Dessic laughed. "Stout, you know I'm a married stallion." He coughed, clearing his throat. "Nah, these are just some ladies I ran into on my way to work here. We were just having a chat."

The guard raised an eyebrow. "A chat, eh? Sounds mighty enthralling, if you ask me. Enrapturing, even." He flashed a grin. "You ladies ever been enraptured before?"

Cotton facehoofed; Later merely shuffled her hooves uncomfortably. Dessic laughed again. "Pardon my friend, here; he can be kind of ridiculous. Helpful, though."

"Aw, do I gotta be helpful?" Stout mock-complained. "Nah, I kid. I'll escort you ponies through the guard tunnel, 'cause who wants to be crammed up against the stinkin' proles, amirite?"

Everypony just kind of ignored that comment as they followed the grey guardspony up the stairs, where they came upon the entrance to a small tunnel that would easily fit two or three ponies side-by-side—basically a small road leading into the CDK. With a last look at the rest of the crowd shuffling by at a snail's pace, they trotted into the tunnel. Later fell into the front alongside Stout, with Cotton and Dessic bringing up the rear.

"So..." Stout said once they were a few metres into the tunnel and the noise had died down considerably. "Have I seen you before?"

Later raised an eyebrow. "I don't think so, sir. I don't know where you would have seen me."

"Are you from one of the northern provinces?" he asked. "'Cause I was born and raised up there."

"Nope, southern," Later replied curtly. She wanted the conversation to end as soon as possible. Luckily for her, Stout seemed to have nothing more to say, so she merely listened to Dessic and Cotton chat about banking or something as Stout led them through the darkened tunnel.

Still

Time almost seemed to slow down as Mochi, Flight, Scootaloo, and Kaylee stood there on the surface of the dome, holding their breath and watching as the two guards approached. One false move—one sound too loud, one step out of place—and the entire mission would be ruined and they would be caught, subject to the whims of the Bureau.

Scootaloo looked up at the guards, who were still more than a dozen metres away. Then, she looked at the ground, and she thought for a moment before looking back at Mochi and Flight, who were also standing around Kaylee with their hooves on her back. "Guys, we need to get down," she whispered urgently.

"Why?" Mochi asked, nervously looking over her shoulder at the approaching guards. "We should prob'ly keep the movin' around to a minimum, or else they're gonna hear us with all the shuffling."

"Look down," Scootaloo mouthed, pointing towards the dome with a hoof. All three of her companions did as she said, and all three of them were taken aback at the dark, pony-shaped shadows that lingered on the dome alongside them.

"Holy crap," Flight whispered in shock. "How haven't we been noticed so far?"

"I mean, you probably have to be pretty close to see them," Kaylee whispered. "Considering not even we had noticed yet..."

"Shh," Mochi shushed, motioning downward with a hoof. "Just get down!"

The four of them ducked down, trying not to make too much noise as they crouched in positions that they knew they'd be able to hold for a bit, just in case the guards decided to stick around. Although the dome's panels creaked ever so slightly with the shift of their weight, the sound was masked enough by the guards' approaching hoofsteps that there was no way they could have heard it. And, from how they just kept trotting and talking, that appeared to be the case.

"...so I guess I was wondering whether you'd heard anything... I dunno. Anything related to that," one of the guards said. He had paused a couple metres away, with the other guard alongside, and Scootaloo had to squint to see them with how the sun reflected off the silver streaks along their uniforms.

"Nah, I haven't. You said these ponies are at large? And in the area?" The other guard raised an eyebrow. "How come I haven't heard about this?"

"They're keeping it on the down-low, for some reason," the first guard replied. "I think they don't want to worry ponies. These ponies at large... they're part of the rebellion, or at least that's what the Captain said."

"Aureate above... yeah, I can understand why. Don't want a bomb scare, and then the news would probably get out to the rebels and so we wouldn't be able to nab them. Gotcha."

"Exactly. But I'm telling you because I'm supposed to be on the lookout here, but, well, you know. You can't exactly skip a tenth anniversary."

The other guard nodded. "Yeah, I get it. Back when me and Mariah were still together... well, anyway... yeah, I can cover this. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Thanks, bro," the first guard said, punching his comrade lightly on the shoulder. "I owe ya one."

"You owe me like twelve at this point," the other guard replied, rolling his eyes. He turned to watch the first guard trot away, not turning away until he was out of sight down the dome. Then, the guard sighed. That's when he turned towards the four ponies crouched against the dome, staring right in their direction.

"Ugh... yeah, there's no way I'm going to see any of these crazy wanted criminals in the next few hours. Better make the best of this as I can, I guess." With another sigh, the guard sat down and settled in before closing his eyes.

Scootaloo let out a breath of relief.

Fluorescence

"Ah, I think we're almost there," the guard apparently named Stout said once they were a ways down the path. Later couldn't quite tell how he knew, since the light was so low and the whole tunnel looked the same; however, at least on this, she trusted him. She definitely couldn't trust him on anything else, though.

Sure enough, not a few moments later, they rounded a corner and the end of the tunnel was easily visible, light pouring in from the inside of the city. Dessic, who was still trotting beside Cotton, gave a little chuckle as he saw the light. "The lights down there never cease to amaze me," he explained, after earning a few confused glances from Later and Cotton. "They're just so... bright. I mean, yeah, we've got electric lights back in Chalance, but nothing quite as bright or as large as these."

"Don't you work here, like, every day?" Cotton asked, confused.

"Yeah... and even as the bulbs burn into my retinas, I'm still amazed. It's been years." Dessic sighed. "Gotta appreciate the little things, you know?"

"Mhm..." Cotton replied, shrugging. She didn't really have to reply, though, as Dessic's attention was pulled further by the fluorescent lights up ahead. The small group passed out of the tunnel into a balcony overlooking the CDK below, and as they approached, Stout moved aside to allow Later and Cotton to lean against the railing, glancing down at the city.

The CDK was technically a lot like Umberlight in design and layout, but on a much grander scale that meant visually they could not compare. And not just in how large the ground area was, either; the colossal buildings spired all the way up to the top of the dome in places, and between them spanned a webbing of translucent streets and pathways, bending up and down and every which way. While Umberlight had almost completely been a two dimensional city, the CDK played with all three dimensions in odd ways as layers intersected and led up to different portions of the buildings. Some space was even left for small hovercrafts, which zoomed through specified holes in the streets as they watched. Indeed, the CDK stretched so far down that Later and Cotton had no hope of seeing the bottom, being so close to the top as they were.

After a moment or so, Cotton pulled away. "Eugh..." she moaned. "Not a big fan of heights."

Dessic gave her a reassuring pat. "Don't worry, I wasn't either for the first few months I worked here. Heh... I had to get a garbage can just for my desk, 'cause I'd be puking after I came into work half the days."

Stout turned to Later. "You coming? I kinda need to return to my post, so it would be best if I got you ponies on your way sooner than later."

"Oh, yeah, of course," Later replied with a nod, still looking out up on the city. She finally wrested her gaze away and followed Stout, Dessic, and Cotton Fluff down a small incline that appeared to lead towards a door onlooking the closest street.

Murmurings

Scootaloo wasn't quite sure how much time had passed—just that it was a lot, and that it probably felt longer than it actually was. Her belly was still pressed close to the surface of the dome, its cold metallic surface sending a shiver down her spine. And yet she didn't dare do anything more than breathe; although the guard hadn't moved since he sat down, she didn't want to take her chances.

Of to her left, she heard a slight scuff of a hoof moving on the metal. Then, warm breath tickled her ear. "Scootaloo," Mochi breathed. "We gotta move."

Scootaloo didn't turn to look at her; she merely squinted her eyes, looking closer at the guard. "Where to, though? And what if he sees us?"

"We just need skedaddle before he wakes up. And he's gotta asleep—look at him."

Scootaloo did notice that his chest appeared to be rising and falling at that distinctive steady rhythm of a sleeping pony. And, to top it off, his mouth was hung slightly open, a small amount of drool on his muzzle. "Hmph," she hmph'd. "But we'll have to come back..."

"And we can do that, but not if we get caught," Mochi urged. "I just don't feel good about us being here right next to the guard the whole time. It could be an hour—maybe more—until they get here, and the further we are from anypony, the better."

Scootaloo sighed. She didn't want to move, not really—but Mochi made a good point. They could always trot back; just stay within view of the doors so that they could see when Later and Cotton got there. "Mmff... fine. So long as we can do it without making noise."

Mochi didn't say anything more, but Scootaloo assumed she nodded because she then heard the ground creak again and then the faint sound of whispering nearby. She held her breath, still staring at the guard, and hoped that this was a good idea.

Staircase

Although from further back the crowd had showed no sign of thinning, Cotton and Later found that, miraculously, as they got closer to the observatory there were fewer and fewer ponies until they emerged a few metres from the large glass double doors. There were hardly any ponies milling about the marble steps leading up to the doors, so Dessic quickened their pace as they trotted upwards.

"You don't need to walk us all the way up there," Later said, panting to keep up. "I mean, we do appreciate all you've done... but I imagine you have to get to work soon?"

Dessic looked up at the big clock with large, pointed metal hands that hung from the building's front, up a dozen metres or so. "I mean, I guess. I still have plenty of time, though, since I usually get there early. Heck, I could even come looking around in the observatory with you! It's been quite a while since I've had a look in here, lemme tell ya."

Later turned to Cotton Fluff and gave her a look so futile that the brown mare could barely keep from laughing. "That... would be great," Later said through gritted teeth.

"So much for that plan..." Cotton mumbled.

"You ladies coming?" Dessic had already reached the top, standing by the curved metal frame of the building, while Cotton and Later were more than a dozen steps behind. Something... something was strange about the stallion, but they just couldn't place it.

"D-don't mind us," Cotton wheezed. "We'll be a minute or two."

"Well, alright. I'll meet you in the lobby, m'kay? Entrance is free, thank goodness; yeah, maybe the taxes are a little high but honestly, I think it's worth it if I can pop into someplace like this every once in a while. Y'know?" Dessic left that question there behind him; Later and Cotton watched him trot off across the marble towards the glass doors and slip inside.

"Aureate above..." Cotton murmured. "What are we going to do?"

"Um... we'll figure it out," Later replied, looking up at the doors. "I mean, nothing's really going wrong. We just have some random civilian tagging along with this, who we're apparently never going to be able to escape."

Mezzanope

"You know, I think this building could've been a little better designed," Cotton Fluff remarked as she trotted up the stairs alongside Dessic, coming close to where the stairs levelled out to a circular floor with railing that went around nearly the entire inner circumference of the building.

"What do you mean?" Dessic asked. "Don't you think it looks pretty snazzy?"

"Well, yeah, but I'm talking about function over form," Cotton replied. "We had to go down all those roads to get here, and then we've had to taken a tonne of steps up just to get to the observatory, and then even more inside. That just seems like poor planning."

"I guess..."

"And, from what I saw, there are plenty of buildings here that have multiple entrances with the roads on different levels where they intersect. So what's up with this one?"

"Oh, I know this," Later chimed in. The green mare was trotting right behind the pair, and had seemed uninterested in the conversation until then. "The building is super old—designated as having 'historical significance' by the Bureau—so they can't make any changes to the structure."

"Oh, huh. But it looks so... new." Cotton looked around at the polished surface of the walls, which reflected her awestruck expression back at her.

"I don't think it stops them from keeping it nice-looking," Dessic said. "They polish the floors and all that, so it doesn't look scuffed up."

As they reached the landing, Later looked right to see a small side hall, buzzing fluorescent light hanging from above, bearing a black sign with a distinctive white icon. "Hey, is it alright if I use the little filly's room?" she asked, gesturing towards the hall.

"Sure thing!" Dessic cheerfully replied. "We'll even wait here for ya 'til you get out."

Later blinked. "Erm, I don't think that will be necessary... I think I can just catch up with you further on."

Cotton looked confused for a moment, before a flash of realisation crossed her eyes and she nodded. "Yeah, I wanna see the exhibits," she pleaded, nudging Dessic's side.

Although he looked hesitant, the white stallion started to slowly nod. "Yeah, okay, that should be fine. We'll just be down this other hall to the left here, okay? It looks like they have an exhibit about the..." He leaned forward, squinting. "...The way they manufacture the telescope's lenses? Huh, interesting."

"I'm so excited!" Cotton lied. While Dessic wasn't looking, she mouthed something to Later, and though Later couldn't read her lips, she could get the gist of what Cotton was saying—that she would try to buy Later some time. Nodding a thank you, Later bid them farewell as she trotted down the hall. Once she had reached the restroom door, before she pushed it open, Later paused. She turned and watched Dessic and Cotton trot off into the hall where a few glass containers were just in view.

Then, she slid into the restroom. Yes, she had a mission to attend to—but that didn't mean what she said to Dessic had been a lie, either.

Railing

The next landing at the top of that flight of stairs was smaller; Later was nearly pressed between the railing and the wall, with only a few centimetres to spare. As she trotted along the edge, she wondered what ponies bulkier than her did to walk through there—yet after a few moments of having the dizzying drop below in her peripheral vision, Later started to feel a bit queazy and had to turn her head away. Instead, she looked at the doors in the wall next to her. Each had a small plaque on the door, though she was walking too quickly to read any of them; they just said the names and titles of the ponies who presumably worked inside them.

"No, no..." she mumbled to herself. "C'mon, it's gotta be around here somewhere..." She sighed. "Unless the map was out of date, of course."

She passed a few more wooden doors, and then...

"Oh, here we go." She stood before a metal door—unmarked, yet distinctly different than all the rest. Plus it was the last one before the end of the railing, so she didn't really have much of a choice. Placing a hoof on the door, Later gave its handle a little rattle.

And then another.

"...Oh no," Later groaned, pulling her hoof back. "Don't tell me it's locked..."

She tried again, pushing a little harder and wiggling the handle again. And, miraculously...

"Whoa!" The door swung open, and Later spilled into a small room, her hooves clanking on metal grating as they stepped inside. Once she had regained her balance, the mare let the door swing quietly shut behind her, leaving her only with the dim light of a fluorescent light humming from the wall. Thin metal stairs spiralled upward in rectangles, and Later was pretty sure she knew exactly where they led. The other direction just led to a dead end, a small empty room with what appeared to be a toolkit against the wall. Nothing that concerned Later.

Taking a deep breath, she placed a hoof on the bottom step. Once she was sure they wouldn't collapse from her weight, she trotted step after step, clink after clink, trying to not make much noise. Once she reached the first small landing, she looked up. It didn't look far, but... it really was hard to tell through all the metal grating and the dim light. Reserved, she just kept walking.

Sliding

All was still. The air moved, slightly, but it barely made a sound; Scootaloo could only tell it was there by how it brushed against her coat, shifting the tufts of fur on her side. It made her uncomfortable—itchy, even—but she couldn't lift a hoof to scratch it. Grumbling quietly, she bit her lip.

"Do you hear that?" Kaylee hissed from beside her. Scootaloo blinked, and looked toward the green filly, who rolled her eyes and pointed in the opposite direction. Scootaloo whipped her head back, looking over to where the guard sat asleep. She waited for a moment, trying to listen for whatever it was that she was supposed to be hearing. And sure enough...

There was a tapping on the dome—barely noticeable at first, but growing louder and louder. Scootaloo was nearly afraid it would wake up the guard, but after a moment of stirring he appeared to have settled once more. She wondered briefly if anything could wake him.

Not a moment later, one of the plastic panels in the surface of the dome started to shift, creaking as the sides lifted. The panel only opened about a centimetre at first, not held open enough so that Scootaloo could see within; however, after another moment, the panel quickly jerked upward and she caught sight of a green face. Later. The mare paused once the panel was tilted about a half a metre upwards, and her face was fully visible.

Scootaloo watched as the mare turned her head to look at the guard, eyes widening once she saw how close he was. Later remained there looking at him for a moment before turning back around. At this moment, Scootaloo lifted her hoof from Kaylee's torso so that Later could see her, and once the mare saw her pop into view she smiled. Scootaloo returned the expression and then, without hesitation, stood straight up. She could hear the dome creak as she stood and as her companions shifted about, confused why she was standing, but within a minute everypony seemed to understand the situation, standing up and all pressed against Kaylee once more.

Slowly, silently, the group shuffled back over to where Later was perched beneath the panel and, without saying a word, they began to climb in. Scootaloo and Flight went first, gliding down slowly and letting their hooves clink down softly on the metal grating, and they were followed by Mochi and Kaylee right behind, with a little help from Later. Once all five of them were inside there on the top landing of the maintenance passage, Later slowly lowered the panel back into place.

Lost

"All you ponies, please walk behind me," Dessic called from in front, looking over his shoulder. "Single file, please, and stay in an orderly line or else I'll have to call for backup. And they will not be as nice as I am, believe me." He turned to Cotton, who still sat beside him. "And Ms. Fluff, if you could take up the rear, that would be fantastic. Wouldn't want any of these ponies to be getting any bright ideas, would we?"

"N-no," Cotton stammered. She trotted along the railing to the back of the group, looking down at the ground so as to avoid everypony's gaze. Later didn't even look at her but Mochi and Flight shot her confused yet hurt glances. Cotton didn't look up until the back, though, and she saw Scootaloo looking at her with a difficult to read expression; there was some sadness and disappointment there, but also something more. "Ready to go when you are," she finally said, looking up to where Dessic stood expectantly down the balcony.

"Great. Let's be off, then. We need to get out into the main square, and then we'll be heading towards the palace." Dessic made a show of taking a long, deep breath and then shook his head as he quickly exhaled. "Ah! Right."

He trotted forward, leading the group along the balcony and then down the stairs, onto the larger landing that had those exhibits he and Cotton had looked at. As they passed through this landing, Later looked to the side, eyeing the large room off to her right where those exhibits still sat, still encased in glass and plastic boxes. It was in that room that Cotton had... done something.

As they trotted down the main steps, Scootaloo looked back to Cotton. The brown mare had been staring holes into the back of her head, but as soon as Scootaloo turned around she turned away. Scootaloo frowned as she turned back around. "Why?" she hissed.

Cotton looked up to make sure that Dessic hadn't heard, and confirmed that the white stallion was in fact still focused on their path down the stairs. "He knew who I was. I had no choice. He would have caught any lie right away."

Scootaloo didn't reply at first. Then, she murmured, "What now, then? Are you just going to help him take us to... the palace, or the prison, or wherever? Are you really?"

"No," Cotton whispered back. "I swear, I won't. As soon as we get to the palace and the guards are thin enough, I'll signal you. Then you can alert the others, and we'll split up from there."

Scootaloo was about to whisper a reply, but then Dessic called from ahead: "Everything alright back there, Cotton?"

Cotton's eyes went wide. "Y-yeah, no problems here," she stammered, though her face was tinged red. "This filly here is just groveling at me, but I'm... um... giving her the ol' what for!"

"Classic, classic," Dessic said with a sigh as he stepped onto the tile that composed the ground floor of the observatory. "Now let's get these ponies out there to the other guards before any more Rebels can swoop in with any shady junk."

"Right," Cotton replied, nodding. "Right..."

Rectangular

Once Dessic had led them out the door, the group paused right outside, on the marble landing before the steps, where three more of what looked to be Bureau police officers stood outside waiting for them, all clad in sheer black uniforms. The one in front, a taller cerulean mare with a cropped blonde mane, gave Dessic a little nod as he approached.

"You have all of them, right? This is all of them?" she asked, looking them over with a stern look of condemnation. "Wasn't there another one?"

"Not in the city," Dessic replied promptly. "Our scanners picked his signal encircling the perimetre, so a patrol's been dispatched to capture him. But he's not really that important. I mean, he is one of the Rebels, but the pegasus here is our focus."

The mare squinted at the ponies between Dessic and Cotton Fluff. "Which one? The yellow one, or the orange one?"

"Orange," Dessic said, pointing to Scootaloo, who was presently wearing a large frown. "She's the... the alien. Or at least that's what I was told." He looked back at her. "She looks pretty normal though. Maybe she's a shapeshifter?"

"I can hear you, you know!" Scootaloo growled.

"...And what of it?" Dessic replied with a laugh. "C'mon, kid. No hard feelings, right?"

The mare beside him raised an eyebrow. "Do all you feds mess with the ponies you capture like this, or is it just you?"

