On board of Georgia, in control, Ignacio… was pissed. Very much so in fact. At first she’d thought they had grounded far closer to the surface than she’d assumed. They were in fact so deep below the surface there was no hope they could ever get the snorkel mast to the surface, not from six hundred feet below the surface.

Worse even, the failed emergency blow Gardner had attempted had not only put them in a worse position and damaged the outer hull, it had also nearly emptied their compressed air banks. So far down, they could recycle air for breathing, but that didn’t account for air needed to run machinery. They had one fully pressurized compressed air bank, but the other four were drained, with no way to refill them. The situation, in Ignacio’s private opinion, sucked rocks big time.

“Eng? Think you can make it work?” The Exec asked her after he had a quick chat with the Dive Officer.

“I’m thinking, sir.” She frowned. “I just had a call with the maneuvering room, quick report on the status of the reactor.”

“And how is it doing?”

“That’s one thing we don’t have to worry TOO much about, sir,” Ignacio reported. “We’re in natural circulation mode. No need for pumps and the works, it’s all run on density differentials. Got the electric loads carried by the port generator. Because we’re lying some on the starboard side, I have all starboard seawater intakes shut and are using cross-connects for the ASW systems. Sure we’re short on power with the natural circulation, but we’re not using the main engine or the coolant pumps, so we’re good. If nothing else goes wrong, reactor-wise we’re pretty well off. Life support, I will have to look into some more, but everything is working for now. We do have the O₂ candles and Lithium-Hydroxide canisters if all else fails.”

The navy blue Earth Pony slowly mulled over her words as he distractedly rubbed his forehoof against the side of the comms station.

“How long we got? I mean… don’t account for any repairs you could do now, at the current rate, how long do we have before we lose something vital?”

“That...” She rubbed a paw against the back of her neck, mentally hating the fact her large arms kept rubbing against her recently-acquired breasts. “That really depends on what damage there is. Right now, all is well, except for the fact we’re stuck on the bottom.”

“Are the batteries in working order?”

“Haven’t checked yet, sir.” She told. “But expect SOME problems because of the angle we’re at and the amount of water in the AMS bilges, plus we have to worry about hull integrity. As soon as we get this shitpile sorted out enough so we can find out who we have to work with and what, I’ll have the battery inspected. Without diesel it’s our only backup if the reactor spazzes out. We lose it, tough luck.”

“Alright, thanks.” Graham sighed loudly, blowing a strand of his mane out of his eyes. “Until the Captain wakes up, we’ll go as such: you keep this reactor going for as long as you need to. If you need a couple of...” He stared at his own hooves. “… actual hands, then come to the forward sections and requisition whoever you need. The reactor is our lifeline, it must stay online. On my side, I’ll...”

He quickly turned around and finally decided to flip a safety orange latch he’d been eyeing for the last few minutes. There was a clunk in the back of the sail, quickly followed by the sound of a cable unwinding.

“There, I just released the distress buoy and the radar beacon. Distress call out. Now… now we wait for Squadron to acknowledge the call and send help. I’ll stay here in Control and monitor the going-ons in this part of the boat.”

“Sir.” Ignacio paced around the compartment, receiving concerned glances from Rhodes and Gardner. “What shall we tell the crew?”

“The truth. We tell them the truth.” Graham slowly uttered. “They’re not going to like the news, but keeping it under a lid would only do worse in the long run when they learn it’s that bad. Tell them to start packing, ‘cause as soon as Kings Bay sends us help we’re going to have to abandon ship.”

For a couple seconds, she glanced at him dubiously, but the large Earth Pony remained unwavering until she accepted it with a nod. She lowered her muzzle with a sigh.

“Alright, will you manage up here with...” She raised her paw and wiggled her fingers.

“Nothing impossible. I’ll just use my mouth. Now, mind grabbing Martinez and Benson here to bring them down to the Med Bay? I’m concerned they still haven’t woken up.”

Ignacio nodded and grabbed the two unconscious ponies by the back of their collars, easily managing to tuck one of them under her armpit before she made her way towards the ladder well that would bring her back down into the mess halls. She bade Graham good luck as she slid down the ladder, before making a beeline through the narrow passageways and towards the aft sections.

Like it or not, now their rescue was down to external actors and Georgia herself could only wait and hope someone heard her calls for help.

In her armpit, Benson woke up to his muzzle squashed against the sideboob of a seemingly gigantic female dog amazon. He decided not to speak up, he could just blame it on the concussion.

