Away and Afar

by PropsValroa

Chapter 27

"She sounds pretty. Can't wait to see her for myself." Jump Start responded, now thinking about what Aura Surge could possibly look like, and anticipating when they meet each other.

Magloria Shrugged. "If you want. I don't have much planned at the moment, aside from stocking up on supplies like food again. Then again we probably won't need to, considering the trip goes past a mushroom forest..."

She started to swim over to the closest patch of land. "We don't even need to return home. Anywhere will do fine."

Collapse swam, following Magloria to the area of land nearby and would exit the water. Looking to Jump Start she smiled at her eagerness to meet Aura Surge. "Indeed. She is a really pretty Kelpie. She even has red whiskers." Collapse said to Jump Start softly. Once she was out of the water she would proceed to shake herself off but a bit away from the others so she wouldn't be splashing water all over them.

Even though Jump Start was enthusiastic to meet the Kelpie, she didn't seem to have the same thoughts on whiskers as Collapse did, merely nodding at the mention.

While Collapse was busy shaking herself try, Magloria was moving around, arcing bolts of water encased in magic to various places on the floor. The moment they struck the ground they reshaped themselves into hurdles, poles and... apparently some new things that looked like large horizontal fans, with 4 poles sticking out from a central point.

Once they were in the correct shape, they froze over, keeping them from falling apart and becoming puddles on the ground.

After a few minutes of this, with occasional pauses as Magloria considered where to place her pieces, she was done. The course looked longer and more complex compared to the last one.

Collapse went silent as she watched Magloria proceed with the creation of the obstacle course. It was most impressive to see how it was constructed, the water moved so fluidly yet so precisely. Collapse was visibly impressed with the construction of the obstacle course. The few new things would prove challenging, no doubt. Collapse was undeterred however. She was determined.

After it was constructed she looked to Magloria, "It seems like you constructed this from memory." she remarked. "You wanna go first, Jump Start? Or do you want me?" she asked Jump Start, allowing her to make the choice.

"Memory? No. Only the individual parts are from memory, with a little creative liberty on some of the parts." Magloria said.

Jump Start nodded, moving over to where the starting point was. Just before she started, Magloria's horn sparked brightly. Every single 4-pole fan started spinning making the course look a lot harder. They rotated in different directions at varying speeds, some appearing completely unapproachable based on the speed they were moving.

Jump Start began jumping and weaving through the course, until she got to one of the spinning fans. She didn't pass it fast enough and ended taking a swipe to the side for her trouble, letting out a yelp in surprise.

It seems as though her Earth Pony traits weren't the greatest here, because when she got to the more intense parts, she couldn't get through or around fast enough, taking even more blows.

Eventually she reached the end, with parts of her coat covered with ice flakes or small patches of water. She gave an embarrassed smile, knowing she didn't do that great.

Nodding to Maglroia silently, Collapse had observed Jump Start's passage through the course. She didn't expect the fans to spin all at once and her eyes winced a bit at what she was seeing. Watching Jump Start proceed through the course made her smile, however she didn't expect her to get all the way through unscathed. When Collapse had gotten swiped Collapse was worried she could have gotten hurt but at the same time it was something to learn from.

When Jump Start was done Collapse smiled at her. "Don't worry, you will do better next time!" she said to her in an optimistic manner.

Afterwards it was now time for Collapse's turn. Collapse began proceeding through the course and still seemed to struggle on the hurtles much like last time. It seems that Collapse's weakness was with her physical ability, but when she got to the fans she was able to get through most of them just fine at the cost of waiting a second or two before proceeding through or around them. Of course as this was her first time, she got hit a few times and didn't make it through unscathed.

Collapse was more precise than Jump Start was, but jumping over the hurtles? She had much work to be done.

It turns out that Jump Start had made getting hit look easy in comparison to what Collapse had to deal with. Each time she was struck, she was hit with enough force to disrupt her balance and cause her to stagger.

Jump Start might've been hit more but her Earth Pony magic kept her stable. Each time Collapse was hit, she had to recover quickly or risk getting hit again. In the end, it still cost her precious seconds scrambling back to her hooves.

Magloria looked at the pair. "Now imagine that those spinning poles were blades. Sure, in a real situation you might be able to block them in some other way, but that's not always the case. You both would be on the floor, wounded at best or dead at worst. This is just one of the things these courses were designed to teach. Keeping light on your hooves to avoid danger." she said.

