Short Stories from Beyond Time, Space, and Shadow

by ZeroCore

Run of the Mill

Fillies can be curious.

Fillies can also be destructive.

A trio of fillies can be nigh-cataclysmic given the right circumstances, especially on a not-too-typical morning in Ponyville, a loud explosion sounding from across the road. Some of the townsponies fled in horror, thinking a monster had, yet again, infiltrated their town. Others merely sighed, going on about their business and trying to calm down the less-informed townsfolk. The explosion, they knew, didn't come from a monster, but from three fillies named Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo, the self-declared “Cutie Mark Crusaders”.

“Ah' told you it wasn't a good idea,” the farm filly said. “Fireworks aren't our thing.”

“It was your idea to light them off away from the farm,” the orange filly replied, a silght huff of frustration in her voice.

“Ah' said to light 'em off away from the farm,” Apple Bloom retorted, “not light it all off inside an outhouse!”

“Whose idea was that anyway?” Sweetie Belle added.

By this point the three were already on their wagon, Scootaloo pulling them on her scooter.

“It was yours!” he two friends said. “You'd thought it'd be funny, remember?”

The alabaster filly smiled innocently, rubbing the back of her mane.

Eventually the three had headed out of sight, knowing full well they'd have plenty to answer to later. Parked next to a nearby tree, the fillies began wondering what to try next, the constant want to find their own special talents perpetually clogging their minds. The three pondered and thought as to what to do, occasionally spouting ideas that ranged from the grandiose to the strange to the downright stupid. The others always rejected them, until the white-coated filly spouted an idea that would set in motion a rather strange chain of events.

“Hey!” Sweetie Belle perked up. “Why not try potion making? We all got a bit of experience in lots of things from when Twilight taught us some stuff...”

“Back when she still had time and didn't live in that fancy castle of hers...” Scootaloo's ears dropped slightly, the orange filly missing the time the Princess of Friendship and Magic spent with them.

“Hey, she's busy with all sorts of important stuff,” Apple Bloom said, defending their much older purple friend, “and besides we all get to see her still when she's not too busy.”

“I know,” Scootaloo continued, “but...”

“Hey!” Sweetie Belle interrupted, a bit frustrated, “I'm not done yet!”

The other two redirected their attention back to the other filly.

“As I was saying,” the alabaster filly continued, sounding a bit more serious, “Zecora taught us about some potion-making too, so if we pick something simple and go with it, we might find our true talents!”

“I hope you know what you're talking about,” Apple Bloom said.

“Yeah,” Scootaloo added. “Remember the whole 'heart's-desire-causing-cutie-pox' incident?”

The two others, especially Apple Bloom, shuddered.

“We're not going to try it on ourselves,” Sweetie Belle answered, pulling out a bag she'd hidden away in their wagon, “we're going to try it on something else.”

“Like what?” the others asked.

“I was thinking a rock,” Sweetie went on, “like the ones near that old windmill on the outskirts of town.”

“That might work,” Scootaloo responded.

“So long as it don't do anythin' weird...” Apple Bloom added, still shuddering at the mention of the term 'potions' as the trio hopped back on their wagon and scooter...

---

The fillies soon found themselves sitting at the edge of the old Mill Creak Mill, the tall windmill that sat on the edge of Ponyville. Sweetie Belle was mashing herbs together in a mortar and pastel, Scootaloo was preparing a clean flask, and Apple Bloom acquired a stone to Sweetie's specifications.

“Okay,” the off-white filly spoke, reading over a few notes she'd salvaged from Twilight's library. “It says here that we place everything into a flask, mix it with water from a running stream, pour it onto whatever we want this potion to affect, and then add in the final ingredient...”

“What's that?” Apple Bloom asked, placing the rock on the ground.

“It says here this is what's called a 'changing potion',” Sweetie Belle replied. “It's supposed to turn stuff into other stuff.”

“That doesn't sound terribly safe,” Scootaloo said, the orange filly just coming back from the stream, a full flask sitting under her wing.

“It's only supposed to be used on stuff,” Sweetie replied, “not ponies. We should be fine.”

The other two Crusaders, nervously, allowed the alabaster filly to place the ground-up herbs into the flask, stirring them gently with a pipette. A light green glow started to emanate within the flask, the color beginning to shift in hues as it went from dull-green to the color of grass in the spring. Sweetie Belle smiled, the other Crusaders looking on in awe.

“It's ready!” she beamed, comparing the potion's look to that in the slightly burnt notes.

“Wait, are you sure?” Scootaloo said, picking up and eyeing the concoction in the flask. “It doesn't look like the same color to me.”

“Give it here!” Apple Bloom said, grabbing the flask in her hooves. “I wanna see it!”

“Girls, quit it!” Sweetie Belle interrupted, grabbing the flask away from them.

