Sweet Apple Massacre (My Little Pony Fanfiction)

2011fanfictionclassic

Published September 30, 2026

Sweet Apple Massacre is a grimdark My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfiction posted to Fanfiction.net in June 2011 by user bigmacintosh20111, depicting Big Macintosh torturing and killing the Cutie Mark Crusader fillies. Within months, the brony community was ranking it against the notorious Cupcakes fic for the title of worst MLP:FiM story ever written, and it drew dramatic readings, TVTropes entries, and dedicated fandom polls.

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Overview

The story depicts the earth pony Big Macintosh abducting and mutilating Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, the three fillies who make up the Cutie Mark Crusaders in MLP:FiM1. Its structure and tone drew immediate comparisons to Cupcakes, an earlier grimdark fic in which Pinkie Pie tortures Rainbow Dash, and one review blog argued Sweet Apple Massacre had knocked Cupcakes out of the worst-fic slot within a week of its posting3.

Its circulation didn't happen through casual sharing but through curated shock reactions. Review blogs picked apart its content3, TVTropes editors cataloged scenes under trope pages like "High Octane Nightmare Fuel," "Complete Monster," and "Eye Scream"5, and YouTube dramatic readings gave it a second life outside of text7. The fic sits alongside Cupcakes in brony lore as one of the two grimdark stories every fandom veteran had at least heard of, even if most refused to actually read them4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Fanfiction.net (Pony Fiction Archive and YouTube for viral spread)
Key People
bigmacintosh20111
Date
2011

User bigmacintosh20111 submitted "Sweet Apple Massacre" to Fanfiction.net on June 28, 20111. The narrative depicts Big Macintosh kidnapping the three Cutie Mark Crusader fillies and subjecting them to torture, sexual assault, and disembowelment4. Fanfiction.net removed the piece for violating its terms of service, though copies were quickly reposted to other pony-focused archives4.

On July 1, 2011, a Pony Fiction Archive forum member using the handle De Magics claimed authorship of the fic in a discussion thread about "clopfics," brony slang for sexual My Little Pony fanfiction2. That claim was never confirmed against the original Fanfiction.net account.

How It Spread

On July 5, 2011, the review blog Harpseal2 argued the story had displaced Cupcakes at the bottom of the worst-fic rankings, writing that Sweet Apple Massacre had "sucessfully overturned Cupcakes in the worst fanfiction section"3. A Facebook page dedicated to the fic was created on September 5, gathering 190 likes over the next nine months9. On September 21, TVTropes editors added a Fanfic entry cataloging scenes under "High Octane Nightmare Fuel" and "Complete Monster"5.

The fic reached a wider audience on October 16, 2011, when YouTuber MicTheMicrophoneZero uploaded a two-part dramatic reading7. The reading was cross-posted the same day to the grimdark subreddit /r/MyLittleNoSleep under the title "Oh… God… Dramatic reading of 'Sweet Apple Massacre'"6. On February 7, 2012, DeviantArt user Bleedingraptorclaw ran a poll asking which grimdark MLP:FiM fanfic was the worst, and Sweet Apple Massacre topped the vote ahead of Cupcakes and other contenders8.

Frequently Asked Questions