Candy Time

by G Marshall

From one in my long list of identified parallels, this brings out the similarity between Princess Bubblegum's kingdom and Candy Land. It was an exciting idea at the time, but sadly I didn't know the Adventure Time cast that well personality-wise, It's fairly short and leaves some questions, but the sequel will clear it all up. One of the perks is everyone's reactions.

Crossover: Adventure Time meets Candy Land™

Adventure Time © Pendleton Ward

Candy Land™ © Milton Bradley/Hasbro

Author's note: For the confused, this story takes place before Finn discovers Flame Princess, and after Princess Bubblegum returns to 18 years old.

The sun was rising over the ever-sweet country of Candy Land, and the residents were preparing themselves for another great day. Plumpy set about tending his gingerbread plum trees, picking off which plums were ripe and pruning unnecessary branches; Jolly and his miners chiseled away in the Gumdrop Mountains, searching for gumdrops of the highest quality, and Grandma Nutt worked her best to maintain her peanut brittle cottage.

But, a few of the royal members of this country somehow felt that this day in particular would be different, in a way they could not describe. In fact, some of the usually cheery inhabitants felt saddened. One such, Queen Frostine, could not help but stare beyond her usually magnificent Ice Cream Sea, towards King Kandy's Castle. She knew that the usual cause for distress in Candy Land was the evil Lord Licorice, yet he hadn't struck in weeks. The castle looked quite pleasing to the eye, so this elegant blue-iced noblewoman could not place the strange sense of concern. Little did anyone know that somewhere across the world, they were not alone.

BMO's alarm had been ringing for 4 minutes solid, and she was almost on the verge of directly shaking Finn and Jake awake, before the two of them managed to wake up on their own.

Jake yawned, "Geez, Beemo, what's with the alarm?"

Finn added, "Yeah, I haven't set your alarm mode since that party the other night!"

After turning off that time-strained beeper, BMO explained, "I needed to wake you two up because Princess Bubblegum called half an hour ago. She needs you at the candy castle."

Finn sat bolt upright in shock, and gasped, "What the zip? How could I sleep through that?!"

He hustled to get dressed and feed himself quickly, while Jake took the liberty of morphing to the shape of a long-legged elephant-sized version of himself. Once they were gone, Marceline strolled back through the front door, and happily took a seat on the couch. She grinned, "I love hanging out here while Finn + Jake are out on adventures."

BMO noted with a hint of surprise, "Did the Princess tell you as well? I didn't know you were here."

"No, but I overheard the answer machine; though I am a bit curious as to whatever this mission is."

"If you like, Finn keeps a remote camera on his person, so I can show you the live feed," the living multipurpose device beeped.

"Sure, I'd love that."

BMO's electronic face switched to a video camera's view of the fast-approaching Candy Kingdom. Jake could be seen on the right, running alongside what seemed to be Finn from the faint close-up of his shoulder.

"So, what does the Princess want us to do today?" Jake quipped.

"That's what we're going here to find out, right?" Finn annoyedly remarked back.

It didn't take long for either of them to sprint into the castle and upstairs to Princess Bubblegum's laboratory, where the aforementioned lady was calmly waiting for them.

"Good morning Finn, Jake. I've been trying to contact you for over half an hour, but no one would answer the phone," she got to the first mentioned problem.

"Sorry, we were sleeping in," Finn blushed while scratching the back of his head.

"Whatever, I needed you to see something very, very important. Follow me," PB showed them into the lab.

As soon as they entered, Jake noticed Princess Bubblegum was standing in front of a large map of Ooo projected onto a whiteboard on the back wall. She explained, "I've been updating this map with Ooo's geographical changes and new settlements, and one of them has seriously grabbed my attention." She picked up a dry erase marker and made a small red dot on the board, "I've pinpointed its coordinates to be: Latitude 80˚ 10' 7.3" North, Longitude 110˚ 6' 3" East."

"What could that place be? All I see on the map at those coordinates is nothing but forestry," Finn studied the mark closely.

"That's why I want you to come with me. Whatever this place is, no kingdom anywhere seems to own it. If they did, it would've had text."

"And how do you propose that we get there?"

"On Lady Rainicorn, of course!" The princess' tone suddenly grew much more excited as she motioned for a window at the end of the hall outside.

Finn and Jake shared PB's excitement as they quickly rushed upstairs to the roof and boarded the Princess' multicolored serpentine unicorn. With a simple command from her rider, Lady Rainicorn leaped off the castle and straight into the sky, off to that unknown destination.

Meanwhile, at Candy Land, one of the castle's sentries reported to the king, "Your highness, there is a strange shape approaching from the south horizon."

King Kandy stood up from his sugar-coated throne and responded with a little shock. "What? I must see this at once!"

That same guard handed his leader a brass spyglass, and the latter ran to the balcony to look through the device from a good vantage point. King Kandy managed to make out the silhouette of Lady Rainicorn, though at a distance of miles, he had no idea what it was. On it were bulges which he assumed to be humans.

Then he put away the spyglass, handed it back to the sentry, and told him, "Butterscotch, Prepare the welcome ceremony. It's not often that our country receives guests,"

"Yes, sir, my King," the sentry nodded with a salute.

But lurking in the shadows below the castle, at a secluded building a dozen yards away, a man cloaked in Renaissance clothing made of multiple types of licorice, began to grow a very mischievous smile. The cause for this was partly due to a creature sitting in his hand: a white cat no larger than a human thumb and carrying a syringe filled with a mysterious green fluid.

The man made an evil chuckle, and whispered to the cat, "I think you shall be a great aid to me and my Sour Power!"

