…It was a beautiful day in Ponyville to die. Or to kill somepony.

As the old rusty clock ticked on, a series of giggles echoed through the dark, unopened bakery with its shrink-wrapped goods of yummy goodness. Today was going to be a special day, more specially-spectacular than anything else in the world! Bigger than her first party, or…or even Twilight’s first welcome party! Or, well…at least, it would be if a certain rainbow-maned pegasus wasn’t so late for a very important date.

However, the pink pony was patient, ever so patient.

So how many times did she insist for her to come on time? Too many to count, really, and yet she still didn’t get it! Oh, it makes her soooo mad, she could just…eat something chocolately and…gooey!

“…That…actually does sound pretty GOOD….Mmmmm…” The pink pony began salivating from the mouth as she leaned her chin against the table, drool spilling from one side of the table down to the other side, letting it drip down to the floor.

“…Um, Pinkie? You okay in there?” The pink pony’s eyes widened at the sound of the rainbow-maned mare’s raspy voice. Lifting herself from the table, she spawned a grin so huge as she rushed over to greet her lovely guest. “Dashie! You came! I was almost afraid you forgot!”

Rainbow Dash chuckled, rubbing her forehoof behind her mane. “Y-Yeah…just got caught up in awesome flying stuff, and…pretty much lost track of the time. I didn’t forget, per say…but I do admit I should’ve paid more attention to the time…”

“Aww, it’s okay! You made it!” Pinkie Pie smiled as she reached for a newly made batch of cupcakes, almost reaching to eat one herself out of habit.

‘Oops, don’t wanna spoil the surprise! These ones are special, just for Dashie. You can eat some later.’

Rainbow blinked. “Wow, you already got to baking without me? Geez, I’m sorry Pinks…-” A puzzled expression decorated her face as a tray of cupcakes were shoved in her direction. “Wait, we’re eating some now?”

“No, silly filly! These ones are for you! Or you could eat one of them, and we can eat them later.” The pink pony kept her grin, barely keeping her excitement contained.

Not too long, now…

“Oh, okay. Well, don’t mind if I do!” Without a second thought the rainbow-maned pegasus reached for a cupcake out of the batch and popped it inside her mouth. It tasted really filling with frosting, chocolate cake batter, and…something else she couldn’t really describe into words…and suddenly she felt really…really…sleeeeppy….

Rainbow grunted as she felt a loss in her balance, a wave of dizziness consuming her as she took a peek back at the eyes of her best friend. “Whoa….benzodiazepines…right…?

A shadow fell over the pink pony’s face as she watched her best friend fall to the ground with a crash against one of the display counters, drool slipping from the mouth.

“…Yeah, that’s one of the ingredients, but, how did you figure THAT out? Well, either way, you got chosen so…sorry, Dashie.”

Rainbow Dash groaned as she slowly opened her eyes to a blurry vision. She seemed to be in a dark…room of some kind, the words “Life is a Party” written in some dark writing she couldn’t make out…As she tried to get out to take a closer look, she realized her body wasn’t doing what she wanted it to do. In fact, she couldn’t move an inch.

Taking a second look, she came to the conclusion she was strapped to a metal table, mutilated heads of all shapes and sizes surrounding her vision, the blood evident on each one and all over the walls. Groaning, she gave a frown as she searched for who had put her there.

The décor was messy, so messy.

“Oh good, you’re awake!” A cheerful yet unsettling voice filled the room as a pink pony entered Rainbow’s vision. This pony looked like Pinkie, but her mane was flattened and she wore a quilted dress made out of…cutiemarks, and a necklace of unicorn horns, with wings of several kinds on the back of her dress. Overall the display was mildly disturbing to the pegasus.

The rainbow-maned pony stared at her. “Uh, Pinkie? What are you wearing?”

“You like it? I made it myself, you know.” Pinkie smiled as she began to turn in her dress, allowing the pegasus to absorb the detail of each cutiemark. “It actually took quite a bit of work!”

