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UK PonyCon 2025 report, part six: Monday

Sunny ponders where the Maretime Bay Development Corporation went wrong

All good things must come to an end, and so it was with UK PonyCon 2025. This had been an extremely enjoyable convention for me. Not devoid of issues, of course, most of them connected either with the limited size of the venue or the completely unforeseeable fire that caused the hotel evacuation on the Sunday morning. Still, everyone seemed to pull together, and I think I'll remember this UKPC as having a particularly nice atmosphere once things got going.

After a nice sleep, I made sure of a long and soothing shower – if I'm going to shell out for a posher hotel room than usual, I'm damn well going to make the most of it! Then it was downstairs to meet a few friends for breakfast. Surprisingly and a little disappointingly, I found the Premier Inn brekky to be less good than the Travelodge one. Running out of blueberry muffins – and not replenishing them – was a definite black mark. I've never had that happen at any PI before. Still, the chat and friendship mattered more.

Hawthorn has ended up being the person who organises the farewell coffee meets after UKPC. I'm not sure even he knows quite how that happened, but everyone seems to be happy with the situation. We'd chosen the Pret on the concourse of New Street station, right by Ozzy the mechanical bull, for our meet this time around. It was certainly very convenient for those travelling by train, but it turned out to have the drawback of there being insufficient space inside.

Seriously, there were dozens of these packs being handed out!

That meant we all stood around just outside the Pret instead, albeit sometimes wandering in to buy a takeaway-but-not-really coffee. Now, standing around and looking awkward is a special talent most of us have, so other than being a little hard on the hooves it worked out all right. James arrived and threw even more packs of Kayou cards at us until we agreed to accept them. I picked up three, one of which was to give to a friend. I think there were probably about twenty of us there in total, albeit not all at once. We should probably find somewhere we can sit down next year, though!

After we'd broken up, as it was a nice day I had a quick poke around a couple of shops in Birmingham city centre before heading home. I managed to sneak in my first proper muffin of the entire convention (though I'd had a savoury breakfast muffin on the Sunday morning) thanks to a quick trip to Greggs. Apparently several Pony people hung around in town for quite a bit longer, Mike for example, but I didn't see any of them before I arrived back at Moor Street station.

And that was pretty much that! Moor Street is a pleasant enough place to be on a sunny lunchtime, and the train was on time, so I simply whiled away the time on the Worcester Shires Discord group and listening to fandom music on my earbuds. (Aviators. Ponyphonic. Replacer. Look, you know my music tastes by now, surely? And yes, "Sounds of 2017" is coming at some point. You're just not getting a more specific timeframe just yet!)

I always did say MLP needed a wider platform

Emerging from that very long parenthesis, I found myself back at Kidderminster. Pity. Still, I was ready to go home. UK PonyCon is never a cheap weekend, even with my Saturday night saver, but I'd got a lot out of it this year. You know what they say friendship is. Well, it's true.

Next time: the merch haul!

Apologies

Yeah, I know, again. Another example of multiple things converging. This year has been truly ridiculous for that. All you need to know is that none of them are things you really need to worry about. I'll put up the review of Discordant next Wednesday, ie 19th November. I won't promise anything at all beyond that! My UK PonyCon write-up is already drafted, so I hope to get it out to you on Sunday anyway.

UK PonyCon 2025 report, part five: Sunday, second half

UK PonyCon personnel, somehow still upright after today

After returning from the Dragonlands, it turned out I'd missed nearly all the cosplay competition on the Mane Stage. That was slightly disappointing, although in truth I'm not quite as into that aspect of the fandom as many people are. I wouldn't be able to tell you who won what, for the most part. I did a bit more stalls shopping, though by now I'd mostly finished getting the few things I wanted. I also popped back to the freebies table to leave a few more things – though annoyingly not the blind bags that I discovered I'd left at the hotel – and pick up a couple more of the Kayou cards for others.

Next up was the Charity Auction. This is always a big deal at UK PonyCon, and it always seems to feature tension between wanting lots of... well, lots to raise money for the RDA and the thing overrunning, people overheating, or quite often both. To most of our surprise, the lot count this year turned out to be over 100, which it hadn't looked like a few hours earlier. I at first decided to stick it out, but as I was standing and squashed on the edge of the room I threw the towel in after a while. A shame, but I don't really regret it as I had very little cash left anyway.

A few of these are Worcester in-jokes, but you should get the idea!

