Magloria ponders over their options, taking note of the surrounding land as well as the structure itself. "Well since you don't want to appear in a threatening manner, we've pretty much got no choice but to approach them and let them see us. Even if we had writing materials, I doubt they'd be willing to act civil to suspicious letters they find."
"What we can do is set up an ambush to catch them if they decide to take action after showing ourselves. If we approach through the trees and get close to the wall, we could then get inside the tower and one of us could have a conversation with the one at the top. They do something stupid, the rest of us show ourselves." she paused, "This does come at the risk that the workers will hear noises and do something as well however."
She gave a casual shrug. "Or we could just knock one of them out when they're alone and drag them into the jungle with us. A whole lot easier." she stated, almost sounding almost like she preferred that option, if her slight tone change was any indication.
Collapse notices Magloria's slight tone change and smirks slightly at that. "The option you speak of first is definitely a lot more complicated. The more complicated things are there is more chance of it going wrong. So let us avoid that, and go along with your suggestion. However, that is likely to scare them and piss them off, depending on the personality we decide to...knock out and drag with us." she spoke and then smirked wider.
"Well, however they act towards us we've already dealt with worse, so I'd say we should do that." her gaze turns towards the one on watch, the calm grey colored feline. "What do you think about that one? Seems fairly out of it if you ask me, perfect to simply knock out. I'd say you have more of a chance of doing something that could knock them out though." Collapse suggested, in agreement with Magloria's preferred choice.
Magloria looked towards the feline on 'duty.' "That one will do. They seem relatively alone, though they are filling in a role that seems pretty important at this place. Hmm..." she thought about it further, before shrugging, dismissing the downside that came with picking them.
Her horn lit up and a globe of water was extracted from the river, before quickly freezing into a perfect sphere of ice, a mild icy glow in it's core however revealed it wasn't just a simple ice ball.
"This'll definitely do for knocking them out. We'd need to get close to the wall before throwing it. My accuracy isn't good enough to hit something from this range with such a heavy object." she stated.
Collapse agrees with this and follows them closer towards the wall. "If you need help I can throw it along with you. We want it to be enough to knock them out but not hurt them too much." Collapse states as they get closer.
"Then we'll drag them off but how do you think we'll talk to them. They are likely to be quite scared, likely pissed off at us. How will we handle that?" Collapse asked. Once they were close enough, she was ready to aid Magloria if she needed it.
Either way, once the Feline was knocked out Collapse would quickly do her best to grab the feline and drag them down to where they could drag the feline away.
Magloria shook her head at the offer, gently turning the ice ball around in her magic. "No, it's not that hard to throw, it falls faster than most things so it's hard to predict where it'll land. Needs accuracy, not strength." she explained.
She gave another dismissive shrug. "I figure once we have them, we just tie them up and interrogate them. Not like they're going to be happy about what we did anyway."
"You really sure that's the best idea?" Jump Start interrupted. "They might not be pleased, but we should at least apologize for what we'd do to them."
By this point they had moved through the nearby jungle, and were now close to the wall. A quick check to make sure they're not being looked at and a dash over to the wall's edge let them get within range. They could see the grey tail of the feline still flicking about occasionally over the side.
"I need to be in a position where I can see their face, then after I throw it, we can levitate their body over the side and bring him back with us." Magloria whispered, before moving around to a spot where she could see her target. After a bit of aiming, the ice ball was thrown through the air, the core glowing brighter now.
The feline only had a split second to realize what was headed towards them, eyes widened, before the orb smashed into their head with a dull *clink*. The magic inside the ice ball was released, causing a flash of cold energy to be released over them, slowing down their body and, because of where it hit, numbing their brain.
The large grey cat slumped down, the ice ball rolling off to somewhere out of sight inside the tower.
Collapse stayed silent although she definitely agreed with Jump Start. However it was best to tie them up so they couldn't pose a threat. Perhaps when they let them go they can knock them out again and make off into the jungle so anyone else who looks for them wouldn't know where to look. That would be something to consider later on.
