When Bonnie first has the idea it's not even really an idea so much as a general spirit of scientific inquiry. That happens to her a lot. She just really likes to know things. Marceline had teased her once, back before when their teasing had been good-natured and easy, not mean-spirited like it had been for a long time, or even good-natured, but sometimes a bit careful like it was now, that one day Bonnie would know everything and end up unspeakably bored with nothing left to learn. But honestly, she only enjoy learning in that it meant that she knew more; in this case she was much more concerned with the destination than the journey. If she ever did manage to know everything, then she would be quite pleased to be able to move on to other concerns. Bonnie had told Marceline as much at the time, and Marceline took the mention of "other concerns" as license to distract her thoroughly. Sometimes Bonnie really misses being distracted like that.
This idea that Bonnie has has nothing to do with distractions like that, but it does have a lot to do with Marceline. It happens sometime after the highly unusual dinner party Bonnie attended with Marceline that had been hosted by the Ice King. By Simon. Urgh. Bonnie knows the two are the same person, but to her the Ice King is, well, the Ice King. Simon is the man she'd met inside the crown's labyrinth or the person in the videos Finn and Jake had shown her. There is also a vague sort of idea in the back of her mind of him as the man trying to take care of a sick little girl, but that might just be a dream she had had because of what Marceline has told Bonnie about her relationship with Simon. Marceline thinks of them both as Simon, though, so Bonnie is trying to call him by that name, at least in front of Marceline.
The Ice King – Simon… the Ice King's crown is something that Bonnie has always had an interest in studying. That's true about a lot of things though, and Bonnie doesn't have enough time for all of it, so the crown had been mentally categorized as being more trouble than it was worth as an avenue of intellectual exploration. But that was before the dinner party and before Bonnie had actually gone inside the crown, virtually speaking. She had also taken a lot of scans while she had it – more than strictly necessarily for what they needed to accomplish – so now she has all kinds of information on the crown waiting to be analyzed and understood.
The first thing she does is spread the information out in front of her with no real thought to order, just trying to make sure as much is visible as possible. Then she looks at it all and lets her mind drift.
Sometimes, the majority of the time even, when Bonnie chooses to pursue a particular area of study it's because she has some specific problem she wants to solve. But other times, like now with the crown, she only chooses it because she's interested in knowing about it. On those occasions she always tries to start off by coming up with some sort of question she wants to answer or a task she wants to accomplish with her research. She has found in the past that having a focus for her efforts makes her work pass more efficiently and effectively, and she knows more by the end of it than she would have without one.
So she looks, and she drifts, and questions start to form. First, what was the crown originally created to do? Bonnie has seen what effect it has on Simon, but what of that was intentional and what was unanticipated side-effect? Or was it all intentional? If it was, then what would be the purpose of an artifact that gives you the power to manipulate ice and snow, but also changes your physical appearance and drives you completely bonkers? Then there was the issue of Gunter; she's seen the penguin wear the crown and use its ice magic before, but it hadn't affected his – her? – appearance or mental state. Was that because of the relatively short time Gunter had worn it for, or maybe because Gunter was a penguin? But Sveinn and Gunther had only worn the crown once and was a dinosaur, respectively, and yet the crown had seemingly had the same effect on them as it has Simon, and the way it hadn't Gunter. Why is that? Is there a way to predict who the crown will affect and in what ways? A way to change it? A way to reverse it?
Bonnie's train of thought stops abruptly there. That's the perfect problem to try to tackle. Finding a way to reverse Simon's transformation into the Ice King, without causing him to immediately start dying the way he apparently had the last time the transformation was briefly undone, would necessarily result in Bonnie having a full understanding of how the crown functions by the end of it. Accomplishing that would also mean that neither she nor any of the other princesses would have to deal with the Ice King running around and kidnapping them anymore, which would be a huge bonus. And she's pretty sure it would make Marceline happy.
Bonnie's not really all that good with people. Science is more her forte and people science – that is, psychology, not biology; Bonnie's especially good at biology – is too vague for her tastes, all correlations and bell curves. It can tell you how people behave, in general and most of the time, but it's not all that good at predicting how a person will behave in specific and in a particular situation. Heck, it seems like half the time Bonnie can't even predict how the candy people are going to behave and she knows them better than anything because she made them herself. Maybe Flame Princess is right about her being messed up inside; she doesn't know. She just knows she wants to make Marceline happy, even if she's not sure how to do that half the time, more than half the time, either.
This though, this could do it. Will do it. Marceline loves Simon, she told Bonnie so herself. And Bonnie saw how happy Marceline was in the crown, and that was just because she got a short chance to talk to a computer program of Simon. If Bonnie can bring Simon back to her permanently, that's bound to make her happy. And that is more than reason enough.
Unfortunately, figuring out the crown isn't as easy as Bonnie is expecting it to be. Not that she was expecting it to be easy, exactly, but she wasn't expecting it to be this hard either. The crown is a lovely, elegant, complicated piece of equipment and it's different than anything she's ever seen. And it's not just because it's an unfamiliar piece of tech. Because sure, if you open up a toaster the inside of it isn't going to look anything like the inside of a computer, but most all technology was created by basing it on what came before, so the toaster and the computer are still related, distantly. This is true for both pre- and post-War technology, mostly because the majority of post-War technology was originally made using the pre-War stuff as a basis; Bonnie would know. But this crown doesn't seemed to be related to anything else out there, not to mention that Bonnie knows for a fact it's a pre-War artifact, but magic had clearly been used in its construction, which was basically unheard of before the war. And don't even get her started on these gemstones. She doesn't have the first clue what they are yet, but they certainly aren't normal rubies.
Bonnie hears the door open and she waves impatiently in that direction, not looking away from her computer screen. "I told you P-But, I'm fine."
"I'm definitely not Peppermint Butler."
