//------------------------------//
// Friendship is Magic, Family is Power 
// Story: Greene Fields under Red Lights 
// by Europa 
//------------------------------//






DAY 8 OF INFECTION: 10% OF EQUESTRIA INFECTED 




Twilight Sparkle


"They're doing what?" Shining, in full uniform, asked his lieutenant incredulously. He was looking much better; he'd gotten proper sleep yesterday. Twilight had too. She didn't even have a nightmare. They stood inside a little wooden building. It was a decidedly cozy thing, with candles burning in glass bowls (To keep the hot wax from causing a fire) to provide light, a cozy faux-fur carpet, and several paintings of various Equestrian vistas hanging on the walls.

"The infected ponies are attacking the crystals we have set up throughout Equestria," he said, his shimmering blue coat reflecting the candlelight in all directions, giving his mane a smokey look as opposed to its regular black. "In addition, there have been sightings of Elizabeth Greene herself in heavily infected areas,"

"Start with the crystals," he barked. "Are they being defended adequately?"

"Mostly sir, but the attack took us by surprise. We lost one before we were able to mount a counterattack, and the infected have not relented. The Equestrian Military is also doing much of the heavy lifting, seeing how thinly spread we are."

"Wonderful." Shiny sighed. Twilight couldn't blame him; he and the general of the Equestrian Military had never gotten along. "I hope General Hard Gaze knows what he's doing."

"Surely he does, Prince. The crystal amulets are being distributed to high ranking officials, and we suspect that we will have enough to start giving them to individual soldiers within the week."

Twilight shifted nervously, a hoof gently prodding the amulet around her throat. Should she be listening in on this?

"Acceptable," Shining Armor said. He sighed. "Alicorns damn it, looks like our grace period is over. Work with the Equestrian forces to establish perimeters around our crystal fields. Keep the civilians safe, and above all do not let the infected destroy the crystals, hear me?"

"Yes sir!" the other guard said with a salute.

"Now, what of these sightings of Greene?" Shining asked curiously.

The guard gulped once, but otherwise betrayed no signs of nervousness. "We're... not entirely sure. She uproots several buildings - I mean literally lifts buildings over her head, sir - then places them together, and covers them in her tendrils. There are a few cocoons on their outside, but we have yet to ascertain their purpose. The structures do, however, seem to rally the infected around them. We have taken to calling these modified buildings Colonies, sir."

Wait she was doing what?

"Wonderful. Tell the good General I propose putting some amulets around pegasus scouts to see what their functions are, if he hasn't already. What of Greene afterwards?"

"She leaves," he said with a shrug. "She shows up, creates a Colony, and then sprints away just as fast, presumably back to Canterlot. A couple of hours later, she does the same thing in another part of Equestria."

Shining Armor frowned. "Is there any pattern to the location of the Colonies besides being in infected areas?" The lieutenant shook his head, prompting Shining to sigh. "Wonderful. We need to find a way of pinning down her location properly, without having to go into the Tartarus that is Canterlot." Her brother turned to her. "Twilight, is the enchantment of the resistance field crystals going well, at least?"

She nodded, smiling since she actually had good news. "As well as can be expected. The few enchanters that we got here in time are creating them as fast as they can. You can expect an amulet every hour, and a field generator every four." Secretly, she wanted to go help them, but Princess Celestia had told her she needed her skills elsewhere. She didn't know where, but Twilight hoped the Princess would tell her after this meeting with the lieutenant was done. With the drab reports of food and armor and such behind them, it looked like it was almost over.

"That's good," her older brother said, clacking a hoof on the ground. "Given how much the fields protect, it's far more than we could have hoped for." He turned back to the lieutenant. "You are dismissed, return to your post. Twilight, with me. Princess Celestia's waiting for us."

The other pony saluted and left while Twilight wordlessly followed her older brother. They wound their way through the musty building, their coats shimmering with crystalline essence. It was a little building in Stalliongrad, close to the Crystal Empire, where they had come to more closely oversee the defense of Equestria. Cadance had stayed in the Empire, keeping the Crystal Heart powered up to create the fields upon which the future of ponykind rested. So far they worked; the infection ran rampant through the cities but hit dead ends with the blue shells.

They found Princesses Celestia and Luna in a conference room, sitting around a table depicting Equestria. It was a magical map, so it showed the shimmering blue hemispheres around parts of Manehattan, Baltimare, Trottingham, and many more cities. Canterlot was painted red. The other four Elements, and Spike, were already there. A shimmering projection of Cadance hovered over another seat.

