Coming soon: reviews!

Now that the UK PonyCon fun is over for another year, it's high time I got back to the meat and drink of Louder Yay, which is to say episode reviews. I will be resuming the FiM rewatches, with "The Saddle Row Review" being the next ep in the queue. I will also be writing (probably fairly short) reviews of the eight episodes in Chapter 2 of Make Your Mark. Whether I get those done before the Christmas special appears in November is, let's be honest, pretty doubtful. But it's happening!

Ponyfic Roundup 414: Spotlight on Essenza di Amore

Read it Later story count: 91 (+3)

You'll doubtless already have noticed that this is the trailed Spotlight of Cerulean Voice's Essenza di Amore. That's because Real Life™ has ceased to get in the way quite so much over the past week, and I've therefore had time to finish writing this blog post. As such, let's have a bit less waffle than sometimes and let's get on with the job!

Essenza di Amore by Cerulean Voice
Cadance and Other [and a bunch of OCs]
G4 AU; Adventure/Drama; 54k words; Nov 2014–Jan 2015; Teen

Like Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was not born into her royal title. Follow a younger Cadance along the path to ascension, and her discovery of the true essence of love.

This RCL-inducted fic takes the fragments of Cadance's backstory we were given in Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, and expands them into something much more detailed. It's certainly an impressive achievement to make this work, and for the most part it does. The adopted filly Cadance protagonist, not known by that name yet, lives a region unknown to mainstream Equestria. After some secene-setting and a dramatic event from the past early on, the fic settles down and I found it fairly slow for a while, albeit not boring. However, a twist about a third of the way through (one which readers of the aforementioned book may see coming) also sees the story pick up the pace considerably. From then on it's an exciting adventure in which a very familiar face turns out to be the enemy. (I can see why this character is not tagged!) Storytelling is central to the fic, fittingly enough for a story inspired by a book. I'm not a big fan of the OC names (especially having a Stamska and a Samanka, which is occasionally confusing) but once the likes of "Kaviyayu" cease to grate they do their job. Apparently the author also loosely based this on a Nightwish album, but that's of no interest to me. The story is, and as long as you have patience during that early slow section, I think you'll find this rewarding. ★★★★

Come past the page break for more, spoiler-filled, discussion of this story.

UK PonyCon, Monday: Throng, numbers make you strong

The Legend of Hash Magnus

And there, sadly, it was. The end of UK PonyCon 2022. It had been a really great convention, which I'd agree with a friend was a "solid 9/10" event. Not everything was perfect, and I may end up doing a little "what worked for me, what didn't work so well" post in due course. But my memories are overwhelmingly happy ones. Last year's con was great as well, but in a different way owing to it being the first UKPC for two years and my more hurried schedule in 2021. This felt like a normal UK PonyCon again, for the first time since 2019. That's a good thing.

There was still a little part of con weekend to go before we were done, however. First up, Hawthorn had arranged an informal morning coffee get-together at a Starbucks near Nottingham station. The information he'd been given was that this place was "huge", which didn't actually turn out to be entirely accurate but it did the job. But first I had to get there! That meant packing up all my stuff, checking out of the hotel, walking to the station (fortunately the overnight rain had cleared by dawn) and then actually finding the blasted Starbucks. I can get lost easily!

But before even that, there was something important to be sorted. Breakfast. I hadn't booked this with the hotel as I hadn't been sure whether I'd want it, so I made my way there and (when someone finally appeared at the bar) paid up. It was the usual British hotel buffet thing, fully back to self-service these days after the Covid-recovery-period "table service only" interlude. Bacon, sausages (excellent), scrambled eggs (dull), hash browns, tomatoes, you get the idea. Since it was included, after the fry-up I also had a croissant. Untoasted – sticking a croissant in a conveyor toaster will make you the enemy of hoteliers forever. With marmalade, at least.

EvilShyBat, controller of the 1% unethically sourced coffee

The hotel restaurant was fairly empty at 7:30 on a Monday and moderately comfortable, though I would personally have preferred the sound to be off on the telly. It was covering a lot of unhappy stuff going on in various places and, important as such reporting is, I could have done with the real world staying away from me for just a few hours longer. Anyway, having finished up I slogged upstairs to get my bags,¹ checked out with no problems, then headed for the station. Fortunately the train I wanted was actually on time, since this day the only rail strikes were in Scotland!
¹The lifts were fine, actually very nice and fast, but I tend to use the stairs when I can for health reasons

As I had confidently expected, I got briefly lost between the station and the coffee shop, despite it being about two minutes' walk away. Nice to see Logan living up to his ideals right to the end! Anyway, I found Hawthorn and a few others there, so we commandeered a big wooden table. This was cunningly situated so that the sun glared in everyone's faces, and the "power under table" sign appeared to apply only to one socket right at the end – which someone was already using. Ah well, not a big deal. There was some kind of youth sports team or similar in the place, so it was a bit crowded until they went a little later.

