A passenger, airmail and light cargo air transport service operated by the State of Trenchtown. Aeropony airships travel on a looping route around the Dusts, such that any of the settlements it services can be reached from any other within a week at most, except in cases of unusual headwinds. The airships are generally quite comfortable, and fares are inexpensive; it is widely believed that Trenchtown operates the Aeropony service at cost (or perhaps even at a loss) for propaganda purposes. Tickets are often sold out at least a week in advance for some trips. Two airship routes operate regularly, designated as C (Clockwise) and A (Anticlockwise). Other destinations, particularly outside the Dusts, are sporadically available from Trenchtown. Aeropony has never had a hull-loss accident despite a number of close calls, mostly involving high winds. The airships have 12 crewmembers (8 crewponies, 4 officers) typically and carry 46 passengers. Aeropony service began in 3321.

(Day 1 is the 1st, 7th, 13th, 19th, and 25th of each month, with the routes cycling five times per month. The extra days in Trenchtown for each ship, since each route takes four days to fly, are used for ship maintenance and crew downtime.)

C airships are Riches of the Abyss and Promise of Ponyism, the A airships are Beloved Trenchtown and Ponies, Unite. If an airship is delayed past its departure time at Trenchtown (usually by unfavorable or dangerous winds) the second airship can still be launched. The two airships on the route are rotated anyway for cleaning and servicing.

A second Aeropony service began shortly after conflict in the Red Barony obstructed the Docktown Railroad, the Aeropony Express. The express is notably more expensive than the regular Aeropony (especially the Docktown-Sparkle City route) and runs a shorter route, and uses a pair of converted whaling vessels, the First Type airships Wild Strike and Golden Horseshoe. It is unclear if the Aeropony Express service will continue if/when the situation in the Red Barony stabilizes. Infrastructure in Sparkle City is shared with the Ducal Hayminnow Airway. A mooring tower is being built in Little Mountain; currently the Express flies over it but does not dock there.

Fleet

The Aeropony operates several types of Airship. Three have been used for commercial service, and two are still in passenger service, the (creatively named) "Second Type" and "Third Type." The First Type and Second Type were converted from whaling vessels, the larger Third Type is purpose-built for passenger and light cargo transport. Third Type airships are the Beloved Trenchtown and Riches of the Abyss on regular service, and Red Skies, which travels on a variety of routes without a specific repeating schedule. Second Type airships are Promise of Ponyism and Ponies, Unite. A Fourth Type of Aeropony airship is used exclusively for State purposes, and is represented by the Crimson Heart and Guiding Star. Trenchtown also operates a large number of whaling vessels engaged in hunting Trench Whales, but they are not considered part of the Aeropony system.

The Third Type airship was designed to support longer, multi-day nonstop journeys. Originally, each passenger cabin was intended to have four bunks, to transport 32 passengers. However, the cabins of two of the three Third Type airships are currently fitted with six bunks, for a theoretical passenger capacity of 48. Only the Red Skies is in its original design configuration, and it is the only one making long nonstop trips, though not on a regular schedule. Second-Type airships have a passenger capacity of 46.

In PRPG3

After the flooding of Trenchtown rendered its Ponyist regime defunct as a sovereign entity, control of the Aeropony lapsed from state ownership to de facto private ownership. Some of these new owners were investors who smelled opportunity and purchased Trenchtown assets as part of the governmental wind-down; others were Aeropony ship captains, who, at the moment of the dissolution of the Trenchtown government, simply immediately declared themselves and their crews the owners of their vessels by right of salvage, reasoning that due to being the property of a former state that no longer existed, the ships were therefore ownerless and abandoned.

Private ownership didn’t last very long, since concerns quickly arose over the potential for profiteering and the lack of operational and fiscal transparency of what was becoming regarded as an essential service. Several cities consolidated their efforts to jointly establish a public non-profit corporation called the Aeropony Group, intended to operate the Aeropony as a public utility. The private coalition controlling the Aeropony resisted briefly, but under increasing pressure from several different polities, allowed themselves to be bought out.

When the seas began to rise and trench whales ceased emerging, the future of Aeropony’s lighter-than-air ships was in doubt due to the supply of buoyant gasses becoming very limited. However, an industrially viable method for creating a suitable substitute gas was developed shortly after, securing the future of lighter-than-air vessels.

Currently, Harmonia continues to employ the Aeropony Group to operate and maintain the Aeropony and its vessels. The Aeropony is publicly funded, making tickets very cheap.

Routes

Each stop on a line has two departures per day along that line, one in each direction.