Good thing Scootaloo wore a jacket.

Temperatures had dropped noticeably as the sun went down. The densely packed buildings seemed to funnel the winds through the streets, where dust swirled in the air and passersby received a faceful of their own manes.

The houses here were decorated more tastefully, the veneers and ornaments seemingly flowing into each other from one building to the next. Buildings bore small turrets with crenels around the corners, although these didn’t appear to be only decorative, as Scootaloo spotted a pony looking out the window of one.

The opposite house had a statue of a black raven sitting on the top. Or so it had seemed. But the raven suddenly spread its wings and fluttered into the air.

It joined a second raven in circling over the neighborhood.

“Um, what are the ravens doing up there?” Scootaloo said.

“I don’t know,” Fluttershy said, “there must be an aviary around, because I haven’t seen any other place suitable for them to live in. Maybe they’re looking for food.”

But the ravens didn’t seem to be looking for anything. When Fluttershy and Scootaloo stopped, the ravens stopped as well and came down onto the street, offering a caw.

“Hello, mister raven,” Fluttershy said, “I’m sorry, but we don’t carry anything to eat.”

The ravens cawed and took off into a side street.

“They want us to follow,” Fluttershy said.

Around the corner, they were greeted by sight of the fanciest building they had seen yet. It was a large, otherwise featureless building, which sprouted a dense group of extravagant and relatively high towers on top. While the base building was more or less a big slab of rock with a little door on front and a scarce few windows, the towers were garnished with overflowing adornments in the shapes of golden vines and leaves and statues of ponies holding various riches.

There were also countless black ravens flocking around the towers, occupying every architectural feature and ducking into plenty of little holes and alcoves.

“So that’s where the ravens live,” Scootaloo said.

“Yes, but what is it?” Fluttershy said. The building was oppressively featureless, and would have blended into a ravine without problems, were it not for the decorative crest sprouting from its top.

“A prison? A bank?” Scootaloo said.

“We still have some time,” Fluttershy said “Wanna look inside, Scoots?”

Of course she wanted to. Fluttershy came around to unbuckle her, and lifted her out of the stroller and onto the ground. Upon closer inspection, the windows were inlaid with colorful glass, and the only door had decorative studs.

There were a few ponies milling about. Scootaloo paid attention that they were minding their own business, but that was only little reassurance. Walking had become considerably more difficult with the little saggy bulge that was now between her hind legs. But, more critically, her skirt wasn’t too long to begin with, and her pantyhose could barely hold up the added weight as it was.

She quickly crinkled after Fluttershy before anypony had a chance to take a closer look.

They entered through the door, and it was like another world.

The huge hall was of polished marble. Colorful windows illuminated the bountiful decorations, which mirrored the style of those on the roof in the most pretty ways. There were frescos, busts and statues on every wall and furniture piece, golden goblets splashing with wine, ponies in excessively luxurious clothes, images of powerful tomes, spells and artifacts.

Tables, couches and seating groups were arranged at varying levels of elevation, and while they tried to look somewhat casual, everything was more or less overtly centered around the huge altar in the middle.

“This isn’t a bank,” Fluttershy said, “it’s a church.”

“Astute observation.”

From one of the several groups of ponies sitting together and talking, one of the decorations came loose and moved towards them.

No, it was an older stallion, dressed in the most fancy clothing Scootaloo had ever seen. Draped in luscious coatings and materials, his entire form was beset with golden chains and shimmering gemstones. He even wore a towering hat with a gilded simulacrum of a scroll tacked to it.

“I take it you come from far away?” he said. His voice was painfully strong.

“Um, yes,” Fluttershy said, “we’re travellers touring the city.”

“Very well,” the stallion said, “allow me to welcome you, then. My name is Conductor Fair Pass, and this is the Choir. The Choir of Commerce. The name is attributed to her, whom you can see over there.”

Behind the altar was the biggest mosaic window yet, and it portrayed a huge, mystifying creature. It looked somewhat like a gryphon, but it was entirely black and had the upper body of a raven. It too was decorated in splendor.

“Wow, who’s that?” Scootaloo said.

“That’s the canoness, dear filly,” Fair Pass said, “and she’s the one who brought us the teachings that we honor in this place of worship.”

“Worship?” Scootaloo said, “You mean you worship her instead of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?”

“Oh, no,” Fair Pass laughed, “nopony would worship anyone or anything, instead, of the Princesses. And nopony would need to, for the domain of the sun and the moon is as eternal as existence itself. But, you must know, there many, many more things that make up our world. And probably many other worlds too. The canoness, she is the patron saint of trade. She came to us a long time ago, in an age when ponies were blind in foresight and clumsy in enterprise, no good at handling wealth. Many of them still are! Just look at me, I assure you these clothes do not belong to me personally.”