"Marceline," Bonnie says in surprise, turning to watch as Marcy pulled a stool up to the side of Bonnie's desk and sat down. There's a bowl near Bonnie's right hand that Peppermint Butler had brought in a few hours ago. She doesn't remember eating the berries and sliced fruit that had been in it, but she must have because now all that's left is a handful of strawberry tops. Marceline grabs one to suck the red out of the last bit of berry. "What are you doing here?"
"What, I'm not allowed to stop by for a visit?" Marceline asks. She tosses the strawberry stem back into the bowl and reaches for another. "I'm hurt."
"Of course you can come by for a visit, whenever you want." Marceline is even still welcome to come live with Bonnie if she wants to, though she has yet to take Bonnie up on that offer, and the sensible part of Bonnie can admit she's probably right not to yet. Still, Bonnie never wanted to imply Marceline isn't welcome here. "I wasn't trying to– I only meant-"
"Bonnie," Marceline says and there is a hint of laughter to her voice and a crinkling around her eyes. Oh. She had only been teasing. Bonnie feels her mouth tug into a scowl that's really probably more of a pout. Marceline grins back sunnily and pokes Bonnie in the cheek. Then her eyes trail up from Bonnie's lips to her eyes, and Marceline smile drops off. "Whoa, those are some bags there. When's the last time you slept?"
"A little while ago," Bonnie says dismissively. She can't remember exactly, but she hasn't started to hallucinate yet so it couldn't have been that long.
"Pepper says you've been in here for four days. I assumed you were catching some z's here at your desk, but I guess you've been catching less than I thought," Marceline says.
"I'm fine," Bonnie replies.
Marceline frowns at her, but doesn't answer right away. Her digging in the fruit bowl uncovers a raspberry that Bonnie must have overlooked and Marceline drinks the red out of it before offering the now ashy grey berry to Bonnie. Bonnie crinkles her nose. "Food always tastes weird after you suck the red out." Marceline is undeterred though, so Bonnie sighs and opens her mouth and Marceline pops the berry in. It doesn't taste bad really, just weird.
"We've talked about this," Marceline says, and it takes Bonnie a moment to realize she was back on the no sleeping thing. Bonnie had kind of hoped the food would have distracted her. "You've got to make time for your personal pizza, remember? That includes stuff like sleeping and eating enough too."
"But this is personal pizza stuff," Bonnie protests.
"Really," Marceline says, and she sounds skeptical, but also like she's willing to be convinced. Bonnie knows that Marceline still doesn't really understand Bonnie's fascination with science, and she probably never will, but she is trying to be more understanding of it. Bonnie is trying to be more understanding of the things that were important to Marceline that Bonnie doesn't get too, and to not seem so judgmental. They're both trying really hard, which is so very different than last time when it was all rush and excitement and hormones. Everything was easy back then, including falling apart. This way is a lot more work, but it's also a lot better, Bonnie thinks.
"Really," she affirms, then relents a little. "I think it is. It's not for me exactly, but if going to Ic- Simon's dinner party for you counted as personal pizza, this should too."
Marceline sucks in a little gasp that sounds positively elated. "Are you making me a present?"
"Sort of," Bonnie says. She changes the screen on her computer so it's showing the basic overview blueprint of the crown and then turns it so Marcy can see.
Marceline reaches a hesitant hand out toward the screen, but she knows better than to actually touch it. "That's Simon's crown," she says.
"Yeah. I thought maybe I could fix it, get him back to normal," Bonnie says a bit hesitantly. She knows, knows that Marceline is going to like this, but now that she has to tell her, Bonnie is ridiculously nervous.
Marceline's stool clatters to the ground in her haste to wrap her arms around Bonnie. "Thank you. I don't even care if you can't pull it off; just thank you."
Bonnie hugs her back tightly. "You care," Bonnie accuses, but gently.
"Yeah I do," Marceline admits easily as she releases Bonnie. "I care like a whole heck of a lot. But even if you can't, I'll still care a lot that you tried."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Bonnie says, but she smiles so Marceline will know she's only teasing.
"Are you kidding? I've got so much confidence in you. You're the smartest person I know," Marceline tells her, and Bonnie feels a warm glow well up inside her. "Just don't tell Simon I said that."
"Your secret's safe-" Bonnie begins, but then has to stop to let out a jaw-cracking yawn.
"You know I'd have even more confidence in you if you got some sleep," Marceline says.
"In a bit. I've got work to do," Bonnie says, gesturing at the computer.
"Do it tomorrow. Simon's waited this long, he can wait one more day." Marceline grabs hold of Bonnie's wrist and pulls her up out of her chair. "Come on, I'm taking you to bed."
Bonnie doesn't say anything in response to that, just raises her eyebrows and lets her expression do the talking. It still takes Marceline a few seconds to realize what, exactly, she's just said. "I didn't mean it like that," she stammers, a blush rising up on her cheeks.
I'm gonna drink the red from your pretty pink face.
The words rise up unbidden in Bonnie's head. She still thinks it was a somewhat tasteless thing to say in front of Jake and especially Finn and BMO, but she can't say that she doesn't understand the sentiment. "It would be okay if you did, I think. Mean it like that."
Marceline stares at her for a long moment, her expression completely unreadable. Finally she shakes her head a little and says gently, "You need sleep."
"I mean it," Bonnie insists. She always means the things she says, even if she only rarely says all the things she means.
"I know you do. But you also said you think. We can wait until you know; I know how much you love knowing things," says Marceline.
Bonnie smiles at her, then twists her hand in Marceline's so she can lace their fingers together. "That sounds good too. Better. Alright, lead…" She yawns again. Bonnie really is very tired now that she thinks about it. "Lead the way."
It takes a lot longer than just one more day to figure the crown out, of course. She might have gotten it done faster, but after Marceline's first visit Bonnie tries to be more diligent about giving her brain a break from the problem every once in a while, and making sure she's getting enough sleep. Then there are her duties to the Candy Kingdom that she has to attend to, and even with cutting down to the bare minimum and leaving the rest for later, that stuff still takes up a good bit of time. And then Marceline continues to drop by sporadically, sometimes just to check in, but other times she'll grab Bonnie by the wrist a drag her off to do something, saying "one more day."
