By and large, the trip to the griffon kingdom of Griffonia was uneventful. Then again, these are The Forgemaster's standards of 'uneventful'. After leaving the briefing on his mission with Celestia and Luna, The Forgemaster was immediately sent out towards Griffonia with a small patrol of his own Royal Guards, the Guards traveling in civilian clothing, or none at all as the case may be, who would stop at the border and return home after he was escorted there. The Forgemaster had grumbled about an 'immortal man with a photographic memory needing a guide', but relented and allowed the Guards to come with him after no small amount of cajoling from both princesses and Shining Armor. Celestia assured him that the girls that had befriended him, they thought, would receive a letter from her detailing why exactly he had to leave for about a week. Now, a week isn't really enough time for most black ops operators, but then again, most black ops operators can't strip a mind of all intelligence from across a city and summon awesome and terrible magics to their side. The Forgemaster, on the other hand, could easily do so and often does. In fact, he had been reading minds for so long that sometimes he picks up on others' thoughts if he allows his mind to wander.

Now, when I said that the trip was 'uneventful', what I really meant was 'uneventful by The Forgemaster's standards'. One would think that these aren't so different, and yet, they would be completely and utterly wrong. Most would assume an ambush by a relatively large group of bandits to be an eventful occurrence, but not him.

The Forgemaster and his escort of 3 Royal Guards ponies were walking towards the border between Griffonia and Equestria, and were close to the border, no more than 20 or so miles away. The Forgemaster had demanded to walk instead of fly, his reasoning being that Griffons would spot him otherwise. The Forgemaster was traveling as The Forgemaster, the guards traveling with him had no idea that they were actually escorting their commander but they settled for escorting his second-in-command. The trip before this moment had been everyone's standard of uneventful with absolutely nothing happening except for maybe a few games of I-spy and constant walking, however, this changed when the group was accosted by 17 odd bandits, with a scattering of ponies, griffons, and diamond dogs throughout the group. In a word; a textbook ambush.

"Oi!" A rather large griffon bellowed out, "You lot are gonna give us all yer gold 'n bits or we'll clobber yah straight tah hell!"

After shouting their demands to the much smaller group, the bandits assumed the group of 'civilians' and 1 large… thing would surrender, the one thing they didn't expect was for the large unidentifiable creature in the smaller group tolaugh at them.

The Forgemaster leaned down to his guards' height and said fairly loudly, "A classic tactical blunder, revealing themselves to an enemy who hadn't already seen them yet!" The Forgemaster then dissolved into more laughter, leaving all present, guards included, with a dumbfounded expression on their face.

The bandits, stunned as they were, took a moment to formulate a proper response. When they had finished creating said response, they unleashed it upon the smaller group with a series of cries and a full-on charge.

The Forgemaster focused magic into the palm of his hand and gestured to the guards to stay close. Once the guards were close enough, and the bandits were in range, The Forgemaster released the pent-up magical energies in his palm into the ground directly beneath him. He released the energy as a concussive shockwave, and when it hit it immediately went in all directions, stunning all of the nearby bandits, the guards were left unharmed by The Forgemaster.

Standing over his guards, The Forgemaster said, "See? This is why you never ambush someone. It never ends well."

With that, The Forgemaster strode over to the bandit that had spoken, presumably the leader, and stood over the stunned griffon.

The Forgemaster began his 'conversation' with the griffon with a sharp kick to the bandit's side, "Now, normally I'd let you live, on the off chance that you may come back later and actually prove to put up an interesting fight, but no: you're just way too pitiful. There's no chance you could ever learn enough to be anything other than a mild annoyance. I'll just have to kill you."

The griffon roared protests as The Forgemaster's boot was brought down onto his skull. With the sound of crushing, snapping, and cracking of bone and the squishing of liquidized brains, the griffon died, his skull crushed and his brain destroyed. The Forgemaster looked up and around to find the rest of the bandits, but there were none, as the guards escorting him had either dealt with them or they had fled into the wilderness off of the path.

