Quantum Leap Forward

by Halira

Rating: everyone
Tags: Lil' Cheese, Cheerilee, Big Macintosh, Slice of Life, Sugar Belle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Cutie Mark Crusaders
Length: 131444

Cheerilee wakes up twenty years in the future, in the body of Big Mac's daughter. Now she must find out how to get back to her proper time and body.

Show and tell, over the years Cheerilee had learned to be prepared for anything that could happen during this weekly event in her classroom. However, when one of Applebloom's potion experiments goes horribly wrong, she wakes up to find herself in an unfamiliar version of her classroom, in the body of a foal she has never met.

Quickly she discovers she isn't just in the wrong body, but in the wrong time.

Cover art by Cosmic Eclipse.
Thanks to Lawra, Alias_the_J, and Cosmic Eclipse for prereading and editing.

Published 2019-11-28 15:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-03-28 16:14:33 UTC

Chapter 2: Twenty Years later and Twenty-Five Years Younger

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Are you alright?"

Violent shaking followed, and she groaned as she came back to consciousness. That was a really weird dream. As she opened her eyes, she saw a yellow... she wasn't sure if it was a colt or filly-- standing by her, looking very concerned.

She stared at the enigmatic foal in front of her. "Who? Who are you?"

The foal gasped. "Oh no! Candy lost her memory!" Then the foal's brow creased and eyes narrowed. "Are you playing a trick on me again?"

All she could do for a moment after that response was blink in confusion. "Who's Candy? Wait, what do you mean, again?"

The foal- and she still hadn't determined if they were a colt or filly- pointed a hoof at her. "You're Candy, silly. Do you really not remember, or are you making things up again?"

"My name's not Candy, it's Cheerilee," she replied, still somewhat disoriented by the situation.

The foal closed one eye and opened the other wide, as they did an overexaggerated examination of her. "Red fur, purple mane, no cutie mark, and a unicorn; you look like Candy Apple to me. I don't know who Cheerilee is."

Her eyes went wide as she glanced down at herself. It wasn't a dream, or at least if it was, it was still going on.

The foal gasped again. "Does Candy have a secret twin sister named Cheerilee that Ma and Pa Apple have kept locked in the attic of Sweet Apple Acres for years, and now you have escaped from your imprisonment and replaced Candy in your quest for revenge for the wrongs done to you? Are you Candy's misunderstood but villain-of-the-week twin sister?"

Her mouth hung open for a moment, and she had to open and close it a few times before she could manage to find a reply for that. "No! Why in the world would you even consider that?"

The foal reached into their mane and pulled out a magnifying glass. They gripped it tightly in one fetlock as they held it up to her mouth, putting their eye right up to the glass to where it would be completely ineffective for its use. "Hmm... you don't talk like Candy." The foal then sniffed her and then rubbed a hoof against their chin in consideration. "You definitely don't have an axe-scent."

"Do you mean accent?"

The foal nodded vigorously. "Yeah, that's what I said, axe-scent; though I never understood why creatures talking funny meant they smelled like axes. I'm not really sure what an axe smells like, to tell the truth. Maybe I should go get an axe and do a smell of it before I say for sure."

She took a deep breath. She was dealing with a foal. She dealt with foals all the time. The fact that she was in a foal's body didn't change the fact that she was experienced with dealing with foals. "Okay, well... I don't know who Candy is, but I'm not her evil twin sister. My name is Cheerilee. Do you think you could find an adult; maybe Starlight Glimmer, or Zecora?" Either of those two could figure out what Applebloom's potion had done and reverse its effect.

That made the other foal frown. "Um, I know who Starlight Glimmer is. She's a friend of my mommy, and lives in that big castle, and teaches at the big school, but who's Zecora?"

"She's a zebra, the one who lives in the Everfree Forest," she explained calmly. "I'm guessing you're new in town, since I've never seen you before."

The yellow androgyn shook their head. "I've lived my whole life in Ponyville. I know everycreature, my mommy comes and greets each and every one of them when they move to town." His/her eyes got wide. "If you aren't Candy then that means you're new! I need to tell Mommy so she can throw you a welcome to Ponyville party!" The eyes turned suspicious. "You really aren't Candy, are you? Candy plays tricks like this all the time. You know what they say; fool me once, shame on you. Fool me four-hundred-seventy-three times, shame on me."

She gave the still-nameless foal an apprehensive look. "She's fooled you how many times?"

The foal shrugged. "I don't know. Who counts those things?"

You, apparently. She barely kept from saying that out loud. "Look... I still haven't gotten your name."

The foal grabbed her foreleg and started shaking it, then decided to go into a full hug instead. "I'm Cheese Slice, though my mommy calls me Lil' Cheese, and Miss Pumpkin calls me 'that yellow menace that's not allowed in her kitchens!'-- with an exclamation point, can't forget the exclamation point! Miss Silver Spoon calls me 'sit down and do your schoolwork', and Mr. Pound calls me 'stop eating all the customers cookies', and Miss Diamond calls me 'stop running in the store', and Miss Bon Bon calls me 'you little-"

She waved him/her to silence. "I think that is enough names, Cheese will do just fine." How had a foal with this type of reputation failed to come to her notice? He sounded worse than the Cutie Mark Crusaders at their worst. Something struck her about what he had mentioned. "Wait.. Silver Spoon tells you to do schoolwork? Are you homeschooled?" Cheese must be, as she never had a word of Cheese before this. Was Cheese a Spoon and that's why Silver Spoon got on him about schoolwork? Or perhaps a foal of one of the Spoons' servants, he did refer to Silver Spoon as Miss. She needed to have a serious talk with the Spoons about Cheese's education.

Cheese giggled. "No, silly. Miss Silver Spoon is the teacher. I thought you knew that since we're in her classroom. Don't you see her name up on the board?"

She looked up at the chalkboard. Sure enough, on the corner of the chalkboard, there was 'Miss Silver Spoon's Class' written in large letters. Below the writing was a very rough drawing of a mare with large glasses. Surrounding the stick-figure depiction of Silver Spoon were stick figure drawings of foals, as well as a few she interpreted to be dragons, yaks, and griffins.

That pretty much confirmed that this was all a dream. She wasn't great at interpreting dreams, but she knew enough about psychology to put together a reasonable set of why things were the way they were. Her worries about Silver Spoon must have mixed with her anxiety about the Crusaders, creating a dream scenario where Silver Spoon became the teacher. Her being in a young filly's body was just a further reflection of her own anxiety. She probably really did have a bump on her head, and her mind turned that into a unicorn horn. Cheese was a general representation of all her students, and she couldn't tell Cheese's gender because Cheese didn't have any; Cheese was just a random construct of her imagination. Everything made sense in relation to what she had on her mind this morning. Even her name, Candy, mixed with what she had been thinking in relation to Twist. Why, she wouldn't be surprised in the least if Diamond Tiara showed up as a buckball star, as other information got mixed together. This was a dream, and all she needed to do was wake up.

She lifted a leg up and bit down on it, hard. She let out a yelp, but didn't wake up. Between that and the headache this was the most pain she had ever felt in a dream.

"Why'd you do that?" Cheese asked as he/she gasped.

"I was trying to wake up," she replied, as she rubbed the tender spot where her teeth had connected.

"You looked like you were awake already," Cheese said slowly, then jumped in excitement. "Oh! So you are sleepwalking, talking in your sleep, and sleeping with your eyes open. When Daddy is home, sometimes I do that at night. I swear he and Mommy are making all kinds of weird sounds in their bedroom, but my big brother or sister always stop me from looking. They tell me that I'm just sleepwalking with my eyes open, and that I need to go back to bed. I thought they were lying, but they told me I was dreaming that Mommy and Daddy were baking buns in the bedroom, and it had to be a dream because you don't bake buns in bedrooms-- you bake buns in kitchens."

She rolled her eyes. Most young foals could be fairly gullible, but Cheese was laughably so. She hoped that this wasn't some internal reflection of how she saw her students. She didn't think she saw them all as being this naive and gullible. If it was, then that was a personal problem she needed to resolve, as that wasn't a healthy way to see her students.. That would be for later, though, after she'd managed to wake up.

"You made a big mess, we should clean it up, before you get in trouble," Cheese said, as the foal gestured back at the broken glass and pools of colored liquid and gunk back at the front of the classroom. "My mommy says that I should always clean up my messes, no matter how big a mess I made. She says that's taking responsitility."

"Responsibility," Cheerilee absently corrected. Then considered the situation. She still hadn't figured out how to wake up. Perhaps she should just see the dream through. "I don’t have any cleaning supplies. Can you do me a favor, and go find Miss Silver Spoon? I'm sure she can help me clean this up."

Cheese fidgeted in place. "Are you sure? She's going to be really mad when she sees the mess. Plus, I don't think you're supposed to be in here right now. It's a teacher work day."

She blinked. "Then what are you doing here?"

Cheese shuffled about some more. "I was worried about you-- I mean, I was worried about Candy. You-- she came in here with a bunch of stuff she took from the big school. Now it is all over the floor. Miss Applebloom is going to be really mad when she finds out that stuff was tooken, your-- Candy's parents too. A bunch of grown-ups are going to be mad."

The foal apparently wasn't wholly convinced that she wasn't Candy. Perhaps they weren't so gullible after all, and just tried to be trusting. Cheese apparently cared a great deal about his/her friend. The androgynous foal was surprisingly developed for a dream character. Come to think of it, everything about this dream was supremely detailed. Thinking about that caused her to briefly question whether she was in a dream at all.

No. Impossible. The only other explanation was mental time travel, and you don’t get that from color-changing potions and the contents of a fire extinguisher… unless the Crusaders were involved. Time travel shenanigans were not unheard of in Ponyville, but she had no idea how to respond to being thrown through time. She could run and hide from a monster, play dead if a supervillain showed up, jump on her desk if a wild beast got in her classroom, but what was she supposed to do when trapped in the future? Her disaster preparedness wasn't up to the task on that one. The only thing she could do is pretend it wasn't a possibility and hope that it turned out not to be.

No, ignoring that possibility wasn't a good idea, either. She needed to have a plan, just in case. "Just go get Silver Spoon," she instructed. If it did end up being the case she was tossed through time, some alternate reality, or something of that nature, then the first thing she needed to do was find somepony she knew and convince them that she was Cheerilee instead of Candy. Silver Spoon was the closest option to start with. She'd probably eventually need to go to Starlight Glimmer, but she needed to have ponies she knew to make a case for her. If it turned out to be just a dream there was no harm done in preparing for the worst.

"Okay… but she's going to be mad about the mess, and that we were in her classroom when she wasn't here," Cheese replied with a sad shake of his head. The foal ran off towards the door, stopping briefly to pick up a rubber chicken of all things, before hurrying out.

Since she might be waiting a few minutes she decided to take better stock of her situation. She was calmer now, and the initial shock of being in the wrong body had worn off.

The first thing she did was take a good look at herself in the mirror. She'd gotten a look at herself earlier, but the shock had left her getting only a few base details. Looking herself over now, she determined she couldn't be more than eight years old. She was slightly more muscular than a unicorn filly that age might normally be. Her flank was decidedly blank, but that wasn't unusual for a foal that age; at that age group some foals would have cutie marks, but half or more would still be waiting for them. Her mane was curly, but it looked well brushed. This foal had the same green eyes as herself, or at least a very close shade of green. She noticed some loose soil on the frogs of her hooves. As an earth pony, she was fairly familiar with different types of soil, even though she hadn't farmed since she was a young teen. The soil on her hooves was definitely from a tended field, and might indicate that Candy lived on a farm, but it could just as easily show that she had detoured across somepony's fields. Her fur had a gentle coat of dirt that anypony who ran through town might pick up.

Having gotten a better look at herself, she decided to get a better look at her classroom-- or Silver Spoon's classroom, as the case seemed to be. The nearest poster had a picture of what looked like Princess Twilight Sparkle, if Twilight Sparkle were proportioned like Princess Celestia. The poster had the new Princess sitting on a throne, smiling, and surrounded by ponies and other creatures. It had gold lettering at the top that read Celebrating Twenty Years of Rule by Ponyville's Own Princess Twilight Sparkle Twenty years? She had just taken the throne mere months before. The case for time travel, rather than a dream, was stronger now.

As she sat and stared at the poster, she tried to think of the ramifications of being in the future. Did she just disappear from the past? Where did the actual Candy go to? Was Candy back in her body immediately following Applebloom's botched potion show and tell? That last question made her feel faint again. The idea of her life, more importantly her classroom, being run by an eight-year old filly had dire implications. What kind of mess would she be returning to?

There was another upsetting aspect to being in the future. While she was convinced Starlight Glimmer, or some other pony, could get this fixed and send her back home, there was the fact she couldn't help but learn things she'd rather not know in the meantime.

Silver Spoon was a prime example of things she'd rather not know about. It was easy to tell by looking around the classroom that Silver Spoon was a dedicated and caring teacher. No teacher who was just going through the motions would put this much effort into making sure their classroom oozed this much positivity. The issue was that the Silver Spoon of her own time was a filly who didn't know what to do with her life, and one that she was expected to be give advice to in relation to that. Now that she had seen this, it would be hard not to push the filly in the direction of teaching (despite never showing a hint of interest in that career path to that point), or to feel so confident that things would work out for the filly that she didn't give Silver Spoon's fears and concerns the attention they really deserved. Just seeing this changed how she would act with Silver Spoon going forward, back in her own time. The same could be said of anypony she knew that she happened across while here. Being a teacher, she knew how much impact she could have on the lives of others, and she didn't want to have spoilers altering how she would do things.

Just thinking of all of the uncomfortable knowledge she might gain made her knees shake. If twenty years had passed then her older students might actually be slightly older than she was supposed to be. Every student she had ever taught, except the classes younger than her most recent graduating class, would be older than she really was. How many of them were married with families? Statistically, most would probably have families of their own. For all she knew she was the foal of one of her current students, the same with Cheese. That was information she'd really rather not know in advance about her students, information nopony really had the right to know about ahead of time. How could she walk back into her class full of foals and not get uncomfortable knowing which of her students would end up with who, or what unexpected turns their lives may take? On a selfish note, she'd just be angry knowing who everypony else ended up with, but still be looking for Mr. Right herself. Things like that could make a mare bitter.

The door opened, and Cheese came pronking into the room again, followed by a silver mare with large glasses. The silver mare's eyes immediately fell onto the mess of broken glass and liquids. "What under Twilight's sun and moon happened here?"

She didn't respond right away, the shock of seeing Silver Spoon as an adult was a lot to take in. The silver mare's glasses were still the first noticeable feature, which didn't seem so oversized on an adult. Her mane was still pulled back in a ponytail, but it was a bit more messy, rough, and flat than it had been when she was a filly. She still wore that same pearl necklace, which may be a family heirloom, but it gave her a hint of maturity rather than one of wealth. Between her accessories and her coloration, Silver Spoon actually appeared to be in her older forties, rather than younger thirties. Her clear face and vibrant eyes belied that notion, however. The most dramatic difference were Silver Spoon's eyes; no longer completely covered by her glasses, her eyes seemed so much bigger, and kinder at the same time. As a filly, she had an air of cynicism and haughtiness; there was no trace of that in this mare's face and demeanor. The changes were subtle, subtle enough that she easily recognized Silver Spoon, but dramatic enough it still seemed like a new pony.

As Silver Spoon's eyes turned from the mess to her, she recognized the familiar gaze that she had likely given many a student in her own time right before she had given them detention. "Candy Apple!" Silver Spoon said sternly, eyes narrowing. "What is the meaning of this? Come over here, this instant, and let me look at your hooves to make sure you haven't stepped in glass and hurt yourself." There was more of a huskiness to the teacher's voice than what she had as a filly, with no trace of her foalhood inflections, perhaps the smallest hint of a rougher Manehatten accent.

Being in a foal's body, and hearing the voice of an adult authority figure, she found herself complying with her former student's order before she even realized what she was doing. She dutifully walked over to the teacher, avoiding the glass and debris, and sat down while holding up her forehooves for inspection. Silver Spoon carefully inspected each of her forehooves, and after finishing lifted each of her hind legs to inspect those hooves as well. The teacher let off a sigh of relief after she seemed satisfied that there was no injury. Her eyes went narrow and stern again afterwards, and seemed to burrow into the young filly that Cheerilee was currently occupying.

"I have been around long enough to recognize some of those things as potion supplies," Silver Spoon said, as she pointed a hoof at the mess. "Are you stealing from your aunt now? I can't imagine she would just give you those things. I know you have a penchant for tall tales, but theft is a type of delinquency that you've never done. What has gotten into you, young filly?"

She blinked a few times. She was an Apple, and taking an educated guess about who her aunt was wasn't hard if they were discussing potions from her. Cheese had mentioned a Ma and Pa Apple earlier, but it hadn't really clicked until now. That meant either Applejack or Big Mac was her parent. She hoped it wasn't Big Mac. She'd dated him briefly, and he was a very nice stallion, just never a good fit for her-- she longed for somepony a bit more conversational. Still, being in the body of the foal from a former boyfriend would somehow make this situation even more uncomfortable than it already was.

Drawing herself up, she gazed into her former student's eyes. "I'm not who you think I am. I'm really Cheerilee, from twenty years ago. I need help to get back to my own time." Straight and to the point, that was the way to go.

Silver Spoon facehooved, and shook her head sadly. "Not this again." Again? What did she mean, again?

"She told me the same thing," Cheese confirmed, bouncing in place with the rubber chicken as a rider. "She said we need to find Zecora!"

Silver Spoon looked at the little androgen sadly. "Cheese, how many times are you going to be fooled by…" The teacher shook her head, and refocused on the yellow foal. "Never mind. Can you do me a big favor? Can you go to the School of Friendship and fetch Miss Applebloom for me? I don't know what all that stuff on the floor is, and I don't want me or anypony else being exposed to anything dangerous. She'll recognize what those things are and know how to properly deal with them."

Cheese saluted. "Sure thing, Miss Silver Spoon." The pony then pronked away and out the door.

She couldn't stand it anymore, she had to ask. "Is Cheese a colt or a filly?"

Silver Spoon's head shot up and her ears flattened. "Candy, we had this talk." Then the mare shivered. "Oh Twilight's mercy, did we ever have this talk. I never want to have to deal with explaining that intersex is not a contagious disease to parents afraid to have their foals in the same classroom with him ever again.”

Intersex? She'd heard of that, but never met anypony that she knew of that was.

Silver continued. “I've never seen Pinkie Pie get so upset as when those parents were saying such cruel things about her foal. You can just say ‘he’ with him, even if he will always have some feminine features. Please don't ask that again, it is not a subject for your games."

Most ponies would keep that a secret if they could, she supposed. That would explain why she couldn't tell what sex Cheese was, since he was technically both, even if ponies seemed to favor the male aspect of that.

That was not really important, though it was nice to solve the mystery. What was important was convincing Silver Spoon that she was who she said she was. "I am Cheerilee, I can prove it. When you were getting ready to graduate my class twenty years ago you were really upset, and uncertain what to do. Diamond Tiara thought that you were mad at her because Diamond Tiara was planning to go off to business school in Manehatten. You and she used to pick on the Cutie Mark Crusaders for a few years you were in my class."

Silver Spoon looked down at her sadly. "I’m not sure how you learned that, but I have to give you credit, you certainly do your research for these stories each time." The mare reached out a hoof and laid it gently on Cheerilee's back. "You are such a bright and creative young filly, the effort and work that you put into these...stories... shows how bright and creative you really are. I just wish we could get you to channel it into something else."

She backed away from the teacher, shaking off the hoof, and shaking her head. "I really am Cheerilee! You can ask me anything to prove it."

"No, I know better," Silver Spoon sighed. "As I said, you do your research. I should have expected you to stick with this, after that full month you pretended to be possessed by King Sombra. You did all the research for that one too, and it took us forever to finally get you out of town hall after you claimed that as the capital of your new empire. That was after the month of pretending you had amnesia, and two months after pretending that you were a changeling stuck in the form of Candy Apple. You're an excellent actress, but no one is going to buy this story, so. Please. Just. Stop."

This couldn't be happening! Not only was she trapped in the body of a foal, twenty years in the future, but she was trapped in the body of the filly who seemed to Ponyville's most notorious liar! Probably claiming to be a mare who was dead, or at least missing, for twenty years! How was she supposed to get help if she couldn't convince even the ponies that should know her that she was who she said she was?

She laid down and covered her head with her forelegs, letting off a long groan of despair. "Oh boy."

Author's Note

Thanks for new cover art by Cosmic Eclipse.

Chapter 3: Some Ponies Change, But Some Never Do

"Come on, young filly, we are going to wait outside," Silver Spoon said, directing her towards the door.

She flattened her ears. "Why?" She wasn't eager to be left sitting in the open where she could just see anypony she knew walking about. Ideally, she'd somehow convince Applebloom that she was who she said she was, and that Applebloom would have gained enough knowledge and expertise about potions in the last twenty years to undo whatever this failed potion had done.

The teacher gestured at the mess. "As I told Cheese, I don't know what that stuff is, and I don't know what effects it might have. For all I know, it could be dangerous just being in the same room with it for extended periods. I cannot stress to you how potentially dangerous what you did was. Potions are advanced magic, and shouldn't be experimented with willy-nilly by a foal your age."

She snorted, and wished she hadn't; Silver Spoon might take it as a sign that she was not taking her seriously. It was hard not to, obviously; a potions accident had brought her here to begin with! When she got back to her own time, the younger Applebloom was going to be getting the lecture of a lifetime about that very subject. Hopefully, she'd avoid getting a preview of that lecture given by the older Applebloom.

She got up, and left the school, Silver following. Cheerilee admired Silver’s firm, reasoned response, and hoped that she’d have done as well in the same situation. Looking back through the door, though, she realized that Candy’s experiment probably would have been important as well. What Candy had been trying to accomplish with the pilfered potion ingredients was unknown, and she had no clue what the filly might have inadvertently done. It might be important to find out exactly what was in that collection of glass, liquids, and other unidentified muck on the floor. Determining that might be a challenge, if she couldn't convince Applebloom of her identity where she had failed to convince Silver Spoon.

When she stepped outside she looked around and gaped at what she saw. The familiar dirt road that led up to the schoolhouse was gone, or at least, it wasn't where it had been. In its place, there were a half dozen small buildings that were arranged in a circle around a large playground area, with one somewhat larger building opposite of where she stood that had a large sign hanging over its doors that read administration. The Ponyville Elementary School seemed to have grown sixfold in size in the last twenty years.

A congregation of almost a dozen adult ponies walked towards them as they exited out of the building, including one changeling. She recognized with distaste one of the mares that was in the group, Spoiled Rich. The mare's mane had gone completely grey, and it looked as if somewhere down the line she had fixed that pointed nose of hers to look more natural, but it was definitely her-- she still radiated the same attitude that she had twenty years before. Most of the others she couldn't recognize, but the unicorn mare with the light greyish-purple fur and gold mane with streaks of white in a tight bun at the head of the group was vaguely familiar.

"Is everything alright, Silver?" The vaguely familiar unicorn asked as the group approached.

Silver Spoon sighed, and gestured at Cheerilee. "Candy was just getting up to mischief again. It is getting resolved, and nocreature got hurt, thankfully. I've already sent somepony to go fetch her aunt."

Spoiled Rich sniffed haughtily. "Nocreature got hurt? Is that the new standard for acceptable with this school? What manner of discipline do you intend to use to bring this ongoing menace of a filly under control?"

Her former student firmed up her jaw and stepped partially between Cheerilee and and the group of ponies. "I intend to contact her parents and have a long discussion about her behavior. As I said before, her aunt is already on her way."

The long-standing member of school board raised an eyebrow contemptuously at Silver Spoon. "Just a talk with her parents? Really? Are you claiming her parents aren't aware of the fact that their daughter is a little hooligan? I think they very well do, and that they are simply too inept to enforce some basic discipline. I ask again, what are you going to do to make sure this egregious foal is brought under control, Miss Spoon?"

Cheerilee grit her teeth tightly, and tried not to openly snarl at the mare. This reminded her far too much of her own dealings with Spoiled Rich in her own time, and it seemed the mare had barely changed in that regard. She'd often been at Spoiled's mercy back then, as she was dependant on the Richs' contributions to even keep the school running, but seeing Spoiled Rich continue to bully teachers in this time was infuriating.

The unicorn at the head of the group flattened her ears as she glared at Spoiled Rich. "Mrs. Rich, Miss Silver Spoon will take care of the matter as she sees fit, and I have total and complete confidence in her."

Spoiled rounded on the unicorn mare. "Is that so, Principle Doo? Are you just a figurehead, or does that title actually mean something? Do you make your teachers do what's necessary, or do you just let them walk right on over you?"

Cheerilee blinked. Was that little Dinky Doo? The streaks of white were new, but it wasn't uncommon for ponies to show minor changes in coloration of their manes as they progressed beyond foalhood, or to add highlights themselves through dyes. In her own time Dinky was a student who wasn't due to graduate from her elementary school for a few years yet. Beyond being a rather gentle and curious foal, with a love of hugs, Dinky had yet to really demonstrate much of a direction in life, and was still blank-flanked. It was a mild relief to see that this adult version was wearing a light green frock that hid her mark from view; every little piece of information that was learned was a little too much.

Dinky was apparently of stronger will than Cheerilee was, as she seemed to be unwilling to tolerate Spoiled's demands. "Mrs. Rich, we are a team here at Ponyville Elementary, and we put our students first. Candy can be trying at times, that is true, but she isn't a bad foal. And even if she were, foals can turn themselves around."

Spoiled snobbishly raised her nose up high. "My daughter has made her case well that our students are long-term investments, and I should not be quick to dismiss any student as worthless. However, this filly has been nothing but trouble for some time now." It figured that the only way Diamond Tiara could appeal to her mother about treating students right was by appealing to her in financial terms. Spoiled had precisely two things she cared about: money and stature.

The wealthy mare turned her gaze back to Silver Spoon. "And what, pray tell, was the mischief she got up to this time? You said nocreature got hurt; that implies that it might have been a possibility."

That seemed to make Silver Spoon uncomfortable, and Cheerilee cringed back behind the now older pony's legs. "She took some potion supplies from the School of Friendship and was attempting to make a potion in my classroom," the teacher meekly explained, then looked Spoiled in the eyes. "But there was no harm done, other than a mess."

"No harm done?!" Spoiled shouted, and Cheerilee cowered, even though she knew she wasn't personally responsible for what had happened. She was ashamed to admit she was conditioned to fear Spoiled's displeasure. After all, her displeasure meant the school didn't get needed funds. "I think you just admitted that filly isn't just a liar, but a thief. While her elaborate lies might be passed off as merely a public nuisance, theft was a crime, last I checked! The criminal shouldn't be getting a parent-teacher conference, she should be getting arrested!"

Silver Spoon stomped a hoof, and Cheerilee reflexively jumped back. "I highly doubt either her aunt or Starlight Glimmer will be pressing any charges, and I'm not having my students arrested! This will be taken care of, and it'll be taken care of in a way that helps Candy Apple move forward having learned from her mistake."

"Learn what? How get away with lawlessness? You are only encouraging her to continue these actions." Spoiled sneered back. "Yes, let's just help her become better at her life of crime, you soft-hearted disgrace for an authority figure. I demand that foal be expelled from school, before she corrupts any other youths!"

"Enough!" Dinky shouted. "Mrs. Rich. You may be the head of the school board, but you don't get to just dictate how we deal with our students. Believe me when I say we take this matter very seriously, and will be taking steps to see it isn't repeated, but you will not threaten or bad-mouth our students or our faculty."

Spoiled turned her sneer to Dinky. "This is completely unacceptable!"

Dinky pointed a hoof off towards a nearby path. "Your current behavior is what is unacceptable. If you want to make a case for expulsion then you better bring the whole school board here to do it. I'll be speaking to Diamond Tiara about this incident in the meantime."

Spoiled's eyes widened briefly with fear. "There's no need to bring her into this."

"Are you afraid of what your daughter might think of you?" Dinky questioned with a smirk that said she knew she had the leverage she needed against the elder mare. Cheerilee took smug satisfaction in seeing Dinky figuratively have Spoiled Rich by the tail. It was a rare sight, and one that always filled her with morbid joy. Ironically, it had been Diamond Tiara who had first taken Spoiled down a peg years before, and it seemed the mere invocation of her still could. "Or are you more afraid she might cut your allowance? She's warned you more than once about this kind of thing."

Spoiled hesitated, then clicked her tongue. "This isn't over, Dinky Doo. If I may offer a word of advice: you've been in this position for just a few months. I would not get into an early habit of having to run to others for help. It makes you seem weak and ineffective. The citizens of Ponyville might not want a weak and ineffective pony in charge of this school. Consider that well, for your own sake." The elder mare then turned, and after giving a strong flick of her tail, walked proudly off the school grounds.

Cheerilee let off a sigh of relief as her long-time nemesis left the area. In both her own time and this one, Spoiled Rich was still the worst. Sadly, and it was a shame to admit it, she wasn't sure if being in the body of a foal made her any less effective in dealing with the mare. Even though Silver Spoon and Dinky Doo of this time were in a sense different ponies than the foals she knew in her own, she couldn't help but feel a sense of pride in her former students for standing their ground against the scourge of the school board. If only she could manage to do the same.

Dinky seemed to want to be sure that Spoiled really left, and kept her eyes glued to the path for several seconds after Spoiled had vanished from sight. She then looked around at all the various ponies (and one changeling) and gave them a beaming smile. "Okay, we've had our excitement. This is a teacher work day, not a teacher stand around the field day. I want you all back to work. Silver Spoon, stay where you are, you and I are going to have a talk."

The group turned and walked back to the larger building labeled administration, talking in hushed voices about what had just happened. She couldn't help herself, and tried to tell if she knew any of these other teachers; examining each of them as carefully as she could, and looking at cutie marks where visible. Not a single one of them was familiar to her, the only two ponies at the school she was familiar with were Silver Spoon and Dinky Doo.

Dinky held her smile until the teachers all finally entered into the building. The smile then slipped, and she hung her head while letting off a tired sigh.

"Thank you for standing up for me, and for our students," Silver Spoon said, before Dinky had a chance to speak. "I know everypony is happy to see you did that too. No offense, Dinks, but nopony was sure what to expect would happen when you and…" Silver Spoon paused and glanced at Cheerilee, as if reconsidering what word to use around a foal. "--that pony inevitably got into it. Seeing that she didn't run roughshod over you was a huge relief."

"I'm not even upset you were worried. I wasn't sure I could stand up to her until just now," Dinky replied, then her ears sagged. "However, she is right about one thing; if Candy stole something we're going to need to do more than a parent-teacher conference."

Cheerilee suppressed the urge to scream. This kept getting worse and worse. She had no desire to be punished for Candy's misdeeds. Dinky was in the right to want to make sure some sort of effective discipline happened, but had no way of knowing that she wasn't the filly they thought she was. She briefly considered trying to appeal even harder that she wasn't Candy to Dinky, but making a case for identity to Dinky would be even harder than with Silver Spoon, as Dinky was younger than Silver Spoon and had been much better behaved in class-- which meant that she and Dinky had even less personal history to draw upon for proof of identity. While the younger of the Doo clan didn't seem to be a strict authoritarian, she was clearly no fool. She would be exceedingly skeptical of anything that came out of the mouth of a pony known for pretending to be somepony else.

She made a mental note to herself for when she got back to her own time; after Candy Apple was born and started school, she needed to nip this behavior in the bud.

Except, if she got back to her own time, wouldn't she have already have done that? She still didn't know what had happened to herself after that moment when she tried to fling away Applebloom's potion. Had she vanished? Had Candy taken over her body as she had Candy's? If Candy had taken over her body, and still had it to this point in time, wouldn't Candy want to step in and intervene in things now? But that last option assumed that she didn't get back. And would this whole future even exist if she did make it back to her own time? She'd be carrying a lot of information that could alter its course, when and if she returned. She groaned internally; she just wasn't cut out to understand the complex paradoxes of time travel! She really needed an expert in the subject.

"I'm aware," Silver Spoon sighed. "When Applebloom gets here I'll talk to her, and I will be escorting her home to talk to her parents." She gave Cheerilee a raised eyebrow. "What were you attempting to do with those things anyway?"

She shook her head. "I wasn't trying to do anything. It was Candy." She winced as she said that. If she didn't keep consistently telling the truth it would be impossible to ever convince anypony that it was indeed the truth, but listening to herself she knew she how much it sounded like a filly who didn't want to take responsibility for her actions.

"This again?" Dinky said in shock. "Who is she supposed to be this time?"

Silver Spoon grimaced. "She's claiming she's Cheerilee now."

Dinky bit her lip then laughed. "A little less grand than normal. So tell me, Cheerilee, what made you suddenly decide to quit without warning and take off to Vanhoover at the start of the school year?"

What? She was still around, and she quit her job? She would never just quit her job out of the blue! Maybe at some point in the future she'd retire, but even at the age she should be in this time period she should still have several years left before she'd consider retirement, and when she did she'd definitely give plenty of forewarning. It would also happen at the end of a school year, not the beginning, She simply wouldn't do such a thing to her students.

"I… I-I don't know. That doesn't sound like me. I'm from twenty years in the past," she said, dumbfounded.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that extra twist on the story," Silver Spoon giggled, much to Cheerilee's consternation. They were so used to Candy's stories that they learned to take amusement in them. "You definitely have a great imagination." Silver smiled at the principal. "Dinky, do you think we could possibly try starting a drama club for the school? That might be an excellent outlet for her to channel this into. She's an outstanding actress, who puts her all into her roles. I think she could be very successful in a stage production if given the opportunity. What do you think?" Cheerilee stood open mouthed as she listened. The mare wasn't being ironic or joking, she was being serious! It was wonderful that they were considering options that would help one of their students, but right now she just wanted to scream in frustration.

Dinky rubbed a hoof against her chin. "It definitely has some merits. It could be a healthy way of giving her the attention she so obviously craves, and as you said, she's very good at it. We'd have to be careful about what role she was cast in, since she refuses to drop character until she finally gets bored. It might also take some convincing of the school board to get the funding for a proper stage and props. You know how they can get about the budget."

They were just going to actively refuse to entertain the idea she was really Cheerilee, not even playing along with it just to humor her! On top of that, she now had to worry about the fact her older self had decided to quit her job at the beginning of the school year. That really wasn't something she could picture herself doing. Was it actually Candy in her body, in this time? By this point Candy wouldn't be a foal in an adult's body, she'd be an adult in an adult's body who had lived the majority of her life in that body. Perhaps that was the reason for the hasty retirement. At the beginning of the year Candy might have realized that the point they switched bodies was coming up, and wanted to avoid any chance they switch back!

That was all speculation, and wild speculation at that, but she was desperate to understand this and fix it. As another possibility, it could really be her that was here in this time. If that was the case that meant she managed to get back home. That also meant that this whole thing could be resolved by just getting in contact with her older self and finding out how her older self had managed it. Except… why had her older self skipped town if that was the case? Shouldn't she know that this was coming, and be ready to help? This didn't add together right.

The conversation the teacher and principal were having came to an abrupt end as Cheese came happily pronking onto the school grounds. "She's coming, but she needed to slow down," Cheese announced, he then looked at Cheerilee excitedly, and pounced on her, drawing her into a tight hug. "The bad pony didn't get you!"

She tried to escape his hug for a second, before just accepting it. "The bad pony?"

He released her and lifted his muzzle high. "The mean old mare that walks around with her nose up like this."

Silver Spoon cut off a laugh, as if knowing she shouldn't be laughing at the pony who signed her paychecks, but couldn't help it. "That's a-- that's a very good impression, Cheese."

She agreed, but wasn't in a mood for humor. "Why would Spoiled Rich 'get me'?"

Cheese's expression fell, and he hugged the rubber chicken close to him like it was a squeaky stuffed animal. "I saw her when I was coming back. She was saying all kinds of mean things about you-- well, about Candy… are you Candy or Cheerilee right now?"

"I'm Cheerilee," she replied, trying not to sound cross.

Silver Spoon groaned. "Candy, what will it take to make you stop this performance? You have to see it is getting you nowhere."

Dinky let off a small laugh. "Just let her run with it. At least it is an imitation of somepony who should be well behaved." The principal seemed to consider this a moment. "Were you Cheerilee before or after you stole from the school?" She just noticed that Dinky was wearing earrings shaped like muffins with smiling faces on them, hanging by small golden hoops. She had no idea why that drew her eyes, but she found them fascinating.

She shook her head, Dinky's odd choice of jewellery wasn't important. "I have no idea what Candy was doing with that stuff, but I'd love to know." She then looked again at Cheese. "And you said you didn't know who I was! They said I was teaching here up to the beginning of this school year."

Cheese blinked. "You mean Principal Cheerilee? You said Cheerilee, not Principal Cheerilee. I might have gotten confused again." Seriously? She was the principal now, and still randomly took off? She banished that thought, as she was afraid it would summon some new complication.

The yellow foal seemed to consider this further. "Well, if you are Cheerilee from twenty years ago, that means you and Principal Cheerilee aren't really the same pony, because Principal Cheerilee would know me, but even my big brother and sister aren't that old. She was a really nice principal, so I hope you're nice too."

"Do you think I'm a nice principal?" Dinky asked the yellow foal. Dinky was smiling, but she could tell that the answer actually personally mattered to the mare. That made sense, if she was new on the job, wanting affirmation that she was doing a good job was just natural.

Cheese beamed up at the purple unicorn. "You’re nice too, Principal Doo." He clapped his hooves together excitedly after that, giggling. "I made a rhyme."

Dinky lit up her horn and used her magic to playfully ruffle Cheese's purple mane. "That you did, but I need you to head home now. It's time for the adults to talk to your friend."

Cheese's face fell. "But Miss Pumpkin said I needed to make myself scarce until dinnertime, that she had too much work to do for me to be back at the shop. And Mommy is in her cave, and I'm not allowed in there."

Silver Spoon and Dinky exchanged a concerned look, then the teacher lowered her head down next to Cheese and smiled. "How about you go to the Twistibon Chocolate Shop. Tell my wife that I promised you could have a milkshake, my treat, as long as you stayed out of trouble while there. Then around dinner time you can go back home. Does that sound like a good idea?" Cheerilee plugged her hooves into her ears, trying to block out more information she had no business knowing. Silver Spoon had a wife? The effort wasn't very effective, and she considered loudly singing Hearthswarming carols to further drawn out the sounds around her.

"Okay, Miss Silver Spoon," Cheese answered, expression bright and cheerful again. He quickly hugged to Silver Spoon, then Dinky, and finally her, before putting his rubber chicken on his back and pronking off.

As Cheese was leaving the schoolyard, a yellow mare with a bright red mane came wearily walking onto the school grounds. She seemed out of breath, though she didn't seem to be exerting herself very much. As she approached it became clear why; her underside was very distended. It was obvious that Applebloom was very heavy with foal, one due any day now. Just great, more things she really rather not know about.... It just kept piling on.

Chapter 4: Aunt Applebloom

She watched as her very pregnant former student slowly made her way to them. Applebloom looked like she was laboring to be moving around, hopefully she didn't go into actual labor, as she looked more than ripe enough to have that happen. Dinky and Silver watched with equal concern.

"Are you alright? Do you need to sit down and let us get you something?" Silver asked as Applebloom reached them and sat down, huffing as if out of breath. Cheerilee could imagine Silver Spoon was harshly criticizing herself for having called upon Applebloom right now.

Applebloom sat for a moment, breathing heavily while shaking her head and waving them off with a hoof. "It's my own fault. Shouldn't… shouldn't have tried runnin' after him like that. Just-just give me a minute. I'll be right as rain after I rest a sec."

Applebloom was nearly identical in appearance to how she'd looked as a filly, with a minor exceptions of a shawl she had over her shoulders, being taller, and the large package she was carrying. Her voice was only the tiniest frequency deeper than it had been as a filly, and it was hard to tell if that was due to the extra age or the fact that the mare had just exhausted herself.

Applebloom licked her lips and took a final deep breath or two. "Even when that colt is just hopping around like a cricket on a spring day, he's fast. I thought I could keep up, but I was foolin' myself. I'da been good if I'd had some sense." She rubbed a hoof across her stuffed undercarriage. "I've been wondering as of late where ma senses were at when I decided I wanted to have a foal. This'll be my only one; I promise you that. I ain't goin' through this again."

"I'm sorry, Applebloom. If I'd stopped and thought for a moment about how far along you are I would have called someone else," Silver said, ears hanging low.

Applebloom waved off Silver's concern. "I already told ya; it's my own fault. If I'd been takin' my time like I should'a I wouldn't be so gosh darned tired right now. Applejack is gonna give me an earful for runnin' like that. Don't worry, I'll be alright," Applebloom's eyes focused on Cheerilee. "Speakin' of ponies that are gonna get an earful, what's Candy gone and done now?"

Silver gave Applebloom another concerned look, before gesturing at Cheerilee. "Your niece seems to have taken a number of potion supplies from you and made quite a mess in my classroom. I have no idea what she was trying to do, and she's pretending to be Cheerilee now, so she's acting like she doesn't have a clue. You know how her acts go; there's no breaking character."

"She probably took from the more basic supplies that I use for teachin' my introductory class in potions," Applebloom said thoughtfully. "The more dangerous stuff I've got an enchanted lock on, and keep separate. Ain't no way she went and broke that lock, but getting to the basic stuff might not be too hard."

"I've got shattered glass and things I can't identify at the front of my classroom," Silver continued. "I didn't want to touch anything without consulting with an expert on potions first, just to be safe."

"That's the right thing to do," Applebloom agreed with a nod. "Give me a minute or so to rest up, and I'll go take a look at it. Have you noticed anythin' funny? Smoke, smell, things that just ain't right?"

Silver shook her head. "Just Candy pretending she's Cheerilee, but that's par for the course with her."

"I am Cheerilee!" Cheerilee protested with a shout. "From twenty years in the past." She pointed a hoof at Applebloom. "From right after your potion show and tell literally blew up in my face!"

Applebloom blinked. "My potion from show and tell… oh golly… who told you about the Great Plaidening?" For some reason Silver Spoon shivered at the mention.

She raised an eyebrow, unsure if she really wanted the answer to her next question. "The great what?"

Applebloom got a faraway look and shook her head. "We don't discuss the Great Plaidening. Needless to say, it's'a great reason why little fillies shouldn't be allowed to be playing with making potions unsupervised by somecreature that knows what they're'a doin'."

The name conjured up nightmare images of tablecloth colors and flannel, but Applebloom actually turning her plaid was small potatoes compared to getting sent through time. "I don't remember being plaid, but the last thing I recall before I woke up in this body was trying to throw your concoction away-- after dousing it with a fire extinguisher."

Applebloom rolled her eyes. "And that's an excellent example of why you shouldn't add random ingredients to an already alchemically active potion. The Great Plaidening wouldn't have been half-so-bad if Cheerilee hadn't done that. Even grown ponies that don't know what they're'a doin' can screw up."

Silver Spoon's grey fur seemed to have a green tinge to it. "I still get sick just thinking about those colors. Zecora laughed her flank off about that one."

"And then made me clean her hut for a month for trying out makin' potions that are supposed to effect a pony's mane color," Applebloom said, with a suppressed chuckle at her foalhood antics. "Messing with a pony's mane with magic is a lot more complicated than ya'd think, let me tell you."

"Wait, what happened?" Dinky asked with confusion and interest.

Silver Spoon whispered into the principal's ear, and Dinky's eyebrows raised. "I think I might remember that. School was delayed getting out for the summer for about a week, and nopony was allowed in the classroom."

"And everypony that was there ended up having to spend a week sick in bed because just seeing all the colors like that made them ill," Applebloom said with a groan. "Cheerilee never let me bring a potion in that schoolhouse again, even after I got to where I knew what I was doin'."

Well, she had that to look forward to when she got back. Applebloom was definitely never bringing another potion in either, so no fear of changing history. Still, this was another chance to try to prove who she really was. "Did I-- I mean me as Cheerilee-- act differently right after that potion went wrong?"

Applebloom looked at her quizzically. "For the whole week after she was sick, just like the rest of us. I was surprised when she agreed to letting us apprentice under her after that, I thought I blew it."

"I didn't behave differently at all?" She asked.

"It was twenty years ago, so ya can't expect me to remember it perfect, but I'm pretty sure Cheerilee didn't act any different," Applebloom replied, emphasizing the name. "Only thing that changed was that after we officially graduated from elementary school she insisted we just call her Cheerilee instead of Miss Cheerilee when we weren't helping her in her classroom. She said if we were going to apprentice under her that we should view each other as friends."

That last part was believable. She never had an apprentice before, but it was easy enough to imagine she'd want to let some of the classroom formality down in private, and start treating the Crusaders as young mares instead of fillies. What was hard to believe was that there was absolutely no change in her behavior. If it was her, then she would have just gotten back from dealing with this entire experience. If it was Candy she couldn't imagine Candy would be able to imitate her and do her job flawlessly. Candy might be a good actress, but that didn't mean she could just step in and know how to run a classroom or know what to teach just because she was imitating a teacher. Nor would Candy know her life so well she wouldn't make slip ups, even with things like not knowing her way around Ponyville as it was in Cheerilee's proper time.

"Are you sure?" She asked pleasingly. "I didn't seem forgetful about anything, or act weird in any way?"

"E'nope," Applebloom responded. "Cheerilee was just perfectly normal Cheerilee." The pregnant mare then smiled at her. "I know what you're trying to do, but you can see it ain't workin'. Your story just don't hold water. Can you just drop this act early this time?"

"It's not an act!" She shouted, growing increasingly angry and frustrated.

"Well, you sound like an upset filly, rather than a grown mare who spent most of her life dealing with foals," Applebloom replied calmly. That comment rankled, mainly because it was true. It was just that this situation was breaking her ability to be calm and collected. A second later, a scary thought occurred to her. What if being in the body of a foal was impacting her thinking and emotional state?

Applebloom was right. She needed to calm herself down, and try to be a reasonable adult. She was a Ponyville mare, she dealt with craziness and insanity all the time. This was just another crazy bit of insanity, and it was only taking a little longer than normal to resolve it. "I can tell you any number of details about things that happened back then. I know about that love potion you gave me and your brother for Hearts and Hooves Day. I can tell you in detail about the Foal Free Press incident. I can tell about the day Scootaloo's parents showed up in class with a cragadile. How could I know these things if I wasn't really Cheerilee?"

Applebloom gave her an unreadable look, then turned to Silver Spoon. "Do you have a copy of it, if you catch what I'm talkin' about?"

Silver Spoon seemed confused for a moment, then the light of realization dawned in her eyes as she facehooved. "Duh, of course. Yeah, I know what you're asking for. Seems pretty obvious now that you mention it. It's on the main bookshelf, closest to the chalkboard."

"What are you talking about?" She asked, suspicious of what was going on. Probably some new obstacle. It had been nothing but new obstacles so far, what was another tossed on the pile?

Applebloom stood up. "You'll see." She turned to the principal. "Dinks, mind comin' inside with me and givin' me a little help with your horn? I ain't the most graceful and balanced of ponies right now, no matter what my hubby might say."

Dinky nodded and made motion that she'd follow. "No problem. You just tell me what needs to be done, and I'll help get things back in order."

"Thank you, kindly," Applebloom replied, before leading the principal into the original Ponyville schoolhouse.

That left Cheerilee sitting outside alone with Silver Spoon again, with little hope of convincing the teacher of her identity. Still wanting to be productive, she decided to try to gather a little information, without spoiling the future too much. "So ah, Candy pretends to be different ponies a lot?"

"Yes, you do," Silver replied, again stressing she didn't believe she wasn't Candy.

"You mentioned Sombra and a changeling, were there others?" Cheerilee asked.

Silver sighed. "You know the answer to that, young filly. You've been doing this regularly every few weeks for the last year. You've pretended to be other ponies-- not always ponies actually-- more than you have been yourself. I've honestly lost track of them all. I think in total you've only been Candy for maybe a month to month-and-a-half in total this school year, and that's adding up individual days." The teacher paused and gave her a concerned frown. "Is everything alright at home? Do you feel like your parents don't give you enough attention. You're the youngest foal, and I know it can feel rough having to share your parents with your brothers. Applebloom having a foal of her own is also drawing some attention, I'm sure. She announced she was pregnant around the time you started this. Do you want to talk about it?"

She resisted growling in frustration. Silver Spoon was just trying to take care of her student, and showing concern for Candy's home life. It was again a sign of a great teacher, but in this rare instance it wasn't necessary. "I don't know anything about that. I'm not Candy, I'm Cheerilee. I know you don't believe me, and have no reason to believe me-- given everything I have heard about Candy, but I'll find a way to prove it." She paused briefly. "For what it's worth. You seem like a very good teacher, and even though you didn't show any interest in teaching in my time, I'm very proud of how you turned out compared to the spoiled filly that first came into my classroom."

Silver's eyes widened. "If I didn't know you better, I could almost believe you were Cheerilee. That's very close to what she told me after I started teaching here."

Hope dared to rise in her, but was quickly dashed as Silver's expression went stern again. "But I do know you, little filly. You're the best actress I've ever seen, by a wide margin. If you don't turn out being a star performer on a stage or in movies, or perhaps maybe a writer, I'll eat my glasses. I just wish you'd let ponies help you, instead of acting out like this."

"There's got to be something I can do to prove who I am," she sulkenly muttered.

Silver Spoon just shook her head. "I wouldn't put it past you to come up with something convincing. You are clever. It's just that everycreature in Ponyville knows it."

Then maybe she needed somepony who didn't live in Ponyville. She was at a loss of who would fit the bill, how she could get to them, or if she could be be sure anypony she thought of would actually be where she thought they'd be when she got there.

No, there was one pony who would be able to confirm who she was, and that she knew where they were. The one she was told took off to Vanhoover a few months ago, herself-- or Candy, there was no sure way of knowing who was currently occupying her body. Actually getting to Vanhoover would be difficult though. She doubted she could just take off on her own by train, and even if they allowed foals unaccompanied on trains, which she doubted, she didn't exactly have money for a ticket.

Applebloom and Dinky emerged from the classroom. Dinky had a trash bag floating in her magic to one side, and to her other side she had a large hardbound book. Applebloom was eying the trash bag with a frown on her face, and her brow creased in thought, though the pregnant pony seemed to have recovered her energy after her ill-advised chase after Cheese.

As Dinky put the trash badly into a nearby garbage can… Ponyville must have regular garbage service now… Applebloom walked back next to Silver Spoon. "Judgin' by the ingredients I spotted, she was tryin' to make a disenchantment potion. Just a general one, that covers a lot of simpler enchantments, nothing too fancy. Also found the remains of an apple, pear, and strawberry jam sandwich; guessing that was her lunch. It looks like some of it got mixed into the potion, that is probly made it go all crazy-like."

"Her lunch made the potion explode?" Silver asked skeptically.

Applebloom nodded. "Can't mix no extra stuff into a potion, or there'll be unintended side effects. A sandwich is made of a lot of extra stuff; not just each main ingredient, but what each of them ingredients are made of. It's like tossing a cupboard full of unknowns in the brew."

Silver Spoon shuffled her hooves nervously. "That sounds like potion making in general is even more dangerous than I thought." The teacher eyed the trash can. "Is all that safe in there?"

Applebloom waved a hoof. "It's all inert now, you have'ta mix in a certain order or it won't start reactin' to anythin'. But yeah, potion makin' is dangerous, especially for unsupervised foals."

"I could have told you that," Cheerilee mumbled, then looked up at Applebloom accusingly. "You certainly did some unsupervised experiments with potions when you were a foal."

Applebloom lifted a hoof to her mouth and chuckled into it briefly. "E'yep, got myself into a heap of trouble more than once." She eyed Cheerilee. "Of course, I don't have to tell you that, you know all about those stories."

Cheerilee picked her ears up. "Do you believe me? Or at least humoring me?"

Applebloom shook her head. "Dinks, the book please."

She watched as the unicorn floated the fat book down in front of her using her yellow aura magic. The book landed with a slight thump on the ground, as Dinky released it a few inches from touching the dirt. Cheerilee carefully walked over and looked at the cover.

She read the lengthy title aloud. "The Journal of Friendship: Foal-Friendly Expanded Edition. Volume Ten. Now with additional segments from the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Starlight Glimmer, and Spike. Additional commentary for classroom use provided by…"

"Ponyville's own Principal Cheerilee," Applebloom finished. "I wonder if a determined filly could learn a lot about what happened in the past, as well as learn a lot about how a certain former principal of this school thinks? Hmm?"

She stared at the book in horror. "There's got to be something I can tell about that isn't in this book."

"If it was anythin' memorable I'm pretty sure me, Sweetie Belle, and Scoots already included it in," Applebloom said sagely. "If it weren't that memorable, then it ain't like anypony will remember it that well twenty years later to confirm or deny."

It just wasn't fair! She mentally made a note never to do commentary for any book. There was no way to convince anypony that she was who she said she was using knowledge of the past. There had to be something, something that could work. "What about teaching methods? Candy couldn't know the ins and outs of teaching. I could tell you things only an actual teacher would know, not a foal."

"Great idea," Applebloom agreed. "And if there weren't a public library where you could read up about those things in preparation for this role I might find it surprisin' you knew those things."

Argh! She had a bucking counter for everything! She wasn't down and out yet. "How about you just take me to my parents? I'm betting they will notice I'm not really their daughter."

"I'm sure your parents know you well enough to know that you can play these roles perfectly," Silver Spoon said with a smirk. "But we do need to take you to them to discuss what happened today. Are you ready for us to be on our way?"

She flicked her tail grumpily, not caring if it made her look even more like a foal. "Yes, let's just get this over with."

Silver Spoon nodded and then looked at Applebloom. "Did you want to come along?"

The pregnant mare shook her head. "E'nope, I'd best be moseyin' back home and restin' up. School year is over in two days, and I've about made it through it like I said I would. Family back on the farm can figure her out without me, I just want to relax as best I can before my little bundle comes out. A week and a half, doctor said."

"Will Tender be back home before then?" Dinky asked.

"E'yep, he's finishing up a stage show in Canterlot tomorrow, then headin' home," Applebloom said with a happy smile. "He'll be takin' off from road shows for a solid year once he gets back. It will be so nice havin' him here for a steady straight year. Gets lonely when he has shows to do in other places."

Cheerilee started walking off towards the path that she had seen everypony using, before they could say any more information she'd rather not know about. She knew exactly who they were talking about for Applebloom's husband, which now meant she would never be able to see him or Applebloom the same, especially in relation to one another. Though, at this rate, she might just have to accept she was going to be stuck as Candy Apple for good. She wasn't ready to accept that fate yet, but the universe definitely seemed to have it out for her.

Silver Spoon quickly caught up, not even scolding her for failing to say goodbye to everypony. Hopefully the teacher would let her sulk in peace on their way back to Sweet Apple Acres, which she was confident was where they were going, and that she didn't need any directions too no matter how the geography might have changed in twenty years. She did let her ears sag, as she realized she was about to need one piece of information.

"Silver Spoon… who exactly are Candy's parents?"

Author's Note

Been a busy few days for me. My car broke down and I got saddled with a $1200 repair bill. Haven't really had a day off to speak of to get a lot of writing done.

Chapter 5: The Old and the New

Walking straight on to Sweet Apple Acres had been her intention, but after having it confirmed that Big Mac was Candy's father made her drag her hooves. It was silly, because logically it didn't really matter that he was, but it still made her feel uncomfortable, and therefore she didn't rush.

Silver Spoon had also shared with her information about the family, saying that she couldn't play ignorant if she'd just been told. Bright Pear was the oldest of Candy's brothers, by more than nine years. She was told he was easy to pick out, as he was big like his father, and a pear green with a bright yellow mane. The other brother was Caramel Apple, at a little over a year older than Candy, with purple fur and a bright orange mane. Caramel was expected to be who would be the pony to eventually take over Sweet Apple Acres in the next generation; seeing as Bright Pear had been gifted the old Pear farm by his great grandfather-- the pear farm was apparently in such disrepair that Bright Pear would have his hooves full with just that, and Candy Apple didn't seem to be the farming type. Applebloom's foal could possibly be in the running for the farm, but it was far too early to say anything about that. Applejack was apparently without foal, and was anticipated to remain so. Sugar Belle was now known almost universally as Ma Apple, even being called that by Applejack and Applebloom. It seemed to be a kind of title of sorts in the family, an Apple family tradition, and it was explained that when Candy or her brothers one day had their own foals she'd be referred to then as Granny Apple. No word had been spoken about Granny Smith, but given how old she'd been before… well, best not to think about that.

Ponyville looked much the same as it had in her own time, for the most part. There were more houses, a lot more houses, but they were of the same design and style as the older ones. Some businesses she was familiar with were gone in favor of new ones. Some roads that she expected to be there were now gone, with new roads in other spots. Many notable landmarks were the same; town hall, Carousel Boutique, Sugarcube Corner, the castle, the School of Friendship, all of these looked exactly as they did in her time. There were some new statues and monuments scattered about, but they fit right in with the natural small town charm of Ponyville. Even twenty years into the future this still felt like the same old Ponyville… almost.

The most notable difference was how many non-ponies were about. She spotted changelings, yaks, griffins, kirin, hypogriffs, and even an occasional dragon. The very name Ponyville seemed inappropriate with how diverse the population was. She might expect large amounts of non-pony residents in a large city or town near the outskirts of Equestria, not in a small town directly in the center of it. Her best guess was that the School of Friendship brought in lots of creatures from elsewhere to study, and that large numbers of them chose to remain in Ponyville after graduation.

Silver Spoon stepped in front of her and brought her to a halt. "We're going to take a quick break to eat some food. If your lunch got mixed in with that potion then you haven't eaten all day, and I'm not returning a hungry filly to her parents, or having your discipline discussed with your stomach growling."

Her stomach growled immediately as the teacher finished speaking, and she rubbed a leg over it in embarrassment. A few minutes spent eating something wouldn't hurt.

There was a street vender nearby, selling carrots on buns. Silver Spoon paid the vender for two and they sat down to eat their small meal. As she lifted the carrot to her mouth the teacher gave her an appraising look. "You could just use your horn. I've seen you levitate things before."

She'd actually almost forgotten she had the thing sticking out of her head. Her headache had long since cleared, so bumps on her head had been dismissed from thought. "I'm normally an earth pony, so I don't have any idea how to use it, and I'm not planning on staying in this body long enough to need to learn how to use it."

Silver Spoon shrugged as she finished off her carrot. "It was worth a shot to try to catch you in a logic failing. Oh well."

That caused her to get grumpier again, and she rapidly finished off eating the helpless carrot like a timberwolf might chomp through a pony that dared to kick the monster in the nose and stand around to find out what would happen. She then got to her hooves and prepared to be on her way again.

However, an interesting sight distracted her. There was a green changeling that was surrounded by a group of half-a-dozen kirin… she guessed the term for them was foals as well, along with two pony foals, and a dragon whelp. It seemed like some sort of lesson taking place, and curiosity got the better of her, making her step towards them.

"Fall Color," the changeling greeted one of the kirin 'colts'. "Why don't you tell your brother how you feel when he eats all the pudding."

The little deep-yellow kirin surprisingly turned to a dirt-brown earth pony colt. "When you eat all of Mom's pudding, it makes me mad. I think you're being greedy. I want pudding too."

The changeling turned to the earth pony colt. "And Fall Leaf, what do you have to say about that?"

Leaf scrunched up his muzzle. "It's not like you're going to eat any anyway. You act like I eat it all at once, but I wait. After two or three days of you not touching it, it is like you said you don't want it."

Color's brow creased and he growled. "I just don't want to eat it right away! I want to have it when I'm ready!"

"You're never ready!" Leaf shouted back, getting right into the kirin's face as he did.

The changeling made a soothing gesture with its forelegs. "Okay, we have some strong emotions, but let's just sit back and talk about this ca--."

Color shoved his muzzle forward, pushing the earth pony colt back. "I am too! It just isn't as fast as you want it to be!"

"Calm down-" the changeling said with more frantic soothing gestures.

"Nah-ah!" Leaf shouted back.

"Uh-huh!" Color countered, with all the grace and well thought out wording to be expected of a colt his age.

"This arguing really isn't neces--" the changeling tried to interject. Unfortunately, the two colts decided that the best way to take care of their pudding disagreement involved boxing each other in the nose and tackling one another.

Her first instinct as a teacher was to step in and try to break up the fight, but she stopped as the changeling transformed into a terrifying bugbear. Even knowing that it was just a changeling she had to fight the urge to run away. The two colts didn't initially notice the transformation, being too wrapped up in their fight, but they quickly noticed when the changeling grabbed them under each arm.

"Okay, I think we may need to try that again," the bugbear said in a perfectly calm changeling voice. "No worries, that's why we have these anger management sessions, because we need to learn to constructively deal with those feelings." The bugbear set each of the colts down and looked out at the other foals. "Now class, can anycreature tell me where this discussion may have gone differently?"

She stared in confusion for a moment. "Anger management classes? For foals?"

"Mainly for kirin, so they know how to manage their tempers by the time they’re old enough to go nirik, but they can benefit everycreature," Silver Spoon answered from beside her. "You might benefit from them as well, young filly. Maybe I'll discuss that with your parents."

"I'm not angry," she muttered, then shook her head as she realized how foalish she sounded. "Look, I get it. Candy acts out by pretending to be other ponies-"

"Other ponies and creatures," Silver Spoon interjected.

"-other ponies and creatures," she agreed. "So I understand where you might think she has some repressed anger issues, but I'm not Candy Apple."

"You sound like an angry little filly to me," Silver Spoon said with a knowing smile. She had no intention of showing the teacher how angry at the situation she really was. She had a strong desire to tell Silver Spoon she was getting detention for not listening to her teacher, but that was just petty. This Silver Spoon may have once been the filly from her class, but that was twenty years ago. It was easier to think of Silver as a different pony, as time had made her, rather than make judgements to or against the soon-to-be young mare from her own time.

"Since I'm done eating, can we go now?" She asked sulkingly.

"Of course, did you want to continue to lead the way?" The silver furred mare asked. "You were doing exceptionally well for someone claiming to be from twenty years ago."

She snorted as she started walking again. "The way to Sweet Apple Acres hasn't changed that much."

They continued on their way, and she continued to be stuck noticing the changes in town from her own time. A few times she passed ponies she knew. Lyra came hurrying by at a light gallop, not even giving her the opportunity to stake her case for her identity. She might have had a chance, but she was caught off guard by how visibly older the mare was. How old did her body appear now? Had she aged gracefully, or was her mane heavy with grey? If she was going to try to confront herself-- or Candy if it turned out to be her, then she'd inevitably find out. It was another encounter she wasn't looking forward to.

She stopped again as she spotted another pony she recognized, Sea Swirl. The mulberry unicorn with dolphin cutie mark had been a student of hers when she first took over teaching at Ponyville Elementary. Though Sea Swirl was a grown mare even in her own time, she was still much younger than her. Looking at Sea Swirl now was more of a shock than seeing Silver Spoon, Applebloom, or Dinky Doo. The reason being was that Sea Swirl had some whisps of grey showing in her dual-shade of blue mane, and had clear age lines under her eyes. Seeing somepony that had been ten years or more her junior being visibly older than she was supposed to be was a new shock for her.

The shock was heightened when a much younger mare with similar coloration proudly showed her 'mom' her new engagement necklace. Sea Swirl didn't even have a foal yet in her own time, and here was that yet-to-be-born filly as a young mare greeting a student that had been in one of her classes as their mother. It drove in how far removed in time she really was. How well would anypony remember details from her own time if this much time had passed? She could barely remember details about singular events what happened last year if it wasn't something notable.

She sat down where she was, and her eyes began to fill with tears. It might seem silly that this was what pushed her to crying, but it was one thing too much! She wasn't one of the Element Bearers who went off and saved the world; she was just a simple schoolteacher who wanted her students to learn and grow, one that maybe wanted to find a nice stallion to raise a family with, one that liked to visit comedy clubs, and take time during the summer to see new places, but what she wasn't was a pony cut out for big things like this. This was something for a hero to deal with, not her. The floodgates opened, and she was now sobbing in the street.

A leg reached around her and pulled her into a hug. She didn't resist, she just turned and hurried her face into the fur of the other pony, as they used their other foreleg to soothingly brush her mane. "Don't feel ashamed to cry. I don't know what brought this on, but if you need to cry then just cry, and don't try to hold it in. Everycreature needs to cry sometimes."

She tried to speak through her sobs. "I'm… I'm not going to get home. I'm-I'm g-going to be stuck in this time forever."

Silver Spoon's barrel expanded slightly as the teacher took a deep breath. Another lecture about how she was Candy and not Cheerilee was no doubt coming. "Little filly, I think you just broke character."

That made her pull back in shock. "What? No! I am-"

The teacher put a hoof up to her mouth to silence her. "The Cheerilee I know would never give up, just because things were hard."

"But… I'm not cut out for this. I'm just a regular schoolteacher, not somepony that goes on big adventures and deals with problems like this," she explained, and lowered her head. "If I were Twilight Sparkle, or anypony like that, I would have already figured this out and be home right now. I keep trying to think of how to fix this, but I can't come up with anything. I don't know who to turn to for help that will believe me. This is something for a big hero to solve, not me."

Silver Spoon gave her a considering look, she then grimaced and shook her head. "I can't believe I'm about to do this," the mare muttered. "Come sit in front of me, and I'm going to tell you some things about Cheerilee. If you intend to keep playing Cheerilee for the time being, then you need to play her correctly."

"I'm not playing. I am-"

"Just come sit down," Silver Spoon ordered, pointing a hoof in at the ground directly in front of her.

She did as ordered, it wasn't like she was in much of a position to just disregard the teacher. Silver Spoon waited for her to sit before talking. "Now, let me tell you what you are getting wrong about Cheerilee." She resisted the urge to snort. Silver Spoon might know her, but apparently not well enough.

The mare took another deep breath, then smiled. "Cheerilee has been teaching about as long as I have been alive, at least up until this year. I don't know why she retired so abruptly this year, but I can tell you it wasn't because she gave up. Even after being appointed principal of the school she still taught, substitute teaching for any teacher that needed a sick or personal day, and giving private instruction to any student that was struggling. Regardless of how she was feeling or the circumstances, she came into every classroom with a smile on her face, and with commitment to do all she could for her students."

It did warm her heart to hear that kind of praise from a former student, everypony wanted to hear that what they did was appreciated, but she didn't know why Silver Spoon was bringing this up. "I don't see what that has to do with right now."

Silver looked down at her, staring over the rim of her glasses. "You don't think Cheerilee is any type of hero, but I disagree. She had a commitment to others for over thirty years of teaching, and that is pretty heroic in my book. And you know those heroes that you claim could deal with this where she couldn't? A lot of those heroes wouldn't be who they are today without her. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were her students, and have more than once helped save the world. Even some of the students they have taught have even gone on to save the world now. The world always seems to need saving, but we always have heroes up for the job. We have those heroes because heroes like Cheerilee sat six hours a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for years on end, making sure that her students grew up to be their best selves."

She blinked. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had gone on to help save the world, and multiple times? She really shouldn't find that surprising, but it still was.

Silver touched a hoof gently to the side of her face. "If you intend to be playing the part of Cheerilee, then you better play the part right. Cheerilee is a hero. She might not be a flashy one that goes out and directly fights villains and monsters, but she is no less important than the ones that do, because the ones that do wouldn't even be there without ponies like Cheerilee. Cheerilee would also never say she couldn't do something if it really mattered, she'd give it her all and keep trying, not give up and lay down in the street. I won't have you disrespecting her by playing her character wrong. Do it right."

That made her feel like crying again, not because she was upset, but because that was the highest praise she had ever been given. She always wanted to feel she made a difference in her students lives, but this was the first time somepony had spelled out how much she did. Instead she just gave the teacher a big hug. "Thank you, you just made a difference for me."

"Only because I had some great examples to look up to," Silver said quietly. Then huffed. "Though I hope I didn't encourage you to draw this act out even longer."

Cheerilee pulled back and smiled. "It's not an act, but I'm not giving up on proving that. I'm ready to go meet Candy's family now."

She'd figure this out yet. She was no quitter.

Chapter 7: Apple Family Bonding

Waiting to be summoned from Candy's room seemed to take forever, and the lack of any clock made it hard to determine how much time had passed, hours for certain.

To pass the time she did check the closet again, just to make sure it was toys in the chest, and not some other disgusting surprise. It did turn out to be toys, but they were coated with a heavy layer of dust. That was another thing to worry about with Candy. It was partial evidence that the filly wasn't engaging in normal play. Everypony claimed that pretending to be other ponies was Candy's form of play, but surely the filly took time to be just a normal little eight-year-old in between those incidents, right? She'd have to ask.

However, she wasn't precisely sure what she could do to help Candy out. It wasn't like the filly was present to talk to about her problems. All she could do was look for clues in what Candy had in her room, as well as try to take in as much information as she could about Candy's life. Being in Candy's body did give a unique perspective on Candy's life, and how she experienced the world. Hopefully she would learn enough that she could communicate any issues she found to the adults in Candy's life.

The window didn't offer much of a view. It gave an excellent view of the apple orchard, but from this vantage she didn't see any activity at all. It was possible that Big Mac had been called inside to discuss his daughter, and therefore had not returned to working out in the trees. Not being able to see anything but trees just made the slow passage of time all the more dull. It was a pretty view, but it was also a pretty boring one.

Sunset was in progress by the time a polite knock came at the door. The door opened without her giving any permission, and she was left staring at a green earth pony stallion that could have been a younger Big Mac with just a different coloration. That physique made her believe that many a mare had many an indecent fantasy about him. Everypony that looked at this young stallion had to know who his father was.

"Time for supper. Ma and Pa have invited Silver Spoon and her wife to eat with us. They said they'll have a discussion with you about today as we eat," the stallion-- no doubt Bright Pear-- announced. He had a very slight country inflection to his words, but it was far less pronounced than his little brother's. It was more like he was taking time to think about each word before it was said. Cheese had mentioned that Candy normally had an accent as well, and she wondered how strong it was, as the family seemed to have a range.

She hopped down from the bed and allowed herself to be led like a prisoner down the hall. She got a good look at Bright Pear's cutie mark from this angle; it was just a cross section of a big green pear cut in half. Not the most original cutie mark, but she had expected at least some sort of apple included. The pear blood just bled true in this one.

Bright Pear turned his head as they walked and gave her a curious eyebrow. "Are you still pretending to be Cheerilee? You're being mighty quiet."

"I am Cheerilee," she replied, though she was getting tired of repeating that. "And did you know Candy has a mound of moldy muffins in her closet?"

The mammoth stallion stopped walking and gave her a befuddled look. "You have what in your closet?"

"Candy Apple has a huge pile of muffins molding in her closet," she said slowly. "Do you want to take a minute for me to show you?"

Bright Pear looked towards the staircase then back towards Candy's room, then let out a long breath. "Honestly, I just don't know what goes on in your head. Alright, let's see the muffins."

She led him back into the bedroom and pointed at the closet. "They're in the back corner, behind the dresses. I'll stand back here, if you don't mind. I've gotten enough of that stench for today."

"It can't be that bad," Bright Pear said, as he was opening the closet. He paused when it was halfway open, and scrunched up his muzzle in disgust. "Or maybe it can…"

The stallion stook his head into the closet and pushed the dresses out of the way. Cheerilee backed up some more as the smell came drifting back towards her. The oldest Apple sibling quickly jerked his head out and closed the closet door. "Sweet Twilight, that's a powerful stench! Why would you even do something like that. You're going to attract bugs into the house!"

She stomped a hoof. "It's Candy, not me! I don't know why she's doing that, but I felt like it needed to be brought to everypony's attention."

Bright Pear gave her a long silent look, then walked over to her. "Look…I really don't know what's going on with you this last year, sis, but you do know that you can talk to me, right? I know a lot has been changing; all with me spending time working on getting the pear farm back together, me spending a lot of time with Strawberry, and Aunt Applebloom getting ready to have a foal. If you need somepony to talk and vent to I'm still your big brother, and I'll still make time for you." He gave her a sad look. "I know Strawberry would love to meet you, the real you, not all these others you've been playing. I keep telling her that you're the best little sister, but right now you just ain't you."

