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!

Ponyfic Roundup 513: Spooky Special

Read it Later story count: 93 (nc)

Words read this week: 33,007

It's Halloween today, which is a much bigger deal in the UK now than it was when I was a kid but seems to be here to stay, so a themed edition seemed like a nice idea. Published at (almost) midnight GMT, you'll note! All the five fics on the slate today have darkness or horror or both at their cores, though they achieve that in quite different ways. Here's the list:

Tick by billymorph
Zombie of One by Impossible Numbers
Meat and Bone, Sinew and Bile by RB_
A Crazed Gleam by FanOfMostEverything
Into Darkness by Donnys Boy

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

Ponyfic Roundup will be a day later this week...

...but for a change, it's not because I've been unwell or stupidly busy, or because my computer has lost my notes, or even because I've entirely forgotten what day it is until it's too late. 

No; this time it's an actual choice. As I'm having a Spooky Special edition, I've decided to post that on Halloween itself – which is of course Thursday. Simple as that! See you then.

UK PonyCon 2024 report, part three: Saturday, second half

Imagine converting "Art of the Dress" for the BBC Micro. Who'd be that silly?

Halfway through Saturday and I still didn’t have the time to go shopping, because I had a date with destiny Hawthorn’s chiptunes panel. This was something I’d only discovered was happening at all shortly before the con, but I could hardly miss it! The panel was great, both amusing and informative, with Hawthorn’s preparation paying off and his enthusiasm for this slightly neglected aspect of music shining through. He hadn’t told me he was going to feature one of my own 8-bit pieces in the end montage, though! Oops. :P

Fortunately Hawthorn’s panel finished on time, since the special guest script reading and Q&A followed immediately over at the Mane Stage. As usual for UK PonyCon, the script reading was short, though as ever it was fun to hear the pro VAs doing live the voices we knew them so well for in the cartoons. There were big queues to ask the stars questions and after a little thought I chose not to join them. Still, nicely the guests were willing to allow the panel to run a little over time, so as to get in as many people as they could. :)

Next up was something I’d been disappointed to have to miss through not being able to stay for more than three-quarters of one day in 2023: The Great Britannia Bake-Off! This has its roots in the UKPonyConline events held during the pandemic, and as such it’s heavily video-based. Members of the con committee record themselves attempting to bake cakes or similar, and this is edited together into an hour-long highlights video with suitably snarky captions and in-jokes. At the end, we in the audience vote on the winners. A really nice way to relax for a bit.

Not a spare seat in the house for the VIP script reading

That brought Saturday’s daytime events to a close. At the same time in another room the kids’ disco was going on, advertised in the con book as a perfect way for children to end their day. While UKPC does not have an age limit on attending in the evening, requiring only that all under-16s are accompanied by adults,¹ very few young families do stay on after dusk falls. Unsurprisingly, the convention does shift into a slightly different atmosphere from this point onward.
¹ In the daytime 14- and 15-year-olds don't need adults with them all the time.

The major event of the evening at UK PonyCon since it moved to Nottingham in 2018 has always been the concert. While this is well handled and enjoyed by a lot of people, I only tend to pay serious attention in fits and starts. It’s excellent that old stagers like like PrinceWhateverer come back every year and support the con, but I prefer more variety.¹ As such, I took most notice of Coltastrophe, making their UKPC debut, and Pagan Pegasus, whose music I find interestingly varied.
¹ Also, the Mane Stage area wasn’t built for live music, and its rather poor acoustics bear that out.

That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to do anything musical, however! Bexi was putting on the convention’s very first #CHEESEFEST (yes, all caps with hashtag) – which sounded exactly my kind of thing. Actually some of the music was a little new for me: I’d have preferred something like “Rasputin” over the overrated “Cha Cha Slide”, sorry Bexi! But it was lots of fun and we still got Steps, the Macarena and so on, with glow sticks for all. Mind you, most of our group sat at the back, not entirely so we could hide when Roku managed to unplug one of the lights while moving tables about...

Cheesefest in full swing. Add your own music!

Saturday evening is the only time when alcohol is available on-site (although this was sometimes different at former UKPC venues) but the queues for the pop-up bar were enormous. Hawthorn extremely kindly offered to get me a Diet Coke despite the wait, and as I was parched I accepted. I’m not the first person to mention that Hawthorn is a really nice guy. The bar also sold pony-themed cocktails and mocktails, but for the most part these featured spirits I wasn’t too fond of and about a kilo of sugar. Not ideal for me as a diabetic!

