It Tolls For Thee

by BaeroRemedy

Rating: teen
Tags: Pipp Petals, My Little Pony: A New Generation, Horror, Sunny Starscout, Zipp Storm, Hitch Trailblazer, Violence, Izzy Moonbow, Death
Length: 2520

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

A chance to speak with those who are long gone is something that's hard to pass up. Sunny imagines what she could learn from the ponies of the past, what she could learn about the fate of ancient Equestria. Maybe she could even talk to her dad again.

Is that chance worth the risk of using magic she doesn't understand?

Written for the Quills and Sofas 'Return' contest.

Now with a Russian translation courtesy of NovemberDragon!

Published 2021-10-31 02:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2021-10-31 02:40:01 UTC

The Bell

“Alright, what’s this all about, Sunny?” Hitch asked aloud as Zipp and Pipp walked towards the raised plinth in the middle of the newly rebuilt lighthouse. The three mares that flanked him, the two previously mentioned pegasi and Izzy Moonbow, all murmured similarly curious statements.

“I found something exciting!” Sunny beamed from across the altar where the three magic crystals were held. “My dad collected all sorts of old magic artifacts from ancient Equestria, and when the magic came back a bunch of them reactivated!” Excited green eyes flitted back and forth between her friends as she made the announcement, but none of them looked quite as excited as she did.

“Should you really be messing with that stuff?” Izzy was the first to comment as she scratched her head. “I’m all for new magic toys and all, but who knows if they’re dangerous.” The usually overly-enthusiastic unicorn was anything but at the moment.

“Did your dad even know what they do?” Zipp chimed in, her wings fluttering on her back. “You said he was a smart pony and all, did he have any notes on them?”

“A lot of them were destroyed when the lighthouse came down…” The recently minted alicorn replied with a heavy sigh. “I’ve put the ones I don’t know anything about down in the basement, but the notes for one of them survived.” The magicbringer hefted a heavily oxidized bell onto the raised platform with a hoof. A spiderweb of surface-level cracks covered the surface, but it still looked sturdy. “It’s called ‘The Bewitching Bell’.”

“Oooh. Creepy.” Pipp raised her phone in her hoof and snapped a picture of the ancient artifact. “Ancient Equestrian fashion is all the rage right now, Sunny. We can make, like, copies and have little necklaces. Trust me, ponies will go crazy over this stuff.”

“Yeah yeah, that’s nice and all.” Hitch brushed Pipp’s statement aside and stepped around the makeshift table and poked the bell with a hoof. “That name makes it sound dangerous. What exactly does it do?”

“A lot of things, actually!” Sunny put a book onto the table, her father’s cutie mark adorning the cover. She flipped it to an earmarked page and began to convey the information held within. “It was used by a group of villains in ancient Equestria to steal magic from the most powerful heroes of the time. The spell that let them do that is lost to time, but that’s not all it could do.”

“Oh good, I was worried for a second that the WMD you have sitting in your house only had one use…” Zipp quipped and looked at Hitch with shifty eyes as she rocked on her hooves.

“Seems like something that should’ve stayed in the basement with the rest of the stuff your dad collected, Sunny.” Hitch reached out to grab the bell, but his hoof was slapped down by Sunny’s own. “Ow! Look, I just don’t want us messing with something that could take all of the magic away right when we got it back!”

“Legend says it can allow you to talk to the dead.” Sunny added on, looking at her lifelong friend hopefully. “Can you imagine? We could talk to the Guardians and figure out what happened! We could talk to the ponies who used to raise the sun and moon!” There was a beat of silence and her bright eager smile died into something filled with sadness. “I could talk to my dad again.”

“What if it doesn’t work like that?” Zipp chimed in again, her eyes repearedly flitting between Sunny and the bell on the table.”I’ve spent enough time around old world stuff to know that sometimes this stuff doesn’t...translate exactly.”

“Legends can be wrong!” Izzy nodded. “Like all of the stories I heard about earth ponies and pegasi. This could be just as wrong as those!” A look of betrayal flashed across Sunny’s face at Izzy’s pushback, which caused her to amend her statement promptly. “B-but I’m sure this one could be right! I’m sure you and your dad did a great job translating it!”

