Penned IN

by Qwix

Chapter 12: Mare and Man Alike

Warmth. The morning rays pierce the windows once more, stirring Pennaprose awake from a restless sleep. He lie in his cot, devoid of energy, thinking of last night. The mere thought of his decisions haunted him, turning the patches of warmth that spread on his cot into voids of cold, mocking light. He glanced over the edge of his cot; his laptop lie open and his thoughts lie sprawled across a document, as written:

I cannot believe anymore that this world is as happy and content as it seems. In coming here, I lost my memory, save for what I believe to be my name. Wearing this mane and hardened hooves, I trot in this world, but am not truly a part of it; merely an observer.

Or so I tell myself. These ponies differ none from any human as I feel it must be, for I feel no less human in interacting with them; they laugh, they cry, they rage, they love. They are as capable of murdering as they are martyring; if I am to believe that ponies are different from humans, the heart of either betrays it. I walk on hooves, I whim on human heart.

…I must confess. In choosing to uphold either my ethics or my situation, it grieves me to no end that I did not uphold either. I wish to only be as pleasant of a houseguest as possible, or do I wish to merely be as helpful of a person as possible? My actions last night betray it. Lyra did not deserve that treatment… and my failure to act sooner endangered Twilight. If what Spike said is true, she has been turned away as a joke by every pony around her. And yet, how could I have served the interests of both? Can I yet see that ideal reality?

She lies upstairs as I type, paralyzed by the actions of Lyra, practically in a comatose state. Twice has Lyra almost heralded her passing. But was it right…? To send Lyra away like that? It pains me to remember that face of horror as I told her to leave me alone and never return; I shall not rest easy this night. I must find her and apologize as soon as possible, or no nighttime shall come restful. Bon Bon knows her better than any other… I shall ask her first thing tomorrow morning.

74% battery remaining.

Pennaprose Lochflow

He read it through thrice, the memories of despair bringing dry tears to his face. Yet he closed the lid and wiped the sleep and sorrow from his eyes, resolving to apologize to Lyra before tonight.

His inner diatribe was interrupted by Spike, who had stumbled downstairs and was mid-stretch. He eyed Pennaprose. "Hey, good mornin'. Think this is the first time I didn't wake you up first."

"…Hello. How's Twilight?" Pennaprose asked.

"She's all right. It took a half hour for her to wake up, but another two before she could speak anything. She's still paralyzed, but I uh… found an alternative method in one of her books to get her walking around faster. She'll still be held up until this evening, though."

He felt curious in spite of himself. Spike wandered into the basement without saying anything else, so he took the opportunity to sneak upstairs to check on Twilight.

He poked his muzzle into her door. "…Twilight? You feeling all—what. The heck." His sight and smell was greeted by dozens of lit candles, suspended throughout the room. Twilight was above her bed, hog-tied by her hooves—wings hanging loosely— while rotating slowly.

"Heh? Morning, Pennaprose. …Let me guess, the everything, right?"

He nodded, then added, "Um, yes. If by 'alternative method' he meant séance, then yes, Spike was right."

"Knock it off, " she said, face coming into view as she rotated towards him. "According to one of my books, the smell of lavender plus blood rushing to my head will speed up my recovery. …Oh! Which reminds me!"

She twisted her head with some difficulty and levitated a piece of paper into Pennaprose's hooves. It was a letter with a list attached. "While I was out yesterday morning, I saw a going-out-of-business ad from another library offering their collection of books to anyone who wanted them. So naturally, I placed an expensive order for the whole—dammit…"

He looked up. Twilight had spun to face the window again. "Anyway, it should be coming in sometime within the hour. When it does, help Spike unload them into the basement, will you?"

"…I'll pretend what you said made sense with the statement of 'blood rushing to your head'," Pennaprose said flatly. "But sure!"

Her wings beat rather pathetically in response. "Bah, this stuff can't wear off fast enough. Thanks though!"

He turned to leave, but stopped himself, "Oh wait, was there anything else you needed?"

"Nah, I've got my books and my magic, that's more than enough. Though hopefully this paralysis will wear off by lunch so I don't need to be served in bed."

He smirked as he left. "If I know him well enough by now, Spike'll probably go out of his way to do that anyway. Bye."

He trotted down the stairs, a modicum of relief puncturing the morning gloom. At least no permanent harm seems to have been done, he told himself. The world isn't over yet, I can still fix this...

The thought alone cheered him up as he let a smile and a sigh breach the air.

He landed back in the living room, which in his short absence had become quickly unrecognizable. In front of his cot there was a pile of pillows and cushions, stacked high. He quietly approached it and poked one of the propped cushions over.

"HEY! That's Fort Spike you're wrecking! Stop it!" came Spike's muffled voice form somewhere underneath the pile. The cushion he toppled flipped off, revealing a grumpy Spike.

"…Alright, I'll bite. What's the deal?" Pennaprose asked.

Spike bent over and hefted the cushion back into place. "I'm monitoring."

"Monitoring what?"

"Everything."

He glanced around the room, which was quiet and filtered with morning light through the curtains. "Everything. As in just the door."

