ART BY:
 Boom /  romanticponydream

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hOI!!!!!!

Saturday couldn’t start off any better. Our panel, Coping With Limitations Through Pony was one of the first of the day at 10:00 AM in The Hall Of The Moon.


The plan was to meet up with  LeonXIII after breakfast and all walk together to get set up for the event. This was a major occasion for me as it was the long-awaited airing of our descriptive audio edition of Silly Filly Studios’, “Snowdrop”.


I won’t lie when I mention I got a bit emotional as I went about introducing the panel. I wanted to lead off by giving a short history of what we’ve done, where we’ve gone, and how happy I was to have worked with so many wonderful people over the past six years. It truly is the end of an era but one I truly hope does not end with FiM.


The descriptive audio for “Snowdrop” was well received and I couldn’t have been more proud. From there,  wayward_pony,  Boom,  aricub, and my son each discussed how the show had an impact that, like “Snowdrop”, will last long past the end of FiM. Most notably is how, like the characters, we’ve all grown strong friendships, self-esteem, and a true sense of belonging from the fandom and its positive embrace for all those of diversity. If we can do this with My Little Pony we can do this through almost every, if not all, aspect of the arts!


The conclusion of the panel was bittersweet as we didn’t get much time to talk with people after we finished. However I would like to thank  LeonXIII for having not only attended but also contributed towards the very end. Thanks, Leon!


The rest of Saturday was spent seeking out Lauren Faust. Some may remember that  azuredragon got me her signature back at the first BronyCon in 2012. Now it was my turn to finally meet her myself.


No surprise, but the line for Faust was enormous! Even with the added benefit of the ‘Accessibility Badge’ we were pretty firmly packed in. All the talking made it hard to know exactly where I was and how close I was to Faust’s table. However meeting her was definitely a great experience and getting her signature for myself was even better. This also fully achieved a goal I had set out for this year. This being to get one piece of  Boom’s art signed between 2013 and 2019! Thanks, Doodle!


The next big activity was getting set for Lauren’s panel in the afternoon. Once more, the ‘Accessibility Badge’ came in handy to get a seat that would allow my Seeing Eye Dog a comfortable place that didn’t squash him in. This is actually a good point to mention how poor Buddy was overwhelmed by the crowding. He felt his best at the hotel and often just tried to find comfortable little spaces where he could relax free of all the hustle-and-bustle.


Back to Lauren, I enjoyed her panel on how she developed FiM. She brought up some really interesting points. For example, Rainbow Dash was originally supposed to be Firefly. However G1 Firefly’s name could not be used. So, in its place, we got an updated version of G3’s Rainbow Dash. Nothing quite like going from ‘”Darling to daring. : )


Another interesting point is how Apple Bloom was the only filly originally planned. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were added because Hasbro had them from G3 and thought they’d be great to bring into G4. So we can thank Apple Bloom for bringing back in Scoots and Sweetie. If not for this there would be no Cutie Mark Crusaders. I’d dread to think of a show without the CMC.


On the same lines is lovable lil’ Spike. Lauren had fun designing him. However one of the most interesting elements she mentioned on his design was how she wanted him to appear ‘like a toddler’ and how his body design was to give him a ‘diaper butt’. (This could explain why he appears so chubby in the belly and backside)


After Lauren’s panel, My son and I joined Saphy on a tour of the vendor hall. We discovered some really neat surprises, too!


The first surprise was that someone made a plushie of Teddy from [i]My Little Pony Tales! Teddy is the rough-and-tumble colt who gets along with Sweetheart. Sweetheart is also one of Saphy’s favorite characters from MLPT.


The next surprise was a sale on dress-shirts featuring Cutie Marks on them. I bought a Starlight Glimmer for $30. I’ve worn it to work each week since the convention and it has been okie-dokie-lokie. Now if I could just find the seller again as, quite honestly, it makes it easy to find my dress shirts with something tactile, like the sewn on Cutie-Mark patch, to locate and know what I’m wearing at work. (Most days I have no idea what I’m wearing as all my clothes were designed to match regardless of shirt and pants combination)


Next was a plushie-maker looking to make her way into the plushie-making business. She was taking very affordable commissions and makes some nicely tactile crochet plush. I asked if she could do Yosh and held up my convention badge and she said ‘Yes’. So, in the near future, I may have another plush of Yosh to go along with the one Saphy made me in 2017!


Lastly was helping Saphy get a plush of the mascot for the sea pony convention. It turns out the vendor hall should have already closed, so he gave her a discount of $5 off! I purchased it for saphy and, in exchange, she’s doing a really cute picture of Spike that is to reference Lauren’s point about Spike having a ‘diaper-butt’. : )


The rest of the night was team members coming-and-going to-and-from the hotel. We discussed plans for the following day along with how we were kind of feeling the loss of the convention as a gathering place. Doing the very last CWLTP at BronyCon was definitely bittersweet. Fortunately our colleague, Wayward Pony, may be keeping it alive at TrotCon or AnthroCon. More to be determined in the coming months.


See you next entry!


Your Pal:

---Yosh E. O’Ducky ; )