Penn and Stone: Dynamic Duo

by Pennington Inkwell

A Failure to Communicate

Princess Luna had not enjoyed these new "lessons."

From the moment she had arrived, her host had proven to be a reclusive hermit, never leaving his study and simply talking to her through the door. On the first day, she had watched the front desk of Pennington's store, selling books and taking orders for commissions. He had left her simple instructions on how to work the register and several pre-made sheets for the orders on commissions.

The day had mind-numbingly slow, with only a few ponies coming in and giving her hard-to-understand orders, but she had somehow muddled through, eventually managing to work around the gaps in their manners of speech.

"And, thou- erm, your commission is to be about... vampires?"

"Yup! Oh! And I want it to end with the hero and the mare trotting off together into the sunset! Buuuut... there's a twist!"

"A... twist?"

"Yeah! As the sun finally dips behind the horizon, the mare turns and looks... and sees that he has a bite mark on his neck!"

"I... see..." Luna sighed and scribbled down the notes, gave the pony their total. The turn the story's ending had taken hadn't included anything being twisted, but it was unexpected. It... twisted her expectations!

When she had turned in the day's commissions, closed the store and locked the register, her host had thanked her and cracked open the door just enough to hand her a small envelope. Inside was a personal check for the day's wages (a drop of water in the ocean of the royal treasury, but still satisfying) and instructions for the next day, stating that she was to report to the seamstress next door for her next day's work.

The seamstress had been even more... eccentric than Pennington, but much more open to discussion. Luna had been told not to reveal her true identity, so she had been forced to create a false identity for herself on the spot. She had claimed that she was an old acquaintance of Pennington's from Canterlot, come to spend a week trying to find work due to recent unemployment. It was only a half-truth, which made it easier to tell, but Luna's delivery seemed to leave much to be desired, as the seamstress had simply said,

"If you didn't want to tell me, you could have just said so."

That day had included many more ponies arriving in the shop and placing orders, but they were much less detailed than the ones at Inkwell Commissions, making it much easier to for her to find a steady rhythm of scripted lines that she had invented during slow periods to say, rather than having to interview each customer.

When she reported back to Pennington, she once again received a check for her wages and an address to report to the next day. Her host spoke very little, though he had mentioned that she should get a good night's rest.

The next day, Luna reported bright and early to a nearby candy store, run my a friendly mare who introduced herself as Bon Bon.

This had been her most challenging day, yet. While she spoke very little to the customers, she needed to stay attentive and fast as they rained down upon the store in droves, all trying to place their orders at the same time. Bon Bon had often come up to help her when she became overly flustered or fell behind on the orders, but by the end of the day, Luna felt as though her brain had been put through a strong electrical shock, shorted out from the effort of keeping all the orders separate and correct in her mind. That night, through the crack in the door came an envelope AND a bag of caramel squares that Pennington insisted were the best in all Equestria.

Luna felt no need to argue the point as she happily munched and read over her next day's assignment. She finally seemed to be receiving a chance to relax, spending the day in Rarity's Boutique. Rarity had lived up to the title her element bestowed upon her, seeing Luna's exhaustion the moment she had arrived. Without a moment's delay, she had dragged Luna by the hoof to the spa, where the two of them had been pampered, fed, and revitalized. Now, she was laying in a hot bath with Rarity, who was so relaxed, she appeared to almost be asleep.

Luna looked down at herself, still feeling slightly strained, and she knew the reason why.

"Miss Rarity, if I were to do something, would you promise that you would not tell anypony? Especially Pennington?"

Rarity lifted one cucumber slice to look at her, somewhat surprised.

"Well, that would depend very much on what you do, darling... But provided no harm is done, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to simply keep it between us girls!"

Luna took a deep breath and dispelled the illusion around her body, finally releasing the spell for the first time all week. Rarity nearly leaped out of the water in surprise, knocking off both cucumber slices in her rush.

"P-P-PRINCESS LUNA!"

"Shhhh!" Luna hissed, glancing to the door to see if Rarity's outburst had drawn any unwanted attention. Letting out a sigh of relief, she sunk deeper into the water, all the way to her chin.

"But, your highness, what are you doing here?" Rarity glanced around, as well, as if she were expecting to find someone watching her reaction as some sort of prank. "And WHY were you supposed to be working as my assistant for the day?"