And then? Archer’s Pub Quiz, of course. A legendary aspect of UK PonyCon Saturday evenings, and the Worcester group’s legendarily oversize team (12? 14? Something like that) was in evidence once again. In fact there seemed slightly fewer impossibly difficult questions than usual, and we only ended up answering “Batman” once. At one point we were worried we might actually do well and ruin our reputation, but equal third was about right. It was really odd not to have Derpy as the answer to any question in an Archer-run event, though.

PiratPeter’s Cartoon Riff rounded off the night, and I’d have liked to have stayed for that as his engaging manner is appealing even when terrible cartoons are on screen. I had to make the commute back to Derby, though, and I wasn't willing to wait until after eleven even to start. So, off I went to the bus station. This time the Red Arrow was a coach – huzzah! – and everything again went smoothly. It had certainly been a busy day for me, probably even more so than in 2022, but I wasn’t exhausted. A quick cuppa in my new UKPC mug, and then bed beckoned.

Coltastrophe rocking out

Next time: Sunday part one, featuring timed standing, extreme bidding and vague shopping.

Little meta note

I definitely haven't forgotten about my UK PonyCon report! I've just been really busy lately. I hope that part three will be up in the next couple of days. :)

Ponyfic Roundup 512

Read it Later story count: 93 (-1)

Words read this week: 6,000

Still no properly working PC for me (don't worry, I'll get there) and so I'm keeping this next look at the Thousand Words Contest III medallists very short. Covering all twelve Bronze winners in I've go would have pretty much guaranteed I'd have made some stupid mistake. I know I do that already sometimes, but not all the time! So, here are the Drama and Slice of Life fics that won bronze:

White Painted Walls by applezombi
Millennium by Discombobulated Soul
Damn These Vampires by RB_
Balloon Animal by AltruistArtist
Pure Absurdity by FanOfMostEverything
Space Pony / 40 Winks by alafoel

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

What G5 might have been... and why it wasn't

The video embedded above is by YouTuber Cxcd and is called How G5 was ALMOST the Greatest Generation. It's about half an hour long and it's more than worth the time if you have really any interest at all either in G5 as such or in Hasbro's approach – or perhaps more accurately, approaches – to the My Little Pony franchise before and after the death of Brian Goldner in 2021.

I'm obviously simplifying a lot here, but in summary: the disappointing state of the G5 follow-ups when compared to the film isn't the case purely out of bad luck. It could and should have been done better. If you prefer to read rather than watch, then Equestria Daily has a very solid summary of the main points. Cxcd isn't just speculating here; he's done his homework properly. 

So, for now at least, this is the most comprehensive and convincing explanation of what went wrong that we're likely to see in public. It's a real shame that Cxcd is going to cease making G5 content partly because of harassment for covering that generation at all. He can at least be sure that he's contributed more to our understanding of MLP history than those silly people have. 

While I'm on the subject of the latest generation, you may also want to check out a little note about the "G5 Equestria Girls" that never was. A much shorter article, but also on EQD.

UK PonyCon 2024 report, part two: Saturday, first half

Near Derby bus station – three hours to UKPC time!

I slept fairly well on Friday night, probably just about getting in the requisite six hours. I still woke fairly early, but that did allow me time for a reasonably leisurely shower. I'd decided to get the Red Arrow express bus into Nottingham rather than the train, since it meant slightly less walking and slightly less expense. I had no problems getting to the bus station in enough time to get an inexpensive bottle of Highland Spring. I was a little disappointed to find that the bus was, well, a bus rather than the usual coach, but the journey itself was uneventful.

I was in Nottingham by a little after eight o'clock, which meant time for breakfast. I'd decided to use the one city centre Wetherspoons I'd never visited, the Lloyds No 1 Bar. Usually these (unlike other Spoons) have music playing, but that wasn't the case today. I'd expected to be eating alone but Cozy (no, not that Cozy) offered to join me for a bit, which was very nice of them. I had my usual fry-up, though with only water to drink rather than coffee. Then, off to the venue! On hoof, since the weather was good enough that taking the tram seemed unnecessary.

Despite pre-registration, I was still keen to be reasonably near the front of the queue, since attendance was going to be large enough that processing would still take a while if you were near the back. All tickets had sold out for the first time since 2018, and capacity had been increased see then. QueueCon¹ is generally quite an enjoyable experience if it's not wet, and on this occasion Luna (not that Luna either) produced a deck of MLP cards and we had a few rounds of Chase the Ace while waiting for ten. I saw a few other people I knew, but not many.
¹ Don't you give me that "LineCon" malarkey; I'm not American! :P

Bexi and Britannia – costume by Snow Gryphon Suits.

