//------------------------------//
// Never Too Old for Adventuring 
// Story: Penn and Stone: Dynamic Duo 
// by Pennington Inkwell 
//------------------------------//

	"Moonstone, are you sure that this is all of it?"

"Everything I could get my claws on!" Moonstone chirped as she set the last of the books down in the pile. 

"Thank you. I'm going to do some reading, now..." Pennington picked up the nearest book and began flipping through it.

"If you don't mind my asking, Penn, why the sudden study session? Is Twilight starting to rub off on you?"

"No... But I realized that I don't have any idea of what I'm getting into..." he muttered as he turned back to the table of contents, then absentmindedly set it down apart from the others before picking up another one.	"If I look at Quill's life, maybe I can find something about Scorch, or at least what it was that made him go loco the first time. This could be for the same reason!" 

"Oh! So, 'know thy enemy," right?" Moonstone chuckled. "Well, I guess that's a good idea, if not a roundabout way of doing it!"

"Well, I always read at least one book about Quill before I leave for a... trip." Pennington momentarily stumbled over his words, and Moonstone could tell that he had stopped himself again.

"You know, Penn," she muttered as she picked up the book. flipping through the pages on her own, "you can call it an adventure. There's nothing wrong with that word."

"It just... It floats off the tongue a little too easily." Pennington shook his head, setting down a second book beside Moonstone. "If I start saying that, it might be just as easy to slip back into the habits that got me here."

"I never thought I'd see the day Pennington Inkwell would be afraid of a word!" a voice scoffed from across the room.

At the sound of the voice, Pennington's head immediately snapped upwards. It took him only a moment to recognize the mare who had entered the room. When he did, Moonstone saw something in his expression that she hadn't seen for some time: joy. Without even taking a moment's hesitation, Pennington dropped the book to the floor and ran up to her. Stopping just short, he hesitated, staring at her as if asking for permission. After a moment of silence, she smiled and nodded in return, prompting him to jump forward and wrap his hooves around her in an affectionate embrace.

"Miss Yearling! What are you doing here?" He laughed, releasing her after a few seconds. "Your cloak is soaked! Would you like me to take it?"

"Just checking up on my old student. It seems that I should have done so sooner..." She gently reached up and pulled the big, red glasses off of her scarlet eyes. "If you're scared of a word like 'adventure,' there's a big problem!"

As Pennington helped her with her cloak, Moonstone searched back through her memory for the name he had used.

"Yearling... You mean 'A.K. Yearling?' Canterlot University's Head of Archaeology? The mare who traveled the world and collected myths and legends into one of the greatest compendiums of worldwide lore of all time?" Much to Moonstone's surprise, as the cloak and hat were removed and Pennington draped them across the nearest chair, what emerged was an almost exact lookalike to the titular character of Pennington's book series, Daring Do. Right down to the rough mane and olive-colored jacket.

"The one and only! I'm flattered you're familiar with my work!" She smiled, giving Moonstone a nod. "You've got a sharp assistant, Penny. Luna must be treating you well. I hope you haven't gone soft, Quick Strike and I would have your hide tanned on the dojo floor!"

Pennington shook his head and Moonstone could swear that she could see him physically suppress the urge to correct her for using his hated nickname with a momentary shudder. "If I went soft, I'm pretty sure Moonstone would make sure I got whipped back into shape, Ma'am!" Putting his hoof around her shoulder, Pennington led her to their small pile of research. "Ma'am, this is Moonstone, my assistant. Moonstone, this is Miss Yearling, my teacher!"

"Better known as one of about five ponies in the entire world that he answers to directly." Yearling grinned. "I taught Pennington everything he knows about writing... and about seeking out legends."

"And she provided the inspiration for my main character!"

"A fact I will always regret..." she shook her head, sighing with a tired smile. "Do you know how many times a day I have to deal with ponies who think I'm your 'Daring Do' character?"

"Probably not enough! After all these years, you deserve the attention!" Pennington laughed, bringing her a chair. "Without your research, the New Lunar Republic and the Solar Empire wouldn't have stood a chance of being able to predict half of the disasters we've averted!"