"Prolly just me, if I'm being honest," Dessic said with a grin. "Anyway, we should probably get these kids over to the palace. Cotton, you come up here and meet Anna—she's a good friend of mine, from way back. Butternut, can you take the back?"

"Sure thing," replied a reedy voice. One of the stallions behind Anna, a stocky orange unicorn, stepped over and around the group, prompting Cotton to trot around and take his place. Once again, she received dirty looks from Flight and Later—but she tried to ignore them as she flashed this Anna mare a little smile.

"Hey there," Cotton said timidly.

"Hi!" Anna greeted, stretching out a hoof. "Glad to have you with us. I've heard great things about you from another ol' friend of mine, Officer Gloss. He'll be joining us shortly, so I'm sure you two will have a lot to catch up on by the sound of it!"

Cotton blanched. "Y-yeah, totally..."

"Alright, move it, move it," Dessic said, irritated. "We don't have all day. The sooner we get these guys to the palace and in front of the prince, the better."

"Right, right," Anna said, rolling her eyes. "Cool your jets. We're goin', we're goin'."

Slowly, the group started trotting down the stairs. With Butternut in the back, Dessic and the other stallion took either side, leaving Anna and Cotton at the helm of the group. Although Later and Flight looked defiant at first, neither made a move; they just kept walking with the group. Kaylee and Scootaloo, who were trotting behind, instead just looked down at the ground and followed in the others' hoofsteps as the small cavalcade made its foray into the crowd.

Passage

"Those pillars are pretty tall," Scootaloo remarked as her gaze pointed upwards at the stony, ridge pillars on either side of the palace's entrance. They were indeed tall, looming for what looked to be more than fifty metres over the heads of any of the ponies passing by underneath. At the present moment, Scootaloo, Kaylee, Flight, Mochi, and Later's small troupe had come to a stop in one pillar's giant shadow, waiting as instructed by that mare Anna at the head of the group.

"I'm cold," Flight complained, shivering. "Can we go inside already? Or at least step out of the shade? If we're being captured, you guys might as well be quick about it."

"Shush," the stallion named Butternut said, a stoic expression on his face. "We have to wait until we hear back from Gloss about whether it's alright to bring you inside."

"If you're cold, you should've brought a jacket," Dessic said with a wink.

"How in the hell would she have known to bring a jacket?" Later sneered, eyeing the white stallion with a look of pure malice. "It's not like we planned on getting caught."

"Seems to me like you didn't plan on much of anything," Dessic replied with a wry grin. "Seriously, just waltzing in with a stranger? Especially one who just so happens to be friends with a guard? Honestly, I though it was a stupid plan when they first told me that was what I was supposed to do, 'cause I thought you'd never fall for it—and I thought it was even stupider that we weren't supposed to just nab you when you were in the tunnel. But here we are..." He laughed. "Guess the Rebels aren't so bright after all, hmm?"

Later growled. "You don't even know what you're up against..."

"Mmmm..." Dessic hummed, closing his eyes. "Maybe so, but neither do you."

"Captain Anna, we've got an all clear," came a voice from the front. Everyone turned to look at the other stallion who had been walking with them; he was the one who had trotted into the palace to find out whether they were yet wanted inside, and it looked like they had their answer. "Gloss wants to see us right away. The prince is resting in his chambers, but his assistant will be joining us in his stead until he has awoken. She said we should go to the Starbird Memorial Conference Room upstairs."

"Thank you, officer," Anna remarked with a nod, and the stallion went back around to take his place on the side of the group. The cerulean mare then turned forward to face the ponies before her. "Alright, everypony. We are now going to be entering the palace and although we'll be watching you, I must ask that you not cause a scene. Things will be much easier for the both of us if you do not cause a public disruption, and we will factor your compliance into your sentences."

Kaylee, wide-eyed, looked to Scootaloo. "Sentences?" she mouthed.

Scootaloo merely shrugged and tried to hold a smile in an attempt to reassure Kaylee, but she herself wasn't quite sure what was going to happen. Whatever it was, though, she was determined not to end up in jail again. That... sucked.

She was shaken from these thoughts when Mochi bumped into her from behind.

"Whoops! Sorry 'bout that," Mochi said.

"Heh, don't worry about it," Scootaloo replied as she started walking alongside Kaylee. "Just... thinking."

The group, finally shifting from its place on the side of the stairs, continued across the stone landing and in through the wide, open doorway in the centre of the palace's façade. As they walked through, the newcomers could see that the entrance opened up into a large room inside, a wide open entryway with high, vaulted ceilings of stone whose walls sloped down all the way to the floor. At about eye level on either side were two stripes, each lighting up the front half of the room with a fluorescent glow. Then, beyond those walls, the hall opened into a wider room with a large staircase that led up to an upper level, with smaller doors to lower levels along the wall beside the stairs. Tall hallways with the same vaulted ceilings stretched out both to the left and the right.

As the group passed through the entrance and into the larger room, they earned a few odd looks from the ponies passing by. There weren't too many ponies trotting back and forth between the entrance and the passages within, but there were a fair number, most of which were trotting to or from the right hallway. A few here and there also came from the staircase, but absolutely nopony came from the left.

"You do know where we're going, right?" Anna asked the other officer. "I haven't actually heard of that one. Don't spend much time in the palace, if I can help it."

"Yeah, it's just up the stairs," the stallion said. "Go up and take a left, and it should be marked with the name. At least that's what the prince's assistant told me."

"Wonderful. Thank you," Anna said, and with that she took a commanding lead of the group, marching quickly up the stairs and not even looking behind to see whether the group were following her. The younger ponies in particular had to nearly run up the stairs to keep up, but soon enough they were rounding the corner and entering a smaller, more closed-off hallway. It was narrow, only fitting three or four ponies side-to-side, but luckily there didn't seem to be anypony else in the hallway, or at least not before it curved out of view.

Chamber

As she trotted along the hallway's pristine purple carpet, Kaylee looked ahead to Scootaloo, who had fallen ahead of her as they shifted to a single file trot. She noticed that the purple colour of the flat carpet nearly matched that of Scootaloo's mane and tail, which were presently hanging in front of Kaylee's face.

"Your mane matches the carpet," she murmured. Scootaloo, grinning, turned to look at her and looked like she was about to say something, but was interrupted by Dessic, who stamped his hoof as he walked beside them.

"Please, keep quiet. You will have quite a bit of talking to do when you get to the conference room—trust me."

"Mmmff... whatever," Scootaloo said defiantly.

"Like we'll talk, anyway!" Later huffed from ahead.

"Shush, you!" Dessic admonished. "Seriously, there are ponies working in the offices along this hall. I know you're criminals, but you could at least be civil about it."

The group trotted in silence, rounding the bend. The hallway seemed to stretch out as far as the eye could see, with door after door. At first, Scootaloo imagined that they could be walking forever, continuing on and on in a search for a door to a room that didn't really exist. Yet her fears were allayed when Anna stopped the group a few metres down from the second bend.

"Here we are," the stallion beside her announced, pointing to the door on the right. "'Starbird Memorial Conference Room'."

"Thank you, officer," Anna replied. She pushed the door open and then held it open, allowing Dessic, Butternut, and the other officer to usher Later, Mochi, Flight, Kaylee, and Scootaloo in through the door. A sheepish-looking Cotton Fluff brought up the rear, bringing the door to a close.

Her hooves clacked on the parquet floor as she trotted up to the large rectangular conference table that made up the majority of the room. Otherwise, the room was basically a box, unadorned with decorations or paintings or anything of the like. Cotton took a seat beside Dessic, who sat beside Scootaloo. The other officers sat between Scootaloo and her companions so that no more than two of them sat next to each other. These ponies occupied one end of the table.

At the far end of the table was a beige mare clad in a similar sleek-black outfit to the ones Anna and her officers wore. The mare, as it so happens, was quite familiar to a few ponies on the other end of the table.

"Haze," Later snarled through gritted teeth.

"Hello, Anna," Haze said, not acknowledging Later. "I hope the prisoners did not give you too much trouble?"

"None at all, Haze," Anna replied coolly. "They came quickly and quietly once they realised we had them surrounded."

"Splendid," Haze replied with a nod. "Shall we get started, then?"

Easy

Haze shuffled a few papers laid out in front of her on the table, eventually settling on a glossy white folder, which she opened, sliding out a few pieces of paper. She didn't actually look at them, though; once she had removed them from the folder, her gaze was trained squarely on the ponies across from her, metres away at the other end of the table.

"So, let's start with what's most immediate," she said coolly. "Why are you here? Let's go with... the green mare. Even Later, is it?"

"Because you brought us here, you dolt," Later spat, face scrunched up in a disdainful hatred. "Why else would we be here?"

"Funny," Haze said, not looking amused in the slightest, "but I'm looking for real answers. Scootaloo?"

The orange filly didn't respond at first, though she did get a little bit of a kick out of Later's rapid motions with her hoof against her throat. "I... don't really know," Scootaloo responded. It wasn't quite a lie, but it also wasn't quite truthful.

"Please explain further," Haze said, taking on the tone of a disappointed mother who had just discovered her child had scribbled all over the wall in crayon. "What do you know, and what don't you?"

Scootaloo bit her lip as she looked in Later's direction, but she looked back to Haze. "Well, I know that we're here because Xenu... Chibi... Furby... somepony high up in the Rebels really wanted me to come here and steal some... amulet thing."

Later gasped, making a huge show of it. "Scootaloo! Please!"

"Ignore the Rebel," Haze instructed, waving a hoof. "You're giving us good information. If you help us, we can let you three kids go."

"R-really?" Flight interrupted with a stammer, jumping forward. "You'd really let us go? Kevin and I could go back and live with my parents?"

"Of course," Haze replied. "We're bureaucrats, not monsters. You kids are young, and easily swayed. Of course we can't let out Later or that other pony who was with you, for they've been working closely with the Rebels for a long time. And Mochi here is a very dangerous escaped criminal, one who should never be allowed around children whatsoever."

"What about me?" Scootaloo asked, looking unsure. "You ponies captured me and kept me in that South Pen... thing."

Haze nodded. "That was, by all admissions, a mistake. You never should have been held there in the prison; rather, you should have been invited here as our guest. I fault our outer territory on that, and a lack of communication with Prince Aeneus. He has been alerted of your presence and, although he desires to converse with you, he doesn't wish to cause you any harm."

Scootaloo blinked. This wasn't quite what she expected. "Erm... okay..."

Haze went on: "All we ask from you in return is your assistance. Give us all the information you've picked up about the Rebels, and allow us to put Later and that other pony behind bars, and freedom is yours."

Scootaloo didn't quite know what to say, and by the looks of it Flight and Kaylee were just as surprised. Mochi looked worried. Cotton Fluff doubly so. Later was so exasperated that she merely flattened her face onto the table with a groan.

Mild

All eyes were on Scootaloo as she sat at the end of the table in the centre of the group, squirming uncomfortably. Her eyes kept darting from Later to Haze, both of whom were watching her expectantly—they just had different expectations. Spill the beans or hold her tongue.

"Or neither," came a small voice near her ear.

Scootaloo blinked, and nearly jumped back at the sound of the voice. She had forgotten, but of course! Grey—or this small insect form of him, at least—was still with her. The only problem was that she couldn't rightly reply with everypony watching her.

"Look, don't worry. This situation looks bad, but... honestly, all things considered, it could be worse. What's important is that you have an out, and it's coming up soon, so you'd better well take it."

"Scootaloo?" Haze asked, starting to sound annoyed. "We can go to another room, if you like; I understand if you don't want to say some thing in front of your so-called friends, but..."

"Gloss is nearly here," Grey's voice chirped over Haze's words. "When he comes through the door, grab Kay and Flight and run to the right. I'll give you directions from there."

Scootaloo nodded, pursing her lips.

"What does that mean?" Haze asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Yes what?"

"Erm... I'll talk," Scootaloo said hesitantly, hoping she'd be able to buy enough time until Gloss reached the room, providing the distraction she needed to get out. "What... what is it that you want to know?"

Haze's lips curved. "Good. First of all... I need to know how you got out of the South Pen. Obviously we shouldn't have kept you in there in the first place, but it's also obvious you had some sort of Rebel assistance in getting out. Who helped you get out, and how?"

Scootaloo frowned, bit her lip, and looked towards the door. Then, she looked back. "Um... I didn't catch his name?"

Haze's eyes narrowed. "I see."

Difficult

"So, once you escaped from the South Pen with the convict, Mochi, you two were separated," Haze said, looking back up. "Mochi eventually made her way back to you through a variety of... clever diversions"—she shot a dirty look at the pink mare, who shrugged—"but you were somehow able to make it into the city of Umberlight and meet back up with Kevin and Flight here."

"Her name is Kaylee," Scootaloo protested.

Haze rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I don't care; that is irrelevant. Regardless... how did you find your way to the city? How did you know where to meet up with them? Surely you were given some sort of device by the Rebel who broke you out, so you could communicate with them?"

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "Um, no, nothing like that." She paused. "It was actually super lucky that I was able to get to the city... honestly, I almost got lost down there. There's this huge maze of tunnels," she said, gesturing with her hooves to estimate the shape of a few of the winding path, "and I really coulda died down there if I hadn't run into an exit in the museum."

Haze squinted. "And we're expected to believe that you just were able to meet up with these two—whom you supposedly couldn't contact—and then just ran off with the Rebels?"

"Erm... yeah?" Scootaloo replied tentatively. "That's basically what happened."

"How did you know you could trust the Rebels, then?" Haze asked.

"I didn't!" Scootaloo replied, exasperated. "I just went with them because they were helping me not stay in jail!"

"Seriously?" Later groaned. "Is that—? Ugh, nevermind. I don't even want to know. Whatever. It's over, anyway."

Haze gave Scootaloo an odd look, but then looked down at the folder before her. With a hoof, she slid a small piece of paper up and out of the folder, placing it on the table before her. She gave it a little push with her hoof, and it slid all the way down the length of the table before coming to a stop in front of the orange filly.

"Classy," Flight said, rolling her eyes, but Scootaloo's eyes were too focused on the piece of paper. It was a photograph of Scootaloo outside the museum, perched atop a familiar grey pony.

"Who is that, Scootaloo?" Haze asked, corners of her mouth curled up ever so slightly. "We have it on good authority that you were separated from whatever pony helped you to escape the South Pen, and then you claimed to have navigated Umberlight all by yourself. So, if that's true, who's this?"

Later leaned over to get a look at the photo. "Huh? That's odd..."

"What?" Scootaloo asked.

The green mare turned to her. "I don't recognise that stallion at all. Just who were you with?"

Scootaloo bit her lip as, once again, all eyes were on her. Well, that's not quite true; each pony took a turn looking at the photo, trying to figure out who this mystery stallion was.

When it came around to Mochi, the pink mare's eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh wow..."

"Do you know something, convict?" Haze asked, eyeing the mare carefully. "Speak up. We might be able to reduce your sentence."

"Um... I don't think I know anything that would help you folks, but..."

Haze didn't look satisfied with her answer, but she didn't get the chance to reply. At that moment, a lime-green stallion walked in through the door, announcing his presence with a loud, "Greetings, Ms. Haze."

And that's when Scootaloo kicked her chair away from the table, and all hell broke loose.

Tumult

Dessic and the other Bureau officers were fast—they were trained to be prepared, after all—so they were up out of their seats just a moment after Scootaloo thrust herself backwards on her chair. But what they didn't have was the advantage of time, or a plan; they had not been the ones to make the first move. So in the split-second before Dessic and Butternut sprung from their seats, Scootaloo was able to leap up from the tipping-over chair, buzzing her wings so that she'd fly up and miss the two stallions by a hair as they pounced on her seat. Kicking off their heads for good measure, she skidded up onto the surface of the table, glancing over to Later.

Luckily, the green-coated mare seemed to have taken the hint. Scootaloo turned just in time to see Later's hoof contact Anna's cheek with a thwack, and then the mare leapt over her, dashing towards Haze. Mochi, on the other hoof, was struggling with the other stallion. For a moment, it looked like he had the upper hoof, pushing her back against a wall, but then she thrust her hooves out, knocking him back. Scootaloo turned away just as Mochi started kicking his side.

Kaylee and Flight were pressed against the wall, in the corner, worried looks on their faces. In all the commotion, they too had left their seats and seemed to be inching towards the exit. Perfect.

"Come with me, guys!" Scootaloo called, sliding off the table and onto the floor alongside them. They both looked relieved to see her, but then Kaylee opened her eyes wide and opened her mouth to say something, but Scootaloo had already whipped her head around and then quickly ducked away from Butternut's orangey hoof. She kicked back wildly, not sure if she was even making contact, but before she could find out, Scootaloo took off. She darted past Kaylee and Flight, stealing a glance behind her to make sure they were still galloping on her tail. Letting out a sigh of relief, the filly turned her head forward to focus on running towards the door and—

"Now where in the hay do you think you're going?" a familiar voice snarled and as Scootaloo saw Gloss standing menacingly in the doorway, she blanched.

"Crap crap crap crap," she repeated out loud, her eyes flicking back and forth as she searched for some other way out of the room besides this doorway in which Gloss stood... but there was none. She would have to go through him, and she only had a few seconds to figure out what to do.

For a moment, Scootaloo closed her eyes and took a breath. Then, she opened them, and spotted her point of egress: the small space between Gloss's hooves.

"I ain't stopping!" Scootaloo yelled as she charged the stallion, galloping faster than before. For a moment Gloss looked surprised, but he pulled himself together with a brisk nod and stood there with a resolute look, bracing for impact.

The impact never came; Scootaloo ducked at just the right moment and although her head brushed up against Gloss's fur, she was able to compress small enough to make it through before Gloss had even realised what she was doing. And yet Scootaloo was barely able to skid to a stop outside on the wood, feeling her hooves scrape against the nicely-polished wooden floor. For a moment, her heartbeat relaxed, and she took a calmer breath. Then...

"Scootaloo!" Kaylee's voice called frantically behind her. "Help! What do?!"

"Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap!" Scootaloo exclaimed, and whirled around to see Gloss had already turned to face her. He was still standing in the doorway, though his legs had snapped close together. His cheeks were beet-red, and his face was curled up in a vicious scowl.

"Don't suppose we could just... talk this one out?" Scootaloo offered with a shrug, a sheepish look on her face.

Gloss didn't look amused.

Push

Scootaloo frantically looked back and forth, from where Kaylee and Flight stood behind Gloss over to the hallway on her left. Although luckily nopony had come running down the hallway to see what all the commotion was about... Scootaloo wasn't sure how long that would last. She needed to move, and quick... or else the window in which she could move would close.

"I'm gonna jet," she murmured, hoping Grey would hear.

"No, don't. You need Kaylee and Flight with you. You can get through Gloss. Remember: always go for the crotch shot if you're guaranteed to connect against a superior opponent."

"Buh?"

"Just hit him where it'll hurt."

Exhaling, Scootaloo nodded and faced the green stallion, who still stood there in the doorway. She could hear further on in the room the crashing of ponies against tables, chairs, and walls, and could only hope that it wasn't her friends getting injured. Taking another breath, Scootaloo rushed forward, lifted a hoof, and...

...was grabbed by Gloss's strong foreleg, pulled into his strong grip. He held her firm against his torso even as she realised what had happenend and started flailing. "Let me go!" Scootaloo squeaked, a bit higher than she had intended. "Ow! You're hurting me!"

"Stop it, kid, you're embarrassing yourself," Gloss admonished, not budging. "I don't really know what's going on here, but let's all just settle down and get back in the room, okay? We don't want to hurt you."

"Mmff... shut up!" Scootaloo tried to bite his foreleg, but he swatted her face away. "Ow! You're going to break my muzzle!"

"Seriously, Scootaloo... just cut it out." Gloss looked down at her disdainfully. "It's over. You can't do anyth—whoah!"

At that moment, Gloss's eyes opened wide as he was thrust forward, suddenly releasing Scootaloo from his grasp as he tried to reach out and stop himself from flying into the wall across the hallway. "Aaaugh!"

Scootaloo, now free, was able to scramble to the side and out of the stallion's way, skidding to a halt less than a metre away. As she watched Gloss barrel into the wall and stumble over, dazed, she cringed. Then, she looked to Kaylee and Flight in the doorway, who had both stepped out into the hall. Kaylee looked like all the life had been drained from her; Flight, on the other hoof, looked incredulous.

