//------------------------------// // Things to Come // Story: Greene Fields under Red Lights // by Europa //------------------------------// DAY 23 OF INFECTION: 85% OF EQUESTRIA INFECTED Celestia The time had come. They were ready to bring the fight to Elizabeth Greene. The sun had risen to rapid preparations, formations, and last minute checkups. Cadance was safely inside the Crystal Palace, keeping the Heart ignited. She and Luna were outside on a platform, standing before the army. Behind them, her faithful student was aiding the most talented spellcasters outside of herself in opening a stable wormhole relay to just outside of Canterlot. They could open one inside the city, but that would've been nothing short of suicidal. Luna, to her right, was busy giving a speech to their little ponies, but otherwise everything was ready to go. The ponies of Equestria's and the Crystal Empire's military listened stolidly to Luna, Celestia having already given her speech. They were clad in armor, armed with spears and crossbows. Everypony had checked, double checked and triple checked. They would never be more ready to carry out the plan than right then. She was only half listening to the inspiring words of her sister. Princess Celestia could only focus on what they were going to do. Elizabeth Greene had made a foal out of her in the Prime Colony, and she was not going to let it happen again. Too often, she had not been there when her subjects needed her. Too often, she had failed to protect them. That ends today, she thought grimly. She wore her standard crown and torque, but she'd lost her horseshoes in the Prime Colony and they simply weren't important enough to spend time recreating. Luna, in comparison, had replaced her crown with a helm similar to that Nightmare Moon had worn, but pitch black instead of pale blue. It was purely symbolic, of course; their tremendous amounts of earth pony magic protected them better than any armor ever could. " - that she shalt never prevail over our people!" Luna finished. This was met by cheers from the Equestrian soldiers before her, as well as from the Crystal Guards. Chrysalis's changelings were wrapped around them, a shell of black around the multicolored ponies in the center, forming a nearly perfect semicircle. Princess Celestia estimated there must've been, altogether, tens of thousands of them, with more on the way. They couldn't bring everyone, of course; they'd be clustered too closely, and one erupting Shrieker would decimate them. With the speech done, Luna lit up her horn with blazing magical power. A hush fell over the world as the sky slowly turned dark blue, then purple, then a dark gray as a full moon rose from over the horizon. Luna kept the magic going, forcing the moon to creep up the sky and catch up with the high-noon sun. The moon slipped before her sun, and darkness fell on the world, which caused the crystal field generator they were bringing with them to sparkle all the brighter. Once the disk was perfectly enshrouded, Celestia looked up at it. Her eyes resisted the still-fierce light of the eclipsed sun, letting her see the wispy corona around the moon. It looked like somepony had punched a hole right through the sky, but it was for the best. With a total eclipse, both she and her sister could more easily use their link to the heavens to cast their most powerful spells. The portal relay was almost complete, five unicorns channeling power into it. Twenty others stood by in case they tired. The relay was a massive shimmer in the air where the world discolored and distended into a gray blob. Once the noise from Luna's speech-induced cheer died down, they both turned around and Luna fired a midnight-colored beam of magic into the heart of the wormhole. The gray warped and collapsed, revealing the mountainside just outside Canterlot's gates. Said gates were nowhere to be seen, leaving an open entrance. Celestia took a deep breath, steeling her nerves. This was it. It was time. The three of them would lead the charge, cutting through the infected like the tip of a spear, right to their heart. That was the idea, at least. Personally, Princess Celestia was having fifth doubts. Doubts or not doubts, she lifted her wings along with her sister. From out of the crowd Queen Chrysalis walked up to her right, buzzing her wings. Twilight walked around and behind them, taking up position with her friends, behind Shining Armor; Chrysalis's commander was near the back of the crowd. She took another breath to ready herself. No more stalling, she told herself. The Outbreak ends today. With a pump of her wings she flew towards the portal and into it. Space-time distorted and collapsed around her, miles transformed into plank-lengths, and in an instant she was right outside her nation's capital. She chanced a look behind her; Shining and the Elements were just coming through an invisible portal. It was one way; no sense in letting the infected go through it into the Crystal Empire. Far down the