At last it was time! The priority folks, such as Silver/Gold Sponsors and those granted early entry for accessibility reasons, moved through fast and then it was our turn! We were a bit surprised that those who hadn't pre-regged went in first, but on reflection it made sense as they'd take longer to process. At any rate, things worked out, and once I was through the bag check (carried out with customary smoothness by the venue staff) I was inside... and home!

Plenty of people were already gathering in front of the Mane Stage for the opening ceremony. UKPC has a very informal singalong at this point, but not many attendees participate, which is a bit of a shame. I didn't care; I was belting out the My Little Pony Tales theme with some gusto! I did pop off briefly to reacquaint myself with the venue layout and to have a quick scout of the large stalls section. In the event, all I bought was the official UKPC T-shirt and mug; I wouldn't have time to shop again until Sunday!

This year, UK PonyCon was celebrating its 20th birthday. It had become the longest running My Little Pony convention in the world, and this year's theme was appropriately "We're Making History". Committee member Moomin had worked wonders by procuring a big screen for the stage; although Bexi found it a bit unnerving to see herself in multiple, it was definitely a fine addition. We settled down for the usual welcome waffling before things began in earnest.

The surprise anniversary animation!

Except that this year, there was something extra... unbeknownst to all but one of the con committee, a group had been working for months on a very special animation, which I've embedded here. Long-standing friend and Worcester Shires stalwart Patrick Rowberry, who directed the piece, told me it had been a nightmare keeping quiet for so many months! It was lovely that something like 20 conventions agreed to their mascots being included, and Bexi was overcome and in tears.

It was going to be hard to follow such an opening act, but there was a whole con weekend ahead of us! With the busiest UKPC schedule I can remember, I had to make a few tough choices. After briefly looking in on Dr Pony's history of G1 panel, I plumped for "MLP Fan Animation: Behind the Scenes". It turned out that this nondescript title had also been chosen to throw people off the scent, since it was a look the making of the opening ceremony animation! Very interesting, and nicely judged to be understandable to non-animation people like me without being overly simplistic.

I'd enjoyed myself a lot, but another hard decision awaited. I had to take only the briefest glimpse of the Cosplay Contest as Hawthorn had persuaded me that "G1 is Genius Actually" was the place to be. This was presented by Jack Getschman, the brains behind Scootertrix, both the G4 abridged series and the more recent G1 shorts. Jack clearly truly likes G1, and that affection made his lampooning of it all the more entertaining.¹ We even got a sneak preview of the latest G1 piece, containing "Meegan" getting seriously fed up with the ponies always running to her for help. :D
¹ There was even an exclusive "Gen1us" ribbon, available only to those of us who attended the panel.

Sage advice from the Scootertrix panel.

Things really didn't let up for the daytime portion of Saturday, and a few minutes later it was time for "A Zen Guide to Rail". This was a bit different from previous years, with the aviation aspect removed for a completely railway focus, and plane and cake pone Ace now largely in a technical support role to Zen. A nice and relaxed panel with a genial host, though in the Q&A I did sneak in a question that started out seriously but ended with "...would anyone like any toast?" I absolutely, totally and utterly blame Dodj for putting me up to this, but I regret nothing!

Next time: Saturday part two, featuring chips, cakes and cheese.

UK PonyCon 2024 report, part one: Friday

My second train, arriving at Smethwick Galton Bridge station.

Welcome at last to the first part of my report on UK PonyCon 2024. Even though I have to do this in a slightly kludgey way while I don't have a proper computer available, I hope these blogs won't look too terrible! Before I go any further, though, I'll say that I had a great time at the convention and that even though I will mention a few grumbles along the way, I thought it was a roaring success overall.

Unlike last year, this time around I was fortunate enough to be able to attend for the full long weekend, ie travelling up on Friday and returning on Monday. Better yet, for the first time in three years there were no public transport strikes to contend with!¹ TrainCon was happening again. As I usually do, I wore last year's UKPC T-shirt on the trip, but I noticed nobody who was certainly going my way.
¹ At one point the Nottingham trams were on strike, but the dispute was resolved before UKPC weekend.

Given the sometimes ridiculous prices of Nottingham hotels during the weekend of both UK PonyCon and the Goose Fair (listed in order of importance, yes) I'd again chosen to base myself in Derby. I'd done this twice before, so I knew exactly what I was doing. [That'd be a first, then! —Ed] Normally Travelodge has a 3pm check-in, but I found it well worth paying the extra tenner to check in at midday.

My luxurious room in the Travelodge. Isn't it fancy?

