//------------------------------//
// With Friends Like These 
// Story: Greene Fields under Red Lights 
// by Europa 
//------------------------------//






DAY 16 OF INFECTION: 40% OF EQUESTRIA INFECTED 




Twilight Sparkle


It was early in the morning, right after breakfast. All five of them were in the room they had slept in, while Spike was out running an important errand for quills, each of the girls wearing their crystal pendants.

She really couldn't help but smile as the girls talked to one another in the 'bedroom' they had been given. They had been apart for the better part of two weeks, trying to help Equestria with evacuations and morale and infected. It had been busy, but finally they had a moment to breathe, and the five of them could get together and just... talk.

"Oh," Rarity said. "You should have seen the stores in Manehattan! Completely emptied out. It's a tragedy, I tell you. A tragedy! I understand that ponies want to keep their belongings with them when they move but..."

"... but ponies are all riled up, I hear ya," Applejack said with a sage nod.

"I know!" Pinkie said, despair ever so slightly notable in even her voice. "Everypony's so afraid, and nopony's leaving their homes, and nopony's buying cupcakes! Not even the cows and donkeys and everypony who isn't a pony in Equestria; they're afraid they'll give it to somepony else!"

... the topic of discussion had gotten depressing very fast. They'd spoken of much happier things initially, but inevitably gravitated towards the infection. Twilight stepped in to avoid it. "Everypony, how about we talk about something besides the end of the world?"

"Twilight's right," Rainbow said, hovering in place. "We've been focusing so much on it for these two weeks, I think we need to take a load off of the infected." She flew down next to Twilight and put a wing over her withers. "So, speaking of 'something else', what's with the changelings?"

Twilight laughed nervously and shared a look with Applejack, the latter's legs folded under her and into the blue cushion. "On second thought, talking about the infected isn't that bad..."

"Dashie's right!" Pinkie said, bouncing around the room while keeping her head locked on Twilight. "I mean, at your brother's wedding we were all like 'wham! bam!' to the changelings and they were all 'grr ponies grr' and now I see them flying around the infected zones keeping them inside and in the big blue crystal whatchamacallits helping everypony else keep the infected out and that's tooootally strange because during the wedding they were all 'grr ponies grr' like I said before and - "

Rainbow had flown over and put her hoof in Pinkie's mouth before she could really get going. "Yeah, what Pinks said. AJ, you were there. Why are we letting that overgrown fly stay here?"

Applejack sighed and tilted her hat down slightly. "It's 'cause we ain't got much of a choice, RD. Y'all saw how fast Greene was doin' things, Twilight even got the numbers crunched."

Twilight nodded. "She's right. We'd have completely lost by day twenty one without any help. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's thanks to Chrysalis that Elizabeth's as hurt as she is." Okay, so there's really nothing to talk about except the infection, she thought, resigning herself to that fate.

"What did happen, darling?" Rarity asked. "It's plain to say none of us were there when whatever happened, happened."

"Yeah!" Pinkie shouted. "I don't get to use my everypony-flee-there's-big-official-business-coming song often, let alone during the end of the world!"

"Well," Twilight said, flopping her left ear. "I wasn't there for it, but apparently this Covert Confidence mare arrived and gave the Princesses a plan. They took some of Princess Celestia's blood and tried to inject Elizabeth with it."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at that. "Err, really Twi? What would that do?"

"Apparently it's poison to her," Twilight said, itching under her coat from the uncomfortable topic of poison. "So they got Chrysalis to disguise herself as Princess Luna and taunt Elizabeth by taking one of the infected hostage, while somepony else hid with Celestia's blood in a needle." She shrugged. "Apparently, when Greene showed up the real Princess Luna intervened and held Elizabeth in place long enough for the blood to be injected."

"And it worked?" Rainbow asked.

Twilight frowned, both ears flopping. "No, it didn't. I mean, they got it into Greene and according to the Princess she was really hurt, but she got away."

"What do you mean, 'got away'?" Rainbow asked, her wings briefly flaring. "Wasn't like, the changeling queen and Princess Luna there? How could she just 'get away'? I mean she's fast but you just said she was really hurt!"

