StrongCopper

Strong Copper had to give credit where credit was due. "For what it's worth, a green cloak would at least suggest that you were just trying to stay warm while being out and about rather then 'I'm clearly doing sneaky stuff', so... actually can dragons get cold? I mean you've got some kind of internal flame to you..." Copper started... before he forced himself to stop mid-sentence. He would have sworn to Celestia herself that he had seen something move behind the earth pony that seemed to be trying to quietly leave the conversation without drawing any attention to themselves, but now that he had taken a moment to actually look in that direction there was nothing out of the ordinary to be seen. That could mean a few things... but right now he shook his head to snap himself back to the here and now. "Sorry, got a little distracted there. My name is Strong Copper and... well, I don't mean to spread undue panic or rumors but I'm out here because the last few nights a number of different ponies have claimed to see something out of the ordinary stalking around. Could just be the old herd mentally getting worked up because somepony thought they saw something and others are spooked enough to jump at shadows, but you guys might want be careful anyway." As far as warnings go it wasn't the greatest because... well, Copper didn't know for certain if there was something out here or not. But there was no harm in giving them a heads up at least.

It only took a few seconds for Strong Copper to confirm that the figures in the alleyway were not the shadowy entity that he was potentially searching for. Normally he would have just kept going about his business after that because he didn't want anyone getting involved in his work and the best way to do that was to stay out of the affairs of others, but while one of the beings in the alleyway was clearly a pony (an earth pony from the looks of it), the other was a young dragon wearing the most 'Look at me, I'm trying to do something without being noticed' cloak he had seen in a long time. Tilting his head slightly, he couldn't help himself as he said "I'm sorry to overhear but... out of interest, did you select that cloak or did Twilight? Because I'm suspecting the latter... and if that's so she really doesn't understand the concept of stealth, does she?"

The fact that at least one of his future classmates knew how to teleport was mind boggling to Spearmint. However, as much as he would have loved to continue this conversation there was the prior appointment of orientation to go to. Not really trusting himself with remembering the directions on the map that he had left in his dorm room he instead turned to the most logical source of direction that came to mind: Chipper. "So... care to lead the way? I think you might know where we're going a lot better then I do."

As Strong Copper quietly stalked the streets of Ponyville at such a late hour, he couldn't help but briefly light up his horn in order to pull his jacket around him a little tighter to try and repel the chill in the air. Normally he had a vague idea of what it was he was looking for or what to expect on a 'hunt', but tonight was one of the most risky things he could do professional; An exploratory hunt. Over the last few days, several different ponies around Ponyville had spoken of seeing... something out of the ordinary during the night from their windows or while they were out for various reasons. At first they believed it had been just another pony walking during the night... but closer inspection proved the figure to be less of a pony covered in shadow as it was seemingly living shadow moving in the shape of a pony... and its shape twisted and changed even as the figure walked along, as if it understood what a pony looked like, but didn't seem to understand how they moved so instead altered its form to give the appearance of movement. Thankfully, no one had seemingly been harmed during any sighting and it didn't appear to be hostile in nature, but its presence in Ponyville had unnerved some ponies and Strong Copper's research into the matter had turned up the second worst kind of results; A wide ranging glut of information. While the existence of shadow 'entities' had only been confirmed recently by Stygian, legends and myths about such entities went back a long way into the reaches of history, covering a wide range of roles in those stories from helpful and kind to cruel and malevolent. Stygian's experience was important of course, but a singular encounter with a singular entity was nowhere near enough to justify applying that knowledge across all shadow like creatures. And so he stalked to streets of Ponyville after dark, searching for an possible entity that he knew very little about with little knowledge of its motivations or even that he was actually dealing with a 'shadow entity' at all. It wouldn't have been the first time that somepony believed they saw something and got spooked by it before spreading that fear among the herd and causing them to jump at shadows themselves. Regardless of if there was something out here or not, Copper's mark insisted that he had to go and look for it to be sure. Having slipped on a pair of cloth shoes designed to muffle his hoofsteps a bit to allow himself an easier time to move without making a lot of noise, movement from the corner of his eye in one of the nearby alleyways caught his attention. With care, he started to make his way closer, intent on finding out what that movement was... hopefully without it seeing or detecting him first.