mountain, Celestia could see the gates, thrown like foal's toys down the land. Combined with the gaping entrance into Canterlot where they had been, it was almost like Elizabeth Greene had thrown open the city and was saying, 'Come and get me'. Milling around, right in front of them, was a small herd of infected ponies, already stumbling towards them. All three tribes were there, covered in blood and galloping at them faster than their hooves could carry them, resulting in a skipping gait that was more constantly falling forward than actual running. Families, friends, neighbors. Chrysalis lit up her horn with bright, incandescent emerald power, and shot out a starburst of rays at many of the approaching infected. Each one caught fell over, trapped in a cocoon. They flailed momentarily and then were paralyzed. Luna's horn burned bright, and a half dozen head-sized sparks of silver light appeared around her. With a motion of her head the miniature stars flew out, each to a different infected, and exploded with silent bursts that vaporized any organic matter they touched. Princess Celestia blinked hard, and summoned her magic. Several of the infected pegasi were taking flight and the remaining infected unicorns were preparing to cast. She lashed out, golden tendrils bursting from her horn and wrapping around them like ropes of sunlight, inhibiting all kinds of magic. The pegasi dropped to the ground, and then Celestia cast the second stage of her spell. The ropes flared bright, and when they faded there were only piles of ash. The entrance was clear. "Alright everypony," Shining Armor said to the forces arriving. "Let's move! Keep your heads on a swivel. Pegasi, make sure to report to ground forces on enemy movements. Stick together, do not get cut off from the main group, and whatever you do do not get surrounded!" The three of them led the charge in, and already there were more infected coming, spilling in from streets and houses, snarling and growling menacingly. It wasn't that hard to keep the ones in front blasted back, and she could hear the infected being fought off at the sidelines of the army. So long as none of the more dangerous strains made their appearance... ... Celestia knew it wouldn't be that easy. She lit up her horn and sent a wave of fire forward, cantering further in. She couldn't move too fast; her little ponies couldn't gallop as quickly as her. There was a horrible buzzing noise. It wasn't the changelings flying in; it was the infected. Before her eyes a multicolored swarm of pegasi, with one or two spots of chitinous black in the swarm, lifted out of Canterlot's buildings. "I'm going up," Chrysalis snarled, before wrapping herself in emerald fire and launching skyward. Celestia remained on the ground. She could've gone up to fight the aerial battle, but only regular infected could take to the air. Meanwhile, the heavyweights would be down on the ground, where she was needed to provide a target so they wouldn't instead go for her little ponies. Within moments, the air above was teeming with flashes of magic as the changeling swarm took to the air. A Leaper hopped off a building in front of her, followed by two, ten, twenty. "Luna?" she asked, preparing to summon an orb of solar plasma. "Done, sister!" Luna's horn lit up almost pitch black, and there was a distortion in the middle of the rapidly - so rapidly! - advancing Leapers. The foul air rushed in to fill the vacuum, bringing some thirty infected with it with a loud crack! They recovered quickly... Celestia conjured a sphere of glowing hot gas where the void had been a moment ago, the immense heat causing a gale wind outwards from it. The plasma only lasted a moment before dissipating into a hot breeze, but when it did there was a fairly large crater in the street. The battle around them did not cease - she hoped her protective wards on Twilight would be enough - but Celestia took a moment to get her bearings. They'd gone in the south entrance of Canterlot, and the Prime Colony - where Greene was most likely to confront them - was a fair distance away. They'd need to take a left soon, but first they had to progress down the street. "Forward!" she shouted, galloping ahead. Her and Luna's spells had created a pocket in the infected in front of them, and they took ready advantage of that to move forward before it closed. Once they'd done that, she rose slightly into the air and turned around. Prince Shining Armor was fighting with a Leaper, while Twilight and her friends were managing to hold their own against three. And in a column behind them was the army, keeping ranks so far but besieged on all sides by infected. She could do something about that. Calling magic to her horn, setting up the parameters and friend-foe analysis, she sent an enormous orb of flame backwards. As it flew, it sent out little darts of fire at any infected it passed, diminishing in size as it traveled. With that done, Celestia turned back to face their path. "Again!" Luna