Old Wounds

by Striker1959

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 3

Prologue

Light Family Home, Outside of Canterlot
4:00AM Local Time
Dusk Light

Coffee, long the standard wakeup call of many ponies. To be fair that caffeine is damn good at doing just that. But like anything, eventually the effect just doesn’t do as much as it used to. For four years I’ve drank the stuff just out of habit. It felt regular, consistent, hell even safe.

“Up early again?” My wife said as she hugged me from behind.

“Well you’re the one with the psychology degree. Think you can tell me why I keep doing this?” I said with a smirk.

“Didn’t we agree to avoid that rabbit hole?” Dart chided, sounding somewhat unnerved.

“Yeah, we did… Sorry, bad choice of words.” I admitted. But as I looked out on the yard, I caught a pair of headlights coming down the driveway. “What the hell?”

Dart took notice of the headlights too. “Is that a rover?” She asked.

Come to think of it, Dart was right. “It is… Wait here.” I said, handing the cup of coffee to Dart and walking down the steps to where the rover parked. By the time I hit the driveway the pony at the wheel had gotten out. “Can I help you with something?”

“Yeah Dusk, you can.” The unicorn said as he rounded the hood of the Rover, finally coming to a point I could make out who it was.

“Cosmo? What are you doing here? I thought you were still off on some black book gig.”

“Technically I still am.” Cosmo admitted “But Storm Cloud and I had to come back to Canterlot to brief the Princess on what we found.”

“Then why are you standing in my driveway?”

“Because the VIP we rescued from Palas has a hell of a lot to do with you, and that one lie you’ve been telling me since we met.”

“Cosmo, what the hell-”

“Why didn’t you tell me that Princess Celestia was your mother?” Cosmo immediately spat. “We’ve been friends for twenty five years. And every time it came up, it was ‘Mom died giving birth to me’. Never anything more, not at least until a few hours ago. And under any other circumstance I would’ve never questioned it.”

“Cosmo, again, what the hell are you talking about?” I knew Cosmo had me dead to rights. The colt always been into information, that’s why he joined the Intelligence wing of the Guard after I retired. But apparently playing dumb wasn’t going to solve a damn thing. What it did get me was a fist to the jaw and a concussion spell straight to the chest that sent me careening back into the stairs that led up to the porch. Cosmo was right on top of me, horn crackling with energy and eyes focused in anger. But from the clashing tan and silver glows of magic lighting up the porch, Dart was already primed to try and blast Cosmo back to the stone age. “Cool it babe, Cosmo’s a bit upset that he wasn’t privy to half of the family history.”

“Upset? If it was anypony else I wouldn’t care, but your family history, and by extension heritage, got her ass summarily kicked by De Witt’s old gang down in Palas.”

“Wait, what the hell was Celestia doing in Palas?” Dart retorted.

“I never said it was Celestia.” Cosmo countered. “But that foal of yours told me everything I needed to know about that family history of yours that you wanted kept quiet.”

“Foal… What the hell are you taking about?” I asked. “You know damn well-”

“I thought I knew too!” Cosmo yelled. “But apparently your Mother’s side of the tree is pretty damn fucked up. Because that VIP we found down in Palas? That was your daughter!”

Four Years Ago
Canterlot General Hospital
Col. Dusk Light, Royal Marines

“Get the fuck out of my way!”

“Colonel, please, there’s procedures-”

I didn’t wait. I instead grabbed the security guard’s head and smashed it into the wall next to the door. While he was slumping to the ground I tried the doors. Locked tight. “Clear the lane!” I yelled before blasting the double doors off their hinges with a breaching spell. The few staff on the other side of the door were cowering behind carts and open doors to avoid the flying fragments of wood and glass. I grabbed the first one to stand up by his collar. “Where is she?!”

“Uh… Down the hall, hang a left at the end. Room 314.” The orderly meekly answered.

“At least one of you schmucks knows how to answer a damn question!” I shouted as I ran down the hall. Rounding the corner, I ran into a familiar face and suit of armor who immediately blocked my path. “Sentry, get the hell out of my way.”

“Not yet.” He said, a rather neutral expression plastered on the pegasi’s face.

“And why the hell not?”

The pegasi got rather close, and immediately looked less serious. “Because for a member of the Royal Family, you’re way out of line.” He said with a whisper.

For the first two seconds, the statement didn’t hit me. In the third second it was a matter of ‘wait, what?’ and from the fourth on it was a mixture of sheer panic and dread “How-”

“Relax, the Princess read me in on day two.” The pegasi replied. “The Captain of the Royal Guard can’t do a good job of watching out for the Royal Family if he doesn’t know that that one Marine he constantly butts heads with is one of those ponies that need Crown Level protection.”

“Awe hell…” I muttered.

“Let me guess, you smashed a security pony’s head into a wall and kicked the door in?” He asked as he motioned for me to follow.

“Well you’re right on the first part… Did a bit more than kick in the door.”

“So you blew it to smithereens then and traumatized a bunch of ponies that had nothing to do with why you’re so pissed off?”

“Maybe?”

Flash rolled his eyes. “Look, I’ll make sure that we take care of it.”

“Like how we took care of General Winterfell?”

Flash shook his head. “I heard that you and Sergeant Cosmo had something of a disagreement with the General?”

“If you call treason a disagreement.” I retorted. “This whole damn thing was a setup. And he was paid to not only help line up Dart, but he kept the news of the attack from leaving his desk. He was manually filtering incoming reports to ensure I didn’t find out that Dart had been attacked.”

“I take it that you secured the evidence?”

I nodded. “Cosmo has it personally locked down. Sent copies to his Mother’s office down in Appaloosa for safekeeping, just in case the originals go missing or turn up in a fireplace.”

“This fucking stings… It was my recommendation that led to Winterfell being put in charge of the Capital Security department. Any idea who he was working with?”

“Nope… Just that he got a payout in the ten million in Griffish platinum ingots to set this all up.”

Flash stopped me. “Ten million in platinum bars? You realize what that means?”

“That whoever paid for this had access to the platinum reserves in the Griffon Imperium? That was the first thought, but the quick test we did on the stuff that Winterfell had hidden in his office showed it was basically pure. Not enough impurities to trace it back to the Imperium. Cosmo has his brother heading over to Winterfell’s condo to recover the rest that’s stored there.”

“And Wintefell?” Flash asked as we started walking down the hallway again.

“Well when I left him Cosmo was tossing him into a cell with Marines corralled into guard duty
. Although he’s not doing any magic tricks anytime soon… Or ever again. But that’s not why I’m here.” I said, observing that we had reached the door labeled 314. “My wife, the foal?”

Flash took his helmet off and dropped it on the ground next to the door, that stoic guard look dissolving for one of pure sorrow. “Dusk, I don’t know what to say so I’m just going to say it… I’m so sorry.”

Author's Note

Well I'm back, and trying to do something more original. There's going to be some dark undertones here, even tragic. But it's my hope that this will eventually pan out to make a compelling story.

And for the sake of picturing our characters in some way, here's some reference sheets;

Chapter 1

Doughnut Joe’s, Canterlot
6:30AM Local Time
Gen. Meteor Shower (Ret.)

“Yo, Meteor!” Joe called as the door to the diner swung shut behind me. “What you and your kids do to get the royal treatment this morning?”

I couldn’t help but cock an eyebrow. For one, Dusk is almost NEVER awake at 6:30 in the morning. He usually doesn’t start his day for another hour. My daughter-in-law Dart was the same way. And even on the rare occasions I’ve had breakfast with Celestia or Luna, it usually was when there was something they needed to bring their commandant of the Royal Marines in to the loop on.

There were two problems with that last bit. As of six months ago, I had retired. And as of a week ago, Celestia and Luna had abdicated to make way for Twilight’s ascendancy. “Royal treatment Joe?”

Joe nodded. “Yup, Princess Twilight showed up with your kids and two filthy looking guards. And she had this massive satchel.” As I turned to make my way to the private dining room in the back, Joe reached over the counter and grabbed my shoulder. “Meteor, she looked dead serious. Something’s up.”

The quick walk back to the dining room didn’t leave me long to think. I swung the door open to see Twilight with her back to the door, and looks of utter despair on the faces of my son and daughter-in-law. Faces I had only seen once before.

“The baby, we lost the baby dad!”

“General, sorry to start without you-”

“Her name is Dawn.” Dusk said as he looked up from the papers he was holding, tears streaming down his cheeks. “That’s her name Dad, Dawn.”

I just turned to glare at the lavender princess. “What the hell is going on?!” I barked.

“General, it’s not the Princess’ fault.”

My glare turned to a familiar pair. Marines that I had personally trained. A unicorn and his griffin half-brother. “Cosmo, Storm Cloud, you mind telling me what’s going on?” The Princess tried to speak up, but I held my hand to her. “And I’d rather hear it from you two.”

The pair quickly exchanged glances before Cosmo cleared his throat. “As you might remember, when we were attached to Intelligence we were tasked with tracking down all remnants of De The pair exchanged glances before Cosmo cleared his throat and took some photos out of his vest pocket. “As you know when we were attached to Intelligence four years ago, we were to identify and eliminate the remnants of De Witt’s organization. Well we learned two things… First, the organization is intact. When we were investigating one of the abandoned sites, we found this mare.” Cosmo reached over the table and handed me the picture of an unconscious mare, beaten and bloodied.

One of the pictures revealed a sight that filled me with dread. Lying on her side, I could clearly make out blood stained wings and a horn. “She’s an alicorn.” I muttered. “How is it we didn’t know she existed?”

“Because apparently that was the point.” Twilight said, finally ignoring my gesture to keep her mouth shut. “From what little she told Cosmo’s team while she was in and out of consciousness, she answers to one pony alone.” The princess seemed to fidget in her chair for a moment before she regained composure. “General, she said it was Faust.”

I looked from Cosmo, to the pictures of the mare, to my re-traumatized daughter-in-law. “The second thing… You ran a field genetics test.” I said as I turned back to look at Cosmo, by now clearly very pained and uncomfortable. “It came back as a match-”

“For Dusk and Dart, yes.” Cosmo spat. “A parental match. I don’t know how, or why, but this mare is their daughter. And get this. Not only does she thing De Witt is alive, but she’s been hunting his organization for almost a year.”

“There’s two problems with this, just on it’s face.” I said as I looked at the pictures again. “For starters, this mare is easily the same age as Dusk and Dart. They lost the foal four years ago. How do you make up that ground?”

“You should know General.” The Princess retorted. “Because you know damn well how complicated things get when Faust is involved. Or did you forget what your wife told you?”

“I thought your mother was just a legend?”

“Oh know, she’s real Met, and that’s her standing right there.”

I came back to the present from my memories and sighed. “So you know too?”

Twilight nodded. “It was one of the first things Celestia told me when she started preparing me for the throne. Got to admit General, I always thought of you as the type to aim for the top… Just didn’t realize that applied to your personal life too.”

“To be fair your majesty, the whole thing was just sheer dumb luck with how it all came together… Wouldn’t change it for the world.” I handed the pictures back to Cosmo and sat down on the edge of the table. “So… Dawn, was it? Where is she?”

“Ma’s estate in the Badlands.” Storm Cloud chirped. “The rest of the team is there pulling security, Ma is trying to patch her up, and Celestia and Luna are supposedly heading there to help fortify the position.”

“Fortify? Against what?” I asked. “Constellation’s estate is two hundred miles from the nearest railhead, never mind civilization in general. That isolation alone is fortification. What the hell are you lot expecting to come knocking?”

The princess handed me a folder. “De Witt’s organization is already on the move. Aerial surveillance flights that the Wonderbolts ran for us identified a convoy heading there from the Griffin Kingdom. It’s the 177th Naval Infantry Regiment from the Port Caspia Flotilla. Intelligence picked up on it, overflights confirmed it. According to the Griffin Autarch, the unit is absent without leave, and stormed the Port Caspia armory and motor pool to secure their equipment. They left Port Caspia three days ago. Because of the damage the regiment caused, and Port Caspia’s remote location, Griffin High Command only just learned of the departure four hours ago and immediately alerted us.”

“When were the overflights?” I asked, looking over the reported composition of the advancing regiment.”

“I ordered them out the moment I got the report from the Autarch. Rainbow Dash and Spitfire came back and confirmed the available intelligence a half hour later. At present rate of advance, the 177th will be at the estate by two in the afternoon today. I’ve already ordered what members of the Ranger Corps that are patrolling the badlands to make for the estate, but by the estimated time of contact, there’s only going to be twelve rangers there. The remaining eighty eight are expected on site at minimum of four hours after contact… General, I don’t need to tell you that the last thing I expected was to deal with a military conflict a week into my time on the throne.”

“To be fair, war is a bit out of your wheelhouse.” I said as I continued leafing through the reports. “However, judging by the rapid response by the Wonderbolts, I doubt that these Griffins missed that they had been made. They’ve likely quickened their advance. I’d say your estimates are about two hours two generous. At maximum speed across that terrain, I’d say that they’d make contact right around noon.”

“I was told you might say that General.” The Princess admitted. “But considering the circumstances I don’t think friendship and understanding are getting us out of this mess.” She rose from her chair and handed me a pair of silver two-star pins. “Effective immediately, I’m returning you to active duty.”

“You sure that you want to do this?” I asked.

The Princess nodded. “I’ve ordered the entire 2nd Marine Brigade to deploy immediately under your command. They’re being airlifted in to the estate, and the 9th Calvary is canceling exercises and redeploying. They should all be on site in two hours.”

I looked over at Dusk, who had now gotten up from the table. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“Your majesty, I’m requesting immediate reinstatement and attachment to the 2nd Marines.” He said, starting to glower as he looked at the papers on the table.

“Are you-”

“You don’t have to ask either of us.” Dart added as she got up and wiped the tears from her face. “If this is our daughter on the line, you can be certain I’m not going to let anypony take her from us again.”

Twilight nodded. “Well I guess I should’ve seen this coming. Your whole family has endured tragedy after tragedy, collective and individual. But you keep getting back up. All of you do.” She placed two more rank pins on the table; one Colonel, one Major. “Now then, if I was versed in military matters far more, I might have something profound to say… But all I have is this; This is Equestria, now get it done.”

Author's Note

There's another chapter! Feel free to leave feedback. In the meantime, here's more important character references. I can't remember the creator for the life of me. That said if someone recognizes the work, point me back there way. I'd love to have more sheets like this done.

Chapter 2

Constellation Family Estate
11:00AM
General Meteor Shower, Royal Marines
500 Miles from Port Caspia, 200 Miles from Appaloosa

“Welcome to Hell, General!” A familiar solider yelled over the wiring of rotors as I dropped off the transport.

“Then I’m glad I’m there with familiar faces Spark. What’s the situation?”

“We’re pretty much entrenched, and I’ve got ten mortar tubes set up in the gully about two hundred feet behind the house. Unfortunately, we’ve got a problem. Our VIP and host are missing.”

As I made for the house with my old trainee, I quickly took stock of the direct area around the property. Foxholes, trenches and sandbags had all been set up rather quickly and efficiently. “Dad, did Spark say that Conny and Dawn are missing?” Dusk asked after a quick tap on my shoulder.

