//------------------------------// // Half Empty // Story: Greene Fields under Red Lights // by Europa //------------------------------// DAY 19 OF INFECTION: 50% OF EQUESTRIA INFECTED Chrysalis Queen Chrysalis, with a flurry of buzzing wings, opened her mouth and yawned. For a moment she forgot where she was, so when her sleep-encrusted eyelids opened to reveal her splayed out on a powder blue couch in what were certainly not her chambers, she panicked. "Grah!" she shouted, flopping off the couch onto the floor. "Ow." Chrysalis, the very image of power and poise, stumbled to her hooves and blearily looked around the room she was in. It looked like Cadance's bedroom, but it had been overtaken by a storm of papers and notes. Chrysalis shook her head, then glowered at nothing when her mane flopped in front of her and obscured her vision. "Mmr," she huffed, blinking the sleep out of her eyes and trying to remember what she was doing there... ... oh right. She'd been trying to help Cadance with her Crystal Heart. How to keep it blazing with less effort on her part, keeping Cadance refreshed with the life force of her subjects - the alicorn had stupidly insisted on volunteers only - and how to use the Heart to summon people from other worlds. Oh right, she thought. That's what the notes are for. Lighting up her horn, Chrysalis picked up one at random and floated it to her. This one described a mechanism that the Crystal Heart used to move things from one place to another - latching onto the one with the most love or something, she was tired dammit - in vague detail. She switched it for another paper. This one described the radius of the magical field of Equus - of course it was named after ponies in Equestrian - and the effects of leaving it. Leaving the magical field, which spanned the better part of the galaxy, didn't incur pretty results. Instant death, actually; disruption of brain waves and heart pulses and a lot of other medical jargon she and Cadance had needed a dictionary for. Long and short, the Crystal Heart could bring humans to their world, but the reverse process was lethal. It'd have been a good solution for their problem, but if they wanted to use it on Greene then they'd need to get her to stay in one place for a long time. Time enough for Elizabeth to shatter the Heart herself. So... no using the Heart on Elizabeth Greene. Chrysalis lowered the paper when she heard a snort. Splayed out in her bed, Cadance rolled onto her stomach. "Shiny..." "Isn't here, would you like to leave a message?" she asked cheerfully. "Hmm?" Cadance asked, cracking open an eye to look at her. "Oh. You." That was a shame. When they woke up after the first night of research, Cadance had practically leaped through the ceiling in fright. Good times... Cadance pulled herself out of the bed. "Auntie said that she has a favor to ask of you." Cadance's horn lit up more brightly than it already was - sleep casting, she truly was an alicorn - and floated her regalia onto herself. "I'm going to get coffee. You'll join me whether or not you're welcome," she grumbled, headed for the door and stepping around magical notes. Chrysalis smiled wickedly and followed after her, closing the door behind them. Two Crystal Guards fell in step behind Cadance, giving her not a second thought. Chrysalis followed the alicorn through the halls until they reached the downstairs, where the ponies had once waited for court. Today it was empty save for guards, and Chrysalis was happy to note that not quite all of them were Cadance's; two Imperial Guards fell in beside the Queen, clad in their traditional dark blue armor. Cadance's court hall had, to the side, a little coffee machine. It was there for both the ponies who used to wait in long lines, and the alicorn who had to deal with said lines; personally Chrysalis felt the whole open-court idea was stupid, but whatever made the ponies happy. While Cadance went to get herself that disgusting brown liquid, Chrysalis let her horn smolder and drew in the ambient affection in the Crystal Empire to achieve the same effect. Once they were both sufficiently awoken, Cadance trotted up to her, still holding the empty cup of coffee in her magic. "Alright, follow me." She narrowed her eyes. "No funny business." Acting offended, Chrysalis brought a forehoof to her chest. "I'd never!" she said in mock indignity. She chuckled and put her hoof down. "Lead the way, there's no sense in wasting time." Cadance nodded and turned around. "Good." She kept walking, the two royals flanked by four guards passing through the Crystal Palace, ascending a few floors. They went deeper into the castle, and then somewhat to the side and into the dining hall, where servants had already made Cadance breakfast. Another pony was also there, eating breakfast... ... or was it dinner for her? Queen Chrysalis didn't know how it was with Princess Luna. Cadance trotted up to the elder alicorn and the two shared a greeting before Cadance took a seat next to Luna. Chrysalis took a seat across from the two, so she could keep both of them in her sight. There