"...What happened?" Scootaloo asked as the two fillies approached.

"Kevin... he used his magic," Flight explained, pointing to Kaylee's horn with a hint of admiration and awe in her voice. "Like, he just charged up a big bolt of magic and... blam!"

"Er... yeah, something like that," Kaylee said, scratching the back of her head with a hoof. "I've never done anything like that before..."

Scootaloo, meanwhile, could already see one of the guards in the room had noticed what was going on and was trying to escape his current fight with Mochi to get out there. "Um... that's awesome and all, but we've gotta bail. C'mon!" She pointed down the hall with a hoof. "This way!"

"What about the others?" Kaylee asked, sounding worried.

"They'll be fine!" Scootaloo called back, having already started galloping down the hall. "Please, just come with me!"

And Kaylee and Flight ran after Scootaloo, bounding down the hall to wherever she was taking them.

Decide

"You're going to be at the bottom after the next flight of stairs," Grey's voice calmly said.

"...Seriously?" Scootaloo replied, irritated. "You couldn't give me any more warning than that?"

"Afraid not—I'm having a hard time sensing what's going on this place, what with all the running. Plus I think something in these stairs is screwing up my 'sight'."

"Weird that—oop!" Scootaloo exclaimed as she reached the bottom, extending her hooves out and skidding on the metal floor so that she didn't plant her face straight into the wall. "At the end, guys, stop!" she hastily managed to exclaim before needing to catch her breath. Once she had gasped in a few breaths of air, she looked up and turned her head from side to side. Each way featured a dimly-lit hallway surrounded by pipes and electrical boxes and other metal parts, with a metal grating floor to match. And each way looked exactly the same.

"Which way do we go?" Scootaloo asked as she looked over her shoulder, seeing Flight and Kaylee come up behind her and pause, panting as they stood there. Both looked absolutely winded, like they could barely keep running—but they didn't have much of a choice in their present situation. Flight looked about ready to make another snarky remark, but before she could, Grey replied.

"You're gonna want to go to the right, and I'll direct you two from there. Send Kay—er, actually, Flight over to the left, as a distraction. Tell her to hide between the pipes if she can squeeze in—I don't think they'll look for her there."

Scootalo blinked, trying to keep up with the insect's rapid speech. "Um... alright." She looked at the two ponies in front of her. "Okay! Kaylee, go off to the left here and run and try and divert them! Hide in the pipes if you can, and don't get caught!"

Kaylee looked worried, but nodded. "I... can try."

Then, Scootaloo turned to Flight. "And you're coming with me, I guess."

Flight blinked. "Huh, okay. Whatever you say, cap'n."

With a nod, Scootaloo ran to the right with Flight close behind, and Kaylee sped off to the left, just as the thundering of hooves from above were about to reach the bottom level. As Scootaloo galloped as fast as her legs could carry her, however, she could hear an audible sigh of disapproval in her ear.

Progress

“They're onto you—right behind you. Don't look. Just keep running. I'll tell you when to turn.” Grey's sentences were short and clipped, almost as if the running was taking as much a toll out of him as it was for the ponies actually galloping.

“Um, okay...” Scootaloo mumbled. “How many are after us?”

“Three,” Grey replied, a cautious wavering in his voice. “Dessic, that Butternut fellow, and the other stallion that was with them.”

Scootaloo counted under her breath. “Wait, isn't that all of them? Who's after Kaylee, then?”

“...None of the guards seem to be. Cotton Fluff and Mochi are still upstairs, along with Anna, Haze, and Gloss.”

“Hmm...”

“Scootaloo!” Flight panted. She was galloping a metre and a half behind the other filly, having slowed down considerably. “Don't look now, but we've got company!”

“I know!” Scootaloo replied, ducking her head to the side to avoid smacking it into the end of a pipe that butted out into the pathway. She looked back at Flight, concerned. “You gonna make it? We need to go faster!”

“I... think...” Flight wheezed. She started flapping her wings and lifted her hooves from the metal grating. The good news was that she was now able to keep up with Scootaloo still running on hoof; the bad news, however...

“Ow!” Flight shrieked, flinching to the right. “Oh shit...” she swore, biting her lip as she pulled back down close to the path, right alongside Scootaloo.

“What's up?” Scootaloo asked.

“I... hit something,” Flight managed, nursing her shoulder with a hoof. Flecks of blood appeared on her coat and hoof, though she didn't appear to be bleeding seriously. “I'm gonna be fine.”

“You'd better be,” Scootaloo said firmly. “I know we're running here, but... be careful, okay?”

Flight looked defiant, like she wanted to argue—but it wasn't something she could rightly argue without sounding ridiculous, and she knew it. “Th-thanks,” she stuttered. “Are we any closer?”

“Plenty closer,” Grey replied. “You're almost upon the entrance to the chamber leading to the vault. In fact, you'll want to watch for that on the left...”

“Um... yeah, we're almost there,” Scootaloo summarised quickly, though she kept stealing glances over her shoulder. Although she could hear the heavy clanking of hooves on the metal grating somewhere behind them, she suspected that they had rounded too many corners to be in any immediate danger. Being small and nimble had its uses, and quickly diving through sharp corners was one of them. Still, it wouldn't hurt to get there as fast as possible.

They ran along for another moment in silence, but for the clinking of hooves and the whooshing in the pipes. Then, Flight spoke up.

“So... um... I know I wasn't exactly asking the most politely about this, but...” She coughed. “How do you know where we're going?”

Scootaloo kind of half-shrugged, or at least as much as one can do that while barrelling down a hallway. “I guess I just have... fancy alien intuition?”

Flight squinted. “Seriously? You expect me to fall for that? I know you've been communicating with somebody, maybe through like an earpiece or something. You keep mumbling to yourself, and...” She coughed again. “...asking a lot of questions.”

“...She's the observant type, isn't she?” Grey murmured.

Scootaloo sighed. “Look, it's... a long story. And not really one I can get into right now. I don't even understand the whole thing, myself.”

“Does it have to do with the star... creature... things?” Flight asked. “Like from when we were in the forest, 'cause you tried to talk to that one, and then there was the one back in Umberlight...”

“One back in Umberlight?” Scootaloo asked, turning to look at the yellow filly. “What do you mean?”

“There was one on the building, that talked to Kevin and said a bunch of weird stuff.” Flight paused, taking a breath. “It was saying things about...”

Suddenly, Grey spoke over Flight. “We're going to be there in just a second. There's going to be a small area beneath the pipes on the left, and you're going to need to crawl through there. If you can do it quick enough, the guards won't be able to follow you and they might even not know you're there.”

“Thanks, Grey,” Scootaloo said out loud absentmindedly.

Flight suddenly stopped talking, and shot Scootaloo a very confused look. “'Grey'?” she asked. “Huh? I wasn't saying anything about... oh.” Her expression turned glum, and she looked down. “You're talking with somepony else, aren't you?”

“I...” Scootaloo started.

“It's fine,” Flight replied with a resolute nod.

Scootaloo didn't know what to say, so she just repeated what Grey had said: “We're close.”

Flight didn't reply for a moment. Then, she finally just said, “Okay.”

Tremble

A moment passed, and the raven didn't reply. It merely stared at Kaylee with its beady eyes, cocking its head as it stood with its claws wrapped tightly around the metal grating.

"Wh-what do you want?" Kaylee stammered. She glanced over her shoulder, and saw that there was still nopony there. An eerie silence hung over the scene.

"I think you know what I want," the bird replied after another moment, its voice scratchier than ever before. "I want to make a deal with you."

"A deal?" Kaylee asked.

The bird let out a small squawk, and at first Kaylee thought it was irritated; then, she realised it had been a laugh. It stepped forward, and nodded. "I think you remember the first deal I ever made to you. I require your assistance, and in exchange I will do for you whatever you wish."

Kaylee shrunk back. "I don't... I still don't think this is—"

"You don't think it's what?" the raven inquired. "There's no catch, I assure you. Honestly, you should be glad that I'm even still offering you this; I should have moved on from you long ago."

"Then why didn't you?" Kaylee asked. She wiped her brow, and trembled where she stood. "Why won't you just leave me alone? I already told you that I don't want anything to do with you, and you give me the creeps. Can't you just... buzz off?"

"Flight," the raven said, seemingly ignorant to Kaylee's words. "That filly. You like her, don't you?"

Kaylee's eyes widened. "I don't see what that—she doesn't have anything—leave her out of this, okay?!"

"I'm not going to do anything to her," the raven said calmly. "You have my word."

"But what good is that?" Kaylee grumbled to herself.

"Regardless," the raven continued, "I think there's something I could help you with. Something with Flight."

"I don't need your help," Kaylee replied defiantly. "I just—"

"I can help her accept who you are." The raven closed its beak, letting that phrase echo through the chamber.

Kaylee didn't reply for some time, and she took the opportunity to close her eyes and rub her temple with a hoof. Finally, she opened her eyes again. "I'm not... I'm not committing to anything, but... what exactly would you want me to do?"

Scramble

A moment passed, and then another, as Flight and Scootaloo sped along the hallway, not looking back. If Scootaloo didn't know any better, she would've sworn that the air around them was getting hotter and hotter.

"We're there. It's on the left. Tell Flight to stop and duck down, and then crawl into the passage."

"Right," Scootaloo wheezed, for even she was starting to lose her breath. "Um... Flight, we're here," she said, skidding to a stop on the metal grating. "It's... on the left there... just duck down and you'll—"

"Yeah, I see it," Flight grumbled, slowing her hooves to a stop. Scootaloo watched as the filly crouched down and squeezed her way into a break in the pipes, one which Scootaloo likely wouldn't have even seen had Flight not found it for her. "This... isn't... as easy at it looks," came Flight's tense voice, muffled.

"It doesn't even look easy," Scootaloo murmured. She turned her head to look down the hallway, and let out a relieved sigh when there was nopony in sight. Looking back, she saw Flight's hooves disappear into whatever small passage lay within—so obviously there was enough space to fit inside.

Taking another breath, Scootaloo crouched down and got a better look at the cavity between the pipes. It was small, and Flight looked extremely cramped as she hoofed her way forward, nearly flattened to the ground by how low the "ceiling" of the thing was (if you could even call it a ceiling). Scootaloo gulped and then, once there was enough space so that her face wouldn't be jammed right into Flight's tail, she dove right in.

Immediately, she could taste the warm, stale air—dry, and irritating on her eyes. She shut them, pushing herself forward blindly so she could get her hooves out of the hallway. She wasn't nearly halfway in when she started to hear the thundering of hooves even clearer outside, and voices—loud voices—shouting.

"I think I see Scootaloo!" Dessic called. "Up there!"

"Yeah, I see her!" replied one of the other guards in a booming voice. "I think she's getting away!"

"...You think?! Quick, before she gets away into there! We'll never get into the pipes!"

Hyperventilating, Scootaloo nudged her way forward as quickly as she could, rapidly pushing her hooves along the sheer metal walls of what seemed to be a duct she was in.

Glitters

Again, the raven took more than a moment to reply. Kaylee looked away, up to the ceiling, and saw metal pipes running along its length, parallel to the tunnel. Although she wasn’t quite sure, what with the whooshing and burbling lightly peppering the ambiance, she could almost swear she heard skittery clanking noises rushing by.

“Kaylee,” the bird finally said, returning the filly’s attention to it. “I am going to show you something important, but I need you to promise me that you won’t scream, or make any sort of loud noise that would alert other ponies to our presence. Is that clear?”

Confused, Kaylee nodded. “I’ll... try?”

In response, the raven merely looked up at her, and its eyes began to glow the hot red of superheated metal. Kaylee’s eyes grew wide as she watched the raven’s head and body begin to engorge, stretching out and reforming with that same red-hot glow. She took a step back as the thing protruded forward, extending out two larger extremities which appeared to be... hooves? As the former raven settled into its new form, the glowing red began to fade into a coat of semi-metallic golden fur—enough to be just barely shimmering in the dim light of the tunnel.

Kaylee’s eyes trawled the... stallion, glancing from his front hooves all the way back to his wings and back to his cutie mark, a curious sort of upward-facing triangle that was even more iridescent than his coat. Then, she looked at his face, and at the striking green eyes that seemed to almost stare straight through her. Fluffy locks of golden hair dipped in front of his eyes as he shifted his head, however, and Kaylee’s gaze was led upwards toward his... horn?

Kaylee blinked. “You’re... an alicorn?” She looked him over once more. “You’re... oh, Aureate above...”

The stallion gave a little nod. “Aureate I may be, but we’re actually pretty far down, so ‘above’ might not be appropriate.”

Kaylee had to resist the urge to facehoof. Especially in front of, well, royalty. “Prince Aureate...” she was able to get out. “I... what? You’ve been... you’ve been the prince this whole time?”

Prince Aureate nodded. “I have, though you may dispense with calling me ‘prince’. Really, the title is just a formality at this point; my damned brother Aeneus would strip me of the title if he could without inciting public outrage.”

“Oh, god...” Kaylee murmured. She was beginning to tremble. “But... I just don’t understand. You’re just... you’re just some stupid bird, following me around, being all annoying, and... oh jeez.” She looked up at the stallion. “You’re not going to, like, smite me because I said bad things about you, right?”

He laughed. “Of course not. I realise my methods were... unconventional, but I still think it’s the best way. If it bothered me, I wouldn’t be here; instead, I’d like to ask for your help.

“M-me?” Kaylee replied, her voice pitchy and wavering. “Help you?”

Prince Aureate nodded once more. “There’s a reason I’ve been following you around, and it’s not just to be pesky.” He started to trot around Kaylee, eyeing the filly with curiosity. Kaylee, on the other hoof, remained still. “Though I know you followed my advice and, all things considered, are going to be a lot happier for it.”

“It... um... wasn’t much to do with you,” Kaylee replied, scratching the back of her head with a hoof. Her eyes followed Aureate as he turned, and her head swivelled to match his pace. “I just... woke up one morning, and knew I couldn’t keep pretending.”

“Mm, well, good on you,” Aureate replied with a curt nod as he came back to the part of the tunnel where he had been standing before. “But I digress. Although important for you, that’s not why I came to you all those years ago; it’s because I knew I would need you to help me now.”

Kaylee raised an eyebrow. “But again... why me? How did you know that it was me who could help you?”

Aureate’s lips curved into almost a smirk. “I didn’t quite know it would be you, exactly, and perhaps it could have been somepony else in different circumstances. But... I saw you had potential.”

Kaylee was no less confused. “I don’t really see where you’re going with this. Like, what do you want me to do?”

“Be patient—I’m getting to that,” Aureate replied, a hint of caution in his tone. “You know about... me. Correct?”

“About how you... just up and vanished one day, right before Prince Argent did the same thing?” Kaylee said, though she sounded unsure. “Like, hundreds of years ago...”

Aureate tilted his head slightly, but nodded. “Honestly, I’m surprised that they haven’t written us out of the Asterismos by now, but I guess we’re too ingrained in the collective consciousness. But yes, that is what happened.” Aureate paused, looking down to the ground. “Well... that’s at least how Aeneus would twist it.” He looked back up at Kaylee, his face in an odd, hard-to-read expression. “But I didn’t disappear; I was disappeared.”

Kaylee blinked. “What?”

“It was my brother, Aeneus,” Aureate started. “We had ruled together for quite some time, sharing the responsibility of leading the planet between the three of us. And yet... Aeneus always felt a bit like he was our shadow, being the youngest of us three. Argent and I... we started to notice he was bothered, but it seems we underestimated the extent. We didn’t realise he’d go to such... drastic measures to get rid of us.”

“What did he do?” Kaylee asked.

Aureate gulped. “He faked a signal from the home—erm, from far away, somewhere very important to the three of us. A signal that... requested my presence, for something that indeed was extremely important. Off-planet. I made to leave at once, but... once I had bade my brothers farewell and begun flying away, something went wrong.” The stallion shuddered. I could feel myself become stripped of my magic—stripped of my energy. Before I could react... I blacked out.”

“Oh jeez...”

“When I awoke I was still out there—hundreds of millions of kilometres from any planet, and completely powerless, hardly a shell of my former self. Honestly, it’s a miracle I didn’t die out there.”

Kaylee sat down on her haunches, still gazing up at the stallion. “The prince... he did all that?”

“Yes, my dear,” Aureate said, his tone sombre. “It took me decades to even get back to the system, slowly drifting and using what magic I could. But... it took a long time to come back to me. By the time I got back to the planet, I found myself able to use my shapeshifting magic, so I went back into hiding. Biding my time.”

“And what happened to Prince Argent?” Kaylee asked.

“I found out while I was here that, after a year or so with no communication from me, he went after me. I can... only guess he shared a similar fate, though I’m not sure if he survived.” Aureate sighed a long, drawn-out sigh. “I haven’t seen him since I left.”

Kaylee rubbed her temple with a hoof, and then looked up as one of the pipes above hissed with an outburst of steam. Looking back to Aureate, she said, “This is... a lot to take in. And I still don’t get what you want me to do. Don’t you, like, have your powers back? What would you need me for?”

“Mmmm...” Aureate hummed. “I do... and yet, not quite. A long time has passed, but my powers are still returning. The show with the birds back when you first landed... that was the first time in a long time I was able to do something like that. I am still weakened, and I alone do not have the power to overthrow my brother.”

“So that’s what you’re trying to do?” Kaylee asked. “Take over the planet?”

Aureate took a deep breath. “My brother is not a just pony, Kaylee. He... keeps up a strong façade, sure, and ponies have grown to respect him, especially without anypony else to turn to. But he really doesn’t know how to run a government, and he focuses all his time on making the ‘important’ places look showy and beautiful, leaving anywhere smaller to the dust. Remember Esprit?”

Kaylee shuddered. “Pretty hard to forget how it was down there.”

“Yeah,” Aureate agreed, “and you know the Southern Territory isn’t all that great outside of Umberlight, either. And the northern provinces have it pretty bad, too. Everything’s being funneled into a few central cities.”

“Okay...”

“And what I need is your help, Kaylee,” Aureate went on. “The issue is... while I can now use transformation magic, and some uniquely alicorn powers...” He scratched the back of his head with a hoof, looking almost... sheepish? “I can’t do plain old unicorn magic yet. I don’t know why, and I don’t know how... but I need a unicorn to help me. And I’ve chosen you.”

Kaylee blinked. Then the words poured out, so quickly: “Th-that’s it? Seriously? You did all this harassing me, for all these years, just ’cause I’m a unicorn? That’s... that’s... that’s just so stupid!” Closing her eyes, the filly took a deep breath. “Why... couldn’t you have picked anyone else? Like, literally, anypony else.”

Aureate looked slightly surprised at this reaction, but he quickly pulled himself together. “Kaylee... I’m very sorry for any of the grief I have caused you. But I needed to find somepony I could trust—somepony I knew wouldn’t immediately go to the authorities with this.” He paused. “And, in return, I was hoping to help you.”

“W-with Flight?” Kaylee stammered immediately.

Aureate nodded. “I promise that if you come with me, and do what I tell you to do, I can convince Flight to accept you for who you are, and we will find safe places for you, for her, and for your companion, Scootaloo. I will just need your help in winning them over to my—to our side. You just need to... do me a few favours.”

Kaylee took a breath, and diverted her gave for a moment, glancing over to the wall at the tangled web of pipes, twisting and turning every which way. She picked one of them and tried to follow along its path with her eyes, and initially it was easy; that part of the pipe was fairly visible. Yet once she got along, she found that she could follow it for a few weaves between the other pipes before it was lost completely to the mess, indistinguishable from the others. Sighing, she looked back to Aureate.

“I’m going to be honest, Prince; there’s a lot of what you’re saying that I still don’t get,” Kaylee started. “I still don’t understand why you chose me, and it still seems bizarre to me that Prince Aeneus could be so... corrupted, without ponies rising against him.”

Aureate lifted a hoof and opened his mouth as if to speak, but Kaylee gestured with her hoof, silencing him. “However...” she continued, “I do believe you. You’re the prince, for… well, for Aureate’s sake—and I don’t think you would have been following me for all that time if you didn’t actually need my help, even if you haven’t been... super straightforward about any of it.” She paused as Aureate nodded. “And... I really just want to do what’s going to be safest. For Scootaloo, for me... and for Flight.”

