Pennington's Trix

by Pennington Inkwell

The Iron Pony

Pennington and Applejack stared each other in the eyes, and from her perspective laying on a branch in a nearby tree, Trixie could swear that there was literally a spark of fire smoldering between them.

"First one to touch the barn?" Pennington asked as he eased himself down into a jaguar-like position. The two of them were obviously about to race on hoof, seeing which one was faster.

"You got it, Penn." Applejack winked as she stretched her legs. "Your girlfriend-"

"We're not dating." Pennington looked uneasily up at Trixie, who nodded in reply. Even if the two of them did seem to be good for each other, Trixie knew that it was far too early to say anything like that.

Not to mention that I'm probably just a burden to him...

"Fine. That mare is going to call for the start, and Apple Bloom is going to judge the finish. Fair's fair, after all..."

"And the race is one-way?"

"Well, we both remember what happened when you tried turnin' on a bit at the obstacle course when we were foals, so sure! One way." Trixie could tell from Applejack's teasing tone that the incident was one of shame for Pennington, and her temper flared slightly at the unfair teasing.

"For the record, you tripped me!" Pennington winked at Trixie with a mischievous grin, showing that he was joking.

"Did not!"

"Did, too!"

"Did not!"

"Oh, for pony's sake, you sound like a pair of fillies! GO!"

Pennington and Applejack were off like a shot, taking only a few seconds to disappear over the hill. Trixie stood up in the branches, trying to see what was happening.

Pennington and Applejack were neck and neck, though she could tell that both of them had slowed since their first boost of speed. She watched as, every few seconds, Applejack would begin to pull ahead, and then Pennington would catch up to her. After learning that the Iron Pony was a competition of physical abilities, she had taken her own assessment of the two competitors. Learning to identify important things about a pony on sight had been one of her keys to mastering show magic.

Applejack was built strongly, and Trixie could tell just by looking at her that she was finely toned and tuned from years of farm work. Her back legs seemed to be her strongest, and she looked as if she had conditioned herself for hours of hard work and constant expenditure of energy, something that could both help and hinder her, seeing as it granted endurance but lowered her maximum strength.

Pennington, on the other hoof, was more lithe. He was muscular, true, but Trixie could see that he hadn't devoted nearly as much time to his body as Applejack. He seemed to value agility and dexterity, and was light on his hooves. Trying not to let a few... unwelcome... feelings surface, she had noted that he was also well-toned, with a slightly more muscular build than she had credited him with at first glance. Pennington could put out a lot of energy and strength at once, but he obviously didn't have Applejack's stamina.

As the race continued, Trixie shook her head in confusion. Pennington is fast, but he's obviously more of a sprinter. Applejack can outlast him, but she doesn't have his top speed... As they closed in on the final stretch, Trixie looked up in curiosity. They were still neck-and-neck, and she bit her lip in anticipation. In a moment, though, she heard Pennington's voice raise above the silence. Though she couldn't make out what he was saying, she saw him shift into a new gear, tearing away from Applejack in a full-on sprint. She heard Applejack, as well, crying out what she could only imagine were words of frustration as Pennington quickly closed the gap between himself and the barn.

"Yes! GO, PENNY, GO!" She shouted, wondering if he could hear her. She got more and more excited as the distance grew smaller. And smaller. And smaller.

"Okay, Penn... Slow down!" She muttered, trying to instruct him from afar. "Pennington, slow down! You're going to hit the barn! Pennington!"

At the last moment before hitting the barn, Trixie watched as he jumped into the air and twisted his body, slamming into the wall with his side, well-braced for the impact. She cringed as he bounced back, stumbled for a few steps, then shook his head vigorously. With a grin, he did a small victory dance, jumping up and down in a circle. Applejack didn't even seem to be trying to finish, and was doubled over with laughter almost fifty feet from the barn, and Trixie could quickly see why as Pennington did his small dance.

The barn had recently been given a fresh coat of paint.

Trixie tried her hardest not to laugh as Pennington realized that a large portion of the right side of his body had been painted red, especially as he tried in vain to wipe it off with his hooves, simply thinning and spreading the color until the looked to be covered in splotches of muddy purple. Applejack simply laughed harder as he turned on her with a glare, then flopped back in the grass for a quick rest.

Trixie's eyes narrowed in suspicion. She knew he would do that, didn't she? Well, two can play at the prank game...

"The next contest is the hay bale toss!" Apple Bloom announced as she motioned to two hay bales, both of which had been tightly lassoed with rope.

Pennington rubbed his hooves together in anticipation, while Applejack still snickered every time that she looked at him. However, Trixie knew that Pennington would be the one laughing, soon enough.

