//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 // Story: Away and Afar // by PropsValroa //------------------------------// Collapse sighs, knowing Magloria was right. "Good point. We wouldn't want to be walking into a deathtrap or something. They are very quick within dark caves, while we are not. I think we could continue on, right?" Collapse stated as she looks to the charred remains of the crossbow. That would be sure to send a message to whoever attacked them, she hoped. "Although we will have to be mindful of their presence as we continue on. I have to guess they are some kind of pony although their ears were different. Although I only saw them for a few seconds at best so it was hard for me to get a good visual on them." Collapse commented. "We should ask ourselves, what would be the goal in killing us here? Could be guarding something important down here, although I don't have any other ideas for that currently." she shrugged at that. "We might have to walk through a deathtrap if they're in the way of the exit, though if they know about us, I'd rather we know about them as well." Magloria said as she turned back, with the intention to collect the light bulb they left behind. Thankfully they could move a lot quicker when they weren't sneaking around in the dark. Once she got to the lake, she reclaimed the little ball of light. "Well, if they're guarding something down here, we'll know about it soon enough. Either that or we'll be forced to turn back." she stated, a flare of irritation ran through her voice when she said the last part. Collapse smiled as Magloria picked up the light bulb. It was kind of cute how it was picked up. A little ball of light. Her eyes soften at the sight of that, Jump Start could see that. It seems as though her serious demeanor fades away a bit. "Indeed. I really wonder who it was that was firing at us. It's quite something to think about but what's on my mind is getting out of here and finding our way home. Finding our way home can come later, and that will be a whole thing in itself." she commented. "Whoever they are they have the ability to see in the dark. I think using bright lights against them will be a good tactic." she added as she followed alongside Magloria. "You don't need to be able to see in the dark to fight in the dark. You can use your other senses, like hearing or smell to find your opponent. It's likely not worth the effort to create a flash in the hopes that their sight is blocked, assuming they're sensitive. One that's powerful enough that would work on anything though?" She paused as she began to trek back down the river. "That would work, just be sure to warn us before you do it." Now that they had a proper light source again, Collapse could properly see that darker line that was on Magloria. Turns out she received a gash at some point, and a thin trail of blood had formed, already dried against her coat. Jump Start was busy making sure her only tool was still attached to her strap, so she wasn't looking. You never know when you might need a hammer. Collapse notices the gash that Magloria had recieved and winced at it. At the very least it had dried up. "At the least this time I managed to eliminate the opponents weapon. Next time I'll give you a warning." she stated to Magloria calmly, walking alongside her. "I notice you have a bit of a gash there. If you'd like I can put some bandages on it for you." she said softly to her. Clearly she felt that she had to do something to help. That must have been what she noticed earlier. Glancing to Jump Start she looked at the hammer. She was pleased with that, could be used to bash someone's skull in should the need be. She hoped that she wouldn't have to use it though. Magloria shook her head at Collapse's assumption. It's a typical rookie mistake, assuming your opponent is defenseless just because you disarmed them once. "You managed to eliminate their main *ranged* weapon, but they might still have other weapons, such as knives. They'd even be able to use a rock in a pinch, and that'll still hurt. Not as much as a crossbow bolt mind you, but taking a rock to the head is not fun." she said, stopping and sitting down before allowing Collapse to apply a bandage. She could've given first aid to herself, but she wanted to see how Collapse would do, if she's do the wrappings correctly, or tie the knot afterwards, or if she even did the simplest thing that was cleaning the wound. "That is true, but for those they would have to get up and close to us which would mean we would likely have seen them coming and then we would deal with the accordingly. But indeed, rock throwing is not fun to be on the receiving end." Collapse said calmly. She knew that Magloria was right, but in Collapse's mind that doesn't mean she forgot the point at hand. When Magloria sits down Collapse proceeds to take out the first aid kit. First, she would take the disinfectant wipe and would wipe off the cut first with her magic. Taking great care in not making Magloria feel any pain. She would look for an appropriate sized bandage and would