Wish Upon a Star

Ponyville

The sounds of several hooves greeted everypony in town, very early in the morning; hooves which belonged to numerous guards going out of the newly erected castle. Twilight Sparkle had sent a battalion into the Everfree forest in order to find Flash Sentry, who now had two days lost.

Inside the palace, a purple silhouette witnessed their march with hope in her eyes, but the grim expression never left her face.

Sitting on five of the overall six thrones, were the Elements of Harmony, who watched their friend never take her eyes off the window. They all had arrived early to help Twilight.

After several awkward seconds of silence, Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie, decided to get close to the alicorn.

"Don´t you worry sugarcube, Ah´m sure they´ll find him." Applejack was the first to speak, as she rested her hoof on Twilight´s shoulder.

"Yeah! And then we can throw him a ´Glad you came back, you scared us to death´ party." Pinkie was next, trying to smile as much as she could.

"But what if he doesn´t?" Asked Twilight, never taking her eyes of the window. "What if something happened to him? What if he´s dead?"

"Don´t think like that, Twilight, he´s coming back and that´s all!" Applejack insisted.

"Besides," Said Rainbow, "he´s a pegasus. Pegasus are the toughest and most awesome ponies in Equestria!"

Her commentary was enough to release a small chuckle from Twilight.

"There we go, sugarcube. Stop worrying, Flash is coming back, Ah´m sure of it!" Applejack´s words, made Twilight release a bigger grin, as she turned around to face her friends.

"At least I will know not to send him to these kind of missions, even if he insist." The alicorn replied, then looked at Pinkie. "Pinkie, think you can... prepare something special for when he returns?"

Instantly knowing what she was talking about, Pinkie saluted like a soldier before saying. "On it!" With that, a Pink flash went out of the castle, and towards the Sugarcube Corner, leaving Twilight with a new air of hope in her eyes.

Unknown to all the movement happening, three certain fillies were playing inside the forest. The little ponies had woken up very early in the morning, so they could enjoy their Saturday in company of Nemesis.

The fillies never noticed how they stopped fearing the forest, and now, they began to see some beauty to it, aside from the casual wild animal bent on their destruction, of course.

Behind several walls of nature, three screams of joy could be heard, followed by the occasional annoyed roar from Nemesis. Even though, it had only been two days since he appeared, the three could almost instantly feel Nemesis wasn´t really the monster he appeared to be. The statement was only half true, for Nemesis was still a beast, just not the same one from before.

He was originally given part of his intelligence back in Raccoon City, but ever since he was in the weapon X program, Nemesis became a little smarter (just below the Hulk, of course). Thanks to this, he was able to break the control they had on him, but as he never really lived, the creature had no idea what to do next.

He´d never had the sensation of relaxation or joy, let alone happiness. His sole living purpose, was the slaughter of anything crossing in his path, thus, making his spare time with the girls, a refreshing change of pace, a vacation from his blood fest.

"Again! Again!" Three fillies screamed in excitement, as the creature put them on his back, then jumped straight into the air, reaching above the largest trees. For not more than two seconds, the fillies could witness the entirety of the forest, and the town of Ponyville.

Once again on the ground, Nemesis gently dropped them to the floor, but then...

"Again!" The three screamed in unison. The creature couldn´t help but to roar in annoyance, as they seemed to only wait for him to put them down, and then, ask for him to lift them up again.

The same process was repeated, and the Fillies´screams of joy went up in the air. Once again on the floor, Nemesis didn´t drop them, and simply waited for their ´Again!´. After a few seconds of silence, Nemesis moaned in relief, before dropping them to the floor.

"Again!"

Nemesis roared in desperation, but was assaulted by the mighty puppy eyes. The creature never admitted it, but he was enjoying the company of the fillies, a little change from his routinary ´kill, butcher, dismember, slaughter´ style of life; he had never been in control, until now.

The game continued for a few minutes, until Scootaloo spotted movement in the distance.

"Umm... girls?" She began, tapping the other two on the shoulder as they descended into the ground. Once they were in the sky, she pointed towards a location, and said. "Aren´t those Twilight´s royal guards?"

The pattern was repeated, and once in the sky, Apple Bloom answered. "Yeah, they are, why?"

"Should we worry about it?" Scootaloo asked again, receiving a negative from Apple Bloom, before she spoke.

"Nah! They´re far away." Scootaloo shrugged in response.

After a few more minutes of jumping, Sweetie began to feel dizzy, her face turning green as she began to feel the need to throw up. "Umm, girls? I don´t... ugh... feel so good."

