//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Cloudsdale // Story: Sun & Moon Act II: A Crown Divided // by cursedchords //------------------------------// “I’ll still be here in the sky, where my voice will sing alongside the sweet whisper of the winds for evermore.” - Last words of Atlas The city of Canterlot was situated on the northern face of the third tallest mountain in Equestria, itself the northern vanguard of a long chain of mountains that covered nearly all the eastern border. The city’s foundations were situated about a quarter of the way up the mountainside, meaning that even the tallest towers of the palace could still witness the mountain’s misty peak, capped with snow even now in the midst of summer. It was only recently that any construction had been attempted at that high reach, when Princess Luna had decided that the location was perfect for her Weather Academy. The isolation was crucial to ensure that her students could concentrate solely on their work, while providing a moderate amount of breathing room for weather experiments. The most important of these, of course, was finding some way to create rain. This high up, the scorching heat of the Sun on the city down below was barely felt, and indeed Luna’s breath froze into a thick cloud of white fog as soon as she exhaled. Naturally, she had on a woolen scarf to ward off the worst of the chilly winds circling the mountaintop, though the exertion of her work alone kept her plenty warm. Arrayed out in front of her today were four neat rows of five pegasi, each practicing the motions of wind control. They had been gathered up from every province of Equestria, having passed their qualification tests six months prior. Only the best got to study under Luna here in the capital. As they worked, Luna kept a close watch, correcting miniscule mistakes from the curvature of a wing to the tilt of a hoof. Wind control was precise work, yet even so, her mind was elsewhere. As rewarding as fielding a squadron of weatherponies was, dealing in such pedestrian topics brought her no closer to her ultimate goal. “Alright, that’s enough!” she shouted, using her wings to kick herself up to a higher altitude as the class came to rigid attention. “You’re all looking better. A bit of practice still, but overall we’re nearly there. Next week we’ll be moving on to cloud manipulation. For now, our time is up, so all of you can report to the mess.” With a blow from her whistle the group dispersed, while Luna headed up to the administrative building, a squat hexagonal box of brown stone in the middle of the school complex. When she landed on the balcony, Swift was there to greet her, clutching a steaming mug of cocoa for her. “Any good signs?” he asked. Luna took a sip of the beverage, feeling the heat of the drink spread through her limbs like a potent elixir. “It’s always difficult to tell,” she responded with a sigh. “There’s some real talent in that batch, but how can I say if any of them has the Windcaster’s Spark? We won’t know what to look for until we find the first one.” “Or we work it out ourselves,” he replied, latching the balcony door behind her and heading inside Both ponies were met with a rush of warm air, courtesy of the roaring fire from the large hearth across from the door. In the center was a big table, all of sturdy oak, and on top of it was a giant map of Equestria. Small wooden tokens dotted it here and there, some for active dust storms, others for the faint wisps of clouds that were sometimes spotted in the sky. Each of those would be immediately pounced upon by a weatherpony team from the nearest settlement, and made to give up their moisture onto whatever was green in the vicinity. “I’ve been thinking a fair amount about it lately,” Swift went on, walking over to his own little desk in the corner. “Theoretically, if a pony could create the right updrafts, and control the resulting cloud structure, it should be possible to generate a moderate shower.” He indicated his theory with a few sketches on his parchment. Curious, Luna walked over and gave the drawings a study. It all looked reasonable enough. Even so, she doubted that much would come of it. She herself had considered roughly the same theory a number of months ago, though sadly to no avail. However,in their current situation it didn’t pay to turn down possible leads. Perhaps Swift would see something that she had overlooked. “We’ll give it a try the next time that we have a chance.” Before any further discussion could occur, there came a knock at the door, and Swift fluttered over to admit Captain Brow with Luna’s lunch. It was all comfortably hot, and as she ate Luna continued to think. In the past, when she had been first learning to control her pegasus magic, it had felt as though the world itself was at her hooves. Her mentor Atlas had taught her how to organize rain, how to take existing clouds and build them up into showers. But the step before that was something that even he hadn’t known. Over the course of the last three hundred years Luna had often wished to be able to speak with him once again, to seek his counsel on such questions. He and Aqua, after becoming alicorns, had found their own spot in the sky, and built an abode of sorts up there, a town of clouds, using some innovation of Aqua’s to make it permanent. Several pegasi had joined them, mostly remnants of the old Order of Air, until they’d built a thriving settlement. Luna had even visited once or twice, taken aback by the bold architecture of clouds, the layered plazas and tall spires of the city. Unfortunately, it had now been two hundred years since she’d last seen or heard of the