It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #32 · 5:07pm Oct 27th, 2021
It's four days to Halloween and, well I would be remiss if I didn't do a horror recommend. I'll try to make the takes unique, though.
Starting is the more traditional horror - Twenty-Two Minutes of Air by AnchorsAway. When I say traditional, though, I'm not talking about gory movie horror. It's another story that's ominous and dark.
It opens with Juniper (a pony; not, as best I can tell, EQG antagonist Juniper Montage) hiking through the fog of Canterlot. She has the last portable air tank - it has twenty-two minutes of air in it. Four minutes out, four minutes back. Fourteen minutes to search the great library of Canterlot. Fourteen minutes to find Starswirl's journal to change history.
This story leads strong. Not to deny the ending, the opening section is just... phew. The tension of Juniper counting her paces, watching the time tick down, searching with growing desperation for the right book? It just really hits me. It strikes an amazing feeling of rising dread.
The remainder of the story is more classic horror fare and still good, but the opening section really sets it apart.
The second story, okay, you're gonna have to roll with me here for a second. It's Halldecker by Petrichord. And when I tell you the pitch, you're going to think it's a comedy. It isn't.
Okay.
Hearth's Warming is coming, and Applejack volunteers herself to help Burnt Oak hunt trees for the holiday. They find evidence of a tree, track it through the forest and engage in a pitched fight against the vicious conifer.
Again, I stress: this is not a comedy. It is 100% serious as Applejack with a chainsaw engages in a battle to the death against a massive pine tree.
But that's part of why it really stands out. The concept is just so ridiculous, but the story plays it completely straight and that makes it stand out all the stronger. There's lots of little details too - like Burnt Oak's nickname for Applejack or later when we meet Burnt's wife Wettie. Petrichord's always been a powerhouse when Jinglemas comes around (plug plug), and this 2018 gift was no exception.
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
