Pony Life to premiere on 13th June

First up: paperhearts is back! He's posted a brief blog post on Fimfiction. He's clearly had a very hard time, but he's now able to see his family again. This is the best fandom news I've had in ages.

Now, to more straightforward MLP news: Pony Life is finally on its way! According to EqD, the first episode will premiere on Discovery Family on Saturday 13th June – so in less than a fortnight! We've also seen the synopses for the first two episodes, from Zap2it I believe. As they may be considered a little spoilery, they'll go after a page break:

FufCon PonyFest 3.0 is go!

Oops, forgot to post this. Here's the schedule page, which includes a link to the Twitch stream. Coming up as I post: Anneli Heed's panel. :)

My Little Reviews 42: "Read It and Weep"

"I go through all this just to get retconned? Sheesh"

S2E16: "Read It and Weep"
Written by Cindy Morrow
4 Feb 2012

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 8.8

The one with Pony Battleship.

Thoughts: The first Daring Do episode, and still quite possibly the best. Regardless of how you feel about the "A. K. Yearling" stuff that comes in later in the series, the Daring sections of this episode make a wonderful adventure in their own right. Here (as Daring's design demonstrates) it's clearly Rainbow Dash putting herself in the adventurer's horseshoes. I've never liked Ahuizotl's S9 retcon, but here he appears as I feel he should appear, a love-to-hate villain; mind you, it's strange now to see him without Caballeron! By S2 standards these sections are visually sumptuous, too, and we even get fantastic little touches like imperfections in the "film" and bleed at the edges of the "cinema screen". And the score is very good indeed. The adventure bits are interspersed with plenty of excellent character moments (hey, this is a Cindy Morrow episode) and provide us with the most likeable Rainbow Dash performance in a long time. It's all set up with Dash breaking her wing – at the time a clichéd fanfic setup, but used nicely here, and a reminder that Equestrian magic doesn't do easy healing. The hospital scenes aren't all quite so good, and the night-time slipper raid stuff is really a bit absurd. I'm also not entirely comfortable with Screw Loose and have always been surprised her appearance didn't create much controversy – we're only two episodes on from Derpygate, after all. These quibbles aside, though, "Read It and Weep" is a great episode and one I hugely enjoyed rewatching. Plenty of humour, too – we even find out next season that Rainbow really does snore like that! A four-star rating here, and a pretty high four at that. Indiana Pones indeed.

Choice quote: Pinkie Pie: "I'd say it was more of a fracas than a ruckus."

New rating: ★★★★

Next up is "Hearts and Hooves Day", an episode I wasn't at all a big fan of at first, but one which has gradually grown on me over the years.

Does anyone have news of paperhearts?

Edit 30 May: He's back! See Impossible Numbers' comment.

Some while ago now, paperhearts posted in his Fimfiction blog to the effect that he was going into hospital for treatment for Covid-19. That was on 25th April, so it's been more than a month. I was thinking about this yesterday, and then I saw Impossible Numbers' Fimfiction blog post on the same topic. He knows the bloke considerably better than I do, I think, but nevertheless I've had enough dealings with paperhearts to like him.

I'm aware that this bloody virus can often take a long time to recover from, so I'm hoping that the lack of news is simply that paperhearts is putting his energy into more important things than posting on a fanfiction website. I'd settle for any good news, though. If anyone knows anything (that they can reasonably say to me) then I would be very glad to hear about it. I am worried about paperhearts, and I know I'm not the only one.

Ponyfic Roundup 297

Read it Later story count: 209 (nc)

Here I am again with another Ponyfic Roundup. What – you were expecting me to review pencil sharpeners or something? I'm so, so sorry. (Edit: though see the comment by The Cloptimist!) Instead, you'll get me rabbiting on about the following three fics:

Together Forever by Snake Staff
Great and Powerful? by Manaphy
Hay is for Horses by Holy

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

Yes, I'll be reviewing the clip shows

It just isn't likely to be especially soon. I haven't yet seen all of them, for a start! Given the small amount of original content in each episode, my plan is to write up a single post to cover all six. Still, we do have a Friendship is Forever tag here now, so that's something! And something's my favourite.

