“You saw what?”

“Irish flag, top of the city hall.” Aleksei told Dilip. “I’m pretty sure what that’s supposed to mean…”

“Trouble, that’s what it means.” The Diamond Dog sighed, pinching his muzzle. “Did you see anyone?”

“No Captain.” His Second Engineer shuffled in her seat. “We came back as soon as we spotted the flag. Saw nobody, interacted with nobody.”

They were in Dilip’s office, the docking plans that would normally occupy the Captain momentarily set aside to let Aleksei explain exactly what she’d seen. Raimund was there too, the pink mare sitting on her haunches on one side of the room with her forehooves crossed over her chest, listening intently.

The Captain’s eyes flicked towards the hippogriff, before focusing back on the report he was perusing. In it were a couple photos Scarface had snapped of the area, including some of the dead manticore.

“And what do you think?”

“The City Hall is basically a fortress. Going by the state of the manticore…” She tapped a talon against the picture. “It seems they have a sniper on overwatch. And they’re not hiding it with the…”

“The road sign.” Dilip nodded.

From the size of the wounds on the monster, the sniper in question was heavily armed as well. How he got his hands (or whatever fit the bill) on a large caliber rifle in Belfast… No wait; if he really was IRA, then the UK’s strict gun laws wouldn’t matter either way.

“Captain, what are we going to do about it?” Aleksei inquired.

“For now? Nothing. That’s downtown Belfast scouted at least. Tomorrow I want you to go north of the city towards Kilroot and Carrickfergus. Inspect the power station and locate the substations we need to fix to bring back power to the repair yard.”

And with that he sent her off. Schmitt needed her help to plan out how they’d go about repairing the bow section, and Roberto wanted all the Engineers to look at their intel files to figure out where they might be able to locate the proper parts. Or at least the machinery and resources to make them. He was pretty sure they’d need a hydraulic press to adjust the steel plates they found to the right shape.

Well, unless they wanted Amandine’s bow to look like a badly rendered computer model. And if they wanted to achieve Amandine’s top speed ever again, they’d have to make sure to rebuild her as streamlined as possible.

The Diamond Dog waited until he heard Aleksei walk down the stairs before he pulled another document from a drawer. Repair time estimations signed by both Schmitt and Fugro’s Chief Engineer.

Time to communicate it to their ‘patrons’ then…

“Eko’s going to be pissed.” Raimund said.

“Yeah…” Dilip sighed as he began booting up his computer to contact the HPI agent. “He is.”

The agent had already seemed rather wary when Dilip told him about the collision by satellite mail. Still, Eko had given him a timeframe for a video call to further explain how that would impact their due delivery.

A quick check of his watch -a replacement as of now, wider Diamond Dog wrists had forced him to abandon his old Breitling- later, he called up Eko’s number. The Indonesian’s face appeared on screen a minute later, Raimund trotting over to be in sight of the webcam.

As for their HPI contact, he looked… weary. Not physically so, but the look he sported on his face was about as emotionally drained as a human could get without someone dying. He was sitting behind his desk, as usual, except this time he had shed his vest which was hanging on a peg in sight of the webcam, leaving him in a white dress shirt with his suspenders visible and his tie thrown over his shoulder. He was also unshaven, the hair on his shin starting to edge into unkempt territory.

“Greetings Eko.” Dilip started with a curt nod. “How goes?”

“Tiring, but manageable.” Eko admitted before pulling out a printed copy of their previous mail in sight of the webcam.

Eko’s look turned into a glare.

“You’re playing a dangerous game Captain.”

“I thought we already were over the ‘alien’ thing.”

“That ‘alien’ thing is what’s making it even more difficult to appease my superiors. Not only did you hide them from our knowledge, now I need to explain why the delivery of critical prototypes we were supposed to receive in the first place will turn up late. Regardless of how valuable the intel you send us is, you’re not being a very cooperative ally, Prateek.” Eko said, Dilip’s name coming with an acidic tone. “Had it been any other agent taking care of your case, that would have been enough to sever your contracts. For both of you.”

“We had our reasons, and ultimately we did share the intel.” Raimund stated.

