Something Sweet Bites Back · 3:42am Oct 30th, 2017
(The following blog post contains some spoilers for Something Sweet Bites Back. If you'd like to avoid those, please read this after reading the story.)
So the Candy Mare returns.
It's been over two years since The Last Something Sweet to Bite, and while I had intended that story to be the end of the series, many readers pointed out that even in defeat I had left the door open for the Candy Mare to eventually be reborn. The seeds of that rebirth were actually planted by several fans of the series who had some... interesting interpretations about who the Candy Mare even was, how the candy curse worked, and exactly how complete her defeat was in the end. Some of the biggest misconceptions had to do with her specific weaknesses and vulnerabilities. While she does not like light, even in the earliest version of the story whenever she appeared there was a fog that followed with her that caused lamp light to flicker and die, and play strange tricks with fire light. While it was true she avoided sunlight and loathed the day time, it was less because this would outright destroy her and more because it was annoying.
So what does this have to do with the new story? Well, there was a point at the end of The Last Something Sweet To Bite where Sunset Shimmer destroyed much of the Candy Mare by burning her host body (Pumpkin Patch) with magical fire. In Equestria this instantly lit all of the candy ghouls and corruption aflame. However, in the human world, this had a slightly different effect. Yes the candy corruption still burned, but it also fried the brains of those who were infected, putting them into comas if not outright killing them. It also only damaged, but did not destroy the human body that the Candy Mare had created as her vessel in the human world. Sunset Shimmer had to fight Candy directly in order to kill her, and then burned her body for good measure.
That should have been the end of it all, right? After all, the Candy Mare's two big vulnerabilities were fire and magic, and Sunset had put the double whammy on her, so to speak. Well, there's just one problem... 'Candy' should have died when Sunset destroyed Pumpkin Patch's body. You see... Equestrian magic works differently in the human world. That has been well established by the EQG series, and 'Candy' was created by stealing the divergent magic of the Humane 5 and Sunset. As such, while the Candy Curse with Candy Mare's original personality and memories wound up a shade of itself clinging to Sunset Shimmer (who was infected when she fought Candy), the body of Candy herself lived on...
This introduces us to the concept of the Jelly Mare!
It worked pretty much on the concept that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed. The same goes for matter, technically. Burning all that corrupted candy in the human world didn't destroy it, especially 'Candy' herself, as she was burned with ordinary fire. It only vaporized her, sending her body up into the atmosphere where it contaminated clouds. But what goes up must come down, and without the candy curse to fuel the sentient candy slurry, it needed to find a new source of magic...
This brings us to the start of our new story, and one of the sequences I've had the most fun writing in a long time! This part of the story (and indeed, a lot of the story as it concerns the Jelly Mare) was inspired by two movies; The Return of the Living Dead and the 1988 remake of The Blob. (Two of my favorite horror movies. If you haven't seen them you should check them out.) The idea of the toxic rain spreading a liquefied Candy Mare was one I had thought up almost as soon as I gave her a vulnerability to fire. I thought it would be funny for someone to accidentally 'inhale' some of the vapor, or even have her come back by contaminating a water supply in some town somewhere (almost did that idea actually. Would've drawn more from The Ring if I had gone that route.)
Either way, the parallels between The Blob and the Jelly Mare are pretty obvious. She's slightly more sentient and capable of communicating by mimicking others. (She had to take a human hostage to learn to do more than simply mimic and she had to attend school to refine the ability to 'talk' on her own, but eh well.) The Jelly Mare is a creature of almost pure instinct. Unlike the Candy Mare it doesn't play around and is swift and brutal when it decides someone is prey. While it does seem to delight in tormenting Diamond Tiara, in actuality it would not have killed her if she hadn't gotten in its way. Weird but true.
The other big touchstone this go around was the SCP Foundation. If you're not familiar with the sprawling cryptid AU, you may have at least heard of the game "SCP - Containment Breach". Though only briefly touched on in the episode "Slice of Life", the character Bon Bon is actually 'Agent Sweetie Drops' of the organization SMILE. In Equestria, this organization tracked, controlled, and sometimes eliminated threats posed by various monsters to the citizens of Equestria. I thought that if there was a human world counterpart to this, then it would have to be the SCP Foundation. While they have dealt with much wilder and more deadly things than the Candy Mare, I figured they would be impressed (and concerned) about a teenager having the ability to punch holes in reality and having helped to contribute to containing the situation that very nearly went wildly out of control. As soon as I decided that human Twilight did indeed survive the destruction of her laboratory, I knew that she would have been recruited by such an organization. Making her Director of an entire facility, rather than just a researcher, was probably a bit of a stretch but lets just assume that the other SCP's under her care were much lower risk and that the base was built primarily to house patient zero Sunset Shimmer.
