Cupcakes

Cupcakes is a fan-written short story featuring an insanely homicidal Pinkie Pie. It has been noted for its dark and violent imagery. It is neither intended nor suitable for young audiences.

Plot summary
Rainbow Dash is invited to the bakery by Pinkie Pie to help her out with some baking. Once she arrives, she discovers no sign of any work in progress, but, knowing Pinkie Pie, doesn't feel surprised and readily eats a cupcake offered by Pinkie, thinking of it as of a "taste test". In reality, the cupcake appears to have been injected with a soporific, which knocks Rainbow Dash unconscious. After the drug's effect is over, Rainbow Dash awakens to find herself tied up in a dark cellar room. Pinkie Pie appears to tell Rainbow Dash that she's going to make cupcakes, but she's out of a necessary ingredient: Rainbow Dash herself.

The rest of the story describes a series of medical procedures, almost all of them sans anesthesia, undertaken by Pinkie Pie to put Rainbow Dash to death. In the end, Pinkie Pie decides not to make cupcakes from Rainbow Dash, but instead to make a stuffed Rainbow Dash from her friend's body. The original ending also depicts Apple Bloom as taking part in "making cupcakes" as Pinkie Pie's apprentice and/or assistant.

Alternate endings
There are several unofficial alternate endings, written by other people, claiming that:
 * The whole story was Pinkie Pie's nightmare.
 * It all happened because of Princess Celestia being cursed during her confrontation with Nightmare Moon, as the story of Celestia fighting Luna is described to be much more violent than remembered in pony myths of Nightmare Moon, featuring global pony-to-pony face-off, massive battles and a dragon, still being held in Celestia's palace in Canterlot, waiting for her to pass the ruler's right to Luna and letting him put an end to her life - and the curse - in the last honorable battle.
 * Twilight Sparkle accidentally goes into the bakery, notices something weird and witnesses Pinkie Pie's brutal death in the torture table gears.
 * Celestia's Everfree Forest Rangerhoof SWAT storms the cellar, prevents Pinkie Pie from applying lethal damage to Rainbow Dash, and takes her into custody.
 * Rainbow Dash escapes by burning Pinkie alive.
 * Applejack saves Rainbow Dash when she goes to the bakery to see why Rainbow is late for a dinner party.
 * It was all made up by the CMC's wild imaginations after seeing Pinkie Pie taking apart a failed cake in the shape of Rainbow Dash thinking it was the real RD.
 * It was all a set for a gorey horror flick being made by the main cast for charity.
 * Pinkamena proceeds to kill off Rainbow Dash, followed by Fluttershy. Soon, having killed off all the Pegasi in the land, Pinkie decides to make unicorns "help" instead. Pinkie is eventually killed by Twilight using her magic to stun her, break free and rip out her vital organs. However, Pinkamena has done enough damage, and without the power of the Pegasi to power the weather to make rain for the crops, Ponyville wastes away.
 * It was a story Fluttershy wrote after hearing an inappropriate rap song sung by humans.
 * In an extremely short version that kicks off at the very end of 'Cupcakes,' Rainbow Dash is about to be skinned alive when SWAT Ponies breach through the door, kill Pinkie Pie and rescue and a traumatized Rainbow Dash.
 * It was a nightmare that repeatedly haunted Rainbow Dash every night, to the point that Rainbow Dash eventually loses her sanity and kills Pinkie Pie with a kitchen knife.

Other derivative works
FiMFlamFilosopher, writer and voice actor for the Mentally Advanced Abridged Series and Rainbow Dash Presents, did a 20 minute parody of Cupcakes in in which the 'Mentally Advanced' version of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie attempt read the fic together.

A graphic music video set to "Ready to Die" by Andrew W.K. retells the story in broad strokes. Its creator variously claims to work at Hasbro, the Walt Disney Studios, and Cartoon Network, and to hail from the United States, the Philippines, and Sweden. The video has been taken down from YouTube and reuploaded several times. Various "clean" versions featuring just the animations of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie dancing have also been posted to YouTube (example).

Cupcakes - The Musical!, aka "When You're Gone", a crossover cover with "Want You Gone" from Valve's Portal 2.

Cupcakes by Futret mature content

Origins and impact
The story was written by Drecker Jones, under the pen name "Sergeant Sprinkles." He originally posted it on the /co/ board on 4chan, from where it quickly spread to other pony sites. "Cupcakes" has gained enough notoriety to garner it its own lengthy subpages on KnowYourMeme and TVTropes.

Jones has stated in a journal entry on his deviantART profile that he "never expected it to go any farther than sharing it on /co/." He calls it "the most infamous thing in the fandom," and that he's not sure what to think about its popularity.

Gallery

 * Cupcakes fan art gallery