In fact it's another month and a half before Bonnie is confident that she has a handle on how most of the technological components function. Or at least as good an understanding as she can have when the magical parts of the crown still baffle her. This is partially her own fault, since she had never really been interested in studying the field of magic, but she would also argue it's partially the fault of magic users everywhere, since most the time they can barely be bothered to understand the intricacies of their craft themselves, much less to explain it to an outsider. Still, she feels like she has a good enough understanding of the basics of the subject that it really ought to make more sense than it does.
Finally Bonnie admits to herself that she needs help and takes her data to the Grand Master Wizard. He takes one look at it and instantly proclaims, "Dang, Princess Bubblegum. What are you doing messing around with wish magic? Really powerful wish magic."
Wish magic, of course! That would explain why Bonnie could only find traces of cold magic inside the crown's programming, and not in the areas she would have expected to find it either. It wasn't designed to be an ice crown, it was designed to be a crown that grants the user's wish. And apparently Simon had wished for ice magic and to be crazy. Huh, that didn't make a whole lot of sense. But oh! If it was wish magic then that would explain that circuit here that had been puzzling her, and why this here hooked up to that over there and…
"Seriously Princess, this is some real serious wiz biz. Wish magic is one of the most powerful and dangerous of all kinds of magic," the Grand Master Wizard says.
"So it's dark magic?" Bonnie asks. She hadn't gotten that vibe at all while studying the crown, but in this case she isn't technically the expert.
The Grand Master Wizard peers in closer at the printouts she brought as though to check, but he's already shaking his head from the moment she asks the question. "There is dark wish magic out there, but that's stuff predictable; it just wants to turn everything to evil. This here is true neutral wish magic. It looks inside the user's heart and grants the wish it find there, exactly as it is. What did you say this was for, again?"
"I didn't," Bonnie replies smartly, gathering up her papers. "Thank you for your help."
"Seriously princess, be careful with that stuff," the Grand Master Wizard says.
"I'm always careful," Bonnie retorts, but the Grand Master Wizard doesn't look convinced. Okay, so maybe she isn't always as completely careful as she could be. But this is important. She would be careful.
Things go faster once she knows what she's working with. Her somewhat tenuous grasp on the magics involved means that there are still parts that she doesn't fully understand, but now she at least knows enough to work around what she doesn't know without causing disaster. She also can tell now what Betty was trying to do with her virus, how she was attempting to change the code of the wish imbedded into the crown's programming, eliminating the parts making him crazy and changing his appearance while leaving the ice magic – the very core of the wish as best Bonnie could tell – and the increased lifespan untouched. What Bonnie can't sort out is what made Betty's attempts go so horribly wrong. She best not try changing the wish piecemeal like that then, though that leaves the question of what she can do to fix it.
The answer comes to her in a fit of inspiration and she throws herself into her work, figuring out how exactly to achieve the results she wants and making absolutely sure that there's no way it can back-fire. The solution is a staggeringly simple one – that's probably why it hadn't occurred to her or Betty earlier – and it's only a matter of hours before she's calling Marceline up.
"Bonnie?" Marceline says, her voice heavy with sleep.
"Oh sorry, did I wake you?" Bonnie asks.
"You didn't check the time before you called, did you?" Marceline says by way of answer.
Bonnie checks the time now, then winces a bit. Seven in the morning which, give Marceline's habit of staying up and sleeping in late, is pretty much right in the middle of the night for her. "Sorry," she repeats.
"It's fine. Tell me your big news," says Marceline.
"How do you know I have big news?"
"Why else would you be calling me this early?"
"Good point," Bonnie acknowledges. "How quickly can you get over here with Simon and his crown?"
There's the sound of rustling fabric in the background and Bonnie can see Marceline in her mind's eye, abruptly sitting up in bed. "Have you…?"
"I need to run a few more tests once I have the physical crown to work with, not just the simulations I've created, but yeah, I think I have it."
"We'll be there in an hour. Forty-five minutes."
Bonnie laughs a little. "What happened to Simon being able to wait one more day?"
"Bonnie," Marceline whines.
"Yeah, I know. Why do you think I called you at seven in the morning?"
"Because you're a nerd that gets so caught up in her science projects she forgets that us mere mortals have to sleep sometimes," Marceline retorts.
"You're not a mortal," Bonnie says. And she is terribly, selfishly glad for that.
Marceline huffs out an annoyed breath like she thinks Bonnie's missed the point – she hasn't, she just got caught on a more important one – and says, "Forty-five minutes," before hanging up.
To be honest, Bonnie's not entirely certain that Marceline can actually fly from her house to the Ice Kingdom to pick up Simon – this is too important for Marceline to call him up and just hope that the Ice King won't get distracted on the way over – and from there to the Candy Kingdom in forty-five minutes. Still, she's never done herself any good by underestimating a determined Marceline, so forty-five minutes is what she gives herself. She asks Peppermint Butler to make breakfast for her and eats it after a thirty minute catnap, then changes into fresh clothes and is back in her lab and waiting forty-eight minutes later when Marceline, carrying an old suit and a pair of round glasses, and the Ice King show up.
"I still don't understand why we're here," the Ice King complains.
"I told you, we're here because PB's got a surprise for you," Marceline says.
Bonnie raises her eyebrows a bit, but takes the explanation in stride. It would probably be more trouble than it's worth to try to explain what she's doing to the Ice King. "And I'm going to need your crown," she says, holding her hand out for it.
The Ice King takes a few steps back and eyes her suspiciously. "What do you need my crown for?"
"For your surprise," Bonnie answers.
"C'mon Simon. Here, I'll trade you. You let Bonnie see your crown, and I'll give you one of these," Marceline says, holding her arms open.
Simon eagerly accepts the hug, but afterwards rather than giving the crown to Bonnie he says, "And a kiss?" Marceline rolls her eyes at him, but still darts in to plant a quick kiss on his cheek. Then while he's distracted by that, she knocks the crown off his head with one hand, catches it with the other, and tosses it lightly over to Bonnie, who immediately starts hooking it up into her equipment. The Ice King protests this, but Bonnie doesn't pay him any mind beyond noting that Marceline is keeping him distracted.