"Well..." Twilight said, not knowing the answer to that question. She really hadn't asked Princess Celestia about it too much. For one thing, she was just too busy and second of all she really wasn't too keen on knowing the details about how the monster who had taken her parents away had escaped justice.

There was a knock on the inside of the door and all five of them jumped, wheeling around to face whoever had let themselves in.

All five of them were instantly on end as they took in the form of a changeling. It rolled its eyes and stepped further in, speaking in its chittering voice. "Ah, the famed hospitality and forgiveness of Equestria," the changeling said. Twilight wondered if that was proof enough of emotion sensing. "She got away by using a new type of infected," he said. He, despite looking on the small and lanky side. Twilight wondered if that was normal among changelings or if this one in particular was an exception.

"And who might ya be?" Applejack asked in a level voice. 

"Swarm Commander Polin, at your... well I shouldn't say service." He snickered and closed the door behind him. Twilight tensed; they were in a room with a changeling. Granted, she had no doubt about being able to brute-force overpower him, but soldiers had many more tricks with their magic than she did in those regards. "So, what was this about Operation Smite?"

That was what they were calling it? "How did Elizabeth escape, buster?" Rainbow asked, getting up in his face.

Polin hardly seemed impressed by her hostility. "Shriekers," he said. "That's what your princesses elected to call them anyway."

"Shriekers?" Applejack asked, looking at Rarity confusedly. The unicorn shrugged back.

"I know less than you, darling. I've seen those Breakers of course, brutish things, but Shriekers?"

"Giant things, can't even tell they used to be ponies or 'lings," he said nonchalantly. "Burrow underground, taller than an ursa. They throw stuff, and grab things by spitting a tentacle and pulling it in. Par for the course with the infected."

Everypony looked at each other nervously. "So..." Twilight said. "Shriekers?" Great, a new type of infected, she mumbled internally.

"That's the sound they make when they erupt from the ground," he said. "I'm not the one who came up with the name, alright? I was just one of the changelings who helped Her Majesty fight them off after they blocked our sight of the target." The target, Elizabeth. But then, wait...

"So there must be a network of tunnels beneath Equestria," she breathed. "Celestia, this is bad. If these Shriekers can just burrow anywhere, then the crystal fields are all vulnerable! We've got to find some way to defend against that!"

The changeling nodded. "Good head on you, pony. Yes, we are thinking of something to defend against the Shriekers, other than going into the infected tunnels because that is suicide. The thing is though, Greene's not making much use of them. She wasn't just chased off after being poisoned. She still is," he said.

"Huh?" Pinkie asked.

"Sometimes the infected do intelligent things, but mostly they've stopped strategizing. Elizabeth is extremely focused on something else, and I can only imagine that this 'something else' is curing herself of the poison. The infected are disorganized, your princesses have destroyed all the Colonies, and the infected are even grouping up past the Hurricane Limit. I got a good chain reaction off yesterday, it was a thing of beauty."

Twilight's friends looked at each other in confusion, but having a BBBFF in the military meant she understood what the Hurricane Limit was; it was the point where an army was so dense that an enemy's chaining or area magic outweighed the advantage of having many soldiers. The Hurricane Limit was higher for an army that had magic of their own since they could counterspell, which let them group up more, such as in the invasion of Canterlot by these very creatures!

But while the infected included unicorns, they knew just as much magic as Elizabeth Greene did, and certainly wouldn't think to cast on their own. Their Hurricane Limit wouldn't be that high at all.

"So, what?" Rainbow asked. "We're winning now?"

All five of them started when the changeling buzzed his wings and flew up, standing on a wall, close to the ceiling. He looked down at them. "I wouldn't say winning per say, but you're getting more crystal fields made, no more Colonies, stupid infected. It's still getting worse in most cities, but no more small towns are getting picked off and, here's the best part." He smirked, seeming to make a point in showing off his fangs. "In Baltimare, the infected are actually getting pushed back, and we've almost completely cleaned up Stalliongrad."

Her ears perked up and she couldn't help but smile. That was great news! Once one city was clean, the soldiers there could help out the other cities, which would in turn save those cities faster, cascading until they were ready to take back Canterlot. But in the meantime...

"What about Elizabeth?" Twilight asked.

