"I think I mighta spoken too soon," Mochi murmured as she looked out upon the uninterrupted off-white expanse. It was curious, the way the dome hugged the clear blue sky with hardly a top of a tree in sight.

"You're sure it was supposed to be here?" Scootaloo asked, looking to the mare. She shivered slightly as a breeze blew by. "How can you even tell?"

"Should I stop?" Kaylee asked from ahead.

"Nah, keep going," Mochi replied. "I could be wrong about the location."

Flight facehoofed. "Are we just wandering around randomly, then? Could we be any less organised?"

"Hey, come off it!" Scootaloo admonished. "She barely has any more info that we do! It's not her fault Later didn't tell her basically anything."

"Scootaloo, please," Mochi protested wearily, "be quiet. Flight's just going to be all grumpy-like, I think, so risking gettin' caught like this ain't worth the squeeze."

"What in the hay is that supposed to mean?" Flight growled, shoving her hoof into Mochi's. "I'm... I'm going through a lot right now, okay?"

Before Mochi could reply, Kaylee interjected, saying, "D'you think that big fault in the dome has anything to do with the telescope?"

Scootaloo, Mochi, and Flight all stopped and leaned around Kaylee, following her off-white hoof where it pointed. Surely enough, in the surface of the dome right in front of them, there was a long divot that curved and bended to form a sort of capital I shape.

"Well, that would certainly fit the bill," Mochi murmured in surprise. "Guess they built a whole door thing in over top of it, huh?"'

"Makes sense," Scootaloo agreed. "Otherwise they'd have to do all that cleaning way too often."

Flight frowned. "If they've got doors or something over it, how are we going to get in?" She lightly tapped the ground, though even that small tap made a loud clank. Kaylee nearly jumped and her head turned around wildly, looking to see if any guards had noticed them, but they seemed not to have heard.

"Definitely not by bangin' on it, that's for sure," Mochi replied, glaring at the filly. "That's just gonna let us get caught."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Flight grumbled. "At least it's something. What are we supposed to do, then—just wait for whenever Later and Cotton show up?"

"Er... isn't that the plan?" Scootaloo replied, giving her an odd look. She looked to the side again, watching as a few of the guards trotted close to one another and had a conversation about something or other. Still, nopony seemed to have seen them. "Though I will admit... we do kinda feel like sitting ducks here."

"You gonna be able to keep the spell up for long, Kaylee?" Mochi asked, looking down at the spell's progenitor.

Kaylee shrugged. "I'm pretty sure. The spell is surprisingly not hard to cast, so it really doesn't take that much out of me."

"Well, that's good," Scootaloo said with a nod. "Now... we wait."

The four ponies stood there in silence a few moments, though their heads were still turning around to watch the guards.

"Oh, crap," Flight murmured under her breath.

"What is it?" Scootaloo asked.

"Our first test, I guess," Flight replied, sounding somewhat annoyed. "Two stallions are coming this way, though not quite in this direction. But they're coming close."

"Shush, then," Scootaloo said, glaring. She followed her own advice and the four ponies stood there, waiting to see just what would happen. Kaylee, for her part, had her eyes closed, holding her breath.