October 29th, 1008, 0900 hours
Princess Celestia
Camp Unity, 40km from Manehattan

"I must say, we have expected every possible situation; we didn't quite expect to be able to come into contact with the powers here under 48 hours of arrival," One human representative said as the humans welcomed the royal sisters to the place the Europeans call home.

Photographers, humans, Pegasus, earth ponies, and unicorns alike kept taking pictures to document the historical moment while a film crew recorded the entire scene.

"Well, your location is near Manehattan, and the word gets spread very quickly here. We didn't expect such an amount of humans to turn up here either." Princess Celestia replied, "Mr..."

"Ah, where are my manners?" the man quickly apologized, "I'm Helmut Schmidt, former chancellor of the German Federal Republic and head of the provincial council."

The other human in a general's uniform stepped up, saluted, and extended a hand-hoof shake. "Jürgen Brandt, former chief of the Federal Army and head of the military commission."

"As you can see, this building made out of a few freight containers is the entire government. This is where the council, the defense committee, and the foreign ministry are. The other departments haven't been set up again." Schmidt pointed to a two-story building in the distance and said. The armed guards escorted Princess Luna and Celestia through the super-sized refugee camp along with the two representatives.

"This is simply awful. What happened that your people must escape here?" Luna asked.

"The third world war, the nukes, and the impending ice age, your highness," Brandt responded with a sigh, "not much of us survived. Even less can come here."

The refugee camp stretches as far as the eye can see and is on its way to expanding to the outskirts of Manehattan. On their way, Luna and Celestia both couldn't help but notice the soldiers of variable uniforms, the crude houses, and tents that looked like they would collapse with the wind blow, and the depressed people, all covered in grime, dirt and at least half of them are covered in bandages. The pony journalists spared no film as they kept snapping pictures of the scenes of the camp. The line of refugees just lining up for empty land became a human wall on its own.

Celestia stopped at one of the soldiers wearing a cap with an eagle badge and asked, "Excuse me, if you don't mind, may I ask who you are?"

The soldier looked at her in confusion and rubbed his eyes, "Co… Jak to możliwe, że koń potrafi mówić?"

Schmidt turned to Celestia and said, "I'm sorry. We forgot to tell you that it's not just us Germans. This is a coalition of multiple countries and languages, and communication would sometimes be...challenging to say the least."

"Well, if that's what you're asking, we have us, the Germans, the French, the Dutch, Belgians, Italians, Spaniards, the Poles, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Czechoslovakians, Yugoslavians, Roma-"

Celestia was surprised by the different types of people, "I can't imagine how much of a pain it would be to administrate this many different languages with this many humans."

Suddenly, the sound of a single gunshot came from behind the group; the armed guards quickly threw themselves in front of the group as the other soldiers on site rushed to check the source of the sound, only to find a dead soldier in a tent, holding a pistol with a gunshot wound on his head, his suicide note on his lap.

"To już piąty dzisiaj." The soldier Celestia just asked, pointing towards the bloodstained tent; he lighted a cigarette as he spoke. The cameras went off in rapid succession again.

After hastily making their way toward the building, the rest of the council, composed of representatives of different coalition members, some wearing military uniforms, all met and shook hands with the princesses. Only the film crew and a few selected pony newspaper journalists are allowed into the headquarters to avoid overcrowding.

"We are still trying to track how many refugees are crossing the portal. Crude estimate that some 300,000 to 500,000 have already touched down, and a few million more are on their way in the coming months." Lech Wałęsa, The Polish representative, stated. "according to our calculations. No more than 15 million people in Europe were able to survive the first wave of the attack; more died before the portals were made, and after deducting the ones who couldn't reach the portal or refused to leave, only a few million are left of us."

Branko Mamula, the Yugoslavian representative, sighed. "What we need now is more than words of comfort. We need everything we can get, the engineering corps can help build farms, houses, hospitals, and maybe even small communities, but we can't work with just logs and stones."

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the French representative, added, "Not to mention, people need medical care, electricity, running water, and all the necessities of life, which we are in a critical shortage of. With this many people moving in, we would also need redrawn urban planning, administrative zones, and infrastructure to be built, but right now, we have nothing."

Schmidt stood up, pressing against the table, and said, "That's why we beg of you, the rulers of this land, please provide us the appropriate assistance during these trying times. The lives of millions are at stake, and we cannot afford the people escaping a new ice age just for them to die here due to hunger, disease, or cold again."

Celestia held out her front hoof and said, "I assure you, we will provide assistance and aid to the best of our ability."

