//------------------------------//
// Too Bright a Heart 
// Story: Greene Fields under Red Lights 
// by Europa 
//------------------------------//






Twilight Sparkle


"Meet at train," Greene said. "Pull warmth back in, bring Fluttershy," she said, and then bounded off to somewhere else in Ponyville. Hopefully to draw back in that web of tendrils she'd left behind just before leaving for Cloudsdale; they were disgusting.

"Alright," Twilight said once Elizabeth was out of sight. "Rainbow, wanna go get Applejack? I'll go talk to Rarity."

"I don't know, Twi. I mean, in Cloudsdale - "

Twilight held up a hoof. "Whatever it is, it can wait. The next train for the Crystal Empire leaves in half an hour, so we need to hurry."

Rainbow sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine. Meet you at the station." With that, she took to the air and headed over towards Sweet Apple Acres.

"You seem pretty calm about this, Twilight," Spike said next to her.

"I am perfectly calm," Twilight said. "Why wouldn't I be? I am the epitome of calmness." she asked, looking back at the baby dragon and arching a brow.

"Well, you just got a summons by a princess to bring an alien to a far off empire," Spike said. "You brainwashed the town because you didn't have a report ready."

Twilight laughed nervously, shifting her gaze away from Spike. "Heh, yeah, not my best moment. But Spike, you seem to be forgetting that this princess is Cadance. We're great friends!"

He shrugged. "If you say so."

"I say so," she said a little more briskly than she probably should've. "Come on, lets go see if Rarity's awake."

The trot to Rarity's home-slash-business went without any event. With the sun having gone down recently, there was hardly anypony out to take notice of them. Of course, that also meant it took several knocks before Rarity opened the door.

Rarity's mane and tail were as immaculate as ever. Her coat was clean and brushed, and if one didn't know Rarity enough to look for the ever so slightly drooped eyelids, they never would have known she'd been getting ready to sleep, instead mistaking her to be as wide awake as if it were noon.

"Oh, hello Twilight. What brings you here? It's very late," she explained, ending with a yawn.

"Rarity," Twilight said. "We're heading to the Crystal Empire, right now. Cadance thinks she knows how Elizabeth came back to life."

"That's nice, darling. Why do I get the feeling you're including me in 'we'?"

"Well, I just thought you'd want to come along - "

"Twilight. Dear. I understand that this is probably a great revelation, but I do need my beauty sleep. I'd be more than satisfied if you simply relayed the events to me after you come back."

"Well, we can sleep on the train..." Twilight said.

Rarity shook her head. "As much as I'd love to visit the Crystal Empire, especially with the spectacular effects it has on my coat and mane - oh especially my mane! - I have quite an order to fill out."

Twilight nodded, but couldn't help but feel disappointed. After all, this was to see how an alien being came across worlds and back to life! This was history in the making! "It's alright, I understand. Good night, Rarity."

"And to you, Twilight." She flicked her eyes to Spike and winked. "Sweet dreams, Spikey-wikey."

"Um, uh, guh..."

"Right, bye Rarity. I still need to check in with Pinkie."

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Celestia have mercy on your soul, Twilight. See you later. I eagerly await hearing what you discover on your trip." With that, Rarity went back into her home and closed the door.

Twilight sighed. "Well, that was kinda disappointing."

"For you, maybe," Spike said dreamily. He sighed. "Well, on to Sugarcube Corner, I suppose." He brightened up. "Hey Twi, think we can get a few cupcakes while we're there?"

She shrugged. "We'll have to ask Pinkie. Come on, we're wasting moonlight."

She normally would've teleported, but she didn't feel like it was a good idea. It was night time, sure, but she could use the exercise, and given they didn't have to account for Rarity's packing that freed up an additional twenty minutes she'd feared they wouldn't have. They arrived there fairly soon, and knocked on the closed door. The lights were out, except in the upper loft.

Spike raised his claws to knock again when the door blew open.

"Hey Twilight! Hey Spike!" Pinkie bubbled. She bounced out and closed the door. "Sorry, it's closing time and I really don't wanna wake up the twins cause then Mr. and Mrs. Cake will be really grouchy and don't tell them I said this but they don't quite bake as well when they're grouchy but I guess nopony really does I mean I know when I was all freaky-flatmaned I wouldn't have been a very good baker - "

"Pinkie!" Twilight hissed. "Not now. Listen, we just got a letter from Cadance. You know Elizabeth?"

Pinkie Pie stopped bouncing and frowned. "Yeah, what about her?"

