Greene Fields under Red Lights

by Europa

One Thousand Suns

It was rare for Princess Celestia to be angry. Those who knew her personally knew that she was kind, benevolent, and sought the path of least resistance whenever it was possible, the one which would benefit all parties involved. Her anger was something few wished to see and fewer still ever did.

Princess Celestia was angry.

First of all she was angry at the ambassadors. They had been called some time ago, and only this morning had they managed to reach Stalliongrad for a meeting with her. Luna had been out incinerating more Colonies, which left Celestia with the task of speaking with them and securing outside aid for Equestria.

Or, at least, attempting to.

She grumbled to herself as she walked in circles around the bedroom she'd been given. It was a rather spacious one all things considered, and the bed, complete with pegasus down pillow, had given her a good night's sleep after a series of dreary incineration of infected buildings.

Infected buildings. Businesses, homes, monuments. Was nothing sacred to Elizabeth Greene?

Her good mood after she'd awoken had been ruined by a series of events, the latest of which were their uncooperative 'allies'. They were not receiving any aid and, in fact, the zebras, griffons, minotaurs and the dragons that listened to their council conspired to actually quarantine Equestria and the Crystal Empire. They didn't want to deal with the plague getting into their countries.

Why would they do that?! They had an agreement. Several agreements! Equestria had aided each of their countries when they were in need so why wouldn't they return the favor? Instead they sealed off the borders to ensure nopony got in and, more importantly, nopony got out. Her own country had become a prison, a dungeon shared with a dangerous inmate. There would be consequences. There would be Tartarus to pay for the actions of Equestria's 'allies' once Greene was contained. Oh yes, there would be very, very severe consequences but that was neither here nor there.

She knew why they'd done it. If she'd been in their position she'd certainly be tempted to do the same. They were afraid, terrified even, of Greene. From a certain standpoint it made sense; Elizabeth was an instigator of a terrible disease, keeping her contained was the logical move, despite the impossible logistics of carrying it out. But on the other hoof, it would be impossible to contain her. Once - if, she reminded herself - Greene subsumed all of Equestria, she would have an army of six million slaves to focus on and shatter the quarantine. Especially with those giant infected, 'Breakers' they were called. A quarantine would not work, and she had spent a while trying to drill that into the ambassadors' heads.

But fear and passion had won out over logic; all of their 'allied' nations were paralyzingly terrified of the prospect of the apocalypse visiting their respective countries. And so, Equestria and the Crystal Empire were sealed. Given the sudden appearance of Breakers in Greene's armies, they could spare nopony to even try and break the quarantine. Ponykind was all on its own.

She was angry at the ambassadors, oh yes, but even more than that she was angry at herself.

She'd seen the haunted, deadened look in Rainbow Dash and Twilight's eyes. This was horrific for them and she'd pressured her dearest Twilight into doing such things, things she'd hoped would remain in her distant, distant past and never surface ever again. Why had she pressured her? Celestia had told her it was optional but in her heart of hearts she knew that the moment she even brought it up Twilight, ever so eager to please, would accept. Celestia had done that to her, and she would never forgive herself for putting Twilight through something nopony, especially not her, should ever experience. Never.

She ruffled her wings angrily. It was almost time for another meeting. They were having a lot of those; with the stacks of reports on her desk thoroughly looked through, requests for aid signed, and advice given to unsure mayors, she headed out. As she walked through the hallways of the inn that had been commandeered for its proximity to the Crystal Empire (With a promise of great recompense for the owner) she heard a commotion coming from a side room. She didn't want to eavesdrop, but...

"I can't believe y'all would do something so incredibly stupid!" rang out Applejack's voice.

"What AJ said! Squirt, I get that you wanted to help or... whatever you expected to do, but really? Trekking across zombieland to get to us? That's not brave, that's just stupid!" shouted Rainbow Dash.

"Honestly Sweetie Belle, I thought our parents raised you better than this." That was Rarity Belle, sounding as calm as possible. A moment later, Celestia winced and backed away from Rarity's impression of the Royal Canterlot Voice. "I AM GROUNDING YOU SO HARD YOU'LL BE GOING AS A ROCK FOR NEXT NIGHTMARE NIGHT!"

Best be on her way then.

It was a spacious inn but it wasn't exactly large, so it took her little time to get back to the room with the enchanted map of Equestria.

Twilight was there, staring vacantly off into the distance with heavy bags under her eyes. Her sister was also there, as was a projection of Princess Cadance. Nopony else was around. With a heavy sigh, she took her place at Luna's side.

For a while nopony spoke. Celestia found her gaze firmly locked on Twilight Sparkle's, a worried frown attempting to displace her featureless mask. What had she done to her? Why? She knew why, of course. The same reason Equestria's allies had locked them in; she was afraid.

She was afraid of Elizabeth Greene. The Evolved's purpose was easily the most malevolent one she had ever encountered; the complete eradication of all free will. Utter enslavement to her will on such a level that the afflicted would never even contemplate something better, held fast to the same level for all eternity, no hope of anything greater or even the idea that there could be such. She had been afraid and, in her desperation to contain the infection at all cost, she'd cost Twilight Sparkle her innocence.

Greene would pay dearly... as would Celestia when the time came.

She sucked in a breath, clearing her head of those angry thoughts. In... and out. Better. "Greetings to you all. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

"It's alright, Princess," Twilight said slowly, clearly uneasy around three members of royalty, even if one of them was Cadance. It pained Celestia to see that Twilight was uncomfortable around her, but maybe Celestia deserved that. "We've all been really, really busy."

"I suppose we have, Twilight," she said. "You told us that you had an idea on how to potentially resolve this situation?"

The only non-alicorn at the table nodded. "Yes. You see, after getting attacked by that... that thing - " The Breaker. Oh poor Twilight, it's a miracle you're okay. No thanks to me. "I started thinking about why Greene is doing this. I mean, relating what we know now to the story she told us. I'll have to start at the beginning and work my way up in chronological order, so that we can see clearly why she's spreading the infection."

"Really?" Cadance asked. "I mean, if you think it'll help, Twily, I'm all ears."