Back in the middle of the Atlantic, Rhine Forest plowed through a large wave, spray washing over her bow as she sailed on. The barge carrier just needed to keep up that unfavorable course for a couple minutes longer, long enough for them to finish replenishing their torpedo escorts’ fuel tanks as the large vessel needed to shelter them from the rough Atlantic swells while they were doing some underway replenishment.

That was an operation they were slowly getting better at over the course of their ocean crossing, resupplying their auxiliary crafts without hauling them back on board. It wasn’t easy, and they almost spilled diesel in the ocean a couple times when the fuel hoses came loose, but they were getting better.

From her cabin in the accommodation, Dot watched through a porthole as the two gray-hulled torpedo boats speed away to resume their screening positions around the three-ship-convoy that made up the fleet, Rhine sticking to the middle of their formation.

“Props to them for being out in the middle of the Atlantic on tiny nutshells like that.” The unicorn mare commented aloud. “With those swells it can’t be too comfortable.”

“Meh, they got some pretty mild weather on the first days of the passage, so it’s not that bad.” Asha replied. “Anyway, can you pass me your almanac?”

The two deck cadets were inside of Dot’s (formerly known as Seb, she had officially decided to change her name) cabin, studying stellar navigation and practicing some exercises their supervising Officer, Josselin, had prepared for them. Normally they’d be doing them with Carl (like Dot, her hippogriff boyfriend had decided to take on a name that better fit his new sex), but the last of Rhine’s three deck cadets was currently busy keeping watch up on the bridge.

Dot lit up her horn and lifted the bright blue paperback over to the centauress, while at the same time grabbing a piece of paper from a drawer to take some notes.

The perks of being out at sea meant that Rhine’s cadets settled in a routine. The Officers had given them a schedule of watches where they would go up to the bridge and back up the actual watchkeeping officer, helping along with certain tasks. Then they had their little departments where they clocked a few hours each day, like in Asha’s case where the centauress was slowly but surely increasing their potions store in hydroponics, from regular healing potions to antivenins to some more specialized stuff like magical painkillers, performance enhancers and the like.

But even with those tasks and having to maintain the ship, they still had some free time their superiors took it upon themselves to fill with more academic stuff. Like what they were doing right then.

Given that the cadets would not be finishing their studies at their respective academies anytime soon (what with the End of the Frickin’ World happening and all), it stood within reason that they’d have to learn it at some point.

In other words, Josselin had given them homework. That’s pretty much what it boiled down to.

“So Asha...” Dot began, distractedly chewing on her pencil. “How are things going in hydroponics?”

“Decent. We’ve been building up our healthcare-grade potions so that’s a safety net in case of injury I guess?” Asha told her, shuffling her hooves slightly. “That and the fresh veggies are a nice plus.”

“Uh-uh...” Dot nodded, brushing her mane out of her eyes and tucking it behind her ear with a hoof. Was the heating on? She was starting to feel kind of warm.

Funny how quick that mane was growing. She might have to ask Carl for a haircut soon.

“But you don’t have any ‘special potions’ or something? Like… I get health potions are great and all, as is antivenin, but don’t you have something with a bit more… panache? You catch my drift?”

“I do.” Asha replied softly, leaning backwards so far that her humanoid back was almost parallel to that of her impala half.

Centaurs’ spines were remarkably supple. A pretty useful boon given how otherwise they’d have difficulties reaching their own body.

“You know, the books we got from the Equestrians show a lot of… weird potions. Shrinking potions, enlargement potions, confusion poison… Hell, I think I even saw a bad luck poison stuffed between the love potions, however that’s supposed to work.” She shrugged. “I’d brew them, but making them is just not worth the hassle given what the hydroponics can make is still somewhat limited.”

“Now that’s just boring.” Dot quipped.

“Such is life. We only got a couple containers worth of hydroponics, and even with me boosting the output just by being there – somehow- there is only so much we can produce.”

“Makes me want to go mushroom picking or some such next time we hit the shore just to see what we could make.”

“That might work. I mean, most potions need at least some magical components to work, but there are a couple that don’t. You could try if you feel like it.”

“You know what, I might take you up on that offer.” Dot smiled before she turned back to her notes on stellar navigation.

She scrunched her nose for a second. Now in addition to being exceedingly warm she was feeling a headache budding in the back of her head. Nothing out of the ordinary with stellar navigation.

