• 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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What Dreams May Come

When Twilight had finally finished chatting with Front Page and Rarity, night had fallen and the moon had risen. Rarity had promised to let Spike stay in her boutique for the night, claiming that Twilight still needed "to relax and unwind with a good night's sleep" before returning to normalcy in full. Knowing that Spike would already be asleep at this hour, Twilight had nodded in reply and bid them both goodnight. By the time that she was alone in the library, the full effects of her day settled in and she found herself more tired than she had been since leaving the New Lunar Republic.

With a long yawn, she trotted upstairs, putting aside most of her nightly routines, and climbed into bed. She buried herself in the familiar blankets, rejoicing in sleeping in her own bed for the first time in almost an entire month. As she looked up at the moon through her window, Twilight didn't even have time to wonder where Pennington was or how he was doing, sleep overtook her with all of the force of a freight train.

Or so she thought.

"Twilight! Twilight Sparkle!"

Twilight bolted out of bed, fully awake, as Princess Luna's voice filled the room. She looked to the side, and the Princess was standing by her bed, a worried look on her face.

"P-Princess Luna? What are you doing here?" She asked, rubbing her eyes in disbelief.

"The easiest way for me to contact you was through your dreams, but I had no time for your mind to form one of its own, so I created one from your last waking moment." Luna motioned to the room around them, which Twilight only now noticed was rippling like the surface of a pond after being disrupted by a pebble. "There is no time to explain, but I need your help, desperately, as does Pennington..." Luna whipped her tail to the side, creating a tear in reality that widened into a glowing doorway.

"So- I'm dreaming?" Twilight asked, looking at first her own hooves, then her bed and the rest of the library. "But it feels so-"

"Real. Yes, I know, but you'll have to take my word for it, because we have no time! Now, follow me, I'll explain everything on the way." She stepped through the doorway, motioning for Twilight to follow.

Twilight blinked twice, then stepped out of bed and walked towards the portal, eyeing it curiously. "Is this really just a dream?" As she gathered up her courage, Twilight stepped though.

The world on the other side of the portal was beyond anything that Twilight could have imagined.

She was walking through the night sky, with the moon at her side and the Earth lying far below. All around her were countless soap bubbles, all floating gracefully around her and each holding a tiny image. As she looked closely into one, she saw Rainbow Dash, standing tall and proud as Spitfire placed some kind of award around her neck.

"Is that... her dream?" She whispered, reaching a careful hoof forward to touch it. When she did, it simply floated away, avoiding her hoof.

"This way, Twilight..." Luna called. When Twilight looked, she saw the Princess only a few yards ahead, walking away from her. "I need your help in Pennington's dreams..."

Twilight ran to catch up, paying no mind to any of the other bubbles that parted to let her through. "You need my help? How can I help? Is Penny in trouble?"

"Yes, I'm afraid that he's under attack... The changelings' hive mind is trying to consume and absorb his own..." Luna muttered. "It's a mix of physical strain and trauma and mental degradation, and I've been trying to help as much as I can on my own, but the power of thousands of minds trying to drag down the barriers of his individuality is becoming too much for both Pennington and myself."

Twilight shuddered. "I never should have left him... I should have just turned back and gone after him..." She sighed. "But I thought that he was-"

"Twilight, this is no time for despair!" Luna let out a long sigh as one bubble separated itself from the rest. "Your will and your mind must be strong if you're to give him any kind of aid now."

"What are we doing?" She asked as Luna's horn began to glow.

"Until now, I've been letting Pennington fight his own battles, only stepping in when he is about to lose himself completely. But now... His mind is beginning to fragment. It's breaking up. Now, the hive seems to have detected that he's getting weaker, and is trying even harder." She gently touched the tip of her horn to the soap bubble. "It's all symbolic, there's only two rules: protect Pennington, and obliterate as many changelings as you can..."

Twilight smiled, nodding her head. Luna had largely left everything unexplained, but she had just said all that she needed to.

"Here we go..." Luna whispered. "Brace yourself, Twilight Sparkle..."








Twilight had fallen into a nightmare.

She was back in the arena, and changelings were swarming in from every side. The first thing that she did was to throw up a magical shield around herself and the figures around her. She hadn't taken a close look at the world that she had been so abruptly dropped into.

"Hey! Lemmie at 'em! I could take the whole hive! I could take them with one hoof tied behind my back!"

