Pennington looked out over the forward bow, pondering the situation. It was entirely possible that he was walking headfirst into a trap made specifically for him, in fact he was almost certain of it. But with little to no idea of what that trap was supposed to be, he had no choice to but to keep walking.

Pennington snickered, not needing to turn around to recognize Moonstone's voice.

"Come on, let me sulk just a little. I DID just get a letter telling me that the company I spent the last four years of my life building has been reduced to nothing but rubble."

Moonstone stepped up beside him, poking her head through the railing and hanging precariously above the open sky.

"True... but if I'm honest, I thought about torching the place a few times, myself!" Moonstone chuckled, as if she expected him to laugh along. Penn had to admit that, deep down, a part of him wanted to, if only to make her feel better. "It... just didn't feel like home, you know? Sure, we still went on adventures now and then, but... coming home just for you to wind up stuck in some stuffy office, trying to manage a board meeting?"

Pennington sighed, closing his eyes. There was no doubt in his mind that Moonstone was right, his "adventuring" had slowed to a crawl compared to his heydays in Equestria, replaced by the rigors of maintaining his new identity: Written Word, an independent publisher seeking to pioneer the markets outside of Equestria. When he had first devised the plan, it had felt like the best way to both leave Equestria behind him AND start on his new mission: searching for the "Spirit of the Scribe," a mysterious mantle he was supposedly destined to inherit.

"I know." Pennington reached over, gently tousling the spines on top of Moonstone's head. "I just... guess I've been in a bit of a holding pattern while I try to get all of this figured out."

"Whether or not I should try to fight a destiny that was forced onto me by others. Is it right to fight... or spite?"

Moonstone fell silent. At the urging of the ghost of his own hero, Quill the Scribe, Penn had forgiven her for her role in what had happened, but even years later, she still seemed not to have forgiven herself.

Poor kid. She was the only one involved who didn't know any better, but to this day, she's the one who feels the most guilt for it.

"Anyway, we'll be arriving soon, just in time for sunset. We can sleep through the night and address the problem tomorrow."

Moonstone sighed, an exasperated sound that Pennington had heard so many times, he'd almost learned to tune it out completely.

"Well, you need to do SOMETHING to show her you trust her, even a little! She thinks you're hard on her because I'm forcing you to bring her along."

"Pfft- ha ha HA!" It was the first time in weeks that he had genuinely laughed out loud, and this high in the sky, he felt no shame in letting it ring out loud. "She thinks THIS is hard? She should try spending a week working under the conditions I did when I was training with A. K. Yearling! I mean, at least I'm not making her carry all our supplies on her back! I'm not sending her to do geographical surveying for some mind-numbing and pointless archaeological dig, and I-" Pennington froze, a sudden, familiar chill running down his spine. Without a word, he backed away from the railing and under the protective shadow of the S. S. Tornado's balloon.

"What? What is it?" Moonstone quickly joined him, her eyes scanning the sky for any sign of a threat.

"Every time I start saying stuff like that, she knows..." Pennington muttered, memories beginning to surface of wing-beatings on the back of his skull and hastily-thrown pith helmets with deadly accuracy. "I don't know HOW, but Miss Yearling KNOWS!"

Moonstone stared at him for a moment in disbelief, then rolled her eyes and smirked.

Pennington smiled, feeling a mix of satisfaction and thrilling intimidation. Satisfaction that, deep down, he had never truly forgotten his favorite teacher's most important lessons, and intimidation as he realized that it was HIS turn to pass down lessons of his own and make certain Tempest never forgot them.

But the thing is, I RESPECTED Yearling when I started. Tempest just hates me. I guess Moonstone's right, I'm going to have to do SOMETHING to change our dynamic if I want anything I teach her to stick...

Pennington took a deep breath. For a moment, he considered trying to lie to her to make her feel better, that for once Moonstone might not second-guess him and just blindly accept something. Unfortunately, that was perhaps the only thing in the world he would call "impossible."

"Yes. I won't be absolutely certain until we see what's in that sack he left on the scene, but he's the only one who would be this angry if I retired."

Moonstone took a deep, shuddering breath, unconsciously digging her claws into the flesh of his foreleg.

"Lose him if we can, beat him if we have to, and keep Tempest as far from him as possible." He reached over, wrapping his hoof around her shoulders and pulling her close against him.

"If I'm going to be her teacher, then it's my job to keep her safe until she graduates. Your job is to keep her on the right path when I can't." Pennington narrowed his eyes, glaring at the looming shadow of Mount Aris, as if he were staring straight into the eyes of his arch rival.