Princess Celestia looked up and smiled when they entered. "Shining Armor, Twilight, so glad you made it. Please, have a seat." They sat. "We've started the process of containing the infection but, as you are all aware, Elizabeth has ordered those she has afflicted to try and stop us. I fear that this situation will escalate dramatically if not stopped."

"The situation," Princess Luna said. "Is even worse due to the nature of the foe we face. We face not a conventional enemy. We art not fighting the plagued, we art fighting the plague itself, a disease embodied by Greene. A disease that can think, reason, strategize, and propagate. Even if we were to eliminate every infected - " Twilight and all her friends flinched at 'eliminate'. " - we shalt still not claim victory as long as Elizabeth Greene is free."

"Sadly," Luna's sister said, continuing. "We have no way of tracking her consistently. While Rainbow Dash is faster, Elizabeth does not tire and could simply wait for her to wear herself out, walk over and strip her amulet, then infect her." Rainbow shivered at the mental image. "My sister and I can't find her. We can't fight her, we need some way to either draw her out or pin her down."

"The crystals are working, Your Highnesses," Shiny said. "If we can all chip in to protect them from the infected, we can contain this infection and narrow down the places Greene can strike. From what I've seen of her, she's not patient. If those she controls aren't getting the job done, she'll come herself and then we can imprison her."

"A sound strategy, my former Captain," Celestia said. "However, it relies too much on being able to hold out against the infected. Are you sure that it can be done?"

"With me leading the Crystal Guard and General Hard Gaze leading your nation's army? Unless Elizabeth pulls something new and horrible out of her bag of tricks there is no doubt. However, there is something to be said about the Colonies."

Luna tilted her head. "Colonies?"

"I was informed of them not long ago. Greene is creating these buildings throughout Equestria to serve as strongpoints for the infection. They'll have to be destroyed."

"Aha! Our sister and we shalt be able to level these Colonies with great ease," Princess Luna said boisterously. "Elizabeth thinks to turn our infrastructure against us but we say neigh to that!"

"Aunt Luna," Cadance's voice said through the magical hologram. "Are you sure? They may be traps."

"Worry not, Cadance," Princess Luna continued. "We ourselves art immune to Greene's infection, and can purge ourselves to keep from being carriers."

"Excuse me, Your Majesty," Rarity said. "If I may interject, you said you can purge yourselves, yet you can not cure this plague? How ever does that work?"

"We can burn it out of ourselves," Luna explained. "Literally. Attempting to do something on a non alicorn would have... great consequences to their well-being. Still, if we and our sister destroy the Colonies, and the militaries of our two countries hold off the infected long enough to blanket Equestria in crystal fields, then it will force Elizabeth to reveal herself."

"Yer Majesty," Applejack said nervously, adjusting her hat. "I have an idea too."

"What is it, Applejack?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, spill the beans!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"I was thinkin'. We're worrying about how to stop Greene, but we already know who has in the past."

Twilight's heart nearly stopped. "You're not saying - "

"The Crystal Heart," she said, continuing despite Twilight's rising horror. "Brought Elizabeth back to life and to Equestria. So, why don't we have Princess Cadance fire it up again, and summon that Alex Mercer fellow? Then we sick him on Elizabeth, problem solved."

"Hmm," Princess Celestia said, placing a hoof to her chin. "That sounds - "

"No!" Twilight shouted, unashamed at interrupting her mentor because that was such a bad plan. "No, nononononono! That is a terrible idea!"

"Why?" Dash asked. "Seems pretty reasonable to me. I mean, we'll have to tell him not to kill her outright, but - "

"Okay first off!" she interrupted. "How do we even go about summoning Zeus? We know the Crystal Heart brought Greene here and probably another human ages ago, but do we know exactly how? Can we reproduce it, or do we need to hide the Crystal Heart for another thousand years and then activate it to summon him?"

"Well..." Applejack said.

"Next, let's say we figure out how to summon humans on command. How can we summon him directly? I'm pretty sure Cadance didn't try to summon Elizabeth, and humans are the only sentient species on her world. That could put their numbers in the hundred millions, maybe even billions depending on how much uninhabitable land their world has. But let's ignore that too and say we figure out how to summon Alex Mercer himself. What's to stop him from appearing in the Badlands? Or ten miles in the air? Or the middle of the ocean? Or the center of the planet?"

"When you put it like that, Twi - " Spike began.