Her tired smile quickly grew smug as a youthful gleam shimmered in her eye. "Well, I won't deny my due credit, but you talk as if I'm all washed up!"

"So, you taught Penn how to 'adventure?'" Moonstone asked, tilting her head. "But, I always thought he was self-taught, or that it was just his talent?"

"Even ponies with a 'talent' need some teaching! In Penny's case, a LOT of tutoring." Yearling gave Pennington a mischievous grin. "I wouldn't even have taken him if the academy hadn't made me bring along an entire crew! But when he barged into a tomb headfirst and managed not to be killed by the traps inside, I realized that I just might have found somepony with actual talent."

"On the other hoof, there was also the fact that one of the flying daggers made a pretty good attempt at making my insides my outsides..." Pennington muttered, rubbing his hoof over his heart.

"Well, not everypony can be as great as I am!" she chuckled. "Besides, a few stitches later you were fine, you big baby! I always thought you did that on purpose so you could get some one-on-one time with that cute nurse!"

"You know, Miss Yearling, I happen to have a girlfriend, now..." Pennington muttered, rolling his eyes. "Besides, everyone knows better than to hit on Close Care!"

"Yes, I heard about your affiliation with Miss Sparkle..." Yearling gently tapped her chin. "I guess I should congratulate you on your relationship, but I'm going to warn you..."

"I know. Relationships complicate things. You told me the same thing when I started dating Lily."

"And she nearly died because you ignored it!" Yearling snapped, glaring at him angrily. From the way he stumbled backwards when she did, Moonstone began to suspect that Pennington was actually afraid of her.

"That's- that's not going to happen!"

"And that's the same attitude that has always stopped you from achieving true greatness... You're fearless, but only because you hide behind foolhardiness. If you ever stop to look back, or if you ever take the time to think through what you're doing, you'll make better decisions. But instead, from day one and on every expedition since, you've simply run headfirst into danger!"

"If I remember a few of your stories correctly, ma'am, you were the same way at my age..." Pennington flinched as her scowl deepened. "Look, what happened to Lily happened because I was keeping secrets. I don't keep things from Twilight! She's strong, smart, and knows enough to keep herself safe! I don't keep stuff from her, and she has the makings of a better adventurer than either of us!"

"Oh, really? Did you tell her about Mozun Akai?"

The words seemed to physically assault Pennington, who stepped back away from her, blinking several times and shaking his head. With her "gift," Moonstone saw something deep inside of her stir. A knotted darkness that churned and broiled in his heart, traveling up his spine and into the base of his skull, where a second, smaller knot was lingering. It looked almost like the black heart she had seen when she'd first seen the Cliffjumper, but not nearly as huge as Chrysalis's presence had created. As she continued to stare, scrutinizing the knot, she suddenly found herself swept away in a vision.







She was standing in the middle of what looked like some kind of far away village. Most of the houses were made from mud bricks and thatched roofs, and it was easy to tell from the tall trees surrounding the area that they were in the center of some kind of tropical forest. What grabbed her attention much more thoroughly, however, were the ponies.

They were all dead.

There were bodies littered throughout the area, almost all of which were mangled and torn open, but they seemed to fall under three general types of injuries. The rib cages of some were splintered and ripped open, revealing several missing (or worse, partially missing) organs. Others had large portions of skin removed, and large scoring marks across the muscle beneath, as if teeth had been dragged across them. The third group all had their throats ripped out or open, and pale, white skin was visible beneath their fur and along their faces and muscles. Of all the bodies, these were the cleanest, mostly because they hadn't been leaking blood for the past  hours. It seemed to have all been drained. Only one pony was alive, standing in the center of the wreckage: Pennington, holding Cha'Qued's mask in one hoof and glaring into the eyes. He seemed to be screaming at it, periodically stopping as if he were receiving a response, only to begin yelling again, motioning to the carnage around them. After a few moments, she realized that the eerie silence was accompanied by a lack of smell, taste, or even the feeling of the ground beneath her claws. Her eyes had only granted her sight.

As his screaming seemed to reach a peak, Pennington hurled the mask with all of his strength, throwing it like a frisbee over her head. As she turned to watch its flight, she realized that she had been missing an entirely different view behind her.

