As a greenish purple time vortex spit out the princess of time onto an out of place crystal map table in the middle of an open field, Starlight Glimmer was given a glimpse into how Twilight must have felt all those years ago trying to stop various unsanctioned time shenanigans. Regaining her bearings, Starlight cleared the area of debris and dust with an expanding shield spell, and simultaneously casting a detection spell to spot any potential hostile entities. After hearing horror stories from Twilight, she didn't want to take any chances.

Realizing she was totally alone, Starlight let out a breath before she tried to make out her surroundings. "Okay Glim-Glam, first order of business, recon," Starlight said to herself, switching back to her confident, aloof, and mysterious time traveler persona. With another deep breath in and out, she completed her little ritual.

Taking stock of her surroundings she saw the map table she was standing on was still working, if lacking an entire castle to surround it. Her cutie mark was still orbiting around Sugar Cube Corner, but Pinkie Pie's had moved. It seemed to be moving towards her current location, but the pace seemed a bit... off. It worried Starlight, like some primitive instinct was warning her of a stalking predator. It gave her the impression this version of Pinkie wasn't the same as the one she knew and tolerated.

Deciding it would be best to be proactive, Starlight decided to meet Pinkie half way. At least she could try to play off being a new pony in town. On that note, Glim-Glam cast an illusion spell on herself, hiding her wings. Who knew how other ponies would react to a new alicorn out of the blue.

Before she could say 'butterscotch', a familiar, yet slightly muted pink party pony came bounding toward her with a disturbingly wide smile plastered on her face. Despite how impossible it should have been, her smile seemed to grow even bigger once she caught sight of the pinkish purple mare. Increasing her pace from a trot to a gallop, Pinkie sped towards her goal before jumping into what looked like a fighting stance, one hoof drawn back behind her head, preparing to strike. At the last second, Starlight threw up a front facing reinforced shield.

Pinkie punched her hoof into the shield, leaving a sizable dent in the magic construct before it cracked and shattered. Maintaining her ever present mania after dropping to the ground, she slowly turned her head up to look Starlight in the eyes. Something about her pupils just screamed wrongness, and being able to see her up close, Starlight couldn't help but notice Pinkie's mane was completely flat. "Haven't seen you around town friend, you must be new," she said as if she hadn't just tried punching Starlight's skull into pulp.

"Hehe, yeah... I, uh, was just passing through," Starlight stammered out. "I'm-"

"Starlight Glimmer, right?" Pinkie interrupted. "I'm Pinkie Pie, and I know all about you and your little town. I was planning on making a visit soon, but I guess you decided to come visit me instead, how lucky!"

"Sure, let's go with that!" Starlight shot back, recovering her wits. This interaction hadn't gone to plan at all, but the situation was still salvageable. "Say, do ya think you could point me in the direction of a place to get some food? I'm famished after a long journey from my last rest stop."

As predicted, Pinkie perked up at the mention of food. "Sure! Follow me, I'll take you to my bakery, Sugar Cube Corner!"

Her bakery? I thought the cakes ran the bakery. Maybe this is one of those timeline differences, Starlight thought to herself, all while trying to keep a calm exterior. "How long have you been managing your own bakery, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh, ever since the previous owners passed away, they were like a second pair of parents to me," Pinkie said, slightly deflating as she did so. "But at least I have help from their kids! I helped raise the cake twins since their birth. I'm like their cool aunt, and I couldn't ask for better helpers!" Speaking of her young charges seemed to reinvigorate the pink pony to the point she started happily bouncing.

"Well, it's good to hear you got some great help. Running a bakery sounds like a lot of work," Starlight offered, wanting to get to the bottom of the issue as soon as possible. Did the death of the Cakes set Pinkie off some how?

After exchanging a bit more small talk, Starlight noticed something unsettling about the sky. However, not wanting to come across as suspicious, she tried wording her concern as neutrally as possible. "Does this town not have a weather pony to keep the skies clear?"

"Oh, we do, but Blossomforth isn't as fast as Dashie used to be," Pinkie answered nonchalantly.

"Dashie?" Starlight asked, trying not to sound desperate for information.

"Oh yeah, our old weather mare Rainbow Dash, she passed away some time ago. But good old Blossomforth keeps things organized at least. She'll probably get help from some other ponies to clear the skies soon," Pinkie was talking about the death of who should have been one of her best friends like she was discussing... the weather, which she also kinda was. This was all so surreal.

