Greene
Very quickly, Elizabeth regretted agreeing to tour the Crystal Empire. Because they had decided to go outside and she did not not not like that. She closed her eyes and followed through smell and sound as Cadance, Fluttershy, and the others lead her around.
"Over there is the Amblygonite Park," Cadance said. "Not quite as large as the Opal Park, but I like it for that. Peace and quiet, you see."
Elizabeth hazarded opening her eyes. The park in question had shimmering green grass surrounded by a few streets, and further on were the sparkling buildings. The park was dotted by several trees, and if Elizabeth looked closely she could see that the dirt around some of the trees was loose, as if they'd recently been placed there, or rapidly grown. In the middle of the park, a large spike of amber see-through stone jutted up. Glancing back with squinted eyes, she saw Spike drooling, and cringed away from the wet strand despite there being several equines between him and her. She idly wondered how strongly dragon scales were attached to their skin.
Cadance, Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle chatted a bit, something about grabbing a bite and then they split up, leaving her with Fluttershy, Cadance, and Shining Armor.
"So Elizabeth," Shining Armor said as they walked through the park, the occasional passing earth pony waving to their leaders or looking at her strangely. "Tell us a bit about yourself, if you'd please."
She shrugged. "What to say? Not not not much. Have questions," she rasped.
"Go for it," the unicorn male said.
"Sombra, who? Bad?"
Cadance shivered. "You have no idea. You know how I'm the princess of the Crystal Empire, right?" She nodded. They walked under a tree, and Elizabeth took the opportunity to rest her eyes in the shade. Luckily, they stopped. The equines leaned against the tree, Cadance and Shining Armor together. Elizabeth sat on the grass, and quickly extended a web of tendrils to seperate her from it because the grass was moist.
"Well the Crystal Empire, until recently, didn't really exist. Where we are now was all engulfed in snow and ice, just like outside," Cadance continued. "The Crystal Empire was sort of locked out of time for a little over a thousand years, and it only came back recently. King Sombra was actually the one who cursed the empire."
That got Elizabeth's attention. She narrowed her eyes and bristled, angry and scared tendrils swirling around her arms and legs. Cadance blanched in what Elizabeth assumed was disgust. "Cursed?! Cursed! Where is Sombra? Will find him..." she growled.
"Elizabeth," Cadance said gently, though her eyes were wide. "Please, relax. L-Let me explain." Elizabeth did, clamping down on her fluctuating limbs. "A thousand years ago, Sombra seized control of the Crystal Empire and took the title of King. He created a brutal regime, committing horrible atrocities. He kept the Crystal Empire looking good on the outside, lest other nations realize and liberate the crystal ponies, but meanwhile he did so much damage that... well, let me put it this way. Elizabeth, when you hear the word 'empire', what do you imagine?"
"Nothing," she rasped. What did this have to do with her hunting down and killing - no, not killing, she'd promised Fluttershy. What did this have to do with hunting down and hurting Sombra?
"Nothing? Really - err, nevermind. Anyhow, in his short four years of ruling, he'd reduced the Crystal Empire to a single city, the one you're in now."
"Then?"
Cadance shrugged, and smiled. "Then, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna found out what he was doing. A bunch of cities vanishing gets noticed, you know. They cornered Sombra and banished him into the glacier, but..." Cadance's smile evaporated. "Before they could, Sombra got the last laugh, and cursed what was left of the Crystal Empire to a thousand years in the future. To today."
"Today?" she asked, confused.
Cadance chuckled somewhat nervously. "Well, not today today, but very recently. I'd just gotten married to this wonderful oaf here," she said, leaning over and giving Shining Armor a nuzzle, who smiled at the action. "It turned out I was the rightful heir to the Crystal Empire, so we'd come here to start repairing things." She frowned. "Sadly, Sombra freed himself from his banishment at around the same time. The Crystal Heart was missing at that time, and he wanted to take the Crystal Empire back for himself, but..." she trailed off, shivering. Greene couldn't blame her. It was cold.
