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“Alright! Everything ready!” I said with a smile, checking myself on the mirror. Today was the day of the Paint Storm, and I was checking if I had everything with me while I waited for the other Guardians to arrive. I patted my Rippers and hummed. “Battle Dome, eh? It’s been quite some time since I’ve been there.” The last time was a non-magical fighting tournament for short-range fighters – I only had my Soul Chasers at the time. Got fourth place.

“They’re heeeeere!” I heard Dolph yell. I nodded absentmindedly and walked out of my bedroom, heading downstairs.

Stepping inside the living room, I found the other Guardians, my family and Twilight waiting for me. I smiled and bumped fists with my friends. “Heya. So, ready to go?”

“Yep. Twilight is miffed because you two didn’t study yesterday, though.” Spike said, pointing to his sister with a thumb.

The alicorn sighed. “It’s ok, I know you had to prepare for the trip. I don’t know why you’re heading now, wasn’t it a long flight from Hybrios to Equestria?” She asked worriedly.

Aguion waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, but who said we’re flying there?” He snapped his fingers and a yellow glyph appeared beside him. “We’re a magical and technological potency, Twilight. We have multiple ways to go from X to Y in a blink; the problem was that we need a rune circle on both our current location and the destination. That’s why we got here by plane last time.”

Twilight nodded. “Can I see it?”

“Sure. And I can crave one on your castle is you want. I’ll put some limitations on it, though; so you’ll only be able to teleport to ours.” Lightning said, remembering what I asked her a few days before. “So you won’t be teleported to Hybrios by accident.”

“I’ll take you up on that.” The local princess agreed with a smile.

“Alright, those that are going to the Paint Storm, step inside the rune.” Dranitta called, stepping inside the rune herself. The Guardians, as well as Aguion, Lightning, Lobis, Bella, Draco, Moonlight and Niner Blaze, nodded and followed her. Lightning walked directly to the rune craved on the wall and put her magic into it.

“The lobby is kinda full today…” My pegasus sister muttered. “We’ll be here for a few seconds until I find an open rune.”

“Lobby?” Sapphyra asked.

“It’s the popular name for the Teleport Grids.” Draco answered.

“Found one!” Lightning beamed. “I’ll take us there… Now!” The rune below us started to glow intensely, and we felt the energy it emanated cover our bodies.

We turned to those who weren’t going with us and waved goodbye. “See you soon, Twilight.” Spike said with a nod and a grin. His sister replied in kind just before our visions went white.

“Woah!” Spike grunted as his head spun, not used to this kind of teleportation. He rapidly shook his head to clear his vision and gaped as he looked around. “Woah…”

We were inside a large building, and everywhere we looked had a teleport circle and dozens of people walking by or teleporting to a circle. Another thing that was easily noticeable is that the gender variation was pretty even, unlike Equestria where there are much more females than males. Spike looked around in awe, recognizing a few species and taking notes of a few he never saw.

The moment we stepped out of the circle – with Spike, Luna, Eclipse, Sapphyra and Soul still amazed by our surroundings – Scarlett and I were immediately grabbed by our waists, making us yelp as our assailant lifted both of us from the ground and put us on his shoulders. We immediately looked to him, and were met by a large grin. “Good to see you two pipsqueaks!” He laughed heartily, and we couldn’t help but join.

The grin and laugh belonged to a very tall, very bulky Tauren Dog. He had a chocolate brown fur and black hair, as well as pristine white horn on either side of his wolf-like head. He wore a tank shirt with the same chestnut brown color as his eyes and black/grey camo pants. On his back was strapped his weapon; a large battle hammer with a black haft bigger than we were, and a heavy-looking block of rock that acted as the head of the hammer. Simple and devastating.

“Hey, Breaker! Long time no see!” Scarlett said as we jumped back to the ground. “Did you put on some weight?”

“Very funny.” Boulder Breaker said with a grin and a shake of his head. He turned to our friends. “Oh? And who are those five?”

Eclipse looked to the seven feet nine inches giant and gulped, making Luna snicker. “I’m Mirror, these and Spike, Soul, Sapphyra and Eclipse.” She said, gesturing to the Guardians Boulder hadn’t met yet.

Breaker’s eyes widened in recognition. “Oh! You’re Fairy and Scarlett’s online friends! They did mention you a few times. Good to finally meet you in person.” He nodded. “Now come on, the others are waiting at the biodome.” He gestured to the exit.

“We’ll go ahead and register the sixteen of us at the Paint Storm. We meet at lunchtime at the Happy Hour.” Draco said before turning to his sister. “Think dad, mom and mama are at home?”