It was not so much complicated per se, just laborious. You started from an assumed position with as accurate a time as you could achieve, and from that point on you measured the vertical elevation of as many stars as you could find using a sextant, preferably with more than 60 degrees of horizontal arc between them for increased accuracy.

You didn’t even need to take a star’s bearing. There were already plenty of quick plotting sheets that gave a star’s bearing relative your assumed position, and that angle never really changed too much between assumed and actual position so in calculations it was considered to be a constant.

Vertical elevation wasn’t. Good practice would have you calculate the theoretical elevation of a star based on your assumed position, and then compare it to the actual elevation taken with a sextant (with plenty of corrections stacked on top). The difference between the two elevations would place you further or closer to the star along the azimuth line obtained from plotting sheets.

Repeating that operation with all observed stars would then yield enough corrections to map the ship’s actual position.

In principle, that was a pretty simple process. The only real problem with it was… some seriously lengthy calculations. Hour angles, declination, parallax corrections, acorrection for the height of the observer’s eyes, … processing all the data required to obtain an accurate position could take up to two hours for an untrained sailor, which could be cut down to a single hour of work for someone familiar with the task.

Understandably, the technique wasn’t very widespread with the advent of modern aids to navigation. A technique that required good star recognition skills, several nautical publications, and that could only yield positions at a rate of one per hour at night with favorable weather? And with an accuracy that was heavily reliant on not fudging a single line of calculus in all this process?

There was a reason SatNav was a thing. Maybe navy ships could afford giving a subordinate that specific task since their crews were always so friggin’ large, but merchant vessels had a nasty habit of running on or near skeleton crews because not all fleets had the luxury of being taxpayer-powered.

Granted there were other, simplified means of stellar navigation such as using Polaris or the sun’s culmination, but these only gave you your latitude, not your longitude. And most were limited in usability.

But it still made for a neat backup, antiquated as it was. Dot finished her calculations, quickly circling the resulting set of coordinates in red at the end of her calculation table and tucking all the notes in a folder. Now she just had to drop them off by Josselin’s office and…

Nothing really. She could always head for the office from where they managed Rhine’s fleet of auxiliaries, but recounting stocks could only keep you busy for so long.

“Wanna compare results?” Asha offered.

“Thanks but I’m good.” Dot said, wiping away some sweat with her forehoof.

Why was it so goddamn hot in there? Maybe she should go for a walk on deck, that ought to refresh her. Then she could just wait for Carl to finish his watch and ask him to relieve that little itch she had in her nether regions.

The heat she was feeling intensified threefold, with a searing focus on her…

“Oh fuck, I’m in heat.” The realization dawned on her, Dot only then noticing the small dribble of redness coming from her stern lips.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Heat, estrus, ovulating.” Dot whined, wrapping her forehooves around her belly, panting. “Godver...” She swore.

For what felt like a minute, Asha just gaped, watching her friend basically collapse on her side and arch her back, hooves needily reaching for-

“Dot!” Asha exclaimed. “Look at me, look. at. me.” The centauress ordered, grabbing the unicorn mare’s head and forcing her to look her in the eye.

“I feel hot Asha...” Dot mumbled.

“Yes you do.” The centauress told, taking hold of the pony’s hooves in her red hands before she could start to masturbate right then and there. “Please Dot, control yourself.”

The pony’s eyes were unfocused, her ears flicking this way and that, tail already raised and waiting for a stallion.

“I need Carl.” She whined.

“Oh I’m sure you think you need your stallion, girl, but you probably should try and control yourself.” Asha insisted, effortlessly carrying the little mare over to her bed. “Don’t worry, I think I can help you at least mitigate the effects of your season.”

“Carl sure could help.” Dot moaned, beginning to rub up against the sheets the moment the larger centauress dropped her on the mattress.

“Sure he could.” Asha rolled her eyes. “Damn, if it’s that bad for ponies you’re making me afraid of what’s going to happen to me when it’s my turn...”

Dot just rolled over and moaned, the scent of her ‘readiness’ only then reaching Asha’s nostrils. Pungent.

“Or maybe it’s just you because it’s your first time?” Asha mused aloud. “Whatev’, guess I gotta help. You stay here, I’m getting Carl.” She sighed.

Asha stood up to her full height, looking down at the little red and blue mare on the bed who had already shed her coveralls using her telekinesis alone. She’d never seen anything like it, save maybe for a young cat in heat. Carl was already looking around for stuff to sate her lust by the time Asha backed her equine body out of the room – also stealing the key and locking the door behind her on the way-.

