The meets scene seems in decent health still

At least here in the UK it does; I can't speak for anywhere else. The Worcester Shires meet on Saturday had no fewer than 18 attendees (albeit not all at once) which is very close to our all-time record – not bad considering we've been running for more than ten years! I've also noticed a couple of people discussing starting up local meets in other places.

As someone said on Discord, there was a bit of a feeling that with the end of Friendship is Magic and G4 as a whole, plus the underwhelming response to G5 (apart maybe from the original film), interest in ponymeets might start to show a clear decline. That doesn't in fact seem to be the case, and I for one am very happy about that. Long may this continue!

The fandom and me in 2023

Which kinda sorta rhymes woo. Anyway, I've been idly musing on how I relate to the MLP fandom these days. I think it would be silly to pretend that I have the intensely excited relationship with it that I did a decade ago. The fact that there are no longer any new episodes of Friendship is Magic has a fair bit to do with that, plus of course it's inevitably no longer fresh and new.

That said, my interest in Pony hasn't faded as much as it clearly has for some people. I'm still maintaining Louder Yay, after all! I'm still reading a ton of fanfic. I'm even (dun dun dun) writing ponyfic again, though so far at least nothing more than a couple of silly small one-shots that aren't likely to blow anyone away. And I'd still call MLP my number one fandom, even now.

What I think I may be starting to cool on, just very slightly, is going to conventions like UKPC. They're getting more and more expensive (and maybe just a little samey¹) and I'm starting to reflect on what else I could be spending with the same money. Set against that, I get to see friends I don't meet any other time. But that's above it being because these are Pony events specifically.
¹ Apparently a Briticism. I had no idea!

However, that does not mean that the MLP angle is no longer a big deal for me in the social fandom. For meets, even though they're vastly less expensive, it still really matters to me that they're Pony-centric. I'd still go to some if they'd turned into just a bunch of friends talking generally, but I seriously doubt I'd attend as many as I do at the moment. So yeah, Pony still matters a lot there.

So... yeah, I wouldn't deny that I've cooled on My Little Pony since 2013 or so. But I was starting from such a high temperature, so to speak, that I'm still a long way above lukewarm. I think I'll consider myself an MLP fan, and quite a serious one, for a very long time yet – quite possibly forever. It just doesn't entirely dominate my online life the way it did a decade ago, that's all.

A chill wind starting to blow through UK fandom finances?

Anyone who hasn't been asleep for the past few months will have noticed that all is not well economically in the UK. I don't want to get into partisan political stuff here, so I'll simply note that energy bills are generally expected to go through the roof this winter, with inflation now heading strongly upwards as well. What does this mean? Well, for one thing, a lot of people are going to have a lot less money to spare on fun things than they'd like. If you're reading this, it's an easy guess what "fun things" might include for you.

Since I'm about My Little Pony on this blog, let's consider what that means for British Pony fans. First, it probably means buying less merch. Okay, the range of G5 official merch in our shops is really pretty poor anyway, borderline pathetic in the case of what's getting into supermarkets – but there is some around. And though it's not physical merch, there's also the question of Netflix. A standard subscription is now £10.99 a month. If you only use the service to watch MLP, that's absolutely not a nothing sum.

I expect there to be a knock-on effect on fan-made merch as well. I already know of people who used to be willing to spend say £50-100 on a piece of art from time to time who are now wondering whether they can really justify continuing doing that once their new gas bills hit the mat. The really expensive stuff like big plushies or ponysuits even more so.¹ Since we now have to pay chunky VAT and/or import duties from EU sellers, not the case in the first few years of the G4 fandom, I think these sales may be especially vulnerable.
¹ Okay, ponysuits are usually one-off purchases, but plushies a bit less so

Right, past the break I will get to the subject of conventions.

What future for MLP's social fandom?

