//------------------------------// // The Prisoner and their Jailer // Story: Penn and Stone: Dynamic Duo // by Pennington Inkwell //------------------------------// "WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!" Sure Shot's voice held an edge of panic as he shouted into the microphone connecting to the Cliffjumper's speaker systems. Once his announcement was finished, he pressed a large red button at the top of the P.A. system's control panel, and a loud siren began grinding away at the ears of everyone on board, awakening anyone who may have missed the announcement. "Sir! They seem to be beginning their descent!" A pony cried, looking down at a small screen. "They're going to be all over our hull in a matter of minutes!" Moonstone watched as Sure Shot walked to what appeared to be a nearby closet. After using one hoof to punch a code into a small number pad, the door slid open to reveal a wide array of weapons, including swords, knives, a few select harpoons, and hanging against the back wall: two large, black crossbows, each modified with what appeared to be a large magazine on top and a hooves-free reloading system. Using his wings to pick himself up into the air, he began taking what seemed to be extra clips of arrows and strapping them to his back legs. "Lock down all the hatches to the top deck and forward bows except for the emergency exits! If they want to get inside this ship, they going to have to march over an empty quiver and my dead body!" "Yes, sir!" "Quick Strike is to lead our best hoof-to-hoof fighters up onto the main deck, and if she can be reached, I want Twilight Sparkle to head up our defensive magic team." "And what about the brig, sir? Should we let her go? I mean, it'll stop the atta-" "Lock. It. Down." "Yes, sir..." The realization hit Moonstone like a ton of bricks. The mass of darkness representing something steeped in secrets and lies in the belly of the ship, the reason that Pennington couldn't be allowed to know what was down there, the fact that the entire hive changelings were attacking them... Luna help us all... They captured the queen. "GRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" There was a near-deafening scream as Pennington, having only left a few minutes before, returned, sprinting every bit as fast as he had been when he left. There was only the faintest of blue glows as the door leading directly out to the front deck swung open of its own accord, and without so much as a pause to look at the jump, Pennington raced through the room and out the door, leaping out into the air with his sword floating just behind him, suspended by the only magic he could use. For only the briefest of moments that he was in the room, Moonstone's "gift" showed her his true state: his body was bathed in a red glow, as if there were colored smoke coming off of his very skin. He was completely and utterly enveloped in rage. "Until I return, Close Care is this ship's captain!" Sure Shot shouted, now holding one crossbow in each hoof, several more clips of arrows strapped to his hind legs and stomach, and a single longbow stung across his back. Turning towards the open door however, a snarling changeling was just making its landing. Faster than Moonstone would have had time to begin panicking, however, an arrow was already embedded between its eyes. Before the now-dead body could so much as topple to the floor, Sure Shot had flown forward, giving it a firm kick to chest and knocking it back outside. With a nod to the ponies present, he exited the bridge, shutting the door behind him. After only a brief moment of waiting for her senses to return, Moonstone sprinted to the window, looking out on the forward bow. Just as she had expected, Pennington was there, and fighting a veritable army of changelings all on his own. To say that he was fighting ferociously would have been an understatement. For the moment, Pennington fought like a pony possessed, having shed his normal, non-lethal fighting style for a grim method of hacking and slashing away at anything that came within his reach. Moonstone watched with a mix of awe and horror as his sword ripped through the ranks attacking him like a hot knife through butter, separating carapaces and armor like cracking the shell of a nut, and the blade was almost a blur as it swung from side to side. In three swipes, Pennington would decapitate one foe, dismember a second, and disembowel a third. After losing almost a dozen changelings to his rage, the warriors stepped back and lowered their horns, preparing to blast Pennington into oblivion. "Penn, look out!" she shouted, though she knew it was useless. He couldn't hear her. Seeing what was about to happen, Moonstone could almost see Pennington smile. Putting his weight up on one of his front hooves, Pennington spun himself in a circle. In a much large circumference, his scimitar spun with him, slicing through horns, skulls and the occasional