#bronycon5

mind driving, but having a break was actually really nice. We covered van in pony stickers. Huge Rainbow Dash and cutie mark on the back window, plus random mane six on the sides. Got so many looks from people on the road, 'twas hilarious. Only stopped once, normally I try to stop twice cause sitting that long can be real bad, but it wasn't as rough as I thought (might have been due to the fact I had the whole back bench seat to myself). We actually got in really early, Like 12:30-1. Quicker then most years but I am a slower driver. We chilled out at the hotel and made plans and then went to badge get at 2. Went well enough. Everyone but me and Justin got Bronze passes while we got a basic and 3day+. I thought about getting a bronze but 250 for a shirt and the ability to line cut and does not seem worth. I'd rather save my dollars and get more things. Once we did that we deposited our stuff at the hotel and went to Dicks Last Resort. I now know my regular meal there, cheese sticks and fried shrimp(I'm that guy that orders the same shit every single time). Was a fun time, though the hats weren't as funny this time as last time but it was still cool. We went back to the hotel to rest before hitting the bar trot. Me and Billy played some Buddyfight. Trying to find space for the Seiger impact monster. After that we went to the Bar Trot. I got the VIP so I could get the shirt, which was nifty. I spent so much money on alcohol. First I had some Fluttershy shots at the Dogwatch Tavern. They were alright. Then we went to the Greene Turtle and had a bunch of Derpy shots. They were slightly better this year. Probably due to the ice. Now I know how to make them, so that's cool. We went to The Admiral after that. This place is literal best. Drank a bunch of that Trixie drink. Asked the guy how he made it but it seemed almost like he didn't entirely have a set formula. Knew what was in it but not the amounts. I unfortunately don't remember what he said. I managed to get the number to the place but haven't called yet. I just want to know how to do the thing. Also had a Twilight and Ember drink that were really good. They were playing the official MLP soundtracks. Even played the Christmas one but everyone just rolled with it and sang along anyway. I wore my goggles, which I got a bunch of compliments on. People kept asking where I got them, but the honest answer is some random vendor at Otakon like 5 or 6 years ago. There was a guy at bar drawing, and another guy I was talking to. Chill dudes. A guy dressed up like a pirate and started talking to me.  Got fairly drunk and didn't die. I think I'm getting better since The Dragon Incident. We went back after that.

Friday: I Wore the Chrysalis/Celestia cosplay I made. It really wasn't that good, but I had fun wearing it and making it was still fun and a couple people got a kick out of it, so totally worth (I'll go into more details later, There is a picture somewhere on my blog I think). We went early cause everyone else wanted to autograph line. I hung out but the line was insane so I skipped out on cause I wanted to go to Tabithas awkward family photo panel. Right fuckin time to line up for that cause I got front roW! It was hilarous. She is easily my favorite voice acress. Went to the vendor hall after that. I bought a Cutie Coral Trixie (It's pretty much a tradition at this point), a print of Chrysalis and Celestia(Even thoughI said no goddamn art this year cause no room but it was so cute.) Also had a random changeling fursuiter come up and hug me, and also had a Flufflepuff have their picture taken with me. Also bought some of the WLF chibis. I found all the ones I would have bought had I actually ordered them on time. Then I went to the VA panel after that. Tara wasnt there for some reason but it was really fun. It's really cool to hear them speak in their characters voices in person. Checked out the Crystal Arena to see if a friend was there cause if he goes he's usually there, but apparently he couldn't go. Another guy asked for my picture. Was neat. Went to the con starbucks to get some of that awesome Teavanna tea (Teavanna is my crack). Was chilling there eating a cinnamon roll and drinking my tea when I hear this guy trying to get someone's attention. Look up, it's M.A. Larson. I seemed to be the only one that noticed him, so I got the attention of the people. Turns out he was trying to get people to go to the writer panel. Afterwards he points to me and is like "Hey you should come to the panel too!. #fuckit so I went to the writer panel. Walk in with some of the other people and he was like "lol it worked" Panel turned out to be awesome, so basically, Thanks M.A. Larson. Went to the hotel to make a stuff deposit after that. Deposited my stuff at the hotel and swapped out of my costume went to the Bronypalooza. I wanted to be there for the first act and because it was Wasteland Wailers and they are outstanding. I don't know anything about FoE or Fallout in general but I like that kind of music and goddamn were they fantastic. Went back up after them because My phone was very low and no one else had showed up yet. Chilled out and charged for a while until everyone else showed up. There was a bunch of new acts this year. Specifically Internet Empire, End of File and Jimni Cricket. The first two of those were really really good. then we got to Jimni Cricket, whom none of us had heard of before and holy shit, best act of the ENTIRE two days easily. She is AMAZING. Like, I immediately felt bad for anyone who had to follow that, and the people left were all REALLY good. We ended up not staying to the end cause we were super tired and wanted to get up early for autograph shenanigans. Also my shoe exploded. After jumping around at the palooza and we were walking back the hotel I noticed my shoe felt weird and flappy-er than usual. The sole had ejected halfway out the back and I was walking on the inside tread. I don't like shopping for shoes so I said fuck it despite the fact they were literally falling apart. I guess thats what happens.  

