Like Apple Pie
"But Rarity, you promised we were going to go to the park today." Sweetie Belle groaned as she watched her sister zip up her saddlebag and start trotting towards the door to Carousel Boutique.
"I know, darling," Rarity responded, "but Pinkie Pie told me that this was very important. She even made me Pinkie promise that I would be there."
"Oh come on, Rarity," Sweetie whined, "you promised me before you promised her. Besides, it's Pinkie Pie; how big of an emergency can it be?"
"Sweetie Belle, honestly," Rarity sighed, "can't you go play with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo instead?"
Sweetie looked down and said "I would love to, but they're just not the same as they used to be. Ever since Rainbow Dash left town to be with the Wonderbolts, Scoots has been really glum."
"And what about Apple Bloom?" Rarity asked.
"Same thing," Sweetie sighed, "except she started acting really glum after Applejack disappeared."
Rarity was about to try and make another argument, but when she saw the sad look on Sweetie Belle's face, she gave up. "Look, Sweetie Belle," she said, "I promise I'll be back by noon and we can go to the park then. Just let me help Pinkie first, okay?"
Sweetie brightened up a little and said "okay, sis. I guess I can find some way to pass the time until noon."
"Thank you for understanding," Rarity responded, "and I'll tell you what; if I'm not back by noon, you have my permission to go to Sugarcube Corner and drag me out of there yourself." She giggled a little at the thought.
Sweetie Belle laughed "will do, Rarity. If you're late, I'm coming after you." She laughed again.
"Very well then," Rarity said with a smile on her face. She then turned and headed out the door, waving at Sweetie Belle one more time before closing the door.
When Rarity arrived at Sugarcube Corner, she raised her hoof to knock on the door, but before she had the chance the door was yanked open and Pinkie Pie jumped up in front of her. "Hi Rarity," Pinkie said, "I'm so happy you could make it."
Rarity took a moment to catch her breath and compose herself after being so startled by Pinkie, then responded "oh it's my pleasure darling. After all, what are friends for?" she trotted past Pinkie and looked around a little. Setting down her saddlebag, she asked Pinkie "so, what is it you so urgently needed me for?"
Pinkie grinned and said "making cupcakes!"
"Cupcakes?" Rarity asked, "that's the emergency? You need to make cupcakes?"
"Yeah," Pinkie responded, "after all can you imagine a world without cupcakes? We're all out of our special recipe, and it's up to us to get more of them."
"Special recipe?" Rarity asked, "There's a special recipe?"
"Of course there is, silly." Pinkie assured her, "but we're all out of it. So, can you help me?"
Rarity sighed, but then decided that it would be easier to just go along with it. "Alright Pinkie, what do you want me to do?"
Pinkie giggled and told her "well, first I want you to eat this cupcake." She held up a yellow cupcake with pink frosting.
Rarity eyed the confection with a confused look, and then asked "but didn't you just say you were all out?"
"Almost," Pinkie responded, "but we have just one left and I want you to have it."
Rarity decided not to argue and get it over with, so she lifted the cupcake to her mouth with her magic and took a bite out of it. She noticed that it tasted different than the normal cupcakes they sold at Sugarcube Corner, but didn't worry about it because it tasted better than usual anyway. As she swallowed the cupcake, she felt a tiny bit dizzy. She yawned and turned to Pinkie, suddenly having trouble keeping her eyes open. "Wow, that was an absolutely delectable cupcake, Pinkie." She yawned and asked "so, now what should I do?"
Pinkie giggled and said "now you should fall asleep."
"What?" Rarity asked, wobbling back and forth. "What do you mean by tha-" she couldn't fnish her last word before falling on her side unconscious.
Rarity awoke in a dark room with a strange, musty scent to it. As she opened her eyes, she realized that everything around her was pitch black. She tried to light up the room using her magic, but suddenly felt a powerful throbbing sensation in her forehead, causing her to yell in agony. The yell was answered by a giggling from somewhere in the room. Realizing she was not alone, Rarity tried to turn her head to find the source of the laughter, but found that her head was being held by a long strap. She tried to move her legs, only to find that they too were strapped firmly in place.
As Rarity struggled against her binds, she heard the same strange laughter as before, followed by a familiar, cheerful voice. "Ah, it's so wonderful to see you're awake" said the voice.
When she realized whose voice it was, Rarity asked "Pinkie Pie, what's going on? Where are we, and why can't I move?"
Pinkie giggled and answered "we're in the basement of Sugarcube Corner, and you can't move because you're strapped to a table, silly."