When Collapse was done with it she was a bit demoralized internally but hid that under an embarrassed smile at how many times she had gotten hit.

"You drive a good point. For me, I really don't do well with the hurdles. I am not very physically inclined like Jump Start is. I find it easier to be more precise with things but those spinning poles really did a number on me there. Any suggestions for what we should do? I will try timing myself more properly next time." Collapse stated, and seemed rather determined to do better next time.

"Suggestions? I could give you some, but then you wouldn't use your brain figuring out ways to move through the course faster, or avoid getting hit. I think I'll leave it up to you to figure ways to do that." Magloria said, simply sitting back and watching what happens.

Jump Start tried again, but only improved a little. While she managed to avoid some of the easy hits this time, she still couldn't deal with the intense parts of the course.

Reaching the finish line, she gave a huff from the effort put in- and the stings from the cold blows -then settled down to rest, feeling unsatisfied with her performance.

Collapse looked to Magloria. "Right then. Let us see where the wind blows." Collapse spoke in a metaphorical manner and then watched Jump Start She was glad that she performed a bit better, but still it didn't satisfy her so she seemed. Collapse didn't blame her.

Collapse would proceed through the course. Putting more thought and effort in, she was able to clear the hurdles a bit easier and proceeded through the intense parts of the course but missed a few of the hits she had recieved the first time around. Still, she was unable to deal with them in a similar manner to Jump Start.

When she reached the end she huffed and looked off to her side. It was a bit tiring, but at least she had felt she had improved somewhat.

Given that the ice would likely remain frozen for the few hours that they had (and Magloria would just refreeze parts that started to melt) they could just keep doing this for the rest of the time they had until they went to go meet Aura Surge, if they wanted to.

Jump Start seemed as though she was fine with the idea of doing this, as she got up for her third try. If there was nothing else Collapse wanted to do, time would pass until they needed to go.

Collapse didn't have much else in her mind. Over the time that passed Magloria would see gradually improve. After the few hours had passed, Collapse had performed much better at the obstacle course. The hurtles were no longer an issue for her. While she still got hit occasionally, she felt a lot more confident and focused in her ability to perform the obstacle course. It seems as though given time and effort on her part, Collapse was able to learn on her own.

When enough time had passed, Collapse wouldn't object to leaving to go meet Aura Surge. She was eager to see what Jump Start would think of her.

After Jump Start's final attempt, the entire course was hit by a magical wave similar to the previous one, causing the ice to become puddles once more.

"Alright, that's about enough of that. It's been about 3 hours so we should head back into the Truhye district. Aura Surge ought to be waiting for us by now." Magloria said, finishing off a piece of seagrass that she had plucked from somewhere when no one was looking. She walked over to the water and dived in without hesitation.

Jump Start groaned at the idea of doing swimming so soon after being on the course, but didn't object further. She too dove into the water with a splash.

Provided there were no distractions on the way, they'd arrive where they encountered Aura Surge to see her swimming around, occasionally doing swimming tricks like spiraling and looping to pass the time.

Collapse was a bit sad to see the course turn to puddles, it was so intricate. Even though she knew it was just ice, it was still kind of sad to see it just melt away. If it has use, it has value. And if it has value, it is a bit sad to give up. She honestly was enjoying doing obstacle courses and watching how Jump Start improved.

Noticing Magloria's piece of seagrass she smirked at that before leaping into the water quickly. Following Magloria along to where Aura Surge was, she stayed silent on the way there and just decided to take in the beautiful sights on the way there. It was still astonishing, despite how long they have been here.

When they see Aura Surge, Collapse would do some lazy loops in the air and a few barrel rolls. It looked quite awkward for Collapse. Perhaps she could learn from both Magloria and Aura Surge at the same time. Collapse waved to her happily. "Greetings, Aura Surge! It is good to see you." she said innocently as she approached her.

Collapse's attempts at looping and barrel rolling was more awkward to others than to her, given how non-aquadynamic they all were compared to a Seapony.

The greetings drew over Aura Surge's attention, where she then swam over to them. "Hello. I'm all set to go with you now. Once we're out of the settlement's borders, I can Riverwarp us to save on time it would take to get to the Great Water Spout." she said.

Jump Start stared in awe at the sight of the Kelpie. "Wow, you look pretty." she said, earning a thanks of appreciation in return for her compliment.

