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.