Fluttershy shivered as well, and Shining Armor picked up the conversation. "Cadance had to shield the empire all by herself while Sombra tried to break in." He patted Cadance on the back. "Tired herself half to death doing it. Meanwhile, Twily and Spike tried to find the Crystal Heart, since it could make a permanent version of Cadance's shield, but the crystal ponies all had amnesia from the curse, and Sombra had laid traps before his banishment."
He shook his head and sighed. "It was very, very close, but in the end Cadance activated the Crystal Heart, which erected a shield, kept out the cold, brought you to Equestria, and got rid of King Sombra." His face grew stern and grim. Greene tensed. It reminded her of the Bad Man who'd taken everything from her and locked her in the Cold Dark Place. "Maybe permanently."
Greene nodded, brightening. "Sombra dead, good good good. Won't hurt, no." She looked down, then back at Shining Armor. "Comes back, I'll hurt him."
"Elizabeth," Fluttershy said shakily, staring at her with one eye wide, the other hidden. "You promised - "
"I know," she rasped, looking down. "I know."
Cadance looked confused. "I won't pretend to know what that's about, but I won't pry." She gestured to Greene with a hoof. "Elizabeth, if you don't mind, may I ask precisely... how you died? I mean, necromancy is supposed to be impossible, and yet..."
"Didn't really die. Life to death, went sideways." She sighed and shivered at the memory of that second that lasted an eternity, of the trillion years that had lasted an instant. It didn't surprise her they kept saying she'd died, because to everyone but herself she had, and there really wasn't a better term for that experience than death and afterlife. Cursed just didn't seem to cut it at times... "Dead for all purpose. Wayward Child Cursed me, killed me."
Cadance and Shining Armor's pupils - and irises, strange strange strange - shrunk as their faces tightened in shock. Fluttershy laid a hoof on Elizabeth's lap, and she allowed it because it was Fluttershy. "Killed you? Knew you were, but your son..." Cadance whispered. She shook her head. "I'm sure it was an accident, he probably didn't mean to."
Elizabeth's eyes narrowed, and she felt Fluttershy's breath hitch. "It - wasn't - an - accident!" Greene ground out haltingly, making Cadance lean backwards and Shining Armor narrow his eyes. "We fought for an hour! I destroyed the buildings I shattered the streets, he leaped around my strikes he tore my legs apart. Before tried to kill me really kill me with the Awful Poison. It wasn't an accident!" she shouted, her voice bouncing around the park and closing in on the alicorn and unicorn, who were now properly intimidated and huddled together. She relaxed, and felt Fluttershy do the same. "Hated me twisted Cursed didn't know what he was doing, hated me." She shook her head. "Died by him Cursing me. Tore from defenses, broke power. Devoured me, body mind essence."
"D-Devoured?" Shining Armor asked faintly.
She nodded. "Always hungry, Cursed to be like that. Don't want to talk about it. Where others?"
"Oh," Cadance said faintly, her face green through her pink fur. "Twily and her friends went to go find a restaurant, to show you around the empire. Of course, restaurants are a new thing for my subjects, so they'll probably find one we can all go to quickly."
Elizabeth blinked in confusion. "Rest...aur...ant?" The word was familiar, but whenever she thought about it her mind conjured up a painfully brief flash of a yellow arch, the good-burned-subtly-off smell of chicken flesh, and the feeling of sinking drowning choking.
"Do they not have restaurants on your old world, Elizabeth?" Shining Armor asked. He and his wife shifted their weight. Fluttershy slowly, nervously, retracted the hoof from Elizabeth's lap. She shook her head. "So you just don't remember?" She nodded. "Well, that's alright. Restaurants are places where ponies go to eat food. They sit at a table, order what they want from a waiter, who tells cooks to make it, then gives it to them, and the ponies pay for the food."
