Flame Princess hurried through the forest as she made her way past the trees to find that secret entrance. Looking back, she made sure no one was following her. She found a path after she kept searching, and she made her way inside of it.
The damp room was completely dark, but Flame Princess's fire illuminated the room. There were different objects that made the place look old and ancient. Cobwebs were on the walls, some moss was on the floor. Everything made these ruins look unsafe, as it felt like it could collapse at any moment.
She went up to a large crater at the middle of the room. It was glowing green inside of it.
Did you bring anything for me? The voice echoed in the room. It came from the crater in the floor. Flame Princess held up her bag of potato chips.
Excellent, said the voice. But I prefer barbeque.
She opened the bag and emptied the chips into the crater. What do you want to see? it asked.
"Show me the earliest memory before I was imprisoned in the lantern," Flame Princess commanded.
As you wish.
Smoke came out of the crater's hole to form an image.
Two characters could be seen in it, the Flame King and the Flame Princess. Flame Princess was being carried in the Flame King's arms, and she looked much smaller and younger than she did now. This must have happened years ago.
Flame Princess looked sound asleep as Flame King carried her back to the Fire Kingdom. Her eyes slightly opened as she woke up.
"Daddy…" the words she said came out of her mouth rather weakly. "Do you…do you remember what happened?"
Flame King kept silent for a moment. "No, I don't remember," he lied. "Come on, let's get you to bed. You seem tired."
Flame Princess was brought to her bed and quickly went back to sleep. Flame King took the blanket and covered her, hoping she wouldn't remember any of this when she woke up.
"Did you give it to her?" someone asked behind Flame King. It was an entirely blue person, but this was most likely some sort of flame shield, so that she could enter the Fire Kingdom unharmed.
"If she drank the potion after you had found her, she won't recall any moment of this day, or any much before today," said Princess Bubblegum.
"I had given it to her," responded Flame King. "While the part about it making her sleep worked, I have a feeling she can find out anyways. It could mess her up again if she knew."
"That's why I made sure she can forget," said PB. "Any occurrence of what happened will slip through her mind and she won't be able to remember it, but it had to affect her memories of the past too, and she also won't remember anything from before this point in time."
Flame King looked at Flame Princess, still fast asleep, and back to Princess Bubblegum. "So what we did together won't have any purpose now…" he concluded.
"I didn't want it to happen either, but it's best this way," Bubblegum said.
Flame King turned to her and said, "But how come this had to happen? I know why, but how could it affect my daughter so much in any way?"
Princess Bubblegum looked at him and finally said, "While the incident was happening, there was a large pick-up from my stabilizing reader." She pulled out a gadget with different radars on it.
"It had read there was a large amount of unstable matter, which led to your daughter," she continued. "What had happened could make her unstable enough to destroy the land as well as the planet, so we had to take the thought of her experience today out of her memory. It could possibly make her traumatized and lead to enough anger to blow up everything. Unfortunately, she might not remember it, but just what had occurred had affected in her in such a way that her matrix remains unstable. She's going to have to be locked up."
Flame King stood there thinking about how this all worked and said, "If you were to imprison her and she were to escape, you don't think she were to be just as angered by it than if she wasn't?"
Bubblegum replied, "As of now, she cannot be released until I find a cure for her stability. I suggest that she needs to be kept secure until I can figure out a solution."
"And what if a prince may come?" Flame King asked. Princess Bubblegum had not thought of it much, and looked back at her stability detector. It showed signs of many emotions that could not be as easily controlled.
"If someone were to come to court her, the love could perhaps calm her down a bit. I think she could be released if done so, but too much love could lead to disaster. As long as she is not entirely romanced at first, it could work, but even a kiss will trigger a reaction that will enable the unstableness of her matrix. Hopefully I can make something by then. Any more questions?"
Flame King sighed. "No."
"Good, then you need to do as I instructed to keep the world in balance. She is much too powerful and I hope one day she can see the reason why this happens."
Bubblegum left and Flame King looked back at her daughter sleeping. He wished he didn't have to do this, but he grabbed her and took her out. They headed to a large lamp-like object. It was made entirely of clear glass.
Flame Princess began waking up. Her eyes blinked slowly and became fixed on the lantern that her father was bringing her to.
"Dad, what are you doing?" she asked suddenly. Flame King looked down at her, surprised that she woke up so soon.
"I…" he began, thinking about what he could say and how he was going to explain this to her. "You're going to have to stay here for a while. A long while."
He placed Flame Princess inside the lantern and closed the doors in front of it.
She quickly stood up and pressed against the glass. "What? Why are you doing this?" she asked.
Flame King didn't look amused at the situation either.
"It's for the best," he answered.
Young Flame Princess didn't like being here already. She kept pushing the lantern's barrier to see if she could pass through, and when that wouldn't work, she began punching it. Her hands lit up to a fist and she started hitting the glass, but it was tough. She wasn't able to break it or make any cracks in it.
She became furious. Her fire glowed brighter and she began shooting flames from where she stood. The flames were powerful, but they weren't enough to make a dent in the glass of the lantern. She unleashed her persistent anger onto the lamp, acting as if it was something she hated most in the world.
"Let me out of here!" she screamed. She kept attacking the walls that imprisoned her. Her father stood watching her attempts at breaking free.
"I didn't want to have to do this, daughter," he said inexpressively. "It was not my wish to see you locked up. But you must understand that right now, you are too powerful for this planet, and perhaps someday, you could be free and become evil enough to take over."
She stopped with her attacks and asked, "Is that what this is about? I don't want to be evil, I want to get out of this stupid lantern!"
She resumed her aggression and shot more fire blasts at the glass. It still remained unbroken, even as the power increased. The fire palace did begin shaking a bit, but the lantern kept its purpose and held Flame Princess inside of it.
Eventually, Flame Princess used up too much of her energy and just laid down on the lantern floor, sad that she may never be able to get out.
Flame King could feel her grief and began leaving the room to give her some alone time. He instructed the fire guards to do the same as well. Then all that was left in the room was Flame Princess still in her new, unfamiliar prison.
She began crying, with tears of magma falling down her face. Her emotions were a mix of fury and sorrow. She had not done anything to deserve this. Her father wouldn't even explain anything to her. This was the worst day of her life.
As she sat there weeping, a slow moving figure approached her. It looked at her while being unable to feel how much pain she had. Flame Princess finally looked up from her lament and saw her. Princess Bubblegum had stayed to see what happened.
"I'm sorry," she had finally said, and she left the fire palace with no explanation.
The image began to blur, and the room was brought back into reality.
Flame Princess was watching the crater's hologram the whole time, with the memory now brought back into her head as if the entire incident happened yesterday. Her insides felt like jelly as she relived each moment that was shown in the smoke.
She snapped out of her trance. "Is that it?"
That's it, the crater spirit said. Flame Princess looked down and frowned. "That doesn't lead me anywhere," she said.
It only leads to more mysteries! the crater finally said in a singsong voice. Do not let your curiosity get to the best of you, fool.
Flame Princess was already heading out of the underground cavern. "I'll keep that in mind," she said back.
She left, not knowing that there was another who had witnessed the events shown as she did. Once Flame Princess had gone, he revealed himself after watching everything that happened to her.
Finn stuck his head out from the rocks he was hiding behind.