The changeling, still clinging to the wall - she'd have to do research into how, her guess was a modification of pony adhesive magic - grimaced. "She's gone dark. Your alicorns can't find her under the sky, so everyling assumes she's in the tunnels. That means that she's gone. It's suicide to go in there. Not to say we aren't trying to scry her location, but success is..." He pursed his lips. "Limited."

"You lost her," Rainbow said bluntly.

Polin growled, the sound sending shivers down everypony's spines. It was almost as bad as Greene's growls. "Yes, we lost her. Can you blame us? To get to her we need to get through all of the infected, which are all early warning systems for her. The moment we so much as set hoof in the tunnels, she'll know we're coming. We're thinking of ways to reliably find her, but until then we only ever fight her when she wants to."

Everypony sighed, and Applejack stomped a hoof. Normally it would've made a sharp sound, but it was muffled by the makeshift bed she hit. "Well, that's great. Which of course begs the question of why ya ain't out there looking for her, instead of making small talk with us."

"Off duty," he said simply. "At least for the moment. Her Majesty thought it would be prudent for us to exchange some noncritical information." He grinned, showing off his fangs, and drifted down to the floor amidst buzzing wings. "Call it a show of good faith."

"So we ask you a question about changelings and you answer it?" Pinkie asked.

"That's the gist of it," Polin said, holding out a perforated hoof and inspecting it, like it held the answer to life, the universe, and everything. "Obviously I can't answer anything too sensitive, but - "

"What's the big idea, invading Canterlot, huh?" Rainbow demanded, flying into his face.

Before Twilight could do anything, the changeling's horn lit up green and pushed her away. That made everypony tense up, even Twilight. Sure, she was about to do the same thing to Rainbow, but she was her friend! This changeling wasn't even close. "Oh, how dare we go after the enormous pile of food sitting there, in order to relieve our rapidly deteriorating situation," he said flatly. "The nerve of us."

"That would be all well and good," Rarity said with an incline of her head. "If your so called food wasn't acquired from us. And would it have been so difficult to simply ask?"

"Do manticores ask frogs and wolves to simply talk to them?" he retorted. "You are our prey, nothing more. Why should we care?"

Twilight facehooved. "Alright, first of all. That argument fails to hold merit with intelligent beings. Awareness is the great equalizer. Second of all, what is it with you changelings? First Chrysalis, now you? You're not predators, and we're not your prey." Her eyes narrowed. "You're parasites."

"Fine, parasites then. What does it matter? You had food we needed, you wouldn't have given it to us, we needed it badly, what do you want us to have done?"

"You seem pretty sure we wouldn't have helped," Twilight said, stepping forward. Everypony else shared nervous looks with each other. "What about the griffons? Zebras? Hmm? We're neutral with the Diamond Dog Alpha Pack, despite some of the practices their roaming packs undertake."

"None of them have to rip emotions out of you, do they?" Twilight hesitated, backing off slightly from the changeling. "I thought so. Our food stores were starting to run out, Her Majesty saw a solution, and she went for it." He growled. "Nice job ruining that, hero."

"Excuse me for not wanting to be enslaved," she snapped. "And besides, how would that have even worked? Take over Equestria and so forth, I think you'll find there'd be very little love to go around."

Polin laughed. "Maybe between our species, little pony, but ponies would've drawn closer together, amplifying what was there, and making things even better for us."

She snorted, but backed off. "Okay, fine, next question." She tilted her head, scientific curiosity beginning to bubble up in her. "Why is all changeling magic the same color? That's been bugging me for so long. I mean, every unicorn has a different color of magic even though it all falls under unicorn magic, but changelings..." Was it possible that the changeling guards only recruited those with green magic?

Polin sat on his haunches and shrugged. "That would be the link. Queen Chrysalis has green magic, therefore we have green magic."

"Huh?" Applejack asked. "Link the whatsit now?" She looked at Twilight. "How the hay would that work, Twi?"

"If you'll let me explain," he growled. "Thank you. We can all talk to each other with the hive mind, but it takes a fair bit of focus and we can't do anything else with it." He shivered. "Not at all like Greene's hive mind. That... thing is just a twisted perversion of our link." He shook himself out of his horror. "Anyhow, because of that all our magic is the same color as the current Queen's. Her Majesty's full title is Queen Chrysalis the Green."

