CUPCAKES & CHANGELINGS
Pinkie Pie anxiously paced back and forth along the hospital waiting room floor. The usually cheerful pony was anything but. Her normally puffy hair hung down straight and deflated and she wore a frown instead of a smile. Every now and then she'd sit back in her chair and weep, but it wouldn't be too long before she would get back up and wondering and sniffling incoherently around the room. Back and forth her head would look back at the clock, the minutes seeming like hours. Nothing her friends said could calm her down.
She had completely lost track of time when Nurse Redheart finally came out.
"Well!? How is Dashie? Is she gonna be OK?" Pinkie asked desperately.
The nurse had a very dismal expression on her face. But she was able to half reassure Pinkie.
"Well," the nurse began "She is in a stable condition for now. We were able to reattach her Cutie-marks, the muscles in one of them needed reconstructive surgery, and we've given her plenty of blood transfusions. Her left wing was relatively easy to reattach, but reattachment of her right wing required serious skin-grafting. We were able to save her right kidney and left ovary, and her uterus was left relatively intact. She should still be able to conceive. And fortunately her attacker spared her heart and lungs. But some of her organs were damaged beyond repair and she will need transplants."
Pinkie desperately tried to fight back even more tears. "I'll gladly donate some of mine if it will help."
"That won't be necessary. We have already found a suitable donor. It is not often that a patient requires multiple transplants at once. She will be eating via a drip bag for at least a month and her wings will take much longer to heal. At this stage there is no telling if she will be able to regain normal function of her wings, and even if she does she'll need to learn to fly all over again. But she's very lucky that you and Derpy got her here as soon as you did. Thanks to you, her chances of pulling through are quite good. Please excuse me."
The nurse left the six ponies alone. The silence in the room didn't last too long. Pinkie, slumped forward in her seat wept hard into her hooves. Both Derpy and Applejack seated on either side of her did her best to calm her down.
"It's OK. She's going to be alright." Applejack tried to reassure her friend.
"But, it should never have happened to her in the first place. What that mean Changeling did to her. How Rainbow reacted when she saw me. Oh, the blood... The bodies... Her screams... I'll never forget it for as long as I live." Pinkie said between sobs.
Twilight Sparkle stepped before her friend and put a hoof on her shoulder.
"So let me see if I understand correctly," Twilight began. "About two months ago, while the Cakes were out, some strange pony came to Sugar Cube Corner..."
Pinkie did her best to quell her sniffles long enough to tell the story. "Yes. At first I thought he was just another customer. But when I tried to take his order he scattered some weird powder in my face. Next thing I knew I was out cold. When I woke up, I found myself tied and gagged in the Cake's basement. You know, the one they never use."
"And that's when you learned the strange pony was actually a changeling?"
Pinkie nodded. "He said that he was going to destroy the elements of harmony one by one. He locked me away in the basement walls and took my place in Ponyville, luring many of my friends to Sugar Cube Corner to make cupcakes..."
Pinkie's eyes began to water rapidly before she continued. "Ooooh, it was unbearable hearing what he did to all of them. Twist... Gilda... Rainbow!"
Too overcome with grief, Pinkie buried her face in her hooves and sobbed hard.
***
Several hours earlier...
Pinkie Pie sat cold and alone in the dark, dank wall cavity. She had not smiled in months. All she could think about were her many friends whose voices she had heard.
She could only hold herself close and cry as she heard all those ponies scream and beg for their lives. Alone in the dark she could only imagine what was going on.
But what traumatized Pinkie more than the screams, was knowing that her friends died believing it was her who had done this. That she had betrayed them, cut them apart, forced them to watch the whole ordeal and then consume their remains.
Whilst sobbing to herself one day, she heard the voice of her doppelganger. "Goodie, you're awake. Now we can get started," the Changeling said in Pinkie's voice.
No, not again. The real Pinkie Pie thought to herself. Who is it this time?
"Pinkie, what's going on? I can't move!" a very familiar voice said with urgency. "What's happening? I thought you said I was going help to make cupcakes!"
Pinkie Pie immediately recognized whose voice it was. "NO!" She cried. "Not Rainbow Dash! Please not Rainbow Dash!"
