• Published 4th Sep 2013
  • 7,442 Views, 677 Comments

Greene Fields under Red Lights - Europa



After an eternal moment of failure and fear, Elizabeth Greene awakens once more. But... where is she? She doesn't understand.

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The World Set Free

Celestia

In a room in the Crystal Palace, Celestia and Luna sat alone. But the guest chamber was currently being used for something much different than sleep. Instead, both princesses sat opposite one another at a breakfast table, no breakfast before them.

Luna said, "Those of ponykind free of Elizabeth's plague art either within the Crystal Empire or in a crystal barrier along the outskirts of Equestria. There hath not been reports of any new infected attack, and our lunar senses hath picked up all of the infected clustering withers to withers in Canterlot. Truly, it appears almost as if they art waiting for something, or that they hath given up."

"Mmhmm," Celestia said, looking through a random spot on the table.

There were so many things weighing down on her head, even heavier than the crown behind her horn. First and foremost was the impromptu alliance with the changelings, and the betrayal of their formal allies, who had turned their backs on Equestria in their moment of need. What would happen to the treaties? They would certainly have to be remade; currently Equestria could be called upon to aid their allies should conflict arise, but after the Outbreak had decimated their population, destroyed the Royal Guard, undone the Wonderbolts, and nearly annihilated the military, Equestria was in no position to help any country. And what about the changelings? Would their alliance remain, or would Chrysalis return to the Badlands and call off the ceasefire? Equestria was hardly in a position to fight back, after all...

To say nothing of the bitterness and smoldering desire for revenge Celestia found blossoming in her heart. She'd trusted the zebras, dragons, minotaurs, the griffons, and they had -

"Greene hast been contained in the dungeons beneath the palace, and the changelings art interfering with her telepathy so her infected won't come to rescue her. She is ready to be tried at our convenience, sister."

"Mmhmm," she grunted.

The amount of damage was... unreal. Celestia had yet to get a full report of the devastation that had been wrought, but just by looking at Equestria she could make guesses. Cities devoid of enough workers to maintain their infrastructure. Entire towns empty of ponies, to be retaken by time. The economy in ruins. Inventors and creators lost by the bucketful. Even with careful allocation of the royal treasury, it was clear Equestria was heading for very rough times. All because of one person. One single person.

"There is the matter of what to do with the monster, of course. Thy student and her friends, with the return of Fluttershy, hath been testing the Elements of Harmony on individual infected, and the results are not promising. The Elements immediately kill any infected they touch by purging the virus from their bodies. As the infected are dependent on Greene's virus, this results in instantaneous organ failure."

"Mmhmm."

And Twilight. Oh her dear Twilight Sparkle, left with no parents and no brother, no blood family to call her own. Celestia couldn't imagine how horrible it must've been for her most faithful student. She wanted to sweep the unicorn into her forehooves and wrap her in her wings and tell her everything was going to be alright, that she would fix things, but how could she fix things? How could she possibly lie like that and say things were alright? Things would never again be the same. Never. And Celestia knew that it was all her fault.

"We art not entirely sure why the Elements would kill the infected instead of simply restoring them, but thy student's theory is that the alien nature of the virus is making them misfire. So whilst the Elements shalt not restore Equestria, they can still be used to cleanse the virus entirely from our world, as they cleansed Discord's mayhem."

"Mmhmm," Celestia responded.

Her nation, her people, her little ponies, ravaged without mercy by Elizabeth Greene. And simply killing Greene wasn't an option either, since the infected were still her subjects, ones now utterly dependent on the Evolved. How monstrous would it be of Celestia to cast her mentally ill subjects out into the world with no way of helping themselves?

Not as monstrous as making them that way in the first place, she seethed internally. Did she even owe the infected anything? Or should she just cut her losses? She didn't know.

"Furthermore war was never officially declared. Elizabeth is, in accordance with the papers she herself agreed to, technically a citizen of Equestria. Do we hold her to the murders of every soldier and civilian her infected slew, or just the ones she herself had a hoof - pardon us, hand - in slaying?"

Celestia wanted to hurt her. She wanted to make Elizabeth hurt. It was so unlike her but the alien had abused her trust so vilely that it made the Daybringer absolutely sick to her stomach to even think about it. She wanted to trot into the cell holding Greene and engulf her with solar plasma until the weakened alien was reduced to so much vapor! She wanted to end her permanently, to keep her from ever again hurting Celestia...