PoniesOnline is today!

Here's the schedule. Note that times are given in Eastern Standard Time (not Daylight), so the opening ceremony will begin at 3 pm BST. A pretty nice variety of events, by the looks of it. Interesting that some streams are on Twitch and some on YouTube; scroll down to below the timetable itself to find the links for each one. Sadly "Pony Trivia Night" is at three in the morning UK time, so I'm unlikely to be able to stick around for that one. On the plus side, StormBlaze's art panel works out at 10 am UK time, which is fine.

Sounds of 2013, Nos. 69 to 65

Here we go again with another selection from Everfree Radio's brony-voted Top 100 fandom tracks of 2013. Not much more to say at this point, so here's the usual quick reminder of the rules I use when deciding whether to include a song.

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the artist
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion

Unfortunately, for the first time in a while there's a song that doesn't pass the above tests, so I'm skipping that one. That means only four tracks today, I'm afraid. Here's the list:

69: Silent Night – Paradise
68: Twitch – Gypsy Bard (remix)
67: ShadowcatKiara & GatoPaint ft. Radix – Sugar Hills
66: skipped
65: JoinedTheHerd – Again (remix)

Past the page break you'll find YouTube embeds and a bit of detail about each track.

My Little Repeats 41: "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000"

"You want it with what alcohol content?"

S2E15: "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000"
Written by M. A. Larson
28 Jan 2012

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 7.8

The one with Big Mac's goggles.

Thoughts: A slightly strange episode, this, and not Larson's most consistent piece of FiM writing. The highlight is of course the "Music Man"-inspired song, still a cast iron classic all these years on. This is also the episode that made cider a brony staple, especially over here where cider is always alcoholic – thus causing us some hilarity as we see Apple Bloom serving, and causing UK kids' TV stations some problems. The Flim Flam Brothers make a pretty strong entry, certainly better than some of their later efforts, and the production race between them and the Ponyvillians is very entertaining watching... and note their green magical auras, the colour later associated with evil. But here's the rub: what's actually wrong with the FlimFlams' automated production method anyway? Their shady business practices, absolutely, but the cider itself is apparently good stuff. What is Granny Smith doing when she accepts that all or nothing bet? Isn't Twilight's "honorary family members" wheeze sharp practice of her own? And why should Ponyville have a monopoly cider producer? Sweet Apple Acres seems entirely unable to handle the level of demand, judging by all those queues. (On which note, come on, Pinkie. That's just obnoxious behaviour. First time in a while I've felt sorry for Rainbow Dash.) Admittedly a lot can be forgiven for that wonderful song – and AJ's equally brilliant letter to the Princess, which led to this T-shirt among other things. The ep also gave us the most famous welcome GIF. It's a really fun episode. It's just not an entirely coherently plotted one. Three stars, Flim? Three stars, Flam.

Choice quote: Rainbow Dash: "Is this some kind of cruel joke?"

New rating: ★★★

Next up is "Read It and Weep", which introduces us to Daring Do – albeit the initial version of her, before the screeching retcon of S4 – and is an episode I love, not least because it's Rainbow's first truly likeable performance in ages.

Ponyfic Roundup 296

Read it Later story count: 209 (+2)

Four fics today! Let's see what we've got... hmm, is that a "1" we see in the five-star section this time around? I think it is, you know... it is! It is! And now you're all excited, I'd better not keep you waiting any longer. Here's this week's slate:

It Ain’t Easy Being Pinkie by Blueshift
Royal Decorations by Monochromatic
Crossing Over by Alaborn
There's a Monster Under the Stairs by Grimm

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

UK PonyCONLINE: Britannia's Birthday Bash

As with so many other conventions, UK PonyCon has had to cancel for this year. However, all is not lost, as it seems UKPC is joining the online con bandwagon! UK PonyCONLINE: Britannia's Birthday Bash will be a one-day event, held on Saturday 13th June and running from 11 am to 11 pm BST. (Optimised for the UK time zone, yay!)