Candy definitely had no shortage of ponies that cared about her, not that she ever doubted the Apple clan. She just wished they were talking to Candy instead of her. "I'm not Candy Apple," she replied for what seemed the thousandth time, with likely a thousand more such assertions to follow. "But you seem like you care about her a lot. When I get out of this body, and she gets back in, I'm sure she'd love to hear that."

Bright Pear frowned. "I'll take that answer as you do want to talk, but you want to wait until later. I can deal with that." That wasn't what she meant at all, but he was trying to interpret from the perspective Candy was playing an elaborate game of pretend. She wasn't going to object to him seeking out Candy to talk when this was all over; that filly clearly needed some help.

"However you want to take it. Let's just get going," she grumbled. She had to plead her case to Big Mac, and the quicker she got it done the better.

Bright Pear led her back down to the kitchen without any further discussion, looking like his feelings were hurt the whole way. She felt a little sorry for that, but his sister just wasn't here right now.

There was a large dinner table in the kitchen. Caramel, Big Mac, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack were already seated, and Ma Apple was busy working at the stove, getting last minute preparations together. Five additional seats were set that were currently unoccupied; those for her, Bright Pear, Ma Apple, Silver Spoon, and Silver Spoon's yet unknown wife.

Ma Apple looked up from her work as the entered the kitchen. "Go ahead and take your seats. Silver Spoon and Twist should be here any minute."

"Ma, Candy has a mess in her closet that you should know about," Bright Pear said with a hint of timidness.

Ma Apple waved a hoof dismissively. "Talk to your pa about it. I'm busy at the moment."

The green stallion turned to the elder stallion. "Pa… Candy has been hoarding muffins in her closet, and they are all molding. It smells bad, real bad."

The Apple matriarch swirled around from her work. "You're my muffin thief?I knew I wasn't going crazy, I just didn't know who was takin' them." She looked over at Caramel. "I owe you an apology. I had thought it was you. You're the one with the sweet tooth."

Caramel rubbed his head nervously, and his ears sagged. "Um… I might'a actually taken one or two. Not too many, but a couple."

Applejack beamed at the young colt. "That was right honest of ya. Ya didn't have to confess to that after your sis was caught at it, but ya did anyway. Good on ya."

Caramel's ears picked up. "Does this mean I ain't in trouble?"

"Not my call, sugar cube," Applejack said as she drew her hat over her eyes.

"You're not in trouble," Ma Apple called out from where she was working. Levitating a jar of some sort of spice and measuring it out into a pot. "Just ask before taking muffins next time."

Bright Pear gave Big Mac a dubious look. "You might want to see Candy's closet before you make any decision. I've got no desire for her to be in trouble, but that closet is really bad."

All eyes turned to the Apple patriarch. Big Mac sat silent for a moment before answering. "I'll check after supper." And with that he went silent again. It seemed that he hadn't got much more talkative in the past twenty years.

With Big Mac having spoken the matter seemed to be closed for the time being. She prepped herself to make her case for him, but before she could speak conversation resumed. "Hey Bright, is Strawberry not coming over for dinner tonight?" Rainbow Dash asked the young stallion.

Bright Pear took his seat while shaking his head. "E'nope. She says she has to help her ma with something tonight. She'll probably be over tomorrow."

Rainbow got a mischievous grin. "You two have been together for a while now. Have you considered popping the question?"

Applejack gave the pegasus a jab in the side. "Don't go pressurin' the boy. He's young, don't need to be gettin' hitched so quick."

Bright Pear gave the pegasus a grin to match hers. "One thing at a time. I want to get the pear farm up and running right. At least get the house up to speed. Although… I could draw it out indefinitely. You know, like you do with my aunt? When are you going to pop the question?"

She resisted the urge to laugh as she watched Rainbow Dash blush and let out an incoherent stammer in response. Applejack pulled her hat down even lower over her face, but it couldn't hide the flustered look on the farm pony's face. Rainbow, trying to salvage the situation, drew herself up straight. "Well… it's not like me and Applejack can accidentally make a colt or filly, and I know what I've heard from your room."

Applejack gasped and boxed her lover in the side. Rainbow winced and turned on her. "Hey! What was that for? I was just telling the truth. I thought telling the truth was your thing."

"Don't be talkin' about that in front of the foals!" Applejack said in a harsh whisper.

"What? They've had the talk given to them," the pegasus said in confusion.

Applejack facehooved. "Rainbow!"

"What?" The oblivious pegasus replied.

Ma Apple hurried over and set a huge pot of some sort of soup in the middle of the table with a loud thunk. "I think we should agree that is still inappropriate discussion in front of the foals."

"E'yep," Big Mac said with a nod.

The unicorn turned to give her eldest son the stink-eye, and Bright Pear seemed to try to sink down in his seat. "As for you… I'm going to pretend that I don't know anythin'; you're not a colt anymore. I do need to remind you that your siblings might hear you. It makes me wonder if Candy's-- inappropriate incident involving the subject-- was a result of that."

"I'll keep that in mind," Bright Pear responded, with perhaps a hint of relief that his mother wasn't going to make a further issue of his escapades with his marefriend.

Cheerilee couldn't help but giggle at the back and forth. One of the downsides of being a teacher was she didn't get to be around humor like this too often. Sure, she did have some time for herself, away from her classroom, but she found herself censuring what she said even outside of class; it was just habit. It was a shame she couldn't really join in on this. She was sure she could add in a witty retort or two, if given the opportunity.

There were more urgent things to take care of anyway. She needed to make her case to Big Mac. "I came up with proof to prove I'm Cheerilee that can't be in that book."

"Oh crabapples, knew this was comin'," Applejack said, with a pronounced eyeroll. "Wouldn't be a new act without her giving proof. What's it this time?"

"I dated Big Mac a few times, and I can tell all about those dates!" She announced proudly, victory assured.

Ma Apple gave Big Mac an eyebrow. "You dated Cheerilee?"

Big Mac squirmed under his wife's gaze. "E'yep, once or twice."

Cheerilee banged her hoof thrice on the table. "Three times if you count the love potion incident where we almost got married."

Ma Apple started placing out bowls for the soup. "I read about the love potion incident, but the other dates weren't mentioned." There was a careful calm to the unicorn's voice, and it suddenly occurred to her that the unicorn might be the jealous type. It wasn't anything that had ever really been put to the test in her time. That took some of the wind out of her sails, as she didn't want to cause that kind of friction.

Big Mac decided that taking initiative now was the best course of action. "Nothin' much happened, dinner or two, then Cheerilee said she weren't interested; said I didn't talk enough for what she was lookin' for.."

Well, that was true, and neither of the dates had been that memorable. She just remembered being bored to tears and feeling like she was putting all the work into trying to have a conversation. Having a good listener to vent to was great, but she really longed for some back and forth conversation with another adult at the end of a day of dealing with foals. After the second date, it had become painfully obvious that Big Mac wasn't going to provide that. It wasn't a total loss; the failed dates made her understand how important that aspect of a relationship was to her.

"Big Mac was just too quiet," she continued. "That might work for some ponies, but not for me. He was kind of a homebody too, and I like going out and seeing things, not staying cramped up at home. It just wasn't a good match."

"Welp, can't say I would have ever told ya about that," Applejack said thoughtfully. "Though I suppose Applebloom could have mentioned it, or even Cheerilee herself. I doubt my brother did." She gave Cheerilee a doubtful look. "Got any actual details about these dates?"

She fidgetted in her seat. "Well, they were here."

"We've already established my brother is a homebody," Applejack said dryly. "Anythin' else?"

They were so dull! She tried to remember details. "You, Granny Smith, and Applebloom ate dinner with us."

"Course," Applejack said with a snort. "Ole' Granny cooked up most meals back then. Any fool pony could guess we were there. Remember what was for dinner? What the weather was like? Anything?"

She tried, but she couldn't. "No," she said as she lowered her head.

Applejack laughed. "Good, because I can't either."

"Flapjacks and apple fritters," Big Mac said, in a rare interjection. "I remember tryin' to help Granny and ended up burnin' them."

She bit her lip in frustration. She had gotten so wrapped up worrying about Candy that she hadn't taken the time to remember every detail she could. Perhaps this wasn't as good a plan as she originally though, or at least, not as well developed as it should have been. She still couldn't remember for sure what was for dinner back then, even with Big Mac saying it. It was just too boring a pair of dates. This whole avenue wouldn't work now anyway. "I'll think of something else," she mumbled. "I'll prove who I am yet."

Conversation resumed around the table as everypony waited. The food was ready, but the Apples thought it rude to start eating until their guests had arrived. She'd try to not make too much of a scene as Candy's punishment was decided; no need to get the filly in further trouble. Her focus of thought right now was on who she could go to for help.

"Does my sister still live in town, or did she move away again?" She asked aloud. Her request earned her confused stares all around.

"Ya don't have a sister," Applejack replied. "Don't recall Cheerilee havin' a sister either."

It wasn't surprising, she and her sister rarely spent time together. Her sister had spent a lot of time away from Ponyville in her youth and early adulthood, only recently returning to it in her own time. She loved her sister, but they were different enough in interests and personality that they didn't have much of anything to bond over. "Cherry Tea is my sister, it used to be Cheeritee when we were foals, but she changed it after getting her cutie mark. Similar coloration me-- me when I'm actually me, talks like she was born and raised in Canterlot, sells tea. Do you know her?"

Applejack's brow furrowed. "I think I remember a filly by that name from back when I was in school. Was kinda quiet."

"I know Cherry Tea," Ma Apple replied as she sat down in her seat. "Very posh, as she would put herself. She's the top provider and distributor of tea in Ponyville. I never knew she was Cheerilee's sister, but I can see the resemblance now that you mention it. Her son is actually in the same class as you, Mint Cherry." She gave Cheerilee a warm smile. "If that's true, that's very good research on your part. Don't think I'm not proud of how well you can research things. I tell everycreature that you're the brightest little filly in town."

"If only she didn't use that to lie about who she is all the gosh darn time," Applejack muttered.

That was promising. If nopony knew that she and Cherry were sisters then it would be a bigger stretch for anypony but her to recall stories about their foalhood. Her little sister had to believe her.

Though she frowned at learning about Cherry's son. Cherry wasn't even seeing anypony last she heard. She tried not to, but felt some jealousy for her little sister who seemed to have settled down and had a family. The feeling was forced down, as it wasn't fair, but it was still there. For all she knew she had a dozen foals of her own by this point, as she hadn't asked. But that might not even really be her, it might be Candy, as she hadn't ruled that out yet.

There was a knock at the door, announcing Silver Spoon's arrival. It was time for dinner to start, and Candy's discipline and punishment to be discussed. Hopefully whatever they came up with wouldn't interfere too much with doing what she needed to get back home.

Chapter 8: Crime and Punishment

Silver Spoon and Twist were not a couple she would have predicted, even less than Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Twist had those same glasses she had as a foal, but her eyes were more lidded than her wife's. The mare was wearing a necklace that matched Silver Spoon's, and she was now uncertain if it was a family heirloom that Silver wore or not. The two came in, exchanging pleasantries as they were guided to their seats. She found herself seated with Silver Spoon to one side and Caramel Apple to the other. Applejack was sitting across from her, and the Apple parents took up seats at opposite ends of the table.

"Sorry we are running late. We had to take Cheese Slice home," Silver explained. She gave the Apple matriarch a small frown. "He said that Pumpkin kicked him out of Sugarcube Corner for the day, and that his mother was too preoccupied to watch him. I'm a little concerned." Cheerilee's frowned as well. That did sound concerning.

Ma Apple sighed. "I can understand what's going on. It's graduation season, that's a very busy time at Sugarcube Corner. Pumpkin can get a little testy around this time of year." The unicorn blinked and shook her head. "Don't get me wrong, she's normally a very nice young mare, but when she bites off more than she can chew, in terms of cake orders, a whole different side of her comes out."

Silver turned her head to the side. "But doesn't she have lots of help? I know you help out, and she has her brother and Pinkie Pie. I'm pretty sure her parents come and help each year too."

The unicorn's ears sagged. "Um, not so much help as you think. I only help with the normal prep for the normal sales day, and I do that in the mornin'. I have work to do here too. Pinkie Pie packs her schedule with graduation parties like Pumpkin does with graduation cakes. Pound has to run the front of the shop. And her parents… they aren't coming to help this year."

Twist gasped and put a hoof to her mouth. "Is something wrong with Cupcake and Carrot?"

Cheerilee braced herself for hearing bad news about the Cakes. They would be getting up there in age by this point, and that opened them up to all kinds of medical problems, or worse. She already had to deal with the knowledge that Granny Smith was almost certainly dead, she didn't want to hear about the same with other ponies she knew.

Ma shook her head and grimaced. "They're fine. Enjoying their retirement community. After last year they said enough is enough with helping, after Pumpkin got rude with them. Mrs. Cake said 'if Pumpkin has to learn the hard way not to take on more orders than she can reasonably manage, then I'm not going to hold her hooves through it. She needs to learn to set a quota.'"

She let loose holding her breath, not even realizing that she had been holding it. No deaths, no major medical problems, no bad news about ponies she called friends. Granny Smith had been very old in her own time, so her passing was something she could expect. It was easy to forget that the Cakes were as old as they were. It had been a mild shock that Mrs. Cake had twins at her age, an age that those Mrs. Cake grew up with might have started having grandfoals-- or at least foals that were old enough to have graduated from school. The Cakes had been running Sugarcube Corner since she was a young foal… her actual self as a young foal, so they were no spring chickens, but they never seemed as old as they were.

"I'll talk to Pinkie about it tomorrow," Ma continued. "Perhaps Cheese can spend the days with Candy and Caramel; at least till his father and siblings get back home again. They get along well-- at least Candy does most of the time, it depends on who she's playin'."

"I have no problems with Cheese," Cheerilee spoke up. He was at least one pony that would humor that she was who she said she was, even if he was just a foal. It felt a little bad using him, but she needed somepony that knew all about the Ponyville of this time that wouldn't dismiss her as a liar.

"Speaking of you," Silver said calmly. "We have decided what will happen to try to remedy your behavior, and hopefully break this habit of pretending to be other ponies and creatures."

"I'm not pretending," she blurted in.

"Candy," Ma Apple scolded. "Don't interrupt your teacher. I raised you better than that."

She glowered in place as she waited for the teacher to continue. Silver Spoon for her part waited briefly to see if there would be any further objections before continuing. "We are going to do a few things. First, the principal will be prescribing you some community service around the school; cleaning gum off desks, that sort of thing. Second, you'll be seeing a psychologist regularly-- your mother already knows one, and will be making arrangements with them tomorrow."

Hopefully she'd be gone before she had to see the shrink. Candy clearly needed some help, but anyone trying to psychoanalysis her would be getting all the wrong impressions.

"Third, and finally," Silver continued. "There is a sort of graduate student at the School of Friendship who specializes in many fields of magic. She'll be examining you, and testing to confirm there is nothing magically wrong with you. Hopefully after that we can put to bed these games of yours. I love that you are so dedicated to your craft, but this has been too disruptive."

Her ears perked high as they could go. "You're going to get a magic expert to look at me?" This was an unexpected blessing!

Silver Spoon nodded, but her brow narrowed. "It is the best way to prove this is all pretend. She was trained by the princess herself."

Cheerilee almost jumped for joy, but the teacher's voice went grave. "I need to stress how serious this is, young filly. You were already on thin ice before today, because of how much school you have missed with your performances. It was only because you tested so well a few days ago that you were even going to be allowed to advance with your class. We don't want you held back a year or expelled, so we need you to take this all seriously. This could impact your entire future."

She stared back at the teacher. Candy had missed a lot of school? Well, she supposed that made sense. If her characters had no intention of sitting in an elementary school class. King Sombra? Sit in class? That was a joke! "I understand the position Candy is in, and intend to cause her no further trouble, if I can help it."

"And I'm stressing that you had better help it," Silver Spoon said firmly. "This isn't a game, and we can't protect you forever if you keep doing these things."

"Please, be a good filly," Ma Apple pleaded. "No more takin' over town hall, recitin' things that must have come out of an extremely smutty novel, no more tryin' to burrow tunnels under the house, just none of that."

Burrow tunnels under the house? Why would… oh yeah, one of the drawings in the room had been a diamond dog. "I'm Cheerilee, what kind of trouble do you really expect me to get up to?"

"Cheerilee might not be a lot of trouble, but you've suddenly switched who you are playing before," Rainbow Dash said with a snort, the others nodded along in agreement. "You're Cheerilee today, but there's no telling if you'll be Cheerilee tomorrow. I'm still holding out for a dragon."

"Don't encourage her, Rainbow," Applejack growled.

"And some of the ones that you wouldn't think would be much trouble turned out to be nothing but trouble," Bright Pear added in. "What was that one? The accountant? Tax Break? Tax Broker? Can't remember the name. Anyway, you tried running off to Canterlot with that one. We can't have that."

"Or that one that you played that just spent the entire time cryin' in your room, or the one that kept talkin' in all that fancy talk and callin' us all knaves and ruffingins," Caramel contributed. "You challenged me to a duel and started shooting stuff at me with your horn, that hurt!"

"Crying in her room? Are you sure she was pretending at the time?" She asked the colt. Candy clearly was troubled, between all the acts and the… whatever it was with the muffins.

The colt gave a deep frown. "You said that your name was Amber Sap, and you wanted to go home, even though you were already home in your room. When you shot me you said your name was Platinum Gilt, great captain of Unicornia, and we were all dirty earth pony ransomers."

It was certainly an interesting variety of ponies and creatures Candy pretended to be. There didn't seem to be any consistent pattern for type of pony either. Some seemed to be remarkable characters like this captain from Unicornia-- not that there had been a Unicornia for well over a millennia, not to mention Sombra; but others were completely ordinary, like that accountant, or whoever Amber Sap was…

...or like her.

Was Candy actually pretending? Or was this something bigger than just a potion accident? On the positive side, at least for her, if it turned out Candy really did get 'possessed' by all these other ponies and creatures, that gave strong evidence that this would just end on its own. On the negative side, that meant the little filly had a very chronic and troubling magical problem, and there was no telling how much time there actually was to solve it before the filly was left to figure it out on her own again, without anypony believing her. It was still very possible Candy was making all these characters up, but from where Cheerilee sat she was more to be open to the possibility the filly was truthful.

If it was true, why had everypony been so inclined to think Candy was lying? Sure, it sounded improbable, highly improbable, but improbable things happened in Ponyville all the time-- at least they did back in her time, but she wasn't inclined to think that had changed much. The Apples didn't seem the type to just dismiss one of their own as a liar right away. There was something missing, something that had complicated matters more.

And given that everypony around her was dead set in believing her a liar it might be best to ask somepony else about the details of that. Here's hoping Cheese was going to prove useful. There was somepony else that would be useful too. "When do I start seeing this graduate student?"

"We still have to work out a schedule between your school, the psychologist, and the student," Ma Apple explained. "It'll be at least a day or two, but we might just meet her briefly and have a get to know one another talk tomorrow after I'm off work at Sugarcube Corner."

"You'll meet with everypony tomorrow," Silver Spoon said authoritatively. "Please be on your best behavior. I'm not sure how quickly Spoiled Rich is going to go after you, but knowing her, it won't take long." That was easy enough to believe. Spoiled Rich liked to take action quickly against whatever displeased her, and after Dinky stood up to her today both she and the principal were likely going to be immediate targets. She hoped Dinky was made of strong enough stuff to counter the contemptible mare.

"I'll do nothing to cause trouble tomorrow," she replied. "But I'm not going to claim I'm Candy. That filly has problems, and I want to get to the bottom of them. What you have planned might help with that."

"Dagnabbit, she's gonna make some bigger game out of this!" Applejack said in a raised voice.

Cheerilee flattened her ears at the farm pony's anger. "If I may ask, what did Candy do that made you not believe her?"

Applejack gave her a frown and turned her head away. "If ya want to go pretendin', then don't go pretendin' about that." Okay, whatever it was had to be something deeply personal that the farm pony had no wish to speak of. Perhaps Candy was guilty of something at some point with the farm pony. Add that to the pile of mysteries. Maybe she could catch Rainbow Dash or another member of the family alone and ask them. Applejack was just going to be too standoffish against somepony she considered a liar.

"She really doesn't sound much like a foal," Twist observed. Her voice was very clear, now that the braces were long since gone. The candymaker's teeth were briefly visible when she spoke, and they looked to be extremely well kept and white, despite the amount of candy the mare must consume with her occupation. It occurred to Cheerilee that neither Twist nor Bon Bon from her own time were particularly pudgy mares either. How did a candymaker end up avoiding cavities or extra weight? The world had a strange humor and injustice to it sometimes.

"Don't go buyin' into it," Applejack replied with a grumble. "She's a good actor, I reckon maybe the best, but she's still just actin'."

She really needed to find out what Candy had done to so thoroughly convince the bearer of honesty that she wasn't truthful. There was just so much about Candy's situation she still had no clue about; between the other ponies she ended up being, the fact Applejack had some deep rooted sense of distrust for her, and whatever in Tartarus was going on with the muffins. Candy was an enigma, and the only thing Candy had to say for herself was an order not to touch her crayons.

No, that wasn't true. Candy had communicated with her, just not in words. The muffins, the pictures she drew, the books she checked out, the fact that she wasn't playing with her toys, those were all wordless communication. They might not be deliberate messages, but they told things about what Candy experienced and thought about. The pieces of Candy's life were all here, it was just a matter of figuring out what it all meant.

With Candy's immediate fate decided, the focus turned to eating. Cheerilee sat and ate in silence, only partially paying attention to the chit chat going on around her. She did learn a few minor things, like Bright Pear had been in Silver Spoon's class back when he had been attending school. The pony who had been mentioned as Bright Pear's marefriend was named Strawberry Delight, and was a pegasus. The two of them had been dating since the final year of elementary school, and that had been six years of dating in total. It certainly sounded like those two were meant to be together, and Silver Spoon was only slightly better than Rainbow Dash at casually asking when the couple would make it official.

Other details learned were Rainbow Dash was captain of Wonderbolts-- though seemed to be debating retirement, Caramel was in another teacher named Miss Mandible's class-- and apparently each teacher in Ponyville Elementary oversaw just a single year's worth of students through from when they first started attending to graduation day, causing each year to have a different teacher with a graduating class in rotation. She liked the sound of that system, and from what she heard she was the one that instituted it. She gave herself a mental pat on the back for what she was yet to do.

But mostly her thoughts were turned to trying to figure out what to do next, mixed with a strong bout of homesickness. This was Ponyville, but this wasn't the Ponyville she knew, nor were the ponies around her the same as the ones she knew. Time changed things, including her, but she hadn't gone through all these changes that everypony else had. In twenty years of living from her time this would feel like home, but right now she was displaced and feeling alone-- not helped at all by being in a strange foal's body. She wasn't even given the right to be Cheerilee of twenty years ago. She wondered if the real Candy did in fact act out. Not having anypony believe her while going through having others take control of her body was more than enough to make a grown adult angry and resentful, much less a young filly.

She finished her food and pushed her bowl to the side. "May I be excused to go to Candy's room?"

"Wash-up," Ma Apple instructed. "Then your brother can lead you back to your room. You can stay up for an hour, but I expect lights out after that. You'll be gettin' up early and comin' to work with me."

Bright Pear got down from his chair and moved as if getting ready to shadow her. Ma Apple gave him an eyebrow. "The other brother. Let Caramel take care of it."

The colt frowned and laid his ears back. "Why me?"

The unicorn mare turned to him. "Because your brother has enough to take care of on his own without havin' to take care of Candy. You, on the other hoof, don't have much you're responsible for yet. It's a little thing, just make sure your sister gets to her room without trouble." She flicked a single ear then looked over to Big Mac. "While she's washin' might be a good time to check on your daughter's mess."

Big Mac nodded and got down from his chair. "E'yep." And then silently walked off and up the stairs. It was amazing that a stallion that big could move that silently in a house full of squeaky floorboards.

She was going to ask where the bathroom was, but then recalled that last time she was here the Apples had an outhouse. Twenty years had passed, so the farm family might have finally installed a proper bathroom, but with how little else had changed on the farm that was doubtful. That meant washing her hooves and face in the kitchen sink, and she wasn't even sure how baths and showers were done. Even her foalhood farm had been more up to date on those kinds of amenities. Thoughts of her parents' old farm made her suddenly wonder who was running the old Cherry orchard now; probably some cousin or another. Her parents might well be… something best not to think about. The future could be depressing sometimes.

Big Mac might be made of stern stuff, but it clearly had his limits. Still, nopony could say that the mighty red stallion hadn't been warned about the closet.

She sat on Candy's bed as Ma Apple floated out another few muffins from the stash into an open burlap sack. The older mare had a clothespin clipped onto her nose, and Big Mac sat a few feet away, still throwing up into a bucket. As punishment, she was not allowed to do anything to block out the smell, and had to sit and endure it. She really wanted to join Candy's father at that bucket right now, but managed to keep her stomach from full rebellion.

Ma Apple turned and gave her an accusing look, horn still glowing brightly. "This will not happen again. Do I make myself clear?" Her normal voice involved a lot of talking through her nose, so there was an odd buzz to the mare's voice with the clothespin in place.

She wasn't comfortable making promises on Candy's behalf, but she also didn't feel comfortable opening her mouth to explain that, and giving any more openings for that noxious smell to get to her nasal cavity. She gave a silent, tight lipped, nod; and hoped that it would suffice.

The unicorn finished loading the pungent mess into the sack, and tied up the opening. With the sack tied shut the smell lessened slightly, but not completely. She then gave Cheerilee a disapproving grimace. "I expect your lights to be out as soon as your pa and I are out of the room. We'll talk about this further with the psychologist tomorrow." She then turned to her husband and her expression softened in pity. "Come on, I'll brew you some ginger tea and it will help you feel better."

Big Mac lifted his head from the bucket, looking slightly green, and gave his wife a miserable-looking nod. Ma Apple took up the bucket and sack in her magic and led her husband from the room.

Cheerilee reached over to the nightstand and flipped off the lamp, before pulling the covers up over her and turning to face the closet as she lay in bed. So much for trying to read the books Candy had checked out of the library for clues, at least for tonight. Tomorrow would be a fresh day, though, and she'd find time to do so before it was out. She had to resign herself to the fact that whatever this was, it was going to take several days to solve.

She looked over at the closet. Ma Apple had closed the closet door upon finishing removing the muffins from it. Moonlight from the window fell squarely upon it, giving a perfect view of the smiling muffin drawing that hung there watching over her with that terrible smile. She didn't like that thing, and wasn't sure why, but the more she looked at it the more menacing it seemed. Was this what Candy felt when she stared at it at night? That would explain why it had been ripped down so many times, but didn't explain why she kept putting it back up. So many things about Candy didn't seem to make any sense.

She turned over in bed, now facing the window. Tomorrow would hopefully bring some answers, without bringing too many new questions.

Chapter 9: What Goes on Before a Bakery Opens for the Day

Sugarcube Corner could have been transported straight from her time to this one. It looked almost exactly the same. It was minutes before opening for the day, and if she closed her eyes, she could imagine Mrs. Cake-- Mrs. Cup Cake-- preparing the pastries and sweets for the morning breakfast rush.

Mrs. Cup Cake wasn't in the kitchen, though, it was Miss Pumpkin Cake, and she broke the illusion that this was the Sugarcube Corner that Cheerilee knew.

"Hurry up! Those bagels should have been out on display five minutes ago! How are the muffins coming? What do you mean they aren't done yet?! Oh, this is a disaster! Move faster! No, finish that first! Do I have to do everything around here?"

It just didn't stop, the constant stressing by the female Cake twin. Everything was always going too slow for her, and she seemed focused on a dozen things at once. Worse, she vented her frustration out liberally on Ma Apple. The Cake twins were not even due to start classes with her for another year or two, but she was trying to not develop an early prejudice towards Pumpkin as she listened to the grown mare version of her be such a difficult boss to work for. Ma Apple had to have the most patience of any pony she'd seen, her and Pound both.

Cheerilee sat out in the lobby, trying to ignore the sounds coming from the kitchens. The sun was just starting to rise outside, even though they'd been here over an hour already. Cheese sat with her at the table, working diligently on a puzzle of a hot air balloon. The other Cake twin, Pound, was busy getting the register counted out and ready for customers, and winced on and off as his sister let off a round of explicatives that no foal should be allowed to hear.

After one particularly long line of cursing, Pound turned and shouted back into the kitchen. "Sis… we have foals up front. Try to keep it down. We go through this every morning lately. It's going to be alright. Maybe you should put aside the graduation cakes for right now, and help out with getting the morning orders done. You can come back to them."

"I'll fall behind schedule! We only have two days left before we have to have these all out!" Pumpkin shouted back.

"Two days that can't go by fast enough," Pound grumbled.

At that moment, a somewhat familiar pink earth pony came trotting happily down the stairs. Her mane was in a massive beehive style, and looked like it was packed with items. Pinkie Pie was known to store things in her mane, and it looked like in the past twenty years she had brought that up to a new level.

The party planner came over to the table and grabbed her foal up in a big hug, causing him to giggle. "Good morning to you, my little whoopie cushion! Ready for another extra special day?"

"Yeah!" Cheese yelled out enthusiastically, throwing his forehooves upwards while in his mother's embrace. It was enough to make Cheerilee smile, despite the muffled cussing in the background.

"Pinkie," Pound said hesitantly, glancing back warily at the kitchens. "Do you think you could give my sister a little help in the kitchen, before Ma Apple decides to quit and walk out on us?"

The ghost of a frown passed over Pinkie's lips as she set her son back down. She ruffled Cheese's mane and gave him a sad smile. "It looks like I'm needed. You and your friend be good, I need to help make your auntie Pumpkin be a little less frowny."

The colt gave a small look of disappointment, then gave a forced grin to his mother. "Okay Mommy!"

Pinkie paused and looked at Cheerilee. "And you look way too serious for a little filly." The pink pony reached a hoof up into her mane and shuffled it around for a second, before pulling out a big lollipop. The candy seemed to stick in the party pony's mane as she was trying to pull it out, and it took a few good tanks to dislodge it. She then held it out happily towards Cheerilee. "A candy for Candy, to help make you smile."

Cheerilee looked at the hair covered lollipop and shook her head in disgust. "Um, thank you, but I'll pass."

Pinkie shrugged, and jammed the lollipop back into her mane. "Suit yourself." She then started pronking towards the kitchen. "Pumpkin! Who's being a grumpy goose? Aunt Pinkie is here to help."

"You can help by frosting these cupcakes that should have been frosted twenty minutes ago!" Pumpkin yelled. Her voice then took on a frantic tone. "I need to work on the Breeze family graduation cake, it was supposed to be done last night, !"

Cheerilee blinked. What was that last sound? She was confused.

"Did you just bleep me?!" Pumpkin demanded loudly. "ing !"

"Somepony has a potty mouth, and there are foals in the shop… including mine," Pinkie said for the most part cheerfully, but the last two words had sunk to a warning tone.

Pumpkin let out a loud groan. "Okay, I'm out of line. Please help. There's just too much to do." There was a brief pause followed by a contrite, "Sorry, Mrs Apple, I know you're doing your best."

The reply from Ma Apple couldn't be heard, though something was said. Ma Apple just wasn't as loud as the baker and party pony.

"All better now," Pinkie said happily. "Now, let's get this all done, and have a happy day!"

The work in the kitchen went much more quietly after that, though it was impossible to tell how smoothly it was going. On and off, Ma Apple or one of the others would bring a tray up to put on display. Pound Cake finished with the register, and began polishing the glass of the display case, whistling as he worked.

Cheerilee just sat and watched her companion put his puzzle together. She was still very tired. She counted herself as an early riser, anypony born and raised on a farm had no problem getting up before dawn, but it had been a long time since she had to get up quite this early. The fact that Ma Apple did this every day, then came back home to work on the farm, then took care of her foals and dinner in the evening, showed that the mare deserved a medal for her hard work-- and a vacation.

Cheese's mood seemed a little suppressed as he continued to put his puzzle together. She had a sneaking suspicion at what was up, and she raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you not get to spend a lot of time with your mother?"

The colt paused what he was doing and looked up at her. He squirmed in his seat for a moment before answering. "She's busy, a lot. I don't mind, she's a really important pony, and she makes lots of ponies smile. I know she wants to spend time with me." He then returned to his progress on the puzzle.

Cheerilee had seen the disappointment on Pinkie's face when her time with her son had been interrupted. This was not a case of deliberate neglect. The mare really was that busy. She continued to watch the colt at work, and she continued to consider her plans. She felt a pang of guilt again that she'd need to use him for her own needs, and felt like she owed it to him to help him in some way. There just wasn't much she could do for him, busy parents were nothing new, and she had many a foal in her classes that had to deal with that as a fact of life. At least his was somewhat present in his life.

"Do you know a pony named Scootaloo?" She asked her yellow companion.

Cheese blinked and then smiled. "I know everycreature in Ponyville, silly! Miss Scootaloo is a professor at the School of Friendship."

She gave him a smile. "I meant, are you friends with Scoo-- Miss Scootaloo?"

Cheese seemed to consider this. "Well, not really I guess. She's nice, but I never really talked to her a lot."

"Maybe you should," Cheerilee said with a small smile. "Tell her about how your parents are busy all the time and you wish you had more time with them. I'm sure she'll understand better than anypony. Where is your dad anyway?"

"Traveling, with my older brother and sister. They are gone a lot," Cheese explained morosely, and then got excited. "Mommy says now that the school year is out we can all travel together next time! It's going to be my first time being able to go!"

She smiled. "Sounds like it will be fun."

He nodded back to her. "It will be, and we get to do it all together! I get to learn all about being a party pony like my mommy and daddy, and my big brother and sister, and help make ponies smile!"

She had a feeling that most of his enthusiasm was directed at the fact he'd be spending time with his whole family, but didn't know him well enough to be sure of that. "Just make sure you take some time sometime soon to talk to Scootaloo. She's a fil-- a mare that might have some good advice for you."

Cheese gave her a curious stare. "Are you still Principal Cheerilee?"

"Miss Cheerilee," she corrected. "Twenty years ago there was just one teacher for all of Ponyville Elementary, and that was me."

Cheese blinked. "That must have been a really big class."

She waved a hoof. "There were a lot less students, so I could manage. Lesson plans get a little complicated sometimes, dealing with so many different ages in the same classroom, but I'm a pro." She gave him a curious look back. "Why do you ask?"

Cheese gave her a downtrodden look. "Most ponies and creatures Candy ends up being don't seem to care about me."

She frowned. "If that's so, and Candy is other ponies and creatures most of the time, then why did you come checking on her yesterday?"

"Candy's nice when she's Candy," Cheese replied as he stared at his puzzle. "Most creatures at school aren't really nice, not to me. You seem nice."

"Do you really believe me? That I'm really Cheerilee?" She asked hesitantly.

Cheese looked uncomfortable with the question. "Maybe? I don't know."

Well, it was more than she was going to get out of anypony else. She'd take what she could get. "I don't know anything about Candy, or Ponyville in this time. Are you willing to help me find things out?"

That the colt nodded confidently about. "Yeah, it will be fun!"

Pound walked over to them and gave them a big grin. "I'm about to open the door for customers. I need you two to stay seated where you are, and don't run off anywhere. Don't talk to strangers either. I've got a good view of you from the counter, and will be watching."

"Don't talk to strangers?" Cheerilee repeated in confusion. "I figured Princess Twilight would be telling ponies that strangers are just friends they haven't met."

Pound nodded. "Oh, absolutely, almost that exact wording."

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "Then why are we not allowed to talk to strangers?"

Pound pointed a wing back towards the kitchens. "Because Pinkie is more likely to notice a stranger if you do, and then she goes into her full 'welcome to Ponyville' song and dance in the middle of the shop when it's busy. We're trying to avoid that; we've gotten complaints." He stopped and furrowed his brow as he looked at her. "And you're pretending to be somepony else right now, right?"

She took a deep calming breath. "I'm not pretending. I really am Cheerilee."

Pound looked relieved. "Oh good, one less potential problem."

"Huh?" She asked, befuddled.

Pound smiled again. "That means you probably won't be trying to destroy all the customers' muffins. I can deal with your acting, but I can't deal with you slapping muffins out of customers' mouths and jumping on the muffins like your trying to put out a fire."

She blinked a few times. What in the world was going on with Candy and muffins. This wasn't just not liking a food, this was downright insane. "And has Candy ever given an explanation why she does that?"

Pound rolled his eyes. "You claim they're alive. Then proceed to try to kill them. I've yet to figure out where you got that idea."

"Candy says they have faces and they are staring at her," Cheese said quietly. "They scare her."

Pound laughed. "If they were alive, I think they'd be more scared of Candy. Candy's the one that ends up grinding them to a pulp." He turned towards the door. "Anyway, you two sit tight and stay out of trouble."

Cheerilee just nodded and sat quietly, trying to process this new information. It sounded to her like Candy really did need that psychologist. Still… she wasn't prepared to dismiss anything Candy did as completely crazy. "Cheese, do you remember the earrings that Principal Doo was wearing yesterday?"

"Um, yeah, what about them?"

"Did they have smiling faces on them?" She asked, hoping he said yes. She had seen those earrings before she had seen the drawing, so it couldn't have played with her mind to make her see things that weren't there.

Her hopes were dashed as he shook his head. "No, she wears those same earrings all the time. They're just muffins, regular old muffins."

She took another deep breath. If Candy was crazy, then that crazy carried onto her. She didn't think the filly was crazy though, just dealing with a crazy situation. It was a new piece of the puzzle, but it actually made another piece of the puzzle click into place, one of the books she had checked out, the one about paranormal creatures. She was going to have to sit down and read that thing thoroughly tonight to find out what it was they were both seeing. But why was it just her and Candy seeing the faces, and not everypony else? And why just on muffins? Did it have anything to do with this regular possession of Candy, or was it something else entirely? This was another thing to talk to that magic expert about.

I'm trying to help you Candy, but you and I both are over our heads in something weird. She thought to herself, hoping that somehow or somewhere Candy could hear her.

A new thought occurred to her, about a potential perpetrator of the entire mess. Doing this to a foal seemed extremely malicious, even for him, but it sounded like something that involved him. "Has Candy seen Discord?"

Before Cheese could answer, the Lord of Chaos himself appeared right beside their table. "Oh! Somepony is talking about me. I always like to be talked about. You're no doubt discussing how handsome and great I am. I do autographs on Tuesdays, and you can get photos with me on Fridays." He looked at the two of them, and put his hands up to his face as if gushing. "Foals! And if I'm not mistaken, you're Applejack's niece. I'm a big fan of your work. Have you finally decided to call upon the master to up your game? I'm honored, truly I am!"

Before she could reply Discord turned to Cheese. "And you're Pinkie Pie's fun for all genders ball of fluff. It's so great to have the next generation taking an interest in little old me!"

"Um, actually-" she began.

"Get out of the shop!" Pound shouted as he came hurrying over. "You're too disruptive, and you shouldn't be messing with foals!"

Discord gave the pegasus a peeved look. "They called on me, or mentioned my name, one or the other, it's all the same. And I've done nothing to the foals. Your baseless accusations are completely unfair, and unfriendly. Is this how you're supposed to treat a friendly face? What would Princess Twilight say?"

"You're still serving a ban from the store after you made all the cupcakes go on a singing and dancing parade!" Pound continued.

"Discord!" Ma Apple called out as she came running out of the kitchen. "If you do anythin' to my daughter, I'm goin' to tell Big Mac he isn't allowed to an O and O session for a year! She's in enough trouble as it is! She doesn't need your kind of trouble right now!"

Discord put on a white robe and made a halo appear over his head. "I'm intending no trouble with your little candy cane." He turned to Pound. "And it was a slow day when that happened. I think I actually attracted business for you that day, you should have thanked me."

"The mess took five days to clean up!" Pound continued. "We clean up after foals all the time, but they don't make messes that bad!"

Discord held his nose high and crossed his arms. "Fine, I can see I'm not wanted. Let me just find out what the filly wanted from me and I'll be on my merry way."

She was unsure if she should ask, given the trouble unintentionally summoning him caused, but everypony was staring at her, so she assumed she was free to speak. "Um, Candy has been seeing faces on muffins. Did you have anything to do with that?"

Discord looked down at her and blinked. Then looked upward and scratched his head absently. "Faces on muffins? I recall doing no such thing, at least not anytime in the last few years." A bell appeared next to his head and started shaking with no sound. "It does ring a bell about something…" He reached up and grabbed the bell and shook it violently. Then tossed it aside, having it vanish in a puff of smoke. "Defective. I guess it doesn't ring a bell. I can tell you I didn't do it if you're seeing faces on muffins. I would have remembered."

"Since that is settled, can you please just go?" Pound pleaded. "I already have to worry about my aggravated sister scaring off customers without you here too. We'll cater your next tea party for Fluttershy half off."

Discord gave him a grin. "Half off? You've got yourself a deal. I'll be sending my order this afternoon." The draconiquis then promptly vanished.

"Can't he just make cupcakes?" Cheese asked.

Pound groaned. "Don't question it. He does a regular order, even with him being banned from coming in the store." He turned to the front door. "Coast is clear, everycreature; we're open for business."

As customers started filtering into the shop and making their morning orders, Cheerilee sat and pouted. So much for that idea. Discord was the type to brag about things he did, or at least give hints that he had tried. He seemed legitimate in his assertion that he had nothing to do with the muffins. That left her with wondering if she and Candy were sharing the same brand of crazy. Although, she'd only seen the smiling faces on Dinky's earrings, not any of the actual muffins that had been molding in the closet. She had Candy's eyes at the moment, so maybe Candy really did see things that weren't there, and she was just catching random bits of the same thing. She glanced up at a customer buying several muffins, and saw no faces on the baked goods. She wasn't sure if she was happy she didn't or if seeing them would make her feel more like she was onto something.

She watched Ma Apple pull a grey earth pony mare with a short curly grey mane (different shade of grey) aside, and the two start a quiet conversation. There were occasional looks from both of them in her direction. That must be the psychologist, and it wasn't a pony she recognized, even trying to age up foals in her head to try to match. The shrink likely heard that whole exchange, as she had been one of the customers at the door when Discord had been present. At least they had something to talk about right away.

"Do you know the name of the pony Ma Apple is talking to?" She asked her resident Ponyville expert.

Cheese looked and then smiled and nodded. "That's my Aunt Marble! She and my mommy are twin sisters. Aunt Marble is nice, she talks to me about school and how I'm getting along with other foals, and stuff like that. She takes notes when she's doing it. Nocreature else takes notes when I'm talking, so it makes me feel important, like Mommy."

She looked back at the mare. She'd only met Maud out of Pinkie Pie's sisters, but she had heard that all her family was a bit… what was a good word… socially inept. This mare seemed friendly and sociable, at least from a distance. That didn't really line up with what she had heard about them. Of course, it had been twenty years, and time can change ponies.

Marble Pie wasn't who she was waiting to talk to today. It was that grad student. She also was now wanting to see Dinky again just to see the principal's earrings. Tonight she'd read Candy's library books, and between everything today she'd be in a better position to start making actual plans of action tomorrow.

Chapter 10: Child Psychology

"Candy, this is Doctor Marble Pie," Ma Apple said with a gesture to the grey on grey pony. "She'll be seein' you every few days from now on. At least until you've got yourself sorted out."

The psychologist held out a hoof to her without saying anything. Cheerilee had expected a verbal greeting, but hoof bumped the mare to be polite. Marble gave her a shy smile as she was putting her hoof down.

Awkward silence followed that stretched on for a solid minute. What was up with this mare? She had been talking to Ma Apple fine just a few moments ago.

Marble gave Ma Apple a bashful look. "Um, can she and I go somewhere… private? I do better with patients without an audience."

The Apple matriarch blinked. "Oh! Yes! Sorry about that." She pointed to a door. "There's a small sitting room right through there. I'm sure Pound and Pumpkin won't mind you using it."

Marble nodded and gestured for Cheerilee to walk ahead. She looked over at Cheese to see if he thought this was odd, but just got an encouraging wave and smile from him. She then got down from her seat and walked to the aforementioned door, with Marble following close behind.

They passed through the door and she got a quick look at the sitting room. It was rather simple. It had a small fireplace, two small couches, a chair, a coffee table, and a few filled bookshelves. A place for a small family to gather together that was the store lobby or kitchen.

Marble closed the door behind them and let out a sigh of relief, before turning to her with a more genuine smile than before. "Privacy, at last. I apologize, I'm still a big Shy Pie after all these years. Not as bad as I used to be, but I'm much more comfortable dealing with ponies one-on-one. Make yourself comfortable, and we can get to know one another."

She climbed up onto one of the sofas, and Marble Pie took a seat on the sofa opposite it, still giving her a smile. "To break the ice, let me introduce and tell you about myself first, so that I'm less of a stranger. My name is Marble Pie, and I focus on trying to get ponies and other creatures to open up and discuss feelings they keep to themselves. I know I seem shy now, but growing up I was so quiet that ponies sometimes questioned if I could even talk, and I was even that way for many years after I grew up. It was with the help of therapy, and a desire to change, that I got to where I am now. I have since decided that I wanted to help ponies the same way I was helped."

"There's nothing wrong with being shy," Cheerilee replied. She had been a shy filly herself.

Marble nodded. "Of course not, if that pony is happy. For me, I wasn't happy. Ironically, it was your father that ended up being the push that made me realize I was unhappy with the degree to which I was shy. I felt like I had missed out on something that was important to me back then because I didn't have the courage to express my feelings. There are a lot of important feelings and thoughts that ponies have that they don't express for one reason or another. It can be shyness, or we are afraid of what others might think, or we could be afraid of something else. It is still important that we be able to express these things."

The mare certainly was much more talkative now that they were alone, though the voice was still very soft, and very low volume-- reminding her a little of Fluttershy.

Marble continued to watch her with a smile. "Now that you heard a little about me, how about you tell me a little about yourself."

She took a breath. "I can't say much about Candy, because I'm not Candy. I'm Cherrilee, and it's not an act."

Marble didn't break her smile as she nodded. "Alright, Ma Apple explained this to me. How about I don't say if that is true or not true, and for the moment just treat you as if you're who you say you are. Until something disproves it, or you say otherwise, you're to be treated as Cheerilee in our discussions."

She blinked. "Wouldn't other ponies just say that is encouraging Candy to continue to act out?"

"If Candy is acting out in that way, it could be a way of coping with something, and for the sake of trying to find out what that something is I'm willing to accept whatever pony or creature she puts in front of me." Marble gave her a sly smile. "Don't you agree, Cheerilee?"

"But you don't really believe me, and I'll know you don't believe me," she responded bitterly.

Marble's smile went away. "That I can't help, but what I can do is let you express yourself as Cheerilee. I want to help you, and that requires you to be able to express yourself. I don't know Cheerilee personally, but I know of her, and I want to say that Cheerilee would want to see Candy get help. As Cheerilee, are you willing to work with me to try to help her?"

She chewed on her lip, then let off a defeated sigh. "Alright, at least you're willing to humor me."

Marble's smile returned. "Good! Now tell me about yourself, yourself as Cheerilee. We can go over what you can tell me about Candy later."

"Fine," Cheerilee groaned. "I'm a teacher, I'm thirty-two, not eight. I've been teaching since I was eighteen years old."

Marble raised a hoof. "Forgive me for interrupting, but if you're Cheerilee, shouldn't you be older than-"

"I'm Cheerilee, but from twenty years ago," she clarified.

Marble lowered her hoof. "Oh, understood, you can continue."

She gathered her thoughts and then continued. "The last thing I remember before I woke up in this body was I was trying to toss away a potion demonstration that had gone wrong that Applebloom had been doing in front of my graduating class. The next thing I know I'm laying on the floor of my classroom, only it's not my classroom, and I'm in the body of some unfamiliar foal."

"A failed potion from Applebloom? Kind of like the failed potion you- I mean Candy, had done?" Marble asked.

"Not the same type of potion, but the same type of result," Cheerilee replied, then looked down. "I may have unknowingly made the situation with Applebloom's potion worse, at least according to what I heard. I don't know what went wrong with Candy's potion, or exactly what she was hoping to accomplish. I have guesses, about what she was trying to do."

Marble nodded. "And what do you think Candy was trying to do." She then scrunched up her muzzle. "I wish I had brought my notebook and pencil," the mare muttered to herself.

"I think she was trying to dispel whatever it is that is causing other ponies and creatures to end up in her body," Cheerilee answered confidently.

"So, you believe that everycreature she has played has been legitimately that creature?"

Cheerilee gestured at her body. "From where I'm sitting I'm inclined to believe her." She frowned at the psychologist. "What I really don't get is why nopony seems to want to believe her."

Marble shrugged her forelegs. "It's a pretty tall tale to be telling, and it isn't something anycreature else has ever claimed and been proven true on. Foals are also known to have active imaginations."

"Horseapples!" She blurted out, not caring if she would get chided for cussing. "Crazy things happens around Ponyville all the time. At least, it did in my time, and I believe it must still. This may sound crazy and farfetched, but no crazier or far fetched than anything else that goes on here."

Marble looked ready to object, then put a hoof to her muzzle thoughtfully. "You have a fair point with that one, I'll give you that. How about we shelve that part of the discussion until I can ask your mother some questions about that--excuse me, Candy's mother. With your permission to ask her, that is."

"You have my permission. Thank you," she said in honest gratitude. "They sure weren't willing to share that information with me. It seemed like it was something personal when they refused to answer me, by the way Applejack reacted."

"I'll keep that in mind," Marble replied with a slight dip of her head. "Moving on, I'm assuming that your current goals are to get out of Candy's body? That is if you are Cheerilee. I know if I was stuck in somepony else's body that would be mine."

She was about to answer yes, but stopped and thought about it some more. She let out a long sigh before she gave her answer. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but actually...no. My goal is to help Candy."

Marble raised an eyebrow at her. "I fail to see where having another pony occupying Candy's body helps her. Are you saying Candy is unfit to deal with her problems?"

"I've been thinking…" she said slowly, forcing herself to go down this route. "If this really is an ongoing thing where ponies regularly occupy Candy's body, then they must have all gone back on their own eventually, somehow. That means I don't have to do anything to actually get home but wait. However, that leaves it being just a matter of time before it happens to Candy again. She's a foal in need, and I can't leave her without trying everything I can to help."

"And why couldn't yourself in the present be the one to come to her aid?" Marble questioned.

Cheerilee hung her head in shame. "I apparently just dropped everything and ran off at the beginning of the school year, I don't know why me in this time did that. It doesn't make sense. I wouldn't do that, especially if I knew there was a filly depending on me to stand up for her."

"And are you sure you aren't just a reflection of how Candy feels about Principal Cheerilee suddenly leaving, and not really Cheerilee?" Marble asked.

She grit her teeth. "I'm Cheerilee, but if Candy were here I'm sure she would want to have me help her. I don't even know how she felt about the me from this time. No one has told me about whether the two of us ever spoke." As she finished saying that she paused to think about that. Candy was eight, which meant she had been in school for at least two if not three full years. The Cheerilee from this time had run off at the beginning of this school year. There should have been some contact between the two.

"I'll try to reach out to Cheerilee-- our Cheerilee, from this time, if you want me to do so," Marble said. Cheerilee looked up at her with wide eyes as she got more hopeful. "She should be easy enough to for a mailpony to find. I make no promises that she'll respond."

She bowed her head to the psychologist. "Yes, I do want you to reach out. I understand, and...thank you for everything you're doing. I know you're doing it to just try to prove Candy is making this up, and to try to understand why she would do that, but everypony will see in the end that she and I are telling the truth."

"I guess we'll see," Marble replied as she got down from the couch. "If it does turn out to be the truth, I'll be the first to apologize for not believing you. I'll give you your opportunities to prove yourself. I just ask that you try to be open with me during our sessions, so that if it isn't the truth I can do what I can to help."

She let off a bitter laugh. "I can agree to be open as I can, but I don't know what goes on in that filly's head. I can only tell you what I see around me as I live in her world."

Marble nodded. "That will have to do. Our time to get to know one another is over for now. Your mother isn't getting charged for this session. We need to keep our future sessions focused, as I am paid by the hour. I'd love to do this as a favor, but if I took all my patients as favors I wouldn't have a roof over my head."

"Is Cheese a favor?" Cheerilee asked.

Marble gave a small smile. "Cheese is family, and I don't charge for family. You, on the other hoof, are not-- despite my sister and your aunt getting so worked up that we have a very distant common ancestor that they can put a name to. Once you have to start double checking if you counted the right number of greats to your common grandmare it hardly counts anymore." Marble said that somewhat forcibly, and Cheerilee wondered why. It wasn't really her business, but now she was curious about the relationship between the Apples and the Pies.

She was escorted out of the room and returned to the table where Cheese sat waiting for her, his puzzle long since completed. In the meantime, Marble Pie and Ma Apple walked over to a corner for some privacy and spoke together.

"So, do you like Aunt Marble?" Cheese asked. "I like Aunt Marble, and I want you to like her too."

"I don't know yet," she replied. "She wasn't what I was expecting, but I don't know what I was expecting. She might be able to help. We'll see how things go." She looked over at the androgynous colt, and gave him a considering look. "What kinds of things do the two of you talk about together?"

Cheese started squirming in his seat. "She says I don't have to talk to anycreature about our talks, if I don't want to. She says she won't tell anycreature either if I say no."

She looked down. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to invade your privacy. I just wanted to get a better idea about how to feel about her. You told me a little before, so I assumed it was okay to ask. I shouldn't have assumed that."

Cheese continued to squirm in his seat, and looked around the shop-- though she couldn't for the life of her guess what he was looking for. He then got stiff and leaned in close to her over the table. "She listens to me tell her about all the bullies at school. She asks me about how I feel about what they say. She tells me I'm special, and that sometimes creatures can be afraid of things that are different. Mommy tells me that too, but I don't like to talk to Mommy about those things."

She blinked and gave him a concerned look. "Why not? I can tell how much your mother loves you."

Cheese looked down again, but she could see his eyes watering. "It makes Mommy sad. I don't like it when Mommy gets sad. She's supposed to make everypony happy, but she can't make them happy if I'm making her sad." He sniffled. "Sometimes, when I come home from school, after a lot of bullies have been mean to me, she looks at me, and I can tell she's sad. She asks me if I want to tell her about it, and I say no. Then she takes me to Aunt Marble, and I tell Aunt Marble."

"And you tell your Aunt Marble not to tell your mom?" She asked, and got a quiet nod back in confirmation. "Has your aunt told you that you should talk to your mom about it? Or that you might be hurting her feelings by not talking to her about it?"

"She does," Cheese mumbled.

"But you still tell her she can't tell your mom?" She asked. He gave her another quiet nod. She took a deep breath in frustration. She had enough to deal with trying to help Candy, but she couldn't let this go. "Why? You have to understand that she must know what's going on. She wouldn't be asking you about it if she didn't know. She loves you and is worried about you."

"You're nice, you sound like Aunt Marble," Cheese sniffled.

She snorted in aggregation. "Right now I don't care if I'm nice or mean. What I care about is you're going through a hard time and you aren't letting the pony that cares about you more than anything help you. You need to talk to your mom."

"I can't…" Cheese choked out.

As the colt buried his face into his forelegs to cry, Cheerilee spotted a certain pink mare standing by the counter watching them, her beehive mane limp, and her expression mournful. There was no telling how long Pinkie had been there, but clearly it had been long enough to hear the discussion of her. Before Cheerilee could look away Pinkie noticed that she had noticed Pinkie watching. They mare looked around frantically for a second, as if preparing to hide, then stopped her gaze on her son. Cheerilee watched as Pinkie composed herself to where she looked as perky as ever, and then the party pony made a show of having just walked into the store lobby.

"Oh Lil' Cheese! Cheesy Bread! My little whoopie cushion! Where are you?" Pinkie called out, looking every which way but at her son.

Cheese quickly wiped his face dry and forced a smile on his face, if it weren't for his bloodshot eyes nopony would even know he had been crying a moment before. He turned and waved his forelegs up above his head. "Here I am, Mommy!"

Pinkie looked over at him and gasped as if surprised. "Oh there you are! I couldn't find you," the mare lied with a straight face. She then trotted over to the table and gave her son a quick hug. "Guess what? I've decided to take the rest of the morning off to do something else. Do you know what I'm going to do?"

The colt stared up at her and shook his head. "What are you going to do?"

Pinkie booped him on the nose. "I'm going to take you to the park and have a picnic! Just you and me! Doesn't that sound fun!"

Cheese's face lit up excitedly. "Yeah!"

The party pony picked him up off the chair and set him down on the ground. "Now, you go upstairs and wash before we go, and make sure you give Boneless Six a good wash too. When you're done we can go."

The colt didn't need to be told twice. "Okay, Mommy!" He shouted as he ran for the stairs, nearly knocking over a customer or two on his way.

Pinkie Pie smiled as she watched the colt go up the stairs, and only when he vanished from view did the smile slip off. Cheerilee felt dread as the pink mare turned a serious gaze to her, a far more serious gaze than Cheerilee had ever seen on the party pony's face. Pinkie then took the seat that Cheese had just vacated and continued to stare at her.

The silence was oppressive, made more oppressive by the fact that it was a normally very loud and flamboyant pony that was dragging it out. She felt the need to break it. "I didn't mean to do any harm. I was just concerned about-"

"I believe you."

She sighed with relief. "Thank you, I thought you were going to think that I was trying to upset your son."

Pinkie shook her head. "Oh, I believe that too, but that's not what I meant."

She blinked. "Um, I don't understand. What are we discussing?"

Pinkie leaned over the table. "You're not Candy Apple, you're Cheerilee, and I can tell."

Chapter 11: Just Another Day in Ponyville

Somepony that believed her, it finally happened, and it was the craziest pony in Ponyville. "How… how are you sure?"

Pinkie gave her a long look. "I've talked a lot with Cheerilee, private talks. You were saying the same things she said to me, about how Lil' Cheese needs to talk to me. You were trying to push him to talk to me, just like you tried to push me to make him talk to me. Candy never heard those talks between us, I'm sure of it."

Cheerilee wanted to be overjoyed, but there was something scary about the pink mare right now. "You seem a lot more serious than I remember you."

Pinkie drew close to her over the table. "When it comes to somecreature getting my son upset, I don't play games. There's nothing fun about him being upset. You were making him cry. No laughs, no smiles, just a very angry mommy!"

Cheerilee cringed back, and Pinkie stared at her for a moment more before breathing in deeply and letting out a long breath. "I understand what you were trying to do. I understand that you were trying to help, but I'm going to say the same thing I told you from this time; he will come to me when he is ready. It's important that he feels like he has control, and isn't going to be forced to do things that make him uncomfortable. Me and Marble are trying to help him get there, gently. Don't push him to do what he isn't ready to do, got it?"

"I got it," Cheerilee squeaked in fear. She'd seen Pinkie angry before, but it had always been loud and full of energy. There was something terrifying about this cold and serious anger that the mare had right now. It was like Pinkie was a whole other pony, completely incompatible with the normally cheerful and bouncy mare.

And as if a switch had been flipped, Pinkie's whole demeanor reverted back to normal. "Hooray! Since we got that out of the way; welcome to Ponyville in the present! Or I guess it is the future for you. I should throw you a party, but ponies would think I'm crazy." Pinkie then giggled like a schoolfilly who just heard a funny joke. "Actually, they already think I'm crazy, so I guess I can throw you that party. I know your favorite cake is chocolate with extra fudge and a cherry on top, but I'm not sure if you prefer cherry or chocolate ice cream, it seems like it changes back and forth. Which do you prefer right now?"

"Is that really important right now?" Cheerilee asked in disbelief, then remembered who she was talking to. With how fast the mare switched modes just now she was willing to say Pinkie was crazy as well.

Pinkie gasped. "Of course it is important, silly! We have to have the right ice cream for the party. Hmm, maybe I should just bring both. I have to warn you, I'm going to have to leave the walnut pieces out, Candy is allergic to walnuts. We don't want to hurt Candy." Pinkie paused and looked at her with one eye. "Hey… wait a minute, if you're here, then where is Candy?"

Cheerilee threw her forehooves up in frustration. "I don't know! I don't understand any of this, and you're the first pony that has believed me." She set her hooves back down. "But at least now somepony believes me, and you can tell everypony that I'm telling the truth."

Pinkie's ears fell. "Um, I can try, but I don't think they'll listen to me if I tell them that."

Her own ears laid back. "What? Why?!"

The party pony slumped in her chair. "Being the premier party pony had its drawbacks. Anytime I try to tell anypony something that sounds really weird they just go 'it's Pinkie being Pinkie,' and don't listen until they figure out on their own it's true."

This wasn't fair! "But… what about the other element bearers? Surely they'll believe?"

Pinkie gave her a sad look. "Do you remember the parasprite invasion, and how no pony believed me? There's been a bunch of things like that since then that were just the same. I'm smart. I know things. Two of my sister's are doctors, so the Pies are smart. I have one of those photographic memories where I can remember everything I read like it is right in front of me. Nocreature believes me still."

"But-"

Pinkie cut her off with of hoof. "If I walked over to you and told you something that sounded crazy, like real crazy. What would you say when I left?"

She hung her head. "That it's just Pinkie being Pinkie." The bearer of laughter was right. Everyone saw what she said and did as a joke.

"And Applejack is really really sure you're lying, and Applejack is really, like really really, super-duper stubborn," Pinkie explained. The party mare then tapped her hoof against the side of her head, as if trying to prod her thoughts along. "And Rainbow is just going to agree with Applejack. Rarity isn't around much anymore, but I can try talking to Fluttershy, or sending a letter to Twilight."

"What did Candy do that made Applejack so against believing her?" Cheerilee asked. It had to be Applejack that was the primary source of disbelief. Just like everypony thought everything Pinkie said was a joke, everypony believed everything Applejack said was the truth.

Pinkie slumped lower. "She did something really bad, that hurt Applejack-- hurt her feelings. Then she made it worse by lying about it before and after. Applejack hasn't believed her about anything since then."

"I guessed it was personal already. What exactly did she do?" She asked again.

Pinkie bit her lip then opened her mouth to answer. "She-"

"I'm all clean, Mommy! Boneless Six is too!"

They both turned to see Cheese hurrying down the stairs, his rubber chicken riding on his back in a way that defied gravity.

"That's great! We'll leave in just a minute. I have an emergency picnic basket I need to grab from its hiding spot!" Pinkie called out to her son. She then put her face right up to Cheerilee and whispered, "Lay low, which should be easy, because foals are lower to the ground. Pinkie Pie is on the case to help you. We'll talk again later. The codeword is kumquat!"

She reached out a hoof towards the towards the quick moving pony, who was already halfway to the kitchens. She was going to shout after her, but thought better of it, and lowered her hoof. Lay low? She wasn't going to pretend to be Candy, and nopony believed she was Cheerilee anyway, so how was she supposed to lay low? Why was there a codeword? The urge to say it was just Pinkie being Pinkie was strong, but she resisted it.

Putting a more positive spin on this development, she did now have an ally; a questionable ally, but an ally all the same. Perhaps Pinkie would be able to convince Fluttershy, or better yet, Princess Twilight, that she was telling the truth. Princess Twilight had to be able to come up with a solution for all this. If anypony could fix this, it would be the princess herself.

While she had been speaking with Pinkie, activity had continued on in the busy shop, though she hadn't been paying close attention to the various ponies and creatures that had entered and exited. Marble Pie had seemingly departed the store, and now Ma Apple stood in conversation with a pony that she recognized as a recent resident of Ponyville in her own time who frequented some of the evening trivia games and comedy shows she herself enjoyed attending, Sunburst. He looked very much the same, showing little sign of being middle aged, though his signature red beard was now much larger, hanging down almost to the ground.

The two adults talked for a few seconds after she had taken notice of them, before Sunburst nodded and departed out the front door. Ma Apple then walked over to her, smile on her face, and became the third owner this morning of the seat opposite her.

"All the arrangements have been made with everypony," Ma explained. "Marble has agreed to meet with you again in two days, and will determine how often she sees you after that. I just spoke with the vice principal of the School of Friendship, and he says that we can come by anytime today to speak with Luster Dawn-- that's the name of Princess Twilight Sparkle's student who is doing special studies over at the school. I also got to talk to your principal, and she says she'll call you into her office while you're at school tomorrow to discuss your community work."

It hadn't even occurred to her that she would have to attend classes. They were talking about the fact that Candy had tested well so she could advance, so she had assumed the school year was out. Then again, Applebloom had mentioned two more days. That was going to take away some of her time from trying to find things out. She wasn't going to skip school, not with the precarious situation Candy already was in regarding that, but it was doubtful she'd find anything useful out about the filly in Silver Spoon's classroom.

"I'll be on good behavior," she gave as a neutral reply. She was still eager to meet this Luster Dawn. There had to be some magical something that the grad student would pick up on, and be able to confirm to everypony that she was who she said she was. Things were looking up; she had one pony that believed her, Marble Pie might yet be able to fill some information in for her, and Luster Dawn would be confirming something was magically wrong with Candy. All and all, it was a much brighter outlook today than it had been yesterday. Enough to make her smile.

"Is that a smile I see?" Ma Apple said warmly. "I haven't seen many of those on you the past few months. You used to smile so much more, before what happened in the Everfree Forest and all these acts you've been doing since."

Her smile fell as she blinked. "Wait, what happened in the Everfree Forest?" That place was full of crazy and unexplained things, and it might be what started all of this!

Ma Apple's own smile fell on disappointment. "We agreed we weren't goin' to talk about it anymore, it's done and over with, and we're goin' to move on. Unless you're willing to be honest about everything, and apologize to your aunts and pa."

"I'm not Candy, so I don't even know what happened!" She protested. "Please tell me. It could be the key to all this."

Ma Apple scowled. "No, we aren't playin' games with that. You know how much that hurt everypony's feelin's, and how angry your aunt still is about it. I love you, and I let you play your games, but I'm not lettin' you restart that disruption. We need to all just let it go."

She snorted in frustration. It was a little more information at least. Whatever had happened had upset all of the Apples, it was just Applejack who was carrying the grudge the most. If it involved a lie, and involved all the Apples, that might be why they were all disinclined to believe Candy was telling the truth. Hopefully Marble would be able to find out exactly what had happened and let her know. She didn't know what she could do about something Candy legitimately did, but she could do nothing for sure if she didn't even know what it was.

"Anyway, I'm done here for today," Ma Apple announced, dropping the subject of Candy's misbehavior. "I've got enough pastries baking to last Pumpkin till the end of the day, so she can focus on bakin' cakes all she wants. Two more days and then she'll stop screamin' at me all mornin' long. I can hardly wait. She's normally really sweet, but this time of year she gets me so…peeved!" Her eyes went wide, as if just remembering her daughter was right there. "Please don't use that word! It's a word for only grownups to use."

Cheerilee raised a single eyebrow. "I'm Cheerilee, remember? I'm familiar with curse words. I might be in your daughter's body, but I'm no foal."

"These games you play," Ma Apple said with just a touch of annoyance. "I almost forgot how adept you are at usin' those words. Just don't use them, okay?"

She shrugged in reply. She didn't want to appear obstinate, but she wasn't going to pretend to be Candy, and beIng treated as if she were Candy was getting old. "So, are we going to the School of Friendship now? To meet...Luster Dawn, was it?"

The older unicorn nodded. "Yes, it's time to do that. Say goodbye to your friend, and we can be on our way." She paused. "And by the way, he'll be comin' over to stay with us after you two are out of school the next two days, at least until supper. Try not to get into any trouble."

"I'll do my best," she replied, hopefully between the twin Pie sisters she didn't need to do that much running around anyway. She still wanted to try to find her sister, as she considered her sister more reliable help than Pinkie. It also didn't hurt to find more ponies in general she could convince she wasn't Candy. Still, she couldn't imagine it would cause that much trouble to just visit a simple tea shop.

She didn't have to go to Cheese to tell him goodbye, the androgynous colt was as fast as his mother at setting upon a pony and giving them a hug. "Bye Cherrilee! I'll see you later!" The colt exclaimed, as she struggled to breathe. For being rather feminine, he certainly had a good grip.

As he released her, his mother walked close to her and whispered. "Remember, kumquat!" Before escorting her son out of the bakery.

Ma Apple gave her a quizzical look. "What was that about kumquats?"

Cheerilee shook her head in bewilderment. "I really have no idea."

The Apple matriarch shrugged. "I guess it's just Pinkie being Pinkie. I shouldn't even bother to question what nonsense she does. Come on, let's get goin'."

The School of Friendship, and the accompanying castle (or other way around if you saw it that way), looked almost exactly like they had twenty years ago. The only noticeable difference was in a few flags that were waving from the castle balconies; they marked the castle as Starlight Glimmer's, by bearing her cutie mark. It was just the castle that was decorated that way, as the school bore the element crest on its own flag. She didn't really know what to make of the fact that Starlight Glimmer felt a need to mark her territory, but it really wasn't that important a detail.

There were some students standing about outside, a few laying out in the grass, and a pair of young dragons that were throwing back and forth what looked like a shallow pie tin which seemed to hover in the air as they threw it. She even spotted a few students lounging on one of the castle balconies, with several more students sitting on the castle stairs. Perhaps the castle had been converted to a dorm space for the students? She seemed to recall that the school itself had housing for students in her time, but perhaps they decided that they needed to house them elsewhere. A huge castle that was right on the school's doorstep would make an excellent place for that.

Ma Apple led her up to the school's entrance, where they were met by a light pink female hippogriff. "We're here to see Luster Dawn, do you know where we can find her?" Ma Apple asked the imposingly large creature. It took Cheerilee a moment to recognize her, it was Silverstream, who had been a student in the initial class for the school, and from what was rumored, had some sort of tie to the Elements of Harmony just like the element bearers.

Silverstream tapped her paw to her beak. "Luster Dawn? I think around this time of day you can find her in one of the labs. The main one she uses is the third door on the right immediately after you go up the stairs to the second floor. I would knock first, just in case she is in the middle of something that could go boom. We and headmare has spoken to her about doing dangerous experiments, but Luster seems to have her own opinions about what qualifies as dangerous."

The older unicorn took a step back. "She's supposed to be doing some tests on my daughter… is this goin' to be safe? I wasn't told that she might do somethin' dangerous."

Silverstream blew a raspberry and laughed. "Oh, don't worry! Luster might be a little… eccentric, but she has yet to do anything to anycreature we couldn't fix right away."

Cheerilee shared a look with Candy's mother. "Is it too late for me to change my mind and object to this? I don't want to be blown up."

"It will be fine, I promise," Silverstream assured them. "Luster isn't a bad mare. She got really good at magic as Princess Twilight's student, she just really needs some remedial work with dealing with other creatures. She's here to do that, and she's getting better all the time."

She gave the once friendship student a confused look. "How did the Princess of Friendship's personal student turn out to be bad at friendship?"

Silversteam shrugged. "Princess Twilight is really busy. If you spend time studying under a creature that can move the sun and moon, and who can call down magic rainbow blasts that can take out the strongest of monsters, you can get the wrong idea about what you're studying to do. She is getting better, like I said."

Ma Apple had her ears half laid back as she looked at the entrance. She flicked them, and they rose perhaps a quarter-inch as she looked down at Cheerilee. "Let's just meet her, and then we can decide if she is somepony that can be trusted. We just need her to run a few simple tests, not anythin' major. We probably only need to see her just once."

"If you say so," Cheerilee replied warily. "If she blows me up I'm going to come back as a ghost and haunt you."

The mare let off a reserved chuckle, then led her inside. The halls were clear of students at the moment, either because they were in classes or it was just an off day from class. It was probably the second, given the younger foals were off today, and the students she had seen outside didn't seem to be particularly concerned about school at the moment. The fact that Luster Dawn was in a lab while every other student was taking it easy might be a sign of her reclusive or anti-social nature.

They reached the staircase and There was a defining crash and bang from upstairs, followed quickly by smoke drifting into view from the upstairs hallway. She cowered for a moment and braced herself to run, and beside her she could see Ma Apple doing the same.

