"Good morning, kids." It was the mare on the right that spoke, a neutral expression on her face. Flight and Kevin had been careful to walk at just the right pace so they would make it to that specific station, second from the right, just when the other stations were occupied so it was their only option.

"Good morning!" Flight exclaimed, a little too friendly. She wore a smile—the fakest of the fake, with nearly all of her teeth showing—and looked up at the guard. "How are you today?"

"The day has thus far been alright," the mare replied. She yawned. "Same as it ever was, I suppose."

"Wonderful, wonderful," Flight said, nodding vigourously. "And you?" she asked, turning to the stallion on the left. He squinted.

"Look, kid, I'm sure your day is great and all, but can we just get on with this?"

Flight's face-wide grin faltered slightly but she managed to keep it up. "Erm, sorry, sir. What is it that you need?"

The stallion sighed. "You kids must be new 'round here or something. Friggin' country bumpkins..."

"Aw, c'mon, Twelve," the mare said. "Would it kill ya to be nice?"

"I don't get paid to be nice," Twelve countered. "I get paid because I do my job, and well at that." He turned to face Flight. "Alright, alright. What brings you kids to Umberlight?"

Flight grinned wider. "My friend and I here have come to do some shopping... I'm hoping to pick up some new dresses."

Twelve nodded. "Fair enough. And, just so you know, you'll need to get the amount cleared with exports if you spend more than five hundred credits."

Kevin blinked. "Five hundred credits? Aureate above... do we look that rich?"

The mare snickered. "Don't listen to Twelve—he's just giving you a hard time. His boyfriend broke up with him last week and he's been a total sourpuss ever since."

"Dammit, Twenty-Three..."

"You ponies can just walk right through whenever you're ready," Twenty-Three said, ignoring Twelve's annoyance.

Kevin nudged Flight in the ribs with his elbow. "Oh!" the filly yelped. "I just wanted to say, Twelve... I'm sorry that your boyfriend gave you 'the slip'."

"That's fine." Twelve said, expression flat. "It's none of your business, anyhow. Proceed." The stallion waved his hoof, beckoning the young ponies forward.

Flight's brow furrowed but she stepped forward. The plastic bars on either side of her were not particularly tall, but neither was the filly so they easily towered over her head. Kevin waited for the satisfied electronic beep, but it did not come.

Instead, the machine let out a whiny chirp. Kevin could see the light above, rather than green, light up with a bright red.

"Hey, Twenty-Three—do you think you could take a look at this? I think something's not working right—it's giving me a code S-57." The stallion wore a confused expression, and both Flight and Kevin could immediately tell that he wasn't trying to help them get through to anywhere; he was just another guard. As Twenty-Three walked around, over to the panel on the side that Twelve was staring at, Flight looked over her shoulder at Kevin. Her eyes were lit up in sheer terror.

"Do something," the filly mouthed. She turned back to watch Twelve and Twenty-Three at the panel, but kept shifting around antsily.

Kevin looked around frantically for something, anything he could do. He noticed three main things: the guards at the other stations were starting to glance over and see what the matter was, one of Twelve's forelegs was right next to the manual override button, and that there were a few rocks strewn about the path.

Perfect.

Kevin waited a moment until he was sure none of the guards from the other stations were looking and then he deftly enveloped a medium-sized flat rock in his green magical aura. Guided by his magical grasp, the rock sailed soundlessly through the sky until it was directly overhead the button. Kevin withdrew his hold on the thing and it dropped a few centimetres onto the surface of the button with a soft clink. Thankfully, neither Twelve nor Twenty-Three seemed to notice.

And, as it so happened, the button pressed down at the same time Twenty-Three reached up and pressed a button above with a hoof. The machine made the same beep they'd heard earlier and the light changed to green.

"Oh, thank Aeneus," Twenty-Three said. "Just a little malfunction with the machine. Sorry about that. Keep going."

Flight stepped through and stopped on the other side, watching Kevin as he walked through. Another satisfied beep. Once Kevin was through, Twelve turned to the young ponies.

"We'll also need to get your names, just so we can log them with our manager at the end of our shift."

"My name's Feather," Flight said quickly.

"And I'm... um... Kay," Kevin said. He felt his face grow hot as Flight shot him an odd look, but she said nothing. Twelve tapped a few buttons on the scanner and then nodded.

"Alright, you kids are good to go."

"Have fun, now, y'hear?" Twenty-Three said, smiling. She walked back over to the other side, preparing for the next ponies to come through, but Flight and Kevin had already started walking down the brick stairs into the tunnel. The stairs continued downwards as far as the eye could see, with only the warm glow of electric light panels in the wall to illuminate the path ahead.

Once they were out of earshot, Flight turned to Kevin. "Kay?" she asked.

Kevin gulped. "Yeah, um... that was the first thing that came to mind."

"Huh, weird. But that's a girl's name..."

"I-I'm sorry?" Kevin mumbled. "It's the first letter of my name, and I couldn't think of any other—"

Flight snickered. "No, no, there's no problem. I just thought it was funny—that's all. No need to get all worried about it." She hummed a short melody. "Oh, and nice thinking back there. We were almost toast."

Kevin, glad to change the subject, nodded. "Thanks... I'm surprised I came up with something, myself. I guess Doc Zed must've had old info or something."

"Maybe... or maybe he intended for us to get caught," Flight surmised.

"Uh, what? That wouldn't make any sense—why would he send us on this mission just to have us get caught?" Kevin focused on walking for a moment, careful not to trip on the steps. "Just because Doc Zed didn't tell us something doesn't mean that everything he says is a lie."

Flight sighed. "I know... but it's hard to trust him now. When someone that you think you can trust just does that, tells you that there's a part of them that they've been lying about for so long, is it even really possible to ever trust them again?"

Kevin could feel his cheeks grow warm again and his stomach filled with butterflies bouncing around, nearly making him trip. "I-I dunno. I guess we'll just have to be careful."

"Mmm... yeah."