"That's part of the everything of the things I need to watch right now!"

"And Twilight?"

Spike turned around, shoving a camo helmet spray-painted with a crude drawing of a birthday cake on the top. "She's another case of everything. But don't you know? It's Tuesday. Not good." From inside the fort he withdrew a walkie talkie and extended the antenna.

Pennaprose's brief relief quickly dwindled into confusion. "…Okay. Am I missing something here?"

"The crisis of the week is due today. And because Twilight is laid up in bed–"

"Above it."

"–above bed, its up to me to make sure the library doesn't burn, blow up, be besieged by parasprites, or worse, lose a book."

"…Oh no. Not a book, " Pennaprose said flatly. "Whatever horrors would befall the universe, nay, the soul of Celestia herself if we lost a book while Twilight wasn't looking."

Spike straightened up, bumping the entrance to the pillow fort and causing it to collapse again. "This is some real big things! Last time I accidentally burned a book by sneezing on it, she practically ran me out of the library for, like, a forever and a half! And that's longer than two eternities plus two thirds of a while, so you know that's serious."

"I get that she takes her books seriously, but-"

"More than more than seriously. She reads more than she eats. Than she eats. Whoa. That's not normal. …Hey, I'm hungry." He wandered into the kitchen without a further word.

Not a second after the sounds of pots and pans came, Pennaprose noticed a letter coming through the letter flap on the door. He hesitated for a moment, then decided to at least pick the thing up. He would have stopped there, but something caught his eye about it. He opened it and started to read.

To Princess Twilight and Pennaprose Lochflow,

Your order has been partially delayed due to Ponyville's local mailmare being unable to ferry the whole of the product due to its weight exceeding standard levels and her request to stay home with a hay-over and simply not knowing what went wrong. We of Pony Express have done our best to deliver, but we are writing to inform you that your package will be dropped off near the edge of the Everfree Forest, due to arrive at an estimated 0900 hours with a replacement mailmare and contracted helper to assist. Look for a yellow-coated pegasus; again, we are sorry for the inconvenience this causes, but we wish you an otherwise fine day.

Pony Express, Equestria's main mail delivery service

He deftly wondered why his name would bear any importance in the letter as he glanced at a grandfather clock that stood resolute against the wall; 8:30. He shoved that concern aside as Spike wondered back out, carrying a violently blue cup of something filled with what appeared to be gems and cream.

Spike noticed his inquisitive look. "Vanilla cream Sapphloat. Twilight would kill me if I knew I was eating this, but what she doesn't know can't hurt me. …Plus I've been craving this for weeks."

Pennaprose rolled his eyes. "Whatever. We've got a library to move and a half hour to get to the pick-up spot, make it quick."

Spike glanced between his cup and Pennaprose, eventually deciding to down the whole cup in one go. "…You could have just ate it on the way there," said Pennaprose.

"Yeah," said Spike. "but it's not like I would've enjoyed it more. Screw future Me, that sapphloat was all for current Me."

Pennaprose pushed the door open. "Yes, but future You will want to stab current You when future You gets a massive brain freeze. Or wait, when future You is current You? I don't know."

Spike jumped on Pennaprose's back. "…Uh. Oh. …OW," he said, holding a clawed hand against his head. "Owowowow… M-maybe if I spit fire with my mouth closed, it'll melt my brain."

"It was pretty inflamed to begin with," quipped Pennaprose. "But whatever, we've got books to ferry. Let's go. Wait…" He stopped himself to grab Lyra's letter, putting it in his otherwise empty laptop bag and taking it with him. He couldn't shake the feeling that today was more than just that.

---

Pennaprose wove his way through the town, feeling a definite sense of familiarity despite his short experiences with it. He decided to take the path that lead to Sweet Apple Acres, cutting past the town hall. While on the way, a pony hailed him down. It was Bon Bon, out of breath. He smiled, thinking of his resolution for today.

"H…Hey! Pennaprose, there you are! Have you seen Lyra anywhere?"

The bottom of his stomach seemed to fall out. "Uh-um… No, sorry. I was going to ask you that question, but–"

She snorted in frustration. "Dammit! Nopony's seen her since yesterday! I was hoping you'd know, seeing as she clings to you like glue–"

"No… I haven't seen her since last night either." The memory of last night kept intruding in Pennaprose's mind. "B-but I'm sure she's doing all right… I mean, right?"

Bon Bon stormed past him, making sounds of indignation and not registering what Pennaprose just said. The feeling in his stomach returned, bringing back with it a tension that made him want to vomit. She can't have gone far… right…? Bon Bon's looking for her at least, she knows her better than I do… Yeah… relax, Pennaprose… you have a job to do… I can find Bon Bon later and help look then… maybe she'll be found before I'm done! Yeah, that's the case…

He took a deep breath and forged onwards, noting deftly the smoke that was wafting out of Spike's ears.

I have time, don't panic, me... you've got a job to do.

---

They soon enough reached the edge of the forest; nopony or books were in sight.

"This is the place the letter said… what time is it, Spike?"

Spike jumped on top of Pennaprose's head, looking in the general direction of town. "…8:58. We made it a bit early. The letter said to look for a yellow-coated pegasus, right?"

