Newfound Neighbors

by FrostTheWolf

03- Virtual Assistant, Real Headaches

It might have been only a couple of hours since I had originally met Gizmo, but there were a few things I was already beginning to learn about her.

First and foremost, let me say this up front. After helping the unicorn with moving all of her belongings inside, one thing became immediately clear. Her capabilities with magic were beyond my comprehension. In the short amount of time that I’ve been with her, I have seen her levitate on various objects, teleport to and from different places in her house with ease and undo a spell she casted on her belongings to compress them to the size of a marble without so much as blinking an eye. Yet, all of this seemed natural to her.

Secondly, for being a unicorn that was as big as a great dane and as colorful as a Saturday morning children’s cartoon, Gizmo was rather smart. If you took the minds of both Leonardo Da Vinci and Nikolas Tesla, combined both of them together and put them in the body of a unicorn, then Gizmo would be the end result. She was an inventor and a tinkerer who wanted to use her creations to help other people who needed it most. Something that felt absent in this day and age.

Lastly though, one thing that I learned immediately was that some of the technology that humans like me use on a day-to-day basis was something that Gizmo was not entirely familiar with. This was demonstrated not just by her reaction to my phone, but also how she reacted after seeing me in the middle of a FaceTime call with my parents. My only guess as to why she acted that way was because technology like computers and cell phones did not exist back in Equestria. So seeing it for the first time, without even being told about what it is or what exactly it does would leave her especially confused.

What was going to be even more problematic was trying to explain everything in a way that Gizmo could possibly understand. The whole situation felt like one of those YouTube videos where a cat gets spooked by some household item and ends up overreacting. Only difference was that this involved a unicorn, whose IQ was more than likely higher than mine, overreacting to something that many other people like me would use on a daily basis. More than likely, this was probably not exactly going to end well.

After going back through the door at the back of the house, I began to look around to try to find where Gizmo ended up. Much to my original surprise, I found her inside the room that we had set up as her workshop and sitting at her desk. The unicorn was looking over what looked like some kind of book as her horn was lit up and pages were flying by every couple of seconds.

“Come on… come on,” I heard her speak to herself, “There has to be something here-”

“Gizmo?”

Just one word was enough to startle the unicorn and have her almost fall out of her chair. Luckily, she was able to catch herself before hitting the floor. “S-sam! Don’t startle me like that!!”

“S-sorry. I didn’t mean to surprise you ,” I apologized, hopefully putting the mare at ease. Though, around the same time, I decided to ask her about something as my gaze turned towards what was on the desk, “What were you doing, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Well,” she replied, looking away briefly before she looked back at me, “You know that… thing that you were using just now?”

“What, my cell phone?” I asked.

“Mhm. I was trying to go through my notes and look at the books I had to see if there was something that was similar to that in Equestria. But I couldn’t really… well, find anything,” Gizmo then closed up the book she had on her desk and opened up a drawer to put it away, “So, what exactly is it?”

Yeah. If you take into account what just happened a couple of minutes ago, then that probably was the case. Though, before I could say anything, an idea surfaced in my mind. It was getting kind of late and it was almost time for dinner, so perhaps it would be a good idea to have this kind of conversation over a meal. That and it didn’t look like Gizmo really had anything in her kitchen that she could eat aside from oats and trail mix.

“Hey Gizmo, I have an idea,” I said, looking back at the unicorn as she redirected her attention to me, “How about you come over to my place and I can answer any questions you have?”

For a moment, the unicorn just stared at me in disbelief. From the expression on her face, it looked like she was having a hard time trying to process what I said. “Y-you mean it?”

I nodded my head to reassure her as I gave her a smile, “Yeah. I was also going to make dinner soon anyway and I think it’s better if you share a meal with a friend.”

Oddly enough, Gizmo heard the sound of her stomach rumbling around the same time that I mentioned that to her. Which had the unicorn blush and look away in embarrassment for a brief moment, “T-that actually might be a good idea.”

---

When I opened up the front door and let Gizmo inside, the unicorn looked to be… spellbound, if that was the appropriate term, “This place is your home? It’s so much more spacious than mine!!”

