It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #54 · 8:57pm Mar 30th, 2022
Seeing as April First is in two days, I figure this is a great time to turn the focus on to the Element of Laughter and serve up a pair of Pinkie Pie fics today. Seems appropriate. Although this set... well, the connecting feature is that Pinkie Pie is not quite Pinkie Pie in them. Or at least for some of them.
First up is She Contains Multitudes by Ragnar.
Pinkie Pie brings Rarity along to help clean out her late aunt and uncle's house. While there, Rarity discovers an old phonograph with a record on it, she begins playing it. Seconds later, Pinkie passes out. The process repeats itself every time the record is played - until finally, Pinkie Pie is forced to explain the bizarre, unsettling and yet somehow sensible reasons behind why she instantly falls asleep every time she hears the music and why the attic has something... unright in it.
Now, this very easily could have been a horror piece. (By some perspectives, it sort of still is.) But I find it quite touching, actually. I don't want to go too deep in to avoid spoiling the mystery part of the story, but suffice it to say the story swings the 'One of the Mane 6 isn't who they say they are' angle in an interesting and unique way. And the ending is what turns it from being a possible horror story to just being... well, them. And that's part of what makes it special.
(I also suggest reading the sequel, The Life Apothic. It explores the concepts a bit more deeply and is quite funny to boot!)
The second on the slate today is Bicyclette's The 41-Second Goddess.
In the aftermath of the Battle of the Bell, Pinkie Pie had control of Discord's magic for 41 seconds. The naïve assume she just made it rain chocolate and grew gigantic. But Equestrian Intelligence knows better. For 41 seconds, Pinkie Pie was a god. A being so vastly more powerful and all-present than the average pony that the scale is incomprehensible. And during those 41 seconds, she could have done anything. So they wait, They plan. They prepare. And they brace for what Goldbergian machinations an uncontrolled Chaos God could have set into motion in 41 agonizing seconds. And they hope against hope they will even be able to recognize just what she's done.
This one's great because it's just so dang weird. The situation is one entirely sensible for a paranoid government agency, and yet it's also ridiculous to the point of farce. The unnamed outgoing agent at the 41 Second Desk outlines both sides of the problem with a palpable frustrated dedication - the result of faithfully doing a necessary but impossible job. It's equal parts hilarious and pitiable.
The chaser chapter, of course, just puts a cherry on the whole thing with the reminder that it's Pinkie Pie. Couldn't have ended better.
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