Collapse giggled a little bit at Jump Start’s statement. “Not to be weird or anything but those red whiskers are quite something. I wish we had whiskers like you do.” Collapse said to Aura Surge while being embarrassed about her movements. Collapse smiled cheekily.

One thing Aura Surge said stood out, “Riverwarp? Whats that? You mean you have some kind of ability move us a lot faster through the water or teleport us ahead?” Collapse pondered. “I haven’t heard of anything quite like that, but either way that is something unique to you since we can’t do that if that is what you are referring to.” Collapse stated calmly.

Aura Surge gave a polite thanks to Collapse as well, appreciating the praise from the both of them.

"It's the former. Riverwarping is high skill magic that lets us use the river's momentum to travel along it at incredible speeds. Most seaponies capable of using magic will stick to it's basic form, Water Vault. They have no need to learn how to Riverwarp, since they don't travel like I did." she explained as they swam through the districts.

"Well, there is a lot down here I can tell. When we first arrived here we were amazed that this system of caverns was filled with life. Since you are more traveled, I suppose we have a lot to talk about. First off, you can tell that we aren't from around here. We are from the surface, go up high enough and you reach open sky." Collapse replied as she swam alongside them.

"I knew you weren't from anywhere around here the moment I saw you. Your eyes aren't designed for dealing with the dark, and your colours are too bright as well, both for your own species and other species. Your... non-flippers are too flat and hard for dealing with the rocky surfaces, and are no good for swimming." Aura Surge said, explaining her investigations.

"If I had to guess, your native lands on the 'surface' are flat and soft, and well lit as well. That's a place I unfortunately could not explore when I did it as my main interest." She said. Her whiskers flicked, and she smiled. "I thought so, but seems there's more beyond what I can see on you."

By this point they were nearing the river passage that would take them to the Great Water Spout.

Collapse was impressed by Aura Surge’s observations and smiled back. “You would be mostly correct. There are three main types of ponies.” Collapse then would explain the three different types before adding, “But there is a fourth type that is the combination of all 3. Alicorns. Our rulers are alicorns. Alicorns are very powerful and live extremely long lifespans. We have 3 rulers. Cadence, Twilight, and Starlight.” she spoke and then went on to explain that Twilight and Starlight raise the sun and moon while Cadence is the Princess of love. Collapse also would add explanations about the surface, the sun and the moon, among various other details.

To add to this she would also explain how they ended up here, as well as their intended mission.

By the time that Collapse was done explaining everything, they had arrived at a point which was suitable for Aura Surge to start.

"Thanks for all that. Maybe I can teach that someday, or get someone else to teach it. But for now, we've arrived at the point where I can legally use the Riverwarp. This'll require my concentration, so please don't interrupt me." she said.

She turned to the center of the river ahead and focused. As she did so her fins began to emit their eerie red glow. Everyone could feel the water shifting, in more ways than the river's usual.

Suddenly the currents visibly coalesced into what could only be described as a horizontal vortex, leading *up* the river instead of down, defying physics. Aura Surge moved to the edge of the vortex.

"As soon as I enter, quickly follow me. I'll be keeping it stable but only for a short distance behind me. If you're too late, you'll be left behind, and I don't want to have to backtrack, so please..." she said, then swam into the swirling torrent of magical water currents, disappearing quickly up the river.

Magloria gestured Jump Start and Collapse to enter.

Collapse looked on in amazement but remained silent as to not disrupt Aura Surge's concentration and entered within the vortex. She hadn't seen something like this, at least of a magical spell. It was most definitely safe, however she wouldn't be lying in saying that she was a bit nervous in entering the vortex. Once they were all safely within the Vortex Collapse would look to make sure they were all close together.

"Wow, I've never seen anything like this. You said legally? I'm sure there are all kinds of laws with a power like this. This is really cool!" she complimented Aura Surge once they were safely within the vortex together. She wasn't sure what would happen next. Would they just move along much faster than normal? Or would they just teleport up ahead somewhere? Collapse was eager to find out.

It didn't take long for Collapse to find out what happened when she entered. Contrary to what she thought would happen, which was where she'd stick together with everyone close by, the moment she got close enough she was quickly yanked forward before rapidly moving down the swirling vortex, passing down the river as she did.

She didn't get a chance to ask her question because she couldn't see any others, only the rushing of the water ahead that dragged her along, and the water left behind that would drag the others behind her. The noise the constant shifting water made was incredible, like standing next to a crashing waterfall.