shouted, opening another void in the approaching mass of infected in front of them. Like before, she engulfed the now-clustered infected with plasma, and they moved forward. She and Luna repeated that a few more times, leap-frogging their way up the street until they came to the corner. They prepared to turn left... KkkrrrraaaaIIIIIIEEEEE! The ground before them exploded, and when the dust cleared the Shrieker was already rearing back to throw a chunk of rubble at them. "We've got more of them!" Shining Armor shouted, several more eruptions sounding behind Celestia. But she couldn't focus on them, only on the twisted mass of red flesh rising before her. It threw the debris and, reacting quickly, she surrounded it in her magic. It took a surprising amount of effort to toss it aside. Not exactly a great deal, but she'd moved heavier objects more easily in the past. It never ceased to amaze her how horribly strong the infected were. "Tia, the smaller ones!" Luna shouted, sending out another barrage of stars at the approaching, lesser infected. Taking the warning, Celestia jerked her head to the side just in time to avoid a lance of blue magic, and retaliated with a wave of frigid ice that cut a wide swath through the ordinary infected, but simply spilled around the Shrieker. "I'll take this one," she offered, flapping her wings and bursting forward to the towering monstrosity. She stopped right below it, Luna's blasts of magic clearing away the Leapers around her. As Celestia had expected, the monster reared back to slam down on her, something she doubted even her endurance could withstand. But she didn't need to withstand it; once it was far enough back she reached through her link to the sun and summoned as much of its core plasma as she could to her horn, and blasted it forward in what looked like a bolt of lightning. The effects were devastating. There was a tremendous clap of thunder and a wave of heat; both of the Shrieker's blades were shattered and there was a deep hole going through its body, hemorrhaging biomass. It shrieked again and, still bleeding copiously, slithered beneath the ground and left nothing more than reddened, disturbed pavement where it had been. Celestia winged her way back to Luna and nodded to her. "Let's keep moving." They took a left, and continued to trot down the streets of Canterlot. Given how this was the single most infected spot in the entire nation, where Elizabeth Greene made her home, it was surprisingly easy to go through them. Shriekers were only dangerous if you were too slow to avoid the projectiles or you got close. Leapers were strong enough to cut through marble with their blade and durable enough to survive a divebomb from Queen Chrysalis, but still not that bad. She hadn't even seen a Breaker yet, let alone a Lead Breaker. It didn't sit well with Princess Celestia. What was Greene playing at...? Above her, the aerial fight seemed to be turning in their favor. Chrysalis was impossible to miss, being twice the size of the others in the air, lashing out with emerald fire and sucking the life out of infected. Both sides were forming impressive formations, whirling around each other and picking chasers off, and the irony of helping the changelings invade Canterlot was not lost on her. Celestia had to duck when a V-shaped wing of infected pegasi swooped by, throwing rocks at them. One clanged on the back of her head, making her snort and shake it off. As they passed, her sister wrapped them in a dark blue net of magic. Then Luna created another vacuum, and when the infected were pulled in by the rush of air Celestia created another plasma orb, opening up the path to move further ahead. The next intersection had once been three way; left, right, and forward. Now however, there was only right, seeing as how the other two paths were overgrown by pulsating flesh. Celestia was confident that she and Luna could've burned through the one in front; it was the shorter path to the Prime Colony. But in that that they could go further with the open path, and they wouldn't stop moving. Flying over them and leaving everypony else behind wasn't even worth considering. She made her decision, and motioned to the right with her horn. "That way," she decided, launching another spitter fireball at the infected there. "Right!" Luna shouted. "Everypony keep strong!" They headed down the path, bringing the crystal field generator with them. The path in question lead through one of Canterlot's former nightlife areas. The ruined signs of nightclubs and bars formed eerie reminders as to who had once been here, and the red dust gathering on the signs and pooling in the streets an even firmer reminder of what they were doing now. Chrysalis swooped down, her horn aglow. "What are you doing?! I thought we decided to provoke her at the Prime Colony!" "The path's blocked," Shining Armor responded. "It's quicker to take a detour than to blast through that stuff." The changeling queen huffed, but instead of arguing the point, blasted