Hey everyone, this is my first venture over to MLP fanfiction, coming from my mostly Jak and Daxter centered works. This is MY spinoff of the infamous 'cupcakes' fanfic; now, I have not read it, and do not plan to, but I know enough to know how it goes and so feel free to correct me if you've read it already. Now, then, on with the grimdarkness!

Cupcakes: The Resurrection
Chapter 1: Gruesome Discovery

"Hello," Twilight Sparkle called as she knocked on the door to Sugarcube Corner late one unusually quiet night. "Pinkie? It's Twilight! I just wanted to come and check on you; the girls have been really worried about you lately!"

Now, on any normal day, Twilight wouldn't have even knocked, seeing as how Sugarcube would've been open for business (and busy, considering today was a Friday), and Pinkie Pie would've been her cheery, bubbly happy self in the kitchen singing a little tune to herself. However, this wasn't a usual day; in fact, the past month had been more than unusual to the citizens of ponyville.

No pony could really figure out why, but since about a month ago, Pinkie Pie had been acting rather...odd, even for her. She'd pretty much locked herself inside the building, only showing her face to get the mail, get supplies, or occasionally visit her friends; which only happened about twice. The building itself seemed to have a large change in atmosphere around it, everypony getting nervous shudders whenever they walked by it. And about a week prior, the shop had actually been closed because the Cakes were supposedly going on 'Vacation'; which was strange since Pinkie had been left in charge of the place several times when they went away.

The other thing that made the month seem unusual was the extreme number of 'disappearances' that had been happening as of late. Several well-known ponies, including Heartstrings, Carrot Top, Berry Punch, Caramel, and Golden Harvest have all gone missing in the course of a few weeks, and have not re-appeared since. To make matters even worse, just this afternoon, another pony had disappeared; and this time it was a VERY well-known pony, that being none other than the element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash. At first, everypony thought it was just another one of her pranks, but after almost 8 hours had passed and she hadn't shown back up, things turned serious and a whole ponyville-wide search was initiated for her. The princesses had even dispatched several guards for a search party, sending them to Everfree, and even several cites around Ponyville, including Manehatten, Canterlot, and even Fillydelphia, but she was never found. After around ten at night, Everypony decided it was best to get some sleep and try again in the morning.

However, Twilight, being the night owl that she was, had stayed up even longer to try and figure out what would have cause such a thing to happen; in fact, since things had been becoming abnormal, she had been working her behind off trying to come up with a logical explanation for everything. It was now past midnight, and Twilight had decided to try and go check on Pinkie Pie; she hadn't seen the party pony at all during the search party, and also the girls, as well as the whole town, had been very worried about her.

"Pinkie," Twilight called again after getting no response from inside. "She must be asleep; I guess I'll come check on her tomorrow..."

Twilight's train of thought was cut off when she briefly took in a very strange sent that seemed to be coming from inside Sugarcube Corner; something she'd never smelled before when she was there. It was slightly pungent, and almost smelled like...rotting garbage?

"There's not dumpster around here," Twilight mused. "And I doubt the cakes would throw out something that stinky anyway...hmm."

Letting her curiosity get the better of her, Twilight attempted to turn the knob to the front doors of the building, getting no success after finding out the door was locked. Twilight sighed, but continued circling the building, eventually finding the back door to the building. Twilight twisted the knob, again finding a locked door. Twilight was getting frustrated now, and didn't want to have to resort to breaking open a window to get inside. However, a thought soon dawned on her:

"Wait...silly me, I know magic!" Twilight smacked herself lightly in the back of her head, trotting back around to the front door and using her magic to unlock the door, trotting inside and closing and re-locking it behind her; quietly of course as not to wake Pinkie Pie. Twilight let her horn glow enough to see around the building; it looked so abandoned compared to what it was like normally. Twilight sniffed the air again, realizing that the smell was now stronger; and it was starting to smell less like food waste and more like...

