Pony See Pony Do
IC date: Autumn 32, 1007
OOC date: Oktober 21, 2012
PCs: Solar-Wind, Ruby-Blossom, Winter-Solstice, Sodium-Fizz, Magpie, Jellybean
NPCs: Professor Redmane
GM: Applejack

Following a most harrowing mountain-climbing experiment, and a rather successful planning session with the warband of pegasi lurking in said mountains, the ponies of the Horseshoe Base have had their spirits lifted! At least a little. It shows in the way the more grown-up folks around the base help with the foals, and in how all the foals have been in a generally cheerful mood ever since their forced evacuation.

There have been some spot renovations… The cafeteria has turned into Foal Central for the purpose of keeping them all together, and the Laboratory has gained a few extra beds, where they'll be out of the way of other magical learning and experiments.

This is where the Professor is in fact, pouring over a dusty tome. Deep in focus. Or thought. Or possibly napping with his eyes open. Sometimes with older ponies it's just that hard to tell.

Between surviving the expedition and having the opportunity to use his skills in the renovations, Kludge is certainly feeling more cheerful. He waves at a few foals as he goes to see if there's any tasks that the Professor needs done.

Sodium-Fizz is not happy. True, it was pleasant to see the enthusiasm of youth all around but is was starting to get just a tad bit frustrating. She was one of the few pegasi in the base, and while the novelty was definitely wearing of there were always somepony curious and on top of that she had been saddled with keeping a watchful eye on Solar-Wind to make sure he'd not get up to something crazy. There was her alchemy lab as well, something that should never /ever/ be mixed with foals and which turned out to be very hard to foal-proof.

Trotting through an archway she came to a halt, spotting the not-quite familiar yet known shape of the Professor. Oh, this would be a good chance. Smiling almost giddily she walked over, her hooves clip-cloping against the floor and a quick flick her head sending the hood of her cloak, a raggedy piece of fabric adorned with feathers and bits and pieces of fur and bone, falling against her back. It had been meant to be her Ghostwalk costume, though she's more or less wound up wearing it permanently. "Professor?"

A twitch of ears greets both the approaching ponies. A grunt follows suit, one hoof lifted in that age-old 'wait' signal researchers are so good at using. The Professor squints, slowly turning a page with his other hoof, then reaches for the bookmark to tuck it in the spine between pages. A slow breath is drawn, Redmane straightening his back out with a series of loud cracks and pops. Oh so much adventure lately is bad for an old back!

Only after all this does he finally turn his head to regard the visitors with bleary eyes. Has he been up all night? Whether or not he has, he still manages a warm, if slightly strained smile, "Yes, hello. What's on your mind, ponies?"

Winter-Solstice is not a pony of very many marketable skills. She can lift things, and pull things, and hit things, sure, and she might know how to do some metalwork if you have a need and a facility that can process such stuff, but they don't, here, which means she's basically extra weight and muscle.

But what she can also do, and what she seems to have a tireless enthusiasm for, is round up kids. So, when she's not helping to hold something up, or pounding the casing of a heater into shape for Heatsink, or moving supplies from one end of the base to the other as things are rearranged, she's chasing kids around, keeping them busy, taking them away from dangerous or valuable equipment, or just doting on them because it's fun.

Any number of those factors may be why she romps into the room a short while after Kludge and Sodium, pursuing a pair of giggling earth ponies. "Bleeaarrrgggh!" she's bellowing as she thunders along. "Smashbot 9000 Foal Nab Protocols engaged!" She speeds up, vaults forward with hooves outstretched, and manages to scoop one of the shrieking kids up in her hooves, only to reach back, neatly deposit him on her own back, and stand up, to trot after the other.

The other, a brown filly with a sandy brown mane, decides Sodium, as an adult, is the next best place to hide, and scoots around to huddle behind Sodium's legs, peering out from behind them and across the room to an approaching Winter with a giggle. Thankfully, the powerful mare has noticed that it's meeting time and slowed her approach, smiling cheerfully towards the Professor, Kludge and Sodium, and NOT tackling ANYBODY else. "Hey, folks! Hey! Hey. Hi there. Hi, Soda. Hi, Kludge."

Kludge gives a nod of acknowledgement to Winny, then looks back at the Professor. "Just checking in to see if there's any additional work that needs done. Even got a few spare bed assemblies made, just in case we wind up with more unexpected visitors." Because you never know what might happen.

Sodium-Fizz blinked as the little filly bolted around her out of the blue before turning. Winter. Well, that explains it. "Hello Winter, Kludge." She offered both of them a nod before looking back at the filly behind her, offering her a cheeky smile. "Don't you worry, big ol' Winny won't getcha," she chuckled, a wing unfurling over her head protectively before she turned her attention. "Actually, Kludge, I might have something, depending on if the Professor agrees with me on this… and that is giving some select few a bit of an specialized education. Or at least a crash course."

