Make Hay nervous Star did as, while Bubo was looking more like an alert hawk on a mission, Hay went from giggling shyly and blushing to almost start burning up in the face from the contact. He was barely even able to look at her now as he spent more time "inspecting" the floor or nearby gadgets within reach, his hoof idly taking a little slide whistle looking thingie that he distracted himself with as he listened to Clarity respond to his offer even if he was wearing a little bit of a nervous yet silly smile.

"O-okay," Hay stuttered, momentarily fumbling with his whistle as his hooves seemed confused on whether he should bring it with him or leave it behind, "I-I-I d-don't want to k-keep you from your d-dinner, s-so we can make this a r-real quick d-d-demonstration. I-it's just over h-here..." He turned his body a little to start to lead the way towards his invention for a speedy showing of what it could do, an extra spike of excitement hitting him as he remembered that Star hadn't heard his Theater play sound yet... which didn't last long as it quickly became more of a nervous worry when he remembered that it wasn't very good at it yet... yet this worry didn't compare when he realized just how nervous Star herself seemed at the moment. His own stuttery awkwardness was forgotten for a short while as he tried to give Star a smile in an attempt to make her feel better.

"Are you okay?" he asked in concern just as the same machine from earlier, evidently not pleased by Clarity agreeing to stay for a little while longer, belched a billow of smoke out from it's top with enough force to lift up a panel and have it slam back closed with a metallic clang, Bubo, not missing a beat, hopping from Star's shoulder over to on top of Hay's head where he let loose a short series of chirps and whistles as if sounding a warning. Somewhere from around them a small *pop* was heard mere moments before a cork bounced off of the side of Bubo's head, the metal bird titling and nearly being knocked off of Hay's head before a flutter of his wings properly balanced him again, him giving a shake of his head then a small growl that sounded kind of like a grinding of gears.

Clarity follows Hay as he turns to lead the way, already planning her route to home that would take her through what might be the busiest places for ponies near her age at this time of day.  High point of the market would be ending in a few minutes...Museum?  There's one on the way...probably parks would be a bit crowded, but a lot of ponies went there with their significant others, not to find a new one.  Probably a few she could make uncomfortable there, though...might be worth it.  She probably gets a bit too much of a kick out of seeing Star stumble.  Not always so elegant, I see... she thinks, filing it away in her memory of things to cheer her up that really shouldn't.

The clang of the other machine brings her out of her reverie.  Was that machine spewing smoke a few minutes ago?  She didn't think so...and what's with the sounds that metal bird is making?  "Biggie, what's the mat-"  She nearly jumps out of her dress when the cork pops a good one onto it.  "Hey!" she shouts, whirling around, looking for...
There's nopony there.  Where did...there's just all the machines that have been there since she got there...but for whatever reason, the room feels much more...hostile than it did before.  This is nonsense.  Enough that she's seriously considering just leaving.  She'd already heard that he wouldn't be able to help her with the birthday present.  After a few seconds of surveying the metal surrounding them, she gives a snort, all traces of ladyhood gone as she walks a bit farther from the others, belligerently daring whatever's making her so uneasy to make her day worse.

Clarity's eyes narrow and she tenses up when the buzz starts, turning to face it.  She ignores Bundtcake landing on her, feeling that it, at least, seemed pretty harmless.  The tension mounts with the loud clang, Clarity crouching down looking like she's about to pounce if anything makes a move.  She didn't sign up for this.  She's about to just turn and leave, telling Haywire exactly what she thinks of his workshop at the moment, when the buzzing stops and a new sound comes from behind her.  She barely has time to start turning before being beset by a writhing mass of snakes.

I'm being attack!  She lets out a squeal of surprise that quickly turns into a growl of rage.  I'm being ATTACKED!!!!!

