With the order given a day or two ago, a small group of soldiers had already been assembled in a meeting hall for the counterattack against the Gryphons. With her knowledge of the kingdoms layout from her previous visits, Grace had marked out for her captain in charge of the operation where they should strike first.

Drawn out on a map that was hung on the wall, Free stood amongst the group of fighters ready for a fight. All the while, their leader went over the fairly simple plan that was laid before them. “Thanks to the princess’s knowledge and the councils’ blessing, we have the approval to go in to the kingdom,” the captain said half way through his brief, “the objective is easy enough… get in, disrupt their production efforts, and get out. No sticking around and waiting for their back up to arrive, this isn’t the final fight, it’s simply a jab in the ribs to throw them off balance.”

“How many factories do we have to hit, sir?” one soldier raised their hoof up.

“Three, one close to the docks along this water way,” he pointed to the map. A place Free and Iron knew already too well. “As well as two more a few miles farther up inland.”

“What kind of resistance are we looking at?” another asked.

‘Mostly smaller weapons with a large punch,’ Free said to himself, knowing their armament.

“That’s unclear…” the captain said simply, taking off his glasses he rested them on the table in front of them as he leaned closer to the group, “I’ll be honest with ya’ll, the word is the bird brains have come up with some new weapons. So there’s really no way to know for sure what we’ll be running in to.”

“What kind of tech are we talking?”

“The kind that will put you in the ground faster than a sword ever will,” the officer recalled the briefing reports he gathered as this little attack was planned, “distance weapons that are far more accurate and more powerful than their usual bolts and crossbows. Though they seem to still have a weakness to magic, though don’t expect your armor to protect you all that much, unless you get in close.”

‘Thank you Iron for that little discovery,’ Free told himself, bringing up the much needed fact of the Gryphons tech being stopped by his shields in his report.

“All in all the plan will go like this…” the captain brought a duffel bag out from underneath the table, “this bag, among the others, contains a rather large amount of explosives…” he waited a moment for the murmurs to die down, “now we don’t want to lose too many to these new weapons on the first go, after all, we don’t know fully what to expect. That said, the group here will be split in three, each team will assault a factory at the same time so they don’t have time to counter our counter…”

“A bold move,” the silent guard said to himself as he listened to the rest of the speech.

“Each team will have three unicorns to cover them from their weapons, try to work yourself in close,” he said while going off the reports the best he could, “their new toys don’t seem to work too well the closer you are, and you can move faster than they can. Get in close, and bring ‘em down…”

Off to the side of where the captain gave his brief, Iron stood by, watching and listening to how much the officer was telling them all about the hornets’ nest they were about to walk in to. The colt didn’t need to speak up at all, he knew what to expect, and if he really wanted to. Iron would have been there by Frees’ side through the thick of it.

Though his friend insisted that he stay behind this round, ‘there may be another rodeo that you want to join in on later’ Free told him the day before. “Yea… but who’s going to watch your back out there?” he asked to no one in particular, as he watched over his friend.

“You know, talking to one’s self is seen as a sign of a sociopath…” he heard the drakes tongue from behind him.

Having been around the princess’s assistant long enough, Iron didn’t even need to turn around to know who this forked tongue belonged too, “There’s so much more I should have been committed for by now, if that was the case, Silver.”

“No need to sound so brash, Mr. Knight,” Silvertongue held up his claws to back the colt down, “I merely came by to check up on the brief and give the princess word on when they would be ready to go.”

“Well by the sound of things…” Iron tuned back in, “I would say that would be rather soon…”

“Listen… I know it’s a gamble,” the captain said to them as forthcoming as possible, “but get in, plant the charges, detonate them, and get out. The unicorns will teleport you in close enough to get the job done. Though protect them at all cost, the rest of you here are capable of flight… though I doubt anypony here wants to try and fly out of this mess…”

All of those present chuckled at the cruel joke, knowing full well that he’s right about that. If any of them were to lose their way out, there’s little chance that they would be able to live long enough to see home again. The only ones that might have a chance are the few gryphons in the crowd that volunteered for the trip, knowing how to go one on one with their own kind.

With that last word in, and the dismissal from their leader of this attack, Free got up from his seat to make a few final preparations. Namely sharpening his blade, though first things first, “where is that colt?” he asked himself.

When he told Iron that he wanted him to stay back on this one, Iron huffed and puffed, but in the end agreed. On one condition, that he got to see his armor before he left. Sense then, Free hadn’t seen hind nor hair of either his suit, or the colt that took it. Though if it’s one thing he knows, it’s that the colt is a creature of habit, and just as he suspected from the moment he walked down their own production floor and heard the banging of metal…

If you need to find Iron, check the shop.

“They haven’t a clue on what they’re walking in to,” Iron said as he sensed his friend stepping in to his domain.

“I take it you were at the brief?” Free asked the rather obvious question before he continued to walk inside. Before him on the stand, was his own armor, that Iron worked on as they spoke, “They didn’t go in to the kingdom and see what they’re up against.”

“And we did… so who’s ready to send out condolence letters?” Iron cheered with a wicked grin to his friend.

All Freefall could do was roll his eyes, “you know very well that it won’t be that bad… hopefully…” though he hated to admit it, his friend maybe right when all was said and done.