The Professor chuckles at the interruption of foals on top of other ponies, and a big lug to follow them, his head tipping in greeting to the whole lot. He takes the moment to break away from his desk, settling to his hooves and giving them a good stretch too.

"I must say you've got quite the touch in dealing with foals." he speaks to Winter. "It's been a blessing, since it's meant I could send Pinkie off to find out what exactly happened in that forest." Then to Kludge he turns, adjusting his glasses. "There's always something that needs done around here." Redmane notes, "You should check with Heatsink sometime, see what all she's got on her fix-it-up list. Maybe you can even give her a few ideas of ways we can keep things from falling apart around here, hm?" His ears perk to Sodium then, head tilting ever so slightly. "A crash course in what, praytell?"

The brown filly that Sodium shelters under her wing leans out from behind it and sticks her tongue out at Winter. Winter gasps silently and sticks her tongue out back.

Then she notices she's being spoken to, and perks up to grin at the Professor with a brisk nod. "Happy to help! I haven't even lost any yet, too." The colt on her back is trying to climb down, and Winter reaches back to catch him before he drops off, only to sit back, hold the squirming colt in her forehooves, and toss him up a good five feet before catching him. He goes all spread-eagled in the air and looks dazed when he lands, which means he doesn't go far when Winter puts him back on the floor. She then looks back to the professor, listening.

"Okay, you certainly have my attention, Soda. What type of specialized education?" inquires Kludge. After all, learning is also another good way of avoiding boredom, particularly if the topic is interesting.

"Alchemy," well, asking her, what else would one expect? "The way I see it, it would give you a lot more than you have right now. Better chances to survive, better chances to defend yourself, and to fight back if, or when, it comes to that. Plus, it would give you another juicy treat to use to get that pegasi clan well and truly over on your side, both medicine and alchemical weaponry. You should most likely have somepony study under Kludge as well, from what I understand he's very talented." Fizz smiled.

"True, it's… not really directly applicable to help everypony survive /now/, but if all we ever think about is now then we don't really have much of a future to look forwards to, right?"

"I'll admit that isn't a bad idea…" Professor Redmane notes, scratching at his chin. "We do have a bit of alchemy training, but only from what books we could sneak from Canterlot when opportunity arises. Which is regrettably very rare." His head dips slightly, "If you're an expert in the field, Miss, we would certainly love to have you teach us a few tricks."

The Professor's smile turns into more of a grin. "In fact, we'll happily learn anything you lot have to teach us. Everything can be helpful in the coming days."

"Alchemy?" asks Winter, frowning in the manner of someone thoughtfully considering something they have no earthly understanding of. "Like turning lead into gold? Do we even have that much lead around here? I think there's some lead plating around the lab here. Maybe if it's gold we can shine it up so it's SO shiney we can just hold it up and Nightmare Moon will be like, oh crumbs! It's Celestia! Better leave before I get my butt whooped." She spins the colt lurking nearby about towards the lab entrance. "Go hide someplace." He nods dizzily and tromps off, and a moment later the filly underneath Sodium runs out from behind her to pursue.

Sodium-Fizz groaned and facehoofed. "If it's not the pulp comic-book evil mad alchemist it's the old lead-to-gold cliche…" She looked up in time to catch the two foals in the corner of her eye, giving them a wave before turning her attention to Winter-Solstice. "I was thinking the kind that lets you mend broken bones and gaping wounds in hours and days rather than weeks and months. Or the kind that lets ponies walk outside even without the thermal clothing! Though… um, that's still a work in progress. The failure's have turned out really neat fire bombs though, so I guess they've still been kinda useful."

Kludge nods. "Sounds like a good idea. Bit of a challenge, too - the reinforcing I do is partially intuitive, so explaining it might take some extra time. Would be a good form of practice, though."

Suddenly from behind Fizzy comes Ruby's voice "Wow, fire-bombs? Can I get some? Those would come in real useful." the mare /right/ behind Fizzy without any announcement…how unnerving.

Magpie comes trotting up in a more mundane fashion. "Did you say FIREBOMBS?" she asks, eyes widening.

Sodium-Fizz lets out a startled, half-choked scream as she leaps forward, slips, and plants her face firmly on the floor.

Firebombs?! Winter opens her mouth to extol the virtues of explosions, but Ruby beats her to the punch. She waits a moment, then tries again, but Magpie beats her to the follow-up. She waits a moment, waits another moment, eyes Kludge and the Professor, then smiles. "What they said!"

"Now that seems like it would be rather useful." Professor Redmane notes, his grin not fading one whit, even as he reaches down to see if he can't help Sodium get back up on her hooves. "Especially considering we're about to do something incredibly stupid and attack one of the dear Queen's outposts. A little extra firepower could do us some real good."

Magpie says "W-wait, you're WHAT?!" She looks from Winter to the professor to Ruby. "That's dangerous!""

Kludge shrugs. "Not that much more dangerous than anything else we've been through here," he points out. "If we get more breathing room, then we'll have one less thing to worry about."

