Away and Afar

by PropsValroa

Chapter 15

Collapse would look to Jump Start. "Let's go...Jumpy." Collapse then put a hoof over her mouth and blushed deeply."I really said that out loud didn't I...? Sorry about that..." Collapse said in an apologetic, nervous manner. Her ears shifted about and her eyes glanced back and forth as if wanting to find a distraction from what was said but she couldn't find anything that would, at least not in her view. She gulps and would follow Jump Start out, with a nervous giggle.

Unfortunately for Collapse there was no distracting from what she just said. Jump Start's reaction was immediate. Her ears pricked up and she looked directly at Collapse, eyes wide in surprise. A faint blush started to form across her face.

"Wh-what...? Why did you c-call me that?" she asked in a faint whisper. Her hooves shifted, something clearly bothering her.
Collapse blushed in general although it was more of embarrassment and froze up at the question. "I-I uh...don't think about it. I'm sorry about that...I uh..uh...its nothing!" she turned away and started to head out.

It wasn't nothing though, the fact was is that she found her companion adorable. She just can't help her romanticism, she felt like she made a dire mistake.

Jump Start didn't know what to think as Collapse left the warehouse. "Did she... give me a pet name?" she whispered to herself in shock. It look a short while before she came to her senses, following in the direction that Collapse took.

When Collapse was outside she found a seapony near the warehouse wall talking with Magloria at a table, which had markings carved into it like a map. Magloria however looked like she had to deal with a lot worse than a bunch of mushrooms, if the patches of unkempt, dirty fur was any indication.

Collapse proceeded up to Magloria and the other seapony. "Hi Magloria. Me and Jump Start finished our jobs for now. Everything that needs fixing is fixed. It looks like you had a few run ins with creatures around here." she said calmly, trying to hide what just happened with Jump Start. If she called Magloria "Maggy" then she'd probably have a lot worse to deal with. She shudders slightly at the thought.

Magloria looked up from what she was talking about. "Hello again Collapse, hi Jump Start. Yeah, turns out there are certain things at the outer edges of the mushroom forest that think it's a good idea to get in, and some can almost do it too."

She pulled forth what appeared to be a long, pure white needle or fang, about 20 centimeters in length and it's end slightly leaking. "Ever seen a centipede?" she questioned.

"That's from a c-centipede?!" Jump Start yelped.

Collapse looks at it in disgust. "Wow that is...disgusting. I hate bugs, and there are centipedes that big in here?! Ewww, for Starlight's sake..." Collapse cringed at it, her stance visibly changing as she cringes her jaw at the sight. "Gotta do what you gotta do I suppose..." she added in shock.

"Yeah. My guess is they got so big living off of rotting mushrooms, or something. Nothing much to stop them getting big either." Magloria stated, shrugging a hoof at the object.

"They're quite nasty as well. This piece you see? It's a fang filled with venom. If that wasn't bad enough, their legs and carapace lets them move swiftly and resist just as much as those spiders we encountered. The only saving grace was that their size made it hard for them to follow me."

She moved away from the table. "Anyway, I hope you don't see one. You might not survive if you do." she stated in an oddly cheerful manner before getting serious again. "Now you said that you were done with your work? I take it you wish to get paid then leave, right?"

Collapse shuddered a bit at what was stated but the part that got to her most was how cheerful Magloria was at that moment. Hopefully she wouldn't have wanted either her or Jump Start to get hurt. She may say that she may not, but does she really mean it? Magloria had this strange side of her that seemed to shrug things off. Even during the moment where the three of them could have died int he whirlpool she seemed oddly calm. What happened to Magloria in the past? Must have been pretty bad for her to be so jaded to all of these events. Collapse wanted to know, but it would be improper to ask. It would come with time, she hoped.

"No good creatures they are, I can tell you that even without seeing one. What did it look like though? I imagine it was pretty huge for its fangs to be that large...umm, what color was it?" she asked before following Magloria away from the table.

"Yes, we are done with our work. I've done all I could really do. So let's get paid, and then go to the refinery to see if our Purifier is completed." she concluded.

Magloria thought over the question. "Let me see, it was long with segmented white carapace plates all along it's body. The plates even had a dull shine to them. I would've taken a piece for myself, but I didn't have much to carry them."

"Had a few beady little black eyes, a pair of very long, twitchy feelers which it would've been using to smell me out. The legs though? Many, many of those. At least 100 of them, I'd say." she explained as she moved over to one of the other seaponies, telling them how they were leaving for today.