Like a number of other virtual cons, this one will be using Twitch for the video streams. There'll be a Discord server, which I don't think is live yet, for chat and questions. There will also be stallholders*, con merch – and of course long-standing charity the RDA will be hoping we can raise plenty for their emergency appeal. 
* UKPC's term for vendors.

UK PonyCon's family-friendly status has largely been maintained, which I'm very pleased to see. You're not allowed to use the Discord chat if you're under 13, but that's to be expected and of course not the con's doing. As for events, those before 7 pm will be all-ages, those after roughly on a PG-13 level. There won't be any 18+ events, which is good: they would simply not fit with this particular con's ethos.

A couple of other links: the online con now has a dedicated Twitter, and I'm going to link to the original announcement as well as it contains a very cute drawing of con mascot Britannia by VederlichtArt.

It looks like I'll be able to "attend" UK PonyCon this year after all! :D

Sounds of 2013, Nos. 74 to 70

I've left this a bit longer than I'd hoped, so let's get back to it. For "Sounds of 2013", which counts down Everfree Radio's fan-voted Top 100 fandom tracks for that year, I follow four simple criteria to tell me whether a song gets included here. They are as follows:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the artist
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion

For the third time running, all the songs in the part of the list I'm looking at make it through those criteria, so here we are:

74: Evening Star – Octavia
73: The Living Tombstone – Luna (remix)
72: Aviators – Lights
71: Forest Rain – On Our Way
70: Aviators – Friendship (acoustic)

Past the page break you'll find YouTube embeds and a bit of detail about each track.

My Little Repeats 40: "The Last Roundup"

"Hay, do you think leaving AJ out of the picture for an AJ episode is really okay, Logan?"

S2E14: "The Last Roundup"
Written by Amy Keating Rogers
21 Jan 2012

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 8.5

The one with the stagecoach chase.
 
Thoughts: It's so hard for me to watch this episode without thinking of: a) this Friendship is Witchcraft ep, and b) Derpygate. And indeed, Derpy's appearance, speech and (temporary) naming were big deals, especially at the time. But "The Last Roundup" is, at heart, about none of that. It's a solid Applejack episode, and those are worth having. Mayor Mare doesn't cover herself in glory with her money obsession, but AJ's struggles to avoid questioning without actually lying are gold. No other character would have worked here. Cherry Jubilee is a nice guest character, and it allows that fun I Love Lucy homage in the cherry-sorting shed. There's quite a lot of actual action in this one, from the fence-jumping in the cold open to the train leap by Fluttershy and Rainbow much later on. We finally get to see what happens when somepony (apparently) breaks a Pinkie Promise – and it ain't pretty. It's not hard to work out why Applejack has run away, and I still wonder whether it's really in character for her to do that and to be so insistently stubborn – that was okay in "Applebuck Season" but I think we expected a bit more by mid-S2. I tend to come down on the "not really, AJ" side, which hurts the ep just a bit. Another minus point is Fluttershy's hideously sappy "hole in our hearts" line late on – indeed, so sappy that FiW didn't even bother to parody it but just included it verbatim. Still, "The Last Roundup" never gets boring, there's some fun humour and the moral is quite nice. So a three-star rating here, solid and decent but a notch short of being an actual champeen. Rather appropriate.

Choice quote: Pinkie Pie: "Raritycatchme!"

New rating: ★★★

Next up is "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", bringing us more AJ, the debut of Flim and Flam – and that song. I've always rather liked the ep, even though the FlimFlams aren't my favourites overall. Let's see.

UK PonyCon postponed to May 2021

This isn't really news that should surprise anyone in the current circumstances, but UK PonyCon will not be going ahead in October. UKPC's communication on the matter states that:

UK PonyCon prides itself on being a welcoming, friendly, safe and fun event for all attendees. At this time, we find it difficult to imagine holding an event in person this October that maintains all of these qualities due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

You can't really argue with that. The convention has been rescheduled to 8/9 May 2021, at the same Nottingham venue originally announced. The UKPC communication goes on to say that guest of honour Kelly Sheridan has agreed to the new date. The "SpookyCon" theme has been dropped, though, presumably because it was tied in with Hallowe'en and so was felt not to really work for May.

