A long, long time ago, Before Equestria...

The sounds of battle began to die down as the sun set over the war-torn continent of Mareidies. Constant conflict had been raging for years on Mareidies, with no end in sight. The battles were fought between the settlers of a colony called Aesirlund against the Kingdom of Netheria, the magically-imbued natives of Mareidies that the Aesirlundians disparagingly named 'demons.' An incident involving a golden apple had sparked the bloodshed and there was no indication that peace would be reached anytime soon.

Working in secret, the two leaders of the warring factions of Mareidies had been plotting to find a way to bring peace to their people. It was not an easy process, as the Aesirlundian commander openly detested the Netherian Queen, for good reason, too. A brother and sister pair, the Aesirlundians were led by Tian, while his sister Li Li (forever known as Lilith, a portmanteau of Li Li and her epithet of 'the Betrayer') had seized the Netherian throne though subterfuge and murder in a foolhardy bid to win her brother's respect. Non-natives to Mareidies, the siblings were Qianlima - winged horses capable of running thousands of miles in a day -  and had once lived as merchants, wandering all across the lands in search of new friends to trade with, but that was years ago. Warfare was all that they traded in now.

The plan Tian and Lilith had concocted was a bold one. The only solution they could come up with that would permanently end the fighting was to eliminate the emotions that incited conflict. They felt if they could remove the hatred, fear, and other negative feelings that had kept the war raging for years that peace could be won. The means to accomplish such a task had eluded them. While Tian had mostly abandoned the idea, Lilith had spent the last few weeks researching every Netherian spellbook she could get her hooves on until she managed to discover a dark ritual that would do the trick.

Lilith's efforts had finally paid off, and earlier in the day she had sent a message to Tian saying she had found a way to implement their plan and a meeting had been arranged at sunset, deep in the Netherian woods. Tian wasn't sure what his sister had discovered, but he was anxious to learn. He had seen too many foals become orphans, laid too many friends and comrades in their barrows, witnessed more destruction than he could have ever imagined. As much as he hated the Netherians, and would continue to lead his people against them if this plan failed, Tian hoped that his sister had truly found a way to end the scourge of war that plagued Mareidies.

As the hour of sunset approached, Tian disrobed from his usual attire of silver armor and white robes and instead donned a dark green and brown camouflage cloak to aid his infiltration of Netherian territory as well as attempt to mask his appearance, which was no easy task. Apart from being the only Qianlima in Aesirlund, as the commander of the Aesirlundian forces Tian's crimson coat, fiery red mane, and cutie mark of a dark red, orange, and yellow sun were instantly recognizable amongst the armies of both sides.

Tian's run from his command post in Aesirlund's capital city, New Hope, to the great river which divided the two warring nations went by quickly. A sprint of that length would have left most races sweating or gasping for breath, but for a Qianlima it was about as taxing as walking to the curb to pick up a newspaper in the morning. After he forded the great river, Tian's pace slowed severely as he became fully alert, not wanting to become a trophy for a Netherian patrol.

Tian slowly made his way through the thick forests of Netheria, his eyes darted nervously around him as he made his way to meet with his sister. Every snapping twig sent bursts of paranoia running rampant in his mind. Tian had reason to be worried, he knew that Netherians - the demons - were highly attuned to emotions as part of their natural talents and they could sense his fear if they were close enough.

As Tian reached his destination, a secluded grove with water bubbling out of a spring, he sighed and scowled at his little sister's twisted form. Lilith was part demon, a fusion born of desperation. Years prior, Tian and Lilith had been on quest for vengeance after an evil dragon attacked a village the Qianlima siblings had been trading with. It turned out the dragon, known as The Ravager, had been rampaging across the land and the two Qianlima soon joined a growing horde of survivors turned dragon hunters.

When The Ravager attempted to escape by flying across the sea, the dragon hunters built ships to pursue. The Ravager was slain in a fierce battle not far from the shores of Mareidies, and as he fell dying into the ocean he sundered one of the ships. Lilith had been aboard the destroyed ship and would have died if not for a pact she made with a demon. The demon had offered Lilith a deal she could not refuse: the demon would give her body to Lilith, merging with her to form a half-demon, but in exchange Lilith had to select a host to bear the demon's spirit. Lilith begged the demon to choose one of the foals that had been aboard her doomed ship, and in a burst of infernal magic Lilith had been rescued from the dark depths and was teleported into a small village in the kingdom of Netheria.

The survivors of the doomed ship were brought aboard the remaining ship and the motley group of homeless, melancholy dragon slayers eventually landed at Mareidies and together created their new home, which they named Aesirlund. Tian had been elected leader of the colony and as Aesirlund grew they soon met their neighbors, the Netherians, who welcomed them with open arms. Life was good for the Aesirlundians in the beginning, but their closeness with the Netherians would prove to be their downfall years later when the golden apple incident destroyed the harmony they had enjoyed and set them at each others' throats.