"Huh," Twilight said, her indignity at the changeling's casual disregard for pony life forgotten. "So other Queens have had other color magics. Does that mean the cocoons, or whatever, also change color?"

He snorted. "Don't be absurd, that's always green."

Twilight creased her brows. "But you just said - "

"Our magic changes color. Queen Thorax the Orange, when she laid Her Majesty's egg, still laid a green one. But Queens with green magic traditionally bring about great reforms and improvements to changeling society, leaving their mark on history," he said, puffing himself up.

For a few moments awkward silence reigned supreme, Twilight looking at her friends, shrugging, then motioning at the changeling guard. "... such as?"

Still puffed up, Polin said, "Queen Tenodera, who united the hives. Or Queen Odona, whose work in love harvesting did to us what inventing agriculture did for you ponies." He stopped to consider for a moment, briefly muttering under his breath. It was strange for Twilight, watching a changeling mutter. "Hmm... history never my strongest... oh, Queen Lakasia, she got under your coats good after the aftermath of the Black Plague. Probably delayed our current situation by a good few decades." He tilted his head. "A lot to live up to, wouldn't you agree?"

"Ooh! Ooh! I have a question!" Pinkie shouted, not giving them a moment to digest what he had just explained. "How many changelings are there?"

"That is sensitive information, but suffice to say there's a lot of mouths to feed."

"Alright then, another question!" Pinkie said as Rarity was going to open her mouth. Rainbow eyed her with annoyance. "What are your fangs for?"

"Huh?" he asked.

"I mean, you eat love right? Do you need fangs for that?" Something was... happening to Polin's face, but it was too early for Twilight to place what. "Is it chewy or something?" Pinkie got closer to him, inspecting the sharp fangs. "Or is it to - "

"Oh, um," Polin said, his cheeks a fluorescent green. "I believe I need to go. Bztik needs my help with something." He darted for the exit and slammed the door.

"Well," Rarity said. "That was... interesting. Pinkie, what did you say to him?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. Hey, you think the whole color-thing is why Chrysalis attacked?"

"What do you mean, Pinks?" Rainbow asked. "I thought she was just being a villain being evil." She crossed her forelegs, hovering in the air. "That's all I gotta know."

"Well think about it! If green is really really super-duper important to changelings, then eeevery queen with green magic like Chryssy - " Chryssy?! " - is being told- " There her voice dropped into an eerie, creepy over-the-withers tone. "Hey do this hey do that don't mess up hey you'd better do great a-a-all the time. I think anypony would go a li-ittle bit crazy after that kinda pressure."

"Pinkie has a good point," Applejack said. "But that ain't an excuse to be invadin' countries and foalnapping brides."

Twilight nodded. "That's true, and it also brings up another point." She looked at the four of her friends that were present, trying not to remember where the other was. "Keep your eyes and ears open. Watch the changelings and tell the Princesses if you see anything suspicious."

"You mean what we've been doing all this time?" Rainbow asked, still cross-forehooved. "Why the sudden emphasis?"

"If what Polin said was true, and that Chrysalis is under pressure to be a 'great' leader, then the moment the infection is contained, Chrysalis will try and take over Equestria."


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



Chrysalis


The moment the infection was contained, Chrysalis was going to take over Equestria.

Really, there was no reason for her not to, and Elizabeth Greene was doing a fine job of softening up the ponies even more than they already were. It was obvious to everyling that the infection would eviscerate Equestria. Already, almost half the population was gone, and the Breakers and Shriekers would destroy whatever military there was, making it an easy sweep for her army. There were, however, still a few problems with taking over Equestria.

The first and foremost problem was containing the infection in the first place. While the sudden weakening of the infected was welcome and gave them both time and breathing room, Chrysalis was no nymph. Elizabeth would recover and return with a vengeance. They had to get as good of a head start as they could while she was still indisposed. It would be too easy if Celestia's blood outright killed her.

The second problem was directly related to the first; making sure enough of the ponies escaped the infection to feed her kind, but not so many that they could put up a fight. It was a delicate balancing act, but unfortunately it wasn't one that Chrysalis had any real say in it. While she could in theory sabotage the fight against the infected so that the ponies were even more weakened, that was outright foolish against such a vicious foe. That was something she simply couldn't control, and it got under her carapace.