Greene frowned. More currency 'uses'. Couldn't these equines take care of themselves without needing to pay for even the most basic basic basic things? And besides. "Not hungry."
"Probably just as well," Cadance said. "I don't think there'll be many restaurants that can serve you meat. The Crystal Empire used to be allied with the griffon kingdoms before it was cursed, but during Sombra's rule that was cut off, to say nothing the time displacement did."
"Hmm," Elizabeth said. Oh well. That didn't make a difference. She wasn't hungry anyway, so it didn't matter at all if their restaurants served flesh. No no no, not at all. "When here?"
"Who do you mean?" Cadance asked.
"Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike," she rasped.
"Ah," the alicorn said, nodding, now notably less green. "Well, I don't really know." She gave Elizabeth a bashful smile. "There's no rush though, unless you have something to be doing?"
As a matter of fact she did; she had all the essence she needed so she really should've been changing her Blessing so it could fix these equines, and then she had to spread it amongst them, and then she had to adapt it and give it to the griffons, and the minotaurs, and the zebras, and the diamond dogs, and the dragons...
She really did have something to be doing. But one look at Fluttershy's relaxed face made her relax. She could wait just a little longer to spread her Blessing. There was no rush. She'd been patient for so very long during the Time for Waiting, she could be patient a few more days. Still, it wouldn't hurt to at least change her Blessing...
"Cadance!" shouted Twilight Sparkle's voice. Elizabeth snapped her head towards the noise with enough force to create a small shockwave, ruffling the grass. Sure enough, there they were, walking through the park with the others by their side. "We found a place," she said. "The Milky Quartz, little place near the edge of the city. I heard they've got great soup." Memories of wet-food-bad-food. No, she certainly wouldn't be eating.
"Sounds nice," Fluttershy whispered from beside Elizabeth. The pegasus pulled herself to her hooves and trotted over to the others, and Elizabeth followed silently.
"Oh, I've been there before!" Cadance gushed. She put her forehooves together, wings flapping to keep her upright. "Oooh their tomato soup is just amazing! They put pieces of garlic in it, and - "
" - and I'm sure it tastes even better when we're actually eating it, not just imagining it," Shining Armor said, pushing the alicorn with his move-thought and leaving two shallow grooves where her hind legs moved. He relented, and Cadance fell to her hooves, glaring at him with fake intensity. "Lets go, everypony."
They exited the Ambly... Amylgo... Amerni... they exited the park swiftly. The earth ponies on the streets - too bright, had to narrow her eyes - did one of two things. They either gawked at her, which made Fluttershy cringe under the attention focused in their direction and make Elizabeth hover around her protectively, or they bowed to Cadance, which made Fluttershy cringe under the attention focused in their direction and make Elizabeth hover around her protectively.
The Milky Quartz did not stand out from any of the other sparkling equine buildings in the area, save for the smells of plants from inside, and the larger number of equines. Shining Armor opened the door as they approached, letting Cadance through. "Ladies first," he said.
Cadance rolled her eyes and tapped him on the nose with a hoof. "Goof. Come on everypony, we're wasting daylight." As the others filed in, Elizabeth got a good look at the inside of the Milky Quartz.
It only took a second for her to know for absolute certain she wasn't going inside. 'Chandeliers' hung from the ceiling, with translucent white crystals held in them. The Crystal Empire shone and sparkled, but inside this building, with its mirrors, candles, and reflective blue walls, it was terribly bright. "Not going in. Not hungry, bright bright bright."
Cadance nodded. "I understand, Elizabeth. But what will you do?"
"Wait outside, patient."
The equines exchanged nervous looks. "Um," Cadance said. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. There may be ponies who wish you harm."
"I-If it's alright with you," Fluttershy began. "I can stay with her."
They exchanged more nervous looks. "Are you sure, 'shy?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I mean...
