Time passed, as it had to. America grew closer to its new aquatic ally. Trade began. The very ship that had sailed out just shy of remaining on Earth was the first to be assigned to make a trip to Seaquestria.

"How does that work, exactly?" The navigator arched a brow at the captain. "I mean, sure, you gave me a spot to sail to, but do they have a dock? Don't they... literally live in the water, not on top of it?"

The captain shrugged softly. "We're to sail there, then they will meet us and we unload. They'll have things for us to take back. Just treat it like a dock with super heavy union influence and we just stay right where we are and let them handle it."

"Fish Longshoreman?" The navigator snorted as they checked their charts, still-forming as they were. "Why not? Wouldn't be the craziest thing about this new world. This is a new world, right? I mean, there ain't no way Earth just... this."

They shared a nervous little laugh. It was a strange situation, but they were finally working. "Good to be out on the waters again..."

The navigator gave an emphatic thumbs up. "No arguments there, Boss."

The English-Ponish dictionary grew a little each day, posted to a public government website for all to peruse at their leisure. In the sea, watery leaflets were scribed over and over again, revising about once a week or two as the mutual understanding grew with effort and exposure.

Though the president had turned down the invitation, there were other humans willing to make the trip. There were other brave Seaquestrians like Mobile willing to go the other way, and tourism in either direction flourished.

Seaquestrians had no dollars to their names, and came to land laden with sea-borne trinkets and treasures to trade for what they wanted. Not all merchants were willing to part with their goods for such things, but some were, and large signs declaring the fact drew the Seaquestrians like beacons.

Similarly, dollars were of limited use in Seaquestria, at first. It quickly became apparent that they could trade for those dollars, and then turn them around to spend in America for various human goods. Their luxury items were especially... luxurious, and the American Dollar swiftly gained in value in Seaquestria. Even if a sea pony had no intention of ever going on land, they could trade a dollar easily, since it was potential wonders when it did make its way back to human hands.

In the frozen north, Flim and Flam labored with the assistance of a good fifth of the standing army. They had a factory assembled in the dizzying speed of a war-funded industry. When the first gun came off the line, there was a loud cheer from the gathered workers.

It only got louder when the second came, then a third spilled out.

Twilight raised a hoof quickly. "Stop! Let's... test them before we make dozens of them..."

Flim nodded lightly as his glowing horn pulled the lever that brought it all to a stop. "Very well."

"Not that there's really any doubt." Flam grabbed the first gun in his magic and brought it close. "We just insert one of these..." He casually inserted a bullet into its proper chamber, locking the rifle in a ready position. "And we're ready to test!"

Rainbow Dash waved a hoof excitedly. "You said you'd let me try the first one!"

"We certainly did not," disagreed Flim with a shake of his head.

"Besides, these are not adjusted to hoofed use." Flam pointed to a target that had long ago been set up. "I'll take the first shot, if there are no further objections?"

"Please proceed." Twilight smiled nervously as she raised her hooves to cover her ears. Other soldiers took her cue and did much the same thing, soon much of the crowd was covering their ears.

With a loud bang, the target was entirely untouched. Flam frowned softly and turned the rifle around in his magic. "What could have... ah!"

Flim slid in beside him. "Ah indeed. A minor hiccup."

"Barely noticable."

They turned to the crowd as one and bowed. "A new test will occur in one hour's time," they promised together.

The rifle was just... dropped and they went off to do whatever needed to be done.

Twilight lowered her hoof and raised her ears. What had happened? She trotted over and picked up the gun to see strange burns all along the inside of the barrel. It looked like a complete mess in her eyes, but they had apparently figured out what went wrong? "Please be careful. I don't want ponies getting hurt just getting ready."

After they got the diameter of the rifle's barrel more closely matching that of their ammunition and a few other technicalities, the guns began to fire.

Unicorn guards were ready to begin practicing. They were not alone. A hoof-full of dragons and griffons, willing to join as mercenaries, were eager to play with the new toys. A field of targets, normally used for archery, were entirely overrun by fledgling markscreatures, gaining mastery with firearms one loud snap of gunpowder at a time.

Cadance sat next to Twilight. "This is the saddest thing I've seen in some time."

"Sad?" She perked an ear. "We're more ready now than we had been before by quite some measure. Isn't this good?"

"We're ready... to kill, Twilight. Ponies will die. Whatever they are, they'll die too. However you look at it, this will lead to death, and it..." She sighed softly. "It's terrible. I only hope it ends quickly." She rose to her hooves. "I look forward to the day we throw all of those... things into the closest fire."

Once the guns could be reliably reproduced came the 'fun' part. The brothers began eagerly tinkering with the design. The first such contrivance, as was ordered of them, was the adjustment to be usable by a pony. Trapped to their side with a mouth-held trigger, any pony could operate such a rifle.