This being a coffee shop, I of course ordered tea. This being Starbucks, I got it in a takeaway cup despite drinking in. This is a small irritation of mine about Starbucks and one reason I don't usually go there. Still, the tea was fine and, much more importantly, the company was good. One or two people I didn't know asked if they could join our table, and of course we were happy to make room. I'm hopeless at making small talk with new people in these circumstances, so I'm grateful to Stu for coming over and striking up a conversation about one person's Spitfire plushie so that they didn't feel too left out.

On my way home: Henry VIII fitting in with the con T-shirt theme

It was lunchtime now, but after my large breakfast I wasn't hungry. Besides, Mike needed to get going to ensure he had plenty of time for his plane back to Ireland at Birmingham Airport. So we travelled from Nottingham to Birmingham together, just as we had done in 2019. It was a generally fairly quiet trip, albeit a pleasant one; I think we were both pretty tired. However, Mike did treat me to a fairly lengthy in-development snippet from a forthcoming fanfic. I of course will not give anything away, but suffice to say I'll be very interested to read this story when it does eventually reach publication.

We parted at New Street station, and that was that in terms of being with other Pony people for the weekend. As such, this is how a unicorn ends this song.

UK PonyCon, Sunday part 2: Are you scared about tomorrow?

Andrea Libman meets the Headless Horse

After meeting Andrea Libman, I sat in a kind of mezzanine lobby area with Dodj and Fluffles, not really saying much beyond "Eeeeeeee" for a while. I mean, how do you top that? Well, you don't. But there was plenty of the convention still to go! I skipped out on Rainbow Dash Attack (yes, the Flash game; apparently they now use a determinedly offline-only laptop) and looked in on the Cosplay Contest once again. A group of half a dozen or so dressed as early-EqG era Pinkies, billed as the "Too Many Pinkie Pies", were probably my favourite cosplay entry of the entire weekend. Will I ever cosplay myself? Probably not. I know it's a lot of fun for some, but it's not really my scene.

I'm slightly regretful that I didn't go to "Kindness Games", which consisted of a series of light-hearted tasks which depended on co-operation. Culdee came back from that with his face painted with cutie marks. :P Still, I did have time for the near-compulsory muffin at the actual con café this year. Sadly "tulip muffin" just referred to the shape of the wrapper; it wasn't a horse-food-themed flowery flavour. The café is cashless, which I think is just how it is in its normal life as a student café. This wasn't a problem as such, but it felt a bit weird given that actual folding and clinking money was very useful for many of the stalls, even now in 2022.

The Charity Auction cometh, behold, behold! This was actually the first time all weekend I'd been into the big cinema room! No film showing this year, and I'd missed the Great Britannia Bake Off yesterday because of PrinceWhateverer. We got told off during the first exciting bid battle for drumming our hands on the desks; apparently the venue doesn't like that. Fortunately I'd refrained from joining in! The auction went as it usually does, though there were no four-figure bids for roller banners this year; I suppose in 2021 some people had their unused UKPC 2020 funds to call on. Still, of the more than 100 lots quite a few went for several hundred pounds. I bid a few times but failed on each occasion. :P

This GBA cart (one of a kind) apparently did work!

Last year, I'd finally achieved one of my silly little aims and played Chase the Ace at an actual convention. I wasn't really expecting this to happen again, but I did have a slightly battered pack of Pony-themed cards in my bag just in case. Fortunately, since it was brought up as something people would like to do. Yay! The Crafts Area upstairs was very quiet and had plenty of free tables, so we commandeered one of those. I think we had about eight people playing in the end. I can exclusively report that Dodj won this high-profile (ish) exhibition match, with Bridle and Juniper taking the other podium spots. I got nul points. :D

The end was neigh, indeed creeping up on us at quite a rate of knots. A final quick zoom around the stalls followed, but I wasn't particularly interested in Pony Theories and so I headed off to the karaoke room. This also had a whole bunch of charging points, useful for ancient phones like mine whose batteries find it tough nowadays. I didn't sing this time, except when everyone did from the audience, but it was agreeable just to soak up the Sunday afternoon atmosphere with the usual plushies on the tables and general air of conviviality. But, all too soon, it was time for the closing ceremony.

For a change, I watched this from one of the Mane Stage room's side balconies, along with several friends. There were more of us on the other side. As things were running slightly late (at a convention? No!) the actual closing ceremony was a pretty brisk affair, just running through the usual thank yous and prize announcements. For me, the highlight was a special certificate awarded to Zen for his outstanding work in helping people navigate the various rail strikes and make it to UKPC on time (or at all). He worked incredibly hard at this on the con Discord and elsewhere, and it was a hugely well-deserved accolade.

My Little Pony, My Little Pony, Now comes the time to say goodbye

And that, sadly, was that. We filed out for the last time, some of us picking up a few freebies of the sticker'n'badge type on the way, and hung around on the steps of the venue. By the time our little group was all assembled, we were up near the tram stop and not really that little any more. A few people peeled off to drop off things at nearby hotels and would catch up later. The rest of us headed to The Gooseberry Bush, the traditional venue for our post-UKPC meal. We'd feared it might be very crowded, but for whatever reason there weren't many people there so we got a long table to ourselves. Even if it was next to an open door for a while!

