//------------------------------// // Whoops! I skipped Chapter 3... // Story: Pinkie and the Chocolate Factory // by Quill and Brush //------------------------------// There was a thump as the simple door slammed against the wall, and Chocolate Factory trotted through the opening into a good-sized plain white room. Blizzard followed hard on his hooves. “What, no flash?” Chocolate turned to look at Blizzard as she stepped up next to him. “Well, I thought that they might like a break from that.” Twilight led the remaining tourists through the doorway. “Thank Celestia for that.” The rest of the group murmured affirmations. “So, what’s next?” Chocolate looked around the room. “This...” He paused dramatically. “...is a good-sized plain white room!” “Hey!” Pinkie jumped up and landed in front of Chocolate. She put a hoof on his chest. “There is no need to be repetitive!” “But why not?” Chocolate pushed Pinkie’s hoof down off of his chest. “It’s in my nature to repeat stuff like that! And besides, they need it to be repeated.” Pinkie raised an eyebrow in thought and put a hoof on her chin. Her gaze slowly drifted upwards. “I suppose that’s true...” During all of this, Twilight slowly made her way to stand next to Blizzard. “What are they talking about?” Blizzard shrugged. “I dunno. He gets like this, sometimes, though. He spouts nonsense, existentialism, I think.” Twilight nodded. “Pinkie kinda does that, too. Although I haven’t been around her enough to categorize it, although existentialism could work...” She brought a hoof to her chin, drifting off into her own mind. Before too long, however, Chocolate finished his conversation with Pinkie. He turned back to address the entire group. “Well, now that that’s over, how do you like it?” The remaining tourists looked around the room. Rarity looked back to Chocolate, confusion on her face. “Like what, exactly? This room is empty.” And, indeed, it was. Chocolate grinned. “I know, isn’t it great?” Blizzard facehoofed. The group stared at Chocolate, puzzled. Rarity blinked several times, then a slightly forced smile stretched across her face. “Yes, quite.” Blizzard leaned over towards Twilight and lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m so sorry about this, I tried to talk him out of it, and I thought it worked, but apparently I was wrong.” Twilight looked at Blizzard. She, too, lowered her voice. “Sorry about what?” Before she got a chance to respond, Chocolate grinned, and his horn lit up in the familiar multicolored glow. Before anypony had a chance to question this, a brilliant white light filled the room, blinding the five remaining tourists. A chorus of surprise sounded from the blinded guests before Chocolate’s voice sounded from the center of the room. “Now that we’ve taken care of that, let’s make our way to our next destination.” Twilight shook her head. “I can’t see! How do you expect us to travel‽” Chocolate chuckled. “Easy! Just follow my voice!” Blizzard’s voice sounded resigned. “Cocoa, what am I going to do with you?” Chocolate chuckled again. “Have fun?” Blizzard sighed. Chocolate’s voice sounded more distant. “Alright, everypony! Let’s go!” As the group’s vision returned, they realized that they were very close to running into the walls around the doorway on the other side of the room. They quickly lined up to file through, entering a large round room with many tubes extending from the ceiling around the circumference of the room. Under said tubes were what appeared to be small scales, flat metal plates with two bracers, one on each side. Visible in front of each plate was a large bin. Rainbow Dash began to hover above the rest of the group. “So, what are we looking at here?” Chocolate turned to face the group. “Magically powered quality control. The product gets magiced through the Factory from the manufacturing areas, via these tubes, and gets dropped onto these magical sensor plates. Items that pass the inspection get dropped into the bins in front of the plates to be sent off to packaging.” Before he could continue his explanation, a whirring sound emanated from the ceiling. The whirring grew louder before products began to drop out of the tubes. Chocolate bars of all shapes and sizes. Jawbreakers, gums, hard candies of all shapes. There was a single, unified thump from around the room as all of the candies hit the plates. Each plate tilted simultaneously tilted, most towards the center, but a few tilted away. All of the candies slid off of their plate, which tilted back to flat just in time for the next thump to repeat the process. Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Spike were soon next to the approval bins, peering in at the magically accepted candies. Twilight remained next to Blizzard. “What makes the sweets acceptable?” The pegasus glanced at the unicorn next to her. “Honestly, I’m not sure. Cocoa made the sensors and their regulations, although I’m pretty sure that they’re fairly lax.” Twilight nodded. Chocolate, in the meantime, had been enthralled with the process that he had set up to ensure that only the best was being shipped from his Factory. Rarity, however, was more interested in what happened to the rejected sweets. She slid around one of the sensor plates that had recently rejected a bright red gumdrop. She stared at an empty patch of floor. The plate in front of her dropped another bright red gumdrop into the bin on the other side of the plate. She slid directly behind the plate staring intently at the floor, her keen eye for detail trying to pick out something that might indicate where the rejected sweets were going. She gasped. “Ah ha!” At that moment, a rejected gumdrop landed right in front of her face, and the floor fell open. “Wha-ha-HA!!” The other six occupants of the room looked over at her just in time to see her tail disappear as the floor closed behind her. Spike was soon next to the plate, clawing at the floor. “Rarity!” Twilight anxiously glanced up at Chocolate. “She’ll be okay, won’t she?” Chocolate seemed to be visibly shaken. After a moment, he looked up at the other unicorn. “Oh, of course. She’ll just be covered in...” Another gumdrop was accepted. “...rejected cherry flavored gumdrops. Although, I should tell the main Minion not to remake the rejected cherry flavored gumdrops for a while...” His horn lit up, and one of the Minions appeared from the door they had just come through. “One of our guests...” Another cherry gumdrop was rejected bouncing off of Spike’s head and falling through the floor that opened up underneath him. “...Two of our guests have fallen down the hatch for the rejected cherry flavored gumdrops. Do be sure that they aren’t remade into gumdrops.” The Minion saluted and charged off through a door on the other side of the room. Twilight, still slightly shell-shocked, stared at Blizzard. “Is the Factory usually this dangerous?” Blizzard grinned sheepishly. “Honestly?” Twilight nodded. “Well, besides me, Cocoa, and the Minions, you’re the first ponies we’ve had visit. And I was there when Cocoa designed the place, and we gave the Minions a very in-depth safety spiel that took several days.” She shrugged. “So this is kinda unprecedented territory.” Twilight stared, mouth agape. “Really?” The pegasus nodded. “Well then-” She was cut off by Chocolate. “Well, I think we’re ready to head on to the next stop on our tour.” Rainbow Dash fluttered over in front of Chocolate. “Hey now, where do get off leaving our friends up tubes and down holes!” Chocolate just shook his head. “It’s not my fault that their curiosity got the better of them, now is it?” Rainbow just hovered there, at a loss for words. “Good, now that that’s settled, let’s go.” He spun on one hoof and pointed himself towards a door on the opposite side of the room from the door that they entered from. “Are we all ready?” A quick scan of the group revealed positive, if hesitant, attitudes. “Well then, let’s go.” He led the group in front of the door, which slid up into the ceiling. And the world faded to white.