Human ships were becoming increasingly common sights around the world. Some ferried hopeful humans and ponies to the land once ruled by the Storm King. They were met by a dubious population.

"You... just want to help?" asked one of the natives, scratching at his tussled fur. The people of the sprawling former empire of the Storm King were predominantly animal-folk of a many varieties. "What's in it for you?"

The human calmly gestured at the forming line. "For me, personally? I get paid to be here, and it's a nice thing to do, so two wins right there. For you, we have dinner waiting, but you should get in line. Do you have fleas?" That wasn't a random question. The citizen sheepishly accepted some shampoo to help treat their problem and scurried off to join the food line.

An elderly female with a steel hoop through a drooped ear approached, her snouted face wrinkled, but eyes mildly curious. "Are you here to rule us, once we are less in a shambles?"

"You have to rule yourself. Do you have fleas?"

"I take my regular baths," she proudly reported. "Kids these days... These are hard times. The ponies, I've heard stories; fables really... Are they as magical as they say?"

The human smiled a little as he gestured to the line behind the elder. "Some of them are pretty magic. I'm sorry, but I have to keep passing out the shampoo."

"Oh!" She scooted out of the way for the next person in line. "Perhaps later..."

"Mama." Mobile and Tim both looked up in time to see their child walking towards them as quickly as she was able. "Mama, Dada. Look look." She was holding something between two closed hands, cupping whatever it is out of sight.

Tim reached for Swift's clutched hands. "What have you got there?"

"Look look!" she opened her hands a little and Tim yelped in surprise, falling back.

Mobile raised a brow at her brave mate and moved in to see what her daughter held. There in the young one's cupped hands was a mouse. It did not appear to be living. "Oh..."

"Pet!"

Stream's family had a pet, a happy dog. The dead mouse would not serve that purpose... "Not a pet." Mobile reached carefully for the deceased animal. "Good find. You are such a good searcher."

"Pet pet!" She looked upset, eyes locked on where the mouse was leaving her.

Tim raised a lone finger. "One, we're getting this place checked for other... visitors... Two, we could get an actual pet mouse?"

"They have those?" Mobile sniffed the mouse lightly. It was freshly dead. "I'm going to let this one go. You heard daddy, we'll get a real pet, just for you."

"Pet!" She smiled brightly, clapping her hands and looking joyful indeed.

Mobile left during the distraction, casually chomping the mouse as soon as she was out of sight, bones and all.

Their family would expand by one little member.

"The numbers are coming in. Georgia shows support for John Rason, with a 20% lead."

With the click of a remote, Crane banished the show. He wasn't even on the polls. His own party had left him for dead.

"It was a decent run." His wife sat down beside him, resting a hand on his bouncing knee. "You did a lot of good."

"Will it be remembered that way?" Crane asked, slumping back against the couch he was seated on. "This is such a delicate time... We should have used that to sway them."

"They should have," she agreed. "But they didn't. And you, my dear husband, took it like the respectable president you are and always will be." She gently patted his shoulder. "You gave literal years of your life for the good of the country. Besides, didn't you have plans?"

"I did..." It was becoming vogue for presidents to start things after they stopped being president. "But the world I planned on it being in has changed, and... new information has come to light. That just doesn't seem as important anymore."

"Then tell me what does seem important." She nestled against him. "You aren't alone. I agreed to stand by you, and I wasn't joking, Mister President. What do you want to do?"

"This is going to sound a bit crazy, because it is, but I want to be a teacher."

She reared back a little, doubt on her face. "Teacher? Of what?"

"Language, oddly enough."

"Everyone speaks the same language." She shrugged softly. "Even the the illegals started speaking English, right? I remember you mentioning that."

"They aren't speaking English." He let out a slow breath. "(This is English, the language we lost.)"

"What was that?"

Sea Flower stood on a significantly larger boat. It was still wood, in appearance. She could feel the metal beneath her. "How's the onboarding going?" she asked as her human friend rushed by.

"We're doing good. Company called in, said to expect a full load on the way back too."

She had to smile. Signing up with a human cruise company had signed away some of her freedom, but she was still a captain, with larger boats. "Fantastic, say, can we talk?"

He hesitated, but turned fully towards her instead of what he had been planning to do. "What's up, Sea?"

"This way." She led him out the sun's reach, where she could speak privately. "Look, I've been... sending signals, but it isn't working so I'm just going to lay it out even like." She bat the door behind him closed with a wing. "I'm in love with High Flight and he doesn't even look at me!"

The engineer blinked softly. He had thought the captain had been chasing him forever, since before she had made her drunken pass on him over a year earlier. Some part of him felt defeated, as if he had failed at being attractive, despite never wanting to reciprocate those feelings. "Oh, uh..."

"You're a stallion, kinda. Close enough. How do I get through that thick skull of his?! You help me solve problems. Solve this, please." She bowed her head low. "I'm begging!"

He crouched down closer to her and felt a smile returning. His little pony needed some dating advice... alright. That was far less uncomfortable than being the target of her dating wishes. "High Flight sees you as a captain first." He extended a finger. "He thinks you have a thing for me." A second finger went out.

