For a time, nothing dramatic happened. While the people of America were kept on alert, no new great thing rushed to join the fact the pile of other concerns. Mobile Coral came every few days to play and learn. She preferred the former, but seemed willing to put up with the latter.

The linguistics challenges started expanding from nouns to verbs, then nouns performing verbs. It was with great fortune, to the suspicion of some of those studying it, that the languages seemed to share a basic similarity in structure. As the words either had to use expanded, they could be strung together in an intuitive way.

"<Do you want a drink?>" asked a human one day, much to Mobile's surprise.

"Yes!" she eagerly replied in English, bobbing her head as she did so. "<When did you learn my language?>"

They had not, but conversational phrases were starting to be passed out, growing with effort. The motivation worked wonders. The idea of actually speaking to her new friends was exciting, and she redoubled her work to make that a reality.

At least until she stopped showing up.

The train came to a halt, snow battering against it. They had arrived in the far north, at the Crystal Empire train station. "Alright, everypony, let's go." Twilight pointed the way and led her friends and soldiers out in a great pouring of pony flesh.

The locals clip-clopped their hooves, cheering for the arrival of heroes and soldiers to put things to right. Princess Cadance was there with a tired smile. On her back was Flurry Heart, and at her side was an empty space. Shining Armor was not with her. "Twilight, good to see you." She approached at a sedate walk.

Twilight grinned at her former babysitter, a grin that Cadance knew too well. The smile was returned a little more tiredly, and the ritual began. They praised the ladybugs and gave a little shake, confirming one another with a little laugh.

Cadance shook her head. "I needed that, I think... Good to see you." She gently hugged Twilight a moment. "Soldiers!" She waved at them, then pointed to the palace. "Forward march! Shining Armor is your new commander and will give orders while you're here. Thank you all for coming."

There was a unified sound of many ponies smartly saluting as one, and they began an organized march down the street towards their new duty.

Rarity held up a hoof to keep the blowing snow free of her eyes. "Delighted to be here in a time of need, but I can barely imagine we'll get much done out here."

"It's a reprieve." Cadance let out a little sigh. "The invaders have slowed due to the snow as surely as our own forces. An armistice, enforced by inclement weather. It'll let up, and the conflicts will resume. Let's be thankful for it."

Twilight looked over the city carefully as they began to head towards the palace themselves. "The city appears to be unharmed. They haven't directly attacked, I assume?"

"Thankfully not." Cadance raised a hoof towards the city as a whole. "The city is a safe place, for now. Their weapons are terrible and swift. I could not assure their safety if they did attack here."

Twilight hastened to Cadance's side. "Tell me about them."

Rarity smiled a little. "I should imagine she's already scheming. You'd best inform her."

Rainbow Dash looked uncertain. "Should I be with the soldiers, or hanging out with you three?" She flapped along just over Rarity, matching her pace easily.

Rarity reached up to poke Rainbow gently. "You're our personal guard, dear. It's a distinguished duty."

Rainbow stuck out her tongue at that. "If I didn't know you'd get into real trouble, I'd take offense to being on guard duty. Knowing Twilight, it's a matter of when, not if."

Twilight fixed Rainbow with a glare, which turned into a smile again as she looked to Cadance. "Ignore her, so... details?"

Cadance sat a moment to spread her hooves. "They come in different sizes, from some barely larger than a hoof to others that look like spears, without the sharpened end. Whatever their size and appearance, they all perform the same function. They are small cannons, that fire even smaller cannon balls."

Rainbow raised a brow at that, floating over Cadance. "Oh no, tiny cannon balls. I'm sooo scared." She dipped to the snow and scooped up a tiny bit of snow, working it into a little snowball. "Like this?" She chucked it at Twilight and it bounced off harmlessly.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "I will safely assume they don't just bounce off."

"They do not," sadly agreed Cadance. "They come so fast they punch right into a pony. It's like being stabbed with a dagger that can press right through somecreature, regardless of the armor they wear."

All three of the visiting ponies shared a look of awkward disgust, imagining being run through by the tiniest snowball. Rainbow lifted back up over their heads. "Alright, so, alright... How do we not lose the ultimate snowball fight?"

Twilight huffed softly. "I should imagine that's what we're here to figure out. So they use small hand cannons that are unreasonably effective. How quickly can they be fired?"

Cadance gestured ever northwards. "The yaks report they can fire many times in rapid succession, should they desire."

Twilight crashed to her haunches, looking dazed. "That's..."

Rarity shook her head, jostling her mane. "Not very sporting, no. But don't lose hope. We're here to turn this around, and we will."

Twilight gathered herself back to her hooves. "Yeah... Did you manage to get one of these hand cannons? We need to have one and figure it out. As soon as we discern its weakness, we can act against it."

They had arrived just before the palace. Soldiers drilled and practiced despite the snow, endeavoring to be in a ready state. There were many crystal ponies and many that were not, freshly brought from Equestria proper to join the struggle.

