After The Forgemaster's meeting with Silent Knife, who turned out to be 2 different sentient beings inhabiting one body, the 3 of them decided to meet the next day. The Forgemaster felt that it was best; no sense in being a spy if you go to meet another and stay the night at his apartment. Honestly, even a rookie wouldn't be that dumb. The Forgemaster found himself an apartment just down the street from Silent Knife's, under-furnished but The Forgemaster didn't plan on staying any longer than he had to. The next day, he and Silent Knife just so happened to find each other at a small bar in town, completely coincidentally; no previous planning here! The Forgemaster may have been running a tad late, as it were. He had decided to acquire a few things first.

The Forgemaster walked into the bar in his griffon disguise and saw the red highlighted griffon that could only be Silent Knife sitting in the corner with his back to the wall, clearly not an amateur in espionage. Silent Knife was sitting at a table and had a drink in front of him, the entire bar around him almost completely empty save for him, The Forgemaster, and the barkeep. The Forgemaster offered a small nod in greeting and got an angry glare in return.

When he approached, Broken Bulb snarled out, "You're late!"

With a calm tone of voice and a neutral face, The Forgemaster replied as he sat down across from him, "A wizard is never late, and neither is he early. He always arrives precisely when he means to."

Broken Bulb said in an awed, child-like voice, "You're a wizard?" he received a slow nod in response.

Shattered Globe took over from his fellow tenant and said, "You mean to say that you planned on making us wait for 3 hours?"

"Indeed, had to pick up something."

The Forgemaster reached into the bag he was carrying and took out a sword, a few scrolls, what appeared to be a map, a few files, a shiny officer's cap that was currently adorning The Forgemaster's head, and finally a large plush leather chair that somehow fit inside the bag.

The dual being took a few moments before either replied.

Shattered Globe broke the silence, "Why did you get that?"

"Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it." The Forgemaster replied, as if it excused the small pile of things on the table.

Broken Bulb asked next, "Where did you get it?"

"I was walking down the street and looked through a window. What I saw was an unlocked window."

Shattered Globe said, "Why would you steal these? I mean, really? Of all the things to steal, why these?"

"I wrote the book on what to do with things not properly secured to the floor with nails."

Broken Bulb replied, in a quiet tone of voice that was full of hope, "You're a kleptomaniac too?"

The Forgemaster leaned back in his seat, "Nope. I just love stealing things."

While they nodded, Shattered Globe said, "Seriously, though why did you steal these?""

The Forgemaster sighed, "These all came from some officer in the griffon military's office, I figured they would be useful. Then again, I might have just taken them for fun."

"Are you sure you aren't a kleptomaniac?"

"Hey, it's not like I have an uncontrollable craving for stealing things. Besides, we all have problems. Maybe some of us just don't like putting a fancy name or title on things."

The Forgemaster was cut off by Broken Bulb saying, "Yeah! Like you're a pyromaniac-"

And Shattered Globe continuing, "-and you're a dipsomaniac-"

"-and you're a terrible flirt-"

"-and you're scared of even the slightest contact with a mare-"

"Well at least I have decency, you chase after every mare we see!"

"Decency, he says. Says the same stallion that gets so drunk most nights that I have to walk us home."

"I still don't understand how that works."

"Me neither, but it does work so don't question it."

"Why can't I question things?"

"Because you're too stupid to remember the answers."

"Well you're mother's a whorse!"

"We share the same mum, you fool."

"Well I never asked her!"

"Neither did I. But –"

"Stop it!" The Forgemaster snapped.

The pair abruptly stopped the admittedly humorous argument between them and stared at The Forgemaster.

"I get it: you're both total opposites. Now, please stop arguing. Let's get to work, damnit."

Silent Knife stared for a few more moments before Broken Bulb said, "Wow, you're really stressed aren't you?"

"You should try some deep breathing, or maybe meditation." Shattered Globe replied.

The Forgemaster groaned, "Ugh. Just stop, please. Tell me you have something for me to blow all to hell. That's all the stress relief I need."

Silent Knife brightened, "You're in luck-"

"-we have just the thing. Plenty of spare explosives in this place-"

"It's the Griffon Army Armory, kind of a mouthful-"

"So we just call it GAH!"

"No, only Bulb calls it that, the rest of us, and by us I mean myself, my informants, and the other spies, call it by its proper name."

"Anyway, we found an entrance through the old sewer system that ought to lead you there."

"What, you've never tried to see if it works?" The Forgemaster questioned.

"Of course we have, we know the tunnels lead you to the right place."

"It's just that we've never tried it before because the guards might notice if some 'civilians' pop up in the middle of their armory."

"And they wouldn't take it that well; in fact, you could say that they would feel murderous about the whole deal."

"The best part is that the griffons keep their own demolitions explosives here, so the boom will be much larger than if you just use your explosives."

