The Happy Adventuring Saga: The Bonus Chapters

by Pennington Inkwell

When Yearling Met Inkwell

"Are you sure about this, Twilight?" Moonstone asked nervously, looking from side to side. "I mean, isn't this fiddling around with things that are really just beyond our level?"

Pennington thought quietly to himself, then nodded. "Yup. We are definitely in over our heads."

"Oh, relax, you two!" Twilight smiled, finishing her examination of the full-body mirror that she had retrieved from the library's basement. "I'm casting the spell on the mirror, not either of you! If there's any risk, it's seven years of bad luck!"

"Well, considering how many ancient temples I've defiled and supposed 'curses' I've had placed on me, I seriously doubt that breaking a mirror will do much harm." Pennington chuckled.

"If it makes you feel any better, Moonstone, I'll go over it one more time." Twilight smiled. "According to what you told me, Pennington, the Sapphire Stone opened a tear into an alternate universe and allowed you to pull your alternate self through in order to help, correct?"

Pennington nodded. "It was really weird. He was married to Lily and had two foals..."

There was a brief-but-awkward silence as Twilight, Moonstone, and Spike all turned to stare at him.

"I KNOW, RIGHT? It was FREAKY."

"Anyway... If I cold replicate the magical field around the statue and place it around this mirror, we should be able to use it as a medium to communicate and maybe even travel to this other dimension! Just imagine what we could learn from them!"

"Um, Twilight? From what Pennington told us, all that's different are minor details. Otherwise, it's the same Equestria! What could we learn from them?" Spike asked, still eying the mirror for any flaws or imperfections with her.

"That's just it! We can't even imagine what we could learn from them!": Twilight replied, bordering on giddiness.

Moonstone glanced nervously at Spike, who returned it with a look that said "just let her have her fun." Silently and discretely, she stepped away and to the side, distancing herself from the rest of the group. When Pennington gave her a chiding glance, she returned it with a shrug.

"Okay, I think that this mirror will work! No cracks or scratches!" Twilight finally stepped back, turning to Pennington. "You brought the Sapphire Stone, right?"

Pennington nodded, pulling the statue from his saddlebag. "Yes, but it seemed drained after I used it that one time. I haven't been able to get it to work ever since!"

"Oh, I'm not worried about that! I just need to be able to get a feel for the spell enough to replicate it. We don't need to actually use it!" Twilight held the dual-headed jackal statuette at eye level, her horn beginning to glow softly. After a few seconds, the statue glowed in return with a blue light, starting at the outer surface and moving inwards, the entire statue transitioning from opaque to nearly transparent. Almost immediately after, with a grunt of effort, Twilight's horn took on the same transparency. Without waiting or even opening her eyes, Twilight immediately turned around to face the mirror, and then released all of the energy at once in a single beam, striking the surface.

Time seemed to slow down as, though Twilight's eyes were screwed shut with the effort and concentration, Pennington and Spike both watched the beam strike the mirror, reflect, and shoot back at them, striking the three of them and creating a reality-warping magical field around them. Once the spell had been released, Twilight opened her eyes, smiling in her lack of knowledge of what happened.

"So, did it work?"

Only a few seconds later, Twilight, Spike, and Pennington all faded from existence, leaving an astounded Moonstone standing alone in the corner of the room. After the entirety of Twilight's miscalculation had set in, she rolled her eyes.

"Great. Looks like I not only have to tell Luna that her protege has probably managed to zap himself into another dimension, but Celestia, too..."

Pennington was the first one to wake up. When he did, he almost wished that he had stayed unconscious. The entire world had gone white, like a blank piece of paper, extending indeterminably outwards. Even the ground that his face was pressed against seemed to have a soft white glow to it, and was smooth and cool.

Slowly, he rolled over and onto his hooves, rising to a standing position. Looking around, he noticed that he wasn't alone. right next to him were Twilight and Spike, both still knocked out.

"So... At least they made it through safely..." Pennington smiled lightly before glancing around, trying to see if there was anything else to this endless white world. As he turned around for an entire 360 degrees of observation, he came to a dead stop.