Twilight looked to her left, and saw... Scorching Quill. At first, she simply assumed that Pennington was looking different because it was his dream, but this pony seemed different. He had both of his front hooves pressed up against her shield, and was screaming and snarling at the changelings on the other side. As she looked more closely, his eyes were glowing the same bright red as his mane, and not the familiar violet she knew and loved.

"Oh, calm down, Scorching! Take the opportunity to recover your strength! Celestia only knows how much we need it..." A feminine voice called out. Twilight turned to find the source, and found herself staring at Daring Do.

The real-life, right-there, actual Daring Do. She was there, on her knees, looking up at the dome with grateful eyes. Her eyes travelled to Twilight, and when they met, Twilight saw that, just as had been so often described in the books, her eyes were a deep magenta, and glowed with the light of dying coals.

"I don't know where you came from, but I'm never one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Thank you for the help. I'd get up to shake your hoof, but there will be time for introductions later..." She gave an anxious glance towards the floor, and it was only now that Twilight could see what she was kneeling protectively over.

It was Pennington, laid out flat on the ground. His fur was a much darker shade of blue, like the sky just before the last bit of the sunset disappeared, but not the hard, black outer carapace of a changeling. He was an earth pony, but that appeared to be changing quickly. When he opened his eyes, Twilight could see that his pupils had narrowed and grown taller, creating a catlike sappire-blue orb around a small iris. They were caught somewhere between pony and changeling, just like the rest of his body She could see that his mane was translucent and seemed to shift every time that he moved, and as her gaze neared the ends of his legs, she could see a small array of holes that perforated completely through to the other side. He was beaten, battered, and bruised, and appeared to be bleeding in several places.

"I told you, I'm fine... Just give me my quills." Pennington struggled to stand, grabbing Daring's shoulder for support. When he spoke, Twilight could see a small pair of fangs growing out from his teeth.

The entire sight sent a wave of fear rushing over Twilight, and her heart seemed to skip several beats as she tried to process what she was seeing. The fear manifested itself almost instantly as a gigantic crack in the shield, splitting her defenses and allowing the armies of changelings sitting outside a small victory as they continued to pound away at it.

"P-Penny!" Twilight rushed over to the beaten stallion, trying to inspect his wounds more closely. "What happened? Are you alright?"

"Who is that? Who are you?" Pennington looked up at Daring, then at her with those disturbing eyes. He seemed only confused by the entire situation, not relieved any more than Daring was. He finally managed to push himself up onto his hooves with a groan of effort.

He doesn't recognize me... Twilight felt her heart nearly break as she finally realized what had happened. He doesn't even know who I am. As the shock set in, Twilight's shield became riddled with spiderwebs, and the changelings outside began to cackle and shout with glee.

"Twilight! You mustn't let it hurt you to see this, it breaks your concentration! They're coming!" Twilight finally noticed Princess Luna standing farther off, at the opposite end of the shield from Scorching Quill. Her horn was glowing brightly, and she looked ready for battle. Her hooves were firmly planted in the ground and her gaze was steely, and she was staring down the changelings just outside of the shield. Her eyes didn't waver, and her mouth was quietly whispering some kind of spell under her breath.

Daring had jumped to her hooves and braced herself when the shield nearly broke, and her eyes were darting from side to side, inspecting every angle. "Well, looks like naptime's over... Another day-"

"Another broken spinal column..." Scorching grinned as he re-wrote Daring's catchphrase. "You ready for this, Daring?"

"I don't think that any pony could be ready for this..." She whispered, looking at the dozens of bodies pressed against every side of the dome. "But we're going to have to be."

Twilight blinked, still trying to take in the fact that she was actually looking at the real Daring Do. Her mind was racing over how it could be possible, when she finally realized why there were three ponies in Pennington's dream.

Luna said that his mind had fractured... But not that it had turned into three different ponies!

Twilight looked back to Pennington, who was now staring her straight in the eyes. "You're Twilight... You're..." He squinted, as if trying to remember something. "You're Twilight Sparkle... Magic."

Twilight smiled, placing her hoof on the side of Pennington's darkened face. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, the mare who loves you..."

At the mention of the word "love," Pennington's eyes glowed, legitimately putting out a blue light of their own. His face broke out into a huge grin.

"That's it... Love. You're my love... I get it, now! You're Twilight! Twilight!" With a gleeful laugh of joy, Pennington nearly tackled Twilight, wrapping his front legs around her in an enthusiastic hug. "That's it! Twilight! You're here!"

Twilight felt tears welling up in her eyes as she held Pennington closely against her chest. "I thought that I'd lost you forever... But I'm not going to let that happen..."

