• 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 9

"Yes, you definitely will." Jump Start said, letting them embrace for a bit before eventually letting go and moving back to her own moss pile. She reached up to her head and unstrapped the fish, taking it in her hooves and gently lowering it to the water, where it swam away.

The caverns instantly got harder to see in because of this. The glowfish's light was pretty powerful.

"Yeah... keep an eye out for anything that might approach the boat. Including those." Magloria said, pointing a hoof up at the roof of the ceiling. Distant, shrill screeches could be heard up there, and lots of them. Bats, probably.

They knew they had reached Lily Grotto when they made out the green orbs of light, and what was below. Another lake, suitable for resting at if they needed to.

"Why is it all green?" Jump Start asked. Floating across the surface of the lake were thousands and thousands of tiny little green plants. Except for where the river flowed in, it was impossible to see what was below from the sheer number.

The glowing green dots were even stranger. The only thing that could come to mind when looking at those was "flying lantern plant". Levitating through the air somehow were a bunch of rounded plants with transparent walls, each one containing a swarm of glowing green spores that it sometimes released below when it got too close to the ground. Sort of like helium balloons that could regulate their altitude.

Collapse smiles sweetly at Jump Start's actions with the fish and watched it swim away. "Yeah, we don't want to get attacked by anything that we cannot help. We don't know the kinds of diseases or infections we can get down here." Collapse shuddered, thinking about how diseases can be carried by bats.

Upon the arrival of the Lily Grotto her jaw almost drops to the floor at what she sees. "Living balloons I see...wow. This is all quite remarkable how all this is underground...still amazes me." Collapse looks out at the rounded plants with the spores. "Just imagine all that could be hidden down here...imagine all these lakes with their own biospheres and how deep they could go. Hundreds of these, further and further down to who knows how deep..." Collapse mused in awe.

"Well it is all underground. We don't really know what happens down here, since us ponies don't go underground very often. Who knows, maybe stuff like this could exist below Equestria itself?" Jump Start said, her eyes wide with awe at the flying plants. "I wonder what would happen if we popped one?" she questioned.

Magloria aimed her spear at the nearest plant. "Do you want to see?" she asked, a somewhat sinister smirk appearing on her face. Jump Start quickly retracted her curiosity, shaking her head in response.

Magloria was about to put her spear down when she noticed something by the shores of the lake. "Hmm... that's concerning. Lobsters are one thing, but these are not lobsters."

Over where she was looking they could see rocky piles, but these ones were shaped differently, long instead of round, with visible claws, tail and head. An explorer of Equestrian lands might assume it was a relative to a 'rockodile' or whatever they're called.

The fact that the waters were hard to see in made it more concerning.

"Looks like something that are called rockodiles. They are uh, basically like crocodiles but they disguise themselves as rocks and are often larger and more dangerous than normal crocs. At least as far as I know." she looked on in concerning. She looked to Magloria. "Probably wouldn't be a good idea, since sudden movement would attract...unwanted attention." she commented.

Collapse readies her spear just incase they had to defend themselves, she was now fully alert of her surroundings as best as she could be. She kept her eyes on the water and the apparent rocky piles. "But yes, perhaps if we go far enough we may emerge out of a cave somewhere in Equestria. If we emerge onto land, that would be a step in the right direction for sure." Collapse commented.

She noticed that sinister smirk on Magloria's face, it made her shudder a little bit, but it also was a bit enticing to her.

Magloria snorts in disgust at the sight of her opponents. Not because of what they were, but because of their

"Goddamn armour." she muttered. "We're not going to get out of this place for a while, given I can see... what I think is at least another lake up ahead." Very distant green lights could be seen ahead of them, almost unnoticeable from the glow of the nearby flying planterns.

"So, if any of you need to take a break, I suggest we stop here and find a safe place out of reach of those rockodiles. Otherwise, we're going to be awake for a while."

Jump Start sighed. "Maybe." She blinked, then blinked again as she saw something barely on the surface of the water, but then it was gone.

"I think we could probably take a break, sure. But if you want to keep going we can. It doesn't matter to me." Collapse stated to Magloria. "Maybe what happened was a group of rockodiles moved in and blocked off the exit and nobody was able to see them due to how well disguised they were and nobody came back alive. Just a suggestion." Collapse suggested as she overlooks the water to make sure that nothing was following them, or anything of that sort.