"Yes. Oh well, might as well just wait." Pennaprose tilted his head to dump Spike off, lying down in the grass in the process. He dug around in his bag and pulled out his sudoku book, happily sketching away at it while Spike sat next to him at watched.

A few minutes passed; Spike's attention drifted from the book to the town. Pennaprose had stopped to examine the page, not really paying attention to anything else.

Spike dug a claw into his ear. "…Hey. Do you hear that?" he asked.

"…Huh? Oh uh, no, nothing…" he mumbled, rubbing out something in his book vigorously.

Spike looked up at the sky, jaw dropping slightly. "Uh… let's move back a bit."

Pennaprose mumbled, not really registering what Spike said. It wasn't until a shadow fell on his book that he looked up. "...Oh. Yeah, let's."

Airborne was a veritable mountain of books, tied together with miles of rope. Pennaprose craned his neck as he backed out of the shadow of the flying pile; he couldn't discern what was levitating it. Spike ran full tilt on his stubby legs, crashing into Pennaprose who hastened to stumble several feet away from being underneath the thing.

As soon as they cleared it, a snapping sound was heard and books came crashing down. An audible 'oof!' accompanied it.

Pennaprose walked up to the cube of literature, sizing it up as he scaled it rather clumsily. 12 feet high, he estimated when he reached the top. The yellow-coated mailmare with a neon green mane he was expecting was lying on top. He hefted himself on top of the books and poked her until she woke up.

"Whuh… huh? Who're you? I was supposed to be looking for Princess Twilight?" she warbled as she got up shakily with his help. "Nn... thanks."

"Twilight's tied up at the moment. She sent me to pick them up. Right, Spike?" They looked over the edge together at Spike, who was standing at the base of the book hill.

"Yes…! He's fine! Don't worry!"

"…All right," the mare said. "Give me a minute though, this stuff is heavy. Also, I was told that there was going to be a contracted helper?"

"Yeah, about the first thing," Pennaprose asked. "How in holy hell did you even move anywhere with this thing?"

She wiped a bead of sweat off her forehead. "Business motto; no matter the weather, flap those feathers! Also, something I learned from my idol in the business. Ignore reality, it doesn't affect you. I would've just kept going, but the blasted rope snapped. Also, reality re-asserted itself. Because of the rope-snapping thing."

She ruffled her wing feathers, letting a few loose ones fall off. "I came from Cloudsdale with this nonsense; not exactly a jaunt from the oldies candy store and back. Oh, uh that reminds me… signing at the bottom and stuff… liability and legal blarg-a-barg, whatever…"

She handed him a clipboard and brushed the bottom of the papers with her wing, sending more feathers everywhere. He signed at the bottom and handed it back as Spike had reached the top.

"Okay…" Spike began. "Raindrops? How the–"

"Somepony is supposed to be here to help. They're bringing a cart of their own. Again, I was just told to show up here with this nonsense at approximately plot o'clock in the morning," said Raindrops. "I get called in at 2 in the morning! To haul this! I'm getting paid overtime, but yeesh…"

Pennaprose laughed nervously, noting the bags under eyes. He couldn't help but feel a little sorry, but there was some noise distracting him; it was growing as he listened. Raindrops was still ruffling her feathers, ranting about something while Spike was picking through the pile of books.

"…"

He strained his ears.

"...aaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

It sounded like yelling. He dug a hoof into one ear and tried to decide where it was coming from.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. INCOMING!"

He looked up. A mass of white trailing what appeared to be a cart was hurtling through the air. It formed a crater besides the pile with a mighty crash, drawing the immediate attention of Spike and Raindrops.

He jumped off the pile, barely landing on his hooves. At the bottom of the pit was a large cart made of wood with a metal underside covering the most of the bottom. As he approached it, the metal deformed suddenly into the rough shape of a head with a cringe-worthy metal sound. "YEAH! AM I LATE?! SORRY ABOUT THE HOLE IN THE GROUND," came a voice from the cart, distorted by the metal.

Just as suddenly as the metal deformed, it reformed into its normal shape; the cart exploded out of the hole to reveal an insanely over-muscled pegasus with tiny wings. "I GOT THE CART! WHERE'S THE HEAVY? THAT IT?"

He bounced out of the hole and picked up the whole stack of books, setting it on the cart with no apparent trouble. "WOO! WHERE AM I GOING? WHAT AM I EVEN DOING?" he said at the top of his voice. "…HEY LOOK, BOOKS!"

Spike rolled his eyes. "After me, Bulk Biceps. We're headed back to Twilight's house." He walked in front of Bulk, who began pulling the mountain of books whilst showing no sign of effort. Raindrops jumped down and looked back at the haul.

"…Ugh," she said before collapsing on the ground. "Forget walking, I'm hitching a ride." She struggled back to her hooves and flapped back onto the top, knocking over a book in the process. Pennaprose deftly picked it up, intending to put it back, but before he could, the gold-pressed title on black leather caught his eye. A dawning tingle in his neck ran rampant in excitement.

The Magical Mundane: Mare and Man Alike.