Collapse was quite shocked at Magloria's sudden movements. "C-captain! What is it?" she asked frantically as Magloria ran out into the rain. Before Collapse had a chance of running out into the rain Magloria had bolted back inside. Collapse was soaked by the oncoming rain into the door.
Collapse quickly would shut the door as she watches Magloria push the buttons rapidly. Collapse stood back in fear of interfering with Magloria's duties. She really wanted to know what was going on and by the look on her face she was quite lost and confused by this situation. Upon looking out into where she was pointing the spotlight at something out in the waters.
"What is that?" Collapse asked, looking more.
As soon as Collapse asked the second question she could hear a hum below the boat. Magloria just turned the ship's engines back on, and was now busy turning the wheel sharply to the side.
Outside there just seemed to be crashing waves, high and low. Collapse was unable to make out exactly why there was an issue, at least from what she could see. "Just my luck. Damn things shouldn't exist anywhere if I had anything to say about it."
Magloria angrily muttered to herself, before turning the ship's intercom on, indirectly addressing Collapse as she did so.
"Attention all crew, we've just entered the outer rim of a massive whirlpool leading into the ocean floor. Emergency stations NOW!" Turning the intercom off, she moved a hoof over to the ship's throttle and slowly began to increase the power supplied to the engines.
Collapse stood there in shock at what she had just heard. The sounds of the waves and Magloria's moves at the wheel seemed to reign for all eternity within her mind.
Her fear became absolute as she froze up for a good couple of seconds. "How is that possible?? M-magloria if anything happens here I just want you to know one thing!" she looks into Magloria's eyes. "That it was an honor standing by your side...I-if we make it out of this alive, I would like to stand by your side as a loyal friend..." Collapse said almost longingly before standing at the stairwell that would allow her to go down into engineering to assume her duties there. She looked down at the stairwell as if it was a doorway to hell.
She knew her duties. If Collapse was going to go down with the ship, she was going to go down with honor fulfilling her orders. She gave a salute to Magloria, a few tears strolling down her eyes at the prospect that it may very well all end shortly. She would quickly wipe her tears away. She had a duty to do, and she was going to do it well. Wiping her tears away, Collapse proceeded down into engineering to monitor the mana-drive and other machinery to make sure it was performing as it should.
Magloria rolled her eyes as Collapse's speech, shifting the wheel a bit and increasing the throttle further. "Well then I guess you're going to be a loyal friend then, because we're DEFINITELY going to survive this. I'm not going to die to some stupid abomination of an ocean condition!" she growled.
Magloria paid no attention when Collapse left, far too busy with keeping the ship from getting dragged in further. Down in engineering, Collapse could hear the engine humming loudly, it nearing it's safe levels of output. Performing her duties was difficult however, due to the constant shifting and rocking, making everything unstable to work with. However there was a problem. The engine could run at a decent pace for hours at a time.
At higher levels it would consume power at a much faster rate, and it had already been some time since Collapse started working back in engineering. Whatever Magloria was trying was taking too long. Eventually the engine would give out. Collapse knew that it was only designed to be recharged safely when it wasn't in use. Something would have to be sacrificed, either time it's spent active which would drag them closer to the center of the whirlpool, or safety precautions which may risk blowing the engine completely, especially due to the unstable environment.Collapse walked up to the mana drive, looking to the others. Her face was that of firm resolve but on the inside she was extremely torn. She looked to the others as an idea crossed her mind. "I know this may sound downright insane, but what if I charge the mana drive with my magic? That way, it wouldn't be recharging from its natural supply technically. But if we do that, I risk injuring myself and an unknown result would occur." Collapse spoke as she was doing her duties, holding on tight to the wall.
"We obviously need to have thrust to get us out of that whirlpool! Its either charging this thing directly which would very well risk blowing it! Or it is me risking myself to charge this engine indirectly through a spell. What are your opinions? I need answers, quickly!" she looked to the others with a look they hadn't seen across her face before. She was very much prepared to risk herself if it meant buying them time, or rescuing the ship from the whirlpool itself.
The only other in the engineering room was Jump Start, who was only here because emergency protocols said she should. She immediately shook her head. "Don't do it! You know how dangerous doing something like that is! We might still be able to get away with the power we have!" she tried to reason.