“Wealth … “ Scootaloo said, “that’s like the Pendaros family, who ruled Skyview a long time ago.”

“Oho!” Fair Pass said, smiling underneath his beard, “This little filly knows her history. Well, do you know what came after the fall of the monarchy? A great time of loss, that’s what. Ponies did not know how to think for the long term, as the ruling families had done. Skyview was in the hooves of venal trading companies, and everypony kept getting exploited. They were poor.”

“That’s when the canoness’ song was first heard. Ponies were afraid, for she looked unfamiliar, but they soon began to understand. Trading is not the act of making a profit, but of finding a way to make all involved parties profit. The canoness’ teachings were of fairness, because in a world where commerce is done for the good of everypony, there are no losses, only gains. This new way of sustainable thinking was what the revolution was really about, and we still live it to this day. This building is as much a place of worship as it is a place of meeting and negotiation. Our doors are always open if you seek the canoness’ guidance.”

“That’s a very pretty story,” Fluttershy said, “I think the moral is very valuable.”

“It’s clear that not everything goes as ideally as one would want,” Fair Pass said, “There is still greed and inefficiency even in devout of a city as Skyview. But still, we do the best that we can to trade fairly, because that is what truly creates value. Isn’t that right, little filly?”

“Yeah!” Scootaloo said, “I like it when ponies are fair to each other.”

“The canoness will be pleased with your cunning, little filly,” Fair Pass said, “Listen, there will be a public celebration tomorrow on the festival grounds. It’s a popular event in the city, but I would like to invite you anyway, as there will be games and we are collecting for charity. I believe the little one will like it.”

“Sounds like fun,” Fluttershy said, “we’ll see if we can find it.”

“That will be more likely than missing it by random chance, don’t worry,” Fair Pass said, “now if you will excuse me, I have to tend to the ravens. We have a fillies and colts’ singing group practicing over there. Join them if you like.”

The mound of jewelry known as Fair Pass hovered out a side door and began climbing some stairs.

“He must have biceps like steel if he’s trying to get up all the way to the towers,” Scootaloo said.

“Well, he does look fit for his age,” Fluttershy giggled, “Come on, let’s see what they’re singing.”

One of the corners of the hall held a large congregation of ponies. It was a sizeable number of fillies and colts, sitting in a wide circle on a plush carpet, with their accompanying adults sitting right behind them. Discussions were lively, everypony seemed to have a good time.

Fluttershy greeted the closest ponies, and they made room for her to sit down and join them. Scootaloo was beckoned inside the circle, and she stepped up and plopped down in front of Fluttershy.

Everypony could hear her rear crinkle loudly, but, luckily, there was an actual baby sitting beside her, obviously in diapers. Scootaloo could just say the crinkles came from the baby.

“Here,” a little filly on Scootaloo’s other side said, offering a book. It was a song book, and it seemed chock full of various verses and funny little drawings aimed at young ponies.

“Wow, those are a lot of songs,” Scootaloo said.

The filly made a gagging motion. “The conductress wants us to learn them all,” she said, “they’re pretty songs, but they’re starting to get old when you hear them a hundred times.”

“Alright, everypony,” the conductress said, “let’s sing the song of the wanderer again. That’s on page four, for the newcomers.” She winked at Scootaloo.

The conductress counted, and everypony began singing at once.

“The wanderer was alone, he carried his scraps and a bundle of wood, but he had no fire, for the night was so dark and he was so cold.”

“The powderer was alone, he had his bottles and lint and boxes of flash, but freeze he did, and see he could naught, since he did not have coal.”

“The wanderer and the powderer met, and they exchanged what they had, built a pyre so high, from distant they came, warm light for all.”

The amazing song repeated every verse twice. By the second time, Scootaloo had fully gotten the hang of it.

The second and third verses were about more ponies joining the wanderer and making a settlement. The story had Scootaloo so excited, Fluttershy had to hold her and push her hindquarters back down on the floor repeatedly.

In the fourth, fifth and sixth verses, the settlement became a city, and the city prospered from its sustainable commerce. An obvious allegory to Skyview itself.

Scootaloo was completely lost, bellowing out the verses as they came. She was flabbergasted when the song suddenly ended and everypony began applauding.

“Good job, everypony,” the canoness cheered.

“Nice singing,” the filly beside Scootaloo said. She held up a hoof, and Scootaloo bumped it, her grin so wide it almost fell off her face.

They departed from the singing group. Fluttershy guided the still giddy Scootaloo along to the exit.

