Pinkie brought Dash around onto her back again and straddled the blue pony's chest, scalpel at the ready.

"Ya know, Rainbow Dash, I'm disappointed. I thought you would have lasted longer. I really wanted to spend more time with you before we got here. But I guess it's my fault; I should have taken it a little slower. Oh well. It was really was nice knowing you, Dash!"

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

Then she was gone.

For a few seconds, the smile remained on Pinkie's face as she stared at the skinned face of Rainbow Dashed, followed by her mad cackles. The laughter was soon replaced with tears as Pinkie's mane deflated and her colors darkened.

"I'm so sorry, Dashie… I had to… please forgive me!..." she cried to the mangled corpse. There was no response. "I really tried to hold back, I really did, believe me!... But this is all to save the cakes… I hope you'll understand…"

"Is the batch done yet?" a gruff voice from the front of the bake shop asked.

"Almost done, Mr. A," Pinkie replied from the kitchen. In mere moments, the timer of the oven dinged, and Pinkie opened the oven. The scent of fresh baked blue vanilla cupcakes filled the kitchen as the cupcakes were taken out of the oven. Had anyone paid close attention to the smell, they would've also noticed the smell of cooked meat. Pinkie Pie brought the first batch under a fan to cool as she proceeded to prepare the next batch, pouring the blue batter with red chunks of meat into individual muffin cups before getting a separate bowl out of the cupboard.

"Come on, Pinkie! I'm starving!" the voice yelled again.

"Mr. A, you know very well I can't rush this! Please be patient!" Pinkie yelled back. She began to mix powdered sugar, various food coloring… and blood to make a rainbow colored frosting. Bringing the cooled first batch over, she put the frosting into a piper and piped the icing onto each cupcake. The first batch of Dashie-Cakes finished, she took the batch into the shop with her. "Here's the first batch."

"About time!" In front of the window was a large plant that bore a strange resemblance to a fly trap. His head turned around to see Pinkie holding the cupcakes. Pinkie proceeded to feed each one of the Dashie-Cakes to her hungry plant.

"Why the long face, Pinkie?" Mr. A suddenly asked.

"You made me kill one of my best friends…" Pinkie said regretfully.

"Well, you can't make an omlette without breaking a few eggs, right? You told me that yourself! And I thought you loved cupcakes!"

"Not made out of other ponies… well… not at first, anyways, I guess…"

"That's better… want one?" The flytrap handed her a cupcake. Her hooves shaking, Pinkie picked up the blue cupcake with rainbow frosting and looked at it. It looked just like Rainbow Dash. Quickly, she shoved the pastry made out of her dear friend in her mouth, chewed, and swallowed. Dashie tasted better when she was cooked… but that just made Pinkie cry more.

"Don't cry, Pinkie," the plant said, "Crying's not going to get this job done, you know that! I've told you several times; you can't-"

"-shrug off your responsibilities. You got to pull yourself up and meet the challenges head on. That's the only way you're gonna get ahead in life," Pinkie Pie finished the phrase, "No matter how many times you just want to say, 'I'm done with this mess,' and go to bed…"

"Exactly…"