BronyCon'18 · 12:13am Aug 1st, 2018
Shake's Totally Legit BronyCon'18 Recap
Okay, so, *cracks open a bear*
I had a great time at BronyCon again this year! And once again, upon reviewing my camera roll, I realized that I took criminally few pictures. And half of them are blurry. But here we go anyway.
Thursday
I got to Baltimore about 11:30am on Thursday, caught a quick nap and then went to Hooters for lunch with the other people rooming with me:
GaryOak, HorseVoice, Riea Hope, and Shandy Shakes. After lunch we all picked up our badges and made a beer run to a liquor store. We pre-gamed for about an hour or two and then headed to The DogWatch Tavern for the Bar Trot.
As per usual, most of my photos were too dark or blurry, but I did manage to get this:
This is me and GaryOak (now with 100% more beard) at The Admiral, down the street from the DogWatch Tavern.
Yeah. I had orange hair this year for my cosplay.
The details are a little hazy, but it was a lot more chill this year than previous years. We wandered around a little and drank to excess. Nothing too crazy happened. It was just fun to see a lot of familiar faces before the con started.
Friday
We wake up Friday morning to my alarm(s), chase a handful of Excedrin with a bottle of Gatorade and head down to breakfast. The Days Inn where we were staying had a decent buffet. Afterwards, with a can of Monster in hand, we went to the con.
The opening ceremonies were... underwhelming. It felt a little foreboding for the tone of the weekend. So I left a bit early and headed downstairs to the vendor hall. That was where I saw Tohro.
Once it started to get really crowded, I headed back upstairs to Quills and Sofas and saw AppleJinx.
and HorseVoice
And I finally exchanged my shirt with Admiral Biscuit.
I know I met a bunch of you other guys there too, even though I didn't get pictures with you. So be sure to comment and harass me for forgetting to mention you. 
-
Afterwards I went to the Quilling It panel
Starring: Amy Keating Rogers, Nick Confalone, Mitch Larson... and Shakespearicles!
Yes. That happened.
Amy noted that they didn't have a moderator and asked if anyone in the audience wanted to moderate. She asked a trivia question:
What song inspired her Smile Smile Smile song?
I correctly answered: Walking on Sunshine.
And just like that, I was sitting on the Mane Hall stage with them for the panel.
Needless to say it was one of the many many highlights of the con for me, personally.
Alternate angle
After that, I saw this cute plushie meetup in the hallways.
Flutterbat,
And Ember
( Wanderer D for scale. )
I wish I had taken pictures at the Writer's Dinner that Wanderer D had organized. It was at Tir Nig Nog again, and it was amazing once again seeing everyone there.
Afterwards we went to the Jackbox Games: Chaos Edition. I knew anything with M.A. Larson and alcohol was going to be entertaining.
But Amy Keating Rogers stole the show that night, hands down!
#NoMoreDicks
Also, A.K.R. wants this T-Shirt from her Jackbox game of Tee K. O.
We stuck around to watch part of the Adult Comedy panel, but GaryOak, GaPJaxie, Pen Stroke (yeah, that one) and I had to leave early to do our Writing Effective Villains, and Research is Magic panels back to back, after we had already started drinking in the Chaos hall. But I think we did pretty damn well. After that it was pretty late and I just decided to crash for the night.
Saturday
Saturday was the day Shandy and I cosplayed as Mr. and Mrs. Cake. We went to the cosplay photo shoot, and the fashion show. But if anyone else has a picture of us, please send it to me!
Watching the clean version of Jackbox games after the previous night was not nearly as entertaining, but it was still good. The Picture This panel was entertaining as well. But the best came that evening.
This year I returned with the 50 Shades of Neigh panel: 50 Shades of Neigh Darker. 
GaryOak, SparkyBrony and I talked about how to write better erotic fiction, and this year we were able to get into more advanced topics and focus more on how to write effective erotic fiction in the MLP fandom. It went really well, and we all spent 20 extra minutes out in the hallway taking all the extra questions and meeting with fans.
If anyone has any pictures of that panel, again, please send them to me.
After that was the Peter New Unscripted panel. After seeing him at the 21+ Jackbox Games panel, I knew it was going to be good. But then when the rest of the MLP crew showed up and started drinking, things went from funny to hilarious.
Yours Truly walked up the aisle and grabbed the question microphone off the stage and started the really inappropriate Q&A session and things just got better from there. Peter New talked about the first R34 he "stumbled across". As the story goes: Years ago he looked up what 'clop' was after someone asked him if he looked at it. Then the first image he found of "Big Mac Clop" was ol Mac giving it to AJ. Nice.
M.A. Larson signed several chests, and Amy even signed one too, but with super-permanent marker. They did a group Dab:
And then Larson signed my head.
I was honestly expecting a dick.
EverythingWentBetterThanExpected.jpg
After that we went to TrickQuestion's Hotel Party. We chatted and played Cards against Equestria. (Which I need to play online more, I know.) I talked at length with Regidar, and kalash93.
Some drank.
