• 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 57

Collapse would move along, taking the time to think for herself about several things. Coming to conclusions about things that happened years ago that were no longer important for example. Was she wrong, in certain moments? Was she right? Well, she had all the time in the world to sift through her thoughts and sort out events and situations that she experienced in the past.

When they arrived at the certain spot, Collapse would begin looking around to see if there was anything that stuck out. She wouldn't leave the visual range of Jump Start or Magloria though.

Collapse couldn't make out anything obviously different in this part of the jungle. All she could see were trees, bushes, ferns, insects, a tree snake, several parrots and moss covered rocks. Wherever they were, they obviously weren't close enough to their goal.

"Well if you wanted to cover yourself in insect repellent, I guess now would be the best time to do so." Magloria stated. Jump Start pulled out the spicy foodstuff and looked at it, pondering over what would be the best way to apply it.

Collapse would also pull the spicy foodstuff out as well and looked at Jump Start. "I can help you apply it with my magic, don't worry, I'll be gentle. I could also have you apply it to me as well, since I can't really reach my back of course." Collapse smirked, wanting an excuse to engage in physical contact.

"If you want, Magloria - I can help you apply the spicy stuff too." she stated, hoping that Magloria would accept.

Jump Start agreed with the idea, realizing that it would be quite hard to apply it to herself without doing something degrading, like rolling around on it or something.

Magloria however, did not. She had telekinesis which allowed her to coat herself entirely, so she didn't need the help.

Jump Start looked at the spices, then looked up to Collapse. "So... how are we doing this? Who is going first?" she asked.

Collapse moved closer to Jump Start. “I will apply it to you.” she spoke casually before noticing Magloria’s application of the spices. Part of her wonders what it would be like if Magloria was a pegasus. Floofy? Cloud like wings? Nah, she is better with her cool magic.

Collapse takes some of the spice with her telekineses and takes her hoof in it and began to gently rub it around and use her telekinesis to aid her in applying it to Jump Start. She seemed to be taking her time and gave Jump Start some gentle pats. Soon enough, she was done.

With some of the spices still in her golden telekineses she would await the application of the spices onto her own yellow fur. Her tail swooshed idly.

The spices rubbed into Jump Start's coat caused it to stain slightly, making her look slightly more yellow than before. It also made her smell a bit, but that was the entire point in a way.

The spices were taken out of her aura, where Jump Start started rubbing them into her fur using her hooves. It almost felt like a massage, the way that she would rub all over Collapse's body.

After a few minutes, Collapse had now mostly been covered in insect repellent. The stain was also barely noticeable thanks to her naturally yellow coat.

By this point Magloria was done as well. She looked slightly more turquoise coloured, but you could definitely tell that she's still blue. "Now onto the next thing. Searching. Fun stuff." Magloria commented sarcastically.

Collapse appeared to be in a far more relaxed state now. As if she enjoyed the massaging Jump Start gave her with the stain repellent a bit too much than she really should have. She smirks to Magloria. "Time to search - Blue Stuff." she joked playfully before she would walk away from the area and begin searching around for a bit, looking for anything that stood out or was unusual enough that it could be what the map was referring to.

Collapse barely managed to hear Magloria mutter out "And she's hitting on me again." before the others followed along behind her, beginning their search for the mysterious map marker.

It took them a couple hours worth of walking around in circles, but they eventually came across something promising. A small clearing that looked like it had been intentionally cleared, with several stumps of trees leftover and damaged plants everywhere.

"Someone else has been here." Jump Start pointed out as she surveyed the area.

Collapse could tell that Magloria didn't take the comment in a humorous manner like she hoped. Oh well. She didn't comment further, but Magloria likely knew what her intentions were towards her anyways.

Upon finding the clearing, Collapse would walk closer and look at the area. "Whatever, or whoever it was, there was likely something using this area as a logging area, with how they cleared out the stumps." she spoke and surveyed further, looking for an area where the trees could have been dragged towards. If there was any indications, she would be sure to point it out.

From what she could make out, the trees that were sliced down didn't appear to have been dragged anywhere. There were no broken plants beyond the clearing, and no drag marks of any kind.

There was however what appeared to be the remains of one of the fallen trees, or at least part of it. Parts had been cut off and were missing.