"Twily!" Shining Armor waved from where he had been barking orders a moment before. He left them to continue their drills and hurried to her. "Hey, Sis, Rarity, Rainbow." He nodded towards each. "Welcome to the battlefront. I... would rather none of you were here, but... I'm also glad you came." He put a hoof behind his head. "It's an awkward feeling."

Rainbow snorted at that. "You'd have to use at least half these guards to keep me away from this excitement."

Rarity lifted her shoulders softly. "I will get to work on proper winter attire for the soldiers. Something comfortable, but I should imagine not too ostentatious. We don't want our good ponies being spotted too easily."

Rainbow blinked at that. "Wait, you can do subtle clothes? Isn't that, like, the opposite of Rarity?"

Rarity ran a hoof through her own mane, fluffing it. "It's not my normal way of doing things, but these are not normal times. I will not fail in this task. Fashion is about matching the current mood, and this fashion show does not call for striking designs. I don't want a single of these fine ponies being snowballed to death."

Shining tilted his head with mounting confusion. "Snowballed?"

"I'll explain later." Cadance set a hoof on his shoulder before turning to the palace, Flurry Heart giggling on her back. "I'll get them settled in for now."

The translation room was a mess of papers. The walls were marked with notes and diagrams written by those who had begun to live there. "Where is she?!" barked one of the male scientists. "We're making real progress, and she just vanishes?!"

A female shrugged softly. "We have no idea where she goes when she vanishes into the ocean. Attempting to follow her could have scared her away."

Another man threw up a hand. "I told you, if you had someone in a scuba suit just ask to swim with her, she would have been delighted, not scared."

"You don't know that."

Another slapped a desk. "There's no point arguing what we could have done. She left us more than enough data to go over. She was a walking Rosetta Stone, and it's up to us to drag a working translation from it. Now, back to work, we have several things in our favor." He slapped the whiteboard just as vigorously as he had the desk. "The grammar, the hardest part of untangling a language, is--"

"--Impossibly similar," finished the female. "What are the odds of that?"

"About as likely as finding <fish> living on <mountains>," said the first man with a smirk. "But asking what are the odds of something that already happened won't get us anywhere. There isn't a lot we can do. Let's focus on what we have and surprise her with a more eloquent party when she does return."

"If."

"Do you have any idea what you have done?" Bubbles streamed from the mouth of the pony the words had come from. She was a sea pony, floating before Mobile Coral with a severe frown. "You are not a diplomat, and here you are, making first contact with a new species."

"They just liked having fun..." Mobile Coral gently tapped her forehooves together. "And I was having fun with them. Is that so bad?"

"It could be!" barked the pony. "You don't even know what you're saying to them."

"They don't look angry..."

"You don't know that!" He threw his hooves up. "When the queen has time, she'll put this to rights. Until then, you're under house arrest. Do not try to leave. Do not! Or you'll be in even worse trouble than you already are."

Mobile sank several inches in the water, sagging with defeat. "They just want to have fun... with me. Look, why don't we go, together? I'll introduce you and we'll have a good time."

He raised a brow at Mobile. "I thought they didn't speak proper Ponish?"

"They're learning." She clapped her hooves. "They're very smart. Every time I go, they say more words. Would you like a drink? Have some meat! Volleyball time!" She burst into giggles, imagining the fun times that could be being had. "Come on!"

"The Queen will decide." He turned away in a sharp 180, twirling in the water. "Stay." He swam away, leaving her to consider what she had done.

The president reached for a folder. "The friendly contact has faded?"

"That's the report." His advisor gestured at the folder. "It's been almost a week with no contact."

"Unfortunate..." That had been the first and only friendly contact they'd had... "Be sure they keep an eye and monitor the wider area for sightings. Sitrep on Alaska?"

"The situation is fairly stable. Inclement weather is keeping people indoors, and it seems to be working on the wildlife equally well." He flipped a notepad forward. "Contact was made with Hawaii."

The president looked up. "Why didn't we start there?" He sat up. "Tell me more."

"Not much more to say. They apparently... appeared much like we did in the water. They have had no contact with wildlife negative or positive." He tapped at his pad lightly. "They could use more fuel, but are otherwise doing fine. I meant to ask about the shipping embargo."

"If the ships are sailing from a US port to another US port and there doesn't appear to be anything in the way..."

"I was hoping you'd agree." He made a quick mark with a pen. "We'll get supplies moving and trade lines re-opened. There are some barks from Congress about the conflict in Alaska qualifying as a war and requiring their approval, but that hasn't gone anywhere yet, with the enemy being what they are."

The president furrowed his brows at the idea. "They want approval over every time a ratcatcher goes out to wage war on the local vermin? Tell them to focus on what's actually important. Either we've been thrown off Earth, or everyone else has. Neither situation is good."

Author's Notes:

Things actually calm down for a moment. Maybe things will get better! Maybe the typo nation will cease their aggressions.

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