//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: Away and Afar // by PropsValroa //------------------------------// "Well Collapse, what are you intending to do first? A place to stay, or a place to write?" Magloria asked, getting ready to move the raft wherever she intended to go. Collapse looks to the whispering seaponies. "We were sailing on imagine...a huge raft like this but its made out of different material and there were dozens of us. We got trapped in what you called as the great water spot and we were the only ones that managed to make it out alive. Everything else now likely lies at the bottom of that whirlpool lake." Collapse said, clarifying to them with a following sigh. "Tar printers? That sounds pretty interesting." she looks to Magloria. "If you don't mind, I would like us to go look for a place to write. It shouldn't take too long but if you have any objections we can go to the place to stay. You are the captain after all." Collapse said with a sweet smile as she looked at Magloria. "It doesn't matter which order we do them in. We don't need to rest yet, so we can go to the storage area later." Magloria shrugged, before moving the raft towards the white stallion. He started heading in some direction, through the lake's district. As they moved, most of the curious seaponies stayed with them, following and watching what they were doing. Some left when they moved too far, more joined as they came by them. They reached a place which was distinctly hotter than where they were before, with an acrid smell in the air. Jump Start scrunched up her nose at the smell. Some building of sorts, carved into the side of the cave walls. Bubbling pools of black stuff could be seen around the place. The white stallion leaped out of the water and onto land, before waddling over to the building. "Yep... that's tar alright..." Magloria said as she landed the raft, jumping off in the process, followed by Jump Start. Collapse jumped off of the raft and could smell the smell of the tar. She looked about. She inhaled deeply, and cringed a bit at the smell. "Mhmmm, yeah, thats the stuff alright!" Collapse joked before coughing at how deeply she had inhaled. She glanced over at the seaponies and spoke, "I am sure you haven't seen much of the outside world beyond what dwells in these caves. We ourselves come from the surface, where there are no caves and a wide open sky. Sun, Moon, and stars." she spoke, not sure if they even knew what those were. She began to proceed into the building, looking around the area curiously. Collapse's explanation cleared up some things with the constant whispers, but it also invited even more of a different kind. Some were wondering what the sky, sun, moon and stars were, claiming such things were myths or just stories. Once they had gone far enough from the waters, most of their followers swam away, unwilling to continue. A few remained, peeking out from the water or jumping out onto the shoreline, but they went no further. Inside the smell and heat got worse, the source being several spots where more tar flowed. A pipe system seemed to be set up, extracting the tar and pumping it into a machine, before coming out the other side as a clean, black syrupy liquid that flowed into a vat. Along another wall had a dozen thin stone slabs of various sizes. One seapony was already busy with a bottle and paintbrush of this stuff, shocked at the sight of the group, dropping her paintbrush in the process. Seems like they were busy writing a sign on a stone slab. "Well... seems like they don't have paper and ink here... This looks like the best we're going to get." Jump Start said. Collapse looked to the seaponies. "If you want me to explain everything I know about the above ground world I can, but it will be a while for that. Trust me, it's not just a myth or a story. As evidenced by our lack of...flippers. If you want to know more about where we are from, wait here" she spoke with a grin, tapping her hooves on the ground a bit to emphasize her point. Turning away from the shoreline she'd go inside. She could handle the smell but the heat was making her sweat a bit. At the very least they weren't drenched in water and freezing like she was before. Noting up the pipe system and the general layout of it, she would spot the seapony who was startled at their appearance. "Hey, sorry to bother you." she said as her golden aura would lift the brush back up to her hooves. She was getting the brush for her. Collapse looks to Jump Start. "No surprise since paper and ink isn't really possible in water." approaching up to the slabs she looked to the seapony. "Alright! Pardon our intrusions, we'd like to know how to write on these tablets." she said calmly. The seapony still looked shocked when Collapse levitated away the brush. Apparently levitation is a rarity in a seapony civilization, who would've thought? She had trouble replying, but tried anyway. "Ummm... uh, you get the stone tablet, and... uh, a brush and, tar clean I mean clean tar and... write on the tablet." she stammered. Magloria looked at the bubbling tar. "Judging from the heat this stuff requires, as soon as it cools down it hardens, keeping the writing in place. Because it's hard instead of dry, it can be used underwater." she explained to Collapse. Collapse nods to Magloria. "Yup, I was thinking the same thing." she then turned to the seapony and smiled compassionately at her nervousness. "Its okay if your nervous, I understand why you would be. But we