Collapse definitely enjoyed the time they had talking and enjoyed seeing their glistening bodies with the seawater in the sunlight. But eventually the two groups had to part ways. Collapse couldn’t help but feel a bit saddened by that.
“Well before we go I would want a hug. A seapony hug, if any of you don’t mind.” she spoke, summoning her ring away so if any of them wanted to hug her they could. Her yellow coat looked soft.
Either way it was clear that she felt safe with the seaponies. It was interesting they could talk to another group normally, even when they were ponies - they were vastly different than “normal” ponies. It was very interesting.
Hopefully one or more of them could give her a hug. A seapony hug. Aren’t seapony hugs the best? Other than Magloria hugs, of course.
Most looked confused at the sudden odd request, not sure why she wanted to touch them like that. They didn't really know her very well, and she didn't know them that well either.
Only a couple accepted her offer to hug. One that didn't get a chance to talk to her yet, and Shimmer Whisker.
When Shimmer Whisker gave her hug, Collapse got a face full of whiskers, tickling the hairs on her muzzle. It didn't last as long as she would've liked though, as the other seaponies were beginning to leave, and Shimmer Whisker didn't want to get left behind.
Some of them gave the group a farewell as they returned to the ocean waters, and then they were all gone.
When Shimmer Whisker hugged her, she giggled like a filly quietly upon feeling the whiskers tickle her muzzle like that. It felt so funny and she gave Shimmer Whisker a few gentle pats on the back and enjoyed the hug as long as it lasted. She wished them all well, and said that Shimmer Whisker was her favorite seapony and that she'd like to meet her again someday.
Collapse watched as they went back in the water and stood there until they were all gone. It was kind of interesting, to see how easily attached Collapse gets with others and how eager she is to hug others like that. But either way she'd blush as she turned back to them. "I wish we had whiskers..." Collapse could be heard muttering, as she looked right at Jump Start, imagining her orangey whiskery goodness.
Magloria shrugged at Collapse's words. "Seapony whiskers would definitely have their use. After all they are tuned to magical currents. But it's not like we can just steal a seapony's whiskers or grow a set on ourselves." she stated.
Jump Start, not noticing Collapse's daydreaming about her, began to look around the beach. "I don't see any other seaponies around. We're probably not going to be able to talk to them anymore today. Was... nice while it lasted though."
"Maybe we could do fake whiskers just for the fun of it..." Collapse said, staring out to the sea but her mind seemed to snap back into reality and looked up at the sun there. It was probably time to start heading back.
"We should head back now. Tomorrow we'll have to come up with something to do. Maybe more blueprint talk." she said to them, wanting to get a solid plan for the construction of the ship.
"Fake whiskers." Magloria's face scrunched up at the sound of it. "That's impractical. Not useful at all. The point of whiskers is to sense more. Fake ones would just get in the way." she replied in mild disgust at the idea, while she began to lead them all towards where the river met the sea.
Given they had broken through a wall of jungle to reach the beach, they wouldn't know *exactly* where to return to to get home anyway.
By this point the sun told them that it was the middle of the afternoon. They had been roaming the beach and talking with the seaponies for quite a lot of time it seems, but they still had time for a little bit more. Perhaps just searching for food and whatnot.
Collapse would continue walking and search for food, based on Magloria's reply it was not something she'd wanna engage with further. She wanted to make Magloria smile and laugh, but unfortunately it didn't seem that she found humor in that. She looks to them. "Perhaps we could find different kinds of fruits that are better for eating." she suggested curiously.
"Whats your favorite foods, actually?" she asked the two of them. "I like cookies. Chocalate chip." her mouth almost watered at the thought.
Magloria lightly shook her head. "No, let's not be picky. We can be picky if we find a surplus of food, but until we find a grove full of trees laden with fruits, nuts and edible roots... or berry bushes... or leafy green plants worth eating. Until we find something like that, we take what we can get."
In response to the question about favorite foods, Jump Start blurted out "Cheese with pasta and creamy sauce!" She had mentioned something like that once before.
Magloria however refused to mention her favorite food, though she did mention that it was less acceptable to ponies back home than most foods, hence the reason why she wouldn't tell them.
