Ponyfic Roundup 516

Read it Later story count: 93 (-1)

Words read this week: 5,000

As I mentioned yesterday, I finally have a PC again. This probably won't mean the end of silly mistakes and typos here, but it wouldn't be Ponyfic Roundup without a sprinkling of those! As always, I welcome any corrections. If you don't have a way to contact me privately, feel free to use the comments section here. Anyway, today marks the penultimate instalment of my series looking at the Thousand Word Contest III's medal-winning stories. Today it's the turn of the five Silver Medallists, which are:

Senescence by Aquaman
House of Grass by Cold in Gardez
Flutter's Eye by Strawberry Sunrise
Safe Sex, Trixie-Style by Dubs Rewatcher
Narrative Cage by gloamish

★: 0 | ★★: 0 | ★★★: 3 | ★★★★: 2 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

I'm back in PC World!

It's taken considerably longer than I would have liked, but I have finally returned to the land of the keyboard and mouse. For those who like to know these things, my newly acquired PC is an HP EliteDesk 800 G3 SFF, which although hardly cutting-edge is a considerable upgrade on the last one.¹ I've now got an i5-7500 with 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB NVMe SSD. It may not (officially) be good enough to run Windows 11, but as I'm typing this on Linux Mint 21.3 Edge why should I care about that? :P Early days, but so far so good!
¹ Even when it was working. :P

The more interesting thing, though, is that this means I will be able to resume several features I'd had to neglect when all I had was a phone and a slightly crotchety Bluetooth keyboard. For a start, My Little Repeats will return soon – that means within a week of now. I'll also be able to get under way with Sounds of 2015, something I'm really looking forward to. Plus the Officially Uploaded episode list will stop languishing in a several-months-old slough of despond. Or possibly a despond of Slough. Who knows?

Thank you for bearing with me throughout all this, and I very much look forward to writing more here again – starting with Ponyfic Roundup, which will be up as expected by the end of tomorrow. :)

Ponyfic Roundup 515: Spotlight on Of the Night

Read it Later story count: 94 (+2)

Words read this week: 43,101

It's about time I had another Spotlight edition in these parts, so here you go! This one is fairly short for a Spotlight, but without giving too much away I can tell you that the next such edition – at least it things go according to plan – will be if a significantly longer tale. But to return to today's fic:

Of the Night by TheBrianJ
Night Glider and Other
G4; Slice of Life; 43k words; Jan–Oct 2016; Everyone

One year ago, Night Glider was exiled from Modus. Now, it’s time to go home.

This story is set just after the end of Starlight's cult in Our Town, and we quickly discover that Night Glider arrived there because she'd left her original home of Modus in quite a hurry. Exiled, in fact, as the shortdesc says. We're not told why all at once – the mystery is perhaps dragged on a little too long, as is the other “mystery” of just why Nighty was unpopular even before her exile. I'd worked it out by chapter two, so I expect others will also. Still, there are some appealing characters here, notably Night Glider's friend Dusty and a highly appropriate canon character deliberately left untagged by the author. It's a decent enough read; it just might have been better with a lower word count and snappier pacing. ★★★

As this is a Spotlight, spoilers will crowd in on you from all sides from here on in.

UK PonyCon report, part five: Sunday, second half

This "accessibility" intro was a typically thoughtful touch

Back with the UK PonyCon report at last! I tell you what, while I didn't really want to take quite so long over this, and while I hope any future reports will be written in a considerably snappier time frame, doing this year's so slowly has at least allowed me to keep alive a little of the UKPC spirit for rather longer than I normally would! Today's instalment is the last one that contains details of stuff actually at the convention, though I'll have a shorter one covering the few things that happened on the Monday, then the final merch haul post.

Anyway, after the World's Biggest Tea Party panel, thoughts were turning to the end of the con drawing near, but there was still more to come. My last actual panel was Storywriting and Storytelling, presented by PiratPeter and Amy. The former was in the room, the latter joining via Zoom. Inevitably there were a few issues with the link, but Petey is pretty unflappable and took everything in his stride. They'd gone for a broader approach than just fanfic, looking at all kinds of stories, and that worked very well. The panel didn't contain a great deal that was ultra-startling, but that wasn't its intention. A very solid and well thought out panel.

