The throne room of the Crystal Palace was once a marvel of the known world. Every surface from the grand towering ceiling to the truly massive double doors was made from some form of crystal, polished to a shine and maintained with care.
The Crystal throne, carved by skilled artisans of ages past, was a spectacular example of high born status. Since time long forgotten, King's and Queens had sat in this very room and shaped history itself and although it had fallen into the hands of one who cared not for such things, it still burst at the seams with grandeur.
'Such a pity it has fallen prey to the stupidity of one so corrupt'
Damocles had not stepped hoof in such opulence since his time as Emperor. Back when allies had been few and enemies plenty, Damocles had seen many throne rooms, both basic long houses of savage and blood thirsty Vikings and grand palaces of foreign rulers who had thought to wage war against his vast empire.
'Fools' he thought with a sneer.
Damocles Bittanicus Caeser, Emperor of the great Roaman Empire, Conquerer of the Eastern Plains, God of War and Duty, Brother to The Great Mother, Celestia of the Sun and The Battle Mistress, Luna of the Moon, had seen battles in places that no longer existed, slew tyrants that none remembered and committed acts none dared speak of.
And after a millennia of slumber, locked away in his own realm, idling the years away until he was called upon again to defend his sisters ponies from harm, he was awake... and so very disappointed.
At the pleading of his dear sister Luna and despite the disapproval of his loving sister Celestia, he had trodden the plains of the mortal realm once again, ready to wield his sword in righteous vengeance upon an enemy worthy of his skill and power.
Instead, he had found himself facing a pretend king, one who believed himself rightful ruler of all things upon Equus. This creature of crystal and shadow had been plaguing his sisters, constantly returning again and again despite all attempts at diplomacy and despite all military defeats.
It seemed his sisters had been unable, or perhaps unwilling to do what was necessary to rid the world of this parasite for good. But that was fine, it was not for them to dirty their hooves with such nonsense.
This was the reason for his existence after all. To swim through the gore, to bask in the dark, these things made up his very core and till the day Faust decided Equus no longer had need of him, he would continue to execute his purpose with relish, no matter how pitiful the opponent.
Damocles' hooves left an echo of thunder with every step he took further into the throne room. His sheer size towered him over even the tallest of his two sisters, his deep golden fur was trimmed to military precision, his larger than life wings tucked neatly at his side, their primaries trailing on the floor no matter how he shifted them.
His mane and tail, a deep soulless black, did not wave despite there being no breeze like his two sisters' did, instead they hung, neatly combed around his neck and flank.
He had no use for such illusions, his presence spoke for itself without the need for tricks.
His amber eyes swept the room, taking in the various tapestries and works of art left uncared for in recent years.
"I know you are here"
His baritone voice echoed around the chamber.
"Your presence is a stench that I'd be hard pressed to miss"
A shifting of shadows drew his eyes to the ceiling where a mass of dark cloud peeled itself away to drift in circles above his head like a predator circling its prey.
"You dare to appear before me? You are not welcome here" a voice spoke from within the apparition, deep in its own right but no where near the rich tones of Damocles' own.
"You assume I care for such things as permission" Damocles replied, his gaze locked onto the shadow at all times yet his face never seemed to shift from anything other than pure boredom.
"You stand before a king you insolent fool, you will show some respect" a dark bolt of magic shot like lightning from within the cloud, crashing against the crystalline floor mere inches from Damocles' front hooves, yet he barely flinched, the only sign of the magic having affected him at all was a slight raise of his eyebrow and a huff of irritation.
"You are no king, Sombra, merely a fool playing a game he knows not how to win"
Sombras shadow shot across the room in an angry dash to hover so close to Damocles' snout that he almost feared he'd breath the rechid urchin in.
"You hold no power here!"
Sombra bellowed angrily, his shadows thrashing around in a violent maelstrom.
"I am King Sombra, ruler of the Crystal Empire, conquerer of a thousand souls and slayer of thousands more!"
The shadows condensed to form Sombras dark form, his head floating on air, marked by a terrible twisted horn of demonic corruption and deep, hate filled eyes.
"I have reigned as king supreme for years untold, even the great Celestia and Luna, gods in there own rights have not been able to defeat me!"
His rage caused a wind to thrash around him, Tapestries that had held on thus far began to tear from there holdings and fly about the room, unable to stand against such anger.
