Collapse was going to attack the spider but before she could it ended up getting impaled with crystal. Collapse looks on in shock at the spider being speared through like that. She froze up upon seeing it. "Shit! Run, more spiders!" Collapse shouted before stopping and realizing that there were no more spiders coming from what they could see, but instead the presence of someone who was oddly familiar. Her eyes soften at the voice, hoping it was who she thought it was. "M-magloria?" Collapse turned towards the voice with a slight sniffle in her voice.
"Well who else were you expecting? A friendly windigo?" The light blue unicorn asked sarcastically, her horn lighting up to draw water from the river, crystallizing it into a new shard and letting it rest on the ground. That was definitely Magloria alright.
Jump Start couldn't help but squee as soon as she knew for certain that their captain was in front of them, alive and... well, she had several scratches across her limbs and face, some of which had bled recently, but she was mostly fine other than that. Magloria continued. "Now, while I'm all for celebrating finding each other again, this place is still infested with spiders, so we should go somewhere else. This one is one of the weaker ones. You don't want to meet the yellow ones."
Collapse did a large squee upon confirming it was Magloria. Collapse was really happy to see her but contained herself. "Oh, its so good to see you! We were looking for you!. There are also really large lobsters around here that disguise themselves as rocks and we were glad to largely avoid those. We can confirm..." she pointed towards the whirlpool lake. "Over that way is quite an impressive body of water, many meters deep and there is a waterfall larger than any that I've ever seen. It's pretty beautiful actually." Collapse said with a smile.
"We really should find a way out of here, if there is one. I feel like we are on the bottom of the ocean floor in a cave underneath the actual surface of the ocean floor. As for the whereabouts of the ship itself and the other crew, I haven't got a clue." Collapse spoke with a pun there, but looked to Magloria to lead the way away. She was the captain after all.
Magloria began leading them back to the whirlpool lake, speaking as she did so. "Yeah, I've seen the lobsters and the waterfall lake. That waterfall is actually the bottom of the whirlpool, if you could believe it. It's size matches what we fell into, so you're correct about being below the ocean." "So far I've been searching for any clues to a way out, or the rest of the crew. I assumed everyone else was dead when I woke up alone. Didn't find anything until you two showed up." They reached the location of the lobsters.
If Magloria was worried about them, she certainly didn't show it. Instead she kept moving forward, straight through them all. Jump Start was hesitant to follow, but did so anyway. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), none of the lobsters cared about the ponies wandering through. "I've been exploring for a bit. Haven't found much else besides what appears to be the territory of a whole colony of bats, plus the spiders around these parts. Did you know they have community nesting grounds? Ugh. Horrible place." Magloria said.
Collapse followed through the lobsters and was glad nothing came of them. Perhaps the lobsters were more docile than one had thought. "I am glad that we didn't run into the nesting grounds of the spiders. We had a few encounters with them but I was able to drive them off, thankfully. Now, that waterfall interests me. Do you think this whirlpool is natural? As far as I can tell, or imagine, it has to be stationary above where we are in order for that waterfall to be maintained, if the waterfall lake is any indication of it. I don't know much about whirlpools, but I find it unusual that is the apparent case." Collapse states in deep thought.
"When I woke up, I had been alone for a while until I was able to find Jump Start here. I did however manage to find a board of rotting wood, so it is entirely possible that we are not the first to share our fate. There could be others here, we don't know long this system of caverns extends for." she added.
"The whirlpool is definitely natural, if this cave system is any indication. However something likely happens to close the whirlpool up every so often, otherwise this cave would've completely flooded centuries ago. It's possible that floor debris clogs up the whirlpool, and only occasionally does it get released." Magloria theorized. A couple spiders wandered along their path. Upon seeing the ponies, they moved towards them, not realizing until it was too late that a frozen spear was launched at each of them.
Magloria scoffed at the corpses, recreating her spears in the process. "If there are really any others who got caught here before us, I doubt they would've survived for long. If they did, they would've found a way to leave already." she pointed out. Finally, after a lot of walking they arrived back at the whirlpool lake. "Now." Magloria started, "I've already explored those two rivers over there." she pointed in a direction that they hadn't been in yet.
Jump Start added the river the two of them had also explored. "Then that means the next one is over in that direction." Magloria concluded, summoning her magic before aiming it at the water. In instant a small ice raft appeared, which she jumped on. "Get on. We're sailing over there, while we're at calm waters."
Collapse seemed rather impressed at the appearance of the small ice raft and gets in, sitting next to Magloria. "Your powers are most certainly impressive and useful, my friend." she commented as she looks up at the waterfall. "I just hope that whirlpool doesn't close up anytime soon or else we would be truly trapped in here." Collapse stated as she adjusts her position next to Magloria.
