//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: Magic and Memory 
// by Summer Knight 
//------------------------------//

Power and memory flowed from my Bewitching Bell into my body. At last I understood all that had happened to me, and to it. 
Countless eons ago I had been banished from the world by Gusty the Great and her unicorn warriors, who then sealed my Bell deep inside a mountain. A group of villains retrieved it, thinking to use its power to conquer Equestria, but they were defeated by an alicorn princess leading an army drawn from all corners of the known world. Their spell of Harmony returned all the Bell's stolen magic to its rightful place. However, much of that magic had come from creatures who were long since dead. With nowhere else to go, it returned to the Bell. 
Millennia passed, and for reasons even I did not know, magic began to fade. Eventually it grew so weak that Gusty the Great's banishing spell unraveled and I was freed from the non-place she had trapped me. 
Even so, I could not manifest in a magicless world. It was only with the return of magic that my essence found its way back. And so Waxing Gibbous came upon me, or a pale shadow of who I had once been, lying in the woods of Mount Enyo two weeks ago. 
Now I was complete again, and the world trembled at my return.
"I am Grogar!"
One of the stallions before me stepped forward and held up the badge of some petty office. "Well, Mister Grogar, I'm the sheriff of Maretime Bay, and I'm gonna need you to come with meeeeeeeeeeeeee—!" His voice trailed to nothing as I telekinetically launched him through the hole in the roof.
"Hitch!" Sunny screamed. 
"I've got him!" the older pegasus shouted, and flew into the air. "Sunny, I think your break's over. Toots, camera!" He then flew up to catch the sheriff as he fell.
"Uh, right," the teal earth pony stammered. He began to lift the strange device he carried, so I destroyed it with the barest thread of magic I could conjure. He screamed and dropped the object's smoking husk.
"Okay, Grogar." Sunny glared at me. "It. Is. On." 
Wings of pure magic erupted from her back, and a horn from her forehead. Before I could grasp what was happening, she hurled herself toward me. Propelled by magic I could not fathom, she slammed into me and we broke through the already-crumbling wall of her home. 
"Grogar!" Waxing Gibbous shrieked. 
"Come on," the plump earth pony shouted as he grabbed her, "this place could come down any second! Again!"
As the two escaped through the new hole Sunny had just made, I bucked her off of me and rolled up to my hooves. 
She exploded toward me again. This time I turned aside her wild charge with a well-placed shield, and her own momentum sent her tumbling to the grass. Even so, my hooves dug long trenches in the dirt as the impact forced me backward. 
What sort of magic is this? Such power! Yet it was clear she had no idea how to use it. It will be mine.
Sunny stood back up. "Alright," she hissed through her teeth, "mister Tyrant of Gamelon—"
"Tambelon."
"I don't know what that is, but you're going right back there!"
She stalked toward me and I moved sideways to counter, raising the Bewitching Bell into the air as I did so. She obviously did not know that the Bell could steal her magic, or she would have been fleeing instead of bracing herself. The Bell glowed as it prepared to absorb her immense power.
"Stop!"
I gasped and wrenched the Bell skyward as Waxing Gibbous threw herself between me and my foe. Its magic-draining blast shot into the air and dissipated harmlessly. 
"What are you doing?" I growled.
"What are you doing?!" Gibbous cried back. "Why are you trying to hurt them?" 
I snorted angrily. "Because I remember who I am. I am Grogar, once and future emperor of all Equestria, and these ponies have set themselves against me. Their lives are forfeit."
Gibbous gasped, and her eyes welled with those strange secretions again. Tears, I recalled now. I'd seen them many times on ponies' faces as I conquered their lands. 
But they'd never made me feel so strange before. 
"Is that right?" Gibbous asked in a voice strangled by sorrow.
"It is."
"Well, then... then I guess my life is forfeit, too!" She stomped a forehoof.
"No!" Sunny leaped forward, but Gibbous waved her back. 
"My life's forfeit too, because I'm not letting you hurt anyone!"
"What?" The furious glow drained from my horns and slowly trickled back into the Bell. "You set yourself against me? With them?"
"Yeah, I do," Gibbous shouted back. "So go ahead, oh mighty demon sorcerer. Conquer Equestria and kill everyone who stands in your way." She planted her hooves and gritted her teeth. "But you'll have to start with me."
An angry growl rose from my chest.  
"As you wish." 
Gibbous winced and looked away as I pulled vast amounts of magic from the Bewitching Bell. It was far too much to expend on a single pony, but instead of unleashing it I continued to draw more. Still, the young batpony held her ground. 
I formed the magic into a deadly orb between my horns. It would destroy what remained of Sunny's home and send this entire section of cliff tumbling into the sea. I hoped that Sunny would be strong enough to survive, for I still wished to absorb her strange magic. 
It was time. I could end all of this with a thought. And yet... and yet I did not. The orb, brightest red and deepest black, hung between my horns and did nothing. Gibbous trembled like a leaf in a hurricane, tears streamed freely down her cheeks, but still she refused to move. Refused to break. 
And so I broke. 
The Father of Monsters, the terror of an age, the emperor of the ancient world met his match in a naïve young batpony who called him "friend."
I sighed and released my hold on the magic, allowing it to flow back into the Bewitching Bell. Then I spoke words I had never spoken before—words I hadn't dreamed would ever pass my lips.
"So be it, Waxing Gibbous. You win."



