UK PonyCon report, part 4: Monday – CornerCon, RainCon, MikeCon

Taken on Sunday night, but it seemed appropriate for this post

What? No, these post titles aren't getting desperate at all. I don't know what you mean. (I can see that Liarjack face —Ed.) There are a couple more UK PonyCon posts to come after this – one the inevitable Merch Haul and one summing up my thoughts about this year's convention – but today's is the last of the chronological reports, covering the Monday. Let's go!

The morning after the convention before is always a less than cheery time, assuming the con itself has gone well – which this one certainly did. Happily, on Sunday evening Hawthorn had (more or less accidentally) become the organiser of an informal farewell breakfast at the Company Inn, quite close to Nottingham station. He and I were the only certain attendees for a while, but even so we arranged to check out and be ready for 9.00 am. I did meet one other attendee as I was waiting for him, who saw my con T-shirt and MLP bag and said with a grin, "I know where you've been all weekend!" He'd had a good time too.

Unlike last year, it wasn't raining as we trekked across town to the pub we'd chosen. As we'd hoped, the place was fairly empty at this time on a Monday morning, so we settled into what looked like a nice corner section where we could leave big bags without getting in people's way. Well, except for the couple of pensioners who turned up later. It appeared they sat in this area every day or something, so despite the vast acreages of space elsewhere, they squeezed in past us. It was... strange.

I took no photos over breakfast, so have Train Pirateshy instead

I know I've used the word "convivial" a lot in these reports, but this breakfast was exactly that. I can't remember everyone who joined us for varying lengths of time, but Hawker Hurricane was around from quite early on, which was nice. Later we were joined by Jowy and StewArt, which resulted in some very interesting discussion of the ins and outs of con vendor-ing, artistic direction and even – yay! – some ponyfic talk. Hawthorn attempted unsuccessfully to get me reading GMBlackjack's unfinished behemoth The League of Sweetie Belles.

Guiding Breeze popped in for a while, too, which was an unexpected pleasure and gave us a few more insights into UK PonyCon from the inside. A few more convention people came and went, and outside the sky grew steadily gloomier until the rain came. I had intended to depart after a couple of hours, but I was loath to leave this nice warm pub corner containing people talking about ponies – though we never did get the pensioners to join that discussion! – so by the time I finally dragged myself to my feet it was 1.00 and I'd been there for four hours.

I thought my convention was over and done with, but fate dealt me one last good card: because I did get a later train than I'd originally intended, I was joined as far as Birmingham by Mike. This was an unexpected pleasure, mostly because he was good company but partly because it let us talk about the finale'n'epilogue without any risk of spoiling others! We also chatted about the show in general and some much earlier episodes. We parted at New Street and I crossed Birmingham in the rain to get my train home. And that was it: my UKPC was over. Awww.

About to board my train away from PonyCon Central