• Published 6th Aug 2022
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Away and Afar - PropsValroa



An exploratory crew is sent out to investigate the great unknown.

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Chapter 48

Collapse froze up for several seconds upon hearing the high sounding voice. She had been had! But still she remains calm, as the cat seemed to be rather small and not in any condition to fight. Collapse would slowly put the boxes back but anyone would be able to notice what she had taken.

"I'll just leave you to your rest. Don't worry about me." Collapse said calmly, almost in a motherly tone since the cat was kinda cute, not going to lie. With that, she began to slowly back out of the room.

The cat watched her as she slowed backed away, confused as to why she decided to leave so soon. Oh that's right! She knew why! The cat cleared her throat, giving a big stretch from being woken up as she did so.

"Nah, stick around. Go ahead, take some more papers. This place has way too many anyway. Such a dusty mess." she suddenly spoke, definitely not like a standard Equestrian cat, but they definitely did not look like a panthin either. MUCH too small, and they looked like an adult if their legs and body were any indication.

With their stretch over, they went back to their original spot and curled up again, while keeping an eye on the unicorn.

Collapse shuffled forward nervously, looking up at the cat as she laid there. "Clearly, you can tell I am not anything like you. I am very lost from where I need to be as well as my companions. Incase if your curious, I'm taking these papers so I can have some proof of my travels when I get back to where I need to be. I am curious about this place." she spoke, looking through the drawers next.

"Do us a favor and don't tell anyone I was here. I mean no harm to you or anyone else here, but we have...objectives to complete." Collapse spoke truthfully. "But, who are you? You aren't like the other panthins I've seen." she asked calmly as she looked through the drawers.

"Wow, you're like a broken water pipe aren't you? Everything keeps flowing." the cat mentioned casually after receiving the mountain of words from the unicorn. They didn't seem to notice or care if their words stung, preferring to just keep going.

The first couple drawers contained more records collected in various piles. Boring records, the sort which she knew existed in massive piles over at Equestria. The bottom drawer however contained several rolled up pieces of parchment, larger than the average record.

"Yeah, I don't really mind that you're here. Could use the company actually, no one comes by at this time of the night." the cat continued. "I'm Ash, and I'm not any sort of Panthin, those cats are waaay bigger than me."

Ash rolled about until she was resting upside down on the cabinet, belly up while staring at Collapse. "I'm what they call a Burmesian Small. Demeaning name I know. We're almost the same as them, but obviously our size difference changes things. More than I like, sometimes."

She looked over Collapse. "And you're a... poisonous plant eater! The bright colours warning others to stay away and your lack of claws is an obvious tell."

Collapse would focus on the bottom drawer and opened it up as she listened, taking out the parchment and unrolling it to see what was there. At least Ash was fine with her being here, although some of her words were considered a little rude, Collapse didn't really care about that at the moment.

"Well, when I first saw you I thought you were one of their young. It's good to know that there are different types of cats around here. I wonder exactly what kind of building this is though - is it some sort of public records? Something like that?" she asked as she continued unrolling the parchment.

"Well you got the plant eater part right. Although some of us are a bit more adventurous and eat fish. The bright colors part, I honestly don't know what that is. We come in all shades and colors, more than the rainbow itself. I'm called a unicorn, but all of us are called ponies. Where we don't have claws..." she smirks and she levitates up some of the boxes and spins them in the air before setting them back down.

"We have magic. Each of us unicorns specializes in a certain type or combination of magical spells. Some of us have wings and no horns, they are called pegasi. Some don't have wings or horns, but make up for it in their sheer amount of strength. Those are Earth ponies." she spoke, explaining that casually to her.

There were several pieces of parchment in the drawer, each one appearing to be either a blueprint or a more detailed location map of the town, most of them already marked as completed.

When she got to the second to last one she finally came across something she needed. The parchment contained a map of some of the jungle outside of the town, with a few things marked. She'd have to go over it in more detail later, but it was promising.

Ash gave a non-committal shrug. "I don't know what this building is, and I don't care either. As long as I get fed and can come and go whenever I want, I'm happy." she said.