He hadn't seen it before because of the fact that that he had awoken facing the opposite direction, but they weren't alone in this empty world. Only a short distance away, there were three more figures...

Two of whom he also recognized as Twilight and Spike.

Shaking his head, he slowly stepped forward, walking towards them.

Okay... This is... Well, for lack of a better word, freaky.

As he drew ever closer, he realized that this second Twilight had a pair of wings, as well as her horn, making her an alicorn.

REALLY freaky.

Finally reaching the second trio, Pennington finally examined the third figure, whom he didn't recognize at first.

While most of her body was covered by a large purple cloak, he could tell that she had a light khaki-colored coat and that her mane and tail were colorless, simply escalating up a gray scale. She wore a large pair of glasses with red frames, and a large gray hat with a white ribbon tied around it covered the majority of her mane. Even through the disguise, Pennington couldn't help but begin to recognize the mare underneath.

"No... it couldn't be..." He whispered, reaching towards her flank, trying to move the cloak so that he could see her cutie mark.

All at once, her eyes flew open and her back hooves grabbed his foreleg. Before he could know what was going on, she twisted violently on the ground, pulling him face-first downwards and throwing him onto the floor. In less than a second, she had sprung to her hooves and was now standing on top of him, keeping him pinned with one hoof around his horn, threatening to snap it off if he made any attempt at magic.

"Who are you? Where are we? What's going on?" She snapped, punctuating each question with a tug on his horn.

"Ow, OW, OW!" Pennington cringed, then executed a roll of his own, slipping his horn out of her grip as she lost her balance, falling off of his back. As a pair of wings emerged from beneath the cloak to try and stop herself from falling, Pennington coiled his back legs, then bucked them hard into her chest, knocking the wind out of her and sending her flying in the opposite direction, eventually striking the ground and beginning to roll. In less than a moment, however, she had taken advantage of the rolling to set herself right-side-up. The impact had thrown off her hat and glasses, and the cloak quickly followed suit as she stretched her wings. Underneath was a green jacket and a familiar compass cutie mark, confirming his suspicion: he was definitely staring at Daring Do.

Daring, not one to be intimidated, immediately ran forward without hesitation, leaping into the air with a flap of her wings and aiming one of her back hooves at him in a flying kick. Remembering his training, Pennington hopped up with his front legs, rearing up and crossing them in front of his face, catching the blow. Using the impact, Pennington now jumped with his back legs, flipping backwards and landing on all four hooves as Daring recoiled backwards.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute! If you are who I think you are, I can explain everything in one sentence!" He shouted, shaking his head as he tried to re-orient himself from the forced back flip.

Daring landed on all four hooves again, still glaring at him.

"I highly doubt that."

"We were trying to replicate the Sapphire Stone, but the spell backfired."

Daring blinked several times as the information processed in her mind before slamming her hoof against her forehead.

"WHO in all of EQUESTRIA was dumb enough to try that? And WHY would you let them?"

"Hey, it wasn't my idea! If you want the one responsible, look at the egghead over there!" He nodded his head back in the general direction of "his" Twilight and Spike.

There was another beat as Pennington's words continued to process in Daring's mind, before she once again facehoofed, this time hard enough to send an audible slapping sound echoing across the void space they seemed to be trapped in.

"And if Princess Twilight and Spike are also here from your dimension-"

"Princess Twilight?"

"Then that means that you and I must be..."

Walking over to the fellow adventurer, Pennington held out a welcoming hoof.

"I'm Pennington Inkwell, though the fans of my books know me as 'Scorching Quill.'"

Daring stared at him for a moment, incredulous, then sighed and gave his hoof a firm shake.

"Daring Do, though the fans of my books know me as 'A. K. Yearling.'"

Pennington raised an eyebrow. "Really? Where did you get that name?"

"Well, at least I wasn't so uncreative, I needed to name myself after my writing implement!"

"Hey! I'll have you know that I'm named after Quill the Scribe, one of the bravest ponies who ever lived!"

"Maybe in your universe. In mine, that just sounds dumb!"

There was a brief moment of silence as the two glared at one another.

"And how do I know you're not some kind of trick from Ahuiztol?"

"How do I know you're one of the Old Lunar Republic members trying to lure me into a trap?"

