Away and Afar

by PropsValroa

Chapter 14

Collapse looked nervous at that. "I'd never dream, nor dare of fighting you in a million years. So I suppose that I will never know of." she said in a bit of a disappointed manner. "As for another comment I have, I don't know what else you could have been a part of besides some sort of mercenary group. I never wanted to fight anyone, so I never cared to look into that sort of thing. It may be obvious, but I don't really have a clue besides that." she shrugs. Magloria was truly an enigma, wasn't she?

"I lacked the interest in fighting because I never wanted to hurt anyone, so I'd leave that to someone who is more capable of doing so. Notice how I said *lacked*, I am realizing that I am going to have to learn. Not because I will enjoy it, but because I will not always have someone more skilled than me to protect me, such as you." Collapse looked into Magloria's eyes, with an honest fashion in her word.

Upon the arrival in the forest she kept her eyes off the tops of the mushrooms, knowing what happened last time. Upon seeing the warehouse she smiled, "Looks like that might be our future work place, Jump Start." she spoke as she glanced to Jump Start.

Magloria ponders over Collapse's words. "Hmmm... I wouldn't say I was part of a mercenary group, but there was a time when I was more of a freelancer, just doing things by myself. Doing that was the main reason why I ended up being able to afford a ship." she said, briefly checking on her earrings to make sure they were still in good condition.

She nodded at Collapse's compliment before walking straight over to the warehouse. The seaponies there took notice of their approach. They seemed a lot more cautious than normal.

"Hello. We're here looking for a place where we can get paid for work. I'll say this right now, that we're creatures that live on land, and can perform tasks here far more effectively." Magloria stated.

The seaponies looked nervously at each other before returning their gaze on the group. "Say we agree. What can you do?" one asked.

Collapse nodded to Magloria and didn't bring it up further, at least not yet. If she wanted to get to know Magloria more, she knew better than to pressure her. She wanted to let things come out naturally, and at a slow pace so Magloria could feel comfortable. She did notice her earrings though, how pretty.

When they walked in she appreciated Magloria's directness and looked to the seaponies. "I can maintenance most types of machinery and I have this here. I don't know if you can do this..." Collapse then lifted up a chair in her gold magic before setting it down quietly. "But I could probably use that to move around a...chainsaw, whatever that would be. I can repair your carts and make sure the...chainsaw is working correctly. Just gotta know what it is first." she smiled.

The seaponies flinched as Collapse's magic flowed through her horn and wrapped around the chair. They were not expecting a result like this apparently.

"I can put a lot of force into chopping down mushrooms, or pulling carts around. Plus, you've seen how easy we can move around." Jump Start added onto their list of skills.

"I would be willing to keep the area clear of anything dangerous. You have to deal with dangerous creatures on occasion, and your lack of mobility makes it hard to do so, correct?" Magloria also added.

The seaponies looked at each other again, silently agreeing on something. "Alright, we'll see what you can do. Marine Light, could you show the yellow and red one to our tools? I'll take the blue and creamy one out to the mushroom fields." one said, first indicating Collapse, then pointing to Magloria and Jump Start.

Marine Light nodded and began waddling into the warehouse, expecting Collapse to follow.

Collapse smiles. "Thank you." she chirped and would follow Marine Light into the warehouse. She giggled mentally at how Jump Start was called the creamy one. Collapse couldn't help but think of all sorts of interpretations of that out of context and couldn't help but smirk more at it as she follows Marine Light.

"So! Tell me about a chainsaw, I've never heard of anything like that. What does it do? Like a saw to saw mushrooms down?" she asked as she followed along, her tail wagging slightly in curiosity. She almost felt like a filly again, when discovering something new. It was a feeling that she cherished greatly.

They passed by large shelves, stalls and boxes, many of which had pieces of mushroom in varying sizes. Some were just tiny caps, while in other places had massive cut circles of mushroom that could feed a family.

"It's sort of like a saw, except designed to be more powerful and use it's own energy, instead of the one using it. Because of this it often requires maintenance to keep it's blades in check." Marine Light replied, moving into a side room where their equipment was stored.

Collapse found her in a place that practically screamed 'workshop'. There were tools, transport, materials and parts everywhere. In boxes, resting against walls, on the floor, and in their own shelves.

A couple carts were in one corner, and half a dozen axes lay in a pile next to them. But the thing that drew the most attention was the device that was resting on a table of it's own.

A creation with a long, serrated blade, like a regular cutting saw, but attached to one end was a lump of metal, keeping unknown contraptions safe from damage. Even through the casing she could see a low blue glow coming from within.