The cameras all went off and photographed the historical moment Helmut Schmidt and Princess Celestia shook hands and hoof. The representatives in the room let out a thunderous clap.
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October 30th, 1984, 1300 hours
Pvt. Tom "Tommy" Philips
10th Mountain Division
Location unknown

Tommy found himself staring at the ceiling of an unfamiliar place. He is tired but doesn't feel as hungry as in the Everfree forest. His uniform is still on, and his helmet is missing. He lifted his left hand and found his scrapes and bruises were already patched up.

Tom mustered up enough strength to get off the bed and looked at the room he was staying in. It was average-sized. The door was in the middle of the wall opposite the bed, and the only window was the one on the wall behind him. A desk was neatly put under the window, with a bookshelf next to it.

The Private took a good look outside the window and was pleasantly surprised. There is a town right below, with many cottages built similarly surrounding a cylinder-shaped building surrounded by a square. The scenery near the small town is also quite lovely.

What wouldn't I do for a house with a stable roof, running water, and working electricity?

Tom then found his boots being put under the desk. After putting it back on, he left the room to explore the compound. He was amazed by the state of the place as he walked in the empty halls and corridors, the spotless floors, the well-lit areas, and even a washroom with working water faucets and toilets. He picked up a bottle of shampoo and started to have questions.

"Mane...and Hooves? Made in Vanhoover? For ponies who care about their mane...what is going on?"

He quickly put the bottle back where it should be and kept wandering in the castle until he stumbled upon a small table with a lamp and a newspaper. Tommy picked it up and saw today's big headlines:

THE PONYVILLE EXPRESS
HUMAN LEADERS NEAR MANEHATTAN MEET WITH THE ROYAL SISTERS
Humans, friends, or foes?

The picture featured was the pre-war West German Chancellor shaking hands with a...unicorn? He quickly read the article, which seemed even more bizarre to him.

"Helmut Schmidt, leader of the group of humans, was interviewed by the Express exclusively. He stated that they desperately need help in the form of medical items, food, and basic infrastructure such as running clean water."

"Human refugees were also reported along the coastline west of while tail forest, some of their scouts reaching cities such as Las Pegasus. While the third group of humans was reported to be northeast of Vanhoover."

"One human exploration team member was said to be in Ponyville."

Tom quickly put down the newspaper, and as he was starting to look for the exit of this place, he heard a female voice shouting:

"The human's gone! Wh-h-WHERE DID HE GO???"
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Half an hour ago, the throne room.

"Say what you want, but this Philips does seem pretty cool! He even took on three bandits to protect a group of refugees from being robbed of their water! How awesome is that?" Rainbow Dash remarked as she read through a little blue book in the rucksack, "Although...I still don't understand what this "United States of America" is and why the eagle is holding some arrows and a tree branch."

"I-I still don't know how to feel knowing that humans are Omnivores...I understand they have different dietary habits, but this still doesn't sit well with me..." Fluttershy looked at the two cans of Spam and three cans of canned chicken sausages from the rucksack and said.

Starlight Glimmer is holding some photos found being put along with the small book with "Passport" written on it. One of those was taken in front of a bronze statue that looks like the Mare statue in Manehattan if it was made as a human. In front of it were three humans. The short one looked like a younger version of the human sleeping in the guest room, while the other two looked like his parents.

She picked up another photo, with the two older humans from the last photo sitting at a dinner table, which has this written on the back:

As the world is ending and the missiles fly to the sky, our only regret is that our final moments weren't spent with you. Assuming you are still alive and reading this message in front of our dead, charred bodies, we want to tell you that we are proud of what you have become. You must stay strong, and no matter what the post-nuclear world throws at you, you must endure, and you will always survive. We will always be with you.

Dave & Claire Philips, your loving parents.
*P.S. your dad's rifle, gas mask, and filters are all under his bed, hopefully still usable.

Thank you, mom and dad.

Starlight Glimmer felt a tear run down her cheek but quickly wiped it away and continued inspecting the items in the rucksack.

Pinkie Pie, still eating her lunch consisting of cupcakes, cupcakes, and...cupcakes, said, "Hey! Why don't we check on the human over in the other room? Maybe he's awake? Oh! And hungry! I bet he likes cupcakes!"

"Speaking of which, where's Applejack?" Rainbow questioned as he put down the little blue book, "Twilight went to Canterlot to discuss the entire human refugee crisis. Rarity said she would be busy with the rush order she got yesterday, but Applejack didn't say anything about being late for an hour!"