The tests don't take too long, about twenty minutes and then another fifteen to run them all again. She wants to be absolutely sure when she does this, or at least as sure as she can be under the circumstances. Ultimately, a large part of this isn't up to her, which Bonnie does not care for. But still, this is the best, most likely to work option she can think of, so there isn't another choice. She would just have to have faith in Marceline. And really, that isn't that hard to do.
Bonnie clears her throat and Marceline's head immediately jerks over to look at her. "Is it ready?"
"I'm ready to get started, but I need to walk you through what's going to happen first," Bonnie says.
"Wait, don't ruin the surprise," the Ice King objects.
"It's not really a surprise," Bonnie mutters.
But Marceline is already reassuring him. "Bonnibel isn't going to spoil anything. But if it bothers you that much you can always cover your ears. Just don't… hum," she says, the last word faltering as the Ice King covers his ears and starts singing to himself. Loudly.
"Well, he isn't humming," Bonnie notes dryly. Marceline shoots her a look.
Marceline grabs one of the Ice King's arms and pulls it away from his ear. "A little quieter, please? Me and Bonnie still need to talk. And to be able to hear ourselves think." He agrees, then covers his ear again and starts singing at about half the volume that he had been. Which still couldn't be called quiet, but it isn't completely obnoxious at least. Marcy tosses her a shrug and gestures the Ice King into an open chair before coming back over to Bonnie. "So?" she prompts.
"The first thing you need to know is that this is not a crown made to give someone ice powers. This crown was made with wish magic," Bonnie tells her.
Marceline shakes her head. "There's no way that crown grants wishes. Because I know what Simon would wish for and it isn't that," she says, gesturing over at the Ice King.
It's Bonnie's understanding that Simon didn't lose his fiancée until sometime after he put on the crown, but she thinks that's probably not a good thing to point out. "I thought it was a bit weird too, and it turns out you're kind of right. The crown doesn't grant wishes, it grants a wish. Specifically it grants the wish of the first person to wear it."
"Gunther?" He wished to be a crazy ice magic user?" Marceline says, sounding like she believes it only slightly more than she had when it was Simon supposedly making the wish.
Bonnie shrugs. "Well somebody did anyway; it doesn't really matter who. The point is that it wasn't Simon. He just got stuck with it when he put on the crown and became its new bearer."
"So what, you're going to go into the crown and change the wish?" Marceline guesses.
"Oh, no no no no no," Bonnie says. "The programs in this crown are mondo complicated, not to mention they're not like anything else I've worked with before. I could maybe figure out how to reprogram it with enough time and if I could play around a little bit, but this isn't exactly the kind of thing I want to use trial and error on. Especially not after what happened last time. No, I'm not going to reprogram the crown; I'm just going to reset it."
"What do you mean by that?" Marceline asks.
"Like I said, the crown has the wish of its first bearer stored in it. So if I restore the crown back to the state it was in before that person put it on, then that'll delete the wish from the crown entirely," Bonnie explains.
"But what happens to everyone in the crown if you do that?"
Marceline sounds a bit upset, and Bonnie knows that she had formed some kind of bond with Gunther, plus she was weirdly excited about the Santa thing, which Bonnie still doesn't get even after Marceline tried to explain it to her, so Bonnie attempts to be gentle. "All their programs were created after the crown was used for the first time, so when I reset the crown to delete the wish, they're going to get deleted too."
"You're going to kill them?" Marceline screeches. So much for gentle.
"What? Who's killing who?" the Ice King asks, Marceline's question having apparently been loud enough to hear over his singing.
"Nobody's killing anybody. They're just getting deleted," Bonnie says.
"What's the difference, princess? Or do you just not care because they aren't one of your little candy people?" Marceline demands.
"Don't be ridiculous. This has nothing to do with them not being candy people because they aren't people at all. They are computer programs. The people they used to be died a long time ago," Bonnie says.
"Simon is not a computer program and he is not dead!"
"Yeah, and he's also not in the crown, ya dingus. He's in there and I've been working for over two months trying to save him for you!" Bonnie shouts. Then she does a double take when she realizes the chair that she's pointing at is empty. "Ice King, where are you going?"
The Ice King freezes in the doorway. "You guys seem like you're busy, so I was just going to…" He trails off, pointing with both thumbs down the hall.
Marceline sighs heavily. "It's alright Simon, you don't have to leave. Bonnie and I are done fighting anyway."
"We are?" Bonnie says, surprised.
"Yeah, you're right. I need to focus on helping Simon, not on these other dudes. They're just computer programs after all, right?" Marceline says.
"Right." Bonnie chews on the inside of her lip for a moment, then says, "You know, I've mostly figured out what parts of this are the personality programs. It would take a bit longer to sort it all out and prep somewhere to put them, but I could probably import copies of the programs into a different system before I reset the crown. If you think Simon can wait one more day."
Marceline smiles at her. "I think he can. I think he'd appreciate that, actually."
"Hey, I'm right here you guys. You don't have to talk about me like I'm not in the room," the Ice King objects.
"Well then, what do you think?" Marceline asks Simon.
"I think I don't have a clue what's going on right now. I just wanted to be included," he says.
"Of course we're including you; that's why you're here," Marceline assures him. She turns to Bonnie and says, "He'll wait until after you're done doing your thing with the people programs."
"Alright," Bonnie says. Then, "I'm sorry I called you a dingus."
"It's fine," Marceline says easily. Bonnie finds herself looking at Marceline intently, searching for some sign that she is telling the truth. Because Bonnie might always mean the things she says, but Marceline sometimes just says things, especially when she's trying to avoid a fight. Or start one.
"Really," Marceline insists. "It's no big d, PB." She comes in a little to Bonnie, acting like it's so she can look at the ticker printout hooked up to the crown. But since Marceline has said before that she doesn't understand anything on there, the real reason has to be so she can give Bonnie's hip a friendly bump with her own. Bonnie shoots a small smile at her and Marceline smiles back. "So you reset the crown, and then what? Will that fix everything?"