While Collapse was talking about what species she was and other things about the pony races, Ash got busy cleaning her fur with her tongue, looking like she wasn't even paying attention. Probably explained why she didn't know what this place was.

Without warning, Ash suddenly leapt off of the cabinet and onto Collapse's back, sinking in her nails to steady her landing. "Ooh, nice soft fur for a poisonous planty." she said, unconcerned by any distress she might've given the unicorn.

Collapse suddenly felt Ash leap onto her back. Thankfully her pony fur protected her from getting scratched but she still felt the feeling wasn't all too pleasant. For Ash, Collapse's soft warm pony fur was perfect to lay on. Collapse yelped quietly when she was jumped on like that but didn't take Ash off just yet.

"Hey! I'll let you stick around on my back until we go. The others probably wouldn't like the idea of taking you with us." she spoke and sighed, unsummoning the blueprints and the parchments that were most interesting.

"Right. A few maps, blueprints...that's good. Just got some tools, but those belong to Jump Start so that's not my problem anymore...just need to find any other stuff. Hmm, hopefully I can find some archives about how this place was formed and anything about its history. Anything else worth of value I'm taking as well..." she muttered to herself with a hoof to her chin.

She would have looked through the remaining parts of the room just incase there was anything else of interest. If there was, she would have put it into her saddlebags or unsummoned it. With that out of the way, she'd head over into the room directly next to this one.

"Yeah sure, whatever you say." Ash replied casually, pressing her paws into parts of Collapse's coat as if she was kneading a piece of dough, just to get a feel of where the best spot to lay down was. Eventually she found a suitable spot right above Collapse's tail and curled up.

The remaining parts of the room, the filing cabinets, had an awful lot of various things, but they contained a lot of writing. Reading them all would take absolutely forever, which was time that they did not have.

It was up to her whether she considered chunks of long and boring-sounding papers to be interesting enough to unsummon and read later. In any case, that was the entire room searched.

Collapse was careful in how she walked so she wouldn't make Ash fall off accidentally. The small cat fit on her back perfectly. It was cute, that was for sure. "Heh." she couldn't help to grin at that.

Deciding the rest of the room was not worth the time she'd head into the next room next to her. If Magloria or Jump Start were watching for Collapse at the time, they'd see the small kitty curled up on her back as she entered into the next room itself.

Now that she was in the next room, it was time to begin the search for anything else.

Collapse need not have worried about Ash falling off, since she appeared to be quite firmly attached while she walked, though it did make it feel uncomfortable as any time she made a sudden turn, needle-like claws sunk in slightly.

Unfortunately for Collapse, her search was at an end. Her room didn't lead anywhere except back to the place that Magloria had searched. Her only option was to go back there, where Magloria looked towards her as she did.

"Find anything? I haven't. Just a pouch of currency that I think these panthins... use." she asked, slowing down as she spotted Ash. "I take it you're aware of the lump of coal you're carrying around?"

"You have a lump of coal? You're weird, poisonous planty." Ash offhandedly said, causing Magloria to widen her eyes in realization, then narrow them at Collapse. "Explain."

Collapse looked towards Magloria and stopped walking upon hearing Magloria's voice. "Well uh...um, I was searching in that room and I found a few maps and blueprints that were of use. I have some stored in my saddlebags and unsummoned." she sighed a little nervously upon Magloria's glare.

"While I was doing so, this small Panthin here named *Ash* was ontop of one of the cabinets but she didn't seem to care about what I was doing. She jumped on my back all of a sudden and now she's here. She's harmless." Collapse spoke and walked closer to Magloria, showing her the small cat that was laying on her back.

"She doesn't seem to mind my presence, if laying on my back is any indications." Collapse spoke honestly. The way that Collapse had spoke was almost like a filly admitting something bad to a parent. Her voice noticeably changed a little bit, like as if she'd done something against the rules.

Magloria looked from Collapse to the cat several times as things were explained. She wasn't particularly thrilled by them being spotted, but if the culprit wasn't even going to do anything about it, she supposed she could let it slide.

