The president stood behind a podium. It was not unusual for a president to do so when they had news to deliver. He had a somber look on his face, addressing the crowd and the many camera pointed at him. "It is with a heavy heart that I commemorate a brave man..."

The man shouldn't have done what he did. He had been ordered to stand down. Regardless of that, he had done a brave thing, and the people needed someone to look towards, dead or not. News had started to crack. They knew. Even with a broken Internet, there was no escape from the modern news cycle.

"He is not alone. Others serving their communities gave their last in the past few weeks to protect against a new menace." He gripped the podium perhaps a little too hard. "The enemy forces--" The crowd's mood shifted. Enemy? "--scattered after his brave defense. Countless lives may have been saved."

"Though our countrymen in Alaska face new dangers, let us remember that we stand together. While we are safe, here, we will be working to extend that protection." He threw a hand out wide. "While these selfless guardians of the common man may have been first, they will not and simply can not be the last."

A shout came from the crowd, "what enemy?!"

"We are not prepared at this time to go into details. Simply know that we are not taking this lightly and we will defend this country. The element of surprise is over." He let out a small breath. "We are here to honor those who sacrificed themselves to that force, to give us the opportunity to react."

He gave posthumous medals to decorate the caskets of men far too dead to ever enjoy them. It was a small thing, he felt, to offer, but it was a thing he could do.

Mobile sprang from the water, hitting the ground on legs she didn't have just moments before. "Time to party!" she eagerly called in the human tongue.

"Hey, Coral." A younger human greeted her, waving one of his hands as he came closer. "People aren't really partying today."

Mobile tilted her head a little. "Why not? The sun's warm and the water's just the right level of cold."

"Yeah." He shrugged. "I'm with you. They're all moping because some cops in Alaska got killed. Not a big deal the way I see it."

Mobile tilted her head at that. "What's a cop? I mean, that's sad. Were they friends?"

He looked baffled at her confusion. "Cops? People who catch people who break laws and stuff?"

"Oh! Guards!" She clapped her talons together. "Oh... That's really sad. What happened to them?"

He shrugged. "They're being kinda cagey about that, but the Internet says it's--"

"Internet?" She tilted her head a bit. "You use a net to catch information?" She made a gesture as if tossing a net. "That's a pretty cool idea, but how would that work?"

He laughed good-naturedly at her confusion, gesturing to the hot dog stand that was ready and waiting. "I'll try to explain over a snack."

"Yes, please!" She followed after him with a smile. Food and answers? A great combination in her book.

The patrolman's body was found there outside the city in his car. The door was open, he was dead, and it was filled with bullet holes. The gun had been fired. There was blood. Some of it belonged to him, clearly, but some of it did not. He had shot something, to say nothing of whatever his car had run through before that point. It was a grizzly scene, and one they had to pore through.

It didn't take long for them to determine the mystery blood was not human. It was alien, built in a way that could only happen with a whole new origin. Theirs was an alien evolution, following paths that Earth never did. Even just under a microscope, one could see organelles in their cells that defied easy identification.

And those were primarily blood cells, theoretically simpler cells compared to many.

They did have one point of comparison. When offered treats and payment in exchange, the Seaquestrians were willing to give up some blood for examination. Between the two, it was clear to see that they shared an origin. Just as a human, a dog, and a frog all shared base similarities that marked them as being kin of the Earth, the seaquestrians and those that attacked that patrolman were born of the same world.

That was, perhaps, a small comfort. More comforting was the fact that this information could be passed. Packet radios had begun to come online, re-establishing a low-bandwidth connection between Alaska's Internet and the rest of America's. The priority of military and government traffic mostly pushed out the common man's access to this channel, but it was not entirely closed off.

You could get and send email to the rest of the states, if you didn't mind it coming in slowly; very very slowly. Browsing the web was far worse off; with basically any access to standard web ports being disabled. They were working on it, they claimed. At least there was email?

Back to the attacked city, they increased efforts to patrol their borders. Lawkeeping took a hit, as police searched for assailing invaders instead of criminals, but what other choice did they have?

Rarity set a hoof gently on the still shoulder of her dear friend. "This isn't right..."

A soft cough of an injured soldier was all that replied to her. Rainbow was unconscious, spread over a table. She had been stripped of her outfit and hurried off to emergency care on arrival. Rarity had waited with watery eyes the entire time. When Rainbow was returned, they said the pegasus would live.

That was a small pleasure. Rarity gently ran a hoof over Rainbow's shoulder. "Please wake up. Darling, you can make a snarky comment or two, that is what you do..." She sighed out, trailing her hoof along the bandages that helped Rainbow survive. "Such barbarians..."

