• Published 9th Jul 2012
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Happy Adventuring, Twilight! - Pennington Inkwell



When Twilight Sparkle tries to befriend a local author, she gets far more than she bargained for!

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Making the Front Page

Twilight let out a long sigh as the familiar town of Ponyville finally came into sight.

I wish that Penny was here... She thought to herself as the train pulled into the station. She caught herself before she sunk into another moment of despair. But he will be eventually, right? The joy of discovering that he was still alive had quickly worn away, and the worry of the other possibilities of what could happen to him began to sink in. She had been trying her best to keep her hopes up, but it was like standing on a knife's edge. Be too realistic, and she would begin to see how low his chances really were, be too hopeful, and she would have her dreams interrupted by the fact that they would probably never happen. She had begun writing letters to Pennington, even if she knew that she couldn't send them to him, in order to keep her hopes high.

While she had been in the New Lunar Republic, she had sent letters to her friends explaining what was going on and leaving instructions for Spike to reorganize parts of the library during the day, and had received a mass of questions that she couldn't answer in the replies, and she knew that those same questions would be asked of her starting the moment that she stepped off of the train.

"Twilight, darling!" Rarity's unmistakable voice rang through the air. Twilight didn't even need to look for her fellow unicorn, the white-and-purple dressmaker was in her face in a matter of moments. "You're back! Oh, it's so good to see you!" Twilight was wrapped in a tight hug and began to laugh as Rarity over-dramatized her return in the same manner that she dramatized everything.

"It's good to be back..." Twilight smiled and returned the hug, pressing her face into her friend's shoulder. The familiarity of the bouncing purple curls and the scent of imported shampoo seemed to welcome her back, as well. Even if I did come back alone...

Twilight had hardly been released from the embrace when she saw another one of her friends standing in the doorway of the train station.

Applejack wasn't smiling. That was the first sign to Twilight that something was wrong. Her hoof raised to her head and adjusted her hat, and she was doing a bad job of not showing that something was bothering her.

"Twahlight... We need tah talk." Applejack's voice was low, as if she didn't want to speak, and her accent seemed almost unnaturally thicker than normal. Her expression resembled one of a filly who had just lost a fight.

"Oh, Applejack, give Twilight a chance to settle herself!" Rarity protectively stood between Twilight and Applejack, rolling her eyes at Applejack's usual difficulty with tact. "She hasn't even gotten back to the library to unpack!"

Applejack's face turned to a gently frustrated scowl. "Well, looks to me like Inkwell didn't exactly let 'er pack, ta begin with... Just the saddlebags on her back. Lemmie guess, he provided everythin' else?" She was carrying an unusually large dose of sarcasm with her remarks.

Twilight shook her head in confusion. She had always known Applejack to be willing to try to be kind and helpful to all ponies, and to get along with everypony. "Applejack, what are you talking about? I followed him, he didn't want me to come! Do you have some kind of problem with Pennington?"

Applejack was about to answer when her attention was drawn away, and her gaze glanced back towards the last car of the train. She smiled as a pair of older-looking ponies walked out of the car. "Just- uh, meet me over at the farm later, Twahlight!"

She ran to the older-looking couple, and Twilight looked a little more closely at the passengers. One was a male unicorn, with a blue coat so dark, Twilight thought that he was a shade of black, at first. His mane was a mix of the same shade of blue and a neon-colored sky blue, and a small splatter of lavender on his muzzle and hooves. His cutie mark was an unfurled scroll, with a quill jotting down notes. His hair was long and badly kept, mostly settling down in whatever way it wanted on his shoulders. Twilight blinked twice as neurons began to fire in rapid succession, prompting connection after connection, all bringing her to the final conclusion.

No, it couldn't be... But the resemblance is uncanny! Trying to shake off the obvious conclusion, she turned her attention to the other pony stepping off of the train.

She was a pegasus mare, slightly shorter and very different from her companion. While the first pony wore nothing but a couple of light-looking saddlebags, she was dressed with a set of southern-looking red boots, a darker red vest, and a bright red hat similar to Applejack's. Her coat was a burnt orange, accented well by the red accessories, and her mane and coat were a mix of earthy-looking pinks and greens, creating an overall down-to-earth look that Twilight recognized easily as part of the Apple family. Her cutie mark seemed to be an apple tree' roots, extending and growing down a short distance.

"Auntie Deeproots! Uncle Page!" Applejack, her character completely changed, ran up first to the pegasus, then the unicorn, giving them each an enthusiastic hug. "I'm so glad that you could make it!"

