| “ | Thousands of moons ago, the self-righteous Gusty the Great, unable to best me face-to-face, stole my Bewitching Bell: a talisman containing much of my own magic. The Bell cannot be destroyed, so Gusty hid it in a place it has taken me millennia to discover – an enchanted cave high atop Mt. Everhoof, protected by magical winds that prevent anypony from reaching its peak. There, the Bell has remained until now. | „ |
| ~ Discord (as Grogar) telling about the real Grogar's defeat in "Frenemies". |
The Bewitching Bell is an ancient talisman with evil magical powers in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It also makes a cameo appearance in My Little Pony: A New Generation. It once belonged to the evil ram known as Grogar before it was stolen from him by Gusty the Great. It was then retrieved by Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, and Cozy Glow, who used it to betray Discord and empower themselves, but their plan failed and the bell fell into Discord's possession.
Many years later, the Bewitching Bell is currently in the possession of Sunny Starscout, the daughter of the Bell's previous owner, Argyle Starshine, in her house in Maretime Bay.
Appearance
The Bewitching Bell appears as an old and sinister-looking greenish-teal colored bell with dark-green markings. It has several cracks on it, though it is unknown if it was always had them or that it gained them over time.
Powers and Abilities
The Bewitching Bell holds extremely powerful ancient magic. One such ability of the bell was that it is able to absorb the magic of a living being and transfer it into another. It can even be used to nullify magic attacks (as Cozy used it to nullify Celestia and Luna's magic attacks before absorbing their magic). It is unknown if it can absorb any type of magic, or if like Tirek, it can only absorb magic from living beings. It is uncertain if there is a limit to how much magic it can hold at a time, but it was able to contain all the magic from Discord, Celestia, and Luna at once. It initially held the majority of Grogar's magic, providing enough power to turn Cozy Glow into an alicorn, power Tirek from his 2nd form to his 3rd, and give Chrysalis a new form all at once. It can also create portals, as the trio used it to create a portal to travel from Canterlot Castle to the battlefield to confront the Mane 6. The bell is also seemingly indestructible, as it has lasted for thousands of years, and it was completely undamaged from the giant blast of rainbow magic that was used to defeat the villains in the end.
There are drawbacks to using the bell, however. It requires a specific magic spell to activate it, and without this knowledge, the bell is useless. Also, the power it bestows the user may be too much for them to control, and it does not simply turn the magic into raw power for the user to absorb like Tirek's magic draining does. Rather, it gives all of the abilities of the magic it has absorbed in their purest form, making it so that even Tirek, who had already absorbed Discord's power once before through his own method, was not comfortable taking Discord's power after the bell had absorbed it due to him not being able to turn it into a more controllable force like with his own method. This was demonstrated when Cozy absorbed Discord's chaotic magic and became all-powerful, but was unable to control it and it ended up turning on her. And the user cannot choose which magic they want to take from the bell after it has already absorbed magic from multiple beings, as the villains stated that they could not take Celestia and Luna's magic from the bell without taking Discord's as well.
History
Past
The Bewitching Bell once belonged to Grogar, who reigned over ancient Equestria with an army of monsters. Presumably, most of the magic within it was stolen from several unicorns, since it was illustrated in the book about it. It wasn't until Gusty the Great and her Unicorn Warriors stood up to him that he was deprived of the bell and banished. Afterwards, Gusty hid the bell in a magic cave atop Mount Everhoof, which was protected by a forcefield and powerful winds.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 9
The Beginning of the End
The Bewitching Bell is first mentioned by "Grogar" (actually Discord in disguise) in response to Chrysalis' taunt about him losing to Gusty, claiming that taking it only weakened him for a while.
