Lots of G5 on the way next year!

 (Via EQD.) It seems that an Italian website has provided what looks like a reasonably convincing bare-bones schedule for next year's G5 offerings. We'll be getting a "mini-movie" (ie special) in May, then the series proper will begin in September. Another special looks set for Christmas. So, a bit of a gap now, but we managed with long hiatuses (hiati?) in the G4 era, so I'm sure we can deal with this. It's just good to know more G5 is not too far away now. :)

On another, more meta, note: I am at last getting ready to post the Text Review Roundup for the movie. My late decision to go to UK PonyCon meant I didn't have the time to do that when I expected to, but I'm now pretty sure I'll be doing it next week. The first part will be for reviews from outside the MLP fandom, including any professional reviews that aren't paywalled to Tartarus. The second part will cover reviews by fans. It is coming!

Ponyfic Roundup 365

Read it Later story count: 99 (nc) 

We're back to the usual small hoof-ful of short stories this week. In truth I'm quite glad I've actually managed to get three done. Lots going on at this end, although almost none of it very interesting. What I will note is that M&S muffins are very nice and remarkably good value at a quid each, especially since you don't have to buy a multipack as you do in most supermarkets. Anyway, here are this week's three:

Friendship is Optimal: Terra Online by Raugos
Fluttershy Gets a Shot by Lucky Seven
Gallus Makes A Turkey Sandwich by BootyPopperzZz

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

UK PonyCon report, part 6: Brave and strong and weird and clever

Well, what did you expect?

UK PonyCon 2021 was a resounding success, and the people who made it happen deserve enormous thanks. Once it became clear how many people I knew were planning on attending (even before I discovered I would be too!) I was reasonably confident it would work out, even if I forbore to say so too loudly for risk of tempting fate. I thought there might be a bit of nervousness and awkwardness, but no. Well, not beyond the usual standing about awkwardly – but then that's what bronies are supposed to do. (Not that everyone at UKPC is a brony, of course!)

The venue

Nottingham as a city remains what it has been the last few years to me: a nice enough place in the daytime, but not one of my favourite places after dark. Walking back through the city to the railway station on Saturday night didn't feel threatening as such, but it wasn't all that pleasant. More specific to the con, Nottingham Trent University's building has never been the most thrilling of venues, but it did a good job this time. In particular, the space it offered was welcome in this year's unusual circumstances.

The atmosphere

Wonderful and, in its own way, quietly jubilant. I'd mentioned a few times since the convention was announced that I was concerned whether singing would be restricted. Thankfully that was not the case, and for me at least that really helped. That pre-closing ceremony not-very-angry mob will stick in the memory for a long time. Using LT2 (the cinema room) for big events was very successful, although it was only really possible because of the rejigging caused by the lack of a music stage. Oh, and the heating was set to just right. Walking around in a T-shirt I felt comfortably warm but not too hot.

The problems

Happily, there seemed to be very few of these. There was the odd technical hitch, but these seemed to be less common than sometimes in the past. The con schedule being separate from the con book was a minor irritation, I guess caused by late confirmation of the timetable. I did hear second-hand that one of the Sunday cosplay prizes was won by a fart-themed entry, and it's fair to say that makes me roll my eyes a bit. Sure, maybe that's partly my personal boredom with that theme talking,* but then this is my personal blog. :P Still, if that's the worst thing that happened over the weekend, it's a pretty good result overall.
* I am thrilled that the G5 movie had zero fart jokes, incidentally

The 'rona

Okay, time to deal with this aspect. I thought UKPC handled it very well, without being overbearing, and I never felt at all unsafe. The Covid status check was done quickly and efficiently before the con opened, and hand sanitiser dispensers were plentiful. Masks were optional inside the convention venue (PonyCon Holland the following week had the same policy) and after the Saturday morning queue I'd estimate that about 80% of people dropped them, including me. We can't predict the future, but hopefully this will be a one-off section for this year, and by UKPC 2022 we'll have left it gratefully behind.