Spearmint tried not to pay attention to Morning's makeshift lesson to Chipper about walking into rooms uninvited. After all, it was kind of an important lesson to learn and the sooner he did, the less likely he was to have something hard thrown at his head. Instead the colt turned his attention to Kettle and her newly introduced older sister Candy. Offering the small of the two a small wave from his spot by the door, he quickly answered "I would normally but... well, if we've got orientation in five minutes we really should get going to that." He answered somewhat politely. While he doubted Kettle would have noticed it, her loudness and overwhelming energy that she poured into her friendliness was... somewhat new to Spearmint; It wasn't that it was a bad or unwanted thing, but it was unexpected and the urge to run like an uncomfortable cat was strong. Turning to the much softer spoken Candy who was offering him a hoof, Spearmint looked at her for a moment... before shyly connecting his hoof with hers as he nodded his head dumbly as he found himself clamming up.

Spearmint glanced around to see if he could spy a clock... and failing that, checked his leg for a watch that wasn't there. "No idea what time it is. We'll ask the girls when we find them." He didn't bother trying to explain to Chipper why some ponies might not be fond of birds; He didn't want to have to deal with that question and answer session. Instead he walked over to the open door that he had seen Morning be carried to before glancing inside... and not only seeing her up and walking around again, but also a new pony who the kettle sisters had welcomed with gusto. Politely knocking on the door frame, he called out "Hey. Just us again. We wanted to stop by to see how Morning was doing."

Spearmint had to resist the urge to ask if Chipper had already been scouting out other, non-school targets to pillage out of a small degree of concern that if he brought the point up, it might give Chipper ideas if he hadn't already had them. So instead he nodded his head in agreement as he answered "Sounds good. I mean I'm confident that she didn't hurt herself from the fall or anything, but there's no harm in checking up on her." Before the pair of them had managed to get out of their room, Spearmint had a sudden flash of insight about what would happen if Chipper brought the crows along to see Morning Glory again. "Actually Chipper, it might be for the best if Huginn and Munin stayed here. Caramel might be okay with allowing them into her new dorm room, but she did say she was moving into a dorm that already had someone staying there and... well, it would be kind of rude not to ask permission for them to come in. No everyone likes birds after all." Not wishing to be rude to Huginn and Munin (if only because that seemed like a fast way to upset Chipper), Spearmint turned to look at the pair as he added "I'll talk to Kettle about getting you guys some more food on your behalf. Sound good?"

There honestly wasn't much that Spearmint could say in response to that. "I... guess that makes sense." It also explained a little of Chipper's lack of social norms... after all, when the standard method of settling a dispute was to try and smash in the skull of the person you're disagreeing with before they can do the same to you, being the most charismatic of ponies requires a whole different set of skills. Deciding to talk about the more enjoyable subject than their homes, Spearmint grinned as he answered "You know, that actually sounds like fun. I guess we should look into what rules apart for the day are in place as well... I mean, I'm assuming we're not allowed to inspire a riot to burn down and pillage the library. No harm in knowing there the line is, you know?"

"Sounds interesting." Spearmint answered truthfully in relation to Whistescar. "Like having a stick poked into your eye kind of 'interesting'. Considering it's full of monsters, undead, vikings and combinations of all three, why does anyone live there?" Green Meadows had more flaws then he cared to name, but the only monster there had been his mother and it offered steady employment because there were some safety standards that even she couldn't bend or cut because a collapse and a killed or injured shift of miners were expensive delays and cut into the profit margin. Thank the Moon that his mother's mad need to maximize profit and efficiency was vaguely tapered by her desire to keep the 'local economy stable', whatever that meant. Otherwise she might have turned to necromancy instead of mind control in order to create a workforce that didn't need breaks for food or sleep. "Maybe you'll be able to convince a teacher or the Archancellor to make a field trip to Hollow Shades some day, just so we can see it for ourselves." Spearmint said aloud, trying very hard to throw himself into the conversation to avoid thinking further about his mother. "Also I've never had a proper sleepover before so... yeah, this is going to be a bit of a first for me. I've heard of them but... what kind of stuff do you do for sleepovers? The only thing I know for certain is that very little sleep seems to actually happen at them."

