Royal screw ups

chapter 1

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We find ourselves late at night and at the Candy Kingdom where the inhabitants were all asleep. All but one.

Their great matriarch Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum was at her work desk. Over the past few months she had been having trouble sleeping. Mostly because she was plagued by horrible nightmares.

She wiped her head of sweat and tried focusing on her next invention, but all she could think about were the images she had seen. The victims of her past mistake, the people she could never save, they haunted her. Whenever she'd tried to run they'd chase after her and alway catch her.

"Gah!" she groaned pushing her supplies off while holding her head. "This is so globbed up! I can't worry about that, I need to focus on the here and now." she tried to ignore it, but after looking at her reflection she saw the bags under her eyes from the days she had gone without sleep.

"Man, I'm really donked up." she remarked standing up and walking to her bed. "I gotta try and get some rest. Even if I have to deal with that stuff." she said as she turned to the door and headed for her room. She looked at the ground as she entered her room and didn't bother taking her coat off before plopping on the bed face first. "Just...a little *yawn* sleep."

Slowly she shut her eyes and tried relaxing her tired muscles as she felt her body get lighter and opened her eyes to see she was laying in the middle of a dark void which is where she constantly found herself. She was now in her usual out fit as she sat up. "Oh no." suddenly a pink mass appeared and towered over her. She looked up and saw her brother Neddy looking down at her while looking scared. He let out a loud cry and raised his fists before bringing them down in an attempt to crush her.

PB jumped to the side as the void shook and looked at Neddy. "Neddy stop! It's me Bubblegum!"

He cried louder as he swung and flailed wildly.

Bubblegum got up and tried making several popping sounds with her mouth to try and calm him, but he kept thrashing about and saw the candy juice leak out of him and started filling the void with it slowly starting to rise. It was then something shot out from the juice and landed in front of her. That something was Rattleballs.

"Why princess?" he said raising his sword to her. "Why did you destroy my brothers?"

"I...I was just…" she tried speaking up as he walked towards her and she backed up.

"We were made as you wanted, yet you massacred us without hesitation."

She felt her heart begin to sink as she continued to back away unto her back met with something large, and furry. She turned her head and went wide eyed seeing Goliad standing there with a neutral expression. "Goliad?"

"You left me," she said. "You left me to fight my brother."

"I had no choice." she spoke trying to keep a calm tone. "You weren't ready to lead the Candy Kingdom. You were dangerous."

"Dangerous?" said another voice before she was surrounded by fire.

Bubblegum turned and saw Flame Princess walking over with her eyes red and her hands burning.

"Like how dangerous I was when I was just a baby? Or when I found out about your little cage?"

That one really hit her where it hurt. "FP-"

"Grab!" said the Ice king as he plucked her from the ground and flew away.

"Hey!" she cried flailing around. "Let go of me!" she ordered trying to break free.

"I can't, I'm so lonely." he spoke looking down at her with a serious expression while he slowly morphed back into Simon. "So cold and dreadfully alone in this world."

Bubblegum threw back her head and hit him in the nose making him cry out in pain and drop the Candy princess. She started running across the empty void with no idea where she was going while spotting something yellow up ahead. "Is that…"

The object turned to her and she saw it was Lemongrab's head in the ground looking at her. "You made me like this. You made me...UNACCEPTABLE!" he screeched as a wave of lemon candy spewed from his mouth.

Bubblegum covered her face as the candy hit her and stepped back before she fell back over something. She looked up and saw it was Marceline's stuffed toy with said vampire a few feet away, but younger looking and frowning.

"Simon, where's Simon?"

"What?" the princess got out while Marceline walked over while she started to slowly grow and age before her very eyes.

"Simon!" she hissed. She reached down and pulled Bubblegum up with her fangs showing. "What happened to him?!"

Bubblegum noticed the others from before started to gather around along with Tree Trunks, Mr. Pig, the king of OOO, even the horribly mutated James and Shoko.

"You made a mess of the perfect day for us." frowned the small elephant with her husband nodding.

"You made us into monsters." said James as he and Shoko moved closer.

"I might be a fraud, but that's just lies. You don't care who you use if it means you get what you want." laughed the king of OOO.

The others started to move in, the closer they came the more her heart sank. She looked around in fear and even saw Finn facing away from what was happening a few feet away.

"You're no Princess." he glanced at her with a hateful look before he started walking away.

Bubblegum screamed as she awoke in her bed while in a cold sweat. "GRAAA!"

