The Zebra Lands (Part III) · 3:02pm Feb 21st, 2015
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.
art by Ruhisu
Interesting. more and more, it comes across as a bit of a crusade that ended life.
I thought that firearms were first invented by griffons, which is why they have triggers operated by hand, like ours.
Well that was pretty awesome.
Hmmmm... Considering what we've seen of the robots in Equestria, I can only imagine what robots in the zebra homelands are like.
Considering that one tankbot Littlepip and Steelehooves fought, I can only imagine they are less malfunctioning and doing their duties diligently. Serve zebras! Kill ponies! (Of course their all out of zebras in the cities from the sound of things. Oh well, more time to focus on the latter.)
The goddess must love that place.
2817476
It could easily be that firearms were developed by both groups individually. It would certainly explain the ease in which Equestria took to the weapons and were able to develop many of their own...mouth-operated small arms were reverse engineered from Zebra weapons, while the larger guns such as grenade launchers and anti-machine rifles were mounted in a battle saddle -- griffons could control the latter without the need for such because of their anatomy, but the average pony would need a system that could replicate the reinforcement of a shoulder behind the stock of the weapon.
Curious, after this you ever plan on making blog posts about the NCR?
2817814 I could also imagine it has less to do with the gun in general and more about the mechanisms their guns used.
Gryphons dexterous talons could operate weapons with loading and firing weapons like ours. But zebras would have much simpler mechanisms of single shots. This could be taken that Gryphons might not have been the first, but they could freely expand on the tech while other races first had to figure out how to get around their own limitation.
You have my attention (again, starting to run low with this semi-franchise of ours). Something I think that war time Roam would struggle with is a disobedient people. It seems to me that Zebras are more in touch with the world and want would explanations, while Equestrians would be happy with what they think is true. Not sure if that's something totally sense-making or something.
hi hi
I wonder what creatures, already known for producing a green flame, would make a good expy for the fire ants from Grayditch when subjected to necromantic radiation and the like.
It is kind of funny how movie and video game physics is so different from reality. In popular culture, missiles are these slow moving things that sort of drift lazily towards their target, while in reality they are usually much faster than bullets. A heavy flak cannon with a high muzzle velocity, like the Krupp 88mm, might fire a round at 820 m/s, which might be moving about half that speed by the time it reaches its effective firing range, after more than 10 seconds of flight. While a heavy missile battery, like the patriot, can reach 1701 m/s, and maintain that velocity up until the point of impact. The calculations required to properly map a trajectory including atmospheric drag are pretty complicated, so linking them to a base computer was a very smart move. Unfortunate for all those poor scavengers though.
Even if zebras chose not to worry about the downsides of addictive drugs, surely that dismissal didn't prevent the downsides from happening. I have to wonder how they handled the repercussions. Perhaps it was treated as just another war injury? Or perhaps they were simply left to deal with it themselves? It is something I always wondered about.
Was that bit at the end a possible segway to talk about the star crater and other star-related things? Looking forward to the next part if so. (Still looking forward to it if not.)
Oh for-
Please tell me we're not going to Centralia. Pleeeeeeease tell me we're not going to Silent Hill.
Sign me up!
2818655 Ah, but you can see a missile coming. It takes rather a lot of agility and a very quick reaction time to act successfully on this information, but the sort of pegasus you'd find in Equestria's air force ought to be able to reach a significant portion of the speed of sound while maintaining high maneuverability. They couldn't beat a missile in a race, but given that a missile has a crap turning radius, they really don't need to. (Although the zebras could probably get a missile close enough to knock a pegasus out of the sky, so I guess they didn't have anything they could put into a missile that could detect a pony at the edge of the blast radius.)
A bullet, or a small artillery shell suitable for anti-air fire, in contrast, is difficult to spot soon enough to react, even if it slower. Plus, it's a lot cheaper than a missile, so you can afford to just fill the sky with bullets and hope a few hit.
2831867
I should hope that pegasi would be able to see both missiles and anti-air artillery being fired. Neither of the two is very subtle, and since the flak is radar guided, I would hope they should also know when they are being tracked prior to receiving fire as well. In any case, if I were a pegasus, I'd have gotten my funnel, down burst, or hail barrage waiting to go before I reached the target.