"If I am to be honest, Miss Rarity... I have no earthly clue! I was sent here by my speech tutor in order to better learn to communicate with others! But rather than actually TEACHING me, my new teacher simply put me to work! I've been to a different store every day, with no way of knowing where I'll be next, and I've learned nothing of speech! I've learned that ponies are willing to pay great amounts for mediocre texts, that Whipstitch the Seamstress can fix almost anything with a needle and thread, and that my subjects seem to enjoy Miss Bon Bon's candies more than anything else short of the Cakes' confections! But I've learned NOTHING of grammar, enunciation, or any of the things my teacher has been attempting to educate me on!" She thew her hooves up in the air and slammed them back into the water, a satisfying spray of water sloshing out of the bath from her action.

Rarity's jaw hung open for a moment, then closed again. She lost her focus on Luna for a moment, as if lost in thought.

"And you said that your host was... Pennington Inkwell? The pony at Inkwell Commissions?"

Luna nodded. "But only barely. He has never left his study the entire time I've been here, and only talks to me through his door!"

Rarity chuckled, shaking her head. "Well, I don't know him very well, you would have to ask Whipstitch about him. But from what she HAS told me, he rarely does something without good reason. We creative types usually have roundabout ways of doing things, and I believe that I may have some insight into his methods."

"What? What is this supposed to accomplish?" Luna tipped her head backwards, leaning against the side of the tub. "At this point, I am desperate enough to take any answer..."

"Well, your highness, I've had no trouble understanding you today. Your speech has come across as refined, but not archaic, darling!"

Luna paused, her mind wandering back to the week's events. Rarity was right. Suddenly, the true lessons of the week began to sprawl out before her. From Pennington and Whipstitch, she had interacted with ponies enough to develop the reflexes to speak in ways they would understand, and given her more practice in understanding context than Quill had given her in all of their lessons combined. Bon Bon's store had forced her to rely on those reflexes and to communicate quickly and succinctly with the store owner, cementing those habits into place. She had learned more in three days than Quill had taught in three months!

But there was still one question that eluded her.

"You're right, absolutely right, but why would Pennington be so secretive? What is he hiding in his study?"

Rarity simply shrugged, replacing her lost cucumbers with a fresh pair.

"I couldn't say, darling, except that when the fit of inspiration is upon me, I've been known to disappear into my own workshop for days at a time! Perhaps you simply caught him at a bad time?"

Luna sighed and sat back, dissatisfied with her answer. There was something else at play, here, and she would reach the bottom of it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Sister? Luna, it is time for you to wake up..."

Luna's eyes flickered open, rising from her dream and back to reality. Celestia was standing above her, at the side of her bed, heavy bags under her eyes and showing signs of exhaustion.

"It's your shift, sister..."

Luna nodded, her mind slowly returning to the present. Equestria was still under attack, and Celestia was here to retrieve her for her turn to protect Canterlot.

"Are there any signs of the storm growing weaker?" Luna asked as she rolled herself out of bed.

"None. In fact, I would almost say it's become stronger... though that could just be my tired body playing tricks on me." Celestia turned an, in a very undignified manner, flopped onto the same spot Luna had been laying. Celestia had her own, bed, of course, but Luna imagined that the convenience of not having to walk across the hall was more than worth it to Celestia.

"Have we received any word from Pennington and Moonstone?"

"See for yourself..." Celestia levitated a scroll over to Luna from the bedside. Luna quickly unrolled it, reading through Moonstone's report as quickly as possible.

"Pennington is alive and healing after... being crushed in a cave-in?" Luna shook her head. "According to Moonstone, it looks as though all of the magic energy of the past two months came to the surface at once, completely frying his prosthesis, but keeping him alive. They've taken up shelter with a pony named... Turvian? Am I pronouncing that right?" There was no reaction from Celestia. After waiting a moment, Luna continued.

"Turvian doesn't seem to be a big fan of yours, he appears to be proficient in... chaos magic... Hmm. Interesting..." Luna continued. "And she says that they're close to her family's home, so she's going to... follow through with the plan on schedule... a little early, even..." Luna trailed off, thoughts of her dream resurfacing.

