"Testing chamber is clear?"
"Confirming testing chamber is clear."
"Right, then. MP field looks stable...readings good...aaand away we go."
Above an isolated pedestal a large, metallic device descended from the ceiling. Bulbous and covered in spheres of multi-colored fluids, it arced with flitting streams of purple and blue magical energy. A great cacophony of noise filled the otherwise pristine, featureless white room, muted by the thick, reinforced glass that allowed viewing from the control center.
"Primary mixing in three...two...one."
The machine whirred and clanked as streams of different-colored fluids were mixed in precise amounts in a central sphere. The rainbow of colors mixed and flowed for a moment before being spun into a solid, burgundy-colored fluid.
"Mixing complete. Preparing to administer fluid."
As the great machine roared even louder, a single drop made its way from the metallic tip, gathering so slowly as to almost be painful to watch. Finally, it coalesced into a droplet, and promptly fell the six inches between the machine and the subject.
"Fluid administered. Retracting catalyst."
The commotion shut off all at once, leaving behind a deafening silence as the machine retracted into the ceiling. Two panels closed behind it, leaving behind no trace of the device ever having existed in the first place.
For a long moment, nothing happened. The observers eyed each other, unsure if all their planning and preparation had been for naught. Then, slowly, their tiny subjects began to glow a soft, ethereal blue. They flickered with pseudo-motion, their glow becoming brighter and brighter, before finally fading to nothingness. All hints of change gone, the observers wearily stepped into the test chamber.
"Please let the record indicate that Test Subject Sierra Two-Zero-Six has been fully exposed to the compound, and appears to have undergone an unknown mutation. I will now approach Two-Zero-Six and attempt to test its viability."
Slowly, carefully, the lead researcher stepped over to the pedestal and, with a brief flaring of magic, levitated one of the subjects into his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully, determined to put the experience into words.
"Initial findings are promising...pleasant mouth-feel, sugary but with a fair amount of texture. Base flavor appears to be...chocolate. Dark chocolate, judging by the slightly bitter flavor. Preliminary results should be--wait, flavor is changing. Initial sweetness is giving way to something decidedly more earthy. Mixture of flavors is not particularly pleasant. Chocolate flavor has now faded almost entirely. Secondary flavor seems to be...to be..." He stopped chewing, his eyes going wide. "...parmesan?!"
Beside him, his assistant burst into laughter. "Chocolate and parmesan-flavored candy corn! Now there's a winning formula!"
Dr. Willow Wisp spit out the vile concoction of flavors into a napkin, making a sour face at the lingering aftertaste and gritty bits that were left behind. "Blech. I despise parmesan." He was not nearly as amused as his counterpart. "I'm glad I could entertain you, Dr. Bramble. At least somepony is entertained by our repeated failures."
Bramble, Dr. Wisp's long-time assistant, simply chuckled. "Eh, what's science without a little failure every now and then?"
Willow simply lifted an eyebrow. "Were it simply 'every now and then' I would not have to adopt a mood to match the taste of chocolate-covered cheese crumbles." He motioned up at the ever-present camera in the corner. "That's the fifth experiment this week!"
"Oh come on, Willow. You say that like they were disasters."
"The last experiment bloody exploded!" Dr. Willow shouted, waving a hoof in the air for emphasis.
"Hey, that quiche had it comin'. Just sayin'."
"And then Dr. Flask's egg salad sandwich became haunted! HAUNTED!" From a few doors down he heard a voice that was still trying to do its best to sound scary.
"WoooOOOoo, I'm a GHOOOOOOOST!" it repeated to everyone who passed by.
"I thought they were supposed to throw that garbage out yesterday."
"I still say you shoulda let me eat it," Bramble quipped.
"Let's just...take a break, shall we? I dare say I'm slowly being driven daft by my environment." The white contours of Willow Wisp's lab jacket stood in sharp contrast to his orange coat and brown mane. One of the researchers from another laboratory had joked that he was one color away from being candy corn himself. That researcher had ended up having a mysterious accident involving a voice-changing formula.
