“They will reach us soon, my Queen,” a bulky male griffin said, bowing in front to his queen. The feathers of his chest and head were, as usual for griffins, white, but his also had a few brown spots scattered and the same dark brown color around his eyes. On his back he had a bow perfectly held in its straps and, to his side, a quiver filled with arrows.

“The fools…” even in frustration the voice of the queen was beautiful. She was hidden behind a rather fine curtain which only allowed for the griffin to see her silhouette, but it allowed him to see a mare a bit higher than average with a long horn. “Are my other champions ready?”

“Yes, my Queen,” said a voice out of nowhere. Slowly, a pegasus appeared at the griffin’s side. He was male and had special ponyshoes with curved blades, like daggers, he used as a weapon against his enemies. The pegasus was strong and had a deep red coat and bright yellow mane and his cutie mark seemed to be completely destroyed over the years. “They were only waiting for your call, Your Highness…”

Following that cue, there was a bright azure light and an azure unicorn appeared at the griffin’s left side. Her mane was purely white with two trances from just behind her horn making a small curve, each one around an ear, circling them. The robe she used prevented from seeing her cutie mark.

The door opened in the following second as another pony entered, followed by a hippogriff and a zebra. The pony was strong and wears a full heavy-looking armor set with an adapted blade on his back, with a base that allowed his ponyshoes to lock inside so he could use the sword.

The hippogriff had a dark garment over most of her body. As the more common hippogriff, she had no wings but had the amazing ability to use magic without having a horn. Her forelegs only showed her yellow talons as most of her body was hidden under the black priest robes, as well as her light gray face with white eye halos.

Maybe the most different of all them was the zebra which refused to wear any kind of armor at all. Instead, she had an assortment of amulets, rings, necklaces, earrings and such and on her back stood a large tribal mask as well as a spear over it.

The three newcomers bowed in front of the queen, “Your Highness, you wished to see us?” the unicorn asked.

“You are the champions of my army and my most trustful subjects,” the queen started. “Razor, head of my Rangers; Crimson Burn, leader of my Assassins; Azure Dreams, most powerful of my Warlocks; Sandstorm, most loyal of my Paladins; Selena, most dedicated of my Sages; and Netoak, most virtuous of my Shamans. You know that our enemies have summoned heroes from other worlds to aid them. However, they’re growing closer to the kingdom by the second. I want you to kill every single one of them. Use whatever means you think necessary, magic or weapons. Just don’t fail me my champions, or you will suffer by my hoof for all eternity.”

“Your wish is our command, Your Highness!” the six said together and turned to depart side by side.

“The Queen is nervous about these ponies… They’re that strong?” Sandstorm asked, his voice somewhat muffled by his armor.

“We’re going to find out,” Razor answered. “Netoak, what can you tell us about them?”

“I’m afraid that there is nothing to be told about our opponents,” the zebra answered. “The spirits are silent when speaking of our combatants.”

“My sources say they advanced greatly in mere months,” Crimson Burn said. The pegasus, as everyone else, kept looking forward as they walked. “They managed to reach their respective clans’ top rankings and are growing to be called legendary ponies.”

“So we’re going to fight legends?” Azure Dream said with a gently smile. Her unicorn horn had given off a small spark due to her excitement. “Just hope they put up at least a decent fight. I’m getting tired of all this commanding without actually fighting…”

“That’s something that we all do,” Netoak answered. “But act naïve you should not do. They may be better than we believe, so it’s better stay in the defensive.”

“Netoak is right,” Sandstorm agreed from under his helmet. “The battles where our enemies were naïve were the easiest so far. No reason we should give them this edge. If the Queen is worried, and based on Crimson Burn’s information, we should take care.”

“Just remember not to utterly finish with their bodies,” the dark monk-clothed hippogriff answered. Selena passed an aura of darkness that nopony liked much to stay around. “We could use them after their souls are gone.”

“Necromancers…” Sandstorm said. “Fine, I’ll try, but I can’t actually promise anything. My skills are rather… sharp…”

“Okay, let’s go,” Razor said. “Our objective is to reach them, not them to reach us.”

