Paul Werner was a soldier back on Earth; a high-ranking officer, to be precise. He still maintains that occupation in Equestria, as a consequence of both the best and the worst events which brought him there in the first place. In the end, he knows for certain that he would never trade his current life now for the one he had. He felt it was tainted by the... circumstances surrounding it all.
He thought he was over it, and that he'd never have to face any elements of his past ever again. Paul was one-hundred percent right... in a sense. As he gradually found out, Equestria and the world it rests on has quite the lot of parallels to the Earth he left.
Especially one in particular, a mare who goes by the respective title and name of Generalfeldmarschall Aryanne S. Land
Awesome base Aryanne art done by Antamoanimisan-m, sourced to derpibooru. (Their tumblr is NSFW)
A tagless story about neo-nazism among ponies? This should be interesting.
7381539 Tags were kill by fimfiction. Readded them.
7381542 derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/1/22/1071202__safe_solo_oc_cute_vector_looking+at+you_edit_earth+pony_frown_female.png
Found Waldo! Er, wait, no, found typo is what I meant.
Should be Colonel Werner, right?
A nice touching story, although I would have liked too see a bit more of Aryanne.
7381592 Yes, whoops. I always mix those names up.
Danke!
7381626 Yeah this was more to see if I could even write her in the way I wanted to. If the overall reception is halfway decent, I'll continue with maybe more stories with her at the center
That... was great. Good understanding of history. I'm a little surprised Werner didn't react too much to the work camp bit but his reasons and characterization were excellent.
If I had one critical problem General Lande was a bit flat... but then again, she was characterized suffeciently considering the focus is on Paul.
7381887 Thank you! Yeah the focus wasn't on her because this was more to see if I could even write her sufficiently. This was my take on her character outside of a satire or comedy fic, so if this actually works out for the majority of people, I'll make some tweaks and probably push out a story with her at the center.
Because I agree. She could've used more 'screen time,' as it were.
Glad you liked it, though!
Going to guess they run into somepony at the restaurant.
Suggested listening material while reading:
dude why do you always make the best story's on this site you're like in the top seven writers on here
all in all loved the fuck out of this story would love to see a sequel further down the line
I give this story a 87/100
What an amazing read.
I really enjoyed how you managed to portray the neutral stance all throughout the story, hinting at Paul's opinion on the whole subject, but not elaborating on it. This was done to such mastery that captures the entire regretful feeling a soldier would have after the war, while staying far enough away from any controversy that both sides of the argument would have no fuel to argue with.
I also quite enjoyed the german sprinkled throughout myself, to the point where I would translate the bold text into german for a more immersive read. It's a rare thing to find that on this site, and even rarer from a great author such as yourself.
Thank you for this. It left me a lot more satisfied than I had expected.
Usually not too interested in politic-related fanfiction, but I loved this! Great job, would love to see a sequel :)
Please tell me her middle name is sudeten.
Must read.
7382244
Please explain the joke for me.
7382249
Sudetenland
No... Not best forgotten, lest we repeat the mistakes of the past. Overcome, learned from and put behind to better approach the future, wiser and more hopeful than before.
It seems that the Colonel has reached this point, and he'll hopefully be a better man for it going forward. He'd already learned from his past, acknowledging his mistakes. What we see here, though, is him finally allowing himself to put it behind him.
Woooowww... I was hesitant on this one, but I was impressed. Beautifully wrapped-up arc. Great characters (as much as I prefer cute, oblivious Aryanne). I wouldn't mind reading an elongated story line based around these characters and concepts. Beautiful, bro! Keep it up!
Only negative criticism from me is the lack of depth in Aryanne's thought and dialogue. She was a bit one-dimensional here, given she was a main character. I was expecting some sort of character development on her side, rather than just blatant agreement after some coercion in their negotiation. Hopefully you can expand on her when you write some more of her. *wink wink*
All in all: 13/10, would totally take back time and read again. Thanks for the story, man!
WHEN WILL YOU LEARN? WHEN WILL YOU LEARN THAT YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES?
You know I always have wondered for a hell of a long time just how many Germans were full on Nazis during WWII. I feel like there were two main ideologies during that time in Germany.
There was the common German citizen and soldier, even though they could be called "Nazis" they weren't 100% committed to following the facist party; just as one who believes in God doesn't follow any major Christian religion. Following what the command had put in place because they wanted the best for their country. They obeyed their orders to secure what they had in mind as a brighter future for Germany and her allies. Ranging from those who were passive to the atrocities of war or had no power to those who opposed like Oskar Schindler.