Saturday: Ended up getting up slightly later than I wanted to. Had to go on a bit of an adventure to find ducttape to repair my shoe. The hotel maintenece staff had some though! Now that my shoes were being held together by duct tape and dreams I was good to go. I wore Chrysalis again. Today was the day I was going to attempt to get autographs since the only panel I wanted to get into really was The Mane Six panel so I got in line for vouchers. They handled this so much better this year holy shit. Like, you could get the vouchers whenever and they had a limit of vouchers per day, but once you got a voucher you were good for any autograph time or line assuming you got there at a reasonable time. Spent 60$ for Andrea and Tabitha. The line was not bad, only like 45 minutes for vouchers. Then I jumped into the line for Andrea. Met a lady and her daughter. They were first time con-goers that had literally just gotten in. Kinda helped them out with the guidebook app and pointed them in the direction of cool stuff. I actually saw them in Tabitha's line later but I didn't say anything because I didn't want to be creepy. Today was a bunch of lines. Got to meet Andrea. She signed my Fluttershy trading card. Got a picture too. I look like a spaz but I always do. Was going to jump into Tabitha's line but it was full. Decided I could go to the later one. That was the best thing they did. You could buy vouchers at any point!  It was grand. Went to the Vendor hall for a little while and scoped things out. Saw that Sara Richards was there. I love her style, so I wanted to get a couple covers signed by her but I was saving that for sunday. I bought a Maud to go with my Trixie. I also bought the TSSSF con expansion, a Lying Cat Talking Plush (Fuck yea Saga!) and I grabbed a print for my friend. Then came the Mane Six panel. It ended up being really really cool. They allowed absolutely no recording or photography. Which was odd, but I kind of realized why. The cast then did a reading of a script that Tabitha wrote in their character voices, with ACRacebest, Sabrespark, and BlackGryphon, and Michelle Creber filling in for some of the other characters (Celestia, Spike). There are probably better descriptions but it basically was about Luna chipping a tooth because Pinkie shenanigans, being embarrassed to speak, and not wanting to ask for help. There was a singing dentist so there was even a song (sung by Blackgryph0n) It was really cool. Plus two of the VAs hadn't even read the script before and you couldn't even tell. Hopefully we can still get the official con recording of the video, but I absolutely understand if we dont. Went dropped my stuff back at hotel, got some food and went to Tabitha's line. At first a staff told me they weren't lining up until 4:30. So I chilled out by the foutains and photographed. Turns out a huge line had formed and people did line up, but he IMMEDIATELY found me, appologised and pointed me to the line. That was really cool of him to do cause I might have missed otherwise. Good on you Con Staff guy. Tabitha's line was about 2 hours. She even stayed an extra half-hour. When I did meet her she signed my Rarity card and then we took a picture. She's really nice in person and went to lenghts due to make whoever she was talking to comforable. Plus the guy taking pictures took like 10. It was awesome. Was going to go to the Palooza at this point but I was feeling fairly burned out from lines and needed some time to just meander about the con and take in the atmosphere so I went to the photoshoot, was very chill and saw some real cool costumes. Swapped clothes and went to the Palooza after that. I had to take some breaks because I was very sore by this point from the night before (My butthole shoes probably didn’t help). Andrew joined me but had to leave relatively soon because he was too sore and pulled a muscle or something. I bought a Garnika CD sice they were selling them in the very back of the space. I had to take a bunch of breaks. I love seeing the crowd react and I love seeing the Musicians react to how happy the crowd was. Its what motivated me to stay to the end even though I hurt.

