//------------------------------//
// Ghosts of the Past 
// Story: Penn and Stone: Dynamic Duo 
// by Pennington Inkwell 
//------------------------------//

"I'm certain that you have questions."

"Well, that's the understatement of the century."

"I can unequivocally tell you it's the understatement of the millenium."

The two ponies both chuckled, though Pennington remained tense. Quill turned and stepped out into the road, motioning for Pennington to follow. He did, though not without a degree of hesitation. Soon, the two of them were walking down the center of the street. They seemed to be the only ones in the entire city, so there was no traffic to worry about blocking.

"I'm sure your first question is why we're in a huge city that's completely empty?" Quill asked, motioning to the buildings around them.

"Actually..." Pennington took a moment to collect his boldness. "I was going to ask why you'd bother answering questions if you're some ancient spirit that's just going to take over my body?"

Quill froze in his tracks for a moment. He raised his hoof to his mouth, and Pennington wondered if he had managed to shatter some kind of friendly facade. He took a step back, readying himself if the ghost should choose this moment to attack

"Pfft! HAHAHAHAHAA!" Quill burst out laughing, loud enough for his chortles to echo for miles. "I- I'm not- HAHAHAHA!"

Pennington realized Quill was NOT about to attack him.

"Did- Did you come here from the Adelinds?" Quill asked, wiping away a tear from his eye. "Oh man, I haven't laughed like that in a hundred years!"

Pennington nodded.

"You can't believe everything those old lizards tell you. It's all part of a ruse, to keep ponies from constantly showing up and trying to be the next guardians of Equestria! I mean, you SAW what happened to Full Sails... Imagine having ponies lined up for miles wanting to be a big hero and all winding up like HIM? It would be a catastrophe in and of itself!" Quill reached over and gave Pennington a light punch on the shoulder.

"Don't worry. Even if you WERE the next incarnation, it doesn't work like that. Imagine it like... having a library unlocked in your head! Every book can be opened and shut again as you wish, and reading a book won't turn you into the main character! It's the same with having a thousand lives crammed into your head! You don't remember them all at the same time, you can go back to each one as you need and find whatever you're looking for."

Pennington nodded. The concept made sense, put that way. This "Spirit of the Scribe" would eventually have too much information for any pony's mind to process, magic or no. If the memories were left shut until called upon, though, it would never be too much to handle at once. Still, there was something else in what he'd said that left him concerned.

"You... said that as if I'm not the right pony?"

Quill took a deep breath and shook his head.

"Sorry, Pennington... You're not the one."

Pennington looked down, a surprising amount of disappointment settling on his shoulders. "Oh. Does that mean, out there, I'm all... you know? 'Grabalagh?'" He made a twitching motion with his hoof and gargled a small amount of spit in the back of his throat.

Quill chuckled, this time with less enthusiasm.

"No, you're perfectly fine back in the world of the living. You're not the same as I am, but you're... well, close enough, I guess. You're a kindred spirit, one alike enough for us to forge this temporary connection."

Pennington didn't like being called "close enough," but it was a step up from "violently possessed and absorbed by an ancient power."

"So, if I'm not the one who's supposed to be the next 'Scribe of Legends,' or whatever... why are we even having this little talk?"

Quill sighed, coming to a stop and sitting down in the middle of the street.

"Because there isn't going to BE any 'one.' The Scribe's cycle has been broken."

Suddenly, the world around them began to melt away and transform, becoming a frozen mountaintop. Another Quill stood, broken and battered, with the familiar sword clutched in his magic. Across from him stood a young dragon, green with a dark black underbelly, wearing a golden gauntlet over one claw. Both were exhausted and breathing hard as they stared one another in the eyes. Both of them leaped at each other, Quill swinging the sword with a mighty warcry and raking it down one side of the dragon's face. The dragon, however, managed to plant the gauntlet directly on Quill's chest. Near-instantly, Quill was trapped beneath a thick layer of ice, plummeting into the snow like a rock. The dragon held its free hand up to the place Quill had sliced at its face and screamed in pain. The gauntlet closed tight and a rain of thunderbolts came crashing down onto Quill's immobile body, striking over and over, three or four or even five at a time. The number increased every time until the attack reached its climax with more bolts than Pennington could even count striking at the same time. The dragon smirked, his work done, and disappeared down the other side of the mountain. Quill's body lay in the snow, a patchwork of frozen flesh and smoking charcoal.

As quickly as it had come, the vision faded away and they were standing back in the empty city.

"Somehow, Scorch knew that the magic of the gauntlet, in a high enough dosage, could fracture the primordial magic that created our cycle. I still don't know what could have caused him to turn on me so suddenly... He had been such a kind dragon when he was a hatchling! Whenever I would become so involved in my work that I forgot about others, he would bring me back to the present..." Quill sighed. "Still, I finished shedding my tears over that eons ago. The magic that caused me to be able to carry my memories from one life to the next, for my SOUL to persist after my death, was shattered. Not destroyed, but fragmented. There will be no next incarnation."

