Widget

by funkyferret

A New Home Part 1

Dawn was coming. The stars were fading in the sky as the first rays of the sun touched the far corner of the horizon. The Everfree forest was an eerie place, invoking a primal fear in those who dared to venture into its depths. The trees themselves seemed to be waiting to pounce on an unwary traveler. Strange cries could be heard in the night, as creatures steeped in shadows moved about in the undergrowth. Now, in the wee hours of the morning, it was nearly silent. Deep within the forest lay a small clearing. The surrounding tree branches were so densely intertwined that light penetrated the clearing for only a few hours each day. Only a few stunted bushes and clumps of weeds were able to cling to life there. It was the perfect place.

A strange metal contraption stood in the center of the clearing. A long metal pipe made up the bulk of the device. The surface of the pipe was smooth, save for a hatch in the side and a wick sticking out near its base. The device was supported by a complex metal framework with many interlocking gears. Nearby, a large hammered copper orb lay in the dirt, its hatch open and swaying slightly in the mild breeze. A shadowy figure prowled around the structure. The stranger rubbed its forelegs over the device as it made last minute preparations.

“Alright, now thirty degrees by forty-five degrees should do the trick…” the being muttered to itself, as it operated a series of cranks on the side of the mechanism. The contraption rattled and groaned as the gears spun and it slowly rotated to face in a new direction.

“Hmm… I need to lubricate a bit more.” The figure trotted over to a pair of saddle bags lying in the weeds and pulled out a small canister of oil. As the tinkerer went back to its contraption, the other saddle bag moved slightly. A small head poked out from under the flap, as the creature made a soft “churr” noise over its prolonged imprisonment in such a tiny space. Hearing the noise, its captor returned to the bag and smiled down at the little beast. “Fine. I’ll let you out, Sydney, but stay out of trouble this time.” Pleased to be released from its bag, the small animal wandered off to explore the clearing.

Widget turned back to her invention, her heart beating eagerly in her chest. It was finally time to test it. With this device, she would be able to send messages to Mama, despite the distance between them. She pulled a sealed letter out of her cloak, as well as a scrap of paper which she then carefully examined. The scratches and symbols on the note may not have made sense to the casual observer, but to her the hurried scribbles held the calculations needed for the correct execution of her device's maiden voyage. As she furiously crunched numbers in her head, she did not notice the small waddling figure as it approached the pod lying behind her. It managed to climb clumsily up into the pod, where it landed in an ungraceful heap at the bottom. Luckily, the padded interior cushioned its fall.

The breeze tugged at her mane, pulling Widget out of her daze. The wind was picking up speed. If she didn’t launch now, it might grow strong enough to blow the projectile off course. Stuffing the paper in her cloak, she whirled around and grabbed the pod. She tossed her letter in and hurriedly sealed the pod without inspecting its contents. Opening a hatch in the side of the device, she placed the orb inside the barrel of her message launcher, atop the explosive powder already inside. A small jet of flame lit the wick. Widget backed up and put on her goggles.

The explosion shook the clearing, startling the smaller denizens of the forest into flight. The projectile arched through the air, smoking slightly as it went. Success! She watched its path with a grin. Something was off. The pod was losing altitude way too quickly. She watched in dread as she realized it would fall far short of its goal. What could have gone wrong? She had checked all her calculations thoroughly, and it had fired properly. She couldn't understand why it was behaving in such an unusual manner. It was almost as if the orb was much heavier than she had calculated. Widget froze as a terrible thought occurred to her. “Sydney!” she cried, desperately searching the clearing, tearing up one of the bushes in her haste. Her pet was nowhere in sight. Widget turned back to look at the smoke trail, quivering in fear. “Oh buck.”

Fluttershy awoke to a loud thump, followed by the sound of chickens clucking in distress. “Eep!” She squeaked as she fell out of bed in a tangle of sheets. She rushed outside to check on her little friends, followed closely by a grumpy rabbit. There was a large hole in the roof of her chicken coop, and the chickens were running about in a blind panic. They hadn't been this distressed since the time the Cutie Mark Crusaders had spent the night at her house. She clucked to them softly until they quieted down. Timidly, she peeked into the ruined coop.

A large metal sphere lay in the straw. Tendrils of smoke played across its surface. Fluttershy jumped back, away from the strange device. The small white rabbit at her feet did not have such reservations. Angel was clearly annoyed at being awoken so early. The rabbit hopped right up to thing and gave it a solid kick. The hatch sprung open, and Angel jumped back, ready to deal with whatever emerged from within. Fluttershy hid under the gangplank. A rustling came from inside the pod, followed by a strange noise. A small brown duck’s head popped out from the top of the pod.