Rarity sighed and said "I realized that I was strapped down, darling, but what I wanted to know is WHY I'm strapped down."
"So it'll be easier for me to harvest my secret cupcake ingredient, of course" Pinkie giggled.
"Wait, what secret ingredient?" Rarity asked.
"Why you of course" Pinkie replied as she turned on the lights.
The next thing Rarity knew, the whole room lit up with a blinding white light. As her vision came back and the spots faded from her vision, Rarity gasped in terror at the gruesome décor of the room around her. The room she was in was littered with the entrails of other ponies. The ceiling was lined with streamers that had been made from intestines; brightly painted skulls with party hats made from their own skin were placed on counter-tops and hung on the walls; lungs, hearts, stomachs, and kidneys floated up to the ceiling like balloons, tied at the bottom by strings made from their own blood vessels; hanging from the ceiling was a banner made from pony hides, complete with the phrase "Life is a party!" written in red letters; there was a table in the middle of the room which had been crafted out of hides and bones that had been crudely stitched together, surrounded by chairs made in the same manner. As terrifying as all of these sights were, the thing that scared Rarity the most were what were sitting around the end of the table: the taxidermy corpses of three ponies, arranged around each other as if they were having a simple tea party. One was a cyan-colored Pegasus pony with a rainbow-colored mane; next to her was a butter-yellow Pegasus with a long pink mane covering half of her face; the last one was an orange Earth Pony with a blonde mane topped with a Stetson hat.
"Isn't it great?" Pinkie asked her trembling friend. "We've got Dashie, Fluttershy, and even Applejack here with us, and now we finally have you here to join the party." Rarity moved her eyes to face Pinkie and was taken aback by Pinkie's attire. Pinkie was wearing a dress made of the cutie marks of dozens of ponies which had been crudely stitched together. The back of the dress was adorned with several sets of Pegasus wings. Around Pinkie's neck was a necklace with a group of Unicorn horns hanging from it. Pinkie giggled and asked "do you like it? I know it's not as good as one of your dresses, but it suits me just perfectly."
"P-Pinkie? How could you do this?!" Rarity shrieked.
"Easy peasy," Pinkie responded, "I just drugged them with my cupcakes, dragged them down here, strapped them to that table, and killed them."
"But Pinkie," Rarity pleaded, "these ponies were your friends. I thought you hated seeing your friends in pain, so why would you willingly torture them like this?"
Pinkie sighed and responded "yes, it is sad sometimes, but with every pony I kill I make enough cupcakes to make lots more ponies happy, so they still go to a good cause. Now without any further ado" she hopped to the back of the room and grabbed hold of a metal cart with a tarp over it. She rolled the cart up to the table Rarity was on and pulled the tarp off. As Rarity eyed the contents of the tray, Pinkie grabbed a black marker and trotted up to Rarity.
Rarity was still looking at the cart, still hoping this was all some sick joke, when she was broken from her trance by Pinkie pressing the marker against the edge of her cutie mark. "Pinkie," Rarity gasped, "what in the world are you doing? You're getting that marker all over my coat."
"Well duh, Rarity," Pinkie giggled, "you of all ponies should know not to cut fabric without marking where to cut first, at least when looking for a clean cut."
"F-fabric," Rarity demanded, "what do you mean fabric?"
"Well, I was going to stitch your cutie marks back on to you when I was done harvesting and stuffed you," Pinkie responded, "but I just can't resist adding your cutie mark to my dress. After all, you're the best dressmaker in Equestria, so it would be a crime not to let part of you become part of a dress."
When Rarity heard this, her mood quickly changed from fear to rage. "How dare you?" she demanded, "not only are you going to mutilate one of your best friends, but you're going to use my cutie marks to adorn that abomination you call a dress? I thought you were my friend, I trusted you, but you're nothing but a heartless monster!"
At this, Pinkie looked up at Rarity with a startled look on her face. "Rarity," she chided, "I'm surprised at you. I thought you were a lady, and ladies do not use such cruel and hateful language."
"Under normal circumstances I wouldn't dream of it," Rarity responded, "but in this case I'd say it is appropriate."
"Tsk tsk tsk," Pinkie responded, "this will never do." She thought for a moment, but soon came up with an idea. She reached into the tray on the cart and pulled out a needle and a ball of string.
Seeing the tools of her trade right in front of her, Rarity came up with an idea. She immediately tried using her magic to fight back with the needle, thinking that if nothing else she could at least make sure Pinkie didn't come out of this unscathed. However, once again, when she tried to use her magic, she felt a sharp pain in her forehead and screeched in pain. "AH! What's wrong with my horn?" she asked.