A moment passed, as Aureate waited with bated breath. Then…

“Yeah, I’ll come with you.”

As soon as the words had left Kaylee’s mouth, the body of the tunnel began to fill with a buzzing, cicadian hum. Aureate’s coat was shimmering, glowing an iridescent gold even stronger than before that seemed to emanate outward from his body and onto the walls. Kaylee stood very still where she was.

“Take my hoof,” Aureate said calmly, reaching out from the mist.

Kaylee looked over at the proffered hoof. “Are we... leaving?”

“Yes. We’re escaping the city, at least for now. I require your assistance south of here.”

Kaylee bit her lip. “Are my friends going to be okay?”

Aureate smiled warmly. “They’re going to be fine, and you’ll see them again soon enough. Now come on.”

With a gulp, Kaylee extended her hoof. As soon as it made contact with Aureate’s, with a soft click, the two of them vanished from the chamber. All that was left behind was a thin, foggy cloud with a golden tint, and once that dissipated, with it went any trace that Kaylee or Aureate had ever been in the tunnel.

Duct

Scootaloo’s hooves scrabbled at the metal as she pushed her way deeper into the duct, and since she had been seen she had given up at any attempt of keeping quiet and let the clack-clack-clack ring out. She knew that there had to be hooves reaching after her, or maybe even someone’s magical grasp trying to wrest her out, but she really didn’t have the time to focus on that. All she could do was squeeze herself past each barrier, hoping she’d remain out of their reach.

And Flight was right ahead of her, leading her along. Scootaloo’s mind went nearly blank as she just stared at the filly’s tail, making sure she was still following the right way.

“You okay back there?” Flight’s voice called, though it was muffled by her sides pressed against the walls of the duct.

“Yeah, uh”—Scootaloo breathed—“I think I’m gonna be fine.”

“You idiots!” a voice from behind her shouted. “What in Aureate’s name are you doing? You’ll never reach her like that! Your magic! Your magic!”

“I don’t think they could reach me,” Scootaloo mumbled. “We’re already too far in.”

“Good,” Flight replied tersely, “but we can’t relax yet. I think I see some light up ahead, so maybe we can get out of this soon.”

“What if they break through the wall anyway?” Scootaloo asked. “Like, they rip out the pipes?”

“We’ll just have to be faster than that,” Flight breathed. “Look, I don’t have some sort of grand plan. I’m running for my life here.”

Scootaloo clammed up after that, and she probably would have been annoyed had the situation allowed it. But no—she was stuck crawling on her hooves through what now was near-darkness.

“I can’t see them anymore!” exclaimed a voice from before. “Oh jeez he’s gonna be pissed, isn’t he? What are we gonna—?” The voice was interrupted by a loud slap.

“Shut up! You have hooves, don’tcha? Just start grabbing pipes and rip ‘em out!”

“But… but… we could totally screw things up for the castle…”

“The prince won’t mind, and we can always rebuild. Just do it!”

Now Scootaloo could definitely hear hooves on metal, pulling and hitting it and making loud clanging noises. And she braced herself for hooves reaching behind her, trying to grab her, but they never came.

Darkness. Hooves on metal. Scooting down the duct. Heh, scooting. Then, ahead—

“Oof!” A moment later: “Erm… watch your step…”

Scootaloo blinked, and then a light came into view quite suddenly. Yet it wasn’t a harsh light, and she didn’t wince. It was a cool, almost bronze-like colour and, what’s more, it was thick; it seemed to fill the space ahead of her, masking it from view, and—

“Gah!” she cried out as her hooves fell out from beneath her, and she went tumbling down. Luckily, her wings stretched out on instinct, catching her on the air and giving her almost a semblance of grace as she glided down to a perfect landing on her hooves, clacking into the floor of… cobble?

Scootaloo blinked, shaking her head around before fully opening her eyes. What she saw first was a butter-yellow muzzle right up in her face, below two eyes wide with concern.

“Yo,” Scootaloo managed after a moment, still dazed from the fall.

“You okay?” Flight asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Scootaloo’s eyebrow raised, however. “Though, uh… could you maybe get out of my face?”

“Oh!” Flight jerked her head back, and quickly turned around—though before her face was out of sight Scootaloo could’ve sworn she could see a tinge of pink on the filly’s cheeks. “I, um… I just wanted to make sure you were okay!”

Scootaloo shrugged. “Uh, okay. Well, yeah, I’m fine. But, um… where are we?”

The two fillies turned to look at the small tunnel they had come across. As the duct they had entered through was near the ceiling, wherever they were had to be at least a couple metres below the tunnel they’d been running in before. Some sort of sub-sub-basement. Which wouldn’t have been all that strange; castles are always filled with strange rooms that somehow ended up forgotten.

But this room? This room seemed to glow. It glowed with that same cool bronze-like colour that Scootaloo had seen before, and that light had just intensified once she got into the room proper. It filled her with a sense of… calm, almost. Even though her heart had just been racing, and she knew those guards were still behind them trying to pry their way through the piping, the air just tasted so serene.

And that’s not even to mention the patterns that snaked their way along the walls, forming mysterious symbols that seemed to paint some sort of picture or communicative device, yet nothing Scootaloo could understand in the slightest. Yet these symmetric designs all seemed to slide towards the distinctive shape of a door on the far wall, converging at a circular hole at its centre.

Flight blinked. “Erm… I think this is beyond my pay grade.”

“Um… yeah, I dunno.” Scootaloo scratched her head. “I mean, it kinda reminds me of that metal plating in the underground church-room-thingie I ran into.”

Flight nodded. “It could be related, I guess. I mean, this has been the princes’ castle for, like, ever. Maybe it’s even Aeneus’s.”

“Is that the bronze one?” Scootaloo asked, looking to Flight. “Ugh… I dunno why they had to make their names so similar.”

“Yeah, that’s him. Hence the colour.” Flight hummed in thought for a moment. “Well, they’re still behind us, aren’t they?”

Scootaloo looked back, though it was really more a gesture than an actual attempt to see if anypony was following them. “Yeah, pretty sure they are.”

“Why don’t we… check out that door, then?” Flight started trotting forward at an even pace, hooves reverberating off the floor. “Not really anywhere else to go.”

“Sure.” Scootaloo followed behind Flight at about the same speed. Her head turned from side to side as she walked, studying the designs on the walls.

Gear

“Okay, I’m beat. I have no idea what this thing is for.”

Scootaloo and Flight had been standing at the foot of the door for a couple minutes, trying with all their might to try and get it open. There was a very obvious lip in the centre of the door, separating the two sides, but it was sealed shut with no way for the fillies to pry it open.

“It’d be a lot easier if we had magic,” Flight grumbled. “Where’s Kevin when you need him?”

“I’m sure Kaylee is doing just fine right now,” Scootaloo shot back. She tilted her head up, trying to get a better look at the hole in the centre, at about her eye level. Although the circle’s width was smaller than the size of her hoof, meaning she couldn’t just reach through, Scootaloo was still able to see the ridges that lined the interior of the door. Beyond lay simply darkness.

“Lemme get a look!” Flight suddenly shoved Scootaloo out of the way, sticking her own face up into the hole. Grunting, Scootaloo stepped aside and trotted a few steps away, closer to the room’s corner.

“Yo, Grey,” Scootaloo said in a low voice. “You got any ideas about this door? Those pipes up there won’t hold forever.”

For a moment, she waited. No response came.

“Scootaloo!” Flight called. “What are you doing? C’mon, we need to try and get through here!”

Scootaloo sighed, and turned back to face the yellow pegasus. “Yeah, and I was trying to look through before you butted in.”

Flight rolled her eyes. “Excuse me for wanting to know what was going on. You could have at least left me space to squeeze in.”

Scootaloo tapped a hoof to her forehead. “Whatever. Arguing about it isn’t going to help anything.” She turned back to the door, and examined the ridges of the hole once more. And as she looked, she couldn’t help but notice that the ridges looked… familiar.

“Huh… that’s strange.” She leaned in closer.

“What is it?” Flight asked.

Scootaloo leaned back, and pointed at the hole. “See here? The shape of the ridges? I’m pretty sure that the end of the key is shaped like a gear.”

“Hmm.” Flight looked up. “How does that help us, though?”

Scootaloo looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“Like, how are we going to get inside?” Flight asked, gesturing exasperatedly with a hoof. “I dunno if you’ve noticed, but there’s nothing else in this room besides us.”

Scootaloo turned, and looked at the otherwise empty room. “Erm… well…”

“Well, whatever.” Flight harrumphed and then curled her hooves beneath herself, sitting down. “Guess we’ll just sit and wait for the guards to get here. Hopefully they can put me out of my misery.”

Scootaloo groaned. “Seriously? You’re not going to help?”

Flight didn’t even look at her as she responded. “Help with what? If you haven’t noticed, we have a dead end unless we can get through this door—and I have no idea how we would do that. There’s nothing else to do.”

Scootaloo bit her lip. Then, she took several steps into the body of the room.

“Grey,” she murmured, once she was sure she was out of earshot. “Please. I need your help. You’ve gotta be up there.”

No response.

Scootaloo sighed. “Don’t make me reach my hoof up there and—huh?”

Just as she was speaking, the filly noticed the back wall of the room—which hadn’t really caught her attention before, since they had been facing the other way. And at first, it didn’t seem like much a sight to behold; that half of the room was empty and, besides the duct above they had sprung from, most of the wall was taken up by designs, lines that formed hyperbolas echoing out from the centre.

But as Scootaloo moved closer and tilted her head, squinting her eyes… the round shape in between all of the curves looked mighty familiar.

“A gear…” she breathed.

“That’s what you said before,” Flight called from behind her. “But there still aren’t any gears around.”

Paying Flight no mind, Scootaloo continued on until she was only a few tail-lengths from the metal surface. At this point, she was able to see that it was most definitely a gear shape in the wall—and, what’s more, it seemed to protrude from the wall by about a centimetre.

Experimentally, Scootaloo gave the front a light tap. It had no give; she was in no danger of accidentally getting it stuck further in the wall. Breathing a sigh of relief, she lifted her forelegs and, carefully, put a hooftip on either side. Her balance was stable enough for now, but it wouldn’t last for long. So, without further ado, she started pulling.

It didn’t come easily, and Scootaloo found it difficult to keep her hooftips on the almost-sheer metal sides, especially with so little to hold onto. Still, she was pretty sure she was making some progress; more and more of the side became visible, and it started to feel looser in the socket.

“What’re you doing?” Flight suddenly called out.

Scootaloo, surprised, nearly jumped, and she lost her balance. She let out a yelp as she fell forward, pushing the gear back into its slot and then she slid down the wall on her face. “Ungh…”

As she lay on the ground, Scootaloo could hear Flight’s hoofsteps behind her. “Um… are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah,” Scootaloo managed as she started to pull herself up. “Just… just dandy.” Once she was settled on her hooves, she took a look at the gear. The gear which was now just another part of the wall, no longer jutting outwards.

“Crap!” she exclaimed, fuming. Her brow furrowed. “Ugh… what are we gonna do now?!”

Flight blinked. “I don’t understand. What were you doing?”

Scootaloo whipped her head back, her face livid. “I found the gear! Right here!” She pointed at the gear shape on the wall, tapping it loudly. “And I almost had it out, too, until you had to up and surprise me into pushing it back in! Now we’ll never get it out…”

“Oh… um… surely it can’t be that bad, can it?” Flight leaned in, getting a closer look at the gear. “How did you get it out in the first place?”

Scootaloo groaned. “It was already sticking out a bit, and that’s how I was able to get my hooves on it. But now…”

“I… I’m sorry,” Flight said weakly. “I didn’t know.”

“I know,” Scootaloo said with a sigh. “Ugh, sorry. There’s no reason to blame you. I just… I’m nervous. I don’t know what we’re going to do now.”

The two fillies stood there in silence for a moment, looking from one another to where the gear shape was set in the wall.

“We could—” Flight started, but she was interrupted by Scootaloo’s hoof on her lips. She blinked, confused, and then saw Scootaloo jerk her head to the side. Following the motion of Scootaloo’s head, Flight looked back at the door on the other side of the room. It looked the same as before… except the hole in the centre was glowing, glowing with that same bronze colour. The light then slid up into the crack between the two halves of the door, causing the room to shine even brighter.

“We did it!” Flight exclaimed. “It must have been a button!”

“I’m… I’m not sure about that,” Scootaloo said, her tone nervous.

Flight turned back to look at her. “What do you mean?”

“Look,” Scootaloo breathed. The two sides of the door began to split apart, and another layer of bronze light bathed the room, this time much like the thickness that had filled the air just as they came in from the duct. They could hardly see a thing before them through the mist.

“I… I hear hoofsteps,” Flight murmured, and as she said that, Scootaloo could too. Loud, booming hoofsteps, belonging to somepony large.

“It wasn’t us who opened the door,” Scootaloo said. “It was… whoever that is.”

Flight gulped. “What… what should we do?”

“What can we do?” Scootaloo asked, turning to her companion. “What can we do… but wait?”

Flight said nothing. The hoofsteps grew closer.

Bug

Scootaloo shrugged, and kept walking. “There isn’t really a way to find out unless we keep going.”

“I… guess,” Flight breathed. As she spoke, she noticed she could see her breath linger in the mist for a moment before dissipating. Her teeth began to clatter involuntarily.

“I-is it just me, or did it… suddenly become really cold?” Scootaloo asked.

“N-no, I feel it too,” Flight replied. “I don’t know where it’s coming from, though.”

“Maybe it’s the mist.” Scootaloo squinted, trying to see through the nebulous expanse before her. “Or… whoever’s out there.”

“You think they can just change the temperature like that?” Flight asked. Her question remained unanswered, though, and hung in the air just like the breath that came with it; the fillies, however, moved on. They hardly noticed as their hooves began to slip slightly on the slick floor, but as time seemed to wear on, they did grow more confused.

“Um… how long have we been walking?” Flight asked.

“The voice can’t’ve come from further away than this…” Scootaloo mumbled. She stopped in her tracks. “Okay, uh… Flight?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m gonna do something that you’re probably going to think is weird, and I can explain later, but right now I just gotta do this.”

Flight gave her an odd look. “Um… okay?”

Scootaloo took a deep breath. “You there, Grey?” She waited for a few moments, and then stamped her hoof. Trying to ignore Flight’s increasing stare of confusion, she continued: “Seriously, Grey, I know you’re there. We don’t know what to do, and I could really use your help. We can trust Flight, I swear.”

She was about ready to throw her hoof up there to squash the bug, but luckily, she heard a buzz near her ear. The filly let out a sigh of relief when she saw the distinctive flash of light reflecting off the beetle’s chitinous shell.

“Wh-what’s that?” Flight stammered, watching the bug as it flew off of Scootaloo’s head and into the space in front of the two fillies. Before Scootaloo could respond, however, the bug had landed on the ground and had begun to glow with a silver light.

Scootaloo put a hoof up to shield her face from the momentary burst of blinding light. Once she saw it had subsided, she lowered her hoof and, to her immense joy, she was once more greeted with a grey stallion with a triangular cutie mark, standing about a head taller than her.

"Grey!" she exclaimed, sliding forward.

"Hey there, Scootaloo," he said softly, though his expression was rigid. He turned towards the other filly. "And it's good to finally make your acquaintance, Flight."

"Buh-huh?" Flight buh-huh'd, jaw having dropped. "What... who...?"

"No time to explain," Grey said, turning back to face the mist. "We're in danger just by staying here, and we've got to move. Follow me."

"There'll be no need for that," came a voice from the depths of the mist—the same voice from before that had told them to trot forward. "You can stay where you are, Argent."

"Anaxagor!" Grey swore. "Alright then. Come out where we can see you, and tell me what you want."

In response, the mist parted like the waters, and a shape began to take form before the three ponies.

Intentions

It was almost as if the mist hadn’t been there at all with how quickly it dissipated, seeming to fade back into the walls from whence it came. In its place there stood a slender stallion, bronze-coloured coat iridescently reflecting in the low light of the room. His torso shook as he trotted slowly forward, feathers shimmering as they shifted from side to side, and the sharp horn jutting out from his head seemed to loom menacingly over the group.

“Aeneus,” Grey said. He stood in front of Scootaloo and Flight, posing as if he were shielding them from Aeneus with his wings—even though he had none to speak of.

“Hello, brother,” Aeneus replied, stopping before them. His slender legs seemed shaky, barely able to hold him up, and yet he somehow had an aura of power and strength emanating from him despite this. Perhaps it was in the way his steeled eyes remained fixed on his brother, seeming to disregard the two smaller ponies as if they were nothing. “It’s been a long time.”

“It has, hasn’t it?” Grey replied. “And yet some things never change, do they?”

There was an uncomfortable silence. Scootaloo shifted, her hooves aching. “What do you mean?” Aeneus finally asked.

“You’ve still got that same flair for bravado you’ve always had,” Grey said, winking. “It suits you.”

Aeneus groaned. “Alright, whatever. We don’t have time for this screwing around. I need to act fast. There are a lot of folks whose lives are on the line, and whatever games you’re playing aren’t gonna cut it.”

“There are no games, Aeneus,” Grey replied. An odd look had crept onto his face, one of… wry familiarity. “I’m not working against you; on the contrary, I think it would be in both of our best interests if we talked together and came to some sort of an agreement.”

The stallion didn’t immediately reply. His eyelids narrowed and his pupils darted between the three of them. “I don’t understand,” he finally said. His breath lingered in the air, billowing out from his mouth with the three words.

“Again, we need to talk,” Grey offered. He took a light step forward and reached out a hoof gently in Aeneus’ direction—not a demand, but an invitation. The taller stallion eyed it carefully for a few moments, before shifting forward—and, slowly, he lifted his hoof to meet his brother’s. Nothing happened save for a small clack as their hooves met, but… something immediately felt brighter.

“Alright, talk,” Aeneus said, lowering his hoof after the moment had passed. “You say you have much to explain—so do it. I have much to get back to.”

Grey nodded. “I understand that you’re a busy stallion, but—”

“Brother,” Aeneus remarked, cutting him off. “I’m much more than a busy stallion. You do recall that you left, yes? You and Aureate went off to do whatever you went to do, but I? I stayed, and I cared for the ponies who live here. That is my highest honour as the reigning Prince—I lead the people, but I am a servant of them, and I do all that is within my power to steer the course of society towards everyone’s benefit.”

“And what is it that you think I’m doing that goes against that?” Grey mused. He gestured to the two smaller ponies beside him. “My associates and I do not seek to bring harm to any pony under your jurisdiction, nor besides—on the contrary, I have enlisted them to assist me in work of utmost importance to this system’s survival.”

“Do not think me blind, brother. Your ‘associates’,” Aeneus started, glaring daggers in Scootaloo and Flight’s direction, “have been working with the Rebellion from Revan. From the time Scootaloo arrived, she has had assistance time and time again from prominent traitors and spies. And, if eyewitness accounts are to believed, you should be counted among them.”

“You know as well as I do that sometimes we have to do what we can, and what we think is right in the grand scheme of things—not necessarily what seems like the best option from moment to moment.” Grey took a deep breath. “Look, I don’t doubt that you’re watching out for the lives of your citizens, and trying to do what you think is best for them. And I don’t doubt that you have serious concerns regarding the ponies associated with Rebel forces. But you know me, brother, and you know that I have the best interests of these ponies at heart—not just the ponies who live on Bureau planets, but the entire system.”

“With all due respect, Argent…” Aeneus replied, hanging ominously on that last word, “the ponies of these planets must be my priority. Maybe you forget—having been gone, gallivanting wherever you might have been—but this was the duty entrusted upon us, and that we all agreed upon. And I intend to uphold those promises, even as my brothers have shirked them.”

Grey—or Argent, as Aeneus had called him—remained silent for the moment. Scootaloo and Flight both watched as his eyes darted from the monarch before them to the darkened metal wall behind him and back again. “Aeneus,” Argent finally said. “Please, hear what I’m saying. I know that, when it comes down to it, I did break at least the letter of our agreement, and of our pledge. And for that… I’m truly sorry. It was thoughtless of me to leave you without even consulting you, especially so soon after our brother had his own disappearing act.”

