Ponyfic Roundup 9

I sometimes think I should get a header picture done for these things, now that they've become a bit of a regular event. If only I could draw! I suppose I could commission one, but that seems way over the top for a blog like this with about seven readers. :P Anyway, we have a crop of five fics, all of them short, to consider this time around. I suppose we should get on with the show, as Trixie probably wouldn't say.

Pick of the fics

Forever Young by Hyperexponential
Discord, Fluttershy and Rarity
Sad/Slice of Life; 4K words; May 2013; Teen
Discord is a very hard character to write really well. Hyperexponential does it superbly in this remarkably moving tale of his friendship with Fluttershy. (Note the publication date: nothing from S4 is relevant here.) Fluttershy herself is also extremely well written. Rarity's part in the story is not what you might expect, but if you can accept it – as I can – then this fic, written with a skilled light touch, is a must-read. 9/10

Other stories 

Being Neighborly by JMac
OCs
Comedy/Adventure; 5K words; Oct 2013; Everyone
A vaguely Western story narrated by May Berry, sheriff of a nowhere town out in the Equestrian desert. It starts off as a fun, if rather slight, parochial comedy but later takes a turn both for the dark (a foal goes missing) and the weird (a strange resident turns out to be... even stranger). It's well written, but didn't stick in my memory, hence the moderate score. The story only has about 250 views on FimFiction, probably because it features only OCs. 7/10

Big Mac Goes to Therapy by Daedelean
Big Mac
Sad/Slice of Life; 8K words; April 2014; Teen (Sex)
Big Mac has some... issues about his time as a Discorded dog. So he goes to see the shrink – one Time Turner. We learn quite a bit about Mac's innermost thoughts, and also about the history and (if I can use such a broad term) culture of the Apple Family. Very talky, but the setting makes that necessary. The Sex tag is cautious; there's very little, and even that is implied rather than seen. 8/10

The Rain-Bow Incident by nygiants93
Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, CMC and Applejack
Comedy/Random/Slice of Life; 4K words; Oct 2012; Everyone
Rainbow Dash wakes up one day to find that her prized mane has been shaved off. She attempts to sneak into Ponyville unseen, but inevitably encounters the CMC... a rather strange story, which I found a little uncomfortable in its latter stages because of the frankly mean-spirited actions of more than one character. That hits its score a bit. 6.5/10

The Stallion Out of Time by 0 to Wolfie
OCs, Celestia, Dinky and Mr. Cake
Adventure; 6K words; Feb 2013; Everyone
Okay, where do I start with this one? It's hard to read because of the run-on sentences. It has an alicorn OC who turns out to be from another time. He both knows, and is older than, Celestia. Derpy, in need of a foalsitter for Dinky, naturally hires a strange stallion (who is an alicorn, remember!) she's never seen before. It's a mess, basically. You can safely pass on this one, and on its sequel. 2/10