Pinkie Pie and the Rockin' Ponypalooza Party review! · 9:50pm Jul 16th, 2014
Well, Fiestia Equestria was fun. I added Brenda Crichlow, Vincent Tong, and Thom Zahler to my autograph list, and managed to pad out my collection of comics, cards, and vinyls. Oh, and I got Andrea Libman to sign the very book I'm reviewing! Libman, Crichlow, and Tong read Friends Forever #5 at a panel, look for it before too long, because Tong is Angel Bunny now. I also met Chivalrous Pony, Fusion Blaster, and EquesTRON while I was there, and ended up having a long talk with several other authors, so I'd call it good. Oh, there was some conservative radio guy who interviewed people there and then aired a show on Monday calling us all gay Obama supporters, but that's typical anti-brony garbage.
Anyway, onto the review!
Chapter One
Pinkie wakes up Ponyville by being loud and obnoxious. We get some good Pinkie/Gummy interaction. Then she opens up a schedule book from Twilight and finds that there’s no party’s planned today. Since Twilight’s crazy apparently rubbed off on the planner, she starts freaking out! After some deliberation, she decides on a Spring-Sproing-Spring party!
Chapter Two
Pinkie jumps to the center of town and announces her party. Nopony pays attention to her except the CMC. The way Berrow describes Apple Bloom is weird: yellow-green with a bold pink mane? Are you sure?
Pinkie needs to tell everypony about the party. She pulls three sets of spring shoes out of nowhere and tells the CMC to tell their older sisters about the party, and Rainbow Dash apparently still lives in Cloudsdale. Apple Bloom asks to be sent somewhere else, and Pinkie suggests Fluttershy’s.
Chapter Three
On the way to go bug the citizens who are actually working, she finds a red ruby on the ground, but is unable to pick it up. It turns out that Cheerilee spruced up her walkway with stuff from the Crystal Empire, because teachers in Equestria are paid what they deserve. Cheerilee says she’ll come to the party.
Chapter Four
At the party, everypony spends five pages going on about how great the party is, then Pinkie’s family shows up: Father Igneous Rock, mother Cloudy Quartz, Marble Pie, and Limestone Pie.
Chapter Five
Igneous waits for Pinkie to calm down. There’s some foreshadowing to Maude, and we get a feeling pretty quickly that Pinkie’s parents don’t really approve of their daughter. They admit they’re here to see Twilight about something important. They say they need Pinkie’s help, because they’re about to lose the rock farm. So we’re 50 pages into a 127 page book and we’re just now getting to the plot? This moves slower then one of my fics.
Chapter Six
Twilight, Pinkie, and the other bring the Pies to the Apple Barn for privacy. The family explains that since the Crystal Empire appeared, demand for rocks is down. So... they just sell rocks? There’s no creative explanation? Uh... fine.
Pinkie comes up with a plan to throw a rock concert called Pony-palooza to raise money, but the family shoots the plan down, in kind of a mean way. Pinkie vows to be more serious.
Chapter Seven
The next morning Pinkie snaps the nose and mustache off her favorite joke glasses to wear them, then cleans her room of all her party stuff and paints her room a drab brown. Twilight visits and is horrified by what she finds. She says they’re going through with Pinkie’s plans, but Pinkie dismisses her.
Chapter Eight
The others try planning the party, but are lost on what to do. And that’s it.
Chapter Nine
Spike is giving the Pie family a tour. All Pinkie’s parents want to know is Twilight’s opinion on everything. The twins seem to act a lot like Maude.
Chapter Ten
Pinkie sees her family and calls them up. While they are impressed with her efforts, they still dismiss her in favor of Twilight. Pinkie vows to try harder, much to Spike’s worry.
Chapter Eleven
Applejack and Rainbow show up at Pinkie’s house with balloons to try and tempt Pinkie into partying, and I just noticed: Applejack seems to be missing her accent. Did Berrow think it was too hard for kids to read? Anyway, the two fail, and so does Rarity. Pinkie heads to the library, unaware of what Twilight had planned.
Chapter Twelve
Huh... Berrow got Twilight’s house right. Anyone, somehow Twilight has everypony waiting there, including the ones Pinkie just left, and Pinkie’s family. They apologize and the old Pinkie is back... with over twenty pages left. Hmm...
Chapter Thirteen
Pinkie gives everyone their assignments... and that’s it.
Chapter Fourteen
People show up and the party starts.
Chapter Fifteen
The party goes off without a hitch.
Chapter Sixteen
Everypony’s into rocks again. At least there’s some explanation for it...
Have you noticed how little I put into those final chapters? It’s because there doesn’t seem to be much of a story here. It’s mostly fluff that fleetingly glances at a plot because it’s embarrassed to be around it. This... doesn’t bode well.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #20 is next.
I've read two of Ms. Berrow's books so far - this one and The Crystal Heart Spell. In both cases the story started off strong but then wound down to an anticlimactic finish.
...wha?
When did that happen?
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It aired Monday. I wasn't interviewed, but apparently someone was there. He didn't insult us while we were there, obviously.
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Unfortunately, they always manage to find at least one well-meaning but naive person who still believes "they couldn't print it if it wasn't true", and can be fooled into thinking that the reporter or talk-show host really does want to report "the real story"... 
Ahhh. Yes, they never do. That's why the number one rule of talking to the press when they show up at a con is, "don't talk to the press when they show up at a con."
...or maybe because crystals and gemstones are just really, really cheap there? ('Cause, y'know, it's made of crystal and all.
)
Well, it kind of plays into the above, if you buy into the headcanon that what "rock farms" actually do is cultivate crystals and gemstones, and that rock farmers cultivate them by moving seed crystals in and out of the path of the natural magic currents of the earth so as to make them grow faster. (i.e. A crystal formation that would normally take years, decades, or centuries to form naturally can be grown by a skilled rock farmer in a matter of days or weeks. That would also help explain how it is that Spike's dietary requirements haven't bankrupted Twilight several times over, considering that she's basically a grad student living on grant money; gemstones are a renewable resource in Equestria, and they're just not that expensive unless you need something very specialized, like a particularly difficult-to-grow shape or a unique crystalline internal structure for channeling magic.) The sudden reappearance of the Crystal Empire might then have exerted downward pressure on prices by flooding the market with an oversupply of inexpensive crystals.
I suspect that kind of economic analysis might be slightly over the heads of the elementary school-age girls these books are primarily aimed at, though.
Who is Brenda Crenshaw? If you're talking about the VA for Zecora, it's Crichlow.
Huh, I always thought AB's coat was pale, light grayish olive, while her mane was brilliant amaranth.
...Okay, okay, so I just checked the wiki.
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That economic analysis makes a lot of sense. I'm guessing that the rock farm improves when they figure out of just which crystals the Crystal Empire has a shortage, and then lay that in for their next crop. But it probably takes time, as with any sort of farming.
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Except that the last chapter made it clear, it's just rocks. I was specifically mentioning that it was just rocks, not anything clever like that.
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Yeah, you're right. Long day.
Compared to the previous chapter book, I think this one was much better. If only because it felt like it could serve as a launching pad for Pinkie Pie's parents in the off chance we see them on the show. I also liked how they realized how they were treating their daughter and apologized.