Reason becomes nothing to her as she falls to the ground, more from being startled than anything else and she lets loose with everything she's got on the scaled horrors.  Letting out a shout, she smacks one aside with her tail, then snatches one between her teeth and swings it at the rest, scattering them.  She doesn't give them time to regroup, though, leaping to her hooves and stepping on several of them multiple times, spinning to get all of them before they have a chance to start looking dead.  All the while she does this, she shakes the one in her mouth with fury.  Feeling she'd given each of them enough stomps, she grabs the one in her mouth with her forehooves, yanking it with her teeth, not letting go until-

With considerable effort, the snake snaps in half, causing Clarity's head to jerk back with such force that she falls over again, bonking her head against the floor, cushioned somewhat by her full mane.  She cries out, releasing the head of the reptile she'd managed to fell in her valiant fight with...
She looks at the remains of the snake in her hooves, a bit dazed.  It's not even a real snake.  It's rubber.  Were they all...she reaches over and pokes one of her other fallen opponents.  Rubber.  Rage turns to shame and embarrassment as she surveys the carnage.  She'd taken down several toys and in the process had mussed her mane, put a couple tears in her dress, lost one of her fake eyelashes, and apparently her bit purse had opened, spilling a fair amount of its contents around her.  And the only bit of harm she'd come to was self-inflicted.

Alright.  Fine.  Her dress torn, her money scattered, her dignity in shambles...what a fine way to finish out a visit.  Yes.  Now would be a wonderful time for her to make her exit.  She rises to her hooves with a long sigh, giving an ice cold stare to the machine that had tossed the snakes at her.  She clips her bit purse closed, not bothering to pick up the lost contents, then turns to Hay, glaring daggers at him and Star while stretching to her full height.  "Haywire," she intones, voice level in a distinct contrast with her expression and...rosy complexion.  "It was nice seeing you again.  Star.  A pleasure meeting you.  I hope you have a good afternoon."

That being said, she turns and stalks toward the door, only stopping to swat one of the snakes with her tail towards the machine that had thrown them at her.  It misses the opening, bouncing off the side and falling limply against the floor as she crosses the threshold.  There she pauses for a moment, then grabs the door, slamming it with all her might behind her.

Bubo, tangled up with one of the snakes himself, could do little beyond try and tweet to capture Clarity's attention as she battled the fake snakes and caused herself to damage her own clothes and lose her money, him failing miserably as she only realized the truth way after putting herself through heck. While Haywire could only look sorry, Star remained quiet, and the machines merely laughed Bubo wriggled his way out of the hold of the rubber snake and took back into the air to land on a decommissioned vacuum cleaner thing near the door to raise a wing in vain to stop the young mare from leaving, the slamming of the door almost managing to knock him off of his new perch and again forcing him to balance himself out, wings drooping a little after she was gone.

During the prank Haywire hadn't been able to move much from his spot, the most he could do being to wince over the sight of Clarity's struggles and a raising of a hoof in some urge to prevent anything coming his and Star's way after she jumped from the surprise. When it was over all he could do was lower his head as low as he was physically able, ears looking like they were glued to his head as they stay pinned back. Despite his ears being pressed flat against the sides of his skull Haywire still listened to everything Star was saying, him not really being able to argue with what was clearly a real issue. The mention of this possibly becoming too much for Star to put up with after a long enough time really worried him. He had visitors rarely enough, but to lose somepony who was actually staying with him? He didn't want her to go because of his machines pulling some poor pranks on others.

Bubo, seeing how depressed his owner was, fluttered his way over to haywire, him making a landing on the floor in front of the stallion and then hopping forward so as to be standing in front of his face, his head being at eye level of the little pony as he tilted his head and gave some worried coos. Hay turned his eyes up enough to look at Bubo then sighed.

"... Can you pick up the bits Clarity dropped so she doesn't lose any, please?" he asked his bird with a sad tone of voice, "I want to give them back to her next time I see her." With a small nod Bubo was off to fetch a small pouch, bag, purse, sack or whatever he could find to hold the bits scattered across the floor while Haywire sat down where he was.

"I know... I just don't know how to start," Hay replied to Star, occasionally managing to stop staring at the floor to flick his eyes back to the mare, " dunno if they'd even listen to me either. I'm not really very much of an 'in charge' kind of pony. Never had to tell anypony else what they could or couldn't do..." he looked around the room, a hoof adjusting his goggles a bit before tapping the floor as he tried to think of what an authoritative pony would do to discipline trouble makers.