Then it was back to the Mane Stage, although we weren't having the Closing Ceremony just yet. First were the grand finals of Pony Kart! I hadn't seen this at the con before now, but it's not the most difficult game to pick up and seeing the split-screen action on the big screen was great fun, especially as by this stage the competitors could usually actually drive reasonably straight. The fun was doubled (huzzah!) by having running commentary provided – though sadly not by Pinkie and Spike – and by the crowd in the hall getting quite involved themselves. FWIW the eight characters available were the Mane Six, Trixie and Derpy. Because Derpy, of course.

I'll admit to half wishing we'd had Rainbow Dash Attack like this in the old days

After several rounds of this and a fun post-final race between a couple of staffers on Rainbow Road (what else?) we were at the Closing Ceremony. This went on in pretty much the same way as it has done in previous years. Lots of thanks, contest winners rewarded, mild antics from the Britannia ponysuiter, more thanks, you get the idea. There were two special notes, though: all-time UKPC records for both overall attendance (1,371) and money raised for charity (£20,000). That attendance is up there with BUCK 2013 and 2014 at the very height of the fandom – pretty impressive stuff!

AJ Bridel, who'd become extremely popular with us all this weekend, also joined the staff on stage near the end, though Ashleigh Ball was unable to be there – apparently because she was still finishing off signing autographs! (The ridiculously long queues for these, and the way many people had to be turned away, are things that will need to be looked at carefully if any similarly big-name guests attend next year.) Right at the end, there was the traditional selfie of the con staff up on the stage and the rest of us cheering and waving plushies in the background. We really didn't want to go. Who would, when this had been such an enjoyable iteration of the convention?

And then it was over and we had to leave the venue for boring old academic events and industry conferences. I left one or two tiny things on the freebies table (new for this year and a very good innovation) for any late-leavers and hung around briefly before heading outside for the last time – well, the last time in 2024, at least – to wait for my friends for the traditional Worcester Shires private group photo. It was coming on to rain by this time, and a couple of bikers turned to jeer at us Pony folk as they rode past. Sadly they did not immediately slip on the wet tram tracks and wreck their bikes, but you can't have everything. I'm pretty sure they were just jealous we'd had more fun than them.

The end is neigh...

Then another Worcester tradition: the walk up to the Gooseberry Bush for the post-convention meal together. I always look forward to this as I find it very laid-back and without the “Is it going to work out?” stress that's at the back of some minds during the Friday night Roebuck meet. That's still nice, but this one is just a bunch of friends having a good time together after sharing a great weekend. I couldn't quite match Patrick's remarkable burger with extra burgers (seven in all...) but I still ate plenty, and I was delighted that, unlike some Wetherspoons, this one did offer custard with certain desserts! I had chocolate fudge cake.

An hour or so into our meal it started raining properly. I was slightly on edge about that, since I had to do a fair bit of walking later and I didn't want to get soaked with no way of drying wet clothes before I checked out. The buses run hourly on Sundays, so once I'd decided I wasn't going to make the 8:30 there was no option but to eat and drink and chat more. How sad! We'd put about three tables together, and there were... I dunno, 15 of us? Something like that. It was a much more pleasant experience than breakfast in this same pub in the morning!

All good things do come to an end, though, and – still with my con badge around my neck – I set off for the bus station. I was in luck and by this time it was barely raining at all. The Red Arrow was dead on time and, barring some irritating roadworks in Nottingham city centre, there were no delays. I was back in the hotel at about eleven. I spent a little while on Discord (both chatting to any friends who were around and reading stuff on the UK PonyCon server) and then I reluctantly took to my bed. Okay, not my bed, Travelodge's. Taking towels would be one thing, not that I do that either, but... :P

Fluttershy, cake, custard, cider, ponies and friends. Hard to beat that combo!

I'll reflect in more detail on UK PonyCon 2024 as a whole later, perhaps at the end of the Monday post and before the merch haul one. Suffice it to say now that I was very, very sorry it was over. Everyone desperately wanted UKPC's landmark 20th birthday celebration to be a big success. It was. It really was.

Yes, everyone, it's meta time again!

I've set myself a deadline of the end of this month to order a replacement PC. I don't want delivery to get caught up in the usual Christmas delays. As such, several things that I haven't been able to do recently should become easier. 

First, the UK PonyCon report will be finished anyway. Thanks to me being out both yesterday and tomorrow, it's unlikely I'll have the next part up before Tuesday, but I do hope to publish it then. This will cover the second half of Sunday, leaving two shorter parts – Monday and the merch haul.

