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

by dafid25

Hearths Warming Eve Special Edition: the many faces across Equestria

On December 25th, 1982, humanity unleashed nuclear annihilation onto the planet. After two years of struggle and finding a new, distant homeland, humanity finally started to settle down. One day close to the two-year anniversary came Christmas Eve, otherwise known as Hearth's Warming by the ponies, of 1984.

...Or 1008, depending on whose calendar you are using.

At the 29th Avenue Tram station of Vanhoover, Sergeant Christopher Brown got off the late-night tram and made his way toward his home, leaving a trail of footprints in the snow as he walked home.

On his way home, Christopher admired the scenery of a suburban neighborhood decorated with lights and ornaments. “Maybe one day I will afford some lights to hang in the apartment,” the sergeant thought as he entered a small five-story apartment building with no elevators.

After walking up three flights of stairs, Christopher opened the door and was immediately welcomed by a hug.

"Merry Christmas, Chris," Clarence, his sister, greeted him, "still couldn't get home early for your sister. Typical you, twenty-six, and still can't be there early whenever you actually need to be."

Sergeant Christopher Brown returned the hug, "Heh, Merry Christmas. Thanks for bearing with it, Clarence-"

"Claire. Don't you even dare try to get formal with me, Chris."

"-Right, Claire. I swear I will never find another sister in the world like you. How was the day?"

Claire let go of Chris and replied, "Oh, it wasn't much. Hearth's Warming break has been quiet. At least I can finish reading that Daring Do book from the library. How about you? Catch any thieves?"

"You know we don't get much of those over at Humantown patrol," Chris said as he took off his overcoat and hung his side carry bag. "At least the Israelis and the Arabs aren't physically fighting much these few days. All I would even dare ask for."

Claire walked into the small living room kitchen area and grabbed two mugs of hot chocolate, "here you go. Any longer, and they start to get cold." She said as she took a sip from her own mug, offering the other to her brother.

Chris drank from it and said to Claire, "Wait, I think I forgot something in the bag, give me a second."

As his sister sat down at the table, Chris took out a small parcel wrapped in yellow paper from his bag. He then put the parcel on the table as he sat down in his own chair.

"Say, you remember that Yearling who came to town a week ago, right?" Chris asked.

Claire set aside her mug and opened the packaging as her face started to brighten up at the sight of the content: Daring Do and the Eternal Flower, with the author, A. K. Yearling's signature on the book cover right below the message "Happy Hearthswarming."

She almost squealed in joy as she held the book to her heart, "Oh my god! You actually managed to get her signature? How did you get it? Oh, This…this is wonderful! Thank you!” Claire said as she gave her brother another bear hug.

Chris smiled as he sipped from his cup, "Well, I was assigned to the book fair last week. Crowd control. And when I was just patrolling the backdoors? Yearling showed up there, avoiding the crowd at the front gates, I guess."

"And she signed the book for you? Oh, I wish I was there! But well...I was busy with work that day."

"Inspector Silver Arrow gave me a piece of his mind as he really wasn't that happy that I asked for signatures still in uniform and on duty," Chris recalled, "thanks to Moore, though, Silver let me off the hook with a warning...and I still got to keep the signed book."

Claire replied, "I wish work at the post office wasn't this busy. You wouldn't have gotten hell from Silver otherwise."

"When was he ever in a good mood anyway?"

"Thank you, Chris," Claire said to her older brother. "It has been forever since we had a Christmas like this, since Mom and Dad both died four years ago...damn it, I just don’t know what to say."

"It's okay. You're my only family now after the nukes; what wouldn't I do to make you happy?" Chris sighed. "At least Sunbutt is paying decent. After two years of sticking with me and the RCMP remnants in a pile of rubble that used to be Vancouver, you certainly deserved much better."

"Oh, stop it, I'm six years younger than you, but I'm not a baby. You don't need to pamper me." Claire chuckled as she told her brother.

Chris only nodded and replied, "Merry Christmas, Claire."

Claire replied as she took something out of her pocket and set it on the table, "Merry Christmas too, Chris."

It was a watch. Nothing fancy, indeed not engraved or loaded with diamonds or jewelry. It was a simple wristwatch with a bonded leather strap that told the time with three hands and the numbers.

"Sorry for the old one that got destroyed." Claire said, "I know you loved that digital watch, but this is the best I can-"

"This is the best watch I have ever gotten, Claire. Thank you." Chris smiled as he put on the watch. "You really shouldn't have."

"All it took is some extra shifts at the postal office," Claire said with a smug on her face. "You're not the only one who can also work overtime in this apartment, you know?"

Chris chuckled, "Does that mean we're even now?"

"Silly, You didn't owe me anything in the slightest."

