Ghost Mike's UK PonyCon 2024 Report – Part 2: I'll Chase the Sky · 5:00pm October 21st
People, ponies and ghosts of a certain age will get nostalgia from the Teletext-esque design of the opening slide alone. I know I did. And that clever approach was on point all throughout. 
Part 1 (of 4) can be read here. Where last we left off, we’d had two whopper early panels, plus a surprise fan animation for the opening ceremony. I’d picked up a JowyB Applejack original (albeit an old one) with a signing intention at some point, and had just ducked into the surprise panel Hawthornbunny had kept under wraps until the schedule was revealed. Crafty bunny! 
And that panel was none other than The Magic of Chiptunes. Not only a programmer by trade, Hawthorn is something of a connoisseur of old 80’s/90’s tech, especially the home computers that popularised the British market. Surprisingly, despite being in a side room with three other wide-reaching panels going on, there were a handful of random people on top of nearly all of our group. The side-category of panels that aren’t specifically MLP but can use it as a gateway to make a topic interesting is always neat too, so we were most curious to see where Hawthorn would take it, especially as being socially active and presenting like this was a big step for him.
Well, I think he did a bang-up job. It wasn’t a flashy panel, and there’s no denying he was a mite nervous and clunky in his talking, but it added to the charm more than it took away. The slides themselves contained just enough text for context while leaving most details to come from him (cosplaying as Valley Girl Fluttershy, don’t forget), as they should. He broached it all with contextual bits on what computers and game systems of that era were like in processing power (there was a great example of a low-res pony gif taking up more filesize than the whole Commodore 64). He progressed through examples of how, with minimal sound channels and sometimes lacking the ability to even vary such basic things as frequency, different sounds can still be produced by varying the noise levels, pitch, etc. Even taking three different sound channels and putting them on one chip and alternating to achieve something close enough to the same effect that our brains fill in the rest.
Scientific explanations played straight on the one mitt, screenshots of Pony with captions commenting comedically about the situation on the other… yep, looks like a Pony panel, alright!
In essence, it did what these sorts of panels are supposed to do, in taking the author’s obsession, and making it our own. Cutting to a sound program to generate examples of whatever technique he’d just talked about helped (often his own chiptune renditions of pony songs, of course), as did slides with fun marriages of pictures and captions. Toss in a runner at the expense of the ZX Spectrum, and it honestly whizzed by. Probably not something I’ve sold convincingly (being a niche topic I’m no expert on), but trust me, it had the goods.
Check out Hawthorn’s own recap of this panel if you want a proper deep dive (plus the ability to view the slides back and the sampling of others’ Pony Chiptunes towards the end). I think it’s worth it, covering the gestation, process and delivery as only he can.
Following that, I took another gander at the auction donations, and finally gave something of my own: a Batannia plush from 2022 that I’d gotten as official 2022 con merch (where the theme was Gothic), but came to find surplus to requirements. Not just for getting the Andrea Libman-signed Pinkie that same year, plus a Sunny from the tombola, but primarily because it was a lower-quality one, with asymmetrical wings plus wonkily-proportioned hips. Even though it only cost £17.50 at the time, I don’t like holding onto low-quality stuff, given I don’t play with it, so it just sat in storage. I half-considered giving it to tomorrow’s tombola donations, but decided on here, figuring it might fetch £30.
Once you notice how the particular problems chiptune creators face are very fitting to be cited by the Mane 5 member they’re placed over – of course the shrill and loud Dash would only need to exist, like the Spectrum ZX, to be annoying; bugs are animals; Applejack works with farm hardware; Twilight’s brain pushes beyond its limit like a CPU; Pinkie has a low attention span much like a low bit rate. I’m 50/50 whether that layering was intentional on Hawthorn’s part.
