Away and Afar

by PropsValroa

Chapter 28

Collapse nodded to Aura Surge and thought that it was cute how Aura Surge could calm the fishies down. "Hey, by the way. When me and Jump Start were here, we called these fish Glowfish. Is there a proper name for them?" Collapse asked. The pressure was a bit concerning to her but they were here, and they had a job to do so Collapse wasn't going to complain.

"I'll add more light." Collapse spoke and her horn glowed gold and added more light with her horn so they could see better. Collapse stuck close to the others and proceeded to begin searching for anything valuable on the ground.

Aura Surge nodded. "Yes there is a proper name, but it's not 'Glowfish'. They're actually called 'Illuminant Carp', or just 'Light Carp' for those who prefer to use less fancy terms." she responded. She eyed off Collapse's horn when it lit up, making sure she wasn't doing anything that would be dangerous, before settling back on the task.

For the moment, Collapse's personal search for valuables had no luck. There was barely anything that seemed valuable just lying about on the lake's bottom, and the few things that glinted from the light turned out to be junk like fish scales or pieces of various non-rusting metals, like copper and brass.

The search would take hours, so unless Collapse had anything else she wanted to say, they'd be swimming until they found something interesting.

“Light Carp is good by me.” Collapse smiled as she noticed Aura Surge’s looks. She expected to find not much of value and this wasn’t as clear cut as she wanted it to be. Collapse just wanted the entire shipwreck to be in one place on the top of the sand so it would be easier. Evidently that is not the case, unfortunately for them.

As they would search Collapse would mostly be silent but would occasionally talk about more casual things. Asking what daily life is like in the seapony districts, and what kinds of jobs they have and that sort of thing. Collapse also wanted to know what the leaders of the seaponies were like. She hoped they were good leaders. It is clear that she was fascinated by Aura Surge and her knowledge.

The things that Aura Surge replied with were pretty similar to pony society, about daily life and jobs and such. Just change the words 'apple farmer' to 'mushroom farmer' and other small things like that.

They didn't really have leaders, but the representatives from each of the districts would probably qualify. This sounds familiar to Collapse, like she'd heard it before. Something about how each district got it's own representatives that would make decisions for the settlement as a whole.

They finally found something that looked promising. Covered with a thin layer of sand appeared to be the back half of their ship, lying in a heap on the lake floor. Numerous dents and breaks could be seen in the ship's metal chassis, indicating that it had taken quite a beating from something.

When they inspected it from around the side they could see the entirety of inside the boat, from hallways to half rooms and even spaces between the decks and walls where wiring and plumbing went.

Sadly, they could also see a pile of bones here and there. Most of them within what used to be rooms, where they likely were unable to escape in time.

Collapse had taken the information into her mind and thanked Aura Surge for the information. The Mushrooms down here were something Collapse honestly wouldn't mind eating for long periods of time as they already have, however a nice warm cookie or a cake would be much better.

Upon seeing the back half of the ship Collapse's blood went cold at the sighting of it, when they had looked in from the outside Collapse had a rush of memories. Collapse can almost see herself going down those hallways as she normally would throughout the day. Sometimes she would talk to to the other crew during her work. Collapse wasn't particularly close to any of them except for Jump Start, but it still brought a clear look of emotion.

Collapse places her hooves against the hull of the ship. "There is something about the passage of time that gets me. Especially now. Looking within these halls, I see memories. Memories that were once the present. We were unaware of what would be happening now. Everything was normal. I remember the conversations I had with those on the ship throughout my days, among my daily routines...If only we had known..." Collapse sighed, shutting her eyes tightly and just seemed to shudder there, almost not wanting to open her eyes to what is going on now.

Collpase felt a hoof on her shoulder, coming from Jump Start. She didn't like seeing others upset like this, and saw fit to comfort her. Aside from that and a hug however, she didn't really know what else to do to help Collapse.

Magloria could tell that Collapse needed some time to herself and started to check around the ship part, not yet going inside in case something had taken a liking to the place and made it their home. While she did this, she let out deep sighs, each time when she spotted something she recognized.