“Yeah, my family’s home is a two story house compared to yours,” I told her, “We didn’t have this much space before the remodel.”

“Remodel?” She asked, “Like, rebuild the whole place?”

I quickly shook my head in response as I untied my jacket and set it on the back of a chair that was by the dining room table, “Not really. It was more or less just replacing the old flooring, a remodel of the entire kitchen and a complete overhaul of the backyard. We had to stay six weeks in a hotel while the whole thing was getting done.”

For a moment, it looked like Gizmo was pondering something in her brain, before she decided to ask me a question, “Did your old neighbor do anything… similar?”

“I honestly don’t really remember,” I told her, “I didn’t exactly talk with him that much. Sometimes, it was just exchanging a brief and friendly greeting, but nothing outside of that.”

Though, my mind was already thinking about shifting the conversation a bit, so I instead decided to ask my guest a question instead. “So, was there anything specific you were interested in having for dinner? I was going to start cooking, but I thought I would ask if there was something in particular that you’d like to have.”

“Well, I’m not really that much of a picky eater,” Gizmo replied back, “I mean, I like to get a hayburger every once in a while, but nothing else aside from that.”

Okay… that’s a new one. I mean, I know that there are hamburgers, veggie burgers and those ‘Beyond’ burgers made from plants that you could find at the store. Though, this was honestly the first time that I’ve heard of something like that. Maybe it was some kind of a meal that was unique to the world that she came from?

Now that she mentioned that though, something new popped up in my mind that I should ask about. “Is there anything that… you can’t have? Like meat or-”

“Not really,” she interjected, “I mean, I know that griffons eat fish… and we do eat eggs sometimes since baking is rather common back home. Does… that help?”

Well, it seems like you learn something new everyday then. “I think so… I just wanted to make sure,” I told her as I opened up the pantry and had a look inside. Though, the thing was, the pantry always seemed to be a mess no matter how many times I tried to make sure it stayed clean. Whether things had fallen off the shelves or dad just decided to leave something on the floor and not put it where it belongs, the pantry closet was always in some form of disarray.

As I was looking around this time though, I happened to find something that caught my eye. Angel Hair Pasta. Maybe there’s a recipe I can use with this that doesn’t involve meat? I mean, despite what Gizmo told me, I was thinking that ponies like her would stay away from chicken, beef and pork. If anything, they would probably just be sickened by the sheer thought of humans eating that stuff.

“Hey Gizmo, how does pasta sound?” I asked as I grabbed the pasta box and looked back towards the unicorn.

“Sure, I like the sound of that.” Gizmo beamed happily. That prompted me to get the necessary ingredients that I needed as I moved back into the kitchen. I knew a simple recipe that only required a few simple ingredients, which we fortunately had. Brown Butter Garlic Angel Hair Pasta. Sure, the name was a mouthful, but the instructions for making it were simple. Plus, the fact that there wasn’t too much cleanup afterwards was a bonus to me.

Yet, there was one thing I said as I was setting everything up and put the water on the stove to boil that I ended up making a mistake. “Alexa, set a timer for ten minutes.”

‘Ten minutes, starting now’

For context, my family has an Amazon Echo set up in the kitchen and my dad’s office. When he originally got it, my mom and I really weren't sure if it would be that useful at the time. However, since then, we have found use in it when it comes to managing day-to-day tasks, keeping track of lists like the one we use for groceries as well or just settle disputes. Seriously, when my parents can’t agree on something, I just say ‘Alexa, flip a coin’ and whoever had heads or tails would end up winning.

However, it was immediately after setting the timer that I realized something a little too late.

“W-who said that?!”

Yeah, it didn’t exactly cross my mind until after the fact that Gizmo might not entirely understand what an Amazon Alexa was. Yet, compared to her reaction to my phone earlier, her reaction was… rather tame. Something about this just didn’t feel right-.

“Sam!!” I jumped at the sound of Gizmo’s voice, turning around to see that the unicorn was now directly behind me, “Did you hear that voice just now?! Why didn’t you tell me that your house was haunted!?!”

Well, guess I spoke too soon on that one. “Gizmo, the house isn’t haunted-”

“Are you telling me that you didn’t hear that voice just now?”