The seapony, understanding what she meant, offered a small sized bag filled with shells, with enough payment to keep them going for another few days at least. They were now free to leave.

Collapse would thank the seapony for the payment and would follow Magloria and Jump Start away from the area. "Wow, but that is pretty much what I would expect of those. 100 legs...eek, I really hate those things. The only good centipede is a dead centipede." Collapse concluded as they walked away. She was very eager to see how the 3rd expansion for the purifer was.

With the river now downstream again they could once again use a raft to get back to Pearlth, making the return trip far quicker.

Once they got back, Magloria sailed over to the refinery, which Jump Start helpfully told her the location of. Being her first time here, Magloria observed the refinery carefully as they approached the shoreline, taking in it's features and possible uses in the future.

Now at the edge of the lake, Magloria and Jump Start jumped off the raft, preparing to go in.

Collapse exited off the raft and looked at the refinery. It still captivated her wonder despite it being her second time here. She could see Magloria observing it, no doubt calculating and planning something. Collapse would lead the way and head into the main door. If she saw any seaponies close by on the way in, or at the entrance she would ask where Alkali was. She was ready to see if the purifier was completed.

Collapse very quickly saw seaponies, since part of the refinery was outside of the main building. They told her where to find Alkali, but they also told her where the purifier was, and that she could go pick it up from where it's stored. Convenient.

Collapse would go in and get the purifier at the location. Once she found it she looked it over and to see how the 3rd extension was added onto it. She would tell the seaponies to tell Alkali that they are thankful for the purifier being modified, and then she'd head out back to Magloria and Jump Start with the purifier in her magic.

On the outside it just looked like they added a second canister to the side of the original one, but internally Collapse could tell that the filtered water actually flows into the second chamber, which gets heated up from below, letting steam rise up and form droplets on a sloped ceiling, letting the water drip back down into a collection bowl.

The seaponies said that they'd relay her words to Alkali when they find him, and said goodbye.

Magloria watched as Collapse came out with... a metal thing. "That's what we're using? Well alright then, as long as it works." she shrugged.

Collapse smiles to Magloria. "Yup. Doesn't look too pretty but hey, it works. I also put a summoning spell on it too." she smirked as her horn glowed gold and the purifier was suddenly gone. It wasn't something Collapse wanted to lug around everywhere they went so that was convenient. Collapse gets into the raft. "So what do you wanna do now?" she looked to Magloria and Jump Start.

"Well now that we've got everything we need." Magloria started as she began to head back to the raft, Jump Start following after her. "Food, a source of fresh water, medical supplies and whatever else we could, I suppose it is now time to go searching for the exit, and see exactly what about it that the seaponies are scared of."

"Unless there is anything else you left at the house or somewhere else?" she prompted.

Collapse agrees. "Right. Let's begin heading towards it. Maybe whatever was there is actually gone or died long ago. I can't remember the last time any of the seaponies went there, a few decades ago? Could very well be gone and we could have an easy way out. But let us not get ahead of ourselves." Collapse replied.

"Although if there is, me and Jump Start don't really know how to fight." she added.

Magloria huffed. "Fine, maybe I can teach you along the way, whenever we take a break from sailing." she said, getting back onto the raft as she did.

Once everyone was on she set off in the direction that she was given. They passed over several lakes, each one containing a district that they didn't know the name of.

At one point they found out that some seapony thought it was a brilliant idea to have one of the passages to other districts lead directly through one of the waterfalls flowing from above. Everyone got drenched.

They came to the point that was the end of Pearlth, and the start of the river leading to the exit, flowing away to the unknown. So far it didn't look too bad, but there was a several day journey ahead of them. The raft would thankfully cut that shorter.

Collapse nodded and stayed mostly silent along the way. Taking in all the sights. The place was quite beautiful with all of its lakes. One by one they passed them. Collapse almost felt sad they were leaving, and when they were drenched she sighed in annoyance and frowned. How crude of the builders, but then again this place wasn’t made with rafts in mind.

When the river began it set in that they were leaving and going off to somewhere possibly dangerous. This made Collapse nervous, maybe they weren’t entirely ready yet but it was too late to turn back now. She looks to Jump Start to see if she was okay. “How you feeling?” she asked her. She wanted her to be comforted.