Pennington scoffed softy.

"I think I can identify with you on that front... Being betrayed by someone you thought was your friend..."

Quill raised one eyebrow.

"You're talking about your partner, Moonstone?"

"Moonstone, Twilight, Luna... even Celestia. Pick one."

Quill waved his hoof, and once again everything around them changed. They were standing at the very top of the Adelind Eyrie, now. Amphitheres and narrow-bodied dragons with wide wings were sunbathing all around them, while even more were flying in and out of the massive hole leading down to the healing spring.

"Inkwell, do you know why wyverns are so rare?" Quill asked, staring intently at the horizon.

Pennington followed his line of sight, catching sight of two more dragons coming towards the eyrie. One was an emerald-feathered amphithere, but the other was too small to make out at the distance.

"Rare?"

Quill nodded.

"Extremely. They're at an evolutionary disadvantage compared to most other types of dragon. An evolutionary dead-end. They are unaccustomed to working or living on the ground, with no usable forelimbs or flexible bodies like their terrestrial brethren. But their heavy lower legs, while handy for plucking up prey from the sky, are disproportionately weighted for long-term flight."

As the dragons drew closer, the smaller speck grew to be a familiar shape. She was clearly struggling, her flight sporadic and her wingbeats uncoordinated with one another.

"Moonstone?"

"Other dragons can use their wings unconsciously, in the same way that you or I don't have to think about breathing. Wyverns do not have that luxury. Their lack of a dedicated set of limbs for flight means that they tire quickly and have a high caloric intake compared to other dragons, who can go for long periods without food." Quill sighed. "This makes them fast, but only in short bursts. They are dragons made for terrorizing populated areas, swooping in and out to steal prey and then disappearing into the sky before retaliation can be made. This makes them almost completely extinct and totally useless in the Dragon Lands, where food is scarce and requires long hunting treks."

Moonstone fluttered a few more desperate times before her wings flopped uselessly against her sides, sending her plummeting from the sky.

"MOONSTONE!" Pennington instinctively tried to reach out with his magic, to no effect. Moonstone came crashing down onto the hard surface of the top of the eyrie, rolling and sliding all of the way to the rim of the spring's room. Her body heaved up and down with violent coughing, and Pennington felt his heart breaking as he watched her suffer.

"Why do you care? Didn't she betray you?" Quill asked calmly.

"Maybe, but I'm not a MONSTER!" Pennington spat back, rushing to where she had landed. He tried to reach out to her, only for his hoof to pass through her, as if they were simple ghosts.

"...sorry... I'm so.. koff! Sorry..." Moonstone whimpered.

"If that's all that little Moony's got, she's never gonna be any use as a hunter!" one of the nearby dragons scoffed, only cracking open one eye to stare at her.

"Well, what else is she gonna do? She already proved she's got no future guarding our territory, she was getting beaten by fresh hatchlings with a decent pair of wings!" Another one chortled. "Maybe she can go down into the catacombs! They always need sharp eyes to dig out more gems!"

Pennington was seething with anger, turning on the source of the voice. When he had come to face it, though, the scene had changed. Moonstone sat dejectedly on her father's shoulder, head hung low with shame. There was a river of tears running down from her eyes and gathering in a puddle in the crook of Sunstone's neck.

"I- I can't do ANYTHING!" she sobbed as one of Sunstone's claws stroked her back. "I'm USELESS! Everyone says so!"

This was new.

In all of the time Pennington had known her, he had never once seen Moonstone cry. Not like this, completely, openly, unabashedly sobbing. Out of the two of them, she had always been the stoic.

Sunstone gently shushed as he tried to comfort his daughter.

"I know, Moonstone. I hear them, too... You know they're wrong, just as I do..."

"But they're NOT!" Moonstone screeched. "I can't fight, I can't FLY for long, I can't do ANYTHING!"

"Tut tut... That is not true. You can't do anything HERE... but that doesn't mean you have no way to contribute to our family's honor!" The statement was enough to get Moonstone to stop sobbing long enough to look her father in the eye.

"I was recently contacted by your sister in Equestria, Coral. She is nearing the age where she'll need to return home... She would like you to take her place. Watch for the return of our family's patron, and ensure his safe return to us."

Moonstone's eyes widened in shock.

