--> 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 <<