“Damn straight,” the other stallion grumbled. His forelegs shifted, visibly, and even in the low light his metallic bronze fur glistened as it rippled.

“But I need to reiterate,” Argent went on, “that I did not just leave because I didn’t want to be there, or that I didn’t want to carry out my duties of protecting our citizens. You are aware of the research I was doing involving the balance of harmony in the system, yes?”

“I do recall something of the sort,” Aeneus replied, though his expression had not changed. “And does this have to do with why you left?”

“It does, in fact,” Argent replied. “The scientists I was working with, at the Northern University… they had been tracking the levels of harmony for decades, watching as they remained fairly stable—until suddenly there was a large drop-off, just within the space of a year. And not in an isolated area, either; this was system-wide, around every planet, with no warning whatsoever.”

“Really?” Aeneus asked. He was obviously still trying to keep his countenance of irritation, but there was a touch of genuine concern that leaked into his tone. “I mean, ahem… if this was true, why did you not discuss it with me? Why did you not take this to the Council, or at least a meeting between the three of us?”

Argent sighed. “I should have, I really should have, and that I regret. You were always the one most vested in running the country, dealing with the day-to-day problems—and I didn’t want to worry you with something like this, especially something which… couldn’t easily be solved, something that would become just another problem to hang over your head. So I talked to Aureate, and told him what I knew.”

Flight gasped, causing everypony to look at her. “Is that… is that why he left?”

Argent nodded, solemnly. “He had already been reclusive up to that point, acting strange and whatnot, but I didn’t put the pieces together until… well, until he was already gone.”

Aeneus’ expression was hard to read—besides that he was lost in thought. “And you went after him, then?”

“Sort of.” Argent took a deep breath. “I went to look for him, sure. But I also sensed the presence of an old friend, trapped in an unusual place, and I spoke with her for some time. And, of course, I needed to get a firsthoof look at the different planets, seeing how they were affected by the drop in harmony—if at all.”

“This friend…” Scootaloo piped up. “Was it Princess Luna?”

“Indeed,” Argent replied, looking down to the orange pegasus filly at his side. “During her banishment to the moon, once she had regained enough energy, she sent out a distress beacon, a magical signal only us alicorns could feel. And so, over the years, I travelled many times to Saros to visit with her, and hear what she had to say as well as keep her up to date with what was going on in the outside world.”

“What did she tell you?” Aeneus asked. He no longer looked irritated—merely curious.

“She told me of the Nightmare that had come to infect her, and how Celestia had banished her away to Saros to keep the chaotic forces at check. And she told me of Discord, a strange being that had come to their planet a millennium before, wreaking chaos across the planet until she, Celestia, and Chrysalis were able to seal him up in stone. And, as far as she could tell, these were not isolated incidents.”

Scootaloo’s eyes went wide at this, but nopony seemed to notice—nopony besides Flight, at least, who was giving the filly beside her an odd look. Aeneus was focused on his brother, however. “Alright, I think I’m starting to get the picture. There’s something larger here, something to do with the forces of harmony throughout the system, and something that somepony needs to deal with, for the sake of the Bureau, and Equestria, and everypony else.”

“Exactly,” Argent said with a nod. “And while I haven’t been the most forthcoming about this—and still, there are details that I do not yet have the time or the means to go into—I hope that, as your brother and a loyal defender of this planet and the ponies that live here, I am somepony you can trust to take care of this, in the ways I see fit. Please, trust my judgment.”

Aeneus tapped his chin with a hoof, eyeing both Scootaloo and Flight before looking back to Argent. “And what of Aureate? He too was my brother, and a sworn defender of the ponies on this planet, and he too disappeared without warning. What makes you so different from him?”

Argent sighed. “You haven’t changed, brother. You’re right; perhaps I am like him. All you have to go on is my word.” He opened his mouth as if to say something more, but quickly closed it again.

“A-and mine!” Scootaloo interjected. Both Argent and Aeneus immediately looked over to the filly. Flight facehoofed. “No, really! I guess I don’t know all that much about the history between you guys, but this Grey—uh, Aureate—dude has been super nice to me, and a huge help in keeping me safe.”

“I assure you, you were not in any danger, at least not from any of my ponies,” Aeneus said flatly. “But I understand where you are coming from, and it is true that I have no real reason to doubt him. Plus, if what he is saying about harmony is true… then somepony needs to take care of that, and I am far too busy with the running of the planet.” He sighed. “So, tentatively, you may go.”

Argent looked down to Scootaloo and Flight with a warm smile; they returned it, weakly. He looked back up to his brother. “And?”

“And?” Aeneus inquired, looking surprised. “And what?”

“I assume you have stipulations,” Argent explained, “at the very least because I would in your position.”

“Ah, fair enough,” Aeneus said, nodding. “Yes, I do. First of all, I need you to lay low—at least for the time being, until I can talk to the Council. Because I will be filling the Council in on this, whether you like it or not.”

“I expected as much,” Argent replied. “We will make our way off-planet as soon as possible, and wait for further instructions.”

“Thank you,” Aeneus said. “Now, as for your companions… I must request that you cease communicating with the Rebels immediately. We will keep Ms. Even Later and Mr. Clove Hitch here in our custody, although I assure they will be treated according to the proper procedures of Bureau criminal justice. My main concern is not letting traitors walk free, and causing any more harm.”

Scootaloo stepped forward, an angry expression on her face, mouth open, looking ready to object. But Argent stretched out a hoof in front of her, giving her a sympathetic glance, before looking back up to Aeneus. “We agree to those terms.”

“What?” Scootaloo hissed. “But Later… and Clove…! They’re our friends, dammit—we can’t just abandon them here!”

“Scootaloo, please,” Argent said solemnly. “I understand that you’ve become very close with these ponies, but there’s nothing we can do about it for the time being.”

“Again, I mean them no personal harm,” Aeneus offered, “but I can’t let them go free and then run back to the Rebels, at least not in good conscious. They’ve hurt ponies, Scootaloo, and letting them free would just open the possibility that they would again.”

“They’re not bad ponies,” Scootaloo huffed, and she stared down to the floor. The butter yellow pegasus next to her looked from Aeneus to Argent with an uneasy expression, and then put a foreleg around Scootaloo’s shoulders. Scootaloo, for her part, ignored her.

“So, is there anything else?” Argent finally said, breaking an uncomfortable silence. “Or shall we go outside the city, and make our way off-world.”

“That should be fine,” Aeneus replied, nodding curtly. “I will contact you if anything changes.”

“Thank you, brother,” Argent said, stepping forward, but the bronze-coated alicorn had already turned tail and vanished into a cloud of mist, just as quickly and mysteriously as he had appeared. “Ugh. The guy always had a flair for bravado, let me tell you.” He looked back to the two younger ponies.

“Um, Prince Argent, sir,” Flight said, nervously.

“Please, please, just call me Grey,” Grey said, waving a hoof. “No need for the formalities.”

“Well, um, Grey…” Flight continued. “What… about Kevin?”

“Kaylee,” Scootaloo growled, though her purple mane hid her face from view, muffling her voice. “Use her name or nothing at all.”

Flight bit her lip. Argent sighed. “That’s where we’re off to now, actually. Please, take hold of my hoof”—he stretched out a grey foreleg in front of him—“and I’ll teleport us out of here. I’ll explain once we’re outside the city limits.”

Flight immediately stretched out her hoof, tip meeting Grey’s. After another uncomfortable moment, Scootaloo pushed back a strand of magenta hair and looked up at Grey—and he could see how much worry and hurt those violet eyes still contained. Still, Scootaloo raised her hoof, slowly.

Immediately after Scootaloo’s hoof made contact with Flight’s and Grey’s, the three of them blinked out of existence in a flash of silver light. And the metal room in the belly of the palace, one of dozens, lay still and empty once more.

Away

Hoofsteps reverberated off the metal as Scootaloo walked down the hallway on the lower level of the ship. She emerged into the light of the pantry room, exactly how she had left it. It was oddly comforting; even though she had only been on the ship for no more than a week and she had only been off of the ship for an hour or two at most, it felt like home. Her new home.

Scootaloo continued through the pantry and up the ladder into the hallway above. From there, she walked into the cockpit and then across it, over to the dashboard. She leapt up into the pilot's chair and gazed ahead out the window, at the blackness of space. Then, without another moment's pause, she looped the tote bag handles around her hindleg and lifted the weight onto the pedal.

Immediately, Scootaloo was thrown back in her seat as the ship bolted forward. Caught off guard, she slipped sideways. She would have slipped off if not for the armrest; however, the plastic-covered thing caught her straight in the stomach and she nearly puked on impact. Still reeling, she pushed herself up with her hooves to a seated position on the chair.

The stars sped by in front of her. Scootaloo smiled weakly; she was back on track.

Beep

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Scootaloo opened her eyes. She was greeted with the sight of a flat, featureless metal panel above. It was screwed into the ceiling like all the other ones.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

She turned her head to the left, revealing to her the rest of the small living quarters. Just the metal bunk on which she lay stiffly, and the empty bunk below. Leading out of the room was a hallway.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Groaning, Scootaloo tried to move her hooves. After a few attempts, she was successful in thrusting aside her thin white sheet and she managed to pull herself up to a standing position. She glanced down off the edge of the bunk at the metal floor below, frowning.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Scootaloo jumped off the edge of the bunk, stretching out her wings. To her amazement, they were able to catch on the air and, instead of falling as she'd expected, the pegasus filly was carried downward in a graceful dive to the floor. Her hooves touched down on the metal with a soft clank. For the first time that day, Scootaloo smiled. But her brief moment of victory was short-lived.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Scootaloo sighed again, rolling her eyes. She cantered down the short hallway, each hoofstep punctuated with a clank, until she reached the cockpit. Scootaloo stopped in the front of the room beside a plasticky pilot's chair; in front of her lay an assortment of knobs, dials, buttons, and lights. In the centre of the dashboard was a round plastic wheel-shaped contraption Scootaloo had never seen before.

BEEP. BEEP. BEE—

"Stop it!" Scootaloo exclaimed at the electronics, cutting off the noise. "What in the hay is making that noise...?" She looked down at the myriad of controls, but none of them seemed out of place. Then, in the corner of her eye, she spotted a blinking red light on the left side. She turned to focus on this strange light, nowhere near any of the other buttons, and noticed that there was a small label underneath. As Scootaloo leaned in closer, she was able to make out the words: "Autopilot status – beeps when there is an error".

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Scootaloo pulled down on a cheek with her hoof. "Ugh... crud." She looked back at the dashboard, eyes darting back and forth over the rows and rows of controls. Finally, she spied a big red button, labelled as "Autopilot activation", and she pressed it. Scootaloo grinned as the light to the left flashed green, so it was all the more frustrating when the light changed back to a blinking red.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

"Ughhhh..."

Scootaloo pressed the button a few more times. Each time, it changed to a steady green—only to change right back again to the blinking red, accompanied by—

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Frowning, Scootaloo turned her gaze back to the dashboard and the rows of controls. Mischievously, she thought of just pressing random buttons until it worked itself out or even just walking away, leaving it for somepony else to do. But no, she couldn't do that. So she continued to look until she found a little switch that seemed like it could help and she flipped it.

Immediately, the autopilot status light flickered out. Several other lights on the dashboard did as well. Then, slowly but surely, Scootaloo heard the gentle whirr of the engine, which previously had lingered ever-present in the background, start to fade away into near-nothingness. In fact, it felt like the vessel was grinding to a halt.

Scootaloo didn't panic, though—she knew she had flipped the "autopilot" switch back to "manual". She hopped up into that maroon stiff-backed pilot's seat and put her forehooves on the black wheel-shaped object that lay directly in front of her. Because it was so large and because of where they put it, Scootaloo surmised, that wheel probably had something to do with moving the ship. Hopefully. She gave it a little push, rotating it several degrees clockwise. But nothing happened.

Confused, Scootaloo looked back at the dashboard—but no button, knob, switch, or any other control seemed to hold the answers to her questions. It was then that Scootaloo looked down... and that was when she spied the two pedals on the floor, one by each back hoof. An adult pony could probably have reached them—Scootaloo herself wasn't too far from their rugged surfaces, but she couldn't reach them all the same. So she slid down off the seat and landed squarely on top of the right pedal.

In an instant, the vehicle shot forward. Scootaloo felt herself knocked off her hooves and pushed backwards against the front of the seat. Dazed, she stood back up again and stumbled off away from the seat. But as soon as her hooves left the pedal, Scootaloo could already feel the ship slowing down again.

"Ughhhh... why...?" Scootaloo muttered. She walked back over and pushed the pedal down with a hoof and, sure enough, the ship jolted forward. She let go again and, predictably, the ship slowed until it remained stationery. Scootaloo paced back and forth on the metal floor in the cockpit, pondering what to do about the pedals. Eventually, the steady clink, clank, clink of her hooves became too much and she just stood still. But then she had an idea...

Scootaloo ran off down the hallway and back into the living quarters. Thrusting a hoof underneath the bottom bunk, she scrabbled around for a few seconds before she felt the soft fabric she had been looking for. Scootaloo pulled the green tote bag out from underneath the bunk and carried the weighty bag in her teeth as she returned to the cockpit. Smiling, she set the bag down on top of the right pedal and, as the ship rocketed forward, she hopped back up onto the pilot seat. Scootaloo looped the bag handles around her right hindleg and, to test her new plan, she raised that hindleg with some effort, pulling the bag and its contents off of the pedal and slowing the ship. Smiling, Scootaloo set the bag back down and allowed the ship to proceed as she just sat there. With a forehoof, she tried testing the wheel on the dashboard again; this time, she could feel the ship turning underneath her.

Finally, Scootaloo reached over the dashboard and pressed a small button she had been tempted to press earlier, one that she had been saving. A mechanical panel in front of the dashboard slid upwards into the ceiling, revealing a large glass window in front of the pegasus filly that curved ever so slightly outward. Also revealed were small porthole windows on either side of the cockpit.

Leaning forward, Scootaloo gazed in awe out the front window. There was little to see; the white pinpricks of stars dotted the all-enveloping black void, but that was pretty much it. Save for a grey blob in the lower half of the window... the grey blob that got larger, and larger, and larger... until it took up nearly the entire view. Scootaloo could feel the ship being pulled downward, down into orbit around the moon.

"Nnngh..." Scootaloo exhaled, pulling her body back in an effort to shift the ship's weight. She swerved a hard left with the wheel on the dashboard, pushing the thing as far in that direction as it would go. The rocky grey seemed just to get closer, and closer...

...and then the ship started turning left, breaking free of the moon's grasp. The orange pegasus let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and tried to straighten out the ship, pulling it into a route that circumvented the moon altogether. Satisfied with her handiwork, Scootaloo let go of the wheel for a while and just watched as stars pulled in and faded out from view, all the while pushing herself further and further into the void of space.

Shiver

The floor of the cockpit was cold. Scootaloo knew this from experience; she was sitting on it, after all. Not so cold that it was unbearable or that she would get frostbite or anything like that, mind you. No, it was just that type of cold that left you shivering and wishing for a thick, fuzzy blanket. And that's what Scootaloo did; even though she had her orange fur coating her from head to hoof, she still shivered. She thought of the thin white sheet that covered her bunk in the other room, but cast that thought aside—it would barely help, if at all. She began to think of warm blankets like back home, of warm bodies...

But she cast these thoughts aside too before she started thinking too deeply on them; that wouldn't do any good. So she continued to sit there and shiver, facing the pilot's chair ahead and the dashboard beyond that.

But then she had an idea. Scootaloo hopped up to her hooves and bounded over to and up onto the pilot's chair. From there, she was able to once again gaze upon the smorgasbord of controls. Her eyes moved back and forth slowly; she was careful to read each label, in case they had what she was looking for. And, on the third row, she spied it—a little switch marked "Heating". It was in the off position; Scootaloo, with a grin, flipped it to on. She could nearly feel the warmth radiating from below...

...but then, a nearby red light blinked. Scootaloo squinted to read the label underneath. "Insufficient power for heat," it read. She groaned. "These buttons and crud are way too specific..."

So, with nothing else to do, Scootaloo leaned back in the pilot's chair and made herself as comfortable could be in the plasticky thing. Her bag was still on the pedal, rocketing the ship forward. The window ahead continued to show the empty blackness of space with stars—oh so many stars—dotting the view. Nothing immediate was anywhere in sight, however, so Scootaloo just lay back and closed her eyes and tried not to think about the cold.

Box

She didn't know how long it had been. A few days, maybe—a week at most, she estimated. But she didn't know how much more she could take.

Scootaloo sat in the pantry on the lower level of the ship, facing the counter on the far wall. One of the bottom drawers lay open, with one of those damned green boxes clearly visible inside. She looked at it. The box seemed to stare right back despite its eyelessness, daring her to reach forward and grab it. Scootaloo resisted.

Who even in the hay was Gamsco? And why would they be so proud of these bizarre ball-shaped foods that they would deign to plaster their name on each box of the stuff? Scootaloo couldn't see why anypony would want to be associated with this food that was so egregiously bland and vaguely dirt-flavoured. She wasn't sure how she was able to keep her stomach full by just eating them until she had checked the package, where the nutrition facts revealed that each "Gamsco's" contained a surprisingly good mixture of protein, fiber, and various nutrients. No, not the healthiest thing in the world, but pretty good for keeping her alive with nothing else to eat. But that didn't make them suck any less.

Scootaloo finally reached her hooves out into the drawer; her stomach was starting to feel knotted up with emptiness. The box felt light; upon inspection, there appeared to only be a small mound of the things at the bottom. There were, however, the other boxes in the other drawers. Scootaloo reached a hoof in and scooped one out. She popped it in her mouth and chewed and chewed as fast as she could, trying to quickly get it out of her mouth so she didn't have to taste it. This didn't really make it any better. Her only comfort was when she washed it down with a cool swallow of water a minute later.

Home

"Hey, Butterfinger, you might wanna look at this!"

Scootaloo was leaning against the wall below deck in the pantry, doodling in her journal, when she heard Kevin's voice from above. Even though she knew the colt had only been joking the other night about drawing him, the filly had pretty much run out of other things to draw so her pencil was currently in her mouth, end to the paper sketching the contour of the unicorn's torso. But, interrupted, she spat out the pencil onto the notebook.

"What is it? I'm busy!" she shouted up the ladder hole.

"C'mon!"

"Ugh!" Scootaloo set the notebook aside, careful to close it so nopony could see what she had been working on if they walked by. Not that that was likely, but whatever. The filly then climbed up the ladder and galloped down the hallway, making loud clang noises with each landing of her hooves on the metal.

When she got to the cockpit, she saw the stool was empty and could just barely see the tips of Kevin's mane poking out from around the side of the pilot's seat.

"Dang it, dude! That's my seat!" She ran up and hopped onto the stoll with full intention of using it as a springboard to leap onto that plasticky chair where Kevin sat.

However, just as she was about to leap, he spoke. "C'mon, just stop and look." He pointed forward with his hoof at the window; Scootaloo, following his gesture, turned her head to look.

For a moment, she said nothing.

"Is that it?" she finally asked, not turning away.

"Yep... that's home."

Scootaloo just kept staring ahead at the medium-sized green globe that marred the otherwise black expanse of space. It lay just ahead, somewhere in the middle of the window, and although she couldn't make out any details, it was evident from the colour of the planet that it was green and lush. It made her think of her home, too, and how far she had already come from it.

Above

...and the ship levelled out, parallel to the planet's surface, as they pulled a hard right. Instead of a green mass coming towards them, the view out the window instead was that of a black-turning-blue sky with the rounded edge of the Kindred planet peeking out below them, growing a manageable rate rather than the incredible speed of before.

Scootaloo exhaled in relief; Kevin, on the other hoof, remained focused as he carefully shifted the wheel back to the centre as the ship levelled out.

"Do you know where you're going?" Scootaloo asked. She gazed out the front window as they passed large patches of what appeared to be jungle, tops of leafy trees visible below them. Occasionally the thick mass of trees was interrupted by the snaking arm of a river, visible as the trees shied away from where the water flowed. But not once did Scootaloo see any sign of civilisation.

Kevin didn't look away from the window, but he still replied. "Yeah, it's definitely this way. Not that far, even; it should only be an hour or two."

Scootaloo said nothing—her gaze too was trained out the window, taking in the lush jungle sights. But the lack of any visible signs of pony inhabitants was at the very least quite concerning to the filly. Finally, she voiced her concern.