Sunday: Was a day intended for chilling. I accompanied some Bill and Josh to a demo of a cardgame on kickstarter, but had to run back to the hotel cause I forgot something but then I went to the vendor hall. Bought a ton of comics, some Jetpack exclusives. I got the Sara Richards grumpy Rainbow Dash (#41 if I recall correctly) and the RI Microseries Luna cover. Also two of the main series #9 (The Big Mac and Cheerilee Greek covers.), the RI with Discord holding a small Fluttershy and another varient I'm pretty sure I actually have already. Whoops. Also bought a Fluttershy necklace, some more prints, another chibi figure and an art book. Got Sara Richards to sign two of the covers and even sketch in the book. She is awesome. Also bought a game called Nine Mare's Morris. (It's literally a reskin of Nine Men's Morris, but it's still cool). Also bought some shot glasses. Went to closing Ceremonies after that. It was super emotional cause the con chair and vice chair was stepping down. We left after that and went to Bubba Gumps. That place is awesome. I don't always go hard at restaurants. Usually the opposite. But I had a 50$ check with absolutely no regrets. I even bought a shirt from them. We wandered and Pokemon Go'd in the inner harbor for a bit. That actually come out the day before we'd left so we were playing on and off. There was a moment at the Baltimore WTC. Three stops had lures, crazy shit was appearing. There was people playing everywhere. Everyone got ice cream and such and then we went back to the hotel. I decded to play NMM with Bill. It's a fun game, pretty hard. Kyle and Andrew went out to Pokemon Go but it was like 10 so I didn't want to wander about. Instead I just chilled at the hotel and drank.

Monday:

We stayed through Monday this time. Gonna do this from now on. Made everything so less stressful and we got to hang out. We got our stuff together and checked out. I said goodbye to some friends. Then we went to the National Aquarium. Tickets were 40 goddamn dollars, but after we got in it was so worth it. Fish are very relaxing. Plus they had a ton of jellyfish, which i've come to really enjoy. I got a bunch of really cool pictures. Now I'm gonna fully admit I'm not the brightest bulb and don't remember the entirety of all the science facts and such, but they were pretty! We went to Dick's one last time before hitting the hotel and leaving out. The trip back was pretty fun. I sat in the back in a 2500$ pile of horse plushies. Me, Kyle and Bill tried doing parts of a coloring book. It was even a fun trip back. We were at a random rest stop in Pennsylvania and a girl at the Sonic realized we were all MLP fans as she was also an MLP fan. Was cool. Then we made it home. It was super fun. We got back... Midnight-ish?

Overall I had an absolute fuckin’ blast. The con itself was one of the best run cons I've ever seen. There was no nonsense with half the con center being closed down. The staff was good. Some of the things they put in place like the vouchers were perfect. Cosplaying was pretty fun too, even though I'm not good at it. I love the con atmosphere and the Baltimore Inner Harbor and I absolutely can't wait until next year.