Magloria nodded at the answers. Seeing as the others didn't object to a rest, she figured they all could use one. After all, it's a bad idea venturing into possibly dangerous places when you're half asleep, and if this place only had rockodiles it would be safe enough.

She started moving the raft in the direction of the shore with the least amount of rockodiles, but while she was doing so, Collapse also saw something in the water before it disappeared.

The raft suddenly rocked about. "Great." Magloria muttered under her breath. Her magic aura brightened slightly.

"I saw something in the water, did you see anything?" Collapse asked Jump Start and Magloria. Collapse's aura brightened slightly as well as she grabbed her spear tighter. She was a bit nervous now. "I don't wanna have to fight rockodiles when we've already had to take care of lobsters and spiders. Perhaps you could freeze them in place if they attack." Collpse suggested to Magloria. She looks to Jump Start in concern.


Magloria spoke. "That was the plan. These spears aren't going to do much against thick armour, unless you get them in the eyes or mouth, so"

She was interrupted when one of the rockodiles lunged out of the water, with the intention to tear into one of them. A quick swirl of water and freezing magic from Magloria created a thin sheet of ice all over the head of rockodile, which clumsily tried to back off after what happened.

Almost immediately afterwards another tried the same thing at the other side of the raft. Jump Start squealed in fear, quickly moving to the other side of the raft. The rockodile, hungry for a delicious pony, turned to Collapse.

Magloria's magic aura was recharging after the previous burst, she needed more time.

Collapse yelped at the sudden movements before aiming to fire a high powered laser into its open mouth. The laser was a higher intensity then the ones she did previously due to the severity of the situation.

Collapse wasn’t going to use her spear yet on the rockodile. An idea crossed Collapse’s mind though. If she was able to quickly, she would have grabbed one of those floating plant balloons and moved it infront of the area between the rockodile and the boat using her telekineses, and struck it with the spear in close proximity to the rockodile. Maybe those spores were dangerous.

A laser in the mouth isn't something that is scoffed at, and the rockodile was no exception. It let out a loud hiss is anger and pain as it's mouth was scorched before retreating off the boat and into the water below.

This gave Collapse enough time to grab one of the 'floating plant balloons' before a third rockodile appeared, snapping at the side of the raft in an attempt to tear a big chunk away.

As soon as the balloon was struck its spores within ruptured outwards, covering the face of the rockodile in glowing green stuff. It didn't seem to do much, but the rockodile let go and swam off anyway.

No more rockodiles seemed to attack them, however they now had a new problem. The spores had spread out to create a large cloud, covering them all and making it harder to breathe and irritating their eyes and nose.

Between coughs, Magloria began forcing the boat away from the cloud, and eventually they reached the shoreline.

Collapse was glad the rockodile had moved off but the spores had been another problem. Between the coughs she looked to Magloria and Jump Start with a weary grin. "Well cough at least we cough know what happens when they are popped cough!" she was annoyed at the irritations but at least they were safe from the rockodiles. She never felt something like this before so it was likely something entirely native down here in her mind, or just simply something she hadn't encountered before in Equestria.

As soon as the raft struck the shore, Magloria bolted off of it, Jump Start in quick pursuit, taking deep breaths of clean air as they did, still coughing a little bit of glowing spores in the process.

"That was cough horrible. Please don't do that again cough Collapse." Jump Start wheezed as she got her breathing under control.

"I have to agree. Next time you do that, do it away from us." Magloria said, sneezing out a puff of green glow before taking in her surroundings proper. Thankfully they were at a part of the lake where no rockodiles were, the closest ones being 30 meters away, lazing about on the shoreline.

"Now, time to find a safe place to rest. Somewhere high and dry with no fungus is preferable." the captain instructed, her magic taking the moss piles from the raft, so they don't lose them when it melts.

Collapse followed them and did much the same. "I cough apologize! I had no idea it would have exploded like that but now we cough know." Collapse wheezes and it took her a bit to get her breathing under control. She also sneezed out a puff of green glow before she took a second to realize what had just happened. It was like a blurr to her. "Not doing that again." she muttered with one final sneeze. Collapse looks for a good place to rest here, looking for places that would be safe to lay down and rest at.

