The Tower of the Marestadon
The earth pony mare filled the door as she entered the dark room, boldly and fearlessly. She was taller than any stallion present, and thicker across the chest than any other mare anypony of them had ever seen. Her coat was a blue roan that seemed steel gray, with her legs darkening to black. A square cut black mane graced her thick brow and her cutie mark was a bloody sword. Scanning the room with volcanic blue eyes, she walked with surprising lighthoofedness up to the proprietor of the nameless dive in the most dangerous district of the infamous city of Zebora, and then reared back to free her forehooves up for the business to which she intended to apply herself. "Ale."
The zebra nodded and pulled a tankard from under the bar. He drew ale from a barrel and placed it on the counter before the barbarian. She reached into a pouch and drew forth a small brass piece, tossing it next to the mug, and the zebra scooped it up before it had stopped moving and deposited a sliver of tin as change. The mighty earth pony shook her head, silently taking the tankard and walking to a dark corner. The bartender nodded and accepted the tip with gratitude; even that small amount of generosity was rare in this dark corner of an already grim world.
The giant turned and sat on a stool in the corner, in a place where she could drink and not be approached from the rear. One of the other denizens of the place, an evil looking diamond dog with an eyepatch, came to stand before her on his hind legs, as was the habit of that species. "You! You are a Cimmareian, are you not?"
Her blue eyes smoldered in the dark; her voice a gravelly contralto. "What of it?"
"Ha! I knew it! I have seen your folk raiding in the area of Ponarium when I traveled there as a caravan guard!" The dog grinned, showing his sharp teeth.
"You lie. If you were a caravan guard who had seen Cimmareian raiders, you would be dead now!" She glowered at the dog but took not further action.
"They did not raid my caravan because my master paid them to raid his rival!" He laughed loudly, placing his paws on his hips.
He laughed a bit too loudly and too freely, to Roanan's mind, but nonetheless she tilted her head. "That I can believe. It is a greater profit for the same amount of work. With his rival gone, your master's prices would increase by as much and more than he paid the raiders. Your merchant was wise."
"Indeed. But what brings you here, Cimmareian?" The dog regarded her coolly with his good eye crossing his forelegs over his chest. "Your kind are not meant for cities, unless they're burning."
"It is my business, and none of yours, dog." The Cimmarean threw back a hearty draught, keeping unblinking blue eyes on the rogue. The shadows seemed to gather as the assorted dregs of civilization leaned forward, eager to see what would happen next.
The dog grunted, "You're a thief! There's only two reasons anypony comes to Zebora; to steal and to be stolen from."
The swordspony allowed herself a small smile. "Even so." The ponies, zebras, dogs, mules and other assorted scum relaxed. There was no bloodshed imminent.
"So what are you here to steal? What could satisfy that northern appetite of yours? Are you perhaps here to relieve the unicorn Yeeha of the Heart of the Marestadon?" The dog chuckled at his little jest.
"I have seen the tower of Yeeha. I have seen no guards. It should be easy pickings."
"There are no ponies guarding the tower, no, but they do patrol the grounds." The rogue's eye glittered in the candlelight.
"Then a bold thief could find a way to avoid the guards and steal into the tower undetected."
"Foal! If it was that simple, it would have been done years ago!"
The one eyed dog had laughed at Roanan one too many times. She stood up. "Perhaps there are no thieves here who are sufficiently bold!"
"Bah! You speak of things which you do not understand, barbarian!" The dog was now angry, and the crowd learned forward again, hungry for blood.
Roanan kicked with one of her hind legs and the table in front of her went flying, knocking over the candles and pitching the room into utter blackness. There was a shriek.
When the zebra bartender lit another candle, the light showed the diamond dog laying on his back in the middle of a pool of hot blood, a dagger in his paw, his throat opened, and his one eye staring forever in frozen astonishment. Of the Cimmareian, there was no sign.
______
The next day near sunset, Roanan visited the temple district of the city As she slowly walked down the Street of the Gods in a stolen cloak. she saw that there were rich shrines and priests walking around in gilded robes, a shocking display of wealth in a city like this. There were few guards, but fewer thieves, as the gods were known to protect their sanctuaries with terrible sorceries.
Roanan did not fear the gods. Her god, Chrome, had bestowed her with the strength and endurance to persevere and defeat her foes. There was no use praying to Chrome for aid, however; no help would come from the white-socked goddess in her gloomy mountain cave. Her name was only of any use to Roanan, or any other Cimmareian, as a curse, and she had no priests or temples, nor any mercy or pity.
There was the tower of Yeeha, a silver turret piercing the sky, rising from a walled garden. It must be called the Tower of the Marestadon after Yeeha's great gem, the Heart of the Marestadon. Roanan had heard of marestadons, but wasn't entirely sure what they were. It did not matter, she knew what gems were.
As the dark of night took hold in the city, Roanan approached the garden wall around the tower. She waited in silence for fifteen minutes, listening for the sounds of guards patrolling on the other side. Her patience was rewarded by the sound of metal scraping against metal as a guard pony in armor patrolled in the garden. She stayed still, waiting for him to patrol past again, but the sound was not repeated.