were a grand total of six guards in the room; her Imperial Guards, the two Crystal Guards, and much to her surprise two bat-like Night Guards, each pair taking up residence at a given door and guarding it. "And here I thought your Night Guard was infected," Chrysalis mentioned. Cadance pointedly ignored her and began nibbling away at her pancakes, while Luna huffed and drained her coffee. What was it with these ponies and that disgusting beverage? Even when she took the form of a pony, she couldn't stand it. "Mostly, yes. However not all of the Night Guard was stationed in Canterlot when Elizabeth Greene made her move. Their numbers have been decimated, but not completely. They art mostly involved with our efforts in trying to find Greene." Chrysalis nodded and sustained her feeding. The love here tasted much better than the overly-sweet stuff the infected gave off. "And how's that been working out for you?" she asked snidely. "So as for why we called thee here," Luna said, unashamedly changing the topic after cleaning the last crumbs off her plate. "We require thy assistance in a new matter that hath arisen." Chrysalis tilted her head ."Oh, and what would that be?" "The colonies are armored," Luna said simply. "Our opponent hast done something to her colonies that makes them nigh on impervious, and we wondered whether or not thou would be able to find a way to pierce this armor." "Armored? Can't your sister just go all 'wrath of the sun' on it?" Luna shook her head. "Neigh, this armor is stronger than heavensteel. Her magic on its own is not nearly potent enough, and only the hottest plasma she can call is capable of piercing it, a spell which is too narrow to do much. We were wondering if thou were capable of investigating on thy own." Chrysalis considered the implications of what Luna had said. Armored colonies. Normally the two alicorns could take down the colonies about as fast as Greene herself could make them. The colonies seemed to rally the infected, giving them a base from which to attack and, even worse, actively producing the more advanced forms of infected without Greene's direct intervention. More Breakers were always a bad thing. If the alicorns were unable to break the colonies, then they would build up. Then there would be more and more Breakers, and then... ... well, there wouldn't be much of an 'and then' after that. "And what do you want me to do? Poke one with a stick?" Luna rolled her eyes. "Thou infiltrated our capital and avoided detection for weeks; thou can figure it out." Chrysalis hummed. "Well, I suppose I can figure something out. It'll be good to check on Stalliongrad anyhow." She frowned. She couldn't believe it. The ponies had held that city through the pre-unification wars, both of Discord's reigns, and who knew what else. Then Greene came along and cracked it like a walnut, and now the entire city was gone, second only in danger to Canterlot. And it was very, very close to the Crystal Empire. "We may need to move the Heart," she mentioned offhoof. Luna blinked owlishly and Cadance nearly choked on her food, punching her chest several times before gasping for air. "WHAT?!" she shrieked. "Why, so you can get your hooves on it easier?" Chrysalis chuckled. "Glad to see you're as forgiving as I thought. But no, the reason is to keep it out of the wrong hands. If Greene doesn't know the Crystal Heart is keeping her virus back, then I'm a nymph." Cadance and Luna shared a confused look. "She'll come, either in person or with her infected, I'm not saying get rid of it now but to have an evacuation plan in place in case she does." The Crystal Princess nodded. "Well, I guess it makes sense. I'll go talk to Rainbow Dash; worst comes to worst she grabs the Heart and flies off with it." "A sound warning," Luna said. "Now if both of thee will excuse us, we must sleep so that we may blast the colonies in the night." Luna scooted out of her chair and dabbed at her muzzle with a hoof-held napkin. She paused and looked at Chrysalis. "Hopefully." Without further word, the Moon Goddess turned into a dense cloud of purple mist, which snaked through the air towards the two Night Guards. Luna squeezed herself underneath the door, the two ponies following after her after opening the door. "I suppose I better get started." Chrysalis said, scooting away from the table with a warm, full stomach. "Thank you for the meal, Cadance." "I didn't give you any - " She stopped herself and deadpanned. "Oh, right." She followed Chrysalis with her gaze as the changeling queen walked over to her two Imperials. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but stay safe Chrysalis. It'd be bad for us all if something were to happen to you out there." She looked over her withers and smiled. "I guess I appreciate the sentiment. Now." She turned to her guards. "Until I am returned, you are assigned to Cadance there. Protect her with your lives, though remain in disguise when your true forms are not needed." Both saluted without question. "Yes, my Queen," they said in unison, before being overtaken by a flash of fire, which faded to reveal two Crystal Guards standing just as stoically as the real ones. Cadance swallowed another bite of pancake, suddenly a bit green through her face. "Oh no, you don't have to do that." The smoldering of her horn briefly lit up a bit more before subsiding. That gave Queen Chrysalis an idea. "You're right, I don't," Chrysalis said, stepping over to her. Given that the alicorn was sitting down and Chrysalis was taller than her even without that, she took great pleasure in having her shadow fall over Cadance. "However it is important I do this." She lit up her horn. Cadance's irises imploded. "No, you don't have to - " Too late. She cast the drain life spell on Cadance in reverse, but only for a moment. Still, the moment where a river of green energy flowed from her horn to the pony's felt like a solid buck to the chest, leaving a lingering ache. She cut the magic and stumbled back, panting. " - do that," Cadance finished. The Crystal Guards hadn't even moved; they'd seen her do this plenty of times in the last three days to keep their Princess's strength up. "Thanks, I guess," she muttered. Queen Chrysalis grunted, shaking the stars out of her vision. "Don't mention it. If I don't send word back by sundown assume something terrible has happened." Without giving Cadance a chance to get the last word in on her, she focused through the haze of nausea and summoned a ring of flame around her. The flames rose higher, and then there was a flash. Suddenly, she wasn't in the Crystal Palace, but rather hovering a fair distance above it. Her wings buzzed to life and she flew towards the train station, swerving as if she was drunk. She was too far up to be able to reliably see the crystal ponies, but the emotional sensors in her ears could pick them up clear as day. They were nervous, and afraid, and skittish. Among them were points of confidence and points of anger, and then protectiveness that was likely guards. Both Chrysalis and Cadance had distributed their forces evenly around the Crystal Empire; the Shriekers could burrow anywhere. She sunk and, still dizzy, landed at the train station. She didn't get into a line, ignoring the unmoving train and instead made a beeline for a group of Equestrian guards who kept watch over civilians and handed out crystal amulets, which were now being produced en masse. Stopping right before them, she telekineticaly dragged one to herself and fastened it around her neck. "Hey!" one shouted. "What are you doing, you can't just - " "Oh buck off," she said. "I need this much more than anyling else here." Without waiting to be chastised by the little ponies, she summoned another teleportation ring around herself, leaving the Crystal Empire entirely, turning around and flying for Stallliongrad. Maybe the ponies would be angry at her for what she had just done, but what did she care? Forgiveness was easier given than permission, even in her case, and what were they going to do? Fly after her into infected territory? She shivered, flying across the snowy landscape. The warmth given off by the Crystal Heart had made her forget just how cold it was outside; it was getting near winter for the already-cold tundra. Sure, it wouldn't actually get to winter; Equestria would be long gone by then, given the glacial progress with the Crystal Heart. Alex Mercer would not be summoned in time to save the ponies. In time to save the dragons? The changelings? The deer? Maybe. But not in time to save the ponies. At least Chrysalis was still gaining power... She spotted Stalliongrad in the snow easily; it was engulfed in the rust-colored aura that was typical of Greene's plague. Closing in, she could see a variety of things from the air. Infected stumbling around. Breakers leaping from roof to roof. There were no Shriekers, but there were plenty of holes in the streets where they might've once been. Buildings were collapsed, and some were outright missing, leaving holes in the rows of houses where they had been plucked out. Near these holes were the Colonies, giant buildings made of smaller ones, glued together with Greene's signature red and white mesh, large pulsating cocoons along the outside of the walls. But Luna was right, something was different with these. True to the dark alicorn's word, they were armored. Dense red masses covered the things, forming what looked like shells around the alicorn-sized cocoons and turning into blackened tar at the base. Chrysalis bit her bottom lip, but flew on. Maybe the others weren't quite the same. She flew around the outskirts of Stalliongrad, looking down at the subsumed city, until she noticed something. Flashes of light. Flashes of unicorn magic. Either Greene was having her infected practice spellcasting, or some of her - ugh - allies were trapped in the city. She supposed she'd better go help them. Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "They'd better appreciate this," she muttered to herself, buzzing towards them. Once she was above them, she looked right down. That was Shining Armor's magic. He was there with a company of a few crystal ponies, backing up to a pair of Equestrian unicorns. Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. They seemed to be having a lot of trouble with infected ponies. They weren't Breakers, but they were still moving far too quickly and jumping much too high to be regular infected. Still, there were a lot of them, and she needed the little ponies. Stopping her flight just above them, Chrysalis called out her magic and encased herself in emerald flames, then dove straight down. Wind blew around her magical fire and the streets closed in rapidly, the infected growing larger and larger as she reached her target, the middle of the group. She flipped over and landed on her hooves, the magic protecting her from the impact and simultaneously changing the green fire around her into an explosion. The infected were sent flying away, mewling in pain as Chrysalis recovered and looked around. The ponies quickly subdued the infected she'd launched into them, and Chrysalis took the moment to find Shining Armor's eyes and smirk. "Miss me?" He didn't respond beyond lighting up his horn and firing a blast at... Chrysalis's left. She whipped around to see one of the new types of infected sent sprawling, groaning at them. "Eyes on the infected!" the unicorn behind her shouted. "Fall back, get to the teleportation matrix!" Right. The fight. Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at the new type of infected... and immediately recoiled in horror. These were the ugliest things she had ever seen in her entire life! Shriekers, you couldn't even tell they used to be ponies. Breakers had several vestigial traits; burnt horns, wing stumps, none of which did anything. The regular infected were easily recognizable, but were often covered in their own blood and had disgusting tumors on their bodies. Ugly, and probably horrifying to the soft ponies, but nothing too bad. These things, though? She could hardly even recognize any facial features. The infected's coat was falling out; not to the degree of the Breakers but enough to have patches of furless skin, which revealed red skin covered in boils. The worst part was their right foreleg, however. It no longer ended in a hoof. But while the Breakers at least had their hooves mutated into something recognizable - claws - this was completely different. The right foreleg had no fur at all and the skin, instead of red, was necrotic gray. Spikes which looked awfully like overgrown bone jutted out of the skin, and the end of the hoof turned into a stubby, curved blade. And one of them had already recovered from her drop and was running right at Chrysalis! With a strangled yelp she lit up her horn and fired the first spell she could think of at the infected. The blast hit, and solidified into a feeding cocoon around the monstrous not-a-pony. It looked startled for a moment and waved its legs around, but before it could puncture the walls with that blade the sedatives kicked in, and it went still. Then the others were on her. Six charged at her, and another four ran to the nearby buildings and climbed right up them. The half dozen on the ground were already on her, so Chrysalis acted on reflex again, surrounding herself in flame and dashing to the side, before turning back to them and firing two more cocoons, but one of the infected escaped before it could be sedated. The cocoon spell was something she had decided to practice when the infection made itself known. For starters, it was easier than actually hacking up the stuff. Easier on the throat, too. But with some practice, she could give the cocoons different properties. Nothing too radical, but if she did it just right Chrysalis was sure that she could come up with a spell whose cocoon would continuously sap its victim's strength, rather than just initially. Another one tried to get to her, but she blasted it back with a zap, and cocooned it. Meanwhile the ponies were retreating to the unicorns, after which they vanished in flashes of light. Chrysalis blasted another one, fire dashed away, and then... A terrible weight settled on her back, and she felt the bladed leg digging into her turquoise shell. An uncharacteristic shriek built in Chrysalis's throat - get it off get it off get it off! - but before she could vocalize it, the infected riding her was gone, a lance of pink energy throwing it off. Chrysalis snarled and encased it in a ring of emerald fire, and then teleported the infected far out of sight and mind. Before long, she and Shining Armor had subdued the last of the infected, so the only bodies on the street were dead infected, cocooned infected, or soldiers that the pony had lost. There was one left, dangling before Chrysalis in her magical grip as she sucked the life out of it before discarding the lifeless husk. She approached him, shaking slightly from the one landing on her. "What were those?" "We're calling them Leapers," he said. "Just showed up, too." He scuffed a forehoof over a jagged hole in the street. "Those blades are nasty, don't get hit. They can also really take a beating. Not as much as the Breakers, but it's still unnatural." "You