By the time they were done searching around they had located several trees and bushes with suitable food (that hadn't already been looted by monkeys and birds), enough that they wouldn't need to forage around for a while.
Collapse giggled at Jump Start's blurting out there and thought that was cute. Collapse, you just can't keep your blushes to yourself can you? Well, at least she was trying to do so. To Magloria's point about the food, it made sense. The food they had found was enough to service them at the bare minimum. Survival wasn't always about enjoyment.
To Magloria refusing to mention her favorite food - she found that suspicious. Maybe it was meat, like bird meat? Snake meat? Whatever the case, she could at least understand the reasoning as to why she didn't tell them but Collapse mentioned that she didn't care what Magloria would eat as that was her body, her choice.
Now that they had found suitable food, Collapse would proceed to pick the various fruits she was able to locate and collect them in her saddlebags.
After collecting what they could, they began to head back to their camp. With the help from the river, this was easy to accomplish, and they were soon back at their clearing, offloading their supplies as the sunset's orange glow passed over them.
Collapse would walk back to the camp and slipped off her boots, stretching her hooves before laying back and relaxing with a sigh. As she closed her eyes, the memories of Shimmer Whisker and Aura Surge flowed through her mind as a light smile came across her face.
The others left Collapse alone as she daydreamed about whatever she was doing. "Mares, probably." Magloria thought while she set up a small area with sticks and vines, acting as a box for their plentiful food.
Night eventually came, and they all started to feel tired after their playtime at the beach, though if how Collapse was is any indication, she was practically asleep already.
Collapse was already asleep by the time they had went to sleep. She was curled up into a fuzzy yellow ball. It seemed she floofed up her tail and mane to look more inviting if they wanted to lay next to her. Her cutie mark could be seen in her yellowness as she slept peacefully.
Neither of them snuggled down close to Collapse. Magloria because her usual distanced behaviour, and Jump Start because she technically didn't get permission, and doesn't want to intrude.
The night passed by fairly unspectacularly. A rattling sound of bushes woke up Jump Start at one point, but nothing else came from it. Probably just some snake or something.
Collapse woke up some time after the sun had already risen above the horizon. It was strange, she could *almost* feel those whiskers touching her face and the rest of her fur when she was given a proper seapony inspection, or at least, that's what her dream thought they did.
Collapse wakes up and the thought of the soft seapony whiskers was in her mind. Was she dreaming about the seaponies? She couldn't really tell, since usually she didn't remember her dreams when she awoke. Maybe it was just pollen in the air, or worse - some kind of bug crawling on her face?
Her eyes opened and she stretched and yawned. She was really tired last night and for once slept alone. Honestly, she didn't mind. That seapony hug was all that was on her mind that night but upon waking up, she'd go to see if the others prepared breakfast for her already. If not, she'd get to preparing itself for all of them.
The shelter was empty of any other ponies, so it was safe to assume that they had already left. Outside she saw the both at work by one of the machines. A plate of foodstuff had already been set aside.
It looked as though they were using the sawmill that they stole. Jump Start was constantly turning a crank to power the blade, while Magloria was using her magic to force logs through, precisely cutting them into various sizes of planks and firewood scraps.
Jump Start briefly paused her work to say good morning to Collapse, mentioning that the plated food nearby was for her.
"Let me oversleep, hmm? Instead of letting me join the fun?" she grinned, greeting the two of them as she would get her food from the plate and would look to the various sizes of planks and firewood bits as the food and plate floats in her magic idly. Collapse would fix her mane and tail from her magic, since it was getting a little fluffy since they haven't been in the position to get a mane cut or anything like that.
"Tried to wake you, but Jump Start didn't want me to give you a solid kick after our first and second attempt failed." Magloria said, only glancing over at the mare briefly before returning her focus to the woodwork.
They've gone through 2 logs by now, creating a decently stacked pile of planks and posts that they could use later. The size of each similar plank wasn't exactly perfect, but you can't blame an engineer and ship captain for not knowing precise carpentry measurements.
Speaking of long manes, Collapse actually had a decent choice about how to deal with that, given they had a number of sharp instruments lying around. Knives, the axe, Magloria's short sword and even the currently in use sawblade if she was particularly impatient and suicidal.
