Evil is immortal, good is uncommon, death surrounds us all.- Applebits

It had been three days since we saved the town, in that time I had gotten acquainted with the current events, and it was good not to wear my armor for a little time, I instantly regretted it when I saw them. I dashed into the living quarters they had given us, these ponies had made a small town out of the petrified trees that used to be the woods, everything was built sturdy, and recently, they had even built a freestanding three level hotel in which they were letting us stay for free in. I quickly put my armor on and headed back down, as I heard the warning from the towns guards, my friends were there too, the Steel Rangers had arrived in force, it was time to see if my rank within them held any merit anymore.

I approached the literal army, my comrades had them stopped just outside of town, Dark Lightning was nowhere to be seen, knowing him he was perched in a tree with his anti-material rifle. I stood there next to my three rangers and waited for them to address me, they apparently wouldn’t speak to BrokenBlade.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“We will only speak with your Elder, sorry, when you send him out we will then escort him to ours behind me.” the steel ranger mare in front of the massive army in front of me said,.

“Sorry, but this outfit doesn't have an Elder, we have a General and he is currently missing in action, I’m his second in command, my name is…” I was speaking when she cut me off.

“NO ELDER!” She said.

I could hear a few murmurs in the background behind her, “Excuse me but I could have you discharged from the rangers for interrupting me like that, and I will if you do so again!” I said and stomped my hoof on the ground.

“You couldn't, you are not an elder, and no contingent I know of wears that armor color, in fact we all wear the standard steel, unpainted.” she remarked.

I took note of her weapons platform spinning up, “As I was saying, I am Star Paladin SteelCrusher of the Equestrian First Army, second in command to the Mighty General Tempest Knight the ancient protector of Equestria, and I was one of the first steel rangers!” I stated in the royal canterlot voice, at which the mare in front of me took a few steps back, I could hear more murmurs from behind her.

Then I saw their elder, a very old stallion grey everything unicorn, he was wearing steel colored robes, and had glasses. Then he spoke, quite as it was everypony stopped talking and all weapons stopped spinning up, I could see the respect they gave him. I took a look at my squad they hadn’t backed down, though BrokenBlade had moved back a bit to get a better shot if a fight broke out. I turned back to the other rangers.

“Did you kill a squad of steel rangers that came through here young lady?” he said.

“They were threatening my mission, I only killed three of them, their low ranking paladin killed the scribe, and I took into my care the remaining two who made no hostile intent, then helped us retake this town from a band of slavers with strange alicorns.” I said with a respectful tone, I did not wish to have bad blood between myself and an army that had their guns trained not only on me but my friends and the town we were defending.

“I see, and what is your mission?” he asked, his tone implied that he understood my reasoning, “Our mission as the Equestrian First Army is to defend the population of Equestria at any cost to our own be it life or equipment, I acted on the final orders that I received from General Tempest before the fallout.” I stated, thankful for a keen memory and a good voice.

“The rangers fall under the council of elders, we give the orders now, that squad had a mission to kill all non rangers and secure that stable, did you interfere with that?” he asked.

“That stable is a smoldering hole in the ground nothing left inside but my units supplies, which are not yours to take without authorization which I can give as the second in command of the First Army.” I stated looking directly at him, then I saw his Pip-buck flash an image of my face.

“Could you remove your helmet so that I can identify you?” asked the elder.

“Yes, can.” I removed my helmet using my telekinesis white energy surrounded it and it came off my head, I set it down next to me. Then I looked at him, straight into his eyes.

“Can your friends do the same?” he asked.

“They don’t need to, you know who I am my entire file is on your Pip-buck, now what is this all for?” I asked, tired of not getting anywhere with this.

“Just want to know if your story fits, two of these rangers were mine correct?” he asked.

“They were, I enlisted them into my army, to defend this town and the nearby region, which includes the stable, feel free to help yourself, just don’t disturb my fallen comrades, and don’t attack this town.” I said, my tone polite.

“I will not be ordered around by a naïve Star Paladin!” he blurted aloud, everypony got their guns out and ready even my allies.

“Naïve, you may be old but I’m one of the first steel rangers, knew four of the ministry mares, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack! I fought against the Zebras, alongside Tempest Knight, I am young physical age but in my time we took orders from the two princesses, Celestia and Luna! Find your place I’m older than you!” I was using my royal canterlot voice without my helmet on, everypony in his army backed up except for him, at the same time as I was speaking I was stomping my hooves on the ground and had levitated my helmet. I put my helmet on just as he had gotten back to his army. I turned to my friends, “I think we are about to have a fight on our hooves and I don’t want the towns ponies to get hurt, CrossedSwords I want you to get them someplace where they won’t get hit, Lightning do what you do best if this goes side ways, BrokenBlade, BlueSteel keep with me.