Spearmint's blank expression was instantly blinked away as his head lifted up, focusing on his new room mate instantly and offering a small smile as he looked around. "Oh, I didn't really have that much stuff to begin with." Looking around the room, he actually grew somewhat bashful as he reached up to rub the back of his head. "Actually, in all honesty even sharing this room with you, it's bigger then my old room. I mean I'm sure it'll fill up with time but... " He shrugged, not really able to put into words how different it really was. When he was asked about where he came from, Spearmint considered redirecting the question or outright lying... but instead he answered truthfully. "Oh, I'm from a town called Green Meadows. It is neither green, nor does it have meadows. It's a small mining town in the middle of a sun baked wasteland and I would not recommend visiting it because it's dull, brown and hot with no real redeeming features beyond the veins of metal ore in the ground there." Tilting his head slightly, he decided to ask "So what's Whitsescar and Hollow Shades like? Honestly have never heard of them before." He was honestly a lot more interested in hearing about new places then mentioning the one that he came from.

It took... well, a sadly short time to empty the contents of his bag. Spearmint had needed to pack lightly after all. The end result... didn't really change all that much about his new room from when he started; Where it had largely just been a blank room waiting for someone new to come and stay there, now it had a collection of books and a clock on the bedside table. Apart from the fact that the pillow case and covers on the bed were different colors, it was just like home. With that rather sad, depressing thought, Spearmint took a seat on his new bed as he tried to remind himself that it was truly a clean start for him and that things would be different... but it was hard to keep the shadow drowning his thoughts at bay.

The moment Zecora mentioned the word 'Cockatrice', Strong Copper felt like a bit of an idiot. Of course it was a Cockatrice. He should have connected the dots when he saw the scuffed chicken marks; The scuffing was due to its serpent like tail trailing along the ground behind it! It's also one of the few creatures that hunts by turning its target to stone! Maybe it was the fact that the timber wolf in question was only partially turned to stone that messed him up? He had never encountered a cockatrice personally before, but what research he had done on them had never mentioned a situation in which a target was only partially turned to stone and otherwise survived the encounter. It's possible it just happened rather rarely... rarer still to be discovered before natural causes did in the unfortunate creature in question. As Zecora started to slow, Copper did as well... and looking up the end of the path, he couldn't help but notice the literal tree house that was clearly waiting in the middle of a clearing. "Your house I take it? Unless there's an entire community living out here I wasn't aware of."

With a small degree of grumbling, Strong Copper followed Zecora at a steady trot. There was the brash, impatient and (He would quietly admit to himself) shamefully arrogant part of himself that was raised a Canterlot unicorn that wanted nothing more then to turn around, stalk his quarry and make use of one of easily a dozen or so stunning spells in order to render the timber wolf into a state where they could safely move it to a new location for treatment. However, experience and his professional passion for what he did for a living wisely shut that part of himself down for the sake of the animal he was trying to treat. Magic... was the last resort in a situation like this. Under the best of circumstances, mixing different kinds of magic together was risky: It was why he had such a surprisingly large number of spells that, on the surface, all did the exact same thing in different ways. One had to factor in not just the target, but also the circumstances around said target because what might peacefully and safely render one creature to sleep in one situation might cause more harm then good in another. Timber Wolves were, by nature, magical creatures and thus had a magic of their own that was infused with their bodies; Copper had spent time finding and designing some spells to safely mingle with this inherit magic for a reason, since Timber Wolves were one of the more common predators of the Everfree that ponies had encountered from it. The issue here was two fold due to the affliction that this timber wolf was suffering. While he personally wasn't sure what the exact source of the timber wolf's partial petrification actually was, it was likely magical in nature and not native to the timber wolf in question... therefore, there were already two different forms of magic currently within the same body. Throwing a third kind of magic into the mix blindly could easily cause an already unstable situation to deteriorate further, faster. The second factor was the weakened condition of the timber wolf itself. Use a stunning spell to strong and instead of putting the target to sleep you... well, put the target to sleep. To be fair, there were some situations where that was tragically the kindest outcome, but it was generally better for all concerned if such is the intended outcome and not an accident. So as the trot went on, the grumbling stopped... and instead Strong Copper asked "So... considering how confident you seem, I'm guessing you know what we're dealing with? Or at the very least, have a pretty good idea what happened to the timber wolf in question." No harm in expanding his knowledge base of the Everfree and it would help pass the time as they trotted to have a conversation.

