UK PonyCon 2026 reports coming soon, but first...

 ...a couple of pieces of news direct from the excellent Reskell on the UKPC Discord! First of all, the total raised for the RDA was:

£10,292.55

Yes, that exact! Of that, £6,038 came from the Charity Auction (limited to 100 lots this year, as I'll explain later) and the rest came from Sponsor upgrades, the RDA tombola, and various other things.

Secondly, this was the biggest UK PonyCon ever! Not only did it have a record number of stallholders (about 90) but it also saw a record attendance of:

1,750

This in fact does not make it merely a UKPC record. It makes it the highest attendance for a My Little Pony convention in UK history! The previous mark was roughly shared by UK PonyCon 2024, BUCK 2013 and BUCK 2014, all of which had numbers in the 1,300–1,400 range.

As the Princess of the Night would say: Huzzah! 

The 2026 UK PonyCon opening animation!

UK PonyCon 2026 Opening Animation!

This animation was played during the opening ceremony for UK PonyCon at the weekend. As you'll see, longtime con mascot Britannia is being joined by some new friends! I need to keep reminding myself that Berry Scone pronounces her second name to rhyme with "cone", since in my neck of the woods the baked good is usually pronounced to rhyme with "gone"!

There was a panel later on discussing some of the making of the animation, although I'm afraid the clip from the animatic we saw was an at-the-con exclusive so it's not on YouTube. The song by Blackened Blue was also played live by the man himself during the convention's closing ceremony, which was a well-kept secret that was extremely well received in the hall.

There will of course be the usual con report posts in due course, but I can definitely say that this was an excellent UK PonyCon and that everyone who helped to make it so deserves a round of applause. And in the case of the committee, a very long sleep! 

Off to UK PonyCon I go!

It's that time of year again, and so I'll be spending this weekend in Leicester for the 22nd iteration of UK PonyCon, the world's longest-running My Little Pony convention. As always I'm looking forward to it greatly – and in spite of my thin postings here this year, you definitely will be getting the usual report at some point in November. See you in a bit!

My Little Repeats 208: "Frenemies"

A visually inventive episode in the way you can't take for granted by this point

S9E08: "Frenemies"

18 May 2019

My original rating: ★★★★★

IMDb score: 8.9

The one with straw dolls

Thoughts: IMDb ratings are even less use than usual by this point in Friendship is Magic, but there's no doubting that "Frenemies" was very well received in 2019. I was interested to see whether it held up now we know the truth about "Grogar". For the most part, I think it does, as the main storyline is about the Legion of Doom. They're all good, funny but with that edge of darkness, and they combined to provide a really great song in "Better Way to be Bad". The episode was well paced, too, with even the Rusty Bucket sections not really letting things flag. As I've noted before, in G1 it was North Star, not Gusty, who took the Bell, but that's minor here. You know what? I'm going to be generous and say this is a 4.5-star episode still. And as I don't give half stars? It's keeping that five. This may or may not be the last perfect rating I give for FiM, of course!

Choice quote: Tirek: "Welcome back, baby!"

New rating: ★★★★★

Next up will be "Sweet and Smoky", which is a Fluttershy-heavy episode and therefore extremely important. The two go together. But will it be extremely good? At some point, we shall find out!

And yes, I will still be writing here about UK PonyCon!

I am well aware that I have still not put up my post about "Frenemies". It is coming, and once more I am going to commit to a date. It will be up by the end of 11th October, a week hence. You bet I am going to get to the end of Season 9!

Also, as the subject line says, the usual UK PonyCon convention report will be up after the con. It's later than usual this year, so that won't be until November, but – as the meme says – it's happening!

All this and Imalou too!

Not content with bringing us both Tabitha St. Germain and Andrea Libman, UK PonyCon 2026 will also feature a very welcome returnee from last year: none other than Imalou! She was extremely popular with attendees in Birmingham in 2025, and was very complimentary about UKPC itself in her closing ceremony speech. That rounds out an incredibly strong trio of guests of honour!

UK PonyCon completes the Manes (kind of)

 UK PonyCon has announced guests for this year's convention at the end of October: both Andrea Libman, who has been at UKPC before, and Tabitha St. Germain, who hasn't. The latter was announced in the past but had to pull out due to work commitments. Let's hope lightning doesn't strike twice where that is concerned! Unsurprisingly, there was a great deal of excitement when the identities of the guests were concerned. Very impressive work by the UK PonyCon team!

As for my title? Well, if Tabitha St. Germain does indeed make it, she adds Rarity to the existing UKPC alumni: Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie (Andrea Libman), Applejack and Rainbow Dash (Ashleigh Ball), and Twilight (Rebecca Shoichet). Six out of six! And as Ghost Mike pointed out, you can also add Spike owing to Tabitha St. Germain voicing him in Pony Life. A full house!