Princess Luna began her descent the moment she entered Changeling territory, its long, slow, trajectory meant to avoid any unwanted attention from the denizens of this land. Through various trades, dealings, assurances, and a well placed threat here and there, Luna had managed to secure a site outside of her sister’s gaze where she could conduct tiberium research that wasn’t, strictly speaking, permitted within GDI’s charter. Although Chrysalis would never admit it, she had forged a minor research pact with the Lunar Princess for what she had written off as purely academic reasons.

Luna, on the other hoof, had an entirely different agenda. Changelings were immune to tiberium, even getting stronger when exposed to it. With the cancerous crystal spreading as far and wide as it was, completely unopposed by anything save for GDI’s very minor attempts at containment (with even that failing spectacularly), there was only one real option that could prevent the world being turned into one giant ball of tiberium. She was intent on finding a way to have the world, and all of ponykind, adapt to the crystal and coexist with it. In a way, she found it ironic whenever she gave the idea any sort of thought; here she was, the mare who in ancient times threatened the harmony of the world for selfish reasons, trying to find a “peaceful” solution to the tiberium problem as opposed to her sister’s more heavy-hoofed approach.

Once she was within ten kilometers of the facility, Luna felt magic wash over her as defensive turrets scanned her and determined that she was authorized to fly in this area. With a small grin, she used her god-like eyesight to observe the SAM sites she had hidden around the perimeter. Like clockwork, they retracted back into their armored bunkers and the stealth-penetrating scanners began sweeping the skies once more.

Five kilometers out, a second array of SAMs began scanning her and a wing of bat ponies and pegasi, all wearing flight suits painted to mimic the night sky, began escorting her. Luna kept her composure despite wanting to let a large grin decorate her muzzle. Her thestrals were well armed with air-to-air missile saddles strapped on their backs aided by the red and black visors they sported, making use of target acquisition software years ahead of what GDI had available. While she regretted the need to keep some technology away from Celestia and her beloved GDI Charter, sometimes one must delve into the grey areas of morality for the greater good of all, or at least the security of the research center that would save the world.

“Your Majesty, please continue along your flight path at your leisure. We’ll be your escorts until you reach the first ground checkpoint.” the mare on her left told her with a short salute before facing forward again.

“Thank you, Major.” she replied, smiling at the head of her aerial security. Major Starlight “Phantom” was the daughter of an actor and an artist who came into Luna’s service as soon as she was of age. Despite their increasing numbers, bat ponies still faced some prejudice from the general population. Not wanting to live off her parents or brother, she enlisted in Luna’s Night Guard and was transferred to the “Tiberium R&D Security” before her first term was over. Ever since, she’d been one of Luna’s most loyal and skilled test pilots.

“Always a pleasure, Princess.” Starlight told her as the wing of ponies continued to glide down towards the facility.

“We are curious as to how your family is faring, Major.”

“We’re fine, your highness.” one of the few ‘normal’ pegasi in the Luna’s employ replied on Luna’s right. He was an older stallion with a greying mane and an eyepatch over his left eye underneath the visor. Luna grinned slyly as she glanced at the pegasus who answered. Starlight almost never flew escort missions with her father on the roster.

“We are pleased to hear that, though We believe you both have not taken leave in nearly a year. Consider it a personal request that you both get some R&R before the year is out.” Luna stated as they all started landing, “If the message We received from Doctor Theory is any indication, things may be about to be set in motion that will require the both of you to be at your best.”

“As you wish.” Major Starlight and Captain Fantom replied as one with a respectful bow.

“Thank you.” Luna replied sincerely, returning the bow slightly and walking past the first security checkpoint. Once again she felt magical scanners wash over her skin, making it bristle slightly as if she had just felt a cold gust of wind, though without the discomfort of the cold. Right after the scan was finished, another wave of magic bathed her in green light. Once the machine was certain that she was not a changeling in disguise, the light disappeared and she proceeded into the building.

Luna’s research facility was designed to be both discrete and threatening to anyone who didn’t know of its true purpose. With any luck, the blood-red windows that lined the various black, armored walls would be enough to make any changeling venturing along or trying to infiltrate the perimeter feel uneasy. Should ponies not part of the need-to-know club come across it and somehow get past the defenses, she was sure the survivors would be hard-pressed to push past their fears and attempt a breach.

Guardsponies of every shape and size saluted her as she passed through the various checkpoints. Regardless of how many times she came here, the Night Princess could never stop herself from noticing and being surprised by just how much of her security staff was made up of Earth ponies. With so many ponies displaced by the never-ending expansion of yellow and red zones, she had taken under her wing any and all that would not be welcome in Blue Zones due to status or space.