It was over a year before Tian discovered that his sister was still alive. While on a tour through Netheria, Tian came to the village Lilith had been living in. When he saw Lilith's demonic form, Tian despised her for it. He had declared her "forsaken" and forbid her from entering Aesirlund. Lilith's demonic transformation had resulted in a rather peculiar appearance: she stood and walked on two goat-like legs, as many of the demons had, the hair had fallen off her tail and it now ended with a fork, her forelegs and wings had vanished and were replaced with a wiry pair of arms with taloned fingers, and a pair of gnarled horns sprouted from her forehead. Her coat was blood red and her hair was jet black. A cutie mark of a sheaf of barley adorned her flanks, a peculiar relic from her former life as a merchant.

Lilith had been devastated by her brother's reaction and took it upon herself to win back her brother's love. She left her village and worked her way into the court of the Netherian king and enthralled him with tales of the land across the sea. Using a cursed sword, Lilith had betrayed and murdered the Netherian king and claimed the throne for her own. Lilith had thought that if she ruled Netheria that Tian would respect her once more, she was wrong.

Tian always blamed himself for what had happened to his sister. He ran through the events over and over in his mind. It was his fault this happened to her, she was just following in her big brother's hoofsteps. He wanted to slay the dragon, to avenge their friends. If the dragon had killed him when they were first attacked, would Lilith have joined the dragon hunters? The guilt haunted him as much as her twisted, demonic form angered him.

As he wished for what felt like the millionth time for this to have all been just a dream, Tian smiled weakly as his sister turned to greet him.

"Hello, Lilith," Tian said, refusing to use her true name, much to her annoyance.

Lilith shot him a glare and laughed. "You will not have the right to call me that after tonight, brother. Once you see the fruits of my research it shall be 'Li Li' once more."

"Perhaps. If this scheme of yours works," Tian curtly replied.

"It will, Tian, it will," Lilith chided. "You could perhaps be a little more supportive, you know. You wish for this war to end as badly as I or else you would not be here."

Tian sighed. "I am sorry, Li Li. Let us not dwell on the past and instead focus on the future. What did you discover?"

Lilith motioned Tian forwards and showed him an altar surrounded by candles and a pentagram dug in the dirt. Upon the altar was a clay figure portraying a female demon, looking much like her creator. The figure had a different style of horns than Lilith's and the face of a wolf instead of that of an equine like Lilith.

Lilith grinned. "I have spent the last few weeks studying the magic of the Netherians and I finally discovered a form of magic that will help us perform the miracle we envisioned."

Lilith smiled and ran her hand along the clay demon's hair. "Demons have a certain affinity for emotions, they can consume them or amplify them. By mixing blood magic with the ritual to produce a golem, we can create our own demon, and give her the power to consume all negativity such as hatred and anguish, then we can end this war and rebuild the lives we lost."

"She will be able to take away the emotions that plague us like raking leaves from a yard," Lilith said, as she drug her taloned fingers through the dirt.

Tian raised his eyebrow. Lilith's idea had merit, he hated to admit, but he had fought against enough demons to know how deadly they could be, let alone how dangerous one would be if it had the power to stop wars or further incite them. "What if this demon we create decides to amplify those emotions? You know how they are."

"She would not do any such thing!" Lilith snapped. "Do not tell me you believe your own propaganda, Tian. Netherians lived peacefully alongside the colonists before the apple incident, they are not evil by nature. I will teach her how to behave, how to use her talents."

"And you are strong enough in the magical arts to perform these rituals, to bring life to clay?" Tian skeptically asked.

"Yes, the demon blood within me that you so abhor gives me the strength," Lilith haughtily replied.

Tian thought for a moment and then pointed towards the clay demon. "Should we really bestow this much power to one being?"

Lilith shrugged and began performing an incantation to magically reshape the clay. A few minutes passed and there were now three little demons made of clay; each one looked identical to the original except for their horns.

Tian raised his eyebrow as he inspected the new figures. "Why the dog's head, if I may ask?"

Lilith smiled. "I like wolves. It's cute."

Tian nodded. "Fair enough. Now what?"

Lilith stood and stroked her chin. "I must rename them before we can proceed."

Lilith dipped her hand in the spring and brushed it across the forehead of the middle figure. "I shall call you what I named the first clay demon, Baphomeena."

Lilith swiped the water across the right-most figure. "And you I shall name Azazandra."

Lilith moved to the last figure, "Lucifiona shall be your name. Together you shall be sisters, and together you will bring a new era to this land."

Tian stomped his hoof. "Sacrilege! Those are demon names!"

Lilith smirked. "Well, they are demons, Tian, and I thought those names were rather pretty."