“Yeah, and that’s the weird part. She was in the basement with the girl when we got here. I went to check on them about five minutes ago. The whole house is empty. I’ve got ponies on the front and back doors, and there’s no bulkhead into the basement. Where’d they go?”

“I doubt anypony left. There’s probably some sort of safe room under the basement floor. I’ve known Constellation for almost twenty years. That mare’s backup plans have backup plans.” I said as our group walked in the front door. “Cosmo, Storm Cloud, go gather up the rest of your team. I want every pony of note ready for a briefing in fifteen.”

“We’re on it. Be back in a few.”

As the two brothers departed, the rest of us made for the basement. Spark wasn’t lying, aside from us there was nopony in that old musty space. “Spark, did you have the engineers do ground pulses before digging in?”

Spark nodded. “Yeah, per protocol. Didn’t want to hit a bolder or something when we started setting up the emplacements.”

“And none of them got weird echoes or returns on the pulses?” Dusk asked.

“Well one engineer thought he got something on the first pass when we were checking out around the house, but he couldn’t replicate it. Neither could I. Said the hit came back sounding mushy… Which doesn’t make any sense. It’s an ultrasonic pulse spell.”

It took me all of a moment to put together was Spark was relaying. “There’s a dampener of some sort under here. Shielding to prevent active detection of whatever is buried under the property. Did the engineer get a depth return?”

Spark nodded. “Yeah, he guessed about fifteen to twenty feet. Why?”

“Dart, Dusk. Remember those briefings on artillery capability?”

Dart nodded first. “Yeah, unless you’re talking about a siege mortar. Even then, you’d still need a twenty-four inch unit to get to those depths with a crater.”

“Yeah, and those are heavy as all hell and only exist in prototype form.” Dusk added. “So unless you’ve got the resources to steal a prototype super-heavy artillery piece and transport it from the nearest testing range that has one, whatever is under our feet is basically as close to impenetrable as you can get. But where’s the front door…”

“General, we’ve got a problem!” Cosmo shouted as he came running down the stairs. “Cloud Runner and Sky… Hey, where’d that boiler come from?” Storm Cloud and another member of the team, Phalanx, came marching down right behind the unicorn, and they both seemed interested in the giant snowman boiler in the far corner of the basement.

I looked to the boiler, and back to Cosmo. “What are you talking about? That thing is ancient. And it’s way too damn big and heavy to come down the stairs. How else do you heat this shack?”

“With air heating talismans that Cosmo and I crafted and installed throughout the house.” Storm Cloud added. “When Mom moved in here two years ago there was nothing down here. Hell, it was a stone foundation and a dirt floor!”

Looking around, it was clear that the foundation was solid concrete. Floor was concrete as well, which for the age of the house didn’t fit at all. “The boiler, that’s our front door. Everything else is for show.” I said as I walked over to the giant hunk of metal wrapped in insulation. “So how do we open it?”

Dusk walked up next to me and turned his eyes right to the ground to the left of the boiler. “Marks on the floor. Probably slides this way.” Dusk grabbed onto a pipe off the side of the boiler and tried pulling. The boiler didn’t budge. “Oh come on!”

“Probably isn’t going to move with everything still connect… Wait.” Cosmo said as he started following the pipes in the ceiling. “The pipes on the boiler, they’re small enough to fit inside these other pipes.”

“Pipes that don’t go anywhere.” Spark added. “Come to think of it, none of this piping is right.”

“What makes you say that?” I asked.

“Other than the pipes not going anywhere, you’ve got four steam mains. You’d have one large pipe with smaller offshoots. And there’s no return, and no pitch of anything back towards the boiler… Oh come on.”

“What is it?”

“The doorknob is one damn union.” Spark said, pointing at the offending piece of hardware on the side of the boiler facing the wall.

While Spark quickly undid the union, I exchanged a glance with my son. “And where did you learn all this?”

“When I was attached to the HMS Chicacolt about six months ago. They were short handed in the engine room, so I was volunteered to be the extra body.”

“So instead of daydreaming, you listened for a change?” I said with a chuckle.

Spark just rolled his eyes, motioned to Dusk and the two tag-teamed what wheeled to be a rather light boiler. And under that beast was a staircase. “Yeah, that was way too light.” Dusk muttered.

I pulled my old service revolver out of it’s holster and cocked the hammer. “Only had to be there for show. I’ll take point, Cosmo you’re on my six. The rest of you hold here.”

“What, are we supposed to let you have all the fun old man?”

“Rank comes with privileges Spark.” I said as I started down the stairwell. Hitting the bottom, we reached a door that was definitely way too modern to have been in place terribly long. “What do you think Cosmo?”

“Looks like a bulkhead off a submarine.” The colt said as he swung the door open.

Now, to say walking through that bulkhead was like stepping into another world was an understatement if I could ever think of one. Not only was the room rather modern looking, but so was everything else in it. Modern combat rifles, pony defense weapons, pistols, anti-material rifles, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and more ammo than one pony of Constellation’s medical profession could go through in a frugal lifetime. “Cosmo?”

“I swear, I knew nothing about any of this. Hell, I thought Mom hated guns.”

The surprise on Cosmo’s voice gave truth to what he was saying. And he was right about that last part. I had always thought that Constellation hated guns too. But here she’s easily got enough firepower to arm a full battalion. “Dear Celestia, you seeing some of this stuff kid?” I asked as I walked up to one of the racks. “She’s got brand new IARs. These things only just got approved for production.”

“That’s not all.” Cosmo said, motioning to the next room.

From there things just got even weirder. The next room was some sort of control room. Looked more like a modern combat information center like you’d see on a warship. “Goalkeeper status… Standby.”

“Wait, Goalkeeper?” Cosmo asked as he got up close and personal with the control station. “Shit… How’d she get this?”

“You tell me. Last I checked this thing was supposed to still be in testing. And hidden deployable mounts? These things rise right up out of the ground. I know you’re good Cosmo, but no way in hell you and your brother did all this.”

“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.” The stallion retorted. “Better yet, who paid for all of this? Mom never made a salary to afford the purchase price on a quarter million credit computer like this. You would’ve heard if high tech prototype equipment went missing, right?”

“Yeah, I would’ve. But that doesn’t explain the eight gun turrets when only two of the Goalkeepers had been built when I retired. I’m thinking that there’s deep pockets involved here, and those pockets probably made sure it wasn’t common knowledge that everything down here exists.”

I motioned for Cosmo to follow as we made for the next room. This was lined with some sorts of body armor. The room after that was an automated machine shop, followed by a series of storerooms holding spare parts for who knew what.

“GAAGH!”

“Who the hell was that?” I asked.

“Give you one guess.” Cosmo said as we took off down the to the end of the hallway that branched off to the store rooms.

The open door at the end turned out to be a medical suite, just as modern as everything else down in this bunker. Three ponies were standing over an operating table. Two were holding down somepony, likely our Alicorn friend, while a familiar cream colored mare was clearly working on something. “About time you got your thumb out of your ass Meteor. Now come on, I need you two to help hold Dawn still.”

The mare from the pictures seemed wracked with pain, and Cosmo’s missing compatriots were having one hell of a time holding her down. “Conny, what the hell are you doing?” I yelled as I threw myself down over Dawn’s torso.

“Trying to get this damn thing out of her neck. But she keeps moving, and I can’t get a good grip on it. Cosmo, hold her head still!”

“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!” Dawn screamed.

“Nah, you won’t. Kid, if this thing is doing what I think it’s doing, you’re going to love me once the damn thing is out.”Constellation had made a small incision into the back of Dawn’s neck and there was sure as hell something in there. But between the thrashing and the small opening to view, I couldn’t readily tell what it was. “Alright, I’ve got it. On three, hold her still. One… Two… Three!”

In an instant, Conny had the offending object pulled clear of Dawn’s neck, and almost immediately she calmed down. “Should we get off her?” I heard Sky ask.
Constellation had turned away, but she nodded. “Yeah, we’re good. Pain killers and local anesthetics should be working now. Not that they weren’t working, but this damn thing was overriding them. Almost like Dawn never got them in the first place.”

“What the hell’s going on down here!?” Dusk yelled as he ran in, Dart close on his heels.

“Nothing Dusk, just some emergency surgery. Your baby girl is fine.” Constellation said as she handed me a silver pan, blooded crystal spike sitting in it. “Now, can I ask you something Meteor? How psychotic is your mother-in-law?”

“Faust? What does-”

“I would’ve hoped she was a decent pony, but apparently surgically implanting a pain crystal next to a pony’s spinal column isn’t beneath her.” She said. “You know how I know that she probably put this damn thing there? The scar tissue was just about as old as Dawn was. And of course, the fucking thing grew right along with her.”

“Did you say a pain crystal?” Dart asked.

Constellation nodded. “I noticed that Dawn was in some serious pain when she got here. Shrapnel in some of her wounds, deeps lacerations, yada yada. Point is that no pain killer of local anesthetic did squat. So I ran scan, and found this infernal piece of Sombran magic lodged right next to her spine. Close enough that electrical impulses it gave off in random strengths would stimulate her nervous system. It would keep her thalamus and amygdala working on and off, but in such a way that her brain could never stop processing the pain. It could range from a minor tingling to a head splitting migraine in seconds.”

Dusk and Dart were shocked. “How long has this thing been working?!” Dusk asked, clearly sounding panicked.

“Judging by the residual power left in this thing, I’d say about a year since it was activated remotely.” Constellation said before dumping the crystal on the floor and crushing it under her heel with a violent stomp. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Faust wasn’t terribly happy that her captive bird left the nest. So, she turned the crystal on, probably hoping to convince Dawn to return to her… Fealty through pain and suffering. This shit is fucking sick Meteor.”

“Can I just say something?”

We all turned to the mare lying on the table, now with a clearly relieved look on her face. Constellation immediately jumped to Dawn’s side. “Dear, you can say whatever is on your mind. How are you feeling?”

“Well I sure as hell don’t love you, but I think I just found my new best friend.” Dawn said, a relieved grin crossing her face. She suddenly saw Dusk and Dart standing behind Conny, and her eyes went from relieved to a look of almost child-like wonder. “Mom? Dad? It’s really you? You’re really here?”

Dart nodded and brushed Dawn’s mane out of her face. “She’s got your eyes Dusk.”

“And she’s clearly gotten her looks from my better half.” Dusk added. “Dawn… That’s one hell of a beautiful name. I don’t think we could’ve picked a better one.”

I just rolled my eyes. “Will you two just quit ogling her? Give your daughter a hug for crying out loud!”

What I didn’t expect was for Dart to grab me in her magic and drag me into the emotional dogpile that formed at the bedside. “You’re part of this too, you old stallion.” Dart whispered.

I stepped back from the pile of limbs and tears, admittedly shedding a few myself. “You’re right, but we’ve still got a job to do. We need to keep Dawn safe.”

As the group hug broke up Dawn looked sat up and looked at me. “Keep me safe? Why, what’s happening?”

“Apparently the organization you were trying to dismantle has some serious coin and influence. They paid off an entire infantry regiment to go rouge, steal their gear and cross the border. The 177th Naval Infantry Regiment is on their way here. We’ve got less than an hour until they get here.”

“Hate to burst your bubble General, but they’re not alone.” Constellation said. “Right after Cosmo left I had Sky and Cloud Runner do their own recon sweep. They’ve got the 6th Armored Brigade backing them up.”

It took me a moment to process what the old doctor had just said. “Did I hear you right? Did you say we’ve got tanks rolling in with them? Where’s your proof? The Thunderbolt’s own recon flight only caught the 177th.”

“That’s because they were hiding out in a cave system about an hour and a half from here. We only caught them because we went in low, and they fired on us.” Sky said, handing me photographs picked up from her personal helmet camera. “They were right along the projected path of the 177th, making a link-up simple.”

“And when were you planning on sharing this?” I asked.

“As soon as I had Dawn patched up. Unfortunately that pain crystal slowed me way down. If it hadn’t… Well, I would’ve been done three hours ago.”

“Cosmo, you’re the intel pony. Why didn’t you pick up on a missing tank regiment?” I asked.

“Because according to their own internal reports, the 6th Armored is in the Lusitano Islands conducting tropical operations exercises.”

“That would put their closest point of departure as Ceuta. That’s the opposite side of the continent from Caspia.” Dusk pointed out. “That means that there’s someone in Imperial High Command fabricating records. We may have a hell of a lot more incoming than just two rogue units.”

“We don’t know that for certain.” I added. “Cosmo, go up top and get Spark. Tell him to take his reserves down here and arm them up with the anti-vehicle weapons that we saw in that armory. Dusk, go find the headquarters company and relocate them down here. Dart, see about getting the goalkeeper turrets deployed and functional, we’ll likely need them. Conny, go with Dart. This is your house, so I’d imagine you know where the light switches are. Now go, we’re running short on time as it is.” I saw Dusk take a quick glance at his daughter and I caught his shoulder as he made for the door. “Don’t worry, I’ve got her.”

Dusk nodded and quickly left the room, leaving myself, Dawn, and Cosmo’s pegasi compatriots. “So… What do we do?” Cloud Runner asked.

“Well, you two are going to go figure out where Celestia and Luna are. If we’ve got tanks rolling in, we’re going to need them to help with the heavy lifting.”

“Right, we’re on it General.”

As the final pair left the room, Dawn and I were left alone. “So… They don’t know?”

I shook my head. “It’s not common knowledge that some marine got in bed with a princess. For the time being it’s something I’d prefer to keep that way.”

“So then why are we here?”

“Because I wanted a moment with you alone.” I said as I sat down on the bed next to my grandfoal. “Look, I get that when Faust gets involved things tend to get very complicated very quickly. But I take it that you decided you were done with her?”

Dawn nodded. “Up until a year ago, at least from my perspective, I had been told that my parents had both died in some train crash. I never bought it for a minute, but when I finally found proof of not only who they were, but that they were in danger? I basically told Faust to shove it and broke out of that bubble of hers.”

“You mean that little pocket time-dilated dimension she likes hiding in?”

“Yup. Moment I left is when the pain started. By the time I caught up to De Witt and his cronies, he somehow had already figured out that I existed.”

Wait, she said De Witt and his cronies. “De Witt’s dead.” I said.

Dawn shook her head. “Like hell he is. That bastard is the one who kicked my ass. Somehow he must’ve known about the pain crystal… Admittedly I guessed that I had one stuck in me somewhere, but I wasn’t about to open myself up to find it. But somehow De Witt turned it way up. While I was in complete agony, he beat the shit out of me and left me in the warehouse down in Palas.”

“Palas?”

“Yup, the Imperial Capital. And he’s got a rather powerful friend who came down for a visit.”

I automatically did not like where this was going. A dead griffin psychopath was not really dead was one thing, but my penchant for the dramatic started leading my mind to a conclusion that lead me to even more dread. “You said he had a powerful friend? Who was it?”

“Well… It was the Imperial Autarch, Caprice. Apparently his talents are a family trait.”

I got up and immediately stared Dawn down. “Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”

Dawn nodded, a look that split between loathing and confident plastered across her face. “Yes, not only is De Witt alive, but the Imperial Autarch is De Witt’s sister, and they’re in the family business together. They sound like they’re so nice, don’t they?”

Well fuck, of course it couldn’t be that simple, could it?

