#bronycon2015

and passed them to see if any of them would notice the decals on my car. Sure enough we got next to them and it was Kyle's group and they noticed us. There was some yelling between open car windows going down the highway before we split off cause it was around our first stop. (Pretty sure they didn't stop at all.)

We made our usual stops and it was pretty uneventful. Got scared for a minute cause the one Hess was a Speedway or something, but it turns out that Speedway bought Hess or something? The hotdogs were still outstanding. I ate four. We got to the hotel super early. Like 1:30 about. I think we'll always aim to leave that early. The hotel was awesome again. I now have another pony-themed hotel key in my wallet. After we got in, we went to get our badges. Thats when we met we met up with Kyle, Billy and Nick and went to eat. Specifically we went to a place called Dick's Last Resort. It was hilarious. After that we went to the cool Barnes and Noble which is directly next door and killed some time in there before the bar trot. The Bar Trot was also a good time. We walked out to Fells Point where all the bars are. The first one we went to was The Greene Turtle. They were swamped though. They only had a couple people working so it was super swamped. They had a Pinkie themed shot which was pretty good and a Derpy themed shot that was really good. Had 3 of the Derpy(Which I found out was pineapple juice and vanilla vodka) and 1 of the Pinkie. After that we went to a place I think was called the Admiral? after hearing Kyle talk about how they had some super outstanding Trixie themed drink. This place was super awesome. It was underground in this small space but the atmosphere was really nice. Music blasting in the background and packed with people. They had a Fluttershy based shot as well that was decent. But then I got to order the Trixie drink. It was a pale green, looked like something I wouldn't have been able to drink, but goddamn if it wasn't the best alcoholic drink I've ever had. It was carbonated and looked super thick(Though I honestly think it only looked that way), but it didn't ruin me. It's the only instance of carbonated anything that I've ever enjoyed. I still don't know what was in it. I seriously hope they have it next year. After talking with some dude who had an outstanding moustache, We wandered over to another bar, but their menu was weird and the ordering was weird so we went back to The Admiral, drank a little more and then walked back to the hotel. Managed to not destroy myself and only woke up the next day with a mild headache.

Friday: Got up and met everyone for breakfast at the hotel since the Jimmy Johns didn't open for a while. Was... alright. A little expensive though. Debated going to opening ceremonies, but decided to just go to the atm and vendor hall instead. One thing was weird. They had half the BCC closed off. Nothing was going on over there, but we still werent allowed to pass through. Last year they only used half of it but we were pretty much allowed anywhere in the main area. The problem is this is where the skybridge access was. Went outside and around the building, but the staircase leading up to the skybride was removed. It turned getting to the ATMs for my bank that are in the pavilion from a 10 minute walk into a 35 minute clusterfuck. However due to this, we got to the vendorhall pretty much right when the line had disappated and we got right in. Went directly to the Cutie Corral booth which was right outside the opening. I was going to get just Sonata, but they had all three so... I tried to use my card which got denied...? Checked my phone and noticed I had a whole bunch of fraud prevention alerts. >oshit.jpg Had to call my bank and tell them that yes I was in Baltimore and yes I was actually making this purchage. Guy held my plushies for me while I fixed it which was cool. Tried to figure out how to get the enterplay mat and card combo, but apparently you needed a voucher from a completely different line. So I kinda said screw it and I went to go find thewelovefine booth. Which was oddly renamed to sugarcube corner for some reason? Got a bunch of shirts. These cool sillouette villain ones and a Flutterbat. Glad I got there early because they only had one box of those cool large bags that are the best. From there I just kind of wandered around and looked at stuff for a while. After this I went and dropped all the stuff back at the hotel room. Went to the VA panel after that which was cool. For some reason John De Lancie was always at a separate one and they always overlapped. Wandered around for a while and hung out. Decided to go to the game room to see if anyone was playing the TCG or if there were EDH games going on. Found a couple guys playing EDH. One guy was running Mono-White and the other was playing 5 color (though I forget the specific commanders). I used my Oona deck. It was a game until the 5-color player used Doubling Season and started ult'ing planeswalkers instantly until he became unstoppable. After that, one guy suggested that we play a game called "Twilight Sparkle's Secret Shipfic Folder." Basically, the game is about Twilight writing really bad fanfiction and you ship ponies together to fill certain goals. It is absolutely hilarious. We went to go buy it but the dealers room had already closed for the day. Met up with everyone back at the hotel room and decided to get food at Bubba Gump before Bronypalooza. That place is outstanding. I will make it a point to go down there everytime, Their shrimp was fantasic, their alcohol was fantastic. Whatever the hell else came in my shrimp meal was outstanding. I wish I had one closer to me. I also got a Mason Jar wine glass. Some British tourists came up to our group and wondered what was going on (Seeing us all covered in pony) and got a picture with us while their daughter facepalmed. Was funny. After that we went to Bronypalooza which was a pretty fun time. My phone's battery was super low so I didn't record anything. I still can't dance, but was jumping around like a moron anyway. (And this time I took my deckboxes out of my pockets so I didn't have baseball sized bruises on my legs.) I gotta do this sort of thing more often. (I say that every year and look how that turns out)

