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// Prologue: The Draconian Empire 
// Story: Demons of the Past pt. 1 
// by Tod309 
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Equestria. The land of the Ponies and a country founded on the principles of friendship, harmony, liberty and love. In this land the three Pony races, the Unicorns, Pegasi, and the Earth Ponies lived in relative peace and harmony with each other and with the various other creatures the also inhabited the land of Equestria. And under the benevolent rule of Celestia and Luna Equestria experienced a period of prosperity and peace that was unparrelleled for it's time in the years following the defeat of King Sombra and the imprisonment of Discord. However, the same could not be said for another country.

Far off in the east, beyond Equestria's eastern shore and the Griffon Kingdom lies the nation of Draconia, a vast and powerful empire. Like Equestria Draconia was populated by many diverse creatures with Ponies being the dominant species. And across it's vast domain were many great cities, complete with temples, palaces, coliseums, and monuments to Draconias power and majesty. But unlike Equestria Draconia was a cruel and wicked empire that oppressed and enslaved all whom they vanquished and slaughtered any that resisted them. And ruling over this evil empire were a pair of demonic Dragons: Draga, the spirit of Evil and Destruction and Mori, the spirit of Decay and Corruption. Under their rule many nations fell to the might of Draconia. And eventually their drive for new conquests would lead them to Equestria.

In response to the threat Celestia and Luna go forth to confront the the demonic Dragons and fight for the freedom of Equestria, armed with the Elements of Harmony the most powerful artifacts known to Ponykind. Unfortunately the Elements proved to be ineffective against them. And it was at this moment when all hope seemed lost that the Princesses recieved some unexpected help: the being known only as Veritas the spirit of Virtue and Light. And with his power in the Elements the Princesses managed to defeat Draga and Mori and imprison them far beneath the earths crust. Equestria was now safe. And with their lords defeated the Draconian army fled.

Almost imediately after arriving back home Draconias lords, nobles, generals and other government officials began discussing who would rule the empire in Draga's and Mori's place. However they all wanted to rule Draconia and this led to quarreling and infighting amongst them. Soon after they began taking up arms against each other, leading to a great civil war that would tear the empire apart into numerous factions fighting one another for dominance. This civil war would last for 1,000 yrs. 

Meanwhile in Equestria, things were relatively calm with the exception of Luna turning into Nightmare Moon and attempting to cover the land in eternal night, and later her banishment to the moon by Celestia. However for 1,000 yrs. under Celestia's reign Equestria experienced a great period of peace and prosperity, broken on ocassion by some trivial quarrels here and there, but nothing too serious. 

As for Draga and Mori, though they were imprisoned deep in the bowels of the earth and they had lost much of their former strength their spirits had lost none of their potency and could roam the surface, allowing them to see all that was happening above them. For centuries they watched and waited all the while devising a plan to destroy the Princesses and Equestria once they were free.

Before long they came aware of Celestia taking in an apprentice: a Unicorn filly by the name of Twilight Sparkle and her Dragon hatchling named Spike. For years they watched the young Unicorn as she progressed in her studies on magic with great interest and contempt; anyone who was a friend of Celestia's was an enemy of theirs. And later they would witness this mare and 5 others, another Unicorn named Rarity, 2 Earth Ponies named AppleJack and Pinkie Pie, and 2 Pegasi named Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, purge Princess Luna of the being Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony. And would later see them wield the Elements again against Discord.

All this time they watched these 6 friends as they learned of the magic of friendship and helped the Princess maintain harmony through Equestria. And with every passing day their hatred for the 6 mares and the Princesses grew. At the same time they felt that the time had come when they would finally be able to break from their molten prison now that most of their former strength had returned. But in order to exact their revenge on Equestria and destroy the Princesses and the 6 Element bearers still needed a little help from their old home country.  
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Neighneva, Choltean Kingdom
Southeastern Draconia

A lone middle-aged Unicorn stallion ascended the step of the great ziggurat-like temple complex at the heart of the city of Neighneva, the capitol city of the kingdom of Choltea in the southeastern region of the former Draconian Empire. The stallion in question was the king of the Choltea, Magog: the most ruthless and feared of all the Draconian warlords. His coat was steel grey with a dark purple, almost black, mane and tail and eyes that were blood red. Upon his head was a horn that was filed into a fine sharp point, as was his front teeth, a common custom among Draconian warrior stallions regardless of faction of clan affiliation so as to inflict more damage when biting an enemy.

