Penn and Stone: Dynamic Duo

by Pennington Inkwell

A Breath of Fresh Air

Luna anxiously paced about her room as Eclipse sat in the corner, lost in thought.

"I still believe I could teleport to them and be back in time!" Luna muttered, even as Eclipse shook his head, dismissing the idea.

"Even I couldn't make it there and back in time with all the magic in the air from this weather manipulation, and we both know that teleporting is my specialty. And even if you knew where you were going and could make it there safely, there's no telling what kind of dangerous situation you'd be throwing yourself into. Last we heard from them, Pennington was in the middle of the Macintosh Hills, right on Equestria's southern border with the dragon lands." Eclipse sighed. "If you were delayed even slightly, ponies would realize you had left and think their princess abandoned them. We'd have a full-blown riot on our han- erm, hooves."

"Well, I tried sending him a letter, and all I got back was THIS!" Luna shoved the page of parchment into Eclipse's face, as if he hadn't seen it already. It was a hastily-written assurance from "Pennington" that Luna's warning had been received and that he would heed her warning to beware the Adelind family. Luna knew that it was fake. Pennington would never be that compliant if somepony accused Moonstone of betrayal like that. That meant that Moonstone had been warned by Celestia already and was intercepting Pennington's letters.

His trust in her has saved him many times, but now it will be his undoing!

"Can't you go into his dreams and warn him there tonight?" Eclipse asked. "I mean, face-to-face, plus using your magic for illustrations to drive the point home? Sounds like a foolproof method of getting a point across to me!"

Luna sighed, pressing her hoof to her forehead.

"Celestia KNOWS we're going to try to undermine her plans, and we BOTH know she'll have accounted for something that obvious. If I were to guess, I'd have to say that she'll be moving things forward, to bring him to the trials before nightfall, before he has a chance to sleep at all!" Luna turned back to Eclipse.

"What about YOUR powers? Couldn't you send a parasprite with a message, or a wayward cotton candy cloud, or something? Teleport Pennington to US?"

Eclipse sighed, shaking his head.

"Again, there's too much risk in trying to teleport over that long a distance with these magical storms. They've only gotten worse over the last twenty-four hours. And not even a full swarm of parasprites could make it that far by now, let alone a small enough number to be noticed missing from the evacuation efforts."

Eclipse was right, of course. All of his parasprites had been called from Equestria's borders to scour towns and cities for any ponies whom the first evacuations had missed, and had brought in dozens of stubborn individuals who'd thought themselves capable of weathering the storms alone. But now entire swarms were being reported missing, stricken out of the skies.

Luna groaned, walking over and lightly pounding her head against the wall.

"There MUST be something we can do to send warning to him in his waking hours!"

Eclipse sighed, glancing down at a watch that had appeared on his wrist.

"For now, you have an appearance to make in the grand hall in... five minutes."

Luna groaned. These "appearances" didn't consist of much more than tactfully walking past doors and down hallways, occasionally making her way through the grand hall itself in order to be accosted with countless questions she didn't have answers to, constantly rushed onward by guards that told those who asked questions that she was simply "very busy" and "Couldn't take questions." She hated it. It was all just a farce, creating the illusion that Equestria's rulers were busy and hard at work for their subjects, when in reality, they were just as helpless as the rest of them. Everything relied on Pennington's mission to retrieve the wendigo gauntlet being a success.

But at this point, it was all that could be done to keep up appearances in front of their subjects.

Our subjects... that's it!

"Eclipse?"

"Yeah?"

"I need to ask you for something big."

Eclipse shifted anxiously, but nodded.

"I need you to leave the castle and contact somepony for me." She snatched up a pen and paper from her dresser, hastily scribbling down an address and stamping it with her royal seal before pressing it into Eclipse's claws. "Go to this address, ask for the 'daring mare.' Those exact words."

Luna couldn't say that she was surprised as the color drained from Eclipse's face.

"Y-you want me to go outside the castle? Into the city?"

This had been a long-time problem. While she and Celestia had been successful in convincing Eclipse to leave Everfree to live with them in the castle, getting him to LEAVE the castle had been another matter entirely. After Cadence and Shining Armor had left for the Crystal Empire, he'd stopped leaving the castle entirely.

"Eclipse, I know you get nervous about leaving the castle, but-"

"And you..." Eclipse pointed at her, then back to himself, "Want ME... to go talk to ponies I don't know and have never met? And ASK THEM for something?"