Although there's a little bit of sadness on these occasions, expressed by comments along the lines of "I don't like this 'real world' thing. Let's go back", these pub meals themselves are always hugely enjoyable. I had my first macaroni cheese in years, though I hadn't realised it came with chips so left them on the side until they were nearly lukewarm and someone finally took pity on me and asked if they were mine. :P In 2021 I'd had to dash fairly early to get a train home, but with a Monday departure this year I stayed for maybe three hours. A ten-minute walk to the bus station and a much quieter Red Arrow than last night later, I was back at the hotel and finally taking off my con badge.

It's there because I'd thought it was mayonnaise. Absolutely true story

Next time: Throng, numbers make you strong

UK PonyCon 2022, Sunday part 1: Better get nervous, better get tense

Fluttershy stickers naturally need some serious security

Sunday morning dawned pleasantly enough, and in a highly agreeable turn up for the books, I'd had another excellent night's sleep. This whole "sleep in Derby, con it up in Nottingham" arrangement was proving to be right on the money for me. I suspect that at least one reader of this blog will be very happy to know that these few days have considerably improved how I feel about Nottingham itself. I think I now feel that it's a pretty nice city in the daytime, at least, although I still don't have all that much time for it late at night.

As I tend to do, I put my con badge on before I left my hotel room, to make absolutely sure I wouldn't lose it. You know what I'm like sometimes! The walk to the bus station was uneventful and dry, and the Red Arrow coach was once again comfortable and once again somewhat lacking in working USB ports. As with Saturday, I'd left plenty of time for a little bit of breakfast before getting going, although this time no unexpected friends appeared. Can't win 'em all! Off to the venue, without quite so much pressure of time this time around, though I still felt it worthwhile being near the front of the queue.

For the one and only time all weekend, there was a very minor issue with going in: I was mildly upbraided by a member of venue staff (not the one who'd cheked my bag on Saturday) for having a Fluttershy sticker on the back of my con badge holder. Apparently the fact that it covered a "2022" was a bad thing. There were two other mentions of the year on the badge – one on the same side as the sticker – so it seemed a rather footling complaint, but hay ho. I later discovered a couple of other people had had minor badge issues along the same lines. Oh well.

That's the posh ponies' queue on the left. Us plebs on the right

I was inside in loads of time, so it was good to see folks again. Everybody needs somebody, I'm somebody too. Hey there hello, the friends I make, the friends I know. And so on. With a little time to go before official events began, I had a brief turn around the stalls. I can't remember whether it was now or later on that day, but it was nice to have a quick chat with the ever-affable Jowy and pick up a couple of A4 prints: one for Make Your Mark and a title card for "Sounds of Silence". Jowy used to be really well known for doing these, but he'd shifted away from them for a while and had only recently returned to the idea. I'm glad he has.

First up today was "Britannia's Best of British", which I think was originally planned to be the con staffers confusing our Canadian and Swedish GoHs with a range of very British things. What actually happened was that Andrea Libman and Anneli Heed spent about three-quarters of an hour being fed British food and drink. Andrea suggested this was the best panel she'd ever done! Marmite, sadly, did not make the grade for either VIP, though I kind of share their bemusement at toast and jam flavour tea. Yes, it's a thing. They were generally happy with British chocolate (I'd always thought Canadian Cadbury's was much the same as ours, but oh well) but the highlight for me was that Andrea Libman loved custard creams! :D

After a very brief bit of "let's confuse the foreigners with Briticisms", which didn't work quite so well as so many of them were regional, not national terms, it was over. Great fun overall, though, and a perfect way to start a UK PonyCon Sunday. After this, though, things got very serious for some of us. So much so that I missed karaoke, the "Total Chaos" game and even the mighty "Ponies in Boxes" (a room full of cardboard boxes to play around in, put plushies in, etc). Along with a couple of friends, I had a hugely important appointment for which I could not possibly be late: it was signing session time! Nervouscited? You bet I was.

The Best of British panel. The girl on the right is Anneli Heed's daughter

A friend who I suspect would like to remain anonymous¹ who'd bought a higher-level ticket had very kindly given me their freebie signing session tokens, since they weren't going to use them. We weren't sure whether this was allowed, but Big Boss Con Chair Maz gave it the go-ahead, so yay to him as well. The queue when I joined it wasn't all that long, so I was fairly confident I'd make it well inside the end of the signing session. I felt a little bit sorry for Anneli Heed actually, whose queue was much shorter than Andrea Libman's. If the latter had been anyone else, I might have switched. But not when it was Actual Fluttershy.
¹If not and you're reading this, let me know and I'll happily credit you :)

I almost never bother with autograph sessions, since I'm not much of a collector of such things and they tend to be, if not expensive as such, about the price of two nice prints or pub meals. Most of the time I value those more. I hadn't brought anything for Andrea to sign; originally I'd considered taking my copy of Fluttershy and the Fine Furry Friends Fair, but it completely slipped my mind until it was too late. Fortunately the A4 print on offer was very nice. As was Actual Fluttershy – her little message was Pinkie-ish, but I felt that was actually appropriate for a party like this!

