While actually titled "Widget Whatsis's Workshop of Wondrous Whatnots and Whirling Whatchamacallits", the sign-painter pony wasn't getting paid by the letter and thus abbreviated it.  A small but well maintained building with different clockwork and mechanical inventions, some finished but most not, lining the outside of the shop. The inside of his shop is what some might call 'organized chaos', tools and gears and bits, evidence of his tinkering, laying on every available surface. Many are repair orders that ponies have made, but many are his own inventions in various states of assembly. Blue prints and drawings are rolled up neatly and stored on two bookshelves from floor to ceiling.

<<< FROM: Branches and Books Library

By the time Widget and Quill had gotten back to the workshop, Widget's expression had turned all the more dreamy, as if clouds were circling his head. He magicked his wings off and set them carefully aside onto one of his several desks. "I just can't believe she said yes," he said with a happy sigh. "I've been trying to work up the courage to ask her out for months. And she said yes so easily..."

[From... Branches and Books Library]

While Widget was using his magic to remove the wings, Quill slumped down to sit on the floor as soon as they were through the door, happy to be somewhere that wasn't full of ponies or having to walk across town. As Widget mentions about how he asked her out, Quill smiles sleepily.

"I.. thought you were going there for books," Quill yawns, interrupting his comment while he stretches his arms out, "not going to ask her out. If.. do.. do you want me to come with you? I can make sure.. that.."

Quill yawns again and closes his eyes for a moment and, as his head slumps forward, he quickly opens his eyes again, looking a little startled.

"Oh, is.. this.. this is the shop? It's.. a bit, um, disorganised. I feel sorry for the pony who has to tidy all of this up..."

Widget smirked slightly as Quill slumped down. He was adorable, to be honest. "Well, I hadn't really planned on asking her out. My brain just kind of kicked me in the flank. I guess I did forget my book... I'm not overly concerned, though, I'm sure of my calculations. I just wanted to double check. If I'm careful, it shouldn't be any sort of issue." He chuckled a little at him as he leaned down and nearly fell asleep right there on the floor. "Well, you don't look like you'll be awake long enough to come with me. Come on, let's get your bed all ready. And Quill..." He smirked, peering over his glasses, "I hired you to organize it, remember?"

Chuckling, he made his way up the stairs to his loft, consisting of two bedrooms and a storage room. The storage room nearest the stairs was chock full of parts and metal bits and bolts. The second room was the master bedroom, Widget's bed and bookshelves, rolls of older blueprints and a desk under the table covered in papers. The final room was the spare bedroom that had boxes of papers in it, along with spare sheets and towels on wall shelves, and an wardrobe for his clothes, with a folded bed up against the wall near the window. "Like I said, I'll clean all this out tomorrow," he said as he pointed his horn to the bed and it opened up, a set of sheets lifting from the shelf as he began to make the bed for his assistant to bed down.

"But, you didn't say it was this untidy," Quill complained somewhat feebly as he followed Widget up the stairs and, even though he was about ready to collapse, he found himself counting the stairs as he climbed them underneath his breath.

"Seventeen, eighteen... I can start the tidying tomorrow, I guess."

As Widget used magic to unfold and arrange the bed, he wasn't entirely sure whether or not it was just him seeing things in his half-asleep state, or whether it was something that Widget was doing. Either way, he wasn't going to complain and, with each heavy footstep, he felt himself being inexorably drawn closer and closer to the bed.

"...after your, um, evening out, in the morning, we'll start in the mor-"

From Quill's perspective, the huge bed kept getting closer and closer but, suddenly, the floor came crashing in to view and, as his eyes drift closed again, he figured that "near the bed" was close enough.

Widget watched as Quill fell and didn't get up again, only momentarily alarmed. It was apparently, though, that he was fine, just asleep on the ground. "Hmmhmmhmm. I suppose you are still a baby dragon," he said softly, fixing up the bed the rest of the way. He leaned down and lifted the dragon onto the bed, pulling the blanket up over him. "Sleep well, Quill," he whispered, turning off the lights before making his way downstairs again.

Though Quill was well and asleep, Widget still had work to do before the moon rising. He fished out his second wing prototype, which was not quite as elaborate as the ones he had ruined earlier that day, but they were still functional. Moving to one of his many work desks, he set to work on the tiny clockwork parts, biting his lower lip thoughtfully as as he checked and double checked his magic work, his gear work, and his strap systems. There was still a lot of work for him to do before moonrise...

By the time Widget looked up from his work, the sound of traffic from outside the shop was growing louder as ponies gathered and set up stands and talked in excited groups about the moon rising. "I guess that's about all I can do," he said to himself as he flexed the wings to make sure one last time all the gears were working. With a sigh, he pulled off his glasses and wiped the sweat off of his brow. The light was getting dusky outside -- time to make his way over. Firstly, though, he had to get ready for his very first date.

First date... Even though he felt his stomach twist and tighten up at the idea with butterflies, he was also giddy with anticipation. Going up to his room, being sure to stay quiet so as not to wake the little dragon in his guest room, he looked through his wardrobe to find something perhaps a little more appealing than nothing at all. After a few moments, he at last settled on a blue vest coat that was certainly nothing formal, but more than just nothing at all, and he thought he looked pretty snazzy in it, too. He replaced his black square rim glasses with dark red oval ones that matched his hair and accented his face in a flattering manner. He never wore these, though, because they were more fragile than his black square ones, which were often pelted with bits of metal during the invention process.

At last, down the stairs he went, his wings coming onto his back just beneath the hem of the vest and strapped down securely. A pocketful of bits and a basket in his mouth, he made his way out to the market, Sugarcube Corner to be exact, to pick up what was had been requested of him.

>>> TO: Sugarcube Corner

"Oh, no, I couldn't eat another bite, I'm stuffed," Quill offered a chuckle, pushing the silver plate on the table aside. The precariously stacked tower of pastries on the plate wobbled for a moment before crashing over, scattering them across the table and tumbling on to the floor.

"Please. I insist."

The booming voice shook the stone walls of the room and belonged to a pony, albeit one of huge proportions, such that he had to bow his huge, grey head so as not to concuss himself upon the ceiling. Still, the cracks in the ceiling suggested that he hadn't always been successful in this endeavour.

With a wave of an equally sizeable and impressive hoof, more pastries appeared on the plate. More and more pastries. An almost never-ending tide of pastries. Cascading on to the floor, they continued to appear, until Quill sat almost neck deep in the pastries.

"I insist."

Above them both, the stonework began to crack, showering the pastry sea with dust as the crack widened until, finally, the head of an even larger pony peered down in to the room. Such was the scale of the thing that, through the rapidly spreading cracked stone ceiling, half of an eye could be seen.

"Look at the state of this place."

The crack spread, racing across the ceiling and creeping down the walls, until the whole of the room itself cracked. The sea of pastries began to shift, forming a wave that carried Quill along, through the crack in the wall. Struggling to remain on the surface of a wave of croissants, Quill gulped down lungfuls of air at each opportunity.

"You're almost there," commented a passing croissant before, with a bready grin, it too was absorbed in to the tumbling wave of treats. Quill closed his eyes and let himself be carried forwards. Forwards, and then down, as the wave cascaded off the cliff that solidified underneath him. With a thump, he hit the bottom.

With a thump, Quill fell out the bed, tangled up in a sheet. Without saying a word, he untangled the errant blanket, climbed back up on to the bed and pulled the blanket around himself.

"Welcome back," said the croissant.

Standing on the bed, with his face pressed against the window-pane, Quill strained to see where all the noise was coming from. He'd been awake for a few minutes now and, after remembering where he was and checking his bed for talkative croissants, Quill was mostly certain that he was awake.

Quill turned to look around the room, considering his options. In the darkness, the unfamiliar room was full of potential terror. The cupboard loomed at one end of the room. A towel half slipped from it's place on the shelf looked like the tongue of some impossibly large monster. As for the abyss underneath the bed, well, who knows what lurked there. The door on the far side of the room might as well have been a million miles away.

"There's nothing there," he told himself while rubbing his eyes clear of sleep, "and, even if there was, you're a dragon. A dragon! Big. Fearsome."

With his eyes focused on the door, Quill leapt down from the bed and hit the ground running as fast as his legs could carry him, one claw still tightly gripping the blanket, which trailed along behind him. Without pausing in his stride, he pushed the door open and went straight for the stairs, propelled by the fear of the unknown. The stairs presented little obstacle for him and, finally, he made it through the chaos of the shop proper and out in to the cool evening air.

One good yawn and a stretch later, he rolled the blanket up and put it down by the door. Quill turned and walked away, wondering about the noises coming from the town square, before going back to the blanket and looking over it critically.

"Well, it could get cold, and..." Quill picked the rolled up blanket and tucked it underneath one arm, nodding to himself, "...what if Widget needs a blanket? What if he didn't take one with him?"

With his mind made up, he began his search for the source of all this noise.

[Exit to... Special Event - Moon Raising in Town Square]

--> From: Ponyville Business District - Summer Song Cafe -->

Starcrasher looked around the business district, occasionally asking Quill what the buildings were with the enthusiasm of someone who was looking forward to spend a lot of time in Ponyville yet knew nothing about it. Which was to say, Quill would be doing most of the talking as every time he'd stop, she'd have two more questions for him.

As the door to Widget's Workshop opened, Starcrasher looked around at the mess, and grinned. While others would undoubtedly not be able to see past the mess, she recognized the signs from having a similar quirk herself, and could tell that there was a system to how the items and thingamajigs were strewn about on the floor and furniture. With only a couple of modifications everything would remain within easy reach assuming one would watch where they'd walk.

- "So what does this Widget work on exactly? I have no idea what half of these are for."

[Enter from... Ponyville Business District - Summer Song Cafe]

Being quite new to the town himself, Quill didn't have much of a clue about what the various buildings in the town were for, but he seemed happy enough to provide half-asleep speculation about the nature of each business they went past.

Quill cringed a little as the door to the workshop opened, half expecting the mess to have somehow grown in size and spill out on to the street. I mean, after all, that was exactly the sort of thing  that happens in dreams but, as the workshop was in the state he left it in earlier that evening, he sighed with relief.

"I'm.. um, well," he figured that, being a dream, it was probably fine to confess to Starcrasher, "the.. I don't really know. I kind of only, um, started working for him, um, today. This afternoon. Earlier. When I wake up tomorrow, I promise I'll tell you that, just.. this has been a pretty odd dream."

Starcrasher nodded reassuringly. If Widget was as random as the appearance of his Workshop made him out to be, then one assistant more or less wouldn't matter much as long as the job got done.

- "Oh, i'm sure it'll be fine. Especially if his date goes well, and since he hasn't come home yet i'd say it is."

The references from Quill to this being all a dream she simply blamed on him being half-asleep, he'd likely be more awake in the morning, in more ways than one. So, stepping into the Workshop, she looked around, waiting for Quill to show her to the room they were going to share so she could see that he got some much needed sleep before he'd collapse on the spot.

"If his date-thing doesn't go well," Quill started to waddle towards the staircase that led up to the loft and, as he climbed up each one, he continued to speak, "then, um, there's a window we might be able to escape out of..."

It was slow-going up the stairs but, eventually, he made it to the top and walked along, past two doors towards the third and final one, the one that was left open when he made his daring escape earlier that evening. Eyes widening, he stopped before reaching the doorway; whatever terrifying thing that lurked underneath the bed had probably also made good it's escape, but with the front door of the workshop left unopened, that could only mean...

"...it's on the loose inside the workshop! Um, I mean, the bed is in there, and the other rooms, I think, must be Widget's. You should, um, probably go in first."

Starcrasher nodded and, not knowing anything about the threat of talking croissants, simply walked into the room before turning around to wait for Quill.

- "Come on, i promised Princess Luna i'd tuck you in."

She stood next to the bed, within arms reach of anything that might be hiding under the bed, though aside from a small cord that could potentially get snagged around her hoof there was no actual threat that she perceived.

"I, um, wait, no, be carefu-" Quill stammered as Starcrasher went in to the room, as if everything was just fine and, after it became apparent that whatever it was that was underneath the bed was either not interested in the pony, (or had moved on or, most likely, was simply trying to lull them both in to a false sense of security), he took a few tentative steps in to the room.

"Okay, just.. um, be careful, if you're going downstairs, okay? The, um, thing, that was under the bed? I think it might be downstairs. Or," he started to climb up on to the bed as quickly as he could, imagining that the thing beneath the bed would probably strike while he was vulnerable, "maybe it got into Widget's room, or.. oh, we could make.. make a trap or something! To catch it!"

"And then we can show it to Widget, he'll be sure to let you stay as my assistant if we, um, we catch the thing."

Starcrasher resisted the urge to chuckle, though a grin did manage to slip through.

- "I'll be sure to keep the door closed then. I got it, don't worry."

She stepped away for a moment, allowing Quill unrestricted passage to the only bed in the room. She'd tuck him in, then wait until he would at least be partially asleep before making her way out of the room. Oh, which reminded her.

- "Come to think of it, do you sleep with the light on or off?"

The tired dragon managed to make it up on to the bed and, with a sleepy but triumphant smile, he sat down and looked at Starcrasher. While it would be quite a large dent to his pride to admit that he'd much rather sleep with the light on, it made a certain amount of sense, in Quill's half asleep state, that the thing underneath the bed obviously didn't like the light, which is why it remained lurking there.

"Um, lights on," he shuffled about on the bed, bouncing up and down a little to try and coax the thing under the bed out before adding, "but only because the thing doesn't like the dark! It's for our own safety!"

- "Of course. I'll try to keep that in mind."

After making sure Quill had climbed up on the bed, Starcrasher moved to get her horn caught in the blanket, dragging it over the small dragon as she waited for him to get to sleep. After that, she'd be off to hunt whatever had apparently been on the loose, which more than likely just meant something that vaguely resembled a monster with the lights turned off.

But hey, she had been like that not too long ago, so it wasn't like she could blame him for it.

"And we'll have the.. the thing, tomorrow, and, there's probably nothing to worry about, and the Princess was there too, and the clever pink one, and.. hey, you're kind of pink too, I wonder.. I wonder if that means something.."

After a few minutes spent mumbling about the nature of the thing under the bed and how to catch it ("it's big" and "with a trap" respectively), along with some advice about how to handle Widget when he gets home ("hide in the big wardrobe"), Quill finally got back to sleep, snoring quietly and returning to the strange dream about croissants.

After Quill had fallen asleep again, Starcrasher backed out of the room, gently nudging the door shut before taking a deep breath. How did she get herself into this mess again? She didn't know, and part of her didn't even want to know, but for now there were more important things to do.

Walking up to the first half-collapsed pile, the unicorn wondered what those things stored in the boxes were for, but given that they kind of like looked like those other things stacked in the corner she figured they'd have to go there as well. Concentrating on lifting one of the boxes, her horn started to glow softly, then a little more brightly... before the lighting failed abruptly.

- "Okay, okay, i can take a hint. Jeez."

Grumbling, she picked up the first box to start moving everything by hoof instead. It would only take slightly longer, and most of it would be her trying not to stumble her hoof against anything, but it would work. Concentrating on nothing in particular, her horn started glowing again, providing just enough light in the room to be able to see where she was going with the boxes.

While Starcrasher began the unenviable job of sorting through the boxes downstairs, Quill continued to snore and dream. The croissants were back, this time in greater numbers than before, such that the fold-out bed was bobbing like a raft upon the sea of pastries. Cookies, shaped like exotic fish, occasionally leaped out from the sea and, as each of them hit the pinnacle of their jump, they offered a few words each, such that as the numbers of them grew and grew, whole sentences could be heard...

There is a baker, whose name is Cake,
And, with her friend pink,
she loads the basket for us to take,
and a hot flask full of drink.

"How can I pay for these things?" said Quill,
"For all these treats, hardly plain,
should earn you half a dozen bits in the till,
so I should give them back again."

He gazed at the cookies with hungry eyes,
He sniffed at their sparkling tops;
Like a gem-coated paradise,
found in jewelers shops.

"I guess you're new in town, say,"
The Baker said, and smiled;
"So, for now, no need to pay,
after all, you're a child.

"So enjoy the snacks and drink,
crafted with all my care,
and aided by the assistant pink,
but with no pony share!"

And she smiled through her pink mane,
offering treats that we did love;
She handed over the basket again
while Widget watched from above.

O, with a grin he had his fill,
Quill ate well that day;
It was a dragon who visited Ponyville
and found a place to stay.

The sea of croissants settled, the school of cookie-fish moved on, finally leaping out through the window and leaving a confused Quill sat on his bed. Surrounded by croissants. Again.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:28, Thu 17 May 2012.

Afte going back and forth, and backing into a pile of boxes on more than one occasion, Starcrasher sighed. It looked like this was going to be more work than she thought it'd be. Perhaps it would be a better idea to continue in the morning when there was more light out, at least she'd be able to see more than the dim illumination her horn was capable of. First though, she had to pick up those boxes again, someone might trip over them.

Now which box did the stuff that spilled out over the floor go in again...?

"What do you mean," the gigantic form of the blue pony demanded to know as he waded through the rolling sea of pastries towards the bed, "you hired a new assistant? Are you that lazy? You can't just go round inviting people in to my home! It's your fault that Twilight doesn't like me!"

With each step that the unicorn took, he got larger and larger, until his horn carved a line through the ceiling, cracking the wood and letting the light of day pour in to the room.

"And what about the mess? Why are all these croissants here? Why did you get out of bed? Why did you even come to town?"

Quill stared up at the gigantic unicorn and, in this dream, he couldn't find anything to say or any gesture to make that would somehow make the situation better. The blankets of his bed wrapped around him and held him in place while the unicorn walked back through the door, leaving a wake of talkative croissants in the pastry-sea behind him. With a slam of the door, the cracks in the ceiling knitted together, leaving Quill alone with the croissants once more.

"I.. I think," Quill whispered quietly, "I think I'm in trouble."

After putting everything back in the boxes as best she could -- which can generally be considered to be anything that allows them to remain stacked on top of one another without collapsing -- Starcrasher looked around the room. Though she couldn't see much due to the lack of lighting, she still figured she had done a pretty good job cleaning the place up. Sure, halfway through she had ended up having a bit of trouble making out the different colors of the boxes as her magix started to reach its limits, but she believed she'd still done a good job regardless.

Stifling a yawn, she felt it was time to get some sleep. Thing was, Quill was sleeping in the bed now, which meant she had to find another. In a building this size however, surely there had to be a guest room of sorts. She could sleep there without sharing a bed. After all, Quill stayed here, and she was working here as well, right?

Given that this line of thought sounded perfectly fine in the mind of a tired teenage pony, she made her way upstairs, grumbling at the lack of lighting. The loft seemed to have lights though, but Quill was sleeping in the only bed there, so it seemed she was stuck with the darkness. After several tries -- and one attempt where a mop and a broom had threatened to fall on her -- she found a bedroom. Yawning again, she glanced at the clock. It was pretty late, he was probably sleeping over at his date, so no reason why she couldn't borrow a bed for the night while she was here. Roughly ten seconds later, Starcrasher was hugging one of the pillows, drifting off into the land of sleep shortly after pulling the blankets up to her shoulders.

<<< FROM: Books and Branches Library

"Well of course, no one can blame her. She's just getting back into the swing of things, I imagine she's quite out of practice when it comes to raising the moon and watch over the night and whatnot. She's been doing an excellent job so far, though," said Widget as the two ponies made their way back to his shop. "I'm glad Ponyville was so receptive to her. I didn't expect that they wouldn't be, after Nightmare Night, but some still hold old prejudices and fear. It sounds like everypony--"

As Widget opened the door and tried to turn on the lights in the place, he paused in his speech, narrowing his eyes. The door was unlocked and the lights would not switch on. The familiar gentle whirling of clockwork devices powered by spells had grown silent, and Widget was getting a bad feeling about this... "What in the world...?"

There was a flash as a soft blue illumination came from Widget's horn to shine around the place, and he froze, his pupils drawing near to the size of pinpricks as he saw the horrendous, terrible mess that had become of his workshop. His basket and book clattered to the ground as he took a few tremulous steps inside. "What... But... I... I..." he stammered, stepping inside and looking around with an expression that could only be described as horror. "My workshop! What happened to my workshop?!" he demanded of no one. Everything had been switched around and boxed, the boxes out of order and moved. However, his shock was quickly becoming anger as he moved around, trying to find the prototype wing frames and Pinkie's blueprints he had left on the desk with a more frantic motion. Turning around a desk, he opened a broom closet, and was promptly buried in what had been stuffed behind the door.

"QUILL!!!" he roared angrily up the stairs as he clambered awkwardly out of the debris in a tone similar to how Twilight would shout for Spike if he had done something to a lost book he had been in charge of.

--> Twilight enters from Books and Branches Library

Originally Twilight had planned on parting ways at the door of Widget's home, but the state of immediate distress he set into killed that idea right off.  At first she feared foul play but as she found the whole place in a distinctly different order than she remembered it being, she found bemusement instead.  Perhaps Quill had already gotten a head start on a new organizational system for the shop?  Poor Widget was still freaking out over the ruination of his particular brand of chaos while she cantered over to the fuse box at the wall.  Twilight popped it open and gently extracted one of the magical battery cells, curiously peering at it under the glow of her own horn.

"Huh... these batteries are bone dry.  These are supposed to last for months though... when was the last time you had these charged?" Twilight asked.  Normally there were special conditions necessary to power up magical batteries with sufficient energy to make use of their full life span, but Twilight had more than enough brute force in her to do the trick.  She fed a constant stream of energy into the cells and filled them back up to brimming in just a few moments.  The cells had been reinstalled back into the fuse system and she pulled the switch to get the lights back on just in time for Widget to get himself buried under a small landslide of junk from out the closet.

"Are you okay?" Twilight fretted as she hurried over to him and began digging him out one levitated object at a time.  He bellowed for Quill, which meant he was feeling fine.  It took a lot of self control to keep herself from giggling over the whole ordeal as she put a hoof across his back.  "Widget, calm down.  Quill is probably out cold by this time of night.  Come on; let's take a look around and see if anything else needs damage control."

Quill sat upright in his bed as Widget's rather loud and angry shout cut through his pleasant dream of croissants although, considering the nature of his dreams that evening, he remained a tiny bit concerned that this was just his mind playing tricks on him.

Before climbing down from the folding bed, he dangled a blanket out over the side, hoping to coax out anything that might be underneath the bed and, seeing that the blanket remained un-mauled, he carefully climbed down from the bed and wandered over towards the door, blanket still in hand.

"I'm coming, I'm... I'm, um," he opened the door to the spare room a little and peered out, spying first the contents of the closet spread out across the floor, and then the two ponies, before letting out a long yawn, "..is it morning already? Is, um, this another dream? We... we didn't catch the thing yet, but..."

Quill yawned again, rubbing his eyes with the back of one claw and trying, desperately, to wake himself up through willpower alone. After rubbing some of the sleep out of his eyes, he looked back at the two ponies - Widget, Twilight - and realised that there was still one pony unaccounted for. Presumably, this is what Widget was annoyed about, they found her, sent her away somewhere and..

"She was n-n-new in town as well and needed somewhere to stay and there was a lot of mess to tidy up and I c-c-couldn't let her sleep under a cart and there was this huge cannon and," Quill took a deep breath before continuing, "I think I fell asleep and then there was the Princess and... she... um, the..."

Though many things could be said of Starcrasher, a light sleeper she was not, especially after the long walk she had made to get to POnyville, followed by more walking around during the Festival. At the sound of Widget yelling at the top of his lungs, the young pony simply turned around in her sleep, half-mumbling the first thought that crossed her sleeping mind.

- "Hmmmh... Just five more minutes, dad."

She hugged the cushion closer and buried her face in it, somehow avoiding impaling it on her horn.

