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#Post#: 2116--------------------------------------------------
Re: Burning the Midnight Oil
By: Gladius Date: April 9, 2014, 2:39 pm
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"Alright, just remember the little pokies that helped you become
a well known name," Gladius said, noticing the weakening of
Windy's smile and doing his best to keep it up with more of his
light joking, "or at least the guard that got you past the gates
of the castle. An honorable mention will suffice." With a shine
of another encouraging smile, Gladius pushed open the door,
revealing a room that was, compared to the rest of the library,
quite messy with books left open and strewn across tables while
piles of literature decorated both their surfaces and the space
beneath them with one being blanketed by a set of robes that had
been set aside. Papers with long lists of notes in tiny
difficult to read writing buried portions of the scene while an
alchemical set up was bubbling off towards the corner of the
room a safe distance away from the reading material and
bookshelves almost forming the entire back wall. Surrounding the
jars, bottles, flame and overall general workspace that was in
danger of causing a mess was a transparent magical bubble, the
only thing giving its presence away being the occasional shimmer
running across it, that was in place to prevent any escape of
anything that could stain. A clinking of glass was very audible
as a stallion, much older than the two pegasi and wearing a wavy
gray mane and silvery coat, mixed and dabbled about with the
mixture currently cooking.
"Somepony better have summoned a full grown and raging dragon to
attack the castle," the stallion said, not taking his watery
yellow eyes off of the careful exchange of liquids being made
between the two containers before him, "because if not then I'm
going to have to give you both gills and teleport you to the
bottom of the ocean for disturbing me, and that's always a
hastle. There's always somepony willing to complain about it."
"Uh... No..." ... Darn it... What was his name... Started with a
Q, right? "... sir, there are no dragons currently raging their
way towards the castle. We were just hoping you could assist us
with answering a few questions? We were looking for an expert
who could help us out."
"An expert at replacing the last few years of your memories with
a simple looping thought of cats dancing maybe," was the surely
joking response from the stallion, Gladius assuming such magic
was non existent... Or at least illegal... Either way, it was
common knowledge among the guard that he was usually all bark,
so, eh, "an expert on what? How somepony can accidentally blow
up a library after being distracted by some kids who want
somepony else to explain to them why the sky is blue?"
Gladius rolled his eyes, "No, actually, my friend here found
something and we wanted to know if it had been discovered by
anypony else yet. A thing in space."
The older stallion paused, then slowly looked to his left and
then to his right before focusing his gaze back onto his
project, "Hmm...II don't see any star charts in here... My
vision must really be going like everypony says it is... Or, and
this could be a stretch, there just aren't any here." Sighing
after pointing out the obvious of how he wasn't in a place for
answering such questions, he got his alchemical brew in order
before turning around and focusing onto Woodwind. "What did you
find?"
#Post#: 2122--------------------------------------------------
Re: Burning the Midnight Oil
By: Woodwind Date: April 9, 2014, 6:36 pm
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Woodwind's smile grows just a little at Gladius' continued
joking, the guard's attitude putting him a little more at ease.
He looks around the room as he steps in, slightly behind
Gladius. He recognizes most of the alchemical equipment the
elderly pony has set up, though he couldn't name all of it. He'd
wonder what was being worked on, but the old scholar quickly
speaks up, threatening to turn them into fish if the reason
they're here isn't vitally important. Woodwind hunches over a
little, partially hiding behind Gladius now. He couldn't
*really* do that, right? Surely even if he could it would get
him thrown in jail, right? The further threat makes him retreat
even further, now just barely looking out past Gladius and
actively trying to hide behind him. He's about ready to turn
tail and just leave when Gladius explains why they're here and
the old pony's attention is turned to him directly. He takes a
deep breath and nervously steps out, holding up his notebook
almost defensively before placing it down on a free spot on the
table and flips it open. It takes him a couple seconds to find
the right page, the notebook now showing a star chart sketched
across two pages, with the unknown asteroid's path marked out.
After a moment he pulls the notebook back over to himself, and
hastily scrawls in the corner of the page. 'I found an asteroid
the other night that I haven't been able to identify. Do you
know what it is?' He pushes the notebook back over, then just
sits there, keeping his eyes directly pointed at the page rather
than look at the grumpy pony.
