Well... I woke up the next day after a very good night's sleep! I strangely recall a dream I had while sleeping... it felt as though I were awake. A lucid dream. I remember much of it revolving around me having... heehee... a tea party, of all things, with Owlowicious. Of course, the only thing mildly strange about the party was the fact that Owlowicious was wearing the mind reading helmet Spike found yesterday. He had been hooting for a few moments, before the mind reader finally kicked in... "I say, Twilight, is this really necessary...?" he asked me without speaking. What I noticed was that the helmet gave him an actual "voice" rather than some metallic drone, a bonus to my research!
I nodded. "Sorry if it's a little uncomfortable, Owlowicious. But... this is actually the first conversation I had with you! I'm... a bit nervous."
Owlowicious seemed to hoot a bit again. "No need to worry, Mistress Twilight. This is a privilege for me as well! Why, think of all the research we can finally accomplish together!"
I sighed, as though I were dreaming... which I knew I was. I placed my hooves on my chin, smiling widely at Owlowicious. "Yeah... I know... so many accomplishments..."
It was around that moment that I began waking up. I didn't want it to be a dream anymore... I wanted it to be reality! As I woke up, I looked around the throne room. I didn't bother going up to my bedroom last night. For one, I had to make sure the map wasn't going to appear as soon as I woke up. Fortunately for me, it hadn't. Another reason was because I didn't want to take the helmet upstairs. While I wasn't worried about Spike waking up, I was hoping that a nocturnal Owlowicious wouldn't have fiddled with the machine last night. As much as I knew he loved all things technical and literary, I didn't want him to hear my thoughts or Spike's while we slept. I planned our first conversation a surprise for him.
I slumped off my throne. It was comfortable enough to be a bed all on its own. I trotted with a yawn through the room, until I stopped in front of the machine on a shelf. I smiled a bit exhaustedly... sure, I knew I had to test it on Gummy first... but after that... opportunities!
I knew Pinkie was extremely punctual... some could say that it rivaled mine but... haha! Let's be real here! Everypony knows for a fact I am on-the-dot punctual! And if I wasn't... then I'd make it so! Knock knock. Ha! She was a minute and twenty seconds after sunrise! She was late! I knew I was the most punctual!
I smiled to myself as I trotted to the door of the castle. Even from the throne room I could hear it, considering how roomy this place was. I opened the door to the castle, seeing Pinkie Pie standing and smiling as gleefully as always. On her tail, Gummy was latching on with all the strength in his jaws. Granted, it had to be a lot considering he lacked teeth. The pair trotted inside, before I closed the door. "Sorry I'm late, Twilight! Gummy here loves bubble baths!" Heh... so you think, Pinkie.
"Well, you're not too late. So, where would you like to place Gummy?"
"Oh, here, there, anywhere! Gummy won't mind I told him about this and he said he was fine with whatever!" Sure he did, Pinkie...
"Well, bring him to the throne room, Pinkie. We can put him on the map's resting spot, considering it isn't active currently. Let me just wake up Spike to get a recorder." Even if the responses from Gummy aren't... satisfactory... I'm sure whatever he comes up with, I can send to Princess Celestia.
I trotted to the chamber with Pinkie and Gummy in tow, before I pointed a hoof to the map's table for them to wait. I saw them both sit tightly, and satisfied, I trotted to the bedroom quietly. I saw Spike sleeping in his small bed, and Owlowicious sleeping on his perch. I trotted quietly to Spike, nuzzling him a bit. After a moment, he grumbled a bit, before waking up. "Mmm... j-just five more minutes..."
"Please, Spike?"
He tossed and turned a bit more, before slowly rising from his cot. He stretched, rubbed his eyes, and yawned. "A-alright... I'm up... I'm up... what do you need, Twilight?"
"Spike, could you please, um... fetch me a recording device? I wish to record Gummy's... eh... conversation."
I saw him grumble a bit, probably because he was still sleepy. I never liked waking him up but I almost always needed assistance with keeping this place organized. He walked out of the room, and after a moment of watching Owlowicious snore for a bit, I did as well. After regrouping in the throne room with Spike, Pinkie, and... Gummy... I retrieved the machine from its shelf and trotted back to the three, Spike holding a large recorder in his claws. "Ready, Twilight!"
I yawned a bit. "Well, might as well get this over with." I rolled my eyes a bit, before placing the helmet onto Gummy. Obviously, it was too big for him. In fact, so big that it completely hid him underneath the helmet. I knew I had to scale it down but if any of my shrinking spells messed up any of the hardware within, the device would be ruined. And so would my ideas.
Ugh... do I want to take that risk? Sure I can build a new helmet, but... it would take awhile. And I already sent a note to Princess Celestia that I would send this in immediately. So it has to be now... or never... and if it was never, I'd go stark raving mad! I glimmered my horn, focusing on the helmet. OK then... now... turn... small... carefully...
It's working... it's working...! Oh, don't get too excited now; remember you need to stay calm, Twily. I saw the helmet shrink a bit more, before Gummy became visible again from beneath, and the helmet sat perfectly on his head. I stopped. Yes! Yes! Wait... we're not out of the woods yet, Twily... still gotta make sure it works...
I neared my hoof to the activation switch, flicking it. The machine glimmered and buzzed to life. Haha! Victory! Oh yes, oh yes, my magic... is awesome! I felt myself tapping my hooves in excitement, the others waiting for me to get on with my experiment. And they were right... it was going to be exciting! I cleared my throat, and motioned to Spike to turn on the recorder. As soon as he did, I began. "Experiment 'Gator Whisperer', Stage One. Test subject: Gummy. Objective: Communicate and converse with a domesticated reptile. Hypothesis: Not much." I chuckled a bit, before turning to Gummy.
He stared at me... er... and Pinkie. Well... he was staring at us both with eyes diluted in different directions. He blinked his right eye slowly, before blinking his left eye. "Er... OK, Gummy... how are you feeling today?"
He merely stared... emptily... at us both. I expected this sort of silence from him. I floated a notepad over to me, and held it with my magic as I floated a quill near it as well, scribbling the dialogue. Not that there was any.
"OK... um... how do you feel about Pinkie raising you?" I wrote this down in my notepad as well.
"...I'd say quite satisfied, I suppose."
I felt myself stop suddenly, my ears twitching. I glanced up from the notepad, staring at Gummy. I turned to Pinkie. "Did... you say that...?"
"Nope! Gummy did!"
...what. I turned back to the gator. "Wait... him? He said that?"
"Why is that so hard to believe?" I heard respond, the voice low, almost rasping but perfectly clear.
I felt myself frozen in shock... there was no way that this alligator could respond! But... I shook it off, and scribbled what I thought I heard in the dialogue. "Um... OK. Spike, you can stop answering the questions. Don't know how you're doing the voice but it's not funny."
"Uh... that... isn't me, Twilight."
"It's quite alright, Spike. I'm largely ignored by most ponies," the voice spoke again. I turned to the helmet, seeing it glimmer as it "spoke" the thoughts. It... it was true, then. Gummy... Gummy was talking.
"Er... s-sorry... I didn't actually expect you to respond..."
"I suppose not..." Gummy looked around a bit. "This place is... quite beautiful."
"Er... th-thanks... so then... Gummy..." I slowed to a stop. Many thoughts raced through my mind. If this was, indeed, Gummy's thought process... he must have quite a high IQ. To process these thoughts... to analyze the scenery... even to consider his social status among ponies... Princess... I think we may have hit the jackpot here...