The five step out from the building. Louis draws back from the brightness. But, because of the cloud cover, his eyes adapt quickly. He blinks, and looks out over the landscape.
His eyes take in the entirety of the destroyed horizon. Once great buildings in the distance have turned into crumbling ruins, and the road has devolved into a bunch of cobbles scattered everywhere.
Louis shakes his head, “Oh... Nullam... what happened? How could it get this bad?”
Raven puts a hoof on his shoulder, supporting him, “It’s bad, Louis, it’s really bad. This is what happens when we don’t go far enough, and when we allow our enemy to go farther. It can be repaired, Louis, don’t forget that.”
Louis takes a second more, then nods, “Alright... let’s go.”
———
The five walk down the road to the north, until they stumble across a river. Bedlam smiles, “Could we take a water break?”
Raven nods, “Alright, sure. Louis, you need a drink?”
Louis shakes his head, “I’m good with just emotions. But I could use a little sit down.”
They walk down to the river bank, where Bedlam leans over for a drink. Raven shudders as he sees the filthy water, “That cannot be good for you.”
Mass Offense nods, “Believe me, it is not. Any pre-war pony drink that, they’d be vomiting their guts up. Nowadays, ponies have grown used to it. I’ll always prefer purified water, either way. Tastes less radioactive.”
Bedlam looks up from her drinking, “Yeah, we can’t afford purified, so I’d prefer if you stopped talking about it. Water is water, everything needs it, even if dirty.”
Bedlam goes back for a drink, only to jump back with a yelp.
The others all instantly sit up, and hear her shout, “Body!”
Louis acts first, rushing into the water. He sees the body in the river, face down, and drags it out with his own teeth.
He flips the body onto the bank, and quickly begins checking over him. Louis puts his ear to the stallion’s heart, and listens closely. After a few seconds, he shakes his head, “He’s dead.”
Raven moves closer, and looks at the stallion. A brown earth pony, dreadlocks for both hair and beard, red cloth over his head, and a white shirt with puffed up sleeves. A sword, and an old fashioned pistol sit on his side.
Raven shakes his head, “Let’s search him, see if we can find any information about what happened.”
Raven reaches down to his body, and searches it. In the end, all he finds is a note attached to a flare gun. It simply says ‘Pirates no longer’.
Raven looks up to Louis, “Not much information. At most, I can assume he was a pirate. There’s also this flare gun, which I’ll keep just in case.”
As Raven slips the flare gun away, he hears a rumbling from above.
Everyone looks up, and can barely see the shapes of airships above the cloud cover. Mass Offense looks at them, “Bluebloods, headed in the same direction as us. We have to move carefully.”
Louis watches them closely, “How close is the quarry?”
Offense looks towards him, “Ten minutes north.”
Louis starts to walk at a fast pace, “Then let’s go, we don’t want to be spotted.”
———
The five all rush into the quarry, leaving the road as another airship passes overhead. They all take a minute to catch their breath.
Offense looks forward, and steps onward, “This is it.”
The rest follow after, their hooves sifting through piles of bones. Some of the stone is covered in burn marks, and scratches.
Louis observes it all, “These are pony skeletons, are they not?”
Offense nods, “They are. Alduin slaughtered this entire quarry’s workers, all before they could even arrive. He was powerful, more powerful than Raven, possibly. That’s why it took two people to take him down.”
Raven nods, “Two people wielding archaic weapons that refused to so much as pick up a gun.”
Offense smiles inside his armor, “I was the gun person, Raven. They were better with those weapons anyway. I don’t think there’s any gun more powerful than their weapons. I think their armor was even more powerful than your own RA, Raven. Besides, they were Orcs, they’re stubborn.”
Mass Offense walks up a slope, everyone else following behind him. He arrives at the crest of the hill, and looks down into the quarry.
He stops for a second, “Holy shit... they did it.”
Raven steps up beside him, and looks down into the quarry.
A giant dragon skeleton fills it, wings completely detached from the main body. The main crown on it, though, is an axe implanted into it’s skull.
Offense slides down the slope to the skeleton, and the others all follow him.
He looks at the axe, and shakes his head, “Dovahkin...” He puts his hoof onto the skull, “Thank you.” He looks up at the axe, “Your memory shall not fade!”
Offense hops onto the skull, the bone cracking under his heavy metal hooves.
He grabs the axe, and pulls it free. The skull clatters to the ground, so does the rest of the body.
Offense lands on his back, and places the axe next to him.
Yet, as he does that, everyone else hears a weird chittering. Bedlam shakes her head, and pulls out her SAR, “Shit, hatchlings!”
Creatures begin to pour out of every crevice. Little bipedal dragons, much like Spike, with their claws grown out much more.
Offense looks at the hatchlings, and throws himself in front of everyone else, “Get behind me!”
Bedlam shakes her head as he holds up the axe, “What the fuck are you going to do with that?!”
Offense glares forward, “Dovahkin, you shall not be forgotten! Wuuthrad, grant me his skill and knowledge!” He holds the axe up as the hatchlings near, “Come on you hatchlings! Fus! Ro! Dah!”