Beyond Tambelon, A Night that Never Ends
~*~ an often harrowing journey as recounted by Paradise ~*~
Chapter One: Trapped in the Traveling City
The night Grogar cast his spell to banish all the imprisoned inhabitants of Ponyland to the realm of darkness, Bray brought Galaxy, Fizzy, Gusty, Sweet Stuff, Shady, and I to the throne room to serve as the ram's special slaves. Near midnight, the ruckus of the Troggles' feigned celebration of Grogar's victory changed to the sounds of battle. Grogar rushed upstairs, cursing about a bell. A fragile hope rose from my despair like a single golden arrow of the sun piercing through the oppressive ranks of storm clouds. Mere hours before in the dungeon, I had told Megan and the others the legend of Tambelon's bell and its power to strike Grogar dead.
As I had hoped, shortly after Grogar fled the throne room, the clarion clappers sounded. Their echo pealed across the city, trembling through the stonework, pounding my chest from inside.
"We have to get out of here!" I urged my friends. All too well I remembered Grogar's spell, which even the bell's toll could not alter. The gates of Tambelon would only open upon Ponyland so long as the city kept its solid form. At midnight, those who remained in the city would be banished with it.
We six raced through the castle corridors at a reckless speed, only to find the city of Tambelon spread before us like a maze. Frantically I sought ponies, bushwoolies, and grundles who must also be fleeing for the open gates. The streets were empty.
With growing unease, I galloped down the deserted thoroughfare and spread my wings as I made my skyward leap. "Follow me!" I yelled down to the other ponies. Minute after agonizing minute crept past. "Hurry!" I urged them. Following the path of the winding streets as nearly as possible to guide the ponies galloping below, I led us toward an immense gate. We were still some hundred yards away when the air sizzled and shone as though engulfed in a lightning bolt the size of the dark city. I made a shaky landing and rejoined my friends. We proceeded on foot, spurred to still greater speed from sheer dread.
At last we reached the gate, wide open and unguarded, only to find that none of us dared to be the first to cross the edge of Tambelon into the eerie gray mists beyond.
"Something must be wrong. I don't see anything that looks like Ponyland out there." Shady's voice rose in a panicky whine.
"You always think the worst!" Gusty retorted, but the usual edge in her voice was dulled.
"Even the thickest fog doesn't make Ponyland disappear so completely," Galaxy said. "And I can't sense anything or anyone familiar out there. If our friends were beyond the gate, I would have felt them searching for us. I'm afraid Tambelon has returned to the Realm of Darkness with us in it."
"No," Sweet Stuff whispered. She pawed at the ground and looked from our group to the gates. "How will we ever get home?" Her violet eyes twinkled in spite of the perpetual gloom that hung over the ghostly city, and a tear streaked down her face.
Shady stared around us at the dark buildings and crooked streets. "What are we going to do? It's scary out here."
"Now that the bell has sounded, I don't think there is anything left in Tambelon that can hurt us," I said. "Let us explore Grogar's palace further. We may find a book that explains how the city travels to different realms."
"With such a book, we might be able to return to Ponyland," Galaxy said with such certainty I could have nuzzled her. Few ponies really took my stories seriously, but they trusted Galaxy's intuitions; I couldn't remember a single occasion she had been wrong.
"Can you sense where it might be?" I asked the pink unicorn.
"No," Galaxy said. "The longer we've stayed in Tambelon, the more disoriented I feel. Its like spinning around to get dizzy on purpose, except that I can't stop."
"Okay then," I said. "I'll lead since I've had an aerial view of the streets. Everyone else, choose a partner."
In the end, Fizzy walked with me. Sweet Stuff and Shady took the middle, while Gusty and Galaxy covered the rear.
The six of us hesitated before the castle entrance, like a dark mouth fanged with rocks. The last time we had entered that place, we had not come out for weeks. It seemed cruel and ironic that we were now to reenter just after escaping. But, I reminded myself, we had no reason to return to the dungeon. We could exhaust the entire ground level and upper chambers looking for a library before we had to make that descent. By then – though I hoped not - we might be used to the dark city.
"Are you okay, Paradise? What are you thinking about?" Fizzy said.
Feeling the others' eyes on me, I said, "I was considering which floors we should explore first. I think it would be best to start with the upper chambers."
They agreed at once, perhaps thinking of the bell which had hung high over the city. We had not gone far in the first rocky hallway when I stopped. The wall torches had burned out.
"Gusty, trade places with Fizzy. We'll need you to light our way," I directed. Although the white unicorn could illumine every crack on the castle's ground floor, she kept her light muted, as though it shone through a thick mist.
I felt relived that she did so. The bell had rung, it was true, but the silence it had left behind was thick and oppressive, and my imagination painted unfriendly eyes in every pool of shadows.
The caverns wound and twisted as though we walked in the belly of a great serpent. Before long, we came to the throne room. It distinguished itself from the other stony passages and austere rooms in two ways: the vine-covered columns at its edges and Grogar's unoccupied throne, ram's horns carved of stone and twisted together to form a dais. To aid in our search for books, I asked Gusty to increase the light from her horn. When she did, the shadow of Grogar's throne leaped across the room and stood out in dark relief against the wall. It was as though that ancient ram stood before us many times larger than he had been before.
