Handy saw guards everywhere: on top of roofs, walking along the walls of the town, the train station, the major thoroughfares, guildhalls, civic buildings, and moving through the city in groups. It was an alarming amount of militarisation. The ponies didn't seem to mind, surprisingly enough. Apart from frustrated merchants and a packed-to-the brim marketplace full of shouting voices, everyone seemed calm, as if reassured. That struck him as odd. No matter who you were, where you were, or what culture you came from, if you lived on a border with another country and your town was suddenly drowning in soldiers, you should be worried.