The combination of all these extra lots and the compressed Sunday schedule did have one particularly sad consequence. Ghost Mike had worked very hard on his Pony Kart game and had achieved a high enough ranking to appear on the Mane Stage final at the end of the afternoon. But it soon became obvious that there just wasn't going to be time for everything, and Pony Kart was what had to give. Mike was impressively philosophical about it, and I'm sure he'll get another chance in the future, but when a friend works hard and through nobody's fault is denied the chance of Mane Stage glory, that's tough.

I hadn't done a lot of formal events on this day, and the one panel I had been to (the morning Fluttershy one) hadn't really happened. Still, Sundays at UKPC are usually more laid-back – and even though that wasn't the case for the staff this time round, it was still mostly the case for many of us. So I spent a while in the breakout room with friends, just chatting and trying desperately to fill my bingo card – not an official con thing, but one made up for our Worcester group by Hawthorn. I was truly thrilled to finish mine when Cozy obligingly asked me whether Tales was G1 or G2!

Fortunately our venue wasn't quite as small as it looks here

The closing ceremony was upon us now, and so we all trooped back to the main room and squeezed in as best we could. Because I'd taken a while to get there I had to stand up yet again – I didn't especially mind, but I don't think I've ever stood up more at a convention, which shows you just how maxed out the venue was. The ceremony itself was the usual mixture of thanks and photos, with perhaps the most memorable moment being Imalou's praise of the convention's diversity and inclusivity, including a wish to return at some point. We'd love to have you back, Imalou! Rebecca too, of course.

And with that, the official portion of UK PonyCon 2025 came to a close. There were a few nice leftovers to pick up in the entrance hall, such as unsigned versions of the Sunset Shimmer print Rebecca Shoichet had used for her autograph sessions, and I picked up a spare con book for Eliki. Then it was out into the street. In Nottingham the Worcester folks had often used this opportunity to take a group photo, but there was much less room here and so we ended up passing on that until later on.

This is my hotel bathroom, not the one at the Dragon!

After my lunchtime visit, we were fairly confident we could find room at the (Dragon) Inn, and so it proved. I think our group ended up numbering about fourteen, and so there was a good deal of moving tables around. Fortunately, Wetherspoons is unfazed by this kind of thing! We did take a group photo there, but that's not something I'll put in this public record. What I will note is that I ordered chocolate cake and then found it had sold out. Why am I not surprised that it was Ace who got the last one? ;) Fortunately I was offered apple crumble at no premium, and that was nice enough. No custard, though. Boo.

A particularly nice aspect of this meal was that we were joined by Pigasus, the Worcester meets founder and organiser, who'd never made a UK PonyCon before. Okay, this wasn't officially part of the convention, but for my money it counts. Pigasus is the reason I do social Pony things in the first place, after all. I think I stayed for about three hours before returning to my hotel. There's surely little chance we'll be at the same con venue in 2026, but in the event we are the Dragon has doubtless won itself some returning custom.

Next time: CoffeeStandCon

Ponyfic Roundup 560: Should ever be forgot

Read it Later story count: 90 (nc)

Words read this week: 12,724

Welcome one and all to another Ponyfic Roundup! There are six stories in the mix this week, which isn't something I've done outside of a contest medallist themed post for a long, long time. I'm back into a five-figure total word count, too. Don't go expecting a half-dozen stories to become a regular event, though! I just thought it would be amusing to do this run of titles, given the date. Here's the slate:

Remember by applejackofalltrades
Fifth by Nukepony360
November Rain by Lucky Seven
Gunpowder, Guillotine by Silver Sea
Treasonous Love. [sic] by wisp1
Plot Twist! by Mighty Fine

★: 1 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

UK PonyCon 2025 report, part four: Sunday, first half

Yes, 7:30 am. Having been evacuated four hours earlier. These people are amazing

Well, this was an interesting morning. That's as in "may you live in interesting times" interesting. I woke up well on time and got my stuff together. There are no Sunday buses where I live, but this was not a deal-breaker. I'd been offered a lift into Halesowen, which was nice.¹ The weather was pretty decent, a bit chilly and breezy but largely sunny, so after being dropped off I was happy enough waiting at the bus station. The X10 duly arrived, and as it was a double-decker as usual I went upstairs for a lovely view of... well, Halesowen. Look, I was in a good mood, all right?
¹ This is not a sentence you will read very often. 

