Nopony in Equestria knew how close they were from a zombie outbreak, and nopony will ever know, as Nemesis had returned to the spot where Flash Sentry's body was. He remembered the old days back at Raccoon city, and wasn't in the mood of having the undead standing in his way (even though he didn't have a clear goal).

The creature stood still, staring at the lifeless corpse, waiting. The infection affected any living being, and depending on their blood type, some could have only an hour, others, several; nevertheless, they all turned.

After a few minutes of waiting, the corpse began to twitch, Nemesis prepared to deliver the final blow. Flash's eyes began to open, his pupils where now white. The reanimated Sentry released a small moan, as he prepared to get up, but then...

SPLASH!

Nemesis brought down his foot, smashing Flash's head completely.

The monster gave a small roar before he resumed his walk (even though he had no idea where he was going).

Ponyville

Back in town, three little fillies were making their way through the streets, preparing themselves for their next plans.

"Come on Sweetie, faster!" An orange filly, with moderate cerise coat, said, while looking behind her.

"You're not the ones carrying all these books." The other white filly, with a grayish mulberry and pale grayish mane, replied.

"Come on! They're just books, how heavy can they be?" Scootaloo said.

"All ah' know is that Twilight's gonna get angry, when she finds out we took her books." The other filly, which was orange, and had a red mane, exclaimed.

The three fillies were rushing through the streets of Ponyville, and towards their clubhouse, Sweetie was the one carrying a tower of spell books on a small red cart.

"Are you at least sure we're going to find a mind control spell book?" Sweetie asked, doing her best to keep dragging the cart.

Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at each other with a worried look on their faces, they had grabbed every book they could find from only one bookshelf, meanwhile Sweetie Belle was the one picking the books thrown from the window.

Turning around with a sheepishly smile, Scootaloo answered.

"Of course we are, have we ever been wrong about something?"

Before Sweetie could answer, the tower of books began to loose balance, moments later falling on top of the white child. The other two rushed at her side, and proceeded to take some books from the pile in order to help Sweetie, who, for their relief, went out of the pool of books with a huge smile on her face, and screaming.

"Oh! oh! I want to control a baby manticore!"

The other two sighed in relief, after they saw their friend okay, then, a look of disbelief appeared on their faces, causing Sweetie to react.

"What? Baby manticores are cute."

"Have you ever seen one?" AppleBloom asked.

"Nope!" Sweetie answered with a smile on her face.

Scootaloo and AppleBloom shrugged at her words, and went to pick up the books, putting them on the basket, and resuming their walk.

After a few minutes of travelling, they had finally arrived at the clubhouse. Sweetie let go of the cart and catched up with her friends.

"Well? Now what?" The white pony asked.

"Now, we head unto the forest, search for an animal and lure him here!" Scootaloo answered with a smile on her face.

"Are you sure we can get our ´mind control´ cutie marks?" Sweetie asked again.

"Don't you worry Sweetie, by the end of the day, we'll get those cutie marks." Apple Bloom answered.

The trio went inside the Everfree forest, none of them realizing their mistake until it was late.

The forest's darkness wasn't welcoming for anypony, less for three little fillies. The CMC occasionally looked around them as soon as they heard a sound, only to realize it was the same forest playing jokes on them.

Half an hour had passed before they noticed how far they had gotten, causing them to tremble, then, to their dismay, several pairs of green eyes appeared behind the bushes.

"I knew this was a bad idea." Sweetie whispered in fear.

Not long had passed until one pair of eyes went into the light, revealing itself as a Timberwolf. The three fillies let out a loud scream as they began to run away.

The escape seemed to be futile with every minute passed, as it seemed the beasts were only toying with them, the fillies knew how easy it would be for the Timberwolves to catch them.

The trio were now in full panic mode, as they saw, how the Timberwolves were just a few feet behind the fleeing fillies. Between the darkness of the forest, and the intensity of the situation, they never noticed a tall, black figure standing in front of them, with whom they collided.

Apple Bloom rubbed her forehead, before she turned to look up. Her eyes wide opened as she saw what was standing in front of them, then motioned for the other two to do the same.

"Wow..." Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle whispered.

The white eye of Nemesis was staring directly at them, making them forget about the Timberwolves, but then, noises were heard behind the ponies. To the surprise of Nemesis, the three fillies proceeded to hide behind his legs, as the beasts arrived at the spot.