The number of families for whom she oversaw relocation was staggering, fueling the flames that kept driving her towards finding a way, any way, through which salvation could be attained with the green crystal instead of fighting an unwinnable war of attrition with it.

The Lunar Princess trotted silently through various hallways decorated with containment units holding all manner of tiberium and mystical artifacts on her way to the main conference room. A tyrant king’s unicorn horn, a blue tiberium crystal formation, shattered pieces of Nightmare Moon’s armor, and many other items caught her eye but not enough so that she slowed her pace to admire them.

Once she got close enough, she cast a spell that let the large, armored double doors in front of her know exactly who was commanding them to open. Dark blue enveloped the metal doors before they pushed open to reveal quite a large, circular room with an appropriately sized table in the center of it. The table was large enough that Luna could have every senior and junior department head seated and still have plenty of room for chief security officers, heads of each R&D lab, and even the head janitor. Above the table was an impressive array of red lights and along the sides of the walls were various display monitors, also backlit in red, that showed everything from tiberium outbreak zones to GDI troop movements down to the inch and second.

Standing at the far end of the room in front of one such display screen was a dark-grey earth pony with no mane or tail, chocolate-brown eyes that were nearly so dark that they appeared to be black, plenty of scruff around his muzzle and mouth, and a cutie mark of an emerald. Luna always found the cutie mark to be somewhat ironic given the events of the past year. Professor Crystal Theory had once been the leading expert in gemstone harmonic resonance and how to ‘plant’ precious stones and metals. Now he was Luna’s best kept secret, most prized pupil, and as far as Luna knew, the leading expert on tiberium on the entire planet.

“Professor, We received your message and came with the utmost haste.”

“Ah, your majesty! I didn’t hear you come in.” the professor replied, walking over to her with a bright, yet somewhat feral, smile plastered across his face. “It’s good that you came, over the past few days we’ve made some astonishing progress that even I did not think possible.”

“Go on…” Luna murmured to her lead scientist.

“If you’ll just follow me.” he told her, gesturing to the screen he had been preparing before starting back towards it, “Well, ever since you managed to help us secure all that extra blue tiberium and test subjects from the Queen, we’ve been able to double our efforts in the Adaptation Program.”

“And the Mutation Key?” Luna asked once she had gotten a good look at the data files running across the screen.

“Also nearing completion. Within a few months, maybe one if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to engineer and control tiberium mutations.” Theory replied with a smile, “Imagine it, your highness, being able to take anyone with accidental exposure to tiberium and cause that mutation to either slow down, reverse, or take hold only where the doctor wants it to. We could save the gryphon race, not to mention our own, from extinction.”

The Changeling race were one of the more unique peoples that lived on this planet. Despite having equine forms, their mentality and physiology was more insect than mammal. Their method of subsistence, the positive emotions of other creatures, also suggested they had evolved side-by-side with gryphons and ponies, not as predators but as parasites. Perhaps this, had thought Luna, was what had allowed them to resist being turned into more of the green crystal or, in the more nightmarish cases, visceroids. A physiology dependant on the energy of other living beings, capable of absorbing and adapting the cancerous energy released by tiberium crystals. To be perfectly honest, Luna thought to herself, basing her hopes on the unique phenomena that had fundamentally altered all Changelings was nothing short of a gamble. Being a completely separate species from ponies, gryphons, or any other sentient race, there was little to no guarantee that their ability to survive and adapt to tib mutations could be assimilated into a different genetic code other than their own. However, Theory’s report accomplished one very important thing; it filled the Night Princess with unadulterated amazement… and hope.

Maintaining her regal composure, Luna turned from the continually-flowing datascreen to Doctor Theory. “What is the status of the test subjects?”

“Doing quite well, all things considered.” said Theory, going over a few notes, “That is, if you only talk about the changelings. Unfortunately, infested ponies and gryphons continue to deliver a 100% mortality rate.”

Despite the Princess’ stoic expression, Theory knew what she was thinking. “Forgive me if I seem out of place, your highness, but I would suggest you not to think about them too much.”

“Oh? And why shouldn’t We, doctor? It was Us who promised them a chance at salvation, and it is Us who continue to fail to fulfill the promise.” she retorted, a slight touch of indignation present in her tone.

“It’s precisely because of that, your highness. With or without us, they were dead. Tiberium would claim them and either turn them into more of itself or grant them a fate worse than death. You promised them a chance, and a chance they got. And with every day that passes, every test subjects that succumbs, we learn more. But as I’ve mentioned before, we are at least a month away before we get something that could potentially stop their affliction.”

