At last, the two nations gripped by destitution and war were ready to remake themselves.
The two alicorn princesses stood by their wards but made it clear that it was their responsibility to not only avenge their fallen family but make amends for the mistakes that led the chaos that claimed them.
Conrad and Melusine were ready and willing to be the rulers their lands and ponies deserved.
But to save them from their family’s killers and the war that could claim all of Stirrope, they would need to move fast while thinking carefully.

Farmany: Geiersturm

The power and influence of Conrad Von Morgenstern swelled as more and more city states ousted their Gildenpakt leaders and joined this charismatic prince and his entourage.
The victory over his enemies in South and East Farmany, a region traditionally known as Hrossia, was celebrated by his marriage to Grand Countess Sothilda, her grand city of Pferlin unofficially declared the new capital city of Farmany.
[Note: In Fletcher Fray’s memoirs, he states that, despite their marriage primarily being made to unite South and East Germany under the Morgenstern banner, Conrad and Sothilda had become quite intimate before their wedding day and their marriage was very stable. Though he mentions off-hoof that Sothilda often playfully teased her husband for his closeness to Fletcher, japing that it was surprising the two stallions hadn’t married each other long before she met them.]
[[Additional: Wagensroll interjects here, speaking for his ancestor, Fletcher Fray. Mr Fray wishes it to be known while he and Conrad were good friends, there was nothing sexual in their partnership, he has never once engaged in any intimate relations with the Oberfurst of Farmany and could whoever keeps making that Fanart please ‘Get a bucking life’]]

In the capital city of Staachen, chaos gripped the self-established government as the Ersteleiter (Unofficial head of the collective government), Blodsinn Von Heizerluft, desperately tried to recall the main defence force from the Reinland to defend Staachen and Fologne and, in doing so, hopefully slay Conrad and Fletcher and retake Farmany.
But, as news travelled of Prance’s power waxing and waning, the other members of the local government believed the troops were better placed where they were, on the borders.
Things seemed lost for the Gildenpakt.

Then Von Heizerluft was met by an intimidating stallion, a towering steed in a heavy suit of slate-grey armour, who’d risen high among the Hauberks, the Gildenpakt’s Guard.
His name was Vallon Geiersturm and he informed the Ersteleiter that he had an army waiting on his disposal, ready to deal death to the Morgensterns.
The Vulture Legion.

[Note: As previously mentioned, Adelar, the deity of the traditional Farman religion, is often pitted against the Totensturm, the oncoming storm personified as a hellish grey vulture formed from storm-cloud and lightning, a creature that brings death and destruction to all below it, locked in eternal combat with the guardian of Farmany’s skies. It’s more than likely that it was meant as a means of intimidating the Morgensterns, who had taken Adelar as their sigil since Fullemagne’s ascension but it was no secret that Vallon was a creature that revelled in the same things the Totensturm did, death and destruction.]
The Vulture Legion numbered just over a hundred thousand, enough to take a large city, but not enough to hold the line against half of Farmany and its Landsknechten.

Then, as if by some divine (Or infernal, depending on one’s viewpoint) stroke of luck, Roanbrand Von Eichenhuf returned once more, having gained the favour of the Voivode of Pommelrania as well as various other Conskan Voivodes and even some of the Lussian Boyars, attacking the Eastern borders with a legion of Conish Lancers, feared fliers and chargers, their charge like thunder across the landscape. Charging straight for Flankfurt, Conrad and Fletcher barely made it in time to hold the line and fought for three days straight before forcing the Conish to fall back and regroup.

It was before the next day of battle that Fletcher received word that the army dubbing themselves the Vulture Legion were laying siege to Stutegart.
Taking all the troops Conrad could spare, Fletcher sped off to his home city. On the way, however, right between Stutegart and Lunich, he and his troops ran into an ambush. Fletcher faced off against Vallon. Caught off guard and facing an enemy heavily-armoured and possessed of some berserk fervour, Fletcher was eventually beaten down and captured.