Sodium-Fizz rubbed her muzzle and nodded, giving the Professor a grateful smile. "That's what I was thinking, yes… Though that means I'll more or less have to hand over making healing draughts and potions to somepony else. I'm good, but there's a limit to how many things one pony can be making by herself. There's a miss Brightheart, one of the ponies that tend to the hurt, that's been helping me out for a bit, I'd like to teach her and anypony else you send my way. Maybe I can get the basics down enough so that everypony going a bomb or three, and maybe a healing potion."

She turned, giving Magpie a small smile. "And… Well, they're crazy. I'm doing what I can to make it as safe for them as possible… Don't worry."

Ruby-Blossom trots over to place a hoof on Magpie's head "Yeah, it is dangerous." she reassures the filly - in the wrong manner. "But we need to do something. Speaking of something - professor?" calling for his attention. "There's something I should show you guys." she pats Magpie "I'll be back in a few." trotting off to Celestia knows where.

"You could certainly take on a teacher role here." the Professor suggests to Sodium. "Teach someone how to make Firebombs. Teach someone else how to brew a healing draught. Or what have you. I leave that up to your expert care, but you have my blessing to do whatever you want to help us out. It will be greatly appreciated."

The old pony smiles. Then perks his ears when Ruby mentions 'something'. "Hm..? Er… Yes. Of course. What's on your mind?" He rises to his hooves, "Excuse me…" and begins to follow the mare.

Magpie grumbles and puffs her cheeks out in irritation at that patting. She scowls at the others, then crosses her hooves and sits down. "Fiiine." It's totally not fine. "I'll see you later." She's totally following them.

Winter-Solstice draws herself up with a prideful puff as Magpie declares their plan of action dangerous. "Sure is, Mag!" she proclaims. "But that's what it's gonna take to start making headway here. Don't worry- we're bringing some suuuuper grumpy barbarian pegasi to help dispense the justice." She turns and watches as everybody leaves, tapping her feet impatiently, then leans over to start poking through the Professor's stuff, seeing what he was reading, looking to see if he has anything to eat up here in his office. Hey, what's this? This is shiny. That looks important. That right there, that is a very big number written on that piece of paper.

Kludge looks at Winny, Sodium, and then at the direction Ruby went… and sits down. While the sneaky mare didn't specifically say "stay here", it was fairly heavily implied.

Sodium-Fizz shoots Kludge a glance, for a moment, a smirk appearing on her lips. "Which is what I hoped to hear, and why I hoped to catch you too, Kludge… Might require a second alchemy rig set up somewhere for this to work proper… and I might just, um, have scavenged all the lose bits and pieces I could find to put the first one together."

Ruby-Blossom acks adorably and proceeds to wave the professor off "I'll be back in a moment." she clarifies before trotting off without the professor to an undisclosed location!

Tsk. Redmane stops, shrugs, turns about, and ambles back to his seat. Only to find Winter poking about his things. He squints at the big lug of a pony, but she doesn't seem to be, y'know, wrecking anything, so…

For the record? His open book appears to be an old copy of Predictions and Prophecies.

Magpie waits until everypony is getting distracted, then darts after Ruby. Once she's out of sight she starts slinking after the mare with all the stealth she can muster.

Winter-Solstice stops with her hoof on the book, looks up at the professor for a moment, then looks back down. She roots around for about ten more seconds before finishing up and dropping her duff back down while waiting for Ruby. She waits for all of five seconds before she starts talking again. "Hey, Professor. Do you know much about the things that took over the hive? I was thinking of heading back up there sometime and… and trying to, you know. Bop a few. Get a feel for how hard it might be to take the Hive back, or how much trouble they'll be if there are more of them elsewhere, not just in the forest."

From an undisclosed location: Ruby looks over her shoulder to ensure she's not been followed. "I'll give em something to think about." she beams - horn appearing with a small swirl of magic. The mare's horn begins to glow as magic is put to use; truth be told Ruby's not practiced with many spells - in fact she's pretty amateur. The color begins to fade from the tip of her tail and rear hooves; her man turning from ruby red to white, and her mane from turquoise to white! A small orb forms at the tip of her horn, grower larger and larger until the last drops of color leave her horn; the mare quickly pockets the small ping-pong ball sized orb then rummages around in her saddle bag. She produces several small vials and goes to work /coloring/ her mane. Quite the little show for Magpie.

Kludge contemplates Sodium's request. "Sounds good - and with me studying alchemy, I might be able to improve the structural pieces. Make them sturdier, improve their hold, other small things like that."

"That would be splendid. I typically don't use the full lab setup myself - short of actual research… which there's been a lot of, the plants here are crazy - but somepony will need it!" Sodium-Fizz giggled before turning to Winter-Solstice. "And… you're planing on going back out there, seriously?"

The grey mare shivered, her wings ruffling underneath her mangy cloak. "I'm not certain if I should call you brave, crazy… or if I should try to join, getting another load of plants from the forest would be useful. Plus test and see if my creations work as they should…" The last part left a sour taste in her mouth, elixirs and concoctions made to kill.

