Personal Fandom Review: My "Brony Bucket List"

Ok, so I'm bored and in a reflective mood, and thus I decided, "Hey, let's look back at my time in the fandom!"

And what better way to do that than to look at something I put on my FiMFiction page years ago: my "Brony Bucket List". Let's go through each thing on there. (Copy and pasted, I'll put it below and then review each in turn.)

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My Brony Bucket List:

1. Get featured on FiMFiction
This never happened, and I'll admit it's because I just don't think my writing was ever super good. I had some fun and cool ideas, but ultimately I fell into a lot of the same pitfalls and traps of most amateur artists do such as grammar issues, repetitive wording, rambling and continuously branching storylines, etc. Ultimately I stopped caring, and that was when I started enjoying my time in the fandom fanfic scene more; I stopped caring about "making it big" and more just enjoyed my time in the moment.

2. Get a story through to EqD
Pretty much the same story as above. Nothing else really needs to be said here.

3. Perform with my sax live at a con
Now this? This is exciting, because I actually got to accomplish this, and in multiple ways! Once upon a time, as a wee high schooler, I had dreams of becoming a staple name in the fandom like WoodenToaster, OdysseyEurobeat, and The Living Tombstone were at the time. I wanted to become the saxophone player in the fandom, you know? I thought my way to do this was to be able to perform at a con like they did. The biggest dream being playing at BronyCon for BronyPalooza, the largest stage in the fandom. (More on that later!) Anyways, early on, in 2013, I sort of got to complete that when I brought my saxophone to both Brony-Fest 2013 and Nightmare Nights Dallas 2013, playing just a cover of "Awoken" by WoodenToaster and other random meme songs. This started my career as "SaxGuy", a nickname I adopted because people kept calling me that. While this technically counted as playing live at a con and as such ticked this goal off, it wasn't truly completed in my head because it wasn't on stage for the concert with a large crowd like they did. But, like writing, I began to obsess over the idea and became depressed when I couldn't obtain it. Eventually, I decided it wasn't fun to stay in this mindset, so I put that behind me and just continued my life as SaxPon3, the girl who played sax memes at cons and entertained where she could--which, funnily enough, lead me right to where I had originally wanted to go!

See, that same year of 2013 at Nightmare Nights Dallas I met my good friend Galen, who would go on to found the successful pony band The Wonderbolts. Fast forward to BronyCon of 2019 I was chilling in the vendor hall playing my sax, a little saddened that I wouldn't be able to fulfill my childhood dream of playing at BronyPalooza. Suddenly I heard Galen's voice, saying hello and asking if I wanted to join The Wonderbolts' set for Palooza! My jaw dropped and of course I immediately accepted! This lead to me getting an official musician's badge, and doing rehearsals with all of the other concert guests. I got to hang out with The Wonderbolts and countless other pony musicians I had grown up listening to and admiring. It was absolutely surreal to hear people like PrinceWhateverer and dBPony come up to me after I finished rehearsal with Galen and The Wonderbolts, saying hello, telling me they've seen me around the con and that I sounded great!

Then came the actual concert, and wow. It was a blast. There's no other rush like it, performing on that stage, entertaining so many people. I truly loved it! And sharing the final BronyPalooza stage with so many musicians, even one as legendary as Eurobeat Brony? It was a dream come true, and it didn't stop there. Months later, at HarmonyCon 2020, I was officially invited as a music guest as part of the Wonderbolt's, which was such an honor for me. Unfortunately then COVID happened so I didn't get to perform again, but I'm very much looking forward to future cons where I get to play music again for everyone!

4. Get a popular writer to follow me
This was again one of the things I wanted done because I wanted to make a name for myself in this fandom. I wanted recognition for my work. Who doesn't? I'm still friends with V-Pony, and I'll be honest? Yeah, I "accomplished" this goal, but looking back on it, it just feels kind of silly for me.

5. Hit 100 followers on FiMFiction
Wow, a lot of these had to do with just being recognized/famous. Same thing as everything else: I stopped caring after realizing it was ruining the fun for me. Which is funny, because again, only after I stopped caring did I achieve said goal, haha!

6. Sax troll M.A. Larson (Did it twice!)
I'll be completely honest? I put this on here after I had already done this to Larson, lol. Oh, and I did it WAY more than twice as the years went on. Dude even recognized me for it and called me out for it at BronyCon, haha. Even got to share a drink with him at the last Nightmare Nights. It was all in good fun, and he even told me explicitly he enjoyed it. Still, just a fun thing to reflect on.

7. Attend BronyCon and perform live there
I forgot I put this after the "perform live at a con" one, lol. I think I added this after realizing performing at the concert, and particularly BronyPalooza was what I really wanted. Eventually I got to fulfill both parts of this goal: attended BronyCon both 2018 and 2019, and got to peform at Palooza. I already wrote extensively on that above, so I'm not going to go over it again in great detail. It was fun, had a blast, can't wait to do it again.

8. Do a collabo with a famous Brony musician
Another one aimed at fame and recognition, but also just out of the spirit of creativity. I wanted to try and see what I could offer to some of these big name musicians in the fandom, and see if they liked what I could do! But alas, that spirit was overshadowed by my desire for fame, and like every other instance, it ruined the fun for me, and so I stopped caring about it. And, like very other instance, that's when I got to complete this goal! Not only did I get to collab with the Wonderbolts on multiple songs and concert sets, I also got to collab with 4EverfreeBrony on a song for the Ponies at Dawn: Eclipse album! With a solo too! This song, "This Is What It's Like", eventually got voted number 1 for October's Top Ten Pony Songs, something I only dreamed of being a part of.

...I'm sensing a theme here.

9. Meet Aviators (He's my favorite! :D)
Never got to meet Aviators, partially cuz he ended up losing interest in the fandom and making independent music. Now, his music today is honestly super fantastic, and his technical skill has gotten a LOT better! I still love his music, but I think I can say he's not my favorite musician anymore.

10. Try out some voice acting stuff (I'm playing Fancy Pants and a Royal Guard captain in a Torchwood: Equestria radioplay coming out soon!)
So this was an interesting project that never came to fruition. I'll admit, I'm still very interested in becoming a voice actor. I even said to multiple friends and family that I consider it like, my golden absolute dream job. But I have also for the most part given up on it for a few reasons. One, it's not a feasible thing to pursue. Two, being trans, it'd be hard and probably very dysphoric for me to audition for roles. Three, related to point two, a friend of mine in the industry warned me that it was a very predatory industry full of predatory, abusive people who would take advantage of me. I've a history with such things, so it was enough to make me stay away for the most part.

That said, I'm still recording personal audio projects, audio books and whatnot. Whether they'll see the light of day is an entirely different question though!

11. Do a writing collabo
Another bid at fame, and I'll admit, off the coattails of bigger writers. Never did this, no real interest in doing this. A fun idea I'm open to if the right opportunity and story ideas come along though.

12. Get more than 100 thumbs up on a story
Finally at the last one! Another personal goal made to have a number to assess if I "made it big" or not. A ridiculous notion, really. Same story as the above examples: stopped caring about it, started having more fun instead.

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And that's that! What a trip down memory lane. Not that I expect anyone to actually read this, but hey, maybe an old acquaintance will! Who knows. Anyways, hope y'all have a good day!