The food

As I touched on in the main report, the café pod worked much better than it had in 2019. Queues were far shorter, and not shutting down in late afternoon on Saturday made a difference too. It didn't match the space or fun range of food at the Bristol 2017 café, and the lack of any muffins was disappointing, but it did the job. Unlike in 2019 there was no hot lunchtime food available, which was a mild shame. Also unlike 2019, the venue was entirely alcohol-free. The lack of a bar didn't bother me at all, and I'd be quite content if it remained the case in future years.

The people

I was delighted to learn about the presence of people who'd come to UK PonyCon after enjoying G5 but with no other MLP experience. The multi-generational nature of UKPC is one of its core strengths, and the advent of a new gen was absorbed very smoothly. Slightly less positively, it's a bit of a shame that relatively few families seem to attend these days, compared with a few years ago. I've mused in the past that the ending of on-the-day ticket sales from 2015 could be a factor there. I suppose there's not much that can be done about that, especially given the lack of American-style enormous con venues.

The charity

I was absolutely thrilled that UKPC 2021 managed to raise over £10,000 for the RDA, which I have always been delighted is the con's chosen beneficiary. I wasn't at all sure how much it would be possible to raise in this year's odd circumstances, but to get that much with a significantly reduced attendance was brilliant. Not that much reduced, though: although it was clearly quieter than in 2019, we apparently had more than 500 attendees. That would have been a very respectable attendance for a UKPC anyway before the last few years. 

The future

We've already been told that there will be a UKPC 2022 – it will be online if absolutely unavoidable, but if at all possible it will be like this, in person. This is excellent news! We won't find out for a while yet whether Nottingham will be its home again, or whether there'll be a return to the traditional touring status. My personal preference would still be for the latter, but then I'm not the person who has to do all the work investigating new cities and venues. Apart from the US My Little Pony Fair, UKPC is the longest-running Pony convention in the world: this was its 17th iteration. It deserves its honour.

The mayonnaise

Bing-bong!

UK PonyCon report, part 5: Sunday (second half)

The lot's official name was MAYONNAISE, BING BONG BING BONG

Mid-afternoon rolled around on the Sunday of UK PonyCon 2021, and that meant one thing: Charity Auction time! Although there had been auctions in a few formats tried online, nothing really matches up to being there in person, so there was a real frisson of excitement as we piled into the mane stage room, remembering to pick up a numbered card to hold up. I happened to get number 100, which was indicative of... absolutely nothing. We had to give the cards back later in any case, which was a shame.

And then, after a quick intro talk from an RDA representative, it was on! As always, predicting what any one lot might go for was a bit of a fool's errand. I had very little spare money left by this time, so I wasn't expecting to pick up anything, but it was fun to participate even so. Some of the highlights included a "mark one" Flufflepuff for £250 and UKPC Britannia seapony plush number 000 for... well, I can't remember, but it wasn't exactly low. People had been saving for two years!

I'd rather... siiiiiiing!

However, the really eye-opening bids came elsewhere. A lovely big Derpy plushie went for a staggering £1,400 – but that wasn't even the highest! Three people in the audience seemed to have set their hearts on the roller banners that promoted UKPC inside the venue. (You can see them in the second photo in part 2.) No fewer than three of these went for four-figure sums, with the most expensive being £1,600. I think that is the highest price for a single lot in UK PonyCon's history!

Mind you, the real star of the show was of course the keenly awaited battle for the jar of mayonnaise. Yes, really. I actually stuck my hand up for the opening bid or two here – Celestia knows what I'd have done if I'd won! – but things escalated quite a bit, and in the end the mayo went to con chair Maz for the little matter of £100. I don't know who else bid or what will happen to it, but a tiny little part of me hopes that it'll be being used to scare unicorn foals come Nightmare Night. :P 

Amlaur (centre) considers the pros and cons of unlimited imperial power

We were given a quick estimate of the total raised at the end of the auction, but later on it emerged that the total raised for the RDA during UKPC 2021, including from other sources, had topped £10,000. Given attendance was announced as only around 60% of that in 2019,* when the all-time record of £11,000 was set, this was a truly wonderful result. None of us who were there that afternoon will ever forget that auction. It was one of those things people will be talking about for a long time to come.
* That implies a 2021 attendance of a bit over 500. Very good indeed in the circumstances!