Upon seeing the orb of ice hit the feline's head, Collapse had winced slightly at it. If it was any saving grace, this wasn't in any intention to harm them. It was mainly to find out where they were in relation to everything else as well as other such information. Either way, they had to do what they had to do.
Upon the feline being knocked out she would look to Magloria. "Quick. Let's grab the feline and get out of here." she whispered to her quietly. Collapse would grab the feline the best she could, if Magloria wanted to aid in grabbing her Collapse made it clear that Magloria could also help in grabbing her to make it faster.
Once they had grabbed the feline if nothing had went wrong, she would lead them back the way they came. Into the Jungle.
The moment that Collapse and Magloria had both pulled the feline off the side of the tower, they could feel the weight of the creature. They definitely felt heavier than they looked.
Magloria guided them down to Jump Start, indicating that she'd be the one to carry the cat back with them. The beige mare didn't look very thrilled with the idea of being so close to a predator, but went along with it regardless.
~~The grey feline began to purr in their sleep, making Jump Start feel even more awkward and uncomfortable than before. This noise attracted the attention of the others around the place, and they all quickly joined in, nuzzling the ponies and purring loudly. None of them could escape from the horror, and it got even worse when they were brought back to the feline town and shown to all the others.~~
They managed to retreat back into the jungle without drawing any attention to themselves, or at least none that they had noticed. Once they were a safe distance away, Magloria instructed them to stop.
"Now we should have a decent amount of time before that spell wears off, but we should still be quick about tying them up. Probably should've found some suitable ropes *before* we knocked them out, but... eh." Magloria shrugged, "Look around for a suitable plant we can use. Thick coiled vines preferably."
Collapse didn't feel too safe being around the cat either. Sure, cats were adorable and cute but this one? Was no kitty cat that was for sure. But knowing cats, was it possible these types of cats liked chin or ear rubs? Or being pet? Either way, she'd rather do that with another mare rather than a big feline. Would be adorable. She still has the general feeling you'd get if you were around say, a Lion. If a Lion could talk, that is.
"Big kitty cat they are. I wonder what their name is." Collapse spoke. She was nervous, but not as nervous as Jump Start probably was.
When they were at a safe distance away Collapse keeps an eye out for suitable plants. If there were any thick coiled vines Collapse would quickly go over and cut them off off of the trees, and would continue doing so until they had a suitable amount of vines. If there weren't any thick ones she'd just find the next best thing.
Wrapped around some large trees were some thickened vines, exactly the kind of thing that Collapse had been after, and there were plenty of them too, enough that they could probably make an entire rope bridge if they had the time and need to do so.
But she didn't need that much, so it only took a few minutes of gathering some of the longer ones before she had what could be considered a natural coil of rope floating in her magical aura.
When she returned to the others, Jump Start had set down the feline next to an average sized tree, while Magloria was keeping a close eye on them in case the spell wore off early. Jump Start greeted her as she approached.
Returning to the area the other two were Collapse greeted Jump Start in a chirpy tone. She was always happy to see Jump Start, even if she had been off away for only a few minutes. With the rope in her golden aura she walked closer to the feline.
Carefully and quickly she'd proceed and tie the vines around the veline's limbs to restrict them from getting away from the tree. She tied the knots quickly and pulled the vines apart in her magic when it was needed. Before long, the feline was tied up exactly as Magloria wanted.
"Now, do we wake up the big kitty?" Collapse grinned.
Magloria nodded. "Now, what do you think would be the best method of waking up this sleeping beauty? Shouting them awake? Tickling their paws? Slapping them across the face? Oh, how about giving them a kiss?" she suggested, looking over at Jump Start. "You wanna do the honors of kissing them?" she asked.
Jump Start recoiled, her face scrunching in disgust. "Eww, no! I don't even want to think about doing that!" she whined, causing Magloria to chuckle at her discomfort.
"Relax, I won't make you." Magloria sighed, then got serious again. "But really though, how friendly or intimidating you want us to appear? Personally I vote for making us appear dominant over the situation, so they MUST answer us."
