> Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
>  by Ponelover
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 6th November, 2015 (Edited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Charles de Gaulle airport, CET 12:00 AM


Nicholas Petit is tired after a full day working as a bus driver. After some 8 hours of driving the bus and thinking whether or not it’s a good idea to let the bus careen a bit to have some fun at the job, his performance have deteriorated enough for a 30 minute break and eventually a good night’s sleep in his apartment. Damn airport’s too busy he thought and for good reason, as the main hub of transport for Paris to the rest of the world and being Europe’s second busiest airport. There is no shortage of work to be found in Charles de Gaulle, much to Nicholas’s displeasure.

The airport does have it’s own charms of course, Terminal 2 for example was used in U2’s Beautiful Day as it’s background and there was the most unusual case with Mehran Karimi Nasseri living in the airport for 17 years. But right now, all he could think of is his apartment in Belleville and a good night’s sleep after a hard day’s work.

Now out of the gates of the airport, he could feel freedom at last. He took out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter, and as a good Parisian light it up and puff some smoke into the air. As he felt the familiar smell of tobacco and nicotine overtaking his sense of smell, he saw his friend Bertrand Alexis coming out of the terminal doors.

“Rough day eh?” Nicholas asked,
“Isn't it just like everyday?” Bertrand replied as he pulls a cigarette and light it up,
“Yeah the same old bs, so how’s the family?” Nicholas asked, knowing that the relationship between his friend and his family currently vacationing in the Bahamas is difficult.
“Don’t ask me that crap Nicholas. Do you want me to hang out with you or do you want me to punch you in the face?” Bertrand replied, a hint of acid visible in his tone.
“Eh whatever floats your boat, I just wanna be a good friend that’s all.” Nicholas puffs his cigarette once more.
“It’s ok Nicholas. I’ve known you since we graduated from Sciences Po, just don’t ask me about my family ok? It’s too much to ask, even for you.” Bertrand replied, knowing full well that his friend is just genuinely helping him.

Bertrand still remembered the day when they met at freshmen year at Sciences po. They were assigned rooms to each other and quickly became best friends, through thick and thin they waded through the complex maze that is called University and through some miracle of god, managed to graduate with flying colors……...only to get a job as bus drivers at Charles De Gaulle Airport.

And to think that Nicholas wanted to be a high ranking civil servant when we first graduated. Bertrand thought as he remembered the days they shared at Sciences po.

With his cigarette finished, Nicholas was about to say goodbye to his friend when it happened.

“The hell?” says Nicholas as his eye moved up to see the sky, a bright white light was suddenly descending throughout the airport. It looks like an aurora but didn’t Auroras have multiple colors instead of just one big white blob? He quickly pulls out his smartphone from his pocket and snaps a picture, knowing full well there are others in the airport doing the same thing.

As the white light descends into the airport, Bertrand does the same thing and also pulls out his smartphone. He was about to take a picture of the white light when he realized that everyone is either taking pictures, or staring intently at the white light. He silently hoped that it wouldn’t interfere with any flights coming in and out of the airport.

The white light took a full 5 minutes until it dissolves into nothingness. Nicholas then asked the question.

“What the hell happened?”
“I...I have no Idea Nicholas” Bertrand replied.
“It’s not everyday that you see white lights descending on CDG, you got any explanations for this?” asked Nicholas.
“N..no Nicholas, but I know that a lot of instagram pictures are going to be shared come morning.” Bertrand replied, which is met with a chuckle from Nicholas.
Knowing full well that Bertrand is not interested in continuing the conversation, NIcholas bides him farewell and enters the metro station.

The trip back to Belleville was relatively quiet. It is 12 o’clock at night as he waited until the train reached the appropriate station.

He walked out and into the usually quiet neighborhood of Belleville, he was expecting silence because of the time but was met with a crowd of people asking questions to each other. Nicholas was confused, did they see the white lights as well? he thought as he approached a relatively young college girl to ask questions.

“Hey, did you see the white light? It’s all over TV5 right now!” the girl suddenly notices the older man approaching her, knowing what question he’s going to ask. Her eyes glued into her smartphone as it is streaming TV5 Monde.
“W..what? I thought it was only in CDG international” replied Nicholas as he watches the stream alongside her,
“Nononononono it’s all over Paris! Some sources even say that people as far as Toulouse are reporting white lights in the sky!” the girl responded to Nicholas’s inquiry.
“Toulouse?!? But that’s a million kilometers from Paris! How the hell can the entirety of France be suddenly blanketed in white light?” Nicholas’s tone was getting higher by the moment.

After exchanging some brief conversations with the girl, Nicholas decided that rather than overtaxing his already drained brain right now. He’s going to think about the whole thing tomorrow, he reached for the keys of his apartment and opens the door. He’s lucky he landed a relatively stable job as a bus driver at the airport, it’s hard work but the pay’s good as the interior of his apartment shows. Wooden floors, bookshelves, a small tv, full heating and even unlimited high speed internet. A perfect home for the average young Parisian (although he admitted that someday he’s going to buy this whole apartment instead of renting it, landlord’s too much of an ass to talk about).

He slowly changed his clothes and goes to sleep. Not knowing that from this day forward, his life and the lives of millions of French people are going to change forever.



Edge of the undiscovered west, 1:00 AM


Daring Do narrowly misses being squished as the stone door closes behind her. Her expedition to reveal how the famous griffon raider Severus the Terrible raided unguarded pony caravans in Whitetail woods 500 years ago has born fruit as she foundthe abandoned hideout of Severus the Terrible and his compatriots after years of research. She was just about to unlock the riddle on the front door when Ahuitzotl jumped on her, that slimy little dog monkey thing always tries to ruin her expeditions just to get a few bits.

Daring couldn’t help but smirk a little as she manages to escape the now trapped Ahuitzotl as he yells ‘Daring Do’ once again in a show of frustration she’s not going to miss. After being captured, she agreed to help Ahuitzotl find Severus’s hoard of course, comfortably not mentioning the legend she heard from a certain zebra shaman she met that if you stole Severus’s hoard, you’re going to pay the price of being trapped in your own greed for 1000 years as the treasure consumes you and everything around it.

After that everything was a blur, Daring Do had been running and flying for over two straight days now. She manages to reach the shore but there are times when she feared that she’s going to tire herself into submission, as she landed on the beach she catches her breath for a minute, being a Pegasus meant that she was used to long, sometimes strenuous flights. She would be lying if she told herself that the escape was not exhausting to the extreme. Constantly running and flying for over two days had really drained her strength and she was more than happy when she reached the edge of the undiscovered west, the supposed meeting place between Daring Do and her ‘extraction’. She checked her saddlebag as she sighs in relief that her valued treasure: the Sword of Severus is safe and intact. She was wondering where her extraction was when she heard somepony speak.

“Hey” as she hears a very scruffy looking stallion approach her,
“You must be miss Daring Do correct ?” his manehattanite accent gives away that he is her hired extraction.
“Y……y…yes Captain Rough Waters” Daring Do manages to form a reply, definitely showing signs of fatigue now from the distance she travelled to meet him and his crew.
“Hh calm down miss Do, we all have our rough days.” he says a he lifts the fatigued mare onto his back, trotting to his ship: The Damned Explorer. Oh it wasn’t a good ship by any standards, but after Daring looked at his records and especially his……exceptional services as captain in the Equestrian Navy, she knew that Rough Waters was fit for the job.

As the ship departs the still unknown coastline of the undiscovered west (Well undiscovered to most ponies, some of the veteran mariners in the taverns throughout Manehattan and Vanhoover will give you some useful info about the ‘undiscovered’ west for the right amount of bits), Daring manages to get some rest after all those hours just running and flying into the edge of the peninsula (who knew that the undiscovered west is actually a peninsula!), Daring reaches her living quarters and after some good old shower she was about to go to sleep as the door slams open.

“Daring, we got a situation.” The captain’s tone clearly indicates that something has gone wrong, was the ship ambushed? Did the ship encountered a wild storm? Daring’s mind raced through the various probabilities but the captain snaps her back to reality with a whistle before she could go any further.
“What happened ?” Daring asked, fearful about what might happen in lands beyond Cloudsdale’s weather authority. Daring knew from experience that expeditions beyond Equestria can be very risky by the simple fact that no one controls the weather, especially in unknown territory like the ‘unknown’ west.
The captain shuffles uncomfortably but he manages to say something, “There’s this bright light over the horizon, too bright to be the sun and the crew’s mighty scared, you might wanna get out and see it for yourself.” The veteran mariner walks out the room.

Knowing Rough Waters, Daring Do walks out from her room, she saw something that seems indescribable. Just over the horizon, a very bright light could be seen. The light appears white and looks magical in origin. Daring looked confused for a moment but felt liked she could watch the whole spectacle forever, it felt alluring in a disturbing way but also compels Daring to ask the captain to move towards the light. It looked magnificent and Daring felt almost disappointed when the lightshow was over.

As Daring came back to her senses, she knew that something was happening over the Horizon. “I need to go there..” she uttered the words that is going to become not only the opening line of her best selling novel yet, but also open contact between France and Equestria. Silently, Daring walks towards the Captain of the Damned Explorer and utters the magical words.

“Captain, I need to go there” asked Daring, she doesn’t care if she needs to pay the captain twice the amount she agreed upon during the start of her expedition. She needs to see what is happening over the horizon.
“You realize you will be paying me twice the amount if you want to go there right?” asked the captain, he's going to find out what in the world just happened over the horizon. Might as well earn some extra bits on the way.
“Yes yes you will be payed twice. Now get going!” as Daring responded.

The captain needs no more motivation as he orders his crew to get back to their senses and start moving towards………whatever’s waiting for them over the edge of the horizon.


Edge of the Pierre-Pfimlin Brücke bridge, Strasbourg, France, 3:00 AM


Brigadier Camille Dubois is utterly dumfounded at the sight she was greeted after the “white light event” as TV5 Monde would report it. The Strasbourg police was on high alert following the white lights, the event proved so bizzare that even the French Gendarmes were being deployed throughout the countryside. But back to business, road blocks are in place preventing anyone from crossing the bridge to the Rhine Ocean? (The Rhine after the event was suddenly transformed into a massive ocean for some reason) And it is rumored that President Francois Hollande is going to make a national announcement soon.

“How the hell did the Rhine transformed into an ocean?” Camille asked her partner, the junior Gardien de la paix Thomas Moreau. The new guy was in his late twenties and she could tell that he is a keeper for the Police, he knows how to break tension between labour unions and bosses when things are about to get heated (how he managed to do that she has no idea at all) but knows how to fight when things gets tough as she remembers the time when he tackled and cuffed someone who’ve taken too much beer outside the bar in that one incident. Damn bastard was messing around, good thing Thomas acted quickly, could’ve ended really badly she thought as she eyed the formless ocean in front of her.

“I have no idea Camille, probably related to the white light event three hours ago. Any word from the station yet?” he asked his superior as to what to do next, after the white light event and with reports coming in that the Rhine has transformed into an ocean. The station originally sent in a couple of squad cars just to investigate, ten minutes later the station was at full alert with the police fully deployed to the Rhine to prevent any accidents from happening. The fact that most of the internet suddenly vanished spooked the station even more so, now with the whole country practically at full readiness for what looks like a potential conflict, he wonders why the hell are they still sitting here. The damn Rhine (or whatever’s left of it) is already blockaded, might as well get some shuteye before tomorrow.

“Station’s damn scared Thomas, the chief doesn’t want any slipups and probably for a good reason. Just wait until further orders” she responded, she admitted this assignment is boring as hell. It’s already half an hour and she still sees nothing but unfamiliar stars in the night sky and the Rhine Ocean. But when the chief gets spooked she knew that it would be better to just follow orders, the Eurocorps based here after all and after the events of tonight, she damn well knew that both the Eurocorps and the Strasbourg police would be spooked right out of their beds. And as a result, she’s here, just watching what’s going to be the Rhine Ocean from now on.

“I know but this is frankly bullshit Camille” Thomas replied, he knew that he needed to uphold the standard of French law enforcement and be a good example for the ‘good’ city of Strasbourg to follow, but being woken up from his beauty sleep two hours after his day shift ended really did wonders for his mood as he remembered begrudgingly putting his police uniform back on and riding to the station.

Damn white lights, why do you have to be so annoying? Gardien Thomas grumbles. Nothing ever happens in Strasbourg, and by the looks of it nothing ever will. Oh Strasbourg is a wonderful city no doubt, rich history, politically important place for the EU, all that jazz. But other than that it’s just some city straddled on the Franco German border, and by the looks of it the Germans aren’t going to be mounting an invasion anytime soon.

“Ugh, can’t argue with the station by the looks of it, understandable really. When a random white light appears out of nowhere and covering the whole nation, everyone’s gonna get spoo…movement spotted!” as Thomas grips his binoculars and sees something approaching the bridge. It looks like a sailing ship with it’s huge masts but it’s unlike any other sailing ship he’s ever seen before, or at least in the museums he’s been to.

“I’ll go contact the station” Camille grabs the police radio and starts asking for reinforcements. She damn well knew that if something’s approaching the city, only the French Police and to a lesser extent the Eurocorps would be responsible for the protection of Strasbourg.
“The…ship is approaching maam” one officer said as Thomas keeps watching the ship that is quickly approaching Strasbourg, more specifically the Pierre-Pfimlin Brücke bridge.


The Damned Explorer, 3:15 AM


“Land! I see land!!” utters the spotter pony as he sees a very strange city appearing. This is odd, very odd indeed. None of their charts show that there are any land here.
“What did you see?” uttered both the Captain and Daring do, their small detour might be worth it after all.
“Uhhh captain…I don’t know what I just see. It looks like a very strange city.” the spotter pony responded
A strange city? This might get interesting Daring thought.

“Strange you say?” captain Rough Waters walks in front of the ship and takes out his telescope and sees a very odd sight indeed.
It looks like the average equestrian town but there’s something off about the whole thing. There are these weird and huge buildings throughout the entire town and a very weird bridge connecting the city to what might have been another city, on one of the bridges he sees what appears to be flashing lights and more flashing lights coming in from behind. Are the inhabitants of the town holding a party? he wonders as he sees what appears to be the creatures living in the town.

In the name of Celestia, what are those things? As Daring sees the city with her own telescope, the city looks like some weird fusion between your average town and the future, it really is a jarring sight to behold.

“Captain Rough Waters” Daring asked the Captain.

“Yes Daring” The Captain replied.

“Can you dock your ship on the shore? I’ve got a feeling we’ve made a new discovery” as Daring’s mind runs through what this could imply. Land across the Lunar Ocean? How come none of the Mariners I asked in Vanhoover and Manehattan knew about this? The discovery of new land could land me in the front of the history books and newspapers throughout Equestria! Such an exciting prospect, a novelist and an adventurer, who knew I could be both Daring ironically thought.
“You don’t have to ask me twice” Replied Rough Waters. He’s already getting double the pay and now he will be remembered as one of the few ponies that managed to find new land, what a time to be alive.

Little did both sides knew, but this meeting would change the history of France and Equestria forever.
> 7th November, 2015 (Edited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Damned Explorer, 3:30 AM


As the ship approaches the weird looking city, Daring Do and captain Rough Waters notices that the differences in technology between Equestria and the unknown civilization is becoming apparent. There are those weird gyrocopter machines straight out of Leoneighdo da Vinci’s manuscripts flying around the half bridge and weird looking two legged creatures wearing weird uniforms as well. They’re also apparently holding signs which shows the right arrow, probably telling the ship to move right of the bridge if they want to dock into the city.

“Those creatures look weird” as a random crew member observes the bipedal looking beings in the strange uniforms.
“Looks like some skinny hairless minotaurs” exclaimed another one

“Forget the looks of the creatures, look at that gyro!” as Daring Do replied, she never thought that gyrocopters would work at all! Sure there are several prototypes done by a certain pink pony she saw once when she was on vacation in Ponyville but they are just that....prototypes. And by the looks of it these people have been perfecting gyrocopter technology for quite a while. “I need to take a look at it.” as Daring Do flies towards the huge looking gyrocopter, as she approaches the gyro she notices the word ‘gendarmarie’ blazoned at the side of the gyro, wait Daring thought why are they using a long dead language? The Empire of Prance was long dead even before Celestia and Luna’s ascension! This is impossible!

Daring flew over the side of the gyro and then the gyro starts moving, she was originally taken aback by the sudden movement of the gyro but smirks a little. So the gyro wants to play eh? Well two can play that game as Daring thinks that she is being challenged by the gyro on an aerial competition. After a couple of minutes of aerial maneuvering, she finally relented as she gave the gyro room to move about. "Darn gyro's too agile" she quietly muttered to herself as the helicopter moved a fair distance away, she never thought that anypony could build a machine with an agility that matches a pegasus nor a gryphon, and has been using it for quite a while by the looks of it.

Eventually the gyrocopter also gives up and starts to land, sweet! I might get to see the locals up close as Daring do lands in the grass. The loud sound of the gyrocopter is obvious but Daring still couldn’t help but stare in awe at the sight of the giant flying machine.

Suddenly a figure opens the door at the side of the helicopter and steps out, and Daring, always the good explorer congratulates him for a job well done. “Heh nice flying there, name’s Daring Do, what’s yours?”

She was met with only shocked stares, did she offend him? (the figure looks like a male) Did she did something wrong? Did she just break an unknown taboo these people created? The tension stayed for a couple of minutes but she finally got her answer when a female biped walks behind her and taps her back.

Originally she was shocked and bit surprised by the sudden gesture, but when she said the words “We need to talk pony” in perfect Equish. She knew that this day is going to get a LOT longer.



Edge of what remains of the Pierre-Pfimlin Brücke bridge, Strasbourg, France, 3:30 AM


Now with reinforcements coming in from the rest of the city, Camille clearly sees that the ship is now approaching the city, police helicopters are now being called in and nearby Eurocorps personnel are readying their diplomatic team and will arrive in ETA 15 minutes. As the ship approached the shore just right off the bridge, Brigadier Camille sees an oddity, the crews manning the ship doesn’t look like anything Camille has ever seen. They look less like humans and more like pastel colored horses if Camille’s binoculars are to be believed.

“Can you confirm visual sighting of the…uhm….ponies?” Camille asked the rest of the assembled police team, where the hell are the Eurocorps personnel? They’re the ones that should be dealing with this not us!

“Sighting of the…...ponies on the deck confirmed, they look so cute too!” as a nearby policewoman confirmed the sighting of the ship.
Camille was about to say something about pastel colored horses (ponies?), when one of them was seen flying towards the police helicopter. Seeing a potential incident, Camille radioed the helicopter and ordered the heli to conduct evasive maneuvers and land if possible.

“Orders understood Brigadier” as the pilot of the helicopter hears the command. The helicopter begins moving sideways, upwards and downwards with the pony seemingly following it’s moves. The pilot was impressed by the pegasis agility and complete disregard for the laws of physics, the pegasis wing to body ratio is way off and although it looked admittedly cute, the pilot was now having a hard time evading the flying pegasus.

I need to land and fast! the pilot thought as he tries to maintain control of the helicopter against a seemingly increasingly aggressive pegasus. It took some four minutes before the pilot finds a suitable place in the fields to land. As he lands he sees the pegasus landing on the ground and as the noise from the engine of the helicopter dies down and police cars race to meet them. The pony says something helicopter pilot Kevin Clement thought impossible.

“Heh nice flying there, name’s Daring Do, what’s yours?” the pony said in pure English


Elysee Palace, 4:00 AM


Jean Yves Le Drien rushes himself to the Murat room as the situation becomes ever clearer, like every other person living in Paris, he clearly saw the white light engulfing the entire city at midnight. At the moment he thought that it was just some fluke of nature and went back to sleep, but thirty minutes later he got a call from the former ESA Director Jean Jacques Dordain that something major had happened in France. When Jean was told that the former director cannot contact the current director in Germany and learned that through some fluke of science, French Guiana has been ‘displaced’ and is now only some 2500 kilometers south of france, he thought the former ESA director has gone mad and simply told him to go to sleep.

One hour later he was called by Army chief of staff Jean Pierre Bosser and Navy chief of staff Admiral Bernard Rogel. Jean Pierre Bosser was saying that somehow, all the French military bases abroad was ‘teleported’ just outside Charles De Gaulle airport, while Bernard was saying that the De Gaulle carrier group was spotted off the coast and contacted Brest naval base, confirming reports that the carrier was somehow transported back into French waters while doing combat missions in Syria and Iraq, all flights accounted for.

By that point he knew that something’s gone wrong and changed his clothes before ordering his groggy eyed driver to go to the Elysee Palace. As he reaches the palace he saw Emmanuel Macron, Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital affaris and Laurent Fabius, Foreign minister of France arguing about what happened at midnight. He was later briefed by both his colleagues that France was somehow displaced and the President, upon hearing it ordered a full meeting at his residency ASAP. How the displacent happened is still an unknown factor but Jean Yves le Drien had no time to waste as he reaches for the handle and enters the Murat room.

He opened the door and was met by President Hollande’s entire cabinet. “Right” he says as he takes a seat, the aura of the cabinet is one of extreme confusion but also one of extreme fear, it’s like the entire cabinet (President included) has met the boogeyman and told them that god is dead.

“Mr President,” the former ESA director Jean Jacques Dordain spoke, “at 2400 hours, a bright white light has somehow ‘displaced’ not only Metropolitan France but also all French overseas departments,” as he shared a satellite image of France and a bunch of weirdly positioned French overseas territories just next of it, forming an archipelago encircling France. “We also found out that this event has only affected France and not the entirety of Europe, further satellite imagery also revealed that France was displaced not only out of Europe, but to regions unknown. Some analysts have even gone as far as to suggest that we’re on some compeltely different world entirely.” as he shared another image with all the ministers, showing that France was ‘displaced’ in a unfamiliar ocean between two continents. The continent to the east showing what appears to be lights and the continent to the west showing bright lights (albeit a bit dimmer) as well.

“As we can see from this picture,” the former ESA director continued, “France has been displaced, though we are double-checking to make sure this isn't some sick joke, but if what some of the analysts are claiming is true, these photos show some signs of civilization other than France, type of civilization is currently unknown.” as the Jean Jacques Dordain finished.

There’s also unconfirmed reports from the Strasbourg Police suggesting that they might have encountered a ‘native’ from the eastern continent.” the defense minister also said

“Then confirm it le Drien, any word from our communication satellites Dordain?” as Francois Hollande questioned Jean.

“Yes sir, alongside France and all her dependencies, all communication satellites belonging to the French government, the ESA and French companies have also seemingly been displaced. Their orbits appear to be stable and we are currently trying to attain further information on our situation.” Jean replied.

“Good” as President Hollande continues the meeting. “Any other news we all should be made aware of?”

“Mr President, after the events that has transpired at midnight, the airspace of Paris and to a lesser extent Brest was filled with French fighter planes essentially wondering what the hell happened, by 1:30 I, alongside Thierry Mariani personally ordered all planes to be grounded until further notice, by 2:00AM I ordered the mobilization of the French Army, Navy, Air Force and Gerdarmarie in order to get some sense as to what happened. And despite the improbability of what’s happening, I can give you some good news. The De Gaulle carrier group has made contact with Brest Naval Station stating that they somehow got displaced to within sight of the coast. All combat flights reported present and accounted for. Additionally its been confirmed that the same unknown force that affected the De Gaulle has also managed to put all foreign bases in the open areas outside of Charles de Gaulle Airport. Though that had to be confirmed by runner. We are waiting on a full headcount since they appear to be without power or communications for now.”

The president listens attentively as he is informed of the current state of what appears to be a mass displacement of military personnel and equipment, appearing in a place where they had no business right now. Eventually he nodded and then looked to his Minister of Economy, industry and digital affairs. “I trust that you have ordered all stock trading to be suspended until further notice?”

“Yes Mr President, and I would also like to report that despite the event knocking out telecommunications lines for some time. We have managed to get at least basic internet connection restored. Efforts are being made to bring the rest back online.” Emannuel Macron replied.

“Very well then,” said Francois as he finishes the meeting, “meeting is adjourned, I will address the nation at 6:00 AM, let’s hope that I have more detailed information to give them by then. Oh and Mr Dordain? Congratulations, you just got your old job back as director of the ESA. Temporarily of course until we sort things out.”

As the cabinet finishes the emergency meeting, Jean Yves met with foreign minister Laurent Fabius and says the only thing worth saying, “We need to send De Gaulle and her battlegroup out into the unknown. Maybe scout the eastern continent, learn what there is about our surroundings and report back anything unusual.” 

“Don’t worry, I’m already working on a proposal about the same thing, I was just about to ask you to come with me in the morning but I’ve got a feeling you will come.” Laurent responded.

“Might also convince the President to get more funding for the military as well, we can still finish the PA2 if circumstances are right” Jean Yves mumbled to himself as he departed back to his quarters to get some shuteye before dawn.


President Francois Hollande addresses the nation, 6:00 AM


Good morning France, I am here not to make any promises but instead I will tell you the honest truth. At 24:00 hours an event has transpired which transported the Republic of France and all of her dependencies onto a brave new world, a new world of opportunities but also danger. I must agree that I am scared of this new world, it hosts untold riches and unique cultures for proud Frenchmen and women to explore. But it also hosts dangers we have yet to know. I am addressing you now not as the President of France, but as a fellow Frenchmen to another Frenchmen, please stand your ground. Whatever happens in this world the French will show solidarity in these tough times. We are a nation of pioneers, scientists, leaders and innovators. Do not let this legacy fall to waste! As President of France I announce that travel outside France and her dependencies are as of now restricted. But as a Frenchmen I must ask you to stand strong, show solidarity and please return to your daily routines, the military is alerted and it is our duty as the government of France to protect and ensure the security of it’s citizens from this brave new world. We will inform everyone when we have better information to share. Until then brave Frenchmen and women, Vive le republique et Vive la France!

******

The President of France has ordered all French military Assets to be placed at high alert pending conflict

Foreign minister Laurent Fabius proposes a plan to send Aircraft Carrier Charles de Gaulle and her battlegroup to the eastern continent in order to investigate the locals and get in touch with any form of authority in the eastern continent. The request is approved.

Daring Do interacts with the French Police and eventually Eurocorps personnel, she figures out that this land is called ‘France’ and she is now residing in the city of Strasbourg. Eurocorps authorities have contacted President Francois Hollande and she is immediately sent by TGV to Paris.

The rest of the crew of the Damned Explorer was eventually ordered to stay in their places and asked to not leave.
> 8th November, 2015 (Edited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


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.
> 11th November, 2015 (Edited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kourou Space Control Facility, 1:00pm, +4 days after event


Jean Jacques Dordain’s enters after passing through security the mission control room where they are now maintaining what is left of France’s space infrastructure. He was met with flight operations director Herve Come.

“Welcome back Jacques” Come welcomingly opened his arms and they shared a hug
“It’s always good to be back in Kourou Herve, now show me what you got” as they both enter the boardroom to discuss their findings. Herve started the meeting immediately.
“Okay Jacques, I know you like to skip to the meat of the matter so I’ll give you this” as he hands over a map. Immediately after Jean was reappointted as Director of ESA, his first order was to map the entirety of this new world and that is where Herve Come comes in, he’s been using the remaining French satellites to map the entirety of this new world and he’s now giving the preliminary results to him.

“Hmmmmmm most interesting.” as Jean observed the map given to him. There is a huge western continent on the west of France, separated by a huge ocean, an eastern and a far eastern continent where the French government is sending their only expeditionary force so far. And east of the far eastern continent lies a southern continent mainly covered in tundra, out of all the continents the southern continent seems to be the most isolated. If France really needs to expand, the northern part of the southern continent with it’s seemingly mild climate could fit in a territory or two.
“Signs of civilization is mostly present in the eastern continent, the western continent has dimmer lights than the eastern continent everytime we survey the area at night. It is also connected with another, recently found far eastern continent. Lightsources are most profound on the western side of the continent at the coast before the mountain range.” as Herve mentions the state of this new world to Dordain
“The eastern continent is mostly filled with mountains on the west and on the east with a small peninsula jutting out of the eastern continent, said peninsula is roughly 1,400 kilometers east of France” as he delved into the details of the eastern continent

“What about the western continent?” Jean asked
“Well the western continent is much more flatter than the eastern continent, unlike the vertically shaped eastern continent this western continent is more horizontally shaped, on the easternmost part of the western continent we can see there are lights coming out of the island just off the coast of the mainland and even in the mainland as well” as Herve gives Dordain a map of the western continent 
“Okay…..and what about the southern continent?”
“Well the Southern continent appears…..desolated, there is practically nothing there and without direct exploration. I cannot say anything further.”
The now director of the ESA looks over the map with interest, are there tectonic plates located in this new world? Did France got transported right on top of it? Only time and exploration will tell.

“Okay now moving on to human objects. Any news from the ISS?” as Jean asked the current state about the (presumed) transported Space station.

“Telescopes all over France alongside with ESA satellites in low earth orbit didn’t find any objects resembling the ISS and there’s also no contact from the ISS either, so we can presume that the station was not transported alongside France” he concluded.

“And what about our satellites?” Jean asked
“What about them?” Herve responded
“Well what satellites were specifically transported to this planet Herve?”
“Well, all satellites belonging to either the government of France, the ESA, and French companies have been successfully transported to our world. Do note that without the main center of operations in Darmstadt, we are only reduced to only the Toulouse ATV control station and Kourou space station as centers of launchings and operations which are hardly ideal. While in the short and mid term we can cope with the problems of managing satellite data from the ATV control center and Kourou, do note that we need a dedicated center of operations in order to restore the ESA into full efficiency.” Herve Come told him. It’s sad but it’s also true, without their flight operations headquarters in Darmstadt, ESA might as well be running with a bare bones crew and just to add insult to injury, the astronaut training facility in Cologne, Germany was not brought during the event. At least the latitude and longitude of French Guiana is placed at the same location as Hammaguir, thank god for small mercies.

