Woodwind eyes the house as they approach, still a bit unsure about the whole thing. The wailing and screaming coming from within is probably mostly just for the sake of being spooky. Mostly. Probably. He at least hopes there's nothing in there so bad as to make ponies scream like that. As they approach the door, Windy turns his attention to the showman, who seems to have seen them as well. His costume is pretty well put together, though Windy's not exactly sure it fights the theme the haunted house seems to be going for. He turns away and moves to catch up with Gladius, when the showman gives a shriek and jumps in front of Woodwind, green flames flaring up around him. Woodwind jumps, snapping his wings out wide instinctively, and is halfway to taking off and booking it into the night sky when his brain catches up with his actions. He gives a sheepish smile and bends over to retrieve his notebook, which he'd dropped in surprise, and folds it back under his wing where it belongs. That done, he gives the showman one more wary look before hurrying over to Gladius, sticking close to his side as they now stand before the entrance.

Woodwind looks uncertainly at the door, opened into the dark interior and with a few cobwebs draped across it. He glances over at Gladius, nervous about entering, but follows the guard when he walks inside. The lighting is dim as they walk through the door, and Woodwind stays close to Gladius' side. The first rooms seems normal enough, besides being made to look run down, at least until a scrabbling noise draws Woodwind's attention to a hole in one wall. He can barely make out a face with wide, staring eyes in the darkness, and scurries around to Gladius' other side as they continue on into the house. Unfortunately in his haste he almost runs right into a shadowed shape that he had at first take for an old coatrack, but which reaches out for him with grasping claws. He ducks down and hurries forward as the disguised griffon withdraws their paws to await the next "victim", pulling ahead of Gladius a little as they move into the next room.

Woodwind gives a sheepish smile at the guard's teasing, though it does get a silent chuckle out of him. He nods when Gladius asks him if he knows where it is, and takes out his notebook. "I think I should be able to find it from here." He writes, taking a look around the area they're in. He had been there not too long ago, but hadn't gone in with his sister and had chosen to just wander on his own instead. Still, it had been long enough that Starlight had likely been through it and gone off to find something else to do. There was no telling where she could be now. "I don't know where she'd be by now. I think it's this way though." Woodwind puts his notebook away and points down one of the streets before starting off in that direction, though he doesn't keep far ahead of Gladius.

"Thanks." Woodwind writes at Gladius' compliment, and adjusts his hat slightly. While he's satisfied with his costume, the floppy brim of the hat does get in the way a little bit. He nods at the larger pegasus with a smile when he suggests that watching a bunch of horror movies and reading books taught him how to do zombie makeup. "Definitely." He shifts a little bit nervously when the guard mentions that he's looking for a good haunted house. "I haven't been out very long either." She writes, shaking his head. "I do know of a haunted house my sister wanted to go to though. I'm usually too scared to go to them though." He looks away for a few moments, feeling strangely sheepish about it. "I could take you there though. And maybe it wouldn't be so bad if somepony else was with me."

Woodwind's progress getting Idaho out of the tangled super slink is interrupted by the sudden flash and explosion of the lightning cannon firing. For a few moments, Woodwind is stunned by the blast. Long enough for to not be able to avoid the spheres of knockout gas. Luckily, he regains his senses after only inhaling a small amount of the gas, and manages to escape the cloud with only a slight numbness to show for it. He quickly turns and opens his wings once he's out, and starts using them to blow the smoke away from Idaho. He's too late to stop the farmer from being knocked unconscious though, and the pegasus sighs and takes a look around. Supermare and Catmare had both disappeared, and the guard had apparently both avoided the gas grenades and disabled a number of the mouse droids. More pressingly, the super mouse droid seems to have righted it's head and was quickly advancing with it's cymbals now showering sparks in all directions as they spun. He won't have time to free Idaho now before the mouse droid would reach them, so he'll have to deal with it for good first. Out comes the wand again, blasting three quick shots at the robot while Woodwind darts to the side, attempting to get around the dangerous portion and hopefully find a weak spot he could use.