"For you?!" Sea blinked rapidly. "I mean, you're alright, don't get me wrong. I love you, a lot! But, you know... as a brother." She flapped once, raising into the air. "I mean that. You've been there, helping me every step of the way. I owe you a life debt. I just... Oh Celestia! Have you been? I'm so dumb!" She crashed to the ground. "I just crushed your feelings without even thinking about it. I'm the worst captain ever."

She had, but not the way she was imagining. "Captain, Sea... I look at you like a little sister I want to see be happy and successful."

Oh the light. Her face became a bright smile, her wings going wide. "Aw! Aw! Oh wow, aw! That is... Aw!" She suddenly jumped forward and squeezed him, arms around his neck and pulling tight. "Big brother! I can accept that, sure. Next time we're off-duty in Equestria, I'm introducing you to the folks."

"So, about High Flight?"

"Oh yeah!" She hopped back a step. "So how do I get to him?"

"You're still his boss, which makes things awkward... Did you actually read the guidebook the company sent?"

"No," she flatly admitted. "Most of it was a bunch of stupid rambling."

Was it time to explain to magic horses what workplace sexual harassment was? "You've known High Flight for a long time, right?"

"We used to work together for another captain." She bobbed her head, looking thoughtful. "I remember the days... I was a scout back then. Anyway, yeah. Does that help?"

"It does... Let's approach this logically."

"That is exactly what I hoped you'd say." She looked at him with such innocently hopeful eyes, confident that he'd use his clever human mind to find an answer.

Seaponies swam at the bottom of the marshy water. Humans would have been warded away, by violence if need be. There wasn't that much attention being paid to the random local wildlife that moved about, of which the seaponies could simply be, if they didn't come up for air, which they did not.

They slowly worked away at the muck, moving semi-randomly as they did so, putting on a show of not really being interested in anything there.

Of course, they were. What they were not, on the other hoof, were seaponies. The drones worked busily and steadily, slowly unearthing what the humans had given up for lost, confident in knowing where it was, and that nothing else would disturb it.

It would have been true, on their old world. On this new one, the rules were different. They had learned its location, and they would claim it as their own.

With slow but steady effort, they drew the heavy weight of the bomb free from its tomb, spiriting it away without ever breaking the surface of the water, at least until they were well out of the eyes of curious humans. They would continue guarding a bomb that wasn't there anymore.

"Pressurization, not a concern." He tapped at a chart of such examples. "Temperature, a mild concern, at least internally." He tapped again. "External temperature? Also not much of a concern. Can someone tell me how that works?"

"Not even the start of a clue," admitted a female scientist. "There are people trying to figure that out, but the friction is lower. Air seems eager to get out of the way. The faster you go, the faster the air rushes out of the way, keeping up even with supersonic crafts. It does explain how ponies can break that limit without hurting themselves in the process."

They had seen it. When the Wonder Bolts agreed to perform where they could be watched, it had left many scientists gaping. The crowning finale was still being written about frantically. Rainbow Dash performing her namesake, the Sonic Rainboom. She had broken several mach speeds, creating some kind of strange new reaction in the atmosphere, proving that there was still such a thing as air friction and the possibility of a sonic boom, but that bar had been raised quite high.

"It did explain some things..."

The rocket they had fired had created unusual cascades of colors along the way, but they had figured it was some new chemical they hadn't noticed, burning off in new interesting reactions in an alien atmosphere. As it turned out, it was the atmosphere itself, taking up the whole of the universe, that was the culprit, not its contents, specifically.

"We need to know how to get satellites up reliably. Getting lucky once? Not acceptable. Let's get to work."

They had a lot of math and practical experiments to conduct.

He might have become a lame duck, but he did not want to simply wait. His successor would be coming soon to take the White House away from him. That was the American way. No man was king... He tapped a contact on his phone.

"Crane?" asked a familiar female voice. "Always nice to hear from you, dear. Something come up?"

"Queen Novo, always a pleasure. I'm afraid I'll be stepping down soon."

"What?!" He couldn't see the bubbles that appeared with her surprised thrash. "Are you alright?! What happened?!"

"Nothing dramatic, just how things work." He looked out over the lawn, the sun shining brightly. "The vote's already done, and I wasn't the winner." He wasn't even in the race, but he didn't bother to mention that. "I'll stop being president soon, but I wanted to let you know it's been an honor."

"You're talking as if you're about to die." A soft aquatic snort came over the line. "You are welcome here, if you ever need a home. Do humans mistreat their retired kings? How awful."

"No! No... I'm fine, really." He made gentle placating motions at the phone as if it could see it. "But there will be a new president, and I hope you work with them as well as you have with me. Is it alright if I keep your number?"

"Why wouldn't that be alright? Dear dear dear, we are friends. Even if you became a pauper on the street, we'd still be that. I only hope your successor is at least half as pleasant to deal with. You keep that number. You keep it and you call. I might not always answer, queen duties, but you keep that number."

Author's Notes:

President Crane served a difficult period of American history. I think he deserves a hat tip. Say hello to the new president! The world, it continues, even if it doesn't spin... freakin' weird world...

Enjoy the writing? Help me stay afloat and show your support by joining the Patreon!

Join my discord to chat!