Conrad’s forces managed to prevail at Flankfurt. Roanbrand was, once again, driven from Farmany, with Princess Luna in pursuit as far as the borders would take her. In one last ditch effort, Roanbrand fled to Karkonia, the goat vassal state, attempting to lead the Karkonians into rebellion but, unfortunately for him, the local government saw more benefit in having him tortured to death.
[Note: A year later, Conrad, upon finding out, would be incensed at how a respected lord and Farman leader was put to death in such a way. He would demand they pay a tribute to Roanbrand’s family which the vassal king refused to pay, attempting instead to assassinate the visiting Oberfurst. For this, the rulers of Nag-Karkon were either put to death or fled and, during the Grand Caprine Redemption, Karkonia was granted to the domain of Capricornia, the first goat civilisation to abandon the old ways of Tambelon and negotiate peacefully with the equine races.]

Upon his victory, he received word of Fletcher’s peril and Stutegart’s fall. Wasting no time, he gathered his fullest force and headed straight back to Lunich. He met Vallon’s force in a valley between Lunich and Stutegart which would become known as Talderklage (Valley of Lamentation) There he saw two sights that paled him.

The first was Fletcher chained to a Storm Cage, a magical absorption device that taps into a captured unicorn’s magic and projects it in a lightning storm. A storm so strong it kept Princess Luna and her reinforcements from approaching safely.
The second was little Princess Adalie, standing terrified at the forefront of the Vulture Legion. As the two armies stood facing each other, Vallon placed his hoof on the filly’s shoulder and bid her gallop for her king and for safety. He said this while holding a javelin in his hoof.

As Adalie ran, Conrad was held back by his Landsknechten to keep him out of the range of enemy fire. For whole yards she ran, the Vulture Legion’s crossbows primed on any enemy who would run out and help her. As she made it halfway across the valley, Vallon started throwing javelins, barely missing her. Channelling the magic from the Storm Cage, Vallon charged one last javelin with a bolt of lightning before hurling it forward. With the magical aura cast around the javelin, it flew faster and stronger than any normal projectile, impervious to the wind or the magic of the enemy. As Adalie neared Conrad, the javelin struck. The princess was impaled through the back, falling to her knees, one shaking hoof reaching out to Conrad before dying.

Filled with rage, Conrad and his forces charged. The Vulture Legion and the Lansknechten clashed, walls of armour-plated ponies of war tearing each other to pieces with whatever they could in a fury. For hours they hammered at each other with iron and steel. Atop the hill, Fletcher had watched it all. Steadily, despair and wrath gripping at him, his magical aura overgrew, breaking the Storm Cage. Cutting a berserk swathe through the Vulture Legion reserve, he and Conrad met Vallon on the field of battle.

Vallon was recorded to have fought with a great sickle of obsidian, slicing through steel plate like butter. Conrad and Fletcher fought tooth and hoof to bring him down as the monstrous grey fiend was shot multiple times through the chest by Conrad’s hoof-flintlock and Fletcher’s arrows, finally falling as his Legionnaires trampled his corpse.
His body was never found. To this day, nopony knows who he was or from whence he came.

Conrad and Fletcher took days to recover and Fletcher himself ailed greater still after having to deliver Adalie’s body back to Stutegart. Wracked with despair at the loss of her little sister, Ruhlinda refused to look at the cousin she’d thought would protect her and unofficially disowned him. It was by the pleas of her advisors and her own sense of political pragmatism that she was still content to aid Conrad in taking West Farmany but she and Fletcher never spoke for years afterwards.

Now gripped by a terrible thirst for vengeance, Conrad made one last proclamation across his unconquered territories.
In a matter of days, he would gather his full host and lay siege to Fologne, Staachen and the Reinland. The local governments would surrender before then, one way or another, or they would be shown no mercy.

Blodsinn Von Heizerluft did his best to convince the ponies of Staachen that the Oberfurst was bluffing at that they were prepared for a siege but nopony was convinced. Fologne, meanwhile was commanded by a young general named ‘Blue’ Max Van Brillant, after their previous Gildenpakt Baron had gotten himself stabbed in a brothel. Blue Max was sceptical of the terms for surrender. Fologne’s garrison was bolstered and ready for a siege but there was no clarity of the numbers and weapons the Oberfurst had at their disposal. Neither city sent a direct reply to Conrad.

There was, however, one smaller city that did. Neighnover, led by Count Vorschnell Von Urtelheim, openly defied Conrad, the Count himself writing and sending a letter denouncing Conrad, mocking Fletcher’s ‘close relationship’ with him, cursing their departed kin and threatening Princess Sothilda with things Conrad would not speak of. Burning the letter, Conrad set about making an example, his limit for patience and mercy reached at last.