I’d have to wait nearly twenty hours to see that, though. Thanks to dropping that off, I actually missed the start of the voice actor script reading (it started on time for once 
), only catching the last few minutes. Something about Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pipp (played by their actors, of course) being at a party celebrating the con’s 20th anniversary hosted by Britannia (voiced, as usual, by committee member and amateur voice actress Laura Kay), that’s all I could tell you from memory. Watching a recording back now, there’s not much more to it, possibly because it didn’t even last 8 minutes. Dash takes the golden horseshoes scavenger hunt super-energetically, Pipp had every line peppered with algorithm-friendly speak while always being super into the friendship and celebration, and Applejack didn’t have much to do at all, just a few generic friendship platitudes and preparing some apple-based treats. There wasn’t even really a conflict, sans Britannia putting Dash in her place after finding the first horseshoe and saying there were nineteen more to go (they all ended up being part of the revealed statue, adorned to each pony on it, one for each past year). I think Pipp’s concluding statement deserves to be reproduced here.
"This is so going viral! It's not just a statue, it's all about friendship, and sharing the magic with everypony." [breaks into tears] "I love you all! Hashtag 20-years-of-friendship."
It didn’t hit me until writing this up, but I think the script reading was kept small on purpose: the committee must have known there’d be tons of questions, especially for Ashleigh, what with so many more people here. So they weighed the balance to the reading being more of a warm-up, rather than a double-act. Honestly, I don’t mind, especially as the Q&A turned out really darn good.
I must say, the Q&A did rather shift my opinions on these two. I’d sort of taken it as a given that Ashleigh Ball was a bit checked out from the fandom, between her attending cons less than the other Vancouver Mane 7 VAs, and much footage from such having her somewhat lower on energy. It was even possible to presume comparatively low success for her band Hey! Ocean in recent years had filtered into a frustration at this being what people knew her for. After today, that was clearly not true. Oh, she’s not as animated as some others when not in character for sure, but only in the sense of being a bit more mellow and laid back. She’s a bit more reserved, and not as outwardly giddy as some other VAs, but it’s clear she loves her characters, and the show, and us fans. She even stated that the show’s end didn’t hit so hard at the time, between the voice actors not being aware until recording it (this contradicts writer statements for the 200th episode the VAs contributed to, but okay), promotional work some months later, plus Pony Life and the G5 movie prologue thereafter. But now it’s been a fair while (4 years since recording anything, by my count)… she does rather miss it. Something AJ was quick to relate on, what with G5’s abrupt ending mere weeks away (and much further in the past for her), as something that hadn’t sunk in yet, but would soon, though she was rather sad and glum already.
As for AJ, well, you all know how I feel about Pipp. Of course, I never held any of that against the actor; that’s all in the writing, and it was clear even before this con that she loved the character and us as fans. And while my opinion on Pipp as executed hasn’t changed, I was fully won over by how much of an absolute sweetheart AJ was. Anyone who says they didn’t really know what self-love was truly like before MLP, as she did later, has already won me over. And when I got to my question (at 54:38 if you’d rather hear it; Hawthorn found a better audio quality recording without the nearby talking that obscures some questions in the first link – not mine, thankfully – but misses the last 19 mins, and my question by just one…!), I was even more won over. And not just because the VAs were courteous, disciplined and accepting enough to not react to the presence of a ghost at all 👻.
Bronies worldwide may adore Derpy unconditionally. For UK Ponycon attendees, Britannia gets that honour. Her new look this year – extra bits of fur even ended up at the auction tomorrow – even incorporates the trimmed-off fetlocks and heart-shaped hooves of the G5 ponies. That’s dedication to the role. Small wonder she’s stuck around all these years!
I asked how AJ approached playing a singer/influencer, both in terms of technical things like inflection and dialect, but also just her thought process, in terms of making the character both entertaining but also a good person pony/role model. I was thus careful to phrase it to not be asking about writing decisions, and that it didn’t come across as any kind of bash against tech or influencer characters for children. Ember had okay’d my phrasing beforehand. After saying it was a big struggle, AJ opened with a hot take (her words, not mine) that she thinks having tech in G5 was a good thing, being the world we live in now*, pointing to all the cameras and phones around.
