The only stupid question is the one not asked! -Applebits

We pulled out the camouflage netting and tarp, layering them over the tank, tarp first then netting to keep it dry and hidden. The Manehattan ruins were a maze, the worst part was that none of us could actually see, the fog was so thick that I could cut it with a knife and call it a pizza. The headlamps only helped us find each other, and that only worked for me and BrokenBlade, Dark Lightning and Shining Defense had flown ahead, I was keeping an eye on my map following them through the maze of rubble that was BrokenBlade’s home town, thinking of which I remembered my promise to him.

“Hey Bull’s-Eye, do you know where your place is from here?” I asked him, he had been quite since we entered the city, we all had.

“Its not to far from the Ministry of Arcane Science building.” he said.

“That is what turned into Ten Pony tower buddy!” Lightning had crackled through the radio at the next courtyard where he was waiting with Defense.

“Was beginning to worry that you two got lost in there.” He said with a chuckle, “Ten Pony isn’t far, but we need to be on the Celestia Line in order to get in.” he added, pointing a hoof up at the monorail system.

I looked over to Bull’s-Eye, “We get into Ten Pony first, then you and me can make the trip over to your old home, okay?” I asked him,

“If that is what you want, then its fine by me.” he replied, to which I nodded, I couldn't tell through his helmet, but I think he was crying again.

“So what are you two waiting for come get us!” I exclaimed, and our two flying friends swooped down and picked us up.

We had been traveling on the Celestia line for quite sometime, when I finally saw the tower we were going to. It was very tall and it intersected with a station, it also looked like its magic shield held during the blast, well mostly half the tower had been blasted, but it was all still intact, and I could see lights inside of the tower through its windows.

“Does anypony know what kind of security they have there?” I asked, to my surprise Lightning answered.

“Eyup, they won’t take your weapons, but they will take your ammo upon your arrival, and you have to be there for a reason or have somepony let you in to actually enter the tower.” he said.

“So has anypony thought of an idea to get us in?” I asked, thinking how stupid it would be to come here and not be allowed in.

“I was part of the Ministry, I can get us in” said Defense.

I looked at her, “Do they allow alicorns in?”

“I don’t know, probably not considering their relation to Red Eye.” Lightning said, disgust in his voice.

We were at the entrance to the station now, no guards, “So are you going to wear anything over your wings and shrink?” I asked Defense.

“First off I can’t shrink, second off I worked in this building before I joined the military and was made an alicorn by a project from this ministry, I’m certain they will let me in.” she said sounding very confident.

I was stuck on the point that she made with the ministry making her into an alicorn, and was still worried that she wasn’t a friend that I wanted. Though a part of me reminded myself that she did help us, we would be dead without her, and her story has been correct thus far.

At long last we got to the end of the line and it was time to get into the tower and talk to this DJ PON3 about what, and who we are.

“Halt, what are you four doing here?” I heard a gruff voice of a stallion say, “Identify yourself now!” he commanded.

I approached him, removing my helmet and letting out my mane, I had fixed it with the help of Defense, she adept at how to fix manes.

“I am Star Paladin SteelCrusher, of the Equestrian First Army, we have business inside with DJ PON3, It has come to my attention that we must leave our ammunition with you, when and if you let us in, and we will comply.” I stated.

“What do you want with DJ PON3?” he asked me.

“I wish to speak with him, a few days ago he broadcasted about my armies defense of a small town against Steel Rangers, I had to come here and answer a few questions for him, not to mention have him answer a few of my own questions.” I said calmly, I was hoping this would work and not lead to us finding a less civilized way in.

“I am assuming that the other guy in the armor that matches yours is with you?” he asked, eyeing the rather odd group behind me.

“Yes, BrokenBlade, Dark Lightning is the Shadowbolt next to him, and Shining Defense are all with me.” I stated with a smile, though he couldn't see that. “And we are all comfortable with your rules.” I added before he could speak.

