"I guess this must be it, then," Mochi said.

"Yeah, look up at the numbers!" Scootaloo pointed to the clear plastic placard above them, emblazoned with that white number XXX. "Three X's... that's thirty, isn't it?"

"X? That's an H, honey."

"Oh... erm... yeah. Anyway, c'mon!" Scootaloo bounded up the last set of stairs, her hooves clanging loudly on the metal as she went. She put a hoof on the handle of the door, waiting patiently as she watched the older mare smiling as she walked up the stairs at a more even pace.

"Dang, Scootaloo, you've sure got a lot of energy. Yer leg still hurtin' like it was before? Weren't you limping?"

"Yeah, it kinda hurts... I mean, it's not all that bad." Scootaloo flexed a fuzzy orange forearm. "I'm pretty tough, yanno."

"Mhm," Mochi hummed as she reached the landing. "Okay, now we can go."

Scootaloo pushed the door open and stood there, holding it long enough for Mochi to walk through before trotting away to catch up. The door slowly closed on its own with a soft click.

The two ponies entered into a hallway that Scootaloo noticed was very much similar to the one Velvet's office had been on, somewhere many floors below. The metal walls were not completely undecorated, with occasional posters of landscapes or corkboards with announcements and flyers on them. Somewhere down the way, Scootaloo could spot a potted plant on the ground with wide green leaves that looked to be nearly as big as her face. To either side down the hall were metal doors, some open and some closed, and she could see just the very edges of ponies in some of the open rooms.

"Where do we go now?" Mochi whispered, stopping a metre into the hall. Scootaloo stopped next to her. "What did Grey say?"

"Ummm..." Scootaloo's head swivelled back and forth as she surveyed the hall in front of them. "I can't really remember the details... he said something about a tunnel, I think? I don't see anything besides these rooms, though."

"Maybe it's in one of those rooms," Mochi said. "Though we can't exactly check with all those ponies in there, and it would be really suspicious just to open all the closed doors."

"Yeah... hmm... let's just keep walking and try not to draw attention to ourselves." Scootaloo took a few silent steps forward, careful to not let her hooves make noise on the metal floor below. Step by step, the two ponies tiptoed forward past a few of the doors, peering in when they could. The ponies inside were all hard at work on computer consoles, however, so they paid Scootaloo and Mochi no mind.

This only went on for half a minute or so before Scootaloo heard a click behind them. She turned her head to look over her shoulder. "Ohcrud," she breathed.

"Wha—ohhhh snap." Mochi had turned around too, just in time to see the door to the stairs flung wide open and the sight of four stallions emerging out into the hallway. The pony in front, obviously their leader, looked oddly familiar to Scootaloo.

"Stop where you are, Miss Scootaloo and Ms. Mochi," the stallion in front said in a terse, commanding tone. "By the power and authority vested in me by the Bureau and the Royal Court of Aeneus, I need you to come with me so you can return to your cells."

Mochi laughed. "If we went through all the trouble of escapin', do you really think we'd just up and come with ya all quietly? Run, Scootaloo, run!" The mare beckoned behind them with a hoof. "I'll hold 'em off for now!"

"Mochi, I can't—"

"You gotta figure out where we gotta go or we're toast! Now, git!"

Scootaloo took a deep breath and then started running down the hallway, away from where Mochi and the guards were. Verbosity took a step forward.

"Please, ma'am, don't make this any harder than it has to be—"

"Screw off, dumbflanks," Mochi sneered.

"We have the authority to use force if necess—"

"Graahhh!" Mochi ran forward and, before Verbosity could even so much as flinch, swung a foreleg quickly into the side of his face.

"Augh!" The stallion staggered backwards and fell down on his back legs, wincing. "Nngh... get her!"

The other three stallions were quick to rush forward; one of them, in a flash of speed, ran around behind the mare so they surrounded her on all sides. Mochi swung at the one to her left but her hoof just swung through open air, the stallion having jumped back.

"What's the matter?" Mochi seethed. "You 'fraid to hit a girl?"

"Erm, no, ma'am, we're trained to try to resolve conflicts in nonviolent manners as much as poss—"

"Shut up!" Mochi yelled, kicking back a hindleg at the unsuspecting stallion behind her, whom she hadn't even been looking at. Her hoof smashed into his chin and he collapsed on the floor behind, a small pool of red liquid coalescing around where his head lay. Mochi wiped her hoof on the floor, leaving a bloody streak alongside where she stood. She flashed a wicked grin at the two stallions still standing, who frowned.

Suddenly, one of them burst forward, bringing a cascade of punches on the mare who was thrown onto the defense. Mochi did her best to dodge the attacks and land in a few quick punches of her own on the stallion's torso, sending him reeling backwards.

In response, the other guard had run over to lend a hoof and together the stallions threw volley after volley of punches at Mochi and the mare was forced to dance on her hooves to avoid the worst of the blows and she was trying to keep her composure when she did get hit, though she could feel the bruises starting to form and then getting hit over and over. The waves of pain washed through her and she could feel her heart rate rising and her blood pumping all throughout her body and, somewhere deep inside of her, a boiling rage was bubbling out and she could feel her head start to go warm and she saw red. Before she knew what she was doing, Mochi had run forward and headbutted both of the guards, sending them flying into the door which they rammed into with a loud splat before falling to the floor on top of one another.

Mochi just stood there, breathing deeply, as her heart rate started to slow back down. She looked at the four guards which were now splayed out on the floor in various states of injury, and nodded.

That was when she heard Scootaloo's voice calling from afar. "Mochi! Help!" The filly's voice sounded frantic, helpless, scared. Mochi whirled around and left the stallions, galloping as fast as she could down the hallway to see what the filly needed her to do.