Pennington's Trix

by Pennington Inkwell

Heart Attacks

Trixie surprised herself with her eagerness in the morning, involuntarily rising before the sunrise to make sure that she was ready to start her new "job." She had no way of imagining what exactly Pennington would ask her to do, seeing as he spent most of his time in his study, scratching away with his quill. In fact, that was how he had spent the night before, in spite of her insistence that he try to get a good night's sleep in an actual bed. He had insisted that he had "work to do" and that she would need to be well-rested for her first day of work.

I just hope to Celestia he doesn't ask me to clean out that awful kitchen... She thought to herself as she turned to the mirror in the bedroom to brush her mane. For some reason, her normal confidence in her beauty failed her as she viewed the blue mare in the mirror, nagging at her that she needed to try to be... more. She needed to be more for...

For what? My first day as an employee at a job given to me out of charity? She scoffed at her own insecurity as she put the brush down, marking her morning grooming as done. She wasn't sure if the action was meant to boost her confidence or to rebel against her own feelings. I'm not going to get another chance at a first impression. I can't walk in here in the state that I did and expect him to think that I'm- Trixie blinked in surprise at how quickly her train of thought had turned towards Pennington. She shook her head, clearing her mind as best she could, and adopted a cheerful air as she walked out the door of the bedroom, ready to face the day. Trixie is perfect, and there is nothing that needs to be changed!

She happily trotted down the stairs, fully believing in her cheerful attitude. As she neared the bottom, she even took note of the irregular step at the bottom, gleefully landing firmly on her own hooves. The fact that nothing had gone wrong yet and that she had only good things to look forward to gave her a cheery heart and a positive outlook.

"Penny! Pennington! It is almost eight, and I'm five minutes early!" She chirped as she rapped her hoof against the door of his study, creating a loud knocking.

There was only eerie silence from within.

"Pennington?" She was less cheerful this time as she called out her benefactor's name, leaning against the door to try and hear some kind of response. When nothing came, she noticed a small ray of light shining out of a keyhole in the door. Is he still asleep? She asked herself as she leaned down to try and peek inside.

What she saw horrified her.

Pennington was slumped limply over his desk, quill and inkwell still laid out and ready to do more writing. Trixie would have thought that he was simply asleep if it hadn't been for two small problems with that conclusion: his body was heaving up and down rapidly in time to the sound of his erratic, shallow breathing, and his eyes were wide open, rolling wildly in their sockets, as if some kind of help could be found from the Daring Do effigies around him.

"P-Pennington! Are you alright? Hold on, I'm coming!" She cried, grabbing desperately at the doorknob. To her utter horror, however, she found that the handle refused to turn, locked firmly in place by his own protective measures.

You've got to be kidding me! She moaned inwardly, pulling at it with all of her strength. Pennington is dying, and I'm locked out!

Almost unbidden, she felt an aura of magic floating out from the door, and she recognized it as a spell to unlock the protective measures on the other side. She recognized it almost instantly as a stereotypical password-lock spell, the same kind that she had once used to lock her own stage-on-wheels. She needed only to think of the right words, and she would be inside.

The Great And Powerful Trixie!

The lock refused to budge, and she nearly slapped herself for even trying her old password.

W-Well, what is it, then? Pennington Inkwell? Quills and Scrolls? Ramen Noodles? She frantically tried to think of the things that she had seen that were important to Pennington. Daring Do? Gah, what is it? What's that author's name? The one who wrote those books... Scorching Quill!

Still the lock refused to budge.

She felt panic welling up in her chest as she ran out of ideas.

"Well, then, I'm just going to have to break it down!" She muttered to herself, moving as far back as she could. Gritting her teeth in preparation, she summoned as powerful a burst of magical energy as she could and ran at the door, lowering her shoulder and approaching it horn-first. "Here goes nothing!"

As she ran at the door, ready to unleash the energy on impact, there was a quiet clicking noise, and it silently swung open, letting her pass unimpeded.

Trixie nearly fell on her face with surprise as she ran headfirst into the study, nearly colliding with his desk as she drew to a stop. With a massive exertion of will, she swallowed the magical energy back down from her horn and ran around the desk to where Pennington was still laying, wrapped up in some kind of fit.

"Pennington- Penny, are you alright? Speak to me! Say something!" She tried to pick him up to sit his body upright in his chair, but the moment that she tried, she let go immediately, feeling that his body was entirely limp, like a corpse. Gathering her already shattered nerves, she forced herself to pick him up again, making sure that he was sitting upright in his chair and that there was nothing blocking his breathing, which was still coming only in short bursts. The only change that seemed to come over him was that his eyes had locked on her, rather than moving in rapid circles.

"What is it? What's wrong?" She asked in vain, trying to understand what was happening. "Is something wrong with your lungs? Do you need medicine? Is it a heart attack? A stroke? What's wrong? What about those shocky thingies they put on your chest, do you need those?" She mimed using a pair of defibrillators to try and convey her message. When she couldn't seem to get any kind of response, Trixie thought to what she had seen work so many times when a pony was suffering from some kind of medical emergency: CPR.

"Penn, I'm going to try CPR, okay?" The question was rhetorical as she leaned forward, tipping his head back and making sure that there was nothing in his mouth. It was clear, with no obvious reasons for his trouble breathing. Okay, so you breathe into their mouth and press on their chest where their heart is, right?

Without questioning herself further, she took a deep breath, used one hoof to pin his nose shut, and pressed her wide-open mouth against his. Trying her best to ignore the waves of nervous energy washing through her body, she exhaled into his mouth, feeling his chest swell beneath her as his lungs filled. All at once, Pennington's body started to life beneath her, rising up in a sudden swell and the air was nearly ripped out of her lungs as he inhaled deeply, gasping for the essential oxygen.