For a moment, it looked like Widget was anything but alright. He felt a pounding in his ears and one of his eyes was twitching slightly as he looked over the absolute mess that had become of his chaotic but at least navigable workshop. All of his blueprints for everything had been stacked together, and he bemoaned how long it would take him to separate them into proper stacks again, and worried about where Pinkie Pie's had gone, stuck somewhere in the middle. "I'm okay," he mumbled as Twilight helped him out of the pile of refuse that had spilled out of the closet. When Twilight put her hoof along his back, he relaxed, but his anger was morphing into a sense of distraught. So much work undone... How many of his devices would need to be properly re-powered, re-calibrated? How many pieces and tools had broken or been misplaced? There were literally thousands of bits and pieces of his work inside the shop, and they had all had some sort of general order. Now, he would have to start his reorganization from scratch.

When Quill peeked from downstairs, he looked up at him with a pained look on his face, his eyes wide behind his glasses. "What happened here?" he asked, more desperate than anything else, his ears back and head down. "Why did you do this to my workshop? Do you know how long it's going to take to properly organize now? How much you might have broken -- ... Wait, who the hay is 'she'?" he asked, bewildered as the final comment finally penetrated.

Quill looked quite distraught as Widget asked why he did this to to the workshop and, turning to look at the state of the place, he quickly turned to look back at Widget and Twilight. There was no denying that the place was in a state of disarray, but Quill figured he was mostly innocent on that issue at least.

"I didn't do it! I.. I know, I know you thin-" he began to protest his innocence until the question of who she was came up and, pausing, Quill looked down at the blanket, not wanting to meet the likely disapproving stare of Widget.

"I thought you found her and that's why you were angry! I.. well, there was all this noise, and I had to go and find out what the noise was, and there was all these other ponies, and.. she, um, she was new in town, so.. I thought, Starcrasher could stay, just to help out! With the tidying!"

His eyes drifted down to the scene of chaos that was once Widget's workshop.

"I didn't know it'd make it worse, Widget!"

Twilight was all too familiar with freak outs, but it was a little weird seeing some other pony doing it for once.  Was that what she looked like?  She made a mental note to start investing in relaxing herbal tea more often and kept at her efforts to bring Widget's blood pressure down.

"Widget... I know it's easy to forget because they're eloquent, but Dragons like Spike and Quill are just babies.  Calm down." her tone was gentle but perhaps a little scolding.  She couldn't blame Widget for blowing his top, but one did have to take consideration for the circumstances.  Little kids made all sorts of strange choices and mistakes all the time.  While Dragons may have been fairly mature by Pony standards despite their respective ages, they were still prone to the same faults of any child.  She'd had to learn that the hard way.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:53, Tue 22 May 2012.

Widget blinked. "Wait... you mean you brought some other pony here who said she was in trouble, and she did this?" Quill was certainly not out of the woods as far as Widget was concerned. It had been he who had brought whoever this pony was into his home, allowed her access to his workshop, and for what purpose? To help him help Widget? In other words, to do the job that Widget had hired him for no more than a few hours ago?

The anger was quickly returning, and it was only Twilight's presence and words that kept him from wanting to explode and ask Quill to leave before he lost his temper. She was right. Quill might be a dragon, but he was a baby dragon. He took in a deep breath and exhaled it slowly as he forced himself to calm down and relax. It seemed, however, that whoever had done this was a pony, and likely one old enough to know better. Had she been looking for something to steal after Quill had brought her here and that's why she had thrashed the place? In his anger, he couldn't see the 'organization' Star had attempted with his boxes and bits likely as easily as somepony else might. Quill, however, made it sound as thought she were still here. Perhaps she was. And maybe he could get some answers.

"I'm fine. I promise, I'm fine," he said to Twilight, assuring her he was not about to blow his top again. He had it under control, and instead was focusing on how to fix the problem rather than make it worse. He gave Quill another look, though this one did not contain nearly the venom as his previous bellow after he had been buried in parts, and instead moved passed him to do a quick sweep of the house.

As Quill had stated, the orange unicorn was indeed still in the house. Not an adult, Widget noted, as he approached his own bed with the young filly in it, but much older than a baby. She was old enough to know better than to tear apart somepony's home and workshop. "Excuse me," he said as he leaned down over her, in a firm and cool tone, like a disappointed parent more than anything else, "but you are sleeping in my bed. Up with you, whoever you are."

The young dragon just kept looking at the blanket he held as Twilight spoke. While having his name shouted, and the somewhat angry interrogation, rattled him, his pride took quite a blow as Twilight just called him a baby. In front of Widget, no less!

"I-I-I-" he began to stammer, his claws tightening around the blanket he held. He could barely finish the sentence he tried to begin and, with a frown, he quietly finished, "I hope this is still a dream."

While Widget went upstairs to find the aforementioned 'Starcrasher', Twilight remained with Quill.  Comforting Dragons was something she'd gotten a bit of practice with after all.  She didn't realize the blow she'd dealt to his ego though -- he was so similar to Spike and it was difficult for Ponies to tell the difference in Dragon ages when they weren't physically apparent.

"Don't worry, Quill.  Widget was just surprised at all this.  It's not so bad." she tried to reassure the upset Dragon softly.  She cast a look around in consideration -- she could sort of see what the thought process was going into laying boxes and items out, but it sure wasn't the sort of functional chaos Widget had gradually built his shop into.  Of course, part of her wondered what he had expected upon hiring an assistant and then not giving any instructions...

He fiddled with the blanket in his claws, rolling it up and unfurling it repeatedly, biting his lip as he struggled to find something to say that would somehow make the whole situation better. Twilight's reassurance that it wasn't so bad brought a small smile to his face, and when he finally spoke, it was in a quiet whisper.

"I'll tidy it all up, p-p-proper, tomorrow," Quill followed her gaze around the workshop, counting the number of boxes, "and.. and, I know, I'm, I'm still.. but, I.. I, um, I guess I don't l-l-like hearing it."

- "Wh-what?"

Starcrasher mumbled again, though started to rouse from her sleep. One eye opened a little, blinked slowly to take another look... and then went wide open in surprise. With one jump, she was standing on the mattress with all fours, with a look on her face much similar to how a mouse would look when cornered by a cat.

- "Careful! I have a Cutie Mark in Kung Fu!"

Her eyes quickly darted from Widget to Twilight to Quill, then dismissed Quill as a threat and then alternated between Twilight and Widget. Despite her claim however, it was clear that her cutie mark was not related to Kung Fu at all. Or much of anything, considering she didn't seem to have one. This occurred to her as well after a brief moment of silence, as her tail moved to cover the part of her flank where her cutie mark would have been.

Widget looked unimpressed as Star jerked up to her hooves on his bed. After all, she had just wrecked his workshop, and his sympathy was very low indeed. "Uh huh, and mine's in ballet," he said wryly. "You are in my bed, in my house, cuddling my pillow. Unhoof my pillow, step off my bed, and explain yourself before I call Blue Shield here to report a case of mischief and unlawful entry." Widget, of course, had no intention of calling the police officer to his home this late, but it wouldn't do the girl wrong to at least scare her into thinking he would.

At this point, it occurred to Starcrasher that they had noticed she was a blank flank, and tried to think up something that would make them believe her -- though the fact that she had been asleep about a minute ago wasn't exactly helping.

- "Nono, I'm a... ninja. And my cutie mark's... hiding. Like a ninja. Yeah."

Looking from Widget to Twilight and back again, it didn't seem like they were going to believe her. So, she stood up on her hindlegs, and made some mock punches to show them she really could fight. Unfortunately, such maneuvers were meant for more stable ground than the soft, bouncy mattress of a pony's bed, and at one point her hoof got snagged in the blanket, making her lose her balance and crash on the floor on the other end of the bed. Some sounds could then be heard along with a slight movement of the bed upwards, which would clearly indicate that she was now trying to crawl under the bed to hide.

- "Wh-- Eww, dirty magazines!"

Widget snorted as Star crashed backwards off the back of the bed, and moved to pull up on the bed to lift it. He, however, dropped the bed back the few inches off the ground and sputtered at her shouted accusation. Obviously, he did not own such things, and the accusation was both shocking and infuriating. "G-Get out from under there this instant!" was all he could say once he'd found his voice, his face red hot with embarrassment.

After some wriggling around, Starcrasher made her way out from under the bed, dragging it a little bit away from the wall. It really had been a tight fit. After one last pull, her lower body shot loose, causing her to bowl against the wall. This time however, nothing was knocked over. As she got up, she was rubbing her nose, mumbling something about magazines before turning to Widget.

And blinking.

- "That's odd... Quill said Widget was a blue pony. Are you one of his assistants too?"
This message was last edited by the player at 16:05, Wed 23 May 2012.

Widget watched with a sort of disapproving glower as Star wiggled out from under the bed and crashed, again, this time into the wall. His face was still red with embarrassment, but there were more pressing topics before them. "No. I'm Widget Whatits. This is my home amd workshop. And I am blue." He tilted his head to ignight one of the lights that had been drained of magic until it flickered on, revealling the subtle powder blue tone of his coat. "Now, if you're done having a fit, can you answer my questions?"

Starcrasher looked a bit surprised at discovering that Widget was indeed blue, but upon closer inspection it seemed he was just blushing really really badly. Which was odd too, come to think of it. Maybe a joke would help?

- "Ehm.. So why are you blushing? I mean, i know i'm good looking, but..."

Noticing the look on Widget's face, she suddenly had the urge to look at a piece of lint that had ended up drifting on the floor somewhere.

- "Heh... *ahem* Right. Questions. Sorry."

"Alright then," he said, the blush fading away as she seemed to about to be cooperative. "Why did you destroy my workshop downstairs? It's completely thrashed, there's no manner of organization to anything. If you were looking for a place to stay, I would have gladly granted that, but what you did down stairs..." He shook his head slowly, disappointed.

"Let's start from the top... Why ARE you here? You look awful young to be off on your own."

Starcrasher winced at the accusation that she had trashed the place, and was quick to counter it.

- "Hey, wait, i didn't trash it! All the schematics are neatly stacked under the desk, and all the round things with the teeth and the holes in the middle are all in the green boxes in the corner. Same with all the other stuff!"

She took a deep breath, biting her lip a little nervously as Widget told her to start from the beginning. It was probably the smartest thing to do, but it took some effort for her to start at what had happened before her arrival in Ponyville. She could gloss over that part though.

- "Eh... Well... I got sent here from the Canterlot Academy to practice my spells. I had the money to rent a room, but when i arrived there was this Festival, and the baby dragon hired me as his assistant before falling asleep on my back, and then Princess Luna asked me to tuck him in and i decided to make a good impression and get started cleaning the place up and... I did something i shouldn't again, haven't i?"

As her explanation continued she started looking more and more at the floor, visibly feeling bad about messing up his workshop as badly as Widget claimed it to be. The thing that confused her the most though was that she had no clue what she had actually been doing wrong.

Aha, so Quill had hired this filly to be Quill's assistant, which was something Widget was going to have to talk to him about tomorrow, since he doubted he was still awake tonight. Babies, and baby dragons were likely similar, had a tendency to just fall asleep wherever they fancied. Widget's expression softened slightly, and rather than angry, he looked weary. Apparently this was her idea of organizing.

"I hate to say it, Starcrasher, but organizing in a fashion other ponies can fathom is definitely not your strong suit," he said a little wryly, but at least with a bit of a smile this time, remembering what Quill had called her. It was hard to stay angry when she seemed so genuine. His gaze turned instead to the window, and he let out a low sigh. It was so late, and tiredness was pulling heavily at his mind.

"Look, it's very late... Sleep here tonight, and we'll discuss what happens next in the morning, alright? But please, no more 'organizing' of my workshop. It'll take all morning to likely get it close to how it was before, at least. If nothing else, you can help do that."

Starcrasher took a deep breath, looking greatly relieved that Widget wasn't as mad at her as she thought he'd be. Grinning she walked up to Widget, and spontaneously hugged him.

- "Thanks. I'll definitely help you out tomorrow."

After ending the hug, she looked around, suddenly wondering about something. While it was possible the workshop had a couple of rooms that she had missed during her exploration tour, the only bedrooms that she had discovered were Widget's and the loft where Quill slept.

- "So umm... Where do i sleep? I can't really double up with you or Quill because you're both boys, so..."

The inventor was more than a little surprised when Starcrasher hugged him spontaneously like that, but didn't fight it. He smiled a little, glad they had both calmed down. Deciding not to argue the point that not only were they both children, but different species, Widget merely motioned toward his own bed. "Sleep in my bed tonight. We'll figure out a more permanent solution tomorrow, after we empty the workshop and reorganize it properly."

He paused, narrowed his eyes in thought, moved over to the bed, and lifted it up. "What dirty magazines?" he asked, wanting to get to the bottom of this before he went to sleep, or it'd bother him all night.

Starcrasher nodded, then walked over to Widget's bed. After he had lifted it up and asked where the magazines were, she reached down to pick one of them up. The cover had a great picture of a new engine type that was being developed.

- "These. There's all kinds of dust on 'em, and i ended up getting some dust in my nose. Y'know, dirty. Wh-"

As she talked, she brushed over the magazine with her hoof, causing some dust to dance in the air. This caused the sneeze she had managed to avoid earlier to return in full force, after which she tried to prevent more dust from entering her nose by pinning it shut until she was certain she wouldn't have to sneeze anymore.

- "Whad'ya dink i meand?"

Widget jerked back his head as Starcrasher waved her hoof across the cover of the ancient engineering publication, sending a cloud of dust into the air. His sneeze echoed her own, and he scrunched up his face in discomfort. "I 'ad no idea whad you were dalking aboud," replied Widget, his language minced as her was in the stuffy aftermath of the sneeze. "Des aren't magazines, dhey're order cadalogs for inbendors."

A second sneeze echoed the first, and he rubbed his nose, apparently feeling a bit better now that his sinuses were cleared. "I forgot these were even here... They expired two years ago." He chuckled, rolled up the 'catalog' to keep more dust from escaping, and tucked it into one of the bookshelves nearby. "Get some sleep. We have a hard days work ahead of us."

Starcrasher chuckled as Widget replied with the same minced way of speech as she had, whatever tension there had been in the room upon their first encounter now finally gone. She climbed in bed, puling the covers up to her neck before curling up in a ball. She didn't turn out the light though, not because of wanting to sleep with a light on -- she was a grown pony after all! -- but because she felt she had broken enough for one day. Or night, anyway.

- "G'nite Widget."

She snuggled in the blanket a bit further, moving her head until she had reached a comfortable position on the unfamiliar cushion and mattress, and closed her eyes to drift off to sleep once more. Her last fleeting thought before drifting off to sleep was to try to remember to ask him what 'inbenders' were, though she'd have likely forgotten to by the time she'd wake up again.

>> END of Day One <<

Widget made his way back down the stairs, looking calm but very tired. He smiled at Twilight and Quill as he stepped off the landing, and looked to his dragon assistant. "Go back to bed, Quill. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow and I want you well rested before we begin."

He turned to Twilight and smiled wearily. "And I'll see you tomorrow at the Summer Song Cafe. I'll be there with bells on," he promised. He glanced around the workshop, deciding where the best place to sleep would be, thinking he'd probably curl up on the floor of his crammed study upstairs. At least it was only for one night...

Twilight had thought it prudent to remain out of the way of everything going on upstairs rather than complicate things with her presence.  That certainly didn't stop her from listening in though.  Her reactions varied over each coming announcement echoing down the staircase, though by the time all was said and done, she was just left looking mildly bemused with it all.

"I'd offer to let you stay at my place, but I doubt you want to leave Starcrasher to her own devices again."  Twilight said sympathetically.  At the very least she made a gesture as she lit her horn, casting sparkles into the air as she conjured up a small cot, blanket, and pillow onto the workroom floor.  An old but very useful spell in her portfolio -- it had become vital to her survival in all those long years of spending the night in the Canterlot libraries, right up there with a 'no water instant shower' spell.

"That should last until tomorrow afternoon no problem.  Take it easy, okay Widget?  Goodnight, Quill." the unicorn smiled softly.  While unsure in herself with public displays, Twilight still didn't hesitate to lean upward and give Widget a fond kiss on the cheek before she made to leave.  "Thanks again for the wonderful evening.  See you tomorrow~..."

With that, Twilight set her horn alight once more.  Rather than take the traditional route of walking all the way back home, she just winked out of existence, leaving no trace behind other than a sharp snap of magic and a few quickly fading glimmers.

--> Twilight exits

Pleased that Twilight had thought to let him stay at her place, he was in heavy agreement that he should not leave Starcrasher and Quill alone again. He'd already made the mistake of leaving Quill without direction once. "Quite. I definitely don't want to leave them without supervision, even to sleep," he chuckled. "Thank you," he added as she conjured up the things he would need to sleep in his cluttered living room. A low and pleased sigh escaped the inventor when Twilight kissed him on the cheek, more than satisfied with that for a good night, and went to see her out the door. "Good night, Twilight," he said, watching as she vanished into the night.

Moving back inside the full house and workshop, he waved his hoof softly. The wrist watch pulled off on its own, and turned into what was unmistakably a bird shape. Silver and blue, the tiny automaton perched on the nearest desk, watching with bright eyes as Widget moved to the cot, and curled in for sleep. "One hour past sunrise, and half an hour before noon," he mumbled wearily, and the bird gave two distinct chirps that sounded more like bell chimes. As Widget curled up under the blanket, he flicked his horn slightly, and all the lights in the house flickered out, except for a candle in Quill's room, just in case anymore killer pastries came to bother him in the night.

>> END DAY ONE <<

[Quill: Start of Day 2]

It had been a long night for Quill; the joy of the celebrations, the terror of the Thing Underneath The Bed and the general confusion of not being able to tell his dreams apart from reality. Now, with some honest uninterrupted sleep, Quill was ready to tackle his first full day outside of the safety of the Royal Archives and, as sunlight began to spill in through the window, the young dragon hopped down from his bed.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure," Quill carefully retrieved his red tie from underneath the pillow and held it up, inspecting it in the warm glow of the early morning sun, "that today is going to be a-okay!"

With his tongue poking out one side of his mouth (a proven aid to concentration), Quill began putting his tie on, quietly reciting something about rabbits and trees and foxes as he worked. It took him a few attempts but, finally, the tie was on and, with a huge smile on his face, he swung his door open.

"Good morning everyone, it's.. time to.." Quill's initial bellowing greeting, intended to wake up the other occupants of the workshop building, came to a grinding halt as he surveyed the state of the place. The good news was that there were no killer pastries, so that was obviously just part of the dream. The bad news was that the workshop was still in quite a state, so that wasn't part of a dream.

"That.. um, well, I guess that did happen."

A low, cranky grunt echoed from the cot in the middle of the floor, and a very bed-headed Widget raised up to blink sleepily at the foot of the stairs. However, without his glasses, he couldn't see anything at all but a dark smear of color. He grunted and reached up, grabbing his pillow, and tossing it suddenly at the clockwork bird that was still perched on the edge of his desk. "I said an hour past sunrise," he grumped, pulling the blanket up over his head so only his long white horn was sticking out from beneath it.

The bird was apparently used to this sort of behavior, and easily dodged to the side as the pillow sailed harmlessly by. Apparently still disgruntled, it flew to the edge of the cot near Widget's head, opened its beak, and let out a very loud and very shrill chime that would likely wake up anypony in the next door shops as easily as the bird's inventor. Widget jumped about three feet off the bed in surprised, the blanket falling off as he plunged back to the cot and landed with a heavy thud. Groping at the ground, he at last found his glasses and shoved them on his nose, looking up dazedly at his bird. "Tik-Tok! What was that for?!" he asked, nonplussed as he rubbed his ear that had been nearest the automaton.

He raised his head and looked around, at last spotting Quill at the base of the stairs. "Oh. Well, you look chipper this morning, Quill," he said with a wide yawn, standing up beside the cot and stretching with obvious discomfort. The cot, pillow, and blanket fizzled away into magical nothing, and disappeared. Widget turned to Quill. "Well, I guess we should eat before we start work. Is Starcrasher up yet?"

Quill watched the battle betwixt unicorn and machine unfold from the bottom of the staircase and, once the whole thing was over - with the noisy-machine-bird seeming to be the victor, no less - the dragon hopped down from the last step of the staircase. In the early morning light, well, the workshop was in the same rather sorry state it was last night, but the task of tidying it all up didn't seem quite as daunting.

"Thank you, boss! You look, um.." he paused, struggling to find something to say that wouldn't remind him that he had to sleep in a rather uncomfortable looking cot. Fortunately, the cot disappeared, giving him at least something positive to say. "..well, at least we won't have to tidy that bed away."

"I think, um, if she wasn't awake, the noisy-machine-bird probably made sure she was, along with everyone else. Not that I think, um, I don't remember inviting anyone else to stay," he laughed nervously before suddenly noticing that his well-tied tie could do with some adjusting, "and, um, I'm really sorry about that. Don't worry though! After breakfast, this whole mess will be sorted! We can have a list of everything too, so we know where everything is and how much of everything we have and then we.."

Finally, he managed to pull his eyes away from the tie he was fiddling with, glancing around the workshop. If there was any food to be found in here, Quill considered, it was probably tidied away in some box somewhere and there was no shortage of potential boxes that they could have been squirreled away in.

"Where.. um.. where is the food?"

[Starcrasher - Start of Day 2]

Starcrasher looked around in her bed, surrounded by several Widgets that all had angry looks on their faces. Around them were the smouldering ruins of what had once been a Workshop, and a light rain had started. Looking above her there was still enough of a ceiling left that the bed she was in was in no danger of getting wet, though the Widgets weren't as lucky.

One of them, which she designated as the 'leader' due to being slightly bigger and muscular than the others, stepped forward. She held the blanket up higher, not really believing the thin sheets would help protect her against the rage that was about to be unleashed upon her. The Widget, now standing close enough that she could feel the heat of its breath in her face, opened his mouth to speak...

And instead, a rather loud, bird-like chime came out.

- "Thewha?"

Starcrasher woke up almost immediately as she tried to figure what was going on. After a moment, she realized that it had been a dream, and the heat she had felt had actually been the sun breaking through and shining on her face through the window. Well, if the sun was up, no reason for her not to do the same. Climbing out of the bed, she looked around. Yup, still in one piece, time to get something to eat then!

Slipping out of her nightclothes -- which only consisted of a sleeping cap enhanced so she wouldn't skewer anything with her horn in her sleep -- she opened the door, and emerged before pushing it closed with her hoof. Upon her arrival in the main room, she noticed Widget and Quill were already up.

- "G'mornin' all, everypony... uhh, and dragon slept well?"

"Not particularly," Widget said in answer to Star's question, leaning down to stretch out his back and give a yawn. Tik-Tok, the clockwork bird, perched back on his desk and watched the scene with as much interest as a tiny automaton could show. He decided not to elaborate why his sleep had been unsound - after all, he had slept on a cot surrounded by mess, and not his own very comfortable bed. "Kitchen's in there. I sincerely hope you did not decide to organize my foodstuffs with the rest of my belongings, Star." He smirked slightly, leading the way into the back room, where the tiny kitchen and dining room were located.

Provided Star had not interfered behind the tiny unmarked door, Widget set the coffee maker to warm as soon as he entered, and began to search for something that would satisfy the appetites of not only himself, but two guests as well. He had eggs and milk, along with oatmeal, brown sugar, and fruit. A good enough breakfast, he supposed. "Sit," he said invitingly as the other two came in behind him. Magicking what he needed to the stove top, Tik-Tok had joined them in the kitchen, perching now, apparently unnoticed, on the tip of Widget's glowing horn.

"I slept really well, thank you for asking," Quill happily chattered away as he followed along behind Widget, "I'm still kind of not quite used to a bed that big, but it really was comfortable! The pillow was soft, kind of like how I imagine a cloud is soft and fluffy and, and.." As he stepped in to the kitchen, the mystery of where the food was kept was solved and, rather than joining Widget as invited, he simply stood in the entrance of the kitchen, looking around. All the cupboards, plus the jars, along with a bowl of fruit! And the bowls!