Luna sighed, using her magic to force Eclipse down to eye level.

"I know it's a lot to ask of you, Eclipse. But as you said yourself, my hooves are tied keeping ponies calm. I have every confidence that you can do this. If I didn't think that time was of the absolute essence, I would go myself my "appearance" was through." She gently poked her hoof against his chest. "You have a stronger heart than you believe. Please, do this for me."

Eclipse blinked, surprised at her words, then groaned, tightening his grip on the paper in his palm.

"If I'm going to do this, I want you to try checking if he's dreaming the MOMENT you get back, okay? Maybe he's taking a nap, or something!"

Luna smiled, then nodded.

With another pained moan, Eclipse held up his hand, fingers poised to snap his fingers. "I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this..." he whispered repeatedly as he screwed his eyes shut. With a loud snap, he disappeared.

Luna sighed, donning her regalia with practiced ease and stepping out into the hallway, where an escort of guards were waiting for her. She rolled her eyes, but nodded in agreement as they all set out to ease the nerves of Canterlot.

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Spike's jaw hung loose as he watched Moonstone hop down off of the huge dragon's head and into the snow. She quickly ran past him and to Pennington's unconscious body.

"Wha- wha- wha-" He stuttered, trying to wrap his head around what was going on. The large dragon seemed to be ignoring him, watching Moonstone carefully.

Moonstone reached down, placing her claws carefully on Pennington's neck. After a few seconds, she sighed with relief.

"His heartbeat's faint, but there."

"Good," the large dragon replied. "Then we shall bring him to the eyrie." Slowly, he snaked his tail underneath Pennington's body, only for Moonstone to swat hastily at him.

"You can't just pick him up like that! Do you have any idea how to handle an injured creature?"

The larger dragon rolled his eyes.

"Um... Moonstone?" Spike asked, finally getting her attention away from Pennington for a moment. Moonstone gave him an annoyed glare for the distraction until he pointed up at the giant dragon and raised a questioning eyebrow. "Care to introduce us?"

"OH! Right!" Moonstone's glare shifted to a smile as she gestured to the two-story-tall dragon. "Spike, this is my big brother, Noir! Noir, this is Spike!"

Spike stared up at the larger dragon, waving in a friendly manner. Noir bent his head down, getting a closer look at Spike. Spike couldn't help but get slightly nervous at the fact that this dragon looked like he could eat him up as easily as a piece of popcorn.

"Well met, 'Spike.' I am Noir Brightscales Sapphirus Adelind, firstborn of-"

"Noooir, I told you, he was raised in Equestria, none of that means anything to him!" Moonstone called out as she reached down into a small pocket in her scales and retrieved a small vial. Slowly, she uncapped the vial and placed it just beneath Pennington's muzzle. After a couple seconds, Pennington inhaled sharply and his eyes snapped open.

"G-gah! T-Twilight! Lily! I-"

"Penn! Penn take it easy, they're fine. Everyone's safe." Moonstone whispered, kneeling down beside his head and trying to soothe him. "Sails and Delta are gone. Everyone's okay."

Pennington's eyes flickered around, first to Lily, then Twilight, then Spike, and finally widened as he caught sight of Noir.

"I... feel like I missed a lot."

Spike chuckled, rolling his eyes. "Only about ten minutes." After a few seconds, he looked closely at the vial in Moonstone's claws. "What IS that stuff, anyway?"

"Smelling salts." Moonstone pressed the vial into his hand. "You wake up Twilight and Lily, I'm going to try to get a good assessment of Penn's injuries."

Curious, Spike took his own sniff of the vial. It reeked of ammonia, making him cough slightly as he leaned down, holding the vial to Lily's nostrils. The effect was seemingly the same, jolting her back into consciousness, albeit with much less panicking involved than with Pennington.

"Spike? What's... going on?" she asked, rolling herself into a sitting position.

"Well, this is Moonstone's big brother, Noir!" Spike grinned, motioning to Noir, who nodded politely. Lily's eyes widened, but she thankfully didn't faint for a second time.

"Moonstone has told me much about you, Calalily Curl."

Lily's face flushed slightly as she nodded politely.

"Ch-charmed..."

Spike knew that reaction he'd seen Rarity do the same thing countless times when she was nervous. It seemed to be the standard greeting under duress for ponies in Canterlot.

"Lily!" Moonstone called, grabbing her attention away from Noir. "I could really use a horn over here!"