The two stared at one another for another moment.

"The stone." Daring said. "The stone should glow when the same two pony from two different dimensions hold it together."

"Really? I didn't know that!"

Daring rolled her eyes. "Just go get it, would you, quill-boy?"

Pennington frowned as Daring seemed to invent a nickname that he instantaneously hated about as much as "Penny." Not wanting to start another argument, however, Pennington deferred to his feminine counterpart and walked back to Twilight and Spike, taking the idol from where Twilight had dropped it. As he walked back towards Daring, a light flickered inside, quickly growing in intensity until it was positively radiant when the two of them were standing next to one another.

"Well, I guess that confirms it..." Daring sighed. "You really are me...."

"You could try not to sound so disappointed!" Pennington rolled his eyes. "So, how are we planning on getting out of here? It look like the spell Twilight cast might have caused a-"

"Pocket universe, yes. Right now, we're stranded in a pocket universe only held up from collapsing on itself by our mere existence."

"How do you know that?"

Daring looked at him incredulously.

"Did you even TRY to read the inscriptions on the wall when you retrieved this idol? Did you even THINK that they might be important?"

"Well, forgive me for trying to avoid the HOT LAVA at the time!"

"Ugh..." The Alicorn Twilight moaned quietly.

"Look, if your Twilight Sparkle meets my Twilight Sparkle, we're going to have much bigger problems than a pocket universe! We'll probably have a paradox within a pocket universe that's barely large enough for the six of us! In a universe as small and young as this one, that would be like putting the time-space continuum through a meat grinder! Just focus on the Sapphire Stone!" Daring snatched the statue from Pennington's hooves, examining it closely. "Judging by the glow, it has enough charge for one use... Probably drawing energy from this place." Grasping it firmly in her hoof, she closed her eyes. Just as the glow has about to become blinding, indicating that it was about to open up a new tear back to her home dimension, Pennington snatched it back again.

"Hey! You just told me that this place is held stable by all of us being here! You three leave, it might collapse!"

Rolling her violet eyes, Daring tried to grab it back again, but Pennington levitated it up into the air and out of reach.

"Well, what are we supposed to do? Just stand here and stare at each other? I need to get back home, and it's your fault I'm here!"

Pennington took a deep breath inwards. "Look, you said that we have one shot at this, right? One charge? It wouldn't be fair to either of us if one got to go home and the other was stuck here forever, no matter who's fault it is! So, we need help! Help from someone outside this place. Someone who can act independent from both of us! So, let's use our one charge to try to get help!"

"But- Who would be able to help us?"

Pennington smiled, closing his eyes in concentration. There was a blinding flash from the statue, a sound of fabric tearing, and both adventurers looks down, trying not to be blinded.

When the light subsided, they were both looking at a small window into another dimension.

One the other side, there was a strange figure sitting at a table. He definitely wasn't a pony, being obviously bipedal and without hooves. His mane was short and only on the top and back of his head, and he had no fur, opting instead for a flower-patterned t-shirt and jeans. He was furiously typing on a small computer while a tray of half-eaten food sat next to him, revealing that they had opened a portal into some kind of cafeteria. Barely audible over the other noise, Pennington and Daring could hear some kind of festive music, similar to what played on the radio around Heath's Warming Eve. The very handsome human suddenly stared oddly at his computer as he typed, as if unable to understand what he was writing, and spontaneously turned to look at them.

Pennington waved to the human who should be a stranger to him, much to Daring's surprise, as if they knew one another.

"Oh, come on, Pennington! You know you can't try to get in touch with me like this!" The human moaned. "Remember what Eclipse told you?"

"Oh, ease up, Elijah!" Pennington chuckled. "How are you? I haven't seen you since that fiasco with Eris trying to escape the fourth wall!"

"I haven't even written that story! How do you know about that?" The human, apparently named "Elijah" shouted, obviously becoming increasingly frustrated with Pennington's disregard for how the balance of the multiverse should be treated.