Schnella Finisch, Currywurst Von Flankenfurter and various other figures had been working on perfecting Farmany’s capabilities in siege engineering, constructing a deadly arsenal for Conrad’s armies. At Neighnover, they put them to the test. Conrad never set hoof in the castle, nor did any of his troops. He marched his engines of war to the hills around Neighnover and not order to cease fire until nothing was left but dust.

This caused a strain in his and Fletcher’s relationship, the unicorn horrified at the lack of mercy shown to a previously populated town but the Oberfurst countered with the fact that he had offered them terms for surrender and they had spat in his face, sealing their own fates. Attempting to leave in disgust, Fletcher and his armies came under attack by Blue Max with a Fologner host and a Staachener Mercenary Battalion commanded by a mustang alchemist known only as ‘Flaming Roy’.
Through some fierce fighting, Fletcher and Conrad were forced to put aside their tensions until they were safe. Steadily luring the enemy into the firing line, they demolished most of the first assault though their ammunition was spent quickly.

Fortunately for them, Blue Max was unwilling to press further having seen the results. Pulling his troops back, he promised Conrad that, if he stayed his hoof for another two days, he would have the surrender he wished for, promising him unquestioned loyalty if those within Fologne and Staachen were spared the fate of Neighnover. Conrad gave them the two days they requested and in that time, Blue Max Van Brillant signed Fologne over to the rule of the Morgenstern’s while Flaming Roy simply walked into the Ersteleiter’s office, found Blodsinn raging at their defeat, set him on fire, kicked him out the window and signed the form of surrender in his name.

Finally having ended the bloody civil war, Conrad ensured there would be no lasting grudges between him and his battle-brother by ordering the siege engines that had torn down Neighnover decommissioned, keeping only emergency prototypes that would require Fletcher’s personal permission to access again. After a couple of days, Fletcher and Conrad reconciled, the Oberfurst building a memorial for all those lost in the war before Neighnover’s ruins.

Conrad was crowned at Staachen but left the city under the command of Flaming Roy as an agreed reward for his service, moving his palace to Pferlin, the new official capital of Farmany that remains as such to this day.
Before heading home, however, he and the remainder of his available host took to the Reinland to await the oncoming invasion.

Prance: Vol de la Déese

As Princess Celestia made her entrance, Melusine’s notoriety extended over Prance in a variety of ways.
Some took this to be a sign that the rightful Queen of Prance would restore order, undo the damage caused by her uncle and by the usurpers and bring the land into a Golden Age.
Others believed this foreign cross-breed was a demon, aiding Melusine in spreading chaos and tyranny across Prance and salvation lay only through their new leaders, however harsh their methods in delivering it.
But whichever way the public opinion swayed, little by little, the power of Melusine de la Dauphin was growing.

With an army assembled, Melusine first marched her army back to Torleans, putting the city to a swift but fierce siege. Perche de le Barracude, a dedicated Citizenry General, faced Melusine in single-combat and was eventually defeated, managing to retreat while Moulin Rouge fought and killed Bellone la Garre, an old war-fellow back during the Boargundian Warfront, who commended her skill in battle before dying.

In what became known as the Maire Campaign, Melusine seized Torleans and all areas around the River Maire, unofficially crowned at Torleans by Princess Celestia herself.
Requin-Blanc le Grandent attempted to waylay them with reinforcements but Celestia’s intervention drove his troops away.
Requin-Blanc made his report to an infuriated Hellfire who worked to find a way to impede the alicorn.

Accumulating and spreading out her armies, she laid siege to Rouan, and there fought Perche de la Barracude again and was nearly killed before saved by her newest forward commander and trusted friend and lover, Marie-Rose de Coquetaile. Rouan proved a hard-won prize but it served well in establishing a warfront, pinning Hellfire and Nocifer between their Torleannais and Boargundian foes. But Faris and Mareseilles were strong and well-prepared. Taking them would be no easy task if indeed possible. Too many had fallen taking Torleans and Rouan. Melusine consulted Celestia who proposed a plan in secret before taking to Boargundy to oversee La Baleine’s rendezvous.