He looked at me and then to my friends, “An alicorn, I don’t mind the three of you, but I want this alicorn to explain who she is.” he said with a hint of nervousness.

“I am from the Equestrian Shadow Forces, we were a special group of ponies chosen by the ministries to become alicorns and fight behind enemy lines, before that though, I was a unicorn, and I worked in this building on mega spells for the defense of Equestria.” she said smoothly.

“Okay, that’s good enough explanation for me” he said as he opened the gate then stopped, “Though this is going to cost you.” he added.

To be fair I floated about forty bottle caps up to him, he opened the weapon slot and got them in, then opened the gate the rest of the way.

Inside there was a Unicorn, she was red, with black mane, green eyes, her cutiemark was hidden by her dress.

“Hello and welcome to Ten Pony Tower, would you please hold still while we remove your ammunition, if you feel as though you need ammo in your guns while inside the city visit the guard captain, he sells rubber bullets at his office.” she said cheerfully as she unloaded our weapons.

Once we had been emptied of ammo, and our alicorn friend was looked at oddly because she had no gun, we headed off into the city. Before I left my ammo I asked if there was a hotel and if when we leave that we will get our ammo back, the answer for both was yes. In no time I had secured us two rooms at the hotel, one for the boys, and one for the girls.

After we all settled in and removed our armor, well Defense kept her armor on just put a large cloak on that had slots for her wings, to mask most of her armor, we went back down,. The boys decided to tag along with Defense who wanted to see the sights in the tower while I went to see if I could set up an appointment with DJ PON3. I watched them as they walked off as though the wasteland had never existed and we were all friends from the same unit, then they disappeared. It came to thought that I had never really been alone in the Wasteland before now, it seemed odd because before all this I was almost always alone unless it was the rare occasion that Tempest was with his army.

I walked over to the lobby to meet DJ PON3, he had a reception counter but no pony was there. I must have waited forever because my friends showed up later, they had saved this place for last. I was regretting not going with them when a short grey unicorn with blue hair stepped out of DJ PON3’s elevator and froze stiff. I looked at her and she looked at me, my friends had also noticed her and had stopped talking.

“Hello, are you the pony who is supposed to be at the reception for DJ PON3, or do you know where I can find the pony?” I asked, hoping the fact that my very odd group hadn’t given her a heart attack.

“Um, well, we haven’t had a receptionist in a long time, I’m Homage, DJ PON3's assistant, how may I help you?” Homage said in a curious tone.

“Well, my friends and I were hoping to speak with DJ PON3 about the battle between what he called the White Rangers and Steel Rangers that happened not to long ago in a little town called Nowhere.” I said, knowing that this at least was public knowledge.

“Oh, do you have information for him?” she asked me, my friends were all silently watching us talk, Dark Lightning was beggining ti get impatient.

“Well you see…” I said as I walked closer and hushed my voice, “I am Star Paladin SteelCrusher of the Equestrian First Army, I’m in charge of what he called, the White Rangers, and I wanted to come and tell him about us.” I said to her, she looked as though she was about to throw me a party.

“I will be right back, stay here!” she said as she bolted back through the elevator.

I waited for what felt like two hours, but without my armor it was hard to tell. In that time my friends had told me about recent events, like how the cheese pony had been executed for trying to rob somepony that had saved him out in the wastes, and a near catastrophe with zombies in the tunnels under the tower. They also told me about an impressive clinic that I should check out, and Defense made mention of taking me to the spa, wasn’t sure if I wanted to go there, I liked my body tense, it kept me on edge.

"He has agreed to see you now, but how many of you are coming?" Homage asked.

I looked at my friends, “Can we all come?” I asked, hopeful that she would say yes, to my surprise she did.

As we all crammed into the elevator that led to the lair of DJ PON3 I wondered what he looked like, my thoughts were derailed rather quickly, at the top of the tower where a group of ponies were waiting for us, no guns thankfully, but Homage looked shocked.