place. Luna wasn’t quite sure what had been the cause of the city breaking its ties with Equestria. Pegasi had always been proud and free-spirited individuals, and she and Celestia had enough to deal with managing the rest of the country, so they hadn’t pushed Canterlot’s laws onto the pegasus city. At some point, they had simply stopped sending envoys to talk. Whether the city had dissolved or simply vanished into the skies, nopony could say. Regardless, more pegasi right now was something that Equestria sorely needed, and it would have been nice to have a whole city of them around. Luna started as she reached out for another bun, and realized that her plate was empty. The meals had been slowly getting smaller, rationed as supplies had run short. Even though she dreaded thinking about it, Luna knew that time was running out. If somepony couldn’t think of the answer to this puzzle, it was not going to end well. “You think you can catch me?” The mare’s sweet tinkle of a voice cut through the wind like a songbird’s call. “Let’s find out,” Wind replied, finding the strength to beat his wings a little bit harder as the two raced through the sky, his snow-white mane and her fiery red one splaying out behind them. Beneath, the plazas and neighbourhoods of Cloudsdale raced by, blurring into an ocean of white and grey as they pulled even more speed out of the air. “Last one to the Spire is a rotten bean!” she cried, taking off again into a steep dive. Wind followed, mimicking every action of her wings perfectly. The air beat up against his forelegs, trying to rip them out from in front of his face, but he kept his form, pulling in his wings to reduce the drag on his body even more. The Spire loomed up ahead, and Shine was almost there, pulling up out of her dive with bare feet to spare. Wind held the manoeuvre as long as he could, the white clouds of the plaza underneath rushing up to greet him. If he could hold on for even a few inches more than Shine, the extra speed that he saved could be enough to slingshot past her. He pulled up at the last possible moment, clearing the eaves of a distillery by mere inches, and looked up. Just in front of them, the four columns of the city’s Great Spire stood, white pillars reaching high up into the heavens, and maybe three or four feet in front of him was Shine, coasting on serenely to the nearest one. Wind gave the sprint all that he had, and the two of them ended up touching the smooth tower together, though Wind was sure that he had gotten there first. At least, as sure as he could be given that he had slammed into it at full speed. When he opened his eyes, a brown pegasus stallion with eyes of a dull orange was hovering over him. “Gee, Wind, you’re lucky that nopony else saw that! Sure, you might have set an air-speed record on the pursuit, but we all know that nothing in the air matters if you can’t stick the landing.” The stallion chortled, then offered Wind a hoof. “Seriously though, you’re okay, right?” “Thanks, Tin,” Wind replied, shaking his head in the hopes of getting his vision to line up properly. Slowly, the lines settled to reveal Morning Shine hovering just off to their right, a concerned look drawing down her crystalline blue eyes. “At least I got to the Spire first, didn’t I?” “Maybe you did,” she said, “but I think that I would still take my own position compared to yours. You really should be more careful, especially if you ever want to compete.” Wind hopped up onto his hooves, then took off into a light hover himself. “I had to make sure that I gave you a good run for your money, is all. Nopony in the race tomorrow is going to go easy on you just cuz’ you’re a mare, you know.” “Well, of course not,” she laughed. “The title for our division has been won by a mare over a dozen times in the last decade alone. But I appreciate your concern all the same.” “Perhaps you should take a thought for yourself, Wind,” Tin piped up from beside the two of them. “It would be hard enough to keep your eye on her from the stands even if you weren’t seeing two of everything.” “I’ll try,” he replied dryly. He stole a look up at the Sun overhead, which was lazily making its way down the western horizon. They had half an hour left until dinner. “Did you want to practice any more, Shine?” he asked hopefully. “You know what, I think that I’m ready,” she said, exaggeratedly stretching out her wings. “I’ve got to keep my strength up, after all. But we can have a look over the course as we head home.” Wind and Tin both nodded in agreement, and they headed off on a westerly tangent. The Spire stood at the center of Cloudsdale, serving as the nexus point for the city’s foundations, which radiated out in all directions from it. The view ahead was not unlike a rolling hillside, with puffs of cloud blooming up from the city’s base to support neighbourhood squares or market plazas, and deep valleys cutting between with apartment complexes built up out of the sides. Up above all that, in the upper reaches of the Midcity, work crews were busy moving clouds into formation, marking out the loops, crests and dives of the course for the semiannual Open Championship. Each time the course was different, sometimes running the circumference of the Midcity in a lazy circle, others going vertically up into the Old Quarter and down into the Undercity beneath. The race was in actuality a set of five, one for each age category, and Morning Shine was going to be competing in the first division, for the senior years at the city’s Academy. They were the youngest group able to race on the full course, and only a minute from the Spire, Wind caught sight of a group of workers setting