Greene Fields under Red Lights

by Europa

A Dream of Armageddon

Today was the day.

Today, she'd get the last pieces of equine essence she needed. It would all all all be uphill from there. Of course, she still had a few hurdles to go through for it. Most glaring of which was that she'd have to spend the entire day with Rainbow Dash of all equines. At least Pinkie Pie would stay behind.

Fluttershy had already finished breakfast by the time she woke up, so there was little delay for her to go meet Rainbow Dash. She got the ticket, and went towards the earth pony nest. However, she could not find find find where the pegasus was. She didn't wait for Fluttershy, because she was going to go to Cloudsdale and she wanted to go there now! She bounded into Ponyville and set about looking for the rainbow equine, barreling down streets and over roofs.

"Elizabeth!" said the equine she nearly bowled over in her search through Ponyville.

She froze, looking down at the unicorn huddled beneath her, braced for an impact that never came. "Twilight Sparkle," she said softly, a tinge of wariness in her voice. She stepped back, eager to put some distance distance distance between her and the equine. "Where's Rainbow Dash? Cloudsdale today."

"Oh, Rainbow? She's usually still asleep this time of day. Have you tried her house?"

"Can't find," she said simply. Wasn't it obvious? "Where's Rainbow Dash? Cloudsdale today," she repeated.

"Uh huh," Twilight Sparkle said warily, shuffling her saddlebags for some bizarre reason. "Actually, I was just going to find her myself regarding that. You see, um, Elizabeth? How much do you know about Cloudsdale?"

"Pegasus nest," she said simply. "Mainly pegasi. Far."

"That's what I was afraid of," Twilight Sparkle said, a worried frown on her face. Why was she worried? Greene could take care of herself! "Could've sworn I told you... you see, Cloudsdale is just what it sounds like, it's made of clouds. Pegasi have their natural magic to let them walk on clouds, but anypony or anyevolved else will just fall right through." Elizabeth frowned. Fall... through? She didn't understand.

Twilight Sparkle apparently sensed this, and sighed. "Cloudsdale is really high up. And you don't have any magic, let alone pegasus magic, so you'll just fall right through." Elizabeth's frowned deepened. So... she couldn't go to Cloudsdale? A spark of anger lit up inside of her. Rainbow Dash was trying to trick her! She was -

"However," Twilight Sparkle continued. "There are spells to replicate the effect temporarily. I know a cloud-walking spell that should be good for a few hours, so I was hoping I could come with you, cast the spell once you arrive - " Greene's eyes narrowed. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. Bad bad bad. The unicorn clearly noticed her expression. "I won't be staying with you, if that's what you're worried about!" she backpedaled hastily. "Just going there with you, casting the cloudwalking spell, then going back."

Elizabeth sighed. She really didn't want to rely on the scientist equine to let her gather essence. "Rarity do it?" she asked.

She shook her head. "Rarity doesn't know the spell as well as I do. I tried to teach her, but she can't keep it up for more than a few minutes."

Elizabeth growled. "Fine. Fine. Come with, cloudwalk, then go. Where's Rainbow Dash?"

"Right this way," she said, turning towards a seemingly random direction. Elizabeth easily kept pace with her. After a while, the equine next to her said, "It should be right... ah, here!" They stopped, and Elizabeth looked left, right, and then up. Sure enough, there was a large cloud, shaped like a home, with more rainbows pouring out of it. How hadn't she seen it?

"Rainbow!" she shouted up at it. Elizabeth could hear inside the sound of breaking, moving, and muffled shouts.

A moment later, the pegasus tumbled out of her cloud house and descended to them. "I'm up!" she said indignantly. "I'm up!" She looked at Greene. "So, Cloudsdale, right?"

"Yes," she said simply. "How to get there?"

"Well, I was thinking we could take Twi's balloon," she explained. "No offense, but I don't think I can carry you." Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously. Good for her to be nervous. "Don't think you'd be up for that anyway. So, we should probably go find it so she can give you a lift."

She scowled. "Keep finding? Not leaving now?"

"Well, unless you want me to carry you..." Rainbow Dash trailed off.

"Rainbow," Twilight Sparkle hissed. "Don't taunt her."

"Alright, alright, sorry. But yeah, we're gonna need - "

" - a way up!" shouted Pinkie Pie coming out of nowhere where had she come from?! "I already got my balloon cause I knew you'd be going today and you were pretty set on going to the Wonderbolts concert so I knew you'd be up early so I woke up early and got my hot air balloon and found you so whenever you want to head for Cloudsdale I can take you ri-i-ight up!" Pinkie Pie paused mid run-on-sentence and frowned. "That is, if you're okay with me operating it?"

She scowled. She did not want to be in this balloon-whatever-it-was with these three. They were up to something. But... if it even gave her a chance to reach the pegasus nest...

"Fine," she spat. "Where's balloon?"

"Right here!" Pinkie Pie shouted, reaching over the bushed next to them - was that where she'd come from - and inexplicably pulled out a large basket, with something large, purple, and decorated splayed on it.

"Pinkie," Twilight Sparkle said warily. "That's my hot air balloon."

"Nuh uh!" The equine sat down and crossed her forelegs. "It's a look alike."

A purple forehoof met a purple face. "Pinkie, why do you have a replicate of my hot air balloon?"

