Greene
She'd arrived too soon.
It wasn't really a big surprise. Rarity and Fluttershy were still deep in their spa visit, if the lack of voices coming from deep within the building were anything to go by, but she'd still arrived too soon. That was fine. She took up the space she had formerly, and waited. There were slightly more equines going about now, and she saw them using currency with each other, trading flat pieces of flexible metal for things that were actually useful and that made her frown in disgust. Still, that wasn't enough to kill kill kill the good mood she was in after visiting Applejack's family. She smiled. Yes, she was in a good mood.
Her good mood only rose when Fluttershy finally exited with her friend. She smiled and stepped towards them. They smelled of chemicals and rocks and water, which did nothing to dissuade her from approaching the pegasus. "Hello."
She smiled. "Hello Elizabeth. Were you, um, okay waiting for us out here? Nopony gave you trouble, did they? I mean, I like to think we've learned our lesson since Zecora, but - "
"Was fine," she said dismissively. "Raced Rainbow Dash to.... to... apple place."
"Oh my," Fluttershy said as Rarity looked at the two of them with a wry smile. "How did that go?"
Elizabeth growled, clenching her fists, making Fluttershy shake and back off. "Beat me. Don't know how, flew faster than I run."
"Rainbow is pretty fast," Fluttershy mused. She started, and looked over to Rarity. "Oh, Rarity, didn't you say you, um, wanted to take Elizabeth over by your store?"
She waved a forehoof. "Oh, I can wait for you two to catch up." She leaned her head next to Fluttershy's. "Please, don't stop on my account."
So Elizabeth didn't. "Like Applejack. Family, close. Very very nice. Met brother, met sister."
"Oh, dear," Fluttershy said. "Um, you met Applebloom? What did you think of her, i-if you don't mind me asking?"
"Child," she whispered airily, grin too large to be entirely Similar. "Darling, precious. Friends too. Want to meet."
Fluttershy and Rarity looked at each other, almost warily, as if they knew something she didn't. "Um, that's... great!" Rarity said nervously. "Speaking of meeting her friends, you should come over to my Boutique. It'd be fitting to talk about her friends there, if you truly want to meet the other crusaders."
Elizabeth looked at Fluttershy. "Go? Where will you?" She had to admit, she worried for Fluttershy. She lived very close to the Everfree Forest, and while it posed no almost no threat to Elizabeth, Fluttershy wasn't nearly as tough as her. Sure, she'd survived so long long long next to the trees, but any day her luck could run out.
"Oh, I'll be fine," Fluttershy said with a warm smile. "It turns out the otters caught a cold while I was... away, so I need to take care of them. You can stop by later if you want, but I don't think you'd like being around otters."
Otters. She felt like she remembered them. Furry, swimming, wet things. No, she would not-not-not like being around otters, and she voiced that sentiment. "Go with Rarity then. See later?" she asked, tilting her head.
For some reason, Fluttershy giggled at that. She tensed. Laughing at her laughing laughing! "I'll see you later, Elizabeth. I'm really sorry for, um, leaving you like this." She turned to Rarity, and what little confidence she'd had from speaking with Greene vaporized. "Um, thank you for, um, paying, Rarity. I-I really enjoyed it."
"No trouble at all, darling, you know it was my pleasure." She looked at Elizabeth again and tilted her head, smile diminishing ever so slightly. "Well, come along, dear. Fashion waits for nopony." Rarity turned and began trotting, Elizabeth following after her. As she did, though, she kept her head trained on Fluttershy.
The equine mouthed 'sorry', though why she could not possibly imagine. Elizabeth was left to ponder that curiosity as Rarity metaphorically dragged her through the streets of Ponyville - she could do so much better pointed in a direction and left to go in a straight line! - as equines looked on at them.
"Boutique purpose?" she asked.
"Glad you inquired!" Rarity dropped back until they were side to side. Elizabeth edged away, suit momentarily crawling with red and white because Rarity was close close close! "You see, my talent is in taking the mundane and making it fabulous!" She gestured to her mark, three diamonds arranged in a triangle. "I'm also quite skilled in finding gems, if I do say so myself. But regardless, my business is to design and create fashionable dresses for mares and suits for stallions. Other things too, such as scarves, or socks on rare occasions, but mostly dresses." She looked at Elizabeth. "I can tell you right now, that suit does not fit you at all. Especially not those tubes down your back, no no. Simply will not do!"
Elizabeth frowned. "Business. Let me guess. Give away clothes you make, given metal pieces in return."
"Metal... ah, you mean bits!" They walked over a bridge, below which ran a murmuring brook. Elizabeth thought she heard the bridge creak under her weight, and she readied to jump should it fail below them.
It didn't. They passed. "Well, that's the usual fare, of course. Though I must say, I have a strict first-one's-free policy." They continued for a while. "And I must say, you have the most exquisite accent I've ever heard."
"Oh?" They approached a new building. It was... strange. She really didn't understand the organization. She could see the point of a doorknob, though, as Rarity move-thoughted the door open. After all, the equines were certainly not the only species on this world. "Accent?" she asked, stepping in. There were strange things. The room was... rather smoothly colored, but her gaze was drawn to the faceless equines covered in various... various...
... dresses.
She zipped over to the nearest one, a dark brown and orange thing with various frills and even orange see-through rocks like Fiamma had eaten. They were patterned and shaped for equines, with saddles where their withers would be, flowing around their hind legs. But they were clearly dresses. She reached out a hand to touch the nearest...