Collapse looked to Magloria and smirked slightly at that, and inspected the logs. Any imperfections were fine in her eyes - the ship was intended to be the most basic of basics, bare survival. A to B transportation.
"Well, actually now that I think about it - I am gonna try cutting my mane a bit." she spoke and would get one of the knives. "Although I've never cut my mane with a knife before. I'd appreciate it if you watched me to make sure I don't cut myself." she said to them, waiting until they were done with their respective tasks.
Magloria didn't seem all that hurried with getting the rest of their task done, since Collapse shouldn't have mush risk in doing her task anyway. "It's rather simple to do, Collapse. Just pull your mane away from your neck with your telekinesis and cut slightly further away. Shouldn't have any risk of cutting yourself, assuming that you don't drop the knife." she said.
"I can watch." Jump Start responded, looking over. She was still cranking the sawblade, but she didn't really have to concentrate on that as much as Magloria did.
Collapse would turn so that Jump Start could see her, she would be sure to follow Magloria's instructions as she took her time in cutting her mane. She angled the blade carefully and was cutting a way, to get a sizeable amount of her mane cut back. Wanting to go for a bit of a shorter look since it was getting annoyingly long by this point. She would also do the same for her tail, which was also simpler.
"Well, I could give you both haircuts maybe..." she smirked.
Magloria declined the offer, since she was able to trim her own mane and tail without assistance, having done so many times before she became a ship captain with access to a mirror.
Jump Start would let her do it though, after they were done with the sawmill. That way they didn't have any possibility of disaster involving the knife or the sawblade. That would be pretty bad.
With the third log done, they decided to stop. They now had enough planks that they could get started on something better, like perhaps the beginning of an actual floor and walls for their shelter. They'd still need a way to keep the planks together though.
Collapse was glad that Jump Start at least would allow her mane and tail to be cut. She'd wait patiently until she was done using the sawmill and when Jump Start was ready she would tell her to sit down so she could get a better look at her mane.
If Jump Start sat down as requested, she would begin carefully cutting her hair. While she did so, she found herself mesmerized at Jump Start's mane color. "Well, its very orange. Orangey." she grinned happily, as if she enjoyed simply looking at the color her mane as she would inevitably cut it back a bit. If Jump Start had any requests for length, she'd do her best to oblige. The same would apply to her tail as well.
"You know, we should save some tufts of your hair. Incase we need to clone you, we can bring you back by cloning the DNA of your hair." Collapse grinned. "Well, two Jump Starts would be better than one." she giggled.
Jump Start moved over to where she was instructed and sat herself down, giving Collapse easy access to her mane and tail. She didn't really have any preference over what style she wanted, just as long as it was shorter than before.
She cringed when she was called Orangey, not liking that sort of nickname at all. It only deepened when Collapse put the thought of cloning herself into her mind. Was she really that expendable that they could just replace her?
Magloria spoke up. "As brilliant a fantasy as that is, that's all it's going to be Collapse. Because unless there is some sort of miraculously still working cloning machine inside an old ruin or something, we're going to be nowhere near pulling that off."
Collapse looks to Magloria. "Well, double the trouble - double the fun. But one Jump Start is great though." she said, patting Jump Start's shoulder in a friendly manner. "But I think you would be overwhelmed if there were two Collapses." Collapse giggled, imagining Jump Start surrounded by two Collapses when it was time to lay down.
Soon enough Collapse finishes the cutting of Jump Start's her mane and tail. "Well, your all set. Nice and shorter than before." she stated calmly in a friendly, warm manner. It seems she was being more warm worded, maybe that's because she was able to have physical contact with Jump Start.
Judging from the way that Magloria simply glared, she did not approve of the idea of having 2 Collapses constantly trying to get into her bed. Especially since she knew that they would only encourage each other, making it even worse.
"Thank you." Jump Start said, getting back up and moving around, trying to get a good look at herself. She couldn't quite see everything, but she seemed satisfied by the end of it. She could look at herself in the river later anyway.
Collapse pulled herself away and looked away from Magloria, understanding what Magloria was likely wanting to convey there. She would back off on her jokes and look out into the jungle as if wondering what to do. "Well, what now?" she asked curiously, not sure what to do now.