Then there's My Little Repeats. I could probably manage this with the equipment I have at the moment, but it's so much easier with a working online PC that I intend to wait. The series will absolutely be brought back quickly once I'm fully up and running again, never fear! 

The other major series in the pipeline is "Sounds of 2015". This would have started already had my computer not given up, and I'm looking forward to it a great deal. The 2014 series brought all sorts of interest, and it was heartening how few songs I had to skip. So a new Sounds is going to happen soon, no doubt about that.

Other than that, well, who knows? Ponyfic Roundup isn't the only thing I want to write, is it now? Every so often I look back at this blog from many years ago and I'm struck by how varied it was. Partly a reflection of the hugely active fandom at the time, but still. We'll have to see.

Ponyfic Roundup 514

Read it Later story count: 92 (-1)

Words read this week: 6,000

I hope it will just be two or three weeks now until I have a working PC again, but for now I hope you'll excuse me for needing to use my phone once more, with the slight awkwardness that involves. Today I'll conclude my look at the Thousand Words Contest III Bronze winners very short. Covering all twelve Bronze winners, covering the Horror, Comedy and Experimental categories. The last two of those can vary often land or not simply because of reader preference, so I have no idea how I'll react to this bunch. Let's see.

She Can't Be Here by Flashgen
Safety First! by gloamish
Foreign Object by RB_
Ballistics are Friendship by daOtterGuy
Paragraphobia by Silver Needle
paradise, fleeting [sic] by alafoel

★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 3 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

UK PonyCon 2024 report, part four: Sunday, first half

AJ Ember proving an expert at stand up

I slept well on Saturday night – oh, the joys of not being in the city centre! – and decided to be slightly more leisurely in my preparations the next morning. I was going by Red Arrow again, so I was a little at the mercy of the relatively limited Sunday timetable, but there were no issues. The weather forecast had suggested it might rain at times this day, but for the moment it was dry, if rather cloudy and dull. This is always the risk when staying at my favoured Travelodge – short of a taxi, there's no covered way to get to the bus/rail stations.

Coming to Derby, I'd packed the small seapony rucksack I'd bought for not much in B&M years ago. It was an impulse decision to bring it, but it was so light it was easy to pack and so worth the flyer. I decided that I was going to use it as my main bag for Sunday, unlike on Saturday where I'd carried the old faithful Tesco MLP carrier that dated way back to the 2017 movie. The rucksack only had a few compartments, which was a point in its favour – bag checks take longer if you have 28 zipped pockets! It was just large enough for an A4 art folder and a bottle of water, which was really all I needed.¹

¹ Water is exempt from the "no outside food" rule, a good job as drinking water provision on-site is surprisingly limited for a uni building in 2024.

I thought I'd go to the Gooseberry Bush for breakfast this time, partly because it was basically on my route to the venue, partly because I've occasionally met other UK PonyCon-goers there, and partly because it's generally quiet on Sunday mornings. Unfortunately, things went slightly awry this time – I did spot a guy in a PrinceWhateverer hoodie, though someone I only barely knew by sight and didn't really feel able to chat to. I'd parked myself in a quiet corner, but within minutes a whole bunch of rather loud lads (as in laddishness) had appeared nearby. While they didn't actually bother me, it did slightly sour the atmosphere, so I moved out a little before I really wanted to.

A small part of the substantial stalls area

This did at least allow me to walk slowly to the venue rather than have a Rainbow need to Dash. No opening ceremony to make this time, after all! Having had no time to do so on Saturday, I was very much intending to do some shopping today. (Spoiler: I did.) I'd decided to skip karaoke, all the more so as I wasn't especially enthused by the addition of dance game Trotmania. I later heard from Stu that the singing was of the “sing as a small group” format too, which again isn't what I really prefer. I don't imagine I'll ignore karaoke for evermore, but I don't feel bad about doing so this time.

It was a choice between Year of the Dragon (a look at fantasy creatures in the MLP universe) and Britannia Master on the Mane Stage. Inertia took over and I stayed for the latter. This was based on the long-running British TV show Taskmaster, in which contestants – here Ashleigh Ball, AJ Bridel and two UKPC staffers – are set various weird and (sometimes) wonderful, well, tasks. A representative round was asking them to stand when they felt exactly 40 seconds had passed. AJ Staffer Ember got this almost perfect! There was laughter, there were feels, there were silly memes, you get the idea I'm sure.

