Chapter 1: Warsaw, City At War
Primeval
By MlpHero
August 13th, 2043
The Provalance
Hero
Warsaw. Believed to be the weakest and poorest faction in all of the Provalance. It’s considered a dump. However, it’s not half bad. Believe me, I live here. We may look weak and poor, but our faction is smarter than most of the other warheads of the Prov. Today, I’m hanging out with Sand. He said his dad bought an EV0 rifle. Heh, I hope that bucker lets me shoot it. All I have is my revolver. I mean, I’m not ungrateful, but I’d like to shoot a rifle. We’ll see what happens.
Hero smiled at his journal. He sighed softly, and looked around his room. It was quite small. The walls were decorated with paintings, the bed was to the left hoof corner of the room, a few books were thrown messily on the floor and some on the shelf.
Hero was an unreformed changeling nymph, age twelve, who lived in the Faction of Warsaw. He lived on his own, as his parents had recently passed away. He sighed again and looked at his journal. He closed it, looking to his book shelf, before pulling a golden revolver out of it. The revolver was a family heirloom, passed down for generations. Hero himself had added a scope to it.
He carefully slid the books back and grabbed a box of bolts, which were the ammunition that firehooves use, and loaded the revolver. He chuckled and reached for a box, pulling out the long scope. He attached it to his revolver.
He carefully opened the bolt cylinder, sliding six bolts into the revolver. He smiled at the golden revolver, sliding it into his holster. He reached for his journal and got up. However, as he did, he felt the ground shake. He blinked, before feeling another, much bigger shake. He looked out the window, before noticing a large explosion in the distance.
“What the—”
A few bolts flew through the window, nearly striking him. He fell to the ground, sprawling away from the glass. He picked himself up, grabbing his revolver. He stumbled towards the door, breaking through it. Revolver in hoof, the unreformed changeling made his way down stairs. Soon, he heard his door open. He stopped and dove into the kitchen.
“Okay, okay… who’s there…?” he whispered. He looked over the counter to see a few unrecognizable soldiers. They weren’t Republic soldiers, and they weren’t Warsaw National Guard. They had grey uniforms and had grey helmets. They were holding bolt rifles.
“WP98ks…” he muttered. He flipped through his journal. He then found their Faction. “Wolfpack… those are Wolfpack soldiers…” he whimpered slightly.
The Wolfpack. The scariest Faction known to all of the Provalance. The Wolfpack had their own country and had actually founded the Provalance. After a long, grueling revolution over a thousand years ago, the Provalance won it’s independence. However, the Wolfpack wouldn’t let go that easily. In the 1900s, the Provalance War set the country a blaze with war. The Provalance won, but at one high price.
Now, Hero was staring down the soldiers of the Wolfpack. In his own house. He held back a scream, instead reaching for his revolver. He took a breath and aimed down his sights.
Click!
“What was that?” one of the soldiers asked.
“Crap… safety’s on…” Hero muttered, fumbling with the revolver.
They noticed Hero. “Hey! You!” one of them snapped, raising the rifle up.
Hero squeezed the trigger.
Pop!
One of the soldiers collapsed. The other flinched. “Brother, no!”
Hero was on the floor, the recoil sent him to the floor. He’s shot his gun before, but hadn’t shot someone before. Lucky, bolts didn’t kill their target. They simply knocked the target out.
It still hurt. A lot.
Hero clicked on the hammer. He peered over the table, ready to fire when the other soldier fired his rifle at the nymph.
“You’ll pay for that, bug!”
Buck! he thought. He peered past the other side, sighting the soldier’s leg. Hero took aim and fired. The soldier howled and fell to the ground. The soldier looked at him, growling. Hero grabbed his revolver and trotted over to the soldier, snarling at him. He aimed the revolver at the soldier’s head, squeezing the trigger. Again, bolts don’t kill, so there was that. Hero sighed and trotted out of his house.