"Indeed," Luna replied coldly, her forehooves folded over the table, almost touching one of the illuminating candles. "Understanding thy opponent is the majority of the war. If we know of Greene's most peculiar brand of insanity, we can use such instabilities to her great disadvantage."

"Alright, let me just organize my notes." Lighting up her horn, Twilight pulled a decently thick stack of papers from under the table. Celestia couldn't help but let a smile reach her lips. Still Twilight. Perhaps the damage wasn't as bad as she'd feared; Twilight had certainly proven to be a very strong mare in the past. She started shuffling them. "Let's see... nature of... origins of Zeus... ah, here we are!"

Twilight cleared her throat. "It's pretty clear that Elizabeth used to be a normal human, and that she was infected with the virus at some point in her life and lost almost all her memories. Currently, she's a psychopath with the goal of gripping the entire planet with her virus. But here is the thing; I don't think she is entirely to blame. What are the odds that out of all the humans who became an Evolved, Elizabeth was already insane beforehoof? Zero to none. Given the changes it causes other ponies, I think this virus did more to her than simply wipe her memories."

"How do you mean, Twilight?" Celestia asked.

"The virus did something to Greene to make her want to spread it. It's almost like... like a beehive. The workers serve the queen without question, and the queen's only purpose is to make more children. The regular infected are the workers, and Evolved are the queens, seeing them as children. But there is no chance she was always like that. The virus... I think it destroyed the person she was before. It didn't corrupt her. It didn't possess her. It just outright drove her insane."

They nodded, and waited for Twilight to carry on. "She mentions that the first home she lived in was called Hope. It may have been her birthplace, it may not have been, but it doesn't matter. She became an Evolved there, and she claims to have tried to - " Twilight raised her hooves to make air quotes. " - make her family there. Then the humans came and murdered her children and locked her and her 'Holy Child' away. Reading between the lines, the humans look much more relatable. Greene did the same thing to them she's doing to us, and the human military stopped her. They recognized her potential and kept her and one of the other infected to study."

Twilight shrugged. "Then Elizabeth pretended to be brain dead, so that would throw a lot of their moral inhibitions out the window. At some point they, for some alicorns-forsaken reason, took her virus and made it exponentially deadlier; she calls it a curse. A madhuman took the modified virus and released it, killing thousands. The virus then devoured his body to become, well, Alex Mercer, and in the confusion Greene escaped."

"From what it sounds like," she went on, shuffling her papers. "That time things were much worse. She was in a city, so her virus would've spread like wildfire; hay, it does here without the crystal fields. The human military tried to stop her again, but with the raw numbers in the city, it took Zeus to stop her. And that's not exactly a feasible solution for us. We either have to force her to stop, or convince her to stop."

"We understand," Luna said. "But Elizabeth Greene is utterly incorrigible. She feels no regret for doing such and views the removal of free will as a benefit. How doth one combat that ideology? Please explain this to us, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight smiled and brought a new page to the top of the pile. "I'm glad you brought that up, Princess Luna. Here's my theory; Elizabeth doesn't know she's infected. She doesn't think she's infecting ponies. She calls her strain of virus a blessing. She thinks it's just that; a blessing to be spread to all. The virus naturally makes its queens think the virus is a good thing. And to the Evolved it is. I know I'd give my left hoof to be able to regenerate like that. She doesn't even realize her so-called blessing is a virus, so we can't go by that route. For whatever reason, she has got it into her mind that free will is a poor thing to have."

Twilight looked at Celestia, and she had to force herself not to look away in shame. Still, Twilight's eyes were alight with the search of knowledge, the joy that she had a hypothesis that could be falsified. "Princess, you once told me that the only thing needed for evil to win..."

"... is for good ponies to do nothing," she completed. "But my faithful student, surely she does not see it that way?"

"She probably does. After all, it's easy to do something if you think it's the right thing to do. She, in her insanity, sees free will as causing us all pain, so naturally she wants to alleviate that pain by blessing us. This gives us an opening to negotiate with her."

"I think I see where you're going with this, Twily," Cadance said. "If we can convince her that enslaving everypony isn't a good thing, she'll stop. Only problem is, how are we going to find her to talk sense into her in the first place?"

"That's easy," Twilight said. "We ask her to come to us while around some of the infected. She told me and the girls a while back that she can see and hear everything her 'children' do; it's how her hive mind works. She also controls them through it; she explains it as simply asking them to do something, but I kinda doubt the infected are able to say no to Greene. So we go to some infected, and ask Greene to meet us somewhere, then talk her down." Twilight frowned. "That's also what I think causes her emotion bleed; she's the center of a hive mind so powerful that, if you're close enough, it can affect you even if you aren't part of it."

Celestia smiled. Finally, some good news. A diplomatic approach was possible. Oh sure, they'd still have to try Elizabeth afterwards, but it was her plans that were malicious, not Greene herself. Once she saw what she was really doing Celestia had little doubt she'd agree to a fair trial. "I should go alone." Luna opened her mouth to begin to protest. "Lulu, please hear me out." Hearing her fillyhood name used in the presence of others, Luna went silent with a blush. Score one for the big sister. "Greene is clearly afraid of us; we both saw that during our last encounter. If we both go, she will be too afraid to come. If I go by myself, then she won't be nearly as intimidated."

Luna looked her right in the eyes. "And why should thou go and not us?" Luna challenged hotly. A moment later her voice and ears lowered. "We art afraid for thou."

"I know Luna, I know. But let's face it, diplomacy... isn't exactly your strong suite," she said as soothingly as she could. "Besides, Elizabeth has already shown she can change her emotions and actions wildly. If she turns violent and... something happens, I want you safe."

"Tia, thou art in no harm. Greene's only strength is her disease and that doth not work on us."

"We don't know that, Luna," she said. "And if there's no harm why are you worried?"

Luna sighed. "Perhaps we lied on that. There doth be much about her that is dangerous, such as her physical prowess. We still feel thou should not go alone." Luna sighed. "But if thou feels thou canst talk her down, then go. Just promise us thou will be careful, sister."

Solemnly, she nodded. "I promise, Luna. If she turns aggressive, I'll leave."

With that, Luna began to smile again and clapped her forehooves together. "Brilliant! And to be certain... hmm, hour there, hour back... call it two for negotiations... in four hours, if thou art not returned we shalt come find thee. Twilight Sparkle, was there anything else thou wishes to speak of regarding Greene?"

