//------------------------------// // 8th November, 2015 (Edited) // Story: Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité // by Ponelover //------------------------------// Belleville, Paris, 9:00AM, +2 days after event The Le Journal intro rolls in as Nicholas watched the daily news, the anchor laying out each new story with the usual promises of getting to it momentarily. Starting with the more tame and less world-shattering stories, including a few holdout pieces from before the events of the night before, though their impact was less meaningful now. Nicholas was mostly just using the television for background noise to get a proper start to his day when the more current news about last night started to make its appearance known. It should be known that most all who were catching the morning news or paper were all having VERY similar reactions to the top headline stories. ‘WHAT!?’ It took Nicholas the better part of fifteen minutes to first comprehend and then accept what he had been told by the news anchor, but when he finally got the cogs running within his mind he took a moment and had one of the more mundane thoughts on the matter. Wow, he thought, France transported to another realm of existence? His thoughts started taking a more normal track afterwards as he thought about it more. But how is it possible? Did god himself did this? What about my family?! This is unknown territory here and I might lose my job!! He thought worryingly as he silently watch the news intro rolling in, concerned about his future prospects as one of the millions of humans transported from his world to another. As Nicholas kept watching he noticed several headlines take place on the screen as the news anchor is given additional news and information to flesh out the leading news stories of the morning and potentially, the following week. President Francois Hollande announces National Solidarity for all French Citizens Embassy District aflame as foreign citizens are in a state of limbo Carrier De Gaulle and her battlegroup are departing to the ‘eastern’ continent to contact locals First planetary local talks to President Francois Hollande, calls her species ‘ponies’ and is a citizen from a country called ‘Equestria’ A pony, huh? Nicholas thought as he’s shaking his head sideways, just when things couldn’t get interesting enough we landed just right in the middle of fucking magic land! His job as a bus driver was pretty interesting. His shift ran from five to midnight, and he always encountered the crazies at night. There was this one incident he remembered when he encountered what appeared to be a muslim terrorist but turns out to be some drunken man wearing an improvised arabic hat. He did some research once to see what it was called. Something called a keffiyeh. And he had been mumbling incoherantly. He was quickly taken by the police but he knew from that day forward that this might be his most interesting job so far, and at the tender young age of 25, that wasnt really saying much. As he flipped through the channels lazily he wondered about future possibilities for the country and for himself. France is definitely going to enter rough times he thought, but if things settle down, maybe I could explore this new world for a bit. And then his workphone rang, shatering his perception of a lazy day. Toulon Naval base, 9:05AM, +2 days after event Daring stared at the enormous ship these ‘french’ people called the Charles De Gaulle, how did these humans manage to build such huge ships? How did they not sink? She was even told that this is not even the best ship they have to offer yet. The meeting between Daring Do and the rest of the Strasbourg police force went well enough, when those ‘Eurocorps’ pon-people started showing up she was told that the ‘president’ of France wanted to meet her. At first Daring asked who is this President is, and when the eurocorps people told her that he/she is an elected representative of the people, Daring felt her memory jog as she studied about ancient ponykind and how they elect their leaders to represent them, kind of an odd system, but it’s a system that works if you don’t have an immortal pony princess ruling over the kingdom. This species is very strange as Daring thought further as she and the rest of the crew of The Damned Explorer was escorted onto the ship, not only are these people strange but their methods of transportation is also very strange, she was told that they were going to be transported by ‘TGV’ whatever that means and that they were transported by self driving carriages. Which is even more odd for Daring to experience. The speed of that self driving carriage is not to be