//------------------------------//
// Chapter 73 
// Story: Away and Afar 
// by PropsValroa 
//------------------------------//

The moment that Collapse unsummoned a toothbrush (It was yellow, just like her coat!) Magloria let out a growl. She was clearly upset at the blatant light show she had started up. "Hey! get what we need, not what we want!" she whispered angrily.

A few minutes of hasty search gave results, as Jump Start was heard grabbing something glassy and sticking it into her bags. "I found it! It looked like glue, and the writing sounded like it was glue." she whispered when the group came back together.

By this point however they could see the lights and shadows of panthins searching around outside, one of which had spotted the missing window. "Hey, what do you think could've done that?" they asked, drawing the attention of others.

Another voice. "Our mystery creature perhaps? Ready yourselves, it might be inside the building. Set up around here, just in case."

Collapse only managed to get that yellow toothbrush due to Magloria's angry whispers. She stopped and headed further on, looking for what Jump Start grabbed. "Good, let's get out of here and never come back!" Collapse whispered to them when they came back together, Collapse hadn't taken anything else from what Magloria could see. They won't miss that one yellow toothbrush, will they?

Now that they were close enough to hear the Panthins outside, Collapse looked to them. "Looks like we'll be facing them no matter what. Do we like, want to go out the window and make a break for it?" Collapse asked, unsure of her suggestion.

Collapse didn't find any more of what Jump Start had. Seemed like it was the only item in stock. It was the middle of the night, so it was expected that things haven't been put back on the shelves yet.

"We might have no other option. There isn't any other way in to this place anyway. That's assuming that they don't come in themselves." Magloria agreed, then pointed to another window that hadn't been broken.

"Still we should get a quick look outside to see what we're dealing with. Would be stupid otherwise." she added.

Collapse would duck towards the wall, laying low for any prying eyes. As she gets closer to the window she listens and keeps listening, before taking a quick peek up out the window. However, she would be prepared to act if needed. Then she'd quickly motion for Magloria and Jump Start towards the window, provided nothing went wrong.

She didn't hear much outside of shuffling and the clicking of metal. A rattle at the door suddenly came, as one of them tried to get into the building in the most obvious way possible. Their cursing was definitely heard.

Outside she saw half a dozen panthins all spread out around the building, but these ones didn't just look like civilians. They were all geared up in studded leather armour, and each of them had a variety of different equipment and weapons. The crossbows some had were obvious, but it would've taken longer to really make out everything else.

One in particular was busy tinkering with some contraption that had a bunch of rope scattered across the street.

Magloria and Jump Start came over to where Collapse was just as they heard noise over by the melted window. One of the panthins had decided to peek their head in through the gap, searching for anything inside the dark room.

Collapse quickly ducked to hide so that the Panthin wouldn't see her. She quickly gestured for Jump Start and Magloria to do the same if they hadn't already. Collapse would have wanted to relay what she was seeing outside to the others but unfortunately she couldn't do that due to the Panthin's presence in peeking through the hole in the window. This was definitely something they would have to fight their way out, and would have to do so carefully, due to the weapons they had - so she thought.

Magloria had already taken cover the moment she heard the noise, and had also pushed Jump Start into cover as well. 

The panthin, not seeing anything, jumped through the window and began stalking around the shop, heading over to the front door and opening it up for the others. After all, the door was locked from the *inside*, so they had no issues.

"Hey! I got the door open. We can start searching now!" They shouted out to the others.

Collapse would move over to Magloria quickly, and quietly. "They are all armed outside in leather armor. Crossbows and other weaponry. They also seem to have been setting up some sort of rope across the street, probably for some sort of trap." Collapse whispered to Magloria, using the Panthin's own shouts as a way to cover her informative words.

Magloria nodded and drew out her shortsword. She didn't intend to use it on them, but if ropes were involved it would be useful for cutting them.

"We might need to go out the back of this place. They'll likely spot us, but at least we won't deal with whatever they're setting up." she stated, nodding over towards the way out the back of the place.