"Here, Penny! Use this one!" Trixie walked over to the one closest to him and leaned her hoof on it, with every bit as nonchalance that she could muster. It was a simple feat not to act like she was up to something, she had become very good at acting over the years.

Applejack rolled her eyes and tugged on the rope tied around the other bale, bringing it to the starting point of the toss.

"Since y'all won the first one, I'll be takin' the first turn!"

Trixie couldn't resist a smug grin as Applejack began to swing the bale around, building up speed and momentum with ease. Just as she looked ready to make her toss, however, the rope snapped, sending the hay bale flying in the wrong direction.

"Now what in tarnation?" Applejack cried as the bale landed a long distance away. "Now that ain't fair!"

Trixie looked over to Pennington, who was obviously trying to hold back a snicker behind a simple grin. "Y- ahem- You're right, Applejack... Take another toss!"

Applejack nodded and ran off to retrieve the hay bale. When she returned, she tried yet again to toss it with the shortened rope. With another tearing sound, the rope snapped yet again at its apex, sending the hay in the same direction. As Applejack groaned in frustration, Pennington openly laughed, stomping his hoof on the ground in joy.

"A- AJ, I think you need a new rope..."

If looks could kill, Applejack would have murdered Pennington with her ensuing glare as she marched off to retrieve the hay bale. She stopped abruptly, though, as an idea came to her. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out her lasso and began spinning it around her head.

"Ah've got mah own rope!" She grunted as she lassoed the bale. With a grunt, she jerked her head upwards, pulling the hay into the air, over her head, and almost twice as far in the other direction. "Now, beat that!"

Both Pennington and Trixie immediately stopped laughing as Applejack struck a smug pose, crossing her legs and nodding towards the bale.

Pennington shrugged and picked up his rope, taking the bale to the starting line. His eyes narrowed as he began to spin the bale over his head and he concentrated on building the momentum. He continued to spin it faster and faster, and then grunted with strain as he released it into the air.

The bale flew freely through the air in a gentle arc, floating up and then back down again... and landing at least ten yards short of Applejack's throw.

"YEEE-HAW! Looks like I win this one, Penn!" Applejack waved her hat in celebration, giving both him and Trixie a smug grin. "That's just a taste of what's comin'!"

Trixie felt the flare of indignation rise again, and she felt very close to simply using her own rope to tie her up again, but she knew that doing so would hurt Pennington's purpose, which was to defend her reputation. So she kept her temper in check, but only barely.

Just you wait...

The hours passed with a mix of laughter and humiliation as the challenges and the pranks escalated. First Applejack tricked Pennington into bucking a zap apple tree, giving him a painful shock, then Pennington retaliated by "accidentally" letting off a burst of magical energy while the two tried to outdo one another in push-ups, sending her careening backwards. Applejack broke one of the ink bottles in Pennington's saddlebag with a stray toss of the horseshoe, and Pennington managed to somehow undo the straps to his saddlebag just before competing in the long jump, sending the ink-soaked bag flying onto her head, soaking her hat in splotches of ink. Applejack had nearly throttled him for this, but Trixie had levitated him into the air and out of her reach from the tree branches she had chosen to observe from.

Of course, it would be a lie that Trixie hadn't been involved in more than a few of the pranks, but she had also been working on a small "surprise" of her own for Applejack. She had tried to tilt the odds in Pennington's favor a few times, especially since many of the "challenges" had been farm chores and rodeo such as apple bucking or lassoing. Unfortunately, Apple Bloom had a sharp pair of eyes, and had always spotted Trixie's magical aura moving objects on the course. In that case, Pennington had always willingly defaulted the point to Applejack. Trixie shook her head at the concept, pressing her hoof against her forehead. If he simply GIVES her the points, he doesn't stand a chance! Sportsponyship and fair play is all nice and dandy, but she clearly has the upper hoof!

Somehow, though, Pennington not only kept up with Applejack, but beat her in many of her own competitions. The two were neck-and-neck by the time of the final challenge, with Pennington barely eking out a lead of 10 points to Applejack's 9.

"Alright, since you're ahead, Ah'm gonna pick out this last one!" Applejack gave him a fierce look from under the brim of her ink-stained hat. Trixie had often seen that look on her own face: whenever she had thought of some new trick.

"'Last one?' Does that mean you don't think you can tie it up?" Pennington chuckled between panting breaths. Trixie could see that he wasn't holding on well to the last shreds of his endurance. The previous contest had been a competition to see who could reach the top of the barn first. Pennington had taken the direct route, climbing on window sills, swinging on pieces that jutted out more than others, and essentially moving straight up. Applejack had gone around to a nearby tree, climbing up the branches with ease and moving much more quickly than Pennington. Seeing that he was about to lose, Pennington had taken a huge gamble: he leaped out into the air, grabbed the pulley for moving things into the attic, and swung his way to the top, landing with a loud thud on his back only seconds before Applejack reached the top. The effort had used most of his energy, and he had been forced to lay on the roof for at least ten minutes to catch his breath.