Having arrived at their destination, Starlight looked around to see... Sugar Cube Corner about as she knew it to be, if only a bit uncanny. The air was a bit too stagnant, the colors just slightly muted, Pound Cake's smile at the counter seemed just a bit forced. "Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner, care for a cupcake?" he greeted, offering a free sample. The adolescent stallion was a bit lanky, if not malnourished.

"No no, Pound, Starlight here is new in town. Bring out one of the good cupcakes," Pinkie insisted with a not so subtle wink. After just a moment of hesitation and the slightest bit of panic showing in his eyes, he ducked into the kitchen before emerging seconds later with another cupcake, that did look a bit higher quality. "Bone apple teeth!" Pinkie shouted before snickering at some unknown joke only she understood.

Wanting to remain polite, Starlight took the cupcake in her magic. However, under the guise of levitation, she decided to analyze the pastry for any foul tampering. A magical scan revealed various narcotics in the frosting as well as the cream filling inside the mini cake. She hyped herself up, before downing the cupcake in one bite, or at least that's what it looked like to an outside observer.

In reality, she teleported the cupcake as soon as it was in her mouth, splitting it up in half and sending the two pieces into the stomachs of Pinkie and Pound cake. As they both stood there looking expectantly at Starlight, they didn't notice a small lump of drugged cupcake entering their digestive systems. As the seconds ticked by, Pinkie's face contorted in confusion as Pound was sweating bullets. After a whole minute, they began swaying on their hooves.

"What did you..." Pinkie managed to mumble before loosing her footing. Right after her, Pound Cake collapsed to the floor, totally knocked out. "Pumpkin... help," Pinkie barely managed to get out before falling asleep herself.

Seeing both of her would be assailants unconscious, Starlight cast a binding spell on the both of them as well as a personal alarm for if they woke up and tried freeing themselves. After teleporting them both upstairs, presumably to a bed, or at least a comfortable floor, Starlight called out for the other Cake twin while casting a motion detection spell within the entire bakery. "Pumpkin, I know you're in the kitchen. Come out peacefully and we won't have any problems. Otherwise I'll have to knock you out like your aunt and brother."

No response came except for what sounded like knives being drawn from their sheaths. With a sigh, Starlight cast another shield spell before making her way into the kitchen. The sight that greeted her was the last thing she had expected. Eyes wide as dinner plates, the scene in front of Starlight was something out of a nightmare. Pumpkin cake had used her magic to stab herself with every knife at her disposal. Blood was gushing from various wounds as it began pooling on the floor.

"No..." Starlight whispered before something in her snapped. Her force of will commanded her time magic freezing the scene before her. Nopony dies on my watch, Starlight swore to herself. Even if she would be rewriting this timeline, Starlight refused to let another pony die if she could help it. With time still frozen, she carefully removed the knives, and cast some rudimentary healing spells and a stasis spell for good measure on Pumpkin's body. Starlight then teleported all three of the other ponies in the building to the main lobby of the Ponyville hospital.

"Alright Glim-Glam, no more games," Starlight demanded of herself. Seeing first hand that there was definitely something very wrong with this version of Pinkie Pie, Starlight began her investigation in earnest. Casting every detection spell in her repertoire all over and around the bakery she stood in, she noticed something odd in the basement. Rather, she noticed some strong anti detection wards on the door to the basement. Pinkie must have made Pumpkin learn some basic spells for hiding whatever they were doing here, Starlight thought as she slowly made her way to the warded door.

Taking a deep breath, Starlight slowly reached out a hoof to check the door handle. "Locked, obviously. Well, I was gonna have to dispel the wards either way," Starlight mumbled to herself before putting a bit too much magic into her spells, causing the door to disintegrate. "Huh, guess I should be more careful with alicorn magic," Starlight snarked to herself before cautiously making her way into the dark basement.

As she crossed the threshold of the door, the acrid stench of various cleaning products as well as an underlying sour hint of lactic acid slapped her across the nose, forcing her to gag. Reaching out with her magic, she found a light switch. Pulling the string attached to the ceiling light bulb turned it on, and she immediately wished she hadn't.

Before her at the bottom of the basement stairs was what could only be called a sadistic butcher's wet dream. Various electric power tools were spread across multiple sturdy metal tables, all surrounding a mechanical table that looked like a modern take on an ancient torture device.

Taking a closer look around the room only made Starlight want to vomit more, the only thing stopping her was pure shock. Scattered around the walls of the basement were mounted heads of Gilda the griffin, Angel Bunny, Little Strong Hoof, Rainbow Dash, Cup Cake, Carrot Cake, Scootaloo, and Ditzy.

