Escalation

Reagan starting limping through the flat landscapes of the area. The lush green nature filled with trees and flowing grass, the sky was clear and blue, it would've been a perfect day on Earth. Sadly, though, there would never be a moment like that ever again. Earth was gone. And hopefully, the corrupt leaders with it. Upon climbing over the hill, he saw a vehicle and a man, seemingly a patrol or something.

The man rushed to the fellow human that was hopefully an American. He nearly fell down the hill. Once he approached him, the man near the jeep who was holding a walkie-talkie, turned his head and saw the former president rushing towards him. He flinched.

"Oh-ho, shit. Mr. President you scared me for a moment there." said he.

He put the radio to his mouth and spoke again.

"Hold on just a moment, I got someone interesting here. Over."

After lowering the walkie-talkie from his mouth he smiled and saluted to the president.

Reagan panted, panted and panted. He stood himself up with a metal bar attached to the jeep.

"Pleasure to meet you in person... Mr. President...?" he continued, a bit confused by the usually charismatic president's lack of talking.

"Thanks. I wish the situation was better as well." said Reagan, his voice was rough.

“Well, hop in. We'll get you somewhere safe. You obviously need it. Look at you! My god."

"Yeah. Chopper accident."

"Obviously."

The president hopped onto the back seat of the jeep, and the vehicle started rolling again.

"Uh yes, this is Brian, I've found Mr. Reagan. I um.. I'm gonna continue the task and hopefully we'll make it back in one piece. Over."

"Are you mad, Brian? What if there are some hostile aliens that kill the VIP?" said the man on the radio.

"We'll just stay more hidden next time." he joked.

"You have to bring the VIP back to base, soldier, that's an order."

"Look, I promise I will bring him back and not in shards." he answered.

"You know what? Fine. Fuck you, I'm not taking any responsibility for the death of Ronald Reagan. Over and out."

The soldier sighed before lowering his radio. The rest of the ride was quiet.

Ronald thought to himself of how strange it was to see infrastructure paved down here. Did the military already put down roads this quickly? What'd he miss? Or.. could this mean that there were other forms of intelligent beings native to this planet? The thought of that was both scary and very intriguing.

"Hey uh, Mr. Brian," Reagan said, holding onto the outer bars of the jeep.

"Call me Lieutenant Brian." he responded before returning to his driving.

"Right, hey uh Lieutenant Brian, have you yet noticed that there is infrastructure here?" his voice was still scratchy.

The soldier turned his head before stopping the car. He turned to the side to see the ground.

"Holy shit." he muttered before rushing to his radio.

"Colonel Keith, this is Lieutenant Brian speaking, it seems there are some form of infrastructure here. It really looks man made. I don’t think we’re the only sentient life forms here. Over."

"Oh for fucks sake... copy. Just keep going on with your mission, see if there's anything else that seems peculiar. Keep Reagan safe. Over."

"Copy, over and out." he said before lowering his radio again. They continued to drive for a bit, until--

SCEEEEEEE!

The tires squealed to a halt, bumping both riders in the back.

"Look." the soldier simply answered.

The rider stared the same direction he was pointing to and saw something that blew their minds to bits. A bunch of multicolored pastel horses of some sort, walking around town and acting like humans. It was a town full of sentient horses.

"Holy... shit..." muttered Reagan.

Lieutenant Brian picked up the radio for the hundredth time and spoke.

"Colonel, there are horses. Rainbow horses." he didn't even end his words with an over.

"Repeat that please? I swear I heard you say 'rainbow horses'" he responded.

"No, you didn't hear me incorrectly, there are literal, pastel multicolored ponies... pastel multicolored sentient ponies."

"Lieutenant, are you high? Over."

"Wish I was. Over."

"Is Reagan there? Let him speak to me."

The lieutenant handed the radio to Reagan. Reagan spoke into it.

"Look, what your Lieutenant here is saying... all of it... all of it is true. I can see it with my own eyes."

"What... the... fuck..."

The group went silent for a moment, only for some unknown voice interrupted the moment of processing.

"H-hello?" said a female voice. The two humans turned their heads to the source, and, to their 'totally not insane minds', was one of the multi colored horses. The multicolored small horse, spoke and English word. Maybe it was just a coincidence, and it only sounded like she greeted them.