Of course, none of us know what the situation will be in a year's time. We all hope that in-person conventions will be possible again by next May, but there's so much uncertainty at the moment that even a date very nearly a full year hence can't be considered nailed on by any means. After all, some of the last restrictions to be eased are likely to be those on mass-attendance indoor events. That means conventions.

UK PonyCon's news also raises the question of whether the other British autumn convention planned for this year -- Griffish Isles in November -- will be happening. That's a smaller event, so it might be able to operate in some form while larger events still can't -- and I wouldn't expect any official word for a little while -- but GI can't be considered certain to go ahead. Let's see how things look by August or September.

Going back to UKPC, the change of date actually makes it a little more likely that I might be able to attend. I have to be a little more careful than some people owing to an underlying medical condition, and I'd largely made my mind up not to attend this October. With another seven months to wait, there's a chance now that attending may be a reasonable thing for me to do, though I don't intend to take foolish risks, not even for Pony. We'll have to see how things develop.

Ponyfic Roundup 295

Read it Later story count: 207 (-1)

It has not escaped my notice that Ponyfic Roundup 300 is now little more than a month away. Whether I do anything particularly special to mark the occasion remains to be seen – but I am certain that I'd have laughed if you'd told me back in 2014 that I'd be approaching that landmark now. This week, though, it's a plain old regular PR. Let's see if today's three fics can rise above that.

Rail Riders by Vanner
It's Not the Wings by Talinu
Those Who Wield Power by PresentPerfect

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

Books for me!

I had a delivery yesterday, and you can see above what was in the box. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was considering buying some physical ponyfic books, but that I'd have to pick and choose as US-printed books would be both much more expensive and (right now, at least) very slow in getting here. So I restricted my pool to those available on Lulu with UK printing. In the end I chose:

The Celestia Code by iisaw
Fanfare for the Common Mare by Admiral Biscuit
The Mono-Logues by Monochromatic
Tales from the Civil Service by GhostofHeraclitus

That little lot, together with standard postage, set me back £26.81, which I think is good value – though it would have been well over double that if I'd had to factor in Transatlantic shipping. All the books seem to be in very good condition, and apart from slight irritation at Fanfare for the Common Mare's greyish sans serif body-text font, I'm happy with their general layout and presentation.

You'll note that I've indulged my general preference for short stories over novels, and I'm pleased to report that there are literally dozens of them in the three books that take that form. The one exception is The Celestia Code, but a) that's great, b) it was really cheap and c) my name is in it. Well, sort of: it's on the extract from my Ponyfic Roundup review that's on the back cover. :P

Naturally, the moment these books arrive and I start thinking about relaxing with one in the garden, the weather in Worcestershire takes it upon itself to switch from "warm and sunny" to "freezing cold with a howling northeasterly". I have a bone to pick with those weather pegasi...

BABSConline starts at midnight BST!

Thankfully, BABSConline no longer needs me to wrestle with Facebook to find out anything useful, as it's now got a proper website. The schedule is also up, and it should automatically show times appropriate for your local time zone. In UK terms, the convention starts at midnight BST, though the first three hours seem to have nothing going on beyond an unspecified Movie Night and the inevitable Jackbox. (Sorry, I still don't really like Jackbox!)

The con proper gets under way at 3 am Saturday BST (ulp) and continues until 8 am, before resuming at 5:30 pm and running through until 8 am on Sunday morning. BABSConline's schedule page really isn't as slickly designed as PonyFest's the other day, though it does the job. Not quite as many events that interest me personally, either, though that's partly because there are quite a few 18+ panels – and I don't generally enjoy NSFW Pony beyond the odd fanfic.

Looking down the schedules, a lot of the things I would be interested in are at entirely non-sensible time for me. Forest Rain and Odyssey are both very early-morning concerts, and the show writers' panel is in the small hours of the morning. However, I do definitely want to catch the show VA panel featuring Claire Corlett, Peter New, Sunni Westbrook. That's at a much more UK-friendly 8:30 pm BST tomorrow evening.

