//------------------------------// // The Oncoming Storm // Story: Penn and Stone: Dynamic Duo // by Pennington Inkwell //------------------------------// Luna and Celestia cast worried glances at one another as dark clouds rained down on Canterlot. The phenomenon had been going on for some time, now, as blizzards, heat waves, and torrential downpours covered Equestria's skies. Cloudsdale's weather factories had been shut down completely more than a week ago, and pegasi had been scrambling everywhere to try and get the rogue weather under control all across the country. The first precautions had been taken to make sure that Discord wasn't behind the misbehavior, but he was still firmly locked in stone. On the other hoof, the strange weather didn't seem chaotic, it was contrived as an attack. There had been lightning storms in Ponyville that kept even the bravest of ponies indoors, flash flooding in Manehatten and a drought in Appleoosa. The Wonderbolts and their entire training academy had their hooves full trying to counteract the tornadoes assaulting Cloudsdale, and even the Princesses' own measures to protect Canterlot had resulted in only dimming the storms to a constant downpour. "Sister, this is strong magic... Something very, very dangerous." Luna muttered, turning away from the sight of their failure to stop the downpour. "Luna, we're trying to protect the entire capital without knowing what kind of magic has the best effect. It makes sense that we might not be able to stop it entirely-" "Tia, whatever this is, it's assaulting the entire country!" Luna stamped her hoof in frustration. "If we can't stop it, Equestria is going to become inhospitable! And you're rationalizing why we can't even protect our greatest city?" Celestia was quiet for a moment,then let out a resigned sigh. "Luna, what would you expect me to do? We've never seen anything like this before and we don't know how to fight it. The only being who was capable of harming Equestria on this scale was Discord, and we all know that he's locked away in stone, so that option is completely out of the question. We could try to use the Elements of Harmony, but they would need something to stop or to change. We can't do much until we know what we're dealing with!" "Celestia, I might be able to help you with that..." A voice from an unseen being spoke up, making himself known. Looking around, Celestia discovered one of the stained glass windows had a new addition: a draconequus, sitting in the corner of the window depicting Nightmare Moon's banishment. It wasn't Discord, of course, but a familiar face that the two loved to see: Eclipse Tumult. Celestia had found the creature in the Royal Labyrinth one day, scared to death of being turned to stone the same way Discord was. Taking him in, the two alicorns had slowly gained his trust, and his experience outside Equestria and unique perspective had always proven invaluable to them. "What is it with draconequui and stained glass?" Celestia rolled her eyes, feeling slightly more at ease with him there. He was in a relaxed pose in the window, staring up at the image with his hands behind his head, laying lazily on the bottom border. Eclipse had grown much more at ease in the castle over time, but he never failed to start being worried when there was something worth worrying about. "Hey, when your entire life force is drawn from extradimensional energy, you might find it relaxing to take a two-dimensional break once in a while, too! It simplifies things..." "Did you say that you know what this is, Eclipse?" Luna asked, not wasting any time. "Well, I have a general idea, but for it to be true, that dragon would have to be old... very old..." He scratched his chin in thought. "The last time I saw anything like this, it was just after you and Celestia turned Discord to stone..." He glanced down for a moment, and the glass's colors turned a shade darker. He was obviously still remembering what had unfortunately happened to his brother. After a moment, however, he quickly snapped back out of it, raising his head again. "Anyway, the last time that I saw this kind of weather, it was stemming from an artifact of immense power: the Windego Gauntlet." "The what?" "It's an ancient artifact, capable of controlling the weather at will. Ponies have actually had almost no interaction with it in the past..." He shrugged. "The last time I saw it, it was in the possession of a very angry, very grouchy dragon with no semblance of a friendly disposition towards ponies..." He frowned. "Actually, the last time I saw the gauntlet, it was actually being used to brutally murder Quill the scribe..." "You mean, the same