"Shut! Nemesis? We´ve got a problem, quickly! Put us on the ground before..." Just before Apple Bloom could finish, Nemesis felt a warm sensation on the back of his head, as Sweetie´s breakfast began to fall from the creature´s cheeks. Instantly, Nemesis dropped to the floor, placing the girls on the ground.

The trio turned to face Nemesis with worried expressions, their fears confirmed as they witnessed the creature touching his head with his right hand, before a bigger frown formed on his face. The fillies released a few small chuckles before bursting out into laughter; Nemesis head looked like it had a long green mane, covering most of his head. Shacking all of it from him, the creature began to walk toward the laughing fillies, a small tentacle appeared from his hand.

"Uh oh..." Scootaloo muttered, once she spotted the creature approaching them, then, tapped her friends on their sides so they could watch as well.

An enormous shadow covered the three of them, as Nemesis began to move his big arm towards them, then...

"IUK!" The three exclaimed once they felt slime covering their bodies. Nemesis had grabbed them with his tentacle, making their coat not only sticky, but also formed a silly mohawk on their manes.

Nemesis roared in satisfaction, as he saw the three of them touching their coats, trying to get the slime off them.

"Hey! What was that for?" Scootaloo exclaimed, a frown appearing on her face, as well as in the others, this caused Nemesis to raise his hand and release the tentacle again.

"Run for your lives!" Sweetie replied, as the three screamed, running away from him, who also began to race after them. Laughs filled the forest, laughs that would make any predator get close, but thankfully for the fillies, Nemesis was there.

Several royal guards began their search inside the Everfree Forest, hoping to find anything related to Flash. Each one of them knew Heck would break loose if they came with nothing to show, none of them would take that risk. They searched every corner, every bush and every tree, but no trace of the missing pegasus was visible.

After an hour of searching, half of the platoon reunited to report their findings.

"Any sign on Flash?" One of them asked, his question answered by by numerous negatives by the rest of the guard. "Then we will need to go deeper, grab your things and... Ugh! Where´s wooden?"

Just a few meter away from the platoon, a sole royal guard was still searching, suddenly, a sense of dread filled his body, as he watched towards one spot. The stallion approached it slowly, as he was waiting for something to appear.

His hooves began to push the bushes away, when suddenly...

"Wooden!" The guard heard the rest of the guard calling for him. Turning around, he began to walk towards the rest. He would never know, that behind the bushes, lied a gruesome image.

"Wooden, where the Heck have you been?!" The guard asked.

"Sorry sir! I was trying to search for the missing guard!" He answered.

"Now that we´re all here, we can head deeper into the forest." The guard said. Noticing the looks on the faces of the rest, he began. "You´ve all been in these kind of situations before, so I expect all of you to do your job. He head in, and we head out, understood?"

The rest saluted, then, began their march towards the unknown. Every guard in Equestria had been trained to especially persist in these situations, trained to face even the fiercest of Hydras, but still, the Everfree Forest was rightfully feared.

Along the way, many of the guards shrieked upon hearing any sound, they weren´t exactly comfortable with risking their lives for just one guard, but the risk was far greater if they spoke against the princess, especially in the situation she was currently in.

The sight of the unknown was all that greeted them, as the they went deeper inside the place. Eyes were visible behind the darkness of the forest, causing them to be on their guard.

After several minutes of walking, they reached the ruins. That was the place were they would camp, before resuming their search through the area.

"Sir, are you sure this was a good idea?" One of them asked, once they were settled. His superior faced with a serious expression.

"Maybe it wasn´t the smartest idea, but if you wan´t to question her, be my guest."

"Nope! I think I´m okay!" The guards reaction caused the guard to smile.

"Okay everypony! Time to resume the search, we still have some hours before sunset!" With that, every guard in the area spread out, carefully remembering their way back. Some of them left in pairs, others, alone, which wasn´t exactly the smartest idea.

"Why would princess Twilight send all of us to search one guy?" One of the guards asked his partner.

"You seriously asking? Come on dude, that guy had his bonuses inside the castle!" The other answered.

"What do you mean?"His question made the other guard hoofslap his face.

"I mean, he was princess Twilight´s favorite." The soldier winked, causing the other to realize what he meant.

"Oh..." After a few seconds of silence, he talked again. "Why do I suddenly feel less special?"

"I didn´t even know you were!" The guard mocked, receiving a slap in the back of his head as a response.

However, before he could even argue, the two guards spotted some movement behind the trees, the forest being so dark for them to be able to see properly.