It took a bit of time before they managed to find anything that would be suitable for them. Stalagmites were everywhere the further away from the lake they got, with the most being closer to the walls.

It was near the walls where Collapse and Jump Start discovered just what they were looking for. There was a space through the rocks which led to a slope, leading upwards to the top of a spiked outcropping, like a high ground.

Even better, there were no bats, and a flying plantern was close enough to shine a dim light on the space.

"Do you think this spot will do?" Jump Start asked Collapse.

"It definitely will. At least, I think so." Collapse smiled to Jump Start hopefully and looked over to Magloria. "We found a good spot! Nice high ground by the way." she called out to the captain so she would be aware of it. "By the way now that we are um, alone. What do you think about all that has happened? I...don't even know where to start in my thoughts upon these occurrences..." she stated.

Magloria came over to their spot when she were called and started looking around for herself. She seemed to approve of it if the fact that she didn't dismiss the place and tell them to continue searching was any indication.

Jump Start looked weary when Collapse asked the question. "I don't know either. So much has happened that I can't keep track of it all, and I don't think we'll get much of a chance to sort things out before something else arrives." she answered.

"That is true, but what is important is that we maintain our confidence and our ability to deal with situations and to not allow for them to wear us down." she said with determination and sits down on the moss once Magloria lays the moss out for them. She looks to Jump Start as if thinking about something specific.

"Yeah, I know. Maybe if we really need to, we can take a break from everything and just... live in here for a while. Just to let things calm down." Jump Start shrugged, laying down on her own moss cover.

Magloria reached over to the flying plantern with her telekinesis and dragged it closer. Not close enough that it's spores would reach them, but close enough that they'd get a good amount of light. She then handed out one of the water bottles, letting everyone take a drink.

"I'd still prefer it if we got out of here as soon as possible. Unless we find something particularly fascinating after having a clear way out, of course." Magloria said. "In any case, we all know there are more rockodiles in our future tomorrow. Feels strange though. I can't order you to get as much sleep as possible before the next day, since we have no idea when the next day will be." she frowned.

Collapse lays down on the moss and looks to Magloria, and takes the bottle and takes her turn in drinking the water. She savored the taste of the water and smiled. "Well I suppose the silver lining is that we'll never be bored. Since we'll always be thinking and preparing for what can possibly happen." she sighs as she stretches out a bit. "I also prefer us finding a way to get out of here, however that really depends on what this fabled 'exit' point truly is and we only got indications that whoever or whatever is blocking it has never been seen before and nobody has gotten out alive." she stated.

When Collapse was laying on the mat she inched over to Jump Start a little bit.

"Then that begs the question. What is even at the entrance that resulted in that outcome? Was it something fast in the water that none of them expected that got them? If so, then it's no problem for us." Magloria said, looking thoughtful now.

"On the other hoof, it's possible that they didn't see it because it attacked from the surface, like how predatory birds attack fish in rivers. That outcome would be a big problem for us."

Jump Start looked over to Collapse as she inched over. She didn't move, seemingly accepting of what Collapse was doing, as is a pony's nature to keep together.

“Or it could be a rival group of seaponies or some other group of…something that has something to do with controlling the water supply. How did those seaponies even come to be down here? I wouldn’t be surprised if they aren’t native to this region and just evolved somewhere else and then came here at a later date.” Collapse suggested.

“There could be anything down here. As far as we know they said something about bottomless pits and waterfalls, imagine if like there are holes that go so deep they enter into areas of the planet nobody has been. There could be dozens or hundreds of civilizations down here or further and we wouldn’t even know about it on the surface. How much do we really know about our world?” Collapse asked as she spreads herself out a bit, Jump Start could see how soft the creamy mare was.

“Also have to ask yourself…how much do ponies really think about what lies below? Not much at all…”

"The seaponies could easily have come from the surface ocean. They probably fell in accidentally and couldn't find a way out, so they stayed. I'd bet many creates here originally came from the ocean somehow, even the rockodiles, oddly enough." Jump Start said.