The wall was low, only about ten feet in height, so Roanan only had to find a single set of good hoofholds in order to be able to scramble up and over. She landed lightly in the garden courtyard on all fours, silently for being unarmored, and reared back immediately on two hooves to draw her sword. At her hooves was an unmoving armored pony, his neck marked by the thin line of a garrote and his face and protruding tongue black with blood. She scanned the garden and saw a shape in the shadows, moving towards the tower. She took her sword in her mouth and galloped to confront it.
"Ah!" The pony whirled at her when she approached, a dagger in his hoof as he stood on three legs.
He was a chestnut with a dark mane, that much she could see in the dark. She halted and took her sword in one hoof to speak. "I am no guard."
"What are you then?" snarled the stallion.
"A thief, like you!"
"Ha! There are no thieves like me! I am Haurus of Neighmedia, King of Thieves!" The thief's grin flashed in the darkness as he sheathed his knife.
"I am Roanan of Cimmareia. I take it you are also not here to steal peaches from the unicorn's orchard." Her eyes turned towards the tower.
"The Heart of the Marestadon calls to you too, does it not?" His smile broadened as the warmare nodded. "Then let us brave the terrors of Yeeha together! Perhaps you will learn something from the King of Thieves! Come quickly, there are other guards!"
The two thieves moved stealthily towards the base of the tower, low to the ground, holding their weapons in the mouths, until the Neighmedian threw up his hoof to halt her. Roanan stopped and assumed a forehoof fighting posture. It restricted mobility but allowed for much better defense than mouth fighting. Two timberwolves had been reclining near the tower and upon smelling them, rose and charged the adventurers. Haurus reached into his pocket and took out a small pipe,and when they were about ten feet away, he exhaled and a yellow powder shot out to fill the air in front of the monsters. He skipped back quickly as the two timberwolves ran into the cloud, then fell stone dead, their branches collapsing in heaps.
"Black lotus powder, rare and deadly. Give the air a minute to clear." As Haurus whispered to the Cimmareian he took out a grappling hook, and she prepared to move, taking her sword once again in her mouth. Suddenly, she saw movement behind him; a wolf had been on the other side of the tower! It leaped for the King of Thieves, but Roanan, moving with shocking quickness for one so large, swung her mighty-thewed neck to bring her sword down on its head as its jaws flashed inches from Haurus' back. It scattered with a crunch, the walnut brain bisected. The two thieves shared a look as Haurus nodded his thanks, then they moved to the base of the tower, stepping over the pieces of the timberwolves.
Haurus threw the hook up to the balcony walk that went around the top of the tower, about thirty feet up. They pulled the rope to test the catch of the grapple and both began a rapid ascent in silence. As they climbed, they noticed that the stone of the tower was encrusted with uncounted precious stones and gems of great worth. They reached the lip and scrambled over it, pulling the rope up quickly. A door awaited them to what may have been a guard room.
"Roanan! Go around the tower wall and check for more guards, then meet me back here!" She nodded and made a circuit around the tower; there were no guards on the wall and none had approached the base of the tower to investigate the bodies and raise an alarm. When she returned, she was puzzled there was no sign of Haurus. Then she heard a cry from the other side of the door.
The door opened and Haurus stood framed by the doorway, a look of shock on his face as he pitched forward. She ran to examine him, but he was dead, the only mark on him a pair of needle-like pinpricks on his neck. She grunted and readied her blade, entering the room.
There was no sign of any foe, but there were piles of gems scattered in chests throughout the eight-sided room, glimmering in the glow of eight torches. A spiral staircase lead down into the heart of the tower. She grabbed a hoof-full of gems and stuffed them into her saddlebag, warily keeping her eyes open and turning to keep from presenting her back to whatever had killed Haurus. She noticed on the ceiling that there was an odd eight-sided pattern, but other than that, all was quiet. Then suddenly there was movement.
She instinctively rolled out of the way as the enormous spider jumped at her from the shadows, fangs glistening with foul poison. Chrome! Her sword flashed, but the thing danced away, too fast to be struck by her blade. She ran for the doorway but the spider spat a thick wad of webbing sealing the door shut.
It leaped at her several more times, and each time she managed to dodge it, but she knew that eventually it would find purchase on her mane and sink the massive fangs into her neck to slay her with its sorcerous poisons. The spider spat more webs and one of them caught Roanan on one of her forelegs, pinning her. She would not dodge the next attack.
The monster skittered up a wall and prepared to leap once more when Roanan, in desperation, kicked a treasure chest full of gems into the air in front of her and bucked it with all of her might to smash the arachnid into a sticky paste, bursting and scattering its precious contents all over the floor. She cut herself free with a dagger in her mouth, bent down and scooped another hoof-full of loot into her saddlebag, then cautiously descended the staircase, watching for traps and foes.
The chamber beneath appeared to be a throne room with a massive marble idol seated upon the throne. It had the body of a pony with a great head bearing a long, flexible nose and sharp tusks, as well as overlarge ears. The marestadon! A great red gem sat upon a low marble table in front of the idol. The heart! Roanan moved to take the gem.