The shock finally wore off enough for Starlight to loose her lunch, as well as her breakfast, and last night's dinner. Her only consolation is that there was a drain in the floor so she wouldn't have to stand around in her own bile. Shutting her eyes, she refused to look at these horrors any longer. Focusing her intention through her horn, Starlight bent time to her will. When she opened her eyes again, she was in an ethereal plane, and in front of her was what looked like a glowing strand of silk.

"Well, at least my domain hasn't changed from how it looked while I was fixing those friendship problems. Still, what the buck happened that caused Pinkie to snap and fall off the deep end like that!" Starlight demanded of the time line in front of her. In response, it just kept fluctuating like a horizontal stock of seaweed in an ethereal ocean. "Right, I guess I don't have a journal, to... read..." she trailed off before grimacing at realizing what should have been obvious.

Without anypony else there to berate her, Starlight simply teleported back to the physical plane, about thirty hooves above where she was previously. With time still frozen, Starlight made her way upstairs to what she assumed was Pinkie Pie's room. Opening the door, the first thing she noticed was a ponykin covered in what looked like a quilt of cutie marks along with a necklace of unicorn horns, and multiple pegasus wings hanging on either side.

After a brief episode of disassociation, Starlight found herself panting while standing over a small pile of smoking ash. Not wanting to dwell on any more horrors of this world, she moved on. Casting various detection and scrying spells, Starlight quickly located her prize. "Pinkie's diary, let's hope it's at least half as organized as her entries in the friendship journal," Starlight mused aloud.

"Hmm, grannie pie, mhmm, rabbit stew... and, there we go!" Glim-Glam exclaimed before demanifesting back to her ethereal realm of time. Stretching and smoothing out the metaphysical line in front of her, she selected her chosen time of intervention and remanifested back in meat space. "Pinkie, before you even think about harming a single whisker on Angel Bunny's face, know that harming small animals is the first step on the road to becoming a serial killer. If you turn him to stew, it will lead you down a dark path of cannibalism and murdering everypony you hold dear. For the sake of everypony, I implore you to stop."

"What?" Pinkie asked, genuinely surprised by the unicorn mare appearing out of nowhere. She was just on her way to Fluttershy's for tea and cookies. So what if she stumbled upon an old rabbit stew recipe her granny Pie won in a card game with a griffin that Pinkie wanted to try out on the little demon rabbit? Who was this mare to tell her what to do.

When her impassioned speech only got a skeptical glare from Pinkie, Starlight decided to change tactics. Ending her illusion spell, she flared out her wings, glaring menacingly and taking a threatening stance she tried again, "Pinkamena Diane Pie, if you refuse to listen to reason, I will have no choice but to erase you from this timeline. I don't want to because it will mean I'll have to find a new element of laughter, but if it means protecting innocent ponies, I won't hesitate to eliminate any threat!" Starlight growled, her horn lit up, ready to incapacitate the pink pony.

Pinkie blinked several times, her face morphing into a mask of pure neutrality. Then, she smiled, "Oki-doki-loki!" Pinkie replied in her regular cheery voice. "Thanks for keeping me from the dark side, even if they do have cookies," she grumbled, tapping a hoof to her muzzle in contemplation. She supposed the rabbit stew recipe would have to just go back in the attic.

Taken aback at the sudden mood shift, Starlight relaxed her posture and took a moment to recover before adding, "also, remember your birthday is the day after Gummy's so don't try planning an after birthday party. Just take the day off and relax," she insisted.

"Thanks for the heads up Glim-Glam!" Pinkie pounced onward to her destination. "By the way, you might wanna check your flanks! I don't think flashing cutie marks is a normal condition!" she called back before leaving ear shot entirely.

Starlight froze up, wondering how Pinkie knew her nickname. "Did she just... no, I never told her that." Starlight furrows her brow in confusion, contemplating. "But, then again, Pinkie was the one who originally gave me that nickname, so maybe she's just good at coming up with nicknames."

Turning her attention back to her flank, Starlight was relieved to see the signal for a job well done. After a quick teleport back to the out of place hologram map, Starlight charged her horn with the familiar time magic she used to get to this damaged timeline in the first place. As the spell was released, the map morphed back into a greenish purple vortex before Starlight let it suck her back home.

Author's Note

Here's a link to the original story
https://fimfetch.net/story/1007747395/cupcakes-repost