Warning: this entry contains crude and violent imagery.
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 traumathizing 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 (i.e., portraits of Applebloom or Pinkie, usually with a sadistic expression on their face holding a bloody knife).
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 aswell.
A notable unofficial sequel to the series is Rocket to Insanity3, 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, or as many decided to call her, Pinkamena Diane Pie, her real name (as revealed in a previous episode).
An Advice Dog derivative of Pinkamena Diane Pie was created, which revolves around looking at someone’s actions and decide to “make cupcakes”.
External References
1 Equestria Daily – Story: Cupcakes / Posted on 2-24-2011
2 Equestria Daily – Story: Junior Speedsters Forever
3 Equestria Daily – Story: Rocket to Insanity / Posted on 4-07-2011