Magpie blinks. She frowns slowly. "What're you doing?" she demands suddenly, stepping out of a shadow that seems like it ought to have been too small to hold her.

Professor Redmane nods slowly to Kludge first, "Every little bit helps." he repeats. "Reinforcement of our doors and structural facilities would help in case we're discovered and bombed with dragons or something. Though quite frankly I hope we figure something out before that happens." Then to Winter, the Professor's head bobs. "I have..Pinkie scouting the forest now in fact, trying to figure out what all has gone on in there. We're /aware/ of the undead, but a swarm of that size is practically unheard of. Let alone why they'd suddenly decided to converge on the Hive like that. So… I'm afraid we don't know much more than that right now." He adjusts his glasses. "There are stories though. There's always stories. Of one who actually may lead the undead. A witch in the woods…"

Winter-Solstice shrugs at Sodium, evidently wholly unconcerned by her worry. "Yeah," she says. "We're gonna be fighting a lot before this is all over one way or another and I really hate waiting." She looks back to the professor, listening with unusual patience, then narrows her eyes. "A witch in the woods, huh? Pinkie's the expert on the woods- should I ask her about it?" Reaching up, she scratches her head, squinting more. Thinking is hard. "It makes sense, though. The queen didn't know about the hive, I don't think, or this would have happened before. Seems like if someone was to take a sudden interest in it it'd be someone besides her."

From an undisclosed location: Ruby acks as she's caught in the middle of her 'costume' change. "Maggie." she glares for the briefest moment before scolding "You would have found out if you didn't' interrupt." she grins at the foal. "I was going to give the guys a little a surprise. Think you can wait a few minutes to see the end results, or would you rather spoil the surprise?" she offers playfully while brushing a dye through her mane. "I'm rather good at playing dress-up you know."

"If it had been the queen, it wouldn't have been undead things coming." the Professor says, shaking his head slowly. "The Queen doesn't exactly have any control over them. At least not that we've seen. She seems to prefer to think that they don't exist at all. So long as they stick to the spooky forest and only eat earth ponies. I can't imagine what she'd do if one of them ever made it as far as Canterlot."

Kludge contemplates the structure of the base, both the inside and the outside. His initial repairs had brought the durability up to what would normally be considered tough, but since the Queen's forces have dragons, even tougher measures would be called for. Nice challenge, that.

Sodium-Fizz taps her muzzle for a moment. "Huh… Forest witch? Tell me, aren't we supposed to have one of those back home, as well? Whats 'er name, the one that helped Salty out? Or… whatever went on with that." To be honest, she's not really sure. It's before her time… and a utterly, completely muddled mess for anyone that didn't take part of it.

From an undisclosed location: Magpie tilts her head. "…Surprise? What kinda surprise?" That's a suspicious voice. She's not fond of surprises, after a life that's been short on nice ones.

Winter-Solstice looks to Sodium and shrugs again. "I think that's Snowfield. She's that grumpy little unicorn that got stuck here with us. I think I saw her over in the cafeteria about half an hour ago." She quiets for a bit, considering. "There seem to be alternate versions of lots of ponies here in this world. Maybe the snow witch here in this world is another Snowfield, except this one smiles. THAT would be kind of weird." She considers further, and eyes Sodium. "Maybe the witch is an alternate version of YOU and THIS one IS one of those comic book mad scientists and she's gonna send an army of Gold Golems after us."

From an undisclosed location: Ruby reaches out to pat Magpie "Just a little game of dress-up - something that might make our little camp raid a little easier." she playfully shoos the foal. "Give me a few minutes, and I'll join the lot of you, alright? You're slowing me down there." offering a warm, reassuring smile to Maggie as she proceeds with her little costume change.

Sodium-Fizz blinks at Winter-Solstice before dropping her hindquarters onto the floor and her head in her forehoovs. "Ugh, my head… Winter? That idea is redicelous! I only know how to make slime monster minions, not zombie minions! And… and… And there! I bet it's an alternate Snowfield, really!"

From an undisclosed location: Magpie eyes Ruby. "Well… okay. As long as you're just doing it to keep ponies safe…" She slowly trots back, but keeps glancing suspiciously back at Ruby.

Winter-Solstice reaches up and scratches her broad nose with the tip of a hoof, looking around the room. "I don't know, I think it'd be pretty cool. Don't you want to know what your double would be like? I hope I get to meet mine, and she's ready to throw off the shackles of an oppressive queen, and we can team up and we'll take turns pinning Nightmare Moon down while the other one kicks her in the sinister bits." She beams a smile over to Kludge. "I bet Kludge's double builds super cool ice fortresses."

From an undisclosed location: Ruby smiles over her shoulder at Maggie as the foal leaves the concealed corner. A delighted little huff "Rascal." Now she's able to focus on the task at hand, and execute her costume change in full. "I hope they don't over-react she mummers." Taking a good look at herself before trotting away from her hiding spot and back to the professors office. She should arrive a couple minutes after Maggie returns - if anypony noticed Maggie was gone.

