"Psst. Grey. Dude. You there?"

Grey sighed, or at least produced a sound as close to as sigh as his small body would allow him. "Yes, Scootaloo, I'm here. Though I must remind you, I'm trying to remain hidden from your companions and outright talking to me in their midst isn't going to help with that whatsoever."

"Oh, come on—I'm whispering!" Scootaloo whispered. "For all they know, I'm just making that fake whisper sound for fun."

Grey would have facehoofed if given the chance, but his tiny beetle legs were too small to reach his tiny beetle face. "Whatever. So long as you're sure your friends won't find out and that you have an actual reason for doing this. Which you do, right?"

Scootaloo looked over her shoulder to see Mochi trotting behind her, though the mare didn't seem to be paying attention. Kaylee had already fallen back to trot and talk with Flight. "Of course I do. I wouldn't jeopar—erm... ruin this whole thing for no reason. Plus nopony even cares what I'm doing, anyway. They're all just talking except Mochi who's just doing... whatever Mochi does. I swear, that mare is like Pinkie Pie."

"Alright, whatever. What do you want?"

"Wellllll..." Scootaloo paused, though she kept walking, stepping over a small bush. "I was wondering... maybe you could use your dilation power thing right now?"

"I... cannot. Unfortunately. It would not be prudent."

"...Seriously?" Scootaloo replied. "But... we're in a super big hurry, and I know you wouldn't like it if we got caught by the Bureau dudes either. Remember when you were going to use it to help us get to the capital city... place? Why not now?"

"Hrmph. Well, as I said, I already used it a few times. It would be unwise to... push our luck. This isn't the type of thing where you get a second chance if you screw up," Grey stated, matter-of-factly.

"But you really didn't use it very much, and you would've had to use it way longer if you wanted us to get to the capital city quicker."

"...A good observation," Grey remarked. "I'm impressed. And you're right, I would have used it much more then, and I had already calculated it out so that we wouldn't go anywhere near dangerous levels of spatial distortion."

"But...?"

Grey sighed. "But now you're with your companions. The moment I used the spatial dilation, they would find out. They know about how long it's going to take to get there, and too much less of a time would make them suspicious. They'd know something was up."

"But not if you used only a small amount," Scootaloo protested. "If they notice, I'm sure they'd just put it on walking quickly or something. 'Cause we are walking pretty quickly."

"I... guess?"

"Pleeeease?" Scootaloo pleaded.

"Ugh, you're not going to let this go unless I do, are you?"

"...Nope."

With a deep breath, Grey sparked up his magic. Now that Scootaloo was paying attention, she could feel the world slightly distorting ahead of her, everything becoming slightly... thinner. She hoped the others wouldn't notice.

"Thank you," she breathed.

"Don't mention it," Grey grumbled. "Seriously."