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.