"Boring work is probably what we *should* be doing, but as usual we have the means to completely go against that and do something else, somewhere else. We've still got many points of interest on the map. Both ones that panthins are interested in, and the ones they want to avoid." Magloria explained.
"And..." she added, "...if we really wanted to, we could go find Pebble again. Perhaps ask her of anywhere we could-" She struck a forehoof to her face, realizing something they could've done. "We could've had her mark new places on the map directly if we had asked."
Collapse looked to them. "Hmm, that would have been interesting. I think we should go find Pebble again and do just that, then explore some of the places she points out for us? And if we can't find her, we can explore the ones the Panthins wanted to avoid." Collapse suggested, seemingly fine with that idea.
"Yeah sure, if that's the plan you're all fine with." Magloria nodded, preparing their stuff in their bags, making especially sure that they're bringing the map and a piece of charcoal (contained inside a leaf wrap, so it doesn't ruin their bags).
Jump Start looked into the jungle, as if trying to work out where they should head towards. "She couldn't have moved very far, right? But then again, it has been more than a day so she could've moved elsewhere." she pondered.
"My best guess would be to head towards where we met her before, perhaps she was settling down somewhere in that area." Collapse suggested as she looked out in the Jungle. "We can look around for a bit to see if we can find her, I would suggest heading to where we were before when we talked to her." Collapse added.
"Why did you say the same thing twice...?" Magloria asked as she rose an eyebrow. She shook her head, brushing off the mare's strange ways of communicating. "Anyway, let's hope that they left a trail to follow. Probably have, given Pebble's size and her entourage."
Once they were all ready, Magloria began setting off, leading them to the last known location of the giant lizard.
Collapse follows after Magloria and stayed rather silent for a time as she proceeded to examine their surroundings for any signs as to where Pebble went. Collapse didn't answer Magloria's question, but Collapse did think she was weird a lot of times, not that she minded of course. Collapse had her boots on, as they proceeded towards the last known location of Pebble.
Passing by the panthin structures was a simple feat, as all they had to do was repeat what they had already done. They reached the riverside spot where they had found Pebble and, as expected, she wasn't there.
But there was the jungle around them, and though it looked like the same old jungle to most, to Magloria she saw a part that was suspiciously *lizard* sized. Where most saw dirt, she saw lizard-shaped footprints.
"Pebble went down this way. It's a good thing that it hasn't rained since we saw her, otherwise it would be impossible to track her down." Magloria lectured to the others.
"Yup. Let's track down our friendly big lizard." Collapse replied as she would follow Magloria forward, keeping an eye out on their surroundings as they proceeded forward. As they walked she seemed to look at Jump Start a few times to see her hair and tail. She smiled at Jump Start, that smile was a bit over-exaggerated, as she was trying to make Jump Start laugh.
Magloria was also keeping a constant eye on their surroundings, but for a different reason, given she needed to lead them through the jungle. Jump Start on the other hand smiled awkwardly back at Collapse. She didn't know what Collapse was doing, but she supposed she could try and humor her.
Eventually they got to a part of the jungle where they could hear rustling from somewhere up ahead. That probably meant that they were close. All they had to do was pass through another dozen bushes and they'd be at the source.
Collapse would slow down and listen to the restling. She hope that they weren't intruding on Pebble - imagining Pebble being angry would be terrifying to say the least. Provided if nothing else happened, they would proceed through the bushes. Collapse would instinctively move closer to Jump Start as if protecting her incase if anything bad happened.
There was no other sound aside from the occasional shifting ahead, so things moved forward as expected.
Until she reached the second to last bush, where a sudden burst of movement came from the other side. In less than a second she saw a pair of bright golden eyes, glowing as they peered at her.
A sense of dread flowed through her, but she couldn't look away. Everything, including her senses, went stiff and unresponsive all of a sudden...
...
"-so sorry!" a voice said as Collapse slowly regained her hearing. Her other senses were also slowly coming back, but having everything being numb like that felt very odd. What had even happened?
She had also been moved to a different spot as well, now in a small clearing next to Magloria and Jump Start, who somehow looked like they had been lightly covered in dust, and the lizard known as Pebble that they were hoping to find.