Rejoining his escort, The Forgemaster said, "It's all fun and games 'til you get curb-stomped." He sighed, "Alright, you lot; go back to Canterlot. I can make it from here and it wouldn't do for me to be seen approaching the border with a group of ponies that mysteriously leaves me immediately after I cross it."

The guards agreed with him, well, maybe not so much as 'agreed' as 'not willing to go against their commander's orders'.

The Forgemaster watched them walk back the way they had come. As soon as the group disappeared behind a copse of trees, he looked around for any witnesses. Alive ones, anyway; the dead don't give up their secrets so easily. Seeing nothing that could report him to the griffons, The Forgemaster transformed. Instead of a pony, he turned into a griffon. A rather large griffon, it was true, but a completely plain one. Plain being the primary weapon in any spy's arsenal, exotic made sure you were remembered, but plain is forgotten in moments.

The Forgemaster looked around one more time and, seeing no one, took off with his wings towards Griffonia.

As he flew the relatively short distance, he thought long and hard about his cover story and what his name should be. Eventually, he decided on Julius, after some close personal friend of his long ago. He decided on not needing a background seeing as how he could just claim that it was personal, and left it at that.

'Alright… Capital City is 183.28 miles from the border in an exact 37.2904 degree left turn from this position… I'll be there in 2 hours, tops.' He thought.

wWwWwWw

3 ½ hours later

'Ugh… that thunderstorm came out of nowhere, I swear! Whichever god just so happens to control the weather here; you're a prick.'

The Forgemaster, slightly singed from a close encounter of the electrical kind, finally arrived at his destination: slightly delayed and worse for wear, but very much alive and eager to finish his task. According to a sign conveniently placed near the front gate; this city was called Kyradeth. Weird name, one not based on some obscure human town, for some reason.

This city was fairly large, by pony standards, tiny by human standards, but given that many griffons live in the country and were hunters, this city was exceptionally large for such a society. It wasn't altogether different than Canterlot, actually: it was situated on top of a mountain, not perched on the side, however. The ever-so-helpful sign from earlier put the population at about 12000 griffons give or take a thousand. The center of the city was a large open area that would be known by Romans as the forum for the city. It was both a gathering place for public announcements and festivals as well as the primary location for merchants to sell their wares. On the peak of the mountain lies the Royal Palace, another similarity to Canterlot: the palace was at the highest point.

The Forgemaster swooped down from on high and landed in the central marketplace. The information that Celestia had given him said that Agent Silent Knife lived not that far from the central plaza, in an apartment complex called 'The Eagle's Nest'. Apartment number 327: third floor, second hallway, seventh room. A very orderly system of numbering, if The Forgemaster said so himself.

Scanning the nearby buildings, the ones directly adjacent to the plaza, The Forgemaster found his target building a few doors down a side street. Thankfully it was still daylight out for the next hour or so, or it would've been much more difficult. The apartment was helpfully identified with both a name and an image of an eagle's nest. The Forgemaster quickly made his way over.

Ascending the stairs and locating the correct door without difficulty, The Forgemaster knocked politely on the door. He was answered in a few moments by a smallish griffon with red highlights, of all things.

The Forgemaster held out a letter towards the 'griffon' which was more than likely Agent Silent Knife in disguise, and said "Letter for a Mr. Zoancollapsig?"

Weirdest. Cover name. Ever.

The 'griffon' in question said, "Yep. That's me." And took the letter.

The Forgemaster nodded and made as though to walk away, though as soon as the door closed with a soft *click* behind him, he turned back towards the door and leaned against the wall opposite. Not 20 seconds later, the door opened again and looked down each hallway frantically, before resting his eyes on The Forgemaster, who just so happened to be smiling cheekily at him. The pony agent gestured wildly at him, inviting him inside his apartment.

The letter had some pretty important information, though it was incredibly short.

'Dear, Silent Knife. The individual who gives you this letter is a pony spy who will be in Kyradeth for a few days on a sabotage campaign. During his stay, he will be your superior officer. Please assist him to you greatest ability. Signed, Princess Celestia.'

The letter was stamped with the royal seal, confirming its authenticity.