Frenemies
After millennia, "Grogar" learned of the bell's location but is apparently unable to get to it himself. So he sends his minions, Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow to retrieve it for him; not only to become unstoppable, but also teach them about teamwork (in truth, it was part of Discord's plan to manipulate the villains into helping Twilight gain the confidence she needs when she takes over ruling Equestria). After much hardship trying to get the bell separately, the villains decide to finally stop bickering and work together to obtain it, which they did by allowing Tirek to absorb Chrysalis' magic to create a tiny hole in the forcefield which only Cozy can fit through. The experience nearly makes them into friends until Chrysalis reminds them of their true nature. They then decide to keep the bell and lie to "Grogar" that they failed the mission, as part of their own plan to betray the old goat and use the bell for themselves.
The Summer Sun Setback
"Grogar" is still unaware that his minions have his bell and leaves to find another source of power. However, they have no idea on how to use it themselves, so they infiltrate Canterlot to find information about it. After disrupting the Summer Sun Celebration, they are able to enter the forbidden section of the Canterlot Archives and find a book all about the Bewitching Bell. They return just in time for "Grogar" to arrive and tell them that he has located another artifact and will leave again to retrieve it. While he was gone, the trio work fast to learn the bell's power before he gets back.
Ending of the End
After much research, Tirek learns to use the bell to absorb magic from living beings and transfer it into others. With this spell, he transfers the ancient magic already within the bell into himself along with Chrysalis and Cozy, advancing them all into higher forms. They then betray "Grogar" and use the bell to steal his magic, which exposed him as Discord. Without his magic, Discord is forced to flee. Chrysalis then suggests taking Discord's power, but Tirek is against the idea since no-one but Discord can control it in its purest form. Cozy volunteers to try if she can control it, and upon taking it attempts to betray Chrysalis and Tirek, but then the chaos magic immediately turns against her and she begs her cohorts to use the bell to take it back, which they do. Later on, Cozy uses the bell in her fight against Princesses Twilight, Celestia and Luna by nullifying then draining the Royal Sisters of their magic. Seeing that her own magic would not be useful against the bell, Twilight relies on her friends to subdue Cozy. They attempt to take the bell from her, but Chrysalis and Tirek appear in the last second and save her and the bell.
In the second part of the episode, Chrysalis gloats how using the Bewitching Bell allowed her, Tirek and Cozy Glow to finally defeat their enemies, including their former leader, Discord. However, Cozy attempts to absorb the Royal Sister's magic out of the bell, but Tirek prevents this, saying that doing so would risk taking Discord's magic as well, which was impossible for them to control. This instigates a fight between the three villains, which Discord takes advantage of to help free the heroes so that they can find Twilight. Later on, the villains use the bell to teleport themselves to the same location as the Mane Seven for the final battle. During which, Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie attempted to distract the villains while Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike steal the bell from them. Unfortunately, Chrysalis becomes wise to their plan and attacks Rarity and Spike while Tirek and Cozy fought off Applejack and Fluttershy respectively. In the end, the Mane Six were forced to surrender when Chrysalis takes Spike hostage and threatens to tear off his wings. The villains prepare to kill the heroes, but they were saved in the last moment by the rest of Equestria. After being empowered by all the friendship around her, Twilight was able to cast a spell to de-power the villains and render the Bewitching Bell inert. Pinkie Pie then obtains the bell and absorbs Discord's chaos magic, allowing her to conjure a giant cupcake that subdues the villains. After she goes mad with power, Discord takes the bell from her and uses it to reabsorb the chaos magic. He then transfers the magic back into himself and gives the Royal Sisters back their magic as well. With their magic restored, Discord and the Royal Sisters then turn the villains into stone so that they would be trapped together forever as the ultimate punishment.
My Little Pony: A New Generation
The Bewitching Bell makes a cameo appearance in My Little Pony: A New Generation. It was shown to be in the possession of the earth pony named Argyle Starshine many years later. Later, after Argyle passed away, it is currently in the possession of Sunny Starscout, Argyle's daughter.
Gallery
Trivia
- The Bewitching Bell serves as the Legion of Doom's equivalent to the Elements of Harmony, since they had to work together to get it and primarily used it to defeat foes that they could not defeat without it.
- It is currently unknown how Argyle Starshine managed to get the Bell in My Little Pony: A New Generation, but it might be explained in the upcoming follow ups to the movie.