"D-do you speak.. Ponish?" asked the horse. It's (assuming was a her) skin.. or fur was purple. Her hair was some dark blue with streaks of pink and purple. It surely was impressive to have hair like that naturally. Upon further inspection, Reagan could see a horn at the top of her head. Was she a unicorn? Reagan asked to himself. And looking more, he could see a pair of wings, same color as her fur. It had purple feathers. Like a pegasus. This horse lady thing was... a mythical creature of some sort. Holy shit, and to top that off, she could talk. Unlike the other humans with him, Reagan dealt the feeling of absolute astonishment by accepting the fact that he was here, in a multicolored horse world full of sentient talking mythical creatures that could speak English.

This is a fever dream. he thought. This literally is a fever dream oh my god.

"Please... please tell me this is just a bad dream and I'll wake up in a perfectly normal Earth that hasn't experienced a nuclear war." groaned Reagan.

"Yeah uh-umm... I'm afraid this is quiet real Mr. Alien sir." said the purple winged magical horse, "and what about nuclear war?"

"Hold on, did you ask us if we spoke 'Polish'?" asked Reagan.

"N-no, d-do you s-speak Ponish? What's 'Polish'?" she asked.

"Polish is a language in Europe. And... Ponish, like 'pon' as in pony?" said Reagan.

"Y-yeah, we call ourselves p-ponies... and.. well.. I think it's safe to say you aren't a pony... or a griffon... or a hippogriff or changeling or yak or dragon--"

"Yeah, uh, we're not mythical creatures, ma'am." interrupted Reagan, "we're not even from here."

"Yeah.. wait what? Mythical?”

“Well obviously you're completely unaware of human culture....”

“What are you then? And if you're not from here, or this planet at all, how come you speak perfect Ponish?" said the female pony, her voice becoming more collected and less nervous.

"On our planet we call the language we're currently speaking English... and for that other question, we're humans." answered Reagan.

The other men were still frozen in shock by the talking horse, and so they let the former president do all the talking for them while they continue to gape their mouths open with pure confusion.

"Does the other 'human' with you talk as well?" asked the female pony.

"He's probably just dumfounded right now.. he'll be fine in a matter of time." he rested his head in his right hand. He then sighed.

"Okay... then.... well here's my last question, why are you here? And how in Equestria did you get here? Woops, those are two questions, whatever, you know what I mean." she spoke, waving a hoof like a human with animated expressions with hands.

"For the first one, we... had a huge war that... practically destroyed our planet. We.. escaped from there to here. And for the second question, I have no idea. We just came here or something, I don't even think we knew where we were supposed to end up." he responded, putting his hands together into a fist.

"Oh... okay then... thanks for the information... uh..." she said, not knowing his name.

"Reagan. Ronald Reagan." he answered, "and you are?"

"uh... oh! Me? I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle." she told.

"Princess, like, some leader?" asked the president.

"Yeah, but my friends just call me Twilight.”

“Okay Princess Twilight Sparkle, if we’re speaking formally then I guess I’d have to introduce myself fully.” he said, “I’m President Ronald Reagan of the United States of America. That's actually what other people call me. Please don't call me that. I don't deserve the title.”

“Why? What did you do to be so critical on yourself?"

"I blame myself for the war."

"Why?"

"Look, sweetheart, as much as I'm used to answering a shitload of questions, right now isn't a good time. So please,"

He motioned to the driver to get moving.

"Brian, take me to the base, I think you can conclude your patrol right now."

"uh-uhhh yes sir..." he stammered, before driving the car away from the town, headed supposedly to the headquarter base of operations or whatnot. As they approached the base, or home camp, the man could see a bunch of construction workers building something.

Brian swerved into a patchy lot of vehicles.

Reagan walked into the largest tent, which was obviously the main headquarters.
Everybody that he walked passed stopped and saluted before going about their tasks. He approached a room full of people, these ones wearing attire and not military uniforms. He'd figured this was somewhere he could ask some questions and finally get to work. As he entered the room, everyone talking turned and greeted him.

"Ah, Mr. Reagan. Glad we can see you at this time." welcomed a man.

"Hello. So, I got a question,"

"Yes?"

"How many people made it over the threshold?" inquired Reagan.

"uh... about... about 70.. 70-100 million Americans, Canadians, Central Americans, Mexicans, and South Americans." he responded.

For a total number of people, that was certainly a lot, but when it came to two continents combined, that was an extremely small number. And all those people under one rule. Didn't seem fair but they couldn't do anything about it at the current moment, but Reagan swore to himself that they'd get their own way of governing themselves once they've settled and adapted to the current situations. But, that didn't seem likely to happen anytime soon. After all, there are apparently talking multicolored magical flying horses who are sentient roaming around this land. It wouldn't be a surprise if there wasn't any place they can expand their territories to in order to provide land to the non-American survivors. And he could remember the purple horse mentioning a bunch of other mythical creatures. There must be multiple sentient races. He instantly thought. Today couldn't have been crazier and chaotic than it already was.

