It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #140 · 7:39pm Nov 22nd, 2023
So most of you are probably aware that I've been part of the Jinglemas team for the last few years. For those who aren't: Jinglemas is the site's annual holiday story exchange. Put your name in, write a short story for someone else, and get one back - simple as that. (And as of right now, you have ONLY TWO DAYS TO SIGN UP. SIGN UP NOW. We're in the final push - we've averaged around 115 participants for the last three years and we're hopefully going to have just as many this time!)
Anyway.
I've had the honor of being part of the team for the last few years, so I'm a big supporter. I've also had the pleasure of getting some absolutely wonderful gifts and as we hit the last days of sign ups I thought this might be the perfect time to put a spotlight on the stories I've gotten.
In 2019, I simply requested something with a changeling in it. I got My Heart Won't Buy It from libertydude.
On Hearth's Warming Eve, a changeling named Ratchet walks into a bar in the poorer part of Canterlot. There he finds it's run by another - June Bug. They're both reformed, sure, but that's part of the problem. Ratchet's what the changelings call Burned: the influx of emotion at the big Change torched his emotional filters to the point where being around others is overwhelming. Potentially even fatal. And now he's come to Canterlot so he can experience the holiday. June calls him suicidal - and he doesn't dispute it.
So this one was a real surprise for me. It was my first year in Jinglemas and I'd expected, well, fluffy holiday stuff. This came in and hit hard, seeing as it was basically a self-harm story. (Guess the author spotted my Wallflower enjoyment.) But that's kinda why it really grooves with me: it's somber and sad, but it's right on the notes that I love. Depression without lamentation, I guess would be the way to put it. Ratchet's suffering and knows he's on a timer. If it isn't today, it's gonna be soon. Being Burned doesn't come with a long lifespan and he's already pushing the envelope. So - one bit of raw joy on the way out. Pick his path. I love the heroic sacrifice trope, and this is adjacent enough that it hits the same buttons.
Plus the concept of being Burned is just fascinating to me. Like, the idea of the mass Change causing some damage and overwhelming some of those who go through it is something that makes sense, and it adds an interesting wrinkle to an already interesting situation. I've quietly put it in as a little head canon that I haven't had the chance to really use yet, but it's awesome conceptually.
In all, this was a huge surprise as a holiday gift and it's still one I just love to reread.
Next up in 2020, I requested for Wallflower Blush to have a good holiday. What did I get? The Loneliest Holiday by Limonene.
Wallflower Blush languishes in winter. School's out, removing structure from her life. All her plants are dead or dormant. Depression rises, as does the pile of garbage. And her seven new friends? Just acquaintances. They've moved on from her. Of course, that last thought gets ruined when Applejack shows up at her door.
To echo my comment there: this is a very 2020 story. Wallflower's great for that. The isolation, the oppressive laziness, the wondering if you're isolated or if you're alone… it's got a great impact and really felt representative of the year of the lockdown.
I also really like that it's Applejack that shows up. As I've mentioned before, Wally's overwhelmingly matched with Sunset in both a romantic and non-romantic context. So a fresh pairing here makes it an all the more interesting read. Plus the two do honestly share a lot of traits (a farmer and a gardener? Easy match) that help them connect. It makes it fresh and new.
Plus it helps that it's just such a cute story with little fun details. Things like Wally instinctively grabbing for the memory stone when she does something embarrassing - it's those details that make a story stand out.
2021 brought a slightly more complex request: Something about the Pie family, but not about Pinkie. The result was Understudy by DrakeyC.
The Pie family arrives to spend Hearth's Warming at Maud's new cave home. But Pinkie brings news of trouble: all her friends are sick, including the rest of the cast for the Ponyville production of the Hearth's Warming play. Out of love, the family steps up to help by taking the sick ponies' parts. This, of course, goes wrong in every single possible way.
So first off: I am horrifically embarrassed about this story. See, I was rereading it for this post and noticed that I'd failed to leave a proper comment thanking DrakeyC for the gift two years ago. I remember I was out of town for the holidays that year and operating off my phone. My best guess is that I told myself I'd drop a comment once I was back in front of a proper keyboard and just… didn't. And I somehow didn't notice until now, so I feel like a heel for it. If you're reading out there, Drakey? I am so sorry for not giving you a proper thanks at the time. This story's wonderful and I loved it.