Damocles reacted to none of this, his face remained passive, his wings held casually by his side and his horn went unlit. Sombra noticed none of this, so far consumed by his anger that he failed to realise that unlike others who had stood before his rage, Damocles stood unaffected.
"Be silent"
They were two very simple words but the effect of them was instantaneous and awe inspiring. As soon as the words left his lips, Damocles watched as Sombra was ripped from within his own magic, and forced back into his physical form. His body, stocky for a unicorn even in comparison to earth ponies, fell to the floor with a thud where it crumpled into a boneless heep.
Damocles horn lit an earthly green and with next to no conscious thought Sombra was raised off the floor, if he so wished he knew he could end it there and then, but he would not, this cretin had caused his sisters untold misery and in return he would be paid back a thousand fold.
Sombra bellowed indignation and struggled in the tight grip of Damcoles magic, the oppressive aura that surrounded him made him feel as though he were drowning and no amount of effort allowed him to call upon his own vast reserves of power to break the hold.
In those brief few moments where he was left truly defenceless, Sombra suddenly knew real fear and with a desperation known until now only to those he had inflicted untold misery on, he fought desperately to escape.
"I have fought many a creature over the expanse of my considerable life span" Damocles said.
"From dragons whose wings could blot out the sun and moon to gods of chaos who drew pleasure from the abnormal and everything in between"
Sombra suddenly felt a great cold grip his insides, as if an icy hand had taken a grip on his soul and with a ferociousness that left him foaming at the mouth he fought even harder to escape.
"I have seen empires and kingdoms rise and fall at my wim, tyrants and would-be conquerers climb to the top only to be squashed under mine own hoof"
Sombra felt a sudden pull on his magic, though not the familiar feeling he gets when summoning his own awesome power through his horn, no this was something else and with a flash of realisation he knew what it was.
Damocles was ripping out his magic, and he was taking his soul with it.
Damocles felt Sombra's efforts to fight for release take on a whole new level, he tightened his magic ever so slightly and took a firmer hold on the dictators core.
"Ah, I see you've fully grasped the weight of the situation, if only you'd known what forces you were playing with sooner you might have reconsidered your current path"
The pulling on Sombra's soul reached its zenith, the essence of the King hanging on by a slim thread that left his form pale and coated in sweat.
A roar of animalistic rage and desperation tore from his throat to echo around the chamber and the castle beyond. Blood seeped from every orifice and blood shot eyes bulged from their sockets.
"alas, it is too late, goodbye false king, I pray your next life is a more intelligent one"
With a quick and final tug and a last scream of pain, the black mass that was Sombra's soul was pulled in one agonising rip from his body and dispersed into the air in a brilliant flash of emerald light.
Sombras eyes went from dark and terrifying to milky and dull, his struggling stopped with a final twitch and his limbs went limp.
The now lifeless corpse of the once all powerful King Sombra dangled in the air and when Damocles withdrew his magic, it fell to the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Without another glance Damocles turned away to walk calmly back through the throne room doors and out into the city beyond. His purpose achieved, he made ready for his journey back to Canterlot where his dear sisters awaited him and perhaps, best of all, more worthy challenges to his might.
Thousands of years ago, during his reign as Emperor of Roam, Damocles had been adamant that he would rule his empire his way. He would not be forced to bend to the will of others, making decisions based on what others decided was appropriate. He was used to doing things his way, with no others to answer to.
Then that day happened and he was forced away from his heavenly empire and into a deep sleep. In his absence, Roam had fallen and other, lesser kingdoms, had risen in its place.
For a time after, there was war and strife, each kingdom vying for more power than the others. Blood was shed and the people suffered.
Then his sisters, in all their glory, swept away the misery and terror and established a new empire, Equestria.
Of course with this new rule came new laws, new ways of doing things, violence was becoming less the solution and more the problem.
He supposed that was why he was so often at odds with the eldest of his two little sisters. Things were not done in his way anymore. Disagreements could no longer be solved with intimidation, insults could not be answered with a blade and enemies were more often talked into submission, rather than beaten under hoof.
He was still getting used to the idea of these nonviolent solutions, so when he was eventually approached by his sweet sisters about dealing with the threat in the North his way, well, he had positively glowed with anticipation.
Of course just because Celestia had asked him to do this for them, did not mean she was comfortable with the idea itself, no matter how necessary she realised it was, a fact that was made doubly clear as she sat across from him in her personal chambers.
Celstia was often a difficult pony to read, thousands of years of politicking and royal duties had made her a master of her emotions, only ever showing what she wanted to be seen.