“Listen, I know this is a risk.” Sunny looked at each of her friends, a steadfast determination filling her eyes. “But where would we be if we didn’t take risks? Izzy would’ve never come to Maretime Bay. I would’ve given her up to Hitch. Zipp wouldn’t have freed us from the dungeon. We wouldn’t be here together.” Her words were solid, confident, and unwavering. “We stand to gain so much if I can use this to talk to the ponies from the past. First I’ll just try to talk to my dad, and if that works we can try more. If it goes wrong, I won’t do anything ever again with it. I promise.”

“Dang it, Sunny.” Hitch mumbled with a heavy sigh. “Okay…do you know how to use it? Like, if it does what you say it does, do you know how to activate it?”

“I’m pretty sure I do.” Sunny closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then, in a flash of light, a pair of glowing wings and a horn sprouted from her form. “The spell that was used to steal magic was very complex and hard to do, but this one is more general.”

“Hey, you’re getting really good at summoning your magic now!” Izzy said with no small amount of pride filling her words. “Your sparkle is so bright when you do! It’s amazing!”

“Thanks!” A hard blush erupted across Sunny’s features as the alicorn cast her eyes towards the bell to avoid eye contact with the unicorn across the way. “I’ve been practicing a lot so I can try this.”

“Oh my god, just kiss already.” Pipp huffed as she tapped away at her phone, causing both Sunny and Izzy to turn cherry red.

“A-anyway!” Sunny pushed the conversation forward with all of her might. “I just need to connect my magic to the bell and think about who I want to talk to. It should be simple enough.”

“That thing’s pretty old.” Zipp nodded at the corroded bell. “What if it’s like an old phone and can’t hold a charge anymore? Do you think you can keep it up for long enough to have a full conversation?”

“That’s why I have these!” Sunny pointed at the magic crystals that were embedded into the crystal, right where they belonged. “I’m going to be using the crystals to make sure I stay fully powered the whole time.”

“You really thought of everything.” Hitch said with a little satisfied nod. “Alright, well let’s try I guess. The moment I see any trouble, I’m throwing that bell out of the window though.”

“Noted.” Sunny responded. “Here goes nothing…”

The alicorn closed her eyes, her ethereal wings spreading out wide in concentration. Tendrils of golden magic flowed from her horn and connected with the three crystals, making Sunny’s magical appendages appear even more solid than ever before. The group could see all of her muscles strain and tighten as the new magic surged within her and they saw it all get redirected right at the bell.

Sunny thought about her dad, about talking to him one more time and telling him about all she accomplished. She thought about showing him how the ponies were all united again and that magic was back. Then she started to think about the ancient Equestrians, all she could learn from them and how her dad would respond to hearing what they had to say! They were his heroes!

“Sunny! SUNNY! SHUT IT DOWN!”

Her eyes shot open only for her to see a maelstrom erupting in the small room atop the lighthouse. The bell and Sunny were both floating in the middle of the room, a bright stream of magic connecting them as a powerful wind whipped up dust and papers and threw them around the room.

“SUNNY STOP!” Hitch yelled at her over the roaring wind. The stallion was trying to move towards the alicorn and the artifact, but every step he took was immediately rebuffed by the unstoppable magical force that the connection was spewing out.

“I-I can’t!” Sunny tried to pull her magic back inside of her body, but it wouldn’t respond. It was all flooding into the Bewitching Bell as visions of her father and ponies past flashed through her mind without her prompting.

DING

The bell rang, sending out a shockwave that pushed everypony in the room away from it, including Sunny. The connection severed and her wings and horn finally disappeared with the usual shimmer, causing the earth pony to hit the ground with a heavy thud. Then it rang again, forcing them all right up against the windows that circled the whole room.

“Sunny, make it stop!” Izzy pleaded as her own horn lit up with a violet aura, reaching out to the bell only to be forced away by yet another tintinnabulation from the ancient artifact.

“I-I don’t know how!” Sunny yelled out as the bell rang yet again, slamming the ponies in the room against the glass again. Cracks shot across each pane that was hit as the windows started to falter. She reached deep down into the pit of her being and tried to summon her magic one more time, but found that the spark was weak from such an outpouring of power. “We need to get out of here now!”

The Bewitching Bell sounded once more, the power it expelled enough power to lift the new Guardians of Harmony from their hooves and force them through the already weakened glass behind them all.

Sunny’s limbs flailed as she flew through the air, tumbling end over end through the hot summer sky. She briefly saw Zipp and Pipp both right themselves mid air after a second and Hitch beside her, tumbling all the same.