Sadly, we were getting towards the end of the convention by now. Most unusually for me, I hadn't so much as visited a karaoke room this con, so I followed a few of the others over for the last singing session of the weekend. Although I didn't sing solo, partly to allow kids to do so, I very much enjoyed being able to join in a variety of G4 and G5 numbers. The room wasn't too crowded and the tech wasn't misbehaving, so it made quite a relaxing way to spend half an hour or so.

The sunny venue. Also the Sunny venue

And then it was time for the closing ceremony. Boooo! Before we began, though, we had a little mass singalong. The only G4 track I can remember was the classic "Cafeteria Song", but for once even that was overshadowed. G5's thoroughgoing success was underlined with a wonderful, raucous group rendition of "Danger, Danger" – we weren't a very angry mob in reality, but it was enormous fun. The usual thank yous and prizegivings followed... and then we really did have to leave.

About a dozen of us headed for the Gooseberry Bush pub for a post-con meal – fish and chips in my case. I'm sorry to say that my newly acquired Fluttershy doll disgraced herself when faced with my pint of cider. Worse, a certain person who really ought to remain nameless (but won't – hi, Culdee) sat her on the vinegar bottle to declare "Fluttershy on acid". Dearie dearie me. After 90 minutes or so I headed for the tram to the station, accompanied by Stu and Oilyvalves, both of whom shared a convivial table with me for part of the train trip home.

Go home, Fluttershy, you're drunk

And that was it for my first convention in two years! What a weekend it had been. The event had been a resounding success, and I was delighted to have been able to be a part of it. The experience of UKPC 2021 has certainly made me very much hope that I will manage to be there for UKPC 2022!

Next time: some bits and bobs and random thoughts I couldn't fit in the standard report

UK PonyCon 2021 report, part 4: Sunday (first half)

Morning in Nottinghamshire shimmers...

After a decent night's sleep (now there's a novelty!) I checked out of my hotel early to head for the bus station, there being no early trains from Mansfield on Sundays. Thanks to some iffy directions, I very nearly ended up getting on a bus to the local Amazon warehouse, which would have been awkward. Happily this was averted and I enjoyed a pleasantly quiet 40-minute ride into Nottingham. It was a bit chilly, but the weather looked like being reasonable.

Breakfast this time had been arranged in advance, and there were five of us at table in the Roebuck – which was also pleasantly quiet. Wetherspoons Large Breakfast certainly lives up to its name, but it's rather handy for cons when you're never quite sure how you're going to fit in lunch. With our UKPC badges already sorted out and around our necks, we strolled in leisurely fashion to the venue and were inside pretty quickly to enjoy another day of small horses.

Five minutes to opening! Featuring Griffin's hat (bottom left)

I'd asked online whether anyone would be interested in playing Chase the Ace, and Ace (fittingly), Zen plus one or two more had said they were up for it. This is a simple card game that we play at nearly all Worcester meets. I'd always wanted to play it at a convention, and I'd nearly managed it in 2019. Of course, you-know-what meant a long delay after that, but at last it actually happened! Unlike two years ago, I had a proper MLP pack which really does make things a lot more fun.

As with Saturday, the Sunday morning was fairly quiet, so we found a spare table on the upper floor and got cracking. This was a non-competitive game, so we didn't bother with the usual "three lives" setup. As time went on, more and more people wandered along and joined in or spectated. By the end, I think we had something like 13 people, making this something not a million miles away from a "renegade" Chase the Ace panel! :P Sounds silly I know, but this was a big highlight of the con for me.

Chase the Ace: I suffer the Curse of the Cakes, averted only by Twist (right)

Around 11 am, some people headed off to Reskell's panel comparing the furry and Pony fandoms – they're a member of both, which gave them a useful insight. I was thinking about going, even though I'd watched Reskell do a similar presentation at one of the online UKPCs... but it was at this point that my second (and last) minor attack of social anxiety hit. As with yesterday's, it wasn't a big deal, but it was just enough to put me off wanting to go to a panel that I suspected would be quite well attended. Ah well.

I reprised my plan from the Saturday of going downstairs to look at the vendor hall, since that gave me plenty of space and allowed walking around, which helped a lot. There were some highly impressive lots on the charity auction table, and I'll certainly be returning to that in the next part of this report. I also had to cast a proprietorial eye over the Newcomer Customs entries, given that I was the sponsor of that contest! Not a judge, thankfully, as I would have found it pretty hard to pick a winner.

