Long, long time before the founding of Equestria, like 10,000 years before, there lived an entire large civilization of phoenixes that lived in the area and they lived in peace and harmony. They were ruled by a royal family and they were really friendly and powerful. There was the powerful king Naeus, Queen Flameheart and Prince Flameus. King Naeus was the most powerful being the world has ever or will ever see as there was nothing he couldn’t do. He could see and enter alternate universes, teleport, read minds, make anything (and I mean anything) appear from thin air like sword projectiles, upon many, many other powers. He could even conjure up an attack called the “Starstorm” which literally made stars come down from the sky. He certainly was really powerful. Queen Flameheart and Prince Flameus had similar powers but they were far less powerful, they didn’t have as many and they certainly didn’t have starstorm to conjure up. Although they had these powers, they didn’t need to use them because they were happy and carefree. One day, queen Flameheart had a suggestion.

“Honey, can I ask you something?” Asked Queen Flameheart.

“Of course you can. You can ask me anything.” King Naeus answered.

“Do you think we should have an army of some sort? I mean we have guards at our castle but we don’t really have an army of anyone attacks, we’ll be defenseless.” Said Queen Flameheart.

King Naeus thought about these words his wife said and pondered them for a second before giving her an answer.

“You are absolutely right my love. If we don’t have an army, who knows what’s going to happen. I will heed your advice and create an army to protect the civilization.” Announced king Naeus.

And so it came to be. Over the months, many Phoenix’s joined the Phoenix army that the royal family has put together. Many have gone up the ranks of the army, but only 8 were the most powerful beings in the army. These 8 were dubbed as the “Phoenix Warriors”. Upon them was Risanus, who became almost as powerful as the king himself as he could do almost everything the king did, even conjure up Starstorm.

Everything and everyone was happy and at complete peace and harmony until many years later. Around that time, Queen Flameheart had passed away due to an accident of unknown origins. This completely destroyed King Naeus and Prince Flameus. The two fell into a deep type of grief that they didn’t really ever recover from. A few months later, Prince Flameus attracted a rare disease that he also never recovered from. A few days after he got the disease, he succumbed to it, leaving only king Naeus left. King Naeus locked himself up in his castle after these tragedies where his grief got the best of him and a darkness consumed his soul and possessed him.

After darkness overtook the king, one of his guards checked on him.

“My lord, are you ok?” The guard asked.

He saw what the king had become and he froze in fear. The darkness turned him into a literal monster. He had jagged teeth and claws and his wings became dark and had a texture like bricks. King Naeus turned around to face the guard who was shaking with fear and on the verge of running away, he growled and suddenly started creating monsters. The guard tried to run but the monsters caught up and consumed him easily. There was nothing left of him bit a few embers and ashes.

The king started creating more and more monsters until they were unleashed out of the castle and onto the subjects. Over the next few days. Monsters consumed the towns below. The Phoenix citizens tried to fly away but the monsters just killed them all. In the end, 85% of all Phoenix’s were killed by Naeus and his monsters in what was “The Phoenix Genocide”.

What was left of the army and guards evacuated the remaining citizens before they did themselves while the 8 Phoenix Warriors went into the castle to confront the dark king.

“If it isn’t my warriors, my traitors. What the hell are you doing here?” Asked king Naeus.

The most powerful Warrior, Risanus, got out his sword and said to him

“King Naeus, we have come here to destroy your darkness. Everyone is either dead or has been evacuated but now the time has come to take care of you.” Announced Risanus.

The king chuckled and shook his head.

“Do you not know who I am? I’m the one who will liberate this land and all others.” Said Naeus.

Risanus and the other Phoenix Warriors pointed his swords at him.

“Warriors, the king has turned into the monster and can’t be saved. We need to destroy him and save all lands. ATTACK!” Yelled Risanus.

The warriors and the king charged at each other and they started fighting. As the king was a warrior himself, he was going to be tough to beat. He teleported all over the room and produced his sword like projectiles and shot them at the 8 Phoenix Warriors. They all dodged his attacks and after a few minutes, the king got tired and returned to his throne.

“Are you ready to be free from darkness and die?” Asked Risanus.

“That was just child’s play compared to what I’m about to do.” Said Naeus right before he snapped his claws and teleported the warriors into the abandoned town below.

“This isn’t good. He’s about to use Starstorm.” Said one of the other warriors. “Risanus, can you generate a shield?”

