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Sudip shifted his weight -- glancing at the office door and giving it no more than that. Oblivious to any predicament except that his plans had been foiled, he nibbled absently at the rope. The mirth fell from Harper's face at the terse tone her friend had taken after stepping out of the doorway. She simply hadn't expected that sort of reaction. The lighting was harsh, beaming out from behind dark locks of hair. She had her flashlight, but shining that thing in people's faces was rude. Harper assumed she must be kidding. Just being melodramatic and playing along.

"No need to fear, Pene -- Sudip's the only evil, haunted pony here. And look, we've already caught him!" she said, levity returning. She tied Sudip's lead rope to a nearby cross-tie (until she could figure out how to secure his stall for the night). "We haven't even had s'mores yet."

Well, there was no mistaking the mood now. Harper's eyebrow's quirked and she could only watch for a moment as Penelope stormed off. The tears were what unsettled her the most. Was all of that huff over a little, harmless prank?

"Wait," she called out as she flipped on her flashlight and half-ran to catch up. Her good friend that she had never seen react this harshly to anything... Letting her go off without another word wasn't an option. Harper stopped suddenly in front of Penelope to block her way at the barn entrance. "What's going on with you all of a sudden? Sudip's a nice horse, like Jani. You're getting worked up over nothing. It was just for laughs," she defended, tone growing laced with a harshness of its own. It's not like she'd prepped this beforehand, even. It was just a chance opportunity.

Brows knitted angrily. No s**t you were scared, Sherlock. Wasn't that the point? It was everything Harper could do to not snap her thoughts out loud at Penelope. Those walls were crumbling. She obviously wasn't hurt, at least not until Penelope started sobbing at her. Had she really misjudged their friendship this much? She thought they had things in common, from that first day at the library when they were after the same book -- when they survived that thing, that real danger. The girl was soft, but she was just beginning to look past that. Hell, it may have even been a little bit welcomed to have some things not altogether 'in common.' It was so easy to be around Pene...

Tonight, though, she heard the echo of her mother's lectures chastising her for this stupid horror hobby. Except now they had of moat of her friend's tears around them and she wasn't ready to acknowledge why that was making it worse. Not many people knew about her interest in it outside of the anonymity of the internet -- she had told herself before that it wasn't worth it.

Maybe they were never having fun. The wall fell.

"Fine, Miss Prissy-pants. I don't want you around acting like this anyway. Damnit, it was a joke, so I laughed -- get over it. I guess we really wasted our time, huh?" Harper spat. She dug into her pant's pocket and pulled out a bus token. "End of the road, turn left, about two blocks," she said, shoving the token and the flashlight into Penelope's hands. If this girl didn't want the bus then she could just call home from the end of the road, too, as far as Harper was concerned.