"Ah ah!" Rarity interjected. "I'm afraid those are only displays. Not for sale, you see. I make the actual dresses based on consumer input, those are just examples. Well, of course, with the lineups they're usually similar but... oh apologies, I'm rambling." Rarity walked forward, and Elizabeth followed her, eventually coming to stairs. She turned her head around.
"But... dresses," she rasped, helplessly following the Laughter Element. She didn't didn't didn't understand why exactly she felt so attached to those articles of clothing when she had her suit and her suit had her, but she was attached.
"Now, before I get started on your measurements, I simply must fix you something to drink. I'd give you something to eat, but." Rarity laughed nervously, trotting into into into some room that smelled vaguely of the plants she was beginning to identify as equine-food. Which was to say, most of them. "I don't exactly have any meat. Sorry."
Elizabeth wasn't focused on the meat part. She had a virtually inexhaustible supply in the Everfree, didn't she? "No drink," she said urgently, shaking her head. "Not thirsty. Don't get thirsty. Dresses?"
"Ah, different body, I understand. In any case, dear, I shall get to your dress in just a moment. I myself do need something to drink after that soak I've just had. Until then, do feel free to look around, Elizabeth." As Rarity went to fix herself water, Greene did just that. What she spotted, however, quickly grabbed her attention. There, lying next to some kind of machine, which she guessed Rarity used for her, ugh, business, was a bundle of cloth, and inside of that bundle, a cat.
She approached the cat, watching the white bundle stretch and crack open sickly green eyes. It hissed at her. Elizabeth, responding based on knowledge she didn't know she had, gripped the cat by the scruff of its neck and lifted it to her eye level, bow and all. She smiled fondly at the feline. She remembered a cat. She remembered having a cat. Just barely, but she remembered. No color, no gender, no attitudes, but when she'd been a Similar she'd definitely owned a cat.
The cat hissed and clawed at her arm. It claws bounced right off her suit, making it shake once in surprise. Elizabeth narrowed her eyes, and tightened her grip on its neck. The cat meowed awkwardly, shifting about, and gagged as if coughing up a furball. Then Elizabeth snapped her hand open, dropping the cat back to its mountain of fabric. The cat glared at her. Elizabeth glared at the cat.
The cat blinked. Elizabeth did not.
The cat huffed, and laid back to its nap. She smelled someone nearby, and whipped around to see Rarity rolling her eyes, a glass of water water water held in her pale blue move-thought. "I see you've met Opalescence," she said. "She really only seems to like me, and by like I do mean tolerate."
Elizabeth huffed, looking at the cat as Rarity took a sip of water before setting it aside. Abruptly, she shivered, reminding herself of how cold it was. She sat, bringing her to Rarity's eye level, and let out a small mat of tendrils for her to sit on. The equine eyed them. "Um, right. So, as I was saying, I have a strict first-one's-free policy in this store, and I simply refuse to make an exception."
"What free?" she asked.
"Why, my wares of course!" Rarity edged close to Greene, making her pull back and shake. "Why, your current outfit just doesn't suit you at all! It's so gray, and plastic, and dreary," she said, trotting circles around her. Elizabeth's gaze narrowed, and Rarity shivered despite the fact that her coat was steadily matting in sweat. How dare she insult her suit! "You need something to compliment you. Exotic." She'd gone back around to her front, Elizabeth's eyes tracking her intently, never blinking. "Alien, with agile fingers, a fearsome predator." She reached her back, but continued to circle around. Elizabeth's body bristled with tendrils. Was the unicorn getting closer? "A being from beyond, come to Equestria. Gray simply does not suit you, dear!" Elizabeth scowled and idly played with the strap around her waist.
She was back infront, smiling, her eyes dazzled with... something. Greene didn't know, no more than she knew how to respond to Rarity's comments. "My suit," she rasped harshly. "Don't won't can't take off."
The equine tilted her head, curiosity filling her eyes. "Can't? What do you mean you can't remove your clothes?"
"Part of me," she said, standing back to her full height. "Mine, part of me." She warped red and white tendrils around her, from her head to her torso to her hands and feet, to prove the point. "Can't take off."
"Hmm, so it'll always be there." She tapped a hoof on her chin. "I believe I can work around that." She approached again. "Though you really should get somepony to redo your - " She reached out a forehoof and tapped Greene's head. She stiffened, breath hitching as a thousand roiling boiling seething emotions flooded her WHO DID THIS UNICORN THINK SHE WAS? She brought her hands together and slammed both palms into Rarity's ribs. She flew backwards and slammed into a wall, falling down with a groan. "... mane," she wheezed.
Elizabeth stayed on her, the web of tendrils expanding towards Rarity and pinning her to the floor. "Not Fluttershy!" she hissed. "Don't touch! Don't you dare!"
"Eugh..." Rarity groaned, her intake of air buzzing weakly for a few minutes while Greene's cautious angry gaze remained on her, just daring her to touch her again. She... she had no right! What was it with these equines and touching? The only one who she'd even remotely allow to touch touch touch was Fluttershy, not even Celestia or Luna. Eventually, Rarity managed a word. "S-Sorry."
"Should be," she hissed, the words bouncing through the air angrily. She relented and pulled her trapping warmth off Rarity and flicked her right hand, a shower of green sparks falling from her fingers and palm.
