The western entry point into the terminal where the ships were moored was by far the more important of the two. Its glass office building situated next to the entrance rose above the container stacks of the terminal, granting the sailors guarding it excellent sight of the area. There was another access to the terminal two kilometers away, but its position on the northern side (the one with the UNICEF warehouse) made it so that anything coming from the city would first have to pass in range of the western checkpoint before reaching the northern part of the docks.

This was the motive behind the Captains deciding to assign more crewmembers to guard that checkpoint. That still only made it five of them to guard the area and watch the CCTV cameras, but the two .50 cal machineguns on the roof of the building were more than enough to compensate for the small size of their group.

If anything that wasn’t one of their expedition convoys tried to make it past them, then it would have a really bad time.

Few interesting things extended beyond the terminal: there were a few warehouses and parking spaces past the fence the sailors were guarding, but nothing else really. They had a whole kilometer of concrete and widely spread out buildings before the industrial landscape traded place with a marina closer towards downtown Copenhagen. That was actually to their advantage since it left little in the way of hiding spots for monsters to get the drop on them if they were to approach.

With the ongoing works on the Rhine, most of both vessels’ engineering departments were kept busy on the barge carrier, including all their welders (though in their case, not all of them were engineering sailors). That left it up to the deck guys to pick up the task of ensuring the terminal was secure.

Well, not exclusively deck guys. Bart hadn’t been assigned to that department since the unicorn didn’t have the proper skills for that. He sort of was in a grey area where Captain Prateek had placed him under Farkas’ command in the catering department but he was more of a guard/firearm instructor/gunsmith…

On the paper it was kinda confusing; but in practice he just worked in the armory and helped with keeping watch or training the sailors whenever he could.

The only other sailor from Amandine currently watching the checkpoint was Ivan. Bart didn’t know much about the female osprey griffon beside the fact she usually kept watch with Geert while they were at sea. She was probably checking out the cams inside the CCTV room at the time.

As for Bart, the stallion was sitting on his haunches behind one of the machineguns on the roof. He took a long drag of the cigarette held in his telekinesis before tossing the smoldering butt off the roof.

So much for giving up tobacco. Then again, with all the stress caused by his new situation, he at least had a justification behind it.

The blue furred unicorn was wearing his set of retrofitted K9 armor above his coveralls, along with his brown beret. The rise in temperature that came with the end of June, made worse by the sky-blue coat of fur his transformation had provided him forced him to ditch his wool sweater. He still wore his ranks on his armor though.

A couple pouches were attached to the flanks of his armor, some for tools, and others for ammunition or stun grenades. The Belgian wasn’t able to carry as much gear as he used to before the Event, his unicorn frame made sure of that (hell, even if he wanted to his armor didn’t have as much room for pouches as a human’s).

On his back was his rifle, loosely held in place by its straps. Bart had recently ditched the SCAR used by Amandine’s more experienced crewmembers in favor of one of the newly modified FNC’s. He had modified them himself with parts obtained from the Ak-5’s found in the Swedish army base. The first thing he had done was swap the Belgian upper receiver for the Swedish one which came with a picatinny rail. The lower receiver could have some use, but installing it would have removed the burst fire in favor of an enlarged trigger guard he didn’t need considering he was pulling it with his telekinesis. It could have some use for species with large fingers like the dogs and minotaurs, but certainly not to him.

The Swedish variant also had an enlarged cocking handle. That he had put on his rifle, as well as the adjustable stock and the modified handguard. Said part came with some rails as well, mainly to fit a foregrip he wouldn’t have been able to grasp had he chosen to install it. Still, he had managed to outfit it with some accessories like a combined flashlight/laser.

Combined with the scope he had mounted on it, the unicorn was rather proud of his work. It was… odd how naturally taking care of firearms came to him recently. He knew he should have had difficulties swapping barrels and making all those modifications fit together properly… but it really was a breeze. He had only had a couple hours of work in the armory between the return of the expedition from Sweden (having to bring back the IFV had seriously put a dent in their timetable) and the beginning of his watch on the checkpoint, but he had still somehow managed to retrofit almost all of their arsenal of FNC’s to better specs. It just came to him like a natural talent.

Just as he was reaching for a second cigarette, his ears twitched as he picked up some footsteps coming up behind him.

A purple dragon clad in a white set of coveralls and a multicam-patterned plate carrier sat down beside him. Mikhail if he recalled correctly. The Ukrainian was carrying his C7 strapped across his angular chest. He rubbed uncomfortably at his shoulders before quickly looking around the horizon. Not finding anything of interest, he pulled out a small cigarillo and lit it with his fire breath.

“Wings hurt?” Bart asked distractedly in thickly accented English, his pair of binoculars floating for a second as he spotted something in the distance by the marina.

Just a flock of seagulls flying out towards the sea.

“Kinda, plate carriers ain’t exactly made for creatures with wings.” Mikhail winced.

“Modify it?” Bart suggested, eyeing the bulge the dragon’s wings made beneath his coveralls. Unlike most winged sailors on Amandine, he had yet to spare the time to fit them with zippers for his wings.

“Haven’t had the time yet, plus I can’t exactly say I’m good at sewing. I removed the rear plate but that’s about it.” He shook his head dejectedly. “Anyway, you see anything?”