Having done the minimum of unpacking and had a quick splash under the shower, I walked back to the station I'd just left. Derby's road system includes an enormous roundabout in an awkward place for pedestrians, but oh well. Many of the Worcester Shires people who attend UKPC, plus a few guests, gather on the Friday evening in the Roebuck Inn pub in central Nottingham, and I wasn't going to miss that.

But first, something new: pre-registration! Last year there were enormous queues for registration on Saturday morning, and with an even bigger attendance expected this time it was clear something had to be done. So, anyone with a ticket valid for Saturday could grab their badges in advance at the Hilton. Me being me, I walked straight past it, but fortunately Frost was passing and told me where to go.¹
¹ In a manner of speaking.

Pre-reg itself was very efficient – I was in and out in less than ten minutes – and I hope it's retained in future. With my Bronze Sponsor badge around my neck, something of a strange experience on a Friday, I headed across the city centre to the Roebuck. Last year we'd had to squash into rather cramped and very noisy booths upstairs, so I'd had the bright idea of getting to the pub early to grab a better space.

The first hour of the Roebuck pre-meet. Not shown: cider.

This was a good plan in theory. In practice, I got there way too early and ended up sitting alone for well over an hour, with only a pint of cider to console me. It was probably the least enjoyable period of my entire con weekend, and I certainly won't be doing it this way again if I come to UKPC next year! I'll probably revert to what I did in 2022 and have a coffee somewhere first.

Still, eventually a few people did start trickling in, and from then on things improved significantly, apart from a bizarre interlude when a guy started loudly preaching by the bar and had to be escorted out. The space I'd chosen was not in fact ideal, as it had two tables with a large gap between them, meaning it was very hard to speak to anyone at the other one. My fish and chips (with baked beans, since the Roebuck had contrived to run out of mushy peas...) was perfectly okay, at least.

Despite the pre-meet's slightly iffy beginnings, I did get a few hours of nice conviviality. I didn't know everyone there particularly well, but the majority were long-standing friends. I think I probably left about nine in order to board the tram back to the station. As regular readers know, Nottingham at night isn't always my favourite place, but I had no issues and I was back at the hotel in Derby by a bit after ten.

Next time: Saturday part one, featuring (happy) tears, Meegan and toast.

Ponyfic Roundup 511

Read it Later story count: 94 (-1)

Words read this week: 24,014

It's Ponyfic Roundup time again, and I've mostly got a handle now on being able to write up these posts with my temporarily limited computer resources. Still, I hope you'll bear with me if some things are a little bit clunkier or more basic than usual. Not that PR is very complex in its design anyway, of course! Five stories this week, of which all but one are very short:

One Night in Saddle Arabia by A Wise Pony
"It Is All Hell" by It Is All Hell [sic] (reviewed at author's request)
Cake Story by Blueshift
White Noise by Ninjadeadbeard
Somepony to Fall On by hoofbeatsoftime

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

A small update

While I still do not have a properly working PC setup and do not expect to do so for a while yet, things have improved somewhat from where they were a few days ago. I've unearthed a very old but largely useable computer.¹ I had to find a VGA cable as its graphics setup is ancient and doesn't support HDMI etc, but that's now done and it boots to desktop.

¹ It's a Core 2 Duo E6750 with a mighty two gigs of memory and an 8600GT card...

It's running an old version of Linux Mint (17) and given both that and the ludicrous resource hoggery of modern browsers it's going to have to be an offline machine. However,  this means I have access to a proper keyboard, mouse and word processor. Yay! This in turn means I can start typing up my UK PonyCon report.

The plan is to write on this PC, then transfer the finished document to the phone via USB and upload from there to here. The reports will necessarily be a tad basic in appearance this year, and I'm not sure how well I'll be able to integrate photos, but it's something. I hope to have the first post up in a few days.

Ponyfic Roundup posts and other text-centric stuff should also be reasonably straightforward. More multimedia-y things like My Little Repeats may have to wait slightly longer, especially as the old PC's DVD drive doesn't seem to be functioning properly. But still, it's something!

Ponyfic Roundup 510

Read it Later story count: 95 (+1)

Words read this week: 6,000

It's a very light week this week, since UK PonyCon intervened. I had a superb time there, about which you will be able to read at probably rather tedious length in due course.¹ Today, though, it's the next edition of the Thousand Words Contest III winners review pile, featuring the Comedy and Experimental stories that won Pewter Medals. There are six of these, listed below.

¹ My PC has suddenly died on me, so it may be a slightly longer wait this year, but I'll get there!

