UK PonyCon 2025 report, part two: Saturday, first half

My hotel room view was concrete, so have Birmingham Council House (which I did walk past) instead

It's been too long owing to that WiFi outage, but I'm back with the next part of my UK PonyCon 2025 report. I was delighted to get a good night's sleep at my hotel – I think I chose pretty well – and because of not having to travel into Birmingham from elsewhere I was able to have Saturday breakfast at the Travelodge for once. The usual buffet stuff, but I ate a lot as lunch is always a problem at cons, so we're talking bacon, scrambled eggs, sausages, tomatoes, hash browns, yoghurt, cereal, several glasses of fruit juice... you get the idea. Then it was time to check out as I wouldn't be returning to this hotel. All smooth.

It was a very windy day, but fortunately Storm Amy's worst effects were elsewhere, and it was at least bright so a reasonable experience to walk into central Birmingham. I know a few people were in the Briar Rose (same pub as last night) for breakfast, though memory for specific identities is already hazy, so even though I wasn't eating I joined them there for a bit. By now of course I had my con badge around my neck – I only really take it off for bed and showers during the weekend – so the excitement levels were building nicely.

Off to New Street station, but not to catch a train: walking through it was just the easiest way to get to the venue, which was a few minutes' walk out the back. I made it at just before 9:30, I think, and the queue was already substantial, although it became even more so not long afterwards. I remember seeing a few people go by – Ace, Zen, Trixxy, Charles, a few others I can't recall. The building overhang by the comic shop would have protected us a bit from any rain, but there wasn't any, yay. Pretty much on time (10:00) we filed in!

The crowded Opening Ceremony. Britannia and Bexi on stage

The bag checks from venue staff on entering were an unknown, but they were very professionally handled all weekend, even if the level of strictness over outside food and drink did seem to vary from person to person. I had a little more to carry than usual owing to not being able to leave stuff in my hotel, but it all fitted in one bag. There was a very basic cloakroom (basically just a coat rail and a space underneath for bags) which was unattended; I was willing to leave my old jacket there but not my bag.

It was nice to catch up with some friends before things started, including Ghost Mike who I hadn't seen until this morning owing to all those plane delays. Chatting away with sometimes long-absent friends before a con is one of my favourite things, so that was great. I also made sure to have a quick chat with JowyB – it might have been then, it might have been slightly later – who is a great guy and a great artist. I bought one of his lucky dip sketches for a fiver and came away with a 2014 one featuring both Chrysalis and Flufflepuff. Very happy!

The opening ceremony happened in much the same way that these things nearly always do, by thanking everyone for coming, introducing the special guests Rebecca Shoichet and Imalou, having a little bit of minor physical comedy from the fursuiter playing UKPC mascot Britannia, etc etc. It was very cramped, though: we were right up against the venue's capacity, with quite a few of us having to stand around the edges of the room. This went all the more so as some of the stalls were squeezed in at the back owing to the lack of a sufficiently large single space for all vendors to be together.

"Have you seen this mare? Reward: B10 or one cherry"

Then it was train time! Zenfox who presented ably, with technical assistance but still no cake from Ace, shifted from the recent setup of simply helping people travel safely on our railways to the far more challenging task of trying to explain Equestrian railways. Given my own attempt to do that in ponyfic with On the Wrong Track a few years ago, I was all ears. And it was tremendous fun. I have issues with the use of a crying Scootaloo image on the shaky grounds that it was the best picture of a particular station. And I have Issues with the portrayal of Fluttershy as a train hijacker and all-round criminal mare. But yeah, I loved this panel.

There wasn't that much I wanted to do for the next hour or so, and so I wandered around, exploring the "Collectors' Cove" for toy-focused stalls on the ground floor, making a quick visit to put a lanyard on the freebies table and pick up some other small thing, and generally get my bearings in the venue. I can't actually remember what I did for lunch, though I have a feeling it might have been another trip to the Briar Rose with just Patrick. Either way, that big breakfast meant I didn't eat very much.

Back to the venue to see the last moments of the cosplay contest, which has never been on my must-see list but which I normally experience a bit more than that of. Since we were in Birmingham, Luna (my friend, not the Princess) and some cronies had dressed up in Peaky Blinders-style attire (as the Pinkie Blinders, of course) and arrived in a stretch Hummer, of all things. I didn't see it, but he told me about it. That car was a bit less Brummie, though! They ended up deservedly winning the prize for Best Group Cosplay, though we didn't know that until later on.