And ah, we can;t forget Sunset! I gotta admit, early on writing her I was really worried. The two things I knew I wanted to happen was the reveal of who Dr. Lemon Drop really was (technically a loose end from the very first story that people always ask about) and I knew that I wanted her to escape on her own. The idea would be it would seem to her that getting away was a very good idea, while the audience would know it was actually a big mistake. Two chapters into her story and she's just sitting in prison being tortured by the Candy Curse and seemingly brutalized by Lemon Drop, and while it makes for a horrific scenario, there's not much room for action. That was when I had the idea that the Candy Mare, rather than Sunset, would try to make common cause to trick her into trying to escape. With Sunset and the Candy Mare working together, well, there was no way that couldn't end in Maximum Carnage!
Which is what the asylum break scenes were inspired by. Sunset even gets a 'side-kick-cum-judas' in Starlight Glimmer. (Starlight herself wasn't originally going to be in the story, but I loved the idea of Human Starlight being dangerous enough to have been locked up by the Foundation.) The Lemon Drop reveal didn't actually go off how I'd originally planned it. There was actually going to be more interaction between Dr. Lemon Drop and Dean Cadance than was in the story, but I found it just bogged things down and confused things when I later revealed Lemon Drop was really the candy hybrid Fluttershy.
In the end, this story had a lot more fast paced action than the last few stories, which is something I have mixed feelings about. I enjoy suspense and the slow burn, but sometimes things just have to happen to move the characters together. The next one of these stories I do will probably have less action.
Oh! And that's been a question a few fans have already asked me. Is this the 'new' end of the series? Is this the last story?
Well, no. Like the original Something Sweet to Bite, this one is written as intended as the first part of a new story. I'm not going to make the same mistake of Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street of just killing off my monster and coming up with some contrived resurrection every new story. The next time you see the Candy Mare she will be back in Equestria, and in the most danger she has ever been in as it will be an Equestria with the Elements of Harmony, the Royal Sisters, The Pillars, and a reformed Discord. But more on that later.
I'm already thinking about the next story, but lets save that for next Halloween.
Until then, Happy Nightmare Night!
Glad you're back though man. :)
I like how every story has a different amount of action, like every universe requires different tactics and the candy mare knows how to adapt for each one. You know how to do horror properly! I am very glad i found you!
why oh why did you had to make candy so much like Pinkamena? don't get me wrong i like a joker when i see it but this version is way to perfect, so why did you had to make candy be "the perfect ponified and made from candy Martha Wayne joker "?
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There were a lot of other inspirations for the Candy Mare than Pinkamena (and I think she actually predates the Flashpoint event that introduced Martha Wayne as the AU Joker), but the similarities are certainly there.
But, I've confessed before that the concept of 'Pinkamena' was what attracted me to the Brony fandom to begin with. I would be lying if I said that the Candy Mare wasn't, in a fashion, a character meant to 'out-Pinkamena Pinkamena' but it was more that I saw a lot of people focusing on the wrong things about her.
Don;t get me wrong, there are some really great stories out there, bu there are also more than a few 'insert pony I like here is crazy and horrifically tortures other ponies for no given reason'. It was zany when Pinkie Pie did it in Cupcakes, but just doing the same thing with a revolving door of other ponies was so derivative. Especially when Equestria is such a wide and rich world, full of magic and monsters! So why not create a monster that had every reason to despise ponies, but still seek to torment and devour them in a mischievous and child-like manner?
I guess you could say I really wanted to capture the spirit of the grimdark side of the brony fandom.... that candy colored corruption of childhood magic and wonder into something twisted and grotesque with wide eyed madness and a rictus grin. Everything I love about that part of the fandom went into the Candy Mare, and in a lot of ways she's a love letter to the fandom more than to the show that inspired either her or it.
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tip, if it was needed, please try and resurrect agent butterfly, every joker needs a batman and the relation you created between candy and that fluttershy is just great, also knowing how candy managed to survive you can try and pull a similar thing with agent butterfly, but not in the story you already planed for next Halloween i think the road you took with that character where you show her in every other part of this saga is the perfect way to actually be sure that candy aka pumpkin patch, is always in the spotlight
i have to say something sweet to bite too made me call my boyfriend in tears about how much it impacted my mental health.
SPOILER---- The fact that it was all a dream crushed my sense of joy, i was terrified, i really thought that rainbow dash was going to win. Not fucking become a vessel. I cried my heart out
bravo and i cannot wait to see the next installment to this series.
Ever thought about publishing these like Fallout Equestria has been?
Along with pictures to go along with the story?
Im sure countless fans would require no pay at all to help make this a possibility :)