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// Just an Illusion 
// Story: Gelatinous Voice 
// by The Psychopath 
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"And that's why I need you to take care of Gummy until tomorrow, Twilight!" Pinkie finished with a bounce. "Can you do that for me?"

"Of course I can, Pinkie," Twilight responded with a smile. "Anything in particular that I need to know?"

The mare fumbled through her mane and pulled out a pony-sized bag of 'Toothless Crocodile Food' and threw it at Twilight who just barely had that time to catch it in her magic.

"Just give him a small bowl of that at noon and six in the evening if I'm not back by then," the pink pony explained. She pulled out another bowl and handed it to Twilight this time.

"Okay then," Twilight noted cautiously while eyeing both items in her magic grip. "Anything else?"

Pinkie thought deeply, then her mane and tail exploded outwards. "He doesn't like being lonely, so keep him near you, preferably where there's windows, since he needs the light for his skin." She patted the gator on her back. Gummy was momentarily squished like a rubber toy pressed on too hard.

"Uh huh..." Twilight worried. "Well, I'll take good care of him, Pinkie Pie. You have fun in Trotalot," Twilight said as she posed Gummy on her own back.

Pinkie waved wildly every step of the way back to the door which Twilight was quick to close. She heaved a tired sigh and looked at Gummy, which perked her up a bit.

"Well, Gummy, it looks like it's just us, now." She moved through the crystal hallways of her castle and noted the uncomfortable silence. "Sorry that Spike isn't here, so you probably won't have anypony to play with you." She giggled. "He's off in the dragon lands with Princess Ember and Smolder." The gator didn't react. In fact, he didn't even blink. "Hellooooo? Anypony in there?" The gator's head dropped down. "I always think you're a taxidermy allig...Croco...Whatever it is you are."

The lavender alicorn stepped into her laboratory, taking in the rancid stench of chemicals mixing in with pleasure. Gummy's eyes started to water, but he otherwise didn't react. He was placed on a mostly-clean table illuminated by the many windows above the desks grown out of the walls. The little gator got to watch Twilight floating a plethora of beakers and bunsen burners, containers full of colored powders and liquids, and strange objects she would look at often. Even more numerous were her moments of scribbling on a board with chalk, creating shapes the animal could not recognize.

At twelve on the dot, Twilight pulled the pet's bag of food from the side of one of the counters, filled his bowl with food, and fed him. She watched Gummy carefully to make sure he was eating. The alicorn had learned that pets, when uncomfortable, sometimes didn't eat. She stared in disbelief when the little gator slowly moved forward then slammed his whole head into the bowl and slowly started to eat what rolled into his mouth when he opened it. Twilight would have to study how this...thing's brain worked whenever she had any true free time.

When night came, the mare, exhausted, fed Gummy once again. The crystals of the castle illuminated the laboratory dimly, giving just enough light that tired eyes like Twilight's wouldn't be too strained to work at night.

The mare exhaled loudly. "That's a lot of work accomplished in one night," she declared proudly. "Just need to check one more thing about places like the Everfree elsewhere in the worrrrrld..." Twilight trailed off once she realized she was talking to herself.

"You find your work to be an accomplishment?" a deep and taunting voice asked the mare.

Twilight froze in place and looked around. "What? Who's there? Discord?"

"The answer lies before you but you think it to be a child in a warped body who thinks magic allows him everything."

The alicorn looked around, nervous, before locking eyes with Gummy. His stare hadn't changed and his body language was just as...stoic as ever. 

"Gummy?" Twilight called out hesitantly.

"You search for answers to questions few ask so that your place be cemented in history, but even history becomes amnesic," Gummy said. "In the eternity of hunting and searching, none enjoy every instant they breathe," he continued.

"Wha--"

"You bury your faces in fabrications of your craft, forgetting to enjoy even the enrichment those bring. Progress and legging over the efforts of all things work and accomplishment. More, more, ever more. Each generation not satisfied with with the accomplishments of their ancestry and always seeking to one-up them."

