Away and Afar

by PropsValroa

Chapter 68

Collapse narrowed her eyes at Magloria, a bit there. "That is why further experimentation shall be done when we return with these, by scientists in Equestria. If they can't create more of themselves, then why do you figure they exist? Surely there must be something more to them, than just them being all blue and floaty. And whether they be magic or not, they show signs of intelligence." she mentioned.

"We're standing inside a massive complex of completely unknown magic." Magloria pointed up at the little lights dotting the hall and keeping everything nice and bright.

"These are powered with magic and they were created by whatever built it. Who are we to say that they didn't build these balls of energy as well? They certainly don't act any more intelligent than simple guards, with the way they've always tried to use those centipedes and crush us as soon as they see us."

She paced around the corridor, tail flicking and eyes remaining of Collapse. "And when we first came in we didn't see any of them either. I find the idea of them hiding for centuries until we turned on everything rather preposterous, don't you think?" she stated.

Meanwhile, Jump Start just looked between the two, not wanting to speak up in case she got too involved in a topic she didn't really understand.

Honestly Collapse had not thought of that until now. "That makes a lot of sense actually, scratch what I said. If we can find out where they actually came from, we can confirm for real." she spoke and would lead them forward. "Perhaps there are some sort of alcoves or areas in the walls that they came out of, being stored behind the walls until they were needed?" she suggested, completely dropping her original concept for them. She had no real basis to argue her point further and abandoned it.

"That could be quite hard to do. We can't exactly just follow one home. They've all been moving about the corridors we're in without stopping." Jump Start sighed.

"Even we can't see where they *all* are at any time. Some that might look busy may be returning to where they came from." Magloria pointed out, then added "However this raises an issue of *when* they would do such a thing, if ever. It could be hours or even days before any that we follow do that."

"That is true, so we'll pick something else to do I'd figure." Collapse sighs. "If we can't do that, then what else could we go ahead and do? Any ideas?" she asked, looking to them for ideas.

"Well there was that cracked stone that failed to start the ring thing. Suppose if we found one that wasn't cracked, or knew someone who knew where one was, we could make it work properly." Magloria suggested, looking into her saddlebags. "We did bring the pieces of it, right? It looked pretty valuable even in halves."

Jump Start looked at the crystal flask. "What are we going to do with the ball, now that you're not going to do whatever you said?" she asked.

"Yeah I brought those pieces of it with me here. I took that piece that we tried the stone in it - and the lightning..." Collapse sighs, remembering what happened with that. "We could probably find more pieces like that, if we look in the right places." she added.

And now she looked to Jump Start. "Well, we should fashion some sort of lid for that so it won't come out when the ice melts." Collapse suggested, and would lead them along down the hall.

"I meant the stone that we put inside that ring piece's slot. I know you took probably the most important part of the ring with you." Magloria said, knowing it would be pretty important if they could show others what they were talking about, rather than just telling them 'a shiny rainbow stone'.

"But what are we actually going to *do* with it? Just keep it in the bottle?" Jump Start questioned.

Collapse pulled out the stone from her saddlebag. "Well here it is, I wasn't going to leave it behind or anything." she said, turning it over in her magic and allowing them to see that she had it.

"As for the blue thing in the bottle? I honestly don't know what we could do with it." she spoke. "Is there anything you think we could do with it?"

Magloria nodded. "Great. If there is anyone who knows what it is and where we could find another, we can show exactly what it is." she said, "It better not be some super rare ultra stone that only appears once every thousand years."

Jump Start looked down at the bottle again. "We could name it. Not this one, but all of them. Calling them the 'blue energy thing' over and over again is getting a bit tiresome. How about calling them Sparks?"

"As for what to do with it... dunno." she shrugged.

Collapse tucks the stone back into her saddlebag. "Yeah, I would certainly hope not. I really do hope that when we get back, we will be able to retire or not...do this ever again?" Collapse laughs nervously and then looks to Jump Start. "Yeah, Sparks it is. I don't know what we can do with them though. Maybe we could make a new container, and attempt to capture more of them We can have a whole collection of them to take back." Collapse also suggests.

"That's assuming these sparks even last that long." Magloria bluntly said as she started walking down a random corridor. "They might just fade away, like whoever used to live in this place. Speaking of which, do you think there is anywhere else in here that would be worth searching for, or should we just find the exit and some way to turn off those infernal beams?" she asked.

"I think we should find the exit, we've been in here long enough I think." Collapse replied, and would begin leading them back towards the exit, where she thought the exit was. "Yeah, those sparks we'll have to see if they can last that long. If we see any on the way back maybe we'll capture another one just for the sake of it." Collapse suggested.

On their way back to where the exit probably was, they came across another room. From merely looking into it they could see a variety of shelves with objects on them, they couldn't tell what.

They also saw a spark moving down a nearby corridor. It wasn't headed in their direction, and they'd probably lose track of it if they explored the room.

Alternatively, they could just keep going in the direction of the exit.

Looking to the area they had come across - Collapse took the sighting of the other spark down the nearby corridor. "Let's catch that one, and then head back to this room, shouldn't we?" Collapse suggested, wanting to take advantage of it as much as possible.

"Sure, but this time make sure to *not* let it almost cause us to fight another of those things. Get it in that sphere as soon as possible." Magloria replied, letting Collapse take the lead.
Provided they turned the corner where the spark went, just like the previous spark, this one could be seen slowly floating away from them as it patrolled the halls.

The one in the jar started fluctuating for some reason, its energy pulsing outwards in a consistent manner.

Collapse put on her fly ring much like before and would proceed to fly up after the other spark, using her magic to put it in a magic bubble just like before, since that worked before. If she was successful, she'd try to put it in her remaining Jar, although it would more of a tight squeeze.

The fluctuating energy of the captured spark must've been a signal to the other one, because before Collapse could even start flying in its direction it had already 'spotted' them, and began flying off down the hall, passing around a corner.

Interestingly enough, it didn't immediately go for one of the centipede shells. Instead it just kept going.

Collapse flew after it faster, wanting to catch it with her telekineses much like before but this time she had the jar - and so she wouldn't need Magloria to catch up to her like they did last time. She kept going, aiming to catch the spark within the small jar.

After a couple twists and turns Collapse finally had a stable lock on the spark ahead of her, managing to wrap her telekinesis around it just enough that she could slow it down, however another spark nearby proved to be another problem.

It too became alert and turned red, before it started to fly off. The number of sparks in this place would likely mean that if she were to keep pursuing them she would just run into more of them repeatedly. Even if she could catch them all, the flask probably couldn't.

Collapse would shove the spark she caught into the jar, although she realized there was no other room for others for sure. The one that turned red could perhaps be going to get another centipede thing, however she did not pursue the others further and instead headed back to the others.

"Well, double trouble. We have two - but one of the other ones I saw turned red and flew off." she spoke, ready to head to the room they wanted to explore.

Now both of the sparks were constantly circling around the flask relentlessly. At the very least, it makes for a good night light.