"Well, Cadance thinks she knows how Elizabeth came here. We're gonna catch the next train to the Crystal Empire and see her. Wanna come?"

Pinkie tilted her head to the side and looked up at the starry sky. "Hmm.... okie dokie lokie! Just gotta leave a note and take a personal day!" She pranced back inside and closed the door. Twilight and Spike shared a look.

"So, we've got Pinkie Pie coming," he said. "Rainbow too, and maybe AJ and Fluttershy. Anypony else we should tell?"

"Hmm, I don't think so. I mean, this is kinda short notice." Twilight frowned. "Maybe Rarity had a point. We should wait until tomorrow, shouldn't we? I mean, it's not like this kinda info is going anywhere..."

"I think that's kinda Elizabeth's decision," Spike said. "It is about her, after all. If I suddenly found myself on an alien planet, I know I'd want to know how that happened."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"So!" Pinkie Pie shouted, suddenly next to them. "When are we going huh huh? When are we going?"

"Whoa!" Spike shouted as they spun around. "How did you get there?"

"Through the window, silly!" Pinkie had her own saddlebags on, which contained who-knew-what.

He sighed. "Right, right. Well, lets head on over to the train station."

It didn't really take that long. Twilight found Rainbow Dash already there, speaking with the conductor. As they approached, she ruffled her wings and pinned something underneath her left wing. As the three of them approached her she turned away from the sleepy pony at the ticket stand and cantered towards them. "Hey everypony, I bought the tickets! AJ's not coming, she's got a lot of work to do on the farm with Applebuck season and all."

Twilight nodded. "Makes sense. Have you seen Fluttershy and - " There was an impact in between them and Rainbow, sending them back, sprawled against the ground. " - Elizabeth," she wheezed, shakily standing back up.

"Oh Twilight, are you okay?" Fluttershy asked from behind her. Twilight turned around, stumbling on her right hooves as she did, to see the pegasus helping Spike up. "Elizabeth, please try not to knock everypony around. Um, if that's alright..."

Twilight had to strain to hear Fluttershy, but Elizabeth apparently had no such problems. "Was mistake. S-Sorry," she said, looking straight at Fluttershy. Suddenly, Greene snapped her gaze over to Twilight, and she shrank under the intense look. "Cadance, Crystal Empire. Who, what?"

"W-Well," Twilight stammered, breaking eye contact with Greene and looking at the straps on her right wrist. "Princess Cadance was my foalsitter when I was a filly. Um, a lot of stuff happened with her and Shiny - " Did Elizabeth even know who that was? Maybe she should tell her... or maybe considering her experience with soldiers it'd be better not to. " - and now she's the Princess of the Crystal Empire. It's this place up north, where the crystal ponies live. We're going to meet her about, well, you know."

"Crystal ponies," Greene mused. "Hmm, fourth kind. Leaving how?"

"We're taking the train. Rainbow, how many tickets did you get?"

"Well, lets see. One two three... six. Enough for each of us. Heh, I was thinking that Rarity would be joining us, and that Elizabeth would want to run on her own..."

"Do want to run," the Evolved in question decided.

"Um, Elizabeth?" Fluttershy began. "I don't know if you want to do that. T-The Crystal Empire has a magic shield to warm itself, but right outside it's very, um, cold. And snowy. And I know you don't like the cold."

Elizabeth shivered. "Take train," she rasped. She looked down the tracks. "Train there."

Twilight looked in the same direction Greene had. "Really? I can't see anything. Can you see anything?" she asked everypony else.

"No, not really," Rainbow said. "But you know. Freaky Evolved eyes."

She chuckled. "Right, that. Hmm..." A few minutes passed, all of them noticing the train in slightly differing intervals. Twilight was ashamed to say she was dead last, right after Fluttershy. Her eyes probably still hadn't adjusted back to distance viewing from close-range reading. However, the train pulled up, and all six of them got into the cabin Rainbow had generously purchased; Twilight was going to have to find a way to balance the monetary debt back towards neutral after this.

They flopped down on several benches, while Elizabeth just sat ramrod stiff on a seat and extended a tiny splatter of her tendrils that Twilight had gotten used to as customary.

Pinkie opened her mouth and let out an overly long yawn, making everypony sans Greene stare at her, wondering how she fit that much air in her lungs. "Welp, I'm beat! Night everypony, see you when we get there!" With that, Pinkie Pie's head lolled and her eyes snapped shut.

Rainbow whistled. "What do ya know? She does sleep. Kinda creepy, actually."

They nodded. It was something else to see the constantly hyper, bouncing-off-the-walls pony at rest, let alone sleeping. Twilight found she couldn't quite take her eyes off of Pinkie, like if she looked away the scientific marvel would vanish.