Immediately getting into combat position, the two guards flashed their horn towards the source. The seconds became minutes as the suspense got the better of them. Suddenly, two equine-like creatures went out of the bushes. Their coat was black, and their eyes blue; the two shared resemblance to an insect.

"Oh no!" One of the guards muttered, as soon as he realized what was in front of them, then, proceeded to alert the others. "Changeli..."

Before the stallion could finish the scream, he received a green blast to the chest. His partner tried to attack, but was greeted by another attack. Before the two of them could even react, green magic enveloped them, shutting their mouths in the process. The magic wasn´t coming from the two Changelings, making them wait for the worst to come, which soon, it did.

"My, my! The new, little princess is more clever than I thought! She suspected of my arrival... perhaps you should tell her it was false alarm. Of course, by you I mean us." Chrysalis chuckled, as she lifted the two guards, handling them to other changelings. The guards shared stares of concern, not knowing what would happen to them.

"Sir!" One guard aid to his superior, upon arriving from the deepness of the forest. "Changelings! They took my partner!"

The soldier reacted immediately, who, didn´t waste any time before calling every guard available. Once ready, they all headed towards the direction the stallion gave them, who, stayed behind all of them, his eyes flashing green as a smile escaped from his mouth.

Changeling were not heard from again ever since the wedding, making their return something completely unexpected. Nopony was bothered with the terrifying surroundings, as they only had one objective: Finish the Changeling threat.

Once they arrived, the group noticed a fallen guard in front of three huge rocks. Getting close carefully, the leader pocked his shoulder. Several noises were heard from behind the dark trees, causing everypony to distract. The leader felt an immense pain as a green spell blasted him on his side, sending him flying away. Before the rest could react, several Changelings came out from the deepness of the forest, blasting everypony they could. The guards were no match for the horde, and soon fell.

The changelings took the appearance of every guard in the area, getting ready to march towards Ponyville. Chrysalis herself had turned into one of the soldiers, as she was the one to deliver the false news.

"How do you even know they found about you?" A dark stallion said, while going out of the darkness, revealing himself as Sombra. Chrysalis couldn´t help but to chuckle at the statement. Her green eyes formed a frown, as she turned to face Sombra, who, simply stood still, returning the frown.

"For what other reason would they send so many guards, if it´s not for a threat?" Sombra simply shrugged at this, not caring for it, although, he could feel something was off. Chrysalis continued talking, stopping Sombra´s train of thoughts. "Remember fallen king, if you continue to be naughty, you can say goodbye to your horn."

Sombra´s eyes released a look of fury upon hearing this. His defeat in the Crystal Empire, proved to be worse than hat he had expected, as not only his body was broken, but his horn was as well. Just as he was about to embrace the cold fingers of death, somepony saved him, but it proved to be worse than dead. Not only his horn was separated from him, but it had landed on the hooves of the worst pony possible: Chrysalis.

"Why do you need me exactly?" Sombra asked, his frown never disappeared from his face.

"You were the closest pony to Celestia before your... fall from grace. The contents of that box emerged from the tree of Harmony, something you also knew, I need you to get a look on the box, and find a way to open it. Celestia must have surely shown you something." Chrysalis answered, a serious look on her face. From all the reactions she could expect coming from Sombra, the one he showed, was the one she never saw coming.

Sombra burst on laughs, slapping his face with his hoof, Chrysalis was getting red from anger, but before she could talk, Sombra spoke.

"You must be more stupid than I though! Only because I was close to Celestia, you think I'll be able to discover a way to open that box? This plan just sound plain stupid! Things always change, you know?"

Seething with rage, Chrysalis took out Sombra´s horn. "Wrong! Some things doesn´t change, like the fact I own your horn." Threatening to shatter it, Sombra reacted instantly, his expression turning serious again.

"This is a waste of time, are you certain of that?"

"No, it´s not, and you will follow my command, understood?" Chrysalis said, getting a groan in return. "We´ll tell that little princess the false info, then, when she´s out with her friends, I will take the opportunity to retrieve the box."

"You do know the box is below castle, right?" Sombra asked, getting a smile form the Crhysalis.

"Nothing a little collateral damage couldn´t do, it will alert the rest, but at least we´ll have time to get hold of the box."

Even though, Sombra knew it was a stupid idea, he went along with it. Without his horn, he was powerless, he just had to play along, thankfully, he already had a plan to recover it, the fallen king only wanted to see how her plan would end up.

No more words were spoken, as the Changelings began to march towards Ponyville.