It was in clear line of sight of the panthin inside the building, who was joined by another pair, one with something large looking on their shoulder, and the other with some rope and spheres held on their foreleg.

"You go first, I can cover for you." Magloria suggested.

Collapse would look to Magloria and simply nod. She would prepare a charge of magic mentally. Not for any spell in particular yet, more of just putting it on her mind that she may very well have to use her magic to defend herself. She had no qualms in fighting her way out of she had to, but she would much prefer to avoid doing so.

Like that, she would quickly get up and go through the exterior hole with full awareness and readiness to fight if need be. The last time she was on the defense, while running. This is different, and she wasn't going to allow herself to get captured if she can help it.

As Collapse gets spotted, the panthins shouting out at her sudden appearance and preparing to use their equipment, time seemed to slow down so that she could ask herself a very important question.

Collapse looks towards the Panthins and quickly makes a run towards the back door. "I apologize for the intrusion onto your lands, but we must be going. None of us want to fight you." Collapse said to them in a quick manner, while her horn began to glow slightly. "You would be wise to allow us safe passage out and into the jungle. You won't be seeing us again - unless you want to face things you cannot comprehend." Collapse narrowed her eyes to the panthins, her horn aimed directly at them as she would try opening up the back door, giving time for Magloria and Jump Start to make their move.

Seems like the panthins weren't interested in a speech, given the way one immediately tossed something at Collapse while she was running and chattering her head off.

She suddenly felt something wrap around her hindlegs and pull them tightly together with heavy weights, causing her to collapse to the floor and slide right up to the back door, due to her running speed bleeding off.

She could still attempt to open the door, but not with her hooves since she was now prone on the ground and didn't have the height she needed.

Meanwhile Magloria leapt into action. She might not have been able to stop Collapse getting ensnared, but she did manage to pull on a pair of crossbows being aimed, causing them to fire wildly off course.

The bolts sounded hollower than they should've been, for some reason.

Not that Magloria was safe either, as her magic had revealed her. While Jump Start was running over to the back door to join Collapse, Magloria was set upon by the large object that the third panthin was carrying. It unfolded into a large net, quickly surrounding her and weighing her down.

She hadn't been completely immobilized and could still fight back, but it still didn't bode well.

Collapse would sigh in annoyance at feeling the restraints being applied to her hindlegs. That was it, there was no holding back. The Panthins were clearly not interested in what she had to say. It was time to act. Opening the door was something she wanted to do, but she wanted to focus on dealing with their attackers first. Collapse had seen Magloria be netted down by the large net thrown onto her. She would deal with that after she dealt with her own restraints.

Smirking wildly, she would look down at her weights. Those Panthins had no idea what sort of abilities she had! Her horn would glow gold, and the restraints would vanish with a brief gold flash. If there wasn't some unexpected circumstance, she would quickly slide over to where Magloria was, in a motion to also unsummon the net over her. That net would come in handy with the Panthins themselves.

To use their own tools against them, hopefully. While Collapse wanted to do more offensive attacks towards the Panthins, she wasn't able to do so with her focus being with performing her current actions. That would come later.

The bolas that she found wrapped around her legs disappeared and she managed to get rid of the entire net from Magloria, but not without leaving Jump Start alone and exposed.

Given the panthins didn't have time to reload their weapons or use another snaring method, they saw the opportunity and changed tactics. Panthin 1 decided on going for the lone pony, panthin 2 with them blocking Magloria and Collapse from interfering directly while also keeping them away from the back door.

Magloria's short sword kept 2 and 3 at bay, preventing them from getting any closer, but every time she tried to strike them they moved around her blade. Seems they weren't interested in actually engaging in close quarters combat yet. They even moved out of her attempt to freeze their paws to the ground when they saw her horn light up.

Jump Start on the other hand desperately attempted to open the door, but the lock she had to remove first made this an issue. She managed to remove it and let out a shriek when she saw the approaching panthin, before getting a paw straight to the face, knocking her down to the ground.

It was good to know that they weren't willing to just end them at least, if the lack of claw marks was any indication.