“Seagulls, a zeehond err… seal too.” The unicorn snorted. He stopped to look at something in the direction of the marina. “Correction: two seals. What time is it?”

“Eleven o’clock, still one hour to go before we’re relieved.” Mikhail told him.

Bart just nodded and went back to looking out towards the city centre. They had agreed that they would keep two pairs of eyes up on the rooftop while the rest stayed down below keeping an eye on the gates and checking out the cams from time to time.

The two of them lapsed into silence for a few minutes. It was actually a fairly nice day, with the summer temperature being alleviated by a soft sea breeze. There were very few clouds up in the sky, the only speck of grey or white being the seabirds that flew back and forth between the town and the waters of the Oresund. In comparison to its bustling pre-Event nature, the area was dreadfully quiet. The two of them could barely hear the sound of the power tools and generators coming from the ships further inside the terminal.

Of course it’s always moments like that that have to be broken up by something occurring. Bart stood up in a rush the second he spotted a cluster of shapes round the corner of a warehouse on the edge of their perimeter. His binos flew in front of his eyes in an instant as he gave a sharp nudge to the purple dragon by his side.

“Contact, front, 800 meters.” The unicorn barked.

There were five of them, all equines advancing in loose formation. There were two of them leading the way up front: one red unicorn mare with a scarlet mane and a large orange draft horse of a stallion that lacked a horn (first time they saw one of those actually). Behind them he could see one lanky yellow unicorn mare and two of what must have been two pegasi because they were hovering a meter or two above the asphalt using avian wings. Only one of the equines in the entire group was actually wearing anything (and even then it was only a medieval-looking gambeson); the rest only carried saddlebags on their backs (with the draft horse loaded with what must have equated to all the weight his companions carried combined).

And they were marching straight towards them.

“Call your guys, get them on the machineguns.” Bart told Mikhail. “I work as guard before, and I am horse too so I will deal with it.”

“Roger that. I’ll be radioing the ships too.” The dragon added as he was standing up. “You think they speak English?”

“I try.” The stallion shrugged, already halfway to the staircase.

He carefully (having already had one stair-related accident too much that day) made his way down the stairs and to the CCTV room. Ivan was there lazily scrolling through the menus on a computer and distractedly glancing at the camera screens.

“Sta op, we got company.” Bart cried out, barging in the room and startling the osprey griffon.

“Wha-, really?! Monsters?”

“No, hors- err, ponies I mean. Five of them.” He told her. “The others are on the roof, you’re with me.”

She hastily hopped off her desk chair and grabbed her own modified FNC. Bart didn’t wait for her and immediately galloped towards the entrance of the building at the same time as he tuned in to the general channel on his walkie-talkie. Mikhail’s voice rose up through the radio above the sound of his hooves against the floor tiles. Looking at his reflection in the building’s windows, he quickly adjusted his armor and beret before going outside.

The door he took placed him with the gates between himself and the five equines approaching the checkpoint. They were just reaching the halfway point when he loosened the strap that held his rifle on his back. A quiet 'click' also confirmed his 303 pistol was ready for use.

With the training sessions he had done on the range, he was pretty sure he could switch to firing position under two seconds.

“Amandine to checkpoint.” His radio crackled. “Don’t let the unknowns inside, figure out their intent and communicate it back to us for the Captains to assess. Over.”

“Roger that. Checkpoint out.” Bart answered, eyes not leaving the group. A flicker of his telekinesis pressed down on his walkie-talkie just to make sure he’d transmit anything that was said between him and the ponies.

He could now see that the gambeson-wearing Pegasus in the group was carrying a small crossbow under his wing. Primitive or not, he was armed.

The group had obviously taken note of the .50 cals up on the roof, but it didn’t seem to deter them. The lanky unicorn’s ears flattened against her skull, but they soldiered on and moved towards him. As they got closer, the two pegasi in the group landed among their brethren.

With the exception of the crossbow Pegasus, none of them appeared to actually qualify as combatants in his mind. Still, better be careful…

“Halt!” Bart yelled loudly when he deemed them close enough; one hoof raised in what he hoped would be interpreted as the universal ‘stop’ gesture despite him lacking a hand.

The group thankfully stopped with the red mare still in front of them.

“If you understand me, state your identity and your business here!” He cried out in his heavily accented voice.

“Greetings.” The red mare intoned slowly. “My name is Sidereal Venture, Doctor Sidereal Venture. My team here…” She waved her hoof to encompass the ponies behind her. “… wishes to have a word with your leader and possibly lend you assistance.”

On the edge of his vision, Bart spotted Mikhail up on the roof listening in to the conversation on his walkie-talkie.

“Miss…”

“Doctor.” She corrected him.

“Right, Doctor…” Bart shook his head. “Judging by your looks, I do not believe we are the ones in need of assistance. Waar do you come from? Germany? Zweden? Our group explored the city already and we found nobody. There are monsters outside you know.”

Sidereal glanced back towards Gust.

“Yes, we have crossed path with some monsters… but we do not come from this planet.” She said slowly.

Obviously Equestrian wasn’t the guard's mother language, no need to speak too quickly otherwise she would just piss him off and have to repeat herself.

Bart quirked his head, one ear flicking slightly.

