Wish Upon a Star

Almost silent beeps echoed throughout the white hospital room. The certain clean state of Canterlot´s infirmary was evident even in the air; a perfect fit for a princess.

Twilight had stayed with Celestia for a couple of hours now, her tenseness was almost completely fading, as the doctor assured them she was fine. Nemesis cuts were not as brutal as they seemed, making Celestia thankful for moving in time; this didn´t mean it was painless. She could still feel the col steel or whatever that material was, in her wounds; a pain that ran across her entire body.

Blood was now minimal, but it didn´t hide the fact that some of the white sheets were painted red and this wasn´t the worst part. Celestia could feel the looks of her subjects, almost like if a spark of admiration had vanished from their eyes.

She couldn´t help but to agree she was a little harsh in her decision making against Nemesis, but then again, that wild animal had been taunting her into a fight. This day Celestia had lost and she accepted it, still, her point of view towards Nemesis would not change.

Releasing a small sigh, Celestia stared at her wounds, then turned her gaze towards Twilight. Her smile was apparent as she witnessed her student deep in sleep. The sun had just appeared from behind the mountains; the princess was thankful to Luna for her help in the matter.

With a small push from her hoof, Celestia tried to wake Twilight up. The young alicorn grunted a few times before her eyes opened.

"Welcome back from dreamland, Twilight." A chuckle assaulted the young alicorn´s ears, as she rubbed her eyes, then released a gentle smile once she took notice of her mentor.

"Morning princess." Her voice seemed as tired as her face, but her determination was bigger than a Ursa major. Seeing Twilight by her side like this, warmed Celestia´s heart. She was more than happy to have an student like her, but she did not like dragging her into this.

"You should be resting." The princess´ words almost went unnoticed by Twilight, who was still struggling to not fall asleep.

"I was resting, Princess." Celestia chuckled at her student´s words.

"I mean, you should be resting in your bed, not here, sitting on an uncomfortable chair." Twilight rubbed her eyes once more, each time feeling strength coming back to her.

"Don´t worry princess, besides, it is already morning. As soon as the doctor tells us you are right, we can leave."

Celestia nodded, her smile never leaving her face until she remembered something. Suddenly, her sweet expression hardened. "What of
Nemesis?"

"Twilight gulped, trying to search the exact words to tell her about his condition. "He has been set free, as far as I know, princess Luna would take care of him until you are at your hundred percent."

Celestia grunted. "I´m dying to see him again. Most surely he will go all animal again and attack my city."

"Princess, with all due respect, he HAS shown passiveness, maybe you could give him a chance." Twilight insisted, but it was not enough to convince the princess.

"I´d rather trust Discord and go on a date with him than having to get close to that beast."

Twilight, however, understood her and instead of insisting let out a mocking smirk. "So... you accept you have a crush on him?"

Celestia laughed upon hearing her words and played along with her student, her next words as sarcastic as possible. "Oh! I simply get lost on those handsome eyes and that perfect and totally non-hideous figure, not mentioning how smart he is... did I already say he is so handsome?" Teacher and student laughed at her words, almost forgetting about the other matter at hand.

Far away from Equestria, in another world, a certain Draconequus shivered. His companion next to him took notice of this and paused the game to face him.

"Anything wrong, Discord? Better be important! Bastard is more persistent than those Jehovah witnesses."

"It´s nothing, Deadpool... do you have your window open?" The Draconequus answered, making his companion raise an eyebrow at this, as he look over to the window of his apartment.

"Nope! It´s close, let me handle it." Without warning, he raised his gun and pointed it towards the window. "BANG! There! Window´s open!" Before he could bath in his victory, Discord patted his shoulder to get his attention, then motioned for him to stare at the tv. Upon doing this, Deadpool let out a sigh of frustration.

"Arg! Come on! This is the fifth time he kills me... fucking Nemesis!"

Without his companion noticing, Discord place his claw under his chin, getting a familiar sensation after hearing the name. "Nemesis mmm..."

Neither of the two noticed an enormous purple light that engulfed the whole city, which then disappeared in the distance.

