While I'm working on another story, here's a Cupcakes Alternate Ending for you.

NOTE: I made Rarity French because, at that point, I hadn't seen many episodes featuring Rarity besides the first one, in which she speaks a bit of French. I see now that that's not the case... but I don't care. I like her better this way. She stays. Don't like it? Sue me.

Dash woke up for the last time, her heart jumping. Her blood flowed out faster; it wouldn't be long now.

Pinkie put Dash down on her back and straddled her chest, scalpel at the ready.

"Ya know, Rainbow Dash, I'm disappointed. I thought you would have lasted longer. But I guess it's my fault, I should have taken it a little slower. Oh well, it was really nice knowing you, Dash."

The blade sunk into the blue one's throat and worked its way up to her chin. Coming back down, it circled around her neck. The last thing Dash felt was her skin being cut away from her skull, the metal scraping her teeth.

Then...

SPLASH!

Warm liquid surrounded Dash, filling her empty chest cavity and stinging her many wounds. Some flowed into her mouth through the hole that Pinkie had made below her jaw. She opened her mouth to scream, but that allowed water to flow into her lungs. She choked and strained against her bonds... which had suddenly disappeared! She flailed her newly free limbs as she struggled for air. She swam upward, every nerve on fire from the pain of the torture.

After what seemed like hours, she reached the surface of whatever she was in.

She coughed up the water in her lungs and gasped for air, sealing her eyes against the intense light that had suddenly appeared above her. Still on fire, she screamed at the top of her air-filled lungs as she tried to keep herself afloat.

"Dash! Calm down!" she heard a familiar voice say.

"You're ok, Dash! You're safe!" another familiar voice said.

"Stop swimming! It's not that deep!" yet another familiar voice shouted.

Dash continued to scream, almost deaf to the voices that were now shouting words of calming to her. How could she stop screaming? She was almost dead, nearly an empty shell, drowning in a-

She felt a sharp sting across her face and she stopped screaming. Her eyes opened in shock as she started breathing heavily.

...She was outside, right in front of Twilight's library. The "bright light" was the sun, starting its descent into the west sky. Applejack was standing right in front of her, rubbing the area of her front hoof she used to smack Dash across the face. Her eyes showed both worry and determination to help her friend. Behind her stood Rarity, Twilight, and Fluttershy, all with staring eyes of shock and worry.

While she tried to make sense of what everyone was doing in Pinkie's basement, Rainbow found herself sinking again. "HELP!" she screamed, flailing on the surface of the water again.

"Rainbow! Stand up!" Applejack shouted, almost in her ear.

Dash quickly obeyed and her lower hooves found the bottom of the tub she was in. She breathed heavily, staring at AJ with eyes of fright. Then, without warning, she grabbed AJ in a hug that startled the workhorse and started to weep. "Applejack!" she wept with joy and hysteria. "Thank you for saving me!"

"Saving ya?" a stunned AJ asked. "From what?"

"Pinkie Pie! Don't you see? She cut off my wings! My cutie marks are gone. My insides are-"

"Then what are these?" she heard a familiar, cheery voice say from behind her. She then felt a slight pinching sensation as her right flank was grabbed, and then a fluttering sensation as a limb on her back was moved back and forth. She spun around and saw...

Pinkie Pie! Dash gasped and pulled away from her, quickly moving to the other side of the tub. She leaned against the edge, her wings resting on...

...Wings...?

...WINGS?

She turned her head to look behind her. There, on her back, fluttered her beautiful wings, unscathed and still attatched! Her eyes moved down to her flanks. Her cutie marks of thunderclouds remained in place. Never before had the colors seemed so bright on her hips. She quickly tunred her head back and looked down at her chest. Still closed! She felt her stomach area. It was still there, and, from the sensation of acid being produced from the panic, still functional! Finally, she reached up to her neck and felt around. No incisions! She was completely whole!

"THANK YOU!" Dash screamed in joy to nopony in particular. "THANK YOU!" She leaned over the side of the tub and cried tears of relief, while her friends continued to stare in confusion.

