//------------------------------//
// Chapter 80 
// Story: Away and Afar 
// by PropsValroa 
//------------------------------//

Collapse would help him up onto the ship and look to him calmly. "Look, whatever happens - I just want you to know that we don't want to hurt any of your kind and we just want to get out of here. But if we will have to defend ourselves, we will. We've spent too much to simply give up and let ourselves be auctioned or whatever it is they wanted to do." she spoke calmly, starting to get worried about the Seaponies.

Stanton didn't really need help, given he had claws to help climb up the wood and actually exercised, unlike wimpy little unicorns. Despite this, he gave her thanks anyway. "Sure." was all that he said in reply.

Eventually the seaponies arrived to the shore, bringing along with them what looked like a chest, likely containing the sails so that they didn't get damaged during the trip.

Collapse told Stanton to not go near the seaponies since she didn’t want him go scare them off like before. When the seaponies arrived, Collapse would begin helping with the sails. She wondered what Magloria and Jump Start were doing, probably still gathering up the food for the trip.

With a shrug, Stanton decided to move down to the lower deck of the ship. Might as well explore down there if he wasn't supposed to be seen at the moment.

With a bit of effort in hoisting the supplies up to the top of the ship, the seaponies and Collapse managed to drag the chest on board. Inside was a large while sail, sowed together from a massive amount of fabric stuff, silky to the touch just like what the seaponies said before.

And to think this came from creatures big enough to supply this much. What did they even have, giant sea spiders?

After the delivery, the seaponies simply left as their job was done. But it was beginning to become sunset, and neither Magloria nor Jump Start had returned yet. Surely it wouldn't take this long just to collect some coconuts for the trip?

Collapse would thank the seaponies as they left, looking over the large chest they they had now. Whatever this came from, she didn't know what kind of animal. She didn't know of anything in the sea that could make this much fabric. Nothing short of spectacular.

After a bit of time looking at the chest and checking over the boat, she would realize that Magloria and Jump Start had not come back. Yes. Of course something had to go wrong at the last possible second. The Panthins probably captured them, that was what she was thinking. With this realization, she'd head to where Stanton was. 

"The others haven't come back. What is the chance that they were captured by the other Panthins, and where would they take them, most likely?" she asked. "If they did capture them, I don't want to get captured too, so we'll have to go and find them and release them covertly." she sighed.

Stanton sat down on the lower deck floor. "If they got captured they would likely be brought back to where you were kept before." He said, then thought over something as he licked a paw to clean himself of the seawater. "But then again, they might be moved elsewhere, somewhere more secure after your jailbreak."

A sudden whizzing sound before a thunk against wood was heard from outside. Something hit the boat.

Collapse gritted her teeth. "Looks like they found us. You won't be able to hide your involvement if they see you." she made a break for the top deck of the boat. She had her fly ring, after all. And as she made for the top deck, her fly ring summoned itself. She could simply fly away and not fight them, when she would clearly be outmatched. Part of her didn't know if she would be able to hold back during a fight, because of how these Panthins proved to be an obstacle to them.

"They're going to see me anyway when they search this." Stanton replied as he moved up to the top of the ship as well, to see what was going on.

And when Collapse saw the beach and jungle beyond, she knew why a bolt had struck the side of the ship.

The panthins weren't aiming for the boat, they were aiming at Magloria and Jump Start who were busy making a break for it across the sands. Judging from their appearance, they had been dealing with the panthins for a while. They both had several scrapes and both looked tired from running, and in Magloria's case, casting if the magic surrounding her horn was any indication. 

Behind them was a full tracking group, armed with everything they had previously seen. Nets, crossbows, bolas, and wearing leather, both studded and non.

Collapse saw exactly what she was afraid of and she wasn’t having any of that. Seeing all that, she wouldn’t take less than a second to jump off the deck of the side facing the water, and levitating down lower to the water and using her fly ring to fly her out towards the ocean. Her actions were quick, using the Panthin’s distraction of Magloria and Jump Start to her advantage. 

Using the boat as cover, the Panthins would have a harder time shooting at her. Her fly ring propelled her out over the ocean, directly away from the shore. Her plan was to keep going out over the water, and then circle back to shore a good distance away. She did this action both because it would make it harder for them to shoot at her because she was directly receding away, as well as the fact that the Panthins may be unlikely to swim all the way out there to begin with due to their aversion against water, if they had been able to shoot at her. 

