The Sparkle Essays

by food food food

On the History and Geography of Cloudsdale (To be Edited)

On the History and Geography of Cloudsdale

A Short Essay by Twilight Sparkle

Of all of the great sky cities in the world, from the neon lights of Las Pegasus, to the great pillars of Grypholis, none can match the productivity and unique atmography of Cloudsdale. Known as the ‘Fountain of the Skies’, Cloudsdale has provided Equestria with controlled weather for over a millennium. Though its population numbers only 84,000, it carries the largest density of Pegasi in all of Equestria, with over 93% of the population consisting of Pegasi citizens. Despite its size, Cloudsdale is often referred to as being one of the most important cities in all of Equestria, seconded only by Canterlot and perhaps Manehatten.

It is not common knowledge that the great sky city of Cloudsdale has had many past iterations. The towering metropolis floating two kilometers above Equestria is in fact less than thirty years old. Structures made from clouds and levitating platforms rarely last a decade, requiring constant upkeep and replacement. In past times when the entire city was required to be permanently transported, up to 50% of building material was replaced. None of Commander Hurricane’s original settlement of Pegasopolis remains in existence, leading many Pegasi architects to refer to Cloudsdale as a ‘Living City’, with each portion being constantly renewed.

Cloudsdale, unlike most other large sky cities, is fully mobile, using self-generated wind currents to transport itself to various locations as needed, relying on its enormous weather factory as an engine. Cloudsdale, while remaining largely atmostatic for most of the year, has held the task of annually relocating itself to different reservoirs located around Equestria in order to reduce the draw upon the Neighagra Falls Lake. The Cloudsdale Weather Factory (CWF) usually employs local Pegasi to use a controlled tornado operating at over 800 Wing-Power (WP) in order to draw in millions of liters of water into CWF’s airborne reservoir.

For the past nine centuries, after the end of the Second Reconstruction, Cloudsdale has largely remained fixed to a single atmostatic location. The sky city usually resides above the Unicorn Range, west of Canterlot for 340 days out of the year. The decision to anchor Cloudsdale was adopted by the Cloudsdale City Council in order to encourage trade between the Pegasi community and the surface dwelling inhabitants of Equestria. By forming this permanent location, many geographical and atmographical changes were made to the surrounding region.

Cloudsdale, like all sky cities, is not a single continuous structure. The city is instead separated into groups of substructures designated by cloud group, function, and layer. For instance, ID-CWF-1 designates the lowest level (1) of the Cloudsdale Weather Factory (CWF) in the Industrial District (ID). The Cloud Location Order of Pegasopolis (CLOP) was first developed by Grand Architect Pansy, better known as Private Pansy during the Great Migration. The CF (Central Formation) houses most of Cloudsdale’s residents as well as the markets. Other cloud groups include the Flight Academy group (FA), the Griffon District (GD), the Cloudsdale University group (CU), and the Arena District (AD), which is also home of the Wonderbolt Headquarters.

Though the Central Formation cloud group houses over 70% of all of Cloudsdale’s residents, the full extent of Cloudsdale’s city limits is vague. The cloud layers vary from 1.5 to 4.5 kilometers above the surface, with the average height of the cloud structures being 2 kilometers above the ground. At most times, Cloudsdale covers an area of sky roughly the size of Baltimare. This area is usually encased in an invisible atmoshield that protects Cloudsdale from all outside weather patterns. The atmoshield was created in 923 ALN (After Long Night) by technicians at Cloudsdale and Canterlot University after an immense cyclone from the Everfree Forest destroyed 40% of Cloudsdale’s Griffon District. Relying entirely upon magic extracted from rainbows in the Cloudsdale Weather Factory, the atmoshield is the pinnacle of Pegasi architecture.