"Hey, come and look at this!" Jump Start said as she wandered over to a corner of the clearing. There was a large pile of ash, surrounded by several slabs of log.

"That looks very much like a camp site. Hasn't been used for a while though, the ash is scattered everywhere, and there's no equipment around." Magloria observed.

Collapse walked over to Magloria and Jump Start. "That would explain why there weren't any drag marks. Whoever was here used those trees for logs. It seems like they were here for a long while, or had a large fire here." she suggested. "But would this be too recent to be on the map?" she suggested. "If there was a fire here and someone was here, don't you think their ash would have dissipated a while ago?"

Magloria looked over at the map, examining both their position on it and the ashes of the old fire. "Hmm... well yes it would've been recently that this place was abandoned. I wonder..." she said, starting to look around.

"Check for claw marks. If my theory is correct, this is the place the panthins stayed at when they marked this place. Maybe whatever was nearby was interesting enough that they stayed around for a bit longer, long enough that they could get the map back to Carocol. After all, you don't go through several trees worth of wood in just a couple nights."

Collapse agreed with Magloria's assessment. "Right, and we have yet to actually find what they marked on the map. Let's keep looking and see if we can find it, because I wouldn't think this would be it." she remarked, looking around further. Collapse would walk to the edges of the clearing and walk around, looking to the exterior of it, seeing if she could see anything that they missed further outward through the trees that lay beyond.

"Of course, this is just a campsite for the explorers, most likely. They wouldn't spend their nights *inside* the thing that they didn't know enough about." Magloria stated.

While Collapse was busy searching around for other things, Jump Start had found what Magloria wanted. On various trees around the place were traces of claws, indicating a big cat was here.

As Collapse was passing around the clearing, opposite to the side that they had entered from, she saw something that didn't look like any plant or tree. It wasn't a massive building though. It looked more like a lone stone pillar.

Upon seeing the lone stone pillar there, she'd smirk under her breathe and turn to walk back towards Magloria and Jump Start. Once she was back, she realized that Jump Start found proof that indeed, this was a panthin created area.

"Over that way I found a stone pillar, at least that's what I think it was. Perhaps that is what the map is referencing, let's go take a look." she suggested, and began to lead them over towards the stone pillar.

Magloria and Jump Start both followed, where they soon discovered more than just that initial stone pillar that Collapse has seen.

A small structure stood before them, most of it in ruins. Several positions where pillars were or used to be were scattered around a raised stone floor. The central point containing what looked like a tall pedestal, the top part torn away. Rubble scattered all over the place, half of which was covered in various plants.

"Woah, this thing looks out of place. And really old as well!" Jump Start stated as she walked around the structure. She looked around beyond the trees, but couldn't spot anything else that looked similar to it. "Appears to be alone as well. Why would someone build something like this here?"

"It may have something to do with a civilization or settlement that existed once here but no longer exists due to the passing of time. Perhaps it might be related to those large stone structures we saw underground and that white thing." she pondered, looking at it all and taking in what she was seeing curiously.

"Would make sense, because if there was some civilization here at some point that was advanced it would have had the time and the effort to build monuments, and such. Perhaps that thing is an experiment that they once had that somehow stood the test of time. It's gotta be all connected." Collapse suggested.


"Yeah but that still doesn't explain why it's here." Jump Start pointed out. "I don't see any other signs of... civilization or anything else. Just lots and lots of trees. If this was a monument, you'd think there would be other things too."

"Instead of theorizing what this could've been, why not try and find out ourselves? We're here aren't we, so lets see if there is anything that the panthins weren't smart enough to find." Magloria suggested.

She pointed up at the pedestal. "For starters, this bit looks like it should've been important."

Collapse agrees with Magloria. “Well we can be three smart cookies in that case.” she smiled, referencing what Jump Start said about Magloria being a tough cookie.

“Well, let’s find out what this place is.” she remarked as she began to walk about the place, surveying over its various features for anything that seemed important or that stood out from the rest. She was sure to be careful though, who knows what could be here. It may not be what it seems.

The others also began their closer examination of of the structure, with Magloria checking around the outside of the structure while Jump Start looked over the pillars and the floor, kicking around some of the rubble as she did.

