Okay, our con’s PR guy encouraged me to do it, so I’m gonna share this little tale with you. Since I’m never going to live this down anyway, I might as well!
You might have seen that silly post I made on my tumblr. The following is what actually happened.
Once upon a time, I learned that John de Lancie enjoys fish. A specific kind of fish to be exact, local to Northern Germany: Matjes. It’s a soused herring dish, very traditional around here, and John said he loves it.
Fate decided to have fun with that and just a week or two before Bronycon, Matjes came into season … Yeah.
So there’s little Perry on the Friday of Bronycon at a Meet & Greet, with a pound of herring in her hands, and twitching harder than any Pinkie sense makes you do. I was simply overwhelmed by the sheer presence of all those amazing people at the Meet & Greet, especially John de Lancie, and couldn’t muster up the courage to say anything.
But thanks to Andrew who pretty much dragged me to John and introduced me, I found myself standing in front of him. He has quite a presence, 6’2” inches tall and looking quite serious in that black suit of his. So there he is, smiling gently, while I try my best not to mangle everything I say. It’s a tremendous moment and I’m just overwhelmend - He’s one of my childhood heroes, pretty much. He says hi, I shyly say hi back, we shake hands.
Then he sees the box in my hands. Andrew tells him I brought a present for him, but John is obviously confused. He leans over a bit to examine the fogged up plastic container.
“What is this?”
“It’s something you once said you like a lot …” I reply.
“Eh?”
“You know, back at that Skype conversation we had with my con staff … When you asked where we were from and I said Hamburg …”
It takes him a second, but then John gets it.
“Oh. You mean- Wait. No. No. You did not. Oh God. You mean THIS is … Matjes herring?!”
I confirm and John’s face goes from confusion to sheer glee in a nanosecond.
Like a little boy on Christmas, he carefully takes off the lid, picks up the cloth covering the plastic wrapped fish and and peeks under it.
“Oh my God, it is!”
With the biggest happy grin he calls over Laurent, director of the Bronycon Documentary, and presents him the container like it’s made of gold.
“You know what this is?! It’s Matjes herring from Germany! I love that stuff!”
Laurent chuckles and I’m just nodding and smiling and have no idea what to say because I certainly didn’t expect THIS kinda response.
But John doesn’t stop there, oh no. He holds the container up to Laurent and eagerly opens up the plastic inside to reveal the content. Immediately, the room is filled with the odor of fresh salted fish and like half the guests in the room walk up to us to check out what’s going on. All those people, looking at us, sniffing.
John doesn’t care that I just want to die right then and there. No, he just turns to everyone who asks, joyfully explaining:
“That’s Matjes herring from Germany! I love it!”
It’s clear not everyone in the room is a fish conneisseur but John does’t mind, he’s obviously having a blast.
And before I know it, he hugs me.
“This is terrific! It’s definitely the most unusual gift I’ve ever gotten. Thank you so much.”
We then exchange a few more words, John gleefully smiling and chuckling the entire time, he hugs me again and then finally puts the container into Andrew’s hands so it can be put into a fridge.
As we part ways, I can see him chatting with Laurent, happily rubbing his stomach.
So that might not be how Equestria was made, but it was how a certain John was made happy with fish.
Now excuse me while I still can’t process that it actually happened. I learned that anything is possible - Even getting two hugs from one of your childhood heroes in exchange for soused herring.