Kludge chuckles. "Ice sculptures, maybe - I suspect my local double isn't very local. After all, how many places around here want elegant, fragile sculptures?" Said double might also be better at magic than Kludge, but Kludge isn't going to worry about it - or mention it to those who don't know his secret.

Magpie blinks as she trots back in. "You have a double?" she asks Winter, blinking.

Sodium-Fizz nods slightly. "I doubt any version of me would be around either… I'm a pegasus after all, most likely whatever ancestry an alternate me would have here was wiped out long ago." That thought made her cringe, batting a bang of dusky purple hair out of her eyes. "'Sides, I'm from Trottingham…"

Winter-Solstice shruuuuugs at Magpie. She's good at shrugging. "I don't know. Maybe? Some people do. It's just fun to think about." She watches Sodium for a moment, thinking, before frowning. "Yeah… there is that. I'm from Bardington, that's a long ways off and to the north. It was already cold, it's probably even MORE cold here. Probably cold enough that you can't even pretend to live there. It probably never even got founded. Which means my parents never even met. Which means I wasn't even born here." She trails off, staring at the wall, before frowning with determination and puffing her chest out. "Alternate me, I will avenge y- oh, hey, Rub-" Winter stops with the huffpuffery and stares at Ruby, or someone who looks suspiciously like Ruby.

Solar-Wind slips in quietly beside Sodium-Fizz, he's still dyed midnight black and with a grey mane and tail all stealthy like, He's out of bed again… "Had to see what the briefing was" he mentions, "keeping up on the local news" he notes.

Listening through all this, Professor Redmane has turned back to his book. The talk of alternate selves is interesting. Perhaps even important to consider for certain things. Eventually though, he turns back to the growing crowd of ponies.

"We've already seen that other versions of yourselves may be roaming these lands." he notes with a shrug. "But… It may be best not to put too much thought into where they may be. This land has been unkind to a great many ponies. Some of you may not want to meet your other selves."

Magpie nods to Winter… "Yeah, that's what I was gonna say… there can't be a double for EVERYPONY, right? I mean… there's just not as many ponies here as at home, so…"

Now to startle anypony - but a white furred, purple maned pony trots into the room unannounced, and the familiar voice of the dragon rider rings out "Oh, so this is where everypony has been hiding. Simply fabulous." Ruby well aware this could /quickly/ escalate out of control, and proceeds to follow-up in her own voice. "Or so she'd say." sticking her tongue out at the group - standing there next to Solar as the spitting image of an evil servant of the queen - save for tell-tale Ruby red eyes.

Magpie squeaks and covers her mouth. Ohmygosh. "I GET IT NOW!" she shrieks with glee!

Solar-Wind about drops, staggering to the side, and bolts full tilt for the door"AhhhnnNot that Dragonlady?!" He skids to a stop looking for 'that dragon' loook look look, Where , WhereisIT

Sodium-Fizz turned her head slightly, eyeing Solar-Wind. "You know Ruby's going to do even worse to you if you keep this up, right…?" With that she turned her attention to Redmane and Winter. "Yeah, I know it's kind of pointless thinking of it, but… well, it would be nice to be able to do well by yourself. If you know what I mean. The idea of you never having existed here though, makes me shiv-…"

The mare cuts off in mid-sentence as the Ruby enters, disguised as somepony else. By the time she reaches her third sentence the alchemist have already picked through her robe, a vial in her hoof full of caustic green liquid. She blinks confusedly. "…Ruby?"

Kludge nods in approval. "Because sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight. Right, Ruby?"

Jellybean pokes his head into the lab. "Are ponies arguing in here? I hope ponies aren't arguing."

If anyone had ever wanted to see the Professor flip out, now would be that time.

The moment a flash of disturbingly familiar white-on-purple coloration even begins to show through the door, let alone the voice of that creature, Professor Redmane gurgles out a choked sound! "GAH! Nightmare's Will! HOW!?" His old book is /flung/ at the pony, as is the old pony himself, apparently not even realizing mid-tackle that this isn't actually the Queen's minion. "Somebody get /help/! I'll keep her distracted!"

"Wait! No! Stop, it's oka—aack!" Magpie has to dive out of the way to avoid just getting trampled by the old professor. She rolls back to her feet and blinks, staring. Holy Celestia's left BUTTCHEEK! That old dude is TOUGH!

Ruby-Blossom beckons towards Kludge with one hoof whilst replying in the dragon-mare's voice. "I don't understand how /any/ pony could hide in such drab surroundings - you'd have to be positively DULL to hide in this…ah 'dwelling' I believe you called it? How uncivilized." sticking her nose up with a haughty air of arrogance. The details are really quite marvelous - color matched mane, perfectly white fur, and an identical cutie mark; quite the good show. Her second sentence interrupted as the Redmane /tackles her to the ground. "Wah! I should of seen this coming!" she cries while attempting to wrestle the professor to the ground - but failing miserably; after all she's not a muscle mare like Winny.

