Queen Novo reached out a hoof, tilting up the quivering jawline of Mobile Coral. "You understand why you are here, do you not?"

"Because I made some friends when I shouldn't have?" She ventured a timid smile, hoping she had guessed right.

"Heaven forfend I forbid that." Novo folded a finned hoof against her chest. "I am more upset that you met a new people and told no one of the fact. If something happened to you, we would be ignorant entirely and not find out until long after the fact if ever at all."

Mobile's ears perked up at that. "Oh, so I can go back?"

"You can, and you should... with company."

Mobile tilted her head at that. "Who wants to go up onto land? I thought most of those who stayed, you know, down here, weren't big on jumping back up."

Novo booped her on the nose. "Me, for a start. I would take a measure of our guests."

"I object!" cried the very pony that had detained Mobile and reported her as was their duty. "Our queen being our first official entreaty? That's too far in the other direction! What if they're up to no good?"

Novo rolled a hoof at Mobile. "Tell me what they did. Tell me everything."

"Well... We play all kinds of games. They know how to play volleyball! They do it both wet and dry and it's just as fun either way!" Mobile clopped her wet hooves eagerly. "They like sweet food and sweet drinks and they like sharing both with new friends, like me. They also speak their own funny language, and they're trying really hard to learn our language. I learned some of theirs. It kinda goes both ways."

Novo raised a brow subtly. "That is information I would have more of. Have they ever acted aggressively towards you?"

"Just the first time." Mobile lifted her shoulders softly. "I musta surprised them, since the big bullies that chased me away never came back after that first time. They've been nothing but super nice."

Queen Novo frowned softly, thinking through that without Mobile's eternal cheerfulness. "They are a cautious people. Those were likely guards, fearing a strange creature, as my own would do, were the situations reversed. Perhaps we do have things in common..." But Mobile had proven to be harmless and they warmed to her greatly. "Before I emerge, I need you to introduce me, so they are not startled."

"My queen!"

She held up a hoof to quiet the distraught sea pony. "You will also teach me some basic words of their language so I may greet them properly. I will not approach with silence if I have any other option. Do this and all will be forgiven."

Mobile giggled joyfully and got right into it, starting a lesson on some common words for common things found on the beach, as well as 'Hello' and 'Goodbye'.

A pony appeared with a soft haze of sparkles, concealed in the driving snow. Twilight frowned as she focused on the invisibility spell. Keeping it up and teleporting was difficult, but she was soon concealed from sight. Before her was one of their homes, one of the last places reported to have a struggle.

The Yaks had succeeded in a strike there, but had taken no momentos for it. If she was lucky...

She approached carefully and found a vehicle parked in front of the snowed in building. There was light in the building, suggesting someone lived there, perhaps. The truck was a mess. There were stains all across its still open left door and the seats. Any signs of what had happened outside of that were long lost to the piling snow.

She felt around with her magic anyway, hoping something may be buried.

An idea hit her. Metal. The truck was metal, as were good chunks of the domicile she was next to. What if they liked putting metal in things? She felt for metal in a soft pulse, there! She took a few steps and reached into the snow, pulling out a hunting rifle that had been abandoned by dead fingers. "Perfect." She froze as soon as she said it. Her spell did not make her silent.

She pulled the gun into her invisibility and tucked it under a wing to carry along, only to hesitate. She had no idea how it worked. What if it... exploded, or fired, right into her? She pulled it back out in her magic, holding it gingerly from all sides at once, fearful of putting any specific pressure on it. Slowly spinning it about, she found the tube with the hole in the end.

That had to be where the cannon fired. It would make little sense for it to be anywhere else. She gently tucked it away, making sure that opening was not directed at herself.

She considered her options, fleeing with her find, or searching onwards. She peered at the house, silent, but lit. Was there one of the humans in there? Why were they so ready to fight? The humans she had met on the other side of the mirror were so nice... But these were not them. Their proportions were wrong by all reports. Their colors were different. They had not even the imitation of cutie marks.

They were not echos of Equestria. They were its enemies instead. With a soft sigh, she vanished, magic sparkling despite her invisibility, but that was fading away, and she was gone in a pop.

"Sitrep." The advisor offered a folder towards the president. "Local forces are ready to perform an active sweep to increase the security of the Alaskans. They are calling for people to retreat towards urban centers, but there's a lot of resistance. People don't want to move."

"Figures." He flipped open the folder and flipped through the data available. "We've hunted animals to extinction before. We say we learned from our past about that. Let's not repeat it. If one is on our land, shoot it, but don't go hunting for them." He set the folder down carefully. "They'll learn that humans are to be avoided, just like normal animals. Any signs of change in the weather?"