"I think I'm going to sleep too, if you don't mind," Fluttershy said. She shuffled her legs until she too was laying down and closed her eyes. The moment she did, Elizabeth stood from her 'seat' and crossed over to Fluttershy in a single step. The alien placed one hand on Fluttershy's barrel, making her flutter her eyes open. "Huh?" With a slick, slimy noise, a heavy mesh extended over Fluttershy like a blanket, up to her neck with a large mass behind her head, like a pillow. Once done, Greene pulled away. "Thanks, Elizabeth." With that, Fluttershy shut her eyes again and drifted off to sleep.

"Keep warm, replace bed," she said simply, returning to her place. The train started to move. Elizabeth went completely stiff again, even growing a cocoon over herself and closing her eyes. Twilight soon found that both Spike and Rainbow's eyelids were drooping.

She had to diffuse that quick. A sleeping Rainbow Dash was a Rainbow Dash she couldn't question. "So Rainbow," she said. "You said you had something important to say?"

"Oh, right. After the show, we kinda split up. Elizabeth wanted to see Cloudsdale on her own, ya know? Of course, eventually I found her again, and well..." Rainbow bit her lip, eyes flicking left to right. "She was attacked, Twi!"

Twilight's eyes widened. She was already wide awake; compared to her normal study sessions, sundown was nothing. But now she was extra attentive. Ignoring the fact that attacking Elizabeth was a stupid idea, who would have any reason to do that? "What? By who? How? What?!"

"Easy, I'm getting there! I don't know exactly how it went down, but there were three of them; two pegasuses - "

"Pegasi," she corrected.

"Whatever. Two pegasi and a unicorn. One of the pegasi was unconscious and the other was hurting. Apparently the unicorn tagged Lizzy with a sleep spell, cause she was out cold." Rainbow shrugged. "Of course, the magic around her head probably gave it away, but still!"

Twilight frowned. "Geez. Three ponies took her down? I mean, you've heard what she can do. You'd think it would take an army."

Rainbow snorted. "Well, think about it. Outside of her electricity - which doesn't do a whole lot against pegasi, remember - she needs to get close to you to hurt you. And if you float her in the air, there's not a whole lot she can do." Rainbow looked at Elizabeth, who seemed to be sleeping inside her cocoon. "Unless she's holding out on us, of course."

"And she comes from a world without magic," Twilight mused. "She'd have absolutely no way to combat magic, especially not a sleep spell. What happened after?"

"We shouted at each other a bit, then the unicorn zapped her again and she fell right through Cloudsdale!" Twilight nodded. A basic dispel; it wasn't hard to remove the cloudwalking enchantment. "I went after her, of course. Don't give me that look, Twi! But guess what? Turns out our friend here doesn't like being touched even when it's to save her life when she's plummeting at terminal velocity." Rainbow Dash shifted in her seat.

"Ouch," Twilight said when she caught sight of the dark bruises on Dash's stomach.

"Well, I guess I can get it. Turns out she can't get hurt by a tumble."

"Even from Cloudsdale?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Not a scratch. The ground was hurt more when she landed. So then I made sure she was alright, we came back to Ponyville as fast as we could, met up with you, you know the rest."

"Oh that's just great!" Twilight groaned. "Wait, hang on. You said you shouted at each other? What did they say?"

"Does it matter? Some manure about Elizabeth being evil, showing her true colors when she attacked those guards, something about the flu, yada yada. They think she's pretending to be nice to get on our good sides."

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Twilight said, her eyes going wide, pupils and irises shrinking. "Back up. What's this about the flu?" Behind her, Spike snored. Pinkie shifted in her sleep and giggled.

"I dunno. They made up some stuff about how after she appeared in Canterlot, a bunch of ponies got sick, and they were blaming her for it."

Twilight's blood turned to ice. "Oh no. Oh no," she whispered. "Rainbow, that's true. When Fluttershy and I met Elizabeth for the first time, a lot of servants around the castle were sick. And Elizabeth was talking about blessing ponies."

"So? Blessing ponies is completely different from - "

"No!" she hissed. "Don't you get it?!" Her thoughts started racing. Plink. "Elizabeth used to be a human, but when she got infected with some virus she turned into an Evolved! Whatever this virus is, it's helpful to her. You've seen the things she can do. When she came here, she wanted to give that to anypony she came across. She made them sick!"

"Oh. Oh! But, then why didn't they become like her? Like, there aren't any pony Evolved."