My heart leaped to my mouth, and I trembled so hard that I could barely speak. The sight left none of the little ponies unfazed. Gusty's eyes went wide and wild; in fear that she would bolt, I babbled for her to lower her light. When she did, the awful shadow disappeared. We six huddled for some time in the silence until I said, as much to reassure myself as them, "There now. Grogar has been struck dead by the bell's ringing." I reached out to nuzzle Shady, who was crying. "This city is just a ghostly wanderer. Unless we overcome our fear and find a way out, we will be forced to travel with it."
We made our search for books a speedy one, aided by Galaxy's suggestion that Gusty remain in the center of the throne room and illumine it while the rest of us explored with the fainter green and pink light that she and Fizzy could provide. Having a specific light to follow would also keep anyone from getting lost. In our present predicament, I doubt any of us could have borne that. While I explored with Galaxy, we found an ornate torch holder mounted on an equally-decorated pole. Galaxy clearly sensed some power from it, for she drew closer, and the light from her horn increased. I was examining the nearby floor, which was strewn with bones and bits of trash when I saw the hindquarters of an animal. Just in time, I suppressed my gasp. Galaxy still heard it, however, and glanced in the direction I was staring.
"Grogar," she whispered so I could barely hear, and certainly the others, involved in their search, would not. Raw chills like those accompanying the worst fever I'd ever experienced snaked through my body. Here Grogar had fallen. The bell tolling out his doom was probably the last sound he had ever heard.
With no words necessary between us, Galaxy and I agreed that we would not tell the others.
While Shady, Sweet Stuff, and Gusty explored the other side of the throne room, they had found a long flight of uneven stairs, which we decided to climb. They led to a hallway as dismal as those on the ground floor, but with two changes. First, the wind, knife-cold in the musty passage, moaned and hissed through the cracks. The second set my heart galloping: the skitter of Troggle feet.
"Do you hear that?" Sweet Stuff whispered.
"Yes," I said, swallowing in anticipation of the unwelcome news I was about to break. "They are Troggles. They will probably be curious about us; they will be attracted by Gusty's light."
"Oh no," Shady said. "Shouldn't we put it out until they go by?"
"The legend says that Grogar's death will rob his minions of their intelligence. I doubt they will bother us. They're like wild animals now." Although I spoke confidently enough, somehow I was also reluctant to find out firsthand.
"Here they come," Galaxy warned.
We froze. My heart beat so loudly I wondered if I were hearing the others' as well. The light faded from Gusty's horn as she huddled against me.
There were only three Troggles, though I suspect there were areas of Tambelon's castle where many more had congregated. One was rotund; the two following were lithe and muscular. They did not walk with purpose, but strayed, perhaps following their sense of smell or hearing. Their booted feet scraped against the ground. I had begun to think of how strange it was, that these goblin-like creatures that once walked as humans, had once carried weapons, had once jailed the denizens of Ponyland and had now become as wild animals still wearing their tunics and helmets. They were coming for us, arms outstretched.
Galaxy lit her horn in the faintest fuchsia it would permit. The Troggles' eyes looked but did not see. Fear held me fast, as though I had been turned to stone. The Troggles regarded us with interest. I wondered if they were hungry. Did the stores they had eaten as intelligent creatures still appeal to them? Were there any left? The night of our escape had been one of celebration. Perhaps they had all been eaten… Suppose in their wildness, the Troggles would want to taste pony flesh? I fought panic and hoped the others had not shared my thought. "Stay still," I whispered. "They will lose interest soon."
It seemed hours that the Troggles circled us, snuffling like dogs and grunting softly among themselves. At last the biggest one drifted away down the hall toward the stairs. The others followed. When their footsteps had faded down the hall, we six collapsed in a heap.
"You'll never tell a ghost story to beat this, Paradise," Fizzy said at last with a nervous little laugh.
"I was scared when they were near us," Sweet Stuff admitted. "But at the same time, I feel sorry for the Troggles. Remember Drog? He didn't seem all that bad."
"Let's keep going," I said. "It's our only hope of escape."
We passed through many corridors, some of smooth rock, and others that were rough and unrefined. The ceilings of the latter frequently consisted of stalactites like strange stony chandeliers. The rooms we explored along the way were devoid of life. Those few that were furnished contained no books.
"What if they don't have books in Tambelon?" Shady said after our search had gone on for quite some time. "Grogar didn't have hands, after all."
"I don't think that's possible," Galaxy said. "Grogar had a clock in his throne room, and his spell specifically was to return Tambelon to the Realm of Darkness at midnight. If he put so much importance on the midnight hour, he must have known about writing too, and considered it important."
"Not necessarily," Gusty said. "The Troggles might have made the clock. Unicorns have magic too, but can't write about it easily."
"There are still many rooms to explore," I said on purpose to end the discussion. "That will tell us what we need to know." Still, I wondered about what Gusty had said. Perhaps we really were looking for a piece of hay in a needlestack.
We had nearly given up the search for that night when we came to a walkway that overlooked the city. Between its columns, there was little to see. Nonetheless, the window and the chilly air coming through it cheered us.
"Why not sleep here tonight?" Gusty suggested. Her forest-green mane and tail rippled in the intermittent gusts. "Ah, the wind feels so good on my face!"
We were about to settle down and rest when Fizzy's light illumined an enormous doorway carved with ornate runes. "Hey, come look at this," she called.
"We've found it," Galaxy whispered. "The library of Tambelon!"