"Alright, I'm back," Doc Zed's voice crackled quietly from the comlink speaker. "And I've got good news."

"Oh?" Flight looked down at the comlink as if Doc Zed could see her

"Yeah, it looks like one of the guards on shift right now is one of our agents. You should be able to—"

"Hold up," Flight interrupted. "Who's 'we'?"

"Erm, you know. The rebellion."

Flight frowned. Kevin sighed. "Okay, go on," he said. "We don't have time to be annoyed."

"Heh, smart kid. Anyway, as I was saying... one of the guards currently on shift is on our side, so we should be able to get him to let you through."

"How?" Flight asked. "We've still gotta go through the scanners, and it'll totally pick us up."

"I'm getting to that! Sheesh... I can't talk for three seconds without you interrupting and telling me I'm forgetting something. There's a manual override button near the base of each scanner—I dunno if you can see them from where you are, but they're there."

Kevin squinted through the leaves. "Yeah, I think I can see it." The button, if that's what it was, sat to the left of the closest scanner bars, just centimetres away from a guard's white hoof.

"Awesome. Basically, all you have to do is go up there and when they ask you why you're going into Umberlight, just mention something about 'the slip'. It's a codeword."

"Um, okay. 'The slip'? Like, what happens right before you fall over?"

"The very same. That must be how Fourth Estate and her companions got through." Doc Zed paused. "Oh, and it should be the stallion at the station on the second from the left. His coat is pure white. Can't miss him."

"Hey, wait," Kevin said. "All of the guards have white coats. Any idea what's up with that?"

"Oh, right. You probably wouldn't have encountered them yet, but... that's pretty much how all Bureau guards from the larger cities look, or at least the outward-facing ones. There's some special bleaching technique... they do it for intimidation or conformity or something." The voice on the comlink paused. "Anything else?"

"No, we should be good," Flight replied. "We'll contact you if we make it inside."

"When you make it inside," Doc Zed corrected. "Good luck." The comlink let out another short beep and the static stopped. Flight looked up at Kevin.

"You ready to do this?" she asked.

Kevin nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be."

"Alright. Let's go," Flight said. "Follow me." She backed away from the bush they had been hiding in and Kevin followed suit, pushing back further into the bit of forest. Kevin was momentarily confused until he saw Flight turn towards the main path. She stopped and watched it for a moment, making sure that nopony was coming, and then the filly emerged from the bushes quickly, Kevin right behind her. Both young ponies turned and began to amble down the path, doing their best to look like they had been on the path the whole time and that their walk towards Umberlight was nothing out of the ordinary.