Saturday:

Got up an got poptarts for breakfast because honestly the buffet from the day before wasn't that great. (Although I absolutely love everything else about this hotel.) Then I went to go get money from a closer-than-the-pavilion ATM (Cause the other side with the door to the skybridge was still closed down and the staircase from the street was gone). Somehow I ended up missing this ATM and ended up at the pavilion. Got my money and found myself in the middle of some sort of Indian festival thing? (International Society of Krishna Conciousness I think). It was actually pretty cool and some lady gave me a bag of meditation books and prayer beads. I do intend to give these a read at some point. Got back to the con and got in the crazy line to buy the shipfic game. It was seriously a half-hour wait. Was worth it though. Then I bought some POP figures and a Garnet shirt. Also looked around to see if anyone had that Twilight variant of the Fiendship comic, but alas no one did. (That damn things probably gonna cost me an inordinate amount of money someday). Went back to the hotel to deposit my purchases, some crabcake food cart company pulled me, some other guy in a fursuit and two other guys over for a picture. So I'm legit on the facebook of some crabcake food cart facebook. (I honestly don't remember the name 3 months later). Went to John DeLancie's panel afterward. Was surprised he wasn't with the rest of the VAs and had his own smaller thing. It was pretty cool though listening to him talk about stuff, though I think potential shenanigans would have been hilarious especially with Nicole Oliver there as well. Wandered around for a while after that. (One of the things I like about conventions is just wandering around and seeing this huge group of people all here for the same thing. Is neat.) Ran into a friend in the CCG arena thing. Didn't really get the chance to play a game (It's a shame cause the game is good it's just dead in my area). Met back up with Andrew and some guys at the hotel pony lounge and we played a huge game of shipfic, then one of them came to Jimmyjohns with us. Was pretty cool. Went to the entirety of Bronypalooza this time. It was really cool. I liked Garnika and Nowhacking. (Nicole Oliver also showed up and sang happy birthday to one of the MCs) They even had free bottled water for everyone. It was a good time. Getting to see Tombstone live was really cool. Sucks that we got cut short cause we somehow ended up going WAY over time (Didn't end until like 3 am) Cool of them to let us go an hour over though!

Sunday:

Got shit together and checked out of hotel and went back to the con. Now my walls are pretty full of prints so I decided to only get 3 or 4 prints this year. So naturally I bought 15 or so thinking about how much of a bad time im about to have re-arranging my wall (Though I did it and it looks boss now.) Tried to get the Bronycon expansion for the shipfic game, but they were sold out. (I guess forever now too, Damnit). I did however manage to get one of the Equestrian Oddesy starter decks for a friend. (Was told they were sold out the first day.) Went back to the game room and played with a bunch of random people for a while. Was a good time. After this we had a bit of wandering. Saw a weird thing. A bunch of military looking guys, a colonial military looking guy, and a guy dresses as Emperor Kuzco were chasing an Eggman. Followed that and by the time I had caught up with them they were all dancing, was lol. Also saw some guys took some RC car bases, strapped some plushies to them (Specifically RD and Fluttershy) Stuck some sticks to them and began jousting. It was pretty funny. Went to closing ceremonies after that, hung out some more, took some cosplay pictures then we all went as a big group to Jimmy Johns for a final time that weekend. Didn't really want to leave, so we stuck around and played some more shipfic. The pony lounge thing was full, so the restaurant was super cool and let us use a corner table. Because of this we ended up leaving at like 7 or 8 PM. Was fine, but it ended up being the roughest time I had driving back. Next time I believe we'll just stay the night and head back monday morning. It's probably for the best that way. Plus an extra night of hanging out and shenanigans can't possibly be a bad thing.

Overall: This year was a lot more hanging out than running to panels and doing stuff. Which was a neat change of pace. Next year I might try to go to more panels or events. I'm sorta getting better at this con cosplay photo thing. Kinda. I absolutely plan to go next year too, I was gonna attempt to get to Otakon one more time before they move it, but I doubt that's gonna happen. I'm having too much of a good time at Bronycon, as well as I know more people going and it's easier to split hotel rooms. Don't think I could swing both even if I saved superhard (Which I am bad at anyway).