Willow waited for his assistant and oft-begrudged friend to take his leave -- fighting back the urge to gag as the bag of mutated candy was swept off the pedestal and into a waiting hoof -- and stepped out of Test Chamber Six into the main hallway. "Fourteen years in the Foundation, and here I am chewing on cheese-flavored confectioneries," he grumbled. "Countless hours of dedication and study at work..."
"Cheer up, Willow!" Bramble's voice interrupted, hi cheery demeanor decidedly grating to Willow's ears. "Look on the bright side: you could be down in the dregs with those poor bastards who are trying to come up with a way to make tree bark into something edible."
Dr. Wisp rolled his eyes. "Yes, forest smoothies . Truly the next frontier of science." He watched in morbid fascination as his partner popped a trio of off-flavored candy corn into his mouth. "I can't believe you're actually eating those things. Disgusting."
"Eh," the other shrugged, "I've had worse."
"I'm sure."
A few years younger than his vitriolic best friend, Bramble was an enthusiastic earth pony with a cream-colored coat and two-tone orange mane who had a decidedly more optimistic outlook most of the time. Depending on the situation, it could be a curse or a blessing, especially when Willow was involved.
A pair of researchers passed by with polite nods, the purple badges hanging from their lab coats identifying them as Telekinetic specialists. Wisp waited until they were out of earshot to continue. "We have twenty-four hours. Twenty-four. Imagine the humiliation if we fail to deliver Princess Luna's requirements! Nightmare Night is her holiday!"
Bramble attempted to reason with his colleague, listing off the accomplishments they'd successfully created so far. "It's not all doom and gloom, you know. We finished that jack o' lantern project, and very successfully at that."
"Right. Even managed to get it to sing," Wisp replied with a small smile.
"Exactly. And then there's the manticore stuffed animals, the flowing night cloak, the glowing vampire teeth...uh, not counting the ones that thought they were actual vampires and tried to bite us. Thankfully rounded plastic isn't very good at puncturing skin. Really, all we have left is this damn candy corn. Though I gotta admit, I'm curious as to why Luna wanted such a thing in the first place."
"Because nopony likes regular candy corn," Dr. Wisp answered.
"I do..."
"Yes, well, you also appear to like cheese covered in bitter chocolate, so your culinary tastes are effectively null and void. Besides, far be it from us to question why the princess wants what she wants. This is her one night of the year to really interact with the young ones. Make some scares, have some laughs, that sort of thing." He reached up and adjusted the small, circular glasses resting on his nose. "Even something as...trivial...as different-flavored candy can potentially be a stepping stone up to the higher levels of the Foundation. Dr. Beaker started out in Testing and moved up to Arcane Research, for example. Let us not forget that."
"Mmhmm." Bramble shook the nearly-empty bag, tossing it into a waste bin on their way to the staff lounge. "S'pose you're right. Assuming we get this candy thing right, what then?"
"Then, my friend, we simply need to find a suitable mascot for tomorrow night's events. A bit of magic here, an animate spell there, and Robert's your mother's brother." He chuckled to himself, though the joke was lost on his colleague. "Ahem. Right. Griffon joke." A keycard levitated from his labcoat pocket in a shimmering field of orange energy and was swiped through the scanner. It beeped with a pleasant tone and a green light. "I fear we may be burning the proverbial midnight oil at this rate. Even if we do finish, Miss Melody in Elemental Binding has a rather large piece of kit she needs help assembling. Celestia knows how long that will take."
Bramble patted his friend on the back reassuringly. "One thing at a time, Willow. Luna will get her fancy toys, don't you worry."
***
Seven floors below, in the containment and storage section of the sprawling Foundation for Spellcraft and Alchemy building, a single, jolly jack o' lantern bounced around its containment room, given life by an animation potion in the early hours of the previous day. It sang to itself as it thumped off the walls, unaware of its eventual purpose as part of Luna's Nightmare Night celebration.
Outside the small room, Junior Researcher Starshine considered the clipboard attached to the wall. She leafed through it, amused by the bounding pumpkin.
"Hmm...Test Subject Sierra 201. Animated jack o' lantern." She smirked at the hastily scrawled addendum added below the official line that read 'Happy Lantern'. "Happy Lantern, hmm? Those colts in Testing, I swear." The living pumpkin bounced off the one-way mirror, briefly giving her a scare. "I really need to get more sleep. Right, let's see here...subject is considered safe and only quasi-sentient. Shows attraction to other Nightmare Night-themed objects and will attempt to bounce around said objects until distracted or removed. Cleared for royal request form B-1443-2, 'Nightmare Night Attraction'. Interesting."