“So that’s where that pony went…” The pegasus mused to herself as she shifted in her binds. “It looks okay enough, but it’s also kinda messy. Don’t you have any cleaner materials down here?”

“Oh, you know…Wait, what? Cleaner…materials?” The pink pony blinked as she looked into the eyes of the rainbow-maned pegasus. Her eyes looked annoyed, and almost…bored. Maybe even a little fascinated, but…

…not a twinge of fear.

“Yeah, like, how often do you sanitize your tools? Do you sharpen them?” Pinkie blinked as she slowly shook her head. Rainbow gave a deep sigh as she shook her head and took another look at her surroundings.

“You’re gonna get caught eventually like this. You gotta clean up a little, keep the stench down to a minimum.”

“U-uh…” The pink pony nodded slowly as she looked over at her trusty tools. Something wasn’t right. Something was different than all the other times. Dashie wasn’t acting right. She wasn’t showing any fear, even though she was strapped down like this with all her lovely decorations. Things that made grown stallions scream like little fillies.

So, why…why didn’t Dashie show any fear at any of this?

“You…you could guess the ingredient that was in my cupcake…How?” Pinkie’s eyes narrowed in a wave of self-defense, lifting a scalpel in her hoof towards the mare’s neck. Maybe she was just acting tough…

Rainbow rolled her eyes at the display. “Duh! We use it all the time where I work. I practically live with the stuff. But…that’s all I’ll be telling you…unless you unstrap me from this table.” The pink pony bit her lip as she watched a sense of darkness in her best friend’s eyes, never before seen.

If she took her now because of her number…she could be missing out on some juicy secrets she could keep for life. “…How do I know you won’t report me?” A dangerous atmosphere entered the room as Pinkie slowly put down the scalpel in her hoof.

“…Because, Pinkie…we may have more in common than I originally thought.” The rainbow-maned mare’s eyes narrowed as her face shaped into a smirk.

She had her now.

Pinkie’s eyes shifted as she slowly reached for the screwdriver from her set of tools. “…You’re not messing with me, are you? You…you know what it feels like. To…do what I do…” She gave a psychotic smile as she unscrewed the binds attached to the metal table. “You better tell me everything after this. I drew your number and everything! And I don’t usually ignore what the numbers say.”

“So you go by a number system? That’s gonna get dangerous after a while, y’know. I mean, what if you drew Twilight’s number? Everypony would be freaking out! Besides, what about me? I’m pretty well known, and if I suddenly went missing because…what do you do, anyway?” Rainbow gave a small grunt as she slipped from the metal table onto the floor.

“What do I do? Oh, I use my victims in a bunch of different ways! But I usually make them into cupcakes first and use the leftovers for something else.” Pinkie grinned as she put the screwdriver back where she found it.

The rainbow-maned pegasus frowned. “Ugh, so that’s what I was tasting besides the benzodiazepines and the cake and the frosting. Overall, not a bad flavor…which is pretty surprising seeing as we don’t usually consume meat. Creative business, at least…”

…In fact, really creative. They’d never know.

“Hey! You’d tell me what you do if I let you out! You’re not backing out on me now, are you, Dashie?” The pink pony’s eyes narrowed into a glare as her friend fell into a chuckle.

“…Pinks? Do you know where…rainbows come from?”

Pinkie Pie blinked. “Uhh…the…factories, I think?”

Rainbow grinned. “Bingo, you got it! But, I don’t think you know exactly HOW rainbows are made. Do you know what “spectra” is?”

The pink pony frowned. “Umm…not really…what is ‘spectra’?”

Something changed in the rainbow-maned mare’s eyes. “…You really wanna know?”

Pinkie nodded.

“It’s….” Pause for dramatic effect… “…The life-force of PONIES.”

She gasped. All this time she had been killing ponies and mixing them into cupcakes, and she never understood what this spectra was. “Wow…and all this time, think of the spectra you haven’t been using.”

Rainbow let out another groan as she violently rubbed her forehoof against her mane. “I know! It’s a total waste of resources!” Rose eyes met baby blue. “…And that’s why I’d like to offer you a proposition, Pinkie.”