Tian shrugged. "If you say so..."

Lilith shook her head. She silently prayed that her plan would succeed, if only so her brother wouldn't be so insufferable. "If you have managed to calm your misgivings, brother, I must perform the rituals. First, I will need a quill..."

Tian winced as Lilith plucked one of his feathers.

Lilith grit her teeth as she cut the palm of her hand with her talons, then dipped the quill into her blood. "Next, we must name the negative traits we wish these demons to embody so that they can be removed from the populace. I will draw their symbols with my blood, using a piece of your body. I must warn you, according to my research, seven is the magic number of traits - no more, no less - so think carefully."

Lilith glanced at her brother then knelt and began to draw a symbol on Azazandra of two stags clashing antlers, their lips curled back in a snarl. "The first one is easy. Hatred."

Lilith finished and turned, looking over her shoulder up at Tian. He looked at the wicked thing that used to be his sister and offered, "Sins."

Lilith drew symbols for sins on Baphomeena - a mirror for pride, a bulging sack of coins for greed, a figure slumped on a sofa for sloth, an enraged bull for wrath, a peasant sneering at a noblewoman for envy, an obese pig for gluttony, and a sultry silhouette for lust.

Lilith turned to Lucifiona and began to draw a symbol of battered-looking stallion on crutches. "Pain."

Tian said, "Lies," and Lilith turned to Baphomeena and drew the image of a small goat superimposed inside a giant battle maiden goat bristling with medals.

Lilith said, "Agony," and began to draw on Azazandra, producing the image of a crying mare clutching at her face as she wept.

Tian thought for a second, remembered all the ruined houses, schools, and libraries that he had helped rebuild in Aesirlund. "Destruction."

Lilith drew a burnt out building on Lucifiona.

There was one trait left to bestow. Tian and Lilith silently thought for a minute. What was one of the primary causes of conflict besides hatred or lies? Lilith grinned as it came to her: terror! Being afraid could cause all manner of rash decisions. Being afraid could cause one to hate, being afraid could cause one to lie, being afraid could cause one to destroy, being afraid could cause pain and anguish.

"If we can only add one more, it needs to be fear," Lilith said.

"I concur. Fear it shall be," Tian replied with a nod.

Lilith studied her three 'children' as she tried to decide which she should bestow with the power over fear. She decided on Baphomeena, the one that already possessed lies and sins. She masterfully drew a little filly hiding in her bedsheets as a ghastly creature lunged out at her from the shadows.

Once Lilith finished, she stood and took a step back to admire the figures. Satisfied, she plucked a small glass vial full of a bright white sand from the base of the altar and began to sprinkle it over the three sisters as she spoke the magical words that would bring them to life. The bloody images she had bestowed upon the figures began to glow brighter and brighter, then dissolved into the fresh flesh as the spell ended. Lilith giggled with glee as the little demons came to life, squirming around in wonder as they surveyed the world for the first time.

Where they had once been nigh-identical, the three demons had gained some defining traits as they were brought to life. Baphomeena had reddish fur and blood-red hair, with eyes of dark, glistening green. Azazandra had ivory white fur and jet black hair, with eyes of bright blue. Lucifiona had ebony fur, platinum-blonde hair, and red eyes that smoldered like embers.

Tian stared with dread at the demons. Doubt quickly flooded his mind. He trusted his sister, to an extent, but he could not help but wonder if he had just committed a tremendous mistake. Lilith now had in her possession three of the most powerful demons in existence. Three demons that he had personally helped create. If Lilith's desire for peace had been merely a trick, and these demons were what she was truly after, then he, and Aesirlund, were in very deep trouble.

Lilith scooped up the demons and hugged them to her chest. "It will be a while before they are ready, it will take some time to train them in the usage of their powers," Lilith excitedly said. "But there is hope now!"

"V-very well, sister," Tian shakily replied as he felt his stomach begin to knot. "I m-must make haste back to Aesirlund, lest me absence draw concern."

Lilith smiled at the demons. "Soon, brother, soon this shall all be ended and we can find a way to reverse my... condition, and live in peace! No more war, no more hatred, no more fear! Ahh, it is almost too difficult to imagine."

As Tian left, Baphomeena, the one with mastery over fear, tilted her head and stared at his retreating figure. She didn't know what she was feeling, but she could sense his fear, his fear of what she and her sisters were. It made her nauseous, but also sent a surge of power coursing through her body that made her squirm with delight. Upset and confused, she forced herself to look away and buried her face in Lilith's chest.

Lilith sat down on the altar and gently rocked her new children in her arms and began to sing a song from her homeland as she closed her eyes and dreamed of an idyllic future.

"Sun arising red and bright, Qianlima shall run from dawn 'til night... I must run from the steppes to the sea, for there my love is waiting for me..."