"Those pillars are pretty tall," Scootaloo remarked as her gaze pointed upwards at the stony, ridge pillars on either side of the palace's entrance. They were indeed tall, looming for what looked to be more than fifty metres over the heads of any of the ponies passing by underneath. At the present moment, Scootaloo, Kaylee, Flight, Mochi, and Later's small troupe had come to a stop in one pillar's giant shadow, waiting as instructed by that mare Anna at the head of the group.

"I'm cold," Flight complained, shivering. "Can we go inside already? Or at least step out of the shade? If we're being captured, you guys might as well be quick about it."

"Shush," the stallion named Butternut said, a stoic expression on his face. "We have to wait until we hear back from Gloss about whether it's alright to bring you inside."

"If you're cold, you should've brought a jacket," Dessic said with a wink.

"How in the hell would she have known to bring a jacket?" Later sneered, eyeing the white stallion with a look of pure malice. "It's not like we planned on getting caught."

"Seems to me like you didn't plan on much of anything," Dessic replied with a wry grin. "Seriously, just waltzing in with a stranger? Especially one who just so happens to be friends with a guard? Honestly, I though it was a stupid plan when they first told me that was what I was supposed to do, 'cause I thought you'd never fall for it—and I thought it was even stupider that we weren't supposed to just nab you when you were in the tunnel. But here we are..." He laughed. "Guess the Rebels aren't so bright after all, hmm?"

Later growled. "You don't even know what you're up against..."

"Mmmm..." Dessic hummed, closing his eyes. "Maybe so, but neither do you."

"Captain Anna, we've got an all clear," came a voice from the front. Everyone turned to look at the other stallion who had been walking with them; he was the one who had trotted into the palace to find out whether they were yet wanted inside, and it looked like they had their answer. "Gloss wants to see us right away. The prince is resting in his chambers, but his assistant will be joining us in his stead until he has awoken. She said we should go to the Starbird Memorial Conference Room upstairs."

"Thank you, officer," Anna remarked with a nod, and the stallion went back around to take his place on the side of the group. The cerulean mare then turned forward to face the ponies before her. "Alright, everypony. We are now going to be entering the palace and although we'll be watching you, I must ask that you not cause a scene. Things will be much easier for the both of us if you do not cause a public disruption, and we will factor your compliance into your sentences."

Kaylee, wide-eyed, looked to Scootaloo. "Sentences?" she mouthed.

Scootaloo merely shrugged and tried to hold a smile in an attempt to reassure Kaylee, but she herself wasn't quite sure what was going to happen. Whatever it was, though, she was determined not to end up in jail again. That... sucked.

She was shaken from these thoughts when Mochi bumped into her from behind.

"Whoops! Sorry 'bout that," Mochi said.

"Heh, don't worry about it," Scootaloo replied as she started walking alongside Kaylee. "Just... thinking."

The group, finally shifting from its place on the side of the stairs, continued across the stone landing and in through the wide, open doorway in the centre of the palace's façade. As they walked through, the newcomers could see that the entrance opened up into a large room inside, a wide open entryway with high, vaulted ceilings of stone whose walls sloped down all the way to the floor. At about eye level on either side were two stripes, each lighting up the front half of the room with a fluorescent glow. Then, beyond those walls, the hall opened into a wider room with a large staircase that led up to an upper level, with smaller doors to lower levels along the wall beside the stairs. Tall hallways with the same vaulted ceilings stretched out both to the left and the right.

As the group passed through the entrance and into the larger room, they earned a few odd looks from the ponies passing by. There weren't too many ponies trotting back and forth between the entrance and the passages within, but there were a fair number, most of which were trotting to or from the right hallway. A few here and there also came from the staircase, but absolutely nopony came from the left.

"You do know where we're going, right?" Anna asked the other officer. "I haven't actually heard of that one. Don't spend much time in the palace, if I can help it."

"Yeah, it's just up the stairs," the stallion said. "Go up and take a left, and it should be marked with the name. At least that's what the prince's assistant told me."

"Wonderful. Thank you," Anna said, and with that she took a commanding lead of the group, marching quickly up the stairs and not even looking behind to see whether the group were following her. The younger ponies in particular had to nearly run up the stairs to keep up, but soon enough they were rounding the corner and entering a smaller, more closed-off hallway. It was narrow, only fitting three or four ponies side-to-side, but luckily there didn't seem to be anypony else in the hallway, or at least not before it curved out of view.