"Dash, you've gotta stay still, or I'll keep missing."
— Pinkie Pie
Cupcakes is a dark and extremely gory web animation, made by Vannamelon and Suppatenkostudios, and based on a Dark Fic of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic by Sergeant Sprinkles
Plot synopsis: Rainbow Dash wakes up strapped to a table in a darkened room decorated up like a party, but in place of streamers and balloons are blood, bones and body parts. Pinkie Pie appears wearing a dress made from pony flesh and a necklace of unicorn horns. She reveals that she has killed many other ponies and then tells Rainbow Dash that "her number came up". She then proceeds to slowly and brutally mutilate Rainbow Dash, presumably killing her afterwards.
Perhaps what makes this animation so disturbing is that, throughout the entire animation, Pinkie Pie keeps up her bubbly, cheery personality, cracking jokes and insisting that she and Rainbow Dash are having a party, even as Dash pleads and begs for her life. Not surprisingly, both the animation and fic it is based on are notorious among the fanbase, to the point where the story inspired several pieces of artwork and multiple alternate endings.
For those of you who don't want to be mentally scarred for life, this intentional bastardization will basically tell you everything you need to know
. It's also good for if you have watched "Cupcakes" and need some Nightmare Retardant.note
Cupcakes contains examples of:
- Adapted Out: In the fic the video is based on, Pinkie gives Rainbow Dash a drugged cupcake. The fic also ends with her skinning Rainbow Dash. Neither of these show up in the video — it starts with Rainbow Dash waking up in a dark room, with no explanation of how she was rendered unconscious, and it ends with Rainbow Dash hanging her head and crying.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the official series, Pinkie is a cute bubbly comic relief character. Here, she's a cannibalistic psychotic murderer.
- Animated Adaptation: The video is an adaptation of a Dark Fic by Sergeant Sprinkles.
- Anyone Can Die: Pinkie has gotten to countless ponies, including Princess Luna. Yes, the second most powerful pony in all of Equestria, who controls the night, has been captured, killed, and made into cupcakes by a sugar-hopped, partying earth pony.
- In regards to Luna being killed by Pinkie Pie, one story actually draws attention to how difficult it would be for somepony to actually overpower Luna, let alone kill her. Even Twilight Sparkle would have been hard-pressed to do so. Which leaves only one pony capable of doing so, who just so happens to raise the sun....
- In regards to Luna being killed by Pinkie Pie, one
- Asshole Victim: Pinkie had already killed Gilda the Griffon by the time she decided to go after Rainbow Dash. There's also the resident Jerkass filly, Diamond Tiara, amongst the victims.
- In one of the animated adaptations, along with Gilda, other victims are The Great and Powerful Trixie and Angel. As one of the more popular comments notes, "Let's be honest, Angel bunny had it coming..."
- The Bad Guy Wins: Frankly, it's not likely anypony has had any luck trying to escape Pinkie's games.
- This holds true even in sequels and other expansions to Cupcakes. For example in My Little Pony: Forensics is Magic, it is revealed that most of the killings were orchestrated by Princess Celestia, since the body parts of the victims could be used in the creation of Homunculi, who could both replace the victims as well as provide horsepower for farming, which there was a shortage of according to Celestia in her Motive Rant. Wedge, one of the protagonists, is told all of the above by Celestia, who has him at her mercy and is willing to kill him to ensure his silence. Just before she does so, Applebloom, who had been peeking from behind an open door, rushes into the room and shields Wedge with her body. It seems like Applebloom made a Heroic Sacrifice, then Celestia refrains from attacking Applebloom...until it's revealed that Wedge is Applebloom's, having helped Pinkie in her killing spree. Celestia lets Applebloom (who has a Cutie Mark of a hacksaw) and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders carry off Wedge to be tortured and killed, with Celestia apparently having plans for using the moon as a place for several secret depopulation camps. The ending does have a Hope Spot in the form of a Dictaphone that Wedge chucked to Derpy, who carried it to Twilight's house, where it was discovered by Spike.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Pinkie Pie, a bubbly, somewhat ditzy pony, brutally murders her friend with a smile on her face and acts just that way the whole time.