Solar-Wind was looking for the dragon, when the Professor goes for Will, Ok, that does it for him, hero mode engaged, Pegasus MODE FIGHT selected, and CHARGE! the massive stallion goes in for the KILL a full tilt turn about to help the Professor, he's got size going for him, and now he's got RAGE too, CHARGE

Jellybean notices, belatedly, the villainess in the lab. His response is to scream and start running in circles. So useful in a crisis.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…" Sodium-Fizz scrambles for another vial in her cloak in panick, rather messily at that; several of the slim glass cylinders, filled with liquids of questionable nature, winds up rolling across the floor.

Winter-Solstice trips over her own hooves to pursue the professor as he vaults towards disguised Ruby. She herself has her doubts, you know, about who exactly this is, but she's also not entirely convinced this IS in fact the evil unicorn they encountered the other day. What she IS sure of is that nobody needs to be hitting anybody else on the head just yet, so she shrugs her way into the melee to thrust a foreleg between the professor and Ruby and try to pry them apart. "Whoa whoa whoa!" She pushes further between them and holds up another leg towards Solar, trying to head him off at the pass. "WHOA WHOA WHOA. Whoa. WHOA. Come on. Ruby, if that's you, you need to, like, seriously give us a heads up like right now oh my gosh Magpie will you go stop Jellybean from doing that please!"

Kludge sighs, glad that Winny is trying to sort things out. To help minimize the potential for chaos to spread, he carefully picks up the vials that Fizz has dropped in her panic. The last thing we need is for alchemical stuff to be going off at random because of ponies stomping on them.

Magpie starts shouting, "DON'T KILL HER IT'S JUST RUBY PLEASE DON'T KILL HER AUGH STOP!" which is hardly helpful and just adds to the noise Jelly is making.

Across the room, the two foals Winter chased into the lab earlier, who have, since leaving, been hiding under one of the makeshift bunks set up in the new dormitory across the lab, start screaming as well.

Solar-Wind dodges, dodge, "I'llKillher!" he practically froths at the mouth, Stomp, Stomps his forehoves, he's right ticked, and seeing red, big dude is not in his head, its all ahead full, and Winter is an object 'in, his, way! Snort, Snort he presses in presses in HARD, stomping his forehooves like they are stone on stone. RAGE is apparent and he's Not listening to anything!

So much confusion! Fortunately the Professor isn't too difficult to pry off of Ruby once Winter puts a little effort into it, the old pony falling backwards onto his back, forelegs clutching his chest. Huff, huff! "By all the fires of the blessed sun were you trying to give me a /heart attack/?"

Snowfield walks into lab wiping sleep from her eyes. It's so difficult to manage the time when there's no day/night cycle. She's reverted to her own internal clock (which is a funny thing these days) and has been woken up by the loud commotion. She blinks several times at what appears to be half the ponies in the room trying to slaughter somepony, and the other half shouting their fool heads off. "…I'm going back to bed," she says, turning and walking back out the door.

Sodium-Fizz pulls finally seems to find the vial she's looking fool, a half-full little thing. Her face scrunches up in indecision, use it now or save it. A quick glance into the fray makes up her mind as she pounces Solar-Wind herself, pulling out the stopper of the half-vial of paralytic poision as she. Hopefully enough to get the stomping stallion to calm down! Or at least make him unable to do any harm to anypony, himself included.

Winter-Solstice doesn't pry the professor TOO hard, and once he's out of the way, she pushes forward further over Ruby, adopting a protective stance. She doesn't make any aggressive moves towards Solar, but she does angle to absorb his fury with her own flank as best she can, hunching her shoulders and ducking her head as necessary to maintain her protective posture. "AAAAHHH LOUD NOISES," she bellows, what with everybody else screaming.

Fizzy's generous application of the potion to him, effects him right quickly, and the big stallion nearly collapses on the spot, he skids in and down bouncing loosely against whinny without the same force by any means that he would have had, had the stuff not absorbed in as it did so. There's a rich gasp, a panting breath, then he pretty much just drops thereafter. Dang that high metabolism of the pegasus, the stuff really does a number on the big guy. He's down, and kinda quivering still, eyes still bloodshot with rage, and he's trying to work with things, though not doing much of anything. just kinda laying there twitching staring at the dragon lady. Solar-Wind just twitches after that assault upon him

Magpie runs over to skid to a stop in front of Solar. "It's not really her!" she shouts at him from two inches away. "It's just Ruby all dressed up 'cause she's really good at that and she can sneak into their base and blow stuff up!"

Ruby-Blossom slides out from under Winny relatively unnoticed - pie-pans can only offer so much protection against cake-pans after all. The mare rolling out from under Winny then sliding up behind the mare as she notices Solar's assault coming to a stop. Lifting her head to peer at him with those distinct ruby-red eyes. "Whoa. I found some-pony's hot button." reaching to stroke Winny's mane all friendly like - glancing her direction to make sure the other mare isn't hurt. "Sorry." she whispers to Winny. Bad choices certainly seem to be Ruby's speciality as of late. "I just figured this might help us out, you know?" a sheepish grin towards the group.