"Pony waste," Twilight asked herself quietly, becoming both nervous and intrigued at the same time (hey, this is Twilight, remember). Twilight immediately trotted softly up the stairs to Pinkie's bedroom, placing an ear up to her door and not hearing a thing. The smell had weakened slightly, but Twilight was still concerned. She tried the knob and found the door unlocked, sliding it open slowly to see the pink pony asleep in her bed, just like she suspected. Though her mane had drooped down and was laying flat across her head, Pinkie still looked like she was having a good dream, so Twilight smiled and closed the door softly, locking in behind her.

"Well, at least Pinkie's OK," Twilight thought. "But that smell...it's still around."Twilight walked back down into the main room, the smell's strength returning. Twilight, curiousness be damned, followed the scent diligently, until she was led to a door that she was familiar with; the basement door.

"The basement," Twilight said softly. Twilight used her magic to open the door slowly, and once she did, she felt the strength of the smell multiply at least two-fold. "Yep, this is it," Twilight said, covering her nose to try to block the scent out as she slowly descended the steps to the basement, the scent growing stronger with each step.

"I think I've read about this in a horror novel once," Twilight mused again. "Somepony was the owner of a butcher shop, but it was really a cover as he was really a murderer! And he kept all his victims' bodies in the freezer of his shop! But that's just silly, nopony in ponyville would ever do such an evil, despicable, horrible thing to other ponies! Why just the thought of it is so ludicrous, I mean, come on! What are the chances that the Cakes are really murderers and they use their basement to stash the dead bodies? I'm sure it's just some meat that's gone bad and they've just forgotten about it."

Twilight had soon reached the door at the end of the stairwell leading into the actual basement. Eyes closed, the unicorn pushed open the door quietly, letting the full strength of the scent hit her nostrils, causing her gag slightly. Unfortunately, the gag reflex also caused her to open her eyes slightly, and what she saw, well, was almost exactly the thing she was trying to convince her self not to see.

Gasping, the unicorn looked on in horror as she took in the basement; entrails of ponies were hung from the ceiling like party streamers, a large banner with the words "life is a party" written in what Twilight could describe as either red paint or blood hung from the back wall. Tables full of bloody medical instruments adorned it as well, along with cabinets that had what appeared to be skulls lining the shelves, a large dining table in the center with a single chair tucked underneath it, and the centerpiece of the room, a dress that appeared to be made of cutie-marked pelts, no doubt belonging to the disappeared ponies. Twilight also noticed pegusus wings sewed onto the dress as well, and some unicorn horns had been made into a necklace of some kind. Not to mention the entire room had coats and speckles of blood splattered around it.

"OH CELESTIA," Twilight screamed quietly, and did the only thing her body could do in this situation; find the nearest bucket and throw up into it, which is exactly what she did. It didn't help that this bucket was full of more blood and things, which caused her to vomit even more. Once she recovered, Twilight continued to stare on in shock at the defiled basement.

"This...this is impossible," she thought. "The Cakes were always so sweet and innocent...they never once looked like they were hiding something! Maybe...maybe it's true; maybe they really are killers! But then why would they leave like they did a week ago? Maybe they were close to getting caught and they had to flee?"

Twilight shook these thoughts from her head, though, saying: "Get a hold of yourself, Twi; there's gotta be another explanation for this. Maybe...maybe they had an employee that was really the killer! We only saw Pinkie Pie, but maybe they had someone who only worked at night, or only worked on call that used the basement as a cover! That could explain why the Cakes left; they knew what was going on and got away with their lives while they could! And that could also explain why Pinkie Pie's been acting weird; she must know what's going on and is being forced to say inside because she might tell the truth! I should go talk to her..."

Twilight had gone and turned to run back upstairs to Pinkie's room, but she soon spotted something in the back corner of the basement that made her freeze in her tracks. From her point, she could make out what looked to be the silhouette of a pony lying on an angled table of some sort. Twilight froze stiff, thinking this was the pony responsible for all this. After staying still for about a minute, the pony didn't move a muscle, leaving Twilight to try and approach the pony.

"Hello," Twilight asked as she approached the table with her light, hoping that whoever was lying on the table was alive and knew what was happening. However, that hope was smashed to bits when she finally reached the table, finding out that the pony lying on it was really the dead, dissected corpse of a pony, which was strapped to the table at its legs and head. Twilight had to suppress a sudden urge to both scream and vomit at the same time, and compromising by expelling the contents of her stomach for the second time that night on the floor.