- Black Comedy: Due to Pinkie's attitude to the whole deal, some kids found it hilarious.
- Bloodier and Gorier: This has WAY more blood than My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic would EVER have.
- Bowdlerization: In the fic the video is based on, Pinkie gives Rainbow Dash a drugged cupcake. The fic also ends with her skinning Rainbow Dash. Neither of these show up in the video — it starts with Rainbow Dash waking up in a dark room, with no explanation of how she was rendered unconscious, and it ends with Rainbow Dash hanging her head and crying.
- Broken Angel: A few of the Alternate Endings have Rainbow Dash survive but end up as this instead.
- Cannibal Larder: Pinkie Pie adorns her room with painted skulls, disembodied pony heads and streamers made from dried-up intestines, among other things.
- Characteristic Trope: Almost all Dark Fics in this fandom are in some way connected to this story.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Pinkie Pie does this to Rainbow Dash for the entirety of the video.
- Creepypasta: Its infamy has caused Cupcakes to become classified as one, though in this case it's akin to an honorary creepypasta.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: A good friend of yours strapping you down, mutilating your body, and having you later made into cupcakes is the last thing anyone would ever want.
- Cute and Psycho: The most disturbing thing about the video is that, despite all the murder, evisceration and evil cooking, Pinkie's outer self is just as happy, cute and casual as ever.
- Darker and Edgier: Clearly very different from the cutesy, light-hearted cartoon it's inspired by.
- Dead Guy Puppet: Pinkie does this with Gilda's skull.
- Death by Irony: Rainbow Dash, representing the Element of Loyalty to one's friends, was betrayed and murdered by one of them.
- Defiant to the End: Gilda, to the point where Pinkie Pie shoves a Parasprite down her throat. Unlike Rainbow Dash, Gilda is so badass she badmouths Pinkie Pie until she dies.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Before Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie somehow kidnapped and murdered Princess Luna, a divine alicorn with godlike power capable of raising the moon.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Based on the victims we see, this could be interpreted as a revenge story. However, the worst any of the victims have done is be petty Jerkasses. The fake movie trailer has her flip out over not being invited to the Grand Galloping Gala and being snubbed for Gummy's after-birthday party.
- Electric Torture: Pinkie hammers hot nails into Rainbow's hooves, then connects the nails to a battery.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Rainbow Dash had this realization when she finds out that Pinkie Pie was a mass-murderer, and was planning to kill her too.
- Fallen Hero: The same pony representing the Element of Laughter, who helped to defeat Nightmare Moon and Discord, is now a homicidal maniac with cannibalistic intentions.
- Fan Verse: The video has been receiving an ever growing number of Spin-Offs,
Spiritual Successors, Fan Sequels and Prequels, Ask Blogs and Fan Web Comics based on or is set in Cupcake's (sometimes in conjunction with another popular Dark Fic) universe (even the spin-off Dark Fics themselves are crossing over each other) that a Bloodier and Gorier version of Equestria is beginning to form where everyone has gone insane and the victims are somehow resurrected Back from the Dead (or have somehow survived the ordeal) to experience their torture and suffering all over again or to seek revenge on their killers. - Faux Affably Evil: Pinkie retains her cheerful attitude while committing her atrocities.
- Force Feeding: It's briefly mentioned that Pinkie forced a live Parasprite down Gilda's throat. In one of the unofficial sequels, Pinkie Pie feeds Fluttershy's beloved pet rabbit, Angel, to Gummy and then attempts to force-feed his remains to Fluttershy.
- Genuine Human Hide: Pinkie's "dress" is made out of cutie marks of the other ponies.
- Giggling Villain: Pinkie giggles a lot throughout the animation.