The cat hissed lightly, "Don't get so cocky, I'm only here because you paid me…with chocolate coins."

Finn, using PB's binoculars, could see a clear view of this foreign location. He gaped, "Holy stuff! That place is ANOTHER candy kingdom!"

Jake then Bubblegum took turns with the binoculars, and confirmed Finn's conclusion in doing so. The latter reminded Finn, "We'd better be careful. If that place is inhabited, they might not welcome us right away."

"Aw, shucks, Peebles, I'm pretty sure it's nothing to worry about," Jake leaned back with his arms behind his head.

Just before they were within landing range, someone else had shown up alongside Lady Rainicorn. Jake + Finn glanced left after noticing the sudden drop in air temperature, and discovered that it was the Ice King, flying.

Finn shouted, "Ice King?! What are you doing here?"

"I overheard you and the Princess talking about some new location in Ooo, and...I just wanna check it out, I'm not after Princesses this time," the blue-robed heavy-bearded cryopath explained.

"All right, but you'd better keep that promise," PB sternly reminded him.

Jake stretched his head further back behind, and happened to notice 3 Candy Choppers approaching from behind. Upon regaining normal shape, he yelled at PB, "YOU BROUGHT THE CANDY PEOPLE, TOO?!"

"Ye...Yes, they wanted to come along for the ride. I tried to stop him, but Cinnamon Bun told everyone about it," she stammered in a warm sweat.

Finn sighed, "Fine, but this better not cause too much commotion,"

Lady Rainicorn said something in Korean, and Jake answered, "She says that something's not right with whatever kingdom that is."

"Well, I can't tell from this angle, so we'll just have to find out on the ground," PB declared while giving a sharp kick to the rainbow-horse's side, urging it to descend.

Candy Land's citizens were all huddled around the main entrance path to their country, waiting – some with curiosity, others with fear – for the newcomers to arrive. Many ornate decorations set for the King's 'welcome ceremony' were set up around this area, though no one appeared to be in a celebratory mood. At first they liked the idea of the visitors, but the sight of the approaching helicopters quickly changed half the population's belief of friends, to foes. In mere minutes, the entire group from Princess Bubblegum's homeland touched down safely, and the first off were Finn, Jake, and PB.

Finn's jaw almost dropped when he noticed that almost all of the inhabitants here were humans. All his life, he had been trying to doubt that he was the last remaining human on Ooo, but seeing humans here in Candy Land, those doubts were finally justified.

Princess Bubblegum whispered to Finn, "Let me do the talking first, okay?" To which he just nodded.

She stepped forward, and first asked the awestruck humans, "Greetings, what is the name of this land?"

Straining to hold back the urge to scream and run from the visitors' bizarre appearance, Grandma Nutt stammered, "Candy Land, ma'am,"

"Very well, then. We hail from another Candy Kingdom in the land of Ooo, miles from here. I am Princess Bubblegum, ruler of that kingdom,"

Finn and Jake introduced themselves with a load of enthusiasm, but still half the population was scared to death. But then, the castle gate opened and out marched King Kandy, and having heard PB's speech earlier, he boomingly announcing to the visitors, "Hello, and welcome to Candy Land, Princess Bubblegum,"

But PB was slightly offended by the king's appearance and the sound of his voice. To her, it almost seemed like he was a little bit too happy for a monarch. Then he moved towards the front of the crowd, and addressed his subjects, "Do not fear these newcomers, they are welcomed guests!"

As awkward as the situation still seemed, most of the inhabitants clapped as fairly as they could. King Kandy then turned to face the visitors, noticing that the choppers had just landed. First he looked at PB, Finn and Jake for a minute, then said, "My, you three are quite an interesting bunch. I apologize for my subjects' awkward behavior; we have not received visitors in over 20 years."

"Goodness," Princess Bubblegum sighed. "How did you survive the Mushroom War?"

"The what?" Mr. Mint asked in confusion.

"What is this 'War' you speak of?" Jolly agreed to the question.

PB explained, "But...there was a massive nuclear war exactly 1000 years ago, and yet no one here looks mutated. When was this place settled?"

"Please, everything can be explained within my humble abode. Just follow me, and the rest of my subjects will join us shortly," King Kandy placed the question on hold.

So the visiting party filed as neatly as possible into the King's castle. Ice King decided not to follow and simply waited outside, seeing as how most of the Candy People from Ooo were against him.

The King, his citizens, and PB's subjects all walked into the massive 'Great Hall' of the castle, where a lavish feast had been set. When page boys clad in sugar-coated attire raised the dish covers, Finn was surprised to find that their 'feast' consisted of fruit-filled pastries, cakes, and other confections along those lines. As much as he was eager to try this, he still hesitated. Jake, on the other hand, couldn't help stuffing his face.

Queen Frostine, sitting one chair down and across from Finn, broke the ice (no pun intended), "So, I hear your people survived a war. What kind, if I may ask?"

Finn sighed with a scratch to his forehead, "Um, I don't know. All I do know is that NO ONE around me in my country is human. I feel like I'm the only one left, and that's why I was so surprised by everyone being human here."

"My goodness, that's terrible," Grandma Nutt replied in a motherly way.

Further down, Princess Bubblegum asked the king in a stern way, "So tell me this: How long have your people lived here, and when did they settle?"

King Kandy, at the head close to her, finally answered, "This place was settled in AD 1993, and I don't recall ever seeing a war before or after; when our ancestors arrived, the air was clean and fresh."

"The war happened in the 21st century, and the present day is 2985. That means you and your citizens have been thriving here for almost 1000 years and yet no one has been exposed to radiation?"