#Post#: 2131--------------------------------------------------
Re: Burning the Midnight Oil
By: Gladius Date: April 10, 2014, 10:34 am
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The older pony watched Woodwind the whole time, him wearing an
un-amused expression that made it seem as if the very fact that
both of the other ponies were even still present was a huge
waste of his oh so incredibly valuable time, even going so far
as to sigh impatiently as he waited for the pegasus to finish.
Gladius just waited, him not having much to add at the moment
but again standing near Windy a little defensively just as he
had earlier, the guard shifting his focus between the notebook,
its owner and the pony it was being shown to.
Once the correct page had been found and presented, the older
stallion took a step closer to the young pegasus, him noting the
pony's behavior but ignoring it as he looked over the chart. He
took in the drawing, then levitated the entire notebook closer
to him so he could better make out the details. "Hmm...." He
hummed, trying to remember if he'd heard of anything involving
such a discovery recently, "what school do you go to?" He asked
as he continued to read the chart for information.
#Post#: 2138--------------------------------------------------
Re: Burning the Midnight Oil
By: Woodwind Date: April 10, 2014, 1:55 pm
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Woodwind fidgets under the look Gleam was giving him, hoping he
hadn't made some tiny mistake somewhere that the older pony
would notice and get angry over. Things seem to be going well
enough as the scholar lifts his notebook up to inspect it more
closely, the older pony having at least stopped threatening to
do horrible things to them for the moment. He gives a start when
Gleam speaks up again, and for several seconds just sits there
looking at the notebook the older pony was still reading from,
not sure how he would be able to respond without it. After a few
moments he realizes that Gleam, as smart as he seemed to be,
could probably recognize morse code, and if not, Gladius was
right there to translate. 'I don't go to one.' He taps out
nervously, glancing over at the guard and hoping he could help
if they needed it.
#Post#: 2147--------------------------------------------------
Re: Burning the Midnight Oil
By: Gladius Date: April 11, 2014, 10:25 am
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Gleam didn't respond beyond a brief flick of his eyes over at
the stallion before staring back at the notebook, him, after a
few seconds, then rolling his eyes slightly before closing them
and looking to think. Gladius, assuming the older pony hadn't
gotten the message, spoke up to try his hoof at a rough
translation. "He says he-"
"I know what he said." Gleam interrupted as if the assumption
that he hadn't perfectly understood what Windy had said was
somehow an insult, the older pony having closed his eyes to help
himself remember the taps made to put it all together. Hmph. Not
in school. "Already graduated then?"
#Post#: 2151--------------------------------------------------
Re: Burning the Midnight Oil
By: Woodwind Date: April 11, 2014, 2:58 pm
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Woodwind shuffles his hooves nervously, managing to look at
Gleam directly for a few seconds as the older stallion thinks.
He wonder if the scholar had understood him, at least until
Gladius speaks up and he interrupts to confirm that he had.
Woodwind looks over at Gladius for a moment, still fidgeting
slightly. At Gleam's question he shakes his head, tapping his
hooves yet again. 'I've been meaning to look into a school.' He
answers, still not able to look directly at the teacher for more
than a few seconds.
#Post#: 2159--------------------------------------------------
Re: Burning the Midnight Oil
By: Gladius Date: April 12, 2014, 9:27 am
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"So, what you're tapping to me is, that you neither have
received nor are currently attending any form of higher
education and are therefore far from having a credible opinion
on such a thing. For all I know you just saw some star." Gleam
said, setting the notebook down and returning to his alchemy.
Gladius, not exactly happy with how he seemed to brush off the
other pony, spoke up again, "Hey! That ain't fair! He found
something. I saw it myself."
"And you know what you saw?" Gleam replied without looking back,
"you were able to recognise it for what it was yourself?"
"Well... No, but he clearly knows what he's doing with that
stuff. Just look at the chart he made. He even said he was able
to judge how far away it was and even its size too!"
With an exaggerated sigh Gleam turned his head enough to look
back at Windy again, "Are you fully confident in this 'asteroid'
of yours? What reason can you give me to leave my work here to
follow up on what you think you saw?"