Author's Note

Well, we're launching a day early as I've got shenanigans to attend to tomorrow. We've got another chapter down, with more lined up for the coming weeks. We've now met our McCoy level doctor in Constellation, an old protégé of Meteor's, Spark, and Phalanx, the other member of Cosmo's EI field team, Polaris. And we get a good look at Dawn, along with a reason to use Marik's design of her.

Now this is something I want the reader to stew over. What is Faust's game? Why take an unborn child, out of an admittedly horrible situation, only to take that child and mold her into an assassin?

And now for some refs for imagery's sake. Some are by Pia-Sama from some time back, but are still important. Dawn's ref is done by the great Marik Azemus (we're doing something new with her, so stay tuned and I'll post that when it's done), and Spark's was done by the artist that for the life of me I can't remember their name. So yeah... If anyone recognizes the work, pass me a name along?

Phalanx:

Constellation:

Dawn:

Spark:

Chapter 4

Five Miles from Appeloosa, Altitude of 4000 feet
1:02 PM
General Meteor Shower

“General, I’ve got contact with the Guard commander on the ground.” Cosmo said as his fingers flew over the controls. “Pushing him up.”

“General Meteor Shower? This is Lieutenant Spearhead.”

“Go ahead Lieutenant, what’s your situation down there?”

“We evacuated all but a handful of civilians before the first push for town. I’ve got roughly one hundred ponies on the line down here, but we are way outgunned and outnumbered.”

“What about your opening to the north of town?” I asked.

“Probably a trap, which is why we haven’t moved.” The Lieutenant replied. “We’d probably get surrounded at that point, and then we’re finished.”

I looked over to Dusk, who had taken a seat at one of the weapon control stations. “How soon will you be ready to try and move?”

“We can move now General, but we’ve still-”

“Don’t worry Lieutenant, we’ll keep that door open for you.” I said, giving Dusk the thumbs up. “Tell anypony you’ve got in the north part of town to get their heads down, I’ve got a time on target coming in. Once that blasting stops, make a break for it. E-201 has overwatch.”

“E-201? The hell is that?” The Lieutenant asked.

“When you get outside, just look up.” I retored. I turned and hit the comm panel. “Conny, put is smack dab in the center of the opening that the Griffons so kindly left and put us in a hover at 1000 feet.”

“And why are we doing that? Dart still hasn’t finished swapping the shield crystals out.”

“We’ve got hull armor, so it’ll have to do for now. Just make it happen. We’ve got an evacuation to cover.”

A soft whooshing sound could be heard above the din in the control room. “Pods One and Two expended, impact in ten seconds.”

“Stand down remaining missile pods to condition two, standby to fire on all port and starboard autocannons.”

“Alright, autocannons are green!” Dusk called out.

“Good, fire at will on even numbered batteries. Odd numbered batteries stand by for defensive AA fire.” A rapid dull drumming noise started immediately echoing throughout the hull of the air ship.

“General, we’re moving down here!” Spearhead called over the radio. “I don’t know where you found that thing, but whoever built it gets drinks on me!”

Putting that little tidbit into the back of my mind, considering I could probably get Constellation good liquor out of the deal at some point, I turned to the large screen at the head of the room. If the scans could be believed, the hole in the griffon lines was now pushed back to two miles on either side of the airship, and the guns were doing sterling work of keeping the infantry that were at the now widened edge of the gap exactly where they were. However, before I turned away from the screen two red marks appeared on the screen making a fast advance towards the airship. “Anypony know what we’ve got coming?”

“Some sort of aircraft.” Cosmo called out. He fiddled with the controls at his station for a moment before changing his tune. “Scratch that, we’ve got airborne infantry coming right at us!”

“Alright, que up the-”

BANG!

BANG! BANG!

“What the hell was that?” I called out as the deck began to sway.

“We’ve lost the air to air gun director!” Dusk called out.

SCREEEECH!

“Shit, I just lost two starboard loading chutes!” Dusk yelled before I could ask.

“Combat, Bridge. I’m reading starboard hull breaches up here, and those incoming have anti-armor weapons. We need to put some distance between us and those flyers!”

I turned my head to one of the windows along the upper part of the wall and watched a handful of Griffon flyers sail past, only for sudden flashes of strikingly familiar deep blue and gold to light up the panes of bulletproof glass. “Constellation, we’ve got the flyers. Worry about the ponies on the ground.” The statement over the radio was followed by an immediate blur of midnight blue past the windows.

“Strider, this is Tempest. We’ve brought you some friends!” Cloud Runner’s voice called out over the radio.

“Good timing Tempest!” Cosmo replied. “Now one of you keep that starboard mid quarter clear, I don’t want one of those beak-faced assholes to try and make those hull breaches worse!”

“Copy that Strider.”

“Dad, the last of the ponies just cleared the breach, and I’ve got a ground push coming in from starboard!” Dusk called.

“Alright.” I hit he comm panel. “Constellation, you monitoring?”

“Damn right I am. We’re pulling away!”

“Celestia to E-201, please extend my gratitude for excellent work to the entire complement.”

In front of me on the table, a hatch opened to reveal a phone with a blinking light. I picked it up with no other clear indication of what it was. “Meteor Shower here.”

“Good work as usual dear.” Celestia’s voice rang through the phone. “But we’ve got something of a political catastrophe on our hands.”

“Well no shit, the Griffon Imperium just broke centuries worth of treaties.” I retorted.

“While that’s part of the problem, that’s not our catastrophe.” Celestia said sounding rather concerned. “Meteor… The Griffons know about us.”

“What?”

“Yes. Apparently during one of Dawn’s raids they got a blood sample. And from there one thing leads to another… Suffice to say they’ve assembled the pieces of the family tree. And just before they launched, the Autarch sent everything they had to all the allied governments.”

I took in the words for a moment. “So… I guess it’s time to have the talk?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” Celestia replied.

“Alright… I’ll get Dusk, Dart and Dawn.” I said before returning the phone to its receiver.

Dusk was already out of his chair and at my side. “Is something wrong?” He asked.

I nodded. “Yeah… Unfortunately there is.”

*---*

Cargo Bay 2, E-201
1:45PM

“Hey mom!” Dusk called out as Celestia walked into the cargo bay and sealed the hatch. “Long time no see. How’s retirement been going?”

Celestia rolled her eyes. “Look, for the record I’m not mad Dusk. You did nothing wrong.”

Dusk and Dart exchanged quick glances. “Then why are we running the classic ‘you’ve fucked this one up’ playbook?” He asked.

“Because Dawn is the problem.” Celestia said with a pained expression.

All eyes turned to Dawn. “Uh, what?” She asked.

“It’s not your fault either dear.” Celestia quickly said. “But the fact is that the Imperium just blew the lid of my entire family life, and tied you to the destruction of one of their military storehouses.” She held her hand up when Dawn went to interject. “Regardless of the fact that what you did was entirely necessary. The problem is that it appears to me that De Witt’s organization, in conjunction with the Autarch herself most likely, dangled a series of irresistible targets for you to eliminate after your second raid. That’s likely where they got a genetic sample from you. Probably from blood you left on the floor or a wall.”

“So wait, you’re telling me I got played?” Dawn asked, her face scrunching up into an angry look.

Celestia nodded. “Like a fiddle. I’d wager that the Autarch and her brother wanted open conflict, and realized that you could line up an excuse for them to broadcast internationally… Which they did.” She held her hand out and a paper flickered into existence. On the cover was a photo of Dawn, along with portraits of the rest of us.

“Celestia’s dark secret…” Dart read aloud. “How the hell is Dawn some secret if none of us knew she existed?”

“While that’s the reality, the fact that Dusk’s own parentage was obfuscated for so long from the public is the other problem. Twilight already sent me a letter once this came out. Suffice to say the rest of the world is between uneasy and outright scared. Because of my decision to keep my family life out of the public eye, some of our closest allies are already showing signs of backing away from us. Not because they do not want to help, but because they fear that they don’t know the truth having been clearly lied to for so long.”

“Wait, what are you talking about?” Dart asked.

“Well, while there’s no treaty limiting what I can do in my personal or private life, the fact that I concealed the reality of my own life is the problem. In essence, many governments view Alicorns as a form of weapon of mass destruction. And to be fair they’re not wrong. Luna and I are case and point considering we can affect the behavior of stellar bodies millions of miles away in the depths of space. And unfortunately, my mother’s own actions have ended up harming our position further still.”

“How so?” Dusk asked.

“Because she crafted Dawn into a living weapon.” Celestia retorted. “And Dawn dear, please don’t take this the wrong way, but my sister has been following you since you first appeared on Equis. What you’re capable of… It goes far beyond what the average soldier is even trained to do. Your raw strength and physical ability rivals that of some of the greatest warriors of the era before Nightmare Moon.”

“So, you knew who she was?” Dusk asked, starting to look angry.

“Heavens no!” Celestia replied. “It’s only after Cosmo and his team rescued Dawn that the pieces were put together.”

“Well to be fair, Faust did teach me specifically how to counter Luna’s dreamwalking.” Dawn interjected. “I gather that whatever she had planned for me, she wanted to keep my identity hidden when she sent me out on her errands.”

“Then what do we do?” Dart asked. “If we’re now public knowledge, how do we handle this? For crying out loud we’ve got a war on!”

“The obvious solution at our disposal is to alleviate the concerns of our allies regarding Dawn. By extension we may have to factor Dusk into this due to his sheer magical strength.”

“Well we’re all involved, so no sense in doing this piecemeal.” Dusk said. “You want to alleviate the concerns of the world? Show the world that the ponies in this room are not the problem, the Griffons are.”

“That’s going to be hard without evidence of what the Griffons were leaving for me to find.” Dawn added. “It’s not like I took copious detailed notes and gathered evidence. If I found something I did some recon and then kicked the door in.”

“Yeah, but you’ve got us the information about De Witt and Caprice. For right now that might be all we need.” I added. “Think about it. De Witt was considered to be an absolute monster, one of the worst seen in centuries. When I led the mission that led to his apparent death, I got personal letters of thanks from most if not all of the allied heads of state.”

“And you’d have to admit that he’s alive. Kinda defeats that good will.” Dusk retorted.

“No, it doesn’t.” I countered.

“Uh, what exactly are you talking about?” Celestia asked.

That’s when I remembered that outside of those that were in the control room at the time, no other soul on the face of the planet knew that De Witt was a blood relative of Caprice. And they sure as hell didn’t have everything else that was on Dawn’s data crystal. “Dear, call a conference of leaders, and do it immediately.”

“Are you crazy?” Celestia asked.

I shook my head and fished out the data crystal. “No… Because while we’ve got some egg on our faces, by the time we’re done the Griffons are going to be absolutely fried politically.”

Celestia took the crystal and turned it over in her hands. “What exactly do you have?”

“Well my dear, the first official act of your husband is to score a political slam dunk.” I said with a proud grin. “Hey Conny?!” I yelled.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the unicorn fade into view. “What gave it away?” Constellation asked.

“Oh, nothing. You’re just a bit predictable at this point.” I said with a smile. “So I take it you know what to do?”

She nodded. “Archer already has us heading for Canterlot.”

“Good!” I said, taking a look around at my assembled family. “Now then… I think we’ll need to go see a tailor.”

“What, dress blues won’t cut it?” Celestia asked.

“Nope.” I retorted. “Last I checked protocol for members of the Royal Family at formal events is to look the part on top of acting it.”

“Oh great. So what, we go see some pompous ass and hope that we can get a rush job of fancy threads?” Dusk said with a groan.

Now it was Celestia’s turn to perk up. “Not necessarily. I might know somepony who can do the job just fine.”

Author's Note

So there we go. Those Damn Griffons are one step ahead and don't have the decency to take care of privacy. The nerve!

Chapter 5

Canterlot Palace, Canterlot
5:00 PM
Dusk

When Mom had said that she knew somepony, I assumed that we’d sneak off the airship once we reached Canterlot, but instead we were told to teleport straight to a private suite in the palace, thanks to the guidance crystals that were handed out. But an hour into cooling our heels in the suite, and nothing. No letter, nopony sticking their heads into the room, not even smoke signals.

“This is such a waste of time.” Dawn groaned. “Who the hell cares if we look like crap right now? We’ve got the Imperium dead to rights. Let’s give out the info, get our allies engaged and kick the Griffons out!”

“You really sound like your father, you know that?” Dart observed.

“How so?”

I chuckled, thinking back to the few times I had been involved in events involving royalty and nobility. “Because I can’t stand formality for the same reason you’re annoyed. It feels like a waste of time. Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll be able to get face to face time with any world leader until tomorrow morning. They’ll have to physically be here for us to talk.”

While this brief exchange had gone on, the previous few hours being used to just talk to Dawn and try to get to know the pony that my daughter had become, my father had stayed back and just let us talk. By the time we reached the suite, he apparently decided that he was bored, found a comfy chair, claimed it, and sat down with an old history book. “I thought so…” We all heard my father mutter.

“What is it Meteor?” Dart asked, taking notice of the book on post-Nightmare Moon history.

“I remembered reading this after that mission to capture De Witt all those years ago.” He explained as he closed the book. “After Nightmare Moon was locked away, the following two centuries were interspersed with a number of border conflicts, the endings of which led to the development of the earliest iterations of our current treaty system. Border conflicts were the rule, but the Griffons to the south were the exception. To call them brutal understates it.”

“But how does that lead to now? You’re talking about almost a millennium of change.” I pointed out.

“Because of this painting.” My father said, turning the book over and pointing to the painting of a Griffon ruler on the rear cover. “See that necklace? What does that look like to you?”

I looked at the necklace, but couldn’t place it. “It’s a Sombric rune.” Dawn said once she looked at the painting. “But what does that have to do with anything?”

Gramps smirked. “De Witt was wearing a necklace that looked a hell of a lot like this one in the painting. If that necklace is a rune like Dawn says, maybe that explains the extreme aggression that was seen then and now?”

“Add in a family heritage centuries long, and exposure to the dark magic that thing radiates and you’ve got minds twisted beyond help.” Dawn added grimly. “But that assumes a connection to Sombra at some point before Nightmare Moon. And there’s no historical record to support such a connection.”

Dad’s expression turn to that which said ‘really?’ as he stared at Dawn. “Then how’s a piece of Sombric jewelry get into the hands of a Griffon thousands of miles away in a period where long distance travel like what would be required was entirely unheard of?”

“Alright, I’ll give you that…” Dawn admitted.

Before we could go further down the supposition rabbit hole, there was a knock at the door, and Princess Twilight walked in with a marshmallow colored unicorn on her heel. “Sorry to keep you all waiting. Unfortunately getting Rarity into the castle was far trickier than I anticipated.”

“Let me guess, wall of press and paparazzi hoping to get a look?” I asked.

The Princess nodded. “That about sums it up.”

“Thank you Twilight, I’ll take it from here.” The mare said as she stepped forward. “You know Dusk, I never pegged you or your father as the royal type.”

I couldn’t help but cock an eyebrow. “Wait, we’ve met?”

“Just once, when you had you all had your wedding attire made.” Rarity said as she flipped through a notepad she was holding. “I know that was five years ago, but I keep all of my custom work files in case I need to make alterations or repairs to garments I make.”