“That was so awesome!” Scootaloo said.

“It was nice,” Fluttershy said, “I never knew you liked singing so much, Scoots.”

“That wasn’t singing, that was awesome!” Scootaloo said, “This was nothing like the boring songs in school, this was such a cool story and it was so fun to sing.”

“Well, you did sing pretty nicely,” Fluttershy said, “I could tell that you were enjoying yourself. Look, even the ravens seem to think so.”

Outside an open window, many ravens were bunched up, and it was possible that they had listened to the song.

Scootaloo was lifted into the stroller, and sat down into the soft bulk. Fluttershy buckled her in, and they resumed their original path.

The sun stood low fairly by now, enveloping the clouds and the houses in a brilliant orange and violet sheen. The cloud column rose into the sky just a few houses beyond, and there were a number of balloons constantly going up and down alongside it. That was probably the lift, as written on the street signs.

They were quite high up now, even above some of the clouds, and cloud constructions, cultivated by the lower city. Air traffic constantly passed by them, going up and down city levels by themselves, which was probably faster than waiting for the lift. Navigation was regulated by innumerable floating buoys, little balloons populating the skies with little signs and direction pointers and measurement instruments. Humidity was a bit higher than usual, Scootaloo read off a closeby buoy.

Something glinted on the horizon. The first stars had started to appear, but this was something different. It wasn’t just one thing, but several things bundled together. And it moved. And it was huge.

“Look, Fluttershy!” Scootaloo said, “Look! It’s the airship right there!”

“Great, we haven’t missed it,” Fluttershy said, rounding the next corner.

Their street was only one of many that led into the massive arcades. Several lanes of broad, perfectly smooth marble were separated by long rows of traditional cloud pillars and olive trees, forming part the vast transport network that was capable of servicing what must have been among the largest harbours in all of Equestria.

There was a smaller extra lane for the pedestrians, so they wouldn’t have to use the same lanes as the cargo coaches, tankers and squadrons of dockhooves, scrambling towards the piers in a miraculously orderly fashion, considering their impressive speed. Nevertheless, Fluttershy and Scootaloo had to wait in line among the many other sensationalist ponies where the lanes crossed.

The harbour had not one, but two control towers in opposite corners, lined by endless rows of harbour buildings and storehouses. All of which were abuzz, ponies running and flying everywhere, carrying ropes, cables and materials in preparation for the incoming airship.

Pedestrians were led to a different section, away from all the activity, much to Fluttershy’s relief. She followed everypony else up a ramp, and found herself on a huge gallery, the massive balustrade on one side just large enough to provide room for the crowds of spectators.

“Look how many ponies there are!” Scootaloo said, “And they all want to see the airship.”

“Must be a big and fancy one,” Fluttershy said.

As soon as Scootaloo was freed from her stroller, she immediately squirmed out of Fluttershy’s hooves and bolted off towards the railing. Then she stopped, turned around and came running back.

“May I go see the airship, please?” Scootaloo said.

“Yes, you may,” Fluttershy said, “but be careful.”

Scootaloo turned back and rushed into the commotion. The crowd had settled mostly against the railing, the early arrivers smugly occupying the best spots. However, the youngest ponies were given room at the front to stand under the bigger ones, so Scootaloo could wiggle her way past the hooves until her face met with the railing’s iron bars.

With the airship looming in the distance, the docks seemed to be wound up and ready to pounce. The spectator stand was located in the outermost corner of the entire installation, but still Scootaloo could see the endless armies of dock workers standing at the ready, and entire convoys of cargo vehicles in formation right behind them, ready to perform their freight transfer duties as efficiently as possible and hit the road straight after.

Scootaloo couldn’t stick her head out between the metal bars far enough to observe the spectacle. Neither could, apparently, the colt right beside her.

“Hey, move,” Scootaloo said, “I can’t see.”

“You move,” the colt said, but then he realized Scootaloo had no room either. “Oh, sorry.”

“You here to watch the airship too?” Scootaloo said.

“Yeah,” he said, “it’s always so awesome when a ship comes in, but the Nimbus is the biggest one we’ve had all year.”

“The Nimbus?” Scootaloo said.

“That’s what she’s called,” the colt said, “Everypony talks about her because she’s the pride of the city. The engines and the design have been developed here in Skyview, you know, and the Nimbus can match any other airship in Equestria easily.”

“That’s so cool,” Scootaloo said, “do you know a lot about airships?”

“My uncle works for the university institute for aeronautical engineering,” the colt said proudly, “he showed me the inside of the engines. Most of his students haven’t even got to see that! There’s many weights and wheels and magical couplings. It feels weird when you stand in there. But it’s so powerful, and they keep coming up with even better ideas.”