Lily snapped out of her reverie, quickly getting back up on her hooves and shakily making her way towards Moonstone as Spike moved in the opposite direction, running over to Twilight. Upon catching the scent of the smelling salts, Twilight screwed her eyes shut harder as a pained groan rumbled up from her chest.

"Uuuuugh, my head..."

Spike chuckled softly. This was just like how Twilight would wake up the morning after one of her all-night study sessions. Slowly, she cracked one eye open, peering at Spike with one bloodshot eye.

"Spike?"

"Take it easy, Twilight. Everything's gonna be fine, now."

Slowly, Twilight's eye panned from side to side, taking the sight of everything in the clearing.

"Is... that another dragon?" she whispered, slowly pulling her face out of the dirt to open her other eyes. "Or am I dreaming?"

"Yeah!" Spike grinned, offering Twilight a helping claw in getting back onto her hooves. "Apparently, Moonstone's big brother is a BIG brother! He took out Sails with one big WHACK out of nowhere with his tail! He never saw it coming!"

Twilight seemed unsteady on her hooves, stumbling as she tried to take a step forward. Spike quickly ducked under her, helping her regain her balance.

"S-sorry, Spike. I think I might need your help to walk."

Spike nodded, looping one of her front hooves over his shoulder and letting her rest some of her weight on him. He couldn't help but feel a surge of pride at the fact that Twilight was standing at all.

"No problem for a number one assistant! As awful as he was, Full Sails was right about one thing: you've had a pretty rough day. I'm just happy to help lighten your load!"

Twilight smiled, tousling the spikes on top of his head. The tender moment was interrupted, however, by Moonstone.

"Twilight! I need another pair of eyes!"

Twilight sighed, and Spike couldn't help but feel annoyed with Moonstone's bossy attitude.

What's the rush, anyway? Everybody's safe!

As the two of them made their way over, Moonstone sighed, shaking her head. As they finally drew close enough to get a good look at Pennington, Spike heard Twilight's breath catch in her throat.

"Oh my stars... Penn, you're-"

"I'm fine..." Penn muttered, clearly avoiding eye contact.

"You're terrible." Moonstone stated matter-of-factly, rolling her eyes. "Twilight, I need a second opinion, make sure I didn't miss anything important. Lily, do you mind?"

"Um, those with weak stomachs might want to look away..." Lily glanced at Spike for a moment as her magic lifted up a black cloak from the ground and hovered it above Pennington's body. As she did, the cloak became transparent... as did Pennington from the neck down.

"The further we hold the invisibility cloak from Pennington, the less effective it becomes, which allows us to get a nice look at his injuries from the inside." Moonstone explained as Lily levitated the cloak further upwards. Spike braced himself as Pennington's body began to reappear in layers from the ground up. Pale bones and sinew came to light, along with dark, spindly blood vessels and pulsating organs. Spike honestly couldn't identify much of it, but Twilight's sharp intake of breath was enough to make him worried.

"I count three fractured vertebrae, two fractured ribs, a broken rib that's punctured one lung and caused it to collapse, and microfractures along... well, nearly everything, but those might be left over from when that cave collapsed on him."

"I just need... to catch my breath."

Twilight seemed to miss the fact that Moonstone had just stated Pennington had been in a cave-in, her eyes quickly darting across everything she was seeing with the same level of intense study she usually dedicated to pre-test cramming sessions.

"Any sign of a concussion?"

"His brain seems to be the one thing that ISN'T broken."

"Well, it looks like he might have broken one of his hooves, as well..." Twilight muttered. "I'm not surprised you missed it, though. The collapsed lung is a much more pressing matter."

Pennington rolled his eyes dismissively. If Spike wasn't seeing the crumpled organ, himself, he might not have even believed Penn was badly injured, just winded.

"What do you think we should do? It's not like we can just operate right here in the snow, right?" Lily asked, nervously glancing between Twilight and Moonstone.

"The blood is building up in his chest. That pressure is what collapsed the lung, and if we don't stop it soon, more blood will build up and pressure the heart enough to kill him." Twilight muttered. Spike knew that tone. This was Twilight being all-business, completely objective.

"We can make it to my family's home in about an hour, forty-five minutes if Noir really pushes it. We have powerful healing magic there."

Twilight shook her head. "That's too long, he could die en-route. If we can't stop the bleeding here, we have to relieve that pressure NOW. Normally, doctors would use a hollow needle or some kind of hose to let out some of the fluid, but we don't have either of those on hoof. We'll have to improvise."

