Grogar, remembering his name but little else, awakens on a distant island inhabited by batponies. Waxing Gibbous, a young batpony mare, finds him and offers to help. They set out into a newly magical world to learn who he is and what happened to him.
Grogar, remembering his name but little else, awakens on a distant island inhabited by batponies. He quickly learns that the world is quite different from the one he knew, and he will need a guide.
Waxing Gibbous, a young batpony mare, finds him and offers to help. She quickly learns that the world is much larger and stranger than she ever imagined, and she'll need a guardian.
They set out together into a world that's still adapting to the return of magic. They want to find out who Grogar is and where he came from, but they may not like the answers.
Written for Shrink Laureate's Generation 5 Bingo Writing Contest with the prompts Skye Silver, Toots, Grogar, Griffish Isles, and Batpony.
I am Waxing Gibbous. I am a batpony from Chiroptera Cavern. I am a sight to behold, with piercing golden eyes, sable wings, and a long mane of dusky gray that is the envy of my colony. I am quick on my hooves and equally quick-witted. I am... I am talking to myself because nobat else wants to talk to me.
Every night it's the same thing: Wake up, climb down from my perch, walk down the mountain and into the nearby woods to pick fruit. Pick a basket's worth, bring it back to the colony, eat my share of whatever we found that night, then go back to bed before the sun rises. Most of the colony actually enjoys it—I can hear them chatting and laughing as they walk through the woods of Mount Enyo. But, for some reason, nobody ever hangs out with me for very long.
I sighed deeply and pushed through a tangle of shrubs. I emerged into my favorite place, my secret place: A small clearing in the woods, gently bathed in the light of the moon, quiet and solitary. I was always alone, but at least here I could be alone by myself.
Or not. I stopped short as I realized there was someone... something... else here tonight. A bluish lump lay in the center of the clearing, apparently asleep. I crept forward on silent hooves to take a closer look at the intruder.
Who is that? What is that? I'd never seen anybat like it. The creature almost looked like some sort of pony, except it had two huge horns curling up off of its head. Plus the hooves were all wrong, they split down the middle and almost seemed to form toes.
Whatever it was, it lay on its side in the middle of my clearing, bathed in moonlight, breathing so slowly and softly that someone without batpony hearing might think it wasn't breathing at all. I couldn't help myself—I just had to take a closer "look."
I opened my mouth and emitted a noise that was too high-pitched for anything but a batpony to hear. My sonar bounced off the strange creature and back to me, painting a clearer picture in my head.
It was covered in thick, coarse fur, or maybe wool, with strong muscles rippling underneath. The horns were made of keratin—no surprises there—but it also wore a thick, heavy collar made of leather.
I instantly snapped my mouth closed. Leather! Only monsters made clothing out of other animals.
I took a step backward, then froze as the monster grumbled and rubbed at its ear. Had it heard my echolocation? No, that was impossible. Should I run? No, that would rouse it for sure.
It stirred again. A pale yellow eye gleamed in the soft light of the moon. A burning red pupil swiveled around, then locked onto me.
My muscles locked up even as my bones turned to water. Run. Run! I screamed at myself, to no avail. Even lying down, this monster's mere presence was like a thousand pounds pressing on my shoulders, crushing me into the grass.
The pressure only increased as it slowly heaved itself upright, balancing its weight between those weird cloven hooves. The monster wasn't all that big—I'd seen taller griffons—but it seemed to loom as large as a manticore. My horror peaked as it opened its mouth.
"Quis es? Ubi est?"
My own mouth fell open. It can talk! Sort of.
"Quid accidit?"
"Um!" I cleared my throat, swallowed hard, and tried again. "Um, sorry, I... I don't know what you're saying."
The monster grunted and shook its head, and then something impossible happened: Its horns began to glow.
Ever since this creature had first stirred, there had been a scream building up in my chest, trapped behind the lump in my throat; now it burst out. Finally freed from my paralysis, I turned tail and ran.
As I ran, a wave of red-orange energy flowed from the monster. It overtook me in an instant, but didn't seem to hurt me. I had no idea what it had done, and I wasn't about to ask even if I could have understood the answer. I sprinted toward the top of the mountain and home, then froze again as the creature's voice echoed across the clearing.
"Hold!"
I am Grogar. I am a ram, and a powerful sorcerer. I seem to remember being called "father," so I must have a family somewhere. That is all I know.
"Who are you?" I asked the odd creature in front of me. "Where am I?" My memory was a blur, and my muscles ached terribly. How long had I been asleep? And why was I sleeping in the woods? "What happened?"
The batlike being squeaked and cleared its throat. "Big oof, this ain't it. Yeet."
What language is that? No matter, a simple translation spell would let us understand each other.
As I channeled the spell, the creature screamed—that was the same in any language—and ran away from me. My magic burst out from me and caught it easily.
"Hold!" I called.
The other creature stumbled to a stop, and I began to walk toward it.
"Where are we?" I asked again.
"W, what did you d-d-do?" it stammered.
The creature was trembling. I frowned; the night wasn't that cold. "A translation spell," I answered, "so we may speak."
Its bright yellow eyes grew, if possible, even wider and rounder. "A s...s-spell? Like magic?"