"Be careful with her, Princess," Twilight said, looking right at Celestia. "She was isolated and experimented on for half a century, for the vast majority of her life by her perspective. She's not a stable individual." She looked down and sighed. "I'm sorry, I couldn't figure anything else."

"Do not be so hard on yourself, Twilight," Celestia said. "This is more good news than I had expected regarding Elizabeth. Thank you. Please, take care of yourself."

Twilight smiled. "I will, Princess."

After several more farewells, Princess Celestia lit up her horn and teleported into the airspace above Stalliongrad. She had a very dangerous journey ahead of her; best to get started. No guards for this. Nopony could follow her into the heart of infection.

She spread her wings and soared, launching herself in a burst of pegasus magic and wind. The city of Stalliongrad had multiple giant blue hemispheres over it, but even as she watched one of the fields imploded. Outside the auras, thousands of infected roamed the streets. Luckily, there were no Colonies in the city; it seemed Celestia's presence warded Elizabeth Greene away. Just as well; Colonies themselves had no defenses, but Greene hadn't left them unguarded, especially after she'd concocted Breakers.

In minutes, she passed the city and headed further south. In roughly half an hour, she could see the spire of Canterlot far in the distance, and if she looked closely she saw a red miasma hanging around the city. She bit her lip and began going over how she would contact Elizabeth and convince her to stop. Possible hypocritical points in the Evolved's reasoning, circular arguments Greene may have.

Fifty minutes after leaving Stalliongrad, she circled around the streets of Canterlot with her sun's noon light beating down on her. Just as last time, her little ponies milled about listlessly on the streets, but there were a hooffull of Breakers walking the streets and some pegasi on rooftops tracking her with their eyes. Recalling Twilight's words, Celestia realized they were scouts. Elizabeth had spotted her.

She took a glance to her left and almost fell out of the air in shock. There was a Colony there, but it was twice the size of any other. The red mesh that had overgrown it was exponentially thicker than on the others, so dense it was almost black. The cubical arrangement of buildings stood tall and proud over the rest of Canterlot's structures, and there was no doubt in Celestia's mind that that was where Elizabeth made her home.

People are always more likely to concede a point surrounded by the comforts of home, she thought. She touched down near an infected pegasus, looking at their twisted bodies sadly. "Elizabeth Greene, I wish to speak to you. I assure you that I mean no harm; this is purely diplomatic. Please, I was hoping we could discuss things like mature adults. If you wish to do so, I will be waiting at the roof of your home. If you do not arrive, I will leave in one hour and negotiations will be off."

Having said her part to summon Greene, she again took wing and performed the short flight over to the massive Colony. She landed on its roof, grimacing when her horseshoes clanked against the tough red coating. Celestia took a deep breath, preparing herself to negotiate with an insane Evolved.

It didn't take long for Elizabeth to arrive. Celestia saw her long before she arrived, jumping across streets and flipping along rooftops. As she approached, Elizabeth leaped high, high into the air and landed, slamming a fist onto the ground right before Celestia. The shockwave made her mane blow back, briefly overpowering the solar winds in it, but otherwise Celestia stood firm.

"Elizabeth Greene," she said coldly.

Greene raised herself from her kneeling position to regard Princess Celestia coldly. "Celestia," she said, her terrible voice rasping with the buzzing of insect wings and echoing. It wasn't just Celestia's imagination; there was certainly something more to the echos now. They weren't louder, but they seemed to push ever so slightly against her mind with a certain force. "Talk inside," she demanded. As she said this, the red mesh between them pulled back, exposing a hole into the middle of the Colony. Without waiting for Celestia to agree, Elizabeth hopped inside.

Celestia carefully weighed her options. If she followed into the wet, slimy and in some places glowing interior, she'd be in Greene's territory fully. However, it was also the best choice to appease Greene for now; yield on the little things so that she could win on the important things. Her subjects were counting on her.

Hovering down into the depths of the Prime Colony, with the hole above her sealing up, Celestia's stomach sank. She pushed past it, of course, but being inside gave her such a terrible sensation of being trapped and on display.

She landed, grimacing when her hooves squished on the web of red and white tendrils that had encompassed the floor. Elizabeth Greene stood across from her, and the two of them weren't alone. Celestia bit her lip.

On either side of Greene was a Breaker. The one on her left had strands of blue fur on random spots, and a useless black stick grew from its forehead. The other sported the remnants of a peach coat, and where its legs became twisted, mutated claws its pink flesh turned rotten black. From the black paws, dark vines twisted up its legs to its torso. Elizabeth rested a hand on the one that had evidently once been an earth pony, staring intently at her.

"Wanted to talk," Elizabeth rasped, looking her straight in the eyes. "Talk."

She nodded. "I was hoping that we could come an agreement." She looked at Elizabeth as she protectively stood before the two Breakers. "It is clear that you care deeply for your... children. Likewise, I care greatly for my little ponies, and it saddens me that the two must fight. It does not have to be that way, of course, so we could come to an agreement - "

Greene cut her off, something which very, very few ponies dared to do. "Agreement? Only you you you. You attacked, you did this. Yourself to blame." The tendrils obscuring the middle of the wall far behind Greene peeled away, exposing an exit. The two Breakers turned around and walked through the opening, which closed behind them. Unconsciously, Celestia relaxed ever so slightly. "You attacked, sent order."

Celestia frowned. "I'm sorry Elizabeth, but it was your children and by extension you who initiated hostilities. You attacked the crystal generators."

"Choice? Crystal generator blue circles stop blessing. Stop stop stop. Can't stop from there. Have to turn circles off, won't let, have to have to have to. Attack first, before you. You put blue circles up. Your fault yours yours yours," she hissed.

Celestia sighed. So Elizabeth saw it as a preemptive attack. She... couldn't truly say she'd been wrong. "Either way, neither of us want to fight."

Greene looked down and frowned, nodding. "Yes yes yes, don't want to fight," she murmured. "Don't want to fight you, kind to me. Kind. Helped helped helped meal shared." She looked back up, her mouth a thin line and tilted her head at Celestia. "You don't want to fight me. Can't can't can't win."