I'll be honest, BABSConline's schedule doesn't have the instant "wow" factor that PonyFest 2.0's did, and the awkward time slots for this part of the world don't help. There doesn't seem to be anything like the fanfic representation that PF had, either, though it's possible I may have missed some relevant panels while skimming. However, I will give this convention a fair crack, since it surely has the organisation and personnel to make it a success.

My Little Repeats 39: "Baby Cakes"

Mr Cake rehearses for his Ponyville Lockdown Exercises show

S2E13: "Baby Cakes"
Written by Charlotte Fullerton
14 Jan 2012

My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 7.1

The one with the flour sacks.

Thoughts: This isn't IMDb's least favourite episode of S2, but it is mine – unless another ep in the second half takes that dubious crown as I go along. Why? Because, for the most part, it's boring – and that takes some doing for a Pinkie episode. There's the occasional flicker, such as Mr Cake's wild-eyed "That makes sense, right?" in the hospital or the brief horror-movie section in the nursery, but they're slim pickings indeed. Pinkie's little songs are dull, reminiscent of lower-tier efforts from early S1, and having two nappy-changing scenes suggests a bit of padding. (Pun not intended!) Pound and Pumpkin are only intermittently either amusing or endearing, and while the brief scene with Twilight is fun I'm not entirely convinced she'd choose her words quite so thoughtlessly to Pinkie by now. The humour is hit-and-miss almost throughout. The plot and moral are both fine, but neither is remotely original. This is about as close to a by-the-numbers episode as early Pony ever gets, and I'm afraid it shows. We'll reach eps later in the series that I dislike more, but "Baby Cakes" is one I virtually never rewatch by choice. For me it's not merely in the two-star band but in its lower reaches. It's not bad as such, but it is most definitely meh, and that's just not good enough for this show.

Choice quote: Pinkie: "Yeah. I think I can see where this is goin'."

New rating: ★★

Next up is "The Last Roundup", an episode that will be forever more remembered (by the fandom at large, anyway) for a single brief scene than for its actual main storyline. I like this ep, but I don't adore it. Let's see how that goes.

Ponyfic Roundup 294

Read it Later story count: 208 (+1)

On Ponyfic Roundup today, I shall be reviewing ponyfic. I know this is something of a controversial approach to the series, so I'm steeling myself for some complaints, but I'm afraid my mind is made up. Here are the three stories I've managed to get through this last week:

Consequence by Wanderer D
Eternity by Taialin
Freeze by BronyWriter

★: 0 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 3 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

Sounds of 2013: Nos. 79 to 75

This should have gone up yesterday, but I was feeling a little under the weather (don't worry, nothing serious) and so decided to leave it until today. I'm looking forward to this selection, since it includes a real favourite of mine. Let's get straight on with it, then, starting with the usual recapitulation of the criteria I use to decide whether I'll be including a song:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the artist
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion

I'm happy to say that this is another edition where all five songs breeze through, so here's the list:

79: Evening Star – Aloe & Lotus
78: Aviators – Good Girl (remix)
77: Decibelle – The Party Hasn't Ended (cover)
76: Aviators ft. Bronyfied – Heroes
75: Evening Star – To Build an Army

For the videos, the links and my usual waffle, please head past the page break.

Online conventions coming up!

We've had a few of these virtual cons now, and it's fair to say that the fandom is only just getting started with them. There's a simple list on Equestria Daily, but here I'll add a few sentences about each one, so you get everything on the same page. Isn't that exciting? Thought so. In chronological order, then...

BABSConline – Fri 8th/Sat 9th May
Given the BABSCon team's experience and contacts, I have high expectations for their first venture into online conning. No guest announcements yet, but I imagine there'll be big names in there. A shame they're relying on Facebook (so far?) for announcements rather than setting up a proper website, though they do have Discord up and running. (The existing BABSCon site is concentrating on 2021.)

Burning Mare Music Festival – Sat 16th/Sun 17th May
These guys don't seem to have much infrastructure as yet, with applications being taken on their Twitter. Said applications only seem to have opened for about two days, which is strange. They do have a Discord server, which has a couple of names I recognise (Wootmaster, for example) but I don't really know much at all about who's running this one.

