"You don't have to do this." Shining Armor had a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "It's dangerous."

"That's exactly why I do." She brushed the hoof away. "We've shown we can defend ourselves. We need to show we can be reasoned with too, or this will only grow worse."

"What are you going to do, exactly?" Shining sat down in the snow with a crunch of condensed powder. "I need specifics."

"You're my brother, Shining, not my commander." She shook her head. "I don't have to say, and it won't change much... I'll reach out a hoof towards them and hopefully we can start on the road past this... unfortunate... period."

Shining regarded his sister, wanting her to stay safe, but also considering if looking more royal, or less, was the better tactic... "We don't even know who their leader is, if they have one. There have been no reports of any humans dressed as royalty."

"Humans don't do that, I think..." Twilight had not witnessed any royal humans in Canterlot High. "But I feel confident you will find the human in charge where there are more humans. Attacking their fringes will not reveal them. Now, please, don't attack while I'm making my attempt at diplomacy."

Shining suddenly saluted. "You have a week. If we don't see you by then, we..." He couldn't finish the words. He just turned away and trotted off before his composure could deteriorate.

Twilight shook her head slowly. "I'll be fine." She hoped. She lifted into the air before vanishing in a puff of sparkles.

Queen Novo sat on the chair across from the human president. She was wearing her finest with a serious expression. "The letter you sent implied this was a matter of great urgency."

"I'm glad you could come." The president set a hand on his desk. "We are under attack, and we hope you can shed some light on the situation."

Novo leaned in, her attention grabbed. "Attack? I hope my people have not been foolish. I will personally discipline them if this is the case."

"No, no." He shook a hand in the air. "Your people have been, by and large, polite guests. This is happening far to the northeast. My people, citizens of the United States, are being attacked and killed by four-legged people with guns."

"Guns? I don't recognize that word." She hopped down from her chair to fetch a book, setting it up in front of the president. "Can you point it out?"

There were no guns in the big book of lexicon. They hadn't seen the need to swap that word. The president quietly wished that could remain true. He took out his phone and quickly did an internet search for guns. He had a screen full of different guns.

He showed them to her. "These are guns."

Novo squinted at the dizzying variety of them. "What do they do?" She saw a few of them had humans in the picture, giving some reference for size. "The come in many sizes..."

"They kill." He let out a slow breath. "You point them at what you want to not live anymore, pull the trigger, there's a loud sound, and it dies."

Novo jerked her head back. No ally of hers had such a terrible weapon! "How utterly dreadful! And they are using them?"

"They have killed guards--" They had no word for 'police', guards was the closest right word. "--and others that tried to defend their homes."

Novo struggled to think of what force she knew of that could be so ruthless. "How... Such brutality..." She raised a taloned hand to her chest. "Thank you."

The president seemed surprised at that. "Hm?"

"For the trust." She dipped her head. "I am certain these are unsure times. You decided to trust us, and I will not forget that. We are allies. Now... I know of no people that would act this way. Can you describe them? Do you recognize what species they are?"

There was only so much military intelligence he could offer without things looking awkward in review. She was not cleared for much of anything, but these were unusual times. "The primary attack force was horses, small ones."

"Horses?"

Horses were in the book, and he pointed it out. "Small ones."

Ponies? Novo frowned at the thought of it. Ponies were killing people? "It must... be a criminal unit. I will draft a letter to (Princess Celestia); she should know of this."

"Now you've turned the table. (Princess)? (Celestia)?" Both were words that Novo hadn't learned the English of, leaving the president in the dark.

"Ruler, female, and that was a specific name," Novo defined with a soft nodding motion.

"Queen?"

Novo shook her head quickly. "No no. I am a queen, she does not like that title. What is one step below a queen?"

He held up a hand. "While fascinating, let's focus. The horses have a leader then?"

"Yes, but I cannot imagine these follow her, or they would not be killing anyone." The very notion of a deadly Equestrian division was alien in her mind. They were too soft by several measures to engage in a serious campaign like that. "They should be speaking the same language I do."

The president was suddenly on his feet, his chair falling backwards in the force. "You don't have different languages?"

"There are accents," allowed Novo, eyeing the fallen furniture. "Have I said something to alarm?"

"This is very important. If this entire world shares a language, we need to get the dictionary we've been drafting into their hands." He grabbed for his phone. "Excuse me, I have a few calls to make."

Anchorage was a large city, especially by Alaskan standards. It was the largest they had, with productive ports. They used to be productive. They weren't even on the beach anymore. All the boats that had been in them or near them were on land, laying there uselessly. All sea-based business had ground to a complete halt with a total lack of a sea to do it in.

