Wish Upon a Star

Canterlot

The next morning came and while most of the Elements could sleep, Twilight found herself deprived of rest. She still had to get over
Flash´s dead, but it was simply too hard.

Maybe not many ponies liked him, or even found him annoying, but Twilight saw something else inside of him, something that would never see the light of day.

She was amazed, to say the least; there was a new creature in town and violent one, yet he had nothing to do with such a gruesome scene, instead, just a couple of manticores were responsible for the bloodbath. She struggled to get the images away from her head; the bloodied and rotted body, the missing head... she had never expected seeing Flash this way.

She wasn´t even able to see he features, his kind smile and all of these because of some wild animals; life had once again managed to surprise her.

This had been a couple of rough days and not just because of Flash´s dilemma, but the attack on Ponyville as well. The box had been stolen by none other than Chrysalis, things could not be worse and then, there was Nemesis. She had treated him so badly for a simple misunderstanding. Her kind heart didn´t like hurting other, not even beings unknown to her.

Her tears were already gone, but her expression showed her pain. Celestia had offered her to sleep in her room, but Twilight said no; she would have to get over this by her own, she knew death came to everypony.

Finally diverting her thoughts from that memory, she returned to the Nemesis topic. Twilight figured she would have to try and talk again with him; normally, she would react accordingly to the importance of the situation and while even her friends told her to stay away from him, there was simply something about Nemesis that piked her interest, an almost invisible force attracting her towards the monster.

Canterlot was finally quiet, she figured Nemesis had just given up pounding the shield, then she realized this could mean he was calmer than before and maybe... maybe she could take this opportunity.

Going out of her bed, Twilight began waking towards the door, carefully avoiding waking up her friends. She did not use her magic to open the door, as the light would disturb their sleep, so she carefully used her mouth to open the door.

Once outside, Twilight carefully closed the entrance, before making her way towards the cell blocks; her smile was apparent once she noticed the two guards sleeping ´ poor guys´ she thought.

The sound of hooves were heard coming from the stairs, making Nemesis (who was still awake) direct his eyes towards the source, which came in the form of Twilight.

In an instant, Nemesis got up and prepared to roar until Twilight shushed him. "Don´t even try, you´ll wake up the entire castle." The beast simply stared at her, noticing the alicorn lowering her gaze, before she took a deep breath. "I... I just came here to tell you... I´m sorry." Nemesis was surprised. "You must feel alone in a world that is not yours, it´s just that I thought it was you who... never mind."

Twilight took a few confident steps closer to the monster, her eyes colliding with Nemesis´, then she felt it again, something about him that captivated her. She couldn´t let go of the stare. "I´ve seen many things in my life, but I have never seen anything like you."

Nemesis grunted, Twilight smiled. "No offense, though." The monster crossed his arms and released another moan, the young alicorn chuckled. "You know? You are not as scary as many believe you are." She smiled, at least until Nemesis took out his claws, making Twilight´s confident grin to fade. "Okay... maybe just a little. You have a very wicked sense of humor, you know that?"

The monster roared in response, then silence fell for a few moments until the princess spoke again. "You do know I´m still curious about you, right?" Nemesis groaned. "You are not going to answer my questions, are you?" Twilight´s deadpan expression was answered with the beast turning his back on her, the young alicorn grunted in annoyance. "Come on, don´t be like this, we only want to help you."

"Roar!" Nemesis replied, his answer making Twilight roll her eyes.

"Okay, maybe not Princess Celestia, but you can´t blame her, I mean... you literally shattered her smile." It was weird, normally a beast like Nemesis would make anypony tremble, but right now Twilight was having a very pleasant talk (If you could call it that). However, this was not the surprising part, as the young alicorn found something rather surprising... Nemesis chuckled at her remark about Celestia.

He really didn´t seem like the type of creature who would even know what smiling is (and not just because his lack of lips). She figured he was getting more lighthearted and maybe it was time for the rest of the girls to try again.

"Twilight was about to share the small laugh, until a voice interrupted the scene. "Oh! So you find my predicament funny, uh?" Without both of them noticing, Celestia came walking down the stairs, her frowning stare fixated on the unfazed creature. She continued. "Do you know what I had to endure to fix this problem YOU caused?" The princess pointed towards her newly replaced tooth.

