Chapters It had been a week, my mom left to pose as Princess Cadence the day after I met Sunburst. Each and every day before the wedding, Sunburst came to meet me at the wastelands, or at least the edge of them. She couldn't get too close, so I made a time each day for us to meet. I told her EVERYTHING! How I wanted to be nice, my abilities, everything. Today was the wedding attack so Sunburst didn't meet me. She knew that the changelings would attack so I hoped when I showed up my mom would be in the dungeon! I was in charge of the changeling army so I knew I would have to look evil, and confident.
"ALRIGHT!" I yelled at the army of changelings, "I DON'T WANT TO SEE ANY SCREW UPS THIS TIME, JUST FEED AND FOLLOW THE QUEEN'S ORDERS!" The changelings all saluted and followed me as we took off to get to Canterlot before the wedding finished up. I was a weak flier, so a changeling spy was helping me, and even carrying me when I was running out of steam.
We found the barrier like my mom said, and the changelings started to break it while I sneaked in as Scootaloo, one of the flower fillies. I ran to the castle and changed into Starburst, who was pretending to be sick for me. I sat next to Sunburst in the crowd. "Did you warn your mom about my mom?"
"I didn't say a word!" Sunburst said.
"WHAT?!" I whispered in a concerned voice, "You were supposed to warn some pony about the attack!"
"What! But I thought you wanted me to keep your secret!" My face went from shocked, to very upset with myself. I did tell her not to tell any pony about me, and warning about the attack meant she had to have a source. A source AND a witness of the plans. I was both of those, she couldn't say a word without revealing my secret to the world! I opened my mouth to whisper something, but it was too late.
We hadn't noticed the all commotion going on because we were so concerned about our conversation we somehow didn't notice my mom revealing herself. The thing that refocused our attention, was Sunburst glancing over and seeing her mom getting hurt by my mom! Twilight Sparkle and her friends went over to Celestia, and then left. It was most likely to get the elements of harmony, that wouldn't work, I knew it wouldn't. Sunburst ran over to Celestia right as the changeling army broke through the barrier!
"Hmph, good job Candy," my mom said with a smirk. Sunburst knew I would be acting now, so she just hugged her unconscious mother.
"All part of the plan!" I said with a fake grin on my face, "NOW can I feed?"
"Of course my darling, you've earned it." My mom smiled, and continued, "Before you go..." She walked over to Sunburst and Celestia. Sunburst looked up and shuddered.
"W-w-what are you going to do to us??" Sunburst cried, she was obviously terrified,hoping I would be able to stop this, or that some pony stronger would come in at that moment.
"I have an idea." My mom giggled hastily as she cast a spell, encasing Celestia in some slimy green goo that even I haven't learned about yet, along with Cadence and Shining armor's hooves, holding the two in place. She laughed, then turned to Sunburst, "As for you," my mom said, "if she wakes up, she can't have TOO much love in her life." My mom's voice lowered, I knew the spell she was about to use. I started to run over, and almost touched Sunburst.
I looked over at my mom, who stared at me as I hugged the dead Sunburst. I still had to act, so I braved up and said, "I wanted to do it! That's why I jumped in!"
"Oops, sorry my sweet heart," my mom said with a smile, "got carried away I suppose. Go now, feed!" My mom went back to the window and looked at the entire army, waiting for Twilight and her friends to return. I ran out of the room as quickly as possible.
I had found a shortcut out of the castle, and went to where the army was, awaiting orders. "Go attack Twilight Sparkle and her friends, NOW!" They followed my orders, and left me completely alone. I flew away as quickly as possible and made it to the outside of Canterlot, I ran the rest of the way out. My goal, was Ponyville.
Day 1
It was a dark day. I had been running for so long. Sunburst had been my only line to the world outside of the wastelands I called home, but without her, I was lost. I didn't want to make it obvious that I ran off, so when I made it to Ponyville I was disguised as Sunburst.
Day 31
After a month of living in Ponyville, no pony knew I was a changeling hybrid, which is lucky because I am no normal changeling! When I change I not only gain the pony's looks and personality, but I also learn everything about them from past to present! Which explains why I never dare to change into Screwball, Discord's daughter. Sunburst was a good choice as a cover because no pony knew she got killed, not even Celestia! Sunburst has always lived in Ponyville, but I still had to enroll in Cloudsdale flight school for that month and Sunburst was ready for her final exam...I'm not.
Day 61
It was flight test time and I was NOT ready! When they called Sunburst's name, I was so nervous! My natural bat-pony looking form was too suspicious looking, but I was regretting choosing Sunburst's alicorn form! I started the test strong, only to fall from exhaustion half way through. I went to the gate, crying, meeting up with only one other pony...Starburst. Sunburst's cousin was weaker than her with flying, but far stronger than her with magic. She looked at me surprised that I had failed, all I did to show her it wasn't Sunburst was flash my eye color from purple, to my natural red eyes and back.
"Candy?!" Starburst exclaimed, "Where's Sunburst??" Starburst had heard of me from Sunburst, keeping the secret.
"She's...she got too close to my mom." Starburst had even more tears streaming down her face as we were taken away.
Day 68
After a few days we BARELY escaped the rainbow factory! I was able to change into an employee and got Starburst and myself out! I couldn't do the same for the others though, we didn't see the boss and Starburst and I are both too traumatized to talk about it. We agreed that it never happened, but I knew it would haunt me in my dreams. We were able to fly back to Ponyville and get back to our homes before any pony noticed something was up. We were still terrified, but I was scared about something else as well...my first day of school for the season. In one week, I'd be handling Sunburst's school life.
Day 75
It was a sunny spring day, the last day of allergy season. I had been holding back sneezes all day! Whenever I sneeze, I change into my changeling form, so I was scared. School was just about to finish up, and I almost got out of the playground without sneezing. A tan-ish orange colt with dark brown hair who looked about my age, stopped me in my tracks.
"Hey can you help me with something?" He asked.
"What do you need help with?" I held back a sneeze.
"Well, I lost a certain device, oh there it is!" He was cut off upon seeing the thing he was looking for, and he picked it up saying, "Never mind." He started to walk off, when I sneezed. "Oh bless you!" He turned around only to see me in my changeling form. I looked at him after changing into my true bat pony form, mumbling.
"Go ahead, run like every pony else." I started to cry.
He only looked at me and said, "I'm not scared!"
I looked at him and sniffled, "You aren't?? But I..."
He smiled at me and simply said, "My name is John, John Rim. And you are?"
Another tear came to my eye as I smiled, "I'm Candy."
After that day, John and I started hanging out every time we ran into each other! He didn't go to school but he met me each day afterwards. As for me, I was just happy to have a friend I could talk to when it comes to my...abilities. I finally felt safe.
With my new found friend, I didn't need to hide as much. We went out for milkshakes, we played in the Everfree forest, which is where I spent most of my time either way. Everything was great! He had wondered about me and asked questions, but I didn't mind answering them. He had asked what's so special about being a hybrid and what downsides there are. So I told him about my abilities to see exactly how the pony thinks and what they know. I also said that I can't know EVERYTHING until I actually talk to them, like how part of Rainbow Dash's mind is somehow locked from me. I also told him all the downsides. One being if I get injured badly enough they become permanent, like a manticore biting my leg for example. Luckily nothing like that has happened so for now, I'm good. He seemed intrigued by what I said, and I liked the positive attention coming from some pony other than my mom for once.
One day, we decided to see how long it would take to fly to Canterlot verses taking the train that day, since Sunburst was needed there by tomorrow we made a game out if it. I decided to fly while John hesitantly took the train, bad idea. Half way there, after about an hour, I was exhausted. I kept flying at a rapid pace but I knew I couldn't for much longer. It hurt so much that I held my breath hoping I wouldn't fall. I had become a stronger flier since the rainbow factory, but clearly not strong enough! I was almost at the edge of the cliff, when my wings gave out. I screamed as I plummeted towards the lake next to Ponyville, it was at this time that I wanted to be better at magic. I was almost at the ground when I managed to change into Starburst and I tried to use her horn in time to teleport to safety! It was too late...I splashed into the lake below, and hit my head on a rock.
"Candy! Candy wake up!!!" John was yelling to me as he shook me, but seconds later I was out like a light.
I woke up in the hospital, in the end I had my left wing and my front right hoof both bandaged, and temporary bandage on my head. I knew already that the hoof and wing injuries were permanent. I managed to limp out of the room, and slowly but surely I met John in the waiting area. He looked concerned when he saw me, "Candy! Are you okay?! Are the bandages..." He stopped as he looked up at me, I was smiling.
"Thank you." I said, "Thank you so much John. No pony would ever do this for me if they knew I was..."
He simply returned the smile and said, "Well then call me Mr. No-pony!"
I giggled, "Well, Mr. No-pony, wanna join me for a milkshake?" We laughed as we walked, and limped, to the milkshake place.
I was happy to have a friend who cared for me again, and with my bandaged wing and hoof, I'd need him. It was a great thing knowing he liked me. For a change he wasn't scared OF me, but scared FOR me. I liked the feeling a lot. We went back to Canterlot by train that night and when I limped in as Sunburst, I was greeted by Luna. She asked what had happened but I just said it was a bad flying accident. She sent me to rest in Sunburst's room and thanked John for helping me and that he was welcome at the grand galloping gala tomorrow night. He said yes and was also invited afterwards to stay at the castle tonight. I answered for him when he was invited to stay, and of course I said yes.
We had fun in the castle that day, preparing each other for the gala, and just talking. The gala was fun but all we did was look at the garden the whole time. The flowers were gorgeous, not to mention we could avoid the crowded room just in case I sneezed unexpectedly. There wasn't much talking either, I just wanted a quiet night anyways and apparently so did John. We just told a few jokes and had a couple of conversations here and there. John even introduced me to his changeling friend named Holes, and told me about a device that lets him do basically what I do after it scans a pony! The whole night was nice, and after going off to bed I looked at a picture we had taken together, then dozed off after putting it in my saddlebag.
John started coming around less and less, he seemed exhausted each time I did see him. I was worried about him, but worried about something else at the same time. I was in Canterlot one day as Starburst for a change. I gave Starburst a potion I made and we swapped spots for fun. Being a hybrid, I have to adapt somehow! So I invent my own potions to keep me, well, alive! We were playing around when I wanted to ask Luna something, but when I saw her with Celestia around the corner, she seemed worried. She was talking about Discord teaming up with my mom! I asked Starburst if she knew what was up, she didn't.
After hearing Luna and Celestia in Canterlot, I had been worried for days! My mom had mentioned something to me back when I was in the wastelands with her, about a spell to bring dad back, but he needed a being to take over once she cast the back to life spell she made AND some pony with a lot of power to cast the spell! I met up with John and all the worries went away, until he said some pony was after him. We hid out in an attic he used to live in with food and comfort. He was worried they'd come after me. We had a couple milkshakes and started to fall asleep. I moaned right before hand, I knew what was about to happen.
"Run..." I managed to say "RUN!" I transformed into my changeling form, only I had purple eyes instead of my natural red ones, and a red amulet around my neck.
John just stood there in shock. My eyes glowed with this green aura around them.
"Ah, you must be the one she likes," my dad's voice came out of my mouth as the amulet glowed with each word. John stood there frozen as I spoke. "She seemed to have only one real friend until you...it's understandable." An evil grin spread across my face, I couldn't help it wasn't me in control.
John came to realize what was up, and he flew off as quickly as possible! I gained a bit of control seeing him flee, and my own voice came out as I flew slowly and shakily after him, "John! Wait!"
I was tearing up when I heard my dad again "It is no use, you are mine now!" I was heart broken, still momentarily in control I did the one thing I could think to do! In my natural form I had a tiny unicorn horn hidden underneath my mane, so in my more powerful changeling form I could cast spells. I cast a spell removing my horn from my natural bat pony form, and in the last seconds that my dad had control of me, he simply chuckled and looked at John.
"You will never have our approval." Those were his last words before dying inside of me. Then the amulet broke, my eyes turned red again, and I changed back into my natural bat pony form. With no horn hidden under my mane, I stumbled up from the sudden light headed feeling. My changeling form still had a horn, but now only to change. I could only cast spells as another unicorn that I change into. I looked at John, remembering every word my dad said to him.
John just stared at me, I could tell he was thinking of what he had heard. He blushed before asking me something. "When he said like...did he mean as a friend?" I blushed widely and tried to run off, but I stumbled because of my bandaged hoof. I fell on the ground and nursed the sore hoof, only to look up and see John walking towards me.
"I uh..." I stammered as I tried to speak.
John simply helped me up, smiled ,and said one word before flying off, "Along'sy." I just stared off into the distance, before limping away myself.
I was back in Canterlot as Sunburst, and today was, in the words of Pinkie Pie, a doozy...I was once again playing with Starburst. She went to ask Luna something, when Discord came in. I was still furious at him because I KNEW he helped my mom. He WAS sorry but he never apologized to me, not that he would know to. I lashed out at him in front of Luna, and Starburst. I changed into my regular bat pony form, only bright red all over.
"YOU AREN'T SORRY!!!" I shouted, realizing what I have done I changed into my normal colored bat pony form. "I..."
Luna was still looking at me, "Starburst, is this your friend?" I looked over at Starburst, shocked.
"Sorry Candy, she was asking why you were acting weird as Sunburst..."
I looked back up at Luna. She was smiling, "I hear you're a bit timid, and that you have trouble at night." I nodded, and she said something that made me just too happy, she said, "I can help with that...my student."
I couldn't wait to tell John about Luna being my new mentor. She said she'd teach me how to be more comfortable with not only accepting myself, but accepting the company of others. I was able to limp around town in my natural form, and the royal guard, along with Celestia, knew about me, so I was safe. I fell asleep that night, only to be met by my nightmare, which got worse little by little each night. Tonight, was horrible. "No, don't do it!" I sleep talk a lot and it echoes in the orphanage where I now live, and the worst part, no pony else was there. Luna is always too busy with other fillies to see my dreams, but I don't mind. In my dream, I get tortured by a masked colt in the rainbow factory without being able to escape, only to find that the masked colt is John.
When I woke up one morning, my colors were different and I was highly paranoid. I limped out to get a milkshake to calm myself down, and I heard this weird music immediately as I limped into the shop. I flew out only to fall from my sore wing not being ready to fly that fast. I looked back to see John with a music box. My colors changed back to normal. He noticed this and asked what was up.
I was hesitant to talk about my nightmares, I was too haunted by them to talk about it. I looked down in the river we were sitting by, and saw a small rainbow in it. I yelped, stumbling backwards, and crawling away. John flew over to me, comforting me once more. I told him about the dreams, what happened in them, how bad they were. He simply looked at me as I was crying, and handed me the music box.
"Here," he said, "it was my mother's, it used to calm me when I slept." I smiled and took the music box that he was handing to me. His ears then suddenly perked up and he flew into the Everfree forest. I limped after him as quickly as I could and found him in front of Zecora's looking around, and then going in. I didn't feel well, but I limped in anyways. He was making something, and I asked what it was, startling him. He suddenly said, "it's....I can't....I ca-" he was cut off, as he fainted.
I panicked and immediately flew him on my back to he hospital, very slowly. It took at least ten or fifteen minutes to get to the hospital. But we got there, and he woke up by the time we reached the bed in his room.
"No, no no no no no!!!" He suddenly said "HE TOLD ME NOT TO BE A PATIENT HERE!!!!!" I was obviously surprised as John flew outside, with me limping right behind him, so he simply said, "Long story..." There was an awkward silence after that, until it was broken by John saying, "Wanna grab a milkshake?"
I giggled seeing that he didn't want to talk about it, and said, "Sure, let's go." He bought me my shake as usual and I once again said that I would pay, with him saying that it was alright and that he wanted to pay. It was going as usual so far, but then the manager came over.
"Pay your tab Mr. Rim, it's overdue by a week." he said making it obvious that John had little money.
"But I don't have that much!" John yelled. The argument went on as I gave up and took some bits out of my saddlebag.
"Here," I said, paying for my own shake.
"But Candy," John started.
"It's fine, if you don't have enough I'd rather pay myself." I smiled and handed some more bits to the manager, "Will that cover his tab?"
"For now." The manager griped as he walked away.
We decided to go back to Zecora's after that because I needed to make a potion before a virus hit me, and since it only affects young changelings, I needed my yearly dose of the potion.
John started acting weird once we walked in, and all he said before fainting once more, was to not bring him to the hospital. I started to panic again, but then remembered that last time he was just sleeping. I put him in Zecora's bed, and started to make my potion.
My potion was about done when I heard something, "Ugh...not the pears." I looked back at John, who was sleep talking. I thought it was kind of cute, so I continued with my potion, listening to John to make sure his dreams didn't get too bad. "No, they need us!" he kept yelling, "Can't we save them?!" I saw tears roll down his cheeks, and that's when I finished my potion and limped over to wake him up. I gently shook him awake as he screamed.
He just stood there and said in relief, "It was just a dream."
"You sleep talk." I told him.
"Oh," he started, "what did you hear?"
"All of it." I said.
"Even the pears huh?" he chuckled as I nodded. I took a sip of my potion, bottled the rest, and limped back to the orphanage with John. Before we walked in John asked me to touch a spot on his chest, where his heart was. I put my hoof there as he said. There was a normal pulse. Then John told me to touch right next to his heart. I put my hoof there as well. My eyes widened as I felt a normal pulse, exactly like the other side of his chest, only a couple seconds off. I looked up at him, for I couldn't comprehend what was going on. He told me that he had a second heart, and that it was needed to for him to live. I was in disbelief, until he explained further. He explained how he was a timelord, and I had heard of these, but never gotten info on them because they were thought to be extinct. I had also heard rumors that Doctor Whooves, a mysterious brown stallion that looks similar to John, was one of these timelords due to his abnormal behavior and him being at his home all the time. Even Luna can't read his dreams. This fact confirmed my theory that Doc was John's dad, and even John admitted it afterwards.
Later that night, John decided to stay in the bunk next to me. I wasn't surprised to see him at the foot of my bed as I woke up screaming. He was mainly there to comfort me for the night, that's what he said at least.
"Nightmares again?" he asked, I nodded as a response. He came up to my bed and said to me, "Did I ever tell you why I say along'sy to you each time I leave?" I shook my head awaiting an answer, "It's my way of saying I love you." He smiled as I returned the look, blushing. I had obviously said along'sy in my sleep before I woke up, right before I fell asleep I responded.
"In that case, along'sy John," and I was out like a light after that.
I woke up a while later to John handing me something, he had obviously worked on it last night while I was asleep. I asked what it was.
"This will take your nightmares away!" John said with glee, "I put water in the top, and this potion comes out in the form of a mist, keeping away any bad dreams! I know because I fell asleep on the job."
I giggled, "Thank you, I'm happy to have a friend like you." I winked at him as I packed my stuff for my first day at school in my normal form. I'm nervous because I do have a cold, but the teacher knows I'm a changeling so I hope it'll be okay.
The first week of school was horrible! John was busy doing stuff, so I didn't see him all week! On the first day of school I sneezed right when class started thanks to my stupid cold! Every pony was scared of me after that, so I just sat by the fence in the playground and cried as I looked at my picture of John and I at the gala. Every day was routine, scare every pony, go to lunch, look at my picture, and limp back inside to wait for school to finish. At the end of the week John finally came to the orphanage again, only to find me softly crying into my pillow.
"Are you alright?" he asked me. I looked up to see him, with tears blurring my vision.
"Luna sent me to school, to socialize with other ponies closer to my age." I sniffled, looking back a my pillow. "Every pony is scared of me because I sneezed on the first day thanks to a little head cold. On top of that, my dreams now deceive me, I have a good dream at night, only to wake up to a horrible day." I took out my picture from the gala and started to cry harder.
"Hey," John said in a calm voice, "it'll be okay. I know I'm not there all the time, but maybe this will help." He rolled a metal ball over to me. It had a small red button on it. "Press the button." John said. I pressed it, and the ball opened, revealing a doll, that looked exactly like John. "For when I'm not around." John said.
"Thank you." I smiled as I put the picture down, and hugged the doll tightly.
"It's no problem, and if you ever wanna skip school, I'm always available." John winked at me. I wanted to return the favor, I just didn't know how yet. As I opened my mouth to talk, John's ears perked up. "Along'sy my love." With that, he was off. It was night by the time he left, so all I did was hop into bed with my new doll after turning on the dream machine.
I woke up that morning, only to find myself hurt. I was in front of John, he watched as I looked at my bleeding bandaged wing, and then looking back at John as I instantly asked him, "What happened?"
"I don't know," John said, "I just saw you sleep walking through this..." John stopped there, he looked down at my back left hoof, and then at his own injured hoof. They were both blue. Suddenly, I turned a deep shade of blue all over. John took out something as I blacked out.
I woke up for a second to see John inject the blue poison into himself, and I blacked out again.
"JOHN!" I yelped with concern as I woke up.
"Yes?" John was back to normal, no longer the blue of the poison.
"But...but I saw you put the poison inside yourself." I said, drying my tears.
"I have my ways." John said, using his device to change into a stallion, who was the blue color of the poison. I couldn't help but giggle a bit.