She hit the ground hard, a sharp crack coming from one of her legs and a surge of pure pain flooding her body as she skidded across the dirt. She screamed as soon as she came to a stop, her back left leg hanging limp in its socket. Tears poured from her eyes and she bit her lip as she pulled herself up to her three good hooves.

“S-sunny? Sunny!” Hitch hurried over to her, cuts from the glass covered his body and his mane was a disheveled mess but that was about it. The stallion made her sit back down with a hoof on her shoulder. “Hey, hey! Relax! I need you to lay down for me! I think your leg is dislocated!”

Sunny nodded through the pain and tears and laid on her side. Her teeth were digging into her lip hard enough that she was starting to taste blood as Hitch grabbed her limp leg and moved it around a bit.

“Okay, this is going to hurt. A lot. On three, alright?” Sunny nodded again and took a deep shaky breath. “One...two.” Hitch lied and with a rough shove, forced her leg back where it was supposed to be with a pop that echoed throughout her whole body. Sunny couldn’t hold back the scream as she writhed on the ground in agony. Her body was consumed by the pain and she slammed a hoof into the dirt. “Okay, you’re okay.” The stallion stood and looked around. “Zipp! Pipp! Izzy!”

“I-I’m okay!” Pipp landed beside them. Her mane a mess and more cuts covering her face and body. “Zipp...went after Izzy. Sh-she went over the cliff…”

“No..no...no.” That was enough to force the pain into the back of Sunny’s mind. “Izzy!” She cried out as she pushed herself to her hooves once again, her injured leg nearly giving out. IZZY!” She started to limp towards the cliff.

“What in the name of Equestria is that!” She heard Hitch exclaim as the once bright summer sun turned pitch black. She came to a hobbling halt and looked towards Maretime Bay and the sky above as an eery wind whipped across the gentle slopes of the coastal town.

The moon had appeared out of nowhere and now eclipsed the sun, making noon feel like midnight. Five skeletal figures three times the size of anypony she had ever seen hovered high in the air over Maretime Bay, bony twig-like wings sticking out from their bodies and horns like spears erupting from their skulls.

“Alicorns…” Sunny murmured. She couldn’t bring herself to move anymore as the fear gripped her heart. All thoughts of Sunny and Zipp vanished as she stared at the relics of a bygone age loom over her hometown.

The five monstrous alicorns dove down into the streets, eliciting screams of fear from the citizens. Even from this far away she could hear the lances of magic erupting from horns and tearing through flesh and bone.

“No! NO!” Hitch was the only one to move as he raced towards the town to do his job and defend the ponies from the current threat. As her oldest friend rushed headlong into danger, Sunny remained planted firmly in place, still frozen from the realization of what she had done.

“S-Suuuuuu...Snnnn...Sneeee” A gravelly voice growled out from behind her, one that wasn’t Pipp. So she turned around to see who or what it was.

Half of a pony was pulling itself out of the ground, a light blue pelt clinging to dripping flesh and dirty bones. Only one eye remained in its socket, purple and staring right at her as its mouth did its best to form words.

“Suuuuunnnneeeeee.”

“D-dad…?”

The remains of Argyle Starshine stood up as straight as they could, the bones held together with what little sinew remained and pure magic. The one eye remained fixed on her as it shambled closer to her, the bony hooves dragging across the dirt with each little movement.

“Sunny…” It groaned out again as it got closer and closer to her.

“Get away from that thing!” Pipp called out as she started to walk towards the shambling creature and the mare haphazardly. “Seriously, you need to run!”

She could hear the words, but she couldn’t process them. Her eyes, still filled with tears, were locked on her deceased father as he shambled ever closer. She took little steps back, but there was part of her that just... wanted to hug him.

The thing lurched at her, two front hooves hitting her shoulders as the decomposing jaws snapped at her. It was enough to knock her off balance and send them both tumbling backwards. She yelled as she hit the ground, one of her father’s skeletal hooves hitting her in the stomach and knocking the wind right out of her.

“Suuuuunnnnneeeeeeee!” The remains of Argyle growled at her as the two earth ponies tumbled across the ground again. This time, it was just enough to send them both right over the edge of the cliff that their old home rested on.

Sunny could only scream as they hurtled towards the rocks below.

Author's Note

Here’s a short little spooky one-shot.

Happy Halloween!