"Three apples, two oranges, two pears and... seven bowls, two big spoons, wood, jar of sugar," Quill seemed to be keeping count of something along with all of this, judging by the way he kept extending his claws before his eyes came to rest on the mechanical-noise-bird that was perched upon Widget's horn, "and at least one mechanical-noise-bird." With this preliminary inventory taken, committed to memory and filed away under "building contents" and "midnight snack locations", Quill finally sat as he was invited to do, although his eyes couldn't help but keep drifting back to the mechanical bird. How it worked was a complete mystery, but a mystery he'd solve later. After breakfast.

"How did the library visit go last night, boss? Did you find the books you wanted? It's.. um, kind of," Quill still kept his eyes on the bird, half expecting it to make the same kind of noise that woke everyone up earlier, "I was going to ask when you got home, but there was that whole, um, thing."

For a moment, the dream flashed across Starcrasher's eyes as she heard Widget's comment, but the smirk quickly made it dissipate. It was a small smirk, but after last night she was willing to grasp at any straw coming across her path. After following him and Quill into the kitchen -- which was left unscathed by yesterday's events -- she looked around as well, unknowingly filing everything under the same category as Quill just had.

And then Quill commented on a library. She didn't know they had one over here, or at least one that would take a pony almost an entire night to browse through, bu--

- "Oh, right, the date!"

She tilted her head a little, a playful grin appearing on her face as she looked at Widget. Though she was a complete stranger at romance herself she was old enough to hear some of the other ponies a couple of years older than her to gossip about dating, and she tried to emulate them as best she could to watch the inventor's reaction.

- "So, how'd it go? Spent most of the night looking for... books?"

"It's a library," Quill managed to pull his eyes away from the mechanical bird to look up at Starcrasher, "of course they looked for books! He probably got loads of books, that's why Twilight had to come back to the workshop with him, to help carry them all, becau-"

Quill stopped suddenly, casting his thoughts back to a few moments ago. For it to require two unicorns to bring the books back, well, that'd mean a lot of books. If there were that many books, there'd have to be a sign of them in the workshop, because that's where Widget was. Even if he hid all those books away, the boxes were quite full of things already, so...

"...or maybe it was just one or two important books that they don't let out of the library very often! So they have to be under guard while they're outside."

A hot flush ran up Widget's cheeks as he put the oatmeal on the stove and began to cook it. Stirring it from time to time to make sure it didn't burn, he cracked eggs in a frying pan next to the pot and sliced mixed fruits into one of the wooden bowls. Despite the blush, however, he smiled dreamily at the memory. "We spent the evening mostly stargazing and talking," he said, focused on the eggs. "We had a lot of fun, really connected. In fact, I'm meeting her again for lunch this afternoon at the Summer Song Cafe. She asked me, so she must have had fun, too." He felt the blush rising, and his smile widening.

"I did get a book, though, it's probably still on the floor by the door where I dropped it when I came in. Twilight wrote it. Essentially, it's everything we know about dragons." He glanced back at Quill. "Sorry to say, but ponies really know very little about dragons as a whole. And as you are still a b-- still very young, you likely don't know all that much about your species, either. I thought it prudent to learn what I could from someone who's experienced, and learn what to expect, if you're going to be sticking around."

He chuckled at Quill's comment and shook his head, turning back to breakfast. "No, no. It didn't require guard. She just wanted to walk me home, that's all."

"I hope she doesn't want the book back at lunch," Quill rested a claw against his stomach as, presumably catching the scent of the oatmeal, it began to make a quiet rumbling noise, "because I, um, well, do you mind if I read it as well? And do you think they've got a book like that, but about ponies? With what to expect? Because, um... I would like to stick around with you two, and, um, I think I get just as confused with you as you do with me, and..."

His stomach interrupted his train of thought with a slightly louder and longer grumbling noise.

"...and, um, thanks for not using the b-word, boss."

Starcrasher's grin widened at seeing teh blush and, not really having any experience with dating herself, decided not to press the issue under the premise that there were young ones present. If ponies had eyebrows, she'd be raising one at Quill's comment though.

- "You two? Heh, looks like i got all settled in already."

She chuckled softly as she set the table for three, leaving the cooking to Widget. She'd occasionally ask him things like where he kept the dishes and stuff for obvious reasons, but despite being a Unicorn didn't seem to be using her magic at all, going as far as to fetch a stool for reaching some things stored in the upper cupboards.

"We still have to talk about that after work's done," chuckled Widget as he flipped over the eggs by tossing the pan outward slightly with obvious practice behind the movement, sprinkling salt and pepper over them. "Yes, that's fine, Quill. You can read the book too, if you want. Just remember, it's one pony's take on a very big subject, and not necessarily a scientific study. As for ponies, well, I'm sure we could find something you're looking for, but keep in mind that there's a lot of adult ponies around who would love to answer your questions."

He doled the oatmeal out into three bowls with plenty of sugar and maple syrup over the top. Plating three saucers with an egg, he placed the prepared food on the table before setting the dirty cooking dishes in the sink to soak in water. He fetched the milk jug from the refrigerator before at last making his way to the table, pouring them each a glass as he settled to breakfast. "Eat up. We have lots of work to do this morning," he encouraged as he began to eat.

The young dragon didn't exactly need to be reminded to eat up; as soon as the bowl of oatmeal was set down in front of him, Quill quickly began to eat, happy to appease the demands of his previously rumbling stomach. That his bowl of oatmeal contained sugar and maple syrup, well, that was just icing on the cake. Or sugar on the oatmeal. Either way, Quill seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.

"I do kind of have a list of questions" Quill paused once his bowl was half empty to talk, his spoon - loaded with the next mouthful of oatmeal - poised by his mouth, "like, about, um, the cutie marks, and the digestive tracts, and families and..."

The lure of the oatmeal finally overcame his desire to continue listing all the questions he had. Even so, Quill continued to mumble as he devoured his breakfast, listing more and more things, ranging from apple production in Ponyville to the average unburdened air speed of a Pegasus between every mouthful.

"I'm sure that even I could answer most of those questions," Widget said confidently as he poured a little milk into his coffee mug, stirring it as he started on his egg first, enjoying the salty richness of the over-easy dish. It made him smirk to watch Quill eat so ravenously, and he wasn't sure if it was because of his cooking or because he was a baby dragon and would happily gorge himself on anything he could. "Ease up, you'll choke," he said at last, snickering in amusement at the dragon's gusto.

By the time that Widget had managed to suggest that he should slow down with the eating, Quill's egg was gone, a little bit of yolk down his front serving as the only sign of it's passing. Now, his eyes were drifting across the table to Starcrasher's breakfast and, to the young dragon, it looked even better than his own (if only because his was finished).

"So, um, does every, um, pony get, um, the mark, because at the festival, there, um, was, an, ah, adult, but..." Quill sounded rather distracted until, finally, he managed to pull his eyes away from Starcrasher's oatmeal, now focusing on Widget's breakfast and his coffee mug, "oh! What's that? Can I have some of that too?"

Starcrasher looked at the breakfast as it was set before her and, though she ate slower than Quill, did manage to scarf down her food relatively fast for pony standards. While she was raised to have table manners and such, last night had been eventful enough to work up quite an appetite.

Whether it was because she remembered not to talk with her mouth full or whether she was just afraid half of the food would fall out if she opened her mouth, she remained quiet during the conversation, interested in hearing how Widget would reply. She was the only blank flank amongst her circle of friends back home, and found her curiosity piqued by Quill's -- to her hears -- oddly familiar topic of conversation.

"The marks on our flanks are called our Cutie Marks," he said as he sipped his coffee. "It represents what we are good at. Our special talent that puts us apart from every other pony. It will only appear once we discover that one special talent, once we discover what makes us happiest. For example, mine is a series of gears, because I love inventing. It's what I'm good at, and what makes me happy. Some ponies don't discover what they're good at for a long time, while some discover it very young. It all depends on the individual. Eventually, however, everypony does indeed get a Cutie Mark. I think you might have met Rogue Heart. He is an adult and doesn't have a Cutie Mark, because he hasn't yet discovered what he is good at. Not that he's in a hurry to try," he added with a snicker. "Generally speaking, you get your cutie mark in grade school. Obviously, that isn't always the case."

He glanced down at his coffee cup and then back to Quill, looking a little indecisive. "Well... I suppose you can have a little bit. But it stunts your growth if you drink a lot of it," he warned, magicking over a second coffee mug and pouring Quill about half a mug of coffee. "Be careful, it's hot," he said, making sure the milk jug was within reaching distance.

Quill reached over to pick up the half-full mug of coffee, clutching it tightly with both claws. Staring down at the ominous, dark, strange smelling liquid contained inside, he looked back at Widget momentarily, before closing his eyes and taking a sip. The rather bitter taste of coffee without milk and sugar took him by surprise and, judging by the look on his face, he didn't exactly find it a pleasant experience. Perhaps, he considered, with plenty of sugar and the milk, along with some gemstone dust sprinkled on top, then it'd taste just fine.

"I guess it must be pretty exciting when you do find out what you're good at though," Quill carefully put the coffee mug down, figuring that the less said about that stuff the better right now, "even if you've got to wait until, um... how old is Rogue Heart? How old are you? When did you get your Cutie Mark? When do ponies stop going to school? Does, does Starcrasher need to go to school?"

Typically, every question brought another dozen questions trailing along behind it. Remembering his manners, however, he passed the coffee mug along to Starcrasher, should she wish to try some as well.

"Careful," Quill warned, "it tastes weird."

Since the topic started moving close to something that she wanted to ask about as well, she finished chewing her oatmeal, swallowing everything that had been in her mouth at once so that it formed a bulge that disappeared into her stomach. After being passed the mug, she decided to use the opening in the conversation to answer at least one of the questions, and ask a few more as well.

- "I still go to school, yeah. I was sent here from the Canterlot Academy of Magic, to see if a change of scenery would help my spellcasting i guess... Got any experts on magic in this town?"

She took a sip of coffee, waiting for the answer. Whatever had been in the drink caused the top of her mane to shiver, sending a ripple down her back though her facial expression did not change. She took a deep breath, then passed the mug back to Widget.

- "Annnd that's about enough coffee for me, i suppose."

The inventor couldn't help but laugh as both Quill and Starcrasher reacted to the strong, black coffee exactly how he expected them to, taking the mug and setting it aside for now. "It's an acquired tasted," he admitted as he pulled up the finished dishes and set them in the sink to be washed later. "Typically, you go to school until you're sixteen years old or so. Then you can go to specialty school. Of course, it depends on your skill and what you're good at. A lot of unicorns go to secondary magic academy to strengthen their magical skills, since no matter what their special talent is, magic will be important in their lives. Similarly, pegasi go to flight school to become stronger flyers."

He filled his mug again as he motioned for them to follow, and lead the way out into the workshop, ready to begin work. However, he didn't ignore their questions, setting his mug down on a desk as Tik-Tok left the tip of his horn and flew to... somewhere, it was impossible to follow. "It is exciting, generally agreed that it's the most exciting moment of a pony's early life," he concurred. Opening the door, he began to move boxes outside to begin organizing before answering the more personal questions Quill had asked. "I'm twenty-two. Rogue Heart, I think, is nineteen or twenty, I've never asked, actually. I got my Cutie Mark when I was thirteen, which is a few years later than the general norm, but like I said, it depends on a lot of things."

Stacking a few boxes atop one another, he opened them and winced at the contents. All of his steel gears - Helical, spur, Herringbone, bevel, worm, internal, face, involute splines, straight sided splines, and even sprockets - all mixed together. It made his head ache just looking at it. It would take forever just to sort his gears again, and he'd have to find out what happened to his gear racks, too. "There's a few ponies in Ponyville who have impressive magical talent. Twilight Sparkle, of course, is the most notable, but I can't say if she's taking students or not. She's on assignment from Princess Celestia herself, and generally keeps herself very busy. If she can't, I could probably teach you some stuff, if you are sticking around Ponyville, anyway."

- "Well, if everyone assumes she's too busy to take on a student, it just means more chances for me i suppose. The Academy sent me here actually, they hoped a change of scenery could get me past my block, so... Chances are i'll be around for a while."

Starcrasher took another mouthful of oatmeal, grateful that the taste of it drove away the bitterness of the coffee. After she was done chewing, she continued.

- "Princess Celestia? I saw Princess Luna at the Festival too, and the way she acted gave me the impression it wasn't just an official visit... What's the deal with them?"

After quickly finishing off his glass of milk and hopped down from his place at the table, following along behind Widget as he went to the workshop. While he still had a lot more questions to ask, there was work to be done and, even though he wasn't entirely confident as to how the things were supposed to be sorted, the young dragon seemed happy to simply follow Widget's lead.

Spotting an unopened box upon the floor, he wandered over towards it and opened it up carefully, peering at the contents inside. Quill couldn't fathom why you would need so many different springs and, with a bit of rummaging through the nest of springs, clawfuls of bolts lay at the very bottom. Smiling happily, he looked at one of his own claws, before reaching inside the box and grabbing as many springs as he could with one claw.

"So the box is probably twenty claws big, each claw is three brownish-thick-springs, one little-shiny-spring," Quill put the springs down on the floor and stared at them thoughtfully and, while he spoke, it seemed to be directed at the assembled springs rather than anyone else, "so I guess there's eighty of you in this box, right? Minus whatever space is taken u-"

Quill's rambling came to an abrupt stop as he picked up the little-shiny-spring and one of the brownish-thick-springs. With one in each claw, he carefully put the little-shiny-spring inside the brownish-thick-spring.

"You win this time, springs," he glared at the nested springs in his claw before going back to rummaging through the box, slowly separating them out in to piles around his feet; the little-shiny-springs on his left, the brownish-thick-springs on the right and the few springs that had yet to be classified properly by his tail.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:50, Thu 31 May 2012.

"I'm not sure what you mean by 'what's their deal'," admitted Widget as he continued to carry out boxes. "They're the princesses. They can go and do whatever they want. It's a perk of being a princess, I suppose." He shrugged absently as he began to sort his bracing bands and gears into several piles. "Luna said she'd be in town for a few days. Maybe you could go meet her. She seems rather eager to meet with her subjects. Then you can ask her yourself 'what her deal' is."

He glanced up and grinned slightly at the sight of Quill sorting his springs and discovering that one fit easily inside the other. "Those springs can pinch if you aren't careful, Quill," he warned, but still seemed more amused than worried.

"Wait, they... they," Quill fished out one of the springs from the box and looked it over, turning it around and around in his claw, trying to work out just how they'd pinch him, "they pinch too? Is there anything else you're hiding from me, springs?"

Turning about to show the spring to Widget as, after all, he was likely to be an expert on such things, the tail of the young dragon swept through the pile of little-shiny-springs. Not only did this send half of the pile scattering and spinning across the floor, it also answered the question of "what do you mean, springs can pinch?". The sudden short, sharp pain made him spin around on the spot again to face the springs that so rudely attacked him, his tail catching the other piles of springs that he'd just organised, this sending the brownish-thick-springs flying.

Without really thinking about it, and his tail still stinging from the pinching, he closed his eyes and blew out fire from his mouth, the small gout of flame bathing the little-shiny-springs until they began to glow hot. Fortunately, Quill couldn't maintain this for long and, opening his eyes, he began taking deep breaths, his claws clenched tightly and his chest heaving up and down with every breath.

Starcrasher blinked at Widget's reply, though she hadn't meant it in an offensive way it seemed she had been misunderstood. Then again, if Princess Luna was going to be in town for the better part of a week she supposed it would be better to ask her instead -- she had assumed the princess to be returning to Canterlot today now that the festivities had concluded.

She did not immediately follow Widget to the workshop, instead putting her own dishes in the sink alongside the ones that were already there. As a growing pony, she needed seconds after all. Once everything was neatly arranged, she headed back to the main room where Widget and Quill were already working, being spared the initial look of despair when Widget had opened the first of the boxes.

- "Okay, so umm... Before i start, where's everything supposed to go? Because i think it's fairly obvious i have no idea how you want it to be organized."

Widget laughed as Quill blew fire on his springs, doing little more than causing them to glow white with heat for a few minutes. "Easy there, Quill. Just be cautious not to stick anything between the coils, and try not to melt them." Still snickering he turned his attention back to Starcrasher.

"Well, for right now, let's just pull everything out and sort it," he said as he magicked a box of bolts before her. "Separate by thread pattern and length, please. They were in different cups, but I actually do have a little cupboard for them. Unfortunately, an inventor's work shop has a lot of little bits and pieces to keep straight. It would be disastrous if I got hex bolts mixed up with carriage bolts, or socket screws with elevator bolts. Whatever I made or fixed would fall apart within a few days of consistent use!" He adjusted his glasses by hoof and continued sorting gears. "Luckily, we don't have all that many boxes to go through. Just a few dozen. Between the three of us, we should be mostly done by lunch time."

Armed with a new found respect regarding the dangers of handling springs, Quill set to work collecting the springs he'd scattered across the floor. It didn't take very long to hunt down every errant spring, although he handled every spring like it was some kind of trap waiting to go off, which slowed things down a little. The piles of springs began to pile up once again.

Eventually, the box was clear of springs. Four piles of springs were haphazardly arranged around the box; the original three piles (little-shiny-springs, thick-brown-springs and other-springs-awaiting-classification) plus a special pile made up of the ones Quill had recently tried to melt after pinching his tail. As the presumed troublemakers amongst the springs, it seemed only sensible that they should be kept separate from the others, at least until they've learned their lesson.

With the springs dealt with, his eyes glanced over the other-springs-awaiting-classification pile; as far as Quill could tell, they just seemed to be some random collection of springs with little in the way of similarities. Paying a bit more attention to the whereabouts of his tail, he crouched down to look at the pile before picking out of one of the unclassifiable springs. It was the colour of brass, tightly coiled with a cap on one end, and made a rather pleasing sproing noise when flicked with the tip of a claw. As he went back to looking at the pile once more, he idly brought the spring to his mouth, though he caught himself just before he was about to begin chewing upon it like he would a writing implement. Still, the thing tasted quite pleasant.

So Quill began to sort the pile of unclassifiable springs in to smaller sub-piles. For each spring, he would pick the spring up, turn away from Widget and Starcrasher, give the thing a surreptitious lick and then place it in one of three new piles - mentally labeled as "Sweet-ish Springs", "Bitter Like Coffee Springs" and "Doesn't Really Taste Of Anything Much Springs".

"This box of springs is clear, boss," he said triumphantly, completely unaware of how much or how little time had elapsed, "just the bolts at the bottom of the box!"

Starcrasher stood there for a couple of seconds before shrugging, and moving to the first box she was planning to sort out. She didn't know the difference between the hex screws and socket bolts and carriages with elevators, but figured that as long as each type looked the same as others of its type, the naming thing could come later.

She sat down, rummaging in the box she remembered putting the gears in. Unsurprisingly they were still there, but in the light it seemed that some had little teeth on one side, others along the entire edge and others still had diagonal grooves. Not knowing whether they were supposed to be treated differently, she simply started putting each type in its own little pile. She'd get them sorted by size later.

"Excellent, excellent. You are both doing great," he said as he at last finished his box of gears. He glanced at both Starcrasher and Quill's piles, and found them to be satisfactory. At least they had the general idea down and all of the components were completely mixed up together. He magicked, one after another, different piles of gears, and placed them on pegs that stuck from the wall, or in tiny cups that lined the back of the desk. The gears varied in size from tinier than a Penny to as large as a full grown Clydesdale's hoof, and everything in between. The bolts and springs, similarly, the smallest was no longer than a few millimeters long and tinier than the smallest gear, while the largest was as thick and long as the horn on his head, and likely as rigid by the looks of the metal's thickness.

It felt good to be getting back on track again and getting organized. But of course, there were more things in an inventor's shop than just bolts and gears. There were belts made of leather and rubber that had to be sorted, synthetic feathers of different shapes and lengths he used for his wing creations, hollow metal pipes and squares that were molded into framework, the tools used to actually create and repair, hundreds of blueprints rolled up and tucked away into tubes for protection, hundreds of books about physics and mechanical engineering, and loads of other bits and pieces that had to be kept in order.

No wonder Widget was so out of sorts all the time, with all of this to keep straight.

Nevertheless, he attacked the mess with gusto, even eventually putting on his phonograph to play a record while they worked. The music he played was classical orchestral arrangement, which, according to the record sheath, featured the musical prowess of the famous cello player named Octavia. Apparently, he knew this record by heart, for he hummed along with it as he sorted the boxes of items.

Quill watched in fascination as Widget set to work moving gears on to the pegs upon the walls. He couldn't help but wonder just how much easier everything would be if he could do that sort of thing; nothing would ever be out of reach, he'd be able to carry things more easily, he could make it light... it was only as the music began to play that Quill snapped out of his daydreaming.

The next box he chose contained nothing quite as dangerous as the springs. A quick peek inside revealed a selection of wrenches and other tools, plus various tubes of metal that were of similar length to the tools. Seeing no springs, Quill decided to climb in to the box and have a proper rummage through it. Finding a smaller length of pipe, he put it up to his forehead as if it were a horn, and stared at one of the wrenches intently for a few seconds.

Nothing happened.

He tried imagining the wrench moving out of the box on it's own accord, floated by magic.

Nothing happened.

He tried imagining the wrench moving just a little bit. Just a tiny bit.

Nothing happened.

Starcrasher, now getting used to the sorting process, was picking up the speed at little with which she was sorting out the items in the boxes, despite not having a clue what each was supposed to do making piles of the ones that looked alike gave her as little trouble as it sounded like. She was focused enough not to notice the addition of music until after a few minutes, though when she did it was quickly categorized as 'background music' and absently listened to it while she was working.

Looking up again, she noticed Quill sitting with a pipe on his head, staring intently at a wrench. Sending a conspiratory wink at Widget, she focused on the items Quill was looking at, her horn starting to glow softly as she wanted to play a joke on the small dragon.

Nothing happened.

She tried harder, the glow intensifying as she placed more effort into it.

The music ended abruptly as another major power failure struck the workshop.

Sweatdropping, she gave Widget a frightful look before turning back to the box she was currently working on, very obviously not looking in any other direction that a suddenly particularly interesting set of gears.

Quill remained blissfully unaware of the prank that Starcrasher was trying to pull until the joke backfired and, as the record came to a stop, he slowly lowered the makeshift horn and looked around, his eyes settling on Starcrasher - who seemed to be trying very, very hard to identify those gears.

"What happened? Why'd the music stop? Is.." he glanced down at the length of pipe he was holding, thinking that perhaps the power going out and the experiment in unlocking latent magical powers were related, "..oh, wow! Hey, boss, Starcrasher! I think I, um, this pipe, look! Look!"

The dragon proudly held the length of pipe up.

"I'm sorry it broke the.. um.. music thing, but, this is important! The pipe is special!"

Widget watched a bit warily as Starcrasher winked at him and moved to play her little trick on Quill, apparently to move the boxes around and startled him. However, that didn't exactly go as planned, it seemed, as his record player sputtered and died, and, to his shock, so did Tik-Tok. The magical batteries in both had been drained dry by Starcrasher's antics, just like the night before. He gave a dark look to the back of her head as he moved quickly forward to give a magical boost of power to both his clockwork bird, and his music player. The bird chirped and fluttered up to the desk again while the record player began to turn and warbled back to life.

He wanted to tell Starcrasher to be more careful, but he figured she'd know it, and Quill's enthusiasm was too adorable to shoot down. So, with a meaningful glance back at Starcrasher, he turned to Quill and smiled at his apprentice. "I see that! I didn't have any idea it was special." He moved forward and peered down at the pipe in his claws as he adjusted his glasses. "You best hang on to it, wouldn't want it to get mixed back up with the other equipment and get molded into a wing brace or something. And, be careful not to shut down anymore equipment, huh?"