“Oh don’t you worry about a thing if you’re talking about spending. The relocation of France has allowed Hollande to craft a massive 3 year deficit spending bill which will be voted on by the National Assembly in 1 week’s time without the interference of a certain German chancellor.” as Jean responded to Herve’s concerned reports.
Herve chuckled, yes it is nice having France for ourselves again, the economic downturn is going to a bitch though.
“But other than that Herve, good job. I will notify the President about ESA’s need to build new facilities right away.” as Jean concluded the meeting and exits the room.


Vanhoover, Equestrian Columbia, 2:00pm, +4 days after event


Stacked Books, student at the University of Equestrian Columbia is currently enjoying some good coffee with her friends Starstruck and Icy Frost. Life’s been good ever since she moved to this...unusually pleasant city when she got accepted, now on her 4th and final year of study she feels pretty confident about her future job prospects. With her apartment’s address being a top destination for the Equestrian Civil Administration and many other companies she forgot to remember their names.

“Did you hear about the Changeling attack in Canterlot? I heard Princess Celestia was pretty badly hurt.” Startstruck says as she sips her hot chocolate.
“Meh, if the Changelings wanted love that badly they should’ve just open their doors and talked with Celestia, they deserve the royal plot whooping Celestia’s going to give them.” Icy Frost responded, is she is always the gloomy one? Stacked Books wondered.
“Hey gals, why are we talking Politics? this should be our weekly hangout and you ponies decided to start the topic with war?” says Stacked Books.

“Well, has there been anything interesting happening in Vanhoover?” Icy Frost asked
“W..wellll ummm..”
“Precisely! Nothing interesting happens in Vanhoover! And my parents thought that Vanhoover is such a fascinating place!” Icy Frost’s sarcasm clearly showing.
“Well it’s a big port, and also the main trade hub between Equestria and the Kirin Empires.” Starstruck responded, being a student in International Politics does help you with arguments like these.
“Only if you’re a politics student Starstruck, and none of us but you are. So yeah Vanhoover’s pretty boring, the only place interesting in this city is the mountains, and don’t make me mention that incident two years ago when we tried climbing Unicorn Range. Nice coffee though.” as Icy Frost sips her hot cappucino.

Stacked Books was about to respond when she heard a weird primal sound blasting through the front of the cafe, everyone including Stacked herself was shocked and wondered what was creating that noise.

“What in the world was that?” a stallion was heard asking a mare.
“I don’t know but it sounds like dragons.” the mare responded.
“I’ve seen dragons before and they don’t sound like that miss uhh...uhhh, who are you again exactly?” an elderly stallion responded to the mare’s inquiry. 
“Mountain Pass sir. You remember, your nurse.” said the mare as if repeating herself for the umpteenth time.
Stacked was about to find out when sailors suddenly burst into the shop’s front door and says “There’s this huge ship coming to the harbor! If anypony’s interested then come down to the harbor and see it for yourselves.” Stacked and her friends sees each other in the eye and agreed, this ship must be somehow connected with that weird sound they heard earlier and before the three mares left the cafe as quickly as they came.


Horizon class Destroyer Chevalier Paul, 2:00 PM, +4 days after event


Like most rational human beings, when Captain Bastien Roux heard the news of the displacement, he openly questioned just what happened to French news agencies, thinking they were all in on some mass prank. Then he heard the immediate mobilization order and then the President’s address to the nation mere hours later, he quickly realized that this must be true. And even though he could not believe it, the good captain was now accompanying the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle on an exploration mission into the much speculated ‘eastern’ continent, he admitted that the quaint looking city straddled on the beautiful harbor was a sight to behold. But then he saw the flying horses and unicorns as they boarded the De Gaulle he knew that this will be a meeting unlike any other he experienced.

“De Gaulle is launching the diplomatic team now sir.” as the captain sees the small Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats deployed from the ship and starts moving towards the harbor. Hopefully these ponies are nice the captain thought, from what he heard from those near these ‘ponies’, they are a rather nice bunch of people who seems to know where to stand their ground. Hopefully everything goes well and we will make peaceful contact with the leaders of Equestria.

As the captain watches the diplomatic team arriving in the harbor and stepping off the pier, the ponies are clearly amazed that the team also included ponies (most notably Daring Do) in their group. The ponies are unusually photographing Daring Do though, probably by the fact that she’s the living embodiment of Indiana Jones he thought if the interview France 24 did with Daring Do is true.


Appleloosa encampment, 3:00PM, +4 days after the event


General Shining Armor analyzes the map of the Badlands carefully, he and Air Marshall Spitfire knew that after the changeling invasion, Equestria must show these Changelings what it means to mess with Equestria. After the Changeling invasion of Canterlot, Equestria was put on high alert, Shining Armor was quickly promoted to General and Spitfire reseated in the office of the Air Marshall. He and a smattering of other officers were under orders from Celestia herself to launch a military expedition into the badlands to depose Queen Chrysalis and then sue for peace with the Changelings once everything is done, with Equestria taking in the Changeling swarm as their temporary protector. 

That was the plan given from the Princess to Shining Armor. But he knew that the application of this plan on the field will be quite tricky, the Changeling swarm is much feared for their infiltrators and already Shining was conducting a major sweep on all present regiments on both the Appleloosa encampment and the Dodge City encampment, thankfully only 5 infiltrators were found which and quickly sent to jail. But it confirmed Shining’s fear that the Changeling swarm is already infiltrating the rank and file of his own army. Time was critical, if they took too long, their plans would fall into Changeling hooves and their efforts would be for naught.

“And with that, if the Changelings try to do anything stupid like mounting a flanking attack, you will have the Wonderbolts covering your flanks.” as Spitfire concluded her part on the plan to attack the badlands.

“Very good presentation Air Marshall Spitfire” Shining Armor commented. “Scouts have also reported that the Changelings have detected our presence and is now encamping on the outskirts of the badlands, prepare your guards and raise your shields, we are now officially going to combat tomorrow, dismissed!” as Shining Armor dismissed the meeting. good he thought, this plan is flawless, if the Changelings tries to pull up any tricks Combat Mages alongside the Wonderbolts will be there to stop it while Pegasi and Earth Pony guards will brawl it out with the Changelings on the center.

He leaves the encampment to get some grub and a good workout. Not knowing that the guard he saw back there was moving out of the camp, and reporting the general’s plan to the hive.



Changeling Hive Encampment, 6:00PM, +4 Days after event


General Carapace was enjoying his own peace and tranquility of the badlands when a messanger arrives.
“Speak quickly and speak fast if you value your life.” the general says in a stern and intimidating voice.
“The spies have returned milord, the stolen plans are ready at your desk.” the Infiltrator responded, running away as quickly as he came.
Huh, so there is some honor among these incompetent fools. After that failed attack on Canterlot I thought that those minions had no such concept the general thought as he entered his encampment and sees the stolen plans of the Equestrian army laid bare upon him. He notices that even after centuries of peace these Ponies still maintained their edge as he eyed the masterfully crafted plan laid before him, the standard grunts will be placed on the center with the unicorns on the side as well as the much vaunted Wonderbolts on the rear. It was a good plan assuming the Changelings didn’t hide an army right on the back of the pony army.

And that’s what I’m going to do the general smirks in cruel anticipation as he left his camp and meets with Captain Pincer for a talk.
“Hello there Pincer.”
“Good evening milord.” Pincer replied, with some caution in his tone of voice
“You have seen the plans given by our spies right?”
“Yes milord we have seen the plans, what are you proposing?” as Captain Pincer asks cautiously
“Why nothing really, just a simple chance to let my most decorated officer earn a higher rank and even a voice in the council.” as Carapace indirectly offered Captain Pincer a chance to earn his mark.
Oh so that’s where he is going, alright Carapace, I’ll bite. “I’m listening.” responded Pincer.
“Now in order to do that you move your regiment right now into this area and wait.” as the general circles a line bordering the Badlands and Equestria with only a narrow road connecting the two. “After that you wait until the army moves in but do not engage, instead wait until the entire army have cleared the gorge and then attack the Wonderbolt and mage positions, that should disorganize those ponies long enough so that I can charge in and break them. Do this and you will definitely be considered among my top picks for the queen’s court.” as the general finished outlining his plans to Captain Pincer.

Might as well do it. “Yes General, I’ll tell my subordinates right away.” as Captain Pincer leaves to quickly mobilize his regiment, they were soon seen moving across the valley separating Equestria and the Badlands by changeling scouts.

“And now we wait” as he tells his subordinates several hours later as they rest until daybreak.


Office of the Ministry of Defence: the ‘Hexagon-Balard’, Paris France, 7:00PM, +4 days after event


Defense minister Jean Yves le Drien accompanied with the ministers of the French Army, Navy and Air Force met with the representatives of multiple defense companies like Renault Trucks Defense, Nexter, Thales, Dassault Aviation and DCNS. So far they are still exchanging compliments but eventually Jean Yves started the meeting.

“You all know why you are here people.” said Jean Yves, it is true, they are here to discuss the future of French military procurement and future plans for the French military in general. “For one thing, this displacement has placed a golden opportunity for both the Ministere de la defense and your respected companies.” as he then moves to a next slide concerning Nexter, Renault Defence and Thales.

“The good news is that the President will propose a bill to the National Assembly regarding a new ‘shock budget’ for France. This bill will eventually be adjusted over time but in essence the ministere de la defense and other ministries concerning infrastructure will be getting a bigger budget immediately. This is good news because I’m going to tell you people,” as he points out to the representatives of Nexter, Renault Trucks Defence and Thales “That the Scorpion programme will be fast tracked by about 5 years.”

“Wait” as the representatives of Renault trucks defense asked. “We are starting production now?”

“Yes Mr. Benoit the President has essentially given us the green light to begin immediate production of the VBMR and EBRC, don’t worry about costs, the participants of the Scorpion programme will be compensated accordingly.” as Jean Yves responded to the Renault representative’s question.

“As for naval matters” Admiral Bernard Rogel continued as he takes center stage. “This budget increase has allowed the Marine Nationale to revisit old projects…...particularly a certain carrier that got cancelled in the 2013 white paper.” as he hinted the DCNS representative about revisiting the PA2.

“Do you mean that…...you will give us a contract to build the PA2?” the representative of DCNS asked. A hint of anticipation across his face.

“We can hammer out the details later on, but yes the Marine Nationale will be contracting DCNS to build the PA2 Aircraft Carrier alongside other inceases in ship orders.” as Bernard Rogel responded. 

The DCNS representative just smiled.

“Moving on to the Armee de l’air,” as the Air Force General as well as Chief of Staff André Lanata continued the meeting. “Unlike the French Army and the French Navy, the French Air Force sees no issues with our current aircraft. Instead we are going to order an additional 20 Mirage 2000C into our current fleet and increase orders of the Rafale from 10 planes to 20, accompanied with appropriate ammunition of course.” as the French Air Force General finishes his report.

“I will contact the CEO of Dassault about this new information, thank you for informing me about this new development.” said the representative of Dassault with a happy tone in his voice.

After the meeting is over Jean enters his car and orders his chaffeur to drive him home. He knew from this day onwards he’s going to have a lot of stuff to finish on his hands and he’ll need all the sleep he can get.

******

Normal travel has resumed throughout France as well as air travel and sea travel within French borders, travel to other countries is still restricted.

French President Francois Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius meets with ambassadors of all countries in the embassy district. By the end of the day both the President and Foreign Minister agreed that all Foreign Citizens residing in France will be granted citizenship immediately, citizenship lessons are still required for the foreign citizens turned French. 

The French Defense Ministry and representatives from French defense contractors have agreed to form a comprehensive plan as to who and what the military should procure in the next 5 years, regardless of budget cuts. The French PA2 Carriers are put in as top priority in all lists.

The Battle of the Badlands is about to begin.
> 12th November, 2015 (Edited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


France, 10:00AM, +5 days after event


*News intro for Le Journal rolls in*

“Hello my name is Catherine Fournier, let’s see the headlines for today.”

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirms contact between Equestrian Ponies and French expeditionary force

“The French Foreign Minister has just announced today that contact between Equestrian ponies and the French task force has been achieved. He further added that the French Diplomatic team alongside local authorities in the city of ‘Vanhoover’ is currently negotiating for a presence in the Equestrian capital of ‘Canterlot.’”

French Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital affairs commented on economic downturn

“Emannuel Macron have just commented about the recent data confirming that France will enter it’s worst recession since 2008, saying ‘government action is being taken to contain the recession.’ He refused to comment further.”

President Francois Hollande announced instant citizenship for all foreign citizens residing in France during transition

“After a meeting with multiple ambassadors in the embassy district, President Hollande and Foreign Minister Fabius announced that all foreign nationals residing in France during the event will be granted immediate citizenship and admittance to the 5th Republic of France. The US, UK, German, Japanese, South Korean and other countries diplomatically friendly to France  have expressed their delight while the Chinese and Russian embassies refused to comment.”

*Intro for Le Journal rolls in again*

“Hello and welcome to Le Journal, I’m your host Catherine Fournier. After a one day expedition marking the entrance of France into the ‘Brave New World’ as President Hollande would call it. Contact with the rumored nation of ‘Equestria’ was made yesterday as the French Carrier Charles de Gaulle reaches the city of ‘Vanhoover’ and meets with the local city authority.”

*Video of Laurent Fabius getting out of the car and enters a building*

“Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has announced today that positive contact has been made between France and Equestria in a press conference after the Foreign Minister received word about the contact.”

*The Video then skips to an announcement done by Laurent Fabius as sounds of Camera screenshots ring the background*

“At 1400 hours yesterday, the expeditionary force led by captain Jacques Rousseau has landed in a city called ‘Vanhoover’ and managed to make peaceful contact with the local authorities. As I am speaking, the diplomatic team is currently negotiating with the Vanhoover City Council regarding an audience with the rulers of Equestria. I will now give time to questions.”
*An interviewer raises his hand*
“Mr Foreign Minister, you didn’t mention the names of the rulers of Equestria, just what are the names of the President/Monarch/Dictator of Equestria?”
“Thank you, we have learned that Equestria is a Diarchy with two Princesses currently serving on the throne. Said rulers are Princess Celestia of the Sun and Princess Luna of the Moon.”
*Another Interviewer raises her hand*
“Mr Foreign Minister, have you established contact with other nations other than Equestria?”
“Thank you, as of right now France has only established contact with Equestria but there are future plans to use the carrier group as an expeditionary fleet to discover and establish diplomatic ties with other friendly nations.”

*The video ends and then skips to the newsroom*

“Recent data has suggested that the French Economy is going to enter it’s worst recession since 2008 due to the nature of the event taking place. Emannuel Macron, Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs arranged a press meeting inside the Shangri la Hotel and commented on the nature of the recession, stating that it is ‘unfortunate’ and further commented that ‘government action is being taken to contain the recession.’”

*Video of Emannuel Macron talking is shown*

“This recession is a very unfortunate event to have befall France, the event that happened 5 days ago is a nightmare for French economists everywhere. With the economy practically in freefall the French Ministry of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs will maintain the suspension of stock trading throughout France and will take further action in order to contain the recession.” he finishes his announcement to only meet a flurry of of reporters asking him questions.

“I’m sorry but the French Ministry of Economy, Industry and Digital affairs will not comment on the issue.” as he leaves the building.

*Video ends again with the usual skip to the newsroom*

“Foreign Nationals residing in France are now cheering in joy as their ‘legal limbo’ status is revoked following President Hollande’s announcement that all Foreign Nationals residing in France during the event will immediately be granted French citizenship and protection under French law.”

*Skips to a video of President Francois Hollande talking to the ambassadors of multiple nations*

“The President has officially made his visit into the embassy district to resolve one simple question: what to do with the Foreign Nationals residing in France? After a meeting with the Ambassadors of the USA, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia. He announced via the Presidential website yesterday that all Foreign Nationals residing in France will be granted French citizenship status. US Ambassador Jane Hartley has this to comment.”

*Video cuts into Jane Heartley’s video*

“We are glad that President Hollande has taken a step in the right direction. I will always be a proud American but even I must admit that we need to face the realities of the situation. To all my fellow Americans who are currently residing in France. Go to the nearest immigration office and make it official.” As Jean Hartley finishes his comment.

“Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also urges all Foreign Nationals to go to the nearest immigration office and register their citizenry immediately.” 
*As the video cuts into Laurent Fabius answering a reporter’s question*

“I highly...highly recommend to all foreign residents residing in France to go to the nearest immigration center and register their citizenry immediately. If you do that you will now be officially protected under the government of France and your ‘legal limbo’ status will be revoked.”

*Video then cuts back to the newsroom*

“Thank you so much for watching Le Journal, this is Catherine Fournier signing out”

*Roll Ending theme of the Le Journal*


Vanhoover City Hall, 10:00AM, +5 days after event


“Umm city hall presents Mr Julien Thomas from the Republic of France and Ms Daring Do of Equestria!” as the pony announces the arrival of the French diplomatic team to Equestria alongside Daring Do. When the French diplomatic team reached the harbour, they were swiftly taken to City Hall to talk to the mayor and council ponies before they were formally announced to the general public. Numerous reporters couldnt help but stare and take pictures as they walk out. Daring Do announces the intentions of the French diplomatic team to the assembled reporters who finally get out of their stupor and hurriedly begin writing down notes and taking more appropriate pictures with steadier hooves, though a few times there were calls for autographs from the famous pegasus.. The fact that Daring Do is a real pony is a real shocker for the citizens of Vanhoover that wandered by the impromptu press conference. The fact that Daring Do brought in aliens displaced from another world totally brought chaos to the city as everypony wanted to get a glimpse of these ‘humans’, eventually causing the local authorities to set up a cordon just so they could move about with some freedom.

“Thank you Mr Loudmoth, Mr Julien Thomas….err Welcome to Equestria! As foreign ambassadors of the recently found Republic of France, what are your intentions in visiting Vanhoover?” Mayor Red Tape asked. Oh this is going to be so exciting! thought the mare as she observed these peculiar species of intelligent hairless apes, or was it weird deformed minotaurs? Anyway, Red Tape loved her job really, sure it can get really grinding at times and even she admitted that sometimes it can get boring as well. But the feeling of signing in legislation or the thrill that is debating with the opposition really outweighs the costs when she’s run this city for over six years. To great success to her credit, even her opponents couldnt fault her on that.

Realizing it’s his time to speak, Julien starts to speak, “Ms Red Tape, you already knew my name and you know why I’m here so I’ll cut to the chase. France has requested me to go to this city in order to contact your leaders, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They are your nation’s leaders correct?”

“Y….yes that’s correct” Red Tape replied. I guess Daring Do did tell them everything she knew.

“So I trust that you will do the honor of contacting these Princessess for us please?” Julien was being aggressive in his methods but still shows signs of restraint and politeness. 

“What will you be looking to do?” Red Tape asked

“The recent displacement of France from earth to this world has brought us to the edge of an economic recession. We’re hoping Equestria is willing to trade with us and share what they know about this new world we’ve been thrust upon.”

“Oh…..sure, we’ll provide you with whatever you need. But what’s in it for us?” Red Tape asks, she knew that from the tone of his voice that this ‘France’ country clearly needed help. And if they are willing to trade with Equestria, she could use that political capital to benefit her nation.

“Oh a lot of things mon ami,” as he flicked his fingers and the rest of the diplomatic team brought their bags to the front of the desk. “For one, France is obviously more advanced in terms of technology than Equestria from what we’ve seen so far. So I would propose that France would have the ability to upgrade Equestria’s infrastructure.” as he shows her a picture of the TGV

“This is a train?” Red Tape looks in a jokingly manner “Where are the engines and where’s the smokestack? Is this what you call a modernization programme?” the Mare questioned the strange looking train.

“It might not look like much madamoiselle but these trains can comfortably travel at 300-400 kilometers per hour, is much safer than your ‘friendship express’ if Ms Do’s testimony is correct and would provide thousands of jobs which will boost the Equestrian economy in general.” Julien responded.

Red Tape looks at the man with intent, carefully studying his expression and sees no signs that he is lying. “Very well” she said, “Get me Graceful Winds, you’ll gain an audience with Princess Celestia as soon as possible. Again, welcome to Equestria, may both our countries benefit from this mutual relationship.” as Mayor Red Tape extends her hoof.

“So do I Ms Red Tape, so do I” as Julien also extended his hand and shakes her hoof.

This would be the beginning of the French-Equestrian Alliance that would prove to be one of the most powerful Political and Economic blocs in Equis in the years to come. This alliance would propel France’s unknown reputation in Equis from nothing to near-mythological and eventually emerge as one of the if not THE most powerful nation to ever exist in the history of Equis. Rivalling even the great Alicorn empires of old.


Outskirts of the badlands, 10:00AM, +5 days after event


“KEEP PUSHING PONIES!!! WE’RE BREAKING THEM!!” as Spitfire yells at the Wonderbolts who are finally breaking Captain Pincer’s blockade.. The battle as a whole was a complete disaster for the Royal Guard. Casualties are already estimated at easily half of the 30,000 Royal Guard will die and she already knew that the Wonderbolts are taking a beating as well.

In hindsight she should’ve known that the Changelings would pull this trick. The march to the pass was a breeze with the Wonderbolts picking off Changeling scouts that were supposed to inform Captain Pincer’s regiment. It was the battle itself that awakened Captain Pincer from his slumber that proved to be the deadly trick. As soon as Shining Armor realized that his back was under attack it was too late, Captain Pincer had successfully delayed the Wonderbolts long enough so that the rest of his regiment would conduct attacks on his Unicorn combat mages.

The blockade done by the Changelings finally gave in as Wonderbolts carry their wing blades (swords mounted on a pegasus’s wings) to cut down retreating Changelings. With the blockade broken, Spitfire yells at Shining and gave him the greenlight to start an orderly retreat.

“Alright Ponies! We are pulling back immediately!” as one officer instructs his ponies to pull back towards the Badlands pass. Soon all members of the Royal guard are slowly pulling back, with the density of ponies higher. General Shining Armor orders the rest of the unicorn mages to form a bubble shield to cover their retreat as he saw the Changeling swarm attacking the ponies lagging behind, killing them instantly.

The bubble shield worked and that alongside the brave defense done by the 35th Royal Guard regiment is the only thing preventing the wholesale destruction of the Equestrian Royal Guard. Soon enough the battle was over with the Changelings retreating back to their encampments and the Royal Guard retreating back to theirs.

Now back at their encampments, Shining Armour realized that the security of Equestria was at jeopardy, he could mount a defense at Dodge City but that would be too much of a risk to take as the battle of the badlands have shown. He knew what was required of him and told both the Wonderbolt commander and his officers that one word they all feared.

“Evacuate Appleloosa and Dodge City. regroup what’s left of the Royal Guard and the Wonderbolts and tell them to destroy the railroads once the evacuation of the mild west is completed.” as Shining Armor pulls out a map of Equestria “We will mount a defense in Ponyville and in Los Pegasus, coordinate with the local militia if you have to and do me proud.”

“Yes sir!” all the officers said in unison


Canterlot Castle, 12:00AM, +5 days after event


“Message from the Royal Guard Princess Celestia!” a Royal Guard reserve ran through her court as he delivered the long awaited message Princess Celestia anticipated. Hopefully the battle went well. And I hope that even if we lose, we should be able to salvage the situation if need be.

She opened the seal and starts reading the letter. Three minutes in and her face had already paled to such an extent that if somepony were to enter the royal court, they would’ve mistaken Celestia for a ghost.

“I……..I….” Celestia could only stutter as she reads the letter and the list of casualties the Royal Guard have suffered. 16,570 Royal Guard dead and wounded, 2,000 out of 6,000 of the Wonderbolts deployed have died, Appleloosa and Dodge City are being evacuated, the bad news just went on and on.

Quickly Celestia’s regality fell as she sobs. She is powerful without a doubt and maybe if she joined forces with Luna in battle, Equestria could be salvaged. But she knew she is not almighty, experience has told her that her skills are better suited for the office and not the battlefield. And Celestia has been to many a battlefield throghout her life. If she was incapacitated and fell into a coma for just a few days, Equestria would descend into chaos and then the situation would be ultimately unsalvagable.

But then the door slams open as a pegasus stallion enters the door with the mail in one wing and a very important note in another. Celestia felt slightly bemused as the (admittedly) cute stallion pitifully attemps to balance the notes, Is he related to that gray mailmare Celestia thought as he then comes to an abrupt halt and bows to her. She dried her tears and prepared for the formalities.

“A message from Vanhoover Princess.” He says in an unusually feminine voice.
“Yes My little pony? To who am I receiving the message?” Celestia responded in her usual motherly voice
“The Mayor of Vanhoover Red Tape Princess, she also adds a note saying that you should read this after you read the message.”
“Very well my little pony” as the Princess reads the letter, one minute later and an amused smirk fills her face. The French? Celestia thought Are they the same snobby kingdom that collapsed under their own selfishness? And humans? Hairless apes? Better technology than Equestria? Has the mayor gone mad? As Celestia finished the letter. She then took the second note and the first thing she saw was an odd looking rectangularly shaped….thing. Celestia felt intrigued by the design of the object and after some tinkering, a bright light fills the screen and Celestia was shocked. She ran multiple spells for magic detection and found none, she then read the letter which simply said ‘They might help us win the war’.

“What is your name my Little pony?”
“Uhhh Graceful Winds Princess.”
“Tell Mayor Red Tape that I want meet these French people in my castle as soon as possible.”
“Oh y-yes maam!” as he left the throneroom.


Kirin tradeship Amatsukaze (Heavenly Wind), 1:00PM, +5 Days after event


Captain Sanako Nakanishi, Kirin mare of the Amaterasu Empire and captain of the Amatsukaze has just finished her lunch of edamame, rice and lotus petals. She felt nourished and was just relaxing for a while when she heard what appeared to be a commotion on deck.

“Hey what is happening here!” she shouted loudly at the seemingly chaotic situation at the deck of the ship. 
“Uhh captain, you need to see this” as one of her crewmembers gives her a telescope to see what is in front of her ship. She frowns a bit as she takes the telescope, walks up the deck and peered through the lens. What she saw was literally impossible to describe.
She has been Captain of the Amatsukaze for years. She knew the Lunar ocenas just as any Kirin navigator that wanted to trade with Equestria would. But lo and behold, a MASSIVELY huge landmass just appeared in front of her eyes, she checks her telescope for any defects in the lenses and found none. A massive landmass just somehow, magically appeared in front of her eyes. 

A couple minutes of wondering just how the landmass came to be and she saw a huge Ironclad ship with no sails moving in her direction. She froze and feared the worst, but it never came to pass as the ship suddenly speaks accented Equish.
“Unknown ship, please identify yourself and stand down. We are sending a team for a customs check and we’ll explain the rest.” as a small rubber boat was lowered from the ship and moves slowly towards her ship.


CMA CGM Boardroom, Marseille, France, 3:00PM, +5 days after event


CEO of CMA CGM Jacques R Saade is in the middle of a very important boardroom meeting. After he learned about the displacement he called all members of the executive council to meet at headquarters to discuss the future of the company. The French shipping giant is about enter some very tough times in the future, but with an untapped world right in front of them, they could make a huge profit providing service for goods traded into France and goods traded to the local Kingdoms.

“And so we cannot expect anything from these local kingdoms until the French Government announces anything major. For now we’ll have to rely on our stored funds to keep the company afloat, and I also fear that we may have to introduce mass layoffs in the future if nothing changes soon.” as the Chief Financial Officer of CMA CGM reported on the situation, it does indeed look grim but Jacques still remains a hopeful person and asks the Chief Operations Officer one important question.

“How many ships were in France when the displacement happened” He asked

“We have some 45 ships of comparable size when the event happened. Hardly ideal but that’s all we’ve got.”

Oh dammit he thought, he knew the situation for any privately held company currently residing in Fracne was grim. But CMA CGM deserves a mention in top 10 companies with grim outlooks just next to the IT giants like Google and Facebook. 

After some extra thirty minutes of reporting the meeting was adjourned and Jacque feels like he needs to eat food even though dinner time is still 3 hours away. This company may as well be standing on it’s last legs as they prepare for the inevitable bankruptcy anyway, so who the hell cares if the CEO of CMA CGM is going to order huge amounts of food to eat away his misery?

******

Negotiations between French and Equestrian authorities at the city of Vanhoover successful, the team is about to interact directly with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna tomorrow.

Battle of the Badlands turned out to be a military disaster for the Equestrian Royal Guard. Preparations are being made for a fallback option by evacuating the Mild West as well as reinforcing the defenses of Los Pegasus and Ponyville.

Contact between the Republic of France and the Kirin Empire of Amaterasu made as the trade ship Amatsukaze sails unknowingly into the city of Brest
> 13th November, 2015 (Edited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Canterlot Castle, 9:00AM, +6 days after event


Celestia was about to start court after a very emotional day yesterday, she had talked to Luna about the incident and she shared Celestia’s concern. ‘It would be a great honor to fight by your side again sister, let’s hope this terrible conflict shall never come to pass again.’ Luna said to Celestia that evening. She had just called court to order and was about to ask for the first petitioner when she hears a slow thumping sound, “What is that sound?” Celestia wondered as she steps out of her throneroom onto a adjacant balcony and sees a sight she never thought was possible.

Celestia knew about Leoneighdo Da Vinci, a very intelligent pony who’d she had the honor of meeting 200 years ago. He was one of the most influential inventors of his time and to this very day, inspiring numerous mechanical and magical wonders. Without Leoneighdo, the invention of the telescope would’ve been impossible. But for all his intelligence, Celestia thought that some designs made by Leoneighdo were too imaginative to be true.

So the shock Celestia receives when machines straight out of Leoneighdo Da Vinci’s aerial designs were flying into her city was enough to carve out a whole mountain if it’s made to solid form. How? Celestia thought, Even with magical asistance, his gyrocopter couldn’t generate enough thrust to fly! How did these French manage to perfect Leoneighdo’s design?