"Well how else am I gonna get to Cloudsdale without bugging you to buy rainbows for my baking?"

"But, why do you - how do you walk on - " Twilight Sparkle sighed. "Nevermind."

"Right!" Pinkie Pie said, suddenly in the basket, lighting a metal implement above it Elizabeth hadn't seen before ablaze. "Can you hold the balloon up while it fills with air?"

"Sure thing," Twilight Sparkle said, lighting up her horn and move-thoughting the balloon above the fire before turning to Greene. "Elizabeth, you might wanna get in. Don't want it floating off without you."

"Can wait," she said, eyeing Pinkie Pie with distaste. "Can jump when it flies."

"If you insist," she said, the balloon inflating. The equines around them spared them no more than a glance before going on, as if this sort of thing was normal normal normal to them. Rainbow Dash jumped into the air, flapping slowly. "Well, Elizabeth, here we go," Twilight Sparkle said, climbing into the basket. It lifted, and when it cleared the rooftops, Elizabeth leaped into the air, aiming perfectly and landing in the hot air balloon.

It immediately plummeted. The two equines with her screamed until the balloon landed with a thump. Elizabeth looked up at the fire idly. It was nice. It wasn't warm but it did at least partly ward off the bitter cold. After a moment, she looked at the two equines. "Problem?"

"Um, yeah," Pinkie Pie said. "You're kinda really super heavy, so if it's not too hard, could you do that weird tentacle thing outside so we can go up?"

After a moment's thought to decipher what the equine wanted, Elizabeth extended her warmth over the side of the basket and onto the street, expanding it into a large mesh of pulsing, warm red and white tendrils. She fed more of her flesh into it until she felt it was good. She pulled the warmth still on the basket in, leaving the rest on the streets with the now-wary equines, and the basket immediately soared up.

As they floated, controlling direction through some mechanism Elizabeth Greene really didn't care about, the three equines chatted, Rainbow Dash flying circles around the balloon. Elizabeth sat on one end, ticket grasped tightly, but did nothing to interact with the equines, even when they asked her a direct question. As the sun crept higher and the balloon kept drifting, Elizabeth eventually noticed a patch of clouds closer together than others, and more and more pegasi flying around their balloon.

"Cloudsdale?" she asked as they neared the large group of clouds. Waterfalls and what looked like rainbows poured off the side. It wasn't like the other equine nests. This one was very three dimensional, with overhangs and underhangs, roads above roads. Her eyes could, even at such a distance, make out pegasi flying around and - no kidding - walking on the clouds. Talking, exchanging currency, flying, walking, trying to be happy.

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash said. "We're almost there. Twi, wanna cast the cloudwalking thingamajig?"

"Yeah, sure. Elizabeth, hold still." Twilight Sparkle's horn lit up, and Elizabeth held still. A tingle passed through her body, lingered in her feet for a few seconds afterwards, and then faded.

"Cloud walk?" she asked, echoes cutting through the wind with ease. With a thought, she placed her ticket onto her right side and slithered her tendrils across it.

"Should be working," Twilight Sparkle said. They were getting very close to Cloudsdale now. "So, Dash, when do you want us to come back and pick you two up?"

Elizabeth snapped her gaze towards her. "Don't need," she rasped. "Can get down myself."

Twilight Sparkle raised an eyebrow, but it was Pinkie Pie who spoke. "Oh, so you can just come down from Cloudsdale without needing a balloon? But she needed a balloon to get up here, I mean, you can jump really high but not Cloudsdale high, so is it another one of your freaky alien powers that lets you get down? Ooh, ooh, like using those webs to make a parachute?"

Elizabeth blinked, and slowly nodded. She didn't know about 'parachutes' but she could 'just come down from Cloudsdale without needing a balloon'. "Neato!" Pinkie Pie finished.

Still operating on the unseen-mechanism-doesn't-matter, the balloon soon came to a rest, hovering over a large, open area. Several pegasi looked their way, but most were too occupied with their own lives to notice too much. Still, there was a small crowd watching them, and Rainbow Dash landed midst them.

"Alright," the unicorn said. "Lets take this easy, see if the spell worked. Can you hang on to the balloon and place one foot on the clouds?"

Elizabeth leaped out, avoiding the balloon overhead, and nearly entered a cloud 'street' above them. She reached the tip of her arc and fell down. She raised a foot and stomped as she landed. The clouds held, and rippled outwards like fluid.

She hissed and stumbled about. Most of the pegasi had, in response to her landing, scattered. They weren't used to her yet. Rainbow Dash nodded approvingly. "Alright, looks good." She turned to Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie. "Alright, see you girls, well, eventually. I'll drop by Sugarcube Corner when we're back, kay?"

"Alright."

"I'll be waiting, Dashie!" And with that, the balloon drifted away, and Rainbow Dash approached Greene.

Elizabeth hissed lightly, dancing on her feet. They were slightly numb, tingling, the soles of her suit prickling and stinging gently, like she were in her First Home, walking on snow for the first time before realizing what a terrible idea that was. "Water," she hissed angrily. "Where's water? Clouds!"

Rainbow Dash's face went from confused, to fearful, to understanding, to embarrassed. Greene couldn't help but feel a point of pride pride pride at that. She was getting better at reading equine emotions. "Oh, heh. Sorry, I just figured you knew. Clouds are made of, well, water. You okay?"