Rainbow finally got her chance, and she took to it with zeal. She learned to make sweeping dives, to clench her teeth just at the right time to pop off a shot on the field below and soar away without pause, laughing all the while.

She landed beside Rarity with a cocky grin. "Did you see that? Nailed it right in the middle of a super tight turn."

"Positively fantastic," agreed Rarity, nodding lightly. "I do hope you'll be careful... If you're close enough to use that on any of them, they can do the same in return, Dear. I would hate for anything to happen to you."

Rainbow slapped Rarity's shoulder. "Don't even worry about it. I'm not fighting like a bunch of them at the same time. Come in fast and leave just as quickly. Thanks to your disguise, they won't even see me until I take the shot." She laughed softly, imagining her wicked moves.

"I did my best, Darling, but you are... somewhat prismatic." She wobbled a hoof over Rainbow's still visible tail. Her mane was concealed by a big winter hat.

Rainbow peeked back at her multi-colored tail. "Yeah... don't support you can make a tail cozy? It gets cold up there anyway."

Rarity clopped her mitted hoofs with a muffled thump. "What a fantastic idea! Why didn't I think of that before? I'll have something for our good soldier's poor tails." She hopped up to her hooves and trotted away, mumbling something about fabrics and stitchings.

Shining Armor was beside Twilight, both watching the soldiers practicing. They held a gun each themselves, floating in their magic. The guns were directed up, not at any targets. He nodded towards her. "They're growing better by the day. I wonder what refinements the brothers will come up with."

Twilight's eyes lifted to the sky. "The winter months are almost behind us. It's... strange, knowing weather is truly untamed this far north. What do the yaks think of this?"

He smirked a little at that. "They came to complain about the noise, and left with enough harnesses to supply a division. The idea of 'smashing from a distance' was not the most romantic, in their minds, but they didn't argue its effectiveness."

Twilight nodded softly. "I'm... hoping once we've demonstrated we're capable of defending ourselves, we can attempt negotiations. This conflict has been worryingly one-sided whenever the element of surprise wasn't sufficiently on our side."

He placed a leg around her, drawing her closer. "Please don't go rushing in. Even if you come with the best of intentions, they may not realize that... and the thought of my little sister getting hurt... Please..."

Twilight smiled a little. "You always were my BBBFF, Shiny, but someone has to be brave to make this move forward." She dipped her head slightly. "Eventually risks will have to be taken."

"They don't have to be taken by you. Besides being my sister, you are a princess. You being hurt will be a major blow to everypony else, besides you, you know... being hurt." He ran his tongue over his lips softly. "Just... you know... be careful, Twily."

A man sighed softly in the well-lit room. He wore protection, a mask and gloves and clean clothing. One had to, when they were going elbow deep in the dead. He cut the body open with a frown. Another day, another cadaver, but he didn't get into forensics for the glory of it.

"Here we are. I found the bullet." He reached in with tweezers and carefully pulled free the slug. "Hmm." He set it aside in a little tray. "There's only one, but it went in the right way, or is that the wrong way?" He smirked a little at his gallows humor. Sure, only his recorder would hear his joke, but so it was.

"Not seeing other signs of injury; safe to assume the bullet did the job." He set his tools down and picked up the tray, walking with it. "Let's have a look..."

"Time to fingerprint you..." He examined the bullet casually, not really expecting much. He didn't have a database of bullet fingerprints to work with. Still, looking was seeing, and seeing sometimes led to things being noticed.

He put the bullet under a magnifying glass and peered carefully, only to grunt. "The hell...?" Bullet fingerprints liked to sway to the left, or the right, but these did neither. They were... strange. "Who made this gun?" He pressed a button in the viewing device he was using, capturing images of the bloody prints left on the bullet. "The guys down in munitions will have a field day trying to figure this out."

Thankfully, it had ceased to be his job.

He put the bullet in a little baggy where it, and the blood on it, could be retrieved for later.

Slapping an intercom button, he spoke, "Hey, got something for munitions here. Crazy fingerprint on the gun."

"We talking foreign? Someone go crazy with a Russian or Chinese piece?"

"Doesn't look like it." He shook the baggy lightly. "They'll have to figure it out. Our guy bit it from this thing, so we should figure it out."

"I'll send down Harold."

"You do that." He pulled his hand away from the button. He knew Harold. "You'll figure it out." He usually did.

Everything goes crazy, then a person gets killed with a gun. They said it was a matter of time before people started getting too antsy, being told to just stay inside. Weather or wild animals, people go crazy after a while.

"It was a matter of time..." Not like homicides never happened in Alaska. They were people. People sometimes did unfortunate things. "And it falls on me to help find the naughty boys and girls."

"With a little help." Harold was there with a serious look on his face. "Let's see what you have."

Author's Notes:

Let's do the time warp again! It's just a trade to the left, then a few guns to the right!

Put your hoof on your hips, and put your knees in war!

Okay, that was bad. I blame the typos.