"Not like magic. Magic."
"You can use magic?!"
"As you just saw, yes. Are you going to answer my question?"
"That's impossible!" the bat squeaked instead. "Magic isn't real!"
I frowned more deeply. "You cannot cast spells because you don't have horns, but the magic is still there."
The bat shook its head frantically. "Look, the colony elders tell stories about magic. They say it used to be everywhere, and creatures could do amazing things with it. They say we used to be able to fly!"
I squinted. "You cannot fly?"
"No, that's what I'm saying! If magic ever did exist, it's long gone. These—" it spread its large, leathery wings, "—are just for show."
"Yet I just cast a spell," I pointed out. "Have you tried flying?"
"Everybat has. We flap our wings really hard like this, and if we're lucky we might get a couple of inches off the groooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuund!" The bat's scream faded as it rocketed upward.
I grunted. "See?"
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" My wings shot me impossibly upward, higher and higher, so fast that the wind nearly forced my scream back down my throat. The ground shrank away beneath me and was quickly lost to sight. I was flying! I was flying, and it was terrifying!
Okay, think. If my wings were somehow making me fly, then to stop flying I just needed to stop using them. I snapped my wings to my sides, and immediately realized I'd made a terrible mistake. I needed something halfway between flying and falling.
That's it!
I extended my wings again, but instead of flapping, I just let them catch the air. Then I realized that I'd somehow ended up upside-down. I closed my wings, rolled over, and opened them again. Now I was gently gliding through the air. I was getting the hang of it!
With my newfound skill, I descended in a wide, slow spiral back toward the clearing. I came in for a landing, and stumbled forward a few steps from the leftover momentum. Nonetheless, I had returned from my first flight unscathed.
"That. Was. Amazing!" I squealed. "How did you do that? Why did you choose me? Who are ymmf!" An orange glow covered my mouth and muffled my speech.
"My name is Grogar," the creature answered, "and I need you to answer my questions. Understood?"
I nodded, and Grogar's magical muzzle dissolved.
"Who are you, where are we, and what happened to me?" Grogar asked. "In as few words as possible," he added.
"Waxing Gibbous, Mount Enyo, I have no idea," I answered.
"Hm."
"Okay, my turn! How did you use magic, why did you give me magic, and can you do it for the rest of my colony?"
Grogar rubbed an eye with one of those weird hooves. "I have always been able to use magic, and I did not give you magic," he answered. "Your people don't know that they can fly?"
"We can't!" I protested. "Er, couldn't. I told you, the world lost its magic ages ago."
Grogar raised an eyebrow.
"And now it's... back." I gasped as the implications hit me. "Magic is back! Oh my gosh, I have to tell everybat!" I spread my wings and leaped, only to find myself snared in a field of Grogar's magic. "Oh. Um. Would you like to come with me?"
Waxing Gibbous led me up the side of Mount Enyo. As we walked, she informed me that we were on a large island at the eastern end of an archipelago she called the Griffish Isles. Officially the griffons controlled this island as well, but the batponies were highly territorial and impossible to hunt down in their labyrinth of caves, so the griffons had eventually given up on settling it.
We entered the mouth of a cavern and walked into near-total darkness. Gibbous screeched into the depths of the cave, a sound just barely at the edge of hearing that made my ears itch. Apparently satisfied, she started forward again, then stopped.
"Oh," Gibbous said sheepishly as the last rays of moonlight faded, "you probably can't see in here, can you?"
"Not a problem." I grunted. I channeled a brief stream of magic through my horns and into my eyes. Now the cave looked bright as day, albeit drained of all color. My eyes gleamed faintly even though there was no light to reflect off of them.
"Wow," Gibbous sighed. "Is there anything magic can't do?"
"No."
A long moment of silence, then, "Wait, you're serious. It can do anything?"
I nodded. "Strong enough magic, used correctly, can do anything you want it to."
"Wow," she repeated.
We continued walking, with Gibbous easily leading the way through the twists and turns of the cave network. She'd said that most of the others would still be out foraging, so we didn't need to worry about running into anyone on the way there. However, the colony's elders did not forage anymore, and they were the ones whom we needed to talk to. She thought the stories they told would help us.
"You only tell your stories?" I asked. "You don't write them into books?"
Gibbous arched an eyebrow. "It'd be pretty hard to read books in the middle of a mountain."
I had to admit she had a point. Still, oral traditions were notoriously unreliable. I knew that from... somewhere.
"We're here!" Gibbous announced.
Here was an opening in the rock wall, a cavern like dozens of others that we'd walked past or through. However, this one had something written above the door in a language I couldn't read. The runes were carved deep into the rock, presumably so that the batponies' echolocation could decipher them.
"Let me go first," she continued. "I have to let Otis know you're here, or he'll freak out."
"Otis?"
"Elder Myotis," she clarified. "He's on the younger side for a colony elder, but he knows more stories than anybat alive. The older ones are starting to forget them," she added in a stage whisper.
"I see." It was as good a place as any to start. If nothing else, this Elder Myotis could hopefully tell me where to find the griffons. They were supposedly the dominant force on this archipelago, which most likely meant they had more to offer than just stories. "Proceed."
