I’ve been meaning to type this out for awhile now, and I guess this is the thread.
As a species, the Zebras are probably never going to be fleshed out. Here’s the problem:
Welcome to Season One, where everything is made up, and the implications don’t matter. This is a setting about talking horses. So it makes sense to use a zebra (an African horse) character in order to explore the topic of racism and discrimination.
However, this was at a time when the world-building wasn’t taken seriously. What impresses me about later seasons is that the implications actually start mattering. As far as the rest of Season One is concerned, the Nightmare Moon incident might as well have not happened. In later seasons, however, we get to see how Chrysalis and The Storm King affected the Changelings and the Hippogriffs, respectively. There’s also more thematic depth. Pony stories tend to be about magic, friendship, and self-actualization. Hippogriff stories tend to be about isolation, duality, and autonomy, where Changeling stories are about identity, individualism, and guilt. A few quick examples:
It is Princess Skystar’s decision to help The Mane Six without her mother’s approval that helps lead to the defeat of The Storm King. Queen Novo’s decision to divide the pearl among her subjects grants them autonomy. Surf and/or Turf is about Terramar’s struggle with this new autonomy, and the dual ways of life he has to choose between.
To Change a Changeling is about Pharynx’s struggle to find a new identity for himself in a post-Chrysalis hive. It’s also about how Thorax’s guilt prevents him from considering his brother’s needs.
They can make generalizations about the other species, because they’re built on ideas, instead of being based on real-life cultures. Anything they establish about Zebras, good or bad, has the unfortunate side effect of generalizing the cultures of an entire continent. And they can’t really fall back on the discrimination aspect, either. Bridle Gossip is an open-and-shut case; don’t judge people based on their appearance, misjudging someone doesn’t make you a horrible, irredeemable person, and even smart, well-intentioned people can make mistakes.
Like Saddle Arabia, I really don’t see them fleshing out the Zebras.