Yesterday wasn't crazier than it had been once he travelled to a mythical land, but that doesn't say that today was either.
It wasn't exactly a 'bad' day, but it was a chaotic one indeed. There was so much going on in his face that Reagan felt like his head was gonna pop. But, after a while of having nothing to do for the time being, Ronald decided that it’d be reasonable to get some level of understanding between this world. He is bound to get a truckload of that if he continues to pursue conversations with this princess. Maybe the 'pony' could help us. And to Reagan, the creature seemed sincerely peaceful, and he was confident that in no way was she gonna be a threat to humanity as long as he and his nation don’t get aggressive and unreasonable to her or her people (for obvious reasons).

Since the nation was temporarily under a military junta, Reagan had to gain permission from the generals currently running the country to get authorization to leave. In this state of the nation, he was like everyone else when it came to freedoms and rights. The man approached a medium sized tent with the words “ARMY COUNCIL” etched into any flat surface.
He entered the room and found (to his expectations) multiple generals discussing issues.

"Mr. Reagan? It's great to see you're still alive."

"Barely..." he muttered to himself.

"Do you need something?"

"I want a shower."

Celestia was sipping her morning tea as per usual.
Luna was munching on her pancakes that Celestia made. It had been a quiet morning, a calm morning. Nothing had them stressed or worked up that day. That was, until a guard frantically ran to them urgently.

“Prin-princesses! There-there have been ali-aliens appearing all over Equus! A huge group of them have just appeared near P-Ponyville, all the way to the southern coast!” he panted, “and more have appeared on the Northwest near Leneighrad!”

Celestia stared at him. Luna as well. Had he said aliens? There are beings from other planets, maybe universes that just appeared out of nowhere? She had to get to the bottom of this.

“Tia, what do we do?” asked her sister.

“Guard, inform the Equestrian armed forces to send a small task force to Ponyville. Send another to Leneighrad. Quickly.” she ordered, still sipping her tea.

“Yes my princess.” said the guard before turning back and shutting the door.

Luna finished her pancakes, she put her dishes in a stacked pile before going back to her seat to continue drinking her coffee.

“What do you think will happen?” asked Luna nonchalantly.

Celestia turned her head to Luna.

“Hopefully they can reason properly.” she said before going back to her tea.

Construction was extremely productive currently, and houses were already being finished using the natural abundance of clay found in the area for bricks. Production wasn’t rushed, however. They didn’t want their hard work to come crashing down. Tank equipment have been reactivated, and the army has starting to organize militias. Everything was going to plan, when the sound of vehicles moving could be heard from the distance. The workers stopped their building to peer over what the sound came from, and in a matter of time, on the horizon, were hundreds of vehicles. Trucked, jeeps, and some APCs. The soldiers marching alongside them though, caught them even more by surprise. They were the horse creatures Reagan had encountered earlier. And they’ve… somehow seized the equipment from other Allied bases? Why were their weaponry so similar to Western weaponry? The only difference for their equipment was the guns. They looked like M16s, but with weird grips. They held their rifles with one hoof. Their helmets were similar to those of a basic Allied soldier, though it had mostly British similarities. The soldiers waiting at the base stood there, staring at the alien creatures with human-like weaponry.

The task force stopped close to the gate where the American soldiers stood.

“Hello? Do you speak Ponish?” asked the voice.

“Ponish? No, we speak English.” said the colonel walking near the aliens.

“You’re speaking Ponish,” said the pony.

“We’re speaking English. And so are you.” responded the colonel.

The pony sighed and continued to talk.

“Look, we can continue to argue and get nowhere, or make progress in relations between our species.”

The colonel paused.

“Continue,”

“Okay, well, we mean no harm. Equestria seeks peace in this world. But you have to promise us that you will be of no threat to the nation. We don’t suggest you to disarm your nation, but to only use these weapons of yours as self defense.”

“Well first of all, we’re the United States. Nobody bosses us around. And second, we don’t attack anyone unless if they’re attacking us or our friends.” said the colonel, ignoring mentions of U.S intervention, “and, to ask you a question, why do you have our weapons?” shouted the colonel.

“Your weapons? These are our weapons. We made them. What the tartarus are you talking about?”

“That’s a Patton.” said the colonel pointing at the Equestrian tank.

“That’s a Luna.” deadpanned the pony.

“That’s a Patton, stop pretending that you made it, it’s ours!”

