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."