Some of the impressive Newcomer Customs entries (eventual winner on the left)

Definitely time for lunch now. As most of us (now including unexpected Sunday arrival Oilyvalves, who'd kept that quiet!) weren't really up for a walk, we stuck with sandwiches and snacks from the café pod. The chocolate cupcakes were very nice! Slightly later in the afternoon (temporary jump ahead because I can't edit properly yay!) I did a bit more shopping. Jowy's Hitch prints had definitively sold out, but at least I managed to get an Izzy. A bit later on, I also spent £1 on a  charity tombola spin and won a Fluttershy EqG doll. Could be worse!

Back to the present! At 12:30 quite a few of us, this time including me, headed for the Tails of Equestria panel. This was about the popular licensed MLP role-playing game sold by River Horse, and was given by game designer Jack Cæsar. He proved to be an excellent presenter, talking interestingly and in quite some detail about the process of working with Hasbro to make the game work to everyone's satisfaction. One little snippet he shared: Hasbro were adamant that players should not be able to have an alicorn character!*
* As Cæsar pointed out, you can hack this by giving a character earth pony, pegasus and unicorn abilities...

Applying the concept of RPG balancing to a world containing an all-powerful chaos lord. And Flurry Heart

Next time: auction stare-outs, angry mobs and Fluttershy really letting herself down

Ponyfic Roundup 364: Lets Do This Edition

Read it Later story count: 99 (+1) 

As trailed a fortnight ago, today PR is concentrating on some of the works of one particular author Lets Do This. Several factors prompted me to choose them, including the fact that they only started in 2018, that they have a sizeable body of stories to choose from, and that they have a reasonable variety of genres under their belt. (Lots of Twilight, but I can live with that!) However, I decided I would not be reading any of the significant number of stories in their various AU series. Maybe another time, but not this – when for once I have five fics to look at. These are:

No More Letters by Lets Do This
It's Just Magic! by Lets Do This
Starlight Breaks Magic by Lets Do This
Style Guide by Lets Do This
Flying While Pegasus by Lets Do This

★: 0 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 4 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I find average scores two stars.

UK PonyCon 2021 report, part 3: Saturday (second half)

My muffin did break, but I can't say I wasn't warned!

After the cosplay contest, I decided I really, really needed a muffin. Well... actually there was a small ulterior motive. For the first of two times that weekend, I had a minor attack of "I need to be not sitting still in a busy room" type social anxiety. Please note minor. Anyway, Nottingham is happily possessed of a Muffin Break within ten minutes' walk, so I headed off to the (busy!) Victoria Centre and found myself an apple and cinnamon muffin. Happy now, AJ?

I was feeling fine after my few minutes in the open air, so I came straight back into the venue. (A note of appreciation here for the excellent venue security staff, who were reassuring, professional, calm and unobtrusive throughout.) I can't actually remember what happened at this point, but I expect I found a friend or two and rambled on inanely for a while. As usual, I also looked from a distance at the serious collectors' stalls and felt slightly intimidated!

I used to wonder what Neo-Medievalism could be

Four o'clock came, and with it the next panel I was attending: this was given by long-time UKPC and fandom supporter Dr Ewan Kirkland, aka "Dr Pony". A serious academic who realises the immense importance of pastel talking horses. This year's subject was "MLP and the Gothic", and it was a very interesting and thought-provoking hour. The first audience suggestion to "Who is the most Gothic pony?" was Pinkie – and on examination, that wasn't entirely a joke.

Dr Pony's talk ranged widely, from the 18th century origins of Gothic literature to modern computer games like A Night in the Woods. I'd definitely recommend his panels if you haven't had the pleasure before. I think after this I probably wandered off to have a look at some of the lots for Sunday's charity auction. I wish I'd been able to think of something to contribute to it myself, but most of the Pony tat I own would be lucky to raise more than 75p...