She grimaced and stopped bouncing on her feet. They stung and rippled ever so slightly with her tendrils, but... "Will survive. Only bottom of feet. Wonderbolts?"

Rainbow Dash's face lit up. "Right this way!" She spread her wings and flew to a nearby street a level up. "There's a way around - " Elizabeth jumped and landed next to her in a single bound. " - or you could do that."

"Wonderbolts?" she repeated.

"Right this way," Rainbow Dash said, taking flight again. Elizabeth Greene followed after her, running along walls, flipping over barriers and jumping onto and clouds as easily as the pegasus flew between them. After a few jumps, Rainbow Dash landed on a cloud-street and began trotting eagerly towards a large... cylindrical cloud. A lot of pegasi were walking on this street, she noticed, and made it a point to bump into as many of them as she could to collect their essence. This resulted in more than a few few few complaints, but what did she care?

Though she was only getting Cloudsdale Pegasus essence, no Unicorn or Earth Pony, though given the whole 'clouds' thing, it made sense.

... she hated clouds. She hated Cloudsdale, hated it! She wished this would be over soon soon soon. It was cold, it was windy which made it colder and her feet stung and prickled and rebelled with every step. This was not a good place.

"Alright," Rainbow Dash said, stopping before the large cylindrical cloud. It was molded into a lot of shapes, pillars, columns, arches, she didn't care. It did look nice, but it was a cloud and so it was water, so she didn't care. "Here we are, the Cloudiseum. See that pony?" she asked, pointing towards a pegasus male standing under an arch. He was blue with black secondary fur, and a mark that was hidden under his wings. He also held a checklist in one hoof, a short yellow stick in his mouth.

"See," she rasped, making a few of the pegasi around snap their gazes to her. She ignored them, but did snip essence from a pink one that drew close.

"Well, he's the ticket inspector. Give him your ticket, and he'll let you in."

"Let in," she repeated, dissolving the tendrils along her side and grasping the ticket tightly in her hand. She and Rainbow Dash reached the male quickly. He spat the stick - a pencil - onto his checklist.

"Tickets?" he asked, looking over them. His eyes rested on Greene for a moment, but then went to Rainbow Dash. "Oh, hey Dash! Fancy seeing you here."

"Hey, Snow Drift. Been a while since flight school. Here's my ticket," she said, reaching into her mane to pull out her own slip of paper, handing it over to the male. "Elizabeth?"

Greene stepped forward and placed her ticket onto the clipboard, and turned to Rainbow Dash. "Wonderbolts?"

She chuckled, and Greene tensed. Laughing at her! She didn't have the right, especially not her! "Geez, and I thought I was eager to see them. We got a few minutes before the show starts anyhow, wanna go to the snack bar?"

Greene fixed Rainbow Dash with her best deadpan stare. She'd been practicing it; these equines created a need for a deadpan stare. "Can't eat same food."

"Oh, right. Hehe. Well, lets go find a seat, I'll get me some grub, and then we can watch the show."

"Fine," she said, though she really didn't have much hostility in it. After all, Rainbow Dash had held up her end of the bargain, even if still incomplete, so she could partially forgive her. She followed the pegasus next to her as she went through a few stairs, flew up a few floors, and eventually came into the main part of the cylindrical building. There was a large circular field in the middle, which seemed to be devoid of floor, and around it were a few floors, with heavier clouds forming 'seats'. There was also a statue of Celestia on one end, with a golden sun beneath her, and a statue of Luna on the other, a crescent moon under her. Both were made of clouds.

Rainbow Dash flew up to one of the higher level seats across from them, and Elizabeth joined her in a casual leap. They both sat on the cloud, and Greene looked over to Rainbow Dash. "Place? Soon?"

She nodded, smiling in what Greene decided was genuine happiness. "Yep! Got here really early, too. Stay here, I'm gonna go buy some snacks." With that, Rainbow Dash winged away.

Elizabeth took the moment to extend a web of tendrils under from her, making the clouds finally stop biting at her. To her delight, Twilight Sparkle's cloudwalking spell continued to affect her webbing. Made sense; it was her after all. And it made her warm and stopped the numbing, so she was happy.

Steadily, equines began to fly in. They always gave her a wide berth, looking at her fearfully before moving on. It didn't matter; the equines of Cloudsdale knew little of her, so their broken minds had likely spawned all manner of horror stories regarding her nature. She shook her head, fiddling with the straps and no-longer-metal buckles around her waist.

Rainbow Dash was still missing. That was fine; she was patient. Two pegasi came to her; a male adult and a female... child!

She grinned as the little one approached her nervously. The male - parent? - nudged her with a light purple wing. The child, a pale color like Greene's own skin, with a spiked black mane that sent chills down her back clusters of spikes forests of spikes erupting from the ground and no mark hesitantly approached her. "Go on honey," the male said.

The child approached her carefully. Elizabeth kept her eyes locked with them, smiling as she approached. "H-Hello, Miss Greene?" she asked.

"Hello," she rasped, looking down at the young one. The child stiffened when she heard her echoes. "Name?"

"Um, it's Cirrus Halo, miss." The pegasus pawed at the ground with a hoof, the cloud wavering as she did.

"Cirrus Halo," Greene repeated. Fairly equine name. "Want what?"