"We're happy to be here, Applejack!" The mare replied with an equally enthusiastic grin. "It's always good to come home!"

"Are you ready to get going to the farm?" Applejack picked up her aunt's bag with a smile. "We've only been growing since you left!"

"Well, then you must have followed my advice!" She smiled. "I'd be happy to, if Front Page doesn't mind taking a direct route for once..."

"Celia, my dear, I've always just followed your lead..." The unicorn smiled and shook his head with a smile. "But I think that we both have one stop that we would like to make: I'd like to go see my boy!"

"That's right! It's been such a long time... Do you think that we could go to Inkwell Commissions, first? I just have to see Penny! I always miss him so much!" Celia grinned and gave Applejack a pleading look as she ruffed her wings eagerly against her sides.

Twilight finally admitted the truth to herself:

These are Pennington's parents! And Applejack's Aunt and Uncle... That would make Penny and Applejack cousins! But now it makes even less sense that Applejack wouldn't like him! But these are Pennington's PARENTS! I should meet them. All of this flashed by in less than a second in her mind.

"Hold on just a second..." Twilight whispered to Rarity. She trotted to the threesome of ponies, and the two newcomers, apparently named Front Page and Celia Deeproots, gave her looks of curiosity.

"Um, Pennington isn't here in town... He's... on one of his trips." Twilight tried not to make the double meaning of her words obvious, just in case any other ponies were to catch on to the fact that there even was a double meaning.

"Oh... Darn!" Front Page stomped his hoof with a smile. "He always did like to travel... Just like his mother!" He gave Celia a loving glance.

"Well, you're the one who travelled to all of the dangerous places!" Celia replied with a smile of her own before turning back to Twilight. "I'm Celia Deeproots, Penny's mother." She gave Twilight's hoof a strong shake.

"I-I'm Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight tried not to cringe at the strength of Celia's grip and the force of her hoofshake. "I'm Pennington's girlfriend."

A number of things happened when Twilight introduced herself under the title of "girlfriend." She realized that she wasn't ashamed of stating her relationship with Pennington. In fact, she was... proud. She realized that, no matter what anypony thought of him, Pennington was a good stallion, and she was happy to have that connection with him.

The second thing that happened was that Applejack looked as if she had seen a ghost. Her pupils dilated, her face paled, and her complacent smile turned down into a grimace of shock. Her ears pulled themselves flat against her head, and she slowly began to smolder with apparent frustration.

When Twilight introduced herself, Celia's expression deepened. It wasn't that she grew angry or frustrated as Applejack had, nor did she look as if she were going to jump for joy. It simply seemed to take on new meaning. As Twilight looked into the orange mare's eyes, she noticed that they were a reddish-violet, a warmer color than Pennington's but still purple enough for her to see the resemblance. Celia seemed to be trying to look straight into Twilight, as if she could examine her heart though her eyes. Twilight stared back unabashedly, though she was growing uncomfortable with the situation. She felt as if not turning away was some kind of way of proving herself.

"Well, it's good to see that Pennington is getting back into the dating game!" Front Page broke the tension, stepping between Twilight and Celia and giving her a much warmer smile. He didn't hesitate to give Twilight a hug, wrapping his front legs around her for only a second, applying pressure, and letting go again. "I'm Pennington's dad, Front Page. It's a real pleasure to meet you, Twilight! How long have you known Pennington?" He put a leg around her shoulders and led her away from Celia and Applejack, easing the tension even more.

"Well, a few weeks, now..." Twilight smiled, happy that somepony was actually taking the news well. Pennington's father certainly didn't seem to have any kind of personal space issues, but his openness was a welcome relief. "We met..." She blinked, realizing how much time had flown by. A week in the border town, about a week and a half in the desert and the New Lunar Republic, a couple of days in the hive and another week coming back... It's almost been a month! "We met almost a month ago."

"Ah! Wonderful! Pennington didn't waste any time, then, did he?" Front Page grinned jokingly. "It's good to see him trying again. His last relationship didn't end very well, as I'm sure you know..." He shook his head. "I was pretty sure that he'd never open up to a mare again. So, how did the two of you meet? Was it some kind of romantic circumstance, or just deus ex machina?"

Twilight blinked, glancing up at the older stallion with confusion. "His last relationship? He never mentioned it..."

"I'm not surprised," Celia finally spoke up again, having come up at Twilight's other shoulder. "It was horrible. His last girlfriend was a real b-"

"bright and sparkling individual, had she been able to see anywhere beyond herself!" Front Page shot Celia a quick glance. "Remember, dear, that cussing is the sign of a belligerent mind, unable to conjure up a greater vernacular!" Front page let out a long sigh. "Well, suffice it to say that she decided to 'use-him-and-lose-him' type of mare. He helped her out of some real trouble, then she abandoned him for Celesta-knows-who..." He shrugged, as if the entire escapade had been a thousand years ago. "He was left lower that I've seen him, and for a while, I thought he'd never try again."