"I'm... I'm fine. We're going to find a way out of here, and we're going to get back home, and then everything will be alright." Jump Start said, her nervousness showing despite how she tried to hide it.

Magloria started them down the river, sailing over a few remaining seapony houses below the water until eventually there were no blue-green lights remaining. Just them, the river and the occasional glowing fish.

Occasionally the surroundings would change. They'd find a new lake with plants, or various mushrooms glowing in the distance. Water dripping noises, rocks falling and various distant squeaks were always present.

Collapse stays close to Jump Start, indicating that she would be there to comfort her if she needed it but Collapse was nervous. She stayed silent as they left, watching the remaining familiar areas fade away into the distance. Upon finding the new lake Collapse would wonder why the seaponies didn't colonize this lake but it was likely due to the distance away from Pearlth.

She looked to Magloria at the front of the raft, knowing that their lives were mostly in her hooves.

Jump Start didn't move away from Collapse. It was at least comforting that someone she sort of knew was here. She glanced around in the darkness, always checking in case there was danger about. Every time a shrill squeak occurred too close for her liking she flinched.

Then it felt like something had bumped into the boat, if the small vibration and shift in direction was any indication. "Hmm?" Magloria queried as she looked about, distracted from her sailing efforts.

"Did we hit a rock? Or a fish?" Jump Start asked.

"I'm not sure, but we definitely hit something." Magloria replied.

Collapse summoned in her crystal spear by her side at the sudden shake. "Whatever it was, I hope it wasn't a rockodile or something worse than that." Collapse stated and shook a bit in fear of what it could be. Her horn glows gold to illuminate over the edge of the raft, she looks to see if she can see anything, being careful to not get too close to the edge of raft.

The good news was that it wasn't a rockodile. The bad news is that it still wanted a piece of them, and leapt with enthusiasm in order to get it.

Literally leapt. If Collapse was a bit closer to the edge she would've had her leg bitten by the dozens of tiny teeth that filled the mouth of a small fish. With a splash it had flown out of the water, trying to grab onto anything in it's way, before accidentally landing in the raft, flopping about in an attempt to reach the water again.

Jump Start shrieked at the sight, and instinctively lashed out with a kick, sending the fish flying through the air and off into the darkness.

Collapse froze in fear and whimpered for several seconds before she backed up away from the raft into Jump Start. "W-what the hell was that?! I-I think I know what these are...the seaponies spoke about piranhas or carnivorous fish along the way, r-right? Thats probably what that was...its best that we stay away from the edges of our little raft here..." she said with a loud sigh, attempting to calm her racing heartbeat down.

Jump Start flinched away at the contact, still rather freaked out at the sight of the toothy fish.

"Certainly seems like it's what they were talking about. We'll likely end up encountering more of them soon, though unlike the seaponies, we have options." Magloria said, looking at the edge of the river.

"Personally I can likely hold my own against these things, but as for you..." She gave a snort of frustration. "I'm going to land the raft on the shoreline, and we'll proceed on hoof. I'm not risking you two getting bitten." she said.

Another splash, another flying fish. This one however was caught in a light blue aura of Magloria's magic, before being tossed away somewhere onto land.

Collapse looks to Magloria. "A-alright, I could probably raise a barrier around the raft but I don't think I could last for hours, or a day on end and I'd really be wearing myself out if I did that so...maybe walking would be better." Collapse spoke to Magloria and turned to Jump Start. "You know...you have the ability to fight you just haven't used it before. I've seen your quick work of the mushrooms with that axe. You definitely have it in you." Collapse said to Jump Start, trying to be hopeful.

The raft moved towards the shoreline before striking it with a thud, indicating that they could disembark. Magloria got off first, followed by Jump Start.

Jump Start looked to Collapse, still evidently nervous. She shook her head, making noises of denial in response to her words. Just because she was capable of fighting, doesn't mean her heart was in it.

Even when there was no one on the raft, the fish would still occasionally leap up at it in an attempt to get something, often landing in the freezing raft or on land, flopping about pathetically. What they had in enthusiasm, they clearly lacked in the intelligence department.

Magloria sighed. "We probably needed the exercise anyway. Let's get moving." she said as she began to walk.

Collapse got off the raft and follows Magloria. Looking back at the raft she could see the predatory fish flopping about on the raft. In a different context, that would have been funny for her.

She could notice how nervous Jump Start was and walked close to her as a way to keep her comfortable, as well as to react faster should something happen to her.

