As she trotted along the hallway's pristine purple carpet, Kaylee looked ahead to Scootaloo, who had fallen ahead of her as they shifted to a single file trot. She noticed that the purple colour of the flat carpet nearly matched that of Scootaloo's mane and tail, which were presently hanging in front of Kaylee's face.

"Your mane matches the carpet," she murmured. Scootaloo, grinning, turned to look at her and looked like she was about to say something, but was interrupted by Dessic, who stamped his hoof as he walked beside them.

"Please, keep quiet. You will have quite a bit of talking to do when you get to the conference room—trust me."

"Mmmff... whatever," Scootaloo said defiantly.

"Like we'll talk, anyway!" Later huffed from ahead.

"Shush, you!" Dessic admonished. "Seriously, there are ponies working in the offices along this hall. I know you're criminals, but you could at least be civil about it."

The group trotted in silence, rounding the bend. The hallway seemed to stretch out as far as the eye could see, with door after door. At first, Scootaloo imagined that they could be walking forever, continuing on and on in a search for a door to a room that didn't really exist. Yet her fears were allayed when Anna stopped the group a few metres down from the second bend.

"Here we are," the stallion beside her announced, pointing to the door on the right. "'Starbird Memorial Conference Room'."

"Thank you, officer," Anna replied. She pushed the door open and then held it open, allowing Dessic, Butternut, and the other officer to usher Later, Mochi, Flight, Kaylee, and Scootaloo in through the door. A sheepish-looking Cotton Fluff brought up the rear, bringing the door to a close.

Her hooves clacked on the parquet floor as she trotted up to the large rectangular conference table that made up the majority of the room. Otherwise, the room was basically a box, unadorned with decorations or paintings or anything of the like. Cotton took a seat beside Dessic, who sat beside Scootaloo. The other officers sat between Scootaloo and her companions so that no more than two of them sat next to each other. These ponies occupied one end of the table.

At the far end of the table was a beige mare clad in a similar sleek-black outfit to the ones Anna and her officers wore. The mare, as it so happens, was quite familiar to a few ponies on the other end of the table.

"Haze," Later snarled through gritted teeth.

"Hello, Anna," Haze said, not acknowledging Later. "I hope the prisoners did not give you too much trouble?"

"None at all, Haze," Anna replied coolly. "They came quickly and quietly once they realised we had them surrounded."

"Splendid," Haze replied with a nod. "Shall we get started, then?"