Rarity pulled herself to shaking hooves, coughing, and leaned against the wall. "I-I should apologize," she said at length. "It was unbecoming of me to touch you without warning, especially given your." A coughing fit. "Culture."
"Never again without permission," she hissed. "Might not remember to hold back. Kill."
She gulped. "R-Right then! You have my word I will not touch you without your express permission." She winced, and took several more minutes to recover from Greene's blow. "N-Now, as I was saying, I can work with this. Just... hmm." Rarity tilted her head, as if that gave her some new insight. "Yes," she murmured. "I have something! Oh, but before I go any further, I'll need to take your measurements." Rarity's horn lit up, and a drawer opened up, from which came... what was that? Rarity move-thoughted it closer to her, a pad of paper and a quill next to her, and then paused, biting her lip. "I do have to warn you, in order to take your measurements I have to press this against you. May I?"
Greene grimaced. "What for?" she asked hesitantly.
"Well, if I'm to make you any apparel, I need to know how large to make it, you understand?"
Elizabeth nodded slowly. "Think so. Go ahead." She stiffened. "Measure."
The item Rarity had levitated was soon revealed to her to be a measuring tape. She wrapped it around her arm, her neck, her waist, every part conceivable. She extended it horizontally, vertically, even diagonally, and each time Elizabeth hissed lightly and shook. In an effort to take her mind off the touching she thought back to her first meeting with Rarity, and remembered something.
"Sweetie is sister?" she asked.
"She is indeed," Rarity replied, scribbling some odd measurement or another on her paper. "She's not here at the moment, of course. I sometimes foalsit her for my parents, and then she stays here, but otherwise she stays with them. Why do you ask?"
She pondered this as Rarity took the width of her neck. "Sweetie friends with... Applebloom? Same age?"
Rarity sighed. "She is."
Elizabeth couldn't help but suppress a little giggle. "Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo. Friends. Applejack, promised her to foalsit them when needed." Rarity's face blanched. Why? This was great news! "Sibling to her. Things to know?" she asked excitedly.
"Oh dear, you volunteered to foalsit the crusaders?" She shook her head. "Err, right. While I can't exactly speak for her friends - hold your forelegs, err, arms out please, just like that, thank you - I can tell you this right now. Under no circumstances should you ever allow her to cook anything."
"Why?" she rasped.
Rarity's snout wrinkled. "It's not... just don't let her cook anything and you won't need to find out why."
Elizabeth was satisfied with that explanation.
As Rarity began measuring something about her back, she continued. "Though I really am surprised you volunteered to foalsit Sweetie and her friends. After all, you take care of one you take care of all three." She looked left. She looked right. "And they do have the reputation as troublemakers," she said with a whisper.
"Can't be more trouble than already seen," she said simply. "Children," she stressed.
"Mmhmm," the unicorn said knowingly. "Well, I suppose we'll just see what the damage is when it's done." Another scribble on her pad. "I'll have to ask Applejack why exactly she thinks you're qualified, but that's neither here nor there. Ah, thank you. That's all I needed." Elizabeth leaped back, almost toppling over a table filled with cloths of all shapes and colors.
"Dress when?"
"A few days, dear. I do have my autumn line to make as well, in addition to preparing for the winter season. Hmm... swing by sometime next week. Or, if inspiration decides to strike, I'll come find you when it's ready. How does that sound?"
A week. That was nothing. She began heading back downstairs to leave and go to Fluttershy when Rarity stopped her with yet another question.
"Hold on, if you please." She snapped her head around, fingers flexing like claws bad bad bad image head bad memory bad stop stop stop!
"I trust you've noticed your voice echoes, hmm?"
"Always," she said, said echoes bouncing around the room long after her lips stopped moving.
"Yes, well, I'm curious. You have a lovely accent, but your repeats somewhat distort it. Is it... possible for you to speak without the echoes?" Rarity stopped to rub at where Greene had defended herself. "I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to, but I'm simply curious.
Greene frowned. She opened her mouth, clenching and unclenching her throat muscles. "Never... tried," she said haltingly, her echoes held back in her throat. "Is... difficult. Not... worth... effort." She stopped, and rubbed her throat. "Hurts," she said, the word repeating several times.
"Then I shan't ask you to do so!" Rarity said, and then shivered. "What an accent, though. Hmm, it almost reminds me of a minotaur's accent, but it's even more clipped. Now go, go! I must get to work while the idea is fresh in my mind! Something to incorporate your tendrils, perhaps. Could you be so kind as to see yourself out, Elizabeth?"
She tilted her head as the unicorn began to scribble rapidly. "See myself out? Don't understand."
"Um, right. Would you be so kind as to leave the premises of my home? I must minimize distractions. Oh, don't take it as me kicking you out, no no no. It's just, I need to strike the iron now, while it's hot."
"Understand." Elizabeth looked at the window and briefly briefly briefly considered jumping out of it. However, she doubted it would be considered nice to break an equine's Home, and they had been so kind to her! Especially the alicorns, and especially Fluttershy. So she fled down the stairs and out the unicorn's Home, pondering where she would go next. Fluttershy would still be treating some disease for the otters - good good good, it was a terrible thing to be sick for however short a time - so she had time before she could not interrupt her.
Elizabeth Greene's eyes wandered towards the Everfree Forest, and her dry tongue licked her lips.