Twilight shook her head. "No no no! That's not how diseases work at all! Whatever Elizabeth is symbiotic with, it's a human disease. It wouldn't have anywhere near the same effects on a pony. It doesn't have anywhere near the same effects. It just makes them sick for a few days and then nothing!" Twilight frowned. "Fluttershy already talked to her about that, though. She hasn't infected anypony since she learned all it does is make them miserable."

Rainbow snorted. "Tell that to them. They're dead set that Elizabeth's a time bomb."

"Hmm," Twilight said. "What happened with them?"

She shrugged. "Beats me. We came back before they could find us a second time."

Twilight sighed. "I wonder if this has anything to do with that stallion in Canterlot. Apparently, Elizabeth got attacked by him, and nearly killed him in response."

"Yeesh. What happened to him?"

"Didn't really hear. I think he was taken in for questioning and arrested for assaulting a foreign dignitary. I wonder if they're connected..."

"Maybe. So, what're we gonna do? I mean, those three are still gonna be looking for Elizabeth, and they may have friends elsewhere. I might not be around to help her next time."

"From what it sounds like," Twilight said. "She'd have been fine anyway. They found her, knocked her out. Then they would've made her fall through anyway, she'd hit the ground, wake up, and come back to Ponyville." She sighed. "Then again, next time they might try something that actually can hurt her." She frowned. "Well, we'll certainly need to report this. Can I trust you to do that? I mean, you were there."

Rainbow saluted. "You can count on me! What'll you do?"

"Well... I'm gonna ask Shiny, see if he can't teach Greene how to defend herself from some magical spells." Twilight knew that was a terrible idea. Shining Armor was still a soldier at heart, and given Greene's history with human soldiers and her complete and utter lack of anything even resembling tact, the two would probably end up trying to strangle each other. But she really couldn't think of a better pony to each Elizabeth to protect herself.

Rainbow yawned. "Right. Well, we should probably get to sleep. Sounds like we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." With that, the pegasus adjust her seating position, rested her head on a seat cushion, and shut her eyes.

Twilight didn't go right to sleep. She spent a few minutes looking outside the window, watching the hills roll by under Luna's moon.

This recent... event brought several things back to the forefront of her mind. Notably, her failed - failed, the word sent shivers down her spine. Plink. Failed research into Nosokinetics. There just wasn't anything on it, since research into any of its fields beyond disease control and prevention had been explicitly forbidden by Princess Luna's royal decree of 244, after Black Spread's plague. Nopony needed to know how to cause diseases, only how to prevent them. And even if there was, that didn't help her at all! Because all of that was magical, and Elizabeth's was natural. What could she do? Were the tendrils she manipulated part of her nosokinesis or something else entirely?

And what about the ponies who'd attacked her? How many were there who thought Elizabeth was too feral to be allowed in Equestria? Granted, Elizabeth was quite animalistic with all her hissing and whatnot, but she usually behaved herself very well.

She sighed, reclined her head, and closed her eyes. There'd be no answers this night. Foalishly, she'd forgotten to bring any reading material for herself; she was too caught up in the moment. After all, if they could figure out how Elizabeth came to this world, maybe they could open a two-way path. Elizabeth swore up and down the humans were a savage, bloodthirsty race, and her story certainly made Twilight inclined to agree with her. Still, that was only the word of one person. After all, some ponies said the same thing about the griffons.

Twilight fell into dreamland with thoughts of metal phoenixes and cities dwarfing Canterlot playing out in her head.


***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-***



Greene


"Strange," Greene rasped, looking over herself. She was sparkling. Why was she sparkling? She didn't want to sparkle. She looked at the other five. They were sparkling too, and had been ever since they entered the barrier, leaving the frigid air for not-as-cold air. "Strange."

"It's the Crystal Heart," Twilight Sparkle explained. "It does this. Though it's not having any effect on our manes. Strange. I guess Cadance must've removed that."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Good thing, too. I like my mane the way it is."

"The Crystal Palace is this way," Twilight Sparkle said. "Come on, I already sent a letter to her, she'll be expecting us."

Next to Elizabeth, the dragon snorted. "Yeah, I remember." He held his stomach queasily for a moment.

"Sorry, Spike," Twilight Sparkle said, walking down a street that was probably important but had no importance to Elizabeth. "If I knew sending letters to anypony else hurt you like that I wouldn't have asked you to."

Elizabeth sped up, walking side by side with Twilight Sparkle. She looked around at the glistening bright bright too bright crystal pony nest. Though... should she really call them that? Initially, she'd decided to come here to gather crystal pony essence. After all, a fourth type of equine she didn't have any essence of? She didn't care about how she'd been removed from her Wayward Child's prison, but the essence had intrigued her.