Then the idol moved. Roanan froze, her skin crawling as the thing looked around blindly. "Yeeha, you have come to torture me again? You are early tonight. No matter, I will still tell you nothing about the gem. You've taken my eyes and tormented me for three hundred years, but I will not give you what you want in three thousand!"
Chrome! Roanan swallowed and spoke, her voice husky with superstitious dread. "I am not the wizard. I am a thief!"
"Speak you true? You are not the unicorn? You are not one of the voices she sends to torment me? Come here then, let me put my hooves upon you. I have not seen nor touched another in three hundred years. Please! I will not harm you, thief!" There was a deep sadness in that voice, and it moved even the hard bitten swordsmare. She slowly approached the creature on the throne.
The marestadon gently reached out its hooves and stroked Roanan's face and shoulders. "It is true! You are real! I am Nag-Kosha and I have been Yeeha's prisoner in this cursed tower these three centuries. I have been a visitor to many worlds and have come to this planet for thousands of years, but I fear now that I am the last of my kind. I have no wish to live any longer, but Yeeha keeps me alive to learn the secrets of the gem you know as the Heart. I will not reveal to such a creature the secrets that would allow her to travel to other worlds. Will you aid me, Roanan?"
The barbarian considered briefly, but the torment suffered by this ancient traveler had turned her stomach. "What is it that you need me to do, oh Nag-Kosha?"
"Slay me. Cut out my heart and squeeze the blood from it onto the gemstone. Then take the stone to Yeeha; her bedchambers are downstairs on the ground floor. Then you must flee, for my vengeance will be terrible. Do this for me, please!" The blind eyes begged Roanan for release.
"How shall I escape? I must return the way I came? It will take me a fair amount of time to get down the wall. And then there are the guards to consider."
"Do not concern yourself with the guards. And there is no need to leave from the roof. There is a secret exit at the base of the tower; it cannot be seen from the outside but you will see it plainly from Yeeha's bedchamber. Now, slay me quickly, thief! Free me from this prison!"
Roanan drew her sword and plunged it into the chest of the creature. It sighed and sat back on the throne, all life leaving it. She then took a dagger and cut deeply into the chest, carving a hole and breaking apart ribs, covering herself with gore. She sliced the great heart from the arteries and veins binding it to the chest and walked to the table, holding the dripping red thing aloft. The Cimmarean positioned the heart above the great emerald-cut ruby and squeezed, the blood dripping onto the gem, which appeared to absorb the liquid. As it did so, it began to glow with a fire within.
Having wrung the creature's heart dry, Roanan deposited it upon the table and took up the gemstone with her mouth, which now shone like a torch. With bloodstained hooves, she descended the final staircase. There was a door at the foot of the staircase and Roanan shouldered it open.
She was in a bedchamber, with silks and exotic furs on the walls and floor. In the center was a great bed upon which a unicorn mare slept. She was pale amber in color with a reddish mane and tail. At the side of the bed there was a nightstand. Roanan approached. "Yeeha," she said around the gem in her mouth.
The unicorn's eyes flew open, revealing a deep garnet color. She sat up in the bed and sneered at the barbarian, her horn glowing with crimson death about to be unleashed upon the intruder. Roanan simply put the Heart on the nightstand and stepped back.
Yeeha's eyes were drawn to it. She could see the fire blazing within. What had happened? Had this thief somehow awakened the power of the gem? She looked closer and closer.
Roanan watched as a mist formed around the unicorn and she shrunk quickly, drawn into the gem. Within the stone, she could spy the unicorn looking about in confusion as Nag-Kosha appeared in magnificence and glory, towering over her in his full strength. There was a tiny shriek of absolute despair as the mage realized the trap she was in. Then the image of Nag-Kosha turned to look at Roanan and she heard a voice in her head. Run! Now!
The swordsmare saw a wooden door in the wall and ran at it full force. It splintered as she ran through it and suddenly she was in the garden, the night air cool against her skin. To her left and right she could see bodies of guards, looks of utter horror on their faces as though they had died of fear. She ran to the wall and scrambled over it, then kept running as she heard a terrible grinding and crushing sound behind her. She turned to see the silver tower collapse in the moonlight, dust and shards of stone tossed high in the air as ponies came out of temples and taverns, bedrooms and brothels all over the Zebora to witness the fall of the Tower of the Marestadon.
Roanan stood alone, the gemstones in her saddlebags a satisfying weight, as she considered all that she had seen and was confirmed in her distaste for unicorns, their magic and the decadence of civilization.
Author's Note
This is a ponified version of Robert Howard's first Conan story, The Tower of the Elephant. I encourage anyone who has not read the original Conan stories to do so; they are wonderful. I must advise readers that Howard was a product of his times and some of what is written will come across as racist and sexist; however he also has a number of strong and admirable (or truly despicable) minority and female characters.
I plan to add other short stories to this anthology as the mood strikes me. I also invite other writers to do so; there have been many other authors who wrote about Conan after Howard's death, including L. Sprague deCamp and Robert Jordan. Please feel free to publish your own stories or if you like, contact me and we can add your stories to this anthology.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and I look forward to your comments and criticisms!
