Away and Afar

by PropsValroa

Chapter 46

Magloria shrugged. "It would be pretty hard to mess up freezing something. It's not a skill that one would be proud of having, especially when they had a freezer around." she said, materializing an ice cube from some river water.

As soon as Collapse finished talking, she tossed the ice cube over towards her, aiming for her mouth so she could crunch on it. The blue mare didn't move however. "No thanks. I'm fine here." she replied.

There wouldn't really be much else for them to do until sunset when the mist faded away and the heat went down, aside from sit in the water, maybe splash around a bit and attempt to have fun and talk about anything they wanted to. It was too tiresome to do much else anyway.

Conveniently, when sunset would come around was when they would start on their little thievery mission.

Collapse easily caught the ice cub in her mouth and proceeded to crunch on it. "Suit yourself." she spoke to Magloria with a grin as she crunched on the ice, savoring the taste. In a sense, she was able to make Magloria be playful around her. At least she was getting somewhere.

Throughout the time they had until sundown Collapse mainly would strike up casual conversations with the both of them. Mostly about life back home and simple questions about either of their lives before this. She didn't ask anything too deeply about it as to not push her luck, or make it obvious what she was really after - Where did Magloria get her training from? She didn't let on or allude to anything of that up to this point. Perhaps she'd get something out of her even if that wasn't what she was asking for.

For Jump Start, she was curious to see where she was from and the general affairs of things back home. Collapse would also exchange some things about herself as well, that she was a general traveler who sold her products and enjoyed interacting with other ponies.

When sunset came around, Collapse was ready. She'd slip out of the water.

The ice cube tasted like water, except really cold. Big shocker. In fact, aside from the coldness, did it even really have any taste due to numbing her tongue wherever it touched? Collapse probably enjoyed the taste of numbness.

Collapse didn't get much about Magloria's personal life, the mare being tight-lipped as usual about such things. Something interesting was said in a casual manner, however, about how she used to feel the oppressive heat of lands with high amounts of vegetation, quite similar to the jungles they were currently in.

Jump Start had already told them about how she was from Whinnyston, a mainly agricultural town. She didn't really know what else to say about it, aside from a couple stories about occasionally interesting things, like colts getting stuck down wells.

When sunset came, they could finally see properly again. Jump Start had already dried off for a bit since it had gotten cooler, and she didn't want to be wet at night.

"Alright. If we don't need to go back and get something, we should head on up to Carocol now." Magloria stated, pointing upstream of the river.

Collapse would have expected Creamwood to be a more wintery type environment but then she remembered that it was close to Zebrica. As far as she could really remember, Zebrica was a land of savannahs and jungles. Not all that different from what they are experiencing now.

Whinnyston was a funny yet cute name in Collapse's opinion, she always enjoyed hearing about what Jump Start had to say. The poor little colts, though. It was interesting to get a glimpse into their lives even if it wasn't as extensive as she wanted it to be, that is.

Like Jump Start, she had already slipped out of the stream to avoid being wet all night. Her heart was starting to race a little bit, as she found herself nervous yet also excited at what they may possibly find in Carocol. "Alright. Let's go." Collapse said casually, following Magloria up the stream.

If nothing else happened of interest, Collapse would mainly be thinking over various plans in her head but that all would depend on the layout of the town itself once they get a better look.

Following Magloria up the river, they soon came across the small fortification where they had interrogated the panthin on watch. However rather than approach the place directly, Magloria decided to go after the small stream that broke off from the river. It headed in the same general direction that the panthin town was in, likely acting as their water supply.

Thankfully it wasn't guarded anywhere else along the way, leaving them undisturbed until they finally reached the outer walls and buildings of Carocol, the sky having grown dark by this point.

Now all they had to do was get inside, find what they're looking for, then get back out without being noticed. Getting inside was easy to do. Some of the walls had slopes of dirt and grass that they could climb up like hills to reach the highest buildings.