Now, however, it was clear that the crystal ponies weren't a separate type of equine at all. It was just the magic from this Heart Crystal whatever-that-was causing them to look different. There was no point in taking their essence, and so the only point in being here was the information this 'Cadance' had.

Which she really didn't care care care about.

The Crystal Empire was too bright. The shining buildings reflected the blinding morning sun onto the shining street and onto the shining equines looking curiously at her and respectfully at the shining dragon and onto her shining suit and into her eyes a hundred hundred hundred times over. When they reached an intersection, with the glare of two streets and not just one, Elizabeth had had enough and shut her eyes, moving using her nose and ears.

"Um, Elizabeth?" came Fluttershy's voice from next to her. "Are you alright?"

"Bright," she rasped quietly. "Too bright."

"Oh," the pegasus said.

"Hmm, really?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "I mean, I guess it makes sense your eyes are sensitive here, given how good your night vision is. I wonder if you have separate cells for day and night time vision like ponies do, or if you - "

"Doesn't matter how. Crystal Empire bright," she said. Leave it to a scientist to overanalyze how eyes work.

They kept walking, and Elizabeth kept sniffing the air. As they went on, the number of equines increased steadily, then all at once almost completely vanished, along with some guard talking about expecting Twilight Sparkle. The light seeping through her eyelids faded, and she hazarded opening them again, finding herself in a hallway.

The place she was in still glistened and shimmered, especially with light coming in through the windows, but it wasn't nearly as bad bad bad as outside.

Crystal equines lined the halls. She guessed by their armor that they were guards, so she hissed lightly at the closest ones. The area, she had to admit, did look nice. Crystalized murals, banners, what looked like a throne with an alicorn walking from it who?

"Twilight!" the pink alicorn said excitedly, trotting towards Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn was also approaching the alicorn. "You made it!" 

The two equines came up to one another and then performed a... bizarre series of motions that left Elizabeth tilting her head in confusion. "Sunshine, sunshine," they sang. "Ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"

While the two equines began rapidly chatting, Elizabeth looked straight at the alicorn. It was strange. She'd thought only Celestia and Luna were alicorns. Evidently not. She'd have to be very careful not to sample this alicorn's essence by force of habit.

At length, the alicorn pulled away from Twilight Sparkle and approached her. The equine's gait was slow and wary, and she didn't meet Greene's gaze. "H-Hello, Elizabeth Greene, ambassador to the Evolved."

"Hello. Who?" The alicorn's ears flattened and she winced when Elizabeth spoke. Greene smelled fear.

The equine straightened up and raised her head, but still didn't meet her gaze. Just as well. "My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but please just call me Cadance."

"Cadance," Elizabeth said. "Said know how I came here. How?"

"Heh, heh. Well, we can talk about that later." Cadance turned to the rest of the equines. "I'm sure you're all very hungry after the trip over. Come, lets get some breakfast," she said, turning around.

The equines chatted as Cadance lead them through a corridor, mainly Pinkie Pie, though time to time Twilight Sparkle and Cadance also conversed cheerfully. Elizabeth fell back and walked next to Fluttershy, both of them remaining silent. At length, they entered what Elizabeth assumed was a dining hall, the table high enough to require seats. Either way, it was a lot brighter than the corridor, forcing her to squint. One by one, the equines and one dragon sat down at a seat. Elizabeth moved to sit next to Fluttershy, but noticed this left her sitting next to Cadance. Intentional? Perhaps. Irrelevant? Yes yes yes.

As Elizabeth sat down, the crystalline seat crackled and shattered, suddenly dropping Elizabeth. She blinked owlishly for moment, then extended her warmth and molded it into a seat. That one, no surprise, held.

A new equine sat next to Cadance, opposite from Greene. This one was a white unicorn, with a dark blue secondary color that had a streak of light blue. The male's mark was a shield with Twilight Sparkle's star over on it. He leaned forward. Elizabeth leaned forward. They locked eyes. "Hello," he said. "You must be Elizabeth."

"I am," she confirmed.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Servants began to file in, and brought in plates covered in metal domes, balanced on their backs and hooves by what Elizabeth had learned was some kind of sticky magic. One was placed before Elizabeth. She smelled various plants underneath the others, but there was something more appetizing beneath hers. The servants (Another strange concept that she chalked up to an 'individual' thing) also brought sparkling glasses of water. She eyed hers uneasily.

The unicorn continued. "My name is Shining Armor, you've already met my wife, Cadance, and my LSBFF, Twily."