Last thing she wanted was for Dot to wander around all horny as she was (well, horni-er, she was a unicorn after all). This was to be settled in private with her boyfriend Carl and no one else.

She shoved the key in her breast pocket – bemoaning in passing the fact she’d lost her breasts when she changed from human to centaur-. She could understand why centaurs didn’t have any, but it still felt a bit sad to have lost her previous assets. She didn’t even have a nipple there anymore! Or a navel for that matter…

Asha shook her head. Focus on the matter at hand, girl. First go tell Carl to pack a bucket of condoms and get strapped for a long night, then…

Well, provided Carl used protection as he should, Dot would remain in heat for the next couple days before her body flushed out and menstruated. That meant now she should probably prepare one very particular potion. It being one that was designed to mitigate the mental effects of heat on mares and make it possible for them to even leave their bedroom without throwing themselves at the first stallion in sight.

Eh, at least it didn’t happen too often…

“Sir, what did you say?”

“You heard me, Eng.” Graham repeated in the interphone. “If after six hours, and this close to the US, we still aren’t getting any answers to the distress call on military frequencies, then I’m switching to the worldwide Global Maritime Distress and Safety System. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m not, but I’m not risking this crew’s safety just for the sake of sticking to navy protocols. How are the repairs going back aft?”

Ignacio’s eyes flicked to a whiteboard Pulovski had set down next to the damage control panel, showing a brief list of all the components the grounding had damaged.

Teflon tape had ensued, or, in other terms, time for the EB green tape and lockwire to be broken out to do what could be done. Redneck engineering at its finest.

The reactor itself was fine, just ticking over at a slow pace in natural circulation mode with little need for pumps to run the one generator. Air conditioning was adequate, running off half their available units, though lacking a working evaporator. Fresh water was also in the green, with the feed tank full and the fresh water distiller up and running, though going by the noise it was making, that would only last for so long.

“Sir, reactor in the green. My main concern is the port Main Sea Water pump. It’s the only thing saving us from a reactor shutdown so far, and that would mean running on battery power.

“I’m awaiting word from Blondie and her crew about the atmospheric regeneration units, but from what little I saw, we should be fine there. As for the battery, we may have a problem. I sent a griffon to…” Ignacio said before getting interrupted.

“Griffon?” Graham said, startled.

“Half cat, half bird, and with talons so they got hands. Bet you saw one earlier. Anyway, as I was saying, I sent one to check how the battery is faring.”

“Badly?”

“It’s not good for the long term. There is some seawater in the battery well’s bilges, but it’s still low. I would recommend we have a team go down there and disconnect the cells that are most in danger of flooding. We’re charging it, I have a couple of…” She was about to say ‘people’ but caught herself. “...the crew monitoring the bilge levels and evacuating that water to the diesel room’s bilges. Other than that, we can sit tight and hope for rescue. So Exec, how are things on your side? Is the Captain awake yet?”

“Yes, he is. Captain Green is awake and speaking, albeit with several fractures, a couple gashes and… I’m pretty sure what he turned into is a kid. A kid Pegasus, if you’ll believe me.”

And even though ponies were already bad when it came to color palettes, Captain Green was somehow more garish than the usual, sporting a sky-blue coat of fur paired with nothing less than a rainbow-patterned mane and tail combo.

Understandably, the Captain they all knew for his spartan lifestyle and… admittedly dull tastes had been rather effusive when he discovered his new natural color scheme. That and having three broken hooves out of four would put most folks in a sour mood.

“Also Eng, we ran a head count of casualties and… dead sailors.”

“How are the numbers?”

“We’re still counting species and the number of genderswapped sailors, but so far we have over 100 injuries out of a crew of 155, 20 of which Chief Ezra classified as heavy injuries in need of further treatment. Adding to that, we lost 2 sailors to suicides, 5 that died immediately after the impact, 3 more from injuries and the 3 in the sonar sphere. Including Weps.”

Ignacio leaned against the bulkhead, surveying the few conscious sailors that were monitoring screens around the room. She caught herself drawing circles in the fur of her neck with her free hand.

“That’s bad...” She said after a few seconds.

“We’ll make it through.”

“That I don’t have a problem believing. I’m just wondering what it’s gonna cost us in the end. Regardless, I’ll see what more I can do here in engineering to keep it going for as long as possible. Seawater main’s our last lifeline now, if it gives out, out goes the reactor. Comprende?”