Cult of Personality by Cold in Gardez
Shoot for the Stars by SnowShine
The Thing About Chess by Odd_Sarge
Luna Luna Luna Luna by Botched Lobotomy
Cloaked Fate by Lunaria
Hierarchy of Needs by AugieDog

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

Ponyfic Roundup 509

Read it Later story count: 94 (-1)

Words read this week: 27,684

As you read this, I'll be just about to set out to UK PonyCon. It's the convention's 20th birthday, and I'm hoping it'll be great this year! Naturally, I will report back afterwards. But let's get to the fics. It's back to non-contest fics for this week, and there are the usual five stories. Four of them had been on my RiL list for a while, whereas one (The Additional Alicorn Affair) was picked at random – within the bounds of a couple of parameters, such as being complete and not too long – from Fimfiction's search results. Here are the five:

One Sprout, Many Buds by Whinifree
"For I Am A Jelly God" by Posh
The Additional Alicorn Affair by PonyFate
Butter Up by GaPJaxie
The Darkest Day by Summer Knight

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

UK PonyCon: It's a sell-out! (Actually!)

A day or two ago I noted that Adult Weekend tickets for UK PonyCon had sold out. Well, now the single-day Saturday and Sunday tickets are gone as well! That means the convention is a complete sell-out. What a fantastic achievement. The biggest UKPC in history and demand has been so high that there are literally no tickets left. The longest running MLP con in the world is marking its 20th birthday in style!

Ponyfic Roundup delayed until Friday morning

Nothing too terrible going on, just a case of my convention preparations taking up a little more time than I'd guessed they would. Since I don't want to rush getting the reviews finished, I think it's fairer to all concerned (and to me :P ) if I move PR back a couple of days. PR 509 will appear on Friday 4th October. Since the following week is a very light one anyway, I'll keep that scheduled for Wednesday 9th.

UK PonyCon: It's a sell-out! (Well, nearly)

In spite of the venue for UK PonyCon having an increased capacity this year, weekend and sponsor tickets have completely sold out! There are still some one-day passes left, so you could still attend the whole thing by buying a Saturday ticket and a Sunday one, but that's more expensive than a weekend badge.

Despite what you may read elsewhere, this is not the first time UKPC has sold out, not even in its current Nottingham home. The convention sold out entirely in 2018 – the first year it took place in the city – and thanks to archive.org you can see the proof on UKPC's own website from September of that year.

That said, I think that the greater ticket availability this year means that selling out in 2024 is a bigger achievement than it was in 2018. All the more so since we're now a full five years from the ending of Friendship is Magic, the show that brought such expansion to the My Little Pony fandom. Congratulations to all concerned!

Maybe Nottingham isn't cursed after all!

The tram strike has been called off! Apparently an agreement was reached. I don't know the details and won't be commenting on the politics on a blog like this anyway. But it's a major relief.

I'm still not entirely enthralled by the thought of attending next year if the con is in Nottingham at Goose Fair time again, but for this year things are very definitely looking up. :)

My Little Repeats 172: "School Daze, part 2"

Now this I did like. The expressions tell you a fair bit about each student's character.

S8E02: "School Daze, part 2"

24 Mar 2018

My original rating: ★★★ (for both parts)
IMDb score: 7.8

The one with stairs!

Thoughts: And here Friendship is Magic succumbed to the temptation of referencing "20% cooler".¹ Not for the last time. Sigh. It also sees the debut of the pukwudgies, who just leave me cold. The Mane Six were pretty idiotic in the cupcake scene. However, there are pluses: the song "Friendship Always Wins" is nice, and as you all know I'm fond of the students, who of course get lots of screen time here. I also like Starlight's relatability in this episode and the way she doesn't rely on magic. She too is learning! On the other hoof, Twilight's "we're going to ignore the rules because I say so" line remains immensely annoying, especially since Celestia had to abide by them. It also still grates that Cheerilee has been forgotten. At least the Castle of the Two Sisters finally reappeared, though it didn't exactly do much. Overall I think this is slightly better than part one. Probably not quite enough to take it out of the two-star band, though. As I'd put it in a ponyfic review: a top-end two.
¹ Although Rainbow Rocks had already featured "20% less cool".

Choice quote: Smolder: "Smolder like... breathing."

New rating: ★★

Next up, "The Maud Couple", which I've slightly soured on since I considered it a middle-of-the-road instalment back in 2018. We'll have to see whether that assessment holds, won't we?

Is Nottingham cursed or something? :(

For the third year running, UK PonyCon weekend will have an unwanted extra in the shape of transport strikes. In 2022 and 2023 it was the trains, this time it's the trams. This isn't the place for political comments, but the practicalities of a multi-day strike over a Goose Fair weekend are not good. It won't stop me going to UKPC, but it will make the travelling that little bit more of a pain each day.