don't say?" she deadpanned. "What are you doing here? Isn't this city entirely infected?" "Some of my soldiers were trapped here," he said resolutely, not looking that intimidating in his armor. "I had to rescue them. Something you wouldn't know about." "That was a stupid thing to do," Chrysalis said, making a point to glare down at Shining Armor. "If you were lost, who knows what could have happened?" "Alright then, what are you doing here?" he countered. She turned away with a snap. "Investigating the colonies. I need to see if there's a way around their armor." Shining Armor did a double take behind her. "Armored colonies? What?" Chrysalis turned back to him, surprised. "You mean you didn't know? Aren't you in the military?" "I was out in the field until now. I haven't had the time for a debriefing. And I'm guessing it's going to take a bit longer, because I'm helping you with these colonies," he said resolutely. "What?! Why? You should be headed back, after all, you've been out here too long!" Chrysalis approached him, fighting down her anger at the pony. They were allies... for the time being. Once Elizabeth Greene was dead, then she could take her frustrations out on him. "I can take care of myself fine, Chrysalis. And besides, by that logic you should skedaddle as well." He stopped and muttered to himself, "Skedaddle? I've turned into dad..." He shook his head. "Either way, it would be best we go back for reinforcements before we go poking at a colony, but time is of the essence. Let's go, I think there's one this - " Queen Chrysalis lit up her horn and encircled both of them in fire. Shining Armor started and shouted, "Wait!" but by then they had teleported on top of the armored colony she had spotted earlier. It wasn't much to look at. It towered above the rest of the city's buildings, and was an even, flat rectangle. It was, naturally, completely overgrown by dense tendrils, and Chrysalis didn't know how thick they were. Still, instead of squishing beneath her hooves, it clacked. She stumbled back, winded from such a far teleport involving two beings. "Okay," she panted. "Let's see what I can do with this. Stand back." Chrysalis raised her head to the red-tinted skies, bit off some of the ambient love, and summoned her magic. The unicorn with her stepped off to the side and conjured a pink half-dome right in front of him. She growled, and fired a narrow beam of her magic at the armored building, forcing as much power into it as she could. Despite it being early morning, with the sun only being minimally dulled by the viral miasma, the light of her magical laser hitting the colony cast flickering shadows around them. Chrysalis snarled, and tried to push harder. There really wasn't anything pushing back, but the damn thing just wasn't yielding! Even when Shining Armor joined in with his own ray, they had to concede defeat. "Alright," she panted. "Let's try chemicals then." She decided to hold off on magic, and instead clenched several glands inside of her barrel, mixing certain substances. She experimented a bit, and pushed the most acidic thing she could come up with into her crop, before hacking it up before her. "Aw, gross!" Shining shouted, raising a forehoof when the green slime splattered on the ground before Chrysalis. She inspected it as it hissed and bubbled, but before long its acidity was all used up and the colony was untouched. "What is this stuff made of? I know Greene leaves this behind but gods!" A horrible thought occurred to her. If Elizabeth Greene was made of this stuff, then in order to hurt her... ... but she wasn't! Sure she was durable, but Elizabeth also wasn't ridged and plated like this was. So whatever the monster did to armor-plate her colonies, it took whatever substance made up her flesh and made it tougher than it already was. Long and short, Luna's story checked out. Chrysalis had about as much chance of chipping the armor as she did of tearing down Canterlot Castle by beating it with a toothbrush. Before Chrysalis could contemplate how to go about finding a way around the colony's armor, such as bases instead of acids, she was roughly pushed to the side by Shining Armor's magic. "You little - " she started. SLAM! The blast of air sent Chrysalis tumbling, ending up on her left side. She gawked at the monstrosity that had created the shockwave, standing where she had been just a moment ago, staring down a still-shielded Shining Armor, ignoring the magical beams he was blasting it with. It was... tall. Even on all fours, it stood a head taller than Chrysalis, horn included. It resembled the Breakers, but there were key differences. For one thing it was much bigger and bulkier than even the heavily muscled Breakers, so much so that there was no neck to speak of. Second, its skin was, instead of pinkish, an earthy brown and seemingly covered in a layer of mucus-like slime. Its arms ended with bloody, four-clawed webbed paws. Its mouth was open in a snarl, giving Chrysalis a side view of a gaping cavern lined with very impressive fangs, if she did say so herself. She couldn't see any