Soon, all three fillies found themselves competing for the glowing flask. As the tussled for a bit, dust stirring up in the air, the three stopped as they felt the particles building up in their noses. Trembling slightly, each filly could only say the same thing:

“A-ah-ah-choo!” they sneezed, the flask going flying into the air.

The sound of breaking glass filled their ears as the flask shattered into tiny bits, the potion landing on the side of the windmill's stony base.

“Oh... great,” Sweetie Belle said, snorting the dust out of her nose.

“Well, that idea's ruined,” Apple Bloom pouted, “sorry about that, girls.”

“Yeah, me too,” Scootaloo added, “especially since it's kind of my fault since I took the thing in the fi-first...”

A bit of dust still lingered in her nose.

“Y-ou ok-o-” Apple Bloom said, fighting back another sneeze.

“S-stop you're gonna make m-m-me...” Sweetie Belle said, feeling the dust in her nose once more.

“Achoo!” the fillies sneezed.

Now, if this had been any other sneeze, it would have been nothing. Unfortunately, the three fillies had put themselves in a rather strange predicament, their sneezes landing right onto the glob of still-glowing potion that had landed on the Mill Creek Mill, the one intended to turn one thing into another. Unfortunately for the other Crusaders, their friend Sweetie Belle hadn't quite done her research completely when she pilfered Twilght's notes from the smoldering ruins of her burnt-down library. The spell was indeed intended to turn one thing into another, but, as the yet-unread back of the notes said, “things” could also include “living things”.

Ponies are living things.

With a swirl of arcane smoke and lightning, followed by a resounding “POOF!” that made the three fillies wince, the Mill Creek Mill disappeared, the structure gone in a flash, leaving a roughly equine object sitting in the gravel-filled area where the building had once stood. As the magical smog vanished, the Crusaders felt their jaws drop as they beheld a rather strange-looking pony.

She was a mare, as her figure gave away. She was tall, almost the same height as Princess Luna, with hooves made of pure stone. Her body was composed of gravel and rock, held together by glowing green bands of arcane energy. Bits of wood and vines wrapped around the rocky sections of the mare's body, each seeming to flow slightly in the breeze emitted by her arcane essence. Wings grew from her back, composed of sail cloth like the windmill's blades, her mane and tail also composed of the fabric that billowed in a non-existent wind. A horn, made of wood, grew from her forehead, illuminated by green magic and a faint glimmer that came from her emerald-colored eyes. Upon her flank was a carved piece of wood, the emblem resembling the shape of the windmill she used to be.

This mare didn't resemble the Mill Creek Mill; she was the Mill Creek Mill.

She was also something else.

“I'm free,” she said, her face quickly changing from a blank, emotionless stare to an ear-to-ear grin, “I'M FREE!”

The fillies nearly fainted as the mill-turned-alicorn began to jump and dance about in total revelry.

“I'm free! I'm free!” she shouted, flapping her cloth wings. “At long last, I can move! I can move! No more sitting on a boring old foundation!”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders began to mutter to themselves, their shock quickly turning to worry.

“W-what have we done?!” Scootaloo spoke, eyes still wide.

“W-we done turned a m-mill...” Apple Bloom stuttered, “i-into a mare.”

“And I have you to thank for it!” the enchanted mare yelled with glee, running up to and embracing the stunned fillies in a tight hug.

“U-um...” Sweetie Belle squeaked out, half smothered by the magical construct's embrace. “Y-you're w-welcome?”

Letting the three go, the energetic alicorn jumped skyward, flapping her sailcloth wings and taking to the air. She hovered above the three fillies for a moment, pulling a few turns and spins as she did before landing off in the nearby field.

“Hey!” she called to them, “I'd bet you can't catch me!”

“Wait!” Apple Bloom said, the filly snapping herself out of her dazed state. “Y'all gotta come back here! You can't run off!”

“No way, sister, I'm done with this stupid hill!” the Mill Creek Mill-turned-pony replied. “I'm out of here, and there's nothing you can do about it unless you catch me! See ya!”

With that, she took off in a pure gallop, heading into Ponyville with a never ending, elated laughter.

“We gotta catch her!” the farm filly shouted to her still-flabbergasted friends. “Come on, girls, get up!”

Scootaloo was the first to move, the orange filly pulling up their scooter and wagon.

“Get in,” she said, fastening her helmet.

Apple Bloom grabbed a hold of Sweetie Belle, the white filly still wide-eyed at the whole situation. With a nod from her farmer friend, Scootaloo took off, pulling the other Crusaders as they chased after the renegade windmill.

“W-what have I done?” Sweetie Belle began to sob.

