Chapters Cupcakes: The Different Story
Cupcakes: The Different Story
The air was warm, the sun was shining, and everypony in Ponyville was having a glorious day, all except for Rainbow Dash. Even on her way to Ponyville Hospital, her decision haunted her, but she knew it was the right thing to do, even if she kept telling herself it was too late. Suddenly, Dash remembered she had somewhere else to be. She was supposed to meet Pinkie Pie before her appointment. She had been so lost in thought that she had nearly forgotten that Pinkie asked her to stop by Sugarcube Corner before she went to the hospital. Pinkie hadn't said why or what she had planned, but it was heavily implied it had something to do with Rainbow's... "condition". But Rainbow wasn't sure if she wanted to go. She had procrastinated about the appointment for long enough, and she thought about blowing Pinkie off just to get it over with, but her conscience got the better of her. She knew it would hurt Pinkie's feelings if she didn't show up, so she decided a little while longer wouldn't hurt, and headed to Sugarcube Corner.
"Okay, Pinkie, I'm here." Rainbow called as she entered Sugarcube Corner.
Pinkie zoomed up to her guest and cupped her cheeks. "Rainbow Dash, you are a strong, beautiful mare, and if you're sure this is the right thing, I support you completely. But, please, can I just throw one little mini-party for your foal before you send it off?..."
Rainbow sighed. "As long as I'm not late for my appointment."
Pinkie Pie bounced excitedly, and went to retrieve a rainbow-colored vanilla cupcake with Rainbow Dash's Cutie Mark drawn on the top with frosting. Rainbow picked it up and took a bite without another word. "This tastes kinda weird... What's in this?"
"My ADHD medication." Pinkie replied. "It's supposed to calm me down if I get too nervous. And, I didn't want you stressing out too much... about your appointment..." Pinkie gave a sly, almost evil grin as Rainbow's vision blurred, and she collapsed onto the floor.
When Rainbow Dash came to, she found herself in a dark room, constricted to a wooden plank by leather straps. There must have been a fair bit of magic woven into them, as they held Rainbow firmly in place for how thin and puny they were. In the corner of the room, she could see Pinkie Pie on the phone. "I'm sorry, but Rainbow Dash isn't coming in today. Don't worry, I'll take good care of her and her little sunshine while it lasts." She hung up and bounced into Rainbow Dash's line of sight. "Goodie, you're awake! Now, we can get started!" Pinkie hopped back into the darkness, only to return with a cart full of medical supplies.
"Pinkie?... What's going on? I can't move!" Dash cried.
"Well, duh! I had to tie you down or I wouldn't be able to get the baby out!" chided Pinkie.
"Baby?..." Dash was now if full panic mode. She struggled in her chains, trying to reason with the pink pony. "You can't do this, Pinkie! I'm your friend!"
"I know you are, and I'm so happy we get to share your last moments as a mommy together. Just you, me, and your little bundle of joy! I'm doing all of this to save it, y'know. I've been doing this for a while ." And with that ominous statement, the lights suddenly came to life and filled the rest of the room.
"Oh, no..." Dash reeled in horror at the image presented to her. The room was decorated with a typical but twisted Pinkie Pie flair. Colorful streamers of dried entrails fluttered around on the ceiling, brightly painted skulls of all sizes were attached to the walls, and organs done up in pastels filled with helium were tied to the backs of chairs, which were made of bones and the preserved flesh of past ponies. Dash cringed upon seeing the center piece of the table nearest to her. The heads of four mares, their eyes closed as if they were sleeping, were wearing party hats made from their own skin. With a thrill of terror, Dash recognized one of them as Feathermay, her wing pony from the Wonderbolts academy. Dash’s eyes darted back and forth and then fell upon a patchwork banner hanging from the rafters made from several pony hides with the words "Life is a party" were scrawled on it in blood.
Dash’s attention was brought back by a party horn unfurling and tickling her nose. She gaped at Pinkie Pie, who was standing right in front of her. The party pony was wearing her Winter Wrap-Up vest, now emblazoned with Cutie Marks. On her back fluttered a pair of pink alicorn wings, with a unicorn's horn to match sitting pretty atop her forehead. "Like it?" Pinkie asked. "I made it myself. I'm the Princess of Chaos, now!"
"Princess of Chaos? Discord put you up to this, didn't he!"
"Oh, no, nothing like that. It's just that your number came up and... Well, I don't make the rules. Look, this'll cheer you up! I brought you a friend!" Seemingly out of nowhere, Pinkie produced a brightly painted blue and yellow griffin skull. "I caught her just before she left town. I know she didn't have a number like everypony else, but when was I gonna get another chance to take in a baby griffin! Maybe I should've asked where she was from so I could get more. Oh well!" said Pinkie with an air of finality, "That’s enough reminiscing. It’s time to begin."