It was starting to get dark, but the elder was still speaking to his four paladins, all of them were different ranks. As the last little bit of light flickered through the wasteland sky, the paladins dispersed into their squads. Their elder turned to me.

“I hope you enjoyed playing hero traitor, for now you and your followers of the old ways will die, I truly am sorry, we just can’t have rangers that don’t follow the new orders!” the elder said abrasively, that was it the last straw broke, this was a small war now, and I wasn’t about to lose it here.

“So you turn flank and run?” I said with disgust in my voice, “We are the Equestrian First Army, one ranger trained by us fights like ten!” I said proudly, “I’m afraid that if you want to live you will take my offer, for it was your scout squad that fired first, I just returned the favor!” I said looking him in the eyes.

“Pa, I care not what you think you can do, kill them, all of them!” he stated, “Oh and burn this town to the ground as well as kill everypony that lives here!” he added as he walked away.

I was furious, he not only wanted us dead, but now the town, they didn’t deserve that. I loaded my AP ammo, this was going to be a hard fight, but we had something they didn’t, Our armor when online emit’s shield magic, a little something that General Tempest added after too many casualties. WHOOOSH, BRRRRT, BOOOM, Everything turned to hell, but among the chaos I saw a few of theirs switch sides on my EFS, Lightning saw it to and sniped the hostiles near them to give them time to move to safety for the fight ahead. Grenade Machine Guns ripped through the air, my ears were buzzing, if I wasn’t in armor, I would have been shredded by shrapnel, unfortunately for them I had armor and a friend who had anti tank cannons, BOOOOM, BOOOOM, I smiled as they blew up from his explosive rounds, he always has the right ammo for the job.

I turned and started to run to were his shots came from, he was in our tank, the 90MM cannon began firing, it was a devastating weapon that no amount of armor could save you from. BOOOOOM, BOOOOM, BOOOM, after the last of the hostile rangers fell, all they had left on their side was their elder.

“SIESE FIRE!” I yelled, they all looked at me, we had gained eight more rangers to our cause but we were greatly outnumbered, and the town was damaged, no bodies so I assumed CrossedSwords did her job. “Elder you are the last of your contingent, we have been victorious, the steel rangers were made to protect Equestria and its population, no matter how much things change down here, that shall always remain the same!” I stated proudly while stomping a hoof, I didn’t give him a chance to reply, I saw his mouth open so I inserted a missile, WHOOOSH, and the elder was turned into unidentifiable pony bits scattered with the dead.

The eight rangers that fought along side us included two paladins, one was a star paladin.

“Permission to enlist ourselves into the Equestrian First Army ma’am” I heard a gruff female voice from behind the visor,

“Permission granted, and I have a task for you, if you choose to accept?” I replied in a slightly cheery voice.

“We have yet to meet a impossible task, save to kill you, but that was a loons plan.” she said to me with a chuckle.

“Protect this town and its residents, there is a wreck of a stable nearby that has equipment, armor, and weapons inside, don’t disturb the dead rangers inside, they are what remains of my army, though you can help yourself to the armory and vehicles.” I stated.

“Thank you ma’am, it’s a real honor to serve with real steel rangers.” she said with a salute and I returned it.

“I’m going to go talk to the town about building a barracks for you. In the mean time you ten should help rebuild the parts of the town that are damaged.” I said, “With pleasure ma’am” she said and they all trotted off to help.

I walked over to the sheriff who was helping calm the towns people down, “Sheriff!” I managed to say before I was knocked over by the little filly again.

“YOU SAVED US ALL AGAIN, MOMMA SHE SAVED US AGAIN, SHE IS OUR HERO!” the filly said bouncing up and down, this wasn’t annoying, to be honest I liked it a lot, but I had a job to do. After getting up and trying to talk in a hushed tone to the filly to calm her down, that didn’t work, I decided that I could do my job with her on my back, so long as no pony started shooting at me.

“She really likes you.” the sheriff said, he was a large black stallion with a deep voice, black mane, blue eyes, and a star for his cutiemark.

“Children and animals have always liked me, though I must admit this is definitely new.” I said with a chuckle looking at my back with the bouncing filly.

“Normally she is very shy, spends a lot of time in my office with my wife reading those old history texts about the Equestrian Military, when we had one, I’m just glad to see her smile.” he said with as he smiled.

“The others are helping rebuild the town, I’m here to propose building a barracks to house the ten steel rangers I’m leaving here to defend you, they have access to what is left the nearby stable, as a means to help defend the town, but even if it had an intact barracks its still a two hour gallop from town.” I said with a tone of urgency, I knew that these rangers had come here to attack the town, their change of heart, however deep, was only provoked by my presence and four of them, not of the remaining ten, had died in the battle,

“Well it seems like a good idea, and honestly what they just got themselves into to save us and our town, that is proof enough for me.” he said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well the rangers don’t take to the idea of awol rangers to fondly, so it’s a good thing that you equipped them with your armies gear, that will improve their combat abilities significantly.” he said catching the tilt of my head, “I was a retired ranger during the fallout, you see, I may not look like it but I’m a ghoul, that healing spell of yours repaired my flesh damage and fixed her organ damage, she is my gal, we take care of that there filly.” he said with a tone of pride at the mention of the filly.