Outside was a different story. Hero watched his town and the civilians run around in pure chaos. He gritted his teeth and looked around. The Warsaw National Guard was also running around, rifles in hoof. Hero sighed and clicked the revolver's hammer, and ran into the battlefield, the sandy ground somewhat burning his hooves and dust threatening to get into his eyes. Hero looked around until he noticed a small platoon of WSNGs heldup behind a few sandbags. He ran over and hopped the sandbags.
One of the guards whipped sound to see him. “Gah! Oh, it’s you kid.”
Hero nodded. “Yeah. Can you explain what the heck’s going on?” he asked, looking around.
The soldier gritted his teeth. “The Wolfpack’s attacking us! We’re trying to—” a brief popping noise in the distance, a small neon yellow explosion on the back of his head, and him falling down to the ground, unconscious, said enough.
“Sniper!” one of the soldiers cried, looking around. The soldiers ducked below the sandbags, looking around. Hero looked up and noticed the sniper coming from the bell tower. He gritted his teeth, before grabbing one of the EV0 rifles and running off. The sniper obviously noticed him, and began taking shots at him he yelped and burst into a house.
“Gah!”
Hero looked up to see a green earth pony and his family. Hero stood up, coughing. “Heh, hey Sand…”
“H-Hero?!” the earth pony stood up and ran over, stumbling. Sandbar was somewhat clumsy when it came to stressful situations. “W-What are you doing here?!”
“Well, I’m trying to avoid a sni—” The glass next to Hero’s head shattered. “Buck!” he shouted, diving behind a couch. Sandbar joined him, scrambling behind the couch. Hero gritted his teeth. “Sandbar, your family needs to get into the tunnels!” he said, lifting the rug. Underneath was a trapdoor that led to tunnels underneath Warsaw. Hero opened the door and ushered the family inside. When they were in, he closed the door and looked at Sandbar. “Come on Sand. Pick up your rifle.”
Sandbar’s eyes widened. “Wait, why?!”
Hero narrowed his eyes. “Sandbar, this sandbox is our home,” he began, walking over to the gun rack in Sandbar’s house, grabbing the Warsaw built rifle and shoving it into Sandbar’s hooves. “Come on buddy, we live in Warsaw, we fight for Warsaw,” he stated, walking over to the door. Sandbar was still reluctant.
“Hero, don’t open it!”
Hero looked over. “You’re right, the sniper…”
“And this entire plan in general!” he yelled. “Listen, I know you’ve always wanted to do something other than sit around, but this isn’t a battle we can win… I’m sorry…”
“Well, we can try.” Hero leaned against the door. He took a breath, then looked at Sandbar. “You with me, or not?”
Sandbar looked at the hatch, reminiscing on his family. Then, he sighed “Ugh… fine…” he muttered, turning to Hero. “But you gotta promise we won’t get captured.”
Hero sighed. “I promise, man. Come on.” Hero nodded to the door. Sandbars sighed and moved over as another bolt flew past their heads. Sandbar squealed and ducked down. The two waited a while, before opening the door. Hero grabbed his revolver and peeked through the the crack in the door. Hero noticed the snipers scope glint aiming right at them.
“Crap…” Hero mumbled. “He’s eyeing this place down like a hawk…”
“W-What do we do…?” Sandbar asked, looking up.
Hero sighed. “I… I have do it…”
“What?” Sandbar asked, before his eyes widened. “Y-You mean your dad’s spell?”
Hero nodded. “Mhm… it’s tradition that whoever in my bloodline wields the revolver,” Hero paused to look at the golden revolver, “they have to learn the spell…” He sat down and looked at his bag. Inside was a scroll with a sacred spell, very important to Hero’s bloodline. At least, before Hero became the last of the bloodline.
He sighed, knowing he’d probably be the last of his bloodline. He sighed and looked at the scroll. He began reading it.
~~~
The sniper watched the house like a hawk. He wouldn’t let those two out without a fight. He sighed, wishing he was on the ground. But, he was more than happy to be outta harms way. He peered through the scope, waiting for one of them to peek out. He then noticed the door open again and he aimed towards it. He noticed the nymph aiming back at him. He smirked and prepared to fire when he noticed the nymph’s eyes go from blue to orange, then a red X appeared.