aren't here to do anything bad to you or your fellow seaponies. Thank you for your explanation." she would then grab a stone tablet in her magic, a brush and proceed over to the tar. Getting a bit on the tar, she would sit down and begin to draw. She was drawing some sort of scenery involving the boat docks back where they started, when the Constance was launched. Collapse wasn't an artist, but she did know how to draw...well enough. She wanted to create some representations of what the above ground looked like so these ponies could understand. It made her smile. Her mind was buzzing with ideas, she could be here all day. The nervous mare went back to what she was doing, occasionally sending a nervous glance in their direction to make sure they weren't doing anything that could pose a danger to her. "Hmm... That gives me an idea. I wonder..." Magloria said as she moved over to the refined tar vat. Scooping out a bit with her magic and careful not to breathe in the fumes, she created a tiny replica of a ship. Some dimensions were inaccurate, due to the scale of the creation, but it looked alright, if too black. A blast of cold air and the whole thing hardened into place. Collapse was writing on the tar. Since it was the first time she had really done anything with tar it wouldn't have been the best work she's done. Collapse notices what Magloria was doing with the tar and saw the tiny replica of a ship in her hooves. "Wow, that is really impressive that you just made that." she complimented with a wide grin across her face. "Perhaps that ability may prove useful in constructing a new ship. Parts of the ship constructed out of hardened tar. I wonder if that'd work." she ponders. Magloria set the miniature ship down on a bench nearby. "Nah, hardened tar is brittle. It would shatter the moment anything hard hit it. It could however be used as a sealant, as long as you can withstand the fumes coming out of it for a week or so." By this point Jump Start was bored, so she moved over to the tar refinery to get a better look. She seemed to be in thought as she stared at the bulky machine and pipeworks. "Ah, I see. I mean if we do end up building a ship ourselves I don't think the fumes or weird smells would matter that much, just as long as its enough for us to get back to where we need to be." Collapse spoke, as she finished the drawing. It was a drawing of the docks, however that Sun in the sky looked a little derpy and it had a teletubbies face on it. Collapse notices Jump Start's looks at the pipes and smirks. "Wondering how it all works?" Magloria smirks. "You say that, but try choking on horrible smells for days on end. You'll want to spend time up on the top deck a lot more, just to get some fresh air." Magloria looked at Collapse's painting, eyeing the details of it. If she had any thoughts about it's quality, she kept them to herself. Jump Start looked at Collapse as she was addressed, before returning her gaze to the machine as she spoke. "Yeah. I'm just imagining what's inside it. What sort of technology they have and how they use it." she said. Collapse smirked back. "Then we'll wear masks and breathing tanks or something." she giggled. "But you are correct there." she looks at the painting before going to write down some information of their travels on another tablet. Her writing was small so it could maintain all of the information they had found as of yet. "That's cool to imagine, They probably have a lot of things we don't have as I've never seen something like this. Likely because they don't have paper." she commented. "But it's not just this tar machine. They could have a whole load of different things that we don't. For example..." Jump Start wiped a hoof across her brow to remove some of the sweat that had started to accumulate. "How do they get this place so hot? And how do they keep cool?" "I uh, can answer the second question. We just... go for a swim." The seapony that was still there answered. They did look slightly damp. "I'd guess they keep this place hot through geothermal vents or natural tar pool." Collapse suggested and looked to the seapony. "Whats is your name? I am Collapse." she pointed to Jump Start and Magloria, "Their names are Magloria and Jump Start." she pointed to them. "Yeah but it seems really hot here when it was sort of cold outside..." Jump Start said before going back to her examination. "Hi... Collapse. I'm Mellow Fin." she said, curling her... tail... around her side. It seems as though this seapony was different from the others they had looked at properly. Instead of a tail full of pony hairs, it was a thick orange tail of muscle with a proper tail fin at the end. Less decorative and more functional. What was interesting was her tail and hind flippers were a different colour to her front flippers, neck and head. The back half being orange with specks of red and the front half being red with specks of purple. Her four flippers seemed thicker as well. Stronger but less flexible. She still had a mane of orange hair and pony ears, but also a pair of gills on her neck. Finally, a pair of pink eyes watched Collapse carefully. Collapse walked closer to Mellow Fin and extended her hoof to shake. She takes notice of the differences of Mellow Fin, finding her name to be fitting of her demeanor. She considers Mellow Fin to be a different kind of seapony than the other ones they have met. Like how there were different types of ponies, there would probably be different types of seaponies. "Its