Celestia creased her brows. "I beg to differ, Elizabeth. You may have subsumed the Royal Guard, but Equestia's military has mobilized against you, as has the Crystal Guard. My sister and I have both repeatedly taken the field."

"Know that," she hissed, then instantly calmed down. "Doesn't matter. Blessing still spreads spreads spreads, still winning. Tricks left. Can't win; more children makes more children easier. Can't fight blessing. Crystals break. Blades can't cut. Fire can't burn."

As much as Celestia hated to admit it, Elizabeth Greene had a point. Despite the escalating measures Equestria and the Crystal Empire took - more enchanters, more ponies joining the army to protect everything they loved - Greene's infection marched on. Still, she had just conceded a point to Celestia, so she galloped with it.

"Then we are in accord, Elizabeth. Neither of us wants to fight the other."

Greene smiled. "Good good good. Stop fields and soldiers. Let blessing - "

"Stop, Elizabeth. I didn't come here to surrender to you. I want to convince you to stop." There. She'd made her point clear.

Greene's smile disintegrated. "Stop."

Celestia nodded. "Yes. I understand how this must seem to - "

"Won't stop, can't no no no. Never. Why?"

After a moment, she realized Elizabeth was asking why Celestia wanted her to stop 'blessing' ponies. Princess Celestia sighed. Here came the difficult portion. "Elizabeth, if I may, I will answer that with a question. Why are you so insistent on spreading your blessing?"

"Good thing, make children happy happy happy, no need to worry or think protect forever. Good thing, don't age don't sick."

"Whilst I agree that making somepony impervious to disease is a good thing, the other portions of your plan simply do not make any sense, Elizabeth." The Evolved narrowed her eyes, but Celestia carried on. "If nopony were able to die, if everypony were immortal like you or I, the population would increase dramatically and soon there would be not enough food to sustain the population. Naturally it would level off at a certain point, but either way it would put great stress on the ecosystem that is not needed."

"No problem," Greene countered. "Feed from me, feed from me. Plenty to give, send love."

"Elizabeth, please elaborate on what you mean by that," she near-demanded.

"Eat drink love, children do that now. Strange strange strange don't know how." She shrugged. "Doesn't matter. Good."

That wasn't good. Elizabeth's infected could eat her love over the telepathic link, apparently much the same way changelings could. Her apparent confusion indicated this wasn't something that had happened on her world either; it only happened in Equestria. That raised a whole slew of questions, but they weren't pertinent at the moment beyond reassuring Celestia that those of her little ponies under Greene's domination would not starve. It was a small comfort, but she took it regardless.

"Even if there is indefinite food, there is not indefinite space Elizabeth."

She tilted her head, confused. "Children don't make more children. Prepost... prepister... pre... silly."

Greene either did not know how basic reproduction worked, could keep her infected from reproducing, or the infected were sterile. Celestia didn't know which one it was, but given how knowledgeable Elizabeth was with her own infection she was inclined to believe her.

Though that thing with the love eating...

"Then I suppose we should simply cut to the heart of the matter, Elizabeth. Nopony approves of your plan to remove free will. Our individuality is very dear to us, and though you may not see it that way it is precious to us. If somepony came to you and asked to be blessed while understanding the enormity of what they asked, I would have no qualms with it. But as it stands now, you are forcing this change upon everypony, violating their right to choose the direction they want their lives to take."

Greene narrowed her eyes. "Right to choose." Celestia nodded. "No right. Fake right. Not not not real. Even if real, harm themselves. Should know; Similars had all-decide government. You have you-decide government. Should agree."

Celestia bit her lip. "My sister and I are not tyrants, Elizabeth. While we are the highest level in our government, we pass laws that benefit the good of the populace. Should we do otherwise we would not be worthy of our stations. And though diarchy has worked for Equestria it too is not the only way; the Minotaurian Republic is proof of that. Yes, sometimes ponies make mistakes and do not know what is right for them, but the difference between us is that they trust us to lead them to right way. They do not trust you. Furthermore, we do not control their thoughts and actions."

Princess Celestia flicked her prismatic tail briefly. It was really hot inside the Prime Colony. "Making what you will of your life is not a false right, Elizabeth Greene. It is a legitimate one. Why should you have the right to say others do not have it? Why are you allowed to keep your individuality, but not them?"

Elizabeth frowned and looked down, clenching and unclenching her fists. Just when Celestia hoped that maybe, just maybe, she'd gotten through to Elizabeth... "Don't want to," she said. "Want to be like them, better better better. Don't know how, don't don't don't. One needs to control. Don't trust other. Trust self. Want to be like them, but then who controls?" She shook her head. "Even even even if found, wouldn't know how. Best alternative."

"And you can't 'pass off', as you will, the control to a subject?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "Thought of. Couldn't figure out." Greene bit her lip for a moment and seemed to deflate. "Not not not smart enough. Not for that."

She was stubborn, wasn't she? "I hardly see how wanting to lose your individuality is a good thing, Elizabeth."

"Only reason for action happiness. All things for it. More happiness, less sadness, all time." She tilted her head and suddenly, with surprising intensity, asked Celestia, "Why do you rule ponies?"

She raised a gilded hoof to her chest. "Me? I can not speak for my sister - "

"Not Luna. You."

" - but, I remain on the throne so that I can help guide my subjects to the greatest quality of life I can. With great power comes great responsibility; I have the former and so I have the latter."

"Why care? Why guide?" she asked. "What in return?"

"I do not ask for anything in return, Elizabeth. While my subjects insisted on granting my sister and I great luxuries, I would have been perfectly happy with much less; aiding them is all I need."

"Why aid?" she pressed.

Celestia almost frowned. She saw where this was going, but played along and kept up her diplomatic mask. Her subjects were counting on her. "Because it brings me great joy to see them prosper."

Elizabeth smiled, as if that answered the greatest questions of the universe. The pulsing light-sacks seemed to brighten for a moment. "Only purpose, only only only. Blessing skips actions. Right to reward."

"Even if you're true that the pursuit of happiness is the only purpose in life, simply being given the reward is hardly as satisfying as achieving it yourself."

"No no no... achieving self is for happiness, skip skip skip," she chittered to herself in her heavily accented Equestrian. The mysterious force behind her bouncing rasps was starting to give Princess Celestia a headache.

