Cloudship

A concept drawing of a Raptor-class Cloudship.
~ icekatze

Cloudships are giant warships used by the Equestrian Defence Force during the Great War and by the Enclave after the war.

History of Use

During the War:

It is unknown at what point during the war that the cloudships came into play. All that is known is that they were used by the Pegasus during the war and that they were built using Unicorn magic. This meant that after the Megaspells hit, the cloudships fell out of production.

After the War:

After the Megaspells hit and the Pegasi closed the sky, there were only 4 Thunderheads and 50 Raptor class Cloudships left, without Unicorn magic the Pegasus Enclave was unable to build more.

During the events of Operation Cauterize, the Pegasus Enclave lost nearly a dozen Raptor Class ships to the Wasterlanders. Many were destroyed by Ditzy Doo during the attack on New Appleloosa.

Ship Class

There are several types of Cloudship, though only a few are more porminently featured and named.

Raptor Class

Raptor class Cloudships are built for small scale assault on ground forces and ideally built for aerial combat. They are fast and highly maneuverable cloudships and were notably used to take down attacking forces, like dragons. They are very susceptible to Sonic Rainboom attacks which annihilate the clouds giving them lift, causing them to crash.

Sky-tank

Sky-tanks are cloudships, built for the purpose of transporting large numbers of troops to various locales. They also contain weapon platforms to fire from and defend the troops inside and are driven by a single pilot. They are armed with plasma cannons.

Known Sky-tanks: Tortoise

Bombing Chariots

Bombing Chariots are cloudships that are similar in design to pre-war sky chariots used by Celestia and Luna. They are built for bombing ground based targets, but can also defend themselves with mounted weaponry.

ThunderHead Class

The largest known class of cloudship. Thunderheads act as moving military bases, deploying troops and vehicles to the battlefield and also wielding its own, very lethal weaponry.

Known Thunderheads: Overcast, Glorious Dawn, Victorious

Cloudships in Side Stories

Various Cloudships have made appearances in other stories.

Thunderheads

Project Horizons

The Thunderhead ironically named Thunderhead, is situated over Hoofington. It contains a subfaction of the Enclave who live and operate out of Thunderhead.

Misfits

A Thunderhead, along with various other cloudships, flies above Snakebite Tourniquet as they make their way into the Equestrian Wasteland.

Vertibuck

A Vertibuck is a type of Cloudship that acts as a troop transport and a powerful assault craft, depending on the situation.

Appearances of Cloudship in Fallout: Equestria Side Stories

Warning! The following information applies only to its associated side story, Fallout: Equestria Side Stories, and is thus considered non-canon in the Fallout: Equestria universe. Heroes The Vertibuck is a mix between troop transport and combat cloudship. It is powered by two pegasi, which allows it to deploy and maneuver quickly. The Enclave Remnants possess some of these from when they defected and left the Enclave. Project Horizons A Vertibuck was used by Operative Lighthooves to try and kill Blackjack. She destroyed it, using Trottenheimer's Folly. Outlaw A Vertibuck was used by Ardent Vortex and his followers to attack the Steel Ranger whilst Mach snuck into their base to retrieve important data. An Enclave Vertibuck attacked Mach, just outside the settlement of Salt Lick Springs. It was resistant to small arms fire but was destroyed by attacks from a group of Steel Rangers. It had a side door which opened and allowed a gunner to fire from. Tales of a Courier The resistance is in possession of Vertibucks. They require two pegasi to power it, but can also use unicorn and earth pony pilots/gunners. Memories A Vertibuck was used by Frosty Winds and her squad as a form of transport. They also seem to be treated as emergency evacuation vehicles, sent out to rescue squads who are in combat hot zones. Wings of Steel The Steel Wings are a squadron of highly skilled Vertibuck pilots during the Great War, who fly search and destroy missions behind enemy lines in highly-armed Vertibucks.

Notes

• The Sky-tank, Tortoise is a reference to Tank, Rainbow Dash's pet tortoise.
• The Thunderhead cloudship seems to be based on the Mobile Base Crawler from Fallout 3's expansion, Broken Steel.
• The Raptor class Cloudship replaces the Vertibrid from the Fallout series, alongside the Sky-tank, the role of the Vertibird being split between them.
• The Vertibuck is based on the Vertibird from the Fallout series.