She panted while Peppermint Butler barged in and ran over. "Princess, what's wrong?"

"Its these Globdonk nightmares." she said in aggravation.

The candy butler gasped. "Princess, language."

She looked at him and sighed while rubbing her head. "I'm sorry, but this keeps happening over and over and I just….I just feel so tired. I haven't had a restful sleep in so long."

"Perhaps I could get Doctor Princess over here to see if she can help." suggested the butler.

"I already tried, she gave me some sleeping pills, but I keep waking up every ten minutes or so. I know the problem but I can't get over it." she got up and dragged her feet out of bed. "I feel like it's here to stay. Every bad choice I made, despite how logical they were. They're all hitting me at once in my dreams."

"Oh my."

"I just want it to stop." she said before sighing. "But what can I do? It's not like I can just wish for to go away and...wait a second." she spoke in revelation and stood up straighter. "That's it! A wish!"

"Oh boy, you're starting to believe in magic, now I know how bad you need rest."

"No time." she said going to her writing desk and pulled out a roll of paper and a pen. "I need to get this down before I forget. Get me the phone, I need to talk to Jake."

Later the Magic dog tiredly stretched his way to the Candy Kingdom. He tried to keep from bumping into people while dragging himself to the castle.

"Glad you could make it Jake." Bubblegum said to him. "Sorry I had to call you over on such early notice."

"This better be good PB, I needs mah beauty sleep." Jake spoke while rubbing his eye.

"It is. I was wondering if you could help me meet the wish entity you and Finn encountered during one of your encounters with the Lich."

"You mean Prismo?" Jake questioned.

"Yes, its very important I meet with him as soon as possible."

"Um….ok." he said before reaching into himself pulled out a note and pressed the P. He and the princess broke down into colorful blocks that went straight up into the air. In no time they reformed back into the small room and PB looked around in surprise.

"Woah, now that was math." she said.

"Yo Prismo! Where ya at?" called Jake.

"I'm right behind you."

They turned with the being waving at Jake with Bubblegum looking surprised.

"Hi jake, who's your pretty little friend?" asked Prismo in a cheerful tone.

"Prismo, this here is Princess Bubblegum. Princess, this is my main bud Prismo." Jake introduced.

The princess walked up and held out her arms. "Mighty Prismo, I beseech you to please grant my wish."

"No need to talk like that, we're all cool here." he said. "What can I do to help?"

"Well, for the last few months I have been plagued by nightmares of my past misdeeds." she said as she reached into her pocket and pulled the roll of paper out. "I want you to help me undo my mistakes so that I can finally rest in peace."

"Woah. So you like, want me to send you back in time?"

"Well...if you must. I just want to be rid of this guilt that haunts me."

"Okay, but first I should warn you that my wishes always have an effect on others. Not to mention traveling back in time can cause a bit of trouble for your present timeline if you cause too much trouble in the past."

"You make it sound like if I'm successful then this timeline will not change."

"If you do it right then it won't, much. I'm just saying, take one wrong step and you could end up causing some mondo bad stuff." he clarified with a serious tone. "So I mean, did you take some time to really get it together before coming here or is this more than you thought?"

"It's kinda unexpected, I mean I know that actions in the past affect the future. But I can't rest until my mistakes are made right. I mean, take a look at this list." she said while unrolling the paper.

Jake and Prismo moved closer and looked down it.

"Yikes." Prismo commented.

"I forgot about that one." Jake said pointing at the paper.

"I want to try and change my actions for the better and not become an unfeeling ruler who didn't even cry for the most worst ones." she rolled it up while looking at the floor sadly.

"Okay I think I can help, but I should warn you. You can't let anyone other than your past self see you."

"Don't worry, I just need some time to meet my past self, give her this list, and make sure she follows it to the letter. Is there a way I can signal you to bring me back? Or will I fade from existence?"

"Oh don't worry we can monitor your progress from here." Prismo said before a remote appeared in his hand. He pressed the power button and the side wall to static like on a TV. "There's not much to see now, but that will change when I send you back." he cleared his throat and looked at her. "Now just to be clear, you'll go back in time, do what you did, then when come back here, depending on how it goes, you'll either fade, get a different look and attitude, or just regain her memories while everything around you has changed. Got all that?"

"Got it."

"Good, now before I send you back…" he pointed at the list before it broke down into colorful blocks and reformed into a small gem. "I reformed the list into that crystal, whenever she has to fix a mistake you made it will appear as a holographic projection, it'll last way longer that way. Paper is just so flimsy, you know?"