"You're wrong you know," Celestia said. "You claim that because everything is done for happiness that it's only joy which matters. It's not."

In a blur of movement Elizabeth leaped, releasing a burst of dust around her and sailing backwards and slamming into a wall. She stuck fast to the red webs, crossing her arms and glaring down at Celestia, who refused to be intimidated. "Prove."

"First of all from a biological standpoint that isn't true. The purpose for doing anything is to reproduce, or aid others of your species to reproduce in my case. Joy is a stepping stone to that; food makes you happy, and keeps you alive, so you can have children. Furthermore - "

"Wrong."

"I'd appreciate if you didn't interrupt me, Elizabeth. I am trying to be cordial with you."

"Interrupt, was wrong, keep from being being being wrong. Maybe true for essence, maybe. Essence wants that." She shook her head, still firmly stuck to the wall. "Not for people people people. Happiness for them, for them."

Stubborn, wasn't she? "If that's their only goal, then why do all people of all races not seek out simple addictive substances that manipulate their emotions; why do they not do to themselves what you force upon them? Why do they engage in activities that merely serve to frustrate them?"

"Calculate wrong," she said simply. "People forget things; no advantage. People calculate wrong."

Heavens above, she really does think what she's doing is good.

"And you do not?" Celestia raised a brow. "Greene, I hardly think you are in a position to tell ponies that you know what's good for them more than they do."

"Said ponies make mistakes in what's right," she pointed out.

"And you do not?"

Greene fell silent, and dropped off her web. She looked down sadly, flickering her unchangeable emerald irises left and right. "Made mistakes," she whispered, the echoes as noticeable as ever. "Made made made. Right in this though. Saw minds, good good good."

After a moment, Celestia deciphered that Elizabeth could read the minds of her infected and judged that they were well. While it did Celestia good to know that the infected weren't suffering, she could hardly let that impede her judgement. "And can you compare them to how they were before?" she asked.

"No, no link to then. Forgot." She forgot to establish her hive mind early, or - worse - her infected had forgotten their pre-virus lives? Princess Celestia dearly hoped for the former.

"Then how can you tell they are better off under your control than before?"

"Compare to self," Greene said, as if that was that.

"And a sample size of yourself alone is enough for something like... like this?"

"Yes."

This was going nowhere fast. She restrained a sigh. "Elizabeth, what would it possibly take to convince you that what you are doing is wrong? What would I need to show you to demonstrate that blessing everypony against their will is, in fact, a heinous crime? The panic in the streets when somepony so much as sneezes? A mother huddling their foal as your 'children' walk by their home? The empty, windswept streets where your so-called blessing has swept through and destroyed the hopes and dreams of everypony inside? What would it take, Elizabeth?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. Some some some things known true; planet round, snow wet, blessing good. Nothing changes. Nothing convinces."

So that was it then. Negotiations had broken down; normally Celestia would follow this by taking her leave, purging herself of the virus, and then heading back to her sister. But admitting her wrongdoing or not, Elizabeth Greene was still a dangerous criminal, and she was still the highest authority in her vicinity.

"Very well then. Elizabeth Greene, you are under arrest." The Evolved's head snapped up and she locked gazes with Celestia. "You will spend a brief stay in a prison cell until such times as a court can be arranged to try you. You have the right to have such a court arranged in a rapid manner. You - "

If she'd blinked, she would've missed it. Elizabeth's eyes narrowed and then she was a gray, white, and red streak. She reached Celestia before she could even think to react and punched her in the chest, right below her torque.

Half a moment later Celestia slammed into the wall on the opposite side, groaning. Her ribs were broken, and that was terrifying because her ribs were very resilie -

Before she could finish that thought, Elizabeth was on her again, left hand pinning her throat to the wall and right hand instantly punching her in the stomach. She drew her fist back and prepared to punch her again, but with her eons-developed reflexes Celestia teleported behind Greene and wove a quick regeneration on her wounds.

"Elizabeth, there is no need to - "

The Evolved darted at her again, but this time Celestia was ready. She sidestepped the charge and lifted Elizabeth in her magic, who started immediately flailing about but, without leverage, couldn't use her tremendous strength. "Calm yourself!" she told her, lighting up her horn and sending a sleeping spell at Greene. The yellow ray hit the Evolved but... nothing happened. She hadn't defended herself; Celestia felt the spell impact. It was like the spell had... dispersed in nearly a million different directions.

Before she could try again Elizabeth slammed her fists together. The air around her distended and blew outwards, interrupting Celestia's magic and tossing her back like a rag-doll, horn over tail until she came to a rest. She flipped over to her hooves and eyed Greene, who was cracking her neck and flexing her hands, a faint buzzing filling the air. She zapped Elizabeth Greene with another sleep spell, pouring as much power into it as she could, but as before it seemed to dissipate upon contact, leaving its target untouched.

The hive mind, Celestia realized. It's spread out through the hive mind, leaving her alone.

She tried another spell, one to soothe Elizabeth and calm her down, but just as the magic was taking form the buzzing intensified, followed by a brilliant CRACK of thunder and a single arc of green lightning from Greene's outstretched palm. In an instant it crossed the distance and slammed into Celestia's horn. Her pegasus magic kept the lightning from doing too much harm to her organs, but it still discharged her magic in a violent golden burst, sending her into the next wall.

She groaned, dazed, and instinctively sent a wave of force forward. It caught Elizabeth mid-charge, not throwing her back but still stopping her in her tracks, which was enough for Celestia to regain her hoofing and heal her newest batch of fractures. She reached into her deep, deep well of magical knowledge and began to throw out tricks and traps to pacify Elizabeth Greene.

None of them worked.

She entrapped Greene in telekinesis and tried to distance herself, but Elizabeth blasted her horn with lightning the moment her feet left the ground. She hit a random pebble with the strongest Want-It-Need-It she could muster, but Elizabeth didn't do more than momentarily flick her gaze to it. She formed a cocoon around her and filled it with paralytic magic, but five furious strikes shattered her golden, nigh-on-impervious barriers like glass and freed the Evolved. She whipped the wind into a miniature hurricane, placed entrapment wards on the ground, stunning fields, electric prisons, space-time warps where you could not get out, solidified air, summoned adhesive slime, reaching deeper and deeper into her bag of pacifying tricks that spanned the millennia.

