Welkin Gunther was only twenty-two years old when the war broke out in Gallia and the imperials invaded. Since Gallia was only a small country stuck in between two much larger countries and military superpowers, all citizens were required to take military courses in high school and University. Welkin’s hometown, the town known as Bruhl was a border city close to the Empire, and because of this was hit early on in the invasion.. Welkin along with his Darcsen step-sister Isara, family friend and maid Martha Lipponen along with her new-born son, and Alicia Melchiott, a new found friend and a member of the Bruhl town watch, escaped the invasion inside of the Edelweiss, the tank belonging to Welkin’s father Belgen. Belgen was a war hero in the previous war between the Empire and Gallia. Welkin’s courage in the defense of Bruhl, along with his courses in high school and university and possibly due to the fact that his father was a war hero, he was given the the rank of Lieutenant and placed in command of Gallian Militia Squad 7. Welkin and his squad fought across all of Gallia against the Imperials, even saving the Arch-Duchess of Gallia from being kidnapped by Federation spies, and defeating the Imperial Valkyria Selvaria Bles. Welkin’s tactics led to the defeat of the Imperials, forcing them out of Gallia and the complete collapse of the invasion with the death of the Imperial prince Maximilian. Almost everyone in Squad 7 survived, except for Isara Gunther, who had finally made peace with Brigitte Stark, more commonly known as Rosie, who had discriminated against her time and time again. She was shot after the re-taking of Marberry Shore, and died of her wounds within minutes in the arms of Rosie. Despite the death of his sister, Welkin became the new war hero of Gallia and earned many medals and even weapons from the Royal Guard’s personal armory, which squad seven put to great use.
Welkin and Alicia fell in love during the war, and afterwards got married.Welkin and Alicia moved into Bruhl after they were married. Welkin became a teacher while Alicia became a baker. They had a daughter who they named Isara, in honor of Welkin’s sister. Now, many years have passed since then, and just moments ago, Welkin passed away in his sleep.
______________________________________________________________________________
Welkin’s eyes suddenly opened, but instead of waking up in his bed like he was expecting, he was floating in total darkness. He tried to move around and found his limbs sluggishly responding. When he brought his hands to his face he gasped in surprise, seeing how they were young again, no wrinkles or any other signs of age. He look down and saw that he was wearing his Militia uniform, a blue tunic-like shirt with both grey and blue-sleeves, a pair of blue pants with armor padded knees tucked into a pair of brown leather wool insulated boots that go almost up to his knees. He also had all his equipment, his binoculars, a compass, a map and even his belt of flares. After a quick inspection he realized that he was twenty two again, the same age he was when the Imperials invaded. As he was contemplating what was going on a small flash of light appeared to his left, he turned his head and gasped. “Alicia!?”
Floating a few feet away from him in the endless black void was Alicia Melchiott in her Militia uniform. Her shirt was similar to that of Welkin’s, but with armor plates on each shoulder which stretched down near the elbow, with a separate armor plate for the elbow itself. In her long brown hair was her iconic red and white scarf. She had the same pair of boots that Welkin had, however instead of pants she wore thigh-high socks with armored plated knees with more plates of armor slightly above the knees, along with a combat skirt with a metal plate attached to
each side of it. She was also a lot younger then Welkin remembered, looking like she was twenty-one again, when they had first fallen in love in the middle of the war. "W-Welkin?" she stammered out, a look of surprise on her face, "Where are we? What's going on? Why are you young again?" She inspected her body and came to the realization that she was nineteen years old again. "Why are we young again?!"
After awkwardly flailing his arms around Welkin managed to float over to Alicia and hug her tightly. "I don't know what's going on Alicia, but we'll get through it. We fought through a war, we can fight through what ever....this is." He whispered into her ear and only after he finished did Alicia finally calm down. As she was about to respond, a bright flash of light interrupted anything she would of said. 'Alicia appeared in a flash of light, could this be someone else?' Welkin thought to himself as the light finally died down and both he and Alicia looked over. Floating where the light was Rosie. She was twenty-seven and in her Militia uniform, it was very similar to Alicia's however, unlike Alicia’s, her forearms and wrists were armored. Her breasts also have small circular plates of armor as well while at her waist was a belt full of ammo and a few emergency capsules of Ragnaid along with a few grenades. She looked around a few times before finally spotting Alicia and Welkin.
