Celestia raised the sun from in front of her tent, the appearance marking the second week that she had lived in Ponyville. While it once gathered almost every pony it had since become as routine as it had been for years in Canterlot.
Even the princess of the sun looks a little haggard as she sits in the tent for the morning meeting, and as they have many times officer speaks "No information about the Skeletons of Cloudale. No rebellions in Equestria, Elements searching out the armour, No sign of the Necromancer lair." Celestia holds up her hoof "Please, call her Serene, Necromancer will just cause more panic."
The sun peeking over the horizon signals the camp to awaken, out of the military style tents crawl each of the elements, still obviously exhausted from the physical training yesterday. Even Rainbow and Apple emerge exhausted, the constant physical activity just a little to much for even them. The several guards that are with them are already up, armed and geared, looking mildly annoyed at the untrained Elements. "Up and at it lazybones." says the Sargent "We are too deep in Griffon territory for you to spend hours just getting up."
"I'll make him want to spend hours getting up" Mumbles Rainbow Dash, but doesn't say any more, donning her armour and getting into line with others. Rarity especially cringes as she puts on her armour, but with only a sad glance at the faces of her friends she dons it. The past two weeks have been especially painful, for all of them, Celestia had opened part of her private library to Twilight and, what she had learned had worried them all, most of them couldn't remember the last time that Pinkies mane hasn't been flat, she had done her best to cheer everybody up but...
The last 2 days had been particularly brutal, the Griffon armourer that Rarity had discovered lived deep withing Griffon territory. Getting their was... well not exactly politically possible, since their was a good chance the work had been officially sanctioned. So here they are, infiltrating with a light scout squad. Sargent Meyes is particularly annoying, he has this really annoying quality where he can yell at you with a whisper, obviously one of the reasons he heads up a stealthy scout squad.
Eventually after some time in silence Twilight speaks just loud enough for her friends to hear, but quiet enough that the soldiers won't hear "Rarity, how certain are you of this link?" Rarity pauses looking at the muscles that have been developing "If I wasn't dear I wouldn't be with you now developing these horrid muscles. I looked up my hunch and it looks correct, the armour was certainly made by this armourer, though he usually does Griffon armour, few pony's ever venture that far into their territory."
They walk in silence for a few hours, then that whispered shout can be heard ordering a "Halt!" the entire group stopping and lowering themselves to the ground. a moment passes before Meyes give details "We are at the edge of Beakton, they have several guards, Specialist Rarity, where are we going." Rarity shudders trying her hardest to be as short as him "Just west of town, their should be a building, a blacksmiths." The soldier nods "Take your friends and 2 of my men and interrogate him, we will stay here and cover you." Rarity nods and leads her friends away from the scouts, who appear to be setting up defensive positions.
They make it to the blacksmiths without being noticed, it seems like a slow day today. Carefully using her magic to circumvent the lock on the back the squad sneaks in. Inside they find the backroom of a blacksmith, piles of armour all around. They all gather, closing the blinds and darkening the room.
It's not long before the Griffion they have been waiting for walks in, quickly finding a blade at his throat, and is led to the room. Despite his flamboyant coloration and obvious civilian nature he seems calm. He speak from his jewel encrusted beak "Didn't I meet you at that fashion seminar last year on pony-griffon similarity? Rarity wasn't it. I don't suppose you could be a darling and fill me in to why my home has been invaded by apparently bloodthirsty ponies? I know I'm not nearly that important and certainly they don't want to try out my new winter armour line." Rarity greet him "Magpie Gems, yes we did meet, I'm afraid I'm here on a very different sort of business." Dash and Twilight stand just behind the Griffon, making sure to barley keep in it's vision so it knows it's being watched. "It's about some armour you sold." Rarity trots over to where a huge pile of rusty pony armour lies apparently discarded "Or possibly armour that was stolen from you."
Magpie Gems eyes widen as Rarity's hoof kicks one of the pieces of rusty armour "What armour, I only manufacture one off pieces and generic armour for the griffon army, and though the alliance isn't perfect I believe we are not currently at war." He stops talking until Rarity point at the rusty armour "Eh, I occasionally get a few one off from Equestrian clients, I use those as practice pieces to make sure my anatomy is right, anyways since this is settled, would you like a contract Rarity, I like making armour in Pony styles but it just doesn't move, but if I sold it to you you could sell it at your store, where far more clients are available." Rarity's eye twitches and she turns on the griffon "I saw your 'practice' pieces with my own eye as my friend was kidnapped."
Cringing Magpie Gems sighs, and with a quick wing flourish extends a pair of blades, slamming the 2 soldiers to the ground, he lunges at Rarity blades searching for her neck. Applejack interposes her larger bulk ramming her helmeted head into the griffons chest, the sound of hidden chain-mail impacting the helmet, with earth pony strength she tosses the smaller griffon into the wall with a sickening thump. Before the griffon can recover Apple unceremoniously sits on him. Rarity smiles "Thanks love." as she walks to where Magpie's head emerges from Apples bulk, less a few gems from his beak.
"Oh dear, I'm afraid that proves it, you are working for them. Oh Gems, you do need to tell us everything, I'm afraid even the emperor won't protect you when our Goddess get's angry at you." Twilight cringes, but dropping the G-word certainly work for the Griffon speaks. "Damn it, ruined by a bunch of pony's." He hisses obviously annoyed at the current state of events "Ok, I don't know much, just the secret of my family's success. My granddad started it, not quite sure how, but he said a letter told him to, at the time he was barely breaking even, and was in danger of closing down the BlackBeak Smithy. The letter told him to make 10 rusty suits of armour for ponys and leave them in our shed, with almost nothing to lose he did so, and found that it had been replaced by five times the iron the next day. That armour in the corner is almost the thousandth load, the ritual being carried on my farther and me."
He pauses, out of breath, Applejack leans a bit and lets him draw in a breath. "We were slow at first, but Equestia remained at peace, no wars or anything, and we have supplied more than enough armour for that. I though we were just supplying Merc's or some secretive militia. I swear to you on the feathers of the Emperor that I don't know who was taking it."
Rarity looks at the Griffion darkly, "So your a dead end then? Truly a shame, your fashion sense was impeccable." Magpie squirms "Ok ok, I got one other thing, but it's the last thing I know. The ingots of metal I got were all engraved with a mines symbol, I've seen it in Equestia before, I think it belongs to one of your minor mines, I got a quite a few still, the next batch isn't due for a few months." He gesture with a claw towards a pile of iron ingots "Take as many as you need, I'll also send a shipment of armour for your military, not this rusty stuff either, but nice quality work."
She walks over to the pile, and Rarity picks up a few bars "I do believe this lead is alive after all." With a kick Applejack knocks the Griffon out, and the all gather around to look at the bars, each emblazoned with the picture of a kicking pony and the words 'Steel Kicker Mining CO.'