Legionnaire: Death of Innocence

Tarhen, February.

Princess Twilight Sparkle takes a deep breath as she looks across the table at the glowering Shah. Spread out between them are a whole mass of newspapers from both the Khanate and Equestria, and even a few rags from the United Federation. She can see the Times, the Daily and even the Canterlot Speaker. Yet across the front of each one, she can see variations of the same theme.

“I don’t know what to say,” The Shah rumbles in a voice of crushed granite. “You’ve been reasonable, far more reasonable than I could have ever expected you to be. I’d hoped that that was because we were two beings who felt the same way. You have your ideas about science and progress, you know how destructive the wars of the future will be, as you made clear at our last meeting. I was a history teacher before the revolution. I know intimately how destructive the wars of the past have been. I thought we came to this from a perspective of shared understanding. But it seems that it is not so.”

The Shah runs a hand through his black and white striped fur, his blue eyes locked upon Princess Twilight as she sits there, her bones chilled to ice as she feels the icy regard in those hard eyes. She’d been so relieved when they’d managed to walk the whole thing back from the brink- again!- after the mortar bombing of the legion barracks, after the Shah had sacked his chief of police and appointed the navy to provide increased security.

Yet two days later, a frantic mailboat had come screaming back from the border with the news that the entire Equestrian eastern fleet had shown up in full parade review on the border. Dreadnoughts, battlecruisers, destroyers and supply ships, practically everything besides the kitchen sink. Yet worse than that, Princess Luna had decided to unveil some sort of prototype, the capabilities of which are still the subject of terrified whisperings on street corners. Twilight had desperately reached out to her fellow princesses, and Princess Celestia’s response had been just as confused as Twilight’s, with Princess Cadance having been unable to respond. Yet one message had come back from that frantic conference. Under no circumstances was the Khanate to become aware that Princess Luna was incommunicado.

“It seems,” Shah Khalid continues “That you have merely been spinning this out, playing for time whilst you managed to organise your fleet on our borders. What do you say to that conclusion, princess?”

Twilight purses her lips as she looks across the table at the Shah’s cabinet arrayed behind him, nervously watching them. Behind her, she can hear Diplomatic Incident’s measured breathing and the slow ticking of the clock in the corner. Ten minutes until midday, and the heat outside would already be getting unbearable, yet the heat outside has nothing on the positively arctic atmosphere in the drawing room, the game of monopoly forgotten in the face of more serious negotiation efforts.

“I would say that that conclusion is erroneous,” Twilight says after a moment, keeping her voice studiously neutral. “If this had been an effort to play for time, then our fleet would not have stopped at the border two days ago.”

The Shah takes a deep breath, pursing his lips, and he’s about to say something else, when there’s a soft clearing of a throat.
“My lord.” The voice is a voice that Twilight had not expected, for the speaker is none other than General Tariq Aznan, the commander of the entire Khanate army.

“If I may… we should not respond to this Equestrian provocation. They have opted to put forces on our border, to threaten us into backing down.”
Twilight blinks, surprised. She had not expected General Tariq Aznan, who has apparently been one of the main agitators for raising the temperature all round, to suddenly be counselling the Shah against war, yet General Aznan is not done.

“We should not back off from this display of Equestrian aggression, but instead we should perhaps talk about those reparations that the Equestrian delegation has been so insistent about demanding. It’s unreasonable for the state to be forced to pay for the actions of private citizens. The Khanate has not assaulted Twilight Sparkle, or shot mortars into her base, merely citizens caught up in displays of ill feeling.”

Twilight narrows her eyes, feeling her anger starting to crackle. It’s been two days since the mortars landed on her base, and she still can’t get the coppery scent of blood out of her nostrils and off of her hands. Her muscles still ache from carrying casualties, and when she closes her eyes, she can still hear the soft fluttery breathing of the dying Khan who had her ribcage smashed by the explosion.

Displays of ill feeling indeed. She feels something poisonous settling in her stomach, but she forces herself to remain calm and copacetic. This is not the place to lose her cool.

“Citizens, General Aznan, do not generally possess military grade ordinance.” Diplomatic Incident replies. “I’m aware of course, that there are smugglers from Valorossiya or from the Federation, and that your borders are more porous than you’d like. However, describing the pattern of behaviour we’ve been subjected to as “displays of ill feeling” is, I feel, understating the strength of the demonstrations, just a tad.” He makes a squeezing motion to accentuate his point and Aznan’s eyes narrow.

“A little give and take is only natural, Mr… Incident. If Equestria wishes to start a war, that is their prerogative. For myself, I wish my nation to remain on the path of peace and righteousness, irrespective of Equestrian Provocations.” Aznan continues. “Fundamentally, I’d like to extend something of an olive branch. Princess Twilight Sparkle, in order to reset the relations between our states. I would like to invite her and her staff to the upcoming army day celebrations. It’s going to be an opportunity for her to meet some of the officers and men, and an opportunity to dial down tensions somewhat.”