At that moment, Pinkie heard the changeling speak again. "You are helping. You see, I ran out of the special ingredient and I need you to get more."
Then she heard Dash's voice again, this time breathing heavily and with sheer panic in her tone. "Special ingredient? What special ingredient?"
The changeling giggled and responded: "You, silly!"
By now, the real Pinkie Pie was desperately banging on the wall and screaming. "DASH! That's not me! It's an imposter!"
But neither Rainbow Dash nor the fake Pinkie could hear, the walls was soundproofed from the outside.
At this stage, Pinkie could only hear bits of the conversation between the Changeling and Dash. She was too busy trying to break down the wall and save her friend.
"Let me out! Let me out! Don't you dare make cupcakes out of her!"
After nearly five minutes of hopeless banging, the tired out Pinkie collapsed to the floor feeling badly defeated. She began to sniffle again.
Then she heard the Changeling say: "Well, that's enough reminiscing. It's time to begin."
Immediately the real Pinkie Pie jumped back up to her feet to make a last, futile, desperate attempt to save her friend. She banged on the wall even harder than before, but it was no use.
"Please! Don't!" She screamed.
Then suddenly all Pinkie could hear was Rainbow Dash yelling and hollering. Tears rolled down Pinkie's eyes. She knew then that the torture of her friend had begun.
"Dashie, hold on!" Pinkie wailed as she continued bashing away at the wall. Moments passed and again Pinkie collapsed exhausted. By now, Pinkie's hooves and shoulders were sore and swelling from all that pounding against the wall. Then she heard the imposter speak again: "Hope you don't mind, I think I'm going to wing it now." More screams from Rainbow Dash ensued. Pinkie, too exhausted and pained to continue her escape attempt, just sat and wept.
After two months in solitary confinement and being forced to listen to her friends die, Pinkie Pie now knew the routine all too well. First off came the Cutie marks. Then the wings or horns depending on whether the victim was unicorn or pegasus. What happened then was completely unpredictable. Then finally, out would come the internal organs.
After what seemed like hours of hearing her friend scream and beg for her life, all while being mocked by her attacker, Pinkie knew the final stage had come.
"This is a little something to take the pain away" Pinkie heard her doppelganger say.
Pinkie assumed the Changeling had just administered an epidural to Rainbow Dash, he would usual do so before the last round.
"In a few minutes, you won't be able to feel anything below your ribcage. Then you'll be able to stay awake to watch the harvest."
Dash began to cry again, and so did the real Pinkie Pie.
"Pinkie" Dash choked out.
"Yeah?"
"I want to go home," Dash sobbed.
"Yeah, I can see you wanting to do that," replied the Changeling in the party pony's voice. "Sometimes, I just wanna give up, just say 'I'm done with this mess' and go to bed. But you know what? You can't shrug off your responsibilities. You pull yourself up and meet the challenges head on. That's the only way you're gonna get ahead in life."
Rainbow Dash cried even louder. And the real Pinkie Pie just wanted to die.
Minutes past, and soon Pinkie heard a moist gooey sound. She knew then that the Changeling had cut her friend open. But whether she was still alive or not was another story. All Pinkie could hear now was the imposter making sick and disgusting organ jokes. Jokes that gave her a clear mental image of what the Changeling was doing with her friend's body. "Aw, don't go yet Dash. I know I can be a real pancreas, but you know I'm just kidney with you. You really need to liver it up. Boy, these jokes are getting bladder. Guess ya gotta develop a stomach for them."
The real Pinkie wanted to just cover her ears and block it out. But she had to know if her friend was still alive.
She got her answer when she heard the imposter say with finality "Ya know, Rainbow Dash, I'm disappointed. I thought you would have lasted longer. I really wanted to spend more time with you before we got here. But I guess it's my fault; I should have taken it a little slower. Oh well. It was really nice knowing you, Dash!"
Pinkie Pie whimpered, knowing her friend's death was imminent. When all of a sudden, her tail started to twitch. It momentarily took her mind off the horror. Then an enormously loud crash bellowed through the room, and Pinkie shut her eyes as a bright light filled the wall cavity. The first light she had ever seen in two months. As she opened her eyes, she could see the wall now had a big gaping crack from which the light shined through.