There was a brief pause as everyone stopped to consider the situation, and Spike noticed Pennington's eyes briefly glance towards the hilt of his sword just over his shoulder. Spike suddenly had a sinking feeling in his gut that he needed to avoid THAT course of action if he wanted to have any chance of not having nightmares for a year straight.

"W-wait! Don't you already HAVE a path for getting it out?" Spike pointed at the spot where Pennington's rib had poked through his lung. Slowly, he traced a path up through Pennington's throat and up through his mouth. "If you can get some of the blood out like THAT, would we be able to make it in time? With magic?"

Spike could see the gears in Twilight's head turning for a few seconds before her grip on his shoulders tightened in a loving hug.

"Spike, you're a genius! I just have to-" There was a sound of a soft fizzling as Twilight's horn sparked helplessly for a moment. Spike didn't even have to look up and see her disappointment, her whole body seemed to sag with the weight of it as he tried to keep her standing.

"I- I think that's it... I spent everything trying to fight Full Sails. I haven't got any magic power left."

Moonstone frowned, turning to Lily. Lily, realizing what was about to be asked of her, stepped back, shaking her head.

"No! No, no! Nononononono-"

"Lily, you HAVE to! You're the last unicorn standing!" Moonstone urged. "If you don't, he's not going to make it long enough to get help!"

"N-no! I'm not a doctor! I'm not calm under pressure like the rest of you! I'll mess it up, or kill him even faster! I might... might..." She trailed off, her eyes caught on an object sitting on the ground: Ravia's mask. She tilted her head, confused for a moment.

"What do you mean?" Lily said to no one in particular.

Spike would have thought she was crazy at this point, but after today, he felt a bit more hesitant about ever calling anyone crazy ever again.

"Y-you think so?"

"Lily?" Pennington croaked, snapping her attention back to him. He coughed weakly, a trickle of blood leaking out of the corner of his mouth and staining the snow. "Remember... a year and a half ago? When you were... triple-booked?"

The color drained from Lily's face.

"That's not fair, Penn..."

"You said you'd do ANYTHING if I would... run Whipstitch's shop so she could help you..."

"I never meant-"

"Anything."

Lily looked down at the ground in shame.

"So I'm calling in... that favor. I'm asking you to... just believe in yourself... like I do. For five minutes."

Lily had tears flowing down her face, now. She took a long, shuddering breath, gritted her teeth, and nodded. She walked closer, her eyes narrowing in focus as her magical grip on the cloak adjusted and she prepared herself to multitask. Slowly, Spike could see a crimson pool in Pennington's chest begin to glow with blue magic.

"It'sjustredhairdyeit'sjustredhairdyeit'sjustredhairdye..." Lily repeated to herself as the pool began to slowly trickle its way out of Pennington's chest cavity and into his lung, making its way in through the edges of the rib's entry point.

"Okay, Penn... Take a deep breath in..." Twilight whispered, reaching down to take a hold of his hoof. Pennington nodded silently, obviously holding back a grunt of pain as the blood pooled in his lung. "Now hold it. Lily's going to pull the broken rib back into place, okay?" Pennington nodded, gritting his teeth. Spike couldn't help but notice Lily was still crying silently, but to her credit, she hadn't lost focus because of it. There was a small pause as everyone held their breath together, and the magic took hold of the bone and pulled it back into its proper place, exposing the hole in the lung for the blood to pour through. Pennington's eyes grew wide and he let out a long, strained groan before inhaling and exhaling quickly over and over. After a few tense seconds, he nodded, signaling for them to continue.

At this point, Spike had to wonder if he'd been right about this being the method LESS likely to cause nightmares. Somehow, however, he couldn't tear his eyes away from it.

"Okay, Penn, another deep breath..." Twilight whispered. Pennington complied, and Twilight gave an encouraging nod. "Now, exhale slowly."

Pennington let out a soft wheeze. At the same time, Lily began to move the pool of blood upwards in a small stream. The liquid finally made its way out of Penn's mouth, dropping down and creating a steaming red puddle in the snow. After nearly ten seconds, the last of the blood passed through. Lily finally gasped and the glow of her magic faded away, leaving both herself and Pennington taking in swift and short breaths of air, though for different reasons.

Spike heard Twilight hum quietly to herself in thought.