The siblings laughed as they held their mugs in the air and cheered.
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In Canterlot Castle's opulent ballroom, ponies of power and status, including royalty, politicians, businessponies, and generals, all gathered to celebrate Hearth's Warming Eve together. This year's attendees list, however, added quite a few humans to the list.

"Vous savez, je pense que nous ne somme pas si différent vous et moi Colonel Dallaire, (You know, I think we two aren’t so dissimilar, Colonel Dallaire)" Fleur-de-lis said to the human Colonel, holding a glass of champagne beside her. "I was born to a merchant family across the Celestial Sea in Aquellia, and my family only moved back to Canterlot when I was sixteen."

Colonel Romeo Dallaire said dryly, "Well, I think I’d prefer your experience over mine."

"You and I are both exiles from a place we called home, No? You and your people are all exiled here, and I can relate to that. When I was but a little filly learning to speak, the Aquileian Kingdom announced secession from the Griffonian Empire. When I was ten, the Republic replaced the monarchy for five good years. Those were the days of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, and just when things were about to look up? The monarchists made a comeback and couped the Republic. The reign of terror that followed spared no one and father decided it was a good time to leave Aquileia." Fleur recalled with a bit of sadness. "It was my home, but we had to leave."

"I see. I’d still prefer that over commanding what remains of my forces in the Montréal ruins, but you have my sympathy."

"It's okay, Colonel." Fleur-de-lis replied, "After I came back and attended high school here in Canterlot, my Aquellian accent made me the subject of ridicule in the class. Well, that was until Fancypants came to my defense, and-"

"-it was love at first sight." Fancypants finished the sentence as he walked up to the two, his magic holding a champagne glass. "Good evening, Colonel Dallaire, I hope you and your men are finding the new uniforms both appealing and practical."

"Inquiète-toi pas, The BDUs were well received, seeing they are just slight edits to the pre-war variant. The full-dress uniform, however, is a bit debated among officers. Personally, I'd prefer a beret, but the peaked cap is just as fine. Reminds me of the older uniforms back where we came from." Colonel Dallaire replied.

Fancypants proudly said, "Consider that as my gift to you and your men. For all our differences, we do have similar holidays, colonel."

"Colonel Dallaire!" Another human waved towards the colonel, "How have you been?"

"Ah, I'm fine. Not much going on recently...oh, right. This here is Bernard Williamson, permanent secretary to the ambassador of the European Federation in Equestria and to the United Kingdom's ambassador in the Netherlands before," Colonel Dallaire introduced.

"Happy Hearth's Warming, Mr. Williamson," Fancypants welcomed. "I hope you and the ambassador are enjoying yourselves here."

"Yes, thank you, sir." Bernard replied politely, "If you don't mind, may I have a private chat with the colonel here please?"

"Of course, go ahead."

"Thank you." The colonel said as he handed the empty champagne glass to a servant and walked away with the secretary, talking something all along.

As he went away, Fleur-de-lis asked her husband, "You know, you still haven't told me much about your support for these Canadian human soldiers. You're pretty much their biggest supporter from its start, and you managed to direct quite some funding for them."

Fancypants sighed, "It was a valuable opportunity. Our armed forces have seen too many years of peace, they are completely unprepared for modern war, and by Faust, one will be coming in the near future. We have to have someone who will wake up the military from within before they get their rude awakening by conflict, and these humans offering to join was what we needed."

"Couldn't you have perhaps asked the three armies to help with it?" Fleur asked with curiosity.

"No can do. You and I have both known for years that Prince Blueblood may be a good bureaucrat but definitely not a good Field Marshal. He is too mired in the military books written hundreds of years ago, perhaps even older. He would be taking inspiration from tactics made when the military was using muskets and then reapplying them to our soldiers charging toward machine guns and fortifications. We had lieutenants, observers, and attaches telling him that we must change something, and what did Blueblood do? He ignored them."

"Fancy, That's...awful! Why hasn't the Parliament heard about this?" Fleur-de-lis almost shouted.

Fancypants replied, "Jet Set and his alliance of members of parliament have been chummy with Prince Blueblood for quite some time now. When I proposed the Canadian Legion be established as part of our armed forces in the House of Commons, Jet Set was fiercely against the proposal. Later I found out that Prince Blueblood asked Jet Set to do so and was too scared that he would have to adapt to what he viewed as barbaric human warfare. He had tried to undermine the legion by every means he could. At one point, I had to send the ammunition and supplies for the Canadians directly from my munitions company as Blueblood deliberately stalled their supply shipments for an entire week."

"I knew that Jet Set and Prince Blueblood have yet to be keen on the humans joining. Even when the Human Citizenship Act was voted on Jet Set's MPs still managed to stall the House of Commons for a few hours before it passed, but this is just not acceptable! Princess Celestia must know about this, no?"

