Ponyville Ciderfest 2022 Reflections Part 1: Intro and Friday · 3:44am Dec 2nd, 2022
And so another pony con has come and gone for me. The post con depression is hitting me as I type this. It was only a couple hours after closing ceremonies when I started writing down these recollections, though by the time I am finished I’m sure much more time will have passed since the end of the con. I enjoyed myself overall, but I can’t help but feel like there are things that I wish I would have done differently. I wanted to go so badly after WCPC 22’s closing ceremonies, but in the months that followed I agonized over whether or not I should go due to the dates upon which the convention fell as well as a feeling that I was being “excessive” for going to another con in the same year. I did finally talk to someone about this, but by that time I had derailed my own hype train with all my worrying and I had spent money on stupid crap I didn’t need as a consolation prize in case I couldn’t go to PVCF this year, so I had wasted money I could have saved for PVCF. Thankfully, I was still able to afford to go to PVCF 22. I was never able to fully get my hype train back on track though, leading me to be in a weird mood the whole convention. I would go from enjoying myself to being really hard on myself and feeling down because I didn’t go to some event I initially wanted to go to or didn't buy something I had really wanted. While this blog will indeed include moments where I will wallow in my own regrets, I will highlight the moments that genuinely made me happy too. Just thought I would put that out there to set the tone for this series of blogs.
Day 1: Friday
After a Starbucks coffee run, I went to opening ceremonies. It was a good kick-off to the con and I liked how they had people play the con mascots like at WCPC 22. After that I went to the vendor hall where I bought a couple of pony tags from Chocolate Pony, who I previously purchased tags from way back at BronyCon. Leaving the vendor hall I then went to “Animating Live!”, which was a panel where we got to see argodaemon mess around in SFM for a bit doing stuff like Princess Cadance getting hit by a cupcake rocket and EQG Sunset Shimmer petting Derpy evilly/performing an exorcism on Derpy. This panel was not what I expected, but it was pretty fun. I had lunch at some point after this over at the 3rd Street Market Hall. I had a Sante Fe Hot Dog and some cheese curds. The cheese curds were good, but the hot dog wasn’t that great. The next panel I saw was “How It’s Made: PMV Edition.” It was an interesting panel.
I saw “Basics of Plush, with Gleamy Dreams” after that. It was cool to hear how she makes plushies and how much hard work goes into making one. I initially was going to go to the gala after that, but I ended up going to “Riffponies!” instead. It was basically a panel where we watched videos and the panelists made fun of them. The audience was making fun of the videos too. It was mostly G1 stuff, but there was also this random made for kids video from 1986 called “Show Off!” that was about doing party tricks. It was a pretty fun time.
I think it was after this that I had dinner over at Miller’s. I love that place. I think this was the night where I had the double cheddar cheeseburger with fries and it was really good. If I ever get to go to PVCF again, I’ll try the chips next time for the sake of variety. After that I went to the AD Vendor Hall. The line was really long, but it moved faster than Whinny City 2022 and PVCF 2018’s AD Vendor Hall lines did. After agonizing over which daki to buy, I bought an Autumn Blaze one. After buying her, I immediately took her back to my room.
The last panel I attended on Friday was “Horse Famous After Dark.” It was kinda funny hearing community guests saying lewd stuff.
I was going to end the night with Trotter's, but I felt weird going in there when there was only a half hour left until they closed for the night, so I didn't go. I would come to regret that decision.