As the gyrocopters enters the city and everypony was looking at the huge machines with wonder, Celestia prepared herself for the coming negotiations.

Daring Do was in a helicopter carrying her and the rest of the diplomatic team. After Celestia’s response, Graceful Winds took to the sky and tried his best to inform the rest of the Diplomatic team in Vanhoover about her response. But after pushing himself to his limits trying to reach Canterlot itself, he only reached Vanhoover by 6pm, completely exhausted and after telling the diplomatic team, passed out while he was taken to the nearest hospital for severe fatigue.

Poor soul Daring thought as she remembered the looks of Graceful Winds’s eyes when he reached Vanhoover City Hall. Anyway the gyrocopter (helicopter for humans) eventually reached Canterlot and landed in the front of the castle courtyards. French Marines pour out and secure the area before giving the thumbs up for both Daring Do, Mr Julien Thomas and the rest of the diplomatic team to step out of the NH90.

In front of her was Princess Celestia herself and a group of Royal Guard in their regular golden armor. “Princess Celestia!” Daring run to her as they both hugged, “I bought you Severus’s sword, do you want to see it?”

“Oh Daring, I’m sure there will be more than enough space in the Canterlot Museum to host the sword of the legendary raider.” Celestia replied, how did Daring Do managed to contact these French in the first place? Celestia thought. Any further thoughts were interrupted by a new voice.

“Ah you must be Princess Celestia correct?” as Celestia heard someone speaking in very accented Equish, yes these French do remind her of the Prench after all.

“Yes mister…..”
“Julien Thomas madamoiselle.”
“Oh yes, Mr Julien Thomas. My name is Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria and also Princess of the Sun.”
“It is an honour to meet you Princess Celestia, can we start our negotiations?” he asked
“Yes, but before that I must inform my sister, Princess Luna about your arrival, if you’ll excuse me. I need to wake her from her slumber. My guards will escort you to a more fitting room for our negotiations.” Celestia notioned her guard and he simply says “Yes Princess.” before the delegation and Daring Do was escorted to the negotiation room.

Several minutes later Princess Celestia entered the room alongside a grumpy looking Princess Luna with a hairstyle only possible when you only have minutes to prepare. 
“Welcome to Equestria Mr Julien Thomas, now I understand from the letters sent by Mayor Red Tape that you needed assistance. Would you kindly explain how we can help?”
“Yes Princess Celestia, what France needed are minerals like Iron ore and the likes in this paper,” Julien handed a stack of papers to Celestia, containing the mineral requirements and rare earth metals needed to continue the manufacturing of electronics and equipment “and also investment space.”
“Investment space?” Celestia inquired
“Yes Princess, investment space, after the displacement forcibly removed the entirety of our country and associated territories France was effectively cut off from the global trading network that we are used to on our ‘homeworld. WIth the loss of this network, France is about to enter a massive recession unseen of in recent history. If you allow French companies to invest in Equestria we can also provide you with technologies, medicine and equipment to modernize your infrastructure, and even your army if you want to.” Julien responded.
“I’m sure we can adjust our labour laws accordingly…….but,” Celestia added
“.....Yes Princess?” Julien responded cautiously
“This agreement is very beneficial for both nations I’ll admit” Celestia says at a slower pace “But before we hammer out the details and sign the agreement, Equestria might need some assistance regarding external matters” Celestia concluded.
Knowing what Celestia is asking, Julien responded accordingly. “I’m sure France could help with your….problem, but I need some time to think about it. I will contact my leader immediately. Can we resume the meeting after lunch?”
“Oh yes of course” Celestia responded. She knew about the ‘contact leaders of country’ excuse and many leaders used that as a sign that they will agree to her terms and they are merely looking to be thorough and concise before agreeing. She sighs in relief when the diplomatic team left. Only to find Daring Do still at her seat.

“Daring, don’t you want to accompany the team?” Celestia asked
“Oh don’t worry Princess I’ll catch up, I just wanted to tell you something.” Daring said
“Oh yes of course Daring, anything for one of the most famous archeologists in Equestria.” Celestia responded as she hears with intent on what Daring has to say about these humans.
“Just trust them Celestia, this species means you no harm at all. Sure they can be defensive if threatened but everyone gets defensive when threatened anyway.” says Daring
“I just can’t give in to all their demands Daring, Equestria is already at war and this is our opportunity to bring back the Changelings to their former glory….with proper application of Friendship and Tolerance of course.” Celestia says in an unusually political tone.
“Y’know Celestia, you just sounded like what any dictator would sound like back there.”
Celestia slumped and sighs “I know Daring, I know, it’s just…...I have been such a passive ruler in these thousand years and I’m partly at fault as well for the downfall of the Changelings.” Celestia guiltily says.
“Don’t give me that crap Princess!!” Daring interjected
Celestia, obviously stunned about how direct her last sentence is. “W-what?” 
“I know I’m not a thousand years old and I know I haven’t fought with beings infused with Chaotic Magic or whatever, but what I DO KNOW  is that you have been one of the greatest rulers Ponykind has ever seen! I’ve seen copies of the hundreds of treaties you proposed with the Changelings in the last 1000 years and all of them, ALL OF THEM are very reasonable treaties. Some of them even giving Changelings exclusive rights to harvest love in case of emergencies. If there is one species who’s at fault it’s the Changelings Princess! Do not kick yourself when you are the innocent one in this conflict, just….don’t.” Daring Do responded strongly
Celestia was stunned by her authority. Sure Daring is one of the rougher ponies she met, but never in her life had she ever imagined Daring to openly respond in such a….direct manner. Eventually she responded “Your advice will be taken into consideration Ms Do, thank you very much.” as Celestia leaves to get some fresh air.


Elysee Palace, 10:00AM, +6 days after event


President Hollande nearly dropped the phone when he heard just what had transpired in the halls of Canterlot Castle. “So are you telling me that the first action France needs in order to gain the trust of Equestria is to send troops?!” Hollande responded loudly
“Yes sir, the Princess briefed me further about the situation and it appears these ‘Changelings’ have broken the professional army in a region called the Badlands and is now about to mount an attack on a town near Canterlot, possibly endangering Canterlot itself.” Julien reported.

Hollande could only respond with a weak ‘oh la la’ as he slumped in his office chair. So the first nation France has contacted is about to collapse and France needed to send in the military, THE MILITARY out of all things to solidify their friendship? Well from the map given by Jean Jacques Equestria is indeed huge and this is an opportunity France cannot and will not miss. But still…...couldn’t they have had to do something more mundane like building a bridge?
“Very well” Hollande says, “Tell them France will send troops immediately, I have no idea how the hell I’m going to convince the National Assembly to do this, but who cares about them anyway right?” as the president closed the call. There is going to be uproar in the National Assembly once word got out, but what’s done is done. France will send troops to Equestria as their first major action in this new world.


Appleloosa, 11:00AM, +6 days after event


“C’mon little Strongheart, bring the applecart onto the train.” as both Breaburn and Little Strongheart struggled to lift all the filled applecarts into the train. When the population of Appleloosa and Dodge City heard about what had transpired in the Badlands they were shocked and angry as well, but upon seeing the desperate faces of the returning Royal Guard and Wonderbolts and the announcement that the entirety of the Mild West was to be evacuated, was not taken well by neither the ponies or the buffalo living in the region. Eventually after some reasoning and threats they begrudglingly agreed to evacuate both cities. Braeburn and Little Strongheart finally lifted the last applecart onto the train and boarded. Inside the passenger section there was a whole slew of ponies and buffalo as Braeburn and LIttle Strongheart take a seat. 

“All aboard Ponyville Express!! All Aboard Ponyville Express!!” the conductor said before the train starts moving again. After the guard’s announcement about the evacuation everything had been a blur for both Braeburn and Little Strongheart, Braeburn was forced to harvest all his apples early in order to stock up while Little Strongheart had to collect all her charms and personal stuff in her teepee. Only now did they have the chance to meet together again. As the background of the mild west fades into the grasslands in mainland Equestria, Strongheart asked Braeburn.
“When are we going back?”
“Huh?”
“You know…..when are we going back to our homelands? The ponies are not the only species that was harrassed by the Changelings you know.” Strongheart said
“Oh well…..ah frankly don’t know Strongheart, these darn Changelings have always been a thorn on Equestria ever since forever. Ah don’t know when we are going back Strongheart, but ah can tell you this: We’ll take back the land we lost and then some, mark my words.” Braeburn concluded triumphantly.
Strongheart could only eye Braeburn with disbelief, sure Buffalo Changeling relations have never been good but it never amounted to the level of hate Braeburn is now emanating. Nevertheless Strongheart agreed that the Changelings should be driven out of their lands and decided not to argue with Braeburn. Especially in these trying times.


Brest Naval Arsenal, 1:00PM, +6 days after event


Sanako Nakanishi eyed these ‘French’ as they would call themselves with great interest. The Kirin was informed that 5 (now 6 days) ago, something happened that ripped this country off the fabric of one planet and transported onto this planet. Now Sanako have heard a lot of legends about seamonsters or the ‘Eye of the Lunar sea’ which are simply untrue, and if someone were to tell her that a country that posseses no magic was displaced onto this planet she would just laugh it off as some sailor getting drunk. But this time she decided that this is a little bit too real for her to say this is not true, because right now her ship is now in a dock unlike anything she has ever seen and she is being briefed by two hairless apelike beings telling her about what will happen to her, her crew and her ship.

“And so that concludes your rights and limitations if you were to remain in France. The President would also like to invite you to Paris if you are willing to go, but if you need to go to Equestria we can give you pilot service until you’ve entered international waters. Any questions?” The hairless ape (she was also informed this species call themselves humans) asked.

“Y-yes, very clear Mr Human. But I believe I may not be fit to talk to your leaders, only people with authority like the Daimyos or the Emperor can talk to other country’s leaders” She responded.

“Oh don’t worry about that Madamoiselle. Once you’re done, if you intend to return to your empire, France will also send a delegation to work with your emperor and commend you on your work to establish diplomatic relations with France. You are the first ‘Kirin’ isn’t it? to make contact with France afterall” The male human finished.

“And if you’re wondering about the cargo. Don’t worry about it at all, you can continue your journey to Equestria if you wish to and we’ll send the diplomatic team directly to Amaterasu if you wish to keep your part in all of this quiet.” The female human commented on her situation.

Sanako now have a difficult choice to make, continue her journey to Equestria to sell her goods (which although admittedly sell for a high price, it doesn’t really gain her any favors or anything) or be remembered in the history books as the first Kirin to ever made contact with these ‘French’ people. In the end the answer’s pretty obvious.

“With these circumstances in mind, I have decided that in order to further the interests of the Kirin Empire of Amaterasu. I want to meet your ‘President’ and establish official diplomatic relations between France and Amaterasu” the Kirin finished her sentence, being diplomatic is really not her strong suit and she felt that she’s being too polite. But what has been said has been said.

“Very well then Miss Sanako, I will contact the palace right away, please stay right here. If you request food we can bring you some vegetables on your way to the President.” As both humans leave the room and left her to her own devices.


Canterlot Castle Dining hall, 6:00PM, +6 days after event


“I must admit Celestia, these ‘humans’ are a most peculiar species, they came from a world where there is no magic and suddenly here they are, transported into a world where magic is as common as water.” Luna commented on the nature of these humans.

“It must be shocking for them as well Luna, I heard from Ms Do that even though these French people have no magic of their own, based on her reports this nation will easily dominate Equestrian politics in the years to come……..thus giving me more paperwork.” Celestia grumbily munches her salad as a response, sure the French have given her hope for the future and now Equestria would be practically allied with the most powerful country in the world right now. But the amount of paperwork Celestia predicted would be staggering. And I effectively did this out of my own volition Celestia thought as she munches her salad again. She killed off so many attempts to form a parliament in the last 500 years that it’s practically a foreign idea for most ponies, thus giving the job of managing the country solely to the princesses and her ministries.

“You really shouldn’t kick yourself constantly Celestia, these French have promised us aid and even economic devlopment in the future, not to mention military assistance in the current conflict.” Luna responded.

“Speaking of the conflict, Chrysalis seems very happy right now. I just got this dragonfire letter just a couple of minutes ago, says something about how the end is neigh and we should submit ourselves to her glorious rule or whatever.” as Luna hoofs Celestia the letter for her to read.

“No Luna I’m not going to read the letter, daycourt’s over and I’m going to get my beautysleep, no need for me to have more nightmares about our country’s destruction. Goodnight Luna.” Celestia replied as she leaves for her chambers. She never was this grumpy before Luna thought, has this conflict really affected her that much? she further asked herself. These might be small questions in context of the whole conflict but it is important nevertheless, she might need assistance after this conflict is over, maybe Cadence could handle some of the work Luna mused as she finishes her dinner and prepares to open the nightcourt.

******

Despite stiff opposition in the National Assembly, Francois Hollande managed to convince his own party and a smattering of other parties to officially declare war on the ‘Changelings’. The declaration was officially completed in 21:00PM on Saturday, 14th of November. France is going to war.

Construction for the PA2 Carrier officially begins on the 13th of November 2015. The French Navy have christened this carrier class as the Suffren Class. Named after the famous French Admiral Pierre Andre de Suffren

Evacuation of Appleloosa and Dodge City underway, the Ponyville Apple Family and the Manehatten Orange Family offers refuge for all members of the Apple Family living in the Mild West.

Some versions of the ESRC are being considered to have a mounted 110mm gun in the same fashion as the AMX 10 and the ERC 90’s. The Army acquisition’s board will consider such options tomorrow.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna talks about the French assistance.
> 14th November, 2015 (Interlude, Edited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Canterlot Castle throne room, 10:00AM, +7 Days after event

“Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she saw Daring Do just appearing in front of her, she never thought that Daring Do was a real pony! And the fact that all her stories are true just multiplied Daring’s awesome levels by 100%!

“I can’t believe I’m meeting the real Daring Do! How did you escape Ahuitzotl’s grip in the the quest for the Griffon’s Goblet? How did you find the forbidden city in the clouds anyway? How…..” Daring Do tuned out Rainbow Dash’s questions as she realized that the Element of Loyalty is just another fanfilly. Eventually she realized that she’s going to continue yapping if Daring didn’t do something.

So the thing she did is block Rainbow’s mouth and simply said “Why don’t you ask me more slowly this time huh Dash?” Daring said politely.
“Oh….yes...yes of course Daring, anything for you!” Dash exclaimed, now asking her questions more slowly this time and allowing time for Daring to answer her questions.

“I just can’t believe it Princess, a whole new species from another world? I need some pretty damning evidence if I want to believe it” Twilight Sparkle cautiously inquired. With Dash leaving to the Wonderbolts flightcamp in a couple of days and Princess Celestia’s invitation for ‘a meeting with a new species’ Twilight was simply stressed and tired out. 

“Oh don’t worry Twilight, they’re just preparing to meet you, I just personally requested the delegation to bring in aspects of their culture, lifestyle and history that might intrigue you, it is their first meeting with the Elements of Harmony after all.” Celestia responded.

“Oh I would just love to see how they made their fashion choices, being furless would obviously mean that they must create clothes as a necessity. Just imagine how many clothing designs and concepts these humans would have developed!” Rarity excitedly squeals.

“I want to know how they make cake! I hope they have rainbow cakes, and wedding cakes, and cheesecakes, and cupcakes, sprinkly cakes, sparkly cakes, huge cakes, rock cakes, small cakes, mpfmhlashghds!” as Applejack stuffs Pinkie’s mouth with an apple, which she then happily devours and starts talking again.

“Well….it would be nice to see some of their animals, oh I hope they have cute bears and wolves, I always loved furry animals.” Fluttershy excitingly wondered about the possibility about discovering new animals and make a contribution towards ecology and biology. Being the Ponyville caretaker for animals is good and all, but making a contribution to further help the cause of nature makes her really happy inside.

“Well what you expect is nice and all, but what ah wanted to see is how they harvest their food. How do you grow food without magic? Sure you can grow them but it’ll take too long a time to wait” Applejack wondered about how France’s agriculture was capable of sustaining itself.

“Well worry no more because I’m here to answer it all.” as the Ponies turn they see a sharp looking creature enter the throne room. The reaction of the ponies was mixed, Fluttershy’s reaction was one of wonder, Rarity was one of excitement, Applejack and Rainbow Dash was one of anticipation, Pinkie Pie is just happy to see potential new friends and Twilight is inquisitve.

“Oh there you are Julien, took you long enough” Daring then stopped answering Rainbow’s questions and flew next to Julien. “Everypony, this is Mr Julien Thomas of France. He is the head of the Diplomatic team representing France and a good friend of mine” concluded Daring.

“Thank you Daring, yes after multiple encounters with her by my side. I can safely say that Daring is my friend. But that’s not why we’re here are we?” as Julien opened his briefcase and starts powering up his laptop. “Now I believe that these are the ‘Elements of Harmony’ correct?” as he pointed the six mares.

“Yes we are Mr Julien, what is that machine you’re holding. It looks sophisticated.” Twilight inquires.
“Why yes it is a sophisticated machine, this is called a laptop, a machine that allows humans to store huge amounts of information into a compact space.” as he begins preparing for a presentation signifying France’s official introduction to Ponykind.

“Let’s start shall we? Celestia?” Julien nods his head to Celestia, only for Celestia to silently nod back and pulls in the curtains, covering the room in darkness. For a moment everyone but the Princess, Daring Do and Julien are confused. But then a bright light appears in front of what appears to be a made up screen. Then they hear Julien talking.

“So uuuuuhhhh, welcome everyone to a formal introduction to the Republic of France!” Julien triumphantly proclaimed until he uttered the words “I suck at introductions” before switching slides into a set of options such as ‘History’ ‘Economy’ ‘Society’ ‘Fashion’ and a list of other things that is formally presented by the French government. “Now this won’t be your usual presentation where I will boringly talk in such a straightforward fashion. Instead, I’m going to let you guide the presentation until we all agreed that this cultural exhange is more than enough and call it a day.”

The Ponies are dumbfounded about the series of options like kids in a candystore. Eventually Rainbow Dash broke the tension and said “Uhhh let’s just start with Aviation heh?” 

“Okay then, Aviation” as Julien clicks the appropriate box and the ponies are greeted with an image of an Airbus A340 flying at a very high altitude.

“Wow” exclaimed Rainbow Dash “What is that?!?” as she pointed on the image of the plane.

“This, miss Rainbow Dash is a commercial jet liner, this is a very common sight on our world and this is also the chief transportation option for most people if they want to cross into other countries.” Julien calmly said.

“So…..you’re saying travelling between other countries is common?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Why yes it’s very common.” Julien replied.

“But how!? How did the average human gain so much disposable income to travel to other countries!? The only ponies that have the ability to travel to other countries, let alone by air are the merchants, nobles and the Princesses themselves! How!?” Twilight loudly asked. Clearly not used to the level of economical and technological advancement France has achieved.

“Oh I guess you haven’t seen the average disposable income of a Frenchmen hmmm?” Julien Thomas quirkily responded. “This is the average income of a Frenchmen in the last 200 years, adjusted to the value of bits I was informed” as he handed over a small sheet of paper for Twilight Sparkle, she took the paper with great care and starts examining the data. Only seconds later she was later seen in a catatonic state muttering the words ‘impossible’ and ‘how could they be so rich?’ 

“Umm is she usually like this?” Julien asked what appears to be Twilight’s friends

“Oh don’t worry yourself sugarcube, Twilight’s usually like that when her experiments don’t go the way she wanted. She’ll be fine ah promise.” Applejack responded

“Okay then, now back to the plane itself” as his presentation about planes went on, boring some ponies but not Rainbow Dash surprisingly enough. At the end of the presentation she was seen staring at the windows of the palace halls muttering the words ‘how?’, ‘sonic rainbooms with machines?’, ‘those planes are too good’ and ‘the French are awesome’. Clearly this simple presentation is more than enough to shock these ponies to the core. So before he moves on to other segments such as agriculture or fashion, he needs to talk to them about the ‘reactions’ he received during presentation.

“Uhh are you sure you gu...ponies could handle the rest of the presentation?” as he asked the rest of the Ponies assembled.

“I do admit that your level of technological sophistication is amazing if not a bit disturbingly efficient darling, but please do go on” Rarity replied. So oblivious to the fact that all the ponies assembled in this room is going to have the culture shock of their lives.

“Meh yer knick-knacks are cool and all, but let’s talk about some farming! Ah always wanted to see new farming techniques done by other species, and this is the first time ah got to see a species harvest food without magic! So jump right into the presentation Mr Julien!” Applejack happily exclaimed.

“Okay then, if that’s your wish then so be it” Julien nonchalantly responded as he opened the section called agriculture. The first image that was shown shocked Applejack as it reminded her of the Flim Flam brother’s machine she saw awhile back. Immediately Applejack regretted her decision and prepared for the worst.

“Okay so this is a machine called a ‘combine harvester’ It’s main job is to harvest wheat and other agricultural foodstuffs in an efficient manner, it is a very efficient machine that combines cutting, threshing and cleaning in one process” which is then followed by a video showing a combine harvester harvesting wheat in northern France.

Applejack could not believe her eyes. What she saw was agriculture, a proud line of work where Ponies team up in high spirit to feed their local towns, reduced to only a bored looking human using a machine which does all the work for them. Applejack cannot feel the hard work and satisfaction of bucking an apple tree if she was in a machine, and so naturally Applejack reacted.

“What is this?” Applejack loudly exclaimed in a very defensive manner which shook the whole building. “You replaced darn farming to such hearltess chores! T’aint natural I’m telling you! There’s no passion! No energy! No enjoyment or fulfillment of work in whatever fancy machine you’re so fond off, where’s tradition in here!? Where’s life in here!? Where’s everything that makes farming meaningful in here!?” As Applejack loudly asked Julien, clearly dissapointed in the mechanization methods the French used in harvesting grains and other produces.

“What are you talking about?” asked Julien, “Without these machines France would starve! We have over 67 million people living in this country right now and without those machines…...how are we going to feed all of them!” That single statement put the entire room into shock.

Applejack stared at shock, the dissapointment gone from her face as she sinks in the new information. 67 million she thought, Equestria wouldn’t even have half the Ponies as France would have humans. Silently Applejack curled into a fetal position, and just like anypony who was presented, muttered the words ‘impossible’, ‘how?’ and ‘t’aint natural’.

Realizing not to completely broke the rest of the group. Julien decided to end the presentation right here “So okay then, that’s the presentation regarding France. I hope you will enjoy the rest of your day, hopefuly” as Julien, accompanied by Daring departed off the room.

“Well that was…..something” Rarity was the first to break the tension
“Their species are certainly….interesting to say the least” Celestia added 
“WOW!! 67 Million people!? They must be living like ants in that country!” Pinkie Pie further added to the shock of information these Ponies received, and the presentation isn’t even finished yet.
“I don’t even know how animals would live in that country. Oh they must be so cramped right now” Fluttershy further added to the aura. For a moment everything was silent as the rest of the group who is not in a catatonic state slowly took in the information. Eventually it was Celestia who broke the tension.
“Why don’t we go freshen ourselves up in the dining hall, I’ll contact Princess Cadence and Shining Armour to handle this……..mess” as Celestia saw Twilight, Rainbow and Applejack looking like they’ve been off multiple wars already.

******

Francois Hollande’s ‘shock budget’ bill passes National Assembly, in it France has put in an emphasis on improving it’s export sector by encouraging mass investment to Equestria and the Kirin Empires in order to stimulate growth in France itself.

The Banque de France has issued new regulations for the circulation of the Euro. In it the bank has set new limits for Euro circulation and highly advised any private investor to use items with ‘real’ value like gold or silver if they want to invest into other countries such as Equestria or Amaterasu. The bank also states that stable exchange rates are to be the immediate first priority for the Bank and advise investors to start limited investment before exchange rates are established.

Recent data shows that French citizens, especially in the ages of 21-35 are having more babies than usual. Researchers agreed that the probable cause is the political and economic uncertainty which convinced people to band up and start producing babies in order to secure their future.
> 25th November, 2015 (Edited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Los Pegasus Harbour, 12:00PM, +11 days after event


The flurry of Mistral and Batral landing ships was enough to make anypony standing in the harbour very confused but were also very amazed at the scale these French are organizing their troops. Spitfire was on the scale of ‘very amazed’ as she still wonders how these French managed to bring so much equipment in such a short amount of time, when she heard about the news regarding the French and how they are now sending troops to Equestria. Air Marshall Spitfire could only look at the Princess with confusion, is the Princess really serious? Spitfire thought back then when she heard from a dragonfire mail about the news. But when the first ships starts approaching harbour she knew that the Princesses never failed to impress her even more.

When the first human soldiers started pouring out of the massive ships they were met with a wave of confusion and a little bit of hopefullness as well. Spitfire, just like everypony in Las Pegasus was staring at awe as the human troops brought in military machinery unlike anything she’s ever seen. There are these things called ‘Howitzers’ which are reported to be capable of sending in a massive barrage of artillery on enemy positions while still being in a secure position. There are also these ‘combat helicopters’ which are essentially Iron Pegasi that could swat entire squadrons out of the sky if the info she received was correct. Damn those autocannons when she heard about the capabilities of the Tigre. The next that came to her mind was these massive Iron Chariots, called ‘tanks’ by the French commander, these bahemoths are essentially meant to slug it out with the enemy until one side wins it out against the other. Everytime I see those things work it’s like seeing a well oiled metal monster. It’s scary now that I think of it.

After the very busy week of organizing both her ponies and coordinating with the French commander, Daring finally got some time to rest before the commencing of what the French were calling ‘Operation Alarme’ that evening. She was about to get some grub when she heard the tent ruffled and in comes the French commander, Army General Armand D’esprey.
“Tough day huh?” as the general asked as he took a empty mug before preparing to get his morning joe.
“Heh, well I haven’t been too busy, you on the other hoof however have been very busy.” Spitfire replied, not entirely thrilled about being made to sit back while fighting was happening, but not wanting to go against her princesses orders either. And despite being used ot such things being the Captain of the Wonderbolts, she HATED paperwork..
“Meh, if you want some more paperwork, I’m sure the Administrative Division would be more than happy to hand over some of their work” the general responded.
“Pass” Spitfire said before grabbing a huge daisy sandwich and moves to the officer’s tables. At it she saw familiar faces, the ever glowing Soarin, the cold and calculating Fleetfoot, and the ever passionate Rapidfire. “Hey guys” she said as she lowered her tray in front of the group and starts eating. “Have any fun with these French yet?” Spitfire asked them as she devours her meal.
“Never seen a military machine so well oiled and efficient in my entire life Spitfire” Fleetfoot replied. “Have you seen the reports on Operation Serval? Mare, these French know how to fight” as she eyed these weird looking bipedal omnivores with intent.
“They’re a fun group,” Soarin replied “really professional by the looks of it, equipment got me worried a bit though, what happens if they were to break down?” Soarin asked with concern in his eyes. He had a point, sure these ‘howitzers’ and ‘tanks’ were awesome, but they are still machines and machines break down.
“Well that won’t happen as long as I’m in charge” a sapper officer passively responded while bringing his tray to the other side of the table.
“Their species sure are strange” Spitfire said. “No magic at all and yet they are still way more powerful than us, isn’t that kinda depressing ponies?” she asked her group.
“Well for me...yeah” Rapidfire was the first to respond. “I mean, we have this energy force spread throughout the planet and the ones coming from the world with seemingly no magic just somehow became more powerful than us? How does that work?” Rapidfire’s response was passionate as usual. Standard Rapidfire as Spitfire rolls her eyes, soon enough their meals are finished and they were relaxing for a while until Fleetfoot broke the tension.
“Well I’m done, you wanna meet the General? He’s going to present something major” Fleetfoot asked her group.
“It’s not like we have much of a choice anyway. Let’s go” Soarin responded by walking out of the room, followed by his teammates soon enough. 

The meeting room shaped by the humans are unlike anything the ponies have ever seen. Chairs with tables on them propped up like a classroom, incredibly practical with no ornamental decorum, and a weird rectangular looking thing with a screen in front of it. Soon enough the pony officers and human officers are seated in their respective seats and out comes General Armand and he begins the presentation.

“Alright, thank you everyone for coming, let’s begin with the general outline of ‘Operation Alarme’” as the general changed the slides of the presentation into a very detailed looking map of Equestria.”



“First off the operation will begin at 2100 Equestrian time. We will begin with an intensive aerial bombing campaign in the areas believed to be where the Changeling encampments are” as he points his lazerpointer at a few areas of seemingly empty dessert before pointing to Appleloosa and Dodge City. “I trust these towns are evacuated yes?”

“Yes sir” Spitfire promptly responded.

“Good, now back to the presentation. This bombing campaign will last fifteen minutes and it will soon after be followed by the 1st, 8th, and 17th artillery regiments firing on these positions.” As he outlines the areas near the river west of Ghastly Gorge and a lone rock farm. “This artillery barrage will last for another fifteen minutes and it will soon be followed by a rapid deployment of the 1st Chasseurs to clean up the initial resistance, once a front west of the river is established. Armoured units consisting of 3rd Hussars, 12th Cuirassiers and the 501st tank regiment accompanied by 1st Infantry regiment, 1st Tiralleurs, 35th Infantry and 110th Infantry. The unit’s objective once the bulk of the main force has crossed the river is to take the cities of Appleloosa and Dodge City” as he pointed in the cities of Appleloosa and Dodge City again, “during the attempted capture of said cities, it is recommended to all French units to capture any officers in charge of the changeling army. Remember these beings are shapeshifters and given the fact that these two cities are deserted, detain anypony trying to gain refuge until their proven to not be a Changeling.” As the general concluded the first part of the presentation.