Nemesis looked behind him, towards the three ponies, before he turned to face the Timberwolves.

The beasts growled and barked at the new found creature, who roared back in response. The disturbing look of Nemesis, along with his deep roar, made some of the Timberwolves back away, but they never left. Nemesis knew how this would end.

The creature stood still, waiting for one of them to make a move. After a few seconds, one of the beasts launched himself against Nemesis, who answered with a quick punch against the Timberwolf's face, instantly shattering the creature into several pieces of wood.

Angered with this act, the rest of the beasts began their attack. Nemesis gave punches left and right, never even flinching if he got hit. By that moment, the three fillies had found cover behind a tree.

"What is that?" Scootaloo whispered.

"Maybe its a malformed manticore!" Sweetie answered, getting a 'seriously?' look from the other two. "What? It could be."

"He must be something else, you think he'll hurt us? Ah' mean, just look at how he's defeating those Timberwolves!" Apple Bloom replied.

The three fillies watched how Nemesis grabbed one of them, and launched him against another pair, then turned right and planted his boot unto the head of another Timberwolf. Quickly spotting another in front, Nemesis sent his foot against the chest of the beast.

In that moment, two Timberwolves took the opportunity to get hold of both arms, but to their surprise, Nemesis simply lifted them without effort. After throwing the one in his right, against a tree, the monster grabbed the other one, and tore it apart, before throwing the rest of the wood into the floor as he released a roar.

The fillies, who were watching the fight, couldn't help but to gasp. Nemesis seemed to be an unstoppable force, as none of the Timberwolves seemed to even scratch the huge behemoth.

The creature had finished with at least a dozen of these Timberwolves, when they stopped the attack. The beasts were afraid of this new predator. With one last roar from Nemesis, the rest fled.

Going out of their hideout, the three fillies approached the strange creature, none of them taking their eyes of him. Then, to the surprise of Nemesis, they began to talk.

"That... was... awesome!" Scootaloo said.

"Yeah, You took out all those Timberwolves!" Apple Bloom exclaimed.

"Thank you for saving..." Before Sweetie could even finish, they noticed Nemesis was already leaving.

Not wasting any moment, the CMC rushed towards the creature.

"Wait! Don't you know it's bad to leave somepony talking alone?" The white filly said, followed by Apple Bloom.

"Yeah, we only wanted to thank you!"

Nemesis never paid them any mind as he continued walking. Noticing this, the three fillies went in front of him.

Nemesis let out an annoyed moan when he spotted the trio in front, and stopped completely. Ten seconds had passed, as the group and Nemesis stared at each other, then, Scootaloo talked.

"Wow, you're ugly."

The orange pegasus received slap from Apple Bloom, who then, proceeded to speak.

"Hey! Don't be rude with Mister... umm... what's your name?"

Nemesis let out a small, annoyed roar in response.

"Nice to meet you Mister Arrrrgh!" Sweetie Belle said, a huge smile was drown on her face.

"What makes you think that's his name?" Scootaloo replied.

"But that's what he answered." Sweetie Belle said, as she scratched her mane.

"Maybe he can't talk. Hey mister, can you..." Apple Bloom explained, then turned to face the creature, but to her surprise, he was going away again. "And there he goes again, come on girls!"

Once again, the CMC went in front of Nemesis, who was starting to get pissed.

"Hey, nopony ever told you that's rude?" Apple Bloom exclaimed, with a frown on her face.

This time Nemesis got on one knee and let out a small roar in front of the fillies, in hopes of scaring them away, but to his surprise, they only stared at him, while grabbing their noses.

"Ugh, never heard about a mint?" Scootaloo said, getting Nemesis more pissed, who then, released a louder roar.

"Heh, you're cute!" Sweetie chuckled.

Nemesis was getting more and more frustrated, but he wasn't the same monster from before, and simply decided to walk away; same as last time, the three fillies followed behind.

"Where are you going?" Apple Bloom asked, but Nemesis didn't answer, causing her to sigh in response, before turning to the other two. "Come, Ah' have an idea."

The three fillies rushed a few steps ahead of Nemesis and began to climb a tree, in order to get his attention. The three fillies' smiles faded away, after they noticed he just walked past them.