As far as speed is concerned, the Flak 88's stated 820 m/s is mach 2.4, while the patriot's 1701 m/s is mach 5. But if a pegasus can knock a missile off course or send it back, they would have an easier time sending a flak round back. The smaller size of a flak projectile actually makes it more susceptible to being pushed around, on account of the square-cube law with respect to surface area and volume, and quadratic drag being dependent on surface area cross section. (And a missile has the ability to actively resist the wind. The fastest tornado ever recorded was 318 mph, the example missile is traveling 3805 mph. That isn't just 12 times as fast, but the power required to overcome drag increases at the cube of the velocity, not linearly.)
Sadly, it isn't on youtube or I would link it, but back in 1981 a guy from the Los Alamos National Lab named Stirling Colgate launched some rockets at tornados from a Cessna 210. They had only 80 grams of propellant (in order to meet non-lethal regulations) and no guidance, holding atmospheric instruments instead. Their trajectories never intersected a funnel, instead they seemed to follow a gradient around the funnel, and kept on going on the other side. (His Cessna got within a half-mile from strong tornados with no problem, but a downburst and hail did almost kill him, and he didn't make any more attempts after that.)
As for the turning radius, it is true that early missiles did have some troubles with keeping a lock on a perpendicularly moving target. (The 1960s AIM-9 had a kill probability of about 15%, but the 1977 AIM-9L all aspect missile had about a 60% kill probability) Missiles don't need to maneuver better than their target in most cases, and ignoring that missiles like the 1975 Sprint could pull 100 Gs, they don't have to follow the target's path, but can follow a tangent line to the target.
If I were the pegasi and I had such air-bending skills, I would create a massive downdraft directly over the AA batteries so that all their shots fell short. Flak may have been a good morale booster, since people wanted to feel like something was being done to stop the bombers, but anti-air fire actually did significant damage to the cities they were supposed to protect. (A report on an air-raid on London in January 1943 found that between 20 and 27% of the dead or seriously wounded could be directly attributed to friendly AA fire as it fell back down. One of the most costly was a welsh Royal Ordnance factory which was destroyed by a returning shell in March 1944)
As for anti-air fire being cheap, it turns out that it was actually horrendously expensive. In 1943, German expenditures on ground based anti-aircraft defenses was 39 million reichsmarks, compared to all other weapons and munitions produced, which was 93 million. (Including 20 million of the navy budget and only nine million of the aircraft-related budget.) The shortage of radio equipment in other areas of their army can be attributed in part to the massive demand for fuses in anti-air shells. It took 900,000 men to operate the anti-air defenses too, which when compared to the planned 300,000 troops to man the Atlantic coast, if gives some indication of how costly the effort was.
A single anti-aircraft bullet may have been much cheaper than a missile, but when you consider the number of bullets fired to achieve a kill, its economy is less certain. A Luftwaffe study estimated that it took over 3,300 88 mm shells to down a single bomber. (Even worse success rates were recorded when the enemy was obscured by clouds and could not be tracked visually.) A US 720 bomber raid on Hamburg in October 1944, flying in overcast skies, were fired on by 44 heavy flak batteries that expended 24,416 shells in predicted box barrages, and only shot down 1 bomber. (Overall, the massive AA effort shot down about 1 out of 10 bombers over the course of the war, which is not insignificant and was rightfully feared by pilots, but 1 out of 10 wasn't going to stop them from getting through and wrecking their targets.)
But I digress, I'm talking about Earth, not Equestria. Magic! There is definitely something visceral about flak cannons that makes for exciting narrative. Fantasy need not always been held hostage by reality, I was just musing about the difference in general perceptions.
2831949 That entirely depends on the speed of the missiles... Or at least kkat's understanding of missiles. If kkat is only familiar with them from movies and video games she may think they move at like 60 mph and can be outran by a simple sedan that's got 200k miles on it. Likewise if the fuel in the missiles is basically a big model rocket motor (think Estes Rockets) then they may be moving as slowly as ~100pmh. That's just a tad faster than the average baseball pro's pitch.
For those of you unaware, the speed of a proper rocket/misscile is very very very fast. Here's a real RPG 7.
https://youtu.be/Z5elJNyLVEQ
As for missciles fired from planes or other vehicals, they adverage in at mach 6. 6 times the speed of sound. Which is how fast this sled gets up to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSVfYwdGSsQ
So. Yeah. Eitehr kkat thinks that rockets are slow because movies and video games, or she thinks that Rainbow Dash levels of speed are common enough for Pegasi to have their air force composed of ponies who are on her level.
Frankly, that last one sounds awesome! But it would mean that the zebras either have hyper-sonic flak canons, or that their flak is so dence and large that it dosnt matter if you deflect the shell (Which, given IRL flak, is quite probable).