“The Upper Echelon doesn’t care for whatever reasons you can muster. What they do see, is that their supposed allies that I was vouching for waited for weeks until revealing the fact they had hosted aliens on their vessels.”

Dilip winced. He had expected that decision to bite them in the ass somewhere down the line. What he didn’t expect, was that a ship popping out of nowhere would drain what little brownie points they had left with the shady organization after their little stunt.

“Look, the delay isn’t even that bad. We were going to show up ahead of time anyway.” The Indian tried.

“How bad?”

Dilip glanced down at the repair time estimations.

“Look, normally we’d have turned up two weeks ahead of time.” Raimund jumped in to Dilip’s help.

“How. Bad.” Eko repeated.

“Four weeks total. We’ll be two weeks late to Savannah if things go as planned.”

And that was already a generous estimation, considering they were running a repair yard with less than a hundred workers and less than a dozen welders. It was a miracle they could use telekinesis and magic to speed up the process, otherwise they might have been stuck repairing for months.

On the screen, the two Captains watched their contact pinch his nose in frustration and mutter what sounded like swear words in Malay. He let out a long, drawn-out sigh, before finally turning his gaze back to the Diamond Dog and unicorn on his screen.

“You both are extremely lucky no other alternatives have popped up on our radar otherwise there is no way I could convince my superiors to keep the contract going. That delay will force us to revise planned schedules in nearly all of our departments…”

“I’m terribly sorry ab-“Raimund began before being cut off by Eko.

“Excuses won’t do.” He said sharply. “I’m sure you won’t be surprised about this, but these circumstances force me to reduce the credit reward for your delivery by half.”

This time it was Raimund’s turn to frown. No way they would work for half the pay.

“Let me remind you of one thing: we already have your cargo on board and ready for delivery.” She fired back. “So, let’s reach an agreement and cut down the penalty to thirty percent.”

Hearing that, Dilip turned an alarmed look towards the small pink mare sitting next to him. What the Hell was she even thinking?!

“Thirty?” Eko scoffed. “As if you’d even have gotten away with that kind of penalty before the Event. I’ll be generous and say forty-five.”

“Forty-five isn’t even enough to make it appealing.” Raimund rolled her baby blue eyes at the offer. “Still, I’ll say thirty-five and we’re good… Plus…” She smiled. “I’m willing to make a promise on one delivery of up to two FEU worth of nuclear materials in the coming months, with fifteen percent off on the reward if we put this incident past us. That should give you something to appease your superiors.”

“It will.” Eko said, his features still hard albeit with a hint of relief creasing his brows. “I believe that we got ourselves a deal, Captain Gerig. Have a nice day.”

The screen went black. There was a tense moment of silence before Dilip slowly turned his head towards his colleague.

“What the fuck Raimund?! I thought we weren’t going to do nuclear fuel!”

“Relax, that one is on me.” She reassured him. “You keep Amandine free of radiation if you want, Rhine will carry that load.”

“Yeah, you’d better…” The Indian mumbled.

If the sailors keeping the perimeter around the repair yard secure were any better at their job, they would have spotted the glint of a sniper scope coming from a building half a mile away.

But they didn’t, which showed to the dragon behind the scope of the anti-material rifle that these guys were not military. Their ships didn’t bear British flags either, so at least that was a plus in his books. They were obviously preparing to use the graving dock, with trucks pouring out of the grey-and-white Ro/Ro to explore nearby warehouses.

The dragon in question was yet another human-turned-teenage-dragon, as most did due to the difference in aging. Still, for a dragon his age he was rather tall. His scales were an emerald green he had covered in soot to prevent them from reflecting sunlight. Unlike many dragons, he also didn’t have horns or spikes, instead having a fin-like ridge running down his back, its mate yellow color matching that of his eyes. He was wearing the same uniform he had worn with the Provisionals during the Troubles: woodland vest, black cargo pants, and his black beret, all of it already adapted to fit his new form. He even had a couple pouches to hold the huge .50cal mags for his rifle, and a tan camo net covering his back like a cloak, hiding his folded wings.