a fireball upwards and flew back into the aerial fight, leaving Celestia and Luna to continue leading the charge. By their third 'leap frog', there was another deafening cry and rupture, before two Shriekers exploded from the ground, along with another couple dozen Leapers jumping in from other streets. "Whoa," she heard Twilight say from behind her. A moment later, half of the Leapers were flailing in mid air, held by a purple glow, and drifted together. Not as close as Celestia would've liked, but still close enough for Luna to dispatch them with another volley of explosive stars. In that time, the Shriekers let loose their chunks of building. Luna deflected the one coming for her, but Celestia was too slow seeing the one coming her way to do anything but dodge to the side, letting the slab shatter into a dozen pieces on the ground where she'd been a moment ago. She locked her gaze to that of the Shrieker on the left, and let a pulse of magic blast out of her horn. The kinetic blast hit the Shrieker center mass... and the infected didn't notice at all. Celestia sighed and started blasting away at it; she couldn't reach into her solar link to summon another solar core blast, seeing as how she'd recently conjured a plasma orb. Her Shrieker buried its rectangular tongue into the ground, pulled up another chunk of debris, and prepared to throw it at her. Princess Celestia wasn't about to give it the opportunity. She ran a slight charge through her wings and sent an arc of blue lightning - actual lightning - at the base of the monster, forcing it to drop its cargo with a shriek. It fell over to its curled-up stance, and spat a cord of blackish-red tendrils from the base of its mouth. She remembered very fondly how much it hurt getting speared and pulled in by that, so at the last possible second Celestia sidestepped and let the barbs stab a perfectly circular hole in the ground. Somepony screamed, and looking over Celestia was horrified to see that it was her sister, who'd been stabbed through the chest and was even now bleeding gold blood. The Shrieker that had grabbed her pulled Luna in and let go, depositing her at its base, and then reared back to slam down on her. "Luna!" she shouted, telekinetically pulling the other alicorn back, moments before the Shrieker landed with earth-shaking force that sent the ground beneath their hooves rolling. Once she was satisfied that Luna could magically regenerate the wound, she turned her gaze on the infected that had dared hurt her sister, ignoring the Leapers battering on a pinkish shield erected around them. Princess Celestia's horn lit up, and a portal opened right above the infected. Brilliant yellow flames gushed down, covering the monster before the portal closed and the sunstrike ended. The sunstrike had charred a wide circle around its target black, including the base of the other one, but the main target was utterly blackened. Even as it healed, it sank back beneath Canterlot. Luna got back on her hooves and snarled at the one remaining Shrieker. Her horn lit up dark blue, bits of the magic splitting off and forming tiny stars around her, before with a heave of effort she sent every one of the explosive sparks at the Shrieker, the barrage forcing it to retreat. "The way be clear!" she bellowed. "Let us progress to the destination post haste!" Celestia quickly lost track of how far they were in Canterlot. Many of the paths had been sealed off with red tissue, clinging to buildings and stadiums and overhangs like demonic cobwebs. As they went deeper, the number of Shriekers that Elizabeth sent after them increased, which hinted that they were making her unsure if she could drive them out. The air fight was largely won, which let the changelings and pegasi fire magic and arrows down below, picking off the weaker infected. Even the streets seemed to have been... shifted. She knew Canterlot like the frogs of her hooves, but this was different. How drastically had Greene redesigned Canterlot since she'd last been there? At least her castle, from what she could see, was untouched. As they closed in on the Prime Colony, Elizabeth sent three Shriekers after them, but with the aid of Chrysalis, Shining, as well as Twilight and her friends, they managed to overcome them. The rest of the army, trailing behind them, was also holding, forming a line of equinity that pierced the infection right to the Prime Colony. As they walked before it, Queen Chrysalis landed amidst buzzing wings. "Here we are," she said, draining the life out of a nearby Leaper. Princess Celestia couldn't help but wonder who they'd been, before. "Now what?" Princess Luna walked forward, everypony else providing covering fire for her, and looked up at the Prime Colony. It was by far the most heavily armored of all the Colonies, its flesh more black than red. Princess Celestia privately wondered if she could pierce it at all, and whether or not she'd even have to to get Elizabeth's attention. It was an incredibly