"Come back here, foul fiend, and face me!" An equally deafening female voice rang out. It sounded like Princess Luna using her Canterlot voice, but Cheerilee could tell that wasn't the princess of the night. It was a completely unfamiliar voice.

A young pink unicorn mare with a bright yellow mane came running for her life out of the hallway. "This is all a misunderstanding!!"

A massive beam of magical energy engulfed the hallway and could be heard ripping through walls further down the hall. "The only misunderstanding is that you thought the future Empress of the North would allow you to steal her life essence so easily!." The voice from before bellowed.

The unicorn had managed to sidestep the beam and was now running down the stairs. Before they knew it, the frightening voice's quarry was hiding behind Ma Apple, using her for a shield. The mare looked sheepishly up at Ma Apple. "Hi there, I'm Luster Dawn. I'd ask your names, just to be polite, but I have a slightly more pressing matter. You don't mind being my pony shield for a moment, do you? She probably won't try to incinerate you, and I like living."

Well, one thing was for sure. Ponyville still had crazy stuff happening all the time.

Chapter 12: Of Rulers and Resonances

Cheerilee wondered if she would be sent back to her body if she died today. It wasn't something she was prepared to put to the test. Even if she was willing to try it, she wasn't about to let Candy die.

She ducked and dived to the side of the staircase, hiding behind a large potted plant. Ma Apple quickly followed. She wasn't sure if the mare was just going to protect her foal, or if she had come to the same conclusion about her likelihood of survival-- most likely both, but the two of them did their best to stay hidden and quiet.

"Hey! You were supposed to be my shields! Get back here!" Luster Dawn called out from the stairs, then she yelped as a flash of light emitted from the top of the staircase.

After the spots cleared from her eyes, she saw a fuchia alicorn with a purple and blue mane standing at the top of the stairs, horn glowing brightly, with her wings spread menacingly. She was sneering down at Luster Dawn, who was cowering so low that anypony watching might think she was trying to sink into the stairs.

"Villain! Stand and fight me with a hint of dignity!!" The alicorn bellowed again, it actually caused a breeze when she yelled. Luster Dawn just continued to shake in place, and the alicorn's expression shifted to disappointment, like a foal having a toy taken away. "Oh, come on! I can't vanquish you if you're like this! Can you please stand up? Pretty please? This is just embarrassing." Cheerilee blinked. Really? Was this some kind of joke?

The grad student didn't give any response, and the alicorn stomped a hoof. "You need to get up and fight me! I'll look like the bad guy if you just lay there like that!"

"Flurry Heart! What did you do to the hallway!" A semi-familiar voice called out from somewhere upstairs.

The alicorn, who Cheerilee now recognized as an adult Flurry Heart, cringed at the voice. "Uh oh, see what you've gone and done? You've gotten me into trouble!" Cheerilee gaped at the pony. She’d thought that Flurry was an adult! Maybe alicorns aged differently.

Trixie, of all ponies, came storming out of the hall, face contorted in rage. "What is this? Do you have any idea what you could have done if there were any students or faculty up here? What were you thinking!"

Flurry drew herself up straight and pointed a hoof at Luster. "This villainous knave did try to steal my blood, no doubt for some dark magical ritual meant to-"

"Why are you talking like that?" Trixie interrupted, brow raised.

Flurry stuck her lower lip out. "I was trying to be like auntie Luna."

Trixie gave her an unimpressed look. "Yeah… about that… just don't. It doesn't work for you."

Flurry Heart puffed up her chest and cheeks, and gave an irritable flap of her wings. "Fine! But I still think it makes me sound more impressive!"

"What in Equestria is going on here?!" Yet another voice yelled out, this time from the first floor.

They all turned to see a collection of ponies and creatures come running up to the stairs, led by Starlight Glimmer. Cheerilee actually recognized many of the newcomers. There was Sunburst, along with Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Ocelus, Silverstream, Smolder, Petunia Paleo, and coming up in the rear-- and looking out of breath, Applebloom. There were also a glasses-wearing griffin hen she didn't recognize, an unfamiliar yellow unicorn mare also wearing glasses, as well as a male yak with his hair cut short so his eyes were visible. She guessed this constituted the faculty of the school, or at least a fair portion of it.

Trixie turned to them. "Flurry Heart decided that Luster Dawn needed to be blasted into a million pieces; something about Luster was trying to suck her blood, or something."

Luster looked up in outrage. "I wasn't trying to suck her blood! I just asked her, very politely mind you, for a quarter pint of her blood." Cheerilee cringed further behind Ma Apple. Was this crazy unicorn going to ask for her blood?

Flurry Heart pointed a hoof at the pink unicorn. "See! The knave admits it!"

"Stop it with the knaves!" Trixia snapped.

Flurry hunched her shoulders. "Sorry."

Starlight facehooved. "Luster, tell me why you asked Flurry for her blood."

Luster stood up, actually looking bright and cheerful for some reason. "I was listening to Professor Paleo's lecture on her theories about the theoretical Arcanomorph class division of the Animal kingdom, and her work trying to prove it with the fossil record. I got to thinking about it, and the fascinating field of genetics that we have been learning about from across the mirror portal. I figured, why go and try to find fossils, when all you need to do is use a molecular clock analysis to prove close genetic links between proposed creatures in the Arcanomorph class."

"Can you repeat that, for those of us that aren't fluent in egghead?" Scootaloo called out. Sweetie Belle gave her a light smack on the side and Scootaloo gave her fellow Crusader an indignant look. "What? I literally understood none of that."

Luster Dawn rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to prove, biologically, that ponies are more closely related to creatures like dragons and changelings than they are to mammals, therefore establishing strong evidence that we all exist under the class of Arcanomorphs, rather than being part of the Mammal, Reptilia, or Insecta classes, as has been traditionally thought." Cheerilee stuck her head up. That did sound interesting. It sounded like she was trying to prove ponies weren't mammals, which would be a big departure from what Cheerilee taught in her classes.

Petunia's face lit up with excitement. "I'd love to hear your findings! I had thought I found some good candidates for common ancestors in the Burning Shales, and was drafting a proposal for a fresh expedition. Would you-"

"Professor Paleo, you can discuss this with her later," Starlight said sternly. Petunia gave the headmare a crestfallen look, but nodded. Starlight ignored it, and turned her attention back to Luster. "So, to get genetic material, you just walked up to an alicorn and just asked for some blood?"

Luster nodded. "Alicorn blood would be an excellent choice for comparison. Especially if alicorns represent the next evolution of Ponykind."

"And did you bother to explain anything about what you were doing or why you needed it?" Starlight pressed.

"Um, no, not exactly…" Luster said with a blush. "Maybe I didn't present my request in the best way possible."

"Ya think?" Trixie said loudly from the top of the stairs.

Starlight rubbed a hoof against her forehead in frustration. "Right. Flurry, I expect you to use that alicorn magic of yours to fix the damage you have done. I'm going to be contacting your mother and your aunt to tell them how you recklessly started blasting holes in our walls."

Flurry's eyes went wide with fear. "But…"

Starlight waved her silent. "No buts! When you are done with that, you can come to my office to explain why you even showed up to the school unannounced. I assume you have a reason for being here, and it isn't your mother sent you back here for remedial friendship lessons."

Flurry sat and tapped her forehooves together. "Um… about that… Mom might be a teensy-weensy unhappy with some of my life choices. She said she sent a letter, didn't you get it?"

Starlight groaned. "Oh Sweet Twilight! She actually is!" The headmare took a deep breath. "No problem! The letter must have gotten lost in the mail, but we endured eight semesters of you before, and the school is still standing. What's a post-grad summer session more?" School still standing? How much of a problem student was Flurry Heart? That question was answered after reviewing what just happened. She then and there revised her opinion of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They weren't anywhere near this destructive.

"Um, you all seem very busy right now. We'll come back some other time," Ma Apple timidly said, as she stepped out from behind the potted plant, legs shaking slightly.

"Oh, don't mind the mess. Luster can see you now," Sunburst said cheerfully. "I think she's learned her lesson about how to go about asking a pony for their blood."

Luster looked at them then back to Sunburst. "What am I supposed to be doing with them?"

Sunburst pointed at Cheerilee. "I volunteered you to help verify that Candy Apple here has no spells on her and no other magical abnormalities. I've been told by the princess that you're very adept at picking up normally hard-to-detect spells. This should be a simple task for you."

"Volunteered, right," Luster said slowly. "Well, I suppose it isn't really that time consuming." Then she turned to Ma Apple and Cheerilee. "My lab wasn't blown to bits, and everything I need is up there. Just follow me, and we can get this done quickly. You wouldn't happen to be willing to provide a blood sample for my other research, would you? The more samples I have the better."

"NO!" She and Ma Apple shouted in unison.

Luster cringed backwards. "Okay, fine! You don't need to get so emphatic about it, jeez. Just follow me, and we can get this test done and over with."

"One minute!" Trixie yelled out. The showmare gave Flurry Heart a scowl. "Can you fix the hall quickly, so they aren't walking through rubble? At least put out the fires?"

Flurry nodded and lit her horn. Cheerilee's fur stood on end as she watched everything upstairs quickly repair itself. When the alicorn finished Trixie pointed a hoof down the far hallway. "And the big gaping hole you left in the side of the building." Trixie then shot her eyes up towards whatever she was pointing at. "Hey! Get away from there! Trixie's putting on no show here, scram!"

Flurry lit her horn again, and there was a flash from somewhere down the hallway. Trixie gave a satisfied smile and then turned to Starlight. "You need to teach me how to do that."

Starlight stared up at the showmare with mouth agape. "I can't even do that! I'm not an alicorn!"

"You dueled one to a standstill once," Trixie reminded.

"We don't talk about that," Starlight hissed. "Plus, it was before she grew to full power, and by making her exhaust herself by casting lots of spells constantly. If I tried that now she would obliterate me. And Flurry has always been strong, even when she was a foal." The alicorn in question puffed up her chest like a peacock. Clearly not exactly the most humble of ponies. "If only that ever turned out to be a good thing," Starlight finished, and Flurry deflated and gave the headmare an indignant look.

"Should you really be saying that around her?" Scootaloo whispered loudly.

Starlight snorted. "Flurry needs a helping of humble pie. That's going to be your school project for the time being, Flurry; try to learn a modicum of humility! Well, that, and wait to find out the details before you try blowing up creatures. We never did get the lesson of humility through to you before you graduated, and I'll place my bets that is what your mother is so upset about. We are not having a repeat of your last extended stay with us. I'll see you in my office in five minutes." Starlight turned to the faculty. "Back to work, everycreature. We have a graduation to prepare for."

The staff all dispersed, and Flurry Heart gave Luster one last dirty look before lighting up her horn and vanishing as well. Cheerilee wondered how many post-grad students there were for the school. If Flurry Heart and Luster Dawn were the only two, then they had a very interesting summer ahead of them. It was a school dedicated to friendship, so hopefully the two would be friends before the summer was out.

Luster Dawn started walking up the stairs. "Come on, there's science to do. I need to find my resonance reader. I'm sure I packed it in my things that I have in my lab." Given little choice in the matter, at least without being exceedingly rude, she and Ma Apple began following.

They were led up the stairs and into a large room that was filled with beakers, odd looking crystals, machinery that's purpose couldn't be determined by just looking at it, a telescope that was sitting on a small balcony, dozens of wooden crates, and piles of books heaped in corners with no rhyme or reason. It was a cluttered mess, except for a clear work area that was set up in one of the tables, and a large circle that had been drawn in chalk off to one side, surrounded by candles.

Luster went over to the crates and began opening them, rifling through the contents. Cheerilee and Ma Apple didn't see any seats or chairs anywhere, and weren't given any direction on where to wait, so they simply stood near the entrance and waited. The princess's student idly tossed aside odd items out of the crates with her magic on her hunt for whatever she was looking for, though a few rare items she took more care with, setting aside gently. This went on for several minutes until she came up with what looked like a large clear glass gem with cords running from it to a metal helmet.

"Here we go! Come over here…," Luster began, then frowned. "Um, hmm, I never did ask your names. Sorry about that. I got distracted by the death beams her royal highness was shooting at me. What're your names?"

The Apple matriarch gestured a hoof at herself, then Cheerilee. "I'm Sugar Belle, though everycreature calls me Ma Apple, which I prefer. This is my daughter, Candy Apple, though she's pretending to be somepony else right now. She does that a lot."

"I'm not pretending," Cheerilee muttered, then spoke up louder. "I am Cheerilee, and I'm trapped in Candy's body. I don't know where Candy is. Hopefully you'll be able to prove that."

Luster floated the helmet onto Cheerilee's head. It had holes for her ears and Candy's horn, though it was too big and hung over her eyes. "Okay, Candy Apple, or Cheerilee, or whoever you are, this should be easy enough. Do you mind just holding some magic in your horn?"

"I don't know how to do that," she replied, trying to peer around the bottom edge of the helmet. It was really uncomfortable, and heavy.

"You're how old?" Luster asked in confusion.

“Eight,” Ma Apple barked out.

"I figured you'd be using your horn by now,” Luster continued. ”Maybe not for anything complicated, maybe not even levitating anything, but you should at least be able to hold magic in it for some light."

"I told you, I'm Cheerilee, and I'm an earth pony normally. I don't have a clue how to use this thing on top of Candy's head."

"She takes these performances to the fullest extent," Ma Apple could be heard apologizing.

"Hmm, I guess I need to give a magic lesson then," Luster replied. "I'm not really a magic teacher, but I guess I can try to explain how to do what I need." Cheerilee saw the unicorn's hooves come up in front of her, and she really wished thus helmet wasn't so big, or better yet, that she was proper adult size. "What you need to do is really simple. Just focus on your horn and imagine all your magic building up in it. Do that and it will happen. Foals half your age can do this much. So if you were an adult in a foal's body you should be able to figure it out with a little effort."

Cheerilee frowned. It was true that she hadn't really attempted to use the alien body part. Luster made it sound easy enough. Every pony at some point tried to imagine what it was like to be some other tribe than their own. As a filly she'd imagined being at different points a unicorn, a pegasus, a griffin, an alicorn princess, a seapony, and on Nightmare Night she once imagined being one of the rare and almost mythical bat ponies. Foals in this day and age likely imagined being all sorts of other creatures. Now that she had a chance to be a unicorn for real she hadn't actually taken advantage of what came with that.

She did as she was told, just focusing on the horn. To this point she hadn't really thought about what it felt like. It was just there, in the background. The closest to feeling sensation from it had been when she rubbed it, thinking it only a lump. That had let her know she could feel sensation through it, and that it was sensitive. Now she tried to imagine it like she would imagine any other part of her body, try to feel the air against it, and the blood coursing through it. It had more bone than a lot of her other parts of her body, but a unicorn’s horn wasn't all bone. It had a very light fur on it, fur the same color as the fur on Candy's body, and she focused on feeling the sensation of that fur. It quickly became less alien, and more just a natural extension of her own body.

Now for the magic. Earth ponies had magic of their own, they could feel it in their hooves as they worked the fields, and when they touched the soil and plants. She'd never really done much with hers, but she'd bucked a few trees as a filly, and she could feel her magic moving from her hooves to the trunks, causing the fruit to loosen from the branches and fall neatly to the ground, without disturbing the leaves or damaging the tree. She imagined that sensation, and tried to imagine that sensation in Candy's horn. Within seconds of doing this she was rewarded by seeing a soft magenta glow coming from the horn.

"Her magic color seems to shift. It hasn't really settled on anythin' yet," Ma Apple explained. "It used to be consistently violet, but the past year it has been all over the place."

"That's not uncommon," Luster replied. "Foals take a while to really settle into a stable identifiable resonance that is unique to them, and colors can change when they are going through that. This will be fine for what I need. Are you straining at all?"

It took a second to realize the last question was directed at her, as she was caught up in the new sensation of magic coming from her head. She shook her head. "I'm fine, it just feels different than anything I'm used to. It isn't tiring."

"Different how?" Luster inquired.

"I don't normally have a magic horn on my head, that's pretty different," Cheerilee responded with mild annoyance.

"Oh, thought something was wrong," Luster said with relief. "Keep doing that, and I'll be reading the resonances within your body for anything foreign. You should always have some, because those close to you imprint some of their magic into you. I have a theory about that, and the magic of friendship, where that imprinted magic from friends and family helps enhance your own magic. Imprinted magic has a certain signature to it, and I'll be looking for resonances that don't have that signature."

She did as instructed, wishing she could see what was happening. Luckily, whatever was happening seemed to spark Ma Apple's interest. "What are all those different colored lights in the crystal?" The mare asked.

"These?" Luster asked. "These are the various resonances within her, the imprinted resonances I was speaking about."

"There's so many!" Ma said breathlessly.

"About average, for a filly her age," Luster said dismissively. "We have some unicorns, a fair number of earth ponies, a few pegasi, this one right here is a kirin. All ponies and creatures that have imprinted on her. I'm sure I could check your resonance and match it to one of the unicorn ones here."

"Why are so many of them purple?" Ma asked.

Luster was quiet for a second. "Those are actually odd." Odd? What did she mean, odd? Was this the confirmation she was looking for. "Those are imprints as well, but they seem almost like echo imprints of herself. I don't know what to make of them. I've never seen a pony have something like that."

"Does this mean there is actually something wrong with her?" Ma demanded worriedly. Cheerilee suppressed the desire to shout out with joy. She was afraid she'd break her focus if she did. Validation at last!

"They don't seem harmful or malignant in any way. They seem to be behaving like any other imprint," Luster said slowly. "Give me a few minutes to observe and inspect them."

Minutes dragged on, and the effort of holding magic in Candy's horn was starting to become tiring.

"You can release your magic now, and take the helmet off," Luster instructed.

Cheerilee let go of the magic with a breath of relief, then pulled the helmet off using her hooves. She saw Luster closely observing the crystal, which was lit up with a rainbow of different colors, shifting and pulsating within. There was indeed a great deal of the purple, but she also saw yellows, blues, oranges, greens, whites, and pinks. Ma Apple was sitting close by, nervously watching Luster work, but hurried over next to Cheerilee and pulled her into a comforting hug. "It's goin' to be alright, sweetie. The nice pony is goin' to figure this out."

Luster stared at the crystal for a moment more before going back to her crates and fishing out several smaller crystals. She levitated them close to the larger and within seconds, each of them had a copy of an individual light within the larger crystal. Most of them were the common purple, but two were different-- one that was a dark forest green, and another that was a very light tan. She gave these last two a frown and set all the small crystals carefully in the desk.

The researcher then turned to them. "I have identified fourteen of the echo resonances that have imprinted, and I have also found… and have yet to identify… two foreign resonances that are not imprinted."

"Two?" Ma Apple squeaked. "What are they doing to my daughter? Can you take them out?"

Luster pursed her lips and shook her head. "I don't know their origin or what they are doing. They may be completely harmless, for all I know. Benign magical symbiosis has been known to happen. I wouldn't want to try purging them without knowing more about them. Doing so could inadvertently hurt her, if I try to dispel something that is tied closely to her. These do seem to be very well integrated into her magical flows."

"And the others?" Ma asked, hugging Cheerilee tightly.

"I have a theory," Luster replied. "Tell me more about Candy's problem first, then I'll know if it's worth pursuing."

Ma nodded. "For most of the last year she keeps pretendin' to be other ponies and creatures. She gets insistent that she really is them, and she behaves completely different depending on the pony or creature she is playin'. She'd been doin' that a little before, as she was always imaginative, but after she got lost in the Everfree she really went extreme with it. It was a very stressful event, for her and the family, and we thought that she was actin' out. Are those lights sayin' she isn't actin'?"

Luster gave Cheerilee a frown. "My theory is, ‘yes and no,’ to that question. I think your daughter is dealing with a type of dissociative identity disorder." She looked at the blank stares around the room. “Multiple personality disorder.”

"No!" Cheerilee shouted. "I know who I am, and I'm not some figment in a little filly's brain!"

Luster gave her a sympathetic look. "And I believe you believe that. I think you really do believe you are who you say you are, completely and without a doubt. This isn't a game or an act to you, but that doesn't make it so." The mare gestured to the table. "Each of those echoes may represent a different personality. They are fully formed personalities, but they are still an echo of you in terms of resonance, not foreign presences."

This couldn't be true, and she wasn't going to let them convince her that she was crazy. "What about the other two?" She demanded. "Couldn't they be the cause of it? Couldn't they make other ponies get trapped in Candy?"

Ma Apple looked down at her and then back to Luster. "She’s right! Couldn't they be the cause of this disorder?" Cheerilee let out an annoyed squeal. She was not a disorder!

Luster looked back at the table. "It is a possibility, and needs more study. I don't recognize what these resonances are. They aren’t from any pony, or any of the other types of creatures I am familiar with-- and I'm familiar with all different types of creatures. You said she got lost in the Everfree, and there are still a lot of undocumented or little known magical creatures and plants that reside there. It is possible that that is the origin of these resonances. I need to study them more, and consult with other experts about them. I have made my copies of them, and will be doing that. Right now we don't even know what they are doing, or if they are doing anything at all. I'm not going to hurt her by jumping to conclusions about them."

Ma Apple still kept a death grip on her, and seemed near tears. "What should we be doin' in the meantime? How do I help my daughter get better?"

Luster shrugged. "Take her to a psychologist, I guess. That will help more than I can. Other than that, just be aware she really does think she is other ponies and creatures. Let the psychologist tell you how to deal with that. I'll keep studying these odd resonances for you. This is much more interesting than I thought it would be, and I'm very curious about what those two oddball resonances come from."

The Apple matriarch released her and rushed Luster, grabbing the other unicorn into a tight hug. "Thank you! For all you've done. I didn't realize how serious a problem Candy had, but I'm glad I know now."

"Um, don't mention it," Luster said with a hesitant pat on the other unicorn's back. Luster was clearly not used to having ponies get this emotional around her.

Cheerilee stared down and let the tears flow. She had such high hopes at the beginning of the day that this was all going to be resolved, but now it was going to become even more difficult to get anypony to believe she really was who she said she was. She had gone from being treated as a liar to being treated as if she were crazy. Fixing this might be all on her now.

Chapter 13: Family Matters

The walk back to the Apple farm was miserable. She was disheartened after having this new major obstacle thrown in her path right after thinking she'd gained ground earlier in the morning. Would Pinkie still believe her after hearing this diagnosis of her sanity? That was hard to say. Marble's views of her would definitely be colored by this, as she would be told she was treating a filly with multiple distinct personalities. Of course, Luster Dawn was not a psychologist, and Marble might choose to dismiss or counter Luster's theory. There was at least some hope of that.

The journey back to the farm was made worse by Ma Apple, who now was taking it upon herself to try to jog Candy's memories. She would frequently stop and point to ponies and creatures and ask if Cheerilee could remember them, or try to remind her who they were. Cheerilee barely paid it attention, and just gave mumbled responses telling the mare that didn't know most of these ponies and creatures. A few she knew, but not as Candy.

"Hey look! There's Miss Autumn Blaze," Ma Apple said as she stopped and pointed at a middle aged kirin. "Do you remember Autumn Blaze? She was one of the first kirin in Ponyville, and has a musical theatre that I've taken you to many times. Her son, Autumn Fire, is in your class. You're friends with him. Do you remember Autumn Fire?"

"No, I don't know Autumn Blaze or Autumn Fire. I don't know any kirin. I only learned about and saw kirin for the first time a few months ago in my own time, and there weren't any living in Ponyville yet," Cheerilee grumbled. She sighed and looked at Candy's mother. "Look, I know you are worried about your daughter, and I am too, but I'm not her, no matter what that crazy mare said. So you aren't going to stir any memories."

Ma Apple sighed. "At least this is one of your less difficult personalities. I hope I don't have to deal with you being Sombra again, and definitely not Dazzling Star-- you said and did such inappropriate things for a little filly when you were that one."

"Is that the one that did the sex talk in front of the class?" Cheerilee asked, somewhat curious about what her predecessors in Candy's body had been like. Perhaps there was some similarity they shared, though she couldn't think of any similarity she shared with King Sombra.

"Do you remember doin' that?" Ma Apple asked hopefully.

Cheerilee shook her head. "I don't know anything about what came before I showed up. I know my life, not Candy's or any of these other ponies and creatures. Can you tell me about Dazzling Star?"

Ma Apple blushed. "She-- you claimed to be… something that shouldn't be mentioned in polite company, or that a filly should even know anything about. It was a very… adult… profession. Oh, the things you said while you were that one. To think that is one of your personalities just makes me-" Ma Apple stomped a hoof, then took a deep breath. "Let's not talk about that one, alright? That personality can stay away!"

Okay, she was getting a pretty clear picture of what that pony was like, and could guess at the profession. It would explain why she went straight to the highly inappropriate sex education lesson in the middle of school. Hopefully that was as inappropriate as it got with that one. She was afraid to ask if that were so, and decided against it quickly. That was another pony she couldn't imagine having anything in common with.

However, there might be a pattern to those that took over the body still. "Was Sombra the first?"

"No," Ma Apple replied mournfully. "I'm not even sure when the first was now. Was it before or after what happened in the woods? I don't know. There were some before, but not so well formed. The first after the woods was that warrior from Unicornia; then the crying one, then the diamond dog-- I believe. I honestly lost track. Lately you've been other personalities longer, except for when you claimed amnesia, but looking back, I think some other personality was at work, because you behaved strangely, always sneakin' about at night, and you put up a new drawing after that passed." Ma Apple then started crying. "Maybe that's a sign it's gettin' worse, and soon you will stop bein' yourself altogether."

Cheerilee shivered. If these were lasting longer lately, then how long would she be stuck here. They'd said that amnesia one lasted two months. She didn't want to be stuck in this body for months. "Whether you believe me or not that I'm not Candy, I do want this to stop happening to her."

"I feel like such a fool for not seein' this earlier," Ma wept. "How am I even goin' to explain this to your pa, or the rest of the family? I don't even know if Applejack will believe it."

Cheerilee gave the mare a considering look. Ma Apple was at least willing to treat her as not fully Candy now. Maybe that meant she could be reasoned with. "You realize that what you claim are personalities don't seem to come back, right? Shouldn't that be a sign that this isn't just some disorder? I'm sorry to be pushing this when you're upset, but I need to make my case that I really exist and am not something Candy dreamed up."

"I don't know. I'll need to talk to Marble about it. She'll know better than me," Ma replied while wiping her nose with a leg.

"Can you at least tell me what happened to Candy in the Everfree, and why Applejack in particular won't believe anything she says?" Cheerilee pleaded.

The older unicorn gave her a look. "Okay, come close to me, and I'll tell you about it." Finally! Cheerilee did as instructed, and got right up next to Me Apples hooves. The Apple matriarch gave her a frown. "You'd been pretendin', you were doin' that a lot before things happened. We didn't think anything of it, and it seemed normal pretend, not like what came later. At first, you'd pretend to be all the normal things a filly might pretend to be, then you started pretendin' to be ponies in town. You pretended you were Diamond Tiara runnin' her store, or your teacher, or Miss Autumn Blaze. It would be for a few hours, and there was always a sense you knew it was just pretend."

The mare looked away. "But then one day you pretended to be Granny Smith, and you took her scarf from Applejack's room. Applejack was really possessive of that scarf, it meant more to her than that hat does. When your great-granny passed it was really hard on her, even more than your other aunt and pa. She wore that scarf everywhere after that, to remember your great granny. She got so angry when you took it, and even more angry when you were pretendin' to be Granny Smith. You got your feelins' hurt that she was so angry, because you two used to be so close, and I guess that was what made you run away into the Everfree."

"And Candy started behaving like that unicorn warrior immediately after?" Cheerilee asked, knowing for sure what the answer would be.

Ma nodded. "You were sayin' you were Platinum Gilt, warrior of Unicornia, and this was all an evil earth pony plot when we finally found you. We were all so scared for you when you went missing, and we never found the scarf, which hurt Applejack a lot. Applejack, all of us really, took your pretendin' to be another pony as you didn't want to take responsibility for what happened to it, or for runnin' away."

And like that, the pieces of why nopony believed Candy fell into place. Candy had scared them half-to-death for her, and done something that deeply hurt Applejack. "Didn't Candy ever try to explain, when she was back to being like herself?"

Ma shook her head. "You never wanted to talk about what happened. I couldn't tell if you were scared or angry, maybe you were both, but you refused to talk about any of it. The only times you have tried to talk about it is when you were sayin' you had amnesia, and needed us to tell you what happened, and now."

And now any mending of fences would be done with the belief that Candy wasn't in her right mind. As a pony that worked with foals all the time, she could understand why Candy didn't speak about what happened. It wasn't logical reasons, but it was reasons that lined up with the mind of an eight-year-old, even an intelligent and gifted one. Candy had her feelings hurt by her incident with Applejack, she didn't fully grasp how much what had happened had hurt her aunt, because Applejack's feelings revolved around grief and loss that Candy at her age had yet to be exposed to. Then there was the anger, the anger of a foal that felt that she was being treated unjustly, even if she didn't really understand the situation, made worse by the fact nopony believed her. Then finally, there was fear; fear about what was happening to her, and feeling completely and utterly alone in facing it. That, and fear of whatever had happened in the forest. Something clearly had happened there, but the only pony who knew for sure of what was Candy.

This was a fine mess, and she had no idea how she could fix it. She could only continue to look for clues, and continue to do her best to make the case that something really was happening to Candy, something beyond some psychological problem.

The rest of the journey back to the farm was done largely in silence. Neither she nor Ma Apple were much in the mood for talking. A kirin colt had come up to them and tried to see how Candy was doing, and it was explained this was Autumn Fire, a friend of Candy's class. He looked the part of his name, with a mix of fall colors between his fur and scales, with a bright red mane that reminded her of a blazing fire. Ma Apple had interceeded on her behalf and told the colt that Candy wasn't feeling well today, and to try visiting her some other time. The colt had walked away in disappointment, dragging his long tasseled tail in the dirt as he went. It was enough of a dejected look Cheerilee had almost broken down and pretended to be Candy, just to give him words of encouragement. She didn't do that, because she wasn't going to pretend to be who she wasn't.

He made her remember the two foals she'd seen arguing the day before, and wondered if kirin and ponies could have foals together. Were kirin just another type of pony? They had scales, which was very unlike ponies, but she remembered to the discussion earlier about how dragons and ponies may indeed be close relatives, which might explain how an outlier tribe of ponies cut off from the other tribes could have scales. Pegasi had wings like birds, and nopony questioned if they were ponies, why question whether a pony with scales was a pony? It was just idle musings, something to try to distract herself from her thoughts before they could drag her down into depression. Sometimes ponies just needed to think of something unimportant or the important stuff would crush them under the heavy weight.

At least Candy couldn't be that anti-social a filly; not if she managed to keep some friends despite the sheer amount of time she wasn't herself. That was heartening to know for the filly's sake, but it did nothing to help with the current situation.

After reaching the farm, Ma Apple took a slight detour into the apple orchard, and Cheerilee followed. The orchard was not small, but Ma Apple seemed guided by some unknown sense to where Big Mac was busy loading barrels of freshly bucked apples onto a cart. The big stallion took one look at his wife's face and immediately stopped what he was doing.

"Big Mac, find your sister and your son, and all of you come back to the house. We have a family meetin'," Ma Apple ordered. "Is Rainbow here right now?"

Big Mac shook his head. "E'nope."

The unicorn huffed. "I didn't think she would be, but I needed to ask all the same. We can have the meetin' without her, and Applejack can catch her up when she comes home tonight."

The big stallion looked back and forth between them, ears laid back. "Somethin' wrong?"

Ma closed her eyes and looked down. "Yes, but I'm goin' to talk to the whole family about it. Just find Applejack and Bright Pear. I'll tell you when we're all together. This is me talkin' as the head mare of the family. I don't invoke that much, but I am now."

"Caramel too?" The stallion asked.

The matriarch paused and considered. "Leave him be. Let the adults have a full understanding of things first, then we can sit him down and talk about it. He needs to know too, but we need to be sure we explain it to him in a way he understands. This is goin' to be a lot to take in, and we need to explain it the right way." She looked up at Big Mac with tear filled eyes. "I just got back from the magic test on Candy. Big Mac, our daughter has a problem, a big one. Can you hurry, please?"

Big Mac stood up straight and his expression firmed up. ""E'yup!" And with that, he took off galloping deeper into the orchard.

Cheerilee had been thinking of Ma Apple as the Apple matriarch up to this point, and had noted the title name, but it hadn't really occurred to her that the unicorn was the head of the Apple clan. She'd assumed it would be Big Mac or Applejack, rather than somepony married into the family. The once Sugar Belle had said she preferred to be referred to as Ma Apple, and now it occurred to Cheerilee that this really was a sign of how much the unicorn embraced her identity as an Apple and her matriarchal role within the family. Ma Apple might have married into the family, but she was an Apple to the core. She wondered if things had gone differently with her and Big Mac if she would have done the same. It was pointless speculation, but it left her still wondering at what might have been.

As they were reaching the house they saw Applebloom come walking up the path. Ma went wide eyes and hurried over to her. "Applebloom! You didn't come runnin' all the way over here, did you?"

"No, I waddled. I waddled the whole way like an overstuffed duck," Applebloom said with a labored breath. "Luster told Starlight about what she found, and then Starlight told me-- Luster apparently didn't realize we're relatives. I left as soon as I found out. It cain't have been more than a few minutes after you left. Both Sweetie and Starlight offered to teleport me, to save me the waddle, but I don't trust my womb with being disappeared and reappeared."

The matriarch gave the younger mare a sour but concerned look. "I've been through pregnancies three times. I can tell you that exertin' yourself so much when you're this late into it isn't good for you."

Applebloom chuckled. "Ya don't need ta tell me that, my legs feel as if they're about to fall off." Her expression then lost its humor. "But this is family business, and Candy's my niece. I should be here."

Ma gave her her sister-in-law a smile. "I appreciate you doin' that."

"One of our own is in trouble, couldn't do nothin' less. Just like when she was lost in the woods, we all came together to find her. Now she's lost in her own mind, and I'm here again," Applebloom replied stoically.

"Do you know any potions that could help her out?" Ma asked pleadingly. Cheerilee took a few steps back. Applebloom no doubt was a skilled master of potions at this point, she'd written a book on them after all, but her last incident with Applebloom's potions still made her nervous.

Applebloom shook her head. "If she were grown, then maybe, but there ain't nothing I can brew that I feel safe usin' on a foal. The types of potions I'd need'ta whip up are too potent, even if I water'em down. It'd be like choppin' off the leg to save the hoof."

"Didn't you have a student that got in trouble with a temporary agin' potion?" Ma asked. "I know it sounds extreme, but if you need her to be grown-"

Applebloom's eyes went wide. "Best not to let foals even know that potion can even be made," the mare hissed. "It'd wouldn't work anyhow. That be mixin' powerful potions together, and that is always a bad idea." With how often things seemed a bad idea with potions she wondered how Applebloom or anypony in Ponyville managed to survive an education in them. Where was Zecora anyway? Had she moved away?

"Sorry," Ma said dejectedly. "I just want to find a way to help her, and I am willin' to try anything. This is my little filly we're talkin' about."

Cheerilee filed that little tidbit of information about the aging potion away. It was an insane thing to try, but if she needed to find a way of getting to Vanhoover, or anywhere else out of town, she would have a much easier time of that if she had an adult body, even if it were Candy's adult body. A foal doing that type of thing would get up to their heads in trouble, but she wasn't really a foal, and wouldn't make the kinds of mistakes they would. It wasn't something she was intending to do, as it could get Candy in a load of additional trouble she didn't need, but she wanted to keep aware of all her options.

"I'll help as much as I can," Applebloom replied. "It will mostly be moral support, and if my sister treats this like a heap of malarkey I'll help you put her in her place. I might not be a fancy unicorn from the school in Canterlot like Luster Dawn or Sweetie Belle, but I know a thin'or-two; enough to know what Luster was describin' sounds legit." Sweetie Belle had attended the School for Gifted Unicorns? That was a little unexpected. Maybe the filly didn't end up apprenticing under her. She couldn't imagine that Sweetie Belle would have the time to apprentice and to take classes in Canterlot. The logistics just didn't work.

"By the way," Applebloom continued. "Starlight and Sweetie want to run their own tests on Candy. It ain't that they don't trust Luster, but they haven't heard of the like either, and want to independently verify. It will have to wait until after the graduation, but they want to check. Luster is fine with it, she said 'all new discoveries need to have multiple verifications'-- she's definitely Twilight's student."

Great, so she was going to be used as a magic experiment, what a joy. Still, maybe the other two could find something that crazy pink unicorn hadn't. From what she gathered, tomorrow was the last day of the school year. It was most likely just a day to review with students their final grades, congratulate them on their progress, wish them a happy summer if they weren't the graduating class, and give direction on what they should be doing next if they were graduating. Actual graduation day might be a few days after. Given that the last creature to occupy Candy's body took a month to go away gave a strong indication she'd still be here for that, if she didn't find a solution for this first, and she didn't intend to sit around and let it run its course.

The two regressed to small talk about Applebloom's upcoming foal-- which the mare had avoided finding out the tribe or gender from the doctor, wanting it to be a surprise. When Ma Apple pointed out that Applebloom was big enough to have more than one in there, Cheerilee's former student confessed she wasn't sure about that either. All she and her husband wanted to know from the doctor was expected due date, was everything going well, and did the life inside her seem perfectly healthy. From what she heard in the conversation this was now a popular trend, with the idea in mind to put no early expectations on the new foals before they were even born. She personally thought this was kind of silly, but to each their own. Candy's new cousin (or cousins) weren't going to be Cheerilee's problem.

She kept her mouth shut through all of this, resolving to hold her defense of her existence until all were gathered, rather than exhaust herself trying to repeatedly say the same arguments over and over again.

Though she was going to need to ask for a snack or something soon. She hadn't had lunch, and she was for the moment the caretaker of Candy's body, and Candy was a growing filly who needed to get three good meals a day. That, and Candy's stomach was being very loud about Candy's needs at the moment. It might be a little foalish on her part, especially since she couldn't help but think of other parts as her hooves, her legs, or her head, but she refused to acknowledge it as her stomach. Maybe being in a foal's body was regressing some of her logical thinking. It was a scary thought she didn't want to consider, but might be forced to. Especially since she was considering options like making an aging potion and running off to Vanhoover, which at any other point she'd have considered insane. It sounded like something a foal would come up with. How much was the biology of Candy's brain impacting her thinking or emotional state?

Well, at least after today she had the benefit that the Apples would recognize she wasn't a game or a lie. It still wouldn't be seeing her as who she was, but progress was progress, she guessed. She needed to be prepared to be in this situation for weeks, and to do the most she could to make progress every day.

Chapter 14: State of Mind

Cheerilee sat in the corner as the Apple family slowly migrated into the kitchen, one by one. In a short period of time the kitchen had her, Ma Apple, Applebloom, Applejack, and Big Mac. Caramel had been found, and sent to spend the night with some friends, which the young colt didn't seem to have any objections to. All they were waiting on to begin was Bright Pear to arrive. Applejack said she found Strawberry flying overhead, and Strawberry had gone to fetch the young green stallion.

The bearer of honesty was giving Cheerilee suspicious glares on and off, and on more than one occasion Applebloom harshly scolded her older sister for doing it. Applejack would stop for a few minutes following each scolding, but they'd always resume again soon enough after. It made Cheerilee uncomfortable, and she had a feeling that the farm pony would not be so willing to accept even Luster Dawn's mistaken view of what was going on with Candy.

Bright Pear finally arrived after several minutes of dreadfully-silent waiting. He was flanked by a young pegasus mare with bright red fur and a long green mane that hung down to the ground in a single braid. Her cutie mark was a stylized sun with a strawberry in the middle of it.

The young mare spoke up, looking embarrassed. "Sorry it took so long to find him. The overgrowth in the pear orchards is getting much better, but it's still pretty bad where he was trying to clear today. I didn't know if I was allowed to be here or if I would be intruding. I can go if you want." Bright Pear brought a leg around her and pulled her close, signaling his opinion, and the mare looked up at him with adoring eyes and snuggled closer to him.

Ma Apple gave the mare a warm smile. "No, stay. You've grown from the little filly that used to steal my pies from my windowsill to a wonderful partner for my son. You're family, even if it isn't official yet. I wanted to speak with you later tonight anyway, as adults, mare to mare."

Strawberry gave her potential future mother-in-law a hesitant look. "Not about anything bad, I hope."

"About somethin' Rainbow Dash brought to my attention," Ma replied, and smirked as Bright Pear stiffened up. "Don't worry, I'm just wanting to be sure a few things are being done, and maybe discuss the future. I think it is time to start talkin' about that. Bright, you can breathe, I'm not going to pluck your marefriend's wings."

Bright let out a long breath, and Strawberry stared up at him with one ear cocked to the side. "What did Rainbow Dash tell her?" Strawberry whispered.

Bright blushed. "She heard us in my room, doing… you know." Strawberry's face suddenly turned a much deeper shade of red, and she stared forward, refusing to look at anypony. Applejack guffawed to herself in the corner, apparently finding nothing objectionable about what the two had been caught at, but finding plenty of humor in their vexation. It wasn't as surprising as it would have been for Applejack in her own time, but it would be fairly hypocritical for the Applejack of this time to raise any sort of fuss about it.

Ma Apple's expression got serious. "To business then. Today I found out that Candy is not lyin' to us."

"Hold just a gosh-durn second-" Applejack began, but was silenced by a fierce glare from the matriarch.

"Do not interrupt until I am done!" Ma yelled, and Applejack cringed back from what must have been an uncharacteristic show of anger from the mare. "As I was sayin', Candy isn't lyin'; she really believes that she is all these different ponies and creatures. It is not a game of pretend or her tryin' to duck out of things. There is somethin' wrong with her. Applebloom can maybe explain it better than me."

The pregnant mare blinked, seemingly not expecting to have to give her testimony so soon. "I ain't gotten a chance to look over her work yet, but Luster Dawn determined Candy has fourteen distinct echo resonances in her. Ain't nopony at the school ever seen anythin' like it. I counted, and counting her current one, and the time she said she had amnesia, that's fourteen since she got lost in the Everfree."

"So your’re saying we should believe her when she says she is Cheerilee?" Bright asked in confusion, giving Cheerilee a troubled glance. "Where's my sister then?"

"I'm sayin' that she has an echo of herself that's in charge of her head right now," Applebloom said slowly. "It's still her, but ain't her at the same time. It's like a whole other mind that her brain made. She ain't really Cheerilee, she just honest and truly thinks she is. Candy is still there, but her real mind is kind of pushed off to the side."

"She is?" Cheerilee blurted out. "She's still here? Asleep in her head?" That was something Luster hadn't mentioned.

"Yes, you're still there," Applebloom replied. "There'd be nothin' to echo if you weren't. Trick is figurin' out how to wake ya up, and get these other minds ya've made to go away, and stop bein' made."

She wasn't even going to object that she wasn't a figment in response to that. She knew she wasn't a figment, but what Applebloom said was exactly what she wanted, which was for them to find a solution to where this would stop happening to Candy, and to get her out of the filly's head. If they could come up with that she didn't care if they believed she was real or not.

"It sounds like a load of malarkey," Applejack said. The farm pony was nothing if not predictable, at least.

Applebloom rounded on her sister. "Maybe ya don't trust Luster Dawn's opinion about the evidence, but are ya questionin' Starlight's, Sweetie's, and mine? Because we all listened and we all agree. Are ya sayin' I don't know enough about magic to not be able to have a good working knowledge of what I'm talkin' about?"

Applejack firmed up her expression. "Don't get your tail in a tizzy. I ain't sayin' you don't know more than most folk about magic. I'm right proud of you showin' everycreature that an earth pony can be as good at magic as some fancy unicorn." The farm pony paused and looked at Ma Apple. "Um, no offense."

Ma waved it off. "None taken."

Applejack turned back to her sister. "But you said it yerself, you ain't gotten to look at it yet. Maybe she jumped to conclusions and said them in a way that sounded real convincin'."

Applebloom was not fully mullified. "And ya think a personal student of Twilight's could go and make that kind of mistake? A pony that Twilight praised for how much she knew about magic when she brought her to us to better learn about friendship?"

Applejack looked like she would waver for a moment, then sat down in her seat and slumped. "I don't rightly know. I just know how I feel about it."

"Applejack… we know how upset you have been about what happened months ago, but can't you just let it go?" Ma pleaded. "This is your niece, my daughter, a pony that still may still want your approval. You weren't the only pony hurt, she was too."

"She should have thought about what she was doin' before she went and did it," Applejack growled.

Cheerilee had enough. She was not going to let a pony, respected element bearer or not, treat a foal like this. "She is eight!" She yelled out, making everypony gape at her. She didn't care. "Do you think an average eight year old can really grasp what kind of hurt she did to you? Do you think she really understood? No! What she understood was a family member she loved and trusted was in a rage at her for reasons she didn't understand! She's not you or your siblings, she doesn't understand yet at her age about the loss of a loved one. That's a good thing, because somepony that age shouldn't have to. How dare you automatically assume she understands these things! You need to be patient with her, because she's a foal!"

The room was silent as Cheerilee labored to catch her breath. Applejack was staring at her like she had just grown two heads. The others weren't much different. The silence continued, broken only by her heavy breathing, until Rainbow Dash slunk into the room, wearing her captain's jacket and whistle still. "Um, what am I walking into?"

The pegasus's voice seemed to break the spell of silence everypony was under. Ma Apple looked down at Cheerilee with a her lips in a tight grimace. "If you believe you are Cheerilee at the moment, can I trust you to go to your room for the duration of this discussion?"

"I'm not apologizing for what I just said," she answered in a tight voice.

"I don't expect you to, and it needed to be said, so I'm not even mad," the matriarch replied. "This will just go smoother without you present. You contributed, and I thank you for that, but right now I need you to just go to your room and wait until we're ready for you. Can I trust you to do that, and not try to run off?"

She wasn't happy about it, but she nodded. "Yeah, I can do that. I'll stay there till you're ready for me." She paused briefly. "And I'm not a figment in Candy's mind, but I want to help her."

"You can help by behavin'," Ma said sternly. "I'll have your pa come get you shortly, and we'll talk about this more."

As she was walking out of the room she heard Strawberry whispering to Bright Pear. "If she's supposed to be Principal Cheerilee, I don't remember Principal Cheerilee ever getting that angry in all the times I got taken to her office as a foal, and that was a lot of times."

"Is anypony going to fill me in?" Rainbow asked as Cheerilee walked by her.

"Come sit down, Rainbow," Applejack said in a solemn voice.

Cheerilee heard no more as the door closed behind her, and she made her way up to Candy's room.

Her first instinct when getting inside the room was to flop on the bed. She was tired, and that outburst, mixed with the fact she still hadn't eaten, just made the weariness all the worse.

She didn't head to the bed, instead she started looking at the drawings again. A quick count of them gave her a count of thirteen, not counting the nightmare muffin. Thirteen individuals that had occupied Candy's body, and she was number fourteen in line. Would there be a fifteenth, sixteenth, and so on? She hoped not, and maybe now that the Apples understood that something was seriously wrong. Knowing that, hopefully it could come to an end.

She wondered how Candy would draw her when the time came. Would she be a friendly, smiling pony, or would she be an angry one that had lost her temper? She didn't normally lose her temper, at least not like that. Was it the fact she was in the body of an emotionally volatile foal, or was this just getting to her that much? It was perhaps both. She definitely didn't like herself losing her temper like that, even if things needed to be said. Strawberry was right, that wasn't who she was.

She could probably find other ways to help Candy. The family was on a wrong track, thinking this was just a psychological problem when it was really magical in nature. She went to the desk and pulled the books over to her. The book about potions was a likely a dead end, and she shoved it aside. The book about magical afflictions was promising, but her previous glances in the book already showed she wouldn't be able to recognize it if she did read an entry describing what was happening. She shoved that to the side as well.

That left the book on paranormal creatures. Luster Dawn had noted that there were a lot of undocumented and little understood things in the Everfree, even to this day. Something had clearly happened in the Everfree and it might be that Candy encountered something there that did this to her. She flipped through a few pages and got a feel of how the large book read. Thankfully, it seemed to be a much easier read than the book about magical maladies. It documented the creature, gave a description of the creature, it's habitat, and its traits. It also described how rare the creature was, or if the creature was even confirmed to exist, believed extinct, or if it were just rumored or old mare's tales. There were occasionally drawings of creatures, though most entries didn’t have any. The ordering of entries seemed to start with the well-documented creatures and progressed through the book to more and more obscure things that existed only in stories told around campfires. It was long, encyclopedicly long; not something that she could finish in a single day of reading.

Well, it wasn't like she had anything better to do as she waited. She turned to the first page, which had an entry on cockatrices, and began reading.

Time stretched on, and she found herself enjoying the book. At least half of the earlier entries could almost be considered a survival guide to living near the Everfree Forest. She was familiar with many of these creatures mentioned so far, but the author gave details about them that she was completely unaware of to this point. The author also often included recountings of various ponies' encounters with the creatures, which read as short misadventures, and they added an entertainment value to the book that she hadn't been expecting. They also didn't devolve into scientific or magical jargon, which made what was written much more accessible to even a younger reader. She could imagine Candy would have no problems with understanding what was written here, and she idly mused about whether she should try to track this book down in her own time to add to suggested reading for her students-- if it had even been written yet

She was deep into reading an entry about tatzelwurms (something not native to the Everfree, but she found herself reading about in interest despite that) when she heard the door open behind her. She looked behind her and saw Big Mac slowly walk into the room. She still had no idea how a stallion that big could be that quiet on his hooves. She made more noise just walking around on these floorboards than he did, and she wasn't even in a body that weighed a quarter as much as his.

As she was getting up from her seat to leave, the big stallion gentle shut the door and sat down. "Candy, I have things I want to tell you," he said.

She cocked an ear, a little surprised to hear him speak up. "Candy isn't here right now, Big Mac. I'm Cheerilee. Though I'm sure she would love to have you talk to her whenever she finally comes back."

He stared at her for a second. "Well, thing is Miss Cheerilee. I think my daughter is still right in front of me. She might not be able to answer me with you in the way, but I think she can still hear me. There's things that need to be said, important things. Are you goin' to deny me sayin' em?"

She couldn't actually say if the stallion was wrong or right about that. For all she knew, Candy was a spectator along for the ride for each and every one of those who were placed in her body. She hoped it wasn't true, because that would make the filly's situation that much more horrific for her. She couldn't even imagine…

She sat back down and her ears sagged as she closed her eyes. "Say what you need to say, Big Mac."

He took a deep breath before beginning, and she opened her eyes to watch him. "I wanted to let you know I love and care about you, and I'm sorry that I didn't listen as I should when you told me that this wasn't just a game of pretend. Fathers should listen when their foals try to tell them somethin' is wrong, and I messed up bad as a pa for that."

He got up from his seat and walked over to look at the drawings. "Ponies think because I don't talk much, that I don't notice things. Understandin' what you're goin' through now, I can see things in ways I didn't before. All these ponies and creatures you've made yourself be, they were what you felt you needed right then and there."

She frowned. "What do you mean by that? Some of these ponies are horrible. I don't see where she needed them."

Big Mac turned open the book on magical maladies and glanced at the contents. "You were always such a smart filly. Not the type that would be content stayin' on the farm forever. Readin' all these books with words your ma and I can't even understand. Guessin' that's part of why you liked to pretend so much."

She scowled. "Yes, Candy is a smart filly. That doesn't answer the question I asked."

He looked up at the drawings again and pointed at the first, a unicorn clad in armor. "You was lost in the woods, scared, maybe you saw some monsters. That ain't something a filly can deal with, so you needed somepony else, and there weren't nopony there. So you let yourself be somepony who could be brave, fight the monsters, and be angry at the 'evil' earth ponies-- like your aunt that hurt your feelins."

She blinked; that actually sounded very well-reasoned. Big Mac wasn't done yet though. He pointed to a picture of a pegasus mare that looked like she was giving a sultry look. "You caught your brother and his marefriend doin' a very adult thing, changed the whole way you saw your brother. I ain't a fool, and I know you read adventure books that sometimes have characters like that. You had a hard time accepting things though, so you made yourself somepony that could easily accept what you saw."

He turned and pointed at the changeling. "You understand you have a problem, and you feel trapped in all these other ponies and creatures. You needed to be somecreature that changed who they were all the time, because you couldn't deal with it on your own."

She crouched down and shivered, these were all very insightful looks into what could be going on in Candy's mind. This was Big Mac's daughter, and if anypony knew her, it was him. It was unnerving to hear it, because it made her have to question things she didn't want to question.

Big Mac pointed at Sombra. "And you've been so angry that nopony believed you. More angry than you could express. You wanted to lash out because you're so angry, but that ain't you to be doin' that. So you made yourself somepony that could be cruel, where you couldn't be."

"And me?" She whispered quietly.

He looked down at her. "You're normally so good at school, top of your age group, even better than a lot of the students about to graduate. But this year you missed a lot of school, and there was a chance you'd be held back. You needed somepony to help you with school, and who better than your old principal?"

He sat back down next to her. "We met with her at the end of last school year. She had nothin' but good things to say about how smart and gifted you are. She suggested even applying you to go to the school in Canterlot, sayin' they took some younger students, and she thought you might learn more there than what Ponyville had to offer you. You said you didn't want to leave your friends, and we didn't know who could watch over you there anyway. She smiled and said there were still lots of years to think about it."

He took a deep breath and bent down low next to her. "And she never mentioned or hinted ever bein' stuck in your body. Didn't act funny at all. Don't you think that if you were really Cheerilee that Miss Cheerilee would have said somethin', anythin'?"

"I-I don't know," she said as she began tearing up. "I don't know why I wouldn't say something. I don't know why I took off at the start of the year. I just don't know."

He gave her a sad frown. "Well, maybe you don't think as much like Cheerilee as you thought." His expression softened. "I don't mean to upset you, but I want you to come back to us. We know you've got a problem now, and we want to make it better. Come down when you're ready, if you need a few minutes."

He left her alone in the room, and she wiped her eyes while feeling miserable. She knew who she was, he couldn't convince her otherwise. She didn't care how much what he said made sense. She might not understand what her present self was thinking either. None of those things changed the fact she was Cheerilee.

She stared up at the drawings again, looking at them one by one. Wondering again what her drawing would look like.

Her eyes stopped on the closet, and the drawing of the sinister muffin. There was no sound, but she could swear it was laughing at her.

Chapter 15: Two Proposals and a Nap

She crept back down to the kitchen and looked again at the assembled family.

Ma Apple and Strawberry were over in a far corner, whispering together silently; more Ma whispering and Strawberry nodding thoughtfully along, occasionally blushing at whatever the older mare was saying, but smiling as she did so. Bright Pear was sitting at the table, eating some leftover stew, and it looked like he was straining to hear what kind of conversation was taking place between his mother and his marefriend. If Cheerilee had to take a guess, Ma Apple was giving the pegasus sage advice about being a wife, and perhaps some tips on birth control so Strawberry wouldn't look like Applebloom currently did at the moment before the young couple got around to tying the knot.

Applebloom was also seated at the table, engrossed in reading a book. The pregnant mare didn't even glance up as Cheerilee walked in. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were speaking quietly in another corner. It looked like Applejack had been crying, and was now under the embrace of Rainbow Dash's wing, while the pegasus held her close. The farm pony did glance up at Cheerilee briefly, but the expression was unreadable. The Wonderbolt captain took notice, and whispered something soothing to her lover in a way that seemed surprisingly tender for the normally brash pegasus. All Cheerilee could catch was a brief 'it's going to okay, AJ'.

Big Mac stepped around where Cheerilee was standing, and walked over to his wife. The two shared a brief kiss, then the large stallion walked back to the table while the conversation between Ma Apple and Strawberry resumed. The stallion gestured to an empty chair. "You're ma set out some stew for you, since you haven't ate."

She didn't need to be told twice, and hurried over to the empty seat with a steaming bowl of stew sitting in front of it. If she was going to have to wait longer to hear what had been discussed about Candy, she was eager to have it happen on a full stomach.

When she got to the chair she reached her hooves around the bowl to pick it up, but Ma Apple interrupted her. "How about you try usin' your spoon?"

She glanced to the side of the bowl. There was indeed a spoon, but it was the type of spoon that was not easily held in a fetlock, more the type that a unicorn might use. "You know I don't know how to use Candy's horn."

"It's simple enough," Ma Apple replied. "Just hold magic in your horn and imagine reachin' out and graspin' the spoon with your magic. You do this all the time when you're yourself, and even some of your other selves. I'm confident you can do it. I'm just askin' that you try. We don't know how long this personality will last, and wouldn't you have an easier time with things if you used your magic, rather than doin' everythin' like an earth pony?"

She frowned back. "Even if I can manage levitating something, I'd probably be so clumsy at it I'd make a mess."

The unicorn shrugged. "Messes can be cleaned up. You won't get better at it if you don't try at all, and perhaps doin' things as a unicorn will jostle some memories."

So that was their plan. They intended to keep trying to put her in situations which would awaken Candy. She briefly considered protesting, but couldn't find a good reason to do so. Candy taking back control of her body and her going back to her own time when that happened was part of her goal, though she didn't want that happening yet-- she needed to get these so-called experts on the right track. She doubted Candy would wake up with the mere use of her magic, but that magic was a tool that Cheerilee wasn't utilizing. She definitely wouldn't mind being able to manipulate objects with Candy's horn.

She did as she did earlier that day. Having done it once already, the process of holding magic in the horn came in half the time. Now for the hard part. She stared at the spoon and then glanced upwards towards the stubby horn on her head that was a little too short for her to see fully. She tried imagining the spoon lifting up off the table, but nothing happened. She tried focusing harder, squinting her eyes at it, but still no result. Trying to imagine the spoon moving was making it harder for her to keep the magic in the horn, and the light coming from it flickered and sputtered.

After a solid minute of this she let the magic go and glared at the immovable object. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but it isn't working." She glanced up at ponies seated at the table.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Don't look at us. Do you see any horns on our heads?"

She looked over at Ma Apple, who didn't seem concerned. "You aren't usin' your magic, dear, you're just holdin' it in your horn. You can stare at the spoon all day while holdin' it and nothin' will happen. Reach out and grasp it with your magic."

She turned back to the spoon and lit the horn again, this time barely even thinking about what she was doing. Realization that she had just lit the horn with virtually no thought shocked her, and she released the magic right away. Ma Apple was giving a satisfied smirk, knowing that this was coming easier and easier for her.

So what if it was getting easier? Wasn't that what was supposed to happen when you repeatedly did something that needed practice? Holding magic in their horns was something foals learned before they even began school, so it couldn't be that hard a thing to master quickly. Ma could smirk all she wanted, there wasn't anything demonstrating she was Candy happening.

Ignoring Candy's smirking mother, she turned her attention back to the spoon. She relit the horn and went back to trying to figure this out. There was some urgency to work quickly; if she took too long the stew would get cold. Having gotten to where she didn't need to think about sensations in order to hold magic in the horn, it was now surprisingly difficult to actually focus on them. It was like trying to focus on the flow of blood in her leg, without touching her leg with another part of her body. She could do it, but it wasn't something that came automatically, it required concentration.

It took some time, but she managed to get back to feeling the coursing magic within the horn. She tried to imagine it as an extension of herself, like another leg or hoof. She focused on the spoon and grasped at it. The spoon was surrounded by a magenta glow and she tried to lift it. Unable to judge how much 'strength' she was putting into her effort, the spoon not only lifted, it went flying off the table and across the room, with Strawberry barely dodging the utensil before it hit the wall.

"It seems that you can use your horn just fine," Ma Apple announced, as she picked the spoon up with her own magic, and gently set it in the sink. "You just need to practice usin' it some more. You can eat like an earth pony if you wish, and practice more later."

'Just fine' might have been overstating things in Cheerilee's opinion, but she supposed for not having the experience to judge how much force she actually was exerting that qualified as a successful use of Candy's horn. She'd need a good deal of practice, but there would be time. Right now she just wanted to eat, and the stew had already stopped steaming. She lifted the bowl up with her hooves and began drinking down the stew in large gulps. It only took a minute for her to down the entire thing. She must have been more hungry than she thought.

"So," she said as she set the bowl back down. "What are your plans for me? Are you just going to keep trying to jog Candy's memories, or is there more?"

"You'll be seeing Marble again the day after tomorrow, and she'll give us her opinion on how to proceed," Ma replied. "Your aunt Applebloom will be lookin' at the copies of those resonances tomorrow, just to confirm that Luster was accurate in what she saw. You'll also get additional tests from Starlight Glimmer and Sweetie Belle the day after tomorrow. After all that is done we'll decide where to go from there."

She raised an eyebrow. "I am hearing the day after tomorrow over and over again. What about today and tomorrow?"

"Today you'll spend some time with your friend when Pinkie brings him over," Ma replied calmly. "Tomorrow you're going to school, because your attendance has been abhorrent this year, and you aren't missin' the last day." The unicorn gave her a sympathetic look. "I know you want this all fixed right away, we do too, but we have to accept it is goin' to take some time, and that we still have regular lives to live. We've dealt with this for most of the year, we can afford to take time makin' sure we do things the right way now. Be patient, we're gettin' you all the help we can."

"You can try bein' a little more polite in the mean time, and not talkin' like you're in charge of things, because you ain't," Applejack grumbled.

"AJ, don't you have something else you need to say?" Rainbow said firmly, as she nudged her marefriend.

Applejack gave the pegasus a cross look. "You're gonna insist on this? What happened to you being loyal?"

Rainbow matched her look. "I am loyal, but you aren't the only pony I'm loyal too. This is kind of my family too, and Candy deserves me backing her as well. It wouldn't be fair to you either if I didn't push you to do what you know is the right thing to do when you want to be stubborn and dig your hooves in."

The farm mare looked down and sighed. "S'pose you're right. Only thing I'm tryin' to defend is my pride, and it ain't worth the price." Applejack turned to Cheerilee. "I'm still not completely convinced of all this… but what you said was the harsh truth. I ain't treated you fairly, and I might have better handled how I reacted better than I did. You seem to understand why I was upset now, but it's also been months you've had to think about it. What I'm tryin' to say is I'm sorry for gettin' so mad you felt you needed to run away, and havin' all of whatever this is start. There weren't no call for me to be treatin' ya like that."

Cheerilee gave the farm pony an apprehensive look. "I'm not sure if Candy can hear that or not, but if she did, I'm sure she is happy to hear it." She looked downward. "And I'm sorry I yelled at you, that's not like me."

"No it ain't," Applejack agreed with a frown. "Ain't like you or Cheerilee, so I know it’s upsettin’. I ain't gonna have a long talk with ya when your like this, no point in it, but we'll have that long talk when ya start actin' like yourself again. Maybe we can give each other more right proper apologies then, and talk civil about what happened."

"She'll appreciate it, I'm sure," Cheerilee replied, and she couldn't help but smile. At least she'd done something good to help Candy out if the farm pony was ready to mend fences with her.

Ma Apple walked up to the table, smiling, and dragging a terrified looking Strawberry behind her with her magic. "I'm glad that's settled. Since I said we weren't goin' to let this disrupt our lives, Strawberry needed to ask my son somethin' important."

Strawberry stopped struggling against the unicorn's magic as everypony's eyes turned to her. She looked around nervously, then bit her lip. She then looked at her stallionfriend and blushed. "Um, I was going to ask… how would you feel about me moving in here?"

Bright blinked. "But, there aren't any open bedrooms. I wouldn't want you to be sleeping on the couch."

Strawberry blushed deeper. "I wouldn't be sleeping on the couch."

"I don't understand; are Applejack and Rainbow moving out?" Bright asked in confusion.

"You are a thick one sometimes, ya know that?" Applejack said loudly. "She'd be sleepin' in your bed, ya numbskull!"

"I'm not sure Ma would appro-"

His mother cut in, pointing a hoof at Strawberry. "When are you goin' to ask this poor sweet mare to marry you? Are you goin' to wait till she's full with foal, since you two apparentlly haven't been usin' any type of birth control? Have her showin' up in a wedding dress that could fit a cow? I'm not havin' my daughter-in-law embarrassed like that!"

"E'nope," Big Mac said with a shake of his head.

Bright opened and closed his mouth a few times, stunned speechless, but apparently his mother wasn't going to settle for that. "I heard what you told Rainbow yesterday, but I don't see why you need to keep draggin' it out. Nor is it prudent at this point."

"And you accused me of pressuring him," Rainbow whispered loudly to her lover. Applejack shrugged in response and grinned. Applejack in her advancing age seemed to have a perverse pleasure in watching others squirm, or at least her nephew and Strawberry.

"Ma-" Bright began, then struggled to find more to say. "It's… the farm… and the house… and… things."

"That house needs years of work, especially with you workin' on your own. It be easier to have the whole extended family come in, tear it down, and put a fresh one up. A wedding would be a nice excuse to bring them all in, don't you think?" Ma Apple asked with one eyebrow raised high. "Further, I wasn't raised a farm pony, but I've been a farm pony since I married your pa, and I know enough to know you've got enough of the pear orchards prepped to get a decent harvest up."

"E'yup," Big Mac said in agreement.

Ma leaned in closer. "I don't buy your excuses. You've been with her since the two of you were foals, and everycreature knows you two belong together. I've talked with Strawberry Sunrise, and she's of the same mind as me about you two. You've got her blessing, my blessing, and you've got your pa's."

"E'yep," Big Mac chimed in again, smiling.

"So I expect you to stop draggin' it out and ask the poor filly to marry you!" Ma finished. "The only thing she's waiting on is for you to ask her, so ask and be happy."

Bright looked around at the rest of the table. Cheerilee shook her head vigorously. "I'm not involved, don't look at me."

The stallion looked at Rainbow Dash and Applejack. "You never did this with them," he said in a quivering voice.

Rainbow narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you saying you can't commit because of us?!" The pegasus beat her wings a few times and took to a low hover. "Fine then! I'm Rainbow Commitment Dash. Let me show you how it's done!"

"Rainbow-!" Applejack half-objected in shock.

The pegasus reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small box, and opened it, holding it out towards her lover. "Applejack, will you make me the happiest mare in the world by accepting this token, and agreeing to be my wife?"

The farm pony stared up at the pegasus with eyes like saucers. "You're doin' this now?!"

Rainbow shrugged. "I was going to retire after the next class of new recruits finished, and then I was going to ask, but I'm not being used as an excuse for why your nephew doesn't ask his marefriend to marry him. So are you going to accept, or what?"

"I'll think about it," Applejack replied, pulling her hat down over her eyes. Rainbow Dash's mouth dropped, but Applejack immediately lifted her hat back up and grinned. "Ya deserved that. Come back down here, ya flyin' peacock, and put that thing around my neck. Course I'm gonna accept." Cheerilee rolled her eyes. It was a good thing things never worked out between her and Big Mac. This family had no business accusing her of being crazy, they had the market cornered on that.

The Wonderbolt and the farm pony came close together, and Rainbow gently put the necklace around Applejack's neck. Applejack lifted it up with a hoof and looked at it, then grabbed Rainbow up and kissed her deeply right in front of everypony in the room. They held the kiss long enough that they needed to take deep breaths to refill their lungs afterward, but Applejack turned to her nephew with a grin. "No more excuses, ask the mare."

Bright took a shaking step down from his seat and stood in front of Strawberry. He knelt down low and reached out a forelegs towards her. She quivered, and stretched out a foreleg and wrapped her fetlock around his. "Strawberry Surprise, I don't even have a necklace ready for you, but I've known since we were foals that I wanted to spend my life with you. You make me happy, and my life full, with your energy and your love. I didn't know how I was ever going to get the nerve to finally ask a mare as beautiful, witty, and wonderful as you, but if you would have me, I would want nothing more or less than to be married to you for the rest of our lives. Will you marry me?"

Strawberry touch a hoof up to her mouth and started tearing up. "Yes! I will. I'm ready to be your Strawberry Pear Surprise!" And with that declaration, the pegasus tackled her lover and started fiercely kissing him. Ma Apple cuddled close to her husband and started wiping the tears from Big Mac's eyes, which he was making no effort to hold back. The whole thing was so sweet that Cheerilee found herself crying.

Applebloom lifted her head from the book she had been reading, with a trail of drool extending from her mouth to the pages. Cheerilee hadn't even noticed the pregnant mare had fallen asleep reading, and had been asleep through all of this. Applebloom wiped her mouth and looked at the kissing couple on the floor, glanced at her weeping brother, then turned and looked at the kissing couple occupying the chairs to her side, and blinked. "Ahh, what did I just miss?"

Cheerilee still kept smiling. This was a nice distraction from her own troubles. She wondered if Candy really was spectating, troubling a thought as that was. If she were, then at least the filly should be getting a fond memory from this. It was a good thing that Caramel was away at friends for the night, she had a feeling that two of the rooms were going to be noisy through the night. She wasn't likely going to get much sleep if that were so.

Oh well, the Apples deserved a day of happiness, after all the struggles with Candy. She at least knew how to use the horn on her head as a night light now, and would try to squeeze in some extra reading. Tomorrow she had plans, she had her sister to see, and Cheese to convince to guide her. It was time to start taking action herself.

Chapter 16: Random Acts of Kumquats

There was a knock on the front door that temporarily interrupted the Apple's celebrations. Ma Apple was the one who made the move to the door. "That must be Pinkie with Lil' Cheese. I almost forgot that we were going to be watching him today. I'll be right back."

Cheerilee perked her ears. Pinkie was here? She needed to speak to the party pony as soon as she could so the Apples couldn't convince the mare she was some personality Candy created. Ironically, she had both Applejack and Pinkie Pie close by, known heroes who both would probably already be well on their way to fixing all of this if they were the ones stuck in this situation, and neither of them was helpful right now; Applejack because the farm pony was still skeptical anything was even going on, and Pinkie Pie because… well, Pinkie was Pinkie.

"DID I HEAR TWO WEDDINGS!" There was an explosion of confetti and party streamers as Pinkie Pie ran into the room. She entered so fast that if Cheerilee hadn't already been watching the doorway she'd have sworn the pony had teleported in.

The pink earth pony quickly dashed back and forth between the two newly engaged couples, prancing rapidly in place before each of them. "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Two of my best friends, and Bright Pear and Strawberry Surprise-- I always loved your name, by the way-- are getting married! I'm going to throw the biggest party ever!"

"Um, Pinkie," Applejack said hesitantly. "We are gonna wait a little while before we close the knots. We want to bring in the whole family."

"All the Strawberries too," Strawberry chimed in. "Mom is going to insist, I know it."

Ma Apple walked in with an ear cocked. "How many Strawberries are there?"

The red pegasus looked embarrassed again. "Well… you know how I have six younger brothers and sisters? Let's just say that Strawberries, as a whole, have a lot of seeds."

The matriarch blinked and grinned happily. "Hear that Bright? That old house wouldn't be big enough for the amount of foals you'll probably end up havin', so there was no point in fixin' it." She stopped and giggled. "I'm goin' to be up to my ears with grandfoals, and that makes me happy. We'll make sure your whole family gets to attend, dear." The green stallion looked dumbfounded, apparently not realizing how fertile his soon-to-wife likely was.

Cheerilee watched as Cheese snuck into the room around Ma Apple's legs. The colt grew a smile as he took stock of all the smiling faces around him, and that smile transformed into a big grin as he spotted Cheerilee and hurried over to her.

"Hi! Mommy and I had so much fun today!" Cheese exclaimed to her happily. "She took me on a picnic, then let me fire her party canon, then we went swimming, and then we made party favors together!"

She nodded absently, more focused on trying to figure out when she could find an opening to speak to Pinkie. "That sounds nice." She was happy the colt got to spend time with his mother; she just had other things to worry about at the moment.

"Did you have a fun day too?" Cheese asked cheerfully.

Cheerilee watched as the party pony got engrossed in trying to plan out a triple bachelorette party and single bachelor party, a discussion that seemed overwhelming for the brides and groom. She grimaced, as she realized an opening to speak to her wasn't going to come anytime soon, not when Pinkie was in her or zone. "It has been an interesting day. I had a pony use me as a shield against an angry alicorn that was trying to disintegrate her. That's not something that I can say has ever happened to me before."