With that out of the way - the story proper. It's a riot. The Pie family has such great potential, particularly for comedy. Things, of course, go off the rails almost immediately. It includes highlights such as:
- Cloudy Quartz going full diva
- Limestone refusing to play Commander Hurricane because Rainbow Dash's costume smells like cheap body spray, forcing Marble to take the role while Limestone becomes Private Pansy
- Pinkie, the only experienced cast member, remains Pinkie Pie
- Maud being unable to emote even slightly
- All of them completely losing the script
It is, collectively, hilarious. Even the audience gets a couple great lines in via heckling. It really leans into the Pie family comedy with a mixture of - as Starlight later comments - overacting, underacting, and Pinkie Pie existing.
And finally. Last year I asked for something Crystal Empire-themed without focusing on the Imperial royal family. Mist gifted me Hearth's Warming in Reality.
Thirty-five years after the Crystal Empire's return, Officer Buck Sapphire is grumpy because he just drew the short straw: in a week, he'll be working his first Hearth's Warming night. While on patrol, a mare takes cover near him and begs him to direct her pursuers away from her trail - pursuers who are fellow cops. Perhaps unwisely, Buck does so. And that's how Ruby hooks him into a borderline insane adventure to stop Sombra from changing the past and overwriting their reality for one where he wins. No pressure!
Okay, this is another case where I messed up and this time I have absolutely no idea why. How the heck did I not properly thank Mist for this gift? Ugh, now I just feel worse for things. Mist, I apologize for this error as well. Thank you for the gift, even if I'm terribly late in saying it.
Anyway. This one's fun! It ends a touch earlier than I'd want it to but it sets up a fascinating little scenario. And that's part of why I love the Crystal Empire and the ponies there: it's a concept brimming with potential and interesting ideas. Plus this one interweaves a bit of time travel and reality mucking into the mix for a pretty unique approach.
Those elements require a bit deeper reading, too: Ruby drops a fair bit of info on Buck (and the reader), and it requires a slower and more thoughtful approach than the average story. It's good to have that change of pace, particularly as Jinglemas stories tend to be a lot fluffier on the average. So kudos on that front.
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
I've read DrakeyC's story here! Even though he barely writes these days, he's got a solid grasp on the whole range of the show's cast, so it wasn't much a surprise how well he handled the Pie family's… everything, in comically mucking up the pageant. Criminally under-read (400 views in almost two years? Jesus…), it is not at all a story that only works during the holidays, as much as it is about them. Hearty recommendation!
I tend to see the story I'm writing as the main gift to myself, so the one I get is a bonus. Which is good, as some have been… underwhelming. But I don't judge.
Oh, thank you very much.
I actually wrote Hearth's Warming in Reality as sort of a test to myself too to see if I could really do something a bit more complex as a holiday story. When I wrote it, I had the idea in my head that it could be a multi-part story or a one-shot. So it was kind of designed to where the reader can feel it ends there, or it continues how they wanted.
The idea was also to do something with the prompt I got which was to think outside the box. Most holiday stories are fluffy and sweet, and then you have the polar opposite. I set out to do something that was somewhere in between without being lost in its tone. I hope Hearth's Warming in Reality did that. Oh, and to add to it, I actually drew the cover myself on my iPad, haha.
I HEAVILY considered continuing it this year. Like, I had the idea to maybe do an update to it. I have a long plane ride in 2 days, I might actually sit down and write more to it on the plane. Maybe release it when I get back from my wedding. I'll see what happens,
I'll check these out in the weeks to come (I have a thing about not getting into Christmastime/holiday festivities before Thanksgiving has even occurred), but I appreciate the focus on Jinglemas fics. Admittedly, I've only participated the one year... mostly because my schedule doesn't always give me free time in December, but partially because I'm scared of receiving a character that I don't know how to write, and partially because the one year I did participate, I got exactly the story I wanted and there hasn't been anything else I've been really craving.