Twilight began sweating, as she saw Celestia getting closer to the cell; Nemesis began walking towards her. In an instant, the two of them were face to face, none of them taking their stare from each other. Twilight gulped.

"On the free time where I did not have to deal with you, I had time to think." Celestia said. "I don´t care what you think you are, but your teasing and disrespect against me has to end right now! I don´t care what those fillies said, or what certain ponies think you are, but I will have no doubt in finishing you. I have defeated you once, I can do it again!"

Nemesis´ stare was penetrating hard against the raging princess, who was doing her best not to falter. The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds, silently fighting over dominance, until Twilight interrupted.

"With all due respect princess, but I do not think this is necessary; Nemesis has responded quite well lately, he won´t cause any harm to anypony," She turned to face the angry creature, "right?" Her words were, however, unheard by the monster, who was still looking directly into Celestia´s eyes. Twilight pushed forward. "Nemesis!"

"Don´t bother Twilight, this monster will not even hear you, all he knows is destruction and violence!" Celestia turned to face Twilight "I will not allow him to cause any more fear in our kingdom!" Nemesis was having a hard time and he figured it was his moment to get free from his cell, sadly for Celestia, she wasn´t looking. "I will set the example right now, befo... Ugh!"

The princesses´ neck was suddenly grabbed by Nemesis´ enormous hand, as his entire body was breaking the shield. Twilight had no time to react, as she saw the beast throwing Celestia across the room and out of the cell blocks, the walls of it were torn apart by the impact.

Before Twilight could even begin to comprehend what just happened, Nemesis jumped into the hole on the wall and landed a few feet away from Celestia, who was already waiting for him.

"Come on beast! Give me a good reason to end with you!" And a good reason he gave her. With one loud roar, Nemesis took out his claws and proceeded to sprint against the princess, who had her horn charged in return.

Second´s before the beast could tear the meat from her bones, Celestia teleported behind him.

"Too slow!" She screamed, as she released a heat charge against the creature, he had expected this and was quick enough to cover his face with his arms.

As soon as the attack finished, Nemesis launched his right fist against Celestia, who released a shield to protect herself, this, however did not protect her from being propelled to the sky.

Using all of her might, Celestia recovered mid air and launched herself against Nemesis. Both of her and the still up magic shield collided against the creature as he was sent back to the ground. The ground shook with force as a small crater was created in the streets of Canterlot.

Several ponies fled as soon as the two came down.

Twilight was still trying to figure out what exactly was happening as she made her way towards the place. Her heart running as fast as her legs across the street.

Yells came from her right, these were calling her name; if it weren´t for the fact that a certain pink pony tackled her in mid run, she would not have noticed her friends rushing towards her.

Pinkie stood up, her smile never fading, all the while Twilight took a few deep breaths from the sudden ´attack´. Pinkie was about to speak, when she was interrupted by the alicorn.

"Pinkie... no time... Nemesis... Celestia..." Her struggle for breathing continued, her concentration focused on one event that she didn´t notice the rest getting closer.

Noticing the exasperation in her face, Applejack grabbed her by the shoulders and slapped her to gain her attention. "twilight, focus! What the hay is happening?"

Twilight took a few seconds to answer, her eyes as wide as she could. "Celestia is fighting Nemesis at the center of the city!"

That had certainly caught off guard the group, who took a second to share a look before running in the direction Twilight said. No words were told as they began to think about the consequences this would bring.

The situation was so tense, that they forgot to think about how Nemesis escaped his imprisonment. Their hooves ran each time faster, with the exception of Rainbow, who rushed ahead of them flying.

Ponies ran terrified from all directions, giving the group a bit difficulty to rush across the masses of the kingdom, but it only slowed down them a little. Soon enough the city trembled once more, as the Elements finally spotted the two contenders in the distance.

So deep were they focused inside the battle that they did not notice the Elements approaching.

Celestia was tired; keeping a creature like Nemesis locked took a lot of energy to the entire kingdom. Fear was spread across the city, fear of him escaping; if there was any kind of humanity inside the monster, it would not matter now.

