Author’s Note: I would like to say first that this was an old work of mine, it’s the first thing I am posting on this account because I wanted to actually post it. I may eventually go back through and edit it, but for now here’s the original version! Enjoy!
~Sphinx
“Sugary sweet, lovely treats, here’s some music while you eat.”
Wishful Stars and her sister, Sweet Melody, walked into Ponyville. Wishful was excited, but Melody looked nervous and a bit upset, which was unlike her. She had been popular back at their home, a small, obscure village down by a forest. It consisted of three houses, a nursery, an ice cream shop, a tailor, and a rickety old stage. Melody looked over at her sister, stopping for a moment to look for her best friend.
“Millie? Where are you?” Melody called, looking around for the gray-and-purple-colored pony they had come to Ponyville with. After a moment, she spotted the bright, purple-colored wandering eyes of her best friend gazing up at the sky and around at the buildings of Ponyville.
“Melody! Wishful! Did you see the- hey, where’d you go?” The pony looked around, confused.
“Mil-lieeee!” Melody whinnied and galloped over to her friend. “You had me so worried!” Melody exclaimed. Millie laughed.
“But I was right with you until a second ago! And nothing bad happened! You need to relax, Melody.”
“Listen close as your treat is made.”
“But I can’t relax if you’re missing!” Melody exclaimed.
“But you should~” Wishful said, trotting up to the two. “Now come on, we’ve gotta get to our new home!” Wishful declared and started trotting back to the city.
“Well… Alright,” Melody said. “Coming, Millie?” she asked and the mare nodded, trotting next to her friend as they caught up to Wishful, who was rambling about her thoughts on what their home would or could be like.
“I’ll bet it’s big, and beautiful, and has space for flowers, and lots of bedrooms, and maybe mama could come and live with us!” the purple mare was saying, getting so excited that she flew up into the air and did a triple-flip. When she landed, she giggled.
“We’d better get going, so we can decorate it all in time!”
“Nuts, berries, candy, and sprinkles, OK?”
Melody started humming as she looked wistfully at the sweet shop they passed. Wishful’s horn glowed slightly as she levitated the paper from her pack, reading the address once more.
“Oh! We’re here!” she exclaimed, looking at the ice-cream shop-like home in front of her. Melody started looking wistful and deep in thought.
“Make your choice, the end is near.”
“Sweet scoops!” Melody exclaimed suddenly, thinking of the ice cream shop they had back home.
“We should open one here!” Millie suggested, making Melody grin.
“Yeah!” the yellow pony agreed, silently adding Then, maybe I’ll be loved here too… Home can find me, even if Wishful and Millie wanted to leave it.
“Don’t you know your treat is almost here?”
After all, only I can get the clouds to make our treats extra fluffy. Melody blinked, before running into the shop/home. “It’s-” she started, before shaking her head. “It’s gonna take a lot of work,” she said, looking around at the dust, grime, and cobwebs. Only one thing looked new, and that was the note written on the counter.
“Lovely red is always nice, made into a treat of creamy ice.”
Heya! Welcome to Ponyville! I’ve made a welcome party for you, come to my cupcake shop! Bring your party hat! I’ll supply the balloons and streamers! Party is at 8:30 sharp.
Welcome, welcome. As Pinkie said, there’s going to be a party to welcome you to the town! I wanted to apologize for the mess inside, nobody’s been in since the last owner died. I hope you can fix it up “real nice” as Applejack would say. Anyways, see ya!
-Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash
The note read. Melody furrowed her brow while reading, before calling out, “Hey! Some local ponies have invited us to a party!” her words made Millie and Wishful exclaim “Yay!” At the same time.
“I’m going out to get paint, to repaint the inside and outside. Alright, Melody!” Millie called at the same time Wishful said, “I’ll clear away the cobwebs and start dusting things while you’re gone!” Melody grinned and trotted out, making sure her bag was firmly around her neck. Clear away the cobwebs? That’ll take forever! But Wishful loves to aim high…
“Listen now, your song is done. Now we need to serve another one.”
Later, after the mares had been working for several hours, they noticed that the clock read 8:20 and decided to stop.
“Oh! It’s almost time for that party!” Millie observed before falling off the stepladder she was perched on, trying to clear away the cobwebs in a corner.
“Millie!” Melody exclaimed and flew over, dropping the paintbrush she was holding in the bucket on the way. “Are you alright?!” she asked, panicking.