Quill that wrote the original beastiary and compiled the founding of Equestria?" Celestia asked, receiving a nod in reply. "The dragon claimed to have known Quill in another life, and saw the 'reincarnation' of his dear friend as being unnatural, and going against the laws of life and death. So, using the gauntlet, he completely wiped Quill's existence from the face of the planet..." Eclipse leaned back. "If you ask me, the dragon was getting a little paranoid and seeing things that weren't really there. I mean, I was a creature that simply appeared out of thin air, and even I think that reincarnation stuff is a load of bull." "Do you know where this dragon lives?" "In the mountains just south of the border. It's a dangerous climb for anypony, and if he knows that somepony's coming, he won't make it any easier..." He shook his head gently back and forth. "I think that our only option is to send one, maybe two ponies down there to try to delegate and, if necessary, assassinate. This dragon is bad news, Tia." "Could the Elements stop him?" Luna looked up at her sister. "At this distance? I have my doubts..." Celestia replied. "Eclipse, do you think that we could get Twilight and her friends through the mountains?" "Maybe if there weren't going going to be hail, blizzards and tornadoes raining down from above..." Eclipse shook his head. "And even then, I wouldn't place my money on the odds of all six surviving. It would be a bad idea." "Well... There is one pony that could probably get there..." Luna furrowed her brow in thought. "But, I'm not sure if he'll be willing to come back." "You mean your protege?" Celestia raised an eyebrow. "I thought that you said that he was gone, self-exiled?" "Not exiled, just looking for something he can't find in Equestria... Trying to understand himself." "And you think we can convince him to run off on another 'adventure?'" "Pennington Inkwell may have sworn off 'adventuring,' but that doesn't mean that he hasn't stopped having adventures. If Equestria is in danger, I think that we can rest assured that he's coming back..." Luna smiled. "And whether he likes it or not, he has a talent for retrieving ancient and dangerous objects. If there's anyone we can trust to get the job done, it's him." Luna levitated a scroll and quill in front of herself, already beginning her letter. "And has he recovered from the changelings' attack?" Luna paused, memories of her friend's hospitalization and process of rehabilitation flashing through her mind in rapid succession. Partially due to his own coercion into trapping her in the guard tower, she had unable to do anything to help him, let alone help herself, when he had been forced to make what she could only imagine was the greatest sacrifice of his life. "Enough of his strength has returned to lift his sword, according to Moonstone's reports. All he can accomplish is the most basic of levitation spells. That will have to be enough." She quickly resumed writing her letter. Celestia gave her focused sister a concerned stare. Ever since Pennington had left Equestria, Luna had seemed to lose a bit of her normal spirit around the castle every time that she got a new letter from him and his assistant. Just as Celestia had with Twilight's friendship reports, Luna would read Pennington's letters at dinner so that Celestia and Eclipse could hear the stories of his death-defying adventures or the chilling descriptions of the beasts he encountered. She'd always seemed very proud whenever he had been able to tell them about his slow and few steps on recovery from being under the changeling queen's direct control. It was obvious that she missed him a lot. I guess we all do... But now, we need him to come back. I just hope that he's up to the task. "You were showboating!" "I was not!" Pennington insisted as he jumped up onto the rooftop with Moonstone. He was only slightly worse for wear as he slipped his sword back into its sheathe on his back. "Besides, did you see the looks on their faces? Totally worth it!" The young dragon and the pony stared at one another for a moment before breaking down into laughter. Moonstone couldn't help but feel a large amount of satisfaction as Pennington seemed to have a moment of carefree joy, something of which he'd had very little ever since he'd cut off most of his horn. She and Luna had tried hard to make certain that his replacement would allow him to recover his strength, but it had been more than two months since the incident, and Pennington could hardly do anything more than lift his sword to fight, rather than forming one from magical energy, like he used to. Pennington nodded back towards the alley