With what little strength she had left, Pinkie clambered through the crack and stepped out into the basement. She shielded her eyes from the brightness with her arms. As her eyes began to adjust to the light, she saw a giant safe had fallen through the ceiling and crushed the Changeling. The safe was so heavy that it had split the floor, the cracks led all the way up to the walls.
As her eyes adjusted to the light a little more, Pinkie could see the upper portion of the monster's body poking up from under the safe. He was still visually disguised as Pinkie Pie. But as the changeling died the illusion remained for only a few seconds more and quickly flickered away, revealing the black, insect-like body of his true self.
Pinkie looked to the sky through the hole in the ceiling, the light from above even brighter than the light in the basement. She saw the silhouette of a pegasus flapping down to the crash site. As the pegasus came down into the light, Pinkie Pie quickly recognized the blue-gray coat, blond mane and big wall-eyes.
"Ooops. My bad! Is everyone OK?" Derpy Hooves called from above.
"Derpy! Help!" Pinkie cried.
Pinkie watched Derpy as she fluttered down into the basement. But when the wall-eyed Pegasus got a good look at her surroundings, her mouth gaped open and she screamed.
By now, Pinkie's eyes had fully adjusted to the light. She saw what Derpy saw and she too screamed in horror. For the first time Pinkie saw just what her doppelganger had done with her friends.
The chairs and tables made from horse bones. The decapitated heads wearing party hats made from their own skin. The body parts and blood-stained flanks used for decoration and helium balloons.
Resisting the sudden urge to vomit, Pinkie glanced to where the changeling had been crushed. And there she saw Rainbow Dash's body strapped to the table. Pinkie screamed even louder than before. The sight was just too horrific for words.
The blood all over the place. The big gaping wound in her friend's torso. And her wings, pieces of skin and internal organs not where they were supposed to be. But she was still breathing, her head slumped forward.
Desperately Pinkie Pie rushed over to her friend and tried to raise her.
"Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!"
With her last ounce of strength, Rainbow Dash lifted her head and struggled to open her eyes. But when she saw Pinkie Pie standing before her, Dash's eyes widened in fear and she began panting and trembling profusely. Then her head keeled backward, her eyes wide open in shock.
"No! No! It's me! I'd never do this to you! Don't go! Don't go! Please, stay with us!"
Getting no response, Pinkie quickly began unfastening the restraints holding her friend down, becoming even more mortified to discover that Dash's hooves had been nailed to the table.
"Derpy, quick!" Pinkie cried out to the mail mare, who by this stage didn't need to be told and was already busy gathering up all the amputated pieces of Rainbow Dash that she could find. "We gotta get her to hospital! C'mon, just hang in there, Rainbow!"
***
Too upset to continue, Pinkie Pie cried into Derpy's shoulder, who was doing her best to stay strong for Pinkie's sake.
"Why did he keep Pinkie alive? Why would he subject her to listen to that?" Rarity asked.
Holding Pinkie close and letting her sob, Derpy continued the story as Pinkie had told it to her. "Well apparently, he told Pinkie Pie that he planned to frame her by killing off the elements of harmony one by one, until she was the only one left. And then he would set her up so that she would be publicly exposed as a murderer."
At this stage, Fluttershy stepped in to try and comfort Pinkie. "Don't worry, Pinkie. We all know that you'd never do something like that."
Holding back the tears, Pinkie lifted her head from Derpy's shoulder. "I know you know that," she said. "But will Rainbow Dash know that? Will she ever trust me again?"
***
In the week that followed, the incident had become national news and a public memorial service was to be held for the victims. It had been established from Pinkie Pie's testimony to the police ponies and analysis of the remains that there was a total of 127 victims. That on average the Changeling had killed at least twice a day.
The memorial service was hosted by Princess Celestia who announced it as a Day of Remembrance and asked everyone present to hold out a prayer for Rainbow Dash's recovery.
