"...and that's how I got my cutie mark," Mochi finished, pointing at the tri-colour symbol that adorned her flank. "Pretty proud of it, too, even if I wasn't able to do much with it."

"That's really a shame," Later replied, frowning.

"Wh-what's going on?" a male voice asked somewhere from behind the three in front. At first, they thought it was Kevin; Even Later and Cotton Fluff looked over their shoulders, but the three younger ponies were still deep in conversation, not paying attention whatsoever to what was in front of them.

"Up here," the voice croaked, and Later and Cotton turned to see the slowly moving form of Clove Hitch still perched on Mochi's back. "Could I... get down?"

"Oh, of course," Mochi said, stopping. "Hey, kids, we're stopping to let Clove down," she added, making sure that they wouldn't just run into her with how much they were paying attention. She waited a moment as the stallion slid off, and then stretched out her hooves, relishing in the weight that had literally been lifted from her.

"What's up?" Clove Hitch said weakly, a clouded expression on his face. He looked around, turning his neck slowly. "H-how'd you get us out?"

"I teleported us, somehow," Later replied, looking him over. "Lost a damn ear, but what can you do?"

Clove blinked. "Darn, that's a shame. You always had... nice ears."

Later raised an eyebrow. "Alright then. Anypony else got anything to say, or should we just keep moving? If we keep going, it should only be like ten minutes until we get to the base."

"Let's keep going," Scootaloo piped up. "I need sleep. As soon as possible."

Shrugging, Later started trotting again, followed closely by the rest of the adults and then the younger ponies, who, for some reason, were a lot quieter.