---

The Mill Creek Mill bolted through town, her magically-enhanced legs carrying her faster than any normal pony could hope to run. The townsfolk darted out of the way, half scared for their lives in some cases as the mystical construct galloped through the town square. Happiness in her newly-formed heart, the ali-mill-corn couldn't help but feel a rhythmic sound escape her mouth. Gleefully going with it, she, for the first time in her life, began to sing.

“Oh, up there on that hill,

“I had to stand still.

“A whole world that I was missin'.

“But now I'll take flight,

“All Day and all Night!

“No more hills; it's time for livin',

“Oh ye-ye-yeah, ye-ah!”

The Crusaders had soon caught up, the filly-powered scooter and wagon just barely managing to keep pace with the rather unusual mare.

“She's over there!” Apple Bloom said, pointing to an alleyway.

“Nuh-uh, she's up there!” Sweetie Belle pointed, looking at the top of a chimney.

To the surprise of all thee, the mill-alicorn managed to pull off seamless teleportations that would make both Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle envious, the changed windmill seeming to go into one object and suddenly pop out of a completely different one.

“Time to take my stand!” she sang on, diving into a dumpster.

“I'll travel cross this land!” came her voice from atop a roof.

“No more foundations, no gravel and no boulder!”

“On that roof!” the fillies cried out.

“My exodus is here!” the mill sang on, jumping about from roof to roof.

“My happiness, you'll hear!

“I'm free like the seasons, the hotter and the colder!

“This is my life!

“O-oh, this is my life!

“This is my life!

“Oh yeah, this is my life!”

Scootaloo, half distracted by the song and the mare's teleporting antics, didn't see the trash cans in front of her, the fillies crashing into the heap of debris.

“Augh! We got wasted!” Scootaloo huffed in frustration, wiping a banana peel off her face.

The Crusaders looked on, watching in disappointment as the mill-mare took to the skies and flew off, heading out over the Everfree Forest.

“We've got to catch her somehow,” Scootaloo said.

The fillies pondered for a moment, Apple Bloom soon piping up.

“Ah've got the best idea ever!” the farm pony beamed.

---

“This is the dumbest idea ever!” Sweetie Belle huffed, the filly stuffed inside a rather rediculous windmill costume.

“Relax,” Apple Bloom said. “Everypony eventually wants to see someone of their own kind, and I'd bet she's no exception.”

“I've got to go more with Sweetie Belle on this one,” Scootaloo said, an eyebrow raised. “Dressing her up as a windmill doesn't seem like that good of an idea.”

As if on cue, a smiling face stuck out from the branches of a nearby tree.

“Hey! Another windmill!” the Mill-turned-mare said, happily flying over.

“Told ya'!” Apple Bloom said, pulling Sweetie Belle onto their wagon. “Hit it, Scoots!”

The orange filly nodded, pulling her friends along the nearby road towards where the Mill Creek Mill once say.

“Oh, so you want to race, huh?” The animated mill called, her horn lighting up with a green glow.

The wind began to pick up, the windmill alicorn's magic pulling the air along. She sped up, approaching the fillies as their scooter and wagon approached the foundation. Apple Bloom waited, the filly knowing what lie in the bushes along the road. Just behind the small shrubs was a catapult from their past “crusades”, the relic finding new purpose as a net launcher.

“Now!” Apple Bloom yelled, jumping off the wagon and onto a trip wire.

The catapult fired, a thick rope net darting through the air and ensnaring the windmill mare. The Mill Creek Mill screamed for a moment as she collided with the ground stopping, uninjured but shaken up, in the spot where she once stood.

Apple Bloom dusted herself off, trotting over to the now-stationary wagon as Scootaloo helped Sweetie Belle out of her costume.

“And that settles that!” The fillies all said.

“No fair! No fair!” the Mill-mare struggled. “Let me out of here!”

The fillies' smiles quickly inverted themselves, the trio looking at the captive alicorn. Green tears soon made their way down her face, fearing what might become of her.

“Gosh... girls, Ah' don't think we can do this,” Apple Bloom said.

“Yeah,” Scootaloo agreed, “we can't just turn her back into a windmill. All she really wanted was to have fun.”

“Go figure,” Sweetie Belle said, her ears drooping, “we tried to find our cutie marks and now we're about to take somepony's freedom away...”

The white filly walked up to the animated mill, the net-covered mare cringing as she approached. The Mill Creek Mill's magical eyes slammed shut in fear, but then slowly opened as she felt the net being pulled off of her.

“We can't do it,” the Crusaders said.

“It just ain't right to take your life away like that,” Apple Bloom said.

“It doesn't matter that you used to be a windmill,” Sweetie Belle added in. “You're a pony now, even if you are held together by rocks and magic and... stuff...”

“Yeah, it wouldn't be right,” Scootaloo spoke up.

“And that's why you're not going to be punished for this,” a voice added in.