"The lack of weather satellites makes that troubling to predict."

He raised a finger. "About that. When do we start launching new ones?"

"Soon, we hope. The conditions of... wherever we are... made the engineers shy about sending anything into orbit. On the positive side, all signs show that it should be easier on some fronts."

"Easier? Finally, some good news. Why?"

"The sky is clear of debris." He lifted his shoulders in a soft shrug. "Not a speck of signs of attempted space travel. Wherever we are, it's not a place that has reached for the stars."

"Well, that makes sense." They'd met an aquatic sapient race that likes to play games, and angry land-bound animals that attacked with natural weapons. Which of them would be engaged in the complexities of a space race? None of them. "Good. Get some presence up there. Communication, weather, observation. Our situation will become much brighter the sooner we have eyes in the sky."

"Of course, Sir." He retreated to other business, leaving the president to his duties.

Mobile poked her head free of the water. There was the beach. There were the humans, a word she had learned. They were less of them than before, much less actually. She tilted her head, then swam closer, head still in view. "Hello!"

That got their attention. "<Hello,>" replied several of them, hands raising to wave. It was funny that they had both greeted one another in the other's language, but she was only amused by it. They seemed older on average than the first group, she guessed.

"Where... young human?" She wanted to keep practicing her human.

A female crossed her arms. "They went to school."

"Last word?" She hadn't learned what a school was. "What word?"

A male shrugged softly. "They were school kids. They had to go back to school, to learn."

"Oh, Learn..." One of the more abstract words she had learned in turn. They were kids, and were learning things. That made sense! She gestured at herself. "I am not a kid. Will you play?" Some adults were less prone to fits of playing games, especially in other species.

After swimming up to her, a woman gently pet Mobile, an act she had never dissuaded. "We'd love to."

"Oh wait!" She gestured out into the ocean. "I come with friend!"

"What?"

The room fell to sudden uneasy quiet. They had all heard what Mobile had said. A female scientist smiled brilliantly. "This is fantastic! Relying on one subject was too risky to start with. If there's more than one and they're just as agreeable..."

A male rolled a hand, looking less certain. "Or she's bringing someone less willing, maybe a parent even if she claims she isn't a child. It wouldn't be that odd. How many kids do you know hate admitting they're kids?"

All eyes were on the camera with the best viewing angle of the action.

"I mean, whether her friend is a parent or a peer, shouldn't we be happy she's back at all?"

Novo rose from the depths at the signal of a tailswish from Mobile. "Hello," she spoke carefully. "I am <Queen Novo>. Good meet you."

There was surprise, and a bit of fear, as she expected. She was larger than Mobile Coral, and more imposing. Still, they did not flee. One of them even dared to approach her timidly, a male she guessed. The females were rounder. "<Hello,>" he greeted in Ponish.

She smiled gently at him. "<Hello. May I speak to your ruler? We should share words.>"

"What is it saying?"

"Pretty certain that is female, unless they don't vary in pitches like humans do."

"Which is possible! Now what is it saying?!"

A scientist slapped the button to speak to their agent on the beach. "Get her on land and start deciphering. We need to know what words she just used. She wants to talk." She had used the word 'words'. They knew that one. We, words. I Speak.

These were not hostile words, or so they all hoped.

Mobile fled to join in the games the grown humans were willing to play, leaving Novo to approach the human that had been waving for her to come closer. He tipped the hat he wore towards her, then gestured out onto land. He wanted her to follow her further.

With a soft sigh, she rolled her eyes. With a soft glow, she gained all four limbs and emerged from the water. "<As you wish. Are we to see the leader of your people?>"

"<Learn Words.>" He took her a small distance away from the waves and pulled out a book filled with images. Many of them had words under them in an odd language. Their language? It seemed safe. "<Ruler. What?>" He was working off of what they asked him to ask about, the word coming out slow and carefully.

She tilted her head at him. "<A Ruler... rules. I am a queen.>" She gestured at herself. "<I am a ruler.>"

I (unknown thing)? I (some other unknown word)? The mystery only deepened. He offered the book towards her. "<Find Ruler>."

She accepted the book and began to work through it quickly, flipping forward until she found a picture of a crown, dazzling and fancy. She thumped the picture with a finger. "<Here. This is what a ruler wears.>" She had not brought her own finery, not wanting to scare them more than they already had been.

"She's asking to see our leader?!"

"Right out of sci fi..."

A third threw out a hand, cutting them off. "You're missing the biggest part. She is a leader. We're looking at not a parent, but a leader of their people. How many of these things are there? She could have all the answers we ever wanted!"

Author's Notes:

Quick update is quick, done before I have to scurry to work. Mission success, woo!