Fluttershy emerged from her hiding spot immediately. “Oh you poor thing,” she said. “Whoever put you in there? I… oh my…” The "duck" had emerged from the pod. It was the oddest thing she had ever seen. It had a duck’s head and feet, but it had the body and tail of a beaver. She picked it up and examined it. “What are you, little friend? How will I ever take care of you, I’ve never seen a creature like you before." She thought for a moment. "Maybe Twilight will know what it is. If I hurry, I can be back in time to feed my animals their breakfast," she said to herself. She wrapped her new friend in a soft blanket and put him in a basket. “Now, you stay here and watch the house, Angel,” she told the cross rabbit. Angel frowned at her, but it appeared he wanted to go back to bed anyways, since he didn’t argue. The yellow pegasus watched him enter the house and shut the door before picking up her basket and heading into Ponyville.

Widget was frantic. When she had finished her calculations of the capsule's new trajectory, she had been devastated. Sydney and her orb were going to end up in Ponyville, or at least on the outskirts. Mama had told her to stay away from the ponies, that they would hate her for what she was. But Sydney was family. Ever since her father brought him to her as an egg, she had cared for him. Here was a creature as odd as she was, and he loved her regardless of what she looked like. This was reason enough to go against Mama's wishes. She would understand.

Widget had made a mad dash back to her cave in the Everfree forest. If she was going to run the risk of being seen, she was going to need a good disguise. She threw on a long hooded cloak, the edges of which dragged on the ground slightly when she walked. She put her saddlebags on over the top of it to help weigh it down. She put on her boots, then went over to inspect herself in the mirror. The cloak covered her body enough that with the hood up she could easily pass as a pony. The stiff material of the boots limited her movement and stiffened her gait, improving her disguise as well. It was not perfect, but it would have to do. She needed to find Sydney quickly. The thought of him being somewhere out there, alone and injured, was too much for her to stand. Steeling herself, she left her cave and headed for the edge of the Everfree forest.

The sun was just clearing the edge of the horizon when Fluttershy reached the library. She knocked on the door. “I’m coming I’m coming,” called a muffled voice from inside. A small dragon wearing an apron opened the door. “Hey, Fluttershy, what brings you here so early?” Spike asked her.

The pegasus put down her basket and smiled at him. “I’m sorry, Spike, I hope I didn’t wake you up. I need to talk to Twilight… if that’s okay with you,” she said.

“Nah you didn’t wake me up. I had to get up early today to reorganize the library to make room for the new books Twilight ordered,” the dragon replied. He held open the door until the timid pegasus entered, then closed it behind her. “I’ll go get Twilight then,” he said as he headed towards her bedroom.

“Is she still asleep? I’m sorry, I can come back later,” Fluttershy mumbled.

“Nah. She needs to get up anyway so she can help me with the reorganization. Otherwise she’ll find something wrong about it and make me do it all over again,” Spike replied with a frown.

Ten minutes later a rumpled-looking purple unicorn came down the stairs. Spike went to fetch her cup of coffee while she sat down at the table across from Fluttershy. “So what brings you here so early?” Twilight asked blearily.

“I’m sorry, Twilight, but I found this strange animal in my yard this morning, and I’m hoping you can help me identify it,” her friend replied. Fluttershy opened her basket and placed the creature on the table.

“Whoa! What is that thing?” Spike asked as he placed a cup in front of Twilight.

The unicorn took a deep drink from her coffee cup before addressing the problem before her. “Hmm… I’ve never seen one before, but let me check my books. Where did it come from anyway?”

“Well…” Fluttershy began.

“… and the thing popped open and this little guy came out,” Fluttershy concluded, pointing to the animal that had now wandered off to explore the library.

Twilight was pulling books off the shelves and inspecting them before stacking them in a rapidly growing pile near her feet. “You’ve certainly had an unusual morning,” she commented dryly.

Spike was much more excited by her story. “A creature in a metal ball falling out of the sky! Do you know what this means?” he asked excitedly.

Twilight could see where he was going. “Spike…” she began.

The dragon ignored her and exclaimed, “Aliens!”

Twilight sighed. “How many times have we talked about this Spike? You can’t just go making up wild stories and… ah! Here we go.” Twilight levitated a book over to the table in front of Fluttershy. In it was a pencil drawing of the creature that was currently snuffling around the room. “Apparently it’s called a platypus. No wonder we’ve never seen one before, it comes from a land even farther away than where Zecora is from.”

“Oh my, that is a long way away,” Fluttershy responded, “so how do I take care of it?”