Back to the castle, Celestia and Twilight had just finished laughing. Taking the opportunity, the princess spoke again.

"In all seriousness, Twilight; wasn´t Discord interested in Fluttershy?"

Twilight let out a small chuckle. "You have no idea princess, but this is perhaps a topic for another time, for now, we have to wait for the doctor to tell us you are alright and deal with Nemesis."

Celestia nodded. She did not like the idea of having to see him again, but this was a princess´ work and if if she had to set an example to her student, then there was no choice or way out to this meeting, she just pleaded that all went swiftly.

If there wasn´t a giant monster in the middle of the street, everypony would star complaining about the small destruction caused at the center of the city, instead, they were all helping each other to repair houses and shops. The damage wasn´t much, but this kind of work was too much for Canterlot citizens.

On his part, Nemesis was standing still, watching the numerous ponies working. He could notice most of them avoiding him as much as they could, others running away once they took notice of his presence. The fight against Celestia was over and he felt more calm, calm enough to notice one thing... he was free.

This, however, did not over excited him. Nemesis figured he simply didn´t fell as much emotion as the rest, but it did not bother him either, at least now he had time to clear his head; that is until he felt something tapping his shoulder. Slowly, his head turned around to face Fluttershy, who was standing on her back legs so she could touch his knee. nemesis was indeed enormous.

Far from the normally timid pony, Nemesis found himself face to face to a confidently smiling pegasus. Futtershay returned to four legs once the creature pace his attention on her. he felt weird, the pony was simply staring at him, he was almost going to diverse his attention, but she suddenly spoke.

"Thank you for thinking this through." Nemesis let out a small growl, signaling that he was listening. "I knew you were not a mindless monster, maybe all you need is some attention." The monster did not respond, but simply stared at her. Fluttershy spoke once again. "Are you going to let us help you? If what Twilight said was true, then you don´t need to worry, none of us will hurt you."

Nemesis felt relaxed enough to actually pay attention to her, so he placed himself on one knee, even if he still was was taller than her in that position, this however, did not tear Fluttershy´s confidence, as she still had her infectious smile on her face.

She kept staring at him for a few seconds, until something hit her... nemesis´ scars, the multiple tentacles going out of his shoulders, it was clear somepony had damaged him enough to make him hideous. She really did not have the opportunity to see this behemoth that close without him trying to tear somepony to pieces, but now she could see what Twilight was referring to. Fluttershy let out a gasp as she reached with her hoof to touch nemesis´ face, who in return moved his face to avoid contact. Fluttershy backed away from the reaction, but her confidence was still firm.

"Oh my! What did they do to you?" Nemesis quickly stood up and let out a grunt, almost telling her to stop asking him about the matter, Fluttershy lowered her head. "I am sorry, I did not want to hurt you, but you will have to gain confidence soon to let whatever happened to you go, otherwise you will always remain closed and you will not be able to enjoy life at its fullest." Nemesis turned his face away from her, but his moan made apparent her words hit him, noticing this, Fluttershy released a smile.

He did his best to avoid Fluttershy´s words from reaching him, but it was to no avail. He still had difficulty in trusting other and that would take a bit to change. Nemesis didn´t really know what it is to trust, could this be his opportunity?

"Fluttershy, are you ready?" The distant voice from Luna cut Nemesis from his thoughts, as both him and Fluttershy turned to face the princess of the night, who was approaching with the rest of the Elements.

"just a moment, princess." Nopony, not even Luna could say no to Fluttershy´s sweet smile and her words were enough to make the princess of the night patiently wait. The shy pegasus turned her gaze to the beast´s single white eye. "Are you ready, Nemesis?"

The monster faced Luna then Fluttershy, as he thought for a second, then gently nodded with his head. The rest of the Elements shared a look before resuming their walk, none of them felt safe with the monster, but if Fluttershy managed to get close to him and not get a claw to the gut, then they would certainly not suffer that kind of fate. they still felt uneasy though.