Marine Light began rambling about the place. "Well this is where we keep our tools and the stuff to repair them. We got a few spare parts, sandpaper for smoothing the wood, ointments for keeping the woods fresher, whetstones for keeping the blades sharp..."

Collapse was intrigued by the mushrooms in the stalls and boxes. She could very well get along with the idea of eating mushrooms for a long period of time. After all, she was looking to get more healthy after all. Laying down the cakes, cookies, and chips was hard but it was worth it.

Marine Light would see that Collapse was looking around like a curious little filly. This reminded her of what she used to do back home, in her own workshop. "This really takes me back, it feels like home in here." she said happily as she walks up to the device on the table. Looking at it, she hadn't seen anything like that. "Ah, so that is a chainsaw. It actually amazes me that with the technology back home that we never invented this. Then again, unicorns like myself can easily move large objects with magic." she walks closer to it, examining the blue glowing bit. Could it be a small mana battery? Could be.

"I could very well see myself working here and fixing these things up. I'm an engineer." she practically beamed, her grin wide and innocent.

Marine Light broke out of their rambling to address what Collapse was being curious about. "Yes, that's the chainsaw. It was expensive and difficult to make, so I'm told. Some of our smarter Kelpies came up with the idea to help out food harvesting for our settlement, and we were doing well enough that we could afford one." they said as they moved a flipper over to a handle.

"Expensive to replace the vibrant aquamarines it uses, but it's well worth the cost." They run their flipper over the device, then return it to their side.

"Well, are you able to find everything you need to start fixing things? Several things break every day, so we need someone who can keep up with the constant problems."

Collapse surveys over the various tools. Recognizing a lot of the tools. The usual things like sockets and screwdrivers, to more complex things and other parts. Her mind was already coming up with ideas of fixing things. "Well, I could likely get started soon enough. Just give me a few pointers and tell me what needs to be fixed and I'll do my best to fix what I can." she smirks.

"Can't be as stressful as trying to put a new mana core in a sinking ship in a whirlpool and then...yeah, that's how we got here, long story..." she laughed nervously. "I could probably teach you about a lot of things, too." she grinned.

Marine Light blinked in confusion at Collapse's short story, before dismissing the whole thing and moving on.

"Well... half of the things you see in here need some sort of repair or touch-up, like those-" they pointed to the pile of axes and the carts, "-and these-" they pointed over at some dented buckets, some lengths of rope, a few with frayed parts, "-and of course the chainsaw, which will probably break again if we use it in it's current state."

"I'm sure you could find things to repair them if you look hard enough. The tools should be... somewhere around here..." they shrugged. "As for being taught? Maybe? I'm not really the best at keeping things maintained though, so you might be wasting it on me."

Collapse looks to the dented buckets, the rope and the other items. "All of those sorts of items I have worked on before. All of those I can fix with no problem." she turns to the chainsaw. "As for this, I will need to know more about it before I work on it. What exactly is broken?" she moves closer to it and looks over it to see if there were any obvious broken parts. For the blue glow inside of it she would check to see if there were any screws on it that would allow it to be opened up so she could get a look at the interior of the housing part around the glow.

"I would appreciate any help with this chainsaw, the other things? I can have them done quickly." she stated.

Marine Light grabbed hold of the chainsaw and turned it so it was lying on it's other side. Now visible was what appeared to be a hatch, held shut by a tiny bar that locked the hatch closed. Marine Light simply flipped the bar and opened the hatch, exposing the mechanisms inside.

Inside was a bunch of gears, springs and other tiny pieces of machinery. In the center of it all, flooding blue light through the opening was a gemstone, cut and polished by a jeweler and enchanted by unknown means, then inserted into a special socket.

"Various parts just receive wear and tear or become loose every now and then, because they move so fast. Problem is it needs to be fast or else it doesn't do the job properly." they explained, before looking directly at Collapse.

"I'd advise you not to touch the vibrant aquamarine. It doesn't need to be replaced or maintained usually, and often discharges it's stored magic at those who get close to it, which wastes magic it could be using to chop down mushrooms. Plus... I don't know how it would affect you. It's mostly fine for us, but we can deal with water better than you can."

Collapse looks to the various components contained within the housing of the chainsaw. Looking at it, a lot of them were tiny. She would have to work delicately on them, that was for sure. Collapse has done similar things before, so was confident in her ability to maintain this chainsaw.

“Alright, I will be keeping that in mind. Do you have a specific place you keep spare parts for it? I have a good idea of some tools I will be using here.” Collapse states and begins selecting tools she believes she will need. Small screwdrivers, nut drivers, lubricants, things like that. That is of course, if there were tools that would fit with the smaller sizes of the components in the chainsaw.

