I can't seem to remember, did the Zebra use Balefire Bombs or Megaspells? I'm writing my own Fallout Equestria fic and I can't seem to remember what one they used.

4608346 Aren't Balefire Bombs the same as Megaspells? I think they are the same.

4608346 Balefires, I believe. The Ponies, however used Megaspells.

Thank you for the response.

4608346
Balefire bombs are megaspells. A megaspell is just a really, really big spell. Fluttershy made a healing one.

Balefire bombs are a specific kind of megaspell? There pretty much the equivalent of nuclear warheads while the Equestrian launched megaspells had several flavors of woop-ass rather than one.

4608346

What 4608362 said.

Balefire bombs are megaspells in the sense that roses are flowers. There were several kinds of megaspells, and balefire bombs were one of them.

The cool part is that this means the ones which featured in Fo:E were not necessarily the only types of megaspells.

4608346

I was under the impression that bombs delivered megaspells. Upon detonation, the megaspell within is unleashed. Balefire is also a megaspell, which is unleashed by a Balefire Bomb.

4608384 is correct.

A megaspell is a spell or similar magical effect that has been boosted several orders of magnitude by a megaspell framework. Any spell could theoretically be turned into a megaspell by the application of a megaspell framework.

Balefire bombs were balefire eggs that were magnified by a megaspell framework built out of zebra-enchanted gems. Ponies built megaspell frameworks in the form of ritual chambers, as seen with Celestia One.

4608346 As stated, "megaspell" is actually a term for a specific type of magic, one using the 'Megaspell framework' that Fluttershy's MOP developed. A way of building a spell up on itself, or even adding more spells to it, to greatly enhance it's power. Taking a regular spell, and amping it up several orders of magnitude. For ponies, who magic was actively cast, this generally meant several unicorns all casting the same spell together in the same way, using the megaspell framework to amplify it's effects, or for even more powerful or longer distance spells like Celestia One, building special chambers and other physical amplifiers that increased the spell even more.

But Zebra magic wasn't active cast, it was tasliminic in nature. They created objects imbued with the magic they need. Cloaks with invisibility spells, amulets that gave them limited flight, potions of all kinds. Same with their Megapsells. They imbued an object with massive amounts of magical power using a megaspell framework, taking the already powerful balefire (Which was necromanticly augmented dragonfire) and increasing it's range and power.

Orrr to but it in fewer words, what 4608489 said while I was typing this up. Damn Kkat ninja.

Thank you all for your replies, and I think I understand it now, I was just under the impression that Balefire Bombs and Megaspells were a different thing.

4608504 I dunno they might be, Zebras don't use spells they use a special kind of magic.

A megaspell is the equivalent of casting the same spell hundreds of times to condense it's effect. The first megaspell was a heal spell that healed everyone who wasn't dead on a battlefield.

A balefire bomb is essentially a dimensional teleport that teleports balefire around a location. The zebras have also used bound elemental spirts, a form of voodoo necromancy, and stolen megaspells.

Project Horizons had several mega spells. Such as a gravity singularity, mind control, ice, fire, and some form of come to life I believe.

4608489
Oooh, I'm so glad I depicted this correctly in my story. I'm covering the research and development of the original arcane spell framework and the amplification spell which was used in the early experiments by the Ministry of Peace. Fleshed it out with some interesting dialogue between Luna and the head researcher. They were arguing about the implications and plausibility of the amplification spell itself, since it seemingly violates the First Law of Arcane Dynamics (you can't get magical power from nothing). Luna is quite concerned because Nexus' approach seemingly creates magical energy from nothing. She's worried about the ambient effects - how much will it drain magic from the surrounding environment and all that, since that's what recharges unicorns.

I broke the mechanism down into two parts. First, the "spell framework" which he's developing is very similar to the Microsoft .NET framework and how it allows a programmer to create encapsulated modules which interact, allowing the output of one spell to feed into the input of another. This permits the amplification spell to massively increase the scope and power of just about any spell or combination of spells which are plugged into the framework. It also allows spells to be stored and triggered without a unicorn catalyst. The secret of the spell framework was so powerful and flexible that when it was given to the zebras, they pretty much had the freedom to do with it whatever they pleased.

Well anyway, that's all just my headcanon of course. Having a blast fleshing out this stuff!

Balefire bombs were balefire eggs that were magnified by a megaspell framework

This!! Yeah, my depiction of balefire eggs existing prior to the invention of megaspells has been opposed by some, but I have been going on the assumption that the balefire bombs were exactly what you said here. And that this heavily implies that the eggs existed for a while before the zebras acquired megaspell technology. I have a balefire egg detonate in chapter five, but in chapter six I show the megaspell framework as something which is in development and not quite finished yet.

I assumed, that since the zebra couldn't cast magic like a unicorn, they needed to deliver the megaspells in a missile. Basically the same thing, but bound in an object. The ponies just had unicorns code their megaspells with a target, where it traveled independently as a ball of light.

I've had ponies make the megaspell = balefire mistake in universe, especially since the NCR still bans them (and it doesn't help that Celestia 1, while not balefire, still blows stuff the hell up).

But yes, megaspells can be anything, the first were after all medical in nature.

Completely not canon, but it's noted in my works that the Equestria megaspells actually performed considerably worse than the zebra ones, losing quite a lot of energy during flight and often failing to penetrate armored structures, along with seeding considerably less radiation into the surrounding area. Most of the zebra still died anyway, carpet bombing is carpet bombing, but still... props to zebra engineering!

4608346
4608349
A megaspell is a magical framework that greatly amplifies the power of any spell or enchantment placed within it. The Balefire Bombs are a TYPE of megaspell based on Balefire Eggs (the Fo:E version of mini-nukes) and the most well-known variant of megaspell due to being used by the Zebras against Equestria almost exclusively (and are thus primarily responsible for making the Equestrian Wasteland what it is). Equestria used much more variation in the megaspells it fired against the Zebra Lands on Doomsday, including the Black Rose (based on the Alicorns' heart-attack spell and was used on the capital city of Roam) and Celestia One (the solar-powered death ray controlled from Tenpony Tower).

This thread has been referenced in my latest blog, which looks at megaspells.