Twilight looks from Shah Khalid to General Aznan and she feels her shoulders tightening, the pain from her hand twinging faintly. She doesn’t trust this at all. From what she’s heard so far, the army is involved in the mischief, at the peripheral level, but involved. Those weapons had to come from somewhere after all… Twilight can’t help but think… yet then, the notion comes to her.
Aznan’s inviting her to an army base, and not just any army base, but to Ashad-Mar. Tarhen’s main army base, the central logistics and arming hub for the Khanate’s central military district, some of the largest weapons stockpiles in the whole entire Khanate. If weapons are going to go missing, they’re going to go missing from somewhere where they won’t be missed, and the central arming hub… well, that’s a good place to at least rule out.

General Aznan is inviting her in.
Twilight smells a trap, she smells trouble from a mile away, and yet this could be a way to unravel this whole situation, to find out how those weapons got into the hands of the Khanate dissidents who attacked those settlements. She can give the name of whoever was responsible to the Shah, and that’ll be a good step towards nailing whoever’s providing mortars to the people bombing her compound, as well as providing a definite step towards calming the red-tops back home.

Twilight knows she’s grasping at straws, that this is tenuous and awkward, but it’s the best option she can see right now, beyond kicking the table over and stalking home in a huff… and that’s an option she can’t countenance, for once that bridge has been burned, then war is the only natural consequence.

“I think this is something we can make time in our schedule to attend.” She says after a quiet moment “It would be good to meet your officers and men, general. I have heard much about the Khanate’s armed forces, good things I should add.”

Shah Khalid glances from Twilight to Aznan, looking a little surprised at this turn of events, but he’s eager to avoid a war, and so he clears his throat, a deep rumbling growl passing through the room, seeking to remind the general where he stands in the chain of command.
“In light of this proposal… I think, Princess, we will continue to monitor further developments. Whilst this event is disruptive and escalatory… I think we have the opportunity here to demonstrate our own commitment to the process.”

____

“So consider me confused boss.” Springbok growls as he sits in Aznan’s office. “The whole point was to start a war with the Equestrians, that was phase one in your whole plan, and you had a golden opportunity handed to you on a platter, and yet you just pissed it away… talk about the mysteries of the military mind…” He says, but Aznan shakes his head with a growl as he looks out across the garden, watching the gardeners working their way across the still green lawns of the .

“We need to start this on our terms, Springbok. Part of the plan does call for a war against Equestria, that’s correct. However we need the Equestrians to throw the first full-bodied punch. Asassinating princesses in the street is one thing, starting riots and deniable attacks is something we can countenance in furtherance of the plan… but if I throw the army into an attack against the Equestrian fortified positions, the ones that existed before the Equestrian navy showed up… we might be able to win a victory or two, but they’d be able to throw us back, and worse, they’d be able to capitalise on us throwing the first actual undisguised punch.”

“But we’ve been punching them for weeks now,” Springbok retorts, stretching out his arms and running a hand across his scalp, picking himself up from his chair to pace across the office like a caged animal.

“We’ve mortared their compound, we’ve attacked their princess three times, and we’ve hit settlements across the border with deniable forces. I’m surprised that the Princesses are giving us quite this much wiggle room.” Springbok says, and Aznan shakes his head, wishing that Hassan Zafwan was here. Zafwan was someone who understood politics, someone who understood the interplay between nations. Yet Zafwan has more than earned his little vacation and Aznan hopes he enjoys his time on the south coast.

“I’m not. A war between us and Equestria is going to be incredibly destructive, when it happens. I understand how Princess Celestia, for all her flaws, is not going to want to pull that trigger until she absolutely has to. That’s the advantage we have… she’s going to let us keep the initiative until the last possible moment, and her protege is worse from what I can see. At the same time, they’re reasonable beings who want the world to be reasonable. They’ll let us keep tapping them and tapping them until we have them in a corner… they’ll let us set the pace, hence why we’ve invited her to this party of ours. We’ve put her in a position where we can control the physical environment, the people and the information… are you understanding what I’m saying?” Aznan asks, but he can see Springbok’s wicked smile spreading across his face, and once again Aznan is reminded of a predator, for there’s something vicious and hungry in that smile.

“So whilst she’s in the army base… you want me to do something with her?” He asks, and Aznan nods.

“I do. Ideally something in a corridor or a quiet out of the way sort of office rather than shooting her directly on the dance floor, but you’re the professional, I leave it to your judgement.”

“Don’t worry sir. She’ll be taken care of, I’ll see to it.” Springbok’s predatory grin becomes positively saint-like, and Aznan nods.

“Understood. It’s your vengeance.”