May 2021 Challenge: Alicorn Tetrarchy, the Ideal of Government

[rdanhenry]

Okay, so I'm committed to entering something each challenge this year, but even my most optimistic visions can't really be described as utopian. So, where would I go if I could go into someone else's fictional realm? A lot of places with great stories wouldn't be so great to live in. Conventionally utopian societies, even if truly functional and not dystopian under the surface, tend to be not so great to enter as someone from outside, lacking the careful utopian structured upbringing. But there is a place where pastel ponies live pretty nice lives. Good enough utopia for me, mate.

Thus, I'm working up a fan map for Equestria from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This is fan fiction in map form. Now, there was an official map and an update after the MLP movie (which not only expanded the map, but made a serious change to the western coastline that doesn't seem to have been followed when the show introduced a magical holographic map, so I'm ignoring that bit). Mostly I'm staying focused on the land of Equestria itself. Thing is, the Hasbro map is a very artistic one, including a "Distances Not to Scale" notice. It is pretty and shows rough relationships, but isn't terribly practical when you want to take distances into account. Now, in a 20 minute cartoon, trains and even ponies can travel at the speed of plot necessity, but those role-playing in the world or writing fan fiction aren't so constrained by the television format and may prefer to take into account the difficulties (or opportunities) of distance. For that, this map is meant to serve. I'm making a hex map where each hex represents one days easy travel across favorable terrain. I'm inclined to think the ponies are pretty fit and make this 40 miles. More conservative estimates of their travel speeds may take a hex as 30 miles, or somewhere in between those figures. In any case, basically "a day's travel". In favorable terrain, a tiring pace may take ponies through two hexes. A rougher hex may be tiring even at one a day. Some areas, such as the highest mountains, may require special equipment or skills to cross. Trains may be assumed to travel a hex per hour. This allows Equestria to have a pretty good size without stretching too far from what the source material seems to allow.

I've placed the mapped cities and towns and the major rail routes and have moved into adding terrain symbols.

### Latest WIP ###
offiicial equestria.png

[Tiana]

I haven't seen MLP but I would qualify it as utopia. Good luck making a map for every challenge.

[rdanhenry]

I did some more.

### Latest WIP ###
equestia hexmap.png

[Tiana]

Looks good.

[rdanhenry]

I guess this is it, as far as the challenge goes. I am pretty happy with it as a first go at a GIMP hexmap. I think if I really went over the source material, I'd have adapted the map more to fit the canon, but I'm not convinced a consistent mapping that matches the show is possible. The source material is, after all, a cartoon that went through nine seasons of world-building with considerable turnover in creative personnel (without even considering material outside the TV show). There are also a number of locations that could potentially be added (a lot more horse-pun towns have been mentioned), but this was never meant be more than a solid starting point from which unplaced locations could be added at need.

### Latest WIP ###
equestria hexmap.png

[Tiana]

It's a solid start, I like the legend decor.