“What the—”
Before he knew it, a bolt flew straight into his forehead. He yelled out in pain before going unconscious.
~~~
Hero smirked and looked at Sandbar. “He’s down. Let’s move.”
Sandbar nodded, getting up. The two sighed and ran out into the battle. The two looked around, watching as the national guard and the Wolfpack soldiers clashing on the sandy ground. At this point, there was loads of dust in the air.
Hero was coughing like crazy. “D-Dang allergies…”
Sandbar looked over. “You good?”
Hero pulled out an inhaler and used it. He caught his breath after a while. “I’m…” he coughed. “I’m good…” he picked the rifle up. “Come on… we gotta get to the Wall…” he wheezed.
“O-Okay…”
Hero nodded and began running. He looked around, watching as two armies battled throughout the village. He shook his head and continued running. Come on! We’re almost there!
Hero looked behind him, making sure Sandbar was still behind him. Thankfully, he was, but he was looking at something. Hero didn’t know what, but it couldn’t have been that important. He just continued running.
“Uh… H-Hero…?”
He continued running.
“H-Hero…”
He continued running.
“Hero!!”
“What?!” Hero stopped and turned around. “What could possibly be so impor—” A blast sent Hero into a nearby foxhole. “Gah!”
“Hero!” Sandbar looked over, before looking behind him. “Oh cra—”
Multiple bolts came flying at him. Sandbar squeaked and fell into the foxhole. Hero groaned and looked over.
“You good Sand?” He asked.
Sandbar sat against the wall of the hole. “Gah… I took a shot…” Sandbar showed him a bolt burn on his side. Hero winced, before grabbing a small needle with a healing potion in it.
“Here. This’ll help,” Hero said, sticking it into Sandbar’s side.
Sandbar winced, watching the burn slowly heal. Hero looked out of the hole, looking around. He noticed a dark magenta mare with sea green eyes and a broken horn staring at the hole, before raising an SMG and firing at them. He squeaked and ducked down.
“Gah!” He looked at Sandbar.
Sandbar’s head snapped up to see him. “You okay man?!”
“Y-Yeah… just stay down…”
~~~
Tempest Shadow stared at the foxhole, waiting for one of those ponies to poke their heads up. She gripped on her WP-40, ready to send more bolts their way.
“Captain!”
She looked over. “Yes Corporal?”
A griffon stepped over, dressed in the standard grey Wolfpack uniform, holding a bolt rifle. “We have the town hall surrounded. We’ll need you there to ‘talk’ with the mayor.”
She looked back at the hole, before sighing and nodding, ordering the tank forward, moving towards the town hall.
~~~
Hero peeked out. The tank and unicorn were gone. He sighed, looking at Sandbar. “Your wound healed up?”
“Y-Yeah… thanks…”
Hero nodded and looked around. The Wall was close. Hero sighed and looked at Sandbar. “Come on, we’re close. We can make it.”
Sandbar stared at him. “Well maybe you can… but I’m staying here…”
Hero stared at Sandbar in disbelief. “What?! Why?!”
Sandbar sighed. “Look, I can’t move… sure, the burn’s healed, but... I’ll need some time before I can stand back up again…” he grabbed his rifle. “Y-You go… I-I can cover you…”
Hero shook his head. “I’m not leaving you here, Sand.” He walked over and picked Sandbar up, placing him on his carapace. “I’m taking you with me.”
Sandbar looked at him, before shaking his head and nodding. “O-Okay… y-you sure you can make it?”
“Positive.” Hero took a breath. “I hope…” With that, he began running towards the wall. Hero had never run so fast in his life. But he made it. He climbed up a ladder, then hoisted Sandbar up with his magic. The pony laid against the wall.
“We made it…” he uttered. “We bucking made it!” He looked at Hero, who was staring. “Didn’t you hear me?! We made… it…”
Behind them, Warsaw was in smoke. Shots rang out from almost every section of the small town. The two flinched back, before turning away. The outside of Warsaw was surrounded by a massive river, and one with fast rapids at that.