“You do your best, then meet me in the Captain’s quarters at 18.30 for dinner. He ain’t gonna like the news. And please keep it down with the Spanish.”

“No prometo nada, señor.” She replied sarcastically before hanging up.

Now to look over that pump personally and make sure it kept going…

On Amandine, Sandra was just killing time with Aleksei inside the Officer’s lounge, playing cards and chatting near the bar while Alejandro – as per usual- hogged the TV to catch up on the impressive DVD collection he’d built up from looting shops in Belfast.

“So you’re keeping in touch with the colonies?” Aleksei questioned.

“Pretty much, yeah. Most of the time I just talk with either Naomi or Gunnar since these two sound rather lonely all on their own, but you heard the broadcast.”

“The one with the Aussie? I sure did, wonder how much like Mad Max it looks over there.”

“Probably not that much.” Sandra sniffed. “Honestly the colony in Montana sounds more interesting, but they’re way beyond our range to even entertain the idea.”

“At least you’re being realistic.” Aleksei smiled, putting down a ten of spades. “I’m going for it.”

Sandra looked down at her own cards that she carefully held between the fingers of her wing.

“You sure about that?” She asked dubiously.

“Don’t you play chicken with me.” Her friend chuckled.

“You’re the half-chicken, hippogriff, not me.” The little batpony huffed, putting down a ten of hearts.

Like she was gonna play her best cards from the get-go.

“But you don’t have contacts for more colonies than these guys?”

“Technically, I do.” Sandra slowly said. “I’ve had contacts with a couple groups, including some news from Ireland, but most of them insist I don’t reveal their position on the radio.”

“Why? They think it’s risky? I really doubt the Four Horses are listening in on the waves.”

“Maybe not demon activity, but some of them strongly implied there might be some bandits roaming around. Former humans that is, not aliens coming to pillage our ruins.”

“Should we be concerned about it?” Aleksei worriedly asked.

“She already told the Captain, Roberto added the possibility to the risk analysis matrix.” Alejandro piped in from the couch between two mouthfuls of nut mix.

“Oh...” Aleksei’s ears lowered, an emotional gimmick hippogriffs shared with ponies.

“Anyway, I have a better question.” Sandra said, leaning forward in her seat and jabbing a wingtip towards the golden bracelet – Epona’s gift- that the Latvian now wore all the time. “Epona, has she talked to you ever since we left Ireland?”

“She has… in my dreams.” Aleksei nodded.

The first time had been quite the shocker too. She was aware Epona could use the bracelet to communicate with her in her dreams, the goddess had told her so. Waking up as a translucent spirit in the Otherworld after going to bed still surprised her when it actually happened.

“So...” Sandra eyed the next card Aleksei set down. “What did you say? What did she ask?”

“First off she wished to thank us for what we did setting up the meeting at the Giant’s Ring. Says her and the entire Celtic pantheon’s new involvement in Irish diplomacy has done wonders for the vitality of their… their realm I guess? The Hell am I supposed to call the Otherworld?”

“Whatever you wish to. Was that all?”

“Nah, that was only the first night. You’d be surprised how short dreamwalks are. For that matter shouldn’t you be able to do that? Books say you batponies can enter people’s dreams.”

“Never tried, don’t think I want to.” Sandra fired back. “Privacy’s a thing, you know?”

“Your call. And as I said: dreamwalks can be awfully short. She’s been summoning me on and off for the past week or so. She’s mostly interested in learning about the new species and-”

“Reproduction?” Sandra interrupted.

“How did you guess?”

“Well, duh.” The little Dane rolled her eyes. “Fertility goddess, sounds kinda obvious when you think about it. Besides, she’s a horse goddess. Not surprising she’d be interested now that so many folks are either hippogriffs like you, centaurs, or even ponies like me.”

“Now that you say it, it sort of is.” Aleksei shrugged with her wings. “That being said, I also learned a lot more about Celtic mythology and what led to the disappearance of human magic than I ever thought possible. It’s… a lot less straightforward than other pantheons I can tell you.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Aleksei firmly nodded, setting down her king of spades. “The Otherworld is very patchwork-y, if you catch my drift? Epona is one divinity among hundreds of bigger and lesser gods, each with their own piece of land inside that realm. You have the big ones like the Morrigan and the Dagda, smaller ones with very specific roles, and even gods with overlapping duties like Rhiannon and Epona. It’s… complicated. Big thing is, apparently the Dagda and the Morrigan are the ones that now manage diplomacy and negotiations between Irish colonies, assign them patron divinities… and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s also the case in other Celtic nations.”