His men… drakes… ponies -or whatever fit the bill- had also reported a team of sailors spotting their HQ at the City Hall. Judging by how that team fled as soon as they spotted the city hall, they were aware of his organization’s reputation.

Good, that meant they wouldn’t cause too much trouble. The Irish dragon already had his claws full with the Loyalists north of town.

For a moment, he pondered simply walking up to their checkpoint and initiating contact.

Nah.

Let the Loyalists do it first, for all the difference it would make. This was their island, and now they finally had their chance to free it from the British invaders after eight centuries of occupation. A bunch of sailors wouldn’t stop that.

On that thought, Finnegan slung his rifle across his back and escaped, opening his wings and starting to jump from rooftop to rooftop, back to the City Hall. Better get his guys ready for what was to come.

Down in the guts of Amandine, a hatch clanked open in a dark space before a grey Pegasus plopped down with a grunt. He had a headlamp attached to his forehead, scanning the darkness for something.

Behind, there was another more feminine grunt as Aleksei followed him inside the cramped compartment. The Engineer reached over Radiant’s shoulder with her talons, flicking a little switch next to them. As soon as she did that, the room lit up with the orange light of sodium lamps, revealing it fully.

It wasn’t so much of a room as it was a tunnel, barely tall enough for even quadrupeds like them to stand up. In fact, the Pegasus was pretty sure a minotaur like Angelo would never fit in there, much less centaurs like those on Rhine Forest. The tunnel seemingly ran along the entire length of the ship, comprising of a set of tiny rails next to a cluster of pipes of various diameters.

It was Amandine’s duct keel. Basically the ship’s spine, with all the piping playing the role of the spinal cord and connecting all the tanks the ship had to the engine room, be they for fuel, ballast water, or even lube. They were at the aft entrance, a small hatch below the engine room leading down to a platform at the beginning of the rails where Radiant could see a tiny cart awaiting.

“Remind me, why are we down here?” Radiant asked as he prodded the -admittedly shoddy- cart with his hoof.

Well, it’s not like they used the thing that often. Last time someone went down there, Geert was still a Cadet -and a he- and she/he had to grease the wheels of said cart. The little thing wasn’t even powered: you had to pull it using a rope attached next to the rails.

“Got a problem with the tank heating system. Schmitt checked the other day and there was a pressure loss in HFO tank 1.” She explained as she pulled the brake lever on the cart.

Saying that only got her a blank look from the Equestrian Pegasus.

Right. Technically only a cadet.

“I take it Angelo has yet to tell you about the tank heating system?”

Radiant nodded, which elicited a sigh from the hippogriff. Whelp, might as well teach her ‘pupil’ while they were at it.

“Alright, grab the rope and start pulling. I’m going to explain as we go.” She said, holding out the rope for him. “So, here’s the thing. Do you remember what kind of fuel this ship runs on?”

“Oil?” Radiant tried as he started pulling.

“Not exactly. Crude oil is barely usable as fuel. Here on board we have two kinds of fuel: heavy fuel oil, which we use on the main engine when in transit, and diesel oil, for the generators and all our vehicles. The main engine can technically run on diesel as well, but HFO is a cheaper distillate overall.”

“Distillate?” One of his ears tilted down in curiosity.

“Yes. Crude oil can be refined in multiple distillates from heavy stuff like asphalt for roads, to lighter stuff like aircraft fuel which we call kerosene. Back to HFO, the stuff works as fuel, but it’s barely above asphalt quality-wise. Practically tar when cold. If we want to keep it in a relatively pumpable state, it has to stay above 80 degrees at all times.”

“Hence the tank heating system.” He guessed.

“Yes. You familiar with steam systems?”

“I’d say.” Radiant deadpanned. “Most common engine type on Equestria, both on airships and seagoing vessels.”

“Then the heating system shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.” Aleksei explained. “Each HFO tank is fitted with a heat exchanger through which we circulate steam that’s fed through those pipes.” She tapped a set of two white pipes next to the cart. “Steam comes out of the boiler, goes through the heat exchangers, comes back as water.”

“Wait, there is boiler?” He paused in pulling the rope.