Given the ice, it was rather cold to sit on but it was well worth it. "If there were others before us perhaps we'll find remains or clues to escape, something like that at the very least. We will soon have to deal with water and food. We can't drink salt water. Don't you suppose you could purify water using your power, Magloria?" Collapse asked as something crossed her mind. "You know, I think the reason we were able to find each other is because the three of us got sucked out of the ship, and the ship itself was either destroyed by the ocean floor or ended up somewhere else." Collapse stated.
Magloria was unimpressed by Collapse's line of thinking regarding the whirlpool. "Whether it closes up or not is irrelevant to our situation. Unless you've got the ability to counteract several tones of water every second, plus gravity, and have transport ready to go topside, we're not getting out that way." she said. After Jump Start got on as well, Magloria flicked her horn, causing them to slowly start drifting towards the next river. Magloria grimaced a bit at the thought of getting them fresh water. "No, I can't purify the water here, otherwise I would've done so during the boat trip. I can condense water from the air if we absolutely need to, but it takes a lot of magic to do so. It'll only be a last resort." Jump Start whimpered when Collapse pondered over what happened to the ship.
"So you think the ship sank and the rest of the crew is dead?" she asked. Magloria sighed. "As much as I hate to admit, I also think that. The ship wasn't designed to escape easily when flooded." At this point they had reached the next river, and already they could see some distant red, blue and green glows. Whatever was down there, there was a surprising amount of light.
Collapse nods to what Magloria responds with. "Well, I hope that isn't the case...but it probably is." Collapse grimaced upon the thought of that. "I think the only hope of reaching a true escape would be to find a cave system that leads to land and last I remember we were nowhere near any land...." Collapse ponders just as they arrive into the next river with the strange glows in the distance.
"It looks like we are heading up on something. Maybe it could be...glowing crystals? I can't really tell from this distance." Collapse's eyes squinted a bit. She was hoping they were heading into an area with something useful rather than dangerous spiders and lobsters.
It wasn't glowing crystals that they ended up finding. Before they even reached the place a thick smell of fungus entered their noses. Jump Start covered her nose, clearly offended by the pungent odor. "Are those... mushrooms?" Jump Start asked, staring at what appeared to be a literal forest of massive mushrooms, grown like trees to be far taller than them. The glow it seemed came from sections of the mushrooms where tiny spores came from. It seemed there were 3 different kinds of mushroom competing for space.
Fat red capped ones, some large enough that they look like they could be hollowed out and used as homes. Tall green ones with pointed tips, reaching for the roof of the cave. And rounded blue ones, which had lighter blue spots covering them. Looking at the spots brought a strange sense of calm to them. "Well... now we just need to figure out which ones are safe to eat. I hope you both like mushrooms for dinner." Magloria stated.
Collapse also covers her nose upon the arrival into the forest of massive mushrooms. She looks at them in utter awe, she once read a story about something like this. She can't exactly remember what it was about but it did involve giant mushrooms. To have a childhood story be something that is validated by something is nothing short of exquisite. Collapse looks at the spots and feels the strange sense of calm.
In a calm voice she says, "Things like this only existed in stories...and now we are seeing it. It is nothing short of amazing...looking at them I can already feel some sense of calm within them. Perhaps the blue ones are the ones that are safe to eat? I would imagine they also have some psychedelic powers. If you ask me, I don't really think I am in the mood to go on an acid trip." Collapse joked. "But yes, I think we'll be your taste testers, captain." Collapse said with a chuckle.
Magloria glanced over to Collapse, noticing her rather calm yet vacant expression. With one swift movement, she tapped Collapse right in the face with her hoof. It wasn't enough to hurt, just shock her out of her daze. "Focus Collapse. Let's not go eating mushrooms before figuring out if they're poisonous or hallucinogenic. First tests are to see if your skin has a reaction to them, anyway. Part of a wilderness survival guide." Magloria tells her.
Jump Start receives the same treatment of a hoof to the face, apparently having also been put under a calming state. Later she received a second hoof, harder this time. Before long their raft reached a lake. It looked like a good place to disembark for now. The raft was starting to melt after all. With a magical push, the raft hit the shoreline, Magloria and Jump Start getting out. Strangely enough, there were nothing but large stumps and tiny shrooms closer to the water edge, as if someone had chopped them down.
