"We were warriors and conquerors," Nova explained. "And we were building an empire. We used the best materials available, strengthened with all sorts of magic." She pointed to a dilapidated building in the center of the town. "And we had the Orbs. I never knew exactly how they worked, but they held the clouds together, and let us build on them." She hopped over the rail and hovered to get a better look. "This was Cirrusville. My parents grew up here. It used to be five times this size. The Orb must be losing power." A quick dive below the cloud layer confirmed this. "Most of it's buried, but there's some wreckage below that looks recent. Maybe a few months."
(Detecting the consciousnesses of the Council and quickly explaining the situation, before stopping the communication.) *A spiral of energy appears, and begins flowing into Rep for approximately five minutes. This happened a few minutes after Rep had stopped the communication.* (Blinks and his eyes are flickering with latent energy, before blinking once more, and them being as they were before.)
After circling the town a few times, Cannonball made the decision to search the buildings. Flair and Rain cast a cloudwalking spell on themselves and Az as Cannonball explained the plan. "Teams of two," he said. "Galahad and Gaston, check out the northern section. Flair and Rose, go east. Navaja, you and Rain go south. Azrael and Shady, west. Nova and I will check out that big building in the center. If she's right, the Orb is there. "
Silver nodded. "I appreciate any help you can offer." Whatever was coming, it was incredibly powerful. Beyond anything he'd ever seen. All four princesses, gone. He would have died trying to protect them. He had seen the devastation with his own eyes. In three months time, Equestria would cease to exist, unless he found some way to prevent it.
Azrael nodded. "Hopefully the buildings don't decide to come down on us. That would be painful for the rest of you."
Just remember, the Council has given me quite a bit of leeway for this. I can do a lot more than last time.
Cannonball nodded. "They'll come down, but not 'til we're done searching the area. Once we're all clear, Shady's gonna pull the Orb."
(Catching a strand of energy that was now, extremely familiar, and malicious feeling. Alerting Silver) Hold on, I feel something strange.
He shook his head. "Nope. We're all gonna load into the ship, and she's gonna disconnect it from the city and get the hell out before it drops." Nightshade glared at him. "Think maybe you could ask next time you want to risk my ass?" Cannonball chuckled. "Well, if you don't think you're fast enough..." "Of course I'm fast enough! Fine, I'll do it!" "Thought so." "And don't think I don't know what you did there." "Of course. Let's get exploring. The sooner we get this done the sooner we can all go to bed."
"Just try not to die, lest you end up like your partner here." Navaja gave a small bow and turned to hop off the south side of the ship.
Silver arched an eyebrow. "I sense nothing unusual. What is going on?" ************************************************************************** Rain followed Navaja over the side, recasting the cloudwalking spell on herself for a third time as she did. She always hated pegasus cities. Clouds just didn't feel natural underhoof. Before long, they found themselves in some kind of dining hall, with a large rotting wood table holding an assortment of what had once been fine dinnerware. ****************************************************** Nightshade hovered lazily in the air a short ways to the west, waiting for Az to catch up. If her hunch was right, the large building they were heading towards was the armory, and she was impatient to go shopping.
"Dios mio..." Navaja trotted ahead, examining the dinnerware. "Maybe we could restore this? It must be worth something by now." ~~~~~~~ Azrael caught up with Nightshade, following along to the supposed armory. "Nightshade. We should converse."
Nightshade nodded, and continued walking "Of course." She reached the door first. It was barred from the inside, and quite heavy. "We can talk inside. Would you please get the door?" ******************************************************* Rain nodded. "I read last week that pre-Equestrian china recently tripled in value. Apparently, there was several million bits worth in a shop in Canterlot, and it was all destroyed by vandals."* *See Maya's Bar (Open RP) - Page 184 ***************************************
"Of course." Azrael turned, reared up and bucked the door, snapping the bars and swinging the door wide open. ~~~~~~~ Navaja shook his head. "What a shame. I heard about that. Didn't they destroy some tea, as well?"
Rain shrugged. "Not sure. The story didn't go into a lot of detail, just that a bunch of antiques were ruined, and it drove up the value of other antiques. The writer seemed to think it had been done by some rich collector who wanted to increase the value of their own stuff." ************************************ Nightshade nodded and stepped inside. The armory wasn't as completely packed with artifacts as she would have liked, but there was still more than they could carry in two airships. She made a beeline for a rack of plain, unadorned short swords. "Nice! Pegasus Empire xiphos! Really good condition, too. These are worth like ten grand apiece at auction." She picked up a sword and examined it. "So what did you want to talk about?"
Navaja nodded. "Mm. They would think that." ~~~~~~ "I feel we could have resolved our differences better than trying to kill each other," Az said plainly, levitating an old lance over to himself.
Rain nodded. "Well, it's not like we'll ever know for sure. Either way, it certainly presents us with a rather lucrative opportunity now." *********************************** Nightshade shrugged. "Oh, that? You're probably right, but I think it would have happened eventually anyway."