Princess Luna, despite her immediate silence, couldn’t help but agree. They couldn’t save their current subjects, but their deaths meant they would save future ones.

“What can you tell Us about the changeling subjects?” asked Luna, moving away from the previous, depressing topic.

“Ah yes, them.” replied Theory. “They’ve been exceptionally useful, if not entirely cooperative.”

The changeling test subjects Theory talked about were truly a gift, in all senses of the word. Their bodies were some of the most well adapted to the mutations brought forth by tiberium exposure, and as a result they were amongst the most powerful changelings alive. The research potential they offered was incalculable, with results making themselves felt as Theory’s team got ever closer to finding a way to stop death by tiberium. At the same time, they had been a “gift” from Queen Chrysalis herself; a show of goodwill, she had claimed at the time. In reality, these test subjects had been at one time rather ambitious would-be usurpers who had vastly underestimated the abilities of their hive’s Queen, and we’re now paying the price for their insolence. So really, this was nothing but a win-win for all involved. Except for the formerly-imprisoned test subjects. For them it was more lose-lose.

“Good, I’d hate for such an abundance of… testing material to go to waste.” she muttered back, looking at one of the security feeds. Her expression turned to a scowl as she noticed just how feral certain changelings got when their exposure to tiberium wasn’t controlled and their mutations allowed to run wild. Over half of the test subjects were acting more like the beasts of the Everfree than sentient beings when they were locked away.

“As would I, majesty.” the professor told her with a small smile, “I daresay that these beasts, shells of what they were, may end up being our salvation if we can keep working past tiberium’s… chaotic, nature.”

“How so?”

“Well, we’ve started to note that the crystal itself is evolving. In the year that it’s been on our planet, tiberium is changing on a molecular level as it transforms the globe.” Theory stated, waving a hoof at the screen as scans started to pop up on it. Each scan was from a different date, most at regular monthly intervals and showed that his statement was indeed fact. The samples taken from the Appleloosa Crater after the evacuation were completely different than the ones taken a mere month ago.

“How is this possible...?”

“Only one being could possibly know, and he’s busy with tiberium cleanup near Braylin.” the earth pony professor said, “The crystal practically, though not literally, radiates chaos energy… it’s evolving like a living being, yet consumes all that lives… it’s a real life paradox.”

“This would seem to be Sir Discord’s area of expertise, yes.”

“If I study this crystal too much, we might as well change my name to Chaos Theory given how crazy tiberium really is, at least on a scientific level.”

“It would be somewhat prudent, Sir Discord would definitely approve.” Luna mused, smiling at the professor. Before he could muster a proper reply however, another scientist burst into the conference room.

“Princess, Professor. We just had a breakthrough!” the unicorn announced, “One of the pony test subjects… his tib infestation has just started to recede!”
______________________

Luna snapped out of her thoughts as familiar wingmares and stallions took up formation around her. Starlight and Fantom weren’t part of the flight of ponies this time so she refrained from the usual banter that she had come to enjoy. The Lunar Princess silently glided down at the predetermined speeds, mindlessly going through the motions of security as she let her thoughts wander back to Discord’s death, the bombing, and the funeral.

“We need to do more than hide in the shadows…” she thought with a grimace, “Peace through power, if necessary…”

Once she managed to get through the last of the checkpoints, Luna sauntered slowly towards the lab security checkpoint. Unlike the walk to the conference room, getting to the labs was a much longer and difficult process. While she agreed that it was necessary for proper security and emergency quarantine procedures, she still couldn’t help but feel annoyed that she, the mare who built the facility, had to be patted down on occasion if she happened to win what her security forces had nicknamed “The Frisk Lottery”.

She never actually got to that portion of the checking though. Before she could get through the ID scanner, Professor Theory himself ran through the exit portion and nearly collided with the Princess.

“Majesty! We have a situation!”

“Well tell us!” Luna replied without even trying to hide her worry. If Theory was near hysterics, then something terrible had to have happened.

“A tiberium spike in the Ponyville Blue Zone ruptured while you were flying here. Two of the Element Bearers were caught in the blast and are now infested with Tiberium.”

Luna only heard up to when her lead researcher said the word ‘Element’ for the moment she learned that two of her saviours were in danger, she teleported straight out of the facility to the rooftop. Lucky for her, the wards and enchantments on the building allowed anypony to teleport out of it while keeping anyone from teleporting into it. Once on the roof, she kicked off with enough force to leave a sizable crater in the meter thick armor plating straight up into the night sky. Once she reached the apex of her leap, her wings sent her screaming across the vast expanse of her night with enough force to cause a sonic boom with the first flap. As she continued on, she alternated between teleporting as far as she could see and flying at speeds so fast it would make Rainbow Dash blush in an effort to cross the distance between Changeling Country and Ponyville as quickly as possible.

