My Little Pony: Griffonia

Chapter 1: Enter the Forest

The Griffon Kingdom has an ancient past. Some would say the Kingdom is older than Equestria. In ancient times before the founding of Griffonstone, the lands to the north were wooded and occupied by many tribes linked by trading between one another. It was a land rich with gold in their mountains and streams, and iron in the foothills.

One of the most influential of the tribes is the Ari griffons. Forest-dwelling griffons, they would be the first line of defense against any attack. This tribe is famous for it's warriors. One of them would go down in history, and bring pride to the heart of every griffon. She would be viewed in infamy among those ponies that faced her: Goda.

A bald eagle-black panther griffon, a birth defect caused her whole body to be coated in a shade of black from beak tip to tail. With a free spirit and a love of swimming, Goda is the next in line to be chief. One day, an envoy came up the trail. They were wearing gold armor with blue crests. Something about them didn't sit well with her.

She looked down at them from the branches of a tree, and flew back to the village with much haste, "Father, we have visitors on their way," she said to him,

Her father was named Gerulf, a typical bald eagle-lion griffon, he is the chief and a veteran warrior, "I know, this is indeed unexpected," he said to his daughter,

Goda is not his daughter by birth. Her birth mother died in egg laying. Her birth father was so stricken with grief that he committed suicide days later. The queen at the time, Gunda, took her in and raised her alongside the chief. His wife watched as Goda turned into a beautiful griffon, and a skilled warrior with their traditional weapons.

Gunda has told her the story years ago of the day she found her, and her words were never forgotten by her, "It does not matter who you are, or what you look like, to me and to your father, you will always be our daughter," Gunda once said to Goda, sadly the Queen would not live to see her go to battle as she passed on due to illness

Gerulf grinned lightly to his daughter with her matching cloak and tunic. Goda had a pair of perfectly wide and healthy looking haunches behind her with an unrivaled smoothness or so her she-griffon friends in the village tell her, "You look just like your mother, and with her spirit too," he complimented as the village guards bowed to him.

"Be steady now, Goda, we want to civil around our guests," Gerulf instructed to his daughter as the ponies entered the chief's hut, "welcome...welcome,"

Gerulf wore a winged 'Agen' style helmet in battle with wolf skins, a dark green tunic and a chainmail hauberk, "Chief Gerulf, we are honored to meet you,"

Something about these visitors did not sit well with his daughter at his side. She could see the looks of disgust at their customs from cooking and eating meat to the primitive huts these griffons lived in, "Do not try and earn our favor with your empty praises, ponies, you will not earn it in this village," said Goda, the chief signaled to stop.

"What makes this she-griffon think she can speak to a stallion like that?" asked the envoy accusingly toward Chief Gerulf, the Griffon Chief stood up from his carved wooden throne, and walked with the envoy around the village to cool their tongues. She followed to make sure that the chief would be safe, and that these ponies will not kill him.

"Though my daughter speaks out of turn, she does make a valid point, why have you come to our village at this time?" asked Chief Gerulf, a skilled veteran of a warrior with a sword called a Spatha and often an oval or coffin-shaped shield. The weapons of the Ari tribe were the longsword, hewing spear, war club, and the broad axe.

"Land and Air," said the envoy, the chief was anything but convinced by his rather odd request, "all our great princess asks of you is an offering of Land and Air,"

Gerulf looked to his daughter whom these ponies just insulted, and their rudeness concluded with his actions, "So sorry," he said, and decapitated the envoy,

The cries for blood and battle echoed among the woods. Goda cleaved one down the skull with her sword while a few of her female griffon warriors ran the Equestrian legionaries with spears, and split skulls with war clubs and axes. Gerulf sheathed back his sword while his warriors, tercels and hens, finished off the envoy's guards, "More will come,"

"Yes, more will come, and I would rather give my life for this land than see it corrupted by those ponies and their decadent ways," said Gerulf, the heads of the envoy and his officer were nailed to the trees at the entrance of the forest as a warning. The bodies were burned in a deep pit away from the village, and buried, "a funeral fit for a pony,"

"Prepare for battle, have your warriors ready at the drop of a blade, I will call upon the other chiefs to gather at our village, and answer the call to arms," Gerulf said to his daughter, and she followed. Blades were sharpened on whetstones, spears and shields were prepared. A white dazzle-lightning design was painted on Goda's entire left half.

A huge bonfire roared in the middle of the village, and the villagers made food for the chiefs of the surrounding villages, "Beautiful and deadly," said Gerulf,

"Mother once said that is how you like your women, and that she is unrivaled," said Goda, her father smirked a grin. To the ponies, these griffons are Barbarians