"Kevin, teleport us!" Even Later cried from up ahead.

The colt in question nearly stumbled enough to fall over at the sound of this request. "Wh-what? But I can't!"

"What do you mean, you can't?" Later shouted. She slowed down slightly, allowing herself to drop back alongside the colt. "You have a fancy-schmancy unicorn horn, right? And you know how to do spells?"

"Well, yeah, but—"

"No buts! Except ours are gonna get kicked something fierce unless we can get ourselves out of here!"

"Later, I haven't ever teleported more than one pony, and never as far as we'd need to go!" Kevin exclaimed. "If I tried, somepony could die!"

Later blinked. "Well, shoot, that's that idea off the table. Any other ideas?" she asked, looking from one running companion to another. There was an uncomfortable pause; not an actual pause, mind you, since they were still running as fast as they could through the forest under the cover of night whilst being pursued by several police officers, but it was a lull in the conversation nonetheless.

Finally, it was Cotton Fluff who spoke, in a surprisingly low tone for how fast they were running. "I think that I could teleport us, if you need me to."

"That would be great! Splendid! Wonderful!" Even Later exclaimed. "Okay, everyone, pull up close together to make it easier for the mare!"

"That really isn't necessary; it doesn't change any—"

"Doesn't matter! Get together!" Later ordered, making sure that they were all running within a few centimetres of Kevin, who had become a natural centre of the group. "Alright, on the count of three. One... two... three—!"

There was a colourful burst of light, a spark that emanated out from Cotton Fluff's horn and lit up the blurring patch of forest around them as it expanded larger and larger outwards, enveloping all six ponies in white light before the light sucked inward, down to a single point and then popped out of existence. For a moment, all was still; the occasional hoot of an owl could be heard above, or maybe a cricket here and there chirping in the grass.

And then the thundering of hooves grew closer and closer to the spot where the six ponies had stood just moments before, until the hoofsteps and the ponies to whom they belonged ran over and past that spot, into the darkness beyond. It would be many minutes before anypony stopped to check whether there were still ponies running ahead of them.

Later clutched her forehead with a hoof and stood up on her hind legs, letting her body fall back into a bush. "Ohhh gods, I'm glad we're out of there," she exhaled.

"You said it," Flight murmured in agreement. "I haven't run quite like that since... well, since the zoo, I guess. Urgh..."

"You think you're exhausted? Try teleporting everypony a kilometre to the north sometime," Cotton Fluff countered, groaning. "I'll give you a hint: it's not very fun."

"I dunno, I actually didn't think that was too bad!" Mochi exclaimed. She was the only one still standing completely upright, even bouncing up and down a little where she stood. "Now I'm all jazzed 'n' ready to go wherever we need to."

"Well, hopefully we won't have to go anywhere anytime soon," Kevin said, lying on his side on the ground. "That sucked."

"I think we might have to," Scootaloo piped up. "I think we might have to go right now."

"What?" a few of the ponies asked simultaneously.

"How come?" Later asked.

Scootaloo looked over at the mare in the dim light and frowned. "We forgot somepony."

Later raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that, filly? Lemme see... one, two, three, four, and five," she counted, ending with Scootaloo. "And that makes me number six, and I remember it was six ponies that Turnip sent off down to the secondary exit."

"It was six ponies," Scootaloo replied, "but you weren't one of them."

"Oh, hey, you're right!" Kevin exclaimed. "Why'd you come with us, anyway? Not that I'm complaining or anything considering you saved us and all, but, well, you know..."

"I... erm... I was sent by Turnip," Later lied. "He had second thoughts about sending you just with Clove Hitch so he decided to send me too."

Scootaloo squinted at the mare but didn't say anything about that. "Whatever. We just have to go find Clove Hitch now."

"B-but Scootaloo," Later started, "that's going to be practically impossible! They'll have him back at the Ferretfall Police Station soon, and that place will be crawling with guards. He... he knew what he was getting into. And I'm sure he'll be fine, too—he wouldn't want us to jeopardise the mission by going back for him, would he?"

"I don't really care about that," Scootaloo stated flatly. "We're going back to get him."

"Scootaloo, honey, we—"

"Don't call me that," the filly interrupted, frowning. "I don't care if you come with me or not, but I'm going. And I need at least somepony else to come with."

"No, no, I'll go," Later said, resigned. "Might as well protect you if you're going to go off doing stupid stuff."

"Ooh, can I come too?" Mochi asked. "I was really hopin' to stretch my legs a bit more."

"Yeah, totally," Scootaloo said. "Let's go."