Pebble seemed distraught over something, if the sorrowful expression was any indication. "I didn't expect you to be there, and I can't stop it once it's started!" she bellowed.
Collapse stood there in an unresponsive fashion as she attempted to process what had happened for a few moments - all to no avail. Collapse looked to Pebble in confusion, and guilt.
"I-I don't know what happened, I just...just froze up all of a sudden and I had no idea what had happened. I felt nothing but dread as it happened..." she spoke to the others in confusion as she looked to them, confused at the dust that had now covered them. She wasn't sure where the dust had came from but there were no pressing matters.
"We didn't mean to intrude on whatever you were doing here! I don't understand, what's going on? What happened to me?" Collapse asked Pebble, it was quite clear that she felt as if she had done something wrong.
As Collapse looked about she noticed out of the corner of her eye that she too had her fur coated in a light covering of dust as well. Whatever the others had happen to them, she wasn't excused from.
And as it so happens, Pebble begins to explain it to settle Collapse's confusion. "Again, I'm sorry about doing that to you. It's an ability my species possesses that lets us channel terrifying power through our eyes. Anything that gets caught in our gaze when we're channeling it hardens until they freeze in place, like a statue."
She looked right at Collapse, then immediately shifted her gaze away again, so as to not cause a repeat. "Thankfully we can undo the process, or you would not be speaking with me, or doing much of anything really."
"I was expecting a predator hunting around when I did it. But it was just you." she finished her explanation.
Channeling a terrifying power through their eyes? Perhaps that was somehow related to the eye they somehow found? Well, good thing Collapse didn't mention that. However, she could mention the grounds that it was on though. Perhaps to ask about them as well as some of the other locations.
"Ah, that is what I felt from you before." Collapse sighed, calming down. "Don't worry about it. Nothing bad happened from it, so it's of no issue to us. I do find it very fascinating though, where we come from - nobody that I can name has a power quite like that." Collapse smiled calmly.
"We uh, we wanted to point out some locations on the map that proved interesting to us. We were looking for you to tell us about some of the locations we wanna explore around here." Collapse spoke, pulling out the map. If Pebble obliged, Collapse would point out the various locations that they were interested in exploring as well as asking further if she knew anything about the other area they visited before.
Pebble started to look a little less upset over the whole situation, but she still looked sorry for what she did. "Well perhaps where you come from there are none of my kind. That's probably for the best, as some are known to... abuse it. You can understand what sort of devastation that a look which 'kills' can do."
Initially Pebble had trouble understanding the map and how it was supposed to be read, in relation to the land, but after some instructions from Magloria it seemed to click in her mind. Some general locations she recognized and remembered.
"Two of these marked with an X are old ruined structures. Been no one living there at all, not even wild creatures. Let's see..." she looked at the marks of approval. "Those ones are all places the panthin creatures have found interest in, good source of valuable rocks, useful plants. I don't try to find out what they want them for. It's not worth the risk."
Magloria cut in to the conversation. "You wouldn't happen to know of any other places that aren't on this map, would you?" she asked.
Pebble nodded, and pointed to several locations, which Magloria marked with the charcoal stick. Some of them were large circled areas where they could find plants used in medicines. A couple others were some more unexplored ruins, but none of them matched the size of the big one already on the map, according to Pebble's observations.
The last location she had marked was a possible path through the mountain range to the other side. Pebble said she could cross it, but given the differences between herself and the ponies, it might not be possible for them to get through.
Collapse was definitely thankful that Pebble had access to more information on the locations they had found and stated that all of these were of interest to them. Collapse preferred the idea of heading to the areas with medicinal plants that could be used. It was good to gather up a good supply of those plants for whenever they might need them on future expeditions.
As for the unexplored ruins, Collapse was definitely interested in those as well. As for ones with valuable rocks, that would be a lot more risky since Panthins were likely frequenting those areas and may possibly notice the presence of any exploders in those areas. It was not a confrontation Collapse wanted to have.
All in all, it seemed like they had a lot of interesting places they could visit in the future.
Collapse was probably a lot more forgiving than Pebble may have thought, and would explain about the dragons to Pebble if she was allowed to explain. The Dragons were as unique as ponies were, in most cases they had all different types that focused on various elements and combinations between them.