As the months of the pandemic drag on and on, many of us are missing our in-person social interactions with other fans more and more. In my case, the last time I met any other ponyfan in person was when I attended our final Worcester ponymeet, five months ago today. I suspect that at the time many of us quietly hoped it would only be a few months before the meets could restart. Sadly, it now looks like being a good deal longer than that. I don't think there's any realistic chance at all of restarting in September, a hope some of us perhaps entertained in early summer.

It's a lonely time for many of us. So how long will it be before we can all meet up again in something like the old way? Well, who knows? That depends on all kinds of things, and since discussion of those can stray into the realms of politics I'll try to avoid some aspects here. But the fact remains that for a lot of people – by no means all, but a lot – being with friends who share our love for and enjoyment of MLP has been a highlight of our time in the fandom, and something we're missing very badly. What happens next?

Lots of musing on this after the page break.

Nice little minimeet

All being well, "Luna Eclipsed" will be reviewed tomorrow!

I organised an unofficial Worcester Shires minimeet at about 36 hours' notice at the weekend. There were various reasons for the last-minute arrangements, but it worked out all right. We had five attendees in total, though never more than four at once – and including one person making their debut! (I've actually known this person for something like 17 years and they've been to UK PonyCon a few times, but not to a Worcester meetup. Until now!)

I was really pleased with all this, since the short notice meant I wasn't sure the minimeet would get off the ground at all. We usually consider four to be our quorum, though we were prepared to stretch a point and go with three this time – happily that wasn't relevant in the end. It is fair to say that we did have the question of how much longer travel to meets like this might be possible on our minds a bit, but most of the time we were just having our normal silly ponyishness going on. I was very pleased. :)

Meetery

Nothing pressing to write about today, so I'll simply mention that the Worcester ponymeet folks met up yesterday. We were about ten in number overall, and though I don't have precise records I suspect that's actually higher than the average from when the fandom was larger. The group's been meeting since May 2013, and I was a founder member, so I think I can make a reasonable judgement on that.

We don't even do anything particularly special. There are only perhaps one or two times each year when we depart from our simple regime of sitting around a café table and enjoying chat, food, silliness and ponies. I wonder sometimes whether that might actually be the secret behind our still holding up well in 2020. Admittedly the fact that we consider ten a largish attendance probably helps too, in that we all know each other quite well by now.

Though of course we're very happy to welcome newcomers! We have had a couple of new semi-regulars in the last year or two, which has been very pleasing. I don't know how long these meets will continue, but I really hope they go on for some considerable time to come. We're not scared of G5!

From a discussion at the Worcester meet on S8/S9

I was at the Worcester Shires' first meet of 2020 on Saturday, and very enjoyable it was too. One of the many things we talked about was our enjoyment or otherwise of later FiM seasons and episodes. While I can't remember everything we discussed, and not all of it would make sense out of context anyway, one thing that was interesting was just how many S8 and S9 episodes were considered good-or-better by at least somebody. More than I would have expected if you'd asked me to guess, to be honest.

Although my rewatch series may eventually change this, right now my feeling is that S8 is my least favourite season of the show. Even there, though, there are the likes of "Surf and/or Turf", "The Break Up Breakdown", "The Hearth's Warming Club", "Road to Friendship", "What Lies Beneath" and "Sound of Silence", any one of which I would happily watch if I happened to switch on Tiny Pop while it was playing. There are several more (eg "Grannies Gone Wild" and "The Washouts") that got at least qualified support.

Much the same applied to S9 – though I was interested that there were more complaints about S9 episodes than about S8 ones. Whether that's just because they're fresher in our minds, I don't know, but it goes against the general feeling that S9 > S8. Bearing in mind that the epilogue's popularity with most (though not, until the last few minutes, me) may fade with time, I do wonder whether S8 may eventually end up being liked more than S9, or at least being about on its level. And whether I may end up feeling that way too.

That's one great thing about a show that ran for nine years and over 200 episodes – even though there won't be any more FiM instalments, there's still always something to talk about. Good news for those of us who maintain blogs about it!

Worcester Shires quiz – answers!

