Twilight of Harmony

Twilight sat in the passenger area of the Blackhawk that was taking her to meet with the remaining Liger government reflecting on the last few months.

‘Six months of fighting. I guess something can be said about fighting an organized military force over insurgents.’ She thought as the helicopter flared to land with its two decoy sister as their attack helicopter escorts circled overhead, keeping a watchful eye for threats.

Word had been received a week prior from advance elements of the 3rd Armored Division that the remaining leadership of the Liger military had requested surrender after some officers were able to lead a successful coup against the Fuhrer, killing her in the fighting.

The prison camps that had been identified by satellite photos were quickly captured and liberated by airborne units within the first few days of the war and after numerous resupply missions, the positions were held while the rest of the ground forces advanced on them. Fortunately, wholesale extermination of the prisoners was averted by the action.

Casualties to Twilight’s forces were minimal considering the opposition, a testament to to the training and equipment of her forces, but the nearly thousand lives that were lost weighed heavily on her.

‘Another lesson of leadership: you will have to send your men to their deaths at some point. But the question you have to ask yourself is were those lives wasted or were they spent’ She thought as the door slid open and her personal detail stepped out.

Once given the all clear, Twilight exited the helicopter, ducking low to stay clear of the rotors. Once she was clear of the rotors, she stood up straight and flared her wings to stretch the muscles out after the long flight as she tugged her body armor into a more comfortable position.

Marching up the stairs, her right hand resting on her sidearm in its thigh holster, she entered the chancellery building. Once inside, she saw workers already removing the flags and other trappings of the fuhrer’s regime.

‘Looks like she didn’t have as much support as she thought she did. At least the civilian populace didn’t suffer the horrors of war to badly.’ She thought to herself.

Remarkably, civilian casualties from the fighting were limited to those that were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. Something that Twilight and her commanders were thankful for.

Militarily, the Liger’s had been decimated. The opening strikes had reduced their military strength by almost fifty percent and the fighting as her forces advanced reduced it to over ninety percent. Which opened up new headaches in having to set up bases to help protect against reprisals.

Entering the meeting room, Twilight was meet by the highest ranking member of the government, the admiral in charge of the Liger navy.

“Guten tag, Herr Admiral. I wish that we were meeting under better circumstances.” She said greeting the male.

“I as well Your Highness. Shall we get this unpleasantness over so we can try to go back to our lives?” He asked.

Twilight nodded. “Indeed. Maybe once this is settled you can come visit Equestria and we can swap some stories, just a couple of old war dogs?” She said.

The liger smiled. “I would like that very much. Maybe over drinks and chess?”

Twilight laughed. “Sounds like a plan. Now, I had my people draw up the terms, and I did my best to make them fair and equitable due to the massive losses your people suffered.” She said as she took a case from Jazz and pulled out a stack of documents and passed them over.

The admiral and his staff read the papers over.

“So we will be allowed to build our military back up? That is quite generous.” He replied after reading the terms.

Twilight nodded. “It will be limited to about half of what you had before my forces moved in and will be a self defense force, but I would rather you be an ally rather than an enemy.”

“I notice that the reparations are reasonable as well, why is that?” He inquired.

“I have seen what happens when a nation is unjustly punished for when their leaders wage war and lose. I would like to prevent as much undue suffering of the population and prevent the rise of those that would try it again.” Twilight replied. “The nation in question was hit so hard that their currency wasn’t even worth the paper it was printed on because of the inflation.”

The admiral nodded. “We thank you for this. If you can give us a few moments to discuss this amongst ourselves?” He inquired.

“Certainly.” Twilight responded.

Twilight stretched out in her seat on the transport aircraft as they flew back to Equestria.

“That went pretty well.” Jazz said as she pulled out a book to read.

“It did. Hopefully the rest of the world will accept it and not raise a fuss.” Twilight said as she moved her left arm, wincing a bit as it ground in protest. “Damn. Going to have to finish my replacement.”

“Wearing out already?” Jazz asked, eyebrow raised.

“Yeah. The metals from Earth aren’t all that great at channeling magic for long periods of time. I am almost done with my newest one. Just haven’t had much time to finish it.” The alicorn replied.

“This one got any cool features?” Jazz asked.

“Yup. Hard mana shield projector, hidden blade, and an energy projector ala Iron Man.” Twilight replied with a smirk.

“Nice. So what now? War is over.” Jazz inquired.

“Getting bases and ports constructed, dismantling our nuclear arsenal, and setting up patrols to protect our interests abroad. Starting anti-piracy operations will be happening as well. After that, I am taking some much needed R&R. Going to go see my friends on the other side of the mirror for a few weeks and handle the Starseeker issue.” Twilight replied.

“Starseeker?”

“Yeah. Former consort of Celestia that turned herself into a damn daywalker that got chucked through the mirror because Celestia couldn’t bring herself to put her down.” Twilight explained.

“Fun. Can I come with?” Jazz asked.

Twilight thought for a moment. “Sure. You won’t have a counterpart there, so there will be no chance of confusion.” Twilight replied.

“We gonna go armed?” Jazz inquired.

“For war sister.” Twilight replied with a smirk, causing Jazz to laugh as the plane winged its way back to Equestria.

Once Twilight was back in Ponyville, she had a most undesired visitor.

“What do you want Discord?” She asked the chimera who was currently pinned to the wall of her office by several hard mana blades while she ground through her paperwork.
“I wished to apologize for my actions. Things got out of control quickly, even for me.” Discord replied, not at all bothered by being turned into a pincushion.

Twilight paused her typing and turned to Discord. “Seriously? Then why didn’t you stop it?” She asked heatedly.

“Because the only way I could have stopped it would have been extremely messy and would have resulted in me probably being sealed again, and not by the Elements, but by the Creator.” He responded.

Twilight looked at him. “So you just hid and hoped that by bringing the military from the Earth I was on would fix your problems?” She shook her head. “Just for that you get to spend the next few centuries as my target dummy.”

“That is fair.” Discord said.

“You don’t get a choice in the matter. Now get out of my sight. I have work to do before I go on leave.” Twilight responded, dispelling the blades.

Once the blades were gone, Discord disappeared as quickly as he could, not looking forward to their next meeting.