Collapse knew full well she would be staying away from the vibrant glow of the aquamarine. Looking closer, she would examine what exactly would need to be serviced. Maybe a gear or a screw here or there could be tightened, perhaps even replaced entirely.

"Yeah, just over there." Marine Light replied, pointing over to a chest of drawers. One of them was already partially opened revealing a few pale colored handles for the axes.

From what Collapse could tell, a few gears were loose and an axle was dented, which could cause problems if it becomes too misaligned. The blades of the saw were slightly blunt at well. Other than that, it seemed to be in good condition.

"I've got to get back to work now. If you need any help with something, you can probably find someone else working around here. Most of us are in the mushroom fields though." Marine Light said, preparing to leave.

"Alright, in the meantime I am going to fix all this stuff up. I'll be out there and check on what my friends Jump Start and Magloria are up to once I fix it all up. Thank you for the help." Collapse smiled.

She would tighten up the loose gears inside of the chainsaw. That was easy enough, however with the dented axle she would search for a replacement. It could be risky trying to fix a dented axle inside of the housing it is supposed to be in. If she couldn't find a replacement one, she would remove the axle itself carefully along with whatever was attached to it and try to realign it into shape with a mallet.

Luckily for her, there was both a replacement axle *and* a mallet, so she could do both. Replacing the parts was easy. Nothing was hard to take out or difficult to put back in, but she did have telekinesis while the seaponies didn't seem to have anything but their flippers.

The biggest problem was, naturally, the vibrant aquamarine. While she never touched it directly, it made her magic feel slightly tingly as parts she was holding got close to it. Makes you wonder how it would react it Collapse directly grabbed onto it in her magic.

There wasn't much else going on besides Collapse's own tasks, until the sound of something heavy being wheeled into the main part of the warehouse could be heard. Probably just one of the lumberjacks/farmers/harvesters/whatevers coming in with a new cart of shrooms.

The vibrant aquamarine was quite strange to Collapse. She's never really seen something like that, feeling the tinglyness in her magic she dare not touch onto it directly. She couldn't help but imagine, but she wasn't a filly who went around touching everything. Been there done that. Smirking at some memories she had about that, she forged on.

Soon enough the chainsaw was fully fixed up, at least for the mechanics of it. Due to her telekinesis she found that it was easy to move small parts into place right back where they were. With great care towards her work, she would move on to fixing dented buckets. Pounding out those dents went by quick. Moving onto the axles and other things she would take a bit more time on those as they were more complicated than just pounding out a simple dent.

Collapse didn't move outside of the room, being a workaholic she would attempt to fix everything in here that needed fixing. She was dedicated to her craft, after all.

Collapse eventually reached a point where, as hard as she tried, she found no more damaged equipment, the only things remaining damaged were the used components that couldn't be fixed, needing to be scrapped instead.

She could still hear work being done outside. This time dull thunking sounds could be heard repeatedly, in a rhythmic fashion, like a woodcutter striking a particularly mushy tree.

"Woah! That was a good blow!" a male voice complimented someone after a particularly loud thunk.

Collapse was now quite satisfied with her work. Everything that was able to be fixed was fixed, and she was proud of herself. Hearing the big thunk outside Collapse laughed. "Maybe that was you, Jumpy. Maybe I'll call you that, nahhhh, I don't wanna embarrass you...Jumpy..." Collapse said quietly to herself with a giggle. "But I know Maggy would put me in my place if I ever called her that...not that I'd object. At least, not in *that manner*." her eyes fluttered as she went to grab the chainsaw.

Collapse headed outside to see what was going on, she had expected Jump Start to be the one who was kicking the mushroom. When she exited she would ask, "Hey! Whats going on out here?" she asked with a smile. The chainsaw was floating in her gold telekinesis above her, casually.

It was definitely Jump Start making the noise, but she wasn't kicking a mushroom around, definitely not.

With actions that could be considered 'an executioner performing his duty', Jump Start slammed down an axe straight through a mushroom, it's stalk being at least half a meter wide, cutting it completely in half and sinking deep into another piece of mushroom below. The newly split piece of mushroom rolling away from the impact. It's a damn good thing she doesn't know how to fight.

"Oh hif Collawps!" Jump Start greeted as she spat the axe handle out of her mouth, letting it clatter to the floor. A few seaponies greeted her too, them either working on storing away the pieces of mushroom or just watching Jump Start commit mushroom mayhem.

Collapse greets the seaponies back, and giggles upon Jump Start's voice as she spits the handle out of her mouth. Collapse was clearly impressed by Jump Start's work, her eyes even widened slightly at what she was doing. Impressive.