“Yeah, I’m fine!” Millie exclaimed, standing up and shaking her head to get some of the dirt out of her mane. “We should get going,” Millie suggested.
“Sounds good…! But where’s the cupcake shop?” Wishful asked, flying over from where she was changing light bulbs.
“Mmm… Oh! The address is on the back of the note! Let’s go, quick!” Millie exclaimed, dropping the note back onto the counter and galloping out of the store with Melody and Wishful hot on her tail.
“Magic is beyond compare, you can’t fight against this lovely mare.”
As the trio walked into the darkened cupcake shop warily, a pink pony jumped out and the lights turned on, revealing a lot of pastel streamers, and balloons. Most of them were pink.
“SURPRISE!” the pony exclaimed, as the party hat she was wearing tilted to the side a bit. Melody jumped, before smiling. Wishful looked excited, and levitated a few party hats out of her bag, setting them on the trio’s heads.
“We brought our party hats!” the purple mare exclaimed happily, making the pink mare look pleased.
“Yay! I’m Pinkie Pie! Me and Dash sent you the letter!” the pink pony introduced herself.
“I’m Wishful Stars!” Wishful introduced herself.
“I’m Millie!” Millie said happily.
“…Oh! I’m Sweet Melody. Nice to meet all of you!” Melody said, still taking in the decorations. As Pinkie and Wishful talked about parties, and decorations, Millie wandered off to talk with a group of ponies. Melody decided to try a cupcake while deciding what else to do. Pinkie’s cupcakes were actually pretty good, but no Sweet Scoops flavor. It was actually a bit better in a way… Melody couldn’t put her hoof on the flavor.
“Hey, Pinkie, what flavor are these cupcakes?” Melody asked.
“Rainbow!” Pinkie responded gleefully. A moment later, Wishful happened to ask where Rainbow Dash was.
“Oh, I dunno. She knew about the party, but maybe she was tired, cuz I threw a party yesterday, just for the two of us!” she said happily, though she was unwilling to give any more details.
“If you forget how to cheer, just take a course from them over here.”
About a week later, Melody and Wishful were standing down by the front of the store, using their unicorn magic to levitate a large banner onto the front of the store, then levitate hammers and nails up to keep it from falling down when they left. “Grand Opening” the sign read in multicolored pastel letters.
“Alright, so Millie and Wishful, you guys’ll be in the back, making the ice cream. I’ll be up front, greeting customers and dishing out ice cream. OK?” Melody asked, basically saying that they would be doing the exact same thing here as they did back home.
“Alright!” the two chorused and ran inside, with Melody following at a leisurely pace, pausing to turn the sign on the door to “Open”. Melody then flapped once while hopping over the counter, to go a bit higher and not graze the register with her stomach.
“We’re open~!” Melody sang, grabbing her violin from behind the counter and tuning it, playing a few notes before she cringed and changed the tenseness of the strings. She smiled when she found the right setting, and started playing softly, a lullaby tune. As a few ponies entered the shop, her smile grew.
“Go, take a seat now, listen close.”
But when she heard her sister scream, she dropped everything, including the ice cream scooper she was levitating, and ran/flew to the back room.
“WISHFUL!!!” Melody screamed. Millie was panicking and trying to pull her sister’s mangled body out of the ice cream machine… Which was grinding up part of her head and forelegs as Melody forced it to a stop with her powers.
“M-Melody…” Wishful stammered, which without her face kind of sounded like “Rerodie” (I’m sorry for that).
“Wishful!!!” Melody was crying now, trying to bring her sister out of the machine, only to have her scream… And a horrible, stomach-turning crack that cut that scream short.
“NO!!!!!!!!” Melody started screaming, a high-pitched scream that made Millie wince and lay down flat, covering her head with her hooves. The horrible crunching and grinding sound resumed.
“Now you’ll appreciate the chorus.”
The next day. Wishful’s funeral was held. Melody was numb, not speaking or even moving as her sister’s body was lowered into the ground. After that, as all the other ponies, all dressed in black (all but Pinkie Pie, of course-) filed out, giving Melody the normal “We’re so sorry about your sister…” before wandering out of the grim scene. Melody hadn’t changed, or even slept, since the previous day, so she was still wearing her bright shirt (now dirty with blood and ice cream) and her “EAT MORE ICE CREAM” apron. Also bloody and covered in ice cream. Melody looked up, her once bright rose eyes meeting her best friend’s purple ones.