"None that I recall, young lady. Though our records do show that our people who lived through 2001-2012 all died prematurely, the next group only suffered mild cases of lung cancer which we managed to treat, and those after remained perfectly healthy. Still, I know nothing of this 'Mushroom War' you speak of," The King elaborated.

"I see. The War's radiation mutated every single inhabitant in my land so that Finn seems to be the only human left. My guess is that this 'Candy Land's' remote location lessened the effects," PB hypothesized.

Princess Lolly spoke up, "Who's that man standing outside, the one with blue skin and the huge beard?"

"That? That guy's the Ice King. He kidnaps other princesses and tries to force them into marrying him, but we stop him every time," Jake explained in a rather zealous way.

Finn added, "But he did turn out to be a nice guy later on. He's not evil, just lonely and a little crazy."

"Well, that's good to know," Queen Frostine drew a chilled sigh of relief, having noticed his strange appearance before.

When the feast was over, one of the King's squires, Wrigley, showed Finn and Jake their quarters. PB had a room of her own, while the other candy people had to sleep in the main hall. Finn felt impressed by the standards of his and Jake's room. Not only were the beds arranged as neatly as a hotel's, but the architecture looked quite fancy as far as Medieval and candy-based themes go.

The duo of heroes slept well that night, in spite of Finn having to adjust to not being in a sleeping bag, and Jake to not sleeping in a drawer. The next morning, both Finn and Jake were surprised to find that someone had left each of them a set of rather dull clothes – They each consisted of a red and white striped long-sleeve shirt with blue overalls. Jake felt unwilling, seeing as he was a dog and didn't want to wear clothes anyway; Finn however, thought, "why not?" and – after a quick shower in a bathroom down the hall – put on the shirt, but decided to keep his own pants.

Once they were all set, another squire appeared down the corridor, saying, "Good morning, my master has prepared a tour of this country for you and your friends. Are you interested?"

Jake felt absolutely excited about this offer, and Finn also was tempted, seeing that he hadn't gotten to know many of the people around this castle since yesterday evening, so he said, "Absolutely, where do we start?"

"Right this way, if you please."

Following the squire took them to the castle's foyer, which beyond the front doors happened to be a long trail of multicolored squares that did not exist the day before. It spilled out across a moat of what looked like molasses and twisted away further out into Candy Land itself. Running along the trail appeared to be a set of 5 monorail cars, each one occupying two squares at a time.

Coming out behind Finn, Jake, and their guide was Princess Bubblegum and a single-file line of her candy subjects. Ice King was also present, a bit shy among the others. Finally, a door opened in the rear car of the train, right in front of the open castle gates, and just big enough for everyone to squeeze into the 5 conjoined cars; once the whole gang took their places, the transport revved into motion and so began their guided tour of Candy Land.

A pre-recorded female woman's voice came over a set of speakers, "Good morning, and welcome to your guided tour of Candy Land. I will provide information on what we will see along the way."

The first stop – or slow in the ride - began on a green square marked with a sign holding a plum icon, "To our right, you will see Plumpy's 20-acre Gingerbread Orchard. Approximately 15,000 plums and sugar plums are hand-grown right here. Only 2 crop failures have occurred within the past decade." Starchy noticed how most of the trees out there appeared to have faces, and some of them looked as if to be moving, but from this distance it was hard to tell.

Stop #2, farther north, "Moving right along, if you look left we will be passing the Peppermint forest. Mr. Mint, a lumberjack in this area, chops down candy cane trees to process into smaller mint products for later use. Here, up north, winter is the dominant season, so he is the only one here, excluding the local wildlife." Mr. Mint briefly waved at the passengers before returning to his work chopping the trees.

The next stretch of the trip was quite bumpy, so many of the 'tourists' had to grip either each other or the sides of the train cars. Evidently, the route was climbing higher to Candy Land's northeast section, and the automated guide explained what it was, "Up ahead are the Gumdrop Mountains, where our loyal foreman, Jolly, heads a dozen miners in extracting gumdrops of only the finest chewiness and shape. Please use caution when travelling in this area – Jolly has not yet been able to level this section of the terrain for a flat route."

Then the trail dropped rather steeply downwards, and made a few twists and turns without slowing for about 8 minutes. But the guide beeped towards a distant red and black structure off West in the distance, and the castle some distance from it, "To your left is Lord Licorice's domain. For our safety, this area is off limits to all citizens and visitors. If you happen to spot Lord Licorice outside of this building, please let one of the royal guards know."

7 minutes later, another slow in the tour came around, "Also to your left is Grandma Nutt's prized Peanut Brittle cottage, 1st prize winner in our 6th annual candy sculpture contest in 2004." Both Finn and PB found that last statement a little odd. The Princess couldn't believe the possibility of these people living here for over 900 years without aging at all! Jake, meanwhile, happened to notice a strange man dressed in red and black clothing very similar to 'Lord Licorice's domain', and he knew that they were past that place. Could this be Lord Licorice, and if so, what was he up to out here? Cinnamon Bun made a wet and sticky-sounding "Hi!" and waved to Grandma Nutt, who awkwardly waved back in a sweat, but trying to smile at the same time.

Another stop was read aloud, "Further ahead is the Lollipop Woods, in which Princess Lolly, its caretaker and our most adored citizen of Candy Land, maintains crops of specially crafted all-day suckers and related products. Unlike the other forested locales, these are the most delicate, as every lollipop is fragile, no matter its mass or height. All due care must be taken if any visitors should stop by."

