Away and Afar

by PropsValroa

Chapter 25

Collapse took note of Jump Start's care for the application of the tar and replicated it. When they were done Collapse looked to the masks and was impressed with the results. "Great job, Jump Start." Collapse said sweetly as she looked into Jump Start's eyes with appreciation and thankfulness for her work. Collapse was definitely pleased and looked to Magloria to see what her reaction was for the masks before she would proceed towards the ice raft. They were likely done here after all.

Jump Start looked slightly embarrassed when she received the praise, a faint blush appearing on her face as she tried looking anywhere that wasn't where Collapse was.

From what Collapse could tell, Magloria didn't really react much, aside from maybe a slight amount of approval of a task successfully completed.

Once they were all back in the raft, masks included, Jump Start let in a deep breath, savoring the cleaner air. "Hopefully we don't have to go back to that place again. Now what are we going to do? We had something else to look for, didn't we?" she asked.

Collapse had noticed Jump Start's embarrassment and was internally quite pleased that she got Jump Start to blush. That was completely and utterly adorable in Collapse's eyes. When they were in the raft Collapse sat down and looked to Jump Start. "I suggested that we go back to the Whirlpool lake and see if we can recover anything from the Constance. Since we can go underwater now, we should be able to get a better idea of if it is reachable or not. Perhaps we can get some seaponies to help." Collapse stated.

"No, that was what we were planning on doing after. We were getting some cutlery, though that doesn't need all of us." Magloria said, then came up with an idea to hit 2 birds with 1 stone.

"One of us could go purchase those, and the rest of us could look around, see if there are any seaponies that we could hire to help us with the whole whirlpool lake searching plan." she suggested.

Jump Start offered to go collect the cutlery, secretly wanting to explore around in case the shops have anything that interested her.

"Well that sounds like a plan. You can get the cutlery, meanwhile me and Magloria will go see if we could find any seaponies to help us out. Meet back here in an hour, perhaps?" Collapse suggested. She didn't object to Jump Start's suggestion to go for the cutlery though, she secretly just wanted more time with Magloria. Also there was precedent involved too, Jump Start had gone off on her own before so this was more 'natural' to her, here.

With a quick "goodbye" Jump Start dove overboard down into the water.

"Now what exactly did you have in mind when you said we could get seaponies to help? Did you want some that had been down there before, or treasure hunters of some sort? Keep in mind that they'd likely expect some of the 'treasure' that we find. Either that or really good payment." Magloria asked.

Collapse said goodbye to Jump Start and then turned to Magloria. "I would want some that had been there down before as they would know what is down there best. It doesn't exactly give me the best of...feelings that they'd expect 'treasure' from our ship, but I think we'll have to accept that if that is what they wish." she sighed.

"I know this is probably a bit much to ask, but I really want that Fly Ring back. I spent years perfecting it and I am not willing to let it go. It is probably broken but at least I could repair it given the proper materials and tools." Collapse stated, her ears folding back a bit. She was clearly hurt upon imagining her pride and joy being broken, or even worse - taken from her by some treasure hunter.

Magloria jumps off the raft and into the water, but keeps her head above water for the moment. "If you think about it in a rather cold, logical way like I do, you'd realize that there is lots of things down there, more than we could carry and most that we would not even use. Those things that we don't want could be given to whoever helps us."

As she continues her voice changes to a more critical, analytical tone. "The condition of your fly ring largely would depend on how tough you made it against pressure. If it's got thick and strong plating, it's likely going to be not too bad. However if it's got light plating, fragile components or parts that can't handle salt water well, it'll most likely have a lot to fix before it returns to working order." she said.

"That is a good point. As your the captain I am obliged to follow your lead. As far as I am concerned they can take what we don't need but that fly ring I am not willing to part with." Collapse stated as she jumped down into the water and looked to Magloria.