***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-***
Twilight Sparkle
The previous day had come and gone, and still Twilight was no closer to having a definitive answer as to just how dangerous Elizabeth Greene was. What little information she could scrounge up on Nosokinetics was very limited; ways to test for cures and disease strains primarily. Not unsurprisingly, the library didn't have any information on plague-causing magic, so she'd need a trip to Canterlot in order to find more information about the alien's possible powers.
Of course, it didn't help that the alien in question trusted her about as much as she trusted Pinkie Pie's hoof-made hot sauce. Or that she didn't even seem to be aware she was viral.
"You look like you're panicking," Pinkie Pie observed from where she hid underneath a table.
Popping her head from behind a couch, Twilight locked eyes with Pinkie, using what little light got through the closed blinds to find the pink mare's - gray in the dark - eyes. "I'm not panicking," she insisted. "I'm past that now. I'm just worried I can't learn enough about Greene before she, accidentally or purposefully, uses some dangerous aspect of her powers."
"Oh that's silly!" she said. "I mean, you said how jumpy she is, but she didn't jump at all when she met me and usually ponies jump when they first meet me!" Pinkie cocked her head. "Twilight, why do ponies usually jump when they first meet me?"
"You get right in their faces," she said dryly. "All the same, Pinkie, thanks for keeping this party to just the seven of us."
"No problamo! Don't wanna scare her too bad!"
"If ya'll are done chatting," Applejack interrupted from somewhere else in the library. "Keep in mind that she's got very good ears! Hush up!"
"Sorry," the two of them hissed.
Twilight focused her eyes and blinked again, but that did little to help her vision. Today, on Elizabeth Greene's second full day in Ponyville, she hoped she could maybe get some more information out of her. From what she'd discussed with the girls, she was very friendly with Applejack and Rarity, confused by Pinkie Pie (No surprise there), and had a competitive streak with Rainbow. As for Fluttershy... she was really attached to Fluttershy, and had spent the entirety of yesterday afternoon and the whole of today with her. The welcome party was a perfect excuse to get some more information out of her; if Elizabeth wasn't willing to answer her questions, maybe she'd answer the girls'.
... not that that was the sole reason for the party. No.
"Hey girls?" Pinkie half-whispered after a few minutes of waiting.
"Yeah?" Rainbow asked.
"Do you... do you think Elizabeth will like it?"
"Of course!" Rainbow said. "Who doesn't like one of your parties?" the pegasus asked from where she'd perched on top of a bookshelf... somewhere.
Pinkie's hooves shuffled. "Well, it's just... I really really really want this to go well. I've never thrown a party for an alien, and... my non-pony-parties don't exactly have a good record."
"What ever do you mean?" Rarity asked from next to Twilight. Between them, Spike shuffled.
"I was too afraid of Zecora to properly welcome her," Pinkie said, sounding genuinely distraught. "And don't even get me started about that meanie-pants Gilda! I really, really, really hope Lizzy likes this party - "
"Hush ya'll! I think they're coming!"
They all fell mum, but for all Twilight knew Greene could hear even their heartbeats. She heard her speaking with Fluttershy, her shredded voice piercing through walls and distance as if they were immaterial.
"Why Library? Twilight's there." Said Twilight's ears flattened. What had she done to deserve that? She was a good pony, wasn't she?
'Um, well, I need to check out a book there." They were close now. "Sorry," Fluttershy squeaked, barely audible. The door creaked open, letting in a flood of light. Elizabeth had to lean to fit inside the door, her black silhouette contrasting sharply with Fluttershy's.
They stepped in, the door creaking as somepony, probably Fluttershy, shut it. "Banner? Why - "
Applejack flipped the lights on. They all leaped from their hiding spots. "SUR - "
"Ah!" Elizabeth was there, and then she wasn't. Just a startled pegasus with wood falling on her from a hole in the ceiling.
"- prise?" the six of them trailed off. The six ponies and one dragon clustered around the hole in the ceiling, looking up into Twilight's bedroom. There, with her back to the ground, fingers and feet lightly touching the second ceiling, was Elizabeth Greene, a small splatter of red and white tendrils around where she touched the tree.
"Ha! I don't think I've ever surprised somepony like that before!"
"Um, Elizabeth?" Fluttershy began.
"Yes?" she hissed, not looking back down.
"Y-You can come down now."
"Scared me."
"Sorry!" Pinkie chirped. "But I did warn you you were gonna get a kinda-surprise party! Come on down, let's get started!"
"My house," Twilight grumbled. "My bedroom!"
Slowly, Elizabeth turned her head to look down at them. Even from so far away, Twilight could see that her pupils had contracted in fear, but her irises remained the same. She had to write that down when she had a moment.
"Party?" Elizabeth asked, still clinging by the mesh to the ceiling.
"Yeppers!" Pinkie replied back. "Come on down! It's just the seven of us, so you don't need to worry about crowds!"
"Party," she repeated again. "Told me. Own fault for not being prepared." The mesh of tendrils shrunk until they vanished... into Greene perhaps? The moment they were gone they all took a step back, forming a ring around the empty spot of library that Elizabeth fell onto with a strangely heavy thud. She looked around at the assembled ponies, before her gaze settled on Spike.
Spike raised a claw and waved it. "Uh, hi," he said.
"What... dragon... small," Elizabeth stammered.
"Yeah," Spike said indignantly, placing his hands on his hips. "Make fun of the baby dragon."