"Problem is, Princess Celestia still doesn't see the coming storm overhead of us. For a long time, sdecreed that the armed forces would be used for construction projects like roads, towns, and even dams. She still doesn't see the coming storm overhead of us. Princess Luna gave Blueblood a piece of her mind after that stunt he pulled, but still not enough to get him demoted. Worst part is Princess Celestia agrees with a lot of things that Prince Blueblood says, and under his advice, the border guard is now mostly just police officers rather than garrison divisions, were it not for the humans, we're doomed by now," Fancypants sighed again. “And don’t even get me started on the corruption.”

He then continued, "The changelings are itching to give us a good hit in the head sometime soon and cross the border with hundreds of thousands of troops, perhaps even millions. They are all highly trained, modernized, and mechanized. In addition to that, they are led by a new generation of officers and generals who have been learning from conflicts outside the world. Our armed forces consist of less than a hundred fifty thousand ponies that have done nothing but build houses, roads, rails, and bridges for nearly a hundred years. Quite frankly, we will be steamrolled if we face the changelings at our current state."

As Fancypants finished his complaints, Jet Set and his wife, Upper Crust, trotted up to him and his wife.

"Ah, good evening, Mr. Fancypants. How was the party?" Jet Set asked in a stuck-up tone that would make even the most aristocratic nobles uncomfortable.

Fancypants replied with a smile, "It was utmost pleasant, Mr. Jet Set. How have you been with your fortunes recently?"

"Oh, you know, same as you. Business is good as usual and quite frankly never been better. By the way, I hope you haven't forgotten that in two days' time, the House of Commons will vote on Human Labour Standards Act." Jet Set pushed his glasses up, "I sincerely hope you will convince your members of Parliament to consider the amendments we proposed, that way we may...reconsider some of the votes."

"Regrettably, that may prove to be quite difficult." Fancypants said. "After all, some MPs I knew are quite idealistic and can be very insistent once they have made up their minds. Perhaps you can...?"

"No can do, my old friend."

"How unfortunate. I sincerely hope that we may find more room to cooperate in future endeavors, Mr. Jet Set." Fancypants held out his front hoof.

Jet Set shook hooves with Fancypants and said, "May our camaraderie last forever."
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Back at Ponyville, the town's residents held a party in the Castle of Friendship. In the list of attendees, the one that stood out was the first human who had made contact with Ponykind, Tom "Tommy" Philips.

".... and that is my discharge letter and a photo of me shaking hands with President Reagan and VP Carter." Tommy Philips showed the letter and said photo to the Apple Family members listening, "I came back to Ponyville like a new man after a week in White Tail. Now, I work at the town office as a desk clerk, has been two days now."

"Sure must be nice being able to type with those fingers," Applejack said, holding a mug of apple cider, "last time ah had to type anythin'...hold on a darn minute, ah don't even have a typewriter, ah never typed!" Everyone laughed upon hearing that.

"Mr. Philips! I see you're quite the spotlight here." Twilight Sparkle trotted up to the group, "And Mrs. Pear Butter, I hope you do feel much better. It has been...quite some time since you had...uh..."

Pear Butter quickly reassured Twilight, "No worries, dear. I feel mighty fine. Plus, those doctors and medics at Sire's Hollow already checked up on me and said that I am all good to go."

"Ma, the doctor still said that you shouldn't exhaust yourself too much." Applejack butted in, "If you ever feel tired I can always walk you home."

"Thanks sugarcube, but I still feel fine."

Twilight sighed a breath of relief as Tommy turned to her, "Oh, by the way, I think I'm going to move out and rent someplace to live in a few weeks when the paycheck hits. Thanks for taking care of me, but I think I will go on out and learn to...stand on my own. And please tell Fluttershy that I'm sorry for terrorizing her on the first day I woke up."

Twilight replied, "Don't worry, I'm...sure all of us have gotten over that now. And good luck out there, Mr. Philips."

"Just Tom is good enough, your highness."

Meanwhile, Pear Butter chatted with her long-time and long-lost friend, Chiffon Swirl, for the first time in years.

"Wait, you and Carrot Cake have kids now?" Pear Butter laughed as she heard the news for the first time, "I can help giving some advice on caring for them...if I still remember how."

"Oh, dearie. It's okay." Chiffon comforted her, "We have gotten used to it by now. Right now, we're just glad you're back. You wanna hold them for a bit?"

As Mr. Cake handed her the twins, she felt the weight of life lying in her hooves, like she did over nine years ago when Applebloom was born. The giggling of the infant fillies dragged her mind back to before the tragedy had happened, when life was relatively carefree, albeit busy. Then the slavers came, and then she and her husband were subject to years of enslavement in a faraway land where escape seemed impossible. She lost too many things on the way, her husband, the chance to see her children grow up, the...the...