Twilight Sparkle inexplicably groaned. "Shining!"

"LSBFF? Twily?" Elizabeth thought for a moment. "Twily is Twilight Sparkle. LSBFF?"

"It stands for - "

" - nothing important!" Twilight Sparkle interrupted, causing Cadance and Shining Armor to both smile and the former to laugh. Elizabeth smiled. Laughing at Twilight Sparkle, laughing laughing laughing!

Cadance composed herself. "Oh well." Cadance glanced at Elizabeth, and wilted noticeably. "Welcome, Elizabeth, to the Crystal Empire. I hope you enjoy your stay here, however brief it may be. How are you liking it so far?"

"Bright," she said simply. "Too bright."

Cadance gave a small smile. "It can be hard to get used to. You should see it in the summer. Well, everypony, I won't keep you any longer. Dig in."

Remembering how things worked from her first day in Equestria, in Celestia and Luna's castle, Elizabeth pulled up the metal dome by the handle, accidentally warping the metal, as the others did the same and began to eat. There was a fair bit of flesh on her plate, next to some metal weapons (Utensils?), and she recognized the meat as being that of a chimera and... and...

Then the smell hit her and the rest of the world ceased to exist. She tore chunks out with her hands, fingers carving into the meat and scooping it into her mouth and tearing it apart in her powerful jaws, shredding it and swallowing it and it was so good good good and it was burned-cooked not raw which made it so much better even though it almost disgusted her that it was burned it was delicious and good and it was inside of her and then...

... there wasn't any left. She sat back down, realizing she'd leaned over the table. Everyone else was looking at her in surprise, jaws loose. Elizabeth idly licked her lips with a dry tongue.

"She's like auntie with cake," Cadance whispered. She shook her head. "Right, um, once again, dig in everypony." She shot a smile at Elizabeth. "It's good to see my decision to import wasn't in vain."

As they ate, Elizabeth watched them banter back and forth. Occasionally, they asked something from her or Fluttershy, and they'd answer quickly, but for the most part the two of them remained quiet. Time passed, and they had finished their meals.

Cadance sighed, and looked down. "So, I was hoping to be able to speak to Elizabeth about how she came here in the research department. Shall we?"

"Actually," Rainbow Dash said suddenly. "Princess, I need to talk to you about something. It's kinda important."

"Oh," the princess said. "Of course. What's it about?"

"Well, it's about Elizabeth, but Twilight and I kinda need to talk to you in private about it."

"Sure, sure," Cadance said, standing up. "What about you, Elizabeth?"

"Well," Twilight Sparkle said. Greene bristled. Cadance had asked her! Not the scientist! "I was hoping Shiny could help her out a bit."

"Really?" Shining Armor asked with a raised brow. "With what?"

Twilight scooted out of her seat and whispered in his ear. "I was wondering if you could teach her to defend herself against sleep spells and transformation magic," she said in what was probably supposed to be a quiet voice.

Shining Armor nodded and stood up as well. "Alright." He turned to Greene. "Follow me, I'll take you to the training grounds." He approached Cadance and the two nuzzled. "Take care honey."

"I will," she said, breaking the embrace. "Come on, everypony. I know a room where we can talk."

They all, Pinkie Pie and Spike included, left through another corridor, Pinkie Pie bouncing, flanked by armored equines. Elizabeth found herself walking with Shining Armor.

"Relation to Twilight Sparkle?" she eventually asked.

"Oh, she didn't tell you?" he asked. "I'm her older brother." That explained much.

"Family," she said quietly. Suddenly she was tempted, oh so tempted, to change fix change her Blessing and let it loose in a burst, but no. Not yet. There were still some things she needed to do, to be sure. "Defend from magic?"

He started, looking at her in surprise. "You heard that?"

"Heard."

"Huh." They exited the corridor and entered a wide open courtyard, which glistened and shone. Not as bright as the streets had, but her eyes still stung. Several guards trained in formations, with spears, magic, hoof-spikes. She bristled. Soldiers.

"So, why exactly do you need to learn magical defense?" he asked.

Elizabeth thought for a moment, then frowned. "Attacked in Cloudsdale, sleep spell. Nothing against that."

"Ah," Shining Armor said. "Attacked in Cloudsdale, hmm. Gonna have to talk to Cadance about that." He shook his head. "Anyhow, it's a good thing you came to me. Defending yourself against those types of magic is among of the first things taught in the Royal Guard."

"Royal... Guard?" she asked tensely, thick coils of red and white warping around her hands. "You're a soldier..." she growled, eyes flashing menacingly.