Collapse chuckles at Magloria's actions there as well, gently nudging Jump Start a bit. If anything it seemed like Jump Start was the 'runt of the litter here'. "Well, let's act dominant and if they aren't too bad of a personality to deal with we'll dial it back a bit?" she asked with a grin as she spoke.
Looking to Magloria she smirked. "Alright, I'll tap them with a stick, how about that?" she asked and grabbed a branch. If Magloria approved she would start tapping the feline awake. If gentle taps weren't enough, then light whacks on the side probably would work.
"That's fine, just don't poke them in the nose or the eyes." Magloria said, sitting down and waiting for events to unfold.
At first they didn't do much, the taps clearly not effective enough to dispel the numbing effects. Lighter whacks ended up provoking a better reaction where they shifted a bit, as if trying to get away from the annoying presence.
Eventually they started showing more signs that they were waking up, eyes, whiskers and ears all flickering. When they realized that they couldn't move their limbs though, their eyes immediately shot open and their struggles intensified.
"Ah!" they yelped as their eyes burned from the sudden sunlight, quickly shutting them again. Their voice sounded female, if a bit on the rough side. Her struggles intensified as she kept trying to break free, to no avail. Magloria had made sure that Collapse tied her up in such a way where she couldn't simply claw through her restraints.
A slight growl could be heard at this point, indicating exactly how they felt about the whole situation.
Collapse thankfully had tired everything in a way so that the feline wouldn't be able to escape from the vines so simply. It was good that she had thought of that ahead of time.
After a few whacks Collapse would look the feline directly into the eye. This was probably the first time that this particular feline had seen a pony and Collapse was the first one she had seen. Her brown eyes looked directly into the feline's own in defiance of her comparatively more fearsome form. Collapse noticed something that she hadn't thought of earlier. The feline's aversion to light. That'd be a good way to get answers out of her, but hopefully it wouldn't have to come to that.
"Look. I realize you are very confused and annoyed at what we did to you here today. I'm not going to get into the details, but the three of us are not from around here. We need answers. We need answers as to where we are, who you felines are, and stuff like that. How about we start with what your name is, and what you call your kind? We aren't going to hurt you if you don't give us a reason to." Collapse spoke. Her words were very clear and concise, however her tone was very much different from what Magloria and Jump Start had heard from her usual.
An air of dominance. Not something you feel from Collapse too often. Especially when around other mares.
Part way into Collapse's speech the feline recovered from the bright light, enough that they could open their eyes again without problems. They started to glare at the group, but this was partially diluted by the confusion that came about from seeing these weird looking creatures.
When Collapse finished, the feline got back to her glaring, not looking convinced. "You really expecting ta get things out o' me when you're lookin like that? What even are you oddballs? Some sorta grass eating critter that fell in a vat o' paint?"
She tugged on her bindings once again, trying desperately to snap them and free herself. "You best be letting me go. Would be a much more favorable outcome for ya compared to what they'll do to ya when they find out that I've been snatched!" she threatened.
"Well, you are in quite the position to talk like that, now aren't you? We've battled against things far scarier than your kind. We won't be letting you go until we get answers." she spoke, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly.
"Just by looking at us you can tell we aren't from around here. We are Unicorns, and well - Jump Start here is an Earth Pony." she gestured to Jump Start with a head gesture. "Now that we have answered your question freely, how about you answer ours? Then we'll proceed forward." she spoke calmly, and authoritatively. "Please, just give us the answers we need and it will be easy for the both of us." she spoke, putting more force into her words.
"Fine. You can have my name, but that's all you're gettin from me, you weird 'yoo-nee-corn'." she growled, looking around herself and checking the bindings properly. "I'm Eliza."
"Now for the next part. What do you creatures call yourselves, what do you do and what places of interest are around here. It would be much better if you told us everything, including places that aren't owned by you felines." Magloria stated, adding in her attempt to get information.
"Why do you even want to know stuff like that? Just ask the parrots. They'll definitely tell ya!" Eliza snarked in response, completely avoiding the question. Words alone didn't seem to be convincing her that they had a reason to be listened to.