A wave caused the boat to lurch to the side, causing Jump Start to stumble from the unexpected movement, straight into a wall. Clang. That looked like it hurt. Jump Start was still awake, but lost her footing for the moment. Judging from the grimace she was making it hurt enough to leave a sizable bruise later and make moving around to help harder.
Collapse looked to Jump Start. "Oh shit! Are you okay?!" she'd ask and moved up to her to check her. She was out of commission for now, in Collapse's mind it was best to get out of engineering and let her handle this. "Jump Start, please go to another safer location. I don't want you getting hurt!" she spoke as she looks to the core. "I am going to inform Magloria of the options." Collapse went over to the coms and pressed the button. In the bridge Magloria hears the crackle of the speaker come on.
"Collapse to the Bridge! Captain, we have a few options. One, we try to get away using the power that we have. Two, we charge the mana drive while the engines are on to give us a boost but that will run the risk of blowing the entire system. Three, I will take the personal risk and charge the core myself as to not run the risk of an overload of the charging systems, but at risk to myself! If that is what you want me to do, I'll do it without question. Option four would be to combine various of these methods. What do you think? If you have any other options, please say so." Collapse asked clearly, and quickly. Collapse would await the decisions.
Jump Start started to get up with difficulty, due to the constant movements. "Yeah. I'm- ow... I'm fine." she replied. Collapse couldn't see anything wrong, aside from bruising across her side. She wasn't interested in Collapse's attempts to get her out of engineering. "I can still do my job! Besides, there is no safe location right now." she retorted, stumbling over to the section where they keep their mana batteries, inscribed metal cubes containing large amounts of power. Heavy too. It didn't take long for Magloria to come to a decision. Most of Collapse's suggestions were stupid, in her opinion. No self-respecting engineer would even think of it.
"Don't you dare risk yourself or our only means of getting away!" Collapse heard her shout. "We're rounding the outside of the whirlpool right now, but we need enough speed to break free. The whirlpool is giving us that speed! We just need a few more minutes before we achieve that. DON'T do anything stupid until then!" The intercom shut off again. It wasn't even half the estimated time for freedom when Collapse heard the loud hum start to stutter.
The engine was running out of power. The propellers were slowing down and soon would cease function completely.
Collapse didn’t seem to respond to Jump Start’s words as Magloria yelled over the loudspeaker but would keep close to her and made sure she didn’t fall over or hurt herself again. Collapse would say, “Alright alright, I understand!” she quickly shouted back as she observed the mana core. That loud hum was quite chilling to hear. It is something she never wanted to hear. Collapse felt guilty for making those suggestions but in her mind she was only doing what an engineer would, think of possible ideas for a problem and then share it with others to come to that conclusion.
Collapse wasn’t going to do anything against Magloria’s orders since she would be blamed for anything going wrong. She had to do something, but what? Collapse goes back on the speaker when she hears the loud hum start to stutter, it is likely that Magloria can hear this over the speaker. “I don’t know how long it will last for! We must do something or we will be going into that Whirlpool!” Collapse speaks in a highly serious tone.
After hearing that the engine was losing power, Collapse could hear Magloria growl before she spoke up again. "Dammit! Alright, new plan. I'll be shutting the engine off temporarily. That should give you time to insert a new mana battery and get things working again. We won't have much time, the whirlpool seems to be getting stronger. Contact me again when it's done. Go!" Upon hearing what the captain had planned, Jump Start immediately tried to extract one of the mana batteries from it's storage, with difficulty.
The injury wasn't letting her get a good grip on the heavy material. The humming sounds stopped, signaling that the engine had been shut off. The rough waves seemed to get even worse without the propellers keeping the boat moving forward, making it even harder to work. Even worse was entire boat was starting to lean to the side as it went deeper towards the center of the whirlpool. Enough that Jump Start seemed to have trouble keeping herself in place as she grappled with the battery.
"Alright, I understand!" Collapse called back to Magloria as she steadies herself upon the engine shutting off. Collapse would quickly move over to Jump Start and used her own magic to steady herself as she would begin the extraction of the battery currently in the mana core. Collapse unlocks the clamps holding it in and quickly slides it out. Once the empty battery is out she just sets it down onto the floor.