"Probably not by itself, no," Bonnie acknowledges. "To be honest I'm not entirely sure what will happen after I reset the crown. I don't know how much ontological inertia wish magic has."
"How much onto-what?" the Ice King asks.
Bonnie rolls her eyes at him. She kind of wants to ask him if he's changed his mind about having his "surprise" spoiled, but she really doesn't want to listen to him singing again, so she leaves it be. "Ontological inertia. Basically I don't know how much the wish is dependent on the crown to keep it going. It's possible that resetting the crown might result in something similar to what happened with Bella Noche. Or, if the wish is capable of sustaining itself aside from needing the rubies as a power source, then resetting it won't actually have any appreciable effect."
"Neither of those sound like things that we want," Marceline says.
"Of course not. That's where you come in."
"Me?" Marceline echoes.
"After I've deleted the wish from the crown, that'll leave an opening for it to accept a new wish. You put it on and poof, Simon's back to normal," Bonnie explains.
"Shouldn't you do that part too? I mean, you'd be way better at focusing on the wish than I would," Marceline says.
"It's not about focusing on your wish. It probably won't hurt to do that, but it's really the wish magic that's going to do all the work. It'll look into your heart, pull out your deepest desire, and grant it."
"It what? I definitely don't think I can do that," Marceline says.
"Like I said, you don't have to do anything, except wear the crown. Is that what you're freaking out about, putting the crown on? I promise it's not dangerous."
"What are you talking about, Bubblegum? Wish magic is mad dangerous, yo," the Ice King says.
"Well yes, there are some inherent risks to wish magic, but it really seems to be only as dangerous as the person wishing. You'll be fine, Marceline," Bonnie says.
"You don't understand. I'm not scared about putting the crown on. I can't do it because I'm not sure that saving Simon is my deepest desire," Marceline says.
Bonnie wasn't expecting that. Marceline loves Simon and is beyond messed up about what's happened to him. She has gotten better about it lately, but for a long time there she'd been so messed up and trying to avoid the whole thing so thoroughly that it had made Bonnie think that Marceline hated the Ice King more than any of the other princesses combined. A person doesn't try that hard to get away from someone unless they feel a whole lot for them. Bonnie would know.
"If fixing him isn't your deepest desire, then what is?" she asks, completely bewildered.
"I don't know. And maybe it is. I love Simon and I really want him to get better and I want to be able to help him, I just… He's not the only thing I want to fix," Marceline says. She makes imploring eye contact with Bonnie and then suddenly breaks it off, adding in a quieter voice, "He's not the only one I love."
Oh. For a moment Bonnie's brain just stops. It isn't that they haven't said that to each other before, it's just, well, they had only said it before, before everything had come crumbling down. And even once they'd started drifting back into each other's orbit, they hadn't said it again. Until now. "I…"
"Wait a second, Marceline are you dating someone?" the Ice King interrupts, effectively breaking the tension in the room by being completely oblivious to it. "I thought you told me you didn't have a boyfriend."
"I did tell you that. I'm surprised you remember," Marceline replies, regaining her composure a lot quicker and more smoothly than Bonnie does.
"Remember what?" the Ice King says and Marceline just laughs at him.
That's the most annoying thing about the Ice King to Bonnie, aside from all the kidnapping that is. He couldn't even focus enough to have just a normal conversation half the time. Bonnie tries to subject herself to it as little as possible, and it still manages to wear her patience down to nothing whenever she has to deal with it. But Marceline doesn't look annoyed, maybe a little exasperated, but mostly she just looks fond. The Ice King has completely forgotten what they were talking about literally less than five seconds ago, but Marceline loves Simon so much it doesn't bother her. Bonnie can't possibly compete with that. Right?
Bonnie touches Marceline lightly on the shoulder to get her attention. "I still think having you put on the crown is our best shot. This is something that you've wanted for a really long time, isn't it, so I'm sure that'll sway the wish magic. Besides it's not like there's anyone else who can do it."
Marceline's eyes go wide. "No, there is someone else who can do it, someone perfect for the job. I'm going to go get her, you guys just wait here for me. I'll be back as quick as I can," she says before flying out the door at high speeds.
"Where's she running off to?" the Ice King asks.
"I don't," Bonnie begins, then stops when she realizes who "her" must be. Huh. Well, it wouldn't have occurred to Bonnie as a solution, since she's pretty sure that that woman is totally nutso, but there's no denying her devotion to Simon. She could probably do it actually. "Marceline's gone to get someone else to help with your surprise," Bonnie tells the Ice King.
"Wow, you guys are really going all out. I guess that means you're into me," he says, waggling his eyebrows in what was probably supposed to be a suggestive manner.
"Marceline loves you," Bonnie says, which is explanation enough for both their behavior as far as she's concerned. Bonnie turns her attention back to her readouts. "Now go bug someone else; I've got work to do."
It takes her two and a half days to sort out moving all the personality programs over to a new computer system. She might have gotten it done faster, but she wanted to make sure the system she imported them to was VR compatible. She'd also moved the remnants of Betty's virus over, which had been more than a bit of headache and she's still going to need to go back later to clean up the coding on that program.
The Ice King stays in her castle for the duration, partially because Bonnie wants him to be close by when Marceline gets back, and mostly because he refuses to leave. Bonnie has Peppermint Butler stick him in a guest room on the far side of the castle from her own room and her labs, not that that in any way stops him from coming around to bother her whenever he feels like it.
He's doing just that on the end of the fifth day after Marceline left while Bonnie is studying the crown some more to make absolutely sure there's no way to force the wish magic to do what she wants it to so she doesn't have to put up with him anymore, when Marceline returns with Betty in tow. "Sorry it took me so long. I was hoping Betty might be staying in Magic Man's old place, but she wasn't so I had to go find her."
