UK PonyCon 2025 report, part three: Saturday, second half

Imalou (left) and Rebecca Shoichet (centre) answer the questions

Once I'd finished Languages of Equestria, it was time for the unmissable Special Guest Q&A and Script Reading. As usual, the latter was short but amusing, with Rebecca Shoichet demonstrating why she's a professional VA and most of us aren't. The question session was almost perfectly timed, with just a couple of minutes remaining after the last person had asked their queries. I don't remember anything earth-shattering in Rebecca or Imalou's answers, though the latter had some fun details about getting a certain red pony (Sprout) approved by Hasbro.

The freebies table had some fun little things by now, so I made sure to leave more stuff myself as I picked up a Sunny Pez dispenser. Because why not? Also some of the Chinese Kayou trading cards that have recently started appearing all over the place. These were mostly donated by James, whose attempts to practically throw packs of them at people became somewhat amusing by the final Monday morning! I didn't want any more UKPC merch, so that wasn't a factor. Also, by now I'd got the water dispenser in the breakout room to work properly: for some reason it took forever to start actually dispensing.

There wasn't a great deal that appealed to me in the early evening, which was a mild shame but not something I was too fussed about. I still have no idea why boba tea is supposed to be so fascinating, so I skipped Bexi's panel with that name, and while I was mildly attracted by the idea of a G4 fan-made videos panel, I wasn't attracted enough to prioritise it over some more stalls shopping. I ended up buying... well, not much this time. As you'll see when I eventually reach the merch haul pic, it was a case of slim pickings, something which is no reflection on the vendors.

This photo entirely fails to capture the lively, upmarket atmosphere. And no, I didn't win on the Monopoly

Getting evening food on a Saturday night is always a fraught endeavour. The Wetherspoons pub in the station was packed solid and had bouncers on the door by six o'clock. This is not what my local small-town pubs are like! I had to tell them we were looking for food, and they let us in. We then came out again sharpish as there wasn't a table to be had for love nor money. Nor mayonnaise (bing bong). The Dragon was still out as Britain's Got Talent was on to day 753 or something.

So a few of us ended up in the McDonald's on the New Street ramp. I think it was Bridle, Oily, Mike, Hawthorn and me; apologies if I've missed someone! It was nice to be able to talk to Mike properly for the first time since he'd made it, but other than the friends chat and the inevitable Big Mac I wasn't that keen on the place. It was incredibly busy and we only got a table by basically shoving large bags of ponies on the shelf and trying with varying success to repel non-convention people.

After a while it was back to the venue! UKPC had a second music event this time, the Forest Fest. This turned out to be an almost complete non-event for me because of timing. There was some kind of delay and it took ages before any music began. When it did, DJ Ben Love started with a wub that almost knocked me off my feet and went on from there. I stayed outside looking at a map of part of the Alps that someone had left in the bar area. No, I don't know why either. Maybe it was a clue, though to what I couldn't say.

Props to the bar for having cider. Unprops for having crisps at £2.50

And now, the bit that really mattered: Archer's Pub Quiz! This is a hilarious event run by one of the very few (maybe the only one) to have attended every single UK PonyCon. She asks 40 questions across all gens, split into four rounds of fiendishness such as colour-reversed symbols/cutie marks, and the team that answers Derpy correctly the most wins. In our case, we managed to include "Batman" as an answer in tribute to the absent Alli, but still somehow messed up an obvious "Night Glider" answer by putting "Night Light". Still, our team ("Kylie Minogue Tesco Edition") ended up joint third, our usual position. I took zero photos here. Go me.

I had to go at that point, and I was sorry to miss the Cartoon Riff with the Titanic cartoon featuring rapping dogs. There were probably other cartoons involved, but that one matters in cinematic history. I was less fussed about the late-night unofficial panel with Ember, basically roasting every pony. I'm told it was fun and I'm almost certainly in a minority of one on this, but if you're going to make a point of having a fully family-friendly convention, which UKPC does, an "unofficial, wink wink" 18+ event in the middle of the night just so the host can swear a lot seems kind of missing that point. I'd have had no problems had it been a fully casual thing in a pub somewhere.

Anyway, I was in a good mood regardless. As the con was so close to home this year I had decided I'd be going, well, home for Saturday night, thus saving about a trillion bits on hotel costs. For some bizarre reason the train was perfectly on time and had no yelling football fans; I was rather disconcerted. I was even more disconcerted not to have people shouting below my window until 4 am, although as I have a garden that would have been rather concerning. I had a bite and a drink, flicked through the Worcester Shires Discord, and ended up sleeping reasonably well. Early start tomorrow!

DJ Ben Love spins the decks, or whatever these people do

Next time: The morning burn