Princess Bubblegum didn't understand. She watched as the small baby crawled along the floor, pulling on the drapes and giggling the way babies do. Jake was petting Lady Rainicorn, whispering soothingly into her ear. Lady's eyes were so sad. So painfully, chest-stabbingly sad.
"Its ok baby, everything's gonna be ok." He whispered
Pb couldn't make out what the Rainicorn was saying amidst her sobbing, but it probably wasn't positive. Finn looked at the princess, still confused.
"What happened Peebles?" He asked. The princess only shook her head, and sighed.
"These things happen all the time, Finn. It happens." The human boy still looked confused, but didn't say anything else. He and Bubblegum watched the tiny hybrid chase its own tail.
I should've tried harder.
The thought had surprised her. PB knew she had done her very best, tried her hardest, and went above what she thought herself possible of doing even. But standing there, watching Rainicorn cry silently into her boyfriend's chest, she felt a pang of regret. Of uselessness. It was out of place and strange for her to feel so powerless. She was a master of science, a medical ninja. She'd tried so very hard, but none of it mattered.
None of it mattered.
The effort, the equipment, the time, the money, the staff, the blood, sweat, tears, and pain that went into the whole procedure. And none of it mattered.
Why would it? She thought to herself. I still failed. Failed. The word rang about in her mind like a foreign term. Since when did she fail? Bonnibell Bubblegum was not a failure. She was a successor, a princess, a scientist. She was not a failure. And yet she couldn't look at her best friend and say she wasn't.
Lady didn't deserve this. She was a good, kind, gentle person. For her to suffer such horrors made PB wonder what the Cosmic Owl was thinking. As she looked to the one Rainicorn-puppy hybrid, then to the parents, she felt a pang in her chest. Poor baby. The only one to have survived out of the litter. And it was all Ricardio's fault. It was his fault; he was the one who'd tied Lady in a knot.
No. It was her fault. She couldn't go blaming poor villains for something she'd failed to correct.
Princess Bubblegum never cried. But looking at that one little puppy, the only to have survived out of five, and then looking to Lady and how sad she was made hot tears well up in her eyes, and dribble down her cheeks.
She was a failure.