Applejack rolled her eyes with a smile at Pennington's taunt, a bad sign that she was extremely confident. "Well, this here contest is simple! Ya just hold your breath! Whoever lasts the longest wins!"

Pennington's eyes widened in surprise, and he quickly glanced to Apple Bloom, who simply shrugged in response.

"That's not even fair! She can see how out of breath he is!" Trixie hissed, shaking her head in disbelief.

"It's a test of physical strength, so Ah can't say no..."

Pennington took a deep breath, doing his best to slow down to a normal rate of breathing. "Fine... count it down."

"Three... Two... One... GO!" At the word, both ponies took a deep breath and held it, their cheeks inflating to make them almost look like a pair of squirrels.

Trixie leaned forward, doing her best to keep a close eye on Pennington. His eyes were closed, and he wasn't moving a muscle. He seemed lost in his own world, completely oblivious to the competition and the rest of the world. He was holding up remarkably well, as far as Trixie could see.

As the seconds progressed, Pennington still didn't move, but Applejack seemed to be starting to worry. Her cheeks had slowly deflated over time as oxygen was removed and replaced with carbon dioxide. Pennington's had, equally so, but Applejack was beginning to look at him like one would look at a flying tortoise: with a mix of horror and surprise. She whipped her head to Apple Bloom, who simply shrugged again.

"You picked it, big sis!"

Trixie could have sworn that she saw a faint smile tugging at the corners of Pennington's mouth.

At this point, though, both competitors seemed to be running out of steam, almost literally. Applejack began to trot in place in anxiety, and Pennington's cheeks begin to move in and out as his lungs passed though the motion of breathing without actually taking in any air. Applejack's race turned a bright red, and Pennington began to sink towards the ground like a balloon deflating. Applejack tried desperately to hang on just a little longer as Penn's hoof massaged at his chest, obviously in a small amount of pain.

This has to stop, they're going to hurt themselves! Trixie thought to herself as she walked from branch to branch until she was standing above them. She grabbed Apple Bloom's attention with a wave, motioned to herself, then pointed at the ground. With a nod from the other judge, Trixie jumped from the branch, plummeting down and landing directly between the two. Pennington didn't react, his closed eyes still keeping him in his own world. Applejack jumped backwards, though, her eyes growing wide-open as she exhaled loudly and took in a huge gulp of air.

"HEY! That... ain't... fair!"

Upon hearing Applejack's voice, Pennington also let out his breath, gasping for air as if he had just come up from the bottom of the ocean.

"Well, sis, I thought of it this way..." Apple Bloom spoke up a little at her sister's protest. "Trixie scared both of you, or, at least, she tried to! You and Pennington were holding your breath different, so he didn't get scared, but you did! It was fair to both of y'all!"

"And I... Win!" Pennington thrust a hoof into the air in triumph. Trixie grinned in smug victory as she looked over to the orange pony.

"I believe that you have something to say to the Great and Powerful Trixie?"

As Applejack muttered something under hear breath, Apple Bloom's eyes grew wide and she took a step back.

"AJ, you told me I was never supposed to say those words! Why do you get to?"

Pennington snickered a little at the scene. "Because your sister's vernacular finds itself somewhat lacking in a means of releasing her frustration..."

"Penn, you're using big words again..." Apple Bloom groaned as she rolled her eyes.

"Trixie, Ah apologize..." Applejack spat the words through gritted teeth, obviously forcing the words.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie accepts your apology!" Trixie gloated until a quick glance from Pennington cut her down a notch. "I- I mean... I accept your apology."

"Well, we'd best not push our luck..." Pennington was wearing a grin even bigger than Trixie's, and he put a gentle, tired hoof around her shoulders and led her towards the fence. Applejack and Apple Bloom didn't make any sort of farewell, simply turning back towards the barn.

"Pennington..." Trixie whispered as they climbed their way through the fence and back onto the road. "I have a feeling we're going to get the last laugh..."

"We already did..." Pennington replied with a chuckle.

"Well, then we're going to get another one... I peeled the apples on at least half a dozen trees."

Pennington pulled back a little from her to look her in the eyes, a mixture of mischief and surprise in his eyes. The two of them laughed all of the way home, trying to imagine the look on Applejack's face when she saw Trixie's hoofiwork.

Comments

[-Brutus]

Good game Applejack!