Finally, after a few minutes of watching Dash act like a newly-rescued filly who had been lost in the woods for a few days without her parents, Twilight spoke up. "What happened, Rainbow Dash?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow at the still weeping pony.

"Yeah, what did happen?" AJ also asked. "Earlier, ya were just your normal self, then ya started acting... weird."

Rainbow Dash's crying slowed to small, choking sobs. "You're asking me what happened?" Dash asked, tears still running down her cheeks. "I don't even remember what happened today! I can't remember anything before an hour ago!"

"...I think our bon ami has lost it..." Rarity muttered.

"Rarity! She's just been through some form of torment!" Twilight snapped. She turned to Rainbow. "Alright, Dash, here's what happened:"

"We all met in the park to plan out our week before winter starts again. You said there was plenty of time to do things before the Pegasi had to move any clouds, and to prove it, you started flying around Ponyville, looking for any clouds full of snow. ...Then, you started showing off your loop-de-loops and barrel rolls and whatever you call those other tricks you did, and I guess you were so occupied with your tricks, you didn't see that flock of birds heading south until you crashed into them. Then you lost your focus and crashed into the middle of the Everfree Forest. We came running to help, but you were there, looking a little dazed but alright. Then, when we got back to the park, you started acting strange. It was like you spaced out and couldn't tell what was going on around you. Nopony could snap you out of it... Then you started screaming and shouting Pinkie's name and thrashing around."

"...Oh yeah, now I remember..." Rainbow said, her tone back to normal. "I crashed into the forest and landed in... I guess it was Poison Joke, but it was so dark, I couldn't tell."

"That's what I thought too, so I went to Zecora and she helped make a herbal bath like the last time we encountered these plants. Then it was just the task of... getting you in..." She smiled sheepishly. The other ponies copied her. Rainbow Dash joined in after picturing what they probably had to go through.

"Well, at least it worked!" Dash exclaimed. "I'm happy its over and I'm ready to continue life!"

"...Ummm..." Fluttershy began. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but ummm... what exactly is over? What happened?"

"Ooooo! Was I throwing a party?" Pinkie Pie asked excitedly. "You kept screaming my name, so did you have a dream about me throwing the biggest party ever!"

"...Well, if it was a party," Rarity said, "Dash must have been the cul of all the events. Those were NOT cries of happiness she was screaming..."

"What exactly were ya screamin' 'bout?" AJ asked. "Ya kept yellin' 'NO! PINKIE!' and 'GET ME OUT OF HERE!' and cryin' and scarin' the livers outta us."

Rainbow thought for a minute about telling them about her experience. About the horrible dream she had just lived.

"...Nothing. Just a nightmare." Rainbow Dash said, smiling. What had happened was all over and there was no reason to get her friends worried.

"Musta been some nightmare..." AJ muttered. She turned to Twilight. "Hey, Twi', ya sure she just fell in Poison Joke?" she asked. "Thought that plant just made ya look silly..."

"It was Poison Joke. Zecora said she found the pollen all over Rainbow Dash. However, this is indeed the first instance she or I had ever seen of Poison Joke affecting someone's mind like that..."

"Welp, I guess Rainbow's just special, is all."

All the ponies had a short laugh at that one.

Rainbow Dash hoisted herself out of the tub and shook herself off. "Well, it's all over. Now what do we wanna do? Maybe I could show you guys this other trick I've been working on. See, first I start running at a building and right before I hit it, I-"

She was cut off by Twilight. "Actually, Dash, it's getting a little late. I think we should all just go home." The other ponies quickly agreed.

"...Alright. Thanks everyone."

"Not a problem, Dash." AJ said, walking in the direction of the farm. The other ponies quickly dispersed as well, all heading to their respective homes, glad that the events of the day were finally over.

Pinkie walked toward the bakery, thinking about what had happened to her friend. "Wow. Dash totally lost it." she said to herself. "Wonder what I was doing to her. Slicing her cutie marks? Cutting off her wings? Ooo. Maybe I managed to slit around her skull?" She shuddered. "...Of course, that's not going to happen to her. We're best friends. I'd never do anything like that to her!"