"Maybe we could... Um... just ask them to stop?" he gave a smile but it was obviously pretty forced and unsure, the machines nearest them almost chuckling at his idea as Bubo could be heard clinking coins together further away.

"Okay," Hay said as Star left the workshop, thinking about what he was going to do as the visual of the mare leaving in such a down mood made him worry about it happening over and over until she simply didn't come back. He sighed, then went about shifting his gaze about the room, his eyes resting on various inventions spread about his home while Bubo continued to gather up the spilled money. Hmm... What could Hay do...

Well, Haywire wondered about Star's suggestion of checking out whatever may be the cause of it, but was slightly confused about what she had meant. Did she mean the reason why they behaved like this, or the reason why they behaved at all? Haywire wasn't able to answer either question to a truly satisfactory degree, but the former was the more pressing matter in his mind. Why would they do this? Hay had always assumed they were just having fun, and usually the only victims of their pranks were either each other, Bubo, or failed attempts to get the inventor himself. For whatever reason he just almost always managed to avoid their tricks, so it may be he just never had noticed quite how far it could go since it always ended with nopony truly getting hurt or bothered. The machines would just laugh, Bubo would get a little flustered for a few minutes but forget about it before long and Hay himself would get away unscathed and without giving the whole ting much thought. The only ponies who ever had an actual bad time with their jokes would be the visiting ponies who either weren't expecting it or underestimated how extreme they could be. And that, of course, was the main issue...

But why did they prank to begin with? Again, Hay assumed it was to just have fun, but maybe there was more to it? Haywire wasn't entirely sure, but he guessed that the most recent prank may have been done due to Clarity going out and challenging the machines to make a move, which could be argued as daring them and then mean that it wasn't entirely their fault, but what about when they pranked Star and scarred the heck out of her and Hay? She hadn't dared them, though she had scolded them before it had happened. Haywire wasn't trying to fool himself into believing that his machines weren't to blame, Star scolding them having been due to them slipping hot sauce into Golden's ice cream after she had done absolutely nothing to warrant it, that also being one of the few times they managed to get Hay a little as well, it that may be helpful in understanding how serious the prank would be? Depending on how the ponies in the room were behaving towards them? But that still didn't justify the surprise sprung on Star. And then there's the wonder as to why the machines messed with Golden to begin with.

... Maybe they were just bored? The shop got very few visitors, which meant very few new ponies to interact with, and even though they often had new inventions to screw around with Haywire knew that actual ponies coming around the shop tended to elicit more activity from his machines, but then why would they act in a way that would drive them off as they have been for who knows how long now?

Haywire hummed in thought and watched as Bubo clinked the last few bits into the pouch he'd found to hold them, the mechanical bird then puling at the strings at its mouth with his beak to close it shut and allow him to grasp it in his claws so as to move it somewhere it wouldn't be lost, beside Hay's Thought Theater being a good spot for the time being.

Could be they just didn't know how to behave. Like a puppy not taught how to act when meeting new people and overacting to the point of jumping up on to them and eating their shoes when they weren't looking and therefore not giving them attention, a similar thought going through Hay's mind though his being more odd and involving something called a "protowelder mk VI" that apparently ate through everything when not first properly calibrated. If that were the case then-

His thoughts were cut off when the front door to the shop had a triangular shaped machine the same height and width of the door and mounted onto two cog shaped wheel dealies shifted itself enough to allow the main body of itself to tilt over and fall onto the ground in front of the door as if barring it, this being, Hay assumed, some kind of sign that the machines were "kicking" Star out and didn't want her to get back inside by locking her out.

"Hey!" Hay replied with disapproval, him standing up and trotting towards the machine in time with Bubo's arrival on the scene where he landed on one of the bottom corners of the machine now sticking up into the air, "What are you doing? What if somepony wants to come inside?" the machine seemed to care little as "somepony" most likely included "mare who thought she ran the place and other mare who thought she could take them", neither of which being welcome from the point of view of the machines. Haywire, wishing to clear the way, lifted his front hooves to try in vain to push the machine out of the way of the door, but not having the strength to do so as it was much larger and heavier than he was while also having wheels that weren't the best design for rolling. Staying stuck where it was though? You bet they were good at that.