"Seems like this part of the boat is where most of the crew's quarters were, so this is all we need to find for now." She said, then pointed out several places to Aura Surge where some of the better places to find things were, which Aura Surge was appreciative of.

Collapse opened her eyes and smiled to Jump Start and hugged her back. Jump Start could feel Collapse's soft warmth in the colder water as she looked into her eyes for a few moments and spoke, "Thank you. I am glad that you are here." she spoke and pulled away from the hug. "But one last thing, before we search." she spoke and then would seem to regain her cheekiness somewhat. Her hoof was brought to Jump Start's snout quickly, and gently. "Boop." she smiled wider.

After the moments after the boop, Collapse would re-join Magloria and Aura Surge. Collapse didn't proceed into the ship yet, for the same reasons. Collapse would also add on to Magloria's statement, explaining the materials that would be valuable the other half of the ship that they had yet to find such as the parts in the engineering section, as well as others.

Jump Start's nose wrinkled at the sudden and unexpected contact. She couldn't really be mad at Collapse though, given what they were all dealing with.

"I think the first place we should start searching is your own room, Collapse. That was the main reason that we came down here after all." Magloria said as she began instructing them. "Also, I think your ability to bind items to yourself to summon and unsummon will come in handy here. Should save a lot of time hauling things up to the surface."

"After that we can travel to my room. I've got some things I'd like to get ahold of again. Then... Jump Start, do you have anything you need?" Jump Start nodded in response.

Magloria continued. "Then we go to her quarters, and finally you can take whatever you want, Aura." she finished. And with that, she began moving towards where Collapse's quarters were.

Collapse almost blushed at Magloria's statement but it was indeed the main reason they came down here. She couldn't argue against that.

"Yup. Well, since the ship itself is...intact in this portion I don't expect my Fly Ring to be bent out of shape or anything like that. It would probably be a bit waterlogged if anything." Collapse commented as they proceeded towards Collapse's quarters. "Now granted, I can't unsummon anything too large. My binding ability works best for small items. It can work for larger ones but I would have to put more energy into the spell..." she droned off as they approached Collapse's quarters.

If Collapse's quarters were mostly intact Collapse would have been able to find her diary. Her diary had a good thick cover, if that was any saving grace. Grabbing her diary, and a couple of other things she would unsummon them. Those things weren't in the best of conditions of course, naturally.

Now for the big reveal. Collapse would almost hesitantly move to the drawer on the bottom of her bed. Opening it up slowly, would her Fly Ring still be there in reasonable condition? Time to find out.

Collapse's quarters were indeed mostly intact, but it was clearly in complete disrepair, with all of her belongings strewn about the place.

Her diary, assuming it's a paper one, was in a horrible state, with the water absolutely ruining the ink on all the pages. It would be no good for recalling her previous days, and it might not even be that great for future recording, depending on how warped the pages are after they've dried.

When attempting to open the Fly Ring drawer, it didn't so much as open as break apart, the front part being torn off from the rest of it.

Inside she found her Fly Ring just lying there. It was hard to tell the extent of it's condition at the moment, but just looking at it she could tell that a few of the metal plates had been bent. Probably got that way from whatever tore the Constance in half.

Collapse had hoped that she would be able to dry the papers of her diary out and salvage anything within it. Perhaps they could find some sort of spell to repair her diary but that would be extremely unlikely, in her mind. The rest of her belongings had been unsummoned as well. From her pillows, to her clothes and other things she wasn't willing to part with them so easily. One thing though - it was a portrait of her mom and her, when Collapse was a filly. Collapse was on her mother's back and there were cherry trees around. If it was in okay condition, she would show that to Aura Surge.

With the drawer, she was a bit taken back at how easily the drawer itself broke off. Looking to her Fly Ring closely she would smile and hold it up for the others to see. "There we go! It's not so bad, this is fixable..." she sighed with relief. She would allow Aura Surge to see it for a bit, as she was certain that Aura Surge hadn't seen something like that. After having the others take a look at it, she would unsummon her fly ring.

Collapse had gotten all her belongings from her room. It was most likely time to move on.

If the portrait had been sealed behind glass and a frame, then it would've been mostly fine. If not however, the water would've absolutely ruined the paint, or ink, depending on how it was done.

