"Alright, how we gonna sneak in? I could use my fly ring to get us up over the windows but hmm...but we could risk being seen..." Collapse whispers, walking along the outside to see if any of the massive doors happened to be open or slightly open. If there were any of those, she'd head towards them and take a peek inside. If not, she was wanting to weigh their options of getting in through the windows. Perhaps there could be another way?
Neither of the large doors were open, but they also weren't locked either, letting her peek inside of the building. There were dozens of various machines, workstations and even a couple assembly lines to be found scattered about the main floor of the building.
Most of them were idle, but some were currently in use, such as a sawmill that was splitting planks of wood into proper sizes for later use.
"I don't think the problem is getting in by sneaking in. The problem we need to consider is what sneaking in will do for us right now. The moment we try to take stuff we'll be spotted." Magloria pointed out as she gazed around the machinery complex. "Everything is in sight of everything else, and your spell isn't exactly subtle. That's not even taking care of the fact that there's nowhere to hide." she said.
"So you mean that this entire trip was a big waste of time, and we won't be able to build a proper boat?" Jump Start worried.
Collapse shook her head. "Perhaps we could cause some sort of distraction that would cause them to look elsewhere, allowing us to get in while they are distracted? We will be able to build a proper boat, we just need to take proper actions in order to get the materials." She spoke to Jump Start as she looked over the various machines and assembly lines inside of the main floor of the building.
"Or we could try another building, try our luck and hope that it has other things that we need but since we are here I'd rather take the chance to get what we need out of this one." Collapse suggested. "Just checking, what would we be getting from here? Would it be possible to get it from somewhere else?" she asked curiously.
"We need to build a boat, so for that we need proper crafting materials. In order to make those we need proper tools to do so, preferably workstations with proper refining tools so we don't do everything crudely by hoof. I doubt we'd be able to find that stuff in some random house." Magloria answered.
She looked around the outside of the building, searching for something that could help them. "A distraction could work, but it would need to be a pretty big one to get them to *all* stop working and deal with it." she said, before her eyes settled upon some trees.
"Fire always works."
"Just like we did before. Got it. Cover me while I get to casting a spell. I'll do it from over here..." she spoke quietly before getting in position to where it would allow her to cast the ignition spell like before. She knew that the orange orb of flame she'd be casting would have to cast through the air, so she wanted to do it opposite of the area they were to throw of suspicion.
When she was ready to cast the spell, and if Magloria approved of her doing it - Collapse's horn would charge up quickly with an orange glow. She crouched down to avoid the orb from being too bright. Once it was at a sizable size, she would cast off the small orange orb towards the trees. It would quickly and rapidly move around in various ways for added distraction, before it would contact the trees. Soon enough, the leaves of the trees up ahead would light aflame. The flame in the trees would spread, making itself obvious.
By then, Collapse was back over by Magloria and Jump Start.
At first, no one noticed the crackling of flames up in the trees because they were all in the building, but as the flames outside grew more intense they were seen visibly confused about what they heard. Then one of them smelt the smoke that had begun to spread out everywhere, alerting the others to search for the source.
All of this took several minutes, until eventually one noticed the orange glow coming from outside of the building and called all the others to the flames. The news then spread even further, alerting those in other buildings of the danger. Groups of panthins began to organize collection of water to douse the flames.
At this point the factory work was completely halted to deal with the issue, leaving the place unattended. Magloria gave the go ahead to enter the building and start grabbing what they need. Collapse knew that she'd have to magic away the bigger machines and workstations, as they couldn't carry those.
Collapse would observe the effects of her work. Seeing that tree go up in flames made her smile. It was interesting that nothing they were doing here was out of genuine malice or anything of that nature. It was something that they had to do, in a sense. Seeing the panthins halt their factory work was a job well done for them. The distraction worked.
Upon Magloria giving the go ahead, Collapse would enter into the building. She'd look about to see what kinds of machines and workstations were about. Upon examining the various things that she believed she needed - her horn would charge up with a gold hue. One by one, the machines would vanish in gold flashes. She made sure to only take what they needed, but she would have likely took any stray tools laying about the place, just for the sake of having more tools.
While Collapse was busy dealing with the larger equipment, Magloria and Jump Start were the ones busy with collecting whatever smaller tools they could find that suited their requirements.
Collapse was in the middle of casting the spell on sewing machine of sorts (for the sail they'd likely need later) when they all heard a loud gasp and metal clattering noise. Over by one of the doors, bucket of water spilled on the ground was an orange panthin with brown stripes through it's fur.
He had rushed inside upon seeing the yellow glow through a window, assuming a part of the fire had spread into the building and was burning away their stuff. What he found were 3 highly colourful grass eaters and many of their stuff outright missing.
Due to the surprise of what he found, the group had a moment to act before he did.
Collapse quickly turned to notice the orange panthin nearby and gave a look of bewilderment before looking to the group. "Shit, we've been spotted!" she spoke, her spell that was casted on the sewing machine sputtered out due to the lack of focus. Collapse would quickly run towards Jump Start as if protecting her. "It's time to go, we can't take all of what we can now. At least we got some of the machines we needed!" she stated to Magloria and Jump Start, more than ready to make a break for it and run out of here.