“Wow… I’ve never seen anything beyond the Wall…” Sandbar said, looking down. The small forest surrounding the Wall was still intact, much to their surprise.
“Okay, we just gotta get down…” Hero stated.
“Wait, how? The front gate is definitely a no-go!” Sandbar pointed out.
“Hm… maybe for now…” Hero said, looking at a scoped rifle.
Sandbar followed his gaze, then his eyes widened. “Oh no! No Hero! No!!”
Too late.
Hero picked up the rifle and fired it at the soldiers guarding the gate. Unfortunately for Hero, he had terrible aim. His shots went everywhere but the Wolfpack soldiers.
~~~
“Crap, crap!” a Wolfpack griffon, Winter, managed as he ducked behind a halftrack. He looked over at the other soldiers at his side. One of them was holding an anti-tank launcher. He looked at them. “Hey, use that launcher!”
The soldier nodded and let the other soldier load a round into it.
“Firing!” the soldier yelled as he aimed the launcher up and fired at the Wall.
~~~
Hero was reloading the rifle, much to Sandbar’s dismay. “Hero…”
The changeling looked up from the rifle briefly. “What?” he asked, looking back at the rifle. “Did I reload wrong?”
“N-No, it’s not that, it’s just…” Sandbar sighed, looking back at Warsaw. Hero raised an eye ridge slightly. Sandbar looked back at him. “We… we can’t just leave Warsaw…” he finally spoke. “Besides, we’re just teens. I mean, you’re twelve and I’m fifteen...”
Hero stared at him, shocked. “Sandbar… we’re not leaving Warsaw,” Hero clarified. “We’re just… saving it.” Hero pointed to the town. “Sandbar, Warsaw is in smoke,” he said, laughing. “You think I want that? I love this dust bowl as much as the next pony!” he stated. He looked at the river. “I don’t want this place to burn…” he said. “But to save this place, I need you… my brother…”
Sandbar thought for a bit, then sighed. “Fine. But I—”
“Firing!”
A large boom rang out nearby. Before the two knew it, something exploded beside them. The explosion broke the Wall, as well as sent the two flying off the Wall. The two fell from the Walls, and into the rapids. Hero surfaced briefly, gasping for breath. He looked around for Sandbar, although it was hard to swim against the river rapids. Soon, he sank back under.
~~~
Hero woke up a bit later, looking up to see Sandbar dragging him out of the rapids. He coughed up some water, then looked over at the pony.
“You okay?” Sandbar asked.
“Y-Yeah…” Hero said, grabbing his revolver. The two stood up and looked around, before noticing a building a few miles off in the distance. Before they moved, they looked back to see how far Warsaw was. Unfortunately, they couldn’t even see the Wall, meaning the rapids had carried them for some time. They looked at each other, before turning back to the building.
“Well, you wanted to save Warsaw, didn’t you?” Sandbar asked smugly.
The changeling blushed. “Shut up Sandbar…” Hero mumbled.
The two chuckled and began walking towards the building.
Chapter 2: Messy Introductions
August 13th, 2043
The Provalance
Hero Bell
Well, it is what it is. Here I, or we, because Sandbar, are. Far from Warsaw and somewhere in the Prov. There’s not much here for miles, minus one building off in the distance. I ain’t sure what to think of it. Who would live this far out in the middle of nowhere. As I said, Warsaw is pretty far off, and the Republic’s WAY off.
I hope whoever’s here can help us.
—Hero
The two friends continued walking, looking at the building. Hero aimed his rifle up, causing Sandbar to look over.
“Woah woah, tap the brakes…” he said. “We don’t want them to feel threatened.”
Hero sighed and lowered the rifle. “Fine.”
The building itself resembled a small redesigned bunker, expanded out with a few towers flanking each corner, and the entire building was surrounded by a barbed wire fence.
Sandbar looked at it. “The buck is this place?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Hero retorted. “It’s a military base.”