“Care to explain why they are here?” one of the hooded ponies asked.

“Well they wish to speak with DJ PON3, about a recent event in a remote part of the Wastes, that's all.” Homage said, I could sense the worry in her voice, we were in a large lobby at the top of the tower and I could see a few doors that led off in different directions, if this turned into a fight we would be in rather tight quartes and I don't think the tower would survive one of our skirmishes.

“After the toaster repair pony you think we are going to believe you, really?” another hooded pony said.

“Well its my job isn’t it?” Homage replied, I was starting to like her spunk, she obviously knew these ponies by name but refrained from using them, most likely because of us.

Then Defense froze, she had been looking around the room slowly taking it all in, it was probably the only room that hadn’t changed since she had been here last. She had locked her gaze on a statue of an alicorn in the middle of the room.

“I see that this place held up well after the mega spells, did Celestia Prime survive?” she asked, the hooded figures and Homage all moved away from her a little, I even gave her a what are you talking about look.

After about ten minuets passed before the hooded figure in the front stepped forward, “How do you know about that?” he snapped, shaken by the knowledge of our alicorn friend.

“I helped design it along side many others, I remember Ms, Sparkle being quite upset about its drawback.” she said, I watched her eyes they had a remembering look as though she was remembering a life that happened long ago.

The hooded ponies stumbled a little Homage looked like she was going to faint, “Who are you, and don’t give us an alicorn code name?” the lead figure ordered.

“I am..” she paused, it had apparently been a long time since she tried to remember her real name, “I am Ms. Sunshine, I worked in this ministry during the war, I attended Celestia’s gifted unicorn school. I had a PHD in arcane science.” she said, putting the words back together, “Though we were made to remove our old names and lives when we became alicorns, by order of Princess Luna, she promised to return us to our original forms after the war so that we could continue our lives.” she finished saying as everypony in the room went to a bit more ease, although Lightning seemed to be privy to this little bit of information already, knowing him he probably had a long talk with our new friend while they were scouting in the streets.

After that, our alicorn friend disappeared to talk with the hooded ponies about the ministry and all of its secrets, she told me that she would report to me if I wanted, I told her to be safe.

Homage looked at me then at my friends, “DJ PON3 is very busy and he has told me to interview you since I am his assistant.” Homage said to me before leading us into a recording room.

Once inside Homage directed us to a microphone in a room that was separated from hers by a window, there were speakers over her window, we were inside of a prewar recording facility, only I couldn't see the ponies on the other side of the window because it was a two way mirror.

“Hello wastelanders, this is DJ PON3 coming to you live, I have with me my wonderful assistant Homage who encountered the hero’s of Nowhere, the brave ponies who led it are now in my recording studio and want to tell me their part of their story.” I could hear DJ PON3 say in a charismatic voice from behind the glass, “Well then what is your part of the story White Ranger?” he asked me, making me sound as though I was out of that old television program 'Power Mares' and making my cringe at how corny it was.

I cleared my throat before speaking, “Well I am Star Paladin SteelCrusher of the Equestrian First Army, we were ordered during the fallout to stable one, five, zero to go into cryo sleep. Only myself and Knight BrokenBlade survived in the chambers to this point of time. You see the chambers had a limited time frame, after roughly one hundred and seventy years, the stable computer was designed to begin putting soldiers to sleep. The pegasi were supposed to come down and release us, but as we know now, the pegasi turned into the Enclave thus committing treason to the EUP. We lucked out and had Captain Dark Lightning, who was wing pony to Rainbow Dash the mare of the Ministry of Awesome and war hero, come and save us inadvertently when he was trying to save the good ponies of Nowhere. The raiders had stripped off his weapons and cyber wings, leaving him defenseless, he woke us up when he rewired the auto defenses in the stable. BrokenBlade escorted the civilians back to their town, and returned after doing so, cutting a swath through the Raiders. Eventually, after getting my two teammates out I blew majority of the stable to ash.” I said catching my breath.