All of a sudden, a little ways before the next stop, Peppermint Butler screamed, "Look out, everybody!" And a split second, several explosions went off, one of which heavily impacted and no doubt derailed the train. Finn bashed his head sharply against a metal pole in the cabin; fell to the floor unconscious, and when he came to, most of the candy people had fled, leaving only Ice King, Finn, and Jake.

As Finn and Jake managed to stand up in the lopsided train car – apparently submerged a little in a strange white gel outside – the dog pondered, "What the junk was that?"

"My guess is we got ambushed, but by who?" his human companion theorized.

They both glared at Ice King, but he put his hands up and pleaded, "Don't look at me, I barely had enough legroom during the ride!"

Then Jake thought out loud, "I think it has something to do with a man I saw just before the explosions. His clothes looked a lot like that off-limits building we passed earlier."

"Let's put that on the back burner for now, Jake, because what we need now is a way out of this train car!" Finn's mind was focused on the two locked doors at both ends of the cabin. None of the windows were "emergency exits", nor were there hammers to break them.

Then Ice King ordered the two to stand back, and he fired two lightning bolts of ice at the door they were closest to, effectively freezing it, then a punch of the air sent the frozen door shattering outward to tiny pieces floating in the white liquid.

As he tried to climb out, Finn tripped over the threshold of the train car and made a face-plant in the white stuff, which from the scent; he discovered to be vanilla ice cream. Ice King took care not to step on Finn as he crawled out of the cabin, after which he noticed a sign marked "ICE CREAM SEA".

Jake stretched out of the derailed car and sat down on top of it. From up there, he noticed several more of the train cars that were all detached from each other and lying askew around one blue square with several scorch marks around it. He noticed that from a few small red chunks lying near them, someone had blown up with actual "cherry" bombs. But then another question rang in his head: Where were the candy people and Princess Bubblegum?

Everyone's pondering was interrupted by the sound of footsteps crunching on different types of ice cream mounds, prompting the 3 of them to turn towards a building made from blue ice cream, laced with gold frosting, and casting a radiant view with the sun nearing high noon over it. The source of the footsteps was none other than the blue-robed Queen Frostine, holding a long glowing snowflake-shaped scepter. She opened towards the trio, "I saw what happened to your train. Lord Licorice tried to blow it up, and he made off with your friends towards the forbidden Licorice palace. Perhaps I could be of some help?"

The Ice King's eyes locked onto Queen Frostine straight away, ignored her speech, and prompted him to act in his princess-wooing manner, "Helloooo, princess!"

Finn was just about to jump Ice King for that, but all of a sudden, the absolute impossible happened: Queen Frostine blushed and reacted in an actually HAPPY manner! The guy's flirtatious attitude had finally paid off! Even Ice King himself couldn't believe it either!

"Oh my, I haven't met a man who's…been interested in me before!" She smiled.

Then the moment was quickly shattered when a Penguin popped out of Ice King's crown, prompting him to shout, "GUNTER! What are you doing in my crown?!" His animal simply made a 'quack'. Queen Frostine giggled, "That's a cute duck you have, sir!" to which Ice King argued, "He's not a duck, he's a PENGUIN!"

Finn stood up and cleared his throat, "Um, about what you said earlier, yeah, we could certainly use your help. Do you know anything about getting into the Licorice Palace?"

The queen sighed, "It won't be easy, the palace is guarded by a molasses monster; we call him 'Gloppy' because of it. The only way to get in undetected is by sneaking in underground, and only Jolly knows the way."

"Don't worry, ma'am," Finn yanked out his sword from the holster on his back, "Where I come from, WE'RE HEROES!"

As Finn, Jake, and Ice King prepared to head back up the multicolored railway towards what they knew would be Gumdrop Mountains, Frostine called, "Wait, I should come with you. My scepter can control ice and things along those lines."

"Really?" Jake asked with curiosity.

"So can I, that's why they call me the Ice King!" The blue-skinned nobleman added.

"Well then, it seems you and I have a lot in common,"

Finn pondered for a moment, then said okay to the suggestion.

"Good, seeing that everyone else is busy with their work around here," Queen Frostine duly noted.

Meanwhile, Lord Licorice was pacing back and forth in the dungeon of his palace, carefully watching his new captives. Princess Bubblegum was uncomfortably squeezed in next to King Kandy, as were the former's candy people with each other.

The King noticed PB's flustered expression, and asked, "Madame, what troubles you so?"

To which she almost yelled, "One, I hate how we're crammed in like this, to which I half-blame the guy in red + black, and two: I have to say again; that overly happy voice of yours sounds to me like someone unfit to be a monarch. How DO you manage it? NO King I've ever met sounded like this."

"It isn't as easy as you think."

"Oh really? I think all the sugar around you has gone to your head, not as much as where I come from!"

Lord Licorice silenced the two, cutting the confrontation short. He strode towards Princess Bubblegum and jabbed a maroon-gloved finger in her chest, "Now tell me: What do you know about the place you hail from?"

"I'll never talk, not even if you made me marry the fat man you squeezed in next to me!" she hissed in anger.

"Ooh, feisty one, eh? Well, what about your friends here? Maybe they'll tell me something," the villain chuckled as he advanced towards the other cells.

Cinnamon Bun prepared to spill a bunch of Ooo's secrets, but Lollipop Girl placed a hand over his mouth – getting it sticky in the process. Everyone else was afraid to speak, for one reason or another, no one would talk.

"Very well then, perhaps you all need some time to think. I shall return, and when I do, you WILL tell me what this 'Ooo' country is and where its ruler lies!"

