UK PonyCon 2026 prices announced!

There isn't a formal post about this on the UK PonyCon website, but the Tickets page has now been updated with 2026 ticket tiers and prices! As I usually do on these occasions, I'm going to go through each tier and see how it compares to last year. In fact, there isn't a lot of change – but there is some, so keep reading.

First, the tickets go on sale at 18:00 on Saturday 18th April. That time is BST. Unlike last year, we get plenty of notice! It's very nice to have time to think once more. 

As for those all-important prices, for 2026 we have:

Standard: £75 (held at 2025 price) – entrance to all days of the convention (including the Friday night music), con book, basic blue lanyard. You can have a personalised con badge if you book by 1st August.

Bronze: £99 (held at 2025 price) – nicer lanyard, Bronze sponsor badge, name in con book (if you want it), Bronze button badge, sponsor-exclusive magnet, £5 donation to UKPC's long-standing charity, the RDA. As with last year, you get the option to purchase (for £60) the sponsor hoodie. As far as I can see at a glance, the one change is the replacement of the sticker sheet with the magnet.

Silver: £220 (+5%) – priority queue, silver sponsor badge, messenger bag, Silver/Gold sponsor-exclusive T-shirt or long-sleeve shirt, beanie, sticker collecting book, vinyl stickers, enamel pin, two autograph/photo tokens, one photo print if relevant, £10 RDA donation. Several changes here, for example the art print and water bottle have gone but the beanie and sticker book are new. We're also back to messenger bags after last year's drawstring variety. There will be 75 Silver tickets.

Gold: £525 (held at 2025 price) – all the Silver perks and sponsor hoodie, Britannia plushie, top-table seating at Afternoon Tea, personalised welcome letter, four autograph/photo tokens, £20 RDA donation. That hand-made Britannia plushie with themed accessory, which this year will come from Noxi Plushies, is probably the stand-out among the various exclusive merch. There will be five Gold tickets.

Platinum: £950 (new!) – this is a brand new tier which consists largely of the UKPC folks throwing¹ everything they can think of at you. As well as the Gold perks, some of what you get here is admission for a plus one, being the very first person through the doors, £50 RDA donation, eight autograph/photo credits, a 3D printed figure of Britannia and your OC, five mass-produced Britannia plushies, a blanket, and one of all the other new pieces of merch not already mentioned. You also have a chance to go up on stage at the opening and closing ceremonies, and to participate in a UKPC-hosted² event. Phew! There will be one Platinum ticket. Yes, one.
¹ Not literally! Health & Safety is a thing at cons, you know...
² One hosted by the con itself, not by an attendee submitting an event.

So, thoughts? Well, most of the prices being held at 2025 levels is a nice touch and very welcome. I'm pleased the UKPC folks have managed to do that, especially keeping Bronze below that psychologically important £100 barrier!

Mind you, putting only the Silver of the main four tiers up, and then by only a tenner, seems a little on the bizarre side. It would have been fantastic PR to keep them all at last year's cost, and the maximum the increase can additionally raise is £750 – a fraction of the running costs of a convention UKPC's size. So this one stumps me a bit.

As for the Platinum ticket? I don't know, really, as it's entirely irrelevant to most of us! In any case, it's only the same few people each year who tended to get Gold, so presumably one of them will get Platinum. As such, I'm going to largely ignore it now I've mentioned it for completeness here.

Will I be attending this year? Same answer as every year! I hope so, but I can't yet be certain. Let's hope for a great attendance for this perennially great convention, though!

Ponyfic Roundup 573

Read it Later story count: 89 (-2)

Words read this week: 17,052

All right, off we go again! I hope you all appreciated my last post being something other than a Ponyfic Roundup. You see, I can still do it! In a couple of weeks' time I shall say goodbye for a bit for Easter, but I'm here for now. Anyway, without further adieu [sic] I shall provide you with the slate for today:

Luck of the Lyrish by Timaeus
A Lesson Never Learned by Workard
Just Look at This Baby by FrontSevens
My Lil Scoots by Hawaiian Summer Splash
There's Something in the Woods by HoofBitingActionOverload