“Now this operation should be completed in two days, three if they prove to be stubborn. We are dealing with an army with a mostly medieval understanding of warfare and organization so it shouldn’t be much of a problem.” All of the ponies present have their ears go up at such a dismissal, but they keep listening as the General continues, “The problem lies here once we’ve reached the Badlands” As he outlines a region fraught with canyons and desert known as the Badlands.”This region is incredibly huge and although relatively flat in most areas, there are some jagged areas that will be difficult to traverse. Knowing the risk of ambush in these areas, the 1st and 8th artillery regiment accompanied by airplanes coming in from Charles de Gaulle, Saint Dizier airbase, Luxeuil airbase and Nancy airbase will conduct a massive, two day bombardment of the general area in order to flatten the ground to allow for better movement of troops, this will also be followed by a relatively slow advance which will take up to four days tops until we reach the Changeling hive at the very bottom of the badlands” as outlines a peculiar looking canyon at the southern tip of the Badlands. “Once we’ve arrived at the hive. First we are going to send the changelings an ultimatum via flyers from our cargo planes, they would have two days to comply and they should considering the extent of our operation if it goes that far. But if they don’t surrender than the 1st, 8th and 17th artillery accompanied by planes from the carrier and the airbases I mentioned earlier will conduct a massive siege, time limit indefinite to destroy the changeling hive just enough for infantry to storm the hive and take Queen Chrysalis.” And with that, General Armand D’esprey finished his presentation, to the shock of his pony compatriots.

“That’s a…….very generous application of weaponry” Spitfire commented
“It’s certainly……..interesting to say the least” Soarin further added
“And now I know why there are so many of those box looking vehicles running around the city” Fleetfoot added to the general sense of shock, if that’s how the running logistics would be like, an entire branch of the military could be opened just focusing on it.

General Armand realized that these ponies are unknown to the concepts of modern war, so he added his own response to dissuade the general sense of shock these ponies are receiving. “I know that a lot of gunpowder is going to be used, but let’s just say that we didn’t have a very pleasant experience in the last 100 years regarding wars and we intend to keep the human costs low.” He returns to addressing the assembled officers.
“And that’s it everyone, prepare your vehicles and move them into position accordingly, dismissed!” And with those words, the general was met with a flurry of running and shouting as everyone prepares their tanks, armoured vehicles and howitzers and starts moving into position. He already told the ponies that it would be too much of a risk for them on a modern battlefield, these ponies didn’t take their commands very well muttering words like “honour” and “bravery” as every medieval people would be reacting when told to stand down. So he organized this presentation in order to convince them that the Equestrian military, at it’s current state would be a liability to the war effort if they chose to participate. It looks like the ponies finally caved in after that presentation the general thought as he saw Spitfire, Rapidfire, Fleetfoot and Soarin leaving the room in various stages of dissapointment and shock. 

Couldn’t blame them though, I would react the same if aliens told me that my soldiers would be a hindrance to their war effort.


Hangar of the French carrier Charles de Gaulle, 3:00PM, +11 days after event


“Are the planes ready Elaine?” as supply officer Albert Bruno asked her about the state of the planes.
“The planes are ready sir! we just need to outfit them with Storm Shadows and Hammers,” as Seaman Elaine Caroline commented on the state of the Rafale she’s currently arming for Operation Alarme.
“How about the Super Etendards?” Albert further asked.
“Lazer guided bombs as well as rockets are installed sir, both planes cannons are fully loaded and we only need to wake the pilots in order to start the operation early” Elaine jokingly commented on the currently sleeping pilots, but knowing the extent of the operation. It’s no surprise that the pilots decided to take an early nap, this op is going to last till tommorrow night and although they are getting shifts, the first flight will be using all of their planes and they need to be in tip top shape in order to conduct the operation.

“So with that we are finished then, go take a break and come back in fifteen minutes. We got some paperwork to do” Albert ordered the junior seaman. After the announcement that France is going to intervene in Equestrian affairs in order to gain their trust and with the distribution of the war plans from the Ministere de la Defence, the De Gaulle and her battlegroup has been put into the highest possible alert, and are preparing their planes for the operation. With both Horizons and Aquitaines preparing their cruise missile loadouts as well. After so many years of French intervention in Africa, this was just a walk in the park for the French armed forces, especially against an army with a medieval understanding of warfare. Or at least that’s what I’m hoping for, no idea how are we going to deal with magic though Albert thought.


Kirin capital city Chuoko, 4:00PM, +11 days after event


Daimyo Sukejiro Saji of the Saji domain was finishing the rest of his paperwork when a Kirin honour guard burst into his room. He knew that honour guards are allowed to burst into his room in case of emergencies, so he better have a good reason for disturbing his work or well……..temporary exile is not in anyone’s interest anyway but heh.

“This had better be important” the Daimyo says
“It is very important milord. A trade Bune accompanied with ships unlike anything we’ve ever seen are approaching the harbour milord” the Honour guard replied.
“We shall see if this is true. If it is true then you shall go back to your duties, if not then…….you know what happens” The Daimyo grimly responded to the guard, the thinly veiled threat left unsaid but there. He was walking out from his castle just see a massive commotion in front of the harbour.

“The Daimyo is coming through!!! Please move aside!” an honour guard shouts as the other Kirin heard the orders and starts giving way to the Daimyo. Daimyo Sukejiro himself was a relatively well liked leader, under his leadership, trade between the Kirin Empire of Amaterasu and Equestria have reached new heights and Chuoko prospered as one of the main centers of commerce in the Kirin Empire itself, the fact that this very city is the city where the royal family resides is just icing to the cake. But there are times when Sukejiro needed to exert authority and this is one of them. 

“Honour guard, give me a spyglass” as the Daimyo stepped out of his carriage and taking the spyglass, uses his magic to see what is over the horizon. As expected, a trade Bune was approaching, probably coming from one of many trade missions to Equestria. But alongside the huge trade Bune was a fleet of 4 incredibly huge, mastless ships approaching the harbour. The Daimyo jaw dropped as he saw these huge ships, ‘How did they manage to build such huge ships? They are mastless as well but they are moving at the same speed as the Bune, what kind of magics do these creatures use?’wondered the Daimyo as he saw these ships accompany the Bune as they approach the harbour, inside these weird ships are even weirder looking creatures as well. They look like hairless monkeys but lack the general foolishness of monkeys as he saw steely eyes monitoring everything with their weirdly shaped spyglass as well.

As the bune docks in the harbour, out comes a member of the noble houses, Ms Sanako Nakanishi.
“Welcome back Noblemare Sanako, I trust that you had a safe…..journey?” the Daimyo asked the noblemare, aware of the fact that the noblemare might be conducting diplomatic actions with another species.
“Oh yes I had a very….pleasant journey, but I do have a new group that wants to introduce themselves” as she invites the French Diplomatic team to meet a representative to the Emperor.
“Bonjour monsieur……..forgive me but what is your name?” The Diplomat asked in very accented Equish
“My name is Daimyo Sukejiro Saji of the Saji domain”
“Ah of course Monsieur Sukejiro, my name is Charlotte Durand and I will be the diplomat representing the Republique of France. I wish to talk to your highest executive leader”
Knowing what is asked of him, and the possibility that these monstrous ships might possess monstrous magic if they are not pleased. The Kirin Daimyo relented and responded by “That can be arrange Charlotte san, but do note that requests this important might take two days of processing”
“We can wait in our ships, it will be no problem”
“Of course..thank you for your willingness to conduct diplomatic relationships with Amaterasu” as he slowly backed away and returned to his carriage to be brought back to his castle. ‘This day might go on a little bit longer’ he sighs in annoyance.


Saint Dizier-Robinson airbase, 6:00PM, +11 days after event


“Tower, this is Squadron Leader Robert Blanc callsign Colt 1, requesting permission to take off” Squadron Leader Captain Robert Blanc asked
“Permission granted Colt 1, control out” The control tower responded, which is met with a roar of the Rafale’s engines as the squadron of Rafale’s from bases in mainland France prepare for takeoff and engage in operation Alarme. The first war conducted by France in Equestria.

Once the Rafale Squadron has left from the airbase, they are further joined by even more Rafales and even some Mirage 2000’s as well. This, alongside with the planes coming from the carrier alongside cruise missiles launched from De Gaulle’s battlegroup would form the opening salvo in ‘Operation Alarme’. 

******

It’s 2045 hours and the the captain of Colt squadron could see the apporaching combat zone. Only 10 minutes later, high up the San Palomino desert and the Everfree forest. The French fighters let loose their payloads of Storm Shadow Missiles. The Captain saw white contrails coming out of the Storm Shadow as he ordered his squadron to loiter in the area, his Squadron would form a CAS contigency while other fighters would recharge and refuel. Forming a sort of shift of continous air coverage throughout the region.

“This is Cobra flight 1, we are returning back to the carrier, good luck out there”
“This is Magic flight 1, returning back to base, good luck”
The flurry of flights returning back to bases was a bit dizzying but nonethelss the good Captain still managed to not yell ‘shut up’ to all the planes returning back to base. With the first phase over now comes the hard part of the mission, loitering around the general area and providing CAS into groups that required them. The Super Etendards are perfect for this mission with their rocket pods, but the Rafale’s still have their payload of AASM Hammer laser guided bombs in case the Changelings pull out some form of hell demon or something similar. With magic, I wouldn’t be surprised if they pull that sort of trick. Good thing we got a 750lb bomb to deal with it the Captain thought.


Operation Alarme, 9:00PM/2100 Hours, +11 days after event


General Carapace was finishing his plans for further advancing to Ponyville. The Equestrian Royal Guard was completely smashed as a fighting force and there is a genuinely real chance for the Changelings to actually capture Canterlot and put Chrysalis into the throne of the defeated Princesses. Queen Chrysalis herself was about to depart from her hive in the badlands in order to put out a rousing speech signifying Changeling victory tomorrow. All according to plan Carapace thought as he finished his drawings and was about to depart to bed. Only to be disturbed by yet another Changeling scout saying the same nonesense about ‘humans’ and whatnot.
“Disturb me one more time about these humans and you’re about to get the punishment of a lifetime. Do not bother me with such blatant lies again!” Carapace shouted to the Changeling scout and he indeed backed down. Damn these Changelings, are they really that afraid of spectres in the dese…. He never finished that sentence as one of the Storm Shadows launched from the Rafales hit his encampment, killing him instantly and initiating a storm of chaos.

Captain Pincer was suddenly awoken from his slumber with incredibly loud explosions, he walks out of his tent only to see the entire encampment on fire. “WHAT IN THE WORLD!?” he shouted in a clearly shocked manner, Changelings are running scattered and panicking as well as a literal rain of fire descended on the Changeling encampment. Captain Pincer was attempting to rally some of the Changeling troops when a Storm Shadow hit a bit too close for comfort and also killed Captain Pincer, furthering the chaos as the Changeling military leadership is eliminated.

With the loss of two of their most vaunted commanders, the panicking Changelings are starting to disperse into the countryside and most attempt to make their way into Appleloosa. Most of them will not survive the journey because during the panic, they didn’t saw the peculiar flying machines dropping small things with slightly larger things attached to parachutes. This will prove to be their ultimate downfall as the 1st Chasseur regiment will have a laughably easy time picking the scattered and disorganized Changelings out. 

Once Colonel Sebastien de Roux landed on the ground, his training immediately kicked in as he put aside his parachute, connected to his Félin system and ordered his squad to regroup and wait for the incoming VBL drop. Once the light jeep was finally dropped ointo the ground, his Squad’s training kicked in as they remove the straps and revved the vehicle into life.
“All systems go. Let’s go hunt some bugs” as the Colonel ordered his men to move into the general direction of Appleloosa. Fifteen minutes into the drive and one of his squadmembers spotted something in the desert.
“Enemy located at 1 O’clock” he says
“Roger that” as the gunner moved his turret and fired short bursts, i. Instantly downing the Changeling. His squad and many other Chasseur squads would encounter the same situation, disorganised, panicked Changelings that would be put down with just a burst from the VBL’s machine gun. Eventually when dawn breaks. There would be only 5.000 Changelings left that made it to Appleloosa and Dodge City, out of a force consisting of some 40.000 Changelings on the camp centered on taking Los Pegasus and a force of 20.000 Changelings focused on taking Ponyville, ‘it was total slaughter’ as Spitfire commented after the end of Operation Alarme.



Tour Total, 11:00PM, +11 days after event


The atmosphere of Total S.A, France’s largest oil company was very grim. The displacement has affected many aspects of the lives of French companies, but it is the supermajors that got hit incredibly hard. Already Google, Facebook and every other major IT giant is doing mass mergings in order to stave off the total collapse. Total S.A was no different as suddenly they were cut off from their only source of profit: oil.

“Please be seated” as Thierry Desmaret and Patrick Pouyanné welcomed the members of the board as they all took to their seats. All of them knew that if the wrong decision was taken here, it would meant the end for all their livelihoods and the end of the French economy as well.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, you all know why you are here. In this meeting we will discuss the future of the company as we struggle to find at least one oil deposit in an unknown world. I know this might be challenging times for you all but frankly, your very livelihoods are at stake here, so keep calm and let’s begin.” Patrick Pouyanné stated glumly as the meeting begins.

“So first on the list is exploration missions, it is obvious that the displacement hasve placed a…...major issue regarding the company’s main source of profit. Ms Emily will take over from here” as the CEO of Total gives Emily control of the meeting.

The chief operations officer looks into her colleagues and frankly said. “We need an immediate expedition to locate any signs of oil off the French coast. This will be one of the most risky if not the riskiest operation Total has done, But without this expedition, frankly the company is going to go bankrupt” Emily stated nonchalantly, Total did have some exploration ships docked in harbour for refitting and maintenance during the event but it’s going to be one hell of an expedition by the looks of it.

She was asked by a major shareholder of the company, “What is the estimated time for these ships to be fully operational? Wwe need this oil really badly and frankly, I don’t see that we have much time at all.”

“Don’t worry about that, I have already ordered the exploration ships to begin preparations for oil explorations yesterday, if anything the drillships are already on their way to the Bay of Biscay, the southern oceans near Toulon and what remains of the North Sea” she responded.

“Now moving on to financial matters. Mr Berliet?” as the meeting, now known as the ‘meeting that changed France’ continues. This meeting would propel France as one of the world’s most oil rich countries in Equestria, the discovery of huge oil reserves on the scale of Baku in the northern and southern Lunar oceans would prove to be devastating for French foreign policy, no longer does the country have to rely on foreign oil suppies, because the offshore oils found will be more than enough to sustain France just long enough until more energy friendly alternatives are implemented.

******

Operation Alarme has begun as the French military attacks known Changeling positions

Construction for the Suffren class Carriers, Barracuda class Submarines and Bâtiment Multimission class landing craft temporarily halted due to resource shortages

Oil curfew will be implemented throughout France tomorrow, the curfew was announced by the Economic Minister Emmanuel Macron

Official contact made between Kirin Empire of Amaterasu and the Republic of France in the Kirin capital of Chuoko, French delegation soon will be meeting with the Kirin Empress
> 26th November, 2015
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Drillship Ocean Rig Skyros, Northern Lunar Ocean, 5:00AM, +12 days after event


Captain Mujambwa Kazembe was having a really good and not good day at the same time. He was doing a transit in the mediteranean and was about to dock in Le Havre for some refueling for his mission to find more oil sources in the North Sea when the event happened. Ever since then his life has turned upside down with news sources reporting about France being transported to a new world with different animals and intelligent species much unlike the humans, with so many new world shattering information coming in, the good captain is just hanging on to dear life as he wants to retain his sanity in a world gone insane (at least for him), the good thing is that he is a French citizen now and he is no longer affiliated with Angola no more (nor does he have a way back, even if he wants to) but unfortunately his family was still in Luanda during the event and he also has no way to contact his family back.

Now stuck in this weird land of Ponies and Kirin and a multitude of magical creatures, Mujambwa is now just trying to get a new life started as a French citizen, and then he heard the call from Total about extending his contract and even guaranteeing him housing in Calais if he were to take an exploration mission into the north lunar ocean. The person he is speaking knows good Kikongo for some good reason but nevertheless he joolily accepted the offer which has lead him to here, in the middle of nowhere looking for oil.

“Okay men, we are going to do seismic measurements right now, prepare the geophones and Okonkwo, prepare the thumper” Mujambwa  ordered his men. This better be a good site Mujambwa thought as he prepares for the seismic measurements of the seabed.

2 minutes later and the results are filtering in. He could not believe his eyes at the amount of oil found in the seabed. 77 million barrels he thought as he eyed the amount of possible oil production per year if they were to build a rig right on top of this reserve. This is his first measurement ever out of a massive district he’s assigned to and already he struck gold. If this keeps up than France might be the first european country to be fully oil independent.


Circuit de la Sarthe boardroom, Le Mans, France, 6:00AM, +12 days after event


“Welcome gentlemen, please have a seat. We have much to discuss” as the director of the circuit Friedrich Hoffman welcomed the CEO of FIA, his various veteran board members and major shareholders.

“First off on the list is the concerns from the multiple racing teams about the event. We have been receiving complaints from multiple racing teams that fears that the mergers between the different companies might mean the end of their jobs and sometimes their passion.” As Friedrich started the meeting.

“Well it is obvious isn’t it, tell them that the circuit will still allow racing teams whose companies have merged to continue racing as separate teams. Problem solved!” One Shareholder says

“But what if another team coming from the same company wins the race?”
“Then the proceeds and prizes would be awarded to the company as a whole?”
“What about the other racers who felt they’re not getting their same share?” A boardmember inquired
“Then we can make the prize more tantalizing and then share it equally to the separate teams under the same company. It’s not that hard Mr Johnston” another boardmember replied

“Okay, now off to the second concern. Oil supply” Friedrich asked and the entire boardroom went pale
“I….I frankly have no idea how we’re going to find a stable oil supply. Total haven’t announced anything yet and although they have informed me that exploration missions is being conducted. I can tell from her voice that hopes are very low” a boardmember frankly said.
“Should we cancel next year’s Le Mans then? until we find a stable oil supply?” A shareholder commented on the situation, only to find a divided board.
“I think we should at least suspend it until further notice, as ms Julie have stated. Total haven’t announced anything and I fear that France will be forced to enter in a crashcourse of green energy first until the situation is stabilized” Mr Johnston said as some members of the board nods their heads.
“I think we shouldn’t, because frankly it would pose a huge risk for the entire organization if we were to cancel Le Mans 2016, I’m confident that France can find oil and we can resume normal activites in 2 months tops.” A shareholder by the name of Lydia Suzanna rebutted Mr Johnston's point, this would flare up into open debate for a couple of minutes until Friedrich decided to put it on a vote. “okay settle down everyone, both Mr Johnston and Ms Lydia have made compelling arguments over the issue. But why don’t we put it to a vote?” as Friedrich asked the boardroom which is meet with a bunch of yesses.

“Okay who voted that we should suspend Le Mans 2016?” Friedrich asked and was greeted by a bunch of votes in favour of it. “And who votes for continuing Le Mans 2016?” which is also met with a bunch of votes in favour of it. The Circuit director did some quick calculations and anounced. “The winner of the vote is Lydia Suzanna. Circuit de La Sarthe will be opening it’s doors for Le Mans 2016” He concluded.

“Now onto other matters concerning finance” as the meeting dragged on to near 7:00AM. Eventually by the end of the meeting the Le Mans administration as well as what remains of FIA would announce that teams whose companies have merged can still play as separate teams and that the Le Mans 2016 would still go on as scheduled.


Belleville, Paris, France, 7:00AM, +12 days after event




“Welcome back to Télématin, the show for people who wake up early, I’m your host Nathanael De Rincquesen and boy do we have a story for you.

Let’s go to the first headlines. France is at war! at 9:00PM yesterday, French fighers alongside naval and ground units conducted a coordinated offensive into the Changeling controlled territory of Equestria.

the Le Mans committee just announced 2 hours ago that Le Mans 2016 will be continued as scheduled. They also further announced that any automotive companies that have merged with each other are allowed to compete as separate teams.

And big news coming in from total as they have struck gold! they found huge oil and lng reserves just off the coast of France in this new world and announced for a French government loan in order to recommision drillships and build oil platforms in order to tap it. A Total representative also said that with oil reserves this huge. France could possibly be oil independent for the first time in it’s history! wow!”

Nicholas nearly dropped his breakfast when he heard about the discovery of oil. He knew that oil prices are starting to get absurdly high and the French government are now heavily subsidising households who have their own form of microgeneration like rooftop solar panels. But this is insane, he never thought that in his life France! France! would be become oil independent. 

He quickly put his breakfast of Croissants, baguettes with dip and cereal onto the table and starts watching the show with his interest piqued, as he ate his breakfast. He was immediately reminded about his work but realized that shift’s about to start in 8 hours, it’s good to have a nightshift he happily thought as the streets in belleville is starting to light up with cars leaving for work.


Camp central, Pie family rock farm, Equestria, 9:00AM, +12 days after event


Maud Pie was astounded by the level of technological sophistication these humans have, and they did all without magic! OH MY GOSH!!! Maud Pie thought as he brought lunch into the canteen which is essentially a bunch of pies Maud along with Limestone and Marble cooked when these ‘humans’ said they couldn’t magically edible rocks. “How odd” Maud thought loudly as she brought the pie wagon into the ‘human’ chef.

“Ah madamoiselle Maud you’re here. Thank you very much for these pies, I must admit there is a very rustic taste in one of the pies I tried, are you sure you don’t want any form of compensation? surely the French must pay for your kindness” The head chef asked.

“It’s no problem really, as long as you push the Changelings back to the badlands then i’m fine with spending a few bits to help Equestria’s allies” Maud replied in her usual somber tone. Once Maud Pie heard that the Changeling armies began taking Appleloosa and Dodge City she was very worried about her family’s rock farm and was about to evacuate it when weird self moving wagons entered her farm. Out of the self driving wagons that arrived into their doorstep, out comes both ponies and humans, she recognized one of the ponies to be Spitfire and asked her what’s going on, she was told that the French as they call themselves is going to set up a base camp in her farm in order to coordinate with the campaign against the Changelings. When she asked what happened to the Changelings she just replied with the words ‘slaughter, it was total slaughter’ in a very fearful tone. 

She decided not to ask anymore after that, knowing that if the Captain of the wonderbolts are scared beyond belief by these furless apelike beings, than she would be afraid as well. Unusually unlike most of the royal guard who would scrounge up the local area for resources. These French have been very methodical in their food production, bringing in trucks of food and ensuring that the Pie family rock farm is unharmed. She would be eternally grateful for that and took it upon herself learning how to make pie once the French told her that they cannot eat their enchanted edible rocks and she’s been delivering them food for a day now.

“Man these French are real nice” Limestone commented as Maud Pie brings back the now empty cart into the shed.
“They indeed are Limestone, at least compared to some of the guard that we encountered” as Maud remembered the day when on a vacation on Canterlot, a passing guard tried to flirt with Limestone pie. She didn’t take it very well.
“Yeah I should've punched the guard for that, but it's also odd because sometimes French can be all lovey dovey as well. I think I might be swooned at by some of those dorky looking humans over at the IT department, commented about how cute I am when i’m angry” 
“You do look cute when you’re angry” Maud jokingly teased
“Am NOT! If anything i’m terrifying when i’m angry!” Limestone replied with her nostrils flaring
“Oh Limestone, you’re so adorable” Maud replied nonchalantly as before and suddenly, Limestone could feel Maud coming in and put her hooves in front of her stomach, she was later pulled into the shed walls as Maud hugged her younger sister like a plushie
“Maud! s..stop hugging me!” as Limestone’s hard demeanor is slowly breaking down as she tried her best to stop Maud from cuddling her even more. Ever since Pinkie got her cutie mark she’s been organising ‘cuddle sessions’ between her and her sisters, she will never admit that she like it but it grew into her as she liked being hugged and cared for. Apparently Maud liked in even more than she was judging from the way how she was hugging her right now.
“p…...please! I…......It’s too ah!” she said as Maud hugged her even harder. Her tough demeanor thrown out of the window as she’s furiously blushing right now. Oh it feels so good Limestone thought as she finally caved in and returned the favour by hugging Maud Pie again. 
“shhhh Limestone, just enjoy it. I know you loved being cuddled at, don’t fight it, just enjoy it” she cold hear Maud’s tone slightly lowered into a more maternal one 
“J….Just don’t do it on the shack. Please, the ground’s rough” Limestone cutely whined
“Sure little Lime, let’s go to bed” Maud replied as they both went up the bed and cuddled for the rest of the day.


Appleloosa, Mild West, Equestria, 10:00AM, +12 days after event


“Keep it up Men!!! suppressing fire!” Colonel De Roux ordered the squadron of VBL’s as they kept peppering the wooden house filled with Changelings with bullets. After his squad has finished mopping up the Changelings, they waited until dawn when Leclerc tanks and the rest of the French infantry finally arrive on scene and attacked Appleloosa with the a combined arms assault, the shock of the armoured assault accompanied by rocket attacks coming in from the super etendards as well as artillery barrages meant that Appleloosa will immediately fall in no time. Already the apple orchard and half of the city is overrrun with French troops methodically cleaning house with flashbangs that blinded the Changelings as they move in for the kill or for the capture.

“Cease fire Cease fire!!!” the colonel ordered his men as no energy blasts are coming from the building no more. The green Changeling energy blasts are a bit of a surprise for the Colonel and his men when he started hearing radio chatter about ‘changeling magic spells’ and further reports saying the blasts is as effective as a shotgun blast in the short range but just as effective as a shotgun as well in long range, and with that his men simply adapted to the situation by firing at Changeling positions from afar and calling artillery barrages once met with stubborn Changeling resistance.

The town eventually fell to French hands as the last of the Changeling resistance (or what’s left of the Changeling army) fell just minutes after his men told the Colonel that the house is secure. 

“good job men we’ll rest until further orders. Jean, eve. Link up with the rest of the army and start patrols immediately until further orders” the Colonel ordered his men 

“Yes sir!” as they both took of on their jeeps, leaving the Colonel and his men investigating the house for anything fishy. It looks like your average wild western tavern with hotel rooms on the top as he surveyed his surroundings. Midway into the inspection he heard bottles breaking and moved his gun towards the general direction of the sound.

“Come up with empty hooves NOW!!” he shouted at the bar table only to see a white flag raised and waved.
“Move out of the bar table, MOVE!!” the Colonel moves closer into the area as he heard whimpers and crying from the other side of the table. When he finally entered the other side he saw a white female pony crying with her hooves up in the air. Knowing full well about the memo general Armand gave to his troops, he pulls out cuffs specially designed for hooves and wrapped both her hooves with each of them. The pony doesn’t have any horns so at least she won’t be able to fight back when captured.

“Let’s go Pony” as he slowly lifted the still crying mare and brought her back to the makeshift command post in city hall. 


Kirin capital city Chuoko, Kirin empire of Amaterasu, 12:00PM, +12 days after event


Otsune Amaterasu, empress of the Kirin empire of Amaterasu was reading the reports about the huge iron ships in her empire’s harbour and she’s about to meet them in person. The Kirin Empress have heard rumours among the guard about Equestria meeting these strange beings and she was about to dismiss it as just rumours before she went out to the castle courtyards and saw those huge iron ships at harbour. Further reports from the Saji daimyo further confirms her suspicions that these ‘French’ are the species behind those iron ships.

The door to her throne room was suddenly opened with an honour guard saying “Presenting Ms Charlotte Durand from the Republic of France!” and out comes those peculiar looking apelike creatures, Charlotte looked like an incredibly sharp person who knows what she’s looking for but she also knew that just from looks alone, she can be incredibly savage if she wants to.

“Welcome to the Kirin Empire of Amaterasu ms Charlotte Durand. I am Empress Otsune Amaterasu, current ruling ruler of the empire” She proclaimed as the curtains are raised and she reveals her full majesty.

Ms Charlotte now was noticing a trend of Equis rulers literaly being much more majestic than their own subjects, she saw the pictures of princess Celestia and she could be mistaken as a goddess to the untrained eye and it doesn’t look like there is any difference between the Princess and the Empress as Empress Otsune also looked like a being straight out of heaven.

“Bonjour Emperor Otsune, I am here to represent French interests in the region. I trust you have been given the adequate papers no?” Charlotte asked the Empress
“Why yes ms Charlotte. It said here on the papers that you are requesting investment space and Iron ores in exchange for technology and French investment in the region”
“yes Empress, have you made your decision yet your highness”
“I think the answer is pretty obvious isn’t it Ms Charlotte, simply looking at the pictures you’ve sent to me. It is obvious that Amaterasu is going to benefit greatly from this exchange, a few Iron ores and selling land for you to set up your shops and factories would be no problem at all. I just would like to add one more demand to this already beneficial trade agreement”
“Yes? what is it that you wanted?” Charlotte asked.
“I want a student exchange system where scholars coming in from our empire would study in your prestigious magical academies. Knowing how you build your ships, we wish to learn more about magics yet unknown to us from French centers of learning, is that possible?”
“Well…….there is a bit of an issue with that” the French delegate responded
“Oh do tell me ms Charlotte, I can change the offer if you want to”
“Oh the offer is all well and good your highness it’s just that…..”
“Just what my dear” the Empress curiously asked
“It’s just that…...we don’t use magic in our ships…..nor anywhere really” Charlotte meekly replied.

