"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..."