Jellybean seems to understand that maybe doom isn't imminent and stops screaming. "What's going on?" he finally asks.

Sodium-Fizz groans from where she's wound up, next to Solar. "Is everypony done…? Done screaming, too? Can… somepony please give me a hoof here, I think my leg is trapped, though… I can't feel it…" Apparently Solar isn't the only one that got problems in the mobility problems, the alchemist herself having gotten splattered by the paralytic agent, if not nearly as badly. Apparently leaping with an uncorked vial of the stuff is not the best means of delivery.

As things calm down, Kludge returns the dropped vials to Fizz and helps prop the alchemist up. "Maybe I should make some carts for dealing with accidental paralysis splashes," he muses.

The Professor decides he's just going to lay here a while and catch his breath. Maybe stare at the ceiling for a bit. Slow breaths. Slow breaths.

Eventually he does tip his head to peer up at Winter, or rather to the disguised pony hiding behind Winter. "If that's your costume for Nightmare Night, dear mare, I'm absolutely confident the shadows won't be trying to take a bite out of you. I can't guarantee nopony /else/ will though. Very well done."

The two foals stop screaming as well, and bustle out from hiding to hang out near Jelly. He's their age (or at least he looks like it), and he's not freaking out, which means he is someone to stick with.

Winter relaxes gradually, eyeing Solar, then Sodium, then turning to fix Ruby with a frown. It's not too mean a frown, more one of passing irritation, and she drops it soon enough to sit down and reach up to straigthen out her messy mane, smoothing it back along her head. "How'd you even pull that off, Ruby? That's really really REALLY tricksy."

Magpie bellows, "SHE'S SUPER TRICKSY AND IT'S ACTUALLY KINDA CREEPY A—" oops. "Sorry," she says quietly. "I-it's actually kinda creepy. Can you teach me how to do that?"

Solar-Wind just snorts, strains, snorts again. Big guy is still right ticked off, and apparently not getting it, the joke, or what the heck is going on, she's still free, unharmed, has everybody lost their heads, He slurs out, "tricks, magic, danger!" or something thereof , its really hard to tell just what he said, mostly incoherent right now. He's really trying to move, really he is, its more of a twitch, Twitch TWITCH?!

Sodium-Fizz flashes Kludge a grateful smile, "Thanks…" Winter's question does, however make her turn her head curiously. "Actually, I'm curios too… That horn looks unbelievably real!" She smiles ruefully. "Always kinda wanted one instead of wings… Sadly, that seems outside the abilities of alchemy."

Jellybean nudges the two foals in a comforting fashion. "It's okay. I think it's okay, anyway. I don't see any big scary monsters here to gobble us up, so I think it's okay."

Ruby-Blossom beams softly as she sits behind Winny - still mostly hiding from Solar. "I know a thing or two about disguises, and costumes." the mare admits the obvious. "Being mane stylist can teach you a thing or two about dying manes." Rather she learned a thing or two about mane-styling to be a better thief. "Oh, this is /totally/ fake." *whee grin* Hoping everypony believes her - but some of those closer to her might be able to decipher the blatant lie - after all she's not trying to be super deceiving at the moment.

Winter-Solstice turns to look down at Solar, watching as he quivers with apoplectic rage on the floor. Her lips draw in a grim frown, and she turns to look to Sodium. "He's gonna bite his tongue off or something at this rate. Do you have some kinda anaesthetic we can dope him up with? I hear hitting 'em on the head to knock them out actually causes brain damage and he probably wouldn't like that very much." She turns to peer at Ruby with one suspiciously raised eyebrow, but maintains that suspicion for all of two seconds before flashing Ruby a bright smile. "You are pretty good at hairstyling! So that makes sense." She thinks nothing of the horn because of course it's fake. Ruby's a good ol' Earth Pony and not trying to hide anything which is good because Winter doesn't have to suspect her GOOD FRIEND Ruby of being someone -deceitful- at all.

Kludge just keep tidying up the area. Now that things seem to be under control, why not help get things to how they were before the fracas?

Ruby-Blossom is totally deceitful, and bitter! Yet she smiles back at Winny! "Uhh…maybe I should go change, and stuff?" she asks aloud before dipping her head and scampering off to 'change' into something less rage inducing.

Solar-Wind is now twitching with meaning, much meaning there, like he's actually trying to move to attack that one, that evil one, oh anger, oh aggression, RAGE! SnortSnortSnort, hoof twitch, eventually he is just left panting uselessly, so much effort put into moving just merely moving has taken away every ounce of strength he's got. Bed rest, yup, bed rest good, no resistance now! RAGE TWITCH

Professor Redmane eventually pulls himself off the ground, fetching his book and climbing back into his seat at his desk. He patiently arranges the book back how he'd had it before, then turns around and continues to patiently wait for the chaos to settle. Or maybe not so patiently, given he clears his throat.