On this occasion however, in the aftermath of his rather disappointing encounter with the crazed Crystal King, her emotions were plain to see.
Anxiety was the emotion of the day as she sat sipping at her tea. He watched as she would glance every so often at the crystal crown sat on her desk, a souvenir of his time spent with Sombra and a symbol of his victory.
"You have not spoken for a while sweet sister, perhaps you would tell me what troubles you so I may help you over come it"
The sound of his voice seemed to startle her out of whatever deep thought she had trapped herself in, her eyes blinking away the thoughts before focusing on him. She sat straighter than she had been, trying to show a stronger front behind which to hide her feelings from him.
"I'm not sure I know what you mean" she said in what was obviously a poor attempt at a lie.
"Your tea, though you give the appearance of drinking it, has been cold for at least the last half hour"
"Perhaps I like cold tea" she said, raising her eyebrow in challenge.
"Only creatures from the darkest pits of Tartarus could ever like cold tea" he said with visible discomfort, his muzzle scrunched up in disgust.
Celestia giggled despite her attempts to do otherwise, the sound made Damocles smile.
"Your laugh has always been a shining point in my life" he said contently.
"Goddess of the Sun indeed"
"Now tell me, little sunshine, what troubles you so?"
Her laughter trickled away and with it her whole form seemed to sag.
"Did we do the right thing?" She asked, her voice was barely audible and if he had been a normal pony he may not have heard it at all.
"You refer to King Sombra?" He asked with a raised brow. He was not surprised that this had come up, he had expected it even, it was something that had obviously weighed on his sisters mind since the event two weeks prior.
"I just feel we didn't put in enough effort to find an alternate solution"
Damocles stood and moved to sit beside his sister, draping his wing over her in a display of affection only reserved for his sisters.
Celestia took a deep breathe and leaned into her brothers embrace, the act of receiving a hug from someone bigger than herself was a rare treat for someone as tall as herself, rare being that it only ever happened with Damocles.
"Wearing the crown is a heavy burden, my Sunshine, those of us in positions of power must do all we can to protect the ponies we love, even commit acts that leave us feeling cold inside"
He used his other wing to wipe a stray tear from his sisters face, shushing her quietly whilst nuzzling the top of her head.
"How do you do it?"
"Do what?" He asked curiously.
"How do you slay your enemies without it effecting you, your always so detached from such things"
Damocles looked away towards the bay window, staring out towards the distant mountains and fields that surrounded Canterlot, he let out a sad sigh and closed his eyes.
"Before you were born, I asked Father the same question, do you know what he said?"
Celestia shook her head and it was only because he felt the movement that he knew she had answered at all.
"He said, 'family above all, blood before water'"
"I knew what he meant, but for a long time I didn't full grasp the sentiment"
Damocles smiled, then opened his eyes and looked down at Celestia with so much love in his eyes it took her breath away.
"Then you were born, and I finally grasped how important those words were, that day you came into the world, I was filled with such joy and such a sense of duty, that I realised I would never let anything happen to you, that feeling only grew larger when little Luna was born. After that, killing my enemies was no longer a burden, but a responsibility"
Damocles' smile turned to a frown, his eyes glazing over as he looked to events of the past.
"I kept that promise for a long time, fighting enemies from far off places all to ensure you were both safe, I even created an empire solely for the purpose of your safety, and then that awful day happened all those years ago and I broke, sealing myself away from any further pain but at the expense of my sisters, all that you have suffered as a result of that selfish decision is my fault, I cannot apologise enough for such an error"
Celestia let out a chocked sob and wrapped both her wings around her brother in a tight squeeze that would have left other ponies gasping for air.
"It was not your fault Damocles, you could not have foreseen such treachery, a thousand years of pain could not equal what you felt in that single day"
Damocles felt his heart squeeze and a deep heat, as if the sun itself were but inches from him, filled him from mane to hoof, bringing him such a sense of utter love and joy that even his niece, a being of love incarnate, might be overwhelmed by it.
His sisters meant the world to him, they were what kept him grounded, a physical representation of what bound him to this world and they're safety was his obsession. Many torments had been thrown their way during his absence, many pains and sorrows. But with his awakening came a new power in this modern age, one that would bring the horrors of an eon of wars down upon the heads of any enemy that stood against his loved ones.
And should a single hair be harmed upon his sisters heads, then he would unleash all the power he kept controlled deep down inside.
And the world would break.