The land beneath Cloudsdale is one of the most unique environments in the world. Directly below the Weather Factory and the Flight Academy is Winsome Falls National Park, known for its immense rainbow falls. The river that feeds into Winsome Falls acquires its distinctive color from the liquid rainbow produced by the CWF. Though many ponies consider it an environmental disaster in action, the local wildlife has long since adapted to the rainbow spill that first began during the First Battle of Cloudsdale in 0 BLN (Before Long Night), and any change to the amount of rainbow in the falls will produce disastrous effects.

To the south of Winsome Falls, below the Central Formation, is a geographic region commonly known as the Dale. After over a millennium of sustained precipitation from the city above, the foothills of the Unicorn Range have had their topsoil eroded away, leaving nothing but hard stone. The exposed rock has allowed for the creation of strip mines and rock farms in this region, providing Equestria with the largest production of gemstones in the world. The magical runoff from the levitating platforms on Cloudsdale infuses a small amount of enchantment into the rocks of the Dale, producing runes and magical ores. On a rock farm, Earth Ponies with a high tolerance to magic arrange rocks into piles in order to create magical resonance structures capable of creating runestones and enchantments. The long term effects of working on the Dale eventually give creatures there a near immunity to magic, which can lead to loss of emotion and eventually depression. Recently, attempts have been made to combat this depression and progress is being made by researchers at Cloudsdale University.

When the city of Cloudsdale was first anchored in 45 ALN, a small town below the Market District (MD) sprung up instantly. The town of Landale houses nearly 17,000 ponies, many of them rock farmers, miners, flightless Pegasi, and merchants. Landale is also known as the ‘City of Balloons’, with over 4,000 piloted balloons on record. Landale has been instrumental in building the Trans-Equestrian Railroad System, and has made its name as being pioneers of infrastructure. The Landale Locomotion Company is the single largest owner of railroads and airships in Equestria and is currently building the Nimbus Elevator, a structure capable of transporting goods and ponies from Landale to Cloudsdale at minimal cost.

Historically, Cloudsdale is known to be one of Equestria’s oldest settlements, despite the actual structure being replaced periodically. It began as a military cloud encampment headed by Commander Hurricane at the end of the Great Migration and at the beginning of the Classical Era. Known as ‘Fort Pegasopolis’, the encampment housed the majority of the Pegasus Military, numbering 18,000 soldiers, along with 27,000 Pegasus refugees fleeing the Northern Winter. After allying with the Unicorns and the Earth Ponies to form the Equestrian Union, Pegasopolis became the center of weather control and military power in Equestria.

At the end of the Classical Era, when Discord was released upon the land, much of Pegasopolis was destroyed during the Battle of the Dale, in which the entirety of the fort was used to attack Discord’s fortress atop Mt Horn, now the location of Canterlot Castle. Commander Hurricane's signature tactic was the focus of the assault, which involved turning Pegasopolis itself into a small tropical cyclone. To repel the attack, Discord caused an incredible wind to tear the fortress apart, scattering the remnants across the Dale.

It was not until after Discord’s reign ended at the hooves of Luna and Celestia that Pegasopolis would be restored. Renamed ‘Cloudsdale’, the rebuilding of the city was one of the first decrees of the Equestrian Diarchy. The city was instrumental in the First Reconstruction, as the uncontrolled weather patterns brought upon by Discord were quickly tamed. Cloudsdale was also made the home of the Equestrian Air Force, including the Royal Wing Guard as well as the headquarters of the Thunderbolts and the Shadowbolts, the elite flying teams of both the Solar and Lunar Courts, respectively.

When the War of Long Night began in 0 BLN at the end of the First Reconstruction and the Diarchal Era, a massive coup immediately polarized the Equestrian military from Everfree City to Cloudsdale. When the sun did not rise during the first day of the Long Night, a series of surprise attacks led by Nightmare Moon’s rebel forces hit every major city in Equestria.