Woodwind almost has Idaho free, he just needs to... what was that sound? The brown pegasus' head jerks around at the sudden crashing sound, and his eyes widen in surprise when he sees the large mouse droid coming right for him. This is enough of a distraction that he doesn't notice the potato heads coming to life and attacking. Not until there are several clinging to him anyway. The little robotic toys weren't much of a danger, more distracting than anything, but there's no way he can get a good shot at the super droid with the things crawling all over him. He bats at the little machines with his hooves, but they're hanging on too tight. By now the super mouse droid is getting dangerously close, and he probably only has a few more moments before it reaches them. In a desperate attempt to knock them free, Woodwind throws himself to the ground and rolls, enough for him to redraw his wand when he comes back to his hooves and fire off a couple blasts at the approaching droid. They aren't the most precise shots he's ever made, but they do hit the droid. He just hopes it's enough to stop it.

Woodwind perches upon the roof of a nearby abandoned building, his dark brown duster flapping dramatically in the wind and hoof hoof up to keep the wide-brimmed hat on his head. This seemed to happen to him often when he arrives somewhere, for some reason, and it was usually a sign that there were evildoers afoot. The pony in question was obviously whoever owned that workshop with the large, lightning covered device sticking out of the roof. If he listens closely he can even hear laughter above the sound of the machinery, of the kind a pony makes when their evil plan is about to go into motion. And he just couldn't let that happen, now could he? He eyes the workshop for a few moments more, and is not entirely surprised when he sees a number of other ponies showing up. A guard, and that what looks like just a regular pony go in through the front door, and was that Supermare on the roof? He squints a bit as she topples over into the house. Maybe it wasn't her after all, he supposes he hadn't had a good look at her in the dark. Either way, he'd better get inside himself, or he'd miss all the fun. He takes off, angling for an open window rather than risk being hit by some stray lightning if he attempted to go in through the roof. There aren't even any traps or anything in the window, and he easily makes it inside. Now, to find that mad pony and bring him to justice! Woodwind sets off into the sea of strange mechanical devices, but he only makes it a few steps when he's suddenly grabbed by a large machine covered in sinister spikes and ominously glinting lights! The next thing he knows he's upside down and completely wrapped in what seems to be a single, extremely long and impossibly tangled slinky. He struggles against it for a few moments, but it's just too tightly wrapped. If he could curse loudly, now would be the time to do it! Instead, he just keeps trying to wriggle his way out of the tangled mess, though his progress is slow.

Woodwind gives a nod to Gladius, taking the lead as they leave the castle and head off into the darkened streets. He doesn't quite head directly home, despite his fatigue. Instead he chooses a more winding route, allowing him to further calm down and to enjoy the night. Gladius' presence helps there, the small talk both keeping his mind off his earlier stress and also filling the silence, even if the larger pegasus tried to keep the questions simple. Eventually though they make their way to the street Woodwind lives on, the large houses standing with dark windows due to the late hour. Woodwind nods when Gladius points out a particular home, and starts leading the way up to the porch. Once there he stops and turns to face Gladius, pulling his notebook back out. 'Thank you for taking me to the castle, and walking me home." He writes, smiling at the guard.

Woodwind shrinks down under Gleam's glare, hunching over wit his ears pulled back against his head. He takes the notebook and makes a hasty retreat toward Gladius, ducking around the guard's side to put him between Gleam and himself. He nods at Gladius' question as he watches Gleam head over to check the telescope, though Woodwind had been very careful with it. He flips the notebook to a blank page and scrawl out "Yeah, unless him writing it down was enough verification." He shifts the telescope folded on his back slightly, and nods again. He was definitely ready to get out of here. He turns to head for the door, occasionally looking back over his shoulder at Gleam until they're out of the room, when he finally relaxes a little. "Thank you for bringing me here." He stops to write.