No time to organize things. Collapse goes over to Jump Start and stays near to her so she can keep herself in place. She stumbles a little bit and takes a few seconds to regain her footing as she would help Jump Start extract the battery. Once it was extracted she began to lift the battery into the air with her magic. She didn't have a lot of time. Collapse opens up the insert for the battery in the core and then slides it in properly. She puts the clamps in, making sure it has good contact and is in secured in place. Collapse calls back over the speaker, "New battery back in, go!" Collapse shouts quickly.
Collapse successfully manages to extract the battery currently within the engine core and assist Jump Start with grabbing the new battery, however it was when she tried to install the new battery where things started to go wrong. Before she was able to bring the new battery into the core, another powerful wave crashed against the boat, causing the entire room to shudder. The part which supplies power to the lights must've been too badly jostled, as suddenly all the lights within the room went out, except for Collapse's magic.
Worse still was Collapse suddenly found herself knocked aside as a heavy, furry body impacted her. Jump Start, unable to keep hold of where she was with all the tremors, ended up sliding downwards. Straight into Collapse. She was now pressed against the ground by someone trying to get off of her, her magic most likely disrupted by the impact, and no lights to guide either of them to the engine.
Collapse was knocked back by Jump Start. She knew it wasn't her fault but she would be lying to herself if she wasn't upset. It took her a few seconds to realize what had happened. The power supply for the lights was likely jostled out of place, and now there was no lights. She remembers what Rope Burn joked about, but here it was no joke. Magloria wanted them to carry the lantern incase of situations like this.
Collapse uses her magic to push Jump Start aside as she fells around for her lantern, which landed nearby to her as she was carrying it with her at all times. She flicks the lantern on, and illuminates more of the room with her own magic as well. The new battery was knocked aside on the floor. Collapse wraps her magic around the battery, attempting to lift it up but before anything, she checked to see if it was damaged. "J-Jump Start, I need you to help me here. I know you can do it. I know we can do it..." still after this, Collapse hadn't gave up her hope.
Jump Start was shoved away successfully, ending up uncontrollably sliding past further to the far wall. The angle the entire room was at was now steep enough that Collapse also started sliding in the same direction, even with her magic helping her keep steady. As soon as Collapse turned her lantern on, a bright electric white light illuminated everything in the nearby vicinity. This included Jump Start, pressed up against the wall and attempting to stand again. She still looked mostly fine, if a bit scared now of what might happen.
The battery thankfully was not damaged. They're designed to be as tough as nails, so there was very little risk of one becoming unstable, leaking or otherwise causing issues. Jump Start whimpered as she was addressed. It's not that she was afraid of helping, it's that Collapse was asking of the impossible now. "I can't! It's too steep! I'll just slip again if I try!" She even tried moving back up the slope towards the engine, but she kept sliding back each step. Sometimes hooves were not the greatest to have. The intercom turned on. The lights were out, but it seems the power to the speakers was not. "We need our engines back on NOW! We're almost in the center of the whirlpool!" Magloria's voice shouted through the system.
Collapse strengthens her magic as she watches Jump Start. She felt quite bad for Jump Start and looked on with sympathetic eyes, her eyes saying that she was sorry. Collapse steadies her breathe, looking scared of what would happen as well. She was glad the battery wasn't damaged and grabs it with her magic. "Then I will try, don't worry! I'll handle it! Just try to stay steady, okay?" Collapse said in a worried manner.
When the intercom turns back on Collapse straightens up, "The wave that just struck us knocked me and Jump Start back, the new battery was tossed to the side when I got it out of the casing! Thank Celestia you reminded me of the lantern, the lights are out down here!" Collapse shouts back, and leaves the coms on as she lifts the battery in her magic and turns it in the manner and attempts to slide it down into the drive and put the clamps on from a distance, so she wouldn't have to climb up the steepness.
Jump Start nodded and remained in place, unable to do much else other then watch what Collapse was doing. It's a good thing the things on the other side of the room was secure, otherwise she may end up having to deal with alot more. Or at least she figured they were secure, the leather straps seemed to be holding.