She nodded vigorously. "Oh yes. I like Elizabeth's company." Her eyes widened. "N-Not that I don't like your company, but Elizabeth needs somepony to watch out for her, then, um... oh you're right, maybe it should be somepony else..."
"Don't be silly!" Pinkie Pie said, popping up next to Fluttershy and draping a foreleg over her withers. Fluttershy bit her lip and squeaked. "You're like, Elizabeth's bestest friend! And you made a dragon cry!"
Fluttershy's ears flattened and she looked away, Pinkie Pie bouncing away but still staring intently at Fluttershy. "Oh, well, I suppose..."
"Alright," Twilight Sparkle said, resting a hoof on Fluttershy's withers. "Take care, Fluttershy. Watch out for anypony, alright?" The unicorn turned to the others. "Well, lets go. We can talk about Elizabeth's fans inside."
As the others filed in, Elizabeth hopped lightly onto the roof of a nearby crystal building, and began street-watching. Fluttershy flew next to her, sitting down on her haunches and joining her in the activity. The equines here didn't react much to them now that they were on the roof, going about their sparkling business without really ever looking up.
"Um, Elizabeth?" Fluttershy asked quietly after a while. Some of the equines looked up, locked eyes with them for a while, before shaking their heads and moving on. "If you don't mind me asking, um... you've been to Canterlot, Ponyville, and Cloudsdale. Where're you going to go next?"
"Stay in Equestria, place to place, raise family. Then... " She pondered for a moment, weighing the various places. "The Zebran Plains," she decided. The zebras were fairly identical to the ponies, both were equines. Once she had a working Blessing for the ponies, she doubted she'd need a lot lot lot of zebra essence to make it fix them as well.
Plus, the Zebran Plains were dry.
"Yes," she continued. "Zebran Plains. After that, see then." Maybe the Griffon Empire? They flew like pegasi, there could be similarities...
"Oh," Fluttershy said, smiling. "I'm really happy for you!" She paused, and frowned. "Have you talked it over with the Princesses?"
"Why should I?" she asked.
"Well, you said that you had thousands of children on your old world, a-and if you raised the same amount or more - " She'd certainly raise more. " - then that might cause some food problems."
Elizabeth shook her head, then raised her right hand to brush away a strand of hair that had fallen on her cheek. "Won't be problem."
Fluttershy nodded, the sheen of sweat on her coat reflecting the light and making her painful to look at. They street watched a while longer. If Elizabeth focused very very very closely, she could hear the voices of the others in her group, talking within the restaurant about who-knew-what.
"Elizabeth?" she asked.
"Yes?"
"If you don't mind, do you think I can come see your children? I've never seen young Evolved before, and well..." She looked down and blushed. "I mean, if it's alright with you..."
Elizabeth didn't know how to feel about that. "Will - will see then." She sighed. She didn't know. She'd raised her family before, and she Wanted Fluttershy, her dearest friend, to be part of it so that she could take care of her forever. But...
... each time she'd raised her family on her own, she'd failed.
She didn't didn't didn't want to think about that.
Time passed, and the flow of equines ground to a near halt. There were scarcely any, and so the scent of equines faded and was overshadowed by the scent of stone and gem. Neither she nor Fluttershy said anything, so she took the opportunity to plan her course of action.
She had to modify her Blessing using the essence she'd gathered. That much was obvious. But how? She certainly couldn't make a separate version of it to match every single equine; they'd die and pass on by the time she finished. No, she needed to make many essences into into into few. Average them together. But how?
Perhaps she could combine Canterlot, Ponyville, and Cloudsdale first? Maybe. She'd certainly have to fuse all four main variants of essence together, though, and that would be the hard part. No point in adding in location difference too. So... no averaging the nests. Maybe average the subgroups first? Canterlot Unicorn, Ponyville Pegasus? Perhaps. And then the subgroups further, to get Unicorn, Earth Pony, Pegasus, and Anomaly. Then she could combine to get the essence of all equines.