PoniesOnline – Sat 23rd May
A rather smaller-scale, one-day con here. They have an actual website (yay, even if it is a little garish) and streaming will be on YouTube, not the now-popular Twitch. No information yet on guests or schedule, but they have announced a charity – Child's Play, who send toys and games to hospitals and similar institutions. Declaration of interest: one of the staff is a friend of mine.

Quantum SEAPonyCon – Sun 24th May
No rest for the wicked! The very next day from PoniesOnline comes another event! Project SEAPonyCon isn't new to the convention game, having run several in various parts of SE Asia. Quantum is taking a startling approach: running within a Minecraft server! Sadly the mod pack they're using only runs on Windows, and I'm a Linux pony, so I doubt I'll be be able to access this one. I don't have Minecraft either, a rather bigger handicap. :P

PonyFest Online 3.0 – Sat 30th May
The fuf returns! This one will, I suspect, be the big one for many people. Coming off the back off two highly regarded iterations, this third staging of the convention doesn't have much to say just yet. However, 2.0 was easily the closest I've ever experienced online to the authentic Pony convention experience. I therefore have high expectations – and high hopes.

SLPonyCon – Mon 1st June to Tue 30th June
I know almost nothing about this one, except that it's planned to take place within the Second Life environment. And yes, those dates are right – the logo button (see it via the EqD link above) does indeed suggest it's going to run all month. I'm not sure that really counts as a con in the usual sense, but then I don't play SL so I'm not really sure. They have no website, which doesn't help.

BronyBash.Online – Fri 19th/Sat 20th June
Despite being a month and a half away, which is an age in online convention terms, this group already have a website and some musical guests lined up. A good roster, too: L-Train, 4EverfreeBrony and General Mumble are among the highlights. No other guests, panels or vendors announced yet, though. Slight concern: the website is rather minimal and doesn't name any of the staff.

And that's the lot! (For now...) I don't think it will startle anyone too much when I say that PonyFest 3.0 is already inked in on my personal calendar, and I fully expect it to be excellent. BABSConline should be good as well, though I hope they don't continue to use Facebook all the time – it's a horrible site to browse if like me you don't have an account. The others are more unknown quantities. We shall see

Midair Pony Fair begins tomorrow!

It's amazing to think that, up until a few weeks ago, HAHCon was the only contact most of us had had with an online My Little Pony convention. I'm not even sure there were any others worthy of the name. But needs must when the devil drives, and there are quite a few more coming down the tracks. I'll try to get a summary post up at some point next week, but no promises.

The first of those is Midair Pony Fair, which has a couple of striking features. Most notably, as you'll see if you look at the schedule, this is a 24-hour con. It starts at 9:45 pm (UK time) today and ends at 10:15 pm on Saturday, running through the night. That means people all over the world will get the same chances, as opposed to the US-targeted schedules of online cons so far.

This convention has only one track, with events being shown sequentially on the con's Twitch channel. On the plus side, that means you won't have any schedule clash. On the minus side, it means there's no choice at any given moment. I'm also a bit disappointed there's no public Discord server. The PonyFest Discord was a big part of giving it a social dimension; Twitch chat just isn't as good.

MPF has garnered two official guests of honour: Elley-Ray Hennessy and Big Jim Miller. Solid choices and convention veterans both. Some familiar names among the community guests and performers, too: Silver Quill, Somber, 4EverfreeBrony, Minty Root, DustyKatt etc – though there are also quite a few on the guest list whose names don't register with me at all. We'll see how they do.

As for what interests me the most... the panels on the Chinese and Russian fandoms look potentially fascinating, though sadly the one on China goes out at 3:30 am my time. I really hope these are going to be recorded and uploaded! Monochromatic features on a panel about writing Rarity (breakfast time for me) and that's probably the pick of the fanfic events.

I'll be honest here: I will be surprised if Midair Pony Fair reaches the heights attained by PonyFest last week. That set a very high bar that even BABSConline in a week's time is going to have to go some to clear. However, there's enough about the MPF offering to encourage me to spend at least some time partaking of its delights. I do so wish they'd set up a Discord chat, though...