brain. The entire group fell to the ground, some dead and some stunned. Amid the wind and the rain and the hail, Pennington was standing in a growing pool of green blood and assorted limbs and organs, still screaming at the rest in blind rage. Moonstone could feel the urge to vomit rising up, but she forced it back down again. It was hard to tell when they figured out when exactly they figured out who they were fighting, but they eventually began shapeshifting into copies of Twilight Sparkle, Callalily Curl, Sure Shot, and even Princess Luna, herself, before attacking. Pennington didn't even seem to flinch at impaling his sword through their chests, hacking off their limbs, or slitting their throats. He simply screamed louder. The longer he spent out in the fight, the darker his coat became, and his red hair was beginning to turn black. "He can't stay exposed to them like this much longer." She muttered. "This needs to end quickly..." In the pale light of the storm outside, Moonstone could see a familiar lavender aura building up on the deck. There was a brief moment where Moonstone thought that it was some kind of trick by the changelings to further mimic Twilight. However, as a bubble-like shield rose off of the floor of the Cliffjumper and lifted the changelings away from its surface, Moonstone felt hope again. Though it had only been a few minutes since the attack had begun, the hope was a welcome relief. The shield grew and spread outwards, pressing away the changelings (and, thankfully, not Pennington) and forcing them off of the Cliffjumper, leaving only the ponies who had been fighting. Down below, when the changelings that he had been fighting were forced away, Pennington's sword kept swinging up at them, poking its way in and out of the spell to get in a few more swipes before he finally uttered one last, guttural scream and fell to the floor. Moonstone thought that he had slipped into unconsciousness when the scimitar fell to the ground, but the silent shudders running through his body assured her that he was still very much conscious. It might be the first time he's been aware of anything since he saw that first changeling... It was some time before they were able to bring Pennington back inside. The Cliffjumper had needed to slow down by a large amount so that the unicorns could maintain their shield around the main body, so it wasn't dangerous for him to be out there, but if any pony so much as set their hoof on the front deck, his sword would raise up from the ground and brandish itself in their direction, forcing them to immediately back away again. Eventually, however, Pennington dragged himself to one of the hatches in the center of the deck, opening the trapdoor entrance and slipping inside, leaving his sword laying on the deck for Moonstone to retrieve. After a few questions and assurances called out to him at a distance, Close and Constant Care had carried him away to be treated for shock in the Medical Bay, with Twilight, Moonstone, and even Sure Shot close behind. Pennington didn't object when Close and Constant calmly and quietly bandaged his wounds, and gave only the smallest of nods when Close told him that they would need a sample of his blood, submitting to the needle without a word. He wasn't the only injured party on the ship, but the other ponies had already been tended to and were in stable condition. Sitting in the cot next to his was a yellow-coated, red-maned earth pony mare that Twilight seemed to recognize. She seemed perfectly happy, a large smile plastered across her face, but Moonstone could see that she was in pain. "Hey, Penn! So, what are you in for?" She chuckled, turning to face him. "Did you break your hoof punching them, too?" Pennington's eyes rolled to her for a moment, then rolled back to staring into blank space. "He was using a sword, Quick Strike." Twilight shook her head. "Physically, he started reverting back towards his changeling side. It should fade once he's away from them again, but for now, it's left him very weak. Mentally... Well..." There were large tears welling up in her eyes. "Oh, Penn's been through worse!" Quick Strike chuckled. "That pony's got a brain of steel, and a head just as hard! Isn't that right, Penny?" Pennington's eyes rolled back to Quick Strike. For the first time since he'd crawled back inside, he spoke. "Don't..." "Don't what, Penny?" "Don't..." Her grin growing wider, Quick Strike raised a hoof to her ear. "Sorry, Penny, I didn't hear that!" Moonstone and Twilight looked nervously at one another. "Don't call me PENNY!" Pennington shouted, slamming one of his bandaged hooves against the bed. This final outburst seemed to break him out of his near-catatonia, and he looked around at all of the ponies present. After a few moments, he stopped and stared at Twilight. Reaching out his hoof, he gently rubbed her cheek, and his expression softened to one of complete and total relief. "It's okay, Penny. You're