"Well *Eliza*, like I said before we are very lost and we need to know our surroundings. You likely won't believe the full story but we need to know where you felines live so we can *avoid* any unnecessary interactions whenever possible, please answer the questions..." Collapse spoke and stepped forward, clearly undeterred by Eliza's avoidance to her questions.
"I see you felines don't like light..." Collapse's horn began to glow gold. It wasn't too bright, but she could easily make it brighter if she wanted to. "So tell us what we need to know or I'm going to make this place as bright as the sun, how about that? Make this easy for the both of us." Collapse spoke with a more forceful manner.
Eliza shut one of her eyes in response to the sudden bright light in her face. Not as much of a reaction as Collapse was probably hoping for. About the same as what a pony would do in response to sudden light like that. Still though, it showed that it had at least some effect.
"Wh-What the? What the blazin' hell are you doin? You some sort of lamp creature that wandered out of one of those alchemy lab places? That would explain the funny colors that you're wearin'." she said in an agitated manner, still not divulging anything they want to know.
Magloria looked to Collapse. "Well the kitty still isn't talking. Collapse, you know what to do." she encouraged. Something she said caused Eliza to give Magloria a one-eyed glare in response.
Collapse stepped forward as her horn began to glow progressively brighter. "No, as a matter of fact we come from an entire different civilization a weeks away on the other side of the nearby ocean, as far as we can tell. We are stranded here. Our ship got wrecked. We are lost. All we want is information that would be useful to aid us in our mission to return home." she spoke, her words also getting more forceful.
"When we arrived here we saw another settlement of felines a ways away from here. We didn't interact as we had no idea what would happen, so tell us what we want to know. *Now*. Why must you be so difficult? Answer a few simple questions, talk a little, and we'll let you go. Your stubbornness ain't going to help you." Collapse smirked. Her horn was quite bright now. She could go brighter if she needed to.
"So you're lost, big deal. Just build another ship and stop pestering me!" Eliza growled as the light got even brighter. At this point she had shut both of her eyes to avoid the intensity of the light.
Until it reached a point where the brightness was too intense for her to stand, even with her eyes tightly shut. "Ow! Ow! Bloody hell ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT FINE I'LL TELL YOU! Just turn that damn light down before it burns out my eyes and I go blind!" she snapped, finally having enough of the session.
Magloria looked to Collapse, giving her a nod to go along with Eliza's request. "As long as you tell us what we need to know, we won't have to do that again. Are we clear?" she asked the feline.
"Yes yes, I get the idea, you daft leaf muncher." Eliza replied.
Collapse turns down her light off. The bright light vanishes in a sudden poof sound and then she smiles sweetly. Seemingly unphased by Eliza's demeanor. "Thank you. Now let's do this again. Can you *please* tell us What you call yourselves, what you do, and what are the places around here...but like Magloria said, it'd be best if you just tell us everything we know. I don't feel like asking specific questions yet, so let's just go everything. How about that?" she asked sweetly.
Collapse takes out one of the Coconuts and eats a bit more, munching while Eliza replies. "I mean, a giant python that we just cut up last night after we almost *died*, doesn't sound very tasty...but Coconuts do." she giggled.
It was as if her sweet tone was done on purpose as an opposition to Eliza's crude comments.
Collapse's sweetened words only seemed to piss off the feline even more, but she held her tongue and started answering the questions. "We call ourselves Panthins, and what we do is what any species with a smartlike brain does. We go about buildin' our shelters, huntin' our foodstuffs, improvin' our lives, and prayin' that no damned disasters go and undo it all."
"You talked about seeing another place of ours, well if it was big and full of us, it was our big town 'round here. We called it Carocol. Plus a few little places like what I was at before you rudely came along, just to keep things flowin' in."
Eliza picked up on Collapse's words about the python, and let out a scoff. "Won't be the last time one goes for ya, and I hope they succeed next time." she declared.
Collapse takes in the answers she was given and ignores Eliza’s rude comment at the end, simply smiling.