Her smile died down slowly as her eyes hollowed and were locked onto the fillies she held. The outside world fell silent as time seemingly slowed down, deep in her thoughts, she heard muffled calls of her youngest daughter.

"...Mom? Are ya' okay? Mom!"

Snapping back to reality, Pear Butter looked around quickly to see Applebloom beside her, the twins in her cradle crying from her stare, and the people at the party looking at her, weirded out or scared.

Quickly handing the two fillies back to the Cakes and apologizing, Applejack spoke to her, "Listen, ma, Ah think maybe you should call it a night and go for a lie down now."

"Eeyup." Big Mac joined in, his face showing concern.

"I...I'm sorry, but I'm feeling unwell. Excuse me." Pear Butter said as she walked out of the castle with her family.

As they left, Tommy said to Twilight, "You think she’s gonna be okay after all that?"
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It's not my fault.

I didn't kill her, I just got her fired. It’s her own fault for being too good.

I am not a murderer.

As Wind Rider drank bitterly at the officer's bar, his mind was drowned in a sea of negative thoughts and his own anger.

Ever since he defected to the Changelings, he had been educating Lighting Dust and the other cadets quite well on aerial combat. By his projections, they would not just be going toe to toe against the Wonderbolts in a few months' time but would surpass them easily at that point.

The Imperial Government had held up its end as he had been assigned a moderately luxurious apartment, a generous paycheck, and even offered some slaves for his own housekeeping, which he had refused. He didn't want the possibility for any of the slaves to recognize him and potentially identify him as Wind Rider the disgraced.

One major problem being away from home, however, was that the locals may not celebrate your traditions as you do. The Changeling Empire didn't have Hearth's Warming, neither did they have winter wrap-ups or all the other Equestrian festivals. None of the changeling officers in his unit celebrated it in the slightest. Since Lightning Dust also refused to celebrate with him and went back to practicing, Wind Rider sat in front of his glass of whiskey alone, trying to convince himself that he was innocent as he always did.

It's not my fault.

I didn't kill her, she just hanged herself because she got fired.

I am not a murderer.

He drank from his bitter cup, pinning the blame on all those who have wronged him. Spitfire, Celestia, Luna...

...Rainbow Dash. Wind Rider is determined to get his revenge on her, but now's not the chance.

He would prove that he was by no means a murderer, and that he shall and always be the legendary Wonderbolt member known for his long-distance flying record. That Rainbow Crash's record? Totally didn't count. Never.

He drank again and raised his cup half-drunkenly,

"I will get all of you bastards...all of you."
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"...They will never kill us all, for it takes more to kill a free pony! You hear me, you slavers? You shall not..."

BANG

"NO!!"

Pear Butter found herself waking up in her bed, screaming , drenched in sweat.

She breathed heavily as she glanced at the clock next to her bed. 3:30 in the morning. Then, there was a knock on the door.

"...Come in."

In came Applebloom, looking confused and a bit scared. "Mom? You were just screaming back there, and Ah'd figured...to see what's goin' on."

Pear Butter looked at her youngest daughter and said after a moment of hesitation. "Mommy...had a bad dream."

"Really? Was it scary?" Applebloom asked. "What was it about?"

"It's...about your pa. I...saw him die in front of me. Again. I...I just can't forget..."

As her mother's tears started to roll down her face, all Applebloom could do was hug her and say nothing. A million thoughts raced through her head, but she didn't know what to say.

After what seemed like an eternity of hugging, her mother’s sobs started dying down, Pear Butter calmed down a bit as Applebloom asked:

"Mom, what was dad like before I was born?"

Author's Note:

The poster in the drawing was from SophilliaArts on redbubble.
Not sure if I can post a link to her shop page, as that may be considered an advertisement.

Comments

[PonyDragon]

I had always thought Jet Set would be one of the more down-to-earth ponies.
Did I miss something?

"Sure must be nice being able to type with those fingers," Applejack said, holding a mug of apple cider, "last time ah had to type anythin'...hold on a darn minute, ah don't even have a typewriter, ah never typed!" Everyone laughed upon hearing that.

Yeah, pony typewriters are kinda clumsy.
derpicdn.net/img/2014/2/28/563716/large.png
Source.

Not sure if I can post a link to her shop page, as that may be considered an advertisement.

If it is the source of the picture it's probably okay.

General suggestion:
If you need a visual divider between scene changes try using a horizontal line by typing [hr].

[BleuBlooms]

Your summary is so evocative! I want to read your story now after this!

[Mieszkov]

Great story.