PB broke into a sweat, as she sensed that she might be the practical leader of Ooo, but she couldn't be sure, judging from the other kingdoms in it.

Then the red + black-clad villain decided to leave for a short break and appointed a guard to keep watch. At the top of a few flights of stairs was a small office halfway between the ground floor and the dungeon. There, he had papers spread over a table detailing his evil scheme:

Thanks to the tiny cat Lord Licorice hired, he had a few detailed maps and blueprints of Ooo and its kingdoms. Over a period of 50 years, he had been trying to use his 'Sour Power' to turn Candy Land alone into his own domain of Licorice, and in so doing enslave the population, but every time he tried, a pair of "twins" had always been there to stop him. Now, with a whole other country to spread into and its major kingdom locked down, he had the opportunity to spread into Ooo itself. And he had assumed that Finn and Jake had died when he blew up the train. Right now, Lord Licorice thought that he would be free to put these plans into action.

Then he remembered one of his important duties, reached into a pocket on his vest, and pulled out his tiny feline accomplice. He whispered, "It's time, my little friend. Go find the boy who wears a white eared hat and hide in his pack. If he gets near here, stop him. Understood?"

"If it will help me become a real assassin," the cat nodded before jumping out of his hand. She then skittered up the stairs to ground level and out of the castle.

Finn and his party had to backtrack on the tour route, which would have been easy if not for the rough terrain making it very difficult to navigate. Even with Jake grown to massive proportions and long legs, and with Ice King's flight capabilities, there was no way to go around the train's square-lined railway.

3 of the previously visited locales – Lollypop woods, Grandma Nutt's cottage, and the wide desolate field surrounding Licorice palace were passed on the way. The first two looked suspiciously odd, as the woods didn't look 'in full bloom' for some strange, and the cottage seemed on the verge of falling apart. Jake felt compelled to run straight to the palace through the front door, but Finn wanted to stick to Queen Frostine's plan. Although close, they didn't argue on this. Then when the track looked bumpy and started to climb steeply, everyone knew that dead ahead was Gumdrop Mountains.

There, everyone noticed how that 'Jolly' character seemed so calm compared to the other places visited. Queen Frostine did the talking, "Excuse me, Jolly, but we need to use that little shortcut you have hidden in your mine. It's important."

The fancy lavender-dressed foreman grunted, "I don't know, miss, that passage is dangerous; we haven't been able to fully support it for months. In fact, I'm inclined to close that place off."

"Please, sir, my friends are trapped in Lord Licorice's palace and we can't go in through the front door – obviously," Finn begged.

"Well..."

"I'll have King Kandy put in a good word for you," Frostine smiled as she leaned close to the man and rubbed his chin with her right finger. Ice King was a bit shocked by this.

"All...All right, but just this once. Follow me," Jolly motioned to a passage low in one of the Western mountains.

The tunnel had a heavy door sealed in steel with a lock. A sign near it said "Gumdrop Pass – Use caution!" Jolly unlocked the door with a heavy iron key, and pointed inward, "This natural passage connects a few areas of Candy Land, but it hasn't been used for years, so the structural integrity isn't very stable. If you keep going straight, it'll take you directly to Lord Licorice's dungeon."

"Thank you, my friend. You will not be disappointed upon our return!" the Queen formally stated as she took the lead inward. Finn looked a little sheepish next in line, and Ice King needed a push to go in because of his huge cloak and beard. After that, Jolly locked the door behind them and marched back to his work.

He wasn't kidding about the tunnel's instability – every now and then the sugary walls would rumble in random spots and drop particles from the ceiling, usually sprinkling the people inside. Fortunately, unlike the rock caves he was used to in Ooo, Finn noticed that this tunnel was very easy to navigate, seeing that its walls were quite smooth and straight. But then a realization dawned on him before long: Up until this point, everything had been all too easy for his party. Why was that?

And son of a gun, that ease quickly vanished like a camera flash, because hiding in his backpack was that same white cat Lord Licorice hired. Right before Queen Frostine pointed out a faint source of light coming from the end of the passage, the cat jumped out snarling from Finn's pack and landed, claws extended, on his neck, causing him to scream out in pain.

The cat shouted – in a high-sounding but cute voice, "Hold it right there!"

In response, Jake and the two ice-wielders whipped around and Jake recognized the tiny animal on the spot, "Me-Mow?! How did you find us?"

"You know that thing?" Ice King was puzzled.

"Yeah, she's an assassin-in-training who tried to kill me if I didn't kill Wildberry Princess!"

"And now I'm going to kill your human friend right here, if you don't turn around and leave!" Me-Mow hissed as she brandished a tiny syringe full of green poison.

Queen Frostine took notice, leaned down to glance at the weapon, and just giggled, "Oh please, how can something THAT small be enough to kill a human?"

"You never know until someone gets it," the 5-inch assassin hissed.

"How did you find us, Me-Mow?" Finn jumped topics as he wriggled his head back and forth trying to shake the cat off.

"I'll never tell!"

Queen Frostine fired a subzero beam from her scepter close to Finn's head, but she aimed too low and missed her target, freezing the floor instead. Ice King tried too, but he missed entirely and fired straight down the tunnel. Me-Mow managed to inject half of her poison into Finn before jumping onto the cave wall. "Too late! You may have given me the cold shoulder, but I already got your friend!"

"Oh man, as much as it bothers me with you guys, I don't want Finn to die!" Ice King fretted.

"How do you stop…her?" Finn moaned in pain.

"Me-Mow always carries a vial of antidote with her. If we hold her down, one of us can take it from her and use it to cure Finn. But that poison kills in 15 minutes tops!" Jake quickly explained from past experiences.

