#totcon

More news out of the wastes:

Guest announcement time! Try to imagine, like, six siren emojis accompanying this sentence.

“Six of us?!” - The Dazzlings, probably

At last check, we had announced three VIP guests and one community guest for TrotCon 2017, right? Well, get ready to bump up the numbers in both of those columns.

Like, quite a bit. Today’s a doozy, particularly on the community guest side. Let’s waste no more time.

First and foremost: once again, we’re pumped to have G.M. Berrow coming out to TrotCon!

This marks the third straight year we’ve brought Berrow to TrotCon, which is a testament to the amount of high praise we receive about her from you guys at the end of each year. Might as well keep this party going, right?

Berrow, for the uninitiated, first became involved in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic universe as the author of the chapter books published by Little, Brown and Co., including “Princess Luna and the Festival of the Winter Moon,” Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell” and more. That’s a role she continues to hold today, but in addition, she’s also worked as part of the TV series’ writing staff. Berrow has also worked as part of the crew on TV shows such as Law & Order: SVU and The Good Wife.

Cool stuff, eh?

So, she joins a group of folks we’re already enormously excited about: M.A. Larson, Peter New and Lee Tockar. We’re digging this list, y’all. Hope you are too.

OK, community guests. Deep breath, because there’s a lot of ’em.

That said, like G.M. Berrow, many of these are return guests. Again: we like them, they don’t seem to hate us, you’ve had nothing but great things to say about them AS guest. Git some.

Actually, funny story: we announced TheBronyCritic last year within the same announcement as G.M. Berrow. How about that? Anyway, yes, TheBronyCritic will be returning to TrotCon 2017 after first attaining community guest status with us last year. He’s one of our local boys, a critic and analyst who creates videos reviewing the MLP TV series as well as audioplays, fanfiction readings and more.

We’re also proud to welcome back ChocolatePony, known also as SouthParkTaoist, who’s best known in the fandom for some fantastic artwork, tarot cards and pony card games who also offers some of the coolest MLP-related panels you’ll see on this or any continent. He’s also recently published a book entitled The West Point of the West and hosts a Zootopia-related podcast called Zootopia Minute. You know how we feel about Zootopia here at TrotCon HQ, so we’re sold. Soooold.

In the same returning-guest vein, welcome back TJ Carson to TrotCon 2017! He’s been with us for the last few years as well, as the moderator of multiple ask blogs on Tumblr including Ask Pirate Dash, Ask Mic Boom and more. This is his fourth year as a guest here. FOURTH. That’s crazy, yeah?

We’ve got some new folks to announce, too. Welcome the podcast Pony 411 to TrotCon 2017!

Pony 411 has been helmed by hosts Nemesis Prime and Alca7raz for multiple years now, presenting frequent episodes that tackle the MLP fandom from all sides, from the TV show to its comics and everything in between. They’ve been featured as part of Ponyville Live for a few years as well. Come hear them talk about podcasting — the dos and don’ts, how they got started, the history of a podcast that’s been around for almost five years now.

They join Harmony Studios as our community guests announced so far for 2017, and we’re far from done announcing folks, no worries.

Sound like fun? Cool! Come on out to TrotCon 2017, which will be held July 14-16, 2017, at the Crowne Plaza Columbus North in Columbus, Ohio!

Registration is open until June 25th!

Hey there, Wasteland. We’ve got more news to dispense to your eager minds.

Peter New? Check. Lee Tockar? Check.

Hm. How about a third?

Yep, that sounds good, and we won’t delay the suspense any further than three paragraphs in: we’re happy to announce that M.A. Larson will be attending TrotCon 2017!

Look, if you’ve been to TrotCon in the past, chances are you know the guy. After all, he attended our 2014 and 2015 conventions, and when he didn’t show up for 2016, we heard ya loud and clear via email and on social media: you needed more M.A. Larson in your lives in July in Columbus, Ohio.