“A couple of them, two slaves, one master, all below the desalination plant, I’ll show you later, it’s all electric.” She waved off the question for now. “The boiler itself is connected to another heat exchanger that’s not for tank heating: the exhaust economizer. If you go look at the exhaust system, we have it installed just below the scrubber. It allows us to ‘steal’ some heat from the exhaust gases so we don’t need so much power in the boilers themselves.”

“Uh uh…” Radiant nodded, a bead of sweat appearing on his forehead from the exertion as he pulled on the rope with his forehooves. “So… the tank heating is always on?”

“We got a couple hours of ‘thermal inertia’ before the fuel cools down too much in case of blackout but yes, it’s always on.”

She kept explaining the intricacies of the tank heating system whilst the Pegasus labored with the rope. The fact Amandine was trimmed by the stern to counter the damage didn’t help either, since it meant he basically had to pull the cart up an incline. But he managed it, even in the cramped conditions of the duct keel.

They soon found the source of the problem. It had escaped their notice at first, but the impact was jarring enough to damage the connections of the heating system in the foremost starboard tank. A couple pipes were partially disconnected, leaking steam through a damaged seal that had started to form a puddle of freshwater between two bracket frames inside the tunnel. It wasn’t alarming yet, but they’d have to get a welder and a plumber down there to fix the damage.

A matter of an hour or two. It was fortunate they had spotted it so soon, otherwise the unchecked accumulation of water could have become dangerous real quick. Particularly considering they were prepping for a dry-dock visit.

“John isn’t going to be happy.” Radiant commented.

“Happy or not, she’s the ship’s plumber, so she better do her damn job otherwise we’re going to have an entire tank filled with asphalt. Believe me, if you let HFO cool down to asphalt state, you’ll be at it for weeks trying to get it back to liquid state.” Aleksei hissed, wiping some hydraulic fluid that had stuck to her talons on her coveralls.

As a quick fix, she hastily wrapped some Teflon tape around the leak to mitigate it. John would have to come here after hours to fix it, and she didn’t think the Filipino hippogriff would be too happy at the prospect considering how overworked she was already.

That done, Aleksei didn’t let Radiant go immediately. She insisted on pulling the cart a couple meters further to check if the duct keel had suffered any warping damage during the collision. It ultimately didn’t, but the inspection opened them up for an unforeseen incident.

Pretty dumb actually, and Aleksei would later berate herself for forgetting how bloody sensitive the cart’s brake lever could be. It was only natural that when she leaned ahead and told Radiant to scoot over to the side -the cart being cramped enough as is-, one of them would accidentally bump a hoof against the lever.

The Latvian only had enough time to mutter a very heartfelt ‘Oh sūds…’ when she heard the brakes release before the two of them suddenly found themselves rolling at high speed through a dark, cramped utility tunnel, much to both of their horror.

With the Pegasus ‘Cadet’ busy screaming and suffering from tunnel vision as the few lamps inside the tunnel flew by, the female hippogriff straddled him trying to reach the brake lever. Amandine was only so long before their cart hit the access ladder aft of the duct tunnel.

She had no wish to become a meaty pancake stuck inside a tiny compartment.

The hippogriff finally managed to grasp the lever in her talons by pinning Radiant beneath her. With its wheels sparking and screeching, the stupidly fast cart came to a halt a few meters short of the ladder.

For a few moments, Aleksei just laid there, staring at the ladder, her bloodstream filled to the brim with adrenaline, a heavy burnt smell coming from the now red-hot brakes.

And then she realized her posture: her, a female hippogriff, straddling the Pegasus stallion that was now lying on his back.

Aleksei jumped to her limbs faster than you could have said ‘shipping’, frenetically brushing her coveralls with her talons as if that was perfectly intended. The blush on her features, though, was easy to notice through her light green feathers.

“You. Tell. No. One. About. This. Understood?” She ground out, jabbing a talon between Radiant’s eyes to punctuate each word before she quickly escaped through the access ladder.

The Pegasus stood still for a minute after her departure before a cheeky grin creased the edge of his muzzle. His green eyes shone with a glint in the semi-darkness.