Fluttershy cookie, before she lost her head

I think it was at around this time that Stu asked who'd be interested in a quick run down to Burger King. I tagged along with about half a dozen others and we walked briskly through the chilly autumn air (it wasn't that close!) to the aforementioned fine establishment. I like BK burgers, but in Nottingham at least they ain't cheap. Still, "cheap" and "convention" don't really go together. A shame our table was in a howling gale, but still, ventilation, eh? :P

After a good chat we all headed back to the con. The next highlight was the "Great Britannia Bake-Off". Venue restrictions meant cooking actually in the hall wasn't possible, so we watched a very amusing video of several of the staff making Pony-themed treats with... various levels of success. Jez benefited (well, kind of) from his posh "rich man mixer", as pointed out mercilessly by the on-screen captions. I wish there'd been a dire warning about the Fluttershy biscuit beheading, though! ;)

"What did G1 Taffy spill into spaghetti?" Backcard canon. Oh, Hasbro...

Pub Quiz time! UK PonyCon legend and Derpy superfan Archer (who was at the first UKPC at Morecambe in 2004) returned to her equally legendary role asking the questions. Our team, shamelessly called "Derpy Continuously Flies into Custard" put up a worryingly good showing, and we only avoided the disaster of winning the thing thanks to some judicious wrong answers.* That's our story, anyway. It was a fantastic hour, though, and felt just like a UKPC Pub Quiz should.
* One day there will be a question to which the answer really is "Kaiser Wilhelm II". This was not that day

I had ages to wait until my train so hoped to join a few friends in the nearby Roebuck. However, central Nottingham was heaving (not helped by England's men's football team playing the mighty Andorra that night) and so I decided not to join the others in their quest for a pub with room to stand up in. Instead, I headed for the station. Oh, there were all the football fans. A not very pleasant half-hour journey to Mansfield later, I was in the Travelodge reflecting on a pretty darn good day one.

The pride of the Northern fleet. Not pictured: 745 loud football fans

 Next time: avoiding Amazon, big breakfasts and renegade panels

UK PonyCon 2021 report, part 2: Saturday (first half)

I remain far from convinced that this time in the morning actually exists

Thanks to my late, late decision to attend UK PonyCon this year, I could only really justify a one-night stay. (Saturday night hotel rooms = £££!) As such, I was on the platform at Kidderminster station with my single tote bag of clothes'n'stuff before six o'clock. The trains ran like clockwork, and so I was in Nottingham around half past eight. I wasn't sure what to do, but Culdee kindly invited me to join his little group in the pub for breakfast, so I accepted. Two stops on the tram and I was there.

We walked up to the con venue, since it wasn't worth getting the tram again. The queue didn't look too big when we arrived, and like everyone else we were curious as to how many attendees there'd actually be. However, the line lengthened steadily and I was glad not to have waited until the last minute! A final reminder of our current strange times with the Covid status check later, I was picking up my badge at the reg desk and I was through the portal into another, better world. Where everypony knows your hame.

Hi, Pony, I'm home!

For reasons that rather escaped us the con book (which was generally excellently produced) listed events in alphabetical rather than time order. This didn't work all that well, as it meant for example that the opening ceremony was listed after the closing ceremony; we spent a bit of time flicking back and forth to find stuff. Talking of the opening ceremony, this was a quietly emotional affair. We'd all, from committee to us 'umble hattendees, waited so long for this. But we were back!

The con schedule this time was a little quieter than in previous years, with the opening ceremony not kicking off until 11. This was fine, as it allowed time for us all to get reacquainted with the venue (also used in 2018 and 2019), buy a little merch (as ever, I had to have the UKPC T-shirt!), meet friends who in some cases we hadn't seen in person for two years and just generally readjust to being in the half-forgotten World of Conventions. (That sounds like a theme park. In a way I suppose it was!)

We're here! We're strong! We're gonna shout bing-bong!

After an initial wander around some of the stalls, quite a few people headed for the "Discorded Quiz". This turned out to be a kind of QI-influenced affair, with questions that demanded some lateral thinking. I enjoyed these, although many of the questions were ones I'd seen before and there was a bit less actual Pony in them than I'd have expected. Then it was time for a spot of light lunch. The café pod's huge queues from 2019 were far less of an issue this time, so a big tick there! There was definitely no mayo on my BLT sandwich... :P

More chat and stall-wandering followed, wherein I picked up the Spike badge by StormBlaze that you saw in my merch haul post. One of the most welcome changes this year had been the introduction of free water coolers (not near the art stands, obviously!) and I hope those continue at future UKPCs, whatever the venue used. The hand sanitiser dispensers were appreciated, as well. From memory in 2019 there were drinking fountains in the toilet areas, but those had gone, maybe for Covid reasons.

