Across Equestria´s many centuries of existence, nopony ever feared a figure as much as Nemesis. From King Sombra to the Chrysalis, Discord or even Tirek, none of them stroke fear as much as the creature locked beneath the castle.

The monster´s roars echoed throughout the entire magnificence of the place, making sure nopony rested safe, it was a horrible night to be in Canterlot.

Inside her room, Twilight found herself deep in thought, it had been a couple of hours since Celestia sent the recon team to search for Flash and Twilight was feeling uneasy. It all matched up, the arrival of the beast, the death of the stallion; now, all she needed was proof.

She wasn´t certain of anything at this point and as much as all went into place, Twilight couldn´t help but to wonder, why didn´t it attack her when he had her cornered? What made him stop his advance? Why didn´t a beast so dreaded that even his name meant bad news, never attacked and even attached to three little fillies?

The creature was a true enigma, an enigma Twilight had to uncover, in case she didn´t take care of him by then.

Suddenly, a knock on the door interrupted her trail of thought and without so much as a second glance, she said.

"Come in." Her voice, as lower as it was, did not went unheard for the figure that step in, the figure in form of Fluttershy. The shy mare quickly noticed Twilight´s mood, she could feel her uncertainty, her anger and sadness. Fluttershy sighed.

"You have been inside this room for three hours. We are worried about you." The pegasus said, Twilight inhaled.

"You have nothing to worry about, Fluttershy... at least not right now." The venom on her voice was noticeable. FLuttershy got closer.

"That is the point, we are afraid of you doing something that could... that could hurt you." The sweet voice of Fluttershy did nothing to divert Twilight, who simply proceeded to say.

"If anything, you should be worried about him. Celestia help him if he had something to do with Flash." The alicorn´s words made Fluttershy think for a few seconds, then took a deep breath.

"How do you know it was him? I mean... what if he wasn´t?" This certainly got Twilight´s attention, as she turned to stare at the pegasus, a puzzled expression visible on her face.

"Fluttershy, you just sounded as if you actually doubted his involvement in this." The pegasus lowered her head. "I mean, what makes you think he didn´t do it? And if you do believe he did, then please, don´t tell me it was in self defense!"

Afte a few seconds, Fluttershy finally managed to gather confidence and turned to face the alicorn. "Twilight, Nemesis might look like a monster, but a monster would not have befriended three fillies, a monster would have attacked as soon as it got you cornered." Twilight raised an eyebrow at the statement. "I don´t know what it is exactly, but I sense something else inside of him, it feels like... sadness."

"So, you want me to feel guilty for a murderer?" Twilight exclaimed.

"I´m only asking you to be patient. Remember what happened when Zecora first arrived at Ponyville?" The alicorn lowered her eyes, as she began to let Fluttershy´s words sink in. "Let us not judge a book by its cover; maybe... maybe he in´t guilty in the end."

Twilight grunted in response, then cleared her throat to speak. "I... will think about it."

"Thank you..." Fluttershy replied, as she turned to leave the room, but stopped midway and turned to face Twilight once more. "Remember, we are all you friends and you know where to find us if you need support."

Twilight sighed. "Thank you Fluttershy."

With that, the pegasus left the room, leaving Twilight to deal with her mind. Fluttershy made a good point, she would have to wait before judging Nemesis, but still, she couldn´t help but think about what she would do to him.

Twilight moved her face to the right and stared at the sunset, trying to divert her thoughts.

Everfree forest.

The recon team Celestia sent, where doing there best to search every inch of the place, in hopes of finding the missing pegasus. For three hours they had been searching, but they did not complain, right now being outside of Canterlot was better.

The eight soldiers were split into pairs, as each one went to a specific direction parting from one central point.

Two of them were unknowingly close to a fatal discovery.

"You think we´ll find him?" One of them asked, slightly turning his head to stare at her companion, who grunted in response.