The next day when I woke up, I got a brilliant idea. John had showed me his lab before, so I knew where to go to do this. I flew shakily to his lab, and changed into him.
I finished my little project after about an hour, and once I finished it I flew to Everfree to find John. As soon as I got there I found him, I rolled a metal ball over to him. I limped up behind him and told him to press the button on it. When he did, a little doll version of myself popped out.
He gasped and said, "Thank you so much!!" I smiled.
"Well," I started, "it WAS made by you." I winked as John suddenly looked concerned
"Wait, DID YOU CHANGE INTO ME, THAT'S DANGEROUS!!!" he took a breath, "It's okay, as long as you weren't me for too long." I opened my mouth to talk, but all that came out was a yelp of pain as I grabbed my chest, right next to my heart. My eyes widened as I felt a small pulse.
"F-f-feel..." I stammered. Once John did, he took me to a spot in the forest. I blacked out once we got there.
"Ugh...I seem to black out a lot don't I." I groaned as I woke up in my bunk at the orphanage, with John next to me. He watched me intently as I got my doll and packed up everything for school. He then said something I never thought he'd say.
"Can I go to school with you?"
After we got to the lab John asked me if I wanted him to make me something. I agreed as long as I could make him something in return. Once he finally agreed to that, I told him our dolls looked cold as I motioned to my lab coat. With that, I was off to find special material.
I came back with everything, and a newly bedazzled lab coat. It was now light pink with star and rainbow patches sewn into it. I started to work on my little project, when John came over with two little lab coats. He handed them to me as I started to work.
Once my gift for John was done, I wrapped it up and limped over to John. I had bedazzled the mini lab coat for the Candy doll, AND I had made John a scarf. It was dyed blue and pink, and he seemed to like it!
"Thank you. It's it's...scented?" I giggled at his statement.
"It's made to smell like whatever attracts the pony!" I said.
"Ah no wonder, it smells like you." I laughed AND blushed at his statement this time.
Tonight I woke up, only to see that John had fallen from the bunk of the bed I sleep on, and I sleep on the top bunk. He had hit his head, and crushed his wing, and banged up his injured hoof. I instantly hopped up to see the damage. I changed into John and then back to myself, knowing all I had to do. I got an ice pack for his head, and bandaged up his hoof and his wing. I looked at the wing and the hoof as I lifted his head onto the ice pack. His left wing and front right hoof were the bandaged ones...the same as my own wing and hoof. John woke up and rubbed his head.
"Ooh, what happened?" He asked.
"You fell out of bed, and uh..." I pointed at his wing. When he looked back and saw the bandages, his sight moved to his bandaged hoof. He then looked up at me. "Same bandaged spots as mine." He blushed a bit at my statement.
"Well, wanna help me ease my headache by accompanying me to the milkshake place?" He smiled as I nodded. Then we both limped together towards the milkshake place.
After a couple of days working with John in the lab I got used to the thought of experimenting there and inventing new creations. It was a good feeling to know I could now help ponies with not magic, but science!
I knew it wouldn't take long for Luna to find, and capture my mom, but just the thought of going back into hiding made me die inside. I hated hiding, especially since the only ponies scared of me are the ponies in my class. I tried to think of a way out of this, and after an hour of sitting in my bed all alone, I had one idea that I kept coming back to. The first time it crossed my mind I knew it wouldn't help me with this at all, but I knew it would help me in the future. I got off of my bed, and limped over to the part of the lab that was actually meant for science. I put on my pink lab coat, put on my little bow tie that John had given me once I calmed down the night before, and got to work. John was on a trip, so according to my calculations, I had a good twenty four hours to work.
After about twelve hours of my time, my creation was ready for it's first real test. I was just a little smarter than John, especially since I can learn what every pony has learned just by changing into them, so I was almost certain that this wouldn't blow up in my face. I entered the proper code, pressed the button, and I was off. Once I put the device in my saddlebag, I put it down and ran to the calendar. My invention was a success. I was in the lab, only ten years later. I turned eleven a week ago, when I was still trapped in the hive, so I was twenty one in this future. I was about to grab my stuff, when the door to the lab opened. I quickly pushed my saddlebag behind a machine, and flew out the window before any pony saw me.
"Hello?" I heard some pony say, it was a familiar British accent, only much lower than I was used to. "Hmm, must have been a bird or something. Well, back to work!" I slowly took a peek in the window, I stood there shocked as I watched an older, and obviously more productive John, standing next to a red phone booth of some sort. I expected to see new machines, but not that thing, whatever it was. I crawled through the window as silently as possible, and ducked down behind the machine where my stuff was. I barely reached my saddlebag, and dragged it over to me. I almost opened it without making a sound, but then the door to the lab opened once more.
I couldn't help but gasp as I saw an older version of myself. "Hey did you here that?" the older me said as her ears perked up. I knew she sensed the presence of another changeling, because I did. The older John looked curiously at her, as she limped in my direction. I frantically opened my saddlebag and took out my device, once I entered the code, the older me stuck her head around the corner to where I was hiding. I luckily pressed the button and was back in my own time before she saw me.
I limped over to the sink where I kept my potion for burns. The device had a tendency to burn you a bit after using it, but not too much so I won't call it a problem. I thought about what had just happened. I didn't expect to see any of that, not an older John, certainly not an older me! I was still trying to wrap my head around it all as John limped in. His limp was getting better, but it was still noticeable. He saw my burn marks and seemed a bit concerned.
"How did you get those?" he asked me, I didn't want to tell him about my device so I thought of an excuse rather quickly.
"I was experimenting a bit, the test was a fail but I'm alright. Just a couple burn marks." I lied.
"Oh, well be a bit more careful next time. I don't want you to get hurt." John said. He limped over to the machinery in the lab and started to work a bit. As for me, I went back to my bed and quietly looked at my new device. In terms of appearance the device was similar to John's scanner, similar enough that I felt safe looking at it while John was working. I wondered if what I saw was meant to be, or if I just screwed up the future. Either way, I was still thinking of what I saw.
I barely slept that night, I was thinking of what I saw...wondering if I answered my own questions. I didn't see a cutie mark, but only because she, or rather I, had my lab coat on. So that question remained. I wasn't sure how many others got answered, but even more arose. What would I be like? Would I still have my doll? Will I still need my dream machine? I thought all night about these questions and many more.
I woke up to a bad headache. I stumbled out of bed, knowing John would see that something was up. I saw that he was still asleep, so I got myself a potion to make me look and feel like I got a slightly better nights sleep. After taking a sip, John woke up. He yawned, and sitting up in his bed he looked over at me.
"Good morning Candy, did you sleep alright?" John asked me.
"It could have been better, it took a while for my potion to take affect. You know, the one that takes away my burns." I didn't lie that time, the potion I had for burns did take a while to work.
"Oh, alright. Well sorry it kept you up, if you need more sleep I won't judge." He said before starting his work. It still baffles me how long he can go without eating or sleeping, but that wasn't on my mind right now. Right now I was focused on two things, my future, and getting some sleep. The former was going to take a while to think about, but when it comes to the ladder, I was out like a light.
I woke up later that night, finally rested after the little incident. I started to pace around the room, thinking. I knew that John was going to stay asleep, mainly because he doesn't sleep much, so when he does sleep he sleeps in late. I thought about every last detail, how my limp was slightly better, John's inventions being more advanced, everything! I couldn't stop thinking about it all. I limped over to the inventions that John had. I thought, and thought, and then I got an idea. If I saw what was already going to happen, I could easily go back to the future and study the upgraded inventions. Then I could recreate them with John! I had made my decision, and I would tell John in the morning. I limped back to bed and dozed off.
I woke up to John looking at his scanner, it was normal for him so I wasn't too worried. I knew I was going to have to tell him today, but we just woke up so I didn't want to tell him just yet. At least I didn't until he turned to me with his scanner, clearly knowing something.
"Why...why didn't you tell me?" John asked me, "How did you discover it?" I didn't know if he meant my new device or not.
"How did I discover what?" I asked, hoping he would say anything but my time travel device.
"These!" John then held up some crystals that I needed when I was making my device. I was in the clear, but at least this gave me a good opportunity to tell him about the device.
"Oh, I found out that the changeling hive has a lot of precious metals and rare gems. So I was experimenting a bit and it required some of those. I actually have been meaning to tell you about my latest invention..." I held my breath, awaiting his response.
"Well, what does it do??" John asked.
"It might be better for me to show you." I put in the date of when John and I first met, wrapped my bandaged hoof around him, and pressed the button.
"Huh? Where are we?" John asked as we appeared behind a tree in the schoolyard.
"The question, is when." I said as I pointed to a slightly younger John and I, meeting for the first time. John gasped quietly behind the tree.
"What...when did you make that device of yours?" John asked.
"I'll explain at home." I said, as we zapped back. We were burnt a bit when we got back, but not too much. I limped to get my potion for burns as John started asking questions.
"When did you do this?" John asked as he started the questions.
"While you were away." I answered.
"Why did you make it?" He asked, starting to pace.
"Because I thought it might help us in the future." I answered, I felt this was going to be like an interview at this point.
"What resources did you use?"
"Mostly precious metals and rare, enchanted crystals from the changeling hive." I answered, having trouble recalling what else I used.
"How did you gain this information?" I was kind of confused at this question, but then it clicked in my head.
"Wait...gain this information? You...have experience with this?" I had put two and two together, he looked concerned, he was pacing as if he knew something, it all made sense!
"You mustn't learn about this." John said in response, "Don't think about trying to reach into my mind, that power is beyond all."
"John...I...I..." I suddenly turned red all over and started to scream, "FIRST OFF, I CAN'T REACH FURTHER INTO YOUR MIND, THAT WAS ALL LOCKED FROM ME!! AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN I SHOULDN'T LEARN ABOUT THIS?! I ALREADY HAVE AND ON TOP OF THAT I'M SMARTER THAN YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I stopped myself there, as I shook off my red glow. I knew I had made a mistake, it was an outburst I couldn't help. I limped back to my bed and held my breath as I waited for his response, I had tears rolling down my face now.
"Stay here," John said in a stern voice. He pressed a button on his special watch, and teleported out.
After about five minutes John was back, with the doctor.
"So, John here tells me that you have learned the abilities of time travel without the aid of a spell. Is this correct?" Doctor said in a calm voice, obviously seeing that I was upset.
"Y-y-yes." I stammered, not knowing what was going on.
"Don't worry Candy, you aren't in trouble. I just want to know how you got the information on how to travel through time." Doctor said plainly. "And I am also sorry about John being rude about the whole accessing his memories thing. It was something that happened long ago that he would rather not talk about." I could tell that I shouldn't bring up the memory thing, so I just said how I discovered it.
"I was experimenting, changing into different ponies, gaining the knowledge and figuring out the perfect equation for myself." I was calming down a little now, but I was still confused.
"Well, the only pony I know of that you can access their time traveling ability is Twilight Sparkle. However she only uses her spell," Doctor continued, "I know about spell-less time travel. However, I made sure that no pony can reach there, as well as a select other few ponies, but I locked that down as well. So I want to know who you turned into that had information on this." I started to understand what he was asking now.
"I was curious of how I could figure it out for myself, thinking no pony knew how to. So I tried my hardest to make it possible with a few resources that only I could obtain. It seemed to work, so I showed John..." I turned to John, who was still behind the doctor, listening to each and every word.
"What resources did you use?" Doctor asked, "May I see them?"
"Sure." I directed his attention to the piles of special crystals and precious metals that I had leftover. "That isn't the only thing I used, but it's what I have left, this is the device..." I handed him my little device and hoped for the best.
"Hmm." Doctor waved a stick like thing that made a weird sound and had a blue light on top then he put it up to his head."I see, well Candy, these are red rospers, they are very powerful, and when used correctly, can create short hops in time, but not for long. If you stay in one area for too long, then it will be destroyed and you will be stuck in that time period."
"Um...Doctor," I said, "I gained the knowledge about them and found a way to use the crystal's power to go as far in time as I want, and for however long I want. I know because I have tested it properly." I just sat in my bed, hugging my doll.
"Hmm, These crystals shouldn't have enough power or energy to do long time travels." Doctor rubbed his head. "The only other ponies I can think of that would be able to make these other than myself is the Time Agency."
"Well, I got them from the changeling hive with a lot of precious metals and powerful crystals, I used the red rospers and a couple other powerful crystals." I said, still hugging my doll.
"I'm not very familiar with changeling magic or materials," Doctor started, "However, I will need to hold on to this machine you have made for a while, to do some research on it. Because if a bad pony were to get a hold of it, they could cause irreversible damage."
"Well...okay, but..." I wanted to ask him something else, but it slipped my mind, "okay." I handed him my device and snuggled up to my doll, tears rolling down my face once more.
"I'm sorry if we scared you, but this is very powerful information." Doctor said, "I will be leaving now, and do not worry, I will give you back your machine. Now John," Doctor whispered something I couldn't hear to John as I continued to cry, and John blushed.
"Why did you say that Doc!" I heard John say.
Doctor chuckled before saying, "Have fun you two!" and teleporting out using John's watch.
"I, I thought you would be happy for me...I was trying to do something worth...worth..." I couldn't get the words out.
"Shh, it's okay. I'm sorry, I was just worried for you." John said as he put his hoof around me. I nuzzled into him as I continued to cry.
I finally calmed down after a little while, tears were still rolling down my face, but I was calm. I turned up to look at John, showing him that I wanted a little of an explanation.
"I don't like to talk about my past much, but I guess I might as well tell you a bit." John said, "If you want me to that is."
"I would like a bit of an explanation...please" I said, still looking slightly upset.
"Alright." John said with a sigh, "Well, eight years ago something big happened," I saw a tear come to John's eye as he continued, "and I had to live with the Doctor. So while I was living with him, we would go on adventure through time, and sometimes space." I was listening intently, still a bit upset, but calmer. "During that time he would teach me about the physics of time and space. So I learned how time travel was very hard without the help of a certain type of technology." John sighed as he finished, wiping away another tear.
"John..." I started, "I..I'm sorry I yelled earlier. I thought I was doing something good, that would make you...happy." I wiped away a tear myself.
"It's okay, it's just, after what I have seen others do with this power, and what they would do to get this power," John started, "I was scared that they would hurt you. Please Candy, if you ever make something so powerful, I need you to tell me immediately."
"John I'm happy that you care about me so much, and that you want me to stay safe. I was just upset because I had JUST made it before I showed you. I just...next..." I sighed as I started to cry again, not finding the words.
"It's okay, you didn't know," John smiled as I looked back up at him, wiping away my tears, "and hopefully you never experience or see what these things will do first hoof. There are parts of my mind I have locked up for your own safety."
I couldn't find any words, I just sat there, hugging my doll. John stayed next to me, hugging me as he attempted to calm me down. I enjoyed it, so I didn't move. All that I managed to say after a few minutes of calming down was, "Along'sy John."
"Along'sy to you too love." John said in a soft voice. I limped over to my stash, which had a bottle marked 'Emergency Milkshake' on it. I had pre-mixed it with my potion, and put it in a special bottle that keeps it cooled. I took a sip as I limped back over to my bed with John.
"Goodnight Candy." John smiled before getting back to inventing, as I fell asleep. John turned on my machine real quick, and the music box he gave me. With that I dozed off.
I got my invention back from the doctor today, "Thank you, Candy, for letting me borrow your device for a while." Doctor said, "Again, I'm sorry if either I or John scared you."
"It's okay," I smiled, "John explained everything that I needed to know."
"Oh, well, that's good!" Doctor smiled back, "I'm still very confused on how you were able to make it stay in a time period as long as you want. But, I won't pester you with it. I'll leave that to Mr. Lover-foal over there."
"Oh I'm happy to show you, it's just hard to explain that's all." I glimpsed over at John for a second, "Although, I would like to wait until I'm ready to show you."
"It's alright," Doctor said, "No need to. I'll figure it out sooner or later. But your lover won't." He laughed a bit at his own statement.
"Okay, and if you ever come across some changeling resources that you can't figure out, give me a call." I winked at the doctor before he transported out. I turned over to John only to see that he was lying on the ground!
"JOHN!" I wanted to know if he was asleep or if he actually fainted, so I waited to see if he would start to sleep talk. After a couple minutes of mumbling I managed to decode something that John was saying. T-H-E-D-A-L-E-K-S-S-H-A-L-L-R-U-L-E-A-L-L, that was the code that I deciphered. I didn't know if it was important or not, so I wrote it down in one of the journals that John and I use to keep track of experiment progress. I closed the journal after writing the code down, and saw that it was John's. I opened it back up to find the page with the code, but as I flipped through the pages I realized that they were all blank. I looked at the only page with writing on it, which was the page I wrote on. I copied the code down into my own journal, and started to pace around the lab. Why are his pages blank when I see him write in the journal all the time? I didn't see any ripped pages, I only saw slightly stained pages. John woke up right then and there.
"What happened?" John asked me.
"You passed out," I started, "and you um...you said something."
"What did I say?" John asked, rubbing his head as he got up. I took out my journal and showed him the page with the code on it. "We need to get to the Doctor now!" Before I could ask why, John had teleported us to the doctors spot in the forest. "Doc! It's the Daleks! They're coming!" John said, knocking on the invisible box furiously. Doctor came out slamming the invisible door into my face by mistake.
"OW!" I yelped as I rubbed my now bloody nose. Doctor looked over at me, seeing the blood.
"Sorry about that Candy, there are first aid supplies inside," he said, motioning towards the open doorway to something, "I would help myself but there is something terrible about to happen that I must stop. You need to stay here Candy, John and I must deal with these things ourselves. It would be to dangerous for you, I'm sorry." He then turned to John before I could ask him what this was all about, "John, let's go." Then they both teleported away using John's watch. I limped into the open doorway and closed the visible door behind me.
"Woah." I said as I looked around the big area. It looked similar to the lab, only much bigger and with more advanced machinery. I looked around the large space in wonder, and then my eyes stopped on the first aid kit. I limped over and put a band-aid on my nose, where it had been bleeding. I used my own teleportation watch, which I had upgraded a while back, to bring my saddlebag, my doll, and both journals to me. I looked at the two journals open side by side, blank pages all over John's. I assumed that I would be in the area a while, so I decided to get some thinking done.
After a little while the door to the area started to open, I quickly put both journals in my saddlebag and teleported everything back to my bed. When Doctor walked in I saw that he had a slight limp, and was carrying John on his back. They were both bleeding all over.
"WHAT HAPPENED?!" I asked in a concerned voice.
"Candy, I need you to go back home for a bit," Doctor said, "John needs for me to help him"
I stood there in silence, just staring.
"Candy, I'm sorry, but this is beyond your knowledge, or any pony's. I need you to go home." Doctor said with a sigh, seeing that I was obviously wanting to know what was going on.
"But...I want to help him..." before I knew it tears were streaming down my face, and I was holding back my angry red glow, which surrounded me, even though I wasn't completely red yet.
"He is dying, but if I hurry, I can help him." Doctor rubbed his head, "There is something that he can do to prevent death, but he doesn't want to, for you. He would probably forget you, and he doesn't want that." Doctor quickly ran into a hallway, I followed. He made so many turns that I eventually lost him. I just went back to the room I was in before and started to cry.
It had been a day, I teleported my doll and the journals into the room with me, so I could try to distract myself. It didn't help that much. Suddenly, Doctor came into the room.
"John will live," he said, "however, he can't fly for a few more days. The muscles still need to heal, and he had damage to them. But he can go back home. He sort of made that decision himself." I smiled as I wiped away my tears. "He also can't get too worried about anything for a few days. His left heart is still a little weak."
"Can I...see him?" I asked, calming down.
"Well, he's right here." Doctor said, as John limped out from behind him. I limped over to him.
"You're okay." I said in a shaky voice, I smiled as tears rolled down my face from joy.
"Well, you could say that." John said, "I could be better."
"I'm just glad that you're alive." I said.
"I am too love." John said with a smile.
With John resting back at the lab, I decided to take a walk by myself. I was kind of worried about him, but he insisted that I take some time alone. I had my saddlebag with me, containing my doll, my time travel device, and both journals. I wanted to figure out why John's journal pages were all blank, I checked it out for invisible ink already, but nothing showed. I thought about where I might find the answer, but it was too risky. I couldn't travel through time again, at least not without telling John. I limped to a bench by the river and sat down, I took out my device to see if it was even worth it. All of the sudden, my ears perked up. I looked over my shoulder, to see a filly change into a stallion. I knew it was a changeling, and once it looked my way I panicked and entered a random date. After pressing the button I regretted it.
I knew I was on the same bench in Ponyville, so I flew shakily to the nearest hiding spot. I hid in a random apple tree near the lab. I put in the date on my device, but when I pressed the button, nothing happened! I knew it was just a small short in the circuits, because I programmed it to say what was wrong before it shut down to save the power. I was near the lab, but right as I was about to fly in I heard a sigh below me. I looked down to see the older John settling down with a book. I tried my best not to move, but as I positioned myself I bumped into an apple. I watched as it fell, along with my doll. The doll luckily landed on a branch slightly below me, but the apple hit John on the head.