"Have you seen Twilight?"

Rarity jumped, looking up to see Cadance there. "Oh, dear, I hadn't even heard you coming." She shook her head. "I haven't seen Twilight in some time, now that you bring it up..." She rubbed behind her head. "I do hope she's alright. I don't think I can weather another of my friends being so tragically injured..."

Cadance leaned in, touching her head to Rarity's, horns touching. "I know how you feel."

Rarity smiled just a little. "I... think you do. Thank you. Has... anyone dear to you been hurt?"

Cadance gestured across the room. "The guards from the Crystal Empire; I took pride in knowing them, being more than just a royal face... It hurts a great deal to know they are hurting, and that I took a part in making that happen."

She upturned a hoof in Rainbow's direction. "And Rainbow, of course. I can only imagine how Twilight will react if she returns to find Rainbow in such a condition." Her voice lowered dangerously, "if she returns." She looked away, her mane covering her eyes.

"Darling! Don't... please don't talk like that." Rarity shook her head almost violently. "That is not a thought I wish to entertain. She is Twilight Sparkle, princess of friendship. She has always found a way through in the darkest hour. Let's have some faith in her."

Cadance smiled a little. "I remember her when she was just a little dork of a filly." She returned her gaze to Rarity. "And she has grown into such a fine... dork of a mare." She sighed, but the motion was interrupted. A pony had grabbed one of her wings. She looked over her shoulder to see an injured shoulder holding her wing gently but firmly.

She couldn't muster the will to even be irate at the guard. "Shhh, I'm here. Sleep." She leaned in and kissed the stallion's forehead. The soldier released her wing and sagged with a smile, fading away.

Rarity felt her own expression brightening a little. "They really love you..."

"And I love them. Not in the way I love Shining Armor, of course, but..." She raised a hoof, looking ready to clop it down, but it returned to the ground slowly. "I pray she finds an answer that does not involve putting them in danger again."

Twilight appeared with a burst of sparkles. Her quarry was below her. But how did she approach? She watched. She watched and took notes. Who came, who left. Those who came regularly, who she began naming with no particular reasoning. "Ah, here comes Strong Breeze," she muttered to herself as a floating quill took a note on a floating scroll beside her.

"And his mated partner, Gentle Breeze." She had no evidence that the two humans had any relationship of any kind, other than both showing up at the building many times, often together. Was it terrible to assume two humans that happened to be in physical proximity were having a relationship? She shrugged softly and kept watching.

She tapped at her chin softly, considering things. "I am increasingly certain the badge they wear signifies their name and title." She made a little jot. "This seems to mean 'I belong here' since all the badges have it." It was a laborious process, trying to decipher humanity from a distance and without speaking to them.

Elsewhere in the same building, humans watched her. She was not terribly stealthy, barely making an effort to hide. They had cameras on the roof, casually watching the purple pony as she watched humans in turn. The first reaction had been thoughts of attacking her, but she seemed unarmed, and entirely harmless. She just... took a lot of notes. It was hard to be scared of something that just took notes all day long.

Was it a spy? That was dimly possible, but spy horses? They let her stay, watching her intently. There was a reason to.

She wrote. She wrote words they were learning. With data being passed finally, the words needed to communicate came through and after that, written language. Every day they were learning by watching what she wrote. They could see she was trying to do the same, to decipher English. She wasn't making very fast progress, and that was fine.

It was only after about a week of watching her watch people that they made their move. She hadn't budged, save to use the little mare's room. She was polite enough to not do so on top of the building, vanishing for a few minutes before popping right back where she had started and resuming her activities.

She slept there. It was during one of these sleeping periods that a soldier slipped out onto the roof. He had a gun, just in case. The horses could kill, this was known fact. That one appeared harmless, but appearances only went so far. He wasn't even alone. One didn't go alone if one wanted to survive. A moment after the first a second, then a third came out, all creeping as quietly as they could on the snowy rooftop.

Twilight was unaware of their presence and remained so until she woke up. Something had stung her. She reached a wing back to swat at the affected area, muttering something. She hadn't seen a lot of insect activity in the deep of winter. Figures it had... Her wing was not touching an insect's left bump. There was something protruding from her flesh.

She jumped up with an alarmed squeak, her magic yanking free the dart that had pricked her. Everything was kind of fuzzy. "W-what?" Adrenaline and depressants warred with her confused psyche caught in the middle. There were humans, she could see them, wielding their mini-cannons and watching her warily. "N-no, I come... in peace." She slumped into the snow, sleeping once more. The tranquilizer they had used proved quite effective on ponies.

Author's Notes:

Merry Christmas! I brought you a captive Twilight. Aren't I generous?!