Suddenly, Celia's inspection made more sense.

"Well, that's not going to happen this time." Twilight smiled, looking up at both of Pennington's parents with a reassuring smile. "Pennington is in good hooves."

"Then where is he?" Celia asked, looking around the train station. "We saw that you're back alone, were you with him?"

"Well, yes, but..." Twilight struggled for a moment with the answer, and memories of her last moments in the hive flashed by in excruciating detail. "He told me that I should go home... He didn't think that I would enjoy the rest of his trip. I didn't really want to argue with him, so I came back to Ponyville to wait." It's the truth... just not the whole truth.

This seemed to satisfy Celia, who nodded as Applejack came up next to her. "Well, it's been a real pleasure meeting you, Twilight, but we really should get going to Sweet Apple Acres! Unless you'd like to come along, we may have to say goodbye here..."

Before Twilight could reply, Front Page spoke up again. "You know, dear, it would hardly be friendly-like to let Penn's girlfriend go and unpack and such alone... Why don't you two go on ahead?" He imitated his wife's accent, as if personally acknowledging that there were two members of the Apple family present.

Twilight hesitated to protest, despite the fact that she had almost nothing to unpack and very little to do until she had picked up Spike. Front Page was much more welcoming than Celia or Applejack had been. Despite the fact that Celia was probably just trying to make sure that Twilight was up to par for her son, she had still left a rather foreboding impression.

"Well, as long as Applejack doesn't have a problem with you catching up later, I suppose that would give us a chance to talk business..." Celia looked down at Applejack, who shook her head.

"Wonderful! I'll see you girls later!" Front Page waved as Applejack and Celia walked away. As soon as they were gone, he seemed to relax a bit more. "I'm sorry, Twilight, I hope that you don't mind me tagging along with you. I just want to put off going to Sweet Apple Acres..."

Twilight shook her head as she motioned for Rarity, who had been watching everything from the sidelines, to come and join them. "It's no problem... But why would you want to stay away from Sweet Apple Acres?"

"I'll tell you when we're off the record..." Front Page whispered as Rarity joined them.

"Off the record?" Does he mean when we're alone? Twilight blinked for a moment, then nearly slapped herself. Of course! A writing-related cutie mark, all of those questions, the large vocabulary, and Celia said that he was the one who traveled to dangerous places; he must be a reporter!

"Well, hello..." Rarity smiled, despite having been so bluntly interrupted in welcoming Twilight home. "Who are you? I don't believe I've had the pleasure..."

"Oh! Front Page: freelance journalist." Front Page shook Rarity's hoof vigorously. "If I remember correctly from my article on the defeat of Discord, you're Rarity, the Element of Generosity, correct?" He blinked for a moment, then turned back to Twilight with his jaw slack and his eyes wide. "And you're Twilight Sparkle... The Element of Magic..."

Twilight nodded, blushing at the sudden attention. "W-well, it's no big deal..."

Front Page laughed, both out of excitement and her modesty. "Are you joking? It's a huge deal! You and your friends wield the most powerful magic in all of Equestria, and you're the strongest of them all!" He looked back at Rarity. "No offense..."

"None taken, Mr. Page." Rarity nodded in agreement. "Magic truly is the strongest of the Elements, and Twilight is the strongest unicorn any of us know!"

Twilight blushed harder. "Well, I'd hardly say that..." She hadn't been the focus of this much attention since she sent Trixie out of town.

"Well, it's true!" Front Page's grin grew wider. "It's good to see that's Pennington's aiming high... So, where are we headed?"

"Well, I was hoping to get back to the library..." Twilight smiled, glad to change the subject. As happy as she was that Pennington's father liked her, she wanted to get home.

"Well, then, darling, let's go!" Rarity strutted forward, leading the way. "Will you be joining us, Mr. Page?"

"Please, 'Front Page' or just 'Front' is fine with me. I never like ponies to be very formal around me." Front smiled. "But I'd love to accompany you, as long as Twilight doesn't mind!"

"No, not at all!" Twilight smiled. "As you said, perhaps we can speak 'off the record" at the library!" Twilight winked, feeling more and more at ease around Pennington's father. Pennington was a lot like him, and Twilight could easily tell that Pennington had taken after his father.