underestimed! Daring concluded as they reached what appears to be a train station. At first Daring thought that the ‘TGV’ is just their abbreviation for train. Well in hindsight it is a train, but the appearance of the ‘train’ is unlike anything Daring has ever seen, not to mention it’s speed. Sweet Celestia can that thing move as she remembered the speed that train carried her through the countryside of France. Just when Daring thought that this strange and fascinating country couldn’t offer her anymore things to gawk at. The arrival at Paris was the final straw for Daring, she’s seen magnificent ancient cities before and she was impressed by the level of complexity those ancient civilizations managed to obtain before collapsing entirely. But the expanse and the sheer size of the French capital managed to make Daring’s jaw drop. The city is one of the most beautiful cities she’s ever seen, with wide streets, beautiful buildings, extremely tall buildings in a district called ‘La Défense’ which Daring wondered just how in the world did these humans build structures that tall, and finally the Eiffel Tower. An elegant reminder of Paris’s splendor and beauty as Daring nearly fainted as she saw the tower shining like a beacon throughout the city. She vowed to learn more about it later. The meeting with President Hollande went along swimmingly for Daring, after she was bombarded by all those sights Daring felt that the meeting with the President was almost boring, she had meetings with the Princess that were more interesting, usually recounting her latest adventure when it concerned Equestria’s safety, and usually denying the need for guards to accompany her on her adventures. Those times spent negotiating wihtt he Princess of the Sun finally paid off for her as she eventually managed to negotiate with the President to agree to take Daring and the crew of The Damned Explorer back to Equestria. But before shaking their hands (hooves?), the President told Daring that she will be accompanied with a French diplomatic team, wanting to make contact with the nation’s rulers to which Daring agreed wholeheartedly. After the intitial negotiations were concluded, everypony present was transported out towards the coast where they were t board a French naval vessel bound for Vanhoover for the start of the real negotiations. Eventually Daring and the crew of The Damned Explorer reached their bunks after several minutes of walking. The ship was a lot more difficult to navigate than they all thought, though the sea-stallions were not as thrown by this as she was. Daring was the last to arrive at her private bunkroom as the human sailor salutes and smartly walks back. Are all human soldiers this strict? They could give the Royal Guard a run for their bits. Daring wondered as she unpacked her things and most importantly the Sword of Severus, she heard a knock on the door. Julien Thomas, on-call negotiator for the French government was walking down the pasageway to where the crewman he had talked to had said his quarters were located. He took a moment once he arrived and then politely knocked. “Come in” daring said as a rather sharp looking human enters her room, thank Celestia I have my own room, wouldn’t want to think what would happen if I were to share a room with those stallions, I bet they’d be too busy watching my plot to do anything constructive with their time. “Bonjour Madamoiselle” as the man introduces himself. “My name is Julien Thomas, I will be taking part as chief negotiator between Equestria and France.” “Oh that’s….that’s nice” Daring replied, not wanting to sound too awkward. “Apparently the good captain has allocated me a place with the pony eh?” Mr Thomas wondered. What are they thinking? shouldn’t ponies and humans get separate beds? “Oh wait, so you’re my roomate? oh that’s….fine I guess” Daring replied, she never would’ve thought of sharing rooms with anyone, let alone a species coming from another world. “Oh it’s okay ms...Daring isn’t it? I can manage myself” as the diplomat lowers his suitcase and starts stacking up piles of clothes in the drawer. Well this is going to be a fun ride Daring thought, never in her wildest dreams have she imagined that she’s going to go back to Equestria inside an alien warship, bringing in a diplomatic embassy from what is now arguably, the most powerful nation on the planet. As Julien unpacks what few items he was sure he’d need, mainly some writing materials and a notebook he takes a moment to look over his bunkmate before speaking. “Ms Daring? I was hoping we could spend some time before you rested on going over some basic information about your country? Avoiding making a faux pas when