Shining Armor noticed her aggression. Maybe she'd emitted it into him? "Is there a problem with that?" he challenged, leaning forward.

"Soldiers hurt burn no reason," she snarled, clenching her fists. "Hurt me hurt my children burn break bad!" she hissed, echoes rising sharply in intensity.

"Maybe where you came from," Shining Armor said, bristling. "But here, Equestria's Royal Guard and the empire's Crystal Guard are exactly that. Shields, not swords. We do not stoop to harming children, or torturing and breaking for no reason. We do our duty with honor and respect, not what you imply!"

"Words easy," Greene hissed. "Actions louder."

"Really?" Shining Armor challenged. "And what actions have we taken that leads you to this conclusion?"

Elizabeth paused, then hissed. "Arrived in Canterlot, guards..." As she trailed off, she knew she was wrong. The guards there had done nothing nothing nothing. She'd only taken one's memory of language, but had in the process attacked so the guards attacked and the soldiers on this world were better than those on the Similar world she'd been wrong. "Fine. Guards here not bad. Defend magic?" she asked.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Alright, first of all. While sleep spells are impossible to defend against entirely, you can limit their effects. Transformative magic is different, and the technique I'll teach you will make it so only Discord himself could change you." Elizabeth hissed lightly, drawing back. The mere mention of Discord sent a spike of fear-don't-Curse-me-twist-me into her heart.

"Relax," he said. "First, we'll start with incapacitating mental magic. Now, your kind are not magical, right?"

"Correct. No magic, none on Similar world."

He nodded. "Right, however Equus has ambient magic all around it. Simply by being here and eating its food, you become saturated with background magic. You can't use magic, not like unicorns or pegasi or even earth ponies, but you can use it to defend yourself."

"How so?"

"Well, you can shock ponies, right?" Elizabeth let a handful of emerald sparks fall from her hands. "Right. Well, it's sort of like that. You run a magical charge under your skin, right around your head, and that defends yourself. There are more intricacies, but we can cross that bridge when we get to it."

"Can't use magic," she reminded him. Had he already forgotten?

"That's a nonissue. You don't need to be magical to use background magic. Just picture the buzzing of magic around your brain, guarding it from attacks." Elizabeth tilted her head, and pictured just that, a glowing green halo around the inside of her head, vibrating excitedly. She nodded. "Alright, I'm going to hit you with a sleep spell to see if it works. Is that alright?"

"Alright," she rasped. Shining Armor's horn lit up, a beam leaped from it and she suppressed the instinct to move out of the way - 

She was on her back, and the ground was cold and the sun was burning into her eyes! She rolled around with a strangled hiss and leaped to her feet, looking at Shining Armor. "What happened?" she asked.

He frowned. "You didn't protect yourself, that's what. Nothing to be ashamed of, nopony gets it on the first try, especially if they've had no experience with magic." He tapped his chin with a hoof. "You just imagined magic around your brain, didn't you?" She narrowed her eyes, but nodded. "Yeah, typical first mistake. You're not picturing the sensation, you're using the background magic in you to get that sensation. Now, lets try again."

Elizabeth spent a while with Shining Armor. Half an hour maybe? That sounded sounded sounded right. By then, she'd found the latent magic she was supposed to have - like an additional limb, like moving her orbs through the air - and could protect herself well enough that Shining Armor's sleep spells only made her vision darken for a moment.

"Changing magic?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yes. Transformation magic is both harder to cast and harder to resist, simply due to it changing somepony on such a fundamental level. You can still use your background magic to protect yourself, but it's tricky."

"Teach," she insisted, more than a little frantically. "Important."

Shining Armor had been correct. It was substantially harder to protect herself from changing-spells, even if the ones he used only made her suit change colors. She wasn't sure how that would protect against dangerous changes, but his explanation of 'disjunctioning the transformation' made some sense. And she was ever so smart, so she quickly understood it and protected herself from it.

"Alright," Shining Armor said, after trying and failing failing finally failing to change her right hand into a sponge. "You've got it. Lets go meet up with the others, sounds good?"

"Sounds good," she rasped giddily. She was safe now. She could protect herself. Granted if she was taken by surprise she'd be able to do nothing, but she could hear and smell so great, she doubted she'd be taken by surprise. Before she knew it, she had followed Shining Armor back into the dining room. The other equines were there, but none were even near the table. Cadance stood in front of them, looking at the floor. Elizabeth nearly gagged on the stench of fear and apprehension the alicorn gave off, but approached her.