I flicked over to the UK PonyCon Discord while on the bus – and that was when I realised something was up. Long story short, the HSBC bank right in Birmingham city centre had caught fire and the area had had to be evacuated at around 3 am. No significant injuries, thankfully. The snag was that right above this bank was a Premier Inn hotel. And this hotel was where a large proportion of the convention staff were staying. They'd been given shelter in New Street station next door prior to being redistributed to other hotels, but one thing they hadn't had was any real sleep.

I went to the Soloman Cutler Wetherspoons pub on the outskirts of the city centre for breakfast, as I knew it would be quiet at that time in the morning. There I had a breakfast muffin and several cups of coffee while I kept in touch with both the con and my Worcester group friends. The staff had done a truly wonderful job in rescheduling to fit in nearly everything while delaying opening from 10 am to midday to allow themselves some kind of rest and preparation. This really does deserve tremendous appreciation, so here I am tremendously appreciating it!

Matthew Boulton, James Watt and William Murdoch arguing whether to do karaoke or G3 merch shopping

Because of the delay, I was able to book into my own Premier Inn before heading to the con; fortunately it wasn't the evacuated one. Unfortunately the mess meant the check-in kiosks and main computer weren't working properly, but in the end I did get my room. As it was a Sunday night, the cheapest night of the week, I'd splashed out on a Premier Plus room, which was up on the seventh floor and had luxuries I wasn't accustomed to like a shower with halfway decent hair and body wash. Also, a couple more free mini chocolate bars! Green and Blacks this time.

Then it was off to UKPC. Everyone seemed in a good mood, and I was pleased to see a very strong feeling of appreciation towards the convention staff. The queue was again fairly long, but again it was handled efficiently and quickly. Once inside the venue, I made a point of thanking Bexi as she went past, but she rather played down her efforts, noting that she'd stayed in a different hotel and so had had some sleep. The venue staff had seemed slightly fussier about reminding everyone not to bring external food and drink in this morning, which as I said earlier they weren't always that consistent about. Ah well.

The first thing I headed for was the "Fluttershy Fan Club" panel, because the schedule rejig had meant the original clash with "Britannia Mare-ster" (of which more in a minute) had been avoided. This panel was intended to be a celebration of why Fluttershy is Best Pony. Obviously the fact of that is beyond question, but I was looking forward to basking in our mutual admiration for Flutters. Sadly, for reasons I never discovered but perhaps connected with the fire, the host didn't make it. We ended up watching Fluttershy clips for half an hour and then calling it a day. Could have been worse!

This was actually fairly relaxing. Not for the Gala animals, though...

That meant some time to spare, so I split that between chatting to friends and wandering around the stalls. It was just too busy to be comfortable, and I wasn't really in a merch-buying mood anyway, although I did make sure to stop by Imalou's table and buy an extremely amusing print of Izzy and Sprout – you can see that in the merch haul pic at the end of this series. Imalou was very nice considering the busyness, her prices were very fair, and I think all of us feel she would be extremely welcome if she ever wants to come to UK PonyCon again.

Then it really was time for Britannia Marester. That's a truly horrible pun – bravo! This has become a bit of a favourite for UKPC over the last few years. Based to an extent on the show Taskmaster, this sees a panel of contestants including the special guests set ridiculous tasks. In this case, things like choosing ten words from the FiM theme that nobody else would pick, running around collecting as many stickers as possible (Hawthorn was not a fan of this one) and designing an OC in a couple of minutes. Imalou's OC, "Fish Chips", was maybe the highlight of the whole game! Rebecca Shoichet won, but she immediately gave up her victory in favour of Amlaur. It was all a lot of fun.

Lunchtime! I decided to pop over to the Dragon again – and wonder of wonders, Britain's Got Talent had finally finished and so I could actually move. I wasn't that hungry so I confined myself to a soft drink and some chips. I'd been expecting to eat alone, but Roku joined me for a while which was very pleasant. This recce had been valuable, as it meant the Dragon was now a more viable choice for our Worcester group Sunday evening meal than the Briar Rose, which was apparently going to be full of Aston Villa fans...

Britannia Marester. A very boring photo of a very entertaining panel

Next time: Bingo!