The room suddenly went silent. Impossible she thought I must be hearing things.
“Excuse me, but pardon my hearing. What did you just say ms Charlotte”
“We don’t use magic in our ships”
“Impossible”
“Well not really since we’ve built them” Charlotte replied
“But building ships that huge would require advancements in the mechanics unlike anything we’ve ever seen. How do you keep a piece of metal afloat without a repulsion spell!? how do you maintain a mastless ship design without a wind spell!? how!?” as all manner of regality the empress had was thrown out of the window in the wake of the revelation that those ships uses zero magic at all.
“By engineering so advanced it would take decades to catch up your highness. The student exchange can still happen but instead of magical academies, we could take your students to study in engineering and science academies throughout France. Does that work your highness?” Charlotte replied.
The Empress is till having a hard time believing what she was told, if this is true, then the Kirin empire would be so far advanced in the mechanics it would be a respected world power in it's own right (as if Amaterasu isn't a respected world power already). So she replied: “Y….yes, I think that might do us well in the future. Pray tell, will you mind giving me a tour into one of your ships? I’m highly interested at how those bahemoths work” the empress is not going to take the delegate’s word simply right here. She wanted to see whether or not these French do have the mechanical capabilities to make such advanced ships.
“Oh, i’m sure I can arrange something regarding tours or anything similar. But I need to talk with the Captain of the warship first, we can inform you at around 3:00PM tops on whether or not we are ready to present you with a tour”
“Oh don’t worry about that, I can wait” The Empress replied and knowing that formal discussions are over. She asked the delegate another question
“Would you like to have some lunch with me? I have traditional Amaterasu salad lined up” The empress asked the French delegate
“Oh no thank you your majesty. Humans are omnivores, we cannot survive with vegetables alone”
“Just like the Griffons, very interesting. Very well then, chef! prepare us some Griffon meat dishes!” as the empress commands the nearby chef to make a meat dish served from fish taken off the coast. “It is tradition for the Kirin to offer the delegates of other nations food after negotiations. I hope you would like to honour our traditions by participating in our lunch yes?” The empress asked.
“Well if you say so, lead the way Empress” the delegate replied as they were soon led to the dining table.


Canterlot Castle, 1:00PM, +12 days after event


“and it looks like French forces have finally taken Appleloosa princess” Daring do reported to the princesses. Ever since she returned to Canterlot, she told her editor to suspend any new publication of Daring Do novels because she just got a new job as official liaison between mr Julien Thomas and Princess Celestia. She will continue writing her Daring Do books of course, but with her getting this work purely out of circumstance, she needs to allocate more time just to write her books.

“Very good Daring. Thank you very much, it’s good to have you back” the Princess replied. Even after the presentation mr Julien Thomas presented, the French never continued to amaze her with the speed of their advance. When she was fighting King Sombra during the Crystal wars, it took her army some 2 months with her personally leading the advance against King Sombra’s crystal armies, and the French did the same thing in just 1 day.

Simply amazing the Princess thought as she continued sifting through her paperwork, only to be met with a huge stack of papers. Oh dear, It looks like it’s going to be one of those days again she thought when she saw the stacked paperwork laid in front of her, halfway into her daily grind a thought came to her mind, the old topic of Parliament and how amazing such a concept is in hindsight. Am I overtaxing myself? should I brought back the Idea of Parliament back into national consciousness? the French seemed to have no problems with their own parliament Celestia thought as she continued working until the end of the daycourt, thinking about forming parliament throughout the day.

******

Large reserves of oil found just off the coast of France

The first steel foundry was reopened in France and production of the warships is continued back to normal as the first shipment of Iron ores from Equestria reached Strasbourg, France

The Kirin Empress and French delegation discuss about the formation of diplomatic relationships between Amaterasu and France. The Empress is shocked when she was informed that the French don’t use magic at all.

The banque de France have established a stable exchange rate between the Euro and the Equestrian bit: 1 Euro=2 Bits

French companies are seen investing in Equestria as Imerys mining just purchased mining rights in specific areas located on Unicorn range. The first mineral engineers are transported via ship to Vanhoover and are about to conduct geological surveys for Iron veins or any other important veins containing ores.

French troops have just taken Appleloosa and Dodge City. The first part of operation Alarme is a major success for French troops, howitzers and field guns are being moved for the second part of Operation Alarme. The invasion of the badlands.
> 28th November, 2015
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Changeling Hive, Badlands, 7:00AM, +14 days after event


General Hivemind is not having a good day. 2 days earlier she was meeting with the Queen talking about how are the Changelings going to rule over the Ponies when Chrysalis’s army marched into Canterlot and put Celestia in prison, it was during the same meeting when she heard the reports coming in, initially like everyone both Chrysalis and Hivemind laughed it off and told the guards to have the scout put to prison for slander. But when she heard no reports coming in from Carapace hours after the scheduled time she became a bit worried that the Scout is right. Accompanying Queen Chrysalis in her carriage during her speech would be a perfect opportunity for Hivemind to investigate what is going on. Unfortunately the speech never happened as Chrysalis herself went to investigate why she haven’t heard any reports and came back looking like she’s seen the entire Alicorn army marching into her the Badlands. 

Is she ever saw the embodiment of despair, Chrysalis would fit that image perfectly when she returned after her ‘preliminary checks’. Before she retire to her quarters that night she meekly said to her that she would be handing over general responsibility of the swarm to her. She initially said no but after some convincing that Chrysalis isn’t fit to lead the swarm anymore she eventually bowed to her Queen’s orders and took the throne just this morning. 

“Let’s get down to bussiness shall we?” she ordered her court
“Of course Queen Hivemind, first off the list is the war with Equestria” A noble pronounced Equestria very grumpily
“I think the answer’s obvious isn’t it? if these ‘French’ wanted to mess with the hive, then they deserved having the swarm unleashed upon them!!” A notably hawkish noble roared to the hawk clique
“But nobledrone abdomen, haven’t you’ve seen the Queen’s report? these French utterly destroyed Carapace’s army in a matter of hours!! if the we don’t negotiate with the French then there would be slaughter!! slaughter I tell you!!” another noble loudly rebutted which is met with some nobles calling him ‘traitor’ and some supporting him by stamping their hooves
“Bah you meek Changeling! Carapace is a worthless general who get his honour by knocking out weak hivemembers. If we want to see our swarm rise again to new heights, then we must do so with blood and armour!! do not bow to these French and even moreso to the Equestrians! they wll destroy us from the inside!” Nobledrone Abdomen replied
“But aren’t you being unreasonable here Nobledrone Abdomen! you are the one that asked Chrysalis to infiltrate her army into Canterlot and look where that got us!! you asked going to war with Equestria and look where that got us!! are you here because you care for the swarm abdomen!? or are you just a traitor in Changeling exoskeleton!?” The reasonable nobledrone replied which is met with rage from Abdomen
“Oh and you’re suggesting that we should bow ourselves to the Equestrians aren’t you! I care for the Hive and are willing to go to great lengths as well as risks to see it’s prosperity, don’t call me a traitor again and you would experience the beating of a lifetime” the nobledrone responded, knowing that a brawl’s about to broke out
“make me” the other nobledrone replied.

“SILENCE!!!”

the room suddenly went from namecalling and mocking to near silence as the newly crowned Changeling Queen roared.

“I know that nobledrone Thorax made a good point about being a reasonable party, nobledrone abdomen should be expelled from his job and be excommunicated for 2 months for his foolhardiness. But giving an unconditional surrender would be utterly foolish and would bring more harm to our hive in the long run than good. So why don’t we try negotiating with both the Equestrians and the French at a neutral location?” The Queen said to her court, which is met with begrudging yesses from the hawkish side and more reasonable yesses from the other side.

“But my Queen, if we want to negotiate with the Equestrians and the French, we need to meet up in a neutral location where one side cannot bring their full weight on us. Do you know a land where Changelings raiders haven’t raided recently?” a nobledrone asked

“Why yes I do know a place” the Queen responded
“Where?”
“Saddle Arabia” the Queen said which is met with silence. The Changelings and the Saddle Arabians are not good friends by any means, but so far, outside the currently collapsing realm of Griffonstone. It is one of the few places where Changeling raiders haven’t ransacked and pillaged…...yet
“Are we in agreement court?” The Queen asked, which is met with an overrall yes. “Good then, I shall write a letter to the Sultan of Saddle Arabia and the Royal Sisters, court is dismissed” she said to a court knowing that this might be one of the last chances the Changelings got to a workable peace.


Canterlot Castle, 9:00AM, +14 days after event


“And these Changelings wanted a negotiable peace?” Daring asked the Princess. After the first phase of operation Alarme, mr Julien has been really busy coordinating events between the Paris and Canterlot to ensure that fluid communication exists between both parties. It got so intense that mr Julien asked Daring Do to represent Equestrian interests in Canterlot because he is receiving so many emails he simply cannot get out of his seat before a situational update arrived on his inbox. Also she learned about the internet that day.

“It appears so Daring, apparently there has been a leadership change in the hive and the now Queen Hivemind wanted to enter peace talks in Saddle Arabia. Why don’t you be a dear and forward this message to mr Julien would you?” Celestia responded in her usual motherly tone. She was predicting this would come eventually, after the results of operation Alarme was forwarded to her she nearly cried at the amount of Changelings that died in such a short time. They may be her enemies but Celestia still cared for the future of the Changelings, and it looks like Celestia and Queen Hivemind are seeing each other eye to eye this time.

“Definitely your highness” Daring replied as she flew out of her room. When Daring was informed that she was offered the job as official liaison she thought that it would some boring job with lots of free time in the middle for Daring to write her books. Turns out this job is just as challenging as finding the Griffon’s goblet because she needs to fly (running is out of the question for her) and send messages between Mr Julien and Celestia, thank heavens that the French delegation set up shop not far from Celestia’s throne room.

“Message from Celestia Julien, it’s about the Changelings” Daring says which is met with immediate interest as mr Julien grabs the letter before she could hand it out. Julien is slowly turning out to be a mess as he needs to coordinate so many things and to make things worse, his assistants are vacationing in Ibiza when the event happened and the foreign ministry needed a few more days before replacements could be send to Canterlot.

As Julien slowly reads the letter, he sighs in relief knowing what the letter meant and took a picture of it from a camera. “I’ll send it to the president, good job” he replied as he plugged the camera into the PC and sends the image into the PC files, only to be sent via Email to the Elysee palace, specifically Hollande’s official Email.


Elysee Palace, 9:00AM, +14 days after event


The president of France was about to start his day when a new email appeared in his inbox. As he slowly reads the contents of the message his eyes widened as he reached his desk phone. “Bring me Fabius and le Drien here, right now” he said to the secretary as he knew the contents of this letter is going to be either make it or break it for the Changelings.

Soon enough, the foreign minister and the defense minister was in the Murat room alongside the President as they start reading the contents of the letter.

“Mr President, I regretfully inform you. But for your own safety you cannot come to this meeting, this is too high of a risk and we need to send someone less important than you” Laurent commented on the letters.

“We also have no formal relationships with Saddle Arabia as well mr president. I propose that we send the ambassador of France in Equestria to represent our interests” Laurent Fabius further added.

“But wouldn’t attending the peace process hurt my approval rating? the French apparently loved me that I decided to help the Ponies”

“I can conjure something up like we don’t know the Saddle Arabians as an excuse. You don’t have to worry about that” the defense minister replied. The president looked at his options, the first one is out of the equation because it involves France refusing to negotiate with the Changelings, the second option is to send one of his ministers into the negotiation (which they won’t take because it’s an unknown risk), thirdly he can send Mr Julien into the negotiations and he is expendable enough to be mourned as a national hero if he fails/dies and celebrated as the person who brought peace to the war if he succeeded. In the end the President chose the third option.

“Tell mr Julien Thomas that he’s going to be assigned to the peace talks, inform him that an escort squad is going to accompany him throughout the talks in Saddle Arabia and he’s also going to hitchike an airship ride with the princesses” Hollande commands Mr Fabius and dismisses the meeting

I pray to god that he’ll be safe, he’s been a lynchpin in French-Equestrian relations. I hope he doesn’t get killed, this smells like a trap the president thought as he dismisses the meeting.


Aquitaine class Frigate Provence, Chuoko, 10:20AM, +14 days after event


Captain Justine Faure was presenting to the empress about the capabilities of the recently procured Aquitaine class frigate. Her ship was on tour in the Indian Ocean when the event happened and ended up somewhere near Toulon. His ship was reassigned to Brest after the shock died down and now she’s touring the empress of pony japan about the capabilities of her ship. And just when I think it couldn’t get any weirder she thought as the group finally entered the engine room.

Empress Otsune has been constantly amazed by the level of mechanical sophistication this ship has to offer, before entering the engine room she’s been led to the combat information center which simply blew her mind. The amount of information these 'radars' and 'lidars' could reveal about the enemy is simply staggering, if the Empress were to get this many information. She could take down the Kirin empire of Da Long in just a few months.

"And now we've reached the engine room" as the Captain of this ship proclaimed
"So I guess this is what powers your ship?" The Empress asked
"Of course milady, this engine is called the MTU series 4000 that allows this ship to have a maximum speed of 27 knots"
27 knots? that is faster than our light bunes the Empress thought as she nodded.
"This allows the FREMM to have increased agility while still maintaining it's full payload, allowing for better versatility when it comes to maneuvering and mission deployment, as you have seen in the boat launching facility and the helicopter hangar" the Captain says
"Yes, these are extremely fascinating. But can you please proceed into the weapons bay and end it there?" The empress says. Sure these engines are massively powerful but she needs to see what these French can really do if angered.
"Of course Empress, follow me" The Captain replied as they walk away from the engine room, a couple of minutes later they eventually reached the weapons bay and the Empress is confused
"Umm excuse me captain, but I don't see any weapons stored here?" The Empress replied in confusion
"Yes Empress, that's because the main weapons for the Provence is stored here" as she puts her hand in the weird tube looking thing.
"This is a VLS cell, stands for vertical launch system. This VLS cell allows the FREMM to launch in long range weapons called missiles into enemy targets. One of these weapons called the Storm Shadow has a range of 560 kilometers and is a very effective land strike and naval strike weapon, please refer to the list for a converted metric to your native range of measurement" as the Captain explained the VLS cell.
She looked at her list and looked for the number 560, When she reached the number and traced it into Kirin Dael she just dropped the list and wondered how could these weapons engage in such long distances.
"and what is the payload of these weapons captain? fuel? explosives? firecrackers?" the empress asked
"sort of, you mentioned firecrackers yes?" which is replied with a nod. "Well imagine a far more powerful version of the firecracker that have been perfected by centuries of warfare" the empress didn't take that mental image well. Firecrackers if used correctly could burn an entire house down, imagine if these French were able to make a specialised version of the materials taken from the firecracker for the explicit purpose of killing! It would bring death on a scale unimaginable! just how violent can these species get? thought the empress because the French apparently need this kind of firepower at their disposal, imagine the enemies they might be fighting against if these weapons are required.
"very well then. I think i've seen.......enough" the empress stalled the word 'enough' because these French are simply too powerful for her comfort
"oh, then thank you for granting us the honour of touring you into one of our most prestigious ships! our guards will escort you out to the deck" Justine replied as he gives the marine a nod and the empress was then escorted of out the ship.


Appleloosa command center, 11:00AM, +14 days after event


Colonel Sebastien de Roux of the 1st Chasseur regiment and Colonel Chloé Dupont of the 110th Infantry regiment was looking at the message they received while getting some rest from their routine patrols.

“Oh...it looks like we’ve beaten the shit out of them enough for them to talk” Chloé responded
“Yeah, after Appleloosa I think the Changelings would hammer some sense for themselves. No point in continuing this conflict, they practically lost their entire army” the Colonel responded as well
“I’ll inform the rest of the regiments to stop advancing, put on a defensive line throughout the mild west all that jazz” Chloé said as she walks out of the command center and radioe’d in the rest of the task force to stop their advance until further notice from the Hexagon. A couple of minutes later and barb wires, overlapping artillery firing emplacements and Machine gun nests litter a defensive line stretching from Appleloosa to Dodge city. Making it near inpenetrable to any advance done by the enemy. Especially bugs both Colonels thought as they oversaw the entire construction by themselves.

Once he has thought that the defenses are enough, Colonel de Roux returned back to the command center, more specifically the containment centers where Changeling prisoners are being held. It turns out that from the reports given to him from the the Equestrian files, creatures with magical properties will have a hard time propagating their magic if items with copper forged into them (or straight up simple copper rings) are inserted into their horns, and that is exactly what most of these Changeling's horns are inserted with when they are put here. He entered the containment facility only to simply see a not nice but not horrible looking prison laid in front of him. He walked to the end of the hallway seeing desperate and fearful faces as these Changelings have experienced by themselves what happens if you fight a human. He reached the end of the hallway and staring in front of him was the Earth Pony mare he just captured a couple of days ago. It turns out that the evacuation of Appleloosa and Dodge City were not thorough enough as any attempt to convince her to turn back into her native Changeling form was simply met with a meek 'ah'm not a Changeling' response the Colonel is now used to.

He brought a chair so that he could talk to her why she haven't evacuated and starts the questioning session.

"name?"
"uhh, Apple Fritter"
"Occupation?"
"Ah work at the Apple Orchard with Braeburn"
"Okay then, why were you still here when the wonderbolts and the Equestrian royal guard announced the evacuation?"
"ah didn't, the last train was too jam packed and ah couldn't tell them you're missing out on someone when it left, there are also no self drawn carts so Ah was stuck here. Changelings caught me and did.......things to me that ah won't tell ya. But then they started retreatin sayin something about these 'French' who are mighty strong, ah was about to ask what happened when a rain of fire descended of Appleloosa. Turns out it was the opening strike before you guys started movin here and killed every last one of em"
"That is a very believable tale Ms Fritter, not many people survived their evacuation to Britain when France fell, is there anything more that you want to tell us?"
"No mr Human, Ah know that you deserve the right to be suspicious about me and Ah can respect that. Just don't treat me and these Changelings like dirt, Ah hate them too for.......yeah, but Ah still have mah good conscience to not descend to common savagery ya hear?"
"Yes I heard that very clearly ms Fritter. Thank you very much for cooperating with us, high command have decided that after constant good behaviour, you will be freed from the cell and are allowed to walk freely around Appleloosa while under observation"
"Oh thank you mister human. But if ah'm free, then why ah'm still under...observation?"
"Because we have no way to confirm whether you are a pony or a Changeling yet ms Fritter. Not until the first Unicorn royal guards reached this town"
"Ah can understand that mister, thank you very much" Apple Fritter replied which is met with Colonel de Roux pulling out the keys and opening her cell. She can move freely now with obsevation but she does understand the concerns of these French people, it's just ah bit weird to be under observation, but what can ah do? they have no way to confirm ah'm Changeling or not, wouldn't blame em she thought as she trotted out of the command center and proceeded to trot back to her Orchard.


Canterlot Palace, 1:00PM, +14 days after event


Mr Julien was hanging around, resting from a very hard day at work when a message from Laurent labeled: urgent shows up in his inbox. Oh great another ‘urgent’ message Julien thought as he opened the mail and read it’s contents, his eyes widened as he further read the message and by the end of his message he slumped into his chair, knowing that he’s going to another country France have yet to discover in order to conduct diplomatic negotiations with the Changelings.

Might as well inform the princess Julien thought as he rose from his chair and walks into the Canterlot throne room, trying to look his best and failing in the process. Great he thought when he opened the doors to the Canterlot throne room and saw Princess Celestia doing some paperwork. The Princess saw him and dropped the paperowork into the nearby table as she greeted him. 

“Hello there mr Julien, spare me the formalities. Are you here to talk about the peace negotiations in Saddle Arabia?” Celestia asked
“You just read my mind, yes I’m going to be sent to Saddle Arabia as the chief representative of the Republic of France. You do realize we haven’t made any formal diplomatic relationships between France and Saddle Arabia right?” Julien responded
“After what you’ve done to help my country, I can assure you that Equestria is going to protect your men during the peace negotiations in Saddle Arabia. As for the Saddle Arabians themselves……...they are very friendly once you get to know them but let’s just say that you need to pull out a lot of  favours in order to gain their trust” Celestia said
“Favours is my nation’s specialty Celestia, don’t worry about that” Julien responded as he continued to other important subjects such as transportation.
“How about transport? I was told that Equestria have airships right? are you going to Saddle Arabia with airships?” Julien further asked
“Yes I will be traveling via airship, are you comfortable with airship rides? they are not as loud as your gyrocopters but travel to Saddle Arabia could take hours if not days, depending on weather condition” Celestia responded
“I can handle a few days Celestia. When are we going?” He asked.
“Tomorrow morning”

“Okay then, any further info I need to know about this kingdom?”
“Sultanate, but essentially it is a kingdom established on a desert and are very prideful of themselves. Admittedly for good reason, their empire stretches almost as far and wide as Equestria, but don’t fear them really, we have established really good diplomatic relationships with them 200 years ago and maintained it since” Celestia replied
“Ah, are they more conservative than your principality?”
“A bit, but not much of a difference really. Just in Equestria, the mares and stallions of saddle arabia have equal rights, and they do have a say in their government unlike us” Julien noted that Celestia’s tone dropped a bit when she said ‘unlike us’ 

“Okay then Celestia, thank you for this very productive meeting. I’ll see you tomorrow” Julien finally concluded their meeting with a handwave as he left the throne room.
“I’ll see you in the airship hangars” Celestia waved her hoof in goodbye as he left her throne room.


Al Qafr, capital city of Saddle Arabia, 3:00PM, +14 days after event


Sultan Rabin ur Rashid of the Saddle Arabian Sultanate was sitting on his seat as the letter he was forwarded via dragonfire from Celestia finally arrived. He has just finished reading the letter and was indeed interested in settling the terrible conflict between the Equestrians and the Changelings. But she said that a third party, these ‘French’ are coming along. 

“And she said that these ‘French’ might benefit the sultanate greatly…..we shall see about that” as the Sultan agreed to host the talks between Equestria and the Changeling Swarm as he signed the dotted line.

“Amira? Haakim?” he called upon his son and daughter
“Yes father?” as both of them appeared from the side of the halls
“Saddle Arabia is going to host peace talks between the Equestrians, Changellings and the French. Now you know that it is standard practice for Saddle Arabians to spy on it’s enemies so I expect you and your agents to be scouring and capturing Changelings yes?”
“Of course father” Amira responded
“now I want you to just observe these ‘French’, if they were as powerful as Celestia told me than you should just observe and watch every move they make for it is not wise to antagonise people you haven't met. Have you read the letters Celestia gave to me?”
“Of course father, every message sent by a delegate is always magically copied and sent to our room” Haakim replied
“Good then, prepare your spies and yourselves. There is much preparation to do in the coming days” as Sultan Rabin dismissed his offsprings and begins to survey what room in his palace is appropriate for the peace talks.


Kourou space station, French Guiana, 5:55PM, +14 days after event


“Start measurements” director Jean asked as the Guiana space center is going to take in more detailed readings about an anomaly found during twilight and dusk. Ever since the displacement, observation and weather satellites have reported that during 6AM and 6PM morning and night. The planet seems to be moving a little bit faster than usual. 

“Satellites are in place mr Dordain, we’re taking measurements…...NOW!” as they calculated the speed at which the planet moves at 6PM, the initial results are filtering in and the answer is very clear. The planet is definitely moving faster at twilight but there is also something odd coming from Canterlot, apparently at every dusk and twilight, there is a massive spike of gravitational energy coming from the Canterlot, someone living in Equestria is interfering with the movement of the planet and now the ESA have tracked it down to Canterlot. Why this anomaly is located in the Equestrian capital? nobody at ESA have a clue for the moment

eventually the measurements ended and the director knows what needs to be done, “send an Email to mr Julien, ask him to ask Princess Luna about the event” as he knew that the Equestrian nightcourt is about to start. He could accept the concept of magic and CERN labs are even drafting experiments concerning magic, but magic powerful enough to move the planet slightly faster every dusk and twilight will put Jean into questioning how powerful magic can be. If magic turns out to be this powerful, we might need advancements in the sciences unlike anything we’ve ever seen before just to catch up, thank god the event happens just every dusk and twilight Jean went into deep thought as he sent to inquiry letter to mr Julien.


******
Queen Hivemind wanted a peace settlement with Equestria and France, proposed to hold peace talks at Saddle Arabia

Princess Celestia about to visit Saddle Arabia for the peace talks

Kourou Space Station have detected and measured an anomaly everytime Equestria is at dusk or in twilight. Thinks that the center of the anomaly is in Canterlot, asked the ambassador there to find out what's happening.

Kirin empress tours the FREMM Frigate Provence, amazed at what she saw
> 28th November, 2015 (Interlude)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Canterlot Castle, 7:00PM, +14 days after event


“I don't know whether or not ESA is pulling weird pranks on me or what, but it should damn good one knowing that I'm going to ask a Princess of Equestria about the sun and moon” Julien says as he starts finishing his report regarding the current state of Equestria. After putting it in a neat stack of reports to be scanned and sent to both the President and the foreign minister. He now has time to visit Princess Luna regarding why the twilight’s and dusk’s in Equestria are faster than usual. He haven’t been to the nightcourt and Daring Do is back home, busy typing her books so it’s going to be him and him alone against the princess of the night.

“Come in, welcome to the nightcourt” Princess Luna greeted the French ambassador as he enters the nightcourt in his usual business suit. Unlike Celestia, Luna haven’t been interacting with the human delegation ever since their initial negotiations regarding opening diplomatic channels with Equestria. But she has heard about operation Alarme and Luna is both amazed and frightened at what these seemingly lanky hairless apes are capable.

“Oh yes, hello there Princess Luna. I guess you’ve already knew my name so i’ll make this quick” the delegate opened a briefcase containing satellite imagery of the Equestrian world.

“at 1800 hours or 6pm at night. ESA scientists monitoring their satellites and other French assets in space have detected an unusual anomaly. Exactly when dusk and dawn broke in Equestria, the planet’s rotation seems to be moving a bit faster than usual. Further investigation into this mystery reveals that the source of this energy might be located in Canterlot”


“and that leads you to ask me a bunch of questions isn’t it?” Luna replied before Julien could finish his sentence

“and so that’s……….oh you’ve already known my purpose here, yes i’m going to ask you a bunch of questions regarding the nature of magic and how it works in this planet” Julien asked

“Say no more human, your questions might just lead you to a longer trail. It is I Princess Luna who rose the moon at twilight and it is my sister, Princess Celestia who rose the sun at dawn!” Princess Luna loudly proclaimed about the fact that she rose the moon and it was Celestia who rose the sun. Only to be met with a very confused and flabbergasted French ambassador

“M….oh….w-what?” Julien was flabbergasted in the revelation that the Royal sisters were the ones responsible for the increase in rotation. Sure from the historical records Celestia gave to him he was given the impression that the Royal Sisters are incredibly powerful magical creatures. But never to the extent that they can move the planet! are they capable of doing such feats? Julien thought as he asked Princess Luna another question

“P...princess Luna, are you sure that your…..claim that the increase of rotation of the earth is caused by…...you?” Julien asked

“Why of course! it is our natural talent, our cutiemark that allows us to raise the sun and the moon! sure the planet have been rotating around the sun and moon even before the first creatures laid their eyes on this planet. But it is tradition for us to raise the sun at dawn and lower at dusk. Why the sudden curiosity? is it because the lack of magic in your world has given you the impression that it is impossible to increase the rotation of the planet temporarily?” Princess Luna asked the now shocked French delegate

“f..frankly yes princess. I’m no scientist but I can tell that the amount of energy that is required to increase the rotation of the planet is simply massive! how are you capable moving an entire planet?”

“Very simple, so my cutiemark here” she moves her flank for the delegate to see…….in a polite manner of course, don’t want to give the delegate any ideas that she’s interested in him “allows myself and my older sister Celestia to tap into the ley lines present on this world. And anchor it into the planet temporarily for it to move just a tad bit faster than it used to. I can only maintain such movements for so long before I pass out of tiredness and the same case goes for my sister. But it’s just a special talent, we never find a possible weaponisation of this talent, nor do we want to of course” princess Luna replied.

Julien could not believe his eyes when Celestia says she is the goddess of the sun, he thinks it’s just a metaphorical term used to describe her rule over her subjects. He didn’t know it was a very literal term where Celestia ‘rose’ the sun at dawn as most ponies called it. “O…..of course Princess, we have delved into such powerful weapons as well…...the difference is that although you never found a way to weaponize this weapon. We kinda did” Julien responded.

Luna was fascinated about France’s capabilities. She thought that France was incapable of doing such feats based on the ‘wikipedia’ articles both she and her sister was given. “Oh is it Mr Julien? i’m curious into what cosmic abilities you have?” Luna responded. If the French are really that powerful and smart to have replicated at least a fraction of cosmic capabilties Julien seemed to say, Luna knew that this will be a French dominated century even more.

“Fine, i’ll go back to my room and bring in ‘the package’” Julien responded and left the room. Minutes later he came back with a peculiarly secure looking file and opened the locks. Out comes a bunch of papers and reports which was given to princess Luna.

Princess Luna was expecting something in the lines of very organized ‘artillery’ bombardments and plans to conduct warfare via constant airstrikes, nothing ‘cosmic’ at all she thought when she began to read the papers and began sifting the papers as she read and read and read. A couple of minutes later Princess Luna was sweating profusely like someone who have gone out of a hoofball game, nuclear force!! Princess Luna repeated those thoughts throughout her brain at what madness the French have invented. What warranted the French to invent such insane weapons of mass destruction!! thought Luna as she finished the first report. 

