It didn't take long before Scootaloo, led by Guard Verbosity, reached the hallway down below which led to her cell. This time, she paid more attention to the buttons in the room that went up and down; this revealed that Velvet's office was on floor 10, and the numbers went up to 13. However, the button Verbosity pressed was labelled with a Kindred letter that looked like an upside-down letter L and then a number 10. She noted, as the room began to descend, that these numbers preceded by that same letter went all the way up to 20, though the larger numbers were at the bottom.

It wasn't until they had almost reached the ⅂10th floor that Scootaloo was able to tear her eyes away from the buttons lighting up one by one as they passed each floor. She only was able to look out the back window for a few moments, but in that time she saw the same scene of ponies milling about in that large metal room outside. She thought of waving, to see if somepony would see her, but Guard Verbosity was already glaring at her and she didn't want to make things worse.

Eventually the metal box they were in reached the ⅂10th floor and the doors slid open. Guard Verbosity walked in front and led her down the hallway, which was pretty much the same as before. Again, they passed no ponies—the only distinguishing features of that low-ceilinged hallway were the doors on either side. One of the doors they passed, on the right side, was open, and Scootaloo saw that there was a small room inside, walls just the same sheer metal as the hallway and the cells. There was a small wooden chair in the centre, with a loop of rope on the ground around its legs. She was only able to look in for a second, though, before Guard Verbosity walked in front of her and closed the door. The click of its latch reverberated down the hallway in both directions.

When they made it out of that hallway and into the larger, taller one with the cells, Scootaloo noticed that there were actually several cells between where hers was and the end of the small hallway; these, she could see, were inhabited by a variety of ponies of all different colours and races. A few were awake and looked at her, incredulous—one mare opened her mouth as if to speak, but said nothing. Scootaloo could already feel the questions, anyway, of how old she was and what in Tartarus she could have done to land herself down there.

"Miss? We're here." Scootaloo stopped just before she ran straight into Guard Verbosity. She watched as the stallion unlocked her cell door and she walked inside. He closed the door and she stood there, watching him walk away. His hoofsteps clanged on the metal, sounding not unlike hers had sounded aboard the... aboard her ship.

Before she could do anything else, she was confronted with another question.

"So, how'd it go?" a chipper, high-pitched voice came from behind her. Scootaloo turned around to see Mochi standing against the bars of her own cell, pink hooves poking through. "What'd they want ya for?"

"Erm..." Scootaloo looked up at her cell's ceiling, and spied a black ball in one of the corners. She sighed. "It's... pretty complicated. They want me to tell them some stuff, but I don't know if I can trust them..."

"Hmm..." The mare's brow furrowed in thought. "How come?"

"Someone I knew from"—Scootaloo glanced again at the black ball above her—"where I used to live told me that the ponies in charge here can't be trusted. I just need to figure out whether she was right."

"And then they'll just let ya go?"

"Well... I'm not sure, but that's what they made it sound like." Scootaloo scratched her head. "What else can I go on?"

"I dunno, Scootaloo. Just be careful, won'tcha?" Mochi smiled warmly. "You do what them ponies tell you and they'll make sure you're alright. Heck, just look at me."

"What about you?"

"The things I did... the details ain't important but what matters is that I did bad things but I did what they told me to and they make it okay for me here. I go out and see the sunshine every once in a while, and the food is good. You'll get used to it, I promise. And maybe you'll get out!"

"Yeah... maybe..." Scootaloo looked down and then over to her cot. "I'm gonna lie down for now, if that's alright."

Mochi nodded. "Yep, that sounds just fine. I've got a letter to write, anyhow."

Both ponies retreated over to their cots; as Scootaloo climbed onto hers, she noticed that Mochi had a pen between her teeth and was scribbling furiously into what looked to be a notebook. She thought of her own notebook, and her saddlebag, and the other things she had around the ship. From their description, it sounded like Scootaloo had been thrown out the front window of the vehicle and landed far away enough from the ship that they didn't find it. If that really was what had happened, the saddlebag probably came with her since it was right there in the cockpit before they crashed. Everything else was likely still on the ship.

But what about Kevin? He had been up in the cockpit, too—right next to her, in fact—but she felt like the ponies would have mentioned something about him if they had him, as leverage for information or something like that. Velvet had even seemed somewhat surprised when the part of the video clip of Scootaloo played where she said she had come with a friend. No, Kevin was probably safe, and somewhere else. He knew this planet much better than she did, so she could only hope that he had ponies he could turn to.

The saddlebag, though—there was no way they didn't have it. And her notebook. All she wanted—besides to leave, of course—was to leaf through its pages, all her little sketches and journal entries from the past few months, and then write something new in there. She could write about Velvet's sterile, miserable little office, and maybe even draw a little sketch of Mochi perched there on her bed over her own notebook. If she had remembered the thing when she was up in that office, she could have asked. Maybe they would have given it to her. But for now, she didn't know, so she just lay down on top of the sheets and tried to make herself comfortable. She wasn't sleepy, nor did she close her eyes; she just watched Mochi as the mare kept writing and writing.