"Ow!" I heard him yelp in his British accent. I knew I was already in trouble, so I reached down to grab my doll, when I slipped. I fell right in front of John. I saw the shocked look on the twenty two year old John's face. I grabbed my stuff quickly, and ran off, ignoring my limp.
I got into the lab, seeing that my bandaged hoof was throbbing in pain. I ignored it as I fixed my device as fast as I possibly could. I entered the date and quickly pressed the button as the door to the lab opened.
I appeared in the middle of the lab back in my own time, right in front of John.
"Hi John, uuuh how...how's your wing doing?" I stammered with a hilariously guilty looking smile on my face. It was obvious that I was hiding something, so of course I expected John to ask what I did or something along those lines.
"Candy, you should know it is not easy to fool me," John said, "What were you doing?" He said, while looking at a book and drinking some tea. I sighed, knowing I couldn't trick him this time.
"I...time traveled." I felt a tear come to my eye as I braced myself for his response.
"Did any pony see you?" he asked calmly, still looking at the book
"You did...in the future." I started to cry a bit.
"Well if it was only me then we're fine." He said, sipping some tea.
"You aren't upset???" I asked, wiping away a tear.
"I can't really be upset, not good for my health." He said, not looking away from the book.
"Would you be upset if you weren't hurt?" I asked, tearing up once more.
"Not at all my dear, I mean, it was only me who saw you." John never looked up from his book once.
"I'm so sorr- huh?!" I said, shocked to see that he wasn't upset, nor would he be.
"Well, I do know about your ability of time travel, so It's not a big deal, and future you would know as well, any pony else would have thought you were our child." He said, still looking at the book.
"Child??" I shook my head changing the topic quickly, "So what ARE you reading?"
"Well, considering you and I have been living together, ponies might think that, you know how obnoxious and stupid ponies can get. Oh this book? Umm, cats and dogs, differences, I've already read almost all of the books in Twilights library. I thought I might look at something simple." John said, still not looking up.
"Neat! I'm uh...I'm gonna message Luna. Ask her if my mom has been captured yet." I lifted my bandaged hoof and stretched my bandaged wing, and then I limped over to my little desk. "Need anything while I'm up?" I asked John. He whispered something I couldn't hear and looked down. "I'm sorry what did you say?" I asked.
"Nothing, just some bread." He said, sadly. I could tell he was holding back some negative feelings, but I didn't want to make him upset, because I knew it would hurt him more.
"Toasted?" I sighed as I turned back to face him.
"Heh, I like to do that part myself." He said, obviously trying to make it seem like nothing had happened.
"John, is something wrong?? You know you'll only hurt yourself if you hold it back." I said, grabbing his bread.
"I am fine, I just hope you will never have to deal with what I am first hand, this shouldn't be handled by a normal pony. Heck, I'm lucky to just be alright." He said, working himself up and starting to tear up.
"But you KNOW I'm not a normal pony!" I said, holding back my red glow of anger. He then got up and flew off shakily, straight to the Everfree forest. I could tell that he was getting very upset, and that I wasn't helping. I limped out and flew to Everfree myself.
After an hour or two, I eventually found John, just sitting in the grass crying. "John...are you okay?" I asked, startling him. He was holding a music box, similar to the one he gave me, but it was more worn out, and it was playing a different tune.
"I wish they were still here." He said as he held the box closer. I knew what he was upset about at this point.
"John it's alright...they are still here," I pointed to the middle of his chest, where his two hearts touched. "and they love you. At least you're able to say that about them, because remember that while my mom loves me, she abuses me." I took a deep breath after saying that, "Also, you still have Doc...and isn't he you're blood father?"
"I'm sorry that you have to deal with worrying about me. About whether or not I'm dead. I wish I could make you happier. I'm sorry." John sighed sadly, ignoring my question. He sobbed into his music box as I hugged him.
"John I'm happier then ever! And while it may be hard at times remember...in the end," I turned his head to face me, "it's all worth it."
"I'm scared for you though." He said, he opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off,
"John, don't be scared for me. As long as we're together everything will be fine, I won't leave you alone again, especially in this state! now come on, let's get home so you can rest." I said as I teleported us back home with my own teleportation watch. He started to whisper about something to himself, but I couldn't hear it. "Come on John, please stop the whispering."
He had no pupils, and his eyes were pure white, and he sounded a lot different. "They are coming for us, they know about what I am, and who I am, and they know about you, we are not safe, we are not safe, because of me." Then he closed his eyes, and opened them and his pupils were back and he was sad again. I simply stood there, staring. John then fell asleep, I put him in his bed as I limped back to my desk.
"What...just...happened?" I thought out loud.
I wrote in my own journal all night that night, and while I didn't figure much out about what John said, I didn't even find out why John's journal was blank! John eventually woke up and I instantly asked him questions.
"What happened last night?!" I exclaimed as he limped out of bed to grab some toast.
"What do you mean?" He asked, remaining perfectly calm.
"Before you fell asleep your eyes glowed bright white and you said 'they' were coming and that 'they' knew about me and that we weren't safe." I said, calming myself down for John's sake.
"I know what this means." He said, breathing heavily.
"John, remember to stay calm. I don't want you to get even more hurt." I said in a cautious tone.
"This is more important than my safety Candy!!" John yelled, with tears streaming down his face.
"John! I uhh...I..." I went into almost full on panic mode, I knew he would hurt himself badly from this, so I quickly grabbed a potion that Doc had me make for him and forced it down his throat as he sobbed. He choked on it a little but was fine afterwards. "You calm, please be calm!" I said, trying to get over my little panic attack. John then flew out, directly towards Canterlot. "JOHN!!!!" I went into all out panic mode this time, I turned into Rainbow Dash and flew as quickly as I could towards John, grabbing him before he got too far.
I dragged the struggling John into Doc's spot in Everfree, with some potion in my saddlebag that I happened to be wearing. I changed back into my natural bat pony form and ignored my throbbing wing as I knocked on the invisible door, still holding the struggling John.
"I HAVE TO GO!!" John shouted right after Doc opened the door.
"Candy? John? What's going on?" Doc asked, seeming quite upset. I only ran inside with the struggling John, and locked the door after putting him down. John pushed Doc out of the way as fast as he could and started hitting the door as hard as he could without hesitation.
"Give him this shot." Doc said, after handing me a shot. I nodded before injecting the shot into John. He was suddenly out like a light.
"I...you...WHAT?!" I yelled, just starting to get over my panic attack.
"Sleeping shot. He will be out until altered with." Doc explained.
"Okay...well, good because he would not stop struggling and even after forcing the special potion down his throat he would NOT calm down!" I said.
"We're lucky that he is alive, now, what is the meaning of this?" He asked.
"Well, before John fell asleep last night," I then continued to explain everything that happened, and awaited Doc's answer.
"Why Canterlot instead of me?" He asked.
"I don't know, I only came to you because I knew I could get answers and keep him contained here." I said, when suddenly John was teleported out without the use of his watch, "WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA!!!!!" I exclaimed as I saw it happen.
"Celestia might have actually been the one to do it." Doc said with a hoof on his chin.
"But that's impossible! The only princess who personally knows John and therefor actually KNOWS about him is," I gasped as I realized something, "LUNA!"
"GREAT SCOTT!" A pony with a white mane and grey coat shouted while busting through the doors.
"Uh, who are you?" Doc asked.
"MARTY! WRONG PLANET!" the pony shouted as he galloped away quickly.
"Okay that was just weird." I said.
"I'm capturing them, you go get John." He said before running out.
"But I don't know where he went!!" I shouted after him before I was teleported out myself, without the use of my watch.
I was in the throne room in Canterlot in front of Luna and John, who now appeared calm. I did not know what was going on but I knew that it meant something big, whether it was trouble or not I didn't know. I simply lifted my bandaged hoof and limped forward as Luna motioned for me, remaining silent.
Finding out more about him
"Hello Candy, I'm guessing you want to know why you're here." Luna said calmly.
"Uh, yea!" I said, "As a matter a fact I do!"
"Calm down, you're here for two reasons actually." Luna said, "One of which being we have successfully contained your mother for now."
"Well that's good," I said, "but what's the other reason?"
"John, I believe you wanted to answer this one, and Candy, don't worry about him getting upset, I can cast a spell if he goes too far." Luna said as John limped forward.
"When I said They I was referring to an ancient type of creature that is native to Equestria. However, I didn't know that until Luna told me in my sleep." John said, remaining completely calm.
"I have been waiting for these creatures to return, for they have teamed up with Nightmare Moon in the past." Luna said in an upset tone, "I have seen John's dreams, and when I saw these creatures invade them, I knew neither of you were safe."
"That's why you went to Canterlot instead of Doc." I said, "But that doesn't explain who 'they' are, can't you show me Luna?"
"I'm afraid not, unless you fall asleep." Luna said, I didn't want to sleep without my music box or my dream potion, John noticed the look on my face when Luna suggested sleep. Then he pulled the other music box he used out of his mane and passed it to me.
"This mane is useful for storing small things." John said with a small smile.
"Thanks John, it's enough to get me to sleep after last night." I quickly fell asleep after saying that.
In my dream I was greeted by these horrifying creatures, they looked somewhat similar to changelings, only they had two horns, and were dark brown. Luna then woke me up.
"You saw them, I could tell." Luna said.
"How?" I asked.
"Well you did moan and cringe in your sleep." John said.
"How do they know about me, or even John?!" I asked.
"You remember what I am, right Candy?" John asked
"They're after time lords aren't they." I said, suddenly very worried.
"I'm afraid they want the time lords first so they can get more power on their side, then they go after ponies." Luna said
"But what can we do to stop them?!" I asked urgently.
"I have been working on something that might help, however it is highly unstable and could potentially be very dangerous. But Luna probably has something." John said.
"Nice try John, you know why I called Candy here. I have a lab set up for you and I know about your teleportation devices." Luna said.
"Yea, and with me as a partner we can get this done tonight!" I said, right before Doc showed up behind me.
"Blast, I was looking forward to testing out my device." John said, frowning.
"Finally I found you two!" Doc said, still looking at his watch, "The two wierdos got away, but at least I was able to find you guys."
"Hey Doc." John said, "Why are you here?" he asked, sounding kind of worried.
"I was looking for you, John. It's rude to teleport uncontrollably to someplace else while your with someone else." Doc joked.
"Enough with the Jokes, why are you here?" John asked once more.
"To make sure everything is fine." Doc said.
"John is this your father?" Luna asked, "I could never find out any of his dreams, nor could I find any pony's dreams that proved they were your parents so excuse me asking."
"Well, Luna, if I wouldn't let you figure it out in my dreams then I guess I can't tell." John said
"John just answer her." I said, hoping for him to at least be truthful, "If you don't truthfully answer her I will."
"I let ponies know stuff if I know I can trust them with such knowledge. If my mind won't let her figure it out then something is up." John said, completely serious.
"John she looks in your mind to help you." I said.
"And it is possible that you just don't wish for any pony to see your thoughts. Candy it's alright." Luna said.
"Certain thought, horrific things, deaths of others, things that will haunt you for life, ponies being ripped apart, entire planets being destroyed. The usual." John said casually. Luna and I just stared and let our jaws hang down.
"What? It's normal, right?" John asked, confused.
"Not in Equestria John." Doc whispered.
"Oh, OH RIGHT! They don't have Daleks and all that other stuff!" John said. Luna and I just stood there, still staring.
"Wait you've told me about this, why am I surprised?" I said as I realized that.
John just laughed, "Stay out of my head." Luna however, was still staring. "She's the princess, shouldn't she know about these things?" John asked.
"She's a princess, and she hasn't faced anything quite as bad as entire planet being destroyed." I said to John, reminding him that he hasn't quite gotten used to the ways of Equestria yet, even though it's been over a year.
"Entire civilizations?" John asked.
"Up to entire empires, but not entire planets." I said.
"How were they destroyed?" John asked.
I decided to brave up since I've let it go, "My dad destroyed the entire empire, the rest were things such as Nightmare Moon, my mom, Discord."
"Did they rebuild everything? That must have taken a long time." John said.
"A thousand years." I said in return.
"Can we get off the subject of destruction?" Doc asked.
"Yes please." Luna said in return, "John, you and Candy go talk in the lab I have set up for you, while I talk to Doc here."
"I wish I could have tested J-7469." John said.
"You mean the robot we've been working on?" I asked as we limped to the lab.
"Yes, that." John said as we reached the door, "I am so close to getting the Cyber pony parts installed for everything to work properly!"
"Well," I opened the door, only to reveal a robot pony in the middle of the room, "I may have thought ahead."
John gasped. "J-7469! You're here!" He shouted.
"Yes master." I said in a robot voice.
"Oh hah hah, he won't sound like that, at least. I don't think so." John said. Then he mumbled something under his breath.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Nothing! Let's get to work." He said.
After about three hours J-7469 was ready to be tested. While John was preparing I was finishing up my own little project, an automatic shielding device, or ASD for short. It was programmed to automatically protect John, Doc, or I whenever danger comes. John was ready to test J-7469, so he called me over.
"Candy! It's ready! Get the lazers!" John yelled.
"I set them up already, start the test!" I yelled back.
"Alright, should I type the coordinates in normally or in my favorite Font?" John asked.
"Normally, just to be safe." I said.
"Fine." He said while typing in all of the codes and everything.
"Test run of J-7469 starting in ten! Nine! Eight!" I counted down, "Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One!!!" J-7469 started up as planned.
J-7469 started up.
"He works!" John shouted.
"J-7469, ready to serve and protect." J-7469 had a robotic voice, I had programmed him with the basics for the test run. "Microphone active, please state the following, how many owners do I obey?" the robotic pony asked.
"Two." I said.
"First owner stand in front of me." J-7469 said. I limped up and a scanner in J-7469's eyes scanned me. "Scan complete, first owner is Candy, changeling hybrid, timelord. Is this information correct and is this hologram the right pony?" A hologram of me came up from a projector I installed in J-7469's eyes.
"Yes." I said.
"Second owner stand in front of me." J-7469 said. John then limped up and got scanned himself. "Scan complete, second owner is John Rim, a timelord who is currently injured. Is this information correct and is the hologram the right pony?" J-7469 brought up a hologram of John, and John answered this time.
"Yes." he said plainly.
"Owners programmed, I am happy to serve you John and Candy." J-7469 kneeled.
"That is all the service we need, you may shut down." I said.
"Shutting down." J-7469 shut down after saying that.
"I don't like the bowing thing, can we fix that?" John asked, "And I want it to have a name. I hate labeling things with numbers. Maybe Cyber."
"Well that would explain you hating me call Holes by his assigned number. And I only programmed him to bow the first time so that I knew it was speaking to." I explained, "And I kind of thought ahead about the name thing since I can go a little deeper into your mind." I smiled and turned J-7469 on again.
"I am Cyber, your pony protector. Hello John and Candy." Cyber said. I had programmed it with a name after changing into John a couple of times.
"Stay out of my head." John said laughing, "Also, can we keep this lab?"
"On my break I asked Luna, and she said we could, and the cooler thing is in this lab I can experiment with some artificial intelligence and maybe some changeling tech so Cyber can be more pony-like!" I told John
"We're moving!" John said in excitement.
"Well...it IS a bigger space and Luna doesn't mind, and the space is better especially since there is a proper living area. I guess we're moving!" I smiled. I could see a bit of what John was thinking right then, but all it was was a bunch of decorative circles.
"No one can translate that into basic my dear." John said. I giggled a bit as I surprised John by teleporting all of our stuff into the room, all packed in fireproof boxes, and all ready to be unpacked.
"Fascinating, but I 'm still going to go back there later. To say goodbye." John said.
"Yea me too, we have had tons of memories there." I said, wiping away a small tear as I remembered all the good times.
"Don't cry." John said.
"I'm just remembering all of the times we spent in the old lab, it is kind of hard saying goodbye." I said, taking a deep breath.
"At least we won't be yelled at by Applejack anymore." John said.
"Yea, the lab is pretty close to her home!" I laughed.
"We stole her attic!" John laughed.
"Haha...haha...haha." Cyber startled us as we forgot he was still on.
"Cyber, you may shut down." I said.
"Shutting down." Cyber said as it shut down.
"Well, we have worked hard, you should get some rest." John said.
I smiled, "Good night John, along'sy." I yawned as I limped to bed.
"Along'sy too my love." John said as he limped out of the room to talk to Luna about something. A little while later, I fell asleep.
In morning I woke up only to hear John crashing around in the lab. I had turned on Cyber to keep watch so I knew I would be safe, so when Cyber came into my room I wasn't surprised.
"John is back Candy." Cyber said.
"Thank you Cyber." I said in reply, then I limped out to greet John. However, when I came out I saw John building a telephone box like thing on the other side of the room.
"John what are you doing?" I asked.
"I'm building a room," John replied, "two actually!"
"What for?" I wondered aloud.
"In case we want privacy, and I building them so big so that we can work in them as well!" John said.
"Well that's thoughtful of you John, thank you!" I said, limping to the special toaster I made after changing into Screwball a couple times, "Want a couple eggs, some pancakes, or just some toast as usual?"
"Nothing! Too full!" John said, "You've been having me eat food for the whole week!" He said, dangling off a high up poll by his back legs.
"Okay then!" I said hitting a button on the toaster making some eggs, orange juice, and pancakes appear, "I however am starving! I'm going to our living area to eat." I said as I started to limp to the half of the lab meant for us to have a place to live.
"I don't see the point of that place." John said, right before he fell, "OW!" he yelped.
"You okay?!" I asked as I placed my breakfast on a nearby table and limped over to John.
"I needed that." John said, rubbing his head.
"Oh come on, at least now you can know ONE good use for this living area!" I said, helping him up and taking him to the living space. I had customized it to fit our personalities. Welcoming, light pink wallpaper to fit mine, and to fit John's, steampunk themed furniture was everywhere. I took John to the bedroom with our individual beds, and pulled out a first aid kit from one of my many hiding spots. "I was able to customize it to have a LOT of hiding spots." I explained as I gave John a couple fresh bandages.
"I know, I went looking." John said.
"Looking for what?" I asked.
"For hidden stuff in the room and lab." John said.
"You mean things like your scanner?" I laughed as I pulled it out from a hiding spot, "I might have played a little joke on you."
"Oh no, I don't use that much anymore, however it does come in..." he said before he started mumbling.
"John don't think that I don't hear you, what are you mumbling about?" I asked as I finished bandaging his back left hoof.
"Nothing important." John said.
"Please tell me." I said, hoping for an answer.
"Sorry, but no. But if you can read something not from this solar system, then you can try my mind." he said, I knew he had problems far outside of Equestria, so I didn't ask.
"Got it, one of those things. Hey did I tell you that Doc is coming by later today?" I said, suddenly remembering the note Cyber woke me up to read in the middle of the night.
"When would you have told me?" John asked.
"I would have told you after I woke up, if you didn't surprise me by making those rooms causing me to forget." I laughed, "Sorry I didn't bring it up earlier." I apologized.
"It's fine, but i have a feeling that he is here now." John said, looking at the door to the lab. I opened my mouth to speak but Doc suddenly appeared in the middle of the room.
"Cloaking, it helps a lot." Doc said.
"Oh hi Doctor!" I greeted, "Want some tea? I can make some!" I offered.
"I wouldn't want to bother you my dear." Doc said politely.
"Well I wanted some anyways, so the offer still stands!" I said as I limped over to the special toaster.
"Well, if it wouldn't bother you." he said, I then pressed a button on the toaster, and the attachment for drinks started to squirt out some blueberry tea into two mugs.
"Hi dad!" John said.
"Informal now?" Doc replied.
"Just focused." John said, climbing back up and working on the rooms once more.
"He's adding some rooms for us if we ever need some alone time." I explained, limping over with a tray that held the mugs of tea.
"Have you not looked in his head and seen what is really going on?" Doc asked.
"Oh right I didn't tell you, some ponies have certain parts of their minds locked off to me." I explained, "Like secrets. So John has a lot of spots that he doesn't wish me to see. I've grown used to it, he says that it's for my own safety."
"What about thoughts, can you not read those?" Doc asked me as he took his tea.
"I've learned a spell to, but if the pony wants it locked off I can't read it. Not to mention I don't like using it too often." I said, taking a sip of my tea afterwards.
"I didn't teach him how to lock thoughts, so if you want to see what he is thinking just try that spell." Doc said.
"Locking thoughts isn't something that can be taught. It's something that just happens." I explained, "If the pony really wants it to be secret, it gets locked from me."
"Odd." Doc said, sipping his own tea.
"Indeed." I said, jokingly imitating Doc.
"Try his memory using this amplifier, it will allow you to break through the lock, however. He does know an ancient language. So he might he have used that." Doc said, handing me something.
"No, that would be wrong." I said.
"I'll let you keep it just in case you feel like you need to know something but he won't tell you." Doc said, placing the device by my now cold breakfast.
"Thanks Doc. John be careful!" I yelled up, seeing that John was in the worst possible position.