eyes; how did it see? There were also no qualities to show what this beast had been before infection; it was infected, through and through. But perhaps the most unusual part of it was what was located on the back of its head; a second mouth, complete with fangs just like the front mouth. "Two mouths," Chrysalis said silently to herself, getting back on all four hooves. The monster shook its head with a snarl as one of Shining Armor's beams got inside of its maw, and then moved. It reared up on three legs, a foreleg raised high to slam down on Shining Armor. No you don't, she thought, summoning her green flames around her and dashing at the monster. She came out of her inferno-dash on her forelegs, her momentum spinning her around as Chrysalis brought her hind legs - still encased in flame - up to kick the monster in the side as hard as she could. There was a sound like a cannon, and the infected, already off balance in its prepared attack, fell over. Chrysalis stumbled away, cursing herself. Her hind legs hurt. Her magical flames had protected them from most of the impact but they still ached like she had bucked a solid wall. "Thanks," Shining Armor said, taking up position next to her as the infected flailed about, getting back to all fours. "Fight or flight?" he asked. The sour scent of his fear wafted around Chrysalis. She snarled. "What do you think?" As the towering infected got back onto all fours and looked their way with a snarl, Chrysalis lit up her horn and shot it with a cocoon spell. The front half of the monstrosity was engulfed, but it tore its foreclaws through the shell like it was nothing, and then rose up again, ready to slam Chrysalis. "Move!" shouted the pony next to her. Then there was a shield expanding between them, shoving them aside. The infected's paw came down on the shield and shattered it into pieces, not even slowing down as it hit the surface of the colony - cracking the armor, Chrysalis noted - followed by the shockwave blasting her and Shining Armor back. The infected looked her way and rose up again, ready to repeat the action. Before she could be hit, Chrysalis flattened herself to the ground and inferno dashed under its swing and out behind its hind legs. She rose and locked her magic onto it, pulling. A rippling green beam flowed from the infected's chest and into her horn. It felt... amazing. Warm and alive, infusing every inch of her being. Even better, the life drain would bypass most if not all of the infected's durability. The question was, how much life did it have... The wind given off by its slam made her mane blow back, and without wasting a moment the beast was rearing up again to smack her, ignoring the rapidly forming shields around its joints as it prepared to squish Chrysalis. She inferno dashed behind it again, sustaining her life drain. She repeated her dodge again, and again, and one last time. After she dodged the latest of the infected's slams it stumbled back, shaking its bulbous head and snarling through its back mouth. She took a moment to stop draining life, and instead cast another spell at the monster. With the quickly-fading high of excess life in her, Queen Chrysalis cocooned the entire infected, and Shining Armor placed a rapidly-thickening shield around it. The infected shook its head and, with its left foreleg, batted through her cocoon and Shining Armor's shield like they were nothing, freeing itself in moments. Chrysalis fired another cocoon at it, but this one didn't even slow it down as it charged at her, breaking the shell of slime and lunging at her with its fang-filled maw. She threw herself to the side, but was still struck under her barrel by a hind leg and sent flying. Chrysalis had pulled her stomach in as fast as she could to minimize the damage, and she caught sight of the tell-tale pink of Shining Armor's magic around her chitin. Even so she knew she was going to die. All the life she had drained seemed to flow right out of her as her chest dented inwards, chitin broken and organs punctured. She gasped for breath, the world spinning around her. That was it. The infected was going to kill her, now that she was defenseless. But... I wasn't finished, she thought sadly. "Do... something!" she heard Shining Armor shout, somewhere else on top of the Colony. "This thing's really heavy!" Chrysalis focused her gaze and, sure enough, the infected was floating, the casting unicorn's face twisted with effort. She didn't waste any time focusing her magic on the infected and drawing in, healing her fatal injuries in seconds and the paralysis - she'd broken her spine?! - in another few moments. She was back on her hooves, draining the helplessly flailing infected desperately, feeling the energy she stole from it pooling inside of her. It was a little scary how quickly it healed her; that thing had a lot of life in it. "Alright," she panted. "Keep it up as long as you - " The creature twisted in Shining Armor's general direction and opened its mouth to roar. The air around it shimmered and a faint red mist blew from its mouth over the little pony, knocking him