“Oh, that was your shop!” I said, remembering the small shop in the fashion district.

“Indeed it is.” Rarity said with a smile. “It’s also where I do a lot of my charity work out of.”

Now while I didn’t think anything of that last comment, Dart obviously did. “Wait, charity work? Like what, financial support to families dealing with tragedy?”

OK, that was specific, and I knew where Dart was coming from. After the whole ordeal with Winterfell, somepony had set up a support fund for us. Two weeks after getting out of the hospital, that fund made one hell of a deposit in our bank accounts. Suffice to say needing to find employment wasn’t going to be a concern for at least another five years with the money that was given to us. “Don’t tell me, you had a hand in the support fund, didn’t you?”

Rarity just kept smiling. “Darling I managed the fund. Frankly, it wasn’t difficult to get the nobility to pitch in. Most of them did it because I had asked if they could donate.”

“You do realize just how much money that was, right?” Dart asked.

Rarity nodded as she ran down her notepad and took quick measurements with a magically suspended tape measure on my wife. “I do.”

“That paid for our house!” Dart exclaimed. “And it paid for my psychiatric license. Dusk, how many bits are left in the account?”

“Uh…” I must’ve looked like a deer in the headlights. “I think somewhere north of three million bits right now? Honestly even with you getting the license and building the house, we still haven’t put much of a dent into it. Most of what we spend is the monthly military pension, which basically covers the day to day bills.”

“Thank you dear.” Dart said before turning her attention back to the fashionista. “Look, I’m not going to complain. But I’ve got to ask why us? You don’t really know us at all.”

“Because it was kind.” Rarity replied without missing a beat. “I get it, money wasn’t going to fix anything. But it would at least mean you two could keep a roof over your heads and take time to heal. Loosing a foal before being able to hold onto it, especially through no fault of your own? I don’t even want to think about how much pain that put you through.”

If I didn’t know any better I’d say Dart wanted to cry. But she didn’t, as much as it seemed she’d break into tears at any second. “Nopony told me that that the element bearers could be saints.” She finally managed to choke out.

Then Rarity did something unexpected. She gave Dart a hug. “It’s just who I am dear.” As she let go she turned her attention to Dawn. “But not everypony can get a second chance like your family has been given.”

“Not to sound callused, but it doesn’t feel quite like that.” Dawn said. “I got screwed out of knowing my family for the last twenty years. And they didn’t know I was alive. It’s more like… Meeting that long lost relative for the first time.”

“So, let me ask you then. For you it’s been twenty years, but for your parents it’s been what, four?” Rarity observed. “Twilight did say there was some other Alicorn involved, but how exactly does that work?”

“Pocket dimension.” Dawn said with a shrug. “Flow of time inside it is faster than outside of it. Faust seemed to think that it was a benefit to my training.”

“OK, just to clear it with everypony-” Dart said, drawing attention to herself. “-if Faust ever shows up, I get first crack and knocking her lights out.”

“Fine by me!” my dad shouted. “And I’ll just sit back and wait until the line clears up so I can have some angry words with her. Although that’ll still end with me getting flattened along with the rest of you.” Dart didn’t bother continuing the subject. It was evident that my father was going to try and kill the idea if she kept going.

“Alright, so at this point the only pony here I need full measurements on is Dawn…” Rarity said as she flipped to a clean piece of paper on her notepad. “Now dear, can I ask where you got that?” She said, pointing out Dawn’s dirty armor.

“Faust, like everything else on me right now. She said it was traditional scout’s armor.” Dawn explained. “Why do you ask?”

“Because the styling has me thinking dear…” Rarity said as her speech wandered off as she glanced at something on the notepad. “Wait, I stand corrected. Constellation’s medical scan has all of your measurements. I can get them from her easily enough.”

I couldn’t help but cock an eyebrow. “Wait, that’s it?”

Rarity nodded. “I’ve got a long night ahead of me to get these done, so yes. Only one question though…” She pulled out a black piece of fabric, pulled it taunt and held it well away from anypony in her magical grip. “Try shooting this.”

“Wait, what?!”

“OK, sure.” I heard my father say from behind me.

BANG!

I couldn’t help but put my hands to my ears on reflex. “Ow!” I exclaimed over the ringing in my right ear.

“Excellent, works like a charm!”

I finally took notice of the fabric. There wasn’t a scratch on it. Looking down I saw the bullet on the ground, balled out from the tip in a mushroom shape. “What the hell?”

“Ballistic fabric.” Rarity explained as she tucked the sample away into one of her back pockets. “Rated to take gunfire and not allow a penetration. Top rating is a fifteen millimeter automatic cannon shell. Of course you’ll certainly feel the hit as we can’t do anything about physics. All of your clothing is going to have a layer of this as the base.”

“So who’s idea was this?” Dart asked

“Hello!” All eyes turned to my father. “I might have had the colts in R&D give Rarity whatever they had for working ballistic fabric. Kind of easier to make that request when they know who you’re married to.”

“Are you expecting trouble?” Dawn asked.

My father just shrugged. “We’re in unknown territory right now. If anything, I’d rather play it safe bordering paranoia.”

“So… What now then?” I asked.

“Simple.” My father said as he rose from the chair. “We get some sleep. I doubt that tomorrow will be any easier than today, so we’ll need it.”

Author's Note

And here we go, another chapter in Old Wounds, with some nuggets on the immediate aftermath of the incident with Winterfell. Suffice to say I do want to explore that time more at some point, but I need to figure out how to write it. But the aftermath saw Dart and Dusk retire from the Guard, and Dart got lined up as a professional psychiatrist. Her own pain led her to want to try to help others who had gone through mental trauma like hers.

We also get a nugget on the forces that led to De Witt, and by extension Caprice, becoming they way they are. Dark magic, even if in trace amounts, can be a really screwed up thing.

And as for that ballistic fabric? Yeah, got the idea from the gun shopping scene from the second John Wick film. Eventually it'll come in handy.

Chapter 6

Canterlot Palace, Day 2
8:00AM
Dusk Light

“Alright, just remember what we told you.” One of the attendants said as she made a final pass on my hair. “For right now, just try to smile and wave a bit.”

“And don’t worry about questions right now, those can come later.” Another attendant pointed out. “Your focus needs to be on the Leader’s Summit.”

“Well you both certainly know how to preach to the choir.” I retorted.

That resulted in the first attendant smacking me upside the back of my head. “Listen here, do you realize the crash preparations that we’ve had to make? Don’t sass us! Right now you need to look the part of being a member of the Royal Family, not just another noble. Stick to the plan, and you’ll get through today fine.”

“Then what about the next week? The next month?” I countered. “You say appearances are everything, right? Well I hate to break it to you, but my military service is public record. And so is the incident with Winterfell. Believe me when I say there’s probably enough ponies in this city that already know what type of pony I am, and no amount of spit and polish is going to easily help them accept the fact that I’m royalty. And you’re also forgetting the public knowledge of my daughter’s existence. There’s no way to sugarcoat that.”

“Do you think none of us know that?” The second attendant pointed out. “Believe me when I say we were all given the briefing on who Dawn is and why she is the way she is. And given time the public will understand that. But until that epiphany comes in the collective consciousness of the ponies, we’re stuck dealing with the shock that comes with it.”

Suddenly an orange pony’s stepped into the room. “Alright, we’re ready to go out there.” Captain Sentry said, doing one last check to ensure his dress-grade armor was straight. “Everypony in here set?”

“Essentially.” The attendant seeing to my father said.

I took one glance around the room. Matching pearl white suits with gold trim decked myself and my father, and a dress and shawl accompanied my wife. But Dawn? She was a totally different case. A black and gold sleeveless long coat, with long gloves up her arms. She wore a necklace with the royal seal and a canary diamond set in its center. Beyond that, no crown. All that the jewelers had time to assemble was the necklace, but it would have to do. “Alright Flash, kick the door.” I said.

The Captain nodded and threw the doors to the suite. “Presenting Lord Meteor Shower, Duke of Canterlot, Prince Dusk Light of Canterlot, Lady Dart, and Princess Dawn!”

Before we could even file out of the suite into the long hallway, flash bulbs were already going off trying to catch every move. Dart hung back with Dawn, as had been planned, while I took my place at my father’s side for the long walk down the hall to the throne room.

“Prince Dusk, a word?” A reporter asked from the sidelines as we walked past. Glancing over at one of the attendants, it almost looked like the mare was going to murder the reporter. But I recognized the colt. Four years hadn’t changed him much, aside from a more kempt appearance.

I looked over at my father and motioned for him to keep moving. That must’ve really pissed the attendants off, because I felt a sharp jab to my spine as one passed me. “Headline, right?” I asked.

The pony nodded. “It’s not every day that a pony I report on makes a splash quite like this.” He observed.

“Admittedly I wasn’t planning on making one.” I said, gesturing at the packed hall. “Admittedly I don’t have time for many questions, so if you want to talk later, take this.” I said, fishing a card out of my jacket. “That’s basically a backstage pass. If the staff give you any trouble just show them that. If things calm down today I’d be happy to answer some questions.”

The colt’s eyes just went wide, as if he had been given the world. “I’ll take you up on that, but can I get a statement? With all of the events of the last twenty-four hours, what’s keeping you going right now?”

“Because Equestria needs something to look to.” I said without hesitation. “I get it, I’m probably the last pony that anypony would guess would be in this situation, but right now my own personal life needs to take a back seat. We’re at war, and to say there’s a lot of fear out there is probably an understatement. So if I can stand tall after what the last few years have thrown at me and my family, then maybe that’s a beacon of hope that all can look to.” I shook the reporter’s hand and started back down the hallway.

My father had caught onto what I was doing and immediately began shaking hands wherever he could to slow things down for as long as he could. Crossing the twenty feet to the head of the procession tool all but a few moments and we started moving again. “You enjoyed that.” He whispered.

“Was I not supposed to?” I whispered back.

A wry smile crossed my father’s face. “The royal attendants are going to want your head on a pike by dinner time.”

“Yeah, well they’ll just have to live with it.” I replied. As we walked into the main hall, it didn’t take long to note that all of the major foreign representatives had arrived. Dragons, Hippogriffs, Changelings, Kirin, Minotaurs, Yaks and Zebras were all present in the hall. “Looks like they all made it…”

“At least their representatives did, but the current Changeling leaders made a point of being here.” Dad said, pointing out Thorax and his brother, Pharynx. Most of the others were caught off guard by the Imperial offensive that they’re trying to ensure that their domestic defenses are prepared in case the Griffons go after them.”

“Then what’s different with the Changelings?” I asked.

“From what your mother told me, Pharynx views it as a matter of honor, while his brother believes that their defenses will be best served through seeing what they can do to offer assistance.”

“So Pharynx is pissed off because we got hit by a veritable sneak attack, and that’s a red letter in his book. And Thorax is basically playing the offense is the best defense card?” I observed.

“That’s about the size of it.” My father replied.

I nodded and noticed a blond mane making it’s way towards us through the crowd. “You think Blueblood had any trouble convincing anypony to show up?”

“Thanks to your daughter’s work, it wasn’t that difficult.” Blueblood said as he finally cleared through the crowd. “I just had to dangle the fact that De Witt was alive, and most came running because they want the rest.”

“Just most?” Dad asked.

“Apparently the Changelings long suspected De Witt’s survival based off of cursory information recovered from Chrysalis’ private files. But they never found anything but a passing mention, and their own attempts to ascertain his survival were fruitless until last night when I sent them the news. Then this morning when they arrived, Thorax handed Princess Sparkle a data crystal with all of the information that the Changeling’s own intelligence sources have gathered on his criminal organization, and the internal workings of the Imperial High Command. We’ve even got all of their battle plans and contingencies for the assault on Equestria, now that they’ve managed to authenticate the information based on what we’ve encountered on the ground so far.”

“They couldn’t have given us the information sooner?” I asked.

“They tried, but when our agents went to their hive to review the intelligence regarding the battle plans, we had significant issues corroborating it.” Blueblood explained. “Celestia told them to hold onto everything they gathered anyway before she stepped down, on the off chance that we could confirm the authenticity at a later date. It’s a good thing that they did. Otherwise we wouldn’t have much to work with.” At that moment though, Blueblood seemed to look past me, a look of confusion crossing his face. “What’s Dawn doing?”

I turned around and saw that she had taken to a bench by the door, leaned back against the wall and had closed her eyes. And the tips of her fingers were glowing ever so slightly. It took a few moments to navigate the crowd without raising attention to reach Dawn. “You OK kiddo?” I asked.

Dawn’s eyes immediately snapped open. “Something’s wrong.” She said.

Obviously this wasn’t something to joke about, Dawn looked rather concerned. “What is it?”

“Dark magic…” She whispered. “Since I woke up this morning I could just feel the barest of traces, just at the edge of what I can sense. It’s slowly been getting more noticeable, but I can’t place where it’s coming from.”

Flash was at my side with Blueblood, and they must’ve exchanged worried glances. “I’ll see about having a sweep of the palace done.” I heard Flash say.

“It’s not going to do you any good.” Dawn replied as she rose to her feet. “I’ve been trained to detect the presence of dark magic, frankly to a sensitivity that even your best detection magics wouldn’t even touch. And what I’m feeling now is still well below those thresholds.”

“So what do we do? We can’t just send everypony home.” Blueblood pointed out.

“I wouldn’t expect you to.” Said Dawn. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we’re being watched by ponies unknown.”

“Dark magic would rule out the press…” Flash observed. “Maybe something is down in the catacombs?”

But Dawn shook her head. “I doubt it. Those crystals don’t block dark magic for shit. At the very least we need to keep our eyes open. Keep some detector spells running anyway throughout the palace in case something spikes into their range of detection. At least that way we might get some sort of warning.”

As all of this was going on, some thoughts crossed my mind. Looking around the room, I saw Celestia, but didn’t make the midnight sky mane of her sister. “Where’s Luna?” I asked.

But the Captain shrugged. “Separate security tasking that she’s personally overseeing. I don’t have a clue who she’s using.”

I thought back long and hard for a few moments, but nothing came to mind of all the separate crises that had occurred since Luna’s return where she personally oversaw a separate anything. But knowing how Luna was a fan of the cloak and dagger, three ponies and a Griffon half-breed immediately sprang to mind. “Captain, give me your radio.”

Flash cocked an eyebrow, but disconnected the radio from the wire that ran under his armor and up to his helmet, and handed it to me. A quick local soundproofing bubble spell would make sure that no other pony would eavesdrop. “Strider, Blackout. Respond.” A soft static came back for a few seconds before I pressed in against the transmit button again. “Strider, respond.”

I almost expected the radio to remain silent, but a burst of static signaled that somepony heard the call. “Blackout, Tempest. Can you read?”

“Five by five Tempest.”

“Initiate emergency continency Nightfall. Repeat, Nightfall. Perimeter breeched through the catacombs by hostile entities. RS2 in hostile custody, remaining Polaris assets are unaccounted for.”

“Did he just say-”

Before Flash could finish processing what the group of us had heard, I killed the soundproof spell and whistled as loud as I could. “Nightfall response, now!” I screamed. Obviously the dignitaries had no clue what the code phrase meant, but every guard in the hall immediately began to clear the doors to the palace garden.