Then there were the Nazis, the ones who were completely submerged in their ideals and committed the Holocaust, much as we have seen from Ms Aryanne S. Land.
Then this little story comes up showing the two sides.
It was a fantastic read. Thank you.
7381899 XD. I was more interested in Paul's backstory though. We got the basics, but how did a Nazi turn into Equestrian supporter?
7382584 He wasn't a Nazi, that was the thing. He was just a German Soldier... and unfortunately he had to carry the banner haha
7382327 Yeah I realize that in hindsight. The issue was that I did not intend for this to be a big thing... and character development on someone as entrenched in her ideals as her would take CHAPTERS BEYOND CHAPTERS in my opinion. So, I had to cut a few corners, understandably.
Nevertheless your criticisms are valid, and thank you for them. I'm glad you enjoyed either way
Succinct. Well dressed in words. Didn't overstay a welcome. Didn't wander off, and exposed just enough to make this a compliment.
Even one of these is a rare sight. All at once... good job.
I want to read more of this so much
I want to see a prequel fic spanning from when he arrives to just before this story
I want to see what comes after the events of this story.
I want to see how the relationship (and I don't mean romantically) between Werner and Aryanne develops
Please tell me you aren't going to just leave the story like this
(please excuse the abruptness, i had to type it out on my phone)
Neat!
Auf wiedersehen, Dummkopfs!
But Seerose is white with a red mane, how is that bad?
What parallel would thestrals fall into? Gypsies or Jews?
Great story!
Well ... has a native German that is very interessted (especially) in WW2, I really like that story and I wouldn't mind to read more storys like this one.
It's pretty neat and nice to read trough.
Keep your good work up, Flammenwerfer!
Cheers
\m/
Well damn, Flammenwerfer, You did it again, not just another spectacularly written story but a political piece too! I love it and I love your work, I Salute you, Flammenwerfer, Keep on authoring awesome stuff!
7383262 It's not so much how she was treated because of what she looked like, as opposed to the indoctrination she might've gone through, and the tactics of shoving ideologies down her throat.
And as for batponies, feel free to use your imagination. I left it purposefully vague for that reason
7382244
This was pretty cool, Flam! I only wish we could see more snuggles with adopt pone!
7381899
Oooooo, please do! I spent the whole story wondering how Aryanne would react to Paul telling her that he knows from personal experience that the rest of the world would band together to put Alemania down if Alemania got too powerful and stayed so aggressive.
7383555
Gr8 M8 I R8 It An 8!!
7382327
She seems one dimensional because is all what Paul (and we readers by extension) perceive. The narrative doesn´t enter into Aryanne´s mind (which I suspect it isn´t a pretty place to go anyway).
I wonder how much Paul did tell the Princesses about his world and WW2 and how many connections they made regarding Alemaneian . I imagine Aryanne´s comment "They’re not common in Alemaneia much anymore" would have sound deeply disturbing in their ears.
7383262 Most likely Negros!
Pretty short, but sweet. Kinda wish it was a bit longer story with Aryanne and Equestria.
"We got rid of them!" her gleeful response... yeesh. It'd be only a matter of time before her country would have been taken out if change wasn't taken to steer away from that level of... whatever the "we got rid of them" implied. Just how violent were these ponies? Hard to imagine Celestia and Luna would even consider talks to a place that'd potentially cause genocide. Perhaps these 'work encampments' were not fully up to the human levels of evils?
Sigh. There'd be a mare whose ideals would not change willingly.
That was quite the interesting one shot.
Expected the worst.
Found a good story instead. Nice work! These are the kinds of humans in Equestria I like to read about.
That was an excellent story and I would love to see more of it.
Das ist gut. Das ist sehr gut!
This story was a bit short. But i loved it all the same... Good on you.
7383885 I was referring to her thought process and dialogue. The dialogue is one-dimensional no matter the main character's or reader's perception. It is nothing but omnidirectional hate. And the fact that she's written to be perceived that way was my complaint. Hope this helps!
Bloody good bit of writing that. Congrats on the Feature.
This was, surprisingly enough, a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I especially liked the clash of ideologies and philosophies, me personally relating to Paul on what Fascism really means. Seeing that was actually what got me really invested in his character; tortured, yet stoic.
7382604
Regular army vs SS?
7384494 Yeah recall, he was Wehrmacht, not SS. While a good lot of the Wehrmacht were nazis, many were just ordinary German troops