Away and Afar

by PropsValroa

Chapter 52

Magloria nodded, levitating over the harness for Jump Start. "So another simple day where nothing goes wrong and nothing interesting happens at all, then. Fair enough." she said, and began walking out into the jungle where they had previously cut trees, so she could leave marks on the ones that Collapse should cut down.

Jump Start gave a yawn before she turned to her pile of sticks and vines, intending to set up the grill while she wasn't needed for dragging trees.

Collapse would proceed to cut down the trees that Magloria marked. It is likely that nothing would go wrong, in the chance that nothing did Collapse would have cut down all the trees that Magloria had marked in due time. She'd also hack the larger branches off, leaving Jump Start to haul them to the pile when it was needed of her.

By the end of the day, they would have doubled their amount of trees that they had cut down. It was a sizeable amount, but was it enough for a ship?

It was sunset by the time that Collapse finished off the marked trees, leaving a trail of destruction behind her that was now twice as long as it once was. The entire day she had taken occasional breaks, being given the usual fruits and some iced drinks like last time.

It was when she started to head back that she noticed something... off... about her surroundings. When did that blue glow appear off in the distance? It was nowhere near any water that she knew of, and seemed quite similar to the glow she saw once before.

Magloria and Jump Start weren't around, as they were busy stacking the remaining trees into the pile and fixing a small hole in their shelter that Jump Start had made when she accidentally hit it with a branch. It was just her witnessing this phenomenon.

Looking over the trail of deforestation that she caused she smirked pridefully at work. Normally she wouldn't celebrate cutting trees down, but this was a different situation. They had to do what they had to do to do in order to survive, and eventually make their way back home.

Then she notices the strange blue glow off in the distance. Was it something to do with the time of day? Perhaps it was some kind of strange flowering plant that gave off blue pollen? A glowing mushroom that 'turns on' at certain times, or something more exotic.

Glancing over to where Magloria and Jump Start were she would call them over, "Magloria! Jump Start! Come take a look at this!" she shouted quickly, hoping they could come over and see the blue glow.

She heard Magloria call back. "What is it? You found more birds that mimic you or something?" she asked. Collapse could hear the sounds of them brushing through the plants as they approached.

When Collapse had looked back, it seems as though the blue glow had moved ever so slightly. By the time the other two arrived it had partially moved behind a group of trees.

Jump Start looked around, trying to spot what Collapse had taken interest in, while Magloria rose an eyebrow at the mare.

Collapse began to lead them towards the blue glow. "There is a blue glow of sorts behind those trees over here, let's see if we can catch it." she suggested and began to move towards the trees, hoping that they would be able to see her. Collapse really hoped it wasn't just her senses messing with her or something like that - she would feel really stupid if she called them over only for them to find nothing. Hopefully that won't happen, would it?

After being told where to look, and following Collapse for a little bit the others manage to spot the blue glow as well. "Hmm, that's strange. I wonder what is causing that?" Jump Start pondered out loud.

Once they got close enough to have a good look at whatever it was without trees obstructing their line of sight, they saw it. It looked familiar somehow.

From what they could immediately tell, it looked like some sort of... misty ghost. A large sphere of white formed what could only be described as it's core or head, while several stumpy, featureless 'limbs' flowed below it. It didn't look like any living creature that they'd seen before.

What was most concerning was the aura it had. It was practically radiating blue light that Collapse could feel tingling across her magic-sensitive horn, indicating that whatever it was, it was quite powerful to be leaking energy so causally. Or it was a pretty good wandering lantern. One of the two.

Collapse looked at the thing and touched her horn, feeling the aura it was radiating. Whatever this was, she wasn't sure why it made her familiar. Looking to Magloria and Jump Start she'd grin ever so slightly. "Was worried it'd somehow vanish before you got the chance to see it. I thought it was some kind of glow from a plant...maybe some kind of flower but no, this is..." she found herself unable to finish her sentence.

She was unable to really come up with any ideas as to what this creature could be. "Do you think we could try to talk to it?" she asked Magloria, seeming unsure at the suggestion as they had gotten a bit closer to it.

Magloria and Jump Start simply watched the thing as it slowly floated about, seemingly unaware of the presence of the 3 ponies, and content to move slowly forward to an unknown destination.

"I have no idea what this is either. The closest I would imagine this could be would be some sort of... magical anomaly of sorts." Magloria stated, turning her head to Collapse and replying. "You can try to talk to it if you want to, but I don't think it is even capable of speaking back to us. The moment you provoke an aggressive response though, we're leaving."

Jump Start shuffled her hooves, anxiously awaiting the results of what Collapse would do. Plus they tingled slightly, just like both of the unicorns horns.

Collapse glanced to Magloria. "I'll try to talk to it, but if it's aggressive I'm high tailing it out of here." she smirked before walking up to the strange white sphere. Whatever the sphere was, it was something that she wanted to communicate with. Maybe it could be a friend? A very strange friend, at that.