"I have repaired this Chainsaw here. Just a few minor things and it's back in working order. Everything else in that work room I fixed to the best of my ability. It seems like you are putting your Earth pony strength to good work!" she would step forward. "It is most impressive, isn't it?" she would look to the seaponies.

The seaponies around agreed, some stating that Jump Start's been doing her work faster than all of them, even those who have been working here for years.

They thanked Collapse as well for her work on the tools, stating that it would save some of them having to repair things themselves.

"Yeah, I am. It's actually sort of fun! Beats picking fruits and vegetables from the ground and trees." Jump Start agreed, picking up her axe again, shifting the mushroom to the side before landing another blow, tearing off another part of the mushroom for someone to collect.

"It gets better than that." A seapony stated, "Normally we cut them after chopping them down, so it's easier to load the carts. This one she brought back here whole! Even hauled it up onto a cart and everything!"

Collapse looked to Jump Start, appreciating the thankfulness of the sea-ponies. "Seems like you really like it here, fixing all those things was quite satisfying!" Collapse chirped.

"We are naturally suited for land so we are able to move larger things than you likely can. With my telekinesis I can get at all the itty bitty parts." she spoke and looks at the chainsaw in her magic.

"How do you start this thing up anyways? I could probably help you clean up some mushrooms, with me doing the saw and Jump Start cutting the mushrooms down I suppose this whole operation will go by quite quickly. How does that sound?" Collapse asked the lot of them.

The seaponies sat by and listened to the explanation, before answering Collapse's question, but not as she expected. "We don't use the chainsaw for just any mushrooms. Most of the ones around here can be dealt with with just an axe. The chainsaw is for mushrooms large enough that an axe just won't get through."

They pointed at the one that Jump Start was dealing with. "That one there? It's about a third of the width of the ones we're talking about. Even she might not be able to go through one, or at least not in one blow. Axes take forever to go deep enough."

"That way we keep the stored magical energy for mushrooms we can't deal with, and keep it's maintenance... somewhat low. Otherwise it would run out of power quickly and we don't have the money for that." they explained.

Collapse nods. "Understandable. I can see why you would use this only when you have to. Perhaps I could come up with an idea for it. I've never seen the type of power source that you use. It may be a lower amount of storage of magical energy than what we use back home for machines." she ponders with a hoof to her chin and looks it over again.

"If you have any schematics on this device I would be happy to keep them or replicate them for when I eventually return home, although I think I could easily draft up some designs for an improved Chainsaw. You see, the gear ratios and design of the interior machinery could also be improved to a degree." she then would explain a more advanced ratio for the gears, although she would add that is just an idea she has.

"Gotta give you all credit for building this though, all without telekinesis. Despite our advancement, I've not seen a machine of this type. These mushrooms are also delicious." she grinned.

They looked at each other in confusion, wondering why Collapse was asking them about that, before one of them spoke up, nervously scratching at the back of their neck.

"We only bought the chainsaw and maintain it with parts that we also buy. We didn't design it or build it at all. If you're looking for the designer and creator of the chainsaw, you're better off searching inside the town." they explained.

Another added their voice to the conversation. "Plus even if we were the ones who came up with the idea, handing over the schematics to a stranger would be a really bad move. Just in case you're thinking of asking the real owners of the schematics."

"Thanks for your approval of our produce though." a third one said.

Collapse nods. "Alright, was just asking to see if you knew. I am really curious about the device." she stated calmly. Internally she was disappointed they didn't give her what she needed. Oh well, if they ever return home than she can tell the others back home what she remembers.

"Where did Magloria go off to?" Collapse asked Jump Start. "Probably on the look out for anything dangerous, at least I think thats what she was doing, right?" Collapse asked.

With the conversation as a group over, the other seaponies got back to work storing all the harvested food away, checking over their tools and carts or having their own conversations between each other.

Jump Start shrugged. "Something like that. I only came back because it was easier to do the cutting here. I would be heading out again, unless you think we should stop and get on with collecting our payment and leaving for our purifier?" she asked.

"Well I have pretty much fixed all I really could here. We could go, I'll go put this back and we'll see what Magloria is up to and then proceed from there? I'm thinking we should collect our payment and check to see if our purifier is done." Collapse stated as she put the chainsaw back down on the floor of the warehouse on one of the tables.

Jump Start didn't know why Collapse suggested that they should collect their payment and check on the purifier, considering she said so first. Regardless, she went along with it. "Uhh... let me just finish off this mushroom then we can go find her." she said, and began splitting the rest of the mushroom in pieces.

By the time Collapse was done putting the chainsaw down on the floor on a table, apparently, Jump Start had finished her work, resting her axe in a place where a seapony could find it.

"Alright, I'm done. Let's go." she said.