"Aren't you a little small for a big pony to use as a shield?" Cheese asked in confusion, measuring her with his hooves as he asked.

She smirked. "It was both me and Candy's mom, and more the fact the pony was counting on the alicorn wouldn't want to blow us up in order to get that pony."

"You're still being Cheerilee?" Cheese asked, ears wilting a little.

She gave him a considering look. "Yes, I am still Cheerilee. I know you miss your friend, and I'm trying to get her back for you, and to have her stay herself from now on."

Cheese's ears picked up a little. "That would be good. All the other creatures are fun, most of the time, but Candy being Candy is fun too."

She settled into her seat and gave the colt her full attention. "I don't know much about Candy. Can you tell me about her, about the real Candy? Tell me what kinds of games you two played together, what she talked about, what she loved to do, all those kinds of things."

Cheese tapped a hoof to his head, as if hitting his head would work his brain faster. "Me and Candy play all kinds of stuff. We play pretend, tag, kick the ball, drawing, and racing, and other stuff. Autumn Fire and Caramel would play with us a lot, too. Candy read lots of books, big books. They’re kind of boring, but she thinks they were cool. She is always trying to learn to do new magic with her horn, and she turned an apple into a pear once. She was really happy when she did that, and she showed everycreature the pear she made, even though it was kind of funny looking." The colt's mood dropped. "And sometimes, when bullies are picking on me, she and Autumn would tell the bullies to leave me alone. I think Autumn misses her even more than me. He would tell her that she is really pretty, and he likes the way she talks-- that weird way Apples talk that means they smell like axes."

It was easy to see where her future self had suggested the School for Gifted Unicorns, and put into perspective the fact Big Mac said Candy wasn't the type of pony who'd be content staying on the farm. It also explained how Candy could be reading that magical malady book that seemed too complex; it had to deal with magic, and if Candy took that much active interest in magic, and read as much as was implied, it wasn't surprising if she was far more familiar with magical terms than the average small town pony. It also made Cheerilee feel a bit more apprehensive about what she could learn about the situation that she'd understand where Candy would have already looked into, at least in terms of magic. Still, Candy might be a little naive about some magical things, given she was only eight, and she'd tried using a basic counterspell potion on something that was clearly not very basic.

Other than that, Candy seemed a normal, happy filly. She seemed to play normal foal games, and there was a colt that apparently had a schoolyard crush on her. None of this was really extraordinary. The magic interest showed she was somewhat gifted in that area, but she didn't sound like a child prodigy at magic, just one who had an interest and worked very hard to get better. It was commendable, and showed her intelligence and dedication, but there were other young foals that had similar dedication and intelligence-- hence why the School for Gifted Unicorns did take on a number of younger students, even in her own time. She'd fit right into one of those classes and be very happy there. None of this showed anything that would lead to what was occurring to her now.

The pink party mare jumped from where she had been speaking to the adults to right between Cheerilee and Cheese, and grabbed the two of them up in a hug. "I know you were going to watch Lil' Cheese for me, but since all of you're going to want to start wedding planning, how about I do you a big favor and be the one to watch the foals today?" Cheese's face lit up with a huge grin at that prospect.

Ma Apple looked at the party pony with cautious gratitude. "Are you sure? It isn't that we don't appreciate it, but I know you're very busy with plannin' graduation parties."

Pinkie waved it off. "I know, but I really enjoyed getting to spend some extra time with my little whoopie cushion. One day won't set me back that much."

Ma still looked a little apprehensive. "You understand that Candy isn't quite herself right now, right? She's thinkin' she's Cheerilee."

"How much trouble could Cheerilee get into?" Pinkie asked with a giggle, then looked down at Cheerilee and ruffled her mane with a hoof. "You'll be good for me, won't you, Cheerilee?"

She didn't appreciate having her mane ruffled like that, but didn't object. Instead she smiled. "I don't mind spending the rest of the day with you. Everypony here is going to be busy, like you said. I'd like to see a little more of Ponyville anyway." That, and it gave her a chance to update Pinkie on the situation before the Apples could convince Pinkie she was just crazy.

"Just have Candy home for supper," Ma relented.

"Before ya go," Applejack spoke up. "How would you feel about bein' my best mare at ma weddin'? No creature I'd rather have as my best mare than ma favorite cousin."

Pinkie's eyes welled-up with happy tears. "Of course! I'll be the bestest best mare that ever bestedly best mared a wedding!"

"I'm going to have to ask Fluttershy to be mine," Rainbow said thoughtfully. "We've been best friends since we weren't any older than Candy. I couldn't choose anypony else."

"Off with ya," Applejack ordered playfully. "If ya don't get goin' then ya won't have any time at all before ya gotta have Candy back here to eat. Have some fun, and we'll start plannin' what we need to do here."

Pinkie saluted. "Aye aye, Captain Applejack, ma'am!"

"Hey!" Rainbow objected. "You're doing that salute all wrong, and I'm the one who has a captain rank, not Applejack!"

The farm pony boxed her lover in the side again. "She's just playin' around, Rainbow. She ain't tryin' to insult your rank or anythin'." She gave Pinkie an apologetic look. "She's gotten on this drive lately about remindin' everycreature the Wonderbolts are military too. Actually got miffed when Twilight wouldn't increase her rank to general."

Rainbow sulked in place, muttering, "I should be a general, instead of having to listen to orders from that flying turkey she has commanding my division of the air forces."

"You're plannin' on retirin' anyway," Applejack reminded her.

"Should still be a general," Rainbow muttered.

Applejack rolled her eyes, but gave her lover a hug. "Maybe Twilight will give you an honorary rank when you retire." Rainbow brightened up a little at that idea, but still didn't seem thrilled she wasn't a general. Cheerilee rolled her own eyes, even middle-aged mares could sulk like foals when they didn't get what they wanted.

She let her myself be ushered out of the house by her chaperone. Cheese was clearly overjoyed to be spending even more time with his mother, which Cheerilee was sympathetic to. It was just that she had things that needed to be done.

She opened her mouth to try to tell Pinkie about how the Apples now thought she was some split personality, and to be assured she wasn't that, but suddenly got Pinkie's hoof in her mouth.

The pink pony whispered in her ear. "Remember, keep a low profile. The chocolate pony has information, remember the code word."

After the hoof was removed she spit on the ground to get the taste of hoof dirt out of her mouth, and gave Pinkie a dumbfounded look. "Who has information? Code word? What are you talking about?"

Pinkie stuck her bottom lip out. "I told you the code word earlier, weren't you paying attention?"

"Kumquats?"

Pinkie nodded happily. "You were paying attention. The chocolate pony has information. Keep a low profile."

"Can you just say who?" Cheerilee asked in frustration. "What do they even know? If they know something then why haven't they said anything up to now?"

Pinkie put a ski mask on over Cheerilee's head. Where she got it was anypony's guess. "Keep a low profile! I'm maintaining radio silence for the rest of today!"

She grit her teeth, and pulled the mask off. There was no point in even asking anymore, that was clear enough. She was just going to be forced to figure out whatever insanity Pinkie was pushing on her. Maybe there was something that would help her, or maybe Pinkie was just being Pinkie.

They left Sweet Apple Acres and walked into town. Wherever they were going, it was a slow trip. Pinkie and Cheese both tended to pronk about, and constantly stopped to greet ponies and creatures on the street. She couldn't help but notice that some ponies, specifically ponies, would give Cheese odd looks, or worse, looks of downright hostility. These were usually given when the colt was pronking away after greeting them, and Cheese and Pinkie were either oblivious to it, or chose to simply ignore them. It wasn't every pony, nor even half, but it was enough that it made Cheerilee disappointed in her fellow ponies. Other creatures didn't seem to have any issue with him, and she had a sneaking suspicion that it was because they might not find it as easy to find a pony's gender as 'off'.

"Hi, Candy! Are you feeling better now?"

She turned to see who was speaking to her. It was the kirin colt that had tried to speak to her earlier when Ma Apple was leading her back to Sweet Apple Acres. She recalled his name, and matched it up to the same name Cheese had told her had a crush on Candy, Autumn Fire.

"I'm sorry, Autumn, but right now I'm Cheerilee. Candy isn't here right now." She hoped that the colt would understand, especially given Candy's history.

The colt looked disappointed, then forced a smile on his face. "That's fine. Can I still hang out with you? I promise I won't be annoying."

Before she could say a response, or think of one for that matter, Pinkie appeared and hugged the kirin colt. "Sure you can, buddy! We're going to go by the Twistabon shop and get chocolate shakes. I'd normally go by Sugarcube Corner, but I'm really trying to avoid that place today. I know Cheese would love to have you along, and don't mind Cheerilee, she's being all grumpy about having to be Cheerilee in Candy's body. She'll feel better after she gets some chocolate in her."

There was no reason to object to the colt's presence, she supposed. She doubted that she would be extremely cheerful just because she had a chocolate shake, but there were worse ways of spending an afternoon than having somepony buy her treats. Pinkie even referred to her as Cherrilee, and it was heartening to be treated as herself by at least one pony.

Autumn joined them in their travel through town. He spent his time chatting and playing with Cheese, rather than try to engage her, but she did catch him snatching glances at her. Poor colt, she wished she could give him Candy, but that wasn't possible at the moment. This had to be something the colt was getting used to with the filly, and it was impressive that he still tried hard to maintain his friendship with Candy-- despite the fact that Candy was hardly ever Candy in this past year. If this was the result of a schoolyard crush, then this colt had it bad. She wondered if Candy was aware of it, or if she shared the same sentiments. It was a mild shame that Candy seemed destined to move away from Ponyville, at least if she stuck to her dreams. That would certainly hamper or end any hope of future romance between the two when they got older.

The two colts were chatting about a new musical that Autumn's mother was preparing-- about the Cutie Mark Crusaders getting their cutie marks of all things-- when they came up to what she recognized as Bon Bon's candy shop. There were some dramatic changes to the shop from her own day. For one, it was greatly expanded. It was also much busier than it was back in her own time, with a great deal of the clientele being very obviously tourists. There were also a fair number of carts near a loading area towards the back of the building, many of them looking like they were picking up cargo rather than delivering it. A new sign hung large above the door: 'The Original Twistabon Chocolate Shop, Famous Across Equestria!'. She was impressed; it seemed that the shop's business had expanded exponentially, even opening new locations elsewhere.

Pinkie led them around the small crowds, and somehow found them seats in the crowded shop. There were servers and waiters moving all about, many of them seeming older teens or younger twenties, and weren't just ponies either. The wall that hid the kitchen from view in her own time had been removed, and the guests were allowed to see the candy making at work. Twist was walking through the kitchen, giving supervision to a host of at least a dozen candymakers, and occasionally stopping with a smile to give advice and direction to a worker here and there who seemed to be struggling with something. The crowd seemed to enjoy seeing the candy making process.

Bon Bon herself came over to the table to take their order. Her mane was somewhat shorter, and there were clear laugh-lines under her eyes, but there was no mistaking the candymaker. She looked them all over with a smile. It may have been Cheerilee's imagination, but that smile seemed to twitch when Bon Bon looked at her. Had one of the various occupants of Candy's body done something bad in the shop?

The earth pony turned to Pinkie first. "Glad to see you here. It is always nice to have the competition spend money here."

Pinkie giggled. "Oh, Bon Bon, Sugarcube Corner sells pastries mainly, that's a whole other thing."

"Well, your competition for the ice cream, milkshakes, and you do sell chocolate cakes, but I suppose I'm not really worried about you cutting into our sales," Bon Bon replied goodnaturedly. "What can I get you?"

The party pony spread her forelegs wide. "The biggest peppermint, chocolate, and strawberry banana split you can make, please. Give it extra whip cream and chocolate sprinkles!"

Bon Bon grinned wider. "Of course." She turned to Autumn. "And for you?"

"Ahh...cinnamon ice cream with chocolate sprinkles, please," the kirin said hesitantly.

Bon Bon nodded, and turned to Cheese. The colt hopped happily in his seat. "A fudge bunny! Pretty please!"

"One fudge bunny it is," Bon Bon said happily. She gave a tight smile as she turned to Cheerilee. "And for you…?"

Cheerilee had no idea what was even available, and no menu had been provided. "I guess just a cherry shake." She was born on a cherry farm, and still had a soft spot for the little berries.

Bon Bon raised an eyebrow and smirked. "What's the magic word, little filly?"

She shouldn't be rude by not saying please, but she was grumpy about the Apples still. So she gave the first flippant answer she could think of. "Kumquats."

Bon Bon's face went blank. "Did I hear that right? Kumquats?"

"Please," Cheerilee replied, feeling embarrassed about her own behavior. This filly biology really must be messing with her self control.

"I see…" Bon Bon said slowly. The mare got right up next to her and stared her threateningly in the face, and Cheerilee cringed back. She'd been a little rude, but hadn't expected this kind of reaction. Bon Bon glared for a few seconds with Pinkie sitting there completely unconcerned about the entire thing! However, the other two foals looked on nervously.

"Alright, this is the last time," Bon Bon growled. "You'd better forget wherever you learned that after this, I told you before that isn't some game for you to play. I've been done with that since Celestia's day. Your message is look underneath Sombra. Is there anything else I can get you with your cherry shake, T.C.?"

Cheerilee blinked. "Um, who's T.C.? I'm Cheerilee, in Candy Apple's body. I didn't mean to be rude, it's just hard being in…"

"Save it," Bon Bon ordered. "One cherry shake it is, and no more mention of things creatures, much less foals, should know anything about." Bon Bon then hurried to the kitchen, leaving Cheerilee dazed and confused, and Pinkie Pie still completely unconcerned. What the heck just happened?

Chapter 17: Messages

She stared at the party mare sitting across from her. "What was that?"

Pinkie Pie just shrugged. "I don't know, but I told you I have a good memory. When Candy was saying she had amnesia she went up to Bon Bon and said kumquats, all serious faced. Bon Bon looked at her funny and told her to go away. Then Candy started talking about the way Bon Bon held a knife, and Bon Bon started getting all sweaty. Then Bon Bon took her into a different room and they talked, then Candy left. I thought it was all weird, and thought maybe it's important."

Cheerilee continued to stare. "Did you ask Bon Bon about it, or Candy?"

Pinkie nodded vigorously. "Bon Bon said forget I ever saw anything, which I don't really know how to do. How do you just forget things because you're told to? That seems silly. I asked Candy about it, and she smiled and said she didn't know what I was talking about, and that I just imagined it. Then she told me to look at a twelve-toed duck riding a cat, but there wasn't anything there, and then I realized ducks don't have toes. When I looked back at her she was gone. She must have been really fast, because normally I can find anycreature right away if they try to get away from me, but I couldn't find her."

"Did Candy have an accent at the time?" Cheerilee asked. She already knew the answer, because she was sure Candy was whoever that sneaky looking unicorn in the drawing was at the time she said she had amnesia.

Pinkie did the same hoof tapping to the head Cheerilee had seen Cheese do. "Um, actually, she sounded kind of like a Canterlot pony, but was trying not to. I can always kind of tell when somepony is trying to hide what they sound like."

A unicorn waitress in her late teens came out and deposited each of their orders. An impressive feat, considering Bon Bon hadn't written anything down. Now that she noticed it, no server wrote down orders here, but she didn't hear any complaining about receiving wrong orders going on. This was an exceptionally well trained staff.

She sat and started sipping at her cherry shake (which was very good) and thought about this new piece of information. She looked over at the two colts. "Do either of you remember Candy when she said she had amnesia? Did you spend any time with her then?"

"Um, you're Candy, but I remember," Autumn replied. "You never wanted to play after school, you were always tired. Sometimes you fell asleep in class."

"Your family said you were sneaking off at night," Cheese said. "You snuck real good too. Sometimes you got out even with them watching your door, and with the window still closed. You got in trouble a few times when they checked on you. You told everypony you were just sleepwalking."

Well, the corresponding picture did capture a certain sneaky behavior. How'd that one manage to get out of the room with it watched? There was nothing soft to land on or climb down outside the window. Her confusion lasted only a few seconds until she realized she was thinking like an earth pony. Skilled unicorns could teleport; Candy might not know how, but that didn't mean whoever was occupying her body at that time didn't. That must have been how they eluded Pinkie as well.

"She is Cheerilee," Pinkie informed the foals, then lowered her head and whispered. "Just don't tell anycreature, they'll think your crazy. She's undercover."

Autumn gave the party pony a doubting look. "Are you pulling our tails? Is it a joke?"

"She's not joking," Cheerilee answered for the adult. "Every one of the ponies and creatures really were in her, at least I think so."

"Even Sombra?" Cheese asked with a whimper, cowering down low in his seat.

"Even Sombra," she replied with a nod.

"That part confuses me," Pinkie said thoughtfully. "If Sombra was really here, wouldn't he have done more shadowy evil stuff? When Candy was saying she was Sombra she was blasting ponies with her horn, but it was more annoying than dangerous."

"Maybe her magic was too weak for Sombra to do anything with," Cheerilee suggested. That would also imply the sneaky unicorn couldn't teleport far if they could teleport. That meant they weren't taking off to Canterlot or anything. Where were they going at night?

Twist walked over to them, looking unhappy. "I apologize, but Bon Bon wanted me to relay that if Candy again does… whatever it was that made Bon Bon mad, that she will be facing a permanent ban from this Twistabon location. I don't know why Bon Bon couldn't tell you herself, instead of having me be the bad guy, but she is furious. She actually wanted to kick you out now, but I talked her down." She gave Cheerilee a baffled expression. "I thought you were pretending to be Cheerilee right now. How did you manage to get Bon Bon so mad if you're playing Cheerilee? She wouldn't tell me."

"She said kumquats," Pinkie replied. Then stretched out her neck and stared the candymaker in the eyes. "What do you know about kumquats? Are they in league with the muffins? Is there are big secret plot by food to take control of Equestria?! Are you a kumquat sympathizer? Are you a double agent?"

Twist took a few steps back. "I think I'm just going to go back in the kitchen so I don't catch whatever form of crazy you and Bon Bon seem to have." The mare then made a hasty retreat.

She didn't blame the mare from retreating, but this was an excellent time to ask about something else. "What do you know about the muffins?" She asked the party mare.

Pinkie shrugged. "I know they are like dry cupcakes without frosting, and I know that Candy reeeeaaally hates them. That's why I thought there might be some muffin-kumquat conspiracy." Then she reached up into her beehive mane, pulling out a muffin, then glared at the baked good. "What are you hiding!"

Cheerilee felt like gagging. "How long have you had that thing in your-- never mind, I don't want to know." Thankfully, she saw no face on the muffin. So far that the only ones she'd seen were on those earrings, none of the gross contents of the closet had faces. Maybe Dinky just had one stray pair of earrings that had smiling faces on them, and she hadn't seen anything that wasn't really there. Then again, maybe if she was seeing them everywhere she'd have a better idea what was up with the muffins, instead of this being some random psychosis that Candy seemed to have.

"I don't think there's any muffin-kumquat conspiracy to take over the world." That was going to go down as one of the more ridiculous things she'd ever have to say. "Kumquats was probably just some code that whoever the sneaky amnesia pony-- T.C., used."

"Makes sense, though I still don't trust kumquats," Pinkie replied, looking to either side as if trying to find the suspicious fruits. Why did Pinkie have to be the only pony she could get to believe her? She hoped Cherry Tea would believe her tomorrow. Her little sister could get her nose stuck up in the air sometimes, but she was at least sane.

"Where's Candy?" Autumn finally spoke up, partially in a whimper. "I want Candy back."

Cheerilee pointed to her head. "I'm not sure, but Applebloom thinks she is still in here. Of course, Applebloom thinks I'm a figment of her imagination, so I can't say for sure."

A small wisp of flame danced through Autumn's thick mane. "Put her back! She didn't do anything to you! I want Candy back!"

Pinkie started to rub the colt's back, likely trying to calm him, but she bit back a yelp and stuck her hoof in her mouth after getting a burn. "Hey, calm down! Cheerilee didn't do anything on purpose, and I'm sure she wants Candy back too. Take some deep breaths, and tell Cheerilee you're sorry. You've got a really hot temper."

The colt glared, but then started taking some breaths as instructed. It took a few seconds, but the small spurts of flame vanished, and he gave Cheerilee a sullen look. "Sorry, I just want Candy." Cheese gave his friend a big hug immediately after, with no thought to getting burned, and the kirin accepted it without any fuss.

"Wow, I didn't think you were old enough to do that," Pinkie said in astonishment, examining her hoof for burns. "You didn't go full burny-wurny, but that was pretty warm. I should tell your mom about that; she'll know what to do. Just eat some more ice cream, and cool down."

The colt lit up his pronged horn with dark red light and his spoon mirrored that light, not too different than a unicorn in that respect. She wondered how similar kirin magic and unicorn magic were. Autumn dug into his ice cream, but gave her a dirty look.

"I'm trying hard to get her back for you, just be patient," Cheerilee said as kindly as she could. He still didn't look happy, but he stopped glaring at her and focused on his ice cream. There wasn't anything else she could do to make him feel less grumpy right now, but she knew what she needed to be doing.

She turned to Pinkie again. "I'd like to go back to the farm when we're done here, if you don't mind." The message was at least clear about what she needed to do. There was only one Sombra to really look under, the drawing in Candy's room. There had to be an additional message or clue about what was going on under it.

Pinkie's blinked. "I guess I can take you back. That gives me more one on one time with Cheese, well, Autumn is here, but-"

"I'm going home too," Autumn announced, dropping the spoon from his magic, as he finished off his ice cream. "I don't want to play anymore today. I just want to go see my mom and dad."

Pinkie gave him a sympathetic look. "We'll walk you home, then take Cheerilee back to the farm. Don't go telling your parents about this."

"Why not?" Both Cherrilee and Autumn asked in unison.

"Because creatures will say I'm telling foals to believe crazy things," Pinkie said with a snort at her annoyance for being treated like she was crazy. "Once it can be proved you can talk about it. We'll prove it; I just don't know how yet."

Another few minutes were spent with Cheese finishing off his chocolate bunny. Cheerilee had long since finished her shake, and Pinkie had literally inhaled her banana split. Once the yellow colt had finished off the bunny Pinkie paid for the desserts and led them out of the store. As they were leaving she caught sight of Bon Bon giving her a glare. It was highly unlikely she'd get any more information from the cholateer. It also occurred to her that Bon Bon had said she'd been done with whatever it was since Celestia's day. Celestia had already retired in Cheerilee's time, so whatever big secret Bon Bon had actually was still there even twenty years ago. She thought she knew the pony, but apparently not as well as she thought.

The walk to Autumn's home was largely quiet. Cheese picked up on his friend's mood, and didn't engage him at all. He did fall back and walked with her for a while in silence, before finally getting the nerve to speak. "If Mommy says that you're Cheerilee, then I believe you, a hundred-hundred percent. I still think you're a nice pony, do you promise you'll get Candy back?"

"I promise I'll do everything I can," she answered. "I'm not sure I need to do anything to get her back. All the previous cases show this wears off on its own, sooner or later. I'm going to do my best to try to make it so she doesn't just have somepony else take over her body when I'm gone; that's the help she needs the most. I just have to figure out why it is even happening at all. Has she ever said anything about it when she's herself?"

Cheese's ears sagged. "She tried a few times, then she gave up because nocreature believed her. She knows it is happening. She was trying to tell her aunt and got really mad because her aunt wasn't listening to her, then she was Sombra all the sudden."

Maybe Big Mac was onto something, not the right something, but maybe there was some link between Candy and each of the ones that ended up in Candy's body. It seemed like such a random selection of ponies and creatures on first glance, but what Big Mac had suggested did show that there was a possible method to the madness. Whatever this curse was, it could be responding to what Candy was thinking or feeling. Trying to give her the right pony to meet whatever need she had when the filly felt helpless. She doubted she was here to help Candy with school, but they did share a special bond with a potion experiment gone wrong. Her first instinct when it had gone wrong was protect the foals from the potion, it wasn't a huge leap of imagination to think that Candy had wanted somepony to protect her from a potion gone wrong in the moments before Cheerilee had taken Candy's body.

Though, with that crisis now passed, why was she still here? There wasn't any more need of her. What made things end? From what she heard the amount of time had grown as of late, but it wasn't a steady curve upwards. The amnesia pony was two months they said, which seemed to be the longest, but Sombra right before had been a month, and the changeling after had been only a month as well. All the ones before that were considerably less she would think, given the number of them and the overall time frame. She'd heard a week mentioned for one, and she was guessing that was more the average. It could be less or more than that, and she didn't know why the times were all different.

She snorted in frustration. Every time she got more information there was always something new to consider that didn't seem to make sense. Hopefully whatever 'T.C.' had left behind would help clear up some mysteries. They clearly hadn't figured out how to fix the problem, otherwise she wouldn't be here, but they had two months to study it, so they must have learned something.

They reached a small house where Autumn was greeted with a hug by Noteworthy of all ponies. Listening in she could tell that he was Autumn's father. She wouldn't have pictured Noteworthy to be one to get adventurous in the type of pony (she guessed kirin were ponies) he ended up marrying. On reflection the pairing made some sense; everything Autumn said about his mother indicated a very musically inclined kirin, and Noteworthy was a musically inclined earth pony; pair their interests and it wasn't hard to grow a relationship. He was showing heavy grey in his mane, and there were clear age lines under his eyes. She wondered if Autumn had siblings, and if he was the youngest if so, just because Noteworthy seemed old enough for grandfoals-- hard as it was to wrap someone who was roughly her actual age being that old.

They continued on to the farm, with Cheese not making any further attempts to engage in conversation with her, and Pinkie stopping to chat with various ponies and creatures. Just as before, it was a slow trip because of this. Did they really need to greet everycreature along the way?

Eventually they reached the farm, and Pinkie knocked on the front door. Ma Apple answered the door and gave a small look of surprise. "I thought you would be a little longer. I just started thinkin' about what I need to do for supper. Is everythin' alright?"

"It's fine," Pinkie said dismissively.

"Cheerilee almost got kicked out of the candy shop," Cheese added in, while climbing onto his mother's back.

"Candy what?!" The matriarch exclaimed in shock.

"Yeah, don't ever say kumquats to Miss Bon Bon. She really gets mad. I just learned that today," Cheese explained as he settled in on top of Pinkie. Then he seemed to consider the events more. "Is kumquats a bad word?" He then got progressively more agitated. "Am I going to get in trouble for saying it, kumquats? Oh no! I said it again! Don't be mad at me!"

"Kumquats isn't a bad word," Cheerilee said with a roll of her eyes. She looked back to adult unicorn. "Can I just go to Candy's room until dinner is ready?"

"Can you first explain why you almost got kicked out of that shop?" Ma Apple asked with a raised eyebrow.

Cheerilee shook her head. "I really don't understand it either. It had something to do with one of the previous ponies that was in Candy's body. I'll tell you if I find out what, but I'm just as confused as everypony else. I said kumquats and Bon Bon got hostile. That's what I know."

"Got right up in her face all kind of growl-ly," Pinkie explained. "Twist said as long as she doesn't do it again she's fine, and that Twist doesn't get it either."

Ma didn't seem to know how to respond to that, and gave a shake of her head as if clearing it. "We'll talk about it more later." Her expression hardened. "I may have to speak with Bon Bon about this-- honestly, treating you that way because you said some word. Even if you cursed, that was uncalled for. You may get up to mischief from time to time, but I won't have anycreature treatin' you that way, especially when I can't see you've done anythin' wrong. Anyway, you may go to your room and stay there until supper."

She was going to mention that Applejack had gotten away with plenty of hostility, but decided not to stir that pot. Bon Bon's hostility had been more direct, with the threat of a ban from the shop. It wasn't like Applejack ever growled in her face or threatened to have her kicked off the farm, and the farm pony did seem like she wanted to make amends.

She walked as quietly into the house, and could hear Rainbow Dash and Applejack having a heated disagreement about something involving where they should honeymoon. She didn't really pay it much attention as she quietly made her way up the stairs, boards squeaking all the way. She wondered again how Big Mac managed to avoid making lots of noise with how heavy he was, and could only assume he was so used to the house he knew all the squeaky boards by heart (which made her wonder what kind of reasons he had for being that quiet anyway. Maybe it was just an old habit, but where had he picked it up?). She made her way to Candy's room, and then shut the door behind her.

She looked up at the drawing of Sombra and immediately realized she had a complication, it was too high up for her to reach. Why did unicorns have to put things up so high? She was going to need to use Candy's horn to take the picture down, but she was concerned she'd end up ripping and tearing it if she tried.

A little practice with the horn was in order, just enough so she could do this without inadvertently destroying whatever message was there. She really didn't want to accidentally destroy the drawing in any case. These drawings were clearly important to Candy, her personal record of her experiences. Her eyes widened as she realized something she hadn't before; Candy knew what these ponies and creatures looked like, and even seemed to know about their personalities. That indicated the filly had to have some sort of awareness of what was going on while her body was occupied. If her mind was sleeping, it was still absorbing information.

"Candy, if you can hear me, I promise I'm not trying to damage your drawing. I just want to see what's under it," she said out loud. Did she need to say it out loud, or could she just think it at the filly? Did Candy have any way of responding? Probably not, she was sure the filly would have found some way of making herself known by now if she could. There was still the small possibility that Applebloom was wrong, and that Candy really wasn't in her head at the moment, and was instead back in Cheerilee's body; that would explain how Candy knew what ponies looked like as well.

She practiced levitation on one of the books. Her first try sent the book flying across the room, thankfully landing on the bed without much noise. The next try she put far too little effort into, and the book barely budged at all. At least she was getting a feel for what too much and too little magic she needed. This continued on for about ten minutes, and she felt like she was getting the hang of it. She also was getting very tired; using magic like this was more exhausting than she thought, no doubt because Candy was so young.

"Well, let's try this," she said to herself as she focused on the drawing. It was attached to the wall by four tacks. They'd need to be individually removed, and were much smaller than anything else she'd tried to grasp so far. The paper would just drop when she was done, but that shouldn't damage it. However, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to put it back up after, but Candy could figure that out herself.

The first tack came out flying, and she came to the conclusion that a smaller object needed far less force. That seemed obvious in hindsight, but she wasn't used to thinking like a unicorn; she was used to just watching them do things, not thinking about the mechanics of it. The second tack came out much easier, though she was straining by the time she pulled the fourth tack out. The paper dropped down and landed on the floor. She hurried over to it and looked at the backside. There was indeed something written on it. The entire backside was packed densely with writing in a flowing cursive script.

I hope that my plan has been a success, and that this is Princess Celestia reading this note to verify my claims are indeed true. If not the princess, then a currently commissioned S.M.I.L.E agent. If this is Candy, can you please, my dear, leave this message where I left it. I do apologize for using your crayons against your explicit written orders, but I am trying to aid you in your confounding predicament.

If this is yet another pony or creature that has taken up residence in the young filly, I can only assume that my plan has been a failure, for reasons I cannot foresee, but must recognize the reality of. The princess or a S.M.I.L.E agent would know what to do at this point if it were a success, but if it has failed, then you are almost certainly as confused and looking for answers as I.

My name is Twilight Comet, director of her majesty's monster hunting organization as of the nine hundredth and fifty-fourth year of Princess Celestia's glorious reign after the defeat of Nightmare Moon. I was on a covert mission into the Everfree Forest when I'm quite embarrassed to admit I took a clumsy fall, that left me unconscious. When I awoke, I found the foliage around me much denser than before, and myself in the body of an unknown unicorn filly. I found no trace of my supplies, or signaling device to let others know my location. I chose to make my way back to the Ponyville settlement and quickly learned that this unicorn filly was one Candy Apple, and that I was many decades into the future.

Deciding that the best course of action was to fall back on my years of recovery training, I claimed amnesia, and began gathering what knowledge I could. Imagine my shock when I learned that my princess now wandered the outskirts of Equestria and beyond with the dreaded Nightmare Moon as some roaming hero, and none other than my great granddaughter now held supreme executive authority over the land, and I had a great-great granddaughter who was a naturally born alicorn! Oh the pride I have in my family!

I quickly deduced that whatever the cause of my presence in this time, it was indeed only a temporary one. I was at a loss at how to get in contact with my princess, or with the agency that I had previously headed. I did locate an ex-agent who I identified because she used S.M.I.L.E knife wielding techniques when chopping fruits. She was of little use to me, as she had long since left the organization (She actually claimed it was disbanded, but that could merely have been a ruse).

My efforts to determine the cause of this were ultimately fruitless. I have searched the Everfree on a nightly basis, looking for any creature or object that might have been the cause, but my efforts have resulted in naught. I determined that by some strange twist of fate that both Candy and I took the same fall in our respective times, but chose not to try to replicate the event once more, as I feared I might somehow hurt the young foal. I am an agent dedicated to the protection of ponies, and I would not knowingly do something that could injure a foal.

Without any way of making contact for aid I have chosen to wait this out, and hope that I can leave a report of this with the agency and the princess upon my return to my own time, for them to follow up on and find some way to help this filly with her puzzling predicament. If this is the princess or a S.M.I.L.E agent then I know all has gone as planned. However, if it is not either of those I am left with a very fearful option to consider, that I am only a figment and the real Twilight Comet never experienced this. I pray that who I hoped would read this note indeed does.

She stared at the note, and her eyes started to water. This was no help at all. If a trained government agent couldn't figure this out after two months of effort, then what hope did she have? The last paragraph in particular made her feel a chill. No help had come for Candy so far from Princess Celestia or this monster hunting group. Why had no help come?

She didn't want to think about the answer. She knew who she was, and she wasn't going to let anything change her mind about that.

Chapter 18: Magical Genetics

She collected herself. She was an adult, despite her current body, and while it was okay to cry, she had found herself reduced to tears too much lately. She needed to focus on the fact she was a mature adult, and not let Candy's biology rule her. The message from Twilight Comet was disappointing, but it didn't put her any worse off than she'd been before. It actually provided some useful information; namely, it told her there was no point in running off into the Everfree to find out what had happened there. If Twilight Comet hadn't found anything over the course of two months there, then she wasn't likely going to find anything stumbling around the woods herself. That was time saved from doing something useless, not to mention dangerous.

Furthermore, the help that this pony had sought might still be coming, they could just not he here yet. Something about when this was happening might have been slightly miscommunicated, maybe by months or even a year or more. She had no idea what to even look for to find a S.M.I.L.E agent, but there had to be a way to keep tabs on where Celestia was at-- she was a big alicorn that went out fighting monsters and villains, there had to be word that would reach back to Ponyville. Flurry Heart seemed to personally know Luna, and Luna was traveling with Celestia. Maybe she could somehow convince the young and (presumably, by her words) arrogant alicorn to contact them for her. Twilight Comet might not have had Flurry Heart here for help when he was in this position. She needed to focus on what she had for information and resources, not what he had.

She picked the drawing up with her mouth, not trusting it to the horn's magic, and gently set it on the desk. Candy could put that back up when she had control again. Should she show the note to anypony? Perhaps, but not yet. She needed to figure out how to best present it. As it stood they could try to use it as evidence that she was just one of many personalities, and that would only set her and Candy further back.

"Candy, I could really use some help here," she said to the empty bedroom.

She still didn't know if Candy was inside her head or not. That was something she needed to find out. Candy must have described her experiences to somepony, even if they didn't believe her. She just needed those ponies to tell her what had been said. Twilight Comet could have made himself more useful by saying something about that, rather than giving his brief biography. Maybe she should write her own log of her experiences, just in case she too failed to solve this; something for the next pony in line to find. Where would she keep such a thing safe? It would need to be a journal or something. One sheet of paper was barely enough space for Twilight Comet to write his note, and she couldn't write that small herself, not and stay legible. Maybe she could convince Marble to give her a journal, as some sort of therapy. She'd heard of ponies keeping journals in therapy before.

She hadn't gotten into the groove of the farm well enough to tell how long it was till dinner, so she was pretty sure she still had plenty of time yet to wait. She needed to just relax and let herself unwind. If she got too stressed she wouldn't think clearly. She was in a crisis situation, but it wasn't the type of crisis that required her immediate attention all the time. There was only one avenue of enjoyment to take while in Candy's room: curling back up with that monster of a book again. It might not end up listing off anything of importance, but it would at least serve a purpose in entertaining her when she needed to step back from the problems she and Candy faced-- at least when she was stuck in Candy's room.

Luckily, the monsters book was the one that ended up being tossed on the bed. She jumped up onto the bed and curled up with the book, an activity that she enjoyed in her time and her own body. The content might be a little different from the adventure and romance novels she was used to, but it was managing to hold her interest. She found where she left off with taztlewurms, and got right back into reading.

She was so caught up in her reading that she didn't even notice when Ma Apple walked into the room. "Face glued to a book? Are you feelin' more like yourself?" The mare asked in a hopeful tone.

Cheerilee looked up. "I am feeling a little more like myself, but that's Cheerilee. Candy and I just share the love of reading a good book. It's relaxing to just lose yourself in one for a while."

Ma sighed in disappointment. "That's somethin' you'd say when you're yourself too. Never did figure out how I got blessed with such a smart and bookish filly. I'm not unintelligent, a little naive when I was younger, but who doesn't make mistakes? I'll proudly admit you'll know far more than me someday, if you keep at your current pace. There's nothin' shameful about havin' a foal that's brighter than me, just means I might have done somethin' right by you. I just want you to know I am proud of you, in case you ever doubted that."

Cheerilee shut the book. "I don't know a lot about Candy, but I know she must appreciate you saying that. Can you tell me more about her?"

The older pony hesitated for a moment, then walked deeper into the room to sit beside the bed. "It might help you remember if I do, so I will. I was very happy when you were born a unicorn filly. I love your brothers just as much as you, but as a unicorn and a mare I did want at least one little filly and at least one unicorn. I can't teach your brothers about being good earth ponies, and I'm not a stallion, so there are things they depend on learning from your pa and not me. It seems selfish sayin' it, but I wanted somepony to pass on my skills and knowledge to."

Ma giggled to herself. "Though you already know about as much about being a unicorn as I do. I never could do more than a few utility spells. You came in last year having actually done a transmutation. It wasn't perfect, but was your first time doin' it. I never did anythin' like that with my magic, and you were so proud of yourself, and I was so proud of you."

The mare's mood mellowed. "Your principal was tellin' us that you should go to the school up in Canterlot. I don't know what we'd have done for if you really wanted to go, but we'd have found a way to make it work. I want you to have every opportunity in life. Life takes us to strange places, away from our roots, sometimes. I was a baker that struck out in her attempts at startin' a bakery in Manehatten, that got caught up in some weird cult because I thought I'd never be happy with my talent after that failure, then ended up married to an apple farmer. Who's to say some little filly from an apple farm can't grow up to be the best mage that Equestria has ever seen? I believe you can be, though I admit I'm a little biased."

"I get that Candy is really bright, everypony wants to tell me about that, but I want to know what she has been going through since this all started," Cheerilee explained. "How does Candy feel about what is happening? What did she say about it? How is it impacting her development? What is up with the muffins?"

The unicorn blinked. "It always amazes me what your personas say and do. Development… I have to say you're clearly still learnin'. The fact that these personalities all behave and do things I would never have thought could come from you tells me that, and you seem to retain a lot of that information when you're back to being yourself as well. I worry now that all of these are bleedin' into the real you. This one isn't so bad, but some of the others it is really upsettin' to think about you having those thoughts and feelin's."

"She retains information from them?" Cheerilee asked in shock. "Personality traits?"

"Not so much the traits, thank Twilight, but you definitely seem to still know things those other you know. Technically it's all you, so I shouldn't be surprised, but it still surprises me the things you learn to do, or things you know about."

If Candy was still locked away in her head that might indicate more that Candy really was spectating everything that was going on, or maybe everypony that was in Candy really did bleed knowledge into her. Maybe Candy simply remembered everything that her occupiers went through, as their memories over that period were now recorded in her head. If Candy still had all those memories, could anypony occupying her gain access to them as well? "And the muffins?"

"The muffins?" Ma continued, and then let out an exaggerated groan, and looked at the drawing on the closet. "I just don't know. That started shortly after that unicorn warrior we first found you actin' as. Just this fierce hatred of muffins. You say crazy things about how they are staring at you. None of your personalities have ever said a thing about muffins, except for when you occasionally ask for one for a snack, and that's all. When you're you, I can't even leave them sitting in sight. You used to love my muffins. If you know something about why you suddenly hate them so much, then tell me."

She shook her head in confusion. Knowing the muffin thing started around the same time helped a little. She had no idea how it fit in, but it was linked, somehow.

"Don't you think that might all be signs that there is more to this than multiple personalities?" Cheerilee tried pushing again. "We're entirely different individuals that are coming into her, with our own knowledge and experiences that she is learning from. Candy is very bright, but she's eight; has she been behaving like an eight-year-old through all of this? Am I behaving like I'm that old right now?"

"There may be more to this than just multiple personalities," Ma agreed. "Your aunt Applebloom was tryin' to read about what kinds effects those other magic things in you might have, the ones that aren't echoes; but I see my daughter in front of me, and your pa told me what he thinks, and I agree with him."

Why did he have to be so clever! He was wrong, completely wrong, but she knew it sounded like something that even she would believe if she were in any other position instead of stuck in Candy's body.

There was no help for that at the moment. "Has she found anything?"

"We can ask her together," Ma said, as she got up and motioned to the door. "She is very tired, so don't bother her too much if she hasn't got an answer yet. Workin' and walkin' around so much when she's this late into her pregnancy is exhaustin' her. I'm goin' to insist she stay for supper and spend some time restin' on the couch before she goes home. She needs to relax. Maybe I can convince her to let your pa cart her home."

They walked back downstairs to the kitchen. There was no sign of Big Mac or Bright Pear, but everypony else was still here. Strawberry was busy at the stove, apparently helping prepare dinner, and looked relieved when she saw Ma Apple return-- Strawberry must not be a very experienced cook. Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed to have resolved their disagreement about honeymoon locations, as they were now discussing dates for it that could accommodate each of their schedules. Applebloom had again passed out with her face planted in the book, and nopony seemed keen on waking her.

"Ma, I'm so glad your back," Strawberry said hurriedly. "I know you said just follow the instructions, but it said a pinch of salt and I wasn't sure how much that was. I did just a little, and thought it wasn't enough, then I added more and I think I added too much, and-- crabapples! I'm messing this up!"

Ma hurried over to the stove. "Don't worry, we'll fix it. Just you wait, by the time you're wed you'll be able to cook up a meal without even looking at the directions." The mare glanced back at Cheerilee. "Just take a seat at the table. It looks like Applebloom needs a few minutes anyway."

"AJ, you're just going to have to leave some farm duties to somepony else for a week, unless you want to put this off until winter," Rainbow said in frustration, as Cheerilee took a seat at the table.

"I told you I had a free week or two during the last month of summer!" Applejack said in a raised voice.

Rainbow pointed a wing back at herself. "And I'm not going to be done with the Wonderbolts until fall. This is my final year doing this. Do you want me to have to cut it short? I want to go out with a bang so awesome that it'll have everycreature talking about it for years to come."

Applejack's expression shifted to concern. "Ya ain't plannin' on overdoin' yourself, are ya? I don't want to have ya showing up to our weddin' with you in crutches."

The cocky pegasus waved a hoof dismissively, and blew a raspberry. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

"Rainbow…" Applejack hissed through gritted teeth. "Ya ain't as young as ya used to be, and you can't be tryin' to pull off the same stunts."

"I'll be fine," Rainbow insisted. "I already have a plan to have Scootaloo help me with my conditioning over the summer. She'll be putting me through drills, making sure I'm eating right, assessing my wing power, all the stuff I put my newbies through. I'm not going to do anything she says I'm not up to doing, though I'm sure I'll be as awesome as I was when I was twenty before summer is out."

Applejack seemed like she wanted to press the issue more, but just sighed. "As long as ya take it seriously if she says ya shouldn't be tryin' certain things. Ya got a great record for ponies to look back at, don't go out with somethin' that's going to leave ya feelin' embarrassed by tryin' to outdo yerself. Yer in great shape for yer age, but ya ain't twenty, or even thirty for that matter."

The Wonderbolt gave Applejack an indignant look. "It isn't like you take it easy."

"And ya know better than anypony that I end up with aches and pains for bein' headstron' about it," Applejack fired back, she then softened her expression. "I just don't want you lookin' like a fool in front of everycreature, and that bein' the what they're left rememberin', instead of how great ya've been; or worse, gettin' yourself physically hurt." Cheerilee had a feeling that getting her pride hurt would probably hurt the pegasus more than if she broke a wing. She couldn't be sure, as it had been twenty years, but the Rainbow Dash from her time would probably be more upset about embarrassing herself than getting hurt.

Applebloom stirred from her book, again leaving a trail of drool going down on the pages. She wiped her mouth and shook her head. "Gosh durn it! Fell asleep again! I ain't never been this low on energy."

"Just take it easy," Ma Apple called from the stove. "Let Big Mac take you home tonight in the apple cart. This time next month you'll be tired from constantly waking up to soothe a screaming foal in the dead of night, so it's goin' to be a while before you're back to your old self with energy."

"Thanks for the encouragin' words," Applebloom said with a grimace. Then glared down at her tummy as if trying to give her unborn foal a dirty look. "This is the only time I'm doin' this, no more."

"You say that now, but we'll see how you feel when this first one is startin' school," Ma Apple replied with mix of a snort and a giggle, earning a highly skeptical look from the pregnant mare.

"Since you're awake," Cheerilee began, and got a raised eyebrow from Applebloom in return. "I heard you were trying to find out about what those other two magic resonances in this body might be doing. Did you learn anything about them? Is that what you're reading about?"

Applebloom looked down at the book. "It is, actually. It isn't my normal magic to be studyin', though potions can touch on it, and I can understand enough about the concepts well enough to know what it's talkin' about. Not so much in your specific case, yet, but to get the gist of how they got there."

"What did you learn?" Cheerilee asked, putting her forehooves on the table and standing in her chair.

"Sit down properly," Applejack scolded. Cheerilee grumbled, but did as instructed.

Applebloom wiped a page clean and flipped through a few pages of the book. "It ain't as uncommon as ya might think for creatures to have these types of resonances in them. Me, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo likely have a few of em' ourselves, probably every pony in the Crystal Empire, the hypogriffs and sea ponies, the dragons, and any of the element bearers. It comes from bein' exposed to a powerful outside magical force, and gives you a kind of affinity to it. If you have this repeated enough generations of creatures it can cause permanent changes, and we can see this in process with the crystal ponies and their exposure to the Crystal Heart's magic-- it is slowly changin' them into their own distinct type of pony, with their own distinct type of magic."

"Candy is becoming something different than a regular unicorn?" Cheerilee asked, as she tried to understand the concept.

"E'nope," Applebloom replied. "If every one of your own foals, and then grandfoals, and then great grandfoals were exposed to the same thing, then it might start changin' the great-great grandfoals… maybe, might need even more generations than that. You've just been exposed to somethin' big and magical that infused some resonance into ya, somethin'-- two somethin's-- that we ain't quite familiar with."

"So what is it doing?" Cheerilee asked, Ma Apple and the others all turned their attention to Applebloom.

Applebloom disappointed them all by shrugging. "Don't know; might be doin' nothin', and it's just a memory of the exposure-- kind of like if you get sick with somethin' your body remembers what ya got sick with because those viruses plant a little of themselves in you, only plantin' a little of its magic in your magic in this case. Not callin' it an illness, just tryin' to explain how it works. It could be doin' somethin' or nothin' at all, but I ain't the one studying it to tell ya."

"But it was definitely something powerful?" Cheerilee asked, wishing she could get more answers than just that.

The mare nodded. "E'yup. It wouldn't have left itself in ya if it weren't somethin' strong, two somethin's. That's what makes it really interestin'. You've been exposed to not one, but two powerful magics that Luster can't identify. Things like the Crystal Heart, the Pearl of Transformation, the Dragon Scepter, the Elements of Harmony, Discord's chaos magic, those are all well-known powerful magics that she can recognize right away. Even stuff like the bond me and the other CMC have might not be common, but it's well documented. She ain't got a clue what those two in you are. She's goin' to be consultin' others tryin' to find out if anycreature can recognize them."

"Figure me and Rainbow must have a heap of the things in us, seein' we've been exposed to all kinds of crazy things over the years," Applejack said in mild amazement. Applebloom gave her sister a silent nod, Rainbow held up a wing to her face to inspect it, as if trying to see the many magic resonances that must have latched onto her through the years.

It was hard to say where she could go from here on this line of investigation. All there was to do was wait until they could identify whatever Candy had come in contact with, or to identify if it was actively doing anything within her. Twilight Comet had already said he went out searching every night for a magical cause, and came up with empty hooves for his trouble. He might not have been familiar with these concepts, but she doubted knowing about them in detail really would have changed much if he had actually found a cause. All of what Applebloom had explained was primarily academic in nature.

So her plans for tomorrow were unchanged. She was going to try to keep her head down while making it through the school day, and then she was going to try to convince Cheese to lead her to her little sister (who must be much older than Cheerilee's proper age at this point). One day at a time, learning what she could, and trying to come up with convincing arguments to get ponies on the right track, that was all she could do until she finally left Candy's body. She'd help the filly somehow, she just had to keep focused on the goal.

Chapter 19: Strawberries and Muffins

The next morning began again before the crack of dawn, with her being told to do a few chores before school. She grew up on a farm, so she wasn't completely caught off guard by this, but it had been so many years that she'd forgotten how a farm filly's day might begin. It gave her a reminder that this was how many of her own students began their days, in contrast to the city ponies that she had done her student teaching with years ago-- and may have influenced her teaching methods since then. She wasn't sure what she would change about her methodology having considered this, but it was worth reviewing how it impacted her students and how to best teach them, at least once she finally got back to her own time.

Candy's morning chores weren't too much; she simply had to bring fresh water out for the various animals on the farm. She wanted to know why the Apples kept pigs, as her family never had, and she knew few farmers that did. They just didn't seem to serve a purpose on the farm. She almost asked, then considered the number of dragons and griffins she'd seen living in Ponyville, after which she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer. However, the Apples had kept pigs even back in her own time, and she doubted the local demand for… that… was as high back then. It was a mystery she decided she'd rather not solve.

Having completed the chores, she was then escorted to the school by Strawberry Surprise (Who thankfully hadn't been that loud with Bright Pear overnight). This wouldn't be so bad, but the young mare seemed to be doing her best to try to form a bond with her future sister-in-law, by revelling Cheerilee with her school exploits. She tried to object that she wasn't Candy, but the pegasus countered with Candy might remember her telling all this later on. Cheerilee had no counter for this, and was forced to listen to the things her school was going to be subjected to in a few years.

"--and one time there was this filly, I won't say who, who was such a prissy thing that I felt I had to bring her down a notch," Strawberry was saying. Her previous stories made it clear that Strawberry was lucky she hadn't been expelled at some point for her foalhood pranks. "Anyway, I won't tell you how I managed to do it, but I made a peanut butter bomb explode under her tail when she was using the restroom. The stuck-up priss hid in the restroom all day trying to clean it off with her hooves, and that was just making it a worse mess."

Cheerilee stopped walking and stared. "Do you realize how much you could have traumatized-"

Strawberry gave a small flap of her wings. "Oh her parents were mad! And Spoiled Rich nearly had me expelled-- I would have loved to get her instead, but I didn't want to get expelled. Principal Cheerilee sat me down and had a long talk, and had me write a thirty-page report on why I shouldn't make messes all over another filly's winking-hole, and had me in weekend detention for a month."

Cheerilee shook her head in disbelief. "Are you at least regretful about what you did?"

Strawberry's ears sagged. "Yeah, I didn't mean to do anything too bad to her. I just wanted to embarrass her with a mess because she was miss perfect-never-does-anything-wrong, and I felt bad even being around her."

"So you were the school bully," Cheerilee said flatly.

"I'm not proud of that." Strawberry pointed a wing at Cheerilee. "You and I are alike in some ways, you know? I guess I was just acting out because I was mad back then, and you're mad now and acting out by doing this whole personality thing. My dad was always gone for long stretches of time, and when he did come home for a few weeks, I always ended up with my mom telling me I was going to have a new brother or sister. Oh, and guess who was going to have to help take care of them instead of doing things with other foals my age after school? Me, because I was the oldest, and Mom worked late."

"Wasn't Ma bragging about how many grandfoals you were going to give her?" Cheerilee asked.

Strawberry sniffed. "Well, that will be different. I'm going to be a full time mom by choice, and they'll be my foals, not somepony else's. Plus, they won't have one parent gone most of the time, and I have Ma to turn to for help occasionally." That was fair enough, and a distinction worth making.

"So when did you stop being a terror at school?" Cheerilee asked, then laid her ears back. "You did stop being like that to others, right?"

"Yeah, I stopped," Strawberry said with a nod, and gave her a considering look. "You should take notes, because it was the real Principal Cheerilee that kind of helped with that."

That caught more of her interest. "What did I do?"

The pegasus came and sat down next to her. "One day, after I got caught putting mealworms in Spoiled Rich's lunch-- believe me, she deserved it-- Cheerilee called me to her office. My mom and Spoiled Rich were both there, and Spoiled Rich was pushing for me to be expelled. My mom was there trying to plead my case that I wasn't a bad foal."

"So fear of expulsion straightened you out?" Cheerilee asked.

The mare shook her head. "Oh no, at that point I could have cared less. Then Cheerilee went and locked us all in her office, and said that I wasn't getting expelled, but she was going to take extreme measures to make sure things were resolved for good. Spoiled Rich thought she intended to have my mom beat me, right then and there, that snooty witch even smiled when asking if that was what Cheerilee intended. That kind of scared me. My mom had never hit me, ever."

Cheerilee shook her head. "That can't be what I intended. I would never approve of just beating a foal into good behavior!"

"And it wasn't what she intended," Strawberry replied. "She told me to tell my mom exactly what was making me act out. I didn't, not right away. I just said I didn't know. Then she told my mom to talk about how responsible I was at home. My mom sat there and told them all about all the stuff I did taking care of my siblings, and how good and helpful I was, and how she couldn't understand why I behaved like such a brat and bully at school when I was so great at home."

Strawberry frowned and looked away. "And I don't know why, but I just snapped. I started screaming at my mom. It was really unfair, and I felt really bad about it afterwards, because she was the one sitting there, trying to defend me, but I couldn't stop yelling at her about how I never got to have friends outside of school because she couldn't stop having foals, and I shouldn't have to be taking care of them. Then she got her feelings hurt, and started yelling back at me. Spoiled Rich tried to interrupt a few times, calling me a disrespectful ingrate, but Principal Cheerilee told her to let us get it out, and just sat there, at her desk, watching us.

"And eventually, we both just kind of ran out of steam and broke down crying," Strawberry said with a shrug, and tears welled up in her eyes. "Principal Cheerilee then said that foals should be allowed to be foals, but that my mom really did need the help I provided. She said I should help at home, but maybe too much was being asked out of me there. She suggested some things to my mom about how to make that happen, and she told Spoiled Rich that she was confident that would help settle me. The witch didn't buy it, but said she'd wait for my next slip up."

The pegasus then smiled and giggled. "And when we left, we found that a bunch of my classmates had been eavesdropping on the conversation, which made me real mad. They all scattered and ran, but the next day at school one of them came up to me and decided to be my friend, Bright Pear. All the other foals were kind of scared me, and didn't want to be around me, but not him-- he felt bad for me not having any friends. That's how your brother and I started out."

"And all was well after that?" Cheerilee asked. It was nice to hear she'd made a difference in a student's life, even if this was something yet to happen for her. Maybe she could do something about it at an earlier point, but-- would that mess up Strawberry's relationship with Bright Pear? That made this knowledge uncomfortable. It was her duty to step in and help her students if she knew something was wrong, but doing so could actually throw their futures off course in this case.

Although, she was pained to admit she hadn't always stepped in when a student was in need. Diamond Tiara could be a pain back in the day, and was exceedingly difficult to properly discipline due to her mother's interventions, but she'd known why Diamond was so difficult. She'd tried once to help with that, by telling Filthy Rich what she felt his wife was doing to the filly. The next day Spoiled had shown up at the school and told her in few words that, if she tried again to interfere with the way she raised her foal, then she'd be looking for a new job far from Ponyville, and there'd be no recommendation given by the school board to help her in finding work.

Strawberry smirked. "Well, I stayed out of trouble at school after that, but it took a while to stop misbehaving altogether. I'll have to tell you the story sometime about how I used to steal Ma's pies; and how she got even more upset with me when I suddenly stopped than when I was stealing them, but we don’t have enough time for that before we get you to school."

It was still a fair number of minutes before the school day should begin when they reached the school. She saw a large number of foals, and a fair number of other underage creatures, walking around the grounds and playing on the playground equipment. It looked like most of the teachers were out supervising. Strawberry walked up beside her and frowned as she watched a unicorn mare hauling a pegasus filly with the same fur coloring to the administration.

"I guess I should stick my head in the principal's office and find out what trouble my sister has gotten herself into, just to give my mom the heads up," Strawberry said with a sigh. "Trouble at school seems to run in the family. I'm going to pass you off to Miss Silver Spoon and then go check."

Cheerilee almost told the pegasus that she was perfectly capable of getting to class on her own, but decided that would be pointless. Ma Apple had given explicit instructions about it to Strawberry, and made it clear that Candy running off rather than going to class had been an issue with some of the previous personalities.

She allowed herself to be escorted over to Silver Spoon, who was watching the playground and sipping from a steaming thermos. The mare smiled as she saw them approach. "You arrived nice and early, that's a relief. Are you still pretending to be Cherrilee, or are you back to normal?"

"Still Cheerilee," Cheerilee replied, trying not to sulk about continuing to be treated as if she were Candy pretending. Silver Spoon must not have been informed yet about the test results.

"We found out it's a bit more complicated than her just pretending," Strawberry said as she walked up to the teacher, and passed a paper to the teacher. "It's apparently some serious mental thing. I don't really understand it all, but Ma Apple explains it in the letter."

Silver Spoon had set the letter down on the ground and carefully read it over. Her eyebrows arched as she looked back up at them. "I hadn't expected those tests would turn up anything, but this sounds serious. I'll have to pass this on to Principal Doo so she can decide if we need to make any sort of accommodation for it."

"She's been behaving herself," Strawberry explained. "If she honestly thinks she's Cheerilee I can't imagine she'd be that much trouble, and definitely not at school." She flicked an ear and looked at the administrative building. "Speaking of trouble, you wouldn't happen to know what trouble Daiquiri got into, would you? I know she's not part of your class, but you must have seen whatever happened right before we got here."

Silver Spoon gave a frustrated sigh. "I wish she was the same type of trouble you were when you were a student here. She was overheard trying to encourage foals to try her fermented beverage." Cheerilee felt like gaping at what was implied. It was one of the older students, but she was still only twelve or thirteen at most.

Strawberry's head, wings, and tail all hung low; and the mare gave an aggravated snort. "I don't know why mom decided to name her that, other than she thought Strawberry Daiquiri sounded like a pretty Strawberry-themed name. I don't believe names are strictly prophetic, but they definitely give ponies pushes in certain directions. When I have foals, I'm not naming any of mine anything that can lead them to make questionable life choices, I promise you that. I'll talk to my mom about her. I'm really sorry about her behavior."

"She has been a good student, and we understand that she is excited about her recently gained cutie mark. We wouldn't have ponies to produce such things if nopony ever got a cutie mark in it, but we can't have her offering alcohol to foals," Silver Spoon said sternly. "Thankfully, she's about to graduate, and that will save her from some trouble, but your mother needs to give her a good talking to about how just because she knows how to produce alcohol, that she is too young to be drinking it herself without supervision, much less offering it to other creatures even younger than her."

"Mom and Daiquiri have been at odds with one another since Daiquiri got her mark," Strawberry explained. "Mom felt like ponies would judge her if they found out she had gotten her mark accidentally learning how to make alcoholic beverages, and refused to have a cutecinera for Daiquiri. Daiquiri got her feelings hurt over it, and she has been making more, against mom's direct orders not to."

Silver Spoon raised an eyebrow. "Well, Surprise, maybe you should try helping mend some fences with them so this can be resolved. They both respect you, after all. I'm sure that she'll have an appropriate apprenticeship lined up, but after today she's no longer the school's responsibility."

"Yes, Miss Silver Spoon. I'll do what I can," Strawberry said with a nod.

"You can drop the honorific. You haven't been my student in years," the teacher said with an amused smirk. She then turned to Cheerilee. "But as for you, my current student, I think you should just head straight to the principal's office, so she can go over what you'll be doing over the first few weeks of summer. You'll miss the beginning of class, but I'm allowing it. Just come to class immediately when you're done. I don't expect it to take long."

Cheerilee nodded silently. She just wanted to keep her head down and be on good behavior for Candy's sake today, at least through the time spent at school. If there was one place she was sure she could keep from getting Candy in trouble, it was here.

She made her way to the administrative building, ignoring the few greetings by foals that she didn't know along the way. When she entered the building she found a small lobby with several labeled doors along it, as well as a few benches, and a reception desk with an unfamiliar earth pony stallion watching over it.

"I'm supposed to be seeing the principal," she said as she walked over to the reception desk.

The stallion smiled down to her. "You're expected, but you'll need to wait a few minutes. She's dealing with another student right now." That would probably be Strawberry Daiquiri. She nodded in acknowledgment, and took up a seat on one of the benches.

There wasn't much to do while waiting. Aside from a few drawings, that were too far from her to see well, there wasn't much to even look at. The school in her time didn't even have this building, nor any real offices for that matter; her office was her classroom, and she was the entire teaching staff and administration. She wondered when the school started going through this expansion, and hiring on other teachers. When did she get promoted up to the rank of principal? It was hard not to ask the receptionist about these things, given this was something she poured so much of herself into, but she resisted the spoilers-- she had enough to last a lifetime.

After several minutes of waiting, she decided on one thing: when she was in charge of this place she was going to do something to make this lobby more interesting, even if it came down to just adding some potted plants and inspirational posters. This place was just so maddeningly dull and utilitarian, and didn't convey the sense of warmth she wanted to give her students. The thought crossed her mind that she might well have done so, but Dinky Doo chose to go with a different approach; or perhaps had different decor in mind, but had not yet had the chance to put it in place. She’d only just got the job, after all.

Why her future self had run off still was a mystery that bothered her almost as the mystery surrounding Candy. It just was just not something she could see herself doing, even in twenty years, even if she changed a lot. Running from a job had never been a part of her makeup.

One of the doors opened and Daiquiri walked out with head held low, and a scowl on her face. It must have been more of a scolding than a happy resolution; sometimes that was all that could be done. Cheerilee caught sight of the filly's cutie mark, a small pile of strawberries next to what was clearly a wine bottle. Dinky stuck her head out her office door and gave the pegasus a sad frown, then turned to Cheerilee. "Alright, Candy, I'm ready for you. I hope you haven't been waiting too long."

She got up and walked to Dinky's office. As she was walking by the mare she glanced up at Dinky's earrings. The earrings appeared to be just plain muffins, with no smiling faces. "Silly question, but do you have a different set of muffin earrings?"

Dinky tilted her head. "No, just this pair. They were a gift from my mother when I first started teaching, and I rarely go anywhere without them. Why do you ask?"

Cheerilee shook her head. "I just thought I saw a different pair yesterday." She then continued into the office.

Dinky's office was much warmer in tone than the area outside. There were a few loaded bookshelves, along with some filing cabinets, a large calendar with a smiling sun hung where it was easy to look over. There were also a few cardboard boxes that looked like they were still in the process of being unpacked, and a few framed photos had been hung on the wall so far. Dinky's desk was clear of any clutter, except for a notebook, ink well, and writing quill, and a large window graced one wall, done in Cheerilee's own colors and her cutie mark, perhaps a holdover from when she held this office that Dinky simply hadn't found a replacement for as of yet.

There were also three stools in front of the desk beckoning to her,and she took a seat on the center one.

"And how are you doing today, Cheerilee?" Dinky said as she took her own seat behind the desk.

"You believe I'm Cheerilee?" She asked with eagerness.

Dinky shook her head. "I believe you think you are. Starlight came over and briefed me about your condition yesterday afternoon. I figured it would be best just to address you as you see yourself, for right now anyway. I haven't had a chance to explain the situation to Silver yet, but I'll speak with her. How are you doing?"

"Wishing more ponies would believe me when I say who I am," she responded with a pout.

Dinky raised an eyebrow. "Do some believe you?"

She lowered her gaze from her former student. "I can't say for sure." She would respect Pinkie's wishes, for now, about not telling anypony the party mare believed her.

"I see," Dinky replied with a nod. "Well, I still need to see to it that you are properly disciplined for the dangerous stunt you did with that potion, and the mess you made. I don't believe in keeping you busy all summer though. Foals need that break, and so do the teachers. I'm going to be extremely lenient in this case. I expect you to be here this weekend, bright and early, and you'll be cleaning desks for the whole day. I'll be the one supervising you. In addition to that, I expect you to write a ten-page report over the summer about potion safety, which you will turn in to Miss Silver Spoon on the first day of school next year, along with giving an oral report about it. You may consult your aunt if you wish; in fact, I'd even recommend it. It will count as part of your grades for that year, and failure to do it will result in a failed project and additional disciplinary action. Do you have any objections or reasons you can't fulfil these tasks?"

"Um, can you write Ma Apple a note explaining this?" Cheerilee asked in return. "I don't know what Candy will and won't remember about all this, and I doubt it will be me who is here come next school year. I hope I won't be here come the weekend, but have a feeling I will be."

Dinky flicked an ear. "Why so sure this personality will still be here?"

Cheerilee waved a hoof. "Last three inhabitants of Candy's body; Sombra, Twilight Comet, and the changeling… I never caught the changeling's name were here for extended periods."

"The changeling was Pincer," Dinky supplied. "And I don't remember a Twilight Comet."

"That was who was holding the body when Candy was saying she had amnesia," Cheerilee explained.

Dinky raised both eyebrows. "And how do you remember that one, but don't remember Pincer?"

She blinked. Explaining that would require explaining Twilight Comet's note, and that note could look very bad for her if anypony looked at it before she knew how to present it. "I… I-I found out on accident about that one. Somepony told me about him."

Dinky propped her chin on a hoof. "I see. Care to share who?"

"I don't know their name," she answered quickly.

Dinky gave her a skeptical eyebrow. "Very convenient, don't you think? But I guess your family is going to resolve this over the summer. I do have a quick question for you, as Cheerilee, before I send you back to class."

That caught her off guard. "What is it?"

Dinky gave a frustrated sigh, and gestured around the room. "If you're Cheerilee, where in Equestria would you keep all the old student files? I've been looking all over for them for months, and haven't found a trace of them. No pony has asked yet, thank Twilight, but I need those transcripts if any graduate from here ever requests them. I've tried mailing the real Cheerilee several times to ask, but have gotten no response. I'm about ready to take a train to Vanhoover just to track her down and get an answer."

That was easy enough. "Well, in my day I didn't have much storage space at the school, but I did have plenty at home. I keep my current student's files at the school, and the graduates I have at home."

"That's a possibility I'd considered, but didn't want to demand access to her old house," Dinky replied thoughtfully. "Maybe I should just break down and ask Cherry Tea to let me in there to check."

Cheerilee gasped. "Wait, I took off out of town, but never put my house on the market? That must mean I intend to come back."

Dinky frowned. "I'm not so sure, Cheerilee was kind of…" The principal seemed to catch herself. "That really isn't something I can discuss with anycreature except her family. Just know I don't think she plans on returning. I promised her I wouldn't spread any rumors about her leaving when she appointed me her successor at the school."

Cheerilee narrowed her eyes. The principal might not fully understand her future self's reasoning, but she did know something about the running off incident. "So you saw me before I left, but after I had decided to skip town? You can't tell me anything about it? Was I nervous? Was I agitated? Was I upset about something? Was I angry about something?"

"I'm not discussing it," Dinky replied with a tone of finality. "I don't know her reasons. I was caught off guard like everycreature else. I won't speculate on them and start rumors flying that could hurt her reputation."

Well, Dinky, you just let slip that it could come off as damaging to my reputation. She barely stopped herself from saying out loud. That didn't get her any closer to figuring out what it was, as she could think of nothing she would ever do that could hurt her reputation. She was as squeaky clean as they came.

She was about to try to weedle out some more information, but her breath caught as she looked up at Dinky's earrings. The muffins were smiling at her.

Dinky picked up on her sudden shock. "Is something wrong? Do you need to see the nurse?" She asked in concern.

Cheerilee squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. The faces were gone, the muffins on the earrings were just plain muffins. "No, it's nothing. I think I'll just head back to class now."

She definitely couldn't tell the mare the truth. She was having a hard enough time convincing ponies she and Candy weren't crazy without talking about seeing things that weren't there.

Chapter 20: Elementary School, how hard could it be?

"Ah, Candy, take your seat up front next to Cheese," Silver Spoon instructed as Cheerilee walked into the classroom.

She looked around the classroom.The class was mostly ponies, but there were a few other creatures as well. Cheese was easy enough to spot, as his desk was the one closest to the door. Autumn Fire had the desk immediately behind the androgynous colt, and an empty desk sat to Cheese's left. She walked over to the desk, but stopped in terror at what was sitting to the empty desk's left.

She wasn't even sure what species he was-- he (she was pretty sure it was a he) was a scaly brown, had a face resembling a pony (aside from the very large, very scary, very sharp looking fangs), arms with clawed hands like a dragon, and the rest of his body resembled some massive snake (no hind legs, just his scaly coils). She was familiar with a large number of intelligent creatures in Equestria and beyond, but she had no idea what this thing was. Her mind just registered snake-pony, and a strong desire to turn and run. The only thing that gave her the courage not to bolt right then was he was obviously a student, and none of the other students seemed disturbed by his presence.

"Misss Silver Spoon," the snake-pony hissed, with his tongue flicking out of his mouth as he spoke. "She's staring at me like she's going to scream again." His head cowered low as he spoke, and she got the distinct impression that he was even more afraid of her screaming than she was of him.

Silver Spoon pursed her lips and then smiled at the monstrous pony. "Candy isn't going to scream. I'm sure she was distracted by something else." The teacher turned to her and gave her a tight smile. "Isn't that right, Candy? Sisstet isn't scaring you, is he?"

She licked her lips nervously. He's just another student, here to learn. He's a colt, just like all the other colts. You're fine with young dragons, and he isn't any scarier than a dragon. She repeated that in her head a few times, then silently made her way to her seat. The snake-pony-- Sisstet-- gave her a wary look, as if expecting an outburst at any moment, then turned his attention back to the lesson, and seemed to be making a point not to look in her direction. After a minute or two she settled down, and convinced herself that he wasn't dangerous, even if he looked scary. His kind must be a recent arrival in Ponyville, since he was the first of his species she'd seen since she'd been here. She wondered if there were any other unfamiliar species walking about Ponyville that she hadn't seen yet. The past year or two in her own time had an influx of foriegn creatures into town; who knew how many new things had been found in the past twenty years.

After that, things became rather mundane, although in a very novel way. For the first time in many years, Cheerilee found herself sitting in a student desk, listening to a teacher give a lesson. Listening might have been a stretch to say, as she was confident she didn't need any explanation on how to do basic long division. Silver Spoon had identified this as the subject that many of her students needed improvement on, and had chosen the last lesson of the school year to be a refresher on the subject.

Silver Spoon had some sort of light projector that students could write their answers on and it would display it against a canvas screen. It seemed a major quality of life improvement over the use of the chalkboard. She wondered if the gadget and accompanying markers were available somewhere in her own time. She'd love to have one if they were, but she doubted the school board would allow her to dip into the budget enough to actually get them if they were. Perhaps she could appeal to Princess Twilight for some sort of grant. The school obviously would get more money at some point, otherwise it wouldn't have these cool gadgets and grown as large as it had.

"Very good, Godfrey," Silver Spoon said in approval to a griffin student who had just solved a problem on the projector. "Does anycreature have any questions about what Godfrey did to solve the problem?"