* As someghost who works in interactive mobile apps for kids aged 2-4 or 4-8 (depending on the app), often learning goal focused ones, this is a very relevant viewpoint to me, and one I feel is important to get right. Partly why its execution in the show bothers me, but also why I’m impressed by AJ’s answer. Because it is the world kids today live in. We can’t deny that, but instead need to use it correctly to challenge them.
She saw Pipp as a reflection of the more modern struggles, using her phone and music to connect. More specifically, she saw Pipp as somepony with a lot of energy and love that she can’t keep contained. She needs to put it out there, and saying it isn’t enough, it needs to be sung. Off me responding “she’s nothing if not genuine!” (which I 100% meant 
), AJ further said that the challenge was avoiding Pipp feeling vapid or self-obsessed, as opposed to one with simply so much to share, that as many as possible need to see how amazing not just she is, but how amazing they are. I was very thankful, and it taught me a lot approaching playing a character like her; while I still think Pipp as executed is… let’s go with whiffy, I can for sure see the potential she’s responding to (and which, honestly, I do think she did a fine job bringing out what she could from the scripts).
There were plenty of other great answers, even accounting for typical “what’s your fav x?” or ones Ashleigh Ball has answered many times before, with some of my favourites being:
- At least to perform, Ashleigh prefers Applejack, as Dash's rasp can be taxing on the voice in long sessions. Especially when singing or doing unique things, like the in-character impressions of the Mane 5 in "Newbie Dash". I was late enough that I could only ask one question, so off the above earlier, I dropped asking had she ever thrown out or broken her voice playing Dash.
- She liked the movie songs the most, I believe? When asked favourite season, she also cited the first for being first, figuring out the characters, and just having such a great, fresh, fun time.
- Once, she did a Zoom call with Billy Bob Thornton and his daughter (he spoke about “The Cutie Map” in an interview once), and he was gobsmacked to learn she wasn't a southerner. Yep, her Southern dialect and twang as our favourite
background ponyfarm pony is that convincing.
- For the lullaby "A Special Tune", AJ recorded it with the studio lights turned way down, to get the right ambience. She joked that she thought "okay, was my first take too upbeat?" at the time.
- AJ and the other Gen 5 VAs weren't even aware they were voice replacing, and certainly weren't told to voice match. This fits: the staff wouldn't want them to focus on matching, but on simply owning the character (I remember the strain on the replacement VAs in Pokémon’s dub for a few seasons), so the voice and casting directors alone would worry about hiring someone close enough that the difference wouldn't stick out when not side-by-side. For my money, I think it worked: Izzy is the only one where the replacement VA cannot escape the prior shadow (though Hitch does suffer bereft of the nuance James Marsden brought).
- “A Little Horse” was a fun challenge (personally, I didn't find Pipp’s sick voice convincing, but that's more on the script), and "Portrait of a Princess" was another contender for her favourite. She also really digs that Pipp is into scary stuff, a fun-yet-believable trait outside of music, social media and her relationship with Zipp.
- After the first MYM read-through (remotely, because late 2020), AJ fretted privately because she felt her voice and Ana Sani's for Izzy were far too similar. "Oh, she's so much more talented than me, I'm so gonna be fired", all that. Years later, she learned (I think at a con panel they were both at?) that Ana thought exactly the same after said call. Something great to laugh about after the fact. She also stated at various points that she would consider Izzy Pipp’s "bestie" and Ana Sani as the colleague she most looked up to.
Applejack may be a farmer, not a baker, but you’d better believe she was shouting corrections at the methods used until I got her to comprehend how pre-recorded videos worked. She spent the rest of it grumbling that all they had to do was call her up instead. Ponies have nothing if not high standards when it comes to food!