At Pommes, Perche de la Barracude marshalled an army headed by Hellfire and the Governor of Stompiègne, Groupeur de Bassemoucheté, and prepared to hold out for oncoming battle.
To their surprise, they were met by a surrendering force, led by a general named Bouffelin de Souffléaise, bearing the charred corpse of a mare. Bowing before the three commanders, Bouffelin claimed that enough Prench fellows had died for a spoilt princess in the armour of a steed and so Melusine’s troops had turned on her, butchering her favourites, gang-raping her, impaling her on a stake and burning her corpse.

The three had mixed responses.
Groupeur de Bassemoucheté, relieved at the war’s end and the easy victory, praised Bouffelin and offered him rich rewards while Perche de la Barracude was disgusted at the treachery and demanded Bouffelin die for the offence. Hellfire did neither. He simply rewarded Bouffelin with amnesty, ordered he and his troops lay down their weapons and go home and that the body be burned to dust. Behind supposed satisfaction there was suspicion in his gaze...and no small amount of disappointment. He did not believe the burned body was that of Melusine but to ensure his authority was not threatened, he would not show as such.

But he was right to be suspicious for Bouffelin’s loyalty to his Princess was unwavering and Melusine was very much alive, having faked her death, disguised herself as a refugee and journeyed to Faris where she would work to bring down Hellfire’s reign from under his very muzzle. The body Bouffelin had produced was that of a local peasant mare who’d hung for murdering her husband and his mistress the day before.
Bouffelin headed home to Rouan, set up a campaign of intelligence and continued supporting the Dauphin in secret until Hellfire was back home in Faris, whereupon the Dauphin regathered their forces, stormed the Pommes Valley and took Stompiègne.

As Hellfire stewed over his losses, Faris was graced with the enigmatic travelling performer named La Perle whose enchanting presence made her a wonder across the city.
At the Festival d’Ânes, La Perle danced with the local donkey circus and openly mocked Hellfire with a subtle play and provocative dance. Though denouncing the festival and all its revellers, Hellfire’s eyes never left the dancing mare.
Something hideous brewed within his already cold heart and it is said the old Judge grew mad with lust for La Perle.

Steadily, he had her spied on, first by his servant, Canette à Cru, and then when she left his service, it’s said he consulted an ancient Soothsayer of Tambelon, who by unknown means, revealed to him that La Perle was none other than Melusine de Dauphin, the object of his desire and his greatest enemy. Little by little, locating and tracking La Perle’s closest admirers and associates, he finally discovered the secret Tarpan lair in the catacombs of Faris, the Hunting Hall. Storming the place and subduing and arresting all those within, Melusine was unmasked and brought to the Palace of Justice where it is believed Hellfire made numerous attempts to subdue her, the methods by which he used vary depending on the sources from pleading for her to convert to as far as outright attempted rape but nothing worked.

While this was occurring, Hellfire and Nocifer required some means to impede Celestia who was flying to and fro from the Dauphin frontiers in Boargundy and Torleans, consulting the Tambelon Soothsayer again, Hellfire learned of a way to counter the alicorn, the means by which were unprecedented in its brutality.
The Soothsayer gave him a power that caused any fire to burn as black as pitch and smog to envelop the sky for miles around, choking ash carrying on the winds. An alchemistical spell known as the Leaden Cloud. But it required a catalyst of living flesh to produce properly.

The day Celestia was due to make her journey between Faris and Mareseilles, Hellfire and Nocifer ordered their Guillotine to round up six thousand citizens, picked at random with no distinction between gender, age and status, had them build a great cage of oily tinder between their two cities, locked them within and burned them alive. The Leaden Cloud emerged, a hellish thing carrying the screams of its fuel upon the wind. Celestia was caught within and nearly asphyxiated, careening to earth and laying immobile, heavily wounded and nearly completely disempowered.
Where she landed is uncertain but all she recollects in his memoirs was that she was found and nursed back to health by a pastry baker and his florist wife who she took to live in Equestria as a reward for their kindness and generosity.

But in Faris, Hellfire was now secure in the knowledge that the alicorn could not help Melusine and ordered her burned at the stake. But here unfolded the tale of Canette à Cru, the malformed mare who gave her heart to the Princess, rescuing her from the pyre and bringing her to Notre Mare for sanctuary. A harsh skirmish took place as Melusine and Hellfire fought each other on the parapets of the Cathedral with the mare emerging the victor, casting her parent’s killer into the bonfire he set for her. So ended the short, bloody reign of Judge Hellfire, burned in his very namesake.