"Wow, thank you." she smiled gripping it. "So can you send me back to before my kingdom was made? Like when I just started working on the foundation?"

"You got it. Oh! I almost forgot ,don't make physical contact with your past-self or you'll explode like Antimatter."

"WHAT!?"

"Okay bye." Prismo waved as he sent her off before the screen changed. "And now we watch."

(Many years earlier)

Bubblegum appeared in a forest and fell down to her knees from the sudden transportation. "Okay, that's gonna take some getting use to." she stood up and still had the gem before brushing some dust off her and started walking through the woods. "When I get back I'm gonna give that Prismo a piece of my mind."

She saw the forest was teeming with animals that ran when she got close and noticed it looked familiar. "I remember this place, and if I'm right then…. " she looked through a clearing and spotted construction going on over on the other side. "Yes. I was right."

She carefully rushed over while staying hidden and spotted her past self talking with her earliest versions of candy citizens on moving supplies around.

"Alright people we got a lot to do and little time to do it. Let's hustle!" her past self barked commandingly.

The candy people nodded and ran to get to work.

"Wow, I forgot how bossy I was." future PB said before she rubbed her chin to think of a way to get her attention. "Oh!" she held her hand to her mouth and started making popping sounds.

Past PB's head stuck up hearing the sounds and turned towards the forest. "What's making that sound?" she asked as she moved over to the trees. "It almost sounds like-"

"What we say to calm down Neddy?" Future PB questioned popping up from the bush.

"AH!" cried out Past PB falling back and looking at the other Bubblegum with wide eyes and an open mouth. "W….What…..who….who are you?"

"Long story short, I'm you, from the future." Future PB specified. "And right now you're probably feeling confused, shocked, and paranoid right?"

"Uh yeah!" Past PB cried and stood back up. "I mean, how is this possible? Why am I talking to myself?"

"I...I made a time machine to come back here and help us." she fibbed since her past self would never believe it was the cause of something similar to magic. "And before I forget don't touch me, because there's a possibility of an Antimatter explosion."

"Say what?!" she cried out in shock.

"Trust me, I know it's shocking, even terrifying, but I came here with something crucial and important, so don't wonk out or faint, alright?"

"Eh...okay?" the Past PB replied making sure to keep her distance.

"Ok, so the truth is….you're gonna have two dozen kids and be friends with a fish."

"Come again?"

"Haha, nah I'm just kidding." smiled Future PB. "I just wanted to see how you, er I'd, react to something that crazy." she said before clearing her throat. "But seriously I need you to listen. In the future you're going to make a few mistakes that will haunt you if you just depend on logic." she held out her hand and showed the gem. "This holds a list of all the mistakes you're going to make, it'll tell you every mistake I made before you make it. But it'll be up to you to figure out how to make things better."

Past PB looked at the gem and back at her future self. "Hang on, before I believe all that, I want you to tell me something only we'd know, and no one else in the entire world."

"You wanna know if we ever try going lesbian? No, we don't." Future PB Said.

Her past self gasped with a blush on her cheeks before looking at the gem. "So wait, how do I use it?"

"It'll project my mistake in a holographic message before you make it yourself." she tossed it to her past self and smiled. "I know this is a lot to take in, but please, follow it exactly, and a lot of lives and things will change for the better. I want you to promise me on the highest degree you'll follow that list exactly point for point."

Past PB looked at the gem in her palm before closing her fist. "I'll do my best."

"Well just to be safe, I want you to make a royal promise on this."

"I royal promise. I'll do everything in my power to make things right" Past PB said to her future self.

"Good, if this works I just might be able to get a proper night's sleep. And try not to be so hard on your peeps, I learned that the hard way." she sighed in relief before looking up in the air. "Alright Prismo! You can take me back!"

Past PB looked confused before seeing her future self disappear in colorful blocks. "Woah!"

"Is everything alright?" asked a candy person walking over.

"Uh…" she looked down at the gem before putting it in her pocket. "Yeah, hey we've been working really hard, why don't you and the others take a little break, sound good?"

"Really? But you said we needed to get this done ASAP."

"I know, but I sometimes forget you guys have your limits. A break might actually do you some good."

"Oh, well, thank you, your highness." he said before rushing off. "Hey guys the princess says we can have a break!" he called as he ran off leaving the princess to look at the sky.

'Aw man, I thought this was gonna be tough, but now I gotta fix stuff that hasn't even happened? I really hope I don't wonk it up.' she thought and rubbed her head.