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.