“Wablief? Did you just say you are an alien?” He chuckled awkwardly, quickly checking that Mikhail had heard that just as he had. A nod from the purple dragon confirmed it.

He also took note of Ivan by the building’s entrance, the griffon standing a respectable distance away and hidden in the shade.

“We sort of are.” Sidereal calmly said with a smile. “You see, the authorities on my planet are… aware of the cataclysm that occurred here. So they sent us to offer our help to the survivors.”

“Very funny.” Bart said sarcastically. “But zelfs I know other planets are ridiculously ver away. You need a spaceship, a flying saucer.”

“We teleported.” Sidereal explained as if that was the most normal thing in the world.

Bart rolled his eyes, an equine-sounding snort escaping his nostrils.

“Really? Teleportation? Hoor lady, I'm ready to set aside logic with all the stuff that’s happening but teleportation is a bit too far-fetched.”

Sidereal just smirked softly. Her horn took on an intense red glow Bart knew was a sign of telekinesis.

And then with a ‘pop’ she crossed the distance that separated her from the gate in the blink of an eye, coming just a meter short of the surprised Belgian.

“Godver-!” Bart swore, the stallion rearing up on his hooves and telekinetically reaching for his rifle. “Stand back! Now!” He yelled, already switching to a combat position with his less-lethal pistol floating above him.

“I could have teleported to the other side you know.” She stated, calmly walking a meter backwards.

Up above them, Mikhail had to force his gunners not to open up on the ponies below them with the .50 cals despite the surprise.

“I doubt that would have ended well.” Bart ground out as he rested his weight on his floating rifle, barrel pointed at the ground in front of the Equestrian mare.

“Interesting technique.” She said, critically eyeing his stance. “You know you can do more with that horn than float things around?”

“Ja, you just showed me.” He said, glaring at the mare. “One more time, what do you want?”

“To speak with your leader. To teach your people. I know you weren’t a pony before, me and my team can teach your herd how to live with your new bodies. We know what happened.” She told him with a firm look in her eyes.

Bart gauged her for a few seconds, the mare firmly returning his hard stare. He clicked his tongue before returning to a four-hooved stance with his rifle on his back... but his 303 stayed trained on the group. His horn lit up as he keyed in on the radio.

“Checkpoint to Amandine, the group of visitors wants to speak to the Kapitein. They say they know stuff about the cataclysm. Over.”

The waves went silent for a minute or two.

“Checkpoint… your orders are to get them inside a meeting room in the lobby and wait for the Captains to arrive. ETA is five minutes. Amandine out.”

Sidereal overheard that and smiled. She turned away from the guard and motioned for her fellow ponies to come forward. As for Bart, he discreetly nodded towards Ivan who flipped a switch that set the gates in motion. They slid aside to let the ponies in, Bart guiding them inside the building. A few of them stopped to stare at the female griffon sitting on her haunches in the shade by the door, but they didn’t say a word.

It was highly likely that Copenhagen’s harbor authority used to hold executive meetings in the entrance building before the Event because many of the rooms on the ground floor were actually meeting rooms. Bart led the five ponies into one such room which was… actually rather bland. White walls, grey carpet, and tables arranged in a U-shape around a whiteboard. There was also a projector in the room, though the blue furred unicorn doubted crossbow-totting aliens would have any use for it.

The lanky unicorn in the group was the first to set down her saddlebags with a relieved sigh escaping her muzzle. She kept looking towards the neon lights and the A/C unit in the back of the room as if they were completely foreign things.

Come to think of it they probably were.

“How did you find us?” Bart asked.

“Mage sight.” Sidereal replied. Her horn flickered briefly and her large eyes took on a bluish glow for a second. “It’s a spell that allows me to sense the flow of magic, if I tune it just right I can also detect living beings in large groups. I must say… ponies on your planet generate a lot more magic than us.”

“Magic now?” Bart shook his head. “Whatever…”

He pulled a chair close to the door and hopped on it, keeping a watchful eye on the five visitors.

“What’s your name anyway?” The orange draft horse asked.

“I’m Corporal De Mesmaeker. You?”

“Pulp Orange. So you’re military?” The other stallion asked as he set down his own massive saddlebags.

Bart didn’t miss how the large equine subtly put himself between the guard and the rest of his group. He didn’t miss the orange presser symbol on his flank either. Not unlike the dismantled gun he had in the exact same place…

Actually every pony he had met so far bore that kind of mark. Maybe it had a deeper meaning.

“I am, but only me. The rest of the guys are merchant navy. My turn now… how long have you been on the planet?”

“Ten days.” This time it was one of the pegasi who spoke up, the grey furred one that wasn’t wearing anything. “We appeared in a city called Stockholm and immediately started going south.”

He was a bit thinner than the one with the gambeson, his grey fur combining with his black mane to give him a rather plain appearance which was only broken up by the mark on his flank that depicted a treasure map. By comparison, his toxic green eyes stood out like a lighthouse in dense fog.

“Radiant Course by the way, navigator… and sometimes airship engineer.” He presented himself, holding out a hoof towards Bart. “How large is your group I wonder?” He asked in his rough voice.

“Seventy-seven people.” Bart clopped his hoof against the pegasus’. “How do you all can speak English if you’re aliens?”