But she was on a roll now. Plink. "But let's ignore all of that and say we manage to figure out how to summon Alex Mercer out of the millions of people on his world and bring him to where we want on the planet. What do you propose we do after that, Applejack?"

"I reckon we ask him kindly to stop Greene," she said confusedly.

"Wrong! He wouldn't know our language. Elizabeth had to perform a memory transfer on a guard to learn Equestrian, but remember when Greene told us how Alex Mercer eats?" Several faces turned green. "Yeah, that. 'Devours them mind body and essence,' she said. Mind. Alex Mercer learns by eating people alive. So he'd come here, suddenly in a strange place with magic, and can't understand the language, and he is always hungry. Solution? Eat a pony. After all, only humans are sapient creatures, it doesn't matter. Slurp. Oh, oops."

She took another breath and went on. "Furthermore! He eats the pony and learns that Elizabeth is spreading her plague. Great. He may or may not go to stop her, and given how he fought her tooth and hoof before he'd probably do it again. But how do we stop him from outright murdering her? I don't know if you pieced this together from Greene's story, but he won a three way war between the infected, his world's military, and himself alone. No way in Tartarus we can control him. He'll murder her." Though in a dark corner of her mind she couldn't feel that that was a particularly bad thing...

"And then what? We have a sociopathic, sentient, flesh eating disease that can kill thousands of ponies in ten minutes in Equestria. What are we gonna do? Calm him down? Remember that he thinks his creator's sister is his sister, so from his perspective we're ripping him from his family and putting him into a strange world, probably unable to send him back, to fight our battles for us. Think he'll be happy? Think he'll be satisfied with just murdering Greene? Everypony will be next. We can at least sort of identify with Greene because she is, at the most basic of levels, an animal. A mammal. But a living virus? No telling how his mind will work, if 'he' is even a correct term."

She took another deep breath. Plink. "So in conclusion, not only can we not control the Crystal Heart's summoning, who it summons, or where it summons them to, bringing Alex Mercer would result in Greene's swift unlawful execution, followed by us replacing a disease that enslaves ponies over a day with an even more infectious disease that kills them in seconds, with a criminally insane instigator that now has a grudge against us for separating him from the only family he's ever known, and is even more powerful than the last disease instigator. That is why it is a terrible idea to summon Alex Mercer!" Plink. Plink.

"Twily, Twily," Cadance said. "Calm down. Deep breaths. You've made your point."

"Right," she panted. "Deep breaths. In... and out. In... and out." After repeating that several times, she sighed. "Alright. I'm good."

Princess Luna was smiling at her wryly. "Well, thou hast certainly proven thy point, Twilight. Summoning Alex Mercer would end poorly for all parties involved; him, Greene, and us. However, dear Cadance, we would ask thou at least look into doing so, so that we may summon him if needed." Twilight gaped, and the Nightbringer caught her disbelief. "Make no mistake Twilight, we shalt not summon him unless absolutely necessary. Alex Mercer shalt only breathe Equestrian air if we art truly left with no other choice. Let us pray it is not a choice we have to make."

Luna cleared her throat. "Furthermore, we should also recommend thou look into making the Crystal Heart send Greene back to her own world. Again, there are many variables that we simply do not know with this, such as what happens to the infected without Greene or if the Heart can only take, not send, but t'would be best to keep our options open."

Cadance nodded. "I'll get right on it, Aunt Luna. So what else is there to talk about? The crystal ponies are worried, but not too much given how far away they are. How are things in Equestria?"

Princess Celestia sighed. "... not too good. Everypony is scared and jostling for space to get into the crystal fields. The evacuations of the towns closest to Canterlot has drawn to a standstill with the virus's resurgence." The eldest alicorn looked at Twilight and her friends. "I realize I have no right to ask this of you, but we need your help. You have stronger voices among the population than you may think, being national heroes. Rarity, Applejack, I'll need your aid with the evacuations. Can I trust you two to do so?"

"Ya can count on us, Princess," Applejack said confidently.

"Certainly, Highness," echoed Rarity.

"You have my thanks." She turned to Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie Pie, though you do not wear the Element of Laughter you still embody its ideal to perfection. Equestria is in dire need of your services. I need you to go around and calm ponies down. The fact that Elizabeth's infection has initial symptoms similar to a flu or cold is doing a great deal to terrify the populace and abandon loved ones who so much as sneeze, for fear of becoming a zombie. Can I trust you to stop or slow down this trend?"

She saluted with a mock-serious look. Or maybe it was actually serious, Twilight couldn't tell. "You got it, Celly!"