Pinkie Pie attended the ceremony. She was reluctant to come because she felt she couldn't face it again. Even though she had nothing to do with their deaths, she was too daunted by the fact that they all died believing it was her doing. But she eventually decided to attend, it would be her last chance to say goodbye.
As she sat in her seat, Pinkie glanced over her shoulder. On one side of the church, Cherilee had brought all of Twist's classmates to pay their respects. All the children looked very sad, particularly Applebloom. But her tears were rivaled only by those of Twist's parents. Pinkie glanced to the other side of the church. And there she saw Gilda's relatives and friends had gathered. Everywhere Pinkie looked she saw nothing but gloom.
***
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes. A constant beeping from the heart monitor filled her ears. Glancing to her right she could see the drip bag connected to her arm. After such extensive surgeries she always woke up to agonizing pain. It had become the norm, but at least the painkillers the doctors gave her soothed it. By now Rainbow Dash had been confined to the hospital bed for three weeks. Just two more and she would be allowed to eat normally again. But it would be another two months before she would be able to go home.
Fluttershy had offered to take care of Tank until then. But Dash had even bigger problems on her mind. The doctors had explained her situation to her. That she faced the possibility of her wings never functioning again. Her lifelong dream of someday joining the Wonderbolts suddenly seemed even further than the stars.
Rainbow Dash closed her eyes again. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Perhaps even more distressing was the images she saw whenever she closed her eyes. The pink-haired pony she once thought was her friend. She had no idea Pinkie Pie was a psychopathic cannibal.
Even though the truth had been explained to her, that it was a changeling that had tried to kill her, somewhere in the back of Dash's mind were doubts. She wanted to believe that her friend would never do that, but somehow could not deny what her own eyes had seen. And Dash would become noticeably panicked and paranoid whenever Pinkie's name was mentioned in her presence.
She was rapidly losing sleep as a result of it. Horrible memories of the events of that day kept flashing in her mind. And whenever she tried to block them out, she would end up thinking of Gilda. Even though their friendship ended with a bitter falling out, there were still those good times they shared. It pained Dash knowing that their little feud would now forever be the last time they ever saw each other.
Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Derpy routinely paid Dash visits. They would bring her gifts and get-well-soon cards. When Rainbow Dash was allowed to eat normally again, Derpy wanted to bring her a batch of her special homemade muffins. But reconsidered remembering how similar they looked to what Dashie almost ended up as. Derpy instead settled on some giving Dash some apples that she picked with Applejack.
Dash found solace in these visits from her friends. But Pinkie was nowhere to be seen amongst the group. Unbeknownst to Rainbow Dash, the doctors had recommended that Pinkie Pie avoid paying visits during the recovery time. While the physical scars would heal, the mental scars remained in question. There was no telling how Rainbow Dash would be able to cope with seeing Pinkie or anything that could possibly trigger reminders of that day. She was clearly losing it just hearing her friend's name.
This hurt Pinkie Pie deeply, but for Dash's well-being she knew it had to be done. At the very least, she helped pick out get well cards for her friends to give. But she was very disappointed that she couldn't even sign them. Pinkie would only know how Dash was holding up based on what her friends told her after every hospital visit.
Back at Sugar Cube Corner things did not get any better for Pinkie. She could not look at cupcakes the same way anymore. The police had spent about a week in the basement collecting photographs and pony remains as evidence. Mrs. Cake had become extremely distressed to learn the terrible things that had happened in her bakery without her knowing. Her husband tried to be strong for her sake, but he too found it hard to quell his emotions. And the Cakes' distress only intensified whenever Pinkie was in the same room as them. Pinkie took notice and expected they would soon as her to leave. To her surprise, they did not evict her. But they no longer asked her to baby sit.
"Don't you trust me anymore?" A teary-eyed Pinkie asked them one day.
The Cakes paused before answering. "Oh course we do", they said "it's just that we'd rather wait until the Changeling problem is solved."
Pinkie found this excuse particularly patronizing. It indirectly told her point blank that the Cakes didn't trust her. After that she seriously began considering leaving Sugar Cube Corner. Not just because of the feeling of being unwanted, but because of too many painful memories.
****
After a being bedridden for two months, Rainbow Dash's new organs had settled in and her physical scars had healed. But her psychological scars remained in question.