"Proceed."
Gee, thanks for giving me permission to walk around my own colony, I thought as I entered Otis's cave. I heard a faint tapping coming from the back. It was enough to guide me back toward Otis's studio, a small opening off of the main cave where he made sculptures and intricate relief carvings. Some of his work decorated the colony, while the ones he was less proud of got traded to the griffons for supplies and continued promises to stay away from the island.
"Hey, Otis?" My voice echoed off the chamber's bare walls—the studio was empty aside from the elder and the block of stone he was working on.
The tapping stopped. A burst of sonar broke over me.
"Waxing Poetic, you're back early."
"My name is Waxing Gibbous, and you know it," I grumbled.
"I know, but it doesn't suit you at all," the elder replied.
"It's when the moon is more than half but less than full," I preened. "When it lights up the night sky, yet never reveals everything it hides," I preened. "It suits me perfectly."
"That's quite poetic, Waxing."
I groaned.
"Anyway, what brings my biggest fan back to the colony at this time of night?"
I took a deep breath. Everything was about to change—heck, everything had changed, only most of us didn't know it yet.
"I came back because I found someone out in the woods," I began. "He's alone, and he knows his name but not much else about himself. He asked to come back with me."
"You brought a stranger to the colony?" Otis asked. "Did it occur to you that he could be dangerous?"
"It did," I answered, "but he's been nice to me, and he needs our help. There's something else, too, but I think he should be the one to tell you." After all, Grogar was the expert on magic here.
Otis sighed, and I could hear his hoof rubbing against his forehead. "Alright, alright. He's already here, no sense leaving him standing out in the dark. Let me get a lantern and—"
"No need," I interrupted, "he can see in the dark."
"Way down here? That's impossible. I don't care how good his eyes are, you need some light to see."
Light... or magic! I stuffed a hoof in my mouth to stifle my excited giggle. "Trust me, he's fine."
Otis sighed. "Okay, I'll take your word for it. The moon only knows why..." he muttered as he pushed past me. His hoofsteps moved slowly away from me as he entered the main chamber and moved toward the cave entrance. I caught a faint echo of Otis's sonar as he scanned the mouth of the cave.
"Elder Myotis, I presume?" Grogar rumbled from just outside.
"H... hello," he replied. "I am Elder Myotis, and you must be Grogar."
"One moment." There was a burst of reddish-orange light. "We will understand one another now."
"W-w-what did you just do?" Otis stammered. "What was that light?!"
Grogar sighed. "As I told Waxing Gibbous, a translation spell. It is basic magic."
I could practically hear Otis's mouth drop open. "Magic? But magic is a myth!"
"No, it's not," I butted in before he could get on Grogar's nerves too badly. "Magic used to exist, and now it's back. That's the other thing we needed to tell you."
"I... I..." Otis seemed to have overloaded.
"Alright," I sighed. "Both of you had better sit down. This could take awhile."
"Okay," Elder Myotis said to me for the hundredth time. "Okay, Grogar, I can't deny that what you're doing appears to be magic. Not to mention—" he gestured to Gibbous, who was hovering just over our heads. "And you showing up on the same day that magic returns to the world is too much of a coincidence to ignore. So, did you cause this?"
"No," I replied.
"No, of course not," Myotis said. He scuffed a hoof against the stone floor. "Well, there are many stories about magic. Some involve crystals, others talk about trees. Some say that the bonds between creatures are the source of magic. Does any of that ring a bell?"
Bell. The word itself was like a bell in my head. There was a bell, a special bell that was important to me... but even as I tried to grasp the memory, it turned to smoke in my mind. I shook my head in frustration.
"Nothing, huh? Well, I still say there has to be a connection between you and the magic, so let's focus on you for now." He leaned forward. "Your name is Grogar. What else do you know about yourself?"
"I know that I am a ram—a male sheep—and that my magic is quite powerful. I do not know where I come from, but I believe I have a family there. That is all I remember."
"I see." Myotis scuffed that hoof again. "Could you remove your translation spell for a moment? If I could identify your native language, that would be an excellent clue."
I released the spell linking myself and Myotis. "It is done," I said, fully aware that he couldn't understand me. "What you hear now is my language as I speak it."
Myotis flinched as my magic washed over him again.
"Well?" I asked.
"Strange," Myotis muttered, "very strange. It sounds almost like Old Equestrian, but not quite. A regional dialect, perhaps? Or a root language..."
"Old Equestrian?" I interrupted.
"Old Equestrian?" Gibbous said at the same time.
"Well," Myotis replied, "legends say that, thousands of years ago, many different types of creatures lived together in Old Equestria, not just ponies. There were griffons, changelings, and lots of other things. Maybe sheep lived there, too."
"That's it!" Gibbous squealed. "Grogar, you must be from Equestria!"
"From Old Equestria," I repeated. "Are you suggesting that I've somehow gone thousands of years into the future?"
Myotis shrugged. "If there's another explanation for why your native tongue is an ancient Equestrian dialect, I don't know it."
I snorted. "Elder Myotis, you live in a cave atop a mountain on an island, and you do not write down your history. I'm sure there are many things you don't know."