Celly?

By the time Twilight's brain had rebooted from Pinkie's use of a nickname for Princess Celestia, the pink pony was already gone to spread cheer among the paranoid masses. Now the Princess was looking right at her. She gasped. Oh no. What had she done? Had her calculations as to the rate of geometric infection spread among various plague vectors been faulty? Had her crystal pony plan failed already? Oh no oh no oh - 

"Twilight, I realize I have no right to ask this of you." Yes you do, you have every right! "But the infected do not relent in their assaults. I realize in the past you've taken one or two lessons under your brother, and you and your friends performed very admirably in the changeling invasion. It would be very helpful if you could aid in the defense of the generators." Celestia looked down and winced hastily.

What?!

"What?!" Shining Armor shouted. "Princess Celestia, this is my little sister you're talking about! You can't just send her - "

"I realize that, Prince Armor," she said. "I'm not forcing her to do anything." Princess Celestia turned to Twilight. Everypony else had turned stock silent, watching the exchange. "Twilight, I will not lie to you. Anypony infected is already dead. They do nothing on their own and are nothing more than extensions of Greene's will. They can not be reasoned with, can not be bought, or convinced. Greene has told them to attack our crystal fields and they will not stop until she says otherwise. If we incapacitate them, they will resume when awoken. If we entrap them, they will never stop fighting their bonds."

She continued. "They can only be... put down." Twilight's jaw dropped. Surely, she hadn't just said that... had she? "I know it sounds heartless and I know it sounds cruel, but it is the only way. There aren't enough places to imprison everypony infected until a cure can be found, and if we allow them to keep brute-forcing their way, eventually the army will tire out and the fields will fail. It is the only way, and we need everypony we can get to help," she reiterated after saying her piece. "I can only ask this of you Twilight, and I would never dream of forcing this upon you. But it would be nice to know your answer."

Twilight stammered senselessly. List! She needed a list! Pros and cons! Cons for going through with this. She'd be placing herself in great immediate danger. Her friends would think less of her for doing it. And most of all she'd have to kill ponies. They weren't exactly in their right state of mind, of course, but still. Killing ponies. That thought ran absolutely contrary to everything she'd ever learned. There was always a better way, always. But... what was the better way? Greene was clearly not coming to negotiate. They couldn't find her to push the issue and even if they did, in the meantime she was not stopping.

Pros... pros for doing that. She'd be protecting Equestria. Making Celestia proud, probably. Those poor ponies that she'd have to... have to kill. What could it possibly be like, from their perspectives? They couldn't think for themselves. They couldn't do what they wanted. They had to do what Greene told them, always. If she were ever like that, stripped of logic and reason and empirical deduction, forced to do the whims of another and spread that curse to others, she had a hard time imagining wanting to go on. It would be... it would be a mercy. They would be mercy killings. As long as she thought of it like that...

As long as she stayed logical about it and forbade her morals from interfering, she could do this. Yes, the only way to form plans was with logic and evidence... right? "I'll... I'll do it. We can't slouch around with Greene."

"Hold up there Twi!" Dash said, swooping out of her chair and hovering next to her. "You're seriously going to go - "

"What other choice do we have?" she countered. "Rainbow, think of what it must be like for the infected. Just picture it. You can't control what you do. Everything you do is at Greene's command. You can't think, you can't want, you can't dream. And she's not going to let them stop, alright? If we don't... if we don't do this, then... then..." She blinked back tears. 'Don't think about it' was, perhaps ironically, rapidly becoming her new motto. "You know what happens."

"But the Princesses can take care of this!" she insisted.

Princess Luna shook her head sadly, ethereal mane flopping around under its strange gravity. "Neigh, quick Rainbow Dash. We art powerful truly, but not all-powerful. We can fail."

In the recesses of her mind, Twilight had always known that. But still, to hear it said out loud was a different matter. 'They failed to protect mom and dad,' she thought angrily before dispelling the notion immediately. Sure they had failed in that but... so had she. That thought didn't make her feel good about herself.

"Girls, I have to do this," she told everypony, looking at her aghast. "I can't... I can't just let Elizabeth... if I think of another way I'll do it!"

"Twily," Shining Armor said, looking at her sadly. "No..."

"I'm sorry, BBBFF, but we're not being given much of a choice. I have to do this."

The older unicorn sighed, but nodded. "Alright. But if you're going to do this, then allow me to at least teach you some things to keep you safe."