Collapse quickly turns to Panthin 1 and unsummons the bolas and tossed it at their hindlegs in an attempt to get them restrained in a similar manner to what they tried to do with her. Provided if the bolas happened to do it's job, she would quickly turn to Panthin 2 and 3 and attempt to throw her net over Panthin 2 to trap them in the net. If her plan worked, the three of them could easily take on Panthin 3 with their combined force, so she thought.

Collapse wasn't even thinking of using anything too painful against them since they showed the restraint of not clawing them up like she feared - so she would allow them the same courtesy. Collapse made the mistake in allowing them to have an opportunity to get close to Jump Start, she had to keep better watch of her orange Earth Pony friend. Magloria on the other hand? Was more than capable of defending herself, so she didn't have to be as worried about her.

Since Panthin 1 had been busy punching out Jump Start's lights, they hadn't noticed the bolas being thrown back in their direction, which quickly wrapped around their hindlegs. However as they hadn't been moving much, it merely forced them to deal with it for a moment. Jump Start couldn't do much about this, if the groan she gave was any indication.

The net wasn't exactly a surprise to Panthin 2, given they were looking in Collapse's direction already. Their eyes did widen and they backpedaled from its sudden appearance, but that just caused the net to fall short, only partially catching them, something easily dealt with.

Or it would've been if Magloria hadn't taken the opportunity to plant them right into the ground with a beam of freezing ice. Now no one could stop her from reaching Jump Start and Panthin 1, who looked pretty thankful to be given their bolas back.

Panthin 3 was still being warded off by Magloria's sword skills, though they moved closer to Panthin 2 to better protect them.

Things seemed like it was going the ponies' way, if it wasn't for the fact they heard the sound of running from outside. Seems like the rest of the pack had heard all the fighting and were coming to help.

Collapse was pleased that her impacts managed to be successful. However, the rest outside would prove to be an issue. Would have to deal with these three first. While Magloria was dealing with Panthin 1 and 2, Collapse approached Panthin 1 while making sure that Jump Start stayed near to her so she could protect her. Collapse's expression looked rather blank, if Panthin 1 cared about that.

Her horn would glow orange. Collapse was wise enough to not attempt any fire spells within a building, as she proceeded to charge up a spell. She was not here to cause any property damage. For a second it looked like she was just going to stand there and fire a spell at the Panthin, but she did that on purpose to confuse them - and instead would do a quick charge, in an attempt to kick the Panthin in the face with her metallic boots.

Depending on how her kick went, she would have either kicked the Panthin in the face and ripped the Bolas free from the Panthin's grasp, or went other successive kicks if she missed the first time. She was aiming to knock the Panthin out, and not do any prolonged injuries to them.

Maybe it wasn't a good idea for Collapse to have drawn attention to herself with her magic, as that's exactly what it did. Panthin 1 looked to her and grew cautious of what she was about to do, readying their bolas at the same time.

And because they were cautious and ready, they easily avoided her mad dash and attempted kick by ducking and backpedaling away. Her second attempt clipped the panthin's ears which would've hurt, but that was because they were busy moving the foreleg with the bolas at the same time...

In one powerful **thwack**, Collapse felt a dense metal ball of the bolas impact her underside, knocking the wind out of her lungs and causing a massive amount of pain. Turns out bolas can be used as improvised melee weapons! It almost felt like she just got her ribs cracked, and she knew there was going to be an absolutely massive bruise there in a day or two.

Some other stuff was going on with Magloria, but Collapse couldn't make it out properly due to the overwhelming pain. There were lots of sounds, both of metal and magic, at least.

Collapse realized her mistake in allowing the bolas to return into the possession of Panthin 1 as well as giving them a chance to see what she was doing. However, there was no more room in her thoughts, but the registry of the massive pain in her lungs. Collapse...*Collapsed * onto the floor.

But not before she let loose a **loud** scream at that. It was a scream of pain. Sheer pain utter rage. She was going to get out of her, if it was the last thing she did. Magloria could definitely handle herself...Jump Start was well, out of reach currently, as Collapse was on the floor screaming in pain. Going through Collapse's mind, along with all the pain, was a sheer and incomprehensible amount of rage. 