"Come on... This isn't very nice to our visitors!" Bubo landed on the body of the invention and gave a disciplinary peck against its chassis but was given a sudden rebellious release of steam in his face in response, no damage being done of course even if it did annoy the heck out of him. A few more seconds spent in vain trying to push the machine before Hay abandoned the attempt, not having the size to pull it off and then sitting back down with an unhappy grunt, something rather uncommon to hear from the normally grinning pony. He crossed his front legs together across his chest and quirked his mouth to the side. How was Star going to get back inside? What if somepony wanted to see his inventions? Hay was getting kind of frustrated now. This just wouldn't do at all.

"Move!" he mostly commanded but still couldn't help a slight waver of uncertainty before tagging on a weaker "please?" to the end of it. The machine, defiant at first, did end up obeying, albeit purposefully slowly to show just how reluctant it was to do so, bubo hopping off of it as it wheeled out of the way to stand on Hay's shoulder. Letting those other ponies come back? Ugh! How dare Haywire demand this of them?

Hay smiled. It had listened! That was a start right? This was new for Haywire, even if he had missed a number of times in the past where he'd done the same thing or similar when it came to needing them to listen during more serious business, but it was nice to see something happen at least. Did he dare push his luck though? What if he tried to actually ask them to be nicer like he'd said to Star but have them just not listen to him at all? He wasn't comfortable telling the machines what to do, even if it was important and justified... But he guessed he should, even if it meant feeling all blegh over ruining their fun...

"H-hey, everypony?" he started up, clearly not sounding very comfortable as he tried to muster the courage to go through with... something at least. Making sure they understood Star wasn't okay with pranks because of her panic attacks should be a good start at least. "We need to have a... uh... a Tech Tock meeting!" The machines groaned, half of them wanting to just ignore the little stallion while the other half could have their noises translated out to a bothered and drawn out "whaaaaaaaat?"

"Um... We need to talk about your jokes that you pull and stuff. I-I know you guys probably do it just for fun or because that's how you like to spend the time, but it's starting to get kind of... well... You need to bring it down a little. It's starting to get kind of mean, and nopony else other than you guys are liking your jokes right now. I mean, Clarity didn't look like she was laughing when she left." the machines, still rather proud of what they had done to that little pony, only chuckled at the mention, though they didn't go as overboard as they had when she had left. "She dropped her money, ruined her clothes and I think bumped her head too. That wasn't very nice... I'm worried she might not want to come back because of that now, and I didn't even get to show her my Theater and the idea I had for her brother. So I need to ask you all to start being a little nicer to the ponies who visit...

"Oh, and be nice to Star!" Hay went on, not yelling but still sounding pretty serious this time and not earning any laughs from the machines, "She gets panic attacks and really can't handle pranks like that, and, no matter how much you don't like it, she's staying with us right now so stop making her so scared. Don't try to block the door like you did just now, don't laugh at her, don't try to scare her away and when she comes back you should apologize for what you did yestearlier. Okay?" He didn't get a response, "Okay?" he said again, this time having the workshop groan reluctantly again as they made it vague whether or not they were listening or would actually apologize as Hay had asked. This was expected though, Haywire not holding his breath but still holding on to some hope that they would make peace with the pony living with them. Beyond this Hay wasn't sure what else he could say for now. He'd asked them nicely to bring down their pranks some, not be so malicious or extreme with them, and for them to start treating Star with a bit more respect, but he couldn't know if it had actually gotten through to them until he'd seen how they started to act afterwards.

Bubo gave Hay a small nuzzle, him appreciating seeing Hay start to try and discipline the other machines a bit after they're recent behavior. Haywire smiled at the bird, though it was just as unsure as ever as he could only hope for the best for the rie being, him deciding to go off and busy himself with tinkering with his Thought Theater as he waited for either Star or somepony else to come to the shop, the machines in the room being quieter than usual after having had their wrists slapped by their creator.