nice to meet you." Collapse said with a sweet smile, keeping her eye on that tail. Mellow Fin hesitantly extended her flipper out to Collapse's hoof, until they touched. She then immediately retracted it back to her side. "It's umm... nice to meet you as well..." she said. She didn't look particularly enthused about the conversation. Her tail remained wrapped around one of her back flippers. Magloria was taking the time to create another miniature figurine, since she wasn't particularly interested in partaking in the conversation for now. Mellow Fin would have felt that Collapse's hoof was a lot harder than that of their flippers. It likely felt really strange, yet a bit furry to the touch. Collapse nods. "I'll just be writing some more here, if you ever want to read, I'll show you." she stated as she continued writing about how their journey was and all the various details of the crash too. "Nice figurine. You are very talented" Collapse commented upon seeing Magloria's figurine. "I umm... already know how to read... but thank you." Mellow Fin said, getting back to her own writing. Soon she was finished and moved the stone slab onto a miniature cart. The cart looked very simple, just a thin plate of metal with 4 wheels and a handle. If what Mellow Fin was doing was any indication, it was used to transport the writing tablets to the water, since seaponies were ill equipped for moving heavy or brittle objects above land. She started to waddle out of the building, shoving the cart forward every few steps. Collapse was confused by what Mellow Fin stated. She was referring to the tablets themselves and if Mellow wanted to take a read of them. She wasn’t going to explain though, feeling it would make it more awkward. Collapse didn’t prevent her from leaving and said, “I hope you uh, remember us.” she stated with s sigh as if a bit disappointed she was leaving. With a few more steps forward, Mellow Fin was out the door, her tail fin the last thing seen of her. "We'll probably see other seaponies like her." Jump Start told Collapse in an attempt to make her feel better. "I wonder how many different types of seaponies there are. We've already seen ones with their mane and tail replaced by fins. Maybe there are some with fins instead of flippers? Or only 2 flippers? Or how about some with a unicorn horn, like a narwhal?" By this point, Magloria was done with her second figurine. It looked like a pony figurine, it's unique features unrecognizable to Collapse. "There could be any types really. But I definitely do think those would be good guesses. I would imagine there could be at least 3 or 4 different types, but we'll see. I wonder if they have names for the different types of them like we do for us." Collapse smirked, tapping her horn to emphasize her point. Looking over she could see the figurines that Magloria had made. She assumed they could have been ponies she knew once or ponies that were important to her that Magloria hadn't told them about. Moving over to where Magloria she would ask her, "Mind if I ask who those ponies are?" she pointed to the figurines calmly. Magloria looked up at Collapse, realizing that Mellow Fin was gone. "Oh, you're done with your conversation? I wasn't really paying attention." She turned back down to the figurine. "This one is Clean Sweep. One of the friendlier ponies at my childhood town. Didn't pick on me because I was different." she explained. "Died while working a construction job, thanks to an idiot. No one was pleased about that." Seems like one of the seaponies had gotten curious enough to stick their brown coated head inside the building, watching what they were doing. Probably drew the short straw over who would go keep an eye on them. Collapse sighs sadly upon hearing that explanation. "II...I am sorry to hear that, Magloria. I don't care if your different or not, you are still a good pony and a good friend. Those ponies in your town may not have had thought that, but I do." she said compassionately. "But um, where are you actually from? I am from Dodge Junction, but I think I already told you that..." Collapse spoke to her and sat down next to Magloria. She noticed the seapony looking in but decided not to engage with them yet. "Thanks, I guess." Magloria said in a gruff voice. Seems she didn't want to sound too grateful about that. "I'm from a non canon place called Creamwood, one of the closer towns to Zebrica. It was called that because of the trees that had a smooth sap, used for soft foods and various lubricants." she explained. The moment Collapse set her eyes on the seapony she found another thing different about them. Resting on their muzzle, coming from a dozen or so black spots were a set of dark whiskers. It looked very odd, considering ponies didn't normally have whiskers. Collapse noted the different appearance of the seapony. It was another type, just as Jump Start pondered. So far there seem to be the 'normal' ones, the whisker ones, and the other type with the muscular tails. Collapse smiled sadly upon Magloria's thanks there. "Creamwood, that sounds like an interesting place...." she said in a hesitant manner as some not so nice memories were drawn into her mind. "I uh...I was picked on too. I was different. I didn't have a father growing up. I didn't know who my real mom was...thankfully someone good took me in but still it was...hard. That's why I call myself Collapse...it's not my real name. When I got my cutie mark I made some invention that was close to what my fly