"Pony Romance Languages" – eg Apple Bloom speakin' in Fancy

Finally for this part of the report was an unusual little panel from ImmyChan: The Languages of Equestria. I was very keen to attend her panel, as this has been a minor interest of mine since the days I created Frithaes! An Introduction to Colloquial Lapine for the Watership Down fandom over 20 years ago. I thought it might just be Hawthorn and me, but in the event the small room was packed. Immy gave a good account of herself, and even though the panel was short I found it intriguing: the North Germanic nature of Breezie-speak, for example, and a decent stab at explaining how a Latin word like "draconequus" exists in Equestria in the first place.

Next time: Getting Batman wrong... 

Ponyfic Roundup 558: Thousand Words Contest IV Gold Medallists

Read it Later story count: 91 (nc)

Words read this week: 5,000

I am late this week not because of Logan being hopeless, which I'm sure you will agree makes a refreshing change! It's because I've only relatively recently got WiFi service back after a major outage caused by someone digging through a cable or whatever the cool kids do these days. I wasn't entirely without internet thanks to phone data, but I wasn't keen to repeat my experience of trying to write PR on a phone. This is, by the way, also the reason for the pause in UK PonyCon reports. They'll be back! Anyway, here's today's slate:

Rinse Cycle by HearthsEve
The Middlemare's Market by hawthornbunny
Dollhouse by pneu
Butterfly Stains by Kintsugi Sunset
The Development of a Lexicon of Epithets for a Diarchal Equestria by gloamish

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

Sounds of 2016, nos. 5 to 1!

Here we go, then: we've finally reached the very top of the Equestrian Trot 100 chart for 2016! It's really rather thrilling stuff, isn't it? Okay, maybe it isn't, but you get the idea. Sometimes there's something to be said for rambling on in this intro paragraph, but this time let's get moving/

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. 

We're into the top ten now, so Rule 3 applies across the board. Here goes!

5: Michelle Creber, Black Gryph0n & Baasik – Getting Stronger
4: Delta Brony – The Spectacle (remix)
3: µThunder – Say Goodbye to the Holiday (remix)
2: ponyphonic ft. Kristen Calvin – The Moon Rises
1: Aurelleah – Luna's Future (remix)

All right, for the very last time for 2016, off we go!

UK PonyCon 2025 report, part one: Friday

My key to Equestria...

Here we go at last with my report of UK PonyCon 2025! To save you all waiting in suspense, I'll say right away that it was an extremely enjoyable convention. Not everything ran entirely according to plan, but that's cons for you. My small grumbles here and there should not take away from the fact that, given the unavoidable issues of a venue smaller (though more expensive to hire) than last year's, pretty much everyone did a sterling job to say the least.

So then, here we are on the Friday! It was nice not to have to start early in the morning for TrainCon. Indeed, I was almost in danger of being too early into Birmingham! There were no rail strikes this year, so it was a simple process. Sadly I didn't notice any other Pony folk I knew at Birmingham New Street station at first, and so I went to the Pret on the concourse for a cheap filter coffee. Nothing of great interest happened, bar Oilyvalves giving me a wave from outside as he passed by on the way to his hotel.

Surprisingly, I got to the KitKats before Pinkie did

I'd bought an early check-in add-on (though that's gone from £10 to £15 fairly recently, grumble) and so I set off to Newhall Street to find my Travelodge around midday. I'd selected it carefully as it was just far enough out of the city centre that I hoped it wouldn't be too loud on a Friday night, but still easy walking distance. I'd booked the very slightly upgraded Standard Room Plus, which meant being on the top floor (big plus), a coffee pod machine (shrug) and for whatever reason, a couple of complimentary KitKats. Not complaining!

Then it was off to town for the usual Worcester Shires pre-con meal, which was moved from the Dragon to the Briar Rose at the last minute because Britain's Got Talent was on at the Hippodrome meaning there would have been about 73 people for every table in the Dragon. This was the usual very pleasant experience, marred only by Ghost Mike's plane woes (which he's talked about himself) meaning he wasn't able to arrive until late evening. We did, however, discover the secret of the Briar Rose's mayonnaise cupboard.¹ Even if the staff themselves were later defeated by it...
¹ What it sounds like. A big wall panel behind which were shelves and shelves of mayonnaise.