meeting with your leaders would be of great benefit to myself.” Daring shrugged and looked backed at him as she tried to settle comfortably on her bunk, the bottom one of course since she could reliably fly in the confined space. “Could it wait a few hours? It’s going to be a few days with how fast ships are.” Julien chuckled and looked her in the eye. “Ms Daring, I don’t know how fast your ships are but this ship is capable of running at a sustained speed of...I think the crewman said 27 knots? Regardless of wind or not, we’ll be there probably within a day or so depending on how far we need to go.” Daring’s thoughts of getting some leisure time came to a screeching halt at that. Canterlot Castle, Canterlot, Equestria, 10:00 AM, +2 days after event Celestia was pacing wildly in her room. All manner of regality was dropped as she wondered how Queen Chrysalis managed to not only infiltrate Canterlot, but also impersonate and capture Princess Cadence without herself or anypony else noticing the incnsistencies and also defeat her in honest battle. It doesn’t make sense Celestia thought, the only way Chrysalis would gain enough power to defeat her was through months of planning, though Celestia remidned herself that Chrysalis defeated her at the power she limited herself to amongst her ponies, but still as she looked things over she had come to a startling conclusion, it was more an act of desperation than a true act of war. Whatever it is, she now has Chrysalis where she wanted and her Royal Guard is mobilizing to prepare to march to the Badlands. Now armed with knowledge of the Changelings, she would defeat the Changelings and teach them the lessons of friendship and tolerance to them. The Changelings didn’t deserve to be ruled by a tyrant like Queen Chrysalis. The door suddenly opened and Luna entered Celestia’s room with a bag full of reports. “The troops are on their way to Appleloosa Celestia. They will enter the Badlands in two days, Shining Armor is of course leading them.” Luna reports. “Good” Celestia responded, for over 1000 years Equestria has been at peace why now? “Anything troubling you sister? It’s Chrysalis isn’t it?” as Luna interupted Celestia’s thoughts. “You and I know that Chrysalis has always resided in the Badlands, there are occasional raids on pony settlements sure, but this recent action done by Chrysalis is very troubling. It’s not in her nature to suddenly mount an invasion of Canterlot Luna.” “Well….yes it is odd, but considering the state of the changeling swarm in the last 1000 years, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did what they did Celestia.” Luna replied, “Which brings me to another point, in all the years that you’ve ruled Equestria. Why haven’t you negotiated anything with the changelings?? They could be our allies and it’s always good to share love isn’t it?” “Oh you have no idea Luna.” Celestia responded. “If you think that in the last 1000 years I haven’t done anything diplomatic with the changelings then you’re wrong, but Changeling pride and resistance to change have really destroyed the swarm after your banishment. That’s why I’m sending the Royal Guard to the Badlands Luna. I’m going to depose Chrysalis and bring somepony more reasonable to the throne.” “Isn’t that a bit harsh? A simple land blockade will do Celestia.” Luna’s tone definitely showing signs of worry “Well it’s not enough for me Luna. It’s my fault that the Changelings have been driven to such levels of desperation, and simply blocking access to Equestria won’t do. We need to invade the Badlands Luna, it’s been long enough!” Celestia responded with a tone of authority she haven’t seen since the deposing of King Sombra. Luna went silent for a moment, deep in thought, before responding. “Very well sister. If that is your wish than I will honor it.” “Thank you Lulu.” as Celestia hugs Luna, it’s been too long since both of them hugged each other and in this time of trial she needs support. “C’mon Celly, let’s have some lunch, maybe we can sneak in a couple hayburgers if we do it right.” as they both closed the doors of Celestia’s chambers. The future may be uncertain, but hopefully this conflict will be resolved soon. Ponyville, 12:00PM, +2 days after event “NO Cloudchaser, move it over there!” called out Rainbow Dash as she ordered the Ponyville weather team for it’s week long rain. “Ugh fine Rainbow Dash, You don’t have to be so bossy.” as Cloudchaser moved the cloud, yet again to a new position. As Rainbow Dash surveyed the arrangement of cumulus clouds as they begin to darken, she realized that it’s now lunch time. “Ok ponies! Good job! Now go get some lunch!” as Rainbow Dash dismisses the