Greene stiffened, her eyes widening. "Baby dragon? Child?" Internally, Twilight groaned. Great, how have we offended her now?
Spike nodded. "Yeah, sure."
Elizabeth's neutral face was split by a smile, and she lunged.
***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-***
After pulling Elizabeth off of a very panicked Spike, they finally got the party underway. True to Pinkie's expert knowledge, there was a separate table of snacks for Elizabeth to eat. Meaty ones. Twilight hadn't any idea where Pinkie managed to secure that amount of meat, but she really didn't want to know. She got that some other species needed to eat that, she really did. Didn't stop her from feeling queasy and joining in to talk with Applejack over by what one half of her brain was calling the 'herbivore table' and the other half the 'sweets table'.
"Twilight," the farmer said. "I know ya'll are very curious about Elizabeth, but if she wants to talk about it she'll talk about it!"
"It's not if she wants to talk about it," she said. "It's that she may not think something's a big deal when it is!"
"Well, then why don't you just go over to her and ask?"
Twilight nodded. "You're right. Better to just get this over with."
"I might just join ya, ya know. Get to know her a bit better if she's gonna be foalsittin' Applebloom."
Twilight groaned. "I feel bad for her."
"For who?" Applejack asked threateningly, leaning closer to Twilight.
"Err..." Oh for Celestia's sake, was that ever a loaded question! "Um..."
Suddenly the orange pony grinned. "I'm just yankin' your tail, Twi. Come on, let's chat with her."
"Right." The two trotted over to Elizabeth, who had just scarfed down... the last of the food Pinkie had out for her. Which was actually quite horrifying, considering the entire table had been devoted to just that. The Evolved stood next to Fluttershy, smiling and talking about, from what Twilight could gather, how helpful Elizabeth was with the animals, and why Elizabeth felt she wasn't.
"Hello, Elizabeth," Twilight greeted.
The alien's gaze settled on her, making her flinch. "Twilight Sparkle. More questions?"
"We," Applejack interjected, Elizabeth's lips turning up slightly as she did. " - just wanted to talk to ya. Get to know ya a little better."
The Evolved relaxed. "Makes sense." She sat on the floor, bringing her to eye level with them. A small web of tendrils emerged underneath her, but went no further. "Que... questions?"
The rest of the girls joined them, sitting on their plots in a circle with Elizabeth at the apex. Spike also joined, careful to be as far from Elizabeth as possible, whereas Fluttershy was right next to her. They gathered beneath the banner, which read 'WELCOME TO PONYVILLE EQUESTRIA EQUUS ELIZABETH GREENE', with her last name painted in brilliant, well, green.
Everypony stared intently at Elizabeth, before Twilight opened her mouth. "Well, lets start at the beginning. What was it like, growing up in your world?"
"Don't remember," she rasped.
"What do you mean you don't remember?" Rainbow asked.
"Don't remember," she repeated. "Time as similar... mostly forgotten." She held a hand to her chest. "Good to not remember."
"Why is that a good thing?" Twilight asked. "I mean, you'd think that remembering more of your life is good, because then your effective lifespan is greater."
Greene appeared to be the only one who understood that, and she just shook her head. "No no no. Saw other similars. Not good life. Good to not remember."
Twilight frowned, filing this away in her memory. Humans either lived generally miserable lives, or Elizabeth saw them, by comparison to her Evolved life, to be miserable. "What do you remember of your time as a human?" Spike handed her a sheet of paper and a pencil. She mouth a thank you and began transcribing Elizabeth's answer word per word. Deeper analysis could come later.
Elizabeth tilted her head back and winced. "Remember... falling autumn leaves. Falling shards of orange glass. Learning to roll and dive. Had a cat, but don't remember what they were like." She grimaced and closed her eyes, as if the process of remembering was painful. "Was... an argument. Don't know with who. Rain falling outside a window." She snapped her eyes open and looked at Twilight. "Steve. There was definitely someone named Steve."
"O-Oh," Fluttershy whispered, looking at her alien friend. "That's really all you remember?"
She nodded. "Impressions sometimes. Octavia concert, felt like I recognized music style. Don't remember, but recognized. Most memories gone." She shook her head. "Remember after that well."
"Ooh! Ooh! Me next!" shouted Pinkie Pie, raising her hoof. "So, what was your who-o-ole life like? I mean, what's your life story? Mine's - "
Rainbow plugged Pinkie's mouth with a hoof before she could go off on a tangent. "I don't think she's interested in our life story right now, but you do have a point. What's up with you?" she asked.
Elizabeth tilted her head. "Where to start start start..." she mused.
"Maybe, um, before the cold dark place?" Fluttershy mentioned. "If that's alright with you, of course?"
She nodded vigorously. "Yes yes yes, good idea, good. Start at beginning, yes yes." Elizabeth looked at Fluttershy, expression softening. "Deserve to know. First home was hope."
"So," Twilight began. "What was the name of this place?"
Elizabeth looked at her, expression maybe annoyed. "Hope. First home called Hope. Small town, few hundred similars. First real real real memory. Graveyard. Similar child grave."
They all gasped. A dead child? Twilight looked at Spike, unbidden mental images threatening to overwhelm her. Elizabeth continued. "Got idea from there. Family. Raise them." She smiled. "And I did. I raised my blessed family, but then... but then..." she shivered. "They came. Fought my children, burned them broke them shattered them. Found me. Found me, I was weak from new child. From giving birth to my holy child." That stirred something in her. Attacking a mare while she was in the process of bringing a new life into the world - !