ring would eventually be but no quite...I went for my first flight with it and crashed. I was heavily injured and they constantly picked on me for my failure and called me Collapse...so I took that to heart, I guess, as a way to show that I wasn't bothered by it but in truth? I really was. It was crushing...but I didn't give up. And I'm not going to give up now." she said hopefully. A few tears gathered in her eyes but they didn't stream out. Just watering up. Jump Start went to Collapse's side, giving her a gentle hug to comfort her. Magloria stayed silent, knowing that Collapse might need a little time before they get on with things, but also not wanting to do what Jump Start was doing. The seapony moved a little closer, their whiskers pointed forward and twitching on occasion. A few seconds later they recoiled as if they found something they didn't like, their whiskers moving back into their original place. After a few minutes Magloria cleared her throat. "Anyway... we should probably get a move on, if your drawings are all ready." she suggested, eyeing the seapony as she did. Collapse sniffled slightly but she wiped those tears away, looking into Jump Start's eyes and then Magloria as she hugged Jump Start gently. It had been a few minutes but Collapse spoke up. "Very few get to know my uh, real name. It's Cheshire Springs, but I still prefer Collapse." she smirked slightly and stood up. She had her drawings finished and brought the tablets onto her back as she stood up. Collapse looks to the seapony calmly. Magloria nodded as Jump Start ended the hug. "Very well then, Collapse" Magloria started, making sure to use her preferred name , "I guess we're off." she turned and moved towards the exit, slowing down as she got closer to the seapony. The brown seapony mare didn't say much, whiskers twitching again as they looked at each other, before finally she spoke up. "Hi... what were you doing in here...?" she asked, waddling backwards as she did, so she no longer blocked the doorway. Collapse follows Magloria out before looking to the brown seapony. "We uh, were just doing some drawings on the tar and getting ourselves acquainted." she stated looking to the seapony's whiskers, she thought that was cute. Collapse brought out the drawings she made of the surface, and the docks. "This is uh, where we are from." to the brown seapony what was on the drawings likely didn't make much sense to her. As Collapse got a better look it seemed as though this particular seapony only had the whiskers. Their mane and tail had hair. The seapony leaned in to get a closer look, squinting at the drawings in an attempt to get as much details as possible. "Looks different. Interesting. Black isn't the greatest way to show something, but you tried your best. It would be much more thrilling if I could see it for real." they said. "Well, is there a such thing as colored tar? I didn't see any in there, but this an example of where we are from. This is the docks where our ship took off from." she pointed to a certain area of the drawing. "Ask any questions you want, and by the way, what kinds of seaponies are there? I notice you have whiskers, when others don't." she said with a little giggle. Upon having their whiskers mentioned, the brown seapony twitched them again. "Well I guess I could explain some things about us. There are 3 'classifications' of us seapony that exist here. Hippocampus, or just Campus, the Kelpus and the Kelpie." "Hippocampus, or Hippocampi are the most common seapony. Most of us have similar features, flippers, hair manes and tails. Stuff like that. But we can also sometimes have a rarer feature." She pointed to her whiskers. "I'm a whiskered Hippocampus." she said before continuing. "The next are the Kelpus, or Kelpi, are a bit rarer than the Campi. These ones have at least 2 rarer features, like fins, whiskers or a proper swimming tail." "Finally there are the rarest of them all. The Kelpies. These ones are very unique, since they have all of the rarer things. They tend to be held in high regard, even as foals, and many of them become the most powerful sages, scholars, military and counsellors." Collapse nods in understanding. How interesting this all was. "That is all very interesting, somewhat following a similar ways to our own in some regard. Me and Magloria here." she pointed to Magloria. "Are unicorns. We can cast all sorts of spells and study magic. Jump Start here is..." she pointed to Jump Start. "An Earth pony, Earth ponies are more in tune with nature and have better ability with physical constructs. They are also stronger than the other types of ponies, usually. There are also Pegasi, of which neither of us are. Pegasi are ponies with wings that can fly." she states. "And a combination of all 3 is called an Alicorn. Only our rulers are Alicorns. Alicorns are very, very rare and there have been legends about them. Only our current rulers, and the previous ones before that were known to be Alicorns without a doubt. With ability over Magic, Earth, and Flight, they are quite powerful. Almost like demigods." she stated with a nod. The brown seapony accepted all the information with a good amount of interest, looking first at Collapse and Magloria's horns, then to Jump Start in an attempt to spot the differences. "Interesting, very very interesting. But while you say it's similar, there sounds like there are still differences." she said. "For instance, I can do things with my whiskers that other Campi can't do with their