“That voice you’re talking about is just Alexa,” I told her, before pointing to the Amazon Echo on the counter. Before the unicorn had the chance to speak, I decided to interject, “How familiar are you with technology? Like from Earth?”

“Well, I only heard about some things from other ponies that have traveled here before. Though, I wasn’t exactly sure if… well, if what they said was true or not.”

Okay, now it seems like we’re getting somewhere. “What kind of things, if you don’t mind me asking?”

For the next few moments, Gizmo tried her best to recall what she heard. As she was explaining it, I could take some of the things the unicorn told me and draw the closest comparison to them. Whoever she heard about this from, they were talking about some of the most commonly used pieces of technology such as computers, TV’s, the internet and even touch screen tablets. Some things that probably don’t even exist yet in their world.

Yet, there was a major difference between hearing about such things and actually seeing them in person. So to someone like her, who had been only seeing such things for the first time, she would definitely have trouble trying to understand everything since all of this was completely new to her. Not to mention that Gizmo didn’t seem to have anyone in order to teach her about these things.

“Um, Sam?” she now asked, “H-how exactly does that… help?”

“I was just curious, though I wanted to see how much you understood about technology,” I told her, “Some of the stuff that you told me just now sound a lot like things that I have around the house.”

“R-really?”

I nodded, turning away for a brief moment to get out the saucepan that I was going to need for later and then turning back towards Gizmo. “Yeah actually.”

“B-but… how does that relate to the voice?”

“Well,” I said as I began to think of a comparison that she could understand without flooding her brain with technical jargon, “Some of the things that you were mentioning can’t exactly do everything on their own. So, they have somebody to help them. Same goes for people too-”

“You mean… like a friend? An invisible friend?”

Heh, now we’re getting somewhere… I think.

“In a sense. Some people just see them as more of an assistant, but you can be friendly with them. Alexa can answer any questions you might have and happens to have a sense of humor if you ask her to tell you a joke.”

Of course, the one thing that I did not anticipate for Gizmo to do at that moment was to put what I said to the test. “Alexa, tell me a joke.”

The blue ring around the Amazon Echo soon lit up as we heard Alexa begin to speak, ‘What did one ocean say to the other?’ For a moment, it looked like the unicorn was actually going to answer. Though, she was soon interrupted as Alexa provided the answer. ‘Nothing. They just waved.’

Personally, I saw that joke as just corny. Though, to Gizmo, she actually liked it. I could hear her giggling in the background while I turned around to see that the water was already boiling. Which had me ask Alexa to cancel the ten minute timer I set earlier before putting the pasta in to cook. While that was happening, I grabbed the saucepan out of the cabinet and set it on the other side of the stove so I could make the sauce for the meal.

“Hey Sam, can this ‘Alexa’ do more than just tell jokes?”

At the time, I didn’t really have any idea where Gizmo was going with this. So, I just answered normally. “Yeah, it can do a lot of things such as checking any messages we might’ve missed, tell us what the weather forecast might be, check the news and so on.”

“Really? A ghost can do that?”

… Yeah, this was definitely going to take a lot longer to explain. Hopefully, it’ll be easier to do so over a good meal. As long as there weren’t any additional hiccups.

---

Comments

[Georg]

Alexa, fire photon torpedoes. (that one never gets old)

[JDunk1971]

Hopefully, any hiccups won’t be due to the food.

[Alondro]

Alexa, report all of my activities to the Chinese government!

"Way ahead of you..."

I KNEW IT!!

[Morphy]

Alexa, Intruder Alert
"So, you have chosen death."
[Release all Roombas]
[play Doom soundtrack]

[Sozmioi]

You say Gizmo's a super genius but she doesn't ask the questions of one.

[Aeon Mist]

I noticed a mistake in the second chapter where you mention that Sam met Gizmo days ago, but this chapter says that it's only been several hours.

[fanreader999999]

10851702
Exactly my thoughts of the story.

[Streamline]

You would think that Gizmo, being described as a genius by the narrator, would be able to connect hearing Alexa to the way she heard Sam's parents on the phone earlier.