The Children of the Sky are a strange race, quick to charge and war-like, yet fiercely loyal and caring towards their own. Before the Age of Expansion, the tribe of the Winged Ones lived in vast clusters of clouds, far above the solid ground in the Sky which they called home.
This City began like so many, first a tiny Hamlet of cloud homes. This was in the era before the Two Sisters, the time where the Three Tribes still fought and disputed, when the world was still reeling from being the mere plaything of a mad personification of Chaos. It was like any of the others, the homes of an extended family tied to some farmers of the Sons and Daughters of the Earth. Even in a time of Dispute and Strife, the Tribes were still forced to rely on each other, for it was Friendship and Harmony open which these three races where built, not the wiles of Chaos and Discord. And so time passed as it always had even as the Three Tribes bickered, quarrelled and starved in the midst of the throes of the Great Famine.
Even in the midst of this prejudice and racism, the small Hamlet of clouds and the farm below persisted. Bonds had been forged over the generations this partnership has lasted, and poor bonds they will be if they shattered so easily to this new and dreadful force. Though the farm still endured in the face of the Cold of Hatred and Prejudice, for it is by the Fire of Friendship that life may still endure, it was only by the skin of their teeth they did so, for the power of the combined hatred of the Three Tribes was great. And so it was such that life doggedly persisted on.
Decades passed, and the nation of Equestria was formed. The families of the Spawn of the Sky and the Descendants of the Earth, their bonds with the strength of a hundred generations, too joined the Great Exodus from the Lands of Origins to this brave new world. So, one may ask, why is it that the story has begun when the Hamlet is doomed to be abandoned? The story of a City is not so much the story of the City itself as it is of the inhabitants who constructed it. And so it was such that a new Hamlet was formed above the new Land of Equestria.
As always, the abstinence from hatred is greatly rewarded. The Hamlet and the Farm below prospered greatly, reaping bountiful after bountiful harvest. As always, promises of wealth and riches will draw beings towards the source. Migrants came, businesses were set up and a Town grew from the Hamlet, both in the Sky and under it. And the Town prospered in a new age of golden prosperity even as the Nation progressed into the Age of the Two Sisters.
Yet, good times are not ones that last for eternity. One day, the bloodline of the Stewarts of the Farm finally came to an unexpected and abrupt end, for it was on that day that the Younger of the Two Sisters fell to the Forces of Darkness and in the battle between the Forces of Light and Dark the ensued, the farmstead was struck down in fiery death. Yet, the Town in the Sky survived, for the destruction was confined to the ground. With their Partners of a ten score generations gone, the people of both Towns were scattered and cast asunder to the winds, for without the roots there can be no tree. And so it was such that the Town upon the Ground crumbled to dust.
Though troubles come and all may look grim and hopeless, the Children of the Sky still stick together, for it is of their nature to be loyal to one another. And so the Town in the Sky persevered on, refusing to fall into oblivion as its end should be, in the stubborn hope of better times to come. And good fortune did come, for it was after the Banishment of the Younger that the Elder contacted the inhabitants of the Town, since it was with their Experience did they master the Skills of manipulating the Weather. And experience the Elder did need, for She now had to take own the mantle of the Raising of the Moon and the Sun, and now could no longer be responsible for the Care of the Rain and the Rainbows, as she and her sister once had. And so it was such that the Race of the Sky was entrusted with the Care of the Weather and the Production of the Rainbows.
The Substance Rainbows are made of is mysterious, as elusive and rare as the phenomenon that they embody, tough to manufacture and synthesise for the Children of the Sky but of little difficulty to a sufficiently learned Wielder of the Ether. But, the pegasi are as proud as they are loyal. To accept the help of another without help in return was almost unthinkable. However, there was only one another way, a way so dark and fell and horrible, that the goodness within every pony and the honour of their race won over, and the two races worked together, just as the races of the Sky and the Earth work together to bring about the very things that allow us to live the races of the Sky and Magic work together to bring about the things that make us want to live.
And the Elder smiled, for this was a test, a test to see if the spirit of good within her subjects was strong enough to win over the temptation of pride and honour. And the Town was declared to produce the Weather of the Nation, for it was the Town and the Town only that had passed the test, and the Town swelled with the demand to become a City, and over the centuries it has churned out the Things that made life made living, as it always had, is doing and will continue to do.
This is the story of the City in the Sky, the City of Clouds and Weather, Cloudsdale.
And so, dear reader, if you are anywhere in this fair land of ours, do look up towards the sky and try to spot the great bank of clouds perpetually on the horizon. Take this opportunity to ask yourself, do you have the strength of the spirit to go through the Trials of Life, and ultimately emerge triumphant?