Horseshoes, Crabs, Part 3 · 2:58pm Jul 30th, 2018
Right, let's get this down before I forget anything good.
After a round of midnight fireworks in some sportsball stadium or another (which I'm sure everyone in the hotel cluster appreciated,) Saturday opened with Quills & Sofas being closed until past 10 in the morning. I hung out with Mitch H for a while, discussing the experience of what it's like to have an consistent editing team and some of our respective experiences in editing others. Once Q&S did open, Nyronus regaled some of us with an amazing tale of Solodric's amazing oWoD character Naruto, the world's greatest vampire. (He was a weeaboo before he became a Malkavian convinced he was a werewolf. It is every bit as amazing as it sounds and then some.)
The TF2 Analysis Anarchy panel didn't have anyone propose this year, but it did have some very fun animation, and also a guy with a Nappa puppet during the Q&A session. After the panel, I got Joshscorcher to burst into laughter when I told him how I love his videos of Mark Rosewater's color interviews, but it's weird to hear Rosewater without the voice of a chipmunk. (Apparently he gave DaWillstonator a color indentity test of his own design, and it came back perfectly even between all five.)
After lunch, I was able to meet up with Zennistrad and propose going to Stabletop Games for a few rounds of Magic. We sadly weren't able to make it work that day, though we did manage to play each other eventually. He had an almost anime-esque victory, defeating me just one turn before I would've beat him thanks to a card that I hadn't at all expected.
I was able to see the reading of Tabitha St. Germain's episode script with Horse Voice, Bookish Delight, and the artist Shaxbert. (Bookish is simultaneously nothing and everything I expected, and is indeed a delight.) The script itself involved parallel universes, alternate versions of Derpy, layers of metafictionality, and a name drop of Neil deGrasse-Fed Bison. It was, in short, disturbingly familiar. Also, Ingrid Nilson can pull off a commendable Fluttershy.
More Magic ensued, this time with CSquared08 and Flashgen. (Seriously, Flashgen, there is a special place in Hell for people who build monoblue draw-go in Commander, and there you will be torn apart by drakes for all eternity as Talrand watches and laughs. Had a wonderful time, look forward to playing you again. 
)
Saturday also saw the majority of my financial activity in the vendor hall. There was a lot I liked and wanted, but my practical side kept making itself known and reminding me that I had no way of reliably transporting art prints home undamaged, much less somewhere to put them. Similarly, the plushies were as amazing as always and I understand how much labor goes into each one, but I'm just not willing to drop three digits for a stuffed animal. However, I did pick up a few shirts—I actually needed one given how I'd accidentally underpacked, and they had a good deal if you bought two—along with a pair of Twilight-marked goggles that inspired me to make my first attempt at cosplay soon; they'll make a fantastic centerpiece of a gender-swapped Sci-Twi. (For the record, I don't plan on shaving my mustache. It'll be the outcome of Exotic Energy Experiment #25.) There was also a fantastic violinist hanging around. At one point he played the Legend of Zelda theme for a Link cosplayer at the drop of a hat.
After that was Trick Question's room party, which meant finding Trick Question's room party. I didn't pay enough attention to the announcement and assumed she'd be in the same hotel as last year. Yeah, no, turns out that's a Holiday Inn and not a Hyatt. Fortunately, this is 2018 and Google Maps is a thing. Had to hold my phone like I was scanning for parties with a tricorder for a bit, but it all worked out once I could see the place amid the skyline. The party itself was fun, though I bowed out once people were starting to get too drunk for Cards Against Humanity (generally a warning sign, especially when you yourself don't drink.)
On Sunday I ended up hanging out with Mitch H for a bit more early in the day, then went to the episode writer Mad Libs panel, which was every bit as amazing as it sounds, with such details as college students getting caught soul-sucking in class and Pickle the pegasus warning Harry Potter that if he goes to Hogwarts for his second year, he will surely be heated. I even got praise from Larson at one point for a series of quality suggestions. "Defenestrate" is always the right choice in Mad Libs, especially when you get Sonic the Hedgehog to do it. They also took a break to discuss their ongoing work. It apparently took Nick Confalone a few moments to process the magnitude of Sunset and Celestia's reunion when he first proposed it.
Shortly after that, I made my way to where I thought the Riffing is Magic panel would be... which, as it turns out, it wasn't. I went to Mane Events. It was in the Hall of the Sun. In other words, three floors up and on the opposite end of the building. I realized this five minutes before it was scheduled to start. I hauled ass. Did I mention that I had already checked out of my hotel and was thus lugging my luggage all day Sunday? And that they started ten minutes late? (They were playing Zootopia with Japanese audio to fill time and summon ACRacebest.)
The riffing itself was pretty fun. The theme was "non-pony horse-related animation," and three out of the four were pretty bland. The most notable aspect of one was the collie with an attempt at Sean Connery's voice, another the angriest wombat in fiction, and a third a donkey with a vendetta against both coyotes and windows. (Also a chicken with a longer lifespan than a horse and a wireless headset. I don't know why she had either.) But one was... this. It was amazing and horrible. The whole experience was thoroughly enriched by my sitting next to a guy who had a saxophone and wasn't afraid to use it.