"Grogar!" Gibbous gasped.
"Griffons dominate this part of the world, correct?" I continued. "Where would I find them?"
Myotis sighed. "West," he answered. "Follow the chain of islands west and you'll find Griffon lands. Farther still, and you'll arrive in Equestria. Waxing Gibbous will show you the way."
"Me—?"
I grunted and stood. "Thank you." At last, I had some actual information to work with.
"Waxing Gibbous," the elder cut in, "take Grogar to the water's edge and point him toward the next island, then come back here at once."
"I... yes, Elder." Gibbous replied, and winged after me.
It was just as well that the elder had ordered her to go with me. It occurred to me a moment too late that I would not have been able to find my way out of the caves without her.
We walked in silence until we got out of the caves, when I pointed out to Gibbous that it would be faster to go over the forest than through it. Then we flew in silence.
"Well," Gibbous finally said, "this is it." She glided in a lazy circle toward a small cliff and landed gently.
I touched down beside her and released my levitation magic. Waves broke against the rocks in front of us. Beyond that, the ocean stretched out toward the horizon.
"Where is the next island?" I asked.
Instead of answering, Gibbous took in a deep breath and let it out.
"You're a jerk, you know that?" she said suddenly.
"Hm?"
"You came to us for help, then when Otis tried you threw it back in his face!"
"His idea was ridiculous," I replied.
"Do you have a better one?" Gibbous challenged me.
"No, but that doesn't make Myotis's any more credible."
"That's not the point!"
I tilted my head. "That is exactly the point. I was looking for help. Myotis was not helpful."
"But he tried!" Gibbous shouted. "He had no reason to help you, but he tried anyway because he's a good person. You can't see that because you're... not."
Her words hurt me somehow. They caused a sort of stinging, burning pain in my stomach. Some kind of magical attack? I couldn't grasp its nature.
"Where is the next island?" I asked. It would be best to leave before she struck again.
Gibbous drew a strangely sharp breath. "You don't even care, do you?" Fluid leaked from her eyes. Was this another attack? Toxic secretions of some kind?
I took a half-step back and prepared to defend myself.
"Fine!" Gibbous's voice cracked oddly. "If all you care about is finding the griffons, then just go!" She pointed out over the ocean. "Follow the tip of the Alicorn's horn for ten miles, and you'll see the island on your right."
"Alicorn?" My translation spell couldn't parse that word.
"The constellation!" Gibbous cried.
"I don't know these constellations," I answered. "Where is the Alicorn?"
"It's... ugh, look." She pointed toward a vaguely rectangular group of stars. "See? Those six form the body, the one above them is the wings, and those two to the left are the horn."
"I see. And the leftmost star of that constellation leads west?"
"Yeah. Almost perfectly." She scoffed. "Looks like the bats who live in a cave on an island know more than you do."
"You know some things I don't, that is true," I acknowledged. "The world is not how I remember it."
"Wait, I thought you didn't remember anything at all?" She sniffled, and wiped the strange secretions from her face.
A thoughtful rumble emerged from somewhere deep in my chest. "I know basic facts about the world. Rather, how the world should be. I know what a pony and a griffon are. The word 'Equestria' is familiar. It's the details that elude me."
"That must be really frustrating," Gibbous said.
"It is," I replied, "but I will find my answers. If not with the griffons, then in Equestria."
"It's going to be an amazing adventure," she sighed.
"Adventure? It will be a simple journey westward."
"For you, sure. You've probably traveled all over the place with your magic. I've never even left this island. I wish I could come with you."
I narrowed my eyes in puzzlement. "You can."
"What? No I can't!"
"You can fly," I reminded her. "You can leave anytime you want."
"But the colony is expecting me to come back. They'll be worried if I don't."
"And that prevents you from leaving the island? Strange." I truly did not understand batpony magic. "If I sent a message to Myotis by magic, would that allow you to leave?"
Gibbous's already huge eyes bulged even further. "You would do that for me?!"
"It is a simple matter," I replied.
"I... um... wow." She sat down heavily in the grass. "I need to think about that."
"I am leaving shortly," I said. "If you would like me to send this message, tell me now."
"I, uh. Um." Her eyes darted frantically around as she thought. After a moment, she took a shuddering breath. "Yes. Please."
I nodded. My horns glowed red as I charged them with magic, and a bolt of light went streaking off toward Mount Enyo. "It is done."
"Okay. Wow. That was easy." Another shaky breath. "Okay then."
While the batpony babbled to herself, I cast another spell to render myself weightless, then lifted myself with telekinesis.
"Right!" She leaped to her hooves. "Sorry, you're in a hurry, aren't you? Let's go!"
What in the name of the moon and every shining star am I doing? What had possessed me to follow Grogar off the island? He just seemed so lost. For all his power, he was like a foal leaving the caves for the first time, and I couldn't ignore the instinct to help him.
The moon was dipping below the horizon by the time we came within sight of land again.
"There's the island," I said. "I've heard Otis talk about his trips to Griffon territory. There should be a colony—sorry, a town—somewhere along the coast where the ships dock. We need to land there and find shelter before morning."
Grogar grunted. "Why is that?"
