Legends tell of an ancient kingdom, filled with evil and destruction; The City of Nightmares. The Realm of Ruined Hopes. The Kingdom of Darkness.

Tambelon

It's name brings fear to the hearts of little fillies everywhere. Stories of the dreaded place haunt the darkest dreams of ponies. However, it wasn't always this way...

Once upon a time, in the glorious Kingdom of Tambelon...

There lived, not demons, nor shadows of the dark, but the mighty Alicorn race. The Alicorns were powerful creatures, able to bend the forces of nature to their wills. The Royal Family, consisting of King Chronos and Queen Majesty, as well as their children, ruled over the Alicorns with fairness and kindness. Chronos used his unicorn powers to control the motions of time, while Majesty controlled the movement of celestial bodies. For over 10,000 years, the family brought peace and harmony to Tambelon. Unfortunately, this peace would soon come to an end...

One day, a foul creature entered into Tambelon. This creature was a ghastly figure, with fur the color of cobalt. Sprouting from his head were two dark blue horns, curling backwards into a circle. Upon his neck, was an amulet depicting a dark Alicorn. This was the monster of Tambelon's legend, Grogar.

Grogar went to the King and told him of a great power that he had discovered. He called it 'Shadow Magic'. When Chronos asked him to demonstrate the magic, Grogar did just that. Bending the shadows to his will, Grogar attacked the King with his own shadow! Taken by surprise, the King had no time to react, and in just 5 minutes the great King of Tambelon had fallen to the darkness.

Using his shadow magic, Grogar enslaved the Kingdom of Tambelon, leaving Majesty and her infants to flee their home. For 10 years, Grogar would rule over Tambelon with an iron hoof, delegating it's inhabitants to vile experiments of torture and genocide, turning his victims into nothing but mindless shadows and chimerical abominations. To top that, Grogar had also started invading other kingdoms, hellbent on ruling the world! In just 3 years since his rise to power, hundreds of civilizations fell to his malice. It seemed that no-one could stop the dreaded Grogar.

However, hope still remained in the ponies. Majesty warned the Unicorn tribe about Grogar, and with the help of a majestic sorceress named Gusty and her army of Unicorn Warriors, they marched to Tambelon in the hopes of changing the fate of the world!

They battled Grogar's army of shadow for 3 days and 3 nights. With an army of 100 strong, Gusty and her Unicorn Warriors fought relentlessly against the darkness while Majesty fought Grogar. Victory was near.

But the power of shadows, is not one to be underestimated...

On the eve of the fourth day, Majesty was blasted by Grogar's shadow magic. In one fell swoop, he impaled the Queen onto the Bell at the city's center, and she was no more. He then turned his attention to the Warriors, and attacked.

One by one, the Warriors fell. The vile ram used his powers of necromancy to devour the very soul of those who fell to his hooves. Eventually, only two warriors remained. Gusty was shot by a powerful beam, leaving a hole where her back-left leg once was. Screaming in pain, Gusty fell to the floor while the dreaded Grogar laughed with a dark sense of pride. Gusty stared at the ram, and then at the warrior. She told the young unicorn to flee from Tambelon, and that everything would be okay. Once the unicorn had fled, Gusty charged a powerful spell. Her horn glowed a vibrant white, levitating Gusty above the ground while the earth shook from the magic's power. She aimed the spell, closed her eyes, tears forming at the edges, and shot it directly at Grogar.

*FWOOOM*

A burning pain seared Grogar as he was blasted by the light, his body disappearing. He let out a wretched scream, promising Gusty that he would return, and then his amulet fell to the ground with a loud *THUNK*.

Grogar, the killer of gods, had been defeated. However, his most vile deed was soon to come.

A dark magic, like that of vines, started surrounding Tambelon, covering it in darkness. Gusty quickly grabbed Grogar's amulet and hurled it over the growing vines of darkness, away from Tambelon's border. Gusty sat down, knowing that despite her fatal state, she managed to save the world from Grogar's wrath. She looked to the sky now covered in darkness, and smiled, accepting of what she knew was inevitable.

A large black hole cracked open the sky, dragging the Kingdom into it.

In less than a minute, the Kingdom of Tambelon was no more, taking over 40,000 victims with it. A large cavern stood where the Kingdom had resided. The only survivor was the young Warrior who had fled. He looked on to the chasm where his mentor had fallen, tears forming in his eyes. After a day of mourning, the Warrior returned to his home to tell the news of Tambelon's fall.

After telling his tale to the Unicorn leaders, the Last Warrior was tasked with helping Majesty's children grow and prosper, seeing as he was the only one left who personally knew Tambelon's rulers. The young Unicorn accepted this task, and brought the children to his home. The warrior taught them everything he knew about magic, and for over 200 years he helped them with life.

Even while old and bearded, the Last Warrior helped the children grow, bringing peace and harmony to their new nation, much like how Tambelon's rulers had done so long ago...

And yet, even now, the tale of Tambelon has yet to be finished. It has been almost 1,240 years since Grogar attacked Tambelon. And throughout that time, the remnants of his dark magic has been spread across the land. And with it comes a prophecy:

"When the Moon rises, and the Sun falls;
When Chaos reigns above them all;
When Kingdoms rise from the mist;
And Shadows return to the abyss;
In the prison of the devil's spawn;
Will come the return of Tambelon."

Author's Note

Greeting, and welcome to the Prologue of My Little Pony: Tambelon Rises!
I plan on using the Notes section to share my thoughts, scrapped plot points, and the mindset I had while making the chapters! SPOILERS FOR THE CURRENT CHAPTER!
Here are some examples:

• The Tale of Tambelon was originally much longer, taking up two chapters! It was also quite different than what was written. The first draft followed a character named Cosmos, based on the Movie's scrapped character of the same name. This character was the Prince of Tambelon, and was on a quest to save the Queen from a deadly disease. He would have traveled to a scrapped location called Chimeron, which was the Draconequus Kingdom. While there, he would have encountered Grogar. After a brief conversation, Grogar would use the Alicorn Amulet to steal Cosmos' soul. It would have then been implied that Cosmos would become the Darkness in the Well of Shade from the Season 7 Finale. Afterwards, the majority of this chapter would have played out. I had to scrap this idea because it was too long, and also because i feel like it introduced too many things that might not have been mentioned in the later chapters.
• The Battle for Tambelon was heavily inspired from the opening of the movie "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring".
• This entire story was originally supposed to be a fan-comic rather than a fanfic, but it turns out that I can't draw!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the Chapter, and please state any criticism so that I may try to improve it!