I'd already been musing over whether it's time to consider doing something else next year. This will be my tenth UKPC and sixth in Nottingham, and much as I like it I've already mentioned going to the same place every year starting to feel a little repetitive – though I can't deny that it's very well connected by road and rail and that the venue itself is pretty well set up for us convention people.

I think this latest news has swayed me to the point where if UK PonyCon is in Nottingham again next year and it clashes with the Goose Fair again, the balance of probabilities is that I won't be going to UKPC. Instead I might be choosing to attend Griffish Isles (in Manchester) or Festival of Friendship (in Southampton), or even having a year off going to conventions entirely. They're increasingly heavy hits on the wallet.

There is a compromise option: go to UKPC but only stay the Friday night, as I did in 2022. That was especially awkward as there were train strikes, and I wouldn't do it again if those recurred – but without those I could have a reasonable chunk of the Saturday at the con. It might reduce my costs to the point where I could wait until the last minute (ie when it was known if there would be strikes) before making firm plans.

As I've said, I'm still going to the con next week, and I think I'll only have to miss one late-night event on the Saturday (one that I might not have gone to anyway). But I was so hoping that for the first time since the post-Covid resumption I'd have a UK PonyCon that didn't include fretting about transport. No such bloody luck. It's very tiring, apart from anything else – and I'm not as young as I was!

Ponyfic Roundup 508

Read it Later story count: 95 (+1)

Words read this week: 10,000

Today, I'm returning to the Thousand Words Contest III winners, and the slate features the first ten of the sixteen Pewter Medal winners. For reasons I'm not entirely sure of (I'd guess a tie in judging) there were four such medals awarded in the Horror category, but only three in each of the others: Drama, Slice of Life, Comedy and Experimental. Today I'm covering the Drama, Slice of Life and Horror medallists in that order:

Too old to start over by TheDriderPony
All the Right Questions... by daOtterGuy
Encamped, Entrenched by EileenSaysHi
Pool Boy by TheDriderPony
Twilight Sparkle is Moving Back to Ponyville by RB_
The Daisy Behind Her Ear by Math Spook
In the House by Cold in Gardez
　　　i　　　 [sic] by PseudoBob Delightus
It Was a Beautiful Day in Ponyville by gloamish
Jack of All Trades by TheDriderPony

★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 5 | ★★★★: 3 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

Sounds of 2014: Nos. 5 to 1

That's right, everyone! The Equestria Trot 100 chart for 2014 reaches the summit today. We're going to be looking at the five tracks which garnered the most votes (or however this chart decided rankings; I'm not sure) ten years ago. Although this bit isn't strictly necessary this time as I'll explain in a moment, here are the usual criteria for inclusion:

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

Except that those criteria do not apply this one time. Look, if your song gets into the top five for an entire year, it's famous. Therefore, all these tracks are considered to qualify for inclusion under Rule 3 even if they don't fulfil any of the other requirements. As it happens, though, they all meet Rule 1 anyway, so this doesn't arise.

5: BlackGryph0n & Baasik – Academy
4: AcoustiMandoBrony – Laughter
3: Sim Gretina – Entropy (remix)
2: AnimatedJames – Brony Polka
1: The Living Tombstone – Stop the Bats (remix)

Jump break now, at least for those of you on computers. After that, it's time for the final countdown! (Well, until "Sounds of 2015", anyway...)

My Little Repeats 171: "School Daze, part 1"

"Can we tell her this thing is a mess?"

S8E01: "School Daze, part 1"

24 Mar 2018

My original rating: ★★★ (for both parts)
IMDb score: 7.7

The one with a teeny confetti cannon

Thoughts: Quite honestly, the best thing about this episode is that it introduces the Young Six, who in my book are the highlights of S8. As for the rest, though: Twilight says there's a difference between being a student and being a teacher, then ignores that. Cheerilee, the actual professional teacher in Ponyville – you know, the one who's been there since S1 – isn't even granted a name-check, let alone an actual appearance. At the start we get a few rather forced movie references – okay, fair enough. The racist Chancellor Neighsay (voiced by Maurice LaMarche, no less) could have sparked a very interesting storyline about how unpleasant people can sometimes nevertheless be right – a message very relevant to these days of social media. But no. Instead he turns out to be massively powerful (portals, magic chains, etc) with no explanation and none of Starlight's relatability to soften it. The students are entertaining, and I look forward to seeing more of them this season. The School of Friendship itself is ridiculous. The episode falls to two stars, and with quite a thump.