Collapse was jolted out of her daze and shakes her head, looking at Magloria. "Right, right. Understood. Those things have a sense of...something within them that makes it hard for me to think straight. " she spoke and looked away from the mushrooms and focused on Magloria and Jump Start. Collapse noted that Jump Start was also in a calm state and smiled. Magloria meant well for them, she thought.
Upon reaching the shoreline, Collapse exits the ice raft and notices the stumps close to the water edge. With one hoof raised she looks back at them. "I have a feeling we aren't going to be alone here." she spoke quietly, and with a little bit of hesitation in her voice. "I think we should first make sure we are in a safe area before we perform any...tests." she stated.
"What do you mean?" Magloria asked, looking around the mushroom forest, searching for something that Collapse might've seen. One of her spears rose into the air, anticipating an attack. Jump Start moved over to one of the stumps, sitting down on it as she did so. She searched too, but couldn't see anything either, even with her glowfish.
"I mean that we should always be weary of our surroundings, you never know what could be hiding in these parts. Plus, something cut mushrooms down previously." Collapse stated and put her hoof onto the stump Jump Start was at. Collapse looks around for any signs as to who, or what created the stumps as well as anything seeming unusual in this area.
"Oh. So you didn't see anything then." Magloria nods, taking a closer look at one of the stumps. Good thing it wasn't the one Jump Start was sitting on or it might be slightly embarrassing. "Seems like whatever did this had proper tools. There are sections cut that are smooth..." Magloria stated.
Both her observation and Collapse's search (which came up with nothing but mushrooms and rocks) was interrupted by a sudden sound from the water, causing both Magloria and Jump Start to turn to the water. Something moderately big must've broken the surface then dived, because they only caught a glimpse of white with no glow before it was gone. "What was that?! It didn't look like the fish we've been seeing!" Jump Start shouted.
Collapse looks over at the water and went back over to them upon hearing it. "I bet what we just saw was probably some sort of fish we haven't seen yet!" she spoke. The previous confusion upon finding nothing went away upon the sighting of the fish, or so Collapse thought it was a fish. "There is probably someone or something who lives here...I wouldn't think that any lobsters or spiders could cut away at them so precisely like this." Collapse muses somewhat.
"Yeah, I don't think they could do that either. Those lobsters... maybe could do it with those massive claws of theirs?" Jump Start said, but shrugged off the idea. "Nah... They're too slow to get here in short notice, and I don't see any around." "Well in any case, you wanted to set up a safe area before trying some of these mushrooms, correct? Well... maybe not want to try..." Magloria brought them back to the original discussion, muttering the last part to herself.
"In that case, we may need to split up to set things up faster. Not the best idea, but we don't have numbers to help us. Collapse, you and I will go in different directions to check the mushrooms, make sure they have nothing bad. Jump Start, try to uproot some of the smaller mushrooms. They could probably be used as logs for a campfire." She ordered, preparing to set out.
Collapse nodded to Magloria's orders. "Right. I will go that way." Collapse pointed off towards the left. "We will meet back here in say, how about a half hour? How does that sound?" Collapse suggested to the two of them. "I'll check the area for anything important, if I find anything interesting I'll tell you about when we reconvene or just call you over." Collapse added before taking a hoof step in that direction. "Good luck, hopefully we can find something. I think this place is the most survivable we've found yet." she stated in a hopeful manner.
"Right. We probably won't need half an hour. Just come back within that time, and we won't have to go out looking for you." Magloria agreed, before heading off in another direction, through the mushrooms. "See you. I guess I'll wait here..." Jump Start waved, turning to look at some of the mushrooms, she quietly spoke to herself. "I guess... I'll just kick some of them... That should work. Hmm? ... Nah." Ahead of Collapse, she could see... mushrooms. Big ones, small ones, fat ones, skinny ones. Lots and lots of mushrooms. Ew, some of them had snails crawling on them. Surprising those can live down here, given the salt water.
Collapse waved and headed off into the mushrooms, being sure to remember her directions back to where the others were. Collapse's face contorted in disgust upon seeing the snails. She was going to stay away from those. As she proceeds forward she looks for any different, unusual types of mushrooms or signs of habitation. Just anything unusual here, in general.
Collapse saw a few things around the place that could be considered unusual. The first was that those snails were apparently babies. She came across a section of the forest where some of the mushrooms had vanished, leaving holes in the ground. It turns out that the culprit was none other than a massive snail, seen slowly devouring one of the massive mushrooms in it's path. A trail of thick, oily slime left behind it.
