Penn and Stone: Dynamic Duo

by Pennington Inkwell

Mozun Akai, Mozun Akai, Mozun Akai! Everybody wants to know about Mozun Akai!

Pennington and Moonstone sat in silence as the Surprise finally came to a stop They gave one another a questioning look, their mutual confusion apparent. Moonstone had seemed to have finally felt better after some time on the move, and had even ventured out of the safety of her seat belt long enough to open a drawer under Pennington's cot to retrieve a blanket as the room had grown colder from the elements outside. She had eventually made her way back to her chair and wrapped herself up before buckling herself in again. As the two sat in silence, the door to the room swung open, revealing Crankshaft.

"Alright, everyone! There's a pretty big rock slide blocking the path outside, so we're making camp here for the night!" With a flash of her horn, Moonstone's seat belt and the straps over Pennington's cot opened, letting each of them up now that the ground had ceased moving beneath them. "You can get up and move around for a while, but I wouldn't recommend going out for a walk! Is there anything the two of you need?"

Pennington shook his head as he rolled out of the cot and onto his hooves. "Not unless you girls have a masseuse on board..." he joked as he craned his neck from side to side.

"If we did, I'd never get around to fixing anything on this ship!" Crankshaft replied with a chuckle. "Well, if you find yourself needing anything, my door's always open! Try to get a good night's sleep, we'll be getting an early start tomorrow!"

Turning to go, there was only a quick swish of her violet tail before the door swung shut, leaving Pennington and Moonstone alone again.

Sitting back on his haunches, Pennington intertwined his front hooves, groaning with strain as he pushed them outwards and away from his body, followed by a quick exhale of pleasure.

"Ooof... That feels good!" he muttered before returning to standing on all fours and arching his back, resulting in several loud pops, much to Moonstone's cringing displeasure.

"That's just gross..."

"Admittedly, a very bad habit. Quick Strike just about skinned me the first time she heard me pop my neck! But I'll be darned if it doesn't feel good!" With another sigh of satisfaction, he walked over to the cot, pulling open one of the drawers stashed away underneath it and rummaging through his saddlebag. "Well, I guess that there isn't much else we can do today, is there?"

Moonstone glanced around the room, somewhat confused. "I'd have thought that a pony like you would have gone stir-crazy after an entire day of being strapped down for safety. I know that I'm dying to stretch my wings!" To illustrate her point, she gave a few short flaps to propel herself into the air. In a gross miscalculation, however, her skull collided with the low ceiling, sending a resounding pair of thuds through the room as she hit, reached up to grab her aching head, then collided with the ground.

"OW!"

Pennington snickered, his back still turned to her as he continued rummaging through his bag.

"Believe it or not, after the first time you get lost spelunking, you learn to deal well with small spaces... Ah, here they are!" With a firm tug, Pennington finally retrieved a small bottle from his bag. It was one that Moonstone had grown familiar with soon after she'd started living with Pennington: his nightly pills. Rather than his normal tradition of popping the bottle open and swallowing a pair of the tablets without a second thought, Pennington paused, shaking the bottle lightly and listening to the ensuing rattle. With a thoughtful hum to himself, he shook his head and quietly stashed them away again.

"Not tonight..."

As the stinging in the crown of her head relented, Moonstone tilted her head in confusion.

"Don't you need those? I mean, don't they help with your sleep paralysis?"

Pennington let out a long sigh, returning to rummaging through his bags. "And help me go to sleep, to begin with, yes... But we didn't have time to visit Zecora amidst all of the chaos. We're going to have to ration them out to last through this trip."

"And by 'we,' you mean 'me.'" Moonstone folded her arms over her chest.

"No, I can do it myself. The math isn't that hard." Pennington seemed to be forcing a chipper tone, now, as he retrieved more items from his bag: a package of ramen noodles and what looked like a small canteen. "I take the pills after a stressful day, and I ignore them when it's just easy travelling."

Moonstone frowned. His logic was sound, but the idea of him skipping out on his medication was still irritatingly unsettling.

"Well, I'll be the judge of when you should or shouldn't take it!"

Pennington rolled his eyes as he snapped the dried noodles into smaller chunks, wedging them through the opening of the canteen before giving it a firm shake. Over time, he'd grown used to Moonstone's overprotective insistence (due largely in part to several angry letters from Luna regarding him taking unnecessary risks with his health). And as he'd learned to relent to her when she was making sense (which was always), Moonstone had learned the boundaries of where her influence was needed (There were none).

"Fine, fine! You can play 'witch doctor.' So, are you still hungry after the rations Glacier served us?"

"Judging from the rations you're wasting, I'd say you are..."

"Wasting? Hey, if I'm going without my pills tonight, the least I can do is give myself some comfort food!" Pennington indignantly replied, setting the canteen on the floor and jabbing at it with his hoof, his satisfied expression the only sign that he had activated the heat pack inside, setting his noodles to cook.