No student showed any sign of confusion. Silver Spoon continued smiling as she walked over to her desk. The teacher had a large mixing bowl full of the names of students on small slips of paper. "We'll do just one or two more, then we can break for lunch." The teacher shook the bowl then rolled her hoof around in to further mix the names. She then reached in with her head and bobbed out a slip of paper, and then read it from the desk. "Okay, Candy, it looks like it's your turn." The teacher looked around the class. "I think that actually covers most of the class participation for today. Has anycreature else not participated today? Sisstet, I think just you. You'll go right after Candy, and when we come back from lunch we can discuss your summer projects."

There was a chorus of groans, and Silver Spoon flicked her ears. "Oh, don't be like that. This isn't your first or second year. You can expect a summer project every year from now till you graduate. I need you doing something small at the end of summer to get your minds in gear for school year. It won't be any harder than any of your other projects you've done this year, I promise."

Silver Spoon changed out the sheet on top of the projector with a fresh one, and Cheerilee left her desk and hopped up on the stool next to it. She grabbed up the marker in her mouth and quickly completed the math problem, before setting the marker back down.

"What is that?" One of the earth pony colts towards the back of the classroom asked.

"She didn't do that right," a unicorn filly chimed in.

"The answer is right, but I don't understand what she did," the griffin who had just been up at the projector before her piped in.

"It looks like what my daddy did when he was trying to help me with my homework that one time," another filly said.

She looked at Silver Spoon to try to figure out what they were going on about. The teacher gave her work a long look, then gave her a poker faced appraisal, then turned back to the class with her smile back on her face. "Candy's answer is right, she just used an old method for solving the problem."

"It looks weird," the earth pony colt from before called out.

Silver chuckled. "This is actually the way I, and many of your parents, learned how to do long division. It isn't part of the curriculum anymore, and it would take more time than what we have today to explain how it works." The teacher pointed a hoof at the snake-pony. "Sisstet, would you please come up and do the same problem with the normal method?"

Sisstet left his desk, doing a mix of walking on his arms and slithering with his tail. Cheerilee hastily left the stool, but the snake-pony simply reared up on its tail to reach a height to work on the problem. She hurried back to her seat, and watched as the problem was redone on the same sheet.

She hadn't been paying attention to what the students were doing earlier, but paid attention now. It only took the other student a moment or two to do the problem, but she wasn't exactly sure what the method he used was. He wrote out a small multiplication problem to the side for reasons she couldn't determine, and went through a series of other steps in a hurry. He came out to the same answer as her, except marking a simple one third fraction instead of her repeating three decimal next to the whole number. She guessed that was technically more accurate, though she wondered if they did decimals. At least one student had recognized her repeating three as right, so it seemed likely they recognized the decimal value for common fractions.

"Very good, Sisstet," Silver Spoon complimented. "What Candy did was accurate as well, but the princess prefers we don't do it that way."

Cheese raised a hoof up. "Why not?"

"She determined that the method we use now makes it easier for creatures to do math quickly in their heads, and it makes it easier to understand more complex types of math when they are introduced to you," Silver Spoon explained. "I admit, I was a bit skeptical about it when she first ordered this new method to be taught, but those who have been brought up with this method do seem to be much better at math than ponies that were brought up on the old method."

"So why did they used to do it that way if it wasn't as good?" Another student asked.

"It was just the way we'd always done it to that point. It was all we thought we needed, and for the most part, it was," Silver explained. "The princess wants everycreature to know more about math, science, and history than we used to know. She's shown all the teachers in Equestria all the things she wants for Equestria's future, but she needs everycreature's help to do those things."

"The princess needs our help?" Another filly asked in wonder.

"Yes, she does," Silver said with a nod. The filly gasped, as if Twilight Sparkle had just shown up right in front of her and ordered her on a quest.

Well, at least she could count on Princess Twilight to help with education in the future. Princess Celestia had always left a lot to the EEA, and the EEA was very rigid in how they wanted things done, without being very open about suggestions for changes. It sounded like the coming years would be an exciting time to be a teacher, so she was eager to get back to her own time and see what changes were coming, hopefully a crown funded budget.

"It's time to break for lunch," Silver Spoon announced. "We have a special lunch catered by Sugarcube Corner today, and they should be set up outside by now. It was very nice of them to do that, since they are very busy getting cakes ready for graduations. Be sure to thank the nice ponies from Sugarcube Corner for taking the time to provide a nice lunch for us all on the last day of school."

She wondered if Ma Apple was among those that would be serving lunch. From what she had seen, the staff of Sugarcube Corner consisted of the Cake Twins, Ma Apple, and Pinkie Pie.

"There will also be visitors on grounds, here to speak with the graduating class," Silver Spoon continued. "Try to be respectful, and keep the noise level down, as they're talking to the older students about possible apprenticeships. This is a very big deal to your older schoolmates, and to those ponies and creatures looking to hire them on. In a few years that will be you out there, and you wouldn't want any younger students being rude when you are trying to hold a conversation that could possibly impact your life."

In her day that wouldn't be necessary, as she would be the one privately meeting with all those potential employers on her students' behalf. Given how much the town had grown, along with how large the perspective graduating class might be, that might not be practical in this day and age. It was a lot for her to make those kind of arrangements for her much smaller graduating classes, trying to do that with twenty or more students would simply be too much.

"Class is dismissed for lunch and recess," Silver Spoon announced. "Enjoy yourselves, and come back promptly when I call you."

There was a rush of students leaving their seats and hurrying for the door. A few of the students, including her, sat and waited for the initial rush for the door to end before leaving their seats. Cheese was among those that had rushed out the door, but she noted the others that took their time; Autumn Fire waited patiently at his desk for the area to clear, Sisstet seemed almost intimidated by the rush of action as he crouched low at his desk, a unicorn colt with purple fur and a green mane also remained behind, and was watching her thinly veiled hostility that made her a little nervous. Unfortunately, Silver Spoon exited the classroom immediately after the initial rush, and that left her without an adult to turn to if the colt decided to make a nuisance of himself.

She didn't have to wait long before her fears that he'd be trouble to come about.

"I heard you decided to pretend to be my aunt," the colt said haughtily, with one of those practiced noble accents. "I don't find your impersonation of her to be very amusing. I insist that you cease besmeathing my aunt's name with your foalish play." Definitely laying on the haughtiness. This was her nephew? Somepony had mentioned her nephew's name to her already, but she couldn't remember exactly what it was-- it had Cherry in it for sure.

"Leave her alone, Mint." Mint Cherry, that was the name. "She hasn't done anything to you," Autumn called out in warning, swishing his long tasseled tail as he spoke.

"You're the one who told me you were unhappy she was pretending to be my aunt," Mint said with disdain. "What's wrong? You can complain about your little filly friend that you have the hots for, but others can't?"

"She's not my filly friend, I don't have the hots for her," Autumn said with a blush. "Are you saying you have the hots for her?"

Mint sniffed. "Of course not. Maybe a year ago, before this nonsense and when she seemed bound to rise up from her roots to Canterlot high society, that would have made her a worthy future partner, but now she's just some crazy country bumpkin. I wouldn't even care, as she is well connected, and can be forgiven some undesirable quirks for that, but now she is dragging my family into her slanderous portrayals."

She snorted, and had a strong desire that she'd never had towards a foal to just box Mint in the face. He was a snot, a well-educated snot by his verbose insults, but a snot. Of course, Cherry Tea always thought highly of herself as well; always wanting to ingratiate herself with the nobility. The entire reason her sister had chosen to return to Ponyville (other than failing to establish herself in the already crowded tea market in Canterlot) was she saw it as an opportunity to get in from the ground up with future influential ponies after Ponyville became rife with them. Her sister wasn't a gold digger, like Spoiled Rich, nor as snoody, but she definitely had her ambitions. Mint Cherry may be just eight, but he seemed to share those same ambitions with the way he described what was previously attractive about Candy-- a pony that had a star on the rise, with connections to some of Equestria's heroes-- the status she brought, not her personality. It made her feel embarrassed thinking that a nephew of hers could view the world that way.

"You sshouldn't say such mean things," Sisstet hissed in a quivering tone.

Mint raised an eyebrow at him. "Mind your own business, naga. She has run yelling and screaming from you how many times now? It seems like almost every single time she chooses to play some new creature. It has gotten rather stodgy to tell the truth. Why are you defending a pony that hides her prejudice and fear of you behind her charades?"

"Sshe's nice when she isn't pretending to be others," Sisstet hissed in reply. "You're being very mean."

"Or perhaps she is just pretending to be nice to you, and takes the opportunity to voice her true feelings when she portrays others," Mint said with his nose up in the air. Sisstet didn't reply back, instead cowering even lower against his desk, giving Cheerilee a sad look.

Cheerilee no longer felt a shred of fear about Sisstet. This was no scary monster, this was a timid student that longed for acceptance. "Sisstet, I'm sorry for anything I did that made you feel like I was afraid of you."

"Bah, you always give him apologies, yet it always happens again and again. And these two are saying that I am the one being a bully here. There is no fairness," Mint asserted. "You just drop this act now, or I'll see to it you get in big trouble. I don't care who else you decide to pretend to be, but it shall not be any member of my family." With that, the unicorn colt stormed out of the classroom.

Autumn followed after the colt, but glanced back at her as he reached the door. "I wasn't sticking up for you, I was sticking up for Candy. It's not her fault she has you running around instead of her." He then left the classroom before she could reply.

Sisstet slithered out of his seat, and hurried by her, not bothering to glance back in her direction as he went out the door. She hoped she hadn't inadvertently ruined Candy's friendship with Sisstet. Was the race called naga? Naga didn't seem too bad a species, although she'd only seen one example of them. It occurred to her that she'd learned something else. If all of Candy's other occupants reacted that way to Sisstet, that meant that they were all likely from the past as well, and therefore as unfamiliar with naga as she was.

Still, she had a new problem, Mint Cherry. If the colt reacted that negatively to her, how would her sister react? There was also the fact he seemed like he might cause some trouble. Normally she'd scoff at what problems a foal could cause her, but normally she was an adult. Whatever was said would be one foal's word against another, and Candy had a poor reputation. Mint might be a snot, but she got the impression he normally kept his nose out of trouble. That would have her at a disadvantage to anything he tried to pull. She should probably just go straight to Silver Spoon and tell her what had just transpired-- it is what she'd have recommended any of her own students to do.

She made her way out the classroom door. The school day was halfway done. Hopefully she could manage to make it so this was the most problems she had to deal with while getting Candy through her last day of it.

Author's Note

I've got some personal issues going on in the background that may slow the pace of releases, but will still be getting out at least one chapter (if not more) every week.

Chapter 21: Lunch and Recess

Activity outside seemed to be divided into three areas. There were a large number of foals and other creatures already sitting off to the side and around the playground area that were munching on small sandwiches and baked goods, there was also a small line of foals still waiting to be served food from a large table that Ma Apple was watching over. The line was moving exceptionally fast, and it seemed that all if Candy's classmates were already through it, aside from Autumn, Mint, and Sisstet. A few other stragglers from other classes composed the rest of those waiting to be served.

The last area was distanced as far from the serving area as possible, near the administrative building, and had a host of adults talking to the young teens who were the graduating class. She was surprised when she was able to identify many of the adults as former students of hers, or students that were currently hers in her own time; among those that were recent graduates or still in her classes were Featherweight, Diamond Tiara, Rumble, and Pina Colada. Featherweight was still as small and puny as he was as a foal, even though he must be well into his mid-thirties. Diamond was wearing a business suit and that same tiara, and was smiling down to a pair of colts. Rumble and Pound Cake seemed to be competing for the interest of a trio of students. Pina had the full attention of Daiquiri, and a quick glance at Pina's cutie mark showed a wine glass with a slice of pineapple on its rim, something she definitely didn't have yet twenty years ago. There were others, like Yona, who as an adult yak, towered over a unicorn filly and a young griffin hen she was speaking to, but many of them Cheerilee couldn't recognize.

Silver Spoon was sitting just outside the classroom, munching on her own lunch from Sugarcube Corner. First thing was to alert the teacher of Mint's threats. "Silver Spoon-"

"Miss Silver Spoon," Silver corrected. "I understand you believe you're Cheerilee, but she would agree that a student should give their teacher proper respect."

"Miss Silver Spoon," Cheerilee amended. "I wanted to alert you that Mint Cherry was making threats about causing me trouble. He is angry about the fact I'm Cheerilee."

Silver arched an eyebrow at her. "Mint? He's normally very well behaved, more likely to alert me of a problem than cause one, but in this circumstance I can believe something like this. He did get very upset when Principal Cheerilee suddenly left, and very cross with other students that asked him about it. I can see where he might be angry about your current persona. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll have a discussion with him about it."

"He also implied to Sisstet that Candy doesn't like him."

Silver Spoon's face contorted with rage for a moment, and Cheerilee took a step back in fear she'd done something wrong. The teacher took a moment to compose herself, but her ears remained laid back. "That is far more concerning. After all the effort I put into making sure that poor naga feels welcome and has a warm and friendly environment around him while at school, where he can learn to feel trust, it makes me want to…" Silver took a deep breath. "Mint definitely will be getting a lecture about this, and I will be speaking to his parents as well. Words are going to be said."

Cheerilee was taken aback by all of this. She'd gotten that Sisstet was a student who needed to feel acceptance, but she hadn't realized it was this serious. The teacher wasn't done yet though, as Silver Spoon looked pleadingly at her. "Candy, if you really see yourself as Cheerilee right now, then I need a favor from you. I need to explain to Sisstet about your condition, so I can try to undo any damage those few words might have done. His trust is so fragile, you don't understand how fragile, and I can't let anything damage it. I won't discuss your condition without your permission, but I'm asking for it-- no, begging for it."

She wasn't sure she'd be happy having anypony tell another student that Candy wasn't in her right mind, but technically Candy wasn't-- if only in a different way than what everypony thought. "You have my permission." The truth about what Candy was going through would come out eventually, but right now there was another student that was in need, and she wouldn't be who she really was if she didn't do what she could to help with that. She wished she understood the full story behind what was going on with him, because she'd never seen Silver Spoon get this passionate about anything as a foal.

The teacher looked around and then called out, "Sisstet! Can you come over here for a minute, please? You aren't in trouble for anything, but I need to speak with you."

Sisstet looked nervous as he did his combination walk and slither towards them. When he reached them he coiled himself up tightly, but looked up at Silver Spoon with worried eyes.

Silver smiled down at him. "I had it brought to my attention that Mint implied Candy didn't like you. I need to explain some things to you about Candy. These things are private, so I need you to promise us that you won't go telling anycreature about them. She's trusting you to keep this to yourself, can you do that?"

The naga blinked, and uncoiled himself. "Trust me?" He asked in what Cheerilee took for astonishment-- it was a little hard to read his emotions at times. "Yess. I'll keep the secret."

"Good," the teacher replied, then gestured at Cheerilee. "Candy isn't just pretending to be other creatures. She really does think she is who she says she is, which right now is Cheerilee from twenty years ago. Each one of these personalities is meeting you for the first time ever when they first meet you, that's why so many of them have been afraid. They don't remember that you and Candy are friends, and trust me, Candy thinks of you as a friend."

The snakelike pony gave a nervous dip of his head. "I don't understand. Candy is not Candy?"

"Right now I'm Cheerilee, Candy will come back, I promise," Cheerilee said quietly. "And I'm really sorry for being apprehensive about you. I'm from twenty years ago."

"Twenty years ago wass a bad time for naga," Sisstet said sadly. "We are better now."

"I'd need to double check the dates, but twenty years ago I don't think anycreature in Equestria even knew about naga," Silver continued. "She was just seeing something completely unfamiliar to her. Do you remember know how ponies reacted to you and your… parents when you first came to Ponyville?"

Sisstet shook his head. "I wass too small. Don't remember."

"There was a lot of running and screaming, believe me," Silver said with a sigh. "But then creatures came to understand you aren't scary monsters, and don't do that anymore."

"They sstill run and hide when guardians get mad," Sisstet hissed as he cowered low again. That made Cheerilee feel a bit nervous about ever encountering Sisstet's parents. How big did they get? Did the fangs get even bigger?

Silver scrunched up her muzzle. "Well, they need much more work socializing than you do. I don't blame them for that, and know they are trying. The point is, nocreature thinks you are a scary monster now that they've gotten to know you." She paused and gave him a pointed look. "Which reminds me. I'll be walking you home after school today. When your parents get your report card I don't want any misunderstandings, like last year."

Sisstet curled up tight in fear, and actually trembled. "You didn't tell them to encourage me to improve again, did you?" Cheerilee blinked. What was wrong with that? That seemed a perfectly ordinary way of saying a student needed a little improvement in an area. Did they demand absolute perfection from him?

Silver grit her teeth. "Oh, I learned my lesson that they have very different interpretations on what is meant by some things. That's why I'm going with you personally to make sure no mistakes are made. You'd tell me if they did something like that again, right?"

"They haven't," Sisstet said quickly. "They were very ssorry they understood instructions wrong. They said that in the Clutch that meant… do what they did." Something about all this sent a chill down Cheerilee's spine. She didn't know what happened, but the implication she was getting between Silver's rage and Sisstet's timid answer made her terrified for the colt.

Silver grunted, and still looked unhappy. "Very well. Anyway, trust that Candy really does like you. I don't know how this particular Cheerilee personality will take you, but I know that the Cheerilee I know would be nice to you as well. Principal Cheerilee always treated you nicely, right?"

The colt nodded vigorously. "Principal Cheerilee was always nice to me. I miss her. Why'd she leave?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Silver replied with a shake of her head. "But I've kept you long enough. Are you willing to trust Candy?"

Sisstet gave Cheerilee an apprehensive look. "Ssome of Candy's personalities are bad," he hissed. "But if she is Principal Cheerilee right now I think she must be good. I just don't like the bad ones."

"None of us do," Silver replied. "But we'll deal with them as they come. Hopefully they'll get this all fixed soon. Get back to lunch. I've kept you too long."

"Yess, Miss Silver Spoon," the colt said, and then slithered off the way he came.

As soon as he was out of hearing distance Cheerilee turned to the teacher, outraged at what was implied. "Is he being abused!?"

"Keep your voice down!" Silver scolded with a quick glance around her. "I shouldn't even be discussing this with you, but you brought that word up, and I need to address it. It's a complicated situation; abuse isn't the word, nor is neglect. They just aren't really qualified to be raising a foal."

Cheerilee gaped. "Why? Why would they entrust a foal to creatures that can't properly care for him?"

Silver seemed on the point of spitting, and forgetting completely she was talking to a foal. The teacher was venting now. "Sisstet lacks for nothing material, and they aren't cruel to him, but they can't give him love. They were brought up in... a very bad culture, one that made the changelings before they reformed look cuddly. They're supposed to be learning how to love by caring for him, and they honestly do try-- I'll give them that. They do whatever they're ordered to do without question. They can be ordered to be gentle and cooperative, and they obey that with no complaint, but you can't order them how to feel. They aren't even his real parents, just two random naga that were assigned as guardians when he was still an egg."

"Maybe they just aren't good at expressing love," Cheerilee suggested.

Silver shook her head. "No, you can't just fix a creature that’s never known love, not when that much damage has been done. At least the young that never endured the same things, like Sisstet, demonstrate that there's hope for their future. I just think he deserves a better home." The teacher's eyes widened as she finally seemed to remember that she was speaking to a foal, and how inappropriate it was to be discussing this subject at all in her position. "Please, keep this discussion to yourself. I just want the best for all of you, and sometimes that means I get a little emotional about things."

Cheerilee silently nodded, although she wanted to point out that Silver Spoon seemed particularly passionate about Sisstet's well being. How much time and care had Silver poured into making sure the young naga felt safe, welcome, and loved? If what she said about naga in general was true, then the natural response to seeing a naga might be fear. Yet, no students seemed to fear Sisstet, as she could see him happily talking with a group of foals that very moment. SIlver had truly helped him, it seemed. Her relationship with him had become more than teacher and student, perhaps even trying to fill the parental role when Sisstet's parents weren't capable themselves.

"Go get your lunch," the teacher instructed, bringing Cheerilee out of her thoughts. "If you don't hurry you'll have hardly any time after you eat for recess."

Having time for recess wasn't that big a priority to her, but lunch was. Candy was a growing filly, and her stomach was growling enough to let Cheerilee know she needed plenty of food. "I will," she replied. "Thank you for taking the time to talk to me." She then hurried over to the catering table as her stomach let off a particularly deep growl.

Ma Apple smiled at her as she came up to the table. "I was startin' to get worried you were goin' to skip lunch, and almost called out to you to come eat. I saw you talkin' to your teacher. Is everythin' alright?"

"I was just heading off a problem before it started, and learned a few things about naga," Cheerilee replied as she reached her mouth towards one of the bagged lunches.

The bag was pulled back by Ma's magic and a different one put in front of her. "I have yours specially prepared. With a sandwich, two apples, and a juice box, instead of a sandwich, apple, juice box, and muffin." The mare explained.

Cheerilee took the proffered bag in her mouth with no complaint. She didn't know why she was seeing smiles on muffins when none of Candy’s other personalities had, but she wasn't eager to try to bite into her lunch only to find a face smiling at her. That was a mystery she had gained absolutely no clues on. If Candy had some strange psychosis with muffins, then why was it bleeding over to her but not the others? Why was it just on muffin shaped things and not other random objects? The fact it had started around the same time as everything else indicated it meant something, but she was at a complete loss as to what.

Pound Cake walked over to the table, shaking his wings irritability. Ma flicked an ear as she looked at him. "Any luck with the graduates?"

"Sugar Mix," Pound replied, as he grabbed up a stray juice box in his wing. "She seems interested, as she's more interested in cakes and pastries than general cooking. Rumble is likely going to get the other two." He then took a sip from the juice.

Ma let off a sigh. "At least we got one, this time around. We're in desperate need of more help."

"I told her a starting date in mid-summer," Pound said, and waved a wing at Ma when she narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't look at me like that. You know that Pumpkin will scare her off if we bring her in right now. I figured starting her after things have settled down would be better. She can get used to Pumpkin being sweet for almost a full year before she meets Miss Sour. We then have plenty of time to prep her and hopefully retain this one."

"I guess that is a good idea," Ma relented, as her ears sagged. "I just wish we could get a little less burden right now. You know your sister is going to have words to say about you starting Mix late."

Pound shrugged. "Pumpkin can curse at me all she wants. She'll see I'm right when she gets back to acting as her normal self."

She walked off from the adults discussion, lunch bag in mouth. A quick glance around the playground area let her spot Cheese eating his lunch with Caramel Apple and Autumn Fire. There wasn't anywhere to go that was really private, so sitting next to those three was probably for the best, since they all knew who she was, or at least knew who she said she was.

Autumn looked up and grimaced at her as she approached, but didn't object to her coming over. Caramel noticed it, and gave the kirin a questioning look. "What's wron' with ya an' ma sister? You normally can't wait to spend time with her."

"She's not Candy," Autumn grumbled, and levitate his sandwich up to his mouth and bit into it savagely. She briefly reconsidered sitting near them, but decided to just try to convince Autumn she wanted Candy back as much as he did.

Caramel tilted his head. "I know she's a'pretendin' again, but--"

"It's not pretend," Autumn snarled. "I'm not sure if any of those personalities were pretend." It occurred to her then that Caramel had been away from the farm when the family had been discussing that Candy had a disorder, so he was out of the loop for the moment.

She opened her mouth to let Caramel know about what had been discussed in his night away from the farm, but Cheese gave off a loud, feminine giggle. "You still think she's pretty," Cheese said with a grin.

The kirin blushed again, then gave Cheese a deep frown. "She might be, but she isn't Candy. I'd still rather have Candy here, even if she were ugly." Autumn ducked his head down low next to Cheese. "And watch it with your laugh, you sounded like a filly that time. Somecreature might have heard you, and I don't want them picking on you again."

Cheese's enthusiasm plummeted, as did his posture. "I can't help it, and it's only going to get worse the bigger I get. They're going to pick on me no matter what."

She almost broke taboo to ask more about Cheese's exact intersex condition, but stopped herself. That was something else she found herself regressing to fillyhood about- getting distracted by any little thing she became curious about. She hadn't done that in years, but found herself doing it constantly as of late. It was a great thing for a young foal to do, as it led to them learning all about the world around them, and could be great in adults as well, but it also meant everything ended up distracting her, and that was bad when trying to focus.

"You weren't at home yesterday," she informed Candy's older brother. "The news was that Candy isn't pretending to be anypony. Your family thinks it is some sort of personality disorder, but I know that I really am Cheerilee."

"And Pinkie Pie thinks so too," Autumn added in.

"You weren't supposed to tell anycreature that!" Cheese scolded.

Autumn pointed at Caramel. "He isn't anycreature, he's Candy's brother. Shouldn't her brother know some other pony has taken over his sister's body?"

"I didn't choose for it to happen," she snapped. "Something happened to Candy months ago that made this all start happening. I just have to figure out what, so it can be fixed. All those experts are thinking I'm some split personality, but I'm not."

Caramel seemed to be trying to process this. "Where's Candy then? We should tell Ma."

"I've already told Ma and she doesn't believe me," Cheerilee said in frustration as she ripped open her lunch bag. "Nopony but Pinkie does. I'm not even sure Autumn and Cheese do."

"I believe you," Autumn said immediately. "Creatures think Pinkie Pie is crazy, but my mom is a lot like her. She said a lot of kirin used to think she was crazy, even when she was right. Pinkie Pie has saved the world lots of times, so she can't be that crazy."

"I believe my mom," Cheese said quietly. "If she says you're really Cheerilee, then you must be."

Caramel still seemed confused. "So you're like an old pony?"

"I'm from twenty years ago. I'm thirty-three, that's not old!" She snapped.

"Seems pretty old to me," Autumn replied. "That's as old as Miss Silver Spoon. That's like grandmare old."

She knew she was acting like a foal, but couldn't help herself from being pulled into a playground dispute. "Silver Spoon isn't old, and most mares wouldn't be a grandmare by the time they're that age! All your parents are older than that, and none of them are grandparents yet."

"Not yet," Caramel said thoughtfully. "But if Bright keeps doin' that birds and bees stuff- "

She cut him off. "I'm not old, and that's final!"

"Still pretending to be my aunt, I see."

She turned, Mint had walked over to them. The volume of their conversation must have attracted him. She quickly glanced back at where Silver Spoon was at and saw that the teacher was preoccupied dealing with a filly that was crying. Mint had freedom for the moment to make a nuisance of himself. She turned back to the colt to tell him to please leave, but her breath caught as she saw the muffin he was holding in his magic-- it had a smiling face on it.

"Leave us alone, Mint," Autumn said laying his ears flat.

Mint looked at her and took in her expression with a smile. "Ah, are you worried I'm going to get you in trouble?" He asked, misinterpreting of what was causing her fear.

"Leave ma sister alone!" Caramel growled.

Mint made some sort of snotty reply back, but she wasn't listening. Her entire attention was focused on the smiling muffin, and the growing dread and unease she was feeling. She tried to calm herself down, because the fear didn't make sense. She knew about the muffin thing, even if this was her first time seeing a face on an actual muffin, and not just Dinky's earrings. She knew it wasn't real. She knew it wasn't dangerous. She still felt rising panic at seeing the thing, and at the same time couldn't pull her eyes away. Was this what Candy felt every time she saw those faces?

The bickering between the colts went back and forth, and Mint must have said something particularly witty, as he gave a satisfied smirk. After giving that smirk he lifted the floating muffin up to his mouth to reward himself. She watched him raise it to his mouth, the fear growing so intense that she was now trembling. As he opened his mouth to take a bite she rushed forward, and swatted the muffin away, launching it through the air, and hitting a griffin on the side of the head. The griffin turned and looked at what hit him, then looked towards them. He then picked up his own muffin, chucking it at Mint. The unicorn deftly dodged it, and it struck Cheese instead.

The androgynous colt immediately proved to be his mother's son, as he picked up his own muffin, and yelled out a battlecry that teachers through the ages dreaded hearing. "FOOD FIGHT!"

The playground descended into chaos, as muffins were thrown back and forth, with more and more students joining in the confectionary carnage. The teachers tried moving in to break up the food fight, but food fights were the antithesis of order by their nature, something seemingly designed by Discord himself. The colts quickly forgot their own disagreements as they found themselves comrades-in-arms by their shared location, against the opposing creatures determined to pelt them with baked goods.

Cheerilee did not take part. Her panic had escalated a hundred-fold. Each of those muffins flying through the air had faces, and it seemed as if time had slowed down around her just to give each of the muffins ample opportunity to grin at her. Her eyes darted left and right, looking for somewhere to run, but the muffins were everywhere. Her breathing became difficult due to the strain, and she felt like she was drowning in a sea of sinister smiles. Her vision blurred, but the faces kept their perfect clarity. She wanted to close her eyes, or to cover them, but it was as if some force locked out her ability to do so.

A primal instinct made the magic within her surge into the horn in her head, and she found the voice to shout one thing. "GO AWAY!"

The magic acted to save her from what was terrorizing her, and a shockwave of magic erupted out of the horn, knocking everything and everypony away from her, along with the dreaded muffins flying through the air. It was quick, and ended abruptly, but she felt the fear vanish as fast as it had come. She now sat panting where she had been, feeling like she'd just run the Running of the Leaves ten times in a row without a break.

"Candy!" She heard Ma Apple cry out in alarm. The next thing she knew she was being pulled into the mare's embrace.

"Is anycreature hurt?! Anycreature? Teachers, check your students." She heard Dinky calling out.

She made herself look around. Students and teachers alike had been knocked to the ground, and we're now picking themselves back up. Most seemed simply dazed by the event, and not hurt. The broken remains of muffins were scattered everywhere, without a face to be seen among them. The catering table was knocked over on its side, and many of the visitors were picking themselves off the ground as well.

"Candy, what happened? Why did you do that?" Ma asked, and could be heard crying with worry over her daughter.

She didn't know what to do. What was she supposed to do? She couldn't tell them she'd panicked because she saw faces on muffins. Even if she had been seeing things it would still be hard to explain why she'd gotten as afraid as she had. It made no sense at all. If she told them it would just cement the idea that she was crazy, but she couldn't think of any excuse to give as an alternative. She just sat silently, with her body still trembling from the exertion it had just gone through.

"Is she alright?" She heard Caramel ask in a worried tone.

"I don't know," Ma answered him, and gripped Cheerilee tighter.

She saw Dinky approaching. The principal had a grim expression on her face. "Take her to the nurse's office. I'll be by shortly. I hope she's calmed down enough by then to give me a good explanation, because when Spoiled hears about this… it doesn't matter. Just get her to the nurse to make sure she isn't hurt."

Cheerilee closed her eyes. She'd been crying the whole time, but now it was hitting home how much trouble she had just gotten Candy in. The poor filly had been on thin ice at school as it was, and that ice might have now broken. This was the one place she'd been confident she could keep out of trouble, but she couldn't have failed in a more spectacular fashion.

Author's Note

Considering doing a spinoff story sometime later that follows Silver Spoon and Sisstet. Depends on if there is interest in seeing it, I rewrote the section dealing with them about a dozen times. If interested in seeing it, let me know, and I'll put it on my list of things to do after finishing this story.

Been dealing with a series of personal and financial problems, and have been very tired as of late. So that's why things have slowed down a little with releases.

Chapter 22: Repercussions

Everything checked out that Cheerilee was fine, aside from some magical exhaustion brought on by her surge. None of the students, teachers, or visitors had been hurt, though a few younger students had been terrified by the incident. She now sat in the nurse's office, with just Ma Apple keeping her company. It would be just a matter of time before Dinky showed up to discuss the trouble she was no doubt in.

"Candy, you need to be honest with me, and tell me what happened," Ma pleaded as she rubbed Cheerilee's back. "Spoiled Rich was looking for anythin' she could in order to expel you, and you just upset the foals of every parent on the school board. We have to tell them somethin', or they'll go along with Spoiled Rich. I don't want to scare you more, but this is important."

She still didn't know what to do. What she did know was Candy was in deep trouble, and it was her fault. Something like what happened today might normally be overlooked, but the other personalities had already caused so much trouble this year for Candy, and she had missed so much school. There was a real danger of Candy being held back or expelled, at the very least having lasting negative consequences on her education. She couldn't let that happen to the filly, not on her watch; she just didn't know how to prevent it.

"If I tell you then you'll think I'm crazy," she said at last.

"I just want the truth, no matter how crazy it sounds," Ma said firmly.

She took a deep breath, and fidgeted with her tail as she mustered her courage. "The muffins. I was seeing faces on them. I don't know why, but they just terrified me, more than anything ever has. When everypony started throwing them around it just got to be too much. I felt like I couldn't run away, that I was glued to where I was, and they wouldn't stop smiling. I panicked, and the surge just happened."

Ma sat silent for a moment. "And you're still thinkin' you're Cheerilee right now?" Cheerilee nodded back, and the mare groaned. "You've never had a problem with muffins when you were a different personality. I take precautions still, but it's been just in case the pretend ended suddenly."

"I don't know why I'm seeing them," Cheerilee said quietly. "Are you sure none of the others ever saw anything wrong with muffins, or anything else?"

Ma sighed. "You get upset about dragons, or changelings, or griffins, or that naga classmate of yours. You've got a little better after the first few personalities, at least with griffins. You're actually the first personality that didn't get upset about non-ponies at all. You've never had a personality upset about muffins though, just the real you, until now."

Something seemed odd about that, like some key piece of information had just been given, but she couldn't tell what. She was still so tired, and thinking straight was hard.

"Is there anythin' else you aren't telling me?" Ma asked. "I want to help you, but I can't if you keep things from me."

She frowned, and thought of the one definite thing she was keeping secret. Maybe it was time to say something about it. At this point it couldn't hurt Candy any more than what had just happened. "There's a note, from Twilight Comet. He's the pony that was in Candy's body when she claimed she had amnesia. Pinkie Pie helped me find it."

Ma narrowed her eyes. "And how did Pinkie Pie know about it and not me?"

Cheerilee shook her head. "She didn't. I haven't even told her about it yet. It's-it's complicated. You can read the note yourself. It's on Candy's desk, on the backside of Sombra's picture. He was some sort of secret agent or something; I'm not really clear on that. From what I can tell, Bon Bon used to be part of whatever he was involved in, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to talk about it-- that was what set her off the other day. He said he was Princess Twilight's great-grandstallion, and that he knew Princess Celestia. You can try verifying if he was a real pony. Maybe that will help prove I'm not a figment. Pinkie Pie believes me when I say I am Cheerilee."

Ma nervously brushed Cheerilee's mane. "I'm not sure any of that will help you out of this situation. I'll take a look at that note you mentioned, and bring it to Starlight. She can get in touch with Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia to tell us if there was a real Twilight Comet. I don't know what that means if he was a real pony, but the princesses and Starlight might figure somethin' out we can't. As for the muffins… we'll just have to talk to Marble about that. There's no way the muffins I personally baked are little smiling monsters."

"I know the faces on the muffins can't be real," Cheerilee said, more harshly than she intended. "It doesn't change the fact that Candy has been seeing them since this all began, and now I'm suddenly seeing them. It's hard to describe the feeling when I'm looking at them. It starts with dread and unease, and just steadily gets worse. With all the muffins flying through the air during that food fight I just panicked, even though I knew the emotions I was feeling made no sense at all. I just felt so helpless and scared, it overrode every rational thought."

"I wish you would tell me what happened out in the Everfree," Ma grumbled. "This all started there, but you won't tell anycreature what happened."

Cheerilee crossed her forelegs. "Well, right now the only pony that knows is Candy, and she isn't here. Twilight Comet went looking in the Everfree for answers, but didn't find anything."

"You went into the Everfree again, after what happened last time?!" Ma shouted with a mix of fury and fear.

The sound hurt her ears, and she rubbed one of them as she answered. "It wasn't me, or even Candy, it was Twilight Comet. I told you that he was some sort of agent or something, so I guess he knew how to take care of himself. It's in his note."

Ma wept. "You aren't a secret agent, teacher, tyrant, accountant, prostitute, warrior, changelin', diamond dog, Wonderbolt, librarian, forest ranger, artist, or whatever that one that wouldn't stop cryin' was; you're just a little filly. Believin' you can do all the things all these personalities can do doesn't give you the ability to do them."

"That's missing one," Cheerilee replied, counting up the occupations in her head.

"It's hard rememberin' all of them," Ma said with exasperation. She seemed to think for a minute. "Shaman, that was the other one. A half-pony, half-zebra shaman. Don't know how that one slipped my mind. That's the one Applebloom had to sedate, it was one of the earlier ones."

"Was that one violent?"

Ma shook her head. "No, gentle really. You'd spend time lookin' at the simplest things like you never saw anything like them before. The problem was Applebloom had to translate what you were sayin', because you didn't say a word of Equestrian. Went completely nuts about that muffin drawin', but never saw any faces on muffins from what I could tell. We had to pull the drawin' down after a while because you wouldn't sleep-- just kept starin' at it and mutterin' to yourself otherwise, and you wouldn't go near it either. As soon as that personality passed you fished that drawin' out of the trash and put it right back up. I still don't know why, you hate that drawin'."

The extent that the Apples accepted some of these personalities as part of a game amazed her. Cheerilee narrowed her eyes. "You didn't think it odd that Candy somehow learned a whole other language overnight?"

"Applebloom said your pronunciation and grammar were all off, and she had a very hard time understandin' you. We figured you got ahold of a zebra language book and only half learned how to say things," Ma explained.

"And I'm pretty sure Twilight Comet could teleport, and Dazzling Star knew far more about sex than anything Candy might have read," Cheerilee said, naming off things she knew that unlikely the filly should know how to do. "I used a math technique today that she was not brought up with. I bet Rainbow confirmed whatever Wonderbolt that was happened to be a spot on impression. We know things she shouldn't know. Did Candy draw all her drawings after the artist?"

Ma bit her lip and thought about it, then nodded. "Yes, you did draw them after, and Rainbow was very impressed with your Wonderbolt impression. She was happy you listened closely when she was talkin' about Wonderbolts." Ma sighed. "You're right, it's a lot you shouldn't know. Maybe there's somethin' more to it than just personalities, I don't know, but that doesn't change who you really are."

She suppressed a growl. What would it take to convince ponies she is really Cheerilee? She had already chipped, and chipped, and chipped away at the fiction, but no matter what she did she couldn't get them to budge. She understood that the concept that some other pony was running around in Candy's body was an upsetting one, and that they looked at her and physically saw a foal that they have a history with and love for, but hanging onto the idea she was really Candy wasn't helping Candy.

She didn't have the energy to argue her case at the moment, nor did she have anything she could supply to make the trouble she was in go away. Ma seemed to be able to read this, and just sat silently holding her. Being held like a foal wasn't really that embarrassing, she was in need of comfort, and would take it where she could get it-- plus, there was still a chance Candy was experiencing all this too, and was even in more need of comfort. She wondered again whether Candy was a spectator for all this, and what condemnations the filly must have for her at the moment. If Cheerilee was here to help Candy with school, then Candy must be very much regretting the day Cheerilee became an occupant of her body.

Dinky walked in after what seemed an eternity, shutting the door behind her. A quick glance at the mare's earrings showed no smiling faces at the moment. "The good news is that nocreature was hurt, and there was only very minor damage to some playground equipment that can easily be repaired. The bad news is that several members of the school board called for a hearing to determine what to do about Candy."

"It was an accident, surges happen," Ma said fearfully.

Dinky nodded. "But this surge happened when Candy was already being given plenty of leeway from previous problems, and it happened while we had visitors on site. Normally Spoiled can be reigned in by the rest of the school board or by Diamond Tiara, but Diamond was one of those caught up in today's events, and a lot of the school board just had to rush to school because they had terrified foals of their own that were beside themselves after what happened. They're going to be more inclined to listen to Spoiled now. A few of the more overprotective ones are going to be more demanding of action than her. An angry parent is a hard creature to reason with."

"So what do we need to do?" Ma asked. Cheerilee could feel the mare trembling.

The principal shook her head absently. "I'm not really sure what can be done at this point. About the only way you can stop whatever is coming is if you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt Candy won't be any further problem, and I don't think you can do that, not before the school board meets."

That meant that if she was going to fix whatever was happening to Candy she needed to do it before the school board met. That meant she now had a deadline. "How long do we have?" Cheerilee asked.

Dinky looked her in the eyes. "Five days. If you can't permanently sort yourself out in five days, your days at this school may be numbered. On the positive side, I don't think they're going to demand an 'official' expulsion. That's good for you, because that would look very bad on your permanent record; but they're almost certainly going to demand you be removed from the school for the safety of the other students. I wouldn't be surprised if they demand you be sent to a psych ward."

Five days? It was better than she expected, but it didn't seem near enough time. It wasn't even five days in truth, she'd need it fixed in four days so on the fifth Candy could stand in front of the school board well and cured. Twilight Comet had tried for months to fix Candy's problems, how was she supposed to do better in less than a week?

"I suppose it won't help her case if I mention that Candy was seeing faces on the muffins and that made her panic," Ma said mournfully.

Dinky shook her head vigorously. "I'd keep that to yourself. If they are going to push for sending her to a psychiatric facility that is just throwing fuel on the fire. I won't mention that you told me that. But I need to let you know, I need to worry about all the students at this school. If she really is mentally imbalanced, I need to think about their welfare. What if she attacks a student because she sees something that isn't there? What if she takes on more personalities like Sombra? Those are the questions I have to ask myself, and that the school board will be asking as well. You need to put everything you can into resolving this."

It sounded like they couldn't fully count on Dinky to be an ally in this. She didn't blame the principal. If their positions were reversed right now she'd be having to face those same questions. It wasn't any maliciousness intended towards the student, but if a student really was a danger to themselves and everypony around them then removing them from the school would be something she'd be forced to consider, much as she didn't want to. She couldn't even say those concerns weren't valid in this case.

Dinky floated a paper to Ma. "Here's Candy's report card. I didn't think it would be a good idea for her to return to class today. I'm not counting it as an absence."

Ma took the report card in her own magic and hovered it down where the two of them could read it together. It seemed to be a standard copy form, with one half for grades filled in by the teacher, and one half for the teacher notes about the student.

Year-End Report Card for Candy Apple, Third Year, Ponyville Elementary, presented twelve days before the Festival of the Two Sisters in the 20th Sparkling Era Year.

Reading comprehension: Greatly Exceeds Expectations. 4

Writing, Spelling, and Grammer: Greatly Exceeds Expectations. 4

Math and Number Skills: Greatly Exceeds Expectations. 4

History and Social Studies: Meets Expectations. 2

Science and Magic: Greatly Exceeds Expectations. 4

Physical Fitness: Meets Expectations. 2

Artistic Expression (through physical art and/or music and/or dance): Greatly Exceeds Expectations. 4

Elective Study: Third year student, not applicable.

Friendship and Communication: Exceeds Expectations. 3

Attendance: Fails to Meet Expectations. 0

Teacher's Notes: Candy has demonstrated top of the line ability in a number of subjects, and if I had a grade higher than four I would be awarding her that grade in most of the subjects that she made fours in. I'm not exaggerating when I say she could outperform most of the graduating class in these subjects. You should definitely praise your daughter for her accomplishments in them.

I was a little surprised that her history grade was not higher, and perhaps she was just having an off day when she took her final exams. I'd advise that she take time to further review that subject before the start of the new school year. I'm assigning each student a different species to do a five page report on for the history of as a summer project, and I'm assigning Candy griffins. Hopefully a good grade on this to start next school year will start her off on the right track with the subject.

Candy is physically fit for a foal her age, with plenty of energy. You should not take her median grade badly. The area she needs the most improvement in is endurance. As she can get winded after a short time running. If she improves in this area she may get a three next year, instead of a two. Fours are typically reserved for creatures that show particular athletic prowess, and although it isn't out of the question that Candy could blossom into an athlete in the future, this doesn't seem to be her current trajectory or reflect her current interests. I would recommend doing some extended runs over the summer, and aiming for that three next year.

I wish I could give a top grade to her for friendship, but there is room for improvement. She has a few very good friends, but tends not to engage with many students beyond that group. I chose to rate her higher because two of these students she has made friends with are students that are some who are most in need of friends. She also tends not to squabble with any other students. I hope she continues her current friendships, but I would like her to engage with a larger number of creatures.

Attendance must improve next year. It pains me to have to give her a zero grade in this, but there was no way I could give anything else under the circumstances. For a student of lesser academic ability the zero in attendance may have resulted in her being held back a year, but upon review of her other grades her attendance will be overlooked this year, as she has demonstrated she has fully learned the material. There cannot be a repeat of this attendance grade next year, as such an exception can only be made once.

I hope Candy has an enjoyable summer, and I am reminding you to check to see she completes her summer project before returning in the fall. If you have any questions, I can be found at my home most evenings.

Miss Silver Spoon

Well, this report card was obviously filled out prior to today. She also noted that Silver Spoon never once addressed Candy's various personalities.

"I'm very proud of you for all your fours, but how did you get a lower grade in history?" Ma asked in confusion. "All these other creatures from the past that you act perfectly as, and you get a lower grade in history? It doesn't make sense."

"Maybe the answer is Candy doesn't know that much about history and we're all who we say we are," Cheerilee replied smugly.

Ma grimaced. "Even if that were so, you pick up things while you're these different creatures. You'd think you'd pick up enough to get at least a three in history."

Cheerilee shrugged. "I'm not Candy, so I couldn't tell you. My best guess is that if none of the others thought about their history and what would be current events for them, then Candy wouldn't learn it if she was just along for the ride. How much history was Dazzling Star or a diamond dog going to teach her?"

"Let's not talk about what Dazzling Star might have taught you," Ma said with exasperation, as she set the report card aside. Cheerilee actually found it a little amusing that Dazzling Star was more upsetting for the Apple matriarch than Sombra or the unicorn warrior that was calling most of the family evil. If her own experiences were anything to go by, Dazzling Star likely had been rather muted in her actions compared to what they could have been, since it was unlikely Candy's body would have supplied the libido for that kind of thing. She certainly hadn't felt any feelings of the sort.

Unfortunately, that wasn't a concern right now. Her ears sagged as she focused on the here and now. "So what are we going to do?" She asked.

Ma sat quietly for a moment, deep in thought. "I'm goin' to take the next few days off from work. I know it's busy, but this is more important. Pumpkin will just have to deal with it, and if she decides to pitch a fit to me about it she might find herself down another employee."

"But what are we actually doing?"

"First, I'm gettin' that note you mentioned, and takin' it to Starlight. She's been my friend longer than I've lived in Ponyville, and I know she'll do whatever it takes to help us," Ma answered firmly. "Then I'm takin' you back to Luster Dawn and seein' if she can figure anythin' else out, maybe with Starlight helpin'. We know it's some sort of magic problem, in addition to being a mental one, so we'll try to figure it out from that end. You'll still see Marble tomorrow, but I think figurin' out this resonance problem is where we need to focus."

Cheerilee nodded. She wasn't thrilled with the idea of dealing with Luster more than she had to, but there was no denying that fixing the magic issue was key to resolving this. She'd let the crazy unicorn take a pint of blood if it would help fix this.

She squeaked in surprise as she was lifted up onto the mare's back by magic. She grabbed on tight, knowing without having to be told that Ma intended to take off at a full run towards Sweet Apple Acres. Time was of the essence. They had essentially four days to figure out what was causing Candy's problems, and how to fix them. There wasn't any time to waste.

Author's Note

Not the most exciting chapter, but there's a few clues to the bigger mystery here.

Chapter 23: Existential Crisis

Ma Apple certainly could run when she had a mind too. Her endurance was almost that of an earth pony. It was likely just adrenalin helping it happen, but Cheerilee wondered if part of it was twenty years of working on a farm.

It took them a short time to reach the farm. The unicorn mare didn't stop to talk when Applejack greeted her outside, and continued straight on into the house. Only when they were inside did Ma finally take Cheerilee off her back, and marched up the stairs with the determination of a mother ready to do whatever it took to protect her foal. Cheerilee scurried along behind the older mare, staying right on her tail.

When they reached Candy's room Ma gave the muffin drawing on the closet door a glare that would have sent a dragon running. She lit her horn, and Cheerilee thought the mare was going to rip the drawing down. Instead, Ma sighed and walked over to the desk, grabbing the drawing of Sombra up in her magic, and then sitting down to read Twilight Comet's note.

"You said this is the personality you had when you had amnesia?" Ma asked, as she seemed to re-read the note over again.

"From what I can tell," Cheerilee replied, still sitting next to the older mare's haunches.

Ma read through it again. "I remember when we found you wanderin' the streets when you first said you had amnesia. You were dirty, and had some scrapes on you, but claimed you didn't know how you got that way. I guess you took off into the forest again, as yourself. What's it goin' to take to keep you out of there? What did you hope to accomplish goin' back in there?"

"I'm not Candy, so I don't know," Cheerilee grumbled. "If I had to take a guess, she was looking for something. Maybe she gave up looking after Twilight Comet failed to find anything."

Ma let off a small growl. "On a nightly basis! There are timberwolves and worse in those woods, and you went out there-- at night-- over and over again for months. I knew you were sneakin' out, but I never knew where. You could have been killed! Your grandparents died out in those woods, and they were grown ponies that could better fend for themselves. You can't even blame it on the personality, because you were sneakin' off before this one started, according to what this note says."

"Well, you don't need to worry about that with me," Cheerilee shot back. "If Candy and Twilight Comet couldn't find anything, then I'm not going to go looking as well. I wouldn't even know what I'm looking for. The only thing that I could possibly think that might be out there is that scarf Candy lost. She might have thought it would mend her bond with Applejack if she found it."

Ma blinked, as the anger went out of her, and put a hoof on Cheerilee's back. "Your aunt cares more about you than she does that scarf. That scarf did mean a lot to her, but it would hurt her far more to lose you than losin' that bit of cloth. She was just as scared for you as me and your pa when you ran away."

Cheerilee pulled back. "I know that, but it doesn't mean Candy knows that. It might not even be the scarf. I don't have any more idea what Candy thinks than you do."

"Somethin' wrong Ma?" Applejack called out, as she pushed open the bedroom door. "You came runnin' in like you were runnin' for your life from a buffalo stampede."

Ma started crying again. "Candy surged at school today, she upset a lot of creatures on the school board. Applejack, they might kick her out of school, or take her away to a mental hospital."

Applejack eyes widened in shock and her ears snapped back. "What?! They can't be doin' that over a surge. A lot of unicorn foals surge when they get scared, even some grown ones."

"It was the last straw after everythin' else," Ma said mournfully, still wiping her eyes. "Missing school, stealing those potion ingredients and makin' a mess with them, all the stuff she's done when she's been her other personalities." The mare snorted and sucked up some snot running from her nose. "They're goin' to say she needs to be institutionalized, I know it. It isn't just her bein' kicked out of school. They're goin' to take my baby filly away from me and put her in some horrible mental hospital."

Applejack stood up straight. "Now hold a-darn tootin' second there. We ain't about to let that happen." The earth pony pointed at the note still floating in front of Ma. "What's that? Is that what they told ya?"

Ma looked at the note as if she had forgotten it. "No, this is-" She floated it over and placed it on the farm pony's outstretched leg. "Just read it for yourself. Candy wrote that when she said she had amnesia."

The farm pony gripped the note in her fetlock and started reading. Her eyebrows rose and she let off a small gasp. "How could she know about- Are ya sure Candy wrote this? Somepony didn't give this to her, did they?"

Ma shook her head. "I'm pretty sure she wrote it herself. How could she know about what?"

"S.M.I.L.E," Applejack said as she gave Cheerilee an appraising look, while setting down the paper. "Starlight, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and I ran into some of them fellers who were causin' trouble a few years ago. Bon Bon came to us, helped us identify them, and helped us put a stop to what they was doin'. She made us promise not to talk about S.M.I.L.E as a condition of her help, and we never did. Candy shouldn't know S.M.I.L.E ever existed. There just ain't no way she could know."

"There's no way Candy could know," Cheerilee yelled out, and then pointed a hoof up at the picture of the sneaky unicorn. "But Twilight Comet could know. We aren't figments, or workings of a foal's imagination. We are who we say we are, and I'm Cheerilee!"

Applejack looked down at the note again, and her ears sagged. "Perhaps, maybe ya are." The answer took Cheerilee so off guard she just sat and gaped. She'd honestly expected Applejack to just deny it was possible again.

Ma gasped. "Applejack? Are you seriously sayin' you think that she is really-"

"I'm sayin' there's more goin' on than I understand, and I'm willin' to admit that is somethin' that might be true," Applejack cut in. Well, not full belief like Cheerilee had hoped, but better than she could have hoped till now; and here she thought that note would be damning for her.

Applejack looked down at the note again. "We need to talk to Starlight. Maybe have her get in touch with Celestia. Starlight knows how to contact her."

Ma stood up. "We were going to head over to the School of Friendship to do just that. You should come with us."

Applejack reached up under her hat and pulled out some sort of talisman on a chain. "I can do one better. This here doohickey Rainbow got me last year, after I hurt myself out in the orchard and y'all didn't find me till late in the day. I just give it a tap, and it signals Starlight and Rainbow that I need'em right away. It's supposed to be in case somethin' like that happens again, but it'll make Starlight teleport over here faster than a two-tailed fox caught in a chicken coop before breakfast." Cheerilee and Ma both raised eyebrows at the unusual countryism, as if both of them were unsure what to make of that one.

The farm pony gave the talisman a tap in its center, and it began to glow. Nothing seemed to happen, and after a minute of waiting Applejack started to frown at it. "I guess it doesn't wor-"

There was a flash of light, and Starlight Glimmer appeared in the room looking flustered. "Sorry! It took me a minute to remember what that signal was linked to. I've got a bunch of these signaling devices out there, a few of them are really not that important and I really should just deactivate them-- like the one for my laundry, but I couldn't remember right away which one this one was. What's wrong? How can I help?"

Applejack blinked and pushed the paper across the floor to the head mare of the School of Friendship. "Um, maybe ya should start by reading this. Candy supposedly wrote it a month or two ago."

Starlight frowned and floated the note up in front of her face to begin reading. The further down in the note she got the more confused her face got. "Wait, how did she find out about-"

"That's what I was askin'," Applejack interrupted. "It don't make a lick of sense, unless there's more to these personalities than just personalities."

"I've been saying that I'm really Cheerilee from the start, but none of you will listen," Cheerilee said loudly.

Starlight looked at Cheerilee with both eyebrows raised. She then looked back at the note and frowned again. "Give me a minute." The unicorn flashed her horn and a quill and piece of parchment appeared floating in front of her. She quickly wrote out a message, then looked at the note and cast another spell which made it duplicate itself. She put the duplicated note and the message she just wrote together, and then cast yet another spell that made them vanish in a green fire.

"I just sent that to Celestia," Starlight explained to everypony looking at her. "She'll either send me a reply back, or show up herself in just a moment. She can verify whether there is any truth to Candy's note."

A crash could be heard in a nearby room. Applejack turned in confusion towards it. "That sounded like it came from my room." As she finished speaking Rainbow came barreling through the bedroom door, looking frantic.

"You okay, AJ? What's wrong? I got that signal, and flew here as fast as I could. I just took a minute to set up a sub for me. Are you okay?"

Applejack blushed. "Oops, forgot that signaled both of y'all. Didn't mean to give ya a scare. I'm fine, don't ya fret. I was just tryin' to get Starlight's attention quickly about this here note Candy wrote. It was pretty urgent. I didn't mean to interrupt you at work."

Rainbow let out a long breath of relief. "No problem. I'm just glad you're not hurt. Getting me away from training the newbies might be fine too. I've wanted some extra help so I can focus on my own training, and I'd been talking to Vapor Trail today about her coming out of retirement to help with training the recruits, now that her foals are getting a little older and she has time. I've got her drilling them right now, and I guess this can count as part of her interview to come back."

Another blinding flash of light happened, bright enough that it made Cheerilee jump back. When her vision cleared she saw an alicorn that was unmistakably Celestia standing in the middle of the room. There were some changes from when she'd last seen the princess. The first thing that stood out was Celestia's mane had lost its multicolor hue, and now was a light pink, it was also cut very short. Gone were the princess's old regalia, replaced instead with saddlebags and light plate armor. Twilight Comet's note said Celestia was a roaming adventurer now, and Celestia looked less like a princess and more like a warrior ready to do battle.

"I got your message…" Celestia said boldly, then coughed into a wing. "Which I guess you already know since I just arrived. The answer is yes, Twilight Comet served faithfully as the director of S.M.I.L.E for nearly twenty years. He regretfully passed away at a ripe old age shortly before Twilight-- Twilight Sparkle-- was born. The agency, and his position within it, were never public knowledge. I don't think there could be more than a half-a-dozen ponies still living who would be aware of him ever running S.M.I.L.E. For all I can confirm, the only ponies that may still remember that are myself and Twilight Velvet--who was a backroom agent for a short while, before leaving to raise a family."

The bedroom door opened again, and Luna walked in, giving Celestia a disgusted look. The former princess of the night was as tall as her sister now, but her coloration more resembled that of when she first returned from being Nightmare Moon. She wore absolutely nothing, other than a braided mane. "Sister, have you ever considered using the front door at a house, instead of just teleporting straight in and giving every creature a fright?"

Celestia gave her sister an offended look. "I don't always teleport straight in."

Luna snorted. "Yes, sometimes I'm able to get you to show a little more control. Really sister, you're going to give a creature a heart attack at some point."

Starlight stepped between the two sisters. "It's fine. No harm done. So did this Twilight Comet ever mention to you anything about this incident?"

Celestia turned back to Starlight and shook her head. "No, it's been many years, but I think I could remember if he had ever told me he spent time trapped in the future in the body of a filly. I always kept careful track of any time travel incidents. The note does sound like him though, and I'm pretty sure that is his hornwriting, although my memory may be foggy on that detail."

"That just makes this all more confusin'," Applejack lamented. "Because he seemed pretty darn intent on tellin' ya about it this here note."

"If I may, I have a possible scenario where this would make sense," Luna said, as she walked further into the room. All eyes turned to her. "I am not the magic expert that Twilight is, nor even Starlight Glimmer for that matter, but I have picked up on some concepts over the years of dealing with the things that frighten ponies. Are any of you familiar with what a ghost is?"

"Um, the spirit of some dead creature that wanders around and haunts places?" Rainbow replied as she scrunched up her muzzle. "But the actual Cheerilee is alive, so Candy can't be haunted."

Luna shook her head. "No, that isn't exactly true. It is more a memory that has been imprinted on a place, but it isn't truly the creature that imprinted it. This note mentions that Twilight Comet and Candy Apple both took a fall in the same place. Are there similar circumstances with Cheerilee and Candy Apple?"

"Yes!" Ma spoke up, lifting her ears high. "They both had a potion experiment gone wrong in the very same room."

"And while we don't have her other personalities present to give testimony, I would wager that the same may have been true of them as well," Luna continued. "What I think you are dealing with is a temporal impression, a highly evolved set of memories, a perfect record of a creature to the point the impression was made, and Candy Apple has somehow had the misfortune of taking these impressions into herself. A perfect copy of the mind and memories of who left the impression, but still only a copy, not the genuine article. Twilight Comet never was in Candy, but a perfect copy of all that Twilight Comet was up to the point of that impression did experience it."

Applejack rubbed her chin. "I guess that makes sense."

"Except it is wrong!" Cheerilee yelled out. All eyes turned to her. "I get so tired of ponies talking about me as if I'm not standing right here. What you said sounds convincing, but it doesn't work! It doesn't explain why it keeps happening to Candy and not others. It doesn't explain the fact that it seems like Candy is reaching out to ponies and creatures to help her, like Big Mac suggested. The impression thing can't possibly work with every one of these ponies, as I doubt Sombra and Candy ever were in the exact same place, or that half zebra shaman. It also doesn't explain the muffins!"

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Muffins?"

"Candy sees faces on muffins; they scare her," Ma explained. "None of the other personalities have seen them, until this one."

Luna blinked. "I can't claim to know what to make of that, nor can I claim that what I suggested is any more than a suggestion of what may be going on. The situation just lines up well with my understanding of ghosts. I can say that Sombra did indeed visit Ponyville a few months before Twilight's coronation. If there was a half-zebra that is fully a possibility as well, as this particular area was once zebra lands long ago. The one known as Zecora actually traveled here to research why the zebra abandoned the area, and stayed in Ponyville much longer than she had intended because of the friendships she made here-- not to mention her taking time to pass on to Applebloom about the ways of potions, alchemy, and the natural lore of the Everfree."

"Did she ever figure out why they left?" Starlight asked, then ducked her head in embarrassment. "Sorry, that's off topic. I didn't actually know why she was here and then left, so I got curious. Not to mention if it is some dangerous thing it is always nice to know about it in case it comes back."

Luna shook her head. "As far as I know she did not find that answer, only that it was a very sudden and abrupt leaving. Perhaps it was because of the encroachment of the three main pony tribes, as they moved south from our ancestral homelands in the north. Though a half-zebra might indicate that theory is wrong, and relations between zebra and ponies were much better than the tribes had with each other. The spread of the Everfree is another possibility. This happened when Equestria was in its infancy. My sister and I were under Starswirl's care, focused on our education, when the zebra abandoned the area just south of the Everfree, and we had only a few passing personal contacts with the zebra back then."

"You have to understand that ponies were not often concerned with the affairs of non-ponies back then. We rarely had zebra introduced to us, despite them historically having a presence in this area as recently as then, and perhaps further back in time covering most of what is now southern Equestria," Celestia added in. "It was still even a challenge to get ponies of different tribes to see themselves as a collective group. Hearthswarming got them working together for the common good, but even in this age you can still find that lingering tribalism in many areas. Intermarriage between tribes has gotten increasingly more common, but your elder generation could tell you that was a taboo they worked hard against their own elders to overcome, and you take for granted how easy it is for such relationships to exist now."

"I'm guessing it was pony encroachment then," Starlight said. "Though I'm still not dismissing the Everfree. We all know how much trouble those woods are. The Everfree is almost like a monster unto itself. Sorry to get things off-topic."

Cheerilee had been increasingly feeling a growing existential crisis while they had spent time discussing zebras and old Equestrian history. Could she really just be a record of her own memories, and when her time passed in Candy she would cease to exist, beyond whatever impression she left behind in Candy's mind? "I-Is there any other explanation that works out where I am really Cheerilee, and I go back to my own time when this is done?" She asked in a quivering voice, unsure who she really was anymore.

"Alternative histories," Starlight answered quickly, gaining everypony's attention. "You can't actually change your current timeline by changing the past; you instead create a divergent timeline. If all these personalities really are who they say they are, when they return to their own time they can create their own divergent timeline where they impact the future, but wouldn't have impacted this timeline. That's actually a little grim."

"Why?" Rainbow asked.

Starlight shook her head. "One of them was Sombra, right? He had access to all the information about his defeats while he was here, which means…"

"He could make it so he doesn't lose when he went back. Which means he might have won in a timeline because of what he learned here," Applejack concluded in a low voice.

Starlight nodded, looked down, and (surprisingly) started to cry. "It is my greatest shame and sin that I created a host of diverging timelines that were just… just horrible places to be. Time theory predicts an infinite number of diverging timelines, so they aren't any worse than some of the ones that might exist out there, but still… to know that those specific ones are my fault. I cried for a month straight when I learned what I had really done, and had no way of undoing. I actually demanded Twilight throw me in a dungeon for it, but Twilight refused. She said she'd long ago forgiven me, and I was no longer a pony who would do such things, nor could anything be done to rectify it, so punishing me further than having to live with the knowledge of what I had done was completely pointless."

The other ponies gave Starlight expressions ranging from disbelief to extreme sympathy. Under normal circumstances Cheerilee might have been shocked at such a confession, but right now all she could think about was what this all meant for her. Was she a ghost, that would vanish? Was she real, and able to return to her own time? If the second was true then she had just learned that she could help Candy in her own timeline without changing anything here. At least she could help her own version of Candy in that case, but what could she do for this version of Candy? This Candy needed her help now, and was in trouble specifically because of actions that Cheerilee had done, and the filly should not be held responsible for.

"So what do we do to fix all this?" Ma asked in a low voice.

"You first need to determine the cause," Celestia replied.

Cheerilee hardened her resolve once again. She couldn't burden herself with existential questions she couldn't answer. The cause. She needed to find out what had started this to begin with, and find a way to undo it. That was the only way of setting Candy free. That was what she was here to do. Whether she was real or a ghost, she was still Cheerilee, and she would not let the filly suffer. She'd find a way of fixing this. The case could be made to the school board already that Candy was not responsible for her actions, but the case had to be made that these troubles were going to be put to an end. The cause was out there in the Everfree somewhere, she just had to find out what she was looking for.

She looked up at the closet. Without knowing how she knew, she saw what she was looking for. It was insane, but it was grinning down at her. They were the thing that didn't fit, the biggest unexplained phenomena. She didn't know why it was only her out of all those who had taken up residence in Candy that saw them, but she intended to find out how to put an end to them. She felt it in her bones, when they were dealt with, so would be everything else. That's why Candy kept that drawing up there; she wanted a constant reminder about what needed to happen.

She licked her lips. Hopefully this would be the answer, and it wasn't just Candy's madness spreading to her. Perhaps she was already crazy, and that's why her future self had run off.

Chapter 25: Personal Demons

The evening meal passed with nopony saying much of anything to her. When they could, they avoided even looking in her direction. It was halfway through dinner when she finally realized what was going on. The family understood that this was no fault of hers, but at the same time couldn't help but be resentful of the invader of Candy's body. In order not to unjustly vent their frustration on her they chose to just not talk to her. It was a shunning, but it was not done with malicious intent. They'd inevitably be forced to speak with her, but for now they wanted to avoid the ghost in the room.

She asked if she could be excused to go to Candy's room immediately after she finished eating and was granted permission. Before she could head upstairs, Ma Apple informed her she was still going to help with the morning chores, as well as that they'd be visiting Marble Pie and then Luster Dawn in the morning. She already knew all this, since she'd been listening to all the discussions, but didn't make any complaint being told. Instead, she simply nodded her agreement and went off to Candy's room.

As had quickly become her habit, she spent her first minutes in the room simply looking over the drawings of those that had previously inhabited Candy. On closer inspection of the second drawing in the line, she did indeed spot stripes on the pony's flank, marking his mixed heritage. She took time to give the muffin drawing her harshest glare. It made her angry that it didn't seem fazed by her glare. Realizing she was being irrational, she tried in vain to bring her currently foalish emotions back into logical step. It was interesting that while the drawing was a little unsettling, it did not produce the same intense effects that seeing faces on actual muffins had. She turned back to the half zebra drawing; he had been distressed by the muffin drawing. Did he know something that the rest of them did not? There was unfortunately no way of finding out. Maybe Candy would know, but she was unavailable at the moment.

She wasn't that tired, and felt the need to tire herself out a little. She sat and practiced levitating around Candy's library books for a little while. It rapidly became less challenging as she practiced, and she now felt confident enough that she could move things of average weight around at a short range, with it perhaps even getting to where it may become second nature to do so if she remained in this body long enough-- it certainly seemed easier than having to do the same tasks with her hooves and mouth, and not even that tiring. However, moving more than one thing at a time was an entirely different proposition. She found attempting to do this extremely straining, and that the objects rarely went where she wanted them to, no matter how much effort she put into keeping them on course. She'd seen more average unicorns like Rarity manipulate dozens of objects at once, but now that she thought about it that really wasn't a common sight among unicorns. She now found herself reassessing the magical talent of some unicorns in a new light, as being a powerful unicorn might not always be demonstrated by having a wide catalog of spells that they knew, but rather being able to manipulate many things at once.

However, it did succeed in tiring her out. She hopped into the bed and then levitated the book about monsters over to herself to settle in for some reading ‘till she fell asleep. Having awoken some biological unicorn drive, she found herself flipping the pages with magic instead of her hooves, and it quickly became something she did without much thought.

She read on till she could barely keep her eyes open, and then quietly cuddled up and went to sleep.

She woke up grumpy. Her dreams had been plagued by pink, purple, and blue muffins-- having a parade. She could definitely understand Candy's intense need to obliterate every muffin she came across. When and if she got back to her body she didn't think she'd ever be able to stomach eating a muffin again.

After sitting up, she noticed that there was plenty of daylight pouring in from the window. She'd slept in and nopony had woken her up! She normally woke up with the morning clock tower bell if she somehow slept in, but must have been more tired than she thought. Quickly throwing off her covers, she rushed out the bedroom door and down the stairs.

Ma was sitting at the table reading over a report card, perhaps Caramel's. The mare looked up as Cheerilee raced into the room and gave a small smile. "Finally awake? I decided not to wake you up. You had a rough day yesterday, and I figure today is goin' to be a long one as well. I just didn't have the heart to wake you. I went back to bed for an extra hour or so myself. Strawberry made oatmeal for breakfast before she went to work, and left us both plenty. It's not bad, though it's kind of hard to mess up oatmeal."

Cheerilee gave the Apple matriarch a questioning look. Ma seemed much warmer to her than she'd been last night. The mare must have picked up on her apprehension, as her ears sagged. "Look… Cheerilee, I'm sorry about yesterday. I don't blame you for what happened at the school. I also don't blame you for being in my daughter's body. I needed a night's sleep to get myself calmer about it, but I'll do better today. We both want this fixed, and I'm sure my daughter does too. It's gonna be a little awkward for me, since I see her when I look at you, but I'll do my best."

She could accept and understand that. She hopped into one of the chairs and gave the mare a smile back. "I'll do my best to be considerate of your feelings, and to be cooperative with everypony today. I've been rather difficult at times. I just don't want to be ignored. I might be in the body of a foal… and I admit that is impacting my ability to think and reason like an adult, but I taught at least half the adult ponies in this town when they were foals. I'm not just a problem to get rid of, I'm a thinking and feeling pony."

"Or a ghost hauntin' my daughter," Ma said in a low voice, then shook her head and gave an apologetic look. "Not to say that discredits what you just said. I'm sorry, this is just hard."

Cheerilee felt some filly rage building in her, but forced herself to suppress it. "I understand. This isn't easy for me either, and it doesn't help that I'm dealing with an eight-year old brain instead of an adult one. It's surprisingly hard not to have a temper tantrum sometimes, and dealing with the shorter attention span. I suppose it could be worse though, getting caught in a young mare just starting puberty would have been a headache, or an even younger foal."

"I think Candy is very mature for her age, but I admit that her attention can wander sometimes," Ma replied. "I guess what you're describin' can be a credit to her, since it means she's learned how to keep her emotions in check." Ma wiped one of her eyes absently. "She's a good little filly, even if she makes mistakes sometimes."

The mare looked over at the counter by the stove and lit her horn. Two bowls of oatmeal floated gracefully over to the table.

Cheerilee looked up from her bowl. "I think I'd like to try using a spoon again. I was practicing last night, and it is coming easier for me. I don't know how long I'm going to be stuck here, so I might as well learn how to properly use this horn."

Ma nodded and levitated a spoon over to her. Cheerilee lit Candy's horn up and grasped the utensil in her magic. Thankfully, it didn't go flying through the air this time, though it was a bit of a task maneuvering it to get proper spoonfuls of oatmeal. Half of the ones she did get onto the spoon she ended up dumping before she could get the spoon to her mouth.

"Just focus on keepin' it level, and try lightly graspin' the oatmeal in place when it's on the spoon-- just not too hard, or you'll make a mess. Ohh, not like that! You keep releasin' your magic right before you bite; don't do that. You can bite through your aura, and it won't hurt you," Ma suggested as she watched and gestured while Cheerilee struggled with the food.

It still took some time before she was able to get more food to her mouth than on the table, chair, or floor. The oatmeal was cold by the time she finally could manage to consistently get the spoon to her mouth carrying its intended load.

Ma giggled, which involved scrunching up her nose and snorting. "Sorry, it's just adorable watchin' you learn how to use your horn, and a little nostalgic. I had to walk Candy through what to do about a year-a-half ago, and it took her several days of attempts to get it down. I miss teachin' her about magic, but she's outgrown most of my magic lessons, although I'm still workin' on teachin' her the spell to help reheat food. She tends to set it on fire when she tries, which isn't a common problem for foals who're learnin' to heat food with their horns. Speakin' of which, let me do that for you."