Luna however, felt different and Nemesis noticed this. He could spot the princess of the night watching him when she thought he was not looking; Nemesis did not care too much.

The group was heading towards the hospital, with the four Elements walking behind Luna, Fluttershy and Nemesis. The walk was rather silent until Nemesis moved his head to make contact with the pegasus and said.

"Stars."

Fluttershy locked eyes with the monster, a curious look was visible on her face, as she began to wonder what was Nemesis´ facination with Twilight. Truth be told, he was not sure either.

"We´ll be waiting for her in the throne room once Celestia feels good, but if you don´t mind my asking, why are you so interested in Twilight." Fluttershy certainly wasn´t expecting a Shakespeare-answer from someone like him, but she was at east expecting a few leads that would help her formulate a question he could answer, however, this thought was soon shattered once she noticed Nemesis shrugging as a response. Fluttershy lowered her head once more, as this time, it was Luna who entered the conversation.

"So... after today´s events, can we finally expect to get some answers out of you?"

Much to her dismay, Nemesis did not divert his eyes from the path in front of him and restricted himself of answering her question, an act that infuriated Luna a bit.

"I asked a question." Nemesis kept silent. ´Who does this guy think he is?´ He heard Rainbow behind him, but it did not bother him in the slightest, all he wanted was peace, without them bothering him.

The princess of the night´s struggles to start a conversation had failed and she was exasperated from being ignored. She felt insulted; first he had scared her to dead, then he pretended she didn´t even exist. Still, after the way Celestia reacted, Luna figured it was her time to be rational.

"Even if you hurt my sister, I hold no grudge against you." This got Nemesis´ attention, who turned to stare at her. "You are lucky I have certain fascination with the creepy and abnormally ugly."

Nemesis grunted and crossed his arms, his deadpan expression made Luna react quickly. "I meant that in a good way, of course." Nemesis kept staring at her, both his deadpan and crossed arms still in place. Luna let out a small chuckle as her face released a mocking grin. "I meant to say that you are handsomely hideous."

Like a small child, Nemesis turned the other way and let out a grunt, his reaction made Luna laugh again. "Come on, we monstrous creatures should bare together."

Nemesis stopped in his tracks, his arms hanging low as he faced Luna, who rolled her eyes in response. "You really should learn not to be so sensible, it makes you gullible."

Was he really sensible? They could not blame him, Nemesis had gone through too much. A live where trust was nonexistent, where every single being wants you dead; how could he trust someone now? Fillies were one thing, but adults were something else.Nemesis could not help but to wish the peacefulness he was promised by Twilight.

His thoughts were soon cut short. "We should hurry, my sister wont take too long." Upon Luna´s mention of Celestia, a big frown formed in his face, one which was completely visible by Fluttershy.

"If you don´t mind me saying... Luna is right, you are rather sensible." Without her noticing, the rest of the group gave deadpan expressions towards their shy friend, as they kept silently walking behind them.

The city was sure majestic, even if very few buildings laid collapsed from the battle, but this sight went unnoticed to Nemesis as he spotted the castle in his sight.

Behind them, Rainbow got close to Applejack and whispered so Nemesis would not hear. "Seriously, I still think it´s a bad idea to let big ugly here free, shouldn´t we be worried about this?"

"Ah´ agree with you, but I also trust Twilight."

"Besides, he doesn´t seem that hostile right now and he made friends with FLuttershy!" Pinkie added, her normal energy not very visible, although her smile remained. Applejack shook her head.

"Friend seems too far stretched, don´t ya think, Pinkie?"

"Then what about Twilight? Out of all of us, she seems like the one Nemie listens more." Pinkie´s answer made Rainbow grunt.

"And that´s the other thing, what is this creep´s thing with her anyway?" This was an interesting question for them, as they began to wonder the answer to the interrogative, but it was not as clear as they thought.

After a few seconds of thinking, Applejack turned to face the pegasus. "Heck if I know, but Ah´ hope he has an answer for that."

Rainbow nodded with her head and kept floating alongside her friends, when she noticed something. She turned her head slightly behind her to spot Rarity deep in thought and staring at Nemesis.