tails, manes and fins. Likewise they can do things that I can't. We're all still Campi though." "And while Kelpies are rare, it doesn't mean they have everything like your Alicorns. Our manes and tails" she gave her tail a swish, showing off the silky purple colours, " are far more glamorous and warmer than theirs." she explained. Collapse nods in understanding and looks at her mane and tail there, noticing how purple it was. She smiles. "Yes, definitely differences. I quite like learning about your kind. Hippocampus is actually a term that some have for a certain part of brains. I'm not sure what it does, all I know is that the term is also used for a part of the brain." she said and looked off towards the lake. "How is the style of leadership here? I am curious about what its like here, who is in charge and what it is like to live here." Collapse states. The seapony winces at the mention of the other term for Hippocampus. "Yes... that's why we usually prefer Campus. So there is... less confusion. The amount of doctors that did something wrong because of that is higher than we really want." she said. "Well I don't know much about how the leadership works, but I know enough that I know each district has representatives, and every now and then they come together and discuss problems and changes. Even representatives come from nearby settlements. Each district and settlement has it's own voice that way." she explained, casually wiping her whiskers with a flipper, getting them wet again. "Yeah, that's pretty bad. I'll just use Campus then." Collapse stated and listened to the details stated. "That sounds pretty nice, but different from the way it works back home. Our Alicorn rulers are a kind of benevolent monarchy. Twilight and Starlight are...responsible for raising the Sun and the Moon. Although I'm not sure you'd understand that. There is Cadence, the one who deals with discussing problems and changes, diplomacy, more or less. I don't know much about it, either." she said. "We are from Equestria, a nation of all different types of ponies. There are many towns and cities." Collapse adds an informative manner, watching the wiping of the wiskers. She smiled at that and thought that was cute. "Yeah, you are right. I don't understand what a 'sun' and 'moon' is. But a monarchy you say? Sounds a bit... how to put this... onesided? Yeah, I'll go with that." the seapony said. Several splashes over from the lake told the group that more seaponies had surfaced to watch them from afar. One of them had a fin mane and tail, but aside from that, they were all Campi. The seapony they were talking with turned to look at them before addressing them. "They were just drawing things inside. Don't worry, they're fine!" she told them. She turned back to the group. "Don't mind them, they were just... curious." "Well our rulers are always fair and kind. They were put in that position by the previous ones since they basically uh, did a lot of heroic things long, long ago. Strangely enough all of them are pink? Or are all of them purple? I don't know, but Starlight was my favorite." she said, looking over to the other seaponies. She gave them a wave and a smile before looking back to the Seapony. "For all this talk? Whats your name? The Sun and Moon are well...something you'll have a really hard time conceptualizing. We don't live in caves. We live on land, where there are forests of trees and plants as far as the eye can see and where there is no...limit to how high you can go, looking up, imagine it's all blue with wisps of water vapor in the air, called clouds." she stated,. She nodded, trying to remember as much of the information as she could, so she could tell others later. Thankfully for her, with the others also listening in she didn't need to remember quite as hard. "Oh how rude of me. My name is Everflow." she told them, "And yes, the others were curious about what we're talking about. None of us have seen... creatures like you, so you can't blame us for wanting to know about you." "Sun and moon, and now stuff like trees, and endlessly tall blue ceilings where the water hangs out... All these things that I can't even begin to imagine. Well maybe I can. Hmm..." she brushed a flipper over her whiskers again, seemingly doing so in thought. "The higher districts might have coloured dyes and such that can be used on land. Perhaps you could try using those, if they let you?" she suggested. "Though I've heard that certain colours can be expensive, so it might be hard to get permission, even if you're something we've never seen before." Collapse looked to Everflow. "Well, its nice to meet you, Everflow." she said with a wide grin. "As for our being here, you might as well take the chance to ask any questions about us while we are here." she nodded. "Where we are from, the blue part above us is called the sky. The sun is a...point of yellowwhite light that hurts to look at long enough, you can go blind if you stare at it. But it lights everything up in a whiteyellow hue and makes you feel warm when you are standing in its light. The sun and moon change positions in the sky, and they aren't out all the time. When the sun is out, it is called day, and when the moon is out, it is called night." she began, slowly, so they could all gather the information. "The Moon is a lot dimmer than the sun, it has phases as it moves about the sky at changing intervals. The moon is a graysilver spherical object. It's actually another world entirely in itself, when