That wasn't all, however. You could also have a little voice message recorded, but I skipped that partly because it would have been quite expensive (my gifted tokens didn't cover that) but mostly because I was more interested in the other option:  the photo! To say I was nervous standing up there in front of the UK PonyCon sponsor board with Actual Fluttershy was the understatement of the century. Let's face it, though, she's done a million Pony conventions and knows exactly what she's doing. She was kind, cheerful and helpful, and although my little old phone doesn't take the greatest photos in the world I will treasure this one for a very long time.

The mighty roller banners, a UKPC institution

Next time: Are you scared about tomorrow?

UK PonyCon charity total

This news is a few days old now, but I wanted to give it a mention here before I post the con report from the Sunday that contained the charity auction! Anyway, the total sum raised from said auction and other things for long-running and excellent UKPC beneficiary the RDA was...

£11,000

Here on the UK PonyCon site, you can see what each auction item went for. And yes, there were a lot of embroidered towel sets! (They were colour-coded, each with various ponies' cutie marks.) I believe this equals the best ever charity total in the 18 years of UKPC, so very much yay!

Ponyfic Roundup 413

Read it Later story count: 88 (+2)

You'll doubtless already have noticed that this is not the trailed Spotlight of Cerulean Voice's Essenza di Amore. That's because due to various annoying bits of Real Life™ getting in the way over the last few days, combined with my need to post the UK PonyCon write-ups, I haven't got the fic's review finished quite yet. It'll be along next Wednesday instead, all things being well. Fortunately I do have a backup plan, since during UK PonyCon weekend I had enough time on buses and trains to read a few very short fics I chose randomly from Fimfiction. Four, in fact! And those are what I've got for you today.

But a Day by Comrade Bagel Muffin
The Tough Tavern by Polaris Silvermoon
The EEA are taught a harsh lesson by Lord Zarcon
The Dressmare and the Breezies by Snowy Flakes

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

UK PonyCon 2022, Saturday 2: Especially when they're screaming loudly

Not visible: yours truly shaking like a leaf in the Q&A queue

Half past three brought a must-see event: the VA script reading and Q&A panel. UK PonyCon had reacted to Kelly Sheridan having to pull out by playing an absolute blinder: not only was the very popular Anneli Heed still on the bill, but Andrea Libman too! This was a huge deal: the first time ever that a Mane Six VA had appeared at a British Pony convention in the flesh. As such, it was unsurprising that this panel was moved from the already large cinema room to the Mane Stage itself to allow as many people as possible to join in the fun. Suffice to say there were plenty of us!

UKPC's very own Bexi had written the script for the reading, a very cute and sensibly fairly short affair involving Britannia playing host to certain ponies – which oddly enough had great relevance to the Guests of Honours' characters – for her birthday party. It was silly and fun and perfect, and I won't forget in a hurry Fluttershy's meltingly adorable reaction to the dogs she found at the Britannia residence. I'd only ever once seen one of these panels even on video, as back when FiM was a live series there were contractual issues that meant recording and posting official VAs doing them was banned.

Then it was Q&A time. This was done in a straightforward fashion: you cleared your question with a member of staff while you stood in the queue, then asked the VIPs out loud when you reached the front. There were a lot of questions, and I was impressed by how much thought had gone into some of them. Somewhat against my expectations, I'd taken the plunge to ask a question myself, although mine was rather less interesting: not being able to think of anything clever, I just asked them how it felt when they heard their own characters' parts in other languages. ("So much fun!" was the summary.)

Probably wise not to let Sprout near the booze...

After a while it became clear that time would be a little tight, so questioners were asked to go to "quickfire" mode. In all honesty, I'm not sure that this made much practical difference; certainly several questioners still asked one or more follow-ups or clarifications. Happily the GOHs were kind enough to keep going until everyone queuing up had spoken to them. I was still in a kind of reverie: I had spoken to Actual Fluttershy! This isn't at all to diminish Anneli Heed, I really must stress that... but Andrea Libman would have been my absolute number one choice for a con guest.

How do you top something like that? Well, you don't, really. So it was a bit of a quieter session after that. Having decided against the Ultimate MLP Collectors' Quiz on the grounds there was another quiz later on, a small group of us decided to head for the Spider Toss. This was described as being inspired by the "HOW MANY POINTS DO I RECEIVE?" game in "Luna Eclipsed", but I guess we'll never know as either it wasn't where we thought it was or it wasn't happening at all. At any rate, we couldn't find it. A small disappointment, but never mind.

At about six o'clock the vendor hall was blocked off as usual for the Saturday evening. This had the unfortunate side-effect of blocking access to the one toilet with a drinking fountain; the big water cooler that had been provided in 2021 was absent this year, an absence several of my friends also remarked upon with disappointment – especially as the still-accessible vending machine charged prices high even by event standards. (These would not have been set by the convention, of course. Nevertheless, £2.30 for a 500mL bottle of water is not an attractive price, to say the least.)

"Or will you still be here screaming every word?" "...PARDON?"