Conversely, this would bring the downside that Collapse would have to go through the jungle alone and find Magloria and Jump Start herself. She knew that they were worth more alive than dead, so they were unlikely to go far enough as to kill off Magloria and Jump Start.

While Collapse was circling around across the ocean, she could see how things were continuing to unfold. Magloria and Jump Start were attempting to board the ship, with Magloria drawing water and forming an ice wall behind them, making sure she wasn't interrupted when she started casting her next spell. For whatever reason she was creating a small ice dome.

The panthins, now unable to hit them with their crossbows, decided to speed up in an attempt to flank around the wall and get them that way.

Some of the panthins saw Collapse and alerted the others, but none of them were able to stop her from flying around. However this didn't prevent a couple from breaking off from the main group to intercept her on her way to solid ground.

Collapse sped up over the water, she was low enough to the water to form a bit of a wake in the water due to the anti-gravitational field generating a bubble around her, as her telekinetic magic formed a bridge between the two magics. It was how she controlled it so precisely, after all. She knew that Magloria and Jump Start were boarding the boat, perhaps they might sail off, which would be for the best. 

As Collapse sped over the water, she was receding towards the horizon from the watching Panthins. Her goal being - to go beyond their view of the horizon, and then turn around to fly over the land and circle back to where the combat was taking place. Of course she wasn't just going to abandon them. Her speed increased slightly as various memories rolled through her mind. 

One of those memories being the time she was in a situation to where she dealt with those pirates in Luna bay who interrupted her travels. That was a good year before her current commission. Those pirates were one of the prominent groups out in the Luna bay area, an area that has been notoriously ridden with Pirates for as long as she can remember.  She dealt with them by summoning in her fly ring rapidly, and using their confusion to make it easier to just fly off and not deal with them. This was different, though.

Collapse kept speeding over the water. When she reached a certain point where she was unable to see the land behind her, her telekinetic control over the fly ring changed slightly, and she glided upward at a somewhat of a steep angle. It was more graceful than one can think, without the G forces that come with 'regular' flight. That was the perks of an anti-gravitational spell.

Her fly ring was designed for long distance travel. On the level where it would be analogous to the wings of Pegasi, with the main drawback being how expensive it is to craft such a device. Creating another is incredibly complex and expensive, which is why you didn't usually see these around anyway. She climbed higher and higher into the air, at the level of the clouds now, as she circled back towards the shore. As she did so, her speed picked up.

As her speed picks up, within her mind she began a trickle of magical energy for later purposes. The trickle was slow, but it was a bit of a way's back to shore, so it would gradually add up by the time she was directly over the area the ship was, looking down on it from cloud level.

Thanks to the enormous amount of time that Collapse spent flying about (from the perspective of combat and running, at least, where everything happens quite quickly), by the time that she had circled back around to where the ship was, she could see that it had moved further into the ocean.

Several black, grey and brown dots could be seen at the edge of the beach, so it looked as though the panthins had no means of going after the ship.

She couldn't make out anything on the top deck of the ship though. The others must be below deck, if they are even on board at all.

Collapse reached an apex in height directly over the scene and then would begin to glide downward toward the beach. As this happened, she allowed herself to pick up speed as she descended. As she descended, she would allow gravity to pull her down to the ground. For a bit, she was free to charge up her mama pool to a bit greater of an extent as she was not actively going against gravity at the moment. 

Collapse sailed downward, her eyes scanning the situation down below. It didn’t seem like the Panthins were able to board the ship. Either the ship had somehow come loose or Magloria and Jump Start had set sail. For now, she was going to fight the Panthins down below. Not only would she be getting the drop on them, she was far more prepared than she was before in their previous encounters.

As she descends, the magic around her began to crackle with energy, evidently showing a large amount of magical buildup.  As she descended at a rather brisk pace, she controlled her speed so she wouldn’t be going too fast, nor do slow. When she was inevitably close to the ground, she would first summon in the chair that she had been sitting on earlier - and attempt to slam one of the Panthins into it as she pulled up from above - coming in like a meteor as she pulled herself back higher into the air, before swooping back down. At such a rate, if she had managed to hit that Panthin with the chair it is likely they wouldn’t be having a nice day after that. 