Once The Forgemaster was inside the sparsely furnished apartment, Silent Knife quickly closed the door behind him, locked it and then immediately went to the windows and then closed them and drew the blinds. The apartment was now completely dark, with nothing providing any sort of luminescence to the room. This problem was solved a few moments later when Silent Knife lit a single candle and placed it on a low table. Both occupants in the room sat down in front of the candle, and both removed their disguises at once.

Silent Knife was a small neon blue unicorn with an electric yellow mane. His cutie-mark appeared to be a light bulb that was broken and sparking. Silent Knife, upon seeing The Forgemaster as Crimson Hammer, gaped in awe: evidently, he had not been expecting an alicorn, or a pony of his size. He easily dwarfed the smaller unicorn and would likely dwarf most griffons as well.

The Forgemaster spoke first, "I am Crimson Hammer, Lord-General of the Royal Guard and personal advisor/bodyguard to the princesses." He held out a hoof for a hoof shake.

Silent Knife grinned at him and shook his hoof before replying, "Broken Bulb, spy extraordinaire, schizophrenic, and 1 of 2."

Silent Knife appeared to twitch for a moment, before replying in a completely different tone, "Shattered Globe, master information gatherer, Grandmaster of 'Electric Earth' style, and 1 of 2."

The Forgemaster raised a brow at the first annunciation of '1 of 2', but realization dawned when the second voice spoke. Evidently, Agent Silent Knife suffered from… well, he can't really suffer from it if they're both aware of the other, so… he has multiple personalities, and interestingly enough; they are both aware of each other. He also identified the 'Electric Earth' tile of martial arts, unicorns that are learned in this style pump electricity into the air, the ground, their own bodies, anything really, and then use them as a weapon. The style was known for a paralization effect that the style's attacks and defends had on their opponent.

The Forgemaster made his comprehension known to the… pair when he said, "Ah, so you have 2 personalities."

The multi-individual in front of him nodded vigorously.

"Yep, yep, yep!" Broken Bulb yelled out.

"Tone it down, Bulb, you never know who could be listening." Scolded Shattered Globe.

"Shut up, Globe! You know, as well as I do, that we made this room sound proofed!"

It was very interesting watching someone have an argument with himself, and watch one side lose. Evidently either, the 2 were so familiar with themselves that arguments sprung up all of the time, or they honestly couldn't stand each other anymore.

"Wait!" a silence descends upon the room, "did you hear that?" asked Broken Bulb.

"No, you crazy fool. There's nothing there." Shattered Globe replied.

"I'm not crazy… wait, yes I am. But it's the only thing that's kept me sane!" Broken Bulb yelled back… to himself.

"You hear things, you bloody oaf! If it wasn't for me we would've been caught ages ago!" Globe declared.

A few more minutes of arguing, and The Forgemaster had enough, "Alright, stop it you 2." The 2 abruptly stopped, "All I need are some high-valued targets and I can deal with them. Just point a few out."

Silent Knife grinned, and Broken Bulb said, "Sure-"

"-we can do that!" with Shattered Globe finishing.

"Alright, just let me ask a few questions first. How do you hide this in public?"

The dual-being smirked, "We aren't fools, despite the arguments we have." Broken Bulb started.

"We alternate control over out body on missions so neither one of us feels left out, and the pony not in control just 'observes' really, and maybe supplies some advice." Globe stated second.

"For instance, I have control on this mission. Out there," He gestured towards the windows, "I am in control. In this apartment, we can be ourselves, though." Broken Bulb finished.

"Alright. That sates the only question I really had." The Forgemaster said while rubbing his chin.

Silent Knife appeared surprised, "You mean you're not gonna ask how we got this way-"

"Or which one of us is the original-"

"Or if we might snap and kill ourselves-"

"Or how we co-exist-"

"Or-"

The Forgemaster cut them off, "No. I don't need to know these things; all I need to know is whether or not you'll stab me in the back and whether or not you have good intelligence on some targets."

The collective entity, newly dubbed Silent Knife as a whole, smirked at the question, "Of course we have good information-"Broken Bulb began.

"Question is: which ones do we blow up-" Shattered Globe continued.

"And which ones do we completely annihilate!" Finished an exuberant Broken Bulb.