"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.