Meet Report: Meet #3, Saturday 6th April 2024

By PiratPeter

Saturday the 6th of April 2024, the warmest day of the year to date; a day ripe with potential, and the anticipation of yet another fun-filled Yorkicorn meet.

Fuelled by the fires of friendship and the promise of pizza, PiratPeter and Francis were already brimming with excitement when they spotted the man himself, Maz, awaiting a bus that, little did he know until that minute, he was fated not to ride that day. The (now slightly bolstered) three occupants of the economically sized Skoda Citigo-e iv (that was making sure progress through the light morning traffic towards the meet location) considered that they knew of no pony who was making their way to the usual pre-meet gathering at the train station, so decided to get to the pub early. Even after a spate of illnesses, rail strikes, and previous attendees having prior commitments, the three did not yet realise that they already formed 75% of the meet.

AGAST! The back corner table of the Postern Gate was already occupied by customers of the affordably priced chain pub. But, without allowing a change to the established Yorkicorn meet format to cause an end to the festivities before they could truly begin, the Yorkicorn attendees deftly dragged two tables together to form a more substantial meeting space adjacent to the smartly panelled back wall. With breakfast orders complete using the mobile ordering app, the meet was now in session!

Unlike March’s meet, there were no art supplies or art books placed on the table, as the meeting was still very much in a rather futile “gathering ponies” mode. What did make their way onto Tables 7 and 17 were a trio of laptops. Maz got on with last minute ticket preparation, Francis had an edition of Fallout Equestria loaded up on his monitor, and PiratPeter got to artworking some ideas for York travel posters featuring the Yorkicorn mascots, Björk and Freya. With so much technology on display, an air of nerdery gave credence to the idea of the meeting being dubbed ‘the “Dork”icorns’ (and the gestation of a plan for a future trip to Dorking to really make use of the new moniker).

P-p-p-plushie power!

Dear reader, what happened next was an earth-shakingly significant development in the meeting. The already quite well established trio of equestrian-inclined chums (not counting the plushies) suddenly grew to a grand total of 4. Not only was this a significant bump in the table’s total occupancy, but this new face was none other than THE Bexi. Gracing the gaggle of goons with her presence, Bexi also blessed the party with a delicious bag of Søstrene Grene’s delectable watermelon flavoured rock candy. PiratPeter had also brought a bag of clove rock from his recent trip to Dublin for everypony to try. The collective opinion of all taste-testers was that the Danish-branded confections were of a significantly more desirable taste. Lunches were ordered, and the free hot drink refills were refreshed (albeit with a little more effort as the nearby machines were out of order).

Clove Rock. Would not recommend. Spike. Would recommend.

When the 3 o’clock bell chimed (somewhere outside of the pub, inaudible to the Yorkicorn meet. Honestly at this point it’s just conjecture), and after a certain somepony FINALLY finished his latte, the meet was taken into the warm afternoon sunlight. Boba tea awaited. En route, stops included the popular toy store, The Entertainer and the well-stocked purveyor of entertainment goods, HMV (formerly “His Master’s Voice”). Shortly after half past 3, boba tea was finally acquired. A tradition now as long as either time immemorial, or the three month span in which Yorkicorns have been meeting (whichever is the most recent), the enjoyment of the Korean beverage was universal among all horse fans present at Cuppa Joy (2 Coney Street, York, YO1 9NA). Francis in particular popped his cherry-flavoured pearls for the first time (review pending), and all were impressed by his skilful straw-stabbing.

BO-BA, BO-BA, BO-BA! 2000!

As the group progressed through the cathedral city (strategically developed in the Roman era at the point of confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss), a number of odd and eerie events occurred: A bewhistled woman kindly pointed out to PiratPeter that he was what an “emo” looked like; The vehicle of choice of New York’s leading paranormal exterminators (the Ghostbusters), the ECTO-1, made an appearance; A certain statue featuring a frog, a fish, and a little fella (and not in the places that decent folk might assume) was still being held hostage behind tall, tourist-friendly bars in front of the Minster (but for whose protection were the bars erected? The statue’s, or the public’s?); and PiratPeter’s ear-adorned (or horned?) hat received no fewer than two compliments by strangers (who just so happened to also be casual enjoyers of headwear). Unlike before, Forbidden Planet was not visited, but the model shop did receive a brief pop-in, after some tactically deployed booba-tea measures.

When there’s something strange, in your NEIGH-bourhood…

A walk back through the city returned our heroes to the Q-park wherein the aforementioned economically sized car was waiting to take the aforementioned partygoers to enjoy some aforementioned pizza (“See sentence #2!!! -Editor”). The “Pizza Party Pertaining to Previously Publicised Purchasable Passes for PonyCon being Propagated to the Pony-Passionate Public” was a ROARING success! Delicious Aldi stonebaked Pizzas (only one of which threatened to burn the house down after being neglected among all the excitement post-ticket-release)! Card games! Tasty beverages! Snacks! Maz! Bexi! A couple of degenerate furries! It had it all!

Powered by Pizza! The absolute Muppet.

After much merriment and an enthusiastic desire for more after-meet parties (afterall, Bexi admitted to owning more unplayed card games awaiting a party), the UK PonyCon tickets were released at the EXACT time of 19:00:01 (HH:MM:SS). With haste, all partygoers took to their phones to monitor the UK PONYCONLINE #owlowiscious-chat channel on Discord and/or to purchase their own tickets to attend the convention. Much mirth was to be found in the chatter of their friends and acquaintances in various My Little Pony themed Discords, and on discovery of requests for information and statistics on things like “who managed to snap up the exclusive gold tier sponsor tickets?”, “how fast did they sell?”, and “Why is the bronze ticket a 2023 ticket?” Maz collected, collated, and contributed exactly what the data-hungry horde requested of him from the sales data at his disposal.

PiratPeter snapping Francis snapping Bexi snapping Maz.

It is worth noting before the closing paragraph of this altogether too verbose memoir that a special prize for dedication must be considered for Francis if ever year-end awards are on offer for the most committed attempt to attend, as the rail strikes made it necessary for him to step out of his home in Coventry BEFORE 3:30 in the morning to brave the early-early public bus and coach networks that would ultimately get him to York in time for the meet. Astounding effort, really!

Imagine waking up to this!

What a rush! Although it was quite but a meagre sprinkling of persons who found their way to this month’s meet in the county’s capital, the few who were there made it an unforgettable, irreplaceable, and in every way remarkable meet (songs about which will be heard echoing through the annals of time). As American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, “Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”, and this reporter believes that, in their own special way, the April 2024 Yorkicorns truly did.

-PiratPeter.