"Don't worry," Haze said, adjusting the paper although she didn't look at it. "You'll have plenty of time to formulate your thoughts. Right now, I want to talk to perhaps the most important pony here, one without whom this entire mission would have been a failure."

Anna looked to Dessic, who wore a wide grin on his face, prepared to hear whatever compliment he was about to receive.

"I speak, of course, of Ms. Cotton Fluff here," Haze continued, gesturing towards the brown mare in the centre of the group, although she did shoot Dessic a glance with a raised eyebrow. "Without her brave work going undercover with these ponies and reporting back to us... well, we may have been able to catch them within the castle, but not without complete pandemonium."

Dessic, quickly recovering, patted Cotton on the back with a hoof. "Ya did good, kid. Real nice work there."

"I'm older than you," Cotton grumbled.

"But wait," Later interrupted, finally having lifted her face from the table, "what do you mean about Cotton?" The green mare looked to Cotton, who wore a nervous expression. "How was she contacting you? She was... what?"

"Erm... comlink," Cotton replied meekly, pointing at the device on her wrist. Later just groaned even more.

"You double-crossing son of a... urgh." She dragged her hooves on her cheeks. "Why in the hay did we even trust you, anyway?" Later rapidly turned to look at Scootaloo, and then to Kaylee and Flight. "Which one of you dumb kids decided she would be great to have along?"

"We couldn't just let her go, remember?" Scootaloo retorted. "She already knew too much as we were running away. She even slapped that Gloss dude, remember?"

"Where is Gloss, anyway?" Anna asked, cocking her head as she glanced toward Haze. "Shouldn't he be here already?"

"He's taking care of some... business downstairs," Haze replied in a calm tone, though her face betrayed some concern. "He should be with us in a moment; do not worry. He is not essential to this part of the proceedings."

"And the prince?" Dessic asked.

"He will along soon enough as well," Haze replied, starting to look irritated. "Please, let us not tarry. We have a lot to get to, and not a lot of time. Recent developments with the Rebels have made sure of that."

A few faces around the table looked almost like they wanted to ask to what she was referring, but they all held their tongues. As the room fell into silence, Haze took a moment to actually look down at her papers and scribble something down with a pen in her magical grip.

"Alright," Haze said, looking up. "Scootaloo, are you ready to talk?"

Scootaloo gulped. "Um..."