Putting down Gilda’s skull, the pink pony gripped a scalpel in the cleft of her hoof and walked over to Dash’s right flank. Without any flair, Pinkie placed the blade an inch above Dash’s cutie mark and began a circular cut around it. Dash shouted in pain and tried desperately to pull away, but the braces held her still. Finishing the incision, Pinkie grabbed a curved skinning knife from the tray. Screwing up her face in concentration, she worked it under Dash’s skin and sliced the hide away from the muscle. Dash ground her teeth as she tearfully watched her flesh peel off. Once she had finished, Pinkie held up the Cutie Mark in front of her friend and started waving it like a pompom. Dash just whimpered. Her thigh burned like nothing she had felt before.
Placing the ragged patch of skin down, Pinkie selected a large butcher knife and walked behind the blue pegasus. "Hope you don’t mind, I think I’m gonna wing it now." Pinkie laughed. She grabbed Dash’s left wing in her mouth and played with it for a few seconds, yanking it back so the sharp pain reignited the fire in Dash’s flank. Then, stretching the wing out, Pinkie brought the blade down hard at the base, and it came clean off. As her pelvis tensed up, Dash felt a warm release between her legs, and her loud, unending melody of pain filled the room. Unable to catch her breath, she blacked out.
"Oh dear..." Pinkie sighed, glancing at the adrenaline shot on her cart. "I could wake you up, but that'll only make getting the baby out that much harder. So, I'll just get to work on that, and then cut off your other wing. I always wondered what you'd be like as an Earth pony." Pinkie took her scalpel and cut into Rainbow Dash's abdomen, separating the little filly from the rest of her body. She then quickly placed the filly in a fish tank, hooking up all sorts of life support equipment to the umbilical cord. Placing the scalpel in her mouth and retrieving a saw, Pinkie sawed off Dash's remaining wing, and used her scalpel to carve a heart shape over where Rainbow's actual heart was, and then drove it into her chest. "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 was nice knowing you, Dash! Don't worry, I'll take good care of little Cumulus. That's what you wanted to call her, right?"
Pinkie Pie stared at her reflection in the glass of the artificial womb. She had done a really good job, even keeping the eyelids. She winked, and Dash winked back. Pinkie smiled.
But still, she was sad that her friend was now gone. Dash had only lasted fifteen minutes, not nearly as long as Pinkie had wanted. She looked back at the cadaver hanging in the center of the room, the last of her friend’s fluids draining into a pan. Yup, no more Rainbow Dash.
As she looked, Pinkie cocked her head. She began to take notice of the fact that there really wasn’t much damage to the corpse. “In fact,” the pink pony mused, “I think….” An idea exploded in her head. She was good at sewing and she had all the pieces, all she had to do was put them back together. Yeah, she just had to get some stuffing and bingo, she’d have Rainbow Dash, and her little filly, forever. In fact, thought Pinkie, that’s what she’d do for all her best friends when their numbers came up. She was so excited, she skipped right over to the body with her skinner to get started. Cumulus could wait; Pinkie Pie had a mommy to make...
Cupcakes: The Different Story
A wave of energy surged into Pinkie Pie's head, a memory that wasn't hers.
"I could make another soul, but... it wouldn't be you, Agnar..."
Pinkie stumbled backwards, her skinner clattering to the floor.
"Master..."
The tune of a song began to fill her ears, but not in the bittersweet manner of which it was intended. It sounded much more sad... Angry... Haunting...
You have not lost a thing Whatever may come The light of hope is always shining there in your heart
You've not lost a thing Whatever you do Just know that your tomorrow will be waiting for you
Never have to give up Wherever you go Know inside that you will never be there alone
Haven't lost anything Whatever may come The light of hope is always shining there in your heart...
A swarm of ghost-like creatures appeared, all different colors, and surrounded Rainbow Dash's corpse.
They brought Rainbow back to life...
And she attacked Pinkie Pie...
The two ponies wrestled on the floor for a moment or two before Rainbow Dash had pinned Pinkie to the wall by her throat with one of her wings; now alicorn-sized, decorated with all the colors of the rainbow in a beautiful in-between of neon and pastel. As Rainbow's feathers tickled and constricted Pinkie Pie's neck, another memory seized into her.
"You brought back Maria... And you made her fight me... The only way I could bring myself to fight you was to tell myself it wasn't really her, but it looked a damn lot like her..."
That's what was happening now. Was this really Rainbow Dash?... Pinkie looked into her eyes; the were almost robotic, void of any emotion other than rage, and possibly fear.
The grip of the feathers tightened. "Do you know what it's like serving under that thing ?" Rainbow scowled. "It thinks it knew what it was like to be alive, but it's nothing but a buzzing... screaming well of voices! You start off as bits of its mind... swimming in circles... like fish in a bowl..." Rainbow's voice became erratic. "I will not let the Phantom... take me again..."
Pinkie bit down on Rainbow's wing, causing the grip on her neck to loosen, giving her enough room to slip under the cyan pegasus and kick her in the flank, sending a crippling burning sensation through her friend. Pinkie dove across the room and took her scalpel in her mouth to defend herself, but it was all for not. Another memory flashed in her mind; the voice of the creature Rainbow mentioned just moments before.
"Maybe you just don't know, because your mask; it looks just like your face! But doesn't that mean that what you're trying to hide is now what you are?"