Through the thick window she could hear muffled singing, but the words were difficult to make out. Even still, she found it oddly alluring. "Well, I guess if it's good enough for Luna, it's good enough for us." In the back of her mind she began to consider tossing in a bucket of candy and seeing what would happen, but decided against it. "Leave testing to the testers," she thought to herself.
Still...that pumpkin sounded so joyful. She couldn't quite put her hoof on it, but it was there. With more than little apprehension she edged toward the entrance door, a bowl of hard candy held against her chest. "Nopony wants anything that isn't chocolate anyway..." She could toss the bowl in. Just to see what happens. For science.
The containment door swooshed open as she pressed the button on the wall. The bouncing jack o' lantern paid her no attention, even when it bumped into her. It just kept moving, kept singing, only now she could definitely make out the words.
If you should go out on Nightmare Night, you're in for a scare, you're in for a fright...
She slowly stepped into the center of the room, toward a small depression in the floor. As she set down the bowl she was struck by what felt like a huge revelation -- there was no reason to be worried. After all, the clipboard had said the subject was safe, right?
The darkness is moving all around, shadows are creeping across the ground...
"I...I know that song! We used to sing it in Talent School!" She turned toward the pumpkin, watching it bounce all around her. "You know the whole song?"
Nightmare Night, come one, come all...
"Well aren't you a funny little fellow? I think Testing have really outdone themselves this time. Do you want some candy?" She smiled brightly as the happy little pumpkin proceeded to flip over the bowl, snatching every piece of candy from the air in its mouth. She clopped her hooves together with joy, wishing more than anything that she could take it home with her, if only for the night. Princess Luna could have it tomorrow!
"Excuse me, little pumpkin," she said as if speaking to a child, "how would you like to get out of this dreary little room, hmm? Maybe you and I can prepare some little candy bags for the fillies! Oh, it would be so much fun!"
For a moment the jack o' lantern did nothing. For the first time it stopped bouncing and singing, stopping to stare at her with big, triangle eyes and a carved smile.
"That's right! Come on, let's get you out of here. Oh, but where am I going to hide you? Hmmm..." She looked around the containment level, tossing aside empty trash bins and stacks of papers. She didn't just want to find a way to get that adorable little thing home, she needed to find a way. It almost didn't feel real, like watching herself from the outside.
"Now, where could I--oh!" She turned around with a start, surprised to find the jack o' lantern latched on to her flank with its funny-feeling mouth. "That's my cutie mark, I'll have you know. Perhaps it should have been a feisty pumpkin instead of a silly falling star. Come on, off you go."
Once it plopped to the floor it immediately began to sing again, circling her as she finally found a way to sneak it out: a pillowcase from a storage closet. If she could tuck it under a blanket, and just say she was pulling an all-nighter...
"Perfect! Now, if we do this, I could be in a lot of trouble if they find out. So I need you to stay quiet until we've left the facility. Understood?" A part of her rejected the entire idea, arguing that it was more trouble than it was worth. Was this little bit of magical entertainment really worth her job?
"Oh...oh dear, perhaps I shouldn't...this might be--" Abruptly the pumpkin changed songs, singing in a slower, deeper tone.
The dark of night, it calls to me...
Suddenly, things became clear: Of course it was worth the risk. How could she live without such a wonderful creature in her life? She could have so much fun with it! Just as quickly as it had started, the song stopped. But now she understood why -- she needed to finish the song. The little test subject quietly jumped into her open pillowcase, not making a sound or a single movement as Starshine continued the song she hadn't heard since she was a school filly, but somehow knew every word to.
"...when shrouded sun, will ebb and flow..."
Sliding her keycard through the security door, she trotted down the empty hallway with a singular purpose.
"...embrace of shadows, set us free..."
She didn't notice the swirling, colorful drops of liquid that slowly began to absorb into her skin. As she rode the elevator to the main level, she thought only of sharing her new friend with her family. They would love it as much as she did. She just knew it.
"...night eternal, we will know..."