It seemed as though to get to the Truhye district there were no passages that led through a place close to the water's surface. The only ways to get to where they needed to go were tunnels straight through the rocky lake walls.
Thankfully these tunnels were well lit, and seemed to be reinforced as well in case anything happened.
When they reached the end of the tunnel, a glorious sight stood in front of them. Lavish buildings were nestled into every spot they could, large and built out of what appeared to be polished stones and tiles. A number of the buildings had dyed roofs, showing their importance.
Their objective was unclear at the moment. There didn't seem to be any place within visible distance that told them that Aura Surge was there.
Collapse's jaw visibly dropped upon the end of the tunnel. She was already amazed by the tunnel as it were, but upon seeing the sight in front of them she was visibly impressed. "Wow. I can't say I expected that. How remarkable, the care and craftsmanship put into this place is amazing, wouldn't you agree?" Collapse smiled at Magloria. She hoped that Magloria would have a visible reaction as well, she liked seeing her be more expressive even if it was unintentional.
"Lets ask around. If this Aura Surge is well known, than perhaps that might lead us in the right direction." Collapse spoke to Magloria.
If Magloria was feeling anything from looking at the splendor of the buildings, she kept it well hidden as her gaze roamed around the lake.
"I suppose they do put time and effort into everything here. This is probably the 'rich' district, by the looks of it." she said, subtly agreeing with the suggestion to talk with others... again.
Most of the seaponies here seemed to be lightly clothed, or had a piece of jewelry or two on them. Interestingly some had bands and rings around their finned tails, some even had the fins of their manes and tails styled with what appeared to be paints or dyes, giving them a sense of beauty or style.
Just like before, the locals didn't hold information in high regard to security, and were happy to let the pair of ponies know where to go. A place described as a large bowl at the bottom of the lake, free of buildings. It's main purpose was to train seaponies without the risk of property damage.
Collapse agreed with Magloria and as they went about she admired the tails and rings around their finned tails. If she didn't have any particular *investment* in her two companions or was here alone, she may had very well been convinced to stay just by the appearances of these pretty seaponies. The rings on their tails was beautiful. Collapse was easily allured by mares in jewelry that was. Still though, Magloria's earrings were the absolute best. Not that she would tell Magloria that.
Upon the answers they were given Collapse thanked the seaponies sweetly and then would proceed to look for the large bowl shape at the bottom of the lake as the two of them went about. "I wonder why they call themselves seaponies despite likely not actually seeing a real sea. Lakeponies? For some reason that doesn't have a ring to it." Collapse shrugged casually.
After rounding a few bends that led them deeper into the depths of the lake, they saw their destination. What appeared to be a field of seagrass lay before them, with occasional glowing rocks for light spread around. It was like a massive underwater park of sorts.
Several groups of seaponies were spread around the bowl, either looking busy listening to each other, or enjoying the sights, or practicing various skills.
There was a brief distant glow from one of the seaponies as their flippers suddenly lit up, propelling them through the water at surprising speeds, causing everything nearby to get caught in a swirling hurricane of water in their wake.
"Tradition, probably. Or they don't care enough to change their name from seapony to something else." Magloria replied.
Collapse was amazed at the large field of seagrass ahead of them and observed the seaponies. She pointed out the one with the glowing flippers and watched as that seapony sped off. "Hmm, I bet the ones that have magic are able to do that. Might be their magical power. To be able to maneuver a lot faster. Maybe Aura Surge is that seapony, or one like her." Collapse stated observantly, and agreed with Magloria.
To the nearest seapony Collapse would go to them and ask if they have any information as to the whereabouts of Aura Surge or if they know anything about her.
Magloria glanced over to Collapse, wondering why she was talking so... weirdly. It was probably just another 'Collapse being Collapse' thing. She did seem to slip up like that on occasion.
In response to Collapse's queries, the nearest seapony, a grey one with whiskers and deep blue tail and mane, pointed out one other in particular, mentioning that this was Aura Surge.
Near the group where the magic-performing seapony was, was one with a crimson coat. Their flippers had streaks of silver running around the edges, and their coat under their chin, down the front of their neck and under their belly was all a pinkish red colour.
Their mane, tail and even ears were all finned, the membranes coloured a vibrant purple. The tail had several silver loops of metal as decoration. Long red whiskers dotted their face, occasionally twitching in the direction of the others.
Finally, in a vague mimicry of pegasi wings were 2 pairs of long, silver and red fins reaching out from their back, assisting them with keeping them balanced in the same location. A set of 4 silver rings rested on the bases of the fins, one for each fin.
All in all, they fit the description of a Kelpie perfectly.
Collapse was clearly in awe of Aura Surge's appearance. For someone who knew about the Whirlpool lake, it made a lot of sense actually that they were quite different from the most. The Kelpies seemed to definitely be the most advanced seaponies as noted by their appearance and the place they called home. It was funny though, to have all these differences but still have the cute whiskers. The whiskers were her favorite part of the seaponies. This one had red whiskers!