Choice quote: Fluttershy: "I've had quite enough of life-threatening adventures, thank you."

New rating: ★★

Having covered part one of the premiere, you'll never guess what's coming next in this series. What's that you say? A purple parakeet? The Box of Delights? A train bound for Morningtown, many miles away? No, no and thrice no. It's part two of the premiere!

Ponyfic Roundup 507

Read it Later story count: 94 (nc)

Words read this week: 42,959

There – I think I've somewhat made up for last week's low word count total! Indeed, this is substantially above my usual weekly number, so I'm quite pleased to have got through it all. Lovely weather for mid-September has helped, since I've been able to spend a little time sitting outside to read, something I wish I could do more than I actually can. Here are today's stories:

Tea Decisions by PsychicKid
Kindness's Reward by AVeryStrange
A Story to Relate To by SockPuppet
A Changeling Path by TCC56
Written in Synthetic Blood by Shaslan

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

Sounds of 2014, nos. 10 to 6

Exciting times, Pony pop pickers! Today we move into the top ten of the Equestrian Trot 100 chart for 2014. As a quick reminder, this means songs that were popular that year; they don't necessarily have to have been released in 2014. As usual, here's the list of criteria:

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

I considered dropping those requirements for the top ten and just saying they all met Rule 3 by definition, but as it happens none of this week's songs would have needed to be skipped anyway, so I thought I'd keep them. The top five will all be featured come what may, though. Here's this week's list:

10: YourEnigma ft. Rhyme Flow – On Hold
9: 4EverfreeBrony – House of Glass
8: The Living Tombstone ft. Feather – Stay (remix)
7: BlackGryph0n & Baasik – Taking Off
6: BlackGryph0n & Baasik – Moonlight

Going to be lazy and leave the following sentence the same as last week: I'm sure you know by now what happens past the jump break, so let's get to it!

My Little Repeats: Reflections on Season 7

The Fresh Princess of Friendship

By Season 7 of Friendship is Magic, Discovery Family was finally doing interesting things with its pre-season trailers. "The Fresh Princess of Friendship" was not in fact the first S7 promo – that was this rather more conventional 30-second spot – but I'd be willing to bet it's the one most of us remember.

At long last, over a bloomin' year after I began on this season, I've made it to the end. S7 was generally more popular with fans than S6, and there's a fair case to be made that the first half especially was the last time most people were on the same page when it came to opinions of the show. Not all, but most. Of course, you'll want to see my rating compares, and so here you go:

1. Season 4: 3.42
2= Season 1: 3.38
2= Season 2: 3.38
4. Season 5: 3.27
5. Season 6: 3.23
6. Season 7: 2.96
7. Season 3: 2.92

Well now, were you expecting that? I'm not sure I was. I would have guessed that the season would come in with a rating of around 3.2 or 3.3, yet instead it ends up significantly below S6 and not a million miles ahead of the wooden-spooning S3. There turns out to be a fairly clear reason for that, which we'll see in a moment. Past the break for that and a few more details.

UK PonyCon schedule is out!

Yesterday, I posted briefly about the UK PonyCon concert line-up and said I wasn't personally that excited by it. This is not the feeling I have when looking at the UKPC schedule, which has just been released – although without lots of details about each event as yet. I'm seriously hyped after seeing this so far.

From a quick scan, it looks really good, and it's very nice on this 20th anniversary of UK PonyCon – now the world's longest running MLP convention! – that there are some non-G4 events sprinkled through the programme. Slightly to my surprise, I can't see any specifically G5 panels, but G1 and G3 are certainly represented.

It may have been corrected by the time you read this, but there was one error in the schedule initially released: there is a panel on The World's Biggest Tea Party on Sunday afternoon which was accidentally omitted from the timetable. Since Sunday is so much quieter a day, I'm almost tempted to attend that one myself.

Since I will after all be able to go to the whole UKPC weekend this year (though that was in doubt for quite some while) I will be able to take part in Archer's Pub Quiz again. I adore that and I was very sad to miss it last year owing to having to go home earlier than hoped on Saturday evening due to train strikes.

Naturally the VA script reading/Q&A is going to be a highlight with Ashleigh Ball in attendance this year. But as anyone who's ever been to a convention will know all too well, plans usually change quite a bit over the course of the event, so all I'll say on that for now is that I am looking forward greatly to three weeks' time.

UK PonyCon reveals music lineup

Fresh from the official UK PonyCon blog, here's the list for this year's Saturday evening concert. Each performer gets 45 minutes:

Coltastrophe¹
Pagan Pegasus
Blackened Blue
PrinceWhateverer
BassPon3
¹ Making their UKPC debuts.