“…Huh? What are you talking about?” A puzzled expression painted the pink pony’s face.

“It’s obvious. We drain the spectra out of ponies to make the rainbows, but we don’t know what to do with the bodies other than to grind them up, and then what do we do with them? Well…that’s where you would come in.” Rainbow grinned as her eyes narrowed. “You’d be continuing your business, but under our facility’s protection. We sanitize our work space, so there’s no trace of somepony being there. If somepony were to stumble in your CURRENT work space the way it is…” She cringed at the thought. “…you’d be executed for sure.”

Pinkie gulped. “Gee…you think it’d be THAT bad? I thought you’d get locked up for life or something.”

“Pfft, for killing ponies? Murder is kind of a HUGE offense in Equestria. I’d be executed for MY business if I were caught, too! So, this way, we can save both our flanks, if neither reports the other. Plus, nothing gets wasted in the long run. It’s perfect!”

The pink pony nodded as she began to put her tools away. Obviously she wouldn’t be using them to make cupcakes at the moment, so it was best hidden from everypony’s eyes. “…Have you ever been caught before, Dashie? I mean, I haven’t yet…”

A shadow fell over her best friend’s face as the atmosphere grew darker still. “…Not yet, and nopony will. I’ve sacrificed too many for my business to be jeopardized now.” Pinkie blinked as Rainbow’s face shaped into a psychotic grin. “If we ever get messy, ponies will notice strange things in the rainbows, so there’s no room for failure. And if you get messy at your job, and it somehow threatens MY job, well…you’ll be next on the conveyer belt.”

“Oh, so now you’re threatening MY life instead of the other way around, huh?” The pink pony smirked. “I’ll play your little game, Dashie, but you’d better watch out if things go wrong…that I don’t bring you down first.”

“Sounds like a plan. So…you’ll join me in my business?” Rainbow Dash held out a hoof towards the pink pony. Pinkie Pie smiled as she lifted a hoof to meet her best friend’s.

“Absodidalutely…but when we’re alone…like, alone-alone…call me Pinkamina.”

The rainbow-maned pegasus chuckled. “Nah, I think I’ll just stick with Pinks…works either way, don’t ‘cha think?”

Pinkamina pouted. “…Kill-joy. Don’t you have something you wanna be called in secret?”

Rainbow sighed as she stretched out her wings. “No, I’m Rainbow Dash…unless you wanna call me Superior Supervisor. The rest of work does.”

“Then…you’ll have to be called…Dr. Dashie!” The pink pony grinned as she threw her hooves up into the air for effect. “Kinda catchy, right…? Right…?”

The mare rolled her eyes. “Pinkie…no matter how dark you get…you’re still so weird.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot…” The pink pony’s pride swelled up as she twirled in her stitched up masterpiece.

“So…can we get out of here? You REALLY gotta fix this place up before you get caught.”

Pinkamina sighed as she looked around the bloody room. “Yeah…but wait! How do you get your victims, Dashie? I gotta know where my resources are coming from, after all.”

Rainbow nodded. “We use a coming of age flight-test. Those who pass get to go on with their lives, but the failures…”

“…What happens to them?”

She smirked. “The failures, as far as the public knows, get out-casted…but they REALLY get sent to the factory…where they never return. In other words, we use the failures, ponies that the public won’t miss, as fodder for making rainbows. You’d be using what’s left of those failures in your projects.”

Pinkamina smiled. “So, about what age?”

“…We like them young. You get the freshest spectra that way.”

She gasped. “No way, you get the yummiest cupcakes from the young, too!”

“…And nopony suspects a thing.”

Pinkamina giggled as she once more took a look towards her tools and her bloody crafts.

“…So when do I start?”

…A beautifully bloody partnership was born.

Author's Note

This idea came into my head and wouldn't leave me be. Hate or love it as you wish, I'm quite aware of it not being a popular subject for some readers.

Cupcakes and Rainbow Factory belong to their respective owners and I hold no claim to them whatsoever. I was just curious how this conversation would turn out.