But despite all of them, Elizabeth Greene simply powered through them with brute force. She walked through the winds, overpowered the wards. She sprinted around the electric prisons and leaped over the manifold's obvious distortions, or simply waited for them to fade at which point she shattered the shield Celestia put around her. Nothing that she threw at Elizabeth Greene could keep her down, and each time she escaped a trap she injured Celestia in some way or another, flying or grounded thanks to her prodigal jumps.

Celestia groaned, magically tossing Greene aside to give herself an opening to heal her broken hind legs. She couldn't trap Greene or even approach her; she had simply too much raw strength. As much as it pained her, she had to wear her down first. Couldn't diplomacy work just once with a supervillain? Just once?

She squared her body and lit up her horn with brilliant radiance, focusing on Greene's body just as she finished falling down. From her heavenly orb she summoned the barest amounts of its plasma, surrounding Elizabeth in an orb of solar flame.

That had been the plan at any rate; the instant Greene hit the ground she rolled out of the way; Celestia's short-lived fire orb hit nothing. Of course, that didn't demoralize her. She flapped her wings and darted at Elizabeth for a change, then as she approached reared up on her hind legs and flapped her wings forward at the Evolved. The winds sent her flying again, and the next plasma sphere engulfed her.

When the flames cleared, she investigated the damage. Elizabeth was on her knees, looking over her arms almost curiously. Patches of her skin and suit glowed brilliant orange, but even as Celestia watched the scorched portions fell off like shed fur, and new skin and clothes regrew themselves. Elizabeth stood up and looked at Celestia hatefully.

She summoned her magic again, but this time did not use the sun. Instead she shot two head-sized fireballs out at Greene, with a coil of burning wire between them. They wrapped around Elizabeth, but she didn't seem to notice them as her entire body flickered with red and white tendrils, she took a deep breath, and her eyes turned bright yellow.

Celestia was no fool; she leaped into the air to avoid whatever was coming, but she wasn't fast enough; Elizabeth turned her head to follow her.

Her wings failed her and her eardrums burst. A conical blast like nothing she'd ever felt before swatted Princess Celestia out of the air like a fly, crushing her against an overgrown wall and shattering her bones. Greene tried to flatten her as the waves of crimson force continued for a few more seconds. It finally stopped and she fell to the ground, panting and healing herself. There was a rush of movement, and Elizabeth Greene was before her again, ready to punch.

Ignoring the fading agony around her body, Celestia threw herself to the side, and then was tossed through the air when the shockwave of Greene's missed punch caught up with her. She got back on all fours and narrowed her eyes at Elizabeth Greene. Alright then. No more nice Princess. Elizabeth wanted to do things the hard way? Very well then.

She began lashing at Elizabeth's left side viciously. Streaks of telekinesis-powered flames came into being and cut a deep slash in her suit, spraying a small amount of blood - was that blood? It looked too thick - and as the wound closed, they opened another. She stumbled away under the assault, one hand raised as if it could block the magic blasts.

But all things came to an end. Greene got her footing back and surged at Celestia, this time not straight on but to her right. She turned her head to track the Evolved as she reappeared from her streak at Celestia's right. She prepared to slam her back, but before the magic could take hold Elizabeth dashed again, ducking beneath Celestia's barrel and coming out on her left in a feint, poised to punch her in the horn and shatter the magical organ. It was a high-speed variation of a classic feint and it would've worked if Celestia hadn't seen it before so many times.

She swung her frame around to avoid Greene's calamitous punch and, now with Greene behind her, kicked her in the back with a single hind leg.

Elizabeth was sent through the air, but Celestia grimaced and lowered her aching leg to the ground; it was like hitting a mountain. She spun around to face her adversary and lashed out with a lance of flame, scorching the tendrils Elizabeth had stood on a moment before she had hit the ground and sprung into the air.

She followed Greene's arc, intending on hitting her with more and more spells until she submitted to arrest, but as the Evolved soared through the air something sparked. Celestia's eyes widened when she saw two pony-sized orbs form in Greene's hands and hover in place; crackling orbs of emerald lightning that immediately began to close in on her.

She sprung into the air, and the orbs turned to follow her. They moved ridiculously fast, and with the limited flying space in the Prime Colony it was difficult to evade them. When she was certain her latest dive wouldn't be enough, both balls popped harmlessly out of existence. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Then she gasped and healed her ribs, because a boulder had just hit her. She looked down to see Greene lean down and grasp the tendrils coating the floor. She pulled up, and a piece of rock the size of a carriage rose up, tendrils flowing off of it like water. She chucked the boulder at Celestia and immediately prepared another. Celestia dodged the rock with a deft movement of her wings, and started slashing at Greene with summoned flame arcs that the Evolved seemingly ignored. The next rock she gripped in her magic and with a heave of effort - it was moving surprisingly fast - tossed it aside. The next one she threw back at Elizabeth who, in the process of lifting another one, was caught by surprise and fell to the ground.

In dark ages past, Celestia would have taken this opportunity to swoop down on her downed opponent with her earth pony strength, but she knew that was a tremendously bad idea against an Evolved. The Breakers that defended Colonies were strong, but they may as well have been foals next to Greene.

Instead, she called more plasma from the sun and summoned it to a point just under the Prime Colony's roof. The pillar of flames surged downwards onto Elizabeth and surged outwards, briefly engulfing the entire floor. The plasma hid what happened for a moment and Celestia kept flapping, waiting for Greene's injuries to show themselves.

She jerked when, out of the fading fire, an unscathed Elizabeth flew up and grasped her by the shoulders. She flailed her limbs briefly in panic, and then Elizabeth turned them over so Celestia was on the bottom. Then gravity did its thing, pulling them onto the sooth-covered tendrils where the force of the impact, with Greene's mass above her, shattered a good portion of Celestia's spine.

They bounced back up, where Elizabeth grabbed her again and repeated the action, breaking her healed back again, and then a second time.