“Millie… You won’t leave me, right?” she asked in a soft, sad voice.
“Of course not!” Millie responded, whinnying.
“Good… Thank you.” Melody said then walked out slowly, her wings trailing on the ground beside and behind her. For the first time, Millie noticed that Melody had a gray patch on her wings. With that thought, Millie trotted up to beside her best friend and they walked in depressed silence back to the ice cream shop.
“Fear will make you not as sweet, now don’t be rude you’re almost complete.”
Melody hadn’t smiled since her sister’s funeral, which was almost a week ago. It cast a gloomy shadow over the shop the entire time. Finally, when Pinkie bounded in, Melody gave an obviously forced smile in greeting, then finished dishing out the ice cream she was serving.
“Hey, Pinkie… I’m gonna go check on Millie in the back, can you keep an eye on the place for me?” she asked softly, making Pinkie grin and nod.
“Of course! I’d really love to, ice cream is great!” Pinkie rambled, trotting around the counter as Melody whispered a thank you then walked through the backdoor, letting Pinkie’s enthusiastic exclamations fall silent behind her as the door clicked shut.
“Millie?” Melody called, her voice finally louder than a mouse.
“Huh?” Millie peeked her head out from behind the machine. “What’s up?” the gray pony asked.
“I was just… Making sure you’re alright…” Melody muttered, turning away.
“Wait! We’ve run out of clouds, could you get some more?” Millie asked.
“Yeah, sure,” Melody said, flapping her wings a few times experimentally, then taking off through the open window, breaking off a few cloud bits then sending them down to the ice cream shop. She did that until she felt satisfied and flew back down. She actually giggled when she saw that Millie was covered in cloud fluff. Millie then sneezed a few times and it all dispersed, being sucked into their cloud machine.
“So, how’s business?” Millie asked, and for a moment, Melody felt like her old self.
“Great! Everyone seems to love our flavors. And our cherry is being sold out as soon as I refill it,” Melody enthused, before spotting a piece of red ice in the ice cream and remembering the sickening crunching sound that it made when her sister fell in. But Melody didn’t cry, instead, she just smiled. Millie felt unnerved by this smile.
“You should, uh, probably get back out there,” Millie mumbled, making Melody’s strange smile blink out of existence.
“Wha? Oh. Right! Thanks, Millie,” Melody said and trotted back out.
“Scary…” Millie muttered absentmindedly then went back to adding the flavoring, unaware that tiny bits of Wishful were still in the Cherry mixer.
“You can watch the process happen once, just so you can see where not to move.”
A small sigh came from Melody as she turned the Open sign to Closed, and walked through the back door.
“Millie…?” Melody called.
“Heya! We’re closed now, right?” Millie asked.
“Yeah. Why?” Melody responded.
“‘Cause I cut myself while adding the flavor to the cherry batch and wanted to go get some bandages.” Millie almost tripped over herself to avoid adding I guess that flavor is out for blood! Haha! That would have been bad. “How’d we do today?” Millie asked, changing the subject, her right hoof raised slightly off the ground.
“Great!” Melody replied happily. “Wishful would have liked to see the shop so successful…” she added quietly, some quiet, subconscious gears turning in her head to push out a gruesome idea. “Was it the cherry batch that she fell into?” Melody asked suddenly. Millie looked surprised and put her hoof down to steady herself, then winced and brought it back up.
“Um… Yeah…” Millie said, a bit wary. “Why…?” Melody ignored Millie’s question and asked another one of her own.
“Did we ever clean it?” Melody asked.
“N-no… It was full of ice cream and you didn’t want either of us to fall in,” Millie said, a bit ashamed.
“Oh,” Melody said and turned, walking to her bedroom. Well, I guess Wishful is as sweet in death as she was in life! Melody thought as she hopped up the steps. Heheh… Melody started laughing, a horrific plan to bring in more business building in her mind.
“We might lose a few patrons, but they’ll be replaced. And nobody’ll miss them so long as they taste so good!” Melody said, her rose eyes widening as she laughed, before she sighed and laid down to sleep. She wouldn’t have too long… But she had Millie to help her!
“Oh, don’t worry we don’t need your hooves!”
Melody hopped up from sleeping, bounding down the stairs.