A flash of light blinded me for a moment before my mother stood towering over me. “What the hell are you-”

I ignored her and gave the radio back to the Captain of the Guard. “Clear the palace of civilians, and get the dignitaries off the mountain. Have all city-bound guards lock down the city, and get the catacomb entrances locked down.”

“What the hell is Nightfall?” Dawn asked.

“It means Luna has been taken captive by corrupted entities.” I explained. “Remind me to thank you later.” I said as I gave my daughter a quick peck on the cheek. “Now can somepony get me some weapons?!”

My mother was obviously confused, but one of the guards immediately stepped past, and handed me a silver pistol and a pouch of magazines from her belt. “What else do you need Your Highness?”

“Explosives.” I said. “We need to blow the floor and get down into the catacombs now.”

“I’ll get the emergency demo charges.” The mare said before she popped out of sight with a teleport.

Dawn grabbed my shoulder and spun me around to face her. “So am I supposed to just sit around?”

“Hell no, you’re coming with me.” I said. “Could a Sombric Rune emit dark magic?”

“Yeah, but from what I’ve been feeling it must be depleted.” Dawn replied.

“Can you still track it?”

“If it’s this weak that I can’t place it… No, as we get closer I can probably pin it down.”

I just nodded. “You’re my compass then.”

“Can you hold on for one minute?!” My mother yelled, almost slipping into the famed ‘Canterlot voice’. “You can’t just go off half cocked like this!”

“No, I think it’s my damn right to go off half cocked exactly like this.” I retorted. “Just keep the ponies up here safe. We’ll worry about Luna.” Suddenly the female guard teleported back, a large satchel in her hands. I opened it and pulled out one of the four demolition charges. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got work to do.

Author's Note

Well, sorry about the delay. A colleague I work with came down with 'rona, and I've been pinch hitting to cover for them over the last week. In that I forgot to hit publish on this last chapter. My apologies!

Chapter 7

Canterlot Castle, Day 2
7:10 AM
Cloud Runner, Equestrian Intelligence, Polaris Team

“So remind me why we’re geared for a combat operation?” My marefriend Sky asked as Cosmo finished loading his jet black vest with rifle and pistol magazines.

“One word, Luna.” Storm Cloud said as he locked down the low-light sight on his rifle.

“Did she say anything to you last night when you got the orders?” I asked as I pulled on my helmet and powered up the HUD. It flashed through it’s boot up menus before blinking green around the edge of my vision.

“She thought something was coming. Said it was familiar, and that’s all she left it at.” Cosmo said as he put on his protective combat glasses. “Alright, everypony set?”

“Rook is set on comms.” Stalwart’s voice scratched out over my helmet radio.

“You call catch that?” Cosmo asked. I nodded, as did the other two in the room. “Strider here, check all field marks Rook.”

“Got it… Strider, Darkstar, Hurricane and Tempest. All field marks are accounted for. We’re coming up on the landing site now, popping hatch in thirty seconds.”

“So we don’t know why we’re meeting at the catacombs entrance?” I heard Sky ask.

“I’m assuming we’re running need to know. And as much as we’re here at the request of a Princess, I don’t think we’re need to know.” Cosmo said, sighing at the end. “Is anypony else worried right now?”

“Of course I’m fucking worried.” Storm Cloud replied. “The last recorded instance of Celestia being involved with a field operation was fourty years ago… Although maybe this is Luna’s way of getting a body in bed at the end of the day.”

We all just looked at Storm Cloud. “What?” Cosmo asked.

“Well I was digging through the records last night after we got the orders, and Meteor Shower and Celestia met during Operation Breakwater in Vanhoover.”

Cosmo just stared at his half-brother with a deadpan look. “And you think that Luna is going to use this as a way to say ‘hey Tia, look at me I’ve got a husband now too!’. Come on, get real.”

“Well I never said she was going after me.” Storm Cloud said with a shrug. “I mean, I think I’m getting to more than just coffee with Gabby… But hey, you’re still single and completely available.”

As the shuttle shuddered and the rear ramp dropped, Cosmo just rolled his eyes. “And I’m perfectly fine being single Casanova. Now please, just get on-mission.”

As the four of us walked off the shuttle, Luna was immediately spotted at the entrance to the catacombs, sitting on a bolder with a shotgun slung over her shoulder. “Commander, glad you could make it.” She was decked out in equipment identical to Cosmo, which in itself seemed out of place. But she looked somewhat dustier than I would’ve expected.

“Have you been busy Your Highness?” Cosmo asked.

Luna nodded. “I’ve got footsteps that lead deep into the catacombs. The prints in the dirt were not made by Equestrian issue footwear.”

“So, Griffins then?” Storm Cloud asked.

“That’s my fear.” Luna said. “Commander, there is a reason I requested your team. It’s specifically because of the talents of your compatriot.” She said, pointing at Storm Cloud.

“Really? What talents? I’m a damn halfbreed.” Storm pointed out.

“One that has an affinity towards the Sombric school of dark magic.” Luna retorted.

That stopped the entire group dead. The fact is that Storm Cloud was the bastard half-breed of the Griffin De Witt and Constellation, conceived through De Witt’s apparent attempts to create a Griffin that could harness magic like a unicorn. Attempts that had evidently been quashed with De Witt’s apparent demise at General Meteor Shower’s hands during the mission to capture said Griffin some twenty years ago, and the subsequent rescue of Constellation while she was in labor. While it has never been entirely understood, it was known that De Witt’s experiment in Storm Cloud was a success. But even though we all knew what Storm Cloud was capable of, outside of the most dire circumstances or private moments, he purposely withheld his capabilities.

“And what does dark magic have anything to do with today?” Storm asked.

“Because I have reason to believe that De Witt is here, although the reasons are still unknown.” The Princess explained.

Cosmo immediately tapped his earpiece. “Rook, Strider. I want to you to maintain constant comms and IFF tracking, so hook into the subterranean monitoring system.”

“Got it Strider, establishing connection… Alright, uplink is good. You’re all good to go down there.”

“Tempest, take point. No lights.” Cosmo ordered.

I stepped forward and tapped button on the side of my helmet to turn on the low light setting for my visor. As we slowly advanced into the cave, I took note of a blinking message on the lower left of my field of vision. It just read connection error in dull red letters. But connection error to what?

BWACHA!

By this point we were well into the catacombs. “What the hell was that?” I heard Cosmo whisper.

“Rook, Tempest, I don’t think we’re alone down here…” I whispered, my helmet mic picking up the words. But there was no response, not even static. Suddenly the connection error message made perfect sense. “We’ve got no comms.”

“Indeed you don’t.”

Before I could wheel around and figure out just who was behind me, I felt a boot plant itself between my wings and throw me forward, but a pair of clawed hands kept a firm grip on my feathery appendages, and I felt a series of resounding pops from the tips of my wings to my back.

“Contact!” I heard Cosmo yell. “Weapons-” He didn’t get off another word before I heard a series of thuds, accompanied by what sounded like discharges of static electricity.

I managed to kick my grappler off my back and managed to wheel around. Cosmo had two grey Griffons forcing him to the ground with prods arcing blue light. Storm Cloud’s face was bleeding heavily, as a third Griffon was bashing him over the head with what looked to be a piece of pipe, while Sky was on the ground, back against the wall with her head hanging limply towards her left shoulder.

Luna was worse off. A metal collar had been snapped around her neck, and two more Griffons were trying hook poles to loops on it and force her to the ground while her horn flickered and sparked. Staring at me from the corner of my eye was a brown and white Griffon, metal plate contoured to the right side of his face. He had a knife in his hand, and was going for a stab if the motion was any indicator, but before much could happen, Luna’s horn flared to life and she blasted me, blinding my vision with midnight blue light before I felt the world go black.

Some time later…

“Strider, Blackout. Respond.”

The sound of the radio in my ear caused me to spring back to consciousness. I was on my back, in a completely different part of the catacombs. Luna had likely spot-teleported me away from the ambush. But that sure as hell didn’t make the joints of my wings feel any better. I sat up, and saw that my rifle had landed in a pile of gravel next to me.

“Strider, respond.”

The grogginess suddenly cleared and I felt my heart start to race. We were in serious trouble, and Celestia knows how long I had been out. I quickly cued up my radio and saw that I had a solid connection to the underground boosters. “Blackout, Tempest. Can you read?”

“Five by five Tempest.”

In that instant I felt cold sweat running down my temple inside the helmet. The Griffon with the plate on his face… That was De Witt. He was in Canterlot, and he had apparently managed to kidnap Princess Luna at the very least. My mouth started running on autopilot. “Initiate emergency continency Nightfall. Repeat, Nightfall. Perimeter breeched through the catacombs by hostile entities. RS2 in hostile custody, remaining Polaris assets are unaccounted for.” I only had a return of static. I assumed that they had heard the emergency codeword. But before I could do more, in the same corner that I had seen the connection error message earlier, text that said incoming flashed in green.

“Tempest, Rook, where the hell have you been?”

“Griffons jumped us and took Princess Luna. Do you have a fix on anypony else?”

“Negative, all other Polaris tags are still dark.”

“Then where the hell am I?” I asked.

“Stand by… Oh boy.”

Phalanx sounded concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“Well you’re right under the center of the main hall floor, right?”

“OK, sure.”

“And the Guard just pulled demolition charges from storage.”

“Alright.”

“Well… If I had to guess I’d say you’ve got twenty seconds before you get turned to pulp.”

I took one glance up at the ceiling before I tore off down the tunnel. I tried to flap my wings, but ever joint seared in red hot pain. They were dislocated alright, and they sure as hell wouldn’t help me get out of trouble.

Then the kick to my backside came. The demo charges went off, and while my helmet’s noise cancelation blocked out the sound it did nothing to save me from the effects of physics as I was lifted from my feet by the blast and sent tumbling down the tunnel to come to a stop in a large open chamber. I just laid there on my back, staring up at the ceiling. I had lost my grip on my rifle, Celestia knowing where it ended up.

Trying to sit up didn’t do anything, as now everything hurt. “Rook?” I managed to groan

“Tempest, you OK?” The stallion’s voice scratched out through now-damaged helmet speakers.

“Yeah, I’m fine… Next time just cut to the chase.” I closed my eyes as the throbbing in my head finally seemed like it was pounding on the backs of my eyeballs.

I think I’m just going to lay here for a few minutes.

*---*

Catacombs beneath Canterlot
Dusk Light

The dust hadn’t even cleared before I grabbed the nearest dozen guards and hopped down into the catacombs. The dust wasn’t difficult to blow away, Captain Sentry saw to that with some powerful flaps of his wings. What I did not expect to see was a combat armored Pegasus lying on his back at the end of our entry tunnel, his rifle bent in half a few feet off to his right. One of the guards slid down next to the Pegasus and tugged his helmet off, revealing Cloud Runners familiar, if not battered, face.

“A little warning would’ve been nice.” The Pegasus groaned; his eyes still closed.

One of the unicorn guards got down on her knees next to the wounded soldier and ran a glowing hand across his body. While I wasn’t sure where all of the injuries came from, he likely got caught by the blast from the demolition charge that had been used to open the way to the catacombs. “Alright, both wings are dislocated… I’ve got some bruising, a few cracked ribs and a concussion. This colt isn’t going anywhere except topside.” She said with a matter-of-fact tone.

“No arguments here.” I said as I picked up Cloud’s helmet off the ground and examined it before tossing it away. Most of its internal components had been damaged, and I couldn’t guarantee their reliability. “Take two other guards and bring Tempest to the nearest doctor.”

By this point Dawn had made her way down the tunnel. “Yup… It’s stronger down here.” That was a good sign, it just meant that my plans to use my daughter as a navigation aid would likely work to our benefit. She pointed to a tunnel that was off the upper right of the chamber that we were standing in. “We need to go down there.”

“Wait.” Cloud croaked as the unicorn and another guard helped him to his feet. “Dusk, De Witt is down here, and he’s got five in support that I saw before Princess Luna...” His voice trailed off. “Dusk, they got some sort of collar on her. I think it was some sort of magic neutralizer.”

“What else can you tell us?” Flash asked, his face retaining a neutral expression.

“They got the drop on us using some sort of comms jamming. Blocks our IFF tags and radio signals. If you get close-”

I just held my hand up and shook my head. “Look, I’m assuming we’re on our own right now anyway. Just get to a doctor, we’ll take it from here.” Cloud nodded and his escorting trio started off back down the tunned towards our entrance.

“This is bad…” Flash observed. “It sounds like De Witt brought a prepared team here.”

“Doesn’t matter at this point.” I countered, clicking the safety off on the pistol I had acquired a few minutes prior. “We find De Witt, we find Luna and the rest of Polaris.”

“And none of this bothers you?” Flash asked, now looking far more serious.

I just shrugged. “And what would you have me do Flash? We’ve got more pressing concerns right now.” I just motioned for the tunnel and started walking. “Let’s just get moving.”

Dawn immediately took up the lead, a dull glow lighting her horn as we made our way down the tunnel speckled with crystals embedded into the walls. We must have followed that tunnel for two or three minutes before Dawn extinguished her horn. The large chamber at the end was already illuminated, and the light within was spilling into our tunnel.

As Dawn and I edged forward I could make out a Griffon standing over a light colored Pegasus, likely Sky, something clasped in the hand that was obstructed by his captive’s body. “Now now, no need to skulk in the shadows my dear, come out and see my work for itself.” The Griffon was clearly talking to Dawn.

We silently made our way into the large chamber, and I took stock of the situation. Sky was at the hands of the Griffon that had addressed us, De Witt if I had to wager any bits on it. Storm Cloud was off to the left side of the chamber with his brother, along with two armed guards. Cosmo looked somewhat bruised but was otherwise intact.

Storm Cloud looked worse off. His combat gear from his torso was gone, and he was stripped bare from waist up. He had several red marks across his chest left by blood, and the left side of his face was caked in dried blood from a cut across his eye.

Off to the right was Luna. She was beaten, bruised, and bloodied. Two Griffons held her down with rods attached to the collar around her neck, while a third stood over her with a gun aimed at her back.

“It seems you brought company to our second lesson my dear.” De Witt said, now hoisting up the large bowie knife that was in the hand that was obstructed from our initial view. “That was quite smart of you. It just makes the impact of this lesson so much more easily distributed.”

I took one look around the chamber and shook my head. “This isn’t a lesson. It’s a manifesto.”

“It matters not Your Highness, for the results are the same.” De Witt said, sounding as emotionless as possible. “Your kind must all learn these lessons that I have been tasked to teach.”

I already didn’t like where this was going. De Witt had hostages, and a number had been wounded. “You make yourself sound like a benevolent god.” I countered.

“As all gods should be.” De Witt said as he suddenly grabbed Sky’s right wing and yanked it into an outstretched position. “Now, for today, I have but a simple lesson. You believe yourself to be the protectors of this land. Yet you are helpless to save even a single life that stands before you.”