safe, now." She whispered, smiling through her tears. "They... they looked like you." Pennington blinked several times, beginning to cry as well. "And Lily and Luna and even my parents... I just couldn't let myself think about what I was doing... I- I-" Pennington was cut off as Twilight stepped forward and wrapped her hooves around him, pulling him as close as she could from the awkward angle at the side of his bed. "I guess they got into his head more than any of us thought, if they knew about Lily and his parents..." Sure Shot muttered. "I'll have to ask the higher-ups to double-check the security protocols." From the moment that Sure Shot opened his mouth to speak, Pennington's eyes locked on him. They weren't a gaze of gratitude or assurance, but one of loathing. Quietly breaking his hug with Twilight, he leaned forward, glaring at his supposed friend. "In what possible UNIVERSE could you think that keeping Queen Chrysalis on your ship was a GOOD IDEA?" He hissed, his pupils momentarily constricting into changeling-like slits with each accentuated word. "You what?" Twilight turned to him, jaw dropping in disbelief. With all eyes on him, Sure Shot didn't flinch, though he did give Pennington's quasi-changeling state a wary eye. After a few seconds, he let out a long sigh, shaking his head. "We found her in the Plains of Lore. She only had a few bodyguards with her, and they were out scouting for something. It could have been food, maybe a new location for their hive, I dunno. We saw our opportunity to capture Equestria's enemy number one, and we took it. We managed to subdue her and lock her in the brig. We just didn't think-" "Didn't think you'd have an army willing to give their lives to rescue her? Didn't think you'd bring down the wrath of the entire hive on a civilian transport?" Pennington growled, a lower undertone accenting his voice the same way a changeling would speak. "Pennington Inkwell, calm down! You're just going to make things worse if you keep getting so excited!" Close Care, who had returned holding a clipboard full of papers, gave him a stern glare. "Right now, your body can't figure out what to produce when you get excited, and it seems to be favoring the changeling equivalent of adrenaline: dopamine. The more vehement you become, the more you encourage your changeling half!" Narrowing her eyes, the doctor gave him one of her signature strict glares. "I will not hesitate to put you on a sedative to calm you down to recover!" Disbelievingly, he pointed his hoof at Sure Shot, only able to emit a series of frustrated grunts. "But- But he- But- Are you even hearing him?" "You, of all ponies, should know that the Captain is, has been, and always will be an idiot of the highest degree. But for the moment, that isn't my concern. My current problem is your health. So I am ordering you to sit down, calm down, and rest." With one final glare, Pennington sat back in his bed again, folding his front legs over his chest. Satisfied, Close Care turned back around, focusing her efforts on making sure that her other patients were being tended to. With a long sigh, Pennington's eyes slid shut, though he didn't move. After a few seconds his grimace of anger faded, and he let out a long sigh. "Lily, you don't need to hide. I know you're there." There was a brief moment of silence before Lily walked into the room from the hallway, staring at him with a mix of grief and horror. "Penn... What did you do to yourself?" She muttered, coming up alongside his bed. Despite his regression, the holes in his legs had thankfully remained shut, though both his coat and his mane were both several shades darker, with his fur being a midnight blue and his hair being reduced to the color of rust. Opening his eyes again, Pennington gave Lily a gentle, reassuring smile, doing his best to hide the sharp incisors. "Come on, Lily. You know that this is far from the worst condition you've seen me in! I mean, this is nothing an afternoon in the dying tub and a good night's sleep can't fix, right?" Lily sniffled softly, refusing to cry, and nodded. "That and a firm smack upside the head for even going out there to begin with!" Pennington chuckled, nodding. "I'll tell you what: you can smack me around as much as you like tomorrow In Canterlot, okay?" Lily nodded, her smile growing wider. "You better brace yourself!" With a light chuckle, Pennington closed his eyes again. "Guys, I think Close Care is right. I'm going to try to sleep, now... I don't suppose I could have a little peace and quiet?" Lily nodded, turning to leave, as did Sure Shot. After leaning up and kissing him on the cheek, Twilight followed them. Soon, only Moonstone was left with him. Taking a spot in the cot alongside him, she laid down, placing her claws behind her head in a relaxed manner. "So... why are you really pretending to go to sleep?" She whispered. Pennington opened one eye, giving her a sideways