By that time, she was surrounded by a large glowing yellow mass that crackled and frothed with energy, if the sand starting to orbit around her was any indication, what was surrounding her was clearly bending gravity around her. Evidently on her ‘first pass’ her anti-gravitational field had managed to pick up some of the sand she managed to come close to. This was likely an intentional act.

Collapse was done playing around.

With the sound of roaring winds and crackling magical energy that Collapse was giving off, added onto the fact that it was broad daylight and the panthins were no longer distracted by a chase, it was very easy for all of them to spot her coming down at them like a territorial magpie at a cyclist.

They scattered to the winds, most of them rushing to the safety of the jungle while a few stayed back, crossbows raised. Several shots were made at her as she descended, but none were close enough to strike her.

When that didn't stop her, they each attempted to dive out of the way of her impending attack. Only one was struck, the sound of a chair breaking and a loud scream of pain from the immense force applied.

She could've sworn she heard some bones breaking and, upon looking back down at them when she reached the apex of her flight back up, she could see just 3 panthins still on the beach, 2 assisting another one that couldn't walk properly.

Looking over the scene, she was pleased with what the results. While in almost any other situation she would have preferred to sort things out and not fight - this was something that was needed to be done in her eyes. She took notice of the two Panthins assisting the other one down below. An idea crossed her mind. She didn't know for sure if Magloria and Jump Start were still on the ship. Maybe they were dragged off by the Panthins and the whole situation caused the ship to be dislodged? She needed away to find out exactly what had happened.

The sand whirled around her, collecting in an almost torus like shape around her rapidly. There was a fair amount of sand within that shape - and it would soon all suddenly dislodge and shoot off towards the other Panthins. It wasn't intended to attack the Panthins in the Jungle, as well as the others who remained with their crossbows aimed at the ready. It was a distraction. 

As the sand shot throughout the air, it would obscure the view of the situation from the other Panthins. The only ones who were exempt from this were the three remaining ones still on the beach. Using that to her advantage, Collapse would quickly grab one of the 2 Panthins that remained on the beach. This may be enough to dislodge any weapons or gear on the Panthin, who would have felt a harsh jolt as were taken high into the air over the water. Her crystal spear aimed at the Panthin's throat.

"You are going to tell me where the other two of my kind are this instant. Refusal to comply will mean great consequences for you. I suggest you *speak quickly.*" she ordered. The moderate pressure of the spear against the Panthin's throat was a clear indication they should probably comply. 

By the time the others down below had seen how high Collapse went over the ocean with the Panthin, she was already out of range as she was still ascending into the air.

Given how all the other panthins had retreated to the jungle, the sand screen may not have achieved as much as she hoped, especially given how it was pretty obvious where she was regardless.

Then injured panthin and its two supports were almost the the jungle trees when Collapse snatched one up, the one that was grabbed yelping out in pain from the sudden whiplash they experienced.

Once they had come back to their senses and saw that they were hundreds of meters above the ground, their eyes focused on the blade currently pointed at their throat, and the one holding it.

"They got away! Now put me back on the ground you crazy buffoon!" she shouted back, showing clear restraint against flailing her claws in panic.

It's a good thing she didn't accidentally pick up one with less restraint, because those claws looked really sharp and their reflexes were fast. She could've been dead before she realized.

"They got away where? The ship?" Collapse asked, holding the Panthin a bit further away from her incase they got any bright ideas, she realized that it could have been quite bad for her, but that wasn't on her mind at the moment - the only thing was, getting away from these Panthins. 

"Just tell me where they went and I'll put you back, alright? We didn't want any of this to happen with you. All we wanted was to get away, but of course, you all just had to make it difficult for us." Collapse snorted. 

Collapse then started to move off further across the land. She wanted to find a place to put this Panthin to where the others wouldn't have a chance at attacking her. She still wanted to press this Panthin further, to make sure that her friends did indeed get on the ship and not run off to the Jungle somewhere.

"I don't know what a ship is! They escaped on that floating wooden thing out on the water. We had no way to chase after them!" they replied, slowly growing more panicky and irritated at the questions the longer they were kept up in the air.