apply the bandage. It took her a few seconds to figure out how to tie it correctly. When completed she put the first aid kit away. "All done!" she spoke with a sweet grin. "You assume we'd be able to see them coming, yet one of the reasons why they were such a big threat was the fact that we couldn't see them. It wouldn't take much for them to hide, wait, then strike, even with our light. How do you think assassins do their job so well?" Magloria pointed out. As much as Collapse wished it to not be true, pain was unavoidable when it came to disinfectants. Magloria winced at the feeling, but didn't say anything, instead choosing to tough it out, as Collapse and Jump Start would come to expect from her. Once Collapse finished, Magloria moved her limb around to test the ranges of motion she still had. "Not bad. Not medical officer quality since it still pinches slightly, but it'll do." She stood up, ready to continue again, and began leading them down the river again. "Well, you have a good point there. I can't really say anything against that." Collapse stated as she looked at the bandage. She noticed the wincing but didn't say anything about that either. She was glad that Magloria was satisfied with the bandage for now, what was most important was that Magloria didn't instantly shoot Collapse down for messing up the bandage, as she worried about that too. Collapse then followed her along. "In no way am I doubting that we'll meet our attackers further up ahead. This area was likely some sort of guard point for what lays ahead." she stated. Eventually they came to another lake, however this was looked different from the last one that they saw. There were still no fish in the water, but what was different was how they could see numerous spires of rock reaching up from the floor of the lake. They could hear a loud rushing from where the river continued, indicating that there was a lot of movement going on, either rapids or a waterfall. "That's strange. None of the other lakes we've seen have had spikes on the bottom of them. Why do you think that is?" Jump Start asked, casually kicking a tiny stalagmite loose from the floor. "It could be some kind of artificial trap. I'd stay away from the water if I were you." Collapse said in a weary manner upon looking out over the lake. Her eyes and ears remain peeled for any signs of sudden movement or anything out of the ordinary. She was ready, and had a spell charged just in case she had to use one. "Looks like we got a lot of moving water up ahead. I wonder how we'll get across that." she added. When they approached the rushing sounds of the water ahead, keeping in mind to stay away from the lake, they soon realized that they didn't need to worry about getting across the water. "Well... somehow I don't think the seaponies ventured down there to find the exit. I don't think any would be alive if they did." Magloria said as she looked down what was clearly a waterfall, extending far down into the unknown abyss. "So now what? Is it the end of the line?" Jump Start asked, looking around in case there was another river they could follow, to her disappointment. "Seems to be. So then the exit must be located around here somewhere... Hold on." Magloria squinted as she looked off into the distance, beyond the abyss the waterfall fell into. There seemed to be a fraction of light somewhere beyond their reach. A pale blue sort of light, that was vaguely familiar. Collapse looks off over the waterfall, feeling a sensation of dread until she sees the fraction of light beyond their reach. "Hey...look at that, my friends...is that sunlight? Blue skies?" she asked, her ears poking up. They could hear her hopeful tone, it was almost filly like but she also had a sense of caution in her words, hoping she wasn't wrong in saying what she did. "We gotta find a way to get across this waterfall...hmm. If I had my fly ring I could easily make it but we'd have to go all the way back, go back to the whirlpool lake and dive down into it...find it if its there, spend a long time fixing it...but hey, at least we know where it ends so to speak." Collapse pondered. Magloria shook her head. "That doesn't look like it's sunlight. Sunlight is a more whiteish-yellow color. I think that's actually that strange mushroom forest we encountered a while ago." she explained, before continuing. "Besides, we're several kilometers below the ocean and rock. I don't think sunlight would be reaching us, unless there was a massive hole that lacked water or the sun was in a perfect position, neither of which seem right." "But if those are the same mushrooms we saw before, wouldn't that make the forest... massive?" Jump Start asked, which Magloria nodded in confirmation. Jump Start started to look around on the side they were on, including the lake. "So... it's probably not the way out then, then where is the way out?" she asked. Magloria huffed. "Probably somewhere around here. Either that or we're going to have to backtrack, which will be extremely annoying." "So your saying that blue mushroom forest is massive then...hmm. Well