And after saying so, he left to prepare himself for battle. “Geez… Who made him our leader?” Azure Dream asked.

“Our Queen,” was the answer Sandstorm gave her.

After a sigh from Azure Dream, each of them left to make their preparations.

***

The day was bright and a gentle breeze blew from the mountains into the valleys, relieving a bit of the summer heat. And, besides they all hopped otherwise, it was indeed a very calm day.

Razor lay in a tree’s large branch, wings playfully opened and falling at each side of the branch in his battle armor and his bow in his talons. Selena just lay under the same tree, catching a pleasant nap, with gloves covering both her forepaws, from talons to shoulders, which held a small pinkish orb each. Sandstorm was examining his blade and gently cleaning it as his next opponent didn’t come. Azure Dreams had gloves similar to Selena’s, but hers held three times the number of orbs, one at the shoulder, one between the shoulder and the elbow and the lest half way from the elbow to her hoof, where nested a beautiful crystal in the back of each glove. Netoak was meditating with her spear stuck at the ground and balancing herself upside-down over it. Crimson Burn was practicing wing lifts while he waited for his partners.

“I can’t believe we were dragged there for that!” Azure Dreams said somewhat angry. “I really thought they would be a bit more… well… challenging!”

“That’s what Equestria now call champions?” Crimson Burn said as he kept his self-lifting. “That zebra, Aloe Vera, said she was a Ninja… She did have the potential and such, but she wasn’t much of a challenge…”

“We can’t actually blame them, can we?” Sandstorm finished cleaning his blade, placing it on his back again. “I mean… they had just a few months to learn everything from the very basics, haven’t they? And we’re here for what… seven years already?”

“I, for sure, don’t mind a bit of that,” Selena said with a smile, noticing that a zebra was coming to her with a mice hanging in her mouth. Taking the mice and quickly swallowing it down, he looked at the zebra, “But I would have liked even more if you haven’t cut this deep into her neck, Crimson Burn… This cut is unsettling…” The zebra in question had a deep cut into her throat, made easily by the sharp daggers of the assassin pegasus stallion. Following the zebra, there were a few other zombie ponies, each of them bringing small animals for her.

“You talk about unsettling but look at the results of your effort,” Netoak replied her. “Our enemies are back and doing our escort? Dead they are, of that sure I am. Their souls are gone for another realm.”

“Zombies aren’t unsettling,” Selena said as if it was natural to her. “They’re just bodies that I’m playing with, just like dolls! Deadly dolls that can kill our enemies, alright, but dolls nonetheless that I can dispose if I get tired of them… Hey, Razor? Wanna some mice?”

Razor though, was deep in thought. His mind raced about the battle that ended all too fast, but he would never forget what he saw. The group of six ponies charging against the six of them, one of each clan like they were, and they decided to take their own classes to prove their superiority.

He and his challenge took the air, a pegasus named Blizzard Bash, a very skilled Ranger, just unlucky to find a better Ranger than himself. While fighting against him (Rangers don’t actually fight, it’s mostly a competition of evade and hit), Razor could see his friends defeating their opponents one by one.

Crimson Burn was the first to do away with his enemy, cutting deeply into the throat of Aloe Vera, a zebra assassin. The next was Azure Dreams, efficiently blocking the magical attacks of the unicorn known as Ice Crystal and utterly killing her with a Blood Purge spell, which expelled all the blood of the body hit by the magic. The shamans duel took the third place with Netoak striking her spear at her opponent’s side, a hippogriff called Emerald Prism, right into the heart. In the meantime, Razor was avoiding the attacks of his opponent Blizzard Bash

Sandstorm and his opponent were more evenly matched, but not by much. Sandstorm slashed from side to side of Silver Armor, allowing him to bleed out from cuts along his legs and left wing. Selena, however, took more time because she tried something new, a spell she learned from the Queen herself. It took her quite some time, and the agonizing screams of her victim never stopped during the process. She was converting the water into his veins into poison, or so she told us.