“Millie! I have a great idea!” the yellow pony exclaimed.
“Huh…?” Millie yawned and looked over at Melody.
“C’mere!” Melody looked excited, so Millie stood up and walked over to the other mare, stretching her legs as she went.
“What’s… What’s your idea?” Millie asked, yawning again in the middle. Melody leaned close to Millie and began to detail her plan, not noticing or caring how horrified the gray-and-purple mare became. At the end, Millie had a detailed description of how bonkers her friend had gone.
“Melody… This is insane. You can’t kill ponies and turn them into ice cream!” Millie exclaimed, making Melody’s smile fall off her face.
“M-Millie…” Melody looked hurt, then her expression hardened. “I guess I was wrong about you. I thought I could count on you. YOU LET WISHFUL DIE!” Melody shouted, making Millie wince and take a step back. Melody took a deep breath then took a few steps forward, making Millie backpedal again. “You… You let her die… But it’s not all bad… At least now, I’ve discovered a new flavor!” Melody laughed. Her rose eyes widened impossibly large. “I’ll give you a hint… It’s like blood orange… But without the oranges!” Melody laughed again.
“Y-you’re… You can come back from this. J-just… Just take a step back, put on your uniform, and go out… Y-you don’t have to kill ponies,” Millie backed into one of the vats of ice cream. The vat of cherry ice cream. Melody’s head turned around, looking for… something.
“Heh… this’ll have to do…” she muttered as she levitated something small and shiny over. Millie recognized it as one of the empty vials of flavor, with their sharp tips in case you needed to push it through one of those small rubber insert things.
“M-Melody?” Millie asked fearfully.
“Yes, Millie?” Melody responded, smiling.
“Wh-what are you going to do with that?” Millie’s voice grew smaller as the alicorn approached.
“Why, collect flavor, of course. It’s disappointing that you didn’t want to join me… I would have liked to share the success with you. A machine won’t be happy for me… But at least this way, you really will never leave me. Just like Wishful. Always staying with me!” Melody grinned like she was proposing that they should go on a vacation to the biggest amusement park in the world. “Now… Let’s see how you taste with grape. Shall we?” Melody’s words struck terror in Millie’s heart.
“P-please!” she pleaded. “M-Melody, don’t do this!” But Melody’s next words hit Millie like a ton of bricks.
“Well, I learned the technique from your mother, sweet Millie,” Melody’s voice was sweet and poisonous, revealing a fact that Millie refused to believe, and would never have accepted. “So I guess, you are helping me. Thank you, dear fr-” Melody was cut off by Millie starting to yell at her.
“YOU’RE NOT MY FRIEND ANYMORE!” she screamed, making Melody stop her advance, and the vial fall to the floor. “I THOUGHT I COULD TRUST YOU! YOU LIED TO ME!” Millie shouted, before her front legs gave out on her. “You… You promised you’d keep me safe, back home…” Millie started crying and laid down fully, her head hanging.
“…That… That was before. Before I lost Wishful. Before we left. I never wanted to leave home. That was all you and Wishful. I wanted to stay, but life without you would have been Hell. But without Wishful, I’ve lost EVERY last tie I had to home.” Melody glared down at Millie. “You made me feel like I had a place. But I guess you were the one who lied to me.” Melody levitated the vial again and put her hoof on the back of the gray pony’s neck. She then thought better of whatever she was going to do and picked up Millie, walking to the bathroom… For some reason.
“Wh-what are you- Mmph!” Millie was asking before a rag was stuffed in her mouth. Millie was set in the tub as it filled with water. She felt her back legs become covered in scales, as well as the familiar, if strange, feeling of her legs attaching themselves together and lengthening, forming her tail, which shone in the sunlight.
“I wonder what a fish pony will taste like… And there sure won’t be any others like you here!” Melody giggled before carefully posing the vial above her friend’s throat, while holding her down. “Goodbye, Millie,” Melody said and forced the vial down into the gray mer-pony’s neck. As the red liquid flowed freely into the vial, Millie let out a strangled, bubbling scream, struggling to draw every breath. As the vial got full, the light faded out of Millie’s eyes and she stopped struggling. “You’ll be absolutely delicious,” Melody repeated, taking the vial out of the wound, which was still slowly pumping out the warm blood. Melody then went to open the store.
“Watch and you’ll see this will
Be
Your
Doom”.