With another light of her Ma's horn, a small stream of steam started to rise from the bowl of oatmeal. Cheerilee took a fresh spoonful, and found it now a pleasant temperature. "I can see why she puts so much study into it. I never really made use of my own earth pony strength. It was just never really relevant to me. The only time I ever recall using it was back when the Crusaders doused me with that love potion and I ended up demolishing the entire front of Rarity's boutique in one buck, even if I don't personally remember doing it. I saw the damage after, and Rarity sent me the repair bill-- an extremely discounted bill, but still a bill."

"It would be nice if I could buck apples the way all the earth ponies in the family do," Ma replied with another snort-giggle. "I tried bucking a tree once, and ended up in bed for a week with a sprain. The few times I tried helpin' with the harvest, I ended up just pickin' apples three or four at a time with my magic. It's not the most time effective way of doin' things, but what's an average unicorn to do? When Candy grows up, I'm sure she'll have some better magical solution, thanks to all the magical talent she has, but I doubt she'll want to be a farmer."

"If I didn't screw up any future she has," Cheerilee said mournfully, as she sank the spoon deep into the oatmeal.

Ma let out a long breath. "It's gonna be hard to keep them from kickin' her out of school, but we can make it could work out if they do. I can find her a private teacher, even if that might be expensive-- I know Starlight is too busy, but maybe Sweetie Belle will take her as a personal student, or one of them will have another suggestion. I'll see that she gets her education, one way or another. I'm just sad she'll be seeing less of her friends if she gets kicked out of school, and it will be harder to get her into the school in Canterlot if she wants to end up goin' there." The tips of her ears sagged low. "I'm more worried they're goin' to force her to go to a mental hospital. Applejack and Starlight assure me that they'd have a hard time doin' that, but they wouldn't deny it might be possible. It's hard to put anythin' out of the question when Spoiled Rich is involved."

"She's been a pain in my side for years," Cheerilee grumbled angrily. "I had hoped she'd quit the school board after her daughter graduated, but I guess I'm just not that lucky. It's just a status symbol for her; she doesn't really care about the students, aside from giving her an opportunity from time to time to make somepony feel small so she can feel more important. I'm not normally a violent pony, but I'd love to buck her in the face, just once."

Ma gave her a horrified look. "Please, don't do that! Candy has an uphill battle as it is without makin' Spoiled vindictive. I'd keep quiet about the muffins, too. We're trying to convince them that Candy's not crazy."

Cheerilee blew a raspberry. "I'm not going to do anything to Spoiled, just having a foalish fantasy. The muffins mean something though. I'm sure of it."

"We can figure out what is the deal with muffins after the meetin'," Ma said firmly. "We aren't doin' anythin' to give them an excuse to take Candy away. If they hear that you and she are seein' things that aren't there, it gives them an excuse to try bypassin' me and her pa. They'll say we knowingly haven't tended to her mental problems."

That took some of her gusto out of her. "I'll keep quiet about it at the meeting, but I still am hoping they can figure it out before then."

"Me too," Ma replied quietly. A soft knock sounded at the front door, making the mare's ears pick back up. "That must be Marble. I asked if she could do her sessions with you here. I need a few minutes to let her know what's goin' on, though. Just sit tight while I do that." It would be interesting to see how the psychologist reacted to the news.

Cheerilee just sat and ate her oatmeal, only rarely spilling any. When she finished her meal, she took a look around herself. It looked like an infant had just had a field day with the oatmeal-- a little on the table, a little on the floor, a little on the chair, and plenty of it on her. There was a chance that there was more oatmeal that didn't make it to her stomach than did. The only saving grace was that most of this was from her first few attempts.

Ma walked back into the kitchen, with Marble Pie following close behind her. "I explained everythin' to her as best I can. I know she doesn't like talkin' when there's more than one creature around, so I'll just go sit in the front and try to keep busy with makin' arrangements for Bright's wedding. It's somethin' happy to focus on." Having made her declaration, the unicorn turned and left Cheerilee alone with the psychologist.

Marble licked her lips before walking over to the cupboard, taking a mug. "I think I need to have a little apple juice.” The earth pony mare turned and looked at her. "Do you want some?"

Cheerilee blinked. "Um, I'm fine, thank you. Make yourself at home, I guess."

"I've been here many times, although you might not know that if you aren't Candy. I come here almost every other Hearthswarming. Treating the Apples and Pies as one family is something Pinkie and Applejack started a long time ago, and the rest of us just kind of go along with, since it makes them happy-- even though we know we're not closely related. I actually checked Pie family history, there are no less than nine ponies currently living in Ponyville that claim no blood relation to the Pies that are more closely related than the Apples-- one of them is actually you, if you're Cheerilee; a some number of greats-uncle of yours was my some number of greats-grandfather. Don't tell Pinkie, or she'll go nuts."

"I never knew about me being related to you in any way, but I suppose with how big earth pony families typically are, it is almost impossible for most earth ponies not to share some relative somewhere along the line," Cheerilee replied with a shrug.

Marble poured herself some apple juice, and took a long sip. "Well, on to business. Creatures can complain about misdelivered mail, but the mail service is fast. I sent a letter to Cheerilee in Vanhoover. I feel a little honored, as I got a quick reply back. She apparently doesn't give many replies."

Cheerilee went rigid. "What did I say?"

The psychologist came and sat down at the table. "I told her about your claims to be her, and asked if she had an incident where she was trapped in Candy's body. She denied anything like that ever happening. She also gave her best wishes that you get well soon. It was a pretty brief reply."

Cheerilee laid her ears back and flicked her tail. "It doesn't mean anything. They said it was a possibility that I create a new timeline. If that was the case, then I might not remember."

"Or that you are just a collection of memories that Candy got stuck with, and you're really Candy," Marble said calmly. The pony sighed. "If you're Candy, you might have all your memories suppressed and other ones implanted, but they aren't your real memories, just the echoes of somepony else's. Somepony who isn't really here."

That drove her worry skyward. She didn't want to be questioning who she really was. "Why are you pushing this?"

Marble gave her a sad frown. "Because if it is true, realizing you're really Candy might help bring your real memories back to the surface, kind of like a severe amnesiac patient who we are trying to get to remember things. One of the first steps in helping them is trying to get them to accept who they are, and then that makes them more likely to be open to prompting that might return their memory."

Cheerilee took a deep breath, trying to reign in her emotions. "Even if it were true, that doesn't stop it from happening again and again to her."

"Our goal is to get Candy back in control of her life, isn't it?" Marble asked. "This might not stop her picking up those echoes of other creature's lives, but it might help her assert herself over all these extra memories that don't come from her, and not letting them push her out of the way. Visions of the past, rather than personalities that she loses herself in."

She didn't respond. There was some sense to what Marble was saying, but it required her to accept that she wasn't real. That was a step she couldn't make herself take. "How about we talk about the muffins? Those are very upsetting to her, and to me."

"Okay, we can do that," Marble replied with a nod. "Tell me about the muffins."

Cheerilee sat back and shivered. "Yesterday I just started seeing smiling faces on all the muffins. I don't know what came over me, but I was just terrified. I panicked, and then surged."

Marble pulled out a notebook and pencil. She wrote a few notes and looked back to Cheerilee. "Do you feel as if the muffins are threatening you?" The mare asked around the pencil in her mouth.

She looked down. "I don't think so. I don't know what a muffin could even do to me. It's not exactly the most dangerous thing out there. I know they aren't real, but I'm still terrified."

The psychologist wrote a few more notes. "An everyday object which has taken on a horrific meaning to you. Candy shares this same dread of muffins, correct?"

Cheerilee nodded. "Just me and her. None of the other ponies seemed upset about the muffins, except perhaps that half-zebra, but he was just upset about the drawing."

"Drawing?"

"There's a drawing of a smiling muffin up on the closet door upstairs," she replied with a point of a hoof towards the staircase. "Candy draws all the ponies that have occupied her, but she also drew that muffin."

"Yet she never claimed to be possessed by a demonic smiling muffin?" Marble asked with a brow raised, pencil sticking out of her mouth at Cherrilee. Cheerilee shook her head in response. The earth pony made some additional notes.

"The muffins just don't fit with everything else," Cheerilee continued. "Why is it just me, and none of the others that sees them?"

Marble continued making notes, and frowned. "Perhaps it is a sign some part of Candy is trying to reassert herself after all this time. This is her psychosis, after all."

"Maybe," Cheerilee replied. She couldn't deny that was a possibility. She knew if she was trapped within her own body, watching helplessly as someone else had command of it, she'd be doing all she could to struggle to take back control of herself. The more she had to try the better she could get at it, and this was Candy's fourteenth round of doing this.

"For right now let's focus on why the muffins invoke so much fear, shall we?" Marble continued. Cheerilee nodded agreement, and the psychologist set her pencil down and continued. "Let's review what we know. They're a mundane object. There isn't anything particularly threatening about muffins. It would be hard to imagine a muffin being threatening, even if it was possessed by some monster. After all, what's it going to do to you, get crumbs on you? You don't describe them having any extra accessories, like teeth, to make them capable of doing harm. Yet Candy, and you as an extension, are terrified of them."

"Saying it like that seems really insensitive to how Candy and I are feeling," Cheerilee said accusingly.

Marble's ears dropped. "It's not meant to be. My Granny Pie used to tell me and my sisters the most effective way to not be scared was to laugh. Pinkie does this very well. You'll never see Pinkie run from a monster, my sister will sit there laughing her flank off about it. Most creatures might call her crazy for that, but most creatures haven't helped save Equestria time and time again. I think that gives it credence that it's an effective tactic. Sometimes, when my social anxiety gets to be too much, I take time to stop and laugh at how ridiculous my fear is-- it helps. Maybe that's what you and Candy need to learn to do; stop and laugh at the fact that a muffin is terrifying you."

It couldn't hurt, she supposed. "That doesn't explain why we are seeing them. I know it has to be something to do with those extra two resonances."

"Or it is your subconscious's way of projecting your anxiety," Marble suggested. "Let me explain; the situation makes the world feel wrong. Candy, and you, look around and see a perfectly normal Ponyville--"

"It's very different than I remember," Cheerilee interjected.

"A normal enough Ponyville," Marble amended. "There isn't anything around you to point to as the cause of your anxiety, since it is all internal, so you make something to be that cause. You take something perfectly ordinary, and you turn it into a monster, because there needs to be something you can blame, something you can fight."

The mare sighed. "I used to do that when around other ponies. I would visualize them as monsters, out to get me. I could deal with my family, but everypony else-- that was a different story. It was social anxiety in my case, not the type of anxiety you have, but it still caused me to have paranoia, and paranoia made me see things that weren't there; ponies making fun of me, ponies saying horrible things about me, ponies plotting against me. All of these things weren't real, and I knew in my head they were irrational, but they still seemed very real to me."

"But I don't have social anxiety," Cheerilee grumbled.

Marble looked her in the eyes. "But you have a paranoid delusion of something you admit you know, logically, isn't there. Something that invokes strong emotions of fear. You have a lot of anxiety wrapped up in you, and it can make you see things that aren't there."

That made her think of something Silver said. Something that she hoped she and Candy didn't share. "Um, in terms of seeing something that isn't there; what are some early warning signs of dementia?"

Marble blinked. "Problems with short-term memory, confusion, moodiness, getting stressed more easily, struggling with everyday tasks, difficulty communicating; all these things could be warning signs of several possible mental health problems, not necessarily indicating dementia, but clearly indicating something isn't right. Why do you ask?"

Cheerilee looked down and away. "I found out that the version of me that is in this time was having panic attacks of some sort before she left, and that there were whispers it might be dementia."

"Well, unless she was diagnosed with it by a professional I wouldn't put much stock on what creatures whisper," Marble said dismissively. "It definitely sounds like there was some serious issue, but I never was asked to treat Cheerilee, and I'm the only fully licensed psychologist in Ponyville. That doesn't mean she didn't have a problem, but a lot of creatures get too ashamed to seek out help when they realize they have a problem that would bring them to me."

That she could believe of herself. She'd definitely feel ashamed if she had to admit to everypony that she had some sort of mental health problem. She'd be scared they'd think she was crazy. Although, ironically, not treating it might have caused them to get that impression. On the positive side, she didn't think she was displaying any of those symptoms… except maybe moodiness, but she had multiple reasons to be moody, and didn't need to attribute that to some mental imbalance. That didn't mean that wouldn't change in the future, but now she could be aware of it. She had no intention of breaking down like this version of herself did.

Marble left her seat at the table. "I think we've covered what we can for today, at least until you finish with your other tests. I'll have a few brief words with Ma Apple, and then be on my way. Remember, you know that the muffins aren't real, and you know that they're ridiculous; try to laugh at them, and hopefully you can overcome the fear you're feeling."

She'd do her best to do that, but there didn't seem to be much to laugh about right now.

Chapter 26: More Tests

After Marble left they gathered up Big Mac, Bright Pear, Caramel, and Applejack from the orchards. Starlight had recommended bringing the entire family in for this round of testing, to see if any of the others had been exposed to any either of the rogue resonances. Strawberry was unable to get away from weather patrol duties for the day, but everypony else was going to be accounted for. Rainbow Dash had already been planning on being at the school today, since she was starting her training regimen with Scootaloo, and Applebloom worked there.

When they got close to the school grounds, they came upon a small crowd. Applejack looked upwards and smirked. "The peacock."

In the air, above the crowd, an air obstacle course had been set up. Rainbow Dash came zooming in like a streak of light, and passed through a series of hoops, before colliding with a large cloud and demolishing it. The colorful pegasus flew downwards, and then seemed to strut in the air.

A loud screeching whistle blew, making Cheerilee, Rainbow Dash, and every other creature wince. "Rainbow Dash! You clipped the side of three of those hoops!" A loud voice rang out on what sounded like a blowhorn.

Rainbow looked down with an indignant look at the pony that shouted at her. "Are you sure you aren't seeing things?"

"Are you questioning your trainer? How many wing-ups do you want to end up doing?" The voice rang back at her.

The peacock pegasus immediately started to look worried. "No, Coach Scootaloo, ma'am! If you said I clipped them, then I must have clipped them. Although, I couldn't have clipped them that hard." Rainbow gave a sheepish grin.

"Yeah, you didn't clip them that hard," the voice answered back, calmer, and at reduced volume. "But it's something that needs to be fixed before we work on your speed, for your own safety. If you're going at your former top speeds, or even close to them, you can't afford to be clipping anything. Anyway, you're dismissed for today, we'll pick up again at the end of the week, and work some more on your agility then."

The crowd dispersed rapidly now that there was no more aerial performance by a famed Wonderbolt to see. Rainbow flew down to the rest of the family with a grin. "Scoots must have been taking it easy on me today. Her students have told me that she's nice and friendly teaching in a classroom, but when she's in coach mode she could fill in for any drill sergeant."

Applejack gave her a dubious look. "She seemed pretty loud to me."

Rainbow waved a wing dismissively. "You've never seen me drill the newbies, or what Spitfire used to put me through. Believe me, Scoots was being gentle."

"Well, she's a teacher, not a drill sergeant," Cheerilee interjected. "Her students might be exaggerating how hard she is since they've never had to deal with an actual drill sergeant yelling at them. As a teacher she can be tough and stern, but she still is dealing with fillies and colts, albeit older ones, and needs to be more concerned with their feelings. If that is what you are looking for in a trainer then she might not give it. It isn't how I would have taught her to teach."

"She's right," Applejack said in a concerned tone. "And while I ain't rightly thrilled with the idea of a pony gettin' rude with ya, I don't think it's a good idea if she gets too gentle with you, tryin' to protect your feelins', if it means the difference between ya bein' at your best or gettin' yourself hurt."

"A teacher can be gentle and effective," Cheerilee grumbled, then looked at Rainbow. "But different ponies need different types of instruction, and I get the impression you need someone who will push you as hard as they can and give no concern for your ego-- otherwise that ego of yours will get in the way and you won't listen to their concerns. I'm sure Scootaloo is a great teacher and coach, but typical teaching methods might not be what you need, and that might make her a less than ideal fit. Maybe one of the retired Wonderbolts could assist her? Maybe Spitfire?"

Rainbow gave an uncomfortable look back at the school, and sighed. "Fine, I'll see if there's an ex-Wonderbolt who's willing to assist Scootaloo in training me, but I don't think Scootaloo needs any help. I have nothing but faith in her."

"Just makin' sure you can do your best, Rainbow," Applejack said as she walked over and gave her marefriend a public nuzzle.

They hurried on into the school, where they were greeted by Silverstream again. "Hello!" The hippogriff said with a happy wave. "Luster, Sweetie, Applebloom, Flurry Heart, and Starlight are already up in the lab, waiting for you. You can head right up!"

Ma paused and gave a confused frown. "Why is Flurry Heart up there?"

Silverstream shrugged. "No idea, but she's up there, and hasn't blown any creatures up that I'm aware of, which is a good thing. It's been a pretty quiet morning."

They all shared an apprehensive look. Cheerilee didn't really know Flurry Heart, considering the alicorn was so young she had a vocabulary of less than five words in her own time, but the first impression made her wary of having the young princess anywhere near her. There wasn't much they could do but find out why the terror from the north was being included. Maybe they needed to do something that needed a lot of magical power; Flurry Heart had that in spades.

They wandered up the stairs, and to the appropriate lab. When they went in they saw the alicorn sitting with a deep frown on her face and the device for checking resonances hooked up to her.

"Stop frowning, it isn't that bad," Sweetie Belle scolded as she made some sort of adjustment to the device.

"I look ridiculous," Flurry said with a pout, and put a hoof up to the helmet on her head. Sweetie Belle lit her horn and used her magic to pop Flurry's hoof. The alicorn withdrew the hoof and gave the white unicorn a sullen glare.

Luster was engrossed in observing the resonances that appeared in the crystal. Applebloom was asleep in a corner, and somepony had draped a blanket over her. Starlight was observing some smaller crystals sitting on a table, but turned to them as they finished walking through the door.

"Hello!" Starlight greeted. "I've got a small piece of good news. One of Candy's rogue resonances we have been able to match to one Applebloom shares as well. Sweetie Belle and I don't seem to have it, so that further confirms that it is likely something from the Everfree, even if we haven't identified what it is yet." She frowned. "Unfortunately none of us seem to have a match for the other resonance so far. We're almost done checking Flurry over, and then we can start checking the rest of you."

"We actually are done with her," Luster said as she looked up from the crystal briefly. "Flurry Heart has as many unusual resonances as you, Headmare, but no matches for what we're looking for. I'd love to further study both of you at some point, these resonances are fascinating." The pink unicorn immediately went back to observing Flurry's resonances.

Flurry's glare deepened as she shared at Luster. "I've had this thing on my head for twenty minutes. How long have you known I didn't have what you were looking for?"

"Maybe about ten minutes, we had to wait for the Apples to arrive, so I figured there was no harm in leaving it on," Luster replied without looking up.

Flurry pulled the helmet off quickly and tossed it down on the floor. "Can I turn her into a tree rat?!" She then winced as Sweetie Belle popped her in the nose with her magic. The alicorn wrinkled up her nose then let off a loud sneeze.

Luster looked up with a confused expression. "What's a tree rat?"

"She means a squirrel," Sweetie answered with a giggle. "Her royal pamperedness here wasn't-"

"Please don't tell this story!" Flurry said in horror, then got popped on the nose again by Sweetie's magic, which caused a small sneezing fit.

"As I was saying," Sweetie continued. "Flurry Heart wasn't very familiar with squirrels when she first came to this school a few years ago. She went out by a tree with a lunch that included a fair amount of nuts, and several squirrels came down from the tree begging for food. This brave and all-powerful alicorn went into a panic, and started blindly blasting magic all over the place and screaming in terror, convinced that she was being attacked by rats. If it weren't for the damage she did it would have been funny."

Rainbow snort-laughed. "I thought it was funny."

Flurry tossed her mane back, and put her nose high into the air. "If I'm no longer needed. I'll be going now." Before anypony could answer, the alicorn teleported out of the room.

Luster flicked an ear. "Okay… " She turned to the Apples. "Let's start testing you one by one, starting with Ma Apple. We're trying to see if any of you share either or both these odd resonances. Since we haven't as of yet identified them, that will help us narrow down what they are."

Testing went on for some time. Sweetie Belle did something with her magic to help get readings for the majority of the family, since only Ma had a horn to hold magic in. When they finally finished with everypony there were two more duplicated resonances added to the table for Starlight to observe, these two coming from Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

"So, one of the resonances nopony here but Candy has ever been exposed to, that's a problem," Starlight announced. "On the bright side, that same resonance that Applebloom and Candy share is found in Applejack and Rainbow. That's really going to help us narrow down what it is."

Sweetie Belle walked over to Applebloom and gave her a light shake with her hoof. "Sorry to wake you, Applebloom, but we finished the testing. We're going to need your opinion on some things."

Applebloom lifted her head up and stretched, looking around with bleary eyes. "Just give me a moment."

Cheerilee had been the last to be tested, and was still hooked up to the device, with Luster frowning at her results in the crystal. "It looks like you picked up another earth pony resonance since you were last here, nothing really special about that, but I think I made an error in reading these two rogue resonances last time, and it might make this more complicated."

Ma rushed over and looked at the Crystal. "What's wrong?!"

Luster gave Ma an annoyed look, and gently picked her up and set her back a few feet. "These two rogue resonances I did determine last time were entangled in Candy's magic, but I failed to notice how entangled they are with one another. I don't think they can be dispelled individually, and the entanglement is strengthening each of them and possibly impacting how they would normally behave on their own."

"So what does that mean for fixing this?" Cheerilee asked worriedly.

Luster frowned at the crystal. "We need to find out what both of them are. We might need a sample of the source magic from each. They're reinforcing one another, and are entangled into Candy's main resonance, and that's going to make it difficult to shut down whatever it is that they're doing."

Applebloom finally picked herself up and waddled over to the table and looked at the smaller crystals. "So what am I givin' an expert opinion on?"

"We need your best guess on something in the Everfree that has strong magic, that you, your sister, and Rainbow Dash have been exposed to at some point, but nopony else in this room should have ever come in contact with," Starlight explained.

The pregnant mare sat down and seemed to think. "And you, Sweetie, and Flurry haven't been exposed either, right?" Applebloom asked. Starlight nodded. Applebloom sighed. "I can guess one somethin' right off the top of ma' head, poison joke. Strong magical plant, native to the Everfree, easy to stumble through without noticin' what ya did. My sister and Rainbow Dash both wandered into it years ago. I got exposed to it as well, back when Zecora was teachin' me about it, and how to treat anypony that went trapesin' through those flowers. As far as I know, none of the rest of y'all have ever touched it. I remember seein' a patch near where we found Candy; had to shoo everycreature away from it."

Applejack let out a long breath. "And I can guess what the joke is this time: 'pretend to be another pony, then be another pony.'"

"Makes sense," Applebloom said with a nod, then gave the resonance crystal a worried look. "I know how to whip up a cure for it, but the stuff's potent enough I'd rather not be touchin' it until after this foal is out of me. There're a couple former students of mine in town that I trust to be able to do it with me directin' them, and maybe one or two students about to graduate."

"Won't do us any good until we figure out what this other resonance happens to be," Luster said. "I'm at a loss at what it might be though. Between all the ponies we've tested you'd think somecreature close to Candy would have a match, especially the aunt that has spent more time in the Everfree than the rest of you combined. Maybe it's time for me to try Celestia and Luna, but even if they have a match there's no telling if they can recall what it was."

"We also need to actually confirm it is poison joke," Applebloom added. "I don't keep any of that in ma' stock. Somecreature would need to go harvest some so you can test its resonance. I ain't sure who I'd trust to be doin' that without me watchin' over them, and I ain't about to go dashin' off into the Everfree when I'm about to pop."

"And what happens if you can't figure out what it is?" Cheerilee asked, dreading the answer.

Luster looked at her. "Then there's no way we can actually cure it. At best we might be able to seal its magic away, but it would be a complicated spell to do that without adversely impacting the host, one that I'd need at least weeks to figure out, and would still eventually fail and need to be reapplied."

"I'll still see about findin' one of ma' students to help brew up an antidote, just to have it rrady" Applebloom said, then wavered on her hooves a little, before steadying herself. "I think I need to go lie down first. I ain't feelin' too good. Water hasn't broke, but I think this youngin' might be comin' out soon."

Starlight lit her horn and her aura enveloped Applebloom. The unicorn let off a gasp as she released her magic. "She's right, it's not going to be long at all before that water breaks. I wouldn't be surprised if it was tonight or early tomorrow, she'll definitely be giving birth to that foal before tomorrow night is done."

The Apples collectively gasped, and Applejack stepped forward. "Well then, findin' somecreature to brew up that potion'll have to wait. We need to get her to the doctor so she'll be ready."

Cheerilee took the helmet off and got out of everypony's way. She had mixed feelings at the moment. It was great that they found part of the answer, but it seemed like there was no way that this could be resolved before the school board meeting. If Applebloom was giving birth tomorrow there wasn't likely going to be anything done while that was going on. She and Candy were running out of time faster and faster, and there didn't seem to be anything that could stop Candy from getting kicked out of school before an answer could be found.

Author's Note

Shorter chapter, but adding anything else felt like padding.

Chapter 27: De-Stress and Distress

She, Ma, Bright Pear, and Caramel left the school to return to the farm. Applejack and Big Mac had no intention of leaving their little sister's side until the foal was delivered, and Rainbow decided to stay with them, to be ready to rush to the farm when the news came that Applebloom was going to deliver. Sweetie Belle said she'd be gathering Scootaloo up as soon as she got word to her husband that she'd probably be out all night and tomorrow, and that he'd need to make sure their son was fed. It was a small shock to hear that Applebloom was not the first Crusader to be a mother, but a lot of information just didn't come up in conversations. The depressing thought struck her that she'd never heard anything about a husband or foals for herself, everypony always talked about her future self as a lone agent in running off, not running off with any family in tow. She seemed destined to never have that need filled, and it was heartbreaking to consider.

It shamed her to admit it, but she was jealous of her students, who all seemed to have such wonderful lives, but her future self was without family, and possibly senile. It felt like a cruel joke. Everypony got a happy ending but her… and maybe Candy, who might lose her happy ending because of a mistake Cheerilee had made. Candy deserved better than her, but it seemed Candy had gotten another string of bad luck. The little filly couldn't catch a break.

They were taking their time walking back. Strawberry was apparently going to be out late, as the pegasus planned on heading back to her parents' house after work to start packing some things from her room to move over to the farm. Bright Pear and Ma were talking quietly a few pony-lengths ahead of Cheerilee and Caramel. She couldn't hear much of the conversation, but gathered it had to do with Bright Pear and his bride-to-be, since he kept blushing, and the one thing she did hear clearly on-and-off was Ma gently scolding him for being embarrassed to be discussing these things with his mother. She did partially hear something about getting Bright and Strawberry a bigger bed, and something about how many rooms the new Pear house was going to need, but never enough to follow the conversation. It was a discussion that clearly had nothing to do with her, so she didn't fret about not hearing it well.

Caramel walked over to her and rump bumped her. "Hey! Want to play a game, maybe hide and seek, or racin'?"

She gave him a raised eyebrow as they continued walking. "You did hear that I'm not actually your sister, and that normally I'm a grown adult, right?"

The purple earth pony colt nodded. "Oh sure, but you're'a foal right now, ain't ya? Ya don't have to be a borin' grown-up right now."

She stopped in her tracks. "I'm not boring," she protested. "Do you think future me is boring?" That actually struck a nerve in her. Was she boring? Was that why in twenty years she never found her special somepony?

Caramel rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Well… Principal Cheerilee sat in her office a lot, and seemed real excited-like whenever she got to fill in for any of the teachers. I think she got bored sittin' in her office all the time."

"I love teaching, of course I'd be excited to get to fill in for the teachers," Cheerilee replied, then thought about her future job more, and brightened up a little. "I'm guessing my position as principal gave me an opportunity to interact with all the students equally. I want to be involved with all of you, and help all of you blossom."

"But ya still don't gets to run around and play," Caramel said, then his ears sagged, and he turned away. "I get it if ya don't want to play. I know ya ain't really Candy, but I miss her, and it'd be nice if I could pretend ya were her."

She blinked, and looked up ahead. Ma and Bright Pear had paused and were watching them. She looked back at the disappointed colt sitting beside her, and she made a decision.

"Tag! You're it!" She yelled out, as she tapped Caramel's side, and took off at a run towards the adults.

The colt seemed confused for only a moment, before taking off after her with a squeal of glee. She ran by Ma and Bright, and Ma gasped. "Candy, is that you?"

"No," Cheerilee yelled back. "Still Cheerilee, but making the most of a bad situation!" She then did a sharp turn so she and Caramel wouldn't get too far from the adults.

"Um, okay…" Ma said in a befuddled voice. "Just keep in my sight, I guess."

She dodged around Caramel for a minute or two, but going at full speed was becoming a little much for her, and she slowed down slightly. That led to Caramel planting a hoof on her side. "Tag! You're it!" He then took off at a pace she had no way of catching up with.

She got a devious idea instead. As she followed him back past the adults she instead quickly gave a soft pat on Ma's flank instead. "Tag! You're it!" And scurried away quickly.

Caramel stopped running and looked back at the adults as if unsure how this was going to play out. The way Ma was looking at the pair of them made it seem she was uncertain as well. The unicorn mare looked back and forth between Cheerilee and Caramel, then turned and looked at Bright. She then booped his muzzle. "Tag! You're it!" Then the mare hurried away from her eldest son, with a snorting chortle. Bright Pear narrowed his eyes, then joined in.

Their game of tag was right in the middle of a busy part of town, and foals and other young creatures that were passing by with parents or older siblings pleaded with their guardians to let them join in. One set of very eager earth pony fillies were even trying to haul their own parents into joining in with game. Cheerilee actually recognized this set of parents as some of her younger students from her own time, Haiku (who had back then just recently changed her name from Kettle Corn) and Skedattle. Her two former students seemed hesitant at first to be joining in a foal's game, but broke down under the powerful pressure of the two pleading sets of eyes.

The game grew in size, and although some passersby gave the adults playing along smirks, nopony made any complaint about the fact that there was a large game of tag going on in a busy area. If anything, most onlookers seemed to find the fact that there were adults playing along with the foals endearing. She even spotted a few ponies that she could tell had their own secret desire to join in. She found that she was enjoying herself far more than she thought she would, and this game was no longer something just to help cheer up Caramel, but something that she had needed as well. She could perhaps blame her underage brain for it, but she had a feeling that even if she were her correct age she'd still be having fun-- the current adults all seemed to be.

Eventually most of the participants tired themselves out, and the game came to an end. A number of the nearby vendors sold food, and found themselves with a wave of new customers. Ma took a minute to sit and relax, before directing her two sons and Cheerilee that they needed to be back on their way home. The experience may not have solved any problems, but it did at least loosen the small group of them up, and relieved them of a load of stress they had all been carrying.

When they arrived back at the farm they found Strawberry in the kitchen. The poor mare was in tears, and there was a mess of epic proportions on the stove and everything else. Bright Pear immediately ran over to her to see if she was alright and to comfort her. The smell in the kitchen was gag inducing, and Caramel quickly retreated out of the room.

Strawberry, still sniffling, looked over to Ma. "I'm sorry. I got home much earlier than I thought I would, and found your note about how you might be out late. I thought I would be helpful by trying to make dinner for everypony, but everything that could go wrong went wrong, and I'm pretty sure a few things that couldn't go wrong went wrong anyway."

Ma surveyed the mess in her kitchen for a moment and tried to take a deep breath-- only to end up gagging on the smell. She looked upward at the ceiling. "How did you manage to get a tomato-" The unicorn shook her head. "Don't worry yourself about it. Let's get a window open to start airin' this place out. Since it's just the five of us tonight, I think it would be a good night to go eat out, somewhere nice. You and Bright can have your own private table, and make it a date. Order what you want as a treat from me. Get yourself cleaned up, and we'll be on our way."

Cheerilee couldn't think of anything she could really accomplish at Sweet Apple Acres. Sadly, she couldn't think of much she could accomplish to help Candy at all, other than stay out of trouble. Hopefully this restaurant wouldn't serve muffins. She'd need to put Marble's laughing treatment to the test if they did. She might get some funny looks for laughing at a muffin, but it was better than another panic attack and surge.

The restaurant they went to was on the far side of town, close to the Everfree. The forest had actually covered this area in her own time, but it had been cleared and pushed back to where the treeline was now a good distance away from it. She wished that the town had grown enough to just push the entire forest out of existence, but it took a lot of work and upkeep to keep it at bay in her own time, and while Ponyville was far larger in this time, it wasn't large enough to do that. With the way the forest behaved it might never be able to fully be pushed away, as it seemed to have a will of its own, and it was a big enough fight as it was keeping it in check.

She'd learned about this particular restaurant on the walk over. It was owned by Rumble and Pina Colada, who were apparently a couple. They two controlled separate aspects of the restaurant; Rumble had control of the main business and kitchens, and Pina had financial and managerial control of the bar area and everything associated with it. Rumble's older brother, Thunderlane, worked as both a chef and matredine, and another former Wonderbolt, Misty Fly, worked as a greeter as well. The draw of having not one, but two former Wonderbolts, combined with higher end meals and a full bar made the establishment one that attracted even high class patrons from Canterlot, and it was considered one of the place in town that tourists needed to eat at once during their stay. A pair of new mid-sized hotels flanked the location, and made it all the more enticing for tourists. Tourism had always played a small part in Ponyville's economies, going back to the days zap apple jam drew tourists, but it seemed that in the last twenty years that industry had become the dominant one for the town.

"Do the Apples still make zap apple jam, and apple cider?" Cheerilee asked, as the thought occurred to her.

"E'yup," Ma replied, with a smug grin. "Applejack takes care of most of the preparations for those, but she taught me what needs to be done."

"And Ma and aunt Applejack are teachin' me, so I can take care of that when I'm older," Caramel said cheerfully.

Ma nodded in pride of her youngest son. "I might have married into bein' an Apple, but I'm an Apple to my core, and will make sure our traditions carry on long after I'm gone." She giggled. "I'll tell you a secret. It's the natural way I speak now, but I actually trained myself to have a slight country accent. Relatives have expectations out of the matriarch of the family."

Strawberry giggled. "I'll keep your scandalous secret safe, but don't expect me to do the same. If I pick up anything, it will be just because it happened."

They walked into the restaurant and were greeted by none other than Thunderlane himself. The pegasus was in a proper tuxedo, and had a single iron grey streak going through his mane. He gave them all a big smile as they entered. "Welcome!"

Ma shuddered. "Sorry, that particular greetin' brings back bad memories."

Thunderlane immediately looked embarrassed. "Oh, sorry about that. Former Our Town resident, right? I should have thought about it. We don't get many if those. Let's just try hi then." Cheerilee blinked, she'd forgotten Ma was from there, despite Ma sharing her past. Actually, at this point she was almost forgetting that Ma's name in her own time was Sugar Belle. She could almost imagine if she walked up to the Sugar Belle in her own time she'd accidently call her Ma Apple by mistake.

"That would be better," Ma said with a thankful nod. "I'm pickin' up the bill for all of us, but you can seat Bright and Strawberry at a private table or at the bar." She turned to the pair. "Just don't go drinkin' too much. I'm gettin' the bill, so I'll know how much you've had."

"Wouldn't dream of getting drunk, Ma. Never been drunk, and don't ever intend to," Bright replied, and Strawberry nodded along.

"Didn't think you would, but still felt like warnin' you just in case you got placed at the bar," Ma said with a firm nod.

"Which they probably will be," Thunderlane said. "We're pretty full, with all the parents and relatives who've come into town for the graduations. A private table for two is not going to be available, but we have a few spots open by the bar. I have at least one or two family tables open for the rest of you."

He led the group into the restaurant proper. It was filled with low to the ground tables with pillows for seating. The entire place was dimly lit. Each of the tables had a small candelabra in the center, with three lit candles burning softly in each, and this seemed to be the majority of the lighting in the restaurant, aside from some softly glowing firefly lamps on each wall, and a more brightly lit bar area. There was a stage on the far side of the room which had a band playing classical music, with spotlights put on each of the members. The atmosphere really did give off a very high class vibe.

She, Ma, and Caramel were seated at a table, and Thunderlane informed them that a waiter would be with them shortly, before leading Bright Pear and Strawberry away to the bar area. There were plenty of other occupied tables around them, but the combination of dim lighting and the backdrop of the music somehow gave each table it's own feeling of being private. The smells of various different foods permeated the air, and increased her appetite.

"Go ahead and start readin' the menus to decide what you want. I think the foal menu is on the back," Ma instructed, as she floated her own menu in front of herself.

Cheerilee used her own magic to turn her menu over to read. Foal menu, it had been a very long time since she'd ordered off one of those for herself. With how hungry she got each day she half considered insisting she eat off the adult menu. Her perceived appetite might be bigger than her stomach, she had plenty of experience treating foals to meals and learning that was very often the case.

The waitress, a young unicorn mare who couldn't have been out of elementary school more than a year, came over to them with a smile on her face and pad and quill floating in her magic. "Hello, I'm Blueberry Tart, and I'll be your server for tonight. I'll be taking your drink orders right now, and when I come back with those I'll take your regular orders."

Ma glanced at the menu and scrunched up her nose. "Do you have anything non-alcoholic other than water?"

Blueberry nodded. "We have a separate tea menu, if you look further down-- it's in small print. We also have light versions of all the other beverages that barely have any alcohol in them."

"Caramel can't stand tea," Ma said, and let off a small frustrated whinny. "I'll take a regular peach cider, if it isn't too stron' then they can have watered-down versions of the same. It isn't stron' is it?"

Blueberry shook her head. "Not at all. I've had it straight up before, and it didn't leave me feeling any effects. I think it is weaker than your famous apple cider. You'd need to drink two or three full mugs before you started feeling anything. Though I wouldn't recommend a straight mug for smaller foals, the lighter version is still recommended for them."

Ma nodded. "Okay then, they've both had some apple cider during cider season, and done alright, so that sounds fine. We don't go out to places like this much, so they can be treated with somethin' a little different." Cheerilee wanted to say that she was perfectly fine with tea, and a nice soothing ginseng might be nice right about now, but decided to keep quiet. She was trying to keep a low profile, and the less she spoke up the better.

Blueberry wrote down their orders and then said she'd be back shortly with their drinks. Cheerilee went back to looking over the foal menu, and trying to convince herself that the portions on any of the listed items would be enough.

"This is a surprise," came a familiar and very unwelcome voice.

Spoiled Rich had walked over to the table and was giving them all a condescending look. "Ma Apple, I would have thought you would be trying to determine what your arguments for the school board were going to be, not treating your little menace to a special night out. I suppose it might be too much to ask for you to be doing the sensible thing, considering you clearly haven't done right thus far."

Just once, she'd love to box that snide mare right in the face. If she could get away with it just once she'd die happy. Ma looked like she shared the same opinion.

"What happened yesterday was not my little Candy's fault, and it has been a very stressful time for her and she deserves to relax," Ma said in an even tone. "We've been talkin' with a lot of experts, and we've determined what is happenin' with her, mostly at least, and we're workin' on gettin' it fixed."

Spoiled raised a doubting eyebrow. "And what, pray tell, is your excuse for her being an ongoing threat to the education of the rest of Ponyville's youth, and able to get away with all the other things that she has done? Please say, I need a good laugh."

"She has some sort of magical problem that copies the minds of other ponies and creatures into hers for periods," Ma answered confidently. "It ain't actually my Candy doin' any of that stuff. I know it sounds far-fetched, but we've got expert testimony and evidence to prove it."

"Is that so?" Spoiled said with a smirk. "My dear, naive, farm mare, you're just telling me that she is even more of a menace than I first argued. I'm aware of several of those personalities she's had, and they are from individuals that have no right being around other foals. It was bad enough saying she was pretending to be Sombra and some of the others, but now you are saying she actually was these creatures? Is letting Sombra around Ponyville's youth what you'd have us do? Who is she supposed to be right now?"

"Cheerilee," Cheerilee answered before Ma replied. "And I'm going to do everything I can to help Candy, just like I've always done for every other foal."

Spoiled looked at her and then burst out laughing. "Cheerilee, really? Oh my, that is too precious. I think that just reinforces that Candy has yet another unstable pony in her head. I had always thought Cheerilee was not truly mentally up for her job, with how ridiculously lenient and soft she was in terms of discipline, and she seems to have finally lost it and taken off this year to prove I was right to think she was mentally unfit. Now you're claiming Candy is being possessed by that mentally unstable excuse for an educator, with some who knows what mental disorder, another pony's mental disorder piled upon Candy's, and this is supposed to make it better? I said I needed a laugh, and you have not let me down."

She was clenching her jaw and grinding her teeth together so tightly that it hurt. The only thing that was keeping her from bucking Spoiled in the face was the fact it would end up coming back on Candy, the ONLY thing. Ma seemed so beside herself with rage that she couldn't even form words, and Caramel looked like he was on the verge of doing what she wanted to do.

Spoiled grew serious again. "I do apologize that it must come to this, separating a foal from her mother, even a poor excuse for one, is a sad thing that I should not seem to make light of, but it's for the safety of the students. We can't have a student with such unbalanced personalities in a place where they can harm the others, or anycreature else for that matter. She isn't just a school menace, but a public one. I'll be leaving you in peace. Please, enjoy your meal. You won't get such nice food in the asylum."

The mare turned and walked away, leaving three very angry ponies in her wake, but also hanging dread that the rest of the school board and other authorities might see things the same way.

Chapter 29: Grain Sprites

Author's Note

Feeling under the weather, maybe sick, and haven't really given this much of an editing pass as a result. If you notice anything off, just let me know.

Chapter 29: Grain Sprites

Her mind raced as she shared at the illustration. Was she imagining things again, or was it really an illustration in the book? It wasn't a muffin, but she knew that smile, and bread was pretty similar to a muffin. "Strawberry! I need you!" She yelled. If the pegasus saw it there as well, then it had to be real.

The red pegasus came hurtling through the door, flapping her wings as she flew into the room. "What's wrong? Are you hurt? Do we need a doctor?"

Cheerilee pointed at the book. "Can you tell me what you see there? Is there really a drawing of a smiling loaf of bread, or am I having another hallucination?"

"What?" Strawberry replied in confusion as she touched her hooves back down on the floor. She then walked over to the book and looked at it. "That's a smiling loaf of bread, alright-" Strawberry turned her head towards the closet. "It reminds me of-"

The pegasus let off a surprised yelp, as Cheerilee ran right up to the book and pulled it close to read with her magic.

Grain Sprites

Native Habitats: Unknown, possibly farmland for growing grains in zebra lands.

Known magical abilities: Unconfirmed, see full notes.

Population numbers: Unknown, either extinct or purely mythical.

Threat level upon encounter: Unknown, see notes.

Likelihood of encountering in the wild: Essentially nonexistent, see notes.

Notes: All knowledge of grain sprites come to us through zebra folklore, as there has never been a confirmed sighting of the creature. What is gathered by zebra oral tradition is patchy, and unclear, with conflicting information on their effects.

What the zebra generally agree on is this-- grain sprites are typically formless, invisible spirits. Grain sprites, as their name implies, are very fond of grains such as wheat, oats, rye, and barley, although it is unconfirmed if they somehow eat these things or simply love being around them. While a grain sprite is formless, the grain sprite is capable of taking possession of a grain or grain product, with many zebra insisting that upon possession the grain or grain product will display a smiling face.

Purportedly, grain sprites are especially fond of baked goods made from grain, such as bread. Though also fond of beer, and grain based alcohol. They will take up residence in their grainy home, and at this time is when they become dangerous. The grain sprite will defend its new home with magic, it is said. When a creature tries to eat or drink the grain sprite's comfy home, while failing to notice or disregarding the smiling face, they find themselves at the mercy of the grain sprite's magic.

The actual effects and nature of this magic have conflicting reports from zebra; with effects ranging from causing their attacker to hallucinate to causing nearby magic items and spells to behave in strange and unpredictable ways. Other effects that have been claimed to happen are confusion about identity, having intense visions of the past, and physical transformation; It should be noted that these are all conflicting reports of what the effects are, rather than a list of things that will happen to the unsuspecting victim. Some zebra insist that magic is said to be extremely potent, and extremely difficult, if not impossible, to dispel; while others insist that it can easily be dispelled with common means-- again, the reports are often conflicting.

Zebra are deeply superstitious in regards to grain sprites, and terrified of them. Oral tradition says that bands of zebra would abandon areas they were living in at the sighting of a grain sprite. There have been no reported cases of this happening in modern times, but there have also been no purported sightings of the mythical creature as well.

Given that the grain sprite's effects could mimic a side effect of being consuming certain molds, which may grow on grains; it is this pony's humble opinion that the creature is purely myth, used to explain ancient zebra reactions to this mold exposure that they otherwise didn't understand at the time. While there are many little known magical creatures, many that exist only in stories are merely constructs to explain other natural phenomenons. It can be safely assumed this is merely a superstition that has persisted from a time when knowledge and understanding of mold on food was not understood.

This had to be it! It was so similar to what Candy was experiencing with the muffins-- smiling face on a grain product, hallucinations, even the intense visions of the past and confusion about identity could be a link. Didn't they say zebra used to inhabit this area, and left very suddenly with no explanation why? Grain sprites could be the reason, instead of the Everfree. If they were few in number, all deep in the Everfree, and normally formless and invisible, that might explain why nopony had ever stumbled upon them.

"This is it!" She explained excitedly, passing the book to Strawberry. "This is what the second rogue resonance has to be, a grain sprite's magic!"

Strawberry grabbed the book with her wings and looked it over. "Um, the book says these things are a myth to explain being exposed to mold. Are you saying you-- or Candy anyway-- was exposed to mold? You did have a closet full of moldy muffins, so I suppose that makes sense."

Cheerilee lit up Candy's horn and pulled the book back."No! I'm saying these things must be real, and Candy must have read this entry not long before I showed up. It says here that some zebra said that the magic could be dispelled through common means-- that's why she was trying to make that potion, she was trying to use the common dispelling methods that zebras would use."

"I don't know, it seems kind of far-fetched," Strawberry replied, then gave a sad frown. "But, then again, everything about Candy's situation seems far-fetched. It's too late to be doing anything tonight. We'll take this book to Starlight Glimmer first thing after breakfast tomorrow. She can decide if this is worth looking into. Go ahead and get some sleep. I'm going to tuck Caramel in and then I'm going to bed too."

She wanted to go see Starlight right now, but it was late, and there wasn't going to be enough time to do anything tonight. It was just that tomorrow was basically all the time that she had to fix Candy's problem and avoid her being kicked out of school. Maybe they could get her back into school after being kicked out, but if Spoiled was determined to keep her out then it was best that Candy never get kicked out to begin with, that would give Spoiled too much of an advantage in keeping her out. She couldn't let that happen. It was all the more personal to her since she was the one that had been the final blow. No student was going to get kicked out of school over something she did.

She did sleep, but she took forever to fall asleep, and she was up and down over the course of the night. When the sun peaked through her window she through off her covers and immediately headed straight downstairs.

Strawberry was in the kitchen already, preparing more oatmeal, along with toast. The pegasus looked over to her as she hurried in and flicked her ear. "I was planning on getting the two of you up shortly. I wanted to let you be well rested today. I'm pretty sure Caramel is still asleep. It took a long time to settle him down last night."

"I just wanted to get things taken care if as soon as possible, there isn't much time left before that school board meeting," Cheerilee explained.

"You have time to eat breakfast and for Caramel to wake up and do the same," the pegasus replied, wiping some butter on toast with a knife held in her wing. "Rainbow has already been by this morning, in case you're wondering, at least for a minute or so. She said Applebloom is going to be off her hooves for a few weeks to recover, but she should be otherwise alright. Ma and Applejack are going to be helping her with the triplets until she's up to doing things herself, and her husband should be arriving on the train back from Canterlot today."

Cheerilee let off a relieved breath. "I'm glad it isn't too serious." Her ears then dropped. "Did they clarify what happened? It wasn't because of how busy she's been the last few days, was it?"

Strawberry smiled, as she carried over a bowl of oatmeal and a plate of toast with each wing. "Don't blame yourself. One of the colts ended up getting tangled up in his cord, and with his siblings as well. Applebloom was awake long enough last night to name him, even if she hasn't named his brothers yet. She named him Tangle Bloom, which is after some plant in the Everfree, because he came into the world all tangled up in her."

She was actually familiar with that plant. It was used as an old pony remedy for treating heartburn and upset stomachs. Her mother used to give It to her whenever she had a tummy ache. It was bluish green, and tasted dreadful; it did however do the trick at relieving indigestion if you chewed on it for a few minutes, it just left you wanting to wash the bitter taste out afterwards. Her mother used to tell her the taste wouldn't kill her, and she'd feel better once it was done. Maybe that was a sly double meaning on Applebloom's part-- Tangle didn't kill her, and she felt much better after he was finally born. A little morbid, but she had heard even more morbid stories behind pony names.

Caramel came wandering into the kitchen, bleary eyed, and blindly wandered to his chair. Strawberry fetched food for the young colt as well. As Cheerilee looked up she noticed that the kitchen was surprisingly clean, and she wondered how long Strawberry had been up last night cleaning, or how early she had gotten up to do the task. In either case, the pegasus couldn't have gotten much sleep.

She finished off her breakfast quickly, and then was forced to sit impatiently waiting for Caramel to finish eating. It was slowed further by Strawberry taking the time to reiterate the news about Applebloom to the colt. This did seem to wake him up, but he couldn't seem to listen and eat at the same time, as if one or the other required his full attention, and news about his aunt and new cousins was too much to ignore.

A knock sounded at the door, and it was she who went running to answer it; it might be Starlight with news, and if it wasn't, then she didn't want to do anything that would further slow Caramel from finishing his breakfast.

She opened the door and was greeted by a yellow blob jumping on her and knocking her over. It took a moment to register this was Cheese. The androgynous colt seemed extremely pleaded to see her. Looking past him, she could see Pinkie Pie standing in the doorway, looking exhausted.

"Hiya, Cheerilee-- you are Cheerilee right now, right?" Pinkie greeted with a yawn. "I know Ma is helping with your stuff right now, but I need her to watch little Cheese. I've got a lot of cakes to bake today. Pumpkin is having herself a good cry today, and taking the day off. It's good for her, because she needed it; it's bad for me, because I have to do all her work."

Strawberry walked out of the kitchen. "Ma's not here right now. She went to-" the pegasus caught herself, and seemed to reconsider telling Pinkie the news. "She went to take care of something important. Is it just Pound at the shop by himself right now?" It was probably for the best to delay telling Pinkie about the new foals and Applebloom. There was no telling if Pinkie would drop everything and go running off to the hospital.

Pinkie gave a tired nod. "Until I get back, anyway. We shut the store down for today, and the two of us are going to get all these cake orders done, somehow. Pumpkin isn't going to be allowed to set a hoof into the kitchen. She needs to take a break, and just let herself cry it out. I guess it is a good thing, because she finally realizes she can't be doing this every year. She's really sweet, when she isn't under too much stress. It will be good not having herself stressed out from now on."

Strawberry gave the yellow colt a quick glance. "As I said, Ma isn't here right now, but I suppose I can watch him too. We're going to be going over to the School of Friendship in a few minutes to deal with something important. He can tag along."

"That's fine," Pinkie said in a subdued voice. She then bent down and hugged her son, then gave him a kiss on his head. "You be good for Strawberry Surprise. I'll come back and get you tonight. I love you, my little whoopie cushion."

Pinkie then reached up into her mess of a mane and pulled out a rubber chicken, passing it to Cheese. Cheese took it eagerly and placed it on his back. The party pony then turned and started heading back into town; just walking, instead of pronking as she might normally. Whatever had gone on this morning with Pumpkin must have been completely exhausting for the mare.

"If you haven't eaten yet I have a little breakfast leftover. When we have you all fed we can head off," Strawberry explained.

The colt nodded and headed into the kitchen. Another delay, but an understandable one. Cheerilee just took a deep breath, and reminded herself it was just a few more minutes, then she went back upstairs to fetch the book.

"So… little things that live in bread made this all happen?" Cheese said in confusion. "That's kind of silly."

They were walking to the school, and Cheese had been quite the chatterbox the entire way. She sighed, and looked at him out of the corner of her eye as she walked. "They can live in anything made out of grains. Muffins are a grain product."

"So they are all over town? Why've I never seen one?" Cheese asked.

She frowned. "I'm guessing that they aren't all over town. I think that is just a hallucination, they aren't really there."

"But you just said-"

"The ones around town are hallucinations, there must have been a real one in the Everfree," she replied quickly. "My best guess is Candy took muffins with her to eat when she ran away, and one of those muffins picked up a grain sprite while she was in the woods. They must be deep in the woods, off the regular paths. Maybe there aren't many of them, that's why nopony has ever been unlucky enough to bring something that they could make a home in to where they are at."

"I guess that makes sense," Cheese said thoughtfully. "It still sounds silly, but it makes sense."

"Or Candy just read that entry and started imagining the things," Strawberry cut in, as she continued leading them to the school.

"Then why would I be seeing them too?" Cheerilee countered forcefully. "I didn't read that entry until last night."

"Why only you might be a better question," Strawberry countered. "It seems strange that none of the others, except Candy, ever saw these things. I've lived here my whole life, and I've never heard of a grain sprite before. It sounds like the author said, a reaction to mold, not a real creature. You opened up that closet and got a great big whiff of mold. Maybe that's why you see them and none of the others did."

Cheerilee flicked her tail irritability. "I don't think just smelling mold is how that works, and Big Mac, Bright Pear, and Ma all stuck their muzzles in that closet too. Big Mac even tried pulling them out with his mouth, and he isn't having any hallucinations. Why am I still struggling to make ponies believe me? I thought we were passed this."

"It just sounds absurd, little creatures that make homes in muffins. It sounds like something you tell a foal younger than any of you," Strawberry replied. "But I'm not really dismissing it. We're going to tell Starlight Glimmer, and she'll decide if it is worth looking into."

Applebloom might be the better pony to ask in this case, given Applebloom was the pony most familiar with the Everfree. Of course, Zecora had never found these things, otherwise the zebra would have known what caused her ancestors to flee the area. The book said zebras were terrified of grain sprites, and would abandon areas over them. It all fit together perfectly. It had to be a grain sprite; a grain sprite's magic plus poison joke turned into all this somehow. The stories said the grain sprite's magic could make other magic behave strange and unpredictably, it must have warped what the poison joke did.

They were right that it didn't fit that she saw these things and all the others didn't, she could admit that, but everything else fit. It might not be the whole solution, but it was potentially enough to fix this problem. They just had to get a sample of poison joke, and somehow catch one of those grain sprites. Now that they knew grain sprites were in the Everfree somewhere, and what they were attracted to, then it should be easy enough for them to find and catch one.

They reached the school and saw a flurry of activity going on outside. Ponies and other creatures were erecting bleachers and a large wooden stage. This must be preparations for the graduation. There was no sign of the Cutie Mark Crusaders; Applebloom was clearly not going to be here right now, and she guessed that the other two were close by their friend. Starlight Glimmer was present, trying to direct activity. Flurry Heart was helping out as well, although Starlight seemed to be keeping an extra close watch over the alicorn. There was no sign of Luster.

Starlight caught sight of them and waved them to come over to her. When the reached her the unicorn gave them an inquisitive look. "Why are you here? We don't have any tests scheduled for today. I need to get this place graduation ready." The head mare whipped her head around towards where Flurry was working. "Flurry! If you are going to help, then do it right! Make that trim even! I know you can do better than that. You're too good with magic to be that sloppy."

"Luster Dawn isn't helping," Flurry complained with a visible sulk.

"Luster didn't volunteer to help, you did. Neither of you were required to help, since neither of you are part of the staff. I'm happy that you took it upon yourself to volunteer, but I need you to do things correctly." Starlight turned back to them. "What were we talking about again?"

Strawberry stepped forward and passed the library book to Starlight. "Cheerilee found an entry near the back about something called a grain sprite. She seems pretty sure that must be the source of the second resonance."

Starlight grabbed the book with her magic and examined it. The unicorn flipped open the cover and gave the checkout card a brief glance. "I'm glad Twilight isn't here, this book is overdue. She still goes into nervous fits about overdue library books. Her ministers had to beg her not to make having an overdue library book a punishable crime."

"There would be a lot of ponies in the Canterlot dungeons if she did," Strawberry mused, then blinked. "Does Canterlot have dungeons?"

"It's got no dungeons, but it has a lot of old mines that can be used in a pinch," Starlight replied, then rapidly flipped through the book towards the end, stopping on the entry for grain sprites. The mare sat reading the entry for a moment and gave a lopsided frown to the book. "I can see where you could think this has something to do with it. Unfortunately, I've never heard of these things. I will definitely check into it the day after tomorrow."

"But tomorrow is the school board meeting!" Cheerilee protested. "If Spoiled kicks Candy out of the school it will be an uphill battle trying to get her back in, even if things get fixed."

Starlight flashed her horn and the book vanished. "I just sent that to my study. I can't help you earlier then that. I have a responsibility, as headmare of this school, to see that graduation goes off without a hitch. It would take time for me to map out and arrange teams to go looking for this creature, if it even exists. If it does exist I need to make sure I have something in place to protect the creatures searching for it, just in case they get blasted by its magic too. I simply can't do all those things and take care of my duties I have here. I also need Applebloom for any search of the Everfree, at least to help with coming up with where to search so we don't have creatures wandering into a timberwolf den or something. She's in no shape to be doing that just yet, even if it is just paperwork."

Cheerilee started to cry. It wasn't fair. She determined what they needed to look for. "But-"

Starlight put a hoof up to Cheerilee's mouth. "I get it. If you are Cheerilee, the idea of a student getting kicked out of school on your watch has to be hard. We can get her back in. It might not be easy, but we can do it. You're going to have to face that school board tomorrow without this all being fixed. The good news is that Candy has the best possible pony she could have in her body if she needs to argue with a school board. I'll do everything I can to fix this, but right now the pony Candy needs is already in her head. Be the strong and passionate educator, and argue Candy's case to those creatures. If there is a reason Candy needed you specifically to show up in her body, this is it."

She was still crying, but she nodded. What Starlight said was true. She wasn't sure what she was going to say tomorrow, but she'd say it with all the passion and commitment of a mare who had dedicated her life to helping foals find success in theirs. Right now Candy needed her to be that, and she'd make sure she didn't let the foal down.

Chapter 30: Inopportune Happenings

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 31: The Other Half of the Day

"Can't this train go any faster? Applebloom needs me."

Cheerilee tried to tune out the stallion sitting beside her. Tender Taps was in full on anxiety mode, and it wasn't helping hers. While he was hoping that the train would somehow go faster, she was silently begging for something else to delay them. She wouldn't admit it to anycreature… except maybe Stygian, but she'd been relieved when the train had to come to a screeching halt because the track in front of them had been destroyed, and she'd silently cursed when Celestia and Luna had shown up out of the blue to fix it.

She took a deep breath. It was just one day in Ponyville. She could manage it. Just meet Dinky at the train station, go and help Dinky get the old school records from her house, maybe eat lunch with the mare-- if she was pressured into it, and then hop on the first train back to Vanhoover. She'd even hoped when she left that everything would be fine now, after having some time away. She'd been very wrong about that.

Everything had been fine up until the stop in Canterlot. No feelings of wrongness, no weird deja vu, no crushing sense of familiarity. Then Tender Taps got on the train. At first she'd been thrilled to see a familiar friendly face, and he'd been thrilled to see her as well. It had all gone wrong when he told her that Applebloom had just given birth to three foals, and was in the hospital now.

She'd of course been very worried about her old friend having had such a difficult birth, but with the news the feelings started again; the crippling anxiety, the feeling that this had all happened before. She couldn't describe to anycreature how much panic these feelings gave her. It made no sense, everycreature had an occasional feeling like that, but for her they seemed so much more intense, and like she was unsure when and where she was. She'd be going through the day fine, and then they'd just start out of nowhere, and she'd get terrified. She knew she should talk to her friends, or somecreature about them, but it all seemed so crazy, and she didn't want them to think she was crazy.

It got so bad it was hard to function, and just kept increasing in frequency. She felt if she could just go somewhere unfamiliar it would be fine, so she ran off to somewhere far from Ponyville, with not much explanation, and in Vanhoover it had finally stopped. She had a chance to be herself again in Vanhoover, instead of the mare with the unexplained panic attacks she'd been turning into in Ponyville. There'd even been a bright silver lining; she'd met Stygian, and over the last few months she'd been enjoying the first real long-term relationship in her life. He was smart, kind, debonair, somepony she could hold a conversation with for hours, and he had an accent that she just found extremely sexy-- she'd always had a thing for listening to interesting accents. Sure, he was a little short, but everything else was perfect about him.

Everything had been going great. Yes, she missed her friends a great deal, but she felt safe and happy, and she was in love. Then, in just the last week, the letters had come pouring in from Ponyville. There had been a letter here and there before, which she ignored, but there had been a deluge of them in the last week. Stygian had noticed her tossing them and had confronted her about it. After a long talk, and a lot of crying, she'd agreed that she'd try to go back to Ponyville for just a day; just to see if it really was still as bad as it was. Stygian had offered to come with her, but she said that if she was going to do this, it was on her own. He told her that if it ended up still being that bad he'd help her find therapy and answers.

She gave herself a gentle recrimination that she was trying to shorten this trip, after he had told her to try her best. The feeling of unease was clearly still there, but she could try to push through and visit some old friends and attend to several things she had left undone when she left, instead of just taking off right back to Vanhoover as soon as the most critical task was done.

"Next stop, Ponyville, coming up! Get your luggage ready!"

She wished she'd told him he could come along, she really needed him right now. Deep breaths, she could do this.

Tender was all but dancing in the isle, ready to take off. She glanced up at the baggage compartment. "Um, Tender, you're about to forget your-" The train stopped, and Tender took off like he was shot out of a canon. "--your luggage."

She sighed to herself, and propped herself up to get his luggage down. At least it was another delay, but she'd need to track him down and give him his luggage. Maybe she would get lucky and Dinky would do it as a favor. She hoped Dinky was waiting right at the train station, but the odd train schedule today might have made the younger mare leave and go home. What was she going to do if Dinky wasn't there? She'd have to go and search out the other pony, and that meant wandering even more around town. If things hadn't gotten any better…

Deep breaths.

She put his saddlebags on her back, adding them to her smaller ones. She wasn't carrying much of her own. Only a few of the letters that were sent to her, the key to her house, along with a small gift for her nephew. It was her plan to try to see to the questions and concerns of the writers if each of the letters she carried today, if she could keep it together.

The gift for Mint Cherry was a book on the origins of noble families of Equestria. She hoped it might inspire him to try to do something himself that would earn him a title instead of trying to marry into one. She knew he had set his eyes on Candy Apple last year as a potential future bride, with the hopes that Candy would eventually rise to being a noble and get him a title by extension. So young, and already planning out being a gold digger. Her sister had always wanted to be around nobles, but she at least had always tried to earn her way into their ranks, and she couldn't be faulted for putting in good and honest work towards a dream. Cherry Tea really needed to better drill that lesson into her son.

The brief thought of Candy Apple brought to mind the odd letter that she had received from Doctor Marble Pie. She didn't know what she could do to help the confused filly, but felt empathy for the foal. Her own mental health problems had started not long after Candy's, even though they were completely different in nature. The filly at least seemed to be getting some professional help now; the type Cheerilee should have sought out herself, but had been too ashamed and embarrassed to do. If she could keep her anxiety under control she might try to visit the unfortunate filly. Maybe seeing the real Cheerilee would break the delusion Candy was under.

She carefully stepped off the train and was greeted by an official looking unicorn stallion. "We from the train department want to apologize for the inconvenience that all our passengers suffered. Please accept this voucher for a free train trip anywhere in Equestria to make up for your patience and understanding. We hope you continue to use the Equestrian train service in the future."

He floated a slip of paper over to her, which she took in her mouth, and quickly put into her saddlebags. She then turned back to him and gave him a smile. "Thank you. I'll try not to let it cloud my views of your service." In truth, she had felt no inconvenience by the delay, but she wasn't going to turn down a free train ride in the future.

The stallion nodded and then immediately went off after the next passenger coming off the train. She looked around, and let off a relieved breath when she saw Dinky coming at a brisk trot towards her.

"You made it!" Dinky said happily as the younger mare reached her. "I thought it might be late tonight when you would finally get here. Amethyst told me just a few minutes ago that the track had been repaired, and that you'd be arriving soon. I'm glad I was in the right place to get the news."

She smiled back to her heir as principal. "I'm glad you are here. I don't know what I would have done if you weren't. It's good to see you again Dinky. How is everything at the school? I like your new earrings by the way."

Dinky blinked. "Um, we might need to have a talk about how things are going at the school. We have a very troubling school board meeting tomorrow that I would really appreciate your advice on. Thank you for the compliment, but these are my same old earrings that I've been wearing for years."

She looked at the earrings again. They were indeed the same ones, but she could have sworn she had just seen… She shook her head. Seeing things that weren't there was never a good sign. She hadn't had that problem last time she was here, maybe her anxiety was making her see things.

The younger mare gave her a strange look. "This might seem like a strange question, but did you just see smiling faces on my earrings? If you did, please tell me, it might be really important."

She blinked rapidly a few times. "Yes! I was afraid I was seeing things that weren't there. You don't know how much of a relief it is to hear you say I might not be seeing things. Why'd I see the faces and now I don't?"

"What do you know…" Dinky whispered to herself. She then shook her head and gave Cheerilee a grim expression. "What do you know about Candy Apple?"

"I got a letter from a psychologist saying that Candy thought she was me, which is definitely not the case. I remember she was taking pretending to be other creatures to extremes before I left, but the psychologist seemed to indicate it might be a bit more extreme than just pretend. I feel sorry for the filly, she had shown such promise."

Dinky let out an exasperated sigh. "Well, I was hoping that you'd remember being in her body, but I guess that's not the case. I'm not sure if that would have helped anything, but it might have."

She gave a lopsided frown in response. "What do you mean? This is all some sort of delusion on her part. I would know if I had spent time in her body."

Dinky raised a hoof up and tapped a muffin earring. "Except Candy, believing that she is you, had been seeing smiling faces on my earrings as well. That's too specific and odd a thing to be a coincidence. I know you're mainly here to help me get the old school records, but I really think you need to talk to Starlight Glimmer. That filly is facing permanent expulsion from school tomorrow, and if there is anything that connects the two of you it might help save her from that if we find out what."

Candy's troubles had started around the same time as hers. They were so different that there was nothing that would seem to connect them. Were her own mental health problems somehow linked to Candy?

"If Starlight can figure something out then we should go see her right away," she said, after a brief moment of hesitation. "If there is anything I can do to help a foal in need I'll do it. This might help me too."

She might finally have the answers about why everything felt so overfamiliar, to the point it was panic inducing. She'd might also save one of her former students from unjust punishment. For those two things she could spend as much time as she needed in Ponyville.

"Okay, I think I have everything hooked up. Sorry this took so long. I didn't realize Luster had gone off with friends," Starlight said, as she put a helmet on Cheerilee's head.

Dinky looked at the device in confusion. "And this is the thing you hooked Candy Apple to?"

"Yep," Starlight replied, then turned to Flurry Heart with a serious expression. "Flurry, don't overdo it with magic. I don't want her resonance readings drowned out by your magic feedback. I'd have preferred Sweetie Belle or Luster to be doing this, since they know how to be gentle, but they're both unavailable."

Flurry snorted. "I can be gentle when I need to be. I'm not all explosions and disintegration."

"Explosions and disintegration?!" Cheerilee squeaked. "Maybe we could wait for Sweetie Belle, or maybe Dinky could do it."

Dinky shook her head rapidly. "I have no clue how to do any of this stuff. My spell list consists of levitation, reheating food, shining a beam of light, a very weak shield, a very weak energy blast, and being able to remove ink from paper when I make a mistake. That last one is the most complicated spell I know. My magic is pretty rinky-dink. This is mage stuff."

"I'm not going to blow anycreature up!" Flurry protested. "And Professor Sweetie Belle said she was going to be helping Professor Applebloom all day."

"Which leaves Flurry Heart as my best on-hoof option," Starlight concluded. "Don't worry. I trust Flurry knows what she is doing. She's been trained by some of the best mages in Equestria, that includes Princess Twilight and yours truly. The worst that could happen is her strong magic causes feedback in the readings, that won't hurt you. That feedback is all I'm worried about."

"If you say so," Cherrilee said in a whisper.

"So let's begin," Starlight announced. "Flurry, very gently help the device get a feel for her resonances."

Flurry saluted like a guard would. "Yes, Headmare Starlight." The alicorn lit up her horn, and Cheerilee could feel a tingling sensation all over her body as it was surrounded with a golden glow.

Starlight for her part was observing a crystal that was attached by long chords to the helmet. "Doing well, so far. I'm not seeing any major feedback. Good job, Flurry."

"Told you I could do it," Flurry said with a hint of smugness.

The headmare nodded and gave a small whistle. "There are a lot of resonances here. I think you have more ponies that have left resonances on you over time than almost any pony I have ever seen."

"Is that bad?" Cheerilee asked worriedly.

Starlight shook her head. "Quite the opposite of bad. It just means there are a lot of important creatures in your life that have left impressions. Also good news, you don't have a lot of rogue resonances in you. There are some, but not a lot of them. That will make it easier to narrow down anything similar to Candy's."

"Rogue resonances?" Cherrilee asked. This was all gibberish to her.

The unicorn nodded and pointed. "Like this one here. I recognize that as a leftover from Sombra using his magic on you years ago, it is a pretty common one from ponies in Canterlot, the Crystal Empire, and Ponyville. Just an old impression. This one here is very uncommon, but I recognize it as being under the influence of a love poison at some point-- very potent stuff. This one here is exposure to Discord's magic, again, common enough in Ponyville. I see Luna's magic impression as well. None of these will hurt you. They're like records of what you've been through."

"Oh, okay," she whispered again, not sure how she felt about leftover impressions from Sombra, Discord, or the love poison still being in her.

Starlight squinted. "Hold on… what the heck is that? It isn't behaving normally. It's like one of the echo resonances that Candy has, but it isn't behaving the same. It seems… entangled."

"Entangled?" Dinky asked.

"Quantum entanglement," Starlight clarified. "It is responding with a resonance elsewhere, not in you. This might be it. If Candy's mirror resonance corresponding with you is quantumly entangled with this one, that might explain some things."

"Does anycreature know what the words she is saying mean?" Cheerilee asked in frustration.

"I just got that some foreign magic is doing something to you through a quantum bridge," Flurry replied, not being any more clear. "I'll go ahead and break that bridge, then it will be all better."

Starlight whipped her head around. "Flurry, no! We don't know what effect breaking that entanglement will have on-" Flurry pulsed her horn, and Cheerilee felt a massive wave of magic flow through her. "-either of them."

She suddenly felt very lightheaded and heavy. Her thoughts became too muddied and confused for her to even form words. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was Starlight and Dinky rushing over to her.

Chapter 32: New Crisis

Desperate times called for desperate measures. She'd get yelled at, grounded, maybe worse, but she wasn't going to let that mean old mare win. If she didn't have Cheerilee to defend her anymore, then she'd have to take action herself. This needed to end anyway. She didn't want another creature taking over her body. Some of them were nice and tried to help, and some of them weren't nice at all, but they were all invaders. If Starlight Glimmer understood what it was like to be stuck watching while another creature controlled her body she wouldn't be delaying getting that stuff.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? I think we're going to get in trouble," Cheese whined.

She stopped him where he was, and pulled him back behind a corner with her magic. She watched as Silver Spoon passed by with a saddlebag literally bulging with toys. Why was she carrying so many toys? It didn't really matter, as long as their teacher didn't see them. She kept Cheese's mouth covered until she was sure the teacher was clearly out of sight.