other pegasi to get some lunch. Oh I know where I’m going to get lunch Rainbow slightly smiled as she enters Sugarcube Corner. But upon entering the bakery she saw her friends eating. That’s normal, what was not normal was the faces of her friends as she took a cheese quiche from the shelf. “Uhhh girls? what’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash is only met with silence “You haven’t heard the news Dash?” Applejack responded with a definitely grim tone in her voice. “N-no?” “Equestria’s going to war Dash.” Twilight replied. Rainbow Dash nearly dropped her quiche hearing that “W-what!?” “Yep” “Mhm” “Y-yes” “Sadly yes” “Indeed” “But why?” Rainbow Dash asked, “The last time Equestria went to war was 1000 years ago. And that was when Luna got banished to the moon!” “You haven’t heard the announcement by Princess Celestia haven’t you? with Chrysalis’s invasion of Canterlot, Equestria and the Changeling Swarm is effectively at war. I would also guess that you haven’t heard that an army of 30.000 ponies are now assembling in Appleloosa and Dodge city haven’t you?” Twilight explained “O-oh…...that’s…….sad” “THAT’S ALL YE GOTTA SAY DASH!!!” Applejack suddenly shouts “Applejack, please stop! don’t bring Big Mac into this” Twilight interjected “NO TWILIGHT! AH’M GONNA BRING BIG MAC INTO THIS! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW APPLEBLOOM CRIED WHEN BIG MAC DECIDED TO VISIT THAT DARN RECRUITMENT STATION!!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW SAD THE WHOLE FAMILY WAS WHEN BIG MAC SAID HE’S LEAVING! CORNSARNIT! GRANNY SMITH NEARLY DIED OF HEART ATTACK WHEN BIG MAC SAYS HE WAS ACCEPTED!” “Applejack calm down!” Rarity responded “NO! AH’M NOT GONNA CALM DOWN!!! THOSE DARN CHANGELINGS BROUGHT THIS UPON THEMSELVES AND…..AND..” Tears are clearly dropping from her eyes. Eventually she broke down and Rainbow Dash was the first one to comfort Applejack. “It’s going to be okay Applejack, as long as I’m here nothing’s gonna happen to Big Mac.” her tone unusually calm for even Rainbow Dash “And *sniff* and what makes you so *sniff* sure?” Applejack asked “Because I’m going to enlist as well.” responded Rainbow Dash Silence “W-what?” Rarity was the first to break the tension “Ummm Rainbow Dash? Are you umm serious?” Fluttershy then followed “Nooooooo!!! Now I’ve got no one to bake cupcakes with!” Pinkie Pie followed as well. Twilight is now not only confused, but saddened as well. Two of her friends are going to war and there’s nothing she could do to stop it, not that it won’t stop her trying though. “Rainbow Dash…..are you sure you wanna do this?” “Yes Twilight” “Then good luck Rainbow Dash, and try not to die.” said Twilight as she finished her muffin, trying to keep her own emotions in check. Elysee Palace, paris, 12:00 PM, +2 days after event Francois Hollande examined the proposal from the minister of Defense. He knew that the military is going to jump and cry tears of joy while laughing like maniacs in the days that will follow. Now without NATO to ensure France’s security, there are voices inside the National Assembly calling for an increase to the defense budget. And now the President is now seeing the military’s plans to purchase new equipment once the new ‘shock budget’ he’s been working is proposed. Not that there are any voices to object though, the opposition have silently caved in and even members of the French Socialist Party have accepted the reality of the situation. “So what do you think Mr President?” Jean Yves, along with the Chief of Staff of the French Army, Navy and Air Force. The plan includes restarting production of the Mirage 2000, start building the PA2 Carriers again and even fast tracking the production of the VBMR and ESRC vehicle programme in order to quickly replace the aging VAB and AMX 10’s. “I hate it when you’re right you know.” the President grumbly responded. “It’s sad but it’s also true, France needs to abandon the shrinking budget of it’s military and neither Britain nor the USA will come to France’s help if she’s in peril in this brave new world.” Grumbily he signs the confirmation orders once the bill is proposed…...in two weeks time. ****** Charles de Gaulle and her battlegroup departs to Vanhoover, Daring Do and the crew of The Damned Explorer are going to be guides for the French diplomatic team. The President of France signs orders of military purcahses that France will do once the new ‘shock budget’ passes. Pending approval from the National Assembly (Not that there is any opposition for the new bill.) After a month of waiting and planning, the Equestrian Royal Guard is officially at the border towns between Equestria and the Changeling swarm.