In any case, Aura Surge would've looked at the painting, but didn't really know what to say since she didn't know what she was looking at.

Magloria then led them all to her own room. Compared to what it was before, it was a complete ruin. Her collection of maps and charts were nothing but tatters on the wall, her collection of miniature crystal statuettes were scattered, and everything else was a mess.

Despite this, Magloria worked quickly to gather what she wanted to bring. A pair of saddlebags so she could carry more, a pair of holsters and their accompanying spear and shortsword, two of several weapons she had stashed about the place. Finally she collected as many of the statuettes as she could find, sticking them in her bags.

"Alright then, Jump Start, you're next." Magloria said, so Jump Start led them to her own quarters. She only really took a few things. Some portable tools that she didn't already have, and a pair of her own saddlebags.

The portrait thankfully had been sealed behind glass so it was fine. Collapse was glad that photo was safe and it had been unsummoned like the other items she had.

Throughout the collecting of the items Collapse had found herself quite pleased that both Jump Start and Magloria were able to gather what they needed. She didn't see any reason to interject and allowed them to be gathered. Collapse smiled at how Magloria gathered the statuettes though, she was proud of Magloria's ability to carve them. Perhaps later on she could ask Magloria what they were so she could get a closer look.

After they got what she wanted she looked to Aura Surge. "I figure that is what we'll need for now, for personal items. We can search for anything of value for you?" Collapse suggested, now figuring it was time for them to get valuable items for Aura Surge to cash in.

Collapse found herself to be thinking of what the other quarters had, while it was rude to go through others belongings...they were dead so it didn't matter anymore. Still, she felt guilty and had lead them through the other quarters and regions of the ship, looking for anything valuable that they could give to Aura Surge.

"That was the agreement, was it not? Still though, I think it would be better if I looked around for anything that might interest me, since I'm not planning on profiting off of what I choose." Aura Surge said as they swam through to the quarters of the former crew members.

However, in one of the rooms they encountered their first problem. Something was living there and it didn't look like it wanted to be disturbed. A massive dark brown crab creature waved it's claws threateningly at the group as it scuttled closer. The claws it had looked like it could cut clean through their limbs, if they got too close.

Collapse has moved back from the crab upon sighting it. She had no intention of being sliced up today, that was for sure. “Uh oh, that’s a giant crab. What should we do about it?” Collapse asked entirely not willing to take the first move against it. Almost instinctively she looks to Jump Start making sure she was at a safe distance from the giant crab.

"Hmm, it's not really worth dealing with. Crabs are hard to get through. We could just evict it from it's home instead." Aura Surge stated, prompting Magloria to light her horn.

The giant crab was wrapped in her telekinetic aura. "Everyone move out of the way. I'll dump it outside where it won't bother us anymore." she said as she lifted the crab towards the door, prompting everyone to make room so they don't get snapped at.

As Magloria swam over to the hole in the ship, Aura Surge entered the living quarters and started rummaging around for anything she might like. She eventually came up with a yellow raincoat that she had taken fancy to, several various pieces of jewelry that she could wear and a collection of tiny figures, either coloured pink or purple. Collapse knew what those figures were. They were pieces of a Twilight and Starlight inspired chess board.

Collapse was pleased with the giant crab being dumped outside by Magloria. In a way, that would have been considered humorous in the manner that Magloria stated it. Either way, Collapse really didn't feel like fighting a giant crab. After all, it was just an animal in an unfortunate spot and it didn't really pose a current threat. If it attacked them than that would be a different story.

To what Aura Surge had found Collapse smiled. "Oh hey, I know what those figurines are, they are for a chess game. They are inspired by our rulers. The purple ones are lead by Twilight, and the Pink ones by Starlight. You can see the various styles each of them have in their pawns represented by royal guards." she stated and would point out the various details on each of the chess pieces. The rulers themselves were there, although they were small Collapse had pointed out their alicorn features to Aura Surge.

"You can keep that for sure." she winked.

Aura Surge nodded at the explanation for what she had discovered. Setting all the things she wanted down into a pile on the ground, she moved onto the next room, which happened to be half of the dining hall and kitchen.