She didn't care about the consequences on her body. No matter the bruises, the possibility of the broken rips, or what have you - she was going to see herself out of this, along with her friends. While she wanted to hold herself back from fighting dirty, it seemed as though the Panthin didn't show her that same courtesy.

Collapse was down on the floor for longer than she wanted to be, allowing the Panthin to take more strikes at her if she wanted. That pain she was feeling. Oh, that pain, that horrible horrible pain flowing through her...that was her fuel, for her rage.

She'd look up at the Panthin after rolling over, her eyes directly locked onto the Panthin. "Hrrt...! S-should have aimed for the head...!" she chortled hoarsely, before a red hot beam would flare forth from her horn up at him, aiming directly for his chest. While he could have had time to dodge, or see the glow from her horn he would not have likely predicted the amount of power put into that spell. 

All depends on what his focus was, at the time of the spell. Her mind was a violent frenzy of rage, combined with the pain of her body - she was not going to give up, until she literally couldn't fight back anymore. Which was a possibility.

The panthin seemed to be more considerate than Collapse might've thought, because all they did while she was screaming was pin her down under their midnight black paws and prevent her from running away or lighting up her horn again.

That didn't last very long, because after hearing Collapse's scream, Magloria was done playing around with her foes. The weight on top of Collapse was suddenly blasted off with a surge of ice. Collapse saw icy blue magic surround herself, as she felt herself get dragged across the floor towards the back door, away from the... 6 or 7 panthins behind them.

The one that had been blasted with ice, now knocked down on their paws, saw what Collapse was doing with her now undisturbed horn and where she was aiming. A look of horror fell upon their face as they tried to move out of the way of the supposedly bigger light show.

They managed to roll sideways despite the ice making moving difficult, but not before having the red hot beam lance across their shoulder and down their side, leaving behind an angry red wound and singed fur. They let out a cry of pain very similarly to Collapse, so she at least got justice. The rest of the beam struck the wall behind them, igniting a wooden shelf. It won't burn down the building however, with all the other panthins there to put it out.

Magloria, with both Collapse and Jump Start in her magic (a straining task to accomplish), started to escape out the back of the building, but unfortunately it hadn't taken long before a new net was wrapped around all 3 of them from the chasing panthins that attempted to circle around them while they were caught.

Collapse's body was still reeling in pain from being twacked in the rib area. It hurt like hell, but she hoped that nothing long term would be an issue other than the obvious bruising that would occur later on. Of course, she wasn't thinking about the long term. She was thinking about the now. 

She new that she had done something with her scream, and was more than glad that Magloria got the Panthin off of her and got her in her telekinetic grasp. Even more pleased was the fact that she noticed the Panthin was now injured from her attack. The Panthin could tell that it was a very hot beam. Whether it was a laser beam or some sort of fire spell, they couldn't really tell. Not that they would care about that, right now.

Looking over to the shelf that was ignited unintentionally, she was glad it would prove a distraction for the Panthins, to hopefully throw them off their tails while they made an escape. As Magloria attempted to run out, Collapse continued to charge a spell. Her manner of spell casting, even at such intense moments - did not involve expending her mana all at once, but a fraction of it. She wasn't going to do any more magic beams though. Eventually, magic fatigue would set in. But right now, her mind was too much of a frenzy currently. The unsummoning spells, were not as expensive as the magic beams. After all, she only used one magic beam attack so far, and wasn't planning on using another if she could help it. 

The moment that Collapse removed the net from them, Magloria got to her hooves again and let out a sweeping beam of ice shards. Dozens of fine needles embedded themselves into the panthins around them or harmlessly stuck into their leather armour.

It gave them a bit of an opening as most panthins backed away from the pain, but not enough of one. After all, the ones with still loaded crossbows didn't need to be close to be able to aim and fire.

The first bolt was aimed at the most threatening of them at the moment, Magloria. A pained grunt escaped her lips when the bolt struck her, causing her attempts to keep moving the other ponies to falter.

