The vending machine, as had been the case before, was so well stocked that it threatened to overflow. Though many of its contents were undeniably inedible—unlike the previous machine, this one was not stocked entirely with uni-vac products—there was still more than enough for two little ponies to choose from. At first, Coalburst had taken another pot of peanuts and the carrot drink that Blue had drunk before in the hopes that some of the so called painkiller could be made again. When that endeavour failed—though the pegasus had hardly put her all into it, the filly merely settled on nourishing herself.

The pair sat in the room for hours, so long that Coalburst had taken to making paper pegasi from the yellowed posters and wrappers. She had plenty of material to work with; after a tub of peanuts, two bags of salted crisps, a bar of white chocolate and—much to her delight—half of a dragonfruit, it came as no surprise. But Blue, though eager to eat everything in sight—she hadn't had a slap-up three course meal in weeks now, and her appetite had never been the sort to keep quiet—could hardly bring herself to nibble at anything. In the end, after a good ten hours, she had only managed a small bag of "cola horseshoes".

The time ticked by tediously, every second as dull and silent as the one before. Blue seemed quite content to just lay on the floor and wait, her eyes leaking the odd tear now and then. She said nothing and did not move even to drink; only when a bottle was placed directly in front of her did she accept it.

Coalburst's patience, however, could only hold out for so long. After yet more hours had dragged by, she gave a grumble and filled her horn with magic as she enveloped Blue's tail in a yellow aura. She then tugged upwards and jerked the mare into a standing position; as she released the hold Blue threatened to crumple to the floor again and Coalburst was quick to keep her up.

"For Celestia's sake, Blue! I know you think RipEar'll come back, but it's nearly been a whole day. He's not gonna come back—we'll have to go to him."

Blue mumbled and looked away, fighting half-heartedly to pull her tail from the filly's weak grip. As she shook her head and closed her eyes, however, she was dragged roughly towards the door.

"We. Are. Going." Coalburst bit out her words in between gasped breaths. "C'mon, Blue! Don't make me go without you!"

Blue was quiet for a moment before she sighed and nodded her head. She dragged her hooves as she walked, but it was an improvement nonetheless.

The tunnels were quiet, as was much of the outside world. The journey was equally so; a few skeletons were scattered about in places but otherwise the place was barren of anything other than rock. As RipEar had mentioned, scorpions had swarmed the tunnels whilst Blue and Coalburst had been in the waiting room; unable to get in, the curse was thus of no threat. Indeed, the sole time that the pair were attacked after the first they merely hid, little the worse for wear, in a waiting room until the scorpions were gone.

The tunnel was long, not helped by Blue's quiet, disheartened nature. She trudged along slowly and refused to utter a word; by the time that the end of the tunnel neared nearly two days later, Coalburst had begun to wonder if leaving Blue behind might have been better. She wouldn't have done that, though—couldn't have.

After the time spent in the tunnels, stepping hoof outside came as something of a shock for even Blue's uninvolved mind. The air was substantially colder and the wind was present, strong enough to chill the mare to the bone. She instinctively fluffed up her feathers and squinted her eyes as she began to follow in Coalburst's hoofsteps, incapable of navigating herself. The dim light from the sun and moon proved enough to blind her; the filly was quicker to adapt.

Worse than the wind and the cold and the bright bleakness, however, was the rain which began to fall within minutes. In the few weeks that she had been outside, Blue had hardly ever seen the stuff; now it fell in torrential amounts, drenching both the mare and the filly as they trudged through increasingly claggy mud. But neither complained; both were much too occupied with their own thoughts.

Lost in her own muddle of a mind, Blue hardly noticed as Coalburst shouted down at her from some elevated position. As she shook her head slowly, though, and let her eyes readjust, she had no time to think on RipEar; she was much too busy trying to figure out what monstrosity lay before her.

It was an armoured carriage, that was for sure, though Blue could see no harnesses or poles on which to attach a workhorse. Its wheels were misshapen, too; in fact, they were completely replaced by odd treads, large enough in diameter for a pony to stand. At its front a large pole—not dissimilar to a thin cannon—jutted out at an odd angle.