But then Razor looked at Blizzard Bash. He had stopped shooting at him. The pegasus had special ponyshoes that allowed him a firm grasp on the bow, as earth ponies’ to their swords, and on the right hoof, it had a small indentation to place the arrow and pull the string. After not quite grasping how he could release his grip on the arrows like that, he noticed that the arrow placed into the string was now glowing on its head in a gently blue. Suddenly, Blizzard Bash shot upwards.

“Are you an idiot?” Razor had asked.

“I’m gonna kill you all!” was the answer that Blizzard Bash gave him.

Tired of playing with him, Razor just dragged his arrow and shot, right between Blizzard Bash’s eyes. “Not while you’re dead,” Razor added to the falling corpse.

Razor then landed, but before anyone could say anything, a rather large ice rock hit the ground, missing Razor by mere inches. With everypony looking up, Azure Dreams quickly raised a fire shield and an earth shield just under it in case the fire one wasn’t enough. Everyone could hear the huge ice stones that came from the hot clean sky smashing against the earth shield…

“Hey… Azure…” Razor called from his tree branch. Upon receiving the glare of their Warlock, he continued, “Is there anyway a pegasus can use magic?”

“It’s utterly impossible, Razor,” she answered. “Other than flight and weather magic, pegasi are as much magical creatures as earth ponies.”

“Are you thinking it was that pegasus' doing?” Selena asked after gulping down another mouse. “Don’t be silly, Razor! That would imply that griffins also can do that! And if that is true, you would have already learned something from the Queen!”

“The last arrow he shot was shining. It wasn’t when he brought it up, I am sure of that. He shot it up and then a few moments later a hail is falling over us…”

“Are you sure of that, Razor?” Sandstorm asked.

“I’m not, and that scares me,” Razor answered. “If I am seeing things, it means my vision is failing…” not even folding his wings back, he took his bow, an arrow, placed it on the string, took barely any aim at all and released. The poor squirrel never knew what hit him, staying pinned against the tree behind it, the arrow piercing precisely through its heart. “No… it’s not… It was a hallucination by the heat?”

“We should go back now,” Selena said with a smile, sending a pegasus, the one once called Blizzard Bash, to fetch the squirrel Razor just killed. “If anyone can help in this matter, it’s the Queen. Let’s report it to her and hear what she thinks of it.”

***

“They are still the best champions ever summoned,” said a deep female voice, resonating far from the battle, in the middle of a desert, inside an old temple. She was a large griffin completely green in color, but slightly translucent. She ‘wears’ (since it was also translucent and in the same shade of green, it didn’t mean much to wear anything) what was a typical ranger’s armor, hardened leather suit to help in defense, but would not weight too much and also wouldn’t stop her from having her mobility to shoot. “After they get corrupted, no other champion we summon can deal with them…”

“We surely made a mistake with those six,” another voice, this time an orange pony-shaped translucent being with slightly darker stripes all over her body, a zebra, and with translucent lighter orange ornaments, like rings along her neck and forelegs, earrings and a huge tribal mask on her back, where a spear was also held. “We shouldn’t have added Equestria in the mix…”

“Ah was always against this idea of ya six!” said a red translucent earth pony clad into a heavy-looking armor, also translucent and in the same shade of red. On his back was a heavy-looking weapon, a two edged axe adapted to fit into a pony’s hooves. “It’s our fight! Outsiders should stay outside! But anypony hear me? Oh no… they don’t!”

“It’s not time to discuss whom to blame, my brother,” another translucent being, this time wearing a robe that only left her forelegs out, which were covered in a long glove with two orbs imbedded on it. She was a blue hippogriff and looked around the others in the room. “But if we should keep trying or break the laws we’ve imposed ourselves,”

“The law has an escape route which we haven’t yet reached,” this time it was a pegasus, a translucent purple being wearing a hooded mantle with the hood pulled back. Her wings were covered by special added clothing above from where the wing holes were found. “We must give it one more try. The walls are filled with champions chosen from Equestria to fight this cause. The law is clear: when there’s no more space, we are allowed to intervene directly.”