"They did say things about pits and waterfalls, but I'd rather not find out what's down there. It would just mean that it's even harder to climb back out of this place." Magloria pointed out. "But I will say that without a suitable way down, such as the massive whirlpool we fell through, I doubt many things would survive the trip, and with a lack of new stuff every now and then, the creatures below may prove to be especially aggressive."

"I'm sort of surprised that there isn't more than spiders and rockodiles that want to eat us, actually." she added after a brief pause.

"That is all very true. Question is, where do you think the ship went? They said something about ships or debris ending up at the bottom of that whirlpool lake but we looked and we saw no evidence of that. And besides, I didn't even see any entrances large enough for a ship to come through but then again I wasn't able to get a good look at the top of the waterfall since it was just so high, you know." she stated.

"I really like, do think we survived because we got washed outside of the ship. It's the only explanation but I find it hard to believe we went down a massive waterfall without dying or waking up, you know." Collapse mused, putting a hoof to her chin.

"But the lake below the whirlpool was too deep to see the bottom. We would need diving gear and powerful lights just to be able to see down that far." Jump Start mentioned.

"Just because there was no evidence we found, doesn't mean there was no evidence." Magloria added. "There were many rivers that we still haven't explored. Debris could've floated down any of them and we'd have no way of knowing."

Magloria smirked at Collapse's lack of knowledge. Well, someone has got to teach her about things. "Do you know what kills you when you land on water from a high place? It's not the drowning, it's the impact with the surface. Calm water is like a brick wall. You just go SPLAT" She struck her hoof on the stone floor, creating a loud echoing clop.

"What a waterfall does is break up the surface constantly. The area around a waterfall is constantly churning with air bubbles, so when you fall in, you go straight down with very little resistance. That's why diving off a waterfall is also dangerous, because you can easily hit the rocks at the bottom."

"The 'waterfall' we 'dived' down however was incredibly deep, so deep that there was no way we'd hit the bottom, so we most likely dropped down, got tossed around a bit, then floated back up to the surface." she finished, but quickly smirked and added one final thing.

"Of course, that would assume you're light enough to float, and are not on the... pudgy side."

Collapse looked to Magloria's hoof there and smirked back at her explanations in understanding. "Well I know that the impact kills you when you hit the bottom, but actually thinking about that, that does make a lot of sense. Hmm, I didn't think of the air bubbles at the bottom though." she giggled at Magloria's last comment there and sat up. Collapse patted her tummy a bit, she wasn't the slimmest of the mares, but she wasn't all huge either. Ever so slightly pudgy. "Well, I am just a bit...I do admit, I do like sweets and chocolates a bit too much." she stated.

"But we likely won't be finding any chocolate or candy forests down here but if we did that'd be pretty cool." she commented as she looks to Jump Start. "It is really eerie thinking about it...why didn't it hit me until now how eerie this all is?" Collapse shudders. "Must be adrenaline..." she sighed and layed back down looking back to Magloria.

Jump Start looked saddened as Collapse realized that they weren't getting any sweets. "Aww... I'm going to miss my caramel tarts." she mourned. She yawned, her hooves stretching forward before everything relaxed. "I think I'm going to go to sleep now, try not to keep me awake." she said.

Magloria shrugged. "It's eerie now, but eventually you'll get used to it. Or we leave. Whichever comes first. Anyway, I'm getting some shut eye as well, so... goodnight, I suppose." she said, curling up into half a ball and closing her eyes.

Collapse watches as her two companions lay down. She looks to Magloria and smiles at how cute she was before looking to Jump Start. Collapse looks to Jump Start as she lays down and inched over again. Collapse really wanted a nice warm snuggle, but didn't want to weird her companions out here. Collapse's soft tail flicked against Jump Start's leg as she curls up into a ball and her tail wraps around her much like a cat. With a cute yawn, Collapse shut her eyes.

Sleep felt almost endless for them all, their dreams were strange, fusing together what they knew with what was happening around them into a weird amalgamation of thoughts and memories.

Magloria dreamed about sailing the Constance through mushroom forests, the crew being drawn to the calming colours before arriving in a seapony port, trading wares and watching the locals converse.

Jump Start's dream was less pleasant, spiders crawling through her home village and rock lobsters charging into battle as flying planterns exploded from above, surrounding everything in an eerie green glow, ponies wandering aimlessly through the clouds.

