Beneath the Surface (Adventure, slight Gore)

"Don't you have advantages over normal pegasi though, I'd have thought that your eyes at least would help you to see in the dark? And I'm sorry to here about your friends, may their souls rest peacefully." Storm looked to the sky, the first few stars beginning to twinkle. "What's so bad about looking the way you do anyway? I can think of a few ponies who would like to look like that. They'd say you look cool." He chuckles.

"I look... different. Strange." Eclipse averts his eyes. "Yes, I have some advantages over other pegasi, being a mage and all. Yes, I can see in the dark somewhat better than others. But... ever since the Summer Sun Celebration I've gotten a lot of weird stares. Ponies... don't like to be near me, usually." He sighs. "Because I'm different. So I've learnt to be like the ponies around me, to fit in in personality if not in appearance." He smiles. "You might have been thinking that I was unbearably cryptic. That's just something I picked up from my fellow guards."

"Of course the Night Guard look different so they became cryptic which makes ponies like them less. It seems that you have joined them in that." Storm said, thinking. After a few minutes of silence he spoke up again. "You know what happens when a pyromancer like me gets scared or angry?" He asks out of the blue.

Eclipse gives him an aside glance. "Nothing good, certainly." He turns away. "But... what, exactly?"

Storm allows the flames on his back and neck to rise again, this time becoming solid so that he looks like he's been set on fire. "We set our selves on fire, or explode, either way. When I was small I bullied, mostly just name calling, nothing that would upset me now but back then it got to me. One day I couldn't take it any more and snapped. The flames shot out of my back and side I nearly blew the building to pieces." He smiles at that memory. "You would think that a bully would stop once you prove that you have no control over an ability that can destroy them in a second. They didn't. he friends I did have became scared of me because I had trouble hiding the flames after that." He looks back at the sky increasing the heat of the small fire slightly.

"Emotions... they can be volatile, sir." Eclipse sighs and stares upwards into the sky. "Luna knows I've had my fair share of breakdowns. But over time I've learnt to control them. As a Guard I cannot act on anything but my orders." He pauses. "How hard do you find it to control your anger, sir?"

"My emotions are directly linked to my magic, when I use it I get angry and when I get angry I use it by accident. I tried to be a guard for a while. Tried as a soldier, but I can't control my anger properly so I have little discipline. I tried as a blacksmith in the guard next, Loved the profession but hated my teacher." Storm looked into the fire. "Old battleaxe beat me with a cherry hammer for every piece I got wrong." He muttered. "So I left and went to live alone and learn as a blacksmith on my own." He finished.

"An interesting tale, sir." Eclipse nods. "In that case, if I may ask, how did you end up on this mission with Commander Ician?"

When Griff is far out from the encampment, a voice echoes from behind him. "Griff? Griff, could I speak to you for a moment?"

Griff stops moving for a moment. "What.." he silently said, looking behind him. He tried to use his night vision to see who was behind him, but was ready to escape in any way. I really don't like this... might aswell be a foolish trap... Hm... "If you want to speak to me, you will come to the walls of the encampment!" Griff said back. Better safe than sorry.. he thought to himself.

"It's just me." The voice says crossly. The dim glow of a low-power illumination spell spreads across a small patch of land. Ician stands there, an uncertain look on his face.

"Listen, Griff, there's something I want to talk to you about. But... in private. Not in the encampment. So... that's why I'm here."

"I met him in a bar. Wowed him with a bit of magic and a bit of conversation. Met Griff there to, he told me of his mission and Ician told me a bit about his so I decided to tag along." Storm said cheerfully. "I have absolutely no idea how to get there though." He said with a smile.

"You have no idea how to get to the Bar you met the Commander in?" Eclipse frowns. "How did you get to the bar to begin with? It... defies explanation."

"How do I know it really is you?" Griff growled back, looking around him to check if there's anything that could attack him or trap him while slowly backing up. "First you will have to prove that it really is you, 'Ician'." Griff said those last words with venom.

Ician rolls his eyes. "Oh, come on. Look, I just want to talk about trust. And this is a bad start." He looks at Griff, shaking his head. "Fine. Let me tell you my life story. How about that? Would that suffice?"

"Perhaps..." Griff says, still being cautious.

Ician sighs. "Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria... I was born in Trottingham, then moved to Ponyville, then to Canterlot with a scholarship when I was fifteen, where I met the love of my life, a mare named Antimony, who turned out to be a changeling, who was killed in Queen Chrysalis' invasion of Canterlot." He gives Griff a withering look. "Shall I go on? Or perhaps go over what I said in more detail?"

"...What's the names of the two dragons that you know?" Griff asked. "If you were in the bar, you should know."

"Griff," Ician explains carefully, "so far I've had to worry for hours on end about strategy, defense, and an investigation plan, not to mention I got smacked upside the head by a rampaging manticore, and you expect me to remember the names of two dragons in the Bar just like that? Please, Griff, I'm a strategist. A tactician. This is the way my mind is wired."

Griff sighs. Might aswell be walking into a death trap. "Okay, fine, let's say I believe you."

"That's Chef." Storm laughed. "Everything he does defies explanation. Why should his dimension be any different?" Storm shivered as he stared into the fire. "You ever get the feeling that something is about to go all to hell and your going to get swept up in it?" he asked. "Because that's a feeling I've been getting ever since I got here."

Eclipse gazes at Storm. "More than once, sir. More than once. And certainly at least two times since we got here."

Ician stares at Griff. "Okay, good. Now let's start talking about whether I can believe you when you say what you do. You're a mercenary. Everypony's concerned that you're going to sell us out at some point if the changelings offer you more than what I am offering."

"Oh, it's about this." Griff chuckles. "I already thought you're going to accuse me of attempting a murder." Griff looks around him again. "Besides, I wouldn't sell you out. I don't accept other offers when I'm already on a mission."

"Don't you?" Ician challenges. "Even if they offer, say, three times as much? Four? Five? The mercenary side of you has to give in at some point."

"You don't have to call me sir. My name is Storm." Storm pulls on of the plain cookies from his bag that he's still wearing under his cloak. "Want one?" He asks holding it out to Eclipse.

"Thank you, s... I mean, uh, Storm." He chuckles awkwardly as he accepts the cookie. "I just realised that it sounds so unnatural for me to not say 'sir'." His eyes glaze over slightly. "Like it's all I've been saying lately."