“English? We’re speaking Equestrian Corporal.” Sidereal said.

“I’m pretty zeker that language I learned is called English Doctor. This is not my mother language, but it’s the one you learn if you want to travel because everyone speaks it.”

“Everyone?” Radiant tilted his head. “Don’t you mean everypony?”

“Wat? No! Please, English is hard enough to learn, don’t use your local expressions.”

“ Regardless…” Sidereal continued. “They told me in the beginning it was highly likely our two worlds would share similarities. One language is just fortunate, though I did have a translation spell ready.”

Bart just stared at her blankly, not having fully understood what she told.

“Hoor…” The guard said. “Nobody in our group speaks English as their mother language. It’s al hard enough, so please don’t make it harder ok?”

“Will try.” Radiant nodded.

Then Bart caught the noise of a truck stopping outside of the building. He heard Ivan exchange a few words with Captain Prateek in the lobby before some footsteps approached their meeting room.

“Captain’s here.” He said, hopping off his chair.

In came Dilip, the pariah dog quickly followed by Raimund behind him. The sight of the pink unicorn filly earned some puzzled looks from the Equestrians, but Dilip moved to the front of the room before they got time to comment on that.

“Greetings to you all. I am Captain Prateek of M/V Amandine.” He told the assembled ponies.

“And I Captain Gerig, of M/V Rhine Forest. Corporal De Mesmaeker here told us you wished to speak to us about the cataclysm.” She added.

“Aren’t you a bit young to be a Captain?” Cheese Cake blurted out from the back of the group.

“I will have you know I am actually sixty-one.” She told the mare with a deep frown. “That… cataclysm you claim to know about robbed me not only of my masculinity but of my age as well. Which of you five is the leader of the group?”

“I am. We were aware of the possibility of such… effects, but not to such an extreme degree.” Sidereal said, trotting to the front of the meeting room. “Doctor Sidereal Venture.” She added, holding out a hoof towards the pink filly.

Raimund eyed the proffered hoof critically before begrudgingly clopping hers against it.

“For what I assume to be an academic Doctor you seem rather ill-informed on the very phenomenon you claim to know about.” The German said.

“Not my specialization. My presence here is as part of a humanitarian effort fostered by the Equestrian Crown and its allies. We are one of many similar teams sent out across the divide between our worlds to offer assistance to survivors.” She told confidently.

“Really? How fortunate that you’d just so happen to be of a similar species as what some of our crewmembers turned into.” Dilip said with a hint of suspicion in his voice.

“I err…” Sidereal stuttered. “Captain, all the knowledge my superiors imparted upon me was about the ‘what’, not the ‘why’. They told me muzzle to muzzle that the more sensitive information will be communicated to a single group carefully vetted by one of our operatives that’s currently deployed on another continent.”

The Indian crossed his arms and looked her up and down for what to her felt like hours.

“Very well, be that way.” He concluded in a steely voice. He stopped a second to pull a chair and sat down heavily. “Now Doctor, if you don’t feel like telling me the ‘why’, by all means, feel free to tell me the ‘what’ then.” The pariah dog said, arms spread out.

And so she did. She began reciting everything she had been told in the briefings before the beginning of her expedition across the divide. That their Princess discovered their world about half a century earlier finding it to be nearly devoid of all magic, that she also later learned of an impending magical surge of gigantic proportions, that she had been told the similarities between their worlds and the sheer force of the surge would result in humans turning into any of the many species found on Equus, her planet-

“Magical exposure turns humans into ponies? Or whatever he turned into?” Raimund asked disbelievingly, motioning towards her fellow Captain with her muzzle.

“Not really, no.” Sidereal shook her head. “The surge did. Expeditions between our world and yours before the Event revealed that exposure to even low intensity magical fields was deadly to humans…” As were magic deficient fields to ponies but that probably didn’t matter right then.

Replacing every mention of ‘magic’ with ‘thaumic’ seemed to corroborate with the story they got from the HPI… though Dilip would have to be tortured before he revealed their existence to random aliens.

“... As I was told by experts on the subject, the forces of Harmony that guide magic seldom result in… deadly outcomes; which is why it is believed they chose to turn you and your shipmates into Equestrian creatures that could actually survive in the high intensity magical field that followed after the surge.” The Doctor continued with a frown on her muzzle. “It does seem to tie itself with the fact that both our worlds share a lot of similarities.”

Yeah, they definitely weren’t told the entire story; that much Dilip and Raimund agreed on with a subtle glance towards each other. Unfortunately, the Doctor didn’t appear to know it either so maybe she really was just there to offer her assistance.

Also, one cliché point for authorities not telling everything to their subordinates.

“I get the transformation part… somewhat.” Dilip said. “But how come nearly all of the population disappeared?”

“Transforming an entire planet worth of sapient beings takes up a lot of energy. Most of the power of the surge went into placing this population inside of a safe time stream, and then the humans are… spat out, for a lack of a better word, as time passes when the stream leeches enough magic off of the ambient magical field.”

Awfully elaborate for what was done by a force of nature.

Raimund asked her how long they thought it would take for all the population to return to Earth.