"But--"

"To err is sweet, to envy sour. Seeking and searching, excuses as a purpose to decay yourselves and rot at the task. Amusement for few, horror and frustration for the rest." He continued staring, unblinking, at the mare. "The fruits of your labor grow languid in the false light of your hopes. T'was not the entrapment that killed the future, but the unicorn's hooves placed backwards in the mud."

Twilight frowned, baffled. Her head shot to the side when she heard a knocking upon her door. Gummy moved about to continue staring directly at the alicorn.

"Go, go to the door. Languid evermore. Your leaves wilting and falling to the floor, hoping those of your neighbors might feed your rancid core. Go, go to the door! Your palace quiet nevermore."

Twilight almost ripped the doors off their hinges. It was Pinkie and the others.

"Hey, Twilight!" Pinkie greeted her. "I brought the others just because!"

"We haven't all met up in a while, though," Rainbow added. "Thought it'd be the perfect opportunity so we could talk with each other and learn about Pinkie's trip to Trotalot."

"I haven't heard much good about it though," Rarity stated with disdain and a mane flick. "But I would be glad to be proven wrong."

While the others stepped inside, greeting Twilight, Applejack was the first to notice something odd about her friend. "Y'okay there, Twah? Ya don't look too good. Ya come down with sumthin'?" Her eyes grew wide at the realization. "D...do alicorns even get sick?"

"I'm not sick, Applejack," Twilight responded angrily. "Pinkie! It's Gummy!"

Both the pink pony and Fluttershy squished against each other in an attempt to occupy all of Twilight's view.

"What happened to him?" they asked in unison.

"Come see!"

Everypony followed Twilight to see the little gator standing on the table in the center of her laboratory. Fluttershy and PInkie became perplexed after checking on him.

"Twilight, there's nothing wrong with Gummy," Fluttershy said. She watched the gator scratch the top of his head with his tongue then leave it there. "Uh...well, nothing more than usual," she said while pushing his tongue back into his mouth.

"H-he was talking! I heard it!" Twilight accused him. "He was waxing poetic nepotism that makes no sense! You know, like the stuff you only hear in those stuffy cafés where everypony is allergic to light and good food."

"He was speaking in philosophical rants?" Rarity asked with a raised brow. Gummy started scratching the side of his head then rolled off the table and onto the floor, causing Fluttershy to gasp and dive after him. "Truly the apex intellectual evolution, darling," she mocked. "And don't mock a form of artistry that you don't comprehend," Rarity huffed.

The alicorn rolled her eyes at the last comment. "B-b-but but but! I heard him" Twilight insisted. "He even made fun of all of you when you knocked at the door."

Fluttershy was cradling the little gator, exposing his pale belly. "Twilight!" the pegasus chastised. "This little sweetheart wouldn't do anything like that!" She started giggling as she rubbed his belly. "He's too precious to be so mean."

"Plus, ah'd say that Gummy is...ah..." Applejack cleared her throat. "Two wheels short of a full wagon, so ta speak."

"Come on!" Twilight yelled at the little reptile. "Say something! You did it out of nowhere. Why not now that everypony else is here?!" She became frustrated when he didn't react.

"Twilight, I think you're just overworked," Rainbow said. "Maybe you should take a break from your labbing...stuff?" she suggested.

"No! He did! He spoke!" Twilight insisted. Her horn started glowing with magic. "Talk, you little s--"

"Aaaaand yer comin' outside with us ta get some air," Applejack said as she pulled Twilight away.

"Come on, Twilight. Come get some air. As Applejack said, you have been stuck in your castle too long anyways," Rarity agreed.

"It's not overworking!" Twilight thrashed about. "I've never gone crazy from something so stupid!" The farm and fashion ponies stopped pushing her, and everypony looked at Twilight with a familiar skepticism she didn't like. "I-I mean, it's not overworking like before..." she laughed nervously.

"Out. C'mon," Applejack said.

While Twilight insisted on staying in and getting Gummy to talk, she managed to twist herself enough to see the reptile placed back on the table and being pat by Pinkie and Fluttershy. It looked directly at the alicorn and raised a toe to its lips. The alicorn glared at it before the doors were shut by Rainbow Dash.