"Um... can I ask a question about the Kindred planet?"

"Yep, definitely. I'll answer if I'm able to."

"How come we're not seeing any civilisation? Towns, cities, farms, boats, any of that? There's just so much land here that's open..."

"Heh, yeah, I bet it does seem like that. Ponies live on the surface where you're from, probably. There are definitely some above-ground settlements, even in this region—in fact, where we're going is one of them. But it all goes back to the history of our planet... back in the old days, there was a lot of pollution because of factories and overproduction and stuff like that. Then it became a health risk to live on the surface, so the ponies moved underground and decided to use the above-ground land as a sort of nature preserve, nurturing it so that it could get to how it is right now. And they've decided to keep it like that, for the benefit of the planet, so most of the large cities and stuff like that is underground and we use a lot of cleaner energy."

"Huh, I guess that makes sense," Scootaloo replied, still looking out the window. "Back where I'm from, we didn't have any pollution, really. Or at least not that I knew about."

"You'd probably know," Kevin said. "It's usually these awful thick grey clouds that come down to the surface and make ponies cough and get sick."

"Hmm, yeah, nothing like that."

Scootaloo and Kevin continued looking down upon the vibrant world below as it flashed past them at an alarming rate. With each kilometre they flew, the comrades grew closer and closer to their destination.

Birthday

"Scootaloo! Scootaloo!"

The orange filly awoke with a start, head shaking rapidly as her eyelids fluttered open. She was still snuggled tight between her covers, a thick patchwork quilt on top and the seasonal flannel sheets below. No, her sleeping situation was not what was unusual; it was the company that realised she had.

"Happy birthday, Scootaloo!" two familiar voices chorused. And familiar indeed they were; her best friends in the whole wide world, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, were on either side of her bed, excited grins plastered across their faces.

On the left of the bed, closer to the door, Sweetie Belle levitated a dish in her turquoise magical aura that held buttered toast and fresh apple slices—a perfect breakfast, and exactly what Scootaloo's stomach yearned for. To the right, in front of a window whose blinds were open to reveal the majestic morning sun, stood Apple Bloom with the strings of a few colourful balloons between her teeth. The orange and purple globes that floated in the air above her matched Scootaloo's coat and mane to a T.

"Ya think we scared her speechless?" Apple Bloom asked, speech garbled somewhat by the balloon strings in her mouth. "She ain't sayin' anything and she looks like she just saw a ghost."

"Give her time..." Sweetie Belle replied. She looked at Scootaloo expectantly.

"Wha—huh?" Scootaloo finally managed.

Sweetie Belle facehoofed. "Don't tell me you forgot it's your birthday!"

Scootaloo blinked. "Omigosh omigosh omigosh omigosh omigosh omi—" With lightning speed, the filly hopped out of bed. The speed at which she propelled herself around the room on her wings, still grazing the floor but seeming to float across it like it were air, was absolutely inequine from the perspective of her two friends. In just the blink of an eye, the bedroom door had been thrust open and Scootaloo was already long gone.

"What'n the hay just happened?" Apple Bloom asked, looking at the empty doorway.

"I think... I think she's gonna go look for Rainbow Dash," Sweetie Belle replied. "Wasn't she all excited about flying lessons the other day?"

"Oh, yeah, I remember. Hard to forget, what with all that bouncin' around the clubhouse. I hope she has a good time!"

"Me too, but I hope we get to help her celebrate her birthday, too..."

"I'm sure we will! What's a Crusader birthday without the Crusaders?"

Questions

Scootaloo lay with her eyes open on her bed—cot, really—on the back wall of her cell. At first she had tried lying on her back; although it wasn't particularly comfortable, the main issue was that the harsh lights above shone relentlessly into her eyes. She didn't want to face right either, not wanting to look out at Mochi or Grey or whoever else was there. So, lying on her left side, she stared at the sheer metal surface of the wall in front of her.

Her blurry reflection gleamed back at her, though she could still make out her neutral expression and some of her facial features. There were bags under her eyes—not that there ever weren't but these ones were especially prominent. A long, dark red gash snaked diagonally across her muzzle. Scootaloo reached a hoof—which itself was marred by several small scabs—to her face to touch it. She traced the line of the scab on her face. It was strange, to say the least. She couldn't quite get used to how it looked on her face—but she would have to, she supposed, since in some form it would probably be there to stay. She wondered how she had gotten it.

And then Scootaloo began to think of Kevin and the ship. She tried to remember exactly what had happened for several minutes. All she could come up with, though, was that something had gone wrong and that they had crashed. After that... it seemed like the ponies in charge here had captured her for some reason. Come to think of it, they probably got Kevin too.

Curious, Scootaloo decided to try something. "Kevin?!" she shouted. Her voice reverberated off of the metal walls.

"Shut up, kid!" was the only response she got, from exactly where she would have guessed. Scootaloo flipped over on her bunk to face the other cells.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Grey, it's just that—"

"Spare your excuses," Grey grumbled. She still couldn't see him even when facing in that direction—he was still obscured by the darkness. She wondered what the stallion looked like. "Just cut out the crap."

Scootaloo didn't know how to respond, so she said nothing. This apparently was the right thing to do, as she heard not a peep more from the stallion. She sighed. Kevin could be anywhere; maybe he was here in the South Pen, in another part of the prison, or perhaps they hadn't gotten him. But if he were free, why wouldn't he have stopped them from taking her?

Frustrated but with no way to find answers to her questions, Scootaloo curled up into a ball on the mattress and closed her eyes. If she couldn't do anything else, at least she could try to get some rest. Before the filly had reached the two hundredth sheep, she was out like a light.

Forks

Scootaloo could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she galloped as fast as she could through the earthen tunnel. As she and Mochi ran by, the flickering flames that were alight atop the wall-mounted torches that lit the tunnel would stretch out as if reaching for them, lapping downwards and then snapping back up as the ponies ran further along, out of reach. Besides the torches, however, the rest of the tunnel went by as a blurry shadowed mess; there was no time to focus. They ran on.

Behind them, the thundering of hooves continued at a steady pace. Scootaloo wondered briefly how many guards were following them; then, she hoped that they wouldn't have to find out. If they did... well, Scootaloo didn't want to think about that. She focused on the tunnel ahead of her, snaking up and down and every which way.

And then, suddenly, Scootaloo could see the tunnel curving left but also right—a fork. Mochi must have noticed this too for Scootaloo could see the mare blinking and nearly tripping over her own hooves.

"Dammit, a fork!" Mochi exclaimed. "Umm..."

"We can't afford to slow down! Left!" Scootaloo, galloping at the same pace, swerved in her chosen direction, and Mochi followed suit. Scootaloo glanced over her shoulder at the receding tunnel behind them. The guards were not yet in sight—thank Celestia—but Scootaloo had no doubt that they would be if she and Mochi didn't keep running. Hopefully the fork would buy them some time.

And then, just a minute later, they reached another fork, again left and right. This time Scootaloo ran to the right, Mochi following alongside. They didn't have to say anything—it was now understood that Scootaloo would decide. There were a few more forks after this—three-way splits, horizontal jut-offs, and the like.

And then, finally, they saw a light at the end of the tunnel; unlike the orange, flickery light of the tunnel torches, this was much more white and more full.

"You see that?" Mochi asked.

"Yeah... you think that's the end?" They kept running forward, metre after metre. Finally, they both skidded to a halt just after the end of the tunnel, where it opened up.

Mochi and Scootaloo stood in a large earthen cavern with rectangular fluorescent floodlights embedded in the ceiling. What was most interesting and important in this room, however, was the plethora of tunnels—maybe a dozen or more—splitting off from the room in all directions. Mochi's gaw lay agape, and Scootaloo spoke the first word that came to her mind.

"...crap."

Exhilarating

Scootaloo finally allowed herself a glance over her shoulder and, upon seeing no sign of another pony anywhere down the long stretch of hallway, the filly slowed her pace to a brisk trot. She listened to her heavy, gasping breaths, though each seemed unable to fill her lungs enough to satisfy her. Now that she had slowed and her ears weren't filled with her heart pounding in her chest and the thundering of her hooves below, Scootaloo was able to hear other sounds: the crackle of torches affixed to either side of the tunnel, the sound of running water above, and—most importantly—a lack of anypony yelling or breathing or galloping.

The filly wanted so very desperately to stop and catch her breath, or even to run back and see if Mochi was alright, but she knew she couldn't do that. She had to trust Mochi and, more importantly, get herself out of there. Grey said he would be waiting for them outside the tunnels—she just had to get out there somehow. So, with little other option available, Scootaloo did what she had already been doing—trotting onwards.

"Wish I'd brought my scooter," Scootaloo grumbled. She looked around at the tunnel around her as she passed, taking in its (pretty gross) earthy scent. Despite being formed out of heavily-packed dirt and mud, the rounded ceiling and walls were fairly smooth and there were only a few blemishes here and there. In a few spots, water dripped down from small holes and collected in hoofprints on the ground, creating small stagnant puddles. Scootaloo was careful to avoid stepping in these, though they made her wonder if the sound of rushing water was a pipe that ran parallel to the tunnel.

Eventually, Scootaloo came upon a fork in the tunnel, wherein the left path took a definite slope downwards before curving right; the right path, however, sloped slightly upwards before curving left. She stopped for a moment, breathing deeply where she stood.

"Hmm..." Scootaloo hmm'd, looking back and forth between the two. "Eenie, meenie, miney... that one." She pointed right. And then, after a brief moment of thinking about it some more, she pointed left. "Heh... that's what I meant." Scootaloo trotted down the left path and turned right as the tunnel did.

This lower tunnel looked to be in almost a perfect straight line, and Scootaloo could see pretty far ahead before the tunnel faded off into darkness. It looked much as the one she had been trotting through above; what interested her most, though, was that there was nopony else in sight. Smiling, Scootaloo kept trotting through the tunnel.

Sorry

As Kevin and Flight kept walking down the sidewalks of Umberlight, the crowd grew thinner and thinner until there was actual space in between the ponies walking. The sidewalk below, as it came into view, was more weathered and more cracked, obviously less well-maintained even though there were much fewer hooves crossing its surface. The buildings around were also fewer and further between, with the skyscrapers behind them replaced by more of the shorter houses and stores. Now that there weren't any massive buildings or large crowds of ponies in the way, they could see the roads stretch off for quite a ways in both directions for block after block.

"You sure we're going the right way?" Kevin asked, turning to Flight.

"Yep!" the pegasus replied enthusiastically. "It shouldn't be too much further, actually—see, we've already entered the Inner Sector."

Kevin glanced around. "Are you sure this is, like, safe? It looks a little... sketch."

Flight raised an eyebrow. "'Sketch'?"

"You know, sketch. Not quite safe..."

"I know what sketchy means, Kevin," the filly replied, amused. "But 'sketch'?"

"Sheesh, it was something they said down in Esprit and I picked it up. No need to get on my case about it."

"Mmm, alright." They kept walking in silence as they passed a few ponies who gave them odd looks but went on their way all the same.

Stalling

"I think the ones with green wings are super cute," Kevin remarked.

"Pfft, you don't know what you're talking about," Cotton Fluff said. "The red-crested cardinal is soooo much cuter." She pointed upwards at a low-hanging branch, where one of the birds in mention was perched. Kevin looked up, and the bird looked back at him before letting out a squawk and taking off.

"I dunno, I don't think that one likes me very much," he said.

Flight sat on a bench a few metres away, her facial expression growing more hopeless and desperate by the minute. "Uh, guys?" she finally said. "I'm sure the birds are cute and exciting and whatever, but do you think we could maybe get a move on? There's still one more store after this one, and I was hoping we could get out of town before nightfall."

"Don't worry, we'll get going," Cotton Fluff reassured her. "I just didn't realise how much I loved the birds here, and Kevin seems to like them, too."

"Yeah, c'mon, Flight! This is the most fun I've had in years! I never thought that birds could be... so cute." Kevin grinned.

Flight groaned and turned away from her companions, looking down at the dirt path below the bench. Of course it was the most fun Kevin had had in years; Flight knew she was silly for thinking that seeing her again would even compare. Birds. She had wings, didn't she? How come Kevin didn't go around calling her cute?

"Flight, you okay?" The filly turned her head to see Kevin standing next to the bench, a look of concern across his face. "We're gonna go now—you ready?"

"I'm... I'm okay," Flight managed to say. She stood up from the bench. "Let's just keep moving so we can get out of there. The sooner we can get back to Dienna, the better."

"Heh, you said it," Kevin agreed. "It's been fun, but... I'm actually kind of excited to go home, for once." He looked ahead at Cotton Fluff, who was trotting slowly a few metres ahead.

"You know, my moms would probably let you stay with us, if you want," Flight said quickly, before she could even think about what she was saying. "Even if just for a little while," she added.

"You know, I might take you up on that offer," Kevin said. "I'd love to hang out with you more... it's been so long."

Trying to conceal her smile, Flight nodded and trotted up closer to Cotton Fluff, leaving Kevin to wonder if maybe he saw a little more of a spring in the pegasus filly's step.

White

After a few moments of deliberation, Kevin settled on attempting to magically levitate himself downward. This went better than expected; although he had levitated many a small object before, ponies were a bit larger than what he was used to. Yet even with his depleted magic reserves, he made it nearly all the way down before releasing the spell from exhaustion, leaving only half a metre to fall. He landed squarely on his hooves on the edge of the curve where the ledge behind him met the floor.

By the time Kevin made it down, Scootaloo was already standing up by herself, stretching her hooves. "What took ya so long?"

"What took ya so long getting up?" Kevin shot back. "And not all of us have wings, you know."

"Touché," Scootaloo said. Then, she blinked. "I used that right, right?"

Flight nodded, but she was already looking up at the curved walls that surrounded them. "Look at all of that," she said, gesturing around with a hoof. Scootaloo craned her neck forward to get a closer look, and Kevin even trotted right up next to the wall.

"These look like they've been here a long time—the engravings are smooth," Kevin said as he reached up a hoof and felt the contours of the letters. "Also, I can't read it. It's in that other script. Scootaloo?"

The orange filly limped forward and squinted. "I dunno, dude. I can read most of the letters, but none of these are even words. Unless you know a word spelled 'K-I-D-L-I-D-A-T'?"

Both Kevin and Flight shook their heads. "Kidlidat? Doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard," Flight said.

"Do you think it could be... um, whatever the lemurs call their language?" Kevin asked.

"Oh, maybe," Flight said. "I know they used to use that language a lot more here, so it very well could be if these are really as old as they look."

"'...libuuluks volulo...'" Scootaloo read.

"Yeah, there we go; I think 'libuuluk' is the word for 'lemur'," Flight explained.

"Do you think it's important?" Kevin asked.

"Doesn't do us much good if it is," Scootaloo said.

"What if there's—ah, bingo," Flight said, her eyes settling on a patch to their left to which she trotted. Through the soft green light, she was able to make out a series of rectangular and circular shapes engraved amongst the text. "There's some sort of diagram here, though I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking at."

Scootaloo leaned in and squinted. "Huh," she murmured.

"What?" Flight asked.

"Well, see those circles there?" Scootaloo pointed to the diagonal line of circles engraved into the wall. "Those look exactly like these circles on this map of the solar system that I have, and—"

"Scootaloo?" called a voice from behind them. Instantly, all three of them froze and could do nothing but listen as the hoofsteps approached behind them.

Lucent

Even Later groaned. "Ugh, fine. Whatever. I'll admit it; this was stupid."

"Later..." Scootaloo started, turning to where she thought the mare stood; she couldn't quite tell because it was so dark.

"I know, I know—it was completely rash to just dive in here with no plan, and now we're super lost. At least the spiders were small and not very crawly."

Scootaloo winced at the thought of the skittering legs which just a few minutes before had been dancing at the edges of her hooves. "Later, it doesn't—"

She was interrupted by a loud plop, what she assumed was the mare letting her legs give way and flopping down to the ground in exasperation. "I'm really sorry."

"Later, seriously, it's fine!" Scootaloo said forcefully, raising her voice a tad. "We'll find our way even if it takes us a little longer than we thought it would." She paused to look around in the dark. "Why don't you just use your horn to light the place up, anyway? It might not help that much, but at least we could see where we're going then."

For a moment, Even Later didn't reply. Then, there was a flash of a spark before the green light emanated out from the mare's horn. Now that the room was at least partially-illuminated, Scootaloo was able to make out where Later was, as she had suspected, sprawled out atop the dusty dirt floor of the crawlspace. And, even though the light wasn't as bright as it could've been, Scootaloo was able to see how the space stretched out, where the inner walls and pipes bent off in different directions.

"Jeez, I really should've thought of that when we first got in here... would've saved us a lot of time," Later murmured as she stood back up, brushing the dust off her coat with a hoof.

"Meh, it's not like I thought of it before now either," came Scootaloo's reply. However, the filly had already stepped away, following a line of pipe.

"Wh-where are you going?" Later managed.

Scootaloo stopped in her tracks and looked over her shoulder. "I dunno. This pipe is kinda shiny," she said, tapping the copper pipe with a hoof. It made a hollow, reverberating sound. "So it's probably new. That doesn't really tell us anything, but I figure we might as well start following stuff."

"Erm... okay," Later replied. With little other choice, she stumbled forward, her horn grazing the ceiling. Swearing under her breath, the mare crouched down a little more to avoid any more close shaves.

Blech

"...and that's how I got my cutie mark," Mochi finished, pointing at the tri-colour symbol that adorned her flank. "Pretty proud of it, too, even if I wasn't able to do much with it."

"That's really a shame," Later replied, frowning.

"Wh-what's going on?" a male voice asked somewhere from behind the three in front. At first, they thought it was Kevin; Even Later and Cotton Fluff looked over their shoulders, but the three younger ponies were still deep in conversation, not paying attention whatsoever to what was in front of them.

"Up here," the voice croaked, and Later and Cotton turned to see the slowly moving form of Clove Hitch still perched on Mochi's back. "Could I... get down?"

"Oh, of course," Mochi said, stopping. "Hey, kids, we're stopping to let Clove down," she added, making sure that they wouldn't just run into her with how much they were paying attention. She waited a moment as the stallion slid off, and then stretched out her hooves, relishing in the weight that had literally been lifted from her.

"What's up?" Clove Hitch said weakly, a clouded expression on his face. He looked around, turning his neck slowly. "H-how'd you get us out?"

"I teleported us, somehow," Later replied, looking him over. "Lost a damn ear, but what can you do?"

Clove blinked. "Darn, that's a shame. You always had... nice ears."

Later raised an eyebrow. "Alright then. Anypony else got anything to say, or should we just keep moving? If we keep going, it should only be like ten minutes until we get to the base."

"Let's keep going," Scootaloo piped up. "I need sleep. As soon as possible."

Shrugging, Later started trotting again, followed closely by the rest of the adults and then the younger ponies, who, for some reason, were a lot quieter.

Yawn

"...and that was when Michael burst through the door, ripped the guy off of me, and beat him basically to a pulp, before we grabbed the stuff and ran before the vigs could come investigate." Kaylee paused. "I really wouldn't be here today if it weren't for him..."

"I'm really glad he was there, then," Flight said, before stepping ahead. "I'm gonna ask Cotton something, though I'll be right back."

Kaylee and Scootaloo shared a confused look as they kept ambling in the back.

"So, uh... what happened to him?" Scootaloo asked.

"Funny you mention that—I actually offered for him to come with me, to stow away on that ship, but he didn't want to. Seemed to think it was too dangerous, and that we'd get caught. Not that he wasn't wrong..."

"Well, he didn't know you'd have me there to get you out!" Scootaloo replied, grinning. "Heck, I'm not sure what I'd've done if I hadn't found you—this whole planet has been one Bureau mess to the next and it would be a lot harder without these friends of yours."

"Heh, yeah. Some friends which I didn't even know I had," Kaylee replied. She looked up at Flight who was walking a couple metres in front of them, asking Cotton Fluff about some kind of hovercraft. "And yet, it's been really good to see the friends I knew before again."

"Oh, well, that one I know you're excited to see," Scootaloo said, a roguish grin on her face. "Did you know before you left, or is this new?"