“Well that was mighty brave of you, and I saw what you did when you got to the town and Slavers were attacking it, saving the towns people a second time, my question is where did you find two more rangers to help you?” DJ PON3 asked me but Dark Lightning replied before I had caught my breath.

“Those two rangers were the first to return to the proper meaning of their oath to Equestria and its people, they joined up with us after an unfortunate conflict with their squad which left them, the only two who didn’t try to kill us, instead wanting to join us, alive.” he said quick and clean.

“So what was up with the small ground war between the First Army, well what was left of it, and the Steel Rangers?” DJ PON3 asked us.

“Well, they were upset because they didn’t want rangers who didn’t report to their elders roaming about, and when I told them about us and that we report to General Tempest, who led us during the war and who went missing before the fallout, and that we are following his final orders, to protect the citizens of Equestria from any and all threats. Well lets just leave it at he didn’t like it.” I stopped talking, I was trying to figure out how to phrase my next words.

"Those who chose to fight for the General switched sides with us that day and fought for that town in which the rangers had threatened to wipe out, we tried our best to reason with them peacefully but they didn’t listen. We had no choice but to kill em, or allow ourselves to fail our final orders. We hold our duty above ourselves, and our only duty now is to the citizens of Equestria!” BrokenSteel finished it for me.

“Well there you go children, the full story of the events that happened in the small town of Nowhere, now where exactly is Nowhere a few have asked me and I have an answer for you, its nowhere! No pony knows lest they have been there, and I’m afraid its gonna stay that way for a long time to come children, unless the Wasteland changes for the better Nowhere will remain nowhere!” DJ PON3 stated over the speakers before I heard a loud 'click' when the recording sign shut off.

The interview was over but we were still locked in the studio, then the two way mirror became see through.

“Thank you for your time, I know that you had a few questions for DJ PON3, but he has to go talk to the Twilight Society about your friend, so may I speak with you instead?” Homage asked.

I was stumped, “What about my friend?” I asked, forgetting I had come here for information.

“Well the fact that she knows this tower as it was before the fallout, and the threat that poses, they want to asses her threat level.” Homage said with a worried look.

“We just met her, but her armor had similar markings as Tempest's ancient armor that he wore when he was off the battlefield, and his mark of creation. She is definitely one of us.” I said with a determined face.

“DJ PON3 will deal with it, he doesn’t like it when they mess with ponies!” she exclaimed.

“Good, any friend of Twilight was a friend of mine, even if I never met them, we knew each other, I even stayed at her house for a little while and learned a few dozen spells from her, per Tempest’s request.” I said, she looked floored.

“So not only are you old soldiers come back to save us, but three of you knew ministry mares and had spent time with them?” she asked.

“Yes” both me and Lightning said in unison.

“Now to get down to our original reason for coming here!” I said, interrupting her daydreams.

“Oh, Oh yes. Why was that, aside from giving me information that is?” she asked.

“Well first I was wondering how you could see us in the Wasteland if you never leave this tower?” I asked her.

“Well, are you familiar with the towers that are scattered across Equestria?” she asked me.

“Yes, the single pegasus project, Rainbow Dash said it was so that one pegasus could control all the weather in Equestria, she even said it could drop lightning on our enemies if they came into range!” Lightning said recalling a funny memory because he laughed afterwords.

“Well they also have cameras on them to observe what goes on, DJ PON3 has hacked into their network, he can see everywhere in his broadcast station.” she said, looking slightly proud.

“Okay well now that my first question is answered, is it okay if I view an area using that system?” I asked.

“Well, um, no. you can’t!” she exclaimed, she had a worried look on her face.

“Its important, and we only need to study the area a few days. We are on a mission, not only to save the Equestrian citizens, but to free our General who is being held in Fillydelphia!” I retorted, ready to use my military rank, his rank, to secure this resource, “It won’t interfere with DJ PON3, I give you my word.” I added when she looked cross.