that definitely changes things I have to say. If there was going to be a way out, don't you think it would be something leading up? Like a cliff or some sort of cave where we notice that we are moving up in elevation?" Collapse pondered, quickly changing her mind on what it was due to what Magloria said. "So is there any way we could move ahead?" Collapse asked, looking to see if there was any way across over the abyss that lay in front of them. "Or we could have missed another cave along the way here, which could be possible." she suggested. Magloria checked the sides of the abyss and around several of the walls, even going as far as levitating the light bulb out a bit further to see if there was anything there, to no avail. "Doesn't look like there's a way to get across this gap. We're going to have to check around the lake in case there is another way we can go, considering we haven't searched around it entirely yet." she said as she turned to the lake, intending to circle around it and see if there is anything nearby. Collapse agrees and follows. "Hopefully whoever they are, they aren't waiting for us. If we can I would very much like to capture one of them and see what they know. But that is unlikely considering how evasive and quick they are." she commented as she follows, her awareness not faltering. She was disappointed that they couldn't find a way to cross over the abyss yet. "If the opportunity arises, and only then. I'm not going to go out of our way just to find one and capture it." Magloria stated. It didn't take them long walking around the lake before they found something that would interest them. "Is that another weird stone thing?" Jump Start asked. Before them, embedded into the side of the lake was another strange stone structure that looked like it had been carved. This one however was bigger than the last one they saw, and this time water wasn't flowing past it, thanks to the nearby waterfall. "That looks like the start of something promising." Magloria said as she moved over to the structure, though not too quickly, in case there were threats nearby. "Tell you what, maybe these stone things have something to do with whoever it is that shot at us. I think they could have been the ones that made this." Collapse suggested to Jump Start and Magloria as they approached the large stone structure that lay ahead. "It is pretty big to say the least, I think these could be marking points or some sort of cultural thing." she suggested as she follows Magloria, keeping her eyes open for any threats. "But why would they stick marking points or cultural things into the water? Wouldn't it be easier to build it on dry land? They don't appear to be aquatic so then why is it in the water?" Jump Start said as she reached the large object, brushing a hoof over it's surface to remove some of the algae that had appeared on it. Magloria began moving around the side of it, before she noticed something on the opposite side to the lake. "Hmm... I wonder how this was formed?" she pondered. There appeared to be a large ditch on the other side. A great big dent in the surface of the cave floor that stretched off into the darkness, dirt and sand covering the bottom of it, as well as various rocky debris. Collapse walks over to where Magloria was. "Perhaps that is some sort of drain off incase the lake overflows or something. I would say it was definitely dug out on purpose." Collapse spoke, referencing the large ditch. "Maybe we could follow it and see where it leads? But whoever it is that is down here doesn't really seem to be a seapony at least from what I managed to catch a glimpse of. Probably some other kind of pony, maybe. Just putting ideas out there." Collapse added as her eyes survey over the ditch and the large structure they had seen. She runs her hoof on it, in a similar manner to Jump Start. Magloria shrugged. "Who knows what it was used for. We're probably going to find out if we start going down it, and since we don't have much other options..." she said as she began walking, keeping herself at the top of the ditch so it was easy to escape from threats, but not so close that she could fall in instead. "Wait a minute Collapse, you might be onto something. About the drain." Jump Start said as she began thinking. "The stone thing was built, right? So why is there no water coming through? If no water came through why build the ditch? Maybe they didn't?" she suggested. Collapse follows Magloria and stays at the top of the ditch just like she did there. She could see that even in seemingly harmless situations, Magloria was a few steps ahead. Something Collapse would keep an eye out for and try to learn just by observing. "I don't know about that. These stone things are quite perplexing and I've never seen anything like them. The only thing I can think of for the ditch here is that it is some sort of run off. Perhaps that waterfall isn't natural and the water around here was higher, so they had to make a ditch but if that was the case...wouldn't they just make the waterfall instead?" Collapse scratched her head