Quantum Leap Forward

by Halira

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.

Comments

[Nota]

¡Aaaaaaaah!

l've been resisting the urge to eat for chapters, but ...

¿Te molesta si lo hago en este idioma?

The problem is that I am not saying little, so I prefer to do it in my language (Spanish) to avoid mistakes and be more comfortable.

Sorry for this weird comment ...

[Halira]

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Feel free to comment in Spanish, if that is more comfortable for you. I'm not fully fluent, but I can generally make out what is being said, or run it through a translator if I am unsure. I have used Spanish a little in some stories set on Earth, and always hope I'm not butchering the language when I do.

[Nota]

10014216
Gracias. No sabes cuanto he esperado esto...

Comenzare ahora mismo.

Capitulo 12

Medio se me paraban los pelos al leer la situación de Flurry. Estaba más interesado en el análisis, ver como esta "Primera parte" tomaba un gran tamaño creí que no sería para este capitulo.

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

Un gusto medio raro si puedo opinar. Esto de replicar la forma de hablar de Luna no saldría a menos que Flurry mantenga cierto contacto con ella. No veo algo por lo cual uno escuche una vez y ya esta copiando ¿O si?
Es probable que la Luna y Celestia actuales se pasean un poco por Equestria en estos tiempos, eso o Luna suele visitarla en sus sueños.

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?

Comienza con eso: luego va por uñas, dientes, pelaje y huesos. Los fetiches son cosas malas...

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."

*Procesando* Medio se mezcla a lo que quiere llegar porque mete sus pensamientos de por medio... (Aunque creo que ese es el punto)

"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."

Siempre hay un Pony que brinda luz en estas situaciones. Aunque hubiera deseado que fuera otro. Haaaay Scootaloo...

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.

Pregunta. ¿Es algo por lo cual vale hacer escándalo? ¿Cuál es su propósito a fin de cuenta? ¿Para demostrar/saber que tienen un mismo ancestro en común?

"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?"

Interesante. Creo que es algo que vale la pena recordar para referencias futuras...

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."

Ecos de ella misma. Mnnn. ¿De Candy o Cherileee? Dependiendo la cantidad de estos tal vez si sean ecos, pero de cada criatura la cual paso por Candy. Cada una dejando un rastro de su estadía/presencia en la mente/magia/cuerpo/etc de Candy.
La cosa ¿Qué hacen ahí? Si en este momento, la probable causa de estas, Candy no esta en el cuerpo ¿No deberían ir con ella? ¿Candy esta entre ellas?
Me puse a divagar un poco...

Mn.
Muchas más preguntas que respuestas sinceramente. Me encanta. Hubiera sido medio pesado que se tirara la solución haciendo un simple chequeo.

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.

Si no fuera por el incidente del Cap1 hubiera pensado en esa posibilidad de personalidad múltiple. No as echo creer que posiblemente el fracaso de las pociones tiene algo que ver en lo sucedido, pero algo como el "nivel" es diferente para cada quien o el "efecto" de las pociones. Osea, por muy triste que suene, no es algo que se deba descartar.
Mnn. Se me acaba de formar una teoría media bizarra. Necesitare datos respeto al "lugar" en el cual Candy empieza sus actos para llegar a una conclusión. ¿Fingió ser sombra cuando visito el palacio (o el antiguo lugar del árbol de la armonía)? Más específicamente donde este encontró su "final".

Bue, Esto sería todo, Paso a decir que me fui de las manos por la emocion. Tampoco voy a ser tan largo siempre. jeje.

Feliz año nuevo.

[Jixstun]

I'm reminded of the Disney Gargoyle's episode where Goliath is put under a spell to control his mind & obey any order the holder of the scroll gave. They couldn't remove the spell, so Eliza finds a loophole.

She said to Goliath: "I order you to act, for the rest of your life, exactly as you would as if you had not been put under a spell."

Goliath's eyes then lost the glow they'd had when the spell was on him. It appeared that the simplest way for the spell to interpret that order was to... end. Goliath wasn't thinking "What would Goliath do/how would Goliath react to this situation?" He was actually thinking as Goliath, because he was.

Similary for Cheerliee, she's not thinking "What would Cheerliee do?/How would Cheerliee react?" She's actually thinking as Cheerilee... because she is. And my hope is still that she'll be able to find some way, some piece of knowledge or way of acting that would prove that she's not Candy's interpretation of Cheerliee (like Marble thought, & what Ma Apple now believes) but actually is (as Pinkie came to realize).

[Solarfollow]

So Candy really does believe that she is those other people? No surprise there, she's a kid with a very active imagination. Some kids think they're Superman.

[ferret]

At least Cheerilee may have solved Candy's immediate and critical problem, which is her family hating her for pretending to be other ponies. Whether Cheerilee is "Cheerilee" or not, at least Candy won't have to deal with being ignored and resented. Now the only trick is how to disable Luster Dawn's horn so Cheerilee/Candy can smack her with a 2x4 until that unicorn stops thinking science means to go looking for evidence to prove her pre-existing assumptions.

[Pensive]

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."

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!

Call me crazy but... Could ponies with a simular bloodline have similar 'imprints' or 'echos'? That would explain why they are part of... Wait no... I just realized something stupid. I thought the bloodline thingy because I thought that the mother of candy would have been Cheerilee's mother. If Candy was related to Cheerilee and echos from bloodline are similar that would help disprove(But not completely) the theory that it is a multiple personality disorder.

Why am I thinking about this? This is a fictional story made up. Why am I trying to make sense of something not real that's made up in a story with no real way to compare it to real things? I'm crazy aren't I?

[Sozmioi]

> fusha

Bizarrely, this is spelled fuchsia.

> Occelus

Ocellus

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

weeeell… wouldn't you want to do the comparison with the OLDEST kind?

[Sozmioi]

10014841

reminds me of 7th horcrux, in which Voldeharry had imperiused himself to do what he wanted. This protected him from imperius, but it had some unfortunate side-effects.