"Celestia... are you certain that we're doing the right thing? Are we really doing what's best?"

"Hmm?" Celestia rolled over in the bed, turning to face Luna. "Luna, you've been the most avid in affirming that he is the pony we think he is. Do you think we're mistaken after all of the affirmation we've recieved?"

"No, it's just..." Luna looked out the window, trying to pinpoint the source of her dread. "I know what we're doing is for all of Equestria's sake... but what if we're crossing a line, here?"

"What we're doing is eventually going to happen, it's fate." Celestia punctuated her words with a yawn. "His whole life is leading him to it, if our research is right. All we're doing is playing our role. Now you should get going. We both know Eclipse can only hold up the barrier by himself for a short time."

Luna looked down, then nodded and walked from the room, gently closing the door and locking it behind her. Celestia needed her rest, and Luna needed to think about if what she was doing was right.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lily took a deep breath. A REALLY deep breath. The kind of deep breath where she wished she had bottomless lungs so she could KEEP taking a deep breath. After holding it for several seconds, she finally let it loose in what had to be the biggest, most anxious sigh of her life.

The good news was that she had found a branching tunnel that seemed to have a current of fresh air coming out. The bad news was that the tunnel in question went downwards, and at an angle of about 65 degrees. For a pony trying to descend safely, it may as well have been a sheer vertical drop for all of the control she would have over her descent.

What is it that Penny always says? "A bad option is better than no option?"

She hesitantly stepped up to the edge of the slope. It was definitely not natural, but she could feel a breeze coming up from below. It was the best option she'd found since she'd begun searching... how many hours ago? It was getting hard to tell.

Okay, I HAVE to get to the surface, now. I'm starting to lose track of how long I've been down here!

Lily slowly inched one hoof, then two onto the slope. Slowly, she let them slide down until only her back hooves and her rump were back on the edge.

She took anther deep breath. She could try to use her magic to slow herself down, but this was going to be like the world's worst playground slide.

"Well, here we go..." With a final inch forward, she was completely on the slope, sliding downwards on the loose dirt at a somewhat manageable pace. She started to feel relief as she realized that she wasn't going to just plunge into her possible death.

Then she noticed that the walls were beginning to move by just a little faster... and faster... and faster.

"No, no, no! Nononononononono NOOOOOOOO!" she shrieked as she lost control over her speed. She tried to take a grasp of her own body with her magic to slow herself down, but just as she had managed to focus enough to concentrate, she felt her front hoof strike a study rock on the path, knocking her legs out from underneath her.

"AaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" She could only scream as she tumbled down into the darkness, now completely out of control. All she could do was raise her hooves up to protect her head as she plunged deeper and deeper.

Without warning, Lily felt the tunnel level out, but before she'd had the chance to try to catch herself, she was already airborne, a pink, tumbling, screaming cannonball launched from a tunnel that seemed to have lead only to emptiness.

Finally, with one last plunge, Lily's world came to a complete halt.

She could tell that she had landed, though her eyes were still perceiving the world as spinning wildly. With the best lurch to the side she could manage, she violently vomited, expelling the last of the food she had previously eaten before she was separated from Twilight and Delta. After a few more retches, she felt much better, and it felt as if the world had finally slowed to a stop. Glancing at her surroundings, she finally looked down to see where she had landed.

She was standing at the top of a pointed island in the middle of a lake of lava. Down below, she could see several young dragons staring up at her, looking every bit as dumbfounded as she was. She watched one of them turn to the other.

"Did... Did a pony just win 'King of the Crag?'"

One of the dragons, who was sprawled out on the ground in a way matching someone who'd just been knocked from a high position, jumped up to his feet, spinning around growling loudly.

"Not if I can help it! GRRAAAH!"

The dragon leaped up at Lily, spreading its wings to help cover the height difference and coming at her fangs-first.

Lily had idea idea what she had just stumbled in on, she had no idea where she was, what she was doing, or how she was going to reach her goal. She was alone, she was tired, hungry, and burning up from the hot air around them. As all of her pain and anger and desperation bubbled up at once, she only knew one thing: She'd had enough.

"Just... STOP!" Lily's good sense and self control were gone as she reeled back her hoof, greeting the dragon with the strongest blow she could muster straight into his gullet.