Not to self... Chipper doesn't seem to understand that many turns of phases. Watching as Morning Glow was carried away to a nearby room, he considered rising the point that maybe they should get a school nurse or something, but considering that she had just fainted and he had managed to stop her from hitting the floor... letting her sleep it off and seeing how she was doing when she woke up seemed like a pretty good plan under the circumstances. Reaching up to rub the back of his head, his hoof ruffling through his mane as he glanced between Chipper, the crows and the corn loving fillies that Chipper seemed to now be the very best of friends with, he decided to politely excuse himself as he said "I'm going to go and finish unpacking. Try not to have too much fun without me..." He muttered only half seriously, feeling the need to get a moment to himself in order to... well, process everything that had happened in such a short amount of time.

It was a good thing that Spearmint had been paying attention, because Morning Glow... well, on the one hoof she didn't respond the way he was thinking she was going to. More screaming really would have been a headache after all. As she feinted, he took advantage of being so physically close to her to grab her with his front legs, using his magic to support her head as he carefully lowered her to the carpeted ground because her falling down and smacking her head against the floor likely wouldn't do her any favors in the slightest.

"Well that... that was honestly a journey Chipper." Spearmint answered at the end of Chipper's somewhat epic tale about his life and how he got to the School of Friendship. In fairness, what Chipper said was a lot and... he didn't have the faintest idea of what to say to him about the subjects that would give Chipper the help he quite clearly needed. For the best just to try and play it cool rather then make a big deal about it until they were on good enough terms that if Spearmint suggested he should go and talk to someone, Chipper might take it seriously. However, he did glance towards Morning because... well, she had not been handling Chipper at all well since she had encountered them and he suspected things were going to get worse.

As the wave of fatigue washed over him like a brief but strong tide before fading without trace, Strong Copper stumbled for a moment... before with a shake of his head he was able to refocus on the mare herself. For a time he was silent in thought... before reluctantly nodding his head. "Alright... you have a plan and enough supporting plans to go with it that even if things go wrong, you're not all just going to just die. Which... honestly puts you ahead of most idiots I've met who've wanted to hunt down a big, dangerous creature for whatever reason." However, it was clear that Copper wasn't heading towards the airship. "I wish you luck. However, I believe I can serve the interests of the Everfree and Ponyville best by setting up some lures to get the attention of and distract a hydra before it gets too close to Ponyville. Because an angry hydra chasing you all home doesn't end well for anyone involved." He quickly raised a hoof to cut off protest as he explained "This is just a fail safe I want to set up in case things don't go to plan on your end. All I ask is that if a hydra is chasing after or following you and it suddenly stops so the heads can bicker among themselves, just keep going and don't give the heads arguing to continue the chase fuel by doing something foolish."

Spearmint was about to respond to Morning Glow when Chipper decided to drop a... well, compared to the whole necromancy thing it was kind of a minor lightning bolt but still. "The Archchancellor is prone to changing genders on a whim?" Shaking his head slightly in order to refocus on the matter closer to hoof, he decided to take a deep breath as he glanced at Morning... through when he spoke he was talking to Chipper as he asked "Do the staff already know about your skill set Chipper?" It was a good question to ask because... well, if they did then clearly there wasn't much of a point of informing them of something they already knew.