"I always fancied blowing up that place, shame I won't be anywhere nearby to see it."

"Why? Where will you be?" The Forgemaster asked.

He grinned, "I and Broken Bulb will be cowering in the safety of our apartment."

"Oh, no: you 2 are coming with me."

"What! But, but…" Broken Bulb noticed the look on The Forgemaster's face, "Oh, fine!"

"Why? Scared?"

"Nah, I just said that cowering thing to make it look like we were scared so you wouldn't make us come. We don't like going out on missions, too dangerous for any competent spymaster to do."

"Devious bastard."

"Hey, spies are meant to do whatever they can in their power to even the odds and shave off chances. Going smack dab into the middle of an enemy base for a simple demolitions job is incredibly risky."

"I think you're just terrible at being sneaky…"

"Hah! Us? Not sneaky? Well, you clearly haven't heard the rumors… In any case: we are more than able to infiltrate this armory, it's just that we don't want to. We still will, 'cause you're making us come."

"Well, what are we sitting around here for?"

"Let's go! Let me swing by my place first, gotta pick up some equipment…"

wWwWwWw

The armory for the griffon army wasn't located anywhere near their capital city. That is completely understandable, no one wants a giant fortress filled to the brim with weapons, armor, and training field next door. Seriously, though, this place had enough explosives in it to level the entire city if the griffons so wished it. The armory was far enough away so that the detonation of said explosives wouldn't affect the city, save for maybe a shockwave or 2. Anyways, this place held a lot of the griffons' war material, if their armory was blown up the griffons would be set back at least 7 months. After that, they would no doubt not keep all their eggs in one basket and it will be more difficult to reduce their logistics. Then again, 7 months would be long enough to give the Equestrians time to train and prepare for the war.

The Forgemaster and Silent Knife were on top of a hill roughly 2 miles from the fortress. They had waited for night to fall and were now preparing to enter the castle at the very base, and work their way up through various abandoned tunnels and the sewage system. The griffons had built the fortress large enough to have its own hospital and factory, amongst other thing, so it was no wonder they needed a sewage system. If they didn't have the system, the entire fortress would overflow in its own waste in no more than a month.

The Forgemaster eyed his now pony and completely clothed in black companion and asked, "What's in the bag?"

Shattered Globe replied, "Our equipment, everything from frying pans to a small bomb we whipped up last minute."

"Got a plan?"

"Yeah, an informant of ours supplied the schematics and the floor plan to the fortress, though that doesn't mean they weren't changed. This place is a few generations old and the plans are from then, they haven't updated the plans. Anyways, here's a copy." He tossed a copy to The Forgemaster.

"On the specifics, no magic. They have some of those new magic detectors that, coincidentally, run on magic. It's confusing to be honest, reports say they aren't very reliable but, hey, you never know. We may get unlucky; so no spells, at all, while inside there."

He pulled out a different map and rolled it out across the ground they were on, "Alright, here are the directions through the tunnels we got. They weren't in any place we could find, so we went in there and made ourselves a map. There shouldn't be any guards; at least, we never encountered any. Truth be told, we were planning on hitting this place soon. Fortune merely provided us with a partner."

The map showed the various tunnels and the way through them, a path was marked with red ink through the crisscrossing images of the tunnels. Thanks to The Forgemaster's eidetic memory, a glance no more than 20 seconds long and he had the entire floor plan memorized and the directions memorized, too. Apparently, if the floor plan to the main castle level hadn't changed, they would pop up in the dungeon. From there, they would silently make their way through the castle and into the main armory, which was located in a small unassuming corner to the fortress. However, this relatively small building contained nearly all of the explosives the armory had to offer. A simple chain reaction would wreath this entire complex in fire.

The Forgemaster undid the transformation spell keeping Crimson Hammer alive, the alicorn faded away to reveal a large human. Despite being pre-warned, Silent Knife still gaped at the sight,

"You said no magic, I do no magic. Steal missions were always my favorite, to be honest. I still haven't forgotten the proper methods, so don't worry about me."

The Forgemaster had gotten himself outfitted with a simple, all encompassing black cloth outfit. From head to toe, his entire body was covered, the only space open to the air were small holes for the eys and 1 for the mouth.

Broken Bulb spoke, "C'mon, let's go! I want to get this done so we can watch the explosion!"

Shattered Globe replied, "As much as I… enjoy explosions, a mission such as this cannot be rushed."

"Shut up, you 2. Globe's in charge of the body as we go in. Now let's go."

Shattered Globe dutifully acquired control, momentarily ignoring a pouting Broken Bulb before control was established, and the 2 infiltrators moved through the night and approached the castle slowly and stealthily. They moved down the hill at a dead sprint, crossed the plains in between at a light jog, moved through a small forest adjacent to the castle at a crouched walk, and approached the final 100 meters at a slow crawl.