Pinkie, who was still trying to thread the needle, looked up and responded "oh, nothing, it just has a spike through it."
"What?" Rarity screamed.
In response, Pinkie held up a mirror, allowing Rarity to see exactly what she meant. A large, rusty spike had been driven through her horn, with a bit of coagulated blood around the base. "That's what I mean," Pinkie responded as she put down the mirror and finished threading the needle, "I didn't want to have you using your magic to escape after all." Next she hopped up to Rarity so she was eye level with her. "Now, let's take care of that bad mouth of yours."
"What are you going to do?" Rarity asked with a shudder.
"Oh, just a bit of sewing" Pinkie giggled, moving the needle towards Rarity's mouth. She grabbed Rarity's bottom lip and pulled it forward, then pressed the tip of the needle against the edge of it. "Ready, Rarity?" she giggled. Rarity screamed in response and tried to turn her head away, but it was no use. Pinkie pushed the needle against Rarity's lower lip until it pierced through it. Rarity screamed in pain as Pinkie pulled the needle through, dragging the string through the hole in her lip. As the string ran through her lip, it came out covered in blood.
"Please stop it Pinkie!" Rarity screamed, but to no avail. Pinkie pressed the tip of the needle against the bottom of Rarity's upper lip and pushed it through. Then, she pulled it foreword, pulling the string through both of Rarity's lips. She turned the needle upside-down and pulled a bit more of Rarity's upper lip forward, then pierced it and drew the string through. She continued this process until Rarity's whole mouth was sewn shut, then pulled hard on the string to make sure the mouth was sealed.
"There you go, Rarity," she giggled, "all done. Am I good at sewing or what?" She held up the mirror again so Rarity could see her mouth, which was very crudely stitched shut. Rarity screamed, but it was barely audible behind her sealed lips.
"Okie dokie lokie," Pinkie giggled, "now let's get back to those cutie marks." She reached into the tray and pulled out a pair of scissors. Trotting back to Rarity's side, she reached up and pinched Rarity's cutie mark. As Rarity tried to scream, Pinkie pulled the bit of pinched skin forward just a little. She then put the tip of the scissors around the upraised bit of skin she was holding, and then gave it a quick snip. A bit of blood trickled from the wound as Pinkie moved the scissors around. She pushed the bottom half of the scissors into the wound and started pushing it in. Rarity screamed as blood squirted from her flank, the sharp blade of the scissors driving into her flesh. Pinkie slid the scissors to the edge of one of the gems on Rarity's cutie mark, and then closed the scissors, cutting all the way through the flesh above the base of the scissors. She drew the scissors out of the wound, took a moment to ensure they were properly angled against the edge of the cutie mark, and shoved the scissors back in. once again she pushed the bottom of the scissors through Rarity's flesh just below her skin, adjusting the angle of the scissors until they were perfectly aligned with the edge of one of the gems, and then gave it a snip and cut through it.
Rarity kept trying desperately to scream as Pinkie cut away at her flank. Tears began to stream down her eyes as Pinkie cut the first gem out of the cutie mark. "Aw, don't cry, Rarity," Pinkie giggled, getting up and looking Rarity in the face. "Here, let me dry those tears" she said as she placed the gem against Rarity's eye and rubbed it like a napkin, smearing blood over Rarity's face. "There you go," she giggled, "all better." She threw the gem onto the table and got back down by Rarity's flank. She picked the scissors back up and drove them into the wound left by the missing gem. She cut a line through the flesh between the wound and one of the other gems, and then cut out the next gem. After the second gem was gone, Pinkie moved on to the last one. When she was done with all three of the gems on Rarity's right flank, she put them on the table and hopped over to Rarity's left side.
As Rarity tried to scream, Pinkie slowly cut out all three gems on her left flank and laid them on the table next to the right ones. As she backed up to admire her work, she spoke up "wow, Rarity, now you and Sweetie Belle really match. Now neither of you has a cutie ma-"
"Hello? Rarity? Are you down there?" A voice called from upstairs.
Both Rarity and Pinkie were startled by the interruption, but Pinkie's surprise quickly turned to glee. "Well, speak of the devil," she giggled "look who decided to join us." She reached into the tray and pulled something out. Rarity couldn't see what it was because Pinkie quickly turned around and hid it behind her back. Pinkie crept to the back of the room as the sound of small hooves came down the stairs.