Sandbar rolled his eyes. “I know that,” he retorted back. “But why’s it here? This is still Warsaw’s territory.”
“Probably some deals Firelight and Stellar got with some other Faction,” Hero said, looking around the building. He then turned to Sandbar. “Did you hear the rumors about those two datin’?”
Sandbar scoffed. “I don’t believe for a second.”
Hero nodded. “Yeah. Heard they both had kids though.”
Sandbar nodded back. “Yeah… but they left Warsaw and headed for the Republic.”
“Thought one headed for the Starlight Region? You know, the Crystal Empire?”
“Yeah, proba—”
“Halt!”
The two froze and looked up. At the entrance gate, there was a guard. They were in tan fatigues with standard green military helmets. Republic soldiers.
“Crap…” Hero said, dropping his rifle. Sandbar did the same.
The soldier walked up. “Who are you?”
Sand gulped. “Uh… I…”
The soldier raised his rifle.
Sandbar squeaked. “I-I’m Sandbar and this is—”
Hero hit the soldier with his revolver. “Argh!” he grunted, watching as the guard was thrown to the ground.
“Woah Hero! What the heck are you doing?!”
“Relax, he was probably just another Wolfpack soldier,” Hero brushed it off, picking up his rifle. Sandbar sighed and picked his rifle up, following the nymph.
The two made their way towards the base. Up in the tower, a white pegasus watched them move up. She reached for a radio. “A pony and a changeling are moving towards the entrance,” she spoke. “Should I take the shot?”
“No. Let them enter,” the radio replied. “We’ll set up an ambush.”
The pegasus nodded, grabbing her bow and some arrows, before opening a hatch and climbing down.
~~~
Hero and Sandbar tried to open the door, but it didn’t budge. They looked around, before Hero looked at the guard. He ran back, soon returning with a keycard. “Found this. Think it’ll work?”
“It has to,” Sandbar replied.
Hero slid the card into a card reader, the pushed the door open. The lights were off, and they couldn’t see a light switch anywhere. Sandbar looked over at a nearby table, grabbing a nearby flashlight. He switched it on, looking around until he found the light switch. He walked over and tried it, but the lights didn’t turn on.
“Crap…”
“Hold on.” Hero looked over. “Point the light over here.”
Sandbar trotted over, pointing the light at Hero’s hooves. There, sitting on the wall, was a fuse box. Hero opened it, noticing all the wires. “Hm…”
“Uh… are you sure you know how to do this?” Sandbar asked.
“Yep. Just… gimme a bit.” Hero began flipping switches. Most of them were just door access points. However, and after a bit of struggle, Hero was finally able to get the lights on. “Alright, there we go!”
They then looked up, noticing that the building was much bigger than it appeared from the outside. The two looked around in both awe and confusion. How could a building be bigger on the inside than the outside? They’d begin to move forward until they came across a room labeled ‘armory’. Hero used the keycard, unlocking the room. He pushed it open, peeking in. He stepped in, admiring the many weapons. He looked around, noticing flamethrowers, rifles, sub-machine guns, machine guns, pistols, shotguns, and many other weapons.
Hero trotted in further, picking up an MMSh-41, a weapon that came from the Lunar Union. How did this get here…?
Before he could grab it, he heard Sandbar scream, “Buck!” followed by several gunshots.
Hero whipped around, raising up and beginning to aim his rifle, only to have it knocked away by… a changeling?
Before he could react, he felt something hit him hard in the stomach, then in the head. Hero collapsed, wheezing and holding his stomach. His vision slowly began to fade. As it did, he heard someone.
“Jeez Bez, did you have to hit that hard?”
~~~
Hero soon came to, groaning. He held his stomach, praying that whatever he last ate wouldn’t come back out. He looked around, noticing he was in some kind of hospital bed. He sat up groggily, like how one would on a school day. Sitting up, he was able to take in his surroundings. Yes, it definitely was some kind of hospital. He soon noticed he wasn’t restrained, and he was able to slice off the bed. He looked at another bed, noticing Sandbar was lying there.