Even though her intentions were quite different at first, her goals had changed now that the monster had escaped. It would take a lot to recapture him. Buildings would be destroyed, citizens might get hurt if she tried to approach the pacific way... there was no other choice if she wanted to stop him.

Celestia could not deny she was looking forward to this fight, even though she found Nemesis scary, still, her expression never faltered. The princess´ thoughts were soon cut short by a massive fist striking against her chest, the pain of the blow managing to expand across her entire body as she began to descend alongside Nemesis.

A minor setback for her, though. Her wings flapped just in time for her to avoid touching the ground and landed perfectly.

From within the rubble, the single eye stared at her, Celestia did not back out however. Stomp after stomp, Nemesis slowly approached to the princess, as she could spot his features going out of the rubble.

A bright light shone from Celestia´s horn, as she raced to battle once more, Nemesis did the same. The ground shook with each step, but before they could collide again, a voice stopped them, it was Twilight, the Elements were with her.

"Wait, stop!" The young alicorn was surprised that the two of them actually listened to her. Twilight ceased the opportunity to try and calm both of them down. "Nemesis, you have to stop this, don´t loose the opportunity you have!"

Nemesis let out a small roar towards her, Celestia chuckled at this. "He is not going to listen to you, Twilight. I have to finish this now!" Her threat did not go unnoticed by the monster, who replied by taking out his claws.

Twilight reacted in time before another assault could begin. "Just wait! Nemesis was cooperating, I am sure he can be civilized if he wants to!" Her words made the frowning princess think, as she wondered the possibilities, the ups and down of this decision, but her answer was not the one Twilight had expected.

Blast!

A beam of light collided with Nemesis, who stepped back a little after the impact, it was in this moment that all semblance of humanity was lost and his being was replaced by anger.

ROAAAAAR!

Some could say that they had seen a being faster than the fastest earth pony, as Nemesis managed to surprise everypony with the speed he suddenly generated. Twilight was wondering how a being as big and heavy as him could accomplish such feat, Celestia, however, was pretty busy not to piss on the floor, as she witnessed the hateful face of Nemesis suddenly appearing in front of her.

There was barely time to react, no place to run and no attack to perform, when three claws found their way to Celestia´s chest. If it weren´t for her sudden attempt at avoiding the attack, this could have been her last sight. Blood was splattered on the floor as the princess of the sun fell to the floor, her hooves reaching her hurt chest.

The wound was not very deep, but it had managed to damage her; Nemesis made his approach.

Celestia felt his enormous hand grabbing her by the neck and her eyes spotted a huge creature lifting his arm, claws ready to end her life... until a certain alicorn stopped the battle.

Nemesis saw it, a purple beam covering his right arm, disabling him from reaching Celestia. "Nemesis stop!" The creature did not answer at first, his arm, however, did not try to move. "You have showed me you can behave!" Nemesis grunted. "Do you really wish to destroy the opportunity to show everypony your other side?"

"Twilight, this is useless, just finish him already!" Rainbow screamed, her stare never leaving Nemesis. As much as the group could agree Fluttershy did not share the sentiment.

The shy mare placed a hoof on the pegasus´ shoulder. "I know he can be a danger, but I also believe he can be gentle! We need to give him another chance!" Her firm outburst did not tear through Rainbow´s defenses, though.

"That monster was about to kill the princess, Fluttershy! Do you really want to let it live?" She could not believe the determination in her eyes, as she clearly defended the monster. Seeing her response, Rainbow grunted and faced the other way.

The pink maned pegasus gave a small confirmation nod to Twilight, who then proceeded to calm Nemesis further. "We are here to help you! You have clearly been treated bad from where you come from, but we will not! Please, let the princess go and come to us, I promise you are not going inside a cell anymore, IF you promise to behave!"

Nemesis was left thinking, his right arm itching to take the kill. Even though his arm was firmly covered, he could break the spell rather easy, but he did not. The only beings that had actually been good with him since his arrival, were the fillies and Twilight, the princess, however, angered him.

He weighted his options. Kill the annoying princess and then kill the rest, or let her go and join the group... his answer was clear.