Pinkie reached the bakery and went inside. She quickly shut the door and looked around the bakery. "Hello?" she shouted. ...No answer. "Mr. and Mrs. Cake must be out." she thought.

"...Good."

She walked over to the middle of the room and threw back the rug to reveal the trap door. With a hefty tug on the brass ring, she opened it and headed down the dark passage. Bags of flour, sugar, baking soda, and everything else she used to bake her famous cupcakes littered the floor, but she had the dark passage memorized as she trotted down the hall without crashing. She started humming tunelessly to herself as she reached the door on the other side. "Scootaloo? Are you still here?" she called out, opening the door.

The inside was a welcoming sight. The tables and chairs she had made herself out of bones and skin of deceased ponies were wiped clean, the puddles of dried blood nowhere to be seen. The centerpieces of pony heads sat on the middle of each table, the dust and mold each had gathered wiped off. The wooden table sat at the far end of the room, the blood stains scraped off and her tools polished and arranged nicely. The corpse that had been sitting on the torture table had been removed and the urine and other body fluids were wiped off. And at the other end of the room was Scootaloo, wiping the last puddles of blood off the floor with a mop, whistling while she worked.

Pinkie beamed. "Scootaloo!" she exclaimed with joy. "You've been hard at work ever since I was away?"

Scootaloo turned to Pinkie and smiled. "Yep. I mean, I meant to just take care of what you asked me to do down here, but you were gone for a while, so I thought that I should make everything else look good too!"

Pinkie trotted over to Scootaloo and hugged her. "Thank you sooooo much!" she said. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were so helpful to her in taking care of her job, but Scootaloo was definately the most helpful of the three.

After the hug, Scootaloo started to jump excitedly. "So is she here? Did you bring Rainbow Dash along? Did you? Did you? Huh?"

The smile disappeared from Pinkie's face as she remembered what she had promised Scootaloo. "Oh... Well, Scootaloo, I'm afraid something's happened today that ruined our playdate with Rainbow Dash..."

"Oh..." Scootaloo said, her tone sadder. "Well... how about tomorrow? Can she come tomorrow?"

"...No, I'm sorry. Something strange happened to her today, and now I'm afraid that if I bring her here right now, the other ponies might think about coming as well. Now one pony at a time is enough, but if we have a lot of ponies here, we might get in trouble."

"But you promised!" Scootaloo whined, stomping her hooves in annoyance. Pinkie didn't say anything for a minute. "Awww..." Scootaloo whined again, hanging her head.

Pinkie brightened up again. "Don't worry Scootaloo." she said happily. "In just a few weeks, everypony will forget about what happened today, even Rainbow Dash, and then we can give her our invitation. Then you can play with her here."

"A few weeks? ...Alright, Miss Pie..." Scootaloo said, still disappointed.

Pinkie quickly thoguht about how to cheer her up. "...I know! You can play with the next one, then you can practice for when Dash DOES show up!"

Scootaloo's face brightened. "Yeah!" she said, happy again. "And I can test out my new pocket knife! Maybe I can even borrow a saw from Apple Bloom!"

"There you go!" Pinkie Pie said, cheerful that Scootaloo was cheerful again. "But remember what I told you: cut AROUND the jugular, not THROUGH it. Then you can play with your friends longer."

"Yes, Miss Pie."

"Please, call me Pinkie."

"Ok, Pinkie." Scootaloo put down the mop. "I think I'm done here. Can I go home now, please?"

Pinkie almost said yes, then had a thought pop into her mind. Even if Dash wasn't showing up for a while, she still needed more ingredients for her baking...

"Hold on, Scootaloo." Pinkie Pie said, trotting over to one of the tables with stationary on it. "I have one more thing I need done. I just need you to deliver a message to a pony."

"Ok, Pinkie!"

Pinkie smiled as she dipped a quill in ink and started to write on the glittery paper.

"Dear Carrot Top,

You are invited to a taste testing at the bakery, tomorrow. Come hungry. We will."

THE END?