"Wow, that is Aura Surge? She is...quite something I have to say! I think she is the most impressive seapony around. Let's go talk to her." Collapse said to Magloria, glad that they were able to locate Aura Surge so readily.
"Sure." Magloria simply responded, and started swimming over to the Kelpie and their group.
As they got closer they could hear Aura Surge instructing the group she, judging from the feminine voice, was with. The lesson seemed to be about something called a 'Water Vault' spell, probably the same spell that they witnessed earlier.
Their approach had now attracted the attention of some of the students, who pointed out their arrival to Aura Surge. She turned to face them. "Scuse me, is there something I can help you with... strangers...?" she asked, now realizing that they were not in fact seaponies.
Collapse looked to Aura Surge and smiled. "That is a long story, as you can tell we aren't exactly from around here..." Collapse would begin with, and would introduce herself and Magloria. "We had talked to someone named Nettletails about someone who had been to the 'great water spout' as it is called around here, they pointed us to your direction. I really don't mean to intrude on your training lessons here, but we are looking for someone who is knowledgeable about it and who would be willing to go there with us to...retrieve what we are looking for at the bottom of it, most likely." Collapse spoke calmly.
Aura Surge sighed upon hearing what Collapse explained."Nettletails... he- I guess he didn't tell you about how I *used* to go exploring, right? Not anymore. I now work here, teaching others about their magic." she said.
"But you're one of few who has explored there, are you not?" Magloria stated, "Unfortunately we don't have a lot of other options, so is there... any sort of way we could make it so this whole thing where you accompany us fits your schedule?" she asked.
Aura Surge looked like she was thinking about the possibility, then looked them both in the eye, one after the other. "There is a way I can come assist you, but I need to pull some strings." She moved slightly closer. "So I better be well compensated for my efforts. And not just shells either. I've got more than enough money from my previous exploits." she stated.
Collapse nods. She had expected to get an answer like this. Payment for Aura Surge's help was definitely valid. "Well, at the bottom of that water spout is the remains of our vessel. There are lots of things on it that will prove of good use to you and your kind. Such as the Mana Core, and the other components along with it. While such materials are likely damaged, I can give you full knowledge of how it can be repaired." Collapse said kindly, looking Aura Surge in the eye.
"You would also be free to take what you want from the wreckage. There are probably a lot of things you could take that we no longer have use of. Metal that can be scrapped, our currency which you could cash in for shells, among other things..." Collapse added.
Aura Surge thought more on this, then finally decided to accept their proposal. "Alright then, you've got yourself an escort. However I can't just leave immediately, as you can probably tell." She pointed behind herself at the group of very curious seaponies, all of which now had their bright eyes on the pair.
"The earliest I can come is a few hours from now, when my lessons end. Then I can explain the situation to my superiors and be excused from teaching for a bit. That acceptable for you?" she asked.
Collapse nods to Aura Surge. "Yes it is. We have someone else who is part of our group so we'll take that time to go inform them of our deal. When we arrived here we didn't see much in the way of seaponies with magic. So if I am correct, you are a kelpie and you have magic, right? Can you tell me about your magic?" Collapse asked kindly.
Collapse's horn glowed gold as she picked up a small stone and tossed it around in her hooves but without actually moving her hooves, only using her telekinesis. "Magloria and I have all kinds of spells we can use. Although mine are more inclined to fixing and repairing things." she stated.
Aura Surge watched as Collapse put on the display of magic, taking note on what part of Collapse was causing the magic to happen... and also what parts she lacked.
"Correct me if I'm wrong but you don't have any fins, flippers or whiskers do you?" she asked. A moment later her whiskers twitched, then she spoke without even listening to their response.
"You do not. Unfortunately I cannot help you learn our magic then. Our fins are specially attuned to the magic and the water around us. Since you do not have any, the best you'd be able to do with that... horn of yours would be move around a bit of water." she said.
As she explained, she she showed off her own magic. Her fins began to glow an eerie red colour as a small group of rocks began to swirl around the water, first in a scattered dance, then in a long string that looped around. Finally Collapse and Magloria felt an odd lack of pressure around them as the rocks converged on each other... then started to crack and crumble until they were nothing but grains that quickly scattered to the currents.
Collapse looked on in awe of Aura Surge's ability there and seemed speechless for a few moments at what she had just done. Her eyes had widened slightly upon seeing the rocks crumble like that.
"I've never seen anything like that. Most impressive. It is interesting how your fins are the source of your magic rather than a horn on your head. The reason why we don't have fins is because we don't live in water like you do. We live on land. But that's another long story I can tell you on the way to the great waterspout and I don't want to take up too much of your time here." Collapse spoke calmly.