"I hope so, at least that way we will know if what the princess has locked under the castle will live or not, Diamond Sword." He turned to face her, a slight smile appearing in his face. "Between you and me, I hope it was him... that way I can shake hooves with the monster before the princess has him sent to the moon."

Diamond gave him a quizzing look. "Are you serious, Bronze Hoof?"

"What? I never liked the guy; he was just princess Twilight´s pretty boy, why do you think he went up the ranks so quickly?" The last words were finished with a chuckle, the mare did not laugh.

"I can´t believe you actually said that, I mean, they did look quite close, but as far as I´m concerned, Flash was a good soldier with experience and..."

"...And with a princess behind his tail." The mare ´humph´ in response, making Bronze release another chuckle. "I mean, wouldn´t you do the same for me if you were a princess?"

Diamond rolled her eyes and was about to answer, until she noticed something. "I think I saw something, come on!"

The two soldiers ran towards the place Diamond pointed out. Behind some bushes, was a small open circular are and at the middle, laid a disgusting scene.

"Oh Celestia!" Diamond exclaimed, before throwing out her breakfast into the floor, Bronze simply made a quit ´uff´ in response.

Just in front of them, laid the rotting corpse of Flash Sentry. His head was completely squished on the floor, some of his ribs were visible outside his torso, which were accompanied by his intestines going out of one of the injuries.

Pieces of brain, teeth and meat were scattered above his neck, making it a gruesome scene. The smell did not help though, as not only the decomposition was present, but the fecal matter that went out of his rump alongside the urine, made matters way worse.

The smile was erased from Bronze´s face, as he tried to struggle with the words. This was not a happy sight and his next sentence would have to show respect towards his fallen comrade. Finally after collecting his thoughts, he said. "Man, good ´ol pretty boy surely crapped himself."

He received a stare from Diamond, to which he replied. "What?" The mare did not answer. "Hey, at least we now know it wasn´t the monster locked beneath the castle."

"What do you mean by that?" Diamond asked, her face showing curiosity.

"I mean, look just a few feet away from him."

Diamond did as Bronze said and indeed, there were some things there. Several manticore corpses were lying just a few feet away from Flash, they all were dead.

They had finally found the corpse and a story of what happened to the pegasus. With this info, they just had to call for the rest of the guards, pick Flash´s body up and inform back to Celestia.

Cantelot

Back at the castle, Twilight was still on her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, almost praying for something to tell her everything was alright. Many times throughout the young night, the young alicorn was tempted to head down and enter the place Nemesis was locked. It was weird enough that she was the only one, the creature would refer to by a word. Ever since Nemesis took sight of her cutie mark, he had been calling her ´Stars´ and in plural.

Twilight completely understood how the lack of lips prevented the creature from pronouncing most words, but he was capable enough to say ´star´in singular. Maybe it was his subconscious acting, pieces of memories dying to see the light, that was rather interesting. However, there was also the problem about Flash.

Twilight did take into consideration Fluttershy´s words, but she couldn´t just ignore how it all fit. Her anger came and went many times, thinking about what she would do next, thinking about how to proceed.

Her friends were still out, enjoying the city and all it had to offer, Twilight could not blame them; she knew they were there for her in case she needed them.

But the alicorn didn´t want to bother her friends with her dilemma.

Her mind went through some ideas for a few moments, before she took her decision and in one movement, she stood up. Her steps made the earth beneath her tremble as she went outside her room. Twilight´s face wan´t a merry one, she was angry and a certain monster would feel her emotions.

As she made her way towards the cell blocks, Twilight didn´t notice the looks everypony were giving her, they were actually afraid of the frowning princess, who was approaching the place.

Two new guards were guarding the entrance to the prison, they were very noticeably nervous about their current situation and Twilight´s incoming mood did not help either.

The two soldiers stood still as they watched the alicorn pass by them, storming her way towards the stairs, they could certainly hear every step she took, as the princess went downstairs.