"I'm a batpony, remember? We don't like the sun." It would hurt my eyes and burn my wings, or so I'd been told. However, the predawn glow was ideal lighting, and I quickly spotted a cluster of... something... near the shore. "Look there."
Grogar nodded and angled towards it. I corrected my direction with a slight adjustment to my wing angles, and grimaced as a burning ache shot through them. I would be very happy when I was on the ground again.
"Wow!" I gasped as we drew closer to the town. Low, wooden buildings clustered close together, with roads of hard-packed dirt allowing for easy travel between them. Enormous platforms stretched out into the water, large enough for the griffons' ships to sit beside. There were two such ships there right now, resting easily in the water, held in place by ropes and chains thicker than my legs. "This place is amazing!"
Grogar looked over his shoulder at me. "It is only a small port town."
"This is a small town?"
"Of course. If there are more than a few hundred griffons here, I would be surprised."
"A few hundred?!" I squeaked. "That's the size of my whole colony! How many are in a big city?"
Grogar shrugged. "In the world I knew, thousands. Here? Impossible to say."
I nearly choked on the air rushing over my muzzle. Thousands?! That was like if every tree on my island were a griffon, and they all lived together. I could barely imagine it.
At long last we came to the docks, the nearest part of the town. Grogar landed with a gentle click of hooves on wood, while I set down with an exhausted thump.
"Now what?" Grogar asked me.
"Oh, right," I panted. "So, there's this thing called an inn where Otis stays when he's here. I'm not sure if that's a ship, or a building, or what, but it's always the first place he goes."
Grogar snorted. "It is a building. Come." His magic lifted me and set me gently on my hooves. "We'll ask the locals where it is."
We'd only gotten a few steps off the docks when two griffons blocked the way. They wore some really strong-looking armor, and carried spears with wicked metal tips. I got a really good look at one of those as a guard pointed it in my face.
"Who and what in blazes are you two?" the guard on the other end of that spear asked.
Before I could answer, Grogar's horns started glowing. Suddenly the spearpoint was away from my face; both of them were pressing into his throat. Grogar growled deep in his chest, and his magic turned distinctly redder.
"Wait, wait!" I shouted, and scrambled to put myself between Grogar and the two griffons. "He won't hurt you," I reassured the guards.
"Yes I will," Grogar butted in, and I thanked the stars that the griffons couldn't understand him.
"He was just casting a spell so we could all talk to each other," I said over him. "So, to answer your question: My name is Waxing Gibbous. I'm a batpony."
"Yeah, I know what a batpony is!" the guard in front of me spat. "What the flock is that?"
I glared back at him. "That is my friend Grogar." Behind me, Grogar gave a surprised grunt. "He's a ram, if you must know."
The guards looked at each other again.
"And what's a... ram... doin' in my town?" the other griffon asked.
"Looking for the inn," I replied. I took a deep breath to rein in my temper. "Preferably before the sun comes up."
"Inn. Right." The guard in front of me was talking again. "If you think that freak is setting one mutated hoof in this town, you're nuts."
It was like the guard's words reached inside my body and twisted up my insides. An angry red haze filled my mind and drowned out my thoughts. I'm usually pretty good with words, but there were no words to properly tell this griffon what a vile, hateful, awful creature he was. My body shook with the effort of not throwing myself at the two of them, but I had just enough sense left to know that would only end with me impaled on two spears.
As I opened my mouth again, still not sure what I was about to say, an orange glow washed over all four of us. The guards squawked and scrambled to point their spears at us again.
"Stop." Grogar commanded, and for a moment the three of us did stop. It wasn't a spell, we were just held in place by the sheer force of his presence.
"W-w-what did you do?" the guard in front of Grogar demanded, clutching his spear in trembling claws.
"A translation spell, as Gibbous told you," he replied. "Now drop your weapons and leave."
"W-we can't do that," the other griffon stammered. "We're supposed to guard this town."
Grogar growled, and his horns glowed blood red.
The griffons screamed, threw down their spears, and scrambled away from us. One clumsily winged into the sky, the other ran down the street as fast as his claws could take him.
Grogar exhaled and the glow faded. "Come," he said.
I barely heard him. My heart was still racing, blood roaring in my ears not from fear, but from anger.
"Waxing Gibbous." Grogar's stern voice cut through the haze. "Leave them."
"But Grogar... you couldn't understand them, but they said such horrible things about you!" I protested.
"They do not matter," he answered. "Those two were probably just local ruffians turned guards. They hate what they don't understand, which is most things."
I giggled a little at that.
"Well, it's a good thing you scared them off," I said as we started walking again. "I thought they were about to kill us both."
"They would not have," Grogar answered. "If they had attacked, I would have vaporized them before they touched us."
"O... oh."
Grogar looked around for a moment. "My translation spell does not work on text," he said. "Which of these buildings is the inn?"
"Are the griffons at the inn going to be any better than those two?" I asked.
"Hm. Likely not. I will need a disguise." His horns glowed again, and an orange light washed over him. When it faded, a male batpony stood in his place.
My jaw dropped. "You can turn into other creatures?"
The bat shook his head. "True shapeshifting is changeling magic. This is only an illusion."
