Widget

by funkyferret

A New Life: Part 2

Twilight rubbed a hoof over her forehead and sighed heavily. Widget and her mother had both finally calmed down enough to talk. "So, where were we?" the librarian asked dryly.

"Princess? Why... what will I do," Widget muttered. She was curled in a shivering ball. Spike was watching her with concern.

"You were going to tell me how you became 'friends' with my daughter." Grumble Belly responded sternly to the unicorn's question. "If I had known she was associating with such disreputable characters, I would have taken her back home a long time ago. I still intend to do so if need be." The dragoness towered over Twilight in a threatening manner.

The unicorn was only able to stutter in response.

Nearby, a bush sporting a pink tail squeaked and quivered.

Widget snapped out of her daze. "Mama, p-please don't," she said quietly.

Grumble Belly glanced at her daughter in surprise. "You're standing up for these ponies?" she demanded, thrusting an accusing claw in the direction of the assembled ponies.

Widget nodded. "I-I know you told me not to talk to ponies, Mama, and I'm sorry I had to break a promise to you. But... I'm not sorry that I talked to them!"

Her mother inhaled sharply.

"These ponies are important to me..." Widget struggled to find the right words as she squirmed underneath her mother's sharp stare. She glanced at her nearby friends for guidance. The girls and Spike smiled at her, giving her the strength to continue. "Even since I came here, I've felt like there was something missing in my life. Then I met them, purely by accident. Fluttershy reached out to me, and the others all followed quickly behind. They taught me how to laugh, and brought meaning to my life."

Fluttershy edged slowly out of the bush she had been hiding in, and gave Widget a small smile.

Widget looked her mother squarely in the eyes. "Mama, I promised I would never change for anyone else... and I won't. Not even for you."

For a long time her mother was silent, her face blank. Widget knew this was merely a facade. Below the surface, the dragon's mind was working full tilt; Papa wasn't the one she got her smarts from after all. Finally the dragon spoke. "You aren't my little fledgling anymore, are you?" Grumble Belly asked, voice thick with emotion.

Widget reached out towards her mother, and the two embraced.

After a few moments, Spike broke in. "Not to ruin the moment, but don't we have more important things to worry about?" he asked. "The princess will be here in less than an hour."

Widget froze. "W-what?" she cried. The wyrmkin began to hyperventilate.

Twilight elbowed Spike in the gut.

---

A little less than an hour later, six ponies, two dragons, and a very nervous half-breed stood in the middle of town, waiting for the arrival of princess Celestia. Despite her earlier worries about frightening the towns folk, Grumble Belly had been adamant about accompanying her to "meet the snooty royal pony". Her announcement had caused Twilight's face to turn several interesting colors. She then proceeded to write a quick letter to the princess regarding the additional member of the welcoming party, and sent it through Spike's fire breath.

"There's the royal carriage!" Twilight said excitedly. The purple mare was practically bouncing in place with excitement.

Widget trembled. "How long do you suppose one goes to jail for accidentally bludgeoning the princess with a large metal object sent by dragonfire?" she wondered nervously.

The carriage landed, and the ponies all bowed. Grumble Belly eyed the princess suspiciously, and Widget's legs had locked into place. Widget glaced at the princess. For somepony crushed by metal, she looked surprisingly healthy.

"Greetings, my little ponies," Celestia said. "And to you, noble dragon."

Grumble Belly inclined her head slightly, but did not cease her inspection, much to the discomfort of the royal guards accompanying the carriage.

Twilight approached the princess with a broad smile on her face. "Princess Celestia, this is the wyrmkin I told you about, Widget."

Widget's eyes widened. She looked at Twilight, who was smiling at her. She wondered why she had been betrayed by the little unicorn.

Grumble Belly lifted her lip in a silent snarl. "So, you've been spying on my daughter and reporting to your superior, have you?" she hissed.

The princess smiled at her gently. "Not at all. I have merely learned of her through my faithful student's friendship reports, and then only when she had learned a valuable lesson from your daughter."

"Really?" Widget asked, looking straight at the offending unicorn.

The unicorn's brow crinkled in confusion. "Of course, why wouldn't I?"

Widget blinked. Maybe this was a case of insanity instead of cold-hearted betrayal. As a matter of fact, Twilight being crazy made a lot more sense than her being evil. She sighed, head spinning.

Noticing her silence, Twilight approached Widget, looking concerned. "Why do you have such a problem with me telling the princess about you?"

"Because then sh's come down here and eliminate me!" Widget blurted out angrily.

Twilight looked confused. "Why would you think a crazy thing like that would happen?"

Spike coughed and muttered something about "magic kindergarten".

Twilight shot him a cold look.

"Why wouldn't she?" Widget stared at the ground sadly. "I'm an abomination. I'm not a pony, I'm not a dragon. All I am is a horrid mix of the two. I never deserved friendship... yet for some reason you all decided to give it to me regardless." She looked up at Celestia. Her expression hardened. "I-I'm ready to take any punishment you see fit."

"Punishment? Why would I do that? I'm here to offer you a job." The princess said, smiling. Everyone looked at her, surprised by her announcement.

The princess must have been concussed by the metal object hitting her head. "Because I hit you in the head with a large metal object sent via dragonfire?" she said.

The alicorn shook her head. "I'll admit, the appearance of your invention did indeed surprise me, but one does not get as old as I and not know how to avoid minor accidents. I am here because that device of yours is quite ingenious, and I'd like to commission about a hundred of them for use in training the royal armed guards."