"Dad! I can't! I mean, there's so many who would be better-"

"Who else would I send?" Sunstone cut her off. "Beryl? He would lose his temper and maul someone in a day. Jasper might be young enough, but she is already the size of one of their houses! All the other hatchlings young enough have yet to experience their endowment and discover their own magic!" he reached up, taking Moonstone into his claw and holding her up to eye level. "Moonstone, your gift will preserve you from being deceived by the creatures outside our home, and you possess strength even you yourself are not aware of. You have the rarest gift for a dragon traveling outside her home: you have understanding of other creatures. THIS is where you belong, I know it! And if you should find the Scribe, those who once mocked you will bow at the knee. You'll bring more honor than this family has known in a generation!"

Moonstone wiped away her tears with a sniffle.

"You- you really think so, dad?"

"Even if the Scribe does not appear, you will still have carried on our family's oldest tradition. That is honor and belonging aplenty..." Sunstone nuzzled her belly with the tip of his snout, causing Moonstone to collapse into a fit of giggles.

The vision began to blur and fade away, leaving Pennington and Quill back in the center of the empty street.

"Since the day she hatched, Moonstone looked only to make herself useful to those she loved, all while hearing legends upon stories upon tall tales about her family's mystical guardian..." Quill sighed. "And yet..."

"LET HIM GO!" Pennington heard Moonstone's voice, muffled as if she were speaking through water, but still distinguishable. She was sobbing again, practically choking on her own tears. "Let him go! I don't want some ancient hero, I want my FRIEND!"

"Is that..."

"Right now? Yes. She is breaking millennia of tradition and trying to violate the ritual. She is risking exile from her family. If they believe she stopped the return of the Scribe of Legends, not even her father will be able to protect her from the outrage..." Quill muttered, rising to his hooves again. "Come. There's more for you to see."

"More? Moonstone is putting herself in danger! I have to get back NOW!" Pennington cried, looking in vain for something that would resemble an exit.

"There is TIME!" Quill snapped, a flash of fiery rage appearing his eyes that even made Pennington afraid, snapping him out of his own paltry outburst instantly. "There is always time in this place..."

Pennington paused, glancing around them at the empty alabaster city.

"What is this place?"

Quill sighed.

"As near as we've ever been able to tell, the other guardians and I call it 'Limbo.' It's the place our spirits go after we die, but before we're reborn." He sighed, giving a melancholy look at his surroundings. "Amazing what you can build in a few dozen thousand years, isn't it?

Pennington's eyes widened and he took in his surroundings with new eyes.

"You... built all of this?"

Quill chuckled to himself.

"Not alone, of course! It took all four of us a long, long time! But we tended to get bored while we were stuck here, you know? Occasionally the odd lost soul would find themselves here on their way to the afterlife, but they were always just passing through. It was Ixia's idea to make a place they would feel less afraid of, you know? She always had the biggest heart out of all of us... always making certain everyone else was taken care of before herself."

"So, Ixia was a Guardian Spirit, too?"

Quill nodded, a wistful look in his eyes. "My beautiful Winter Blossom... In the greatest adversity, she blooms the greatest exquisiteness." He cast a sideways glace at Pennington. "But you already know that, don't you? As much as you've tried to deny it, you already know everything I could say about her."

Pennington didn't need one of Quill's magical visions to know what he was talking about.

"So... how have you been taking care of my precious Lily?"

Pennington gritted his teeth. He hadn't wanted to believe it, but the knowledge had been planted in his mind from the moment he'd discovered Quill was a guardian.

"Things... didn't work out between us."

Quill closed his eyes, and Pennington thought he caught sight of tears running down the side of his face.

"I never had the heart to tell her I wouldn't be moving on to our next life. I knew that it would break her heart... But now we're never going to see each other again in ANY life, and I wish more than anything that I had told her the truth so we could treasure one another one last time without reservation..."

Seconds later, though, Quill had returned to his smiling, cheery self without a trace of his tears or former sadness. He hurriedly rose back onto his hooves and rushed on ahead.

"Still! The past is the past, right? Nothing to do about it but forge ahead in the present!"

Pennington picked up his pace to try and match Quill, but the legend somehow kept a couple lengths ahead of them as they both trotted further down the street. After a few seconds, Pennington could make out movement in the distance. After a few seconds, he could pick out two small fillies chasing each other down the street coming in the opposite direction. The two of them quickly ran up to and past Quill, then himself. The one in the lead was a unicorn with a pristine white coat and light pink mane, while the smaller pegasus had a coat a shade of blue almost identical to his own, with a mane of lighter robin's-egg blue.

Pennington froze in his tracks as realization struck. He spun in place, trying to get another look at the fillies, but they were gone.

"Did you see something?" Quill inquired with a smirk.

Pennington narrowed his eyes.

"I've got to draw the line there. If you're going to show me magical flashbacks, make them obvious. Don't start blurring the lines or I'm going to wake up from all of this with serious issues."

Quill sighed and turned away from the center of the street. Pennington followed him into a nearby building, where what awaited him left him completely breathless.

