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.