My new life here on Aris is going to be the LAST life you take, Sails. You won't lay so much as one primary feather on the ones I'm charged to protect.

He didn't hear an answer directly, but he felt it in the air, a whisper in the breeze against his face, a message in the headwinds that were trying to push him back and the whole airship along with him. Four words that Sails had repeated so many times, he could never hear them in another pony's voice.

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Tempest barely cracked open her eyes, finding herself staring straight into Moonstone's. Her entire body felt like it was covered in a lead blanket and had ten-pound weights tied to her eyelids.

"Morning..." she grumbled, summoning up her strength to throw one hoof upwards and cast off her blanket. The only way she would be able to wake up would be to do so quickly. Without another word, she rolled herself out of her bed and onto her hooves, craning her neck from side to side.

"Penn already has us docked up at the top of the mountain, so you don't have to do any piloting today!" Moonstone smiled, trying to mask her own tiredness.

Tempest was mildly surprised. When she had gone to bed, she had been fully expecting to be woken up to do the docking, herself.

"He went ahead and went ashore to get things sorted out with the local law enforcement, but he DID leave us a to-do list!" Moonstone pulled a scroll out from behind her back.

Moonstone rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at Tempest for a moment before beginning to read.

"Step one: Calibrate the Moontide engine fluid. Step two: check for any repairs that need to be made. Step three..." Moonstone hesitated for a moment, then grinned smugly.

"What? Does he want me to start mopping the galley, or something like that?" Tempest muttered, making no attempt to hide her bitter tone.

Tempest balked for a moment. That had sounded almost... friendly. From the same pony who had spent the weeks prior constantly talking about her "violent tendencies" and questioning her loyalty because she turned on the Storm King. The same pony whom she'd had to challenge to a grudge match in the arena at the NLR and who kicked her in the head so hard that it knocked her unconscious.

"Nope! Totally his own initiative!" Moonstone replied, quickly rolling the scroll back up and shoving it into a pocket in her scales. "Come on! If we work together, we should be able to finish with enough time to do some exploring of our own!"

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To the outside observer, life on Mount Aris would seem idyllic. Tourists adored the treehouses and the Harmonizing Heights, and many would often come to feel more "in touch" with nature.

What most didn't know was that the workplaces and businesses of Aris were resigned to the inside of the mountain, hidden from the light of day and the tourism bureau. This was the area in which Pennington found himself spending most of his time. It wasn't necessarily that the hippogriffs were ashamed or disliked the more industrial parts of their lives, but evolution had gifted them with exceptional sight, fantastic hearing... and a stunningly short attention span, at times. Staying inside to work garnered more focus and productivity when there was no oddly-shaped cloud needing exploring just outside the window. Personally, Pennington didn't mind it one bit: he liked being underground. Being underground always reminded how the earth hummed with energy, and it let him feel as if he were soaking it all in, sustaining and rejuvenating him.

That calming energy was the only thing keeping him from panicking as he strode up to what was once his busy publishing house, now a pile of ashes and rubble ringed by yellow police tape. A tall hippogriff in a blue cap and vest with a shining golden badge stood nearby, scribbling down notes.

"Officer Tailwind?" Pennington strode up alongside him, offering a hoof to the officer.

"Written Word! Good to see you!" The hippogriff gave his hoof a firm shake. "You are JUST the pony I was looking for!"

"You aren't going to HAVE to imagine!" another voice replied from above, sounding very annoyed. Knowing the owner, however, that was nothing new.

"Don't you 'your highness' me!" Queen Novo cut him off, pointing an accusatory claw at him. "Do you have ANY idea how DANGEROUS a fire is in a cave? If we weren't all still in the process of moving back in, this could have been an absolute disaster!"

"That's why he chose to strike now." Pennington sighed, striding across the police line and beginning to climb to the spot where the message had been left. "This was meant for me and me alone."

"I knew it, I KNEW it! I can sense trouble a mile away, and I KNEW you were trouble when you first showed up at our door!"

Pennington was glad to be facing away from the queen, the last time she had seen him rolling his eyes, he'd spent the next hour stuck listening to why he needed to respect her in every way, even though she wasn't a "Pretty Princess" like they had in Equestria.

"This is the result of a personal vendetta, one that I thought would never find me here. One that shouldn't have been able to find me here." Finally, he reached the top, plucking the sack off of the spike and pulling open the drawstring to peer inside. The results only confirmed his suspicions.

"Perhaps if I were able to obtain my supplies domestically, I would have been truly untracible. A proper business license, that citizenship I've been requesting for the past few years?"

"Oh, you did not just try to blame this on ME!" Queen Novo replied, flying up and landing beside him to peer over his shoulder.