"Illusion?" I tried my echolocation on him and found that he was definitely still Grogar, but my eyes were telling me something completely different from my sonar. It was very disorienting.
"Well," I mumbled as my head spun, "I don't think griffons are supposed to have echolocation, so that should work."
It took some wandering, and finally asking for directions from one of the few griffons who was awake this early, but we did find the inn. There was a brief snafu when the innkeeper asked for money—which neither of us carried—but a quick flash from Grogar's invisible horns sorted that out. I briefly wondered if hypnotizing the innkeeper counted as stealing, but after that encounter on the docks, I didn't really care.
"Just in time, too," I noted as I closed the door to our cavern—no, in a building it's called a room. "The sun's coming up."
I squinted as the first piercing rays crept into the window. Pretty soon the whole room would be flooded with light. Plus, as I looked around, I realized there was no place for me to hang while I slept. The only things in here were a couple of strange, padded platforms whose functions I couldn't begin to guess. "Sheesh, how's anybat supposed to sleep like this?"
"Hm? Ah, the sun," Grogar said as he noticed me squinting toward the window. The air above his batpony head glowed, and suddenly the window turned pitch-black. Now the room was only lit by what crept in around the door. It was still much brighter than home, but tolerable. Or it would be, if I had someplace to sleep.
"I will be back tonight," Grogar said as he turned back toward the door.
"Wait, what?" I squeaked. "Where are you going?"
"To learn what the griffons know," he replied as if it should have been obvious. "That is why we're here."
"Now? It's morning!"
"I am diurnal."
"Okay, but—" I hadn't considered that, actually, "—but you've still been up all night. You're exhausted!"
"I am fine." Grogar revealed his own lie with another yawn, then reached for the door again.
"Oh no you don't." I caught his foreleg with one of mine and turned him around. "Both of us need to sleep. The griffons will still be there in the evening."
Grogar glared at me, but... I don't know if it was the batpony form, or because he was tired, or what, but it didn't have the same oppressive weight as usual. Then he huffed.
"Perhaps you are right. My research will be much more productive if I am rested."
"Of course I'm right," I preened. "Though I don't know where we're supposed to—oh."
I watched as Grogar hopped onto one of those strange, padded platforms. He settled his head onto some oddly squishy rectangular rocks and pulled a layer of heavy fabric over himself. His deep, heavy snoring filled the room almost instantly.
"Well, the innkeeper called this a bedroom," I mumbled to myself. "And the whole thing is the room, so these must be... bed? Beds? Whatever."
I'd seen bird nests before, and these beds were a bit like that if you looked at them the right way. It made sense that griffons would make nests, too. Did sheep build nests? I supposed they must.
"Well, here goes nothing."
It took some doing, but I managed to get myself flat on the bed with my head on those weird, squishy rocks. I tried pulling the fabric over myself, but I immediately panicked at having my legs and wings pinned, so the fabric ended up on the ground. The squishy rocks joined it a moment later.
Now, lying flat, I could almost imagine that I was hanging in my cave like usual. Except there was this weird pressure on me from the bed. And the light from the door stung my eyes. And no batpony had ever snored as loudly as Grogar.
Gibbous and I slept for most of the day. The sun had passed its highest point and was beginning to sink toward the other horizon before we left the room again. I felt well-rested and much better for it, while Gibbous kept rubbing her eyes and complaining about the bed.
As I'd expected, beds were all this town was good for. The griffons inhabiting it were completely ignorant of history and magic, and suspicious of strangers. The entire settlement—Seahawk's Landing, it was called—only existed so that ships would have a place to dock before setting out farther east.
We stayed until the sky was fully dark, then took off for the next island in the chain.
I'd thought the two guards we met at the docks at Seahawk's Landing were just awful griffons, but it turned out that most of them were like that. As we hopped from town to town and island to island, practically everygriff met us with distrust if not outright hostility. I also noticed that as we got farther west—farther from Mount Enyo—fewer and fewer griffons had ever seen a batpony before. Eventually we agreed that Grogar keeping his batpony illusion was a waste of magic.
If the whole world was like this, then I never wanted to leave my colony again.
Now, a couple of weeks later, we stood at the western edge of the Griffish Isles and looked across the sea. Somewhere over there was Equestria and, hopefully, the answers that Grogar was looking for.
"It's a long flight," I said. Much longer than the island-hopping we'd been doing.
"It is our only option," Grogar replied.
That was true. We'd tried to find a ship sailing west, but they'd only take creatures who could work or who could pay. Neither of us had any experience with boats, and of course we didn't have any money, and even Grogar couldn't keep a whole ship's worth of griffons hypnotized long enough to get us to Equestria. We could have stolen some money, but that was farther than I was willing to go. Which left us with flying.
"Right." I swallowed my misgivings. "You'll catch me if I start to drop, right?" My stamina had grown by leaps and bounds during the weeks of travel, but I still wasn't sure about a trip that would take us all night and then some.
"Of course." Then, lest that make me feel too warm inside, he added, "I will need you to translate their writings for me."
"Naturally," I replied flatly. Grogar wasn't a bad guy, but by the moon and stars, he was dense!