"That's exactly what a ship is, thank you for being so honest with me. Now I want you to know this, and I want you to carry this moment for the **rest of your life** - There is more to life, than this jungle you find yourselves in day by day. There are more sights, vistas, and avenues to seek - they will only be seen if one has the** will **to reach them. You would do well to tell the others, of what I said to you - perhaps one day, you will see the shores of which I came." she spoke, and would swoop down to the ground to deliver the Panthin to the ground, safely, a way's away from where the others were. When she would drop the Panthin off, the Panthin was lightly kicked back by the anti-gravitational force, as she flew back up into the sky, aiming to land on the deck of the ship they built.

The moment that the panthin's paws touched the ground they immediately sprinted away towards the jungle, uncaring towards the gravitational anomaly or how Collapse might've reacted to their departure.

Collapse was just some crazy flying thing that kidnapped and interrogated them hundreds of meters above the ground, after all. 

On the way back to the ship, Collapse saw only Stanton on the top deck, busy looking around the ocean and the skies.

Collapse landed on the ship graciously. Her fly ring gradually slowed and stopped with a metallic *click* - and then it vanished in a gold flash. She smirked to Stanton. "Took care of that, we'll talk later. For now, I want to surprise the others. Stay here." she said, with an almost childish grin and walked quietly back down to the deck, seemingly sneaking down into the lower deck.

She would sneak along the walls and doorways, in an attempt to sneak up behind Magloria and Jump Start. If she was successful, she would suddenly jump out behind them and shout, "Boo!"

The loud sound of Collapse's hooves touching down on the deck alerted her to his presence. He looked surprised. "Collapse, but I thought that-" he began to say, but was interrupted by what Collapse said.

He didn't know why she wanted to surprise the others, but given the current situation he didn't follow her down below. He was going to be quite happy staying up here for the next hour or two.

Below deck she found Jump Start sitting next to Magloria, who was currently lying down on the floor. Collapse was unable to see why she was resting like that, that is until her shout of surprise startled Jump Start into moving away, fully revealing the light blue mare.

Turns out they hadn't escaped from the panthins unscathed, if the long strip of bandages wrapped around Magloria's middle was of any indication. They were pretty red too, so this wasn't just for some small cut.

Magloria seemed a bit out of it, as seen with her unfocused eyes. But when Collapse revealed herself, they quickly refocused onto her and her interruption.

A scowl formed across Magloria's face. "And where were you?" she began, nice and calmly, but that simple question was laced with accusation.

Collapse's eyes settled onto Magloria's long strip of bandages there for a moment and then looked back into her eyes and would answer without hesitation. 

"When they had attacked, I wanted to perform something that they wouldn't expect. I was concerned that they would have brought more firepower than what actually happened, and that they would have dragged the three of us away. If they did, we would all have to escape yet again and deal with that unsavory nonsense. I went beyond the horizon and circled back around, and got the drop on them, so to speak. In order to figure out what had happened, I took one of them hundreds of meters up in the air and interrogated them." she spoke, in a matter of fact manner.

"If the two of you had been captured it was my plan to set you free if that had been the case. In my combat against the Panthins, I utilized my Fly Ring. In our previous situations with the Panthins, I did not use it because I didn't want to reveal my full extent of my ability because they would have known what to expect when they'd inevitably hunt us down. Also, if I had used it in combat in Carocal, it would have also been possible for there to be structural damage to the buildings around. In places such as the ruins, I did not use it due to enclosed spaces." she added. 

"I do apologize if my plan was any trouble, though." she said, with a slight head bow.

Magloria seemed displeased with what she just heard. Letting out a pained grunt, she turned to directly face Collapse.

"So let me get this perfectly straight. You knew we were coming. You knew that we were under attack, and you had the means to help us, yet what you decided to do took so much time that I had already created a way to board the ship without getting shot and captured, got myself clawed at in the process of doing so, and nearly bled out by the time we cut the ship loose?"

A brief lapse of concentration overtook her, due to the blood loss. She shook her head vigorously, trying to refocus her disappointment back onto Collapse.

"And then you assumed that we were already taken by the panthins, so you decided to go after them instead of checking the ship which you would've known we were on had you not been... what were you even doing? Trying to fly around the world to get them from behind?" she huffed. Her scowl deepened before she spoke the next part.