Hey Google, what's the definition of a lost cause?

I was deliberately not attending as many panels this year as I had in the Before Times, as being with friends and soaking up the atmosphere were more important. Also, I had after all woken up before five that morning! However, I did want to attend the Cosplay Contest. As with other "mane" events this year, it was held in the big cinema-style lecture theatre. This worked very well, as the raked seating, good sound and big screens made it a comfortable experience. Excellent, my favourites probably being the trio of G1 cosplayers: Megan, Danny and Catrina.

By now it was fairly clear that G5 had made a positive impression: one staff member told me that they'd met several people who had only experienced G5, and yet had been impressed enough to do the convention thing. "Bing Bong!" echoed through the halls every time someone dared to utter the M-word. For now, loads of fun, though now I come to mention it I hope it's dialled back a little in future cons, as "Fun! Fun! Fun!" itself had to be back in the BUCK days. Still, we were off to a great start. :)

Cosplay! Featuring Ace as Best Babysitter Sunburst...

Next time: rich man mixers, Hasbro's increasingly worrying G1 history and Saturday night trains

UK PonyCon 2021 report, part 1: The Merch Haul!

Marvel once again at my incredible photography skills :P

Given the combination of: a) my remaining tiredness as mentioned in the last post – although the con crud itself is no more – b) my keenness to get on with this UKPC report and c) my ever-lengthening to-do list in other areas (TRR, PR, etc) I thought I'd do this a little bit differently from normal. Usually the merch haul post, when I remember it at all (which isn't always!) comes near the end. This time, it's at the start! As usual, you can click on the photo above to enlarge it.

Key

1: Fluttershy Equestria Girls doll. This was a prize at the RDA tombola!
2: UK PonyCon 2021 T-shirt, with artwork by Beatlinked
3: UK PonyCon con book, with cover art by Avui
4: Spike enamel badge by StormBlaze
5: Bookmarks from the cancelled autumn 2020 UKPC
6: Various UKPC badges; two from 2020 and one for being an "Early Bird"*
7: Premium lanyard. I always buy these as they're nice souvenirs
8: Postcards from the cancelled autumn 2020 UKPC
9: My badge! I think also drawn by Avui. I was a Weekend Adult. Well, so I'm told
10: G5 character prints by JowyB. Sadly Hitch was sold out both days!
* I wasn't, but they'd seemingly had about a billion made and so kept giving them away!

And no, I did not buy any mayonnaise. Though now you come to mention it... you know, I think I'll save that story for its proper place, which will be in a later part of this report.

Hello con crud, my old friend

Just con crud, yes. Got out the box of Covid tests and did the thing. No "haha you're positive" line to be seen, yay. In a weird way I'm almost happy even to get con crud – because it's something normal, something that goes with going to conventions. It's not a terrible hit this time, either, maybe partly because there was a bit more space than in 2019. I am however very tired, to the extent that I haven't even fully unpacked my con stuff yet! Don't worry, though: I am already thinking of what to put in my full UK PonyCon report. It's happening!

Something I mentioned on Twitter but wanted to add here: UKPC 2021 was a really happy convention. Inevitably not every single attendee will have had a perfect experience throughout, and I'm sorry for those who did not. But for me at least, it really did feel happy and in its own way celebratory. Kind of "We're back! Sorry, world, thought you'd stop us ponying? Think again!" That will be reflected in my full con report posts when they do arrive.

Happy 10th, "Sunshine and Celery Stalks"!

PinkiePieSwear – Sunshine and Celery Stalks

While PinkiePieSwear's "Flutterwonder" will always have a special place in my heart, this musician also came out with another classic remix a little later in 2011. "Sunshine and Celery Stalks" is a reworking of part of "Winter Wrap Up", in particular Applejack's verse in that song. Ironically given its source, PPS's track has generally struck me as having a rather summery sound, with its laid-back yet upbeat, er, beat and the shimmering synths that go with AJ's vocals. A song that is deservedly still widely played a decade on from its release.