‘Oh right, the Battle Dome is their home city.’ I thought.

Dranitta shrugged. “Maybe. We can check after registering ourselves.”

We walked outside of the building, and the Equestrians looked up at the sky, just to find none. Instead they found out that the city as a whole was a very large dome of metal, and on the center there was a large hole for those who could fly travel between levels faster than taking the elevators. Looking around, they found many people walking around and an infinity of buildings.

Noticing their awe-struck looks, Boulder Breaker smirked. “Welcome to the Battle Dome, the Metal Capital!” He bellowed, gesturing to the city- no, to the metropolis as a whole while my family walked away. “This city represents the Metal-wielders, and is a gigantic dome of metal with many levels both above and below the ground. The first five levels above the ground is the commercial district, where most of the stores are. Above and below the commercial district are both the residential and recreational districts respectively; the residential is mostly house while the recreational is made mostly by arcades, nightclubs, whore houses, and a fuck-ton of environmental battle arenas.” He explained. “Since we’re inside a dome of pure steel, the lights are enchanted with solar-typed Star energy and act as miniature suns, which are good to both us and plant-life here that never see the sun. At night and inside the houses there is normal Light energy illuminating the place.” He approached the rail that impedes people from falling from the level and pointed to the large dome of glass on the center of the ground-level. “And that is our destination, the biodome. The place is infused with Nature energy that keeps the plants alive, and acts as our city’s park. I know I left a lot of things out, but this is what you need to know for now.” He finished.

“Wow… it’s really impressive.” Luna praised.

“Good to hear, princess.” Breaker said with a smirk. Luna’s eyes widened in surprise and she whipped her head to look at the Tauren Dog. “Unlike Fairy, I did master the Aura Vision; and I’ve never seen a Star-wielder aura this strong. Put that with the fact that you’re from Canterlot and it gets easy to connect the dots.” He shook his head. “I’m definitely not the brains of my team, but I’m not stupid either.”

“Fair enough, I guess.” Luna conceded.

“Don’t worry. Here we respect each other, but we don’t put the royalty on a pedestal, not that they act like they’re superior. Hell, Queen Chitin goes to the supermarket herself, for fuck’s sake!” He shook his head. “The biggest ‘pedestal’ here in Hybrios is when you break a few legs and people stop messing with you.”

“I think I’m going to like Hybrios.” Luna chuckled.

“Everyone does.” Breaker smirked.

Minutes later we were walking on the grass of the biodome, heading towards the place our friends were expecting us. During the walk here the others exchanged tales of both our training and the time I was part of the Storm Weavers, Boulder Breaker’s team; we laughed at a few memories of our training, like the ‘Stunning Kiss’ I gave Spike the week before.

We looked ahead and spotted a table where six individuals sat, and immediately recognized them. I unleashed a high-pitched and sharp whistle, reminding those present that I’m part bird, and they turned to see us. Two of them were familiar to the Equestrians, Lupine and Icicle Star waved from their seats, but the other four were new. In fact, one of them was new to me too.

A completely black colored griffon raised his head slightly to look at us. He was wearing a dark brown hooded denim robe that was ripped on the edges; it was open, so we could see the white t-shirt with a griffon skull print under it. He was wearing a black denim pants, also ripped near his paws. Between his wings, a scythe made of bones could be seen. Shadow Talon smirked and flipped the bird at us playfully.

At his right sat a grey feathered, black furred griffoness. She was wearing a white blouse with a black sports bra beneath, not really hidden because of the contrast, and grey denim jeans. She looked like a griffoness out of Gryphos, I couldn’t even see her weapon, but I could sense a very powerful aura. She smiled and waved confidently.

On Shadow’s left side sat a black changeling with greyish white hair and wings. He was wearing a simple grey t-shirt under a dark blue hoodie and a blue denim pants. On his back was his weapon, a sniper rifle with more than a half of his height. Mist waved shyly.

In front of Mist, a kirin turned on her seat to look at us. She had silver colored scales, with a row of bright green spines on her tail, which ended with a sharp blade that clacked with electricity from time to time. Her hair and eyes were a shade or two lighter than her spines, and two small horns protruded from either side of her head, arching upwards slightly. She was wearing a green blouse and blue denim pants, with a blue strap hugging her midsection horizontally. At her side, a white-rafted, green-bladed spear was resting against the table; its blade also had electricity running in it, an enchantment its wielder put herself. Sarah tried to hide a smile.

“Hello, fuckers!” I greeted merrily. Shadow laughed and extended his hand to Icicle, who grumbled and gave him a bag with a few bits inside. I raised an eyebrow. “My expectation lowers every time I meet you guys.” I sighed with a smile.