“Ah… you see…” She hesitated, eyes looking off to the side in search of an escape route. “That’s the hard part…”

“Ten thousand years.” Radiant said, not allowing his superior to stomp around the bush.

“What?!” All three former humans in the room yelled out collectively.

“As he said.” Sidereal confirmed, muzzle close to the ground. “It should take about ten millennia for your entire population to come back…”

“That’s enough time for civilization to rise and fall again several times!” Dilip cried out, standing up in anger. “I got sailors under my command lady; they had families back home, children even! For crying out loud, my blasted Second Officer's wife was expecting! And now you’re telling me they might not get to see their families again in their lifetime?!”

In a feat of anger, the dog slammed down his paw against the desk in front of him and erupted in a long stream of curses in Marathi that had the Equestrians’ ears fold back against their skulls even though they didn’t understand any of it.

“Captain…” Sidereal tried. “We’re terribly sorry to have to tell you that…”

“Damn right you are!” This time it was Raimund’s turn to be angry. She pointed an accusatory hoof at the red mare in front of her. “You basically just told us that with that whole catastrophe… Thousands of years of development have just been wiped out! Millions- nay, billions of lives sacrificed on the altar of progress and in countless wars have all been for naught! Jack-fucking-shit! Nada! Zilch! Hundreds of countries with histories spanning as far back as two thousand years, gone!” She shook her head and took a pause to breathe out, center herself. “All of our technologies… many of them incredibly dangerous when left unattended… doomed to be forgotten. Derelict factories now spewing chemicals in the atmosphere and condemning entire towns to noxious pollution…” She motioned with her muzzle towards Dilip, the dog now having sat back down with his shoulders sagged. “Hell, had it not been for him and his crew we would be on the brink of such annihilation the entire planet would probably have become uninhabitable for centuries, if not millennia.”

“Surely you must be joking!” Pulp protested.

“There were no less than seven billions of us, now imagine the scope of the industry that feeds a population that big which is only heightened by our technological advancement… which by the looks of your own tech is far ahead of what you have at your… hooves.” She concluded with a sneer. “That is the industrial might that’s now left rampant.”

“And?” Radiant asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“And? And?!” Bart sat up. “For fuck’s sake you tuberculosis-riddled limp-dicked gluestick can you not understand? When people reappear they will just die! Toxic gas, radiation, polluted uninhabitable landscapes, destroyed fields… and monsters too, of course!” He added, lifting his head up to show them the scar he had gotten from the wood hounds in Zeebrugge.

At least the ponies before them had enough wits to put the pieces together and figure out what had given him this scar.

“That’s enough Corporal.” Dilip said quietly. “I do not believe these… ponies… fully understand the scope of this whole cataclysm or that of our world.” He said, tiredly rubbing a paw over his muzzle. “This has just gotten much worse than we actually dared think… but there is still hope.”

“You call that hope?!” Raimund yelled in a shrill voice.

“At least now we are sure they will return.” He told her, one paw raised in a placating manner. “It may not be much… but we do have the tools to get to them. Now…” His gaze darkened as he slowly turned towards Sidereal. “… What is it you claim to be able to offer us in terms of assistance?”

“Well, for one you all turned into species from our world. I’d wager we know quite a bit about more about them than you do.” She waved a hoof at Radiant and Gust. “Flight lessons we can give too, and I as a rather well-trained mage can teach unicorns about magic.”

“What about sphinxes?”

“I beg your pardon?” Sidereal said.

“Sphinxes. Lion-cat quadruped with wings, they can do telekinesis too.”

“I uh… that’s a very rare species in my country… they’re almost unheard of on our side of the planet. Are there many of them?”

“About half a dozen.” He said, waggling his paw in a so-so gesture. “There is a lot of variety in species amongst our crews.”

“It… can’t be that bad.” Sidereal said with a smile. “Did your crew from very different countries?”

“On my crew alone we have eighteen different nationalities. And the species… we have dogs like me, cats, sphinxes, parrots, griffons, hippogriffs, gargoyles, dragons, minotaurs and… batponies and unicorns too. And of course there are those hedgehog creatures and centaurs on Gerig’s crew.” Dilip said.

“Sweet Mother of Faust…” Sidereal said, slack jawed. “Why? Just… why?”

“Cheap labor basically. The company that owns my ship at least… it’s always a deal. You work worldwide in the merchant navy, so they seek out the cheapest workers for any specific task. Then there are laws that come into play where if you want to get certain contracts you need a certain number of sailors from a specific country or continent… I mean, even crewing agencies do it: ‘we’ll give you the sailors you want, but if you want to keep getting sailors from us then you gotta take these guys as well'.” He shrugged. “It’s all a ploy to minimize the crewing costs and even minimize taxes. That and… public relations really love their nancy speeches about diversity.”

“Doesn’t that get… you know… confusing sometimes?”

“Sort of, ain’t easy, but you get used to it. Most of the time, you get the same nationalities at certain ranks like Ukrainians and Filipinos. Plus generally we all focus on work first and learn to put our differences aside. We’re working to make money, not to feed intercultural feuds. Countries aside, have you heard of those species?”