Mr Julien was about to give her the second report only to meet a hoof pointing at him. “y-you” Princess Luna’s hoof was visibly trembling, definitely shaken at the capabilities of the French when pushed into a corner. “W-why did you commit yourselves to unlock such powers beyond your control! Celestia thought that bringing the power of the sun into this planet was impossible and yet YOU managed to do just that! why invent such insane machinations!? are you so afraid and fearful at what lies in your world that it is required to build these nuclear weapons!?!? what possible monsters do you have to confront on earth to warrant such insanity!?” Luna visibly stated

Julien only responded with the sad words that have rung true for hundreds of thousands of years. “Us” he responded with his head bowed to the ground

“Yourselves!! you have yourselves to blame for such creations!? what ignorance does it take to allow you to build these weapons and commit your own species into such great risks? why!?” Luna asked

“Because the human concepts of ‘honour’ and ‘superiority’ Princess. I guess we haven’t given you a lot of documents about human history, but do note that we are apex predators. There are things such as honour if you kill another human in battle and there is a concept called superiority when you advance to such a state you can practically intimidate your enemies into submission, it is not an ideal system but it's a system we have been living off for most of human history” he emphasizes the word 'most' in that last sentence

Luna was about to say something only to meet the palm of Mr Julien’s hand “but if there’s one thing that I am proud of Princess Luna, if there is one thing in our history in which I can stand up and say that I am proud that we've achieved this. Is the simple fact that we can learn from our mistakes. We have essentially destroyed these archaic concepts and thoughts from our national consciousness and only kept nuclear weapons as a deterrence. ONLY AND ONLY  to be used when the country is facing impending doom, so before you send your agents to steal information and destroy our nuclear arsenals, which I bet you will. Do note that we have the good conscience to not use these weapons everytime something doesn’t go our way. Do not think that we are some savages Princess Luna, for we have effectively brushed off that past behind us and are trailing in the new future we are ALL desperately trying to achieve, a future not based on constant warfare and deception, but a future based on compassion, cooperation…..and most importantly of trusts and friendships” as he finished his long rebuttal to Princess Luna

The response given by Julien Thomas was one of those responses Princess Luna have heard from the likes of King Guto of Griffonstone and even King Grover himself. And based from those king’s reigns she can say that she can trust the French in some manner, it’s just the fact that the French have to reach such martial and military heights in order to realize that what they are doing is pointless or ultimately unnecesary is the fact that bugs Luna’s mind. Luna wouldn’t blame the French for trying to keep these weapons and keep them operational (or even improving on their designs!), for Celestia and Luna would if given the same capabilities of the French. It's just too valuable of an asset to lose, eventually after a couple of minutes of silence as Luna thinks about the issue, she gave the French delegate a final order.

“You’re dismissed…...just…..go. I need some time to think” Luna dismissed Julien which departed with a visibly dissapointed face, knowing that the Princess is going to meet some ethical conundrums along the way. might as well cancel nightcourt anyway Luna thought as she departed from her throne to think.

and Julien never get to ask her about the finer details of magic as well. I would't worry too much, he'd simply ask Celestia in the morning instead Luna thought as she reached her room and closed the doors, preparing herself to be very philosophical on the issue while the night is still young.
> 29th November, 2015
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Equestrian Royal Guard training camp, Canterlot, 5:00AM, +15 days after event


“Man what a bummer” said Rainbow as she was about to get her daily dosage of coffee from Pony joe’s
“Eeyup” Big Mac replied as they both entered the doors of the Canterlot diner and ordered donuts as well as the strongest Coffee Donut got. It appears that both these unfortunate ponies have made the wrong decision at the wrong time, because although both Big Mac and Rainbow Dash volunteered themselves to join the Royal Guard in a time where Equestria is in crisis. The sudden appearance of the French and the French intervention has thrown a monkey wrench into their supposed moments of bravery and loyalty, now with their main purpose to join the royal guard null and void. Rainbow Dash and Big Mac are heavily considering whether or not they should just resign and return to Ponyville.

“So Big Mac, you know that we originally signed up to protect our friends right?”
“Eeyup”
“and now that with France intervening and French troops deployed all over the place, doesn’t that make our original purpose to join the royal guard null and void?”
“Eeyup”
“So do you wanna resign or what?”
Big Mac stumbled at the unexpectedly direct question, he was expecting Rainbow to go for more questions before asking the big one, but here he is. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“E...E….E-yup” Big mac says nervously
“What? thinking that you’re just wasting your time here?” Rainbow Dash asked
“Eeyup”
“Well you can waste less time if you stop training right now and get back to the farm. I know what i’ll be doing once office doors are open” Rainbow responded as she finished her last donut
“Well see ya aorund Big Mac, nice seeing someone I could relate to in this big city” says Rainbow as she hands over a bunch of bits to Pony Joe. Big Mac was about to do the same when Pony Joe says
“Uhhh she pays for your food as well Mac, really nice of her. You her coltfriend or somethin?” Pony Joe asked
“uhhhh Nnope” Big Mac responded, he really doesn’t like where this is going
“oooh you stuttered there! are you sure you’re not interested in Dash?” Pony Joe was really pushing the issue now. Clearly intent on finding whether or not Big Mac likes her, he was again stuck between a rock and a hard place. So like any other wise pony, he decided to bolt out and get that resignation letter finished.

“Good bye Pony Joe” Big Mac says as he runs towards the nearest Royal Guard office


Upper hive living Quarters, the badlands, 6:00AM, +15 days after event


“Abdomen, why do you invite me here?” Captain Athropod asked, clearly very wary about uppper hive politicians and how they can be very brutal. Captain Athropod was on the very edge of his nerve when Nobledrone Abdomen called him into his upper living quarters.

“Why isn’t it simple Captain Athropod, I simply want to say congratulations!” Nobledrone Abdomen said that in a very sinister way that makes the Captain very anxious. Is he calling me here just to say congratulations? I think not, there must be something behind this Captain Athropod reasoned

“uhhh thank you sir. But you do realize that I haven’t done any valorous duties lately right?, I am not selected for participating in the Mild Western campaign nor have I been selected for the Canterlot infiltration as well. So why are you here congratulating me?” The Captain ask, his hoof is on his spear because if he says something wrong, he could easily end him right here right now.

“Oh but congratulations anyway Captain Athropod, for you have been a new piece of the puzzle to overthrow Queen Hivemind” Nobledrone Abdomen replied, “You see, Queen Hivemind unlike our great ruler Chrysalis has…..differing interests against the rightful representatives of the Changeling swarm. So we nobles finally agreed that we must overthrow Hivemind in order to bring greatness back to the Swarm” the noble replied nonchalantly and cruelly

Captain Athropod tensed after those words, overthrowing the Queen!? is he mad!? the Captain thought. “I’m sorry sir but I cannot take part in this conspiracy, Queen Hivemind is the new ruler of the Swarm and I cannot betray her trust”

“Oh but you have no choice Captain” the noble said as he signals the other conspirators to come in, spells ready. “If you don’t want to join then…..you die” 

“Not on my watch!” replied the Captain as he throws his spear at the traitor noble only to be blocked by a shield spell. “Cowards!! all of you!!” the Captain taunted as he charged into his bodyguards and killed one of them with a stab in the chest. His training proved to be exceptionally deadly in close quarters as he carved a path of death and suffering on the Nobledrone’s guards. 

“Traitooooorrrr!!!” He yelled as he was about to stab Abdomen only to be unexpectedly impaled by the side, he urked in pain as he saw that it was his twin brother, Lieutenant Arachnid that stabbed him. “Sorry brother, but the Swarm needs to prosper” his twin brother says as he finished the deed by pushing the spear deeper and deeper until his brother died by the wounds he caused.

With the dead body of the Captain being dragged away. The lieutenant saluted to the noble and begins preparations to don his now dead brother’s armour….and prepares himself for the coming coup. for once it's good that my brother have the position as one of Chrysalis's bodyguards, I always wanted to experience what being brother will be like Arachnid grinned selfishly as he prepares to depart with the Queen of the hive


Al Qafr, capital city of Saddle Arabia, 6:00AM, +15 days after event


“Okay move it over there!” Amira commanded the Saddle royal guard as they prepare themselves for the coming peace talks between Equestria and the Changelings. Things have to be perfect Amira thought as hs brother Haakim was busy managing the kitchens.

“Okay! the table is set milady” The Saddle guard bows as he backs down. Saddle Arabia has changed in the last 200 years, 200 years ago Stallions are in a disadvantegous position as Mares completely rule society as a whole, Stallions have minimal rights and are often prosecuted and being taken for granted. Things got especially bad during heat season when famous ‘Stallionhunts’ are organised by noblemares and even peasants where they will find hiding Stallions and essentially copulate with them without their consent. Ugh, don’t wanna think about our past again thought Amira as she let her mind wander aimlessly for a second.

“hmmm, okay that’s good” as she returned to her job seeing that the table is set, the proper decorations are laid in and everything else is in good order as well. “Might as well check on Haakim” as Amira walks down to the kitchen to see her brother busy managing the royal chefs for the occasion.

“hmm it’s good, bring it to the table” Haakim says as he taste tested each and everyone of the native Saddle Arabian cuisine he personally chose to be the main course for tomorrow’s lunch. Each one of them has been put on a preservation spell and will be presented to the Equestrian, French and Changeling delegation once the delegates finished their meeting.

“How’s the food going Haakim?” Amira asked
“It’s going pretty good sister, food’s mostly ready. I just have to prepare for the deserts” Haakim responded
“Oh okay then, I’ll inform father that you’re almost ready” Amira says as she leaves the kitchens and eventually enters the throne room where the sultan and his advisors are about to start the day by finishing some daily paperwork before opening court.
“Oh Amira! please come in dear daughter, I trust the spies are ready yes?”
“Of course father, all necessary preparations for spying and observation are being placed in. Haakim is about to finish preparations for the food and the tables are set” Amira reported
“Good, good. Now go on now, you’re free to do what you wish” Sultan Rabin says as she dismisses her daughter, effectively giving her free time.


Canterlot Airship Hangars, 7:00AM, +15 days after event


“Make way for the Princess!” a royal guard yells to the arriving princess and the French delegate. Hours before the Princess’s arrival, the royal airship crew was already busy preparing Princess Celestia’s personal airship: The Sol for immediate departure for Saddle Arabia. This airship is the newest breed of the ‘design 15’ airships originally made by Canterlot’s Airship Bureau as the Princess’s personal airship, and it really shows off the power of Equestrian engineering and magics when it comes to airship design. The design itself, despite being nearly 80 years old still holds true as the premier airship for the Princesses and is projected to last some 120 years until a new design would be made to replace the ‘design 15’ airships.

Capitaine Emma Caron observed the airship with awe. Although she has seen the pictures of airships like the hindenburg and how large it is, she is shocked that this airship is going to transpert her platoon, the delegate and the liaison into Saddle Arabia. Admittedly she is a bit peeved when the Princess said that the journey will take a couple of days, but she did also say that there are showers and a laundry pegasi taking care of your clothing in case the airship ran into bad weather and pegasi guards have to push them out.

“It’s amazing isn’t it” she was suddenly shocked by the question asked by Mr Julien. “When I thought that the airship is going to be big I never thought it's going to be like this!!, this airship by the looks alone looks larger than the Hindenburg!! I guess magic does come into play when the ponies make these things but this is still a pretty impressive feat” commented Julien.

“Well I do admit this airship is pretty awesome” when she suddenly heard the hangar doors being opened as light enters the still darkened airship hangar. “But I fear that if disaster strikes, this will simply be a larger Hindenburg and that’s not good for my health and wellbeing sir” as she saw the Princess talking to he captain of the ship. Probably about the flight she thought as she eyed the Sun Princess and the Captain of the airship.

“Well it’s a good thing we have moved to planes now don’t we?” Julien responded
“Definitely sir, definitely” Emma responded as well. Knowing full well the risks if that airship explode. Plus it doesn’t have a good carrying capacity as well she further thought.

Minutes later the Princess returned from the preliminary flight checks and greets both the captain and the delegate with a gentle nod.
“Captain, Julien” Celestia politely greets them
“Hello there Celestia, I trust that preflight checks are complete?” the delegate asks
“Oh Certainly, we just need a couple of minutes before the hangar doors are fully opened. You can come to the airship if you want, I can show you the sights!” as Celestia invites the French Delegation and their escorts for a tour of the airship.
“Yes of course Princess, I think a tour would be most beneficial for us accommodating to the Ponies’s expectations and sensibilities”
“Splendid! I’ll see you inside” as Celestia flapped her wings and flew into the bridge of the airship.


“I need some getting used to that, it’s not just everyday that you have magical horses flying around” Emma commented on the Princess’s sudden flight to the airship
“Meh i’ve been used to the Princess’s shenanigans. It’s honestly no big deal, c’mon bring your men and your baggage, we’re doing a preflight tour!” Julien says as they both enter the airship. Inside the airship is what you would expect from a monarch who have ruled this country for more than 1000 years. Ornaments of every kind litter the hallways and there are occasional glass panels potraying ancient combat armour likely used by Celestia herself. When they reached the bridge they are greeted by the Princess and Captain of the ship. 
“Welcome to the Sol 15” Celestia said with pride. “This is the fifteenth airship made specifically for the transportation of myself and my sister Luna into faraway places such as Saddle Arabia. This ship was constructed in the year 920AB (After Banishment) by the Royal Canterlot airship Bureau, still the governing body responsible for the creation of official airships such as these. We used to have combat airships immediately after Luna’s banishment but the eventual spending cuts have reduced the design bureau to only designing airships for diplomatic purposes only” as Celestia describes her airship with a hint of pride inside of her.

“Now let’s start the tour shall we?” Celestia said which are followed by a bunch of nods from the French delegation. “Don’t worry about your baggage, my staff will take care of it” as she nods to the Capain and the captain yells on a loudspeaker about maids and whatnot, soon after their baggages are carried away, Celestia starts the tour on the bridge, “this is the bridge of the airship, nothing much to see here except for that bust over there” as she pointed her hoof in the bust of a weird looking alicorn, she approached the bust and simply says “This is the bust of the first Captain of the Airship, Commander Easyglider”

The French delegation looked at the bust of the commander with mild amusement, it looks like someone just took the main character from top gun and transformed him into a female pegasus pony. Captain Emma was about to let out a snicker but was cut out by Mr Julien with a simple shake from his head.

“Now let’s go into the first hallway. We can see here that we have multiple historical paintings of famous figures of Equestrian history” As Celestia and the delegate walks through the long hallway. “This is the famous picture called ‘harbinger of death,’ It is a famous painting done by Leoneighdo and romanticises the banishment of my sister to the moon, I was about to put this painting into the trash bin but then Luna stopped me for some reason. Claiming that it is a part of our history and we shouldn’t discard it just like that” Celestia said as she presented a romanticised painting of Celestia using the elements of harmony against Nightmare Moon.

The meeting would continue for a couple of hours and would convince Julien that Celestia was better at politics than tour guides, she is incredibly meticulous about every single detail of EVERY SINGLE PAINTING that by the time their tour is finished. The airship is already in the air and was just arriving at Manehattan before their long journey to Saddle Arabia.

“Never again” Julien said as she entered the room and flopped himself into bed.


Strasbourg Harbour, 8:00AM, +15 days after event


The CMA CGM ship ‘Arizona’ has finally arrived into the hastily makeshift harbour of the newly reformed Strasbourg port authority. The port does have the capacity to handle large container ships with it being one of the largest river ports before the event, but the sheer amount of Equestrian merchant ships bringing in Iron ores, Copper ore and foodstuffs overwhelmed the organization branch or the port. Strasbourg was about to be completely overwhelmed with traffic before the French transport minister personally intervened and ordered the transport of crew and cranes from non essential harbours like Cherbourg, Calais and Dunkirk into Strasbourg immediately. 

“Strasbourg port authority, this is CMA CGM Arizona requesting pilot service over” the Captain of the ship asked the Strasbourg central control.
“CMA CGM Arizona, this is Strasbourg port authority, standby for pilot boat. Over and out” the central control replied. Immediately after that fateful meeting a couple of days ago after the displacement. CMA CGM was one of the first companies to make headway into the local workshops and mines in nearby Vanhoover (still the only Equestrian city open to trade as Los Pegasus is still too much of a risky investment because of the war and the other major cities like Canterlot and Manehattan doesn’t have a direct sea route into France yet) and offered their services for them. The blacksmiths and managers, once realizing how much profit they could make selling their ores into France happily agreed and the ship CMA CGM Arizona was the first ever French trade ship to enter Vanhoover harbour for commercial purposes only.

The loading process was incredibly awkward as it took 5 unicorns to lift a single container out of the ship. But after an arduous process taking some 2 hours of lifting the container, filling it with ores and Iron products and lifting it back to the ship. The ship was eventually filled with cargo and finally made it’s way back to Strasbourg harbour, where the Iron is about to be transported into many destinations as companies like Arcelormetal with it’s reopened Steel foundries needed as many Iron ores as possible. This is also followed by the rapid reindustrialisation of France in general, with Iron and coal mines thought long forgotten are reopened and massive recuitment drives to man the mines underway. The overall economic report for France might be a recession, but many economists predict that 2016 will be a year of record French economic growth unseen since the industrial revolution because France needed to produce it’s own electronics and items which is currently not being manufactured by either Equestria nor Amaterasu, filling many jobs and reducing the unemployment rate to near zero.

The Arizona was eventually docked safely into harbour and the gantry cranes starts the process of unloading the containers which will be transported into said reopened industrial sectors. This is the scene of the entirety of the port as CMA CGM is making a record killing committing half of it’s ships to trade with Equestria and the other half preparing for the greenlight from the government to trade with Amaterasu. This will be the main story of so many companies in France that day, cut off from a mature but very saturated market only to find a market unknown to them but has incredible potential to be capitalized, inadvertently powering the French economy as a result.


Toulouse ATV control center, 10:00AM, +15 days after event


“So not only do we need to revisit the old designs of the ATV, but we need it to be fireproof as well?” asked Francois Spoto, the project manager appointed to the revival of the new ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle. While contractors and boardmembers are overseeing the new layout of the new ESA general operations headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, France. 

“I know this is a very tough order and we need to revisit the drawing boards multiple times regarding about the issue. But do note that French Guiana is much closer to France than their current position on Earth, so it would be pretty easy for you to test prototypes determining what’s right and what’s wrong” flight operations director Herve Come responded. He knew the increase of the ESA’s budget from France is a very big deal because France wants to keep their absolute superiority in space, period. But the budget increase also allows for what remains of the ESA to be far more flexible with their funding and create new spacecraft designs. There are even talks about putting men on the Equestrian moon of all things!

Putting a man on the moon ha!!! with this new budget we can do it on the same timescale as NASA did if not faster!! we don’t have to rely on archaic navigational equipment anyways Herve thought as Francois pulls out the blueprint for the ATV and shows potential problems if they were to build a manned, heatproof ATV.

“So the main body of the ATV is fine, we can simply add some carbon composites and ceramic to form the heatshield around the body of the spacecraft. The main problem lies with protecting the solar panels from any form of destruction, and this is where it gets tricky” he said as he outlines the solar panel that power any form of in flight generation. “In order for the solar panels to survive reentry, we need to form some sort of protection when the solar panels are put back into the belly of the spacecraft. We can do this by a heatshield door which I heavily recommend but there are other alternatives” the project manager said

“What alternatives? you mean the alternative where we ditch the solar panels on reentry. NO way, no way at all are we going to do that Francois. Build the door and report to me immediately once the new ATV is done” Herve replied as he concluded the meeting as well.

“ugh fine fine Herve, don’t be such a dick about it” Francois groaned as he wrapped up the ATV blueprint and commences the rebuilding of France’s own Spaceship


******

The ‘Mild Line’ is created, a relatively new but extensive defensive line stretching all throughout the mild west in order to repel any Changeling attack

The French Economy is in massive contraction because they are cut off from Earth’s global trade network. But Emannuel Macron has commented that 2016 will be a “Golden year" for France, as trade agreements set up between France, Equestria and Amaterasu will take full effect in 2016.

The peace talks between Equestria, France and the Changeling Swarm are about to start

France will be the sole builder of the Automated Transfer Vehicle/ ATV for the moment

> 31st November, 2015
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Equestrian Airship “Sol 15”, 10:30AM, +16 days after event


“Sooo the new leader of this Changeling hive is Queen Hivemind correct?” Julien thomas asked Celestia. The trip itself has been a smooth ride through the mountains of the griffon realm and they finally managed to find one of the magical beacons littered in Saddle Arabia, and have been following beacon after beacon to reach the capital city: Al Qafr

“Yes Julien, now regarding the Saddle Arabians, they're usually just a bunch of nice ponies/horses whatever you wanna call them, and they are, but keep your operatives on alert. The first time we opened diplomatic relationships with the Saddle Arabians was after our victory over Discord and I was spied on for the entirety of the meeting until I called on their act. They finally relented but I learned a lesson to always monitor their spies everytime I visit them…..and I suggest for you to do the same Mr Julien.” says Celestia

“I’ll be sure to inform Capitaine Caron regarding the issue.” Julien says neutrally
“And enjoy some Saddle Arabian food while you’re at it. They’re vegetarian and they are very delicious.” Celestia responded as she saw Mr Julien leaving to inform the Capitaine about possible spying and surveillance
“I will princess, I will.”


Changeling Airship “Pride of the Badlands”, 11:00AM, +16 days after event


Queen Hivemind was having a wonderful day seeing the endless expanse that is the infamous Saddle Arabian Desert. “It really is a wonder how these Saddle Arabians can get any water at all! Where did they find their groundwater?” Hivemind wondered as she has seen enough of the Saddle Arabian desert and walks around the ship, inspecting every inch of it to make sure her Airship, the Pride of the Badlands is in tip top shape.

“Captain Athropod” Queen Hivemind welcomes the Captain as she saw the Captain inspecting a guard.
“Good morning milady” yeah milady my PLOT! as Lieutenant Arachnid greets the now queen of the new Changeling hive. It’s been a 2 day long journey ever since they departed from the badlands under the disguise of the night. Now they are just moving along in the middle of the desert, trying to find the magical beacons long forged by the Saddle Arabian mages in order to aid airship navigation in what is practically a desert.
“We’ve found the beacon milady, we’re about to reach the capital city now” One of the navigational mages said.
“Good, take us in helmsdrone”
“Yes milady” the helmsdrone replied as the airship swerves into the direction shown by the magical beacon.

After a couple of minutes of flight, Hivemind can saw the city of Al Qafr rolling in gently in the middle between sand dunes and the ocean. Being a city relatively isolated from the trade hubs of Manehattan and Griffonstone. Al Qafr grew in size because of the enormous amount of wealth Saddle Arabian traders brought in from the Kirin empires just east of the enourmous sea separating the Griffin-Horse continent and the Kirin continent. 

As the ship was about to enter the airship mooring station. She saw that the Equestrian airship was already moored in position and she can also saw Princess Celestia greeting the Sultan. Not to be undone, the Queen immediately took off with her wings not bothering to wait for the airship to be safely moored.

“Ah greetings Sultan Rabin ur Rashid. I trust that I was not late?” Queen Hivemind greeted the Sultan
“Ah yes, the newly crowned Queen Hivemind. Welcome to Saddle Arabia, I trust that all of you will have a wonderful stay in this little side of paradise” the Sultan responded with a soft tone the Queen did not expect.
“Thank you Sultan Rabin. Now let’s get towards the negotiations” the Queen replied
“Wait, first: we cannot start negotiations without eating lunch first now” Amira interjected “and we cannot even start our diplomatic hearing without enjoying ourselves to a tour of this wonderful city of Al Qafr, gateway to Saddle Arabia”
“Oh, if that’s the case. Then lead away Amira” Julien exclaimed


Al Qafr, capital city of Saddle Arabia, 12:00PM, +16 days after event


“So welcome to Saddle Arabia, a land of deserts and beauty. My name is Amira ur Rashid and I will be your host for this tour. Please see the magnificense of the Mustadiqqat kabira to your left” as she pointed her hoof to a very tall spire towering the entirety of the city “This is the spire where the first Saddle Arabians found groundwater after a very tenuous journey through the desert. A spire is erected in memory of those brave explorers who estalished this city and this civilization, and it remains one of our main sources of drinking water ever since.” said Amira as the delegates from France, Equestria and the Changelings see the towering spire

“Red team, establish connection” as Capitaine Emma is preparing herself and her team to spot out for any possible spies while the main delegation are busy seeing the sights 
“Toulouse standing by”
“Berber standing by”
“Red leader standing by”
“Mayotte standing by”
“All right team, today’s mission will be a simple game of hide and seek. You see anyone suspicious, inform me and Mr Julien right there will have a nice long talk with the Sultan. Prepare your Félin systems because we’re taking screenshots as evidence”
“Roger that”
“Roger that”
“Roger that”
“Red team...move out” said the Capitaine as operation hide and seek commences. 


Unicorn Range, Equestrian Columbia, 1:00PM, +16 days after event


“Bertrand, move the optical reflector right there” the leader of the survey team exclaimed as they are dead set to find an Iron vein in these mountains. Once the trade barriers between Equestria and France were lifted in conjuction with the trade deal. Imerys Mining bought a patch of land from the Equestrian authority to develop, as a tradeoff the company are to split the profits between them and the Equestrian authority 50/50. Bertrand and his team were one of the first teams sent to map out the patch of land bought by Imerys to develop and he is already seeing promise. A large copper field was detected by one of the aeromagnetic surveyors, and it is an incredibly huge field. His team had just finished surveying that grid when the operations supervisor called him to map out this patch of land.

“The drones are ready sir” another man exclaimed to the operations supervisor currently working on Bertrand’s geological survey and exploration team to map out and find possible Iron, copper and rare earth minerals in this grid.

“Good, send them up” the operations supervisor ordered as his teammate launched the drone into the sky to map out the veins. Immediately when the results come out both his team and his supervisor was in a state of shock as the data received indicates that this will be a very large Iron ore deposit.

“Oh mon dieu” the supervisor said as he immediately walks back to his chair. If his observations are right, then this might be the biggest Iron vein ever found outside the Great lakes Iron ores found in the US in the 19th century! “Well, this might be it boys. Put a mark on this grid saying very important right now.”

“Yeah you don’t need to tell us anymore sir” Bertrand replied as he ordered his team to put a flag on top of this grid saying ‘rich iron ore found’ as they continue mapping the area again, eagerly awaiting for the next motherlode.


Off the coast of the French EEZ, 2:00PM, +16 days after event


“Move the platform a little bit to the left” as the engineer orders the Captain of the ship to move the oil platform in the right position to begin drilling. With the discoveries of immensely huge oil reseves. Total with support of the French government has been pulling off all the stops to muster up whatever they can and send multiple oil platforms into the ocean to get the oil France desperately needs. Already 10 platforms are laid in the southern lunar ocean and 3 have been laid off the bay of biscay. This will be the first oil platform to be placed on the northern lunar ocean and head manager of the project Jean Petit Dubois is very happy with the laying out of the platform. It will just take a few minutes until the platform is lowered, all checks have been finished and drillings are to begin tomorrow.

As soon as the engineer gives him the thumbs up. Jean ordered the platform to be immediately moored and secured. “Prepare the moors, we’re going to anchor this bastard to the ground” the project manager said which is met with a flurry of yes sirs from the tug boats.

Eventually after a couple of minutes of tense waiting. He gets a call from his radio saying that the platform is moored and ‘can begin preoperations checks immediately’
“You’re cleared to do preoperations check over”
“Copy that, entering the platform right now” an operator responded as a small boat was dispatched from the small tug boat and the men climbed up the stairs to see that the platform is at full operational capacity and safety. This is going to take a couple of hours the project manager sighs as he is going to wait it out until this platform is safe and ready for operations.


Al Qafr, capital city of Saddle Arabia, 3:00PM, +16 days after event


“Spotted possible spy, taking picture” said Berber as he saw a ominous looking Saddle Arabian on the rooftop seeing them. Once the Commando Marine saw the supposed spy he quickly realized he’s spotted and ran as fast as he could
“Good job Berber, Toulouse, spotted anything yet?” Red leader commanded
“Yes Red leader, spotted another spy walking immediately. Taking picture and saying hellos now ma’am” as Toulouse took a picture and waved his hand happily. The spy, obviously realizing his cover is blown immediately walks away from the tour group as fast as he can.
“Good job red team, I think we took pictures of some 20 spies right now. Good job, keep up the good work. I’m informing our delegate here of our operations” said Red Leader as the Captain walks to Julien and taps his shoulder
“Yes Capitaine? what is it?” said Julien without looking at the captain
“We’ve found and took pictures of some 20 spies sir. You can call out the Sultan or his daughter sir. We have definite evidence that the Saddle Arabians are spying on us…..rather badly I might add”
“Thank you capitaine, I’ll bring up the issue to Amira right now.” Julien responded as they reached the gardens of Saddle Arabia

“Now in here we can see the majesty of the Saddle Arabian gardens. This place is very important to us because this highlights that growing plants in the dessert is very possible. It is built by Sultana Makesh ur Rashid during her reign in 940 AB” Amira said as they entered the gardens. But after she said that they are allowed to see and admire the view of the gardens for themselves. The French delegation approached her and the Sultan, and it looks like she knew what the delegate is going to talk about.

“Hey there” Mr Julien said as he approached the Sultan and Amira
“Greetings Mr Julien, we can talk about the formation of diplomatic relationships on a later date. Talk to me after you’ve finished the peace talks between your side and the Changelings”
“Oh that is a given Ms Amira, but what I’m wanting to discuss here is something more important.”
Amira tensed up, could they found our spies already? How could the French be so perceptive?
“You see…...I’ve been informed by my security team over there” as he waved his hand on the Commando Marines enjoying the view which is responded by a wave as well “That you have been spying on us. I have evidence of this act so instead of exposing the evidence for all the world to see, why don’t you come talk with us for the moment and resolve this issue.” Julien said with a very smug grin on his face
Amira never thought it would’ve come down to this. The only time where they were being called out for their spying was when Princess Celestia visited their kingdom all those years ago.

“Very well then, come with me. We have a lot to talk about” the Sultan interjected as he ordered Amira to continue with the tour.


Sultan Rabin ur Rashid’s throne room, 3:30PM, +16 days after event


“Oh dear….it appears our spies are not as well trained as your operatives” the sultan said as he sees a bunch of photos taken by Mr Julien’s escorts clearly showing Amira’s and Haakim’s spies. But how could they detect it so easily? Our spies are some of the best on the planet!? the Sultan thought.