Even as her broken heart healed, though, her shield was rapidly growing dim and beginning to flicker.

"Well, Sparky... It's about that time..." Pennington looked up at the changelings all around them. "Time to fight for our lives..."

"Just us and them!" Scorching shouted, jabbing his hoof through a small hole in the shield, knocking a changeling outside unconscious. "Wouldn't have it any other way!"

"So, then, let's kick some flank, fillies and colts!" Daring shouted as a changeling slipped through another hole in the wall. She turned her back to it and bucked it in the head, sending it flying back out again.

Pennington smiled, then looked back to Twilight. When she saw his hooves again, he was holding a metal-tipped writing quill in each. "The perfect team?"

Twilight smiled and nodded. "The perfect team..."

"Brace yourselves!" Luna shouted as her horn grew into a blinding light. There was a loud explosion shook the ground and shattered Twilight's shield. Twilight and the others were unharmed, but all of the changelings who had been trying to break the shield seemed to have been sent spiraling into the darkness.

"YAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!" Scorching gave a feral roar as he threw himself into the fray, abandoning any and all semblance of safety. He seemed to simply strike anything that moved, and his hooves would pummel anything within reach in a blur of movement, and Twilight was almost sure that she could hear changeling exoskeletons cracking under his assault. She shuddered to see such rage coming from a pony who looked exactly like Pennington, but in this case, she couldn't help but condone it.

"Bring it on!" Daring shouted as she pressed forward, as well. Unlike Scorching, her movements were fluid and effective with every stroke, and she never wasted her energy. Twilight watched as she first stunned a changeling with an uppercut to the chin, then picked it up by the leg and spun around to throw it into three others. After letting go, though, she spread her wings and jumped into the air, using her centrifugal momentum to deliver a spinning kick to an attacker in the air. She kicked upwards and pulled her wings against her body, propelling herself back to the ground, where she landed on another changeling's head, knocking it out cold.

Luna didn't seem to be making any kind of physical effort at all as she fought: she was working entirely with magic. She had worked her hooves firmly into the ground, and stared down an entire army of her own. As the throng of changelings drew near, her horn sprung to life, shooting out bolts of lightning that would electrify their prey, then jump to the nearest other changeling. After the entire legion in front of her was writhing on the ground, she expended a final effort, and they all disappeared in a flash of light.

She really is the Princess of Dreams... Twilight thought to herself. The spectacle was so fascinating, Twilight didn't even see the changelings coming towards her. When she finally turned back to look, one was leaping for her throat, fangs bared and dripping venom.

Before she could react, a dark hoof flew past her face, striking the changeling in the neck and bringing it all the way to the ground.

"Don't you TOUCH her!" Pennington screamed as he pulled away his hoof. Twilight could see the quill dripping green blood, and when she looked down at the changeling, there was a small incision in its neck that was beginning to bleed profusely. After only a second, though, the changeling vanished in a small puff of smoke.

It's a dream... Twilight had to remind herself. None of this is real...

Twilight narrowed her eyes and roused her magic to life. Without mercy, she opened fire, creating a barrage of bolts that held a platoon of her own at bay. She didn't think much of aiming, there were changelings everywhere.

At one lull in the storm, she turned her head to look back at Pennington. They were there to protect him, after all.

Pennington was in the heart of a mass of changelings, and Twilight could see quite clearly where he was, mostly because there were changelings flying everywhere. Twilight could see that Pennington was using the quills as weapons. Not only did they seem to be adept at piercing through the outer shell, but he was using them to grab onto the holes in their bodies and either throw them into the air or slam them into the ground. He was both dripping green blood and bleeding his own muddy red.

Twilight had always taken it for granted that Pennington was a good fighter. Ever since she had first seen him fight, she knew that she wouldn't have to worry about him. This was only the second time that she had seen him bleed.

Her eyes narrowed and she turned back again to face the changelings that had surged in to replace the ones that she had knocked down.

This time, she didn't hold back. Twilight felt the energy build up in her horn, and with a wide, sweeping motion, she let it all fly out. A wave of purple energy washed out in a wave, blowing back the entire hoard trying to reach her. Her work done for the moment, she turned back towards Pennington and began to march.

"Why... Won't... You... Let... Him... GO?" With every word, she blasted another changeling, before opening into rapid-fire. There was more than a small amount of satisfaction in each progressive blast, and Twilight was surprised to find that she wasn't tiring. "Just give him BACK to me, would you?" She felt her anger welling up, and as she finally came in range, she took a page out of Scorching's book. To her immense satisfaction, she punched a changeling in the face. "Why do you changelings want Penny so MUCH?"