"They attacked you while you were giving birth?!" Rainbow shouted. "Alright, where's your home world? Let me at 'em!"
"Rainbow, calm down," Rarity said, eyes wide. "We can't get there. Let Elizabeth explain."
The pegasus pouted, crossing her forehooves. "Fine. But if I see one of them, I'm bucking them cross country."
"Alright, alright, we all agree that what the humans did to Elizabeth was shameless. What happened after?"
"A lot of nothing," she said, looking down. Suddenly, waves of misery and sorrow crashed down on Twilight, her pencil momentarily stopping in its movements within her magic. "Holy child and I were only ones left of my family. Separated us. Never... never saw him heard him felt him again. Don't know fate. Put me in... somewhere. A cold dark place. Chemicals to weaken. Took my blood, so much blood, too much blood."
Twilight's lips cracked. "H-How long?"
She shrugged. "Don't know. Pretended to not think. Make them relax around me, talk of world beyond. Learn that way, learn that way." She shrugged again. "Thirty years? Fifty? Forty? Don't know. Time for waiting lasted long time."
"Hold up now!" Applejack interrupted. "Ya'll pretended ya were stupid? What for?"
"Trick them," Elizabeth said simply. "Make them reveal information. Knew they couldn't hold me forever, all I had to do was wait, and learn, so that when I was free I could raise a new family without failing." Greene grimaced as she finished that sentence.
"Don't seem too honest to me," Applejack grumbled.
"Honest and die," she rasped, then smiled. "Not here. Honesty doesn't kill, not here."
"Darn right it doesn't."
"So, um, Elizabeth, what happened? You're not in the cold dark, um, place anymore, so how did you get out?"
She sighed. "Similars took my blood. So many times. So many. One time, took my blessing from it and... and..." She shivered. "Changed it. Twisted it. Made my blessing a curse and kept it sealed." Twilight's pencil scribbled on. So the humans had taken a sample of Elizabeth's virus and mutated it? Without magic? How was that even possible? What sort of technology did they have?
She continued. "The one who twisted it took the curse. He was... mad. Watched him through my connection with the cursed blessing. Saw... a huge city. Towers of metal, dozens hundreds of towers, as tall as Canterlot's mountain. Millions of similars. Giant birds of metal flying overhead. Mad similar took the vial to a building, and... they found him. They killed him, but not before he could release the curse."
Again, Elizabeth's descriptions were beyond Twilight's ability to imagine. The city she described didn't make any sense. She imagined several Mount Canterlot's arranged in a row and covered in steel. She pictured a gray Philomena screeching from atop one of them. None of them were likely even close to the real thing.
"Not entirely sure what happened. Lost connection to the cursed blessing. But... I do know what it did. Felt it bloom in strength. It killed thousands." All seven of them gasped. "In under ten minutes." There was a feminine shriek as Rarity collapsed, but her couch was nowhere to be found, so she ended up in Pinkie's lap.
Rainbow was the first to find her voice again. "T-Thousands of people? In ten minutes? Alicorns damn it, what kind of thing does that?"
"Blessing works in days," she said, which was helpful for Twilight to know. "Curse works in seconds. Powerful curse. Was my chance."
"Y-Your chance?" Fluttershy asked.
"Similars panicked. Forgot to weaken me. Time came, made my prison temporary home. Almost time. And then." Her head fell. "He came."
"Who?" Twilight asked.
"My wayward child. First time I saw him, thought he was the mad similar. So I attacked him. But the moment I touched him I knew. The curse became alive after it was released. It was confused and hurt and had no memory and ever since I touched him I could feel him and hear him. He was so... afraid. He didn't understand." She choked down a... sob? "I should have stayed. I should have helped him, asked him to forgive me."
Fluttershy moved towards her and placed a hoof in her lap. Greene tensed, but that was all. "Elizabeth, you made a mistake. Everypony makes them."
"Not like I did. Instead of helping him, I escaped. Began to raise my family, but... I don't know. I think the similars moved me during the time for waiting. The city was on an island. Similar army surrounded it, couldn't get off the bridges. Surrounding water not not not an option." She shivered, and that prompted herself and her fellow Elements to also shiver. "Repeated. Similar army attacked my children." She looked up, her eyes meeting Twilight's. They were hard, they were angry and determined. "I was ready. Taught my children to fight. Fight back, defend themselves. Island had more resources than first Home. Larger family, numbered in hundreds of thousands."
"Whoa!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Like, thousands of children? How did you keep track of them all?"
"Could hear them, feel them. Watch through eyes, listen through ears, and they listened to me because they were such good children, so obedient. Love them all."
"All of them?" Pinkie asked, leaning in.
"Yes."
"One moment," Twilight said, scribbling in a side note to her verbatim recording of Elizabeth's life story. "So you're saying you had a sort of hive mind with your family?"
She tilted her head to the side. "Don't know what a hive mind is."
"It's a telepathic connection," she explained. "But it's much deeper than the Listen-Across-Streets spell or the My-Eyes-Your-Eyes. You can actually send orders and manipulate thoughts through it, usually with a central figure that controls the others."
Elizabeth shook her head. "No no no. Almost, not quite. No control. Asked them, they heard, listened, obeyed." She frowned. "Except one."