Once she was close enough to the sphere she would pause a little bit as if judging the thing a little more before she spoke in a collected manner. "Excuse me if I am bothering you, who, or what are you? I've not seen anyone like you." she spoke to the white sphere, hoping nothing bad would happen.

There was no noticeable reaction from the thing when she got closer. From this distance however, she could clearly make out it's transparency, and almost make out a lack of mist of sorts in part of it's sphere structure, like a carved out part.

Her questions went unanswered, but while she waited she felt the energy wash over her even more. It felt... weird and hollow, like she didn't know where something was, but knew what it looked like. It looked like a room filled with unidentifiable strange objects, each marked with symbols of light. This was quite strange, because she doesn't remember seeing anything like that.

Upon that feeling and the 'memory' washing over her she stood there for a bit, thinking about it deeply before walking closely. Whatever this was, maybe they could capture it and make use of it? Make it a pet? Well, whatever it is, its very strange.

"Hey, it's not talking but it feels so hollow and strange...I also got something that came into my mind so to speak. When I am next to it I am imagining strange objects with symbols made of light in a room. But I've not seen anything like that." she spoke. "I'm sure its safe, come closer." she remarked.

Thing is, how would Collapse even capture it and make use of it? It didn't look like a typical thing you could cage, and it could do absolutely anything, which she has no idea.

Judging from it completely ignoring them on it's slow path to somewhere, it didn't have any intent on being captured anyway. Or maybe it was brainless, or just stupid. Maybe try provoking it. That's definitely a good idea.

Magloria and Jump Start didn't look convinced that it really was safe, but they approached anyway. Each of them shuddered when the blue aura ran over them, Jump Start in particular began to shake her legs as stronger tingling sensations flowed through them.

"That's- ugh, disturbing." Magloria said, "I'm not seeing anything like you saw, but I am seeing... corridors. Tiles on the floor and walls are marked, like they're important and dangerous."

"It's messing with my magic, I don't like it." Jump Start said before backing away again, now unwilling to approach again.

Collapse shuddered a bit as she walked closer, being the most willing of the three to approach it. Looking over the thing she'd marvel at it, wondering what it was and where it came from.

"Whatever this thing is, it seems like it knows a lot. But where are these memories coming from? Is it communicating things that it has seen? Where it came from? Or maybe it is some sort of memory repository that got lost or something?" she suggested, not having the faintest of clues besides that. Looking to the two others, she wondered what Jump Start was 'seeing' within her mind.

"Do you have any ideas what this is? I don't think the Panthins created it, they don't seem advanced enough to create something like this. It's not a natural anomaly either, since if it was natural, why would it be giving us thoughts about these...places?" she asked openly.

Magloria shook her head, and stopped pursuing the thing. "I have absolutely no idea. I was never really the whole 'read a book about things that have nothing to do with you' sort of pony. Perhaps someone around here has seen it more and knows what it's doing or what it is, but I don't."

"If all it's going to do is wander about and 'think' about things that we can see, there's not much that we can do for it. Unless you want to try something, we should just leave it alone." she said.

Collapse didn't see anything else in her mind other than that room, but she felt the thought change slowly the longer she spent near the thing. Like she was fond of that room. The room was quite pretty, and she was happy to see it.

"Well I am feeling that my thoughts are changing around it now. It feels like I'm...happy to see the room I was imagining..." she muttered, shaking her head slightly and looking to Magloria.

"Do you think we could try to capture it? Maybe it'd be a cool pet to have around instead of a kitty?" she was half joking at that but it would be interesting if they could somehow capture it and make use of it. "It's rather interesting, I wonder what else we could do with it...or would you rather just let it roam?" she asked.

"Unless you know a way to capture or use some sort of spectral entity of sorts, we can't do anything *but* let it roam. Actually, do you even think *any* unicorn knows of ways to do that?" Magloria pointed out. Collapse felt happy that this was pointed out.

In fact, she felt happy about a lot of things. Like the sunset in the distance, or the trees, or how beautiful the sphere of energy that she was near was, so much so that she felt like she could give it a hug. They'd both enjoy it, right?

Well this feeling was familiar, but should she *really* just let it roam and leave her? She felt great! Nothing could go wrong. It was perfectly safe, as she told the others.

Collapse just seemed to smile wider at the suggestion. "Why don't we give this thing a big hug? It's pretty amazing, it's so happy and beautiful!" she reacted and would begin moving closer towards the white sphere of energy. But it was likely that Magloria wouldn't allow her to get closer to it, as she'd likely notice Collapse was under the influence of it.

"Why would you give it a hug?" Magloria asked, then realized what Collapse was doing. "Wait, DON'T-"

That was all Collapse heard before a breezy, calming effect flowed through her, causing everything around her to fade away. Everything was so peaceful in the darkness, and the whispers of conversation and secrets that flowed through her ears were so blissful, even though she couldn't make out what they were saying.