"I'm fine!" John yelled, right before slipping and hanging from the metal beam by his original bandaged hoof, which started to bleed from suddenly being stuck in that horrible position, "OW!!!!!!" John screamed. I gasped as I dropped my tea, the mug shattering on the ground. I flapped my bandaged wing, and flew up to John, I moved the beam just enough to send John crashing down to the floor, but right before he made contact I changed into Rainbow Dash and caught him, flying him to his bed as quickly as I could. However what I didn't notice when I changed back and was getting out the first aid kit, was that Doc had watched all of it.
"Hmmmm, I'm surprised he can take this much and still not have his heart fail." Doc remarked. I then noticed a spot on his chest starting to turn a faded blue, appearing to lack oxygen. I realized right then that John's heart on his right side was failing.
"DOC!!!! HELP HIM!" I yelped, holding back my panic attack the best I possibly could.
"Put him over there." Doc said calmly while pointing to the couch, he then waved some sort of blue metal stick and John's chest was back to normal, I then limped over to check of a pulse. I was relieved to feel his heart beat. I then picked up John on my back, and carried him back to his bed as I continued to put fresh bandages on his hoof.
"Will he be okay Doc" I asked, turning to face Doc.
"He should be." Doc said in return. He looked at John, who was moaning in his sleep. "Well, I must be off, and remember, if you want to know anything. Just use that device."
"I'm sorry your visit had to be filled with that much chaos, I guess John just got carried away." I said, and changed into Screwball imitating her for fun, "Or maybe I had something to do with it!"
Doc laughed, "Goodbye!" he said, teleporting out of the room. John woke up right afterwards, rubbing his head.
"What happened?" John asked.
"This is why you don't get in those situations, especially injured!" I said, "I was worried sick, your right heart gave out!!" I found myself crying as I limped next to John.
"I'm fine now, that's all that matters." John said. He struggled to get out of bed, and his freshly bandaged hoof was still tender, causing him to fall onto his knees.
"John you are not fine! You're hurt, and if I was just a little quicker..." I started to cry some more, thinking about any other possible way I could have stopped the accident. I had been helped a little by myself because I knew later tonight I would be traveling back in time to hopefully stop it.
"It can't be prevented. We can't change time or anything." John said. I decided right then and there to travel back in time earlier than intended.
"Be right back." I said, getting my device and putting in the time as quickly as I could, I pressed the button before John had a chance to stop me.
I appeared in the middle of it all, I secured John as my past self flew John into the other room as Rainbow Dash, I tossed all that my past self knew she'd need out of the hiding spot and onto the bed, and once she nodded to me, I pressed the button and appeared by John's bed in my own time, just before Doc walked into the room in the past.
"Anything different?!" I asked, hoping I had made John's injuries less severe. Nothing had changed. I broke down sobbing, "I SHOULD HAVE BEEN FASTER!!!"
"YOU CAN'T JUST GO AROUND CHANGING TIME CANDY!" John scolded, "IT COULD HAVE SEVERE CONSEQUENCES!!! I-" John stopped yelling as he started breathing heavily, he had the outburst that he had tried to hold back ever since he'd been injured.
I went into a full on panic attack, I saw not one, but two faded blue spots on John's chest. I ignored my still throbbing bandaged wing, and flapped it frantically as I started to hover. I grabbed John and put him on my back. I had never flown anywhere so quickly in all my life!
"It'll be okay." I kept repeating as I flew through the Everfree forest as Rainbow Dash, keeping John on my back. We were almost to my little spot in the forest, when I ran into Doc's door. I changed back without knowing and held the now very bloody spot on my nose. I looked back to see the unconscious John on the ground, with only a couple scrapes. Right then, Doc opened the door, but before he could talk, I wailed, "HELP HIM, PLEASE!!!" I couldn't handle it anymore, I nudged John towards Doc, hoping to help at all.
"Bring him in, but you wait out here, this might be harder than last time." Doc said calmly. I did as he said.
It had been almost nine hours, I had heard screams, John's screams. I was so worried that I hadn't even noticed my bleeding bandaged wing. I was limping around Everfree, hoping, wishing, preying.
After the eleventh hour passed, Doc came out.
"He'll be fine, this time I will keep him here until he's better, you may visit him if you," I cut Doc off as I wrapped my arms around him tightly.
"Thank you!" I whispered as I started to weep into his shoulder.
"It's alright Candy. I am his father, so it is kind of my job." Doc said.
"It was my fault...this was all my fault. I was the one who made him yell, I was the one who...who," I was cut off by Doc.
"It's alright. You were probably just trying to help." Doc said.
"I was trying to stop his injuries. I traveled back in time, hoping to do what I now know is possible. I wanted to....change time." I was sobbing now, soaking Doc's shoulder.
"You can't change time, even if you think it would be right to. I have seen many terrible things, I have seen planets destroyed, civilizations burned, friends lost all because of me. But I can't go back in time and stop that. Because I know that more bad will come out of it then good. ." Doc explained as he turned my head so I would face him, "John knows that as well as I do, that's why he got upset."
"But..." I sniffled as I pushed Doc's hoof out from under my chin, "John changed time...and it was changed for the better. He changed...my future. Yet he refuses to tell me what to, but he says it's the best possible outcome." I was still crying, but slightly less now.
"I know what he did, but he changed something in the present. He changed his current timeline. He made sure that you wouldn't die after getting the second heart." Doc said, "So that you could live. The original timeline was where you would die, but he changed that."
"But still, he changed time...to help me. I wanted to..." I saw the point Doc was trying to get across as I was talking, "I understand now." I sniffled, suddenly noticing my injuries. "OW!" I yelped.
"Are you alright Candy?" Doc asked in concern.
"On my way here I...AUGH!" I fell onto my knees, feeling the injuries kick in.
"Here, let's go inside so I can help." Doc said, picking me up on his back and carrying me inside.
"Thank you...for everything." I hugged Doc while he carried me.
"No problem." Doc said.
After Doc had fixed me up, I was thankful to see the only permanent injuries were only the ones that were permanent in the first place. I had been sleeping for quite a while as well, hoping for some peaceful rest after all of that. Luckily Doc was happy to give it to me. After waking up, I saw Doc in the main room with me, just working on something. I pretended to remain asleep only as an excuse to do something that I enjoyed doing in my free time, I changed into John and hugged my doll that I teleported there right before I fell asleep. I whispered something into the doll's ear, just loud enough for Doc to hear.
"Along'sy." I whispered to the doll, I could tell Doc was watching because I heard him chuckle. That was when I changed back, with my doll.
"So, John taught you that word eh?" Doc said, I could tell he knew I was awake.
"Yea," I said sitting up and hugging my doll, "though I think he uses it for a different purpose than you."
"Well, it is a real word, but I say it a lot. It is french for let's go. But I'm curious what he uses it for." Doc said.
"He uses it to say...I love you." I felt myself blushing widely, revealing what John had told me to his dad.
"Well, I'm glad that that is not the real word then," Doc chuckled a little.
"What?" I didn't understand quite what Doc meant.
"I say that to a lot of others. So I'm glad that it only really means let's go." Doc explained.
"Oh!" I giggled, knowing what Doc meant.
"Well, John is in the room with a brown door, you can go visit him if you wish." Doc said.
"While I would like to, it hurt just to sit upright. I'd rather lie down right here and rest some more." I said, sliding back down to the floor gently.
"As you wish." Doc said, allowing me to rest.
When I woke up, I found that John was up making some tea, and Doc was nowhere to be seen. I tried to sit up, but my injuries were still recovering.
"OW!" I yelped in pain.
"Careful, you could hurt yourself." John said calmly.
"I was just trying to sit up, I guess I expected it not to hurt. Where's Doc?" I asked, curious about where he was.
"I don't know." John said. I got kind of worried.
"I thought he was checking on you but, AH!" I had lifted my bandaged hoof, which was still really sore.
"Don't move." John said.
"It's hard not to..." I said, starting to cry only a little.
"Then just don't move." John said.
"I...okay." I just stayed on the ground where I was lying.
"See, much easier than not moving. Also, would you like some tea?" John asked.
"Blueberry tea if you can please." I requested from the spot on the ground.
"I think I can manage that." John said.
In a few minutes I was sipping some blueberry tea on the floor next to John. Eventually John decided to break the silence that had taken place.
"Words." John said. I giggled.
"More words!" I said in reply.
"Wordy words." John said in a serious voice. I laughed loudly, making myself bounce in the process.
"OW!" I exclaimed, as I stopped bouncing.
"Are you alright?" John asked.
"I'm fine, in my rush to get you here I had flown so fast, and got caught on many branches. I didn't realize I had hurt myself so much until after I knew you would be okay." I explained.
"You shouldn't worry so much about me that you forget to worry for yourself." John said.
"I know, it's just," I held back some tears, "you would've died otherwise."
"Try to stay calm Candy." John said.
"Right, sorry. I forgot for a second." I said, honestly forgetting that I was a time lord as well.
"It's alright." John said.
"How do you stay so calm?" I wondered aloud.
"Well I don't entirely." John said
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I do stay calm, however, it comes with a price. I keep everything inside, my sadness, my anger, my pain, all of it. However, it affects me mentally." John said.
"But doesn't it all eventually become too much to hold back?" I asked.
"It does, that's why sometimes I'm not around." John said.
"I see...I don't know if I'll be able to do that." I said, a little worried.
"Well, you won't have to. I only need to because of the things I have seen or experienced." John said bringing me a refill of tea, "So that gives you plenty of time to do nothing."
"I guess I'll have to try not to get bored." I giggled.
"Oh don't worry, you won't." John said.
"Huh?" I asked.
"I've found it hard to be bored in the TARDIS, even if you are just doing nothing." John said.
"Okay then. I'll trust you." I said.
"Especially with Doc around, always talking about science, and the occasional trip through time and space." John explained. I laughed, knowing that Doc does talk a lot.
"Hey where is Doc?" I said, realizing that Doc was still gone, "He's been gone a while."
"Oh I just remembered where he is! You must have been asleep, we are currently on a different planet. He is doing some stuff, I think it is called Hurala." John said.
"Wait, what?!" I exclaimed, trying to keep my cool.
"Don't worry, we're in the TARDIS, we'll be fine. As for Doc, He has lived for around 900 years, he'll be fine as well." John said
"Wait, WHAT?! THEN HOW OLD ARE YOU?! AUGH!!!" I had hopped up and instantly fell down, landing on my bandaged hoof and hurting my bandaged wing.
"Well, if you are going to start doing that then it's best I tell you later. Here is your tea, I will be back soon." John said as he walked to one of the hallways.
"John..." I groaned, holding my now bleeding bandaged wing. I had landed on my side, and my bandaged wing got caught under one of my hooves. It made me stretch it too much.
"Yes? Oh my!" John said as he saw my wing, "Don't worry, I'll get the supplies." John said as he rushed to the first aid kit.
"Ugh..." I held my wing tighter, waiting for John.
"Here." John said as he fixed up my wing, "Is that better?"
"Sort of." I said, still in pain, "Thanks."
"No problem." John said, "Now you stay here, drink your tea, and get some rest."
I sighed as I curled up in my little spot on the floor, "John, one more question."
"Mm? What's that, my dear?" John asked.
"What time is it? I don't know if it's evening or morning or what!" I laughed.
"In the TARDIS, it's whatever time you want it to be." John said with a smile.
"In that case, goodnight John, and along'sy." I said, starting to fall asleep.
"Alongs-y." John said, right before falling down and falling asleep. I giggled right before falling asleep myself.
When I woke up, John was gone. I assumed he went to another room, but something told me I should go look for him. I went into one of the hallways, and it was the longest hallway I had ever seen!!! On my left was a brown, metal door, and the surrounding wall was covered in circles.
"Well I usually see colorful circles when changing into John," I thought out loud, "maybe that's his room!" I opened the door.
I found a bed, wood cabinets with three containers, the top two tables stuff and more stuff. The bottom one had nothing on it, in the corner I saw a toy metal pony with a winder in its back, and some paper on the walls with the decorative circles I saw in his head, but each one different. This HAD to be John's room, I couldn't guess what else it would be. the whole room was grey, and metal. It had brown carpeting on the floor.
"Well, John isn't here, better check the next room." I thought out loud, I then saw a blue door that wasn't there before, however, when I went to open it I found it was locked. I decided to go back to the main room to wait for John or Doc.
Once I entered the main room I saw Doc standing there.
"Oh hi Doc!" I said, happy to see him.
"Hi, do you know where John is?" Doc asked. I just remembered why I left my spot.
"I thought he might be in another room, or maybe even out with you." I explained.
"Is he not?" Doc asked.
"Not that I've seen, but you know your way around here and I've only been in one room." I laughed.
"A little question, is your time machine missing?" Doc asked me.
"Of course not! It's right over, WHERE IS MY TIME MACHINE?!" I was shocked to see that the edge that once held my time machine, was empty.
"Then we know where is is. He should be fine, it's only a time machine, and he knows the rules of time travel." Doc said in what sounded to be a bit of a relieved tone. I was about to ask what he was talking about, when John fell on top of my still sore body. He was crying, hugging me, and muffling something into my back, and a bit damaged, but no bleeding. All I could do, aside from moan from the pain, was think to myself. What had he done??
When I finally managed to get a couple words out, they were, "John....please get off of me." I said, still moaning and starting to cry from my own pain. John got off but was still hugging and crying into me. "What...happened??" I managed to ask him still hurting a lot. He just hugged me tighter and talked into me. It was too muffled for me to understand him, "What happened John??" I asked again, using my free hoof to rub my head. He just kept on sobbing and hugging me. I knew I wasn't getting anything out of him this way, so I looked up at Doc, "Help....me." I muttered.
"I don't know how, but obviously it has something to do with you and your time machine." Doc said, "He hasn't done this before."
I face hoofed myself, "No, I mean get him off please." I said, getting annoyed at his hugging causing me so much pain.
"Oh, well I can try." Doc said, then he pulled out a shot and it knocked out John. That gave Doc enough time to pull John off of me. I moaned from the pain, relieved that it was over. I felt guilty, however, from having Doc take John away when he was obviously upset. After a minute of me moaning and John knocked out, I heard John whimper and say my name. He then went on to say something that scared me a little.
"Not Candy..." He moaned, while starting to cry again. I shuddered, what had John seen??
"If you want Candy I can take him to his room." Doc offered.
"No...I think he's fine out here with me." I said.
"I'm sorry..." John mumbled, still crying, and still asleep.
"Actually...I think he needs to be out here with me." I said, curling up next to him on the floor.
After about an hour, I woke up to John starting to wake up next to me. I had fallen asleep myself, hugging him. I wasn't as sore as before, but something told me I'd be getting into a world of hugs and pain soon.
"John, you awake?" I asked him.
"Candy!! You're alive!!!" John exclaimed as he hugged me tightly and cried into me. I was shuddering, and John noticed. "The dreams...were real." John said.
"What...did you see??" I asked.
"Your nightmares, with the masked one, they were real, but not real. You died, I saw you die so many times." John said. I thought for a second, but then it hit me.
"You....saw me in the rainbow factory.....didn't you." I said, shuddering even more. I remembered exactly what happened that night, how I had to leave behind every pony there except for Starburst in order to escape. It was horrible.
"Separate timelines! They were multiple timelines! In some of them I killed you. In some of them you died. It was terrible! Please, don't use that thing again!" John sobbed into me.
"John...listen to me," I tried holding back tears from the awful memories, but it was a fight I was losing, "all of the timelines you saw, weren't even close to what I experienced for real...but I made it out." I sighed, knowing what I had to do to show John why I was having those nightmares. I grabbed John's hoof, and before he could stop me, entered the date and location, and pressed the button.
We appeared in one of the empty offices on the top floor of the factory, luckily I had installed a cloaking device on my machine, so no pony could see nor hear us unless we took off the cloaking feature.
"Candy, that thing is a timeline jumper, not a time machine, that's why when you tried to stop my injuries nothing changed! Please, take us back home." John pleaded. I was puzzled, but when I opened my mouth to say something, I heard a commotion from the main area. I went over to the window, and I instantly knew it was the right timeline.
"John, look." I pointed out the window, and after John came over, he saw it all happen. I was in Sunburst's form, next to Starburst and a guard. When the guard looked towards the kid who was in the machine, I looked around and changed into a different guard. I then gave Starburst a potion that allowed her to change into a guard temporarily, and after she drank it she changed into another guard. By the time we reached the window Starburst's potion had worn off, and a guard flew up to us as quickly as possible. We made it out just in time, and the guard went back to work.
"This is what I agreed to help?" John said after watching it all unfold.
"In my dream...yes." I started to cry after pressing the button and returning us to the tardis.
"Not just in the dream, multiple versions of me agreed to this." John said. I was so upset after seeing that horrible memory that I didn't even hear John. I hugged John tightly as I sobbed into him.
"Candy, I need you to stay here." John said. All I did was hug him tighter, before he teleported out of the room.
I stayed in the tardis, just sobbing for what seemed like hours. Doc later came in and saw that I was obviously upset.
"Candy, why are you crying?? Where's John?" Doc asked.
"John, Rainbows, thought, I, him, evil, LEFT!" I sobbed, not even sure what I said.
"Candy calm down, what happened?" Doc asked. I could not get a hold of myself, those memories were just flooding back. It was too much for me to handle, I would not stop crying. "Do you know where John could have gone?" Doc asked with a sigh.
"Don't, know." I sobbed.
"What direction did he go in?" Doc asked
"Teleported." I sobbed harder, simply falling apart on the floor.
"Then we need to head back to Ponyville." He said. I didn't move, I was torn apart. I saw myself once again, leave behind all those innocent fillies and colts just to save myself and my friend. I knew it would haunt me, I knew it was horrible, but I did it. All I did, was sob. It was nonstop, I couldn't stop crying, and the one pony who knew what to do, wasn't here. I heard a really weird sound, Doc was in the center of the room near the controller type thing, doing something, but I didn't care. I wailed, just ashamed of myself. I didn't deserve to know John, I didn't deserve to be Luna's student, I didn't even deserve to have escaped from my mom.
Once the weird noise stopped, Doc picked me up and carried me outside. I didn't stop sobbing, even when I heard a loud boom come from the sky.
"Candy, why is there a huge cloud with rainbows on fire and falling from the sky?" Doc asked.
I managed to sob two words in response, with a bit of terror in my voice, "Sonic.....Rainboom." The whole cloud then exploded, and two things came flying towards us, a worker from the rainbow factory, and what looked like a small filly or colt. I managed to stop sobbing once I saw them, I hopped off of Doc's back and ran as quickly as possible behind a nearby tree. The worker and the colt both landed, the worker landed harder, and when I looked to see who the colt was, I gasped. It was John. John started to attack the worker, and turned everything into an all out fight.
"YOU DID THIS TO HER!!!" John shouted at the worker, "YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!!!!!" I just stared, but after realizing what John meant I knew I had to do something.
"Alright ENOUGH!!!!!!" I screamed, turning into my rage form, I limped out from behind the tree to see the worker just standing there, staring. John was doing the same, however, when John saw the worker was distracted, he pulled out a tube like thing with tiny bars around it. Then he pointed it at him, and it began to charge a blue light at the tip of the end pointed at the worker. I didn't want any pony else to be hurt, especially after all that I caused. I jumped in between John and the worker, changed into Starburst, and cast a shielding spell, saving the worker and getting injured myself.
"NO!" John shouted. Before he dropped the thing and ran over to me. "The shield prevented death, but she is badly injured. I need to get her to the hospital!" John shouted.
"John..." I had changed back, and looked over at the worker. I saw that he had thanked me, but I blacked out after.
I woke up in a hospital bed, with John and Doc standing next to me, talking about something. My moaning brought John's attention to me.
"Are you alright Candy?" John asked me, sounding concerned.
"Ugh what happened?" I asked, almost instantly after asking that I remembered everything, and started to cry some more. I knew I saved some pony, but I also knew I had left so many behind. I had another chance, but I used it to save a worker pony, not any of the other fillies or colts.
"I caused this. I did this!" John shouted as he pounded the wall hard
"J-J-John..." I stammered, doing my best to hold my tears back, "i-it wasn't y-y-your f-f-fault...I should h-h-have r-r-realized this s-s-sooner....I REALLY AM EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I sobbed freely now, just absolutely falling apart.
John mumbled something into the wall, he then put a hoof on me. I calmed down as soon as I felt his touch, I put my hoof over his as he said, "I'm sorry." He then took his hoof away, pointed the device from before at his head, and the blue tip lit up. I knew it was charging up.
"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I shouted.
Stopping the Madness, to Discover Even More
"NO!!!!!!!!!!!" I shouted. Doc heard me shout, and turned to look at John once more, he had been watching me until now.
"JOHN!" Doc shouted as he quickly grabbed his hoof and pointed the blaster up, it fired and went through the ceiling, leaving a big hole, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?"
"John this is not your fault....I'm the monster, not you!" I exclaimed.
"You didn't kill anyone. I just slaughtered so many." He said tearing up.
I couldn't stand anymore of this, "WELL YOU DIDN'T HAVE A CHANCE TO SAVE ALL THOSE INNOCENT PONIES!!!!! I WAS ONLY CONCERNED ABOUT MYSELF AND MY FRIEND, YOU WANTED TO STOP THE MADNESS, I WANTED TO SAVE MYSELF!!!! YOU ARE NOT THE MONSTER, I AM!!!! I'M THE EVIL ONE!!!!!! IT'S ALL MY FAULT, NOT YOUR'S MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I was in rage mode, but not because I was mad at John, I was mad at myself. I broke out sobbing, not stopping.