It was hard to tell how much time passed. A few seconds? A couple minutes? Half an hour? She soon reached the end of the water tunnel, resulting in her getting shot out of the vortex at high speed, with Aura Surge watching as she uncontrollably span into a much, much deeper looking lake filled with familiar glowing fish.

It didn't take long for Jump Start and Magloria to appear from the exit and suffer the same fate, though the blue unicorn recovered quicker from the sudden unstable end. A few seconds after everyone was ejected from the vortex, the waters calmed down and the vortex faded away.

"We're here." Aura Surge stated.

Throughout the whole affair Collapse was both amazed and terrified. It would easily have been a nightmare for her if she didn't have that underwater breathing spell. Her heart was racing, perhaps you could say as fast as the water itself. Either way, Collapse was unable to tell how long it had taken to pass through the vortex. It was a very surreal experience yet it was also oddly exhilarating.

Upon exiting the vortex she would slow her uncontrollable spin. Aura Surge would have seen the golden glow surround the creamy yellow unicorn as her spin stopped after a few seconds. Her magic would grab onto the water around her and stop her spin at the cost of flinging the water around her out. In essence, it was transferring the spin to the water around her. That was likely unexpected from Collapse.

Taking a bit to steady herself in the waters of the lake she would look to see the others, as well as Aura Surge. "Wow...that was most impressive and unexpected! Thank you for getting us here so quickly, Aura Surge." she spoke in appreciation and thankfulness towards Aura Surge. Looking around the lake she would see that indeed, this was the Whirlpool Lake that she saw at the beginning of all this.

"Well, I suppose it is time for us to begin the dive." she spoke, once everyone had stabilized themselves.

"You're welcome." Aura Surge replied before addressing everyone. "Now, most creatures at the top of the lake are friendly enough, but the deeper you go, the more creatures that want to ambush you there are, even if no hope of taking you on. Such is how it is for creatures with limited sight."

"So stick together and keep an eye and ear out for anything that may approach. When you can, stay close to these guys-" she pointed to a small school of glowing fish "-since the light scares off most ambushers." she said.

Before she started their descent she asked "Any questions?"

Collapse kept what Aura Surge had said in mind as she looks to the glowing fish and smiles. The glowing fish were rather comforting for Collapse, especially with how she had encountered them earlier before.

"Well I have several. As a Kelpie, your magic is contained in your fins, right? It took us at least a day, or two to even get from here to Pearlth. At least that is how long it took. How is it you were able to travel across here so quickly with the Riverwarp? How did you learn that ability?" Collapse asked curiously.

Aura Surge shook her head. "My fins are used to channel the magic, but they're not where it's stored. Our magic is stored in little pearl-shaped organs near our spine. That's how we can channel it to all our fins at once."

"We were able to travel here quickly because that's what the magic does. It lets us channel the flow of water around us, allowing us to accelerate to incredible speeds. I learned it from other seaponies, who learned it from seaponies before it, and so on." she answered.

Collapse nodded in understanding and smiled. "That is fascinating, thank you for telling that. So you are an explorer, right? What kinds of areas have you been to? We've been through everything on the way here and on the way to the 'exit' as it is called. We walked past the Void Crags, visited the Luneshine Forest, and we discovered that there was a blockade guarded by felines if you go far enough." Collapse stated, and filled in various other bits of information about their journey in that area.

"Collapse, we should start going down now. She can tell you on the way, if she's willing." Magloria interrupted, and began to swim down. Aura Surge decided to follow, until she was leading the descent into the abyss. Jump Start followed along behind them.

As they went down, Collapse got the opportunity to say everything that she would've said, and Aura Surge responded in kind, mentioning how she had been to a large number of various seapony settlements and the places around them. Most of the places were similar to what they had already seen, but a couple were different.

One of them she had been to was what could only be described as the Ruins of the Rock Lobsters. An underwater ruin filled with buildings and statues, many of which seemed to depict shelled creatures. Since Rock Lobsters were the closest creature they knew of, they named the ruin after them.

Another place was known as the Sulfur Fields. A river passed by what appeared to be a flat plane with a shallow decline, with what was likely magma at the bottom. They couldn't explore it very well, due to the heat and large amount of brimstone that filled the air with poisonous sulfuric gas, making it dangerous to go too far.