The child nervously shuffled her forelegs. "Well, um, I was wondering if you could..." She flexed her right wing, bringing out a little scrap of paper with various equine symbols on it. Something about a grade and Equestrian and science. The child moved her left wing and produced a pencil. "Give me your autograph, if it's not too much trouble?"

Elizabeth tilted her head. "Don't understand what autograph is. Why?"

"Um, it's when you write your name on this piece of paper. So I can, um, prove that I met you."

"Why?" she repeated. "Don't understand."

The child's cheeks flushed red through her coat. "Well, you see, um, my mommy was really sick, a-and daddy says you helped get her better. I've really wanted to meet you and thank you. Um, thank you."

Elizabeth tilted her head, quickly going through her memories. "Blood sample, make sure I don't have illness. Cure for wing cancer from it. Your mother had wing cancer?" she asked.

The child looked down, and Greene could smell the nervousness. She continued. "Good to help. Bad disease."

"Thanks. Really, thank you." Without waiting for the child to continue, Elizabeth snatched the paper and pencil and scrawled what she assumed was her name in equine symbols on it. A moment of sinking drowning choking enveloped her as she moved the utensil, but she was done and handed it back. Anything for a child. She'd briefly considered instead just giving the child a meaningful memory from her own, but no. That would hurt the child.

"Done," she rasped. The equine child whirled back to her father, and the two winged away, chattering excitedly with each other.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash returned. She now carried in her hooves a variety of drinks and vegetables and fruits. She flew up next to Greene and sat down just outside her small webbing.

"Hey," she said. "Did I miss anything important?"

Elizabeth considered that question. "No," she said after a heartbeat. She eyed the cup full of water nervously and scooted further away from Rainbow Dash, bringing her web with her. She wasn't going to trust herself around Rainbow Dash and water. She wouldn't hold it against her, but she wasn't going to trust her. Not not not for a while.

Elizabeth tuned out the proceedings as the pegasi she assumed were the Wonderbolts flew in. The suited pegasi gave a few welcomes and greetings, then started flowing in various intricate patterns that drew lots of excited gasps and squeals from Rainbow Dash.

Elizabeth had much more important things to worry about. She extended tiny, thin tendrils from her webs in all directions while the pegasi (And one unicorn) watched the performance. She wrapped them around pillars, under clouds, through clouds. It was hard to move her warmth through the water but luckily for her, it wasn't dense water. It wasn't easy, but she could do it.

Eventually, the Wonderbolts flew out of sight, and Rainbow Dash turned to her. "Did you see that?!" she squeaked. "The reverse triple barrel roll with a - "

"Where are Wonderbolts?" she asked, cutting off Rainbow Dash.

"Oh, it's an intermission," the pegasus said. "They'll be back in a moment. So, what do you think? Pretty amazing, huh?"

Elizabeth tilted her head. "Didn't pay much attention," she said. "Will after intermission." She crept her tendrils forward towards each pegasus and snipped a fur from each, analyzing the essence. She sorted them into their respective Cloudsdale spots. Pegasus, pegasus, anomaly, pegasus, unicorn, pegasus. She pulled her sluggish tendrils back to her main patch of warmth, and by the time that was done, the Wonderbolts returned.

This time Elizabeth did watch the performance. The performing equines - a concept that puzzled her, performing - weren't as fast as Rainbow Dash; if she had to place a bet, they were about as fast as Greene herself. However, they were extremely coordinated, giving her the impression that they could Listen to each other. They flew in tight tornados while others passed through, flyovers, spins, whirls. Elizabeth watched silently and motionless, in sharp contrast to the equines. Especially sharp contrast to Rainbow Dash.

Eventually, it ended, and the equines filed out.

"That was awesome!" Rainbow Dash shouted, throwing her waste into a cloud-bin. "Well, we've still got some time before the day ends. Wanna go walk around the city? There's so many things I need to show you!"

"Show," Elizabeth said. It would give her a chance to collect more essence. She stood and pulled her warmth back in, grimacing when the bottom of her feet began to prickle and numb painfully. She followed Rainbow Dash outside to a fountain pouring rainbows, effortlessly keeping up with the pegasus's idle flight.

"So, where do you wanna go next?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Elizabeth tilted her head. "Split up? See on my own. Take care of self."

"Eh, you sure?" Rainbow Dash asked, her ears going down. She tilted her head along with Elizabeth, and lowered her voice as if she were trying to keep a secret from someone. "I mean, I was kinda hoping to show you around."

"Can show self around," she insisted. "You have fun on own."

"I don't know..." Elizabeth frowned, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly. "Well, okay, if you say so. Should we meet back up here at, say, sundown?"

"Sundown," Elizabeth agreed. "See then." With that, she leaped away. After turning a few more corners and changing her street height a few times, she slowed down, walking through the crowd of equines, snipping as many pieces of essence as she could, despite their natural reluctance to be close to her. She avoided several shops, snarling lightly when she saw the movement of currency within. It helped that a few of the pegasi came up to thank her for the cure, citing either themselves or one they loved as having been helped. Those made her smile as she took their essence.

While it was somewhat alarming how readily they came to thank her, she tried tried tried to think of it conversely. If an equine had come to the Similar world and offered them a cure to... her memories of Before whispered a disease synonymous with help, she was certain there would be many thanking the equine. Not as many as here, the Similars weren't as kind, but grateful surely.