With all the constant shaking it was hard to move the battery to the correct position, especially since it's weight made it hard to hold for too long before needing to rest. Despite this, Collapse was able to insert the battery into the core, securing it in place with the clamps. By now the room was so steep that any normal attempt to walk up it without the ability to grip would end in complete failure. Thankfully the door out of the room was still accessible, so they weren't trapped.
Collapse makes sure the new battery is fully secured within the core. Collapse looks to Jump Start. "It's in, it's in!" she said with hope and then turned to the speaker. "Turn the engines on, NOW! The battery is secured within the core!" Collapse called into the speaker.
It was heard for Collapse to steady herself but she was able to stand. Collapse looks onto Jump Start, glad that she managed to put the battery in the core. Hopefully it would be enough. After that happened she looks up towards the other things on the side of the room, she was glad that she secured them into place and holds her lantern in her magic so nothing would happen with it. Collapse sighs of relief upon the success of the battery being inserted into the core.
Jump Start looked very relieved that the battery was successfully installed. Her whole body at this point was shaking from adrenaline, so much so that she had to sit down just to keep herself from falling over. At Collapse's word, the engine started to hum again, starting low at first but slowly getting higher and louder.
It seemed like they'd finally start leaving the whirlpool. However several minutes passed and, despite the engine roaring, the room was still at an extremely steep angle. That was when they heard the sound of metal snapping and felt the boat lurching. Jump Start became alert again and started searching for the source of the noise, but couldn't seem to find it. "What was that!?" she shouted in panic.
"I don't know! It could be the frame or the bulkheads snapping and creaking from the stress!" Collapse shouted back at Jump Start, Collapse was getting quite scared now. "Look, we need to go see what is going on, we can't just stay in here!" Collapse opens the door and moves a little bit over to the door.
She was quite worried at how the room was still at a steep angle, but she had no way of knowing how big the whirlpool was outside. "Come here, if you can't walk here yourself and if you slip, I'll catch you! We'll go look for the noise and see if there is anything we can do to help!" Collapse said, shaking quite a bit. Collapse's whole body as well was shaking with adrenaline out of concern for her life, as well as all the other lives and the ship itself.
"Y-yeah, right. There's nothing we can do here anymore." Jump Start agreed, quickly hobbling along the wall in the direction of the door. The distance between the wall and the door itself was a problem, but nothing she couldn't handle. With a pained grunt she leapt up towards the door, getting most of her body past the frame before pulling the rest through. Depending on where they were headed, things would be easier than normal or borderline impossible to get to. Thankfully the stairwell up to the bridge was in a place where they didn't have to climb up the slippery floor to reach.
As they walked out into the hallway Collapse steadied herself, hobbling along as she looks to Jump Start and made sure she was able to follow her. "If you need help walking, I will help you." Collapse stated as she walks closer to her, offering a reassuring hoof. "Let's head to the bridge. The captain will know what is going on, I hope." she spoke quickly and waited for Jump Start to take her hoof if she needed help up the stairs.
Collapse nodded, "Alright, I understand." she spoke to Jump Start as she up the stairs slowly,. Collapse gulped at what she imagined what would happen on the bridge. She hoped that Magloria wasn't hurt, and when they arrived she would see that was not the case. Collapse nervously cleared her throat. "New mana battery is installed, hopefully that should keep us out of the whirlpool." she spoke to Magloria. "What are you doing? We heard a really loud snap and felt the boat shift a bit, did something break?" Collapse asked, trying to remain calm but Magloria and Jump Start could tell that she was quite nervous.
Magloria spared a single moment to look over to where Collapse and Jump Start had appeared from before going back to pushing buttons. "Oh yes, something definitely broke. Where we're at in the whirlpool the currents are too strong. That snap you heard?" she paused her button pushing, "That was the sound of one of the propellers being torn apart."
"WHAT?! What are we doing to do?!" Jump Start panicked, stumbling as another wave hit the boat, almost falling back down the stairs.
"There's not much left we can do, short of absolutely reckless options that may kill us all. We don't have enough thrust to make it out anymore with only 1 propeller, and the currents won't give us enough speed to escape." Magloria explained.
Collapse stands by Jump Start as Magloria explains. She looks utterly mortified and sighs loudly as she looks to them. “We are fucked…we are so fucked!” she muttered under her breath but it was loud enough to be heard. Collapse whimpered a bit as she sat down at the seats beckoning Jump Start over.