"Ahem. So if that spot of wonderful excitement is over with, I may suggest getting back to preparing for coming events instead of beating each other senseless."

Magpie trots over and puts her hooves up on the edge of the prof's desk. "Is there anything I can do?" she asks him.

"That… sounds really nice, though I think I'm going to have a lie down till I can actualy move on my own." Sodium-Fizz shot her right foreleg and wing a dirty glance, both hanging limply by her side, then turned to Kludge. "As for Sol… I think… third row of holders in the cloak, seventh in from the edge. Anaesthetic, that should calm him down, if not knock him out cold…"

Pauses for a few moments thoughtfully, "Also… could someone /please/ help me to my bed while they're at it?"

Jellybean meeps and trots over to Fizzy and starts gently nudging her in what he thinks is the direction of her bed. "I'll help you, Miss. Fizz."

Several minutes later Ruby returns - complete with Ruby coloring and no horn! The mare wondering over to poke at Solar oh so gently "Calm yourself, Solar." she tells the stallion before poking him again. "Hah, this is kinda funny." she pulls out a small bottle of mascara, and begins to do Solar-Wind's lashes =3

Kludge carefully extracts the appropriate vial (and double-checks to make sure it *is* the right vial), then applies it to Solar-Wind with an equal amount of care. While alchemy isn't the same as carpentry, you still should be very careful with the tools in either case.

"Hmm?" Professor Redmane glances down at Magpie, flashing the little filly a smile, "Of course there is. We have a whole room of foals that need to be dressed up for the coming Nightmare Night… Do you think you can help them figure out some good costumes? Or you could perhaps help Miss Sodium put together potions. Or really anything anypony around here needs help with. There's quite a bit to get done!"

Winter-Solstice goes to help Sodium to the bed, but Jelly is already on the case. She goes to retrieve the vial but Kludge does it first. She stays where she is and rubs her nose with her hoof. If I can't solve a friendship problem, I'll MAKE a friendship problem, so she reaches over and slides a book off the Professor's desk so it lands on the floor, like a bored cat might. "Here, Professor, lemme get that for you." She picks the book up and puts it back in its place.

Solar-Wind 's twitches end, and he calms down with a deep sigh, as his Commander orders him down from his Killrage mode. There's a definite mumble there, oh yes there is, "buh dragonlady, gottakilldragonlady" he slurrs out, "whereshego?" then his breath catches in his throat as he realizes what she's doing. his twitch would resume most likely, but then there's Kludge with the vial of that other stuff, he makes a desperate attempt to ask look to Fizzy, to for her to ask about armor for the raid?! she knows he needs it.

Sodium-Fizz flashed Jellybean a small smile, her own three-legged gait rather unsteady without his help. "Thanks, Jellybean. Hope to see you all tomorrow… when I'm a bit more mobile."

The alchemist laughed, "Oh, it's definitely going to be fine, it lasts for a few hours only. I'm a bit more worried about Solar-Wind to be honest… I figured I'd be the least stable of us, but… he seems a bit worse…" She frowned thoughtfully. "Speaking of Solar…" she paused, turning slightly. "He was talking about looking into putting together some armor for the raid… Wingblades too… But…"

Someone has awarded you karma! Keep being awesome!

Magpie 's ears droop a bit. She was hoping for a job that wasn't so… mundane…

Solar-Wind actually manages to nod, still panting some and obviously starting to reel a bit, "armor, wingblades" he murmurs out in askance, "raid stuff" he slurrs, begging for a response before he's too far gone to hear much of anything. trying to listen, oh so trying to listen.

Fizzy's comment earns Solar-Wind a firm glare from Ruby! Ruby just glares down at Solar. "You need to calm yourself. You're hurt as is - and if you keep straining yourself like this, you won't be going anywhere, at all." the mare leans way to pratically touch noses with the mascara wearing Solar. Point-blank glare. "If I have to tell you again - I'll break something ALOT more valuable than your wings." She stands up straight and beams warmly at the rest of the group. "Maggie! I will - to your earlier question.

"Not sure how much help I'd be with pegasi equipment," admits Kludge. "Wood can be useful for vehicles, and /maybe/ heavy infantry, but not for ponies that rely on agility in any degree."

The Professor blinks at Winter's knocking of a book off and..replacing it back on his desk. His head tilts, "Ah… Thank you, I think." Then he glances back down at Magpie and her drooped ears. "Well…" he trails off, tapping his chin.

"It might not be a bad idea to send someone to go check up on Pinkie. She hasn't reported back all day." he admits, glancing between Winter and Magpie. "I don't particularly like sending ponies out into potential danger, but it's potentially important information. Shouldn't be more than a quick trip to the forest's edge. Give a shout or two for her name, and if she doesn't come to you after a few minutes come right back to base."