Collapse dreamed of something. Dunno what though. Probably not important.

Collapse was woken hours later by something nudging her shoulder. It turned out to be Magloria, who was already moving over to Jump Start to get her to wake up as well.

Collapse had dreamed about the disaster on the ship, it was really strange. There were some scenes that involved the lobsters and the spiders fighting, before Collapse and Jump Start fending for their lives before Magloria saved them, she saw the mushroom forests in her dream and had set up a house and was content with living in the forests for the rest of her days, along with the others while occasionally fending off spider attacks every now and then.

Collapse yawned and rolled over onto her back and looked to Magloria. Her eyes blink tiredly, at the very least she had gotten some well needed rest. Collapse looks over to Magloria. "How long were we...out? There is no way to tell...is there?" she asked tiredly with a yawn.

Magloria shook her head. "Correct. Without the sun we can't tell time. If we had a clock we could tell, but we don't have any of those." she turned to Jump Start, giving her a gentle nudge, then a gentle kick after there was no reaction.

That got Jump Start up, although she was still unfocused. "Hmmwha? We waking up already...? Or we getting attacked by rockocodiles?" she slurred, letting out a big yawn.

She began to stretch, rising her back half up so she could stretch out her front legs, before stretching out the rest of her.
Once done, she let out a relaxed sigh.

"The best we can is guess..." she spoke with a slurr as well as she sat up and opened her eyes more and stretched. 'Ahhh..." her joints popped, and she felt well rested. At the very least for her she felt rested.

"Well uh...what's for breakfast, captain?" Collapse asked as she cracked her back and forced herself to stand so she would be able to wake up faster.

Magloria looks to her spear. "Either algae, a rockodile, a speared fish or hope we find blue mushrooms or something else edible." she said, casually levitating it and checking it for damages and functionality.

"Algae? Rockodile?!" Jump Start groaned in protest. "Please tell me that we don't have to be that desperate!" she cried.

"I could tell you, but it wouldn't make it true." Magloria shrugged.

Collapse sighed, and didn't like the idea of that. "Well...I don't really want to eat either of those but if we have to, we will...so let's waste no time and proceed onward?" she suggested, also checking her own spear in a similar manner of Magloria. It was almost like a filly mimicking a parent.

Unless Collapse had some form of weapon knowledge, all she would see is that it's a crystal shard, sharp at a point and pretty smooth. It was also surprisingly light, but then again it was made from water.

"Yes, let's get going. Collect your moss piles." Magloria said as she picked up her own. Jump Start had slight trouble, but managed it in the end.

Magloria began moving out from their hideout towards the lake. Naturally, the raft melted again. However there was a rockodile that was a bit too close to where they'd be setting sail again. They could set up somewhere else, or they could do something about the obstacle in their way.

Collapse was satisfied with her look at it, although she had no real weapon knowledge. At least nothing impressive. Collapse lifted her moss pile onto her back and upon the arrival at the area she'd frown at the site of the rockodile there. "How about we just avoid it? Save our energy and our time." she stated, much preferring to avoid it if they can help it. If they had to fight it, that would be a different story.

"Hmm..." Magloria thought, examining the rockodile, the water, and other things around. Then she looked up at one of the floating planterns.

"I think I might have an idea." she said, levitating her spear upwards and the plantern downwards, over to where the rockodile was.

In an instant, a large cloud of glowing spores surrounded the rockodile, causing it to hiss in response. They couldn't see what it was doing, but it definitely sounded like it didn't like what was happening. Good thing the ponies were far away from the cloud this time.

Collapse grins. "Excellent use of your surroundings to create a tactical advantage." she complimented upon seeing the rockodile's hissing which would likely serve as a perfect distraction for their escape. "Although if we have to pop one of those on close proximity I'll just raise a barrier. Should have thought of that the first time, honestly." she spoke in an embarrassed manner.

"Thanks." Magloria shrugged, patiently waiting for the cloud of spores to disperse before approaching the waters.

While she waited, she continued to converse. "Somehow I don't think you would've been able to pop one and create a barrier at the same time, but if you do eventually, I guess you'll prove me wrong."

Jump Start, meanwhile was busying herself by scraping some more moss off of some nearby rocks. Maybe if she collected enough of it, she could have enough for an entire bed.