She nodded wordlessly, and then Rainbow clapped her on the withers with a hoof. "Well Twilight, if you're really going to go through with this, then I'm coming too." She looked up at Princess Celestia, as if daring her to say otherwise. But Celestia didn't. She just looked at Twilight sorrowfully, eyes glistening.


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


Twilight sighed, looking at the street before her, several alleys leading off perpendicularly. This was happening. This was really happening. How had it come to this?

She stood next to Rainbow in an abandoned street in Stalliongrad, both wearing their amulets. Nopony was around save for them; the military hadn't had time to deploy to this largely vacated block, this street, so it left them. Neither of them wore armor; it was too heavy for Twilight and too restricting for Rainbow. It was creepily quiet, since everypony had evacuated further into the city, the crystal field providing cover for the retreat. Twilight and Rainbow stood with their backs to a building. Halfway down the street, the dome of blue energy came down and dove underground, beyond which the infection could rage and grow.

Ponies outside the barrier shambled in, moaning and groaning. There were no soldiers here to save them, none to rely on; they hadn't had time to deploy here yet, which was why she and Dash were there, staring down the infected.

"Here they come," she said nervously. They were coming. Very slowly, the first pony only now breaking through the blue barrier and stumbling towards her. As he approached, Twilight gasped as she got her first look at an infected pony.

At first glance she wouldn't have thought anything was wrong, but several things stood out all too well. The earth pony had an unkept coat to the extreme, covered in blood from some event she didn't want to imagine. His eyes were focused dead ahead with unnatural intensity, and he stumbled in his gallop, like he were pushing his body forward faster than his legs could keep up. But the worst part were the tumors, growing over his mown-lawn cutie mark and out of his spine as the zombie-like pony stumble-galloped at her.

"Remember Twi," Rainbow said nervously, hovering next to her. "Don't let them bite you."

"Heh, I don't think it works like that." Does it? She grasped a piece of the road in her magic and tore a chunk of rubble out. She hesitated, then dropped it. This wasn't the invasion of Canterlot, where she was forced to improvise. She could be methodical, energy smart. She didn't throw a rock. Instead she reached her magic over the earth pony's neck and... and...

She couldn't do it. Despite every logical argument she'd given herself she could not do it. She wasn't a soldier. She wasn't a guard. She was a librarian for Celestia's sake! This was a pony, a mentally ill pony but still a pony! This went against everything she'd ever - 

"Watch out!" In a blur of color and speed, Rainbow Dash flew from the air and bucked the stallion in the head, sending him flying through the air and landing in a heap. The infected pony immediately began thrashing about, but delayed shock made Twilight pull on her magical grip. The infected fell still.

Before she could begin hyperventilating and panicking, Dash landed next to her. "Keep your head out of the clouds, Twi! There's more coming."

"Right," she said weakly. Sure enough, there were a lot more coming. An assorted mix of all three tribes, stumbling their way. She could only imagine what sort of order Greene had given them to do this.

This time she steeled herself and reached out with her magic, dropping a former unicorn. Then an earth pony. A pegasus. Each time she winced, but they were gaining on them. Rainbow took to the air and began to fly, bucking those getting close in the head so Twilight had some breathing room. Either way, Twilight was forced to begin picking them off by twos, and then threes, just to keep them away from her.

It didn't take long for the infected - or Elizabeth - to smarten up. The pegasi took to the air and began dogfighting Rainbow, who was soon forced to lead them away on a wild goose chase. And a unicorn-zombie-mare (Never thought she'd use that to describe somepony) lowered her horn at Twilight and let loose with a ray of energy. Twilight stopped. She just stopped and let gravity do the rest, the magical blast sailing far above her mane as she hit the ground. A moment later, Rainbow flew by and tossed the offending unicorn aside, which gave Twilight the opportunity to do the deed.

Rainbow had already passed on, and the infected pegasi swooped past Twilight. They were moving too fast for her to use her magic on individually, so she summoned a ceiling of force and pushed it down, throwing the infected to the ground. She picked off each one with her magic...

"Aie!" she shrieked, leaping out of the way. An infected earth pony had reached her, and was reared up to strike her with her front hooves. The legs came down on the hard street, and a moment later Twilight flung the infected mare against the nearest building. She could actually see that there weren't 'many' infected left; about two dozen, with half of them still outside the barrier.

She reached out with her magic and... snapped a few more times, each one making her thankful for her small breakfast, before she felt herself lifted. She flailed wildly as a green aura enveloped her, coming from one of the infected stallions. The other unicorns prepared to blast her. 