The pillars and pedestal had faint symbols of some language that Collapse couldn't recognize etched into the surface, but there was no way to know what they meant. They didn't really have the means to translate them, or even see the full picture.

Even if they wanted to reassemble the construct, the rubble around them was in at least a hundred pieces, there were small pieces that looked like common rocks, and even a larger piece of rock which sat on piles of other rubble, large enough that it could've been an entire segment. There wasn't much she could understand of the place that was obvious, aside from the fact it was old and it was built by someone.

"Strange unknown languages. Seeing as there is rubble everywhere, do you think it just fell apart over time or was there some sort of battle, or damage here?" Collapse asked, though more of asking herself aloud. As she walked around she began to look for any damage done to the structure itself. Was it intentionally damaged or did it just fall apart on its own? Collapse kept searching around, checking out the rubble.

Collapse moved over some pieces of the rubble, as if looking about for any further clues. But she likely wouldn't find anything other than more rubble and so she continued moving ahead, looking in areas they have yet to search just yet. "Seems weird for some structure like this to be in the middle of nowhere, really. Surely it had to serve some kind of purpose." she remarked as they searched ahead further.

"If it was damaged from battle there would be more than just pieces of rock laying about the place. Arrows, spears, broken weapons and armor, even cannon balls maybe." Magloria stated. "I see nothing like that around here. Unless it was damaged by wild creatures, there was no battle here."

A couple small rubble pieces being moved didn't result in anything from her half-hearted search. Jump Start, already having the idea to turn over every rock, eventually came across the big lump and, being an earth pony, she decided to put her strength to the test and roll it over.

As it turned out, the lump of rock wasn't just another broken pillar piece. The underside of it was hollow and concave, sort of like a giant, heavy bowl. Underneath it rested another spherical object, however this dusty thing didn't have the same grey coloring that the other rocks had.

"Oh. A thing." Jump Start spoke to herself.

Collapse's search however led her straight to the jungle. There was just the small shrine-like structure they had already checked, and nothing more. Just lots of trees they'd have to search through if they wanted to find anything else. Which given they had already found like location where the map mark was made, was extremely unlikely.

Upon her search not turning up anything fruitful - Collapse would have turned back to where the others were. There was nothing else beyond here by the looks of it and it was definitely unlikely that anything else around here would be worth the time. This was the location on the map. Hopefully the other locations weren't as far away, when they decided to investigate them.

When Collapse looks at the spherical object she would look towards it curiously. It definitely didn't seem to be like the rest of the rubble here. It could be some kind of artifact, or something magical that was leftover here. "Well, that's unusual. Should we touch it? I could wipe the dust off, but I don't wanna risk something happening. Up to you, but I would want to touch it as I wouldn't want anything bad happening to either of you." Collapse spoke selflessly.

Magloria came over after her third inspection of the outer parts of the pillars. She hadn't come up with anything else. "Or I could wash off the dust remotely. None of us have to touch it, and we can all see what it actually is." she suggested, her horn lightning up.

Jump Start didn't object to the idea, stepping back away from the object to let Magloria work.


Collapse stepped away. "Good idea. Let's do it." she spoke, smirking as she watches her wash off the sphere. Once it was washed off she walked closer again, and looked at it closely to see what exactly was revealed. "Hmmm...let's see..."

As Magloria began casting their surroundings seemed to shimmer and condense, causing droplets of water to appear almost out of thin air. It looked like she had to concentrate quite hard to do this, given the nature of the spell she was performing.

After creating a ball of water about the size of a hoof, she led it over to the sphere, letting it wrap itself around the sphere, absorbing all the dust off of the object. By the time it was done the water was significantly dirty, which she discarded into the jungle without a thought.

There lay a crystal ball of sorts, but the most unnerving part about it was how it looked straight at Collapse. It was a massive eye. A crystal one seemingly painted or constructed by fusing different coloured crystals together, but still an eye.

Collapse rose an *eye*brow at what she was seeing here. It was not what she expected in the least. From how Magloria casted the spell, she understood why she wasn't too fond of the idea of using her condensing spell to create drinkable water for them. It was costly, and didn't make that much of a bountiful yield as a result.