"Hopefully they've got more than 1 map, set of metalworking tools and other such things." Magloria muttered to herself sarcastically before looking to the others. "If you see anywhere that looks like it might have what we need, library, office, forge, that sort of thing, point it out." she told them.

Upon arriving at Carocol Collapse's eyes scan the place to make sure that nobody was going to see them. "Alright. We'll take what we can get. Problem is, when I unsummon things it will make a gold flash, so we'll have to be careful of that." Collapse remarks as she began to sneak up one of the exterior walls to get a good look over the town itself.

Once they had scaled up the wall Collapse would point out the various things she sees as quietly as she can. Hopefully they were able to see at least one of the things they were looking for. If not, then they would have to sneak down and go throughout the town and look about discreetly. She made sure that Jump Start was close to her, just incase of anything happening suddenly.

In her mind, Collapse was expecting something to go wrong. Hopefully not.

"A gold flash won't be a problem for anything that can be moved to a more private location. Attempting to unsummon larger, useful machines however might be a problem." Magloria stated.

No one appeared to be in sight as they approached, and once they had a good view of the rest of the place (which they had to achieve by climbing up onto the roof of one of the buildings) Collapse was able to make out 3 different locations that might have things they were looking for.

The first location appeared to be a workshop of sorts, complete with smoke and flames fueling the construction of new things. They were bound to find suitable things for building a boat there.

The second location was hard to make out as anything important, but the buildings in that location looked distinctly less residential than most, indicating they might be used for public services.

The third and final location was something extra, but still possibly useful. A refinery of sorts, built similarly to the workshop, except it had different layouts and far more flames glowing in the dark. They'd be able to get some useful metallic materials if they went there, for creating their own stuff.

Now the only question was, which do they head towards first?

Collapse acknowledged Magloria's word as she took in the sights of the three different locations that proved of interest. The third location called out to her the most out of all of them and so she wanted to get into that one first. The other two they would have to venture into as well. She knew that her pocket dimension had its limits but they were likely to grab what they needed.

Still, they could likely carry smaller items in their saddlebags. Magloria and Jump Start could carry the smaller tools in their bags. Take some weight off of her pocket dimension.

She pointed out the third location and would inform them that is the one t hey should head to first. Although if Magloria wanted to over-ride her suggestion for whatever reason she wouldn't mind. Depending on how the wall was, they would likely either walk down towards the third location or Collapse would quickly use her magic to carry the two of them down to the ground before descending down as well.

Either way, they'd likely have gone down the wall without issue. Collapse would keep her eyes and ears open as they proceeded towards the location. It was best to have a closer look before going in and taking anything. Discern your surroundings first before you go in.

Magloria pointed out the fact that they should go after the things they needed first, however if they were able to make their own stuff instead of taking them, maybe it would be better off? In any case, she didn't completely object to the idea, as long as Collapse didn't go crazy with the hoarding.

The 'wall' so to speak was simply a higher section of land for buildings and such. Several stairways could be found around the place that let them descend down to lower levels of land instead of scaling walls.

However they didn't have the luxury of using the well-traveled paths in case there happened to be a panthin there. Instead they kept to the less noticeable places behind buildings and through vegetation.

Eventually they had reached the refinery, where they could more clearly see the flowing streams of liquid metal, cooling off in special molds to create raw ingots. There was a few panthins moving about the place, checking over things to make sure they were kept running.

Unfortunately, they couldn't spot where the storage for the metals went. They'd have to start exploring, and to do that they'd have to enter the building, instead of watch the lights through various 'windows' in the walls.

Collapse was disappointed to see the panthins moving about within the place but that was to be expected with how everything was flowing around inside of the place. Because they were moving out it may not be worth it to risk getting caught right off the bat. Now that they had seen within the building perhaps it would be best to check in the other ones.

"Seems like they are moving about. I'd say we should look at the other workshop first instead because it feels like if we go in there we'll have to really tread the line of getting caught so soon." Collapse whispered to Magloria and Jump Start as quietly as possible. Collapse would occasionally look about to make sure they weren't getting spotted or anything like that.