I hope a few people had fun with this quiz, even those who didn't post comments attempting any of the questions. Here are the official answers:

Worcester Shires Hearth's Warming Quiz 2019

Q1: Whose voice was the first ever heard in Friendship is Magic?
Nicole Oliver

Q2: In "Hearth's Warming Eve", who were the three assistants to the pony tribal rulers? (1 mark for each)
Clover the Clever, Private Pansy, Smart Cookie

Q3: Who was the main interior artist on the first IDW MLP comic?
Andy Price

Q4: What is the name of Tirek's estranged brother?
Scorpan

Q5: In "Slice of Life", what do Celestia and Luna bicker about?
Whose turn it was to bring the present

Q6: Complete the song line: "Cupcakes, so sweet and tasty…"
"...cupcakes, don't be too hasty!"

Q7: In the 2017 film, what is the name of Queen Novo's octopus servant?
Jamal

Q8: What was the name of the large convention held for a few years in France?
BronyDays

Q9: In the popular [Worcester meet] card game "Chase the Ace", which family are said to be cursed?
The Cakes (both the decks we use have Cakes as low-ranking cards)

Q10: Which is the only G1 pony to be included in Friendship is Magic's Mane Six with her name and design largely unchanged?
Applejack

Q11: What is the name of the toy line that includes Cheese Sandwich's party tank cannon?
Guardians of Harmony

Q12: Who wrote the official MLP chapter books?
G. M. (Gillian) Berrow

Q13: In "Hurricane Fluttershy", what wing power number is required to produce a tornado?
800

Q14: Who are the four officially-named Our Town residents with speaking parts in "The Cutie Map", not including Starlight? (1 mark for each)
Double Diamond, Night Glider, Sugar Belle, Party Favor

Q15: Which pony was the first figure to be given away with the [UK] monthly magazine?
Pinkie Pie

Q16: After the parasprites have finally been run out of town by Pinkie's polka performance, which city does Princess Celestia say has been hit by an infestation?
Fillydelphia

Q17: Another movie question: who voices Capper?
Taye Diggs

Q18: Which School of Friendship student is terrified of confined spaces?
Gallus

Q19: In the song "Pinkie's Present" from "A Hearth's Warming Tail", which character is seen operating a gramophone?
DJ-Pon3 / Vinyl Scratch

Q20: What is the very last word spoken (not sung) in Friendship is Magic?
"You." ("I know just where to send you.")

Tie-breaker! (We didn't need this, but I'll include it anyway.)

QTB: How many words are there in the fanfic My Little Dashie?
12,524

The Worcester Shires Hearth's Warming Quiz 2019

Last week, at the final Worcester Shires ponymeet of the year, we had a little quiz. I wrote the questions and, even though we were a little pushed for time, it all seemed to be quite well received. I hope it won't be the last quiz we have. Anyway, I thought I'd share it with you fine people. There's no prize (that went at the meet!) so it's just for fun. All the questions are to do with MLP, and most (but not all!) are to do with Friendship is Magic.

Since a couple of questions have multiple answers, the maximum number of points available is 25, or 26 with the tie-breaker. At the meet we ran the quiz for individuals rather than teams, allowed about one minute for each question, and naturally had the common rule that answers had to be from memory without resorting to resources such as Google or Fimfiction. I'll be posting the official results in about a week, so do feel free to have a go! :)

If you were at the meet, you may have an unfair advantage. On the other hand, if you weren't at the meet then Q9 may be an unfair question! :P

Worcester Shires Hearth's Warming Quiz 2019

Q1: Whose voice was the first ever heard in Friendship is Magic?

Q2: In "Hearth's Warming Eve", who were the three assistants to the pony tribal rulers? (1 mark for each)

Q3: Who was the main interior artist on the first IDW MLP comic?

Q4: What is the name of Tirek's estranged brother?

Q5: In "Slice of Life", what do Celestia and Luna bicker about?

Q6: Complete the song line: "Cupcakes, so sweet and tasty…"

Q7: In the 2017 film, what is the name of Queen Novo's octopus servant?