Slightly to my surprise, after a "dry" UKPC last year, this time the pop-up bar was back for the evening, serving a range of (often extremely sweet) cocktails, cider and a few snacks. Why were so many people still around? Because the evening concert was about to start! Lock the door, turn up the beat, it's alright to party. This had also been absent from last year's still-Covid-affected convention, so it was great to see it back. Blackened Blue started things off, with an extremely energetic set. A heavy style for a seven o'clock opener, though, and it was maybe no surprise that virtually no families stuck around once daytime events were over. Still, he did give us a rocked-out version of "Danger, Danger"!

Next up was PrinceWhateverer, who as usual threw himself right into things. You do wonder what any new venue staff thought when they realised the kind of music these My Little Pony fans enjoyed of a Saturday night! Even I decided to experience just a bit of it from the fringes of the... well, "mosh pit" makes it sound like there was lots of aggressive body contact, which there really wasn't – I wouldn't have gone near it otherwise. But certainly right up close by the stage. It was... loud. But honestly, I am so glad I did it, just for a little while. "Elemental" and Prince's crowd-pleasing set-closer "Solidarity" were highlights.

And then there was a little treat: a short set by not only Anneli Heed but her daughter too! This was very cute and provided a little breather from the really loud stuff. We had official music, we had a capella, we even had a little opera! After this came another newcomer to the UK PonyCon concerts: Koa! A very popular choice indeed, whose set definitely went down very well, with a nice mixture of new songs and classics. She was perhaps unsurprisingly part of a double bill in the programme with her real-life husband General Mumble. Now there's another guy who, like Prince, has been doing this Pony music game for a great many years now.

'Cause we're running out of options and we're desperate to begin end

The concert was running slightly behind schedule, so I actually missed the end of Koa's set plus all of Mumble's and closing act BassPon3. Why? Pub Quiz, that's why! The inimitable Archer was back with this, and with a slightly longer timeslot to fill it was a little less rushed than in previous years. Our team did not have a custard-related name this year. (Pause for readers to recover from fainting.) This time we couldn't resist "Where's the cake?" and I have to underline that it is a dreadful lie that we answered "Otto von Bismarck" to the questions about G2 accessories we had no clue about. Well, not to all of them.

I was able to stay for all the questions and answers, but had to dash just before most people left as I had an 11:10 bus to catch! I mentioned earlier in this series that Nottingham Victoria Bus Station isn't that appealing. Well, its tired old glass and concrete is even less so late on a Saturday night. Not threatening, but certainly not somewhere I wanted to linger. As the Goose Fair was on, 473 people joined my bus in the city centre. (Yes, of course I counted them. :P ) Still, though packed the bus wasn't actually unpleasant and I ended up back in my hotel room at almost exactly midnight. After a great day, I was asleep in minutes.

Next time: Better get nervous, better get tense

Griffish Isles 2023 dates released

We interrupt this series of UK PonyCon reports to bring you some Griffish Isles news. Their social media and official site now state that the next GI will take place on 6th and 7th May 2023, and with a theme of "Back to the 80s". A fun choice, I think! The venue will be the Pendulum Hotel in central Manchester, as indeed was the case this year.

This was the weekend I think most people had expected. However, there's an extra factor next year: Saturday 6th May will be Coronation Day. While the demographic that goes to Pony conventions is not the most monarchist in the country, I have already seen people wondering how events in London might affect the one in Manchester.

Think back to the date of the Queen's funeral. A lot of shops, restaurants etc across the country were closed for the whole day, and others for several hours during the service itself. Will this be the case again for the Coronation? What about people flying in from abroad, especially if they're coming via London? And so on.

For myself, I was already rather unlikely to attend Griffish Isles, but I think the clash with the Coronation now makes it very unlikely. Even though I'm not a huge flag-waver either, I'd rather like to experience that event, at least on TV. I nevertheless wish the convention all the best and hope that it puts on a really great show for its attendees.

UK PonyCon 2022, Saturday 1: Gather in groups and ready your lungs

Ponies at dawn? No, just the River Derwent in Derby

After an excellent, uninterrupted night's sleep, I rose early on Saturday morning. This gave me time for a leisurely shower, a quick check of the bag I was taking, and a similarly quick morning drink. Then it was off to the bus station. This was the big rail strike day, and so there was only a skeleton service running to Nottingham. Instead, I would be using the Red Arrow. Local bus company Trentbarton uses a near-incomprehensible (to outsiders) system of naming its routes – indigo, i4, my15, comet – so I was fortunate that mine was easily memorable!

I reached the bus station just in time for the 6:50am service. Trentbarton has a handy Zigzag ticket, which is valid all day for £7. I handed over my cash (yes, cash!) and settled back. The advertised USB ports were present but not working, something that proved to be a persistent niggle with the Red Arrow. Some on the other side of the aisle were working, but I couldn't be bothered to shift. The bus was more of a coach really, and very pleasant for the half-hour trip into Nottingham. As I was starting so early, traffic wasn't a problem at all.

Nottingham Victoria Bus Station is not the most appealing terminus the public transport world has to offer, but it did the job. Because I was so early, even the mighty Wetherspoons wasn't yet open, and so I wandered off to find a coffee shop. Caffe Nero (again) came up trumps, although the branch I chose was rather cold and not as pleasant a place to unwind as had been yesterday's branch of the same chain. I then did head for Wetherspoons, this time the Joseph Else. I was expecting to eat alone, and so I did – but a couple of friends did unexpectedly arrive halfway through my meal, which was a lovely surprise.