tall, cubical building, towering three, four times the height of the surrounding structures. As such, there was a clearing right in front of it where the former houses of the residential district had been uprooted for Greene's structure. There was a deep rumbling, and the ground beneath her hooves quaked. Everypony looked down, anxious as to what was happening. Celestia looked down, around, and then back up at the Prime Colony. Her jaw dropped. The armor was draining away. Thinning and reddening at the top and slowly, ever so slowly, going down. "What is she doing?" she heard Rarity whisper behind her. Celestia nodded. "Stay alert, this may be another of her tricks." No sooner had she said that than the ground around them exploded, revealing not two, three, or four Shriekers, but six arranged in a hexagon in the clearing. Normal infected were, as always, arriving in an endless trickle. Perfectly spaced between the six Shriekers, three Lead Breakers slammed into the ground, growling low in all six of their mouths. One by one they roared to the heavens, red mist spewing from their maws, revealing at least a dozen Breakers on the rooftops. Princess Celestia paled. "Oh," Chrysalis sneered. "That little - " ***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-*** Fluttershy Um, Elizabeth, where are we going? Was what Fluttershy wanted to say, but at the moment she was squeezing her mouth together as tight as she could and clinging to Elizabeth's back like her animal friends' lives depended on it. Like they had done two or three months ago, Fluttershy clung to Elizabeth's back, held there by a mesh of red and white tendrils which had, at her request, also overgrown her eyes so she didn't accidentally open them as they soared past Canterlot, wind whistling in her ears as Elizabeth sustained her mad pace. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on. Elizabeth had just, just barged into her room looking more worried than she'd ever seen her, and requested that Fluttershy let her bring her to a 'safe place'. Was something bad happening? Would her friends be alright? Either way, she'd climbed onto Elizabeth's back and had her ensnare her with those really hot, pulsing webs. Eventually, Elizabeth slowed. There was the sound of something metallic being kicked open, and then Elizabeth ran a little more. "Here," she rasped, making Fluttershy cringe as the phantom force pounded at the inside of her head. "Get ready, letting go." Sure enough, Fluttershy could feel the tendrils peeling back, melting off of her and back into Elizabeth. She dropped down and, despite being ready, fell on her shaking forehooves. "Oh, sorry," she whispered. "I should've been more prepared." "Fluttershy," Elizabeth said urgently. "Listen. Little time." She zipped away to a nearby wall and placed both hands against it, her standard web slithering out with a wet shlkk. Fluttershy took a moment to look around. She was in what looked like a safe room. A few of those had been constructed after the changeling invasion, in case anything really bad happened. There were shelves, with cans of preserved food on them. Fluttershy wrinkled her snout; she'd been living mainly on canned food the last three weeks, and while it was thoughtful of Elizabeth she really didn't like the taste. ... not that she'd ever mention that to Elizabeth, of course! That'd be rude. As the web grew, Elizabeth spoke. "Coming for me," she rasped. "Celestia, Luna, Chrysalis, coming for me." Sickening worry, so much Fluttershy was amazed it didn't turn corporeal, surged outwards from Elizabeth and seeped into Fluttershy. "Coming for me." Fluttershy's eyes widened. She knew, in the back of her mind, that Elizabeth was fighting them, but it was still so hard to imagine them doing so. Okay, well, maybe not for Chrysalis. And Princess Luna was really scary, even though Fluttershy knew that wasn't fair and that the Lunar Princess was very nice. But she really had a hard time picturing Princess Celestia being aggressive towards Elizabeth. "Oh my," Fluttershy said, putting a hoof to her mouth. The mat of tendrils on the floor wormed past her, tickling her as they went. "Really? Can't you, um, just run away? Y-You're good at that." Her eyes widened. "Not that you're a coward, but - " "No." The finality with Elizabeth which said that was really startling. "No more running. Go to them, end it now." She removed her hands from the wall and the web stopped growing. Looking around, Fluttershy realized that it had completely overgrown the inside of the safe room, glowing a soothing orange in some places and... oh, was that the door over in the corner? It was really big... a-and made of metal... had Elizabeth just kicked it open? She'd never truly gotten used to her friend's strength. Elizabeth walked over to the door and took something out from under it, then walked over to Fluttershy and knelt to her level. Elizabeth held two things; one was a piece of paper that she placed face-down next to her, and the