Q8: What was the name of the large convention held for a few years in France?

Q9: In the popular [Worcester meet] card game "Chase the Ace", which family are said to be cursed?

Q10: Which is the only G1 pony to be included in Friendship is Magic's Mane Six with her name and design largely unchanged?

Q11: What is the name of the toy line that includes Cheese Sandwich's party tank cannon?

Q12: Who wrote the official MLP chapter books?

Q13: In "Hurricane Fluttershy", what wing power number is required to produce a tornado?

Q14: Who are the four officially-named Our Town residents with speaking parts in "The Cutie Map", not including Starlight? (1 mark for each)

Q15: Which pony was the first figure to be given away with the [UK] monthly magazine?

Q16: After the parasprites have finally been run out of town by Pinkie's polka performance, which city does Princess Celestia say has been hit by an infestation?

Q17: Another movie question: who voices Capper?

Q18: Which School of Friendship student is terrified of confined spaces?

Q19: In the song "Pinkie's Present" from "A Hearth's Warming Tail", which character is seen operating a gramophone?

Q20: What is the very last word spoken (not sung) in Friendship is Magic?

Tie-breaker! (We didn't need this, but I'll include it anyway.)

QTB: How many words are there in the fanfic My Little Dashie?

Worcester Shires ponymeets: friendship's still magic

I'm going to indulge myself here today with something that's very important to me but won't be relevant to most of my readers...

As some of you reading this will know, I'm a regular attendee and occasional organiser of the Worcester Shires, an informal ponymeet which usually runs on two Saturday afternoons each month in (surprisingly enough) Worcester. The English one, not the one in Massachusetts! We had a meet yesterday and as usual it was a perfectly pleasant afternoon with personable people and plenty of pastel plush (and otherwise) ponies.

There was, however, one notable aspect to this meet, as it will be the last one we ever have while Friendship is Magic is still a live series. The next time we meet to talk about ponies, drink caffeinated beverages and eat cake, FiM will be in the past. The meet has been running since 2013, and indeed I was at the very first such gathering, though we only adopted the Worcester Shires name much more recently.

One thing all of us agree on is that we intend to continue with these meets. Why wouldn't we? The fandom isn't going to disappear after the final episodes of FiM air on Discovery Family on 12th October. Nor is My Little Pony, and several of us are at least to some degree interested in other generations past or future. We seem to get on with each other and besides, the café where we hold our meetups treats us very well.

Of course, we can't know where things will go from here. But as with the fandom as a whole, I'm optimistic. After all, we've had new attendees join us even in 2019, six years after these meets began and nine years after FiM itself got under way. Several of us who intend to be there at UK PonyCon in a fortnight are regulars or semi-regulars in Worcester, and doubtless there'll be a little measure of "Worcester meet on tour" in Nottingham.

I think a good deal of our success has been down to Pigasus, our extremely popular meet leader. I also think people have enjoyed the atmosphere, which is deliberately kept laid-back but work-safe, and which unlike some other meetup groups is still very much a Pony meet. Yes, we talk about other things too sometimes, though we keep real-world politics out of it as much as possible, but we're something of an outpost of Equestria.

It struck me today, when we were discussing our future meet calendar, that everybody simply took it as read that we'd still be holding these meets not merely for the rest of this year but much further into the future. Indeed, we spent a little time talking about our intention to hold a G5 movie meet at a local cinema if there is indeed a UK cinematic release for the assumed prequel feature film for the new generation. And that isn't likely to happen until 2021. I look forward to it!

That's enough rambling – so I'll end simply by saying that the next Worcester Shires meet (or "bronyponyneigh") is likely to be on Saturday, 19th October. We certainly welcome newcomers – see the link above (in the second paragraph) for details of location, times and so on. Yes, it will be strange not to have a new episode of FiM to look forward to... but I'm pretty sure the meet itself will feel much as it does now. And that's a good thing. :)

Worcester meets now on UK Bronies & Pegasisters

Before I get to that, a quick PSA: I've been snowed under with actual Real World Stuff this week, which is why things have been quiet here for a few days. To avoid complete burnout I'm pushing a couple of things back a day. There'll be a "Sounds of 2011" tomorrow, and Ponyfic Roundup 237 will appear on Thursday.