As her cry echoed through the arena, everything grew silent. All of the movement in the arena stopped, with the exception of Scorching, who continued to pummel the living tar out of the changelings around him.

"Penny?" A changeling echoed back in Twilight's voice.

"Penny?" Another replied. The voices didn't seem to have a source, though it was easy to tell that it was coming from some changeling, somewhere.

Pennington blinked, then growled, taking advantage of the stillness to walk next to Twilight. "Don't call me Penny..." He muttered.

"Penny?"

"Penny?"

"Penny!"

"Don't call me Penny!" Pennington shouted, stamping his hoof.

"We want Penny!"

"We want Penny!"

"We want him..."

"Because we're hungry!" The changelings all melted away into black smoke, dissolving before Twilight's eyes. Daring, Scorching, and Luna all ran back to Twilight and Pennington, standing together in a group as the smoke all flew away to the far end of the arena. They all watched in horror together as the smoke gathered itself into a huge, black cloud.

"Penny!"

"Penny!"

"Penny!"

"DON'T CALL ME PENNY!" Pennington screamed, stepping forward towards the cloud. "Don't you dare call me that! There is only one pony allowed to call me that, and she is right here! A penny is worthless! A penny is not unique! A PENNY IS NOT ME!" He pointed to Twilight, who was watching him in awe as he stood against his demons.

The moment didn't last long, though.

The smoke moved in like a snake, somehow picking up Pennington, Daring Do, and Scorching Quill in its ethereal grip. As the smoke pulled them upwards, both Twilight and Luna opened fire again, but their magic simply disappeared before it reached the tendril of darkness.

"The hive!" Luna cried, trying her magical lightning. "It's making its final attack!"

"Well, why can't we stop it?" Twilight desperately let loose another burst from her horn, but the energy just disappeared.

"It's an outside force acting on his mind! We can't stop it!" Luna shouted in reply as all three of the adventurers began to scream. "There's nothing that we can do. This is beyond the reach of a dream..." Quietly, she stepped back, letting her horn dim again. "This is Pennington's fight, now."

"You're just going to give up?" Twilight asked, pouring more effort into her blast. The increased magic had no effect as the smoky tendril whipped Pennington, Daring, and Scorching back and forth.

"I'm not giving up, Twilight. I'm trusting Pennington to be able to win his own battle..." Luna put a hoof on her shoulder. "Your body doesn't tire here, but you're going to give yourself a headache if you keep doing that... And the only way that you can help him now is to believe that he'll survive the onslaught of thousands of lesser minds." Luna's voice trembled, and Twilight finally stopped her attack and looked up at the alicorn. Luna's expression showed just how much it hurt her to simply stand by and watch, and despite her efforts to put on a brave face, Twilight could see tears running down from her eyes.

Twilight finally looked back up, trying to summon the same kind of courage.

Despite the doppler effect from being violently whipped back and forth, Twilight could still tell which scream was coming from which pony.

Scorching, who she was beginning to recognize as Pennington's rage and desperation not to be bound, seemed to be trying his hardest to tough out the pain. His screams were low and throaty, occasionally dropping to a grunt before resuming even louder, with a sound like gravel grating against granite. When his mouth was open wide, smoke would begin to float in, making him hack and cough between screams. They smother his passion...

Daring's screams were high and piercing, and Twilight could catch a glimpse now and then of the fact that the smoke was putting a crushing pressure on her, with what Twilight could only guess was a devastating effect on the bones in her wings. Twilight was beginning to see that Daring was Pennington's spirit of freedom, and his desire to be free and discover. They crush his spirit...

Pennington's screams were the most gut-wrenching. His screams were directly between the first two, resonating and creating a haunting harmonic that sent shivers and quakes all of the way to her soul. He would take a desperate gasp for air before starting his screams anew, ringing loud and clear. The smoke flowed viscously through the holes in his hooves, eating away at his body like acid and widening the holes that marked him as the prey of the changelings. And they dissolve away the foundations of his identity... That's how they'll do it. That's how they'll make the change...

"Fight back, Penny!" Twilight screamed, stamping her hoof as her voice cracked and her eyes filled with tears. "Don't you dare let go! I know you can do it! You're stronger than them!" She took more steps forward, shaking her head in denial. "I know it more than I know anything else! I know that you're strong, Pennington! You can't give in, because you can't give in! It's not possible for you to give up! I know... You won't let yourself lose!"