The third time, Celestia got her senses back and teleported herself behind Elizabeth. The Evolved spent no time with wondering where she went and threw her arms out to the sides, releasing two orbs again. As they began to approach her, Celestia gasped in pain. Her hooves burned, and sparing a glance down she realized why. The mesh of red and white was growing over her horseshoes, burrowing through the enchanted metal. But that wasn't the worst part; they grew over Celestia's hooves and actually began to impale her flesh.

With a panicked yell she pulled her hooves away and let the corroded slippers fall to the ground, yanking the tendrils out with the movement. But the moment she set her hooves down again they began to ever so slowly wrap around her again, forcing her to keep all four legs moving lest the tentacles spread throughout her body.

In her horrified distraction, Elizabeth had zipped behind her and, with a kick, sent Celestia flying forward... right into the two orbs.

Pop!

Pop!

A strangled scream escaped Celestia's lips as she flew through the air, flesh charred by the explosions. She healed herself again, but she was spending far too much magic on repairing her body and not enough on stopping Elizabeth. Speaking of which...

She teleported to the side just as Elizabeth reached her, having tossed her body through the air in a cannonball. The blast of air lost its danger by the time it reached Celestia. She lowered her head and pointed her horn at the recovering Greene, and opened her link to the sun again; the same spiritual link that let her bypass the star's incalculable mass and move it across the sky. She reached into the very heart of her star and summoned plasma straight from its core to her horn, projecting it towards Elizabeth Greene.

Several things happened at once. The massive pressures on the plasma sent it shooting at Elizabeth, through the Prime Colony, and several more buildings before fading. The plasma itself was so incredibly hot it glowed in the gamma spectrum; it was completely invisible. However, it burned and exploded the air around it into a white hot beam. So while in reality she sent a near-instant ball of plasma through Greene's chest, it appeared to others that she blasted Elizabeth with a massive coil of white lightning.

With her affinity for light magic, she peered through the blinding flash to see the damage. Celestia's blast had sent Greene flying, and the perfectly circular hole in the Evolved's chest threatened to tear her in two. Elizabeth stuck to a wall with her back to Celestia, which gave her the perfect view of the organs and flesh re-knitting themselves in moments, hiding the hole. It was demoralizing to see how quickly her most powerful attack's mark was erased, but Celestia knew that Elizabeth couldn't regenerate forever; she'd eventually have to run out of flesh.

Elizabeth fell to the ground, and the fight resumed. Celestia pulled out all the stops, attacking Elizabeth with the same fury she had exercised so long ago in the Dark Times, the Post-Discord Havoc, and thankfully few other times. Greene moved quickly, unpredictably, and across the entire Prime Colony, but Celestia was old enough to see a few general patterns and plan for the alien movements.

She created a gravity well under Elizabeth and, as she fell in, speared her with a shaft of solidified light, followed by shattering it into pieces. She tossed Elizabeth into the air with telekinesis and, using her pegasus magic, surrounded her with a hailstorm. She created a shell of golden magic around her and filled it with solar plasma, burning her ruthlessly until the Evolved broke through the shield.

The Prime Colony's interior shimmered with intense heat as Celestia reached into her link more and more, bringing down sun strikes and unleashing core blasts at Greene, a great many finding their marks. Whenever Greene summoned her orbs, she summoned magnetic fields around them to disperse the energy harmlessly. When she took a deep breath and changed her eye color, Celestia waited for the last moment before teleporting behind Elizabeth. As time passed, she felt her telekinesis ease up as Elizabeth Greene's mass decreased.

But for every strike she scored, Greene scored two.

The tendrils along the ground continued to grasp and tear at her whenever she stood upon them, forcing her to either keep to the air where Elizabeth could easily leap at her, or continuously dance around trying to keep them from getting a firm grip in her. Elizabeth was impossibly fast and brutally strong; for all of Princess Celestia's vast wisdom she simply did not have the reflexes to do anything more than react as Greene ran circles around her.

Greene ravaged Celestia with stone-shattering punches and iron-snapping kicks. Normally they wouldn't hurt her; there was no armor on the planet that could protect her better than her natural, prodigal earth pony magic, but Elizabeth Greene was in a class all of her own. Whenever she tried to light up her horn and teleport to safety - because this was too dangerous - an arc of lightning struck her horn and unleashed a backlash. And when Celestia adapted to magnetic redirection, well. Her teleportation was fast, but Elizabeth's run and punch was faster.

She avoided most of the crimson shockwaves, but every now and then Elizabeth threw a giant boulder at her, which distracted her from the approaching pair of green orbs, which in turn distracted her from the impending roar that put the Royal Canterlot Voice to shame. And even when Elizabeth's strikes missed, the shockwaves they released never did, constantly buffeting Celestia back and forth.

She was in a tough spot; hoof to hoof combat was completely incapable of hurting Elizabeth; only her magic did anything. But she also needed that magic to repair the brutal damage she kept taking. She also couldn't teleport away; Elizabeth did not give her even the half second it would be needed to do so.

She took to the air again, healing the multitude of tiny holes that Greene's tendrils had stabbed in her hooves, and released a blinding flash of light in all directions earning a pained hiss from Elizabeth. She peered through the light and linked to the sun again, blasting another 'lightning bolt' at Greene. The Evolved dodged it with a backflip, leaving behind two flickering ball lightnings that instantly started to home in on her position.

She pulled them apart with a magnetic field, and then turned around to face the seemingly invincible Elizabeth. The Evolved had sprinted up the side of a wall and was now actually above Celestia, and leaped outward. Celestia winged out of the way, but before she could readjust her course Elizabeth bounded off the wall and headed straight for her, one foot extended.

All the air fled Princess Celestia's body as Elizabeth's kick drove her into the ground, stomach up. It didn't stop there, though. Using her momentum, Elizabeth surfed Celestia's body across the burning, nipping tendrils before finally shifting her footing. Once she did that she flipped Celestia out from under her, breaking her broken ribs and sending her careening into another wall.

She groaned in pain and tried to teleport away, this time shielding herself beforehoof, but a wave of nausea forced her to stop, leaning over and dry heaving. More healing magic solved the issue of her broken bones making her feel sick and the red mesh stopped trying to burrow into her flesh, but by then Elizabeth's orbs had broken her shield and the Evolved was high up.