The entire night was dark, the already dim glow given off by the crescent moon completely obscured by a thick cloud cover: perfect for any stealth mission. As the 2 infiltrators were covered in black, there was little chance of anyone seeing them.

The 2 inched their way across the small open plain that was cut down near the castle to give sentries a clear view. Slowly but surely, the 2 made their way across. The 2 made it across in only a few moments, as the darkness protected them from the sentries' view.

The side of the fortress they were on had a small grate in it. Silent Knife worked the cover off of it and stole inside, The Forgemaster easily following despite his size. The 2 worked their way through a relative maze of tunnels; thankfully the map provided was accurate. Silent Knife truly was an excellent spy, if he had to enter these tunnels each time and use precious night time to draw a map in the dark and have the map turn out accurate was nothing short of exemplary.

Eventually, after several minutes of moving through an abandoned sewer, which thankfully wasn't as full of waste as it could have been, the infiltrators found the exit: a small grate that led to the dungeon. Silent Knife inched a small angled mirror on a stick up through the grate, and looked around. After a few moments, he declared the cell clear and slowly lifted the grate off of its seat. He set the grate to the side, and pulled himself up with a small boost from The Forgemaster who quickly followed his example.

The Forgemaster whispered to Shattered Globe, "These griffons are stupid. Who connects their sewer system to the dungeons? It's an obvious escape method."

Shattered Globe whispered back, "This wasn't originally the dungeon, it was originally the commode."

The Forgemaster scowled, "Aw, shit."

Shattered Globe grinned, "Exactly."

Shattered Globe indicated the door with a flick of his head, urging The Forgemaster to go first. When The Forgemaster looked, the coast was clear. As they passed each cell, they noticed that each didn't have any prisoners. They were all empty, for some reason. Usually, even during a time of peace, there was at least someone in the jail. This armory was practically a town unto itself.

Shaking that off, The Forgemaster continued his journey. The 2 of them kept walking down the line of cells, until, eventually, they reached the guard post, an alcove in the wall with a small desk running in front of it.

There was only the one guard there, and he had his back turned towards the wall opposite the cells. The guard appeared to be reading to the light from a small lamp hung on the wall. Apparently, with no prisoners, he had let his guard down.

The Forgemaster silently chuckled to himself, 'A guard letting his guard down…'

The Forgemaster looked back to Shattered Globe and pointed towards the guard. Shattered Globe took the lead and looked towards the guard, when he saw the guard he froze, until realizing the guard had his back turned; Shattered Globe slowly went back to his original place.

Shattered Globe, through some fancy sign language that consisted of drawing a hoof across his neck, told The Forgemaster to eliminate the guard.

The Forgemaster mouthed back, "With gusto."

The Forgemaster silently stood and pulled out a small knife. A truly tiny knife, to be honest, a blade no longer than 4 inches, hell; the hilt was bigger than the blade to accommodate The Forgemaster's prodigious hand-size. Anyways, The Forgemaster silently flipped over the small desk and grabbed the guard from behind. An open left hand snaked over to grab the guard's beak and held it closed while simultaneously pulling the beak down to expose the back of the neck, the right hand armed with a knife drew back and pierced the exposed neck. The knife tore through the thin feathers and skin and impacted the spine, severing it in the process. With no more signals from the brain going to the body telling the lungs to breath and the heart to pump, the guard was killed instantly, without a sound.

The Forgemaster left the guard where he found him, looking for all the world like he was still reading, albeit with a small red mark adorning his neck and a large pool of blood on the floor, though, the blood was blocked from sight by the small desk. Silent Knife gave an approving nod to the quality assassination, and indicated the door next to the guard post, the door to the rest of the castle, the way was now clear to advance to the next level.

The Forgemaster let Shattered Globe take the lead this time. He silently followed the unicorn up the stairs and through the castle. Very rarely did they encounter guards, most of them apparently asleep or the commander of this base was more focused on exterior security rather than interior facility. Thankfully, the occasions where the guards had to be killed to advance were even further in between than actually seeing guards. The Forgemaster found himself whispering various prayers on his way through the castle, though Silent Knife did something completely different. Silent Knife appeared to be whispering parts of a song only putting his code name in.

For instance, he was singing softly at one point before backstabbing a guard, "Si~ilent Knife, Ho~oly Knife, all is calm, all is quiet-"and proceeded to hum the rest of the song under his breath as he stabbed that guard.

Somehow, they managed to go through the castle, the barracks, the training fields, the mess hall, and the commander's office on their way to the armory. Either they took a very slithering path or this base was built strangely, no matter: they got some good intelligence from the commander's office, as well as a shiny new great coat. Nevertheless, the 2 of them found themselves in front of the armory, entrance only denied access by a pair of guards.

The Forgemaster mouthed to Silent Knife, "These guys suck."