"Hey boss!" She waved over to them, a look of slight worry on her face. "I haven't seen you in years....where the hell are we?"
Welkin shrugged, "I don't know where we are, or why we are young again, or why we are in our uniforms, I appeared here a few minutes ago myself."
"Hey, since Rosie appeared in a flash of light, and we are all dressed like we were back in the war....does that mean the others will show up?" Alicia asked, still worried about where they were.
Welkin frowned for a second, thinking of the possibility, before finally shrugging "Maybe, I don't know. But if they do, why are we all being brought here?"
"Hey boss!" Rosie called out, now a few feet closer to the pair. "What's that behind you?"
Alicia and Welkin turned around and once again there was a flash of light, and after it disappeared their old friend Largo Potter was floating there, looking thirty-seven years old making him the oldest member of Squad Seven. He was in his Militia uniform which was similar to Welkins, but he had armor plates hanging at each side of his waist, along with bigger armor plates on his knees and two more, small circular ones on his chest. On his left arm was a giant armor plate, covering most of his left side from where it was attached at his shoulder. He stretched and looked over to where he saw Welkin, Alicia, and Rosie. It was only after he saw their dropped jaws did he look around. After he almost did a complete three-sixty looking around he finally decided that he wouldn't find anything and turned back to the small group of his friends, he scratched the back of his head and asked in a sheepish voice, "Uhhhh, boss? Why are you staring at me?"
Welkin blinked a few times, thinking of his following words carefully, before finally settling with, "Largo....You died almost fifteen years ago in your sleep." Largo's eyes widened in shock and he looked between Alicia and Rosie, both of them nodding in agreement.
"But....I don't understand, I mean, I remember just going to bed! And now i'm here!" Largo was freaking out now, flailing his arms around and speaking rapidly, almost too fast for the others to comprehend, Rosie went over to comfort him, but what Largo just said gave Welkin a thought.
"If you died....then that means we all died too." Welkin said after a few moments of thought, just after Largo had calmed down.
Alicia turned to Welkin, her face a mixture of horror and shock. "Welkin....We couldn't all be dead. I went to bed with you last night...Plus we would of heard if Rosie died...."
Welkin shook his head. "Unless she died after us....I think we both might of passed away in our sleep last night, and that triggered this...place, which is dragging all of our friends here....Years could be going by right now while we are waiting here..." As Welkin finished his statement, Rosie looked up.
"I remember being around eighty or so....I had went to bed for the night and I woke up here....I think the boss is right...." she said with a somber look on her face.
"So....The rest of the squad will be coming back together? It will be nice to see them all again....Just not like this....I recommend not telling them the 'we are all dead' part, might lower moral." Largo chipped in from his position a few feet away from the group.
"Everyone has appeared in a flash of light so far, so be on the lookout for any....as silly as it sounds" Welkin announced, causing everyone else to nod their heads in agreement.
After what seemed like a few minutes of waiting and making idle small-talk, another flash of light appears, which caused the small group to look over. The newest person to join them was Zaka, back to being thirty-five again and making him the second oldest member of the squad. He wore an outfit almost mirroring Welkins, but without the binoculars or the belt of flares. On top of his head he wore a bandanna with a red strip with two flowing white lines crossing over each other at times, forming a chain-like symbol on a red background, displaying his heritage as a Darcsen proudly. He looked quite surprised to be floating in eternal darkness, and even more surprised when he saw part of his old squad floating there with him.
“Well, it's nice to see you all again, but your choice of scenery is....questionable." Zaka said with a shrug.
"I don't think I'll ever be able to understand how you can be so calm." Welkin noted with a sigh as he pinched the bridge between his eyes.
"Comes with being in a concentration camp while also leading a resistance." Zaka said with a small smile, before frowning. "I assume that nobody knows where we are, or we got here."
"We determined that we all died one way or another and we somehow all ended up here." Largo replied as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Though I thought we agreed to not tell anyone Largo...." Rosie said with a glare at the man, who smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.