"Who?" Spike asked.
"My wayward child. Cursed. Could hear him, but... he couldn't hear me. Couldn't comfort him. And... oh. Such a bad impression. Struck him, then hurt him without knowing, then left him, and then... children attacked him. Forgot to tell them off, forgot to tell them he was family. Made him decide. He wanted to... to wipe out my family."
"Oh no..." Twilight said. She couldn't imagine what that would be like for her parents. If she or Shiny tried to kill the other, because their parents forgot to tell them something important, and then couldn't fix it. "But, you clearly remembered later. Couldn't you tell your other children not to attack him?" Truth be told, she was still trying to connect in her mind Elizabeth Greene, unstable alien who hated physical contact, with Elizabeth Greene, loving mother of thousands of other Evolved, who apparently reproduced like parasprites.
"Did!" she hissed, repeats momentarily growing frenzied. "But my wayward child couldn't hear! He kept attacking them, and what were they going to do? Let him butcher them?"
"Whoa whoa whoa," Applejack said. "Hold up one moment. You said you attacked your 'wayward child' because you thought he was one of them humans. But how could ya'll have confused them together? Especially if ya love him as much as you claim ta."
"Blessing gives me powers beyond what similars had." The web of red and white tendrils pulsed underneath the alien, and emerald static flickered between her fingers. "Curse gave him powers. Even more so. I'm blessed, but he's not just cursed. He is the curse. Didn't know that, no no no, didn't know that, but still allowed him to do things. Watch."
As she said that, the web of tendrils moved. A strand of it extended into the middle of their little circle, and then began to rise. More and more tendrils piled on top of others, until Twilight could see that they were forming a sculpture. A little fetlock-high sculpture of something that vaguely looked like Elizabeth.
"That was the mad similar. Wore different clothes that day." The figure was bulkier than Elizabeth. It didn't have breasts, but it had very wide shoulders, and had a hood over its head to conceal features Greene couldn't shape with just the mesh. Twilight realized much of the figure's bulk came from poorly-reconstructed layers of clothing. Its stance was cocky and arrogant, head back and arms not out to the side, but hovering just above its sides. It looked like it'd been taking lessons from Iron Will.
"That's the mad similar. Also my wayward child. Curse made him a shifter. Change form."
"A shapeshifter," Twilight breathed. As she watched, the figure melted back into the mesh, which changed to form the silhouette of a human arm, hand included with the five fingers spread out.
"Learned to disguise as similars. Didn't know mad similar form was a disguise, not for a long time. Never saw himself in true form. Identity crisis."
"Kinda like a changeling," Fluttershy whispered to herself.
"Read about them," Elizabeth rasped. "Some things equal, others not. Couldn't disguise as those living. Had to curse other similars to be able to shift into them."
"Curse them? What do you mean?" Spike asked.
Greene shivered. "Always hungry, he was always hungry. Carnivore like me, but... he could only eat meals alive." The wayward child figurine formed again, but there was another human facing him. Twilight couldn't identify them, but got the impression who the second figure was wasn't important.
"Filled similars with his curse, melted, drew in." As she spoke, the mesh changed. Elizabeth closed her eyes, focusing hard. From her wayward child, a pair of tentacles emerged from his back. They twisted through the air and touched the other human. Then the tendrils began to move back in to their source, but the human came with them. When the human touched Elizabeth's son, they seamlessly melded with them, until there was once again just the one figure, melting back into a web of red and white.
They were all stock silent, until Rainbow spoke up. "I think I'm going to be sick," she groaned, dashing off to the restroom.
"Right behind ya!" Applejack said before galloping after the pegasus.
Fluttershy was next to regain control of her vocal cords. "T-That's... that's horrible! He ate people alive!"
"Cursed life," Elizabeth murmured. "Did more than feed him. Healed him, more fuel for regeneration. Yes, healed like me. Flesh is fuel for healing. Also gave him their forms, and... all their memories. Saw what victims saw, knew what victims knew." She shook her head, and the mesh reformed into the image of a human arm. "Changelings can only disguise, but can disguise better than he could. However, he could make... weapons." The human arm changed. The fingers lengthened, one vanishing, and turned to sickle claws. Spikes and loops grew off the length of the arm. It changed again, the claws merging to form a lumpy sphere in place of a hand. Elizabeth then drew the mesh back into the mass she sat on. "Made weapons. Used weapons to fight my children." She shivered, then smiled.
"Good news, though. Not just me and mine. Fought similar army, too. Good thing. Would've lost quick otherwise. So quick."
"What was his name? What happened to him?" Pinkie breathed, the little display of 'cursing' rendering even her quiet.
She scowled. "Similars gave him names. Plural. Too many names for everything. Gave him the name of a god, Zeus. Gave him the name of the mad one. Alex Mercer." When Elizabeth said that name, it was like the temperature dropped by twenty degrees. Twilight's fur stood on end as the light in the library seemed to briefly dim.
"Lots of things happened to him," she rasped. "More than to me, as I raised my family and found a second Home, safe from their unnatural fire. Helped by two similars. Second betrayed him to similar army. Eugh." She shivered. "They poisoned him. Made an awful poison and gave it to him. Almost killed him, almost killed him. Another similar saved him. First similar... mad one's sister. Thought my child was him."