Betty's eyes immediately go to the Ice King as she walks in the room and Bonnie imagines she can see something like affection in her gaze under the crazy. Then Betty spots the crown and she freaks out. "You can't have Simon's crown," she shrieks, yanking the thing out of Bonnie's equipment and clutching it to her chest. She floats up in the air, like she's trying to make sure no one else can get their hands on it. "Who the math are you, anyway?"
"Hello there, beautiful," the Ice King says. "It's me, the Ice King. You kidnapped my penguin that one time and stole my crown, remember?" It's pretty clear from the way he's acting that, aside from the crown stealing incident, he doesn't remember Betty, and Marceline is visibly distressed. Bad enough that Bonnie wants to do something to help, though she's not really sure what, and it doesn't really seem smart to risk doing anything with a crazy magic user still glaring at her.
"I know who you are, Simon," Betty says dismissively. "What I don't know is who this is and why she had your crown."
"Oh that's my on-again, off-again gf Princess Bubblegum. Don't worry, we're definitely off right now," the Ice King says.
Things go downhill quickly from there.
Betty makes is very clear that, in addition to not caring for the fact that Bonnie has the Ice King's crown, she does not care for the fact that Bonnie was trying to fix the thing – that's apparently Betty's sole prerogative – she does not care for the description of Bonnie as the Ice King's girlfriend, and she just generally does not care for Bonnie at all. Anything that Bonnie says to try and defuse the situation only makes it worse. Marceline tries too, and while Betty doesn't seem to completely hate Marceline, she's not open to listening to her either. From what Bonnie can gather, Marceline got Betty to come by telling her that she knew how Betty could save Simon, and that Marceline had omitted that it would be a team effort is tantamount to a betrayal. So, of the three of them, Simon is the only one that Betty seems like she might be willing to be somewhat swayed by, and for his part Simon does want the three of them to get along. All that might be helpful, if the Ice King actually prioritized them getting along over giving Betty whatever she wanted.
They might have argued indefinitely, but then Marceline makes a comment about loving Simon, which moves her from being an untrustworthy ally to another enemy in Betty's eyes. "That's it; we're leaving," Betty says, swooping down to grab the Ice King.
"Stop!" Marceline screeches, her face going bat-like and monstrous for a moment as she darts in-between the Ice King and Betty. "No one is trying to steal Simon from you. I love him, but like he's my dad. And he's definitely not Bonnie's type because she's my girlfriend. We all care about Simon and we all want to help him. And I know you love him too much to let your stupid crazy-brain get in the way of that. So you are going to give that crown back to Bonnie right now, and we are going to work together to save him."
"I…" Betty says, then makes a pained noise. She curls up in the fetal position in the air, still clutching the crown like it's a stuffed animal or a baby blanket.
"Hey, hey," Simon says, stepping out from behind Marceline and reaching up to pat on Betty's foot – the only part of her he could reach. "It's okay. Marceline is super cool, so if she thinks letting Bubblegum borrow the crown is a good idea then it is. Or we can get out of here if you want to. Whatever you want because you're my favorite."
Betty floats there for another long moment, before she quietly says, "Okay." She drifts over to Bonnie and hands her the crown.
"Thank you," Bonnie says, but Betty just gives her a sour look. She still doesn't care for Bonnie apparently. "I need just a minute to reset the crown, then you'll be able to do the honors."
It actually takes almost ten minutes, one and a half to reset the crown and then almost another eight to figure out the stupid audio code to activate it. "Alright, now you need to put the crown on Betty, and when you do I want you to focus" – Marceline makes a brief sound like she wants to protest, but then she falls silent – "on your wish for Simon to return to how he was before the magic affected him." Marceline is right that the wish the magic chooses to grant can't be changed by focusing, but Bonnie hopes she might be able to get Betty to refine the shape of the wish by focusing, because if the wish doesn't get encoded in just the right way, then phase two of Bonnie's plan will never work. Anyway, like Bonnie said before, it can't hurt to focus.
Betty snatches the crown away from Bonnie, throws her hat off, and places the crown on her head. For a half a second nothing happens, then Simon lets out a pained moan and collapses to ground.
"Simon!" Marceline cries, rushing to help him. Betty darts in close as well, only to dart away again just as quick when Simon's head comes up and he looks… normal. He looks completely back to normal, just like he did when they saw the version of him in the crown, minus the glasses and the different clothes.
"What happened? Where am I?" Simon asks dazedly.
"You're back, Simon. You're back," Marceline says as she brings him to his feet.
"Marceline," Simon says, his voice warm. "And…" He turns to Betty, and hesitantly, almost like he doesn't believe what he's seeing is real, he reaches out to her. She hesitates as well, then slowly begins moving in his direction. She stops some distance away, but she's still just close enough for Simon to go up on his toes and place his hand on her cheek. The two of them are completely caught up in staring at each other and Marceline is completely rapt watching the both of them. Perfect.
As quickly as she can without drawing attention to herself, Bonnie walks across the room over to them, grabs the crown off of Betty's head, and plonks it down on Simon's. Marceline reacts immediately, reaching up with a closed fist and literally punching the crown off of him. But as quick as Marceline is, the wish magic is much, much quicker.
Betty falls the last foot and a half to the ground with a thud, her knees buckling as gravity reasserts itself. "Betty?" Simon says, alarmed. He shakes off Marceline's support and reaches out for Betty once again.
Betty's head snaps up. Her eyes are completely clear of their former madness and they instinctively seek out Simon's. There is a single charged moment when Simon and Betty are still just looking at each other, then Betty launches herself up, wrapping her arms around Simon's neck and kissing him soundly.
"We should probably give them a few minutes," Bonnie says softly to Marceline, drawing her away back over to Bonnie's desk.
Marceline clutches onto Bonnie's arm tightly, her expression bright and just a bit accusatory, though the latter might be a projection of Bonnie's worried mind. "Why didn't you tell me you were going to fix Betty too?"