As De Witt’s right arm rose, it felt like everything was slowing down. Luna’s sudden panic, sparks flying from her horn as she tried to overpower whatever was blocking her abilities. Cosmo was thrashing against his restraints and screaming like a colt possessed. Storm Cloud’s head seemed to fall in defeat. All while Dawn, myself and the Guards behind us froze like animals caught in a beam of light. As the blade fell and met flesh, a spurt of blood could be seen, followed by what almost sounded like a branch snapping. And as Sky’s wing came free and was held high by De Witt for all assembled to see, the whole chamber went silent.

A silence that was shattered mere seconds later by a blood curdling scream.

Author's Note

Alright, so shenanigans from work aside, I'm hopefully getting back on track.

Hopefully.

I've got three more chapters done and otherwise ready to publish over the next few weeks, but my writing has slowed to a snails pace. So inevitably I think what I may end up doing is write batches of ten chapters, get them loaded and worry about publishing as time on my end permits. We'll see.

Chapter 8

Catacombs beneath Canterlot, Day 2
8:42AM Local Time
Dusk Light

Sky’s screams were enough to break one’s soul. And De Witt’s smile? That was enough to make even the kindest of souls see blind rage. “You see now? Even standing here you can do nothing to save those in greatest danger!” De Witt chortled, tossing Sky’s wing to the floor between us and him.

Now if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that it was more than enough justification for me to level my pistol and shoot the feathered bastard right in the face. But before I could even raise the weapon, Dawn’s horn flared a deep red.

Then it pulsed.

Immediately the Griffon guards on the periphery of the chamber stumbled. As I looked at one, my rage was replaced with utmost confusion. Before the eyes of all present, the Griffon cronies started glowing through what looked like cracks in their bodies, before collapsing and disintegrating into piles of ash. The look on De Witt’s face was suddenly dissolving, to be replaced with what I could only describe as fear. Behind me I could hear the Guards cock their weapons, presumably aiming at De Witt as they spread out.

Whatever held Luna’s magic at bay must’ve also failed, because as her own horn flared the collar around her neck shattered and fell to the ground.

All the while, Dawn was nodding. “Specters… Got to admit, I’m actually impressed.” Dawn said as she stepped forward, knelt down and ran her fingers along Sky’s severed wing. “But you probably thought that if you walked into this city, you could just trample anypony you came across. Maybe have your creations have some fun with me again?”

“Dusk, what the hell is Dawn talking about?” Flash whispered into my ear.

I didn’t answer as Dawn got back to her feet. “Unfortunately for you that handicap of mine is gone.”

“It matters not, I’ll still win in the end.” De Witt countered.

Dawn shook her head. “See, I doubt that.” She pointed at Luna. “I’m guessing you set my Aunt here up. Maybe to try and mess with her head, maybe as bait. I don’t know. The point is that at the end of the day there’s no throne waiting for you or your sister. Just a dark pit that nopony will ever find. And you know how I know that?” Dawn held her arms out. “Because you just did the one thing no sane being should EVER do. You’ve pissed off two Alicorns, the son of another Alicorn, a smattering of the most elite of the Royal Guard, and a group of Royal Commandos.”

I picked up where Dawn was going with what she was saying as I stepped to her side. “As I see things you’ve got two options. The first one is to surrender, and we drag your sorry ass out of these caves and lock you in a cage. The second one is for you to resist.” I waved my pistol a bit before aiming at the Griffon’s head. “Take a wild guess what’ll happen if you do that?”

It felt like the seconds were ticking by in perpetuity. Everypony in the cave frozen in the same moment, second after second. But in the moment that De Witt grabbed the rune and pulled it out from its hiding place under his jacket, Dawn’s horn flared that same deep red shade that it had previously. But beyond that, there was a blinding flash of light, followed by a scream of agony, only for the light to die and the chamber to fall silent.

“Somepony help me!” Luna shouted as she ran over to Sky’s splayed out body, shattering the silence.

As the guard contingent raced to the Lunar Princess’ side, I stood by Dawn as we both walked over to where De Witt had been standing. In his place were two items. One was the rune that he had tried to draw, while the other was a deep black crystal, easily a foot long and four inches round. “What the hell did you do?” I asked as Dawn knelt down and picked both objects up.

“It’s an old Alicorn Jailer’s spell.” Dawn said as she tucked the crystal and rune into the inner folds of her vest. “From what Faust taught me, it was used by Imperium Jailers to transport high priority prisoners, whether they be of significant importance or know to be incredibly dangerous.”

“Wait, what Imperium?” I asked.

Dawn just held her hand up as if she wanted me to stop. “All I know for sure is that the Imperium was pre-historic. But we’ve got more important things to deal with.” Dawn whistled and waved for somepony to come to us.

Flash, being the ever-dutiful guard, came to our side. “Princess? What do you need?”

“De Witt’s survival does not leave this room. As far as the world knows, De Witt died down here and his remains cremated and disposed of.”

Flash and I must’ve shared the same confusing thoughts. “Why?” The Pegasus asked.

“Because should the Griffons believe that De Witt lives, they may attempt to rescue him. More importantly, if they have a watch on the catacomb exits, they would know full well if we walked out with him in tow.” She patted the spot in her vest where the black crystal was hidden. “All the better that I can walk out with a crystal and avoid arousing suspicions.”

“Dawn, as much as I agree, we can’t just keep De Witt in that crystal forever.” I whispered. “He’s a major source of intelligence, and eventually he needs to go on trial.”

Suddenly Flash hit the side of his helmet. “Captain Sentry, go ahead.” After a few seconds Flash’s eyes went wide. “Who ordered it?”

I looked at Dawn, and we both must’ve shared looks of confusion and dread. “Flash, what’s wrong?”

“I… I don’t even know what to say.” The Pegasus lamented. “The entire Imperial Griffon Army just laid down their arms and surrendered.”

The words came like a punch to the gut. “What?” Was all I could managed to ask.

By this point Storm Cloud had limped over to our small coalescence and heard the same report. “Under who’s orders?” He croaked. Dawn immediately moved to his side and got under the half-breed’s left arm to prop him up.

Flash immediately went back to the transmitter button built into the side of his helmet. “Who gave the order?” Whatever the answer came back as must’ve been a surprise, because Flash furrowed his brow in confusion. “Can you… You’ve got the confirmation already?”

“Captain, can you key us in?” Dawn asked.

“The order came down from the interim Imperial Head of State.” Flash replied, still looking confused. “But who the hell is Commodore Van Galen?”

*---*

Canterlot Castle, Day 2
11:00AM Local Time

It had taken almost an hour for us to get organized in the palace. And even then, Commodore Van Galen was so obscure that the analysts only came back with their file on him half an hour ago. Suffice to say the chaos of me having a hole blown in the floor of the great hall, and the chaos that followed as we extracted most of Polaris Team from the catacombs likely didn’t help.

Van Galen had been the commandant of the Imperial Naval Academy in Hoorn for the last fifteen years. He was evidently highly respected in the Imperial command for the excellent training regimen he oversaw and perfected, but otherwise wasn’t a noteworthy officer. He went to work and did his job.

“So just how did Van Galen manage to pull off a coup?” My father asked, putting down his copy of the Commodore’s file on the dining hall table where we had set up shop. “Every time we spoke he was never came even close to ambitious, let alone being able to pull something like this off.”

“Wait, you know Van Galen?” I asked, putting my own copy of the file down.

Dad nodded. “I’ve given some guest lectures there over the years. The last one was what, six years ago? We’ve regularly stayed in touch in the times between lectures.”

The dining hall doors swung open, and Celestia and Twilight both stepped in, a quintet of Guards on their heels. “Seriously, Van Galen?” Celestia asked, obviously just as surprised at the reports as my father.

“I know, right? How the hell did he pull this off?” Dad asked as he tapped his fingers on the table.

“No clue, but you could ask him.” Twilight replied as she stepped aside and motioned for the Guards to part. Through the two neat columns came a procession of Griffons, headed by a older golden feathered male, who was clearly nursing a broken arm and some stitches.

My father immediately rose from his chair and saluted the Griffon officer, a courtesy returned by the wounded bird with his good arm. “Duke of Canterlot… I must admit Meteor, I always pegged you as a pony who was standing well below his true station. I never would’ve expected that you would’ve gone so far so quickly.”

The two shared smiles, as my father pulled out a chair for the Commodore. “To be fair, that was a decision that my wife and I had made a long time ago to actively avoid.” Both Princesses grabbed chairs on either side of me and sat down. “Now, you remember how I told you about my son, right?”

Van Galen looked over at me across the table, a wise smile crossing his beak as he nodded. “Your father has always spoken very highly of you Prince Dusk, as he has of your wife as well. My only regret is that we meet under such poor circumstances.”

“I wouldn’t call this terribly poor.” I countered. “You ended a war between two major powers before it spiraled into abject madness. It may not be how I would’ve liked it, but you’ve made one hell of an impression Commodore.”

“What about terms?” My father asked.

“All Imperial soldiers in Equestrian territory surrender their arms and return home. In return for our soldiers being allowed to return home, where they will be demobilized and stood down to reserve status, the Imperium will provide full restitution and damages to the affected citizenry, as well as funding the repairs of any damaged property and infrastructure.” The Commodore explained. “Thankfully, there is ample funding available after seizing the Autarch’s private treasury.”

I nodded as my thoughts turned to the Commodore’s injuries. “So I doubt that Caprice went quietly.” I said without thinking.

All eyes at the table turned to me, but the Commodore shook his head. “None of them did. The entire General Staff is dead, and Caprice was injured heavily when she tried to detonate a makeshift bomb that was set up in her quarters.”

“Then how did this even start?” I asked. “How the hell does an instructor manage to overthrow the Imperial Griffon government?”

“Simple, the Fleet and Field Commanders came to me once they received their orders earlier this morning.” The Commodore said, his face starting to look far grimmer than had been expected. “The Navy was ordered to bombard coastal targets with specially supplied ammunition. It had been loaded onto the Battleships of the fleet three days ago. Shortly after midnight one of those munitions aboard the Heemskerck began emitting a green gas. Minor traces, thank the gods. It gave the gun crews enough time to bring it on deck and out of the ship. But it was enough for the Master at Arms to investigate what they had been given.” Right then the Commodore’s expression turned to complete disgust. “Four cells were in each shell. All contained the same substance. SM Gas.”

The room was uncomfortably silent. SM, or Sulfur Mustard, was incredibly nasty stuff. The burns that it could cause were known to be quite damaging to any living being. “The fleet was ordered to use those shells, weren’t they?”

“Indeed, and without being told what the shells really were.” Van Galen replied. “Simultaneously to the discovery on the Heemskerck, the Fifth Assault Group discovered that their specially assigned artillery shells contained the same substance. Within hours the field commanders and fleet commanders that knew each other were in contact, and it became glaringly apparent that the goals of High Command were nothing short of genocidal. And when it was discovered by the Fifth Assault Group’s commander that the shells were distributed on the order of the Autarch, the lower officers immediately gave halt orders to their forces, and the Fleet immediately pulled into Hoorn. Captain Ruyter, one of my best students, immediately sought me out. This was simultaneously to my Army Academy counterpart, Van Baer being informed and coming to seek me out. It did not take much to agree that the Autarch had gone mad, and the High Command was just as culpable. So we took a volunteer force of 500 officers, mostly Navy as those where who was available, armed ourselves using the weapons aboard the fleet’s vessels and went to Palas. We arrived there around 7:00 this morning. 100 of the group were taken by Van Baer to bring the Autarch into custody, while I took the remainder to secure the High Command building.”

My father patted the Commodore’s back. “How many?” He asked.

“We lost seventy two all together.” Van Galen said. “Suffice to say there’s also plenty of cleanup required, but Van Baer is overseeing those efforts. The few Autarch fanatics that remained standing have already been taken into custody, and we’ve seized all of the Autarch’s documents and communiques with her brother. This whole disaster was being planned for the last ten years, and only the sudden emergence of your granddaughter and her destruction of one of the munitions dumps convinced them to speed up the timeline, while giving a plausible reason for the offensives. The Autarch’s own projections called for enough SM to blanket every settlement in Equestria once over, and still have enough to remain a viable threat to any subsequent resistance or retaliation.”

“Is there a timeline for disposal yet?” I asked.

“That’s the problem. The last time sulfur mustard was created was over nine hundred years ago, and mind you it was created as an anti-alicorn implement in the aftermath of Nightmare Moon.” Van Galen explained. “The methods that were used to destroy the compound in the aftermath of the first Treaty of Palas was frankly incredibly dangerous. Until the gas can be destroyed safely, all twenty thousand tons of the material are being transferred to Equestrian custody for safe keeping.”

“And what of the Autarch?”

“As soon as she’s fit to travel, she will be handed over to Equestrian custody. As far as we’re concerned, the Autarch is yours.” Van Galen said, almost looking somewhat forlorn. Maybe the last few days had taken it’s toll mentally, maybe it was a combination of what he had gone through and his injuries.

But suffice to say that’s the cruel reality of conflict. It drains every soul. Some can take the drain for longer, but at the end of the day every battle, every war, every siege, they all have to end.

Because the mind can only take so much depravity.

Author's Note

Alright, I've got to admit I'm a glutton for punishment. My writing has been slowed down as I've spent the last several weeks coding a new computer system. Yay!

Chapter 9

Canterlot Medical Center, Day 2
1:00PM Local Time
Dawn

When my father had said that somepony had to go to the hospital with Cosmo and his team, there were certainly volunteers from members of the Guard. Me? Well after some quick assessments that yes, I was in fact recognized as a Princess, I did the only thing that could come to mind.

I pulled rank.

While just about the entire cadre of guards looked confused, I got the impression from my father’s knowing nod of approval that at least he understood to an extent. The reality of my decision was simple. Out of all the living beings that I had met after leaving Faust, Cosmo and his cadre were the first that didn’t try to kill me. They recognized that De Witt and his cronies had done a number on me, and they didn’t care who I was or how I was in Palas. They just helped me out of the goodness of their hearts. And to me that’s worth more than I could ever hope to repay, so watching out for their collective wellbeing would have to do for now…

Or maybe longer? Hell if I know. All I know for sure is that you’d have to kill me to get me to leave this hospital right now. Phalanx sure as hell knew it. While he basically got out of this whole ordeal unscathed because he was running the back end of Polaris’ jaunt into the catacombs, he still fell under my umbrella of care. But when he suggested that he could watch out for Polaris, I might have gone a bit overboard with my response.

“Do you have a siege mortar? Because blasting me in the face with one will at least get me out of here until I drag myself out of the crater and come back.”

Yeah… Overboard. I might have to answer to that later, but right now I don’t care in the slightest. Cosmo had been discharged around an hour and a half ago on account of rather minor injuries. He was followed half an hour later by his half-brother, now sporting a pointed scar across his left eye.

Thankfully his eye was undamaged by the blow that left the scar. But that didn’t go for the rest of his body. Under the clean shirt and pants were roughly forty separate lacerations, all but one of which had been dug at with blunt instruments. Lucky none were more than a half an inch deep, but all had been showing signs of contamination, requiring them to be opened, cleaned and examined before being stitched closed.

As for Cloud Runner and Sky, we only had heard that Cloud’s wings had been dislocated. Sky was another matter. She had gone into shock almost immediately, something that was unsurprising when a limb was forcibly removed. But what the doctors did tell us is that they had to call in a trauma expert, as they had nopony on staff that could remotely come close to properly treating her wounds and try to reattach her severed wing. And that wing was on all of our minds. The doctor had said it was a fifty-fifty chance that it could successfully be reattached. Beyond that? No guarantees in the slightest.