Back from BingBongCon

There'll be a proper write-up of UK PonyCon in the near future, but it's around midnight as I type and so you're not getting much now! Still, I imagine some people will be interested in what I thought, so l will say this now: I had a wonderful time. It's hard to compare with other cons because of the strange times we've been living in recently. But this will be a convention I remember with a very large smile on my face. While it wasn't flawless (it had dents and it had quirks) the bad was hugely outweighed by the good, at least from this con-goer's perspective.

Happy 10th, "Beyond Her Garden"!

WoodenToaster – Beyond Her Garden

The anniversaries are coming thick and fast now. I didn't feature Eurobeat Brony's original version of "Discord" on 7th October (10 years from its YouTube upload date) because it had appeared on the Super Ponybeat 2 album back in August 2011.* But WoodenToaster's "Beyond Her Garden" went up on YT on 10th October 2011, a year to the day after Friendship is Magic debuted. Easily Carrot Top/Golden Harvest's most prominent musical appearance, this is a fairly high-tempo piece that tells a tale of... well, what? I don't know. The lyrics don't make much more sense to me now than they did when I first heard this. But still, you have to admit it is seriously catchy!

* Well, maybe not. Odyssey herself reckons 6th October is the anniversary, so maybe the tracks on the album weren't all released at once? I'll defer to the actual writer!

UK PonyCon 2021 questionnaire thingummy

Very late in the day, but I haven't been able to do one of these for two years and it's about time I did! So here you are. Some of it is pretty much unchanged from the 2019 edition, but not all of it.

What do I call you? Logan. My actual fandom name is Loganberry, and I don't have any problem with you using that, but it's pretty rare that anyone does. Mult1C0rN... well, if you must. But it'll confuse me! A lot of things confuse me.

Gender and pronouns? Male. He/him.

What will you look like? Not very interesting. Middle-aged, bespectacled, T-shirt. If the person you see is wearing jeans, it's not me, because I don't. On the Saturday, I'll be wearing the most recent UKPCOnline shirt. Dark red, with boxes containing various staff members' OCs – representing a rather frantic Zoom call. I'm not a cosplayer really, and I haven't had time to do anything like that this year even if I was.

Who will you be with? As usual, it's a case of who can bear my company for more than 15 seconds at a time, really. Given previous conventions, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some custard involved. Or possibly a little mayonn—[Ohhhh no you don't! —Ed.]

What will you be doing? Mostly, I'll just be basking in the feeling of being at a Pony convention again. I'm really not certain exactly which panels and so on I'll be attending, and many things are in the "nice to do" list so I'll have to pick. Although the Pub Quiz on Saturday evening is high on my priorities list!

Can I talk to you? You certainly can; I'm fairly waffly and chatty when I finally get going! I'd prefer you kept conversation to lighter topics and preferably to MLP for the most part – escapism matters to me, and all the more so after the last year and a half. Of course, feel free to play it by ear.

What can I talk to you about? What I just said. Ponyfic is my main interest in the fandom, so I'll nearly always be happy to chat about that. I have seen the G5 film and I'm more than happy to talk about G5 in general. But really, most things Pony and UKPC-appropriate should be okay!

Can I take your photo? I won't be looking remotely interesting, so it would be a bit odd – but if I'm in the background of a crowd scene or something I won't ask you to crop me out before sticking the picture on your web folder or whatever.

Can I hug you? We-ell... this one is a bit trickier this year, isn't it? I'm not in the "no hugs ever" group, and I am vaccinated in any case, but I would definitely very strongly prefer not to get random, unexpected hugs. Ask first, please. Especially if we're friends, then I'll probably say yes. In many ways I'd be very happy. But if I don't feel comfortable on the day, please don't read anything beyond that into it.