Spurred on by this victory, La Baleine surged forth with his full force. At Mareseille, Nocifer tried, in vain, to keep the ponies in check, even going so far as to produce ‘The True Heir To The Throne’ from his collection of catamites, using that as a pretext for his right to rule Prance but the day before La Baleine lay siege to the city, the folk within stormed Nocifer’s Palace and tore him apart in the city square, screaming for their foals, before opening the gates for the Dauphin. Within the week, terms for surrender were delivered to each of the major holds and settlements across Prance and Melusine was instilled as official Grande Dauphine, dubbed Melusine La Fruit de Mer.

A great controversy throughout Melusine’s rise to power was her lovelife.
She was openly bisexual and engaged in affairs with many different lovers, male and female.
The Church of Beata Meria denies this, claiming that Melusine lived a virgin all her life or at least after her coronation.
In contrast, her enemies slander her with countless tales of her promiscuity and depravity, claiming she seduced mares and stallions into serving her then stole their souls while inside them.
Neither claims are true. Melusine, when confronted about such details famously quoted thus;
"I am neither a maid nor am I a whore. Does there truly exist no gap between?"
While it can’t be denied she was a sexually liberal mare, she treated each of her lovers well throughout her life, taking them in and providing for them for as long as they served her well and whenever she would fall out with one it was never for a petty reason. She enjoyed such leisure but was nonetheless a very focussed and reasonable princess.
But this presented a problem. She could not be officially declared the true reigning monarch unless she was beatified by the Church of Beata Meria. And Archbishop Coelacanth, while welcoming her new reign, was adamant that she could not continue her lechery as a princess and would have to repent of all her sins of the flesh if she was ever married and to produce an heir.
So Melusine found a loophole.
She never officially married. In the eyes of the Church, lechery was a cardinal sin but promiscuity was simply frowned upon.
Her torrid romances have become the subject of many, many works of literature and theatre, the most famous being 'Sous La Mer Avec Moi’ (Under The Sea With Me) by the Marquis De Scarde or its slightly more mainstream erotic comedy retelling by the Trottingham comedian Carry On colourfully titled ‘Everything’s Better Down Where Its Wetter’.

_{I am so, so sorry.}

Throughout her travels, Melusine encountered numerous folk who may or may not have been her lovers but only four are known.

The stallion who would, eventually, become her husband was a rangy landed knight named Durendal de Papillon. His father, Orlandine, had been a simple guard in the royal entourage of Grand Dauphin Rayon le Piquerer, Melusine’s grandfather, and had died defending his liege, his family granted lands where he’d fallen, in Docroi. Durendal had been removed from his position by Thon l’Albacar after refusing a bribe to overlook a rape committed by one of his courtiers, sent instead to oversee the borders on the Reinland. This action earned the attention of Silurian, who requested he return to Faris to assume his new duties as Captain of the City Guard. By the time Durendal had arrived, however, Silurian was dead and Hellfire was in charge. Placed as Captain of the Guillotine. In his memoirs, Durendal recounts the experience with loathing. Under Hellfire’s demented laws, beggars or peddlers were to have their two front legs removed, veterans were immediately sent back to the warfront or executed as traitors and rape victims faced being burned as temptresses, blamed for their own attack. And, of course, he got all the blame.
The last straw was when Hellfire ordered a school, and all its inhabitants, burned to ashes, simply because a Tarpan locket had been found within. Durendal publically denounced his leader and defended the school fiercely until all had fled to safety before collapsing and taken away. This feat did not go unnoticed by La Perle, who sprung him from the dungeon cell, tended to his wounds, and eventually took him for her lover.
Durendal assumed command over the Royal Bodyguard, the Échanson, and who stood beside her during the Storming of Hunting Hall. Chained and caged, he watched as Melusine was fated to burn at the stake before the intervention of Celestia. Freed, Durendal roused the populace against Hellfire and led the mob against the Guillotine, slaying or subduing dozens at a time. Once Melusine was free, Hellfire was vanquished and Faris was liberated, Durendal assumed the duties of Castellan of Palais de Delphinienne where it’s said that he and his princess spent an absurd amount of time engaging in ‘Exploits of Pleasure’ at every free moment. Siring numerous foals, Durendal assumed the position of royal consort, a husband in all but name. On his deathbed, wounded by arrows from an exploit in Centorsica, Durendal finally proposed to Melusine, who accepted. As her official husband for precisely two hours and twelve minutes at the age of eighty-four, Melusine and Durendal’s children were legitimised as official heirs to the throne, thereby cementing the Dauphin line.