"If it went in a wing brace, that could cause it to fail, and, if you were flying at fifty feet and weighed, um," he looked at the pipe as he started considering the numbers involved, his eyes widening a little as he arrived at his conclusion, "well, it'd be bad. No need to tell me twice, boss, I'll keep it somewhere safe!"

Quill tried to both hold the pipe and climb out of the box at the same time but, finding that he simply didn't have enough claws to handle both these tasks simultaneously, he gripped the pipe in his mouth and proceeded to climb out.

"Mh'll buh ruh.." he muttered around the pipe, before taking the pipe out and starting again, "I'll be right back!"

And with that said, the young dragon wandered over to the staircase and began to climb each step, still holding the pipe with all the awe and reverence such a magical thing deserved. At the top of the stairs, he pushed open the door to the spare room. With no sign of the Thing Underneath The Bed - quite possibly it was afraid of the magical powers of the Pipe - Quill dashed over to the bed and clambered up. Resting the pipe upon the pillow of his bed, he looked it over one more time.

"It'd be pretty bad of me to let this thing fall in to the wrong hands, or break something downstairs," he sat down heavily on the bed, idly drawing the blanket up around him, "so, it's.. probably best to keep on eye on this. Just in case."

A few minutes later, and Quill was sprawled out on the bed, eyes closed and snoring quietly, the pipe clutched tightly to his chest.

Starcrasher figured that last comment of Widget's had been intended for her more than it had been aimed at the pipe Quill was holding, and did her best to pretend not to notice it despite the light blush of embarrassment on her face. After Quill left, she turned to Widget.

- "Thanks... and sorry about that. It's like... i want to cast magic, but it feels like every time i try i break everything around me. Some Unicorn i am, huh?"

She gave a weak smile, though her heart was not really in it. At least she was almost done with the boxes in 'her' corner of the room too now.

Widget couldnt help but chuckle as Quill scampered quickly up the stairs, and again when he heard tge little dragon snoring away. Though Widget wouldn't call Quill a baby, at least not to his face, his youth definitely showed more than it didnt. Stull, he was pleased to have brought a smile to the dragon's face, and let him have something to keep himself occupied with. He went back to work organizing and stacking things neatly back inside the shop, turning to Starcrasher and smiling perhaps more sympathetically than she might have expected.

"On the contrary," said the inventor as he pulled out one of the last boxes from the stack of randoms, this one full of all the red bits of everything he had kept around the shop, "the fact that you effect magical objects so intensely speaks volumes about your potential, Star. But it's unbridled, wild, and frankly, could be dangerous. It happens when a powerful unicorn isn't given proper training. I find myself intrigued, to be honest."

Ge considered a moment, rubbing his chin with his hoof. "If Twilight is too busy to train you, I would be happy to. Now that I have an assistant, I will hopefully have more time to devote to other prospects, including you. If you want, of course."

- "Yeah, that's what my teachers said, right before flunking me. The only reason i'm still attending school is because i'm too dangerous not to. Figured i was sent out here because they finally gave up on me."

Starcrasher looked at the gears, turning one over as she tried to see whether this particular one had a pile of its own yet. It didn't, and therefore was added to the 'None of the Above' pile. It took a few seconds for her to realize just what Widget had said though, but she looked up in surprise, almost dropping the part.

- "Yu-Wait, What? Eh, sure, i'd love that! I mean, i'd need to tell you about my magic, and what happened when i thought i'd get my cutie mark and everything... You sure about this? No joke, right?"

Widget gave the filly a slightly crooked expression as he finished tucking away the red screw covers and plastic washers into their own little cups on his desk, along with all the other colors, seeing as color mattered little with such things. "Well, of course I will," he chuckled, as if this were obvious. "No joke, I wouldn't jerk you around like that. As I said, you have very potent magic. You just need someone to help show you how to wield it, and I would be happy to do that."

He paused, looking a bit startled. "Your teachers flunked you? And sent you here? Without proper training? Without a guardian? Well, that was... incredibly irresponsible. Firstly, you are a very young filly, too young to be on your own, if I may say so. There are a lot of dangers out there in the world and you should certainly not have to face them alone. Secondly, it's hard to believe they would so easily throw away such potential just because it will require work to bear fruit. If there is time later, I'd like the names of your teachers. But for now, it sounds like you have something else to tell me."

Starcrasher nodded in response to Widget, oblivious of the startled look on his face.

- "Mhm... The problem is that you're graded on what you can do, not what you'd one day be able to do. So yeah, they were stuck with giving me bad grades. They eventually suggested i be sent here to see if a change of scenery would help and my parents agreed. I have enough money to rent a house here and buy what i need, so it's not like i was tossed out of house and home. And besides, i agreed with it."

She smiled a bit, then looked around to see if Quill was around. When he wasn't, she continued, though she kept her voice down, making it clear that she didn't really want to have leak out what she was about to say.

- "Widget, my folks... My family can trace its lineage all the way back to Starswirl himself. Nearly all my relatives have a cutie mark related to magic, and we've had a few ancestors strong enough in magic to fuel rumors we have alicorn blood as well though that's never been proven. Eh... What i'm trying to say is there's a tremendous pressure to perform where i'm from, and i'm having trouble with even the simplest spells and don't even have my cutie mark yet. Potential alone isn't always enough to save my flank here."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:14, Wed 06 June 2012.

"Well, that is certainly an impressive lineage, Star," admitted Widget as he listened to his, apparently, new student, still putting things away by magic, most of them by, it seemed, memory. "If I may be so bold... I don't think it means anything. Well, I mean, it does mean something about the potency of your magic, of course, but I mean that it doesn't, or shouldn't, mean anything to you. Being powerful in magic is great, but is it what makes you happy? Is being excellent at spells what you want from your life?"

Very few ponies could understand what Star felt like, with the pressures of her family all around her to excel at something she might not be disposed to be good at, but lucky for the filly, Widget was precisely able to sympathize. He knew what it was like to try and be forced into a role he did not fit. "Just because your family lineage has exceptional magic users, and magic is their special talent doesn't mean that is what you are destined to be. I would venture that one of the big reasons you can't control your magic is because of all that pressure. Without feeling like you have to perform to live up to your family name, and without your teachers bearing down on you, I think you'll do much better."

He cocked his head very slightly in thought, turning back to look at his house guest. "Pause a moment and think hard about this question. What would make you happy? Say you got your cutie mark tomorrow. What would you want to be good at for the rest of your life? Oh, sure, magical prowess is certainly a worthy subject to excel in, but will that make you happy? Really happy? Or will it just make your family happy?"

- "I... don't know. Well, everyone in my family's pretty much had to live up to those expectations, so it's not like i'm a special case or anything. Well, i am, just... not because of that. Only ones who didn't are my youngest aunt's foals, but they're Earth ponies so that pretty much exempts them from the family tradition i guess. Maybe my teachers were thinking the same thing you are, maybe they weren't, i dunno."

Starcrasher listened to Widget ask his question, putting the boxes she was working with down for a moment to focus fully on the answer. After a moment of thinking, she grinned at some old memories.

- "Magic? Oh yeah. Definitely. When i was a little foal, my grandmother used to do little tricks for me using magic. Some basic magician's stuff, but also sneaking up on me and making me think i was moving stuff with magic, kind of like what i tried to do with Quill. I really looked up to her, she was my big example, y'know?"

The grin then faded, making way for a small lump in her throat that was forming. Feeling a little frustrated over it, she tried to stomp it down, resulting in increasingly wilder movements of her forelegs to support what she was trying to explain.

- "It's just... That i can't use my magic. It's not that i'm letting my folks down, or my teachers, it's not even that i feel i'm letting my grandma down... It's that i feel i'm letting myself down. And i... honest to Celestia have absolutely no idea what it is i'm doing wrong. I could have lived with something simple like not having the potential or be stupid or anything, but everything's there! So-so why do i... why doesn't it work?"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:13, Thu 07 June 2012.

Quill quietly sneaked out from the spare room and, just as he was about to come running down the flight of stairs to apologise about taking so long with the pipe, he paused. While he had missed most of the conversation, Starcrasher's tone of voice suggested that something rather important was being discussed. Rather than head downstairs, he just sat on the top step, peering down with his head in his claws, listening.

Truly, the young dragon considered, the most important skill an assistant could have was knowing when to keep out the way.

from Books & Branches Library

Spike stood up on tiptoes to have a peek through a window into the cluttered workshop. He too saw that Widget and Starcrasher were having some kind of serious conversation, and a moment of accidental eye contact with the two ponies made him nervous that he'd come in at a bad time. "Oh... Hi, guys! Sorry if this is a bad time. Should I come back later?"

Widget watched Star with obvious sympathy in his face as she looked so angry and frustrated. He knew what it was like to be frustrated, of course, but to feel like your own body was betraying you, your magic has forsaken you, with no answers to be had... He imagined little could be as frustrating as that. As her exhasperation and frustration boiled when she talkwd about it and tried to explain it, Widget very gently raised his hoof and placed it on her shoulder in an attemp to calm her.

"I don't know, Star. And if your teachers sent you here, they don't know, either." He smiled at her. "But if you truly believe in your heart of hearts that magic is what you were meant to do, that magic is what will complete you and make you happy, then it is. I believe that firmly; that ponies choose their own cutie marks and their special talents, not vice versa. You just need to learn how to coax it out. And I will do my very best to help you not only to succeed, but to excel." His smile broadened. "I do nothing by half and this will be no exception."

He caught movement put of the corner of his eye and looked up, spotting Spike at the window. "Good morning, Spike," he said cheerfully. "Bad time? Not necessarily. But I think Quill is asleep, if he is who you have come to see."   

Spike just waited his turn to reply, but Widget's comment about special talents seemed to have an effect on him. He'd been pondering such things himself, and how that mysterious feature of ponykind worked. "I can come back later, then. And cheer up, ma'am! It could be worse. You could have been some kind of creature that doesn't even get a cutie mark. I mean, uh, not that I'm complaining... I was just reading a book about it by the great minotaur philosopher, Albert Canmoo."

The young dragon simply couldn't get down the stairs fast enough as he overheard Widget and Spike talking; certainly, for the last few steps, it was more a kind of barely controlled fall, as the perfidious forces of gravity and momentum ganged up on him.

"I'm awake, I'm awake, I'm awake" he repeated as he half-ran, half-fell down the stairs, "there's no need to come back later!" Coming to at stop at the bottom of the staircase, he spotted Spike peering through the window and smiled broadly, although it seemed that even Spike was getting caught up in this discussion about cutie marks.

"You can come in, there's no need to stay out there," Quill called out to Spike, before quickly looking up at Widget, realising that there might be some kind of new rule about inviting people in to the workshop without asking permission from him first, "or, um, we.. could.. um, I could take a break and get some food, right?"

Widget putting his hoof on Starcrasher's shoulder did help to calm her down, and during the brief exchange between Widget and Spike, and the arrival of Quill she focused on controlling her breathing, with varying degrees of success. She figured she could tell him the rest later.

- "Eh, Widget? Can i uhh... take some time off to take a walk and clear my head?"

Having already noticed the arrival of a second dragon, she gave it a small wave in greeting. According to Widget its name was Spike. He was a lot like Quill, it seemed, at least in thinking.

- "Hey uhh... Spike, was it? I'm Starcrasher. And don't worry, i'll get it sooner or later."

The inventor turned his head to see his assistant practically tumbling down the stairs in his excitement to see Spike, and snickered, moving over to the front door to open it for the purple dragon. "Come on in, Spike. Never mind the mess." Though, honestly, the mess was mostly just clean up now. The three of them had tackled the problem bright and early and cut the monstrous bulk of the mess down to only a small and irritable chunk of mess left over.

He turned to look at Starcrasher, and nodded. "Sure, Star, that would be fine," he said gently. "Go and relax. We'll talk later when you're feeling a bit better." With the arrival of the dragon, mixed with knowing that Widget himself wasn't exactly a parental figure, he could certainly understand her unease. Hopefully, she would feel better on her return and be able to talk more rationally about exactly what was going on.

Turning his attention back to the dragons, he couldn't help but to smile again. "You shouldn't need a break, you've been napping for half an hour," he said with obvious amusement to his assistant. "I suppose that's what happens when you learn you have magic in you, it makes you tired. But yes, we can get a mid-morning snack down at Sugarcube Corner if you want."

Spike stepped inside and waved to Starcrasher. "I'm Spike, good to meet you! I met Widget and Quill the other day when, uh..." He grins wide, "He was looking for someone!" He walks back toward Widget and raises a finger authoritatively. "And don't be fooled, sir, into thinking Quill's demands are unreasonable. Dragons have prodigious appetites, and breakfast is the most important meal of the day! I would definitely recommend a donut outing before Quill and I get faint from hunger!"

Quill found himself standing alongside Spike, sensing that solidarity and strength in numbers would almost certainly result in donuts. As Spike mentioned how breakfast was the most important meal of the day, Quill joined in, although he couldn't quite bring himself to raise a finger at Widget, he did make an attempt to look authoritative by adjusting his tie a little.

"With mid-morning-snacks being a close, um, second, in.. importance, and, um," it was apparent that Quill didn't quite share Spike's bravery when it came to telling his boss what to do, as his words got quieter and quieter, "growing dragons and, um.. icing on the donuts and, um, maybe some juice too.."

After Spike had passed and she had reached the door, Starcrasher smirked as she looked over her shoulder to Widget, now being assailed by no less than two baby dragons.

- "I'll try to be back in an hour or two. Oh, and good luck with that."

Though she wasn't going into specifics just what she was wishing Widget good luck with, it was clear that donuts had at least something to do with it.

--> To: Adventure Zone #006: Into the Woods -->

"See you soon, Star," said Wiget as he waved to the filly in parting. His attention back on the dragons, he couldnt help but find it both hilarious and adorable how they had so quickly teamed up to convince him how important mid morning donuts were. They were almost like little lawyers, arguing their points, complete with tie and raised finger respectiively, and he almost expected one to shout OBJECTION! any moment.

"Alright, alright," he laughed. "Donut break time. Let's go to Sugarcube Corner." He raised hia hoof up and held it out. The little metal bird, Tik-Tok, had flown from its perch and landed on Widget's hoof, where it promptly transformed into a silver and blue watch. Opening the door via magic, he waited for the boys to go first so he could lock up behind them.

>>> TO: Sugarcube Corner
This message was last edited by the player at 04:44, Tue 12 June 2012.

"...and maybe some of their te- What? Really? Thanks, boss!"

Quill looked a little bit surprised, as he was rather expecting there to be at least another five minutes of negotiations, but it seemed that Widget was happy to acquiesce to the request for brunch. Turning on the spot, he made his way to the front door and out, only occasionally glancing over his shoulder to make sure that Widget wasn't going to change his mind.

[Exit to... Ponyville Business District - Sugarcube Corner]

Spike waved goodbye to Starcrasher and followed Widget and the other dragon to the nearest supply of sweets.

to Sugarcube Corner

[From... Ponyville Business District - Sugarcube Corner]

After the short walk from Sugarcube Corner to the Workshop, Quill had calmed down a little, although his head still ached a little from the emotions he felt that he couldn't properly put in to words. A bit of time with the boxes of things, maybe a couple of minutes counting the gears, Quill considered, and everything will probably be fine.

"Yes, it'll be fine," the dragon told himself, taking a deep breath to help calm himself.

Most of that calm promptly evaporated when Quill tried to open the front door of the workshop, finding that Widget had indeed locked it before leaving. He tried pushing it, he tried pulling it, he tried giving it an angry glare and, for a brief moment, he considered trying to burn the door down. Finally, he just stood there, his forehead resting against the wooden door.

"Think, think, think," he repeated over and over, each word punctuated by the quiet thunk of Quill gently knocking his head against the door, "think, think, think..."

<<< FROM: Sugarcube Corner

Widget hurried after his assistant, arriving, luckily, only a few moments after he did to the locked door of the workshop. "Quill?" he ventured with obvious concern as he came close, looking down at his assistant as worry shone behind his glasses. "What's the matter? Why are you so upset?"

Quill rested his head against the door as Widget approached from behind, ceasing the think-thunk-think patter and saving the wooden door from a head-shaped dent at dragon height.

"He asked you about me," he turned about on the spot slowly to look up at Widget as he struggled to fit the words around how he felt, "but he didn't ask me! He said where he came from! I have a name! And I... I wouldn't ask you where Starcrasher came from! N-n-not while she's right there and eating donuts!"

With it all said and out in the open, Quill looked a bit more relieved, although his claws were still curled up in to tight little fists.

"I'm really sorry, boss," he added quietly, "I just, um, you know, when you feel like you're not really there, but you are, but, um, they talk like you're not? I don't think I like that."

Widget looked down at his assistant with a gentle expression, one that mixed sympathy, understanding, and just a drop of pity. By how Quill had reacted to Spike's social faux paus, it had happened to him in the past, and with enough frequency to really bother him. He approached him and placed a gentle hoof on his shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting gesture.

"I'm sorry, Quill. You're right, of course. It's not right to talk about somepony like they aren't there. I don't think Spike meant any harm - I think he just asked me because you were busy eating and he didn't want to interrupt you. But that doesn't make it right. And it wasn't right for me to answer him, either."

He pulled off his hoof from the little dragon's shoulders and opened the door for them, motioning for Quill to enter the workshop. "Come on inside. We can talk, if you want."

"It's jus-" Quill was about to continue until Widget placed a hoof upon his shoulder and spoke. While the words offered comfort and explanation in equal measure, which helped with untangling his thoughts and making sense of the whole situation, the comforting gesture caused the dragon to visibly relax. With his fists no longer clenched, Quill very carefully patted the hoof upon his shoulder.

"T-t-there's, I just, it's.. I'm sorry for r-running off, I didn't know what to think, and, that's never happened before, and it didn't make me feel right," Quill turned and entered the workshop, smiling a little at seeing the slightly more familiar surroundings and how it was looking tidier than it did last night, "and, um, the.. I wasn't sure if it was, um, normal to feel like that."

"I think I just need a bit of t-time," he made it a few steps in to the workshop before turning to look up at Widget again as he considered the subject of time, "oh! Oh! I, um, you've got an appointment to keep, and I'd hardly be doing my job as an assistant if you weren't ready for that, and, what if you're late, or not ready, or late and not ready, or if you forgot to bring something, or.."

Quill began to rattle off a list of all the things that could possibly go wrong, although the list began to get more and more extreme and specific in the things that could go wrong ("a shooting star lands on the library!", for instance).

Ah. Well, that made sense too. It was a new and painful experience for the little dragon, and Widget nodded his head as he followed his assistant back inside the workshop. "Well, it's probably not best to just run away when you feel strange. You should probably talk to Spike, explain how you feel as best you can. He'll understand. I should go apologize to Mrs. Cake, we both left in an awful hurry..."

Quill's mention of his appointment startled him, and he looked quickly down at his watch, which immediately transformed into the bird once more. It chimed, softly this time, and Widget made a face at it. "Knock it off, Tik-Tok," he mumbled, gesturing for the automaton to move away with a wave of his hoof. He looked down at the dragon again. "Yes, you're right, I do..." He watched Quill for a few moments. He seemed mostly alright now... and a little busy work would keep his mind off his troubles. "Alright. I'll go get ready."

Making his way quickly upstairs, he washed the dirt and grease off his hooves and face from where he had smudged it after handling all the bits and pieces of his trade over the morning. He took pleasure in picking out a rust red canvas vest equip with pockets, much less formal than the one the night before, and picking up his red oval-rimmed glasses from his bedside table once more. He did his best with his hair, but it had always had a mind of its own, and he sincerely hoped that Twilight would think it was cute rather than untidy...

"I'm leaving Tik-Tok here with you, Quill. If you need anything at all from me, just tell it to find me. It's very good at doing that." He straightened his glasses and then stood by the door, looking and feeling anxious and just a bit nervous. "How do I look?"

As Widget prepared for his lunchtime rendezvous, Quill began work on sorting through another box that had been tucked away underneath a workshop bench. Inside was a collection of tubes, each equally sized, with a stopper in each end - further investigation, which involved fumbling around with one of the stoppers, revealed that each one contained a large piece of paper, carefully rolled up. Of yet more interest to the dragon was that you could remove the stopper from the other end and look through it like it was some kind of telescope. Quill thought it was odd to think he was worried about anything, really, and fairly soon his concerns were forgotten, banished by the powers of the thick cardboard tube.

"Arrr, Tik-Tok, where ye be?" Quill smiled a little as he swung the telescope around to spot the bird while doing his best impression of a pirate, he instead caught sight of Widget coming back down the stairs and quickly lowered the tube from his eye.

"You look fine, great, actually," the dragon nodded firmly and tried to sound reassuring from his seat upon the floor, before gesturing to his own chest and eyes, "I like how, um, the red waist-coat and the red glasses sort of go together! If you're, um, worried about the hair thing, you could wear a hat, maybe? N-n-not that you should be worried about the hair thing! There's no hair thing to worry about!"

"And if there's any trouble, I'll let Tik-Tok know, but I'm certai- pretty sure that everything will be fine!"

Widget's smile narrowed slightly as Quill mentioned his hair, and he gave a small grunt in agreement. He made a slight face, raising his hoof to try and fix his hair, but to no avail. He didn't have any hats, spare for a welding helmet and face guard, and didn't think that would go over so well, not to mention he couldn't eat in it. "Well, I suppose if I delay any longer, I'll be late. If Starcrasher comes back, don't let her 'reorganize' again, alright?"

He smiled at his assistant and adjusted his glasses again, moving to the door. "There's food in the fridge if you get hungry. If you go out, please lock up. The manual key is on a hook on the wall in the kitchen by the light switch. Have fun... Matey." He smirked, and left the workshop.

Tik-Tok, it appeared, had perched on the edge of the cardboard tube, and peered down inside of it with a curious chirp.

>>> Widget exits: TO: Summer Song Cafe

Quill could hardly contain his excitement as Widget left, leaving him the entire run of the workshop, protection of all its precious contents and even permission to eat things from the fridge. This was it. This was his opportunity to shine, to show Widget that he could be trusted with these responsi-

"Careful, Tik-Tok-bird, those things are probably really important," he very carefully brought the tube back up to his eye, so that he was peering through the other end to look at the mechanical bird, which Quill imagined to be peering back at him. After a few seconds of studying the bird through the tube-telescope, he replaced the stopper on his end. "So, we're going to count the gears," he began, trying to focus his mind on something approximating work, "then we'll have to find some paper to write it all down with, and we'll need ink and quills too. No point doing a count of the things if we don't write it down. And.. if a customer, um, oh, Widg-"

He looked at the closed door.

"-oh, right."

Quill turned to look around the workshop and, after a minute of pushing boxes around, he had constructed a fairly safe way up on to one of the workshop benches, upon which he now stood, granting him an impressive view of the workshop.

"Welcome to Widget Whatsits' Wondrous Whatchamacallit, " the young dragon proclaimed, addressing an imaginary customer, "no, no, um.. Welcome to Widget's Workshop! Would you like a spring?"

And so Quill began to spend his time practicing greeting imaginary customers, rather than actually getting work done.

It wasn't long after Quill really got into his practicing that there was an actual appearance of somepony at the door.  A sharp series of knocks rapped out and the Dragon could see a uniformed Earth Pony through the window toting along a large wagon.  Both the badge on the mare's hat and on her closed wagon announced that she was part of the Ponyville Postal Service.

At the sound of knocking, Quill carefully climbed down from the workshop bench and walked over to the door, mentally rehearsing his welcoming line, adjusting his tie and trying to breathe at the same time. With one last, deep breath, he opened up the door.