There was another mysterious absence of mushrooms in another spot. Only a single mushroom could be found, a purple one with yellow spots. It seemed to shift occasionally, for whatever reason. Maybe it was best to avoid it. Finally she came across something she'd likely dread. A cluster of blue mushrooms had been heavily webbed, but there were no spiders nearby it seemed. It was far enough from the camp that it shouldn't be a problem, but still, spiders lived here too. (Goodnight)
Collapse notices the massive snail devouring the mushroom. "Huh...that explains why the mushrooms are missing but a snail couldn't cut them out..." she mutters under her breathe and stayed far away from it. That snail she found rather creepy, she didn't like snails at all even before all this. Icky things! Upon finding the purple one with yellow spots, she avoids it completely as she realizes the blue mushrooms. She felt a sense of calm coming over her again and looked away from it, but proceeded away from it quickly. She indeed dreaded the spot of the webbing over the mushrooms. Thinking that's where they all set up in and thought they might be about on the prowl for prey, so she wanted to move away from this area. She proceeded around, looking for anything that seemed to be edible and safe, or any signs of civilization here.
Collapse searches everywhere, but no matter where she looks she can't find anything that seems safe. It's just mushrooms everywhere, and maybe the occasional bits of glowing moss that she's seen before. No light-absorbing plant could grow down here, even with the mushrooms and their glow. There's no signs of civilization either. It's too far away from any rivers to find scraps of shipwrecks, and it's unlikely that snails had a civilization. Even if they did, it probably was not one worth visiting. Half an hour was almost up, or at least she thought it was about that time. It was hard to tell without a day/night cycle. She should probably head back now.
Collapse, realizing that she didn’t find anything else would proceed back to the camp. At least that is what she will call it for now. Collapse hopes the others found more interesting things. This is a really interesting place in her eyes, even though snails and spiders are unappealing it is the best option so far for a place to stay, at least for now. There are probably more places down the river. If anything, this is one of her fillyhood dreams. Exploring an underworld…of sorts. But considering the circumstances she feels conflicted of if it is worth it.
Collapse found out it was rather easy to spot the camp. Jump Start had already set up a lit campfire... somehow. It smelt alot like burning mushroom, but that was the sacrifice needed for warmth. Apparently that's not all that Jump Start did. Using harder pieces of a larger mushroom, she had set up a grill of sorts, where several smaller, softer mushrooms were cooking. Upon noticing Collapse approach, she waved. "Hi! I was bored so I made this. Do you think the mushrooms are better when cooked? The blue ones seem better, anyway. Staring at them doesn't calm me down anymore." she said.
Collapse approaches the camp with an impressed grin on her face. She was quite impressed with what Jump Start just did. Amused at how she made a mushroom grill too. Collapse sits down next to her. “Wow! You are quite good at this! Its really interesting how the blue ones work like that.” She says with a smile. “I wonder what they taste like but we should probably wait for Magloria to get back first.” she said. “I wonder what the different colors mean. Different effects maybe? Its pretty amazing how all this is underground.” she adds
Jump Start blushed at the complement, clearly not used to them. "Uhh... thanks, but I didn't really do much... There were a lot of mushrooms around and it was boring waiting..." she said. She casually poked the grilled mushrooms. "I dunno. Somehow I think these mushrooms have changed when I cooked them. See this red one?" she points at a reddish-brown piece, "I'm pretty sure I heard it popping when I first cooked it, and it smells different too." she explained. Before long, Magloria came back to the camp, with what appear to be a pair of woody knobs stuffed in her nose. "Ugh, we're not going in that direction. It was an absolute swamp over there. Pretty sure there were large mosquitoes as well. Those things could suck you dry if you're not careful." she complained, popping the rudimentary corks out of her nose as she did so. (Looks as well as I described her. Nice job.)
Collapse nods at the explanations she heard. "Welcome back!" she was a little amused at the woody knobs stuffed in her nose. She probably couldn't handle the smell. Well over in the direction I went there was a MASSIVE snail that was eating a mushroom, I saw a weird purple and yellow mushroom that kept moving around a bit. I didn't touch it.
The worst part is, in a cluster of blue mushrooms I saw a bunch of spider's web so there are spiders here, but I didn't see any. Only the nest, I presumed it was." she looks back to Jump Start. "Well, do you think that we should test these mushrooms? I think that they would be way more safe if they are cooked than raw." Collapse asks the two of them. "But we should probably touch them to make sure we don't get any allergic reactions first." she suggested.
Magloria nods at Collapse's report on the nearby land. "Alright, so we're not going to be attacked here. We can relax now." she states, sitting down on one of the mushroom stumps. She looked towards the grilled mushrooms. "Hmm, I didn't think about cooking them, but that should help remove some of the toxins, if they contain any. This part, where we first touch them, wait, then lick them, wait again, and finally eat a small piece before waiting again is boring, but necessary." she said.