"Alright fine, I guess this doesn't change anything. We got what we needed so we better leave now." she stated, before moving over to the room where Jump Start was.

A minute or so later she returned with Jump Start, who didn't seem to have found anything of use. Apparently she had come across the area where staff have a break, and found their fridge. The smell was enough to put her off searching anything else around it's vicinity.

"Looks like we might have enough time to reach the workshop after all." Magloria said. With that done they were all set to leave, unless they needed to do something else first.

Collapse agreed and would walk up to the window they had entered in from. "Ash, I know you may want to come with us but that's probably not a good idea. We're going into another building, and after that - we are leaving and heading back into the jungle. The Jungle isn't a good place to be for you." she spoke.

Her golden telekinetic aura gently wrapped itself around Ash and she was gently lifted off of Collapse's back and set down. "You can go find a place to rest. Maybe we'll be back here again." she said calmly to Ash, hoping she would understand why they likely wouldn't be able to take Ash with her.

Part of Collapse wanted to take Ash with her, but she knew that with the things they'd be likely facing and doing - that they wouldn't have the time or the effort to watch after al ittle kitty.

Ash flailed a little bit when she was levitated off of Collapse's back, but quickly calmed down when she realized what was happening. "Hmmmmmm... you know what, I agree. I'll definitely do that." she agreed, then patiently waited for them to leave.

"Alright, let's go." Magloria said, proceeding to go over to the open window and go through it, followed by Jump Start, who gave a small wave to the cat before leaving.

Once Collapse was through as well, she felt a familiar set of claws land on her back again. Just as they planned, of course!

Collapse sighs as she felt Ash on her back and looks to Magloria. "Looks like we've got a little kitty problem here." she said, smirking ever so slightly. It was clear though, that she didn't want to take Ash with her considering the things they were going to do.

"You should probably get off now, Ash. I'm sorry, but could you please get off?" Collapse asked Ash quietly. "We can't take you with us, I'm sorry to say." she spoke calmly, but didn't want to take no for an answer.

Magloria turned back to look at Ash, her face beginning to cloud with anger at the persistent animal. "We don't have time for this. The longer we wait around, the more risky it becomes to continue." she said, snorting in irritation.

Ash however, didn't appear to be taking in much of what they were saying. "You said that I might want to come with you, so I decided that I did." she replied.

"No, she said that coming with us wasn't a good idea." Jump Start pointed out, but once again the bermesian small cat didn't seem to be paying attention, if the whisker cleaning was any indication.

"What are you waiting for? The angry blue poisonous planty said you don't have time to wait around. I don't see why you're stopping." Ash stated. This response confused Jump Start. She didn't know how to respond to that.

Collapse would quickly levitate Ash off and was quickly starting to appear irritated at Ash's behavior. "Look, I'm going to make this really clear. Coming with us isn't a good idea, and we can't take care of you. It's also not so nice of you to conveniently ignore what we say." she spoke, her eyes narrowing slightly. Her voice wasn't as motherly anymore, but she was still just as quiet.

She would step away from Ash, motioning for the others to do the same just incase Ash decided to attempt to jump onto their backs again. While Ash was cute for sure, Collapse certainly wasn't in the mood for cute. It was time to focus on the objectives that lay ahead.

Ash didn't seem to mind getting taken off of Collapse's back again, but then again, this cat definitely seemed like they had something going on. Maybe all cats are like this, just rude and inattentive.

Well she listened now, and didn't seem pleased. "So now you're saying you *don't* want me to come along? That's crazy talk. It can't be both a good idea and a bad idea. Maybe your poisons have made act crazy." she said.

Magloria wanted to have nothing more to do with this. "Come on, let's go. Maybe we'll still have time, but not if we keep talking to the furball." she huffed and started walking off in the direction of the workshop, making sure to keep out of sight, as they were supposed to.

Jump Start gave an awkward smile to Ash, then turned and followed Magloria.

Collapse agreed with Magloria and gave an awkward smile and a wave to Ash as she followed Magloria. Hopefully Ash wouldn't prove any other issues and just got bored and would leave. The cat was clearly not as cute as she looked, the inattentiveness and rudeness was to be expected if the small cats back home were any indication.