other... "Here," she said, handing over what was in her grasp and... oh dear. "My Element?" she asked weakly, taking it in her hoof and, almost instinctively, clicking it around her neck. The moment she did, Fluttershy felt a sense of calm briefly wash over her, like being reunited with an old friend, and a faint buzzing in her veins dissipated. She looked up at Elizabeth's withered green eyes. "Why?" "Celestia, Luna, Chrysalis. Strong. Me and my children stronger, but still strong." Elizabeth briefly glanced down, then back at Fluttershy. "Chance I'll fail." She gasped, horrified. "Elizabeth, no..." she whispered, reaching out with her forehooves to take Elizabeth's hands. The Evolved accepted the gesture, wrapping those spindly, almost scorching hot fingers around her hooves. "No, you're going to be okay," she said, even though she herself didn't know what to think. As much as it pained her, she knew that Elizabeth not getting hurt translated to her Princesses getting hurt. "Maybe not. If I'm hurt, can't protect. You need to," she said. "Gave you Kindness Element." She tapped the paper. "Hid other Elements. Here are places. If I can't protect, Elements protect." Fluttershy blinked back tears and looked at the paper, then back at Elizabeth. "Okay," she said with a nod, pulling her hooves back to wrap them around her barrel. "Okay." Elizabeth's face softened. "Thank you, Fluttershy." She reached out with her right hand and stroked Fluttershy's cheek, blistering hot. "Never forget. Good friend." She stood back up and grabbed the door in one hand, bringing the metal fixture back with herself. "Safe in here," she said. "Door won't be sealed completely. Can open it." Elizabeth looked down, frowned, then shook her head and locked eyes with Fluttershy again. "If I don't come back, leave. Find other Harmony Elements." She could hardly see, despite blinking back the tears. "O-Okay Elizabeth," she said, her voice cracking. "I will, I promise." Elizabeth smiled and affixed one part of the door in place, so that it was perpendicular with its hole. She turned so that her back - with the tubes running down it and everything - was towards Fluttershy. She watched the tall former human clench her fists, look up, and then - Fluttershy yelped when a gray and red blur crashed into her. It took her a moment to realize it was Elizabeth, wrapping her arms around Fluttershy and resting her head on top of hers. "Thank you, Fluttershy," she rasped. "For everything." After a moment, she wrapped her own hooves around Elizabeth's narrow waist and nuzzled into her plastic suit. "It was my pleasure, Elizabeth. You're a great friend, a-and a great mother. Don't let anypony tell you otherwise." She pulled away and looked up at Fluttershy. "Please, be safe Elizabeth." The Evolved stood and returned to the door. She looked at Fluttershy and smiled. "Thank you." And then she left, closing the door so that only a halo of light could be seen around it. On one side of the halo, that light vanished as Elizabeth sealed it over. Fluttershy gulped, sitting alone in the room full of orange lights and canned food. She glanced at the paper that held the location of the other five Elements of Harmony, still face down. She brought her hoof to her neck and rubbed the gem of Kindness. "Oh girls, wherever you are, please be safe," she murmured. There was a shimmering pink light... ***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-*** Twilight Sparkle Why couldn't she hurt the Tartarus damned thing?! The thought was rather atypical of her, but she just didn't understand why nothing she did seemed to register to the Lead Breaker. She could rupture the skin of Lead Breakers with some effort, but they just didn't seem to care. At the very least Rainbow could easily distract it while she blasted away at it, keeping away with her wings. Everything was falling apart. The air guards were still doing their best to help out, but were besieged by even more flying infected, and everypony was completely pinned down next to the still-draining Prime Colony. The Princesses and Chrysalis were doing their best to deal with the other two Lead Breakers, but with the dozen regular Breakers, remaining Lead, and six Shriekers, on top of the regular infected, it was a miracle she hadn't been hurt yet. To her right, her brother was aiding an earth pony phalanx against a Breaker. To her left, Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack were galloping circles around a Breaker while three flying changelings slowed it with their magic. Somewhere off to the side Princess Luna held a weakly struggling Lead Breaker in her nightmare pit while Chrysalis drained its life, and Celestia was flying in between the tossed carriages of the Shriekers. The Prime Colony's armor was about three-quarters of the way down, revealing the houses that had been mashed together like a jigsaw puzzle to form it. Twilight wasn't sure what would happen once its armor was completely gone, but she didn't expect anything