"Elizabeth," Cadance said as Shining Armor trotted next to her. "When you first came to Equestria, do you remember what it was like?"

"Yes, remember," she said. There was a pause, and Fluttershy, at the back of the group, gestured for her to explain. "White and blue and moving, moving, movingmovingmovingmovingmoving."

Cadance nodded. "That just about confirms it. Elizabeth, w-what do you know about the Crystal Heart?"

"Crystal Heart?" she asked, then shook her head. "Nothing." She blew away a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her right eye.

"The Crystal Heart is an immensely powerful magical artifact of this kingdom," Cadance explained, no longer looking at the floor but not at Elizabeth either. "It takes in the goodwill and love of the ponies, and protects the empire. We only recently recovered it, and I-I had to activate it immediately to stop King Sombra."

"And?"

The alicorn gulped. The equines behind her all looked at each other nervously. "When you came here, Canterlot's Magical Contamination Containment Unit picked up a surge of magic, the one that brought you to Equus. I recently got a record of the magic, and it's exactly the same as the Crystal Heart's magical signature."

"Crystal Heart type magic brought me? How?"

"No, Elizabeth. It wasn't magic like the Crystal Heart's; there's nothing else like it in the world. It was the Crystal Heart. T-The effects of unleashing it after a long period of inactivity are pretty poorly understood, but apparently it was enough to find where ever you were, and bring you to our world. And since you were clearly far away, there was a delay between the two events." Cadance gulped, shaking in terror. Why was she so afraid?

She closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Elizabeth. I'm the one who took you from your world. I am so sorry..."

Elizabeth blinked. Cadance was the one that had brought her here? This 'Crystal Heart' released a burst of magic, and it accidentally pulled her away from her world? She blinked again and flexed her fingers, watching Cadance intently. She pondered pondered pondered what to do... and then she lunged at Cadance.

The equines 'eeped' when she approached, the surge of air blasting their manes and tails back. Elizabeth knelt to Cadance's level and wrapped her arms around her neck in a tight embrace, careful not not not to make it too tight. The equine stiffened, but after a few seconds opened her eyes. "Why are you - "

"Thank you," Elizabeth said, her echoes low and nearly inaudible. "Thank you, thank you. Never repay. Can't repay. Never never never..." she murmured.

"But I took you from your world! I took you from your Home, from everything you ever loved..."

"Already taken," she rasped gently. "Was dead, imprisoned, Cursed. Nothing left nothing nothing nothing. Saved me, back to life, second chance."

"I... what? You were dead?"

"Not dead, not alive. Cursed, outside cycle. So lucky lucky lucky, many others Cursed, lucky it was me lucky lucky thank you."

"I... you're welcome," Cadance said, relaxing. Elizabeth let go and rose back to her full height. "But, I still took you from everything you have ever loved. How can you be okay with that?" Cadance had repeated her question. That meant she didn't understand, so Elizabeth had to repeat her answer.

"Didn't take me," she rasped. "Already dead, nothing left." It was a good good good thing she'd come to the equine world when she was freed from her Wayward Child's Curse. There was little doubt in her mind that if she'd revived on her world and tried to spread her Blessing there, her Wayward Child would've hunted her down and devoured her a second time. No, Greene valued her life. She would never go back.

"Alright." Cadance swallowed and stopped shaking. She looked at Elizabeth with a smile. "I'm happy to hear that I didn't ruin your life, Elizabeth. For what it's worth, you're welcome."

She dipped her head.

"Wait a minute," Twilight Sparkle said. "Princess Celestia told me that humans used to be bed time stories when they were young." The unicorn tilted her head. "You think maybe the Crystal Heart pulled a human here long ago, and then their legacy faded over time?"

"Maybe," Cadance said, turning to Twilight Sparkle. She didn't smell like fear anymore, which made Greene happy happy happy. "After all, the Crystal Heart has been around long before even the uniting of the tribes. That seems more than ample time for it to be used and accidentally summon a human, then the human fades into legend, then myth, then stories, just as Celestia and Luna are born."

Pinkie Pie leaned over and whispered something into Rainbow Dash's ear, making them both snicker. Elizabeth didn't know how Pinkie Pie kept it too quiet for Greene, but loud enough for Rainbow Dash.

"So," Shining Armor said with a smile. "Now that we've got that out of the way, how about we give you the grand tour? We missed the meeting of the ambassadors, given all the rebuilding we were doing, but that's no reason not to catch up now."

Elizabeth looked at him, then at the one who'd saved her, who'd brought her back and given her a second chance, ended the long-time and short-time of being Cursed, and smiled. "Yes," she rasped.