How long are you staying? This year, owing to my very short-notice decision to attend UKPC, I'm only staying on the Saturday night, so I'm travelling up early on the Saturday and going home on Sunday evening. Thankfully it won't need to be the second the con ends, so if there's a post-con meal not too far away I expect I could spend an hour or so there. Which would be very nice. :)

Where are you staying? Er... well. Let's just say it's a bit further away than I'd have liked, again because of the short notice. However, it is not the Travelodge Nottingham Central, so it's possible I'll actually get some sleep this year! :P

How are you travelling? By train to Nottingham, then I'll either get the tram or walk if the weather's okay. Not having heavy bags will make the latter option sensible for once.

Favourite characters? Fluttershy, as always. Much as I like Sunny, she doesn't beat Fluttershy. Nopony ever could, I'm sure. Also Scootaloo, Celestia, Derpy... and maybe Hitch.

Anything else I should know? Yes. How long does it take five ponies to dig half a hole?

Ponyfic Roundup 363

Read it Later story count: 98 (-5) 

Look at that RiL number! Look at it! It's taken me years to get to this point, but here I am at last: it's in two figures. From here on in, I won't be trying to get the number down every week, but simply to keep it roughly steady, say between 90 and 110 fics. I'll keep posting the stat because why not, but at last I have reached the goal I set myself so long ago. Yay and all that. This week's three fics are:

Figments by Obselescence
The Drop of Ambrosia by FanOfMostEverything
The Life and Times of an Honest Pony by Casca

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

Film review: My Little Pony: A New Generation

If you can look at this without smiling, you're made of stronger stuff than me

A little bit later than I'd hoped this would be up, but at last here's what I thought of My Little Pony: A New Generation aka "the G5 film". I shan't keep you in suspense any longer about the main point: I liked it. No, I liked it. Actually, it was considerably more enjoyable than I'd feared, and even a little more so than I'd hoped. It's a bit more surface-level entertainment than G4 was even at the beginning, but I was expecting that. Flawless it isn't, and though I don't dwell on them here there are plot holes without doubt. But do I recommend it to My Little Pony fans? Yes, I do. I really, really do.

Past the break you'll find lots of spoilers but also a more detailed review of the movie.

Well, there's an unexpected development

Let's get this party started!

Excuse my using today's blog post for personal squeeing rather than anything actually useful, but... I'm going to UK PonyCon after all! :D

As recently as a few days ago, if you'd asked me I would have told you that my chances of making it to Nottingham this year were less than 10%. For a long time I wasn't even sure I'd be comfortable going to such a large city for the weekend, regardless of anything else. However, a couple of unrelated longish day trips recently have made me happier about doing that sort of thing.

Then, for a little while I pondered on the logistics of a one-day trip. It's just about workable from where I live, though only on Saturday as Sunday morning public transport is close to non-existent. I'd also have had to leave in the early evening, and so miss a couple of hours at the end of the convention schedule. Not a total deal-breaker, but a bit of a shame nevertheless. So then I got to wondering whether I could justify a full weekend.

Of course, there are drawbacks to deciding this late. One is that I'm having to stay well out of town (as in 15 miles out of town) in order to get a Saturday night hotel that's both available and vaguely affordably priced. Related to that is the fact that going for the full long weekend (up Friday, down Monday) is just too expensive. So I'm travelling out very early on Saturday and coming home on Sunday evening. That in itself means missing the fun on Friday night as people arrive from near and far.

Obviously the Covid situation has a bearing. A few months ago, many people feared things might be considerably worse at this point than they actually are as I type. To be honest I already suspected some of the worst predictions were likely to be off the mark – but although I've been Pfizered up since May, for quite some while I wasn't quite sure enough to commit to an in-person gathering of hundreds of people indoors. In the current circumstances, I now feel quite a bit happier about it.

Right, that's as close as I'm going to get to real-world politics! Back to UK PonyCon itself, which I think you'll agree is a much more interesting topic. Being in the same city and venue as in 2019 will mean I'm not starting from a standstill when it comes to finding my way around Nottingham. It's not my favourite city, especially late at night, but it does have its moments. With rather fewer people in attendance, the venue itself should also feel reasonably comfortable.

I really don't quite know what to expect from UKPC this year. Of course some things will be a bit different to what they were in 2019, but I hope that the essential atmosphere of this convention will remain largely intact. What I do know is that nervouscitement is starting to take over already. Just over a week to go now... and I cannot wait!