... no no no. She couldn't quite wrap her mind around that. Another example. If an equine had come to her and given her a way to - she shivered and felt ever so guilty at the thought - neutralize her Wayward Child and win then she too would so very very grateful eternally grateful.

Suddenly the equines thanking her made much more sense.

As the day went on and the sun creeped lower towards the horizon, lessening its blinding glare, Elizabeth Greene collected more and more essence. She largely avoided the news equines who asked so many questions too many questions. She felt like she had a very good sample size; not most of Cloudsdale like she had most of Ponyville, but certainly enough. Still, more wouldn't hurt...

She turned down another street, one with very few equines, and made her way into an abandoned alley. It was a fairly simple thing, made of clouds like everything else. Halfway across, it separated on both ends, making it an enormous X lined with colorless, bad bad bad houses. It was nestled underneath a street, forming a sort of ceiling. She could smell the scent of past equines here, even through the water, so whoever usually went through there wasn't there right then.

But there was also the smell of new equines. She sniffed at the air. Yes, several pegasi; their feathers had different smells. "Who?" she asked. She wanted to get their essence.

There was shuffling. "She knows we're here!" came a male from around the dividing corner.

"Then what do we do?" came another voice.

"Do it now! This is our only chance!" answered a third, female.

Three equines jumped out. Two were pegasi, a male and female, and the last one was a male unicorn. She didn't recognize any of them, doubly so because they'd evidently taken care to paint themselves a shade of gray. "Get her!" shouted the unicorn, his horn lighting up. The two pegasi darted; one towards her, the other up to grab from the ceiling/street.

Immediately, Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. Angry red and white tendrils thrashed around her body, which numbed and tingled intensely. Color seeped out of her vision as the world turned gray. She took a deep breath -

Will try not to kill, she remembered saying. Try your method.

Elizabeth relaxed and let out her breath. Color returned to the world and the warping of her body stopped. She relaxed herself.

In that time, the pegasus that had dashed at her reached her and swung her front legs against Elizabeth. A hot flash of anger wracked Greene's thoughts, and she snapped out with her right hand, grabbed her by the throat and hoisting the equine into the air. She tightened her grip, cutting off the pegasus's air. She choked and began beating Greene with all four legs, feeling to her like gentle taps. Elizabeth didn't plan to hold her long. Just until she passed out...

"AAH!" She dropped the pegasus and stumbled against a wall, coughing and numb as something crashed around her. The equine she'd previously held backed up, also coughing. Greene shivered. Wet wet wet! She glanced up at the male pegasus. There was a cloud in his forehooves, and a large chunk missing from the ceiling above.

She flickered haphazardly with tendrils, and in that time a bright orange glow enveloped her and lifted her into the middle of the alley. She snarled, kicking at the magic, fighting through the water's effect, but there was nothing nothing nothing for her to grab and use her tremendous strength.

... almost nothing.

She brought her hands to her side and pushed them forward. Her sheer strength compressed the air and blasted it outwards over the three equines, throwing them back in a tangled heap and disrupting the unicorn's move-thought. She landed and grimaced, still wet.

She brought her right hand up and gently squeezed an organ at the base of her spine, which began to tingle lightly. The tingle swept up her back, down her arm, and into her palm. She envisioned the energy forming a sphere the size of an equine, and it was so. There wasn't much power in this orb, but there didn't need to be. Like moving an extra limb, she floated it towards the three recovering equines. It landed in their midst, exploding with a light plink and throwing them against the walls. They stirred, making her frown. She'd underestimated them; she'd tried to have that orb knock them out, but apparently she needed more energy for that.

She floated up again, suspended by move-thought, this time upside down with her back towards them. She snarled in fury, raging against the binds. "What do you think?" asked the unicorn.

"Incapacitate her or something! Do it quick!" shouted the other male.

She needed to figure something out. Magic was her greatest weak spot; there was nothing she could do about it. She tensed up again, and sensed a bolt of lightning fly out from the tubes on her suit's back. There was a grunt, and she dropped. She whirled around, snarling furiously.

Elizabeth charged and reached them faster than they could blink, grabbing the male pegasus by the throat. She lifted him up, locking eyes. Then she slammed him down, eliciting a strangled 'gurk'. She changed her grip to his tail and slammed him over onto his stomach, then on the other side on his back, letting go of the now-unconscious equine. The unicorn's horn glowed.

A moment later she gasped and fell over onto all fours as the water that had dripped off of her slammed back into her, wrapping itself around her in heavy, flowing, rippling coils. She snarled, thrashing against it. Water! She hated it again! It clung to her body, into her skin, numbing her it was so cold! She could fight off the effects if she really wanted to, but either way it slowed her down too too too much!

"Do... something!" the unicorn shouted.

"Are you kidding?! I'm not getting near her! Maybe..." The female pegasus leaped up and grabbed another cloud from the street above.

Elizabeth wasn't planning on letting her do whatever it was she had planned. Fighting back the numbing prickling nipping sensation she held out her right hand. Sizzling arcs of energy rushed down her arm and out at the pegasus.