"Ah, it's good to be home!" Twilight grinned as she opened the door to the library. She took a deep breath as she entered, taking in the comforting smell of knowledge and paper. "It's been a while since I was here, and there's nothing like coming back..."

"I'll make you some hot chocolate to welcome you back, Twilight!" Rarity trotted to Twilight's kitchen in the next room.

Front Page was looking around the library from ceiling to floor, taking in every detail. "So you live in the library... Do you have any of Pennington's books?"

"Well, yes! Right over- here?" Twilight was just about to point out her section of "Daring Do" books, but Front Page seemed to have gone to an entirely different part of the fiction section. After only a few seconds of searching near the bottom shelf, he pulled out a thick volume. "Ah! Here we go!"

Twilight blinked as he flipped open the book, exposing the cover.

The Lunar Conquest: 1000 Years of Adventure!
By Pennington Inkwell

"He always did love the old legends about Nightmare Moon. We would make up stories every night before bed about what she did while she was banished..." Front Page chuckled. "I never imagined that telling stories was going to be his special talent!"

Does he not know that Pennington is Scorching Quill? Twilight blinked as she pulled "Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone" off of the shelf.

"The 'Daring Do' series are some of my favorite adventure stories... Have you ever read any?" She levitated the book to Front Page, but he shook his head.

"Scorching Quill seems rather insensitive to his readers, if you ask me." He put Pennington's book back on the shelf. "He's always bragging about what he's done, then claiming that it's for the sake of 'the spirit of adventure!' He makes money by explicating upon his own misadventures." He shook his head. "He once announced an entire book about the quest for the 'Alicorn Amulet!' What happened to that?" He shook his head. "Not once, in all my years, have I managed to get an interview with him! What do you think he's hiding, huh?"

Twilight rolled her eyes, being careful not to let him see. "Well, we'll never know, will we? Not unless he tells us himself... So, is it my turn to ask a question?" When her guest nodded, obviously still a little steamed over Scorching Quill. "Why didn't you want to go to Sweet Apple Acres?"

Front Page let out a long sigh, pulling a reading chair from the corner of the library. "Well, to put it bluntly... Being grafted into the Apple Family is tough. I always feel out of place." He shrugged gently in defeat. "If you don't have a talent related to apples, you get left out of a lot of things. It's kind of hard to feel like part of the family." He gave a grin, though it seemed insincere. "It's funny really. They try so hard to be friendly, and they don't even realize it..."

Twilight shook her head, trying to understand. "So, then, you're saying that if you don't have an apple-related cutie mark, you don't feel like part of the family? But they're so nice!"

Front Page shrugged. "There's a difference between being a friend and being family in this case... Pennington knows it pretty well."

Twilight nodded. "It seemed like there was some tension between Penny and Applejack... Do you know anything about that?"

"No, it's my turn for a question..." Front Page winked, standing up again. "While we're doing an exclusive interview, why don't you tell me... How did you meet Pennington?"

Twilight raised her eyes upwards as she reached back into her memory. "I guess it was the day that I heard about a writer-for-hire in town from Spike... I thought that he sounded kind of like I used to be before I made friends here. I thought that I could help him make some friends of his own. I kinda started following him around, and I wound up going with him on one of his trips out of town..." She shrugged. "The rest just kind of... happened. My turn: What's up with the tension between Pennington and Applejack?"

Front Page seemed to ignore the question for a moment, closing his eyes and smiling. "Reminds me of how his mother and I met..." After a few seconds of reminiscing, his eyes opened again. "As for my son and me niece, let me answer that question with a question: What color is his mane?"

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. "It's blue... Like yours. What does that have to do with it?"

Front Page smiled and sat down again. "Well, you see, that's not his real mane color... It's more of a burnt auburn. He gets it from his mother's side of the family... But he dyes it. When he was little, he said that it was because he wanted to be like me... But now, I'm pretty sure that he does it to distance himself from the Apples. They fight a lot because Applejack feels like he's insulting them by trying to separate himself, and he just thinks that he'll never belong there..." He shrugged and let out a long sigh, silently illustrating how long and tiring the conflict had been. "Penn makes a good case, though, if you ask me... Not to mention that he blames the Apple family for the fact that Celia's job made her leave home and go on business trips a lot..."

"What does she do?" Twilight asked, though another smug grin from Front Page reminded her that it wasn't her turn, anymore.

"Where did he take you on your first date?"

Twilight blinked for a moment, scrambling in her mind for an answer. "Well, it was this exotic restaurant... Out in the Plains of Lore." That oasis could qualify as a restaurant, I guess... "It had the best water..."