you look at it close enough. During Night, the world is dark, and the moon illuminates it slightly. The stars come out at night too, imagine an endless sky...or ceiling rather with millions of small shining crystals as far as the eye can see, that is what it looks like." she said with innocent wonder. "And as for the dyes, we'll look into that." she added. Everflow kept taking in the information. She asked a few questions, like what the plants were like, what other land features there were and what their towns were like, all of which were easily answered by Magloria and Jump Start, and completely not worth writing paragraphs about. After all of that, Everflow smiled. "Thanks for all that! I'll be sure to spread good words about you around the district. That's all I want to ask, because I think I've taken up too much of your time already." she said, turning around and waddling over to the water. As she dove into the water, she said a final "Later!" Most of the other seaponies on land dove back into the water as well, probably to hear about what Everflow had learned. Only one was left, the one with the finned mane and tail, silently observing them. They didn't seem like they wanted to partake in conversation, if the way they looked away sometimes was any indication. Collapse waved as Everflow left "Thank you for listeningto us, hoping she would be able to tell the others about what Collapse had said, as well as hoping that the information gets spread to the rest of the seaponies eventually so that they would know more about the world. Maybe the three of them could be legends someday. Collapse took note of the other seapony and slowly walked up to them as to not startle them. "Hello, whats your name?" she said in a calm, soft voice. She assumed this one was probably more nervous than the others were. Perhaps this one may not even like their arrival into this area. Collapse considered that possibility, there could be those who don't like them. Turning back to Magloria she would say, "I think we should find some sort of place to stay here. Unless we can find a way to breathe underwater." Despite Collapse's attempts, startle the seapony was exactly what she did. They must've been a shy one, since as soon as they were talked to, the recoiled and dove back into the water. "Well that was rude." Magloria huffed. "Maybe they just wanted to watch us. Or there's something different about them. I think they were a... Kelpus was it?" Jump Start said. A voice came from the water. After all the seaponies weren't gone, they'd just moved into the water. "There are a few places you can stay around here. I think someone built a house on land and tried to live in it... It wasn't a good idea, so it's now abandoned." Collapse sighs as the seapony went into the water. She was thinking it might have something to do with the type of Seapony they were. “Well then.” she sighed. “Maybe those types are more nervous or something? Could just be the way they are or something.” Collapse suggested. “Well lets go look for that house, thank you. Where would that be?” Collapse asked that seapony, surprised at the sudden voice from the water. She didn’t really expect that, but was glad there could be a possibility of a place to live in. The seapony offered a series of directions. They were a bit hard to follow, given that they were designed for underwater use, but Magloria figured out how to follow them. She moved over to their raft and with a flash of her horn, reinforced the slowly melting ice, thickening up the raft to a point where it no longer looks like it would break in half if they stepped on it. "Alright, get on. We're moving." Magloria said. Jump Start hopped in. Once Collapse was in too, Magloria pushed the raft into the lake and jumped on herself. Collapse gets in the raft and found how Magloria fixed it up to be interesting. She sits doen next to them in the raft. Ready to go. She looks to Jump Start. “So, what do you think of this place? I like it, its pretty exciting and the ponies here are so nice.” She stated with a smile. “Who knew there could be ponies down here. Its also interesting they speak our language.” she commented as she relaxed her legs a bit. As they sailed towards their destination, seaponies once again watched and followed after them. Though they couldn't really see much, if any, Kelpi or Kelpies. Plenty of Campi though. "It's friendly enough, but we haven't even seen much of the place yet. I wonder if the other districts will be just as friendly as this one is." Jump Start said. "It's understandable that they speak our language if ponies met them before they fell down here. They likely didn't have a reason to change their language, aside from small things that get forgotten or created." Magloria explained. They came to rocky outcropping somewhere at the edge of the lake. From there they could see another lake some distance away. Probably another district. On top of the outcropping was what looked like a doorway and window into a structure made of stone bricks. Unlike most places in the lake below, there were no lights glowing within. The raft hit the shoreline. Collapse nodded, and stayed largely silent upon those responses. It was logical, and she didn't have much to say to it. At the sighting of another lake in the distance her eyes wandered towards it, her expression conveying a degree of awe still. She loved the looks of these lakes. Upon the arrival of the raft, Collapse would exit the raft and approach the stone structure. "This