But look at us, we're brave and strong and weird and clever

I wasn't entirely sure how long to leave it before heading to the convention venue. UK PonyCon had kept the 10am start from the 2021 con, something I appreciated as it made for a much less rushed morning. However it had been trailed that 800 people were expected, up from 500 last year, so... in the end I headed up about quarter past nine, from memory. This turned out to be just right, as the queue wasn't very long... but was twice the length ten minutes later! The weather was kind, so it was pleasant enough to stand around and make Pony-related small talk, admire cosplays, etc.

Here we are at paragraph five, and finally the doors are opening! Bag checks are a necessary evil I suppose, but I doubt anyone is going to say they love them and they do make it even more important not to be stuck at the back of the queue. However, the lack of Covid checks and (for all but a few) masks this year made things quicker, and the staff at Nottingham Trent University tend to make it as painless an experience as possible. I was pleased to be sent down a lane overseen by a truly excellent guy, someone who I remembered from 2021, who took a real interest, asking about my Fluttershy plushie and suchlike. Once through that, actual con registration was a fast, efficient breeze. Bronze Sponsor badge acquired, I was in!

The first thing to do was of course to pick up the con book, together with its lovely cover art of con mascot Britannia by Beatlinked. This went along with a little insert programme for the "Musical Celebration" (ie concert) on Saturday night. As you can see on here, this year's UKPC theme of "The Gothic" was nodded to on both. The picture of Britty on the concert programme is by Avui; like Beatlinked, they're not new to this game and have been drawing stuff for this convention for several years now. I like con books as a rule, and this year's seemed to be a particularly nicely put together example. Ooh, 60 stalls this year! I think that's an academy UKPC record!

Fluttershy seems less than interested in Vylet Pony's "My Letter to the Princess"

The actual convention day began with a fairly gentle singalong at the Mane Stage, followed by a sensibly brisk run through the essentials at the Opening Ceremony for those who hadn't attended the con before. After this, it was off to a panel. A panel, you say? At a convention? Whatever will they think of next! This was "Transport Ponies with Ace and Zenfox", in which those two gave some helpful tips on travelling, especially by train or plane and double especially to conventions. While they did this, their friends lightly heckled them about the fact that their promise of cake at this panel had not materialised. I may or may not have been one of said friends. It was an entertaining way to start the con.

I decided to skip "Dr Pony" (aka Dr Ewan Kirkland)'s panel on the Gothic in MLP as it was pretty similar to the talk he gave that I was present for last year. Instead, it was off to the karaoke room! My Little Karaoke is a very polished game these days, and the room was fairly well filled. I hadn't done any karaoke in 2021, so this year I needed to change that! I picked something a bit different to try: the Wasteland Wailers track "Step Around", which I've always liked. In spite of its huge mid-song instrumental section, I think I did quite well. :) I wasn't sure whether to go again, but Dodj invited me to join an angry mob and, well, how could I turn down an invitation like that? Fantastic fun!

After this, although I did keep half an eye on the cosplay contest, I decided that a bit of shipping shopping was called for. My budget this year was very tight, but it was enjoyable enough to wander down the aisles of ponies and wonder whether I would ever be able to reliably tell my Wysteria from my Sparkleworks. G4 was still dominant in the art'n'plush arena, with Sewpoke's excellent plushies in high demand, although G5 had started to make some inroads. Having had a bit of an accident with the tombola in the morning (the barrel didn't lock fully and some tickets fell and had to be picked up by yours truly) I decided not to go for that again this time.

Let's cross a new aisle, let's flash a new smile

I had bought the 2022 con T-shirt, which was striking and well drawn, though graffiti/street art isn't my favourite style. (The VIP shirt for Gold/Silver sponsors was lovely, but reasonably enough that one was restricted to those ticket-holders.) I'd also dashed out to the world's busiest McDonald's for the inevitable Big Mac. I had to eat outdoors, but fortuntely the weather was kind. The venue café isn't bad, but it doesn't go beyond sandwiches, cakes and drinks so hot meals do necessitate a five-minute walk into the city. Ah well. I needed to be very sure I was back in plenty of time for half past three, however, as a major highlight of UKPC was approaching...

Next time: Especially when they're screaming loudly

UK PonyCon 2022, Friday: This is no time for sober thinking

Crazy horses ridin' everywhere

The Friday before UK PonyCon is generally a really fun yet slightly hectic day. I had to check I hadn't forgotten anything I couldn't pick up in Nottingham if I had to. But equally, I knew I was about to head off for a real highlight of the year, and more to the point for a chance to see friends I don't normally get to spend time with in person. On that note, incidentally, I won't be including pictures of specific attendees in this report unless as part of an anonymous group shot, eg on the Mane Stage. Some of those I know aren't especially keen on having their faces plastered all over the internet. Me neither.

