Beneath the Surface (Adventure, slight Gore)

"Oh. Well... that's good to know." Ician winces as his magic presses down slightly too hard on his throbbing head. "Mm. I should... I should go and see how the defenses are doing. Hopefully they're all ready." He stands up shakily and almost collapses back down.

"In... in due course." He says, walking carefully over to the tent flaps.

Griff decides to follow him as he had no plans of spending time with a judge that will most likely throw him in prison for his crimes the first chance she gets and thus walked over to the tent flaps aswell.

Ician stumbles briefly as he leaves the tent. On his way out, he spots Divine and Ruby, and gives them a smile and a nod. He continues onward to the edge of the encampment, keeping a sharp eye out for the ditches and barricades he assumed were set up in his absence.

Divine nods back, still acting subservient as she bows to him as well.

Griff silently follows him and decides to not give a single glance at Divine and Ruby. "So.. Did you have any plans for the Gala?" Griff asks after a few moments.

"Me?" Ician chuckles, becoming slightly steadier on his hooves. "Not really. It's... not really my type of event. I might have been there as an honour guard, possibly, but... I have this mission."

"Ah, that's why I was asking." Griff says. "I was thinking maybe we should stay here and guard this place during the gala. Canterlot can defend itself, I hope, and even though I rather dislike the royals I really do not want these guys," he says and waves a hoof around the camp "..to die. I just don't trust the ten of them can defend themselves alone."

"They're here to complete a mission, just like we are." Ician keeps his eyes fixed forwards as he walks. "At the cost of their lives, if neceesary. They know the risk. But, of course, we aren't supposed to leave until we finish the mission either way." He chuckles dryly. "No Gala for us. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty relieved."

"Darn, I was hoping I could embarrass the biggest snobs out there." Griff says, chuckling lightly. "The only good thing about Gala. Laughing at their misery. Never gets old." He adds.

Ician broods in silence for a while. "Well, if we manage to wipe out the changelings somehow before the Gala starts, you can have your fun with deprecating them. But I'm hardly confident." He shakes his head. "I'm thinking of trying to burn that forest down soon. But for some reason I'm afraid that it's a diversion. I doubt they'd reveal their location to us so easily. Their real base is probably somewhere else."

"No doubts about that." Griff says. "Why don't we start burning the forest straight away? Most of our team is made of fire-loving ponies anyways." Griff wonders.

"Well, no matter how you look at it, burning down an entire forest is an ecological disaster." Ician points out. "Plus, the changelings already know that we have a fire mage, since Ruby did her fair share of fire conjuration back in the forest. They'd probably expect it and set up some sort of trap for us when we get near enough to set the place on fire."

"That forest might aswell be fake." Griff says. "Especially in the middle of a desert." he adds. "Besides, there isn't really much of it. If you look at it from above, it's actually quite small."

"I'd rather not risk the trap, though. Not yet." Ician ponders the situation. "I should wait for Canterlot to reply to my message. Who knows, we might actually get reinforcements! Unlikely as that is."

Griff thinks for a moment. "The ship that brought us here. It had a fair amount of cannons." He suddenly says. "Maybe if... no.." Griff goes into thinking again.

"... No. The changelings should have seen the Crystal Viper, too. It's not all that quiet and stealthy. They probably already have a way to deal with it." Ician stares quietly forward. "If..."

"Sir!" A voice comes from their right. Ician turns.

"Ah, Lieutenant. How are the defenses?"

"All ready, sir. We'll be able to resist an attack to the best of our abilities."

"Good, good." Ician falls silent, brooding.

Divine's head shoots up and she rushes to Ician's side. "Uuuuuh... Sir? Were you expecting anyone else?"

Griff continues thinking "...looked pretty sturdy to me... Those powerful cannons would probably melt changelings before they even realized what's happening.. but then again, we would risk our only way out of.. well your only way out of here.."

"We've got more airships, if we really need them." Ician waves a hoof dismissively. "It's just best to avoid conspicuously deploying any soldiers or resources, because that makes the public nervous. Especially when we don't tell them why - which is what we're doing now. We can't let them find out that Equestria is in potential danger."

He turns to Divine. "No, I don't quite think so. Why?"

She pointed silently to the skies as a dozen airships created the horizons, their engines running extremely quietly as they approached, also hanging close to the ocean.

"As far as I know, Sky's airship isn't a part of Royal Guard. It heading out wouldn't mean a thing to public, right?" Griff says, trying to ignore Divine.

Ician speaks to Griff. "Probably not, but there are such things as anti-air defenses, and..." He turns and sees the armada of airships. "... and... well, that was not what I meant by 'avoid conspicuous deployments'." He blinks. "That was unexpected. They're ours, too. I wonder why the capital hadn't informed us of... never mind." He trots over to the approaching airships, escorted closely by Eclipse. "I wouldn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. I can only hope that this wasn't too noticeable back at the capital. If we're lucky, the coming Gala might have distracted them... or something."

"This.. is bad.." Griff says. "The changelings or whoever is in that forest could take this chance to attack Canterlot. ALL of the airships are here, which I guess is also most of the soldiers..." Griff then shuts up for a few moments before adding "Canterlot may aswell be lost."

"No, I think Canterlot has a lot more troops than this. And this may be a huge fleet of airships but..." He frowns. "I'm not sure there's a but to that second one, though. Hopefully whoever's commanding that fleet has an explanation."

As the airships landed, troops and supplies bundled out, forming up into ordered ranks. At their head stood a proud stallion in gold armour. He snorted at Griff's comment. "Actually, I think you'll find that this is quite insignificant when compared to what Paladin has prepared. He already has trained several legions and has them on patrol." He saluted to Ician. "Commander Ician, how soon would you like for us to deploy defences?"