Shattered Globe mouthed back, "I know. But it's a good thing."

The Forgemaster pointed to the 2 guards and gestured with his hands, saying that they should spilt up and come up behind the guards and simultaneously cut their throats. Looking left and right, there was enough cover in both directions to make the plan feasible. The 2 spilt up and did just as the plan called for: simultaneous silent kills.

The Forgemaster snuck left and came around behind the guards as Silent Knife snuck right to do the same. The Forgemaster, quiet as a specter, stalked up behind the guards chatting. As he was no more than 5 feet away, The Forgemaster looked left and saw Silent Knife behind his own guard at about the same distance. The 2 nodded and then rushed at their chosen guards.

While Silent Knife chose to insert his knife through the ribs and into the lungs, thereby cutting the scream off in that manner, The Forgemaster did a similar trick to the first guard. The Forgemaster grabbed the guard's beak just like the first, only this time pulling backwards: exposing the throat. The Forgemaster used his knife and created a sawing motion against the throat. Now, normal throat cuts don't work like they do on T.V., the guard wouldn't drop immediately. He might live for up to 2 minutes before dying of blood loss, in those 2 minutes he could run and get help or even call out for help if you didn't puncture the windpipe. This potential problem was solved easily. Instead of merely slitting the throat, The Forgemaster sawed deep, cutting the throat, tendons, muscles, fat, and finally the into windpipe. By cutting the windpipe, he simultaneously speeded the guard's death and also prevented the guard from calling out or even breathing. If the target couldn't make a sound beyond a soft gasp, a perfect silent kill was achieved. Just to make sure, The Forgemaster kept his grip on the griffon until he felt the body go limp, and then finally let the body fall to the ground softly, the feathers providing some modicum of dampening the sound.

The Forgemaster glanced and saw the other guard dead and Silent Knife pulling his blade out. The Forgemaster gestured to get his attention and dragged the bodies into the bushed, Silent Knife quickly doing the same.

The Forgemaster had to jimmy the lock, but once that was done the 2 quickly entered the armory. It was… a wonderland. It was absolutely full of explosives; it almost brought a tear to The Forgemaster's eye. It was beautiful. The Forgemaster quickly snapped out of his reverie and got to work setting up his explosives, only a few would be necessary, but one must never put all of one's hope into one charge. The Forgemaster planned on setting up 7 different explosives, each n a different timer: all set for a half-hour. As he worked, he glanced over to Silent Knife to see him placing small bags and flinging dust around.

He whispered harshly, "What are you doing!"

Silent Knife stopped momentarily and looked at him, "This is potassium, it'll burn a pretty purple. That over there is magnesium: it'll burn a bright white. All of these other things will burn differently. I may be a demolitions expert, sir, but I am also an artist."

Shaking his head at the clearly insane pony, The Forgemaster got back to work. By the time the 2 were done, enough explosives were wired to blow up a small moon, and enough metals were scattered about to, according to Silent Knife, 'Make a beautiful rainbow in the night sky without rain'.

Once the timers were activated, the 2 hauled ass out of there. The 2 didn't even bother with being quiet, they just ran as quickly as possible to the exit. Any griffon that saw them was so stunned by their sudden appearance that the 2 were too far gone by the time the griffons regained their senses for them to catch. The Forgemaster even managed to punch one out as he ran by, much to his delight. No matter if the griffons saw them: any witnesses would soon be so much ash on the wind, if Shattered Globe's estimations on the explosive yield was correct, which, he assured him, it was.

The 2 of them ran, and ran and ran, desperate to escape the explosion. They entered the dungeons, ran by all of the cells, dived down into the hole that the grate used to cover, and ran through the tunnels, with the route being remembered by The Forgemaster, that leg of the journey went quickly, eventually they made it out of the castle and ran back to the hill they started on. Half-way through the home stretch outside the castle, The Forgemaster took flight and took Silent Knife with him, despite his flailing limbs. They arrived at the hill with easily 5 minutes to spare.

They took those 5 minutes to calm their heartbeats: the griffons hadn't followed them outside the castle so they were safe there, besides: they were looking for a pony and a large biped… thing. Not the 2 griffons currently gasping for breath underneath a tree, no sir.

When those 5 minutes were up… it was everything he could've hoped for.

The sky was lit up with a beautiful riot of colors. Every color from the rainbow was present, and even a few that weren't. The 2 just stared at the beautiful spectacle. After a moment, a shockwave raced to meet them in its joyous crushing embrace. The 2 were flung down the other side of the hill, but they stood up quickly and raced back to the top to see the remainder of the explosion. The fantastic rainbow mushroom cloud seemed to hang in the air after the explosion, neither even bothered diverting their eyes to see the absence of the fortress: they just stared at the beauty.

More than 3 hours passed before the cloud finally dissolved, and neither move, shift, or even blink until it was completely gone.