- Grotesque Cute: It's Pinkie Pie re-enacting Hostel.
- Hero Killer: Technically, one hero is the killer of another, but still.
- Heroic BSoD: Poor Rainbow Dash. Tried so hard to make it out, but in the end, simply gave up and ended up being made into a cupcake.
- I'm a Humanitarian: It's implied that Pinkie Pie bakes Rainbow Dash into cupcakes afterwards, and that she has done the same with others.
- Lethal Chef: Apparently, Rainbow Dash isn't very good at making cupcakes.
- Lottery of Doom: Pinkie chooses her victims like this.
- MacGyvering: Pinkie is quite creative with what's left of her victims. The necklace of unicorn horns, the dress made out of cutie marks, painting skulls for crafts, and many more disturbing ideas.
- Mugging the Monster: Turns out Gilda screwed with a mass-murderer.
- The Musical: Another Animated Adaptation was created. This time it's a musical with the song "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas playing in the background.
- Nothing Nice About Sugar and Spice: Pinkie Pie is a serial killer and cannibal who not only uses pieces of her victims in her cupcake recipe but also takes cutie marks, pegasus wings and unicorn horns and adds them to the dress she wears when torturing somepony.
- Police Are Useless:
- It's a miracle how Pinkie is able to do all this without any legal comeuppance, or even notice by the Cakes (who own Sugarcube Corner and would certainly go in their basement from time to time). However, it's safe to assume that somepony has reported the missing ponies and Pinkie's just slipped under the radar.
- This is lampshaded in FimFlamFilosophy's parody video, where Pinkie is discovered by Mrs Cake shortly after the dramatic reveal and tries (and fails) to talk her way out of trouble.
- Though Mrs. Cake is annoyed with the fact that Pinkie's not working and not with the horrific acts of Torture Porn she's performing in the basement.
- One of the sequels deconstructs this by pointing out how unlikely it was Pinkie could do all this and not get caught by the police
- Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": The Element of Laughter is ironically a coincidence of this trope.
- Reminiscing About Your Victims: Before the torture begins proper, Pinkie shows Dash the brightly-painted skull of Gilda, detailing how she was a jerk and what Pinkie did to her.
- Room Full of Crazy: The reveal of Pinkie's basement is this in full, and is the moment when things start taking a turn for the disturbing. See Scenery Gorn below.
- Scenery Gorn: When the lights turn on, horrific decorations appear.
- Serial Killer: Pinkie is revealed to have murdered many ponies and baked them into her cupcakes.
- Shout-Out:
- Serial killer Pinkie Pie wears a dress made of the flesh of her own kind and forces insects down the throats of her victims, just like Buffalo Bill.
- Hush Now is a fanfiction that directly parodies The Silence of the Lambs with the “Cupcake Killer” Pinkamena Pie as Hannibal Lecter and Rainbow Dash as Clarice Starling.
- Hush Now
- The whole video is pretty much a very grisly retelling of Sweeney Todd, except with the barbershop removed, Pinkie Pie taking on the roles of both Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett. This has not gone unnoticed by fans.
- Serial killer Pinkie Pie wears a dress made of the flesh of her own kind and forces insects down the throats of her victims, just like Buffalo Bill.
- Team Killer: The Element of Laughter butchering the Element of Loyalty. It seems unlikely either element will be much use come the next major villain who requires the elements for containment.
- Torture Cellar: The entire animation takes place in a cellar, and is about Pinkie Pie mutilating Rainbow Dash.
- Tongue Trauma: Pinkie said that she had cut out Gilda the Griffin's tongue as punishment for mouthing off to her.
- Vasquez Always Dies: Of course the most tomboyish pony was the first on-screen victim...
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Pinkie Pie herself, brutally murdering Rainbow Dash and supposedly baking her into cupcakes. This, of course, is a video based on My Little Pony.
- Would Hurt a Child: Diamond Tiara and Twist were two of Pinkie's victims.