If you’ve been following along on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic from the start, you know his name. Larson was one of the chief writers on the show for a few years, working his way up to the role of story editor for season five. He’s since left the show, but nonetheless maintains a strong presence at pony conventions all over the world (ours included!).

My Little Pony is far from his only entertainment credit. He’s written for Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Gravity Falls, Littlest Pet Shop, and more, and even has his own novel, Pennyroyal Academy, that you should definitely check out if you haven’t already, because it totally rules. 100 percent. We aren’t messing around with this recommendation, y’all. As it happens the second book in the series, The Shadow Cadets of Pennyroyal Academy, just came out earlier this month. Timing!

Larson will join Peter New and Lee Tockar as special guests at TrotCon 2017, and you’ll get to hear his thoughts on his book series, ponies, and much more at multiple panels throughout the weekend, as well as get a chance to meet him and get an autograph or five. We know you want ’em, and we hear he’ll sign just about anything. Anything.

But hey, guess what? We’ve got more than just one guest announcement to do today.

Just some housekeeping stuff, but we think you’ll wanna hear: for the first time, we’re offering something we’re calling a Spirit Badge for TrotCon 2017. What’s it entail? Well, check it: you’re a fan of TrotCon, but you can’t make it out for this reason or that. Yeah, sad face. We’re bummed, too. But wait! What if we told you that you could still support your good ol’ Ohio pony con friends? Get a Spirit Badge, then, dummy!

For $40, you’ll be supporting TrotCon, helping us to put on some great programming and to snag even more guests of honor (because they ain’t cheap!), while also getting a few spoils for your troubles, including:

a con book

a limited-edition pin

a poster

a special Spirit Badge

We’ll shoot those goodies over to you via mail, you’ll open ’em up, it’ll be like Christmas in July or August or whenever it actually arrives. Donate more? We’ll throw in more goodies. They’ll be so good, you’ll wanna call them greaties. No? Terrible? Yeah, true, sorry, that was bad.

One last thing: if you want to pre-order merchandise for the convention in 2017 — shirts, pins, that sort of thing — then you can ALSO now do that on our Eventzilla page! Scroll down to Merchandise Pre-Order and do your thing.

That does it, then. Time to roll the hype train on out of the station. In the meantime, weekend badges (Friday-Sunday) for TrotCon 2017 are $50 through June 20, and kids 12 and under get in free with a regular badge purchase! We’ve also got sponsor badges available, in case you’re attending but want to toss some extra money our way to help us give you an even better time (and so you’ll get more stuff, which is the real prize). Applications for EVERYTHING — staff, musicians, artists, panels, you name it! — are now on the site as well!

http://derpy.me/Qlius

The schedule is there, as well as extended panel & event info, guest & vendor info, all sorts of useful noise. It also works with the Guidebook app for your fancypants smart phones so you can check it at con and keep up with the happenings! Clock is ticking, we’re almost there!!

We've kind of gotten into a bit of a habit for TrotCon 2016: with the exception of the wonderful Heather Breckel and a few of our community guests, the VIPs we've announced for this year's convention are heading down to Columbus, Ohio, to take in some good ol' fashioned pony conventioning for the very first time.

Our next guest is no exception to that admittedly loose trend. He's never been to TrotCon before, though he's by all accounts a veteran of the convention scene outside My Little Pony. Let's change that, shall we?

Please welcome Thom Zahler to TrotCon 2016!

Like Heather Breckel, you'll know Zahler predominantly from the comic publishing side of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Since the IDW series began, he's written and drawn for multiple volumes of the MLP comic series alongside such amazing folks as Katie Cook, Ted Anderson, Jeremy Whitley and many more.

Of course, that's not all he's known for. Zahler also has his own Love and Capes, a romantic superhero comic series that's currently four volumes in, and is an accomplished letterer for comics, working on Claypool's Deadbeats series, Stan Lee's NHL Guardian Project and much more. He also recently debuted a new project, Long Distance. One of the characters is even based in Columbus. Boy howdy!