The female's eyes widened and she held her hooves out. To Greene's surprise, her electricity channeled through the pegasus's legs, deflected, and blasted the side of the alley. Alright, pegasus magic. Summoning her will in spite of the water, she leaped up, not nearly as fast as she would've liked but fast enough, and grabbed the pegasus. She gasped, eyes going wide with a weak 'no' and let go of the cloud. Elizabeth oriented herself properly and let gravity do the rest, making her slam the pegasus into the clouds beneath. Greene let go; she wasn't unconscious, but she was moaning in pain.

"Oh buck me," the unicorn said weakly. Elizabeth snapped her gaze over to him, a moment after she was lifted into the air by his move-thought a second time. "Sleep spell, sleep spell, how did that sleep spell go...?"

Elizabeth didn't like the sound of that. She charged more lightning across her, and it arced from her stomach at the unicorn. He yelped and jumped to the side a moment before it fired. She fell to the ground, free of magic, and charged at him...

His horn lit up again, and an orange beam hit her in the face. She blinked, but she was already next to him. Her arm snapped out around his neck and lifted him into the air, ready to slam into the ground. But... strange strange strange. It was getting surprisingly dark. Were Celestia and Luna causing the night? Why was her arm drooping and her eyelids lowering? She didn't want them to lower. What was going -

"We are gathered here today," said the priest, a bead of sweat going down his head thanks to the warm, humid weather. "To mourn the passing of Michael Kempton Allan, taken before his time at the tender age of two years old..."

The funeral proceedings continued on. Elizabeth only listened to them in the back of her mind. She looked around the assembled people, out here in the graveyard. There were the parents, Jason Allan and Michelle Allan holding each other, teary eyed as the priest continued to speak.

Elizabeth looked at the coffin, and immediately glanced away to the overcast sky, the clouds smooth and unbroken. It was a closed coffin, and good thing too. She'd been spending time with Michael, along with several other children that had passed away within months of her moving to Hope. Their deaths had been quiet things, where their lungs or hearts failed, and the light in their eyes was extinguished. Or so she'd heard, she'd never been around to see those deaths.

But as part of the Hope Women's Club, she also visited them routinely and tried to help the doctors. Those children had gifts, she swore. Changing the pH of water by touch, lighting up a bulb just by touching it.

But none more so than Michael, the longest lived of any child born in Hope, or so she 'they' told her. She'd often seen him in his little plastic box, a tube up his nose so he could breathe. They'd played little games through it, and one of those games involved how many shapes he could bend an iron rod into with his little baby hands. She wouldn't have believed it had she not seen it herself.

She'd been there when he died. It'd been horrible. The baby, the baby had spontaneously exploded inside his box.

It was a very good thing there was a closed casket.

" - to say a few words." At that point, Michelle walked up to the priest's side and began reciting about how joyful she had been, how even for so short a time Michael had made her happy.

Elizabeth tuned it out and looked around. There were several people here from the club. Jessica, Ellie, Margaret. To her left was her dad, also dressed in mourning, but it was more to support her than any genuine grieving for the child. She almost looked for her mother, but remembered she'd run off to join a hippie community rather than come to Hope. She'd betrayed them.

Michelle was swapped for Jason.

Over there, on the other side of the proceedings with his head bowed, was Steve. He'd shaved, and his normally loose, long brown hair was cut short. He didn't look as out of place in the black funeral clothes as Elizabeth had expected him to; he cleaned up good. Like, really good. She suppressed a blush; there was no time or place more inappropriate than a funeral.

At length, the family and friends of Michael all said their pieces. Elizabeth didn't have anything to say; she'd only met Michael a few months ago. What could she say? 'I'm really sorry for your loss'? It wouldn't sound sincere. Nothing would. After all, she wasn't his mother. She wasn't a blood relative. All she was was someone who came in every second week to play with the baby for a few hours behind a glass box and hazmat suit.

At length, it was time to bury the coffin. One by one, people walked up and placed a hand on it, heads bowed. Elizabeth eyed Steve, who gave her a solemn nod. She waited for him to give his prayers to the baby, despite never having met him before, and then she stepped up.

"Michael," she whispered under her breath, tracing the all-too-small wooden coffin. It was maple. "Oh Michael. You... you could've been a hero. Like, a genuine hero in one of those comic books." She blinked tears out of her eyes, bowing her head even lower. Her hand found the side of the coffin. "I hope you're comfortable now. I hope you can breathe all right now."

She traced her hand around the lid, and found a tiny speck of blood. Before she realized what she was doing, she moved a finger over it. The blood was warm, eerily warm, and it didn't smudge. Revolted, knowing just who that blood had come from, she pulled her hand away and returned to her seat. Her finger tips were warm. She shuffled next to her father, who draped an arm over her shoulder. Slowly, the coffin was lowered into the seven foot hole. Deeper than six. He should be able to rest in extra peace. Dirt was shoveled. Dirt was packed.

"Come on, Lizzy," Dad said, getting up from his chair. "Lets go home."

"In a minute," she replied, standing up. Chairs were put away by volunteers. People remained by the grave, but then left. She remained even after the parents. The warmth in her fingertips had spread, an uncomfortable, sticky heat pulsing in her veins. She reached over her right side and picked at the strap going over her shoulder. Had it always been so cold?

Elizabeth sat by the grave, under the watchful gaze of the angel statues over the headstone.