It was a grand hall filled with the most exquisite decorations he had ever seen. Gemstones and precious metals he couldn't even begin to identify lined every wall in delicate filigree, rows upon rows of perfect suits of armor, each one unique in its design and standing at attention. Above them, long and detailed tapestries hung at every wall. Detailed portraits of grand heroes facing terrible beasts stood on display. All at once, all of the tapestries seemed to come apart into their individual fibers, only to reassemble themselves in new arrangements, their pictures changed to show the passage of time.

"Every time I've ever felt lost, Ember and Threadmane's work seem to bring me home again..." Quill whispered, chuckling softly to himself. "They never would allow their art to be displayed in anything less than the grandest venues... which they deserved, of course! Always have. I still get giddy just seeing my name on a book's spine, but Threadmane always thrived in the public eye..."

Pennington turned to reply, but noticed Quill pointing up at the ceiling. He craned his neck straight up to look, and was met by the most beautiful of the tapestries, yet. The fibers it had been woven from were a mesh of fabric, gold and silver in strands so fine that it was impossible to see where one would start and the other end. The image was of the same two fillies from before, both playing together in a large open field.

"Come on, Luna! You're still 'it!'"

"Sister, I cannot keep up! I'm tired!"

"Use your wings!"

"You KNOW Mother said they haven't grown in, yet!"

There was a short pause as the first voice seemed to ponder the problem.

"Then let's not play tag, any more! Let's play Guardians!

The tapestry rearranged itself, changing the image. Now the white filly Pennington clearly recognized as Celestia was standing proudly with one hoof against her chest while Luna had sunk lower, into a position ready to pounce with an adventurous look on her face and a small stick clenched between her teeth.

"I want to be the Scribe! That means I get the golden blade,  ----------!"

"Very well, and I'll be the Weaver of Fates! That means I get to be the leader!"

"Ha! No one orders around the Scribe of Legends!"

Pennington blinked in surprise.

"Quill, the sword's name-"

"Later, Inkwell."

Pennington obediently returned his attention to the tapestry.

"Well, Scribe of Legends, what are we searching for today?

"An ancient lich king! I found a prophecy that states he will return and attack Equestria today!"

If Pennington hadn't known that these were the immortal rulers of Equestria, he would have actually found the whole exchange unbearably cute.

"What? You think that showing me Celestia and Luna as kids is going to make me forgive them for what they've done? Forget that they were willing to sacrifice me?"

Quill shook his head.

"What I am showing you is that the legend of the Guardians of Equestria extends far, far back, even beyond Celestia and Luna. It is one of the few stories left that predates even them. Celestia's birth was christened by Dreamweaver, Weaver's previous incarnation before Threadmane, and she grew up to be an almighty alicorn ruler whose rule spanned more than a thousand years! Imagine the faith that instilled in them? Their storybook heroes were REAL, and a few simple words from one proclaimed such a mighty diarchy that it moved the heavens!"

Pennington raised an eyebrow, which Quill quickly noticed.

"I'm not tooting my own horn here, I wouldn't ever say we were to great and mighty, but that is how Celestia and Luna saw us. If you're going to be a Guardian, you'll need to foster a close relationship with Equestria's rulers. Having their help will prove invaluable, and they will undoubtedly require yours."

Pennington rolled his eyes.

"I'll be FINE on my own."

"But Equestria wouldn't be."

Pennington felt bile beginning to rise up in his throat.

"And why should I care about Equestria any more? It certainly hasn't cared about ME, judging by the fact that I'm HERE!"

Quill sighed. It was a long sigh, long and deep with the weight and wisdom of years behind it.

"You know perfectly well Equestria is full of good ponies. The land itself seems to foster kindness and charity in any creature that sets foot or hoof or claw there. It is a place full of deep and primordial magic, one that changes others for the better. A few of them just made mistakes... Mistakes you have been left to pay for, but mistakes, nonetheless."

Pennington shook his head.

"You're not changing my mind about them."

"I don't expect to change anything about you. I only am asking you to remember. You've had an awful week, so awful that it's made you forget the good in those around you."

"Starswirl!" both voices cried out together, drawing Pennington's attention back to the tapestry. Celestia and Luna were older, now, both of them transformed into alicorns and taller than they had been, though not yet even the height of a normal-sized pony. Both of them stood beside another historical figure in a blue hat and cloak with a long gray beard.

"You are here to take us to meet the Pillars and the Guardians, correct?" Luna's voice asked, barely containing her excitement.

"You DID say that it was important for the future rulers of Equestria to meet alongside the Council of Thirteen!" Celestia declared.

"While you do quote me correctly, I am afraid doing so will not be possible, a third voice, undoubtedly Starswirl's, replied. "The war against the forces of chaos have worsened. There were rumors that a kraken was spotted rising outside New Shoal's port. The Guardians have all elected to leave together alongside the earth pony representatives to defend the city."