“Right. Let us proceed and hope for the best. We will be okay.” Collapse said, trying to be optimistic. She wanted Jump Start to feel safer here but that likely wouldn’t happen until they were absolutely certain.

Jump Start meekly nodded, glancing around in the darkness and, on occasion, looking back at the raft to make sure that the fish weren't following them.

Several boring hours passed, with nothing happening aside from the ambient noises of the caves and the clopping of their hooves on the hard floor. The occasional lonesome mushroom could be found, the blue ones being snatched up for dinner at a later time.

By this point Jump Start was feeling a lot better, if 'boredom' was any better. "I know that this was going to take a lot of time, but... we've been walking for hours and we haven't seen anything! Surely at least the seaponies would've done... *something* along the river..." she moaned.

Collapse sighs at the state of affairs. Unfortunately nothing cool has been seen unlike the other things they saw before.

However she felt that it is better to be bored than be at danger. At the very least they appeared to be safe for now, she hoped. Nothing of note really happened it seems.

“Well…yeah, it is indeed pretty boring but it is better to be bored than be in danger, you know? I was hoping for some cool lakes and treasure maybe.” Collapse commented in a manner that conveyed that she was also bored too.

"Well maybe there is treasure around as we just haven't seen any?" Jump Start said and started looking up at the ceiling above them, trailing a little bit further away without noticing. "We are in a cave, so there could be gold or silver or gemstones lining the walls and we'd never notice without a source of li-WOAH!"

Jump Start yelped as she suddenly felt the rocks under her front hooves roll out from beneath them, causing her to stumble forward.

She started to slide away with the rocks, but a flash of blue wrapping around her tail, keeping her back half from disappearing with her front half.

"Umm... help? There's nothing down here that I can climb back up on, and my tail feels like it's stuck." Jump Start's worried voice came from a hole that she almost fell in, and a big hole at that.

"Hmm. Strange." Magloria pondered, "We haven't found any sudden drops before, so why would there be one here?" she said as she tugged Jump Start backwards, bringing her back up onto solid ground.

Collapse was about to grab Jump Start but thankfully Magloria got to her before Collapse was able to. "Jump Start! Are you okay?" Collapse called out as she walked close to Jump Start. "Thank you for acting Quickly, Magloria...I believe that is what might be called a void crag. They did tell us about that. That is my best quess of what that would be." Collapse spoke nervously and nodded in thankfulness.

Her horn glowed gold, she wanted to see if she was able to illuminate the bottom of the sudden drop off. She didn't step close to the edge though in fear of the same thing happening to her as it did Jump Start.

"Uh... I'm okay, just a little shocked." Jump Start squeaked in reply, just sitting in place as she considered what just happened to her.

Despite the glow of Collapse's horn shining down into the hole, she couldn't see the bottom. It's a good thing that the hole is off to the side of the river's shoreline instead of in their way, or they might've had some issues getting past it.

However the extra light now revealed that the hole was much larger than they saw before. It just kept going further and further off into the distance, with no end in sight.

"You're welcome... I suppose." Magloria replied in an almost monotone way, shrugging off the praise as she did so. "Seems like this might be the place. Would be quite a spectacle to see if we had a light powerful enough to reveal the entire cavern. Hmm..."

She looked at the water, watching something within it.

Collapse looked to Jump Start with sympathy. Her eyes were still warm despite all that had happened. Looking down into the hole she expected to not see a bottom but still it filled her with a sense of dread. "Damn. Thats a deep hole..." Collapse remarked and looked off into the distance.

"And a massive one too...I've never seen anything like that on the surface. I wonder if it is truly bottomless...I wish we could see the entire cavern, that'd be really helpful." Collapse replied to Magloria, finding herself captivated by the enormousness of the hole. As she was looking to Magloria she could see that she was watching something. "Do you notice something?" she asked.

Magloria levitated up a rock near herself. "I have an idea, but I want to check something first. I doubt it's actually bottomless, but..." She tossed the rock over the side of the hole, letting it fall down.

Leaning forward with an ear to the hole, she waited. "Hmm... I didn't hear a sound. Well then, onto the next bit..." she said as she turned back to the river.

She began concentrating on the water with her magic, and shortly enough 3 glowing fish, each trapped in their own separate bubble of water and confused as to what is going on, rose above the surface.

"Do you reckon you two could bind all 3 of these fish together? If 1 light is shines brightly, then 3 lights will shine even brighter!" she declared.