“Look, maybe this is some misunderstanding. What if we created our weapons and had no idea that they were exact clones of each other? This could be some huge coincidence.”

“You really believe that?”

“And you believe that we somehow travelled to your world and stole your tech?”

“Well what else am I supposed to believe?”

“Alright what the hell is going on here?” shouted Major General Macmillan.

“Sir, these horses stole our tech.”

“Ponies.” corrected the pony soldier.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” said Macmillan, “this is incredible.”

He walked up to the pony tank and inspected it.

“The possibilities of nearly exact clones of technology…” he went on.

“Excuse me sir, as much as it is disappointing to say, but we came here to discuss, not to show off.”

“Oh, right…” said the general before walking back.

“So now that we’re all on the same page, what are you?” asked the pony, “and why can you speak Ponish so fluently?”

“I’m not sure what this Ponish you’re talking about, but we’re speaking English here.”

By the time this had already spun out, Reagan had been watching the strange exchange.
Reagan walked up to the two discussing.

“I think there is somehow a strange connection between our languages, general.” he pointed out.

“Right, well, to continue,” he said, “are you a nation of free will and equality?”

“Very much so. It is what we’ve believed in for thousands of years.”

“Damn, that’s great. You boys must have very sympathetic leaders.”

“Yeah. We’ve had them for hundreds of years.”

The humans stood there, mouths gaping open in shock.

“They’ve lived for hundreds of years?” repeated the general.

“Yes? What of it?”

“We… in our world immortality is impossible.”

“Well, you must be missing out on a whole new level of magic.”

“You have magic?”

“Of course we do. You don’t?”

The humans stood silently.

“On behalf of the Equestrian nation, we ask the reason of your presence here.”

“We escaped from our home world after a war that destroyed everything.”

This time it was the pony’s turn to gasp in shock.

“A war that destroyed your planet?” he repeated.

“Yeah. We used nuclear weapons on each other. It destroyed most of the planet, and the remaining population evacuated to a strange new world. And, I guess you know the rest.”

“Oh… that’s… incredibly sad, I apologize for being so aggressive.”

“No worries we’ve seen worse.”

“Does your nation mean peace?”

“Yes. We stand as the bastion of democracy. Equality and free will is our groove.”

“That’s great to hear. Do you think your leaders can be able to come to our capital city and discuss diplomacy with our leaders?” asked the pony.

“Uh, sure just not anytime soon. We can’t really be by anyone for too long. We have radiation poisoning.”

“Radiation poisoning? You have been poisoned by radiation?”

“From the bombs.”

“Oh dear. Perhaps we can help you find a cure.”

“That’s great and all, but do your people have experience with atomic energy and all that stuff?”

“We are aware of its existence, and we know its benefits and its consequences as well.”

“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try. But your scientists have protective equipment right?”

“Yeah. For at least a decade we’ve been experimenting on it. But we’ve been cautious. Very, very cautious.”

“Okay then. It was… nice meeting you? I do believe we are bound to meet again… Mr…”

“Brass.” he said nonchalantly.

“Alright Mr. Brass. My name is Macmillan. Good day?”

“Good day.” he smiled.

The small task force then left the compound. Both sides were still confused on the matter.

“Twilight? Twilight what happened?” asked the yellow pegasus, knocking on her door.

“Fluttershy? Great to hear you! Quickly, come inside!”

The door opened and Twilight grabbed Fluttershy with magic and dragged her in.

“What did those creatures do?” she asked.

“They talked! They spoke Ponish! They were pretty formal as well. Except, it was only one. The others, he said, were very shocked. To shocked to talk. This is great! I’ve had Spike write it all down! I’m gonna make a book out of this!” she went on.

“Uh.. Twilight? Have you not bothered to report to Celestia that strange aliens just appeared near Ponyville?”

Twilight was still babbling until she heard Fluttershy say those words.

“Oops.” she blushed, then asked Spike to write a letter. To her surprise, Spike had face planted on the desk he was writing on.

“Don’t talk to me. I think I’ve lost it.”

“Lost what?”

Spike groaned and continued to face plant.

(Translated from Russian.)

“Move! Move! Let’s get this patrol done quickly.”

The convoy of BTRs and GAZs rumbled down the road.

“Do you think somebody else came here before us?” asked a soldier.

“I’m not sure, but there are definitely some kind of sentient creatures intelligent enough to build infrastructure.”

“Right.”

The convoy sped along before halting suddenly.

“Holy shit!” shouted the captain.

“Contact! Down the road! They look like American vehicles!”

“Hold fire, maybe they will reason with us.”