Finally inside the dungeon, Twilight directed her sight towards Nemesis, who had just stopped pounding the shield and directed his face towards the angry alicorn, instantly shouting.

"Staaars!"

"Oh! You want stars?" She approached the cell. "I´ll give you stars!"

As soon as the words left her mouth, Nemesis was pushed against the wall of his cell by a twilight´s magic, which was covering his entire body with the exception of the head. He did not resist.

"You!" twilight began. "You better hope I do not find it was you who harmed him!" Nemesis was silent and calm, this went completely unnoticed by the princess.

As Twilight kept staring into the beast´s eye, she did not notice the two guards coming down the stairs.

"Princess Twilight," said one of them,"I don´t think we should let you..."

"Out!" The alicorn replied, but the soldier pushed forwards.

"I am sorry but..."

"OUT!" With those words, the two guards went outside, not knowing who was scarier: Nemesis or Twilight. They had never seen the alicorn this way, that was for sure.

Now, the young princess was once more alone inside the place and she was breathing heavily, her rage visible on her expression, Nemesis was unfazed by this, as he simply remained calm.

"You are just a monster! A beast with no free will!" Her words made Nemesis flinch, but he did not react. "You are just a freak that no pony wants close. Only Celestia knows what kind of sick pony made you!"

Nemesis´ frown was getting more apparent, his fists clenched and eye was twitching in anger... yet, he did not react.

Suddenly, the two guards from earlier came rushing down stairs. "Princess Twilight!"

"I thought I told you to leave!"

"We are sorry your highness, but word has arrived about Flash Sentry." Her eyes widened. "They found him."

"They found him?! How is he? Is he alr..."

Her words were cut short by Celestia, who had just came down the stairs, a grim expression on her face. "Indeed we have found him, Twilight."

"And? Is he...?

Celestia lowered her head and closed her eyes. "I am sorry."

Twilight opened her mouth to breath, as she stared blankly into the air, her mind racing across millions of thoughts. She was failing to register what she just heard. Her heart was pounding so fast that it hurt, almost making her believe it would explode.

Tears began forming in her eyes as she stared into the floor... suddenly her face changed. Anger began to flow inside her, as she prepared to take down the beast, until Celestia spoke again.

"It was not Nemesis."

"What?" He rage suddenly disappeared, as she wide open her eyes.

"It was not Nemesis, reports indicate a manticore attack, several corpses were found around him, I figure he was just defending your castle and the town from them." The princess of the sun finished, surprise visible on her expression.

Twilight was having a mental breakdown upon hearing the news... Fluttershy was right, Nemesis had nothing to do with it and here she was, almost destroying the monster from something he did not do. The young alicorn was so deep in thought that she did not notice she still had the spell holding Nemesis.

Finally after a few more seconds, Twilight managed to utter words. "It wasn´t him..." She could feel her hoof colliding with her forehead, guilt filling her being. "I... I almost hurt him for something he did not do and just because I was blinded by rage." Tears were flowing down her cheeks, then turned to face the monster. "I... I am so... AHHH!"

Without her noticing, Nemesis easily broke the spell holding him still and tore the shield with his claws, sending Twilight away. Celestia was quickly to react.

"The shield! Quickly!" Just before Nemesis could deliver another blow to the wall of magic, it was healed from the crack. Nemesis kept pounding, each violent blow followed by a wild roar, but it was to no avail. They had managed to prevent his escape.

Twilight was shaking on the floor, her eyes staring into the monster´s face, almost saying a silent ´I´m sorry´.

"Twilight..." The princess of the sun said, as she approached the crying young alicorn, who did her best to lift her face. "It wasn´t your fault, I would have reacted the same way."

"But I let my emotions get the better of me, almost making me hurt an Innocent!" Twilight screamed.

"It is of no matter now, Twilight, you made a mistake and you recognized it, worry not about it, for now there are more important things to do..." Celestia sighed, trying to get the word out of her chest. "Would you like to see him?"