down and stopping the telekinesis. Chrysalis took the initiative. Before the thing could rear up to slam a forepaw down on Shining Armor, she summoned a giant ring of flame around it. It looked around curiously as it was wrapped in fire, raising a foreleg and turning back to look at Chrysalis. Then there was a flash of emerald light, and it was behind her. Chrysalis had placed herself between it and the now recovered pony. The infected shook its head, clearly dazed from the forced relocation. The changeling allowed herself a smirk. She was wearing it down. She just had to keep dodging around it, and eventually it'd die. It was that line of thought that nearly got her killed a moment later when, instead of charging her, the brute grasped the colony's roof. Much to Chrysalis's surprise, the armor didn't hold it back. The exact opposite; the tendrils parted around its webbed claws to allow it to pull out a massive chunk of stone before flowing back over the hole. It stood up on two legs, hefting the massive chunk of rock over its head. "Holy - " she whispered, frozen on the spot when it tossed, the boulder flying at her. But right before it could impact, it hit a shimmering barrier, which sparked and rippled angrily, and fell to the ground. "Would you hurry up and kill it?" Shining Armor asked, forming tiny shields and throwing them like hoofballs at the infected, which swatted them away like flies. "I don't exactly have the hornpower to hurt this thing!" "On it," she snarled, inferno dashing behind the infected and bucking it. It didn't budge, but that did get its attention. It spun around and swung at her, but she ducked down and zipped behind it, siphoning from its life force. It turned back around - Chrysalis noticed it had a shield forming in its mouth - and swung at her again. She ducked and dashed back from it, avoiding a blast of air from the powerful legs. Kneeling down, Chrysalis built strength in her legs and then leaped into the air, wings buzzing to life to keep her suspended, draining it from above. She'd expected it to at least go for Shining Armor and his puny little magic beams, but noooo. Instead it jumped all the way up to her, forcing Chrysalis to dodge to the side. Much to her surprise the infected didn't fall down, instead landing on a horizontal sheet of unicorn magic, the beast's weight bending it like paper and its claws sparking like they were touching metal. "You're set!" he shouted from below. Chrysalis smirked, and launched herself higher into the air. Once she judged she was high enough, she inferno dashed down to the confused monster, just as Shining Armor stopped channeling the magical floor. She caught up with it quickly, and calculated her trajectory so that she would hit the infected's back the moment it hit the ground. She flipped over and landed on it's slimy spine with her green fires all around her... BLAM! The infected's legs actually gave out and Chrysalis didn't take a moment longer to leap away from it. It got up slowly, shaking its head, snorting and snarling. "Ha!" she laughed. "See what becomes of those who challenge the Unified Changeling Swarm, Greene?" Chrysalis lit up her horn again and resumed draining life from the giant infected, which ignored the magical siphon as well as Shining's shield slams and lifted its head, opening its forward mouth. Again it roared, red mist blasting into the air from its jaws while the air around it bent and burst outwards in a perfect circle, sending her mane and tail straight back. It lowered its head, and the changeling queen saw her opportunity. She stopped her life drain, and instead concentrated her magic into a powerful, narrow beam. Beside her, Shining Armor did the same. The infected charged, rapidly picking up speed... and reared back with a cry of pain when both of them fired their magic into its front mouth and down the monster's throat. Chrysalis engulfed herself in magical fires again and dashed under the infected as Shining Armor lifted it, her jagged horn cutting a deep gash under its stomach as she came out behind it. She spun around when she came to a halt and launched a green fireball at it, leaving a scorch mark that healed over quickly. Shining Armor dropped it, panting heavily. No surprise; he'd been fighting to rescue his 'soldiers' for who knew how long before Chrysalis had pulled his flank out of the fire. The infected turned to her, but then was battered back by one of Shining Armor's shields. It roared and tore through the rapidly-closing barrier, but that was enough time for Chrysalis to resume her life drain, gasping and swallowing as the infected's life force infused her body, the excess rapidly dissipating into the surrounding air. It stumbled back, shaking its bulbous head back and forth while blood dribbled from both mouths. She drained a little longer, and then her spell suddenly cut out on its own. The monstrosity reared back with a rippling, echoing screech, and then limply collapsed to the ground, slimy skin still reflecting the light in a way that made it appear to pulsate. Queen Chrysalis panted. She was