“We can say the same.” Shadow rebutted while checking the bag’s contents. “I bet you were going to call us ‘fuckers’ during your greeting, and Icicle said you’d call us ‘bitches’.”

“And if I had said ‘assholes’?” I asked.

“We both lose and give you the bits.” Icicle grumbled.

“Crap.” I muttered before smiling. “It’s good to see you guys again.”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, shut up and give us a hug, idiot.”

I laughed and ran to give them a hug, Scarlett following me; my friends observed the scenes with smiles, happy to see old friends reencountering each other.

A few moments later we all sat on the table; the sequence on my side was Sarah, me, Spike, Luna, Eclipse, Soul and Sapph, while on the other was Mist, Shadow, Griffoness, Lupine, Icicle, Scarlett and Viper. “So, those are Spike, Luna – or Mirror –, Eclipse, Soul and Sapphyra.” I said, putting an arm around the purple drake’s neck. “These are Shadow Talon, Mist and Sarah.”

Shadow smirked at how close I was holding Spike. “Got a boyfriend? What, aiming for the ‘Dragon Rider’ achievement?” he joked.

“And how much do you need to pay yours to even sit on your side?” I shot back.

The griffoness snorted and quickly put a hand on her beak to muffle her giggles. Shadow put a hand on his chest and hissed. “Ouch.”

“So, what’s your name, cutie?” I asked the griffoness.

She smiled. “My name’s Evocent. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Fairy and Scarlett.”

My sister and I both nodded, and I frowned slightly. I’ve heard of this girl somewhere, but where? “How did you guys meet those two?” Luna nodded to me and Scarlett.

“The three of us are friends ever since our first years of school. Here we have a partnership program, and we can ask to be on the same class as our friends during all the grades. It helped that all three of us wanted to be headhunters.” Sarah said with a smirk.

“Same way a few years later.” Shadow said.

“We met them on school also. I was on the same class these two were, and we met them during recess.” Breaker smiled.

“I met them during the headhunter school. The teacher formed random teams for a double battle mini-tournament and I got paired with Fairy. A few days later she helped me choose and name my weapon.” Mist said with a coy smile.

“You guys met her online, right? What game?” Shadow asked.

“League of Legends.” Spike said.

“One of the best mid and sups I’ve ever met.” Eclipse nodded.

“Elsword. They helped Soul and I understand the game.” Sapphyra added.

“HearthStone. Spike introduced me to her so she could tell me just what the hell I was doing wrong.” Luna shrugged.

Talon blinked in surprise. “Huh, I was worried you’d have a stick up your ass like most of Equestria’s nobles. Their idiocy is pretty known around here.” He snorted.

Luna cringed and nodded. “Yeah, fortunately my fellow princesses aren’t part of this group. They don’t really like swear jokes, though.”

“Fair enough.” Breaker conceded.

“So, what the hell happened on the mission you went when I moved to Equestria?” I asked.

“It’s a long story…” Talon sighed. “But basically there were rumors of a group following what that guy did on your last mission, and we were sent to investigate.”

“I was captured by those guys, and left there when they moved to another location and noticed they wouldn’t need me.” Evocent frowned. “They rescued me, and in thanks I offered to help them with anything they need. Icicle suggested that I joined their team, and since I had nothing better to do, I joined them.”

I inwardly frowned. ‘Seriously, what? Nothing better to do?’

‘Yeah, there’s a lot of holes in this story.’ Illuse agreed.

‘Well, they are abridging the story. Maybe they forgot to say something.’ I thought.

‘Maybe. Hey, could you let me out?’

“Hey, where’s Illuse?” Icicle asked.

I laughed at the coincidence. “She just asked for me to release her.” I shook my head. “Alright, Arcane Familiar: Illuse.” Same arm, same aura, same flash and Illuse appeared on my head.

The others looked at Illuse in surprise. “Heya, fuckers.” The Familiar said happily and the others slumped.

“Should’ve known.” Sarah muttered under her breath.

Illuse yelped in surprise as Icicle pulled her from my head and immediately started nuzzling her. “Cute, cute, cuuuuute!”

Illuse rolled her eyes and looked at me. “Hey, didn’t your family say something about a restaurant?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it’s better if we go. See you guys during the announcement of the rules.” I smiled and stood up, being followed by my friends. Illuse teleported to my head.

“It was a pleasure to meet you.” Luna said with a nod.

“Same.” Evocent nodded back.

We waved and walked away, heading for the restaurant for lunch before going to the announcement and, afterwards, the Paint Storm.