Crunch.

"OWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAH!" The dragon reeled back, tumbling down the hill for a second time, hands gripping at his jaw. As he landed, Lily could see bits and pieces of his fangs dropping from his gums as a tickle of blood fell from his mouth.

"MAH TEEF! MAH TEEF! SEE BROK MAH TEEF!"

Blinking in shock as her senses returned, Lily looked down at her hoof. A vision from her nightmares greeted her: a pale white plating, like bone above her skin, had coated her limb, protecting her from harm. Cha'Qued's plating from when she had been possessed. She could almost hear Ravia's words echo back in her mind.

Not to mention, I can tell that you have encountered him before, I can sense his stain upon your soul... He leaves something of himself in every pony he touches, a corruption not easily washed away.

Is... is that what she meant? That he left me with... this?

"Did that pony... just beat up Snarl?" The same dragon asked, sounding even more shocked.

Lily instinctively went to apologize, but was interrupted by one of the other dragons turning to stare up at her.

"HEY! What's your name, pony?"

Lily hesitated. Giving her full name or her real name came with risks, but lying to the dragons could make them angry, if any of them had a gift like Moonstone's.

"I-Ixia! My name is Ixia!" Her middle name. Penn liked to use it when they were foals instead of her last name, he said it was prettier. She would respond to it as if it were her first name, and it was technically the truth.

"Well, guys, looks like Ixia won!" The second dragon shrugged. He was large, but definitely overweight, by dragon standards. Everything about him seemed to indicate a lazy personality.

"WHAT? You're going to call a PONY the winner? No WAY!" another one sneered. This one was the polar opposite, tall and lanky, with a high-pitched voice.

"Well, I dunno 'bout you guys..." the last dragon,seemingly the token female of the group, spoke up, "But THAT... was the most radical jump I've ever seen! I mean that wasn't a three-sixty, that was, like, a thirty-six-HUNDRED!"

"BUH SEE BROK MAH-"

"Well, that's what you get going at everything headfirst, moron!" The female flicked him in the forehead, prompting him to jump to his feet, spread his wings, and take to the skies, bawling his eyes out.

"WAAAAAAAAH-HAA-HAAH! Juff wai 'ill mah folks heer about tiss! Yoo'l beh sorreh!"

"Wait, did he just say he's going to tell his PARENTS he got beat up by a PONY?" The lanky one tapped his chin. "I get the feeling a few baby fangs aren't all he's going to be losing today..."

Lily watched all of this with morbid fascination. She had no idea if she'd be able to fight her way out of there, especially considering that she had NO IDEA how she'd made that bone plating come back, and it had already disappeared again.

"Well, come on down, Ixia! Looks like you won King- er- Queen of the Crag!" The overweight dragon waved for her to come down and join them.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" The lanky dragon held up his claws. Are you seriously calling her the winner? Because if you are, I don't like where this is going!"

"Well, all in favor?" The larger dragon held up his hand. The two of them both looked at their female companion, who shrugged.

"Dude, if you don't give her props for a flying attack with, like, ten flips and zero wings, that would be the bigger crime here!" With that, she raised her claws, as well.

"And against?"

The lanky dragon raised both claws, sticking out his tongue, only to quickly put one of them back down again when both of the others began to growl at him.

"So... Um... nice to meet you?" Lily spoke carefully as she reached the bottom of the hill, being extra careful not to trip again. "What was... what was going on here? Before I got here, I mean!"

"Well, we were pretty bored, and everybody wanted to do something else, we we agreed that whoever won 'King of the Crag' would get to decide what plan we followed." The heavyset dragon shrugged. "It was looking like we were all going to be stuck playing all day, since it's Snarl's favorite game. Then you knocked him down with that awesome move, and... well, here we are."

"How'd you do that, anyway?" The female dragon leaned in.

Lily looked up, trying to spot where she'd come from. High above she could barely make out the sight of the hole, a pinprick above the lava moat of the island.

If I hadn't come out of that at the speed I did... I'd be fried...

"Well, you see that hole up there? It's got a really steep tunnel behind it! I just started rolling, and well... Got launched at the bottom!" She shrugged.