“I believe I got a chance…” He whispered to himself, confidently.

The next day saw yet another recce team leaving the docks to explore the area. This time, north of the city towards the Kilroot Power Station. To make the graving dock operational once more, they’d need to restart power in the city’s grid, which was apparently tied to that power station half-an-hour away from downtown Belfast.

It was once again up to Aleksei to lead a team there, though this time she had a bit more equipment along: in addition to the Defender used earlier to scout Belfast itself, they had a ‘mog following them, carrying some tools they felt might be necessary, a long range radio, along with a couple sailors from Rhine’s engineering department, including their electrician and an Engine Cadet in the form of Frederik.

As for who rode alongside her in the Defender, she had kept the same team she had with her in Belfast: Scarface and Thanasis, plus Radiant…

Though the latter was behaving weirdly. Ever since she had taken him to the duct keel, the Pegasus had started giving her odd looks and hanging around her more frequently, even when he didn’t strictly need to.

The two vehicles made their way up one of the many graffiti-covered overpasses that snaked their way above the docklands before following a four-lane highway north, towards Carrickfergus. Belfast’s cityscape disappeared behind them as they followed the road along the bay’s shoreline and through the municipalities that apparently served as residential districts to the bigger city.

The residences themselves were a bit bigger than the tiny worker housing found directly around Belfast, though still far below the Western European average. But that’s pretty much how housing was in the British Isles before the Event: limited space and small-sized plots that resulted in cramped houses, even in the suburbs.

Retail parks, shops and other abandoned businesses lined the sides of the highway, shielding the suburbs from the ruckus of the now deserted highway in a still very urban landscape. The shops there hadn’t been looted yet, though a couple packs of stray dogs -and even a random sheep herd- roamed the streets. It was only once they left Whiteabbey behind them that the green Irish countryside reared its head with a couple pastures and tree groves creeping in between the housing blocks, the vegetation already starting the process of reclaiming the suburban landscape.

Soon enough though, they came into range of Carrickfergus proper.

The town… was nothing exceptional in all honesty. At least that’s how Aleksei perceived it. To the hippogriff’s profane eyes, it only looked like someone had wanted to erect the town specifically alongside the highway with the sole purpose of playing second fiddle to Belfast. The buildings were mismatched: some with poorly assembled bricks, others with whitewashed concrete facades. There were fast-food joints and restaurant or retail chains breaking up what little semblance of order a row of building managed to achieve over a small distance; even the lampposts couldn’t seem to agree on one style, or even the flags they sported: some had Union Jacks hanging from their lamps, others displayed the English flag, and a scant few had tattered Ulster banners hanging from them.

And for some reason there was an old set of Norman fortifications near the marina. Go figure.

Say what you want about Post-Soviet cities, but even the worst of soviet buildings in Riga remained miles ahead of that… mess they called a city. At least her fellow Latvians kept a semblance of harmony in the city along with a profound desire to improve upon the brutalist buildings left behind by Russian occupiers.

Carrickfergus though? If she craned her neck up the hippogriff could spot what looked like the corrugated steel of a warehouse in the middle of the town. The horror.

They thankfully didn’t have to hang out in that eyesore of a town too long. Kilroot was but a few minutes down the road, the power station’s grey concrete smokestack rising high above the surrounding land. The closer they got to it, the more they noticed the infrastructure surrounding it: dozens of electric pylons directing their lines towards the rest of the country, clusters of chrome-plated pipelines going from large cylindrical shore tanks to the station proper, and some coal-stained conveyors that did just the same, except coming from a coal bunker linked to a thin jetty on the bay side of the power station.

Going by the size of the installation, none of the sailors doubted the claim it was supposed to supply a significant part of Northern Ireland with electricity. The boiler and turbine building itself was bigger than any of the skyscrapers they had seen in Belfast itself.

Aleksei waited until they were past the gates before she flicked on her radio with a talon, the frequency letting out a beeping noise to signal the other vehicle in the convoy she was about to speak.

