Heroes of Atria

After a brief walk, the four ponies arrived at Nawir's house. It wasn't impressive, just a small cottage on the outskirt of the village with a patio attached to it where there were remains of a blacksmith's forge. Nawir led them all inside and locked the door behind them.

"One of your ancestors was a blacksmith back during the war?" Darim asked the earth pony.

"Yeah. He was heartbroken about it at the time, but the King and Queen gave him lots of bits for reimbursement."

"Interesting." Darim replied absentmindedly as everyone took a seat by a wooden table in the middle of the room. "How old are you Nawir, if you don't mind me asking."

Nawir leaned back in his chair. He put his legs up on the table and crossed them before putting his hooves behind his head. "Oh gosh, hadn't been asked that in a while. Twenty-four if I remember correctly. Hard to remember when nobody asks you."

Darim nodded absentmindedly. "And where did you name come from exactly?"

Ancero cleared her throat to draw attention to herself. "Guys, lets get down to business. What all do we know?"

"They kill ponies, and likely eat them." Solar chimed in. "At seemingly no provocation."

"They're tough fuckers." Nawir added.

"Despite their massive size, they can somehow fit inside pony-sized doors and wreck your basement." Darim added with a hint of resentment. "I don't think that's covered by insurance."

"Good good." Ancero nodded. "When was the first time any of you saw them?"

"A day or two before I found you unconscious." Solar replied.

"The day he found you." Darim answered.

"Probably about a month ago." Nawir added.

Ancero put her hoof to her chin as she thought. "The Pony Kingdom has a population of twenty six million. The odds of any of the four of us having the first sighting is highly unlikely. They likely started five months ago. Do we know of any major changes in the Griffon Kingdom from that long ago?"

Solar raised his hoof.

"You don't have to raise your hoof Solar," Ancero facehoofed, "just say it."

"Well, uhh, Glik did go on a tour of the Pony Kingdom five months ago to make sure the griffons making residence were being treated well. It lasted about a week."

"So it's likely during that time that something happened."

Nawir set his chair back down and looked at Ancero. "Do you think it was a defector of some sort, a terrorist?"

"Possibly, griffons are stronger than ponies, and they could be upset about how prosperous our kingdom is."

"And they knew that Glik was out at the time, so they could breed their super soldiers easily with little legal interference."

"Perhaps, or-" Ancero stopped herself when the group heard some commotion outside.

"What was that?" Solar asked, getting out of his seat.

"Let's check it out." Darim suggested, heading for the door. The unicorn unlocked it and led the way out, with Solar close behind.

Nawir grabbed Ancero's shoulder to stop her from going out. "Do they know, about us?" Nawir asked her.

"No, it's too risky."

"What about him?"

Ancero shook her head. "It'd be best to keep that secret as long as possible."

Nawir nodded before heading out after the two stallions.

A few houses down, a guard pony was talking to a griffon at the front door of the griffon's house.

"What do you mean I need to leave?" the griffon spat, clearly angry.

The guard pony swallowed nervously. "King Dawn made a new decree, all griffons are to leave the kingdom immediately."

"What for? I haven't hurt a single pony for the thirty years I've lived here!"

"There have been reports of attacks made by griffons on innocent civillians, the King is taking no risks." A noticeable group of ponies had gathered to see what was going on.

"This is complete bull! Why should I leave if I've done nothing?" the griffon's voice raised to a shout.

"I'm sorry sir, but you have 24 hours to leave, or else all guards will have permission to kill you."

The griffon slashed at the guard in anger, his claws grazing the guard's armor. Though he wasn't cut, the blunt force was still enough to stagger the smaller pony. "Take your decree and shove it!"

Nawir ran up to the two. "Hey, what's going on here?"

"Get out of the way shrimp, this guard's been discriminatory against me since the day I moved in. I'm sick of it!" the griffon put his claw on Nawir's chest and tried to push him aside. "This is between me and him!" The crowd of ponies gasped and took a step back.

Nawir set his hoof on the griffon's claw, not moving a cetimeter from the force of the shove. "You better tell me what happened right now, because all I know is this guard was doing his job and you just assaulted him." The two locked eyes.

"I don't want to fight you kid, step back and I won't hurt you."

Nawir shot the beast a devilish grin. "I'd like to see you try."

"Fine then." The griffon went to swing his free claw at Nawir. Nawir grabbed the claw on his chest with both hooves and swung the griffon over him, smashing him onto the dirt road.

"Mistake number one, don't announce your attack."

The griffon let out an eagle screech before rolling over and standing back up. "Alright then, I won't go easy on you." He darted at Nawir with claws outstretched.

Nawir sidestepped the attack then tackled the downed griffon. Nawir wrapped his hind legs around the griffon's neck and pulled one of his claws back as much as he could without causing damage. "Mistake two, don't fight someone stronger than you. Now you better explain what happened here."

"I don't have to say shit!" the griffon tried to slash with his free claw. Before he could connect with flesh, Darim had grabbed it and restrained it with his magic.

"Mistake number three, don't fight if you're outnumbered. I'll ask one more time. Whats going on here?"

"Tch. Fine. This guard pony here tried to kick me from my house for no reason."

"I find that hard to believe, after all, you just attacked him for doing his job."

"Did you not hear him? He doesn't have a reason to kick me out!"

The guard pony got up with Ancero's help and walked over to the griffon. "As I said, due to the recent griffon attacks throughout the kingdom, all griffons are to be evicted from the kingdom, regardless of citizenship."

Solar ran over to the guard. "Wait, was this King Dawn's command?"

"Yes."

Solar stared at the guard. "Then it's a lot worse than I expected."

Ancero's eyes went wide. "We're on the brink of war."

"Do you promise not to attack the guard and listen to what he says?" Nawir asked the griffon.

"Fine." the griffon replied, defeated.

"Good." Nawir got off the griffon and Darim released his magic. "We're wasting daylight, we need to find two more ponies. Let's go guys." Without waiting for a response from any of his new allies, Nawir took off down the dirt road.

Ancero chuckled to herself. "He hasn't changed one bit." She turned to Solar and Darim. "Let's go boys." she called back, then turned and chased after her friend.

"I suppose we don't have much choice then." Darim said, starting his chase with Solar short behind.