Pennington glanced over at Quill, who had a wistful smile on his face. He decided against interrupting to ask for more details.

"Then we must leave for New Shoal at once!"

"Absolutely out of the question, Celestia!" Starswirl snapped. "You and your sister would be no match for such a monster! The guardians will dispatch it swiftly and return when the city is safe. For now, you will remain here and continue your lessons."

"They never DID get to meet us before we died." Quill chuckled and shrugged to himself. "The kraken was just the first of countless battles that led into the war with Discord. We were constantly on the move, trying to stay one step ahead of him. Starswirl and the other Pillars fell, disappearing without a trace, and we were the last line of defense... until Ember Glow was taken."

Pennington had only heard whisperings and rumors about the wars with Discord. Nearly every record of the time was warped, destroyed, or conflicting with one another.

"When Ember vanished, I sent a letter to the royal sisters telling them where the last hope of the Pillars rested: the seed of Harmony. While Ixia, Threadmane and I mounted our rescue, Celestia and Luna discovered that the seed had grown to become the Elements of Harmony. Our last act as the Guardians of Equestria was to mount that rescue, distracting Discord long enough for them to reach the Elements. Ixia and Ember both..." Quill raised a hoof to his mouth, and once again Pennington could see tears rolling down his cheeks. "Both of them fell that day. Gruesomely, in Ember's case. Threadmane and I went our separate ways, leaving the fight to the alicorns. We remained only legends to them, never meeting face to face. I actively avoided them, in honesty. I knew that if we met, their first topic would be to thank us, and the last thing I ever wanted was to be reminded of that day..."

"But Celestia never forgot, did she?" Pennington muttered.

"No. Equestria praised her and her sister for their defeat of Discord, and the legends of the Guardian Spirits were washed away in a tide of new legends about the two alicorn rulers who saved their subjects by the power of their own virtues alone. But Celestia... Well, let's just say that she still has my letter. She kept it to remind herself that she and her sister had not done the deed alone..."

The tapestry changed again, showing Celestia standing in a small, candlelit room, surrounded by object hidden beneath glass, including a scroll, a small blanket, and even what looked like a lump of glowing black coal. She was staring at the scroll in particular, a dark look of sadness on her face.

"Every time danger rose in Equestria, Celestia would return to that letter and, I fear, be reminded of the day she needed help to save her people and that help's reward was to be forgotten. She considered it a token reminding her to remain modest and rely upon others as a good leader should. As the years passed, however..." The tapestry shifted, showing Celestia leaving the room and a door closing behind her. "She allowed herself to think that her lesson had been learned. She became healthy, a good and reliable ruler to her people, and her self-esteem flourished... then swelled. She allowed herself to repeat the actions of her subjects, sparing no mind to those who worked out of sight to help her. I believe I do not need to tell you the results?"

Pennington nodded. Finally, they had reached a story he KNEW.

"Nightmare Moon..."

Quill nodded again. The image above them displayed Celestia returned to the room, collapsed in the center of all the glass-domed relics and sobbing.

"Celestia swore that she would learn her lesson from that day. However, with no teacher, she learned the wrong one. She should have come to understand the need to appreciate others and direct praise and credit where it was deserved. Instead, she fell to the misguided fallacy that she was not sufficient to protect or rule Equestria..."

Slowly, black fibers began to weave themselves in from every side, closing in on Celestia's prone form until she lay alone at the center of a deep, black void.

"When the courts and nobles came demanding a constitutional monarchy, Celestia relented her power as Equestria's sole ruler to share with the courts. She believed that as soon as another threat to Equestria arose, so would the Guardians... and she would find what it was that made her inadequate. She began her search in secret, playing the part of the wise ruler to hide her fears..." Quill shook his head.

"So much pain and misunderstanding for so many years... So much self-blame. I can't tell you the number of times I cursed that infernal scroll, wished I had never sent that letter."

Pennington found it hard to believe. Even if Luna had always been his preference out of the two, he had admired Celestia for much of his life. Her composure and wisdom were legendary, unfaltering in even the most dire of situations. To think that the past could have weighed on her so heavily seemed ridiculously incongruous with her constant grace and poise.

"The one thing Celestia hadn't counted on, however, was just how good of a job she and her sister had done in securing Equestria. Despite her perceived faults, Celestia played the part so well that no nation ever found great fault with her enough to threaten her people. Her power and the power of the Elements kept the monsters of Equestria hiding in the shadows, never willing to expose themselves to the light. The one thing Celestia never expected was one thousand years of peace to break out. With no threat that she could not handle, the guardians never reincarnated to return to Equestria. We were rendered obsolete. No matter how much Celestia persisted in her deluded search, she found only hints and stories that kept tantalizing her to continue."

