All it takes is one bad day to drive the sanest mare alive to lunacy. Or in this case, several sleepless nights.
Rocket to Insanity
is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic grimdark fanfiction and an unofficial sequel to the infamous Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles). Rainbow Dash is experiencing horrible recurring nightmares of Pinkie Pie torturing and killing Dash, causing her to slip slowly into insanity.
Tropes:
- All Just a Dream: The events of Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles), a dream Rainbow Dash has repeatedly, causing her to lose her sanity and murder Pinkie Pie.
- Berserk Button: Pinkie Pie offering Rainbow Dash cupcakes acts as this for Rainbow Dash, which ends very badly for Pinkie.
- Dark Fic: It's a Recursive Fanfiction that treats Cupcakes as a recurring nightmare RD has, that eventually drives her to murder Pinkie in a fit of paranoia.
- Death by Irony: Pinkie Pie is betrayed by the Element of Loyalty.
- Downer Ending: Rainbow Dash not only ends up killing Pinkie Pie, but goes Laughing Mad as well.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Pinkie Pie is noted to have a shocked expression on her face after being stabbed by Rainbow Dash.
- Fallen Hero: The pony which represents the element of Loyalty, who has also defeated Nightmare Moon, here goes mad and murders the innocent Pinkie Pie.
- Hearing Voices: Rainbow Dash after Pinkie Pie offers her cupcakes, hearing a voice which tells her that she has to murder Pinkie Pie.
- Hero Killer: Rainbow Dash kills the Element of Laughter in this one.
- Heroic BSoD: Rainbow Dash undergoes one when her nightmares become too much for her to handle.
- Laughing Mad: Rainbow Dash, after killing Pinkie Pie and going completely off the deep end, unleashes a rather chilling psychotic cackle. This is the note the fic leaves us on, by the way.Rainbow Dash: ...g-giggle at the ghastly...heehee...s-snortle at the spooOOooky...haha...heheheeheeeehaha! HAHAH! AHAHAHAHA! HAAAAAAAAHAHAHA!
- Lethally Stupid: Instead of telling anypony about the horrible nightmares she's been having and seeking help, Dash keeps it bottled up inside, resulting in her snapping in immense paranoia and fear when she is invited to Pinkie's house to bake cupcakes, down to being offered a cupcake, and using a kitchen knife to violently kill Pinkie in hysteria, and then completely devolves into Laughing Mad. And if you take the unofficial sequels into account, she ends up becoming a full-blown Serial Killer.
- Mature Animal Story: Rainbow Dash, a pegasus, undergoes a Sanity Slippage and kills her Earth Pony friend Pinkie Pie.
- Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!: While the events of Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles) aren't presented as a fanfic, this does qualify on a meta level.
- Perfect Pacifist People: It's briefly mentioned that there hasn't been a murder in Equestria in several hundred years.
- Recursive Fanfiction: The fanfic is this to Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles).
- The fanfic itself has also inspired people to create their own:
- Rocket To Insanity Alternate Ending
- Rocket to Insanity: Fall of the Apple Family
- How Friends May Fall
- Sanity Slippage: Rainbow Dash, though it's not so much "sanity slippage" as it is a "sanity skydive."
- Shout-Out: The unofficial sequel to Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles).
- Sleep Deprivation: Part of the reason that Rainbow Dash eventually snaps is because, thanks to the nightmares, she hasn't been able to get much sleep.
- Stress Vomit: Rainbow Dash vomits as she struggles to comprehend the gravity of Pinkie's murder.
- Team Killer: Rainbow Dash ends up killing fellow Mane Six member and Element of Harmony Pinkie Pie.
- Therapy Is for the Weak: Rainbow Dash has been having terrible nightmares for weeks on end. It takes a toll on her psyche and she starts undergoing a Sanity Slippage. Dash's friend tries to get her help, but she refuses. In the end, she finally snaps and kills Pinkie.
- Trauma Button: The fanfic Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles) is a recurring nightmare of Rainbow Dash's. One day, Pinkie Pie offers Rainbow a cupcake and it triggers Rainbow's memory of the nightmare. She freaks out, thinks her nightmare is coming true, and stabs Pinkie to death in "self-defense".