In angered response, she threw forth more ice needles at her opponents. With enough needles maybe she could get them to give up and leave them alone. If she had more time, she could've created some ice spears which would do the job way more effectively.

This retaliation earned her a second bolt, knocking her down to the ground. For just being shot a couple of times, she wasn't looking that good. Her eyes looked unfocused and she began to have trouble getting her legs under her again.

A sharp sting in Collapse's foreleg told her that she had also suffered a similar fate. Now that a bolt was sticking out of her, she could see that it was indeed hollow, with glass filling part of the shaft. It used to have liquid inside, but it didn't anymore.

Upon feeling the bolt inside of her, she would look to it. Collapse was far too late to take it out before the liquid went inside of her. She growled and would yank the bolt out of her painfully. She knew she had the first aid kit, but now wasn't the time to use it. Looking over to Magloria drew a look of concern. If Magloria were to fall, then there would be no real hope of Collapse escaping and dragging the two of them back.

It began to set in that they were likely not going to make it out of here. The Panthins were simply too strong. But Collapse was going to go down fighting, if it came to it. It didn't matter in her mind, whatever they would do to her - she could end up dead, for all she knew. All that mattered was making one last stand and giving it all. At least she could say that much.

Looking to the Panthins around her, she would force her stand with all of her might within Magloria's telekinetic grasp. Her horn glowed quickly, and she did a passing sweep directed at the attacking panthins with a red hot beam just like before. She was too far away from the Panthins and their weaponry to unsummon them. The look on her face was one of someone who wasn't going to give up.

"R-rage...rage, against the dying of the light..." she said, hacking somewhat in pain from the pain in her ribs.

At this point Magloria had already completely lost her grasp on the pair, so Collapse didn't need to worry about that. What she did need to worry about was the wobbliness in her legs and the sudden sense of nausea that overcame her, making it harder to concentrate.

Her fire beam sweep didn't end up being as straight as she thought it would be. Half of it seemed to sink into the ground for some reason. Did she accidentally aim too low? Maybe the funny feeling was doing that.

The panthins still didn't appreciate her attack, but it seemed easy enough for them to avoid it this time, even if Collapse did score a burn mark across the forelegs of one of them.

She started to feel tired, and her anger and determination only seemed to speed up the process. Magloria had already succumbed to the effects of her bolts, and was lying on the ground out cold.

After her attack, most of the panthins just stayed back, waiting until Collapse succumbed to the bolt's venom. One in particular stepped forward, a medium grey one with cream patches across her body, looked down at Collapse sternly while shaking her head. "Definitely not just ransacking animals, are you?" she said.


Collapse shook somewhat, and let out a groan of defeat. Looking to Magloria, and her failed attack - she knew that they were defeated by this point. Her eyes were somewhat tired, but, she sat there and did no further attacks. Seemingly realizing the futility of any attempt to do so. The glow around her horn flickered out, and she completely gave up any motive to fight further. Later, Collapse will be in for a massive migraine, due to all this expenditure of magic. 

Her eyes meet the gaze of the lead Panthin that approached her. "W-we have no quarrel with your kind...W-we are so lost, just trying to find resources to get home...we only did this as a last resort, we had no other choice...evidently, this was clearly not a good one. I apologize for any damage or injury we did to you, but we were simply defending ourselves from you. We failed..." she sat there, hacking more. Her eyes shuddered, her body shook, as she fought the venom more and more.

"My family will likely think I'm dead, I-If they don't already...Perhaps they'll be right..." she finished her words, before being unable to speak much further. She would await the reply of the Panthin leader, or until she'd pass out from the venom. Whichever came first.

The panthin that stepped forward looked somewhat impressed. Not by the fact that she was so determined or anything, but because she could bring forth such an endless stream of words while being barely able to do anything.

Maybe they should've shot her twice as well, just to be sure.

There was no reply, and soon Collapse succumbed to darkness. She woke up an undetermined amount of time later with a splitting headache, a weak feeling through her body and a sense of grogginess.