"All clear," Cotton Fluff whispered. She was crouched down between two trunks, obscured by a tuft of tall grass on the edge of the paved road to the city, an expanse of grey concrete that stretched out to both sides. "A group of ponies just trotted by, and it doesn't look like anyone's coming 'round the bend, as far as I can see. I don't know how much time we have, though."

"Let's go, then," Later replied, stepping past the brown mare below, emerging with a soft rustle from the bushes. Her hooves made semi-loud clopping sounds on the pavement, and she looked frantically from side to side, making sure that they wouldn't be seen. As Cotton had said, a small band of ponies were trotting ahead of them, not a few metres away; however, they seemed to be too busy talking amongst themselves to be paying any attention to the mare trotting out from the forest. They themselves were but a few metres away from a somewhat large crowd of ponies, all leading towards what looked to be the entrance of the city.

Biting her lip, Later turned the other direction to see where the pavement made a sharp corner turn around a thick patch of woods; however, as nopony else was in sight, she beckoned for Cotton to come forward with a hoof and then, not looking to see whether the mare was behind her, she started trotting towards the other ponies ahead of them.

"Smooth moves," Cotton said, trotting up alongside her. "So, I guess we need to get into the centre of the crowd?"

"Yeah, something like that," Later replied. "We just need to stay... inconspicuous. I know they have way too many ponies going in and out to search every one, but we also don't want to give them a reason to find us interesting."

"Sounds about right," Cotton replied. For a minute or two, neither mare had anything to say; they just kept trotting on the pavement, attempting to keep a brisk pace while not seeming... too rushed. They also didn't want to catch up with the next group of ponies so soon, so each time they got close, they would slow down just a tad. This went well for a bit, until...

"Hey there!" called a voice from behind them.

"It's probably not for us—don't look or they'll think we're being suspicious," Later whispered through gritted teeth.

"You, the green unicorn and the brown unicorn! Yeah, I'm talkin' to you!"

Later frowned, but looked over her shoulder all the same. Behind her, not a few metres away, stood a white-coated stallion with a short grey mane, swooshed over to one side. "What do you want?" she asked.

"Where did you mare come from?" the stallion asked fairly loudly, making—as Later confirmed by looking back ahead—a few heads turn. Both Later and Cotton cringed.

"What do you mean?" Later asked softly. She stopped trotting. "Here, walk with us," she offered, hoping he would actually quiet down.

"Sure, okay," he replied, shrugging. "But still... where did you mares come from?"

"Um... well..." Cotton shifted nervously at the stallion's gaze, trying to avoid his silvery eyes.