that he had come from while Moonstone checked to make sure that the wrappings on his legs were still secure. His legs would bleed rarely, now, but he had taken well to the style, and often claimed that it gave him an edge in hoof-to-hoof combat. "Well, either way, they just got 'Penn'd!'" "They what?" "You know, like, when you write something down, it's 'to pen it down?' Except that it's a play on words because it's my name! Get it? I was thinking it could be my new catchphrase!" "Keep looking, buddy..." Moonstone shook her head with a tired smile. "You know, I think that-" "Pokud si myslíte, že bych vymyslet!" A foreign voice called out across the rooftop. Turning around, both Pennington and Moonstone were surprised to see a masked figure standing across the rooftop, angrily brandishing a large sword. "Překvapení!" The figure was wrapped from head to hoof in a light-colored fabric, a practice not uncommon in Saddle Arabia for dark-coated ponies to spare them the sun's heat, but Pennington and Moonstone didn't need to see anything more than his shaded eyes and hear the angry tone to know that he was there because of Pennington's recent meddling. "Moonstone, get behind me..." Pennington stepped forward, his sword levitating off of his back again. "Ah! Equestrian! I should have known!" He figure's eyes scrunched up in what could easily be imagined as a twisted, despicable smile. "Although, I never met an Equestrian who was a capable fighter, before! Pennington stared down the length of his sword, but Moonstone watched a smile tugging at his lips. "And I never met a Saddle Arabian who was fond of witty banter." "Well, you know how it is..." He swung his saber slowly back and forth. It was a scimitar, much like Pennington's, but thinner and longer, obviously meant for a faster-paced fighting style. "The language is beautiful, but we don't know what we've been given..." "I assure you, the same applies to any people speaking en masse. That's why the scholars must keep the beauty and embellishments of a language alive." "You seem a clever pony. I hate to kill you." "You seem a clever pony. I hate to fight." Pennington's sword lowered slightly, becoming less threatening. "We have no quarrel, why not just let both of us walk away?" The stranger let out a long sigh, shaking his head. "Well, unfortunately, you've made my employers very angry... If they lose their business, I don't get paid. If I don't get paid, I need to find new clients. And this was a good setup for me." Pennington's sword raised again as he realized that there was no avoiding the confrontation. "So, you're a mercenary, then?" "I prefer 'problem-solver for hire.'" "Do you know what they were doing down there? What they were doing to those poor girls?" Pennington stamped his hoof in frustration. "It was deplorable!" "What the people who pay me do when my back is turned is no concern of mine." He shrugged. "The world is full of 'deplorable' ponies and 'deplorable' actions. You can either kill yourself trying to mount a crusade or try simply to survive and not have such a thing happen to yourself." His sword brandished back and forth again. "Unfortunately, it seems that you've chosen the first option..." A flash of light on the blade was all the warning that Pennington had of the attack, and he waved his sword in a broad arc, knocking his opponent's sword over his own shoulder in an almost deadly near-miss. By levitating his sword for his opening attack, his opponent had revealed himself to be a unicorn capable of magic, and a skilled one, as well. As the sound of the opening blow rang through the air, the sword returned to its owner, floating my his side. "Twilight would tell you to run." Moonstone spoke softly from behind him. "Twilight's not here." "So would Lily. And Whipstitch. Even Zecora, I would think..." "None of them are here to tell me to run." Pennington didn't remove his eyes from his opponent. "And I know that you won't tell me to." After a beat of silence, Moonstone floated up into the air, flapping her wings as she took a bird's-eye view of the fight. "Congratulations. Most ponies don't survive the first surprise." "Well, I'm not 'most ponies.' I've fought scum like you before, who don't care who they fight for. There aren't many depths to which you won't sink." "Anyone will sink to my depths if they become desperate enough... But I get the feeling that our idle chatter is about to come to an end?" Pennington nodded, placing his sword in front of himself again as he readied himself. "Well, here I-" the sword shot forward again, barely deflected to the side, "COME!" The stranger rushed forward while Pennington was still focused