Kaylee could feel a warmth creeping up on her cheeks, but she tried to ignore it. "I... I don't know what you're talking about. Flight's been a really good friend of mine ever since we were fillies."

Scootaloo blinked, but quickly shook her head. "Kid, you're not that dumb and you know I'm not either."

"Aren't I older than you?" Kaylee replied, raising an eyebrow.

Scootaloo sighed. "Meh, it's not worth the trouble. You know what I'm talking about, so when you're ready to be out with it, just be out with it. It's not like she's going to mind."

Kaylee rolled her eyes, but inside she shivered. As she watched Scootaloo continued to trot alongside her in her peripheral vision, she thought of something else, something about which the pegasus could not know, and yet something for which her words still rang very true. And, unlike the trivial matter Scootaloo was so focused on, Kaylee didn't know how Flight—let alone Scootaloo or any of the others—would feel. Her feelings for Flight could wait, and probably go away; this, however, could not.

As Scootaloo didn't say anything more and Kaylee couldn't think of anything else to say, she turned her head to her left and looked out among the trees and the quickly-darkening sky. A cool breeze rippled through the air, gently shaking the branches of trees and pushing at the furs on Kaylee's coat. It felt nice.

Reasons

"I was raised on the Revan planet, though I was actually born on the small moon that revolves it. My parents were part of our rebel cause, though, so they both had to go right back into battle not long after I was born, and I was raised mostly through the nursery at the central rebel stronghold." Clove paused to clear his throat, and by the time he did so, Mochi had waded over to the very edge of the pond, kneeling down in the mud so she could listen to his quietly-whispered tale.

"Where's that?" Cotton Fluff asked.

"I'm... not sure I can say, actually," Clove replied cautiously. "The whereabouts of the base... well, let's just say that it moves around a lot, and it's kind of a secret. Need-to-know basis and all that."

"Fair enough," Cotton said with a nod. "Go on."

"As I was saying, I grew up mostly in the nursery with my parents generally on missions or out fighting on the Revan planet, in the thick of the borderlands. Because I didn't see my parents... it wasn't for years and years that I found out that my mom had died just a year or so after I was born. It was my dad that told me this, though not until I was eight—that was when he first visited me, since he had been on a spying mission on the Gnostic planet until then, even though my mother—his partner—had been taken out so long before."

"Oh, I'm so sorry..." Mochi said, leaning in.

"Well, that's just the thing," Clove replied. "My dad I didn't know at all, because I was raised by the staff at the nursery and with the other children there, so while in concept he was pretty cool, I didn't know him. My mom I was even less attached to, because I've never been able to remember her."

Drops

"That's... strangely sad," Cotton Fluff mused, gazing out blankly into the darkness. "I mean, for me, as someone who grew up knowing her parents." She turned to look at Clove. "For you, I'm sure it's less of a big deal."

"Yeah, I really only care about it when I'm talking with other ponies," Clove agreed. "I don't really think about what I've missed until I hear about what other ponies had." He shrugged. "Still, it doesn't really bother me much. My life has been fine the way I've lived it, parents or not. Plus, my dad does pop in from time to time and, while I don't know him well, it's nice to know I've got someone with an... innate connection."

"Makes you feel a little less alone in the world?" Cotton asked with a brief laugh.

"Uh, something like that. I dunno." Clove took a deep breath and looked back down at the papers at his hooves. "I'm just gonna... look at this for a moment, alright?"

"Fine with me," Cotton said, watching as the stallion began to pore over the documents in the low light, though she could tell her own hornlight was close enough so that he could read. She was even able to make out a few of the words and diagrams, though she didn't have much interest in looking at the palace's diagrams; she was content taking a backseat, just doing what she was told. Just staying out of the way as much as possible...

"Hmm... I've gotta get out of here before my coat starts to wrinkle," Mochi mumbled to herself as she splashed forward, coming up on the muddy bank next to where Cotton lay on the grass.

"I suppose that could be an issue," the brown mare stated, turning to watch as Mochi shook herself dry. Luckily, she wasn't close enough to get more than a few drops on Cotton's coat.

Whereabouts

When the ground started rumbling and the faint hornlight of Cotton Fluff went out, Scootaloo found herself alone in the dark, floating on the water. As the waves grew larger and greater in depth, she could hear Flight shout out somewhere a few metres away. The water sloshed around her as Scootaloo tried to pivot her wings to ride along the surface of the water, attempting to push in her direction; however, for some reason she could not see, Flight's yelps grew further and further away as Scootaloo was swept away by the current, towards somewhere unseen but definitely not in the direction of anypony she knew. Trying not to panic, she reached her hooves down through the water to grab ahold of anything she could; yet even though the edges of her hooves scraped against a few rocks below, there was nothing on which she could hold herself steady so she continued to be pulled along, taken wherever the water went.

Scootaloo held her breath and closed her eyes tightly as her head submerged, dirty water getting all in her coat. Once she felt herself emerge, she reached her head up towards the open sky and gasped for air, trying yet failing to stop the dirty water from entering her mouth. As she slid up onto what felt like dry-ish land, she sputtered, spitting up as much as the grainy water as she could. Then, wiping at her eyes with a hoof, she opened them.

Scootaloo wasn't quite sure where she was, though it was definitely still on the edge of the pond; her legs, bent, were partially stuck in the muddy shore, the water lapping at her hind legs though not violently as it had before. There was light—faint light, but definitely light, even though she couldn't tell where it was coming from. Before her lay the trunks of a trees and a few bushes, the same type of darkened forest she had been trudging through.

Groaning, Scootaloo tried to stand. Her knees were a little wobbly, but she was able to pull herself up without too much effort. Somewhere on one of her legs, she could feel a bruise ache but, for the time being, she ignored it. Instead, she looked up.

"Hey," a voice said. It was familiar, but she couldn't immediately see where it was coming from. Then, she looked down and spotted it—a medium-sized black bat that stood in front of her on the ground, a silver reflective star on its face. Despite its leathery skin, the bat gave off a silverly luminescence, almost seeming to glow just straight from its being.

"H-hey," Scootaloo said weakly. "Long time no see, huh."

"Mmm, yes. Apologies," the bat said with a nod. "I had to duck out at the last moment. But I'm here now. Please, come with me." The creature turned and began to waddle away.

Frowning, Scootaloo lifted weary hoof after weary hoof to make tracks in the mud after the creature as it ducked into a bush.

Known

In the centre of the palace...

The dark, stony room with the three thrones was quiet. The lanky, bronze-coated stallion sat atop the one in the middle, ruminating. Everything was still.

Except...

The stallion coughed. "I know you're there, Haze, so you might as well come out where I can see you. I realise you must be feeling quite ashamed, but really, staying there any longer isn't going to help anything."

The room fell silent again. Craning his neck to the side, the stallion tried to glance around the corner of the room's only entrance, out into the torch-lit hallway. And, upon seeing how empty it was, he facehoofed.

"I could have sworn..." he murmured to himself, adjusting his legs beneath him. "Ah, well. She'll be in soon."

Just then, a beige unicorn rounded the corner, skidding to a halt in the centre of the chamber, attempting to bow once she reached the stallion's throne yet nearly falling on her face. "Y-your majesty!" she stammered. "Please... forgive me! We..."

"...Let the Ecuestran and her rebel friends escape?" the stallion said, an eyebrow raised. "Haze, it would be nigh on impossible for me to not already know that. I'm sure you did everything in your power to stop them. It is quite alright."

"B-but... wait... what?" The beige mare rose, looking up at the alicorn that sat before her. "You really don't care?"

The alicorn sighed. "I would perhaps care more if they were gone—if they had flown off to their damnable base and we couldn't get them. However..."

Haze blinked. "You mean... they're still here? Why in Argent's name...?"

The alicorn snorted. "It does amuse me so that ponies use our names like that. We are not gods, my little pony." He paused. "Regardless... yes. And, if my senses are correct, they're heading right towards the palace."

Haze looked taken aback. "But... why? This has got to be the most dangerous place for them right now. Don't they know that? I know the rebels are... misled, but they're not stupid. They have to know that."

The alicorn nodded. "They do. And I'm not quite sure what they want here, but I have a few good guesses. Regardless... I will be needing your assistance."

"Yes?" Haze asked. "What do you need?"

"Round up the guard," Prince Aeneus instructed. "I need you to make them think they can get inside. Then, right when we have them cornered, we strike. We should be able to capture all of them if we play our cards right."

Haze nodded. "It shall be done. Anything else?"

"No, you may go. Thank you, Haze."

With a nod and another bow, Haze trotted away down the hallway. Aeneus sighed, and closed his eyes.

Trying

“Flight? Are you out here?” Cotton Fluff called out. As she trotted between the trees, she was trying to make not too much noise—she didn’t want to alert their presence to the Bureau guards around the entrance to the CDK, of course—but it was getting difficult when the filly was nowhere to be seen or heard. “Please, Flight... I don’t want to be out here as much as you don’t, but we need to just... talk about stuff.”

Once she stepped over another felled trunk, the brown-coated mare sighed and paused for a moment, leaning against the tree to gather her bearings. It had only been a few minutes since Flight had run off, sure, but the filly could really be anywhere; there was a whole forest around them, and one mare couldn’t comb the whole thing. Furthermore, Cotton wasn’t quite sure why the others had sent her off to go find the filly, but they had insisted. She sighed once more, closing her eyes.

“C-Cotton?” she heard a voice stammer not a moment later. Opening her eyes, Cotton could see the small yellow form of Flight, perched beneath another felled log. The filly stepped forward, gazing at Cotton the whole way, and the mare could see her eyelids were red and swollen. “Did they send you to get me?” Flight asked, her voice quivering as she spoke.

Cotton nodded, biting her lip. “Something like that. You can’t just run off like that, Flight...”

The filly nodded. “I know. I just... I just didn’t know what else to do.”

Cotton sighed, and patted the ground next to her. Flight looked confused for a moment before she stepped forward through the dirt and sat down next to the mare, leaning against the trunk.

“What’s eating you?” Cotton asked. “Why did you run away?”

Flight bit her lip. “I just... I don’t understand. What did Kevin mean by what he said?” She paused. “He’s always been a colt—I’ve known him since we were really young, and he’s always been a colt.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I don’t understand why he would say that... if it’s not true,” Flight finished, looking down. “And everybody was acting like they knew what he meant, and... I don’t know. Everything feels wrong.”

Cotton nodded. “Heh, I get what you mean there. But there’s a little filly back there who’s been having everything feel wrong for a lot longer than you have.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Flight asked, looking up at Cotton. There was genuine confusion in her eyes.

Cotton frowned. “Kid, we’ve got a lot to discuss.”

Imperfect

"So, at first, we couldn't find anywhere on the plans that wouldn't be guarded," Later said, nodding down towards the papers on the stump. She looked up at the ponies around her, eyes shifting from one to the next. "But then, Clove had an idea involving the observatory, here," she finished, pointing on the paper labelled "OѦፁ ᐯò⫙ᐱ" to a small circle not far from what appeared to be the palace's entrance.

"My thought that if there's a telescope there, there's got to be some sort of small access chute right by the lens, so ponies can get in and do maintenance," Clove continued where Later left off. He pushed aside the paper, revealing a closer image of the top above the palace which, thankfully, included the large telescope of the observatory on the edge. Beside the round lens, there was a small rectangle. "And here it is, just as I thought. That's how we're going to get you kids in—they shouldn't have it guarded, because it's just a maintenance shaft only accessible from the inside."

Scootaloo leaned forward, staring at the rectangle and the small drawing of stairs inside that led downward. "So, uh, how are we going to get in, then?"

Clove blinked. "Beg pardon?"

Scootaloo pointed at the rectangle. "You said this is only accessible from the inside, so how are we going to get in?"

Later facehoofed. "Clove... how did you leave that out?" She sighed. "Cotton Fluff and I are gonna go in through the main entrance, and I don't think we're going to be all that conspicuous. Cotton has a good reputation, so they won't pay as close attention to me. And Clove's out, because they already captured him once before."

"Yeah, I'm going to work instead on making sure we have a clear exit once you ponies get out," Clove remarked.

"And then I think Mochi can get in with the kids, depending on the size of the maintenance shaft," Later continued. "I don't know how big the door to outside it, but we should be fine."

"Alright," Mochi said, nodding. "I can do that."

"And I'm fine with going with you," Cotton Fluff remarked. "Not that anyone asked." She rolled her eyes.

"Splendid," Clove said, grinning. "Then, once you're all in, you can make your way into the palace, which is conveniently just across the street from the observatory." He flipped the page, pointing to the two buildings and the street that separated them. "This is a pretty darn busy street—it's always filled with ponies, so you should have no trouble blending in and getting into the palace. And Later and I have already spent quite a while studying the palace plans, so she should have those memorised. Just follow her, and you should be able to get to the vault."

Check

Clove finished saying a few more words to the rest of the group as he finished packing up; however, once he moved on from the plan, Scootaloo pulled Kaylee aside from the group, a few metres away. She noticed Flight was following them with her eyes, but tried to ignore her; she knew the filly couldn't hear them.

"Hey, are you going to be alright with... her?" Scootaloo asked in a hushed tone, giving Kaylee a concerned look. "Like, with what she's saying? It's not right..."

Kaylee looked over at Flight, who was still eyeing the both of them curiously. "Well, I don't like it, if that's what you're asking. But... Later and Clove had a point. This wasn't exactly the best time for me to tell anypony, and I should be thanking my lucky stars that you've been as nice as you have. Yeah, I don't like it... but can I really do anything about it right now?"

"Why can't we?" Scootaloo asked. "If it makes you uncomfortable, we should be able to stop her."

Kaylee bit her lip. "Yeah, but... it might take her some time. I don't know. I just want to hold everything together until we get out of this mess."

Scootaloo nodded, shifting her hooves. "Well, if you can deal with it for a little longer, then I guess it's fine. It just... makes me mad."

"Did you... did you know ponies like me?" Kaylee asked. "Back on your planet?"

"Not personally," Scootaloo answered, "but I'd heard of them. And I'll admit I don't really understand it myself, but... it doesn't hurt me at all to call you what you'd like, so that's what I'm going to do."

Kaylee smiled. "Thanks, Scoots." She turned and looked back at the group, who were already packed up and standing together, save for Clove Hitch who was off to the side, glancing outward towards the thick of the forest, away from the top of the CDK. "Hmm... let's go."

Scootaloo nodded and followed Kaylee back over to the group.

Shortstop

Ponies filled the space behind them as Cotton Fluff, Even Later, and the white-coated stallion walking alongside them shuffled forward. Cotton, if she were to speak on it, would have said something about how she felt uncomfortable in such close quarters; because of the way the crowd moved, she had to be pressed up right against the neighbouring ponies, her coat almost sticking to them. No wonder everypony there seemed to be wearing a thick layer of clothing despite the warmth and humidity; nopony else wanted to touch anypony either.

"It used to be a lot easier to get in, mind you," the stallion went on, hardly even pausing to catch his breath. "But then they closed most of the other passages into the city, so there's really only this one and one to the north."

"How come they did that?" Later asked, though she sounded uninterested.

"Afraid of an attack from the rebels, likely," the stallion replied. "They don't think it'll actually happen, but... meh. Better safe than sorry, I guess. I'd rather have to wait an extra half-hour to get in than be bombed to shit, y'know?"

"...Yeah," Later said, biting her lip. "That... would definitely be better."

Street

"Have a good day, Dessic," Stout said as he stood in the doorway, leaning against its frame. "Maybe you and I can go out to the pub sometime this week, in the evening? Seriously, man, we need to catch up."

"Yeah, totally," Dessic replied with a nod. "I'll just need to find out when the wife says it's okay. We're having her extended family over for dinner later this week, so I need to make sure we hang out on a different day. But yeah, we've gotta."

Later and Cotton just kind of stood there on the side of the street uncomfortably, shooting glances at each other as they waited for the stallions to finish their conversation. Technically they didn't need to wait—surely, wherever Dessic was going was nowhere near the observatory—but they both seemed to agree, silently, that it would be much more conspicuous if they shuffled out now rather than waiting until they were free of the guard.

"Alright, bye," Dessic finally said, watching his friend trot off back up to the balcony and then into the tunnel. He turned back to Later and Cotton. "Ach, I'm sorry to keep you gals waiting." He looked up at a large clock on the side of one of the buildings. "But hey! That took us nearly half an hour shorter than it usually takes me to get into town! Killer."

Humming to himself, the stallion began trotting to the right onto a downward-sloping street that had a few ponies here and there. A moment later, he looked over his shoulder. "You gals coming? I can show you to wherever you're going, if you like; I've got plenty of time."

"Erm... sure," Later replied with a shrug. "Might as well take your help if you're offering it." She made to trot towards him, and Dessic turned and kept walking.

"Can we really trust him?" Cotton whispered to Later. "He could be working with the guards..."

"Do the guards even know anything?" Later replied, raising an eyebrow. "You saw Stout as well as I did. Did he seem like he knew anything?"

Cotton said nothing, and merely kept trotting with Later until they were right behind the white stallion leading them along.

Avenue

"Are you're sure it's not too much trouble?" Later asked as she trotted alongside Dessic through the crowd. Although the streets had initially been sparse, only having a few ponies here and there, she soon discovered that this was only because they were off in a far corner of the city; once they had trotted more than a few minutes towards the centre, Later and Cotton were pulled closer to Dessic, simply out of a desire to not get lost.

"Yeah, since you're just going to the Observatory, right?" Dessic looked to face her, still pushing through the ponies ahead as they continued on their downward trek. "That's not a few blocks from the bank where I work, so it shouldn't be any trouble at all. As I said, I'm already pretty darn early. It'd just be annoying waiting around, really."

"Well, alright," Later replied, though had Dessic been paying attention he would have noticed the worry in her eyes. She didn't want to be with him any longer than she had to; however, the maze of roads was too much for her to navigate. The maps of the CDK had only contained a few of the layers, and she already didn't quite know where they were. Although it was risky, Dessic had funnily enough become their only hope for getting there.

"So, what are you even going to the See-Oh for anyway?" Dessic asked.

"The See-Oh?" Cotton asked, confused.

"I forget what the C stands for, but it's the name for the observatory that ponies use around here," Dessic explained. "Though I guess they probably just call it the CDK Observatory other places, right?"

"Erm... yeah," Cotton Fluff replied, nodding slowly. "That is definitely what it's called in other places."

"We're just trying to get a gist of the size, and shape, and stuff," Later said, using an explanation she'd come up with minutes before. "We're considering talking the science department down south into building a small observatory down there, though obviously it would never compare with the one here."

"Huh, fair enough," Dessic replied. "I've gotta admit... all that science stuff is super interesting, even if it's way beyond me. The numbers are fine; it's the concepts I don't quite grasp."

Shrouded

"How can you see anything?"

"I dunno, I've been out here for a while. Your eyes just kinda get used to it."

"Ugh, that'd explain it. They left all the lights on on the train, for some reason. I thought all the night trains were supposed to leave the lights off?"

"That's only in the cabin marked for sleeping, I think." There was a metallic clunk between them. "You have to make sure you tell them that at the station, or else they'll put you in the normal one by default."

"Huh, that's dumb." There was another shifting, a scraping of hooves on the pavement. "Are you sure I can't turn on my hornlight?"

"Yeah, I don't think that would be a good idea. Twilight always seems to be there whenever I leave the light on a dozen rooms away, so yeah, she'd be here in an instant."

"But... how are you going to find the stuff?" There was an urgent quality to her voice. "Like, how do you know she even has any of it still? Wouldn't she have used it?"

"Nah," the lower voice replied, continuing to quietly drag the metal along the floor. "One thing about Twilight—she friggin' buys everything in bulk."

"...Everything? Seriously?"

"When it comes to her science experiments, yeah. We've had enough blowing shit up that she buys at least five of everything. And though she burned through a ton of that stuff with the first one, I know there's a lot left. And we shouldn't use her original blueprint, because... well, I think we could make it better."

"...Better? I mean, I might be studying engineering but I'm not that good..."

"Meh, I'm sure we can do it," the voice replied. There was another metallic clang as he shifted a few parts above, pulling one off an upper shelf. "We just need to get this stuff across town. Is your contact a go?"

"Oh, yeah, he said we could use his garage. Though I had to... ugh."

"Oh, jeez. Hopefully not anything...?"