UK PonyCon 2025 report, part three: Saturday, second half

Imalou (left) and Rebecca Shoichet (centre) answer the questions

Once I'd finished Languages of Equestria, it was time for the unmissable Special Guest Q&A and Script Reading. As usual, the latter was short but amusing, with Rebecca Shoichet demonstrating why she's a professional VA and most of us aren't. The question session was almost perfectly timed, with just a couple of minutes remaining after the last person had asked their queries. I don't remember anything earth-shattering in Rebecca or Imalou's answers, though the latter had some fun details about getting a certain red pony (Sprout) approved by Hasbro.

The freebies table had some fun little things by now, so I made sure to leave more stuff myself as I picked up a Sunny Pez dispenser. Because why not? Also some of the Chinese Kayou trading cards that have recently started appearing all over the place. These were mostly donated by James, whose attempts to practically throw packs of them at people became somewhat amusing by the final Monday morning! I didn't want any more UKPC merch, so that wasn't a factor. Also, by now I'd got the water dispenser in the breakout room to work properly: for some reason it took forever to start actually dispensing.

There wasn't a great deal that appealed to me in the early evening, which was a mild shame but not something I was too fussed about. I still have no idea why boba tea is supposed to be so fascinating, so I skipped Bexi's panel with that name, and while I was mildly attracted by the idea of a G4 fan-made videos panel, I wasn't attracted enough to prioritise it over some more stalls shopping. I ended up buying... well, not much this time. As you'll see when I eventually reach the merch haul pic, it was a case of slim pickings, something which is no reflection on the vendors.

This photo entirely fails to capture the lively, upmarket atmosphere. And no, I didn't win on the Monopoly

Getting evening food on a Saturday night is always a fraught endeavour. The Wetherspoons pub in the station was packed solid and had bouncers on the door by six o'clock. This is not what my local small-town pubs are like! I had to tell them we were looking for food, and they let us in. We then came out again sharpish as there wasn't a table to be had for love nor money. Nor mayonnaise (bing bong). The Dragon was still out as Britain's Got Talent was on to day 753 or something.

So a few of us ended up in the McDonald's on the New Street ramp. I think it was Bridle, Oily, Mike, Hawthorn and me; apologies if I've missed someone! It was nice to be able to talk to Mike properly for the first time since he'd made it, but other than the friends chat and the inevitable Big Mac I wasn't that keen on the place. It was incredibly busy and we only got a table by basically shoving large bags of ponies on the shelf and trying with varying success to repel non-convention people.

After a while it was back to the venue! UKPC had a second music event this time, the Forest Fest. This turned out to be an almost complete non-event for me because of timing. There was some kind of delay and it took ages before any music began. When it did, DJ Ben Love started with a wub that almost knocked me off my feet and went on from there. I stayed outside looking at a map of part of the Alps that someone had left in the bar area. No, I don't know why either. Maybe it was a clue, though to what I couldn't say.

Props to the bar for having cider. Unprops for having crisps at £2.50

And now, the bit that really mattered: Archer's Pub Quiz! This is a hilarious event run by one of the very few (maybe the only one) to have attended every single UK PonyCon. She asks 40 questions across all gens, split into four rounds of fiendishness such as colour-reversed symbols/cutie marks, and the team that answers Derpy correctly the most wins. In our case, we managed to include "Batman" as an answer in tribute to the absent Alli, but still somehow messed up an obvious "Night Glider" answer by putting "Night Light". Still, our team ("Kylie Minogue Tesco Edition") ended up joint third, our usual position. I took zero photos here. Go me.

I had to go at that point, and I was sorry to miss the Cartoon Riff with the Titanic cartoon featuring rapping dogs. There were probably other cartoons involved, but that one matters in cinematic history. I was less fussed about the late-night unofficial panel with Ember, basically roasting every pony. I'm told it was fun and I'm almost certainly in a minority of one on this, but if you're going to make a point of having a fully family-friendly convention, which UKPC does, an "unofficial, wink wink" 18+ event in the middle of the night just so the host can swear a lot seems kind of missing that point. I'd have had no problems had it been a fully casual thing in a pub somewhere.

Anyway, I was in a good mood regardless. As the con was so close to home this year I had decided I'd be going, well, home for Saturday night, thus saving about a trillion bits on hotel costs. For some bizarre reason the train was perfectly on time and had no yelling football fans; I was rather disconcerted. I was even more disconcerted not to have people shouting below my window until 4 am, although as I have a garden that would have been rather concerning. I had a bite and a drink, flicked through the Worcester Shires Discord, and ended up sleeping reasonably well. Early start tomorrow!

DJ Ben Love spins the decks, or whatever these people do

Next time: The morning burn