"YOU DIDN'T LET THE ONLY FAMILY YOU KNOW DIE!" John shouted, and after he did I felt something click. "YOU DIDN'T LET CIVILIZATIONS BURN WHILE JUST WATCHING!" Then something else clicked. "YOUR PEOPLE DIDN'T START A WAR!" He shouted, then something clicked in Doc, all three felt like something unlocked, then I realized that those were the locked parts in John's mind, and with Doc the war, I now had the abilities to view what happened. My eyes widened as I changed into John, and viewed exactly what happened. I changed back, tearing up again. I didn't know what John had gone through, and now I knew why he acted the way he did. I had no idea at first, but after seeing it all, this is worse than I thought.
"John...." I said shakily, "I'm so sorry...I didn't realize all that you went through was THAT bad. And your parents...and Doc....I'm so sorry...I had no idea." I was tearing up once again, awaiting John's response.
"And they wonder why I hate Spike." John chuckled a bit, trying to lighten the mood. I smiled, wiping away a tear.
"John...I...Along'sy." I said as I got up and hugged him tightly.
"I know you hate your mom, because she is evil. But be happy you still have one, even if she is evil, she still loves you." John said with a sigh.
"John...to tell the truth she doesn't REALLY love me." I said, holding back more tears.
"What do you mean?" John asked.
"She saw how special my sister was, so she looked into what she was going to be like in order to manage me, so when I came along she'd have her own little evil brat to take over one day." I explained, starting to tear up, "I am not her daughter, I am her little princess."
"I'm so sorry." John said.
"You didn't know." I said, remembering how John and I compared our parents in the past. I then blacked out.
When I woke up, it seemed as if nothing happened, but then I realized that John and Doc were on the floor, waking up themselves.
"Ugh...guys? What just happened??" I asked, feeling a bit light headed.
"I don't know, nothing has changed, and we aren't anywhere new." Doc said. I rubbed my head, knowing that something was up.
"Unless you can find anything off John." Doc asked.
"I don't see any thing different." John said in a slightly lower voice.
"Ugh my head..." I said, nursing my headache.
"Are you feeling alright Candy?" John asked
"I'm...fine, I just need some rest. And maybe a cup of tea, can you please get the nurse John?" I asked politely
"I'm the nurse." John said.
I rubbed my headache, it hurt too much for me to giggle, "Ugh....yeah yeah that's fine...please get me some tea John." I said, doing my best to stay my regular, polite, happy self. I found it hard to remain polite and happy though.
"Okay." John said.
"Thanks." I groaned, feeling almost annoyed.
After a little while John came back with my tea, I had gotten irritated, complaining about how long it was taking to Doc unknowingly, only to have Doc catch me in the act, showing me what I was doing.
"Finally!" I said, not knowing that I even said it.
"Candy are you alright? You seem a bit on edge." John said, showing me that I had said my thoughts.
"Oh well look who wised up!" I said, still not knowing what I was saying.
"Hmm." Doc said.
"Ugh! The headache! Can I have my tea now?!" I said, still not realizing how rude I was being.
"Sure." John said as he gave me my tea. I took a small sip and already felt the headache getting a bit better.
"Mmm this is delicious! What flavor is it John?" I said, now knowing what I was saying.
"Apple pie flavored." John said.
"How did you know apple pie is my favorite? It's excellent!" I said happily.
"Yes John, how did you know?" Doc asked suspiciously.
"Lucky guess." John replied
"Well it's just what I needed!" I said as I finished the tea.
"Excellent." John said, although the happy feeling didn't last long, because my headache came back right then and there.
"Ugh...my head again, why won't it go away?!" I said, getting irritated once more. John mumbled a bit. "Ugh will you please be quiet!" I said, not thinking once more. I thought normally as soon as I noticed that John had a green circle underneath him and the green magic surrounded him, similar to when a changeling changes. When it stopped, all that was left was this robotic pony type figure, which had it's hoof lifted up.
On it's hoof were two circle things, that were pointed at me and started to light up as he said, "Delete, delete, delete." over and over again.
"CYBERPONY!" Doc shouted as he picked me, put me on his back and ran out of the hospital to the train.
"Doc what's going on?!" I asked, rubbing my head.
"I don't know everything, but I do know that John is missing, and that you have something that can help him." Doc explained.
"But...wait, John is missing?!" I asked, a bit concerned at this point.
"He was in that room before we blacked out, then he was replaced by that cyberpony. But I don't know how it disguised itself as John." Doc said. I didn't know what to say, all I could do was whimper, and cry a little on Doc's back. Doc then tapped my back, and when I looked up, I stopped crying. John was running out of the Everfree Forest, towards us.
"Doc, I escaped the cyberponys and then transmitted out of the area, probably to their ship." John explained.
"John! You're okay!" I said happily, not wanting to get off of Doc's back. I was too sore that I didn't want to move.
"I can see that you are still to weak to move. Doc can carry you, it will make you transport quicker." John said.
"John...you seem, different." I said, noticing the slight change in John's tone.
"I am just concerned that the cyberponys will return, I can not afford to bother with my tone." John said sounding irritated.
"Okay." I said, unsure of why John was talking this way.
"Let's get to Canterlot so we can rest and so I can work." John remarked.
"Okay, I need some sleep anyways." I said.
"I know. You won't be of help without it." John said.
"Help? But John you know I'm too weak right now." I said, once again rubbing my head.
"I know this." John said, growling.
"John are you okay? You seem irritated about something." I said, worried about John.
"Peachy." John said, glaring at me.
"Hey Doc, mind if I ask you something, in private?" I asked politely.
"Why of course Candy," Doc said, "John, can you give us a bit of alone time so we can talk please."
"Why are you being so nice to a bloody bug?!" John said, more irritated than ever. This hurt me so much, more than anything in the world.
"What happened to you....what did you do with the John I know." I whispered, almost unable to speak at all.
"He never cared for you anyway." John said, before turning into the cyberpony from before and teleporting away. I just flopped over on Doc's back, and cried. Doc simply took me to Canterlot, not saying another word.
In Canterlot, I was at the point where I was sobbing, and Doc noticed after we got in the lab.
"Candy, they were lying. He does love you, and always will." Doc said.
"I...I know....it's just, what if he get's hurt? What if they do something to him? I DON'T WANT TO LOSE HIM!!!" I sobbed freely at this point, not holding anything back anymore.
"They will probably upgrade him like everyone else." Cyber said.
"NO THEY WON'T THEY'LL KILL HIM I JUST KNOW IT!!! I DON'T WANT TO LOSE JOHN!!!!!!!!!" I sobbed, not having much of a grasp on myself anymore.
"They do not kill the prisoners, they upgrade them, when they upgrade pony's, they turn them into on of them. However, on occasion they just use them for data, or torture." Cyber explained.
"You aren't helping Cyber." Doc said, while I wailed on the floor of the lab.
"New mission objective downloaded" Cyber suddenly said. I wasn't paying attention, I was too lost in tears. Then out out the sides of Cyber's legs little thrusters came out and he hovered, then the same thing that the first cyberpony had came out of its left hoof. Then he flew out of the room. I just sighed, most of my sobbing had stopped.
"Now I don't even have Cyber." I said, my colors were darkened, and my eyes were a deep blue instead of red. Doc noticed this.
"Candy are you alright?" Doc asked, I got up and turned around, revealing my now blue eyes to him.
"No." I said plainly, limping towards my bedroom.
"Why did your colors change?" Doc asked
"It happens when I'm depressed." I said sadly.
"Oh. I can't entirely help, I don't know what to do." Doc said. I simply flopped face first into my bed, and wailed into my pillow as I started to sob once more. "If you tell me what I can do to help I can do it." Doc offered. I ignored him, and just sobbed freely into my now soaked pillow. "Well then. I will go make some tea." Doc said.
It had been about a week, I didn't sleep, rarely ate, mostly wept. Suddenly, in the middle of the day, the disaster alarms went off all over Canterlot. I poked my head up from my fifth soaked pillow, and saw Doc running around the lab doing....something.
"Candy, John and Cyber are coming back, in that ship." He said as he pointed to the window.
"J-J-John??? And C-Cyber??" I said, tearing up again. I ran over to the window to see a ship falling out of the sky headed towards the town on fire and heavily damaged, Then both Celestia and Luna burst into the lab.
"What's going on!?!" They shouted in unison.
"I...I d-d-don't know." I sniffled.
"I do!" Doc shouted excitedly.
"THIS IS NO MATTER FOR US TO BE EXCITED!! OUR CITY IS IN DANGER AND ALL YOU'RE DOING IS WAVING YOUR HOOF IN THE AIR LIKE A SCHOOL COLT!!!!!!" Luna shouted in her royal Canterlot voice.
"I'm being polite, and this is a time for joy for me and probably Candy as well." Doc said, when all of the sudden, something crashed through the window and hit me in the head.
"I wonder what that could be." He looked at it and opened it and read it out loud, "Along'sy! Love John." Doc said.
I got up, tears filling my eyes, and my colors changing back to normal, "Along'sy too John." I said, almost unable to speak because of how happy I was.
"I don't know if he means that one, but I haven't time to explain." Doc said. I was about to ask what he meant, but I then realized exactly what he meant. I flew out the window, towards the crashing ship, and all I heard behind me was Doc shouting, "CANDY DON'T!"
I never got inside the ship, it crashed right before I got in. I wasn't fazed by any of it though, I was focused on finding John.
"ALONG'SY!" I heard a familiar British voice shout, right before I saw John and Cyber blast out of the glass part of the ship. "DELETE THAT YOU TIN CANS!" He shouted while flying to the ground below.
"JOHN!!!" I shouted happily upon seeing him.
"Candy?!?" He shouted, sounding confused. "Is that you?" He asked as he hopped onto a hovering Cyber and closed his wings.
"JOHN YOU'RE OKAY!!!" I shouted excitedly, happy tears streaming from my eyes as I ran towards John and Cyber.
"Well, Sort of, I have a bit of blindness for a certain amount of time. But Don't worry, it'll last as long as Han Solo's if I'd have to guess right!" He said. I had no idea what he meant, but I didn't care, I was just happy that John was alive. I wrapped my arms around John as tightly as possible, and cried onto his shoulder.
"Um, Candy?" John said, still confused.
"It is indeed Candy, master John." Cyber said.
"I feel like we are falling." John said, then I noticed that Cyber's thrusters had shut down. I opened my wings, shut cyber down entirely, held both John and Cyber tightly, and flapped as hard as possible. It was just enough to get us down to the ground gently.
"What happened?" John asked. I turned to Cyber and was breathing heavily. I had never felt like this before, it was different.
"GAH!!!!!!!" I yelped, as my black coat turned white, my red eyes turned gold, my green and red hair turned pink and blue, and my bat wings turned to fairy wings.
"Boba?" John asked.
"What did you say John?" I asked, I then realized that a cyberpony was right behind us, "LOOK OUT!" I screamed, grabbing one of John's blasters and shooting the cyberpony to pieces.
John pulled out a stick and asked, "Where?" Then he swung the stick and hit cyber. "Oh, 'Ello whatever you are!" John said.
"'Ello master John." Cyber said in return.
"Can you get me a black vest thing?" He asked Cyber.
"Sure master John, here you go." Cyber said.
"Thank you, and never tell me the odds!" John shouted before passing out. I knew I had to get John back to the lab.
"Cyber, take John and I back home please." I said, returning to my natural appearance.
"Yes master Candy." Cyber said after I finished repairing his thrusters.
Back at the lab, we were greeted by a worried Doc.
"Are you alright?!?" Doc asked.
"I'm fine...ugh!" I groaned, my injuries finally catching up with me. No permanent injuries, just a throbbing bandaged wing and bandaged hoof and scrapes and bruises all over.
"I'll handle Candy, you deal with John, Cyber." Doc said as he walked over to me.
"Yes Doc." Cyber said, I had programmed Doc as an emergency backup master for Cyber, just in case John and I are hurt or something.
"Ow...ugh, I am never going to heal am I?" I said, hurting all over.
"Oh no you will. It just will hurt for a while." Doc explained
"Ah...it hurts." I said, holding onto my front right hoof, which was now no longer bandaged. Doc had taken me into the bedroom and put me in my bed already at this point.
"Here, this will help." Doc said as he bandaged me up.
"Thanks Doc," I moaned, "can you see how John is doing over there?" I asked. Doc had Cyber put up one of those hospital curtains you see in between the beds, just in case John's injuries were more serious than we thought. Doc asked Cyber, and then opened the curtain to let me see John. He was just laying in the bed, doing nothing. I moaned, feeling another flash of pain in my usually bandaged wing, which Doc was about to work on. I saw that John turned his head slightly to face me.
"Candy, are you there?" John asked, still sounding a bit out of it.
I moaned, and said a weak, "Yes." I whimpered as Doc held my beaten up wing in his hoof.
"I need to ask you something." John said.
"What?" I said, holding my breath while Doc checked out the throbbing wing.
"First of all, are you alright? You sound like you are in a lot of pain." John asked.
"Doc is just checking out my wing, he took off the bandages." I explained, flinching as Doc examined it further.
"Doc, she'll be fine if you just put back the bandages! You can't help the permanent damage, and nothing you can do will help." John said pointing at a wall, hoping it was Doc.
"John...he isn't trying to fix it...he just wanted to know why it's permanent. To see if he can help in the future." I explained, as Doc bandaged my wing up.
"Okay then, I also need to ask you something else." John said.
"What?" I asked, Doc finally finishing up with bandaging my wing.
"Do I look good in this vest?" John asked.
I giggled, "Yes silly."
"Well then, I think I might keep it. Because I like it." John said.
"I was hoping those cyber dorks weren't you, that way when I can get out of bed I can hug you and mean it." I said.
"What?" John asked confused.
"Doc can you explain this one? I don't know how to describe it. Not to mention I was depressed most of the time." I asked Doc as he gave me my tea.
"I know what the Cyberponys did while I was a prisoner, I just didn't understand what you mean, your wording was odd." John said.
"Well, when they took you...they posed as you, and tried to make me hate you. Th-they called me a bloody bug, and said you would never l-love me." I said shakily.
"I know, they made me watch." John said sadly.
"Even after they left?" I asked, tearing up.
"No, after that they put me in a prison like cell, and after 6 days, I heard an alarm saying that we were under attack, then after a bit Cyber blasted into the room and rescued me, then we flew the ship back down to the ground, and before we crashed, a cyberpony blinded me with a white light, then you know the rest." John explained.
"Doc....can you explain what happened after the cyberponies left us." I asked, sipping my tea and holding back tears.
"All I know is that you were devistated." John said.
"Well, she went into depression for a whole week, until you got here." Doc explained.
"That's a bit long for the usual hour don't you think? John asked.
"Hour?" I said, confused.
"Nothing to worry about Candy." Doc said, shooting a glare at John, who couldn't see it.
"O-okay." I said, wondering why Doc seemed upset at John.
It had been a couple weeks, I was still very sore, but alive. I noticed that John was only just waking up.
"Good morning John." I said, moaning a little.
"I can see a bit!" John exclaimed
"Really? That's great!" I said, still a bit of moaning in my voice.
"Are you alright?" John asked.
"Doc did a number on my wing...I'll be fine but, it'll take a while to heal." I explained.
"Don't worry, it shouldn't hurt for too much longer." John said trying to reassure me.
"I hope so...because it hurts! I can't even get up thanks to my bandaged hoof." I said, a little irritated by my injuries.
"Now you have to do what I can only do." John said.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Do nothing! Or use your imagination!" John said.
"Okay then." I said.
After a couple hours of napping, eating, and playing with my hair, I heard something at the door. John had dozed off so I tried to wake him, after all he was the only one that was currently in the room who was able to stand up.
"John." I moaned, it seemed to get his attention.
"Yeah?" John said as he yawned.
"I think something is at the door, can you check it out please?" I asked politely.
"Sure." John said, as he got up. In a couple seconds I heard John at the door, "Oh! Hello Holes! How are you?" John asked.
"Holes??" I moaned loud enough for them both to hear me.
"Hey Candy." Holes said as he flew quickly into my room, breathing heavily. He was in his changeling form instead of Justin Singer's, and I also noticed that he was badly injured himself. John was still slightly blinded so I expected him to not notice this, I however, could see it perfectly.
"What happened?!" I exclaimed, still moaning slightly.
"The Queen found me again, and decided to be on the crueler side of things." Holes said, out of breath.
"She didn't!" I said, obviously knowing what she did.
"She did." Holes moaned, his injuries catching up to him.
"Ugh! My mom has gone too far this time!" I said, no longer moaning.
"What did she do?" John asked, I had forgotten he was still there.
"She reported Holes to the royal guard for posing as a celebrity!" I exclaimed, starting to glow red. I didn't move however, because I was still very sore.
"That's not all." Holes said, sounding very winded, "After I escaped some locals saw me, and I was forced to come here disguised as a guard just so I could escape." Holes was obviously exhausted, and I noticed that he had a slight limp as he came over to John and I.
"Holes, you are going to be staying with us until I say otherwise," John said, "and no buts."
"Don't have to tell me twice." Holes said, right before he fell on his side.
"I can try to talk to Luna, every pony knows I'm part changeling and is okay with it thanks to Luna. If I can get her to convince every pony that you're alright, you won't have to hide anymore." I said, as my red glow wore off.
"Thanks Candy, but for now I'm fine with staying right here." Holes said, still on the ground.
"Well good, because Luna knows as well as I do that I wish to be...oh no!" I had just realized that Luna would be sending guards to help John and I, "The guards! They will be helping John and I because John is temporarily blinded and I'm bed ridden until my injuries heal! True John's sight is recovering rather well, but Luna and Doc are still being safe while they work!"
"Candy...while I'm injured, I am still a changeling. I can pretend to be a guard when some pony knocks at the door." Holes explained.
"Oh...right." I laughed a bit, I had forgotten that Holes was a changeling.
"Now it's time for me to ask questions, what happened to you two?!" Holes exclaimed, still moaning himself.
"Long story, I'll explain later." I said, wishing not to go there for now.
"Okay, I need some rest anyways...do you have a first aid kit anywhere?" Holes asked, I saw that his front left hoof was at the point where some of the holes in his leg were unnatural.
"Hang on," I said as I teleported our first aid kit over to us, "here you go." I handed Holes the kit, with me as hurt as I am, and with John partially blind, Holes had to bandage up his injuries without help. All of the changelings were trained in first aid so that they could easily fix themselves up.
"Thanks Candy." Holes said before opening it and treating his injuries.
"Holes, I want you to go to my bed and rest, and I don't want you to change into any pony either, even if the guards come, I won't let them in the room. They are coming into Candy and my home, so they are required to follow our orders. I'll just tell them that Candy is asleep." John said in a very serious tone.
"Okay." Holes said, still treating his injuries.
"John can you try to help him into your bed, he is badly injured." I explained, knowing John didn't see them all too well.
"Sure." John said as he helped Holes up. Cyber also came in, I had programmed Holes and Luna as back up owners like I did with Doc, so Cyber knew Holes was good.
"Here." Cyber said, helping support Holes.
"Thanks." Holes said right after being placed in John's bed. It was right then and there that Doc teleported to the area by the front door.
"John, does your dad know about Holes?" I whispered, getting a bit nervous. Getting angry earlier had hurt me, not too much but still enough to do a number on me.
"No, well, sort of. When I found Holes, after he left Doc came over. But I didn't tell him that I found a changeling. So no he doesn't." John said.
"Now would either be a good time to tell him, or a good time to try to get ponies to leave us alone." I whispered.
"Ponies will leave us alone, at least they should." John said. "But hey, I always have a plan B."
"Then now is a good time to tell Doc!" I was starting to break my whisper at this point.
"How do I reach him?" John asked.
"He's in the lab area looking for us." I said, trying to whisper.
"Oh, wait. Gah, he has no respect for privacy does he." John said before stumbling out, "Doc!" John shouted.
"Yeah?" Doc asked.
"The cake is a lie!" John shouted.
"NOOOO!" Doc shouted jokingly.
"But I heard that there might be some on Raxacoricofallapatorius." John said.
"Then I'm off to Raxacoricofallapatorius!" Doc exclaimed before I heard a door shut and a weird sound.
"He's gone." John said right before there was another weird sound and I heard Doc again.
"You lied I spent two days there and no cake!" Doc said in a joking voice, "Now where is Candy? I want to say hello."
"Tell him John." I said from my bed, loud enough for him to hear, "Don't worry Doc is as nice as John." I whispered to Holes.
"Okay." Holes whispered.
"I'd beg to differ." John said in a shout whisper. "She's in here, and she's with a friend I had from when I was four. So don't be BLOODY MEAN!" John shouted.
"Alright, and why would I be mean to one of your friends?" Doc asked before coming into the room.
"Hey Doc." I said, moaning a little. Holes was hidden behind the curtain between John and my bed, so Doc didn't see him.