Even though I'd had the chance to stay in the "con hotel" over the road from the venue, I'd turned that down and decided to stay out of town in the hope of a quiet night's sleep or three. And I really do mean out of town: I'd booked in at the Travelodge Derby Cricket Ground, 15 miles from Nottingham. I will be honest here: partly it was just that I couldn't turn down the chance to actually stay at a cricket ground. There's a hotel like that in Worcester, but that's a bit close to me to have any reason to stay there. But mostly I was after a quiet few nights well away from con stuff. (Sneak preview: it worked.)

But first, the train strikes had to be navigated. Although the national strike would be on the Saturday (and there'll be a little bit more on that in the next report), a couple of companies including East Midlands Railway were affected by a different dispute on the Friday as well, so I had to be careful with my trains. Fortunately rail travel is one of the things that Logan actually tends to properly plan, so I had no significant problems and I was in Derby in time for lunch. As it was dry, rather than get a taxi I walked the mile to the hotel, a fairly boring trek with my bags but nothing to worry about.

A purple train fit for a purple princess?

I'd paid an extra tenner for a midday check-in, and this turned out to have been a very good idea. I was assigned Room 404, which rather surprisingly did not turn out to have gone missing from pegasus-ing. Top floor, which meant nobody traipsing around above me at night – yay! And at the back of the hotel, with a view right over the cricket ground itself – double yay! The cricket season had finished, so I wasn't going to see any actual play, but then the room wouldn't have been such good value had there been a match on. My three nights were around £80 cheaper than the grottier Travelodge in Nottingham where I'd endured a sleepless night in 2019.

After dumping my stuff in my room and setting out my clothes for Saturday, I headed for the railway station again, this time without those heavy bags. Bliss! The weather was starting to close in, and I wanted to get to Nottingham before the heavens opened. I managed to do that – just. By the time I left the station it was raining steadily. A quick tram ride into town (nope, Izzy hadn't commandeered it) and I had a little bit of time to myself. Sadly my original plan to wander around the city's streets was kiboshed by the now quite heavy rain, so I found a pleasant Caffe Nero and sat in a quiet upstairs room with a cappuccino for a while.

By late afternoon, it was time for the traditional Worcester Shires (and a few more friends) pre-meet in the Roebuck pub in Nottingham city centre. We've used that place for this purpose since UK PonyCon arrived in the city in 2018. There were a few people there already when I turned up, including one friend who I managed to not properly register until he pointed that out! Whoops, sorry Mike. All very Logan, I have to say. Still, no harm done and despite this unpromising beginning it was absolutely great to be back. (I'd travelled up at dawn on Saturday in 2021, so this was my first proper con pre-meet since those far-off days of 2019.)

Pub, pub, p-p-p-pub, pub, pub, hungry, hungry

That was despite the brain-melting nature of No More Unicorns (No More Jockeys ponified), a game that though I quite like I'm not really sure I want to play on a con Friday again. It's not to everyone's taste and it really does go on a bit, much longer than a simpler game like Chase the Ace tends to. It's maybe better on a Friday evening to concentrate more on the more relaxed, informal stuff that goes with reconnecting with other people. Still, the game was fun as far as it went, and after it several hours passed in highly convivial fashion. Cider may or may not have been drunk during the evening. (Narrator: cider was drunk during the evening.)

I know some people have mixed feelings about Wetherspoon pubs, but frankly I am really quite a fan. For one thing, they seem entirely tolerant of groups of strange people shoving several tables together and then sitting around all evening with ponies and associated clutter littering the table. We did buy a decent amount of food and drink, which was probably a help! Also, the Spoons app actually works properly, which is more than I can say for some other pub and restaurant companies... For those who really care, I ate a BBQ chicken pizza and chips and drank Black Dragon cider, which is a cut above the usual chain pub stuff. Strong, though: 7.2% ABV.

A great thing about cities with tram systems is that their rails aid navigation on foot no end. As such, since the weather was nice I walked the 15 minutes or so back to the station. Thanks to the aforementioned EMR strikes there was only one Derby train an hour with CrossCountry, but mine wasn't nearly as crowded as I'd feared. I was back in my hotel well before ten o'clock and so had time for a leisurely cup of coffee and a look at the online UKPC schedule before going to bed. I actually had to walk several steps to reach the kettle, quite a novelty in a Travelodge! Despite a couple down the hall talking (not too loudly) for a bit, I got to sleep gratifyingly quickly.

Not the worst hotel window view in the world!

Next time: Gather in groups and ready your lungs

And back

It's going to be a little while before I put up my UK PonyCon recap posts, but fear not, they're coming! I will however put your minds at rest on one thing: it was a great convention. I loved it. The very few disappointing or annoying things were heavily outweighed by all the brilliant things. Squee.

Oh, and while I'm here: happy 12th birthday, Friendship is Magic! To think you'll be a teenager next year...

Off to UK PonyCon tomorrow!