Then he realized how unstable the passage was, and announced a new plan to the ice-wielders behind him, "Freeze the area of the ceiling around where that cat is! That will make the tunnel cave in and probably trap her in the rubble!"

Ice King and Frostine looked at one another, then they both fired beams of cold air at the gumdrop tunnel's roof, making it crack deeply as the material flash-froze, then with deep echoing splinters, the passage indeed collapsed, burying Me-mow in the rubble. Although she struggled and writhed, Jake managed to take her syringe and antidote vial, and thus heal Finn.

As he got to his feet again, Finn caught his breath and said, "Thanks, you guys! If it weren't for you, I would've died!"

Then the Queen reported, "I couldn't agree more, friend. And better still; the Palace dungeon is very close now!"

The tunnel stretched on for about 6 yards more, then dead-ended with a trapdoor in the ceiling. Jake did the honors of opening it, and as soon as the party was through, the captives' worried expressions turned to hope. Thankfully, Lord Licorice was currently not in the area.

PB called out, "Finn, thank goodness you and Jake are here! But..."

"Don't worry, they're on our side," Finn replied.

Ice King glanced around the whole dungeon, and whispered to himself, "Dear Glob, this looks all too familiar to me. But whoever put these people behind bars probably has a different plan...yet, what?"

All of a sudden, an alarm bell rang in the stairway leading out of here, and out came Lord Licorice from the doorway at the top, carrying a whip in one hand.

"Well, well, who do we have here? It seems that those cherry bombs and my little friend weren't enough to stop you people, whoever you are. You must have great endurance to have gotten this far," he sneered while pulling on his tiny chin-beard.

"We're here for the Candy People, and we're not leaving without them!" Finn shouted while brandishing his steel-bladed root sword again.

"Then let's see what you and your friends have against my Sour Power!" Lord Licorice declared with a crack of his whip.

As that weapon's tip hit the floor with a spark, a cloud formed within seconds on the ceiling of the dungeon, and from it a shower of meringue feathers fell onto the 4 heroes, tickling them so accurately as if guided like missiles. Finn's sword kept missing because the projectiles were far too tiny. Then Jake morphed into a giant safety net over his friend and the ice controllers.

"My turn!" Finn jumped into the air and slashed the air in aiming for the whip. But Lord Licorice was too quick and unleashed another candy-based attack, this one in the form of a 5-foot explosive gumdrop which materialized near the ceiling and dropped right into the middle of the room.

Then Jake shape-changed into a rhinoceros and charged for the black + red-dressed villain; but once again he countered the attack with another flick of the whip, this time unleashing a giant sour candy encased in a storm cloud, which in turn fired miniature lightning bolts.

Ice King, having been watching carefully and aware that Finn + Jake would've shooed him off at this point – ironic, considering he helped Finn survive – noticed that Lord Licorice's whip was his source of power. If they took it away, he'd be powerless. Right before Finn + Jake began to charge at the villain once more, he fired a subzero bolt at the floor below the whip, freezing it in place. As much as Lord Licorice pulled, it refused to budge, and even broke after several tries!

"Wow, Ice King! I didn't know that was the guy's weak point!" Jake gasped in surprise.

"You may have disarmed me, but I can still spread my dominion into your pitiful country of Ooo!" the man shouted as he turned around and ran back upstairs.

Queen Frostine told her companions, "Go after him, I'll release your friends!"

And so they did; the two adventurers and their cold bearded peer chased the villain through several corridors and up a few staircases. Finn and Jake glimpsed him briefly before disappearing behind corners, and the former almost thought they'd never catch up with him. But finally, a long spiral staircase leading up the palace's tallest tower drove Lord Licorice to a dead end. When the chase ended, Finn and Jake were struck with horror as to what was happening down below: The land around the palace was slowly being turned barren, chocolate brown, and lined with red + black licorice, consuming the colorful features lying ahead, bleeding into the surrounding country outside Candy Land. Also, Finn could at last see why this whole place fit so strangely into Ooo: it appeared as if Candy Land itself had been dropped out of the sky, as if through teleportation or some other strange phenomenon. Lord Licorice just stood at the tower's battlement, cackling in his near-triumph.

"You've got nowhere to go now, fools!" the villain turned around to face his pursuers.

Jake growled, "Why are you doing this?! You're like some of the other villains we've seen in Ooo!"

"Because it's fun, and since no one has ever shown any respect towards me in this small country for over 50 years!"

"Oh, really? These guys with me don't respect me either, but I have a good reason for it: I'm lonely and no one wants to marry me!" Ice King almost cried in anger. "That dungeon of yours reminds me all too much of the kind I have, except I keep princesses there so that one of them would marry me!"

"Bah, love is a choice! I never married, servants are all I need!"

"Then you don't know what it's like to be heartbroken!" Ice King dropped the air around his hands to -12 degrees Fahrenheit.

"He's right; I've had Princess Bubblegum taken away from me far too many times, and after seeing what you're trying to do to my home, I'm not going to let that happen again!" Finn shared Ice King's frustration.

The 3 heroes charged for Lord Licorice to pin him to the ground, but instead they accidentally pushed him off the tower and into the sticky brown moat below. Ice King managed just in time to get himself airborne with his beard, and Jake stretched out of the way, but Finn and Lord Licorice weren't so lucky, and the two were now stuck fast in molasses, although from the looks and scent it seemed more like melted chocolate. But the worst had not yet come: bubbles formed on the surface in an area a few feet away, then in exactly two minutes the substance grew and changed into the form of a giant dripping monster with glowing yellow eyes. Judging from its expression, this creature was by no means happy.

