art by RubleGun

"What are the lands of the zebras like in the world of Fallout: Equestria?"

In the past, I have usually answered this question in private messages -- in part because of the roleplaying campaign Fallout: Beyond Equestria that I'm running wherein which the characters journey to the post-apocalyptic zebra lands -- but after finishing "Origin Story", I feel this is a good time to answer the question in my blog.

This week, we continue to delve into Fallout: Equestria canon and my headcanon for the Zebra Lands.

Previous entries:

The Zebra Lands (Part I)

The Zebra Lands (Part II)

art by Sinrar

The zebras were not able to regulate nature through magic as the ponies did. Seasons did not artificially begin and end with “wrap-ups”. The weather did as it pleased, as did the lands and the animals within them. Outside of the cities and core agrarian territories, the continent that the zebras lived on behaved much like the Everfree forest. The jungles, forests and other wildlands were home of many fantastic plants and creatures, and boasted an even greater plethora of natural and mystical dangers.

From "Bridal Gossip":

Twilight Sparkle: Well, she's probably not from here, and she's not a pony. My books say that zebras come from a far away land. But I've never seen her in Ponyville. Where does she live?

Applejack: That's just it, she lives in... the Everfree Forest! … The Everfree Forest just ain't natural. The plants grow...

Fluttershy: Animals care for themselves...

Rainbow Dash: And the clouds move...

Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash: All on their own!

The land of the zebras was already home to horrific monsters – to the scale that the Everfree Forest was the most homelike place in Equestria for Zecora – even before the changes wrought in the wake of the war. For example, the creatures that the zebra called “star spawn” were gigantic constellation-related animals that appeared to be composed of stars, such as the one we all remember from “Boast Busters”.

The affects of magical radiation on the mystical plants, monsters and spirits in the zebra lands is best left to fearful imagination. In addition, the continent included the lands of the dragons. Not only did this allow the zebras to forge many agreements with the dragons (including the assistance of several of them during the war), but it is also a very good bet that there are considerably more dragons roaming the Zebra Wastelands than the Equestrian Wasteland has ever had to deal with.

In the second pad of “Origin Story”, I put forth the idea that firearms had first been invented by the zebra as a weapon to help deal with some of the dangerous monsters and manifested spirits with whom they shared their homelands.

art by Madhotaru

In most fields, the zebras had a level of functional technology that actually surpassed that of Equestria, particularly when it came to enchantment-enhanced or alchemically-enhanced technology. This allowed them to attempt to match the ponies magical advantages. For example, zebras were able to create small alchemical batteries that provided an energy output roughly equivalent to a generator – alchemical batteries that were at least on par with the magical energy batteries used in Equestrian arcano-tech.

In my blog "On Technology", I noted:

Zebras lack the conveniences of unicorn magic and easy flight. Like earth ponies, zebras have to do everything by mouth, tail and hoof. And this gave them a far greater push to invent better tools and technologies than the ponies labored under. Until they started large imports of gems from Equestria, shamanism was limited to personal spirit bargains -- enchanted items couldn't be mass-produced nor spiritual gifts applied on a civilization-scale. However, they benefited from alchemy, and this allowed them to make some serious leaps in technological capabilities. Going against the zebras meant facing guerrilla tactics, soldiers with supreme close-quarters combat skills, robots infused with machine spirits, shaman-enhanced weapons, war zeppelins and aerial drones, even inter-continental rockets powered by alchemical superfuels.

This isn’t to suggest that Equestria was at a disadvantage in the war; Equestrians had advantages of their own. Perhaps the most significant of these was that pegasus ponies gave Equestria complete dominance in the air. The zebras’ zeppelins may have been superior to Equestria’s initial air balloons, but neither they nor their flying drones were any real match for a group of skilled and armed pegasi fliers. Pegasi also brought weather control to the battlefield, from drowning it in fog to creating thunderstorms from which they could kick expertly-aimed bolts of lightning at opposing forces. The flying magic of pegasi allowed some of them to create weaponized contrails or dive-bomb to generate powerful explosions.