Dash's doctor made her sit for a psychology screening. The two sat at either end of a table in an empty room. A group of the nurses supervised them through a pane of one-way glass. Pinkie and her friends were also among those watching.
"I want to play a little game of word association with you," the doctor began. "I'll say a word, and then you say the first word or words that come to your mind. For example, I might say the word 'Twilight' and you might say...?"
"Egghead" said Rainbow Dash, both her expression and voice were very emotionless.
Twilight showed brief animosity at that remark. But concerned for Rainbow's well-being did away with her expression.
"Right. Well then let's begin. Letter?"
"Princess Celestia."
"Dragon?"
"Spike."
"Cloudsdale?"
"Home."
"Derpy?"
"Feather brain"
"Tank?"
"Pet."
"Cantalot?"
"Kingdom."
"Dress?"
"Needs to be about 20% cooler."
"Changelings?"
"The bad guys."
"OK good." The doctor then let loose the doozy. "Pinkie?"
Rainbow's pupils immediately contracted and her breathing became heavier. She hesitated answering.
"OK, let's begin again. Doll?"
"Smarty Pants."
"Trains?"
"Giant cake." Rainbow Dash twitched as she said the word cake.
The doctor took a note of that and then continued. "Harmony?"
"Elements."
"Wonderbolts?"
"Heroes."
"Tree?"
"Fluttershy."
"Pinkie?"
Again, Rainbow Dash tensed up and hesitated to answer.
"Pinkie?" The doctor asked again.
"MASS MURDERING, CANNIBALIZING PSYCHOPATH WHO SLAUGHTERS AND BAKES INNOCENT PONIES INTO CUPCAKES!" Rainbow Dash finally blurted out.
She curled up into a ball and lay of the floor, shaking and trembling uncontrollably.
Watching in the other room, Pinkie fought hard to hold back the tears. Derpy tried to comfort Pinkie by patting her on the back, but it didn't help. To Pinkie, those words from Rainbow Dash's mouth were sharper than any of the tools the changeling had used to cut her.
These screenings continued over the weeks. The intensity of Rainbow Dash's panic attacks somewhat decreased in time, but it was only a mild improvement. And it didn't look any better when Dash started giving conflicting answers.
"I take it you were told what happened to you back at sugar-cube corner?" The doctor asked during one such screening.
Twitching at the question, Rainbow Dash answered: "I was told it was a changeling who did this to me..."
"Good. And what have you to say about Pinkie Pie?"
"She strapped me to a table, cut off my wings and cutie marks, force-fed me my own muscles, nailed my hooves to the table, electrocuted me, cut out my organs and forced me to watch." Rainbow Dash collapsed her face in her hooves and cried when she finished.
"But Rainbow, that was just a changeling."
"But I saw Pinkie do it! She forced me to watch the whole thing!"
After a month of screenings it was soon determined that somewhere deep down inside Rainbow Dash knew it was the changeling. But the psychological trauma she experienced had convinced her that it was indeed Pinkie. Nothing the doctors could say or do could erase this conflict in her head. Despite her disorder, Dash otherwise gave the appearance of being perfectly sane, albeit depressed. And so she was deemed sane and given permission to go home. It seemed the only thing that could heal these mental wounds was time.
Unable to fly back to her cloud house above Ponyville, Rainbow Dash stayed with Fluttershy over the next few weeks. There she would find peace resting on the couch while Tank slept atop her belly and helped Fluttershy feed her animals. In preparation for her friend's stay, Fluttershy had flown to Dash's cloud house to retrieve some belongings. Mostly clothes, her collection of Daring Do books and Wonderbolts memorabilia. There were times when Dash would read for hours on end or stare at her posters all day, uncertainty whizzing in her mind - unknowing if she'll ever be able to live her lifelong dream.
When the time finally came to take the bandages off her wings, Rainbow Dash was dismayed to find the best she could do for now was barely twitch them. Her head hung in depression. Fluttershy tried to console her friend, but she just wanted to be left alone. Over time Rainbow Dash found she could move them a little further apart, but she could never flex them fast enough to lift her off the ground.