It was a monstrous beast.

"This way, Blue!" Coalburst called from up above as she beckoned with a hoof, her fur completely sodden. She could hardly be heard over the roar of the rain. "We can wait this out in here!"

Blue frowned as she kept still. After a moment's contemplation, however, she took a shuddery step forwards and flew unsteadily up to the carriage's roof. Just as the filly disappeared into the beast's belly, Blue landed with a stumble and fell in after her.

It was dark inside the carriage and certainly nothing like anything Blue had ever read in the facility's books. Even the war chariots depicted in the texts were a far cry from this freak of machinery; they were fine, ideal for flat out charges and for quick attacks, designed to traverse flat terrain efficiently—this was a brutish thing, surely designed to lumber along and crush anything in its path.

As Blue looked around herself she felt her chest constrict even more and she sucked in a breath. A large, pony-sized hamster wheel could be seen in the same position as the treads on either side. In the left one, a skeleton lay crumpled at the bottom, some of the brittle bones knawed on and shattered. A second could be found just away from the right wheel, it being in a similar state of repair to the first. A final skeleton also lay nearer to the front of the beast, its foreleg uncleanly cut in two pieces while its muzzle hung at an odd angle. It could only suggest a fracture or break, even for a pony such as Blue who knew next to nothing in the medical field.

"What... What happened here?" Blue whispered as she glanced behind herself. When she saw no more skeletons there, she stumbled back and cowered in the corner. Coalburst, on the contrary, seemed mostly unperturbed as she looked the scene over and shrugged.

"Nothing all that exciting," she mumbled as she sat down next to the mare. She paused for a moment to brush up against Blue's soft but sodden feathers. "This thing's a Tortoiseshell Tank. They were real important in the war 'cos nothing could get through 'em, not even Sombra's magic. That's why they're called "Tortoiseshell", but I dunno why they stuck the word "Tank" on the end. Silly war ponies. Mum said it was somepony important's pet's name or something, but that seems stupid to me.

"Anyway... Uh, what was I saying?" The filly stopped speaking and frowned before her face lit up soon after. "Oh, right. What happened. Well, like I said, it's not that special. They—" Coalburst glanced to the side and pointed at the two skeletons which must have once worked the hamster wheels "—were probably killed by the other guy. The one with the broken leg and muzzle."

Blue was quiet for a moment before her mouth opened slightly. "How can you know that?"

"Easy. You'll see it a lot out here—well, kinda. But it's pretty obvious; the broken-leg guy would've been infected first when Celestia cast her spell and he ended up being a mad'un. Attacked the other two and killed them, that's why the bones look chewed. But he was a mad'un so couldn't get out of here, so when he'd eaten his friends he began to attack himself. Mad'uns don't feel pain much, you know that, so he bit through his leg. By that point, he probably bled out." Coalburst stood up and trotted over to the mad'un skeleton's side. Blue could only hold her breath, the fur on her neck tingly. "See his teeth? It's gotta be him who attacked 'cos they're all worn down."

Blue nodded slowly and scrunched up her muzzle as her tail tucked between her legs. "Okay, I... That's a lot to take in, but I guess so." She shuddered and glanced upwards at the hole in the machine's roof. "Can we go now?"

Coalburst giggled and trotted closer as she pulled the door to the hole shut with her magic. A small flame then flickered into being in the darkness as the filly curled up at the mare's side once more. "C'mon, Blue, I thought I'm meant to be the foal here! This place is great; maybe a bit spooky, I guess, but it's dry and warm. And I'm tired."

"Oh." Blue looked towards the skeletons and winced. "Well, fine. I... Just until the rain lets up, 'kay? Then we're gonna go... We're gonna go find RipEar." As she spoke the words, Blue's voice quavered a little; Coalburst was quick to wrap a hoof around the mare's shoulder.

"Good plan," she whispered, then lowering her head as her eyes slipped shut. "Don't worry; no big bad ghosts are gonna get us."

Blue gave a weak smile and giggle as she lay down with the filly. As she wrapped her head around Coalburst's smaller body, however, she had no doubt that sleep and rest would be nought but wishful thinking.