As you might expect, I won't be updating Louder Yay while I'm at the convention. I will, of course, be doing the usual roundup when I get back. Maybe with fewer photos than usual, since my phone has decided now is the time for its battery to move from "getting on a bit, but still generally okay if you're not silly" to "will last half an hour if you're lucky". For those of us old enough to remember removable batteries, it is a right pain that I'm going to have another expense on my plate very soon, but that's the way it goes. I am still looking forward to UKPC enormously, and I hope it will live up to the excellent standards its previous iterations have set. :)

Ponyfic Roundup 412

Read it Later story count: 86 (-6) 

Preparing for conventions is always a bit of a fraught time, or at least it is for me, so please excuse me if I write anything even stupider than usual today. I have managed to get through the regular four fics, which cover a reasonable variety of genres and characters. One of them has a really annoying title to format, but that's an occupational hazard when you review ponyfic! Here we go:

Autoapproval Was A Mistake by Estee
On Target by Kestrel
“If” or “The Power of Toast”, a portrait of an alicorn. by Owlor
Exiled by The StarsGuide

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

Thoughts of a Ponyfic Reviewer 5: We are not the Only True Arbiters of Good Ponyfic

Because anxiety, I have to say this first: this piece has been mostly ready and waiting for me to get it finished for ages. If you're wondering whether it's a subtweet (oh, you know what I mean) at something you said, it isn't.

Today my subject is something I confess I have sometimes struggled to get right. My job as a ponyfic reviewer is partly to give authors constructive feedback but, first and foremost, to help people reading this blog to decide whether they'd like to read any of the stories I cover. It is not to make them feel they're being lectured. For example, consider these two (made-up) summing-up passages from reviews:

1. "If you can look past its hurried pacing and a number of minor but persistent grammar and spelling errors, this fic may be worth a look if you want an undemanding short read."
2. "If you have low standards when it comes to pacing and grammar, I guess you may still like this fic."

Although the second passage is the more concise, it's also the poorer summing up. Even if I don't mean it that way, that passage can easily come across as patronising and even sneering. Worse, it suggests that I the reviewer am the Only True Arbiter of Good Ponyfic, and that someone who disagrees with me must surely be doing so because they don't care as much as I do. Nope. Wrong.

Yes, I know it's easy to get frustrated when a story which seems to have glaring flaws becomes enormously popular, to wonder how it is that all those people can't see those flaws when they're staring you in the face. We've all been there. Nevertheless, it's not for us to tell (or even imply to) readers who like that fic that they're doing it wrong. Because they're not. They're not us.

This isn't so far removed from another principle of good reviewing: play the ball, not the man. We can criticise a story all we want, but telling its author outright that they "really need to stop writing this stuff" is a no-no and rightly so.¹ Much the same applies here: again we can criticise a story all we want, but if we shade into condescension towards the people who like it then that's our problem, not theirs.
¹ There are a few exceptions, such as unrepentant plagiarists

The best reviewers can simultaneously point out flaws in a story, even serious flaws, and give those reading its review a good idea of whether they'd be likely to enjoy it anyway. This is the aspect I tend to find the trickiest, since my reviews start from a position of "this is how I feel about it" and are perhaps therefore less... "professional", I suppose, than some other reviewers' assessments.

Still, even if I don't always get the combination right in my own reviews, I do at least acknowledge that it is there. Although some things are outright errors – barring specific context, "Pinky Pie" is one such – it still doesn't mean that a reader has low standards or doesn't care if they nevertheless greatly enjoy a fic that persistently makes those errors. It just means the errors don't put them off too much.

To adapt a common writing adage, as reviewers our main task here is to show our readers what a fic is like, not to tell our readers what they should like. We're writing these reviews for them.

My Little Repeats 125: "A Hearth's Warming Tail"

This episode really is a feast for the eyes and ears

S6E08: "A Hearth's Warming Tail"

14 May 2016

My original rating: ★★★★★
IMDb score: 8.3

The one with Vinyl the gramophone DJ

Thoughts: Michael Vogel wasn't new to MLP of course, but "A Hearth's Warming Tail" was his first FiM writing credit. This episode, perhaps surprisingly, really split opinion when we did the old UK of Equestria rankings. More people placed it either very high or very low than in the middle. Part of this is probably that some just aren't up for yet another version of A Christmas Carol. I, however, am. While this isn't quite up to the genius of the Muppets' take on Dickens, it is wonderful. It was the first show episode to make use of a live band (for "Pinkie's Present") and the songs in general are excellent, with a special word for "Luna's Future". Starlight works well as Snowfall Frost, this episode's Scrooge, and though Rainbow Dash may seem an odd choice for the Bob Cratchit role she doesn't do badly either. The episode looks absolutely wonderful, quite rightly for a festive episode – even if it did come out in May! Lots of fun references to spot as we go along, and an amusing little cameo for Derpy, too. Poignant and entertaining at the same time, just like its inspiration, this is one of those episodes which rises above its flaws, and yes they're there – the pacing hurtles along in the second half, and "Flutterholly" is a feeble name. But you know what? I. Don't. Care. It's all just too much fun. I love this episode to pieces, and to nopony's surprise I'm letting it keep its five-star rating.

Choice quote: Snow Dash: "*spit take* Boss?"

New rating: ★★★★★

Next time, it'll be "The Saddle Row Review", another very popular episode. I went along with the herd on that one and really liked it.