"Rarity? Where are you? You promised to be home by noon" Sweetie Belle called as she trotted down the stairs. As her head popped through the edge of the stairwell she looked around and screamed at the sight of Rarity. "RARITY!" she screamed as she ran up to her. "Rarity? Who did this? What's going on?" she asked.
Rarity tried to speak, but her sewn lips made it impossible. Hearing movement in the back of the room, she turned her eyes to see Pinkie reaching behind her back and looking intently at Sweetie Belle. "Mhhmhm! MMHH!" Rarity screamed through her stitched mouth, trying to warn Sweetie, but Sweetie couldn't understand her.
Sweetie looked up at Rarity's face as she was screaming. "Don't worry sis, I'll get you out of he-AH!" She suddenly screamed as she felt a sharp pain in her back.
From the back of the room, Pinkie called out "bullseye! Looks like I win."
Sweetie felt her lower legs become very weak all of a sudden, and turned her head to see a large dart driven into her spine. The dart had struck a nerve, causing Sweetie to lose her control of her lower legs, and as she looked back to Rarity she fell backwards and collapsed onto her back. When she landed, the force of impact drove the dart further into her, and the tip pierced through the front of her abdomen. "AH! Sis, what's going on?" she cried, a stream of tears pouring down her face.
Pinkie hopped over to her and giggled "you're just in time to help with the cupcakes" She picked up Sweetie Belle by the tail and lifted her up to her face. "Doesn't that sound great?"
Sweetie cried "what? Pinkie, what are you doing?"
Pinkie giggled "oh, just making cupcakes" and then tossed Sweetie Belle over Rarity and into the back wall. Rarity tried to scream and struggle free as she saw her sister getting thrown around like a rag doll, but she still couldn't move. Seeing this, Pinkie looked up at Rarity and said "oh, don't worry, I'll help you." She then turned the table Rarity was strapped to around to the other end of the room.
Sweetie Belle tried to stand, but could only move her front legs. Her nose was bleeding after hitting the wall, and she was crying in agony. "Pinkie, stop it, please," she weakly begged, "just let us go."
Pinkie seemed to actually consider it for a moment, and then responded "okie dokie lokie."
Sweetie gave a small smile and asked "really?"
"Absolutely," Pinkie responded, "you just need to get to Rarity and you're both free to go."
Upon hearing this, Sweetie Belle began to push herself across the floor on her front hooves. Without her hind legs to help, the tip of the dart dragged over the ground under her, making a faint scraping sound. Sweetie tried to ignore the pain, and kept dragging herself forward, but once she was in the center of the room Pinkie yelled "STOP!"
Sweetie Belle stopped and looked up to Pinkie "b-but you said to go to Rarity," she whimpered, "why are you making me stop here?"
Pinkie giggled and said "I said if you could reach Rarity I'd let you go, but I never said I'd let you get to her silly" After saying this, she held up a knife and pointed it up towards the ceiling above Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle looked up and Rarity turned her eyes to look at what was hanging from the ceiling. Suspended by a rope was a large rock, one which was uncomfortably familiar to Rarity. Pinkie giggled and said "look out, here comes Tom" as she hurled the knife towards the rope holding up Tom.
As the knife cut the rope and Tom began to fall, Sweetie Belle looked to Rarity, her eyes pouring tears. Right before Tom landed, Sweetie screamed "RARITY!" Tom landed right on top of Sweetie Belle, and in an instant the walls were splattered with her blood. Rarity screamed through her sewn mouth and cried as Sweetie Belle's horn landed at the foot of the table with a soft clacking sound.
Pinkie laughed and laid her hoof on top of Tom. "Oh Rarity, how could you ever let such a stud go? And how could you just throw him out like that? Luckily, I found him and decided to give him a home and a job taking care of intruders" She hopped over to the table and picked up Sweetie Belle's horn. "This will be a wonderful addition to my necklace" She turned the table back around and reached into the tray, pulling out a long needle and a pair of scissors. She pressed the tip of the needle against the bottom of the horn and, after a bit of effort, pierced all the way through it, making a hole all the way through the horn. Then, she removed her necklace of horns and used the scissors to cut the string right between the two horns on the front. She slid the horns on the front to the side and held Sweetie's horn in the space between them, running the string through the horn and then tying the string back together.
