Scootaloo finally allowed herself a glance over her shoulder and, upon seeing no sign of another pony anywhere down the long stretch of hallway, the filly slowed her pace to a brisk trot. She listened to her heavy, gasping breaths, though each seemed unable to fill her lungs enough to satisfy her. Now that she had slowed and her ears weren't filled with her heart pounding in her chest and the thundering of her hooves below, Scootaloo was able to hear other sounds: the crackle of torches affixed to either side of the tunnel, the sound of running water above, and—most importantly—a lack of anypony yelling or breathing or galloping.

The filly wanted so very desperately to stop and catch her breath, or even to run back and see if Mochi was alright, but she knew she couldn't do that. She had to trust Mochi and, more importantly, get herself out of there. Grey said he would be waiting for them outside the tunnels—she just had to get out there somehow. So, with little other option available, Scootaloo did what she had already been doing—trotting onwards.

"Wish I'd brought my scooter," Scootaloo grumbled. She looked around at the tunnel around her as she passed, taking in its (pretty gross) earthy scent. Despite being formed out of heavily-packed dirt and mud, the rounded ceiling and walls were fairly smooth and there were only a few blemishes here and there. In a few spots, water dripped down from small holes and collected in hoofprints on the ground, creating small stagnant puddles. Scootaloo was careful to avoid stepping in these, though they made her wonder if the sound of rushing water was a pipe that ran parallel to the tunnel.

Eventually, Scootaloo came upon a fork in the tunnel, wherein the left path took a definite slope downwards before curving right; the right path, however, sloped slightly upwards before curving left. She stopped for a moment, breathing deeply where she stood.

"Hmm..." Scootaloo hmm'd, looking back and forth between the two. "Eenie, meenie, miney... that one." She pointed right. And then, after a brief moment of thinking about it some more, she pointed left. "Heh... that's what I meant." Scootaloo trotted down the left path and turned right as the tunnel did.

This lower tunnel looked to be in almost a perfect straight line, and Scootaloo could see pretty far ahead before the tunnel faded off into darkness. It looked much as the one she had been trotting through above; what interested her most, though, was that there was nopony else in sight. Smiling, Scootaloo kept trotting through the tunnel.