"We have to catch one of those grain sprite thingies," she explained again. "If we catch one, and get a sample of poison joke, then they can fix me, and everythin' will be better."

"But how are we going to do that?" Cheese asked, voice ticking up into feminine levels.

She started moving towards the Everfree again, all but dragging Cheese in her magic. "That's what the bread is for. It'll go in'ta the bread, and y'all will be able to see it smilin' at ya. Poison joke takes a while ta take full effect, ah read about it. So we can get some, and get back with it before we get affected by it. Aunt Applebloom likely has some student that knows how to whip up a cure lickity split."

Cheese was still unconvinced. "Can't we just get a grown-up to do this?"

"A grown-up will say they have'ta wait," she growled. "Ah heard them all, talkin' about how they gotta wait on Aunt Applebloom to get better. Ah don't have that kinda time. Spoiled Rich is gonna try to kick me out of school tomorrow, and ah need to prove ah'm all fixed before that."

The other foal still resisted. "But there are timberwolves in there."

She stopped and turned to him. "Ah only ran into timberwolves one time ah was in there, and ah got away just fine. Ah know way more magic than ah did back when that happened. Ah'll protect ya." She softened her expression, and laid a hoof on her friend's shoulder. "Please, Cheese, ah need ya for this. Ah have no way of knowing if ah've actually caught a grain sprite or if ah'm just'a seein' thin's again unless ya see it too." She winced at her own dialogue. It never bothered her back before this all started, she hadn't even noticed her accent, but after having all those fancy ponies in her head she was starting to feel embarrassed about it. Maybe she could learn how to talk more fancy, like them-- at least when this was over.

Cheese resisted for a moment more. "Alright, but just because you're my friend. You know, Strawberry is gonna be really really mad when she finds you after what you did."

She snorted, and flicked her tail. "She'll be fine. Ah had to make sure she couldn't chase after us in the air. We can get away from ponies on the ground, but we can't get away if she catches us from the air."

"They'll get Rainbow Dash."

She quickened her pace. "Then we better hurry to get into the woods before they get her."

They made it past one more building before almost colliding right into Miss Pumpkin Cake. They skidded to a halt right before her, and she stared at them in confusion. "Cheese? Didn't your mom leave you at Sweet Apple Acres for the day?" The mare gave Candy a suspicious squint of her eyes. "What are you two up to? Where is Ma Apple or Strawberry Surprise?"

She had to think fast. "Ah don't know." She pointed a hoof at the clear area behind the mare. "But here comes a bunch of the graduatin' students' parents, and they look mad!"

Pumpkin immediately turned to face the non-existent mob that she no doubt imagined wanted her head over graduation cakes. Candy didn't hesitate with her small window of distraction. She grabbed Cheese in her hooves and powered up her horn. There was a small flash, and they were behind the next building.

"You can telep-" Cheese started to shout, before she stuffed her hoof in his mouth.

She peaked around the corner, and spotted Miss Pumpkin Cake. The grown-up looked very confused, as she kept turning around in place to try to spot them, and was calling out their names. This lasted a few seconds before the baker seemed to decide she needed to get help, and ran off towards the farm.

With the immediate problem gone, she released her friend. "Yes, ah can teleport now. Not very far, this is about as far as ah can do it. Ah wasn't even sure ah could get both of us with it."

"That's so cool!" Cheese squealed, but his ears dropped. "But Auntie Pumpkin is going to tell them where we're going."

"That just means we need to run faster. Hurry up!"

Her head was throbbing when she finally started to wake back up. She tried opening her eyes, but immediately shut them again because the light stabbed at them painfully.

"Flurry! What will it take to make you stop and think for once before you do things?" She heard Starlight yelling. The volume hurt her ears.

"I admit, I didn't think it would knock her out like that-"

"Tell me something that isn't obvious!" Starlight fumed.

"But… in my defense. That extra resonance reintigrated into her right away, and isn't doing anything weird anymore."

"We have yet to determine if that's a good or bad thing!" Starlight growled. "We needed to give this more study, so we would know what would happen before it happened, or if we should even have done that. We still need to figure out if that did something negative to Cheerilee, and we need to figure out if that did anything bad to Candy. For all we know you just blew up important information on how to deal with Candy's problem."

Candy's problem, that stirred her memories. Her memories were a confused mess that gave two entirely different and conflicting scenarios about how she had ended up asleep. How long had she been out? Which set of memories was real? It felt so confusing.

"This is why you aren't currently fit for rule. You just rush into action. The Crystal Empire could endure an arrogant ruler, but it can't deal with one who doesn't bother to think about what she's about to do, especially with the level of power you have at your command. You'd make a great warrior, sent out to fight a monster, but a horrible monarch. I'm ashamed to admit that a small part of me hopes something goes wrong because of this, just so you can see that you need to stop and think!"

"Um, Headmare Starlight? I think she is waking up."

"Yes, and can you two keep it down? My head is killing me," she managed to say aloud, although it took some effort.

"Flurry, go find Ocellus, and tell her we need some willow bark," Starlight instructed in a calmer voice.

"Willow bark?"

"Yes, it helps with headaches. Just do what you are told, please. We'll continue this discussion later, and I am going to be contacting your aunt and your mother."

"There's no need to-"

"I need to contact Twilight anyway," Starlight responded with a sigh. "This thing may be way too complex for me to figure out, even with Luster and Sweetie Belle aiding me. I thought we could deal with it on our own, but if there's quantumly entangled resonances that's getting really complex, and we need her help. I hate to pull her away from her duties, for what is a local small scale problem, but there's no helping it."

"Okay," Flurry said sullenly. "I still think I fixed it."

"Just go get the bark, Flurry," Starlight commanded.

There was a popping noise, that might have indicated Flurry Heart had teleported out of the room. Cheerilee very carefully opened her eyes again. Things were fuzzy, but she could stand the light now. "What happened?"

A shape, that might have been Starlight, came into her vision. "Flurry recklessly cut the bridge between your echo resonance and the one that Candy has. Dinky has already left to go check on the filly to make sure she is okay. I'm very sorry about that, there isn't much I can do to stop Flurry Heart from doing something once she gets it in her head to do it. You passed out immediately when the bridge was broken. Other than a headache, how are you feeling?"

"I think I was here, but I also remember being in Candy's room. I was planning out how to argue her case…" Her eyes opened wider. "Why do I have two sets of memories about the last two days?"

"Interesting," Starlight hummed. "I have a theory on that. It's just a theory, so don't take it as an absolute fact yet. You can't alter the future by going back to the past-- it creates a diverging timeline-- but what happens when time catches up to you so it is no longer the past?"

"I don't understand," she said in a low moan. Her head was still pounding, and thinking was hard. "Can you just explain it to me so I don't have to think? My head hurts."

"Everycreature else that Candy has had in her head lived entirely in the past. They never caught up to the point in time when the memory was made. A creature can't remember the future, memory doesn't work that way. You're different, you have passed the point where the memory was made, the first creature that was in Candy's head to do so. You can remember because it is the past."

"So you can confirm now that I really was in her head and she isn't crazy," she breathed out in relief. Her head still swam with the two sets of memories from the last few days, but it was starting to become clearer. Surprisingly, things from twenty years ago seemed much more vivid in her memory than they had been, as if they were much more recent. "I had been getting weird feelings since around the same time this had started with Candy. Is that tied to her as well? Am I all better now? I saw smiling faces on Dinky's earrings today too. Am I going to keep seeing them?"

"I don't know, but I don't think you'll see Candy's hallucinations," Starlight said slowly. "As the time got closer that may have had some impact, or perhaps all the creatures that Candy was going to have in her head were already somehow predetermined-- though I don't know how that could be. I still need to study this whole phenomenon more-- which may be much harder after what Flurry did. I don't think you'll see the faces anymore. That was coming through your link to Candy, but that link has been severed now. As for the rest, we'll have to monitor it."

"Well, I can stand in her defense at the school board meeting tomorrow," she replied, and tried to stand up, only to fall back down. "Ow."

Starlight came up closer, and checked to see if she was alright. "I think we should be getting you to a hospital instead. Flurry did a number on you."

She shook her head. "No, I misjudged how long my legs are. I'm still kind of accustomed to Candy's body. I'll get better, I just need to get my head adjusted to it."

The unicorn cocked her head. "Are the memories from being in Candy that fresh? I'd have thought they might be faded since you were claiming being from twenty years ago."

"The stuff from being in Candy is fresh," Cheerilee confirmed. "And all my memories from the last few days from Vanhoover and coming down to Ponyville are just as fresh. It's kind of confusing to tell the truth. Like my head is trying to line them up in order and can't figure out where to put them."

"Because they were happening at the same time," Starlight concluded, then scratched her chin. "Um, I have no idea how to fix that, they might just end up staying confused about the order. They aren't overlapping in terms of bleeding together, are they? You aren't seeing yourself full grown in the memory you got from Candy, or being in Candy's body in Vanhoover?"

She thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. "No, they aren't doing that. I just try to put things in order and it gets all muddled."

Starlight continued her interrogation. "Do you have any memories that don't belong to you? Any from Candy, or some other creature?"

She shook her head. "Nothing like that." She tried getting up again, and managed to do it this time. ""How long was I out?"

"Three hours."

Her eyes went wide, and she looked around at her surroundings for the first time. She was no longer in the lab at the School of Friendship; she was now what looked like a bedroom in the castle. "Who's room is this?"

"We use the castle for dormitories for visiting families that can't afford to stay in hotels. It's a pretty strict application process, just so everycreature doesn't end up doing it-- I'd run out of room quickly if I let them all do it. I always have some spare bedrooms available because of it," Starlight explained.

She never knew that. Always nice to learn something new. "Where's Candy? I heard you talking about how this might affect her. I've met her before all this, but I really haven't gotten to know her after she started having this happening to her. I really want to talk to her about what she experienced when I was in her head, and apologize for my screw-ups."

Starlight gave a deep frown. "Right after I confirmed Flurry hadn't accidently killed you I sent Dinky to go check on her. That was about two hours ago. I don't know what is taking her so long. I'm starting to get worried. I might send Cozy Glow out to check soon if I haven't heard back in the next few minutes."

She gasped "Cozy Glow?! Why would you send her out to Candy? She's a villain! She was trapped in stone along with the other two for her crimes! Why would you let that filly around Candy?"

The unicorn raised an eyebrow at her. "Cozy Glow isn't a filly, and has been reformed for going on a decade now. Tirek is still in a rehabilitation program, and Queen Chrysalis… well, she's still in stone, but she's due for another rehabilitation attempt in another few months. You should know this, you've talked with Cozy Glow before."

"They tried to take over Equestria less than a year…" she stopped and thought about it; that couldn't be right. She did remember Cozy Glow as a grown mare, but she was a filly when she tried to take over Equestria.

"I think we need to get you some help to get your memories straightened out," Starlight said with a frown. "Do you remember meeting Cozy Glow in the last few years? Do you remember being principal of Ponyville Elementary?"

"I do," she answered. "It's just that the other stuff seems so much more recent."

Starlight continued frowning. "Your memories really are out of order. The you from twenty years and the you from the present aren't cleanly merged. Maybe we should get you a psychologist who can help you get your memories straightened out in order."

"Maybe Stygian can help me," she said quietly. He still felt fresh. It was things in between when her memories from in between the potion accident and when she first had her panic attacks start that felt further back than they should.

The headmare looked baffled. "Stygian? The former Pony of Shadows? Why him?"

She blushed. "He's my special somepony. We've been seeing each other for months. That part seems like it is in the right place. I was actually thinking about asking him the big question, if he doesn't ask me first."

Starlight still looked bemused. "Stygian, huh? Okay, well, congratulations on that, I guess. He's a nice pony. Not who I would have pictured you with, but now that I think about it, I can see how you two fit together well. He's a bookish, teacher type, not afraid of a little adventure."

"I could gush about him for hours," Cheerilee confessed. "But I really want to find out if Candy is okay."

"She might not be."

They both turned to see Dinky coming into the room, looking out of breath. The current Ponyville Elementary principal took a few deep breaths before continuing. "She must not have been out of it as long as you were, because she started doing things fast. She somehow drenched Strawberry Surprise in peanut butter and feathers, and ran off with Cheese Slice in tow. The Apples took a few minutes to even realize she was gone because they were too caught up trying to help Strawberry Surprise. Pumpkin Cake spotted them, though. They were making their way for the Everfree, and probably are in the woods now."

Oh no! Candy was going to try to catch a grain sprite. That was the only possible explanation. She turned straight to Starlight. "If you're sending a search party in after her, I want to be part of it!"

"I'm not sure if you coming along would be a good-"

She stomped a hoof. "No! I have invested too much of my time into that filly to have her get hurt now! Plus, she has to know me and trust me if she was aware of anything when I was in her body. I might be able to reason with her." Starlight still looked hesitant, and Cheerilee ground her teeth. "I'm going, and you can't stop me."

Starlight relented with a disgruntled nod. "Alright, just don't push yourself too hard, and keep with the group."

With a flash of light, Flurry Heart appeared back in the room. Holding a jar of willow bark in her magic. The alicorn looked around and took in that something was happening. "What I miss?"

"I need you to gather up all the teachers and get them here quick, Luster as well" Starlight instructed. "Candy Apple and Cheese Slice have run off into the Everfree and we need to find her before they get hurt."

The alicorn vanished again, without any further word. Cheerilee hoped it didn't take too long to get a search party together.

"I'm coming Candy. I won't let you get hurt."

Chapter 33: Into the Everfree

One of the most annoying things about the Everfree was that everything kinda looked the same.

"Are we lost?" Cheese asked.

She scrunched up her nose in frustration. "We ain't lost. Ah just have ta find somethin' that looks familiar from when ah was here the first time."

Cheese looked around at the trees and bushes. "What are we looking for then?"

She gazed around her trying to see if any particular tree or bush would jog her memory. "There's a cliff. Ah was runnin' through the trees, and then ah was at the top of a cliff. Then ah fell off."

Her friend stopped and stared at her with wide eyes. "You want us to fall off a cliff?"

"No!" She huffed, then lowered her voice with a hurried look around them. "But we still got ta find it. It was around there ah got zapped by the grain sprite. Keep ya voice down. We can't be loud."

"Why can't I be loud?" Cheese asked in confusion. "We're all by ourselves out here."

She bit her lip, and dug her hoof into the ground. "Um, the reason ah found the cliff was ah was runnin' away from a timberwolf."

"What?!" Cheese squeaked, coming up next to her and cowering low. "You said you could protect us from timberwolves."

She gave him a small nudge away from her. She felt sorry for scaring him, but they still needed to be careful. "Ah can, ah learned a lot since ah got lost out here. That don't mean we should be bein' loud and gettin' them to notice we're here. Just keep ya voice down, and keep close. Help me find the cliff."

Cheese let off a whimper, but nodded. They then went back to moving through the forest. As they did, she thought back to when everything had started.

At this point, she wasn't exactly sure what had gotten into her head that day. She'd been mad, and angry, and hurt, but now it seemed like her actions had been really stupid. Aunt Applejack had been so mad at her, and it had seemed so unfair. She'd taken that silly scarf, bundled it up with some food, and taken off into town. There really hadn't been a plan about where she was going. She had just known she was running away somewhere. When she kept almost running into ponies she knew in town she realized that running away in town just wasn't going to work. Her next plan had been to try to run away on the train, but she couldn't figure out a good way of sneaking aboard it. Then she'd finally settled on the idea that she'd cut through the Everfree Forest to whatever place was past it.

Instead of having gone into the Everfree through the main path, which would have been safer, she went far off the path. She was going to explore, and turn this into an adventure. It would be like her own story of the valiant filly that ran away from her evil aunt to go out into the unknown.

Oh boy, had she been stupid. She saw it now, but back then it had made sense.

After an hour or two she'd lost complete track of which direction she was heading, and was sure she kept circling back around to the same place. When night fell a timberwolf had found her. Thinking that she was far more skilled with magic than she really was, she tried to set the timberwolf on fire; that didn't work out well at all, in fact, it had just made the timberwolf really mad. She ran as fast as she could from the nightmare monster, and when she was running out of breath, and it was about to gobble her up, she'd tripped and fallen right off the side of a cliff she hadn't seen until too late. She came down hard on her face, right into a bunch of blue flowers.

Falling off the cliff had been a good and bad thing. The timberwolf didn't seem to want to jump off the cliff to chase after her, so she got away. The bad thing was she couldn't figure out how to get back where she was so she could turn around and try to make her way home. She had wished there was somepony there who was brave and strong who could help her, but she'd been all alone. Then, when she sat and tried to eat, she'd gotten zapped by her own food. It was hard to remember much after that, because she'd been in panic because she'd lost control of her body. When you suddenly lose control of your own body it is hard to pay attention to details like where you're going or how you got somewhere.

She came to a halt and pulled the loaf of bread out of her bag. "Let's check the bread again. Do ya see a face on it?"

Cheese examined the bread closely, and then shook his head. "No face yet."

She saw no face either. Maybe she should have brought a muffin instead. Maybe the grain sprites preferred muffins to bread. She returned the loaf to her bag and closed it back up. "Let's keep movin'. We gotta find one eventually."

Starlight had gathered all the search parties together at the odd crystal tree house at the end of the path going into the Everfree. There were a lot of ponies and creatures, and the unicorn was just finishing dividing them into groups to fan out from the tree house to search.

"I should be the leader of my group, why is Professor Scootaloo leading it?" Flurry Heart huffed with indignation. Cheerilee hoped that the alicorn wouldn't behave this way the whole time, she was in the same group as Flurry.

Starlight sighed. "Because Scootaloo has a better sense of direction, and a more level head. You're with that group to be the magical muscle, in case your group stumbles upon a dangerous creature. That's where you excel, blowing monsters to bits. I feel sorry for any timberwolf that tries to mess with your group while you're there. Just do what Scootaloo says, and make sure you keep the others safe."

Having her prowess in ability to decimate timberwolves confirmed seemed to soothe Flurry's ego a little, and she relented. Cheerilee let off her own sigh of relief that the problem seemed resolved. She really did feel safer knowing she had an alicorn watching her back, so she wasn't going to complain about being grouped with Flurry Heart, but she didn't want to get stuck in a group where it spent more time arguing about leadership than searching.

Starlight looked around at the assembled parties, which totaled twenty in number. "Alright everycreature, I've got each of your groups sorted so you have creatures in each of your groups who can combat timberwolves if need be, and keep your fellow searchers safe. I need to remind you all that while timberwolves are the most common threat in these woods, they are not the only ones. If you run into something bigger, or more dangerous, don't do anything stupidly heroic. Just get back to the tree house if you run into trouble. It is the safest place in the Everfree. Even an ursa major can't get you here."

The 'tree house' was more a mini crystal palace that fit right in with the castle in town. She vaguely remembered touring the place before, but it was in that period of memory that had been pushed backward and out of order. That gave her a deja vu all over again, but this time it wasn't as severe as it had been over the last few months. The strange feeling was present when she looked at many other members of the search parties.

The party she was assigned had her, Scootaloo, Flurry Heart, Petunia Palio (decked out in a pith hat, goggles, and boots), and the youngest of the group was an earth pony mare named Coral Currents. Only Flurry and Scootaloo could be counted as experienced adventurers among their group, and Flurry Heart pretty much constituted all their magical muscle. Coral Currents she had never met before, but due to her coloration and her 'mellow' disposition she was instantly recognizable as Sandbar's younger sister. The other three parties, each with five members, were being led by Starlight Glimmer, Sweetie Belle, and Silverstream. It was a little surprising that neither Applejack nor Rainbow Dash led their groups, but Starlight apparently felt better having Sweetie Belle and Silverstream in charge. There had been no arguments about those decisions.

"Let's move out team!" Scootaloo instructed. The other team leaders did similarly, and the four teams dispersed into their separate quadrants of the forest.

Her group diverged into a triangle type formation at Scootaloo's orders. Scootaloo and Coral were at one corner, Cheerilee and Petunia were at another, and Flurry Heart walked ahead as the third point. They all stayed just in sight of Flurry Heart. She would lose sight of Scootaloo and Coral on and off in the growth, but always kept Flurry Heart in sight. She assumed that the other two were doing the same a short distance away. Flurry, for her part, didn't wander too far ahead, and regularly checked over both her shoulders to make sure she hadn't lost any of the ponies she was supposed to be protecting. It wasn't normally wise to be making a lot of noise while traveling off the main path of the Everfree, but they all called out in intervals the two lost foals' names, and hoped that if something unwanted answered that Flurry Heart would be able to deal with it. For the first few minutes she could hear the other three groups doing the same, but it quickly reached a point where they were too far away to be heard.

"Candy Apple! Cheese Slice!" Petunia yelled out beside her, then stopped to examine a bush. Cheerilee had to pause as well when Petunia did so. The first few times she had thought Petunia was checking for signs of the foals, but it quickly became apparent that the professor was caught up in scientific curiosity. It was starting to get on her nerves.

She saw Flurry Heart look back at them, and scowl. "Hey! Keep moving. If you keep stopping like that I'm going to lose track of the other two!"

"What's the hold up?" Scootaloo's voice rang out from somewhere off to their side.

Petunia jumped and blushed. "Nothing! Sorry, I just have never been into the Everfree proper, just the area along the path, and the ruins of the old Castle of the Two Sisters. There are so many fascinating things to see out here."

"Take in the sights some other time!" Scootaloo yelled again. "This isn't a sightseeing trip or one of your expeditions. If it isn't signs of the foals you're stopping for, keep moving!"

She was glad that somepony else said something before she had to. Petunia did look like she took her chastisement to heart, and started moving again.

They moved at a little faster, now that Petunia wasn't doing as much checking out of the plant life. However, the other mare did keep checking the ground. It took Cheerilee a few minutes to realize that Petunia was checking for tracks, and then felt embarrassed that she hadn't been doing the same.

"You said that what Candy ran into was a grain sprite?" Petunia asked while they were walking.

"Candy! Cheese!" Cheerilee called out again, before she answered the other mare. "Yes, it apparently makes a home in grains, hence the name."

Petunia nodded, and pointed to a patch of ground off to their side. "See that? That stretch of ground that runs a little higher in a straight line, with depressed ground parallel to it? That's the telltale signs of an old irrigation system, the type that is used in certain types of farming. It's really old and eroded, which is why it isn't obvious if you haven't seen these types of remnants many times elsewhere, the overgrowth masks it as well. I'd love to be able to examine this area further when I get a chance. If I had to make a guess, this used to be zebra farmland, before the forest swallowed it up. I can't confirm that without further study, but I'm willing to bet on it."

That made her stop and look. Now that it had been pointed out, she could see the remains of the old irrigation ditch. "So this might be right where the grain sprite came from?"

Petunia shrugged. "No way of knowing that without actually catching one. I'm not even sure how far these irrigation channels extend; there's too much overgrowth for me to tell without a comprehensive survey of the area. If they're drawn to grains then this might have been somewhere they'd have been attracted to in the past."

They kept moving, but she now started to keep a lookout for signs of the ditches. It didn't take long for her to notice them in force. This particular area had a lot of them, spaced out at intervals of every few pony lengths, making the path very uneven.

"Scootaloo?" She called out.

"What? Did you find something?" Came the pegasus's reply a short distance away. Flurry Heart stopped in her tracks up ahead of them, and turned to look.

She shook her head. "No, but can you find this area again later? Petunia and I think this might be where the grain sprites might be. Candy needs one if we are going to cure her."

"I'll keep that in mind, and will help Starlight find this place later," Scootaloo called back. "Just keep looking for the foals. If this is the area those sprites come from then we might be heading in the right direction to find Candy and Cheese. Keep your eyes open for foal tracks!"

"Will do!" She yelled back. Hopefully they'd find Candy soon. A part of her hoped that if Candy did come this way that the filly had been successful in catching a sprite already, and this could all be resolved for her soon. It was stupid and dangerous for Candy to have run out here, and to have dragged Cheese along with her, but Cheerilee could only imagine the desperation the filly had been feeling to prompt it. A small part of her felt guilty, because she may well have helped feed into that desperation with her worries about keeping Candy in school.

"Hold up!" Flurry suddenly called out, and lifted a hoof up in the air for all to see. The alicorn was focused on something up ahead of them.

"What is it, Flurry?" Scootaloo yelled.

"Something moving in the bushes up ahead, bigger than any rabbit or squirrel," Flurry replied, still focused on whatever she was looking at.

"Everycreature, gather together and move up close behind Flurry! If there's something dangerous, we want to have her between us and whatever it is," Scootaloo instructed. "If it is timberwolves there may be more than one, and they'd be trying to go for the outliers while they have Flurry distracted. We're safer huddled together close to her."

That was all the prompting she and Petunia needed to run up behind the overpowered pony. Scootaloo and Coral reached Flurry Heart at the same time she and Petunia did.

Now that they were all close to the alicorn they could see what she could see. There was indeed something moving in the growth up ahead, shaking the bushes. At first she thought it might be something smaller, but some of those bushes were shaking too much for some small rodent to be running through. The four less powerful ponies huddled close enough together they were all touching, as Flurry Heart slowly advanced on the bushes ahead.

"Candy Apple, Cheese Slice, is that you?" Flurry called out, still walking forward. There was no response, just the continued rustling of the bushes. Flurry lit her horn as she continued walking forward towards the bushes, and the rest of the group held their collective breaths.

Flurry reached the rustling bushes and pushed the branches aside with one of her wings. She stared for a moment at whatever was within the bush.

Then the alicorn turned to stone.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay. Dealing with being sick still. Just can't seem to get over it. Didn't do a full editing pass, so if you catch anything let me know.

Chapter 34: Panic in the Woods

It had taken wandering around all morning, and part of the afternoon, but their searching had not gone unrewarded. "Ah think this is it."

Cheese looked up at the wall of stone in front of them. "I thought you said you fell off. How did we end up at the bottom?"

She shrugged. "We must have just come a different way than when ah did last time. This has to be it."

"You said we weren't lost," Cheese said accusingly.

"We're where we're supposed ta be, that's not lost," she snapped back, then lowered her ears as she saw Cheese cringe. Cheese didn't deserve her snapping at him. "Sorry, ah'm just wantin' to get this all over. Ya don't know what it's been like."

Cheese blinked. "Um, what has it been like?"

She looked down. She didn't really want to talk about it, because it was like a long scary nightmare. She thought about talking about it a few times over the last few months with her ma and pa, in those short times she was herself, but it seemed they wouldn't believe her. They'd believe her now, thanks to all the stuff Cheerilee had done. She was sorry she couldn't have waited to talk to them now, but they wouldn't have headed straight out here to fix the problem, and things couldn't wait any more. Worse, they would have tried to stop her, and she couldn't let them do that. Only Cheese would agree to come, and he was doing a lot coming out here with her. She owed him a lot for doing that. If he wanted her to talk about it then she could give him that much, even if it was uncomfortable to talk about.

"Ah see everythin' they do, but ah can't do anythin' to stop any of it," she began, then licked her lips. "When they're thinking somethin' or rememberin' somethin' ah can kinda hear or see that too. It's hard to explain. It's like ah'm thinkin' or rememberin', but not really. It's kinda like a picture show, or readin' a book. There's sounds and pictures, but there ain't no sounds and pictures."

"I kind of understand, I think," Cheese said slowly. "What kinds of things do they think about?"

She shook her head. "They all think about different stuff. Some'a them barely think at all it seemed like, some thought about lots of things. Sombra wanted to find out information about how he got beaten. Ah, don't know why he thought tryin' to take over town hall would do that, he didn't really seem to think about that for me to know. Dazzling sure talked about sex to everycreature, and she thought about it when she was talkin', but she didn't think about it that much when she was alone or when not tryin' to say somethin'. Ah, think that was her own way of just dealin' with what was happenin', because she was scared, and didn't know what to do. Most of them were like that, just scared."

Cheese tilted his head slightly. "Did you like any of them?"

She nodded back. "A few of 'em. Ah liked Cheerilee and Twilight Comet, they were tryin' to help me. Most of 'em didn't really do that, just worried about themselves. Ah felt sorry for Amber Sap, she was supposed ta be gettin' married, and ended up in me the night before her weddin'. Ah can't be mad at her for cryin' about that. Ah hated Sombra and Grunt. Grunt kept tryin' to dig a tunnel, and couldn't figure out why it didn't work right, but kept on tryin' anyway. He made ma hooves hurt so much, stupid dog. Most the rest they were just kinda there, and got me in trouble all the time."

"What about the one that kept trying to run off to Canterlot?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh brother! Tax Code couldn't figure out he wasn't in his own time, and kept tryin' to get to Canterlot to do some speech to the princess. Didn't even care he was in ma body compared to that speech. The whole time he was either thinkin' about how to get there, or runnin' his long borin' speech over in ma head. Ah now know more about import and export taxes on plums than ah ever wanted to know. Ah didn't even know what import and export taxes were before. Ah kinda wished he could'a made it, just to have Princess Twilight ask why a filly was tryin' to talk about plum taxes with her."

Cheese looked confused. "Why are there taxes on plums? What are taxes anyway?"

That made her shiver at the memory of tax figures that she would never completely forget. "Ya really don't want to know about all that, believe me." Her ears perked as she finished responding, something wasn't right.

"What about-" Cheese began, but she quickly put her hoof over his mouth to shush him. She strained her ears. The forest had gone quiet, too quiet. She didn't spend months with Twilight Comet without figuring out that was a bad thing. There was a predator about somewhere close, something big enough to spook everything in the area.

Cheese tried to mumble through her hoof, but she shook her head and raised her other forehoof up to her own mouth to tell him he needed to be quiet. She kept straining to hear anything moving through the woods; trying to determine what direction the danger was coming from. They couldn't stay right here, but they couldn't go running off if they didn't know what direction was the safe direction to run. She sat tensely, her ears almost hurting from how much she was focused on listening to the menacing quiet.

One of her ears twitched, as she heard a twig break somewhere to their far left. She had a direction to run now. She stared Cheese in the eyes and whispered to him. "Ah'm going to teleport us as far as ah can off to our right. As soon as ah finish doin' it we need'ta keep runnin' that way. Try to run quiet-like, if ya can, but don't stop runnin' till ah say so, got it?"

Her friend's eyes went wide as the fact they were in danger sank in. He gave a silent nod, and she quickly switched from blocking his speech to gripping him. There was a brief flash, and then they were a short distance away. They immediately got on their hooves and started running.

There was no helping the noise they were making, it was impossible not to rustle the branches and bushes as they ran. They did keep their mouths shut, and didn't yell. They didn't even cry out as branches struck them in the face as they ran through. All their attempts at silence were for nothing, because she could hear it moving behind them now, rapidly advancing; it was howling, it was a timberwolf.

Cheese was starting to get out in front of her, and she was starting to run out of breath. There was no way she could keep up running like this for much longer, and the timberwolf was gaining ground on them anyway. Cheese didn't seem to be slowing down, and she briefly envied his ability to not run out of breath. Right now she needed to think, even though it was hard. Whenever Twilight Comet was out in the woods he always kept thinking, even when there was something dangerous nearby. If he could do it while in her head then she could do it too.

To her surprise, the first thought that came into her head was she promised she would keep Cheese safe, and she was in danger of breaking that promise. Apples did not break promises. The fact she was in danger of breaking a promise seemed almost as bad as the fact she was in mortal danger. Cheese needed to be protected, so she could keep her promise. Twilight Comet would have done whatever was necessary to protect her friend. Cheerilee would have done the same. Even Platinum Gilt would have, even if there would have been grumbling about 'dirt ponies', the unicorn warrior wouldn't let Cheese get hurt. She needed to be brave, like the ponies that had been in her.

"Cheese!" She called out. "Keep running, even if ah stop! Ah'm goin' to fight the timberwolf. Ah can do it, but ya need to keep runnin' away. Get back home safe." She wasn't entirely sure she could fight the timberwolf. She'd learned a lot of things over the last year, but had been overconfident before. What she was sure of was she could get the timberwolf focused on her and ignoring Cheese. She just had to get it mad at her, and then chasing her. She'd gotten away once, she could do it again… She hoped so, anyway.

She came to a skidding halt, and was relieved to see Cheese doing what he had been told. She wasn't sure if that was because he had listened or because he wasn't paying attention to anything but running, even her stopping. She then turned around, shoring up what bravery she could to face the timberwolf.

The sound came closer and closer, and as the timberwolf came bursting out of the bushes she let loose a full jet of fire from her horn straight into the timberwolf's face. This brought the timberwolf to a screeching halt, and it rapidly rubbed its face in the dirt to extinguish the flames. It only took a moment, and then it lifted it's green glowing gaze to her, looking murderous.

She didn't wait for it to strike again, and sent another bout of flame towards it. This one didn't connect, and the timberwolf jumped to the side and made a move to try to pounce at her. She immediately sent out another flame jet at it, and the timberwolf dodged again. It didn't try to immediately pounce on her this time. Now it started to prowl back and forth in front of her, eyes fixed on her with pure hate.

"Go away, get!" She shouted at the monster, still holding magic at the ready to unleash more flames. "Ya don't like fire. Ah don't know if ya are the same timberwolf from before, but ah'm way better at burnin' than ah was last time. Ah'll burn ya up! Ah mean it!"

The fire spell was one of the few things she'd learned from Sombra. He'd been considering using the spell to set Ponyville ablaze-- out of spite, but figured out that he wasn't strong enough to do it on the scale he wanted while in her body. However, she'd seen him thinking about how to do it. It had occurred to her right away how useful that kind of spell would have been when she had been chased by a timberwolf before. Using what she learned from him she'd learned how to improve her meager little magic blast and heat spells to a blast of straight flame. The timberwolf wasn't going to just shrug off her blast this time. This time she wasn't helpless. Her confidence was rising, since she had the timberwolf at bay, but she wasn't going to get too confident. What she needed to do was get it to just decide she was too much trouble, and it would just leave. She also needed it to give up before her magic reserves ran out. There was no way she could outrun it.

The timberwolf took a step towards her and she blasted at it again, making it retreat back. It immediately went back to pacing back and forth, never taking its eyes off her. It was a battle to see which gave out first, its courage at having flames shot at it, or her ability to keep shooting them. She hoped it wasn't smart enough to figure that it could just wait for her to tire out.

Scootaloo may have been level-headed, and the continuation of a long line of brave adventurers, but Cheerilee and the ponies in the search party had come from a long line of ponies that understood one reaction to danger-- run.

Panic ensued when Flurry Heart was turned to stone, and there was nothing the near-flightless pegasus could do to bring it to a halt. Being turned to stone had proven in the past few decades to be something relatively easy to reverse (with the right experts available), but the threat of it still triggered the same time honored response of running for their lives. Cheerilee and the others just took off running, all in different directions, while Scootaloo tried in vain to restore order. In no time at all their party was scattered from one another in the woods.

Cheerilee ran for some time before she finally got ahold of herself, and reasoned that she had made a huge mistake in running away from where Scootaloo was. Having not paid attention to where she had been running, she now had no idea what direction the tree house or Ponyville was in. That left her as lost in the woods as the foals were; possibly more so, if Candy had any idea where she was going. Having Flurry Heart turned to stone had been bad enough, but now she lacked even the safety of numbers.

"Scootaloo! Petunia! Coral! Anypony! Is anycreature able to hear me?" She yelled out. She listened carefully, but only heard the sounds of birds chirping and small animals moving about in the foliage.

She looked around her. It all looked the same as everything else in the forest. She could have been here before, or be somewhere entirely new. Nothing stood out as particularly familiar or unfamiliar to her. The old remains of the irrigation ditches were still visible, so she assumed she was still in the same region of the Everfree she had been in before. She bit her lip, looking around frantically, but was at a complete loss at what clues might tell her where to go.

The irrigation ditches were what she finally decided to follow. They may be long dry, but were meant to transport water, and therefore had to lead to some water source somewhere. There were streams that flowed out of the Everfree into Ponyville, if she could make her way to one of those she could follow it to safety. It might help her find the foals too. They had to be dealing with the same problem of everything looking the same, and something like a stream or river would be something they might try following in order to keep direction.

After following the channels for several minutes she came to an abrupt halt when they ended at a cliff face. She looked upwards and wondered if the rain water used to drain over the cliff down to these ditches, or if she had just gone the complete opposite direction from where the inevitable water source was. Considering how sheer the cliff face was it seemed the second option was the more likely. Her time going in this direction was not a total waste. She vaguely remembered there being similar cliffs where the tree house was, and this cliff might well be part of those cliffs, just further away. If she followed along this that might very well lead her to the tree house, where all the rest of her party had to be trying to make their way. Better yet, this spot had a little more clearing from the tree canopy above, and now that she could get a clear view of the sun she could judge her direction better. If she was judging where she roughly was correctly, then she just needed to follow the cliff going to her right to make her way back to the tree house. She smiled to herself. She wasn't completely out of her element in the great outdoors.

She started making her way along her chosen path, but after a few moments turned her head around. There was something making noise behind her. Her first fear was that some other monster of the Everfree was coming towards her, but as she watched something small and yellow was making its way rapidly towards her.

"Cheese?!" She called out, realizing who it was.

The small androgynous colt came to a skidding halt just a ponylength or two from her, digging a small furrow in the earth as he did so. He hadn't even been paying attention to what was in front of him, and had taken no notice of her until she called out. He stared at her with wide eyes. "Principal Cheerilee?!"

She hurried over to him and grabbed him into a hug. "I'm so glad you're safe! But where's Candy?"

The colt broke free of her grip and pointed back the way he came. "She's back that way. There was a timberwolf, and she told me to run while she fought it!"

"She what?!" She screamed in horror. There was no telling what knowledge Candy retained from her previous occupants, but there was no way a filly could fight a timberwolf on her own, even with their knowledge. "How far back is she? How long have you been running?"

Cheese's eyes glistened with tears. "I'm not sure."

What was she going to do? She couldn't fight a timberwolf either, but she couldn't do nothing. By the time she found somepony who could fight off a timberwolf it might be too late for Candy. And what was she supposed to do about Cheese if she ran to go to Candy's aid? She couldn't bring him running back towards danger. Telling him to continue along the cliff wasn't a good idea either, as she had no idea if there were further obstacles along that path yet. A decision needed to be made, and quickly.

She touched a hoof to the colt's shoulder and spoke urgently to him. "I need you to stay right here. I'll be back for you, with Candy." She hoped, anyway. "If you hear anypony calling out names, you yell back. If you can hear them then they'll be able hear you. You're going to be alright, and Candy is going to be alright. I'm going to go get her right now. Just sit tight."

"Okay, Principal Cheerilee," the colt whimpered.

She gave him a sympathetic look. "Just Cheerilee is fine. You and I are friends. Thank you for believing me while I was in Candy."

The colt's eyes widened as he registered what she just said. She had no time for further explanations though. She took off as fast as she could towards where Candy was supposed to be. She had no idea how she was going to help her, but if that filly was still alive she'd do whatever it took to make sure she stayed that way.

Chapter 35: The Shield and the Protector

The smell hit her nostrils before anything else; something was on fire. It didn't take much longer for Cheerilee to get hit with the waves of actual smoke. The woods ahead of her were burning. She had to push down her normal instinct and good sense, and force herself to run towards the fire. That was the direction Candy was in, and if the woods were on fire, then that was yet another thing Candy needed saving from.

Small animals; squirrels, rabbits, mice, opossums, birds, and more, all were running past her, away from the now visible flames. She had to bring herself to a halt as she reached the inferno, and coughed into her hoof as she tried to find a path, any path, that she could use to go into the flames. As she was looking about, something huge came bounding out of the blaze ahead of her. She let out a scream as she realized that it was a timberwolf. Her scream died off as the timberwolf ran right by her, and she realized the beast was on fire, and terrified. She watched as it turned and started running deeper into the forest, away from the cliffs, spreading the flames further into the Everfree as it went.

She stared back to where it had come from. Was Candy responsible for all this? If so, the filly had indeed beaten back the timberwolf, but might well have doomed herself in the process. How big was this fire going to get? The timberwolf might be running for a river or pond, but it was going to make the forest fire much worse along the way. Help had to be coming soon; somepony would see the fire and find a way to put it out. That help wouldn't be fast enough for Candy. She had to find Candy now, before the filly died by her own flames.

Gathering as deep a breath as she could, and steeling up her courage, she went straight into the least flame filled area she could spot ahead of her. The blaze licked at her sides, and she whimpered and cried out as she felt it do so. The heat was intense, and her whole body was dripping in sweat within seconds of going in. The sweat felt like it was boiling against her fur, and her eyes watered to the point she could barely see. She just kept repeating to herself that she needed to find Candy, because there was no way the filly could survive much longer in this… if she was still alive at all. She shook her head, crushing the thought in her head. Candy was alive. Candy had to be alive.

She let off a silent thank you to Celestia when her eyes fell on Candy. Worry immediately surged again when she saw the filly laying still on the ground. The flames were everywhere but a small circumference around the filly. She quickly rushed over to her, crying out again, as more flames burnt her sides. Candy's barrel was moving, showing that the filly was still alive. She carefully lifted the filly, saddlebags and all, onto her back, and made a retreat from the blaze as quickly as she could, hoping that she didn't accidently scorch the filly in the process. If Cherrilee got some more burns she could live with it, that was why there were doctors, but she wanted Candy to avoid them if possible.

It took some zigging and zagging to get away from the fire, and she was back running parallel to the cliff face. She didn't stop when she exited the burning area. She needed to put it well behind her, and she needed to get back to Cheese and get all three of them moving back towards the tree house. There was no telling how far this fire would spread, or how quickly, and sitting in one place was not advisable. They needed to get where they knew they were safe. She hoped that the fire would at least ward off any other dangerous creatures from the area.

Her body ached as she ran. She was far more physically fit than Candy, so normally this wouldn't be a problem. The burns she had suffered trying to get the filly safe were the problem. She could feel them throbbing, and they still felt like they were burning even now. It took a lot of effort to push the pain out of her mind, and was only possible because the overriding need to get the foals to safety was that great.

Cheese clapped his forehooves together excitedly as he spotted them coming towards him, but his excitement died off quickly as he got a better view of them. "You're hurt! Is Candy okay? What's wrong?"

"No time!" She shouted, pausing to make sure she didn't lose the colt, and to adjust Candy's limp form after it had started to slide slightly. "There's a forest fire, and we need to keep moving along the side of the cliff. We aren't going to run." If she ran the whole way Candy might fall off. "But we need to keep up a brisk pace to keep ahead of the flames."

The colt didn't argue, but did look warily at the two of them. He got close to her, and they started moving again at a fast walk. She could see the smoke in the sky now, and it was rising high enough that it had to be visible from Ponyville. That meant that the weather team was probably already preparing to move out to try to bring rain down on the blaze. It would take time for them to gather the clouds for it, because the clouds that formed over the Everfree were notoriously difficult to control. However, they'd be moving as quickly as possible.

After walking for a few minutes, Candy began to stir and cough on her back. Both she and Cheese noticed, and came to a halt to check on the filly. She gently set Candy down and let the filly cough to try to clear her lungs.

It was just now that she noticed that Candy now had a mark on her flank. It was similar to Applebloom's cutie mark, an apple on a shield, only Candy's shield was not the tri-colored one the Crusaders had, but instead was shaped like a red and orange flame. A closer inspection showed that at the peak of the shield there were three smaller marks, each occupying a different lip of flame. From right to left were a crossed silver sword and spear, a moon with a comet flying in front of it, and her own three smiling flowers. The three marks were smaller, and probably only easy to identify when inspecting up close. There was no sign of any other marks on the shield, aside from the prominent apple in the middle. If Candy was incorporating her occupants' cutie marks why just these three? There had been far more ponies than this that had been in her. The apple made sense, the flame certainly made sense under the circumstances, but the additional marks she couldn't figure out.

She caught a glimpse of several pegasi flying overhead. A fast-moving rainbow trail flew between them all briefly, then a moment later the rainbow returned and landed next to them.

"You found the foals!" Rainbow cried out excitedly, then her ears dropped as she looked at Candy. "Is she hurt?" Cheese looked up at Cheerilee for the same answer.

"I think she's unharmed, other than having breathed in a lot of smoke," Cheerilee replied, and winced her own burns reminded her of their existence. She still hadn't looked herself over to see how bad it was. It couldn't be too bad, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to keep moving. "She still needs to get to a doctor, all the same."

Rainbow looked her over. "She's not the only one, some of those burns look rough. Stay right here. We'll have the fire under control in a few minutes, and I'll help the three of you get out of here. Where's the rest of your search party?"

Cheerilee shook her head. "I don't know. Flurry Heart was turned to stone by a cockatrice and we all kind of scattered after that."

All three of them turned to Candy after the young Apple had an intense, but mercifully short, bout of coughing. The filly blinked once or twice after, and gazed up at her weakly. "Cheerilee? Are ya really here?"

She gently hugged the filly. "I'm really here, along with Rainbow and Cheese. Does anything hurt? How hard is it to breathe? Did you start that fire?"

The filly coughed some more in response, but answered after that cleared. "Breathing hurts. Timberwolves don't like fire."

"You nearly burned yourself up. What were you thinking?" Rainbow demanded in a voice mixed with concern and anger.

Candy coughed again, and then looked at the pegasus. "Timberwolves don't like fire," she gave as her only response.

Cheerilee worriedly frowned down at the filly. "Is that you Candy? Or are you somepony else?"

"Ah'm me," Candy replied weakly. "Candy Apple."

She let off a sigh of relief, then looked at Rainbow Dash. "I'm pretty sure she's just dazed and weak from her experience. It's best not to push her for too much right now. I'll watch these two. You do what you need to do with the fire."

Rainbow nodded back. "Okay, just sit tight. I'll be back in a flash." The pegasus launched herself into the air, and once again zoomed off in the direction of the fire. Clouds were already visibly raining in the distance, although the smoke continued to rise.

Cheerilee sat down next to Candy, and Cheese laid down to the other side of the filly. They didn't get too close to her, for fear of overcrowding her when she was already having trouble breathing, but they still had a protective air about them.

"I'm not sure if you noticed, but you got your cutie mark," she gently told the filly.

Candy must not have previously noticed, because even in her dazed state her eyes went wide and she whipped her head around to gaze at her freshly branded flank. The quick action incited another short coughing fit, but as soon as it ended she reached out a forehoof to her flank to touch it, as if not believing the mark was really there.

"Ah got ma cutie mark," Candy said slowly, still sounding not all there. She blinked a few times, and then started to grin. "Ah got ma cutie mark!" This second declaration started another coughing fit, but the filly's grin immediately returned to her face after she recovered her breath. Awareness and energy were now present in Candy's eyes and demeanor. Nothing could deter a foal's joy at getting their cutie mark.

Cherrilee smiled, sharing in Candy's moment. "I couldn't help noticing my cutie mark was included in yours. I'm guessing the other two small ones came from Twilight Comet and Platinum Gilt. Do you have any idea why just the three of us, and not the rest are there?" The filly turned to her, blinking, and Cheerilee brushed Candy's mane with a hoof. "I remember being in you now, I remember it like it was just this morning… which I guess it was."

Candy's eyes filled with tears, but the filly kept smiling. If anything, her smile grew. "The whole time ah was thinkin' about what the three of ya would do. None of y'all would let Cheese get hurt by that mean ol' monster. Ah was thinkin' that, an' thinkin' about keepin' ma promise to keep him safe. Nothin' else mattered to me then."

Cheese gasped, then threw himself into hugging Candy. Cheerilee almost objected that Candy didn't need him crushing the air out of her, but held her tongue when no new fit of coughing began. She just let them have their moment together.

"You're my best friend!" Cheese exclaimed, as he continued to hug the filly. To Cheerilee's shock, Candy's smile dropped, and the filly pushed her friend off. Cheese gave her a hurt look in response. "What's wrong? Did I do something bad?"

Candy looked down and shook her head. "Ya wouldn't have been in danger if ah didn't take ya out here with me. Ah need to say ah'm sorry. Ah wasn't as good a friend to ya as ya were to me."

Cheese shook his head back. "Friends help each other out, and you needed me. I could have said no if I really wanted to."

"Fat lot of good comin' out here did," Candy replied bitterly. The filly seemed to focus on her horn for a moment, but the magic just sputtered, still drained from the earlier strain. Candy sighed, and took a second to open up her saddlebags with her mouth. "Ah'm hungry. Suppose we can just eat this bread. Waste of time tryin' to catch a grain sprite in it."

The filly reached a forehoof into her saddlebags and lifted out a loaf of bread. As it cleared the bag, the filly screamed and dropped the bread. Cheerilee, perhaps still having residual fear from her time in Candy's body jumped backwards as well. The two of them stared at the bread in horror, it was smiling.

"Cheese…" Cheerilee said slowly, not taking her eyes away from the sinister grin. "Can you see a smiling face on that bread?"

Cheese walked in front of the two of them, obstructing their view of the loaf. "Yeah! The bread has a happy face in it! Does that mean we did good?"

Candy had done it; she'd caught a grain sprite. With all the ponies out here, there had to be somepony that could find some poison joke. They had everything they needed to fix Candy.

"Just keep your distance from it," she ordered the foals. "Let's not give it any reason to think it needs to defend its new home. We're just going to patiently wait here for help to come for us. Rainbow Dash knows where we are, and will be back soon."

She smiled. After everything Cheerilee had endured while stuck in Candy's body, she was going to get the chance to see it all resolved. Her smile faded. Everything was almost over, but there was one more thing that needed taking care of. There was still one last task that she needed to help Candy with-- the school board meeting tomorrow. Word would get out about Candy's actions on today, and Spoiled Rich would use it to push that Candy had willfully endangered another foal. Spoiled was not going to get her way.

On a more personal note; she really wanted to have some words with the detestable head of the school board about being called deranged. It wasn't just Candy that needed to be validated and exonerated tomorrow. This was a fight for both of them.

Author's Note

Nearing the end.

Chapter 36: Future Uncertain

Rescue did come for Cheerilee and the foals. She discovered soon after that her original plan of continuing along the cliff to make it back to the tree house would have ended as a bust, because their path would have ended unblocked by a very difficult to cross bog if they continued that way. Starlight Glimmer had teleported to them after Rainbow Dash gave her the location, and had promptly teleported the trio straight to Ponyville General hospital.

Cheerilee now lay in bed, with a number of bandages over areas she'd been burned. The burns didn't hurt that much anymore, unless she tried to stretch too much, and they told her that she would be free to leave in the morning-- provided she kept up with changing her bandages out and didn't overexert herself. Candy shared a room with her, and the filly had been put on a respirator for a few hours, before recently coming off it. There were small concerns about permanent damage to Candy's lungs, but nothing that would seriously handicap her. Candy was just advised to not engage in any activity that pushed her breathing too hard or required her to hold her breath for too long. Candy was also going to be free to go in the morning, as long as her parents made sure the filly had her follow-up appointments.

It had been a very active few hours, and now the majority of the Apples had gone home, with the exception of Ma Apple and Big Mac, and the still hospitalized Applebloom. Candy had been asleep for much of the time, as her magical exhaustion, combined with the earlier strain on her lungs, had caused physical exhaustion as well. The filly had been awake for short periods, but hadn't had much chance to speak with her parents. Candy was now sleeping again, with her parents sitting close by.

Cheerilee was reading in bed about education regulations. Her familiarity with current day regulations was much better than it had been when she had been trapped in Candy's body, but there were enough of them that weren't commonly applied that she still felt review of them was expedient before Candy's school board hearing tomorrow. However, a lot of this basically would come down to just convincing the school board that Candy wasn't dangerous. The fact that they might have a cure for her soon helped with that, but the fact that Candy had just dragged Cheese out into the Everfree and set it on fire was going to work against them. It was going to be hard not to say that the filly had an affinity for setting things on fire when her new cutie mark literally had a flame as its most prominent feature.

"Why do you think Candy has extra cutie marks in her cutie mark? Why is one of them yours?"

Cheerilee turned and looked at Ma Apple. The other mare was sitting on a chair beside her daughter's bed.

"I don't know," she replied, as she shut the book she had been reading. "She said that she was thinking about what the ponies that had those marks would do when she stood and fought that timberwolf. Maybe a little of their personalities imprinted on her."

Ma and Big Mac both gave her quizzical looks. "You're one of those marks," Ma said slowly. "Would you stop and fight a timberwolf?"

She shook her head. "I can't imagine doing so, but if one of my students was in immediate danger… maybe I would try to distract it."

The Apple matriarch seemed to consider those words, and glanced back at the sleeping form of her daughter. Candy had a blanket covering all but her head, but Cherrilee could see Ma focused on where Candy's flank would be. "Who are the other two? I don't mind you imprintin' on her that much, but some of the others… "

"Twilight Comet and Platinum Gilt," Cheerilee answered. "I remember the marks from her drawings."

Ma scrunched up her muzzle. "The sneaky one and the one that kept callin' most of the family dirty earth ponies? That's not good, that's not good at all."

"Twilight Comet did all he could to help her, and seemed like he was some sort of adventurer or secret agent," Cheerilee calmly replied, then sighed. "As for Platinum, she might have had some strong biases, but she was a warrior or knight or something. I'm not a cutie mark expert, but I think Candy has a destiny to try to be a protector of sorts. The most prominent thing in her mark is her shield. I doubt she has the same prejudices as Platinum had, since the first pony she put herself on the line to protect was an earth pony."

"An adventurer, like her two aunts," Ma said breathlessly. "That worries me, because of the danger she might put herself in, but I can be proud of her for that."

"E'yup," Big Mac said in hearty agreement.

"Just as long as she waits till she's grown to actually start going on any more adventures," Ma continued.

"E'yup," Big Mac said again.

Cheerilee looked down for a second, considering her words. "I'm going to be doing everything I can to keep her in school, but even if she does get to stay in school I would highly recommend that she get a personal unicorn tutor, a skilled mage, to help her learn how to best use her magic. What she did with that fire was effective, and impressive, but it almost got her killed. She needs an expert to teach her how to properly do things."

"Cheese said she can teleport," Ma said with a mirthless chuckle. "I'm nothin' but proud of her skill, but she's so far past me in terms of ability and natural talent that I would be helpless tryin' to teach her. I'll talk to Sweetie Belle and Starlight about it. They said the princess is comin' tomorrow to help them fix a cure, so maybe the princess can help in some way."

"E'yup," Big Mac said in a lower voice, lowering his head and ears as he looked at his daughter. He reached out a hoof and gently brushed Candy's mane away from her eyes. It was amazing how a stallion so large and muscular could be so tender and gentle.

"I just worry about how much her personality might have changed because of all this," Ma continued, eyes glistening.

"Only time will tell," Cheerilee replied. "It would be foolish to think there aren't going to be changes. You can't go through what she has gone through without it having a big impact on her personality." She looked at her own self. "I was in her for just a few days, but I think it will have a lasting effect on me. Seeing things through a foal's eyes reminded me how much foals need to be heard when they express concerns. I also have always been protective of my students, but I think now I might have an even fiercer need to protect them." She smiled at the two parents. "Maybe a little of Candy has rubbed off on me."

The trio went quiet again after that, and Cheerilee went back to her reading. Candy was lightly snoring, and that was the only sound that could be heard in the room, aside from the occasional turn of a page. There were heavy emotions in the air as they waited for tomorrow to come. Hopefully it would come with Candy's cure, and the school board letting the filly off the hook for her actions.

Morning came, and with it lots of paperwork for their release from the hospital. Cheerilee had her bandages changed out, and was given a hefty number of bandages to change into on her own-- as well as instructions on how to do so. Listening to those instructions made her wish she still had Candy's horn, as it seemed like each bandage change was going to be an ordeal unto itself. Hopefully Stygian would help her with the bandage changes.

Before going to the meeting, she stopped by the post office and sent a letter off to her lover. She let him know what had happened, and that she'd be staying in Ponyville for a few days now. She offered her invitation for him to join her, and they could further discuss what they were going to do after that. Ponyville no longer filled her with dread now that her problems were resolved, but that put her in a new uncomfortable position. She was in love with Stygian, but he was in Vanhoover. At the same time she wanted to rejoin all her friends and family in Ponyville, and perhaps even resume her career. She had no interest in ousting Dinky and taking back the principal position-- Dinky by all rights was an excellent principal; fair and willing to stand up for her students-- but there was an opening for a new teacher starting next year, and Cheerilee wanted to return to the front of a classroom. With luck, Stygian would be interested in a move to Ponyville. He had his own friends here, so it was possible.

Candy was not particularly energetic. The filly was still recovering from her ordeal yesterday, and the doctors said it would be a few days before she really got to be herself again. That Candy would still be herself through the entire day was a mild concern. It was still a mystery what would trigger a new individual to take up residence in the filly's head, and having one come before or during the meeting could be very problematic. They hadn't heard anything yet today about the cure, even though it had been promised to be coming today. As long as Candy could hold out being herself until the meeting was over then things should turn out alright.

She, Candy, Ma, and Big Mac had a simple lunch together at the Twistabon shop-- which did have a small selection of regular food that wasn't sweets. They were initially going to go by Sugarcube corner, but remembered only when they got there that it was temporarily closed to focus on graduation cakes. There had been the sound of a great deal of activity inside, but Ma declined to go check in on how things were going.

Bon Bon came to take their order while they were in the Twistabon shop, and gave Candy a disgruntled look when she did. Candy cringed under the chocolatier's harsh gaze, and Cheerilee narrowed her eyes and decided to speak up. "Bonny, I need to say something on Candy's behalf."

The mare turned her attention to her with a cross eyebrow. "What? That filly-"

She wasn't going to let Bon Bon finish. "That filly wasn't herself either time she talked to you. The second time she was actually me. I don't know much about Twilight Comet, or whatever organization you used to work for, but I know Candy never intended to cause you any hurt. Please, don't be angry at her."

Bon Bon narrowed her eyes. "She was you? What are you talking about?"

Cheerilee shook her head. "It's a long story. I just want you to know she isn't at fault for whatever she did to make you mad." She licked her lips. "Actually, Candy's new cutie mark shows she's got a destiny of being some sort of protector. I don't know anything about-" she saw Bon Bon's scowl deepen and decided to not say the name out loud. "-your old organization, but I got the impression that they protected ponies. Maybe you could give her some pointers from time to time? She could use some mentoring outside of school."

Candy blinked and looked up at their host with a wary, yet hopeful, look.

Bon Bon's scowl released into a smaller frown as the mare turned and looked down at the small unicorn filly, eyes drifting to the freshly minted cutie mark. "I recognize that top middle mark," Bon Bon said quietly. "We never knew who exactly the old heads were, but a lot of the old bylaws still had their marks affixed to them." Bon Bon chewed on her lip for a moment, then shook her head. "I'm not going to promise anything right now. After the agency disbanded, I thought I left that part of my life behind. When some of the other ex-agents tried reforming it, with a warped vision of what it had been, I took the time to help stop them. I don't know how I feel after all that. Give me time to think about it, and if I decide to help I'll let you know, on my own terms-- don't pester me about it."

"Yes, Miss Bon Bon," Candy said meekly.

The morning hours slipped by, and in what seemed all too soon it was time for the school board meeting. It was held in the small auditorium of the administrative building. When they arrived they found many parents for other students already seated, along with some of the teachers, and the remainder of the Apple clan living in Ponyville. The majority of the parents gave Candy blank faced looks, and didn't call out greetings as they normally would. There were some exceptions though; Autumn Blaze and Noteworthy were there, and the kirin gave an enthusiastic wave to them. They brought along their son, who couldn't keep his eyes off Candy. Pinkie Pie had left from her cake making to come support Candy as well, and had brought Cheese with her. Also present was Silver Spoon and Twist, who surprisingly had Sisstet with them. Candy gave a weak smile to each of her school friends, but her worry was obvious.

The school board was all seated up front, and to Cheerilee's utter shock, Applebloom was among them. The younger mare seemed visibly pale and weak, but she sat looking defiantly at Spoiled Rich. The head of the school board purposely seemed to be ignoring Applebloom's gaze, and had her own predatory gaze focused on Candy. The rest of the school board was rounded out by Cheerilee's sister-- Cherry Tea, Roseluck (whose own son was in the graduating class this year), Pip Squeak (who could be mistaken for a foal himself, if not for the goatee and mustache), and the yellow pegasus mare Parasol (who had a penchant for dying her mane and tail different colors constantly, and was sporting a brown today).

The inclusion of Applebloom lifted Cheerilee's spirits greatly. Applebloom would definitely vote in Candy's favor. She was pretty sure she could convince her sister to vote in Candy's favor as well, since her sister took her opinions very seriously. She needed to get at least two of the others with them. Pip was a bit of a wild card, as he was known for going with what the facts said, rather than where his emotions led him. Roseluck might well be among those angry parents, especially after the uproar that happened when her son was supposed to be trying to talk to potential employers about apprenticeships. Parasol would be difficult, as she was often a yes-mare to Spoiled. Cherry Tea could sometimes fall in line with Spoiled on votes, especially if Cheerilee didn't express an opinion, but Cheerilee was fairly certain that her own opinions carried more weight with her sister than Spoiled's.

It was important that they sway both Roseluck and Pip. It was fairly safe to say Parasol would be voting with Spoiled, and if they didn't get both Roseluck and Pip that would lead to a split vote. If a split vote happened then a community vote with all the present parents would happen. They had some supporters among those, but there were far more blank faced parents than confirmed supporters present.

Spoiled stood up and cleared her throat, drawing all eyes to her. "Now that the subject of our meeting has arrived, we can now begin these proceedings."

The fight for Candy's future had begun.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay. I have been under an incredible amount of stress lately. I just was put under 14- day isolation, and immediately after that my dad had a stroke.

Next chapter should be the final chapter.

Chapter 37: Conclusion

Spoiled Rich stared out at the audience. "To begin, I must state that it is unfortunate and sad that this meeting had to be held. It is not with joy that we must consider the removal of one of our students, but the safety and security of the student body as a whole comes before the needs of any singular student."

Cheerilee grit her teeth behind her lips. The others might have found that true, but Spoiled always was looking for an excuse to remove 'undesirables' from the school. Cheerilee had always been able to stop it from happening, and she wasn't about to let that perfect record fall now.

"Let us list off the reasons why we have been forced to call this meeting," Spoiled continued, looking down at a partially enrolled scroll in front of her. "In the past year, Candy Apple has missed more days of class than she has attended. While this is normally a reason to force her to better attend school, rather than expel her from it, she has also spent at least half the time she has attended causing disruptions in classes, and to the school as a whole. These disruptions include, but are not limited to; use of foul language, theft, tribalist remarks, ongoing speciest remarks, trying to encouraging students to force out dragon students, elaborate lewd descriptions of activities that upset public decency, frequently screaming in class, unsupervised use of- I must stress- dangerous alchemy, encouraging sedition against the crown, assaulting students with magic blasts, destruction of school property, and disruption of important school events."

Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. "Encouraging sedition?" She asked in confusion, keeping her voice down.

"A few ya didn't like that it was Princess Twilight in charge instead of Princess Celestia," Candy explained in a low voice. Cheerilee rolled her eyes. She wasn't sure that counted as sedition.

"In addition," Spoiled continued, unrolling the scroll further. "We must consider her actions outside of the school. These actions include, but are not limited to; assaulting the residents of the town, attempting to overthrow the local government, damage to public and private property, crimes against muffins-" Oh, come on! Now Spoiled was just reaching for things! "-violation of underage curfew, endangerment of other foals, and arson." Spoiled unrolled the scroll to its furthest extent, and squinted at the remainder of the text. "And trifling as it may seem to some of us, I must include failure to return library books-- which our princess is known to frown heavily upon, and had once considered criminalizing."

Cheerilee hoped that the windbag was out of charges, but Spoiled looked up at the audience and continued. "I also heard today, on good authority, that her fire in the Everfree may have destroyed several endangered plants and caused severe irreparable damage to a potentially important archaeological site."

Cheerilee facehoofed, she doubted there was any negative intent on Petunia's part, but she wished that the mare had kept her mouth shut.

"As we all have been witness to young Miss Apple's various antics, I think that we should start instead with testimony from the filly in question," Spoiled continued on, giving a snide smile to Candy as she did so.

"Um, excuse me."

All heads turned, and the vast majority of those present immediately dropped into bows as they spotted Princess Twilight Sparkle in the doorway.

Cheerilee was among those who had immediately prostrated herself, but the majority of the Apples did not. Applejack let off a loud whoop from right beside her. "About dang time!"

"You can all stand up. I don't care much for bowing," Twilight said in a long suffering voice. They all did as instructed, and the princess's eyes fell on Candy. "I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier. That grain sprite that you caught gets really feisty if you do anything to its loaf of bread. It took me a while to get to where I could properly study its magic without having to fend off defensive attacks from it."

Standing right behind the monarch were Starlight Glimmer and Fluttershy. Starlight had a jar with a sample of poison joke held in her magic. Fluttershy had the possessed loaf of bread. The two came forward and set their cargo down in front of Twilight Sparkle.

"You be nice and calm, okay?" Fluttershy lovingly said to the bread, actually petting it like she would any of her animals. "Twilight is going to be really gentle with you, and won't hurt your home. When this is all done, we'll find an even nicer home for you to stay in. We don't want you to stay in there and have your home get moldy, do we?"

There was no way of telling if the loaf of bread actually gave any form of response to this, but a number of ponies in the audience gave Fluttershy baffled looks.

"Your majesty, excuse me, but… ," Spoiled hesitantly began, then seemed to gather up her courage. "We're in the middle of an important school board meeting. I'm sure that whatever business you have with this little malcontent can surely wait until we're done."

The rest of the school board's eyes went wide at her comment. Parasol was so horrified that Spoiled would dare to ask the princess to wait that the pegasus inched away from the mare in her chair. Cherry Tea looked absolutely flabbergasted at the situation. Pip stared on with wide eyes. Applebloom could be seen visibly snarling at Spoiled, and Roseluck fainted right out of her chair. Gasps of shock echoed through the audience at the head of the school board's presumption towards the princess.

Twilight Sparkle did not appear particularly fazed or give any sign of anger at being asked to wait by one of her subjects. The alicorn just smiled at the mare. "Oh, don't worry, I won't take much of your time. I don't want to keep poor Candy waiting a moment more either. That poor filly has endured too much already. From what I understand, her condition can cause another mind to enter her body at unpredictable times. We wouldn't want to delay her getting cured long enough to give an opportunity for yet another mind to take up residence in her, would you?"

Cheerilee watched Spoiled chew over her answer, and felt a surge of rage as realization dawned on her. Spoiled was hoping for exactly that to happen. If it happened in the middle of this meeting it would be that much easier for her to get Pip and Roseluck to vote the way she wanted. That vindictive, nasty, vile, #####! How dare she try to deliberately set Candy up like that!

"Of course not, Princess Twilight!" Cherry Tea blurted out, all but jumping up in her seat.

Spoiled turned and glared at Cheerilee's sister. "You were not given leave to speak."

Cherry grit her teeth, and whispered loudly through them. "You're embarrassing us Spoiled… "

"And we want to see the filly helped, don't we?" Pip added in.

Parasol didn't say anything. The pegasus had chosen to remove herself from view by getting down on the floor and attending to Roseluck-- who was just starting to stir. Applebloom had a smug look on her face as Spoiled failed to find any support.

Spoiled looked around at the rest of the school board, and let off a frustrated whinny. "As you wish, your majesty."

Twilight Sparkle gave a satisfied smile, and Cheerilee couldn't help but let a smug grin spread across her face. However, Ma Apple was above such things, and more focused on the fact that the princess was going to cure her daughter. "Candy, I think the princess is waitin' on you to come over to her," the mother said to her daughter, giving Candy an urgent push with her muzzle.

The filly hurried from her seat, but came to a cautious stop a short distance from the princess, giving the loaf of bread a wary look. She then cranked her head upwards slightly to stare at the imposing alicorn. "Ya're goin' ta fix me, right now?"

The princess gave the filly a gentle smile. "Candy Apple, I'm going to fix the magical problem that you've been having, and I'm sorry that it has gone on for as long as it has, but I don't want you to refer to it as fixing you, because that implies that you are out of order."

Candy blinked a few times. "Ah don't understand."

The princess stepped forward and put a wing around the filly. "I heard about what happened yesterday. Yes, it was very unfortunate that you started a forest fire-- but do you know what would have been even worse?" Candy shook her head. Twilight Sparkle looked around the audience. "Anycreature have any ideas?"

"If that timberwolf had caught her or Cheese!" Cheerilee called out. Pinkie Pie gripped her son tightly to her, and the party pony's eyes watered as she nodded in agreement.

"I hate to refute you, your majesty," Spoiled called out. "But the only reason either of them were in danger was because that filly put them both in danger. The entire situation was her fault, and that she was able to mitigate the potential harm does not excuse her." Spoiled stepped forward, ready to continue to put Candy on trial, even with the princess giving Candy praise. "Further, by the other foal's testimony to the doctors, that filly knew exactly how dangerous a situation she was bringing them into. She knew she could have gotten them both killed, yet she put their lives on the line anyway. She should not be praised for her indiscretions. She is a danger to all those around her."

Twilight gave the earth pony a flat look then turned her head to look back at the doorway. "Hey, Bug, care to come in here?" Bug? Who was Bug?

To Cheerilee's surprise, Bug turned out to be Flurry Heart. The younger alicorn was dwarfed in height by Twilight, and looked more a contrite filly when comparing the heights.

"You all know my niece, Flurry Heart," Twilight said to the crowd. "Flurry has her faults. She is headstrong, arrogant, and more than a little reckless." The younger alicorn seemed to flinch at each of her listed failings. The monarch softened her tone. "But, my niece is not entirely to blame for all of these things, and she used to be much worse. Flurry, please tell the school board about how you used to be, why you think that was, and what turned you around." Flurry used to be worse? That was hard to imagine.

The younger alicorn looked like she would rather do anything else at that moment, but the stern gaze of her aunt seemed to crush any objections. "I used to really not care about other creatures. I was strong and they were weak. My mom, dad, and aunt, were all concerned I was going to turn into some villain or something." The alicorn paused, and looked down. "I'm… ashamed… to admit, looking back, that they might have been right to worry about that." It seemed to take a lot out of her to do that.

"But?" Twilight prompted.

Flurry looked up. "But my parents recognized that part of the reason for that was that I was largely isolated from dealing with others, and they took the blame for that. They'd always been afraid I might accidentally hurt others with my power. I never really got to interact with everyday creatures. After it became clear I lacked much of anything resembling compassion or empathy, they sent me off to the School of Friendship."

"Longest four years of my life," Starlight droned. Flurry shot the headmare a sullen look, but didn't say anything more.

"My niece was a better pony having built friendships, and it was unfair on her family's part-- which includes me-- to have kept her from having that early on," Princess Twilight said stoically.

"That still does not excuse her actions," Spoiled insisted.

Twilight shook her head. "I can't determine how your vote will go, but can state my opinion. Candy Apple is a unicorn with a great deal of promise. She's also a filly who, for the greater part of the past year, has had her friends, family, and community fail to give her the trust and support she desperately needed. Taking her away from a school environment, and punishing her harshly for what has happened, would be a travesty. If she is expelled from your school, I will see to it that she is given full admission to her choice of the School of Friendship or the School for Gifted Unicorns at no cost to her family-- because I see a promising student who should be given every opportunity to flourish."

"I don't want Candy to go someplace else!" Autumn Fire yelled out, shocking the assembled adults.

"Me neither! She's my best friend!" Cheese called out in turn.

"Sshe's nice… " Sisstet called out, and then immediately cowered back down after realizing he drew attention to himself. Silver Spoon smiled and pulled the snake-like pony closer to her.

Cheerilee wasn't about to let her own support go unheard. "At least some of her actions were me acting through her. I demand that the claim she disrupted major school events, and damage to school property, be dismissed. Those were my actions, not hers!"

"My daughter is not a bad foal!" Ma called out, caught up in the moment.

"E'nope!" Big Mac called out in agreement.

Spoiled Rich looked around the room and clearly felt things rapidly shifting against her. She then turned back to the crowd. "We need to have order in this meeting!" She turned to and gave the princess a disgruntled glare. "Do what you came to do, princess, and we will then skip straight to our vote. I don't think any lengthy arguments are going to be needed."