"What´s wrong with you, Rarity?" She got a ´Hmm?´ as a response, before the mare regained her full attention.

"It´s just that... I was thinking about how he would look like inside a smokin; maybe even give him a cane, a top hat and a monocle." As soon as the words left her mouth, Rainbow crashed her forehead with her hoof.

"Rarity, you can´t be serious. What´s next on your check list? A mustache?"

The unicorn frowned at the comment. "Do not underestimate the power of the mustache!"

"Geez, calm down mustache police, I was only wondering." Rarity did not answer back and instead returned her gaze towards Nemesis to continue her dressing fantasy. Rainbow on her part, simply rolled her eyes and resumed her walk with the group and towards the castle.

"You ready, princess?" Just outside the throne room, Celestia and Twilight awaited. They had just gone out from the hospital, the princess´ magic prowess quickly helping in her recovery and she was in much better shape now, although she was not happy about the meeting. She wasn´t really sure what was going to happen, as Nemesis had managed to surprise her colleges by showing them he could actually behave, but she and him were not exactly happy with each other´s presence. Sure enough, Twilight assured her everything would be okay, she only hoped her student was right.

"Yes, Twilight, do not worry about me, let´s just focus our attention to the matter at hoof... and go get some torches and pitchforks, just in case." Although it was meant as a joke, Twilight was not one to understand the difference between somepony being serious and somepony telling a joke.

"Princess, you should really give him a chance, let´s not judge a book by it cover, I mean, who knows? Maybe the interior is better than what lays on the outside."

Celestia grunted as a response, but before she could reply, the princess of the sun noticed Twilight´s determination. "Say, Twilight, why do you have so much hope for it?"

The young alicorn lowered her head in thought, trying to find the answer, then turned to face her mentor. "I don´t know, there is something about him that I find captivating, I simply can´t describe it." Although neither Celestia or Twilight were satisfied with the answer, there was another problem that occupied their mind, a larger problem. "What about the box?"

"I have sent some squads to search for Chrysalis position and once we know for certain where she is, we sill strike and recover the artifact before any more harm can be done."

Twilight gave a worried expression as she looked into her mentor´s eyes. "I trust your knowledge princess, but I can´t keep out of my mind the possibility of her finding a way to open it."

Celestia gave the warmest of smiles to ease her up. "Worry not, I assure you only the purest hearts can open it."

Giving a sigh as a response, twilight lowered her head. "I just hope you are right, princess."

Celestia remained silent for a few seconds, as she felt the sudden change of mood on Twilight, who was now staring to the floor, deep sadness in her eyes. The last days had been very rough for everypony, especially the young princess. She had suffered one attack, the theft of the box and the loss of Flash; Celestia, even though she felt her pain, could not help but to feel proud at how Twilight managed to keep her emotions in check, she was stronger than she ever thought.

Trying to keep her mind out of this, Celestia proceeded to enter the throne room alongside twilight and just as they were making their way towards the throne, Celestia asked.

"How are you feeling about... Flash? Are you sure you want to attend the ceremony?" The princess of the sun was almost sure the event would happen, despite he resent battle, but it was Twilight who worried her the most.

The young alicorn didn´t even bother to lift her face. "I... I guess I feel a little better, as long as I don´t think about it. Although I can´t take him from my dreams; the only thought of his state turns my dreams into dark nightmares." A pair of sadness turned to stare at Celestia with an almost pleading look. "I just want to rest from this, to let go of the images that now hunt me!" Twilight stopped on her tracks, with Celestia turning her body to face her. "He was a good stallion despite what everyone else said, I know it and he did not deserved this kind of end! To much has been happening in such a short time, I don´t know if I can even handle it!"

A pair of wings warped themselves around Twilight, who instantly looked for refugee between them, her tears wetting the soft feathers of the princess, who held her tightly.

"You are stronger than you think, Twilight, strong enough to go through this. Life always ends, there is no denial about that, it is the natural order of things, but don´t keep yourself from crying, just think on the good things that are about to come; he would not have liked to see you shattering like this, Twilight."