"So...That's Gloppy?" Finn panted in fear.

"Yes, I created him to guard my domain. He trusts me, but devours trespassers!" the villain explained with an evil grin.

Finn struggled to get to grab his sword but could barely move in the sticky brown material. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Queen Frostine had already released Lord Licorice's prisoners, as she was running out of the palace, followed behind King Kandy, Princess Bubblegum, and her Candy People in a single-file line along a stone path mimicking the trail of colored squares seen elsewhere throughout Candy Land.

"You're too late, Lord Lamp-wick; your prisoners are already free!" Finn yelled in pride.

But his excitement was short-lived, as Gloppy had now reached down to grab the human boy, and eat him. However, now that Finn wasn't quite as stuck as before, he reached into the holster on his back, yanked out his sword one more time, and with a powerful swipe built up by friction, Finn sliced the monster's gelatinous right hand clean off. It screeched in pain and sank back into the liquid while Jake snatched his friend out of the severed hand, bringing him back to his feet.

Princess Bubblegum laughed, soon followed by her subjects and King Kandy, due to Lord Licorice's inconvenient position: He tried to pull himself out of the moat, but when he managed to get onto dry land, the villain couldn't keep his footing because he kept tripping over rocks and cracks in the Earth. More amusing was the fact that his hair, thin mustache and pointy goatee were gummed up from the moat.

"What's so funny?" Ice King scratched his head and turned towards PB.

King Kandy answered, "We all know the reason why Lord Licorice hasn't been able to take over our country in 50 years despite the dozens of different ways he's tried: The man's notoriously clumsy!"

"Wow, that's worse than me! At least I exercise!" Ice King chuckled in response.

Finn and Jake looked around and noticed that the landscape, once turned brown and bare was now returning to its colorful and full splendor. Apparently, Lord Licorice's defeat had caused this, perhaps due to his whip having been broken and the push into the palace's moat.

With the villain out of the way, and having heard Finn's quick explanation, Princess Bubblegum finally brought the most important question she'd been hoping to ask the king about, "From what Finn's told me, it now occurs to me that this entire country was never part of Ooo to begin with! Can you tell me in any way how this happened?"

The overweight pink-bearded nobleman took a deep breath, and revealed, "You are right, madam, this land is in no way related to this 'Ooo' of which you speak. Last I remember, this place was in a small continent all to itself. In fact, there was not a hint of grass for miles on the outskirts. If I told you what places were nearby, you'd probably relate them to old toy types meant for children. I know for a fact to have been born into nobility in 1946, but on October 7th, 2013 a strange storm happened, and the next thing I know, our calendars read 'AD 2930', and now here we are. I am quite old now, and would like more than anything to be sent back to AD 2013, but I do not know how that can be done."

Then PB smiled, and said, "I have just the thing you need, your highness!"

"You don't mean..." Jake felt uneasy at that statement.

She leaned close to the dog and explained, "Don't worry; I improved it to go exactly where you want it to go! But to teleport a whole country would take a LOT of energy!"

"There are a lot of undetonated nuclear bombs around Ooo. If you safely dismantled one of those and took out its power source, maybe you could provide that energy to do it,*" Finn suggested. (* Inspired by Back to the Future™)

Lady Rainicorn swooped down for PB to mount her, and as the iridescent creature flew back up into the air, the Princess called out, "I will be back with the means to send this country home!"

And with one kick to the side, she and her steed were gone.

Then Queen Frostine approached Ice King, Finn and Jake, and addressed them with impression in her voice, "My, you three are quite a driven bunch. I've never seen anyone take down Lord Licorice like you did. No one has ever had the courage to do so."

"But how come Lord Leekspin hasn't managed to carry out his plans until we showed up, according to that King of yours?" Finn inquired.

"Because until now he's wanted to conquer only this country, but every time the two Twins who would visit every year or so would thwart Lord Licorice's plans, no matter how complex they were," Grandma Nutt explained.

"But now those twins have been missing ever since our country fell out of the sky and landed here in what you call Ooo, and that gave him the advantage to carry out his plans to their full extent," Plumpy added.

"Thanks to you, however, he failed once again; and now our country is safe for the time being," Princess Lolly grinned.

As Finn put his sword away, Candy Land's 6 major citizens gave a round of applause to him, his dog, and Ice King for their triumphs against Lord Licorice – who just so happened to be getting back onto his feet.

He yelled, "Oh please, they only pushed me off the tower and froze my whip! I still have power over you weaklings!" But of course, everyone ignored him.

Mr. Mint chided towards Finn and Jake, "You know, aside from the clothes you have, the two of you seem a lot like the twins in more ways than one. What do you do in that place you came from?"

"We're heroes, sir! I've saved Princess Bubblegum's life many times, and helped lots of people in other places of Ooo!" Finn proudly answered.

"My goodness, I don't think even the real Twins were heroes, they were just lucky visitors!"

Queen Frostine moved closer to Ice King, and – to Finn + Jake's surprise – she kissed him on the forehead for 2 seconds. That left him blushing as deep as a doll's paint, and he sighed as if he'd just won the lottery, "Ahhhh...That's the kind of kiss I've dreamed of for decades! Why couldn't it have been on the lips?"

Then the blue-robed noblewoman breathed deeply and, letting all of her dreams toward more than liking Ice King melt away, she hung her head and did her best not to cry, "Look, I understand that you like me, and I know what being heartbroken feels like – I lost my best friend years ago – But I'm sorry, Ice King. I'm married."