“Alright peeps listen up, I’ll keep this simple. The graving dock in Belfast needs power, and this is the thing we gotta work with. But if we’re gonna do it, we’re gonna do it good, and safely. I want two folks to run a quick check of the fence and keep a tight eye on the gates while the rest are busy. Looking at you Scarface…” She addressed a pointed look over her beak at the Bulgarian veteran.

“Will do.” The gargoyle in the passenger seat nodded, his fingers drumming against the assault rifle in his lap.

“Rest of us… I want one team to look at the oil and coal bunkers and then check out if they’ve got records on consumption. I want to know how much power this plant has left. If you see any significant damage to the installation, please notify me on the radio. I’ll be looking at operational manuals in the control room –when I locate it that is-. Electrician, you’re listening?”

“It’s Johann actually… Over.” She heard him reply over the radio.

She had met the batpony way back when Rhine first reappeared. If rumors were to be trusted, he may be doing some… ahem, stuff with Sandra. Not that she cared overly much, as long as the guy could read wiring diagrams and hold a multimeter, he could do his job. Whatever he did with her friend, that was his business.

Wait, since when did she consider that pushy Dane to be her friend?

The hippogriff mentally shrugged.

“Alright then, Johann.” She drawled. “Find us a plan of the regional grid. It’s good if we can restart the station, but it will be better if we can get the current to Belfast. We need the location and status of the substation. If any of them is damaged, I wanna know if we can reroute the current around, or if we can fix them. Roger? Over.”

“Crystal ma’am. Over.” He replied.

And with that she keyed off the radio after repeating the usual procedures. More or less that is, she was an engie, not a deckie. Hence… no official radio or GMDSS license.

“Anything I can do?” Radiant eagerly asked from the back.

“Well you’re already familiar with boiler and steam turbines I think?” The hippogriff said as she slowly guided the Defender towards a parking lot next to what appeared to be the power plant’s offices. “You ought to be able to help with that… probably.” She shrugged with her wings.

“Gladly!” The Pegasus replied with a wide smile.

The hippogriff in the driver’s seat awkwardly shifted before turning her eyes towards the power station. She didn’t know what had gotten into the Pegasus, but maybe she could have him run errands on the other side of the building while she was busy.

Either way, they were going to have a busy afternoon.

Warning: explicit sexual content is present in the next scene

Back in Belfast, two Cadets finally managed to get a moment for themselves on Rhine. That moment, they chose to make a good use of by slipping away inside of Seb’s cabin.

The unicorn mare’s cabin was pretty much like all ratings’ on the barge carrier, though ever since Rhine’s return and the revelation they might be there for a while, she had started to personalize it.

The back wall with the single porthole had already been repainted to match her dark red coat, along with other stuff like a plasma TV, a better computer, and a collection of books –several of them related to DnD with notes stuck between the pages-. She also had a couple posters of festivals she had been to decorating the walls: Tomorrowland, Pukkelpop, even Graspop.

Perks of living in Belgium… plenty of festivals to attend to every summer. She’d better commit them to memory, because she doubted there would even be enough people on Earth to organize any for the coming decades.

She also had a picture of Carla and her from before the Event swapped their genders around, framed on her desk. She barely addressed it a glance as the two Cadets barged in the room and practically bounced their way onto her mattress.

“What a day uh…” Seb breathed out as she laid down on her back, hooves spread and crackling her back.

Doc Delacroix had now deemed her well enough to resume manual work… and the Officers sure didn’t need the Doc to repeat herself. Even with the help of telekinesis, all the maintenance work had run her ragged. At this point, she’d readily take the otherwise boring checkpoint duty over just scraping biofouling off the hull of Rhine’s auxiliaries.

“You don’t say.” Carla commented, the bigger male hippogriff joining her on the bed and wrapping a forelimb behind her rump. “At least you can do stuff without touching that…” He shuddered. “That gunk.”

Seb chuckled. The hippogriff may have been genderswapped, but that reaction alone told her even though he had quite the junk hanging between his legs, it was still the same Carla she had grown to love before she got feathers and the ability to ‘go mermaid’.

“It ain’t funny!” The grey hippogriff protested vehemently.