"As much good as that did, we should get moving. It still hasn't solved the problem of the bleeding hole in his lung, and I doubt you want to have to do that a second time mid-flight."

As Lily vehemently shook her head, Spike was surprised to see Ravia's mask slowly sliding across the ground towards Pennington.

I have done you a great injustice, Pennington Inkwell. I thought you a trickster and Calalily misguided. However, Sails was proven to be the one who had deceived me.

Pennington was still panting for air, but nodded as best he could.

"Happens... to the best of us... Sails is crafty."

As a goddess, I should be fair and just, but I acted rashly and out of wrath. Please, allow me to make some small start to reparations for my attempt on your life...

Pennington looked wary, but nodded.

A single tiny root sprung up from the ground, gently pressing itself into his mouth. Everyone watched through the invisibility cloak's inside view as it quickly made its way down his throat and into his collapsed lung. Once it had reached inside, it pressed itself to the wall of his lung and began to grow, more roots traveling out and pushing outwards, forcing his lung back into its original shape. After restoring it back to its full size, one of the tendrils pressed itself against the puncture wound and pulled it shut. A small spiderweb of roots grew to hold it shut and separated itself from the rest. Its work done, the root shrunk back to its original single tendril and pulled itself back out of Pennington's mouth altogether. Spike was the first to break the shocked silence.

"Whoa."

My domain is not over the flesh, but I know much of healing nature's creatures. That should hold well and staunch the bleeding until you reach this place of healing of which the dragons speak. A grouping of small branches grew up out of the ground, blossoming into blooms of bell-shaped greens with large white orbs inside them.

"Hazelnuts?" Twilight asked, confused.

"Filbert flowers." Lily smiled. "They mean she wants to reconcile."

Pennington took a deep breath, smiled, and nodded weakly.

"I think I could do that."

Moonstone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright, then! Lily, you focus on GENTLY levitating Penn onto Noir's back. Everybody else: you're gonna have to get on, yourselves! I'm still worried about the possibility of concussion, so I'm going to keep Penn awake and observe him on the way. There's a magical healing spring waiting for us about an hour's flight from here where we can all mend our wounds and get some rest!"

For the first time in what felt like ages, Noir finally spoke up once again.

"Friends of the Scribe shall be welcome in the Adelind Eyrie."

Spike had to admit, he liked the sound of that.

As they were all walking away, Spike caught a small snippet of conversation as Lily picked up Ravia's mask.

"So, WHY didn't you do that BEFORE I had to stick my magic into my best friend's chest?"

Spike chuckled softly. Somehow, after everything that had happened, he was more impressed with Lily than anyone else. Twilight had always been awesome, she'd already saved Equestria twice, but Lily was just a hairdresser from Canterlot. This was all way beyond anything she could possibly be used to. He felt proud of her, in a way. Calalily Curl had turned out to be far more than he expected.

"So, Lily, when the tunnel got flooded, you got washed all the way to Penn? Seems like we could have saved some time if we all just went with the flow!"

Lily's eyes widened, and she nearly lost her magical grip on Pennington's body.

"Spike? Have I got a STORY for you!"

Spike covered his mouth, trying to hold back a giggle. Now that the danger had passed and they were safe, things were finally starting to look up. Everyone was going to get a chance to heal and rest, he was going to get to meet more dragons, and they had made a new friend who just so happened to be some kind of ancient goddess.

Everything was going to be fine.

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Full Sails groaned, trying for the third time to get up. It had been ridiculous to let his guard down so much, even if he was only fighting Calalily Curl. He'd forgotten to account for Pennington's dragon assistant and where she might have disappeared to, and it had cost him his victory.

As he finally managed to get back to his hooves, he shook off the snow from his back and gave his wings a couple hesitant flaps. Nothing was broken, though he thought he might have pulled a muscle in his neck at one point.

As he looked up into the sky, he could see the same dragon that had ambushed him taking off back into the air. Sitting on its back were Pennington, Moonstone, Lily, the other dragon, and Twilight Sparkle. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. If the data he'd been given was correct, then he knew where they were going, and it WASN'T to bring Pennington to finish his mission. It was for Celestia's secret weapon to finish HERS.

He casually stretched his neck back and forth and his wings from side to side before taking off into the air, following as closely as he dared without being detected.

Twilight Sparkle would NOT stand between him and his rival.

Comments

[Love able chaos]

Way to not crack under pressure their Lily.