"I'll just....stay quiet..." Largo muttered, barely loud enough for anyone to hear.
"It makes sense." Zaka muttered, "I was in my office when I smelled smoke, I ran downstairs to see what was wrong and it seems that a fire was started in my factory. I was about to run to the exit when I heard an explosion, and then I ended up here."
"I'm....I'm so sorry Zaka....I knew that your toy factory meant a lot to you...." Alicia patted Zaka on the back, who only held a stern expression on his face.
"Well, we just need to-" Before Welkin could finish his next sentence, a bright flash of light appeared, but instead of one person, there was five. Among them were Ted Ustinov, Who was a
scout like Alicia and was dressed like her. Edy Nelson, who was a Shock trooper like Rosie and wore a similar uniform. Jann Walker was an Anti-Tank Lancer like Largo. With them was Homer Peron, whose militia uniform was barely armored at all, only his knees having any form of protection, at his waist were two large bags filled with ammo and medical supplies. On the back of his waist were a shovel and the supplies necessary to make repairs to a tank in the field. The final person with them was Marina Wulfstan, the one and only sniper of Squad Seven. The only difference between her uniform and Homer's was that she only had a few small pouches for ammo at her side, with one big pouch presumably with extra scopes or weapon parts.
"Woah.....What a rush...." Homer exclaimed in a neutral tone, which earned him a slap on the back of the head from Edy. Jann stared around for a moment before letting out the girliest scream the large man could muster, which caused the group to which and cover their ears.
“Jann! Jann calm down!” Largo shouted, his voice clearly heard over the banshee-like shrieking.
“Thank you for that Largo.” Alicia replied as she shook her head a few times to get rid of the ringing in her ears.
“Where are we!? Why are we here!? What’s going o-” Before Jann could finish her string of questions, Marina put her hand over his mouth. Largo floated his way over to Jann and grab his shoulder and rapidly shook him a few times. After about thirty seconds Jann finally managed to stutter out “I-I’m F-Fine!” Largo gave a glare to Jann when he let go of him, Jann blushing slightly in response.
“Thank you Marina, and Largo.” Welkin nodded to the two, who nodded back.
“So what’s the deal boss? Where are we?” Edy piped in, the other four who appeared with her nodding in agreement.
“I wish i knew, all i know is that i was the first one to appear here, and that was maybe...what an hour ago? I can’t tell in this place. All we know for a fact is that we've all appeared in a flash of light.” he said with a shrug of his shoulders, which caused the five newcomers to glance nervously between each other. “It seems like the whole squad is coming back together...but that means that we are short by one person….”
Just as he finished his statement, another flash of light appeared, this time revealing a rather short man wearing a lab coat over his militia uniform. Kreis Czhery looked around as he slowly blinked, before he reached into his pocket and put on his glasses. After taking another look around he turned to Welkin. As Welkin was about to say something, Kreis passed out.
“Well...That saves us one explanation.” This caused everyone to look away from Kreis, due to the fact that the voice didn't come from anyone in the squad. Floating some distance away from the group was a small white light. “I’m sorry for dragging you all here. But i require your aid.” At this statement, the entire squad visibly relaxed, but only slightly.
“A ball of light wants our help? This isn't going to end well, will it?” piped in Ted from behind Jann.
“Everyone calm down.” Welkin ordered, before turning to the ball of light. “Who are you, and what do you want?”
“I saw how you saved your country from being invaded. How you foiled the Empire's invasion plans at every turn...and I ask you for your help in assisting a country in a very similar state.” After it finished the squad voiced their opinions.
“You’re fucking crazy!”
“You want us to fight in another war!? I've already fought in two!”
“I’m not risking my life for something that pulled me away from my friends and family!”
“STAND DOWN!” Welkin’s commanding tone and sheer volume scared the entire squad into silence, they never heard him yell like that before, at least not in anger. “Now then, why should we help you? I understand wanting to save innocent lives but i don’t want to risk my life and the lives of the people in my squad in a second war without at least knowing what we are going up against.”
