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!