Eventually though, the spores cleared out, leaving a shoreline with no rockodile. "Excellent." Magloria said before getting to work. Soon enough the raft was built, and the moss was laid down.

"Well, hopefully we won't have to find out about that." Collapse looked to Magloria. Collapse had also joined in with the scraping, seeing the fruits of such things. It would be better off to have more moss sooner rather than later. Before long she had what she could gather in the time it took to make the raft and got in, laying her moss down and her spear held in her hooves. "Let's skadaddle outta here." Collapse spoke, hoping today would be a good day.
(Made something cute out of this, although the manes and tails probably aren't right.)
Image

Jump Start and Magloria got on board, and soon they were setting off towards the rivers again. Magloria kept a close eye on the rockodiles that lay on the shore, making sure that they don't slide into the water to have a go at a meal.

"It's sort of weird that they called this place Lily Grotto. I get that it was named after a seapony, but what was she named after?" Jump Start said as they moved into a second lake. This one didn't seem to have any rockodiles nearby, apparently, just a bunch of pebbles on the shoreline.

"Maybe they got the name before coming down into this place." Magloria pondered, steering the raft over into the next river section.

That was until they came across a problem. Up ahead the river split into 2 different paths. Ivory Bush didn't mention this. "Which way do we go...?" Jump Start asked.

Collapse ponders Jump Start's question. "Maybe they have some sort of legend, like the Mare of the Lake that they named this place after. Lily Grotto is a good name though, not going to lie." she spoke as they approached the river section. "Maybe there is some sort of like, supernatural force in here. I haven't seen anything of that yet but who knows what could be down here." she stated.

"Yup...this is a problem. Right or left? Which way do we go? How about we vote? Uhhh...maybe right? Right makes right?" Collapse joked.

Magloria sighed, first looking at the left path, then the right. "They both look the same, I can't tell where they lead..." she muttered to herself before turning to the others. "Well I can't tell which way to go, so it doesn't really matter what we choose." she said, steering the raft to the right path.

The river led them away from the flying planterns and aglae covered water, bringing them back into abyssal darkness again, except for the occasional fish in the river and their horns.

Things however started to feel a little rougher. The raft was shifting more often than usual, and they felt like they were going faster. "This could be a problem." Magloria said. Jump Start asked why it was, to which Magloria responded with "Rapids. Hold tight."

Collapse holds onto the sides of the raft upon feeling the more shaking and faster speed. "Ivory said something about Void Crags, where you can fall in pockets of air...that sounds dangerous. I think we should probably head back." she said, her horn glowing gold. She didn't like the darkness at all and moved closer to Jump Start for comfort, she was getting very nervous and that was evident in her voice and tone.

"We can't go back, not without abandoning the raft, and likely the moss with it if it gets swept away by the river." Magloria said. "Just hold on so you don't get knocked off and stay low in case the ceiling is low in places. I'll steer this thing."

The sound of moving water grew louder as they entered the faster parts of the river. Jump Start held on to Collapse and kept her head down, not feeling all too safe at the moment.

It started to feel like it did when they were on the outer edges of the whirlpool, with water crashing about them, sometimes covering them in water as Magloria steered around the river bends. Thankfully this was nowhere near as severe as what they've previously experienced, but it still wasn't enjoyable.

Collapse does as Magloria says and holds Jump Start close and keeps her head down. When there were parts that resembled the edges of the whirlpool Collapse shook in fear, whimpering a little bit. She was very scared of whirlpools, and for good reason. Upon that feeling she held Jump Start close to her and hoped that it would be all okay. "I really don't like this...we should have gone left but who knows maybe left leads into a bottomless hole..." she joked, nervousness brimming on her manner of speaking.

Collapse's words caused a spike of fear to flow through Jump Start. "Bottomless hhole...? What if we're heading for one right now?!" she trembled, holding onto Collapse tighter.

Smooth move, Collapse, though maybe that was her intention.

The raft suddenly shook as they all heard ice shattering. A rock had struck the side hard enough to cause part of the raft to break off. The rest of the raft was holding, but it's structural integrity was now weakened. Another strong hit in the wrong spot could shatter the entire raft.