“The whole pagan renaissance shebang?” Sandra chuckled. “Look at you, keep up along that path and soon Epona will have you as her priestess.”

“Nah, I already declined the offer.” Aleksei said with a dismissive wave of her talons.

“Are you sure? Because to me it sounds like Epona’s grooming you to be her representative. You said it, she’s not that big of a goddess. And given the general shortage of people as a whole, I’m not sure she’d so easily let go of a potential recruit. Has she given you any more boons?”

“Well...” She crowed awkwardly. “Beyond the ‘golden band of speechcraft’, you mean?” She said, hefting up the piece of jewelry for the batpony to see.

“Al’, has she?” Sandra leaned forward.

“She did give me an appeasement spell.” The Latvian whispered in such a low tone even Sandra’s batpony hearing had a hard time picking it up.

“A what?”

“A spell, she gave me one more spell I can do without the bracelet.” Aleksei said, raising her open claw towards Sandra.

For a brief second her palm gave off a gentle white glow, no stronger than maybe a chemlight. Sandra looked at it, and she felt warm, relieved, at ease, like her problems didn’t matter anymore and she could just lay back an-

“Wow...” She slumped back in her seat with a dumb grin. “That… uh… that’s something reeeal neat she gave you. But that doesn’t really help my point that she’s grooming you. Hellig helvede, that feels gooood.”

“Not like I can cast it on myself, plus it’s just a one-use-per-day trick. And what good am I as a ‘priestess’ regardless?” Aleksei quirked an eyebrow. “For Morrigan’s sake, I told Epona to her face I intended to become male again and she basically gave me a quest. As if a dude could represent a fertility goddess.”

“That’s assuming your interpretation of fertility is the same as hers.” Sandra countered. “Plus… horse goddess in a world where you’ve got hippogriffs, ponies and centaurs? Even male you’re still going to be a hippogriff. Face it, you’re not getting rid of Epona. I wouldn’t even be surprised if she tried to undermine your quest and have you stay female.”

Aleksei’s face fell, and for a second her beak was agape as her memory flashed back to a couple wet dreams she’d been having as of late. Dreams that seemed a bit like an idealized version of bearing children and...

“She wouldn’t...”

“Careful with divinities, pal. I’ve read enough about the Greeks to know they wouldn’t hesitate to fuck over mortals if it’s in their interest. Literally sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it is her fault. Biological imperatives, libido and all, you know? Just don’t discard the idea, please.”

“I won’t.” Aleksei frowned. “Believe me, I won’t.”

She wouldn’t get caught by the first law, even if it meant going her biology and will of an ancient divinity. Aleksei shook her head with a soft squawk, taking a quick pause to readjust the rubber band she used to keep her crest feathers behind her head.

“Speaking of fertility, did you hear about the griffons?”

“I may have heard some stuff, what happened?”

“Accidental pregnancy, that’s what. I heard them losing their shit over it the other day, and the rumor’s been circulating around the passageways ever since but they’ve yet to reveal just what exactly happened.”

“So what, Micha’s pregnant? Or with eggs? Never too sure with griffons you know...” Sandra said, checking what cards she’d left in her hand.

Or wing rather. If the player didn’t have hands to hold the cards then was it still called a hand?

“From what I overheard it’s either Micha or Anton. I think Carlos said it might have been Ivan too but I don’t believe it. She’s not mated to any griffon.”

In another plane of existence, Epona leaned closer to her scrying pond. Now this was actually getting interesting. She wasn’t the only one to eavesdrop on the conversation, because Alejandro too had momentarily set down his nut mix and tilted his ears to pay attention to the two.

“Micha? Pregnant? Sounds unlikely. I mean… willingly maybe, but not on accident. She’s with Vadim remember? You really think the same medical officer that always gives the health and safety briefs would forget about using protection?”

“Now that you mention it, I’m pretty sure I saw her have a beer the other day.” Aleksei mused, tapping a talon against the side of her beak. “So it can’t be her.”

“Ain’t that something we’ll notice soon enough? I mean, if any of the hens turns up on duty with a baby bump the secret ain’t gonna last long am I right?” Sandra chuckled.

“You sound surprisingly cavalier about it. I mean, it’s not USS Acadia levels of love boat yet but shouldn’t we be worried about too many couples forming and resulting in… kids? Cargo ships aren’t the best place to raise kids you know.”

