Highlights from BronyCon 2019: Condensed Version · 12:22am Aug 12th, 2019
You can find the Introduction here.
In which son_of_heaven176 gives a jet tour of his BronyCon experience.
It is the Sunday after BronyCon, and that means that my BronyCon Highlight series is going to begin again. However, for those that might not have the stomach for the usual weekly series, I am starting off with a condensed version, going over all five days of my BronyCon experience. For those of you who want more in-depth stories, though, not to worry: the longer Highlights will come, starting next week.
That said, off to the story.
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
If I could encapsulate Wednesday with a single phrase, it would be “not so fast!”
At JFK Airport, I didn’t have much trouble going through security and getting to my gate. But once I got there, not so fast! What was this? A sight that I did not see last year: fellow bronies at the gate! And one of them turned out to be none other than Xaldin Wolfgang, a perennial thorn in the side of one Jasper Pie. Picture will be included in the corresponding Highlight.
The flight itself went without a hitch, and my seatmate was a source of quite a bit of chatter, as she was on the final leg of a journey home from a few days working at a hospital in Africa.
I didn’t arrange a ride from BWI Airport to the con center this year, so I decided to try out that “light rail” thing that I had heard about. I got my ticket, got on the train … and not so fast! We were told to get off.
We later learned that the train was evacuated due to bedbugs. Another train was going to come.
Come it did, and due to the delays, even more people had arrived at the light rail stop in the interim; that train was more packed than before.
The train started moving, but not so fast! It made a few unscheduled stops.
It moved a few feet, then STOPPED suddenly. From the way the lights went out, I believe that it was a power interruption.
It moved a few more feet, then stopped again. Train traffic ahead of us.
After a few stations, another sudden STOP. Power problems again.
We managed to make it to the Camden Yards station without any more sudden stops, and from there, I had to schlep my luggage to the Sheraton.
At the Sheraton, I met up with my roommates, Dark Wind, thefluff, and Allen. I had intended on introducing Dark Wind to some Haitian food, but not so fast! Unfortunately, the nearest place had apparently shut down, and the other place I had in mind was too far away to be economically feasible. So it was Bubba Gump Shrimp for dinner, then off to LineCon to pick up our badges.
Thursday, August 1, 2019
Looking back, Thursday and Saturday were the high points of my BronyCon experience. Thursday morning, I met up with a brony who goes by SirBobTheMarvelous on Discord. He and I taught a little girl and her mother how to play Prance, and the game got pretty intense. However, SirBob and I had panels to go to at 12 noon, so we stopped at around 11:45. However, SirBob had amassed most of the cards by then.
The noon panel was “The Most Metal 1980s Show Ever Invented: My Little Pony Generation 1”, and the panel was certainly not misnamed. G1 villains weren’t to be taken lightly, and oh, my God, the G1 Smooze is a thing of nightmares!
Later that day, I went to StableTop Games and played some MTG with a person who was new to the game. His name was Aidan, and he used a Temur (Red/Blue/Green) deck. I won a game and lost a game. If you’re out there, Aidan, we need to have a tiebreaker!
Afterwards, me and some friends from the Brony D&D Discord group had lunch at the local Chick-fil-A, then went back to StableTop Games to play a few games of my new favorite game, Danmaku. And during our Danmaku games, Voice of Reason, Finn the Pony, and AnY Pony stopped by my table! EEEEEEEEEE! Autographs aplenty were collected.
Opening Ceremonies were OK, but if you have not seen Gilbert Gottfried reciting the lyrics to the This Day Aria, you are missing out! There are videos of it already on YouTube; check it out!
I stopped by the Vendor Hall to get the YouTuber Prance cards for the corresponding YouTubers to sign, then went back upstairs for Critical Foal. It wasn’t what I was expecting, so back downstairs to the Vendor Hall for me, and good thing, too: Silver Quill autograph get!
Friday, August 2, 2019
My first stop on Friday was the Vendor Hall to get more autographs. Lightning Bliss, Mad Munchkin, and Keyframe were not at their spots, so that was a letdown. But AnimeChristy and her boyfriend MangaKamen were there, so I collected their signatures and headed off to the My Little Tesla performance, which was right outside the Vendor Hall.