“Most of them… yes. Our own country Equestria mostly features the four pony tribes. That is: Unicorns, Pegasi, Earth Ponies and the lesser known tribe of the Batponies.” Sidereal explained. “We have some standing alliances with species like hippogriffs, griffons too, to a lesser extent. I’m… never too sure about the dragons since they tend to be rather aggressive but they are on our borders. By the way Captain, in Equestria we call your species ‘Diamond Dogs’.”

“Good to know. So you can teach us?”

“Well… we’ll likely have to send a request message for detailed books on non-Equestrian species but we can and will help with ponies, flight and magic.” Sidereal perked up.

“I’d be an idiot to scoff at the opportunity of assistance.” Dilip muttered as he stood up and walked over to the Doctor. “So…” He held up his paw. "Let's start over... May I offer you my welcome to Copenhagen, Doctor?”

A red hoof connected met his cream furred paw.

“Gladly, Captain.”

Dilip ushered the group of five ponies outside where the unimog he had come with was parked. Roberto was there, the Italian cat quietly smoking a cigarette and leaning against the side of the vehicle.

“Survivors?” He asked, eyeing the approaching Captains and ponies.

“Aliens technically.” Dilip told him. “It’s a long story, mind if I ride in the back while you take us back to Amandine?”

Roberto stared dubiously at his superior for a second before shaking his head, muttering a very sarcastic sounding ‘Ma certo…’ under his breath.

“What is this?” Cheese asked to no one in particular. The lanky mare may have been tall by pony standards but the military truck still utterly dwarfed her.

“You… don’t have cars and trucks?” Raimund said quizzically.

“No… Is this some kind of cart? We saw plenty of these on our way here but we just assumed there was a system to pull them.”

“Sort of I guess? We use vehicles like these a lot to move around on land, it has an engine in the front to propel it forward. They’re ahem… vehicles like that, along with ships and planes are at the core of our civilization.”

“You mean it’s self-propelled? Like a train?” Radiant almost gushed. The Pegasus flew over to the front of the vehicle to take a look at the grill covers. “We never managed to miniaturize steam engines that much in Equestria so they’re only there for large vehicles like airships and the Friendship Express.”

“Actually it runs on diesel. Few vehicles still run on steam nowadays, it’s just too big and slow to react.” Gerig said, struggling a little to climb in the back of the truck.

The seats were raised already, with the tarpaulin’s side raised for view but not completely removed so as to keep passengers in the shade.

“Diesel?”

“As in, petrol. Refined oil, it’s a combustion engine. Mind getting in?” The German asked the Pegasus who was still hovering in front of the truck.

The pegasus’s large eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store. In a blur, he flew right in front of the Captain’s face.

“Combustion you say?! Our best engineers can only manage barely-working prototypes of the stuff!”

“Engineer?” The filly asked in a flat tone.

“Navigator actually… but I sometimes assist as airship engineer.” The Pegasus boasted.

“Sit down then, might be necessary when we come in view of the ships.” The pink unicorn filly told him.

By then all of his fellow ponies were sat down on the benches with their saddlebags piled up in the front part of the vehicle. Radiant smiled sheepishly and glided down to take a seat between Gust and Sidereal. Dilip gave a tap on the back of the cabin, signaling for Roberto to get then on the move.

The Pegasus looked like he was having the time of his life when the Italian turned the key and the truck started up with a rumble. Roberto backed away from the entrance checkpoint, leaving the guards behind as he steered them towards the quays where the ships were moored.

The ships were a mere kilometer away from the entrance. That small a distance was actually enough to bring awe in the minds of the otherworldly visitors in the back of the truck. They gaped at the sight of the tall container stacks and the cargo cranes that dotted the landscape of the harbor.

But that reaction was dwarfed by the one they had at the sight of the two ships.

By then they had already finished modifying the crane on the Rhine so that it could be used to pick up stuff alongside the vessel. The five Equestrians were thus able to see some sailors proceed to use it to pick up some large steel structures two welders were busily assembling on the quays next to the large barge carrier.

“This is my vessel, the Rhine Forest. She’s a bit old I’ll admit, but we take good care of her.” Gerig smiled softly.

“Th- this is…” Radiant stuttered.

“Gigantic!” Cheese blurted out.

“Well, as a barge carrier she’s a bit on the heavy side but there are many vessels bigger than her. In fact last I checked before the Event struck, Shell Prelude was almost twice as long as she is. We were busy doing works on her when you arrived.”

“Bigger?!” Radiant looked at Gerig as if she had just sprouted wings and become a Princess. “That thing here is easily five times as long as the average merchant airship in Equestria!”

“Eh, our industry moved away from airships. Too inefficient.” The German snorted. “Either they had a habit of blowing up or they just couldn’t carry enough cargo.”

“And how much cargo are we talking about exactly?” Sidereal asked.

“Captain Gerig’s ship is able to load up to thirty thousand tons of cargo in his barges. That’s the yellow floating boxes see…” Dilip pointed his paw towards some empty barges they had moored alongside the Rhine to make room for the modifications. “As for Amandine, her deadweight is a bit less than half of what the Rhine carries, but she’s made to carry road vehicles. Trucks, cars, trailers… containers too sometimes, but dedicated container vessels are more cost-effective for that particular cargo.”

Radiant’s gaze turned towards the bow of the grey and white vessel moored just behind the Rhine. His large eyes drifted over her sleek bow and rounded flanks.