“According to this, they eat mostly bugs and worms,” she continued. Spike made a gagging noise, which she chose to ignore. “It says that they lay eggs like a bird but provide milk to their babies like a mammal. Certainly an unusual creature.” Twilight put the book back on the shelf and turned to her friend. “As for the rest of what you said, I guess I should come over and look at it.” Fluttershy nodded as she placed her new platypus friend back in its basket.

Widget muttered to herself darkly. It was bad enough that her device had ended up in a populated area, much less destroying the property of whomever the nearby cottage belonged to. Even though she had managed to find the capsule, there was no sign of her pet anywhere. Being so close to a settlement unnerved her, and the weird cottage was no help. There were animals all over the place! Many different creatures called the small yard their home, most of which were now watching the intruder. She wondered if it normal for ponies to keep this many pets. She needed to find Sydney quickly before someone caught her. She berated herself for her own carelessness. Widget sighed and sat down next to the recovered pod. She gazed at the sunrise, lost in thought.

“For the last time, Spike, there is no such thing as aliens!” Twilight was getting cross with the little dragon riding on her back.

“Come on, Twilight, just because you’ve never seen one doesn’t mean they aren’t out there,” Spike replied.

“There isn’t any proof that they even exist! There are no aliens, and there are no zombie ponies. End of story!” the purple mare fumed. Fluttershy remained quiet for the entire trip back to her cottage. Rounding the corner, she dropped her basket in surprise.

A strange pony was standing in her backyard. The guest was wearing a tattered cape, and stood with her back to them. The animals were eying the newcomer warily from their dens. “Who is that?” Twilight asked, coming up beside Fluttershy.

“I don’t know," the yellow mare admitted, "I've never seen that pony before. I… oh no!” The platypus had crawled out of the basket, and was heading towards the lone figure as fast as its little legs could carry it. It went up to the stranger and rubbed against her. Fluttershy held her breath.

Widget was startled by a beak running along her leg. She hopped up from where she had been sitting and looked down on a familiar shape. “Sydney!” she cried. Scooping up her dearest friend, she wrapped him in a tight hug. “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed into his soft fur, “I should have been more careful. Will you forgive me?” The platypus churred happily, making his master laugh wetly. Suddenly a chill ran up Widget’s spine. She turned around slowly, and then froze in her tracks. They were being watched.

Twilight had watched the whole exchange quietly. She looked at Fluttershy, who was naturally trying to hide behind her hair upon being faced with a strange new pony. The visitor was eyeing them warily as she placed the platypus in one of her saddlebags. The unicorn smiled and stepped forward. “Hello there, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is Fluttershy and Spike,” Twilight said, “I’m glad you got your pet back. Can you tell me what happed here?” The visitor was glancing around furtively, looking at them periodically with sharp eyes. Spike slipped off Twilight’s back to hide behind her. Twilight smiled awkwardly, and walked towards the cloaked pony. “Well, um welcome to Ponyville, I…” as Twilight extended her hoof, the other pony jumped back in surprise. Twilight frowned and took another step forward.

This got an immediate reaction from the stranger. The pony squared her legs, lowered her head and let out a loud “HISSSSS!”

Twilight backed off in a mixture of fear and confusion. This was extremely odd behavior for a pony. The creature before her seemed to droop apologetically upon seeing her reaction. Before the unicorn could muster up the courage to speak, the stranger bent down and picked up the metal sphere in her teeth, and ran clumsily for the Everfree forest. At the edge of the woods, the pony suddenly stopped in her tracks. Dropping the orb, she turned to the stunned trio and spoke. “Thank you, I will return the favor.” With that she picked up her pod and vanished into the darkness.

Twilight and the others stood there for several moments just staring at the spot where the stranger had disappeared into the woods. “Well,” Twilight said at last, turning to her companions, “that was definitely not normal.” Fluttershy was hiding her head in a bush, and did not respond.

“What did I tell you,” Spike said, “It’s ali-- ” He was interrupted by a cold stare from Twilight as the purple mare passed him on the way to pull her friend out of the bush. Spike frowned, but after years spent with the unicorn, he knew when to keep his mouth shut.

Widget huddled in her cave, gasping for breath after her long run through the forest. Already she had broken her promise to Mama. She had allowed herself to be seen by the townsfolk. She was now faced with a serious dilemma. Mama said not to be seen, but Papa always told me to repay my favors. She had no idea what she should do next. She didn't know anything about repaying favors for ponies. Widget sighed as she realized what had to be done. After placing Sydney in his nest, she headed back out into the forest.

Widget approached the house of the only 'pony' she could comfortably call a friend. The house was built into the side of a tree hung with a mired of colored bottles and strange wooden masks. She knocked on the door and entered. A striped pony turned to her from where she had been brewing her latest potion. “Zecora?” Widget asked. “I need your advice.”