Great Pumpkins
By Sharan McQuack, Launchpad's wife
Since the "first" Peanuts movie is now at theaters… (what happened to "Race for your life, Charley Brown"?)
A factory owned by Mr. McDuck manufactured those plastic Jack o lanterns they sell for Halloween.
The ones that are supposed to have the same "face" printed on all of them? I say "supposed to" because somebody goofed and these plastic pumpkins were faceless. Just plain orange. I have NO idea how that happened, but it happened.
"How am I supposed to sell faceless jack o lanterns?" Mr. McDuck sputtered when he found out about this.
"How's about including at least one black magic marker with each one? That way everybody can "carve" their own individual face on their pumpkin instead of having a pumpkin like all the others?" I suggested. "You could even have deluxe packages with magic markers in different colors."
I was born on November the 3th. Halloween is my favorite holiday.
"Not a bad idea." Mr. McDuck mused.
Mr. McD tried this and it sold like mad. Sold so well Magica noticed these individual "carved" plastic pumpkins everywhere she looked. This gave her an idea. She swiped a faceless one, one that hadn't "carved" yet and enchanted it.
"Since this pumpkin is exactly like all of them were originally, by enchanting this one, I will enchant the others. I will bring it to life, and bring them to life. They will overwhelm Duckburg and cause all kinds of havoc!" Magica cackled, delighted with her own cleverness.
Magica did bring the pumpkin and all it's "kin" to life. Their eyes could see, they could hear, they grew legs and could walk. They could think. However, Magica forgot to tell the enchanted pumpkin to cause havoc. To be evil.
The enchanted pumpkins were delighted to be alive. To be able to think and move and play. They danced around and people thought they were mechanical and laughed and pointed at them.
Then one pumpkin noticed a pumpkin patch somebody forgot to water. The plants were dying from lack of water. The living Jack o lantern filled itself with water from a tap and watered the patch. The plants were grateful and so was their "owner".
"Silly me, not noticing that it hasn't rained lately. Thank you, whoever watered my plants for me!" she said.
That's how the pumpkins found out how good it feels to do something nice for somebody. Only these pumpkins hadn't figured out how to talk, yet. And it's hard to do something nice if you can't ASK.
Even harder if you can't take a simple "no, thank you" for an answer. Then, you're NOT doing something nice. You're Meaning Well. You are imposing what You want on somebody else. You're trying to MAKE them want what YOU want.
Now, Mr. McDuck had made and sold millions of these plastic pumpkins. More and more of them came to life and started running all around Duckburg, dancing, playing, trying to help people. "Trying" being the operative word here.
The well-meaning pumpkins caused all sorts of trouble. For instance, the Beagles got the pumpkins to play a version of "steal the flag" called "steal Mr. McDuck's money".
The Beagles convinced the pumpkins that this was a game, they tried to get into the Bin, Gizmoduck tried to stop them. The pumpkins were playing on the Beagles team, or so the Beagles told them. The pumpkins didn't know any better. They were literally, at best, "born" yesterday.
Giz found himself almost drowning in plastic pumpkins. Living plastic pumpkins, dancing all over him, trying to push his buttons. Worse, Giz realized they were alive. He didn't want to hurt them or kill them. Giz couldn't shoot at them, they were only made of plastic.
So Giz concentrated on fighting the Beagles, keeping them away from the Bin and tried to ignore the pumpkins.
Then Launchpad came along and aimed his fire hose at the pumpkins. Water washed the jack o lanterns, which they thought was fun. While the pumpkins bobbed and swum, Mr. McDuck parachuted down from Launchpad's plane.
"Get away from me Bin, ya dirty orange goblins! You're na stealing me money!" Mr. McDuck screamed.
The pumpkins were puzzled. Mr. McDuck came from the outside of the bin. Didn't that mean he was on their team? Surely all those on the opposite team were inside the bin, or came from there?
Then Mr. McDuck saw the Beagles. They had been so busy trying to break into the Bin, they hadn't seen him parachute down.
"What are you stupid pumpkins just sitting around for? Play the game! Help us get into the Bin before the other team stops us!" the Beagles yelled.
"This isn't a game! The Beagles have lied to you! That's MY Bin, with MY money in it! I own it!" Mr. McDuck said.
Meanwhile, Launchpad landed the plane and hastened to back up Mr. McDuck. Launchpad took a large bag and opened it.
"Candy? Trick or treat?" Launchpad asked.
The pumpkins were delighted to do one of the things they were made for: hold and carry Halloween candy. They filled themselves with candy.
Then Burger Beagles made the colossal blunder of stealing the candy from them. "Food! Candy!" Burger said, taking it.
"They stole your candy! They're trying to steal Mr. McDee's money! They tricked you! This isn't a game!" Launchpad said.
NOW, the pumpkins understood. Once the Beagles took their candy, they realized what "stealing" is. They attacked the Beagles, furious.
While this was going on, Magica found out about this and came to try to steal the Lucky Dime in the confusion. Boy, did she get MAD when she saw the pumpkins she enchanted fighting for Mr. McDuck, fighting to protect his money.
Magica flew closer. The pumpkins saw her. The recognized her magic, her "vibes". For the first time, the pumpkins SPOKE. And what they said disgusted Magica no end. The pumpkins said: '"MOMMY!"
The pumpkins jumped on their creator. The hugged her, kissed her or rather tried to. Magica kept kicking at them, hitting at them. Magica wanted to use her magic on them, tried to turn them back into lifeless plastic. But there were so many pumpkins piling on her, all acting lovely dovey she couldn't think straight.
She did manage a shrink spell on them, but even that didn't come out quite right. The pumpkins shrunk, turned red instead of orange. They grew wings and extra legs and got smaller and smaller and so did their black markings. In the end, the turned into...Ladybugs.
Ladybugs are a LOT smaller and lighter than plastic pumpkins. While the jack o lanterns had overwhelmed Magica by sheer numbers, an equal number of ladybugs could NOT do likewise. Magica rose up, sputtering, throwing off the insects.
By this time, the cops and Duckblur had shown up.
"Who are YOU?" Magica asked Duckblur.
"I'm Duckblur. You must be Magica Despell. Giz told me about you." Duckblur replied.
Meanwhile, the ladybugs had flown back to Magica, were swarming all over her. Still trying to kiss and hug her.
"Tell you what. Get rid of these stupid bugs and I'll go home without a fight. Fair enough?" Magica offered.
"Deal." Duckblur replied.
And Duckburg froze the ladybugs in time.
"A time witch! Very powerful! I ain't messing with YOU! I'm outta here!" Magica said.
Magica had NOT intended to keep her promise (she's a villain)but now Magica changed her mind and left while the leaving was good.
The cops were helping Giz in stopping the Beagles. Soon, the Beagles were arrested, unconscious or fled.
Mr. McDuck later sold the ladybugs to farmers. Ladybugs are a farmers best friend.
The End.