There was nothing but black smoke billowing, thunderous roars echoed around. A young child stood in front of a home, hair as black as ravens soaring in the skies, warm brown eyes in confusion and fright, hearing cries of pain and shouts coming from inside. A man dressed in blood and furs stumbles out of the door. Blood drenched down his face as he collided with the grass, gaping open wounds on his chest and back.
He looked up at the child, blood pouring from his mouth as he opened, yelling out one word.
RUN!
The man slumped as another man, a tall bulky man stepped out of the smashed burning doorway. In his hand, held by the hair was a head of a woman of similar features to the child, mouth gaping open as blood dripped from the neck where it was chopped.
The child turned on her bare feet and turned ahead down the path to her village. Screaming out that the Raiders were here.
By the time she got there however, her village was up in a blaze. Sounds of screams echoed around as the Raiders went house to house, killing and maiming people left and right. A sight of pure hell.
The child couldn't believe what she was seeing. Had the gods abandoned them? Was this punishment? As she tried to run through the blood soaked streets, a couple of the Raiders grabbed her. She screamed and thrashed around but it made little difference as they dragged her to the center of the village.
Many bodies, young and old, lay waste, most have lost their heads. The Raiders drug the child up to a blood-soaked stump and a man wielding a large axe, already stained by the blood of her people.
And she was next.
The child pleaded and begged but it fell on deaf ears. She was brought up to the stump, bent her over and held her head down.
As the Axe wielding Raider raised his weapon up, thunderous roars bellowed in the skies of sounds of a storm was upon them.
A strong burst of fire shot from the sky, hitting the axeman, consuming him in its flames.
Screaming in pain, the other two Raiders let go of the child as a large creature landed. Using the burning human to cushion its landing. Standing taller than anything a lot has seen, massive wings kicked up dust and furled in place, tail whipping.
Wearing a timber wolf pelt loincloth, a red sash across his wide chest, scales of dark green and deep purple spikes, painted on his scales was dark warpaint, in his right hand was a large purple crystal staff with a large red staff in the center glowing brightly.
The DragonLord…
As The Dragonlord made his appearance, more dragons came from their Temple and swooped down upon the Raiders. Along with the dragons were the Mordi, the humans who served in their guards, all of them donned in various scaled armor, eyes as draconic as the dragons who were there. All of them came down and attacked the invading party.
The two Raiders who had taken the child drew their weapons out and attacked the Dragonlord with shouts.
The Bloodstaff glowed and the lord raised his hand out at them. The earth trembled beneath the Raiders before vine shot out. Vines with many sharp thorns jagged out quickly wrapped their bodies. The thorns stabbing and piercing their flesh, the Raiders struggled and moved, only having the thorns dig into their bodies more and more as the vines wrapped around them.
With the vines completely covering the Raiders, it squeezed on itself, blood splattering on the ground, tearing their bones and meat to bits, ripping everything to shreds before both slumping.
The child gasped as she watched it all from her place, watching the onslaught before turning her gaze up at the mighty dragon. Watching the glow of the Bloodstaff died and his emerald gaze turned to the tiny child before him.
In comparison, the little girl was the size of the spade of his tail.
The Dragonlord didn't utter a word as he simply knelt before her, and offered her his hand.
The child was a bit hesitant, but when she placed her hand upon his, as ruthless as he was towards the Raiders, the way the Dragonlord held her hand was as soft and gentle as a feather. He then picked her up with ease and soon her and the other survivors were taken back to the Temple.
Many years later, that same child grew to a grown woman, a mighty warrior herself, fighting fiercely in the front lines with the rest of the Mordi, her eyes blazing in gold as she used her powers given by the dragons. Becoming a force of nature of her own.
And at the end of one of her many battles, she stopped and turned to the Dragonlord who rescued her long ago and bowed respectfully towards him during his conquest.
"Hello? Hello, earth to Rachel!" Lucy yells in Rachel's ear, waving her hand over her eyes. "Come back to Earth!"
Rachel blinked several times, having fingers snapped repeatedly in her face. She waved them off. "Okay, okay stop snapping." She grunted. She turned to see all the girls in the tree home.
"Sorry, but we called your name like a half of a dozen times, are you alright?" Serenity asked.
Rachel didn't know how to answer that herself. "I dozed off a bit, I'm fine."
Applejack then hands her a bowl. One quick sniff, Rachel smelt deer stew. "Now I'm really fine, thank you." She grabs the stew and spoon.
" You sure you're okay? " Spike asked , looking up from the leg bone he was gnawing on.
She nodded as she ate it. Though the baby wanted raw meat, Rachel was happily satisfied with it cooked.
Mama was going to eat cooked meat, the baby will just have to compromise. She may also be a carnivore but she doesn't like her meat raw. No matter how much dragon she has and what it is, cooked meat was heaven.
"This is extraordinary," Cassandra said as she snapped photos of the home. "The integrity of this tree and how it was sealed up preserved just about everything. I mean, look at this altar!"
Rachel glanced over at it as she shoved spoonfuls of the stew in her mouth. "Humans used to worship dragons as Gods, and Deities. Before they were forced to go to Equestria."
"It's still fascinating to see something from back then. I mean, it looks like time just stopped in this house."
Rachel chuckled. "If you're fascinated with this place, just wait until you get to the Temple. A lot more history went down that will blow your mind."
"And so much to explore as we're finding this staff of yours."
POP POP POP!
Sounds of gunfire echoed in the distance, both Rachel and Spike whipped their heads up to that sound.
"Guns?" Applejack hummed. "Hunters?"