And because TCC56 isn't going engage in self-promotion in the Recommendsday blogs, I'll go ahead and plug the Jinglemas fic I received that I end up rereading each holiday season:
- MLP: FiM
- Slice of Life
With Hearth's Warming fast approaching, Peach Fuzz wants to find the perfect present to make her Dad smile.5756069
I always find long downtimes like that are real boosts to my creativity. I can't do anything else, so my brain grinds out ideas and paragraphs. It'll be fun to see what (if anything) you come up with!
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That story remains one of the ones I'm proudest of most. Moreso because your reaction was so satisfying. I'm still chuffed four years later that you enjoyed it so.
You've had good luck actually getting something. I've participated 7 times before, and twice I didn't get a story back. I did get one from a breezie one year, but now I can't remember whether that took the place of one of those missing ones, such that I only went totally without once, or if it was yet a third time the assigned person didn't write anything.
I still like participating, though. I've gotten several lovely stories back, and some of the ones I've written rank among my favorites of my own stories.
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I won’t spoil anything but let’s just say I’m several pages into what happens next with Buck and his nerdy companion. There’s a lot more adventure and thrills in this continuity, so I am thinking I might space it out to a few chapters and just release them through December. :P
I’m really liking how their adventure is going for sure.
Thanks for featuring my story! I remember that being the most difficult Jinglemas story I ever wrote, just because it took me a long time to figure out what Changeling story I wanted to write. The first story I tried to do actually was a light and fluffy one where a bunch of infiltration Changelings try to scout out Canterlot during Hearth's Warming (before the Season 2 finale) and get into Three Stooges shenanigans, but I really couldn't find a way to make it work to my satisfaction. I also was at a rough point in my life and most of my writing was becoming pretty somber as a result. I vaguely remember seeing dramatic stories in both your favorites tab and being written by you, so I figured I could do a dramatic Jinglemas story and you wouldn't be terribly upset.
That's actually a great way to put it. My family comes from Midwest America, and there's a general sense from folks in that area of "depression without lamentation". Bad things happen to you, but folks just kind of button up and deal with it in their own quiet way. It's not so much hiding your feelings as just accepting that the bad things happened and you can feel bad about them, but you don't really push your emotions on others and don't wail about your problems. That regional stoicism snuck into this story, I think, and it was the right mindset when writing someone like Ratchet.
I'm really happy you liked the idea! I remember that coming from two major sources: One, my own frustrations in life that I mentioned before. It just felt like everybody I ever opened myself up to were dragging me down into misery, so I thought about that while brainstorming a Changeling story and realized that if Changelings could copy somepony physically, why couldn't they copy somepony emotionally? They absorbed love, after all, so surely they could absorb other emotions. And if they suffered some kind of injury or affliction where they couldn't stop all those different emotions from flowing into them, what would that do to them?
The second source was the Season 6 finale. I didn't really like the way the Changelings were reformed there, so I was looking for some kind of wrinkle in the Changelings' reformation where I could critique it without going full alternate history. Then I thought about how Thorax ascended by sharing the love with Chrysalis and the other Changelings doing that en masse, and I realized that all of that expanse of energy might've negatively affected a few Changelings. That tied into my other idea of a Changeling who couldn't stop absorbing emotions and feelings, and that gradually arrived to the concept of "getting Burned".
Glad you still enjoy the story, and I can't wait to check out the other featured tales!
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I was absolutely not! And thank you for sharing some insight behind the whys and the choices you made - as a fellow author, I really love finding out where ideas come from and what led people to write what they did.
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Thank you! Every literary work has background behind its creation, and sometimes the journey can be just as fascinating as the finished story.
No problem at all, I was happy to write it and I know people are busy. Though you could have commented now and I'd not have minded you being late
All the same, very glad you enjoyed it, it was an interesting prompt, but once the idea clicked it clicked wonderfully.
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I probably could have, but I admit I'm extremely embarrassed by the whole thing.
But you know what, you're right. It is the proper thing to do.
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Hah, no worries. Again, glad you enjoyed it