up a wicked, looping hairpin. It would be a prime passing opportunity come race day. Shine caught his eyes drifting over the marker clouds that delineated the turn. “Are you really sure that you don’t want to compete, Wind? Registration is still open.” Wind just shook his head at the thought. “I’m fine, really. Tin and I will be cheering you on from the stands every lap.” Tin shrugged his shoulders on hearing that, clearly just as confused as she was at Wind’s reluctance. Sure, he didn’t blame them for thinking that way. Competition was in every pegasus’s blood. From the moment they had entered the Academy they had heard legends of the champions of the city’s past. Naturally a title like that was something everypony coveted. However, as much as Wind liked to compete, it wasn’t what he wanted to do with his life. Flying was a joy, a rush, a wonder. Not a job. After another five minute’s flight the pair parted with Tin, who left for his family’s apartment in Featherreach. Shine and Wind shared a neighbourhood square on the outskirts of the city, in the far reaches of the new developments of Pega’s Perch. Even though the edge of the city was always obscured by construction as the district continued to grow, from overhead they could see over the top of the cranes and cloud-layers to the green earth far below. This high up, there was no real definition to be seen of the surface, just a swatch of earthy hues at some inscrutable distance away. Nopony ever ventured down there though. Why would they when there was already everything they could want up here? Shine and Wind landed in the middle of the round plaza. “See you tomorrow,” Shine said sweetly as they parted ways. “See you,” Wind returned. The houses in this development were eccentric structures, three stories tall if a bit narrow to compensate. Wind had learned just a little of classical architecture in class, and still marveled at the ingenuity that the founders of Cloudsdale had displayed in making the city work. Without having to care for the constraints of gravity, they had been able to discard the traditional boxes and columns of earthly structures, in favour of more lavish loops and plumes in even the simplest of dwellings. It was no mistake that most of the houses in the city had much more square footage on their upper floors than on the lower ones; perches for flying in and out were far more essential than street access. As soon as Wind opened the door, the strong scent of his mother’s casserole hit his nose. His mother Sun Swept was a positive wizard in the kitchen, the winner of the neighbourhood Bean-Off four times running. It was truly remarkable what she managed to achieve with only the standard bean rations. Entranced, Wind let the aroma carry him right on into the dining room. Inside, his father Snow Swept was reclining lazily at the table, a copy of the day’s Times in his forelegs. “Practice finished up already?” Snow asked, his voice a rumbling baritone. “I imagine that Shine will be looking to do well if she thinks she’s ready by now.” “She’s confident,” Wind answered, sliding down onto one of the lumps of cloud that served as chairs. “And she’s fast too. Honestly, I had a hard time putting up much of a contest. If I were you, I’d put my money squarely on her.” Snow settled the paper down, revealing a square face with a set of square spectacles straddling his nose. “Unfortunately, I’m officiating that race, so there won’t be any coins changing hooves over that one. The Council would have my wings if they ever caught wind of something like that!” Wind nodded absently. Snow had recently been elected to the Council of Ten, the governing body of the city, as the representative for Pega’s Perch. He’d also been selected as an official for the race thanks to his own past experience with the Championship. “And you’re absolutely sure that you don’t want in on the competition yourself, Wind?” Snow took his spectacles off of his nose and began polishing them on his shirt. “Even if Shine is going to blow out the division this year, it’s still valuable experience for years down the line. You know I didn’t win my first race either, nor even my first six!” he chuckled as he put his glasses back on. “All I’m saying is you’ve got to start somewhere.” “And all you’re hearing is that racing isn’t the only place to start!” came a voice from the archway that led to the kitchen. Sun Swept followed, a stout white pegasus with a closely clipped auburn mane. In her hooves she was carrying a tray of her famous bean casserole, and the sight sent a light rumble through Wind’s stomach. “Not everypony needs to get their start on the race course, dear. The Academy, or a craft and trade are all great places to start out too.” She sent Wind an encouraging smile as she laid the tray onto the table and then returned to the kitchen to fetch their drinks: distilled water for the three of them, but with a small glass of bean liqueur for Snow. “Yeah, either way,” Snow continued, “what both of us are saying is that tomorrow is going to be a big opportunity for all of us. The fair up in the Old Quarter will be an excellent opportunity to apply for various positions, or try your hoof at the crafts that there are on offer. You know that there’s excellent pay in the cloud-making business, especially with all of the construction going on lately.” “We’ll see what there is to see,” Wind replied noncommittally, taking a quick look through to the kitchen to see Sun Swept returning. As soon as she sat down, he reached for the tray of casserole. “We just want this to work out for you, you know?” his mother said softly, clearly having heard the conversation from