The pumpkin sat there flickering brightly, the candlelight shining through its thinly cut shell.
“Okay. Why?”
Pinkie blinked. “Why what, Twilight?”
"Why would you carve that?"
"What’s wrong with it? It ‘symbolizes the spirit of Nightmare Night,’ like you said."
"Well yes, but…”
And what symbolizes Nightmare Night more than a jack-o-lantern?
"Yes, Pinkie, I agree, but you carved a jack-o-lantern as your jack o-lantern.”
The pumpkin continued glowing happily, a small oval shape carefully scraped from the middle, with tiny eyes and a spooky smile.
“I’m…still failing to see the problem here, Twilight.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “You know what? I’m not even going to question that anymore. At least you didn’t make tarts out of it this time.”
“What was wrong with the tarts?”
“Well, nothing, it’s just that wasn’t really what you were supposed to do with the pumpkin.”
She scribbled something on the scroll that was following dutifully behind her and carried on.
Twilight was this year’s Nightmare Night jack–o-lantern judge and, as with any responsibility given, she was taking her duty seriously, taking notes as she toured the pumpkins. There were fancy jack-o-lanterns and simple jack-o-lanterns, large ones and small.
Fluttershy and Rarity didn’t carve anything at all – Rarity because she refused to get her house and herself all messy with ‘that horrid pumpkin moosh’ and Fluttershy because...well because she was Fluttershy; anything to do with Nightmare Night was a no-go.
Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle (having absconded with Rarity’s pumpkin) had created jack-o-lanterns of their own that were unlike any she had seen before.
They were on fire.
Twilight gave them extra points for that.
Applejack’s pumpkin was a nice traditional spooky face. Nothing outlandish or daring, but a well carved jack-o-lantern nonetheless. Rainbow Dash’s was just a series of scratches – she said she was trying to make a picture of the Wonderbolts’ insignia but ‘the pumpkin wouldn’t let her.’
And so she continued on, judging each jack-o-lantern for its complexity and skill and taking her notes. Soon she had decided on the winner and the two runners-up.
But first, Twilight had something special planned for everypony before rewarding the prizes: a jack-o-lantern of her own. As the judge, she couldn’t take part in the actual contest, this was just for the others to enjoy. But it wasn’t just going to be a typical jack-o-lantern, oh no. This was going to be a complete representation of her friends, the entire town and its residents. They’d even move.
She’d been working on this spell for weeks – in fact it had taken Twilight nearly that long to find a pumpkin big enough to work. This was gonna wow ‘em.
She stepped up to the huge pumpkin in the town square, cracked her neck and closed her eyes. Her horn lit up and a purple beam shot out towards the pumpkin. She smiled in anticipation of the applause she would no doubt receive.
The explosion was monumental, impressive and very, very messy.