‘To say I was startled by the rather abrupt turn of events was an understatement. Even I had heard very little about the Khanate. My studies at the time were largely concerned with Zebrica, with whom we maintained a cordial relationship and whence I would be dispatched on occasion to stand in for Celestia at this occasion or that function. However it was to our eastern borders that we now looked, and it was to the Khanate that I was dispatched to try and salvage what we could from the situation. I look back and wonder how I ever could have been so naive to think the situation was salvageable, given who the Sisters sent.’
-Memoirs of (then) Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Celestia sighs softly, clicking her fingers as she strides into her well furnished study. Her face is set and her eyes narrowed. Her lips are set into a thin line and those normally warm and welcoming eyes are flinty and slit-like.

Luna gulps nervously as she glances around the room, the rich thick, crimson and gold carpet offering little comfort under her sister’s implacable gaze. Celestia gestures dispassionately towards the chair on the other side of her desk and Luna sits down nervously, her eyes flickering around the room. She is rather glad for the steel mask that she could see out of, but no one could see into. It means she doesn’t have to look her dear sister in the face, preferring to look anywhere else.

However, no words of wisdom are forthcoming from the plush chintz couch in the corner, nor do nuggets of understanding leap like glowing embers from the roaring fireplace, and the fat white cat is no help at all, preferring to yawn and then curl itself back into peaceful slumber.

“Tell me, from the top, what happened?” Celestia asks, her voice cool and dispassionate.
Luna takes a deep breath to steel herself. She hates reporting to her sister about her failures, in the same way every junior officer hates reporting her mistakes to her superior, and there is no doubt that Celestia is Luna's superior. A civil war had been fought to prove that point over a thousand years ago after all. However, it is more than just that. Prior to this excursion, Luna had been champing at the bit to get out and get her teeth into something more challenging than dealing with the Ministry of Defence. As a result, Celestia had, after much badgering, consented to send her to look into the situation with the Khanate. As Luna was the supreme commander of the armed forces, she was ideally placed. Or so she had thought. Now, eighty men are wounded. The death toll is currently unknown.

Luna takes a deep, shuddering breath, summoning the words and the courage to speak them.
“They wouldn't speak to me,” she said at last, shivering slightly. “The senior ambassador wouldn't even see me... They palmed me off on junior diplomats for the first few days and nothing got done.”

Celestia nods slowly, obviously thinking about something. “I see... so how do we get from that to a riot at the gates of the Equestrian Embassy?” she asks, her tone still calm and conversational as if she was asking Luna's opinion on the merits of a particular flavour of jam. Luna grimaces like she’s just been punched.

“Do not play games with me sister,” Celestia says, her tone hardening. “I have just been awoken to the news that Equestrian soldiers have been in combat overseas for the first time in nearly two hundred years, and I have sixty-eight men in my infirmary who were not there before you landed.”

“There was a riot,” Luna says at last, the words spilling from her mouth. “The protesters were angry about what they called ‘Equestrian interference’ in their affairs, not to mention those two provinces you took off them a while back. They started shooting at the embassy and our soldiers shot back, then someone blew the gates off and the mob surged in. We beat a fighting retreat to the back garden, evacuating staff as we went.”

“Please, please tell me you weren't involved,” Celestia whispers, the words being more of an invocation than a question.
“No sister... I was evacuating diplomats and co-ordinating fire for the destroyer.”

“Phew you-WHAT?” Celestia's face drains of color. “You mean the Zam-Tarkaz was actually firing into a crowd?” Her tone is positively horrified, her pupils shrinking to pinpricks.

“If we hadn't, the embassy would have been overrun and everyone inside, myself included, would have been slaughtered.” Luna counters and Celestia raises a pencil-thin eyebrow at the words, before closing her eyes for a moment, deep in thought.

“An Equestrian Embassy is Equestrian soil,” Celestia says after a heart stopping moment, lifting her head to look Luna directly in the face. “If the mob broke into the embassy and you needed to engage them with the destroyer's cannon-”

“Not cannon, small-arms and light ordinance only,” Luna explains, “the destroyer's cannon would have shredded the crowd into mist, but it would also have damaged the Embassy building.”

“Well, that is something at least,” Celestia replies, rising quickly to her feet and heading over to the fire.

Luna watches her sister gaze into the fire for the longest time, the firelight silhouetting the God-Princess' form. “Sister-”

“Don't,” Celestia cuts her fellow Princess off. “I need to think about how I can fix this mess you've made.”
Luna's mouth opens to retort. “Sister, you're being unfair, I had no option but to do what I did, otherwise we would have been completely overwhelmed!”