As for the meets, we now have a listing on UK Bronies & Pegasisters, a website (and associated social media) which does pretty much what it says on the tin. For now we're using the rather generic name "Worcester Bronies", but that's up for discussion at our next meet on 23 Feb. Find our listing on the Adventu-cations page!

UK PonyCon in the mainstream media

In this weekend when about every second tweet reminds me that BronyCon and GalaCon are on and I'm not at either of them, I need things to take my mind elsewhere – but still keep it on ponies. Fortunately, I have two! One is that later today I'll be off for the Worcester meetup group's annual all-you-can-eat buffet lunch. If there's any pudding there which features custard, you can be sure I'll be all over it. (Well, not literally. Probably.)

The other is that UK PonyCon (which I do hope to be at) has had some mainstream media coverage, something much rarer for British conventions than for the big American ones. Nottingham Live's headline – "Thousands of My Little Pony fans are coming to Nottingham - and here's why" – is perhaps a little over the top, but the article itself is reasonably straightforward and accurate, even mentioning correctly that only Sunday tickets remain.

Chase the Ace, Worcester style

At nearly every Worcester ponymeet, we play a simple card game called Chase the Ace. It's basically the game that Wikipedia describes under the name of Ranter-Go-Round, but we have one or two house rules. So, for the benefit of newcomers and (as The Descendant used to say) interested passers-by here's how we play the game.

This goes on a bit, so have a page break.

Worcester Shires ponymeets

Updated 22nd February 2023

Just to be crystal (pony) clear here: I'm talking about the Worcester in England! Also: we are an independent meet group, not hosted by any other organisation. If you're told otherwise, you're told wrong!

Who are you?
Officially, we are the Worcester Shires! Yes, it's a horse pun. We like horse puns. Mind you, it took us nearly six years to adopt the name. That's right: we've been running since spring 2013! A lot of the time we still refer to ourselves as simply "the Worcester meets", though. Our meet leader is Pigasus, and while he's in attendance he is the boss. When he isn't, it's actually me. Yes, really – though the vast majority of the time we operate by consensus. An average attendance is maybe 7-10, though we do occasionally go above that.

Where do you meet?
Caffè Bolero, an excellent independent place on the edge of the city centre. (Google Map.) This is five minutes' walk from Worcester Foregate Street station and also a short walk from various city centre car parks. We meet, as any self-respecting bronies should, in the basement – down the stairs to your right as you enter.

What days do you meet?
We try to keep up a reasonably regular schedule of twice-monthly meets, on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. The schedule does occasionally change to fit around holidays and other special events like conventions, or if a number of people are unavailable, so you may want to check the first post in this UK of Equestria thread to make sure it's going ahead.

What times do you meet?
Our meets currently start at about 12:30 pm and run through until about 5pm, though the end time is a little variable. You're welcome to come for just part of the meet if you like.

What do you do?
We sit around and chat! Unlike some meetups, in Worcester ponies are still the main topic of conversation at pretty much every meet. We do talk about other things sometimes, but talk nearly always drifts back to MLP before long, especially when there's something big to talk about. We also play a simple card game using a pony-themed standard deck. It's very easy to learn and very silly.

We're not really into the CCG or other major card/board games, since we find they do tend to divide meets – not the best idea for a smallish gathering. We do sometimes play smaller, quicker games. We don't go for mass shop walkabouts either, but of course if anyone would like to explore Worcester's (frankly quite limited) retail options then that's fine and we'll welcome you back when you're done. Oh, and I'm afraid watching episodes isn't something we can offer, partly because we don't have a private space to do that.

How much does it cost?
The meet itself costs nothing. However, as we're sitting in a café for several hours, we do ask you to buy some food and/or drink. The Bolero's folks have been very good to us over some years now, and they deserve something back in return.