glace. "Sneaking out." "Cool. Where are we headed?" "Ramen... Then trouble." "Trouble? My favorite destination." She grinned, turning over and turning her back to him. "Wake me when we're leaving..." Sneaking out of the medical ward was easy. The Care sisters needed to sleep eventually, and after a re-wrapping of his legs and a double-check to make sure that his fur was getting at least somewhat close to its normal colors, he had easily walked out of the medical ward. Their first stop had been the kitchen, which was one of the few places that was staffed 24/7 on the Cliffjumper, where Pennington had ordered an extra-large cup of ramen noodles. When this request was met, Pennington had led Moonstone down several hallways, levitating the cup and using his horn to light the way, until they arrived near the center of Deck B. There, they found a pair of ponies standing guard outside of a secure-looking steel door. Or, rather, they were sitting guard. Well, by the strictest definitions, they were sleeping guard. "Why are they asleep?" Moonstone whispered. "Guarding changelings is harder than it looks. Without any food source, a particularly strong changeling will sometimes start to draw in the vitality of other beings in the area..." Pennington whispered in return, quietly stepping around the guards' unconscious bodies. "That's why starvation is such a big deal for them. The hunger of one is the hunger of the whole hive." "Poetic, isn't it?" Plucking a key from the sleeping guard, Pennington unlocked the door to the brig. Just as he was about to open the door, he turned back to her. "Moonstone, where is my sword?" "Back in our room, with Twilight." After a moment of thought, Pennington nodded to himself. "Good. It'll be better if I don't have it for this." Taking a long sip of his ramen in preparation, he levitated Moonstone up and onto his back and opened the door, stepping inside. In her typical fashion, Chrysalis had made herself completely at home in her "room," lining the walls with the changelings' signature green slime. The entire atmosphere seemed to change once they were inside. What had once been the tight-but-safe corridors of the Cliffjumper were left behind, and Moonstone couldn't help the feeling that they were trapped inside the room with a monster. "You... KILLED them..." A deep, feminine voice growled as a pair of glowing green eyes appeared on the other side of the room. Of course, at this point, Moonstone realized that they were, indeed, trapped inside the room with a monster. "We killed a lot of changelings together, Chrysalis. Are you angry that I did it without you, this time?" Pennington replied, his voice equally low. "You killed thirty-eight of MY hive!" Chrysalis hissed. From deep within the darkness, she lunged forward to attack, but the only thing that assaulted Pennington and Moonstone was the sound of metal colliding with metal. Calmly and quietly, Pennington took another sip of his ramen, slurping up several strands of noodles as the glow from his horn intensified, revealing the changeling queen in her entirety. Chrysalis was chained to the wall, spread-eagle, with only enough chain for her to swing back and forth and move each of her hooves a few inches. There was a large, black ring around her horn inhibiting her magic, and her once-lithe figure showed signs of malnourishment. "I defended a civilian transport from an attack by a foreign entity." Pennington replied curtly. "I FELT THEM DIE!" "SO DID I!" In a motion so sudden, Moonstone was nearly flung off of his back, Pennington slammed against the bars of the prison, his hooves pressing against them and his horn passing between them, allowing him to come as close to her as he possibly could without entering it with her. The two stared at one another for a moment before Pennington backed away again. "Let me out of here." Chrysalis growled. "No." "I command you to let me out of here!" "NO!" After another moment of silence, Pennington began to laugh. It wasn't a laugh of a pony who had just heard a joke, it was much more free. It was the laugh of a pony who had come to the realization that life was a joke and death was the punch line. It was unrestricted by any semblance of sanity, like a pony whose mind had finally snapped under pressure. He laughed giddily, his head leaning back as he chortled. "No! NO, NO, NO!" He repeated the word over and over again, singing it like a playground filly would sing a tease to one of her playmates. "Nononono noooo NOOOO nonono no no NO!" As the laughter faded again, he wiped a tear of joy from his eye. "I realized these past couple months that I didn't want to say 'buck you' at the wedding, Chryssie! That was low of me. Crass. Uncultured, even! No, no, no, what I REALLY wanted to say to you was..." He leaned in close to the bars, a massive, sadistic grin spreading across his face. "No." Moonstone gently tapped Pennington's shoulder, drawing his attention away from the