It was some kind of massive ziggurat, and she imagined that it must have been a true sight to behold when it was still standing, with ornate decorations along the outside in complex patterns and a vibrant array of colors painted on each tier. However, it was now in ruin, having seemingly collapsed in on itself. Some of the larger levels near the base had completely collapsed, allowing those above to fall inside, and others had split in half, or shattered into massive debris. The mask landed among the rubble, and she noticed that there was red liquid seeping from the creases between the teeth. When she turned back, not wanting to stare at it for too long, she caught a glimpse of Pennington disappearing into the foliage, abandoning the carnage.






As quickly as it started, it was over. Moonstone blinked several times, shaking her head as she snapped back to reality. It was a jarring transition to return, but it didn't seem as if she had been gone for more than a second or two. Pennington was still recoiling from Yearling's question, and nothing seemed to have changed.

OKAY, then... Note to self: my "gift" is getting stronger as I keep using it... Try not to look too closely at dark things unless you REALLY want to know more.

"No, I haven't told Twilight about Mozun Akai, and I don't intend to."

"Then she doesn't know everything she should!" After a few more seconds of glaring, Yearling finally closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Pennington. But our business is dealing in secrets and myths, and you insist on trusting over and over." When she opened her eyes again, she seemed much more calm, even apologetic. "I just don't want to see you hurt the way that I've been. You were supposed to learn from my mistakes when I was teaching you. Yet you don't! Is it your attitude of refusing to learn? Is it my fallacy to think that I could teach you experience? Is it because of some kind of stupid optimism and faith I lost years ago?" She wiped a tear from her eye, shaking her head.

Pennington, who had been shrinking away, seemed to become slightly more confident and stepped up to her, placing a hoof on her shoulder.

"Hey, between you, Sensei Quick Strike, and Princess Luna, I've had the best teachers Equestria could offer. There are just some things that I have trouble learning from others! I'm kind of stupid that way!" He gave a gentle tap on his head for emphasis. "But I'm starting to learn my lesson, even if it is painful..." He moved his hoof up to his horn, giving it a gentle tap.

Yearling nodded, rubbing away the wetness in her eyes. "So... are you still trying to find a way to get rid of that stupid mask?"

Pennington chuckled, nodding his head. "Are you still fighting that weird blue monster?"

She laughed as the last wisps of the tender moment slipped away. "Actually, I haven't seen him lately! I'm starting to think he might have retired!"

Pennington laughed outright, this time. "Well, that won't do any good! You're going to get lazy without some kind of nemesis! Your job will be too easy!"

"Oh, it just means I'll be able to take on tougher adventures than I ever have before!" Yearling waved away his concerns with her hoof. "Maybe I'll finally be able to go explore the catacombs out in the Kirin Quartz Plains! I always wondered what was out there that was causing all of those weird magical storms!" After taking a moment to chuckle again, she became somber once again.

"But something's bothering you, isn't it? If what I heard you say when I came in is true, it sounds like you have a problem."

"Hm? What do you- oh. Right, that little problem with 'adventuring.' I've just been considering a change of syntax."

Yearling raised an eyebrow as she took a chair from a nearby desk, sitting down and giving Pennington an expectant look.

"I suspect there's a story behind it?"

Pennington cast a glance back at Moonstone, sitting down on the floor like a foal waiting for his teacher to tell a story. 

"Moonstone, would you mind helping me tell this one? You were there for most of the parts I wasn't."












Yearling didn't seem to talk much while Pennington related the events of the royal wedding to her, not withholding a single fact from her, even about his own involvement. She asked only a couple questions now and then, mostly about his connection with the changeling hive and how it had come to be. Unfortunately, these took a half-hour long story and escalated it to almost two hours, including their escapades with Trixie and the Carnival Cat. He'd gotten up and paced several times during the course of the stories, but he had eventually settled back to his sitting position on the floor, looking up at Yearling as he spoke.

When they finally finished, Yearling leaned forward, resting her chin on one of her hooves thoughtfully. After several minutes, she finally spoke.