Talking of which...?
There's the usual range of coffee, soft and (a few) alcoholic drinks, cakes and snacks and light meals. Prices are very reasonable: a substantial coffee and a muffin will set you back around £6. Ah yes, muffins: Bolero's chocolate muffins are legendary for good reason. Indeed, their cakes are generally great.

Who can come?
Anyone! Well, okay, we do have one significant restriction, which is that if you're under 16 we do ask you to bring an adult with you. The basement is only accessible by stairs, as is the case in many of Worcester's old buildings. Meeting upstairs isn't really an option as there's generally far less space. If this is a problem for you, please let one of us know and we'll do our best to sort something out.

Am I committing myself to anything?
No, absolutely not. You can come to every meet, or once and never again, or anywhere in between.

Can I bring my plushie/pony shirt/sketchbook?
Yes, certainly, as long as it won't get in the way of other customers. (So no NSFW shirt designs, please.) As I said above, the staff at Bolero are very good to us and are tolerant of tables with plushies dotted around.

Anything else I should know?
Because of the nature of the venue we use, as well as the wishes of our regulars, we are a fairly strictly SFW meet – this includes asking attendees not to swear beyond the language used in the show. (So, for example, "they're jerks" is okay, but stronger stuff is probably not.) Please don't deliberately push the boundaries to the limit. And though doubtless this is obvious by now, this really isn't the place to bring Cards Against Humanity, even the theoretically "all-ages" versions!

Also, if you're coming by train and don't know Worcester very well, feel free to ask one of us to meet you at Foregate Street station. There's usually someone around earlier who can do that.

Fandom events and personal safety

A few days ago, horizon made a blog post over on Fimfiction entitled "The elephant in the equine room", in which he told an alarming tale involving women having their drinks spiked at a BronyCon 2017 room party – with what is mentioned in the comments as being rohypnol. And yes, in this case it really was. Thankfully horizon and others acted swiftly to make sure everyone was safe, but that might not have been the case. Please read that post, in full, before continuing here.

This being Fimfiction, the comments section on horizon's post has been a mixture of serious contributions and, frankly, politically-motivated point-scoring (though horizon has been managing this pretty well), but let's be blunt here:

Our fandom is not magically immune from bad people who want to do bad things. As such, good people need to step up sometimes.

This is a long post, so cut coming up.

Playing Tails of Equestria

Sadly the art inside is just stock vectors and show screenshots

On Saturday, I went to the twice-monthly Worcester meet. Patrick had brought along his copy of the newish Tails of Equestria RPG, and four of us (three players and Patrick as GM) created characters and started out on the sample adventure in the book. Apparently character creation was supposed to take about half an hour. This is where anyone who's ever played an RPG does the hollow laughter thing. (But not the hollow voice thing. "Plugh" doesn't work here!)

My character, Ripple, has a special talent for finding water but a "quirk" of short-sightedness. This means that in the wilds, I may well find water by falling into it! I'm a unicorn, and so my Mind attribute is slightly enhanced; the other two are Body and Charm. Earth ponies get a slight Body advantage; pegasi don't get a Charm advantage but of course they can fly. And no, you are absolutely not allowed to play an alicorn character!

Anyway, I won't spoil the adventure's plot in case any of you might play it sometime, but it's fair to say it was far more fun than I was expecting – even if I did roll 1 suspiciously often when trying to achieve some useful task. Admittedly much of the amusement was provided by our earth pony character, whose main trait was a feeling that every problem could be solved by kicking it. We also had a pegasus in the party, so we hoped the balance would work.

As I write this, we're about halfway through the adventure after an hour or so's play, and we're intending to complete it at the next meet in a fortnight. I'm not sure I'd want to play ToE at every meet – there are almost too many gaming meets already – but I think I'd be up for occasional sessions in the future, as Patrick suggested. At any rate, if you can find the set for a reasonable price, and as long as you have a few like-minded friends, I think I'd recommend it. :)