"Hi Candy. Wait, didn't you say there was a friend?" Doc asked.
"I can barely see, so how was I supposed to know." John said.
"John, open the curtains between the beds already!" I moaned, trying to keep my cool. I wanted some pony else there to make sure Holes was okay, which was why I wanted Doc to meet him.
"Where are they?" John asked.
"In front of you." I said.
"Oh, okay." John hesitantly pulled back the curtains to reveal the injured Holes.
"Hello." Holes moaned, not caring what Doc thought of him at that point.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you." Doc said, extending a hoof. Holes simply moaned.
"He's almost as badly injured as I am." I explained, moaning a little myself.
"Well do healing things hurt him as well?" Doc asked.
"No, just me because I'm a hybrid. He does need food however, but I can handle that part." I explained, teleporting my potion over to Holes so he could have some nourishment.
"Well then, I can help him with the injuries." Doc said. Holes just moaned some more. Then Doc injected him with a shot that healed him very quickly. "There we go!" Doc said happily.
"Thank you kind sir." Holes said as he got out of John's bed.
"I'm the Doctor, Johns dad. What's your name?" Doc asked.
"Well, to be honest before your son gave me my name I had a number, 10294 to be exact. Then your son came along and named me Holes, and I go by that now." Holes explained.
"Hmmmm. Did he by any chance find you in the snow?" Doc asked.
"Yes, how did you know?" Holes asked suspiciously.
"He told he found a black pony with holes in its legs, and that he named them Mr. Holes." Doc explained
"That was me." Holes said.
"Well, there is quite the bounty on you. I suggest you hide because some of Celestia's guards are coming to scout the area." Doc said. Holes then changed into a guard.
"Don't have to." Holes said.
"Do I get to do plan B?" John asked.
"No John, not this time." I giggled.
"Then what will we do? Because I have a feeling that Celestia doesn't trust you very much Candy." John said.
"John, I'm her sister's student and I know her personally." I explained.
"Well think about it, it was Celestia who personally sent her guards, you're more powerful than a normal changeling, and you live with me. She doesn't even know me, other than I was the one in the ship that destroyed quite a bit of her city." John said.
"Luna explained everything to her. I already talked to her about it and she understands that this is beyond her understandings. It's beyond MY understanding John!" I exclaimed, trying not to lose my cool.
"Fine, I'll let you all do what you want to do, I'm going to work on something." John said.
"Okay but be careful, remember that you're still partially blinded." I said as John exited the room.
"Don't worry, I don't know if it can blow up or not." John said. I just moaned, remaining completely calm. I had finally realized one way to remain calm when I need to, I was focusing on my injuries and nothing else.
"Well, I must be going off, if I leave it will help Holes with his hiding. Along'sy!" Doc said, right before he left.
"Where did I put that weapon?" John asked.
"John what are you doing?" I moaned.
"I'm working!" John said.
"What ARE you working on?!" Holes asked as the guard.
"Stuff." John said.
"John, I'm tired of secrets. Can you please just tell us." I moaned.
"Sorry dear but I can't tell you." John said.
"Why not?" I asked.
"You wouldn't let me make it if I told you." John said.
"I'll let you make it IF you tell me what it is." I said.
"A new blaster." John sighed.
"Well why didn't you simply tell me? I'm perfectly fine with it." I said, unfazed.
"Well then, let's hope nothing blows up!" John said.
"I've grown used to chaos at this point." I said plainly, "I finally found a way I can stay calm without holding back too many emotions."
John sighed, "You shouldn't have had to."
"John, it's alright. I would much rather live this present than the one I would have had if you hadn't found me." I explained.
"If you hadn't have met me then you wouldn't be so close to death so many times. You also wouldn't have deadly creatures chasing after you." John said with a bit of anger in his voice, "It's all my fault!" John shouted as I heard some crashing.
"John, if you hadn't met me I would still be struggling to stay hidden, left alone with no pony except for Starburst, AND most likely stuck in the hive with my mom by now, ordering changelings to kill ponies." I shivered, and yet was mostly unfazed. John was silent after that, "John are you alright?" I asked calmly. John remained silent, "Holes, may you please check on John?" I asked Holes, with a blank expression on my face.
"Sure." Holes said, still disguised as a guard.
After a couple minutes Holes came back, "He's fine...he's just drawing circles."
"Cyber, can you bring me to John please?" I asked as Cyber walked into the room.
"Sure thing master Candy." Cyber said, coming over to me and getting me on his back.
In the next room I saw that John was indeed just sitting there, drawing circles. "John, what is it?" I asked, just hanging over Cyber's back. However when I looked closer, I saw that John had tears streaming down his face. "Cyber, put me down next to John please, and let us have a little time alone." I whispered into Cyber's ear. Cyber nodded as he placed me next to John and exited the room. "John, this wasn't your fault at all. I wouldn't have this any other way." I leaned over and hugged John as he drew pictures, "If you think you're putting me in all this danger, think about this, would I have stayed with you if I didn't know what I was getting into?" John froze after I said that. He turned around shortly after and hugged me back rather tightly, but I didn't mind. "John I knew there would danger, I knew I would come close to death, but I also knew I would be much happier this way. I don't care if me being a time lord complicates things, and I also don't care that I will be put in danger. I only care about one thing through all of this, and it can be summed up in one word." I then turned John's head so that he'd face me, "Allong'sy." I smiled through my blank expression, obviously in pain from John's embrace.
John whispered something as he looked at me.
"It's okay." I said, bringing him back into the hug. John then surprised me by flying out of the lab entirely, but I stayed calm, I just moaned a little from suddenly flopping onto the floor. Cyber came in and brought me back to my bed with Holes in the room.
"Is he alright? I heard him crying a bit." Holes commented.
"He's fine, just upset." I said plainly. I then heard some sobbing at the door but no pony was there. I knew it was John but I had no idea where he was. Then I saw John fade into view, but he was sobbing on the floor with a notepad and a pen. "John..." I started to say something only to be cut off by Holes putting John on his bed and closing the curtain.
"I'm bloody fine!" I heard John shout.
Holes came out about fifteen minutes later with a black eye, I took a deep breath right before talking, "What happened?" I asked plainly.
"He said that he doesn't want to talk about it. And that he needs to find out the problem." Holes moaned, grabbing the first aid kit.
"In that case just leave him alone." I said.
After a long silence I was woken up to hear John suddenly yell, "TWILIGHT!" before flying out of the room and into the lab area. I had Cyber blocking the doors, so John wasn't leaving again. I then heard a loud thunk from John attempting to escape out of the newly placed bullet proof glass. Shortly after I heard John's blaster go off, and metal hitting the ground.
"H-Holes...carry me out there...please." I said, doing my best to remain calm, but I knew what had happened. Holes brought me out there, and I saw Cyber, shut down on the floor.
"What happened?" Holes asked
"J-John...what d-did y-you do?" I asked, struggling to keep calm. However, John wasn't there. I was on the verge of tears, but luckily, Cyber powered on. The shot had only shut him down momentarily, so he was alright. Cyber came over and took me off of Holes before bringing me to my bed.
"Master John is going out to visit Twilight Sparkle to help fix the problem." Cyber said
I was still holding back my tears as I rolled over in my bed and quietly said, "Please leave me alone."
"Yes master Candy." Cyber said before leaving with Holes.
Today is the only day this week that I'm not thinking about my newfound art skills. I needed a break from planning, and I'm glad I decided to take a day just for myself! According to Doc, I don't have to stay calm all the time because my injuries healed just enough three weeks ago, and I am personally glad that I can allow myself time to just fly around town!
I had taken the train to Ponyville so that I had a calmer environment for me to just fly. I crashed a lot but it was nothing compared to what I had just experienced a few weeks ago. One time when I crashed however, I fell towards a black and red colt, with a black and red pentagram for a cutie mark.
"Look out!" I yelled, right before crashing into him.
"OW!" we both yelped upon impact.
"Sorry, are you alright?" I asked, rubbing my head. When I looked up at the colt I was surprised to see his eyes were glowing bright red.
"What was that for?!" the colt yelled. All I could do was sit there and shudder, I decided to see if I could figure anything out about him by using my abilities. When I tried however, I was shocked. I yelped as my hair changed from dark green with a red stripe, to all red. The colt's eyes stopped glowing and I was only more terrified.
"You're half demon too?" the colt said. I just stayed there, scared and confused. "Hey, it's alright. I won't hurt you."
"H-Half d-d-demon?" I asked, terrified at the thought of such a thing.
"Yeah...long story..."
"W-Well...I'm half changeling, and m-my dad was King Sombra," I explained, "So I guess you could sort of consider me half demon."
"Really? My dad was a pony, but King Sombra was his brother!"
"Really? Wait, then how come I look like you now? I'm technically not half demon." I thought for a second before figuring it all out, "Unless my abilities...of course!"
"Your what now?" the colt asked.
"Long story. What's your name? Mine is Candy."
"Sparrow, nice to meet you cousin!" Sparrow smiled, and I returned the look. My hair faded back to dark green with a little bit of red after that.
Sparrow showed me where he lived, and introduced me to his friends who were also half demon. Ace, who looked similar to Sparrow only with no cutie mark, and Bella, a red and black filly with no cutie mark. I told them nearly everything, and they told me about themselves. Sparrow explained to me how his demon side allowed him to have all these neat powers, and Ace showed me a few of them. Bella explained how they can sometimes get a little out of control without some pony to keep them in check.
Later that week I woke up on Sparrow's couch after a sleepover at his place, only to sense the presence of another changeling. The thing that scared me, was that this changeling felt a little too familiar. I decided to leave a note for Sparrow thanking him for having me over, and head out into town to investigate. Sparrow lived right by the marketplace, so I checked there first. I sensed that I was as close as I could get to the other changeling, but I only saw a few sales ponies, Doc, and this purple filly with turquoise hair. I almost said hi to Doc, until I realized that he was watching over the lab in Canterlot for me. I suspected it was Doc from the past, because he told me that I might see another him soon. The thing that I was wondering about, was why I was sensing another changeling, and not another timelord. I was going to go towards the apple cart, when Doc went over there and started talking to the purple filly. I didn't want to start any conversations, so I just started limping over like I was just another passer by. I stared at the ground and avoided looking at Doc and the filly. When I looked up again, the filly was gone, and Doc was simply picking out an apple.
It had been a week after the sleep over at Sparrow's house, and today, Doc woke me up very early.
"Ugh...Doc? What is it?" I asked, still partially asleep.
"I just got a message from a friend, we have to go to another dimension for a few."
"Why?"
"No time to explain, and I can't leave you alone. Also, I think you might want to be present for this Candy."
"Alright, but I'm bringing Cyber. Just let me power him up and pack my things."
Doc and I were in the TARDIS with Cyber only a couple minutes later, we decided to teleport in order to save time.
"I'm still not used to that whole teleporting thing" Doc said.
"Me either. Where should I wait Doc?"
"Just right there." Doc said before pulling a lever. The TARDIS then made a weird noise, not unlike the one I heard it make before. After Doc pulled another lever, the TARDIS made the exact same noise I had heard before.
"I'm never going to get used to traveling in your TARDIS, although it would be fun to travel through other dimensions with you and John one day!"
"How did you know we can travel through dimensions?" Doc asked me with an arched eyebrow.
"Well, remember that with my abilities I AM smarter than you and John. With my studies I managed to figure out that TARDIS is actually an acronym, standing for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, therefore your TARDIS can travel through not only time, but dimensions as well."
"That was a new addition I added, not something that comes with it. However your misunderstanding is correct in our case."
"Well no matter what, I need some more sleep. Feel free to wake me up after we get there." I said before curling up with my doll and falling asleep.
I woke up after about an hour to Doc tripping over me.
"Ow!" I yelped.
"Sorry about that Candy, I need to get to the first aid kit. Do you know where it is?" Doc said, getting up quickly.
"Uuugh...it's over there by my time jumper." I said, rubbing my head.
"Okay thanks!" Doc said before running towards the back room.
After a few minutes I made a discovery, the discovery that I was starving. I decided to go find Doc in the back room so that I could get something to eat. I heard Doc talking to another pony as I drew closer to the room.
"Stay still, it won't take much longer!" I heard Doc say, sounding stressed.
"Sorry, it's hard! I didn't realize that you'd have to pry this stuff off of me," I heard some pony say, I once again sensed a familiar presence as I stood near the closed door, "OW! Can you be a little more gentle please?!" I heard a loud clank right after that.
"There, that wasn't so bad was it?" I heard Doc say, I assumed he was done so I knocked on the door.
"Doc, is now a bad time to ask you something?" I asked.
"What do you need Candy?" Doc said, still sounding stressed, "I'm almost finished."
"I was just wondering if you had a room where I could get something to eat." I said nervously.
I heard Doc sigh as if he was fed up with something, "I'll be out in a second to show you to the kitchen."
I heard the other pony in the room struggle to do something, I assumed it was getting up because I recognized that kind of grunt, "Doc...do you think that I could..."
"You want to?" Doc said in a much gentler voice.
"I think it's about time..."
"Alright, Candy....could you step in for a second?" Doc asked. I opened the door to find a dark purple bat pony, with turquoise hair and two swords as her cutie mark, lying on a couch. She had her back left hoof bandaged and her right wing was bleeding badly, all while wrecked battle armor, that resembled King Sombra's armor, was scattered on the ground. She was also wearing a device that resembled a headset. I sensed that familiar presence more than ever now, and I knew it was that dark purple bat pony.
"D-Doc...who is this?" I asked, I didn't want to use my abilities on her because I wanted a little bit of an explanation from Doc first.
"I'm not surprised that you don't recognize me...the last time you saw me was when you weren't even one yet. I believe later on mom told you about me." The pony smiled softly.
I then realized who this pony was, "A-Amethyst? Is it really you?"
"I'm glad mom told you a little about me sis." Amethyst said.
"She showed me pictures...and told me stories...b-but wait, aren't you supposed to be mute?"
"Yeah, Doc made me this device so I can have my own voice. Though, I only use it when the situation calls for it."
"Candy, would you like me to bring you some breakfast and give you a few minutes alone with Amethyst?" Doc asked me.
"I'd like that." I said, smiling a little as Amethyst gestured to the empty chair next to her.
Amethyst told me so much about her. She told me how she had lived with Doc after the changelings and my mom left her to die, and how she now helps him with one dimension that contains a lot of bad monsters. She made her own armor and based the design off of King Sombra's armor, which was a smart move because King Sombra had some of the strongest armor in Equestria. Her cutie mark was her weapon of choice, dual blades. She also explained how the changelings gave her a permanent injury when they were trying to figure out more about her, and that early on during one of her first battles a monster took out her left eye. Her right wing appeared to have a permanent injury from her last battle, but Doc made it so that she won't fly as shakily as I do. I guess him examining my bandaged wing earlier was for a good reason. Doc came in just as she finished telling me about the time that Doc had to keep them in the future while the TARDIS was broken.
"I made breakfast!" Doc exclaimed, holding a tray of muffins and a pitcher of orange juice.
"Thanks Doc, I'm really hungry!"
"Well I DID get you up at three in the morning."
"You got up that early to come get me?!" Amethyst laughed, "Jeez Doc you didn't have to get up at three in the morning! You can time travel, you didn't have to leave THAT early!"
"I sometimes forget that." Doc chuckled.
"Well I need to get some sleep, not to mention my device is starting to," Amethyst coughed, "starting to fail again and my throat is getting sore. Thanks again Doc, for letting me sleep here." Amethyst then got comfy on the couch as I took the muffin tray from Doc and limped out of the room with him.
"I...I didn't think that you took care of my big sister..." I said before biting into a muffin.
"She needed help, and I like to help ponies in need." Doc explained. I noticed a little bit of a shift in Doc's tone
"You...you see her as a daughter...don't you."
"No, I try not to make family bonds with others, unless they are family."
"Riiiight..." I knew Doc saw Amethyst as something more than a friend, he showed it. Even if he denied it, I knew he saw her as his own. "I think John told me once about you guys finding a rift area in the multiverse, and he told me there was a nice cafe and a milkshake parlor...do you think we might be able to..."
"Not again, it could leave us trapped there. We accidentally ended up there."
"Okay fine, but I want to be able to go there someday, John told me that Pink Leaf has the best shakes!"
"We might be able to someday, but don't get your hopes up."
"Okay. Can I at least get a regular milkshake from the kitchen?" I giggled.
"Sure." Doc sighed, obviously hiding something.
About an hour later the TARDIS started shaking a little, and Amethyst and I went running to the front room to see what was up.
"DOC, WHAT'S UP?!" Amethyst shouted after turning on her device.
"Yeah! What's happening?!" I asked, kind of scared.
"SOMETHING ELSE IS IN THE TIME VORTEX, AND IT'S COLLIDING WITH THE TARDIS!" Doc shouted.
"WHAT?! WE COULD GET KNOCKED OFF COURSE! CAN'T YOU PUSH IT OUT OF THE WAY SOMEHOW?!" Amethyst yelled, souding like she's been through this before.
"I CAN, BUT IT'S A PONY OUT THERE! GO OPEN THE DOORS, HURRY!" Doc ordered. Amethyst ran straight for the door and opened it. Shortly after, she pulled in what I could only assume to be a pony and closed the door. Doc ran over and looked at who it was. "Go get the first aid kit, hurry!" I ran straight for the first aid kit and grabbed it. After I ran back and gave it to Doc, I looked down to see who the pony was. It was John. He was covered in blood and bruises from his injuries, and he had a torn up blindfold over his eyes as well.
"J-J-John?!" I stammered, horrified at what I saw.
"Doc, how could he have possibly been in the vortex like that?! I thought you told me he was back in Canterlot or Ponyville!" Amethyst said, sounding very concerned.
"He must have gotten a Vortex Manipulator!" Doc said, sounding equally concerned.
"Can you fix it?!"
"PLEASE TELL ME YOU CAN FIX IT DOC!! PLEASE!!!" I cried out.
"I'm not sure if I can, but I will try. and there might be something wrong with his eyes as well." Doc then took him closer to the console to work on him.
"But Doc, will h-he be ok-kay?!" I was trying my hardest to hold back my tears, but it was a fight that I was losing.
"I'm not sure, he won't be affected by the vortex because he couldn't see it, however there is lightning out there, so he could have been struck by that." Doc said as he examined John, "Amethyst, take Candy into the next room...she might not want to see this."
"I got you covered Doc, come on sis."
"WHAT?! NO!!! I DON'T WANT TO GO!!" I struggled as Amethyst picked me up and dragged me off to the other room, "JOHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I wept for what seemed like hours, until I finally heard hoofsteps at the door, and saw Amethyst walking towards it.
"So, what's the damage?" Amethyst asked as she opened the door for Doc. I was on the far end of the room, but it took me seconds to jump up and fly straight in front of Doc.
"HOW IS HE?!" I cried.
"He is better, and right behind me actually!" Doc said as he stepped to the side and revealed John with the same torn up blindfold over his eyes, but looking much better.
"Where am I right now?" John said.
"JOHN!!" I wasted no time going from hovering just high enough to make eye contact with Doc, to hugging John tightly.
"Ow! Who are you?" John asked me, seeming annoyed.
"John I'm so glad you're okay!" I cried into his shoulder a little, completely oblivious to my surroundings.
"Who are you, and what are you doing?" Doc eventually pulled me off of John.
"Doc why doesn't he recognize me? Oh, I see, blindfold!" I reached to take off the blindfold, but doc grabbed my hoof and stopped me. "D-Doc?"
"He tried to run away last time I tried to take it off." Doc said.
"A-And he doesn't recognize...or know who we are?" I asked, tearing up.
"Well, like you said, he does have the blindfold, and it might be hard for him to hear." I had enough at that point, I wanted to see him and have him back without anymore complications. I acted as if I was about to back off, and then quickly used my teleportation device to get Doc and Amethyst to the back of the room, taking John's blindfold with them. John's eyes however, remained closed.
"John please! Open your eyes! Please!!" I tried to keep a magic field around Doc and Amethyst with my device, but I knew it wouldn't last for long. Tears streamed down my face as I just sat there, looking at him.
"No! I can't! Get away from me!!" He shouted, then I thought that I saw a bit of red under his eyes, however he quickly ran out of the room and into a wall. I just sat there, letting my jaw hang open as I stared at the disoriented John. I saw Doc run over and grab John, and then everything was blurred out. The room began spinning as I became lost in a world of my own tears. All I remember hearing, was Doc shouting at Amethyst, and John screaming.
After a few hours I was finally calm enough to see what was going on. I didn't recognize the room I was in, but when I went to the door I found that it was locked. I noticed this magic barrier separating me from half of the room, and for a reason. On the other side of the room, was John.
He had his eyes shut, and I could see a bit of red behind one eye, and a bit of blue behind the other. All of my common sense went out the window as I slammed myself into the magical barrier in an attempt to break it. It was a turquoise color...and I knew only one pony with that color of magic. I looked around the room and spotted a camera zooming in on me. I zipped up to it and started shouting into it.
