...it's fast food TV. You wouldn't call it the nicely crafted cuisine that Friendship is Magic was, at least at its best. But sometimes a burger and fries is what you want. I don't think Pony Life is going to charm me, but I don't hate it and I think it might make decent bite-sized entertainment when I'm in the mood.

With UK PonyCon's usual October date a goner, it's joined the virtual con crowd with UK PonycOnline. Running from 11 am to 11 pm UK time, with the usual convention mixture of panels, games, vendors... oh, you know the form. For those who aren't familiar with UK PonyCon, note that it's all-ages throughout -- so please keep NSFW stuff away from their Discord server. I hope to see some of you there!

Give Story Advice, and Absolutely Nothing Else a read. Chris is a very good writer indeed, and it'll be more than worth the time you invest.

"You took an oath to uphold the law and defend the citizens without fear or favour," said Vimes. "And to protect the innocent. That's all they put in. Maybe they thought those were the important things. Nothing in there about orders, even from me. You're an officer of the law, not a soldier of the government."

—Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

This has been coming, I think, but it's now official: UK PonyCon 2020 is no more. The October convention has a new date: 8th/9th May 2021. Yes, May! It's going to be an interesting experience. Read the official press release here. Of course we can't be sure what the situation will be in a year's time either, but naturally we all hope the 2021 event will be able to go ahead. And if it does, I

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I'll be going through my off-site review blogs over the next few days and weeks, and leaving comments on the appropriate fics here. I used to do this as a matter of course, then for various reasons (many my own fault) I let it slip. So please don't be too startled if you get a notification for a review I wrote many months ago! I will try to keep up much better in future.

Sorry. Just wanted something cheerier as my top blog post! So let me just say that Fluttershy is great.

I'm definitely not intending to turn this into a coronablog. But this National Geographic article brings home why "Oh, we can't continue restrictions for more than three weeks" is basically telling vulnerable people like me it's okay for us to die. It gives graphs for a number of major US cities during the 1918 flu pandemic. And what is very clearly shown is

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I'm still around. We all know what's going on in the real world, and as a diabetic person I am more affected than many. But I'm still interested in ponyfic, and if you're really lucky (or unlucky, depending on your POV) I may actually write some if I end up confined to quarters for the next 37 years.

Well, Brexit may have happened* but not a lot else has around here. I'm still not ready to publish my next story, which has been sitting there three-quarters done for several weeks now. Things will insist on turning up and getting in the way. I mean, you're not actually missing very much, as it's only a silly little thing. But I definitely do not want to return to one of those "write virtually no ponyfic for 18 months" ruts. Maybe I should have a go at some flashfic prompts or something and

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