Strong Copper easily allowed Aloe's tirade to go on, clearly not bending or buckling despite the sharpness of her words against him as a pony, but the message she was giving off in relation to the goals of the expedition seemed to make him relax somewhat. "Miss, my job is to make sure that where magical creatures and settlements meet that there is as little carnage, bloodshed and cruelty for all involved as possible. Pony, griffon or in this case hydra, doesn't matter. Trust me, you would be horrified if I told you how many times I've been approached by ponies who've either wanted me to kill something or help them do so out of sport, greed or paranoia." Letting out a soft sigh, he turned to Rose as he explained "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. Between the air ship and the fact you're after its blood, I admit my mind jumped to the worst case scenario. There aren't a lot of ponies with the know how, let alone the desire, to subdue a hydra in a manner that leaves it unharmed. If you don't mind me asking, what exactly is it you intend to do?" After all, there wasn't any harm in asking exactly what the mare had planned.

Spearmint wasn't above saying that the situation he had found himself in was strangely surreal. It felt like since he had stepped hoof within the School of Friendship he had entered a slightly different world that was mostly the same, but the ponies within it seemed to operate on slightly different rules that came across as little more then utter madness to him. The only pony he had encountered so far that had responded in a manner he expected was the filly who had screamed herself breathless... and likely would start screaming anew once she got her breath back. This was... kind of a problem, because this was his first day here and he didn't want to get into trouble with the staff due to something Chipper did. Even if Chipper's actions came about due to an overblown misunderstanding when Spearmint said he had believed his roommate was yanking his leg, he hadn't tried to stop him and considering that necromancy was involved punishment by proximity was likely incoming. Spearmint... had his doubts that anything the staff could do would be as bad as anything his mother would come up with, but the fear that gripped him ran deep. Thankfully, damage control was something that he could do! Taking advantage of the chaos that Chipper and the two corn obsessed fillies were making, Spearmint walked over to stand beside Morning Glow and softly place a hopefully comforting hoof on her back in order to help her calm her breathing down enough to get her breath back. When he was fairly certain that nopony was looking in his direction (Chipper and Kettle Corn were wonderful distractions in that regard), Spearmint's horn briefly lit up with a faint, teal glow that seemed to match that of the crown on his cutie mark... before that glow moved to the hoof that was touching Morning before disappearing inside of her. "My name is Spearmint Sovereign, but you can just call me Spearmint if you want. As for the necromancy thing, if what Chipper told me back in our room is correct... and I'm inclined to believe him, because if it wasn't I have my doubts he would be here right now, but necromancy is legal as long as he only uses it with animals and doesn't hurt anyone with it. " Spearmint briefly paused for a moment before adding "That all being said, I completely understand why you freaked out. I didn't know what I was expecting to find here but skeleton mouse was not on the list of things I was expecting to see today and I had warning before hoof that it was what he was going to do. I'm not sure if it means anything, but I'm sorry about all this."

Following his necromancer roommate and... somewhat relaxing due to his explanation of what is and isn't illegal in that field (Granted he was taking his word for it, but considering Chipper hadn't been expelled or imprisoned yet there was likely a solid foundation of truth to it), he sighed as he looked at the fillies then down at the undead mouse... which 'died' and Chipper swept up. Taking a deep breath, he looked at the girls and said bashfully "I'm... sorry if my roommate frightened you. I thought he was making a joke at my expense and... well, he certainly proved me wrong." "Are you... both okay?" He asked, not quite sure what to say to them under the circumstances but... well, maybe the skeleton mouse had bit them or something? Even if he kind of doubted it, considering they weren't focusing on any kind of wound or anything.