Gust let out a disgusted cry as the other pegasus’ wings stood up straight.

“Cadance bless me, I’ve fallen in love.” He drooled.

Dilip just chuckled.

It was just impossible to get everyone together for just one presentation. Many sailors had shifts to do around the docks, be it as guards, workers on the Rhine or even just training. Dilip quickly explained that to the Equestrians and told them they would have to organize multiple presentations to the crews of either ship at different times.

“I figure it’s not that big of a deal.” Sidereal nodded. The mare had donned a hardhat when they boarded Amandine at Dilip’s request. “There are multiple things that will need to be addresses and we may need a bit of time to prepare it…” She mused, looking around at the large holds that made Amandine’s inner decks.

To be frank there wasn’t much activity in there at that time of the day. She could hear grinding noises coming from an area near the bow of the vessel the Captain had labeled as the workshop but beside that it was all just containers stacked two by two and parked vehicles, some of which clashed from the rest with their menacing angles and drab olive green paintjob.

Gerig was gone now, the unicorn filly (the sight of which still perturbed the red mare, Celestia knew she was young enough to be her daughter, hard to attach the ‘Captain’ rank to that) claiming she still had a lot of paperwork to go through on her own ship.

“We have offices for that. By the way, I assumed this was implied but I wish to offer you my hospitality on board of my vessel. Should you wish to stay here, we have some free cabins for all of your team. You only need to ask so I can tell my Chief Steward.” Dilip told her, amusedly staring at the form of Radiant who was looking around so fast he looked like he was about to break his neck.

That behavior only earned an exasperated eye roll from his superior though. Celestia knew the pony had been doing that every time they found something new.

“Much appreciated Captain. It’s been a while we’ve been on the road, I feel like my team could appreciate modern appliances and actual beds.” Sidereal smiled.

“Bucking right we could! My back’s killing me!” Pulp cried out from the back of the group as he pulled his saddlebags from the unimog’s bed, the weight difference making the truck’s suspension rise a few centimeters and finally allowing Roberto to take it deeper inside, back into storage.

“Language Pulp.” Sidereal chastised him. “Though to be fair, he is right, hard soil hasn’t done much good to my spine.” She winced.

“You have my sympathy. On the bright side the transformation rid me of my own age-related back pains, so I got that going for me.” Dilip slowly walked over to a large sliding door near Amandine’s stern ramp.

The lift actually. He was never too fond of using it for stuff that wasn’t supplies and injured crewmembers, but he figured the ponies would welcome the help with their saddlebags. One press of a button later, the door slid aside, showing the five ponies what to them just looked like a small room.

“What is this?” Cheese wondered aloud.

“Cargo lift. I figured you would appreciate it, what with all those bags you carry around.”

“On a ship? That’s a first.” Radiant admitted.

“I get the feeling you’re going to see many firsts today.” Dilip commented offhandedly as he shoved his key in the slot that would lead them to the deck where the cafeteria and ratings’ rooms were.

Merchant vessels like Amandine weren’t made with a lot of cabins to begin with. Passengers were a rarity and, in many cases, a legal liability that came with a whole new set of legislations. That didn’t mean they didn’t have some spare cabins to offer the Equestrians. Dilip quickly called Farkas over via the interphone and had her lead the five ponies to their cabins, with Sidereal even getting one of the Officer-sized VIP cabins.

While the sphinx kept the visitors busy, the pariah dog (or maybe he should start saying Diamond Dog now? That was the correct name apparently) snuck away and had what crewmen he could find quickly pass around the message that they were not to ever mention anything that could remotely be linked to the HPI to the visitors.

Not an hour later, the ponies found themselves inside Amandine’s cafeteria for lunch. Not all of them though, since apparently the Captain had invited the Doctor to dine with him and the Chief Officer.

To say they were surprised by the lingering smell of spices would have been an understatement.

“Sweet Celestia, what do they put in the food there?!” Gust complained as he rubbed a gold furred hoof over his runny nostrils.

“Spices, lots of them.” A grey minotaur said as he sat down next to the group with his own plate. “A necessity considering how poorly herbivores react to the smell of meat. Hope you guys don’t mind, the lots of us got used to it overtime.”

“We uh… we can make do mister…?” Cheese trailed off.

“Molnàr, but you can just call me Angelo. I’m the Second Engineer by the way.” He told the unicorn, one large hand held up towards her.

“Well met then Angelo.” She smiled and shook his hand. “I’m Cheese Cake.”

“Odd name.” The Minotaur commented.

“Pot calling the kettle back.” Gust said. “Your names just sound like random syllables put together to us.”

“First off that’s because they’re not English…” He paused to take a bite of his goulash, leftovers from the day before. “… Second, if memory serves centuries ago human names may have sounded more like yours but overtime they sort of…transformed to become what they are because people would just shorten them and mess up the pronunciation.” He shrugged. “At least that’s the way I understood it, I’m no language expert.”

“So where do you come from actually?” This time it was Pulp who asked the question.