Collapse's heart was racing, she didn't expect them to be found this quickly into what they were doing. "Look, you won't understand what we are doing here - so we'll get out of your hair and leave. We don't have any trouble with you or anyone else here." she spoke to the orange and brown panthin.
Turns out in the time it took for Collapse to call out to the others, protect Jump Start and explain that they needed to leave, the panthin had already broken out of his state of shock and, seeing 3 thieves, prepared to leave and get the attention of others to capture them.
What Magloria lacks in word count and romantic interest, she makes up for in actions. A blue glow that cooled the air around them and a flash of spellwork later, and the panthin's front half up to his neck was encased in a thin layer of frost, pinning them to the spot.
"AH! WHAT THE!?" he yelped in shock, and began to struggle against the ice. "HEY! SOMEO-" he tried to say, but before he could finish Magloria had rushed over to him. Twisting around mid-run, she let out a mighty buck straight in the prone panthin's face, causing the ice and several teeth to shatter. The panthin didn't get up, but aside from 2 hoofmarks on his snout he looked fine.
"They'll still know about us, and more will be attracted by his cries. Let's go." Magloria suggested, pointing at the door.
Jump Start looked like she didn't like where all this was going, but she nodded to Collapse and Magloria anyway, ready to follow after them.
Not much time would pass before she'd see the Panthin getting bucked straight in the face. It was not what Collapse would have done but it was too late for any other actions being taken, other than leaving quickly. Magloria handled situations quite well, although part of her felt bad for the Panthin there. He was just doing what she would have done, if their positions were reversed. There was no further time to ponder upon that.
"Right, let's go. We aren't coming back for a while I would say." Collapse replied and would quickly run out the door and follow Magloria out. She was fast, but instinctively made sure that Jump Start was following safely. A safe Jump Start is a good Jump Start! At least they were able to get some of what they wanted to get, but not all of it. They may very well have to come back here in a while to retrieve what they needed.
With all the panicking cats rushing about to put out the flames, most of them didn't notice the ponies as they ran out of the factory, with Magloria heading straight to the nearest dark place where they could hide.
Unfortunately 'most' did not mean 'all'. 3 panthins saw them running out of the building and, not knowing what they were and assuming the worst, decided to go after them.
It was actually *Collapse* who was the most in danger, since she had to compete against an enduring earth pony and a unicorn who was far more athletic. The panthins behind them were closing in on them. Judging from the way Magloria occasionally looked back, she also knew this.
Collapse knew the position she was in as well and could see the 3 panthins following after her. With her magic she would conjure up a rather low yield laser spell and quickly would fire it off behind her. If it hit one of the Panthins, the most they would feel is a slight burn - but still, it would most likely be something they wouldn't have expected even if it didn't hit them. It seems as though they were unfamiliar with magic and spell casting, but regardless Collapse would press on in following towards the first dark place they could hide.
The beam of magical energy scorched one of the panthins, hitting their shoulder and causing them to stumble with a yelp. This deterred that one a bit from following, but they only slowed down instead of stopping entirely. They still could run, even if it was painful.
Now knowing for certain that these ponies were dangerous, the other two sped up, determined to catch these nasty things before they cause even more damage, but not without keeping an eye on Collapse in case she fired more lasers.
By this point they had reached the dark alleyway that Magloria had hoped to hide in, but with those following them there was no chance that they could. Magloria had a plan that might help them, and all they'd have to do is follow her lead.
"When I say jump, jump." Magloria told them, paused for a bit, then... "JUMP!" her horn glowed.
Having noticed the way the panthins were speeding up Collapse got more nervous at that. She didn't want to end up getting scratched or worse - bitten or clawed at. She knew she would be able to defend herself with magic, but she much preferred not having to do so. Again, she could understand the position the panthins were in. Seeing members of a race they had not seen before, and stealing their machines didn't leave the best of impressions.
"...Start!" Collapse shouted and jumped, she wasn't sure what Magloria was doing but found it a good time to make a bad pun. She followed Magloria's lead to the T, as best as she could. Hopefully they could look back and laugh at the pun Collapse made.
"...Doesn't like this!" Jump Start continued as she leapt into the air, giving Magloria the opportunity to perform her magic.
A chilling blast of magic was shot straight below them, spreading quickly along the ground and partially up the nearby walls in what could only be described as an ice floor.
Due to the speed that the 2 leading panthins were going they were unable to slow down, and with no other way to go they couldn't help but move straight onto the ice patch, immediately slipping and falling over into uncomfortable heaps that slid to the edge of the ice before rolling and stopping.
This gave the group enough distance from their main chasers to exit the alleyway and move down another street, before quickly entering a passage between some other buildings, where they would be out of clear view from almost everyone.