What was she even doing here? Michael was dead. She hadn't known him very long. So why was she still here? Maybe... she felt a little kinship with the poor baby? But what exactly did they have in common?

She scratched the top of her head. The heat had gotten there, and her head was buzzing, like a cacophony of insects.

She hadn't died young. She wasn't doted on by her parents. She certainly didn't have the strength to sculpt marble with her bare hands. So why did she feel a little... attachment?

She sighed, and shivered. It didn't matter if she felt attached to this child who would never see the light of day again. She was different. She had friends in Hope. A family, a future. And, despite Steve being a hippie like her mother she had in him a potential... boyfriend. There, she'd thought it. Yes, thinking of all she had in Hope... all she had in the future, it made the heat in her veins turn to a roasty warmth. She felt happy. She felt rather...

... blessed.

"Sundown," Greene rasped in that horrible echoing voice. "See then." Without further ado, Greene turned her back to Dash and, in one ridiculous leap, sailed out of view.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. Elizabeth was as blunt as ever. Still, though, she at least seemed to have forgiven her for the whole raincloud incident, so Rainbow was just going to chalk it up to Elizabeth being Elizabeth when the alien had ditched her.

There really wasn't that much for her to do, so she'd decided to follow Elizabeth around from a distance. Okay, so at one point she'd stopped at a shop and gotten a bite to eat, but other than that she'd followed her! After all, who knew when she'd next get a chance to see what Elizabeth Greene does in her spare time?

There wasn't a lot. Every now and then somepony came up to speak with her, but Rainbow could never hear the words because she knew that if she were close enough to hear, Greene would hear Rainbow. So in order not to be noticed, she had to stay very far away. In addition to being spoken with, she occasionally leaped and bounded away from newsponies, forcing Rainbow to rapidly adjust to her sudden, unexpected bouts of speed.

Resting on a cloud outcropping, Rainbow looked down. "Huh," she said to herself. "You'd think she'd be flipping out given how she hates touching ponies." Yet there Greene was, bumping into everypony she came across, almost to the point of on purpose. It was starting to get later in the day, so it was almost time to go back to Ponyville. She still didn't know how Greene expected to get down Cloudsdale on her own, but...

... hmm. Elizabeth hadn't exited that alley in a while. For a moment Dash contemplated doing nothing; it was a dead end anyway, so she'd come out eventually. But the thought of doing nothing while an alien she hoped to eventually befriend - because seriously, anypony who could move like that was somepony she could get along with - was lost in Cloudsdale twisted a knife in her heart. She flicked her wings and descended, walking in. Her eyes widened when she saw the scene.

Greene was sitting against a wall, her head bowed with orange sparks around it. There was one pony splaid on the ground, totally unconscious. A unicorn pointed his horn at Greene, a faint tangerine glow around it. And sitting opposite from Greene, holding her head in her forehooves, was a pegasus mare.

"Hey!" Rainbow shouted, walking in with her wings flaring in anger. "What's going on here?"

"Blast it!" the unicorn shouted, jumping high into the air. "Flicker, can you handle this?"

The mare with her head in her hooves groaned and shakily stood. She approached Rainbow Dash at the same time Rainbow stomped towards Greene. "Using names... listen, Rainbow Dash - "

"WHAT?!" Rainbow was lucky it was getting late, else she'd be attracting a lot of attention with her shouting. Of course, that may not have been a bad thing.

"Look, I know you think she's your friend, but she's - whoo, lightheaded - she's not. She's dangerous."

"Think I don't know that? What've you done with her?"

"Sleep spell," the unicorn muttered. "Just in time, too."

"Alright," Rainbow ground out, gnashing her teeth and pushing past Flicker. "Why did you put a sleep spell on her? And what's this about her not being my friend? Sure, we hit a bit of a rough patch, but we're cool now!"

"That's what you think," Flicker said, placing herself between Rainbow Dash and Elizabeth again. "Look, you think she's stable? You know she attacked the Royal Guard within minutes of her arriving here! First impressions not going so well! And do you remember the last time a strange being appeared in Canterlot unexpectedly? I think you do, you were there for the wedding! Ever since arriving in Equestria she's nearly killed three ponies, six if you count us! And lets not forget the surge in the flu."

"The... what?" Rainbow asked, her anger and wings deflating in confusion. She cocked her head to the side. "What about the flu?"

Flicker facehoofed. "For the love of - within hours of arriving in Canterlot, a lot of ponies in the castle suddenly came down with the flu. Sure, ponies get the flu all the time, but this was before flu season, all in the same place, and all in exactly the same time as each other, within hours of an alien creature who's got a disease in her arriving! Coincidence?"

"Well, it could be - " Rainbow stammered.

"Alright," the unicorn shouted. "Got it!" His horn lit again, firing a beam at Elizabeth. Dash's eyes went wide when she plummeted straight through the clouds like they weren't there.

"No!" she shouted, sprinting forwards. She made to open a hole in the clouds and go after her but Flicker got in her way again.

"Think about this! I know she's putting on a nice face, but Elizabeth Greene can not be trusted! She showed her true colors when she arrived, before she could smarten up, and you have to realize that! Come on, Element of Loyalty! Be loyal to your kind!"