“Greece, or Athens to be precise. It’s a coastal nation thousands of miles south of there. Warm weather, many rocky archipelagos and plenty of olive trees. And of course the ruins of civilizations spanning thousands of years too… tends to attract a lot of tourists.” He explained between two mouthfuls. “Would have loved to stay there more, but it’s pretty poor by global standards so I had to find a good paying job elsewhere so…” He waved his large hand around. “Edó eímai…”

“That’s you mother language?” Cheese gushed. “Fascinating! How many are there?”

“Languages?” Angelo quirked an eyebrow. “Dunno… I heard that the total count was well above five thousand but as far as I’m concerned there are only about a hundred that are actually relevant on a global scale. And even then I can only speak two.”

“Five thousand? Holy horseapples!” Gust called.

“Many of those are languages only spoken by a thousand peoples, isolated tribes in the jungle or in the middle of some far off archipelago. It’s a big world out there you know.” Angelo said. “Others include regional variants of a larger language, or even crossover areas that develop their own language that’s really a mix of two bigger languages, or more. I mean, there’s a whole science behind that, but I’d rather stick to my machinery.”

On the other end of the table, Radiant was practically vibrating in place, numerous questions for the Greek Engineer practically hanging on the tip of his muzzle. It was a shame really that Angelo’s attention was instead focused on Pulp, or rather the way the Earth Pony was eating.

“How do you do that?” Angelo asked.

“Do what?” The stallion paused, his spoon somehow held in his flat, fingerless hoof.

“Hold your spoon.”

“That?” Pulp’s ear twitched once. “No clue, all ponies can though. Nopony ever questions it.” He shrugged before shoveling some more goulash down his throat. “Good stuff by the way, spicy… but good.”

The minotaur stared off in the distance for a couple seconds before looking back to his plate, muttering some things about ‘physics-defying nudists’. The table went silent for a few minutes as they all enjoyed their meal, some more curious about the foreign recipe than others. Many on the crew really enjoyed Nguyen’s decision to start venturing into something that wasn’t the usual Asian food they served in the kitchen, though they could still spot traces of his usual style. Angelo was pretty sure the Vietnamese cat had added ginger in the recipe at some point, along with other spices that definitely wouldn’t have been found in more… traditional goulash recipes.

Not that it soured the meal. The end result was actually surprisingly palatable.

By the time Angelo set down his spoon, Radiant appeared like he couldn’t take it anymore.

“You looking for the toilets bud?” Angelo asked.

“Wha- No!” Radiant replied. “You said you were Engineer right?”

“Nai.” He nodded.

“As in… engine room Engineer?”

“What, you wanna visit it?”

“… Can I? Pretty please?” The Pegasus asked him, forehooves clasped together in a pleading manner.

“Probably. I’d have to ask Schmitt –the Chief Engineer that is- if you can since it’s a fairly dangerous place but there’s no super-secret tech to speak of.” Angelo said. “You seem rather curious.”

“Don’t you say he is.” Pulp snorted amusedly. “He’s been acting like a colt in a candy shop ever since we arrived.”

“Am not!” Radiant protested.

“You kind of are.” Cheese told him. “Right Gust?”

“Eeyup, wouldn’t shut up ‘bout ‘airships can’t do that’ or ‘only in schematics back home’. For Faust’s sake Radiant, I caught you gushing over the bucking toilets.”

Angelo suppressed a chuckle.

“Speaking of which, they’re vacuum toilets. Don’t get your tail caught in there otherwise it’s the snip.” The Greek warned them, his fingers making a scissor motion.

By a sheer stroke of luck, Mohammed passed by their table at that exact moment, the sphinx’s tail lacking half the tuft of black hair at the tip of his tail.

“I’m still amazed at the sheer variety of species you got on your ship…” Cheese gaped.

“Wasn’t the intention really.” The minotaur shrugged. “But the species and now your appearance does make me wonder…”

“’bout what?” Gust asked.

Angelo just waved a hand vaguely at the two pegasi sitting at the table.

“Minotaurs, pegasuses-“

“Pegasi” Gust corrected him.

“Whatever, sphinxes too, among other species. Many of these are species that are not unknown to humans. Thing is, they were supposed to be the work of fiction, old myths that date back further than I can fathom.” He rubbed his horn pensively. “Some details are a bit iffy… but it does seem odd that species from another world would turn out to be just like those mentioned in ancient fiction. Are you sure you guys got the full story from your superiors?”

“We haven’t been told much you know. For us, it’s just… get out there, find survivors, teach them about their new bodies.” Pulp admitted. “Even Sidereal doesn’t, and she’s been complaining about it since the beginning of the expedition. You pair that with the monsters and… Well, while I consider myself rather trusting of our government, this clause about one operative seeking someone to pass so-called ‘sensitive information’…” The Earth Pony made some air quotes with his hooves. “…gives me feelings that once again the little pony is getting bucked over.”

“You and me both pal.” Gust nodded.

Author's Notes:

In a way it's kinda ironic. Not a single one of the sailors on either ship speaks English as their mother language... and then native-speaker aliens turn up.

For the sake of the story (and also for my own sanity) I tend not to go too deep into the accents of some crewmembers. I don't think anybody needs to be reminded every line that they all speak with accents, though I'll admit the vocabulary of the ratings is miles ahead of what should be expected in a real situation.

Bart's an exception since he didn't speak English in the first place, which is why I try to keep his sentences simple when he's speaking English, same goes for the random Dutch words.