Once she recovered again, Twilight actually looked fully at the body, and upon further inspection, made yet another gruesome revelation; she knew this pony. In fact, she easily recognized the cyan coat and rainbow-colored mane of the dead pony. "No...Rainbow Dash," Twilight stuttered, beginning to break into tears. Twilight sobbed contently for a few moments, grieving in the loss of her friend. Twilight wanted to believe Rainbow Dash was too smart to be fooled into being murdered, but she knew if the Pegasus had become a victim, than whoever was doing this was really good at it.

"I think I need to get outta here now," Twilight finally said after recovering again, racing her way to the steps. Suddenly, she froze when she heard a familiar voice: "That's funny, I don't remember leaving the door to the basement open."

"Pinkie Pie," Twilight said quietly as she heard footsteps begin down the stairs. All of the unicorn's muscles refused to move as she heard to footsteps stop suddenly.

"Twilight!" Pinkie said in surprise, Twilight turning to see a still somewhat asleep Pinkie, her mane still drooped, staring at her with a questioning look.

"Pinkie, good, you're OK," Twilight said, trotting over to her.

"Well, of course I am, silly filly, what ever gave you the idea I wasn't alright," Pinkie asked, Twilight raising an eyebrow. "But what are you doing in here? How did you get in?"

"Well, I, um..." Twilight stuttered, Pinkie staring at her suspiciously. "OK. See, The girls have been really worried about you since you stopped being, well, you, and I thought I'd come and check on you! Rainbow Dash disappeared earlier today, and so we all went on a massive hunt for her but couldn't find her. Then, I thought I'd come here to see you afterwards, but the door was locked. I was determined so I kinda used my magic to unlock the door, and saw you asleep earlier. I decided to leave you alone after I saw you were just fine."

"Yep, I'm fine, but thanks for checkin' up on me, then,..." Pinkie Pie said with a smile, something Twilight hadn't seen the pony do for a long time. Though, there was something...off about the smile.

"Well, thank you," Twilight said, dismissing the thought for now. "But, I kinda wanted to talk to you about, well, all this," she continued, alluding to the basement. "I was gonna leave after I left your bedroom, but then I noticed this...smell that's all around the place, and I tracked it to the basement, and found, well, this. And, well, I...I found Rainbow Dash...she's over there. Dead and hacked up like a science experiment. But..it's OK...I know why you haven't been out at all. You found out about what's been going on down here and the pony responsible is forcing you inside so you don't tell the truth! But, you don't have to worry anymore, Pinkie! Me, the other girls, and the Princesses are all here for you, and we'll catch the scumpony responsible for this and give him his, or her, justice!"

Twilight felt so confident that Pinkie would come around after the speech. However, when she looked up and the party pony, all she saw was a large smirk on the pony's face; almost like she was trying not to laugh. Unfortunately, Pinkie couldn't hold it in, and collapsed to the ground in a fit of laughter; looking like textbook Pinkie Pie for a moment.

"Oh, Twilight, you always crack me up with your imagination," Pinkie said, giggling more. Something was wrong. Twilight couldn't sense any...happiness in Pinkie's laugh. It sounded almost...dry, and, dare she say, crazed.

"Pinkie...what...what are you talking about," Twilight asked, dumbfounded. "I'm being serious here! This monster of a pony could be anywhere right now looking for his next victim! This is nothing to be laughing about!"

"Oh, hee, I'm sorry, Twi," Pinkie said while calming herself down. "It's just that I'd thought you'd be smarter than that!" Twilight gave the party pony and 'what' look as she continued. "I mean, really, doesn't this whole place have, well, ME written all over it? And besides, there's no one else that works here besides me and the Cakes; although, since they 'left' a week ago, it's just been lil' old Pinkie here alone!

"P...Pinkie...you, you do know you just...confessedto killing more than a dozen ponies..." Twilight said. "You could go to jail for this! Or even be executed!"