in confusion. "If you ask me the only things I can come up with for a stone structure is either some sort of marker, a cultural or religious thing, or something that serves a purpose within the surrounding terrain." she ponders. Jump Start pressed on with what she was saying. "What I'm talking about is that maybe this-" she pointed at the ditch, "-used to be a river. Doesn't it look like it could've been one to you? Now it's all dried up though." Another light gust of echoing wind blew through the caves, coming from the direction that they were heading towards. Magloria craned her head up a bit as the wind blew past, which was when she saw something up ahead. "I think we've found them. A few hundred meters in front of us, do you see?" she said, pointing at several distant pinpricks of orange light, possibly torches or fires, with the way the lights seemed to dim and brighten on occasion. Collapse nodded to what Jump Start said. "Could very well have been the case." she commented as she felt the gust of wind blow throughout the cave. She wondered what was causing it. In the mushroom forest they were in, she didn't remember seeing a source of the wind. She'd want to discover that sometime. Upon seeing the lights up ahead Collapse would squint her eyes at them and notice the dimming and brightening. "Well, we aren't going to walk right up to them I would figure. How about we slowly try to move closer, find something to hide behind and just watch them silently? Perhaps we can eavesdrop." Collapse suggested to Magloria. Still amazed at how big these caves were, though. "If we're going to try and move closer to them we're going to have to ditch the light again. A while glow approaching them is going to be an obvious giveaway that we're there." Magloria said, taking hold of the light ball and setting it down in a space between a few rocks, so it won't roll away. Jump Start whined, not liking the idea of having to move through the cave in the dark again. Collapse nodded to Magloria. "Yes, indeed. I don't like moving through the dark either but that is what we are going to have to do." she spoke in a calm manner to Jump Start. Looking to Magloria, "Let us proceed forward. I wonder what they are. Hopefully we are close enough to listen." she stated, and began to follow her lead. Magloria tried to suppress a snort at how Collapse though they were close enough to hear them already. Of course they weren't. If they were, they would've already heard the group talking, *and* seen the light they had. Pressing on, Magloria started moving in the direction of the distant lights. Travelling was easier than before, since they had a lit goal in their line of sight. However this did nothing to stop them from bumping into or falling down random things, so Magloria still emitted brief pulses of magical light, warning the others about the dangers up ahead. Now somewhat closer, they could see that the lights were actually at different elevations, like a hill or something with several levels of altitude. Collapse stayed silent and followed along. Avoiding the occasional rock or obstacle, she would be mindful to heed Magloria's warnings up ahead. Seeing this area was something very unusual, it was large enough to have an interior space. Could it be possible they found the equivalent of a rolling plain, underground? Her mind was fascinated by that concept. Upon arriving at a more closer location she would look to Magloria and suggest they would head to a light that was at a similar elevation as their own. If there were any hostiles, it wouldn't be a good idea to head up or down hill given they would have an advantage. At least that is what Collapse thought. Magloria accepted Collapse's suggestion, though she pointed out that the light that was the closest to their level was also the lowest of the bunch, and there were several to choose from. As the lights came into proper focus that could make out some of the details around them. They were definitely fires, crackling and flickering when the wind blew through the cavern. They could make out some of the surroundings, such as what appeared to be large bricks. A wall it seemed was built right in front of them, with several levels to it. "It's... a massive blockade. Whatever they are, they're stopping us from going any further." Jump Start gasped, both in awe and dread. Collapse looked out over the fires and up along the wall. She assumed that this is where the exit was, and that the levels were made like that on purpose to root out potential invaders. It filled her with both awe and dread just like Jump Start. "Sure looks like it. I really do wonder what they are and why they are here. Maybe they do have valid reasons in their minds for what they do, however valid or not I do not care. I want to get home and it doesn't matter to me however many rules we have to break to make that possible." Collapse spoke in a determined manner. Magloria furrowed her brow, which would've added to what she said next had Collapse been able to see her do it. "That sounds oddly hostile of you Collapse, considering we