She smiled. Yes, that would work work work. And once she had that she could finally change her Blessing to work on them. She felt giddy at the prospect, her heart beating inside her suit with enough force to break stone. Her patience was pushed to its limit, but after so very long, it seemed her dream was in sight. These equines weren't like the Similars. They and every other on this world were better. They'd understand her quest. They'd help her. Fluttershy would help her.
"Elizabeth, yoohoo!" an annoying voice chirped. She snapped her eyes open - when had she closed them? - and saw pink. Her smile vanished in a moment. "Equus to Lizzy!" Greene brought her hands together and clapped, the blast of air sending Pinkie Pie off the roof and to the street below. She looked down, and was disappointed to find the earth pony shaking off the fall like it was nothing. "That wasn't very nice," she pouted.
Greene dropped to ground level; the others were out and Fluttershy was already with them. They looked... happy. Not a surprise; they'd eaten. She knew she was always happy after devouring a manticore. "Rain wasn't nice," she hissed back. "Forgave Rainbow Dash, not you," she stressed. She snapped her eyes to Cadance, ignoring the way Pinkie Pie pouted and was then comforted by the other Harmony Elements. "Restaurant done. Next?"
The alicorn gave her a smile, all traces of her former fear gone. "We got to talk more in the restaurant. Now, Elizabeth, we'll really show you around."
***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-***
They stood before the train. Spike rode on Twilight Sparkle's back, fast asleep. The other equines were tired too; Elizabeth could tell by the way their heads and tails drooped. All but Pinkie Pie were affected, who just bounced along as energetically as ever.
"It was a pleasure meeting you, Elizabeth," Cadance said. "I hope your visit to the Crystal Empire was an enjoyable one."
"Was," she rasped, echoes cutting through the night. In the corner of her vision, Shining Armor's head swiveled around, watching out for... for something. She wasn't sure about that one. He was adama... adama... ada... sure that the equine guards weren't horrible horrible horrible but on the other hand, he was a guard. She'd have to watch him closely.
"Then I'll leave you to yourselves now. I'm fairly certain I've got a good bit of paperwork backlog now."
"See later," Elizabeth promised the two royals as they cantered away, sometimes being bowed to. Once they were gone, they filed into the train, ate some of the snacks offered (she didn't, the others did) and then settled on the seats. There was a lot of conversation, but she noticed almost none of it, just as she'd hardly noticed her tour of the Crystal Empire's various places of entertainment and 'culture', whatever that was.
How could she pay attention to those things, distracted as she was by her goal?
The train started, and the equines began to drift off to sleep. Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy talked a little about how they thought Elizabeth liked the visit, which was strange strange strange because they could've asked her instead. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie talked about 'pulling one on Time Turner'. She wasn't sure what that meant, but she got the feeling she wouldn't like it if she did.
Finally, the sound of slow breathing filled the air. Greene sat on one seat, with Fluttershy right next to her. She glanced out the window; they'd entered the cold-snowy-dark area outside the Crystal Empire.
"I hope you had a good time, Elizabeth," Fluttershy said. Everyone else seemed to be asleep. Rainbow's head lolled off a seat.
"Know how I was freed," she murmured. "Cadance, never repay her ever ever ever. Can try, can try." It was even more frustrating because Cadance was an alicorn and she couldn't give her her greatest gift. At least with Celestia and Luna she was beginning to form a way to repay them beyond Blessing them, but Cadance had done so much more for her. What could she do?
"Oh, that's nice to hear." She gave Greene a warm smile. "Good night, Elizabeth."
"Good night," Elizabeth parroted back as Fluttershy fell asleep. Elizabeth reclined her head, extending a small amount of her warmth to ward off the chill. She gazed out the window for a few minutes, and then she closed her eyes. But she didn't sleep.
At long last, it was finally finally finally time.
