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.