"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.