The third issue was the alicorn sisters. She'd seen Celestia and Luna's abilities firsthoof when they fought the Shriekers. While once upon a time she may have exceeded Celestia in raw strength, that power also hadn't let her reach through a spiritual link and summon stellar plasma. The destructiveness of that was likely why the solar alicorn hadn't done that back in Canterlot; even that focused stream destroyed several houses behind Elizabeth when she used it.

At the moment she didn't even have raw power to fall back on. While the surge of love from the infected infused her and her people, it'd take a week for her to gain the strength she'd had in the invasion. And while she could in theory gain that kind of power to challenge the Princesses with a second time, Celestia would not underestimate her again. It would not be a mere test of power. Still, if she played her cards right, she could break the alicorns when the time came, one way or another.

While thinking of all the ways she could swoop in once Greene was dealt with, Queen Chrysalis kept buzzing her wings, soaring across the frigid tundra north of Stalliongrad. Not too far, she could see her target. Her tasty, tantalizing target...

She sipped more from her hive's rapidly growing reserves to stem the thoughts of swooping down and grabbing the Crystal Heart in her forehooves and sucking it dry and using the power to - 

Eat more, she scolded herself before doing just that. There's plenty to go around, no skimping out.

While before the infected she hadn't dared send anyling into the Crystal Empire despite the advantages of doing so, with its military otherwise occupied she'd gotten infiltrators in. While the crystal ponies knew of her relation to their pretty little Princess, they'd never actually encountered her people (That they knew of) and so were relatively neutral on the matter of changeling existence. Which suited her just fine, because it let her fly through the air, crystal brooch thudding against her thorax, without doing more than turning the heads of the ponies beneath her.

Reaching the Crystal Palace, the Heart blazing brightly, she set down on a parapet almost at random and set about the task of finding her target. But before finding Cadance, she found two guards. Likely part of a skeleton crew.

"Hello," she said coldly, making them stiffen and look at her. "Where may I find your Princess? I have important news to discuss with her."

"The Princess has asked not to be disturbed," the one on her right explained.

"Oh, she'll make an exception for me," she explained. "This is urgent news regarding the spread of the Greene Virus."

The guards looked at each other, and the one on her left nodded. "Very well then, Queen Chrysalis. If you'll follow us." Too easy, she thought to herself. Oh, the infection made infiltration so easy. After all, noling was concerned about her when faced with such an obvious yet insidiously hard to see enemy. Before too long, she was brought into the interior of the Crystal Palace, halls gleaming with a wide variety of gems, banners hanging from the ceiling. The guards, from which she gently drained love the entire way, brought her to a door engraved with Cadance's cutie mark.

One of the guards rapped on it, while Chrysalis pulled in the ambient love given off by the Crystal Heart and sent it to the hive mind's repository. He knocked on the door, and there was a muffled voice on the other end that Chrysalis, to her chagrin, couldn't make out.

"Your Highness, there's somepony here who says you'll make an exception for her. Flew right in."

More noises.

"Your Majesty, I understand the breach in security but... you'll understand when you see that she is an ally."

Grumbling, and the guard turned to her. "Princess Mi Amore Cadenza will see you momentarily."

Not a moment after the little pony had said that did the doors swing in, revealing Princess Cadance in all her 'radiant glory'. She opened her mouth to speak to the guards, but cut off with a horrified look when she spotted Chrysalis standing there with an altogether bored look on her face.

"You look terrible," Chrysalis said.

It was true. Cadance had deep circles around her eyes and her mane and tail were both frazzled. Her coat was unkempt, like she hadn't had a proper bath in days, and her eyes were bloodshot. The spirals of her horn gently smoldered with teal embers, a spell perpetually in casting. She had none of her royal attire on, and Chrysalis could see parts of it in the background, on a table next to a fairly large bed.

"What are you doing here?!" Cadance half screeched.

"Checking in on the only pony keeping us all from losing. You look terrible," she said, genuinely concerned. Not for Cadance's sake, certainly not. But if the young alicorn failed then she was wide open for infection. "Hang on, let me take care of that."