"Welcome to Widget Whatsits Workshop With Wondrous Whatchamacallits Where Wheels Won't Wobble Wildly ... wait, um, I think I got that wrong, sorry," Quill stood in the doorway, smiling nervously up at the mail-pony, "I don't know if it should be where wheels won't wobble wildly or where watches will work, and Tik-Tok wasn't exactly helpful there, I don't really understand the chirping."

"Welcome to Widget's Workshop," the young dragon, after another deep breath, decided to try again, "I'm Quill, how can I help, Miss Pony-With-A-Ha.. oh, is this the mail? Did Widget get a package? He's out right now, but, but I can look after it until he gets back from his lunch-date!"

The Mail Pony seemed a little bemused not only over the sight of another Dragon in town, but one so eager to recite such an odd little bit of alliteration.  She giggled despite an effort to keep a professional attitude and tucked into her mail bag to produce a few letters.

"Well, if you can sign for everything, that works out just fine.  Plus I was hoping to run into you, sir." the mare smiled.  Now what was that supposed to mean?

The letters she handed over were quite varied, though none looked like they were of personal nature.  Mostly just official looking messages, bills from property owners Widget accidentally wronged with a crash landing, a few notes from the Equestrian Royal Treasury handling updates to Widget's bank account, and the like.  Meanwhile the mare raised up into her wagon and pulled out a large box that clanked and rattled as she carried it over to set it down on the doorstep.  The stamp on the side of the crate marked it as being from a parts supply distributor in Fillydelphia, so it was likely more inventory for Widget's many projects.

"And this should be the last of it.  Look familiar?" the mail pony asked as she hauled down the last packages.  No doubt to the little Dragon's surprise, it was his run-away luggage!  The handle had a 'No Owner/Return to Delivery' tag on it.  "This showed up just this morning after taking a ride all the way up to Manehatten.  Good thing news travels fast around here -- it wasn't too hard to track you down since there's not exactly a whole lot of Dragons in these parts."
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:25, Mon 18 June 2012.

"I'm surprised that Widget gets so many letters, this one looks important, this one's got red letters on it, I think this one is from Canterlot," he started shuffling the letters around with his claws as the mail-pony handled the large crate, "...and, you were, I mean, um."

He looked up from the letters and almost dropped them as his suitcase was set down. Best of all, it was intact, just the way he left it, with no sign of damage at all.

"T-t-thank you! You have no idea how important this is, thank you," he put the letters on top of the mystery crate before rushing over to the suitcase, resting it upon the ground and fiddling with the two latches that held it together, "thank you, I'm, um, just.. going.. to make sure he's okay, and then I'll sign for the things!"

Finally, the two latches were clicked open, and Quill opened up the suitcase with a big smile. Inside were stacks of paper, each stack neatly bundled up with string, and if the uppermost sheet of each bundle was anything to go by, they were filled with columns of numbers. Lifting up one of the bundles, he rummaged around with a claw for a few seconds, before extracting a fairly beat-up looking stuffed toy in the shape of bear. While it had a single eye in the form of a wooden button, a slightly singed leg and a crumpled red tie much like the one the young dragon wore, Quill didn't seem to mind or complain that it'd been damaged in transit. The dragon looked up at the mail-pony with a look of joy and relief.

"I'll sign for all this, ma'am."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:52, Mon 18 June 2012.

The mail mare stood by as Quill inspected his luggage -- while she was quick to assure him that all deliveries via Equestrian mail service were perfectly safe and in prime condition, she could understand him wanting to check for himself.  When he drew out that battered stuffed toy she had to raise a hoof to her mouth to keep herself from squealing.  The little Dragon was just too cute~!  Thankfully she kept a professional air and didn't let Quill catch her getting giggly over his unwitting adorableness.

"Yes sir.  I just need you to sign here and here." she offered over a clip board and a fountain pen.  The forms on the board were simple enough and were little more than delivery receipts proving the packages had indeed gotten where they were meant to go.

Very, very carefully, Quill set the stuffed toy upon top of the crate, along with the letters. Even after letting go, he quickly went back and adjusted the bear, making sure there wasn't any chance that it'd fall off while he handled the forms. Still, he couldn't help but keep glancing up at the bear while trying to look at the forms on the offered clipboard.

Being unfamiliar with the forms, he started trying to read them, before deciding that he probably wouldn't get in too much trouble if he just signed them. After all, the role of the mail-pony was a sacred duty, and nobody with a badge on their hat would abuse their position. Taking the pen in one hand, he signed his name on the various forms, in the various boxes, where he thought his name should go. And, for good measure, where it looked like it'd fit on the bottom of each form.

Then he tried to cross out the ones on the bottom, as it was likely one of those forms that you're not supposed to write on unless it's in a certain area. By the time Quill was finished "signing" the forms, they were in a bit of a state. Still, there'd be no doubt that somebody called Quill had signed for these things.

"There you go," Quill held the pen and clip-board up to the mare, "forms signed! And thanks again, I was a bit worried Bearington and the, um, hoard were, well, I wasn't sure I could afford to take the trip all the way up to Manehatten, and I didn't think it'd be right to ask for time off to take the trip on my first day of work, and.. um, thanks!"

For what it was worth, the postal servant had a very good sense of humor and kept her patience as Quill very much overdid it on the signatures.  She was going to have to refill her pen sooner than she expected now.  The mare took back the marked up clipboard and stowed it into her wagon along with the rest of her deliveries.

"Glad to be of service, sir.  I hope you have a great day~!" she tipped her hat thoughtfully to the young dragon and hitched herself up to her wagon.  With a quick turn in place she trotted off, soon leaving Quill once more alone.  Well... not totally alone.  Now he had Bearington back, after all.

"Take care, mail-pony," Quill waved goodbye to the departing pony, calling out as he did so. After a little bit more waving (as he didn't want to seem impolite, what if she turned around and saw that he wasn't waving still?), Quill turned to look at the crate and the toy bear on top of it.

"Best get this all inside," the dragon gave the crate a gentle nudge, gauging it's weight and deciding that it would probably be easiest to simply push the box in through the front door. After a bit of heaving, and some slightly disturbing rattling noises from inside the box, it was inside the workshop, along with it's passengers (the stuffed toy and the pile of letters).

Then it was the turn of the suitcase. Fortunately, the handle on the side of the luggage made it far easier to drag along and, judging by the scuff marks on the bottom and corners of it, this was Quill's preferred method of getting it around. With the work-related tasks sort of done (barring sorting through the box, sorting through the mail, tidying his suitcase away and pretty much every other work related job), he went over to the box and lifted up Bearington with both hands before drawing him for a hug tight enough to almost burst one of his seams. After a long embrace and a few sniffling tears, Quill regained his composure and looked around the workshop, trying to spot somewhere safe to put the bear before continuing his work.

With Bearington sat on the bottom step of the staircase, along with his suitcase - trying to drag that up the stairs was a job that could wait - Quill got back to work, sorting through the letters. Since none of them were addressed to him, it didn't seem right to open them, so they couldn't be sorted by their contents, which left them being sorted in a pile by size (biggest at the bottom, smallest at the top) followed by how neat the handwriting was on the envelope (neatest above scruffiest).

"Tik-Tok-bird," Quill called out, realising that he'd not seen the bird recently, "I'm going to get some food for us, let me know if any other customers turn up, and, um, watch out for the letters on the floor there!" After rescuing Bearington from his perch upon the bottom step of the staircase, the pair of them went out back to the kitchen, the bear tucked underneath one of Quill's arms.

Following his brief snack break (consisting of a slice of a bread, an accidental sneeze and then a round of toast), Quill went back to work, although the stuffed toy remained tucked under one arm. With a stomach full of food, he didn't feel like doing any of the more manual jobs that needed doing, and instead decided to take the time to check Widget's book-keeping. Fortunately, Tik-Tok managed to direct the dragon without too much trouble to a neatly bound book when questioned, though the hunt for a pencil took slightly longer.

Finally, with the correct equipment assembled, Quill opened the book and began flicking through the pages. Most of it was empty. Worse, it looked like the last entry was...

"Oh dear," Quill frowned at Bearington, shaking his head back and forth slowly, "oh dear, Bearington, there's nothi- oh, look, there's an order for two hundred and eighteen lug nuts."

Down one side of the page, Quill began scribbling down a series of numbers, taking great care with every movement of the pencil. 218, 821, 128, 693, 963, 369, 594, 954, 459, 495, with the last number circled a few times for good measure. Quill went through the ledger, picking a few more numbers at random, and continued the process - scribbling down numbers down one side and, eventually, ending up at the number four hundred and ninety five. Just thinking about the number was beginning to give him a headache.

"Maybe I should just stick to tidying up this afternoon," Quill stood up, leaving the open ledger on the floor, before going back to sorting out the box full of cardboard tubes, leaving Bearington sat next to the ledger.

From atop the workbench that he stood to practice greeting customers, Quill once again stood, surveying the workshop and the contents, all of which were - mostly, he hoped - stowed away in their correct places. Each of the boxes was now labeled, the cardboard tubes were stacked up, the springs remained arranged by their size and flavour and, Qulll proudly noted, nothing was on fire, melted in to slag or left rolling around on the floor to trip anyone up. All that was left out of place was the large crate of ominously rattling bits and his suitcase.

"My name is Quill, Tik-tok-bird and Bearington," the young dragon proclaimed dramatically, "look at my tidying, friends, and be impressed!"

Clambering back down from the workbench, Quill went over to retrieve the ledger that had given him such a headache earlier that afternoon. Just as he was about to open it again, he paused. His hands hovering over the first page, Quill gave Bearington a glance.

"I'll.. just, just one more look, okay? Or, um, I could, well, that's.. there's bound to be a book on this number problem, and, I do deserve a break, sort of. Okay, Bearington, Tik-Tok, I need you two to watch the shop. I'll be back in a bit!"

Scooping up the ledger book with one hand, he gave Bearington a little nudge, such that the stuffed toy could properly see the front door of the workshop with his single button eye. A moment later, the young dragon was out the door, ledger in his hands, on the way to the library. The number mystery would be solved.


[Exit to... Ponyville Residential District - Books and Branches Library]

[From... Ponyville Residential District - Books and Branches Library]

Pushing the door to the workshop open, Quill set the books down in a small stack by the front door, before re-arranging the stack so the largest of the books was on the bottom. Then he re-arranged them in alphabetical order, top to bottom, before going back to sorting them by size.

"Widget? Starcrasher?" he called out, just in case, before adding as an afterthought, "Customers?"

Finding the workshop to be quiet, save for the occasional chirping of Tik-Tok, Quill clambered up on to the workbench and sat himself down next to the stuffed bear, which had - the dragon hoped - been keeping an eye on the shop while he was out. After offering a brief explanation of where he'd been (the library), the books he borrowed (one novel, one non-fiction) and the number problem (remains unsolved) to the ever-sympathetic Bearington, Quill laid back on the workbench and closed his eyes. Just to rest them, of course.

Rolling over, Quill opened an eye and peered around the workshop. Seeing that everything was in order and, happily, he'd not accidentally set anything on fire, he rolled back over and closed his eyes. Yes, he thought, nothing to worry about.

A few moments later, the dragon opened an eye and looked around the workshop a second time. Finally, his gaze came to rest upon the window and, noting that it was getting darker and... was that rain? Where was everyone? They were outside. In the rain!

"Bearington, wait here, if, um, any.. customers, just, improvise," Quill stammered out as he clambered down from his spot upon the workbench and, after rummaging around in some of the boxes - thank goodness they were sorted through! - he had assembled a pile of parts. Paper. Tape. A cardboard tube containing some blueprints. All the ingredients for a perfect umbrella. After a few minutes of work, Quill stepped back and tried to admire his work. It was made rather difficult because his umbrella-like-device was presently taped to his claws. Turning around, he held the contraption up so his bear could see it.

"The, um, well, at least you can't drop it..."

<-- Merriweather enters from Summer Song Cafe

It wasn't too far from the cafe to get to Widget's shop, thankfully.  Ponyville looked like a very different place under the cover of both night and rainfall... not bad, but just different.  Everypony was tucked away in their homes all cozy and safe while the rain pattered against the roofs to slide away into the gutters and barrels.  Every now and then the trio of ladies would pass somepony hurrying along to get home or do one last errand before it was time to turn in, but otherwise it was just them trotting along the slick cobblestones.

"Here we are.  Do you have a key?" Merriweather asked of Starcrasher once they arrived at the shop.  There was a light on inside, so it was a relief to the Unicorn to know that someone was home -- be it Widget, Quill, or both.

--> From: Ponyville Business District - Summer Song Cafe  -->

Starcrasher looked at the workshop from outside, wondering if there was anyone in, and if there was, whether they'd be asleep. There was a light on, and she tried to guess which room it belonged to, for all she knew it could be Quill wanting to have a light on while he slept. She turned to answer Merriweather's question.

- "Umm... No, unfortunately. Lemme knock."

She turned her back to the door, and bucked it with one hoof, gently. Though she wanted to apply enough force to be heard over the rain, the last thing she wanted to do was break the door down. She just hoped they weren't wearing those earplug headphone type things that she'd seen around the workshop while cleaning.

[From Summer Song Cafe]

Silva watched as Starcrasher knocked on the door, waiting patiently for things to be resolved.  A little bit more of waiting wouldn't kill her.

Dragging along behind him a string of vaguely umbrella like objects, attached with sticky tape, string and more tape (you could never have enough tape), the young dragon finally managed to make it to the door. Pulling it open with his one free hand, he offered a bright smile, beginning his prepared speech in case of customers.

"Welcome to Widget's Wondrous Whatchamaca- Starcrasher! You're, um, I was going to make you an umbrella, and then... um, you, best come in, all of you! Ignore the, err, prototypes, okay?"

Holding the door open, he stood aside to allow the three of them in, gently nudging the tangled mess of umbrella-ish stuff behind him with a foot.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:28, Tue 21 Aug 2012.

"Thank you." Silva wanted to step in, though she decided to follow Merriweather's lead here.  She decided to not comment on the state of the 'prototypes' or what went on in here.  Getting out of the rain was worth not asking questions.  This dragon might be one of her future clients, after all, even if she seriously doubted that this place had any use of her talents.

- "Thanks Quill, sorry if i woke you up."

She chuckled, and walked into the workshop like she lived there -- which she essentially did -- though she did look over her shoulder a couple of times before finally turning around to see if Merriweather was following her in. Normally she'd offer them something to drink as thanks for bringing her home and sharing dinner and such, but Widget was the one actually paying for the food supplies. She didn't really know what to do aside from an overarching desire to not be considered rude.

- "Eh, you want to come in as well? I'll try and find someplace where you can sit..."

She looked around the workshop, trying to find a place not covered with prototypes and stashes of materials that she knew better than to touch, preferably one the two of them could actually reach without tripping over anything.

"No, no, I wasn't asleep," Quill laughed nervously, his gaze flicking across to the makeshift bed he'd assembled on one of the workbenches, next to his recently returned stuffed bear, "I was working, on the umbrellas! I thought it'd, be, um..."

Quill waited politely by the door for them all to come out from the rain.

"...and I can make toast, did, um, the three of you have dinner yet? I've got the toast thing right down, I think, we can have toast and, um.. is.. Widget not with you three?"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:56, Tue 21 Aug 2012.

"While the kindness is appreciated, Ms Merriweather was kind enough to let us eat there," Silva explained.  She had to fight off another yawn, but she maintained the best aura of politeness she could.

"As far as your fellow, it is just us three here."

Starcrasher glanced at the makeshift bed and decided not to comment on it, it was fairly late after all. As for the reason Quill was still up, that quickly became clear to her when he asked them about Widget's whereabouts.

- "Uh, no, i thought he'd be here. He didn't go out to look for me, did he?"

She couldn't help but feel more than a little anxious about that. Though the forest had calmed down, there were still Reptans and Timberwolves and Thunderbirds out there, and it had been bad enough during the day to know that she wouldn't want to be anywhere near the forest during the night.

"It's sweet of you to offer, Quill, but it's late.  Best we not spend any time dallying around."  Merriweather's lead was to remain outside.  Unlike her guests, she had to get up early for work, not to mention getting into a jogging regimen with Fung Shui.  The Unicorn couldn't help but smile fondly at the mention of Widget though.

"Widget and Twilight were at the cafe earlier on a date.  I imagine they're still together somewhere.  He's a big colt.  He can take care of himself." she assured Quill and Starcrasher.  The last thing Widget needed was the two of them getting it into their heads to go looking for him when he was off with a marefriend.  She looked to Silva.  "Shall we get going?"

"Of course." Silva nodded, turning her gaze back towards the dragon and younger pony. "Have a pleasant evening, Quill, Starcrasher."

She didn't want to sound too eager to go along with it, but sleep was calling far too loudly to be ignored.

Quill tried to hide his nervousness around the three of them though, without thinking, he went to rub the back of his neck, sticking his prototype umbrella to the back of his neck. Frowning slightly, he tried to free his hand, but finding the sticky tape still rather, well, sticky, he decided it'd draw less attention to remain standing in this fairly awkward looking pose.

"He went out for lunch," Quill began, trying to think of what happened during the day, "well, it was a date, really. With Twilight. We've had the whole shop to ourselves! I signed for a package, and made toast, and did some, well, there's no need to, um, bore you, details, things. Stuff. Yep."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:16, Tue 21 Aug 2012.

- "Have a pleasant night, mrs. Merriweather, i'll repay that favor someday. Good night Silva, hope to meet you again."

Starcrasher smiled as the two stated their intent to move on to the Inn. She could understand Silva being tired, she had been able to catch some sleep while the griffon had carried her back from the ruins all the way to Ponyville after all. She looked at Quill.

- "Well, my day's been interesting too. I went out for a walk, and met Silva -- the griffon that was with me just now -- and a jungle pony called Natra. We ended up fighting Reptans, returning the cub of a pack of Timberwolves and i also made friends with a Thunderbird. The Everfree Forest sure is a busy place."

She smiled at her recollection of the events, her mind already busy filtering out the bad parts of the memory, like how exhausted she was after the fight, or being chased by Reptans through anti-magic fog. Having literally only arrived in Ponyville yesterday, much of the urban legends and facts surrounding the Everfree Forest were not known to her: It was just a forest like any other to her, though she had found out firsthand that it was busier than the other ones she had been to. Then again, those had had walking paths with benches alongside it.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:30, Tue 21 Aug 2012.

Despite herself, Merriweather flinched a bit at Starcrasher's farewell.  "It's 'Miss'." she corrected quietly as she turned to leave.  "Goodnight Starcrasher, Quill."

With that she trotted along with Silva at her side, still keeping the both of them dry under her telekinetic umbrella as she led the way for Town Square.

--> Merriweather exits to Ponyville Town Square

Quill stared up in disbelief at Starcrasher as she recounted the events of the day. While he was pretty excited by the events of the afternoon, it all rather paled in comparison to her story. Leaving his post at the door, he started making his way towards the kitchen, trailing the mess of tape and tubes behind him as he went.

"What were the Timberwolves like? I read a book about them, once, well, it, um, didn't really say much about them, and I think the pony who wrote it might've been making some stuff of the up, but there were pictures, with big teeth, and... um, I'm going to make some toast for Bearington and I, do you want any? I think I saw some marmalade in one of the cupboards."

Silva turned and followed Merriweather to the square.

[Exit to the Town Square]

Starcrasher winced visibly at being corrected, not because of being wrong, but of suddenly having the idea she had touched upon something Merriweather did not like to be reminded of. She made a mental note to definitely get it right next time, and moments after that Quill asked her a question.

- "Wha? Oh, the Timberwolves? Well, they were pretty large, with lots of teeth. I mean, the cub was only a baby and it was already almost as tall as me. Its parents were, like, three to four times as tall as i am, and when i saw them there were a couple dozen of them. I think they hunt in packs."

She watched Quill heading for the kitchen before shouting after him.

- "No toast for me, thanks! I just had dinner."

"Did you get to count the teeth?" Quill called out from the kitchen as he began the process of extracting a slice of bread from the bread-box atop the counter. Having settled upon a system involving climbing up with the help of a chair, he fetched himself two slices of toast, finding that the sticky tape also worked wonders for holding bread.

"It's just that, um," the dragon poked his head out of the kitchen a moment later, looking over at Starcrasher, the slices of bread stuck to one of his claws, "the book, I thought I could write to the author, um, and let them know how many teeth they have. I can ask Widget, to, um... do, do you think he's okay out there? In the rain?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:58, Wed 22 Aug 2012.

- "Well, it's kind of hard to tell what's tooth and what's bark... You could pretty much say Timberwolves are all bark and bite."

Starcrasher looked out the window again, wondering whether she should go out to see if Widget was okay. The rain didn't bother her as much, compared to the deluge from earlier this was just a light rain in comparison.

- "Want me to go out and look for him?"

One quick breath of fire later, and Quill was holding a slice of toast, which he brought out from the kitchen and over to Starcrasher. Looking up at the window, he frowned a little, before taking a large bite out of his plain, rather burnt toast.

"The umbrella, um, thing could do with it's first field test," another chunk of toast disappeared with a satisfying crunch, "and Bearington could look after the shop while we, um, oh, I, well, sort of hired another assistant, so you'd have time to do the magic-things with Widget, and... um, maybe you could go and look for him, while I work out how to explain that we've got a new employee."

Starcrasher chuckled despite herself, though she felt a little shaken that they had found a replacement for her at first it had quickly become apparent that Widget, once again, knew nothing of it.

- "Well, i'm off to find Widget then. Where'd that girlfriend of his -- Twilight, right? -- live again?"

Truth was, she didn't really know a lot about Twilight aside from what she looked like, she had only met her once after all.

"The library, it's pretty easy, um, to find, just turn right at the door, keep going until you find the library," Quill offered the tangled mess of tape and paper attached to a cardboard tube up to Starcrasher, "and you'll probably want this, um, it might keep the rain off."

"It's an umbrella," he added quickly, sensing that there might be some confusion as to it's purpose, "and, um, remember, not a word about the new assistant, okay?"

Starcrasher nodded. She just hoped she could still have her job back, nevermind the new assistant Quill had hired. She'd leave that explanation to the small dragon.

- "Completely understood. I'll be back soon... Wait, last time i said that i said i'd be back by lunch. Eh, won't be gone for long this time."

She took the umbrella in a hoof before heading off to walk outside, closing the door behind her before heading off in the direction Quill had pointed her in. She hadn't expected there to be a library in Ponyville, though going by that somepony lived there she guessed it had to be the size of a modified living room at best, nowhere near the size of a library back in Canterlot.

--> To: Ponyville Residential District - Books and Branches Library -->

<<< FROM: Games & Tables Game Store

Widget lowered his head as he and Twilight came to the door of his workshop home, the latch inside sliding up and pushing open for them right away. "After you," he said brightly to Twilight as he stepped aside for her. There was a mat for which to wipe your hooves on just inside, next to the umbrella stand and one of his many work desks. The place did have a different appearance than it did before - apparently, Quill had been doing his work, at least for the most part.

"Quill! Star!" he called into the empty workshop behind Twilight, almost absently wiping off his hooves and pulling off his damp vest to hang up near an ancient cast iron stove that had been converted to serve as a fireplace. His glasses lenses were nearly white from the fog... Leaning down, he tapped the tip of his horn to the iron belly, causing fire to flicker to life within. "That's better..." he mumbled softly, pulling off his glasses magically and rubbing them with a cloth on the mantle, the lenses too fogged up from the rain to see much of anything inside the workshop.

<-- Entering from Games and Tables Game Store

Twilight's magical umbrella faded away once the both of them were inside, leaving the water that had bee on its surface to splatter away outside.  She closed the door in their wake and took a moment to look around the place -- it did indeed look rather different with Quill's obvious activity about.

"Looks like you got some mail." she noted as she peered at the shipping crates that had been delivered earlier that day.  However, her attention was drawn to a sprawled mess of tape, string, cardboard, and other components trailed along the floor.  What in the world?