“It appears so really. Captain Caron said that even simple caution and good observation (at least for the marines) will make these spies of yours stand out in the crowds rather easily” Replied Julien

The Sultan was utterly taken aback by the delegate’s words simple observation and caution? But our spies are trained to give their target a false sense a security for them to easily spy on them. Is there something different in the human psychology that makes it harder for our spies to lure them into it? the Sultan thought. In the end, Sultan Rabin decided that these French would be a net benefit for Saddle Arabia if they were close friends instead of being has beens and acquintances. We can learn from French operatives about their spying techniques and in return, the French can give us military and economic assistance reasoned the Sultan as he saw his guards wearing peculiar gear that must’ve been mechanical in nature.

“Okay then Mr Julien, regarding this issue. Saddle Arabia would issue a formal apology regarding our spying and would like to establish formal diplomatic relationships between Saddle Arabia and the French republic.” the Sultan said

“Okay then, I will inform the President regarding the issue. Do you want to establish embassies on French soil as well? Amaterasu and Equestria are building their embassies in Paris right now.”

The French have contacted Amaterasu? So they must be located somewhere in the lunar Ocean. The journey to trade with Amaterasu are only done by the finest Saddle Arabian sailors the Sultan thought as he replied with a ‘yes’ and concluded the meeting.


Kirin Trade ship ‘Amatsukaze’, 4:00PM, +16 days after event


“Are the porcelain ready Sanako? I hear that some of the representatives from this ‘Sotheby’s’ are very interested in auctioning them” Daimyo Sukejiro Saji asked the noblemare as she was preparing her ship for her travel not to Equestria, but to France.

“Oh yes of course, alongside that. I also bought in silverware, tea sets and even some preserved kirin foods like rice and edamame. As per Kirin tax laws I will give you 25% of the proceeds once I return. Just you wait Sukejiro, we’re going to make a killing here in France!” Sanako replied as she yells at one crewmember louging around to get back to work and asks the captain whether the ship is ready.

“Well good luck Sanako. France is much closer than Equestria but it’s still a very perilous journey ahead, I pray for your safety” The Daimyo says as he steps out from the Amatsukaze and waves goodbye at one of the many ships bound for France. All of them are bringing tea sets, silverware and porcelain items to France. Ever since the empress’s tour of the Provence, France and Amaterasu rapidly sign in a trade deal allowing French companies to buy and invest in Amaterasu if Amaterasan bussinesskirins are allowed to do the same. The empress presented the deal in the assembly of Daimyos and as usual, the Daimyos agreed to the terms laid out and opened the Kirin Empire of Amaterasu to French shipping and investment. 

Of course French investors must agree to Kirin labour laws and Kirin bussinesses must do the same. But the potential to make money is so great French and Kirin companies are willing to brush it off and invest in both countries anyway. Already he's hearing rumours that the French super company CMA CGM are sending their ships from La Rochelle and Brest in order to conduct commerce in his city. Just when my realm couldn’t be rich enough the Daimyo thought as he sees the trade convoy move onto the horizon, eager to make their pay in this brave new nation called France.

The Daimyo and The Noble probably wouldn't know about this, but both nations are going to benefit from this trade deal heavily and this deal will lay down the foundation for the industrialisation of Amaterasu and eventual dominance of Amaterasu in the western continent for years to come. 


TF1 headquarters, 8:00PM, +16 days after event




“Hello and welcome to 20 heures, I am your host Claire Chazal and let’s see the headlines for tonight”

CMA CGM announces shipping is about to resume to normal as trade barriers between Amaterasu and France are broken down

“In a stunning first move made by the French shipping giant. CMA CGM announces that they will be conducting trade operations between Equestria and Amaterasu. Ships based in Strasbourg as well as La Rochelle and Brest have departed to foreign ports to buy supplies. CEO of CMA CGM Jacques R Saade commented that ‘although layoffs are very possible. The chances that we are going to rehire them come 2016 are very high’”

French delegation have arrived in Al Qafr for peace talks

“French foreign minister Laurent Fabius has announced that Mr Julien Thomas, the French ambassador to Equestria has arrived in the Saddle Arabian capital of Al Qafr. Peace talks are about to start between the French, Equestrian and Changeling delegations tomorrow.

The first prototypes of the new ESRC armoured vehicles have been produced

With the increase of the defense budget. The first prototypes of the fast tracked ESRC program have been delivered to the French Army. The French Army are about to conduct field tests with the vehicle to ensure that said vehicle have met quality standards”

CNRS labs announces about the existence of magic in this world, claims that they can tap it to a device to perform basic telekinesis

“Although it has been observed multiple times by the sentient species of this world. CNRS, the French National Center of Scientific Research has just confirmed the existence of magic. They also further claimed that they have made a small rudimentary device attached to the hand that performs basic telekinesis. CNRS president Alain Fuchs has said that ‘The potential cost savings done by magic is near limitless and we are integrating this newfound knowledge into our list of known natural properties’”

*Intro for le 20h rolls in again*

“Hello and welcome to 20 heures. CMA CGM, the French shipping giant has given a statement regarding trade between France, Equestria and Amaterasu. Jacques R Saade have commented that trade missions between the company and Amaterasu as well as Equestria will benefit all sides and bring the French economy back into shape”

*Skips into a video about Jacques R Saade giving a Press statement*

“And it is in our great interest to see France back in shape in this brave new world. As I am speaking, our remaining fleet have been moving out of Brest as well as La Rochelle to buy Kirin goods and other items demanded from the French market. This trade mission as well as the blossoming of French-Equestrian-Amaterasan relationship will benefit all sides and will bring the French Economy back in shape next year. Thank you very much” as the CEO ended his announcement and points his hand to a reporter

“Hello there, what are your comments regarding France’s economic future now that this country is not on earth anymore”
“I will say that the loss of Earth’s trade network has been a very damaging event for the French economy, but just like any good Frenchmen. We survive and we will thrive in this brave new world. I predict that there will be hard times looming for France in the near future but I am confident that we will resolve it amicably” he points his hand to another reporter
“Are you planning to initiate mass layoffs in the near future?”
“Maybe, most of the staff that are employed by CMA CGM are based overseas and the staffing of CMA CGM is reduced drastically as a result. I am not heavily considering layoffs as we are starting to make profit again but it remains to be seen whether or not layoffs are necessary in the near future.”

*Video then cuts back into the newsroom*

“The French diplomatic delegation has arrived in Al Qafr, capital city of Saddle Arabia and will begin diplomatic negotiations with the Changeling swarm tomorrow. French foreign minister Laurent Fabius has commented that the situation is ‘acceptable’ and he hopes that the negotiations ‘will benefit both sides.’”

*Skips into a video showing Laurent Fabius stepping out of a car*

“Just now at 3PM,. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has made an official announcement regarding the state of the French delegation that entered Saddle Arabia”

*Video skips to minister Laurent Fabius speaking*

“The situation happening right now in Saddle Arabia has been acceptable and I have ordered Mr Julien Thomas to enter in negotiations with an open mind and a sound judgement. Hopefully these negotiations will benefit both sides of this conflict.”

*Video then skips back to the newsroom*

“Now moving on the defense news. The new French Army combat vehicle have been rolled out of the assembly line for the first time. This new French Army combat vehicle called the ESRC will be the replacement for the aging ERC-90 sagaie’s and the AMX-10’s. The first vehicles have been moved to Camp de Chalons proving grounds for live testing.”

*skips to a video of a vehicle moving around in the proving grounds*

“The new ESRC vehicle will be the newest addition to the French armoured force. This vehicle has allowed the Armee de Terre to replace the aging ERC-90s and AMX-10s. This new vehicle will form the basis as the general combat vehicle of France and alongside the VBMR will serve as the chief armoured vehicle of the Armee de Terre, relegating the role of the AMX Leclerc as a spearhead once more.”

*Video then skips into a 3d model of the vehicle*

“The vehicle will be divided into 2 main armoured variants, the light and the heavy variant. The light variant will carry a 40mm cannon alongside reactive armour while the heavy variant will be provided with a larger 110mm cannon and active defense systems to protect the vehicle. Both these vehicles have been said to be more effective than their previous counterparts and will provide the French Army with a more versatile and modern armoured force”

*Video then skips to the newsroom*

“And on our final headline, magic. The force that has long been rumoured to be a myth has come back in force as CNRS labs have confirmed the existence of magic in their announcement. Further reports also suggests that magic can be channeled into productive activities immediately through the usage of ‘magic gauntlets’ which are gloves that allow the channeling of magical energy at the user’s disposal”

*Video then skips to a bunch of scientists experimenting with the gauntlet*

“Magic is real and magic has come back to present itself in the French national psyche. Researches at CNRS labs have confirmed the existence of magic through their experiments with dark energy. It has been confirmed that under this new world, dark energy is more present and allows the scientists at CNRS to transform this raw dark energy into seemingly useful means like telekinesis.”

*Video skips into a scientist lifting a glass cup of water with Alain Fuchs commenting on the occasion*

“This telekinesis ability is still new and needs time to be perfected, but I’m confident that with the right amount of time and resources we can unlock the mystery of this dark energy and propel the sciences to new heights.” 

*Video then skips to the newsroom*

Thank you very much for watching 20 heures, this is Claire Chazal signing off

*Roll outro*
> 1st December, 2015
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Triomphant class Submarine Téméraire, somewhere in the Southern Lunar Ocean, 3:00AM, +17 days after event


With the negotiations in Saddle Arabia underway, the French has dispatched a bunch of ships throughout the Lunar Ocean in order to conduct exploration missions to find a passage to the far eastern continent. The expedition is conducted because when Mr Julien asked Princess Celestia about a naval passage to Saddle Arabia, she simply said that ‘we haven’t explored enough of the planet to know that’. This expedition is conducted in lieu with the satellite map provided because during their mapping operations, the ESA have found a passage at the southern tip of the continent and the Téméraire has been dispatched to confirm whether or not the ‘Guiana passage’ is passable or not.

“Capitaine sir! the ship is about to reach the passage in ETA 15 minutes, sonar and radar detected nothing unusual”
“roger that Seaman, proceed with the course”
“Aye aye sir”

As the Téméraire approaches the ‘Guiana passage.’ The Submarine radar pings as well as sonar signals starts getting louder and louder.

“uhh sir, sonar pings are getting louder. Permission to arm torpedoes and prepare Exocets sir”
“That is confirmed seaman, prepare torpedoes and put them up in all four tubes. Arm exocets as well, don’t wanna caught unprepared in this magical world after all”
“Yes sir”

As the Téméraire reaches the passage, the radar is starting to go haywire with signals. It appears there must be something interfering with the submarine’s sensors

“Capitaine! this is getting very weird sir. Permission to dive up to 300 meters sir”
“belay that order seaman, I want to know what the hell is interfering with the sub’s sig…” the Capitaine never got to finish his words as the sub suddenly lurched, throwing most of the crew around.

“DAMAGE REPORT!!”
“Ship’s mostly fine sir, detecting target 500 meters on the peninsula, target is labeled as hostile sir. Permission to engage!” 
“Permission granted Seaman, fire the Exocets NOW!!” 

The familiar sound of a ‘pop’ followed by the sudden shirek of multiple missiles was heard

“Exocets are launched sir! It appears that further scans confirms the attack came from the direction of the target”
“DAMMIT SEAMAN I CAN’T DO ANYTHING WITH THAT INFO!! what does the attack look like? depth charges? torpedoes? and how the hell did they get past the Téméraire’s sensors”
“Sir, further investigation reveals that the target is purposefully jamming us while being under the disguise of a magnetic anomaly, the attack looks like a depth charge sir”
“Good seaman, how long till the missiles hit the target”
“The missiles will hit the target at ETA less than 1 minute”

After seconds of waiting as the ship conducts every single evasive maneuvering on the book. Positive contact has been made and blip on the radar fades.

“Seaman….prepare for emergency resurface and approach that peninsula very carefully, prepare the Commando teams for a land incursion as well”
“Understood capitaine” as the seaman grabs the shipwide radio and says “General quarters, general quarters. All hands this is not an emergency, Submarine is about to conduct emergency resurfacing. General quarters general quarters, this is not an emergency. Commando teams, prepare for land incursion to identify downed target” this announcement was put on repeat as the submarine resurfaces a couple of minutes later.

The submarine then approaches the desolate peninsula, weapons hot all the way, and then deploys the small Commando team to the coast.

“Move out! Move out! fan out and approach target carefully, Jean prepare that LRAC just in case”
“yes sir” as private Jean lowers a huge anti-tank missile launcher in position and prepares the missiles inside for firing “missile hot and ready sir, you can approach the target now”
“Understood private. Team Gray, move out” The squad leader ordered the team as they approached the downed target. Nightvision readied and laser sights pointed at the target
“Capitaine, what is it that you’re seeing?” The Captain of the ship asks
“uhh it appears to be an Alicorn sir”
“Come again, did you say Alicorn?”
“Positive contact sir, charred remains of a yellow coated Alicorn confirmed sir. Appears to be female as well”
“Good job Capitaine, bring that Alicorn in a bodybag, I’m contacting the President about the situation”


Elysee Palace, 5:00AM, +17 days after event


“Mr President, we have an urgent situation at the southern passage” the defense minister abruptly wakes up the President as he was sleeping soundly in his bed
“ugh...what is it le Drien? did you find another Alicorn? heh” the President replied sarcastically
“Apparently yes sir, the Téméraire just shot down a hostile Alicorn just off the coast of the guiana passage, further searches reveal an ancient city nearly destroyed by years of neglect” The president shot up after the defense minister’s report
“What else do we know about that city, If fantasy books have taught me one thing. Is that ancient cities with powerful guardians usually contain powerful secrets as well”
“The Téméraire unfortunately have to leave the area sir. But we have put a notice ordering ships to stay away 500 meters from the area where the Téméraire is attacked sir, all shipping is about to get the notice in the morning”
“good then, continue with your job. I’m going to address this after 6 O’clock” the President dismisses the defense minister as he goes back to sleep.


Negotiation room, Saddle Arabia, 7:00AM, +17 days after event


“Hello and welcome to the formal peace talks between the Changeling Swarm, The Principality of Equestria and The Republic of France. My name is Sultan Rabin ur Rashid and I will be moderating the peace negotiations for I am a neutral subject. We will first discuss land and concessions first, take a 2 hour break and return to discuss the matter of Changeling Love sharing and lovemaking. Will all parties agree to this segment of the negotiations” the Sultan declared as negotiations between France, Equestria and the Changelings are about to begin. Hopefully we can reach an agreement today. The last time formal negotiations with the Changelings are conducted. It all descended into namecalling and mockery until I need to forcefully calm them down, hopefully I won't do that again he thought

“yes I agree” said Princess Celestia
“yes I agree” said Julien Thomas
“yes I agree” said Queen Hivemind

Realizing that the negotiations are starting, the Sultan first addresses the subject of land “30 days after the Changeling attack on Canterlot. Equestria deploys troops into the badlands in order to depose Queen Chrysalis” He can see the new Queen grating her teeth when she said ‘depose Queen Chrysalis’. “The operation is an utter failure and as a result, Equestria was left with practically no military and just when the world thought that the royal sisters would be deposed. France intervened and things suddenly took a turn for the worse for the swarm. Is this report correct?”

“Very correct Sultan, the Changelings have conducted an unlawful incursion into Equestrian territory and I wish that the swarm would pay for war reparations as part of the treaty” Mr Julien Started

“Absolutely not Mr Julien, you do realize that the Changelings have been in a desperate position for quite a long time and now you wanted war reparations after you’ve smashed our armies?” The Queen rebutted 

“Please note that although your Swarm has been declining for centuries, it is their own resistance to change that bought them into said position. Now we can offer you tax free food exports and a free breeding ground in the mild west as long as you are willing to be an Equestrian protectorate as part of the treaty, it is very reasonable and I hope that you would accept our proposition” Princess Celestia replied

“Of course you would claim that your treaties are reasonable, now that you have defeated us you now have the right to dictate terms, so 'reasonable' is just agreeing to your demands isn't it? where’s the reasonable Celestia that we have heard oh so may times by your subjects?”  The Queen sarcastically replied

“The reasonable Celestia is the Princess that have tried to make advancements to ensure the prosperity of the Changeling race through 1.546 treaties throughout a 1000 year period. Some of these treaties Celestia proposed are some of the most reasonable I’ve ever seen and even some concessions are given. But apparently your Kings and Queens of the past decided to let their pride get into them and rejected all 1.546 treaties. If that is not reasonable, I don’t know what is” Julien quickly defended Celestia

“Oh human, you’re so gullible. These ‘treaties’ are mere gestures from Celestia and we have every right to deny every one of them, we know that these treaties are secretly a ploy for Celestia to secretly overturn Changeling society in line with their own so we rejected every single advances they made to ensure their domination over our race. I assume that from a species so soft they have to attack their enemies from afar that you do not understand such concepts as honour and integrity” The Queen slyly replied

“First of all. DO NOT ACCUSE ME OF SOMETHING I DID NOT DO NOR DO I PLAN TO DO!” Celestia suddenly replied in fury as the temperature of the room just rose a little bit higher, “We have every right to demand war reparations as well as ensure that you are NOT a threat to Equestria by making you a protectorate. Do note that you are negotiating in WEAKNESS and that being unreasonable is an act I do not take lightly. So please….ACCEPT THESE TERMS and ensure that your race have a future, I have enough of these foolish demands!”

The Changeling Queen was about to snap before the Sultan suddenly interjects the meeting with 3 loud knocks. “Alright alright calm down everyone, Queen Hivemind. I understand that this is your first time negotiating a peace treaty. But do know that you are negotiating from a position of weakness and that not a lot of ponies will support your cause if you get all your demands met”

“but, the Changeling Swarm cannot receive such a humiliation!” as the tough demeanor of the Queen snaps “We must ensure our race’s integrity and we cannot be a lapdog to the Equestrians! this treaty is an infamy!”

“First of all, you will not be a lapdog Hivemind, you will have a say in the Canterlot court and you can also decide your own foreign policy. It’s just that in an event of a war that you must come to the aid of Equestria and help us defeat the threat, you are even allowed to trade with us even” 

The Queen finally realized the Celestia has finally made her move. There is no position she can move now and continuing the war with Equestria would spell the end of the Changelings. In the end she relented and said “I accept all your terms Celestia, may….this treaty brings peace to both nations” she finally signed the peace treaty and waited for her chance to talk about the issue of love sharing and lovemaking. She was about to shake hooves with Celestia when suddenly the door burst open and a changeling loudly yelling “DOWN WITH THE USURPER” was heard. Oh plot the Queen thought as the French, Equestrian and Loyalist Changeling guards engage the turncoats.


Living quarters, Sultan’s palace, 9:00AM, +17 days after event


Lieutenant Archnid walks in circles, desperate to find out whether or not his conspirators are safe. If it’s only me then I would rather die in glory charging the room than die here Arachnid thought as he continues to walk in circles on his room. Suddenly the door is suddenly opened and out comes a bunch of turncoat Changeling guards fully intent to wage a final act of glory in order to capture the Sun Princess, Depose the usurper of the throne and give the French a bloody nose while at it.

“Ahhh fellow loyalists, welcome. I guess I didn’t need to tell you anymore about the plan do I?” he simply asked his fellow broodmates which is responded which a bunch of nods and wing ruffling. Perfect he thought to himself as he simply smiles and says “move out” rather quietly. After that everything has been a buzz for Arachnid as the group prepares their armour, ready their spells and marches into the negotiation room. 

When Arachnid sees the Saddle Arabian guards blocking the door he quickly nods his head to his comrades as they fire a blast which instantly kill the Saddle Arabians before they could even respond. The group then waits patiently at the door and when Arachnid nods, forcefully slams the door forward as Arachnid shouted “DOWN WITH THE USURPER!!” 


Negotiation room, Saddle Arabia, 9:00AM, +17 days after event


“Open fire!” shouted Capitaine Caron as the room descended into a hailstorm of bullets and spells. As soon as she heard the Changeling shouted the words ‘down with the usurper’ she knew what is about to happen.

“Traitors to the Chanelings, you di...” “got him” as the French Commando Marines’s training kicked in and they start dropping the Changelings one by one. As the firefight between Changeling, Royal Guard, Saddle Arabian Guard and French Commandos continued. The initial objective of killing Queen Hivemind suddenly became more obscure by the moment. 

“Form shield bubble!!” she heard a Changeling yell and then she saw it. Changelings are forming a protective shield around the rest of the group and are slowly advancing towards the delegates who are now hiding in sight. 

“Team!! switch to full auto and give those bugs a taste of some 5.56! break their shields now!”
“understood captain”
“understood captain”
“understood captain”

and with that the French would earn the distinction as the ‘shield breakers’ by both the Equestrian and Saddle Arabian royal guards. The already loud sound of the guns the French are firing got even louder when the started firing it in full auto. The shield just broke after the first 10 rounds and what happened next was a slaughter as the Commandos tore apart through the Changeling lines with Grenades and bullets. Once the smoke clears and the traitors dead, the captain asked for a bodycount

“20 traitors sir, Queen is shot but it’s only a grazing wound. Mr Julien and Celestia are fine” replied Toulouse as they check the now dead Changeling bodies for any signs of life

“and what about the Sultan?” Emma Caron asked
“Thd Sultan is…...dead sir, Rabin was unfortunately caught in the first magical blast and did not survive the hit” as Mayotte examined the now dead body of Sultan Rabin ur Rashid
“oh no….” Celestia quietly says as he brought the now dead Sultan’s body into the table and closed his eyes in respect
“you there!” Celestia yelled at a Saddle Arabian guard
“Yes your highness?” The guard replied
“Bring me Amira ur Rashid. Tell him that traitors have killed his father and bring her here. I want to personally comfort her”
“as you wish your highness” the guard responded


Sultan’s palace, Saddle Arabia, 12:30PM, +17 days after event


Amira is just sitting there, utterly dumbfounded looking at the dead body of her father as he is about to be prepared for cremation, she wanted to shed a tear but founds out that she can’t. 

“h...how did it happen” Amira asked, Hivemind was about to respond but was interrupted by Celestia simply shaking her head
“it happened so fast. The turncoat Changelings suddenly burst open the door and tried to kill everyone inside. Fortunately Hivemind managed to form a bubble shield but her shield did not form fast enough before a stray magic blast hit your father in the chest” Celestia responded with a clearly saddened tone. She was also good friends with the Sultan and the passing of Rabin was yet another one of her friends that died
“I….I should’ve been there, I should’ve protected father while he was under attack. It’s my fault, my fault, MY FAULT!!” Amira responded with an emotional state Celestia know all too well.
“It’s okay Amira, you shouldn’t…..”
“NO SHUT UP!! I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE TO PROTECT MY FATHER!! THESE CHANGELING WHORES AND TAIL LIFTERS SHOULD PAY WITH THEIR LIVES!! I...I” she finally broke down after that and cried while hugging Celestia in an effort comfort herself 

“shhhh it’s okay Amira, it’s not your fault, shhhh calm down. Everything’s gonna be alright” Celestia replied in a motherly voice to comfort the still crying Sultana of Saddle Arabia. To a passerby the scene would’ve looked like a mother comforting her children. Once Amira has calmed down Celestia then asked her something

“Everything’s going to alright okay? do you want me to escort you to your quarters and stay with you for the night?”
“*sobs* yes…..please” replied Amira as both of them walked out of the room filled with servants and tried to comfort each other throughout the day.


Elysee Palace, 1:00PM, +17 days after event


“What happens after that Julien?” President Hollande asks. He was quickly informed about the attacks that has taken place in the pace talks and quickly called the French defense minister as well as the foreign minister into the Murat room to talk about the issue. Just when the Alicorn body is not enough he thought as today will be a very busy day indeed. 

“After the attacks on the peace talks are destroyed by our French commandos. Saddle Arabia has put the city on high alert and Saddle mages are prowling the streets looking for Changeling spies” he responded

and it all just gets better and better the president thought, with the remains of the Alicorn put on a freezer in a sub on it’s way to Toulon. President Hollande has been an extremely busy man, and the attacks on the Sultan’s palace just increased his workload he can practically say goodbye to sleep for the moment. Well at least it’s not monday, there should probably be less work for tomorrow.

“alright then, keep me informed and tell Celestia about the Alicorn body would you” The President commnds the Ambassador with a clearly tired tone and closed the telephone.

“so then, le Drien what do you have about the Alicorn body?”
“the body is roughly at the same height as Princess Celestia, has yellow coat and by the looks of it. A bright blue mane that is shaped like Daring Do’s hairstyle” the defense minister replied
“how the hell did that Alicorn then managed to harm our ships then? I heard reports from the captain that although the damage of that spell is only superficial, the Téméraire still got hit even though it’s one of our most advanced subs yet, how can the Téméraire not detect a very obvious target?” 
“Mr president, although I cannot provide a clear cut answer to that, the crew of the Téméraire reported about strong magnetic interferences in the area. At first the crew shrugged it off as an anomaly but when the ship got hit. The captain deduced that the Alicorn must be conducting some sort of an interference spell to jam our sensors with so much stuff it’s hard to pick up right and wrong. Don’t worry though, after filtering out the junk signal the sub managed to lock on to the target and…..well yeah” 
“Well, can’t blame the crew for tardiness. It is a mission to some desolate wasteland” The president replied as he dismissed the meeting and got back to work


Golden Oaks Library, 6:00PM, +17 days after event


“Spike….I think I’m seeing that new moon again, bring in the notepad” Twilight said as a tired Spike entered the room
“ugh Twilight. Isn’t this a bit excessive….we’ve watched that new moon for over 2 days now, and i’m tired” Spike complained as he gave Twilight the notepad
“Spike? are you saying that we should be….tardy? granted i’ve learned my lesson a couple of days ago but it’s still very preferable to be on time isn’t it Spike?”
“Whatever you say Twilight, i’m going to bed. Getting an early nap is always nice” as Spike goes upstairs into his bed.
“Spike? Spiiiike? ugh, such a lazyhead. Well, more time for me to observe this thing. Train’s coming in only 6 more hours and the night is sitll young!! it’s so exciting!” Twilight said as she pulled out her quill and notepad and starts taking notes on the object passing through Ponyville
“hmm, Judging from the orbit and from the size of the object. It appears that it must be a human object, it’s size is too small to be natural and it’s shape is too precise as well. Hmmm, why are humans putting objects into space? is it because they have some kind of duty laid down from their ancestors? is it because of wealth? well, I’ll later find out in the train to Canterlot anyway so why bother?” deduced Twilight as she continues to monitor these artificial moons orbiting Equestria.

******

Triomphant Submarine Téméraire just shot down an Alicorn, remains of her body to be transported to a military autopsy facility in Toulon. The French have told Mr Julien to inform the Princess on the matter

Twilight observes new objects found on the night sky after the displacement. Thinks that this is a human object 

A terrorist plot was foiled as Changeling usurpers have failed in their task of overthrowing Queen Hivemind. the queen personally said that ‘i’m going to have along talk with nobledrone abdomen’ indicating a purge in the upper echelons of Changeling leadership might be possible

the first oil platforms in the northern lunar ocean are declared operational and are pumping oil immediately
> 3rd December, 2015
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Canterlot, 7:00AM, +19 days after event


As the airship finally touches down on the Hangar, out comes a very frazzle maned Celestia and an equally tired Julien as well. Daring Do quickly realizes that something has happened on their trip back home, oh she knew about the events that has transpired in Al Qafr but this looks like something else entirely.

“Hey guys, what’s wrong?” she approaches both the French Ambassador and the Princess of Equestria
“Oh it’s nothing Daring. I need to speak to Luna Immediately” as Celestia leaves for the castle, looking quite tired all the way through
“gee what’s her problem? I know Celestia can get very grumpy at mornings but this is something else, so Julien? you ruffled her feathers or something?” Daring asked Julien about what’s wrong with Celestia
“Let’s just say that this is a state secret for now” Julien responded
“fine fine fine” Daring grumpily responded. I hate secrets!! she screamed to herself as they finally leave the hangar and reaches Daring’s house. 
Now after the French have set up office in Canterlot castle, Daring Do has personally offered Julien to be roomates in her house, he was about to refuse but Daring won the argument by showing him the rent prices in Canterlot, and they’ve been roomates ever since. Not that I don’t want him to stay, afterall he’s…....kinda cute Daring blushed at that thought, ever since she has met the French ambassador, after all the misadventures they went through, from meeting the mane 6 to helping him getting some sort of understanding of the Saddle Arabians. She has kinda developed a light crush on him, their relationship have developed to the point that Daring felt emotionally attached to the French ambassador, Well it’s not like interracial relationships are frowned upon anymore, met my fairshare of hippogriffs during my travels, though I do wonder if humans and ponies are…..compatible she further thought as both Daring and Julien reached her mansion.

Now she knew that there is A LOT to explain when he first saw her house, It’s located in the higher levels of the city and it’s practically a well manicured mansion. He wondered just how much her adventures pay off when she told him that her family tree has been essentially one long trail of adventurers dating back to Luna’s banishment. Her house was built by her family and sponsored by the University of Canterlot because her contributions and her family’s contributions to the field of archeology and archaelogy has been substantial and the University management is compelled to sponsor some of the bills for housekeeping this huge mansion. 

“Y’know Daring, I still think that you’re a real life Lara Croft. The differences between you and that girl is so uncanny” Julien commented as a bunch of maidsponies opened the mansion doors and greeted both Daring and Julien

“Yeah, i’ve heard about her in one of those ‘internet sessions’ you gave to me, and I think we would be best friends if we were to meet. Sadly she’s fictional so meh...whatever” Daring replied as they both entered the dining hall and they are both met with a Griffon chef that welcomes them to a set of full breakfasts. “Yo gustave, what ya got for me and my friend here for breakfast?” Daring asked

“Oh Daring isn’t it obvious? the finest salads made by yours truly with some eclairs as dessert, complete with coffee or tea as drinks. Oh and some finest fish bought at Canterlot market preserved and presented for the human ambassador” Gustave replied as he left the two unlikeliest of friends together to eat breakfast.


