UK Ponycon elken blog · 9:56am Oct 27th, 2017
The train is literally driving somewhere around 30 miles per hour. But, look at the bright side: this breakneck ride gives me plenty of time to write my blog.
I’m on the Friendship express (extremely slow British train) driving back to Ponyville (Southampton) from Appleloosa (UKPonycon (the theme was Wild West)). And what a con it was! It was my first con in England, and my third My Little Pony convention altogether. And of course, my second con where I did a panel on writing. This blog is filled with amazing experiences and epic adventures, which are sure to entertain you. Whether you have been there or not (and whether you want it or not) I hereby present to you my
UKPonycon blog
Day one: 21st October 2017
I didn’t travel to UKPonycon all by myself. I didn’t even fly to Bristol at all. Actually, I flew to Southampton where my faithful pegasus friend Nockle Stringer was waiting for me. We met at Galacon 2016 and kept in touch ever since. We knew we were going to have a blast of a time, even before we got to the con. After preparing some sandwiches, we stepped on the train to Bristol. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to fit in a crowded train with antlers on your head, but I managed—somehow.
Nockle Stringer had taken care of the accommodation, of which I am very thankful. We stayed in an AIRBNB, basically, someone who puts up a spare room for rent so complete strangers can come and sleep in that someone’s house. Talking about trust! It was a beautiful and big house, with a bathroom as big as my bedroom. The house belonged to a very friendly couple, who even gave us lifts to the venue.
And there we were, UKPonycon 2017. Nockle went off to go volunteering, because that is what she likes to do. I followed her inside, so I was the first who got to browse all the vendor stalls. Yes! That Vinyl Scratch plushie is mine! I saw it first!
I am always a big fan of panels. They are fun and educational, and I always like to learn new stuff wherever I go. The first panel I went to was The Creative World of MLP. It was a short panel, taking the form of an introduction to the wonderful creative world of My Little Pony fan stuff. The lady who hosted the panel showed us all kinds of artwork that was made by MLP fans. It’s always stunning to see how talented the creative members of the herd are. But it’s even more impressive how this community can inspire people to be creative and make things of their own.
After the panel, I met up with Nockle Stringer again, who introduced me to another friend of hers, Mister Vectored Thrust. He was quite an expert on the subject of aviation, and the best part: he knew about the MLP trading card game. Somehow, I never got a chance to play the card game myself. At Galacon 2016 I didn’t know there actually was a room where ponies played it, and at Galacon 2017 I didn’t have time for it. But now, thanks to Vectored, I finally got a chance to try my hooves at it. He was more than happy to show me the tricks of the card game trade, and I must say that it was really fun (set aside the fact that he completely owned me), and not so difficult as I thought. Another awesome thing I learned with an awesome friend I made.
My next panel was Applejack: Awesome Through the Ages. It was exactly what you think it was: a whole panel dedicated to the orange freckled farmpony. Gee, Vikki and Amy had quite the collection of AJ memorabilia. They had everything from plushies to artwork to statues to toys ranging from generation one to generation four. I am still figuring out who is more addicted to one single pony; Vikki, Amy, and AJ, or Nockle Stringer and Rainbow Dash. It’s always fun to see which G1 pony inspired which G4 pony. Sometimes, the similarities are striking, and you can clearly see that Lauren Faust took inspiration from the first generation of pastel-colored ponies.
After the Applejack panel, Nockle and I went for something to eat, and then we parted ways. She wanted to do the pub quiz, while I much rather wanted to see the musical celebration. I’m so glad I decided to see the music, because it was spectacular. At first, Midnight Dynasty and Fluffy Cactus sang songs from the MLP show, and of course, the audience was more than welcome to sing along. After their performance, a guy named Steely Hooves walked up the stage, guitar in hand and ready to go. Being a bit of a guitarist myself, I couldn’t help but feel jealous at his stunning performance. He played awesome blues-rock riffs just to kill time, and after that the real fun started. He had made songs of his own, based on MLP episodes, characters, or completely unique pieces. He sang about Trixie’s Equestrian Apology Tour, Berry Shine’s drinking, Back in Black Luna style, and—my favorite—Tavi Plays Guitar, where he managed to mix classical pieces into the song without making it sound boring. Quite an achievement, I’d say.
I went back to see the last bit of the pub quiz, and to find Nockle again. The pub quiz was soon over, and then something that I had kind of forgotten about started: the Cartoon Riff. Waterfire, the show host, showed many strange and old-school cartoons. There were songs from other generations of MLP, including the dreaded, fear-invoking, stomach churning abominations known as *shudders* G3 newborn ponies *shudders again*. Also, they showed a strange and rather disturbing piece of anime, involving crazy cooking and… well… things I’d rather not talk about. Let’s just say that my eyes are scarred for life. Let’s see what insanity the next day brought!