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

My Little Repeats 200.5: the post-S8 shorts

Yes, this is just an excuse to post a pic featuring a hedgehog

Post-S8 FiM shorts

11 Dec 2019 to 26 Feb 2019

My original rating: N/A

IMDb score: N/A

The one(s) with Twilight's fear of ladybirds

Thoughts: At a suggestion from Ghost Mike, herewith a very brief look at the eight shorts that filled the S8-S9 hiatus. In order, we have: "Triple Pony Dare", which is fairly amusing but suffers a bit from shrill Pinkie. "The Great Escape Room", which is less fun and inventive than it ought to have been. "Mystery Voice", which is entertaining but relies on an out-of-nowhere AJ ability. "Rarity's Biggest Fan", which has the unicorn rather exploiting Spike. "Ail-icorn", which is silly but funny, with a worrying ending! "Teacher of the Month", which is full of Best Pony and so glorious almost by definition. "Starlight the Hypnotist", which doesn't do much beyond that sudden ladybird/bug fear. And "Sundae, Sundae, Sundae", which suits Pinkie better and has a cameo from Minty! Overall? At 2-3 minutes, they're quick fun, and although variable in quality they did keep the FiM train ticking over.

Choice quote: Fluttershy: "I don't know. Not even I speak sound effect."

New rating: ★★★ (just)

And now we really are finished with S8! Next time, it will be – quite literally – "The Beginning of the End". Or at least the first half of it...

Ponyfic Roundup 572

Read it Later story count: 91 (nc)

Words read this week: 21,226

Just to let everyone know, if – if – all goes well I will be restarting "My Little Repeats" at some point during the next week. I've decided to write a single post covering the shorts that appeared between S8 and S9 of Friendship is Magic, at least if I can find them all in good nick online. After that it will be back to the main business of the final season of the show. As for today? The slate is:

Only Now by LunaUsesCaps
Applemania by Leafdoggy
Thank You, Doctor by The Wizard of Words
The Jerk That Time Forgot by King of Beggars
Singing to the Moon by uSea

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

Ponyfic Roundup 571

Read it Later story count: 91 (nc)

Words read this week: 6,782

Here we go again with another phenomenal five-fic festival. As I trailed last week, these are all very short as I didn't have a whole week to get through them. And you know what else is very short? This introduction! The stories are:

Friends Forever by Wrangle Wolfe
Mercy by TheNocturnalLoner
There Are Many Gravities by shortskirtsandexplosions
Thankful by LadyKimba
One Night by Mirta

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

Ponyfic Roundup 570: Spotlight on Mothering, Someday

Read it Later story count: 91 (-1)

Words read this week: 47,674

All right, two days late I know, but at least I've recovered enough to actually write this review now! These things are always easier if I like the fic, since then I only have the problem of not letting the review run away from me. This is shaping up to be an exceptionally boring intro para, so let's move on...

Mothering, Someday by Impossible Numbers
Twilight Velvet and Derpy
G4; Drama/Slice of Life; 48k words; May 2020; Everyone

Mare's Day, a tribute to motherhood. Twilight Velvet is the ordinary mother of an extraordinary family; Derpy is the opposite. They normally wouldn't cross paths, but in a town where an outsider can become Princess of Friendship, anything's possible.

Twilight Velvet is off to Ponyville to see her daughter, but she's nervous. She hasn't seen Twily since her coronation, and for reasons she's arranged to take flowers that her daughter will then give to her for Mare's Day. But before that, she encounters a certain wall-eyed grey mare, who she is desperate to avoid telling she's the princess's mother. The two talk and bond and feel their way and learn and don't learn and hint and infer and... well, and eventually they meet Derpy's daughters, who are very different indeed. From each other, and from their mum. This is a story all about insecurities, but despite that it's written in an assured way that isn't afraid to dwell on apparently small domesticities. My favourite thing here, though, is how Derpy is written: I hate the "Derpy is dim" approach, and IN absolutely does not fall into that trap. An excellent, if sometimes deliberately awkward, read about families and their rough edges. A very solid four. ★★★★

As you'd expect, spoilers lie in wait beyond this point!

Delay

I'm not well at the moment, so (trusting that it's a 1-2 day bug) I'll be posting Ponyfic Roundup on Friday. What I will give away is that I liked Impossible Numbers' story.