"Which is why nopony will ever know about it...catch my drift," Pinkie replied, taking a butcher's knife from one of the racks and pointing it at Twilight.

"You...you need help," Twilight said as Pinkie Pie began stalking towards her. "I...I have to get you help...you're obviously not in a clear state of mind...If you'll just, let me send a letter to the princess explaining the situation, I'm sure we can come to an understanding and..."

"Sorry Twi, but I can't let you do that," Pinkie replied menacingly. "My parties are supposed to be a surprise! Now, what kind of a pony would you be if you spoiled the surprise? You know how I feel about party poopers, so I don't think I can let you out of here after what you've seen."

"Pinkie please, don't do this! I won't tell! I Pinkie Promise! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye...remember?"

"Sorry, Twilight, but I know how smart you are; you'll just say that to get me to let you go, then you'll just go and break your Pinkie Promise once you think you're safe. I'm smarter than I look, you know! Looks like you won't be leaving Sugarcube...ALIVE."

Twilight's fur stood on end as Pinkie said that last word, the pink pony now leaping towards her with the knife drawn. Twilight reacted as fast as she could and used a teleport spell to zap herself out of the way just in the nick of time and to the other side of the basement. Pinkie growled and galloped towards her again, Twilight managing to levitate a steel cart in front of her as a makeshift shield, Pinkie's knife clanging against it as Twilight used the distraction to buck Pinkie onto the ground and make a mad dash for the stairs.

Pinkie was quick to recover, though, leaping through the air almost unnaturally (well, it's still Pinkie Pie) and was in position to drive the knife right down into Twilight's back. The Unicorn, however, managed to block her again, but could barely dodge a counter-swipe from the earth pony and her cheek got slightly grazed by the knife's tip. Twilight then attempted to buck pinkie again, but the pink pony blocked successfully, grabbing Twilight's hind legs and pulling her away from the stairs, throwing her against a far wall. The initial collision dazed Twilight, but she recovered again just in time to avoid Pinkie jamming the knife into her throat, the knife instead becoming lodged into the wall.

Twilight then, doing something she'd never done before: threw a hoof at Pinkie's face, landing a successful punch which dazed her 'friend' enough so that Twilight could attempt to run again. Pinkie let out another growl and grabbed several scalpels laying on another tray and threw them like ninja stars towards Twilight. The unicorn looked behind her just in time to see the blades flying at her, dodging what she could and being grateful that Pinkie's aim was off when the edges of the blades only nicked her legs, flank, and parts of her mane and tail. Pinkie had then been able to pull the knife out of the wall and threw it at Twilight, who used a levitation spell to fling the knife off to the side and away from her.

"So, that's how you wanna play," Pinkie said menacingly. "Okie doke lokie, then, I guess we'll just have to do this the old-fashioned way!" The pink pony then leaped at Twilight again, this time tackling Twilight to the ground, pinning her to the floor and proceeding to throw her hooves at Twilight. The unicorn managed to block several shots and retaliated with punches of her own, and soon the two had engaged into a hoof-fight that lasted several minutes.

By the time they'd ran out of breath, Twilight had taken the worst of it, with several bruises and cuts from Pinkie's hooves, as well as a swollen cheek and several other injuries. Pinkie was exhausted as well, but she had merely burned out her energy from battering Twilight with punches and kicks, only taking a fraction of that number as retaliation from the unicorn.

Twilight used the break in the action to search through her known spells to try and find a way to escape, settling on a simple spell that Celestia, of all ponies, would use on her when she was up to late studying in Canterlot. Lifting herself off her hooves, Twilight was able to stagger over to Pinkie, and with her horn aglow let her lavender magic envelop her earth pony friend. Pinkie yawned slightly as her eyelids began to droop heavily, feeling the effects of Twilight's sleep spell weighing down on her.

"...I'll get you..." Pinkie said lazily, before finally dozing off to sleep.

"Shh...just rest now," Twilight muttered as Pinkie soon started to snore comically, which made Twilight smile slightly, seeing that this was the Pinkie she'd always known. Twilight levitating Pinkie's body up from the ground and over to the stairs. "She'll be out for quite a while; enough time for me to get the hay outta here and get some help," Twilight said to herself as she took Pinkie up the basement stairs and to her bed, tucking her in. As soon as the earth pony was settled into bed, Twilight immediately hoofed it away from the building and back to the library.