"There is one piece of good news, of course; now that things have somewhat calmed down, residents in Manehattan hath found Tirek in their streets; it seems the demon recently escaped his imprisonment. He was reported to hath large claw marks upon his flanks and torso, as if he was mauled to death by a Breaker."

"Mmhmm."

... hurting her country...

"Sister? Tia?"

... hurting her little ponies...

"Art thou even listening to us?"

... hurting Twilight...

"... we art wedded to King Sombra and our foal is thy student, her immortality locked away to protect her from thy lust for power."

Celestia looked up at Luna with a start. "What? I'm sorry Luna, I was... elsewhere."

Luna's eyes softened. "Sister, we know that guilt tears at thee, but we must focus. We try Elizabeth in court tomorrow, in this very palace."

That was right, they were trying her in the Crystal Empire, weren't they? Normally an Equestrian criminal would be tried in Equestria, but for Greene they could make an exception. Just getting her to the Crystal Empire had been practically inviting the infected to invade, at least before her hive mind was muddled.

"I know Luna, I know. But any time I think about her, I just think about what she did, how much she hurt our little ponies, the dreadful things she did to them..." Her hooves began pressing at the table, microscopic cracks spider-webbing through it. "And it makes me so angry because it was all my fault! I should've known better; what sort of judge of character am I?"

Luna's frowned. "Tia..."

Celestia closed her eyes and trembled. "We should've killed her," she whispered. "The instant she appeared in Canterlot we should've killed her. She was still weak when she came back to life, the two of us could have easily killed that wretch! But we didn't and now there's hardly a tenth of our subjects left, and - "

"Tia!" Luna shouted. Celestia opened her eyes and noticed that Luna had gotten out of her seat and was now next to her, looking up at Celestia worriedly. Luna rested a hoof on her lap. "Please, this is not like thee. Do not let Greene turn thee into a monster."

"I know, I know," she breathed. "But if we hadn't given her the benefit of the doubt, if we had read deeper into her story and found that the humans had every right to lock her away, and that Alex Mercer had every right to kill her, then we could've done the same to her and we wouldn't be here right - "

"TIA!" Luna barked, looking at her with wide eyes. "Please, sister. Don't go down that road," she pleaded.

Celestia blinked hard. "I... you're right. I'm sorry, Lulu. You're right. What are we going to do with Elizabeth?"

"We say that we should not execute her, however much our blood boils. Our subjects who labor under her will are dependent on her, and art wholly innocent in the matter."

"But can we truly care about them? They represent a continued threat to our way of life, to our freedom and will. I feel they're simply too big of an existential risk to allow to survive. Too dangerous to even contain."

Luna nodded. "We understand thy concerns, sister. We suppose that the question of Elizabeth Greene's sentence can be reduced to naught but a simple question."

"And what is that, Lulu?" she asked.

"Do we punish her for her transgressions," Princess Luna asked. "Or do we make her perform reparations for them?"

Celestia sighed, and took off her crown with her magic, turning it over in her gaze. "Indeed, that is the question. I suppose there's really only one answer for it."

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

Chrysalis

It was a shame she was going to have to conquer Equestria now.

The past week and a half of helping the ponies had undermined a lot of Queen Chrysalis's preconceptions of their species. She wasn't entirely sure how to feel about them now, but she definitely wasn't going to keep thinking about them the way she had before all this. Still, her course was all too obvious.

Taking over the ponies now would just be mean. Obviously Chrysalis was going to wait until Elizabeth was dealt with more permanently, but even then it'd be like taking love from a nymph. The ponies were defenseless, well and truly defenseless. Their military was in ruins, and Chrysalis could ambush and cocoon the princesses in their sleep. It would be so simple. She could even have her subjects nymphnap the Elements. Those few simple acts, and both Equestria and the Crystal Empire were hers. Already, she had changelings in place to strike key areas of Equestria - what key areas were left, anyway - to make it as quick as possible. She just had to give the word.

There would be no gloating this time. No shared prisons. Just focused victory.

And it wasn't like it would be all bad for the ponies; the changelings would keep them alive. Certainly better than they could themselves; with their numbers obliterated it'd be so simple for another race to come in and take them over, one that had even less interest in the ponies' well-being than her. Conquering them was in everyling's best interest, even if the ponies didn't know it.

It was a shame it was the only way.