on redirecting his first attack, striking him in the jaw with his hoof and knocking him to the ground. Even as he struck the ground, however, Pennington rolled with the blow, and barely missed the killing blow as his opponent's sword stabbed downwards and into the roof, just behind him. Rolling up onto his hooves, Pennington struck out with his own blade, hacking horizontally towards his opponent's head. There was an ear-shattering ringing as the mercenary's sword somehow rose up and parried in time, sending Pennington's scimitar flying in the opposite direction. There was a moment of silence as Pennington's sword landed several rooftops away, coming to a landing with a soft clatter. The two fighters exchanged a glance for a moment, the attacker seemingly surprised. "You don't have a very strong grip on that thing, do you?" He grinned. "Horn trouble? It happens to the best of us..." His sword rose up over his shoulder, taking aim to spear Pennington through the heart. "Run for it, Penn!" With a cry, Moonstone dropped down from the sky, taking a hold of the cloth just above the pony's eyes and ripping it backwards, exposing them to the full brunt of the sunlight as she took hold of his horn and blew a searing-hot fireball into his face. "Graaaah!" The mercenary cried out in pain and bucked forward, sending Moonstone flying from his back and pulling his eyes away from the blinding sun. Leaning down, he gingerly raised a hoof to his scorched visage, his eyes still screwed shut. "I'll- I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!" As he finally managed to pull his rapidly watering eyes open again, Moonstone and Pennington were already far away on the other roof. "Thanks for the help, Moonstone..." Pennington panted as he reached down, picking up his sword in his mouth. Looking back to his opponent, Pennington took up a firm stance, hiding how badly shaken the near-death experience had left him. "You- you're not going to stay and fight, are you?" Pennington spat out the sword, allowing it to float into the air via his magic again. "I have to. Now that it's personal, he won't leave you alone until he's gotten his revenge... And he'll hate me almost as much if I get away. We won't be safe until he can't hurt us, any more." "GAAAAAH!" Pennington dodged and rolled to the side and Moonstone took to the air as the mercenary's sword sped past like a bullet. The pony, himself, was already running towards them, the cloth covering his face having been burned away to reveal a feral snarl. Pennington's eyes narrowed, taking the sword back into his jaw and beginning to advance, as well. The mercenary's sword circled back around, missing Pennington by only inches as it returned to him. The two finally reached the same rooftop, each running towards the other, the hilts gripped firmly in their mouths. Moonstone watched as the two of them were about to collide, and the adversary turned his head to rear the sword back, readying for the killing blow yet again. To his surprise, Pennington dropped and rolled, spitting out his scimitar and forcing the saddle arabian to fall on top of him, striking his head against the ground. As he slowly sat up, trying to regain his bearings, there was a flash of golden light as Pennington levitated his scimitar into the air with one swift motion, striking upwards and slicing off the mercenary's horn, which clattered to the ground. As the killer began to scream with pain, Pennington arched his back and stood up, forcing him off his back and onto the ground. "Now, he'll leave us alone... Or he'll lose more than his horn, next time. And maybe he'll think more about his clients from now on." Moonstone looked back at the unconscious pony before following Pennington down from the rooftop. Penn's different. It's not always obvious, but... he's changed since Canterlot. As she finished the thought, however, a familiar, unavoidable sensation of something rising up from her stomach shuddered through her body, and she opened her mouth, expelling a burst of fire that materialized into a scroll, as if burning in reverse. Picking it up from the ground, she opened it and began to read. "Who's it from, Moonstone?" "It's- it's from Princess Luna! She says that she needs us back at Canterlot as soon as possible!" Only able to hold one object at a time with his magic, Pennington quickly finished cleaning his blade and returned it to the sheathe on his back before levitating the scroll to read for himself. Moonstone could almost see the cogs turning in his head as he tried to determine whether or not the emergency described was enough to warrant returning to the city. "... Alright. Fine, let's go."