It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #63 · 9:43pm Jun 1st, 2022
So I'm a bit delayed today because I couldn't handle this on my lunch hour - I needed to get home first and grab an image or two. Since, well.
One of the things I quite enjoy about this series is pulling attention to obscure authors and stories. I don't get very often to draw attention to obscure characters. There's plenty of them out there after all: how many hundreds of characters do we have that never got a line but they appeared in the background of a scene once and the fandom gave them names, characterization and lives? (See: Octavia as my favorite example) In this case, it's time for Mr. Waddle!
...no? Don't remember him?
That guy. He's that guy.
Hopefully it rings a bell. If not? He's a horse, he's old, he wears ties a lot, he appeared as a priest in the episode where Cheerilee and Big Mac got love-poisoned.
Anyway!
Today's lead piece leverages that last bit: it's Loqui Veritatem In Caritate by Gay For Gadot.
Now that brief first appearance of Mr. Waddle is fascinating because I believe it's the only canon representation of Equestrian religion in the entire series. (No other funerals, all the wedding were performed by political figures, etc.) And in here, Mr. Waddle is Ponyville's priest. The last Celestian priest. The rest of his religion has faded, with only a handful of ponies coming by for the occasional service or holiday. But he dutifully goes about the rituals of his station and faith - lighting the candles, saying the prayers, keeping his chapel in sparkling condition.
And it is during the performance of those duties that he is visited - just as he is every week - by Old Scratch himself. Equestria's devil in the details and in the flesh, Discord.
Now the obvious appeals are up front with this one - 'a true believer and a devil match wits' is a story many millenniums old and is the root of a significant chunk of global myth and legend. This is the Equestrian version, but what really makes it unique is the twists on the formula. God - Celestia - isn't a distant force. She's someone you can have tea with. The Devil - Discord - is pointedly reformed and at least semi-friendly now. He still challenges Waddle's faith, but there's a decidedly different tone to it than most stories of this type. Because at the heart of it, Discord is a friend. He's in Mr. Waddle's chapel every week, after all.
And that's why this story works so well. Discord is less lolrandom than most stories use him, but he's still Discord - he's the trickster and the tempter, the anthesis and the counterweight to the Princess. And yet he's not evil. He's a being with emotions of his own, and the conversation with Mr. Waddle really lets that side of him shine through. Really the story on the surface is a fascinating look at Equestrian religion and Mr. Waddle, but the story is honestly about Discord - about the devil turned good and how he wrestles with that.
On the other side of our listing today is Valkyrie by applezombi.
This one's much more internalized - Mr. Waddle's own thoughts as he's evacuated from his retirement home. He doesn't see the big deal. It's just yet another irritating monster like Ponyville gets all the time. And what kind of a name is 'Tie Rack' anyway?
He thinks back to his dearly departed wife - Glacier Wing - and compares her to the little filly that's helping evacuate him. Scootaloo's full of boundless energy, but she always was eager to listen to old folk tales and legends. A good kid.
And then the retirement home explodes as the hundred foot tall Tirek lays waste to Ponyville and demands Twilight face him.
This one's just... well, it's an oof. By now most of you know what story beats hit me hard, and this one nails most of them. I can't go too deep without spoiling the whole story - it's only 2070 words after all - but the combination of tropes that always dig under my skin and applezombi's wonderful writing really make this one aim straight for my heart.
Plus its one of my favorite subgenres: things that happened off-screen during major events. Because Tirek ripping through all that land was not gentle and his battle with Twilight was savage. Just where was everyone else? What was happening on the ground while the world was full of fire and lasers? I absolutely adore concepts like this.
It's not a complex story, but it doesn't need to be. It's got a ton of soul, it builds excellently, and the final bit's right to the feels.
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
Yo I need to read more of your recommendations these sound cool.
Fuck I don't remember who wrote it but I've literally read one of these with one of the second tier wonderbolts doing evacuations in a forest during the Tirek rampage I think it was fleetfoot maybe. I'll check my list of favorites.
5661485
Sounds like With Your Shield or On It by patchworkpoltergeist?
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/397298/with-your-shield-or-on-it
5661491
Yes! Good ol Patchwork Poltergeist. Meeting her is on my pony bucket list.
5661485
Red already got the link but yes (thanks Red!), that one's a favorite of mine too. (And I gave it a feature as well back in blog #34!)
Wow. Thank you so much for this, this was totally unexpected.
5661528
Poggers!
5661529
I'm reminded I like your profile picture, whatever it is!