"It didn't even occur to me to try it until after you left to get Betty, and it wasn't like we had a lot of time to talk about it after you got back," Bonnie says. She certainly wasn't going to bring it up while Betty was right there; who knows how Magic Woman would have reacted to being told she needed to be fixed. "Besides, I was worried you'd freak out if I told you I wanted to put the crown back on Simon after he was normal again."
"I wouldn't have freaked out," Marceline protests.
"You punched it off his head," Bonnie says. She glances over at the crown, now resting on its side against the wall. She probably ought to go pick it up and put it somewhere safe. It's not all that dangerous anymore, but it is pretty valuable. With the new wish it's programed with, it could be used to break all sorts of curses and magical damage. It would be like the new true love's kiss except more effective, since most magic users have managed to eliminate that particular loophole from their curses by now. Or she could just chuck it in a drawer somewhere for the next century or so and once Simon's no longer around and needing its magic to keep him going, she could give it to the Fire Kingdom for target practice. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea; Marceline would probably like it.
"Okay, so maybe I have a bit of an instinctive negative reaction to seeing the crown on Simon, but I would have let you do it if you said it was important. I trust you," Marceline says.
"I trust you too," Bonnie says, lightly brushing her fingers against Marceline's waist. Marceline leans into Bonnie. Marcy's still watching Betty and Simon, who are holding one another and speaking to each other softly, seems content.
Simon turns, keeping one arm around Betty so she's drawn up tightly to his side. "Marcy, come on over here. I'm not leaving you out this time."
Marceline pulls away from Bonnie instantly, leaving Bonnie's side feeling cold and bereft. She can't be upset though, not when she watches Marceline bond across the room and throw her arms around the Betty and Simon. Bonnie thinks Betty looks a little surprised, but they both hug her back. "I can't believe you're finally really back. And not dying. …You aren't dying, right?"
"Nope. I feel as fit as a horse," Simon tells her.
Bonnie goes back to her notes; she can start getting everything organized to be filed, now that this experiment is an unqualified success. And that'll give her something to do while the other three are getting re-acquainted. She'll join them later, maybe over dinner. Oh, that reminds her, she needs to let Peppermint Butler know she's going to be having guests tonight. She sends a quick page asking to come meet them in the lab; Betty and Simon should pick what they want for dinner, since they're the guests of honor.
Someone clears their throat, and Bonnie looks up to see Betty looming over her. Oh Glob. Granted, she doesn't look mad and she's almost certainly not insane anymore, but given that Betty had all but hated Bonnie not too long ago, Bonnie's really not looking forward to how this conversation is going to go. And she's really not expecting it when Betty hugs her.
It's an awkward hug, not just because Bonnie hadn't been expecting it either, and it ends quickly. "And that's why I'm not much of a hugger," Betty says.
Bonnie finds herself involuntarily looking over at Simon – she'd certainly seemed fond enough of physical affection with him. "Yeah, but that's Simon," Betty says in answer to the unasked question. "Simon is, well he's Simon."
Bonnie's gaze drifts from Simon over to Marceline before she looks back at Betty. "I get that."
"I did want to thank you for managing to reprogram the crown, though. Actually," Betty says, leaning over to look at Bonnie's work, "I would be interested in knowing how you did it. I guess my attempts went wrong somehow." Betty does look genuinely interested, like she's reading and taking in what Bonnie's written and not just looking at it for show. It's kind of nice.
"To be honest with you, I'm not entirely sure what went wrong with your program either. I have a copy of it saved on another computer system. We could look it over later together later if you like. Between the two of us, maybe we can figure out what the problem was," Bonnie suggests, and Betty nods and even seems pleased by the idea.
"As far as how I managed to reprogram the crown, I didn't," Bonnie continues. "I just reset it back to its base state and let the wish magic do the work."
"Of course," Betty says. "Wasn't that a risk, though? Mess up the wish and you might unmake reality as we know it."
"Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be giving that crown to someone like Sweet P or, ugh, the King of Ooo, but for the most part I don't think unmaking reality is something anyone needs to be worried about." Bonnie finds her eyes straying once again over to Marceline. It's hard to look away from her just now, what with how animated she is while talking to Simon and how bright, almost like she's glowing. "Most people's deepest desires are simpler than that."
"I suppose you're right," Betty says and from the corner of her eye Bonnie can see her looking in the same direction. "Simpler and a whole lot more complicated."
Bonnie snorts. "You're telling me."
"No, you asked if I had a boyfriend. I don't," Marceline is saying to Simon.
"Ah, you're right. You're too smart for me, Marcy," Simon says, ruffling her hair. Marceline bats his hands away and glares at him, but coming from someone so good at glaring when she wants to be this one is largely ineffective. That's mostly because of the way she's grinning, sharp-fanged and pleased. "But you still could have told me. Also, I feel like I should probably apologize; I think I might have kidnapped your girlfriend a lot."
"Yes, I want to hear more about this kidnapping thing you've been doing," Betty says. Her hands are on her hips and her tone is stern, but there is an amused glint in her eyes, and Bonnie thinks that most of the anger is put on. Most of it.
"I was out of my head, love," Simon says, coming over to take both of Betty's hands in his. "I don't remember it all that well, but I'm pretty sure the only thing on my mind was that I had to find my princess and marry her."
"You," Betty says, shaking her head in fond exasperation, then she leans in and kisses him.
"You're still my favorite," Simon says to her afterward.
"I better be," Betty replies.
Just then Peppermint Butler enters the room. "You called for me?" he says, faltering a little at the sight of two people he doesn't recognize.
"Peppermint Butler, you know Simon and his fiancée Betty," Bonnie says.
With any of the other candy people Bonnie would have to spell it out, possibly twice, but Pepbut takes just a few moments before comprehension dawns. "Of course."
"I was thinking we could all have dinner together," Bonnie says to the other three before addressing Betty and Simon directly. "I don't know what plans the two of you have, but you're welcome to stay in the Candy Kingdom for as long as you like."
"Thank you. Staying at least for just tonight might be a good idea. I'm not really sure what's going to happen to the Ice Kingdom now, but personally I'd like to put off dealing with it until morning," Simon replies, wincing at the thought.