"Yeeeeaaaahhh, you're probably right." Rainbow Dash stretched a bit and pulled out her Walkmare.

"You know what? I'm going to take some cupcakes to the human! Maybe he's already awake and wants to eat something!" Pinkie Pie stood up and took a few cupcakes with her.

"Yeah, if he's awake, I also want to ask some questions, especially on how he kicked so much butt in the wasteland!" Rainbow jumped up from her chair.

As the duo made their way to the room where they had the human, they saw the door had already been open.

"Uhhhhh...did you forget to close the door last night checking on him?" Rainbow asked.

"No! I was in my bed sleeping all night!" Pinkie bounced her way to look into the door, only to find out he was gone.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no oh no oh NO! He got away! Twilight is NOT going to like this at all!" Rainbow said in a very nervous tone.

"And the human is gonna be very hungry! C'mon, Dashie; we must find him before he starves himself!" Pinkie screamed.

The two other ponies heard the screaming from the halls and immediately rushed to their aid.

In the meantime, Tommy is already running for the exit. He kept running down the long hallways that felt like a vast overcomplicated maze, and after running for a minute or two, he barged into a room with a round table and six thrones, all having different markings on them while one had a smaller throne next to it.

He saw his rucksack and its contents on the table, along with his rifle and helmet. Tom quickly picked up the gun and slung it over his shoulder, grabbing a few magazines along the process. As he turned to leave the room while putting on his helmet, he saw four pastel-colored ponies, one unicorn being purple, the other being yellow, another one with bright pink from head to tail, and one that was flying in mid-air and had a rainbow-colored mane.

"Woah Woah Woah, calm down, Tom! " Rainbow Dash and the rest backed up a bit. "That's a biiit too aggressive for first impressions, wouldn't you agree?"

"I fished it out from the river!" Pinkie enthusiastically said as if there wasn't a paranoid soldier pointing them with a loaded weapon.

"Okay, here's what's going to happen. You will tell me your name, what you are, and where I am." Tommy ordered, "If you try anything funny, I will not guarantee everyone can walk out of here alive."

Fluttershy is shivering behind everyone, too scared to look at the human still armed and dangerous.

"Okay, I'll go first." Rainbow Dash stepped forward, "I'm Rainbow Dash, and I am a Pegasus, same as Fluttershy here!" She pointed to the shivering Pegasus hiding behind Pinkie and Starlight.

"Ooh! OOh! I am Pinkie Pie, and I am an earth pony! Welcome to Ponyville!" Pinkie said in her usual bouncing manner. "Want a cupcake?"

Tommy slightly lowered his weapon and said, "good, now how do I know you will not eat me alive? Or turn me into human jerky?"

Fluttershy raised her head again and raised her voice a bit, "No, we do NOT eat humans! We are graminivore! ...Did I sound rude? Sorry..."

"It's okay. I totally understand that. What will you all do with me then if I am not dinner?"

"We...just wanted to know you better! Make friends, if you will!" Starlight Glimmer forced a smile on her face, "Perhaps, you would like to stay for lunch?"

"I-it's alright if you are scared of us. You don't have to shout or point weapons...we are as scared of you as much as you are scared of us..." Fluttershy slowly approached the private. "It's okay, just relax."

Tom took a good look at the ponies' faces, and after a silent ten seconds, he replied, "Alright, for the sake of everyone, I will put down my gun, but I'm not letting my guard down."

" if this is a trick and I'm going down, I'm dragging all of you to hell with me," Tom said as he walked forward and turned on the safety for the rifle.

"Don't worry. This is no trick!" Starlight Glimmer took out a chair and put it by the table, "Take a seat; it would be better if we talked this way."

As Tom sat down on the chair, Rainbow Dash was the first to ask questions, "Sooo, Mister Tom, why are you a soldier now? You're doing fine on your own in the wasteland!" She said as she held the little blue book in the air.

"I'm only allowed to tell you my name, rank, and serial number." Tom replied, "Not like they gave me one anyway."

Dash protested, "Oh, come on! It's not an interrogation! Relax for a bit, would you?"

"Um...Tom? We meant no malintent or harm. We...just wanted to know you better...please, we can be friends, right?" Fluttershy said in a low voice.

Tom felt something melt in his heart as he saw Fluttershy's scared face. Her eyes reminded him of something sweet, innocent, and sincere.

