"Watch where you're going!" a mare's voice to one side cried out, and other similar voices exclaimed similar exclamations as Mochi elbowed and shoved past them, weaving in and out through all of the office ponies who were now filling the hallway. Scootaloo could hardly tell what was going on as she—from her view above Mochi's back—practically soared past the confused ponies below, but she could see unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi of all different colours, much like those back in Equestria. She snickered to herself as she thought of how Princess Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony would have reacted. She bet that Rainbow Dash would've thought their escape pretty dang cool.

Not that they had escaped yet. Mochi pulled out of the throng of ponies and skidded to a stop at the end of the hall, sending Scootaloo flying over the mare's head. Shaken to attention, the filly fluttered her wings as hard as she could and, miraculously, only bonked into the door with less than a quarter of the impact that she should have. Scootaloo dropped to the ground, slightly dazed.

"Eheh..." the filly mumbled, shaking her head quickly back and forth. Once she had come back to her sense, Scootaloo reached up and pulled open the door. Mochi stepped forward and nodded with a smile.

"C'mon, let's get up there before they have time to react."

Scootaloo, still holding the door open, looked back at the four stallions that were strewn across the floor in various states of injury. "Uhm... do you think these guys will be okay?"

"Yeah, they'll be fine. But we won't, unless we get moving! C'mon!" There was a hint of irritation in her voice, so Scootaloo only took one last glance at the once-formidable squadron of guards and the writhing mass of office ponies in front of them before bounding into the stairwell alongside Mochi. She let the door slam shut loudly behind them.

The sound of the chattering crowd nigh on drowned it out, but the ponies closest to that far end of the hall could hear the distant clanging of hooves in the stairwell.

In response, the previously-limp form of Verbosity stirred; he opened his eyes and made a feeble attempt at standing to his hooves, getting his body most of the way upright before the throbbing in his legs was too much to bear and he let himself topple over like a rag doll. Sighing, the guard raised his comlink-clad foreleg to his face and pressed a few buttons on it with his other foreleg. In response, the device made a few little beeps, a ringing note, and then it clicked.

"Hello? Guard Verbosity? Situation update?" Velvet sounded concerned, like he already knew what the answer was.

"Situation normal, all f—heh, well, you know what I mean. All five of us are down for the count, sir. If you want those mares stopped, you had better get reinforcements to the thirtieth floor stat." There was no sense of urgency to Verbosity's voice; as far as he was concerned, he was done.

"Oh, Argent... all five of you? With just the two of them?"

"Mostly just the older mare—the pink one." Verbosity coughed. "She's got a mean kick, that one."

"Well, erm, thank you. I've got to get the other guards together, so bye."

"Good luck, sir." The comlink clicked and Verbosity set down his arm. He took one more glance at the ponies in the hallway in front of him. They were no longer panicking and had grouped into several different clusters, deep in conversation—he found it amazing what ponies would do to get out of work. Then Verbosity closed his eyes and let his body relax.