Usually, under normal circumstances, a distance like this would take hours, even days for the average pegasus, train, or even Celestia and Luna to travel. Luna was barely approaching five minutes by the time she started seeing familiar territory blur past her. While her sister always practiced restraint due to how powerful the goddess sisters were, Luna for one never felt obligated to hold back if the situation was dire enough. The most her sister would do involved an extremely powerful teleportation spell or a mix of that and her regular flying speed despite the fact that she possessed enough strength of mind, magic, and body to travel as fast as their planet was rotating if necessary.

Luna was barely under her sister’s potential and decided that such things were for peace time in a world where an evolving crystal wasn’t consuming their world and their friends. Just as Celestia’s restraint with GDI’s weapons and defensive capabilities was countered by Luna wanting to up the militarization efforts, both princesses were a foil in regards to how they were willing to use their power as the god-monarchs of Equestria. Celestia was right on one thing; beings like them lived in a cardboard world, and could at any moment destroy what they cherished with an unthinking act. But when their world was in peril, ravaged by something or someone as it had so many times in the past, few were the times when the Sun Princess was willing to use her powers to their fullest, if at all. Perhaps that fact, holding a perpetual place at the back of Luna’s mind, is what angered her the most at times like this.

Her race towards Ponyville ended almost as suddenly as it began, the alicorn princess rapidly decelerating as she entered the blue zone’s airspace. Wasting no time, she teleported to the ground after catching a glimpse of the tiberium node in the open field. ZOCOM forces in protective gear had arrived almost as soon as the alert was raised and were now quarantining the area, ensuring no one else was close enough to the green crystalline growths to be infested. Surveying the area, Luna couldn’t help but think of the node and what Theory’s research had uncovered. Tiberium wasn’t limited to the surface; it grew as easily underground as it did above, and could arguably be said to spread even faster there due to the sheer amount of mass available to convert. Diamond Dogs, a race made up of subterranean canines obsessed with jewelry, had been almost completely wiped out by a combination of Tiberium’s rapid underground expansion and their instinctive need to collect jewels, something the green crystal tragically resembled. What few of them survived abandoned their ancestral tunnels to live on the surface as refugees, and many biologists suspect theirs is already a dead race. Not enough individuals left, meaning their genepool lacked sufficient genetic diversity to prevent inbreeding in future generations, as Theory had explained. They may have been an aggressive, uncivilized people, but despite her own personal opinions about them, one thought took precedence in that matter. No one deserved what had happened to them, and by the Moon she would prevent the same thing from happening to anyone else at any cost.

ZOCOM’s tib containment and eradication technology in particular, and GDI’s in general, could only best be described as being landlocked. Reports from maritime laboratories made the situation on the seafloor quite clear. Coral reefs were disappearing, being consumed by tiberium nodes that had burst all across the world’s oceans, and sea life was either mutating horribly as a result, or simply dying off. Just another place GDI could not reach to deal with the planet’s cancer. Another reason Luna knew these “Blue Zones” could not last. Because eventually, even if those areas were kept completely clear, that would only be superficially true. In time, the tiberium under them would rise and consume them all. Just as it was happening here.

Luna sped towards what she figured was the quarantine barracks for the victims, teleporting once she was near the ground to avoid causing a crater and shaking the ground too much with her landing. Immediately she was bombarded by scanners, ponies with decontamination units, and a flurry of questions as to how she managed to get to Ponyville in such a sudden and unexpected manner. She ignored all of it as politely as she could, bearing with the necessary quarantine procedures for the sake of everypony’s peace of mind before pushing her way into the prefabricated structure.

Bleach. The entire building smelt like bleach, cleaning supplies, and other various methods of sterilization and cleaning with such a magnitude that it burnt Luna’s nostrils even when she wasn’t breathing through her nose. With a snort she pressed on, looking into every glass door she walked past to see if she could find the two patients she was the most worried about. She didn’t want to detract from the fact that many more than just the two Element Bearers were hurt, but in a case like this, losing two personal friends was a much more pressing concern.

When she was about to give up her search, thinking they were being held in a different facility, she found a single holding room where she recognized the forms of Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Quietly, she worked her way into the room, enjoying the feel of the containment shield that automatically enveloped her body courtesy of the emitter above the door. The Lunar Princess was not one easily moved to publically display emotion, even in the presence of friends and even her sister, but what she saw was more than she had been prepared to deal with.