Widget blinked. "What?"

Ignoring her confusion, Celestia continued. "Naturally, you shall be payed for your services. A shop will be set up for you in Canterlot, where you can utilize your talents to the fullest."

Grumble Belly stamped her foot. "Absolutely not," she said firmly. "My husband has told me about the habits of those fancy, stuck-up ponies with their frilly outfits. I will not allow you to take my daughter to a place that such racist ponies call home." Her steely gaze rested on the offending monarch.

"I don't want to go," Widget said. The alicorn and the dragoness glanced down at her. "My life is here, my home is here, and so are my friends. If making the best of my talents means leaving it all behind, then I don't want to do it."

Celestia looked her over carefully. Widget did her best to stay upright and not quiver too much. "I understand," the alicorn said. "I suppose it won't be too hard to get you a shop here in Ponyville. Delivering things by train will be a bit of effort, but we can do so if it makes you happy."

Widget smiled happily at the alicorn. "Alright then, I guess we have a deal." She stuck out a hand to shake. For some reason the guards all tensed up, but Celestia waved them away before taking Widget's paw and shaking it gently.

"It seems we are in for some excitement in the future," the alicorn said, eyes twinkling mischievously.

---

Widget hummed to herself as she made the final touches on her latest commission. She inspected the object carefully in the light, looking for any flaws she might have missed earlier. It needed to be perfect; Miss Doo would be here to pick up her muffin launcher this afternoon.

The bell in the front shop chimed. Widget made her way from the back room to the small storefront to greet the customer. She smiled at the little dragon standing there. Spike had been coming to the shop several times a week to help out. It was thanks to his help that the princesses' target dummies had taken only months to finish instead of years. With additional practice, the little dragon was now much better with his flame. He was pretty good at soldering.

"Late again?" she teased.

He blushed and mumbled something incomprehensible.

Widget sighed and shook her head. Ever since Mama had left two months ago, he had been acting a bit odd. The dragoness had stayed around to make sure her daughter was settling into her new life comfortably. The dragoness had taken a shine to Fluttershy as well. She liked to carry the yellow pony around, much to the pegasus' dismay. As she left, Grumble Belly had pulled Spike to the side and whispered something in his ear that had left him starring into space for quite some time afterwards. Whenever she tried to ask about their conversation, the little dragon would turn red and change the subject. Widget knew she shouldn't pry, but her scientific curiosity was heightened. She'd get the truth out of him sooner or later.

After she had set him up with working on one of the shop display pieces in the back, she moved to the front of the store, where she stopped to look around. Though a little on the small side compared to the workshop, the store was crammed with objects. Ponies would often take a lot of time just to look through it all. Just last week, one of those fancy looking ponies Mama had been so worries about had stopped by. She had been concerned at first, but he had showered her with praise and left with a teapot, and clock, and a promise to buy more in the future. Maybe these Canterlot ponies weren't so bad after all.

Widget looked at the one place on the wall that was relatively free of clutter. There hung the Crusader's drawing of her cutie mark. She smiled at it. The girls still came by from time to time to get parts or advice for their latest wacky adventures.

A soft "Churr" called her attention to over-head. She looked up at the water filled tubes that ran along the shop's ceiling. Sydney pushed his beak up against the glass, and churred at her again. Widget smiled at him. With a flick of his tail, the platypus disappeared down one of the tubes, heading towards his burrow upstairs in Widget's bedroom. Getting used to living in a house instead of a cave was taking some effort, but with Sydney and all her friends to help, she was slowly getting used to it.

The bell on the door rang, and two stallions entered. The one stallion in front looked fairly old, but he moved with a spring in his step that belied his apparent age. He had a grey coat, and white mane that stuck out of his head like cotton fluff. The other one was much younger. He was brown in color, and was wearing an orange vest for some reason.

"Are you sure we can get parts here, doc?" the brown one asked.

"Of course! This seems like the only place in town that sells anything remotely like what we're looking for. As for the rest, we'll just have to improvise," his companion replied.

Widget shook her head, coming out of her daydream. Now was not the time for deep thoughts or reminiscing. She had customers to attend to. She put on the professional smile Rarity had taught her and approached the two stallions. "Welcome to 'Widget's Gadgets', what can I do for you?"

THE END

Comments

[funkyferret]

And so ends my first fanfic. However, this is not the end of Widget. She will always be firmly stationed in my head-canon, and is bound to make a few cameos in future fics. I plan to write a semi-sequel as well as a prequel to the story eventually, but my next few projects will be a series of crossovers. I would be very pleased if anyone wants to use Widget in their own stories. Just let me know, so I can tell you more about her personality. I might write a "bonus chapter" to this fic that covers a few of the time jumps that contained stories that never made it into the main plot if there is enough interest in me doing so. Otherwise, I'd just like to thank everyone who helped support me throughout this story, my first foray into the world of fanfiction. I love you guys.

[Warman1138]

Excellent.

[TwlightFire]

I wish this story had more views. It's amazing for a first story. But you might want to rewrite it.

[funkyferret]

2065255
Thank you.

[Learn for Life]

Huh... I thought I commented on the last few chapters. Well, might as well do it now.

I very much enjoyed this story. Thank you for writing it!

Now to read "Tears of a Siren."

[Jacktank10]