When they had arrived in... wherever they had arrived in, they had become landlocked and baffled. People tried to make do with what they had, but for many, it meant simply suffering. The Internet was basically down, only functioning within the state itself, and few significant sites were hosted entirely in Alaska.

On the bright side, it meant government sites were still available; posting up to date news and suggestions to keep people safe. Things like 'Watch out for dangerous animals; be armed' were posted long ago before winter had fallen.

With the thaw, new messages began to spring up. 'Beware horses. Armed, dangerous, and organized. This is not a joke. Do not confront, call the police and withdraw; preferably the latter coming first.'

"Can you believe it?" asked a man, standing on the curbside with his friends. "Beware horses! Armed? With what, hooves with extra sharp shoes?"

His friends laughed at the very notion. "If I saw a damn horse coming at me, I'd just shoot it," noted another with a shrug. "Ain't rocket science or nothin', come on!"

Another threw up a hand. "Hey man, it sounds stupid as anything, but I hear they killed police out in the boonies."

"Killed them or did the cops out there forget which way to hold their guns?" He put a finger to his head, the rest of his hand taking on the crude shape of a gun. With a pull of the 'trigger' he jerked his head to the side and stuck out his tongue.

That got a raucous fit of laughter from the others. The idea seemed less incredible than armed and deadly horses.

Twilight appeared with a shower of sparkles. She was on top of a roof, towering over most of the city. She could see it spread out before her. "Now we're talking." Surely a city so large had to have some human of importance in it, not the little villages the armed forces were running into.

Such a large city could also be a serious challenge for them. That was just as well. "The goal is to stop the violence." She spread her wings. "And I'm going to do that." With a glowing horn, she willed herself invisible and took flight. Sure, doing both at once was tiring, but better than being a potentially frightening thing soaring through the air

Rainbow crept along, peering at the largest human settlement they'd approached yet. There had to be thousands of humans in there! How many would come out and fight them? That she couldn't guess. It was at least ten times as big, so at least ten times the fighters? Seemed rational enough to her.

The curious part about the place was that it seemed to have a lot of boats. Little boats for a river, and there was no river. Why? She had not even the start of a clue. "Weird..."

Alien words made her ears perk up in their covering cap. They were soft and quiet. She turned to see a human. It was a little human, an ungainly human foal. Male, female? She couldn't be sure, but it was waddling towards her with a big smile.

Rainbow blinked and sat up, peering at the little human. They had foals, that made enough sense... She wasn't going to shoot some human kid! "Hey there, Kid. What's up?"

The kid replied in more words that had no meaning. They reached for Rainbow and Rainbow ducked away. "Hey, chill it. I'm on an assignment." The child would not be refused, and Rainbow didn't want to hurt it.

This ended in a hug, the child squeezing the deadly horse happily. "This is... adorably awkward. C'mon! I'm a soldier! He--" Her words were cut off as fingers went in her mouth. The kid was inspecting her teeth and lips casually, apparently deciding to act out its curiosity without inhibition.

Rainbow folded in her wings around and pushed the child away with a huff, scowling at him. "Where are your parents?!" She turned away and started to trot, only for a chill breeze to suddenly run across her tail. She looked over her shoulder to see the kid had gotten a hold of her tail cozy and Rainbow had pulled it right off with her movement. "You're breaking my back, Kid."

She looped back around and reached for the cozy with a wing. "Give that back. It's mine, not yours."

The child made some reply she couldn't understand and yanked the cozy out of reach.

"Not cool!" Rainbow jumped for the kid, but they jumped just as easily. A game started of cat and mouse began, with Rainbow getting within inches of her clothing before the child spirited it away, only for it to repeat. The kid was having quite a bit of fun, laughing and cheering.

Emerging from the snow suddenly, two crystal earth ponies tackled the kid to the ground, pinning them. "Got 'em, Ma'am!"

Rainbow trotted forward with a cocky grin. "I told you I was a soldier, and soldiers have buds." She casually took her cozy back from the kid's pinned hand and got it onto her tail. "Now, as fun as this has been, you need to go." She made a soft shooing motion.

The earth ponies withdrew from the kid, letting them stand up once more.

The child frowned a bit, perhaps disappointed that they had lost the game. They called Rainbow a cheater, not that Rainbow had any idea what was being said.

"Yeah yeah, don't look so upset." She pointed into the town. "Go home. It's not safe out here anyway." Certainly not with them around. She planned on doing her duty proudly, which left little room for kids. "You're a nice kid, I don't want you getting mixed up in all of this."

The human foal finally returned to the city it had come from. Rainbow nodded with satisfaction. "Alright, now let's focus on the not-so-small ones with the mini cannons."

Author's Notes:

Which of you would resist the chance to hug a Rainbow Dash, if the opportunity were present?