Collapse swam down and followed besides them. She stuck close to the others as she listened intently to what Aura Surge had spoken of. The most interesting part that was mentioned was the Ruins of the Rock Lobsters. "Seems as though you all weren't alone down here from the start. I can imagine they could have been the ones that made that big structure we saw between the rivers." Collapse commented to Magloria and Jump Start, referring the strange structure that they had seen before.

"Now as for your history, how far back does it go? What are the earliest things you know about your past? That would probably provide clues as to how you all came to form. In my eyes it is unlikely that you all had came to be down here. You probably came from the surface in the distant past, just so long ago it hasn't been recorded." Collapse suggested as they went down.

As they went deeper, Aura Surge made a path from one group of glowing fish to another. The fish in question didn't seem to mind their approach for the most part. "We were definitely alone down here from the start, or at least we didn't find anything. Those ruins? Completely empty of anything that looked like the statues. No records of encountering sentient creatures like them either."

"Earliest things we have on record is that we fell through the great water spout originally, and that we called ourselves seaponies. Those two things everyone knows. Everything else was lost or forgotten." she stated.

It was getting darker and darker now. Even though the cave above was dark anyway, down here it felt... oppressive. They could even begin to feel the water pressing down on every inch of their fur as the pressure increased.

"Halfway there." Aura Surge said.

The pressure increasing was concerning. "I can feel the pressure increasing. This is an issue for...our kind. See, we can dive down perfectly fine but we have to come back up slowly and wait for a period of time. We don't want to get decompression sickness." Collapse spoke, warning Aura Surge that their bodies were not as durable in this environment as hers was.

"The great water spout on the surface was huge. It was really terrifying and well...we are about to see what remains of our ship...and our crew." Collapse sighed. She knew they would probably see the remains of the crew, and mentally prepared herself to face that.

"That doesn't sound like it's going to be a problem. It'll take time to carry things up to the surface, so we'll be able to adapt to the changing pressure." Magloria stated.

"How long have you been down here for?" Aura Surge asked. Jump Start replied first.

"We've been down here for... a few days I think?" she stated. This confused Aura Surge for a bit, until she did some calculations in her head.

"Based on the older calculation for days... that's... over 70 hours. Your old crew would be bones by now, picked clean by the scavengers at the bottom of the lake." she said.

Aura Surge grabbed one of the glowing fish as she passed it. It briefly struggled, then calmed down when a pulse of red energy flowed through the seapony's fin.

Directing the light of the fish forward, they started to see shapes ahead of them. Old rotting wooden masts, various debris, and even a few ship parts that got caught by the walls. None of them looked familiar at the moment.

Collapse nodded to Magloria and Aura Surge's statements as they descended down further. It seemed as though Aura Surge can also control fish too, and Collapse smiled as Aura Surge held the fish, using it basically as a flashlight. "You can also control the fish too?" Collapse asked briefly as they spotted the shapes around them.

Collapse wasn't going to go looking into the debris that they spotted just yet as they would likely be having a lot to carry up to the surface. While they are here, they might as well get all they can get. "There were Griffons here, once. I wonder if this debris is from the griffons or someone else who made it down here. The Griffons do have technology on par with ours, so I would imagine that they would also have explored beyond known borders in a similar manner as to ours." she stated.

She looks to Aura Surge. "I remember my mother used to read me a tale about them. In the decades before our current ruler's ascension to power, there was an offshoot of Griffons that lived in an area known as Griffonstone, near to the borders of Equestria. They had a magical crown or something of that sort that allowed them to grant themselves great wealth. They lost it centuries ago but had recovered it decades ago and their society flourished once again." she added, and then something else crossed her mind.

"Before I used to be an Engineer I used to travel about Equestria selling my crafts. I would take commissions and build tools for other ponies. This took me far and wide, even beyond Equestria itself. I visited the Griffon Empire and exchanged some of my inventions there."

"No, I can't control the fish, but I can persuade them to calm down so I can keep them within reach. Makes explorations like these so much easier." Aura Surge replied.

She kept quiet as Collapse told her story, and by the time she was finished, they had reached what appeared to be the bottom of the lake, where the feeling of the pressure became it's most extreme.

The floor of the lake a sandy mess, littered with many things ranging from weird husks of dead plants, to scraps of broken ship parts, to bones of creatures long since dead.

"And now the hard part. Searching. We're not being hunted yet because we've got light that scares off the creatures here, and we're in the open, but once we get closer keep an eye out for anything. They sometimes feel bold or threatened when you approach." Aura Surge said.