"And cannonballed straight onto Snarl! Not bad!" The female dragon punched her in the shoulder with what Lily would only imagine was a gentle force for dragons.

Note to self: check that for a bruise later...

"Wait, so if you all say I won..."

The lanky dragon slapped his claws against his forehead.

"I can't believe we're doing this..."

"I dunno, could be fun!" The girl shrugged.

"So, what's the plan, boss?" the heavyset dragon asked, placing his hand on her shoulder.

Lily took a deep breath, steadying her nerves and trying to choke back the tears welling up behind her eyes. Finally, she'd found some help.

"Honestly, I'm glad you asked..."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna finally reached the high tower, where she could spy Eclipse grappling with the handle of what seemed to be a gigantic umbrella. Rolling her eyes, she grasped onto the last fading embers of Celestia's shielding spell, reigniting it under her own power. It was a painful exertion, but nothing she couldn't handle, just as she'd handled the night before, and the night before that.

"PHEW!" Eclipse slumped to the ground, collapsing in a seemingly boneless heap under the pelting rain. "How do you two DO that all day and all night? I can barely go five minutes!"

"Remember when you first met my sister? How she trapped you in a bubble shield that kept you contained so you couldn't escape?"

"How could I forget? I thought I was going to be the next lawn ornament..." Eclipse muttered.

"Like that, but bigger."

"Well, I MEANT to ask where you got the energy, but whatever... That's like asking Dizzy where he gets all his power."

Luna's train of thought paused, realizing that she may have stumbled onto a kindred spirit in her crisis of conscience.

"So... Do you ever regret it? Even though it was for the greater good?"

"What, the two of you managing to catch me?" Eclipse took his regular form again, stretching out on the floor to his full height before staring up at her from below. Even though he could only do very little to help in keeping out the storm, he had seemingly designated himself to keep them company. It probably helped that being in the guard tower kept him as far from other ponies as possible.

"No... I meant Discord's imprisonment. I know you thought about it a lot before we brought you here."

"Still do..." Eclipse sighed, rolling so his back faced Luna. "I mean, he was hurting people! Ponies, animals, even me, sometimes..." He let out a long sigh, and Luna suddenly felt guilty for breaching the subject. "But I still regret that things had to go the way that they did... That he resents me for not helping him escape all of these years..."

Luna's eyes drifted to the side and downwards, her perspective turning inwards, thinking of her own actions.

"You're worried about Penn, right? Your protege?"

Luna was caught off-guard when she came back into focus. Eclipse was back on his feet and staring her straight in the eyes.

"You think you sent him off to die for the greater good of Equestria?" Eclipse backed to the other side of the balcony, taking a seat against the railing. The rain seemed to be the only thing that could tame his disheveled mane, and it was actually rather entertaining to watch the rivulets of water run in haphazard directions all over his body, defying gravity and physics. "Luna, the situation is a lot more complicated than with my brother, and Pennington is doing it willingly. If something happens to him, it's not your fault."

With a tiny amount of her spare magic, Luna teleported in a small stack of papers, all with special preservation spells to prevent them from being ruined by the weather. They were held together by a leather strap bearing an insignia matching Pennington's cutie mark. It was his partially-complete beastiary of Equestria.

"But... It is..." she whispered, unbuckling the strap and removing several pages. When she had the pages she wanted, another thought brought a book from the Royal Archives to the tower: Quill's original beastiary, preserved in much the same way to protect it from the wild elements.

Flipping open the book, she shoved it towards Eclipse, followed by Pennington's notes.

"I knew what he would find out there... and if he survives... he won't be the one coming back!"

Eclipse stared down at the two texts, his jaw hanging loosely open.

"But... that's impossible, isn't it? This, this right here is IMPOSSIBLE! Right, Luna? And if it IS possible, there's no way you and Celestia did this without consulting me, right?"

Luna was glad that their shield couldn't stop a heavy rain from still falling on the castle, it gave her a way to hide her tears.

"RIGHT?"

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

What exactly is that cat/dragon hybrid in the picture?

[Pennington Inkwell]

8004901 That's Moonstone taking a nap in the fireplace and being smug about it. She KNOWS she's going to track ashes all through the house.

[Love able chaos]

I don't know if you noticed this but you put the word idea twice in the same sentence one right after the other.