"Well, you can't deny that if any hippogriffs had been in here, this could have been a much greater disaster, possibly even fatal with all the chemicals this place released when it burned!"

Novo was on a roll, now, obviously winding herself up the more she spoke. "When you showed up on our shores asking me to keep your presence here a secret from Equestria, I was willing to play along! But now your secrets are bringing danger to our shores, and I won't stand for that!"

"Which is why I'm leaving." Pennington muttered, taking a moment to examine the rubble that had been used to spell out the threatening message. At first, it looked as though the pieces were charred black, but closer inspection revealed that they had each been doused in ink before being laid in their places.

This is my own ink. He wanted me to know that he made it inside to steal it BEFORE he lit the place up. I'll have to get a refund from that security enchanter...

"Your highness, I know that you consider the safety of your subjects to be more than just a job, it is very personal. Your deep concern for them and their safety is one of the reasons I chose to come here when I needed a fresh start. It also places a more-than-generous helping of stress on your shoulders." He bent down on one knee, bowing to her respectfully. "I will not knowingly add to that mountain you already carry. Before I left, I started making arrangements for my departure, and this has served to expedite them. Within the day, my secretary will be transferring all of my holdings in the company to their new owner, along with a considerable donation to the local emergency services. In a matter of hours, Front Page Publishing will be one hundred percent hippogriff-owned and operated."

Pennington tried to hide the pain in his voice. He had realized that going back to the NLR would compromise his hidden location, but he had never expected it to outrace him back to Mount Aris, nor for it to be so final as burning his business to the ground. Still, he had flourished in the years prior to the hippogriffs retreating under the sea, and upon their return there had been high demand from readers who had gone too long without the rustling of pages. There would be plenty for the new owner to rebuild with.

"So... that's it? You're just running away?" Queen Novo suddenly seemed much more grounded, perhaps even somber.

Pennington chuckled lightly under his breath. "Don't tell me you think you're going to MISS our little shouting matches about whether or not I deserved dual citizenship?"

Novo placed a claw on his shoulder, and Pennington knew that the tone of the conversation had changed. THIS was the Queen of the Hippogriffs, the beloved ruler that her subjects were always eager to speak of so kindly. Novo's tone had shifted, from boisterous and confrontational to quiet and concerned. Most visitors to the kingdom who got to meet her assumed that the rough and dismissive attitude she showed at first was the true Queen Novo, but one thing Pennington had learned was that she was far more observant and far more caring than any visitor could ever know.

"Whenever storms came to our shores, you would go out and do everything you could. When I told you that you needed to earn your place on our mountain, you ventured into the deepest caves and didn't return until you'd found me something that most of us didn't even believe existed! You always acted like you wanted more than anything to belong here, and when the time came for us all to go into hiding, you fought that, too. You came here running from something, but since you put down roots I've never once seen you back down." Novo tugged on his shoulder, forcing him to turn and look her in the eyes.

Pennington's eyes flicked guiltily over to the message written on the ground, then to the rest of the remains of the building, and finally back to Novo's piercing gaze.

Yes. Yes I am. The words bundled up in his throat. I need help and I don't know what to do and now I have a STUDENT to worry about and I know that the person who did this will kill me, then my friends, then destroy everything I ever cared about if he can! The pressure grew and grew at the base of his neck, the words piling up higher and higher as the dam holding them back began to crack beneath the unbelievable weight. Idon'tknowifI'mreadyandwhetherornotI'llevenbethesameponyifIgobackbecauseI'llneverbeabletostop-

Novo gave him one last concerned look, then rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, whatever you say! I offered, so my part's done!" She hopped up into the air, gliding back down and landing beside Officer Tailwind. "Make sure all this stuff he's doing is all legal, then help him pack, or whatever. He says he's leaving." With that, she took to the air, making her way out to fresh air and open sky in a matter of seconds.

To Pennington's surprise, the knot in his stomach didn't ease as he made his way down the rubble and back across the police tape, instead pulling itself tight and making itself nearly impossible to unwind.

Remember what Yearling always told you: listen to your gut... I'm nervous because I'm standing in the middle of a location that is compromised, totally unaware of where my enemy could be. It's normal to be nervous. This is a frightening situation.

Tailwind chuckled, giving him a pat on the back. "Come on, buddy. She told me to help you pack, that means I'm off-duty. We can go grab a bite to eat, afterwards!"

"I appreciate it, friend, but I'm afraid I have a prior obligation for lunch. Next time, though, the salmon's on my tab!"

Shadowed Skies

by Pennington Inkwell

Burned Down