The Unification Wars began after the Second Bering Strait Incident, which brought about the end of the Small Cold War and a sudden and unexpected outbreak of hostilities between the Transural Republic and the Unified States of North America, as well as their consecutive allies. Contemporarily, this war was widely referred to as 'World War Three', although that name hasn't been retained.

Most fronts of the war soon entered into a stalemate. In the Bering Strait, a wild battle raged between the two superpowers for five years, while in Europe, after several setbacks at the beginning, the Western forces pushed Transural back all the way to Minsk, although that line was about as far as they were able to go before that front too froze in a lengthy stalemate. Iran, after initial alliance and subsequent betrayal, was occupied by Transural, but that was about it for any decisive, lasting developments.

Minor skirmishes and guerilla warfare ware waged in northern Africa and central Asia alike, as well as the Pacific Ocean and the Arctic, but most of the figthing was concentrated in Eastern Europe and the Bering Strait, as well as along a shorter front in Anatolia.

During all this time, despite everything, the war remained relatively bloodless - highly advanced technology and tactics often allowed both sides to predict enemy movements in advance and either reinforce defensive positions, forcing the enemy to abandon their offensive, or retreat, given no reasonable chance to fight back existed. As such, as years went by, even though many large-scale surgical strikes were performed and the front did shift, usually the losing side was successfully able to flee any danger before it became unavoidable. These state-of-the-art maneuvers kept the Third World War from becoming a true bloodbath.

One very notable episode of this 'first stage' of the Unification Wars was the Battle of the Bering Strait itself, in which a multitude of both naval, aerial and high-altitude assets participated, as well as some space installations, the likes of advanced surveillance and targeting satellites. All these forces traded fire with one another in what was the prime example of a true three dimensional warfare. A brief episode of the clash, the Battle over the Bering Strait (sometimes also called the 'First Battle of Earth' in accordance with appropriate naming schemes) was also the first large-scale instance of space warfare in human history.

And so, between 2225 and 2230, the frontlines changed little, but the carnage was far from that experienced for example in the First World War. Soon, however, casualties would begin to mount on an incomprehensible scale. More precisely, on October 29th, 2230.

This day, the turning point of human history, would be called a multitude of names: Apocalypse, Armageddon, Ragnarök, Judgement Day, The End of Days, Nights, Times.... The End of the World. None of these persisted however. Today, that short, yet equally as tragic as significant episode of the Unification Wars is simply called The Nuclear Bombardments - the true begining of Unification Wars proper.

Neither the cause nor the prelude to this catastrophy has ever been fully discovered. Despite very good records concerning the 19th through 24th centuries, this one, subtle detail has a long tradition of deluding historians, presumably due to the immense secrecy surrounding such operations.

What is known however, is that some unknown event presumably on an unspecified battlefield led the USNA to declare full nuclear retaliation. The 'Panzer Missile' technology developed back during the Robot War made intercepting the rockets almost impossible, and the only thing left for Transural to do was to issue a retaliatory strike of its own. Just then, in one of the most unfortunate accidents in human history, pre-existing data, hurried personnel and a glitch in the system caused the largest nuclear (and not only) arsenal in the world to fire on strategic targets all across the planet. Soon enough the remaining nuclear-capable countries launched their own missiles in response to the attack, completeing the art of destruction on Earth.

Good to see more lore. What happens with the end of this set strikes close to what can easily happen in real life. Can't wait to see how they deal with it.

7716529
I'm not sure if I'll continue this series of lore posts, but in any case I've recently posted further timeline posts that exceed this time already.

I will try to continue this too, though! And yes, it feels ominous indeed... but the humans in this universe are experienced when it comes to war and destruction, sadly...

7716536
Isn't the history of man nothing but war? The most of what we as a society is based on what we made for war then used it for day to day to make life easier. I hope one day we stop doing everything for war first and start making everything to better ourselves and the world.

7716651
It sadly is... there is a reason my worlds feature so much warring and bloodshed, after all. I wish it wasn't the case, but it is.

As for what happens next in the timeline, well, humanity has to endure a ten-year-long nuclear winter, after which some survivor states would be born. Meanwhile, the colonies are cut off from the devastated Earth. After over a hundred years of infighting, humanity would unite, through both conquest and diplomacy, eventually forming the Republic of Sol - the very same state which would go on to wage the Swarm War and interact with Equestria thousands of years later, which in turn is the subject of my story, as you know.

Sorry, rambling about lore. I love worldbuilding.

7716995
I love to see world building and lore being made. It's what makes stories more interesting. The fact you did put so much of what can happen in this makes it more believable it can happen. According to the theorist the different dimensions can be accessed not just by trivial through a wormhole but by distance. We may just find out one day that what is a cartoon is real.