is what they were talking about, at least I think. Let's head in and explore it." she stated, due to how dark it was they were likely going to need some light. Collapse's horn glows a golden color, illuminating the area a bit. Once Magloria secured the raft to the shore, she and Jump Start went to join Collapse in her investigation. Inside seemed rather bland. Most of it was grey stone walls, floor and roof. Several tiny cobwebs could be found at the edges of the room and dust covered everything, indicating that the place had not been cleaned for a while. There was what appeared to be furniture carved out of stone as well, smoothed down to give it a nicer touch. Nothing soft however. Seaponies probably didn't need soft things, given how the water cushioned them constantly. A couple bedrooms contained barely anything, just some large stone 'bowls' that one could consider to be the bed itself, and some low tables on either side. A kitchen had half a dozen shelves for storing food and some benches. Not much else there. Surprisingly there seemed to be a fully functional bathroom with a toilet, sink and bath. The sink and bath likely only existed because of the dryness of the building. Many things they were used to were missing, like a fireplace, stove, fridge, and such. Seaponies probably couldn't use those things underwater, so they never developed the technology for them. In the middle of the house was interestingly enough a dull black rod that was surrounded by a thin metal cage. It's purpose was unknown, but it did seem to have a button on the front to switch it on. Collapse expected a lot of amenities to be missing within this building and what she saw was what she had expected. "Looks like home sweet home to me. Just gotta clean it up a bit, fix things here and there. We'll use moss for our beds when we can find any." Collapse suggested upon inspecting the bedrooms. Collapse was glad that there was a bathroom if anything, since that was something they all likely needed by this point. Collapse eventually finds the dull black rod in the center of the house and calls the others over to it. "What do you think this is? It looks like..." she took a closer look at it. "Likely some sort of activation for some type of device. Maybe the lighting? Or power source?" she suggested, but was unfamiliar with the design and construction of it. "By the way Magloria, you can turn water into crystal right? Maybe we can cover the entire outside of this building in crystal. Make it look a little cooler, fill in the gaps in the walls with crystal." she suggested. Jump Start moved over to Collapse, looking down at the strange rod. "I have no idea what it could be. But if it's caged, it could be dangerous to be near." she said. Magloria shook her head. "Turning water into ice is easy. Turning ice into crystal that is enchanted enough to no longer melt however is much harder. Those bottles I made were pretty draining, and they weren't very big." she explained. "I could do it with enough time and energy, but it would take weeks, if not months to cover the entire building. I'd rather not waste my magic for that long on mere decoration." She then looked away upon realizing something, then added "My figurines don't count. They're small enough to not be much of a drain." Collapse nodded. "Good point." she stated to Jump Start before turning to Magloria. "Ah, thats alright. Perhaps if I find materials, I could fix this place up. A few hammers, screwdrivers, that sort of thing. If the seaponies have those things." she smirked as an idea crossed her mind. "You know what, your figurines would be good for something. A board game. We could come up with some sort of board game, so when we get back we can pitch an idea. Imagine a whole board game based about our travels here, fighting against scary lobsters and spiders,meeting seaponies for bonus points. Something like that, maybe." she giggled at the idea. Magloria looked annoyed at the thought of having her figurines that she carefully created being used for something as silly as a board game. "You can do that, but I'll have no part in it." she told Collapse. Meanwhile Jump Start was fiddling around with the cage, up until she pressed down on the button. She backed away several feet as it instantly sparked to life, an orange glow forming from within the rod. A soothing warmth started to spread throughout the room. "Oh... It's a heating device." Jump Start said. "Of course not your real figurines. Plastic figurines of ourselves. But eh, thats just an idea." she stated, knowing Magloria's annoyed look. "Sorry if I upset you." she said apologetically before looking to Jump Start and what she was doing with the device there. "Woah, that actually feels warm. I'm glad it still works knowing the state of the place." she said, putting her hooves closer to feel the warmth on her hooves. Magloria huffed. "Fine then, your apology is accepted." she said before moving to one of the bedrooms to check out exactly what she was dealing with, and what she could use it for. Jump Start looked over to where Magloria went, then remembered something. "Oh right, we should probably bring the moss on the raft inside, shouldn't we? Maybe stick it next to this heat thing to dry it out first." she suggested. The closer Collapse got to the rod, the warmer she felt. It was definitely something she could look forward to after sitting around on the ice raft, and it was no sweltering heat like the place with the tar pools. Collapse would