“Very well...I’m sorry, please let me explain myself. My name is Faust...And I’m what you might consider a god. I created my world to be as peaceful as possible. For thousands of years it has been like this, with only the occasional disaster of some sort to break the peace. However, recently the realm of Equestria has come under attack by the Diamond Dogs, usually they are all separate, in their own packs with their own Alphas, however now they have all united under one leader. I can no longer interfere with my world directly so I humbly ask yo- no, beg of you. Please, save my subjects and the ones I care about, and in turn I shall return you to yours.”
Welkin took a deep breath before turning to the rest of his squad who waited behind him. He motioned for everyone to huddle and to discuss what to do. “What do you think?” He asked his squad.
“I say we do it. If I can go back to my family then I’ll gladly fight.” Largo smirked as he looked around at the rest.
“I’m in as well, I won’t stand by and let innocents die when I know I could of done something.” Rosie agreed.
“I’ll agree with whatever you think Welkin. I’m always with you.” Alicia said as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“I think we should do it.” Zaka casually replied. “What about the rest of you lot? What do you think?” The rest of the squad chipped in with ‘I wonder if the local’s will like my jokes’ from Ted. ‘How big are their muscles?’ from Jann, complete silence other than a nod from Marina. Edy and Homer looked at each other, before they both nodded. Kreis remained silent since he was still passed out.
“Then it’s settled.” Welkin said as he turned back around to the orb of light. “We’ll help.”
“Thank you. I’ll teleport you to my world. You may feel a bit...nauseous when you arrive. You’ll arrive near a rural town. I suggest making contact with the locals...and once again. Thank you.” With a flash of light the darkness disappeared, and Gallian Militia Squad Seven disappeared.
______________________________________________________________________________
Canterlot Castle. 6:32 PM. Celestia’s room.
Celestia sighed as she looked out of her window, tears flowing down her cheeks. Only Canterlot, Ponyville, and Cloudsdale remained of her and her sister’s once great kingdom. So many lives were lost for almost no reason. The Diamond Dogs came suddenly one day and swept across the nations with their guns and tanks. The guards fought valiantly but all they could do was hold them off. They were shot before they could even get close. Somehow they had managed to retrieve a weapon from the Diamond Dogs and make their own versions after days of studying it. As much as she hated to admit it, her faithful student Twilight Sparkle was the one who figured out how they worked and managed to make their own versions. Because of her Equestria stood a fighting chance. Yet at the same time she created devices designed for ending lives. She didn't want to admit that she designed weapons of war, yet she had to for the good of Equestria. As she was having this inner conflict, she didn't hear the knocking at the door, not the sound of it opening. She didn't even hear the intruder until a dark blue hand grabbed her shoulder. “Tia? Are….Are you alright?” Luna’s voice brought Celestia out of her thoughts as she turned to face her sister.
“I’m...I’m fine Luna...Just...Thinking…” Celestia replied as she looked out the window once again, seeing the smog of the many factories of Canterlot producing more weapons and ammo for them.
“Tia...We- I know your pain. I know what you’re going through. How hard it is to sit here and simply hope that our little ponies can fight off this menace. How frustrating it is that the Griffins refuse to help us, stating that the Dogs are attacking them harder than they are us. Trust me Tia I know. Please, let us- Let me help.” Luna grabbed Celestia’s shoulders and looked her in the eyes as she spoke.
“Luna...Why can’t I protect them?” Celestia asked. “I've been leading them for thousands of years. I’m their immortal ruler and yet...I simply can’t protect them.” Celestia’s words made Luna’s eyes widen in surprise .
“Tia, you are doing everything you can. I know it. There simply isn't much that you can do...I’m sorry…” Luna sighed before looking out the window with Celestia. “Tia....Go to sleep early. I shall handle the lowering of the sun. You need the rest.”
Celestia was about to reply before she realized that she hadn't slept in three days. “I...I think I’ll do that. Thank you Luna.” She gave Luna a hug as she spoke.
“Don’t worry about it Tia. Remember that I am here to help you now. You aren’t alone any more.” Luna replied as she walked out of her sister’s bedroom, a small smile on her face.
Author's Note
I loved Valkyria Chronicles and after seeing that there wasn't any Crossovers of MLP and game, i decided to give it a shot. This is my second attempt at writing a story. Honest opinions are welcome.