Looking to Magloria and then back to Aura Surge, she would walk forward and extend her hoof. No doubt to shake one of her fins. "Thank you for your willingness to listen to us. I look forward to working with you." Collapse looked into Aura Surge's eyes innocently yet sweetly.
Aura Surge gave a glance to those behind her before deciding to cut this short. "While that info is nice and all, it doesn't change anything. I still can't teach you."
"Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to what I should be doing, instructing my class. So if there is nothing left to discuss beforehand, I bid you farewell." she said, giving Collapse's hoof a gentle shake.
Magloria gave a quick farewell as well, then started swimming away, encouraging Collapse to come with her.
Collapse gave Aura Surge a farewell and would match Magloria's speed as they swam away. Collapse took a liking to Aura Surge, being the first seapony with magic they have seen as of yet. That was very interesting to her too, and Aura Surge's flipper was soft. Collapse liked soft things, but they were better as warm and dry. Like when she used Jump Start as a pillow. Using a seapony as a pillow wouldn't be as soft or warm.
Midway through their swim back Collapse would look to Magloria. "So what did you think of Aura Surge?" she asked casually.
Magloria shrugged. "She seemed friendly, willing and capable enough. If she continues to keep it up, I'll have no problems with letting her get everything we bargained for." she said.
They could keep talking while going at the pace they were travelling, or if there was no more conversation to be had, they could simply swim silently until they arrived back at the place where they'd meet Jump Start at.
"Same here. No doubt she would be good at fighting anything we could come across." she added. Another question crossed Collapse's mind, "How long have you been considered a captain? You seem very experienced and even used to situations such as these." she stated. Collapse wanted to know more about Magloria but wasn't going to ask too personal questions as of yet.
"Hmm... 6 years, give or take. Most of my experience came before that though. As you already know, I had training, *and used* said training." Magloria replied.
“Ah I see. You had to train pretty hard to know what you know. Unlike the ponies I know you seemed to be very tactically inclined from the start which is pretty cool.” Collapse replied innocently.
"Sure." Magloria simply replied. She wasn't the type of pony to keep talking when she didn't need to, and that was all that she needed to say in response.
By this point they were passing through the tunnels that led back to the Midhigh district. Now that they had time to swim at a casual pace, the passage seemed surprisingly smooth for rock. Perhaps the seaponies had ways to polish stone even when underwater? Even the lights were evenly placed throughout the passage, lending itself to look surprisingly exquisite, considering it was a rocky tunnel.
Collapse went silent after that as a way to respect Magloria's preferences as they seemed. Looking to Magloria's cutie mark, she wondered what the story was behind it.
Collapse lamented upon the design and features of the passage. Perhaps the seaponies were able to bore it out with high pressured water or a similar method. Either way it was something she hadn't seen before. Most impressive! The Kelpie seaponies were her favorite. They had the whole works. Whiskers. Fins. All of the fascinating features.
Collapse wished the ponies had whiskers. She blushed slightly upon the imagination of Magloria and Jump Start having whiskers. She imagined the blue whiskers of Magloria twitching cutely. If that was the case, would Magloria like boops or not? Probably not, but still the thought made her feel warm inside.
Eventually they reached the place where they would meet up with Jump Start, only to find the pony in question already there, busy talking to one of the seaponies, one with whiskers.
They stopped talking when Jump Start noticed them approaching, giving the seapony a farewell as they decided it was time for them to move on. "Hi guys, I got the cutlery. I decided to bring it back to the house, so I didn't have to wait around here with it all." she said.
When they arrived Collapse was happy to see another seapony with whiskers. The whiskers! That made her smile innocently at Jump Start, as well as she liked to be around her too. "I am glad to hear you got the cutlery. Meanwhile Magloria and I went and talked to another seapony in another district named Aura Surge. The seaponies over there are mainly Kelpies and have magic that comes from their fins. Aura Surge will be helping us in seeing the bottom of the whirlpool lake to see what we can recover from it. She'll be ready in a few hours." Collapse said, informing Jump Start.
Jump Start eyes lit up as Collapse explained how they met a Kelpie. "Oh, you finally met one of them! What was she like? Was she like the other seaponies? Where will we be meeting her?" she asked.
Magloria turned away. "I knew I was forgetting something. We didn't set a place to meet." she scoffed, "Ah, doesn't matter. We can go back meet her where we found her, or ask around."
"It is hard to really say what Aura Surge was like exactly, since we had only just met but she is an instructor of some sort of training class from what we had seen." Collapse spoke as she would describe Aura Surge's features in detail for Jump Start.
Looking to Magloria she shrugged. "Well, I suppose there is always bound to be oversight. We are granted a few hours to do things now, what would you like to do? Perhaps the two of us could do more training on an obstacle course?" Collapse suggested.