Scorching's eyes opened. "She's... Right!" He let out another fit of coughing before speaking again, his voice hoarse and grating. "We can't... give... in!" His horn sparked as he built up energy into what Twilight knew was Pennington's telltale explosion spell for breaking free from paralysis. His head whipped back and forth as he struggled, throwing himself left and right to try and break free. As he attempted to break free, Twilight saw a bright white light begin to shine from his chest.

"We'll... never back down!" Daring's voice shrieked as she began trying to pull her hooves away from her body, and Twilight could see that she was working to open her broken and bleeding wings. The same light began to shine from her chest, bursting clear and bright from beneath the smoke.

"I... I.. I can't-" Pennington sputtered as the spindly, spider's web-like remains of his hooves began to bend inwards, collapsing on themselves. His mane and tail were almost gone, all dissolved away, and his breath was coming in shorter and shorter gasps.

"YOU CAN!" Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs. "You can do ANYTHING if you just TRY!"

The statement was ridiculous, and Twilight knew it. Pennington couldn't do anything that he wanted, he had the same kind of physical limits that any unicorn had. He couldn't raise the sun or the moon, he couldn't make the sky turn neon pink, he couldn't defy the laws of gravity, in fact, he couldn't even teleport.

But Twilight didn't care. In this singular moment of belief, Twilight believed that he could do all of those things and more. She believed that he could truly to anything that he put his mind to... And she knew more than any fact in a book that Pennington could survive this onslaught.

Pennington's face contorted in pain as what was left of his hooves finally caved in, crumbling like a piece of paper being wadded into a ball.

"Let... me... GO!" Pennington screamed. His eyes flew open, somehow returned to being the wide, round pupil of a true pony, glowing a bright blue. All at once, the light exploded from his chest in a blinding flash. It washed over his body, restoring his bright blue fur and filling the holes in his legs. Once again, Pennington was a full-blooded pony, and struggling hard against the grip of the changelings.

Twilight's heart leaped in her chest as the three glowing lights began to push away the smoke, freeing the shards of Pennington's mind.

And then came the counterattack.

Rather than give up and slink away into the shadows, the smog threw Pennington to the ground in a sudden torrent that seemed to be attempting to crush him. The smoked splashed outwards and upwards before slamming back down onto him. The light in Pennington's chest refused to go out, and he screamed back at the shadows as they tried to smother him.

Next came Scorching, who had nearly broken away. The smoke whipped him downwards to the place where Pennington was pinned by the sheer downward force. Twilight cried out in fear as it looked as if Pennington were about to be crushed, but as he and Scorching came together, Scorching's body faded away and passed through Pennington. His light joined Pennington's, making it twice as bright, and Twilight could see that his horn had somehow returned. Pennington only screamed louder, now lifting his head up in the effort and curling his lip back in a snarl, as if the sound coming from his mouth could push back the influence of the changelings.

Finally, Daring was slammed down from the air and onto Pennington. The same thing happened, with Daring fading out of existence as she was about to crush Pennington. As the two overlapped, Twilight saw a flash of light come from Pennington's flank. His cutie mark had returned, and the light from his heart was growing exponentially.

The smoke began to encounter some kind of barrier coming from the light, as if it were a physical force, dissipating to the sides and around Pennington, who was still screaming at the top of his lungs. It seemed to fight anew, twisting itself into a tornado in an attempt to drill its way through the shield.

"Y-yes! Fight it, Penny! Fight them!" Twilight cheered as she took in the sight of the mysterious magic,

"Twilight, we should go..." Luna whispered.

"What? Why would we go?" Twilight shook her head, refusing to take her eyes off of Pennington's battle.

"Twilight, the changelings created this dream as a stage upon which to slay Pennington's mind... If he's rejecting them-"

With a sound like an explosion, a glowing crack split the scene. It seemed as if the crack wasn't in any particular part of the reality, but in her perspective. Pennington's voice began to warp into a twisted disharmony, like a radio station with a rapidly diminishing reception.

"That's it, we have to go... Whatever happens next will have to remain unseen." With another whip of her tail, she tore open a rift to her world of dreams and soap bubbles. "Pennington's moment is now, and if he succeeds, this world will shatter into the subconscious, and to escape from the collective subconscious is a nightmare of its own!" Without another word, she pulled Twilight through the rift.

The last thing that Twilight saw was the world shattering like a pane glass window, and Pennington still screaming at the darkness trying to consume him.

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