Truancy - Chapter Sixteen - Slight Delay · 8:11am November 1st
Ugh. Yesterday was another instance where emailing my notes to my computer made the apostrophes and quotation marks completely disappear. This delayed a lot of things, and I got sleepy editing. I should be able to finish up after work today -evening time. Here's hoping.
Silly will get a chance to look around and describe an area for the first time since he woke up on the beach. Here are some of the research materials I used to try and describe the picture of the scene I had in my mind.
Ponyville:
I might have to make my own map of Ponyville eventually. Trying to find one accurate to the show is tricky. The official maps for MLP were made early in G4. There are some not-so-detailed maps scattered later in the show -like the Cutie Map- but even those are not the best. I get it; they wanted to leave as many gaps in the lore for fans to fill with our own imaginations (or simply weren't thinking that far ahead), but that still makes it tough to try and reconstruct a realistic version of the canon. Given that Sweet Apple Acres has a known Zap Apple grove which get their magic from the proximity of the Everfree, I think the farm should be on the southeasterly side of Ponyville; because there is more Everfree usually depicted on the south and eastern side of the town. And most Ponyville town maps were created before the Pear family were introduced, so the rival farms are not typically included.
1. This one was published back in 2012, according to Deviant Art. That's really early in the show, but I think it has some strong accuracies. It shows Sweet Apple Acres to be further east, and the author went and cut images from the show to indicate individual buildings.
Equus:
1. I think this is one of the more accurate maps of Equestria. When you zoom in on Equestria, it shows the province/county lines.
2. This one is very well made and shows good details beyond Equestria's borders.
Canterlot:
1. Here is a picture of Canterlot Castle to show the golden 'onion dome' architecture that Equestria seems to employ for its capitol.
2. Here is an image of Canterlot Castle from Ponyville. It does not depict the surrounding forests or the majesty of the Canterhorn Mountain that I would like.
3. This one has a stronger Canterhorn and the drifting city of Cloudsdale on the horizon.
4. The trees in the foreground of this one make it seem that the 'photographer' is standing on a mountain that should not be there.
5. This one shows some Canterlot architecture. I also think Twilight stepped in something with her right foreleg that she'll have to wipe off later.
6. This one has some neat lighting. 7. This one does, too.
8. Here is another pretty Canterlot Night scene.
9. This one looks pretty accurate for the Movie which I think has the best city-wide images that we get from the canon material. They never gave a solid panorama of Canterlot or Ponyville.
10. Plainoasis on Deviant Art has two of my favorites of Canterlot. The first has an aerial view. The second is a night image.
Nooooooo!
I kid. Glad it is coming later today (hopefully! Fingers (hooves?) Crossed!)
Thank you for sharing these images.
Gives me some perspective, and some ideas for when I need to describe Canterlot outdoors...
Also, realistically, is it Canterpeak, Canterhorn, or Cantermount? I've seen all three used for the mountain where Canterlot sits!
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I don’t think it was ever officially named. The most common I’ve seen is, “Canterlot Mountain,” which seems more like a placeholder to me, or they just don’t name it at all. Some -but not all- of the more meticulous maps I’ve seen show, “Canterhorn.” That is probably a fan creation. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Obviously, they didn’t have any ‘Lord of the Rings style’ nerds working on their children’s cartoon. Otherwise, we’d be able to follow them around on official maps as they went around the world on friendship quests and such… :applejabemused:
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Thanks for the input!
I'm still rather a newbie at all of this "fandom" thing. I mean, really, I never even saw the show until it was in its Eighth season, and only because it was on Netflix. So there are a ton of things I still am murky about. I have never read any of the comics, and a lot of stories here refer to things in the comics. I just sort of shrug it off when I come across some reference about something from the comics, as in Netap's story series he posts about Blueblood, or rather, Newblood, as hs puts it.
And the only reason I came into this was by being dragged into the world of Twilight Sparkle by some muscular blue minotaur, as he looked curious. I normally write about centaurs and that stuff, so a blue minotaur was something interesting to me, and I began watching the show. And the rest, as they say, is history.
I discovered this site just a little over a year ago, and this has proven to be quite the interesting experience. I'm here every day, now that I no longer work, and I still am learning somethings about the show that I never knew, or even thought about.
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Netap uses a good amount of comic material in his stories. There is a YouTube channel or two that reads the comics. So you don’t have to buy them, but… well, it’s just the one voice actor for a couple hundred characters, so… you know.
The Minotaur lore is one of many not-so-definitive parts of this show. The creators left a lot for fans to fill in on their own. It was a pretty good tactic, I think, because we’re still trying. A few of the fics try to focus on them, but it’s tricky given there’s so little content as a foundation. A lot of the MLP world’s creatures are countries outside of Equestria are like that.
Adventure Time was going that way, too, but they chose to start wrapping things up near the end way quicker than I think they originally intended and ended up sealing too many gaps.
I love these fan fictions. A bunch of them are better than television shows and movies being made these days. And people just make them out of their appreciation of the source material for free! Can’t get that out of Hollywood.
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That final thought you had is why I've stuck around here. I have been writing several things using the MLP setting and characters, many which I will never publish, here or elsewhere. I only write things because of my love of the show and stuff. But it does help me become a better writer. Writing is just a side project for me, as I am a composer, not a wordsmith by any definition of the term.
Okay, I am currently publishing a story. Probably not a good one, but not bad either. At least i have gotten my hoofs wet on this stuff, and perhaps I may try other things once I finish what I had started. And what you just posted has given me ideas and a better perspective regarding Canterlot. I think a clearer, closer view of Ponyville would be a better one than what you posted, as I did not see Twilight's either place, the Golden Oak Library, or the so-called "Castle of Friendship", which realistically is nothing but a crystal tree, not a castle in the traditional sense.