Quantum Leap Forward

by Halira

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.

Comments

[Nota]

Bueno. Esta vez voy a ser breve. No hay demasiado que citar por lo que opino.

Primero el caso de este agente (Twilight Comet). Si hay algo lo cual aun no sea resuelto es el "regreso" de estos seres. A ver, que se este en el futuro no significa que al volver al pasado te encuentres en el mismo momento y lugar. Tal vez si se regrese en el mismo, quien sabe, no soy viajero en el tiempo (Que alguien revise los capítulos finales de la temporada 5?)
Es bastante difícil pensar en las lineas de tiempo. Si con Cheerilee ya me era complicado, meter a otro a la formula complica más todo. Demasiado.
Bue. Solo agrego una posibilidad extra:
_ Cuando Twilight Comet regreso a su linea del tiempo habían transcurrido dos meses (es más, no sea comprobado si Candy abita o no su cuerpo. Todo puede ser). Y, bueno, quedarse inmóvil en el everfree no es la gran idea... eso o tuvo un encuentro con alguna criatura. Lo que trato de decir es, no logro informar a nadie sobre el caso de Candy.

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."

Ahora, esto es interesante.
Si de verdad se trata de una magia tan poderosa ¿No dejaría algún rastro de su presencia? Al menos por unos días, el tiempo suficiente para que algún Pony pueda sentirlo.
¿Afecto físicamente o psicologicamente a Candy? Esto es medio complicado y necesito pensarlo más. Mnnn. Tal vez hizo que Candy tenga cierta interacción con el tiempo y el espacio.
El caso es. ¿Qué asegura que se trata de un magia poderosa? Appleboom misma menciona como referencia las enfermedades, pero no todos las personas/pony tienen el mismo nivel de defensa.
1- Candy es demasiado vulnerable a los efectos Magicos. Siendo que hasta un pequeño hechizo dejaría marca. (No me suena muy probable, tiene demasiado en tener en cuenta)
2- Alguien lo inserto a propósito. (Bue. No hay que descartar a un tercero)

Bue... solo me enredo ami mismo... jeje

[Kind of Brony]

A bit frustrating for a while, but it is interesting if only because I haven't been able to guess what's actually happening yet. That doesn't happen too often.
Wonder what it's all going to end up being,