Canterlot Caste, 7:15AM, +19 days after event


“I just don’t understand Luna! how in the world did the French managed to find THAT city?” Celestia circles around her throne room like someone who’ve been told earth shattering news. It’s just not possible!! that city was supposed to be destroyed in the last war!!! how did some remnants of the city survive! and an Alicorn out of all things was still out in the prowl, Mersna what are you doing!? she thought

“I also don’t understand sister. That city was a major hub and the King’s southern campaign should’ve ended the remnants of the resistance…..until we came in of course” Luna replied

“oh dear…….if the resistance still manages to survive. We could have a big problem in our hooves Luna! forget the return of the Crystal Empire, this can spell end to Equestria!! just imagine if Nes’Kledan is still out there!” said a concerned Celestia.

“I know Celestia, the beast CANNOT return and we will ensure it. I’ve also got the fact that Princess Cadence was all part of the plan isn’t it Celestia?”

“Of course it has been Luna, Alicornifying the ponies was a backup plan in case something happened to us, after overthrowing the king we did gain ascendancy but I fear the beast might plan something…..terrible right now Luna, the Ponies are the only race that has Alicorn potential and I'm afraid I need to fast track Twilight's before she's even ready!” Celestia’s tone was raised in concern. In all of my history of ruling Equestria, I never thought that THIS could be presented as a problem. Sombra can wait, the beast CANNOT

“Ah...but it appears that fate is on our side isn’t it Celestia?” Luna suddenly have a brilliant Idea, a crazily brilliant Idea but a brilliant Idea nonetheless

“what is it Luna? are we going to open the forbidden archives in the library? are we going to strike a deal with Tirek and Discord? because if that’s your Idea to defeat the beast, then…...frankly no” Celestia replied nonchalantly

“Ah but it isn’t one of those Ideas Celestia, we can use the humans as the vanguard. The fact that they managed to shot down Mersna with their weapons, WITHOUT MAGIC might I add is more than enough evidence that they can handle these threats. Imagine if we were to give them the knowledge of the arcane and let them incorporate our magic into their technology! we would have an army ready to face the beast before you know it!”

Celestia could only stare at her sister slack jawed, In all of my history I never thought she could concoct THIS craziness of a plan. Using the French as a Vanguard!! how do you THINK they would respond if we were to ask them to die for our troubles Celestia thought as she gave her response, “I…...I never thought you could be so careless Luna, the French are strong yes…….and I do see them possibly defeating the resurgent Alicorns with their own mechanical contraptions yes…...but isn’t it a bit too risky to inform them about the scale of what they’re fighting against? these Alicorns know no fear Luna, and what would be the human response if we were to ask them to die on the battlefield for our past troubles. It’s just not right isn’t it?”

“but it is the only way Celestia, they are by far the only species with adequate capability to defeat these Alicorns and as a bonus, we are good friends with them. I just formally ratified the Equestrian-French alliance yesterday in fact” Luna responded

“yes we might be allied with them Luna, but it still doesn’t discount the fact that they might need an incentive in order for them to agree to this! what I truly fear from your plan outside of giving the humans even more knowledge in weaponry is that the French might gain enough leverage and legitimacy for them to make us their protectorate. And I don’t need to tell you how bad being a protectorate is don’t you? remember the first Crystal crisis?”

“yes yes yes, I do admit to our mistake of ignoring the Crystal Ponies’s plight and only in the last minute did we interfere. Managing protectorates are hard…….and you just signed a treaty making the Changelings our protectorate don’t you”

“Luna…..don’t talk about that. This Equestrian protectorate will be managed differently than how we manage the Crystal Empire. but back to the topic, you do realize my concerns are valid yes?” Celestia responded

“Very valid indeed Celestia, and that’s why in order to avoid future problems with the French having a legitimate reason to make us their protectorate, I suggest ceding our claims to the undiscovered west to the French” Luna replied

“I know you’re going to say that…...and I can’t say I have a better Idea myself, the undiscovered west is the largest uncolonized piece of land that we laid claim to and ceding them to the French might as well be beneficial for us, only because they must then agree to find out and contain/ or neutralize the rest of the Alicorns in stasis (presumably of course)”

“I’m afraid that we won’t have a say on the matter if Julien decides to push the issue anyway. Very well then, I’ll go inform the French office about bringing back Mersna’s body to Canterlot. After all she’s been through, she deserves a good rest” Luna said as she leaves the throne room.

“based from the torturous experience the king brought to her. No wonder she joined the rebellion against the king, please bring her home Luna. It’s my fault that Mersna is now in some French facility being dissected” as both ponies departed and left for their living quarters after a very long shift for Luna, and a very stressful day for Celestia. The day court is closed for today as the fallout between the Changelings and Equestrians in Al Qafr meant that Celestia needed some rest after reasurring Hivemind that Equestria would support her actions of purging the upper echelons of Changeling leadership once she returns. And she's too tired talking with the Changelings via dragonfire to do any sort of work for today's daycourt anyway.


Toulon naval base, 9:00AM, +19 days after event


After 2 days of rough seafaring with the crew always on alert following the attack of their submarine, the Téméraire finally manages to reach the friendly harbour of Toulon and docks immediately into it’s naval base. Once the ship is docked a flurry of scientists, doctors and researchers accompanied by armed soldiers approached the exiting crew who is bringing out the bodybag containing the Alicorn. “Hello there, my name is head researcher Louis Delacroix and I will be the one performing the autopsy of the dead Alicorn body” a doctor said.

“Oh yes, the body is badly damaged following the impact of the exocet but I’m still surprised that it’s still roughly intact. Further superficial assessment indicate that the body has a lot of damaged internal organs and shrapnel as well as heavy tears in the coat and skin. Possibly suggesting that the Alicorn casted a last minute shield spell once she realizes the missiles are coming in her direction” the seaman who is in charge of the Alicorn body replied.

Hmm very interesting, so this Alicorn manages to cast a shield spell (albeit a last minute one) but still fails to stop the missile, I wonder if bullets can pass through Delacroix thought as they quickly brought the body in a black car as it races into the autopsy facility. 

Once inside the autopsy facility the analysis of the cause of the yellow Alicorn’s death begins. The doctor has been informed by the President that the Princesses of Equestria wanted her body back once autopsy is finished and they also requested to not alter the body too much during the analysis, he knew he cannot argue against that nor does he want to, I still have a clear conscience after all he thought as he begins the autopsy.

“Gentlemen, let’s begin the honours of doing our first Alicorn autopsy, asistant…...scalpel please” as an asistant gives doctor Louis a scalpel which he then used to cut a swab through the Alicorn’s torso. “hmmm very thick skin indeed, possibly designed for cold environments. Coat is far more thicker than a normal horse as well” as he continues to cut an opening through the dead Alicorn’s body. How did she die though? Princess Celestia publicly announces that she cannot die and even tried to pull a stunt 500 years ago by being drowned for a total of one hour and she didn’t die. Is there something different that separates Celestia from the other Alicorns? head researcher Louis thought as he remembers Celestia’s announcement via the French Embassy in Canterlot.

Eventually the doctor manages to cut a swab through the skin and inspects the internal organs. “Heart is obviously damaged by shrapnel hmmm, lungs have been punctured and is obviously being filled up by blood by the time of her death if she didn’t die from shock already, a relatively charred body with some major holes in it might indicate that thick alicorn skin manages to sustain the heat for some time until the shrapnel comes and hits her...very interesting indeed” as the doctor continues his autopsy of the dead Alicorn.

Throughout the autopsy, the doctor was surprised and surprised even more as the full extent of the death of the alicorn is found: “Death by shrapnel wounds penetrating through most of the internal organs as well as the brain. Causing massive damage to the body and guaranteeing her death immediately, if by some miracle the Alicorn survives the missile blast. She would also die a little bit slower by drowning in her own blood and asphyxiating as well due to the lungs being punctured and is already filling up with blood, the heart was also hit by 3 shrapnel pieces by the time we conducted the autopsy” The doctor said to the French foreign minister. It has been a couple of hours after the autopsy and the body is being restored to it’s orginal state and will be transported via airdrop to the city of Canterlot. Princess Celestia will be the one personally taking the body into the grave personally set up just for Mersna.

“Good job as usual head researcher Louis. So what is your conclusion in terms of the Alicorn body overall?” Laurent Fabius asked
“For me? well the body is specifically designed to withstand cold weather so we can conclude that they must evolve in very cold climates….rather odd because horses originally evolved in milder climates but oh well. Very tough exterior as well as interior by the looks of it not only caused by the simple fact that the Alicorn is larger, but also they have some of the toughest bones i’ve ever seen. Some traces of graphene can even be found in the bone structure!! this species must have been very tough to take on if you’re going close combat. And although I cannot even say about their magical capabilities, I can deduce that based from the amount of neurons found in the horn directly connected to it’s brain, these Alicorns can channel up a LOT of magical energy” Louis concluded

“okay then, Louis that’s all I needed to know, you’re dismissed” said the foreign minister as the head researches respectfully nods his head and walks out the room. 


Changeling Hive, Badlands, 10:00AM, +19 days after event


“This is an infamy! you cannot do this!” Nobledrone Abdomen screamed as he is dragged to the Queen’s throne
“Oh really Abdomen? because from what I learned ‘interrogating’ some of the suspects and other nobles. You are the one voicing dissent while I’m talking with Celestia. Do you really think I would be that stupid to just blindly walk into the measly trap you laid out? do you not think that the humans would easily knock over your conspirators like flies during your assassination attempt? well by the looks of it you didn’t anything at all didn’t you” the Queen replied as another Changeling reads out the sentence given to the noble

“Nobledrone Abdomen, you are therefore charged for conspiracy against the queen, attempted assassination of the queen and unlawful overthrowing of a legitimate heir of Chrysalis’s throne. How do you plead?” the Changeling asistant asks

“N..not guilty, I reserve a right to call upon a lawyer and not be accused of this unjustified accusations”
“Ah but it is not an accusation, it’s a legitimate case with multiple drones testifying against you. So what is your ‘defense’ Abdomen, assuming you still have one that is” the Queen laughed as the noble sneers at the Queen. “You do not understand!! the Equestrians will infiltrate our society and shape them up to be all ‘friendshippy and harmonious’ as they are, It’s not who we are!!”

“Silence you traitor!! I should’ve cut your tongue while you’re at it. Nobledrone Abdomen, as punishment you will be sentenced for execution by love draining, all your personal and familial assets will be distributed equally to the common drones and your family would be shamed for 1 generation. This case is over, bring him to deathrow” Queen Hivemind says that last sentence with venom in his mouth as the noble was brought to deathrow prison where he will wait for execution.

“Now, next!!” the Queen commanded as another traitor is brought upon her throne. Oh this will be a long day indeed the Queen thought as a lot of nobles will be charged and some executed for their crimes against the Changeling Queen.


The Mild Line, 11:00AM, +19 days after event


“hold your horses there Sugarcube, what in the hay am I seeing here?” Apple Fritter exclaimed once he saw the barrier of bard wires, artillery and machine gun emplacements lining up on the area. After a unicorn guard was sent and she was confirmed to be a pony, Apple Fritter became the first Equestrian citizen to technically ‘return’ back to Appleloosa, now providing local knowledge about Appleloosan territory and the mild west in general. She was outlining the general layout of the land when she saw this huge line filled with gun emplacements, machine gun nests and barb wire.

“Oh this? this is the mild line, It was created just a couple of days after our operations to retake the mild west has succeeded. It’s our premier defense while the talks with the Changelings are underway and by the looks of the update I got from the Ministere de la Defense, It went rather well” Colonel de Roux replied

“So does that mean that everything’s fine now? that we can go back to our homes and live normally?” she asked
“not really, first we need to pull back our troops. Secondly we also need to ensure that all Appleloosan and Dodge Town residents currently living on refugee camps in Ponyville are returned back to their homes, and thirdly Princess Celestia has personally requested for some of us to go to Canterlot in order to train the first divisions of a working Equestrian army. So yeah we’ll be staying here for a little bit longer. Not too long fortunately” the colonel replied

“Oh that’s good then, but ah’m still wondering why this? isn’t this a bit too excessive for a defensive line?” she inquired about the line
“Ah good question. You see we are not the most easygoing species out there, so we need to insure that when we create defenses we need to make sure the enemy doesn’t attack you when you’re not looking, fast forward a couple thousand years later and this is the result” he responded
“well, we are allied with the humans after all so that’s good. Just not comfortable with allying with a species that has a history of wars and conflict like you do. I still shudder when you inform me about the 100 years war and all that” she replied
“ehh we’re not that bad nowadays anyway. The days where glory means slaughtering entire villages is over afterall”
“and thank whatever deity you worship for that” Apple Fritter responded as they continue to survey areas the French might overlook


Canterlot, 3:00PM, +19 days after event


With daycourt cancelled, Celestia was left with nothing but sleep and some well earned relaxation. After the royal guard has informed the usually roudy nobles about what happened in Saddle Arabia. They quietly resigned and backed down, thank us for that she thought as she is now flying around Canterlot mountain trying to get to that part of the mountain.

She eventually found that area she’s been looking for and landed gracefully. A finely manicured garden she kept secret from the rest of the populace for over 1000 years straight, she found this part of the mountain just after Luna’s banishment to the moon and she’s been visiting this garden ever since, carefully tending what used to be a lush but untamed forest into a harmony of grasses, trimmed hedges and also the occasional patch of forest. She landed and went into the chairs she set up by carving the wood from the trees she cut down into chairs and tables for her to sit on. 

eventually, after calming herself over some tea she brought here, she finally said her usual greetings to her garden, “We meet again garden….it’s so nice being here, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Perfect backdrop of the Equestrian landscape as well.....so relaxing” as she lazed around on the chair. Waiting for her ‘airdrop’ (whatever that means) to arrive.

Eventually the airdrop did arrive and It was unlike anything she’s ever seen. The ponies stared at awe as a massive human flying contraption just dropped something out of it’s belly, Celestia quickly flew into the parachuted bodybag and quickly flew back into her castle after she got what she wanted. She quickly unzipped the bodybag and sees a sight she never wanted to talk about again. Mersna’s body was charred with grevious wounds applied to her, no doubt the work of human weaponry she thought as she quickly teleported herself into the grave set up for one of the ponies that inspired her to overthrow the king and end the tyrannical rule of the Alicorns.

“may your rest be free of any disturbances Mersna un’shakal, for I now fare thee goodbye” Celestia quietly and caringly said as she lowered the dead body into the already placed coffin located in her garden. And closed her grave by personally filling her grave again. Once the deed is done she puts in a small flower to grow over her grave, a sign that everything she’s done for is not in vain and the future the rebels dreamed off has been realized in the creation of Equestria, where Ponies reserve the right to be free under the guidance of the Alicorns.

for we are the ones who have destroyed their liberty

so it must be us who brought them back to prosperity

help the ponies leave from their suffering

and lead them to the new age you’re offering

engraved in the gravestone of Mersna un’shakal by Celestia herself.

******

News 2-4 months after the events that has transpired:

Peace treaty between Equestria and the Changelings has been signed. Equestria now possess a new protectorate in the badlands

The port cities of Strasbourg, Brest and La Rochelle officially expands. New land is being bought by city authority for future plans of expansion, the main reason is because these cities are going to be major trade hubs for Equestrian and Amaterasan ships to trade in. 

The French government officially announces the creation of a new territory, named the territory of Nouvelle Sartre/ New Sartre. It is located in what is now the defunct undiscovered west 

New French expeditions to new lands announced, the mysterious south is being explored as well as contact with Zebrica has been confirmed as well

Zebrica creates it’s own embassy in France, in lieu with the Changelings, Equestria, Amaterasu and Saddle Arabia

ruins of the ancient Arimaspi Empire are found via satellite imagery, expedition team brought into the territory said contact with Arimaspi remnants has been confirmed, official diplomatic cables are underway to talk with the Arimaspi
> 28th December, 2015
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A cold gust of wind hits Rarity especially hard as she tries everything in her ability to keep herself warm in the admittedly beautiful but very cold French capital. “Oh I regret not learning that warmth spell, I don’t want to walk around being all suited up like this! It’s simply unnapealling for a lady to wrap herself up like this” she complained to Rainbow Dash’s rolling eyes.

“Puh lease Rarity! these humans don’t control the weather! cut them some slack, besides all the humans i’ve seen are as wrapped up as we are too. You’ll blend in perfectly!” Rainbow Dash replied in her usual manner. After the peace treaty was signed with the Changelings, Twilight decided that the group needed a proper trip to the French capital in order to sit back and relax from the events happening in Equestria while simultaneously exploring what is now the largest city in the world. Rarity was initially skeptical about the whole affair and originally wanted to just bundle up in her boutique waiting for winter to end. But after she was shown pictures of the French capital she immediately went up and started packing. The trip to the now port city of Strasbourg was nothing special, but the trip from Strasbourg to Paris was a very interesting one as they went to the train station and ride in what the French call the 'TGV', this train could reach speeds unfathomable to the Twilight's or any of her friend's minds as they moved past the countryside with frightening speed, they were even more amazed when the train finally entered the station just from the alien design they're not used to and just to add icing to the cake, the trip to the hotel bombarded the gang with sights and sounds unheard of even for them. The cars, the monuments and even the normal buildings are designed to be appealing to the eye, It's like someone decided to completely remake this city on his/her own artistic image one day.

Well this city does describe avant-garde very well. I’ve never seen streets this wide! the lamps so carefully stylized! oh I would just looove to live in this city Rarity thought as the group eventually reached the hotel. Now she was told that before the trip has even bagan, Twilight looked at a website called ‘trip advisor’ she found in what the French called an ‘Internet Cafe’ in the French embassy, apparently the website provides general guidelines for anyone wanting to make a trip or a vacation, after being given a tourist visa by an embassy official, she decided that after browsing through all the hotels that were given perfect reviews. Saint James Paris would be the main hotel where she and the gang are staying throughout the week.

“Ooooooh so fancy!” Pinkie said as they gang entered the front gate with a security guard on watch.
“Hello there mister human, my name is Twilight Sparkle and I’m booked to stay at this hotel for 1 week, would you please open the door”
“One moment madamoiselle, I will speak with the concierge first” as the security guard whipped out his radio and talks with the concierge. After a couple of minutes the gates are opened and the ponies entered what is essentially a hotel slash chateaux.
“Good day Ms Sparkle, hope you enjoy your stay” the security guard says as the gang enters the front door.

Rarity was taken aback at the first sight of the hotel. It just describes beauty and elegance the moment she entered the front gates and she was even more slack jawed when they entered the guest room. I’ve never seen attention to detail like this before, I’ve got a feeling I will enjoy my stay here Rarity thought as Twilight walks into the receptionist desk.

“Bonjour and welcome to Saint James Paris, I trust you have booked a stay yes?” the receptionist welcomed the first group of Ponies to ever travel to Paris
“Oh yes of course, I’m looking for a hotel booking under the name of Twilight Sparkle please. 3 rooms”
“Please wait for a moment madam” as the Receptionist does some weird clicking noises in what is obviously a computer behind the desk. She wanted to ask her how did they manage to put such advanced calculating power into a simple package but held herself from doing so. In time Twilight, in time she thought to herself as the Receptionist continues doing the weird clicking noises again.
“Ah yes, welcome Madame Twilight Sparkle. You have booked 3 rooms with king sized beds correct?” the receptionist asked as the clicking noises stopped
“Yes, thank you very much” replied Twilight as she unfastens her saddlebag to reveal a bunch of Euros which is given to the receptionist. The receptionist counted silently nodding all the way, and finally gave her 3 keys after she finished counting.
“Payment’s finished, you will be entitled to morning breakfasts throughout your stay in the hotel. The bellboy will take your baggage and your room will be ready in 30 minutes, please take a seat in the guest area as we prepare your rooms” the receptionist replied which is met with a nod as Twilight notions her group to wait in the guestroom as a bellboy brings their luggages into each other’s respective rooms.

“Okay gang, I’ve already designated 3 separate rooms for you to stay in and unfortunately they don’t have separate beds so you’ll be sleeping with each other” Twilight slightly blushed at the awkward implications that might bring as she briefed her friends. “Thankfully I also managed to combine the Ponies with the closest personalities with each other. So Rarity you will be staying with Fluttershy, I’m staying with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow’s staying with Applejack. Sound good?” she asked

“Yeah it’s okay, AJ and I are gonna have such an awesome night in an already awesome hotel anyway!” Dash replied
“oh of course darling, Fluttershy is such a sweet little thing and we would match perfectly if we stayed together” Rarity replied
“ummm, Rarity’s nice…….and we also do have our weekly spa meetups, so I think we’ll be okay” Fluttershy meekly replied
“I’m staying with Twilight Sparkle!!! ooooh we’re gonna have such a fun night, I brought candies and games and snacks and we’re going to have fun time togetheeeeer!!! don’t you worry Twily, with me you’re never gonna get bored” Pinkie replied
“Aww shucks Sugarcube, Ah can handle Rainbow for now. Don’t know how to handle her for a week though” Applejack replied sarcastically which is met with a glare from Rainbow Dash

“Okay then, here are your keys. We meet back here at 6 o’clock in the evening, I’ve got a LOT of things planned for the night. So get some rest and have fun while you’re at it, see ya later” Twilight replied as they both leave for their respective rooms. Always the organizer Rarity shakes her head as she and Fluttershy entered the room. And was silenced for a moment at the exquisite looking rooms of the chateau hotel, It was Fluttershy who was the first who broke the silence.

“Ummm, It looks quite nice Rarity. I..I never thought that humans would pay this much attention to detail, I think you’re going to love it here” as she stared at an exquisitely crafted lamp.
“Oh that is a given Fluttershy, it’s so Avant-garde as well. I mean look at this sofa! the lengths that humans would go to” said Rarity as she examined the sofa and admiring the amount of detail the humans poured into such a simple thing. I need my sketchbook now, my head is simply overflowing with ideas!!! she thought as she quickly pulled out he sketchbook and begins drawing new designs, unaware that both of them are tired beyond relief after their trip across the ocean and then via a train they couldn’t recognize.

“Umm Rarity, I don’t want to sound mean but. We need to get some sleep, I think both of us need some rest after that really long trip” Fluttershy reminded Rarity as she stepped into Rarity’s view
“Oh but Fluttershy! I need to simply put these ideas on paper! Twilight’s dinner can wait. This cannot!” She responded
“Rarity, please we need to rest. You are very tired and I don’t like seeing my friends overwork themselves!” Fluttershy asserted herself
Rarity was taken aback by the sudden assertiveness of Fluttershy, Did she remember some of Iron will’s teachings? she thought as she saw Fluttershy assert herself. “Fine fine, we’ll rest for today I guess” as she put her drawing down and joined Fluttershy in bed as they rest for the day.

“Ugh” Rarity muttered as both of them wake up to the sound of the alarm clock. It's 5PM and Twilight’s appointed dinner was 1 hour away.
“Hey Rarity” Fluttershy responded as they both wake up from their nap. “I’ll take a shower first okay?” Fluttershy said as she walked out of bed and into the toilet.
“Oh course darling. Do take your time while you’re at it, I really need to revisit these drawings” Rarity responded as she grabbed her sketchbook and starts drawing again.
After they both took their showers they went downstairs into the guestroom and sees the rest of her friends all ready for a night on town

“Hey rares!” Rainbow Dash said as she waves her hoof into the approaching group
“Hello as well Rainbow Dash, I trust that you have taken care of yourself while I’m away right?”
“pfft yeah of course! by the way, I think Twilght might overdid this one Rarity. I mean this hotel is awesome and all, but it’s way too fancy for me and applejack, and now Twilight’s bringing us into a fancy dinner as well, what is this fancyville?” she asked Rarity
“oh don’t fret Rainbow Dash, this is not ‘fancy’ at all, it’s avant-garde. For all their faults these humans do know how to dress their buildings when they want to”
“yeah...whatever you say Rarity” Rainbow replied as she realized she’s talking to the one Pony who will absolutely love this city. Well, Paris is awesome and all but this city’s way too fancy and too uptight for me, even the way the people speak sounds fancy thought Rainbow as Twilight came down the stairs and they were led to the dinner she booked.

The dinner itself was at a very fancy restaurant called Les Tablettes and Rarity admitted that it was unlike any dinner she’s ever seen. So much everything! I never thought a simple salad could be so tasty, oh how I would love to compliment the chef if I have the chance she thought as they walked out of the restaurant and into the cold and busy Parisian streets

“So what do we want to do tonight gang?” Twilight asked the group “I personally wanted to see the Eiffel Tower, I heard that it is a must see for tourists” she suggested
“Ah don’t know Twi, I also wanna see the tower but…..” Applejack stopped midsentence as she saw a truly unusual sight
“What is it Applejack? did you see some….” Twilight stopped as well as the group sees a sight most unusual for even them.

Just out in the streets, a group of republican guards are regularly patrolling the snow covered streets of paris, now the humans themselves are cladded in the usual fancy armour the Ponies are used to. But what is truly unusual are the the animals the guards are riding on.

“W-what is that?” Fluttershy asked as one of the horses saw Fluttershy, flarred his (her?) nostrils and continued without even caring
“I...I think that’s a horse? I’ve read about them in the Internet, apparently they’re the human world’s version of a pony” Twilight explained as they simply stared at the Republican guards patrolling with their unusual mounts
“Oh my, I never thought I ever saw a pony so muscular before...eheheh” Rarity said as she stared at the horses
“W…..what? just what?” Rainbow Dash responded as well
"The hay's that?" Applejack followed.

The shock the Ponies received was noted as the leader of the Republican guard stopped his horse and welcomed the Ponies into Paris
"Bonjour little ponies, These mounts might look strange to you but do not worry....they're pretty harmless animals. Just don't agitate them and you'll be fine"
"o...okay mister human" Twilight awkwardly responded which is met by the leader shouting orders to the rest of the group as they continue their regular patrols. After the shock of seeing the horses died down, the group decided to visit the Eiffel Tower and then end the night. Twilight asked a passerby what is the fastest way to go to the Tower and every answer she got is the 'Metro' which Twilight thinks is a network of trains running underground of the city. The passerby also suggested to either stop at Trocadero station or the Military school station, which is met with an awkward yes as they reached the metro tunnel.

“A train station? in the city?” Twilight wondered as the group went downstairs. 
“Y’know Twilight, I always thought that humans are an insane species. But this is something else” Rainbow responded as they saw the usual huslte and bustle of the Paris Metro. After getting the appropriate tickets, they waited in the underground platform, wondering what convinced these humans to build an train system in the first place.
“ooooh oh oh oh, maybe the humans just wanted to do some craaazy project to kill off some time and this is the result!! I mean building a train station underground was a crazy idea anyway so they MUST build it because they’re bored right right right?” Pinkie suggested the Idea as they waited for the train.
“A very good explanation Pinkie, why bother building a train station in the city? I mean you can just walk right?”
“Well have ya seen the size of this city Rarity?” Applejack responded, “This city’s darn huge and even ah don’t wanna spend mah time walking from one end to the other. No wonder they created this darn ‘metro’ or whatever ya wanna call it. It’s the practical solution” Applejack deduced
"but why trains? surely there are better ways like widening the roads right? I mean Paris is indeed a big city after all but an underground train seems like a disaster waiting to happen" Twilight responded as they waited for the train.

Eventually the train arrived and although they have seen the TGV before, this train is unlike anything the group has ever seen. “This is a train?” Twilight asked as the doors of the boxy looking train opened and the gang entered the unusual looking train. 
“My my, no smoketacks, none of the other bells and whistles or anything like that. How did this train and even that 'TGV' we ride on even run?” Applejack wondered as they are greeted by an unusually sounding female voice, “Please step away from the yellow line” the lady said which is followed by a quick beeping sound as the doors of the train closed, followed by a low humming sound as the train moves.
“I’m definitely documenting this experience” said Twilight as she teleported a notepad and starts writing about her experience with the French metro. Eventually after a couple of stops the gang arrived at Trocadero station and once they got out they are greeted with quite a sight. 

Standing proudly in front of them is the Eiffel Tower which is seemingly flanked by the Palais de Chaillot at the sides. Just the mere spectacle of the site was enough to get Rarity's creative juices flowing
“Magnificent” Rarity said quietly as the group stared at the sight that greeted them for a while, revelling at how the French managed to get so creative with their architecture 

Eventually after much sightseeing of the frozen pools and general layout of the Palais de Chaillot, the group moved into the Eiffel tower and went to the top to see what Paris looks like at night. Oh I really do hope this is all worth it, the stares I got from the humans is more than enough to scare anyone Rarity thought as she was greeted by a ding in the elevator as the gang eventually reached the top. As they approached the railings of the Eiffel Tower, they were greeted by a smattering of beautiful lights throughout the city as Paris shined 

“It’s…...so…….beautiful” uttered Twilight as she simply stared as the city of Paris light up in front of them. For a moment the gang just stared at the utter majesty of the French capital and they wanted it to last forever. But things do not last forever as they were interrupted by a human saying “umm miss Twilight? the tower is closing” said the staff member which is met with a bunch of grunts and sighs as they went down and decided to end the day after that trip.

“I must admit Fluttershy, the humans are simply magnificent when it comes to building their cities. It’s simply so mesmerizing and also gives off an aura of majesty I usually don’t see even in Canterlot. Oh, If I get to open a boutique here it would simply be fabulous!” Rarity exclaimed as she finally entered the warm room after spending grueling hours walking in the snow after they’ve reached the nearest Metro station.

“Oh I do agree Rarity but *yawn* I do need my beauty sleep, why don’t we talk tomorrow?” Fluttershy asked which is met with the same yawn as they both decided to end the day right here. I think i’m going to enjoy this trip, but like all vacations, we’ll see about this one Rarity thought as she turn off the lights and went to sleep.