More writing followed that; I really should've spent more time actually interacting with other authors. Still got to say hi to a bunch, at least, including Alara J. Rogers. I also got to watch her kids find a newfound appreciation for word processing software as they struggled with the typewriters. Plus, I got a business card from Georg when someone asked him what he'd written. Seriously, it had his avatar and a list of some of his more notable titles. Very impressive.
The last activity I went to—I had a 4:59 train to catch, so I couldn't attend the closing ceremonies—was basically a communal karaoke session. A snippet of a song from the show or the fandom would play, everyone would sing along... but then the music would cut out and the person at the mike would have to keep going. It was a ton of fun, especially when a little kid nailed it and the whole room went wild. I went up twice, for "Becoming Popular" ("The Type of Pony Everypony Should Know") and "Flawless." I flubbed the lyrics on the second one, but that's arguably more fitting than getting right. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 
Around 4, the staff member at Quills and Sofas asked that everyone help clean up, since the room had technically closed four minutes ago. What followed was a frenzy of activity and a comedy of errors. We stacked chairs... then unstacked them since it turned out that was a union job. I helped haul writing and art supplies to the staff room... but it turned out we could've just left them in neat piles in the room. I couldn't help but laugh at it all. After all, the only thing I could control in that situation was my reaction to it.
After that, a few final goodbyes, and a last-minute recommendation for a great nearby Thai place from ClockworkMage, I was out the door, in a taxi, and off to Baltimore Penn Station. The trip home was painless, and after I found the energy to get back up off my mattress, I started writing a retrospective. I think I can stop there.
Suffice to say, this wasn't the best managed convention in the world, but it was still a very fun one. Turns out next year will be the final Bronycon. I'll be there, and I hope it'll go out with a bang and not a whimper.
Wow. Your series here is psyching me up for Ciderfest. I know it’s a ways off, but still psyching me up anyways.
...the final Bronycon, eh? Guess it'll be next year or never for me.
Now I REALLY want to go to Bronycon before it all ends :( I dunno if I can pull it off (I'm terrified of airplanes), but I'll definitely look into it.
All and all, I'm glad that you had fun
That's more important.
Sounds like a good time was had! And I'm calling it now: I'm going to BC next year. I should start making up lists of people to try to meet, shake hands with, and buy a drink. And ultimately those would be my priorities, I think.
4910408
You should go!!
4910406
# G E T H Y P E
Nice meeting y'all.
And yeah, all y'all need to come to the last BronyCon next year - Last Night On Planet Brony. The convention at the end of the [pony] universe.
Heart of the cards, motherf***er!
4910430
Luckily, it's starting to look as though that will be the year I can finally afford to. *crosses fingers*
It was fun playing Magic with you. 10/10, would miss land drops again.
Pfft you need thicker skin. There's someone at my LGS who runs a Raff Capashen draw go deck. So, like that, but with instant speed Iona and Elesh Norn. The other day, he started a game by playing Ancient Tomb into Sol Ring into Grim Monolith. Needless to say I will only be playing against him in limited from now on.
Where can I find Tabitha's scripts? Between this one and the dentist one, they sound fantastic!
Shame to hear that Bronycon's ending. I never attended it myself, or any other convention for that matter, but it's been a fandom institution for so many years now. I guess it makes sense with the show and the fandom both winding down, but it's still sad to see it happen.
Georg's business card idea is brilliant and I should really emulate it.
4910439
They'd better darn well add a new convention OC named Milliway.
Was good to see you again!
4910430
I definitely want to go to BronyCon next year since it’ll be the last one. It’s a sad thing that it’s not going to be the one to keep going.
What fresh hell have you subjected us to? D:
4910519
Yeah, I think I need to petition to get a sample from the georgmeister and then start working on my own version too. I mean, in a world where you can get like 200 cards for $10 or whatever, there's almost no reason not to if you (a) do cons and (b) want to make connections.
4910563
It's definitely a shock seeing "the" con go away. I guess it could very well be a sign of The End Times. But there are still other cons out there that are going pretty strong, and that seem to have the right folks behind them to adjust and make things happen. Not to get all broken-record, but the folks behind Ciderfest and Whinny City seem committed to keeping the proverbial flame burning as long as they can, and their cons have done well even these last few years.
I think it'll be interesting to see how the newest cons do next year, too. High Roller out in Vegas this year was small, but part of the success was just executing a Vegas con without imploding; if they can build on that and drum up more attendees, they should be able to carve out a niche. And speaking of niches, HarmonyCon Dallas will premiere in February next year, and will poke at both the Southern and early-year markets. I see them as more of an unknown from the business side, since High Roller was kind of a joint venture with part of the Ciderfest/WCPC team. But who knows! That just makes them more worth watching.
4910600
Oh, a link!
...
...
...
darksimpsons.com/images/quotes/the-goggles-do-nothing.jpg
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I don't believe she has ever released them. However you could politely ask her via twitter.
Great seeing you again Fome!
4910408
yeeeessss
I'm a little late here, but I must say again, you're as ubiquitous at BC as on here, and it's great. You can always count on FOME.
4910465
Same. That second game with me playing Daretti was just karma.
Your link to the horse video is dead, so I don't know what was so "amazing and horrible" about it. (Dear future Fred: avoid links that simply read "this".)
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I can't find it now, but I do have a description of it in story form.