Twilight Sparkle still thinks Earth, and Humanity in general, can be classified in black and white. A visit to two different, but very similar Normandy war cemeteries might help.

She also hasn't gotten around to reading up on our history yet.

Or so Tucker, international reporter and the first human to come in contact with Equestria, thinks. Hopefully she won't hate his species by the end of this.

On the battlefield, they're a stolid grey wave of humanity. They live with a disturbing lack of wanting to live, and are well known for pessimism, morbidity, and an institutional death wish - if you can even get them to talk, that is.

On the battlefield, they're a loose conglomeration of whatever the Planetary Governors can scrape up. In theory, they defend their planets from external and internal threats, forming the first line of defense for the Imperium of Man. In practice, the only tactical consideration they are in the minds of battlefield commanders is a force to slow down threats with sheer numbers until the Imperial Guard arrives to start the battle.

The Death Korps of Krieg and the Planetary Defense Forces are wildly incompatible, and so are their members. However, when misguided aim lands one human from each in the far north of Equestria, teamwork is the only hope for success.

For Rhia, it's difficult trying to preserve one's life when one's survival partner considers you useless, along with not caring about trying especially hard to survive.

For 57-893, it's annoying when your only company is obsessed with the ridiculous notion of not wanting to 'die for the Emperor'.

A change of outlooks is in order.

And what of the natives?

In a universe where humans are quite shocked to find ponies that speak languages at all, let alone English, the startling discoveries never seem to stop for the poor crew of the SMS Verreiter IV, an old-warship-turned-exploration-vessel hybrid that's certainly seen better days. Heck, some even speak of times that it had days where all the systems functioned properly for hours at a time.

Either way, they're on a mission of exploration, which means they'll be visiting every Old Earth-sized rock they can find. With a motley consignment composed of few jittery scientists, veteran marines, an exasperated captain, and a combat-hardened, battle-forged crew with absolutely nothing to do besides repair their own ship from itself, it seems like it'll be a very long year of exploration.

Then they find a planet with some rather startling similarities to human society.

Like Manehattan, the apparent parody of the American district, ponies having developed the English language, and the use of human-like tools and buildings.

And when the ship's transmitter fails at the worst possible moment, Forschungsschiff Kapitan Arnhem Zorner has to decide how best to introduce his country and humanity to these beings. Who can levitate books probably as easily as they could levitate knives and hurl them at him.

He doesn't know whether to laugh of cry at the situation that's been thrown at his face.