Ponyville Ciderfest 2022 Reflections Part 3: Sunday and Final Thoughts

Another day, another Starbuck’s run, but also the final day of the con. My first panel of the final day was “Pony Life is Magic.” I had been avoiding Pony Life up to this point because I hated the art style and thought it was going to be another Teen Titans Go situation. It was fun watching Pony Life with an audience and hearing the panelists and fellow audience members laughing at and making fun of the show. Not sure if I would enjoy Pony Life if watching it by myself, but maybe I will give it a try one day.

I went to “Cartoon Court” next. They had cosplayers dress up and pretend to be the ponies while the panelists were the judge, the prosecution, and the defense. The audience was the jury of course. I had to stand the whole time because there were no seats, that's how popular this panel was. Overall, this ended up being a fun one.

Since I enjoyed MelodyBrony’s set so much I bought one of his CDs. He even signed the booklet! I wanted to get a PrinceWhateverer CD too, but I wasn't able to get one. Kicking myself for not buying one the night before or for spending too much time in the charity auction. I hope he puts one up on his website someday.

Speaking of my regrets, I regret not going to Film Bronies. I was having so much fun bidding at the Charity Auction that I got distracted…sigh. I didn’t win anything at the Charity Auction. It was exciting to bid and it was interesting seeing how expensive some of the items got and the memes that were born such as Floor Spatula and returning memes like Milk-waukee.

The Charity Auction ran late, as is tradition, with Closing Ceremonies happening after that. We found out that Ciderfest would be returning next year and that the theme would be about writing with an interactive story component that one could choose to participate in. As a writer, I’m happy that this is the theme. No dates were announced. Hopefully I will be able to go.

So, overall I did have a good time at Ciderfest. Yes, I have my regrets, but I realize now that I was being too hard on myself. I still wished I would have hung out or talked to people more though. I haven’t hung out with people at a con since BronyCon 2019 and even then I still sucked at conversation like I always do. That is not to say I can’t have fun on my own though because I can and I did and there are definitely times where I want to be on my own, doing the things that I want to do. I just think that sometimes it would be nice to hang out with someone for a little bit like the RLPV meetup at the Cheesecake Factory during BC 2019 or that time I got to talk to and play a game of TSSSF with a friend from Discord during BC 2018.

I really do enjoy going to cons, but there is always the fear that if I do too many I will get burnt out and not want to go anymore. There is also the feeling that they get in the way of other solo vacation ideas that I have and I perhaps should cut down on convention trips. My brief visit to Chicago before heading onward to Ciderfest showed to me that I can still enjoy “normie” things like visiting a museum or walking around an urban park. Yet there is still a part of me that only wants to do pony cons. That’s how I felt after WCPC 2022, I literally felt that pony cons were the only kind of solo vacation I wanted to do from now on, to just go from con to con. I don’t know what I will do. I do know however that I want to do PVCF 2023, if possible. I love the writing theme and as a writer I feel compelled to go. I don’t currently see myself going to any other cons in 2023. I will see how I feel after PVCF 23 whether I want to take 2024 off or if I want to do that year’s Whinny or Cider. Perhaps I will be able to fit in one of my many non-pony trip ideas into 2023/2024 or maybe my mind will change and I will only ever want to do pony cons for the rest of my life/the life of the fandom. We will see.