good. She ducked beneath another unicorn's magic bolt and retaliated with a sweep of force, launching a dozen regular infected back. She sent another streak of spellfire at the Lead Breaker, catching it in the left flank and doing absolutely nothing to it. The monster reared up to slam down on a trio of unicorns trying to push it back, so Twilight lit up her horn and lifted. The Lead Hunter was smaller than an Ursa Minor, yet it was much heavier and taxed her quite a bit. That was still enough time for Princess Celestia to fly over in front of it and light up her horn. A moment later there was a blinding flash of light, a crack of thunder, and an immense heat wave that made her accidentally drop the infected. The Lead Breaker stumbled back, bleeding copiously from a massive hole that cut straight through it. Even as Twilight watched, horror stricken, the injury sealed up and it roared to the sky, calling more regular Breakers. "Twi, behind ya!" Applejack shouted. She didn't have time to turn around, so she just aimed a wall of force behind her and then whipped around. She found that she'd just sent a Leaper sprawling. It was by far the most gruesome of all infected, with its unrecognizable features and a foreleg reconfigured into a blade. Initially it'd been on its back, but in the time it took Twilight to take in that it was a Leaper it was already on its hooves and charging at her. She only hesitated for a moment, and it was already on her, jumping to carve her with its blade. She dropped down and the bloated infected passed by, and gave it a push to make it stumble and fall. Once that was done, she tossed it aside with a flick of telekinesis, right into one of Princess Luna's exploding stars. It didn't get up. She turned her attention back to the Lead Breaker that Celestia had blasted with lightning only moments prior, her limbs burning with exhaustion after the charge into Canterlot. The enormous infected shook its head and backed off from Shining, something too thick to be blood dribbling from both mouths, and then gave out a piercingly high shriek and collapsed. At that moment another Lead Breaker jumped down on them from the surrounding streets, sending the prior phalanx of guards flying. Twilight's heart sank, and she sent an approaching earth pony tumbling back; she tried to only knock the infected unconscious, despite her logical mind telling her to do otherwise. They couldn't keep it up forever. Except for the changelings and the pegasi above their heads, they were cut off from reinforcements thanks to the sheer numbers of the infected. Princess Celestia landed and sent a river of fire out from the tip of her horn, washing over the Lead Breaker. But Twilight knew it wouldn't work. For every infected that died, another one took its place. And while the Princess kept the - she swallowed bile - bodies from piling up, they just kept coming. Five and a half million was a lot, after all. The Prime Colony was still draining, but right before it emptied out, there was a light tingle in the air. Twilight froze and cocked an ear. Then the world was awash in pink light, filling her nostrils with the scent of fresh pine needles and morning dew. The light seeped into her aching muscles and whirled around her racing heart. It got inside her head, reassuring her that it wouldn't hurt her and that everything would be made right. The light faded, and the air was filled with dull thumps as whatever infected were still in the area dropped dead, the few flying infected smacking into the ground. They regrouped, Rainbow hovering in the air. Twilight looked around and gulped. It was just them. The Princesses, Chrysalis, her brother, and her friends. Who knew when reinforcements would arrive? "What... was that?" Queen Chrysalis asked, looking around cautiously. "Did it just... the infected...?" "It seems so," Princess Celestia said. "And I feel... much better after that." "So do I," Pinkie said. "As do I, princess," Rarity said. "So," Shining said. "It healed us, and took away our exhaustion, but instantly killed the infected? What could do something like that? I think we'd know about magic that powerful." Realization dawned on Twilight. "Fluttershy," she whispered. "That was the Element of Kindness. Fluttershy must've done something with it." "Twilight," Princess Celestia said. "That is a great idea, but then why would an Element of Harmony kill infected?" She looked away sheepishly and rubbed her crystal amulet with a hoof. "Y-You're right, it was a pretty dumb idea." Twilight noticed that no more infected were coming. Whatever that had been, it had at least given them a moment to catch their breaths. The Daybringer shook her head, aurora-mane flowing in waves as she did. "No, Twilight, it's most likely correct. Even if it does raise more questions than answers." The Prime Colony's last bits of armor vanished beneath the streets of Canterlot. The ground before them shook and bulged upwards, cracking. A moment later there was a resonant cry as