Risanus was just able to produce a shield for the warriors just as the stars fell causing explosions all over and kicking up dust. When the dust settles, they found it wasn’t just dust but a mixture of dust and ashes as the town was completely destroyed, there wasn’t even wreckage but just dust and ash nor miles.

“I hate that king. We need to get back up to the castle and kill him now.” Growled a warrior.

“Don’t go anywhere, I have an idea. I’m as powerful as him and can use starstorm. I just need to use it over his castle.” Risanus announced.

With his eye flickering, a beam shot into the sky and stars fell down onto his castle leaving it in the same state as the ruined town. The Phoenix Warriors flew over to the area to see King Naeus on the ground. He was still breathing and had a pulse but he was out cold.

“It will be a while until he wakes up but we need to kill him.” Said a warrior.

“He’s immortal so we can’t kill him but we can make sure he doesn’t do this again.” Said Risanus.

The 8 Phoenix Warriors carried the king down the hill and they saw how much damage the king really caused. They carried him until they found a cave a few miles away.

“We should put him in there. It looks like a good place to lock him up.” Requested a warrior.

They entered the cave to find it really deep and red almost as it was hell. They walked through and put Naeus in a place of ice and rock. After that, they left the cave.

“That cave was really hell-like. We should give it a name.” Said one of the other warriors.

“A name that means hell, like hades.” Said another warrior.

“How about Tartarus? That sounds really hell like.” Said another warrior.

They agreed to name the cave Tartarus and Risanus put a magic door with a magic seal to ensure Naeus wouldn’t escape.

“Everyone, I need to tell you something. I saw the future and it shows that Naeus will escape. He’s going to be knocked out for a couple of millennia, but he will escape and try to destroy this land and all others.” Said Risanus in a sad tone.

“That’s horrible, is there any way he can be stopped?” Asked a warrior.

“Put all of our swords together to create one powerful sword. That’s step one.” Instructed Risanus.

All 8 Phoenix Warriors put their swords together and with a flash of light it became one. It then launched into the air and got out of sight.

“That sword is going to be found by one individual and he will gather the help of eight others. He will be defeated but for that to happen, I need to become a spirit wander around until that individual finds it.”

“Wait, you’re leaving us?” Asked one of the warriors.

“I’m afraid so but you have to know, I have to do this until he’s found.” Said Risanus.

“Goodbye Risanus. We will miss you.” Said a warrior. All others said their goodbyes as Risanus turned into a bright circle and flew off into the distance leaving the others to look. It’s unknown what happened to the other warriors but it says their loyalty, honesty, kindness, generosity, laughter, magic and forgiveness continued their friendship and kept them together until the end of their days.

Present day

King Naeus woke up after being knocked out for 10,000 years

“It was those traitorous Warriors. They ruined my life and put me in here. Everyone forgot about me but now they will pay by watching me consume and burn everything and leave nothing but blood.” Said king Naeus.

He created projectiles out of thin air and used them to destroy the stone all around him. After there was an opening, he teleported out of his cell and walked out and up from the deepest part of Tartarus. He walked past many creepy creatures until he reached the surface of Tartarus and saw the magic door.

“Hey idiot, are you going to escape because if you are, you’re just a big fat idiot.” A voice taunted at Naeus. He turned around to find an old and weak centaur in a cage. He walked up to him and gave him a stare that could make others shake in fear. The centaur shook in fear as the stare was working.

“I-I’m s-sorry I said that. You’re powerful. I’m sorry I’m sorry just p-ple-please don’t kill me please.” Whimpered the scared centaur.

“Fear does that to you. I won’t kill you, I will just send you into a year long coma.” King Naeus said as he used magic to wrangle the centaur’s brain and knocking him out. He walked to the magic door only for 2 pony guards to stop him.

“I haven’t seen any of these species before. This will be fun.” Murmured king Naeus as the ponies charged at him only for him to knock them back into the wall with such a force that they exploded with bone, flesh and blood splattering all over the place.

“Wow, these new species are weak.” Said King Naeus. He checked their clothes and found a relic he assumed open the gates. The other creatures shook in fear as the king walked over to the doors and used the relic to open the doors. He stepped outside with doors closing behind him and he laughed maniacally. “I’m free, In mere days I will make this land and all its inhabitants fall to their knees.”

Author's Note

This is my first chapter of my first story so I’m not really good at writing stories. Critique is encouraged as long as it’s not too mean.