“You got a problem with couples?”

“Like you and Radiant?” Aleksei quirked a feathered brow at the batpony.

“You heard about us?”

Aleksei made a show of rolling her eyes.

“Please, he couldn’t last an hour before bragging above your date. Said technically he was so used to dating hippogriffs you were the first genuine pony he went out with in years.”

“Uh...” Sandra scowled. “I might need to have a little chat with him about yelling we’re together on rooftops.”

“Honestly I find it rather cute.” Aleksei smiled. “And now he’s off my back so that’s a nice plus too.”

“Why you… here, enjoy.” Sandra said, slamming the ace of spades on top of Aleksei’s king. “That’ll teach you.”

“Gee, talk about having no sense of humor. Wanna change subject?”

“Yes!” She huffed, pulling all the cards towards herself and starting to reshuffle them.

“Okay fine. So, about the love boat thing… you know what I heard from Rahul the other day?”

“Cook? What did the dog have to say that’s so interesting?”

“I caught him ranting about Ajit. Believe it or not, but our residential puppy landed himself a girlfriend before the cook.”

“Really?” Sandra threw her a disbelieving look. “Ajit?”

“Surprised?”

“Well...” She awkwardly glanced at the ceiling. “Don’t get me wrong, he is very friendly so I get why peeps call him a puppy, but… he’s not assertive. Like, not at all. I can’t fathom a girl who would find that very appealing, however kind he is. Or at least not that he’d land himself a girlfriend before Rahul or even the Captain. They seem like better picks.”

“I thought the same, until I remembered the thing with Diamond Dogs. You ever seen a female D-Dog? Like the one Ajit is with, the border collie from Fugro?”

“I think I have...” She scrunched her nose. “Kinda cute with the fur and… generous on the curves if I’m honest. Am I missing something?”

“Maybe. It’s a theory I have.” Aleksei crossed her forelegs and leaned over the table. “I’ve noticed female D-Dogs, bitches that is, are significantly bigger than the males. Not like Ornithians and minotaurs where females are only taller but still fall in the same weight class, but outright bigger both in size and weight.”

“Not sure I follow.”

“Thing is, I think we’re looking at it backwards. Let’s be fair, with humans – and most species-, males are bigger and they tend to be more forward. More assertive. Now take species where the female is bigger, like D-Dogs and gargoyles, and maybe, just maybe, the assertiveness is swapped around.”

“And Ajit in there?”

“Think about it. Of all three dogs on board he’s the least assertive, which incidentally makes him the most appealing to a normal bitc-”

“Al’.” Sandra warned.

“I’m calling it as is. Female dogs are bitches, deal with it. As I said, a normal bitch would already find him appealing, but a genderswapped one that used to be male, like the border collie he landed? Double the effect. At least that’s my theory, all these different species sharing the same world is a bit whack if you ask me. Plus you got the whole genderswap deal that’s seriously going to fuck up the social order in the coming years.”

“How so?”

“Think about it. We were so used to one species with its own dynamics; but now we got multiple very different species, each with different male-to-female ratios and their own sexual dimorphism. You have up to a third of the population that used to be the opposite sex, and now common assumptions are basically fucking gone. Look at Danny, you think you’d ever see a female welder before the Event? Much less on a ship? Nah, stuff’s all out of whack, and it’s gonna be a right mess that will take years to fix, in addition to just giving civilization CPR as a whole ‘cause of the whole End of the World thing. But eh, look at it on the bright side, now females don’t have an excuse to say they can’t be miners or garbage collectors, so that’s a plus.”

There was a cough behind them, making all three present in the Officers’ lounge turn towards the door where Vadim was now standing, pointedly looking towards Alejandro who momentarily paused his TV-series.

Not that he was really paying attention anymore, the gossiping between the two gals was more interesting to eavesdrop on.

“Something the matter Vadim?” The hyacinth macaw asked the griffon, slowly standing up from the couch and smoothing down the wrinkles in his colorful set of modified coveralls (a near-copy of Greet’s set).

“You’re needed up-top, Captain’s Office. We got a distress call..”

“Distress call?”

“From a US Navy ship. I didn’t check Jane’s yet but she’s called USS Georgia.”

Alejandro entered Dilip’s office to the sight of the Diamond Dog in video-conference with the other Captains of the fleet, and, as usual, with a cup of tea held in his paws. At this point he was pretty damn sure the dog outdid even the most tea-addicted of Brits when it came to sheer consumption, with no sign of stopping.