It had been about five minutes since Grogar had decided not to vaporize me, Sunny, and half of Equestria for all I knew. 
I'd spent that time with my forelegs in an iron grip around Grogar, sobbing into his coat. Sunny and Hitch—safely returned to the ground—were off to the side talking quietly, while Skye had spent most of the time haranguing Toots about the broken camera. 
"Just ask for volunteers, they said," Skye ranted as he stalked past us. "We can't afford to send a whole crew, they said! Well, now they're gonna have to pay for a whole new camera and a crew before we can finish..." 
"Your boss is leaving," I informed Toots.
"Nah, he's not my boss," the bluish pony replied, "I just offered to help him out. I've got a lot of free time since I quit Canterlogic after... never mind, it's a long story."
"Speaking of long stories," Hitch cut in, "you've both got a lot of explaining to do." He trotted over to us.
Grogar grunted and finally managed to disentangle himself from my arms. "I decided not to fight you, lawpony," he rumbled. "That doesn't mean I will meekly go with you."
"Now hold on a second," I said to Hitch. "The trouble started when Grogar picked up that bell, right?" 
"Right," Hitch replied uncertainly.
"Okay, then this is easy." I held out a hoof. "Grogar, give me the bell."
Grogar's eyes narrowed. "What?"
"Give me the bell," I repeated.
"Ahem," Sunny butted in, "that bell was my dad's, and I held onto it for years without any trouble."
"Give Sunny the bell."
Grogar glared at me, and I glared right back. My golden eyes crackled against his yellow and red ones in a contest of wills. Finally, Grogar huffed and looked away. 
"Very well." He unhooked the bell from his harness and levitated it over to Sunny. "I will return for that someday."
"Sure, but I'm guessing not as long as Gibbous is around," Sunny said with a snicker. 
"There you go," I said to the sheriff. "No bell, no problem, right?"
"The Bell did not—" 
I clapped a hoof over Grogar's muzzle before he could get us into more trouble.



Hitch squinted at us suspiciously while Sunny examined my Bewitching Bell. Finally, she set it down and trotted to the sheriff's side. 
"Hey." Sunny playfully shoulder-checked him. "I don't see Sprout sitting in jail right now. Surely the sheriff of Maretime Bay wouldn't play favorites, right?"
Hitch huffed. "Of course not. Okay, you two are free to go as long as you promise to stay away from Maretime Bay."
"Hitch!"
He coughed. "Uh, as long as you promise not to make any more trouble. We can chalk this whole thing up to a... misunderstanding. Deal?"
Deal? Was this what I was reduced to? Making deals with ponies whom I could vaporize at a whim? But the first pony I vaporized would have to be Waxing Gibbous. I knew, deep down, that was something I could not do. 
I heaved a heavy sigh. 
"Deal."
"Great!" Sunny cheered. "Come on, I'll show you around Maretime Bay! We can get brunch and... ooh, ouch, we've gotta get some aloe on those wings, Gibbous."
"Wait, seriously?" Gibbous asked. "After all this, you want to be friends? Just like that?"
Sunny snorted. "Trust me, this is not the weirdest day I've had lately. Like, not even top three." She thought for a moment. "Maybe top five. You coming or what?"
I slowly let out my breath. This might not be the strangest day that mare had had lately, but it was the strangest one I'd ever had in my life. 
"Yes, we are coming."




A few weeks later

"There it is!" I squealed as Mount Enyo came into view. The world was bigger and stranger than I'd ever imagined, and with magic returning it was bound to get even crazier. Someday, maybe someday soon, Grogar and I would explore it. 
But for now, it was time for both of us to go home. 

The End