The tapestry shifted and brightened, showing Luna and Celestia standing together. Luna was smaller than he remembered her and with her flowing mane replaced by strands of light blue hair. She was standing in the room Celestia had created, eyes wide with surprise and admiration while Celestia gestured to the walls, which had become covered in notes and drawings with strands of red string connecting them.

"You saw firsthoof how confused and behind the times Luna was when she returned from exile. Celestia was more than happy to fill her in on a thousand years of incomplete discoveries, proof that she had not been idle during her sister's banishment. And Celestia had discovered something... another piece of cursed writing that I wished I had never put to parchment..."

The tapestry shifted again, this time showing two small pony figures amidst a swirling sea of black and blue clouds. One was definitely Quill, while the other was a pink figure with silver hair.

"In each of our final days, Threadmane and I both began to notice something... unnatural. A force moving about in the shadows, stalking us like a predator stalks its prey. Black smoke and blood, sewing destruction and pain in everything it touched... We exchanged many letters speculating what it could be or what it wanted with us."

The clouds shifted, forming a pair of massive jaws that clamped down on top of the two figures, causing them to vanish behind its sharpened teeth.

"We were hunted, our deaths made to LOOK like they were unrelated, but we both knew that it was something that KNEW us... knew the GUARDIANS. And it wanted us out of the way. It nearly succeeded, given the way my cycle was fractured."

"But what could-"

"I don't know." Quill interrupted, cutting Pennington off before he could ask the obvious question. "And I would like you not to ask again."

Pennington blinked, surprised. That was the single most succinct thing Quill had said since he'd arrived, and it reeked of falsehood. Still, out of respect, he turned his attention back to the tapestry.

"Celestia found those letters, and they filled her with unbridled fear that her heroes would be gone before she could find them or ask for their help. She feared that she may even already be too late and they had died hundreds of years ago. And so she decided to seek them out and restore them, by force if necessary. After all, if this unseen hunter had killed off her heroes, what chance could she, who was so imperfect and lacking, stand?"

Once again, the tapestry shifted, this time to Celestia and Luna both facing Moonstone, who was bowing.

"They began with the Scribe, Luna's favorite. They were hoping I could tell them exactly what it was that we had spoken of, then guide them to the rest of the Guardians. While Celestia found others to protect Equestria so she need not confront her fear of failing again, she and her sister began scouring the ponies of Equestria for those who showed the telltale signs: adventurous explorers, gifted writers, any pony that matched the old descriptions of yours truly..." Quill chuckled. "You know, it was actually hilarious how many times they came within inches of finding you, only to be stumped by your double-identity! Celestia even began disguising herself as a unicorn and frequenting Calalily's shop in order to try and catch 'Scorching Quill!'"

"I wonder if she found out Lily's policy on ponies looking for 'anonymous' tips about Scorching Quill..." Pennington snickered. On cue, the tapestry shifted, showing Lily angrily holding a white pegasus with bright blonde hair in her magic midway through throwing her out the front door.

"Found out? Three quarters of the names on Lily's 'denied service' list are Celestia's aliases, not nosy reporters!"

The two of them burst out laughing for a moment, Pennington feeling both the tension in both the room and the crick his neck ease a bit.

"Still, they DID find you... Because of one certain purple unicorn."

Pennington stopped laughing, all happy feelings having washed away.

"When you escaped the Carnival Cat unscathed, they felt their suspicions had been completely confirmed. When the opportunity arose for you to have a good reason to travel south, they told Moonstone to bring you to her family, by force if necessary."

Pennington sat dejectedly on the floor, not even bothering to look up and see what new vision the tapestry would transform into next.

"However, Luna was not so rooted in Celestia's beliefs. Since you left, she has begun to doubt her sister... out of fear for you."

Despite the fact that every fiber of Pennington's stubborn being was against it, hope began to stir in his chest.

"She met your parents, realized just how much YOUR friendship means to her, how much she values the perspective you bring into her life. She has sent countless letters attempting to warn you, only for them to be intercepted by Moonstone. She attempted to enter your dreams last night to warn you, only to find your medication had placed you in a dreamless slumber. She has attempted to dissuade her sister, but Celestia's dedication to her cause runs a thousand years deep. She cannot leave Canterlot or even the castle because of the magical storm threatening her subjects, but she is making every attempt within her power to put a stop to these plans..."

"Great... so Luna finally just wants me to be me once I'm gone. Too little, too late..." Pennington muttered.

"And Equestria is all the safer for it." Quill declared.

"WHAT?" Pennington jumped up onto his hooves, only to see Quill pointing his hoof upwards.