Elizabeth Greene stood on what may have once been a second floor, but was now a narrow strip of floor suspended from the Prime Colony's ceiling by two metal rods. She had both hands wrapped around said rods and stared down at the alicorn. Her eyes hardened when another blast of solar core plasma burned a hole through her chest, and then as it healed she shifted her hands and flew down at Celestia again.

Battered, bruised, and running dangerously low on magic, Celestia could only finish mending her ribcage in the time it took Elizabeth to fall down onto her. The alien placed her knees on the Princess's belly and leaned over. Elizabeth Greene grasped Celestia's throat with her left hand, brought her right hand up, and shoved it at the Princess's forehead.

Her eyes widened and her horn blazed to life, a golden glow forming around Elizabeth Greene's approaching hand. They both began to shake under the effort as the hand, now closer to Celestia's head than her horn, was held in place. She gritted her teeth together, trying to push the Evolved away. Celestia's enormous magic strained against Elizabeth's monstrous strength. Her hand started to move away, and Celestia thought she might have the spare time to finally teleport away from here.

In a flash, Elizabeth's right hand stopped pressing its advantage, but the nearly-forgotten left hand around Celestia's throat snaked up and pressed itself to her forehead just as the telepor -

Confusion child grave born in earth pony town convert town to family enormous power rising up from shattered stone to face Discord there's hope there's no hope he's going to kill me and trap me in cold dark place that she had sent her sister to what had she done what had she done her own flesh and blood trying to kill her kill him in return couldn't save him couldn't save Twilight's friends from Discord she was a failure she couldn't stop the Similars from striking her down as her Captain was hypnotized and nothing would ever save the ponies she had sent to the necessary war she delighted in, ripping vehicles apart and pulling helicopters from the sky to crash around her in a raging inferno as she linked to the sun it hurt it hurt it hurt so much it hurt hurt hurt cursed her burned her stopped started time travel into the past by her faithful student it hurt hurt hurt make it stop hurt hurt hurt -

- hurt hurt hurt -

-HURT HURT -

- sleep.

Celestia was gone, and Elizabeth sat on the pointed spire of Canterlot Castle's highest tower, looking out at the nest. How should she feel about what had just happened? So many things happened there in her Home between her and Celestia, she didn't know how to feel about it. She was confused confused confused, and she couldn't make sense of it.

The sun alicorn had come to her Home and wanted to talk, so despite her growing grudge against her she went and talked. For a moment she'd been hopeful Celestia was there to tell her in person they were going to stop holding back her her her Blessing, but no such luck. She wanted her to stop Blessing the equines, and while the reasons Celestia described made some limited modicum of sense, none of them could match up to her Reason for doing things.

And then... then Celestia had threatened to imprison her, for the third time in her life. In a moment she'd become terrified, then angry, then fearful for her children, fearful of Celestia, defiant of Celestia, then furious at Celestia and flung herself at the alicorn with reckless abandon.

In retrospect it had been the the the dumbest thing she had ever done; this was Celestia, an ages old alicorn with magical powers that let her move the sun across the sky with her mind, and she fought her and... and...

She'd won.

She had defeated the first friend she'd ever made, the friend whom she had greatly overestimated in terms of power. Celestia was not as dangerous as she had feared and she had sent the alicorn fleeing. Through her children's eyes she'd seen the alicorn teleport into Manehattan, passed out, where she had been swiftly rescued by guards. The alicorn would recover, and if the healing spells she'd demonstrated were were were anything to go by, she would fully recover within a day.

If only she'd gotten a good hit on her horn.

Celestia had made her position clear; she would never let her children be. Elizabeth's first ever friend had become her enemy, and she'd attacked the alicorn.

She felt... somewhat proud of herself. For too long she'd failed her children; she was too new to the world to defend herself in Hope, and while she outstripped her Wayward Child in strength, speed, and durability, all the power she could muster still couldn't match his weapons and his method of healing himself with his Curse. But now, she had just sent her greatest threat on this world running, injured, and she knew that she could do it again. She didn't have to be afraid to walk outside her Home and spread her Blessing directly; if Celestia could not stop her who who who could?

She stopped those thoughts before they could get too much farther. She'd beaten Celestia, but it certainly hadn't been been been easy. The alicorn's actual attacks hadn't hurt her. What was a hoof compared to a boulder-like fist? The fires that lashed around her had stung, wearing her down with attrition, and that strange glowing-gas-almost-fire burned horribly, hotter than anything the Similars ever hit her with. To say nothing of the massive white blasts.

She idly brought a hand up to her stomach, rubbing the regrown suit. Underneath, she winced as muscles pulled against charred flesh; that fight was much closer than her appearance had let on. But in the end, she had hurt Celestia more than she had hurt Greene.

Suddenly guilt stabbed stabbed stabbed her heart. Hurt Celestia. Her oldest friend and she had hurt her, tried to kill her in her rage. She'd been defending herself of course. She'd never go back to a prison ever again, especially when it seemed each one was worse than the last last last. But she'd tried to kill her. What if she had? Could Luna move both the sun and the moon? Would Fluttershy understand her, forgive her?

She was glad Celestia had gotten away.

What was she going to do? How should she feel? She'd barely defeated Celestia, and if she encountered her again and the alicorn had any help, things would go very badly for her. Sure, she'd have her children around her, but she'd never put them in the solar equine's way. If Celestia wanted her children, she'd have to go to them.

No, she could defeat Celestia, but Celestia and Twilight Sparkle? Celestia and Luna? Celestia and Shining Armor? Not a chance chance chance.

The sun slowly headed towards the horizon, and she looked across Equestria. Her Blessing was spreading, of course. She was winning. She didn't need to do anything different; keep doing things as she'd been doing and she would win. That was no excuse for for for sitting around. Celestia and Luna - her enemies - would be thinking of something to stop her. She had to stay ahead of them and she could do that because she was ever so smart, smart enough to overcome the Similars in their full force, almost enough to overcome her Wayward Child.

She still felt for Celestia, deluded as the alicorn was, but she couldn't let past friendships hurt her family. As for the moment, she needed to recover. Her flesh inside had been charred fiercely and it wasn't healing. She had to seek out her Warm Children and draw in the warmth they created to to to heal herself.

She still didn't know how to feel.