On his head was a dark grey spiny steel crown fitted with a large obsidian stone flanked by smaller obsidian stones. Around his neck was a golden gorget with reliefs of warrior stallions engaged in battle all across its surface. On his body he wore a coat of polished steel scale-mail armour that covered not only his back, flank, and chest but also his underbelly and legs with his hooves clad in steel shoes crowned with coronels. On his left side was a straight-bladed sword housed in a black scabbard. Over his back was a long dark grey cape lined with black fur and stitched with various geometric patterns in dark purple, dark red, and black.

But his most distinguishing traits were his enormous size, physical strength and magical abilities; he stood slightly taller than Princess Luna of Equestria. His magical abilities rivaled, possibly even surpassed, those of an Alicorn. And his brute strength was the stuff of legends: he once killed a Minotaur warrior by cracking his neck with his only his forelegs, ripped the skin off a Griffon chieftain with only his teeth and pulled down the iron gates of a great fortified city with his bare hooves. 

The reason for his going to the temple was to consult with the High Priest named Sylas about a series of recurring dreams he's been having for the past couple of weeks. As he finally reached the top of the great temple he proceded to enter the worship center through a set of iron-plated wooden doors embossed with reliefs of Draconias long lost kings, Draga and Mori. The inside of the worship center was a large room with a roof covering above 70% of the room that was supported by a series of post and lintel columns. Various tapestries and banners of various colors(mostly dark colors) adorned the left and right walls of the room. The chamber was iluminated by torches on the walls and columns and a chandelier handing from the ceiling.

At the opposite end of the room where there was no roof were a pair of statues in the form of Dragons, idols made in the images of Draga and Mori, on a large stone base with an altar in front of them and no wall behind it. Outside was a fairly impressive view of the city below where one could see the Coliseum, the Great Forum, the river port, some of the lesser temples, and the Neighneva Military Acadamy and barracks. Beyond that was the countryside and off on the horizon was a great black mountain chain of jagged rock sticking out of the earth like a line of crooked sharp teeth. Their peaks were obscured by masses of black clouds that looked more like smoke than regular clouds iluminated periodically by flashes of lightning and an ever present reddish orange glow from the other side of the mountains. The was the Heart of Draconia; the personal domain of Draga and Mori themselves.

At the moment they were undergoing some maintainance after the previous nights activities by the priests. Each of the idols were being polished by a pair of airborne priests, 3 Pegasi and 1 Griffon. Behind them a single Unicorn priest was simultaniously shoveling ash out of the furnace hidden under the idols stone base while putting more wood inside with magic. At the altar a Zebra priest was attempting to scrub blood off its surface. And 2 Earth Pony priests were cleaning out a firepit between the altar and the idols: one of them was shovelling ash and coals into a metal pail while the other was putting what looked like charred bones into a special clay urn. All of them wore black robes that obscured most of their features except for wings, eyes, horns or beaks.

There was another priest off to Magog's right who wore a similar robe except his had red highlights along the hems and seams and around his neck he wore a gold chain with a double Dragon head pendant on it. The priest in the robe was an Earth Pony stallion with a rust colored coat and a dark grey mane that was unkempt, as if it hadn't been washed in a long time, and sulphor yellow eyes. He was obvious a higher ranking priest but not the one Magog was looking for.  At the sound of their king approaching, his steel shod hooves making a loud metallic clop with every step on the stone floor, all the priests stopped what they were doing and bowed before him. 

"Rise," their king commanded. And they complied.

"Good morning, great lord," said the rust coated priest,"what brings to our humble temple sire?"

"I wish to speak with the High Priest Sylas about an important matter." Magog responded, "And I wish to speak with him in private."

"Understood, great lord." the priest answered. He then clopped his forehooves together, signaling the other priests to leave. The priests that were cleaning out the furnace and firepit took their ash buckets and urn with them.

Magog was soon alone in the room. While he waited for the arrival of the High Priest Sylas he looked up to admire the idols of the Great Dragons. The image of Draga to his left resembled a bipedal dinosaur covered in armored scales and spines. His head was crowned with 5 horns at the top with a single horn at the end of his short rounded muzzle, his mouth open in a roar. His arms were outstretched palms facing up. On his back were a pair of large bat-like wings.

The image of Mori to his right resembled a zombified pterosaur with bones and muscle exposed at various points from gaping holes in his decomposing skin. Along his back were rows of long needle-like spines from the nape of his neck to the end of his tail which ended in a wicked looking stinger, half the tail consisting of exposed vertibrae. His head, which sat on a long neck that curved into a gentle S-shape, was little more than a skull with the jaw bone being attached to the cranium by some exposed muscle. The skull was crowned by a pair of backward pointing horns. His mouth was also open in a roar sporting a pair of long fangs. His winged arms were also outstretched with palms facing upwards. His fingers and toes ended in wicked hook-like talons with some digits being exposed bone. And each of his wings were a single sheet of membrane supported by a single very long finger. 