“Understand and know that this town is under my armies protection, and that you are welcome to the supplies in that stable.” I said knowing that they would need what is left in there to rebuild and construct defenses.

“Miss, I just have question, has anypony told you the name of our town?” he asked with a curious gaze.

“No sir, I was just going to mark you on my map for when I return.” I said confused as to why this was important, and hoping that I didn’t offend him.

“This town is called Nowhere because we are in the middle of nowhere.” he said looking at me, realizing that I still had my helmet on, I nodded.

“That’s a good name then.” I chuckled.

Before I left him I had one more thing to ask, “These rangers, they need a leader who is here and not charging off on a crusade to rescue our general. You said you are a retired ranger from the war?” I asked.

“Well, I am a retired ranger, but I don’t have my armor anymore, gave it back when I retired and my old uniform is in taters, but I was part of the Royal Canterlot Guard, I’d be more than happy to lead them.” he said blushing.

“RCG? Wow never thought I’d see any of you again, I know that there is a lot of spare armor to spec with mine in the stable, I’m sure somepony could paint it up to specs with the RCG.” I said without hesitation, hoping to lighten his spirits and make things easier for him to take charge.

“Well that would be mighty nice, will they listen to me?” he asked matching my concerns.

“If you tell them, then yes, I’m just a Star Paladin and they listen to me.” I said, “I’ll get you that armor before leaving.” I added,

“Much obliged.” he replied.

I walked over to Dark Lightning, but stopped, “When are you going to get off me dear?” I asked the filly who was still jumping up and down on my back, it was starting to hurt, but I didn’t want to make her upset by yelping in pain.

“You don’t like me?” she said with a sob, as she leaped off my back, I quickly rapped her in a hug.

“No I love you, you remind me what I fight for, I was just starting to feel a little pain, and like it or not I’m not as young as I used to be.” I said to her while still hugging her.

She stopped crying and looked up at me, “I don’t want you to leave.” she said.

I held back a tear of my own, in truth I wanted to stay and protect this town, but I wasn’t about to let Tempest down, he was in all aspects my oldest living friend, all my relatives died in Fillydelphia when the mega spells hit, “I must, its my mission, but no worries I will return, and when I do I will have a very special friend with me that I want you to meet.” I said as I removed my helmet and smiled.

“Okay, do you Pinky Pie Promise?” she asked, I never thought I would hear that phrase again, Pinkie Pie defies all laws of physics.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye” I said smiling as I did the motions with my hooves.

“YAY, YAY, YAY!” she cheered all the way back to her momma.

Dark Lightning had watch the spectacle of a steel ranger that actually liked children, “Did you ever have a kid, you know before Equestria was blasted to ash?” he asked.

Did I really look that old? “No, never even dated more that one guy during the war, and he died in combat, artillery fire took him out with a direct shot. Do I look that old, I’m only in my late twenties?” I asked as he backed up, not expecting be to be so open with my history.

“No you don’t look old at all, its just, you are really good with kids that’s all.” he remarked as he regained his bearing.

I just watched him, I had known a few pegasi before the war, but he was different, definitely more animated than they were and mach larger, I decided not to ask any more questions for now. “I’m a medical pony and I admit, animals and children like me a lot, there is nothing more to it, I grew up with five brothers and two younger sisters on a apple farm, near the outskirts of the tundra that the Crystal Empire reappeared in.” I stated, determined to put him back at ease.

He looked at me and nodded following my story, “I was born and raised in Cloudsdale, was an engineer pony in the Weather Factory working as maintenance, when I fell into the weather machine, before my coworkers pulled me out all the feathers from my wings had been singed off and all of the muscles in my wings were torn beyond healing, so I had them removed and replaced with cybernetics. I didn’t have siblings and my parents died when I was ten years old.” he said with his head down, flapping his wings slightly, “I was the first test subject for cybernetics, only later did I realize that my encounter with the weather machine granted me power over the electricity that flows through my body thus with my enhancements now able to conduct lightning with my wings.” He said with a smile.

I walked away, toward where the other rangers were, BrokenSteel was teaching them the First Army’s code, it was slightly different than the standard ranger code and held us at a much higher standard, the penalty for breaking the code was death by slow burning fire.

"We are the first and last line, we are the champions of our kind, its defenders in dark times, we are the first army, for the people we fight, for the people we die, fortudine!"