“I think it is… if only a bit.” She smiled and ruffled the blue mane/crest of feathers on top of his head. “You look all strong and manly, yet if it’s icky you still act like a prissy lil’ girl.”

Carla rolled over on his belly, pinning the mare down on the mattress with a wide grin on his beak. His sapphire-colored eyes shone with a glint as he stared deep into Seb’s own magenta irises.

“Would a ‘prissy lil’ girl’ do that?” He crowed.

Seb crossed her forehooves behind Carla’s neck and hoisted herself closer.

“Please, you and I both know you have no idea how to use what you’ve been gifted with, however sizeable it is, horsecock.” She teasingly whispered in his ear before giving his cheek a quick peck.

“I totally do!” He insisted. “And it’s not like you have any experience on the other side either way.” He huffed.

“I’ll admit, I don’t.” Her ear flicked at the admission before a smile appeared on her muzzle. “But unlike you I don’t even need to touch you to get you off.”

“Wha-“ Carla began before he felt a tingling sensation between his legs.

He had already been quite ‘ready’ just by pressing himself against the mare, but this was more than the intense, focussed feeling of male arousal he was still rather unaccustomed with. Seb still had her hooves wrapped around his neck, the heat of her core palpable even through both their coveralls, but now her horn had taken on the familiar glow of magic coursing through it.

His eyes widened in realization.

“You little hoer, shoulda known I could trust you to turn telekinesis into something kinky.” He breathed out, feeling a gentle constriction wrap around his member and start massaging it expertly.

Seb was indeed rather effective at this, a few seconds of the treatment enough to bring him near bursting point. Not that he’d have let her finish him without returning the favor, a single look in her eyes was enough to tell…

She was ready… and the nostrils atop his beak pretty much confirmed it by scent alone.

“Ready for your own bit of discovery?” He smiled down at her.

The mare didn’t answer. Instead, he heard a drawer open and out flew a packaged condom. That was all he needed to know, a few seconds later both had shed off their dirty coveralls and were making out passionately on the bed.

Seb still had her horn lit up with telekinesis, and her much bigger hippogriff boyfriend now had his claws wrapped around her rump with his thumb-talons flicking her teats in earnest, which elicited a soft mewl from her.

“You know… I think Seb isn’t really a fitting name for you anymore…” Carla whispered in her ear before gently nipping at it with his beak.

“Speak for yourself, Carl.” She countered, squeezing the base of his knot in passing as if to make a point.

To which he replied by plunging two talons inside her dripping snatch, the gesture and intrusion almost enough to make her eyes roll back in her head. Damn, she never knew females had it so good before she got to try it herself, and she hadn’t even tried anything on her lonesome yet.

Or maybe it was just that way for ponies, not that she could tell.

“I think I should call you… hmm… that’s it! You’re Dot!” He exclaimed, talons still plunged inside her.

“Dot?” She cocked her head and threw him a look with her eyes half-lidded from sheer pleasure.

“Matches that nice mark you got on your flank.” He smiled down at her.

One thing was for certain about said mark, was that they would not be calling it a ‘Cutie-Marks’ like Equestrians did. Hers though, was rather odd. The first time she looked at it, it was simply a round black dot –the letter E in Morse-, then one day it had changed to a dot and a bar.

In fact ever since she had reappeared, she had gone through the entire Morse alphabet several times over, changing between letters at random.

“Hmm, fitting I guess, and not that bad sounding.” She agreed, giving a small lick on the underside of his beak, much to Carla’s embarrassment. “I guess I could use that. What says you finally make things simple and become Carl?”

“I dunno…” The hippogriff rolled his wings, making the joints at the base crack as he flexed the powerful muscles inside them. “It all feels a bit sudden right now…”

‘Dot’ laid back down and extended her hind legs outwards, fully revealing her marehood to her partner, her own blue spiky tail flicking from side to side in anticipation.

“So let’s seal that naming ceremony and finish it.” She beckoned him with a hoof, her horn finally releasing its telekinetic grip on Carl’s junk.

Carl himself was all too happy to comply, in a flick of his wrist that betrayed how unfamiliar he was with his new assets; he had a condom over his member and finally got to give Dot the rutting she so brazenly asked for.