However telekinesis was the basics of basics, so it took a unicorn of Twilight's caliber no effort at all to undo the infected's magical aura and drop to the ground, narrowly dodging the blasts and returning to her task. Before long, she was fighting down retches and crippling guilt as she swept the bodies aside so she wouldn't have to see them anymore. Rainbow touched down next to her, a bit winded but otherwise unharmed.

"Alright Twi," she said grimly. "How did things go?"

"Some tricks, but pretty easily all things considered. Can't see any more infected from here, which is good." 

Rainbow chuckled a bit. "Kinda like a game, almost. Elizabeth causes the zombie apocalypse, and sends them in the form of tougher and tougher waves."

"Focus Rainbow! This isn't a game! Ponies are dying because of this!" she shouted hotly.

The pegasus pulled back, folding her ears and looking down. "I know, I know, alright? But if we're so deadly serious all the time then things are gonna get pretty freaky." Rainbow stopped and looked at the edge of the crystal field surrounding them. "Um, freakier." Suddenly, there was a slam. It was a loud slam, but given how quiet it was Twilight judged it to be far away. She and Dash turned to one of the alleys. "What was that?!"

Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat. "We should go take a look."

"Way ahead of you," Dash said, creeping along the streets towards the alley. In it was a dumpster, from which came another rattling and what sounded like chatter. She and Rainbow stopped next to each other, looking at the filthy thing.

'On three,' Twilight mouthed. 'One, two, three!' Her magic flung open the dumpster at the same time Dash took to the air to get a better perspective on the creature inside...

... or the three young fillies with sparkling coats.

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

"Don't eat me!"

"Ah!"

"Aie!"

Once everypony had calmed down, Rainbow looked down incredulously at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She clenched her teeth as her face turned purple with anger, breathing heavily. "Applebloom. Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo."

Scootaloo chuckled nervously. "Heh, hey there Rainbow," she said nervously, looking up at the livid pegasus fearfully. In the meantime, Twilight began scanning them for disease as they climbed out of the filthy dumpster.

"What the b - I mean, what are you three doing here?" Rainbow hissed. "I don't know if you noticed, but we're kinda busy with the end of the world! How did you even get here? I thought you all evacuated with AJ's family to Appleoosa." Good, they weren't infected.

"Well, we heard about what was going on so we tried to get to the Crystal Empire - " Applebloom began.

" - but we didn't get our Cross Country Cutie Marks, so we stopped in Stalliongrad - " Scootaloo continued.

" - and then we heard what was coming here so we hid while you... what did you do?" Sweetie finished, ending with a question.

Twilight's stomach flopped. "It does not matter what we were doing! What matters is getting you three to safety. We don't need you trying to get Zombie Hunter Cutie Marks." Again, she thought.

"But Twilight!" Applebloom whined. "We'll be good, I promise." 

Twilight's ears swiveled as a distant roar met her ears. "Nope!" She looked at her friend. "Dash, can you get them somewhere safe? Something really bad is coming here."

"You're not asking me to leave you here are you?" she asked with a raised brow.

"No, I'm not." The roar was closer now. She swore she could feel thuds, the earth shaking beneath her hooves. "Get the CMC to safety, then you can come help if you want."

Grimly, Rainbow nodded. "Alright, come here everypony." She grasped Sweetie Belle in her forelegs as Scootaloo got on her back, Applebloom clinging to the bottom of her barrel. She looked distinctly Unhappy with being a filly-rack, but despite that she took off into the air. Once she was out of sight, Twilight sighed and shook her head. Honestly, the world comes crashing down around them, throwing well-established moral codes into disarray, and those three...

The wall behind her exploded, sending her flying a short distance before falling on her stomach. She turned her head around and gasped at the roaring beast behind her. Its skin was a strange shade of pink. Unlike Pinkie Pie's coat, it was heavily muted. Almost more gray than pink, and strands of green fur stuck out in random places upon its body. There was no mane and no tail, and it was big.

The creature, on all fours, was as tall as Princess Celestia and had much, much more in the way of muscle. It wasn't grotesquely muscled, but given it just broke through a building she was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Its mouth, open in a roar, seemed shriveled around the lips and its tiny, tiny eyes were sunken so far into its head Twilight had to wonder if it could see at all. At the end of each leg, instead of hooves, a clawed hand stuck out with fleshy webs between its appendages.

From its forehead grew a shriveled black stick of a horn.

"Um," she whispered, getting back on her hooves shakily. "Hello?"