“Sir, you called for me?” The hyacinth macaw asked his superior, coming to a halt a few steps short of his desk, arms crossed behind his back in a mock parade rest.

Eh, it’s not like he was navy. Leave proper drill to the military.

“I did Alej’.” Dilip nodded, tugging on his screen so that both he and his Chief Officer could be seen by the webcam. “Lorelei, care to tell him? You got a copy of Jane’s on your desk I see.”

Jane’s fighting ships. A yearly publication that contained a comprehensive list of all navy vessels worldwide with silhouettes, basic data and some pictures. Normally merchants like them wouldn’t bother with it since it was horrendously expensive for what little it did in peacetime, being more of an addition to wargamers’ and naval officers’ libraries.

Now wasn’t exactly normal anymore, and they didn’t have any qualms claiming ownership of a couple of the books. If he remembered correctly, the collection they now had came from the Maersk HQ they had looted way back in Copenhagen.

“I went ahead and checked which ship we’re dealing with. It’s a nuclear submarine, and a big one at that. Numbers say we’re talking about a complement of 155 sailors with a displacement of over 16.500 tons. Ohio-class.”

“With nukes?” Alejandro asked.

“No, only the reactor. Apparently the Yanks retrofitted a couple subs to fire Tomahawks instead of ICBM’s. Interesting stuff...” Lorelei said, reading off the Ohio-class’ entry in Jane’s before the pink filly closed the book with her telekinesis. “What’s more interesting is that they’d reappear, and then activate their distress buoy, AND switch it to civilian frequencies.”

“So they have a problem. Are we in contact yet?” Alejandro prodded.

“No.” Dilip shook his head. “Only the base distress message, grounding it says. And the first transmitted position...”

“About eighty miles off the coast of Georgia.” Captain Skinner filled in after his black dragon of a Chief Officer brought him the proper chart.

“Georgia...” Dilip slowly repeated. “Great, that’s where we’re heading either way. Although... I’m afraid there is nothing Amandine can do that would help in salvaging or refloating a submarine.”

“And where are you going with that train of thought?” Lorelei asked him.

Dilip waited a second, taking a long sip of his tea before he set his teacup down with a little clatter.

“Optimal resource management, that’s what.” The dog said. “As you all know, we’re on thin ice already with the HPI. Further delays in our delivery may severely damage our ties with them, and we need the parts they can provide. Rhine and Fugro, at least as far as you two told me, were both intended for offshore work, which I assume implies underwater operations, correct?”

“We do have ROV’s and a diving bell, so… yes.” Skinner confirmed.

“Then here’s what I suggest: Amandine will carry on with the voyage since we have all the goods we need to deliver to the HPI in our containers. We do our mission there, get the spare parts we all ordered from the HPI for the entire fleet-”

“You have the room for that?” Lorelei quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Plenty. Amandine has over two thousand tons of deadweight to spare. A few parts won’t be much of a problem. As I said, we get to Savannah and do the delivery, while you two do your best to locate and evacuate the submarine. Then we can regroup in the next port of call in Havana. Sounds good to you?”

“Not a problem for me, as long as we do a transfer of cargo in Cuba and Fugro gets the parts to replace her propeller shaft I’m good.” Skinner agreed.

“Same, you think you’ll manage without the escorts in Savannah, Dilip?”

“No worries, my ship can maneuver just fine.” The Indian waved her concerns away.

“Then it’s decided. I’ll have one of my Officers acknowledge the distress call so that Georgia’s crew knows someone is coming, and we should be there in…Quinn?” Skinner asked his Chief Officer.

On screen, the black dragon pulled out a pair of brass dividers and measured the distance, drumming his claws against the table as he did the math mentally.

“About 48 hours sir.” The dragon told them. “At full speed ahead. For Fugro of course… I think we’re the slowest?”

“You are.” Dilip confirmed.

Hopefully two days’ wait shouldn’t be too long for the stricken submarine.

Author's Notes:

You know, I've seen multiple interpretations of how ponies experience their heat cycle. It really depends how intense the effects are between them all, but I'm pretty in all cases the first 'season' is the worst.

Since I can't fathom an intelligent species forming if most of the population (the gender balance of ponies being, as seen in the series, heavily skewed in favor of mares) is enslaved to its own urges, I would have to assume latter heat cycles are more... mild.

Plus the whole potion to mitigate the thing. Seems logical they'd come up with one.