But Durendal was the not the first of Melusine’s great lovers. That honour went to a young mare named Marie Rose de Coquetaile. A delicate, golden-maned farm-filly, she was by way of being Melusine’s adopted sister when the Princess was growing up with the farmers her parents had left her with. Growing to worship Melusine as she grew into a knight and princess, Marie Rose asked to be taken under her tutelage, seemingly in love with the life of adventure and chivalry. But in truth, she was in love with only one thing; Melusine.
At the victory celebration at Torleans, Melusine and Marie Rose got profusely drunk and the young mare finally confessed her love. Waking up the next morning in each other’s forehooves, Marie Rose broke down with shame, expecting denouncement and degradation for such an act. Instead, Melusine kept her beside her till the last, the filly coming to her aid with blade and bow on more than several occasions. A bubbly and exuberant girl, she provided great morale for the troops and was an endless source of joy and comfort for her Princess.
Marie Rose led numerous battles and sieges and most often succeeded but tragedy was to strike at Glavant, where, in an attempt to rush to the aid of surrounded soldiers, she was herself surrounded and captured. Imprisoned at Courserre, she was routinely abused, the details of which were recorded but burned by Melusine when she took Courserre, whereupon every noble, knight and guard suspected to have harmed Marie Rose was publically disembowelled.
Marie Rose was changed drastically by the ordeal. She would rarely speak, break into tears under a pony’s prolonged gaze, flinched at anypony’s touch and spent most of her time confined in her quarters. Three years after Melusine’s ascension she began to recover and was able to recuperate over time, steadily becoming herself once more until dying of pneumonia at the age of sixty-eight.

A notorious case, known more for its humour than anything else, was Puree de Pamplemouse, a failing poet who performed in the streets of Faris and who harboured a grudge against the Tarpan for upstaging him in their festivities and performances, though this grudge went on to most travelling entertainers in general. When La Perle garnered attention, however, Puree was smitten. Approaching her at a tavern, he guaranteed her safe lodging and offered his services as a guide. La Perle accepted. Puree tried his hoof numerous times at courting La Perle and, upon discovering she was, in fact, Melusine de Dauphin, practiced the decorum of a prince in an attempt to impress her. Whether or not she would have warmed to him shall forever be uncertain as he disappointed her in a very famous way.
When Canette à Cru, La Perle’s misshapen admirer, was captured and publically whipped, Melusine made to help the poor, imperilled pony when Hellfire appeared. Puree rushed in and attempted to hurry Melusine to safety.
However, when passing Canette, he saw fit to do little more than half-heartedly promise that they would avenge her.
Leaving her dear friend to suffer earned the ire of his princess, particularly when, having brought her to a secluded river bank, he seemed far more interested in concluding his courtship and heading to the consummation of their love than aiding any of her friends and family, urging her to put it all aside until later. Declaring him a self-interested coward and fool, Melusine left him on the spot.
Puree’s life after that is obscure. Some of his poems can be seen in several published novels suggesting that he may have dug himself out of his financial hole but he never got himself involved with Melusine again. The only other strand of information concerning his later life is an article in the records of the Rouan Court of Law which mentions a stallion of his name imprisoned for six years for ‘Engaging In Indecent Interactions With A Small Stuffed Ferret’.
To this day, most adaptations of the Dauphin Restoration play Puree de Pamplemouse as idiotic comic relief and there’s even a bawdy local song in Rouan involving Puree and his notorious (Though unconfirmed) inability to ‘get it up’.