Previously, he attended Fiesta Equestria in Texas twice, making this his third pony convention. And we're super pumped to have him!

For 2016, Zahler will be participating in multiple panels at TrotCon and will have his own table in our Artist's Alley. Check out all of his work at his website!

Let's tack on two more community guests, shall we? If you follow our social channels, you're probably already aware of them, but let's get 'em up on the website, shall we?

In 2016, we'll also be welcoming ILoveKPaLot and Wiggles to TrotCon! You'll know ILoveKPaLot especially from her superb My Little Reviews series and other videos, while Wiggles is the moderator of the Ask King Sombra Tumblr and has been the official cosplayer for Bronycon's mascot Blank Canvas. NICE.

They join Heather Breckel, John de Lancie and Ingrid Nilson in our lineup of VIP guests for 2016, alongside community guests such as Pixelkitties, ChocoPony and TJ Carson.

Wanna come hang out? We've got TrotCon badges going on until June 25 -- sponsor badges, weekend badges, you name 'em, they're for sale and your purchases help us bring more awesome guests like Thom Zahler to you.

We're also nearing the panel application deadline.

May 20 is it; if you haven't applied yet and want to, well, we're getting kinda full, so get on that.

Musicians, your time to apply is nearly up! If you haven't yet sent in your application, this is last call! Get ‘em in before midnight to have a chance to rock the house this year!

“But how do I even into the applying!?” you screech, fist shaking towards the heavens what hath forsaken you. “Simple, really!” we answer. Just click right about... here!

Music not your thing? Panel applications are over here, staff app is here, or if you just wanna attend and enjoy the spaghetti you can pick you your badges right over here!

Things are gearing up as we get closer to the convention. Keep an eye out for some upcoming guest announcement, pones what made the cut for the Artists’ Acres, event highlights, and so much more!

If you’ve been coming to TrotCon for the last few years, you’ll know our next guest quite, quite well.

She’s had a hand in creating the finished product of some of the fantastic My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic comic books published by IDW — please welcome Heather Breckel to TrotCon 2016!

Heather’s been coming out to TrotCon since 2013, and she’s been a virtual no-brainer for us to have back ever since. First of all, she’s tremendous at her job — colorist for IDW’s MLP comics, meaning she holds down the important task of bringing all your favorite characters to life through magnificent color! Then, of course, being a resident of our home base of Columbus, Ohio, ain’t too shabby either.

You’ll have the chance to meet Heather and learn more about a slightly different MLP medium than that of the TV show, but remember, she’s no one-trick pony! Heather has also worked as a colorist for editions in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Godzilla, Star Wars and Peter Panzerfaust franchises, among many more, and she’s also a tremendous artist — she even has her own digital comic called Angie Ruins Fire Emblem!

Come shoot the breeze with Heather this summer. Talk about some ponies. Maybe some cats. You know you wanna.

ALSO: Calling all prospective vendors! Yeah, you, with the things to sell! Want to put a price tag on your wares and truck them off to TrotCon 2016? A friendly, but firm, reminder: in just over a month, registration for our artist alley will be closed for good! April 15 at 11:59 p.m. ET is the specific date and time.

So many of you have already put in applications, but if you haven’t already and have any sort of desire to come to Columbus in the dead of July, well, our door’s open! Because, you know, it’s really hot out, and we need the door open to get that outdoor breeze in. You understand, right? No, no, we don’t think it’s going to blow anything over. It might create a wind tunnel effect, but hey, the kids seem to be enjoying it.

Heya pones. Just a reminder that today is the last day for the $40 pre-reg rate! If you’re planning on coming but haven't locked in your tix yet, now is the time. As soon as tomorrow rolls around, meaning once it’s February in our local Eastern US time zone, the price goes up to $50 and will stay that way through the rest of the time pre-reg is open.

So now is the time. Don’t delay, buy today!

We’re live and ready to accept your auditions to perform at TrotCon!