Collapse went silent as they kept running onward. The ice was a nice nifty trick Magloria did, and Collapse was glad that their pursuers were distracted by it. It was oddly euphoric, the way that this whole situation unfolded. There was something to be said for running away from pursuers and dangerous consequences - the thrill of it was second to none.
"I would be lying if I said there wasn't a thrill..." Collapse said, a small grin forming on her face as they kept running. She kept an eye out for any possible areas of escape out into the jungle, if Magloria hadn't pointed out any Collapse would for sure as they aimed to proceed out of Carocal. Well, at least they got some of the stuff they needed.
Eventually they had to slow down. Not only because they were all getting tired from the constant running, but the amount of noise they were making was bound to attract attention again, which would make it even harder to escape.
They had a bit of distance to go before they would be able to get to the jungle, but at least they were far enough away from the factory and fire that there would be low chance of anyone new spotting them.
"Let's not go through that again." Jump Start said as they walked and snuck around, clearly unsettled from being chased by predators.
Collapse would slow down and panted. As she panted she looked to Jump Start and gave her a weird, almost too happy grin. Perhaps she was referencing something, or she was just being weird for the sake of being weird. "Yeah, let's not indeed." she spoke quietly, walking along as they would head towards the jungle.
"At least we got some of the stuff. Hopefully we can make do with what we got. I don't like being here at all." she added quietly as they walked along.
They were almost at the edge of where the town and jungle met when they heard a sudden fast noise coming from somewhere behind them. Upon turning around they saw that the panthin that Collapse had hit with her laser was charging straight at them!
They must not have been moving fast enough to get caught by Magloria's ice trap, so was able to follow them, or at least track them down before they got away.
What was probably most important though, was that they were alone. They didn't even look like they had a plan either, just running straight at the 3 of them in the hopes of somehow catching them all.
Collapse would turn to see the Panthin still charging straight at them. Maybe this one was more brave than the others or plain stupid to charge at a group of creatures that clearly had already proved they have abilities the Panthin likely didn’t understand.
Collapse’s horn glowed quickly and she would attempt to use her telekineses to halt the Panthin’s advance, attempting to lock them in place. This was, if Magloria allowed her to do this. If she succeeded in locking the Panthin in place Collapse would look to them. “It’s not really the best of ideas to go it alone and try to catch all three of us.” she spoke, using her magic to clamp their lips shut if they would scream or shout.
“Feel free to knock them out. We could try to reason with them but if you wanna knock them out go right ahead.” Collapse spoke, provided if she even managed to capture the Panthin in her telekinetic field.
The moment Collapse's telekinesis locked onto the charging panthin they were lifted into the air, making them lose all traction with the ground and slowing them down to a stop.
They kept trying to run for a few moments before they realized they were making no progress, then proceeded to panic when they saw they were encased in a bubble of magic, trying to shout as Collapse expected, only to have their cries muffled by the pressure holding their muzzle in place.
Collapse meanwhile found out that panthins are heavy to carry. It's a good thing she didn't have to hold them for long. Magloria nodded before walking up to the panthin, lashing out with a hoof and knocking the large feline out.
"That's that. Assuming we're not being followed by even more of them, we should be able to reach the jungle and leave this damn place." Magloria said as she started walking out of Carocol again.
Collapse gently sat the Panthin back down and followed Magloria out of the place. She was glad that she succeeded in getting the Panthin knocked out, smirking at the result. They did make a great team after all, Collapse thought at noticing how efficient Magloria was in not wasting any time. It also made Collapse think about what it was like to receive such a blow to the face by Magloria's amazing and blue hooves. Since it was so dark, they couldn't see her massive blush.
As they left Collapse would occasionally look behind her at Carocal to make sure that no others were following them on their way out. But she knew that in the future, the Panthins may search the jungle and eventually find their shelter. Something to consider for the future.
From what Collapse could make out of the dark jungle they were leaving behind them, there didn't look to be anyone following after them. They looked to be in the clear of their little expedition into the town.
Unfortunately for them they had a new problem that they'd have to deal with. The need to walk through a dark jungle in order to get back to their camp. Along the way down the river Magloria kept her spear at the ready, but the numerous dangerous sounds that they heard through the trees was unnerving.
Even the river water nearby seemed to be more violent at this time of night, currents appearing more rapid and uncoordinated.
Collapse readied her spear as well, staying on alert and aware. They were not entirely in the clear. Giant snake and who knows what else is many times more dangerous than a large Panthin. At least the Panthins could possibly be reasoned with, but there was no reasoning with wildlife after all.
Hearing the river, it could be possible that there was rain a ways away from here which is why it was like that. "Can't say I'm fond of this place." Collapse muttered, to nobody in particular.
Then they all heard a much louder splash of water. Those that turned quick enough could see a long thin tail flail above the water before it went back down into the depths below.
"That was unnerving..." Jump Start squeaked, "I hope whatever it is it can't go onto land."
"A good reason as any to not enter the water at night. Let's keep away from the river for now." Magloria commented, shepherding them both closer to the jungle for the rest of the way, until they reached their camp. Finally.