"TAKE DOWN THE BARRIER BEFORE I GET OUT THERE AND FORCE YOU TO AMETHYST!! I KNOW YOU'RE IN ON THIS, JUST LET ME TO HIM!!!!" Seconds afterwards the camera shut off and I went back to trying to break the barrier. John started shaking a little, covering his eyes with his hooves. I felt my face turn red as I slammed into the barrier once more.
I had finally had enough and shifted into rage mode as I started trying to break it twice as hard. I felt no pain at that point, except for my emotions eating me out from the inside. I looked up from my rage to see something that truly shocked me, and got the camera on John's side of the room to zoom in really close. A blue cloud came out of nowhere on John's left side, only to be stabbed by a red spike coming out of the ground, causing them to both disappear. My rage went away as tears came pouring out of my eyes, and I started scratching at the barrier almost as if I was a cat. I looked down to see a completely blue flower appear next to me. I jumped back as it was engulfed in red flames before vanishing. I didn't know what to think, when all of the sudden another flower comes up from the floor, only this time it was both red and blue. I waited for something to take it away, but it didn't.
I looked over at John, who was looking down. His eyes were open, yet not visible because each eye had some sort of glow to them with this mist coming out, one was red and one was blue. Blue clouds then surrounded John, some getting stabbed by misty grey spikes and others were being protected by red shields. Then a blue cloud that looked like me appeared, a grey spike tried to stab it but was blocked by a red shield before a red spike stabbed and destroyed it.
"Candy..."
"J-J-John...wh-what's going on..y-y-you're scaring me." I stammered, honestly terrified at what I saw. John then looked up at me, as a grey spike broke the magical barrier. I screamed as the grey mist came flying towards me, only to be stabbed by another red spike.
Both of John's eyes went red at that point, "You will NOT touch her!" John said. The blue mist in the room then turned red, and red spikes filled the room. I yelped as a red bubble formed around me, and shuttered in absolute terror as grey mist surrounded it. The mist quickly turned into a liquid, and shortly after it turned solid. The red mist then faded, and the bubble I was in disappeared, and red spikes started stabbing the grey box from every direction. I was trapped, and could only watch in horror until a red spike came all the way through the box, destroying it and stabbing me in my bandaged wing.
"OW!" I yelped in pain as I watched blood start to come through the bandages. A blue mist then went through my bandaged wing and healed it back to it's original, bandaged state before disappearing. I looked up to see John coming towards me, followed by blue mist and red spikes. I didn't want to get hurt again, and I had no idea what John was doing.
"No! S-S-Stay away from me!" I stammered, right before flying to the top of one of the bookshelves in the room. Shortly after, everything faded away except for blue mist coming out of John's eyes as he lay there on the floor. I flew slowly to the floor to see if John was approachable.
"J-John..." I stammered, hoping for something familiar to come out of him.
"Candy.." John muttered.
"I...I'm s-s-scared..."
"Please...don't be, it's only me."
"B-b-but the mist...and the spikes and the shields and the red and the...the...I'm scared..." I backed up and shuttered as John started to get up, but he fell down after.
"Something happened when I was away...but I need your help."
"W-Why me..."
"Because doc doesn't understand, and you are the only pony I know who can deal with magic." A red snake thing then slivered over to the door and went into it. The door glowed red a little before opening, and letting us out. I had wanted to get out at first, but at this point I just wanted to get away from the terror I had seen, I ran out of the room and flew to the top of the nearest machine in the main room.
"D-Don't hurt me John...p-p-please...I w-want..."
"I don't want to hurt you."
"You don't....then what was all that ab-bout back there?"
"It's me fighting to remember everything, but now I do. Please, help me."
"Okay..." I flew down to John and before he could speak, I did the one thing I had wanted to do. I hugged him as tightly as I could.
He hugged me back, and the glow faded from his eyes. "Thank you, now we need to hurry and escape."
"But why?"
"Because if we don't, Doc will keep us trapped here until he finds out what happened."
"Ok-kay...but how will we get through the vortex?"
"I can land this."
Problems with my Dimension
Once John landed the TARDIS we ran for it. Doc and Amethyst were in one of the back rooms so we lost them quickly.
"J-John...where are we?" I asked, worried that we were lost somewhere in Equestria.
"Not sure, but we will figure that out along the way!" John said smiling.
"Where in Equestria are we?! I'm s-scared!" I stammered.
"There's nothing to be scared of, I know how to survive and defend until we find our way back to Ponyville." John said.
"B-but.....wait..." I sensed something off about this place, nothing I've ever felt before, "Th-this isn't...Equestria."
"Where are we then?" John asked
Before I could say anything my eyes glowed white and I blurted out, "Dimension 190, now changing style to adapt to current dimension." I then felt myself change, and opened my eyes to see John staring at me.
"What....did you just do?" John asked.
"Hu- AAAH!!!!!!!" I yelped, noticing that I was small enough to fit in John's hoof. I looked all over myself and caught that I was a normal pegasus in terms of appearance.
"You look adorable!" John said as he picked me up.
"OW! Careful with the bandaged hoof!" I yelped.
"You are so cute!"
"I am aware that I am cute!!! WHY AM I SMALL??!?!"
"I don't know but tiny you is the cutest thing I've ever seen!"
"Enough of me being cute already let's just find out where the heck we are!"
"Fine, hop on my back." John said, moving his hoof so that I could get onto his back.
"I am going to get into your mane so I don't fall." I said, crawling into his mane.
"Alright, let's go then."
Eventually we got to one of the smallest maps I've ever seen, and it was average sized for me at the time because of how small I was. John put me down and I started to look over it when I heard some pony scream. Before I could ask what was wrong, or even see them for that matter, I was grabbed by a metal hoof.
I looked up to see a full sized cyber pony holding up their other hoof and repeating "Delete...delete...delete..."
"JOHN!" I yelled, and before I knew it John jumped on top of the cyber pony and tackled it to the ground. I fell out of the cyber pony's hoof and ran behind a sign where some other ponies were hiding. I watched as John reached for his blaster in his saddlebag, only to get zapped from the cyber pony. I jumped and another pony held me back as I tried to rush out there. Just as John got up, I was able to teleport out there.
I had figured out at this point that I was small enough to go INSIDE the cyber pony. I crawled in and found a jumble of weird wires and things in there, I knew if I even deactivated one of them John would have the upper hoof. I grabbed a red wire and pulled until it snapped. I felt the cyber pony fall right before I got zapped out of there. I yelped as I went flying into what I could only guess was John's mane. I was terrified as I felt a metal hoof get me out, but I wasn't able to stay awake to see the cyber pony grab me.
I woke up in the TARDIS, I was in a bed and back to my full size. I looked up and saw light coming from the other room, so I got up and limped over to see what was up. I saw blood under the door right as I reached for the doorknob, and shuddered when I opened the door. I saw John working on something that, at first glance appeared as if it was a hoof. Once I looked a little closer I yelped, John's entire front left hoof, was metal.
"AH!" John shouted as he tried to hide the metal hoof, "Hi Candy, are you feeling better?" I was shuddering and staring at where he was hiding his metal hoof. John obviously noticed this, so he quickly grabbed a towel and covered his hoof, "What, this? I just got some paint on it, nothing wrong at all!" I saw right through it, I teleported the towel off and gasped as I saw that his hoof looked almost exactly like a cyber pony's hoof.
"J-John....d-d-does Doc know about this? H-how did we get in here?" I was freaking out at this point.
"No, he doesn't know, and we got in here was from your, um, cousin I think it is. He brought us to his TARDIS."
"S-Sparrow?!"
"Yeah?" I jumped as I saw Sparrow walk into view, "How are you doing now cousin?"
"I-I..HOW AM I DOING?! JOHN HAS A METAL HOOF!!!!"
"WHAT?!" I turned to see Doc and Amethyst standing in the doorway.
"What are you doing here Doctor?" John asked in a stern voice, and I was surprised a little. I've always known that Doc's real name is Doctor, but I've never heard John call him that. He always calls Doc either Dad, or Doc. I knew things were about to get ugly, so I just limped behind Amethyst and shuddered a little.
"That isn't important right now," Doc said, "why and how do you have a metal hoof?!"
"J-John...w-what happened while I was out?! I'm s-scared." I stammered.
"I'll tell you everything that happened in a bit love." John said before turning to Doc, "Why do you want to know? So you can disassemble it?!"
"I NEED to find out if it will turn you into a cyber pony!" Doc shouted, I was starting to get overwhelmed, and John noticed this.
"So you gave me an excuse to be unconscious. Candy, I'll tell you what happened, c'mon." John then teleported me on top of Sparrow by mistake and locked the door behind us.
"OW!" Sparrow yelped, "What was that for?!"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to teleport Candy onto you Sparrow. Are you two alright?"
"Yeah I'm fine." Sparrow groaned.
"I'm f-fine, just a little shaken."
"I'm sorry you two had to see that."
"See what? I was off to the side putting away your doll, I noticed it fell out of your mane when Doc came in with that other pony." Sparrow explained.
"In that case, sorry you had to see that Candy."
"I-I uh...you...." I was shuddering behind Sparrow, absolutely freaking out in my head.
"Didn't you say you wanted to know what happened while you were unconscious?"
"Y-yes..." I stammered.
"Well, after you destroyed that one cyber pony, another one came and I had to handle it by myself for a while. It dealt quite a bit of damage to me before your cousin came and got us back to the TARDIS. He got you to a bed and insisted that I lie down, but I refused. So we talked about how you could've died if he hadn't showed up and how I needed to be able to defeat them easier. So I removed my hoof and replaced it with a mechanical one that I made, and I added the cyber pony's shock hoof so that I can disable them easier." John explained.
"Wait? If you put in the shock hoof, then how come I can't see it like I can on cyber ponies?" I asked.
John then pressed a button on his hoof and the shock attachment came out, "I upgraded it so that when it's on it only affects cyber ponies."
"I-I'm still going to need a while to get used to this...but if it's to keep us safe then...I understand." I said hesitantly.
"I'm sorry." John said, looking down.
"For what?"
"For doing this without you knowing."
"John you wanted to keep me safe...it's fine, I just need to get used to this." I said before looking back, "But um...maybe h-hide your old hoof before I throw up...TOO LATE!" I said as I bolted out of the room and into the restroom.
When I came out of the restroom I saw Doc arguing with John loudly and Amethyst studying his hoof while he was distracted. Sparrow was out of sight, probably handling the things that John wanted done.
"That was an idiotic thing to do!" Doc shouted.
"I did it so that she won't be harmed!" John replied.
"What about yourself! How much did you have to harm yourself to do that!"
"I want Candy safe too, but I know my sister! She'll be fine, you didn't have to make a metal hoof!" Amethyst said.
"I don't care about my own well being, I only care about hers"
"Okay ENOUGH!" I said, breaking out into rage mode and silencing everyone, "John did this to keep me safe and even if I have to get used to this, I support it. I used my abilities and he's as healthy as a horse! No pun intended. He even made it so that the shock hoof only affects cyber ponies!"
"Thank you love." John said
"As for you John, I don't care if you did this for us to be safe or for you to look cool! I don't want you risking your life for me! I want you to worry about yourself at least a little, and I don't want you to WORSHIP the ground I walk on! I want you to love me, yes, but I DON'T want to be everything to you." I said sternly, with that my red glow went away. "I need a shake..." I said as I started to limp out of the room, towards the kitchen.
Doc followed me and helped me grab my shake, "Candy are you alright?"
"Ugh...my head hurts. I may be guilty of jumping to conclusions myself, but I hate it when other ponies do it. Now I know how John felt when he introduced me to Holes."
"Holes?"
"A changeling friend he made when he was....four I believe."
"But I didn't let him out on his own until he was eight."
"Hang on....ah! You two were in the Crystal empire, a few years after my dad's first attack."
"What do you mean?" Doc asked, seeming confused.
"It was the twenty seventh day of the twelve month of the first year that John lived in the TARDIS. You took him to the crystal empire and he found a distressed changeling. 10294 to be precise, he fed him love and named him Holes."
"Oh now I remember, you introduced me to him a little while ago."
"Why were you so upset about his metal hoof anyways?"
"Because it means he hurt himself for others!"
"Yes, and I'd honestly be fine with that considering he's in good health and wasn't affected too much, if it wasn't for one thing. The fact that he did JUST for me."
Doc sighed, "He's always put others before himself. When his parents died, he wanted to run out there and help, he didn't care if he'd get killed by the dragon or not. I think he gets that from me actually..."
"Let me cut you off there, say I was three and I was watching my parents get killed by a dragon. What three year old wouldn't want to run out and help?! Aside from myself of course, thanks to my stupid parents."
"It's not only that, when he knows you're upset it kills him. He would sometimes come to me and talk about it, in fact right before he left Ponyville he came and told me why, which only made me worry for him more."
"Ugh that colt really DOES worship the ground I walk on. I love him to pieces but...I don't want him to hurt himself."
"He doesn't worship you, it's just that he feels you're the only other pony he has. His parents are dead, I have to leave quite a bit, the race of the timelords turned into power hungry monsters, and his first introduction to other ponies besides you were ponies who bothered him to all end."
"Yeah but...I think he's just too protective. I can take care of myself! True I need help sometimes, but still!"
"He just doesn't want you to die Candy."
I finished my little chat with Doc and started heading back to grab the sketchpad that Sparrow gave me. I found that doodling calms me down. When I got back to the room however, I saw John holding Amethyst back and Sparrow out cold on the floor.
"WHAT THE?!"
"Candy help! Amethyst is stronger than she looks!" John cried. I may have only just met my sister a few days ago, but I knew the ONE instinct that every sibling had.
"Let her go when I say."
"Candy are you crazy?!" John said, baffled by what I said, but I had a plan.
"NOW!" John let her go, and I teleported myself onto Sparrow and Amethyst stopped dead in her tracks, which gave me just enough time to teleport the two of us into the main room.
"Sparrow! Sparrow wake up!" I whispered.
"Ugh...what happened?"
"I don't know, but keep your voice down, Amethyst seems upset with you. She looks like she's out for blood."
"Eesh...wait, Amethyst? Like, changeling hybrid Amethyst?"
"Yeah..."
"Oh boy."
"What?"
"One year ago, before I met you, a young Amethyst was trapped in a spot in time with Doc and a very young John. I didn't know it at the time, but my friend Jackson explained why she was acting so weird before I did too much with her. Anyways, Amethyst came and asked me for help, she said she needed a powerful unicorn so I told her that I could help her out. It didn't go as planned...I tried using my powers to upgrade a tool for the Doctor and I was unfortunately still studying those types of spells at the time. Instead of upgrading it so it could fix the TARDIS, I ended up making it a weapon that blasted out Amethyst's left eye. She was ready to fight me but Doc knocked her out with a shot of some type and told me to run. I teleported back home and she came back later, but she looked even younger than before. I guess she got trapped in our time more than once, I said I didn't know any powerful unicorns and closed the door on her."
"I'm guessing you wished you did that the first time..."
"Yeah."
"And as my mom told me at the hive, Amethyst holds grudges."
"I can see that."
"Okay...just lay low in Ponyville once we land and be sure not to engage with her at all."
"Got it." I then teleported John into the room and stopped him mid-sentence.
"That's no reason why you should have...why am I here love?"
"Know any good hiding spots in the TARDIS?"
"My room."
"Can you get Sparrow there unseen?"
"Can't one of you use magic?"
"I don't remember where it is and Sparrow's never been there. I need coordinates for my device and Sparrow needs a slight idea of where to go other than just 'it's this, go there'."
"Candy's right, I only knew how to get to the TARDIS because Candy showed it to me before AND I've been in my friend's TARDIS."
"Well then it looks like we're walking."
"Make sure you get him there unseen, I need to find Doc."
"Oh he knocked out Amethyst with a shot. He's in her room."
"Got it, I know where that is."
After I got to Amethyst's room I saw Doc reading something next to a sleeping Amethyst.
"Hello Candy." Doc said.
"Hey Doc. What did she do before you had to knock her out?"
"Just shouted a lot."
"I'm guessing you wanted to make sure she didn't damage anything."
"I also wanted to make sure no one got hurt."
"Gotcha. I just hope she isn't too mad when she wakes up."
I jinxed it, "WHAT THE HAY DID YOU DO THAT FOR DOC?! I NEED TO GET HIM!!!!!" Amethyst shouted, teleporting her armor onto her and her dual blades by her sides.
"Amethyst you NEED to calm down." Doc said, but she didn't listen, she threw one of her swords over to Doc. He jumped off to the side, but I had a feeling she wasn't aiming for him, because the sword went into the door slamming it open.
"I don't need to calm down, I just need to make sure that devil is DEAD!" With that, Amethyst flew out of the room as fast as she could.
After a few minutes of looking for her I heard clanging metal. I ran straight for John's room and saw John blocking Amethyst's sword with his hoof. I ran straight in front of Amethyst as she got ready to take another swing, hoping that her sisterly instinct would kick in again. I was wrong however, she took a swing and hit me right on my bandaged wing.
"CANDY!!" John and Sparrow yelled in unison.
She didn't take my wing off completely though, which meant I could make a potion to heal it. John however, didn't know if I'd be able to fly again because he doesn't know how much damage I can take on a permanent injury. John took out his blaster and shot Amethyst, I didn't know if he just tazed her or if he shot her with a deadly lazer, but either way she dropped to the floor.
"JOHN WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" Doc yelled
"She harmed her..." John said through clenched teeth, and in an extremely hateful tone of voice that I'd never heard before.
"J-John..." I stammered, I had taken my potion while he shot her, and almost spat it out from pure shock. At this point my wing still needed a special potion, but wasn't too terribly damaged anymore. My bandages were still stained with blood however, so John was still highly concerned.
"Are you alright Candy?" John said, walking towards me. I was terrified and didn't know what to do at all, I just reached for my teleporter hoping he wouldn't see it.
"I-I-I..." I stammered, I was so horrified at what I saw John do that I just wanted to get away from him as soon as possible. The first thing my instinct told me to do was get out of there, but then another thought came to mind, and I didn't think about it at all before taking action. "ZINTHOS!!!" My mane and tail turned bright red as my eyes glowed red, John was thrown out into the hallway making a big hole in the wall. I did that out of pure fear, so when I realized what I did I was disgusted with myself. I saw him get electrocuted by what I could only assume was his own hoof. I hated myself at that moment, but it didn't take long before he got up. Something was different though, his colors were slightly depleted and he was wearing a dark blue hoodie instead of his black vest. His eyes were glowing blood red as he laughed a little.
"Alright then..." He said ominously, "let's see how much I care."
Before I could ask any questions I saw a red spike pop out from the floor right next to me. Sparrow ran right next to me and grabbed my hoof along with Amethyst's, "DOC GET OVER HERE!" he yelled. Doc ran over and touched Sparrow's head, with that we were out of the room and into the main room of the TARDIS. "Doc, get us to the closest dimension, it doesn't matter if it's some random dimension or our own. Just land this thing!"
"Way ahead of you!" It wasn't long before we landed, and right as Doc opened the door I changed forms again. I grew taller into the form of something called a humanoid. I had read about them before, very interesting creatures. Instead of having a bandaged wing, my left leg was bandaged. I had a nice outfit on too, my shirt was dark purple with a pail yellow heart on it, with a pink skirt and black leggings. I also got a pair of what these humans call crutches, I'm guessing to help me with my injuries. It didn't take long before Doc and Sparrow changed as well, and the second they finished changing John came barreling into the main room. I teleported us outside the TARDIS and made sure that Amethyst had a wheelchair instead of crutches. Thank Celestia that she did. We rolled Amethyst out of there and got as far away from the TARDIS as possible.
After about a half hour we lost John and had time to regroup.
"We NEED to find him." Doc said.
"Well obviously, but let's not call him John...that is NOT my colt friend."
"I don't know what's gotten into him! He's never done this before!"
"How about we call him Jonathan." Sparrow said with a snarky attitude.
"Has a ring to it...Jonathan it is."
"Names aside, what are we going to do?!" We thought for a few minutes, until I remembered what Doc told me earlier.
"Doc...I'm going to find him alone. If I'm right, then he'll be back to normal in no time."
"Alright...just be careful, he may be dangerous."
"Can you manage to keep Amethyst out cold?"
"Yeah."
"Then I'll be on my way." And with that, I was off. I didn't know where to look, but I did know what could change him back. I was thinking of how to execute my plan when our eyes met.
"Hello Candy." Jonathan said ominously.
"H-Hi Jonathan..."
"What's that?"
"W-we thought that s-since you're not John we should c-call you something else..."
"And that's the best you could come up with. Heh, figures."
"Z-z-z..."
John knew the spell I was about to use, "I don't think so." A bolt of lightning then shot out of his metal hand and electrocuted me. I yelped as he lunged at me and pinned me down. He then got his shock hand ready.
"I-I thought that only affected cyber ponies!"
"The covering isn't on now dear." I shuddered. Hoping that my plan would work, I just closed my eyes and let myself have it. I screamed in agony as the electricity from the shock hand coursed through my body. I felt one of my hearts die as Doc and Sparrow ran over and pried Jonathan off of me. I saw John come back and the absolute horror on his face broke my other heart. The last thing I heard was something I remembered well. Right before I blacked out, John ran up to me, got on his knees and yelled.