Hatred flooded Twilight's veins. "Pretender!" Greene hissed. "Pretender! Not his family, no right to him! None! My son, mine! Encouraged to fight my children, to butcher them and devour them! How dare she!" She looked at them, as if daring them to say otherwise. "Took her. Didn't want her to poison his mind anymore, even though I hated him for what he did - "
"I thought you loved him," Twilight said, pencil moving almost on its own.
"I do. But oh I hate him, because he slaughtered his sisters and brothers and called it justice, devoured them and called it good, but how can I hate him when he never had a chance, when the similars cursed him to be like that? Will admit, took the pretender partly for revenge."
"It's never good to hate somepony you love, though," Fluttershy said quietly. "Especially not family."
"You weren't there! You didn't see what he did! The way he hunted us down. The way he silently slaughtered." Elizabeth's expression went dazed. She lifted a hand to ghost along the left side of her neck. "The way he hurt me. It would be hard not to hate him, after his used the awful poison on me when he came to find the pretender."
"He thought she was his sister," Spike said. "I know I'd... I mean, I don't know what I'd do if somepony foalknapped Twilight!"
"Not a foal," she grumbled.
"Doesn't matter. But... awful poison was made to destroy his curse. Hurt me, hurt my blessing, but made me give birth to my strange child."
"Strange child?" Spike asked.
"Strange child," she echoed in more ways than one. "Defended me when I ran away, to heal, weak. Strange child was cursed like him, couldn't hear me, but still listened. Still listened. Feared me, oh I don't want him to fear fear fear me." She shook her head. "Wayward child escaped with pretender. Strange child almost died, but healed. Escaped, made new Home, last one was broken by their fight."
She frowned. "Similars made poison for me and my children. Red fog. Bad air. Burned to touch, burned and dissolved." She beat a fist into the ground, cracking the wooden floor. "My son... that's when I really began to hate him. Stopped forgiving him. He stopped fighting the similar army and helped them. Brought the bad air to my home and pumped it in."
At that moment, Rainbow and Applejack returned, looking noticeably more green in the face. They didn't say anything as Elizabeth went on. "It hurt, it hurt. Similars wanted to make me leave home. Wayward child wanted it to make me face him." She growled. "Plan, make so many plans, ever so smart. Some children blocked off tunnels. Slowed spread of bad air, but couldn't stop it. Others... others came to me. Gave me their power, gave me their strength. Still others went to surface, fight them, buy time."
"Why didn't you just run?" Applejack asked.
"Yeah, I'm all for not running from a fight, but it's just stupid to go looking one," Rainbow interjected.
"Run where?" Greene challenged. "On an island. Find me again. Couldn't sit aside longer. Couldn't let wayward child butcher my my my children. Had to stop him. Only one way to stop him. Children gave me enough time to grow stronger, and when I couldn't hold any more strength I emerged from home and fought my wayward child."
"That must've been so hard on you," Fluttershy said. "Fighting somepony you love like that."
She nodded. "Hard in more ways than one. Hated him for what he did, but loved him because he's my son and he had no say in what he wanted to do to me. But also..." She gulped. "More powerful than him. Kicked him away, screamed at him, blasted him with electricity. Children punched him, slowed him, fought off similar army that came to help wayward child. Focused all my power on him."
"Oh, wow," Twilight said. "I can just imagine." Not really, she couldn't even begin to imagine.
Elizabeth fiddled with her fingers, then with the straps on her right hand. "Almost got him. Several times, I almost won. But each time, he slipped away, cursed one of my children or a similar to heal, and then came back. I could almost kill him, but never quite."
"Why would you try to kill him?!" Rainbow shouted. "That makes you as bad as him!"
"Only way to stop him!" she shouted in return. "Couldn't hold down, couldn't talk down, only way to stop him is to kill him! Too powerful for anything else to work!" As quick as it had come, her fury dissipated. "Didn't matter. Slashed me, whipped me. Smashed me, clawed me. Summoned a forest of spikes, stole similar weapons to use against me, blasted me with a river of his curse. Cut my legs off, then tore me away from my defenses. And then... never forgive what he did."
They were watching with baited breath, hanging on her every word. "What?" Pinkie asked. "What did he do? I mean, everything can be forgiven if you really really want to!"
"Grabbed me. Beat me, threw me down." She shivered, taking a deep breath.
"Elizabeth," Fluttershy said, placing a hoof on Elizabeth's back. "If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to."
"Cursed me. He killed me."
Utter silence.
"But... strange. Curse doesn't give a good death. Wasn't dead, but wasn't alive. Not... not in between. Outside those two. Horrible prison. No time, no space. No something, no nothing. No chaos, no order, no vision, no blindness, no movement, no stillness. Don't know how long. Then... got better. Came here somehow, won't complain." She shrugged. "You know rest."
Twilight's pencil clattered to the floor.
Elizabeth Greene... had died. And that meant she had come back to life. Necromancy was supposed to be an impossible field of magic, and yet here was living proof that it could be done. But, Elizabeth said she hadn't been strictly dead. Or was that just poetic speech for the afterlife given by Alex Mercer's curse? Or was it literal? Twilight didn't know. She could review her notes later for a proper introspective analysis later, when she wasn't so shell-shocked by the story.
"Answers life story question?" Greene asked.
"Y-Yep. Well," Pinkie said weakly. "Enough mopey-wopeyness. W-Who wants to play Twister?"
But Twilight could only stare. Died and come back to life.