“We better think of something quick or else we will die tonight…” she spoke seriously. “ she drums her hooves on the table. “So the propeller snapped, we certainly can’t go out there and fix the damn thing uhhhhh, lets think here…anti gravity spell? I can do that but I can’t lift a whole ship…” she thinks outloud.
“How about we gather all the unicorns out back and perform a spell by mana linking our selves to compensate for the broken propeller? Like it would be as if it wasn’t broken? But I am not sure how we would do that…” she sighs. “I did my best and there was no way that I could have predicted this. Now, I do wonder about something…what would cause a whirlpool this big? It doesn’t seem natural…” Collapse said in a scared tone as she looks to Jump Start in fright.
Collapse's words of despair only worsened the panic that Jump Start was experiencing. She looked like she was ready to jump straight off the ship if it would allow her to survive for longer. It wouldn't, but logic is hard to come by in a fear-addled mind. Magloria shook her head at Collapse's idea.
"An anti-gravity spell would not help. We don't have the unicorn power to get the ship airborne OR act as a propeller powerful enough, even if we could get them all here somehow, with the ship as it is!" She let out a sigh as Collapse pondered about the nature of the whirlpool. "Oh believe me, these are definitely natural, but rare as phoenix eggs.
They're often caused by- woah!" Her lecture was interrupted by another violent shake of the boat, causing her to grip tightly to the control panel in order to not fall. Jump Start however did not have such support. With a sudden yelp, she ended up stumbling backwards, back down the stairs and out of sight. They could at least hear her moans of pain as she landed at the bottom. The boat got even steeper, now practically on it's side. They could hear loud crashing outside, telling them they were about to enter the center of the vortex. Water was now crashing right up against the bridge's window in thick sheets.
Collapse yelped upon the sudden violent shake of the bolt, interrupting her conversations. The boat was really on an incline now and Collapse was now really really afraid. She sat there a moment, her fear racing through her mind. Still, she desperately attempted to control her fear. She could hear Jump Start's pained moans at the bottom of the stairs, she felt so bad for the poor thing.
Collapse got up quickly, holding onto the walls with her magic to proceed down the stairs to get Jump Start. She wasn't going to allow Jump Start to be alone in this situation. Collapse was being very careful but heading down the stairs at such an incline was difficult. With all her determination, she would aim to reach Jump Start and carry her back up the stairs in her magic. Collapse's mind was running with adrenaline, and she was going to spend whatever magic she had in order to bring Jump Start back up to the bridge. If they all were going to die here, than Collapse would want them to go down on the bridge with the captain.
By this point Collapse wasn't so much walking down the stairs as walking down the wall next to the stairs. As the light of the lantern moved forward she could see Jump Start already getting up, though there were a fair few more bruises on her head, legs and body.
Despite the injuries, she had already begun to move back towards Collapse. Tough mare, though that's a given considering she's an earth pony. Before they reached the bridge once again, they both heard a noise. The running of water, followed by a few cracking sounds. Coming from the bridge was now a small, rapid flow of water. "Well, it's a pity things had to end this way, I suppose." they heard Magloria say from the bridge.
Collapse moved quickly, and would help Jump Start back up the wall instead of the stairs, which would have been weird but given the current situation it didn't really matter. Collapse would reach her hoof out to Jump Start whether she wanted it or not and help her along into the bridge. Upon seeing the rapid flow of water her eyes widened. It was truly happening. They were going to die, Collapse thought.
"M-magloria, there is n-nothing we c-can do now, i-is there?" Collapse asked like a scared filly as she now boards the bridge with Jump Start being pulled along. Collapse sighs. "I really didn't want it to e-end this way...but this is a choice that I made and I knew the risks, so I will...accept my fate..." Collapse spoke, she was starting to cry a little now. Collapse would pull Jump Start into a hug, looking to Magloria. She wanted Magloria to join in with the hug. It was the only place of comfort.
When they reach the bridge they can see what's happening. Magloria has abandoned her spot at the control panel and was now sitting against the wall/floor, there being no point in staying at that spot anymore. The doors to the outside were leaking water through the gaps.