Front Page looked disappointed in the fact that the only good thing that she had to say was about the water, but nodded to concede that it was her turn.

"What does Penny's mother do for work?" Twilight asked, taking a seat across from him.

"Well, she works more along the business end of the Apple family... She goes to look for places that would be profitable for the family to expand, either for selling or growing apples." Front Page let out a long sigh. "She really is the one who makes the money in our family, since most newspapers don't need a freelancer. She only travelled about a quarter as much after Penn was born, but she still left for a week or more every few months... He could only go with her once in a while, and he missed her more than anything when she was gone..." He grinned slightly. "I partially blame that for the fact that all I know how to cook is ramen noodles..."

Twilight sputtered, trying to hold back a fit of giggles. "You- you mean that you fed him ramen when he was little? That explains why he loves it so much now..."

Front Page chuckled, as well. "Well, I suppose you've seen that in action, then..."

"Who would like some hot chocolate?" Rarity asked as she came back through the door. "It took some time to bring the water to a boil, but these things cannot be rushed!"

"Oh, thank you, Rarity." Twilight was trying hard not to burst out laughing as her friend came back into the room. "Would you like some hot chocolate, Mr. Page?"

"Please, you don't have to be so formal! But, yes, I would love some..." Front Page smiled as Rarity levitated a steaming mug towards him. Twilight picked up her own mug and took a sip, letting the hot liquid spread over her tongue and real her tired body. For the first time in a long time, she felt as if she didn't need to worry. Talking about Pennington, acknowledging that he was still alive, seemed to have calmed the storm of fear in her heart.

Come home soon, Penny... We're waiting for you.









Pennington ran faster. He didn't question the sudden increase in his speed, there was no time for questions. Not when one was running from a raging horde of changelings. He made another turn in the maze, paying no mind to which way he was going. There was no time to think about where he was going. He only had to get away.

A dead end.

Pennington circled around, but it was too late. The hall behind him was already flooded with changelings. For what must have been the hundredth time, he tried to use his magic, but his horn simply sputtered and smoked, giving no aid.

In a tidal wave of bodies, the changelings descended on Pennington, and he was quickly pinned to the ground from every side. He tried in vain to lift his hooves, and felt sharp fangs pierce into his skin along his legs and his sides. A pair sunk into the back of his neck, and he screamed in pain, his voice muffled under the bodies that were pressing down on him with thousands of pounds of force.

His body was quickly becoming numb as venom began to course through his veins, and his mind began to blur the lines between death and numbness. His fear was blinding, but he couldn't act on it, making survival a moot point. His brain began to drift, and he started to give un under the overwhelming pressure.

There was a flash of blue light, and a crackle of lightning as the changelings were thrown off of him by some kind of force. As the world above him cleared, Pennington tried to move, but his body failed to respond, making him even more complacent about giving up and surrendering to the numb death.

"Pennington!" A dark blue pony came into his blurred vision, and it took a moment for him to recognize Princess Luna looking down on him. "PENNINGTON INKWELL! YOU MUST AWAKEN!" Pennington would have cringed at the Royal Canterlot Voice, if his face hadn't felt so numb. "WAKE UP, OR YOU SHALL BE LOST IN THE HIVE MIND!"

Pennington blinked in confusion, then tried to lift his hoof again. When his body refused to respond, he began to recognize the sensation as more than just changeling venom. For the first time, he began to think.

I'm asleep... I can't move. I'm ASLEEP. Just as he realized that he was having an episode of sleep paralysis, the world blinked out of existence, and made way for a new one.

Everything was fuzzy and green as he opened his eyes. He could feel something warm and wet surrounding him, and a complacent feeling washed over him, keeping him happy and perfectly alright with his containment. Curious, he reached out into the green fuzziness, and felt his hoof bounce back against the edge of the cocoon.

Something curious caught his attention through the complacency, forcing a small trail of thought to push its way through his mind.

Something was different about his hoof. Where once he had been blue and complete, his fur was now darkening to black... and there was a small green spot on its surface. As he slowly turned his hoof, the spot grew long and narrow, then vanished completely. As he turned his hoof back, it grew back to its original size.

There's a hole in my hoof... The idea seemed so ridiculous, he would have laughed, but the liquid filling his lungs no longer required him to breathe.

He had the urge that he was forgetting something, that there was something that he needed to do, but he buried it easily as he began to sink down into contented and bemused sleep...

And the nightmares began anew.


Author's Note:

LOVELY piece of artwork, here, by my AMAZING illustrator, Gina, at I AM PONY, illustrating the fight between Twilight and Pennington in the New Lunar Republic!

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