Fighting is Magic Tribute Edition: Derpy update, Silly Filly Studios "Fall of the Empire" revealed at Midwest Media Expo

It was a surprisingly busy weekend in the pony community, at the little first-year con in the heart of Downtown Detroit - Midwest Media Expo. Today, Horse-News was among the first to see several big productions of fan-works, as well as some...interesting cosplays. SillyFillyStudios, Eileen Montgomery, and a surprise visit by one of the "Fighting is Magic: Tribute Edition" guys, made for an interesting second day in the Motor City.

First off was the video available thusfar from their many-months long project "Fall of the Empire" from Silly Filly Studios. Many will remember SFS as being the creators of such animations as "Snowdrop". Though it is not yet finished (estimates for completion have it a couple months down the road), the "Fall of the Empire" animation, is a stark contrast to what was seen in Snowdrop. With nearly 10 minutes of action involving a fight scene between King Sombra (who says more than "Crysssstals" thank god), and Princesses Luna and Celestia, this is far from being the dialogue-driven "Snowdrop". During the con, a fan gave Meredith Sims (writer and VA for many SFS works) a shitton of pixie sticks, which we saw her still consuming the next afternoon.

While waiting in line for the SFS panel, Horse-News was surprised by and treated to, another development in the fan-produced world. One of the guys from "Fighting is Magic: Tribute Edition" demonstrated for us, the next character to be playable in the FIM:TE build: Derpy Hooves. The "fan-favorite" pegasus can barely be seen in this image, as the player-slot at the top-left. The dev; who did not want to be photographed (he even has gone as far as to cover his laptop webcam) demonstrated a round using the character, who appears to be fully animated and playable. A computer featuring this build of the Fighting is Magic tribute edition was available for play at the MME gaming room for a few hours leading up to the SFS panel, so there is potential that some people captured video of the Derpy gameplay. He said he does not know when the update will be made available.

Being this is Detroit, we suggested they shorten "Monty and Megami" to "Eminem".

EileMonty-voice of Octavia in "Musicians of Ponyville", but also more importantly Button's mother- was also in attendance in Detroit. Seen here with her friend and fellow fan-VA Megami33 (voice of Bulma and such from TeamFourStar productions), Eileen shared a few words about voice acting, and played some videos from previous pony projects. In response to a comment regarding the JanAnimations "Adventures of Button Mash" series, Eile said "RIP Button's Mom".

He will bake a cap in your ass.

The rest of the convention had its own fair share of pony-stuff going on, often in its own very-Detroit style. Seen here is a Pinkie-Pie cosplay, which of course was armed when we approached him (on the streets we call that "strapped"). HotDiggedyDemon was there (though we rarely saw him after we left his booth), and at times some horse-music could be heard echoing thorough the halls of the massive complex. Even some of the staff were posturing themselves as pastel ponies. Seen below is a Seth Waifu Trixie Cosplayer.

As stated in the previous article, Midwest Media Expo is NOT a pony-convention exclusively, and is a convention for all forms of media, from comic books, to anime, to cartoons and so on. It is a new convention project run by the same group that manages the annual Youmacon event in Detroit, which is so large now, that it manages to dominate not only the Renaissance Center, but also Cobo hall a block away (for non-Michiganders, that's a really big area). Last year's Youmacon was dominated by pony cosplay (balancing out the droves of Homestuckers and Attack on Titan fans) and so it is safe to assume that as this new con grows, it shall here as well. It really is one of the best times to visit Detroit if you aren't a fan of Insane Clown Posse. Speaking of which we encountered an insane musical clown as we prepared to leave.

He informed us of his affinity for cocaine (we only hope that he was actually in character). Nonetheless, have this, to balance out the gratuitous male nudity above. There is much more cosplay like this than that we promise.

For those of you in the Detroit area, Youmacon recently opened registration, and it is happening from October 30th to November 2nd in "the D" (don't worry, Nightmare Nights Dallas is the previous weekend, you can still go to both - Horse-News plans to).

All-in-all, a great job for a first-year convention, we look forward to seeing it grow.

We now return you to your ongoing BABScon related news - specifically that it will be returning next year.