smile to Magloria nervously, letting her have her alone time in the other room. "Yeah, I'll go get the moss." she stated as she stood there for a second upon how warm it all felt in here. After a few seconds she headed outside to retrieve the moss and would bring it inside. With her magic she levitates the moss next to the heating device, letting it get dried out as she took a seat. "After I get these dried, I am going to do my best to clean this area from all the dust." Before Collapse could manage to get the moss and bring it inside she came across a problem. With no one having been near the raft, some seaponies that appear to be teenage colts and fillies had taken it upon themselves to check out the raft. A couple watched from the shore as several more inspected the stuff in the raft. Only the watchers saw Collapse, and quickly fled into the water. The rest continued to mess with the raft. "I get that you are curious although I'd say that fillies like you should stay away from things that don't belong to you." she said in a stern, yet not a mean tone as she approached. "You won't have much use for it, it will melt before you can really get anywhere in it. It's called a raft, for your knowledge." she would approach closer, intending to grab the moss. "Can you please stop messing with it?" she asked with a sigh. The moment Collapse spoke they all turned to her. Another couple immediately jumped into the water to escape from whatever she planned on doing. The remaining ones shifted into guiltily staring at the ground, their ears folding back or their fin ears pressing against their head. She heard a muttered sorry or two as they disembarked from the raft, leaving the raft empty except for the moss scrunched up in places... and was Magloria's spear missing? Upon seeing the missing spear her eyes would narrow. "I can clearly tell that an important item is missing here. It is a long crystal spear. Now, that spear doesn't belong to me. I know that if I told the owner of the spear if it was gone, that they would be very unhappy. I want that spear back. If any of you can find it and bring it to me in a few minutes she won't know about it. But if you fail to find that important item, I'll go and tell the owner of the item that it is missing." she said in a calm, diplomatic manner. "I know that your all young, believe me, I did this when I was a filly too." she smirked somewhat. "But let's not make a scene here, and make this easy, okay?" with her magic she lifted the moss onto her back. "But we don't know where they went!" one of the colts said. "None of us have it. Don't tell my parents!" said a filly. "How are we supposed to find who took it?" said another filly. It seemed like whichever one of them took it was no longer near the raft. Several others did swim off, so it's likely with one of them. Collapse reached forward and patted their heads gently. "I want one of you to go find it, swim off. Maybe one of your friends have it." she stated with a sigh. "Can you wait out here for me? I need to tell my friend that her spear is missing." she states and brings out her own spear. The same kind of spear that Magloria made. "It looks like this, so go find it." she said with a slight stern look. It's a good thing they were close enough to the shoreline, or else Collapse probably would've fallen into the water when she attempted to pat their heads. "But we don't know where to look! They could be anywhere by now!" one of them groaned, before diving and swimming off unenthusiastically. The others merely looked at each other, wondering what they were going to do now. “Maybe you have a point. Just know that if you see it, it belongs to a friend of mine and I would like to have it back.” Collapse stated with a long sigh. “I will head inside now. If you find it just leave it at the front entrance. Thank you.” If nothing else happened she would head back inside to where Magloria was. “I saw some fillies and colts playing in our raft. Your crystal spear is missing and they don’t know who took it but I told them to bring it back if it is found.” She sighs apologetically. As Collapse headed back inside the remaining seaponies swam away, to do whatever they had planned on doing. There was definitely no guarantee that the spear would return to them. Back inside, Magloria was found lounging about on the stone couch, trying to get comfortable. It seemed like she was failing. Upon noticing Collapse, she sat back up again. "Great." She growled. "Well there's not much we can do about that, as much as I don't like it. I guess they'll figure out how stupid an idea it was when they hurt themselves with it." she said. Jump Start took the moss from Collapse and laid it down by the heating rod to dry out, just as planned. Collapse sighs, looking to Magloria guiltfully. "Yes. I got the moss from the raft, so when it is dried off you will have something more comfortable to lay on." she spoke trying to change the subject to something more positive. Collapse sat down near to where Jump Start was to relax, letting herself get warm. Jump Start looked towards Collapse as she sat down before returning her gaze to the heat rod, and the moss next to it. "So... what are we going to do now?" she asked. Magloria acknowledged what Collapse said before answering Jump Start's question. "Well, I don't know about you two, but I plan to get directions to the exit from this place and see exactly what we have to deal with. Then we can decide on what to do from there." Magloria said.