The Sky Shad (Patreon)

On the outskirts of Ponyville near the fairgrounds there is a large clearing that is public land in my Equestria dreamscape. During the fair the field acts as a place where ponies coming to visit can park their wagons for the fair. However for the last few days there had been much construction as a large, temporary structure slowly rose in one corner of the field.

      The structure had arrived on several trains and had been ferried out to the clearing by steady stream of teamsters. As the days passed the skeletal structure started to take form, it was an airship mooring tower.

      Airship travel until recently has been strictly a hobby of the rich or a curious experiment tinkered at by Equestria's military. However there were ponies who saw the airship as possible solution to long range travel to remote regions of the realm and beyond, but not requiring the extensive infrastructure of railroads. These visionary ponies saw vast fleets of airships carrying ponies back and forth across Equestria in these great sky-clippers. There was a small number of them that operated between Cloudsdale and Las Pegasus but airship proponents saw a much larger role for their sky leviathans.

      To prove that the airship was ready to fill this role a group forward-thinking business ponies and investors had formed the Equestria Airship Carrier Service or EACS. Over the last year they had been running a fleet of modestly sized airships between Manehattan and Fillydelphia, but this year the EACS had its eyes on much more ambitious goal. To be the main source of transportation for non-pegasi to Cloudsdale for the Best Young Fliers Competition. Not only did they want to provide air services to Equestria's larger metropolitan areas they set out to prove that smaller communities could served by the use of temporary mooring facilities that could be erected and then removed after they were no longer needed. And they had a new airship to proof their point. The largest airship in Equestria, the newly completed Sky Shad.

      Ponyville was chosen to be one of these test locations for several reasons. One it was relatively close to both Cloudsdale and Canterlot. Two it was a perfect marketing location. It was a relatively small community but was within sight of the Capitol and it was the home of last years and national hero Rainbow Dash. The final winning factor was that Ponyville was home to all of the other Bearers of the Element of Harmony who would also be traveling to Cloudsdale, via airship, to cheer on their friend and fellow element bearer Rainbow Dash.

      As the mooring got bigger and bigger another thing was growing in size. The press. The novelty of this transportation experiment along with it being a the hometown of last years winner meant that any lodging not already being used by the construction crew was soon snapped up by a small army of journalist.

      Now there is only so many stories you can file about the construction of a mooring tower, so the press began spreading out across Ponyville to gather interest stories about the community and its inhabitants. Soon reporters roaming the streets of the town and visiting various public locations to get a feel for this town and its residents. What I feared was that somepony would start telling the one of the reporters about the various rumors that had surfaced over the last couple of days about Dash and I. Much to my surprise that didn't happen. Apparently the residents of Ponyville loved discussing local gossip with each other, but not with outsiders. What happens in Ponyville stays in Ponyville. Besides late one afternoon something far more interesting captured everyponies attention. The airship arrived.

      As a member of the local weather team myself and every other available weather pony was on duty to make certain weather conditions were perfect for the arrival of the great floating behemoth. Wind conditions were calm and with the exception of some high stratus and cirrus clouds the sky were free and clear except for one large cumulus cloud that every pegasi in the area was camped out on waiting for the airship's arrival. Some of us were there to act as official escorts and assist in the landing of the airship, but most were just there to catch a first glimpse of it as came up the valley.

      Around 12 in the afternoon a hazy form came in to view at the eastern end of the valley. Slowly it grew in size and eventually the distant droning rumble of its propellers could be heard throughout the valley. Due to the shape of the massive metal framework and its silver fabric skin it was called the Sky Shad. As the Sky Shad approached Ponyville business came to halt in the immediate area and a large part of the town's population descended on the large clearing to watch great ship arrive. Since ponies are always looking for a reason to have a celebration many showed up with picnic baskets and large,

checkered, red and white clothes to rest on as they ate food and watched the spectacle unfolding in front of them.

      The Sky Shad made a couple passes across the clearing at about 1,500ft as its captain and crew assessed the location. Aldis lamps from the ship and the ground crews flashed back and forth. Rainbow Dash, myself and the rest of the weather team pulled into formation under the great hull and about 50ft ahead of the control gondola. Once her team was properly holding station with the airship she dropped out of formation and as her wingpony she took me back with her until we were flying only about fifteen feet from the starboard side of the gondola, which was hard to do because of all the turbulence being generated by the great airship! Dash appeared to be trying to get somepony's attention inside the gondola but I couldn't see how she planned to communicate with anyone because the roar of the engines and propellers was deafening. A side window slid open and a pegasus officer leaned out and began to make a series of gestures with her front hooves. Dash nodded her head apparently understanding the other ponies semaphoric gestures; in quick succession she made a series of her own hoof movements. For the next couple minutes this pantomime continued until finally both parties nodded their heads and RD folded her wings and we dived for the valley floor.

      500Ft below and now well clear of much of the engine and propeller noise RD leveled off and final spoke. “Okay Brick, the first officer says the captain is happy with the conditions and he will begin descending for his landing. What we need to do is make certain that the winds remain consistent during the landing. He wants to land head-on into the wind and he'd like it to be steady and no more than five knots. Let's make it happen. She then pulled a red star-flare rocket from her panniers and gave the firing cord a yank with her teeth. The weather team peeled off in neat succession from the airship and formed up in a great V formation of behind Dash and I. RD turned us to the west and made a long, slow, sweeping gesture with her front legs bringing her hoofs together. At this command the outermost ponies broke formation, climbed a few feet and then moved inward until the were flying just above Dash. RD now shouted out her instructions to Thunderlane and Cloud Dancer.

      “NW winds! 5Kt steady from 1K to GL until further orders! Convey these orders and let's do this! Understood?” Thunderlane and Cloud Dancer repeated Dash's instructions and then began moving down the length of the formation repeating it over the span of about a minute. Finally all thirty six of Dash's fliers had received their orders. Dash once again brought her front hoofs together then quickly swept them back to her sides. At this signal the two wings of the V formation broke off and started to take up hovering positions in front of the mooring tower. Dash positioned herself about 200ft directly behind and almost level with the top of the tower. Then I felt her begin to pour her weather magic into the local environment.

      Some ponies like wind manipulation but I always find it far more difficult than cloud creation, and manipulation. It is much more fluid and one can accidentally create all kinds of unintended feedbacks and vortexes unless you carefully monitor the situation. Also under certain situations and it will tire a weather pony faster than cloud working. Fortunately conditions were optimal today and soon we had a nice consistent wind going. With wind now blowing in the desired speed and direction the ground officer fired several blue flares into the sky and the great airship turned for its final approach. Slowly the ponderous craft grew until the nose of it filled my vision. Then with great precision it joined with the mooring tower. The Sky Shad had landed in Ponyville.

To be continued.