Through the window they could see a constantly swirling blur of water, now at enough pressure that the window was starting to crack, leaking even more water through. Magloria shook her head at Collapse. "I'm afraid not. The only thing left is to say goodbye to your loved ones." she said. Jump Start whimpered again upon hearing that and joined the hug that Collapse was giving her.
Magloria started moving towards the pair, intending to join the hug as well when she was distracted by the large amounts of loud cracking sounds behind her. The glass had begun to shatter completely, causing massive amounts of water to flood the bridge, ensnaring them all in an overpowering flow of water that they could not hope to fight against.
Collapse's horn flared up with a golden hue. In a time like this, that hue would likely seem heavenly. The hue surrounds the three of them and forms a golden bubble. This would prevent the glass, water and other debris from hitting them further although Collapse couldn't react in time to stop them from getting drenched. Upon her shield raising up she would pull Magloria into the hug and would pat both of them.
"Mom, from the start I knew that I wasn't born from you. Even though I was an orphan, you always loved and cared for me. You were there at my first sale of my inventions, smiling with your heavenly smile. You were only a single mother, and you had your hooves full with me...but you did good, and while you worried...I always believed in you. You always supported and loved me no matter what, even though we had our bad times we got through it. You supported me when nobody else did, even when I failed that one time and risked someone's life. That is why they call me Collapse, Magloria and...Jump Start." she sighs, tears flowing uncontrollably from her eyes.
"They called me that because I was a failure. But I refused to believe in that...I took that name as a badge of honor, and I moved forward...! I kept pursuing my dream of becoming an inventor, and when everything changed I wanted to explore the world and that lead me here...my friend Pencil Pouch believed in me too, I don't know where I would be without her, she was always there for me and when our paths changed in life we would still write each other...she was the closest thing I had to love...she was going to join me on this crew but something happened to where she couldn't make it...she never told me...." Collapse wheezed more.
"But alas...after all that, we are about to die like this...can't say I'd change how it all ends... At least we get to die with dignity..." she would tighten her hug, burying her face into Magloria and Jump Start's fur.
Jump Start and Magloria sat and listened to Collapse's story, not uttering a word as she practically poured her heart out, and not resisting her attempts to bring them even closer together. Neither of them really had anything else to say after all that, and nothing needed to be said.
The shield started to suffer increasing amounts of pressure from the water outside, making it harder and harder to keep it up.
Inevitably, the shield would collapse, forcing them into the maelstrom of liquid filling up the bridge. After the room had filled up with enough water, the currents began circulating in and out of the room, causing loose objects to get dragged out of the boat, including the three of them. Jump Start and Magloria held all of them together as much as they could, but they would eventually get dragged out no matter what they did.
Collapse would hold onto the two of them as hard as she can, she was able to hold onto the two of them as they were dragged off the boat. Her thoughts were that of pure love for her friends, and her family. That included Magloria and Jump Start as well. If only Collapse had her fly ring, she would be able to save them from the whirlpool. But that fly ring was down in her quarters, and it likely wouldn't work when it got wet anyways. The water was so cold outside. Collapse quite frankly had no idea where they were now.
Whether they were at the edge of the whirlpool, deep inside of it, she had no way of knowing. All she knew was that she was holding the two of them by her sides, Collapse was a bit strong for a unicorn though. Collapse's shield was no longer there. Now that the pressure was gone they would feel the water all around them now. Collapse held her breathe tightly, she wasn't sure about the others. If they had felt open air above them, Collapse would reform the shield. There wouldn't be the pressure all around it at the very least. Collapse was going to hold onto Magloria and Jump Start, as well as her own life for as long as she possibly can. Not until every last fiber in her body has given out.
Collapse had no opportunity to recreate her shield. Even if there was a pocket of air around them, there was no way to tell it was there, and very little chance of reaching it and raising the shield at the right time. All 3 of their breaths were held, but slowly it was running out, until it reached the point where they were starting to lose consciousness. Magloria was the first one to go, her grip weakening then failing completely.
Collapse didn't know how long Jump Start lasted, she seemed to be doing better than her. Assuming there was no other efforts to save themselves that would miraculously work, they all ended up passing out from lack of oxygen.