Once that absolute whirlwind wrapped up, as the con began to transition to the adult-only evening, with stalls closing up shop, following a refresher and a brief detour to observe that my auction-donated Batannia had been put up with the other lots, I dropped into the main lecture theatre for the Great Britannia Bake Off, the con’s perennial Great British Bake Off spoof since its gestation during the UK PonyconOnline days. While the pre-recorded video is uploaded for viewing later (no live baking on the venue, see), I still found this to be much funnier when watched with others last year. Nothing much to add: once again, Laura Kay’s editing, trafficking in comic timing, awkward pauses held just right, quick cutaways – normally an editing style I’m not in favour of much – just really works. Well, besides the air-fryer fad that has swept the British Isles in the last year (and Ireland, as I well know ) getting a workout throughout, that’s new. There were plenty of in-jokes last year’s results and trying to better (or worse) them, especially as regards food not turning out the way it should and whether it’s even edible. After viewer response, Bexi tied with Ember/Reskell, and Bexi gave them the win as she’d won last year. Reskell was quick to disclose that their “result” was thrown out soon afterwards, though she withheld this until after we’d voted. Clever cogs!
I’d been carrying around the JowyB Applejack original I’d bought earlier for ages, and as Hawthorn also had a lot of extra gear plus his laptop from Chiptunes Land earlier, we both dashed back to the hotel to drop off what we didn’t need. Afterwards, he headed back while I ducked into McDonalds for some quick calories. I took it to go, but didn’t head straight for the venue. And not just because they wouldn’t have let the food in. I’d been keeping an eye out on Pokémon Go for the freshly-added Stonjourner, which only spawns in the UK (because Stonehenge), and this was the first free window I had. I spotted one just a slight detour off the venue, so I veered off course, caught it (huge CP of only 2500+ – now I just need the other gender plus one with 82+% IVs…!), then headed back, finishing the food just before arriving. Nothing like good timing! 
Now about 19:30, the music concert was in full swing, as was the alcohol and cocktail bar nearby. Given it’s not my thing, and past some PrinceWhatever, I can barely tell my fandom music in isolation, let alone a concert where you can barely hear the lyrics, I detoured into the back half of The World of Pony Games. I’d been expecting a plain showcase of the obvious ones, but it was quite well-researched, addressing how successful ones are a collaborative effort not just between a team, but fans too (one game subs out fan artwork for its main menu screen every few months). There was also the importance of open beta to get feedback and how all this allows some to reach completion despite heavy ambitions (one took seven years but made it recently). Fun games included a Castlevania-type one, an open-world one with not just Ponyville but most Equestrian locales, and more. It wrapped up by letting viewers try a few, and I put my show knowledge to good use at a round of PonyGuessr (not a game they featured otherwise), which was neat.
There was also this one that used its hook of a stoned unicorn both for gameplay mechanics – teleportation and limited time travel to get around – but which also reduced the spritework and animation involved. Always made your limitations and shortcuts feel organic, folks!
I didn’t find out until later, but at some point, AJ Bridel had come back and sang onstage with PrinceWhatever for a spell. As I did catch some of Anneli Heed and her daughter (Swedish voices of Izzy and Misty respectively) rocking out “I’m Lookin’ Out For You” two years ago, that gutted me a bit. One of our group did record her singing one TYT song, Monster Party, onstage, so that was something cool to watch back. Back in the present, I caught up with most of the rest of the crew at the tail end of Bexi’s Beats #CHEESEFEST, the debut DJ event for the con’s wonderful main organiser. But soon it was time for one of our favourite events – the Pub Quiz! Actual pub not involved.