Day 2: 22nd October 2017
Time to spy on the competition! I went to the panel Writing vs Narration, given by Mister Idris. He had a lot of knowledge on live narrating a story, and it was very interesting to see how passionate he was, just doing his thing. One very important piece of advice stuck with me: when voice acting, it isn’t necessary to say ‘(character) said,’ or ‘said (character),’ because the listener will figure that out for him or herself when you use different voices. The same goes for sound effects. You don’t have to tell the listener that an elk bumps his antlers clumsily, rather, use a sound effect—and probably a curse after that.
I stayed in the same theatre to watch the next panel: Art Panel by Stormy and Mad Munchkin. I always love watching speed-arts because they are always so, well, fast. And it’s awesome to see how the artwork comes to existence pen stroke by pen stroke.
Something I never want to miss at a My Little Pony convention is the cosplay competition. I simply adore seeing all the awesome costumes pass by before my eyes, each one more beautiful and detailed than the last. If I could sew and make clothing, I would definitely try out cosplaying myself, although it would probably be a challenge to cosplay as a pony character with my antlers. Oh well, I could always saw them off… Anyway, there were loads of beautiful costumes. Mister Idris was clad in metal, bearing a menacing metal pony helmet with lights flashing in the ears. There was a guy with a very true-to-life Thorax helmet. There was a beautiful (and scary) Queen Sombra. And let’s not forget the fuzzy fluffy fursuits. Sunburst, Princess Luna, Applejack, and of course, Ponycon’s own mascot Britannia were there, ready to give free hugs to any and all.
The time had almost come to do my panel. The nervousness was trying to turn my stomach upside down, so, just to be sure, I went to my panel room—an hour early! There was actually another panel going on: SFM Ponies of Equestrian Comedy. I had no idea what to think of that, and in hindsight, I couldn’t possibly have guessed what it was about. Memes, memes everywhere! The guys from JollyOldCinema showed the audience different kinds of animated Source Filmmaker clips, from the impressive to the downright bizarre. The audience had a barrel—or perhaps more—of laughs, enjoying the randomness of the SFM videos. When the laughing had somewhat subsided, the team showed how they made basic animations in Source Filmmaker, the program they used to animate ponies. Loads of things could be achieved using Source Filmmaker: blinking, moving the head, walking, talking and lip-syncing—you name it, they could make it happen. It was truly impressive to see how much you can do with the program—and how complicated it is. This elk sticks to writing, thank you very much.
Then, it was time. I set up my gear as quickly as I could, announced my panel, Get it Write!, and fired off. The panel went very well. I forgot almost nothing of my voice lines, and all the jokes were perfectly executed and timed. I was glad that the SFM panel was so humorous, so the crowd was in a good mood to watch a slightly more serious panel. Once again, just as with Galacon 2017, the audience had so many crazy, creative, and crazily creative ideas. We made two plotlines together, one involving Starlight Glimmer who wanted to steal the princesses’ crowns, and one with an odd pair, Twilight and Trixie, who had to stop Flim and Flam from arguing and get them back to work. I enjoyed doing the panel so much! It always gives me such a moral boost to talk about my favorite passion, pass on the knowledge, and take away major roadblocks so other ponies will try writing for themselves. Making panels is addictive, you know? I think the audience had a good time too, as I received quite a lot of positive feedback, even from the competition, Mister Idris.
What happened after Get it Write? The closing ceremony, of course. My panel was literally the last one of the day, so as soon as it was over, everypony headed to the stage to watch the closing ceremony. There were a lot of awards for drawing and crafting competitions, and then the con was officially over.
Of course, this is the part where I give some opinions. Here we go! I found UKPonycon to be a delight. It wasn’t crowded at all. The venue was nice and it was easy to find every panel room and café and other facilities (e.g. I didn’t get lost). It was a bit strange for me to see all of the old-school generations of My Little Pony, as I don’t have much personal bonds with those kinds of ponies. But it attracted a whole different kind of audience: children and collectors. This con was more a ‘family thing’ than Galacon was. Galacon almost had no children, just bronies and pegasisters. To be honest, the children conjured up a strange feeling. Here they were, the actual target audience of the show, the people the show is intended for. And here I was, a tweener who also happened to like said show. If you put it that way, which I do, you can see that I might have felt… out of place, but at the same time home. It’s hard to put my hoof on it, but it didn’t make the con any less enjoyable.
I’m curious about the next UKPonycon. Where will it be held? What panels and games are there? Am I going to be there again? Questions without answers. And that is why this blog, right in front of your muzzle, will end with unresolved dramatic questions—an open ending.
Thank you for reading my ramblings, and I hope to see you in my next story.
Love,
Elkia
