Ponyfic Roundup 65: Ponez Meanz Ficz

I've had trouble with that annoying creature known as Real Life intruding over the last few days, so this will be a rather short edition of Ponyfic Roundup. Next week's is also likely to go the same way. Four short fics under review this time around, and they are:

A Rose's Dilemma by Manaphy
Yaks Not Ponies by Metool Bard
AJ's Intervention by Bok
The Laughter I Choose to Be by Trick Question

A Rose's Dilemma by Manaphy
Roseluck and Other
Slice of Life; 5K words; Mar 2015; Everyone

Roseluck discovers something horribly wrong with her garden. Blossomforth knows how to fix it—or does she?

This story really lives up to its genre tag, as it's very slice-of-lifey indeed. There isn't a whole lot of conflict, and really only Roseluck is characterised in any depth. Even she seems a little off: considering who she is and what she does, there are some strange gaps in her knowledge. Nothing special, then, but pleasant, undemanding reading if you're after something quieter than the average ponyfic. ★★★

Yaks Not Ponies by Metool Bard
Twilight, Celestia and Other
Slice of Life; 2K words; Jun 2015; Everyone

Twilight wants to apologize for nearly starting a war, but does she really have anything to apologize for?

An epilogue to "Party Pooped", which picks up where the episode left off. It doesn't dig particularly deep in trying to explain the yak mentality, but it does leave things feeling a little less unfinished. One or two iffy moments in Celestia's dialogue. Again, nothing special, but add a star if you liked the episode's yaks more than I did. ★★

AJ's Intervention by Bok
Applejack and Mane Six
Dark/Comedy/Random; 1K words; May 2014; Teen

Applejack's friends love her very much, which is why they must do the most painful thing imaginable: Make her shut up about apples.

This is an absolutely ridiculous story – if it can be dignified with the term "story" at all. It becomes more and more random as time goes on, and to my mind less and less interesting. The f-bomb one character drops isn't funny, sorry. Not even in context; it's been done too many times now. But I can't pretend I didn't laugh at some of the rest. ★★★

The Laughter I Choose to Be by Trick Question
Pinkie Pie
Sad; 1K words; Mar 2015; Everyone

Did you ever wonder how Pinkie Pie can do all the impossible things she does? In this mini-story, Pinkie decides it's finally time to tell her friends the whole truth.

Easily the best story I read this week. Here we listen to Pinkie Pie telling us about her life so far – and how she's going to explain herself to her friends. What's impressive is that the twist itself isn't all that original, yet it still caught me entirely by surprise. Recommended. ★★★★