Graces’ soldiers were well equipped throughout the years that they had gone against the DDR and the Gryphon Kingdom. Tried and tested strategies to work against their species gifts were put in place generations ago. Whether it was to fight against the Gryphons’ dexterous claws, or the dogs’ ability to dig for what seemed like miles. Seren had grown accustom to the fights they had with their neighbors.

Though with what Free had saw only a few days ago, the books on war may want to be revised here shortly. “Okay, so it might be a slaughter… but as you saw, if we get in close, then it’s just the same game as before,” Free pointed o

“And that’s where I come in,” Iron stopped working on the suit to show its owner.

Though on the surface nothing seemed all that different to the colt. Other than the few gems that laden across his fore hoof bracers. Free was sure that they harbored spells for him to use out in the field, however he knows Iron all too well then to just assume that’s all that was done.

“You have my attention…” Free said as he passed by his friend and took a seat on the stool.

“Right… well first things first, the chest,” Iron said as he picked up the chest piece to reveal the underbelly. Sitting right there in the center, was what looked to be a sapphire placed, as it glowed ambiently with the unicorns’ magic. “I used the same hardening process I did with my armor to make yours stronger as well as a tad lighter… not to the level of mine, sadly, but not bad for only a days’ work.”

“That I can’t thank you enough,” Free snickered, “though what of the sapphire?”

“Cloaking spell… just like mine. Though don’t stand in a bright light,” Iron pointed out to him, “the rays will shine around you and give them a silhouette to shoot at.”

“Duly noted,” the colt nodded while he looked over the rest of the suit to see if he was missing anything other than the obvious, “and on the fore hooves?”

Placed in a line were three gems, one ruby, one emerald, and one diamond. At this moment, Free wished that he understood how the unicorn picked these gems out. It might have made it easier for him to figure out what they were holding. “Care to explain?” he asked, not having the brain power to focus on it at the current moment.

“Simple… ruby, use it when they get to close. Emerald, use it when you need to take them out at a distance. As for the Diamond,” Iron thought about how to put this lightly, “you’re probably going to get shot a lot, so use it as needed.”

Somewhat lightly…

“Well the diamond then is clearly a shield…” Free pondered the two others, “what of the Ruby and Emerald then?”

“Ruby is a shock spell, and the Emerald is nothing more than an energy ray…”

“You say that as if it’s just another lesson that you’ve taught in class…” Free chucked for a moment. Before he noticed the ever growing grin across Irons’ face, “wait, did you teach the kids how to do this sort of thing?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny this information on the grounds that might incriminate me,” Iron defended himself with one of the rights set out in their nations articles of law, “that said… none of them have died, or clamed me as responsible for what they may do with this knowledge. So I think I’m in the clear.”

“For now that is…” Free rolled his eyes once again around his sockets. Though the stern look on Irons’ face brought him back quickly.

“Pay attention to this next part though, Free. This is important,” Free got off the stool as he heard his friends’ words leave his lips with every sense of urgency he could muster, “With my suit, I pretty much have an unlimited use of my gems. I can charge them as I go with relative ease, given the practice, as my own energy reserves build up while the gems themselves are used.”

The colt continued his lecture, as he went about taking the various pieces of armor off and fitted it to his friend, “That said, you’re a Pegasus… duh… you don’t have that ability. So you’ll need to use them only really when need be, and not just to try and be an amateur sorcerer. Use them too much and you’ll run out, use them too continuously, and the gem itself could crack from the energy,” Iron finished off the important bit as he tightened the last belt loop on his friend stomach, fitting it perfectly to him, “The shield is set on a diamond for a reason… you can use it more than the others, and it will hold better.”

“Never quite understood how you picked the gems to use…” Free admitted.

“It’s actually really simple, I could break out the math required to measure out what level of spells a gem can hold and how they can be used…” Iron waved his hoof around as he almost went in to a rant, but cut himself short, “however, simply put, the rarer and purer the gem. The better it holds a spell. A diamond will cast a spell for longer with a stronger effect, than a piece of quartz, for example.”

“So why not just use something like a diamond for all of them?”

“One, diamonds are expensive to all hell…” Iron said flatly, “and two, certain spells function better with certain gems. Protection spells work best with a diamond, but if I wanted to use an energy spell, that’s when you go to the more envious stones… greens. Like the Emerald.”

“Let it never be said that you don’t know your stuff…” Free chuckled, as he swallowed his pride for a moment and pulled Iron with a wing in to a hug. While at first the teacher struggled to get out of the embrace, for all his strength that he’s gained from keeping himself in shape at the high school gym, he could never compare to his friends’ wings.

“I’ll make it back, don’t you worry my friend,” Free snickered while Iron eventually gave up, and let in to the hug.

“Save it, Free…” Iron brushed it off, “if I was worried that much about you I would have knocked you out and taken your place by now…”

“Yea…” Free brushed off, “but then Grace would have worried about you…”

“What was that?” Irons’ ears perked up.

“Nothing!” Free said as he quickly sat his friend down on the floor, and began trotting towards the door, “I’ll keep the suit in one piece, and see you when I get back!” he called to Iron as he slammed the door and ran down the hallway. Hoping to avoid any and all questions from the colt about his comment. All the while, Iron just stood there, and started to snicker…

“…Go get ‘em, Free,” Iron whispered as a silent hope for his friend.