Rainbow Dash snarled. "Loyalty, exactly! You know what, you make me sick! When she came to Equestria, do you know where she came from? She came here from being dead for Celestia knows how long! Of course you're not going to be thinking clearly after something like that. You freaks need to get your heads checked, because you just tried to murder somepony!" She smirked. "Emphasis on tried." With that, she let her natural pegasus magic weaken and fade, and she plummeted through Cloudsdale. She summoned her magic back when she was free, angled herself, and dove straight down.

She pumped her wings as fast as she could, fierce winds beating at her face. Where was she, where was she... there! Far in the distance, a little black dot against the Equestrian countryside. She redoubled her efforts and closed in on Greene. She'd seen Elizabeth take some pretty big tumbles in their race, but falling from Cloudsdale was something different entirely.

She eventually pulled right next to Elizabeth, but they were getting dangerously close to the ground. The orange sparks around her head were gone, but she still slumbered surprisingly peacefully despite how she was falling at terminal velocity, slowly spinning through the air. "Elizabeth!" Rainbow shouted. "Elizabeth, wake up!"

Faded emerald eyes snapped open. "Falling?" she asked, her voice lost in the wind but the repeats cutting through it like they were stationary.

"Um, duh!" Rainbow shouted, moving over to Greene in an attempt to grasp her midsection. The moment she did, Elizabeth grabbed her and blasted her away with both palms. Dash gasped as all the air forced itself out of her lungs in an instant. She flailed for a moment before righting herself and flying next to Elizabeth. "Stop! I'm trying to stop you from falling!"

"Don't need," Elizabeth rasped. Then, the alien curled herself into a ball, facing the ground, and then straightened her body in a movement so sudden it knocked Rainbow off course a second time.

She groaned to herself, once again, flying after Greene. The Evolved was falling full tilt now like an arrow. And the wake she left behind her made speeding up almost impossible. The ground was very close now. Too close!

Rainbow Dash instinctively pulled back, slowing herself before she could hit the ground. Elizabeth, however, did no such thing. Rainbow winced when Elizabeth flipped over and landed on one knee, slamming her fist into the ground.

The spherical blast of air knocked her breath away a second time. It was like running into a brick wall, sending her tumbling head over hooves.

"Whoa!" By the time she got her balance back she was on the ground again, just in time to let the tail end of the expanding ring of white and red force wash over her, steamrolling her back a few dozen feet. Finally, it ended, letting Dash shake the stars out of her spinning eyes and pull herself back to shaking hooves.

Elizabeth Greene casually walked over towards her, as if she hadn't just fallen all the way from Cloudsdale. She was not happy, anger and betrayal washing over Rainbow Dash. "Grabbed me," she hissed.

"Ugh. Sorry, but you were falling." She eyed the space behind Elizabeth. There was a deep indent in the ground, and in a nearly perfect circle around it, grass had been stripped and dirt thrown into the air, forming a ring around the crater when they'd fallen back down. The ring was terrifyingly large. "Jeez, I knew you could take a fall, but sweet Celestia! That is awesome!"

"Falls don't hurt," Greene said. She tilted her head, and the radiated emotions faded. "Didn't know, tried to save." She nodded her head. "Other ponies? Fought, don't remember..."

Rainbow Dash scowled. "Yeah, them. I found three of them around you. They put you to sleep?" A pause, and then a nod. "Great, just great. Jeez, you're good in a fight and all, but I guess there's nothing you can really do about magic. Well, they're probably gonna come after you again. What do you say we head on over to Ponyville? Safety in numbers, that kinda stuff."

"Sundown, back to Ponyville." Elizabeth smiled. "Good Cloudsdale visit. Forgive."

Dash breathed out in relief. Well, at least that issue was solved. "Alright, meet up at Twi's house?"

"Twilight Sparkle," Elizabeth mused in a less than happy voice. "Good enough. Direction?"

Rainbow sprang into the air and spun around, dabbing a hoof in random direction. "Eh, dada, du, um, that way!" she said, getting her bearings. A moment later, she was in the dirt, and there was a trail of dust fading in the direction she'd pointed. She grinned and took to the air again, soaring after Greene. It didn't take long to catch up to Elizabeth, but that didn't mean she wasn't putting a lot of distance between herself and Cloudsdale. Rainbow wondered why they hadn't just hooked up the balloon to Elizabeth, set it on low altitude, and had her haul them to Cloudsdale.

... right, she'd probably have strangled them for trying to hook something on her like a beast of burden.

In no time, they made it back to Ponyville. Rainbow Dash scored a perfect, ten outta ten touchdown just outside Twilight's house and did a little victory dance. A moment later, a black dot in the sky grew a hundred times larger and slammed into the ground, cracking the dirt.

"Nice landing, Lizzy," Dash said. Greene stiffened.

"Good job not breaking my windows, Dash," said a new voice. Rainbow looked over to see Twilight walking out of her house, Spike closing the door behind him. He had a little scroll in his claws. "Nice to see you both in one piece."

"Yeah, about that, Twi - " Rainbow started.

Twilight cut her off with a hoof. "We can talk later, Rainbow. We need to get the rest of the girls, and then you can tell me on the train."

Dash blinked in confusion. "Train? Why, we're going to Canterlot?"

The unicorn shook her head. "Not Canterlot, the Crystal Empire. I got the letter just a minute ago." She looked at Elizabeth Greene. "Elizabeth, Cadance thinks she knows how you came to Equestria."