"Well, it's an eye. Can't say I expected that. But the question is, can it see us?" Collapse moved closer to it, looking at it closely. "I wonder why they'd have something like this here. Is it more than just a design of an eye?" she pondered.

The eye didn't react when Collapse moved closer, so if it could see her it didn't have a means to show it. Instead it just stared blankly ahead at whatever it's gaze fell upon.

"I think it's weird they have something like this in the first place. Why would they make a giant eye of all things and put it way out in the middle of nowhere?" Jump Start thought out loud.

"No one just does things like this for no reason, unless you're someone with more wealth than sense. It would have to be here for a reason and not to just look pretty. So it probably does do... *something*. We just need to figure out what." Magloria stated.

Collapse looked to Magloria. "Well the best guess I have is that it is some sort of magical artifact that transmits whatever it sees to an adjacent artifact, perhaps? Perhaps it could also be activated, somehow?" she suggested and walked around the eye, curiously looking at it. "Perhaps if we keep looking we can find more than one of these." she spoke, turning over random debris that would have been large enough to hide something. That is, if there was debris around large enough that could be hiding something like this, or something else.

"So a relay of sorts. Though that just begs the question of what it would transmit to. I don't see anything else around here that it could receive anything it would see." Magloria said, looking around at the jungle surrounding them to check if there was anything else, no matter how obscure. There wasn't.

The crystal eye they already found was the only one that Collapse could find, eye artifact or otherwise. All the other pieces of rubble were rocks too small to conceal anything, or at least they'd do a really bad job at it.

When she went to inspect the eye itself though, she found that there was what looked like a tiny hole opposite of the pupil, just big enough to look into, but nowhere near bit enough to search with their hooves. The crystal eye was only about the side of a saddlebag anyway.

Upon her failure to find anything else, she would inspect the eye further. She noticed the tiny hole. "Hey, I found something here. There is a tiny hole here on the back, maybe it will allow me to look into this eye. You may want to stand back just incase anything happens." Collapse warned and slowly picked up the eye with her magic.

With her magic she would turn the eye and look into the small hole. Maybe she'd see something, the side where it transmits to, per say? Or would it just be like a kaleidoscope or something like that? Well, time to look and see.

Jump Start and Magloria move out of the way of where Collapse was pointing the eye, as if they felt a terrible fate that might befall them if they didn't. Once they had moved back far enough, Magloria gave her the go to try picking it up.

Nothing happened when she initially held it, which was a good sign. Peering through the hole she saw the other side of the eye where she was pointing it, despite there being no real way to see in from the other side.

The most curious thing about it was, when she looked at the various trees and plants she could see faint glimmers the same colour as the leaves and wood of the plants. It was revealing something that they couldn't see normally.

"I don't know how to describe this, but I am able to see some faint glimmers of something that we can't see in normal means. Come, take a look at this." she spoke to Magloria and walked over with the eye in her magic. With the eye in her magic she would turn the hole to where Magloria could look through it. She'd give Jump Start a look through it if she wanted to look through it, when Magloria was done looking/

"Do you see what I am talking about?" Collapse asked curiously.

When offered the eye, Magloria peered through the hole, slightly frowning at what she could see through it. "Yes, I definitely see the glimmers. I don't have any idea what they could mean though. Whatever it is, this... thing... is tuned to detecting it." she said in response.

When Jump Start looked through it, she was initially confused, then awed at it. "Strange. It's everywhere in all the plants, but nothing in the ground and rocks. I wonder why." she pondered.


"Maybe it is detecting something specific with the plants. I am not sure what that could be, but the life force of the plants maybe? Let me see this thingy again." she said, gently taking the eye from Jump Start then she was done. Then with a cheeky grin, she looks through the eye at Magloria, then Jump Start. Maybe Magloria would be a bit more blue? Or Jump Start a bit more orange?

Collapse definitely saw blue glimmers in Magloria and orange in Jump Start, but what she didn't expect was the intensity that she saw.

Both of them were practically lit up like a christmas tree, with sparks of light constantly flowing about their bodies. Some spots seem to be particularly concentrated. An orb of light rested within each of their chests, while Magloria's horn and Jump Start's hooves were lit up more intensely as well.

"Well? What do you see?" Jump Start asked, looking a bit unnerved to be watched like that.

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