Celestia does not respond for a moment, merely staring into the fire. Luna watches, transfixed, awed, and afraid that she may have stepped over the line. After a moment Celestia shakes her head.
“Sister, I sent you to the Khanate to try and stabilize the situation on the border. That has not happened,” she says firmly. “Instead, there was a riot in my Embassy and sixty-eight men are now in my infirmary.”

“Sixty-eight?” Luna asks, nervously. Eighty men had been carried out of the Embassy, many of them Legionnaires who had defended the place.

“Twelve have died of their injuries whilst in my care,” Celestia says grimly. “Look, Luna, you're my sister and I love you,” she says, the implacable mask of Celestia the stateswoman falling, to be replaced by Celestia, the concerned sister.

“I always will but this could start a war,” Celestia says at last, her tone weary.
“It's my fault as much as it is yours,” Celestia continues. “I sent the supreme commander of all my armed forces to a diplomatic summit, and people got the wrong impression... but you've put me in a very difficult position here.” Celestia steps away from the fire for a moment, walking over to the window and gazing out of the rain spattered window at the twinkling points of light outside. “Tomorrow our own angry mobs will be calling for all out war, and I'll be hard pressed not to give them one.”

She turns to Luna, her expression set into the mask of Princess Celestia once more. “I want to know more about the circumstances surrounding this incident. Can you please tell me about the situation on the streets before the riot?” Celestia asks quietly, her gaze locked upon her sibling.

Luna gazes out of the window, remembering the hate drenched streets of the Khanate's capital of Tarhen. The black Crows stalking the streets, the brightly coloured murals depicting martyrs of the Faith or scenes from the Scriptures. She can remember clear as day the females being beaten for not wearing their head scarves properly. Also, she can clearly remember the tension hanging in the atmosphere so thick that you could spread it on toast. She shivers, as if against a stiff breeze snapping at her skin, before returning her attention to Princess Celestia.
“Not good, the place was a powder keg before we came in, and it'll only have grown worse since we left.” she says and Celestia nods, obviously coming to a decision.

“Right,” Celestia says. “Sister, I'm going to ask you this as head of my military: Have you planned for a war against the Khanate?”

“Yes sister, hence, why I felt like I needed to go on this diplomatic trip. The figures were not encouraging,” Luna replies grimly.

“How not encouraging are we talking?” Celestia asks as she snaps her fingers and a map appears on the wall above the fireplace.
Luna clicks her own fingers and pins appear on the map, red and blue pins representing various units. “We'd be looking at up to fifty percent casualties across the Equestrian armed forces over the course of a victorious campaign that ended in two months. The Khans might be barbarians, but they are well armed barbarians. However those figures did not account for your shock troops, the Legionnaires.”

“Right,” Celestia says. “Fifty percent, that's up to ten million men.” Her gaze flicks to the sceptre upon the mantelpiece where the seal of Equestria is engraved, along with its motto: “Populi imperium tueri et defendere, aut ego me hoc honore nisi in sempiternum quemadmodum licere,” Celestia mutters under her breath, her tone reverent.
“To protect and serve my people I take upon myself this high office unto eternity, or until the people declare themselves free.” Luna replies softly, remembering the fateful day upon that muddy hill where she and Celestia had sworn to defend and rule the fledgeling nation of Equestria. Back then, Equestria consisted of half a valley and three little villages in the middle of nowhere. How times have changed.

“I would not be doing my duty as Empress if I did not explore every available option,” Celestia says at last, her tone containing a note of grim finality. “What you're telling me sounds like internal unrest, rather than sabre rattling. However, it does not take much for one to become the other,” she says grimly. “I didn't want to give them the opportunity to accuse us of sabre-rattling, but that option was taken away from me when that howling mob kicked in the door of the Equestrian Embassy.” Celestia sighs, placing a hand upon her mantelpiece.

“Luna... we have a substantial population of expatriates and Equestrian citizens in the Khanate,” Celestia turns to look at Luna, raising her fingers and ticking points off upon them. The God-Princess’ eyes are firm and her jaw is set. “The total number is about four hundred and fifty thousand civilians, and our first duty must be to those citizens. If there is going to be a war with the Khanate or a civil war within the Khanate, then I want our people out of there. I also want friendly relations with those who are running the show once the dust has settled. This is where you come in: I want you to deploy along the border and get formations into defensive positions, in case the old tigers try something daft. Also prepare your armies to make strikes across the border as appropriate. We may not start this war but we shall end it.”