“Sandbar?” He stepped over. “Sandbar!” he whispered. “Get up!”
Sandbar didn’t move. And Hero soon learned why. Three bolts had struck the poor pony. Twice to the chest, once to the head.
“Oh buck…”
He then heard sounds of a large group coming towards the room, and he hid behind the door. A group of creatures stepped in. A pegasus, a changeling, a hippogriff, and what appeared to be an Umbrum mixed with a griffon.
Hero watched as they stepped past the door, heading over to Sandbar’s bed. Hero noticed the hippogriff had one of the keycards. Hero carefully grabbed it, before retreating from the room.
~~~
Bezier, the changeling, leaned against the wall in boredom, her rifle making it uncomfortable. “Who do you think these two are?” she asked to no one in particular.
The others looked over. Melody, the pegasus, shrugged. “He could be a Wolfpack spy.”
Bezier looked at the unconscious earth pony. “I don’t think so. I mean, this pony looks young.”
Griff, the griffon, blinked. “Dude, we’re all underaged.”
Bezier rolled her eyes. “I still don’t think the Wolves would send two kids on what’s basically a suicide mission.”
Melody looked at the other bed. “Uh… speaking of which… where’s the changeling?”
The group turned, noticing the empty bed. Toast, the hippogriff, looked at the other beds. “He’s not in these beds. Where else could he have gone?!”
~~~
Hero stepped through the hallways. He looked around, watching many creatures trot through the building. He then noticed the armory not too far. He sighed. He couldn’t just run towards the door. They’d know he wasn’t one of them. Unless…
He stepped behind cover. In a flash of green, he emerged as the purple hippogriff. Hero chuckled and walked towards the armory, quickly sliding the keycard in, then stepping in and closing the door behind him. Hero then reverted back to his changeling form, looking at the many weapons. However, he noticed something else. His revolver was sitting on some kind of display. He blinked, stepping over and grabbing it. He raised it up, smiling. Popping out the cylinder, however, proved something wrong. The bolts were gone.
“What the.. did they take the bolts out? I know I put some in…”
“Looking for something?”
Hero whipped around, noticing a red changeling standing in the doorway. In his hoof, a box of 44. caliber bolts. Before Hero could say anything, the changeling threw the box at him, hitting him square in the face and sending the bolts all over the floor. The changeling then charged him, grabbing and throwing Hero to the floor. He then began punching Hero in the face. The older changeling clearly had the upper hoof, but Hero had an idea. He kicked the changeling off of him, then quickly crawled for his revolver. The changeling regained his stature in time for Hero to fire the revolver straight into his chest, sending him stumbling back into the wall.
Hero stared at the changeling, not listening to the yelling of pain and anger. He instead was focused and staring into space. The cocking of a handgun quickly snapped him from his tranz, as the changeling held up a pistol. Hero quickly kicked it away, raising his revolver, ready to fire. But, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. It felt wrong. But, why?
Hero sighed, lowering the gun. He leaned down to the changeling, lifting him up. He put the changeling on his back. The screams of anger soon turned into words of confusion. As he stepped out, he looked up, noticing the many soldiers staring at him. He lowered the changeling onto the ground, then pulled his revolver out and slid it over to them.
With rifles aimed up, he slowly lowered onto his knees. However, as they moved to detain him, someone stepped past them. A cyan, reformed, changeling. “At ease everyone, at ease,” he said.
“At ease?!” a blue changeling called out. “That kid shot my brother!”
“At ease Venom Stinger! Or I’ll have your bucking head!” the cyan changeling snapped. The blue changeling hushed. The reformed changeling turned to Hero, helping him up. “I bet you have questions, kid.”
Hero nodded, standing. The changeling smiled slightly. “We have answers. But, we’ll need your help.”
Hero nodded again. “Look, as long as it helps Warsaw, I’m here to help.”
The changeling chuckled, shaking his hoof. “General Pharynx.”
Hero smiled. “Hero. Hero Bell.”