Both figures were fitted with special glowing stones for eyes and thin wisps of smoke came out of their mouths from the furnace below as the idols themselves were actually hollow. And with a big enough fire in the furnace, it could actually appear as though they were breathing fire. 

His attention then turned to the stone altar, the once white stone was now permanently stained crimson from the blood of countless sacrifices. It was a rectangular stone table with a groove carved along the top for blood from a sacrifice to channel through with a spout at the front for it to pour out into a special chalice below. The top of the altar is seperate from the main body but were attached by a pair of hinges in the back. On either side of the top were handles for the priests to hold when they lift the top up to slide the sacrificial victim into the firepit behind it. Normally this would be covered by iron grating that would open up when the victim was ready for cremation. 

After a while the High Priest finally arrived. He was an aged Griffon with greying frayed feathers and a now rough scaly beak. He was dressed in a black robe embroidered all over with various designs in red, orange or white. Strange glyphs in Old Draconian were scribbled all along the hems and seams. Around his neck was a ceremonial dagger along with several gold chains outfitted with medallions, trinkets, baubles, charms and other items. On his chest was an iron gorget embossed with reliefs of Draga and Mori. On his arms and tail were gold, silver, bronze and iron rings and bracelets. When he approached his king he bowed before him and said,

"Good morning, great lord. What is this important matter that you wanted to discuss with me about?"

"It's about these series of dreams I've been having for the past several weeks. Though seem more like visions than regular dreams. In my dream I'm standing in the middle of a charred wasteland surrounded the same kind of black rocky mountains that surround the Heart of Draconia and the sky above me is hidden behind black clouds. Suddenly out of the earth emerge statues of the Great Dragons(points to the images of Draga and Mori) accompanied by the banners of all the other kingdoms, tribes and faction of Draconia. Shortly afterwards the statues come to life and all the banners burst into flames. But instead of being consumed by the flames they into the ancient Draconian imperial standard." 

He points to the pair of banners near the entrance of the room. There were 2 tattered black banners with profiles of Draga and Mori on the front with their backs to each other. Draga's profile to the right was done in red with black stripes, with his mouth open in a roar and a single reddish orange eye that appeared to look forward. Mori's profile was a white skeletal Dragon head with skull and neck vertibrae, mouth also open and a single black eye with a red dot for a pupil that also appeared to look forward.

"I then find myself standing a green meadow surrounded on all sides by trees. Above me the sky is clear and blue. But on the side of a nearby mountain I saw the accursed city of Canterlot." He scowled when he said the name 'Canterlot' as if the very name of the city offended him."Next I see the city in flames, along with the meadow and trees and the sky itself was darkened by the smoke and the river that ran out of the city had turned to blood. After that I find myself looking over the entire land of Equestria displayed out before me as if on a map or if I were looking down on the land from high in the air. I see a small spark in heart of Equestria that soon turns into a great ring of fire that spreads all across the land until everything is consumed by the flames and the rivers, lakes, streams and even the seas around Equestria turn into blood. After that the dream ends." Magog finally concludes his story of the dream.

"So tell me, old friend, can you decipher this dream?" He asks Sylas.

Sylas simply stood there, eyes closed and brows furrowed meditating on what his king had just told him. He was like this for a while until he pulled out a small wooden container from under his robes and began to shake it vigorously in his claws, producing a rattling sound. He then opened up the container and spilled its content all over the floor. Its contents were small bones of various sizes, most likely knuckle bones from either a Griffon, Dragon or Minotaur. Sylas looked at the bones, his index claw moving over them like following letters in a book, and murmuring something to himself. This was a practice known as knuckle bone reading; a form of divining that used the positions of bones to make prediction or interpret signs and visions. 

Magog never understood such practices; this sort of craft was for the priests not a warrior king like himself. However he did understand the importance of the priests to Draconian society regardless of clan or factional affiliation. For although Draga and Mori were still imprisoned deep beneath, thanks to those Equestrian witches Celestia and Luna, they could still communicate to them through the priests and their arcane practices.

Moments later he finally spoke again. "I believe I can, great lord, for I too have been having visions and dreams like yours."

Magogs eyes widened. "You have?"

"Yes, sire." Sylas responded. "When I first started having them, I wasn't sure what to make of them. For many days I sought the council of the Great Dragons themselves through the reading of the bones, the livers, the stars, the casting of lots and every other form of divination I know seeking the meaning of the dreams. And the readings would all turn out the same no matter how many times I cast the bone or the lots, read the stars, or how many livers I read they always turn out the same readings."

"And what do these readings say Sylas?" Magog asked with eagerness in his voice combined with a small hint of impatience.

"That the return of Draga and Mori is upon us."