He looks at Betty and she nods. "That sounds great, thanks. And dinner too."
"We'll make it," Marceline says, coming over to grab Bonnie's arm and hold it up in the air. "Me and Bon can make dinner for all of us while Pepper takes the two of you to your room and you get settled in." Bonnie blinks a couple times. Her plan was to have Peppermint Butler make dinner while Marceline helped Simon and Betty settle in and Bonnie worked on putting some more things away, but she supposes that Marceline's suggestion could work fine too.
Peppermint Butler clears his throat. "Will our guests want to continue staying in the Coral Room, or –"
Marceline interrupts him. "Put them in one of the bedrooms on the third floor."
Bonnie shoots Marceline an amused glance before backing her up. "The Lavender Room." It's the nicest of the rooms in that corridor except maybe the Cobalt Room, but Bonnie thinks that Simon might have had enough of the color blue for a while. "And could you bring them Simon's glasses and things from the Coral Room as well?"
"Certainly," Peppermint Butler agrees.
"Great. We'll come get you guys when dinner's ready. Say in one, two hours," Marceline says.
"Two hours? That's kind of a long-" Betty leans in to whisper something in Simon's ear and he flushes, breaking off with a few embarrassed coughs. "Right, two hours, sounds great."
The two of them follow Peppermint Butler out, and then Bonnie looks at Marceline, not bothering to fight a smile. "One of the third floor bedrooms, huh?"
"What, that's where you put visiting dignitaries, isn't it?" Marceline says, trying to play innocent and doing a terrible job of it.
"It is," Bonnie agrees. Specifically it's where she puts visiting dignitary couples, as one of the key features present in all the rooms in that wing that the Coral Room does not have, is a very large luxurious bed. "And we need two hours to make dinner because…"
"Well I don't know what kind of elaborate thing you want to make for dinner. Besides things were kind of crazy just now, so I thought Simon and Betty might need time to get settled," Marceline says.
"Is that what we're calling it now?"
"Oh gross, don't say things like that," Marceline objects.
"You started it," Bonnie points out. There was no way Marceline hadn't meant it exactly like that this time.
"Yeah, and now I'm trying really hard not to think about it," Marceline says looking pained.
Bonnie lets out a little laugh. Then she sobers, chewing on the inside of her lip. It's a silly question and she shouldn't even need to ask it, because she ought to be able to tell. And she can tell, but she kind of wants to hear Marceline say it too. "Marceline, you're happy now, right? All this was good?"
"Am I happy? Bonnie." Marceline says Bonnie's name like that a lot, like it's a full sentence unto itself. But it's always in a different context with different intonations and it always means something different. In Marceline's mouth, Bonnie's name could mean anything, and it does mean everything. It's honestly a little unfair.
Marceline hooks an arm around Bonnie's waist and pulls her in. Bonnie comes happily enough, putting her own arms around Marceline's waist. They're standing nose to nose now, so close that Bonnie can feel their breath mingling together as Marceline speaks. "All this is amazing," she says, then presses her lips to Bonnie's.
Bonnie falls into the kiss. No matter how difficult things get between them, or how hard they have to try to make things work, kissing Marceline has and will always be wonderfully, gloriously easy. It makes a part of Bonnie wish they could do this forever, and not just to avoid the hard stuff. But unfortunately, despite being a piece of candy and a vampire, they both do need to come up for air eventually.
"I don't know what I did to deserve someone like you," Marceline says, pressing their foreheads together and still holding onto Bonnie tight.
Bonnie could say the same thing right back to her, but there's something else she needs to say more. "Marcy, about what you said the other day. About why you couldn't be the one to wish Simon back to normal." Marceline stiffens and Bonnie wants to lean in closer for comfort, but there's not much closer to lean in at the moment. "Me too."
Now Bonnie actually has to lean away a little bit, to better see the beatific smile that spreads across Marceline's face. "Yeah?"
"Yeah," Bonnie says, and kisses her again.
It's another few minutes before either of them are in any position to say anything else. "I wasn't kidding about wanting to give you plenty of time to make something elaborate for dinner," Marceline says. "I know you want to."
Bonnie hums in acknowledgement of that, but then asks, "Hey, do you think I'm like Betty?"
"That's a weird question," Marceline says. "Um, I know she's a scientist like you are, and if the stories I've heard are true then she kicks almost as much butt as you do, so I guess you kind of are, yeah. Why?"
"I was just thinking: I've always assumed that the reason the Ice King was so much more fixated on me than the other princesses is because I've been around a lot longer than most of them and that made it easier for me to stick in his head. But what if he liked me so much because somewhere in that mixed up brain of his I was reminding him of Betty? Maybe even when he was completely crazy and hadn't seen her in a millennium, some part of Simon never gave up on looking for her." And from there Bonnie was wondering if it were her and Marceline would they have been that devoted to each other?
No, she thinks. And then, not yet.
"Ha!" Marceline says. "You can try to hide it under all your science and royal duty junk, but I am so on to you Bon-bon. You are secretly a total sap."
Bonnie giggles. "Shhh, don't tell anybody."
"No worries, I like having your little secret all to myself. I like having you all to myself," Marceline says. Bonnie agrees with that sentiment whole-heartedly. She can't bring herself to regret the things she does that take time away that she could be spending with Marceline, but she does regret on occasion that doing such things is necessary.
"We really should get started on dinner now," Marceline says a few more minutes later. "Oh, and then after, do you think you've got room in this castle to put one more person up for the night? I don't want to miss out on any more time with Simon."
There are a number of empty bedrooms in the castle, including a few in the same hallway as where Simon and Betty are staying, any of which would work just fine for Marceline. Instead of offering one of those up, Bonnie says, "Well, you know, my bed is big enough for two people. But just for sleeping; I think I'm still thinking about things."
"I'd love to just sleep with you," Marceline says softly. "So, dinner?"
"There's no rush," Bonnie says, as she steals a few more kisses.
Really, they had all the time in the world.