The last one in the room gave out a sigh. A yellow, translucent unicorn, like all other beings in the room looked back at them all, this one clearly a male, “The time has come for the last summon. As the law dictates, if the chosen champions don’t succeed, we’ll act directly, but let’s hope we won’t need to do so, and to ensure that, we’ll not use only magic to summon them. We’ll scatter and look in Equestria for anyone that would qualify as our champions. After finding them, we’ll look into a way of summoning them.”

The six beings nodded and one by one, they disappeared as if they were made of smoke…

***

“Welcome to the world of Myakros, champion. Amongst many, you belong to a few bold ones which dare to face the dangers of a complete new world. Many before you have tried and failed. Do you think you have what it takes to face this adventure and save this, and all other worlds?”

“Yes, I do.”

“A brave warrior you are. Please, tell me your name.”

“My name is Sparking Thunder.”

“ I see… a name fit for a champion. Here, at Myakros, we have seven main tribes.

“Earth ponies: great physical strength and resistance, a great contact with the earth, but low in magic and knowledge. Most earth ponies are powerful knights.

“Pegasi: winged, extremely fast, great maneuverability and weather magic. Pegasi have average strength and magical power, but a rather low resistance, and are usually rogues.

“Unicorns: gifted with magic and knowledge, but with low physical strength and low speed. Unicorns more often join the magicians.

“Zebra: great knowledge, concentration and dexterity, zebras are balanced in both the art of fighting and the arts of mixing magic and herbs together.

“Griffins: winged half eagle and half lion creatures, very fast and even better at high-speed maneuvers. Keen vision and sharp talons, they often join hunters.

“Hippogriffs: cross between griffons and ponies, they can have different builds. Some are winged and others aren’t but both are gifted with magic normally related with healing.

“Changelings: pony-like insect creatures that can change form at will within certain limitations. Very little is known about them, changelings mostly live secretly between other tribes.

“In which of the tribes were you born? ”

After listening carefully to each of the tribes, Sparking Thunder made his choice, “Griffin.”

“So you’re a griffin called Sparking Thunder, very interesting. Besides your tribe, in Myakros you have to decide on a class you’ll join. There’s a total of six class for you to choose from.”

“The Archers learns the way of Keura, Goddess of Hunters. Their bow and arrows are deadly and they also scouts the land and are the best guides to cross the wilderness.

“The Knights are sturdy followers of Horgen, God of Battles. More skilled in using medium to heavy blades, most of them are extremely physically resistant and wield deadly force.

“The Mages are dedicated students of Shivon, God of Magic. Knowers of powerful spells, they can do massive damage from afar and cause all sorts of afflictions on their enemies.

“The Clerics devote their lives to the teachings of Irilka, Goddess of Healing. They are great with regenerative and support magic, and hold a mastery of martial arts.

“The Botanists follow Lenya, Goddess of Life. Their strength lies in brewing potions and enchanting weapons and armors, even though they are very good around a spear.

“The Rogues are followers of Ternatta, Goddess of Travelers. They are fast and stealthy, preferring to use shorter and lighter, but even so deadly, weapons.

“Which class do you wish to join? ”

He was ready to answer immediately, “Archer!”

“So you’re Sparking Thunder, an archer griffin dedicated to the teachings of Keura. Your hometown is called Austarak, a city of griffins at the heart of the deadly Austarak Forest. Austarak is the more developed griffon city and is home to the biggest of all Keura’s temples. The forest around the city provides hunting and nourishment not only for Austarak’s inhabitants, but is the most source of meat to the tribes that don’t feed exclusively on vegetables.

“Along with the largest of Keura’s Temples, Austarak also holds the main training grounds for Keura’s teachings. The clan, dedicated to Goddess Keura that teaches all the tribes in the way of archery, has grown within the city’s heart, just at the side of the Goddess temple. Other clans also have their space in Austarak, as is tradition between all the tribes, though they’re not as developed as other tribes.

…

Why don’t you return to your city? Let’s see how much it has grown over the years you have left!

And then Sparking Thunder’s vision was completely taken by a sudden flash.

Author's Note

FINALLY! This very first chapter has been read, edited, refined, altered, changed, modified, ripped apart, destroyed, burned, glued together and revised.

And FINALLY it's just up and about! hope you like it, guys! ^^