"Whoops." Magloria said, though it was hard to tell if she seriously meant that.

Several minutes later and a few smaller scrapes against some rough spots, the waters finally slowed down to a more normal speed. "You both still alive back there?" Magloria asked.

Collapse didn't mean that, it was more of a heat of a moment thing. "Nno...II hope not!" Collapse hugged her tighter and stroked her mane. When the ice shattered she shook in fear and clung on tightly as if hanging on for her life. She was too scared to really comment on Magloria's 'whoops' there. She closed her eyes, expecting them to get sucked in somewhere. "Magloria the raft is damaged...can you fix it?" she asked scaredly with a whimper. She also moved closer to Magloria, slowly.

Upon hearing Collapse's plea to fix the raft, Magloria smiled. "Ah, good. You're both still alive." she nodded, turning to the damaged part of the raft.

"Should be easy enough." she said, applying her magic to the damage. The surrounding water quickly filled in the gap and solidified into brand new ice. Magloria turned back to the river ahead, satisfied at a job well done and 2 crewmates that were not missing or dead.

Collapse finally felt Jump Start begin to let go as she relaxed, now that the danger had passed.

"Looks like we're getting breakfast after all." Magloria stated as she stared ahead. In front of them they could see glowing blue. As they got closer, it revealed a new mushroom forest, but this place was completely covered in blue mushrooms. Not a single red or green one could be seen.

Collapse looks to Magloria and inched closer, watching the raft being repaired. She was glad that Magloria could fix the raft. "I uh, I guess you no longer need an engineer huh. I am glad we made it! Woo." Collapse giggled in a hopeful manner at the fix and her smile contrasted the nervousness that she previously felt. It was a truly sweet smile, one of hope. She looked to Jump Start and pulled away slowly with one final pat.

In awe she looked at the mushroom forest, so many blue ones to be seen. "Ah yes, perfect. The ones that are edible. Time to eat up, then?" she suggested, licking her lips.

Magloria shook her head. "Don't sell yourself short. There are many things that ice cannot fix, and I'm sure there is things about a proper boat that only an engineer would know." she tells Collapse.

Knowing what the others wanted, Magloria guided the raft to the side of the river, letting everyone get off. "Now, do we want roasted mushrooms, or do you just want to eat them raw?" she asked.

"That is true, I know all the different size tools and what sockets fit for what, just for an example." she spoke with a grin as she got off of the raft. 'How about we try them raw? Just a small taste, and if its not good than we will roast them like we did before." she states.

"Alright then. Choose a mushroom, grab it, then bring it to the river to wash off the grime." Magloria told everyone before going off to find her own breakfast.

"Wash them. Oh, my bad..." Jump Start whispered to herself, barely able to be heard, as she went and found her own.

They quickly returned, Magloria with a small cluster of mushrooms and Jump Start with a fat one on her back, ripped straight from the ground if the dirt was any indication.

Collapse went and got her own mushrooms nearby. She had a cluster of small ones just like Magloria did. With her magic, she lifted them all into the water at once and washed them all off, her golden aura holding all of the small mushrooms. When they were washed, Collapse took a small bite of one to make sure that it was safe to eat.

Collapse fell over onto her side, completely dead after taking the bite out of the extremely lethally poisonous mushroom, which cooking removes the poison from.

From the first bite Collapse could tell that this mushroom was very similar, if not outright identical to the mushroom that she'd tried before. Slightly salty, slightly sweet, but a bit more bland than last time. Roasting it over a fire must enhance the flavours.

Magloria and Jump Start were busy consuming their own meals, Jump Start with clear enjoyment on her face from filling her stomach, Magloria however was expressionless.

Collapse sits down next to the two of them as she eats the mushrooms. Collapse's face suggests she doesn't entirely enjoy these mushrooms but at the very least it was something filling. She looks to Jump Start, "I see you are enjoying these. They are a bit sweet but certainly not the best. Can't complain though." she grinned as she continued to eat the ones she had.

"I'm not really enjoying them, but food tastes much, much better when you're hungry." Jump Start said, food in mouth as she spoke. Pretty soon she had wandered off to go get another mushroom to eat.

When everyone was silent, they found out they could hear a distant thudding noise, somewhere in the direction that the river was heading towards.

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