"Although if we feel like taking our chances we can find a way to sneak in and perhaps nick some of the tools there in an area they are not using." Collapse suggested as an alternative.

Looking in the place, they wouldn't have much use for molds yet. Although they could maybe mold some metal pieces used in a sail and other metal parts of the ship they'd build. Perhaps stuff like steel panels and such for structural integrity but that wasn't as high on the list at the moment, one would think.

Magloria didn't look convinced at Collapse's logic. "Both this place and the workshop looking place had fires burning in them. They're probably *both* occupied by panthins." she whispered back.

Looking into the building and searching around (which Collapse could also see), she continued, "There don't appear to be many tools in there anyway. Just things for moving around pieces of metal. Shovels, tongs, crucibles and such. If we want to get anything that would be worth our time, we'd need to get what they're making. The workshop would have better tools anyway."

A loud hissing sound could be heard from inside, and massive plumes of steam rose up towards the roof. Somewhere they must've used water to rapidly cool the metal for a certain process. Jump Start couldn't help but squeak in fright from the sudden noise, though she tried to keep it suppressed.

Collapse gave Jump Start a slight glare at the squeak although she was surprised at the hissing noise as well. Still she was slightly annoyed but either way the loud hissing sound would have masked the slight squeak anyways.

"Yeah, let's go ahead and do that then. If we can't find anything else of use we'll look in that other place we saw." she said, referencing the one that resembled a public service building. "I don't suppose we'd be able to get in there to get at what they are making, as it is in rather active use at the moment." Collapse remarked.

Magloria rolled her eyes. "Well that's why we will search around from the outside and try to find out where they keep their storage from there. If this place has any decent efficiency, there will be an obvious place for such things. Try looking for a door or something." she said.

As they were talking to each other, a panthin was seen wheeling over a heavy cart filled with rocks- no, ores. Then once they reached somewhere, they called out to the others standing in higher positions. All of the panthins that were called together started pulling on ropes, causing the cart to slowly rise on a lift, where it later was emptied into the largest machine in the room, most likely the refinery itself.

Magloria by this point was looking in the direction that the cart had come from, somewhere out of sight.

"Right. We'll see what we can find." Collapse nodded and observed what the panthins were doing on the inside. That was to be expected. Also of note to her was that they were refining the ores. Although from this distance she couldn't tell what kind of ore they were refining. Perhaps iron? Copper?

As they moved about she looked around for a place to enter. Be it an open window or a door. Hopefully they could manage to find a way inside. If they successfully found an entrance on inside that had a clear point of entry that they'd be able to enter without the panthins seeing them, Collapse would have peeked inside to discern the surroundings.

Entrances into the refinery were actually everywhere. Not only was there a couple large doors (On the other side of the building) but all of the windows they were at didn't actually have any glass, bars or anything else stopping them from getting in, likely so it doesn't get unbearable inside.

Problem for the windows however is that they're a bit high. They could easily get through if they jumped up, but when they landed on the other side, their hooves would create a loud noise, which would definitely draw attention to themselves. Soft paws and not needing to sneak around likely benefited the panthins in this case.

There were also windows on the second floor, up where they saw the panthins unload the cart, and what looked like it could be a skylight in the roof. Though there wasn't really a good reason to go up to that high, was there?

Realizing that the windows were not the best of options Collapse opted to go to one of the doors on the other side of the building. If Collapse were to lift her companions inside the glow of her magic would be noticeable at least she thought so. Upon looking at the door she attempted to open it as quietly as possible.

Although Jump Start and Magloria were free to come up with their own way of entrances if they wanted. Collapse didn't seem to mind, as she only really cared about getting into the building. Hopefully the door she was trying to get into wasn't locked, or worse, creak loudly as she attempted to. If it didn't she'd quickly peek her head in and get a look around.

She knew that cats had a high sense of hearing. The panthins themselves were likely no different in that regard.