“But where do the airships go?” Scootaloo said.

“They go across Equestria as far as possible,” the colt said, “and then they reach the end, and then they go over the far sea, and then they come in on the other side of Equestria, through the Northern Spires, and then they cross the big tundras and fly south, and eventually they wind up back here.”

“Wow, that’s like,” Scootaloo said, “the entire world, that they get to see.”

“Oh, it’s just the tiniest fraction of what there is to see,” the colt said, “I was here last summer, and saw them leave. Now I’m here to watch them come back. And one day, I’m going to ride with them on the ship.”

“You, on the airship?” Scootaloo said, “Wouldn’t you need to be able to fly?” He was a unicorn.

“Who needs flying when you can have something so awesome?” he laughed.

“Who needs … flying?” Scootaloo said.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy had settled down on one of the quite pretty wooden benches in the back. She didn’t have to be at the front row. She could see more than enough from here, and she could take a moment to relax without the hustle along the railing, and the vendor ponies who had shamelessly set up their stalls and were offering overpriced snacks. Plus, she could keep an eye on Scootaloo, who enjoyed herself in such an endearing way.

Scootaloo watched the dock workers hanging up rows of navigation buoys. The buoys displayed the exact distance from each side, and the end, of the port. And the approaching ship looked actually huge enough to fill the entire thing out.

“Here you go, Scoots,” Fluttershy had approached them from behind, “I got you a juice box. Drink up, all the excitement’s going to make you thirsty.”

“Thanks, Fluttershy,” Scootaloo said.

“Here, I got you one too,” Fluttershy said, offering a second juice box.

“Wow, thanks,” the colt said.

He and Scootaloo happily popped in their straws and drank away at the yummy apple juice.

“She’s really cool,” the colt commented.

“Yup, that’s Fluttershy,” Scootaloo said, “she took me here in the first place, and it’s the most awesome time I’ve ever had.”

“So, is she, like, your mommy, or something?” the colt said.

“Um, that’s kind of a long --” Scootaloo began. “Wait … shh. You hear that?”

They fell silent, and momentarily, so did the entire crowd. From on distant, a deep, oscillating rumble could be heard. It sounded like it was everywhere at once, though it was clear that it heralded the airship’s arrival.

“You can hear her!” the colt exclaimed, “She’s coming! The Nimbus is here!”

Scootaloo had thought the ship was still far away, and they were going to hang around here for a while. But nothing of that sort. The Nimbus was approaching at terrifying speed.

“It’s coming in fast,” Scootaloo said, “is nopony afraid?”

“Yep, that’s the Nimbus,” the colt said, “everypony’s been waiting for this. Do you know what kind of exotic riches you can pick up on this kind of voyage? They can’t wait to get on the ship. And I can’t wait to see him again.”

“Him?” Scootaloo said, “Who’s that?”

“My brother,” he said, “he’s a sailor on the Nimbus. He wrote me to meet him here.”

The Nimbus had arrived and flaunted her majestic form. She had an entire three massive balloons providing the updraft, but they weren’t the crude, bulky balloons of common airships. Instead they were flat and sleek, equipped with a multitude of steering fins and shining in the chromatic spectrum of highly specialized alloys.

She was propulsed by two massive auxiliary propellers and at least one slipstream funnel running across the long and elegant chassis from bow to stern. The propellers had huge curved blades that didn’t go very fast, but the sheer speed of the ship suggested the momentum was probably more magical than physical.

Then the airship appeared to drift dangerously far sideways, but everything was drowned out momentarily by the deafening hum of an almost completely clear, razor sharp diamond flame, erupting from the entire side of the ship, blanketing the whole area in its arcane warmth. The surreal lateral movement brought the ship perfectly back in line with the harbour, and it performed a buttery smooth entrance.

Whoever was at the controls of that thing had to be an ace.

The propellers reversed their direction of revolution, the signal for at least a hundred ponies to close in, carrying heavy cables and latching them to the Nimbus’ many-storied hull, ultimately securing the ship to the moorings.

The persistent drumming in Scootaloo’s ears finally cut out as the engines went silent. The ship drifted to a halt, its tethers were pulled tight, and several bridges were placed across the gap.

A second of pure silence, and the crowd erupted in cheers as the sailors began to spill forth. They looked tired beyond imagination, unkempt, malnourished and exhausted, but they held their heads high and wore their fancy uniforms with pride. Some of them even mustered the strength to wave to the crowd. Others simply moved out of the way quickly, as droves of dockworkers shoved their ways past and immediately began cataloguing and loading up the countless stacked cargo crates.