Pinkie Pie, the mare who had spread so much joy through hospitals and even the occasional tiberium breach site, was confined to a hospital bed with a breather mask over her face and sonic emitters constantly working over her body to contain the infestation. Her forelegs were already completely covered in Tiberium and her mane was taking on a green tint. Her cutie mark, once vibrant yellow and blue balloons, now had crystals growing at a slow rate, only being stalled by the sonic treatments.

Rarity, while not exactly better off, was as equally incapacitated. The entire right side of her face was covered in microcrystals and her lovely dark blue eyes were now tiberium green whenever they fluttered open in her current state. Her horn was also completely converted into the opaque crystal as well while still somehow retaining its shape. Even with the sonic treatment, Rarity would die within 48 hours from the tiberium spreading to her brain. Pinkie Pie had even less than that, by Luna’s estimate. Both heart monitors beeped slowly.

“Dearest friends… We are so sorry…” Luna murmured as she walked forward and sat between their beds. A tear ran down her muzzle as she continued to take in the sights before her. Here were two mares in the prime of their life taken away because of a freak accident. No one could save them because of Celestia’s arrogance, and the only possible way to cure them couldn’t be transported out of her facility without it revealing her entire division’s real agenda. Had Luna decided to bring her possible cure to light so soon, it would jeopardize all cure and mutation control efforts and doom the entire planet.

“Princess Luna? What are you doing here?” another mare’s voice asked. Luna turned quickly to see Twilight Sparkle standing just inside the doorway as it closed behind her. She wore no safe suit, the magic emitters didn’t cover her in an anti-tib field, and she didn’t even try to shield herself with her own magic.

“Twilight? What are you doing without safety measures? You could be infested as well!” Luna stated, beginning to panic before Twilight gave a knowing smile that for reasons beyond comprehension, calmed Luna down. Without speaking, the Princess of Friendship moved beside her friends. She administered a series of injections at the infestation sites, implanted pieces of blue tiberium of all things into the worst areas, and then cast a single spell that washed over Rarity and Pinkie Pie as if they were being doused with a very slow flowing liquid.

“Princess, if you would, please step back for this next portion of the treatment.” Twilight said, giving Luna another smile, as her majesty obliged with widened eyes and a jaw that refused to pick itself up off of the floor. Once moved, Twilight stood between her fellow Element Bearers and replaced their oxygen masks with micro-tanks that began pumping the moment they sealed around their muzzles. Much to Luna’s surprise, the crystal growths on both mares began to recede at an alarming rate. When the earth pony in her facility started to show signs of his body reaching a equalized state, it was by a matter of millimeters over hours, not inches in minutes.

Luna sat in that quarantine room dumbfounded for nearly a half hour, staring as Pinkie Pie’s legs once again became flesh and blood save two small tiberium spikes on her knees. Her cutie mark also went back to almost complete normalcy with only one balloon being made of tiberium. Rarity’s face continued to clear up, the crystals leaving an intricate pattern like webbing along the infested area and her horn glowed once. What few crystals had embedded themselves in her neck also joined the pattern currently spread across her skin.

By the time Luna managed to pick up her jaw and blink her eyes clear, Rarity and Pinkie Pie began opening their eyes. Two sets of tiberium green eyes looked around, trying to gauge exactly where they were and just what in the world had happened. Gathering her wits, the Night Princess managed to pull together a question.

“How… how is that possible? Twilight, what did you do?!”

“This? It’s just something I’ve been working on in my lab. Don’t worry Princess, I made sure to test it far in advance before using it on anypony.”

Despite her clear state of shock, Luna couldn’t help being surprised by Twilight’s nonchalant response. While it is true that Twilight Sparkle was one of the smartest ponies in Equestria, could she really have done alone what Theory, his team, and all of Luna’s resources had just begun to accomplish?

With uncharacteristic assertiveness, Luna spread her wings fully, using them pull Twilight aside with her. “How did you even manage this? Research in this field of study is illegal and against GDI’s Charter!”

“Luna, I-”

“We are not discrediting your research, Twilight. Far from it. We are both impressed and relieved that you have managed to find a way to stop in ponies that cancer which infests our planet.” she blurted out in a hushed tone.

“Thank you princess! As you said, research on ponies and other sentients is illegal, as far as the charter is concerned. I used mice!” Twilight answered with a squeaking smile. At this very moment, she was but a fountain of pride for her research.

“I hate to interrupt…” a calm, if somewhat wavering voice cut in. Twilight and Luna both turned to see Rarity gingerly trying to sit up a little and look at them both. “But could somepony bring me a mirror and tell me what just happened to us…?”

"That is a very good question. One I would like an answer to as well." demanded a booming voice, filled with authority and power. For surrounded by a squadron of royal guards the Sun Princess had arrived.