Hooves and Hands

Ponies and humans live on the same planet and have been coexisting for a while now. The planet is identical in geography to Earth in real life, only there is a eighth continent: Equis. It is located in the South Atlantic Ocean. Because of this, the planet is bigger than real life. Griffons, Minotaurs, Zebras, along with other sentient life, exist on Equis. The planet has many names. Officially, it is recognized as “Terra” by all nations on the planet. Ponies, though, call it “Equi”. Dragons call it “Gol”. The Zebras call it “Moeder van Alle”. The Griffions call it “Kethor.” Minotaurs simply call it “Home.” Humans, naturally, call it “Earth”.

There are notable differences between real life and this universe. For one, there are no horses as we know them on this planet. There are only sentient Zebras. Because there were no horses, humanity adapted accordingly. There were no cavalry units in the olden days. Fossil fuel cars were developed in the 1500’s rather than the late 1800’s. This changed when humans were exposed to Equestria and its magic. Fossil fuel cars were replaced with ones powered by magical batteries. Other than that, humanity progressed as normal as it actually did. Humanity still has the same games, electronics, and social media as real life. There is pony additions, of course, such as Hoofspace. Myspace never existed. Celestia and Luna are regarded as gods, and are worshipped by some humans, despite their insistence that they are just like everybody else.

Humanity discovered the ponies during the 1700’s. Unfortunately, it started off in a war. Luckily, word of discovering another sentient race sent most of the nations at that time rallying to Equestria’s defense. The instigators were defeated, and peace was established. There have been no major wars since first contact with Equis, except for revolutions. Instead, most humans have adopted Equestria’s values of harmony and friendship. Ponies have been crucial in preventing wars via diplomacy. Despite this, most of humanity’s video games and movies have violence in them like they do now. The Equestrians are a bit cowed by this, but put it aside for the objective of harmony. They believe that humanity is actually peaceful where it counts. Humanity, though, have viewed interspecies relationships as bestiality for almost since first contact. Only recently have people started to accept the idea of having a relationship with something other than human.

When Nightmare Moon rose, the conflict was over in a matter of minutes. Humanity only knew about the incident when Celestia told the human leaders of what had happened. This had happened for over a thousand years before first contact. Some of them, understandably, wanted countermeasures in place in case this happened to Celestia. Celestia managed to talk them out of doing anything rash, promising that she would never abuse her powers. To sweeten the deal, so to speak, she would allow the humans to do whatever was necessary in order to defeat her should she turn evil.

In this universe, Nightmare Moon was thought to be banished forever. Indeed, compared to the show’s canon, Nightmare Moon’s exile lasted around 1300 years before returning and the show’s canon starts. When Celestia first came to the humans, they refused to believe that she moved the celestial bodies. Only after showing the leaders of the human nations first hand did they believe her. This was what led to the beginning of the Order of the Sun, where members worshipped Celestia as a goddess. Humans still and continue to have human-unique religions, such as Islam and Christianity. Later, when Luna was purified, the Order of the Moon was created. Even later, around the 2080’s, the two Orders were joined into the Order of Harmony. They worshipped both the celestial goddesses.

Discord, strangely and wisely, stuck to bothering the Equestrians rather than the humans. It is theorized that he knew of the humans before the Equestrians did. When asked about this, he chaotically derailed the conversation. Only when he returned did humanity get involved. Strike teams were sent to “neutralize the threat” when cotton candy clouds started appearing over Terra. They were never heard from again.

When Discord was reformed, humanity was understandably wary of him. Some insisted that he be turned back into stone, under the threat of war. Celestia calmly asked for time for the reformation to be complete. When Discord was successfully reformed, most of the opposing nations lost their wind when he diverted a hurricane headed to a human city. Some still did not trust Discord, but those nations were either overruled, or kept it to themselves.

Adolf Hitler actually succeeded in becoming an artist, thanks to a mare’s support, and World War 2 never occurred. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was never assassinated either. This had the expected changes on humanity’s culture: games, books, and movies about the World Wars were never made.

When Sombra returned, humanity offered to send in a strike team to help “deal with this new threat to the inhabitants of Terra.” Celestia politely declined, and that part of the show stuck to the canon. The Royal Wedding also stuck to the canon as humanity didn’t find out until after the actions of Twilight and her friends. When Tirek returned, though, Equestria did accept humanity’s offered strike team. The United Humanity Task Force was officially created and was launched against Tirek. Unfortunately Tirek had consumed almost all of Equestria’s magic by the time the UHTF got into position. Despite lethal force being authorized, they were no match to Tirek’s magical prowess. Luckily, they were simply incapacitated and captured, only one dying from collateral damage from a building collapsing. The show’s canon proceeds as expected, and the UHTF was freed. Twilight Sparkle and her friends were awarded with most of the nations’ highest medals.

The UHTF was used again in minor incidents involving “rogue variables”. These included rampaging feral dragons, changeling attacks( Changeling’s had different body temperatures than ponies and were thusly easy to identify), and Diamond Dog kidnappings. During the Cutie Map incident, the UHTF was used again. Unlike the show’s canon, Twilight and the girls fell to the Equalization. Using stun rounds, the USTF infiltrated the town and had to, unfortunately, rescue the Elements of Harmony against their “will”. They were delivered to Celestia and were restored. When they went back, Starlight Glimmer was nowhere to be found. They did, though, find evidence that Starlight was a fraud and the town’s population was restored. Starlight’s revenge was canon to the show, and humanity, having learned its lesson with Discord, accepted Equestria’s judgement.

The last mission the UHTF had to the show’s current date was Chrysalis’s revenge. Unlike the canon, Starlight, Trixie, and Discord were captured as well. Chrysalis used forbidden magic to disable Discord. Thorax came to the UHTF and pleaded not to use lethal force and to let him try to talk Chrysalis into reforming. The UHTF infiltrated the hive and reached Chrysalis. While not being able to convince Chrysalis herself, Thorax managed to convince the other changelings to realize that there was a better way. Chrysalis managed to escape and the prisoners were freed. A worldwide man-hunt is currently being held on Chrysalis. The members of the UHTF were awarded Equestria’s highest medals, along with their own nations’.