My experience at BronyCAN

Well, my trip to BronyCAN was pretty well. I got some posters, some fanart, and a few T-shirts.

The first day was spent driving. And driving. And driving even longer, until I reached the border. I was practically waved through.

That should have been my first hint something was wrong.

The rest of the day before noon was spent waiting in line, trying to find a damned parking place in downtown Richmond (you Canadians need more parking spaces), and meeting The_Rainbow_Brony, my editor. Nice guy. Waiting in line took half an eternity, because I had forgotten that, as a sponsor, I could skip it. I then had to wait four hours to check in to the hotel, by which time I had learned that I had missed the Ice Cream Social, the thing that tickets were sold out to. I had a ticket. It was wasted.

Then, as I am moving things into the elevator to go up to my third-story, end-of-the-hallway room, I meet several of the animators, my Editor again, and Skipsy of all people. The latter I met going up in the elevator. That was the most incredibly awkward twenty seconds I have had in a long time.

After settling into my strangely empty and small room (which was not on the first floor that I had been promised), I proceeded to go down on the deathtrap of an elevator that they have. I bought a few posters and paid for some artwork. All in all, it was a nice day. I prefer Canadian money to US now: It does not tear itself apart at the slightest movement. It's actually pretty damned tough.

Moving on, that night was the concert which I went to for all of half an hour. The music was meh, more ear-shattering than anything else. The gaming room was fun, however: I played some Halo: Reach, made a custom made, and fooled around with my laptop.

I also got a Changeling sticker. Win.

Then sleep happened.

The next day woke up with a rapid-fire series of activities, such as signing up for the Nerf War. Which I do not regret. There were some interesting panels, but I spent most of my time until the evening 'dance' (it was more of a nightclub-style rave) started on the gaming room and the vesting hall. And trying to find food. Most stores and restraints serve Asian fare, and honestly I can't ready any ideographic language. At all. So I had to search out a Safeway most of two miles away to actually buy some food.

That was not much fun.

The dance actually had decent music, although it was less of a dance and more of a 'hop around everything' type of thing. Nice, but not my style. At least in public. In private, I can be as silly as I want, but fuck that in public.

I picked up some good fanart that I commissioned from a pretty cool vendor, WhatCritter:

(Bat Ponies are awesome)
(As a note, you should check out WhatCritter. She's a damned good artist)

The next and last day dawned bright and early, as I made my last purchases and joined in the Nerf War. It was chaotic: Royal Guard vs Changelings. However. although the Royal Guard side outnumbered us Changelings nearly three-to-one, we had bigger guns and, damnit, we were Changeling! Twice we pushed them back across the room. On the third time, the royal guard captain announced "Changelings should actually be able to lose this time". We didn't. It was a draw. And thus ended the most epic thing ever.

As a note, if a video ever floats around about it, I was the Changeling-side maniac shouting "FOR THE SWARM!" and firing a tri-shot Nerf pistol whilst waving around a red balloon sword. I recommend it.

After that, there were more games and even more fun things to do until the closing ceremony, which itself was awesome.

BronyCAN was an experience I hope to go to again next year, and was honestly the biggest bunch of fun and misadventures I have had that I can even remember.

I'll be posting more pictures and possibly video of my time later.