"WHAT?! YOU'RE JOKING!" He almost yelled in shock.

"It's true; I'm bound by royal blood to be married to the King. I'm not called *Queen* Frostine for nothing. If I wasn't born into nobility, I'd marry you in a heartbeat. I'm so sorry, but I'm royally forbidden to marry you, as much as it kills me to say it," she poured out her reasons in emotional pain.

It was then that Ice King turned away, looked Finn straight in the eye, and growled, "If you tell Princess Bubblegum or your friends about any of this, I'll flash-freeze you and Jake on sight, and I don't think either of you will survive. Got that?"

"Yes sir," Finn stammered.

Then the blue-skinned cold-wielder flew off using his beard and magic, leaving Candy Land for good. Jake could just barely make out the sound of him crying, prompting him to say, "Boy, I've never seen him this miserable before. Should we take this into account next time we he kidnaps a princess?"

"I dunno, kidnapping is still a crime, but if he wants someone to love...It's too crazy to grasp at this point," the hero scratched his head in itching confusion.

At this point, Princess Bubblegum had returned, with a machine strapped to her back shaped like a giant battery. Once she hopped off Lady Rainicorn, Finn asked, "How are you going to use that?"

"It needs to be in the center of this country to be able to transport the whole of it. Where would that be?" PB told Finn then asked King Kandy.

"My castle, of course," the regal man gestured toward his domain far ahead from the Licorice Palace.

Conveniently enough, a small roller-coaster-like shuttle appeared on the squared path. Thus, PB, Finn and Jake piled in and rode it straight to the castle. The other citizens decided to return to the entrance path in wait, Ooo's candy people followed them and left for PB's kingdom in silence, and the gummy Princess set that metallic cylinder in the center of the castle, set a date Finn remembered King Kandy had said, October 7th, 2013, and primed the device to send this entire country back to that point in time. PB had known that this plan was fool-proof: If a storm brought this entire chunk of land forward in time, then it would have been ripped from 2013 and brought here. So if that was reversed, it would end right back in wherever it came from. There was no way a time-moving storm could happen again, either. She thought that part of King Kandy's description was a bit off.

Once the time travel machine was activated, they had 3 minutes to clear out and get back to Ooo. PB, Finn and Jake used the shuttle once more to reach the entrance in 1 minute.

Princess Bubblegum sighed as she and her 2 companions turned to face Candy Land's 6 main inhabitants, "So, I guess this is goodbye, huh?"

"I suppose so. I still don't appreciate that little comment you said about me being unfit for royalty," King Kandy pointed out.

"Is that so? Hmm..." Queen Frostine gave a stern look towards her 'husband'.

"Will you remember us?" Jake opened a thought itching ever since PB turned on her time machine.

"Maybe, but it would be best not to, otherwise chaos might loom over this place, if you know what I mean," Mr. Mint shook his head.

"I wish you could've seen what our world is like, but it's not right to bring people from a different time period to a point in the future. It's too weird and awkward," PB sighed.

"I feel your pain," Grandma Nutt nodded.

Queen Frostine suddenly hugged Finn, just as the time-cycle had started, "You know, I thought yesterday that today would be different than any other in the long time we've been home. I was right. Thanks for all you've done for us, Finn and Jake,"

"You're welcome. Although it hasn't felt like much, I feel we've been through more now than any other mission Princess Bubblegum sent us on. This was...FLIPPIN' AWESOME!"

Too soon, the temporal teleport started and sent the entirety of Candy Land back to their own world and time period in a vortex of blinding multicolored light. The 2 adventurers and their 'leader' fleetingly glimpsed the 6 people waving goodbye as that happened.

So they turned away and left, striding slowly through a forest leading back to Candy Kingdom. Finn looked at Princess Bubblegum and inquired, "So, how did you feel about that whole experience?"

"Other than the point where that...*snaps fingers* Lord Licorice shut me up with a fat wannabe king, I'd say it was very impressive; quite an anomaly, but amazing. What about you?"

"It was a dream come true! Those people were humans, and no one around me in Ooo is a real human as far as I know!" He whooped in excitement.

"Oh, I bet there are some real humans around Ooo, you just have to look hard enough," PB comforted the white-hatted adventurer.

Jake added, "I got pretty surprised when Ice King came SO close to finally getting what he wanted. I've never seen him so miserable before. Even if kidnapping princesses is a crime, I feel that someday he'll finally get someone to marry."

"Yeah, that blue Queen who helped us wanted to be with him so badly, too. It almost made me cry," Finn nodded.

"Seems that two people we know here came so close to fulfilling their wishes, but it just slipped through their fingers by a few millimeters. That's very sad, but also gives us hope for what the future will bring, right?" PB evaluated the whole scenario.

"Maybe," Jake took that statement into account.

Finn and Jake waved goodbye to Princess Bubblegum as they parted for the Tree Fort; the former remembering to say a few words about her kingdom's next plans would be, and the latter wanting a good long rest after all the ruckus they've been through. Good thing too, seeing that the sun was on its way to setting. As they walked in, Marceline was just standing up and about to walk out, excusing her secret hangout for, "Hey guys, I just came over to pick up some stuff I need back at the house."

BMO finally turned off her camera feed – having copied Finn + Jake's whole experience to a Blu-Ray disc to watch someday – and turned to speak to her owners, "Hello, Finn and Jake, how did your adventure go?"

"It was better than any other adventure before, that's for sure!" the human cheered.

"Now if you'll excuse us, we need a good long rest," Jake yawned.

"Goodnight, then," BMO smiled as she sat down, knowing Finn couldn't have said better.