While the Worcester group has a thing for “doing horribly” (read: doing well-ish) despite forming a group far too large, this year we weren’t as big as before (maybe a dozen?), and we actually found ourselves more on the ball with tricky questions than usual. It helped that on top of Round 3 being a picture round, Round 4, the one on G1-3 toys that is usually a disaster for all but the group formed mostly of stall vendors selling those same toys, adopted a unique format of all letters taken out of the answers name that would be in the word My Little Pony, and tasking us to fill in the blanks. So it was possible to letter-logic answers in too. A newer one of our group was also quite helpful with the round on the con’s history, having attended an earlier panel on it/seeing some info somewhere (can’t remember which). In the end, we tied for 3rd with 23/40 points, not quite the full marks the usual winners got with their 42 (two questions could give double points for full marks), but a very impressive showing all the same!
“Fluttershy, you know that artistic technique of making someone smaller by having them wear clothing too big?”
“Oh, um, yes Mikey. It’s often used as a visual representation of one feeling out of their depth or otherwise insecure. What about it?”
“Nothing, nothing, just thinking.” [eyes dart to the quiz slides on the screen]
Almost 10:00 now, and while some left if they had a lengthy commute, like Loganberry, most stayed for Cartoon Riff, the regular riff on terrible animation, run by PiratPeter from the animation panel nearly half-a-day prior (yeppers, you’d better believe I was running on protoplasmic adrenaline by this point 
). Relative to last year, this was broken up with more commentary and skips, which made it funnier. Also a necessity, given the two featured ones were 75 and 60 minutes long. The first was an Amazon Prime animated movie, Animal Adventures: Save the Forest (trailer here), animated entirely in Unreal Engine with out-of-the-box assets. So not only do you have game physics whenever objects were tumbling down slopes (and there’s a lot of that), you had terrible lip-sync, hilarious one-note walk and run cycles, laughably bad dialogue in the Over the Hedge-type plot, no lighting adjustments between sets (down to the Blade Runner-type city at one point). This from a 2024 film, one with a 8.0 user rating on IMDb where the two critic reviews are clearly AI written.
Speaking of AI, the second cartoon was a sampler from the gluttony of animal-centric cartoons flooding YouTube, Super Elephant’s Epic Rescue Mission, one actually written, voiced and blocked by AI. It did, at least, lead to more ironic enjoyment as when a cow and T-Rex face off and display flamethrowers, electrical zaps, teleportation, the list goes on. On top of no visual continuity from shot to shot, let alone scene to scene. Then we get cows dressed up as Spider-Man and Batman, because of course. Whatever bad stuff I've said about G5, I take it all back, if kids are exposed to this on the regular. But it was topical, and made for great riffing from all.
Finally, it being 23:00, we all split. A very jam-packed Saturday, barely a dull moment, and outside of buying almost nothing, one I was very happy with. Hawthorn was equally happy, and not just from the success of his panel either. And with how manageable my appetite had been, enough that I barely mentioned the regular hydrating, toilet break and snacking throughout, I was no less excited for tomorrow, even if UKPC’s Sunday is never as dense or as long as Saturday.
A time where home computers were just crawling out of being expensive paperweights?
A time… before Pony?
Say it ain't so, Applejack! Say it ain't so!
Next time, in Part 3 (of 4): The British game spoofs continue with Taskmaster getting an even truer representation than ever before. Then, the longest charity auction yet, wisely set earlier in the day so people don’t miss closing ceremonies while queueing for their winnings, leads to a historic moment in UKPC history.
As always, Mike, a very entertaining read! As before, I'll pick out just a few things to pick up on...
As an oldie who was actually around in the 1980s and who's been into retrocomputing (as opposed to the more specific retrogaming) for over a quarter of a century, I may have got even more out of this panel than most people, and absolutely I agree it was very well done. A huge success for Hawthorn!
Oh indeed, weren't we all? No disrespect intended to Ashleigh Ball, who as you noted was clearly very much into all this still, but AJ Bridel was really the star of the convention on some ways. She's not Elley-Ray Hennessy (probably for the best -- can you imagine two Elley-Rays?!) but her sheer enthusiasm came through again and again.