the kitchen. “You’re in your last year at the Academy and soon enough you’re going to have to pick a vocation of some sort.” She gave Snow a look. “Did you hear that Monsoon’s lad is going to be going into printing? There’s plenty of work in that field too if you have the hooves for it.” “Your friend Tin’s Choosing is tomorrow, isn’t it?” Snow asked, giving Wind a short look. “Any idea what he’s going to choose?” “He said he’s going to work in the fields,” Wind replied quickly, before passing the tray over to his mother and tucking into the food himself. “Good for him,” Sun said matter of factly. “That’s an honourable vocation too.” Wind did his best to eat quickly, trying to keep his mouth full so that he wouldn’t be called upon to offer any more comments. Every dinner these days was the same. You know that you have to pick a vocation eventually, dear. Why not consider distilling, or crop research, or service with the Marshals? And his dad was always on about racing, and his mom about higher study, especially becoming one of her philosophy students at the Academy. The sooner that he could be done with his meal, the sooner that he could be away from this chatter again. It wasn’t that Wind didn’t know that his parents were right. Of course they were. Every pegasus in Cloudsdale had to choose a vocation once they came of age, and in Wind’s case that day was only two and a half months away. Almost everypony else in his class had picked out something by now. Shine, of course, was going into racing just like Snow had, while Tin had known he was headed to the fields months ago. But none of those occupations, nor anything that his parents had suggested, had really appealed to him. The sky was where Wind belonged, of that he was certain. But not to race. Just to live. If only there was some way to make a job out of that. “Wind, would you look at me for a second?” His mother’s voice had a hard note of concern in it. Wind looked up from the last morsel of casserole that he had been fishing out of his plate, to see that both of his parents were leaning over the table in apparent concentration. “Well, there I see it, now, then!” Snow declared, draining his glass of liqueur before standing up. “What did you get yourself into this time? Get him some ice, would you?” Sun had already left the room, presumably to do just that. “What are you talking about?” Wind said, looking about him for a moment in a vain search for something incriminating. “I haven’t been up to anything.” His father frowned, then fished about in one of his shirt pockets before pulling out a small hoof mirror and offering it. He tapped his right cheek with his other hoof. Wind took the mirror gingerly, and sure enough there was an unmistakable dark ring forming around his right eye socket. He must have really hit the Spire hard. “I… uh… did go pretty hard in my practice with Shine today. I guess I must have hit my head somewhere. I’m fine though, really.” He looked up hopefully, but Snow was only shaking his head. “You know that I always tell you to be careful whenever you’re flying around. Sometimes it looks to me like you’re never even paying any attention to what you’re doing.” He was interrupted as Sun re-entered, holding a cloth that had been filled with ice and tied up into a little bag. She applied it to Wind’s face without a word. “When your mother and I say that we’d like you to leave a mark on the city, you can guess that something like this isn’t quite what we have in mind.” Wind did his best to hold on to the ice pack himself, and eventually his mom let him do it, retreating to stand solemnly beside her husband. “I’m fine, really, it’s nothing. Thanks for the ice though, Mom. And of course I know that I shouldn’t be pushing myself so hard sometimes. But I’ll keep this on and tomorrow I’m sure that things will look just fine.” He tentatively got out of the chair and rose onto his hooves, hoping for the signal that his parents had nothing more to say. Snow just shook his head lightly and turned back to his meal with a sigh, and that was all the signal that Wind needed, heading right upstairs and into his room. Outside, through a wide open window, the sun was setting the distant horizon alight. A calm breeze whispered through, just enough to set the edge of his mane aflutter, and sting his eye a little when he was facing that direction. With the ice, his face was already starting to go numb. Wind flew right on out of the window, settling down on the outer ledge and dangling his hind legs out over the city’s edge, to the dusky surface below. He knew of course that his parents wanted well, that they only wanted him to be successful as they were, and that eventually he would have to follow after them. But if all of that were true, then why was it that he felt best, in the prime of life, in moments like these? Silent, contemplative, casual, with only the sky and the wind outside as his partners. The breeze rose and fell in gusts and stillnesses, a rhythmic pattern that most ponies couldn’t even detect, or at least he didn’t think so. But Wind had already spent countless evenings just like this one, out here at the edge, with nothing else to pay attention to. Wind felt his pulse slow to match the beat of the atmosphere, a primal rhythm that suddenly seemed in time with the whole world around him, from the clang of tools in the construction sites as the day’s last shift wound down, to the distant hum of the distilleries, somewhere behind him in the city. All Cloudsdale seemed to pulse with that rhythm, rising and falling in endless cadence. Wind knew that he wanted to be a part of it, but how? Tomorrow, maybe, he would find out.