Her response was the creature - had that used to be a pony? What happened to its hooves? - looking her way and roaring before bounding after her.

Time slowed down. Twilight pondered the situation rapidly. Mutated pony, clearly a former unicorn. Whatever Greene had done had seemingly made the horn useless, so magic wasn't an issue. It was very big and very fast. Judging by how it had burst out of a building without a break in its step, it was both incredibly strong and incredibly tough, similar to Elizabeth herself. She could easily teleport away, but at the same time she couldn't. She'd be letting this... this thing roam around the streets free. With that decision made, Twilight lit up her horn.

She gave an unexpected grunt of effort as she brought the beast to a halt in mid air, growling in anger at her. It had a lot more momentum than she'd anticipated; it was much heavier than it looked. With a groan and a flick of her head she smashed it into the pavement, lifted, and then again. Again, and again, and again.

On the eighth slam the beast grabbed the ground and, when she pulled it up again, ripped a rather large boulder out of it. Still held in her magic, it hefted back the enormous piece of rock and tossed it at Twilight.

She gasped and, in her panic, let go of the beast, switching her magic to trying to stop the rock. Normally it'd be little challenge to hold back something its mass, but given how fast it was going it took her a lot of effort to deplete its momentum. By the time she'd gotten it to stop it was right in front of her and the beast was...

On a rooftop. It had jumped and in one bound reached the nearest roof. It jumped down next to her, and Twilight got ready to defend herself. Or she would've but the force of the thing landing sent her flying again. She groaned when she landed; it was like getting bucked in the chest.

New analysis, she thought to herself as she got to her hooves. Avoiding contact is priority number one. 

She threw herself to the side, scurrying behind it. The thing was next to her again, raising its fists into the air before slamming them into the ground. The pavement shattered and warped around the impact, rolling out like a liquid wave.

She gaped. That... that could've been her!

Her horn lit up and she slammed it backwards with a wave of force, sending the creature toppling onto its front. It caught itself easily, and Twilight began desperately attacking it, slashing anywhere on its body with her telekinesis.

Her magic seemingly slipped off its tough hide as the beast turned around to face her. It roared again and leaned back on its hind legs, one arm far back. Then it darted forward, slashing with its forearms viciously. Thinking on instinct, Twilight tossed up a flat, rectangular shield as it approached her. There; she wasn't as skilled as her BBBFF, but she had a lot of power. That would buy her time to think of a plan.

Thunk! The first hit made her shield shake.

Smash! The next, barely half a second later, cracked it open.

Crash! In just one second, the monster had broken Twilight's shield.

She gasped in pain as the magical backlash hit her, falling to her haunches in a daze. Then, in a single bound, the beast was upon her. It sank to all fours and grabbed her with a hand. Immediately, she began shrieking and flailing, trying to magically shove against it, but all she managed was to slow down its hand. It looked her way with that hideous, broken face and dead horn, and opened its mouth wide as it brought her neck to its mouth.

There was a flash of light and sound, then a whoosh of displaced air. Twilight's eyes cleared just as the fiend closed its mouth, snapping empty air. Noticing it had been duped, it stood on two legs and roared to the sky. She panted from the rushed teleport, and began to think of a new plan. It was impossible to slow down, and if it was anything like Greene it would take a lot to make it stop fighting...

Time for a lot, then, she thought grimly. Her horn lit up and the dumpster, now a short distance away from their fight, came loose and slammed into the monster's back mid-roar. It fell forward again, but before it could do anything Twilight bashed it again with all the force she could muster, and again, and again, and again, even as the metal warped and crumpled she kept hitting it. Eventually, though, it got its hoofing again and backhanded the ball of scrap. Immediately her telekinesis was overpowered, sending the ball crashing down the alley into the main street. She backpedaled and summoned her magic again.

This time, she took a page out of the monster's book, grabbing a piece of the street, hefting it up, and throwing it at the beast. She expected to hit it, but at the last possible moment the monster grabbed her projectile and tossed it back at her. She gasped and leaped forward under its arc, barely being passed by the boulder.

She didn't know exactly what happened, but a moment later she was on her side, gasping for the air that had fled her lungs. Her entire barrel hurt, and she couldn't find the strength to stand. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw the beast slowing down from what may have been a charge, and cast a sleep spell at it.

Nothing. It didn't even blink. It was like her magic had just... dispersed around it. Then it was on her, one arm pulled back and ready to slash her. So she did the only thing she could think of; she rolled backwards. She thanked her brother for teaching her how not to get herself killed, even if he only had an hour to do so before she came here.