As they walked she would keep watch to make sure Ash wasn't following them. If Ash was, she would be sure to let Magloria and Jump Start know. Now that they had the maps and blueprints to various things in this town, the next time they came back they would be able to know exactly where everything was so they didn't have to waste time searching.

They could come back several times and take all they needed. Hopefully the workshop would have something like a maul, or a chainsaw they could use to cut the larger trees.

Unfortunately for Collapse and the others, Ash following them was exactly what ended up happening, the cat clearly oblivious to the fact that she was unwanted by them.

Worse still was the fact that she didn't bother taking the more hidden paths that they did, instead preferring to jump across roofs, run along fences or simply move out in the open. Sure a cat alone wouldn't be suspicious, and the black fur made her hard to spot anyway, but she was still quite noticeable to anyone paying attention.

"I could freeze her in place. A quick crystal formation at her paw and she'd be unable to follow." Magloria suggested after being told that they were still being followed. A harsh option and not exactly hidden, but a valid one.

"Go ahead and freeze her paws. I know that's harsh, but it won't be hurting her. We'll be long gone anyways by the time anyone notices." Collapse suggested, giving the go ahead. "Besides, with how warm it is the ice would melt quickly anyways." Collapse added to her statement and looked to Ash.

She knew that Ash was likely not even aware of her surroundings, at least to the extent that the three of them were. She wondered how the panthins perception of things differed from the ponies. It seems as though however, they were more apt to be rude and self centered. Although for sure there was exceptions, just like in ponies.

Magloria waited until Ash got closer to them again, then lit up her horn. The magical sparkles immediately had an effect on the Bermesian Small. Apparently she was drawn to pretty sparkles. An unexpected but welcome outcome.

"Ohh, that's pretty. Can I have some of that?" she asked. A slight, sinister grin grew on Magloria's face. "Sure you can." she replied, then fired off a quick beam of freezing energy, that would encase whatever it hit in ice.

What she hadn't taken into account was a cat's natural reflexes when in danger. The moment the beam was fired Ash leapt into the air with a yelp, causing the spell to completely miss.

"Wow! That wasn't nice! And I thought you wanted me to come with you!" Ash stated.

"The point is Ash - We don't want you to come with us. Now that you can see our intentions, maybe you'll understand and *leave us alone.*" Collapse added forcefully in her tone. She felt as if the magic from Magloria's horn and Ash's conversations was drawing unwanted attention.

Looking to Magloria with a look of frustration at Ash's ability to simply dodge the beam. "If this keeps up we'll have to leave sooner than we wanted to. I believe we may be attracting unwanted attention, thanks to this...really rude cat." Collapse spoke, glaring at Ash in annoyance.

Despite this, she wasn't really that nervous. They'd be able to run off into the night if they get caught.

Magloria looked around the place, flicking her ears back and forth. If Collapse did the same, she'd be able to make out noises from some of the nearby buildings. Nothing serious as of yet, but the noise definitely was drawing attention to it.

Finally Ash seemed to understand that she wasn't wanted, and she was not happy about it at all. She let out a loud hiss at them. "You let me come along, then don't let me come along. You plant eaters must be really poisonous to be so crazy like that." she snapped, then leapt up onto one of the nearby buildings.

The nearby noise grew louder, as the shout from the cat made it very obvious that there was something here. Jump Start looked worried. "We should go somewhere else now." she suggested.

Collapse looked to Magloria and Jump Start as if ascertaining the situation. Looking back to Ash, her reaction made it clear there was only one option left. Getting out of here.

"Yes. Let's get the hell out of here. I don't want to be around here any longer." Collapse spoke to the both of them in clear signaling that it was time to go.

Looking to Ash she narrowed her eyes. "It's your fault for not understanding. That's your problem." she spoke, then made a gesture for Magloria and Jump Start to make a break for it and run towards the area they entered in from.

Once they started running Collapse would follow after them.

If Ash was paying any attention to Collapse scolding her, she certainly didn't show it as she got busy cleaning her fur again. At least she didn't look like she was going to pursue them, maybe.