Unbeknownst to Pinkie and Twilight, a strange red-orange portal had opened up in the basement, underneath the corpse of Rainbow Dash. Suddenly, seemingly-disembodied hooves began rising from the portal, grabbing Rainbow dash's legs and attempting to pull her down into the portal. With a tug, the hooves suddenly pry the Pegasus from her own body, slowly pulling the unconscious ghost of rainbow dash down into the portal and leaving her body on the table, the portal closing soon after.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

After returning to the library, Twilight immediately did two things: first, she made a magical aura around the library so that nopony besides her or Spike could get in, and secondly, she used her magic to write her own letter to Princess Celestia detailing her experience for the night.

"Dear Princess Celestia;

I apologize for sending you this letter at such a late hour, but I have something very urgent to tell you; it has to do with the disappearances as of late. Well, I know what happened, and while you may not believe me at first, I hope that you trust me enough to not write this out."

Twilight then went on to explain everything; the smell, the discovery, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash.

"As I stated above, I hope that you'll believe me and not just think I was having a bad dream. I don't know what caused Pinkie to do these horrible things, but I do not believe she did them under her own power. I realize that should she be held fully accountable, the consequences will be severe, but I will try my hardest to try and prove that she wasn't in control of herself, so that we can get her some good help. Please respond ASAP.

Your ever-faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle."

Once finished, Twilight rolled the scroll up and gently tip-toed up to her room, where Spike lay asleep, and had been for about the last three hours, dreaming of things Spike would normally dream of (gems and Rarity). Twilight slowly nudged the dragon awake, who grumbled something as he rolled over away from her.

"Spike...wake up...I need you to send this letter I wrote to the princess real quick, OK?"

"Can't it wait till tomorrow," Spike muttered.

"No, it's kind of important," Twilight replied. Spike grumbled some more before taking the letter and, without even bothering to read it, sent it away to the princess. Moments later, a response came, Spike just handing over the letter and going back to bed. "Thanks," She whispered and proceeded to unravel the letter.

"Dearest Twilight:

I am going to ignore the fact that you broke into some pony's home without permission because the information you have given me is far more important.

At first, I didn't believe it either; I had to read your letter a few extra times because of that. Pinke had never been the type of pony who would harm any pony. But now that I've read through this, the coincidences are anything but.

However, you must realize that these accusations you bring against Pinkie Pie are very troubling, and should she be found guilty, the punishment for these crimes is very severe. In fact, even at best, Pinkie could still spend the rest of her life in prison; at worst...execution. However, I do believe you when you say that she was not in control of herself, and I do believe there is a third party at work here. I will do as much research as I can here in Canterlot and will report to you everything I find. I will also send an investigation team headed by my sister into Ponyville first thing tomorrow morning.

As for Rainbow Dash...I extend my sympathies to you and your friends and everyone who knew her. This is truly a sad loss for all of Equestria. I will inform her parents and family of her passing tomorrow as well.

Now, get some rest; after everything you've encountered this night, you certainly need it.

Signed, Princess Celestia.

P.S.: You should inform your friends of this as soon as possible. It's tough to take, but I know you can all pull through together."

"Thank you, Princess," Twilight said with a sigh of relief; Celestia did believe her. The thought of having to tell the others, though, make the relief short-lived. She knew they wouldn't take it well; especially Fluttershy, as delicate as she was. For now, though, she decided not to dwell on it and instead heeded the Princess's words, tucking the letter away in her drawer and settling down on her bed, drifting off to sleep.

Next time: The others learn of Rainbow's death and Pinkie's insanity, and we learn what exactly happened to Rainbow's ghost.

Also, I'll mention that the title for the chapter comes from a MTG card of the same name:

Gruesome Discovery

2BB

Target player discards two cards.

Morbid: If a creature died this turn, instead that player reveals his or her hand. You choose two cards from it. That player discards those cards.

Seems a little fitting, honestly. But, enough of that. Review time!