The attacks are now memorialized as Nightmare Night, as Nightmare Moon’s ability to enter the dreams of ponies allowed her to strike fear into the entire population of Equestria. The First Battle of Cloudsdale was a preplanned surprise attack led by Shadowbolt leader Captain Nightingale that targeted the Cloudsdale Weather Factory with intense thunderstorms during the middle of the night, causing the rainbow spill that created Winsome Falls. The Shadowbolts were able to take the Thunderbolts by surprise, and claim the city for the newly formed New Lunar Republic.

Cloudsdale remained under NLR control for much of the war, and was used as the Shadowbolts’ mobile headquarters until its liberation in the Second Battle of Cloudsdale, which took place 4 months later. Under the leadership of Commander Hurricane, the Pegasi garrison at Las Pegasus along with the remaining Thunderbolts and Celestia's Wingguard ambushed the Shadowbolts over the town of Tall Tale, recapturing the city with minimal casualties. The liberation of Cloudsdale by the Thunderbolts allowed for the Equestrian Military under Princess Celestia to press on to the Battle of Everfree Plains, ending the War.

After the War of Long Night, the remaining Shadowbolts, with the exception of Captain Nightingale and her Lieutenants, were merged with the surviving Thunderbolts to create the Wonderbolts, which to this day serve as Equestria’s elite flying team. The military was largely repurposed to aid the reconstruction of Equestria, moving Cloudsdale from location to location to house work crews and correct weather patterns.

After the city was anchored over the Dale, the government was restructured from purely military control to a City Council. The Council is made up of the Air Force Marshal, the Director of Weather, and three locally elected officials serving staggered 3 year terms. The Cloudsdale City Council would convene once per week to vote on legislation. In all other matters, each council member would see to their own areas of jurisdiction.

Though unused since the Council’s inception, the Air Force Marshal of Cloudsdale has the power to veto any action during times of war, effectively returning it to a police state. With the recent Changeling Crisis in Canterlot, as well as the growing number of rogue Dragons and the growing unrest in the Griffon Empire, such military action may not be so far away. If war ever comes to Equestria, Cloudsdale will be our citadel, the castle on a cloud.

Author's Note:

This is the first story I have ever submitted. Do not go easy on the criticism however. I need to know what I did right and what I did wrong. Be constructive.
-Edit 7/14/2013: Just cleaning things up. No big changes.

Comments

[food food food]

Ok. This is my first story...thing. Please leave constructive criticism, questions, anything. Really I'm just laying the foundation of Equestria for future projects, just adding lore and expanding on what the show tells us. Hopefully I'll be able to explain everything I need to to make Equestria seem more complex.
Again, criticism would be appreciated, just be constructive and courteous.

[sky_petal_blank_flank]

some of those paragraphs can be mushed together

[LittleSallyDigby]

I like the juxtaposition of Cloudsdale and Landale, and the connection to rock farming- it seems obvious in hindsight that such rocky terrain must have a lot of precipitation to keep things from decaying into topsoil. Heck, with it raining so much of the time, maybe Pinkie Pie had some weather-induced seasonal affective disorder.

[i_am_the_jam]

No problems here.
Though one correction: Several bronies have calculated, from the time it took Rarity to fall from atop the Cloudiseum to nearly hitting the ground, she fell some 2.5 km, so Cloudsdale is probably anchored at 2 km above the Dale.

[MidnightFMare]

... You made me think for several hours about this, wrote many pages of calculation, tore those pages because I suck at math, slept for a while, turned my computer back on, re-read, and then posted this
I have only done that once before. this is beyond awesome, this is Ditzy doo level stuff
Keep 'em coming (Chapters and ibuprophin)

[MehWasAlreadyTaken]

The only thing I want to point out is that the "new lunar republic" is overused bullshit. "Lunar empire" would make a lot more sense. The definition of republic iimplies that there's no top ruler,which the "new lunar republic" obviously have.

[gakposter]

I love it!
p.gr-assets.com/540x540/fit/hostedimages/1391493742/8398761.gif

[Diamond Sparkle]

Very interesting. Are you going to do a chapter on the changelings?