Present Perfect vs. Rocket to Insanity · 8:03pm Nov 19th, 2017
After Cupcakes and Rainbow Factory, Rocket to Insanity by Scherzo is probably the next-best well-known classic MLP horror/gore fic. I've never had interest or opportunity to read it until now, fittingly after it was finally ported to Fimfiction. As it's rated Mature: Gore, I can't link to the readings, but the one I used was by TheLostNarrator. Scribbler also has done a production of the comic version (?); the words 'magnum opus' were used, so you should probably go look those up on Youtube, if they interest you. There is also a reading by Plagen Shiki
If you're undecided, however, read on…
Rocket to Insanity opens on Rainbow Dash waking from yet another nightmare — night terror, really. She's been having them for months now, and it's affecting her sleep, which is affecting the quality of her weather work and of course taking a toll on her psyche. After another night of waking in abject fear and then not talking about it with anyone, she goes to Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie serves her cupcakes, and she snaps and stabs Pinkie to death.
So, yeah, if you haven't figure it out, Rainbow's been dreaming about Cupcakes. The story.
Sigh.
According to the author's note on Fimfic, this was both inspired by Cupcakes and written in an attempt to one-up it. Two strikes against it, as far as I'm concerned. Granted, back when this was originally released, the concept was probably more original; we likely didn't have Silent Ponyville, for instance, or any of the thousands of imitators.
Still, taken on its own merits in the context of the time it was written, it comes up short. The title, for instance, is ironically prescient (or is that presciently ironic?) The goal here is to show Rainbow Dash going insane, and so we're dropped into it happening as quickly as possible. Sure, it would have been very easy to drag things out with derivative nightmare after derivative nightmare, but the horror would have been better served by a slow buildup, letting the reader experience Dash gradually losing her mind, and all the little ways that could be shown.
One thing it does do is focus greatly on the murder of Pinkie Pie. In doing so, it invites the reader to recoil, aghast at what Rainbow Dash is doing. It doesn't quite get there, though. And if you get caught up in the moment, the point where Dash starts singing "Giggle at the Ghostly" and getting the words wrong is a pretty great way to kill the tension. There's a little bit of reveling in the "what have I done", but that is following up by "psychotic laughter", ending things on a narmy note. And it certainly doesn't help that we're told before the scene begins that this is the day Rainbow Dash snaps.
I do like that Pinkie's totally innocent in this: Dash hasn't opened up about what's bothering her, Pinkie knows she's down, invites her over to try and cheer her up and ends up making a (fairly expected) mistake that costs her her life. It's pretty good tragedy, all things considered, if one ignores what's actually happening.
In terms of one-upping Cupcakes, that's probably in the eye of the beholder. I reflexively say 'no', but on second thought, I'm not sure. I mean, it's certainly nowhere near as bloody or visceral, preferring to sum up those parts from the original. (Turns out the spots where it "rips off Cupcakes" aaaactually only happen in the reading, so let that be a lesson!) I could say it does something different in terms of tone, however: everything feels real, whereas Cupcakes feels like a fantasy. I'm not quite sure how I came to this conclusion, because it certainly doesn't seem like a real scenario (for all that Dash's reluctance to tell her friends about what's going on is decently couched in her S1 canon personality). Maybe it just convinced me that Cupcakes was all a dream.
As for the writing, it's standard to poor. There are asterisks, an "oh god", LUS-y referents and phrases like "Her mind was slowly breaking under the horrors of her subconscious mind" that do it no favors. The worst part though is the telling. Like I said earlier, we don't see Dash losing her mind, we're told it's happening, and that deadens the end result. To say nothing of the fact that said end result is the average stereotypical idea of what "going crazy" is like.
When you come right down to it, Rocket to Insanity is just a murderfic. A throwaway indeed.
(Don't get mad at me, that's the author's own word.)
1.5/5
Marginally less bad than Cupcakes.
I'd say Cupcakes was better, because it at least was original in its stupid.
I will say for a reaction fic, rocket was well done.
That being said, this is my favorite cupcakes reaction:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/7/14/44273__semi-dash-grimdark_artist-colon-mickeymonster_pinkie+pie_rainbow+dash_alternate+ending_blushing_clothes_comic_crying_cute_dress_embarrassed_fanf.png
If that last sentence isn't damning with faint praise, I don't know what is.
That sounds like, just on principle, exactly the wrong thing to do. :|
1) Asterisks/footnotes are fine, but this seems like decidedly the wrong genre for them.
2) Definite mistake outside of random/comedy.
3) Again, this matters more or less depending on the context. Coming from reading "The Door" yesterday, I can say that LUS is apt to be more of a problem in horror than elsewhere since it'll tend to draw attention where it shouldn't be, and horror has a harder time overcoming that than various other stuff.
3) It's perhaps overly telly (I'd need to see in context to really decide how I feel about it), but the second "mind" unambiguously kills it for me. Without that, it might have been serviceable.
But you know, I think this was the first time I ever heard of this story. I always thought "Sweet Apple Massacre" or "Cheerilee's Garden"(?) were what people advanced as the third one of those.
But what about the Rocket to Insanity Alternate Ending where someone wanted to give RtI a happy-ish ending?
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If a story ever uses asterisks for footnotes, I won't hold it against it. I'm talking about things like "*hic*" and "*sigh*".
I dunno, I've heard about RtI for a long time. Cheerliee's Garden and SAM are definitely up there, though. (And I've reviewed at least one of them.)
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I mean, as I said this doesn't seem like a story where you want footnotes. But what you're talking about is text message and chat shit, not for stories (not based on things like that, or trollfic). Geeze.
Oh wow.
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And yet it's a common problem. Granted, it's usually used for emphasis, but *still*. :V
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Isn’t that what text formatting is for?
Mangled on purpose.