prisoner he seemed to have claimed as his own. "Penn... are you okay?" "Okay? Moonstone, my dear, sweet dragonet, I'm SO beyond okay! I am giddy! Delirious with joy! Absolutely ecstatic!" To illustrate his point, he gave a small dance, trotting in place and spinning in a circle. "Go ahead, Chrysalis! Tell Moonstone just how happy I am! Tell her how my joy is filling up your hungry little tummy right now!" Pennington waited a beat, staring into the cell. Chrysalis simply glared back at him. All at once, Pennington threw himself aggressively against the bars, snarling loudly like a feral beast. "TELL HER!" Whatever her position, Chrysalis's pride seemed indestructible. She stared straight back at him, never breaking eye contact. She didn't look away from him, nor did she respond to his taunts. Pennington remained pressed against the bars, but the face-splitting grin returned. Shaking his head, he slowly backed away again, the senseless laughter continuing as a low chuckle. "You... you are just shameless. That's all it is. Your pitiful, parasitic existence doesn't really leave you much lower to go, does it?" "You're insane." Chrysalis made the statement flatly and calmly. If anything, she seemed more in control of her situation than Pennington. "You freed yourself from the hive simply to go insane." "Well, look how far the mighty have fallen now..." Pennington hissed. His bandages had long ago become overwhelmed by the bleeding in his legs, and there was a trail of his blood left behind as he paced back and forth, now seething with anger. "Yes. Look." Chrysalis's eyes narrowed. "One of us committed murder three dozen times today. The other is chained to a wall." "Well, at least I'm not the one in a cage." Pennington's nose turned upwards haughtily as he spoke. "You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Chrysalis replied, swaying back and forth helplessly on her chains. "Tell me, what was it that finally pushed you over the brink? Was it suddenly losing my guiding voice, or the disconnection from the hive entirely all at once? Because something in you broke that day. What did you have to give to me in order to buy back your life? Your pride? Your passion? What did you destroy inside of yourself to reject us all at once? Your sense of wonder? Your idealism? What part of your soul did you grind into dust to make yourself so strong against us? Or, at least, what your twisted mind would define as strength." "Shut up." "Was it your faith?" "SHUT UP!" Pennington grimaced and dropped to the ground, covering his ears with his hooves like a child. "You destroyed your faith in yourself to sink to new lows..." Chrysalis smiled for the first time. "You say that I have no shame, but your shame fills you to the brim. It defines you." A final shudder ran through Pennington stood up again, now having returned to the near-serene state he had entered the room with. Taking a look at his half-full cup of ramen noodles, he levitated it through the bars, placed it directly below her, and smiled. "You look sick, Chryssie. Eat up. You'll need your strength once you reach the Crystal Empire." With one final flash of magic from his horn, Pennington knocked the cup over, causing its contents to spill all over the floor just below her. With that final action, he turned his back on her. "Remember my last word to you, Queen Chrysalis. No." "And remember mine, Pennington Inkwell. Pathe-" There was a resounding clang as Pennington shut the door to the brig behind him. "Pennington?" Moonstone finally found the courage to speak when they were almost back to the Medical Bay. He'd slowly been growing weaker and weaker over time on their way back, and now he was dragging his bloody hooves step by step and taking deep breaths. "Yes, Moonstone?" "Since when do we gloat over our foes?" The question was simple, innocent, and pure. But it seemed to strike Pennington to his core. He stopped walking, inhaled deeply, drinking in the air around him, and collapsed, falling to the floor on his knees. As Moonstone jumped down off of his back and ran around in front of him, there were tears running down his face. The two of them held eye contact for only a moment, but in that moment, Moonstone saw straight into him. There was only a flickering light of hope in his heart, surrounded by darkness. After the moment had passed however, Pennington let out a sob and buried his face in his hooves, his tears mingling with his blood in the soggy bandages. Moonstone didn't stop him or try to comfort him. She didn't shush him as he moaned and wailed into his hooves, the sound muted just enough to avoid waking up the ponies in the nearby rooms. This was his moment of despair, and finally releasing the pent-up grief and sadness was necessary for him to heal. So, rather than try to comfort what she knew was beyond her jurisdiction, she simply sat next to him on the floor, leaning against his side and making sure he stayed warm.