Twilight looked up, her face staring at the princess and just before more tears began to flow from her eyes. The alicorn closed her eyes before answering with a nod.

Celestia warmly took hold of her and pulled her into a hug. Five minutes passed before she broke contact, then with her wing, motioned for Twilight to follow her.

Just as the two guards went outside, followed by Celestia, Twilight face the monster once more, this time silently speaking. "I will make up for this... I am sorry."

with those words, she left the room, leaving Nemesis inside his cage. The monster waited for them to leave the room, then when he was finally alone, he turned around. A visible crack on one side of the shield was visible, it was certainly not healed.

Nemesis could easily make his escape and rip the throat out of Celestia before pounding every single bone in her body, but he decided to wait, actually curious about what Twilight meant by that.

The two princesses made their way towards the gardens, Twilight could hear the voices of her friends just outside, alongside a bunch of guards.

The doors opened, giving way for the duo to enter. the young alicorn was calmer than before, but the her red eyes told everypony about her situation... she was broken, completely and utterly broken.

Finally, she made her way towards the covered body of the stallion. She took a deep, pained breath.

"Are you sure about his?" Asked Celestia, her motherly tone trying to private her student from seeing the state of the corpse, but much to her surprise, Twilight nodded.

Letting out a sigh, Celestia motioned with her head to remove the sheets from Flash´s body... the image could not be worse.

Twilight wide opened her eyes, before broking into tears and falling to the floor. Her body positioned in fetal position, as she covered her face with her hooves. It wasn´t too long before the hooves of her friends hugged her.

Flash Sentry, such a kind stallion, her favorite guard, her friend, her somepony special was lying in front of her, dead.

Twilight suddenly wished she could see his eyes at least one more time. Life had been suddenly so cruel and more was about to come.

Everfree Forest

The animals from the inside of the forest began to run to every direction, running away from the shaking earth, from the beast that had entered the forest.

The air was tense, as was the situation. Birds flew everywhere and trees were trembling by an immense power.

usually, the Everfree forest was known for this kinds of situations, but this time it was different, as a being tore tree after tree in order to build himself.

Loud roars penetrated the place, scaring away even the mightiest hydra. Roars coming from a particular Changeling. One last tree was absorbed and used as replacement for his missing limb. Wood certainly wasn´t the strongest material, but the magic of this monster modified the limb to be stronger than his old member.

The pain was visible in his black face, but his blue eyes kept strong and angry, remembering every second the beast that had broken him... Nemesis would pay, but right now, it was not time for revenge, first he had to find his Queen.

The tree had finally taken shape and the agonizing pain was over. The forest was once more quiet, but peace would not prevail for too long, for there was a long way to go.

Ponyville would burn and he would pay, a fate worse than death.

Step by step, the Changeling tested his new limbs, they felt uncomfortable, but it was something. He was glad for the gift Chrysalis gave him.

The Changeling chuckled, the queen never fully told them about his little upgrade. Every time he found himself close to death, or with some fatal injuries, he would grow stronger. Getting one last look, he spotted his insect like wings bigger and glowing with a faint green color, similar to his now wooden frontal limbs. He also noticed the several black spikes going out of his shoulders, forming a crown around his head. Finally, after checking everything was in order, he proceeded to punch a tree with his new limb, and instead of sending it away, the tree simply exploded from the impact.

Not satisfied with this, the Changeling launched a spell, the result was noticeable, as in an instant, great part of the forest was pulverized. The Changeling was happy and continued his way towards his queen.

The wicked smile never left his face, as the enormous and muscular Changeling made his way through the forest, his mind already setting a plan into motion, a plan to end Nemesis... Boulder had survived and he was pissed.

Author's Note

Have to admit, it would be could to see someone doing a Fanart of Boulder XD. Anyway, hope you liked the chapter.