Queen Chrysalis cantered up the stairs of the Crystal Palace, seeking out Cadance. On her back, her cargo rested securely, engulfed in the illusion of flickering emerald fire and adhered to her turquoise shell via her slime. She could conquer the ponies later, right now she had to play another role, a very easy one.

That of the bearer of bad news. Besides, everyling else was busy.

She found the door to Cadance's chambers - there were no guards, strangely enough - and rapped a perforated forehoof against it. From inside rang a, "Who is it?"

Before Chrysalis could answer, the door opened inward, revealing Cadance on her bed with a large globe between her hooves. The pink alicorn, her horn still gently glowing, seemed to be looking at some islands in the middle of the Great Sea on the other side of the world. The princess's lavish - not that lavish, surprisingly - bedroom was a stark contrast to the reddened, decayed streets of Canterlot, and for a moment the contrast stunned the changeling queen.

Cadance smiled at her. At Chrysalis! "Oh, Chrysalis, you're back!" She turned thoughtful and tapped her chin with a hoof. "You're here. That means that..."

Chrysalis nodded and stepped in, closing the door behind her. She allowed herself a weary smile. "We got her. I don't know how, but we got her. Wrapped her up good, she's weak as a newly hatched 'ling now."

"And... the infected?" she asked, the globe in her hooves forgotten.

She shrugged. "They're... well, I wouldn't say they're not a threat, but they're abandoning their goal. They've just... left all the other cities and towns and clustered up in Canterlot. I don't know what they're doing, it's almost like the infected are giving up."

Cadance breathed a sigh of relief. "I won't complain, if that means everypony can get under a crystal field safely." She looked back at the globe. "It looks like we won't need to summon Zeus after all. Thank goodness too, I've only just figured out how to summon a human from their world, let alone Alex Mercer specifically or to a certain place."

Chrysalis shivered at the mention of his name. The light streaming through the window seemed to darken for just a moment. "... right. Regardless, I wanted to check in on you and let you know how things went during the fight."

Cadance frowned. "How bad was it?"

In response to that, Chrysalis closed her eyes and tilted her head back. Her muscles ached beneath her exoskeleton, reminding her of how hard she'd pushed herself to dance around Elizabeth's orbs, rocks, and thrashing tentacles. "It was... terrible. Greene had transformed herself into this giant... monster. She couldn't move and she was an easy target, which certainly went our way, but her power...! If Zeus defeated her alone, then I don't want to imagine what he is capable of."

She didn't want to imagine, but Chrysalis's treasonous brain did it anyway.

"She focused a lot on me, of course. She kept me on my hooves like nothing before; one mistake and she'd flatten me, Cadance. Flatten, she was that big."

The alicorn paled, and raised one of her disgustingly fat forelegs up a little. "Oh my. But you're okay now."

Chrysalis nodded. "Oh yes, I am. There was a remarkable amount of life to drain inside of her, and to give to everyling around me when I had a spare moment." She'd only had 'spare moments' when Elizabeth decided to smack down someling besides her. "Eventually we came out on top, but... so many changelings died. So many ponies, too." Here it was coming. The bad news. Chrysalis was partly intrigued as to how Cadance would react, and part of her dreaded it. In the previous weeks she'd come to see the alicorn in a better light than she had before.

She had been way off thinking Cadance was anything at all like Blueblood.

Cadance looked down and nodded. "I was afraid of such, but it really wasn't avoidable in any way. There was nothing else that could be done to make Elizabeth stop the madness." She looked back at Chrysalis and tilted her head. "Where is she now, anyway?"

"In the dungeons. I cocooned her myself, and my Imperial Guard keeps her hive mind weakened so that she will be blind and deaf." She smirked and chuckled sinisterly. "She's not going anywhere. No amount of creative use of her powers or can-do attitude is going to save her." She tossed her mane with a motion of her head. "If it were up to me I'd finish the job right now, but your aunts are insisting that she be given a fair trial. Personally, I think it's just a kangaroo court." Though having never encountered the kangaroos Chrysalis had no idea how accurate that saying was.

"It will be a fair court, Chrysalis," the princess said comfortingly, before developing a wicked smile of her own. "It's just that what's 'fair' is stacked against Elizabeth to the extreme."

Queen Chrysalis tilted her head sideways momentarily. "I suppose." I'm stalling, she told herself. "There's something else, too."

Cadance's eyes widened. "Really? What is it?"