"We were even planning on turning this ship back to the island to search for you despite the incredible danger! When we boarded the ship and Stanton told us how you flew away, we thought you had gone off to hide somewhere else!" she finally snapped as her emotions grew too strong for her usual restraint.

"What, you think I would go hide somewhere in the ocean...?" her ears folded back, but despite that, she maintained eye contact throughout Magloria's shouts. A shuddering sigh escaped her mouth as she thought about a way to possibly make this better. There was one idea she had. 

She summoned her fly ring and with her front hoof, she slowly pushed it closer to Magloria. "I accept that I was wrong and improper to do what I did - and so I give you this as an apology. I will teach you how to use it, if you wish. If not, you can take it and sell it, it'd give you more than what I am worth anyway." she said. Contrary to what some of the situations were before where Collapse was 'put in her place', she didn't shake like a scared filly this time.

Magloria looked down at the personal item that was being offered to her. Her anger faded somewhat, but even though the edge was lost, a lot of it was still there.

Letting out a sigh, she calmly spoke again. "You are better off keeping that. I'd much rather you fully accept what you've done and learn from it so it doesn't *ever* happen again, instead of apologizing afterwards."

She nudged the fly ring back towards Collapse. "Because if it happens again, I might not be here to tell you that."

Collapse shakily placed her hoof onto the ring as for a little while she just looked into Magloria's eyes, as if pondering what to say. "I understand." she spoke to her, and the ring vanished in a yellow flash. "I-I really am sorry, if there's anything else I can do to make up for it, just tell me, and I'll do it." she gulped.

"Just make sure that the ship doesn't get attacked in case the panthins somehow reach us. I need a bit of time to rest before I can start plotting our course to- hopefully, -the direction of Equestria." Magloria said, resting herself roughly back down on the ground. That scolding she gave probably took more out of her than expected.

"We should go." Jump Start said as she began to move towards the stairway back up to the top deck.

Collapse looked to Magloria and then Jump Start, then silently agreed. She'd proceed up the stairs to the top deck, and Jump Start could probably tell that she was still a bit upset about the situation but didn't say anything about it.

Up top, Stanton had been waiting for them. "You know, I expected a lot more yelling to have happened down there. You got lucky." he stated. Jump Start gave him a look, and in response he turned away, knowing that his words weren't appropriate right now.

"Do you need to talk about it?" Jump Start offered, looking concerned for Collapse.

Collapse looked to Jump Start. "I still wasn't going to risk the idea of us three getting captured and put somewhere where we'd have to escape all over again. Thats why I did what I did, and the surprise of those Panthins on the beach was evident, but in doing so, I didn't consider that the two of you would be hurt without me being there." her eyes shut tightly. "If either of you two had gotten taken out because of my mistake, I would never forgive myself for such a thing." she said, firmly, shaking her head in disappointment.

Jump Start sighed and wrapped a hoof around Collapse's back and shoulder. "It's alright, we still managed to get out alive. And maybe in a few weeks we'll be able to get back to where we're supposed to be." she said, pointing out across the horizon.

Collapse would gently lean into Jump Start softly. "Indeed, indeed. I wonder what the ones back home will think of all this - we've seen so much, our mission is not exactly a failure...as we did explore quite a lot, however, the loss and conflict along the way...is another matter as well." she said, looking out to the horizon.

Jump Start leaned back, looking out at the horizon as well as the sun slowly lowered, casting its light for the final time and making way for the night.

"We'll have to make a memorial for everyone else when we get back home... if they haven't already done so. Some day they'll send out another ship and they will be able to avoid the same problems that started all of this, so we at least did something right." Jump Start said.

"One day, when another ship is sent out, perhaps they'll be able to correct relations with the Panthins here, but I think the Panthins are just in general not open to outsiders. No doubt our interaction here, will be remembered. A more equipped force of ponies here, would be less of an easy target for them." Collapse stated. "Really, the most interesting bit about this whole thing to me was those underground Mushroom forests and those Seapony settlements of Descent and Pearlth." she mentioned.

"Maybe we can introduce these seaponies to more of us instead. It would be interesting to see what they think of Equestria's closest seapony neighbors, or... something." Jump Start shrugged, not sure what else to say, so instead chose to just watch the sun go down.

Like that, they sailed off into the sunset...