a Shrieker burst forth, silhouetted against the eclipse. Everypony prepared to open fire, but paused when they saw that, balanced on the tip of its bony scythes, was a familiar figure. The Shrieker lowered itself into its curled-over stance, and Elizabeth Greene walked off. The moment her feet touched the ground, the Shrieker slid back beneath the ground and left behind a region of shattered stone. "Last chance," she said, instantly causing Twilight a massive headache. "Stop now, go back. Stop fighting. Or I will kill you." A chill ran down Twilight's spine at how casually Elizabeth threatened murder. "Big talk for an alien who can barely take on Celestia on her own," Chrysalis shot back. But Twilight knew the undertone in her voice; they were stalling for time, for the rest of the army to catch back up. Greene had something nasty up her freaky plastic sleeves. "We'll see," she rasped, the strength of five million minds hammering into Twilight's brain. "Again, last chance. Stop fighting. Family good thing. Show you," she said, her echoes traveling through the streets long after her mouth stopped moving. "If we want," Twilight said through gritted teeth. "To be part of your so called family, then we'll tell you!" she spat. Elizabeth Greene narrowed her eyes at Twilight. "Can't trust yourself. Don't know what's good for you. I do. Stop fighting. Take amulet off." Princess Luna stomped a forehoof. "Enough of thy games, monster! Thou shall not corrupt us, and on this day justice will be done!" Elizabeth nodded. "Yes. It will." She turned to look at Princess Celestia. "Stop now." She shook her head. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Elizabeth. You have done horrible things to my little ponies, and you will be held accountable." Elizabeth paused, and looked down. She clenched her fists, and then unclenched them. "Was wrong about you," she whispered, the shredded repeats making it easily audible. Elizabeth looked up and locked eyes with the Solar Princess. "Was wrong about you. You're not better than them. You're no different than them..." She snarled. "You're just like the similars!" There was a flicker of gray and red, and Elizabeth Greene was on Princess Celestia, her hand pressed to the alicorn's forehead. Celestia gasped in pain, and they all opened fire with their magic, but Greene was already retreating. She leaped up high, then landed on the shattered stone left by the Shrieker and sank into it like it was water, vanishing from sight. "Something scary," Pinkie Pie whispered, breaking the eerie silence. “Did... did she just retreat?” Shining asked. The ground heaved once. Chrysalis's voice turned frantic, and she stepped backwards, eyeing the spot where Greene had vanished. “No, no she didn't.” Another heave, greater this time. Twilight saw the street beneath her hooves actually bend upwards, cracks forming in the stone and throwing off her balance. “Everyling back! Now!” They did just that, turning tail and running. They hadn't gone five bodylengths before the cracked street exploded. Twilight flattened her ears just in time to avoid being deafened by a piercing, thunderous screech that shook her to her bones and echoed down the streets of Canterlot. Dust and rubble clouded Twilight's vision as the street bucked and rolled beneath her, sending her flying back to land in an undignified heap with the rest of the girls. The others fared no better, the three ponies and one changeling landing in a tangled pile. She looked in the direction the explosion had come, obscured by rubble, searching for the source. The dust cleared, and Twilight found herself looking up. And up. And up. The... thing was big. It towered as high as four Ursa Minors, and had the sickening red, veiny texture of infected flesh, but so much more so than even the skinless Shriekers. It had a bulbous, enlarged head and a neck just as wide as said head that stuck up from the shattered stone. Its gargantuan spine jutted out from the flesh in a way that threatened to make Twilight retch. The neck... just the neck was as tall as a Shrieker in its usual curled-over stance. The head was reared back, but Twilight could see how misshapen and lumpy it was, like a potato. Where a pony's left ear would be, its flesh twisted into three limp tendrils, each one slightly shorter than the one above it, with the nub of a fourth between the highest and middle one, giving the whole thing an asymmetrical, broken look. The beast had a rippling, flowing quality, as if water was being eternally poured upon its body. The head had no eyes. No nose. No ears. No face, no features at all except for a 'little' indent in the middle filled with a web of ever-so-slightly less red flesh. And in the middle of those tendrils, covered in infected tissue with her arms and legs spread out, was Elizabeth Anne Greene. Her jaw dropped as the infected monstrosity – Elizabeth Greene, that thing is Elizabeth Greene! - turned its head down to look at them. “Well,” Rainbow said weakly. “Buck.”