physically unharmed, but still magically drained despite the constant inflow of love. She stumbled her way around the infected, giving it a wide berth in case the corpse decided to get up, and sat down next to Shining Armor. "We... we did it," she said. She looked his way, smiling. He chuckled and looked at her too. "We did it." He held up a hoof and she bumped it with a firm clack. That was a job well done. They pulled their hooves away and blinked. She looked at Shining Armor. He looked at Chrysalis. They both narrowed their eyes. "I still hate you," they said together. They turned back to the infected sprawled out along the roof. Its pounces had left a series of cracks along the mesh, but when Chrysalis tried to blast one of the weak points it still held firm. The beast itself was firmly unmoving, but just to be sure she and Shining split up, him headed to its left and her to its right. "What is it?" she asked, checking to make sure her crystal amulet was still in place. "Looks like some form of Breaker, but this is just absurd. It's huge," he stated. "And two mouths? What is wrong with Elizabeth?" They reached the other end of the monster looked at it. "Many things are wrong with her," Chrysalis muttered. "What are these things even used for? I mean, they're big and slow." She smirked. "Did you see me galloping circles around it?" "Maybe, but they can break the colony armor. Imagine if you'd taken a direct hit." Chrysalis shivered at the mental image Shining gave her. "Whatever it's for it's dead now, thank Celestia. We should head back now, deliver a report." "Good idea," she said, then tilted her head. "But why do you think it attacked us on its own?" A horrible thought occurred to her. "You don't think... that this one told the others to stay out of the fight?" "I sure as hay hope not." Shining Armor shook his head and looked at the horizon. "Is that... oh no." "What?" She looked in the same direction he was, deep lines forming under his eyes. In a moment she found it. A rapidly growing dot rushing at them, flipping over rooftops, a trail of dust in its wake. Her slit pupils turned even thinner in shock. "No, no no no no no." It grew even closer. "We're bucked," Shining Armor said. Then she had arrived, leaping into the air and landing with a slam on the colony. The infected was between them, but Queen Chrysalis was under no illusion that it would provide them any protection from Elizabeth Greene. The alien's body radiated anger and sadness and why-did-he-do-that-should've-ran-quicker over her with almost physical force, drowning her in the emotion. She stood and locked faded green eyes with the changeling's vibrant emeralds... and hissed. "Nope." With that, Chrysalis draped a forehoof on Shining's withers and summoned a wall of green fire around them. Faster than she ever had done before, they teleported away. Then again. And again. And again, until they were on the other side of Stalliongrad in what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. A stroke of luck; there were no infected with them to give Elizabeth sight. "Okay," she panted, folding her legs under her. "Let me just... take a break. I got... I got to rest." "I can message the colts back up in the Empire to come help us...?" he suggested, tapping his horn. She shook her head. "No, no," she breathed. "I just... need a moment to get my magic back. Just a few minutes." Suddenly there was an ever so faint pressure on the outside of her head. 'My Queen, urgent report for you!' her Swarm Commander said. Chrysalis shook her head and looked at Shining. "Excuse me, I have to take this." She stared blankly at a wall. 'Well what is it? Spit it out!' 'The Crystal Empire, it's been attacked. We managed to push the infected back, but - ' 'Cadance! Is Cadance okay? She's not hurt is she?!' 'No Your Highness, she's fine. Civilian causalities were low but property damage is high. The alicorn sisters have requested your presence in their little palace to discuss what comes next, now that Elizabeth Greene can attack anywhere at any time.' 'I'm on the way, as soon as I get my magic back. Tell the alicorns I'm also bringing back Shining Armor, and that we've discovered a new type of infected.' 'The Leapers? Apologies Your Majesty, but we already know about those.' 'Not the Leapers! These giant... Lead Breakers. Like a regular Breaker but much bigger, tougher, and with two mouths.' 'Two mou - ' 'Yes two mouths! Now, tell the pony princesses. We'll be there in a few minutes.' 'Understood, my Queen.' The communication shut off and she looked back to Shining Armor. "Think you can keep the infected away?" "One Somepony-Else's-Problem, coming right up," he said with a nod, followed by a brief pulse of his horn. "So... now what?" "Now, we wait for me to get enough power to teleport us close enough to the Crystal Empire." "How long should that take?" he asked, eyeing her warily. She shrugged. "There's a lot of love for me to eat, shouldn't be too long. Until then..." Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at the pony. "You stay on your side and I'll stay on mine."