The convoy waited. They waited until a quadrupedal creature hopped out the commander port of the tank.

“Keekaa?” they said in an unknown language.

“Hello? Wait. Are you a horse?” asked the captain.

The horse-like creature stopped and turned their head to another one. They talked briefly before turning their head to them again.

“H-hello?” the horse asked in perfect Russian.

“Hello! Are you some kind of horse?”

“No! We’re ponies! What are you? You look like a hairless monkey!”

“I guess you can say that. We’re humans.”

“Okay, umm.. on behalf of the Equestrian nation, we ask only for peace between your species.”

“We’re looking for that. What are your terms?”

“T-terms? No! We’re not in a war or anything, we just want peace!”

“Oh. Right.” he said before scratching his head.

“Well, on behalf of the Soviet Union, we accept that offer. Though we ask for a piece of your land. We need it for our people.”

“We will have to ask our leaders. But as long as you mean peace, we are surely able to provide some form of land. And opening up diplomatically would be most appreciated.”

“We are sure to try. Say, this city looks a lot like Leningrad.”

“That’s because.. it is Leneighrad.”

“Leneighrad? I said Leningrad. As in the city. How do you know what Leningrad is?”

“Lenin? It’s Leneigh.”

They stopped for a moment.

“Hm… strange. It really seems… like our city names have connected ties with each other.”

“It seems so.”

There was an awkward pause.

“I’m sure Mr. Gorbachev can hold a meeting with your leaders.”

“Right. Well, are you interested in a tour?”

“I most certainly am. But I’ve been to Leningrad many times. But, it’d be interesting to compare the similarities!” he chuckled.

The soldier stared at the captain.

“Captain, you seem to be taking this whole thing well.”

“Yeah. I’ve seen weirder things in Chernobyl.”

“Princess Cadence?” asked the guard.

“Yes?”

“Reports have stated that some unknown alien species has appeared in Cadenza Plains.”

“Aliens? Can you send some kind of patrol to scout out these visitors?” she asked.

“Yes, your highness.” said the guard before closing the throne doors.

“Aliens?” repeated Shining Armor, “should I come with the patrol?”

“No. It could be dangerous. Until we figure out what’s going on I think we should keep safe.” she responded.

The British patrol had already been ordered and the scouting force was moving.

“Say, are those… ours?” asked the officer to the lieutenant.

“I’m… not sure what they’re doing.. hold it!” he ordered to the convoy, “they’re headed to us.”

The British convoy waited until they got within a talking distance to the unknown vehicles.

“Hello?” shouted the officer, “what are ya’ doing? All vehicles should be stationed at the base upon further notic-“

He paused his speaking upon seeing the pony fit through the hatch.

“Uhmm… excuse me, whoever is in there I’m not sure you’re supposed to bring a pony along for a tank ride, uh-under the British Empire we order you to station your tanks with everyone else.” he repeated.

“Excuse me, but whatever are you talking about?” asked the pony.

“Holy shit! It talks!”

“Yeah I talk, what’s the matter? You’ve never seen a pony? And I sure haven’t seen any creature like you before. What are you?”

“We’re.. humans. We’re British. Say, can your commander come out and talk with me?”

“I am the commander.”

“Haha very funny, now, chap, can you get your-“

“Seriously. I’m the commander of this patrol. We’ve been sent out here to investigate some alien appearance around here. And I think it found us first.” he joked.

“Fascinating.” he said, “talking alien ponies who can drive tanks.”

“Do you come in peace?” asked the pony, ignoring the comment.

“Yeah, we’re not really in the mood to just randomly shoot natives of a new world.”

“Sounds unlikely.” deadpanned the lieutenant.

The officer looked at him with a glare and shoved his helmet.

“Hey! What the hell?”

“Yes- yes we come in peace, now, before we discuss any further, try your best to stay away from us. We might all have radiation poisoning."

"Really?" he asked with concern in his voice.

"Yes, really. We just went through a nuclear war that wiped our planet out. "

"Terrifying..." said the guard, "look, if you're in a position like this then I'm sure our country will show some sympathy for you. We will surely help you out as much as we can."

“That’s very generous. Thank you."

"You're the ones who just lost their planet and possibly their family. The least we can do is to stop more of your species from dying."

"Well, in that case, I guess we'll be going back. I think making contact with aliens will be enough for today."

"Yes, well, good day to you."

"Good day."

The ponies turned around and drove away.

“Say, Captain Shane, how come you’re so calm about this?” asked the Lieutenant.

“Lieutenant, war has made me accept things a normal man normally doesn’t.”