"Great! How are we going to get off now!" Scootaloo replied.

"Can't you just use your wings?" Apple Bloom asked.

"It's worth trying." Sweetie added, Scootaloo nodded in response, and began to flip her wings, but she tripped in the process. The other two reacted in time and grabbed the orange filly's hoof. Scootaloo was hanging for dear life.

"Help!" The three screamed in unison, but to their dismay, Nemesis was nowhere to be seen. After a few seconds, Scootaloo slided, and fell to the ground. The other two closed their eyes in horror, just waiting for the splat sound... it never came.

Seconds before Scootaloo touched the ground, she was caught by the huge hand of Nemesis, who had launched himself to the floor, just to catch the falling filly. Scootaloo slowly opened one eye, spotting Nemesis in front of her.

The creature gently dropped Scootaloo to the ground, before he proceeded to help the other two ponies. Apple Bloom and Sweetie rushed to check on their friend, then the yellow filly turned to face Nemesis.

"Thank you aga... " She noticed the creature had gone away again, causing her to roar in anger. "Why does he keep doing that!"

"Maybe he just wants to be alone." Sweetie deduced, but got a look from Apple Bloom in response.

"Nopony deserves to be alone, come on!"

This time, Nemesis never noticed the three fillies going behind him. The dark path soon gave way to some kind of formation, as what looked like the ruins of an old castle, appeared just ahead. Nemesis had seemingly found a place to settle. Most of the walls were covered in nature, giving it a sinister look.

Nemesis scratched his head, not sure what to do next, then simply sat in front of a wall. The creature took the time to enjoy the moment, but then...

"Hi!" The three fillies appeared behind Nemesis, who roared back in annoyance. He was about to get up and leave, but then, simply gave up.

"You're not running away now!" Apple Bloom said, with a look of victory on her face.

"Why do you want to be alone?" Sweetie asked, but Nemesis didn't answer.

"Can you talk?" Scootaloo was the next to ask, this time, Nemesis released a small moan in response, as he moved his head in a negative.

"Thank you for saving us from the Timberwolves." Apple Bloom smiled, getting another moan from Nemesis in response. "By the way, Ah'm Apple Bloom, this 'ere is Scootaloo, and she's Sweetie Belle." Nemesis groaned one more time. "Can we stay with you? We promise not to bother!"

The creature moaned again in approval, then, the three fillies proceeded to sit next to him. Ten seconds were the longest time span they could handle without doing something, and much to the dismay of Nemesis, they began to talk.

"OH! I have an idea, what about we ask you things that can only be answered with a move of your head!"

Nemesis was about to groan in a negative, but was assaulted with questions.

"Are you an undiscovered creature? Are there more like you?" Apple Bloom was the first to ask, the next one was Sweetie.

"Do you like fluffy dolls? Do you enjoy tearing things apart?"

The last was Scootaloo. "Are you an alien? Or a cyclops?"

"How can he be a cyclops?" Sweetie asked.

"Well, duh! He only has one eye!" Scootaloo answered.

"Just because he has one eye, doesn't mean he's a cyclops, he could have lost that eye." Apple Bloom explained.

"Did you loose your eye?" Sweetie asked, as she got closer to Nemesis, who groaned in affirmation. The answer made the three fillies give a worried look, then, the white pony asked once more. "Did you loose it in a battle?" Nemesis groaned, and moved his head in a negative.

"What about an accident?" Scootaloo asked, but before Nemesis could answer, Apple Bloom also interrogated him.

"What about a surgery?"

Nemesis roared in affirmation, meanwhile, the three fillies noticed the angry look Nemesis had on his face. It was clear they had hit a soft spot. Sweetie gulped before asking the next question.

"Was it a horrible surgery?"

Nemesis clenched his fist, as he remembered what they had done to him, and gave a deep groan in response.

"You don't like talking about that, right?" Apple Bloom asked, getting a negative from the creature, then, the filly changed topic as an idea crossed her mind, painting a smile on her face. "What about we play hangpony with your name?"

As the three fillies nodded in approval, the creature began to think how he would answer that, he really didn't have one, so, he simply decided to use his codename, which by now, almost everyone knew him by.

"Does your name have four letters?" Sweetie asked, getting a negative.