The doors unlocked, "I believe that the society wishes to speak with you.” she stated as she looked down which worried me.

As we moved toward the door it opened, outside the hooded figures were standing with Defense, she was smiling and they were laughing. After seeing that my worries slipped away, then Homage joined us, I wondered if DJ PON3 was wearing one of those cloaks.

Homage looked at them and then turned to me with her horn glowing, “Hello knights of the old days, this is your pal, DJ PON3!” Homage said.

Homage was DJ PON3. “Well, I figured as much.” I said.

Her eyes widened, “How did you know?” she asked me.

“I wasn't absolutely sure, lets just say it was a hunch. So what is this all about?” I asked her.

“Well a good friend of mine and her friends are securing the Fillydelphia tower again, and the society was listening to our conversation in the room.” she said, “They told me I could reveal myself to you, in return they want you to tell them all you know about anything this tower may have, and who Tempest is.” she stated, now looking slightly worried.

“No worries, we can do that.” I said with a smile.

After we told them all about the single pegasus project and this towers secrets, during which they were all hanging off their seats, not only by Defenses knowledge of this place, but Lightning’s knowledge of the SPP. They turned to me and asked about Tempest, non of them had removed their cloaks, but I was at ease with this.

“Tempest was, is, well, a very different pony of a very different time.” I said, searching for words to describe him, “What do you want to know?” I asked them.

After a long period off discussion their leader turned to me, “What do you know of him?” he asked me.

“Quite a bit since I was one of his closest friends, which is how I met Twilight Sparkle, and became second in command of his army. I guess you could say that we were close, like a father and daughter.” I said, they looked at me and started talking to each other again.

After half an hour they turned back to me, “We know he was a General, you already disclosed that information. Do you know his heritage, and what he was to the princesses?” he asked me.

“His heritage is mostly a mystery aside from being part Crystal pony and Dragon, with a line of pegasi in there somewhere. As for his relation to the Princesses I know for a fact that he and Luna were close friends, but he and Celestia didn't get along when it came to most things.” I said, recalling when Celestia stepped down from her command during the war and Tempest had chewed her out.

“And what of his abilities?” the lead pony asked.

“I know that he can breath fire and is immune to lava.” I said remembering the time the stripes used flamethrowers and casually walked up to them and bucked them in their faces.

“Please go on, this is highly intriguing!” he exclaimed, leaning forward a bit.

“Well, he has this gemstone that grants him minor magical abilities that forged into his armor." I said, it was something he didn't use too often.

They were looking at me now in stupor, Homage looked at me with a quizzical look that said she didn't believe me. "Well, before you ask I don't know how it works, most of his past is a mystery to me."

"That is rather intriguing." The lead pony said giving a look towards Homage before looking back to me. "How did he survive the Fallout?"

After thinking of how to respond to this, which took some time on my part since I was still trying to figure it out I came back with a reply, “From visions that he sends me from time to time, he seems, weaker than before, like he was drained.” I said at long last.

“Yes, in the two visions that he has sent me, he was most definitely drained and in immense pain, though in each one he felt more powerful, his mind more acute.” Defense added, this made me feel much better about her being here, even if I still didn’t know if we could trust her, but I was beginning to do so.

"I don’t know what happened to him, but whatever happened, it effected him in a very bad way.” I said, not knowing what else they would want that I knew, then remembering, “He can also spit acid” I added to his list.

“Well then that’s interesting, do you know what his cutiemark is?” Homage asked, this I did know.

“He lived and worked in a remote forge, his cutiemark is that of a hammer and anvil, before the fallout he had regarded himself as an engineer!” I stated, smiling, the conversation was over.

Author's Notes:

So I divulged into Tempests history a tad in this chapter as well as Defense as I needed to justify her being in the fic.