Chrysalis bit her lip, her fangs drawing blood. "Elizabeth was large and immobile, but she had so much power. At one point she blasted Celestia and Luna with her shockwave, and I had to go heal them." She sighed. "A pony distracted her from attacking us while we were occupied."

"Oh, that was really brave of them," Cadance said. "Who was it?"

"You're not going to like it," Chrysalis said.

Princess Cadance clambered off her bed. "Who was it, Chrysalis?" she asked urgently.

She shuffled her forehooves nervously. "You're really not going to like it."

"What's going on? Who was it? Tell me!"

"I could hypnotize you," she offered. "That way it won't bother you as much."

"No!" Cadance shrieked, taking a few steps back. "Can you just show me?"

This was going to be interesting. Chrysalis lit up her horn and moved the weight off of her back, still engulfed by the illusion of fire, and set it down between herself and the short alicorn. Cadance frowned. "What is this?"

"An illusion. There's really no easy way to break this; Cadance, for what it's worth, I'm..." The word tasted bitter in her mouth. "... sorry for your loss." Then, with a flicker of magic, she dispelled the illusion around the body of Shining Armor.

She jumped when her late husband's corpse - cleaned up since leaving Canterlot but still utterly unmoving - was revealed. She worked her mouth up and down, and settled on not saying anything. She trotted forward and lowered her snout to his and nuzzled him. His head barely moved, caught in rigor mortis. "Shiny?" She nudged him again, and then stepped back. "He's so... cold." Her eyes widened in horrible realization, a wave of terror and fear washing over Chrysalis's emotional sensors. Her left ear twitched twice.

"No, no no no no no!" she shouted, dashing at Shining Armor and lowering herself to her hocks. "Shiny, Shiny please, please no, please..."

It didn't take long at all for the alicorn to break down, pressing her face to Shining's and crying. Not great, world-shaking sobs, or silently, but just normal crying. For a moment it made her happy to see the one who had blasted her - quite painfully - out of Canterlot in sorrow, but then her joy turned to reluctant sympathy when she remembered that, without Cadance and her crystal magic, there was a very real chance that Chrysalis would be worshiping Elizabeth as her mother.

Chyrsalis frowned and watched her fall to pieces for a while. "He saved my life. He distracted Greene long enough for me to heal up the alicorns; without him she'd have killed me."

The alicorn didn't respond, but Chrysalis didn't expect her to. She was giving off positively enormous amounts of love, easily overshadowing the ambiance of the Crystal Heart, but Queen Chrysalis felt oddly ill at the thought of eating any of it. Really, it was only because she was already so full.

Honestly, that was the reason. Really.

Slowly, Cadance's sobs began to slow down as she came one step closer to acceptance. Personally, Chrysalis wondered if the pink alicorn would go through the 'anger' stage of grief at all.

What should she do now? She clearly wasn't a good shoulder to cry on. She didn't want to admit it, but she felt like she had to do something to help Cadance. After all, she'd protected her from the virus, and her husband had saved her life on several occasions.

It really was a shame she was going to have to conquer Equestria.

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

Fluttershy

How could she look any of them in the eyes? After what she'd let happen, how could she look any of these ponies in the eyes? Like she deserved to be among them? Like she deserved to have a room in the Crystal Palace itself, of all things?

Fluttershy laid on her bed, curled up on her side and staring blankly at a wall, the covers drawn over her and transforming her into a pony-shaped blanket. She'd placed the Element of Kindness on the floor... somewhere behind her. She didn't know. She really didn't care. Fluttershy didn't deserve to hold Kindness around her neck, not after what she'd let happen, what she'd done.

She sniffled and hid deeper under her blankets when she heard the door behind her click, open, and close with another click. Somepony's hooves clip-clopped across the floor over to her, and Fluttershy felt the bed shift when somepony sat down on it behind her.

"Hey Flutters," Rainbow said. "So, um, we've finally got a moment to just... talk. No crazy aliens running around, no following a piece of paper to the Elements, no blasting Breakers with rainbows. Uh... aw geez I was never good with this kinda stuff. She didn't hurt you, did she?"

For a little while Fluttershy didn't say anything, but eventually she summoned the courage to say, "Mmfmlfmfl."

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

She took a deep breath. "She didn't. She was... really nice about everything. She even let me, um, take care of your pets back home." She hadn't been able to find Philomena in the castle, but Fluttershy knew in her heart of hearts that the phoenix could protect herself.