A few moments passed before the finale sighs came from the young princess. Wiping her last tears, she let go of her mentor, a more relaxed expression on her face. "I can only try, princess, I just wish I had some time without any kind of problem destroying the peacefulness of the kingdom... but one can only hope, right?" She finally let out a weak smile, which was matched by Celestia, who nodded with her head.

"One can only hope indeed."

"Arg! This stupid box wont open!" Far away from Canterlot and away from her kingdom, Chrysalis found herself dealing with the power of the seal preventing her from acquiring power.

She had decided that the best course of action would be to remain outside her homeland, so that they do not go looking for her. Right now, nopony knew of her location, with the obvious exception of her guards and Sombra.

The fallen king had laid in the same spot for about an hour, simply looking at Chrysalis with a mocking exression. He just loved seeing the queen in such state, he found it really
amusing to say the least. Chrysalis did not think the same, though.

"Why are you laughing, Sombra? You seem to forget you are powerless!"

"So as you." He replied calmly.

"Maybe, but I least I have my horn and yours is about to shatter if you don´t help me with this damned thing!"

A small chuckle escaped from the former king´s lips, as he got up and walked towards the queen. "How many times do I have to repeat it? I-don´t-know how to open your box!"

Chrysalis let out a small grunt. "Don´t you have a spell that would at least give us a hint?"

"Maybe I have... but I need my horn back." His words made Chrysalis deadpan.

"You really expect me to fall for that?"

"Meh! It was worth to try." His manners were certainly ticking the queen off, as such, she lit up her horn and walked towards the calm former king.

"My patience is wearing thin, Sombra and you really do not want that, so I suggest you get your bucking flank over her..." Just before she could finish the sentence, a familiar sight came rushing from the shadows of the forest, a sight Chrysalis would be very pleased to see. Sure enough her eyes widened as much as Sombra´s, as they took sight of what came before them. Chrysalis gasped. "I can´t believe it. Boulder, you survived." The changeling wickedly smiled.

Both Sombra and Chrysalis got sight of his now replaced limbs and new form, this sight would shine new hope for the queen as she was more than pleased to see her work. "Amazing! You are tougher than you look and it pleases me greatly." Her head momentarily shifted towards the former king, an expression of disgust drawn on her face as she took a quick peek at Sombra, then her face lit up as she turned to face the changeling. "Things may go more smoothly now that you have arrived, now tell me... how did you escape from him?"

As she finished her words, Chrysalis placed her horn on Boulder´s fore head, instantly entering his memories. She saw the finality of the battle, him crawling away from town with only his back limbs, the trail of blood left behind and something very important... the monster´s name.

"Nemesis..." She saw in the memories Boulder just outside the Everfree forest, as he heard three fillies talking about the creature, fillies the queen recognized. They did not notice the escaping Changeling.

She now had a name for it. Would he be a nuisance? Only time would tell, right now her primary concern was the box and nothing else.

Chrysalis was certain Boulder had changed, his power was stronger than before.

On his part, Sombra had been spending his time repeating the monster´s name in his head time and time again. "Nemesis, seems like a fitting name." His words caught Chrysais´ attention, who diverted her gaze from Boulder to stare at the former king, as he kept talking. "I have never seen anything like him in the entire planet, this Nemesis must not be from here, which raises an interesting question. Where is he from?"

"Does it matter, Sombra?"

The former king lifted his face, a serious expression was shown on his face. "It does."

Chrysalis tried to warp her mind around his words, but gave up after realizing she didn´t care about what Sombra had to say, then with a roll of her eyes, she returned to the box.

Meanwhile, as Boulder watched the scene and he felt different. Chrysalis seemed weaker. He was still getting used to his new powers, but he knew he was way more powerful after his near dead experience with Nemesis.

The box was not the answer for their problems, it was just time-wasting. The true ace in the hole was Nemesis, IF they played their cards well, however, Chrysalis would not even consider this. It was in this moment, that Boulder´s fidelity for his queen diminished a bit.

He began to craft a plan.