WARNING: This entry contains violent imagery. Viewer discretion is advised.

About

Cupcakes is a fan-fiction series, suited in the universe of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which became notorious within the fanbase for its highly creepy and gore-filled narrative. It has been described by Equestria Daily as the most creepy, crude, gory and traumatizing narrative involving ponies ever written.^[1]

Origin

The "Cupcakes" fanfiction is thought to have first appeared on 4chan's imageboard /co/ sometime in January 2011, though the date of original post remains unknown. A canonical reference to the Episode 12 in the fan-fiction suggests that the earliest possible date of post is January 7th, 2011. On the Equestria Daily version, the authorship has been attributed to "Sergeant Sprinkles". The earliest archived instance of My Little Pony fan-fiction is "Junior Speedsters Forever"^[2] posted via Equestria Daily on January 24th, 2011.

Plot

The story is centered around the two pony characters Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, who decide to meet at Pinkie's house to bake some cupcakes (in reference to Pinkie's "cupcake" song in an episode). Upon arriving at Pinkie's, however, she realizes she will be part of the recipe, when Pinkie puts her to sleep and later wakes up in a basement tied to a stack of planks with a leather strap. The room shows lots of corpses and flesh from other ponies, and Pinkie wears a dress made out of skins, pegasus wings and cutie marks. Pinkie goes onto tell Dash that she needs more "special ingredient" for her cupcakes, informing her that her "number came up", and proceeds to cut her cutie mark and wings, followed by her internal organs and skull. Extremely painful for Dash, but a normal day for Pinkie. She constantly makes jokes as she dismembers her body, like how glad she was to finally have a friend helping her, yet disappointed about her reaction and lack of toughness in dealing with the situation.

Spread

Since its premiere at /co/'s Pony Generals, "Cupcakes" grew into one of the (if not "the") most popular Pony fan-fiction series and became the subject of countless discussions, as well as several fan art, and images macros with "screenshots" from the series referencing the fanfiction, giving it a Goatse kind of effect. Most of the fan art that stems from this story is often graphic, gruesome and gory. A DeviantArt group dedicated to the fanfic can also be found.^[4] The Protectors of the Plot Continuum Wiki has also listed Cupcakes as one of the Legendary Badfics.^[5]

Fanart

Community Response

The bronies of the MLP community usually have rather dramatic responses when it comes to people posting or talking about the story. Many brony related sites often include it in their rules that no one is allowed to post the story or, when possible, play readings of it over microphone under penalty of IP banning. Any images posted on forum boards that depict scenes from the story are often required to contain a spoiler/ NSFW tag and thumbnail cover.

Derivatives

Other bronies decided to write their own versions of the story, and several alternate endings have been added to the original. Some of them involve Pinkie torturing different characters, while some others try to give the story a twist and give it a more happy ending. FanArt for some of these exists as well. Equestria Daily uploaded the original story, along with a series of alternate endings, sequels, fanreadings and remixes, on February 24, 2011.^[1]

A notable unofficial sequel to the series is Rocket to Insanity^[3], which follows the events of Cupcakes as being a nightmare Rainbow Dash constantly relives, driving her insane.

Pinkamena Diane Pie

In Episode 25, "Party of One", Pinkie Pie becomes sad because her friends are avoiding her invitations to parties, making up excuses. As she gains the idea that they don't want to be her friends anymore, she becomes depressed, her hair going straight and her color tone turning a bit grayer. She then throws a party with many inanimated objects, giving them voices, and displays many insanity tics, including a shot where she's smiling and her eyes slowly become derped.

Bronies immediately began making connections to Pinkie's insane state of mind with her role in "Cupcakes", making it an explanation of its events. From this point, new Cupcakes FanArt usually displays Pinkie with her straight hair. In this state of mind, fans often use Pinkie's real name which was revealed later in the show, Pinkamena Diane Pie. Pinkamena's popularity has grown to the point where some fans see her as a separate character, having little to no connections with Pinkie Pie.

An Advice Animal derivative of Pinkamena Diane Pie was created by PonyChan user Treesap, which revolves around looking at someone's actions and decide to "make cupcakes".

External References