The tapestry had shifted now to a familiar sight: the HMS Surprise. It was suspended in the air, rocks falling away beneath its tires as the mountain crumbled beneath it... and every fissure in the stone leaking the same blue-and-black smoke that had been displayed earlier. A moment later, it shifted to a stylistic view of a mountain, a cavern carved out inside showing rocks tumbling down on him and Moonstone while the top of the mountain was erupting with the magical smog, sending down massive avalanches as a pair of red eyes glowed in the sky above.

"You've been FOUND, Pennington, and not just by me or Celestia. It was slow, but as you've actively pursued your destiny and your full potential, it was made aware of you. If Celestia had not found you first and prepared your path to the Adelind eyrie by bringing you and Moonstone together, I am certain that you would have died before your time at the hooves of this malevolent force."

"You have every right and every permission I can give to hate Celestia for manipulating you, but right now the world is proving her right."

Pennington was gobsmacked.

All of this was awful, terrible and horrible. He had been manipulated, offered up as a sacrifice, lied to, and all of it was... correct? It all felt so wrong! It WAS wrong! But... Celestia's actions were justified, somehow! How could the world validate something so WRONG?

"Then... what do I do? Just roll over? Let you stuff a library of lifetimes in my head? Act like Celestia and Luna and Moonstone and Twilight never did anything wrong because, hey, the WHOLE WORLD doesn't seem to think they did!"

Quill shook his head.

"No, you should always remember this. It'll be up to you whether or not this is the worst experience of your life or just a painful turn you were going to have to take on the road of life, eventually. Every good story has a chapter where even the readers start to wonder how things can possibly continue. But every time, they look to the back cover to see how many pages are left, and take comfort from that." He reached behind his back, producing a large red volume with no title and placing it into Pennington's hooves. Pennington glanced down at it, then at Quill. Quill had a melancholy look on his face.

"I'm sorry I can't give you more. But this is MY memories from MY life. You're going to have to be the new Scribe of Legends. It's a heavy burden, but I can't bear it any more... This is the start of YOUR cycle."

"W-wait, WHAT?" Pennington stumbled back, still gripping the book with one hoof. "Are you saying I'm going to start... reincarnating, or something?"

Quill nodded. "I've been ejected from the cycle, and it looks as if fate has chosen YOU to fill the vacuum."

Pennington felt doubt beginning to dig a pit in his chest instantly.

"No, nononono... I'm NOT some kind of legendary guardian, I can't even make it out of the trouble I MAKE for myself without help! And what about an afterlife? IS there an afterlife? Am I just not going to be allowed in? Am I going to be stuck just coming in and out of this limbo for the rest of time? What about-"

"Shhhhhhh..." Quill pressed a hoof to Pennington's lips. "You wouldn't BE here if you weren't worthy! And don't worry. There WILL be a reward waiting for you when it's all over, just like there is for me. I can't say much about the next life, but... it's there. We're just taking the long way around. The scenic route." He winked and grinned. "Imagine it like this: you're never going to lose your best friends for long, not even in death! You're not going to go through ANY of this alone."

Pennington took a deep breath, trying to calm the hundreds of implications running through his mind. Whatever place Quill was telling him he now held, he didn't know how to get out of it. Instead, there was a more easily-answered question on his mind.

"Aren't you going to show me some kind of magical flashback justifying Twilight's part in all of this?"

Quill cringed, sucking in air through his teeth.

"Do I REALLY need to tell you how much Twilight admires Celestia? Even since she was a little filly? Not to mention the fact she feels personally responsible for Equestria's safety because of how Celestia's pushed her into the role of leading the Elements of Hamrony?"

Pennington blinked.

"That's... that's IT? No adorable childhood memories or familial indoctrination? No deep-seated inferiority complex? No thousand-year plans or... or... mind-control spells? Changlings?"

Quill shook his head.

"Celestia said 'the fate of Equestria depends on it' and Twilight just... went with it because it was Celestia who said it and she thinks keeping Equestria safe all depends on HERSELF?"

Quill nodded.

"Come on, there's got to be more to it than that! There HAS to be!"

"Pennington, I know this is hard for you-"

"HARD? You think this is HARD for me? Well, isn't that just GREAT, Mister My-Wife-And-I-Have-Reincarnated-Together-Since-The-Dawn-Of-Time? You know this is hard for me!"

Quill had an unbearably condescending look on his face, as if he were holding himself back from saying something to the contrary.

"I LOVED Twilight more than any mare in the world, and she turned around and stabbed me in the back because Celestia fed her some old stories and patted her on the head!" Pennington began to pace back and forth across the room, no longer so enraptured by the workmanship as he had been before. "And she says I have an ego! She thinks that she has to do whatever it takes, sacrifice anything just because that's what she DOES: save Equestria!"