The red one looked significantly browned by the heat, and as Jump Start previously stated, it popped and has a weirdly different odor. The green one, shaped sort of like a spear, seems to have shriveled up somewhat, leaving it wrinkly. The blue one's spots have dimmed from the heat, but seems to have swelled up from the heat instead of shriveling. "Everyone, choose a mush-." Magloria said, stopping herself mid-sentence. She started whispering. "Don't look now, but we're being watched from the water. I can see something out of the corner of my eye."
Collapse was about to address Magloria's comments about the mushrooms and proceed with her suggestions before she froze up slightly at what Magloria said. "Maybe whatever is watching is, is what we saw earlier. What we thought was a 'fish' may not actually be a fish...but something else..." Collapse suggested with a whisper, not looking away from the mushrooms for now. Collapse then would touch the blue mushroom with her hoof for a few moments with slight pressure applied on it before she pulled her hoof away and waited for any affects to happen.
"I choose the green one. You can decide the other ones." Collapse stated quietly to Magloria and Jump Start as she shifted about to get more comfortable. Collapse was feeling on edge with what Magloria stated. She didn't like the idea of being watched.
Magloria would've shaken her head if she wasn't busy not looking in a certain direction. "No, it's not a fish. From what I can tell, it appears to have long ears or feelers, and a long face. Could be some sort of underground crocodile. I can't make much more out though, it's too dark." she said. After touching the blue mushroom then announcing she'd choose the green one, the other two got confused.
"But you touched the blue one, so isn't that your choice?" Jump Start asked. "You've already touched it, so you're stuck with it now. You're picking blue." Magloria stated, moving over to touch the red one, while Jump Start touched green. Eventually a splash was heard, signifying that they were no longer being watched. "It's absence doesn't mean it's gone, just underwater." Magloria said.
(Hahaha that was a typo but I'll roll with it) Collapse nodded to Magloria's description. "I haven't really seen anything quite like that before but my best guess would indeed be, a crocodile. If it attacks we can handle it." she statd and then would decide to address the mushrooms.
Collapse giggles a bit at their talk of the mushrooms. "I was seeing if you'd catch onto that. Since we are...lost, a little humor now and then doesn't hurt, does it?"she smirked as she heard the splash. "Well, I would recommend not going anywhere near the water, at least for now." she commented when looking over to the water slowly to see if she can see anything over in that direction.
Jump Start gains a small smile upon realizing it was intended as a joke. Magloria, as they've come to expect from her, doesn't react. "Aaanyway..." Magloria starts, "No. We're not going to go near the water, not until we make sure it's safe, and we're not doing that until we're done with these mushrooms." Collapse couldn't see anything over in the lake, aside from the glowing fish below.
Even when Jump Start looked over they couldn't make out anything except a few underwater plants and a few non-glowing fish. Some time later Magloria started scratching at where she touched the mushroom. "I think I'm getting a rash. Looks like red is off the menu. You two enjoy the next step, licking them."
Collapse smiled back to Jump Start, and the way Magloria shrugged it off made her giggle a bit again. Collapse notices there were no glowing fish, she assumes they are in an area where they don't frequent or don't venture into. When Magloria scratches at the spot where she touched the mushroom Collapse looked to her with a concerned manner. "Well, let's hope for the best..." Collapse levitates the mushroom in her magic close to her mouth and licks it. Once.
Then she puts it back down and proceeds to wait, as she thinks about the taste occurring in her mouth. "Hopefully these are safe to eat. I wonder if we eat them long enough, if they are safe, if any changes will occur within our bodies. Mushrooms have benefits, at least, some of them." she states.
Collapse must've been mistaken, because there definitely were glowing fish in the waters. Non-glowing fish too. The taste of the blue mushroom... it was strange... it was bland, yet salty and sweet. Completely different to a regular mushroom from the surface, if she'd tried any before. Jump Start looked worried, not really considering the possibility that the mushrooms could change them. "I sure hope not. I don't want to turn into something else. Especially not a spider!" she whined. 15 minutes later and the lick didn't have a reaction for either of them.
"Well looks like it's time to try a bit, and Jump Start, it's not going to turn you into a spider." Magloria stated, only filling Jump Start with uncertainty as she hesitantly lifted the mushroom to her mouth. Another water splash, then a voice. A masculine voice.
"Oi buddy, you might not want to eat that green one." Jump Start jumped in shock, causing her mushroom to fly out of her grip and fall into the fire.