It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #130 · 6:57pm Sep 13th, 2023
So I've mentioned before that I keep a little shelf as a staging ground for this blog, with pre-prepared story pairs I can whip out as whim takes me. Occasionally I look back at it and realize that I've been in a bit of a mood. Today's one such time as I noticed a lot of the pairings I've currently got set up are rather morbid or at least bittersweet. Not sure at which point I got into that mood, but I've got a few too many sets that hit that mark. You'll have to bear the weight of it for now - next week I'll try to be a bit more upbeat to contrast!
But for now? In Cider, Information by Norm De Plume.
Goldie Delicious has passed on to the next adventure. She was the Apple family historian, and also their Historian. The capital matters, which is why a Call went out. Four earth ponies from branches of the Apple family arrive at the house; under an enchantment to partially conceal their identities, they drink a specially enchanted glass of cider that reveals to them where Goldie had been hiding the family's secret. An artifact of immense power and legend that they are sworn to keep safe. The four decide how to preserve the secret and continue hiding the artifact - and then Twilight Sparkle walks in and she would very much like to know why Daring Do is doing laps around the house, shouting that something belongs in a museum.
I love the world building in this. That's the main thrust of the story, and it's a fun one. Stories like this artifact are pretty classic: a powerful ancient relic, broken up for safe keeping, preserved and kept secret down a lineage of guardians. It's good, time-tested stuff and fits in great here. The exact nature of the artifact, too, totally fits with the FiM canon. It makes sense to be a thing, it makes sense about who's got it, and why it's being guarded so jealously. The little rituals and traditions around it, too, are a wonderful bit of depth added to things.
There's also just a bit of fun in the mix to keep things interesting: Daring Do in particular is a nice little injection of comedy. (She has some seriousness too, but honestly the humor for her stands out more.) I think part of why it works is that she's kind of-sort of the bad guy in this one and that's a fun change of pace. As for the rest: Twilight does a pretty good job as a late-seasons capital-P Princess, and the four earth ponies do their roles well enough. Apple Fritter's fun with her attempts to be serious about her solemn duty while everything goes on.
It's a fun little story with some great background lore development. Not gonna set the world on fire, but a good read.
The other side brings back another from the dearly departed Ninjadeadbeard, and the more somber of today's stories: The Last Hearth's Warming Gift.
It's Hearth's Warming. Princess Twilight Sparkle is approached by Sir Honest Apple, Permanent Secretary of Quills and Offices, and current holder of the Element of Honesty. He's been called to a meeting of the Elements of Harmony and now they're all gathered, along with several other important personages in the extended Elements 'family': Spike, Discord, Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and the archmage Celeste Lulamoon. There, Twilight urges Honest to tell a story. One about how Granny Applejack had shared a drink of cider with him. It was his last memory of her, and it was a very special barrel: Sweet Apple Acres 987. The first pressing Bright Mac had made with Pear Butter. After he tells it, Twilight pulls out her own similarly priceless gift: a barrel of Sweet Apple Acres 1101. The very last cider pressing Applejack did before her passing.
Now, for starters you can mentally insert five or six sentences here about how much of a damn good writer Ninjadeadbeard was. You can just glance back at my memorial blog for a taste of that. For this story, the first step about why it sticks with me is that it's based around probably the best non-show song in the series: Days Gone By, the Apple family version of Auld Lang Syne from the FiM Christmas album. It's a great song, and a real tear jerker if you're aware of the context behind who's singing and why. Ninja uses it as a background here, and it totally sets the mood.
The overall taste for things is bittersweetness - it's Twilight remembering her friends long after they've passed, and opening up the last bit of the memory. But it's also her sharing it with her new friends and family, as well as helping young Honest with a reminder about where he came from. He's the center of all this: an Apple who's turned himself into the perfect Canterlot bureaucrat and high society pony. The event is there to invoke memories and bring him back to his roots again. Even in just a handful of words, it pulls it off with grace. Encapsulating that kind of character shift (and who he is on both ends) in such a small space just goes to show Ninja's skill. This might not be his best story, but it's a damn solid one and packed with well-written emotion.
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
I haven't read a story of Ninja's since I (along with everyone else in this business, as you demonstrated above) paid tribute with a featured edition. It wasn't conscious, but it may have been wanting to get some distance form the unjustness of it all.
Either way, I'm glad one such story was featured here, even if it a sad one, as it's probably time I start looking at his work again too.
Norm de plume is unspeakably good.