I then tried to get Lauren Faust’s signature, but the line was not only full, but also capped off. That proved to be providential for me, as that freed me to attend a meetup with my absolute favorite brony reviewer, JOSHSCORCHER! I got his autograph on his Prance card.
GoldenFox happened by (and a nearby fan confused him for Thespio), and I also collected his signature, as well as that of Master Code, one of the editors for TF2 Analysis Anarchy.
I headed back to the autograph line, this time for Bonnie Zacherle, whose signature I did manage to get.
Afterwards, I took a quick nap, then headed for the Hall of the Moon for the convention history panel. Waiting on line was a YouTuber whom I did not expect to see: Xidnaf, a language nerd! Who knew that he was a brony?
Afterwards was the Grand Galloping Gala (at which a Thorax cosplayer proposed to his girlfriend, who was cosplaying as Ember), then off to sleep.
Saturday, August 3, 2019
Saturday was the high point of my BronyCon. Why? Joshscorcher, joshcorcher, and more joshscorcher! (And some other bronies, too.)
The first panel for that morning was the TF2 Analysis Anarchy panel. The episode was pretty good, and the trailer afterwards knew how to bring the hype. Afterwards, I had the pleasure of seeing a brony-reviewer in-con proposal in person, as Kickit proposed to Mad Munchkin, and everyone learned that Dr. Wolf is Cupid.
After the panel was a flurry of activity, as I got a bunch of autographs, and said autographs completed my collection for Chasing Imontillo and my Prance reviewer expansion!
Afterwards, I headed to the Lip Sync Battle, and collected two more signatures: Xaldin Wolfgang, and Fluff Dragon Art.
After some lunch, I went to the Lauren Faust Stories and Experiences panel, and boy, did she reveal quite a bit!
What did she say? You’ll have to wait until I get to that part of my BronyCon Highlights series (or see it for yourself when the panel inevitably gets posted to YouTube)!
Afterwards, I went to the Brony D&D prequel session. Dr. Wolf once again proved that he can have quite the dark side when he wants to, and #finnabuse was created after Finn’s character was beaned by a rock in-story and Finn himself was later accidentally beaned by a cup IRL. (Poor Finn!) After the prequel, I got Eliyora’s signature (though she was less than amused with what I wanted her to sign).
That night, I attended the Friendship is Magic: the Gathering panel, and after the panel, I gave Josh something that I had prepared as a wedding gift. (And if you are reading this, Josh, let me remind you: No looking at it until wedding day! But do feel free to ask any brony reviewer you meet to sign it—and please don’t forget about Lunacorva!)
Sunday, August 4, 2019
Sunday morning, I tried once again to get Faust’s autograph. And one of my roommates had asked me to try to get an autograph on his con book as well. After breakfast, I went to the autograph hall. Con staff forbade people looking for Faust’s autograph from lining up until 10:30, so there was a crowd outside the queue area. Come 10:30, there was a literal stampede to see who would be able to get in line for Faust’s autograph, as after those with line-hop tickets and those with accessibility issues, there were only enough slots for about 20 people. Unfortunately, I was not one of those 20.
And I had sacrificed going to Family Feud or Ponies’ Court for that!
But the sacrifice was not in vain, as the newly-freed up time allowed me to sign up for Enter Equestria, an MLP-themed D&D session. In it, me and seven others played the role of various background ponies during the Changeling invasion. Wait for the appropriate Highlight blog for the details, but needless to say, things didn’t pan out according to canon.
After a game of Munchkin, I went to the “History of My Little Pony: A Look at the Other Generations” panel, which focused on the toy line. Afterwards, ridiculous LineCon for Closing Ceremonies. Thankfully, I had a Bronze badge, so I was able to get in. Dark Wind, who wasn’t so lucky, had to watch from the overflow room.
After Closing Ceremonies, Dark Wind, thefluff, and I went to Shake Shack and ended the day watching the finale of Turnabout Storm, which thefluff hadn’t seen.
And on Monday, August 5, 2019, it was back to New York (thankfully, the trip back was uneventful), and back to life as usual.
And if you want to know more about how I spent the final BronyCon, stay tuned, as more in-depth Highlights will be posted (hopefully) every Sunday.
Until then,
Love the truth, tolerate no darkness.
--son_of_heaven176
Interesting. Looking forward to reading the in-depth version.
Well-written so far. I look forward to your future highlights.