Suddenly the doors to the waiting room swung open, and out stepped a pearl colored pony in bloody blue scrubs. “Well, she’s in recovery now.” Constellation said as she pulled her mask off.

Cosmo admittedly looked surprised to see his mother standing there, but I doubt that it really mattered. Having been under the mare’s care myself I knew that she was skilled. “How is she?” he asked.

Constellation sat down in one of the leather chairs opposite of us and hung her head. “I’m just going to say it. I doubt that Sky will ever fly again.” When the older mare’s head came up, I saw the red eyes and tear trickling down her muzzle. “The cut was far from a clean cut. We’ve fused the bone fine, but the nerves, tendons and muscles are another matter. The tendons and muscles were basically chewed up at the point of the cut on down. Reconnecting the nerves was easy enough, but when I ran tests to search for nerve activity, I was only getting about fifty percent of the nerve cells in the severed wing firing and responding consistently.”

The reaction amongst the colts sitting with me was near universal. Dejection, sadness, depression.

But Storm Cloud stood out. He angry. That much was clear when he rose from his chair, tossing the small coffee table that sat in the center of the sitting area like it was a ragdoll. “Storm… This isn’t your fault.” Cosmo croaked out.

“Does it fucking matter?!” Storm yelled, an odd looking golden coated earth pony on the other side of the room watching the spectacle intently. “We walked right into a trap. You know it, I know it, hell Luna knows it! De Witt made it damn clear that he managed to play a god damn master of dream magic! Not only that, but he had been playing us for four god damn years! We’re a collective fucking joke!”

At that moment Constellation rose from her chair, strode over to Storm Cloud and smacked him so hard across the face, that the sound of the smack must’ve broken the sound barrier. “You are not a joke! You can’t hope to do anything if you don’t know the game you’re supposed to be playing! So quit the ‘woe is me’ attitude. It’s not going to help you, and it sure as hell isn’t going to help anypony else right now. So buck up, because if you’re talking like that when Sky wakes up, then so help me I’ll beat you senseless!”

So… That’s Constellation when she’s pissed off? OK, I’ll just make a mental note to avoid pissing her off. But at that moment, a nurse stuck her through the double doors to the waiting room. “Doctor Constellation? Your patient is waking up.”

That seemed to calm Constellation down. “Alright, let’s go. Dawn, you want to come?”

I glanced over at the pony that had watched the whole affair. “Give me a minute, I’ll catch up.” It was clear by the rapid departure that nopony else in the group had noticed our observer. I didn’t even have to get up from my chair before she slipped in behind the departing group and grabbed the chair that Constellation had occupied. “So how’s Sky?” The mare asked.

Well she’s direct, I’ll give her that. “And who are you?”

The mare looked at me like I had two heads for a moment before she seemed to come across a moment of understanding. “Oh that’s right, we still haven’t met. Name’s Archer. I’m the one who was at the stick on 201 yesterday.”

Now the voice immediately connected to the back and forth I had heard over the airship’s intercom. “So… How long have you known Constellation?”

“Jeez, eight years now. Met her right after Cosmo joined the Marines. Go figure, we met because I broke my leg falling down some stairs at Vanhoover Tech, and she just happened to watch my less than gymnastic approach to creating a compound fracture.”

“Ouch…” I observed, noting the small scar that was slightly hidden by the outside of her left boot. “So… Do colts find scars attractive?” I asked, trying to make as polite conversation as I could. Frankly I was probably risking making myself look like a fool, but I didn’t know what else to say.

But Archer just chuckled. “Yeah I’ve gotten the occasional glance at the beach, but it’s not hurting my bikini looks so I could care less. Anyway, back to my question… How’s Sky?”

“Constellation doesn’t think she’ll ever fly again.” I said, feeling somewhat guilty at the thought that I could’ve been down in the catacombs sooner.

But Archer roller her eyes and pulled something out from under her jacket. It was low profile, and looked almost like a scale down version of the fans that were on the airship. “I’ve told her once, hell I’ve told Conny a million times. She’s got the best damn engineer in the country on her payroll. And I’m certain I can tweak this here jump pack for constant thrust without much issue. Ain’t gonna be near the same as proper wing flaps and the like, but at least Sky won’t be grounded. Problem is I need to figure out the power supply…”

Admittedly I don’t know why Archer was already digging out some sort of contraption, but she definitely had my interest. “What’s the power issue?”

“Simple, longevity.” Archer explained. “That’s why this is only a jump pack. I can get four ten second bursts before the power cell runs out and needs a recharge. What I need is some sort of self regenerating energy crystal. Problem is finding one that can use a pegasi’s latent magical abilities to fuel it.”

“So like the Crystal Heart, but instead of cumulative positive emotions in it’s proximity you’d need to tap an individual’s own magical potential in such a way that it doesn’t drain them dry.” I thought back to one of the earliest lessons with Faust on just how the Crystal Heart was made, including all of the magical formula. Part of that formula was the source energy equation, which she had specifically said was possible to replace if you could determine the replacement equation and adjust the intake governor matrix to account for the difference in energy intake. “What if I told you I’ve got most of the equations to make a crystal like what’s needed?”

Archer stopped dead, stared at me for a moment, before finally cocking an eyebrow. “You mind telling me how you’ve got that?”

“Well, Faust taught me the complete set of equations to how the Crystal Heart was created and how it functions. And she showed me what parts of the matrix would need replacement and calibration for repurposing the magic for something else.” I suddenly realized that Archer looked even more confused. “What’s wrong?”

“You do realize that you’re turning the historical record on it’s head, right? The Crystal Heart was thought to be a fluke of nature.” Archer retorted.

“Like hell it is. It was an experiment in energy storage.” I suddenly realized that with my tidbits of knowledge, and the clear lack of corresponding knowledge on Archer’s part, Equestrian History was certainly far off the mark. “OK, remind me to make a list of all these important historical tidbits that Faust has taught me. Because I’m getting the impression that the few bits of pre-historical information she’s taught me might make most historians change their careers in shame.”

Archer paused, but her facial expression once again changed. This time to absolute determination. “Obviously we’d have a lot of experimenting to do, but you think that we can make this work?”

“Well, yeah, given the time and effort. The magical source matrix won’t be the issue, but adjusting the governor intake will take some time. And frankly I’d have to be the one to test it because I’ve got the magical reserves. Devise some measuring matrixes and we can determine the exact rate of absorption-”

Archer suddenly rose from her chair, grabbed my arm and dragged me to the double doors. “Then we’ve got to tell them!”

I tried to pull back, but Archer’s status as an earth pony should’ve been the dead giveaway that she had some serious strength behind her. “Hold on, we could easily be a year away from a working crystal.”

“And I’m not going to sugar coat it either.” Archer retorted. “This might not work at all at the end of the day, but right now this is hope. Hope that nopony in there probably has right now.”

We must’ve moved faster than I thought, and Archer clearly knew where to go, because as we rounded the corner the first door on the right was her target. Running with hands full on the fly, the mare just lifted her right boot high, swung down to catch the handle, and pushed it open.

To say that the room felt bleak was an understatement. Sky was sitting on the side of the bed, with everypony else crowding around the room, trying to give Constellation room while she did her exams on the reattached wing. The atmosphere just felt down right depressing and bleak. “So… I found Archer.” I said as Constellation glanced up at us.

“I thought that you would’ve been outlining the repair and refit schedule.” Constellation observed, not looking up from Sky’s back.

“Please, I was done with that by breakfast.” Archer replied. “Look, I had an idea after I heard what happened down in the catacombs, so I broke out an old prototype.” She said, holding up the jump pack.

Constellation looked over Sky’s left shoulder and furrowed her brow. “Archer, what’s the jump pack going to help with?”

“Simple, if I get the power situation dealt with it’ll be a thrust pack that recharges using Sky’s latent magical potential.” Archer retorted, looking quite triumphant.

“You do realize that what you’re suggesting is entirely theoretical?” Cosmo said from his chair opposite of the door.

“It’s not, I’ve got the equations from the Crystal Heart’s creation and know what we have to modify to make a working spell matrix.” I said, cutting in before Archer could retort. “I’ll be honest, I don’t know long it’ll take, but right now there’s nothing in front of me that says that the proper spell matrix can’t be created and imprinted on a suitable crystal.”

The whole room went silent, and I could feel the glares of most everypony in the room burrowing into my skull. It felt like judgement was being passed, to be totally honest. “You’d do that for me?” Sky finally asked, breaking the silence.

I just nodded. “I’d do it for anypony in this room. I owe you all at least that much if not more.”

As the room fell silent once more, Sky immediately rose from the bed and stumbled over to me. She just stared at me, her eyes red and tears welling before she jumped and wrapped me into one hell of a bear hug. “You’re a damn saint Dawn.” The mare sobbed out. “Thank you for stepping up to try.” She said as she let me go.

As Sky stumbled back to the bed, Constellations expression turned to something I would describe as sheer pride. “You ain’t gonna be able to do it alone kid. Just because you’re an alicorn doesn’t mean you can do crazy mage level stuff solo, so I’ll make some calls and get you a staff put together. If this pans out, you’d be helping far more than just Sky.”

As the looks around the room turned from sorrow to hope, two feelings washed over me. The first happiness. The fact is these ponies were at least hopeful that I might be able to help, and that was one hell of a good feeling. But that conflicted with a polar opposite emotion. Fear. Pure, unbridled fear. And I knew exactly why I was scared.

Because I’m afraid to fail.

Chapter 10

Experimental and Developmental Institute, Stratusburg
1 week post Nightfall Incident
9:30AM
Prince Dusk Light

You figure that a pony that has basically just been introduced to society and it’s many quirks and curiosities might take time to try to comprehend the world around her now that she wasn’t worried about getting a knife in her back or something.

Apparently, those same sane ponies hadn’t met my daughter or her new partner in crime Archer. The morning after the incident with De Witt the two had barged into the suite we were using in the castle with a proposal for an institute with royal ascent with the goal of magical and technological development. Celestia and Twilight were there having breakfast with us, and it was Twilight who pointed out to Dawn that she was a member of the royal family. Just on that technicality she could come up with the most cockamamie schemes she wanted and run with them.

Dawn immediately proceeded to scribble out the ascent order under Twilight’s supervision, who sent it off to the scribes for it to be put on proper documentation and not a napkin that Dawn had swiped when she thought nopony was looking. The fact that she had ripped that napkin out from under my hand was apparently lost on her.

Aside from that whole royal ascent thing, the new dynamic duo had clearly pulled an all-nighter to put together one of the most professionally written organizational schemes for their new ‘Experimental and Developmental Institute’ that anypony in the room had seen. There was even a list of staff that they wished to offer positions with the new group. Mostly engineers of varying backgrounds, but a few mages as well. So Twilight offered to do up the letters to the potentials, as she thought that Dawn and Archer would have to identify a site for the institute.

But Archer came prepared. ‘We’ll just use the old support facility up in Stratusburg. We used it for E-201, so there’s more than enough room.’ She had said, pointing out that all of the major mechanical components were assembled at the old industrial site under her direct supervision.

Dart and I immediately left with the duo for the Stratusburg site, while I also had a note sent to the reporter from the day before that he would be more than welcome to come up to the new site. I figured that I’d be doing a lot of sitting on my hands up there, so at least we could do that interview that I had offered up.

At the same time, it got us out of the castle, away from royal staff members that were clearly not too thrilled with my stop during the walk to the main hall, and made sure that Dart and I would have ample time to continue connecting with Dawn.

During that timeframe, the pair were personally seeing to the outfitting of the machine shops and testing labs that would be likely to see heavy use for whatever these two were scheming up. I got something of a gist to their plans when two days ago the entirety of Polaris Team, accompanied by Constellation (who admittedly now needed a place to live after blowing her house up) arrived and set up shop in the large industrial building that was rapidly looking less like a warehouse and more like a proper developmental laboratory. Whatever their first project was, it centered around Sky and getting her back into the air. As we came onto the day before zero hour, when everything would get started, the staff arrived. All engineers bar one unicorn, the last unicorn I think anypony expected to show up.

Starswirl the Bearded.

He hadn’t even been on the list of mages to offer positions with the new institute. In fact all of them had turned down the offers. Not, apparently, because they thought the premise of making a self-regenerating energy crystal was too difficult. But because they were busy enough as it was. As it turned out Starswirl was with one of those mages in Vanhoover when the letter showed up. When he realized that the recipient wasn’t going to show up, he got on the first train and sped north as fast as he could. None of us had a clue why though. It was a rather common conception that Starswirl was done doing crazy magical things and was more apt to leave the discoveries to the current generation. He was far more content being a source of wisdom and advice when you could get past that nominally prickly demeanor. But as the thirty some-odd ponies filed into the new briefing theater just before 9:30 this morning, I saw something unexpected out of the old mage.

Excitement.

Dart had said she thought that the mage was in a good mood when he showed up the day before. But now everypony in the room could see it too.

But when the clock hit 9:30, Dawn and Archer hit the stage and the whole room fell silent. “Alright, thanks for coming everypony.” Archer said. “Now I’m going to assume that all of you have read up on our proposed first project, so no need to rehash the sales pitch. While the potential of a self-regenerating energy crystal is massive, we need a test case to prove the concept and outline our limits with the idea.” Archer hit a button on the podium, and the screen behind her lit up with a personnel file. Sky’s to be precise. “So here’s our pincushion. Get to know her, because her and the rest of her unit are on site for the duration of this first project if not longer. Now, the files on your chairs have the details, but I’ll give you the blow by blow. Sky had her wing physically severed during the incident in Canterlot last week. While it has been reattached, the prognosis is not good.” Archer hit the button again and the screen turned to the medical report that Constellation had filed. “Suffice to say, in the highly likely chance that reality pays Sky a visit, we are here to tell it to fuck off because we make our own damn rules around here. That comes down to the list of rules that I’ve got in your packets, but that’s not the important thing right now. While the primary aim of this project is the crystal, the crystal will be used to help power a thrust pack to allow our test subject to fly again. This has the additional benefit of helping us find the output limits of the crystal that we’re going to make here.” Archer looked around the room and hit the podium again, killing the screen behind her. “Now, to explain how we are going to get reality to go fuck itself, I yield the floor to this institute’s director. Fillies and Gentlecolts, Princess Dawn.”

In the moment that Archer stepped back and Dawn took to the podium, I flipped to the second page of the packet that had been sitting on the chair when I walked in. ‘Important Rules for E&D Institute Staff’ were printed in large black, bold letters at the top of the page. It had a handful of points, written in that crass style that Archer carried. While entirely unprofessional, they drove the points home.

1. Leave your old rules in the trash. We’re here to break rules.
2. If you refer back to your old rules, I will smack you upside the head.
3. If you fall back on preconceived notions, please refer to point 2
4. If you thought that what we’re going to do here is impossible, you wouldn’t have bothered to show up.
5. Impossible is not a thing around here. I told him to fuck off when we started renovating.
6. As long as you don’t do something to get somepony killed, you’re good to devise a project or test a theory.
7. If you think somepony will get maimed, mutilated, killed, or turned into a zombie, consult Dawn and I first. Refer to the smack of the head in point 2 if you go ahead with the dangerous idea without first telling us that somepony can get maimed, mutilated, killed, etc. Point is you can do something crazy if we know you’ll be doing something crazy.
8. This is not a prison. If you must leave for some reason and will be gone for an extended length of time, please tell us. If you don’t tell us… Well, you know the drill. Slaps and heads and all that.