"You've come a long way from trying to kiss up to me on your first dig, Pennington Inkwell. You started off unskilled, stupid, and foolhardy. Before all of this, you were just stupid and foolhardy. For better or for worse, you were right: you're learning a lot of things the hard way that you refused to learn from my lessons!" Leaning even further forward, she reached out and gave him a firm blow to the back of his head. "Now, I'd say that you're just foolish."

"What?"

"Well, you used to be foolhardy, throwing yourself into things without thinking about them at all. That was never good. But now, you're looking at your actions to point out everything wrong with them!" She shook her head, leaning back again. "You're not just thinking things through the way that you should, you're taking every opportunity to hate yourself for what you do. You're letting your guilt run your brain!"

"Well, yes. But... don't you think I deserve it? I mean, I hurt a lot of ponies... Isn't it only fair that I feel a lot of pain over it, myself?" Pennington looked down, revealing the very shame she was talking about.

"Having the courage to do what other ponies don't and can't often comes with unexpected consequences. Sometimes they're good, sometimes, they're bad. We can think out what we're doing to avoid the worst of them, most of the time... but sometimes we make a mistake. We go someplace we shouldn't, we rescue an item that should have stayed hidden, or we even fight on the wrong side of a war we don't understand..." She quietly reached over and picked up the mask, which had appeared on the nearby desk while they were talking. "We make mistakes, and the consequences can be deadly. We work with strange and dangerous forces when we investigate the unknown. That's why so many ponies are afraid of it."  With a small toss, the mask landed in his lap. "But you need to remember that you don't see everything. You probably already received all of your punishment. And if you haven't, then you will. But not by your own hoof. The universe is kind of funny that way."

Pennington looked down at the mask, and Moonstone noticed that knotted secret make a particularly violent spasm.

"But..."

"No buts! Pennington Inkwell- no- Scorching Quill! You need to get over this self-pity and self-loathing and get yourself back on track! There are a lot of ponies counting on you, and a lot of lives to be saved!" She stood up from the chair with a smile, giving him a sly wink. "And I'm too busy to do it, myself!" She grinned and gave Moonstone's spines a quick rustle. "Keep him on track, okay?"

Moonstone nodded, returning the grin. "I do my best to keep him going in the right direction, ma'am!"

With practiced ease, Yearling retrieved her cloak and wrapped it around her in one smooth motion. Soon, her hat and glasses had been replaced, as well, once again hiding her identical look to Daring Do. After a moment, she stepped forward, wrapping her hoof around Pennington and pulling him into a tight hug.

"And be careful out there... Dragon country is no place for a pony!" she whispered.

"Hey, come on! I learned from the best, didn't I? You just make sure you don't have a heart attack while I'm gone, or something!"

This elicited another smack upside the head for Pennington.

"Normally, I'd have you put on pack mule duty for a quip like that! Unfortunately, you're not my student any more, so I'll have to settle for reminding you of all the times I saved your sorry rear!"

"Well, it's certainly good to see you two reunited!" Luna called out as she entered the room. 

"Princess Luna!" Immediately, Yearling bowed down on one knee, while Pennington gave a respectful nod.

"Please, there's no need to bow, I was just coming in to check on how Pennington's studies were progressing!"

"Well, your highness, we've made a lot of progress!" Moonstone chirped. "We found out where it is that Scorch was living when he killed Quill with the gauntlet, and dragons rarely, if ever, change where they live. We'll at least have a place to start once we arrive!"

Pennington gave her a look of surprise.

"What? While you were telling the stories I wasn't in, I was reading!"

"Well, that's good! Knowing your destination should make finding Scorch and the gauntlet leagues easier." Luna game them a wry smile. "Your transport to the border should be leaving tomorrow morning. Will that be acceptable?"

"The sooner, the better for Equestria. Tomorrow morning should give me just enough time to finish getting ready!"

"Wonderful! The HMS Surprise will be waiting for you at the gates of the castle tomorrow. I trust you'll be ready at dawn?"

"I'll be ready, Luna. In fact..." Pennington glanced to Yearling, giving her a warm smile. "I think I'll be more ready for an adventure than I've been in months!"