The essence of UK PonyCon, really. The gens, not the rain

Pre-registration for UK PonyCon was in the venue itself, only a few minutes' walk away, so most of us made use of the opportunity as it didn't take long at all. My Bronze Sponsor badge was very nice, with Britannia on one edge and Sunny on the other, in honour of special guest Imalou. Lanyard in place, it was back to the pub for a bit. This year, for the first time at UKPC, there was going to be a Friday evening music event as part of the convention itself, and that's why our meal was in the afternoon rather than in the evening as it had been in the past.

The venue opened properly an hour before the "Jungle Jam" concert began at 6 pm, so we wandered over. Only the music hall and an outer hall with a bar were open, but that was fine. The bar sold at least some drinks at a non-absurd price, which was a plus. First up was Bexi with her now legendary cheesefest. As with last year, they're a tad too modern for me, and sorry Bexi but the "Cha Cha Slide" still isn't very interesting, but "5, 6, 7, 8" "Reach" (yay S Club 7!) and the Macarena are hard to avoid smiling at. She wasn't ridiculously loud, so this set made a good introduction.

Acid Applejack at the Jungle Jam

Next up was Acid Applejack, a Dutch EDM (and similar) musician. Not quite as much my cup of tea, but I still enjoyed his set. Actually, he seemed to have a good time at the con; I found myself standing next to his chair at a Mane Stage event later in the weekend. The third act was StormBlaze, who although probably best known as an artist gave a storming (ha) set. Some of the tunes were horse-related rather than strictly Pony, but it worked – and even if she was nervous about singing "My Past is Not Today" with Rebecca Shoichet in earshot, I think she nailed it.

I don't dance as everypony who knows me knows, but I got about as close as I'm ever going to get during some of these tunes! Still, after that things started to move more to the loud'n'hard kind of music and much as I respect Blackened Blue's ability, he's just a bit too much for me. So I retreated to my hotel room, finding the light rain annoying but it was very agreeable not to have to spend 45 minutes on a bus first! I'd really enjoyed the music – more than I'd expected to, if I'm honest – so I was in a very good mood for the following day. I even got a good night's sleep!

Next time: UK PonyCon hits the buffers, in a very entertaining way

Ponyfic Roundup 557

Read it Later story count: 91 (+1)

Words read this week: 11,840

I am back from Birmingham and the truly excellent 21st iteration of UK PonyCon, about which there will most certainly be posts in the coming days and weeks. I doubt I'll add updates every day or anything like, but you will get the full story from Friday to Monday! Now, here's the Ponyfic Roundup I postponed from last week, meaning that unusually you do get a PR just after a UKPC. The slate is:

Story Time With Equestria or How Twilight Turned Every Pony Bald by Mister E
Daring Do & The Rookie Editor by Naughty_Ranko
Sisterly Lies by Emerald Ray
Teaching the Values by Just A Random Pegasus
Scientific Progress Goes Crash by Drax

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

Sounds of 2016, nos. 10 to 6

I had a fantastic time at UK PonyCon. I'll be posting the usual multi-part con report in due course, but I wanted to get that out there first. Today, though, it's music time. We're almost at the sharp end of the Equestrian Trot 100 chart for 2016, so what will we find? Let's have a look...

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. 

We're into the top ten now, so Rule 3 applies across the board. Happily, though, it's not needed: all five of these songs qualify under Rule 1 in any case. Here's the list:

10: FritzyBeat ft. Sim Gretina – Neigh Anything
9: Sim Gretina – The Pony I Want to Be (remix)
8: Ink Rose & Baasik – Little Sunshine
7: TIX & The Pøssy Project – Ponyville 2016
6: Aoshi ft. Rina-chan – FluttERR

All right, for the penultimate time in this series, here we go!

Swapping around

 My workload (not all work, but you get the idea) has been heavy and UK PonyCon is imminent, so I'm going to swap around the weeks for Ponyfic Roundup. This week won't get one, but next Wednesday will. This is the opposite order from what I originally planned, but this one I can actually do!