There was a sizable police presence, and nopony was allowed to go close for security reasons, but the sailors came out and conversed with those standing by. Maybe the colt’s brother was there too.

“Look, they’re here,” Scootaloo said, but he was already gone. Instead, Fluttershy was now beside her as the crowds began to clear up. “Look, how many there are.”

“Yes, there are many sailors down there,” Fluttershy said, “it must take at least this many to operate such a large airship.”

“It’s huge! Did you see how huge it is?” Scootaloo said, “Travelling for an entire year. Can you believe it? The ship must be able to fly through any kind of weather without even a sweat.”

“Oh my, I sure hope so,” Fluttershy said, “those poor sailors did look a bit haggard.”

Fluttershy let Scootaloo babble on in her excitement, subtly leading her back to the stroller in the meantime. She picked Scootaloo up, placed her gently in the seat, and fastened her in with the belt and the strap between her legs.

“But why can’t we go near?” Scootaloo said, “Did you see how many crates they had? I wanted to see what’s in there.”

“They likely need to store and index the wares first,” Fluttershy said, “or else everypony would get confused about what’s inside the city. They have to be especially careful about the exotic wares brought in from afar, because those could be strange or dangerous. That’s why they can’t allow any trade just yet.”

Except that the law turned a blind eye toward the coin and wares changing owner behind apparently every corner.

“Well, no legal trade at least, I suppose,” Fluttershy said, “Anyway, I’m getting a hunch why the Choir of Commerce would hold their celebration exactly tomorrow.”

They left the bustle around the Nimbus behind.

The sun had vanished behind the horizon in the meantime, leaving the streets noticeably clearer than when they had arrived. The moon had begun to rise on the other side, providing gentle illumination to light Fluttershy and Scootaloo’s path back onto the streets of the lower city.

It was barely more than two turns before the city ended, and they had reached the summit of their uphill voyage. It was the highest point of the lower city, and the point where the huge cloud pillar began. Its circumference was gigantic, Fluttershy estimated an orbit to take quite a while. But despite that, the pillar was completely still and quiet, and felt maybe only the slightest bit magical if you really paid attention. It was, in the end, only a gargantuan mass of cloud, stabilized by whatever arcanery that made it glow ever so pleasantly.

“The lifts, official end of the Skyview sights trail, enjoy your stay,” Fluttershy read, “Oh, that’s nice. It was quite a pretty trail, wasn’t it?”

“I thought it was rad,” Scootaloo said, “there must be so many more cool things here.”

A ramp led to the boarding platform for the lifts. Quite a number of ponies wanted to go up, most of them earth ponies and unicorns, and there was already a very broad balloon waiting for them in the station.

The operators waved everypony onto the deck in an orderly fashion. Fluttershy had to go to the frontmost wall, an area marked specifically for strollers. Scootaloo was parked beside another stroller with a filly inside. They both turned around and watched as the gates were closed, and the balloon took off.

The ascent was unexpectedly rapid, but the deck remained comfortably warm and windstill, thanks to the wonders of modern magic. Scootaloo leaned back into her cushioned seat and watched the stars on the horizon. She didn’t know many of the constellations, and neither did the filly beside her because she was still a toddler, but they quietly enjoyed the subtle beauty.

Then the vast underside of the city blocked the sky. Sporadic lights dotted the underside, as various cloud homes and cloud constructions were situated in its vicinity, and even those vanished when the balloon ascended into a tunnel.

It wasn’t dark or creepy, there was artificial illumination somewhere inside the clouds. And they promptly came out the top again. They had arrived in the city.

This part of the city looked much more familiar. The buildings were modern, the streets were broad and clean, street lights were aplenty, and ponies were dressed more normally, without trying to steal each other’s spotlight constantly. It looked almost like a more earthly Cloudsdale. Some of the houses were even cloud homes.

It was also distinctly quieter. When Fluttershy and Scootaloo stepped off the platform, the commotion of large crowds and the roar of industry and factories was gone. It was a nice moment to be still and just breathe.

“Wow, it looks boring,” Scootaloo said.

“Well, I think it looks nice,” Fluttershy said, “look how broad the streets are.”

“And the street signs make much more sense,” Scootaloo said, “Where do we go next?”

“I don’t know,” Fluttershy said, “Let’s have a look. Maybe we’ll find something.”

And something was found immediately. The first street sign they checked pointed to the Turnpike, right around the corner.

“That’s the locale that couple told us about, isn’t it?” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah,” Scootaloo said.

A night club! Where all the cool ponies went! Just what Scootaloo needed. She was so giddy, she almost couldn’t stop bouncing in her stroller.

“Let’s go check it out!”