"Alright, good point. But don't whine to me later if you're wishing we had a meal in some barren cave halfway through dragon country!" she smiled, rolling her eyes as she strode up next to him and hopped up onto the edge of the bed, kicking her feet back and forth. She was promptly joined by Pennington, who cradled his partially-cooked meal in the air with his magic. The two shared another moment of silence, but they'd both grown used to the other thinking through their words before speaking. In the empty space, however, Moonstone could feel a lingering pressure, a weight that had been on her mind all day. An issue that couldn't be brought up tactfully, not if what she knew was true. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, steadying herself.

"Hey, Penn?"

"Yeah?"

"Could I ask you something... personal?"

Pennington chuckled and leaned back, flopping onto the cot with a soft bounce.

"Moonstone, practically the only place you don't follow me in my life is the bathroom! I think we've passed the point of needing to ask for permission to ask personal questions. Fire away!"

"Can you... Can you tell me about Mozun Akai?"

There was a loud clatter as the canteen dropped to the floor, Pennington's focus on his magic seemingly shattered. A new silence, one much colder and impersonal, settled. Pennington drew in a long, deep breath, to the point where Moonstone began to feel concerned for him, before finally stopping, holding back the exhalation for almost a full minute. When he did, he released it slowly and deliberately, drawing it out even longer than his inhalation. Finally, he reached up, stretching one foreleg over his face, covering up his eyes.

"I had hoped that you hadn't heard Miss Yearling bring that up... She's one of a small hooffull that know what happened there..."

Moonstone blinked, unsure of whether or not his answer was in the affirmative or the negative.

"Who else-"

"Cha'Qued, Yearling, CC, Lily, Concerto, and... Full Sails. Knowing Sails, however, I would guess that a few others may have learned about it, by now." Pennington listed off the names with ease, his voice lowering to a frustrated growl upon the last name. "If I had my way, that list would be one name shorter."

Moonstone's eyes widened. "Who's Full Sails?"

Pennington finally rolled back up into a sitting position, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "Well, Mozun Akai and Full Sails are largely the same story..." As he opened his eyes again, one of his back hooves kicked open another drawer, revealing Cha'Qued's mask staring out at them with its bloodthirsty grin.

"It's the story of how I found the mask..."

"Hold on, let me get this straight..." Twilight held up a hoof, motioning for Lily and the strange pegasus that she had brought with her to stop talking. Trying to sort her thoughts rationally, she gestured to the stranger. "You said your name is Delta Raider?"

"Named after the Las Pegasus delta, actually..." the pegasus chuckled nervously under her scrutiny. "I was born there. My parents were big fans of... dynamic-sounding names."

"Mm-hmm. And you're one of Pennington's old friends?"

Delta nodded. "I had the chance to go on a few important expeditions with him several years ago!"

"And you're here because you wanted to warn Pennington that there's a traitor on board the HMS Surprise?"

Delta nodded again.

"Do you have anything to prove this claim?"

Delta paused, then shook his head, looking down at the ground.

"Look, Twilight," Lily interjected, stepping between the two of them. "I know that it seems like we don't have any reason to believe him, I was just as skeptical! But then he said something that, well, kinda left me without any other choice..."

Twilight already-raised eyebrow raised even further, entering an area of skepticism that she usually reserved for the "rough drafts" of Pennington's harebrained schemes.

Lily looked from side to side, then leaned forward, whispering in her ear.

"He knows about Mozun Akai!"

Twilight blinked in confusion, stepping back to stare at Lily.

"Monsoon what-now?"

"Mozun Akai." Delta quietly corrected, stepping up besides Lily, giving her a quizzical look. "You mean, Pennington never told you?"

Twilight's hoof pressed against her head, massaging her temple as she unconsciously began drafting a friendship letter on the deteriorating effects of keeping secrets in a relationship. A letter that Pennington was going to receive as soon as she had a moment to dictate to Spike.

"I'm learning that there are a lot of things Pennington doesn't tell me..."

Lily and Delta stared at one another for a moment, then nodded.

"Mozun Akai was a small village nestled in the eastern region of the Tigrous Forest, all that remained of a once-great civilization..." Delta began, sitting back on his haunches and rustling his wings anxiously against his sides. "Two ponies entered, hoping to learn more about them and their traditions before the nation was lost to time, entirely: Pennington Inkwell and Full Sails."

Pennington shook his head, seemingly physically burdened by the weight of the memories. He held Cha'Qued's mask in his hooves, staring at it with a hollow gaze.

"If I'd known what I would find there... If I had known that I was going to release the final member of a long-dead pantheon... I would have run from that place. I would have turned tail and run back to Ponyville on the spot." A cold shiver ran through his body. "Instead... Well, I learned one of the hardest and most costly lessons I've ever known:"

"The difference between a locked safe... and a prison."

Author's Note:

Sorry for the short chapter, but I think that this'll be the best place to divide it up!

Next time: The true story of Cha'Qued's origin!

In other news, I am currently taking commissions! Please, contact me via PM if you're interested! Details are on my blog post here!

Comments

[Marked of Luna]

Cha'Qued! Cha'Qued! Cha'Qued! Cha'Qued! Cha'Qued! Cha'Qued!

[Pennington Inkwell]

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