"What about seven?" Apple Bloom was next, who smiled as she got a nod in response.

The three fillies began to draw seven lines on the ground, then, a vertical line, which was were they would draw the hanged pony.

Once all settled, the game began, and Scootaloo was the first to guess.

"Does your name have the letter T?" Nemesis moved his head in a negative, and drew an horizontal line. Sweetie was the next.

"An E?" The creature released a groan in affirmation, causing the little pony to smile, then, Nemesis wrote the letter on the second and fourth spot.

"What about a G?" Nemesis moved his head in a negative, and drew the head, along with a pair of glasses.

"Umm... a C?" Scootaloo asked, Nemesis released a small groan, before he drew the chest and arms.

"Oh! Oh! I go!" Sweetie said, with a smile on her face. "Is it an X?" Nemesis moved his head in a negative and drew a long black coat on the hanged man, then one leg.

"My turn!" Apple Bloom replied. "Umm... an S?" Nemesis nodded once again, and drew the letter on the fifth and seventh spot.

"An M?" Scootaloo asked, once more Nemesis nodded, and wrote the letter on the third spot.

"Oh! I know! Your name is Nemesis!" Sweetie smiled, as she got a nod in response.

"Wow, pretty weird name!" Scootaloo replied, getting a look from Nemesis. "Okay! It's actually pretty cool!"

"I think it's cute!" Sweetie replied.

As the two fillies began to argue wether his name was cool or cute, Apple Bloom approached Nemesis, while looking at the drawing of the hanged man, noticing something interesting.

"Do you know somepony like that from were you come from?"

Nemesis released a deep groan, full of hatred, as he stared into the drawing of the man with black glasses and a long, equally black trench coat.

For the next hour, the three fillies played around the ruins, occasionally getting help from Nemesis if they got stuck or were in danger of falling. The creatures' life was full of dangers, movement, and this day provided him with something he had never felt before, tranquility.

Another hour had passed, and night was approaching, noticing that, Apple Bloom was the first to talk.

"Ups! Girls, we have to go back! If Ah' don't arrive within the next hour, AppleJack's gonna kill me."

"And Rarity will probably make me organize all her materials again!" Sweetie exclaimed.

Nemesis noticed the reaction on Scootaloo's face, but he didn't pay it any mind.

"Yeah! That and the Everfree forest is more dangerous at night." Apple Bloom turned to face Nemesis. "Could you come with us?"

Nemesis was about to give a negative, but the three fillies gave a puppy stare, causing Nemesis to groan in annoyance before agreeing.

The four of them went through the forest, with the fillies occasionally staring around them, just in case something popped out. After half an hour, they arrived at PonyVille, when suddenly, the fillies stopped.

"Wait, what about Nemesis?" Scootaloo began. "Everypony could think he's a threat and attack him."

"Well that's rude!" Sweetie replied with a frown on her face.

"No, wait Sweetie, she's right, we can't let anypony see him, at least until we tell Twilight." Apple Bloom explained, then turned to face Nemesis. "Ah'm sorry if it sounds rude, but can you stay out here for tonight only?"

Nemesis never had any plans in staying to begin with, and he understood the decision. Giving a small moan in affirmation, the three fillies faces were lit up with a wide smile.

After telling the creature where he could find their clubhouse, and saying their goodbyes, Nemesis gave a U-turn and proceeded to return towards the ruins, but then he stood still. It would be best if he stayed close to town, the little ones looked like they got in trouble too often, that's when it hit him, without Nemesis noticing, he began to care. Letting out a small roar, Nemesis went to search for a place to rest.

Ponyville castle

"Ugh! It's been almost a full day since he left, I'm afraid something must have happened to him." Twilight said, as she watched from the window, and towards the forest. They didn't want to admit it, but the rest of the group shared her thoughts, they still tried to maintain composure, though.

"Come on Twilight! I'm sure he'll come back soon, then you can get as red as a tomato again!" Rainbow mocked, making the rest laugh, but Twilight didn't answer, as deep within her, she could feel something sinister approaching, and unknown to anypony, that 'something sinister' wasn't the newly arrived monster, but something much worse.

Author's Note

Don't worry, Nemesis hasn't softened up completely, he still is a wild animal, as you'll soon read.