Cloudship

Top: Thunderhead-class cloudship

Bottom: Raptor-class cloudship
~ icekatze

Cloudships are giant warships used by the Equestrian Defense 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 about 50 Raptor class Cloudships left, without Unicorn magic the Pegasus Enclave was unable to build more.

During the events of Fallout: Equestria, the Pegasus Enclave lost a tremendous number of cloudships. The first of these losses were the four Raptors deployed to Splendid Valley, destroyed by the same balefire bomb that destroyed the Goddess.

Under Operation Cauterize, many more cloudships were sent below the clouds, and they very quickly began suffering losses. During the assault on Friendship City, three Raptors were destroyed. One was shot down by the city's harbor guns, one was destroyed by fratricide for disobeying orders and refusing to fire on civilians, and the last was destroyed when Littlepip and her companions detonated bombs within the Raptor's hangar. Lionheart and Mouse also destroyed one over Stalliongrad, and four more were destroyed over New Appleloosa by Ditzy Doo's sonic rad-boom. Calamity noted that the dozen Raptors lost in that week were more than the Enclave had lost in the past two-hundred years.

Losses accelerated from there. Lionheart and Mouse captured another Raptor (known as The Lenticular) on the way to the cathedral, killing the entire crew aboard with the Pink Cloud. At the battle for the cathedral itself, the Thunderhead Overcast and a group of six Raptors serving as escort detail fought against the Cyberdragon, leading to the destruction of half of the Raptors present, while a fourth was destroyed by Red Eye's artillery on the ground. Near the end of the battle, the Raptor Lenticular returned, full of Pink Cloud, smashing into the Overcast while Lionheart declared revenge for Canterlot, causing the Overcast to crash into the Cathedral and explode, it's unknown what happened to the two remaining Raptors whose fate was not specified.

At Fillydelphia, the Enclave committed "more than a dozen" Raptors and the Thunderhead Glorious Dawn. The Cyberdragon returned, destroying two Raptors before being slain. The final blow was another sonic rad-boom from Ditzy Doo, which destroyed the Glorious Dawn and all remaining Raptors.

In the final engagement, at least three Raptors were lost at Neighvarro, one to Spike, and two to friendly fire, but not before dealing damage to Spike; causing him to lose one of his eyes in the fight.

In all, the Enclave lost two Thunderheads and more than 32 Raptors, more than half their total cloudship force. The surviving Raptors were noted as withdrawing and regrouping with the remaining Thunderheads, presumably ending Operation Cauterize.

Ship Class

There are several types of Cloudship, though only a few are more prominently 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, earning them the nickname of "Dragon Killers". They are very susceptible to Sonic Rainboom attacks which annihilate the clouds giving them lift, causing them to crash.

Raptors consist of a huge deployment hangar with platforms for massive magical energy cannons, flanked by thunderclouds and move through the air on a dozen propellers.

Known Raptors - Pyrocumulus, Altostratus, Nimbostratus, Lenticular, Nacreous, Noctilucent, Mammatus 

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. They are anvil-shaped and flanked by four large thunderclouds, each cloud capable of transporting a Raptor class cloudship.

Known Thunderheads: Overcast, Glorious Dawn, Victorious

Cloudship Enclave Technology Evolution

The information is non-canon and explains how the Enclave is able to maintain the Cloudships for 200 years.

Shaping Shadow

Almost all of the Cloudships were built during the war. Most of their components were expertly made by Unicorns. Then the pegasi assembled them at the Air Base in Las Pegasus where the dry docks were created for the ships. To keep up appearances, most of the cloudships have been removed from use and then refreshed, retrofitted, and repaired several times. Each time the design is a slightly different model and the ship is renamed.

It appears like the Enclave is still able to make new ships without a problem. The Enclave has been able to reverse engineer the components of almost everything, except for some of the 100% magic pieces in the guns. Everything else can be reproduced, albeit slow and with a lot of energy. They can maintain, not mass produce.

A large 'lot' of Cloudships is near the dry docks. Most of the ships in there were damaged by the war and were waiting for repairs. Since the clouds were sealed up, they have been scavenged for parts for the retrofits and remodels over the years. As well as repairing ships after the inevitable accidents occur.

Many of the cloudships have been fitted with adjusted guns that now fire live rounds rather than magic blasts and lasers. This was done in an effort to keep the Raptor guns online as long as possible, and with as much ammo as possible.

The Net Layers, Corvette Class, and Monitor Class were rare builds from fresh clouds. Everything was produced for them. Nothing was borrowed. It allows for better repair control since it is using the technology and equipment the Enclave has at the time, not on magic bit they have to maintain from the war.

Cloudships in Side Stories

Various Cloudships have made appearances in other stories.

Sky-tanks

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. Rising Dawn Sky-tanks were used heavily in the evacuation of Poneva city at the close of the Great War. Escorted by vertibucks, sky-tanks would touch down in the streets, load up civilians, take off, and transport them to safety to Stormpeak city.

Thunderheads

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. Misfits A Thunderhead, along with various other cloudships, flies above Snakebite Tourniquet as they make their way into the Equestrian Wasteland. Icarus Cyclone This Thunderhead is one of 2 cloudships sent to Salt Lick City for an early version of Operation: Cauterize (about 45 years before Littlepip). It is currently a week out from the city.