Trixie stumbled backwards, gasping to refill her own lungs as Pennington bolted out of the chair, sputtering just as much as she was. He was the first one to speak, and from the moment that he opened his mouth, he spoke faster than Trixie had heard any pony speak before.

"WELL! That was a shock, wasn't it? Certainly enough to get my adrenaline going! Knocked whatever was keeping me that way right out of my system! Mind you, when you said that you were going to try CPR, I was more than a little worried about you pounding on my chest! I mean, seriously, I'm surprised that you didn't try calling 9-1-1 or anything! Thank you SO much for not calling 9-1-1! This is my little secret, and I'd like it to stay like that! Are you okay? You look slightly disheveled!"

Trixie was still blinking in surprise at his sudden recovery. In fact, he was jogging his way around the desk in small circles. "I- I'm fine... What happened to you?"

"Oh, just a nasty little problem that I've had since childhood!" Pennington made a sudden transition from pacing to running in place "Basically, my brain wakes up, but my body doesn't! Causes a bit of discord between the two, really, and I'm frozen in place until I can wake up. Usually, it's accompanied by some kind of vivid nightmare, but this one was rather tame, just let me wake up to the real world! Honestly, I couldn't get myself scared enough to wake up, so I needed a real shock! Then you came in and started thinking I had a heart attack, and I was just thinking 'Please don't mess with my heart, it's the only thing working right!' I just needed some kind of a shock, really, and WHAM! What a SHOCK!" He grinned widely, then stopped for a split moment, if only to break the rhythm of his running. "Wait, how did you get in here? There's no way anypony could guess that lock!"

Trixie blinked. "It- it just opened when I was about to break it down..." Did he just say that he LIKED the...

Pennington shook his head confusedly, returning to pacing around the desk. "That's simply not possible! I mean, it may have been if you thought of the password just before you tried to break it down, which, judging from your build and stature, would also be impossible, but there's no possible way that you could have thought of the words 'Plethora, petrichor, parasol,' could you?" He suddenly turned on her with a glare of deep examination. "Could you?"

"What? I don't even know what you said!" Trixie shook her head, wiping her mouth with her hoof.

"They're three of my favorite words..." He muttered, breaking away his gaze and walking towards the door. "I want some ramen! Do you want some ramen, Trixie? Of course you do, you haven't eaten breakfast yet, right? Come on, let's have some ramen!"

"PENNINGTON INKWELL!" She shouted, stopping him dead in his tracks. "I want a calm, understandable, slow explanation of what just happened!"

Pennington took a deep breath, turned around, and sat down on his haunches. "Alright, Trixie... You deserve that much." He seemed to have finally calmed down, and he was quickly returning to a normal rate of speech.

"Years ago, I began having the problem, even when I was just a colt... It's called Sleep Paralysis. Nopony knows why it happens, or how, but sometimes... I wake up, but my body doesn't, okay? Normally, I can only move my eyes, sometimes control my own breathing..." He looked down at the floor, seemingly ashamed. "My whole life, I've loved being my own pony: standing on my own. But then, I can't sleep at night because I'm scared stiff... Not being able to move is my greatest fear..." He looked up at her with a melancholy shrug. "Nothing I can really do about it..."

Trixie shook her head. "So... have you seen a doctor about it?"

"What?" From the look that Pennington gave her, Trixie thought that she may have thought that she just suggested sawing off his own horn with a butter knife. "Are you kidding? This is embarrassing enough!"

Trixie stood up, walking over to him and placing a gentle hoof on his shoulder. "Penny, you looked like you were dying... and you scared the living daylights out of me. As your official assistant, I am giving you my honest advice. See a doctor." She put a tentative hoof around his shoulders, realizing that she suddenly saw him as much more delicate than she did yesterday. Where yesterday, he had taken a blow that sent him flying through the air and simply limped away, Trixie felt that if she even brushed against him with too much force, he might shatter like glass.

"Well, let me at least choose my own doctor..." Pennington muttered. "I think that I know one who may be able to help... But can we eat, first?"

Trixie smiled as Pennington seemed to have finally collected himself. "Sure. Let's have some of that horrible soup..."

As they walked out, something was nagging at the back of Trixie's mind. The feelings that she had felt when their lips had met. Granted, it wasn't a kiss, considering the fact that she had been trying to save his life, but either way, it was too strong for her to ignore.

"Penny... Did you feel anything... strange... when I was trying to save you? I mean with the mouth-to-mouth..." She felt her face flush as soon as she had spoken, and wished almost instantly that she hadn't asked.

"Well... yes." Pennington spoke slowly, as if he were picking his words slowly and deliberately. "I think that it was very... exciting. It was very disconcerting, but in a good way. And it was certainly a shock..."

Trixie thought for a moment, then smiled again. "So, you liked it?"

Pennington took his own turn to think. "Well... yes."

Trixie gloated quietly to herself. "Well, then again, there isn't a stallion in all of Equestria who wouldn't..."

Comments

[-Brutus]

I think he let out his condition too easily to Trixie; Twilight had to struggle to get it out of him. This seems bit too cheerful too.

[Pennington Inkwell]

2321149 Hmmm.... I shall look into this. Hindsight is 20/20, and I think I may need to take a look back at this chapter... But she did just save him. Twilight wound up badgering him until he had to tell her, but he felt like he owed Trixie. That was my opinion. The cheerful part was simply him trying to play off his terror. Maybe I need to go back and explain that better...

[-Brutus]

2321224 No problem, just doing my duty as loyal fan of this series :). Can't wait for Happy Adventuring to update.

[FillyDashie]

i has question is this the sequel to something???

[gigamix]

Pennginton reminds me so much of the Doctor XD