Some drank more than others.
Some drank way too much. You know who you are. 
Luckily no one died or got arrested. So for a party, great success! Gary and I stumbled back to our room after the second person at the party puked. (I'm a bit of a join-er, so I didn't want to become #3.)
Sunday
I spent most of Sunday in Quills & Sofas playing TSSSF and watching Unstable Unicorns. I went to both of the Swag Trades that weekend and got a TON of new stuff. (I will have to do a separate post about that. I'm still unpacking all of it.) And just FYI, I know who caused the balloon debacle in the line for the closing ceremonies. (Hint: it was me)
After the closing ceremonies, I went to see the Edgar Alan Poe grave site and then we all got together for GaryOak's Meat Up. We all walked down to Fogo De Chao.
If you like meat, this is like heaven for carnivores. For a flat buffet price, you sit at the table and guys come by with all kinds of meat on a skewer and cut off chucks of meat for you for as long as you can stand it! Beef, chicken, pork, sausage, and lamb! It just keeps coming as long as your coaster is green-side-up. Flip it to red for a break, and then flip it back to green for more. Once everyone at the table was red, we had dessert.
11/10, I can't recommend it enough!
It was Sunday night and the con was over. They said at the closing ceremonies that 2019 was to be the last BronyCon. And I was feeling the Con blues hard. Applejinx and I stood outside Fogo after we ate, and he told me about the dream-team of people he was collecting to try to keep the convention scene going after 2019. Maybe it wouldn't be called BronyCon, but it was something. And that gave me hope. Even if there isn't another after 2019, I'm sure there will still be others. Everfree NW, BABScon, and others. Pony will live on, both online and off. And that makes me smile.
Balloon Pinkie says, "Smile!"
Going forward, I have three projects in order:
1. A semi-secret Colab with Grimm.
2. A not-so-secret Super-Colab-Project with everyone on fimfiction, Starlight Fixes Everything.
3. Resuming Liquid Pride 2 by the end of August.
Unfortunately for myself, C2 and Gary they were closing down by the time we were really getting into the flow of food.
it looks to me like you had a real blast.
i will be at next years con as it is the last one.
So, same time next year?
AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT IN THE SEVEN PITS OF TARTARUS IS THIS BEARDED GARY
As usual, it was a total fucking blast.
Your orange hair was a good disguise. I didn't see you at all...
That's a cute Ember.
Wanderer Biscuit is hilarious.
I'm actually not sorry about missing a meat buffet - my gut would be so angry with me - but I am sorry that I was... ummmm... probably waiting outside the con entrance for someone who never showed. Cest la vie.
4911568
I. WILL. SEE. YOU!
I also got a picture of that same Tohru cosplayer.
Wish I could’ve chatted with you more, but what little interaction we had was pleasant.
Even if Bronycon ends, MLP stuff will be welcome at other, more standard conventions. Honestly, my dream is for there to be a super con where anything is welcome, and any and all con-goers will attend.
You also should've said, "Cracks open a bear."
4911720
We have one of those in Florida: MegaCon Orlando. I've been going for the past 10-12 years straight. They've had fur, steampunk, gamers, trekkies, 501st, comics, toys, anime, wrestlers, you name it!
Inb4 lawsuit from DWK.
4911790
I’m thinking even bigger. Like, attendees numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Possibly even a million.
4911563 Still though, delicious food.
4911568 Yes. And you damn-well better be.
4911676 You know it!
4911693 An improvement. No?
4911696 Yes indeed.
4911699 How could you not? I was orange!
4911720 Yeah, I wish we'd had more time to talk. Next year is slated to be 4 days. So that's good.
4911824 I'd happily give him (more) money.
4911915
You'd better >:[
I really wish I could come to bronycon. Knowing next year is the last jusy makes me want to go even more, but that means I'd have to get plane tickets all the way out to the US.
Glad you had fun at the party! I hope I wasn't a terrible secondary host.
4912044 Nah. You were cool.
4912033
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw993_large.jpg
4912078
It's definitely worth a try. At least I have an entire year to prepare!
4912120
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You're so handsome! AHH!
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Definitely need to try to go some year soon.
4912651 You had better. Next year is the last official BronyCon.
4912198 Say that to my face and see what happens.
4912668
Dammit, I won't turn 21 until September. I don't suppose they'll let in a 20 year old with a neck beard and call him 21?
4912677 Yes.
4912686
Oh hell yeah.
Now I just need to actually get a plan on going xD
Maybe a different meet up, eh? I'll see in a year's time
I swear to Celestia I'mma need to steal that Q&S picture, crop it, and put it on my OKCupid
Just shows how happy I am to hang with ya, and how awesome and dream-team like you've become.
GREAT con, and great catching up with you. And yes, we will be talking
4913310
But they are going to be confused when they meet you in person for the first date and you don't look like me.
Sorry for the delay, but I have a pic of you in Cake cosplay.
i.imgur.com/eltfSyj.jpg
4924233
THANK YOU so much for this!
Mrs. Cake will be very grateful!