knew in our original plans that we might encounter other species that do not approve of our existence. Would you really have been so uncaring to them as well?" she asked. At this point they were close enough to be out of earshot with the nearest source of fire, so they could keep talking. However when they got closer they'd need to keep quiet, so anything they needed to say, they should do it now. There was a moment of hesitation before Collapse would answer, no doubt mulling over her response. Her ears would go back a bit at Magloria's question though, not that Magloria would have been able to see it. "It boils down to my friends being under threat. I don't want either of you to get hurt. I understand your point, but what if these species aren't able to understand our language? We could understand the seaponies, the seaponies treated us well...I just have a feeling whoever these...ponies or whoever they are aren't going to be so nice to us. What should we do, if that is the case? What is your plan?" Collapse asked in a submissive manner, clearly looking to Magloria for answers. Magloria begins her explanation. "My plan is to keep everyone here safe as much as possible, and respect everyone else when it's possible. For example, if a snake was in our way, what do you think I should do?" "Walk right past it? No, it risks endangering those I swore to protect. Kill it? Also no, only if it becomes a threat to us regardless. What I would do would be to lead everyone around it, as long as doing so is safer." She looked at the blockage. "So in this case I would normally lead you around. Since that isn't possible here, I'd find the path where we cause the least amount of attention. That's preferably sneaking through them or finding a safer passage with less of them." "If however there is no reasonably safe method, I'd turn back. Our lives aren't worth risking for a glimpse that we may get home, especially against suicidal odds like what we see, let alone what may be on the other side. They may have a civilization that would be equally hostile behind that wall." With that finished, she focused her gaze on what appeared to be one of them moving, but with distant light made it hard to tell what they looked like, just a black blur that walked on four legs. Collapse nodded in understanding to her explanation. It felt touching to her that she swore to protect both Collapse and Jump Start, even if she wasn't as cuddly or friendly as Collapse or Jump Start were, what mattered was that her plan was to protect them. Her anger faded at that statement. Eventually she would want to find out more about Magloria's personal life, but now wasn't the time. "I understand and I agree with your plan, now that you put it in those terms. I just want to say no matter what happens, I am thankful for your protection. We wouldn't have survived without you. I consider you my friend. You too, Jump Start." she spoke to them calmly before looking out over ahead and could see one of them moving up ahead. Whatever they were, they blended in really well with the surroundings. "Anyways, we should also consider the possibility of negotiating with them. What if we get caught? We may have to negotiate with them if that is the case." Collapse commented. "Well negotiating is definitely going to be on the list of choices of something like that happens. Depending on the situation and if they sound like they can be reasoned with up front, we might even be able to do so without getting caught." Magloria said. "Though unless you have a way to signal to them our intentions without revealing ourselves, we're going to keep that one in reserve, unless we find something promising while we eavesdrop." "Only way I could think of would be some sort of note and leave it somewhere, and then they discover it and then we could eavesdrop and watch their reactions. Do either of you have a writing utensil and something to write on?" she asked. "But what would we do if we can't negotiate at all? Fight our way out and try to escape? We should have some sort of rendezvous point just incase we get split up somehow." Collapse stated. Jump Start shook her head, which couldn't be seen, and Magloria gave a simple denial of having writing equipment. Aside from those writing tablets, neither of them had anything like that since they woke up here. "The rendezvous point will be the light plant ball back where we left it. Should be easy enough to find, since it would stand out like a beacon. And obviously you'd try to escape if you can't negotiate with them. You can't rely on that in this case since we know so little about them." Magloria answered. "I was going to suggest that actually. Alright, so we got that planned out with. How are we going to proceed forward?" she asked, looking at the wall and the flames, trying to see if there were any obvious entrances on the way in. "We should probably be weary of booby traps and such as well, so when we proceed forward we should proceed forward slowly and carefully." Collapse added. Might as well discuss what they can now, while they are out of earshot.