"I never intended for it to get wet in the first place. It is made of steel with gold plating. The gold plating was just an aesthetic..." Collapse's eyes almost went cross eyed and blushed. "Actually no, I lied. I wouldn't tell this to anyone but I actually spray painted it gold. Uh, anyways! Yes, I didn't intend on it getting wet but the more sensitive parts are contained within a housing to prevent air or water from getting in. I don't know if that could withstand the pressure of being under deep water. Maybe not. Inside of it are various bearings and inner housing parts. It needs to be frictionless in order to spin correctly." Collapse went from a nervous embarrassed tone to a more analytical fashion.

"The wheel is frictionless due to a certain compound of crushed up Gravitite shards that forms a sort of paste or slurry that is within the inner part. It has other things like a brake and a gravitational dampener that changes how it would move and such. If anything, I expect I am going to have to do some serious work on it." Collapse added.

"If that's the case, you better hope that it's integrity hasn't been warped or otherwise broken into. You're likely not repairing or replacing those parts down here. Didn't you need specialized equipment to put it together as well? Things that the seaponies wouldn't have heard about before?" Magloria asked.

“Yep. You are right about that for sure. I even had to find rare tools and such to even build it to begin with.” Collapse sighs at that realization. She wasn’t too happy about it but it is what it is.

“So, let’s see who we can talk to.” Collapse suggested.

Magloria responded to that by diving down into the water, and immediately started talking with various seaponies, asking about where they might find someone who had been to the 'great water spout' as they had so elegantly called it.

Most seaponies had absolutely no clue where they could find anyone like that, and some could only point them to other towns, which is out of the question at this point.

Until eventually they found a seapony who knew someone who had been there. Problem was is that they were a 'high ranking member of society' and as such were hard to talk to. Solution to that problem was the seapony still kept in touch and could easily reach them.

Collapse had quickly followed Magloria and was sure to avoid going slower than she would like. Upon listening to the seaponies she would aid Magloria in asking the questions. Upon them discovering the seapony who knew someone who had been there Collapse was pleased. "We would like to meet with who you are talking about if that isn't a problem. Do you know where they are currently?" Collapse asked, wanting to talk to that seapony as soon as possible.

Part of her was getting worried about Jump Start. While she knew that Jump Start was most likely okay, she couldn't help but worry about her.

"Yeah, they'd be in the same place they always are. The Truhye District, teaching others how to form magic if they've got the gift." The seapony said, pointing in a direction that the district would be in.

"Just tell them that you're looking for Aura Surge, and that you were led there by Nettletails." they added.

"Oh, a spell caster? That is very interesting. Well, thank you for the information. We'll keep that in mind." Collapse smiled to the seapony and was quite pleased with the results. Looking to Magloria she would say, "If we are going to another district, I think we should find Jump Start first? Don't wanna veer too far when we are separated." Collapse spoke.

Magloria shrugged. "It's not like she would wander off and get lost or anything. Though she might not be too thrilled that we went to somewhere new without her..." she frowned in thought.

"She'd be able to see this 'Aura Surge' later if we succeed in bringing them along, so she wouldn't be that upset I believe. I'd rather go now instead of waiting for her, she knew what we could be doing anyway." she said.

"Well its your call but I'd say we can go find her. I don't want her to feel like we just went off without her, I want her to be included." Collapse smiled at the thought of Jump Start feeling included.

"But if you want to just find Aura Surge, we can make it quick and try to find them quickly. But then again going to another district, then hashing out the details probably won't be quick, so I think we should go get Jump Start." Collapse added.

"But we *did* go off without her, and she knew that. We told her that we would get someone to help us, and she understood what we were doing. If we go back for her now, there would have been no point in splitting up in the first place." Magloria said, taking on a more authoritative tone.

"So we're going. Jump Start is a smart mare. If we take too long and she gets bored, she'll likely come up with something to do." she finished and started swimming in the direction that they were given to reach the Truhye district.

Collapse nodded and didn't object to Magloria's word. Collapse matches Magloria's pace as they swam off in that direction. "Alright, that is what we will do then. Too the Truhye district we go." she spoke optimistically, yet was weary of Magloria's more authoritative tone. Collapse was mostly silent on the way there unless something had came up on the way there.