He sighed and admitted defeat, "Okay, if you are asking, conscription happened. After the nukes fell, the United States Army needed every living person to pick up a rifle to serve. I was scooped up by the 10th Mountain Division stationed in New York. At that point, the only thing they weren't running out of was old uniforms left over from Vietnam, they didn't even bother giving me a new rifle, and most of the conscripted guys were holding their guns they scavenged from gun stores or their grandpa's gun cabinet."

As he spoke, Applejack barged in with a basket. Tom tried to grab his rifle but was pinned to his chair by Starlight's magic.

"Sorry, everypony! Farm work caught up, but ah got some pies for y'all. Ah suppose ah didn't miss anythin'?"

Everyone looked at Applejack as her jaw started to drop at the sight of the awakened human.

"She's our friend! ...Tom, say hi to Applejack, and Applejack, say hi to Tom!" Starlight nervously said.

Oh great. What's this, fucking group therapy?
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October 30th, 1984, 1400 hours
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
Meeting room of Camp "Novaya Moskva," 250 kilometers from Vanhoover

"Comrades," Gorbachev announced, "I would like you all to welcome Princess Mi Amore Cadence, the princess of the Crystal Empire, and her husband, Shining Armor."

"Thank you for your hospitality, Mr. Gorbachev," Cadence said, "But first, I would like to hear about the current situation of your people. It allows me to make a better plan to help you all."

Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Premier, raised his hand and started reporting. "Currently, we estimate about 2 million of our refugees and soldiers have made it across the portals we set up across various locations of different member states; we can expect about 6 million more, mostly from Moscow or Leningrad, and that would be it. We are also critically lacking anything that a modern society needs to survive, electricity, clean running water, hospitals, the structure of government, and almost anything you can imagine. We also are facing a critical shortage of food, medicine, and building materials for shelters, and if this is to be summed up within two words, I would say, 'Get help.'"

"Economically, we are back to the stone age." Alexander Yakolev followed. "Since the nuclear war, most of our factories have been destroyed, the currency is practically worthless, and the people are back to trading with goods. In other words, no industry basis, no economic basis, not looking very optimal."

Next up is Sergey Akhromeyev, one of the two Marshals. "We expected about 150,000 men and women are still in service of the Soviet Armed Forces and the MVD...well, the ministry of the interior, with an estimated 10,000 being Arabs that came to fight for us during world war three."

"We obviously don't need to analyze further to conclude that our situation is worse than anything the Union has endured." Gorbachev sighed, "but now, we must seek help from you, and you are our only hope, your highness." He said as he handed the stack of files containing the extended versions of the data above to Shining Armor."We hope you understand."

Princess Cadence then said, "I can understand your desperate situation. You require our help, and we will not fail to provide the things your people need."

"On behalf of the Soviet Union and her people, thank you." Ryzhkov stood up. "We will remember your gratitude and the charity you have done to us."

"Спасибо, товарищ." Akhromeyev said, "However, there is this problem. Before we came here, we were at war with the Europeans and the Americans, at least officially. There wasn't even a cease-fire signed after the nukes fell. We know for a fact that they arrived here as well."

After a while of silence, Shining Armor asked, "You want us to help you to announce to everyone you are willing to sign an agreement to end the war?"

"Precisely. So that the long work of rebuilding can finally start." Yakolev replied. "You name the time and place. We will send our representative to attend."

"And they will be much more willing to believe the people doing charity to them rather than their old adversary," Gorbachev added. "Think of the popular masses that can benefit from this."

After a lengthy discussion and some press photos, Cadence and her husband were on the royal carriage home.

"Honey, I think it would be best for them to sit down and talk at Ponyville." Shining suggested, "It is the town of friendship, and my sister, with her friends there, is there to help arrange the talks. Remember how the one with Yakyakistan went?"

"I can't quite possibly imagine all those people in the room being able to endure Pinkie's party planning, especially Mr. Gorbachev or the two marshals. Imagine them singing friendship and peace songs while dancing to them, simultaneously signing an agreement to end a war that ended an entire world."

Shining chuckled at such a thought but quickly assured Cadance, "I'm sure Twilight and her friends will just muddle through like they always did."

Cadence turned to Shining Armor, "I'm also sure about that. I'm going to take that idea to Celestia first thing when I see her at Canterlot tomorrow, which I assume she would toss the entire matter to Twilight and Ponyville even if I didn't tell her the idea."

"You're right about that one," Shining sighed as the two made their way back to the Crystal Empire.

Escalation 84: A Post-Nuclear Story of Humans and Ponies

by dafid25

Chapter 2: First Impressions