“There we go. That wasn’t too hard after all. What kind of leadership do you have around here? See, we are hesitant to reveal ourselves out in the open as we aren’t sure what kinds of reactions we would get openly. We know nothing about your kind so as of yet we have avoided open contact in acknowledgment of possible violent outcomes we would rather avoid.” she states and looks to Jump Start.
“You haven’t really said much. Any questions you want to ask Eliza here?” she asked with a slight smirk. She wanted Jump Start to be a little more brave after all.
Eliza rolled her eyes at the monologuing that Collapse kept on putting forth. What else was this horned herbivore going to spout out? Her entire life story? Perhaps how she got that hideous butt stamp? Eliza would've chuckled at the thought, if she wasn't tied up.
"The lazy kind of leadership that sits around on their fancy feathered seats while ignorin' all the problems of the little folk. You know, the usual 'puss with power' kind of thing. Not like you'd really care about that sort of thing, now would ya?" she replied. Probably not the explanation Collapse was after, but she did give a proper answer.
Jump Start shook her head. She had nothing to say to them, and nothing she wanted to really know about them. "You two are doing a better job." she said.
Collapse looks to Jump Start and smirks slightly before looking back to Eliza. It seems that these cats are basically what one would expect. They did seem to lay around and not do much after all. Although they aren't to be messed with in Collapse's opinion.
"Right, what kinds of landmarks around here are of interest? We are getting tired of this unforgiving Jungle. Perhaps there could be some place more temperate without dangerous creatures. Or does this place fall entirely within this type of climate? Do the Panthins have ships?" Collapse asked curiously, wanting to get more answers out of Eliza here.
She looked to Magloria, wondering if she had anything to ask but noticing how she didn't speak up - it seemed that she was satisfied with Collapse's line of questioning.
"If you want to escape from this here jungle, you'll be goin' for days and days. Place is massive, and that's without you gettin' slowed down by the locals or completely blocked by the very lands around ya. Wouldn't know if we've gone further, because I do not give a toss. There are probably interestin' things out there, but I don't give a toss about em' either."
She looked bewildered at the idea of building a ship. "Why would we willingly go sailin' out across open waters? That's one of the ludicrous ideas I've every heard of." Eliza leaned forward as far as she could go, trying to get closer to Collapse before she said, "So I'll tell you this plain and simple for ya. N. O. We do not!"
She rested back against the tree once again. "Now, are you proper done with askin' your bloody questions? I could do with a nice drink after all this pointless yammerin'."
Collapse shrugged at the answers however she stood there resolute, unphased. "One less risky situation then for us. No taking ships, right. Boggles my mind what you have against open water...oh right, you probably are afraid of water. Makes sense. I'd say that really limits what you can do as a society, but that's not my place to say." she shrugged.
"You know, we were really looking around for a map of some kind. Do you happen to know where we could get a map from? Or do you even use maps?" she asked further, not seeming to be bothered by Eliza's statements. However in truth this type of personality was something that was very annoying for her to deal with. Seems like they don't care about not going beyond what they know, what good is that, anyway? Well, that's on the Panthins for deciding to be that way.
"You want a drink, here..." Collapse would take out one of her Coconuts, summoning her screwdriver and stabbing it through the top of it several times to create holes. For Eliza, her summoning ability was likely bewildering. Once she was done she levitated the Coconut closer to her. "I mean, if you want to drink, just open wide and I'll pour you some milk." she smirks.
Eliza was initially reluctant to do what Collapse said in order to get the offered drink, but eventually she opened up her mouth wide enough that she could drink without making a mess.
Once she was done she cleaned up her lips and whiskers with her surprisingly long, pink tongue. "Thanks. At least you're hospitable towards your captives." she said, still sounding angry, but the edge had been taken off of her tone.
"Yes we have maps. We're not completely useless at doing things. You're not going to find one here though. Only going to get some in Carocol. Good luck with that though. Your bright colours and soft pudgy 'eat me' appearance will make you stand out like a ladybug on a leaf."
Jump Start looked down at herself. "Do we really look fat and delicious...?" she whispered to herself, poking at her belly as she did.