Unable to fly Rainbow Dash soon found herself moping around or sitting in the tyre-swing hanging from a tree, her head looking down aimlessly at the ground. It was becoming more and more apparent to her that she was heading for an earth-bound future.
Unbeknownst to Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie had secretly been watching her from afar during the entire stay. Every day she would hide in the bushes about a couple hundred yards from Fluttershy's cottage and watch Dash through binoculars as she went about her daily routine. Every day was like a test in psychological torture. Fighting the urge to walk right up to Rainbow Dash and make her smile. But she knew her friend would probably not be able to take her presence. After untold months, Pinkie couldn't take it any longer. She jumped from the bushes and galloped towards the tyre-swing.
"Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!"
At the sound of Pinkie's voice, Dash looked up from the ground with a jolt. Seeing Pinkie coming towards her, she jumped from the tyre to her hind legs and started backing away in fear.
Pinkie slowed down as she arrived under the shelter of the tree. She could see her friend was panicking profusely.
"Rainbow Dash! Please, you have to listen to me!"
"Stay away!" Dash took many steps back, Pinkie followed desperately trying to reason with her.
"Dashie, please! I would never do anything to hurt you..."
"Don't come any closer!"
"Please! Don't you remember? I'm your friend!"
Rainbow Dash's eyes widened with fear as memories to that horrific day flashed through her mind. When she begged for her life and said the exact same thing. "You can't do this, Pinkie! I'm your friend!"
"No! No! No!" Rainbow cried waving her fore hooves around frantically. Walking backward, she tripped on fallen log and collapsed backwards over it. She let off a surprised yelp as she fell. There was a loud thud and Rainbow's skull felt like it was on fire.
"Rainbow! Are you OK" Pinkie ran to the log and peered over it to see if her friend was safe. A bad move, for when Dash opened her eyes, she saw the very personification of her fears standing over her.
Rainbow Dash let off a horrified scream and ran. In desperation, Pinkie pursued.
"Wait! Rainbow, don't go! Come back!"
"Stay away from me!" Rainbow cried, tears flowing from her eyes as she ran.
As the two horses ran, Rainbow Dash began frantically twitching her wings.
"Please! I'm not gonna hurt you!"
"I know you're not! Because I ain't gonna let you try and turn me into cupcakes again!"
Suddenly, the twitching of the wings sped up until finally the twitching turned to flapping, the gap between the two horses increased.
"It wasn't me I swear! Come back, please!"
"NO! Stay the hay away from me!"
Neither of the two horses had noticed that by now Rainbow Dash was running on the air.
"Please stop! Please, please stop!" Pinkie cried.
Again Dash's mind surged, her memories flashed back to when her hooves were being nailed to the planks, the white hot nail essentially cooking her fresh around the puncture wound. In her mind Dash could see the evil pink horse raising the hammer to take another wild swing. "PLEASE STOP! PLEASE, PLEASE STOP!" The evil horse looked at her wickedly, and down came the hammer.
"Aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!" Rainbow closed her eyes and hollered. Then suddenly she felt a great wave of force slam into her face and blow her cheeks back. A loud booming noise bellowed in the distance and she felt her entire body accelerated through the air. Slowly she opened her eyes and gasped in amazement and then joy at the sight she saw. The trees and hills were zipping past her at supersonic speeds at least a mile below her. Before she could even lock her eyes or turn her head to see a tree or a mountain it was gone. She looked back, not only was she flying and trailing a rainbow streak in her wake, but at the very point where she last saw Pinkie she could see the colourful blast wave of her signature Sonic Rainboom.
Back on the ground Pinkie had not only saw the Sonic Rainboom, she was blown back by the enormous shockwave. When she came to her hair was once again poofy. She slowly staggered to her feet and watched as the colours expanded out in all directions. In the distance she could see the rainbow jet stream of her friend as she soared over the mountains. Pinkie smiled for the first time in a long while. Somehow it no longer seemed to matter now whether or not Dash trusted her, Pinkie was just too over-ecstatic that her friend was flying again. But her excitement peaked to whole new levels when she saw the rainbow streak turn around and come back in the direction she came. Very soon Pinkie could make out Rainbow Dash. Faster than sound she was coming towards her with a jubilant smile on her face. With one quick swoop, Rainbow Dash lifted Pinkie Pie off the ground and holding her hoof flew her up to the clouds.
