UK PonyCon 2022, Saturday 2: Especially when they're screaming loudly

Not visible: yours truly shaking like a leaf in the Q&A queue

Half past three brought a must-see event: the VA script reading and Q&A panel. UK PonyCon had reacted to Kelly Sheridan having to pull out by playing an absolute blinder: not only was the very popular Anneli Heed still on the bill, but Andrea Libman too! This was a huge deal: the first time ever that a Mane Six VA had appeared at a British Pony convention in the flesh. As such, it was unsurprising that this panel was moved from the already large cinema room to the Mane Stage itself to allow as many people as possible to join in the fun. Suffice to say there were plenty of us!

UKPC's very own Bexi had written the script for the reading, a very cute and sensibly fairly short affair involving Britannia playing host to certain ponies – which oddly enough had great relevance to the Guests of Honours' characters – for her birthday party. It was silly and fun and perfect, and I won't forget in a hurry Fluttershy's meltingly adorable reaction to the dogs she found at the Britannia residence. I'd only ever once seen one of these panels even on video, as back when FiM was a live series there were contractual issues that meant recording and posting official VAs doing them was banned.

Then it was Q&A time. This was done in a straightforward fashion: you cleared your question with a member of staff while you stood in the queue, then asked the VIPs out loud when you reached the front. There were a lot of questions, and I was impressed by how much thought had gone into some of them. Somewhat against my expectations, I'd taken the plunge to ask a question myself, although mine was rather less interesting: not being able to think of anything clever, I just asked them how it felt when they heard their own characters' parts in other languages. ("So much fun!" was the summary.)

Probably wise not to let Sprout near the booze...

After a while it became clear that time would be a little tight, so questioners were asked to go to "quickfire" mode. In all honesty, I'm not sure that this made much practical difference; certainly several questioners still asked one or more follow-ups or clarifications. Happily the GOHs were kind enough to keep going until everyone queuing up had spoken to them. I was still in a kind of reverie: I had spoken to Actual Fluttershy! This isn't at all to diminish Anneli Heed, I really must stress that... but Andrea Libman would have been my absolute number one choice for a con guest.

How do you top something like that? Well, you don't, really. So it was a bit of a quieter session after that. Having decided against the Ultimate MLP Collectors' Quiz on the grounds there was another quiz later on, a small group of us decided to head for the Spider Toss. This was described as being inspired by the "HOW MANY POINTS DO I RECEIVE?" game in "Luna Eclipsed", but I guess we'll never know as either it wasn't where we thought it was or it wasn't happening at all. At any rate, we couldn't find it. A small disappointment, but never mind.

At about six o'clock the vendor hall was blocked off as usual for the Saturday evening. This had the unfortunate side-effect of blocking access to the one toilet with a drinking fountain; the big water cooler that had been provided in 2021 was absent this year, an absence several of my friends also remarked upon with disappointment – especially as the still-accessible vending machine charged prices high even by event standards. (These would not have been set by the convention, of course. Nevertheless, £2.30 for a 500mL bottle of water is not an attractive price, to say the least.)

"Or will you still be here screaming every word?" "...PARDON?"

Slightly to my surprise, after a "dry" UKPC last year, this time the pop-up bar was back for the evening, serving a range of (often extremely sweet) cocktails, cider and a few snacks. Why were so many people still around? Because the evening concert was about to start! Lock the door, turn up the beat, it's alright to party. This had also been absent from last year's still-Covid-affected convention, so it was great to see it back. Blackened Blue started things off, with an extremely energetic set. A heavy style for a seven o'clock opener, though, and it was maybe no surprise that virtually no families stuck around once daytime events were over. Still, he did give us a rocked-out version of "Danger, Danger"!

Next up was PrinceWhateverer, who as usual threw himself right into things. You do wonder what any new venue staff thought when they realised the kind of music these My Little Pony fans enjoyed of a Saturday night! Even I decided to experience just a bit of it from the fringes of the... well, "mosh pit" makes it sound like there was lots of aggressive body contact, which there really wasn't – I wouldn't have gone near it otherwise. But certainly right up close by the stage. It was... loud. But honestly, I am so glad I did it, just for a little while. "Elemental" and Prince's crowd-pleasing set-closer "Solidarity" were highlights.

And then there was a little treat: a short set by not only Anneli Heed but her daughter too! This was very cute and provided a little breather from the really loud stuff. We had official music, we had a capella, we even had a little opera! After this came another newcomer to the UK PonyCon concerts: Koa! A very popular choice indeed, whose set definitely went down very well, with a nice mixture of new songs and classics. She was perhaps unsurprisingly part of a double bill in the programme with her real-life husband General Mumble. Now there's another guy who, like Prince, has been doing this Pony music game for a great many years now.

'Cause we're running out of options and we're desperate to begin end

The concert was running slightly behind schedule, so I actually missed the end of Koa's set plus all of Mumble's and closing act BassPon3. Why? Pub Quiz, that's why! The inimitable Archer was back with this, and with a slightly longer timeslot to fill it was a little less rushed than in previous years. Our team did not have a custard-related name this year. (Pause for readers to recover from fainting.) This time we couldn't resist "Where's the cake?" and I have to underline that it is a dreadful lie that we answered "Otto von Bismarck" to the questions about G2 accessories we had no clue about. Well, not to all of them.

I was able to stay for all the questions and answers, but had to dash just before most people left as I had an 11:10 bus to catch! I mentioned earlier in this series that Nottingham Victoria Bus Station isn't that appealing. Well, its tired old glass and concrete is even less so late on a Saturday night. Not threatening, but certainly not somewhere I wanted to linger. As the Goose Fair was on, 473 people joined my bus in the city centre. (Yes, of course I counted them. :P ) Still, though packed the bus wasn't actually unpleasant and I ended up back in my hotel room at almost exactly midnight. After a great day, I was asleep in minutes.

Next time: Better get nervous, better get tense