I watched as he used his royal canterlot voice, drilling it into their minds, then I listened as they repeated in unison, then he repeated the process. They were building a stone wall using cutting tools from the stable and stone from the mountain nearby, we were lucky it had many shallow caves in which we could harvest the stone. I watched as the town folk sealed the stones together with their magic and added support beams to the walls, for extra stability. They had rebuilt the damaged part of the town in only a few hours, everypony had helped, and most of the damage was in one concentrated area. I saw them mount automated defense turrets from the stable and gave a warning that they will need to be reprogrammed, then I saw four plasma cannons come down the hill, no pony in his right mind would dare attack this place with anything short of five hundred ponies or at least ten tanks! It made me feel better about leaving that they had strong defenses.

I walked over to the battleground, they had already removed the bodies, and were taking them up to the stable where I buried the others, all except four which were taken to the towns graveyard where they were adding their names to a monument of a knight of old, the armor on the stone knight reminded me of Tempest’s armor. Nowhere was one of the best towns I had ever visited, needless to say, I plan on coming back when I get Tempest, not just for the filly and the other rangers, but because if I die anywhere, I want it to be Nowhere! As absurd as that thought sounded I liked it, this was a nice little town, there was only one problem, the ground was dry, I asked about this, and apparently it doesn’t rain here that often, and when the wind picks up they get dust storms, they have a magic barrier for that and there is a lake nearby but they don’t have the ability to irrigate the land, otherwise it would be quite fertile, except the radiation, but I have a spell for that, I added it to my mental to do list.

I walked back into the town and approached BlueSteel and CrossedSwords, “When I gave the others place in this army, I also decided that I don’t trust them like I do you, I saw you fight your old contingent without hesitation, and join us before also without hesitation, that is why I wish to make you both direct officers for the sheriff, he was a Royal Guard Steel Ranger and retired two months before the fallout with his wife, they are in all aspects in charge during mine and the generals absence however I’m going to make the two of you Star Paladins and everypony else a knight.” I said to them. Neither one of them had their armor on and I could see their cutiemarks, Wild Blues mark was that of an artillery shot splashing down on its target, and Green Woods was a large oak tree, with sprouts around it. Then looking at wild blue I noticed rough patches of flesh on his back.

“That, that is very nice of you ma’am!” Wild Blue said smiling.

“Thank you ma’am, I don’t know what I need to say, um… Thank you!!!” Green Woods said, she didn’t have the same rough marks on her back.

“Green Woods, I noticed your cutiemark, you are good with plants?” I asked still smiling.

“Well yes I am, why?” she ask me.

“Well I was inspecting the ground it would be fertile if it were not for the radiation which I plan on removing. So I was wondering if you could find a way to use one of the three water stones to clean the water coming from the lake for irrigation so that the town can have fresh crops, there are seeds in the stable that you can use to complete this task?” I asked.

She stumbled a little, “That would be fantastic, the only thing I like better that being a defender is working with plants, thank you!” she said grinning.

“Blue I have a question.” I said.

“Go ahead and ask, I don’t keep secrets.” he replied.

As soon as Woods left to go check out the lake and her task that I had come up with I started “You don’t need to tell me, but I would like to know what happened to your back?” I asked hoping that I wasn't treading on fire with this subject.

He sighed, “Most don’t ask, but it’s the reason I don’t remove my armor that often. I was born in the wasteland to the rangers, same as my sister, somewhere in our history my family had pegasi, I was born a pegasus, my parents loved my wings but I couldn't wear the armor with wings effectively, so the elder ordered my wings to be removed, my cutiemark is really that of a bomber, but I pass it of as artillery.” he said looking away at the sky.

“I’m sorry, they shouldn't have done that to you, that was evil.” I said after a long pause.

He looked at me, “Its not reversible, but I’m not to worried about it, I never knew how to fly anyways.” he said with a half smile, “No worries, it doesn't bother me anymore.” he added nodding his head, I nodded back and he galloped to catch up with his sister.

By the time I had gotten a full inspection of the town that I had decided to retire in when my duties are complete. I took one last look out my window in my hotel room, separate from my stallion friends, at the place I wanted to call home, the place I will call home. Then I put myself down on my bed and drifted off to sleep.

“Join us, become one with us, so that we may enjoy unity in a new Equestria!” a loud female voice that seemed to be originating from a massive blue light on the far side of the room. I was back in the chamber where Tempest was contained. “No, my duty is to Equestria, it is to defend Equestria from any threats, I cannot do so if I join into you.” a low grumbled voice said, the voice of Tempest. The image changed, I could see a roller coaster, and Pinkie Pie balloons, a crater, a lot of ponies at work with slaver guards watching them from above their pits. There were three walls surrounding this, industrial area, that looked like a mixture between an amusement park and a large industrial city, I was looking at Fillydelphia.

Author's Notes:

Just another crazy time for Applebits and friends!