Raptors

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. Project Horizons The Taurus shaped city of Thunderhead (not to be confused with the Cloudship model) drifts over the Hoofington area and is a key strategic settlement for the Enclave due to it's proximity to Shadowbolt Tower. Following the death of General Harbinger, the risk of civil war between Neighvarro and Thunderhead rapidly ferments due to an information leak by Blackjack that Thunderhead intelligence services have modified a bioweapon to affect pegsi. This leads the Neighvarro fleet to dispatch a large flight of Raptors to subdue the city (mindful of the tower's defenses), initially under the command of General Stormchaser. Named Raptors: Sirocco, Blizzard, Galeforce, Azimuth, Helicity, Hurricane, Perihelion, Sleet, Stratus Fractus, Castellanus The Ditzy Doo Chronicles A Raptor that crashed some distance outside Stalliongrad, was fixed over several years by a glowing ghoul named Bright Light and her followers. The process was slowed due to the cloud-based technology that they had to circumvent, but thanks to Ditzy Doo, they were able to speed up the process immensely. The ship was later named Renewal, in honor of the journey the ghouls onboard would be making to a new homeland. Outlaw The Cult of Speed are in possession of a Raptor, that a group of Hexhound's managed to damage and crash. The Cult quickly claimed the damaged cloudship and have been working on repairing it. Ardent Vortex tried to steal the cloudship from the Cult, with the help of their former leader, Bruise Cruise. Vortex's forces ultimately failed to claim the cloudship though. The cloudship was later used to travel to Vortex's offshore Oil Rig base, where it was disabled. The Raptor was destroyed, when the oil rig self-detonated. Shaping Shadow Solar The Solar is the newest cloudship produced by the Enclave, only being a year old at the start of the story. She is a Rapter, a rare thing to be produced due to the mass amounts of resources, like steel, needed to create them. She is first seen next to the Red Dawn at Nellie Air Force Base. Flash Magnus The Flash Magnus is a Wartime Cloudship which was destroyed in battle. It's Captain was Rumble. It is a regular Cloudship, used to transport soldiers only carrying light guns and armor. Princess Luna chose the Flash Magnus to disable Kifopiga's Megaspell Chamber. It was armed with special armor piercing shells for the mission. The Flash Magnus was ripped apart by Kifopiga's artillery on it's way to the spell chamber. Captain Rumble and the crew kept the ship together just long enough, to fire one round at the Megaspell Chamber and complete it's mission. Icarus Rapture The Rapture is one of 2 cloudships sent to Salt Lick City for an earlier version of Operation: Cauterize (happening nearly 45 years before Littlepip). It was critically damaged near the end of the war with its main plasma canon non-functional. It is still capable of sieging a surface settlement with its smaller guns alone. It was converted into a large scale science team transport vessel. It contains a smaller hanger bay and a non-standard laboratory in the main section of the ship.

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. Vortex's Vertibuck is later revealed to have been stolen from a group of wasteland pegasi, called the Cult of Speed 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. Mach's sister Astral went looking for Mach in one of these and let him use it to gather allies for his planned attack on Ardent Vortex. 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 V-2 Vertibuck was originally put into service roughly one year before the outbreak of the Great War, serving as the workhorse for the Equestrian Air Force. They served as transports, gunships, and recon aircraft among others, their versatillity allowing them to fill nearly any role that was needed... Continued... Rising Dawn Vertibucks were used extensively by the pegasi during the Great War. Rising Dawn's iteration of the Vertibuck functioned as a multi-purpose fire-support aircraft, capable of engaging with strafing runs with its nose mounted autocannons or missile batteries, but providing close fire-support while hovering. Icarus Vertibucks are used to transport troops from the Rapture to locations on the surface.

Other Classes of Cloudships (Non-canon)

Other Cloudship Classes in Fallout Equestria: Shaping Shadow

These Cloudship classes are only seen in Shaping Shadow. All are within the Enclave's Third Fleet Corvette A corvette is a one shot attempt at designing a better direct combat Cloudship. They are tiny, but the top speed is four times that of a Raptor and the gun to size ratio is heavy. It is based on speed an maneuverability while still carrying enough fireport to stand on their own in a fight. It was designed to be a patrol Cloudship in the Enclave, but the design was dropped after the first one was produced. More generalized Cloudships were chosen to continue patrolling. The Corvette class can out maneuver a Raptor and evade it's guns. The corvette guns are large compared to it's small size, meaning it could take out a Raptor. It's speed makes targeting it a very difficult task. The Compliment is only 85 officers and crew. Battle Cruiser There is only one Battle Cruiser in the Enclave, the Red Dawn. It was a small transport, Fairy Class, from early war and does not even classify as a Sky-tank. The Enclave retrofitted her with heavier guns and more weapons and classified her as a Battle Cruiser. She can hold her own in a fight and still retains the top recorded speed out of all the Cloudships by a sizable chunk. Monitor An experimental design trying to maximize firepower with less resources spent. It is an alternative to the Raptor class since the threat of dragons is low to none. The range of the guns are unmatched and the class can easily take down a Raptor and probably a Thunderhead before either can get the Monitor in range to retaliate. The drawbacks of the heavy guns is that the Monitor Class is slow moving and has little armor. The Lord Clove was the only Monitor produced. Net Layer The name is a carry over from the naval ships, Net Layers. A net layer is a ship that would place and remove chain nets to block off Equestrian Bays so that the bay was protected from enemy ships coming in, both on top of the water, and under the surface. Their role is to work with the SPP and the cloud base. As well as gather sample from below the clouds. They are small, saving on materials and only carrying small caliber defensive guns. They have no armor. Since it was a new class, the name wasn't changed. Ultimately, the Enclave went in another direction, scrapping the project and never changing the name. The Enclave believed a regular Sky-tank or Raptor could do the same job while fulfilling more than one role. Three Net layers were produced, sister ships created side by side. Buffy, Willow and Xander.

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 Vertibird from the Fallout series, alongside the Sky-tank, the role of the Vertibird being split between them.
• The Vertibuck featured in various side-stories is based on the Vertibird from the Fallout series.