Just a few fish swam away from their homes in the pots and cupboards this time. As they checked around, Aura Surge seemed to collect more and more things, bewildering Jump Start in the process. Glass cups, forks and spoons, a whisk, a particularly well decorated plate, the top of a stove and one of the dining chairs.

"That's what you want to keep...?" Jump Start asked, which Aura Surge responded by nodding.

By this time Magloria had returned from throwing the crab a suitable distance away, and simply stared at the pile of 'junk' Aura Surge had collected.

Collapse followed Aura Surge and Jump Start to the kitchen and the dining hall. Collapse smiled sweetly at the fish who swam away from the pots and cupboards. That was so adorable and she did a soft 'aww' at the sighting of the fishies swimming away.

However, Collapse was surprised at the items that Aura Surge was taking. Those items weren't particularly valuable except the plate, so Collapse figured that Aura Surge was a collector of some kind. "Well, are you a collector of some kind? Perhaps you like to display what you find for others to see?" Collapse asked.

Looking to Magloria she nodded in acknowledgement of her return and noticed her stare, likely thinking Magloria didn't expect Aura Surge to be interested in this stuff.

"That is correct. I did say that I wanted things that I find personally valuable, and these are exactly those kind of things." Aura Surge replied, before swimming off quickly, too quickly to keep up, to another room and searching through that.

"I think she's enjoying herself." Magloria mumbled as she watched the trail of bubbles that went after the seapony.

She soon came back with more things floating through the water with her, then darted off to another room for more.

A couple more rooms later she had created a decently sized pile of miscellaneous knickknacks. "I think I'm done for now. You got what you wanted and I got what I wanted." she stated, looking pleased with herself.

Collapse agreed with Magloria and allowed Aura Surge to gather what she had wanted. Looking to the decent sized pile she nodded. "We could try to find the other section and take some of the parts from that, such as the Mana batteries and other such things. I am sure those we could either re-use those to build a new ship given time, or pawn them in for a sizeable amount of shells." Collapse suggested.

"While we are down here we might as well take all we can get." she spoke and would walk over to the pile that Aura Surge had and her horn glowed gold. The glow went over the pile and it poofed in a vanish. It strained Collapse a lot more than usual to unsummon all that stuff at once and she was in a daze but a bit afterwards she would recover and shake her head clear.

Magloria shook her head "I don't think we really need the mana batteries. Not only would their condition be questionable, but we could only use them if we managed to construct something that ran on said batteries. Unless you know how to build those engines from scratch, we're not going to be able to use them." she stated.

Jump Start shrugged. "I don't know, we might be able to make something that can use them, even if it's not one of those engines. Besides, it would be better to get them now, before they get worse from the water and pressure."

Magloria hummed in thought, deciding on whether they should take the time to get them or not. "Alright then, fine. We can go get them. But we're not selling them. Don't want to accidentally sell the seaponies an unstable explosive." she said.

The moment Collapse unsummoned Aura Surge's pile of ~~junk~~ treasure, she looked saddened. "You know I intended to carry those myself." she mumbled.

Collapse agreed with Magloria's statement at the end, she didn't want to sell them something explosive.

To Aura Surge however she looked as if she had made a mistake before saying to her, "Oh um, I figured I would just carry it to make it easier for you. Don't worry, when we return, I'll give you all of it back." Collapse said softly, raising a hoof slightly in the innocence of her mistake. Collapse moved a little closer to Aura Surge, looking into her eyes sweetly. Collapse was just an adorable thing, wasn't she?

After a few moments Collapse turned to the others and thought it was time to go now. They got everything they wanted. "Well, let's look for the other half." Collapse spoke, and would follow them out of the remains of the ship in search of the other half.

"Alright then." Aura Surge simply said, giving one last glance at Collapse as the rest of them left the ruined ship. While she could admit that Collapse was cute, she wasn't really here to be interested in cute things. Unless they were unusual, like an aquatic creature she hadn't seen before. But down here, most things are ugly.

It took another hour or so before they came across the other half of the ship. It had gotten stuck among a group of spiked rocks, making it hard to find a proper way in. Thankfully after a bit of searching they were able to find a way in, but it would be a squeeze to fit through the gap.