The shield around his arm was broken as he prepared to strike down Celestia, but fortunately for her, Twilight stopped him once more. Nemesis´ arm was once more held tightly, but there was something she noticed. The young alicorn was fully aware that the monster could easily tear her magic and she alone could not stop the monster from striking, then this could mean...

"...Princess Luna!" Her face was greeted by the princess of the night herself, who held a small smile, but introductions would have to wait.

"Make haste, Twilight!" With those words, the young alicorn nodded and focused her attention on the struggling Nemesis.

"We are giving you one more chance! Cease the attack and come with us!" The grunt generated by the monster was the answer she received, but Twilight would push once more. "I do not know you, but with very few time I have spent with you, I know there is something more inside of you." Nemesis moved his arm once more in an attempt to break the shield.

Seeing these failed attempts, Fluttershy stepped in "You have demonstrated kindness, no other beast would take care of a bunch of fillies like you did, you showed us you have a warmer side!" Nemesis calmed a little. "They told us how good you were, that even if you look like a monster, you are not one."

With each word sinking inside of him, Nemesis ceased mora and more his attempt at guttering Celestia. Twilight took notice of this and tried once more. "We are all here to help you, listen to you. We are not going to hurt you, please, let her go and come with us!"

Tense seconds passed, as Celestia tried to fight with both her injury and Nemesis, who was still thinking about the young alicorn´s words. His claws were just a few centimeters from penetrating the princess´ belly, but his struggle had stopped. He had been running from those who destroyed him, running from control. Where they talking the truth? Was this really the moment he had been searching? The moment where he would no longer be controlled?

His eye shifted from his claws to Celestia´s fearful face, he could smell the blood on her injury inviting him to end her, but Twilight was showing him the exit. True, he was not fully the same monster as before, but he could not trust his mind to them... what if they spoke the truth?

Moments passed as they all waited expectantly for Nemesis´ choice and for the relief of everypony present, the monster´s claws began to retract inside of his knuckles, as he relaxed his muscles.

Finally his arm was released from the tight grip and Nemesis raised to his full height. On their part, the Elements and Luna let out the breaths they were holding, with the exception of Fluttershy, who had a warm smile.

Celestia coughed for a few moments, as she struggled to breath; her throat hurt from the sheer force that was applied to it. She was still trying to process what had just happened until she witnessed the monster staring at her. Suddenly another figure approached her.

"Princess!" Twilight came rushing to her mentor, her wings holding Celestia tight. "Are you okay?"

Celestia finally let out a smile, as she returned the hug. "Yes, Twilight, thank you."

Even after his action´s, the princess could not help but to give a hateful stare to Nemesis, which was replied with a grunt. However, contrary to Celestia, Twilight held a thankful grin.

"Thank you." Nemesis gaze shifted and his eye met hers, he released the frown he was holding and opened his mouth to speak.

"Stars."

Twilight chuckled at this, then turned to face Celestia. "Come with me princess, we have to get you to a hospital before you bleed out."

The princess struggled to get up and just in time to spot Luna approaching. "Twilight, get my sister to recovery, I will stay to handle Nemesis." Her sudden decision released a skeptical look on the young princess.

"Are you sure you want to do it, princess?"

Luna grinned. "Yes I do, besides, there is something I have to deal with him." A worried look appeared on Twilight´s face, but her thoughts were soon put to rest. "Do not worry, even if he hurt my sister, a fight is not what I am looking for. You may leave now."

"Thank you princess Luna." With that, both Twilight and Celestia left the wrecked place, leaving Luna, the Elements and a standing still Nemesis.

A small, yellow hoof gently collided against the princess of the night´s knee and her face turned to spot Fluttershy standing next to her. "Yes? What is the matter Fluttershy?"

The shy pegasus lowered her gaze, trying to find confidence to speak. "I... I was just wondering, why did you help Twilight?"

Luna remembered the monster´s dream (memory) and she figured that maybe both Twilight and Fluttershy were not too wrong about Nemesis, however, she would have to inform about this with everypony present. "I will tell you once we all reunite with Twilight and my sister, right now we have to think what to do with... him." Her head motioned for Fluttershy to turn around.

Fluttershy released a warm smile as she prepared to speak. "Let me handle Nemesis."