Magloria began to lead them away from the scene, and not a minute too soon either. Behind them they could see the light of some torch or lantern, being held by a panthin having decided to find out what was making all the noise.

After a bit, Magloria stopped running, prompting the others to stop and take a breath too. She looked up at the moon, but saw that it only had about a quarter left before dawn would come. "We might still have time to get to the workshop, but after wasting so much time we'd be really risking it. We could always come back another time to get that stuff anyway. Thoughts?" she said.

"I think we should head back. I've gotten several maps and blueprints and we can use those next time to really plan out where we want to go within the town. I don't really feel like sticking around, since Ash seems like the type to tattle on us to the other panthins. While there is little risk, we should just go now. Better that than having to run and risk getting caught." Collapse decided.

Besides, they could come in and see what the workshop had to offer next time. It was unlikely for Jump Start to object and so Collapse would begin leading the others away, still panting slightly from the run. There was no pressing matters at the moment so they could likely stand to walk to their way out rather than run all the time. They stayed up almost the whole night anyways.

Jump Start also gave her opinion on the whole situation. "I don't want to have to avoid panthins just because a cat got too nosy. I want to leave." she said.

Magloria nodded at their opinions. "I agree. Let's get out of here, but we're doing it the same way that we came in, and that's without being seen." she told them.

Collapse still had to keep to the less travelled places and it took them a decent amount of time, but eventually they had reached the outer ring of walls and buildings, and aside from one point when it looked like a grey panthin might've heard them (but didn't check around), they were in the clear to head back to their camp.

Collapse didn't object to Magloria's statement, and would follow along silently. Upon reaching the outer ring of walls she'd follow them over the walls.

Once they were back outside Carocal she would follow them back to the camp. It was likely going to take some time to get back to the camp to the point where the sun may have been rising by the time they returned. Either way, Collapse would stay on alert for any nocturnal predators.

If nothing unusual would have happened, Collapse would show them the various maps and such she found once they had safely arrived.

True to her expectations, by the time they got to the river they could already see the orange glow of the sun start to peak over the horizon, steadily getting brighter and brighter as they returned.

Nothing disturbed them, despite 3 exhausted ponies looking like a pretty good snack to any would-be predator in the area. When they reached the camp, Magloria and Jump Start took off their saddlebags, Jump Start being thankful that she could finally rest.

Only Magloria was interested in the collected items at the moment. She glanced over each one, taking in it's possible usefulness before moving on to the next. When she was done she looked to Collapse.

"I'd say this was very worthwhile. Should give us some good directions for what we should do next. We should all get some sleep though. I'm sure you both are exhausted." she said, which Jump Start agreed on, having already taken a spot on a petal, one of their spare fruits slowly being consumed meanwhile.

Upon seeing the sun rise up into the sky as they approached the camp she would smile at it. Somewhere out there, Twilight was raising the sun. She did this every morning, after all. Upon thinking of that she wondered what Twilight's day to day life was like. The life of a ruler? Quite frankly she hadn't a clue.

Collapse sits down next to them and takes out the blue prints, and the maps. "Very worthwhile indeed. I am very much pleased by what were able to accomplish. While there were issues along the way, we got out unscathed and with more knowledge than before. I am sure you'll find the maps enlightening." she spoke.

Upon taking her boots off she stretched and yawned. Looking to Magloria...her tail began to wag and there was a bit of a giggle from Collapse's mouth.

Looks like you are at it again, Collapse. It was like clockwork.

Magloria took all the various papers from Collapse and placed them back into a saddlebag, to keep them protected and dry. It wouldn't do them any good to have their hard work get destroyed by the weather or other unpleasant things.

After that was done, Magloria went over to their shelter and took up a spot on her own petal, separate from the others. Since they'd be sleeping through the day, it would end up being far too uncomfortable to cuddle up together anyway, not that she preferred doing so.

At least their shelter was still useful. Not only did it keep heat in at night and water out during rain, but it also kept the sun out during the day so they wouldn't be overheating in their sleep.

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