A note of sharp steel entered Rainbow's voice. "She better have." Fluttershy felt a hoof rest on top of her through her blankets, comfortingly rubbing her side. "Flutters, have you had breakfast yet?"

"... no." She didn't want to admit it to anypony, but she was hungry. But she really didn't want to be a bother. Though it seemed that was all she was good for...

There was a clatter of metal, and she could hear Rainbow moving the nightstand next to her bed and resting something on it. Unable to help her curiosity, Fluttershy turned over and saw that it was a platter with some food on it. Buttered crystal rolls, a glass of milk, crystal berries, and a hayburger. They looked really good, and her mouth began to water in spite of herself.

On one hoof, Fluttershy wanted to just stay in bed forever. On the other hoof, it would be really rude to refuse the food after Rainbow had brought it all the way to her. She sat up and grabbed the hayburger in her hooves' adhesive magic, taking a tentative bite and trying to ignore the way Rainbow was staring at her. Fluttershy itched under her fur from the attention, but slowly but surely she finished her hayburger, then took a sip of milk. Then she ate the crystal berries, and the rolls, and then ended by finishing the milk.

"How was it?" Rainbow asked, still staring at Fluttershy intensely.

"Um, it was... good. Thank you, Rainbow," she whispered.

"Any time, 'shy." There was an awkward silence. "You know, if you ever feel like talking 'bout what happened while you were with her, I'm here for you."

"Twilight needs you more," Fluttershy muttered, moving back under her blankets.

Another awkward silence. It seemed those were all Fluttershy was good for. "Yeah, I guess she does. Um, happy dreams, Flutters."

"T-Thanks," she whispered. There was another click as the door closed, leaving Fluttershy alone again.

Why did they still care about her? She was a... she was a traitor. When she'd been given the chance to choose between staying with Elizabeth, and grabbing the Elements and flying, she chose Elizabeth. She comforted Greene while she was poisoned and reassured her when the alien was unsure of her own strength, unsure that she could win. She was a terrible pony, because she'd even started to agree with Elizabeth. After all, nopony who believed in their goal that strongly could be wrong, could they?

That made her think about Elizabeth, trapped and all alone, afraid and unknowing of what was to come, and that thought made Fluttershy's heart throb. What kind of friend was she? Friends didn't let friends cause the zombie apocalypse.

It didn't matter what little she'd done. It didn't matter that Fluttershy had told her Evolved friend where to put tunnels that wouldn't collapse the streets. It didn't matter that she had, with a simple suggestion, halted the infection in its tracks for an entire week. None of it did.

She could already see it now. Her friends circled around her, pointing their hooves at her, faces angry and accusing. Calling her an alien-lover, a betrayer of harmony, a follower of Discord, a traitor to the crown, a bad friend. Each imagined - and no doubt, in the future, real - insult made Fluttershy's insides clench up.

Slowly, she started to cry.

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

Greene

She was cold.

There were many things she was, trapped in this cocoon, but she was certainly cold. To say nothing of the stinging numbing can't-move of the slime around her, made largely of water, the throbbing rings of pain that were pulled to her fingertips and out into the slime, and the agonizing ache through her entire being. She was weak, so very, very weak, and the changeling cocoon kept her weak. Helpless.

She could see through it. Not well, but she could could could. She was in a dark cube of a room, the only light being the harsh blue light from the eyes of four changelings, and the simmering of their horns as they cast a spell around her. Its effects were easy easy easy for her to realize.

She couldn't see through her children's eyes. She couldn't hear through their ears. She could still whisper to them and hear them whisper to her and make them happy happy happy as she could, but she was cut off from their senses. After nearly a month of being so much more than herself, of seeing through millions of eyes and listening through hundreds of thousands of ears, being reduced to herself was jarring, almost horrible even. She was all alone with her own thoughts.

Her thoughts.

Oh she had thoughts.

They had beaten her. She had lost to them. She'd brought every scrap of power she could hold to bear and it hadn't been enough. They had outmaneuvered her, stripped her defenses, and caught her. She'd... she'd lost. Once again, she had lost. To the changelings and the equines.

HOW?! How had they beat her? It shouldn't have been possible! Her family out classed them in every way! They were stronger, tougher, faster, more numerous, more motivated, happier, and more coordinated! There was absolutely no way that she should've lost so why had she lost?!

The problem had to have been within herself. It always was; she was the guiding hand behind her family so it would inevitably return to her fault. What could she have possibly done different? Where had she gone wrong?

