When the humans had first appeared in Equestria, most ponies were curious of their presence. This curiosity soon turned into fear, as the vastly different humans and their culture soon began to spread across all corners of Equestria. Cheaply made goods, addicting media, and worst of all, democracy, spilled like a broken dam and drowned the Equestria population beneath its waves.

The Princesses’ reign soon ended, as a growing human population helped the ponies revamp their government into a republic to elect President Twilight Sparkle to lead the fair nation of Equestria.

However, one city wished to distance themselves from the capitalistic humans as much as possible, having been influenced by a different sect amongst the humans who agreed with their ideals more. Stalliongrad broke away from Equestria, becoming a small city-state of their own. Plenty of humans saw job opportunities in this new nation, but the strict border guards wouldn’t let them in for years, and even then not without very expensive and rare papers of admission. Even regular pony folks entering the city were strictly regulated, to make sure any pro-democracy pony defectors wouldn’t rebel against the city’s leaders. Therefore, Stalliongrad became one of the last pony dominated city-states in Equestria, and by far its strictest. Without the right papers, getting in was next to impossible.

But now, for the first time in years, Stalliongrad was allowing easier admittance into the city, for humans and ponies alike. The iron curtain was taking its first steps into allowing a peek into its walls.

Which is where my job came in. I would approve ponies’—along with the occasional human’s—admittance into the city. It wasn’t the best of jobs, and sometimes it even grew dangerous when an overzealous rebel decided to stir up trouble, but it was the only way to keep bread on the table, so I bore through it.

The line to the admittance booth was horribly crowded that day, with a swarm of ponies and the occasional human lined up to the horizon. The guards were a bit edgy, the afternoon prior having been a huge mess when a rebel decided to throw a grenade at the blockade. An orange unicorn approached the gate, papers at the ready. Her name checked out fine, nothing wrong with the gender, and the weight was—

I slammed down on the buzzer, closing the entrance gate. “There appears to be a discrepancy in your weight, ma’am.”

“What? You can’t be serious! Are you calling me fat?” the unicorn asked, slamming her hoof on my booth’s counter. “So what if I’ve gained a couple of pounds, that’s no reason to insult me!”

I wasn’t buying that shit today. “Sorry ma’am, come back tomorrow with your corrected papers.” I didn’t like turning ponies away from a new life, but a job’s a job, and I’m not going to risk losing any pay to a citation today. The unicorn mare was about to argue, but I just closed the shutters on the window, a sure-fire way to get even the most disgruntled pony to leave. I could only pray that it was really as bulletproof as the guards assured me.

“Next!” I screamed into my microphone, waiting for the guards to send the newest applicant. Finally, the next would-be immigrant arrived to the window, their dark shadow behind the shutters altering me they definitely weren’t a pony this time.

“Hello friend!” a hearty voice called out of the shadows as the human approached closer to the light. With the shutters now gone, I had a clear view of him… or at least as clear a view through a never-washed since it was made window would allow me. And even then, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

A balding man stood before me, a puffy beard covering his mouth. While he didn’t look too well kept, he still managed to have an aurora of friendliness to him. It was almost creepy to see such good cheer, when I’ve usually been surrounded by misery or dread. “Papers, please,” I ordered. While humans were a rare sight, that didn’t mean they weren’t scrutinized as much as ponies were.

The human chuckled. “Papers? No papers needed. Back in Artstotzka, we never need papers!”

“Sir, I have no idea what Artstotzka is, but this isn’t there.” I pointed a hoof to the large line of ponies. “To enter Stalliongrad, you need the right papers. Do you or do you not have them?”

The man seemed to pause for a second. “I not need papers. Very famous, people know me. Let me in.”

“I’ve never seen you, much less heard of you, in my entire life. Now, do you have papers, or no?”

The human laughed again. What did he find so funny? “Okay, I see. This big joke. I come back tomorrow, bring papers this time. Glory to Stalliongrad, greatest country!”

I didn’t bother to correct him that Stalliongrad was a city-state, not a country. Like people cared about that anyhow.

I nodded, glad that at least he wasn’t threatening my life like the usual denied applicant. “Please, that’ll make everything easier for all of us.”

The man shuffled away, waving at me over his shoulder. “Goodbye, friend!”

Huh… didn’t catch his name. Hopefully he doesn’t return so I won’t have to find out. Turning my microphone on, I shouted, “Next!”

This was going to be a long day. Next Chapter: Chapter 2: Day 4 Estimated time remaining: 18 Minutes