The creature's claws passed her by a hair's length, but in that time she got back on her hooves and, with a grunt of effort, tossed the thing back. It landed on its back and, seizing the initiative, Twilight wrenched a rock the size of her head from the street and tossed it up. Then, at the height of its arc, she used her magic to push it down, gravity and telekinesis slamming it into the recovering monster's stomach.

The rock broke.

Dust and rubble spilling out, the beast still roared angrily and got to its feet. It prowled slowly towards Twilight, who gulped and began backing up. How could she hurt that thing? It seemed invulnerable. It had very tough skin, but...

That was it, tough skin. Blunt trauma couldn't damage it unless there was a ridiculous amount, but cutting it might do something. Summoning her telekinesis again, she pictured slicing apart a gash in the monster's chest. Her magic encountered much more resistance than she'd expect for such a narrow cut, but regardless a small hole opened up, which copiously bled before healing immediately.

So then. A lot of that then.

She began viciously slicing at the monster, grunting and gasping with effort as its thick skin - what sort of virus does that to somepony? - offered resistance, but not enough to keep her from injuring it. Eventually, it reared back under her assault, one hand back. It slashed, then slashed with the other, dissolving into a frenzied fit of attacking as it walked forward at her.

Twilight's eyes widened and she dove to the side, wincing when her developing bruises pulled against her skin. The beast passed by her, and when it belatedly realized she wasn't in its path of destruction anymore, raised its head and stiffened its arms, roaring. Twilight actually saw red and white tendrils flicker around its body, leaving no doubt as to its origins.

She didn't waste a moment before lashing out with her magic again. If she had time and wasn't being attacked by a beast that could kill her in one hit, she likely could have come up with a better plan than 'keep cutting it' but as it was she didn't have the luxury of time. Fortunately, her new plan was holding it off, and even though the cuts healed as fast as she made them a lot of blood spilled out in the short time; were its insides pressurized? It would explain a lot of the durability.

Finally, with one last shove she pushed the monster back, carving a trench in the ground as she did, and opened a wide gash from its exposed navel to its throat. Again, it healed almost instantly, but bled - don't think about the blood don't think about the blood - copiously before stopping. Twilight readied her magic again, preparing for the beast to try and lunge at her, or throw a boulder.

Instead, it roared again, and began stumbling back on its hind legs. It held out its front legs as if to ward itself from Twilight, and rapidly vomited blood from its mouth. Had... had she won? Perfect! Now when it recovered from whatever was happening to it she could imprison it for when - 

With one last screech, the monster looked up at the sky and then fell over backwards, dead.

She began panting. She'd killed it. She'd killed it! Oh sweet Celestia she'd murdered somepony! A-And a whole bunch of someponies! She retched and threw up her previous meal, and immediately began stumbling away from the alley ew ew ew was that its blood ew ew ew! Why did Elizabeth have to do this? Why couldn't she have just remained as normal as an alien could've? Why? Now a bunch of ponies were going to die and it was all her fault!

Twilight nauseously stumbled out into the street, her horn sending errant sparks from the immense power it had been forced to use recently. That monster's skin was really tough. "Rainbow!" she screamed hoarsely, ignoring the infected bodies around her. "Rainbow!" Was that the destroyed dumpster? It looked like an F.P. Eqscher painting.

Then the pegasus was infront of her, panting, still sparkling. Was Twilight still sparkling? Was she infected?! She checked herself over. No, a little sweaty, dusty and bruised, but she was fine. She was okay. She was perfectly fine! "Twi! You - whoa, you look like you just took a trip through Tartarus."

"Gotta get outta here," she breathed. "Giant thing. Horrible."

"Whoa, slow down there," Rainbow cautioned her, grabbing Twilight in her forelegs as she kept stumbling towards her. "Come on, lets get you outta here. I spoke with your bro and that military commander guy, he's sending some ponies here to take care of this section. Lets get you back to the girls and you can tell us all about it."

Mutely, Twilight nodded and allowed Dash to lead her out of that horrible place, though she felt many more places would receive the status 'horrible' in the near future. What... what had she done? What had she done? As much as her logic tried to justify it she couldn't ignore her morals. This was utterly wrong. Horribly wrong. This was madness, this was civil war, this was going to free Discord and return the windigoes and plunge Equestria into a chaotic eternal winter! She could only hope that everypony else was faring better than her. She only hoped everypony would be safe.

She hoped she hoped...