I saw a thing today, so I wrote a skit.

So you know how sometimes... when you're walking down the isles of your regular supermarket store, and you see the holiday isle. But instead of stuff for just one type of holiday being sold there, you've got stuff for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas on display.

Well this store was already preparing for Valentines Day! And it's not even the end of 2016 yet!

So I thought up this little interaction with my thoughts on the matter. Didn't make it an actual story, because I didn't think it actually counted as one, at least by site standards. But I wanted to share it anyways. Enjoy.

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Holiday Overlap - by Erised the Ink-Moth

Shady Spirit looked over the store display he’d spent most of the morning setting up. Fake tombstones, spiderwebs and animatronic monsters dominated the storefront, while a stock of smaller essentials lined the isles to the sides, enticing ponies further inside.

Nightmare Night was only a few weeks away now, and as the proud owner of Manehattan’s one-stop shop for all your spooky, scary, sugar-filled Nightmare Night needs, he had to make sure his best products were front and center for all his customers to see.

There was just one little problem.

“Holly, do your Heartswarming wreaths have to be right there?” he asked, jabbing a hoof at the colorful stand. “It really clashes with my display of zombie makeup and fake blood.”

Holly looked up from behind the counter on her side of the store from where she’d been idly flipping through a magazine in her spare time. “Uua unno.” She shrugged, not even putting the effort into moving her lips to form actual words.

Shady frowned and forced himself to take a deep breath.

He had been a little short on bits when he wanted to rent a space to set up his Nightmare Night store to cash in on the holiday, just like he did every year. And at the time, Holly was searching for a space to set up her Hearthwarming store for much the same reason, so they ended up each chipping in to rent the building jointly. Shady would use it during his holiday, and she would set up during hers; a sensible solution.

Only as Nightmare Night grew closer and closer, so did Hearthswarming… technically. And Holly decided she’d start setting up a few of her Hearthwarming displays early, to catch the early shoppers.

“Holly Day, I thought we went over this already. I get the store for my merchandise until Nightmare Night is over, then you can do whatever you want. But until then, I can’t have your stuff blocking mine!”

Holly rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic Shady, it’s not blocking your merch. It’s just next to it.”

Shady rubbed the bridge of his nose. “That’s still a problem though. Look just- just come over here and look at this like a customer would when they come inside.”

Holly lazily got up and made her way to the front of the store to stand beside Shady.

“Okay, now where’s your eye drawn first?” he asked.

Holly scrunched her muzzle in thought before deciding, “Uh, the big Frankenpony with the rubber spiders all around it.”

“Right.” Shady nodded. “And from there your eyes will probably travel to something nearby like the wall of monster masks, or the pumpkin carving tools, or the bags of assorted candy. You see, it’s all a careful plan; everything is set up so that no matter where somepony looks, there’s something interesting for them to find. But wait!” he let out an overdramatic gasp, “What it that over there?”

Holly rolled her eyes at the stallion. “Shady.”

Shady Spirit purposely ignored her to continue his performance. “That's odd. What could it be? It’s so bright… so colorful and doesn’t match the rest of the décor in the slightest.”

“Shady!”

“Is it..? Could it possibly be-“

“SHADY!” Holly Day shouted. “I get it! You don’t like my giant neon Santa Hooves. I’ll move into the back already.”

Satisfied, Shady Spirits nodded his head. “Thank you.”

“You know I’m just trying to get ponies thinking about Hearthwarming early, right?” Holly said as she started maneuvering the colossal sign through the crowded shelves. “It can sneak up on you faster than you think, and before you know it you’re rushing to decorate and find gifts for your friends and family. And hey, if ponies who came in here knew they could come back after Nightmare Night to pick up Hearthwarming suppies…”

Shady moved up next to her and helped her to push. “I know. But there’s still lots of time before Hearthwarming. Once Nightmare Night is over, I'll even help you stock the shelves and pass out fliers.” He let out a chuckle. “Huh, do you remember back when these holidays only lasted one day a year instead of all month?”

Holly snickered. “Maybe back when I was a filly. But nowadays ponies just want more and more of a good thing. Meanwhile we’re just here trying to give them what they want.”

“Or we’re feeding their addiction to holiday cheer.” Shady said grimly.

“Oh listen to you.” Holly bumped him with her flank, “Since when is wanting to have fun with your family and friends a bad thing? Do you know any other time of year when ponies get so excited for something?”

The two of them exited the back room, having finally stowed away the giant glowing pony.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing, not at all. But seeing this kind of overlap, this anticipation for one holiday bleeding into another before it’s even over…” he gestured to a pair of isles where strings of Hearthswarming lights and Nightmare Night candy buckets were lined up side by side. “It’s like the holidays are all blending together into one big one that lasts three whole months!”

Seeing the excited look on Holly’s face, Shady quickly shut her down. “No I don’t think that would be awesome.”

“Aww, but why?” Holly whined.

“Well, because holidays really shouldn’t last that long. It’d be great for business is they did, but it would take away what makes them special. Each holiday, whether it’s Nightmare Night, Hearthswarming, Hearts and Hooves Day, Lucky Clover Day… it’s a time to do something different and special. And every holiday is unique in its own way. It’s why it feels so awkward seeing them together, side by side like this.”

Holly nodded in understanding. “Yeah. Hearthswarming is about spending time with your family, reconnecting with loved ones and giving each other presents while slugging down eggnog.”

“While Nightmare Night is about scaring each other for fun and stuffing your faces with candy.” Shady finished.

The two of them shared a chuckle together.

“Hey, you wanna take a break and get some coffee?” Holly asked, “There’s a really great place that serves pumpkin spice lattes a few blocks from here.”

“Ah, pumpkin spice.” Shady shook his head with a mix of a smile and a frown, “If there's one thing that transcends every holiday known to ponykind, it's bucking pumpkin spice. You know it's not actually made from pumpkins, right?”