“I’m going to assume that you all know who I am, so I’ll just skip the introduction.” Dawn said, drawing my attention back to the front of the room. I noticed that she was wearing the same garb that Rarity had made her, less the gloves.

All that succeeded in reminding me is that she likely only had one pair of decent clothing at this point. “Hey, what’s Dawn’s clothing size?” I whispered to Dart.

“Let me guess, wardrobe?” My wife observed.

“Yeah… We might want to get on that.”

“You finished back there?” Dawn called out. When I stayed quiet, she nodded. “Alright, now as you all know we’re going to make an energy crystal. The more astute among you might notice that this sounds a bit like what the Crystal Heart does. That’s because we’re repurposing the equations used in it’s creation and function.”

Murmurs went around the room before one of the engineers at the head of the room held her hand up. “But I thought that the Crystal Heart was a fluke of nature?”

“No, it wasn’t. But to save time, I’ll just refer you to the historical inaccuracies list in the packet that I’ve come across applying what I was taught by the pony that was responsible for my care and education.” Dawn replied.

“If I may allay any concerns-” Starswirl said as he rose from his chair. “I had studied the Crystal Heart long before the time of Sombra, and the math I came back with was very similar to what the Princess here has presented. The proposed plan for this crystal is entirely feasible with the proper efforts.”

With that ringing endorsement any lingering doubts must’ve been extinguished, because the same engineer stood up from her seat immediately. “When do we get started?”

“Right now.” Archer motioned for the door. “Let’s go get everypony situated.”

While the crowd of engineers filed out of the theater, Starswirl must’ve had a similar goal to Dart an I, as the three of us made our way to Dawn at the head of the room. “I’m not going to lie. I thought they’d need more convincing.” Dart said as Dawn took a seat on the edge of the stage.

“Yeah, I was thinking we might have been fifty-fifty when we walked in. Although I think Starswirl certainly helped significantly.” Dawn said, nodding at the mage. “You just made my day, and this is the most we’ve talked since you got here.”

As the last of the ponies left the room, Starswirl’s horn flared and the door behind the crowd shut. “Well, Faust clearly taught you well enough to know the variables in my spell matrixes.”

Confusion was clearly evident on all but Starswirl’s face. “Wait, your spell matrixes?” I asked, thinking back to the revelations Dawn had delivered on the Crystal Heart right after she and Archer came to us with their plan.

But the mage nodded and smiled. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was touched that Faust decided to try and save those notes. After Celestia and Luna were born she took a turn for the far less sentimental and far more cold and calculating.”

Dart beat us to the punch. “You’re older than you lead on, aren’t you?”

“Far older.” The mage admitted rather openly. “But that’s a holdover from my wife’s sentimental days.”

Wife. He said wife. “Oh great.” I groaned. “You’re Faust’s husband.”

“Indeed.” Starswirl said, still looking quite please. “Now then, let us take the time to talk more about our family history, shall we?”

Chapter 3

Constellation Family Estate
11:26AM
General Meteor Shower, Royal Marines

“Alright, change of plans!” I yelled as I walked into the command center, Dawn on my heels. “Tell all units to immediately withdraw to Appaloosa. Unicorns go in teleport hops, Pegasi by air. They need to take any other pony incapable of teleportation or flight. First and Second companies of the 2nd Battalion will provide rear guard until all other units are clear before withdrawing.”

“Uh, wasn’t the point of bringing these marines down here to hold the estate?”

“I don’t think we can do it anymore.” I motioned to Dawn, who put a device on the table. “I’ve spent the last few minutes talking to Dawn. The Autarch is playing us. Not only is De Witt alive, but they are related. That data core has all the biometrics that she picked up, along with recordings of the conversation they had before abandoning the warehouse in Palas.”

“Then Appaloosa won’t be far enough.” Constellation stated, sounding rather sure of herself. “And even if it was, it wouldn’t be safe enough.” She walked over to a panel on the wall and mashed a copper colored button. “Bridge, Combat. Status on powerup?”

“We’re all set and ready to go.” A mare’s voice came back over the intercom. “I can take us up on your orders boss.”

“Isn’t this a bunker?” Dusk asked.

Constellation shook her head. “No, never said it was a bunker either. But the last thing anyone would likely expect is an experimental combat capable airship being buried underground in the middle of nowhere.”

“So this is an airship?” I asked.

Constellation nodded, shit-eating grin plastering her face. “Welcome aboard the Experimental Combat Support Aircruiser, Model Two, Hull One. Or, as is painted on the side of the hull, E-201. Five decks officially, three of which have space usable by staff, while the others are dedicated to engineering and the magazines. Officially designed for a full complement of five hundred souls. But thanks to that fancy computer we’ve got going, we can run this boat with a single pony in an emergency… And yes, right now counts as an emergency.”

“Uh, wasn’t there some treaty making large combat airships illegal?” Some soldier asked.

“There was, and it was with the Griffons. The same bastards who want us all dead. But besides, the treaty says neither government can construct a ship like this. Doesn’t say anything about private enterprise or individuals within the borders of either country. Celestia made sure that was there so she could throw her endless amounts of riches into building this tub if she was so inclined.”

I just shook my head. “I get the Princess likes her secrets, but when did this bout of shenanigans get started?”

“Four years ago. In fact a few days after your daughter-in-law got jumped.” Constellation answered, her grin shifting to a more serious look. “After Winterfell’s bout of bullshit, it didn’t take a genius to recognize that trouble was coming. Celestia and Luna knew that, but to keep the preparations secret, they came to me, and dragged along one of the best damn engineers I’ve ever met outside of the Changelings they enlisted to do the construction. Oh, that reminds me.” Constellation it the copper button again. “Bridge, Combat. Get the external boarding hatches open. Let’s get these Marines clear before the scuttling charges blow.”

“Got it Boss, popping the hatches and rolling out the welcome mat.”

“Scuttling charges?” I asked.

“Yeah, for just in case a getaway was called for. No need to let anypony keep this ground without making them pay for it.”

Suddenly my radio crackled to life. “General, this is Corporal Oak. A bunch of holes just opened up in the ground. We’ve got staircases here. What’s going on?”

I quickly hit the transmitter. “Corporal, we’re leaving. Send word to all points that those are the boarding points to the airship that your Princesses so lovingly decided to leave for us crayon eating types. Get onboard, and do it fast. Forget about the heavy equipment and supplies, just get everypony on this ship. We’re running short on time as it is.”

“Combat, Bridge. Perimeter sensors just tripped. We’ve got company in visual range of the house.”

Constellation went back to the wall-mounted comm panel. “Status on loading?”

“Judging by the IFF tags, there’s what, thirty ponies trying to get down the stairs? Figure they’ll be all in the hatches inside of a minute.”

“Alright, set the perimeter guns to auto-target and fire. Turn anything outside of the direct boarding area to ash and start the takeoff sequence.”

“Roger that Boss!” Immediately the deck began to shudder, and it felt like it began to tip down towards where we came in from. “Alright, all tags are onboard. Sealing outer hatches… Clearance rams in the dock showing green… We’re good to fly!”

“Alright, open the intake ducts and give us a 20 degree nose up climb.” Constellation made her way over to the central fire control director and pulled up a remote access screen. The entirety of the estate property was lit up red.

As she did that, the sudden feeling of acceleration seemed to wash over those in the fire control room. “So… Just what is buried back there, aside from the obvious?”

“Oh, you mean other than the airship?”

I just rolled my eyes. “You said something about scuttling charges?”

Constellation nodded. “Yeah, about ten tons of torpex split between five shallow deployments.”

“I’m sorry?” I said out loud, still surprised at the sheer depth of Constellation’s destructive arsenal and apparently capacity for serious planning. That was in sharp contrast to the old PTSD-afflicted doctor that I’ve known for twenty years. “Ten tons of explosive? Those aren't scuttling charges. That’s a fucking manifesto!”

Constellation just rolled her eyes. “And you’re complaining about this as we’ve got two divisions bearing down on us? Get your priorities straight.” She hit a separate button on the comm panel and went back to the original button. “Attention all present, brace for contact.”

“Shield crystals are running Boss, ready when you are.”

“Alright everypony, hang onto your teeth!” Constellation shouted, going back to the main control panel and mashing the flashing red button

FWOOM!!

The entire airship made one violent lurch before sparks started erupting from two of the electrical boxes in the ceiling. “Shit, there go the shields!” Came the female voice from the comm panel.

I leapt to the panel before Constellation could reach it and mashed the copper button. “Forget about it for now, do we have long-range communications?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Cosmo, plug in and try and get Cloud Runner and Sky.” I said, motioning for the unicorn to take a seat at one of the consoles. “Tell them to meet up with us out by Trotsbad on the western coast.”

“Shouldn’t we go to Canterlot?” Dusk asked.

I looked at Dusk, thought about it for a moment, and shook my head. “Right now we need to assume that Dawn is the Griffon’s main target. I get she’s an Alicorn, but you don’t start a war and then send two divisions after a single individual unless you want that pony off the board.”

“Doesn’t turning and running do the same damn thing?” Dusk countered.

“Not necessarily.” I retorted. “If the Griffons want Dawn dead, they’ll stay focused on us. I can only hope that it will at least minimize the threat to the ponies in the border region.”

“But wouldn’t that presume that Dawn really pissed off the Griffons to deserve that level of focus.”

“Yeah… About that.” Dawn said, all eyes turning to the battle-worn Alicorn in the corner. “I might have done enough to justify their hatred.”

“Come on, what could one pony have done?” Cosmo asked before turning back to his console and hooking up a headset.

Dawn’s head bounced back and forth for a few seconds before she sighed. “I might have incinerated De Witt’s entire currency reserves about three months ago… And I set off a bunch of warehouses that his group had access to. Said warehouses might had stored roughly sixty percent of the artillery ordinance of the Imperium.”

The room went silent and Cosmo slid his headphones down around his neck. “Wait, that was you that blew the storehouses?!”

Dawn meekly nodded. “To be fair, De Witt’s group was trying to manufacture chemical agents with weaponization potential in those warehouses. Most were rather flammable and explosive.”

Now it was my turn to add to the conversation, having seen the same reports of the warehouses that Cosmo was referring to. “And you didn’t think to, I don’t know, tell somepony? Or anypony for that matter?”

“One, until today none of you knew I existed. Two, some Alicorn shows up in Canterlot claiming the Griffons are violating any number of international treaties, and in reference to point one, nopony knew that said alicorn existed. I’d quicker be locked in a padded cell and subjected to major psychiatric evaluations before somepony would think there was something to that wild sounding story.”

“And what makes you think that anypony would do that?” I retorted.

Dawn rolled her eyes. “The pony in charge has a history of overreacting. Need I point out the obvious list of sheer buffoonery she’s gotten into? And before you deny it, I read the same letters she sent to Celestia that you did General. For a good few years she created half of her own problems.”

“Well that’s not-”

“And for the love of Faust, don’t tell me she fixed her problems too. They wouldn’t have been problems if she didn’t cause them in the first place!” Dawn shouted. “Case in point, time travel.” She pointed out rather matter-of-factly.

“Time travel?” Dusk asked

Dawn nodded as a pained grin crossed her face. “Time travel. Just ask her about it.”

To be fair, Dart might have something of a point when it comes to the Princess. Good intentioned? Yes. Capable leader? Also yes. But she brings a good point. At first any attempts for her to come to us of her own accord would have probably not gotten anywhere. Maybe not to a padded cell, but at least into protective custody.

“Combat, Bridge. I’ve got trouble. The center thruster isn’t responding, and the port side is slowly spooling down. I think they got damaged by that blast.”

Constellation pushed me away from the comm panel. “Alright, what about the shields?”

“Nothing. I’m reading a power draw to the crystals, so they should be recharging, but my status screens for them are still showing zero activity.”

“Damnit…” Constellation muttered. “Alright just kill the power to them. They probably overloaded and shattered.”

“Not to interrupt, but we’ve got a problem.” Cosmo called from the station he was sitting at. “Mom, is there a way to plug this into those speakers?”

“I’m on-” Constellation didn’t finish her sentence before a screech came over the speakers in the control room.

“Prince Armor to all Equestrian Forces, I repeat this is a general withdrawal order. All forces south of the White Tail – Everfree – Baltimare line are to retreat north to established defensive positions as quickly as possible. Civilian evacuations are to be defended at all costs.”

“Cosmo, is that message live?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No, it’s a recording. From the time stamp it’s been running since we showed up at the estate but it was being jammed locally so we didn’t hear it. Now that were at distance from whatever that jammer was, I was able to pick it up.”

“Conny, does this bucket have long range scanning?”

“It does, but it wasn’t a priority to power up for an emergency takeoff. We’ve got short distance covering a ten mile radius from the ship.”

“Then get the long range up and running.” I ordered. “Cosmo, try and reach anypony that’s on live comms. I need to know the situation.”

Constellation tapped my shoulder. “I’ve got the scanners up.” She said, pointing at the screen as it turned into a map of the southern part of Equestria. “The blue points represent Equestrian IFF tags, red is assumed to be Griffon.” She explained. “There’s only one group of Equestrian IFF tags showing up south of that line Armor designated.”

“Appeloosa…” I muttered. The observation wasn’t good. “They’re being encircled. But how’d the Griffons get that far north without us getting the word? I was still in route to the estate when Armor’s message started.”

“Does it really matter right now?” Constellation asked. “It seems to me that the Griffons are about to lay siege to the major settlement in Southern Equestria, and you can see the map just as well as I can. There’s only one group in range that can help those ponies.”

“You mean us.” I replied.

“Damn right. We’ve got the firepower on board. At the very least we can keep the Griffons from closing up their lines and give the ponies down there a window to get away. Right now we’re probably their only hope.” Constellation said, a grim expression plastered across her face. “Even with damaged thrusters, we can be in missile range in twenty minutes. Bayonet range in forty five.”

It took me all of a few moments to weigh Constellation’s words. At this point our objectives and plans had been thrown in the trash, and as much as we needed to play keep-away with Dawn, we couldn’t ignore everything else. “Start putting the Marines to work. We don’t have much time to get ready.”

Constellation nodded. “I’ll start rallying the troops. Combat is yours General.”

Author's Note

Well we're onto Chapter 3, and a tidbit of what Dawn has been up to in that year of nopony knowing she existed. It involved some explosions, which definitely would've pissed off the Griffons, and burning all of the money of a Griffon crime boss. That would've pissed off De Witt significantly. You want a feel for the reaction? Go on Youtube and look up the scene from The Untouchables where Capone rants on wanting people dead for stealing from him. In reality torching De Witt's riches was the first thing Dawn did, so from there on she would've had a target on her back. Strategically a sound move when dealing with a crime syndicate, but tactically and realistically a very dumb thing to start out with.

Oh, and Archer's in the fold. So there's that.