The group turned around to see none other than their purple friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle standing behind them, an eyebrow raised yet her face sporting a smile. Next to her were the owner of the Mill Creek Mill, a one Wooden Barrel, and his wife, Velvet Button. They looked at the mill-mare with some confusion, but at the same time a bit of hope.

Twilight explain to the fillies that after the whole mill had gone missing she was called in personally to see what was going on, the alicorn expecting some kind of magical thief. As she surveyed the area though, she caught on as to what was happening, originally planning on having the fillies help rebuild the mill should the construct pony escape.

“But, since you brought her back, and spared her life,” Twilight went on, “I'm willing to look the other way this time, but please, girls, don't do it again.”

“We won't!” the Crusaders all agreed.

“S-so...” the mill-pony asked, “w-what happens to me now?”

“Well,” Wooden Barrel said, approaching the mare, “the fact is that Velvet and I always did think of having a daughter of our own, but, well... we could never really have one.”

“I remember when my husband built that mill, uh... you... a long time ago,” Velvet Button spoke up. “In a way, you were always part of our lives...”

“I think what we're both trying to say,” Wooden Barrel interrupted, “is, well...”

They never got a chance to finish, the arcane construct wrapping both of them in a hug.

“I guess I'll could get used to calling you 'mom and dad',” she said, her wide smile returning to her face as her family hugged her in return.

Several months went by, the Mill Creek Mill, now going by “Milly” began living with her family, Velvet Button and Wooden Barrel, and although they had to build a new windmill, the couple couldn't be happier now that they finally had the daughter they both so wanted in their lives. The Cutie Mark Crusaders spent the time going back and forth between Ponyville and Twilight's castle, each learning more as they went and glad they got to spend time with their regal friend again.

“And that's why,” Twilight said, finishing the lesson, “that all safety and lab equipment must be well-maintained.”

“Twilight?” Sweetie Belle asked, raising a hoof.

“Yes, Sweetie Belle?”

“What ever happened to the bits of glass and stuff from our flask?” She asked. “We tried to clean everything up, but we couldn't find any bits of it.”

“I've kept what's left of it right here in my desk,” Twilight said, floating out a pile of broken, still-glowing bits of glass in a pitri dish. “I've been studying the potion you brewed since I've been curious as to exactly how you mixed the ingredients.”

The three fillies crowded around the sample, nearly pushing Twilight out of the way.

“Careful, girls!” The alicorn cautioned.

“OW!” the three Crusaders said, already having cut themselves slightly on the glass.

“I tried to warn you,” Twilight said, “broken glass is dangerous, especially wh-wh...”

The alicorn felt a sneeze coming on.

“Achoo!” Twilight sneezed, the alicorn's sneeze blowing over the sample.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders all began to feel slightly odd inside.

“Um,” they all began.

They never got a chance to finish as a bright flash of light enveloped them all with a plume of smoke and a loud “POOF!”. As the dust cleared, Twilight saw that the three fillies had changed, each one now a tall, regal alicorn, each standing about as tall as Princess Celestia with long, broad wings and magical horns atop their heads. The trio looked at each other, amazed and overjoyed inside that they'd become such majestic creatures, but even more so from the symbols that had appeared on their flanks.

“Our cutie marks!” they all squealed, looking at the symbols adorning them.

“Hey, they look just our Crusader symbols!” Scootaloo said with joy.

“You girls know what that means?!” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Cutie Mark Crusader Alicorn Princesses!” the Crusaders shouted.

“B-b-b-b-b-but t-that potion i-i-is p-permanent...” Twilight stammered, eyes wide as a dinner plate. “Th-there's n-n-no way to r-reverse it... ever!”

“Does that mean you'll teach us magic and stuff, Twilight?” Scootaloo asked, looking forward to future lessons with their friend.

“U-um well, I'll h-have to,” Twilight tried to answer.

“Hey, Twilight, Ah've been wonderin' something; do alicorns really only grow up until they're grown up, but not old?”

“W-well, yes; alicorns age differently f-from other p-ponies. They grow up, b-but upon r-reaching their pr-prime, stay th-that way f-f-forever so...”

“Will we get a big, important, Princess-like job to do, too?” Sweetie Belle asked?

“Maybe we'll help all the colts and fillies in Equestria find their cutie marks!” Scootaloo responed.

“You girls know what this means?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Forever! YAY!” they cheered.

Twilight promptly fainted.

Author's Note:

First off, for those of you who didn't get the joke; the song is a parody of "Baba O'Riley" by The Who.

Secondly, I've read through the journal of the two sisters; the journals says that alicorns "age differently from normal ponies" but nowhere in there does it say that they grow old and die. I still prefer to think of them as having what's known as "biological immortality", or in other words, a creature that doesn't ever die of old age, and also, growing up to one's prime and then afterward staying in their prime forever does indeed count, in my mind, as "aging differently than other ponies".