So, what do I think? To be honest, somewhat mixed feelings. I'm pleased to see newcomers to UKPC (I think) in Coltastrophe, and Pagan Pegasus in particular is an act I tend to really like. On the other hand, it's quite a samey lineup in terms of genres. Pagan does mix things up – witness electro-swing, drum'n'bass and dubstep in one song – but otherwise it's basically the usual hard rock fest with a DJ to end.

I obviously appreciate that there's only so much a UK-based convention can do, and also that acts like Blackened Blue are both good at their job and really popular. What I personally like is not necessarily what's sensible to choose for a con. But I really wish we had say an acoustic set or someone like EileMonty (yes, I know she herself no longer does Pony stuff) to provide something completely different from the loudness around her.

So... this year, I think I've finally reached the point, for the first time since the concerts began in 2018, at which it is going to be a secondary consideration. It'll be a thing to attend if there's nothing else that interests me more, rather than a big centrepiece of the con. Again, for me. But this is my blog and so my thoughts are what you get. If you want your thoughts, start your own blog! Or comment on this one, obviously...

Ponyfic Roundup 506

Read it Later story count: 94 (nc)

Words read this week: 8,000

With the Paralympics over, I now have time to read more ponyfic again. A very low weekly word count nevertheless, but there's a good reason for that. Today I set out on the long road that will be reviewing all 46 recognised fics in the Thousand Words Contest III. As I've already mentioned, I'll be covering them at a slower pace than I have done in the past, with non-contest PRs between. First, it's the turn of the eight Hono(u)rable Mentions. These are as follows:

It's Time To D-D-D-Duel by D-20
The Royal Snitting Room by gloamish
In Darkness, a Light by Pascoite
Heavy Things by Pascoite
A Fall, Unnoticed by Not That Anon
You Were My First (Snatch and Grab) by RedHoodie21
The Cake Job by GeodesicDragon
Click! by marmalado

★: 0 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 5 | ★★★★: 2 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

Sounds of 2014, nos. 15 to 11

Here we are again with another "Sounds of 2014" – and this time, it's the last instalment before we reach the top ten! By this point, we're looking at songs that were really, really popular all those years ago, and in many/most cases actually released for the first time in 2014. Here's the usual run-down of the criteria a song needs at least one of to be featured here:

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

Here's this week's list:

15: The L-Train et al – Moonrise
14: Aski Meskin & The Living Tombstone – Manehatten
13: 4EverfreeBrony ft. Faux Snyder & Emily Jones – Here on the Moon
12: SlyphStorm ft. 4EverfreeBrony & Midnight Melody – Soldiers of the Night
11: Black Gryph0n & Baasik – Quest (This Can't Be All)

I'm sure you know by now what happens past the jump break, so let's get to it!

My Little Repeats 170: "Shadow Play, part 2"

Feel the wave of sound as it crashes down

S7E26: "Shadow Play, part 2"

28 Oct 2017

My original rating: ★★★★★ (for both parts)
IMDb score: 8.5

The one with Mister TheBearded

Thoughts: The first episode of this two-parter got docked not one but two stars since my delighted 2017 review. This one, I'm afraid, is going the same way. I think I was wowed by... well, everything first time out, as were a lot of people, but now the shine has worn off a bit. The fact that little was done with the Pillars after this doesn't help. Mind you, grumpy Star Swirl is good fun to watch, except for Twilight I guess. The origin story for the Elements of Harmony is... okay, I guess. I like Starlight being the voice of compassion and redemption for the Pony of Shadows. It's fun to have the map again, silly as it is. I had actually forgotten the Sirens' part in Stygian's backstory, and I still like that aspect. And look, we did get the ponies using the Elements one more time. That's worth a bit on its own. So... three stars again. Not as good as I once thought, a bit jumbled in parts yes, but I still had fun. That's still a decent three-star rating.

Choice quote: Rainbow Dash: "Oh, we've saved the world, beardo. And we can do it again."

New rating: ★★★

And here we are, finally, at the end of Season 7! I published the "Celestial Advice" rewatch on 31st July 2023, so the season as a whole has taken more than 13 months. Two episodes per month on average, a far cry from the pace of two per week I kept up in the early days of this series! I hope to get through S8 and S9 considerably faster than I managed with S7.

Before too long, I will post the usual post-season stats and thoughts about the season. Then it will be on to the changes that S8 brought. I know not all of you will be staying with me for that, certainly not for every episode, so to you I say thank you for coming along on the ride this far. For those who are staying, let's see what we can find!