"Come." Grogar wreathed himself in magic and lifted off the ground. I spread my wings and leaped out over the water.
We were on our way.
I kept an eye on Waxing Gibbous as requested, ready to snare her with my telekinesis if she began to fall. However, my help was not necessary; she glided easily on the air currents above the ocean. We kept a slow but steady pace all through the night.
After many hours, the sun began to rise. Even though it was behind us, Gibbous hissed in displeasure.
"It's reflecting off the water," she explained when I asked what was wrong. "It'll blind me if it gets any brighter!"
I glanced behind us. The sun was barely over the horizon; the day would get much brighter indeed.
"Can't you do something with your magic?"
"Of course." I focused, and an orb of energy shot out of my horns. The ball rose into the sky, spread out, and turned completely black to block the sun. It was dark again—darker even than the night, for there was no moon either. "It is done."
"Aah!" Gibbous squealed. "No no no, I meant like... protect my eyes, not blot out the sun!"
"Oh." Why hadn't she said so in the first place? I cast another spell to put a semi-opaque film over Gibbous's eyes, then recalled my eclipse spell. "Is that more suitable?"
Gibbous sighed in relief. "Yes. Much."
We flew in silence a while longer.
"Grogar," she finally said.
"Hm?"
"You're really powerful, aren't you?"
I shrugged. I had nothing to compare my power to.
"I mean it," she insisted. "I know you said you couldn't blow up Mount Enyo on your own, but what do you think you could do? Like, what's the most powerful spell you could cast?"
"Hmm." I thought about it for a moment. If I weren't already tired, and I completely exhausted my reserves... "Seahawk's Landing. I could destroy Seahawk's Landing."
Gibbous's flight grew erratic for a moment as she stiffened in midair, then caught herself. "A whole town?!"
"A small town," I pointed out.
"But still! You're talking about killing hundreds of griffons!"
"I did not say that I was going to, only that I could." I had no reason to destroy Seahawk's Landing, nor any other settlement.
Silence fell again, and this one lasted for a very long time.
The sun was almost directly over us when we finally came within sight of land. I was exhausted, starving, and I could feel my wings cooking right on my back. Those shadows on the horizon were the most beautiful things I'd ever seen.
We drew closer, and I nearly fell out of the sky not from fatigue, but from shock. We were on a course straight toward a city that would have dwarfed all the griffon towns we'd visited put together. Buildings crowded right up against the coastline and sprawled out for miles. Farther inland, on top of a hill, were even more buildings—enormous ones—with smooth stone paths linking it all together. Even Grogar grunted in surprise.
"What is it?" I whispered, awed.
"I... do not know," Grogar admitted. "I do not remember much, and yet I'm sure I have never seen such a place."
"Look there." I pointed to a hill near us, overlooking the sea. The broken remains of a building sat on top of it, and the meadow beyond was torn apart.
"A battlefield," Grogar rumbled.
"Is it safe?"
"The battle is long over," Grogar answered, "and I do not see anyone nearby. It is safe."
We landed near the ruined building and I collapsed gratefully into the grass. I didn't even care that I could still feel the daylight baking my skin, I just desperately needed to sleep. And eat. And then sleep some more.
"Come, we will take shelter inside," Grogar said. "We will go down to the city after resting."
"Fine... by me," I panted. I forced myself upright and with slow, aching steps I headed toward the broken stones of whatever this had once been. We—by which I mean Grogar—shifted aside some stones to make a small entrance, and I immediately searched out a stable-looking beam to hang from. It was no cave, with grooves in the stone that my hooves fit into to as if they were made for one another, but wrapping my legs around a sturdy branch was still a whole lot better than a flat bed.
"Hm," Grogar grunted as I got settled. "This appears to have been someone's home."
"Why would you put your home right next to a battlefield?" I mumbled sleepily. My snores drowned out his answer.
I stirred in my sleep and half-opened one eye. I still felt exhausted, not to mention starving. On top of that, the skin on my wings was oddly stiff and hot. At first I wasn't sure what had awoken me, then my ears pricked at the sound of hoofsteps and several different voices just outside the building.
"...former home of Sunny Starscout, the young earth pony whose courage and kindness brought magic back to Equestria—hold the camera still—and returned the pegasi to the skies!" The speaker sounded like an older male. His voice and enthusiasm reminded me a bit of Otis. "Sunny?"
I squeaked in alarm and dropped from my perch. I spread my wings to glide down and had to bite back a scream. Whatever was wrong with my skin, it hurt.
"Oh!" This voice was much higher and clearer, probably belonging to a mare about my own age. "Well, Mister Silver—"
"Skye, please."
"Right. Skye. Like I said before, it wasn't all me..."
"Grogar!" I hissed in the ram's ear. "Grogar, wake up!"
"Mm?" The ram shifted in his sleep and blew out a heavy breath.
"Grogar!" I shook him gently. "There's someone else here. They're talking about magic!"
Grogar blinked sleepily, then his eyes snapped open. He raised his head to listen to the voices outside.
"...humble, too!" This was the older male again. "But tell us a bit about this place. This is where it all happened, right?"
Grogar looked at me pointedly, and I quietly translated for him.