"Rainbow Dash! You can fly! And... You're not afraid of me anymore?" Pinkie cheered.
"No way!" Rainbow Dash answered with new-found hipness in her voice. "Why would I be scared of you? I know you'd never try to turn me into cupcakes or cut off my cutie marks, you already owe me yours!"
Immediately Pinkie thought back to her childhood. Back to when she was just a little filly and saw Rainbow Dash perform her first sonic rainboom. And smiled like she never smiled before. A moment that ultimately led Pinkie to discover her special talent of making people happy and thus earn her cutie marks. The two mares smiled into each other’s eyes as they soared above the clouds. Together they spent the rest of the afternoon in flight. At times Rainbow let go of Pinkie's hand to let her glide through the air freely and then catch her in time. The two loved it, gone was any sadness. Eventually, Dash popped the question: "Hey Pinkie? You up for some baking?"
Mr. and Mrs. Cake were delighted to see that Dash and Pinkie were friends again. The two ponies were hard at work in the kitchen of Sugar Cube Corner mixing up a batch of muffins. Rainbow Dash was not very well versed in the art of baking and a lot of her attempts were trial and error, but she was all too eager to learn. Pinkie showed Dash exactly what to do, how much of each ingredients to put in, how well to mix them and how long to bake them. Seeing the two mares work together happily as though nothing had ever happened was very reassuring that the nightmare was over. Any doubts the Cakes previously had in their trust of Pinkie was gone.
Derpy was in her bathroom applying her eye drops. It had been a very long day delivering the mail and she was looking forward to the weekend off. Just then she heard the sound of the doorbell. The wall-eyed pegasis made her way to the front door and opened it. Her mouth dropped in awe for five seconds straight, and then spread into a smile. There she saw Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash standing outside the door and together holding a basket full of muffins with a pretty pink envelope with the words "Thank You" written in rainbow.
"Hi Derpy" Rainbow Dash spoke "We just wanted to come by and say... Thank you Derpy, for saving us from that awful changeling. You wanna hang out sometime?"
Author's Note
I'm not a brony, but I have got to say that the fan fiction, fan videos and fan comics out there are quite good. However, there are a few problem fics among them. I am of course talking about “Cupcakes” by Sergeant Sprinkles. A story in which Pinkie Pie tortures Rainbow Dash to death as uses her body parts to make cupcakes. I was never a fan of the canonical Pinkie Pie, but that gore fic made me appreciate who the character actually is.
A lot of bronies were traumatized by “Cupcakes” and have written many alternate endings so that Rainbow Dash survives. I read some of “A Precious Rainbow” by MilesPrower06, in which Applejack saves Rainbow Dash right before Pinkie can cut out her organs and ultimately kills Pinkie in the process. I thought it was a step in the right direction, however the doctors are unable to reattach Rainbow Dash’s wings. Personally, I think Rainbow Dash just isn’t Rainbow Dash without of her wings. And the story still portrayed Pinkie as the psychopathic cannibal that “Cupcakes” made her out to be.
I like to think that the Pinkie Pie who attacked Rainbow Dash was a changeling in disguise. I have read more alternate endings to “Cupcakes” than you could count, and surprisingly not one of them has a changeling disguised as Pinkie as the antagonist. So I’ve decided to write my own alternate ending, in which I rectify where I feel “A Precious Rainbow” fell short. To distinguish my alternate ending from MilesPrower06’s, I also have somepony else save Rainbow Dash and she is saved right after the harvest. I have read online that the internal organs mentioned can be transplanted. Well, in humans a least, I’m not sure about ponies. For the story’s sake, I’ll assume they are! And for those who can’t handle gore, you’ll be happy to know that I leave much of it to the imagination. I can’t even watch Happy Tree Friends! And yes, one scene in this story was inspired by a certain scene from Skyfall. As this is an alternate ending to "Cupcakes", I do use some direct quotes from that fic during the torture of Rainbow Dash.
