Chocolate Factory walked through the door and into the glaring light. Blizzard let out a groan. "How do you keep doing this, Cocoa?" She followed Chocolate through the door, pulling up along him.
The six tourists stumbled through the open doorway. Chocolate turned his head towards them, chuckling. "Well, I might have set an enchantment on that door to cause a flash from the inside when it's opened."
Twilight shook her head, eyes closed. "Well, it works." The rest of the group murmured what vaguely resembled agreement, mingled with frustration.
Chocolate smiled. "Great! Now that that matter is handled, we can continue with the tour." He gestured widely towards the room they had just entered. "Now, I'm not really sure what to call this room, but at the moment, everything in here is a work in progress. Just try not to break anything, please."
Pinkie recovered her eyesight during Chocolate's introduction and began bouncing to everything possible as soon as he finished. The rest of the group recovered shortly after that and gasped. The room was full of machinery. Everything was whirring in a state of idleness at the moment, but Chocolate soon lit up his horn and a piece of machinery across the room started up.
"This creation is in the final stages of development. It's a long-lasting piece of hard candy that changes flavor as you suck on it." Pinkie bounced up to it and stood watching the machine sputter and groan. Chocolate led the rest of the group across the room. Just as they reached the machine, it sputtered, coughed, and then quieted down. "Ah, here we go! Who'd like one?" He lit his horn up and several pieces of colorful candy rose up.
Pinkie jumped up and waved his hoof. "Oh, oh, oh, me, me, I want one!" One floated in front of her and she cradled it gently in her hooves, before eagerly popping it in her mouth.
Chocolate floated candies in front of the rest of the group, who gladly accepted the treats. He then trotted over to a hulking mechanical monstrosity in the back corner of the large room. “This little piece is in the early stages of development, and I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t speak of this outside of this room.” The tourists nodded. “Good! Now this, if I can ever get it to work, would effectively serve as a full meal.” There was a collective look of shock and disbelief. “I know, right. But seriously, it’ll have all of the nutrients of a full three course meal. Taste like it, too.”
“Well, shoot!” Applejack pulled her Stetson down off of her head. “If Ah had somma’ dem, that’d make workin’ long hours on the farm so much easier! When you get this thing inta production, Ah’d appreciate it if you’d let me know, ‘n’ Ah’ll buy quite a large amount.”
“Of course. Just leave a note with Icy here on you’re way out and we’ll be sure to let you know.” He turned around. “In the meantime, would you like an early glimpse?”
Blizzard looked up from the machine she had been studying. “Cocoa, is that really a good idea?”
Chocolate turned back around, with his horn already glowing. “But of course, Icy. Why wouldn’t it be?” An area on the face of the machine behind him glowed, and the machine let out a monstrous roar, startling all of the tourists except for Pinkie Pie, who let out a soft ‘oooooh’.
The machine roared for about thirty seconds, before it let out a large cough, spitting out a cloud of black smoke and a tiny piece of candy, colored in bright shades of green, orange, and blue. Chocolate’s horn lit back up, floating the candy over in front of Applejack. “Here you go, Applejack. Have a sneak preview.”
Applejack bit the candy from Chocolate’s magical grasp. “Is this a... gummy chew?” Chocolate nodded. “Well, alrighty then.” She began to chew. “It tastes like a garden salad?” Chocolate nodded again. “That’s odd... Carrot soup? Carrot and tomato soup. Not bad.” Chocolate grinned.
Twilight gasped. “Is she turning blue?”
Applejack stopped chewing and looked over at Twilight. “What’re you talkin’ about, Twi?” She began chewing again, her muzzle fading from orange, through black, and then into a deep blue. The blue spread, finally reaching her rear hooves. “It’s... blueberry pie? It’s delicious!”
Chocolate’s grin faded. “Darn, no change. Okay then.” His horn lit up again, and the same swarm of Minions flood from unseen areas. “Take Applejack here and have here de-juiced before she swells up to much. One saluted before the multitude of little gray ponies swarmed over to Applejack who was still chewing happily, completely unaware of the transformation that her body was undergoing, rambling on about the genius that was a blueberry pie. The Minions rolled her over onto her back and marched her off like a swarm of ants.
The remaining four tourist ponies and the tourist dragon gaped as Blizzard sighed, turning to look at Chocolate. “I told you that it wasn’t a good idea.”
“Oh, don’t worry, Icy.” Chocolate waved a hoof. “She’ll be fine. Now then, let’s get going.”
Twilight looked aghast. “Wha- you’re just going to leave her?”
“No, of course not. The Minions are with her. Besides, we have a lot of things to see.” Chocolate began to trot towards the back corner of the room. He turned his head to look at the group of tourists standing in the middle of the room as Blizzard fluttered over to stand beside him. “Well? What are you waiting for?”
The five tourists stared at each other for a few moments before quickly trotting over to Chocolate. He nodded as they reached him and turned around to lead the group through a door in the corner of the room.
The group made their way down the hall, stopping in front of a single unadorned door. “Well, here we are. Are we all ready?” Chocolate looked around to see his guests nodding. “Good. Well, here we go.” Chocolate flung the door open rather violently, and he stepped through the door frame.