Quill was back in the kitchen when the pair arrived - after all, one slice of toast is never enough, and Quill was starting to feel pretty confident about turning bread in to toast. Hearing the door open, and then his name being called out, he quickly finished off his second, or maybe third, slice of toast and poked his head out of the kitchen door.

"Widget! Miss Twilight! You're, um, wait," he looks at the obvious Starcrasher shaped hole next to the two of them, "is, is Star not with you? She, um, well, I kind of asked her to go and, um, we were worried, and it was raining, so she took the prototype out so you'd not get wet and I'd have time to work out how to explain the whole new assistant thing."

"I mean, um, welcome home."

"Oh, do I?" he said a bit vaguely as he put his glasses back on and went back to Twilight, looking down at the crate that had been delivered that day. "I dont remember ordering any parts, but then again, I order so much, I probably just forgot." He magicked over a well used crowbar from the nearby desk, but Quill's comment about Starcrasher gave him pause. Had the girl gone out to look for them? Surely it wasnt that late... The rear of Quill's long-winded comment rapidly caught up, giving Widget a somewhat confused look on his face.

"New assistant thing? But youve and Star already explained all that last night and this morning, didnt you- Oh..." His expession immediately went from confused to dead pan exasperation. The crowbar dropped onto the crate, momentarily forgotten. There was a pause between them as Widget glowered slightly at Quill, doing his best not to let his temper flare again. "What new assistant thing, Quill?" he asked in a tone to match his expression - exasperated, stressed, and a little heat behind it. Best he have it now before he go up to another stranger in his bed...

As Widget and Quill got to it, Twilight found it prudent to develop a sudden fascination with a point on the wall over there somewhere.  She stepped aside to warm herself by the stove and be unobtrusive for the time being.

"Weeelll," Quill began, taking in a long, deep breath, because this was going to be a fairly long explanation, "the mail-pony arrived, with this big crate, and some letters, which I've organised by size and neatness of handwriting, because I didn't want to open them to sort them by urgency or alphabetically based on the first letter of the, um, letters. And then the mail-pony also had my suitcase!"

Quill gestured to the battered looking suitcase at the base of the stairs, as he'd still not plucked up the wherewithal to drag the paper-filled suitcase up Mount Stairwell.

"And I know I should have mentioned it earlier, um, really earlier, but I had a friend come along with me, um, except he got a bit lost along with the suitcase, because the train was really, um, busy and by the time I'd managed to get off and kind of, um, nurse the feeling back in to my tail, the train was already going on to the next stop! With my suitcase! And, um, my new.. um, your new assistant."

Rather than continue the explanation, Quill quickly made a dart for the kitchen, returning a few moments later with the new assistant. This particular stuffed toy was vaguely sewn together in the shape of a bear and, though only he only possessed a single button for an eye and patches of slightly singed fur, Quill didn't seem to mind. Sheepishly, he sat the bear down on the floor in front of Widget and, after nudging him a little closer with his foot, took a step back. If Widget was going to explode, he didn't want to be near the epicenter.

"Mister Widget, um, boss, this is Bearington. Bearington, this is Mister Widget."

There was another pause that stretched as Widget stared down at the bear in obvious surprise, and there was a moment when one might think he was going to burst, either with a sigh of exasperation and annoyance or with hearty laughter. However, he did neither of those things. Instead, a smile came across his face as he cleared his throat, lowered his head and nodded to the bear. "Well then, Bearington, it's good to meet you," he said, before raising up to look at Quill. Any stress there had been had drained well away from him as pieces began to make sense and solidify. Quill acted so mature on some things, seemed to be so responsible - he had, after all, done very well with the work shop that day. But Twilight had been right before... No matter how he talked or walked or dressed or spoke, Quill was a baby dragon. Having no experience around children of any kind, Widget knew he would have to learn more patience about a lot of things...

"Quill," he said, only slightly stern, "I know I've talked to you about this sort of thing before. You can't just invite ponies, or bears, to be our new assistant without talking to me first. But... well, since Bearington had such a rough trip, and he did come all the way from Canterlot, I suppose, this one time, I'll let it slide. He can stay."

Looking rather relieved that the anticipated explosion wasn't happening anytime soon, Quill stood very still as he listened to Widget speak on the importance of not hiring any other ponies or bears to be his assistant. Still, it was fortunate that Widget didn't need much convincing, as even Quill wasn't entirely sure that his planned argument involving how Bearington could guard the shop would sway anyone. Bearington was not exactly the mauling type.

"Thank you! I'll, um, well, I'll get my suitcase out the way of the three of you," he carefully stepped around the bear and Widget as he headed towards the bottom of the staircase, "so you can get to know, um, one another, and you can all handle that crate thing, and, um, yes, suitcase, out of the way, on it!"

Grabbing the handle of the suitcase, he began to slowly drag it up the staircase, with the case making a loud thump! as it came to rest on each stair.

Twilight returned to Widget's side once Quill was started upstairs.  She had an idle grin on her face and surprised the stallion with a fond kiss on the cheek out of nowhere.  "That was really sweet of you, Widget.  You're learning~."  she seemed to approve of how he'd handled things with Quill.  Life was going to be a bit difficult for her beau... Celestia raised Spike alongside Twilight herself, so she was far more accustomed to living with Dragons than someone who just started later on was.  Still, her book would surely be helpful and she was eager to offer any assistance she could herself.  Plus there was always Spike as well, who she was sure would be thrilled to have another like-minded Dragon around to talk with.

"Well, now that that's under control... I think we should go find Starcrasher." Twilight advised.  As nice as dinner sounded, it wasn't like they could just settle in and eat while a filly was running around in the rain.  "If she went looking for us, then the most likely place she would've gone first would be the Library.  Assuming she's not just running around at random.  You stay here and get dinner started while I pop over back home for a quick look, okay?" she reasoned.  There was no need for both of them to go around in the wet when she could cover more ground on her own with magic.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:49, Mon 27 Aug 2012.

Widget watched as Quill hauled the suitcase upstairs, letting out a low sigh and a small shake of his head as the dragon disappeared up the wooden foyer. He stayed looking up, in thought,as Twilight approached, but was pleasantly surprised by the kiss she gave him, turning to look at her. He flushed slightly and grinned at her. "Thanks," he said with a small chuckle. He did have a lot to learn to be sure. He would have to read Twilight's book faster than he had anticipated, it would seem. Maybe it would be difficult... but he had no doubt it would be worth it. Only the best things in life were difficult, as his mother had always told him.

"Yeah, good idea. I don't like the idea of her out in the rain," he said as he looked passed his girlfriend out the rainy front window, his brow slightly furrowing. "The library would be a logical place to start..." He looked back down at her, and smiled softly. "Alright then. I'll get dinner started for all of us. Then I need to get bedroom logistics straightened out. As comfortable as the cot was that you conjured last night, I plan on sleeping in my own bed tonight. I think I just need to whip up a Quill-sized bed like Spikes, and we'll be alright, at least for now."

While he didn't have very much in his cupboard or refrigerator, he had enough of his own favorite staples to, he hoped, impress or at least surprise Twilight. He wasn't a fantastic cook by any means, but his mother had been particularly blessed in the art, and passed at least a few tricks down to him. A lot of his more nonperishable food was actually shipped to him or made special for him, mostly because it was staples he had grown up on and found comfort in, but they were eccentric to say the least.

"I got Spike's bed from the local market, so it shouldn't be hard finding one for Quill too.  Just make sure you get his opinion before making any purchases.  Dragons are very particular about their beds."  Twilight said with authority, though really, she was only basing it off her experiences with Spike.  And even he tended to just fall asleep wherever he was at the moment when he got tired enough, though she did notice he seemed to prefer very solid surfaces as opposed to anything soft.

"Anyway, I'll be back in a flash~!" the Unicorn gave a quick word of parting as she lit her horn in a pale violet hue.  Just like that she suddenly snapped out of existence with nothing but a brief twinkle of magical sparkles marking where she'd just vanished from.  Teleportation was an exceptionally rare magical feat, but Twilight used it so often that she made it look easy.

--> Twilight exits to Books and Branches Library

Watching his girlfriend disappear to find Starcrasher, Widget gave a low, soft sigh, his smile still visible on his face. He turned back up to the stairs, wondering if Quill was doing alright, before turning back to the box that was still at his side. Might as well open it to see what part he wasn't expecting came in before starting dinner, he supposed.

"Quill? Do you like carrot coconut soup?" he called up as he magicked the crowbar up and wedged it into the lid of the crate, prying it up and open at last.

"It sounds interesting," Quill called out as he nudged the suitcase in to the corner of the guest room and, rather than dealing with the whole unpacking thing, decided to come bounding down the stairs, enthusiastic at the prospect of food, "but is it usin-"

Realising that he didn't have to shout, the young dragon lowered his voice back down to reasonable, indoor levels and sat himself down on the bottom stair of the staircase.

"Is it going to use the milk, the oil or the water? Coconut water is very sugary, and coconuts require a lot of rainfall, and annual production of coconuts.. um, which is, well, carrots are much easier to grow, and carrot production was up almost sixteen percent this year, so it's a good time to be eating carrots. I guess, um, yes," he finally settled on an answer, "I think I'd like the soup."

--> From: Ponyville Residential District - Books and Branches Library -->

- "--head outside before... Wait, we're here already?"

Starcrasher looked around, a bit puzzled that she was standing right in the middle of the Workshop. Then again, Twilight did mention it would be faster, she just hadn't expected it to be this fast.

<-- Entering from Books and Branches Library

Just like she'd said, Twilight was back in a flash... literally... and with Starcrasher in tow.  Teleportation was by far the best way to travel as far as she was concerned.  Well, flying was the most exhilarating, sure, but nothing beats the efficiency of point-to-point spacial transposition!

"Told you it was faster." Twilight giggled again behind her hoof.

- "That you did..."

Starcrasher giggled along with Twilight, looking around the workshop to convince herself that yes, she was really there. It looked like a real handy spell to have just in case she'd end up getting lost again.

- "Today's been quite the day... I went out for a walk in the forest, and ended up making friends with a Griffon, a Camahueto and a Thunderbird and was chased by Reptans and a unicorn poacher while running an errand for a pack of Timberwolves. Is the forest always that busy here?"

Twilight took a moment to think back over her own experiences within the Everfree Forest and its surrounding areas, then simply nodded in return.  "Yeah, pretty much."

Starcrasher gave a low whistle, obviously impressed.

- "Wow, remind me not to get caught there after dark."

Seeing nothing of interest inside the crate, Widget left the lid angled for Quill or Star to put away the next day as he went to work on dinner. It would be interesting, to say the least - couscous with carrot coconut soup. It wasn't difficult by any means - carrot coconut soup was fairly simple if you knew what to do, though Widget was a little heavy handed with the coconut milk. Still, thickened with a little roux (a corn flour and oil mix, in this case), it went well over the couscous, along with more thickly cut carrots, onions, shavings of fresh coconut, and a sprinkling of curry, it was by no means unpalatable.

The rest of the evening was spent in pleasant company. After Twilight went home, reasserting that she and Widget would have breakfast the following morning, Widget was quick to fashion a bed for Quill that was to the dragon's temporary liking, so Starcrasher could have the bed. It would do, for now, until space enough in the upstairs store room could be cleaned out for Quill, or a better bed be built to be placed Widget's room...


>>> WIDGET TIMESKIPS!!! <<<

>> After Timeskip, Day 8 <<

Starcrasher sighed as she looked at the workshop. Even after a whole week of working there she still couldn't quite figure out what was Widget's Special Do-Not-Touch Organized Mess and what she was supposed to clean up, so she had figured that the best thing to do would be to leave everything as it was and carving a pathway to walk between the stairs, the kitchen and the front door. In the beginning things had seemed to clear up, but then Widget had gotten a couple of extra assignments -- likely either due to his two new assistants allowing him to take on more orders, or forcing him to do more orders to pay for the necessary modifications to house them. Also, food. In the end it all ended up pretty well, one of the storerooms was now converted to Quill's bedroom, she got Quill's old bedroom and Widget ended up sleeping better as well after his new bed arrived as payment for some invention or another she didn't quite understand the function of.

After one more look around, and deciding that it likely wasn't going to get any cleaner, she carefully made her way to the front door, two saddlebags stuffed with papers. She walked carefully, she had learned what it felt like to not pay attention and step into a sharp object -- or any object at all -- and felt no desire to go through the trouble of picking something out of her hooves again.

True to Widget's style, the inventor had been up since sunrise. A phonograph was playing in the corner, churning out classical music softly as Widget sat at one of his many desks at work. Blueprints were spread out on the desk, a pair of jeweler's lenses over his glasses as he worked on his latest prototype of mechanized flight. He hadn't even looked up from his work as Star had woven about and gathered things for the day, though he had said a good morning when she had come downstairs to find bread and jam ready for breakfast.

"Heading out, Star?" he asked as he switched tools magically without looking up from his work, finding a smaller screwdriver as he worked on the tedious gears that made up the interior mechanics of his clockwork device.

- "Yeah, i don't really know what time i'll return though."

Starcrasher looked at the two saddlebags filled with papers, checking to see if they were indeed closed so that none would go flying out or -- if it was raining -- get wet.

- "Twilight's homework assignments, i need to drop them off... I'll probably get more when i'm there, but it's easier to research in the library, y'know? See ya."

As she headed for the door, she took a deep breath.

- "...Hope it's not a pop quiz again."

--> To: Ponyville Residential District - Books and Branches Library -->

Quill had managed to sleep through almost everything until he heard the door close behind Starcrasher. It'd been a fairly long day yesterday, coupled with a late night spent advising on just what the perfect bed would be like (large enough to run little risk of falling out, not too high in case you do fall out and with little space underneath to prevent anything hiding under there), well, it was perfectly understandable that he'd sleep in for a little while. After going through his morning routine, which mostly involved wrestling with his tie, he came downstairs to find Widget already hard at work.

"Um, good morning, boss, I'm sorry about the over-sleeping, it won't happen again, it's just, you know, two busy days and two late nights in a row, next to no time for, um, naps," Quill paused a little here, before quickly correcting himself, "well, some naps, and, um, I was thinking... did, um, you have, any, um, plans for this morning? Apart from getting lots of very important work done, obviously."

"Have fun," he called after Star as a smirk crossed his face, keeping his eyes on his work. He hummed softly along with the music as he worked, once more not looking up as Quill made his way downstairs shortly after Starcrasher left for her morning lessons with Twilight.

"Don't worry about it, Quill, you aren't late yet. You even have time for breakfast," he said in the way of morning greetings as the dragon approached from the bottom of the stairs, magicking up a few small gears from the work table and slipping them into place in the contraption he was working on. "Not really any plans. Nothing needs my immediate attention, though I was hoping to get to the library and ask Twilight if she wanted to have lunch. Have something in mind?" He picked his screwdriver back up to start working on the new gears, glancing at Quill momentarily out of the corner of his eye.

The dragon looked visibly relieved as he was informed he wasn't late yet and, glancing back up the staircase, he considered that maybe there was time for that pre-breakfast nap he was sleepily considering earlier. Avoiding the siren call of his bed, he settled on clambering up on to the Widget's desk, sitting down upon the top a respectful and, hopefully, safe distance away from his work.

"I was kind of hoping to, um, sorry," he moved his tail to one side as a gear floated past and in to place, "well, I wanted to have a wander about the town, you know, get to know the place. And I still need to fix your ledger book, but I could do that after the town exploration but before lunch with Miss Twili- oh! You're, um, going.. did, did the date go well then? I mean, if you're asking her out to lunch again, I, I guess so. But it could be like when you when you do something wrong, so you have to do it right the second time. Is, is everything okay?"

"Oh yes, everything's just wonderful," said Widget as he at last paused in his work to gaze up slightly at the calendar on the wall, which featured a complicated piece of machinery labeled 'Hydroelectric Generator, Three Gaures Dam, Chineigh', a dreamy sort of smile coming over his face that didn't seem to have anything to do with the picture he was looking at, and sighed slowly. He quickly snapped himself out of it and turned back to his assistant, pulling up the jewel glasses so he could actually look at the young dragon. "The date went very well indeed. So well in fact that she said she wanted another. I thought today might be a good day. We'll see how busy she is."

He turned back to his work, magicking up the gears and tools again to pick up where he left off. "I think that sounds like an excellent idea, Quill. Get to know the layout of town, meet a few ponies. So long as you come back by lunch time. I ordered those concert tickets express certified, which means somepony has to sign for them or they won't be dropped off with the rest of the mail, and I'm not sure how soon they're due to come."

Quill noticed the odd, dreamy smile that spread across Widget's features for a moment and, rather than bring it up, he simply decided to file it alongside "Wobbly Leg Syndrome" as some kind of date-related physical ailment. Along with a mental note to make sure that sort of thing isn't contagious.

"There, um," he began as Widget turned back to his work, smiling nervously all the while, "is there a doctor in the town? Or somepony specialising in contagious diseases, or how to avoid known transmission vectors? I could go to the, um, library, but..."

Twilight could be infected too.

"...maybe going to find, um, an expert rather than a book might be in order."

"There are several doctors in town. Most work at the hospital, but a few work at the general care facility in town square. There's also an acupuncturist, chiropractor, and a vet's a doctor of animals... Why, do you feel sick?" He looked to his assisstant with a critical eye.

"No, no, not me, I'm feeling fine," Quill tried his best to reassure Widget, demonstrating his general fitness and health by briefly sticking out his tongue with the accompanying "aaaah" noise, which is something he'd assumed doctors would be interested in seeing, "see? My tongue hasn't fallen out, teeth still there, knees are fine too."

"It's for, um, somebody I, um, met, the day before yesterday, when I arrived. It's probably nothing," he added, looking a little guilty for keeping the whole truth from Widget, "but, it'd be remiss of me not to make sure it's nothing serious. What if it starts an epidemic? No, no, best to, um, nip it in the bud, right? I'll try the hospital!"

Realising that his alibi probably wouldn't stand up to any further scrutiny, he began climbing back down from the top of the desk, taking great care not to disturb Widget's invention as he went. After making it to the floor, he offered what he hoped was a reassuring smile up towards Widget as he adjusted his tie.

"Is there anything, um, you need? From town?"

Widget watched Quill for a few moments with obvious scrutiny, paying attention to the Dragon's tongue, teeth, and even knees. He did seem alright, full of energy as always, which begged the question why he wanted to see a doctor so much. At last, however, he was forced to accept that Quill looked just fine, and relaxed a bit, deciding to believe Quill's story about somepony he met when he arrived who was ill.

"No, I think we're good on supplies for now," he said, satisfied that his assistant was feeling alright, though he highly doubted they were on the precipice of disaster, and going back to his work, flicking the jeweler lenses back down as he focused once more on the intricate gears before him.

There was a loud sound from outdoors that caused Widget to glance up again curiously, but it only lasted a moment before he realized it was a loud belch he had heard and went back to his work. "Pinkie Pie's having some kind of fun out there, so be careful heading out," he advised his assistant.

Quill paused by the door as he heard the belch and, with one claw about to push open the door, he paused. There was something strangely ominous about being warned that somebody is having fun, Quill considered, but that was an awfully loud belch. Still, he had a job to do and, turning back to glance up at Widget, he gave a little nod.

"I'll try a safe distance from the fun, no need to worry, boss! Enjoy the music and gears, I'll be back for lunch. Maybe even brunch!"

After opening the door a tiny bit and peering out to make sure that the fun wasn't happening right on their doorstep, Quill swung the door wide open and broke in to a rather ungainly run. Time was of the essence, after all, who could be sure how long Widget had left?

[Exit to... Ponyville Hospital]

Widget watched his assistant leave, shaking his head and snickering as he went back to his work. His first level prototype of the inertia powered wing design Pinkie Pie had presented him with was nearly finished. Long leather straps set with gears and pulleys cupped around the hooves like shoes, tugging at the inner gears and wound up stored power for flight within the small pack that cupped around the back where the wings connected, and wore more like a vest or harness than his original designs that just strapped around the waist. Having experienced real flight, he better understood how different muscles worked and what muscles a non-flyer had to make up for, except of course for the obvious ones in the wings. It had been challenging, but that was what had made it so fun. Like most of his first run prototypes, his hopes were not pinning on success, but on learning how to improve for the next model. As his mother had always said, there was no such thing as failure provided you learned something.

Leaning back slightly, Widget pulled off his square glasses to rub his eyes with his hooves, the tight vision brought by the jeweler lenses granting him a bit of a headache after working with them all morning. He was glad he was nearly done with the intricate interior, at least for now. It'd get easier as his models continued to improve. Stretching his neck and standing to stretch his legs, he rested his eyes on a small picture near the back of his desk set in a thin silver frame, half hidden behind stacks of notes and sketches. Gently pushing these out of the way, he looked down at the picture he had spent many hours in his life staring at, and smiled to himself as good memories flooded him.

A midnight purple unicorn mare looked out of the picture back at him, with soft green eyes behind lavender glasses, and long, untidy rust red and blue mane and tail. She wore a lab coat, sitting before a long wooden desk that looked somehow just like Widget's, cluttered with notes, sketches, tools, and spare bits of gears and other metal pieces. She was only glancing slightly at whoever had taken the picture, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth, despite the otherwise serious expression she wore as she worked on a piece of equipment who's purpose, to the casual observer, not easily discerned. In the background, looking over a bookshelf and out of focus, was a light orange stallion, tall and paying no attention to the camera or the work going on behind him, his wings folded tight to his side as to knock nothing over in the cluttered workshop, and looking far too severe for his own good.



A low sigh escaped Widget again, and he turned instead to the little clockwork bird that had been his companion for some time now. The automaton, gears powered only by magic, looked back, waiting patiently for Widget's command. A smile came across his face as an idea began to blossom in his mind, and he was quick to grab a quill and a roll of parchment. As he wrote, he grinned wider and even slightly flushed. He hoped that Twilight would have time to spend with him today - they had both been very busy with Star and with their work and studies, and while he had indeed just seen her the day before, it felt as if they hadn't been able to spend any real time together for a few days. It was surprising how that made his heart ache just a little bit...

After he finished his letter in his signature slightly blocky scrawl, he pulled one of the daisies from a vase near the front window and tucked it into the parchment, rolling it up tight, and nodding to his bird, who was quick to hop forward and grip the parchment roll in its claws. "Take this to Twilight Sparkle," he said very clearly, "in the Branches and Books library, right away." The bird gave a mechanical sounding chirp, apparently in confirmation, as it lifted up, struggling with the parchment slightly, and bumbled out the open window.

>>> Tik Tok exits to Ponyville Time Square

[Enters from Ponyville Hospital]

"I'm back, I'm back," was the first thing Quill called out as he pushed the door to the workshop open, a little fearful that he might have spent too much time dawdling between the hospital and the workshop. The little dragon didn't waste any time in heading over to Widget and, in his excitement, he left the door wide open, along with a trail of muddy claw-prints behind him upon the floor.

"I spoke to Nurse Redheart at the hospital about everything and told her the symptoms and explained what was going on and she said that the knee-thing and the strange smile didn't mean it was some kind of disease or infection and, and," he finally paused to take in a lungful of air, "there might be some tummy problems, but not like a tummy ache, but more like bugs or insects in your stomach, b-b-but the good news is that you're not ill or contagious! You're going to be okay!"

"That certainly took less time than I expected. I thought it would take much more time to get the layout of town and meet a few ponies," said Widget with obvious amusement as his assistant entered the workshop, turning from his work to look at the dragon through his jewel lenses, making his eyes look beady and tiny before he flipped them up and out of the way.