"Celestia is like Twilight's second mother. It is the strongest bond in her life outside of her actual family. You shouldn't be so harsh on-"

"The STRONGEST bond? I thought OUR bond was strong! Plenty strong enough for her not to go along with a plan to KILL ME!" Pennington spun on Quill again, but Quill didn't seem to be affected by his yelling, patiently waiting for Pennington to burn himself out.

"I would have done anything for her... She was what I held onto when I was under Chrysalis's control..." he whispered, slinking back beside Quill and flopping onto the floor to stare up at the tapestry. "Carnival Cat broke me by making me think she'd betrayed me... I guess she was right, just not about HOW... What if this breaks me, too?"

There was a pause, then a grunt as Quill laid himself down beside Pennington. The two laid side-by-side for a moment as the legendary unicorn pondered the question.

"Do you want to know what I think? As a pony who's been 'broken' many times over his lives?"

Pennington shrugged. "Can't hurt, I guess."

"Ponies like us... we're bones. The bones of Equestria, the bones of society. We take a lot of pressure and strain, but without us Equestria would fall apart. So it protects us when it can. That's why you have so many friends, like Lily and Whipstitch. Your friends try to protect you, but you're a tough pony to keep up with. When we get broken we take a long time to heal. Longer than it would for a pony with less consistent strain on them. But when we DO heal, when we do come back... we come back stronger. You're going to have to guard yourself for a while so you can heal. But you're not dead yet, and that means you WILL be back."

Pennington had hoped Quill wouldn't have something profound. If he hadn't, Pennington would have had excuse to pout and sulk and not move from that spot. Instead, Quill had made the point quite clear that Pennington was going to have to keep moving forward from this.

"How much longer do we have?" Pennington asked.

"I told you, time doesn't mean much here. But this isn't the place for you to heal, if that's what you mean..."

Pennington shook his head.

"I just... need a second to process all of this."

"That's much more reasonable."

Pennington wasn't sure how long he laid there beside Quill in absolute silence. It could have been ten minutes or even an hour. But the silence let him think.

"So... what do I do now? I don't want to be some legendary scribe, Quill. I just want to write my books and see things I've never seen before. I just want to keep being me, that's why I created a double identity in the first place!"

Pennington heard Quill chuckle again.

"Do you want to know a secret, Pennington?"

Pennington sighed.

"Who am I gonna tell around HERE?"

"If I'm honest, that's all I've ever done. In a thousand lifetimes, there has always been something new, some unexplored horizon to pursue. All I ever did was keep searching for what kept me excited, kept me marveling at this big, wide world we live in. You don't have to CHANGE to be what Equestria needs, you were chosen for who you ARE. Keep doing what you want. You'll be where you need to be when the time comes."

Pennington nodded, feeling somewhat relieved.

"Are the other guardians... they'll have expectations, won't they?"

"Yup..." Quill muttered. "We didn't think the cycle COULD break. I'm afraid that it'll be up to you to explain it to them. I was too much of a coward to say goodbye..."

Pennington nodded. At least that was a clear expectation.

"Hey, Inkwell? Would you promise me one thing?"

It was Pennington's turn to chuckle.

"For my hero? Anything."

"Take care of Ixia... I know you said things didn't work out between you, but..." Pennington heard Quill choking on a sob. Out of respect, he didn't look during the other stallion's moment of weakness. "Please... Just take care of her now that I can't..."

Pennington nodded.

"Always. I swear it."

"Th-thank you... I can't thank you enough..."

The two waited through another period of silence until Pennington felt nervous energy building up in his hooves.

I guess that's the limit for how long I can sit still... he thought to himself as he rolled up onto his hooves.

"Quill, before I go, I have one more question..." He craned his neck back and forth to work out the kink from staring at the ceiling for so long earlier.

"He has a pressure point at the back of his neck. Right at the center, at the midpoint between his wings but higher, level with the shoulders." Quill stated. "One unarmed strike and he'll be stunned for several minutes. Strike with a blade and you could paralyze him." He shook his head with a disappointed air. "Something's possessed him, Pennington. I chose not to enforce a... permanent solution... because I believed I could free him of it." He stepped forward, expression darkening as he put a hoof on Pennington's shoulder.

"I can't promise you I'll free him, Quill. I don't know the first thing about-"

"I'm telling you that the Scorch I knew would forgive you for not trying. I've seen the suffering he's caused from this side, every bit of it. Do NOT let him kill you. Scorch is NOT the cataclysm you were born to save them from. He's just another break... face it, heal, and get STRONGER."

Pennington nodded, mirroring Quill and putting a hoof on his shoulder to match.

"I promise, Phoenix Quill."

Quill smiled, moving his hoof to Pennington's forehead and giving it a firm push.

"Then it's time to WAKE UP, Scribe of Legends!"

Pennington's head began violently spinning as the world around them began to melt away. In his last moment of consciousness, he realized that he still hadn't asked one more question.

The sword's name! CRAP!