Behind her eyelids, it was black but there was still a wild flickering of colors and lines. She focused and delved deeper into her own essence, and the flickering eased out into a simple, all encompassing darkness that she really liked; it was easy on her vision. In the distance, there were three groups of dots; the first two had four dots, three purple and one dark blue. The third group had only three dots; two purple and one blue.
She imagined reaching out with her hand, even though her body was stock still, and grabbed the scene, pulling it closer. Now she could see that each of the dots was really a group of dozens of orbs, covered in loops and spikes. The equine essences; Canterlot, Ponyville, Cloudsdale. Earth pony, unicorn, pegasus, anomaly. She pictured wind swirling around the orbs and the essences flew towards her, forming a cylinder around her imagined body, still grouped up. Elizabeth investigated.
No two orbs were the same, not even within her subgroups. Each one was a slightly different color; some of the purple and blue orbs had hints of red, a streak of green, were lighter or darker in shade. The pattern spikes and loops on them were also never repeated. The anomalies, small blue orbs, each had four spikes and four loops. All the orbs in Unicorn held three loops and one spike, pegasi two and two, and earth pony orbs had three spikes and only one loop. There was one orb of zebra essence, but that wasn't important now. She made it fade into the blackness.
Of course, that was all old news. She formed a picture in her mind, and in her vision it became a reality. A red half-orb formed in her hands, its outer surface mostly smooth but grainy when she ran her fingers along it. On the portion cut away, there was a single spike sticking out. She shifted it to one hand, and touched its spike with a finger. She pulled away, and the orb's spike unraveled like string. Elizabeth willed it to let go, and it did, reforming into a spike.
She willed an orb at random to float in - a Canterlot Pegasus - and grabbed it with one hand. She took the hand holding the essence of her Blessing and pressed the spike into the orb, which parted easily around it. She pulled out the Blessing orb, and watched the equine orb. It briefly darkened, turning red, but the tint didn't reach its spikes and loops, so it turned back to Twilight Sparkle violet in a moment.
She could work with that. She focused on the Blessing orb, reworking the infinitely small small small fibers making it up, changing its color from blood red to night purple. She pressed the two orbs together again, and this time the Canterlot Pegasus orb changed, turning red and staying like that. The spikes and loops flattened, pressing themselves into the surface. They were still there, but so much duller.
This version of her Blessing would fix this equine. She sent their orb back into the column around her and willed it to change back, and tossed her Blessing's essence to float above her head.
The problem was, it would only fix that one equine. She brought all of Canterlot Unicorn before her, then all of Ponyville Unicorn. She considered leaving out the two orbs of Cloudsdale Unicorn, but she decided it would be better better better to include all. She looked over Canterlot Unicorn first, and compared it to Ponyville Unicorn. There were variations in each, but looking closely, Elizabeth saw that the single spike of Canterlot Unicorn was usually less pronounced than Ponyville Unicorn, while the loops were larger and thicker. Looking over the many orbs repeatedly, she eventually moved the orbs of essence together and, using her thoughts guided by her ever so great mind, sculpted three orbs of essence, one to symbolize the unicorns of each three places.
Satisfied with the three orbs of unicorn essence, she pushed them back out, and pulled in the many spheres of Canterlot Earth Pony and Ponyville Earth Pony. There was none for Cloudsdale. The spikes of Ponyville Earth Pony were thicker and duller than those of Canterlot Earth Pony. She averaged them together, and traded those two orbs for the ones of the pegasi, and repeated her action with those.
She frowned when she got to the next part. She pondered obliterating the orbs of Canterlot, Ponyville, and Cloudsdale Anomaly. They were, after all, flaws. Small, dark blue, with four spikes and four loops. Places where taking the essence of equines had gone - somehow - wrong. Or were they? Perhaps the equines had such anomalies by nature? It wouldn't be the strangest of things; she believed what Celestia and Luna did, but still found the moving of the moon and sun to be wrong wrong wrong on some level. No, she'd use the anomalies. And molding the few few few orbs she had of those, she realized that there was almost no noticeable differences between the three nests. So she simply merged all of them into one orb of Anomaly, the tiny differences in color smoothing out into an even, dark blue, and sent it out.