"CANDY! CANDY WAKE UP!!"
I woke up in my normal bat pony form, I was in the TARDIS next to a sleeping John. He was a wreck, he had bags under his eyes, his vest was all torn up, it was sad. I on the other hoof, hurt all over. My hearts were better, but I still felt sore from what Jonathan did. I rolled over and stroked John's mane a little, which seemed to wake him up.
"Wha-what's happening?" He sounded so out of it.
"John..."
"Candy!" I reached down and gave him the tightest hug I could without hurting myself.
"Ah Candy! Good to see you're awake, are you feeling well?"
"Much better now that I have John back!" I said happily, and with that I did something that I haven't done before. I leaned down and gave John a kiss on the cheek.
"Thanks love," John said, before giving me a kiss on my cheek.
Doc chuckled at the sight, "Well I'll leave you two lovebirds alone then." But before he got out the door, I heard both Amethyst and Sparrow yelling.
"Doc, have you given Amethyst her shot for today?!" John asked, sounding concerned.
"Oh no..." Doc and John helped me out of bed and got to John's room. Sure enough, Amethyst and Sparrow were having at it. I was quite a few steps behind John and Doc because of my injuries, but I got there in just in time to see Amethyst taking a swing at Sparrow's spell.
"YOU THINK I DIDN'T PREPARE MYSELF?! I KNOW DARK MAGIC TOO!" Amethyst yelled, her hair was all frizzy, and her horn was now out in the open. She flew up and cast a spell on Sparrow, turning him to crystal temporarily. He broke out rather quickly however, and froze her in place.
"Candy quick! Tell her the truth! Tell her what really happened!" Sparrow shouted, I knew what he wanted me to do, and I assumed that Amethyst could still hear and see me.
"Amethyst, Sparrow didn't mean to hurt you! He was still studying spells to upgrade things, he tried to help! He didn't want to attack you, he just wanted to help! When he casted the spell, he didn't want to harm you! It was a freak accident!"
"She's right Amethyst, I didn't want to hurt you, I understand if you can't forgive me but can we AT LEAST be bystanders without you trying to hurt me whenever we see each other!" Sparrow then unfroze Amethyst, who didn't look too happy.
"I'm not going to forgive you...and I'm not going to let this go. But for my sister's sake, I won't fight you...for now."
"Thank you." I said with a sigh of relief, "Sparrow, can you help me get back to where I can rest."
"Sure thing cousin."
After a few weeks hanging with Doc, Sparrow, Amethyst, and John in the TARDIS, I was thinking it was a better place for our lab compared to the room in Canterlot. John agreed but thought we should wait until a little later to discuss it, because at the moment he was chasing an out of control Cyber around the main room.
"CYBER STAY STILL!!" John shouted.
I sighed, "Why is he malfunctioning this time?" I said, using my device to shut down Cyber temporarily.
"He must have gotten a few wires tangled or something. Nothing I can't fix!"
"Alright then..do you know how far we are from our own dimension?"
"Uh let me ask Doc." John said before walking off.
After we got back to Canterlot, we found out that we had A LOT of moving to do. Sparrow was nice enough to let us stay with him until we were done. In about two weeks however, our lives would all be taking a drastic turn for the worse.
"Candy can you grab me my screw driver please?!" John called.
"Which one?! Sonic or regular?"
"I only have one, Doc must have left the sonic here yesterday!"
"Alright then, hang on I'm coming. What are you working on anyways?!"
"Well you know how your dream machine is water powered?!"
"Yeah."
"Well I'm making another device similar to it, only instead it's potion powered!"
"Ah, so that's why you want me to make you a new potion recipe."
"Yep! Now hurry up, I need to close this compartment quickly!"
"Will you two please be quiet?! I'm trying to study here!" Sparrow yelled.
"Sorry Sparrow! John, will you keep it down while I'm gone? I promised Ace and Bella that I'd show them how to make my changing potion."
"Alright, just...watch out for Ace alright. I think he may have feelings for you." It was kind of obvious that Ace had a crush on me, I just didn't know what to do. He hated John but always kept it to himself when I was around, I only found out when he was venting around Bella and didn't know I was walking out of Sugar Cube Corner.
"I know, don't worry John. No pony will ever steal me from you." I said, before kissing him on the cheek.
After I left, I met Ace and Bella at Sugar Cube Corner. "Hey guys! Ready to head to the lab in Canterlot?"
"I thought you were moving." Bella said.
"I am, but Doc said he'd leave out my potion making equipment until we finished."
"That's nice of him! Ready Ace?" Bella turned to face her sleeping brother, "ACE!"
"AH! The sweets are evil!" Ace shouted, still half asleep, "Oh...hi Candy." He smiled.
I was still laughing, "Come on, I have my teleporter ready."
We were almost finished with the potion, "Okay, now just slowly pour this in, if you do it too quickly that's alright, it'll just take longer to change back."
"Alright, can you help me out Ace?" Bella said, she almost started pouring the mixture when all of the sudden John popped in.
"'Ello!" Bella yelped as the entire mixture spilled into the potion at once. I shuddered a little because I knew what happened if all of that mixture fell in at once. "Everything alright love?" John asked upon seeing me shudder. Before I could answer though, a huge puff of rainbow smoke filled the room. Now, I was partially over my rainbow fear, but I was still very triggered.
"J-J-JOHN!!!!" I cried, tears rolling down my cheeks.
"I'm here love!" John said as he ran over and hugged me.
"Candy are you alright?" Ace asked, sounding concerned.
"She's going to be fine Ace. She's just...triggered." Now I was totally fine with John telling this to Ace, he was very cautious of how to word it and he was completely right I AM triggered. What I wasn't fine with, was Bella's reaction to that comment.
"What is she terrified by rainbows or something?" Bella said sarcastically, annoyed that she messed up the potion. She giggled after that comment, and that's what pushed me over the edge. I was glowing red as my tears started pouring down my face, John noticed this quickly.
"Candy please try to calm down, we can deal with her later. Right now we need to clear this smoke."
That's right when I snapped, "I..don't...CARE!!!!!!!!" I screamed, angrier than ever, " I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE SMOKE, I DON'T CARE ABOUT HOW IT'S RAINBOW, WHY CAN'T ANY OF YOU UNDERSTAND?! I CAN'T BELIEVE ANY OF YOU, ESPECIALLY YOU BELLA!!! ALL THAT'S IMPORTANT TO YOU IS THAT STUPID POTION, AND CLEARING THIS SMOKE, WHILE I'M HERE SCARED OUT OF MY MIND BECAUSE OF WHAT THIS SPLASH OF COLOR REMINDS ME OF!!! AND YOU GUYS.." I felt something change, and next thing I knew I had no control of what I did or what I said, I wasn't me.
I...er, my body...giggled, "You guys are in for a not so sweet treat."
"Candy...why does your fur look darker than usual...and why do you have your dad's eyes all of the sudden?" John asked, sounding scared and threatening at the same time.
My body giggled again, "Oh, I'm not that sweet and weak little Candy, I'm a bit of a SourPatch." She smirked. I didn't realize what form I had taken until a mirror was in sight, I was pitch black instead of my usual charcoal color, and my mane was black as well. The whites of my eyes were now a sickly green with purple mist coming out. My hair bows had turned red, and instead of my bowtie I wore a light pink and purple crown similar to the one my mom wore. I tried to fight for control but SourPatch was strong. It wasn't long before John noticed it wasn't me.
"Who are you and what did you do with my Candy?" John said threateningly.
SourPatch laughed, "Wow, I can't believe Candy thinks you're such a smarty pants! I literally JUST told you my name! Eh, it was the slightest vague, but still!" She finally stopped laughing and limped over to John, "I am SourPatch, every single thing that Candy doesn't want to be. I'm selfish, hated, and a trickster. I LOVE negative attention and only one thing gave me the chance to get out." SourPatch turned to face Bella, "Take a guess at what that trigger is sweet thing?" Bella was shuddering, and Ace was just in shock. John on the other hoof, was staring daggers at us.
"Give her back now or I WILL attack!" John said hatefully.
"Uh, no you won't! Remember that she's inside me, so if you harm one of us, you harm both of us! But don't worry unless I feel like pranking my bark is worse then my bite!"
"There are other ways of pain."
"And you assume that I'm as emotional as Candy? Heh, I have tougher skin than that weakling. Just remember, no matter what, Candy is still watching!"
"A surge of emotion of the correct type and power could push you back long enough for me to D31et3 you, and for the emotional surge to be powerful enough Candy needs to be watching."
"Wow...NOW I know why Candy thinks you're a smarty pants, I almost forgot...you speak in techno babble. Oh and I know that you meant to say delete. Remember, tougher skin." I was freaking out on the inside, but I couldn't show it thanks to SourPatch.
"I don't see how tough skin will do anything about my de13t3 problem."
"Oh you idiotic smart fart, don't you get it? Only a few things will let Candy out, one of which I want to happen!" SourPatch smirked.
"What, for someone to get hurt? because if so, I have been working on something highly experimental, and I don't know whether or not I will live through the test."
"Oh if you do that I'm guaranteed to stay! No, I mean get Sparrow to help!" I knew what she wanted to happen, and I started fighting as hard as I possibly could.
"What, to get him to help me get Candy back? I'm sorry, but that can't, and won't happen, because I don't agree with his methods, and if he tries to do something that i don't agree with then there is going to be a bit more blood then there has to."
"Ooh a little feisty! Gonna let MY colt friend out?" SourPatch smiled and took out our doll, and taunted him with it. It wouldn't have made much sense if the doll didn't change into a Jonathan doll instead, but low and behold, the doll's colors were depleted and it had a dark blue hoodie on. "Sparrow has the magic to let her go with no troubles! TRUST me!" SourPatch smiled.
"THAT'S IT!!!" Ace yelled, and before any of us knew it Sparrow came falling on top of John.
"OW! WHAT THE HECK ACE?!"
"WELL I'M SORRY IF YOU'RE COUSIN TURNED INTO AN EVIL...THING!!!"
SourPatch laughed a little, "I believe the correct term is alter ego."
"What did you do with Candy?!" Sparrow said, in a hateful voice.
"Oh, think of me as a SourPatch in her sweet personality. Go ahead, try to remove me!"
It was at that moment that John realized why she wanted Sparrow, John grabbed Sparrow with his mechanical hoof and said threateningly, "Don't you DARE do it."
"I want my cousin back, I'm doing whatever the heck I want!" And with that, Sparrow cast a spell that he had been studying, it was supposed to take a certain part or parts of a pony and delete them completely. Instead, Sparrow did something very different. I was released yes, but afterwards I was out like a light.
It didn't take five minutes for me to wake up, right next to a waking up, smirking SourPatch.
She giggled, "Thanks cousin!"
John then picked up Sparrow by the throat and smashed him against a nearby wall, "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT YOU IDIOT?! DON'T YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME YOU WEREN'T FINISHED STUDYING A SPELL?!"
"J-John don't hurt him! I've seen inside of her mind! She's mostly harmless as long as she isn't pranking!" That was mostly true, SourPatch was pretty much all talk.
"He still needs to learn a lesson, this is the second time something STUPID has happened because of his irresponsibility!"
"Oh but he did such a good job! He DID remove me from her!"
"Shut it you. John he was scared! And so are you, just please calm down! Otherwise I'm calling Doc!" John then pulled out his Blaster, but I quickly teleported us ALL into the TARDIS right before he fired at a nearby practice pony, which they use to practice for Cyber Ponies.
"WHAT THE HAY?!" Doc shouted upon seeing all of us.
"'Ello Doc." John said.
"Doc can you please handle John for a while, he's kind of peaved with Sparrow right now."
"Eesh, language bad eh? Alrighty, I'll get his side of the story while I'm with him if you don't mind."
"Uuh...go for it but I suggest being careful or giving him something to vent with."
"Gotcha. Come on John, we're heading to your room."
"Alright then." John said, sounding annoyed.
"Now as for you SourPatch. If you promise to stay INSIDE the TARDIS, you can stick around okay?"
SourPatch giggled, "Okay then! This'll be fun!"
"I'm going to need to make you your own room...because I don't want to be the butt of any of your jokes." I limped over and whispered in her ear, "But on April fools day I'll make an exception to all pranking rules." I smiled a little. I always had a little love for pranks, it just never showed until now. I knew this was a turn for the worse, but as long as I kept her in line, I didn't think it would be too horrifying.
I'm a changeling, well, sort of, it's complicated. My mom is Queen Chrysalis, the ruler of all changelings. My dad however, is a pony influenced by so much dark magic I'm surprised I'm not evil! He was royalty as well, and his name was King Sombra. Before he was turned into an evil shadow. As for me, well I'm basically the most complicated one out there. I guess I should begin my journey before going much further! First and foremost, my name is Candy, and I live with my mom in the horrible wastelands outside of Equestria. They aren't far from Canterlot though, which is where my story begins.
My mom had taken me to Canterlot to show me how much love was there. She worried about me, thinking I was evil. I didn't blame her for worrying though, there are a lot of upsides and downsides to being a changeling hybrid, especially since I'm only the second one with this much dark magic! The first one was my older sister, they learned almost everything about me from her. How I react to healing spells, how I react to injuries, how I can feed. When it comes down to my abilities though, that gets complicated. Let's just say I learn from the pony.
"Ah, here we are!" my mom said in delight as we approached the castle, disguised as Luna and her daughter. "This is where we will do what we do best! When the wedding comes, we'll be able to take over with ease!"
"After we feed right?" I asked.
"Oh of course, how else will we grow strong!" she smiled, looking up at the castle. "Come on, lets take a look around!" she said, changing into a royal guard, I made sure no pony saw her while she changed of course. She looked around as I changed into another royal guard, and then we went in.
After leaving the castle, I saw a filly next to a tree, crying. "Hey mom!" I called to her as she was walking off as Luna once more, "I'll catch up I left something in the castle!"
"Okay, just don't be too long, we're going to Ponyville to get dinner tonight!" she said, flying off. I looked back at the filly and walked over, changing into my normal bat-pony form.
"Are you okay?" I asked her.
"N-n-no...some bullies stole my d-doll" she sniffled, I saw three colts with a doll that looked like a bat pony right over her shoulder.
"Them?" I asked, pointing to the colts.
"Yes..." she said shakily. I flew over, and started by talking to them before anything.
"Hey, can I have that doll back please?" I asked, they only looked at me and laughed, pointing to my fangs in my bat bony form. "I said," I was speaking through clenched teeth now, "can I have that doll back PLEASE." They continued to laugh, and I did what I never thought I'd do in public. I changed into my changeling form and hissed at them. I changed back before any pony else saw, and handed the doll to the filly as the colts ran off.
"Thanks," she said, I smiled at her, "I'm Sunburst, you probably know that though, me being the daughter of Princess Celestia and all."
"I didn't know that, I'm Candy. A...changeling." I waited for her to run off. She didn't to my happy surprise.
"Neat! Want to be friends??" I simply nodded in delight.
"Here," I took out a piece of paper from my saddlebag and wrote out directions to the wastelands, "don't come too close but if you want to hang out some time, you can find me there, and please don't tell any pony about me. I might be taken as evil."
"You got it!" Sunburst said, "Although my cousin Starburst IS trustworthy."
"She's the only one you have permission to tell, I trust Starburst." I winked at her and changed into Starburst quickly. Sunburst winked back, before flying off.
At home I was happier than ever, but I hid it from my mom because I didn't want her to ask why. I simply fed off of love in Ponyville, and went to bed. Thankfully my mom isn't Luna, because my dreams were better than ever that night! I was dreaming that no pony feared me, and that Sunburst and I could just roam around having fun, me changing all the time, playing around. In a week though, that would all change.
I was at school, with my usual routine in mind. So when lunch came, I went to the fence and ate my lunch. The only difference was that John was with me. I finished my sandwich when John asked me something.
"Does a lot of stuff get on that doll?" he asked me.
"Yes. Why?" I replied.
"It can change!" John said.
"What how?!" I was shocked. "Hang on a sec." I changed into John, as the doll took the form of the candy doll. I squeaked and jumped to the side in surprise. How could my doll change like that?
"Fascinating," John said, "it appears that all of your tears and potion have sunk into the doll, allowing it to change when you do."
Later that night I woke up a bit, I was in John's form so I looked at my doll. John keeps his doll in his mane so I expected it to fall out, what I didn't expect was seeing John's doll, in the form of my doll! I mean, my doll was now the Candy doll, and John's doll, was now the John doll!!! I looked next to me to see John changed into my form that he had on his scanner. He must have bumped it or something. I decided to forget about it for now and talk to John about it when we woke up.
When I woke up John was looking at his scanner, he told me my code and my future on it had changed for the better. He said my current status was timelord, but he didn't say what my future changed to. It got me to wondering, so I limped over to the scanner. He quickly teleported it away, along with the dolls.
"HEY! Why did you teleport our dolls?!" He didn't reply, he just teleported everything back.
"Well, that's out of the question." John sighed. Then I remembered about the dolls.
"Hey John, last night you changed...into me. And your doll changed into my doll!" I picked up my doll, hugging it.
"How?!" John asked.
"Hmm, maybe...when I cut myself on the windowsill a bit of the blood got in your doll as I made it." I had cut myself on a loose piece of wood on the windowsill to his lab, for some reason I liked entering through the window. I looked at both dolls, "As for the teleporting...I see some of your mane hairs stuck in the doll's threads, and with mine...a bit of drool from when you were asleep. Maybe that's why they teleported! Both dolls have a bit of each of our DNA, so it also explains both dolls changing!" John seemed impressed by my observations, and then he offered something to me, a lab coat. I put it on.
"I was right." John said.
"About what?" I asked.
"You DO look cute in a lab coat." I giggled and blushed as we both flew slowly to his lab.
As I was limping to the lab to meet John, I saw Princess Luna. I had an uneasy feeling as I went to say hello, because when I limped up to her, I saw Luna around the corner with Starburst. That was when the Luna I was limping towards changed into Princess Cadence! I obviously saw it was a changeling, so I tried to limp away before they noticed.
"Candy?!" The changeling said as Cadence, "Oh Sweetheart I FINALLY found you!" She flew towards me, I knew it was my mom now.
"Mom?!" I said in shock, "Why are you in Ponyville??"
"The new hive is finished, it's in the Everfree forest so I decided to check out the menu for our usual feedings. I didn't think I'd EVER find you!" She noticed my bandages, "Oh what happened?! Are they...permanent?" I nodded. "I'm so sorry! I should have been there for you! come on, I'll take you to the new hive."
My mom kept me in the new hive with a spell barrier around it, if I left she would know. I sat in there crying, I managed to get the teleporting device I made from my saddlebag so I could get my stuff from the orphanage. I wasn't allowed to leave because my mom got me food each day, a hayburger with some of my potion. That was all I was allowed because my potion is hard to make. I usually get love from John, but I can also get it from my potion on top of some food. I sat in there each night, crying into my doll. The worst part about the hive was also the best part. It was covered...in crystals.
I got into another routine, sit, fly, eat, cry, sleep, repeat. It was a sad and boring routine, no John, no Luna, no pony. Only awful changelings. I had sent an S.O.S. out to John a few nights after I came to the hive. I hoped he truly loved me...because that was my only chance at escape.
After about a week, I had finally gotten used to my routine, and I was eating when I suddenly heard an echo in the currently empty cave.
"CANDY WHERE ARE YOU??!!!" I could tell it was John, I yelled back.
"JOHN COME TO THE CENTER!!!" I flew slowly to the center, but it was quicker than limping.
Once I got to the center I quickly saw John.
"JOHN!!!" I cried with joy.
"Candy!!" John limped to me as quickly as possible, and we hugged each other tightly. "Why haven't you left?? Can you not find anyway out?!"
"I know the way out, there's a barrier keeping me in. I can't deactivate it!" I cried.
"Hmm, I'll hide here for a couple days, I need a quiet spot to work." John smiled as I hugged him again.
After three days John finished, we were alone in the hive when he told me. He made a magic deactivation device, and he tested it on a spell that I had cast as Starburst. It worked on that spell, but now was the real test. He activated the device, and BAM! The entire barrier came down.
"We have five minutes, limp!!!" John and I limped out as quickly as possible, with two minutes to spare, we were at the entrance. I was about to leave with John when a changeling guard saw us! I had thought we were alone, but we obviously weren't. I hovered, grabbed John under his arms, and flew away quickly! My wings couldn't handle it, but it was fast enough for me to get out as the barrier went back up, trapping the guard inside. It could only be breached by my mom, or any changeling on the outside, so until my mom got back I was home free.
My bandaged wing throbbed as I crash landed with John, in front of the lab.
"Ow! Ugh...are you okay?" I asked John.
"Yea, we won't be able to fly for a while though, let's get inside." We limped in and sat down quickly.
"I can't go back to the orphanage...I barely escaped with my teleportation device." I teleported my stuff to the bare spot in the lab. "Is it okay if I stay here?"
"Of course." John smiled as he teleported everything into its proper spot.
"I think I have to go back into hiding until Luna takes care of my mom..." I wept on my newly set up bed. John came over and just patted me on the back, not saying another word.