In the privacy of their cabin, Carla became Carl, and Seb became Dot.

Aleksei and her team didn’t find enough time that day to restart the power plant. While they did spend their time there preparing how they’d go about it and calculating whether or not the power plant would even have enough fuel for the entire duration of the repairs –which it did, thankfully-, the group certainly wasn’t ready to boot up the systems by the time dusk came.

Well at least they’d be ready to whenever the Captains gave the order.

Right then she was perched at the top of the plant’s smokestack, her wings half-open to catch the refreshing breeze of the early evening. The rainy overcast weather had long settled, leaving breaks in the cloud cover that now shone a bright pink from the rays of the setting sun, a nice change of pace from the otherwise dreary atmosphere of Carrickfergus and the power plant.

She still had a couple spare minutes to observe the sights before the rest of the team was done tidying up the office they had commandeered for their little operation. It may or may not have been a bit messy after they had gathered all the manuals and notes they needed there, but hey, it had a working coffee machine they plugged to a mobile generator.

Off in the distance, thin plumes of smoke rose above Belfast. Three from around the docks –their ships-, and a thinner one that marked the City Hall they had yet to initiate contact with.

Not that she blamed the Captains for being wary. If their assumptions were correct, the guys holed up in there weren’t to be messed with. Last thing they wanted was to be car-bombed.

Aleksei shifted on her haunches to grab a canteen of lukewarm coffee attached to her flak jacket. She was half-tempted to pull out her phone and snap a picture of the bay right then, but a fluttering of wings stopped her before she could act on that whim.

A quiet sigh escaped her beak when Radiant’s grey silhouette popped up on the edge of her vision. The Pegasus landed on top of the smokestack behind her and pranced over proudly.

“Office tidied up all nice and convoy ready to leave boss.” He intoned cheerfully, his wings fluffed up and muzzle held high.

“Good.” She nodded, making a point of ignoring the Equestrian’s oddly prideful demeanor. She took one last sip of her coffee before reattaching the canteen to its holster. “Time to get going then, don’t wanna miss supper.”

She opened her wings to their full extent and let herself drop down the side of the smokestack, gliding back down to the parking space where she could already see Scarface waiting with the engine on. A flapping noise behind her ensured Radiant was indeed following.

“Did you make sure all windows and doors were closed? Last thing I want is for a monster to sneak in while we’re away.”

“All closed, the keys are inside the Landy.” He replied, still gliding behind her.

Why was she so sure he was staring at her rump again? Did he even know she intended to turn back male as soon as she figured out how? Whatever… They all piled up in the convoy and left the power plant after making sure the gates were closed, signaling to the ships over the radio that they were headed back to Belfast.

There was a hick though.

Because just as they were driving through Carrickfergus; the convoy met an obstacle just next to the Norman fort in the form of a Vauxhall Vectra. A police Vauxhall, with the usual white paintjob and blue-and-yellow checkered pattern on the sides, now blocking off the road.

There was a unicorn stallion sitting on his haunches atop the hood, wearing a muddy and ill-fitted set of the PSNI’s usual bottle green uniform.

“Convoy to Amandine…” Aleksei announced over the radio. “Be advised: we will come back with a delay. We have made contact with British loyalists. Out.”

Her stomach tightened. Turns out, they would be late for supper.

Author's Notes:

According to data I found, Kilroot provides power to a third of the Northern Irish grid. If that ain't enough to run the pumps on one graving dock then you're probably doing something wrong.

I checked, it does have a couple quays as well to bring in fuel. Problem is... only one of them has enough depth to receive the ships and it's the T-berth for oil. The coal quays are made for low-draft colliers, not full-scale seagoing vessels.

For those wondering, a T-berth is a specific type of mooring point made for tankers. They're built a few ways off the shore to allow for larger vessels, but in exchange for that there is just a tiny strip that connects it to the share. Just large enough for the pipeline and a walkway.

As for the Republicans holed up in Belfast... with the hints I dropped there should be enough material to figure out exactly what their leader was involved in.