"I know because this is a contrived situation where it's convenient for you if we leave the time and what I should and shouldn't remember undefined! Look, I'll tell you what, I'll be out of your hair lickety-split if you can just tell me how Daring and I are supposed to get home! You've kind of written us into a corner..." Pennington ignorantly and flippantly remarked to the one person in the entire multiverse upon whom his continued existence relies.

"Um... Who is that?" Daring asked, quietly and rightfully worried about what exactly was being typed on the computer.

The strong, smart, handsome, and single author took a deep breath, turning back to his computer and beginning to type again. "Look, the idol should be drawing energy from the universe created around you. You can open a dimensional rift for Daring, and as long as she doesn't betray you and jump through immediately, you can just wait for it to recharge again, then both go home together.

Pennington smiled like the smug little prick that he is. "Thanks, Elijah! I knew that you'd pull through for me when I needed you! Send Gina my best regards!"

"Just be happy if I don't make you a quadriplegic after all of this is over with, and don't EVER break the fourth wall again..." Elijah muttered as the portal shut, hopefully never be opened again.

Pennington took a deep breath and turned to Daring. "He has a few issues, but deep down, he's got a heart of gold. So, I guess we should open the portal back to your world first, right?" He handed her the statue, which was once again glowing as if ready for use.

"Who was THAT?"

"Hm? Oh! Nobody! Just an old friend of mine. Writes crappy fanfiction in his spare time." Pennington smiled. "Don't think about it too hard or you'll get a headache."

Daring let out a long sigh, even as the Sapphire stone began to glow more brightly and she opened a tear to her universe.

"Look, if we ever meet again... Let's just both go on our merry ways and not acknowledge that any of this happened, agreed?"

Pennington nodded and drew his hoof across his mouth, miming a zipper.

With that, the portal back to Daring's world opened, and she passed the statue to Pennington. There was a brief moment where the statue remained dim, and they both stared, waiting for it to recharge as they had been told it would.

"... Is it broken?"

Pennington took a deep breath, rolling his eyes.

"Fine. He writes GOOD fanfiction in his spare time."

The statue sparked back to life, the glow somehow almost putting off an aura of smugness.

"Well, Miss Yearling, it's been a pleasure!" Pennington winked, walking back towards "his" Twilight and Spike.

"It's been strange, that's for sure..."

There was a blinding flash of light as all the ponies and dragons were sent back home together.

There was a flash of light as Twilight and Spike reappeared in the library, both unconscious on the floor. After a few seconds, Twilight opened her eyes, moaning.

"Ugh... my head..." She muttered. "Is everypony okay?"

"Man, you were gone just long enough for me to finish writing my letter to Celestia!" Moonstone sighed, crumpling a piece of paper into a ball and tossing it into the corner of the room. "If I'd known you were going to be coming right back, I wouldn't have bothered!"

"Coming right back? You mean, we were gone?" Twilight looked curiously at the mirror, which seemed to have been unaffected, except for a large scorch mark in the center. "Of course! I should have used the spell from behind the mirror! It must have been reflected and backfired on us!"

"Well, a portal opened up and dumped you two back out onto the floor, so I guess that the backfire backfired!" Moonstone grinned, then looked around the room. "Wait... Then where's Pennington?"

Pennington was NOT home. After stepping through the portal back to his own dimension, he had somehow become separated from Twilight and Spike, and everything had gone dark. When he had awoken, he was someplace warm. Warm and dark. It hadn't taken him long to realize that he was under a blanket, and he'd quickly climbed out to discover that he'd wound up in a bed.

But not just any bed. Looking around the finely furnished room, the fact that all the walls, the blanket, and many of the items in the room were a bright green quickly alerted him to where he was: the royal bedchambers of the changeling hive.

As the door to the room slowly swung open, Pennington screamed what he had to wonder might be his last words.

"NOT FUNNY, ELIJAH!"

Heh, heh.

Now THAT... is a self-insert fic.

Author's Note:

Originally Chapter 50 of "Happy Adventuring, Twilight!" Published on 12 December, 2013

Comments

[PC]

A "Bonus Chapters" only fic? Awesome!

[ARTL]

"I KNOW, RIGHT? It was FREAKY."

You get points just for this. Meanwhile, Twilight secretly dreams of just such things...

[ARTL]

... wat.