• Member Since 7th Dec, 2014
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son_of_heaven176


A New Yorker who likes anime, games, and good brony fanfic.

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Sep
9th
2019

Highlights from BronyCon 2019: Not So Fast! (Part 1) · 12:57am Sep 9th, 2019

Introduction
Condensed Version

Highlights from BronyCon 2019: Not So Fast! (Part 1)

In which son_of_heaven176 sees a sight unlike the one that greeted him in 2018 on the way to Baltimore, and experiences a less-than-stellar light-rail ride.

Wednesday, July 31, 2019: The Day Before the Final BronyCon

After a year of waiting, the highlight of the brony calendar has finally come again: BronyCon! And I had been all the more hyped for BronyCon due to having run across ACRacebest’s “ONE. LAST. TIME.” video earlier that month. I was looking forward to being home again.

My parents drove me to JFK Airport, and after checking my bag and going through security, I headed to my gate, which was a ridiculously LONG walk away.

But when I got to my gate, I was surprised by people wearing brony T-shirts! I saw no such thing the previous year! So, seeing fellow bronies, I headed straight towards them and started to converse. As we exchanged usernames, one stood out: “Xaldin-Wolfgang”.

Xaldin-Wolfgang. I knew that name, but from where?

I went to the Brony D&D server to ask. Hopefully someone there could jog my memory?

No dice.

“Are you one of joshscorcher’s editors?” I asked Xaldin.

“No,” he answered. And I remembered: that was Xain Russell.

Xaldin then offered to show me his OC. And once he did, it clicked: “You’re the guy who pranks Jasper Pie!”

Yep. (I recalled that there was a comic where he pranked poor Jasper by doing absolutely nothing! It’s this two-part comic.)

Wow. Not even in Baltimore yet, and I already run across a famous brony? Of course I was going to take a picture! I made sure to have Xaldin include his OC in the picture.

Again, that's a negatory on the face reveal, Ghost Rider!

The plane ride itself went quite well. Two of Xaldin’s buddies were across the aisle from me on the plane, and next to me was someone whose home was Baltimore. She had spent some time in Africa, and this flight was the last leg of a very long journey. She was in northern Africa, but had to fly all the way to Johannesburg, South Africa in order to fly back to the States. I asked her why she couldn’t just stop in Europe instead, and I forget the answer. Perhaps it was a health thing? I honestly don’t remember.

Either way, my neighbor and her trip were the source of quite the bit of conversation, though there was some discussion about BronyCon as well.

Once we got off the plane, I ran across Xaldin again. I tried to strike up a conversation, but that unfortunately went nowhere fast. Oh, well.

On my way to baggage claim, I ran across two British bronies. One of them was taking the bus, while the other was going to take the light rail. Since this would be the first time talking the light rail for me, I tagged along with that brony—and all the better for him, as he was legally blind and needed some help navigating the ticket kiosk and the American money.

We finally made it to the light rail and got on the train, and I was expecting a nice, easy ride…

Not so fast! A barely-intelligible announcement came over the PA system. (That train’s PA system could rival that of NYC’s MTA: they were equally unintelligible!) Apparently, the message was that everybody had to get off.

Instead of waiting in the heat of the train station, I went back inside the airport (the train station was connected to the airport) to wait until we could board again. News eventually filtered in that everybody had to get off because bedbugs were found on the train.

Of course, with the delay, more bronies filtered in as more flights arrived. By the time the next train showed up, the seats were quickly taken and I ended up having to stand. But at least I could just relax and enjoy the ride…

Not so fast! Out of nowhere, the train just STOPPED, almost throwing me off balance. The lights went dim. Apparently there was a power problem.

Whatever the problem was, it got resolved, and we got moving again…

Not so fast! The train stopped again, but at least this time, it wasn’t so abrupt. Memory serving, there was train traffic ahead of the train that I was on; the traffic needed to clear up before the train could move.
(Oh to be on one of the newer-model MTA subway trains! Those guys have prerecorded messages that are clear as a bell, and you could hear clearly, “We are being stopped due to train traffic ahead of us.”)

The traffic cleared up, and for a while, the only stops were train stations. Were the shenanigans behind us?

Not so fast! One more time, the train abruptly STOPPED, but at least my balance wasn’t thrown off this time. Power problem again.

However, that problem resolved quickly, and for real this time; there were no more shenanigans between that stop and the Camden Yards station, which was the end of the line due to construction further in. I got off, asked for directions, and I schlepped my luggage to the Sheraton, where DarkWind was waiting in the lobby for me to arrive.

But the shenanigans aren’t over. Changed dinner plans and missed meetings are in store in the next Highlight, “Not So Fast! (Part 2)”.

Previous Highlight (Publication Order): #finnabuse and Wonderful Eliyora

Next Highlight: Not So Fast! (Part 2)

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