Of course, it wasn't so simple as a matter of of of her side having certain advantages and them having others. Fights weren't simple scales where where where you stack up what each side has and see which goes lower lower lower. It was far more complicated. So much more. Somewhere, she had made a terrible mistake, and now...

This was her end. She had no delusions about that; they were going to kill her. It wasn't like Hope, her first Home, where she was locked in the Cold Dark Place, which she had circumvented with a simple Time for Waiting. It wasn't like her second Home, where her Wayward Child had Cursed her and devoured her, thrusting her into a prison of no time and no space, of no life and death, of choking silence and deafening noise. This time, she was actually going to die.

A cold cold cold orb settled in the pit of her stomach. She was going to die. The total ceasing of all her functions. Her heart would stop. Her loving warmth would cool. Her Blessing would fall still.

What would it be like to die? To actually die die? To forget everything she had ever known and experience nothing ever again. To fall into dreamless sleep and never wake up. How would the alicorn sisters do it? She didn't didn't didn't know. She wished she did know; it would make it more bearable.

The waiting was terrible. She had no no no real way of telling time beyond counting in her mind, and her restless jumping skittering thoughts made that impossible. Each minute hour minute hour minute hour ticked by in agonizing unsureness. There was no clock. Now and then the changelings swapped out with others so they could keep projecting their scrambling magic onto her family's link. If she were free of the wretched cocoon she could easily slam them into each other, tear them in half with a single blow, but she wasn't.

Her eyes focused on her fingers, drifting motionless in the slime, and she concentrated. She tried to push a web of her warmth out, to poke it into the shell and pry it apart, but nothing happened. She didn't have enough flesh to extend and even if she did she couldn't move it through water.

She might've been able to figure out a variant of her Blessing that could neutralize the slime around her, but then what? She didn't have the strength to create the modified Blessing, let alone use it.

That just left her children. She'd gathered them in Canterlot and stopped spreading her Blessing, because when she was gone they'd all all all be lost and scared and alone and she had to minimize that. Could they free her? She wasn't sure where she was, but she was very certain she was... somewhere in the Crystal Empire.

But without being able to tell exactly where they were and where she was? It was suicide. One of her Throwing Children would be just as likely to open a tunnel to let her escape as erupt from the ground and accidentally impale her. As weak as she was, that would be instantly fatal. She could not help herself. Her children could not help her. What did that leave? It left her at the mercy of the alicorns.

HOW?! How was she at the mercy of them? She was so much stronger than them! She had taken her most powerful form, effortlessly shrugging off their most powerful of attacks, ravaging their streets and armies. Why? Why hadn't she won? Was it her fate to always lose when she tried to make a perfect world? Whether it was from tiny Similars while she didn't know her own strength, or the cooperation between three deities, or the betentacled wrath of a Cursed son. It seemed it was her lot lot lot in life to forever be a failure.

She couldn't help but endlessly look back at her fight and spot a hundred thousand things she could have done better. She endlessly lamented how she went after Shining Armor, or how aggressively she had fought. She'd been so determined to hurt them and kill them she only submerged when she absolutely had to.

That'd been a mistake.

And at the time it had seemed like a good idea to flatten Shining Armor; he'd been so open and the princesses were down, so she'd deemed it a good idea to eliminate their strongest defender. She should've gone for the alicorns when she had the chance.

That'd been a mistake.

So many mistakes. But of of of course, she could only see them in hindsight. She had gambled and lost, laid low once again. And one of her enemies had been the changeling queen, yet another regenerative shapeshifter.

She should never have spread her Blessing. She never should have tried to raise her family. She should've been content living with Fluttershy and defending her from everything, ready to turn her not-so-unconquerable strength on anything that might've tried to hurt them, like that red Similar-equine thing. At least that one was dead.

But she had spread her Blessing, and now she and her family would pay. And there was nothing Elizabeth Greene could do but sit in her cocoon and wait.

She was cold.

And so very afraid.

Author's Note:

I hope you all enjoyed. Please do leave a comment. Even if it's just to say what you liked and not to point out an error, everything helps; knowing what works is as important as knowing what doesn't.

Thanks to devas for editing the chapter.

So, um... the last chapter, Powerless, hit Featured for two hours or so. I have no idea how in the hell this story made Featured, even briefly, but I'm blown away all the same.

I do not own MLP or Prototype, Hasbro and Activision do so respectively.