He glanced at the door, left wide open, and at the trail of muddy footprints the little dragon had left, before his eyes fell at last to his assistant, and he raised a brow in curiosity. He listened to what Quill said, but honestly couldn't make heads or tails of it. "Nurse Redheart?" he asked. Of course he knew who the good nurse was - he, after all, had spent a lot of time getting patched up in the hospital, and knew most of the nurses and doctors there by name. "Knee thing? Strange smile? Disease?" he repeated with an incredulous, confused, and amused laugh. "Quill, what are you talking about? Of course, I'm alright. I've been in the hospital enough times to know when I'm not. Did you think I was ill?"

It was about then that the mechanical bird known as Tik Tok bustled in through the wide open door, still with plenty of charge left from Twilight's boost, and landed squarely on the desk. For a moment, Quill's strange proclamation that he was healthy was forgotten, Widget's eyes fixated on the note that he had brought with him. He hurriedly took the parchment and unbound it to read Twilight's response, hoping for good news.

The rolled paper held by Tik Tok contained a simple note in Twilight's tidy, flowing penmanship.  She was very accustomed to writing letters and it showed.

~

Dear Widget,

I find myself in complete agreement.  Fortunately, I happen to be teaching Starcrasher out in the clearing this morning.  Her lesson ends shortly before lunch time.  With that, I will already be anxiously awaiting you at the designated spot.

Affectionately yours,

Twilight Sparkle

~

"I've still got time to go out agai- well, it was just that I was a teeny bit, um, concerned, but it's fine! Nurse Redheart explained everything, the whole crush thing, so now it all makes sense. Mostly."

Quill glanced up as Tik-Tok came sailing through the open door and landed upon the desk and, judging by the hurried way in which Widget set about getting at the parchment the mechanical contraption carried, the dragon assumed it was something very important indeed. Relating, no doubt, to the mysterious crush business.

"Good news, boss?"

Widget smiled happily at Twilight's reply and let out a soft, high sigh of pleasure. He loved the look of Twilight's tidy penmanship - it was so much neater than his own! He looked to Quill once he was finished reading it, folding up the note and tucking it into the stack of papers that filled the paper dividers at the head of the desk. "Well, I suppose it was nice of you to be concerned, but you could have just asked me. I would have told you what you needed to know," he chuckled, though his cheeks flushed red with the knowledge that it had been so obvious that he had been twitterpated, even to his baby dragon companion.

"Yes, very good news," he said brightly as he stood up from his desk, lifting the devise he had been working on with a glow of soft blue magic. "Twilight said yes to my lunch invitation, so I have a little bit of shopping to do before I leave. But you said you wanted to go out again, did you?"

The contraption looked more like a harness with a box on it than anything else, with two metal 'D's' folded down flat, one on each side. A series of clockwork gears was visible beneath the glass panel he had placed over the top to make the inner workings visible and more easily discernible if there was a problem. Widget began to put it on, slipping his back and front hooves into the leather shoes and strapping them around his legs with buckles just below and above the knee to keep them in place. He shifted his front right leg up, and the right wing flexed and pulled open in a fan of bluish white metal. He stepped backward, moving to a conveyor belt that had been set on the floor like a treadmill. As he began to trot and work the belt, both wings had folded out and moved up and down slowly with his slow movements. A series of gears and belts was visible beneath the wing sheets, moving smoothly as he trotted.

"So far so good," he commented as his wings moved with his motions, stepping off the treadmill and curling up his legs one at a time. The gears folded back and down into place and out of the way. He grimaced slightly, looking down at the leather straps that locked to his legs. "Guess I'll want to get used to wearing them if I ever want to fly with it," he said as he shrugged his shoulders back and got more comfortable.

"So, Quill, it's nearly lunch time now. I have a little shopping to do before hand. The mailmare usually comes around this part of town at about two or three... If you're back by then to check the mail and do your cleaning duties, feel free to go look around Ponyville this morning," he offered. With that, Widget made his way upstairs and packed a few things into his empty picnic basket, namely his chess set, a long thin box full of cards, and a small wooden cube complete with tiny black discs about the size of a filly's horseshoe.

"See you later then," he said brightly to his assistant, his basket balanced on his back, as he made his way out to do a bit of shopping before heading to the woods.

>>> TO: Summer Song Cafe
This message was last edited by the player at 06:53, Sun 23 Sept 2012.

--> From: The Everfree Forest -->

There would be a knocking on the door, followed by the sound of someone trying to turn the handle -- rather clumsily by the sound of it.

Thankfully for Starcrasher, she'd find that the shop wasn't locked.  Whether it was merely an oversight or done on purpose was anyone's guess.  What was more catching though was that she would find a distinct lack of a Dragon on the premise.  Quill was nowhere to be found and his bag was gone too.  A hastily scribbled note was on the floor next to the table -- it looked as though it had been left on the work bench, but knocked aside unwittingly earlier in the day.

It read:

-~-
Dear Mister Whatsits, Starcrasher, and Tik Tok,

I'm sorry to make this so abrupt, but I'm afraid I've been called back to Canterlot rather unexpectedly.  I was hoping to be out on my own a while longer, but duty calls.  Well, actually, Princess Celestia calls, but that's not something you ignore one way or the other.  Hopefully we can meet again soon though.

-Quill
-~-

Starcrasher read the note, illuminating the room in a soft glow from her horn that for once did not deplete the entire area of magic. She then placed the note back on the desk, a bit sad that Quill had to leave all of a sudden, but then again she had been spending some time with Princess Luna herself. What if she would be requested to return as well?

Regardless, Luna's lulliby that was still lingering in her ears caused her to stifle a yawn again. The note was placed where Widget would be able to find it, and she just felt everything would be much clearer in the morning. Heading up the stairs, she headed into Widget's bedroom before halting in the door opening, having completely forgotten which bed she was supposed to sleep in now. A small voice told her that if Quill had left, she could sleep in his bed, but Widget's bed just looked so inviting...

...Well okay, maybe a little nap wouldn't hurt until he'd return.

Beginning of Day 9:

Starcrasher took a deep breath as the sunlight started beaming in through the window onto her face. Mumbling something, she turned around for a moment longer, deciding to want to hold onto her sleep for a couple more minutes before finally waking up. After stretching out, she got out of bed, now noticing that she had been lying in Widget's bed. Looked like that nap she had wanted to take ended up being a full night's sleep!

- "Oh wow... Must have been out like a log."

She took a deep breath, looking around for signs of Widget. Not seeing any for the moment, she decided to simply head downstairs to see if he was already up.

Day 9 Start!

While Twilight may have idly teased about the fact that all their meetings as of late ended up becoming full-day dates, she frankly couldn't have been happier in spending time with Widget.  Last evening they'd returned to his home to have a light meal and cozy themselves in front of the fire place to finish their game of chess... and that was just where they'd ended up staying the entire night.  Starcrasher would no doubt be surprised (or at least amused) to come downstairs and find the two Ponies lying together in front of the now cooled hearth, cuddled up under a blanket looking entirely content as they snoozed the morning away.

Start of Day 9

There had been many nights where Widget had not gone to bed, almost all of them related to his work. This was by far the best sleep he'd ever gotten while out of bed, though that was most likely because of the pony he was cuddled up next to. His long neck was curled around her front over her hooves, his glasses off and chin resting on the ground, while her neck leaned slightly over his and her head rested gently on his shoulder as a pillow. Curled up together as they were, Widget had never in his life been so comfortable. The chess game still sat before them, the white pieces and black pieces on their squares, the plates from their dinner still on either side of them with nothing but crumbs as testament to the meal that had been upon them.

Even as Starcrasher came downstairs, he slept on, so cozy and warm that he would likely sleep most of the day. It had been a good while since he had slept this well, and his tired body was in much need of such rest.

As Starcrasher looked around the workshop, it didn't take her long to spot the blanket in front of the fireplace, two Pony-sized mounds half-hidden below them. Sneaking closer, she recognized both her boss and her teacher, and couldn't help but grin. The first day he had fixed her breakfast, so this was actually a perfect opportunity to return the favor.

Sneaking off again to not wake the pair, she went into the kitchen, trying to recall just what had been pulled from where. She'd need coffee and bread and butter and that one jar of ground daisies that was on the table the other day too... Now where did he keep those flakes again?

As always, Twilight Sparkle was not a morning person.  She was more than content to miss the sunrise her mentor brought up each day if it meant grabbing a few more hours under the covers before she had to get moving.  It was an old holdover from her days at the academy where she'd burn the candle low into the night, unable to stop studying and thus wearing herself out to sleep in odd hours.  But last night she'd been up late talking, playing, and just keeping the company of her coltfriend... a much different source of diversion, but a pleasant one all the same.  And, all the same, it resulted in refusing to rise come morning.

However, Twilight wasn't so heavy a sleeper that the sound of another moving around (particularly a somewhat clumsy filly) went unnoticed.  As Starcrasher rifled around in the kitchen getting breakfast going, Twilight's ears flicked sharply at the faint noise and prodded her mind into groggy activity.  With a low groan she slowly blinked her eyes open, unable to focus at first or remember quite where she was.  Clarity came gradually and, thankfully for her still-snoozing beau, she didn't startle when she realized the position she was in or what had happened.  The Unicorn tilted her head aside to gaze down at Widget's sleeping expression and smiled lazily, unable to resist tucking down to snuggle at him and remain by his side a while longer.

Eventually they'd have to wake up though.  Be it through the smell of breakfast getting underway or the noise of chaos from Starcrasher (one way or the other...), the two studious Ponies would have to rise and maybe shine with a firm application of coffee first.  Once Widget began to stir on his own, Twilight leaned in and nuzzled his cheek fondly, greeting him with a good-morning kiss.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 20:46, Thu 31 Jan 2013.

Widget was a light sleeper, to be frank. His mind was always rushing over new inventions or ideas and improvements to his existing ones. While his wing pack was his pride and joy, and his favorite invention so far, he had a million other things going on at once. He had even, at one time when he was a young teen, slept with a pebble inside his hoof and a pot at his bedside, so if he ever had a dream. he would twitch, drop the stone, and wake himself with the clang so he could quickly jot down the idea that had woken him. It had worked for a while, until he started falling asleep in class...

Thus, it was easy to understand why he had woken when Starcrasher had begun to move about the kitchen, clanging pots and pans to make breakfast. He had felt the warmth of Twilight against him under the cozy blankets, and had decided before he had even fully woken that he was not going to move. He was far too comfortable, far too warm, and far too close to Twilight to want to disturb the situation. Under normal circumstances, he was actually not too bad of a morning pony. But today was... special. And he had no desire at all to move.

He felt when Twilight stirred, caught himself between sleep and awake, and felt her nuzzle back into his warmth. He had been slightly worried that she'd move away (he was unfortunately well aware of her states of panic unfamiliar situations could bring), but she seemed to take it all in stride. That made him feel strangely far more happy than he expected to feel...

A smile pulled at his mouth as Twilight kissed his muzzle, even though his eyes remained closed for the moment. "I think I could wake up to that everyday and be quite happy indeed," he said sleepily as full wakefulness came to him, and he opened his eyes. Everything more than a few feet away was blurry, but Twilight's lovely face, so close, was in perfect focus. "Good morning... Sleep well?"

The particular choice of phrase, and the implications it carried (unwittingly or not), made Twilight's brows raise and her ears pin back reflexively.  Ah, there was that blush of hers again.  While she was growing well-accustomed to being so close with Widget, there were still things that set off her bashfulness.

"Actually... yeah, I really did." she replied in a soft tone.  Twilight reached a hoof over to retrieve her coltfriend's glasses and held them up, gesturing for him to close his eyes so that she could safely slide them onto his face and give him his full field of view back.  "I'm kind of surprised though... I didn't expect to fall asleep."

Despite now being awake and somewhat active, Twilight still hadn't fully raised up from the floor or Widget's side just yet.  She would have to soon -- her hips were starting to ache and demand that she stretch after laying curled for so long, but she was just too darn cozy to give in so soon.  "Sounds like Star Dasher is already up... or maybe Quill?"

At that moment, Starcrasher emerged from the kitchen area carying a tray with six cups of coffee on it, and a couple of hastily made sandwiches. She had intended for them to lok a bit nicer, but since the ponies she wanted to make breakfast for were already starting to wake up she had had to rush it a bit more.

- "Good morning! I didn't know just how much coffee would go into a cup to make it strong enough so i just made two cups at three different strengths, just... drink the ones that ended up the best."

She smiled, balancing the tray though not using her magic, while she would technically have been able to levitate the tray on her own by now she really didn't want to risk ruining breakfast -- or spill her first attempts at making coffee. She'd place the tray next to Widget and Twilight, though closer to Widget to avoid having to step over him. Twilight was pretty good at levitation anyway from what she could tell, and then there was that whole gentlecolty thing with Widget handing her a cup -- after testing -- for what she believed was called an indirect kiss. Or something along those lines.

- "Anyway, i could make a couple more sandwiches if you want, i kind of had to gamble how hungry you'd be and i still need to make breakfast for myself anyway."

And with that, she was backup up back into the kitchen to fix herself some breakfast, keeping an ear open to listen to the results of her attempt at breakfast and any other requests.

---> Arrival from Ponyville Residential - Library

There was a knock upon the door.

And then there was a dozen more.

The thirteen knocks came in a flurry.

Whoever knocked was in a hurry.

"That answers that question," he said with humor as Starcrasher came out of the kitchen with sandwiches and coffee, though he didn't move from his curled up spot. He too was getting a little achy, but was too comfortable to rise. "Thank you, Starcrasher, that was very thoughtful of you," he said as he watched her approach with a little trepidation. Still, he need not have worried, and picked up the first cup with a gentle sip. "Not bad at all, Star," he said as he smacked his lips, and after testing that it was not indeed hazardous, he passed it to his fillyfriend.

"Ah, who's here this early?" he wondered aloud at the flurry of knocks. "Sorry, Twilight," he mumbled, moving to rise away from Twilight with obvious discontent. "Starcrasher, do me a favor and go upstairs to get Quill, please. He's usually up by now..." Stretching as he walked, he made his way to the door to open it, the newly risen sun gleaming uncomfortably off his glasses. "Yes? Who... Oh, hello, Spike," he said, blinking a few times and the dragon coming into view. "What are you doing here so early? Come on in, Twilight's just inside." He opened the door and stepped back for the dragon.

Spike finally stopped knocking.

"Widget," said Spike, politely but a little coolly. He hesitated a bit as Widget stepped back -- was this some sort of ploy, perhaps? Lulling him into a false sense of security before trapping him so that he could not run and get help, leaving Widget and Twilight free to elope before anyone but he were any wiser. Carefully, Spike scanned the entrance for traps and ambushes - who knew how many mechanical minions he had at his beck and call? - before equally carefully stepping inside. Along the way, he did that "I've got my eyes on you" thing with his claws that you can really only really do if you have two or more digits at the end of your forelimb.

"Hey, Crasher!" The young dragon waved gingerly at the filly heading up the stairs, dropping the serious look for all of two seconds before once again donning his serious look, eying the walls and the floor and the roof and the furniture and inventions - did that one just move? - with nervous apprehension. It didn't take him long at all to find Twilight, just like Widget had said. Obviously, that was just a cover-up of what was really going on. Something smelled fishy in here, and it wasn't Spike's toes. He'd washed them this week.

"Psst. Hey. Hey, Twilight."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:57, Tue 05 Feb 2013.

Starcrasher was actually in the kitchen when Spike started knocking on the door, and peeked her head out into the living room to see who it was. At seeing Spike she gave him a friendly wave, pointing at her cheek to show that she couldn't reply right now as she was chewing on a bite of freshly made sandwich. This also allowed her to hear what Widget asked her about Quill, and she swallowed the piece of sandwich before replying.

- "Well, Quill isn't here, he had some stuff to do back in Canterlot. He left you a note on the desk, i found it when i got back. You didn't see it?"

She pointed at a desk which admittedly had several notes on it, but the one at the top would indeed have been Quills, easily identifiable by the hoofwriting -- or clawwriting in this case. She had wanted to put it more in sight, but she knew better than to touch Widget's written prototype designs and blueprints. Come to think of it, she hoped that note had been written on a blank piece of paper, she hadn't really checked what had been on the other side of it when she had read it.

Widget gave the dragon a rather bewildered look as he gave the inventor such a cool tone, turning his confusion to Twilight, but she seemed oblivious to it, even as Spike nearly jabbed his eyes and pointed with the same two fingers. The little guy was certainly... interesting sometimes... "Oh? No, I didn't see that note," he said as he shut the door and moved inside to look at the note that Starcrasher mentioned. "I see... Well, that's too bad. I was really starting to like the little guy," he said with a disappointed sigh. "Still, at least he'll be happy, he was missing Canterlot. I guess this makes you chief assistant," he said to Star with a light grin. He'd certainly miss the little dragon, but if he had things to do back home in Canterlot, then godspeed to the little guy.

"We were just about to have breakfast. Would you... er, like to join us, Spike?" he asked, a little half way between amused and put off by the baby dragon's behavior.

"That's so thoughtful of you, Star Dasher!  Thanks!"  Twilight found herself rather enthused on the idea of breakfast.  Her stomach rumbled in agreement and she didn't realize until then how hungry she was.  Huh... weird, since they'd eaten fairly late the night before.  Her appetite was getting the better of her again.  The lavender Pony giggled sweetly as Widget took the experimental bullet for her to figure out which coffee would be safe to drink and accepted the cup he offered, gratefully sipping away.  She was in the midst of digging into a sandwich when a sharp knocking sounded out and Spike arrived.

Oh... right...

Twilight couldn't help but grimace a little as her Dragon companion made a little scene of things in his own way.  He obviously had something brewing in his scaled head.  Even as he approached, Twilight was already in apology-mode.  "Good morning, Spike.  Look, I'm sorry about not checking in with you last night.  We came back here after the race, and we got distracted and--"

She was suitably sideswiped by Spike coming in close and whispering up to her, baffling the Pony briefly.  "Psst. Hey. Hey, Twilight." he whispered.  Twilight glanced up at the others and shrugged, clueless, as she leaned in close to her young friend.

"Um... yes, Spike?"  she asked, feeling silly for whispering back, but set along with a hushed conversation with her friend while Widget and Starcrasher were left to their own affairs for the moment.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:00, Sun 17 Feb 2013.

It seemed Starcrasher had nothing to add, so Widget decided it would be best to leave Spike and Twilight to discuss whatever it was the dragon needed to discuss with Twilight and moved back into the workshop, shutting the door behind him. "Come on, Star, let's get breakfast finished. We'll be back out with breakfast in a few minutes, Twilight," he said as he moved into the kitchen, hoping very much he would not find the tremendous and monstrous mess he was expecting to find within. "Did you find the fresh oranges near the bread box for juicing?" he asked, glancing at the counter near the stove and thinking orange juice would go well with whatever she was cooking.

- "Yeah, i saw 'em, but i figured you might want coffee first so i haven't really touched  them yet."

The kitchen was surprisingly clean, that was to say compared to what Widget would be expecting to find. Half the contents of the cupboards was still spread out over the counter and table, but there was a degree of neatness to it: Nothing was lying down and it seemed she had tried to at least keep everything from the same cupboard roughly in the same place so it could be put back more or less the way it had come out earlier. She looked at Widget, grinning.

- "Same with the toast. I was thinking about baking some toast, i just haven't gotten around to it yet. Where do you keep the butter again? The kind for frying, not for sandwiches."

While Widget and Starcrasher went about getting breakfast ready, Twilight spent time chatting with Spike.  The others wouldn't be able to hear what they were discussing, but it seemed at least somewhat amusing since Twilight was left giggling and shaking her head at her friend's antics.  Blushing too, for some reason.  All the same, it ended up with her giving the little Dragon a warm hug to reassure him of whatever he'd been fretting over...

BRAAAAP~!

Twilight jerked back when her squeeze was ill-timed, leaving her mane a little singed as Spike suddenly belched out a large gout of magical green flame from his mouth.  The fire sizzled into the air and condensed down into a tightly rolled scroll bearing the royal seal on it, which the Dragon caught in his claws as it dropped down.

"Heh... sorry Twi." Spike grinned sheepishly as the Alicorn patted a few smoking wisps out of her mane.  She was frankly used to it by that point.

"It's alright, Spike.  But it's been a long time since Celestia sent me a letter... what's it say?" she asked.  The Dragon unrolled the scroll and cleared his throat.

"My dear friend Twilight; I pray this letter reaches you quickly as there is... hmm... uh-oh..." Spike's expression turned from curious to worried as he skimmed the letter.  Rather than read it himself, he passed it over to Twilight quickly and she read through on her own, soon gaining a similar look of concern herself.

Obviously pleased and privately relieved that the kitchen was not indeed a disaster area and just a little untidy. "Ah, yes, good thinking. Coffee is like oil to the brain," he said with a smirk. "Yes, the cooking butter is down on the bottom shelf in a little bowl..." he said as he opened the fridge and fished out the tiny wooden bowl of butter. He popped off the top and set it down on the counter for her. "Feel free to start cooking. I'm going to go make sure Twilight's getting up okay and see if Spike wants breakfast with us. I'll be right back."

He moved back out of the kitchen into the workspace, picking up his coffee cup by magic and moving back over to where Twilight now lay reading a letter with Spike at her side. "Spike, were you staying for breakfast?" he asked, before he noticed the look on Twilight's face and grew concerned. "Everything okay?" he asked.

Starcrasher nodded, and worked some butter into the frying pan. Once that would be nice and hot she'd place some slices of bread into it, and used a wooden spoon to press a layer of silken tofu on top of that. Then, she just waited to the butter from one side and the tofu from the other to work their magic on the bread. It wasn't the greatest of recipes, but she wasn't a master chef either, and it looked pretty much like she had seen her mother do back home when the cook had a day off.

Widget moved out of the kitchen and back in the living room, but she didn't follow him, too intent on not turning the food into a general disaster area. She then added some other random things -- mostly vegetables -- to fry alongside with the bread and as far as she could gather would have the taste of it spread into the bread as well. As long as she made sure nothing got burned, it should taste pretty well.

In theory anyway.

* DISCLAIMER: This has not been attempted in real life. Proceed with caution.

Twilight didn't answer Widget immediately.  She was busy re-reading the letter for a third time over, carefully taking in what Celestia had written and turning it around in her head.  It took Spike clearing his throat and giving her a little nudge in the ribs to get the Alicorn to look up and find her boyfriend wearing such a concerned expression mirroring her own.

"Sorry... it's a letter from Princess Celestia."  Twilight said as she wafted the parchment in her telekinetic hold.  "There's some sort of trouble in Canterlot and she's calling the girls and I to come help.  Fung Shui as well.  She's asked that we leave on the first train out."

BRAAAAP~!

Spike covered his mouth a moment later, smiling bashfully behind one clawed hand while the other reached out to catch the next smaller scroll to come along through his magical fire.  He quickly unrolled it and added:  "P.S. -- Discord teleported to Ponyville a few minutes ago.  If you see him, please convince him to come back too.  He's supposed to be helping, not running off on his own."  he read aloud.  "Geeze... Discord again?  The ground hasn't turned to pudding, so maybe he's not in town yet?"

Twilight just sighed and shook her head, giving Widget a helpless look.  "And today started out on such a good note too..."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:44, Mon 11 Mar 2013.

When all was said and done, Twilight didn't have the time to stick around for breakfast.  She apologized over and over to Widget and Starcrasher alike for having to run off all a sudden, especially since it would delay her lessons with the filly, but duty called.  With a fond farewell and a quick kiss for Widget (while Spike was busy making faux retching faces behind her), she gathered her Dragon companion and teleported out to collect her friends.

--> Twilight exits to "A Wild Pitch Adventure Zone"

--> From: The Equestrian Express Train Station -->

It didn't take long for Starcrasher to finish her small detour past Town Square and back to Widget's workshop. She had seen Twilight off at the station and was now returning, wondering what it was she was going to do for the day. With the dance being prepared she could imagine business for today being slow -- unless one owned a cafeteria or something -- and the trip had piqued her curiosity. First though, she needed to ask Widget something.