Now surrounded by nine orbs, she pulled in each of the ones for unicorns and began to merge them. She factored out things like gender, horn strength, distance between the nests, and the unknown of places she hadn't gone to like Stalliongrad and Hoofington. She twisted at the strings making up the orbs until she felt like she had a good orb to symbolize the unicorns. She took it in her right hand, snatched her Blessing's essence from above her, and held it in her left.
She again modified her Blessing. Its color was still purple, and its grainy texture changed into a smooth, rippling one, with tiny loops sticking out of it. She pressed the half-orb's spike into the Unicorn essence, and smiled when it turned as red as dry blood, and its loops and spikes flattened into it. She changed it back, and sent it back out. She repeated the process with Anomaly, Pegasus, and Earth Pony, merging them into one orb (Already done with Anomaly) and then changing her Blessing to only affect that one, before resetting them and sending them back out.
In the end, where she had before had some half a thousand orbs of equine essence, she now only had four, floating in a square before her. She pulled them in, and began the long, tedious process of combining them so she had one descriptive orb of essence for every equine.
It was very difficult. Looking at Earth Pony and Unicorn, one would've thought to combine the three spikes one loop with the one spike three loops to get two of each, but that was the shape of Pegasus. Things got even more complicated when she tried to factor in Anomaly, which was much smaller, different color, and had twice as many spikes and loops than any of the other three.
She tried several combinations, impaling loops with spikes, punching holes in spikes, pushing them together, pulling them apart, and warped their color into stripes, stars, and an even indigo. Finally, she came up with the essence of all equines: a large orb, a time and a half half half the size of the usual. It was a deep violet, with spots of deep blue along it. It had two spikes and two loops, but one of the spikes had a hole punched through its middle, and the other split off into two spikes halfway up. Similarly, one of the two loops was actually two pushed together side by side until they nearly melded, and the other loop was laid flat along the orb and stretched all the way around.
She smiled, feeling her lips turn up even in the waking world. Almost done.
She grabbed her Blessing's essence in one hand, and took what she learned from making it affect Unicorn, Pegasus, Earth Pony, and Anomaly individually. She played with the strings making it up, changed the length of its spike, its color, until she'd gotten it into a similar color scheme as the equine essence, and it had a feeling like dry, crunching grass when she rubbed it. She poked the Equine orb with it...
Success! It worked! It worked worked worked! Hahahaaaa... no, not done yet. She changed the equine essence back to normal and tossed it up, hovering it above her head. It wasn't important at the moment, but she might need it again in the future. She summoned all the various orbs she had at the start back from deep within her. She pulled each orb in, Blessed it, and sent it back once it was changed. She went through, piece by piece, and much to her delight every single one was fixed.
She'd done it. Her Blessing would affect the equines now! She snapped her eyes open, and the orbs and darkness vanished to be replaced by the train. She looked over, and gently pulled Fluttershy over to her. She rested the pegasus's head in her lap and stroked her mane, smiling gently.
Of course, she still had her original Blessing. The new equine-Blessing was merely a new one she kept within her, calling it forth whenever she needed. She could still Bless Similars if the opportunity arose she hoped it never did they did not deserve her Blessing but she could now just as easily Bless equines.
Joy joy joy bubbled in her chest and rose up her throat. She opened her mouth and chuckled, giggled, laughed lightly. She laughed joyously for a few minutes, her voice bouncing around the train car several dozen times.
Elizabeth Greene looked back down at Fluttershy, and stroked her mane with one hand while rubbing her barrel with the other. Many thoughts dominated her head, racing and birthing and dying and screaming and whispering, but above them all was one simple saying.
I'm back.