For this reason, aerial defense was of critical concern in the Empire of Roam. Important civilian centers, military bases and infrastructure targets were defended with anti-air weaponry. Missile defense was relatively uncommon as most pegasi could out-fly a missile (and skilled ones could pull aerial tricks to send the missiles at targets of their choice). Rather, zebras used heavy AA artillery, much like the guns of Friendship City, to fill the air with deadly flak. Many of these guns were autonomous, or controlled by a base computer. And a dangerous number of them are still functional, if degraded, creating a significant danger to anyone attempting to travel the zebra lands by air.

By the same measure, many of the advances promoted by the Ministry of Wartime Technology were in response to superior zebra technology. Ironshod Firearms' anti-machine rifle, for example, was designed for use against zebra sentinel robots. Zebra technology particularly excelled in the realm of robotics. They deployed a great number and variety of mechanized war machines and drones on the battlefield, as well as using them for civil defense and industry. While it was rare for an Equestrian family to actually own a personal spider-bot to help with household chores, equivalent mechanical assistants were commonplace in zebra towns and cities.

Naturally, this has lead to a terrifying number of lethal, wandering death-machines in the Zebra Wastelands. As well as monsters, zebra lands are riddled with hostile robots. Yay.

art by Yakovlev-vad

Although zebras could not cast spells, they were mistresses of alchemy and enchantments. Their land would be littered with magical relics, strange talismans, and odd brews. Zebras were able to find ways to utilize the astonishing variety of magical plant life in their lands for medical purposes as well as alchemical ones. They formulated recipes for everything from potions to repair broken bones (such as the miraculous dental potion crafted by Zecora in “The Cutie Pox”) to the wide variety of potent recreational and combat drugs that spawned the drug trade.

The zebras enjoyed a thriving “pharmaceutical” industry. Zebras did not have the same mindset towards drugs, even dangerous and addictive ones, that most ponies did. In fact, there were groups within the Legion who specialized in fighting under the influence of drugs and alchemical enhancements.

art by RubleGun

Before the war, the zebras had a tribal social structure unified under a ruling Caesar. Warriors from all zebra tribes comprised the Caesar's military, the Legion. Many tribes had developed traditions of martial artistry, and martial arts training was common. In fact, most martial art styles were originally developed by the zebras, such as the "Fallen Caesar Style" and "Doombunny Style". Doombunny Style was a modern martial art developed to take advantage of new combat drugs.

Martial styles that involved weaponry held in tail or mouth, or attached to hoof or foreleg, were also common. Most of the soldiers in Caesar's Legion were trained to fight with gladius and spear or gladius and shield. For this reason, zebra soldiers were most often outfitted with martial or melee weapons as well as firearms, and higher-ranking Legionnaires were honored with gem-inset weapons, armor and/or shields infused with the power of a spirit. One of the most common of these was a make of burst-fire rifle infused with the fiery power of a spirit of rage. (Some M.A.S. scholars who had been attempting to understand the spirit bargains made by zebra shamans, had even suggested that the volatile and unsustainable nature of rage may have been why this particular weapon was never designed for fully automatic fire.) Such weapons are not uncommon finds for those who survive the attempt to loot zebra military facilities or vaults.

art by Geekladd

The zebra lands were rich in coal. The Empire of Roam had enjoyed a thriving industry of coal mining with much of the resources being exported to Equestria in the years before the war. Now, the Zebra Wasteland land is rich in very creepy mines and still-burning underground coal fires.

The zebras did not have Stable-Tec or Stables. This is one area of technology where the zebras were significantly worse off. They did have vaults (such as the one under Four Stars), but while these didn't have the thrill of Stable-Tec social experiments, they more than made up for it with inferior design. In addition, most of them were built into parts of the previously-mentioned coal mines.

Finally, over the course of the past two thousand years, the homeland of the zebras suffered multiple meteoric impacts, including the one multi-meteor cataclysm glimpsed in Littlepip's dream. From this, the zebras developed a religion based around fear of the stars. This was not the only religion to exist in the zebra's homeland, but it was the one held by most of the Caesars, including the one who rose to power at the cusp of the war.

In addition to the religious impact, the meteor strikes often had an environmental impact that went beyond the obvious and mundane.