The most famous of these, however, is Canette à Cru, a frail, dusky, young unicorn mare with a malformed figure and brittle skeleton. Painfully thin, back set in a permanent stoop, horrifically scarred across the face and only able to move about by shuffling on her hooves, Canette was a pariah among the city of Faris, serving as a bellringer at the Cathedral de Notre Mare, mistreated and psychologically abused by Judge Hellfire and ignored by everypony else. Canette saw Melusine in the guise of La Perle and was almost instantly smitten. Canette took a great risk by leaving the Cathedral walls and looking for Melusine during the Festival d’Ânes where she was accosted by the nearby Guillotine troopers and ran off in terror. Bumping into La Perle in the alley, she was stunned at how the mare did not judge her on her looks or stature. When Hellfire left for Mareseille, Canette left Faris, stowing away in a merchant caravan for Rouan in Neighmandy where she’d heard La Perle had been last spotted, meeting with Puree de Pamplemouse and other members of Melusine’s circle. Finding her one night, she rushed towards her in exuberance but Melusine tried to shoo her away, not wanting to blow her cover. Confused and despair-ridden, Canette was not to be put off and her attempt to reunite with La Perle was mistaken for assault by the locals, those who knew of Canette believing her to be some depraved creature, as ugly within as she was outside. Brought in by the guard, she was publically whipped and pelted with produce by the jeering crowd. This punishment was interrupted by La Perle herself who assured the crowd that the awry mare hadn’t meant any harm, giving her water and preparing to dress her wounds. Then Hellfire arrived on the scene. Perle was forced to flee whilst, on the Judge’s insistence, Canette’s punishment was doubled before being sent back to Notre Mare. Before she was sent away, the pitiful mare received a letter from a disguised Celestia, sending her love from La Perle along with the secret to her true identity and a request to let her know of Hellfire’s movements. The risk Melusine took was great indeed but Canette proved worthy of her trust.
Canette possessed a magic that few unicorns are capable of to this day; transfiguration. Animating the stone gargoyles that dotted the parapets of Notre Mare, she was able to send messages to Melusine. When Melusine was captured and prepared to be burned, Canette flew down on the back of the largest stone gargoyle in the Cathedral, nicknamed Goliath, rescued Melusine, brought her atop the Cathedral and claimed sanctuary for her, bringing her army of statues to reinforce the Dauphin followers and to clear the skies of the Leaden Cloud, allowing Celestia to bring forth her power upon the Guillotine. Through her efforts, Faris was saved, Hellfire slain and Melusine returned to her home.
Canette then confessed her love for Melusine, despite knowing at this stage that she had promised her heart to another. Melusine, to her surprise, kissed her and promised that she would occupy a place in her heart equal to Durendal de Papillon. And for the next few years, Melusine would make good on her promise, treating Canette as tenderly as she would a wife. It was said that, since then, Canette would rarely, if ever, find reason not to smile at any point in the day, all she’d ever dreamt of gifted to her after so many years of suffering. She lived to twenty-six years of age.
Canette’s life was to end in a tragic mishap. According to records, Canette broke a hip during the midst of her and Melusine’s lovemaking (Though that part is somewhat dubiously sourced). Confined to bed, she caught a chill from the infection and died in the coming month. Though it was said she died with a smile, having spent her last days writing a beautiful piece of poetry, thanking her princess for all she’d done and declaring her everlasting love for her. A copy of the poem ‘Ma Perle La Plus Précieuse’ now hangs in the Farisian Royal Gallery.

The War That Never Was

At long last, the two armies of the two nations that had risen and fallen met at the Rein Valley, their twin camps stretching across the border. Melusine and Conrad approached each other, quietly daring each other to make the first move when the alicorn princesses arrived and hugged each other warmly, regaling their individual exploits and introducing their new friends from either side. Befuddled, the two rulers realised their individual guardian alicorns seemed to have planned this stalemate from the start. Celestia and Luna explained that they worked to prevent war and save the innocent wherever they were needed and journeying to Stirrope, decided to contribute. They had done all they could while ensuring Conrad and Melusine themselves worked and learned with as little hoof-holding as possible, thereby allowing them t build themselves into strong and wise rulers. After several days of discussion, it was concluded that a war was unnecessary. Prance and Farmany could do a great deal more aiding each other as neighbours than clashing with each other as enemies.
Trade routes and economic and agricultural plans were laid out, both rulers prepared to aid the other in recovering from their long and arduous restorations and afterwards, according to some sources, Melusine and Conrad returned to camp to spend several nights ‘sealing the transactions’.
It is not confirmed whether or not the two monarchs actually engaged in an intimate affair but when asked, Fletcher Fray, who was in the neighbouring tent at the time, mentioned off-hoof ‘It would explain the shaking’.
So concluded the Reinland Crisis, the greatest war Prance and Farmany never saw.