Rachel shook her head. "That sounds like an automatic rifle." She flexed her right forearm. Remembering she got shot by one of those guns.
"Is it close?" Sunset asked.
"Don't know." Rachel muttered before hearing another round of gunfire. "I'm gonna finish quickly and move. Don't think we need to linger anymore."
"Already packing up the meat for later." AJ said as she and Dash packed and preserved the deer.
The gang swiftly moved for the next day and a half, trudging through the forests, following the map given to them until they finally reached the Temple of Draconia.
Built up against a mountain, the temple was massive, large stone statues of dragons lined up a cobblestone path, now surrounded by razor wire and armed forces of the U.N.
The girls and Spike stood near a tall hill, trying to keep themselves hidden from the peering eyes.
"Seeing any movement?" Sunset Shimmer asked Cassandra as she peered through a set of binoculars.
"Seen a couple of trucks passing through the checkpoint." Cassandra responded. "Looks like they are unloading massive equipment inside."
"Do you know what they're bringing in?" Rachel asked.
Cassandra nodded. "No, they're in crates, whatever it is, it can't be good." She moved the binoculars then. "There's a lot of trucks in here, maybe we can use one of them as our ride out of here once we're done."
Rainbow Dash then comes up to them from the sky. "There's a lot of guys here. It'll take an insane amount of luck just to sneak in."
"We could come in with disguises." Elizabeth suggested. "I'm sure I can whip up some uniforms or we borrow some?"
"I'm 6 '5 in this body; I'm taller back home. I don't think these guys have uniforms for tall folks." Rachel grunted.
"Maybe we can find a way around?" Serenity suggested. "Temples always have more than one way in."
"You're right, but we don't have a clear blueprint of the place." Cassandra said as she lowered the binoculars down.
"I could make a distraction. Throw some Sprinkle Bombs around?" Lucy asked.
"And have bullets flying our way? Yeah that's a no." Spike sneezed, shaking his head.
Rachel then smirked. "There is another way. My first time here, I did a bit of exploring during the Two Hundred Application Trials. I don't know the full layout completely but I do remember finding another entrance."
"Well, let's go!" Lucy shouts, grabbing Rachel's hand and begins dragging her out.
Rachel then led the girls out, backtracking near the main entrance before deviating to the right. During the trek, she was remembering her time here with the other settlers, her moments she broke away to explore.
Ducking under low hanging branches, listening to the crickets and birds chirping as they walked towards this overgrown path.
"You sure know where you're going?" Rainbow Dash asked, following.
"Eeyup! It was before the guards were more uptight as they are now, but I remember." Rachel responded. Her lips grew to a smile as she began recognizing a familiar, tranquil sound.
They cut through a bush and Rachel heard the other girls gasp.
They came to a large lagoon with a waterfall free flowing into the pool. The water was crystal clear, just a little west of it was an old wooden hut that had seen better days.
"This was one of my favorite spots while I was here." Rachel chuckled as she and the girls moved forward.
"This is a gorgeous sight! Oh the water is so clear!" Elizabeth cooed as she gazed at the lagoon.
"Where's the entrance?" Sunset asked.
"Behind the waterfall, there's a cave, it'll lead us inside the Temple." Rachel explained.
Lucy walked over to the water, knelt to it and stuck a hand in the water. "Wowza, that's cold!" She takes her hand out of the water.
"The only way to get behind the waterfall is to get in the water. So we're going to have to swim."
"But Rachel, from what I read stated that a pregnant woman can't really be in cold water due to risk of hyperthermia." Cassandra worried.
"Anyone can get a risk of hyperthermia. Unless you want to tango with the army and guns head-on, nothing wrong with a little swim."
Spike moves around, walking up to the lagoon and begins drinking it, shoving his muzzle in it and his tail wagging. "Ooh this is delicious, you guys should try it!"
As he continued to drink, a scent came across his nose. Eyes narrowing, he began sniffing around, nose to the ground.
"What is it boy?" Serenity asked as the girls watched the dog sniffed the ground.
Rachel sniffed around as well, pupils widened a hair and followed Spike. "Something is here."
"Like what?" Applejack asked.
Spike followed the scent over to the hut and instantly started growling at the door.
The girls followed, coming up to the hut, they noticed on a door was a word in Dragon term painted red. This term Rachel herself does recognize and she paled.
"Oh no," she whispered. Upon closer inspection, the word wasn't painted in paint. "This is blood… and it's fresh."
"Get back," Spike urged her, Serenity and Elizabeth pushed her back from the door.
Cassandra, Lucy and others stepped aside, Cassandra waved her hand to grab the rope handle of the door with her magic and pulled it open.
The second it opened, they all let out a scream.
Inside was a man, arms strung up with some sort of rope, his bottom half was missing, his flesh from the chest down was gone, only his head and arms kept their flesh, his bloody entrails and organs splattered all over the ground, suspended over a lit altar of the same dragon statue the gang seen just a day ago. The man's eyelids were sliced open so they were staring at the gang, mouth gaping open revealing no teeth and no tongue.
Cassandra quickly closed the door and everyone scrambled away from the hut. "W-was that a man?!"
"T-thats a dead body alright! What exactly happened to him?" Applejack panted.
"Oh I think I'm gonna hurl." Lucy groaned, covering her mouth.
"T-this is awful! W-we have to tell the other guards." Elizabeth said, pacing around.
"They're just gonna think we did this!" Rainbow Dash yelped.
As the other girls talked and panicked, Rachel just stared at the hut. Staring at the word painted, masking the mutilated man behind it. She opened her mouth and translated the word.
"Punishment." Rachel translated.