It does always seem to end up that way. For readers unfamiliar with UKPC, the evening session isn't officially off-limits to (accompanied) children, but very few young families do stay to hear the likes of Blackened Blue at full blast. Strange, that...
I don't think Archer even grumbled at us for having an oversize team this year. I fear we may have become a UKPC fixture in ourselves!
I was a bit sad to miss the Cartoon Riff, especially given who was hosting it and his easy style being perfect for such a panel. I could in theory have stayed given that the bus to Derby runs 24/7... but in truth I think I made the sensible decision.
Next time around, we'll see whether your battered Batannia did indeed manage to creep up to the £30 mark.
I (very unwisely) clicked on the link to Super Elephant’s Epic Rescue Mission and I have now lost all will to live. Going to go take an antidote (The Iron Giant) now.
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Easy to say to a friend, but that is a very heartwarming thing to hear, bud, thank you.
Truth be told, this part worried me a bit, being mostly regular con standby events, possibly less exciting to recap and not as all-encompassing to read for those who don't go to UKPC. And I perhaps went overboard on the Q&A part. But hey, someone has to.
The moment where she shouted out "I love you all!" was a knockout. Tis a shame to know Bahia Watson got a bit of a rough deal at Czequestria a few months ago, but AJ showed, much like Pipp, how to ride and milk a crowd's enthusiasm to genuine adoration and shared joy.
In retrospect, this makes sense (otherwise Anneli and her daughter couldn't have done that duet of "I'm Lookin' Out For You" two years ago). But I guess it just shows how much the bar and loud music stage dominate one's impression of the Saturday evening.
I don't recall either. Of course, we were not as big as last year, and were all the way in the back, easier to miss/ignore.
No, I think you did too, especially given how early you rose that morning (and did on the Sunday, presumably). It was fun, but mostly for being a wind-down to the day. Won't last past that context, even if the tighter focus and faster pace improved it over last year's divisive one (which I liked, though I know many didn't).
She may be lower quality, but if there's one thing she ain't, it's battered. Basically sat in the plastic bag she was bought with for two years, in a drawer with my other toys not on display. One would be hard pressed to find a better-condition one of that quality tier, I'd say. But I get your point.
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Sorry about that. But you can't say you weren't warned! 
And smart choice of a counterbalance animated masterpiece, at least.
Maybe I shouldn't have linked it.
100% intentional.
Actually, Dash is the ZX Spectrum because rainbows (the system was named for its ability to do color graphics).
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG
ClearHeart Apple has a clearer recording of the script reading and Q&A (although it's missing the last 10 minutes of the Q&A)
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No, I am the sort who would always choose to know the Awful Truth over Comfortable Lies, even when it cranks up my misanthropy and despair to 11.
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Silly of me to doubt.
And that is a more fitting reason for Dash, unless one wants to milk Worst Pony jokes for all they're worth, in which case go with my original assumption.
More, actually; the video I linked was 72 mins, while these two add up to 55 and overlap a little. My question is missed (by one minute…!
), so the above link will still have to suffice. But good to note! I've added them.
And checking the end provided extra details for a joke that will become relevant in the report's final part – even two weeks on, you're still finding a way to help me out.
That's awesome!
The poster of Britannia as a character through the various generations is a nice touch.~
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what has been seen cannot now be unseen
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"Rope" bridge.
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Isn’t it just? It (as in, this design) is not new for this year either, though I couldn’t say offhand whether it debuted last year or the year before. But it was definitely there last year, as my report last year there shows.
I especially love how they even got in the short-livid Gen 2, which had no animated media outside of cutscenes for one PC game and only lasted 2 years in the States (it held on longer in Europe off somewhat better toy sales). Many histories and art representations skip right over it, but not us!
The painterly textures used to emulate the CG look of G5 on the far left is a nice touch too.
I hope they keep using this banner for years to come – there won’t be any new generation next year forcing an update, anyway!