And then it was time for a long-standing set piece of UKPC: the Charity Auction. If you've read Ghost Mike's report on this already, you'll know that the highlight was his Batannia plush reaching an astounding £1,350. Not having expected anything like this (who did?) Mike's face was quite a picture from a couple of seats away! Unsurprisingly, this proved to be the highest bid received for any single lot this time around – it's very rare for anything to reach four figures in a British Pony convention auction. It was certainly a big talking point this year.

This Scootachicken went for a mere £240

There were some eye-opening bids elsewhere, too. A set of the first nine IDW Friends Forever comics, in good condition but unsigned, went for something like £200 – I had to blink quite a lot at that, since I'm the proud owner of the entire 38-issue run. (And no, I'm not selling it!) However, for the first time in years I didn't stay to the end. The aircon was completely inadequate and I was melting, especially as the auction massively overran. This really is going to need to be looked at next year, despite how lucrative the auction is for the wonderful RDA. UKPC has perhaps outgrown the current auction format.

I went to the coffee vending machine in the basement (which unlike most in such venues wasn't overpriced!) and then sat around in the general areas for a bit, simply because it was cooler and a blessed relief. Every so often, someone else exited the auction hall, usually also because of incipient heatstroke. I also took this opportunity to finally have a good look around the stalls. Financial constraints meant I had to pass on quite a few nice things, but I was very pleased to have a brief chat with JowyB, one of my favourite Pony artists¹ and a very nice, affable guy to boot. I bought three of his A4 prints, as you'll see when I eventually reach the Merch Haul post.

¹ He's long since branched out into much other stuff, but this wasn't UK OtherStuffCon! ;)

This kind of multi-gen love is part of UKPC's appeal

I wasn't entirely sure what to do next, but eventually I decided to go to Nelson's panel on the World's Biggest Tea Party. Yes, the G3 live show. Oilyvalves was already there when I entered the room, and I spotted Juniper and a couple of others I knew as well. It turned out to be really interesting, not to mention superbly researched – this guy had it more accurate than the actual G3 wiki! Nelson also took the line that the sneering and laughter some bronies had directed towards the Tea Party was unfair: the show was aimed squarely at little girls, and reaction at the time from them (and parents) had been very positive. This panel did change my mind about the WBTP at least somewhat.

There was one sour note right at the end. As the Q&A was winding up, Oily and I got the sense that one guy was about to set off on a harangue regarding some personal bonnet-bee. This kind of thing isn't that uncommon and is normally only mildly irritating, but we didn't really want to hear it so we left smartly. Before long, though, we heard on the con grapevine (which doesn't hang around) that things had got more serious, involving inappropriate and even racist comments from this person, and that both con and venue staff had had to make a strong intervention. I really hope Nelson isn't put off by this from presenting more panels in the future, since he was very good at it and I'd certainly consider attending.

I did think quite carefully about whether to mention this, especially as it's a slight downer to have it at the end of a post – but in the end this is a report, not an advert. By all accounts it was handled swiftly, anyway. While I don't think there was any reason for the staff to mention the unpleasantness at the convention itself (they didn't), I don't feel I need to ignore it entirely here. As it happens the subject of when and where to mention serious/problematic things in our fandom has been on my mind since just before the con, for reasons I won't go into, and I plan a more general post on that topic before too long. Not just yet, though, as there's still more fun UK PonyCon stuff to write about!

Next time: Sunday part two, featuring colourful storytelling, Rainbow Road... and bright yellow custard. Yes, at last!

(AI) Okay, that one's really quite striking

This is from Gemini, Google's AI – the one that was called Bard in earlier versions. I neglected to save the actual picture, so the best I can do is the above screenshot. Clicking the pic will give you a much better quality version. The prompt I provided cuts off just before the end, so for that reason and for clarity, here it is in full: 

Draw a recruiting poster for the Wonderbolts, featuring Rainbow Dash performing aerobatics. Use a very exciting and dramatic style, and use an unusual camera angle. Do not feature any machinery. 

That last bit was because an earlier attempt gave me Rainbow flying a plane. Off lighting and somewhat clichéd look notwithstanding, this one's much more suitable – and if only Gemini could spell "Wonderbolts" it could have been better still!