The darkness in front of her shifted, showing her blurry scenes that she couldn't make out at first, until the happy, calming feeling mellowed out a bit, giving her a sense of lucidity again.

The scenes sharpened, and she realized she was at the entrance to some... large stone building of sorts, small wall lights leading the way inside. Perhaps some sort of palace or temple? The world around her was filled with the jungle plants she'd been seeing for days, tinted blue which gave everything a more calming appearance.

How did she even get here? And where were the others? Maybe that wasn't important right now. The building ahead of her did seem just as important...

When the calming feeling had subsided she took a moment to think about what just happened. Was she in a dream? Did she enter into some kind of portal and was somewhere else completely? Whatever the case, the building that lay ahead seemed the most prominent. Time to check it out, supposed.

Looking out over the blue plants, she found that a bit surreal if anything. It reminded her a bit of the blue mushroom forests underground, but her gaze landed upon the small wall lights leading the way inside. With careful steps she would begin her way inside, wanting to figure out this mystery that lay ahead. The others could wait. When she'd get back to them, she'd want to be the one to solve this mystery or at least have more clues.

"I don't know who or what you are, or where you are taking me - but I'll play your game." Collapse smirked under her breathe somewhat happily as she continued down the hallway that lead the way inside. Where would she go? Well, that was up for whatever this was to decide.

Collapse took the first corner within the building, and almost immediately found out that this place felt like a maze. There were twisting passages that led everywhere, some leading to rooms of seemingly varied importance, others led downwards, deeper into the earth, making this place seem even bigger than it first appeared.

The entire time she had this... feeling... that some directions were better than others. Whenever she went against this, she found unimportant stuff. Places that were common and boring like living quarters... or at least they looked like living quarters. Details were blurry when she strayed too far from 'important' paths.

It didn't help that as she moved, the blue tint shifted. She'd already seen the blue from the outside, but by the time she found what looked like a vague... control room... (Those dull grey levers had to mean something, right?), the colours had already shifted to greys, and back to a lighter blue.

This next place looked pretty impressive. Seemed like a large hall for festivities and audiences. Wait, how did she end up here? Didn't she stop at that control room place with the levers marked in red? She's pretty sure she did, though maybe she could somehow go back. Or keep wandering. Or stay in the audience hall.

Wait, the levers weren't marked with red before, were they? Something is going on here, and it's all becoming confusing enough to hurt her head a little.

As Collapse proceeded about the building she followed her feeling of what felt like was best. Once or twice, she would go against it to see what would happen and end up in the boring sections. Knowing that, she wouldn't go against that feeling again full well knowing what would happen.

Throughout the next components of her journey throughout the building she knew for sure that this building was more than it let on. Was it shifting her reality, or did it just have some kind of magic that made her percieve it in that manner? The audience room was something interesting, she wonders who gathered here. Wasn't Panthins, no, likely not. Not seaponies since they don't build on land...probably not ponies, because they've seen no indications of ponies here elsewhere.

What this likely was, was something built by whoever made that sphere thing. But who would build such a thing, and why? Who could have built this temple? Where was this temple, in reality, if this was all a dream? There were so many questions, but thinking back through she found herself confused at where she ended up.

Red levers? Something's changed, she didn't know how to make sense of it. Perhaps pulling one level would make something happen. Hopefully nothing bad.

Upon pulling one of the definitely grey levers, she felt like she heard a click. Several clicks, each one moving through her bones when she really knew it was going through the building. A flash through her mind told her what it had done. That was brilliant! Deterrents against any unsavory guests intending to break their way into this place. Security is necessary.

Ugh... but what was it protecting? That room she saw previously, with the light runes and strange things. That felt like it belonged at the end of everything. It was important, very important once upon a time. She wanted to get back to it, but didn't know where it was in this maze.

She saw other rooms through other red levers too... each lever for a room that was secure. A dangerous one, a caring one, an unwavering one. Levers shouldn't feel these things, but they made her feel what they felt anyway.

Her headache grew worse. Maybe she should hurry. Try and figure out more about this... place. How did those levers even work? Why do the lights work? No, she knew already. They weren't important, other stuff was.

Collapse stood there for a few moments and processed everything that just happened. It seems that this place had substantial control over her mind in varying ways. From invoking certain thoughts and feelings to changing in strange manners that seemed to defy the laws of nature, it seemed more than likely this was some kind of dream.

But even so, it could very well possibly be not be. Perhaps it influences her mind to the point to where it makes her think that' it's a dream, when it's not. Or perhaps it has some sort of reverse psychology to it? Whatever the case, it felt like she had to find that room that was in her mind the first time. The one with the light runes, yes, that is what she had to find.

Like that, she moved away from the room with the levers. In her mind, she thinks of the one with the light runes. Perhaps the situation would react to her thoughts. Maybe she could even force herself to arrive there sooner than she'd think. Who knew, really.

How strange things happen - and how little one knows how to react.