Ah, Fallout: Equestria - Memories. Man, I love that story. So, so, much. It's a bizarre work of genius, and I love it.

It's not for everyone. Certainly not. It takes a certain type of person to appreciate just how good it really is (which isn't helped by the story taking its sweet time to get good in the first place), but it really is amazing.

It's the one, singular true Comedy FO:E side story ever written. Sure, there are parodies of FO:E, but that isn't at all the same thing. This is just a comedy-adventure, except that it follows the same structure as a "classic" side story, which (among other things) means the story is hundreds of thousands of words long and perpetually Incomplete.

If you choose to take it seriously, then it's actually the very emotional, tragic tale of an innocent pony slowly going insane from the Wasteland and turning into a psychopath, but it's masked by such a constant barrage of jokes and one liners that it's hard to take it seriously. I could just go into any selection of random chapters and immediately find great parts:

--

“Fellow Wastelanders, halt in thine advances.” There was a horrendously frightening squeal of feedback. I used my one free hoof to cover one of my ears. Below us, the Wastelanders did the same. “Sorry!”

“Princess? Is that you?” a very small, young voice squeaked.

“Sure, let’s go with that.” Rumcake had to suppress a snort. “They think I’m a princess. Ha!” He turned his voice changer back on. “Now get those hooves in the air!”

Several pairs of hooves reached for the clouds. “Really?” I whispered, taking my sights off the group. “What’s next? You going to make them wave them?”

“Great idea. Wave them. Your princess demands it!” Hooves frantically waved back and forth.

--

“So… is anything broken? Am I on a bucket full of painkillers?” The follow-up would need to be can I be on a bucket of painkillers, but the answer would inevitably be no.

“No, and thank goddesses no. You had a little internal bleeding but that’s really about it.”

All things considered, not bad. “Oh, that’s good.”

“What?”

“Isn’t that where all the blood goes anyway?” I sighed in relief and squished myself into a more comfortable position to attack the munchie tray. Why was Violet giving me a weird look? Weirder than usual, anyway.

--

...And endless more parts just like that. Over hundreds of thousands of words. By sheer quantity of hilarity, very little compares.

I'm kind of being a broken record now, but I really do love Memories. So much. I understand why other people wouldn't, because the type of people who would enjoy it are a niche of a niche, but I've always thought it deserves to be even more popular.

To build on what DoctorHam said, read this post and some of its comments. It paints a very clear picture of why FO:E is so popular, even moreso than any other "grimdark" fanwork.

(Hint: FO:E isn't actually what it appears to be...)

Of course you're not the only one. Have you read it, though? Or are you just basing your opinion on its reputation?

It became so popular due to a combination of things, mainly:

1. It's one of the best examples of an epic length, larger-than-life adventure story that the fandom has managed to produce over its five-year history...

2. ...That also appeared out of nowhere mid-Season 1, when the fandom had barely expanded past oneshots and image macros (interestingly, the other epic adventure story at the time, "It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door", was first published the exact same day)...

3. ...And the story updated with long chapters every few days, quickly gaining a captive audience—which was especially useful during the First Hiatus, as FO:E was one of the few consistent sources of pseudo "new Pony"...

4. And the story hinted at a grand, massive world that you only got to see a sliver of, inspiring all the fan works that continue to expand the FO:E universe to this day.

It was the perfect story, written at the perfect time.

I'm curious about what's so incredibly unlikable about Starlight that's not shared by a character like Sunset Shimmer. Or Luna, for that matter.

There are a lot of anti-Stalight fans around, and I just don't understand where the difference lies.

PMVs: I really dislike heavy-effects PMVs and especially typographies. I just find them so boring to watch, and I hate that those are pretty much the only ones spotlighted. I much prefer classic-styled PMVs like this one.

If we're never going to get Sunset in the main series, then I'm perfectly fine with this.

Yesterday I posted some aimless speculation on Reddit about how this might have happened. I'll copy-paste it here for anyone that might be interested, or can correct me:

Something screwed up with Netflix. Note that both parts of The Cutie Map are no longer there—Season 5 starts with episode 3.
I think it's some system glitch. Apparently back during the production of Season 5, the premiere was called "Cutie Markless" and the finale was called "The Cutie Map". At some point, the episodes were renamed "The Cutie Map" and "The Cutie Re-Mark", respectively.
Up until a few days ago, the premiere was still called "Cutie Markless" on Netflix, which probably means the finale was called "The Cutie Map" in their database (remember that Netflix, iTunes, etc. get these episodes long before they're released). My best guess is that someone at Netflix recently renamed the premiere to its proper name "The Cutie Map", which accidentally caused a conflict with the finale which was also named "The Cutie Map" in their database, causing the finale to replace the premiere. Which lead to the current situation where the S5 premiere suddenly disappeared off Netflix while the S5 finale appeared out of nowhere weeks in advance.
Of course, this is all complete speculation. I have no idea what really happened.

Y'ello. Will we get an explanation about this, or will this be a mystery for the ages?

Every season except for Season 5 has premiered in Fall (not sure what happened to 5). I fully expect Season 6 to continue the pattern and premier in Fall 2016. Hopefully sooner, but it's unlikely.