Jump Start decided to not get involved in this heist. Both her denser and larger frame would put them at a disadvantage, plus she didn't really have the intent on being super sneaky. Instead she decided to stay and keep watch in case anything bad was happening. Magloria gave her a couple of ice cubes to use as distractions, just in case.

Magloria, finding no good ways to sneak in through the windows without causing noise, decided to follow behind Collapse. The doors as previously seen were large, but they were also reinforced with metal, making them rather heavy to move on their own.

Thankfully they didn't need to open the doors the entire way to get in, and they appeared to be maintained well enough that they hadn't creaked. From this perspective of the building they could see Jump Start, looking through one of the windows on the far side.

But of more importance was they could now see where the cart had come from. A room off to the side of the main building, complete with tracks to make moving the cart in and out easy. They couldn't tell if anyone was currently inside, but if there was no one within the room and no one was looking when they approached, they'd be able to get in undetected.

Collapse was glad that Jump Start decided to sit this one out and posed as a lookout. Collapse figured that Jump Start would be fine sitting outside. It was cute with the ice cubes though, perhaps if they were in another place she could levitate one into her mouth for her. Smiling slightly at the sight, she put her focus on what lay in the area now.

So far so good. The doors didn't creak loudly or anything. At least the panthins were very good at building stuff apparently. Hopefully that included having tools they could use for building a ship among other things they could use for other purposes as well. They had axes and stuff, but it would be better to have a large maul to chop down the larger trees even faster. The dinky little mushroom axe wasn't too good at that, now was it?

Looking over to the room she pointed it out silently to Magloria and did some hoof gestures suggesting that they should go look at the room where the cart came from first while they were at it. If Magloria agreed, Collapse would slowly and quietly walk towards the room to give it a quick peek to see if anyone was inside. Hopefully not.

Magloria obviously agreed, given that doing so was the entire point that they were at this building in the first place. Luckily most of the light in this place was focused as the fiery orange glow coming from the crucibles and fireboxes of the refinery, so sticking to the corners of the room left them in relative darkness.

Just as Collapse was about to peek into the storage room, they heard the squeaking of wheels. Magloria immediately grabbed onto Collapse's tail, preventing her from going any further as a panthin pushed out another cart full of ores from within.

For a moment they slowed down, sniffing the air as though they might've smelt something, but that was quickly proven false when they let out a loud sneeze and an irritated growl, flicking their tail as they mumbled something about plants and pollen.

With that out of the way, Collapse was allowed to look inside the storage room. She could see in the light of a brazier several other carts, including a small pile of spare parts, tools for repairing said carts and the refinery itself (which the group likely already had, given it was just hammers, wrenches and such) and several different crates.

They could only see inside a couple crates, but they appeared to contain various coloured ores and bars of metal.

Collapse didn't make a noise as her tail was grabbed. While she enjoyed the feeling of her tail being grabbed now wasn't the time for those sorts of thoughts. Looking about the place she felt as if the place had some sort of etheral vibe with the fiery orange glow shining about the place. It almost reminded her of a story, so to speak. With how the light shines across everything, that reminds her of her own imagination of events taking place within stories when she was young.

Noticing the Panthin coming out with the ore cart, she knew it hadn't smelled them from the start. Besides they are too busy working and any smell Magloria and Collapse would have had would be rather weak in comparison to the smells about the place. They weren't even looking for them, so she wasn't as concerned as one would think. Still, she didn't allow her guard to slip up.

Looking to the interior of the storage room she would conclude that they were not going to be hauling crates of ores out of here or stealing any of the carts. Taking the chance, she'd quickly and quietly walk in and nag some of the tools she thought they didn't have. Or at least nag some tools they didn't have as much of. It was best to have a diverse range of tools, just in case they happen to lose a few tools here or there they can still have backups.

Collapse quickly stuffed the tools she nagged into her saddlebags before exiting the room, being careful to stay within the darkness as much as she could manage. Then, she'd follow Magloria about to any other areas of this place that she wanted to.