Rarity watched with both terror and sorrow as her sister's horn was added to that awful necklace. Pinkie put the necklace back on, with Sweetie's horn now adorning the very front of it. "Doesn't it look just marvelous now, Rarity?" she asked as she jingled the horns like a bunch of keys. "Well," she continued, "speaking of horns, let's take care of yours now." She reached into the tray and pulled out a cordless drill. Hopping up to Rarity, she placed the drill on the spike in Rarity's horn. "Now don't worry Rarity," she said, "this won't hurt a bit" She put a bit of pressure on the drill's handle, making it spin a little, before adding "it'll hurt a whole lot" Pressing fully on the drill's handle, she pressed the drill harder against the spike, causing it to spin with the drill. Shreds of horn like sawdust flew out of the hole as the drill continued to spin. Rarity cringed and tried as hard as she could to scream, but it was no use, and soon she began to hear a cracking sound. Cracks began to form around the base of the horn, and with a loud, sickening snap, the horn broke off and fell to the ground. Pinkie turned off the drill and reached down to pick up the horn, then placed it on the table.
Rarity looked at Pinkie with pleading eyes, hoping Pinkie would just get it over with already. Pinkie reached into the tray and pulled out a large knife. "Okay, Rarity," she giggled, "we're almost done, but I think it would be a shame to finish you off without treating you to a manecut. After all, we both know how much you like to look your best, so I think it would be a nice gesture" She returned to the table and held the knife up to the top of Rarity's head, right behind the stump of what used to be her horn. "Now, I think I should give you a little off the top, okay?" she asked.
Rarity tried to protest, but stopped when she felt Pinkie dig the edge of the knife into the flesh on her scalp. Pinkie slid the knife in a little until it hit Rarity's skull, then flattened the knife against the skull. With a strong jerking motion, she pushed the knife forward, tearing the flesh from Rarity's scalp. Rarity screamed as loud as she could, but Pinkie simply slid the knife back to the point where she started, turned it down to face a different angle, and pushed it forward again, tearing off the flesh from the right side of Rarity's scalp. Humming to herself and ignoring Rarity's screams, she brought the knife back up to the top and slid it down again, this time cutting off the left side of Rarity's scalp. With the three sides of the scalp cut from the bone, she reached under the part in the middle and lifted it, peeling the rest of the flesh from the top of Rarity's head like a banana peel. Then, she stuck the point of the knife under the flesh at the back of the scalp, and drove it downward, tearing through the back of Rarity's head. She pulled the knife back up and slid it down under the right side of the scalp, followed by the left. Finally, she grabbed hold of the scalp and ripped the whole thing off of Rarity's head.
Rarity screamed in agony and winced, but she opened her eyes when she heard Pinkie giggle and ask "so, how do I look?" When Rarity opened her eyes, she saw Pinkie wearing her mane like a wig, blood dripping down Pinkie's face. Pinkie made a crude imitation of Rarity's voice and asked "don't I look marvelous, darling?" Rarity nearly vomited at the sight of this, but kept it down when she realized that it would have nowhere to go with her mouth sewn shut. Pinkie reached back into the tray and pulled out a needle and scalpel. "Well, looks like it's time we wrap this up," she said as she inserted the needle into Rarity's chest. "There you go; this will numb you from the chest down so the pain won't distract you." She then used the scalpel to cut into the flesh on the front right portion of Rarity's pelvis, and proceeded to cut along Rarity's abdomen to the left side. She pulled the scalpel out and drove it into the left side of Rarity's chest, and drove it to the right side. Next, she cut into the center of Rarity's chest, right on the line that had been cut across it, and cut downward until it cut down to the lower incision. Finally, she put her hooves on the inside and tore the newly-cut folds of flesh aside.
As Pinkie looked into Rarity's exposed chest cavity, she giggled "gee Rarity, you're not nearly as pretty on the inside as you are on the out." She reached in, grabbed Rarity's stomach, and tore it out of her. Using the scalpel, she cut the top of the small intestine; then she placed the top of the intestine into a hand-held egg beater. "Well," she giggled "let's wrap this up now" She began spinning the egg-beater, which started pulling and unraveling Rarity's intestines out like spaghetti, which wrapped around the egg beater until there was too much for the egg beater to spin anymore. She dropped the egg beater and pushed her hooves into Rarity's chest cavity until she found the heart. By this point, Rarity was already about to die from blood loss, so Rarity didn't even want to complain anymore. She knew she would never get out of this, so she decided to just let Pinkie finish her off without distraction. "Hey Rarity," Pinkie said as she grabbed hold of Rarity's heart, "you remember when you called me a heartless monster? Well," she ripped the heart out of Rarity's chest and said "welcome to the club, darling" With that, Rarity was gone. Pinkie looked at the stuffed corpses of her three friends, and then turned to look up at Rarity's lifeless face, smiling as she announced "welcome to the party Rarity; we've been expecting you."