#Post#: 2162--------------------------------------------------
Re: Burning the Midnight Oil
By: Woodwind Date: April 12, 2014, 3:59 pm
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Woodwind's eyes fall to the floor, the pegasus slumping
slightly. The older pony was right, he didn't have any formal
education on it. Sure, he'd read just about any book he could
find on the subject, and spent years staying up late into the
night to look at and study the stars, but that didn't really
count for anything as far as education was concerned. He sighs,
glancing over at Gladius when the guard tries to defend him. He
was right, Woodwind did know what he was doing, he wasn't just
some guy who picked up a telescope on a whim and got excited
about the first thing he'd seen. He takes a slow breath and
raises his eyes again, holding them on Gleam for several seconds
as he taps out a quick 'I am.', trying to look as confident as
he can. He doesn't really have an answer to Gleam's second
question though, knowing full well how sensitive alchemical
mixtures can be.
#Post#: 2212--------------------------------------------------
Re: Burning the Midnight Oil
By: Gladius Date: April 17, 2014, 11:05 am
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"You are... Not answering my question." The old unicorn pointed
out, eyes half closing with a very clear slipping of whatever
interest this might have held to him had the two ponies followed
whatever imaginary guidelines were in place for when one spoke
to the unicorn, these rules of course being oh so very clear and
present to the old stallion himself.
With a glance back at his project the pony tried to will it to
explode on the spot so he'd have an excuse to stay, though in
reality it was all set to a low simmer for the time being. It
was, for now at least, relatively stable with little chance of
doing anything that would actually require his attention for
probably an hour or so at this point. That, combined with the
bubble already wet in place, meant little to no reason for him
to think it would do much damage should he step away for a short
bit. Besides, he could just set some spells in place that could
alert him once it was either ready for the next step in the
brewing process or in need pf his attention.
A slight roll of his eyes when the brew remained stable, the
unicorn then heaving a small sigh before looking back at the
pony who believed he'd found something. ".... Ugh... Fine. Well
go to the observatory and take a quick look to confirm whether
or not your discovery is real. If its not ill just have you
thrown in the dungeons for wasting my time. That should be fun
at least." He said, passing Woodwind as he both floated his
journal back to him and headed for the door.
Gladius, knowing that last comment probably would cause a touch
of concern in Windy based on the smaller pegasus' reactions so
far, took a step closer to him once the older pony was out of
the way, the guard catching his eye and giving a small shake of
his head to try and assure him that he couldn't actually do that
to him. Or at least he hoped he couldn't. Gladius was still a
touch fuzzy about the level of authority this stallion had. He
didn't think it was enough for random imprisonment over small
interruptions at least.
Gladius, still trying to give Windy encouragment through his
expressions, nodded with confidence, the guard knowing that
Windy would get to throw this in the unicorns face once he
proved he'd seen something. Starting to follow the unicorn as he
left and began to make his way through the library, Gladius
leaned his head down closer to Windy so as to whisper a joke.
"... I say you name the asteroid 'Told You So'."
#Post#: 2216--------------------------------------------------
Re: Burning the Midnight Oil
By: Woodwind Date: April 17, 2014, 1:32 pm
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Woodwind's ears droop when Gleam points out he hasn't answered
the question. The pegasus figured he wouldn't accept just being
sure of it, and is just about ready to get up and turn to leave
when the unicorn sighs and agrees to accompany them. He perks up
a little for just a moment before Gleam's next threat makes him
wince and droop back down again. He's... fairly sure the teacher
wouldn't be able to do that, but even if he can't he's fairly
certain Gleam would find some way to make them both miserable if
Woodwind turns out to be wrong. At least Gladius is there to
give him support, he'd have turned and ran already if it wasn't
for the guard. Even despite his trepidation, he smiles a little
at Gladius' joking suggestion to name the asteroid "Told You
So". He probably wouldn't name it that if it did turn out to be
new, but the thought did lighten his mood a bit, and he only
grows less nervous as they leave the room. He gets to use the
observatory! The excitement from not only being able to see, but
use the castle observatory pushes some of his anxiety away, and
he straightens back up as they walk through the library.
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