"This is... was... my home," the young mare—Sunny—answered. "My dad spent his life collecting all kinds of old stuff." There was a sharp grinding, followed by a splintering of wood as whoever was outside forced the door open. "Whoops. Well, not like it can get any more broken, right?" Sunny added with forced cheer.
"Uh, yeah." This was a new voice, a young male. "Sorry about that."
"Quiet, Toots," the older one snapped. "Just hold the camera steady and keep quiet." He cleared his throat. "And, what kind of 'stuff' are we talking about here?"
"Take a look around," Sunny said.
Grogar and I shot alarmed looks at each other. They were in the next room. If they started looking around the building, they'd find us for sure.
"Hide," I whispered. Grogar nodded. I shot back up to the ceiling to cling to my beam, while he tried to fit his bulk behind a large cabinet.
"My dad was all about Old Equestria," Sunny continued. "You know, friendship and magic and all that. He collected any artifacts that he could get his hooves on. Stories, too."
Stories! I wished Grogar could see the smug look I shot him. Take that, Mister Stories-Are-Unreliable.
"Everypony thought he was crazy," Sunny continued. Her voice was drawing closer. "But he was sure that it was real. That Equestria used to have magic, and someday we'd have magic again. And he was right! I just wish—" Her voice broke, and she cleared her throat. "I just wish he could have seen it." A sharp sniffle came from the other room.
"You heard it here, folks," the male voice said, "Sunny's father Argyle Starshine knew the truth before any of us! We'll be back with the whole story right after these messages." There were a few moments of silence, then, "You can put the camera down now."
"Come on, Sunny." This was new voice, another young male. "Let's take a break."
"Yeah. Thanks." Sunny's voice was so quiet that even my ears could barely catch it.
Every muscle in my body tensed as the door to this room—still mostly intact—swung open and two strange creatures walked in. They looked almost like batponies, except they had no wings. Plus, their coats and manes were so brightly colored that I found them hard to look at.
The larger of the two shut the door behind them, then placed a hoof on the other's shoulder. "Hey, you okay?" This was the younger male who'd spoken a moment ago.
"Yeah." This one was clearly Sunny. "I'm okay, it's just—" she drew a shuddering breath, "—it's a lot. All good things, though!"
The stallion chuckled. "You can say that again. Say, are we sure this place is safe to be in?"
I clung even tighter to the beam as he started looking around the room.
"It's been weeks, Hitch," Sunny answered. "Anything that's going to collapse has collapsed."
"I just hope we don't shake anything AAH!"
Oh, guano. He was pointing straight at me.
"Get behind me, Sunny!" He planted himself between us and stared up at me. "Who are you? Why is a pegasus hiding out here?"
What's a pegasus? My mind raced. I could easily fly away through the broken roof, but I couldn't leave without Grogar. What should I do?
"What's going on in there?" The older stallion asked. The door swung open to admit two more ponies: one with feathery, griffon-like wings and a gray mane, then another wingless pony with a light greenish-blue coat carrying some large, boxy contraption.
"Stay back," the one who'd spotted me replied, "we've got a trespasser. Hey you, come down from there!"
Not knowing what else to do, I spread my stiff, aching wings and glided to the floor. As I came closer, the four ponies recoiled.
"That's no pegasus!" the older stallion shouted. "What is that?!"
"Um... hi. My name is Waxing Gibbous. I'm a batpony." I gave a wave and a smile.
"It's got fangs!" the blue one shouted.
"Look at its eyes!" the old stallion added.
Suddenly, an orange light pulsed out from Grogar's hiding place and washed over the room, including the four newcomers. Their panicked chatter cut off immediately.
"Enough!" Grogar said as he emerged. "We are travelers. We believed this building was uninhabited, so we stopped here to rest. That is all."
Suddenly, I was totally forgotten as they all focused on Grogar.
"Yeah, well... well it's not uninhabited!" the one in front stammered.
"Then we apologize," Grogar replied. "We'll be on our way."
"Come on, Hitch," Sunny butted in, "they didn't mean any harm."
"We don't even know who—or what—they are," Hitch retorted.
"Well, that one's a batpony named Waxing Gibbous, apparently." Sunny looked at me, then back to Grogar.
"Come, Gibbous." Instead of answering her unspoken question, Grogar turned away from the group. Then he froze. I was pretty sure that only I could hear his sharp inhale, and even I couldn't tell what had caught his attention until an orange glow surrounded an old, cracked bell and raised it into the air.
"Where did you get this?" he whispered.
"That?" Sunny squinted at it. "I dunno, my dad picked it up somewhere. Anyway, I'm Sunny Starscout. Who are yo—?!"
Her voice was blown away by a sudden burst of energy as Grogar took hold of the bell. The pressure I'd felt the first time I met Grogar returned, amplified a hundredfold. Bright orange and deep crimson magic flowed out of the bell and into Grogar's horns. Was it my imagination, or was he getting a little taller?
"Who am I?" Grogar growled. I flinched—it was Grogar's voice, but there was something much darker behind it. Something old and powerful and very, very angry.
"I am many things to many creatures," Grogar said. "The demon sorcerer. The Tyrant of Tambelon. The Father of Monsters."
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.