[[Note: Fletcher Fray wishes to take this opportunity to clarify;
"Everyone got that? Me and Conrad, nothing went on there, okay?! We never, ever, EVER got romantic...Well, apart from that night Currywurst gave us those weird drinks and when we woke up-No, no, no, no, we swore to never to speak of that again! No bromance, no romance, nothing, nothing at all...Why are you still writing this down?]]

6154086
That last sentance made my day! Being displayed as gay would damage his reputation, no doubt. They were just best friends. Blodsinn Von Heizerluft, funny name. Totensturm, reminds me of the Deathstorm DLC from Sniper Elite 4 and the Storm Cage reminds me of this machine seen in the Folterschloss and on the Black sun project to a degree. Both would proably Fletcher remind of the Storm Cage

6154151
Well, it wasn't so much as being gay as being involved intimately with a monarch.
We in England have Kate Middleton. The press never give her a minute alone, poor girl.
There was a general stigma but for the most part, if you were just as much a hero whether you liked mares or stallions, nopony would mind all that much.

6154151
Also, Blodsinn Von Heizerluft was pretty much the answer to Goebbels.
King for a Day.

6154160
I see. If I had to choose someone for parody names, I'll take you. The Totensturm really reminds me of the Deathstorm DLC from Sniper Elite 4 and he Storm Cage reminds me of this machine seen in the Folterschloss and on the Black sun project to a degree. Both would proably Fletcher remind of the Storm Cage

6154163
Yeah, as I say, you need some way to counter magic to even the scales, especially when a new and capable villain emerges.
The Totensturm are kind of like the Deathstorm but far more bestial. They lived for carnage and slaughter but were nonetheless skilled and well-equipped. The fact that they and their leader seemingly came out of nowhere and vanished just as quickly is a source of controversy.
Hm...A powerful and ruthless war leader who tips the scales almost at once and vanishes without a trace...Who does that remind you of?

6154176
I know who you mean. About Deathstorm, played all 3 missions. It's a project of the Germans to drop vast quantities of plutonium particles on Allied drops during the Normandy landings. Sounds very familiar with your Deathstorm, doesn't it?

It does sound like something they'd do if they had the chance.

6154223
Yes. Ingame, the outro of the second part and a letter suggest they would drop it via plane, althought, given the Allied Air sovereignty, this might be almost impossible to pull off

6154240
I see.
Shoot it out of a cannon then.

6154250
Yeah, that might work better.

Yes, Fletcher, we believe you.

And now we know how Purple Patch thinks Hunchback of Notre Dame should have ended.

6158589
Yeah, if you're a Phelous fan you've seen plenty of bad Hunchback adaptations.
Puree de Pamplemouse is based off the Secret of the Hunchback's Pierre and his infamous 'We will avenge you, my friend'.
And yet, for all its many flaws, it's probably the best cash-in of Disney's Hunchback out of the lot. The others are either too stupid, too awkward or too boring.
But yeah, the Hunchback of Notre Dame was kind of the basis for the Dauphin Restoration cycle but Joan of Arc also took priority.

6158598

Mercenary Battalion commanded by a mustang alchemist known only as ‘Flaming Roy’.

I FUCKING SEE WHAT YOU DID THAR! Dude, that was brilliant :D

6165851

6165969 HELL YES!

6165972
References are fun.
I picture him and Fletcher were pretty much evenly matched, fighting to a stand-still until Blue Max gave the order to retreat.
Alchemists- A class of earth-ponies with an affinity over temporary magical properties by means of strange powders, potions and materials, known only to their secluded professional circles.
Helps to balance the scales.

6165984 :D (Now I am imagining a hippogryph/pegasus with suspicious resembelance to a certain gun-using lieutenant...)

6165993
Hawkeye does sound the name of a pretty famous Griffon/Hippogryph/Pegasus.
I'm honestly surprised MLP haven't got a character with that name yet. It's not like Marvel's going to sue now that Hasbro's making that Superhero Girls show.

6166011 DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IT! You already did the frackin' Colonel.

6166025
Righto. Keeping that in mind.

6166029 :D