While Spearmint might have been slightly confused by the manner in which Chipper had agreed with him, the fact was that the two still agreed with each other and that was a good enough start for him to cause him to smile. However, when Chipper looked challenged by Spearmint's statement he couldn't help but blink slightly. "I'm not saying you're a failed apprentice or anything, just that I'm fairly certain that necromancy is illegal in Equestria... I think." It had to be right? Even if Princess Twilight herself hadn't done anything about it, surely Princess Celestia would have taken some kind of action to make it illegal... right? Thinking about it, it might just be a case that the field of magic was heavily looked down upon and considered taboo socially that nopony simply didn't believe that it was worth taking the time and effort to right it down in an official capacity. But surely the alicorns wouldn't have overlooked something like that, right? Right?! Regardless of if Necromancy was illegal in Equestria or not, Spearmint watched as Chipper did it anyway, using his blood and some mice bones in order to create an animated mouse skeleton. Seeing the crime against nature that took place before him, Spearmint was torn between two major mindsets. The first was how freaking awesome what he just saw was! The second was the knowledge that this was almost certainly going to get them a thousand years of detention, if not outright expelled if any of the teachers found out about it. "Oh wow... you actually did it." Spearmint offered to Chipper in his divided voice... before the scream caused him to look towards the hallway door and notice that: A) Their door was open. B) The skeleton mouse was out in the hallway, trying and failing to eat a corn kernel in a pitiful but... kind of cute way. C) The girl who had screamed was looking directly at said skeleton mouse in terrified horror. "...I'm going to get detention for not trying to stop you, aren't I?" Spearmint asked aloud, watching the scene and... not really knowing what to do at the moment.

There was a small shrug of his shoulders as Spearmint quickly countered "I mean it's a matter of maturity and context. A sharp knife is a highly useful tool for prepping food in the kitchen but it would be foolish and dangerous to give one to a small foal who had never used one before, nor really understand what it is. Maybe after a few years when we're older they'll be an advanced, optional class we can apply for to learn those more dangerous magical tools because... well, you can't just trust anyone with the knowledge of how to turn a living being into stone!" The look on Spearmint's face was hard to read... largely because there was a strong sense that Spearmint himself didn't quite know what to believe in that moment when it came to Chipper's claim. One would think that the knee jerk reaction to someone claiming to be a necromancer would be fear, but the multi-green unicorn instead just looked confused with a slowly growing look on his face that he believed that he was getting one of his legs pulled. "You're yanking my tail. There is no way that the staff would let you bring two birds back from the dead and let you keep them as-" He paused for a moment as his instinct was to say pets, but he changed it to "-additional roommates."

It likely was a good thing that Chipper hadn't been looking in Spearmint's direction. It wasn't really possible for him to have known of Spearmint's history, but his statement had caused Spearmint to blink in a manner that... honestly would have surprised some of the staff of the Friendship School. "I mean... there's nothing wrong with using a bit of magic to make someone a bit more empathic to you. I mean, Princess Twilight's done that a couple of times back before she was a Princess." He explained earnestly. Walking over to watch Chipper and Huginn bother Munin a little, he politely said "If he wants to sleep that's fine. I can say hello to him later." before turning to look at Chipper and asking with some curiosity "So why did you learn mind control magic?... Or did you say that more in the sense that you could learn to do it if you put your mind to it?"

Well this was going to be a new experience for Spearmint one way or the other; He had never been allowed to have a pet growing up so living with animals was going to be just another change he was going to have to adjust to. "I mean, the fact that between them they can pick most locks is kind of amazing... but I can't help but feel like this situation would be best summed up that they'll continue to outsmart the administration... provided they don't cause enough trouble for the administration to actually stop and think about dealing with them." That sounded like a weird way to word it, but it was the best way he could think about wording the idea out loud. Entering his dorm room, it was hard not to notice the decorations that Chipper had put up and had scattered around the room. Sure, some of them would need to be pushed back into his half of the room but Spearmint couldn't help but connect the dots in his head. Chipper had a wild, messy mane, had actual bones decorating his room and was likely one of the few students at school who had animals in his dorm (somewhat illegally, but it seemed like the powers that be weren't trying to evict them). Chipper had to be one of the coolest kids in school! Putting his bag down on his bed, he glanced towards the record player as he asked "So that's Munin I'm guessing?" in relation to the sleeping crow.