Before Cadance or the guards could protest, she lit up her horn. To her credit Cadance's own magic blazed to life quickly for her downtrodden state, but not quick enough. Chrysalis reached to the guards next to her and drew in, similar to how she fed off love but so much more primal, invigorating, and less filling. She drained their life to her horn, leaving them gasping and panting on the ground, and then directed the spell towards Cadance, only in reverse.

"What did you - " Cadance was cut off when Chrysalis pushed the guards' vitality into her. The change was immediate. Cadance's legs were sturdier, the dark splotches under her eyes gone, and the glow of magic was steadier. "What did you do to them?!"

Chrysalis waved the anger away, it's acrid 'taste' making her wrinkle her snout. "Life drain spell on them, reversed it on you. Cadance, how long have you been keeping this up?"

"You're just going to ignore their suffering like - "

" - like they have taken an oath to protect their ruler? Yes, I am, and that includes protecting her from herself. I've simply helped them by draining the energy they didn't need and giving it to you. You, unlike them, actually need to stay strong." The guards had fallen asleep by now. Oh well. "Need I remind you of just what happens if you stop that," she said, pointing to Cadance's glowing horn. "For more than an instant? No pressure or anything, but you're the only one keeping the infection from simply devouring Equestria!" Chrysalis closed her eyes, nodded, and opened them again. "If anything you should thank me."

With gritted teeth, Cadance forced out a terse, "Thank you, Chrysalis. What do you want? Don't you have an army to be leading?"

She waved the blame away with a hoof. "Polin can more than handle it in my absence. It's his job. I'm here because I'm concerned about you." Even if at the moment Polin was raising trust with the ponies to lower their guard. Useless cultural trivia would do them no harm.

"Me. You, concerned about me."

"I heard from around Equestria what you did here when you arrived. King Sombra was his name, yes?" Cadance nodded. "It seems to me something similar is happening again." She stepped into Cadance's chambers, and was satisfied to see the alicorn scramble backwards to put distance between them. "You needed your magic to keep a barrier up, lest all be lost, but it strained you nearly to death." Cadance rolled her eyes. "Just like what's happening now. If you don't keep that little trinket fired up full blast, all our crystal fields mean nothing and I get infected."

"So nice to see - "

"And so do Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor," she said without a break in her step. That shut her up. "Listen, I'm not an idiot. You're terrified of me and I despise you," she said with a little growl. "But we need each other. You need me to slow down the infected and, when the time comes, lend horn and hoof to the capture of that alien. I need you to keep us from being enslaved by her in the process. Therefore, it is in both our interests to help each other." She tilted her head. "How much sleep have you been getting?"

"Enough," Cadance said, taking another step back.

"And fluids? Food?" Chrysalis asked, looking at the pony's slimmer than normal frame. With a flick of magic she closed the door to allow them privacy.

That triggered a big reaction in the pony. She leaped into the air like a deer and scrambled backwards, eyes wide and pupils comically small. "Y-Y-You - "

Chrysalis raised a forehoof and spun it in the air for emphasis. "I-I-I what?"

"Hypnotize... oh sweet Celestia," she breathed, slumping down and resting a forehoof on the table that held her jewelry. "No no no no no no no..."

She rolled her eyes. "I did not hypnotize you. Do you feel hypnotized?"

"Would I?" she breathed. "The green beam, feeling better, just like he said oh Celestia help me..."

"Listen, Cadance, listen. What benefit would I have to hypnotizing you? I don't know the spell to keep the Heart at full blast. Your friends would find out soon enough if I did."

"But then, what was... changelings can drain life?!" she demanded, growing more horrified by the second.

"Don't be absurd." She grinned. "I can drain life. It's a modification of how we eat love, passed down from queen to queen every since Queen Spiracle." She grinned wider. "You'll be thanking me tomorrow."

Cadance pulled herself back to her hooves. "And... why will I be thanking you tomorrow?"

"Because you're still a mess! You think what I gave you from two guards is enough for nearly two weeks of casting?" The alicorn's eyes grew wide at the implications of what Chrysalis was suggesting. Good. Let her stay afraid. "Oh no, you need much more, especially back up plans to keep the Heart going if something tragic were to happen to you." She tilted her head. "Like your heart giving out from the strain you put on it." Okay, that was a long shot, but hyperbole helped her point.

Queen Chrysalis let her grin grow wider and showed off her fangs. "Why dear Cadance, I'm here to help you."