Widget was quite unhappy about being left alone, but he didn't blame Twilight. Far from it. She was a princess, after all, and had important duties to attend to. Besides, if he was being completely honest with himself, the quiet gave him a chance to work uninterrupted, something he had been rather sorely missing for a good week or more now. Besides, he had a special project he wanted to work on, and it was difficult to complete with Twilight in his workshop...

Blue magic brightened the room from one of Widget's work desks where he sat, peering through a mounted magnifying glass that was bent over the wooden surface. Tiny sparks raised from the device he was welding, a look of intense concentration visible through the goggles he wore over his glasses. The silver metal became fused together at his command as the small headed tools he maneuvered shaped the pieces. Without even looking up when the bell attached to his door chimed, he seemed in tune with who had entered.

"You've been away for a little while, Star," he said as he pushed down on the mechanism he was working on. "Thought you'd be gone for the day. What's up?"

- "Well, umm..."

Starcrasher grinned, the grin of a young filly that for the briefest of moments considered lying, but soon discarded it in favor of the truth due to being aware of being a horrible liar.

- "You know how Twilight and Quill are both off to Canterlot and all? And how i'm from there as well?"

She took a deep breath, drawing circles on the floor with her hoof while biting her lip.

- "I was... kind of wondering if i could take a couple of days off as well, travel around a bit. I mean, i have the bits, working for you for room and board pretty much allowed be to save up a chunk of my monthly allowance and everything..."

Another deep breath. She was trailing off again, and gave herself a mental shake to get to the point.

- "Right. Umm... Would you kinda possibly be inconvenienced if i'd take a couple of days off? I mean, you'd be here by yourself and all, so you'd be able to handle the work in the shop?"

She stopped, biting her lip to suppress a giggle and all but sweating when she looked at Widget. He was the one in charge of the workshop, but when she heard her own words it had sounded like Widget was the assistant she was leaving in charge of the shop for a couple of days. Not that it had been her intention, but she vowed to shut up for now to await his answer before she made things worse.

Widget paused in his work and looked up at Star as she asked him if she could take a few days off to go to Canterlot in quite possibly the most awkward way she could. There was a small pause as Widget pulled his goggles up off of his glasses and set them on his brow so he could see her better, the quiet spreading for only a few seconds before he replied.

"Would you be going to Canterlot? Or 'traveling around' to somewhere else?" he asked. If she was not going to Canterlot, he hardly saw the point of bringing up that that was where both Twilight and Quill were.

Starcrasher thought for a moment, before shaking her head.

- "Actually, no. Kind of wanted to go somewhere i haven't before. The Crystal Empire opened up not too long ago after the whole Sombra thing, so i figured i'd maybe there?"

She tilted her head a little, curious as to how Widget would react. She knew next to nothing about the Crystal Empire, but as long as there were Ponies inhabiting it -- as opposed to Griffons or Zebras -- she supposed it wouldn't be too different from Equestria so there wouldn't be too much to get used to in a couple of days.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:06, Mon 10 June 2013.

"I'm not sure how comfortable I feel with you traveling alone... I'm not your parent, but I do still feel responsible for you," he said thoughtfully, looking thoughtful behind his work goggles.

Finally, he sighed. He wasn't her guardian - he was her boss. She was young, but not a child and didn't need to be babied or coddled. She had traveled here alone from Canterlot, and the Crystal Empire was now one of the safest places in Equestria. "Well, alright. Yes, you may have a few days. But if you go anywhere but the Crystal Empire, I want to know, alright? I still worry." He waved his hoof gently at her and smiled. "Have fun then, and be careful."

- "Thanks boss! See ya in a few days!"

Starcrasher beamed a smile at Widget as he gave her permission for a couple of days off. While she had been raised under a measure of independence, she wasn't yet old enough to not feel good about giving others the impression that she was as capable as she was trying to be. She turned around, focusing on walking out the door instead of following her enthusiasm and make a mad dash for the Train Station.

[To: The Equestrian Express Train Station]

In from: Town Square

A rather light - but distinct clatter of hooves announced the Princess's steady landing outside the door - but Luna knocked upon it regardless, wih severla brisk, light raps of her hoof.

Widget looked up from his work and pulled up his goggles. His nearly white face was smudged with soot from all the welding work he was doing, and with a little grease at the tip of his nose. He looked down at the project he had been working on and smiled with satisfaction before standing up. It was turning out just perfect... he couldn't wait for Twilight to come back.

He was a little surprised that somepony had actually knocked on the door. After all, it was a working and active shop, open to the public like any other. Still, that surprise didn't compare to the one that met him when he opened the door! "P-Princess Luna!" he stuttered. Princess Luna herself, standing right at his door! His face slightly reddened as his shock quickly wore off, and he bowed his head low to her. "Uh... p-please! Please come in! Please, forgive the mess..." He stepped rapidly back to let her into his workshop, which was indeed quite untidy, with half-finished projects lying about on different desks, though several completed projects were done, including one of the Cake's confection ovens, Lily Blossom's washing machine, and Shoeshine's television.

"Uh... What can I do for you?" he asked, not necessarily nervous, but very confused as to why the princess had come to his home, and hoped she didn't have some sort of bad news from Twilight.

Luna stepped inside as she was invited, and smiled. "Hmm? You need not be quite so tense, Widget. " She did seem a bit taken aback - she'd never seen such a mess of a room be -- well, that wasn't true. And still, it all seemed to be quite in-use, rather than to be settled junk...  The princess did spend a few moments glancing over the array of... stuff...

"Ahem... forgive me. Back to point, you are dating Twilight Sparkle now, are you not?"

A hot blush came to his cheeks at the sudden unexpected question, and he rubbed the back of his head with his hoof. "Ah... Yes, I am," he said with something of a goofy grin at the memories of his and Twilight's last date, before shaking his head slightly to focus on the princess before him rather than the one in his fantasies. His happiness faded slightly. "Um, why?" he asked in a would-be casual tone, privately worried that Luna had come to tell him that she did not approve or something of that sort.

"That is unfortunate..." Luna said, pausing for a moment. "It seems somepony has decided to host a dance this evening, and Twilight left a short while ago for Canterlot. She won't be back by this evening, I feel sure."

Luna gave a kindly frown his way, then seemed to perk up. "Though, I did have a thought as to a solution - you could attend with me, and we could talk.  I would know of you."

Luna paused for a moment, then raised a hoof. "Don't misunderstand - I've no intention of contesting Twilight where you're concerned - I merely wish to know more about you. Also, it'd be awful for you to be left out due to events in Canterlot."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:52, Wed 17 July 2013.

It was surprising how deep Luna's initial comment cut before she had explained herself. Thinking that any of the other Princess' disagreed or were disappointed that Twilight was dating him felt like a knife in the heart, and hearing Luna say it was unfortunate he was dating her made his stomach tie in a knot. However, he perked up and relaxed when she went on to explain herself, that it meant he had no partner for a dance happening tonight. A dance tonight? He'd not heard about it.

"Attend... with... you?" he asked, a little startled at the prospect, and his cheeks turning a soft red. He considered her proposal for a moment in as logical a mindset as he could. Princess Luna was a lot more like a sister to Twilight than Widget could really imagine, just as she was with Cadance and, to a similar extend, Celestia. It would only do that Widget get to know all of them, and to let all of them get to know him; the real him; the him Twilight Sparkle had deemed worthy that first kiss up on her library balcony.

"Why, I think that'd be a great idea," he said at last with a smile. "I'd like very much to get to know you better, too. Twilight always speaks so highly of you."

Luna clapped her hooves lightly! "Then it is settled! I shall  be by shortly before it begins to collect you - I presume the point of the dance is for mares to ask the stallions, given the notice, so it seems only proper that I escort you there."

The Lunar Princess smiled. "I look forward to it, then. I will leave you to finish your work and get prepared - I must ask, though - how formal are such town dances here in Ponyville, usually? It wouldn't do to show up over-prepared."

"No offense, but I think showing up BEING a princess will be over prepared," he said jovially. "Dances in Ponyville are very causal. They're just friendly gatherings more than anything else, where ponies can dance and talk and eat tasty snacks others have made. It's like a big community picnic with music, really." He nodded and smiled, then. "I'll be ready when you come by tonight. Say, about five or six? That's when the parties around here usually get started."

(Sorry to take a month to get back to this, Widget)

Luna laughed a little, covering her lips with a hoof. "Yes, I suppose I might be a bit ostentatious at a celebration like this, but it wouldn't do for me not to attend. Thank you for agreeing to accompany me." She started past him, though she paused while in line with him, glancing to her side to meet his gaze. "I shall see you then~. For now, I should go to make myself ready."

She glanced to him by the door, and smiled. "And I have several issues to check up on, assuming I can actually find my guards - it's strange, when I'm actually looking for them, they're not about."

"Isn't that the way," he chuckled. "You don't want them until you can't find them. See you later than, Luna." He escorted her to the door, knowing full well she would be just fine on her own. "Check the town square, ponies who are looking for lost things often end up wandering about there asking others if they'd seen them."

The princess raised a hoof, chuckling lightly behind it, and nodded to Widget at that, fanning her wings out slightly before drawing them back in. "Oh, I know.. In any case, I shall see you this evening, Widget. For now, though, I will  return to seeking out my guards." She nodded farewell, and turned to depart, though she spared a glance back at the stallion before she ducked through the door and nudged it closed behind her with her magic.

Exit to Valle Viola
This message was last edited by the player at 02:21, Sun 24 Nov 2013.

This message was last edited by the GM at 03:19, Mon 24 Feb 2014.

--> From: Ponyville Residential District - Golden Oak Library -->

Well, at least she remembered the way from the library (or what was left of it) to Widget's shop well enough. She had walked it too often to forget even counting her absence, there were simply too many orientation points and Ponyville wasn't a large town by anyone's standards, it was virtually impossible to get lost.

Once in front of the door, she hesitated slightly, before telling herself to get over it and knock on the door twice. Then she tried to turn the handle, almost without knowing in a similar way to the first time she had knocked on Widget's door. The habit she had of trying to see whether a door was unlocked after knocking but before she had been granted permission to enter by the possible occupants was one she had still not managed to get rid of it seemed.

Unsurprisingly, the door opened. Widget's Wonderous Works was, after all, open for business. The bottom floor of the workshop was both exactly as she had last seen it and completely different. Neat piles of springs, cogs, gears, and other clockworking material lay on the right side of the shop, laid over the top of plans and half put together. His tools were lined on the walls as they had been before, in exactly the same order, by type and size. Appliances were sitting about waiting for their turn to be repaired, and stacks of books and scrolls were placed haphazardly together. A scroll of parchment with a letter half written lay on the desk, quill still in the open ink bottle.

When she tested the handle and the door even though the door did not open, a loud chime rang out. Sitting on the door hinge, peering down through the window, was a familiar clockwork bird, Tik Tok, serving as a door bell. "Be right out!" came Widget's voice from the back room and echoing through the still closed door, from where Star knew the kitchen to be.

It was somewhat of a relief to hear that at least with Widget, everything seemed to be the same as usual. The floor was still basically categorized as a storeroom after a class four hurricane, the tools were almost in comedic contrast neatly organized and appliances were sitting around in some random order existing only within Widget's head to be repaired or awaiting parts to be repaired. She grinned, remembering the first time she had cleaned everything up, Widget had been quite stressed out by it too.

And so, she waited.

As promised, a few seconds later, Widget emerged from the back room. His almost white coat was smudged with oil in some places, mostly around his hooves and a bit on the bridge of his nose. He was wearing his work glasses, black square framed, over his blue eyes, which also held the slightly darkened outline of his welding goggles. He paused and blinked at the sight of the filly in his workshop, before giving a bright smile. "Well, hello, my little apprentice!" he said happily, moving forward toward her. "You should have sent me a letter telling me you'd be coming back, I would have met you at the station."

Starcrasher beamed a nervous smile back at Widget. He still called her his apprentice, which was good... even though she had technically been hired by Quill, so she'd be his asssitant's assistant had the little dragon not been forced to leave shortly after her arrival in Ponyville.

- "Hey boss! Eh~hehheh... Ehm, i'd have let you know but i was on the first train home as soon as i got out of the hospital, it's likely any letter i would have sent you would have arrived on the same train i did."

She thought back for a moment, before being forced to amend her claim.

- "Well okay, it may have been one train later. Or two. Maybe three, tops. But anyway, given that i originally asked for a week off and ended up being gone for three months i just wanted to talk to you in person, y'know? See if i was still your assistant? It felt more polite than just dropping off the face of Equestria and then out of nowhere sending you a letter telling you to come and pick me up at the station."

She sweatdropped, scratching one lower leg with the other as she bit her lip nervously, waiting for Widget's response. He didn't seem angry, but then again he wasn't the type to get angry a lot so...
This message was last edited by the player at 15:29, Mon 22 June 2015.

"Hospital?" he said with obvious concern. "Well, when I never got a letter but never heard you reported missing, I had assumed you'd gotten settled with your parents again or found a new mentor, something like that. I knew this place would be temporary with all your talent, the only question is how temporary. Had I known you were in hospital, I would have come to see you. You look in good spirits, though. Everything okay?" Well, he certainly wasnt angry. He seemed more relieved that she was okay!

- "Well.... kinda, yeah. I was never reported missing because i kept in touch with my parents -- postcards, y'know? And after visiting the Crystal Empire i figured there were so many other stops on the Pony Express that i might as well get out and see the sights... So i did. A week here, two weeks there, couple of days there... It added up."

Starcrashed put down her saddlebags on the floor, her tail moving away to show a hint of a Cutie Mark. She didn't appear to notice.

- "Anyway, one day when i was getting a drink there was all kinds of commotion going on. I walk outside and see Discord and this huge half-pony half-minotaur trying to drain ponies of their magic and getting bigger every time he did. So you know how i'm good at messing up magic, right? Well, i figured if magic made him stronger, then me messing it up would make him weaker."

She took a deep breath and found a place to sit down for a bit.

- "So when he was trying to drain a bunch of ponies Discord lassoed up for him, i tried something. He was draining magic, and mine interfered like i expected it to so the stream never made it to his mouth. He... didn't take it well. Then Discord ratted me out by giving away the barrel i was hiding in, and i got caught. He tried to drain me, so i went and dispelled again. I could feel my magic seep away and all, it just was dissipating before it reached him. Then i gave him an anti-magic blast in the face so he dropped me."

She winced for a moment, rubbing her flank at the memory of her landing.

- "If anything, the blast hurt him, he had a scorch mark where i hit him above his left eye and a bit of his eyebrow was singed off too. He tried to catch me again, practically tore through two buildings to get to me, and then i zapped him on the back again. Apparently, that's when he gave up on draining me or something, because there was this ball of raw power forming between his horns, and i figured it was high time for this pony to make myself scarce before that thing would hit. Kept looking over my shoulder running so i managed to dodge the blast, but the shockwave sent me crashing into a building and i lost consciousness. Next thing i know, i wake up to see the whole thing already over with, and there's this big shot Medicorn from Canterlot healing me. Princess Celestia's had a bunch of them sent everywhere, it seemed. So the local sheriff and the mayor get together, and figured that since i managed to keep that monster busy for like five minutes -- though i'm told it was more like two -- they went and figured they'd get me this."

She rummaged through her saddlebags until she found what she had been looking for, and presented a star-shaped badge.

- "Tah-dah! Star Dasher, honorary Deputy of Appaloosa. So we had a party that night to celebrate that everything was over with, and me and the others that stepped up to save everypony were the guests of honor. Oh, and i don't think you've seen this yet either!"

She then stood up again, wriggling her flank in the air for her Cutie Mark to be in full view. It was a falling star with a smaller one on either side of its tail, and the falling star appeared to be shattered.

- "Woke up with that on my flank. Couldn't tell you exactly when i got it, but i get to say i got my Cutie Mark trying to save Equestria, how cool is that!"

She made a squee face before sitting down again with a wide grin on her face, trying to see what kind of reaction Widget would have to her tale. Suddenly reminded of something, she tacked on a question before he would be able to reply.

- "Oh! And how'd you get past the attack? Noticed the library wasn't there anymore, is Twilight still around? Did she move in with you now?"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:05, Thu 25 June 2015.

Widget felt both warm and cold at the same time as Star recounted her tale to him. On one hoof, what she had done was so dangerous, incredibly so, unforgivably so. Putting herself in danger like that, no matter the reason, just a young filly without even a cutie mark yet, untrained in such magic, against a beast, and the avatar of chaos himself? It was ludicrous!

On the other hoof, she had been so brave, so fearless, standing up for others despite everything she had been through, despite her knowing nothing of those ponies except that they needed help. She had earned her cutie mark doing something selfless and kind and brave, and even though he was not family to her, he felt a deep swelling sense of pride.

When she quieted, he reached out suddenly and hugged her. "I'm so proud of you, Star," he said with deep sincerity. "You've really grown up in these past few months you've been gone. I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you more with it. But you certainly look like you've gotten on alright alone. I hope you're as proud of yourself as I am."

He let go and chuckled at her final comment. He reddened around the ears when she asked if she had moved in with him! "No, no, she doesn't live here. The attack's been cleaned up with for some time. Twilight's Library was turned into her castle. I'm surprised you didn't see it on your way into town. It's huge. She lives there now."

Starcrasher grinned when Widget hugged her, sounding somewhat embarrassed but enjoying the praise regardless.

- "Awwh."

She blinked when Widget mentioned a castle. She had seen a large building from the corner of her vision but she had been so taken up in finding her old waypoints and landmarks that she hadn't really paid attention to anything else along the way. Though the sound of Twilight living in a castle brought a smirk, then a grin which was soon followed by a chuckle before turning into outright laughter.

- "Ahhahaaah! Twilight living in a castle, oh sweet Celestia that is good. I heard stories in town about how she was telling everyone to drop the 'Princess' and just have everypony treat her the same way they've always treated her back when she had just gotten her wings, and now she's living in a castle! Yeah, if the library hadn't gotten totaled they'd never have managed to talk her into that, though i'd wager she'd have moved in with Applejack if she'd been given a say in the matter. When'd they build it anyway?"

She peaked away a few tears from laughter from her eyes as she looked at Widget, waiting for a reply.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:14, Sun 28 June 2015.

"Well, to be truthful, they turned the library into it. That's why it looks like a giant tree. It happened pretty much the same day the library was destroyed," he said. "I was going to head over there later today to see Twilight. You can come with me if you like," he said with a nod. He realized he was a little sad when Star had said that Twilight would have gone to live with Applejack rather than her castle, rather than in with him. But then again, they hadn't been dating all that long, he supposed. It felt like years to him! His crush had evolved well past that stage by now. Still, she was so busy with her duties as a Princess, especially now with the Harmony map up and running, it was difficult to catch her attention unless he caught her on a rare day. But she was happy with her role, happy that she was contributing in a meaningful way. That happiness made all of it worth it to him. "I'm sure she'd love to see you and know that you're alright."

Starcrasher nodded, though she did tilt her head for a moment.

- "Yeah, i was at the place where the library used to be, but they even dug the roots out as far as i could tell."

She chuckled for a moment, a wave of nervousness flooding over her again as she thought about meeting her mentor again. Widget had been surprisingly fine with her absence, but would Twilight?

- "Oh, come to think of it, you two were dating, right? How're you two getting along? I don't see a stack of books anywhere but i guess the castle would have more room huh?"

"Oh, everything's great," he said with a smile. "We're still doing fine." He chuckled at her comment about books and more room at the castle, shaking his head. "Well, her place is certainly a lot nicer than mine. I wouldn't want to dirty it up with all my tools and junk. You can't blame her for not wanting to come over here for dinner. Too small and all that." He checked his watch. "Why don't you go drop off your bags in your room upstairs? I'm getting ready to leave soon to surprise Twilight with lunch."

- "Will do boss. At least my arrival this time was better than our first meeting, huh? And look."

Her horn glowed for a moment, and her saddlebags lifted off the ground and back on her back. When she gestured though, it wasn't at the saddlebags, but at the workshop itself.

- "Everything still works."

She ended with a wink and started heading up the stairs to where her room was. Come to think of it, the loft used to be a baby dragon's until she got settled in if she rememberedf correctly. What was his name again? Ah yes. She stopped, raising her voice slightly so that Widget could hear her calling down the stairs.

- "Oh, and heard anything from Quill? How's he been doing over in Canterlot?"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:58, Thu 02 July 2015.

"Well that's definitely an improvement," he chuckled lightly, watching her go upstairs as he went to pack up and prepare to leave to pick up some lunch for Twilight from one of the cafes or shops that lined the Ponyville town square. He was not that great of a cook (and he was a little pressed for time at the moment) and he thought she might appreciate something more professionally made.

"He's alright, from what I've gathered," he called back up to her easily. "I got a letter from him a couple of weeks back. He said he was doing just fine in his new position, really liking it there. Good for him. It's not often you can find a job doing what you like."

- "Well, that's what Cutie Marks are for, right?"

Some stumbling could be heard coming from upstairs as Starcrasher was moving some stuff around to make room for other stuff she had brought with her on her travels, but it didn't last long. She figured she could always do a more thorough rearranging later. Around half a minute later, she could be heard trotting down the stairs again.

- "I'll admit though it's a little rarer for dragons since they don't have them, but as far as i can tell most Ponies have jobs they like and are good at. Though... some Ponies take longer figuring that out than others."

She chuckled, remembering the trouble she had had with her spellcasting before realizing that the trouble itself was caused by what she was good at.

He smiled when she mentioned cutie marks and chuckled. "Ahh the innocence of youth," he said a bit dreamily, smiling down at her. "In a perfect world, we'd all have jobs related to our special talents. Doesn't always work that way though, kiddo. I know lots of ponies who have no choice but to do things they don't like to do to pay the bills. After all, do you think anypony likes some of the less savoury jobs that need doing? Or that everypony with a special talent for blowing bubbles can make a living doing that? Not all the time. Heck, even I don't like my day job much. Im an inventer, but tinkering on my wings all day doesnt pay the morgage. That's why I repair machines too. I dont like it, but Im good at it. Youre lucky. Your talent is related to magic. There's always room for magically talented unicorns no matter where you go."

His wings fastened into their usual place and his nice glasses on his nose, he nodded. "Ready to get? Ill buy you a sweet from Sugarcube Corner while were there too."

Starcrasher chuckled, letting Widget know his comment had hit close to the mark. She had seen several Ponies during the course of her travels that did not seem to enjoy what they were doing much, but hadn't really thought much about why, instead assuming they were just having a bad day or something. Admittedly, it was far less of a problem in Ponyville, since due to its size there weren't going to be like five party planners all competing with one another for bits, but she could see how that could be a problem in larger towns. The promise of sweets though quickly put an end to more profound thoughts.

- "Don't have to tell me twice."

She headed to the door, carefully avoiding stepping on anything or accidentally knocking over a pile of neatly sorted somethings as she waited for Widget. He was working on wings and Twilight got her own, must be nice to have them...

"Right then," he said, following her and maneuvering with expert care around everything around him with the confidence that he could do it blind-folded if necessary. "Let's be on our way." He followed her outside the shop, shutting the door behind him with a sign in the window that he'd return later (not that anypony was likely to stop by, but still, better safe than sorry). Smiling down at his apprentice, they started together toward Pinkie Pie's famous Ponyville haunt.

>>> TO: Sugarcube Corner >>>

Starcrasher waited for Widget to take the lead once he had finished closing up his shop, and followed him to Sugarcube Corner. She knew the route between the Libr-- Okay, the former Library and Widget's shop pretty well, and she'd been to Merriweather's once or twice, but finding anything else would be a problem going by how little she had needed to go there as well as an absence of several months not making it any easier to remember the usual landmarks. She did pay close attention as they wallked however, fortunately Ponyville had a lot of landmarks and wasn't big enough to be confusing to begin with.

--> To: Sugarcube Corner -->