"Not anything I'm going to keep."

"...Lemme know if you need me to help you get out of anything, okay?"

"Will do. But seriously, just tell me what to grab and I'll carry it."

He sighed. "Alright... here."

Edifice

"And here we are!" Dessic exclaimed as the three ponies rounded the corner. He said it with such aplomb and bravado that Later and Cotton were expecting some sort of hulking behemoth in the middle of the block; yet because there were so many ponies and other creatures filling the street ahead of them, they could barely see in front of them. It didn't help that Later was shorter than your average pony, so she really couldn't see over anypony's heads.

"Is there actually anything there, or is this another false alarm?" Later hissed towards Cotton.

In response, the brown mare stretched her neck up so she could at least see over most of the heads. She caught sight of a tall, circular building ahead of them with what appeared to be metallic discs protruding from the centre, straddling its height. Then, she had to lower her head once more. "There's some sort of large building there, alright." Cotton shrugged. "But who's to say if it's actually the observatory... we've already passed a whole lot of large buildings."

"And that, right there, is the observatory!" Dessic declared, hoof outstretched in the direction Cotton had looked. The brown mare sighed, while Later smiled wryly. "Just gotta... get through these ponies..."

"Ugh, I'm really not big on crowds," Later complained, looking around at the ponies surrounding them. One or two looked a little offended. "I swear, if I can avoid it, I'm going to steer way clear of 'em."

"Meh, they're alright," Cotton replied. "Though the ones in Umberlight are usually... much smaller."

"I thought you were from Ferretfall?" Dessic looked at her, confused.

"Oh, erm... I used to live in Umberlight for a time," Cotton said, trying to shrug it off. "The crowds weren't bad, but... eugh, the underground air is so stale."

"Mmm, yeah, I feel ya."

Lobby

"I don't know whether to be impressed or disappointed by this, to be honest," Cotton murmured as she pushed through the glass doors. Even Later would have echoed the sentiment, had the words not stuck in her throat; the room around them was, to put it simply, odd. On the surface, it appeared grandiose; the metal walls, sheer and reflective as they were, scaled upward dozens of metres, eventually giving way to balconies and doors and such. However, the entire interior of the building was... simple. There was little in the way of decoration, though not in a minimalist way—in a way that made it seem unfinished. Even the light fixtures, which dangled on thin cords from somewhere high above, looked so precarious that they could fall at any moment.

In addition, there were only a few ponies in that main lobby, mostly lingering by the archways to the left and the right. Two stood near the hoof of the stairs, while only one stood in front of the reference desk in front of the stairs, chatting with the glasses-clad pony standing behind it who looked very irritated indeed.

"Oh, hey!" the pony in front of the desk called and as he turned, they saw it was Dessic.

The pony across from him at the desk just sighed. "Please, sir, if you could be quiet... this is a museum, you know. A place of learning."

"Right, right. I'll try to keep that in mind," Dessic replied, not changing the volume of his voice at all whatsoever. "So, ladies, you ready to start looking around? I tried to get us a guided tour, but it looks like I'll have to do." He grinned.

Later just groaned. "Who does this guy think he is?" she asked audibly, turning to Cotton. "Seriously, can we screw off already?"

Cotton just shrugged. Dessic didn't even looked like he'd heard.

"...Ugh, fine, whatever. But seriously, we need to move towards that maintenance passage at some point."

Whatever

A few minutes later, the restroom door squeaked open and Even Later slid out from the room inside, her hoofsteps barely audible in the dimly lit hallway. She glanced ahead of her and then behind her, making sure there were no ponies in the immediate vicinity. Truly, she hardly had to worry—even in the larger, more accessible portions of the observatory, there had hardly been any ponies wandering about—but one can never be too certain of these things when about to embark upon a bout of sneaking.

And sneaking is indeed what Later did; she kept close to the wall as she continued rightwards—rather than left as Dessic had instructed—and past the hallway with the restroom until she came upon more stairs, stairs that spiralled upward as they hugged the wall. The mare trotted up step by step, trying to stop her hoofsteps from clattering with each one. She didn't think Dessic would hear her, or notice anything out of the ordinary, but... it wouldn't hurt to be careful.

"They should've been here by now," Flight grumbled. Her joints ached from crouching down by the dome's surface. "Argent... I'd give just about anything to be able to stand up right now."

"They'll get here when they get here," Mochi replied, though she didn't quite sound certain. "I'm sure we'll find out if something's keepin' 'em."

"...How?" Scootaloo asked. "We don't have any way of contacting them. We're... kind of sitting ducks."

"It'll be fine," Mochi assured her, shooting her a concerned glance. "Plus I don't think this guard is waking up anytime soon."

Indeed, the guard to which she pointed who was still sitting a few metres away still had his eyes closed, and his chest moved rhythmically with his slow, even breaths.

Found

"Hey, Later?" Scootaloo asked as she trotted alongside the green mare, making her way down the steps.

"Yeah?" Later turned to look at the filly. "What?"

"Can we talk yet?"

Later rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't be replying to you if we couldn't. I'm pretty sure that the panels are thick enough to block our voices out, as long as we're quiet. What's up?"

"Oh, nothing," Scootaloo replied with a shrug. She looked back at Kaylee, Mochi, and Flight who were trotting behind them, glancing off in different directions at the walls and stairs of the room. "Did you make it up here okay?" A moment later, the filly looked briefly concerned. "Where's Cotton?"

"She had to go and distract... erm..." Later paused. "When we were coming in here, we ran into a stallion named Dessic. He helped us get in and get down here, but... I'm not sure if he's working for the Bureau undercover and trying to catch us, or just totally clueless. Though I guess with the Bureau ponies, he could be both."

"Heh, you said it," Scootaloo replied. "That guard up there... anypony worth anything would have caught us on the dome, but that dude just fell asleep. These Bureau ponies just don't know what they're doing, at all."

"Yeah, which is weird," Later replied, nodding, "because I remember hearing horror stories of ponies being way outnumbered and outmatched by them."

"Maybe something's changed?" Scootaloo offered.

"I... guess? I don't know what would have, though," Later said. She stepped down onto the final landing, and Scootaloo shifted to the side to allow Later to access the door. The green mare reached out and wiggled the handle down, pulling the door open with a squeak. She made like she was going to step out into the brighter area outside, but then...

"Hello, Later!" a male voice said. Scootaloo peered her head past the door to see a white-coated stallion, grinning fiercely. Behind him stood Cotton Fluff, shuffling her hooves together as she looked from side to side. "I see you've found the maintenance tunnel," the stallion said, "and some other ponies, too." He beckoned up past their heads to where Mochi, Kaylee, and Flight stood at the foot of the stairs, dumbfounded.

"Erm... yeah," Later replied, biting her lip. "Yeah..."

"Silly, silly ponies," Dessic said, still smiling. "Always think you can get away with this sort of thing, and yet... you never see the obvious coming. What a shame." He paused. "For you, I mean. For me, this is great. I'll be needing you all to come with me, okay? There's no point in trying to resist; we've got guards stationed all around the building's exits."

Later frowned, but said nothing. After a moment of consideration, she stepped out into the hall where Dessic had made way for her. Another moment passed, and then Later beckoned for the rest to follow.

Palace

The Kindred Palace, in contrast with the sleek modern skyscrapers that loomed over it, was actually a very traditional design hewn from white stone. A wide staircase stretched up the centre to pillars on either side of an entrance, while the building stretched out in two main wings on each side, forming a shallow double V, with a closed-off outdoor garden on either side. In addition, small tubular protrusions jutted upwards from the tips of each wing, extending as far as the eye could see and presumably to the very top of the cavern. Although the buildings around the palace dwarfed it in size, the stone behemoth still carried an air of sophistication, a sense that something was different about it. And of course there was something different about it; it was the Kindred Palace!

Off to the left side, coming off the front wing, there lay a balcony overlooking the stony entrance to the palace. On this balcony stood a lone stallion, the copper-coated alicorn who resided within. He looked downward at the stairs, expression wrought with concern. What he gazed at was the small procession trotting slowly up the stairs, hugging the right side as they went along so as to not disrupt the many ponies trotting to and from the palace entrance. Presumably, the stallion wondered something about why they hadn't taken a back entrance, or why they were doing this in broad daylight, where everypony could see and ask questions. But perhaps it was for the best; there had been little good news to report about the Rebels as of late, and this would surely boost morale.

Once Prince Aeneus saw the group had reached the open stone area at the top of the stairs, he gave a small nod, to nopony in particular. With a final glance to make sure nopony else was watching, he closed his eyes and his horn lit up with a glimmery bronze colour. Within a moment, he had transformed into a fuzzy brown squirrel, complete with a bronze-coloured metallic star on its forehead. With just a twitch of its nose, the squirrel skittered right off the balcony, past the railing, and along the side of the building, towards where the group stood.

Medium

"Don't worry," Haze said, adjusting the paper although she didn't look at it. "You'll have plenty of time to formulate your thoughts. Right now, I want to talk to perhaps the most important pony here, one without whom this entire mission would have been a failure."

Anna looked to Dessic, who wore a wide grin on his face, prepared to hear whatever compliment he was about to receive.

"I speak, of course, of Ms. Cotton Fluff here," Haze continued, gesturing towards the brown mare in the centre of the group, although she did shoot Dessic a glance with a raised eyebrow. "Without her brave work going undercover with these ponies and reporting back to us... well, we may have been able to catch them within the castle, but not without complete pandemonium."

Dessic, quickly recovering, patted Cotton on the back with a hoof. "Ya did good, kid. Real nice work there."

"I'm older than you," Cotton grumbled.

"But wait," Later interrupted, finally having lifted her face from the table, "what do you mean about Cotton?" The green mare looked to Cotton, who wore a nervous expression. "How was she contacting you? She was... what?"

"Erm... comlink," Cotton replied meekly, pointing at the device on her wrist. Later just groaned even more.

"You double-crossing son of a... urgh." She dragged her hooves on her cheeks. "Why in the hay did we even trust you, anyway?" Later rapidly turned to look at Scootaloo, and then to Kaylee and Flight. "Which one of you dumb kids decided she would be great to have along?"

"We couldn't just let her go, remember?" Scootaloo retorted. "She already knew too much as we were running away. She even slapped that Gloss dude, remember?"

"Where is Gloss, anyway?" Anna asked, cocking her head as she glanced toward Haze. "Shouldn't he be here already?"

"He's taking care of some... business downstairs," Haze replied in a calm tone, though her face betrayed some concern. "He should be with us in a moment; do not worry. He is not essential to this part of the proceedings."

"And the prince?" Dessic asked.

"He will along soon enough as well," Haze replied, starting to look irritated. "Please, let us not tarry. We have a lot to get to, and not a lot of time. Recent developments with the Rebels have made sure of that."

A few faces around the table looked almost like they wanted to ask to what she was referring, but they all held their tongues. As the room fell into silence, Haze took a moment to actually look down at her papers and scribble something down with a pen in her magical grip.

"Alright," Haze said, looking up. "Scootaloo, are you ready to talk?"

Scootaloo gulped. "Um..."

Shove

"Where are we going?!" Scootaloo shouted as she barrelled down the hallway, running past door after door and following its trajectory as the walls curved rightward. "Seriously, help me!"

"I thought you knew!" Kaylee called from behind her.

"Seriously? You're asking for our help?" Flight admonished, panting.

"No, shh, shut up!" Scootaloo replied. She said no more, hoping Grey would respond.

"Just keep going—you're doing fine," came Grey's timely response, still quietly by her ear. "You need to reach the end of the hallway and then you're going to come across some stairs on either side. Go down the one to the right."

"Stairs. To the right. Got it!" Scootaloo replied.

"What?" Kaylee asked, confused.

"Are you talking to somepony?" Flight asked. "What's going on?"

"No time to explain!" Scootaloo replied loudly, turning her head to look back at them. "Once we're somewhere safe, I'll—whoa!" As she looked backwards and past her companions, she could see Butternut and Dessic skid out of the room down the hall and begin to speed after them. "Don't look now, but... meh, that's a boring line. You should totally look—the guards are after us. Speed up!"

Both Kaylee and Flight turned their heads and let out loud, startled yels as they saw the older ponies quickly catching up with them. "Not good, not good!" Flight called out.

Scootaloo looked back ahead to see the stairs at the end of the hallway in view, and they would be upon the stairwell in just a few moments. "Okay okay okay let's do this," she muttered to herself. "Stairs! Incoming! To the right!"

"To the left?" Flight asked.

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow, although the filly couldn't see it. "No, the right! What are you, deaf?"

"Nah, I'm just messing with ya," Flight replied. Once Scootaloo reached the stairs and zoop'd off to the right, Flight and Kaylee followed right behind. They didn't look back; all they had to gauge how close the ponies on their tail were was the thundering of hooves coming up behind.

Skid

"Now?"

"Keep going."

Scootaloo kept running down the stairs, careful to jump over on each landing so that she could run down each new flight without having to stop or even slow down that much.

"How about now?"

"No. Seriously, I'll tell you when. We have a ways to go before you get there, trust me. The vault isn't just up here with all the other rooms."

Scootaloo was about to says something in reply, but she was interrupted. "Who are you even talking to?" Kaylee asked. Scootaloo looked over her shoulder to see the filly was right behind her, leaping down the stairs a few at a time.

"Uhhh... this voice in my head!" Scootaloo lied. Well, it was only partially a lie. Perhaps it would have been more accurate had she said it was a voice on her head.

"Seriously?" Flight replied from somewhere behind Kaylee—Scootaloo was too busy strafing around another corner to check exactly where she was. "You're just listening to some voice in your head, and it's telling you where to go?"

"Ummm, yep!" Scootaloo laughed nervously. "I mean, what else can we do, right?"

"What if it's Prince Aeneus or somepony trying to manipulate you?!" Flight exclaimed, irritated. "Maybe we're just falling right into their hooves!"

"Well, we don't exactly have any other choice, now, do we?" Scootaloo snapped, whipping her head back to glare at the yellow pegasus. "Literally, if we stop now, we're just gonna—"

"WALL!" Kaylee shouted, eyes wide in alarm. "GIRLS CAN WE STOP THIS FOR NOW OR ELSE WE'RE GONNA DIE."

Scootaloo looked back ahead just in time to reach up her hooves and propel herself off the wall, skidding down the stairs uncomfortably quick. "Gah, close one," she muttered with a cough. "Thanks, Kaylee."

"They're gaining on us," Flight said in an almost frighteningly calm voice. "We need to go faster."

"Working on it!" Scootaloo exclaimed, buzzing her wings as she ran. "Try flapping your wings, and hold onto Kaylee as you run!" Without looking back to make sure Flight was able to do what she'd instructed, Scootaloo sped forward even faster than before with the help of her wings.

Lattice

"Scootaloo... where are we going?" Flight asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

"Um... we're just going this way," Scootaloo replied, not looking back. "Just... as far as the tunnel goes. I think."

"I'll tell you when you need to turn, but it should be obvious," came Grey's voice in her ear.

"Right, right," Scootaloo replied. She looked around at the pipes that snaked along the wall beside her, occasionally letting out small bursts of steam. "And why did you have me send Kaylee off the other direction?"

She could hear the disappointment in Grey's voice as he replied. "I didn't, which you'd know had you been paying attention. Flight should have gone the other way—Flight should have been the distraction."

Scootaloo blinked, worried. "Oh, great..."

"It... should be fine. This is workable," Grey said, though he didn't sound convinced. "We'll have to do something about my brother, but... I think it'll be okay."

"...Your brother?" Scootaloo asked, confused.

"Who are you talking to?!" Flight demanded, sounding irritated. She was galloping right behind Scootaloo, her hooves clanking loudly on the metal lattice below. "Seriously, you're starting to freak me out a lot! Is Kevin even going to come back, or is he gonna get captured?"

Scootaloo bit her lip. "Um... I honestly don't know," she replied, hesitantly. "I want to say everything's going to be okay, but... I just can't say for sure."

"What the hell?!" Flight exclaimed, irritated. She galloped harder, pulling up right alongside Scootaloo so she could look the filly in the eye. "Why are we even following you if you're just going to take us in random directions and split us up? Do you want us to get captured?"

"I don't—" Scootaloo started.

"Like, that bargain they had back there was pretty awesome!" Flight replied, sneering. "We just turn in the Rebel adults, and then we all get to go free! Why couldn't you just do that, huh?"

Scootaloo had no answer, and Grey wasn't going to supply her one. Instead, she just focused on running past the pipes in the walls, barrelling towards whatever lay ahead.

Clink

Clink. Clink. Clink.

Kaylee's hoofsteps rattled on the grating below as she cantered away from the stairwell as fast as she could manage. She had been doing a lot of running as of late, however, so she found she had to slow just so the pain in her side wouldn't become too unbearable, and so she could still breathe. It was hard to tell whether the rattling hoofsteps were merely her own, or if perhaps somepony was chasing right behind her, ready to catch her at first stumble.

Up ahead, there was a small space where the path jutted out for a metre, facing a small electrical panel whose metal door hung half-open, obviously last tended to by somepony who didn't think anyone would be running by. Kaylee caught this in the corner of her vision and, as she pulled up beside it, ducked behind the pipes that protruded out from the wall. As she caught her breath, the filly peered around the corner, prepared to see Dessic's or Butternut's lumbering form almost upon her...

...but all she saw was the latticed grating stretching out all the way back to the last turn in the path, and the wall of rusted pipes on the end that stretched up to the ceiling and beyond. One thing was for certain—nopony was standing there, and certainly not running for her. All she could hear, even, was her own ragged breaths coupled with the whooshing of air and water in the pipes around her. She could feel her muscles relax, if even just a bit, and she took a deep breath.

And then, coming from somewhere behind her...

Clink. Clink. Clink.

They weren't like hoofsteps, not quite; they were softer, and more metallic, coupled with a quiet skittering after each clink. A little scrape on the metal. Whatever was behind her, it sounded like it had claws.

Kaylee didn't want to turn, she really didn't. She wanted to just walk back the way she had come, and maybe meet back up with Scootaloo and Flight, if she could find them. But the guards would certainly have gone after them, and there was something right behind her. Her heart skipped a beat.

Then, she turned. And what she saw there wasn't quite what she had expected.

"No..." Kaylee breathed. "What? How?"

The raven before her opened its beak. "You knew this was coming, my dear."

"But... why?" Kaylee asked. She looked around nervously, looking for some sort of out. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come to help you," the bird replied, its golden star sticker reflecting the dim light from above with a twinkle. "I can get you out of here."

Kaylee didn't know what to say, so she just gulped.

Mist

Flight and Scootaloo quivered where they stood, unsure of what to do as they were bathed in the bronze mist. There was no sound but for the hoofsteps, and even as the mist seemed to balloon outwards, the room sat in near silence.

Except for the hooves.

And then, after a few moments, even they stopped.

The air billowed. The ground trembled. Everything settled. And then—

“Come hither,” breathed a voice. A calm yet commanding voice, from between the mists.

“Uhh…” Flight turned to Scootaloo. “...?”

Biting her lip, Scootaloo turned from Flight to the cloud. Then, she nodded. Carefully, she took a few steps forward.

“You sure?” Flight whispered.

“Nope!” Scootaloo shot back. “But it’s like you said—there’s nothing else we can do! So c’mon!”

Shrugging, Flight started forward and followed closely behind Scootaloo as they trotted down the path, even as they couldn’t see in front of them. Drops of dew seemed to settle on their coats as they walked through, forming small droplets which slid coolly down their sides.

“Um… hello?” Scootaloo called out.

“Scootaloo!” Flight hissed. “What if… what if whatever’s out there isn’t on our side?”

“Then it’d help to know where it is, wouldn’t it?” Scootaloo shrugged, and kept trotting. Flight, huffing, kept right behind, making sure Scootaloo’s purple tail was always in sight.

A moment later, they were at the door. Flight could only tell this by the door-shaped protrusions that were jutting out from the mist on either side, almost fully yet not quite completely retreated into the surface of the wall. “Huh?”

“What?” Scootaloo whipped her head around. “See something?”

“No…” Flight shifted uncomfortably. “Well… I guess I’m just a bit confused. We’re at the door, right? And we heard hoofsteps, right? So, like… where’s the pony who opened the door?”

Scootaloo blinked. “That… is a really good question. Hm.”