Tears streamed from Pinkie's eyes, and she collapsed to the floor, sobbing. Rainbow Dash glared at the crippled pseudo-alicorn before zipping to the trapdoor that led into the basement, her burning flank and missing feathers not slowing her down in the slightest. "Welcome to reality," Rainbow bucked the trapdoor shut and left Sugarcube Corner, confident that nopony would see Pinkie Pie again. ""Princess"..."
Cupcakes: The Different Story
Rainbow Factory: The Different Story
"Any last words, you miserable excuse of a foal?"
"You have beautiful eyes..."
That's not how any of this works at all. It was an evil I felt it was my duty to fight. But the way I fought it, the look in my eyes, how could anypony- even my little sister- call them beautiful?...
I've had that same nightmare for at least two months now. I'm hanging in the air from a set of chains, similarly to the story with Scootaloo, and a yellow ghost-like creature floats in my place. It wore a black scarf that it used like a pair of tentacles, and it's face was a mask. "You seriously thought you , a useless pile of manure, could kill what's already dead?!" it scowled at me.
"Love can overcome all evils in this world!" In the story, there was another filly who said just that before I killed her, and now, I found myself barking it back.
"Let's see if "love" can overcome this one!" The creature repeated exactly what I said to that little filly. It reached its scarf into my chest, pulling out a dark, misty orb. I was barely conscious enough to watch him swallow it before bolting awake. I shook the thought from my head. Tomorrow morning, I'll visit Canterlot and ask Princess Luna about it. Right now, I have a presentation for another princess...
Twilight sat high above the theatre room in an upper balcony, glaring down at me in anticipation as I entered near the main attraction. I cleared my throat. "I assume everypony here has made their decision? If not, now would be your turn to leave."
The guards held the gates open, and a large group of pegasi flew out.
"And if you have received the news only recently, now would be your turn to leave."
A smaller group of pegasi left. Only a third of the original group remained. It was more than enough... "Now, do we have any volunteers?"
A pegasus not much older than me with a shining yellow mane and red pelt stepped forward. Fluttershy led her up the stairs to set her up.
"You've all had a tour of the rest of the weather factory, right? Can anyone tell me what the first stop is?"
A filly of identical appearance to Scootaloo raised her hoof, but I could tell it wasn't her. "Where the rainbows come down out of the mixing bowl, right?"
"Correct!" I cheered. "And rainbows are made of spectrum, the pure essence of color. Ever since Princess Celestia left rainbow production to the pegasi over a thousand years ago, we struggled to extract raw, natural spectrum. Until one day, we made a breakthrough!"
Fluttershy pulled the red Pegasus into the air with a series of chains.
"One of the workers was due to have a foal; her uterus ruptured, and she died. When her corpse was put into the processor, the most beautiful blues and greens came spewing out! After some tests, we concluded that live ponies are the best source of pure spectrum! But who would sacrifice ponies for the sake of rainbows? No one! But they would for their own selfish intent. That's why all of you are here, isn't it?..."
Fluttershy and I giggled as the audience shivered in terror. "This," I began, "is the Super Speedy Filly Squeezy 6900. Or, as I like to call it..." I took part of the cloth in my mouth and tore the large sheet off of the machine. "the Pegasus Device!"
"We find the machine works best if the patient's uterus is removed and inserted separately." Fluttershy continued, cutting into the mare's abdomen with a kitchen knife. Peeling the skin away, she pointed a small camera inside, casting an image of the womb onto a large screen behind the main stage. "Oh, good." she chuckled. "We were starting to run out of indigo. It's pretty hard to come by." Fluttershy tied the tubes and cut below the knot, removing the uterus with the six-weeks-developed foal inside, holding it high as if it were a trophy. She then dropped our tiny victim into the machine. Everypony watched as the pipes filled with indigo from the fetus' coat, and red from the blood. The mother was lowered and her chains undone, only for her to meet the same fate.
I glared down at Scootaloo's copy. "I thought you loved me!" I mocked in a high-pitched voice. "You think you can come in here and try to appeal to whatever empathy is left in me by pretending to be my little sister?! How dare you mock the pony I did all of this to save! GUARDS!"
The Shadowbolts ponies flew next to the filly, awaiting their captain's instructions. "Bring me some dip..."
The guards flew off, returning with a barrel of hydrogen peroxide, acetone, and benzine, which they placed over the Pegasus Device. The filly was chained up and dunked into the barrel. Out of it came a white filly with a deep blue mane, orange and red filling it.
"Scootaloo's mother..." I croaked, "wanted a third-trimester abortion. When this takes place, the fetus is either beheaded or dismembered. In a fit of rage, I did both to her poor mother. I was so scared... I scooped Scootaloo out and raised her as my little sister, and dumped her mother's body in the Everfree. With any luck, everypony just assumed she was eaten by a timberwolf." I looked up at Twilight and burst into tears. The guards moved the barrel, and I sniffled, preparing to speak. "What's your name, kid?"
"W-Windrop." she replied.
"Windrop…" I bowed my head. "You would've had a bright future ahead of you, just like the rest of those little fillies. I'm sorry this has to be your grave." Keeping my head down, I smiled. "You have beautiful eyes..."