And like that, it became clear that Candy would not be getting kicked out of school. Cheerilee felt glad, but at the same time there was a strange touch of disappointment. Here she was, about to have her big moment defending one of her students, and she became unnecessary. Everything that had happened somehow felt like it had happened despite her, rather than because of her.

The princess looked down at the filly again. "Are you ready for me to dispel this magic?" The filly nodded. Twilight then turned, and to Cheerilee's shock, looked directly at her. "I'll be needing you as well, Miss Cheerilee."

"Me?" She gasped, pointing a hoof at herself. "I'll be happy to help, but what do you need me for?"

Twilight gestured at the two items. "These two things are important and necessary; Starlight and Luster were right about that fact. What they didn't realize is there is more than these two things at work. Flurry might have cut the bond between you and Candy, but that doesn't mean the magic that initially linked you is gone. I need you to be able to find that linking mechanism and stop it from doing any further links. The traces of that magic are in you, not Candy."

She wasn't going to try to contradict the princess and foremost expert in magic. She just nodded and stepped forward to join Candy. The princess lit her horn, and began doing something with the loaf of bread and the sample of poison joke. Whatever she was doing, it didn't seem she was entirely ready to do what she was going to do to Cheerilee and Candy; so they patiently waited. The crowd had cleared backward to give them all space, and it seemed almost as if they were alone together.

The filly looked up at Cheerilee. "Are ya goin' to come back and be our principal again?"

She smiled. "I might come back and teach, Dinky is a great principal, who looks out for her students. I would be teaching the new incoming class next year if I did. Don't worry, Silver Spoon is a great teacher, and you're lucky to have her."

Candy giggled. "It was kinda funny seein' her as a filly."

Cheerilee frowned. "How did you see her as a filly?"

"Ya're memories, ya thought about her as a filly," the filly explained with a shrug. That meant Candy did indeed have full access to her thoughts when she had been in the filly's body. That made her uncomfortable. The filly seemed uncomfortable as well, as she continued. "Ah'd never have done what ah did without ya. Ah was about ta return those books, and wouldn't have even found out about what a grain sprite was if ya hadn't read that book. Ah really started to think ah was crazy."

Cheerilee took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. If I influenced you to run off like you did. I put a lot of pressure on you about this meeting. I just wanted to help you, even if I didn't end up being much help."

The filly seemed confused. "But ya was helpin'. No creature believed me, but ya made them believe. Ah didn't even know before ya figured it out how this happened for sure. Ya never stopped thinkin' that ah… that we... ain't crazy. Ya stood up for me all the time, and ya pulled me out of the fire. Ya're ma hero."

Cheerilee blinked away happy tears, and pulled the filly into a hug. "Thank you. I needed to hear that. It sounds like you put a lot of thought into what you said."

Candy sniffled. "Not much else ta do but think when ah'm sittin' back, just watchin' from ma head." The filly let off an irritated whinny. "Ah… I need to work on how I talk."

That made Cheerilee pull back and frown at her companion of the last few days. "There's nothing wrong about how you talk."

"But… my accent, it makes ma sound like…"

Cheerilee placed a hoof over the filly's mouth. "Your accent is part of who you are, and after all the time you have spent not being able to be you, you should be glad to be able to speak with your accent. It's time for you to stop wishing you were someone else. You're a special, unique, and talented pony; and don't you ever doubt yourself."

Candy stared for a moment, then grinned. "Ah'll not doubt m'self if you don't either."

Cheerilee lifted up her hoof, spit on it, and held it out to Candy. "Shake on it, and we've got a deal." The filly laughed joyfully, and promptly spit on her own forehoof, before pressing it against Cheerilee's.

"I think we're all ready."

The two of them gave a brief startled jump, and turned to the princess. They'd almost forgotten why they were sitting up there with how caught up in their shared moment they'd been.

The princess lit her horn and stared at the two of them. "Both of you just sit still. This won't hurt, but it will take a few seconds, and it will take longer if you're moving around." The two of them nodded, and sat still as statues. Cheerilee held her breath, as if her breathing would somehow constitute too much movement.

A soft glow enveloped both of them. Cheerilee felt a slight tingling sensation, and there was a feeling of warmth deep inside her. It was hard to place where deep inside her it was, there was no real location for it. She tried to focus on the sensation, but the location eluded her all while she was certain that the sensation was definitely there. Maybe Candy was feeling the same thing, and would understand it better. This was a thing of advanced magic, and Cheerilee was just a simple teacher.

It ended so quickly she almost thought something went wrong. Candy must have thought the same thing, because she gave the alicorn a puzzled look. "Is that it?" The filly asked.

Twilight smiled. "That's it. You won't be subject to any more intrusions into your life by random creatures taking up residence in your head." A cheer went up from the assembled crowd at this announcement. The alicorn's eyes flicked to Cheerilee. "Although, they weren't quite random, and I think you both realize that. I didn't realize it till you two did it, but I think Candy having faith in herself was just as important as my spell."

Candy still seemed confused. "What do ya mean? Why?"

Twilight gestured at the jar that had held the poison joke just a moment before. It was now a fine blue powder. "You had to get the joke. The grain sprite's magic amplified the poison joke's magic a hundred-fold, but it still was mainly the poison joke at work. The grain sprite's magic on its own was just causing you to see fake grain sprites everywhere. The joke was that a capable little filly felt she had to be someone else, so it made you have to be someone else. When you ceased to believe that, you basically broke the joke. I was needed to get the remnants of it out, just in case you ever fell into that faulty thinking again, but the joke would have had no power over you if you had just believed in yourself, rather than wishing you were someone else."

Cheerilee's eyebrows shot up. "Are you serious! That's all she really needed to do?"

The princess frowned. "We all have moments where we doubt ourselves, and wish for someone else to deal with our problems. The joke would take effect whenever Candy inevitably did, but I've stopped that. There are aspects of this magic I still don't fully know how they work, even if I have dispelled it, and I'll be doing a full study of that grain sprite soon, to try to understand it better. Just know, this nightmare is done and over with."

The alicorn turned her gaze back to the school board, which had been silent through this entire exchange. "You have no more reason to fear she'll be turning into Sombra, or whatever other creature might fit that hurtful joke. I also think that Candy is done with her adventuring, at least for a few more years, and all the trouble and danger that comes from adventures. You can continue with your meeting now."

Spoiled gave a small start at having been addressed. The head of the school board seemed to have been lost in thought while the princess had been at work. She then nodded with a grimace. "Very well… I guess we can get straight to the votes, as I don't see where any debate and discussion will accomplish much at this point. All in favor of having Candy removed from the school, please raise your hooves now."

Not a single hoof among the six-member board rose, not even Spoiled's. "We have five against her expulsion, and I respectfully abstain from voting." Respectfully abstain? It seemed like the mare instead just didn't want to lose face.

"All in favor of having the filly in question be held back a year from her current class due to gross lack of attendance, please raise your hooves now."

This time Spoiled did raise her hoof up, and Parasol hesitantly raised hers in turn, but Spoiled failed to obtain her third or fourth votes. Her mood seemed to darken further.

Spoiled sniffed. "Well, for our final vote, all in favor of Candy Apple being forced to face some form of disciplinary action, as decided by her teacher and Principal Doo, please raise your hooves now."

Spoiled of course raised her hoof right away, immediately followed by Parasol. Roseluck and Pip followed quickly after. Cherry raised her own hoof slowly. Applebloom looked at the other five board members and let off a long sigh, and to Cheerilee's shock, raised her own hoof as well.

Spoiled grimace released into a small smirk. "Well, it seems that at least a small bit of sanity does prevail. I leave the disciplinary action to the appointed parties. This meeting is hereby adjourned."

The Apple clan rushed forward and gave Candy a massive group hug, Pinkie and Cheese quickly joined in. While that was happening, Cheerilee watched as the school board started to exit. In particular, her eyes were focused on Spoiled Rich. This wasn't all over yet, there was one last thing that needed doing, something long overdue.

She slipped quietly away from the small celebration, and stepped out the door that she had just watched Spoiled Rich exit out of. It was a side office, and the head of the school board seemed like she was going to be taking the time to do some paperwork. Spoiled looked at her as she walked in. "What do you want? I've had my fill of unhinged ponies for today."

Cheerilee kept her face neutral. "You're about to find out how unhinged I can be." Spoiled' s eyes went wide and took a few steps back. Cheerilee stood still as she watched. "You've been a plague on the students of this town for far too long, Spoiled. I'm through letting it happen. I demand that you step down from the school board."

Spoiled's fear melted from her face, as it contorted with rage. "You're daring to make a demand? From me? You don't even work at this school. Who are you to make demands?"

Cheerilee stepped forward. "I think I did pick up some things from Candy. In this case, I'm willing to go to any length to see that those I care about-- in this case the current, past, and future students of this school-- are protected from somepony that is more concerned about having power over others than their well being."

"You're unhinged!" Spoiled spat.

Cheerilee smirked. "If I was a petty mare I would buck you so hard in the face that you'd need to get a third nose job, for all the insults you've thrown at me. I really was in Candy's body the other night when you expressed what you thought of me. Lucky for you, I'm a responsible grown adult, that doesn't lash out over being called names."

Spoiled's eyes narrowed. "So tell me, Miss Cheerilee, how do you intend to press your demand?"

Another step forward was taken. "I said I wouldn't lash out for being called names. I didn't make any promises about what I would be willing to do for the sake of our students."

The headmare gasped and retreated backwards again. "You can't! I'd have you arrested for assault!"

"I'd willingly go to jail for a few months if it put an end to your tyranny over this school," Cheerilee said gravely. "I told you I picked up some things from Candy. That filly thought little of her own safety and well-being when it came to protecting her friend; I will do the same for our youth."

"You're insane!"

"I'm a teacher protecting her students!" Cheerilee hissed. "Go become a food critic or something if you want to feel power and terrorize somecreature with your opinions, but you are getting out of this school's affairs. I'll get in trouble for knocking the snot out of you, but everycreature will sit there and wonder why Ponyville's longest serving educator was so furious with the head of the school board that she was willing to beat you down. Bow out now, keep what little reputation you have intact-- along with your nose. I'm willing to sacrifice my reputation for this; what are you willing to sacrifice?"

Spoiled looked around the room frantically, searching for an out. Her eyes turned back to Cheerilee and hardened with hatred. "Fine! I'll step down. There's no need for violence. But know this, I will get you for this. Not right away, but I'll find some fitting way to repay you for this."

"Bring your worst, as long as it is directed at only me, I don't care."

"Oh, it will be," Spoiled snarled. "Now, will you please allow me to exit this room? You have my word I won't speak of this incident."

She wordlessly stepped aside, and the other mare hurried past. As soon as Spoiled left the room, Cheerilee let go of the breath she had barely been aware she had been holding. She couldn't believe she just did that! Was she proud of it? No, but it needed to happen, and now it was done.

After she composed herself, she went back out to see how Candy was doing. It seemed that the majority of the crowd had dispersed, now that the meeting was over. There were a few hangers-on who stayed to talk to school board members and to congratulate Candy, but most were gone-- even the princess and those she brought. Cheerilee walked over to the Apples and rejoined them.

"Aunt Applebloom! How could ya vote ta have me punished!" Candy shouted in betrayed outrage.

Applebloom looked her niece in the eyes. "Ya did steal from ma office, did a dangerous potion experiment unsupervised at the school, and endangered your best friend. I understand why ya did all those things, but that doesn't mean ya get outta havin' ta face consequences for those actions."

The filly pouted, and turned her head away in foalish anger.

Applebloom sighed. "Ya already have a punishment arranged with the principal anyway. I seem to recall somethin' about a report on potion safety."

Candy turned back, and her ears slumped. "Oh… ah forgot about that."

Applebloom smiled. "I was thinking, maybe we can turn it into a better presentation. Not only can you give a report on potion safety, but you could demonstrate making a potion safely-- with supervision from me, of course." Oh, sweet princesses, no!

The filly's ears picked up. "Really?!" Cheerilee's stomach sank further.

"E'yup," Applebloom replied, and winked at Cheerilee. That evil mare!

Cheerilee sighed, knowing that this was probably going to happen. "I guess I should talk to Silver Spoon about what supplies she should keep close when dealing with show and tell. You never know what kind of adventure show and tell can bring."

Author's Note

I want to thank everyone for reading. I do plan on having two new projects coming soon; Silver Spoon Adopts a Naga and Marshmallow Dreams, be on the lookout for them. Until then, everyone keep safe and healthy.

Chapter 1: Show and Tell, Disaster Preparedness

Cheerillee carefully compared what was on her list to what she had hidden away under her teacher's desk.

"Bandages, check. Smelling salts, check. Burn treatment, check. Fire extinguisher, check. Safety helmet, check. Cragadile repellant spray, check. Magical emergency signaling crystal to reach Starlight Glimmer, check. Looks like everything is ready to go for another session of show and tell!"

If it was one thing she had learned after years of dealing with the likes of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Snips and Snails, and even occasionally, her other students, it was that she could never be too prepared for whatever might happen when she asked a student to share.

Having completed her checklist, she consulted the clock. There was still a good hour before the students should start arriving at school for the day. She was an early riser, and liked to get ready for the day we'll before the students arrived.

Honestly, though, there wasn't much to do today. The younger students had today off, so she only had to deal with her soon-to-be graduating class. This day came every year, and it always left her a little wistful. Today, her graduating class shared what they wanted to do when they left her. Some would move on to further education, others would go straight into apprenticeships or jobs, and there were always some who were still undecided what route they wanted to take.

This year's class was one of the most notable that would be moving on. Eight of her foals were moving on to be young mares and stallions, the largest single class she'd had since she started teaching at this single-room schoolhouse. Among those graduating were also the students who had made the last few years most interesting, the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Somehow, she felt disappointed that next year she would not be subject to the mischief and chaos they sometimes brought into her class.

Glancing down at the cragadile repellent, she giggled to herself. Some of the mischief she wouldn't miss.

Sitting down at her desk, she pulled over the papers the graduating students had turned in yesterday. These were their early reports on what they wanted to do with themselves right after leaving her. She'd deliberately refused to look at a single one of those papers yesterday, fearful she would get melancholy for the remainder of the day after thinking about how they'd all be gone soon. Still, it couldn't be put off any longer.

After a brief delay, to pour herself a mug of ginger tea from her thermos, she picked up the first paper and began reading it.

Dear Miss Cheerilee,

I've decided that when I graduate, I want to go and work for Miss Bon Bon at her candy shop. I'm really good at making my peppermint sticks, but Miss Bon Bon can teach me how to make lots of other candies! I want to learn from her, so when I grow up, I can have a candy shop of my very own, and sell candies to all the ponies and other creatures in Ponyville! Can you help introduce me to Miss Bon Bon and help me get a job with her? I'd like that very much.

Twist

She smiled after reading the paper. This was something along the lines of what she'd expected from Twist, and given Twist's cutie-mark and talents, it seemed like a career path that she would be very successful at. Helping set up an interview with Bon Bon wasn't going to be a problem. Various ponies around Ponyville always casually inquired about whether any of her students seemed ideal to come work with them, and Bon Bon was among them. Twist's name had long ago come up in those conversations, and Bon Bon had already strongly hinted that she was eager for some additional help at her shop, especially since she wanted the opportunity to spend time with her new wife-- who did help at the shop, but was not talented at candy-making. Lyra was actually a disaster in the kitchen by what Bon Bon had frazzledly described, and she kept her wife to the cash register when her wife insisted on 'helping'.

Satisfied that she would have no trouble helping Twist, she moved onto the next paper. This one was from Silver Spoon.

Dear Miss Cheerilee,

I have thought long and hard about what I want to do after graduating, I really have, but I just don't know! I don't know what is with all this pressure to have a plan for what to do anyway. I know Diamond is planning on going to a business school all the way off in Manehatten, and leaving me here. I don't know if I should ask my parents to send me there too, or if I should get a job apprenticed with my parents' silver company, or if I should do something else. It's just all changing so fast, and I don't want it too. Does that mean I'm going to be a failure? It's not fair. This is too much! I'm sorry, but I don't know what to do.

Silver Spoon

She frowned and shook her head. There was always at least one student who felt this way when graduation was looming. It was a little surprising to be hearing this from Silver Spoon, who was usually a very calm filly, but it made a certain amount of sense. Reading these types of papers every year always stung a little, as it made her feel like she had failed the student in some way. She had to remind herself and those students every year that not everypony was the same, and that some sometimes needed a little more time to figure things out. The business school in Manehatten seemed like the ideal choice for the filly, for multiple reasons, but if Silver Spoon really didn't feel drawn to that, it was best to find out why. It was clear she would need a little more personal attention in the final days of school, and possibly a parent-teacher conference to discuss the filly's worries and concerns.

She set that paper aside in a different spot than Twist's, noting this new stack as students she needed to give extra attention to. That being done, she grabbed the next paper in line, which happened to be Diamond Tiara's.

Miss Cheerilee,

My dad has always said that he wants to pass his business on to me when I'm old enough. Barnyard Bargains has gotten much bigger in the last few years, with new branches opening in places like Manehatten, Trottingham, and there's supposed to be a new branch opening soon in Appleloosa. It's a big responsibility, taking that over, and I want to make sure I do a good job.

I'm really good at getting ponies to do what I want, but that doesn't mean I know the right thing to make them do. I thought it would be a good idea to go to the business school in Manehatten, so I could learn all about the right things to do with a big business. I told my parents, and they both seemed very proud of me, even my mother, and she never seems proud of me. But when I told Silver Spoon, she acted all upset about it.

I think it is the right thing for me to do, but I don't want Silver mad at me. I don't even know why she got mad, but it hurts. Now I don't know what I'm supposed to do, because I don't want to lose my best friend.

I need advice.

Yours humbly,
Diamond Tiara

Her eyebrows rose as she re-read the paper over again. Maybe she needed to get in touch with Starlight Glimmer about these two fillies, because this seemed like a friendship problem. As a teacher, she did what she could to help with these problems where she could, but with the futures of her students in the balance she wanted to make sure she was giving them the best help she could give. The fact that there was a literal School of Friendship available meant that she had extra help she could call on. Surely Starlight Glimmer, as the principal of that school, would be able to offer some additional aid.

She placed Diamond Tiara's paper on top of Silver Spoon's and continued onto the next paper.

Hi Miss Cheerilee!

We decided to write out paper together, because we all have the same goals. The Cutie Mark Crusaders are a team, and we are planning on staying a team!

This part is me, Applebloom. I'm going to keep learning about potions from Zecora as I have time. I really want to get good at them. Both Zecora and Twilight said I have a natural talent for them, but I need a lot more practice and understanding to really be a potion master.

Hi again, this part is Sweetie Belle. I really want to get better at singing and learning about theater and stuff like that. Rarity said she could hire me personal tutors for those things.

And this part is Scootaloo. I'm going to keep practicing tricks with my scooter, and I thought I'd learn more about all kinds of other sports and things.

This part is all of us, but it is Sweetie Belle writing, because I have nicer writing.

My writing ain't that bad.

Yes, it is!

Are you writing that down? Why are you writing that down?

It's called a dictation spell! It writes everything we say down.

Should we stop and start over?

No, it's fine. Let's just get this done.

Anyway, we're always going to be helping ponies with their cutie marks, that's not going to change. We thought it would be a good idea for us all to become teachers at the School of Friendship. We talked to Starlight about it, and she agreed we could be tutors, but she wants us to get more experience and learn more stuff before she'll give us actual teaching jobs.

So, we all talked about it, and we thought it would be a great idea if we apprenticed under YOU! You're the best teacher we ever had, so you can teach us how to be good teachers too.

Cutie Mark Crusaders Apprentice Teachers Yay!

Tea spewed out of her mouth onto the paper, and she hastily wiped it off with the side of her leg. They weren't serious, were they? Yes, she was going to miss them not being in her class anymore, but was she prepared to deal with them for the four years (or more) that an apprenticeship entailed? Taking on a single apprentice would be doable, one Crusader apprentice probably so, but three at once, and those apprentices being the Cutie Mark Crusaders? A sudden desire to drink something stronger than ginger tea grew within her at the thought.

A few deep breaths later, and she looked again at the paper. As she re-read the paper again, more prepared for the contents, she put more serious thought into what was said and what her response should be.

From what the Crusaders described, they were actually going to each be doing dual education for themselves. Yes, they'd be apprenticed under her, but Applebloom would also be apprenticed under Zecora. Sweetie Belle would be receiving a private education in the arts and music. Scootaloo it wasn't as clear, but ideas formed as she looked over Scootaloo's section. This might actually have some promise to it, if done correctly.

They'd be teaching in the School of Friendship, eventually, so they would need to specialize in different subjects and arts. Thankfully, it looked like they already had them planned out, and they were already well versed in friendship. Even Scootaloo's interest in sports and stunts might direct her to being the school coach; Rainbow Dash was already doing that, and doing reasonably well. Her focus would be on teaching them how to handle students and teaching methods. She could have them working as an apprentice for her part of the time and somepony in their specialized area the rest.

This might not be too bad. She could rotate through the week who was assisting her so she only had to deal with one or two of the Crusaders in her classroom at a time, which would limit the potential for hijinks. They were a dedicated group, and she did trust that they would take this seriously. The three of them would probably always be slightly crazy, but they had matured over the years, calmed down a little. Having a teaching assistant always available wouldn't be too bad, and towards the end of their apprenticeship she could even get days off to herself while they taught some of the more run-of-the-mill class days.

Pleased with herself for coming to a reasonable solution for this, she placed their paper with Twist's, and moved onto the last two papers. These were for Snips and Snails, and both seemed to be written in Snips's sloppy penmanship. A quick review of those had her roll her eyes. Snails was going to be a famous buckball player and Snips intended to be his agent and merchandiser.

After a brief moment of consideration, she shrugged, then placed the two papers on the pile with the Crusaders and Twist. A few short years ago she lamented the idea of those two ever amounting to being more than general labor ponies. Not that there was anything wrong with being a general labor pony, but she always wanted more for her students. She didn't know for sure if this scheme would work out, but it was more promising than anything she might have previously envisioned, and she would do what she could to help them with that. She wanted the best for all her students.

Everything she needed to do before the students arrived today was done. They'd get their final session of show and tell, and then she'd sit down and talk to each of them about these papers. Another year would be wrapped up, and another class of students ready as she could prepare them to be for whatever came next. She took a contented sip of her tea, and waited for the school day to begin.

"Thank you for that... informational display of your merchandise, Snips," she said dryly.

She had to give it to the colt; he definitely had the makings of a salespony. She was ready to buy whatever it was he wanted to sell, if only to get him to sit down. His showing had lasted a full twenty minutes more than what he had been allotted for time, and he'd managed to sidestep every effort she'd made to bring his sales pitch to an end.

"I can do home delivery... for a fee," Snips added on as he finished gathering up his mugs with Snails's face drawn on them. It was a good likeness; Snips was capable of doing excellent work when money was involved.

She managed not to give an eyeroll to his continued efforts. "I'll keep that in mind. Please, take your seat so Applebloom can have her time to present."

Applebloom came up carrying a heavily laden saddlebag. The youngest of the Apple clan set the bag down and began unpacking a large number of partially filled capped vials.

Cheerilee gave the vials a wary look. "And what exactly are you planning on doing today with all those?"

The filly put on safety coverings over her legs, and then looked over to Cheerilee with a grin. "I'm gonna mix a potion that will temporarily change ma color!"

"You mean like a dye?" Diamond Tiara asked in confusion from where she was sitting at her desk.

Applebloom shook her head. "No. Dyes would just cover up ma color with a different one. This'll actually change the color, at least for a little while."

After taking a quick glance under her desk, to make sure the fire extinguisher was in place and ready to go, Cheerilee looked back at her student. "Are you sure that this is safe, and that you know what you're doing?"

Applebloom waved a hoof dismissively as salve sat down a vial with an odd milky white liquid. "I read all the instructions in my book, three times. I've made much more complicated potions than this before."

Still not completely reassured, Cheerilee looked over the various other vials, each containing liquids or powders in a host of different colors. "And what are all your ingredients?"

The preteen filly finished unpacking and pointed to each vial in turn. "Chimera drool, poison joke extract, ground-up dandelion fluff, copper powder, moonwort juice, mandrake extract, cat whiskers, and orange juice."

Sweet Celestia! Wait, Celestia is retired; am I supposed to be saying sweet Twilight now? Cheerilee flusteredly thought to herself. She wasn't sure, and that got her more flustered. "Poison joke?" She whispered fearfully. "This sounds dangerous. Maybe you should share something else. Just telling where you managed to get chimera drool might be an interesting show and tell in itself."

Applebloom gave one of the vials with a sickly yellow liquid a quick glance. "It's just called chimera drool, it ain't actually from a chimera. It oozes out of certain types of rocks when you get them really hot. Same thing with ‘eye of newt’; that’s just a fancy term for mustard seeds. I'm not real sure how they’d got those names, but it's pretty borin' to talk about." The filly pulled out a wooden bowl and set it down in front of her. "Give me a sec and I'll have this all mixed up, all good to go!"

Cheerilee frowned and grit her teeth, glancing down again at the fire extinguisher she had at the ready. It was perhaps a failing of hers that she didn't like to directly tell a student not to share something in show and tell, though she would hint strongly that they shouldn't. Applebloom just wasn't catching the hint in this case. All she could do was be ready to spring into action if something went wrong.

The red-maned filly began mixing the various ingredients while the class looked on curiously. Most of the class, anyway; Sweetie Belle had a wary look on her face, and Scootaloo was donning her helmet. The fact that Applebloom's two closest friends were showing worry made Cheerilee reach down and pull the fire extinguisher up into her seat, ready to aim at the bowl.

Applebloom paused as she held the final ingredient in her fetlock, the milky liquid she had named moonwort juice. The liquid seemed to be bubbling and fizzing. "Hmm... it ain't suppose to be doin' that. I must have shaken it up too much on the run over here."

"Maybe you shouldn't do this then," Sweetie Belle nervously suggested. "No offense, Applebloom, but when you mess up with potions you really mess up. If this messes up you probably turn us all plaid or something. I don't want to be plaid, my sister would have a heart attack!"

"Re-lax," Applebloom said, with an audible groan. "It will be fine. Even if it did turn you plaid, it wouldn't last for more than a few minutes. Just watch." The filly then poured the bubbling contents into the bowl with the other ingredients, stirring as she went with a spoon in her other fetlock.

The bowl started to bubble and shake. Applebloom dropped it, eyes wide and smelling of worry. That was all the prompting Cheerilee needed. She grabbed up the fire extinguisher and hopped towards the bowl with ready to let loose the fire extinguisher's contents on the volatile mixture.

Applebloom gasped and tried to wave her away. "Miss Cheerilee, no! You can't do that. You'll add new ingredients to the potion!"

The warning came too late, as she had already pushed down the nozzle to let loose the foamy liquid inside. It sprayed out onto the bowl, covering the entire bowl and surrounding floor with foam in a mere second. The alchemical reaction happened immediately, as the bowl began to hiss and smoke underneath the foam, shooting off small sparks of magic like they were fireworks. Thinking of her students' safety , she reached down with her forehooves into the foam and grabbed the bowl, intending to toss it to the far corner of the room away from her class.

Then there was a bang, and everything went black.

An excruciating headache set in as she came to. The light stabbed at her eyes when she first tried to open them, and it took several blinks before she could open them without pain. Her head felt like a herd of yaks had decided to celebrate one of their smashing holidays inside it. Applebloom was never going to be allowed to demonstrate making potions in this schoolhouse again; not after this, not even if she was brought on as a teaching assistant.

She rubbed her head and her hoof touched a massive lump right in the middle of her forehead. That would explain the massive headache. She'd need to have a doctor take a look at it as soon as possible. Hopefully she wouldn't have to miss any days of work. The school year was almost over, and if she needed time off now it would delay the students getting out for summer. They needed their time away from school in the summer, for the sake of their mental well being, and so did she.

She noticed while rubbing that her fur on her leg was now bright red. It looked as if the color changing part of the potion had actually worked. Applebloom had said this was temporary, so she didn't worry too much about that. If something else went wrong with it that made it permanent she was sure Zecora or Starlight Glimmer could fix it. Having the wrong color of fur was very low on her list of concerns right then.

"Is everyone alright?" She asked, without looking up. Several seconds passed with no answer, and she grew worried. "Students... ?"

She looked around the classroom. Everyone was gone. There was nopony in the building but her. They must have all run away when the explosion, or whatever it was, had happened. She didn't really blame them. One of the things you learned while living in Ponyville was how to run for your life in the face of danger. Danger came far too often to their town.

Something else caught her eye. The familiar posters and decorations on the walls were gone, replaced with new ones that she had never seen before. On further observation, she noticed the student desks were arranged in a different way, and they weren't the same desks as before. Over her head, hanging from string, were various drawings clearly drawn by foals. All of the drawings were signed by their creators, and none of the names were familiar to her at all.

She turned to her desk. It was the same desk, she could recognize a small chip on the side of it where it had been damaged in a previous show and tell, but there were additional marks of damage on it, many themselves scuffed and dented. Glancing atop the desk, she stared at the inboxes, files and- where was the inkpot, and what were those metal tubes?- that definitely weren't hers. What was going on?

As she stood to her hooves something else immediately became obviously wrong. The room was much bigger than before, and everything within it. Logic asserted itself against her growing anxiety, and the more likely scenario came into focus. She had gotten smaller.

She noticed a mirror that hadn't been there before, propped against the wall. A paper banner had been hung at the top of it that read 'The creature displayed here is very special and loved!' Her head was still pounding, and her frayed nerves wasn't helping it. She stood up and carefully avoided the shattered glass and liquids that surrounded her. Despite her legs being less than half their normal length, she was steady on her hooves.

Taking one last deep breath, she stepped in front of the mirror and looked into it. Her eyes went wide immediately, and she gasped aloud. The reflection in the mirror was not her; the reflection in the mirror was a filly, young enough to be in her classes, with bright red fur, and a deep purple mane. What was more, what she had interpreted as a bump on her head earlier was actually an equally bright red unicorn horn, peeking out of the filly's curly purple mane.

Her breaths became more labored with her rising panic, and the world went dark again.

Author's Note

No real schedule for updates for this one, but they should be frequent.

Chapter 6: Home on the Strange

If she had walked up to Sweet Apple Acres without seeing the rest of the town, she would have sworn she was in her own time. There were no new structures on the property, and she was pretty sure even the smaller gardens were exactly as they were before. The main barn looked new, but the Apples rebuilt their barn every few years anyway. In fact, they’d done so just a few years earlier, from her perspective.

As they approached the farm, she spotted Macintosh hauling a plow into the barn. He was better-dressed than he usually was, but that only added to his graceful aging. If anything, he looked even more handsome than he had been before. His physique was always appealing, and many a mare in the past had swooned over those rippling muscles; even knowing that he wasn't a good match for her, even with him being a married stallion, she knew he was still immensely attractive to look at. Luckily, the eight-year-old body she was occupying wasn't at an age it could be easily aroused, otherwise this would be a hundred times more uncomfortable. She simply had the mere clinical knowledge that Big Mac was hot. No real sex drive was a small benefit of this body, at least in this situation.

"Come on, young filly, time to see your mother," Silver Spoon said, then began trotting towards the main house. She didn't mind bypassing dealing with Big Mac for the moment. Her planned tactic with him was to give information about their past dates; she was sure those weren't in the Journal of Friendship. It just was going to be so cringe-worthy in this circumstance that putting it off a few more minutes was no bother at all.

She followed the teacher to the front door and waited as Silver Spoon knocked on the door. A slightly squeaky "I'll get it!" was shouted from somewhere within, and a moment later the door opened, revealing a purple colt about her size.

The colt looked at her and the teacher, then turned back into the house. "Ma! Candy's gone n' got in trouble again!"

Really?!? Silver Spoon hadn't even said anything yet! Yes, teachers didn't typically escort students home unless there was some sort of trouble, but she still felt offended on Candy's behalf all the same.

After the colt retreated into the house, Sugar Belle-- or Ma Apple, if that was what everypony called her now-- walked up to the door, wearing an apron and looking like she just bit into a lemon. There were big streaks of grey in her mane, but it was far from completely grey. The unicorn gave Silver Spoon a tight smile and took a deep breath. "Is everythin' alright?" The mix of her old, nasally voice, coupled with the famous Apple accent, made for a very interesting listening experience.

Silver touched a hoof to Cheerilee's back. "Candy seems to have taken some potion supplies from her aunt, and she was trying to make a potion in my classroom. Judging by the mess, it exploded."

Sug-- Ma Apple's eyes went wide and Cheerilee felt herself lifted in the unicorn's magic and pulled towards the pony, before being quickly grabbed by hooves and closely inspected. "Oh dear, are you hurt?"

Answering was a struggle, as the embrace was making it hard for her to breathe. "I'm...fine."

"She's unharmed, I checked her over right away," Silver Spoon assured the unicorn. "But we need to have a talk about this. Not only was what she did dangerous, she stole potions ingredients to do it."

Ma Apple-- she was going to force herself to think of Sugar Belle with that name-- gave Silver Spoon a deep frown. "My little Candy is not a bad foal!"

"I never said she was," Silver said soothingly. "But this is a serious issue, and I can't just let her off with just another detention. This is the first time this has happened with her, and we don't want to have it become a habit. It needs to be made clear to her that theft is unacceptable."

The Apple matriarch grabbed Cheerilee with her magic again and set Cheerilee down behind her, as if shielding her from the teacher. "I'll make sure she gets a good talkin' to, I promise." Hearing those dropped 'Gs' made it much easier to think of Sugar Belle as Ma Apple instead.

Silver gave Ma Apple a sad look. "I'm sorry, but that might not be good enough. Spoiled Rich is calling for her expulsion from school."

Ma gasped and held a trembling hoof up to her mouth. "She...she can't do that. I told you, my Candy is not a bad foal. She's just goin' through a phase right now. She'll grow out of it."

"Speaking of her phase, she's pretending to be Cheerilee right now," Silver informed the distraught mother. "I'm a little surprised she hasn't brought it up yet."

"She hasn't really given me a chance to yet," Cheerilee yelled around the unicorn's backside.

Silver sighed. "I assure you that neither I, or the principal, are going to let that happen, but we can't just give her a slap on the fetlocks and hope to satisfy the school board if Spoiled drags them into this."

"Applebloom's on the school board too. She won't vote for them doing anythin' to my little Candy," Ma Apple said confidently.

"She's one vote in six, and Spoiled can be very persuasive when she wants to be," Silver said grimly. "We need to do something to show that this is being taken much more seriously than her previous antics."

The unicorn hesitated, and turned to look at Cheerilee. She then looked back into the house. "Caramel, your sister is pretendin' to be another pony. I need you to take her to her room while I talk with her teacher."

"Okay, Ma," the colt called out. He came hurrying out from somewhere deeper in the house and came to a stop next to Cheerilee. "I know the drill by now. Because ya'll say ya don’ know, I'm Caramel, and I'm yer brother." Maybe Ma Apple's accent wasn't that strong, at least not compared to this colt.

There wasn't much point to objecting at the moment. Big Mac was her main target to convince, and he hadn't come in the house yet. She motioned for the colt to lead, following as he turned and started up the stairs.

"So who are ya this time?" Caramel asked cheerfully as they began up the staircase.

"I'm Cheerilee," she replied. "And it isn't an act."

The colt turned and looked at her in confusion. "The old principal? Couldn't ya be more fun than that?"

"I am Cheerilee, and I'll prove it," she said, more forcefully than she intended.

The colt laughed. "Same as always. Ya always say that, and always get mad when ya can't."

"Well, this time it isn't an act. I'll come up with something that proves that I'm not Candy," she growled.

The colt shrugged. "If ya say so. Just don't go tellin' how moms and dads make baby ponies again. Ma still hasn't recovered from the last time ya did that. One Friday, right in front of yer whole class! Never seen Miss Silver Spoon give a pony a detention for a whole week, and the weekend before that."

She gasped at him in horror. "She explained sex, to a classroom full of young foals?"

"E'yep, gave lots of details too," Carmel said with a giggle. "Miss Silver Spoon had to talk to all the parents of all the students. Ma and Pa then had to give us all 'the talk' after that. That was pretty funny. Maybe ya should do that again. Ya said ya was gonna roleplay, whatever that meant."

"Sorry, but no." Sweet Celestia! If one of her students tried that, she would have had no idea what she would do. Just thinking about all the upset parents, and the impromptu lesson she'd have to come up with on sex education, made her want to faint. On rare occasion, she'd been forced to sit a student down privately and explain it, but not the whole class!

"Aww, I was a'hopin' ya'd do somethin' fun." Caramel, pouting with all the force he could muster, thankfully distracted from her introspection..

She gave the colt a raised eyebrow. "You don't seem upset at all about the trouble your sister gets into."

"Ya make stuff all lively," the colt replied. "Ma and Pa say it's just a phase, and to jus’ take it as it comes." He motioned with his head. "Come on, Ma will fuss if I don't get ya to yer room quick."

She followed him in silence. He led her to the far end of the hallway upstairs, past the closed doors of the other rooms. As the were nearly there, one of them opened and a blue head with a rainbow mane peeked out. "Everything alright out here?"

She stopped and blinked. That was Rainbow Dash. She was obviously middle aged at this point, though there wasn't a drop of grey in that mane. It was slicked back and cut short, similar to Rainbow Dash's fellow Wonderbolt Spitfire wore hers.

"Candy is just pretendin' to be Principal Cheerilee," Caramel said nonchalantly.

"Well, that's not very interesting," Rainbow said mournfully. "I was hoping the next one would be a dragon, or a bat pony, or maybe even Discord."

"Rainbow, don't go encouragin' her!" Applejack's voice shouted out from somewhere inside the room.

Applejack wasn't expected to have any foals. She put two and two together and blushed at the result. She could be jumping to conclusions, but had a feeling she wasn't, though she'd never have pictured those two together as a couple. They seemed to be at each other's throats more often than not, at least competitively. Of course, that could have been a sign. Whatever, it was another piece of information that would be hard to deal with knowing when she got back home to add to her already--impressive pile. She didn't even know if she should try avoiding learning these things at this point; it was just going to keep happening no matter what.

She briefly considered making her case to Rainbow Dash, but couldn't think of anything great to use right away. She was sure there had to be something she could cite, but couldn't come up with it on the spot. She'd think about it while waiting in Candy's room.

"Leave them young’ins be, and come back to givin' me a rub. My back still feels like a herd of buffalo ran over it," Applejack instructed.

Rainbow turned. "It's your own fault. If you'd just let me help you with-" The rest of the conversation was muffled as the door shut. It sounded like Applejack's propensity to overwork herself without asking for help hadn't changed, no matter how many times the stubborn pony seemingly learned the lesson. Some ponies just refused to learn from their mistakes.

Caramel finished walking to the end of the hall and pushed the last door open. "Here ya go. I'm'a supposed to remind ya that ya have to walk past everypony else's room if yer gonna try to sneak out, and we can hear it, so it ain't gonna work."

"Have this down to a science?" She asked.

"E'yep," he replied with a grin and a nod.

She gave an aggravated whinny and then walked into the room, pushing the door shut behind her with one of her back legs.

Looking around the room, the first thing that stood out was the fact that there were papers with drawings of ponies-- and other creatures, she noticed after a second-- taped all over every wall. Other than those, there was a closet, a desk with a stool in front of it, and a bed with a nightstand and lamp. There was one window overhanging the bed, with red curtains pulled back, letting in a copious amount of light. The bed's covers were in green and white stripes, with apples embroidered in seemingly at random.

With nothing else to do, she began inspecting the drawings. She quickly spotted a drawing of Sombra, looking very menacing. The depiction was very well done, and she had to admire Candy's art skills. Candy seemed adept at a great number of things, and Silver Spoon's assessment of the filly as an exceptionally bright foal seemed valid. Looking around at the other drawings she spotted a changeling, in the old black chitin, rather than the reformed version. There were various other mares and stallions in a variety of colors, tribes, and body types. There was even a short, angry-looking diamond dog. Were these all the ponies and other creatures that Candy had pretended to be?

Further browsing of the drawings revealed no picture of herself- Cheerilee, not Candy-, nor of any other pony she knew. There was one drawing that seemed completely out of place, a drawing of a muffin with a smiling face, that had heavy amounts of tape holding it to the closet door. It looked like the drawing had been crumpled up and uncrumpled several times, with the edges of the paper torn and frayed from being ripped down repeatedly. What made the filly so mad about Dinky Doo's earrings? And if the filly was so mad at them, why did she keep putting the picture back up?

She walked over to the desk. There was a small waste basket next to it, and she took a quick glance into it. It looked like several wadded up drawings that Candy had apparently decided weren't up to standard, along with the remains of what looked like a crushed up muffin. What did this filly have against muffins? Candy and Derpy must not get along well at all, if they knew one another.

She hopped up on the stool and looked at what was on top of the desk. There were several blank sheets of paper, sitting in a neat pile, presumably for Candy to draw on. There was also a box of crayons set to the side, with a paper underneath. She pulled the paper close to her, dragging the crayon box along with it. When she read what was written on it she blinked.

Don't touch my crayons!

Was that a message to her? Did Candy know that she was here, in her body? It could be a general message to anypony that came into the room. There wasn't enough information yet to say one way or another. She carefully put the paper and crayon box back into position and inspected the other items on the desk.

There were three books stacked in a pile to the side. She picked up the first one and looked at the title, Professor Applebloom's Beginner's Guide to Potion Making. That explained where Candy had gotten the information on how to make a potion. If the filly was anything like her aunt as a filly, she probably either hadn't followed the instructions properly, or had failed to read all the details involved. She trusted that Applebloom's book was accurate at this stage of her life, but that didn't mean an eight-year-old couldn't mess them up. She opened up the cover to do a quick glance, and as she thought she might, saw Property of the Ponyville Castle Library stamped on the inner cover, along with a history of checkouts.

She set that book aside and grabbed up the next, 'Perilous Parade's Guide to Precariously Paranormal Creatures'. She didn't know what to make of that one, but a quick inspection showed that it came from the castle library as well. After setting that one aside, she looked at the third and final book, 'Matron Marefield's Mythical Magical Maladies and How to Treat Them'. That book again came from the castle library. She flipped through a few pages of the last book, and determined quickly that this was not something that an eight-year-old would typically make heads or tails of; she couldn't even tell what half of what the terms in the book meant. Candy might be very bright, but unless she was another Twilight Sparkle there was no way she could understand any of this.

She hopped down from the stool, unsure if she'd learned anything useful. If she stayed here too long, she could spend time reading through those books and try to find any useful information there. They were likely just research for another of Candy's acts, but they still shouldn't be dismissed as unimportant.

A quick check under the bed showed that Candy was not the type of filly who cleaned her room by just shoving everything under the bed. There actually was nothing under the bed at all. That made another detail that was out of place occur to her. Candy was eight years old, so where were all her toys? There had to be more than just crayons and paper. Ma Apple seemed like the kind of mother who loved to dote on her foals, and it seemed highly unlikely the mare didn't get her daughter a fair number of toys to play with. Even if budgets were tight here, there would still be plenty of toys stored away from previous generations of Apple foals.

They had to be in the closet. She walked back over to the closet and gave the odd drawing of the smiling muffin another look. As she stared at it, she began to feel a little creeped out by the thing. Perhaps it was the fact that the drawing was so damaged and the feelings Candy had for it could be felt by gazing upon the abuse she'd given it. Perhaps the way Candy had drawn it had been deliberately unsettling in some strange way. Whatever the case may be, she was eager to just open the door so the drawing was out of sight and mind.

She cracked open the closet. She gagged at the strong smell of mold coming from within, strong enough that she was shocked she hadn't smelled it while it was shut. Holding her breath, she opened the door the rest of the way.

Well, there was a closed chest that could be any little filly's toy chest, but there were also crumbs and broken crumbled bits of muffins all over the lid. The smell was strong, nearly overpowering, with the door all the way open. She continued to hold her breath and inspected the rest of the closet. There were some dresses hanging to the sides of the toy chest, filly sized, but didn't look like they got much use. At least one of them looked far too small even for an eight-year-old. She pushed the dresses out of the way to see if anything was hidden behind them. When she did her eyes watered as the smell intensified and hit her at full force.

Piled in the corners of the closet were muffins, lots of muffins, many of them were covered in mold. The smell was too much at this point, and she had to retreat from the closet and shut it. This filly had a serious issue with muffins, a seriously troubling issue, and something needed to be done about it.

This wasn’t just unsanitary; this was hazardous. As a teacher, her instincts told her that she needed to address this with Candy's parents right away. That would have to hold for a few minutes, but it needed to be done. She might be trying to get out of Candy's body, but Candy was clearly a foal in need, and Cherilee, teacher of Ponyville Elementary, did not ignore a foal in need!

She looked back up at the drawing of the muffin, still giving its sinister smile, and shivered. "What is going on with you, Candy, and does it have anything to do with why I'm here?"

The muffin gave her no answer.

Author's Note

Chapter 24: Student-Teacher Bonds

Conversation in the room continued without her joining in. She and Candy were talked about at length, but it was again like she wasn't even there, or a piece of furniture being discussed. On rare occasion a question would be asked; questions about whether Candy's consciousness manifested in any way, was there any physical discomfort, requests to describe in detail the last thing she remembered before waking up in Candy's body and first thing after. Once the answer was given she was ignored once again, not a participant in solving this problem, but instead a problem to be solved.

It made her want to scream again.

Decisions on action were eventually made. Celestia and Luna admitted they were not sure what use they'd be in this particular circumstance, but had agreed to stay in Ponyville for the next few days if they were needed for anything. Before the school day finished, Rainbow Dash was dispatched to it to give them an update on Candy/Cheerilee's situation, and returned shortly after. Starlight said that she and Sweetie Belle would assist Luster in conducting a new round of tests tomorrow. Cheerilee would attend her appointment with Marble Pie as originally planned as well.

Big Mac, Bright Pear, and Strawberry Surprise came in from their respective work in the late afternoon, all shocked to find two alicorns and the headmare of the School of Friendship standing around in Candy's room. They all went through a period of shock when learning the news that it was largely agreed upon now that Candy was being truly possessed by the ponies and creatures that decorated her bedroom walls. They also didn't engage Cheerilee in conversation, seeming to avoid even looking at her. Conversation continued on till early evening, and eventually the two alicorns and Starlight departed for the Castle of Friendship for the night. With the guests gone, the family migrated out to the kitchen, to prepare for dinner.

Ma and Strawberry set themselves to preparing food, which was actually Strawberry cooking and Ma carefully guiding her through what to do. Everypony else sat down at the table as they waited. After a few minutes of everypony getting settled, Caramel, who was apparently given a great deal of freedom to come and go as he pleased, wandered in from school. "Ma, Pa, I'm home! I got my report card!"

"In the kitchen!" Ma called out, while keeping her eyes glued to Strawberry was doing.

The colt hurried in and looked around, seeming to pick up that something was off. He turned his eyes to Cheerilee. She had her forelegs crossed on the table and had her head resting on them, feeling somewhat depressed as she tried in vain to figure out what she could be doing to help Candy.

"Is somethin' wrong? Did Candy get in trouble for what happened at school?" Caramel asked hesitantly.

Ma turned and glanced back and forth between Cheerilee and Caramel anxiously, before turning her eyes to her husband. "Big Mac, do you think you can take your son aside and explain to him what's happened? I don't think I can talk about it any more today. I still need time to figure it all out myself."

"E'yep," Big Mac replied, as he got up from his seat. He walked over to Caramel and gently led him out of the room. The colt might take it better than they thought, since she had partially discussed this with him before she'd accidently started that food fight.

There was a sudden knock at the door, and everypony turned in confusion at it. Ma headed to the front of the house mumbling to herself. "What now? I hope it is good news at least."

The unicorn went to the front of the house, and she could be heard talking quietly with whoever was at the front door. She was taking so long that Bright Pear went out to look who she was speaking to, only to come hurrying back. "Silver Spoon is at the door. Maybe, talkin' about Candy, can't tell. They told me to give them privacy."

"Cand-...Cheer-..." Ma called out with two false starts. "Little filly! Please come here."

She hopped down from her chair. Hopefully she was going to be treated as a pony this time around, instead of a curiosity. She walked out to the front door and noted that Silver Spoon seemed tense.

"Miss Silver Spoon-" Ma began.

Silver Spoon stopped her. "If that's really Cheerilee's mind in her then just Silver Spoon will do."

Ma blinked. "Okay, well, Silver Spoon wanted to speak with you in private. The two of you can step just outside, but don't go wanderin' off, and come right back in when you're done."

That almost made her smile. Somepony actually wanted to talk to her. She nodded her agreement, and Ma walked back to the kitchen.

Silver Spoon gestured at the front door. "Let's step on out. It's a warm evening." The teacher still seems tense.

She followed the teacher out, and they both sat down. The weather team had apparently cleared the skies, and it was easy to see around her by the light of the full moon and stars. Silver Spoon quietly looked around at her surroundings, rather than say anything. It didn't appear as if the teacher was looking for anything, simply delaying speaking.

After a solid minute of silence she decided to be the first to speak. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

Silver Spoon licked her lips. "Dinky briefed me about the message Rainbow Dash delivered. It's a little hard to believe, but if two former princesses, Starlight Glimmer, and two of the element bearers believe it, then it most likely is true."

"Three of the element bearers," Cheerilee corrected. "Pinkie believes it as well. She did before any pony else." There was no point in keeping that secret any longer.

Silver nodded and hung her head. "In that case, I guess I owe you an apology. I should know Cheerilee, she wasn't just my old teacher and my supervising principal, she was my mentor and friend. I'm sorry I didn't believe you."

"Well, to be fair, I'm from twenty years ago, so at least half of that hasn't happened yet," Cheerilee replied. "I actually was surprised to see you became a teacher. In my time you're about to graduate and seemed very unsure what to do with your life. I wouldn't have expected you to go this direction."

The teacher let off a small chuckle. "I'd have called you crazy if you suggested it to me at that point. Life takes us in unexpected directions sometimes. We think we know what we want, only to find disappointment and heartache, and after that passes we find that there was something better waiting for us the entire time."

"I can certainly agree with unexpected directions happening," Cheerilee grumbled. "I certainly didn't expect to find myself here."

"I couldn't even imagine," Silver said slowly, then took a deep breath. "I didn't come just to apologize, that was kind of secondary. I came because right now I need my friend and mentor to help give me advice. I know we don't have the same history, but you're still Cheerilee."

Cheerilee flicked her ears and stared up at the other pony, unsure if she'd just misinterpreted what she had heard. "You want my advice?"

Silver nodded. "It's about Sisstet… I don't even know how to begin. Give me a moment." The teacher stared down at the ground, collecting her thoughts. "I took Sisstet back home today after school. His guardians can misunderstand things that I couldn't imagine them misunderstanding, so I wanted to discuss his report card with them when he gave it to them."

"I don't really know anything about naga other than what you shared with me earlier today," Cheerilee said quickly.

"This isn't really a strictly naga issue, even if them being naga plays a huge part in it," Silver said with a shake of her head. "Sythel, his female guardian, has recently laid an egg. She is very protective of the thing, which is understandable-- it's actually the closest thing to love I've seen out of them. However, the orders that the naga were given by their leaders didn't really account for another foal, and their interpretation of what they should do is… alien to what anycreature I know would think."

Cheerilee laid back her ears, fearing the worst. "What do they think they should do?"

Silver suddenly stomped a hoof, making Cheerilee jump back. "They think their obligations involving Sisstet are over! They took the fact they now have two foals instead of one, and the fact Sisstet has been doing better than them in terms of integrating into Equestrian society, and they decided that he no longer needed them!"

Cheerilee's ears completely flattened back as she shared in the outrage. "What! He's what, eight or nine years old? He's not old enough to fend for himself!"

"Apparently foals even younger than that used to be made to fend for themselves back in the Clutch," Silver growled. "Oh, but that's only half of it. I lost my temper when I heard this. I didn't even care that they're huge and capable of ripping me apart with ease. I told them flat out that he couldn't be allowed to fend for himself at his age, and it was his guardian's responsibility to care for him."

"And what did they do in response to that?" Cheerilee asked in a hushed voice. Clearly they hadn't done anything to hurt Silver Spoon, but that could not have gone over well.

The fire seemed to go out of the teacher. "They didn't get angry. They said that 'if furry-four-leg teacher thinks he needs to be cared for more, then furry-four-leg teacher can care for him'. It wasn't even said with hostility or mockingly, they meant it! What better way of having naga integrate into Equestrian society than to have a pony raise one. They even seemed to think their leaders would be pleased with them for coming up with the idea! And with how warped their culture's thinking is I can't say for sure they're wrong."

Cheerilee shook her head in disbelief. "How-how could a society like theirs have even sustained itself? Changelings weren't this bad, and changelings had to live under absolute authority as well."

Silver shook her head. "Changelings had to at least think for themselves when they were out doing infiltration. Their queen didn't crush out all free thought, just any disloyal thought. Naga didn't get that much. Their 'king-snakes'-- which is an odd term because they use it for all their royalty and both males and females-- made every little decision for the lesser naga. The lesser naga didn't ever even go out of shouting distance of a king-snake, so they were never in a position they needed to think for themselves."

"But there's no king-snake here, right?" Cheerilee asked, puzzled.

"No, they are all up north, far west of the Crystal Empire," Silver explained. "They overextended their population threshold to where their lands couldn't support them. They initially tried invading Equestria, but after being soundly beaten back by Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence, they decided they needed to learn how we do things-- we easily won and were thriving, so we were worth emulating. As part of the peace treaty, they have sent out their excess population into Equestria for re-education. It hasn't gone the smoothest, because none of the king-snakes came, and these regular naga only understand following orders. What free thought they do manage has less logical reasoning than a foal."

Silver sighed again. "But Sisstet has been encouraged to think for himself his whole life, and been shown love and kindness they never knew. He is a perfectly wonderful foal, although his emotional needs at home aren't really being met as they should be."

"So what did you do after they tried to unload him on you?" Cheerilee asked.

The teacher's ears sagged and shoulders slumped. "I was so shocked I just kind of froze. I stuttered out something about needing to consider things, and then I fled. Worst of all, this whole conversation happened right in front of Sisstet. I'm worried about what kind of effect hearing his guardians trying to toss him out, and then me reacting the way I did, will have on him. He could take it as nopony wanting him."

Cheerilee sat quietly for a moment, making sure she worded her reply clearly. "When you were telling me about him earlier today, I got the impression he meant more to you than just a student. You seemed to want to fill his emotional needs yourself, and you seemed to show an attachment I would more expect out of a parent. Are you considering bringing him home to live with you?"

"I-I don't know," Silver said quietly. "I was just so caught off guard by the whole thing. I'm trying to think about what is good for Sisstet. Do I bring him home? Do I find somecreature that the naga will listen to when ordered to care for him? Do I go to the princess and let her deal with this? I need advice, and I didn't know who to go to at this hour. Twist was working late today, so I haven't had the opportunity to talk to her yet. I figured if you really have the mind of Cheerilee, then you're a pony I trust for advice."

"Well, talking to your spouse seems to be the next logical step," Cheerilee replied. The fact that she was needed as herself gave her a boost of confidence. "I don't doubt for a minute that you're ready to step in and be his adopted parent, but it is important that both his potential parents feel the same way. If Twist is onboard with the two of you adopting, then you need to talk to Sisstet to find out what he wants. This can be a very confusing time for him, and he is almost certainly hurting right now, so be patient with him." She smiled. "I don't think you needed me to tell you all that though."

"I needed to hear it from somepony other than myself. This is a big thing, and I need to know I'm thinking straight," Silver replied. She then stood up. "I do want to give that foal a good home. I guess it is time to talk to Twist to find out if I have one for him. Thanks for helping talk me through this."

Cheerilee stood up as well. "It just feels good to know I have made some sort of positive impact today, after what happened earlier. I'm worried about how much I have messed things up in Candy's life."

Silver went stiff. "There is another matter that brought me here tonight. I've already told Ma Apple, but you need to know too." She took a deep breath and looked down at Cheerilee. "Spoiled Rich has convinced the school board to move their meeting up. You have even less time to figure out how to fix everything with Candy."

Cheerilee's chest tightened. "How soon are they meeting?"

"One hour after noon, three days from now," Silver said grimly. "You effectively have tomorrow and the next day to find a way to end all this, or Candy's days at Ponyville Elementary may be finished."

Three days? She hadn't had enough time as it stood before, and they just cut her time to find a solution in half. What was she going to do?

"Good luck to you on that," Silver said sadly. "If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask. I don't want anything happening to the poor filly. I will stand up for Candy during the meeting, but I'm not sure how much help that will be."

"I appreciate it, and I'm sure Candy does at well, if she's able to hear all this. I really have no idea how much she is aware of anything," Cheerilee said quietly. "Thank you Silver Spoon, you're a good mare and a good teacher. I'm sure my future self has nothing but pride for you." She hesitated, but decided to ask something else on her mind. "Did my future self do anything out of the ordinary before she left?"

Silver frowned, and looked at the house door. She then dipped her head close to Cheerilee's. "Yes, you did. It started about a year ago. You'd suddenly start acting anxious and nervous at seemingly random times. You'd be perfectly fine, going about the day as normal, then all the sudden you'd start looking all around you like you were going to be attacked by something. It got progressively worse over a few months. Then one day you just called Dinky into your office, said you were leaving, and you were appointing her principal in your stead since her class was about to graduate and would be least impacted by a sudden change in teacher. After that you just took the first train out of Ponyville, not even bothering to pack more than a few small items from home."

She tried to wrap her head around this. What she was hearing made no sense at all. "Did I ever say what was making me so nervous?"

Silver shook her head. "No, you actually denied knowing what it was. It was just a bunch of random anxiety attacks. You'd never had them before this, but this year they came in force. You are getting older, and there were a few whispers among the faculty that you might have had something snap in your old age, like some sort of dementia. Maybe if you return to your own time, and are aware of it, you can do something to stop it from happening. I hated seeing you go through that."

Dementia, that was a kick to the stomach. She'd seen older ponies come down with it before, but to think that she...to know that she would be a victim of it herself made her want to cry. There were things that a pony was better off not knowing.

Chapter 28: Up's and Down's

They finished eating at a normal pace, although Ma kept looking anxiously over at the bar to try to judge the pace of Bright and Strawberry. Cheerilee could tell the swirl of emotions Ma was going through; the mare didn't want Spoiled to see how much effect their talk had, she didn't want to have a simple night out to eat ruined, and she didn't want to cut short the date she promised her son and future daughter-in-law. Ma was clearly eager to move, and clearly trying to calm her nerves-- as evidenced when she drained her first drink quickly and ordered a second stronger drink right after.

The meal was eaten silently for the most part, only interrupted by the occasional mutter from Ma Apple about how Spoiled wasn't going to be taking her baby away (using language unfit for foal ears), and the occasional mutter from Caramel which used equally colorful language to describe Spoiled in all her rottenness (of which Ma either didn't notice or chose not to object to).

Cheerilee sat quietly for her part. Her appetite had been blunted, and she had to force herself to eat. She didn't think Spoiled could actually get Candy committed to an asylum, but twenty years had passed, and she had no idea what laws and regulations now existed, a lot could change in twenty years. She tried to keep her confidence up that Spoiled was overstating what she was capable of, but the nagging doubts couldn't be fully banished.

Long after everypony at their table had finished eating, the two ponies at the bar finally made their move to go. Ma quickly signaled the waiter for the bill, and paid it without bothering to check what had been ordered. She then led the group of them out of the restaurant and informed them that they were going to be making a detour before going home, with no explanation given about where they were going.

The detour turned out to be a significant one, to a small house on the opposite side of town. The moon was high in the sky when Ma told them to wait towards the road and marched purposely up to the front door of the house, banging her hoof on the door loud enough that one neighbor stuck their head out the door to see if she was trying to break down the door, and several others peaked out their windows to see what the commotion was.

The door cracked open just am far enough to let a sliver of light out of the house, and Ma began hurriedly speaking to whoever was on the other side of the door. After a moment the door cracked open far enough to let Ma in, and she quickly entered.

"Who lives here?" Cheerilee asked, breaking the silence.

Strawberry started to shrug, but Bright had the answer ready to go. "This is Marble Pie's house. She gets nervous with a lot of visitors; probably why Ma told us to wait here."

Cheerilee nodded and kept silent. She knew what Ma was doing; Ma was finding out from a psychologist if Spoiled could actually follow through with her threats. The old saying went 'When in doubt, get it from the horse's mouth'.

They sat waiting for what seemed an eternity, which just further increased her anxiety. If Ma had come out quickly that would have meant a simple response that Spoiled couldn't do that. The fact that it was taking longer meant that there might be conditions under which the mare could indeed follow through with her threats. She sat trying to run through her head every possible scenario that might lead to Spoiled being able to commit Candy, but her mind was so flustered she could barely think straight.

When Ma emerged, saying a quick thank you and goodbye to the shy mare, it was difficult to read her body language. She walked back to them and quietly announced that they could now head home.

They walked in silence for several minutes before Cheerilee couldn't stand it anymore. "So what did she say?"

Ma hung her head. "She said that the school board couldn't do any such thing. At least, what they would have to do would be so time consumin' and cost so much money that not one of them, even Spoiled Rich, would agree to it. However, they do have the power to refuse her attendance at the school, and can do that by a simple vote."

"I hear a but to the first part," Bright said glumly.

Ma nodded. "But Spoiled can petition the mayor's office, as a concerned citizen. If she can convince the mayor that Candy presents a danger to the community and herself, by virtue of who is in her head, and the unpredictability of who could end up in her head and when, then the mayor can order her detained. They'd be arguing a murderer or somethin' could end up in Candy's head and nocreature would know until too late. Bein' detained could mean any number of things, but it could mean hospitalization. This would have its own hard challenges for Spoiled to get around, but would be easier than what she'd have goin' through the school board. It depends on how determined she is to get Candy. It'd still be very hard for Spoiled to make a case."

Cheerilee shuffled her hooves anxiously."What exactly would they need to do to make a case?"

"It would require opinions of experts with no reason to be sympathetic or hostile to Candy," Ma said slowly. "Which means none of our current experts would be usable, not even if we got the princess herself, since they are all family friends, but it would require Spoiled to find experts that aren't friends with her either. It would probably only happen at all if this can't be fixed, which we have time to prove it can be, for now."

Cheerilee let out a sigh of relief. "So at least it seems like she can't do that much anytime soon."

"Isn't likely able to do that much," Ma corrected with a hiss. "It's tearin' me up knowin' that it's a possibility at all, even if it's improbable. Plus if we can't stop these personalities from comin' the chances she can do somethin' start risin'."

"Well, it ain't going to happen, Ma. Starlight and the rest will find a solution. So don't fret," Bright assured her.

Cheerilee nodded along to herself, but didn't feel particularly uplifted as they walked back to the farm. A simple vote, and Candy was out of the school. Ma said she'd attend to Candy's education one way or another, but this would damage Candy's friendships with Cheese, Autumn, and she supposed Sesstet. That hurt Candy, and it hurt all those foals. Plus, who knew what kind of stigma it would attach to her, or if it would interfere with Candy becoming the best pony she could be. As a teacher… no… not just as a teacher, but as a loving and caring pony, she couldn't let that happen. She just didn't know how to stop it.

There was still the lingering problem of the second rogue resonance that none of them could identify, and that was still counting on them confirming the other really was poison joke. If they couldn't figure out what both were, then Candy may never be cured. Luster said she could contain the effects-- with some study, which should satisfy all those experts, but it was still going to have Candy dependant on having that sealing spell reapplied regularly for maybe the rest of her life. It just wasn't a good situation. If Luster couldn't contain the magic, then who knew what might happen to Candy.

She just had to hope for the best. Hopefully Applebloom could confirm that resonance as poison joke soon, and somepony would stumble onto whatever that second one was. That was if something else didn't go wrong.

As they reached the farmhouse they found Rainbow Dash pacing anxiously outside the door. The pegasus spotted them and raced through the air to them. "Where have you been?! You need to go down to the hospital, like right now."

"Has aunt Applebloom had her foal?" Bright asked eagerly, completely missing the frantic behavior of the pegasus, as Cheerilee started to worry.

Rainbow licked her lips. "Yes, she actually had three of them-- what's the word for thar? Triplets? All three of them are earth pony colts."

"Three!" Ma shouted in astonishment. "We knew she was big, but… are they healthy?"

Rainbow nodded, but still seemed frantic. "They're all small, but otherwise healthy. The doctors knew they were coming, and were ready, but Applebloom isn't doing good. It was a rough delivery. They had to cut her open to get them all out, because they were blocking each other somehow, and she's lost a lot more blood than they thought she would when they did it. They think she's stable, and not in any danger, but you should still come all the same."

Bright turned to go as Ma held a forehoof up to her mouth to cover a gasp. Ma proved immediately why she was the matriarch of the family by turning to Caramel and Cheerilee. "I want both of you to stay here with Strawberry. I might be gone all night, and maybe tomorrow too, I don't know. Don't give her any trouble."

"But if aunt Applebloom is hurt I wanna-" Caramel began to protest.

Ma cut him off sharply. "No! You will stay here. You'll be good to your sister-in-law, and be good to your sister." She looked over to Strawberry. "I'm sorry to saddle you with this, but I can't have them-"

"I understand," Strawberry replied quickly. "Just go ahead and go. I'll make sure they get to bed alright, and I'll make sure they eat all their meals tomorrow, even if I just have to make them just sandwiches with some fruit on the side. Go take care of Applebloom."

The unicorn nodded, and quickly ran off. Rainbow Dash took off through the sky at the same time, leaving the remaining three of them standing in front of the house. She hoped Applebloom would be okay. They said she was stable, which was good. Medical care had hopefully advanced in the last twenty years as well, because around the time she had been born something like that had a high chance of killing the mother, even though things had much improved by the time she had grown up. Medical care used to be really poor; there were reasons there weren't that many older ponies in Ponyville back then, and only part of the mortality was due to things out of the Everfree.

She felt guilty, Applebloom had done a lot of running around because of her the last few days. There was no way of saying if that had any impact on the rough delivery-- having triplets was enough on its own for that. Still it left her wondering. Worse yet, she felt even more terrible because the first thing her thoughts had gone to upon hearing the news was that there'd be no way Applebloom would be able to help confirm or not if poison joke was one of the resonances, at least not anytime soon. It was a highly selfish thought, and one she'd been immediately ashamed of. However, it was an unfortunate fact. Hopefully, Applebloom would make a speedy recovery, for Applebloom's sake, and Candy's.

Strawberry led them inside, and gave them a considerate look. "You don't need to head straight to bed if you don't want to. I know you've both got a lot on your minds. Do either of you want to talk about anything? I know I'm not Ma, or your pa, or even Applejack, but I'm here if either of you need an ear. I've got two of them, right here for the two of you."

"Is Aunt Applebloom goin' to be o'kay?" Caramel said in part whimper.

Strawberry sat down next to the purple colt and wrapped a wing around him. "She's going to be just fine. Your aunt is pretty tough. Did she ever tell you about the time she saved Applejack from being eaten?"

Caramel shook his head, but perked his head up in interest. Cheerilee couldn't help but be curious, and sat attentively close by to listen to the story.

"Well, this was back when I was a foal, even younger than the two of you," Strawberry said with a smile. "The naga had just invaded Equestria, and all our big heroes went out to try to stop them."

"I thought the princesses stopped them," Caramel said in confusion. That's what she had heard from Silver Spoon as well.

"They were the ones who did the bulk of the work, but there were naga spread out all over the place, and they couldn't be everywhere at once," Strawberry explained.

"Oh," the colt said, as if just considering for the first time that Twilight and Cadance weren't omnipresent.

"So a bunch of naga had come into this one small town, so small you could see the whole town just looking left and right," Strawberry continued. "Your aunts, along with some others, went into that town to protect the residents and try to force the naga out. There was a big fight, and your Aunt Applejack got caught off guard by a huge king-snake. The king-snake was as tall as a house, with coils so long it could wrap up a dozen ponies and still have room left for more."

"That sounds scary," Caramel said with a shiver. Cheerilee shivered as well. She guessed she understood how the king-snakes ended up as the royalty of naga, they were big enough they could eat up the rest if they were disobeyed.

"Oh, it was," Strawberry said in agreement, lowering her head close to the colt's face. "The king-snake moved in for the kill. It opened its mouth wide, wide enough to swallow a whole pony, and it was going to try to eat your Aunt Applejack!" Caramel cringed back. "But then, out of nowhere, your Aunt Applebloom jumped down from off the roof of a house, right into that big scary snake's mouth, and she held it open. Then she started pounding on the roof of that snake's mouth with one hoof, still holding the mouth open with her other three. That gave Applejack time to recover, and Applejack bucked that snake right in the middle. The king-snake had never been really hurt like that before, and not by anything so much smaller than it was, and got scared, so scared that it sounded a retreat out of the town."

Caramel looked up at the pegasus with wide eyes. "Really? Are ya makin' this up?"

Strawberry shook her head with a grin. "Applejack told me, and she doesn't lie. Applebloom isn't just a boring old teacher and potion maker. She's done a lot of amazing things in her day. I could tell you lots of stories. She's settled down a lot, and is letting younger heroes do things instead, but she's still tough as nails."

"Wow," Caramel saud, blinking in astonishment.

"Let me tell you, it's kind of intimidating marrying into a family that has not one, not two, but three big heroes; between Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Applebloom," Strawberry said with a sigh, then hugged Caramel tighter. "I'll never be like them, but I hope I can be a good big sister for you foals."

Cheerilee frowned. Oh, she was very impressed by the story, and given what she'd seen in Ponyville over the years she could certainly believe it. What made her frown was the fact that despite them all being big heroes, the ones she had assumed could have already settled the problem with Candy in the first hours, they had been blind to it for months.

When Candy needed heroes, the heroes had failed her. They were doing things now, but only after a regular school teacher had come along and been forced to be involved. Maybe that was part of her problem in trying to help Candy, she didn't give herself enough credit that she could make those huge differences. She'd gotten the ball rolling, and what was to say she couldn't continue to be making a positive impact. She had made a huge blunder by surging, but even the big heroes made big mistakes sometimes. What separated a normal pony from a hero?

Well, taking action was the obvious answer, and at the moment she was at a loss as to what kind of action she could take. She was at a dead end; waiting again for the heroes to step in and save the day.

"I'm going to head upstairs, and do some reading before bed," she announced, and began walking up the stairs.

She kept the bedroom door open when she walked in, allowing herself enough light to make it over to the lamp and switch it on. She tried reaching out with magic for the door, but it was far enough away that she couldn't grip the door right. She was getting better at using the horn on her head, but she was still far from mastering it, doing anything more than a few feet from her didn't work out very well. She walked back over to the door, shutting it with a leg, then turned and looked at the drawings once more.

Did Candy remember and learn things from all these ponies and creatures? How much did she learn? Did Candy know how to do Sombra' s dark magic? If Twilight Comet had managed to teleport a short distance with Candy's magic did Candy learn how to replicate the feat? Did she know how to fight like that unicorn warrior? Ma's distress about the prostitute was almost amusing at times, but was It really misplaced-- was Candy an expert on that subject as well? They might not know the full extent of what Candy had absorbed for years yet to come, as they waited for her magic and her mind to mature. She hoped she was imparting something positive to the filly during her stay.

Being able to talk to the filly would be so helpful. The pony she most needed to talk to was always with her, yet always silent. "I don't know if you can hear me, or what you'll remember if you do, but when I leave you, if this isn't all fixed, I hope that you tell everypony what really happened to you. I feel like it is almost all there, and you're the only one that knows the last missing pieces."

There was no answer. She hadn't been expecting one, or giving it any hope. She sighed and saw the book she'd been reading open on the floor, a short distance from the bed, along with the blanket. She must have tossed them both on the floor this morning in her haste. She walked over to them, and started using her magic to first get the blanket back on the bed, and then to pick up the book.

As she picked up the book she froze and stared at it. Staring back at her was an illustration of a smiling loaf of bread.