It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #138 · 8:00pm Nov 8th, 2023
Right now, we're at a bit of a crossroads in terms of seasons. We're just past Halloween and all the creepy, scary things that implies. And now the great Christmas juggernaut is moving into gear, preparing to crush us all under its inevitable wheels of cheer.
Which - in a weird moment of confluence - makes it the perfect time to fit today's first story: No Time to Scream by Equimorto.
It's the end of the world, you see. Monstrous horrors beyond comprehension flood blood-soaked streets. Overhead the sun is dying, casting the whole land in a sickening pallor. But none of that matters to Rarity. It's Hearth's Warming and she has presents to deliver. There's a schedule to keep, after all.
This is another one on the pile of 'the pitch should be enough'. Because if the idea of Rarity no-selling an apocalypse of nightmare horrors so she can say Happy Hearth's Warming to her friends doesn't entertain you? There isn't a lot I can think to say that'll change your mind.
It's a wonderful paradox. Each scene has a carefully crafted nightmare that preys upon the pony victim's deepest fears and insecurities, brutalizing them in body and soul. Then Rarity walks in, calmly resolves the issue, gives them their present, and continues on her way. It's hilarious.
I suspect it went under radars because of the 2019 Jinglemas disaster (and Jinglemas is traditionally one of the rougher times to get eyeballs, too) but don't sleep on this one. I laughed quite a lot.
Today's companion piece - Routine by BootyPopperzZz - isn't quite the same. There's no comedy and no Hearth's Warming. But to me it's got that similar vibe and just… it fits together.
Fluttershy wakes up in the morning. She puts food in Angel's bowl, collects flowers, puts on her plague mask, and heads outside to visit all her friends in town. Too bad about the whole thing where everypony's dead.
Now when I say 'similar vibe', I don't mean that this is funny. But it's got that same moment of the character walking unperturbed through the apocalypse. Fluttershy's just going about her life, putting some color into the lives of those around her (or who aren't around anymore). Yes there's the not-terribly subtle implication that poor Shy's lost her marbles but I dunno? It just feels similar. It feels peaceful. Chill in spite of armageddon.
And 'chill' is what I pull from this. It's weird, really. The story has the Dark and Tragedy tags; there's multiple skeletal bodies mentioned; much is implied rather than said but it looks like Fluttershy's the last living creature in Ponyville and more than a touch nuts. I shouldn't read it and find it relaxing - yet I do.
I'm not sure if this one's gonna land the same way with other readers. It's obviously supposed to be taken a lot more menacingly than I did. But that's the funny thing about stories: you can never quite tell how a reader's going to respond.
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
Is that the year where the stories were initially posted as individual chapters in one big story, and a week later people could post them individually, but due to therefore being after New Year's and having being read already they got far less interest? This that was either then or 2018. Glad I didn't compete until the following year!
Though, 'under the radar'? Story still has 1.8K views, that's like cracking the top ten for Jinglemas, man.
100+ extra stories posted over a 5-day period on top of all the regular new stories, and in a period where many are with their families and not reading Fimfiction. You don't say…!
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That was actually how the event traditionally went for a long time. 2019 was a collapse because as the story was being posted a member of staff reversed years of support and declared that the single posting was a violation of site rules. It threw the event into complete chaos, caused a huge amount of bad blood, and ended up basically wrecking the site because it forced around a hundred people to all post at the same time, clogging the New queue for most of a day. It prompted a lot of changes, including the shift to the current pod system. (The proper story's a lot more involved but not really needed to answer you.)
And yeeeeah, there's a good reason why it isn't!
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Checking the site statistics, I see 60 and 58 on two bordering days in December 2019. Yikes, that sounds like a bloodbath! Good thing that's long gone.
Equimorto's piece was a great choice! I had been avoiding it due to the cover picture, but after your recommendation, I gave it a chance and am thankful I did!